"You call me Firestarter, and I'll call you The Vegan Fishfinger," Fliss countered with a grin, lifting Bess gently out of the basket to settle against her shoulder as she aimed herself for the changing station set up in the kitchen.

Maria tapped Alex on the shoulder, signing for everyone else's sake as she added her own suggestion. "Mind Spy is you."

Alex and Maria seemed to have fallen into their own private conversation now, as Alex turned to her with furrowed brows. "But what does that make you?" he asked, setting his pencil down so he could sign back silently.

"Vegan Fishfinger!" Matt echoed. "I'm not a vegan or a fish!"

"If I'm an angel, you're lucky you didn't end up with horns and a tail," Luc said, as he chopped up the veggies.

"So ....you're agreeing that you are a finger?" Fliss asked her boyfriend's little brother teasingly, half an eye on Alex and Maria as their fingers flickered. She knew neither of them needed to sign when they were talking to each other; it was rather endearing that they did.

"I am the Big Hug," Maria was answering Alex as Bess let rip with an enormous fart that sounded ominously wet.

Fliss looked suspiciously down at her now fully awake, wriggling baby sister. "Dude, you didn't just blow your poop all up your back and legs before I got to it, did you?"

"Bess is The Big Poop!" Alex remarked, overhearing both his little sister's fart and his big sister's question, a huge grin on his face.

"That's disgusting," Matt said, making a face. "Bella doesn't even smell that bad. You think Mom would let us have a dog, Luc?" he asked his older brother, who shrugged in response.

"I think maybe you should wait a while before you ask her." All things considered. After all, Luc's mother and brother hadn't been in Rhy'Din very long yet and were still getting settled in.

"Yeah, well ....everyone who is sensitive to smells, cover your noses now," Fliss announced, tickling the baby as she undid the onesie to survey the damage. Thankfully, it was all diaper contained, but it was a particularly smelly one. "Geez, woman, what did Mom do to you?"

At the table, Maria had her finger and thumb pinched over her nose, holding her breath in the hope that she wasn't going to smell her little sister's backside.

Alex made a noise that clearly showed he found the smell of his sister's diaper disgusting, clapping his hands over his mouth and nose to try and block the stench of it.

"She sure does stink for such a tiny baby," Matt remarked, glancing momentarily over at Fliss and her charge. "Bess' poop is her superhero ability!"

"Oh, c'mon," Fliss laughed, so well practiced at this by now that the dirty diaper was already sealed away and in the trashcan beside her. "Like you've never made yourself feel sick with your own farts. He's such a meanie, isn't he?" This was addressed to the baby Bess in front of her, who cooed and kicked her feet, for once not objecting to the slather of cool cream over her delicate bits before she was wrapped up warm again. "So what would your superhero name be, Matt?" Fliss asked him curiously.

"I dunno," Matt said, moving over to tickle the baby's toes before Fliss had her all wrapped up again. He'd never had a little brother or sister, and was clearly enjoying the Storm children's companionship. "SuperMatt?" he asked, with a grin at Fliss.

"That is the stupidest superhero name I ever heard," Lucas told his brother honestly.

"Why is it stupid" Just because you didn't think of it!" Matt retorted

Maria huffed her laugh at the banter between the teens. Somehow, she had inserted herself onto Alex's chair, the two of them sharing a seat comfortably despite the fact that they had plenty of room to sit separately.

"It kind of makes you sound like a really expensive doormat," Fliss pointed out, popping the little buttons to cover up her baby sister once again. She glanced at Matt with a faint grin. "You wanna feed her?"

"Who me?" Matt asked, eyes widening as he looked around to see if Fliss was talking to someone other than him. Lucas went to the sink to wash his hands as he was finished chopping the vegetables, and both Alex and Maria were busy with their homework.

"Is there another SuperMatt in the room?" Fliss asked, lifting Bess up onto her shoulder again. She raised her brows at Matt with teasing curiosity, her free hand opening the fridge to locate a made-up bottle that just needed warming. And because Liv wasn't here to tell her to use the electrical warmer, she did it by hand, as it were.

"Uh, nope, I'm the only one!" Matt replied with a grin, though he didn't really like that for his superhero name. "Alex, you ever hear of the Teen Titans?" he asked, turning the subject back to that of superheros. "I bet your dad's got one lying around here somewhere." He reached around Fliss to grab a soda out of the fridge, popping the top.

Fliss looked over at Lucas in amusement. "I think your baby brother just blew me off," she complained cheerfully. "What, is he scared of babies" Should we tie him to a chair and put Bess on his lap so he can't escape?" Her eyes twinkled with that peculiar suggestion of flame that never quite crackled into existence as she chuckled, hearing Maria click her tongue at Matt disapprovingly.

"What' I didn't blow you off. Babies just aren't my thing," Matt said, with a shrug. The truth was he'd just never been around diapers and feedings before and didn't quite know what to make of it. "I mean, she's cute and all, but I'd rather admire from a distance."

"Uh-huh," Fliss teased him laughingly, shaking the bottle in her hand. "Alex, could you grab me a burp cloth out of the laundry, please" And dinner's gonna be ready when Bess is fed, so it's probably getting close to time to pack up and wash up."

"She's just a baby, Matt," Alex broke in, slipping off his chair to get Fliss a burp cloth.

"Yeah, the worst she'd do is poop on you," Lucas added with a smirk as he went about putting the rest of dinner together while Fliss tended to her baby sister.

"But he might drop her," Maria offered, unexpectedly coming out on Matt's side of the argument as Fliss thumped down into a chair to settle Bess in one arm.

"Sweetie, nobody thinks you dropped her," her big sister assured her affectionately. "She's a baby, they wriggle. She just plopped off your lap, that's all. She didn't get hurt."

Maria didn't look convinced, but her hands stayed still.

Lucas wasn't sure what had happened as he hadn't been there, but he knew Maria would have never hurt her baby sister on purpose. He also knew better than to ask what had happened.

Alex, however, wasted no time coming to Maria's rescue. "Fliss is right. She just wiggled out of your lap," he told his sister as he handed the burp cloth to Fliss.

"She won't throw up on me, will she?" he asked with a worried-looking frown, as Bess was situated against his shoulder and he went about gently patting her back. He'd seen it happen to his father on more than one occasion, but then, Johnny hadn't quite worked out that the time to jiggle Bess on his knee wasn't right after she'd finished eating.

"She might, but babies do that," Fliss shrugged. "Bess is pretty good, though. She only sicks up on Dad because he bounces her around and pats her back a little harder than he should just after she's eaten. It's the same with us - if you went on a trampoline right after eating dinner, you'd throw it up everywhere."

"Is that why Mama always tells us to wait an hour before going swimming?" he asked curiously. Now that they had moved into Willow Manor, he was looking forward to having a swimming pool right in their own backyard come summer.

"It's a little bit more complicated with swimming, but pretty much, yeah," Fliss nodded to him, glancing briefly to the kitchen to make sure things were okay with Lucas, Matt, and Maria. "And you really don't want to throw up in the pool, or you'll be swimming in it!"

"Eww, that's gross!" Alex said, making a face at the thought of that and sticking his tongue halfway out of his mouth before giggling. Meanwhile, Bess uttered a sufficiently loud burp, thankfully without spewing any of her dinner.

Laughing, Fliss quickly wiped what little had dribbled out of Bess' mouth away before helping Alex settle the baby girl in the crook of his arm again. "See if she wants some more," she suggested, though she was pretty sure Bess was full. "And that's why you don't go swimming until an hour after you eat, because that really is gross!"

"Do you think Dad will go swimming with us this summer?" he asked, ever the curious one, forever asking questions. He knew their father wasn't that fond of water, but he still managed to take a shower. Alex didn't really see the difference between that and swimming.

"Maybe he will. Mom worked really hard with him this summer, and, you know, he did go under the Arctic ice last year," Fliss pointed out, though she made no further allusion to the reason for their father facing that fear. "Even if all he does is sit in the pool while we play, it'll be cool, won't it?"

"But won't he boil the water?" Alex asked, still curious. He knew about his father's abilities where fire and heat were concerned - he'd seen them first hand - but he didn't really understand how it all worked. And Fliss' abilities seemed to work a little differently from their father's which only confused him further.

She shook her head, gently easing the bottle out of his hand as Bess lost interest in even holding the teat in her mouth and dropped off to sleep. "No, Dad doesn't run so hot that he boils water all the time," she promised her little brother. "In fact, the only time I ever saw him boil water was the first time he went to flame in the pool, and even then, it cooled down real fast."

"He did?" Alex asked, eyes widening in surprise. "Why did he do that?" he asked, hoping he didn't do that when he went swimming with them.

"Well, Dad's kind of scared of water," Fliss tried to explain. "It's like Mom and horses. He had a really bad experience, he nearly drowned when he was a kid, and it left him really scared of being in any pool of water big enough to drown in. So he never learned how to swim when he was a kid. But he wanted to join in when they brought me home and I was playing with Bells in the pool, and part of what scared him then was that he didn't think he could flame on in water. Mom convinced him that he could, and he wanted to test it, so he walked into the water until it was up to his chest, and he took off with his flame from there. And Mom was so proud of him for that."

"But he wouldn't do that if we were swimming, right?" Alex asked, more than mere curiosity in his eyes. He had never said so, but the fire scared him a little, though he trusted both his father and sister to never hurt him or their family - at least, not intentionally.

"No, he wouldn't ever do that if we're just swimming," Fliss promised him. "And he wouldn't ever do it near us, even if he absolutely had to go right then and there." She'd never seen that level of wariness in her brother's eyes, gently stroking his hair off his brow as she tied two and two together. "Do you mind if I tell Dad that you're not all that comfortable around fire" He gets carried away sometimes, but he'd never want to scare you, kiddo."

There was that frown again, even as Fliss tried to comfort him in her own way. "Can it just be our secret' I don't want him or Mom to worry," he explained, though he knew there was a good chance she'd tell them anyway, now that she knew. It was a given that Maria already knew - she had been at the facility in the Arctic with him and both had witnessed more than either admitted to.

"Are you sure you want this to be a secret?" she countered. "You know ....part of being a parent is about protecting your children, even from yourself sometimes. Do you really want to risk getting a real scare, just because Dad's Dad and he didn't know" How do you think that would make him feel, knowing that he scared you when that's the last thing he wants to do?"

"I don't know," Alex shrugged, a downcast expression on his face as he didn't want to meet his sister's eyes at that moment. "Then they'll worry and they'll ask questions, and I don't want to talk about it."

"No, they won't," Fliss promised him. "Because I'll tell them not to talk about it. Kiddo, they don't have to know why. They just need to know so you don't get put in a situation that might scare you, or make you panic. It's like Aunt Lucy and heights - I don't know why she's scared of being up there, but because I know, I won't ever make her uncomfortable by inviting her to fly with me, or insisting that she take me up to the top of the Empire State. Besides, we love you. Loving people is knowing all about them, the good stuff, and the stuff you think isn't so good. Doesn't mean they're gonna stop loving you, just because you're not comfortable around flames."

"It's what happened before ..." he said, by way of explanation, letting her know that much. He didn't have to explain before what, as it went without saying that it was whatever had happened before they'd been rescued from the facility in the Arctic. He had never really talked about it before, and it didn't look like he was about to do so now, but he let Fliss know that much.

She smiled, leaning over to hug him gently. "You know what? You don't have to tell me. You don't have to tell anyone. But someday, you might want to, and there's nobody better at listening when you need them to than Mom and Dad," she told him affectionately. "So when you're ready, they'll listen. But only when you're ready."

"I know," Alex replied, relieved his sister wasn't going to ask him anymore about it. "Can you take Bess now" She's making my arm hurt," he admitted with a small frown. He had his reasons for not wanting to talk about what had happened, and it wasn't just about not wanting to worry his parents.

"Told ya," Fliss teased him, easing Bess up onto her shoulder with a grin. "She's a fat little sausage when she's eating." She winked at her brother, wanting to see him smile again. "And it's just about time for dinner. So ....wash your hands, and don't let Maria rub soap in her eyes again."

"Okay," he said, scrambling off the couch, but hesitating a moment to hug her back, careful of Bess on her shoulder. "Thanks, Fliss. Love you!" he added, touching a rare kiss to her cheek before scurrying off to find Maria and wash up for dinner.

"Love you back, monster," she told him warmly, letting him scurry away ahead of her. She would be telling their parents about that little snippet, but she knew they'd respect Alex enough not to question him about it. Wandering back into the kitchen, she moved to lay Bess back down in the Moses basket, flicking a grin over at Lucas and Matt. "Been abandoned by your girlfriend, huh?"

"You do know you have to wear orange if you're gonna be Aquaman, right?" Fliss pointed out, lifting her burrito to her mouth to take an enormous bite. Her eyes flickered toward the two youngest at the table, not entirely sure what was going on there.

There seemed to be some sort of struggle going on between Alex and Maria, but without either of them speaking, it was hard to say what that struggle was. Alex's expression had hardened, his usually warm and lively eyes taking on an almost glassy look as he focused on the younger of the Foster brothers. The table shook hard enough to rattle the glasses, just before the glass in front of Matt's plate cracked and then shattered, spilling milk all over the table - all of it taking place in the space of about half a minute.

"What the ..." Matt exclaimed, pushing back from the table, eyes wide with fear. Lucas seemed frozen in place, though his first instinct was to stand up and swing his wings outward to shield them from fragments of splintered glass.

"Whoa!" Fliss quickly put down her food, already rising to mop up the spill and remove the shattered glass, making sure to keep it all away from the food and other people. "Everyone okay?" Her eyes scanned the table. Being a little unusual herself, she had a feeling she knew what had happened - or rather, who - but the immediate problem was Maria, who looked about to burst into tears. "Guys, small girl needing reassurance here."

Whatever had held Alex in its grasp seemed to have been broken with the shattering of glass, and the boy pushed away from the table with a quickly-muttered, "I'm sorry!" before dashing out of the room toward the back door. Bella barked once, as if surveying the scene, before turning and following the boy out the back door.

Lucas stepped out of the boy's way, lowering his wings and turning to check first on Bess before looking over at Fliss, as if to silently ask what just happened.

In the wake of Alex's escape, Fliss blinked, dumping her handful of glass and wet paper into the sink for now. "Okay," she said, surprisingly calm given what had just happened. Her eyes went straight to Lucas. "Can you handle in here?" she asked her boyfriend. "I don't want to let him be on his own - this is the first time." As she spoke, her hands automatically lifted Maria out of her seat and inserted the little girl onto Matt's lap, where her little sister cuddled in, sniffling to herself.

Matt looked a little bewildered, new as he was to Rhy'Din. He had only been having a little fun when something had happened that he couldn't quite explain, but it had obviously had something to do with Alex. He took Maria into lap wordlessly, looking between Lucas and Fliss and trying to sort out what had just happened.

Lucas nodded, folding his wings against his back. There wasn't enough room to unfold them completely in the confines of the kitchen, but he had instinctively acted to shield his loved ones without thought for his own safety. "Yeah, you go on. We'll be fine," he said, turning his attention to the little girl on Matt's lap. With any luck, they'd sort out what had just happened while Fliss saw to Alex.

Nodding, fully confident in Lucas' ability to keep things under control for a while, Fliss headed out through the back door with Bella bouncing around her all the way. She knew exactly where her little brother had gone; ever since they'd built the treehouse, it had become the place to go when things were a little bit off-balance. Normally, it was Liv who did this bit, standing at the foot of the rickety steps to ask permission to come up, but Fliss didn't bother calling to her brother, climbing up to duck into the generous space. "Alex?" Her eyes swept the space, over the bean bags and blankets and cushions and toys, seeking out her little brother.

He was there all right, curled up tightly in a corner, shoulders shaking with silent tears that mirrored Maria's, though his were tears of shame and regret and even fear. "Go away," he said, in a muffled tearful voice, not raising his head to acknowledge her but for that.

"Not a chance." Johnny hadn't given up on her when she'd almost totaled an orphanage; there was no way Fliss was going to leave her little brother dealing with this shock on his own. She moved over to sit down beside him, reaching out to drag the tightly curled body into her lap and wrap him up in a blanket. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes ....I did ..." he muttered between sobs. He put up no resistance as she drew him into her lap, secretly glad for her companionship. "I got mad," he added, though that much seemed obvious.

"Nothing wrong with getting mad, peanut," she told him, rocking him gently as she held him. There were a few advantages to being nearly a decade older than her next sibling down. "Did you know that was gonna happen if you got mad?"

He shook his head, not saying anything for a long moment, too overcome with emotion to speak, or maybe too afraid to admit the truth. "It only happened once before," he told her quietly, as he sniffled back his tears, clinging tightly to her with his arms around her neck.

Stroking his hair with her fingertips, Fliss let him cry, remembering when this had been her. For a long time, she'd had tired and frightened carers who didn't know what to do or say, but then Johnny and Liv had come along. She knew how to do this; they'd done it with her. "You know how I met Dad?" she said softly, deliberately not focusing on what had happened just now. "I set my room at the orphanage on fire, because I got mad at someone and I didn't know how to control my flames. They had to evacuate the whole place, and I wouldn't come out because I was so sure nobody would ever forgive me for it. And then this man walked through the fire, and he showed me how to turn it off. He was patient, and he didn't blame me for losing control. He taught me how to feel things without putting people in danger. It's a hard thing to do, but I learned it."

That got Alex's attention. He knew his older sister had abilities with fire - it was an ability he couldn't help but notice, as well as that of their father's, but he had never been told that part of the story. "You?" he asked, eyes wide and tearful. "You did that?" He couldn't imagine Fliss ever being like he was - lost and scared without any idea how to control the abilities that had been forced on him.

"I did that," she nodded, looking down at him. "And it wasn't the first time. When I started flaming, I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know that I had magic in me, and that it wasn't a bad thing. But because I couldn't control it, I got moved around a lot. I set fire to things by accident, and my schools couldn't deal with it. The foster homes couldn't deal with it. It was only when Mom and Dad brought me home and made me theirs that I really learned that it's not a bad thing; it just makes me different. It just means I need to be a little bit more aware of myself, that's all. It's not a gift, or a curse. It's a part of who I am. Like this is a part of who you are, and I have no doubt that you can handle it."

He listened intently as his big sister further explained how she had come to be with their parents and how they'd helped her learn to control her gift, but though they were alike in some ways in others, they were very different. "You were born like this?" he asked, tears momentarily subsiding, as he tried to grasp what she was telling him.

"It's in my blood," she explained to him gently. "But I didn't know that until it started happening. I was thirteen, I had just got my period, and suddenly things were on fire. And you've seen how clumsy I am. I didn't know what to do. Nobody could help me. Until Dad flew in through a window and decided he wanted to help me. He didn't know if he could do it; his abilities and mine, they come from very different places. And then there's Mom. She's scared of fire, too, you know. But she never let me see that." Fliss held her brother's gaze for a long moment. "Alex, just because you're different, it doesn't mean we're not gonna love you. You belong to us now. You're my little brother. You're a son and a brother and a friend, and we're not going to send you away just because you have a special ability that might take some time to get a handle on. You didn't hurt anyone. Surprised us, but didn't hurt anyone. And I know you. You'd never hurt anyone on purpose."

Whether the message was meant for Alex or Matt, the boy's true nature came out, wanting to make peace not only with his friend, but with the world as a whole. "I'm sorry, too," Alex said, moving to his feet and starting tentatively toward Matt, who offered a hand in friendship, a look of surprise on his face when Alex opened his arms for a hug.

Behind Alex, Fliss grinned, very proud of her little brother for having such a sweet nature in the first place, and for being man enough to apologize for something, even though it had been completely out of his control. "Well, man up and hug," she encouraged Matt with a chuckle. "We gotta rescue your brother from the girls."

Matt chuckled, relieved neither Alex or Fliss was angry with him. "Just don't tell Luc. He'll think I've gone soft," he said, crouching down to return Alex's hug.

"Oh, come on, we've all seen you go gooey over your mom's hugs," Fliss teased him warmly, ducking past the hugging pair to clamber down the steps and onto the grass, where Bella was waiting to make sure that her boy puppy was all right again. "Hey, Alex - Bells wants to see you!"

"Coming!" Alex called, blushing a little at Matt's hug. It wasn't exactly manly to hug another boy, though he wasn't shy of hugging Lucas or his father on a regular basis. He looked to Matt, almost as if for permission, realizing suddenly that it was Matt who was the one who needed their help. He was the newcomer here, the one who didn't know anyone, the one who was struggling to fit in. Alex reached for Matt's hand, a sweet smile on his face. "Come on, before our parents get home," he told the older boy, who seemed relieved by Alex's good-natured forgiveness.

"The only reason I said that before is that I don't want you to get hurt. You know that, right?"

Alex's smile widened, warming to the other boy. "Don't worry so much. I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, well, I got your back, kid," Matt told the younger boy. "Promise."

A bark from the grass below demanded their attention - Bella was standing with her front paws on the steps she wasn't allowed to go up without Johnny or Liv, insisting that they come down so she could see them, while Fliss laughed her own way back toward the house to make sure Lucas was coping with Maria and Bess.

That bark was enough to convince both boys that it was time to come down from the treehouse and return to the house, and by the time they reached the kitchen, they were both smiling and laughing as if nothing had happened. Alex wasted no time in going to Maria and apologizing to his sister in their wordless way.

With Maria squeezing her big brother in a relieved hug, Fliss took a moment to reheat the chili in her own unique way, sharing a wry smile with Lucas. It looked as though they'd just proved they were more than capable of handling babysitting duties, even when there was more to field than tantrums over toys and bedtime. She wasn't looking forward to the upcoming conversation with her parents, but knew she had to do it. Tomorrow.

Disaster averted. All was well in the Storm home. It was just another day in the lives of teenage superheroes.

((What started as a little scene with a vague convo idea once again turned into something important! But it was fun - I love the Storms and their kids!))