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Tallulah knew it was time to set the record straight when her mother expressed concern that Paul Wyndham had turned up on a missing persons’ list. Her father, she expected, would be easy enough to sell on the idea that her boyfriend had totally magically changed faces because of Spider-man stuff. Her mother, on the other hand, was completely ignorant of pretty much everything related to the war, which until now had been by careful planning on Tallulah’s part and had always been an advantage.

Of course it would backfire when it was important. For the time being, she’s put her mother off with, “I’d rather not talk about it,” throwing as much residual teenaged angst as she could muster behind the statement, and it had seemed like it had worked. But then she called Nick and said, “You should come over for dinner tomorrow.” And she texted him the address and crossed her fingers and told her parents they’d have a guest.

Her father, she pulled aside ahead of time and told, “Paul’s not really missing.”

Angus just raised an eyebrow at her. “Spider-man stuff?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “He’s got a new face and a new name but he has all the same memories and he’s still the same guy.”

“If you say so,” said Angus. “It’s all beyond me, Lu.”

She was pretty sure her father was still trying to figure out how he’d sired a superhero, being fairly unremarkable himself. Or else: why the hell was every single one of Tallulah’s friends also involved in this nonsense, even the ones who she claimed to be normal?

Around six, Tallulah went out and sat on the front steps of the house to wait for Nick. She was still completely blank on how to handle her mother. Maybe she should have asked her father to explain things to Nellie.

“Yeah,” Tallulah said, smiling pleasantly to hide her nerves. She stood, leaning forward to kiss Nick on the cheek, and then dusted off the back of her skirt. “I can’t put it off any longer. Mom’s been asking about you.” She didn’t elaborate, and then, after a moment’s consideration, decided that she probably ought to. “She’s been asking about Paul, I mean. She saw you’d been reported missing and probably thinks I’m not as torn up as I should be.”

Which made her consider that as much as she loved her parents, moving back out sounded more appealing with every passing day.

“Before we go in,” she said, lowering her voice and trying to steel her nerves. “I need to talk to you for a second. General Avalon intercepted me at the bus stop the other night. She wants me to prove that I’m serious about you, that I’m over Paul and don’t know where he is.” Which was ironic on a bunch of levels but also, frankly, horrifying. Tallulah was not ready for the level of commitment that Avalon was suggesting she make, and she was going to have to be ready for it very shortly if she wanted to continue to live.

And, like, she rather liked her life? So it was kind of a no-brainer.

“I haven’t decided how to handle her yet, but I just - I figure you deserve to know what’s going on,” Tallulah said quickly. She felt rising paranoia - was Avalon still watching the house? “Do you want to go in? I’ve already got things explained to my dad, but I think he’s probably still going to glitch for a minute when he actually sees you.”

Tallulah saw him go pale, saw his fear - and then saw him push through it and overcome it. She didn’t like what Avalon had reduced her to, some shivering damsel in need of protection. Wasn’t she Sailor Europa? Wasn’t she strong enough to protect herself, to have not gotten into this situation in the first place? Tallulah sighed. Some things, she supposed, not even the carefullest planning could protect you from.

Kissing was good, though. She liked kissing.

“I don’t think they’ll think that,” she said, opening the door and following him through the foyer and into the living room, where Angus sat, waiting, half-watching a golf tournament. He looked up, scrutinizing Nick.

“You know,” he said, after a long moment, “I see the resemblance but I also don’t.”

“It’s crazy space magic, Dad,” said Tallulah. “It’s like - the night I passed out, and I was still in costume when Babylon brought me home, and I didn’t look like myself?” Which was an event she suspected she’d have to explain to Nick later, but hey, she’d already told him about the space sickness.

“You make me feel like more of an old fogey every day, Lu,” said her father, and turned to call over his shoulder, “Nellie! Lu’s got a gentleman caller!”

“Oh my god, don’t call him that,” said Tallulah quietly, as her mother appeared from the kitchen.

Nellie paused for a moment, looking surprised. Then, she said, “Hello. For a second, I thought you were Paul.”

“She did,” said Angus, with a tight sort of noise that made it sound like he was having a little bit of trouble processing this, or else that he didn’t particularly want to let his wife in on what had, for the last three years, been his and his daughter’s secret. “Honey,” he said to his wife, “My understanding of all this is that we should just go with it, and the fewer questions we ask, the safer we’ll all be.”

“Thanks, Dad,” said Tallulah, the same tightness in her voice - so it was clear where she got it from. She’d sort of figured she’d handle all this - and Nick just out and stating his identity was a good thing, she reasoned. Like ripping off a band-aid.

Nellie, for her part, took a seat in the armchair. Mildly, she said, “Well, I’ve stranger things, but none of them were true.” Tallulah gave Nick’s hand a squeeze - she’d never assumed this conversation would be easy, but her father had taken it well enough. The mess with her mother was her own doing, caused by not letting her in on things years ago - right?

“I wish I could tell you more,” Tallulah shrugged, to both her parents. “Like Dad said, it’s dangerous for you to know too much.” Like, for example, she was not going to tell her parents that the reason Nick’s civilian identity had changed was because he’d previously been evil. Like, they were never going to find that out. “But yeah, um, this is Nick, he used to be Paul, there’s space magic involved, and I know that sounds crazy but seriously let’s just go with this.”

Nellie, after a long pause, said, “I think the lasagna might be ready,” and got up.

“I’ll make sure she’s okay,” Angus said with a wink, following his wife. “I believe you.”

Tallulah leaned against Nick’s shoulder. “He wants to be a cool dad,” she said, shaking her head.

Tallulah agreed that her mother probably didn’t believe her, but she was just going to let Angus handle that one - after all, he’d accepted her story sight-unseen, and he’d seen her powered form, and he’d been the one who saw her through her lengthy recovery from her illness, so he was in pretty deep. “Just never agree to let him show you his tattoo,” she said, and leaned onto her tiptoes just a bit as he kissed her.

He just had to bring it back to Avalon, which she supposed made sense seeing as she’d sprung it on him just before they came inside. Tallulah sighed. “She literally referred to the Hunger Games,” she said with a groan, not sure if Nick had ever read the series, or if he would remember reading it if he had. “Like, the specific incident she said I needed to repeat involved two characters getting married, and telling you I’d been dating you for a week didn’t do a thing. I don’t want to force you into something like that, though.”

She flopped down onto the sofa. “I don’t even know if I’m ready for something like that.” Like, she had friends who were married, but Tallulah was pretty sure Paris was the exception and not the rule to how rational people behaved.

“I could lend them to you,” she offered, picking at a loose thread on one of the throw pillows. This was a super-weird conversation and she knew it, and it wasn’t fair that Avalon had gone and stuck herself into their lives like this! Purifying had made Nick safe, sure, Avalon hadn’t made any insinuations that she was going to go after him - but Tallulah was in as much danger as ever. Maybe more. “They’re - they’re an easy read.”

She’d been on, like, so many drugs, and they’d still mostly made sense to her, which seemed like a testament to how easy they were to get through.

“I think I need to think a little bit more,” she said apologetically. “It’s not that I wouldn’t - It’s just not how I pictured my life.” Married? At twenty-one? What would her high-school self who was going to put everything off until after vet school say? Probably, I don’t want to grow up.

With the ball squarely in her court, Tallulah wasn’t sure whether or not she felt any better. On the one hand, her future was hers to decide. On the other hand, was it really deciding, when your options were “do it” and “do it later”? Either way Avalon had her backed into a corner. “Okay,” she said, wishing her mother would reappear and say something inane about lasagna.

“I just need a few days to think and get my head around things,” she said, taking his hand. The fact that he was willing, that he wasn’t trying to find some kind of workaround, should have been comforting - but it wasn’t really. She felt completely out of control, and nothing short of a complete attitude adjustment was going to fix that. But there was nothing she could do about it right now and she was just going to put on a happy face for her parents.

And that was when her mother reappeared and announced that dinner was served.