"Yes!" Even thirty feet in the air, Fliss recognized how stupid this sounded, rolling her eyes. She'd been flying with Johnny a couple of times, not afraid of the height or the sensation, but it was a different feeling to flying with Lucas. Especially since she didn't have anywhere to hold onto.

"Don't be stupid, Fliss! You can't fight fire with fire!" he called back, before setting them both down on the roof of that tall building, making a landing that was sure and graceful, the powerful wings coming to a rest upon his back. As soon as he was sure she had her footing, he very gently let her go and stepped back a pace so that there was that polite distance between them again. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you do it."

With her feet firm beneath her, she turned to look at him, torn between irritation at being denied a good fight, and shame at the fact that she had been so ready for one. She shook her hand out, her knuckles sore, and sighed heavily. "No, you're right. Mom'd kill me if I got myself beat up, or if I got in trouble for hurting someone. I just ....he shouldn't have brought my dad into it."

Lucas' mouth twitched just a little, an unexpected stab of jealousy pricking his heart, though he couldn't very well blame her. He knew how much her father meant to her and how close they were. He wasn't sure if he was jealous of envious of the fact that she had a family here in Rhy'Din or if it was the fact that it was the insult to her father that had angered her so much and not the insult to himself. He crouched down, his wings still spread out behind him, to balance himself against the wind. His cheek stung and there was something warm dribbling down his face, but he hardly realized it. "That's what bullies do, Fliss. They try to find your weak point and then exploit it." And they had obviously found hers.

"Yeah, well, you're the one bleeding," she pointed out, unaware of his jealous reaction. Of course, if he looked back on the encounter, he might notice that she hadn't thrown the punch until he had been insulted. Mentioning her dad was a good way to boost her temper, but it took something else to push her to breaking point. Ignoring the rough surface under her knees, she dropped down to kneel in front of him, using the edge of her shirt sleeve to wipe the blood away from his cheek. "I'm sorry," she apologized reluctantly. "I just ....I'm so tired of people picking on us for being different. In Rhy'Din, where everyone's different. It doesn't make sense."

"What?" he asked, furrowing blond brows as he finally realized what that stinging on his cheek must be. He frowned as she dabbed at the blood on his cheek with her shirt, realizing things weren't so different here, after all, though it was still a little easier to blend. At least here, there were others like him - others who were different - others, like Fliss. "You don't have to apologize. I'm not much of a fighter, I guess. Chicken, like he said." Though that wasn't entirely true - he just preferred to choose his battles.

"You're not a coward if you don't fight them on their terms," Fliss told him, frowning as she concentrated. "This is gonna hurt a bit." A bit now, as opposed to aching and itching for a few days. This was something she'd learned to do in lessons, something she'd never even considered she might be able to do with the fire at her fingertips. She ran her finger gently along the line of the cut on his cheek, cauterizing the wound with a soft flicker of flame. "I have a temper. And it has something to do with the fire in me. I flare up, and then it's forgotten as soon as it stops burning." She shrugged. "I don't know how not to react, especially when other people are getting hurt."

"You don't think it's cowardly to run ....fly away?" he asked, correcting himself at the last second. There was no need to run away anymore, not now that he had wings. His gaze darted to her fingers, guessing at what she was going to do, but trusting her implicitly. She was, perhaps, the only person in Rhy'Din he did trust. He winced a little, but remained still, making no complaint as she sealed the wound closed. Who would have thought that a healer's touch lurked within that fiery spirit' "Do you think that's why it manifested in you? Fire, I mean?" He had never considered that it might have something to do with his personality. The fire he understood, but then, why wings" "You didn't do anything to him that he didn't deserve," he pointed out. A black eye, a singed eyebrow, and wounded pride was likely all the bully would suffer from her flare up.

"I don't know," she admitted with another shrug. "See this?" Turning her head, she tucked her hair out of the way to reveal a very slight point to her ear. "There's elf in me, somewhere, and that's where the magic comes from. I don't know, maybe my ancestors were experts with fire. Maybe I got fire because there was someone in the city who could help me. I don't know, and I hate the fire. I nearly burned an orphanage down because I lost my temper. Look what I did to that boy. It could have been so much worse."

His eyes widened, finding out more about her in the last few minutes than he had in over a year. There wasn't much that got past him, and he had already noticed the slight point to her ears before, but he hadn't thought much about it. Lots of people on Rhy'Din were of mixed blood, and she seemed no exception. It was just another difference between them that made him feel even more secluded, more different, more lonely. "But you didn't, Fliss. Whatever you think of yourself, you kept your temper. You didn't lose control."

"I punched someone with a flaming fist," she pointed out almost in amusement but for the concern on her face. "It could have been a lot worse if you hadn't snatched me out of there." She sighed softly, wiping the last of the blood from his cheek. "You're the one who was in control. And that's a good thing."

Her touch was so gentle and so tender it did something to his insides, but he dared not say anything about it for fear she'd laugh at him or worse. He shrugged his shoulders and the feathers of his wings rustled like leaves in the wind. "I don't know about that. I just didn't want to see you get hurt," he told her, almost afraid to admit it.

Fliss smiled, resting back on her heels. "You sound like my dad," she told him softly. "And that's a good thing, I promise. You should meet him sometime." They'd known each other for almost a year, but neither had introduced the other to their respective families - Fliss, because she knew she would be teased to within an inch of her life about having a "boyfriend"; Lucas ....she didn't know what his reasons were, and she wouldn't ask. Her gaze strayed to his wings. "I didn't realize they were so big," she admitted shyly. "C-can I touch them?"

He smiled a little at the comparison to her father. "I'd like that," he admitted, almost shyly, though he wasn't sure he was ready to meet her family yet. He arched a brow as she changed the subject, and glanced over a shoulder at the large pair of feathered wings at his back. He seemed to consider her question a moment. No one had ever asked to touch them before, no one who didn't have some ulterior motive anyway. Suddenly he felt naked and vulnerable there with his wings spread wide open. "Yes," he replied after a moment's consideration, trusting her with a very private part of himself that he preferred to keep hidden as much as he could.

Under his watchful gaze, she reached out to touch his feathered wings, surprised to find that those outer feathers were stiff and strong under her fingers. It was closer to his back where they became downy and soft, tickling against her palm as she smiled. "They are beautiful," she told Lucas quite honestly. "But I can understand how they're a problem, too. The flying must be amazing, though."

"I hate them," he admitted with a frown, as much as she hated the fire that burned inside her, but he couldn't blame elf blood or any kind of magic for what he was. He was a freak, plain and simple. The bullies were at least right about that part. "They're heavy and awkward and ..." And what? They made him different. He folded his wings upon his back and sat down on the roof, crossing his legs in front of him. "When they first appeared, I used to try and hide them beneath my clothes. Beneath a jacket or a sweater, but they're too big for that now."

Fliss sighed softly, twisting to sit beside him as she brushed gravel and dirt from her bare knees. "But you can fly," she pointed out. "At any time, anywhere, you can let the world drop away and ....I envy you that. Having the ability to just get away sometimes, without hurting anyone to do it." She bit her lip, hugging her knees to her chest. "Being different makes you a target, no matter where you are on the ground."

"I hope so," he admitted quietly. "You ready?" he asked, as he tightened his grip on her waist. At least, he didn't need his arms to fly; his wings did all the work for him. Of course, it did take effort, but at least it left his arms free so he could hang on to her and make sure she didn't fall. "Hang on!" he warned as he stepped toward the edge of the roof. He'd have preferred an even higher building than this, but it would just have to do.

Given that he had taken off from the ground easily, as far as she was concerned, Fliss actually squealed as he guided her to the edge of the roof. She closed her eyes, hiding her face against his neck as her grip tightened even further. If that wasn't evidence enough that she trusted him, there was no power on earth that could convince him.

"Maybe someday I'll take you to Mount Yasuo," he said, looking down at her with her eyes closed and her breath warm against his neck. It would be so easy to kiss her. What would she say' Would she be pleased or shocked or angry' Like Superman and Lois Lane, he wanted to show her all the wonders of the world, their world being Rhy'Din. The splendor and majesty of the mountains, the lush cool green of the forests, the sea as deep and blue and unfathomable as the sky. But for now, he just wanted to get her safely to the fire station before her father sent out a search party. "Here we go!" he warned, stepping off the roof and swooping downward before the wind caught his wings and they swept higher, wings beating as they flew through the sky, over the rooftops and the streets below.

The scream as they dropped would have been deafening but for the rush of wind that stole her voice. But that scream turned into a whooping yell of delight as he caught the wind and angled them upwards once again, her eyes opening to look down at the city. "Oh, wow .....this is amazing!"

Encouraged by her amazement, he spiraled higher, catching the wind and riding the pockets of air currents like one might a wave. He had obviously done this many times before and had mastered the skill of flying since he had first sprouted wings several years before. But he didn't want to take her too high or get too far away and before too long, he was soaring back across the city toward the fire station, where she was supposed to meet her father. Who needed a horse or even a car when one had wings"

How often had he done it with a passenger, she wondered, momentarily feeling a pang of jealousy for anyone who had ever been in the same position she was now. She was, however, giggling like a fool as Lucas spiraled through the air above the city, pretty sure no roller-coaster would ever compare to this. And all too soon, he was circling lower, and she could see the fire station below them. "You know if Dad sees us, he'll come up here and join in."

If she'd asked, he'd have told her that she was the first. He'd never even taken his little brother for a ride - his little brother, the one person he loved and missed more than anyone else. He hadn't yet mastered flight before he'd left home, and he wouldn't have forgiven himself if anything had happened to his brother because of him. "He will?" Lucas asked, a little worried about that. Was that a good thing or a bad thing" Did her father usually fly home or take a more traditional approach"

"He loves flying," she told him through her grin, wide-eyed and more than secure enough in his arms. "Seriously, anything gets him even a little bit excited, the first thing he does is whoosh out a window or something. He gets a discount at all the clothing stores in the city because he keeps incinerating his clothes."

"Incinerating his clothes?" Lucas echoed, eyes wide. He knew enough about Johnny Storm to know he was nicknamed "Torch" and he knew why, but he hadn't really thought much about the ramifications of going to flame. "Does that happen to you, too?" he asked, thinking that would be a good thing to know.

Fliss blushed. "I only did it once," she admitted, embarrassed to even recount that day, given that it had also been the day she'd met Johnny Storm. "I haven't set fire to anything by accident for nearly a year now."

"Just don't set fire to my wings," he warned with a smile that was only partly in jest. He was just about to veer downward when something - or someone - shot past them like a fireball falling from the sky, only going in the opposite direction. He might have thought someone had just shot a cannonball at them, if it wasn't for the whoop of sheer joy that followed.

"I wouldn't!" Fliss protested, the words almost lost in the buffeting warmth that swept past them at speed. "Oh gods ..." She couldn't help laughing against Lucas' shoulder as she recognized her father's over-excited voice as he shot past. "That was Dad."

"I figured it was either that or an asteroid!" Lucas replied with a chuckle.

"You taking my girl for a ride?" a voice called over, and Lucas turned to find a humanoid figure covered in flames hovering nearby and seemingly having no problem maintaining the same speed and altitude that he was.

Giggling, Fliss looked over to see Johnny hovering near them, and sighed subtly. "Can we not do the intimidating dad thing until we're on the ground?" she asked plaintively. "You guys are totally at home up here, but I'm the one who'll go splat if you get excited."

"Naw, you won't go splat," Johnny pointed out helpfully. It looked like he was grinning, but it was hard to tell since he was covered in plasma flames.

"Can you not get too close, sir?" Luke asked as politely as he could, feeling Johnny's heat radiating outwards and afraid his wings might catch fire.

"Huh?" Johnny replied, sounding confused for a minute. "Oh! Sure." He flashed another fiery grin, this one at Fliss. "Last one home is a rotten egg!"

Fliss blinked, startled. "What' But -" Her eyes narrowed and she found herself grinning back, looking at Lucas encouragingly. "See" I told you no one would mind you coming to dinner. But don't break anything trying to beat him." She lowered her voice, whispering into Lucas' ear. "He'll like you more if he wins."

Johnny didn't even ask if Lucas wanted to come to dinner, presuming he had been delivering her to the fire station. It seemed just as easy to take her home as to drop her off there, and he wanted to properly meet whoever it was that was flying his daughter all over Rhy'Din. Besides, Johnny reasoned if Fliss trusted the kid enough to let him fly her around, that was good enough for Johnny, though Liv might think differently. And of course, Johnny wasn't about to waste a chance to show off, twisting and turning and burning through the sky like a rocket-ship in flight and whooping like a ten-year-old on his first roller-coaster ride.

Lucas' eyes widened as he watched Johnny in sheer admiration. "I don't think I could beat him if I tried," he admitted. Lucas' flight was far more graceful, like an eagle soaring through the sky, where Johnny was more like a rocket.

Fliss giggled, rolling her eyes as her father went to extremes to show off, knowing that they'd be seen long before they actually got to the Grove and Willow Manor. "You know, I think he likes you already," she laughed, adjusting her grip to be more comfortable with Lucas as they followed after Johnny.

Lucas had a pretty good idea where Maple Grove was, and even if he didn't, all he had to do was follow that flame streaking across the sky. "Think so' How can you tell" Because he didn't burn my wings off?" Lucas ventured as he soared after Johnny, letting the air currents do most of the work, like a bird in flight.

Liv chuckled, shaking her head as Johnny took charge of the children. "I'm sorry about that ....Lucas, is it?" She offered him her hand to shake. "I'm Liv. And it is a pleasure to meet you." She flickered a smile in Fliss' direction, not teasing but genuinely pleased. "Dinner's in about half an hour. Why don't you show Lucas around the garden" I can keep the terrors inside until after dinner."

"Yes, ma'am," Lucas replied, taking her hand, his own feeling perfectly ordinary despite the wings that were folded against his back. Except for those, he seemed like a perfectly ordinary teenage boy. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Storm," he added, looking a little relieved to have the small crowd of Storms shooed away for now. As friendly as they were, it was a little overwhelming for someone who was used to being alone most of the time.

"Liv," she corrected him gently with a smile. "Just be glad my sister and her family have gone to visit Mount Yasuo for a few days - you would have been buried under children if they were here as well." Fliss spluttered with laughter; that hadn't occurred to her. Liv grinned. "I'll call you when dinner's ready," she told them, nodding to both as she turned to re-enter the house.

Fliss looked up at Lucas, not entirely sure whether or not he was going to want to stay now. "Well ....that's my family."

It didn't seem right to be calling Fliss' mother by her first name, but then she was younger than he'd expected. He knew Fliss had been adopted, but he hadn't really thought too much about what her family might be like, except for what she'd already told him. "They seem nice," he admitted, looking a little nervous again now that they were alone. He wasn't sure what had changed, but something seemed to have changed between them, and he hadn't even kissed her yet. "Fliss, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." She smiled at him, infinitely more relaxed here at home than he had ever seen her in the city, mostly because she was very close to Johnny, who would be able to stop anything catastrophic from happening if she lost control. "You can ask me anything, Lucas."

He wasn't so sure about anything. In fact, he wasn't even sure he should be asking her this, but he needed to know, before the question came up again. "Are you ....I mean ....Do you ....Would you like to ..." he stammered, exhaling a sigh. It was hopeless. They were doomed to be forever nothing more than friends, simply because he couldn't find the right words to ask if she wanted to be more.

Watching him struggle, Fliss hesitated, picking at her cuticles awkwardly. "All right," she said carefully. "Do you mind if I ask you something?" She wasn't very good at being subtle - she was either shy to the point of silence, or blunt with confidence.

"You can ask me anything," he replied, looking up from where he'd been staring at his own feet. He wasn't sure what had come over him. He used to be outgoing and popular, until he'd become a freak. He wished he could be more like her father, but he just wasn't that confident - at least, not anymore.

Pulling her hands away from each other, she slid them into the back pockets of her shorts, turning to look up at Luc hopefully. "That question my brother asked us," she said in a thoughtful tone. "Would you disagree if ....if I say yes, next time he asks?"

Lucas arched his brows in curiosity and surprise, though pleasantly so. "You mean, when he asks if I'm your boyfriend?" he asked, startled to find his heart beating a little bit faster. "But ..." he started, looking back at her, a look of mingled confusion and hope in his eyes. "Is that because you want me to be or because you want him to stop asking?"

Fliss pulled a face. "Why would I lie to him just to make him stop asking questions?" she countered in confusion. "He's a big boy, he can take the truth. If I want him to stop, I'll just tell him so. Why, don't you want to?"

"No!" Lucas exclaimed hurriedly, momentarily confused by her questions. "I mean, yes! I mean ..." He sighed, perplexed by the whole situation, by everything that had happened already that day. "I've been meaning to ask you for a while now ..." He trailed off a moment, hesitantly reaching for her hand, unsure how she felt about making it more than just friendship. "Felicity, would you be my girl?"

Her fingers traced over his as he reached for her hand, a shy flush coloring her cheeks as she offered up a small tease of a shy smile. "It's about time you asked me," she told him quietly. "I've been waiting for months." That smile flickered for just a moment into a bright grin, and quite suddenly she bounced close, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "So when Alexei asks again, it's a yes?"

"Really?" he asked, wide-eyed with astonishment at her reply. He'd been expecting a no, that she just wanted to remain friends, until she'd started dropping hints about Alexei's question. A blush to match hers colored his cheeks as she touched her lips to his cheek, a bright smile on his face at her reply. "Yes," he told her, leaning a little bit closer, as if he might give her a proper kiss, but before he could gather his courage, they were interrupted by giggling.

Hand in hand, Fliss looked up at him, shy and sweet, smiling to match his smile as he leaned closer. And then she heard the giggling. She sighed, rolling her eyes, and without even glancing around, said, "I thought you were supposed to be setting the table?"

"I'm done," Alexei said, coming out of from behind the tree he'd been hiding behind. "Mama says to come inside for dinner," he told his big sister before tilting a glance upwards at Lucas. "Papa says you're not an angel, but you look like an angel." He should know, after all. He'd seen plenty of paintings of angels and they almost always looked like Lucas.

"No, I'm sorry," Lucas replied with a frown. "I'm not an angel." I'm just a freak.

Alexei shrugged his shoulders, as if it really didn't matter either way. "Don't eat Mama's carrots. Mama's carrots always taste bad," he whispered up at Lucas. Or maybe Alexei just didn't like carrots.

"You don't have to be an angel to have wings," Fliss told her brother, squeezing Lucas' hand gently. She knew exactly where his thoughts had gone. "It's like having blond hair or brown eyes or horns. Lucas' wings are just one of the things that make him special. Like you and your amazing farts of death." She chuckled, reaching out to ruffle her brother's hair affectionately, glancing at Lucas. "He's right about the carrots. But she knows, so she doesn't take offense."

Alexei giggled again and ducked before she could properly ruffle his hair. "Papa makes the worst farts! Mama makes him go outside so he doesn't set the house on fire!" He grabbed hold of Fliss' other hand and tugged the two of them toward the house. "Do you know sign language" Maria talks with her hands. You will have to learn sign language."

Lucas looked between the two, feeling the tug of homesickness at his heart again, missing his own little brother. "No, I'm afraid I don't. Someone will have to teach me."

Or maybe not, Fliss thought to herself, but she wouldn't express that thought in front of Alexei. Not yet, anyway. "I can teach you," she promised Lucas, pulling him along as she was tugged toward the house by an over-excited seven-year-old. "It's not hard to learn."

Lucas nodded, a little overwhelmed by all the attention after spending so much time by himself. It felt good to be part of a family again though, even if he was an outsider. "Where are you from?" Alexei asked full of questions, as if somehow he already knew the teenager wasn't a native of Rhy'Din. "I'm from Russia ..." he started, frowning thoughtfully for just a moment. "But I don't remember much of it."

"That's Papa's favorite!" Alexei declared, a little indignantly.

"He has a point," Johnny spoke up. "It is a good one," he pointed out. He wasn't particularly religious, as a rule, but he and Liv were still trying to instill some sense of spirituality into their children's lives. He wasn't sure what the truth was, but he was pretty sure there was someone or something out there that was watching over them.

Surprisingly, it was Lucas who spoke up in support of Alexei's choice. "We used to say this one back home sometimes ..." He bent his head, as if he was praying very seriously. "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who eats the fastest eats the most. Thank you for the food. Amen."

There was silence for a moment as the Storms absorbed this, broken by the sweet little huffing sound that was Maria giggling to herself next to Lucas. Liv gave in, shrugging as she chuckled. "All right," she conceded. "Dig in before it goes cold." Of course, this required her to spend a couple of minutes cutting Maria's up before she started on her own.

"We used to say that one, too!" Johnny remarked with a grin, hoping the teenager was starting to feel a little more comfortable with their family. Somehow, they managed to get through dinner, between mouthfuls of food and laughter and family banter, and somehow it was decided that Johnny and Fliss would do the dishes while Maria and Alexei showed Lucas around.

Liv, of course, was all but forced into a seat in the living room and told not to move, which she allowed ....for now. It wouldn't be long before she got up to run Alexei's bath and called Maria to bed, but she let them run wild with Fliss' new friend for a little bit. In the kitchen, Fliss set the pile of plates and dishes next to the sink, looking at them with distaste. "Who's washing, who's drying?"

"Do you really have to ask that question?" Johnny asked, preferring to dry. Though they were teaching him to swim, he still had a bit of an aversion to water, unless he was taking a shower.

"Wimp," she laughed, poking at his stomach as she nudged him out of the way to fill the sink with hot water, adding soap before she started putting the plates and dishes into the bubbly mixture.

"You know what happens when I wash dishes!" he pointed out, a little defensively. What happened was there was steam and a lot of it, but he was sort of a human dish-washing machine and they sure didn't have to worry about germs when Johnny was around. "So ..." he started, hip-bumping his daughter with a grin as he snagged a towel. "You've been holding out on me."

She blushed, but was determined to keep at least a little bit of her dignity in this conversation. "No, I haven't," she defended herself, plunging her hands into the steaming water with a cloth to wash the plates clean one by one. "I just ....didn't tell you that I had a friend. That's all. It's not like you asked."

"No," Johnny disagreed gently. "I knew you had a friend, but I didn't know that friend could fly. Were you afraid I was going to forbid you from seeing him?" Johnny asked curiously. Even as close as he and Fliss were, he realized there were some things you just couldn't tell your dad.

She was quiet for a long moment, concentrating fiercely on the washing up. But she did answer, however reluctantly the words came out. "Maybe," she admitted in a low voice. "He's a long way from home and from family, and ....He's really angry, Dad. He hates his wings, and I kinda know how that feels, sort of. And I didn't want to risk losing his friendship because, well, he's the only friend I've got, really. The only one I care about."

Johnny's expression softened, a small frown on his face. "You really think I'd do that, Fliss" I know what it's like to be different, and I know what it's like to be alone and angry. And we trust your judgment. If you like him, that's good enough for me." He leaned close and hugged her against him, dropping an affectionate kiss against her hair. That might have been the end of the subject, but Johnny wanted to know more. "So, tell me about him. Tell me what you like about him." He didn't have to ask how they'd met; he already knew that part.

"I-I didn't mean ..." Upset that she'd managed to upset her father already, before the conversation had even begun, Fliss fidgeted, guilt coloring her expression as she bit her lip hard. "I didn't want anyone making a fuss, about either of us, and now Mar's ..." She trailed off, keeping that thought to herself for now. She wasn't entirely sure her parents would be happy to know what was going through her head there. Leaning against Johnny, she sighed quietly. "He's clever, and he's kind, and he knows how to stop me from losing my temper with people. I don't know, Dad. He's just ....special, you know?"

But as much as Johnny appeared to be clueless, he didn't miss a trick, taking note of the unfinished comment about Maria and filing it away in the back of his head for now. "Are you sure all you want from him is friendship, Fliss?" he asked, going right to the heart of the matter and asking the one question everyone else was already wondering, but only Alexei had been bold enough to ask. "You know, when I first met your mother, I was dating her sister," he revealed, perhaps for the first time.

"Eww." There was a predictable response from the teenager next to him at this confirmation of what she had sort of known before. "Do I wanna know that?" She flashed her father a teasing sort of grin, flicking dish water at him as she returned to the dishes and neatly avoiding answering the question in the first place.

"Let me finish!" Johnny said, laughing as she flicked dish water at him, which did very little but sizzle and evaporate as it hit his shirt. "The point is as soon as I met your mother, I knew." He lowered his voice so that the woman in question didn't overhear them talking about her. "I just knew she was the one. She was kind and caring and drop dead gorgeous, and most importantly, she understood me like no one else ever had."

"Dad, Mom and Aunt Lucy are identical," Fliss pointed out superfluously. "So how come Mom's drop dead gorgeous, and Aunt Lucy isn't?" It was a pertinent question, but one she hadn't considered before. After all, she thought Liv was beautiful herself, and despite knowing that Lucy was her twin sister, didn't see them in quite the same light.

"Oh, she is, but it's not the same," Johnny replied, furrowing his brows as he tried to figure out a way to explain it. "There are slight differences if you know what to look for, besides there's more to beauty than just how someone looks. Your mom is like ....like sunshine on a summer day. Lucy is ....I don't know. Lucy is different. She's more like, like the stars at night. I don't know how to explain it. The point is, your Mom is special. Lucy is too serious or something." Johnny shrugged. "We were always fighting. I think I annoyed her."

"Lucy's too much like you," Fliss said with a grin. "You're like little kids when you get going." And she had seen Lucy and Johnny bickering and playing, though she had yet to see her aunt threaten him with a fire extinguisher. "Mom suits you better," she said with a faint smile. "You make her smile, and she makes you breathe."

"You think so?" he asked, never having seen it that way. he thought he and Lucy were too different, rather than alike, but maybe she was right. "Anyway, the point is I felt the same way about your mom as you feel about Lucas," he explained. "I'm not suggesting you get married, but just how much do you like this boy?"

"Not just about this." She held on tight, her eyes squeezed shut, afraid of how he was going to react as she admitted to what had been bothering her over the last weeks. "Maria's telepathic, isn't she" She doesn't need to use her hands. She's special. And Alex might be special, too. And I wouldn't be here if you and Mom hadn't thought I was special enough to love and look after, but ....if they're special, and they're so small, and they need help ....what does that mean for me?"

Johnny furrowed his brows as he listened and absorbed what she was telling him. He and Liv had already suspected there was something different about Alexei and Maria; they just didn't know what it was yet. He knew they'd been experimented on in the Arctic before they'd been rescued, but not even Lucy knew exactly the consequences of those experiments would be yet. But that wasn't what Fliss was trying to tell him. He drew back, his hands on her shoulders to meet her gaze. "What do you mean what does that mean for you? Do you think we're going to just forget about you because Maria and Alexei need us?"

"The only reason you even know I exist is because I set fire to things," she reminded him tearfully, hating herself for feeling jealous of a five-year-old she loved deeply. "And I'm kind of in control of that now. But they'll need you, and I ....what have I got to offer if I'm not the special one?"

"Oh, Fliss ..." Johnny said with a frown, his heart aching for her and feeling just a little hurt that she might think they'd love her or care for her any less than they did for Alexei or Maria. In point of fact, as much as he loved all his children, he was always going to have a special place in his heart for the eldest - the child of his heart that he and Liv had chosen for their own, rather than had thrust on them. "Do you really think Liv and I would ever love you any less than the others?" He touched her cheek with a too-warm finger that probably felt perfectly normal to her. "We chose you, Fliss, and it wasn't just about the fire either." He sighed, wondering if he should just go ahead and tell her the whole story.

But this was exactly what Liv had warned him about, exactly what they had worked so hard to achieve with Fliss - that she didn't keep feelings like this a secret from them, but shared them. It was better for Johnny, for Liv, to have a little hurt, than for their daughter to suffer in silence, all the while believing the worst of everything, until finally something snapped. "No, I don't think that," the teen shook her head, sniffling a little, embarrassed that she'd abandoned her friend with her brother and sister and was now crying on her father. "I just ....No one wanted me when I was normal. And when I started lighting fires, that got worse. And then you and Mom took me in, and you gave me a place to be, and a family, and I love my little brother and sister, I promise. I'm just scared, Dad. I don't want to be unwanted again."

Despite the hurt it caused him, in truth, Johnny would have rather had Fliss came to him with this than suffered in silence. Perhaps it was a sign that he, too, had grown and matured beyond the reckless, headstrong rebel he'd once been when he'd first arrived here in Rhy'Din. "You are never going to be unwanted. I promise you that," he assured her vehemently, even as he gently pushed her hair back from her face and dabbed at her tears.

"If anyone knows what it's like to be unwanted, it's your mother and I. If it wasn't for my sister, I don't know what would have become of me," he said with a touch of sadness, but that was neither here nor there, and it was all part of a past that couldn't be changed. "I don't know how to reassure you, Fliss, but I promise we will never stop loving you, no matter what." He sighed again and took her hand to draw her to the table so he could explain further, almost wishing Liv were there. She was so much better with words than he was. "When Liv and I found you, we were both heartbroken. We wanted a child so badly, and we'd been trying for so long ..."

Of course, what he didn't know was that Liv was listening, standing just beyond the doorway into the living room, taking in every word as it was spoken as she cried a little for the insecurity Fliss was struggling with. But she wouldn't interfere, not unless they called for her to join them. She knew Johnny could handle this.

In the kitchen itself, Fliss wandered to the table obediently as Johnny led the way, sniffling to try and take charge of her tears as she sat down to listen to what he was trying to tell her.

Johnny wouldn't call for Liv, unless he felt he had to, but he'd likely fill her in later. There were few secrets between them, and he saw no reason to start now, though he didn't want to cause Liv any undue pain, especially now that she was pregnant. They had worried Fliss might be jealous of the baby, but hoped she would feel secure enough to know that, no matter how many children they had, she would always be the first. Johnny pulled his chair close, turning to face her and taking her hands in his, needing her to know that he meant what he said, even if they were only words.

"What I'm trying to say is, no matter how many kids we end up with, there's only ever going to be one of you. Each of you is special, for your own reasons. We have room in our hearts for all of you, Fliss. And to be honest, you're always going to be special because you're the first. Because we loved you first. No matter how many kids we have, no one will ever take your place. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?" he asked her as gently as he could.

Fliss nodded slowly, gripping his hands as he spoke to her. "I know it's stupid, to feel this way," she assured him. "I don't believe what I tell myself, not all the time. And I'm an idiot for being jealous of Maria when all she's doing is finding a way to communicate." She shrugged. "This time last year, I was in a cell because I'd set fire to an orphanage. I guess I'm just wobbly."

"It was an accident, Fliss, and no one was hurt. You're not the same person you were then. You have me and Liv and Alex and Maria and Bella and Lucas and ....Do I really have to name all the people who love you?" he asked with a smile, his own eyes shining with tears. The list went on to include the Rogers and the Reeds and the De Lucas and at least half the Grangers. "Oh, by the way! I almost forgot. Yas wants to know if you're interested in an internship at the radio station. She loved you in Sound of Music and thought you might be interested."

Fliss stared at him for a moment, having to mentally manually change gears to catch up with the sudden change in subject. "I ....what?" She laughed a little, brushing her cheeks dry in mild confusion. "When did you talk to Yas" I didn't even know you knew her!"

Johnny shrugged, a sly smirk on his face. Obviously, Fliss had not heard him on the radio recently. "I have my ways," he told her, letting go of a hand to tweak her nose. "So, no more worrying about whether or not you are wanted or loved. You hear me" Or I might have to tickle you until you believe me. Besides, you promised to teach me to surf this summer, remember" Would I let someone do that if I didn't trust them completely?" Okay, maybe it didn't really compare, but this wasn't normal logic - it was Johnny Storm logic. His fingers gentled on her cheek, a soft smile on his face, blue eyes suspiciously wet. "Don't make me prove how much I love you by writing it all over the sky," he teased her.

She sniffed, nodding with a small smile as she rubbed her nose. "Great impression I'm making on my boyfriend, huh?" she asked with a weak snort of laughter. "Bring him home for the first time, and I'm crying all over my dad."

From the living room came the sound of Liv calling for Alexei to come and get in the bath, and for Maria to find her jammies. It was that time of the evening, already.

"You can cry all over me anytime you want, sweetheart," he assured her, glancing toward the living room as Liv called for Alexei and Maria. "Speaking of boyfriends, it looks like that's your cue."

He turned to face her, needing her to look at him so she would understand and believe what he was about to tell her. "Alex and Maria adore you, you know. Maria looks up to you, and Alex thinks you're cool. His words, not mine!" he said, chuckling. "Their lives are better because of you, Fliss, and yours is better because of them. You just need some time to realize it. That's all."

She wasn't about to cry again, but her smile was more fond than mocking as she looked at him. "When did you get so clever?" she accused him warmly, laughing as Bella finally gave up playing and simply thumped down beside him, her head in his lap. "You've got a brother, haven't you? Tell me about him."

Lucas smiled back at her, glad he could help, even if it would still take time for her to sort it all out in her head and her heart. He was more than a little surprised to find Bella's head in his lap, the fingers of his free hand finding their way into her fur. "Yeah," he replied with a frown. "His name is Matt." That was all he said for a long moment.

"You know ..." Fliss shifted a little bit closer, tilting her head as she watched him carefully. "I talk a lot about myself and my problems. I don't think I've heard you say much about yourself all year. It goes both ways, you know" I wouldn't share it with anyone."

Lucas shrugged, his turn to look away, afraid she'd see the pain and loneliness in his eyes. She had just confessed to her father that she never wanted to feel unwanted, and that was exactly how Lucas felt sometimes. "There's not much to tell," he said. It was a lie, of course, but it was still a little too painful to talk about.

"All right." It was just as well he was looking away; he couldn't see the hurt in her eyes as he refused to talk to her the way she talked to him. Squeezing his hand, Fliss drew in a breath, looking around at the darkening evening. "You want a drink or something?"

He sighed, knowing he hadn't handled that very well and knowing he'd disappointed her, at the very least. "I'm sorry, Fliss. It's just ....it's hard to talk about, you know?" he said, hoping she understood at least a little.

"I know." To her credit, she did know, but it was hard not to be hurt by what seemed like a lack of trust. "C'mon, let's go inside. Maybe if we get to the TV first, no one'll complain about our choice of movie."

It wasn't trust that he lacked exactly. He just didn't want to open that particular can of worms when she had so many troubles of her own. Not yet, anyway. He might have opened up a little more if she hadn't been so ready to brush it aside and suggest something else. "Okay," he told her, giving in easily. It was her house, after all, and he was only a guest.

That was one thing she'd learned from Johnny and Liv. They never pushed to know what was on her mind, trusting that she would tell them when she was ready. So she wouldn't push to know what was on Lucas' mind, trusting that he would tell her, eventually. Her hand in his, she called Bella up onto her feet before giving Lucas a tug, sending the dog bounding into the house excitedly. A moment later, they heard a whoop of laughter and a thud, and Fliss winced. "Oops."

Lucas winced as he was tugged to his feet, upon hearing that thud. "I hope that was your dad," he said, knowing her mom was pregnant. He felt a little relieved to have dodged the subject regarding his family, which would have led to deeper questions, but he knew he was going to have to confess sooner or later, especially now that they were more than friends.

"It probably wasn't," Fliss admitted with a grimace of a smile. "Bells knocks Mom over once a day, at least." Moving toward the house, she drew him with her, fingers entwined, hoping they weren't going to find her mother lying on the floor or anything awful like that.

He winced again. "Maybe she should strap a pillow to her rear," he suggested, more in jest than in seriousness. "What you need to do is train Bella not to knock her over," he suggested. Though he didn't know all that much about dogs, that much seemed logical enough. The entire house was made up of hyperactive personalities, and the dog was no exception.

"I've tried," Fliss laughed, pulling him in through the door, relieved to hear Liv laughing from the living room as the older woman scolded their dog affectionately.

"You're determined to make me sleep on the floor so you can cuddle up with Johnny, aren't you, Bells" Well, tough luck, he's mine."

"I can try, if you want," he offered, though he didn't really have the first clue about training a dog. "Maybe we could try together," he suggested further, knowing it was just a matter of positive enforcement.

"That'd be fun," Fliss agreed with a smile. "Means you'd have to be here quite a lot, though. Think you can handle that?" She grinned teasingly, pausing in the hallway outside the door to the living room as she turned to look up at him. "You'll always be welcome, you know."

"I think so, so long as you don't get sick of me," he said, pausing in the hallway, tempted once again to kiss her when she turned to look up at him, though the last thing he wanted was to get caught by her parents. "Always is a long time, Fliss," he told her, with a small frown, though he hoped she was right. No one could predict what the future would bring, but for the first time in a over a year, he was feeling hopeful and not quite so lonely.

"Well, you're just gonna have to keep me interested then, aren't you?" she challenged him. In an older girl, it might have been a calculated flirt - in Fliss, it came perfectly naturally, and she didn't have the first clue how it came across.

He smiled, making no comment on that, lowering his voice so her parents couldn't hear him. "They beat us to the TV, you know," he said, wondering if they should join them or sneak back outside or up to her room. His fingers tightened on hers, feeling happy to be with her, despite the circumstances that had brought him there.

Before she could respond, Liv appeared in the doorway. "Oh, there you are," she smiled at the pair of them. "I got your dad to put up the camp bed in your room, Fliss. Lucas, there are pajamas up there for you, as well. Would you guys like some cocoa?" She smiled absently, wandering past toward the kitchen with a look of complete innocence on her face.

Lucas arched a startled brow. Apparently, he was sleeping over and in Fliss' room. He'd assumed if it happened, he'd be on the couch or maybe in Alexei's room, but then he might be awake answering awkward questions all night. And as far as pajamas were concerned, it was unlikely he was getting them on over his wings, but he only frowned at Fliss' mother, looking worried. "Are you sure it's no trouble" I don't want to be any trouble."

"Of course it's no trouble, you're very welcome to stay over," Liv assured him warmly. "Although I am going to insist the door stays open, just so Johnny doesn't spend half the night coming in to check on you every half hour."

Fliss groaned through her smile, rolling her eyes. "Thanks for that, Mom."

As Johnny thumped into the kitchen to grab Lucas' attention, Fliss smiled, letting her boyfriend take the distraction and run with it. She moved over to hug her mother, stroking one hand against the ever-growing baby bump as she kissed Liv's shoulder. "Thanks for trying," she murmured.

Liv shook her head, raising her hand to caress Fliss' blond hair as she turned her head to meet the teen's eyes. "It's a bit too soon," she murmured back. "He's welcome here whenever he would like to come, just make sure he knows it."

Fliss nodded, squeezing her mother once more before moving search of marshmallows, sidestepping the boys with the comics.

Thankfully, Johnny was occupying Lucas' attention, neither of them overhearing Fliss and Liv discussing Lucas nearby. Johnny plunked down in a chair and started shoving comic book after comic book at Lucas, explaining how the Earth he was from was full of superheroes, including himself. Lucas quietly took it all in, though he looked more than a little overwhelmed the overload of information.

After about ten minutes of this superhero lecture, however, Liv and Fliss decided to come to the rescue. "Put the comic books away, sweetheart, or you can't have your cocoa," Liv reminded Johnny. "Your rule, not mine."

Fliss, on the other hand, simply set Lucas' cocoa down on top of the comic that was current in front of him, offering him a wink and a grin.

Johnny just about shrieked as Fliss set the cup of cocoa on the comic that Lucas was currently flipping through. "Fliss, are you crazy' That's irreplaceable!" he exclaimed excitedly, waiting for someone - anyone - to move that cup of cocoa so that he could safely snatch the thing back.

"Geez, keep your hair on," Fliss laughed, lifting the mug - which she had wiped the bottom of and dried thoroughly before ever setting it down.

"Indoor voice," Liv scolded Johnny mildly as she eased herself down onto a chair with a plate of cupcakes and her own cocoa. "Children sleeping."

"Yeah, but Liv ....It's a Cap from the 1940s! Do you know how that thing cost me?" he asked, still sounding like he was in a small panic.

"It's okay, Mr. Storm," Lucas interjected. "You don't have to show them to me. I wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

"Oh!" Johnny exclaimed again, as another thought entered his head. "You could just watch the movie. I think we have it around here somewhere, don't we, Liv?" He was on his feet again, moving the comics to the counter where it was safer.

"Yes, darling, and if you wake up the children sleeping, can you guess where you'll be sleeping tonight?" Liv countered Johnny's minor panic with the sometimes annoying common sense that was the reason she ruled the roost in this house. She smiled at him, gently rescuing the comic book and slipping it back into its plastic cover before he transferred the lot onto the counter behind her.

"The movie's not a bad idea," Fliss offered, although she was pretty sure watching the movie would still come with a million and one helpful facts about Captain America from her father. "What do you think, Luc?"

But Johnny was either ignoring Liv or was just too distracted by his frantic search through their DVD collection to notice she was scolding him. "I know it's here somewhere. Alex and I were just watching it the other day!" And it was likely someone had hidden it from him as his family was sick of watching it by now, along with the Fantastic Four and Avengers movies that were part of Johnny's superhero movie collection. "You should see this guy. He's a dead ringer for Steve!" Johnny rambled on from the living room.

Lucas looked uncertainly from Fliss to Liv to Johnny and back. "I, uh ..." The poor boy was obviously feeling a little overwhelmed.

"I think this is the perfect time for you guys to slip away and hide, personally," Liv commented mildly from behind her mug. "While he's distracted."

Fliss snorted into her mug, grinning, and rose to her feet, giving Lucas' hand a quick tug. "Good advice. C'mon, you."

"But ..." Lucas protested mildly, not having finished his hot cocoa or even taken a bite of his cupcake yet. He glanced again at Johnny, and while he seemed friendly enough, Lucas didn't really want to spend the next couple of hours getting a lecture about Captain America when his head was already spinning.

"Take them with you," Liv told him with a chuckle. "You are over ten years old, I trust you with food and drink in a bedroom."

As she said this, Fliss was already grabbing a plate to steal a few of the cupcakes with. "See why my mom is so cool?" she grinned to Lucas. "C'mon, before he comes up for air."

But not apparently when mixed with a comic book! Lucas looked again from one to the other, frowning and feeling a little guilty about abandoning her father, but he supposed there would be other opportunities to catch up on superhero lore another time. "Sorry, Mrs. Storm," he told Liv, though he wasn't quite sure why he was apologizing or what for.

"Oh, don't be," Liv chuckled, shaking her head. "He's excited to get to know you, that's all. There will be plenty of time for that. But seriously, if he finds that film before you get out of here, you're going to be watching Captain America with Storm commentary for the next three hours."

Lucas winced. Three hours was a long time, and he didn't seem to have half the energy of Liv's father, despite being at least a decade younger. "Thank you, ma'am," he said, turning to follow Fliss to her room, taking his cup of hot cocoa with him.

Leaving Liv to console Johnny - which probably wouldn't take much, since he bounced from one mood to the next with startling unpredictability - Fliss drew Lucas up the stairs and toward her own bedroom. It was a fairly open space, not much in the way of girliness on open offer, and beside the bed tucked against the wall was a fully made up camp bed complete with pillows and pajama bottoms. "Well, this is me."

Lucas paused in the doorway to take a look around, noting the lack of overly girlishness about the room. Thankfully it wasn't pink, not that it would have mattered, since the room belonged to her, not him. He had no idea what the history of the house was or that the Storms were changing the energy of the home from that of sorrow to joy, nor would it have mattered. The house suited the Storms well and had become a happy place. "It's nice," he said as he looked it over, with that all-too-familiar pang of homesickness again.

"Come in, I'm not gonna bite you," she laughed, thumping down onto the edge of her bed and setting her plate and mug down on the nightstand. "I'm only up here until the baby arrives. Then I get the spare room downstairs, with the private bathroom, and Maria moves in here, so that we can make a nursery in her room."

"How many bedrooms are there?" he asked curiously, not because he was looking to make it his home, but just out of simple curiosity. He stepped into the room, leaving the door open, as her mother had stated earlier, though nothing was going to happen between them that shouldn't. He'd make sure of that. He hadn't even given her a proper kiss yet!

"Is there one about him?" Lucas asked curiously. If there wasn't, he thought there should be. Back home, there were no superheroes, no magic, no anything that couldn't be explained by hard science. There had been a portal, however - a door to the world of Rhy'Din where everything you could possibly imagine was real. Where it wasn't so strange to see a boy with wings on his back or a girl who could control fire. "I wonder if we lived in your dad's world, would be we superheroes, too?"

"There are a couple about him," Fliss nodded with an almost proud smile. "Him and his sister, and her husband, and their friend. Together, they make up a team that was called the Fantastic Four." She chuckled, having seen those movies and heard all about what Johnny had been like just a few years ago. Lucas' question made her pause thoughtfully, though. "I never thought about that. Yeah, I guess we would be."

"Then we'd have to have superhero names, right' Like your dad. They call him Torch or something, don't they' And Captain America." He crossed his legs as he turned to face her. "What do you think our names would be?" he asked, with an impish gleam in his green eyes.

"The Human Torch, yeah," she nodded, grinning once again. "Oh, I'd be something like Sparky. Because, you know, female superheroes get silly names. My aunt Sue was the Invisible Girl for years before she finally convinced everyone to call her a woman. What would yours be?"

"Sparky," he chuckled. "I like that." He thought about it a minute, trying to come up with a name that didn't sound too silly or cliched. The obvious one was Angel, but he didn't really feel like an angel, and the name implied he could perform miracles, which as far as he knew, he could not. He had no talent for healing or teleporting or vanishing into thin air. If anything, he was more like a bird, though what kind of bird was the question. "I don't know. I don't really like Birdboy, do you?"

She snorted with laughter. "No, not Birdboy." Tilting her head to one side, she considered the possibilities, taking the opportunity to enjoy the view he presented without embarrassing him too much. She'd fancied him since almost the moment they'd met, after all. "Something like, I don't know ....The Eagle. Or the Albatross."

"Hmm, maybe," he mused, not really too fond of either of those. Not that it mattered, but he thought a superhero name should sound cool, not silly. "I guess I'll have to give it some thought," he said. Smirking, he added, "Maybe you should get a shirt with an S on the front."

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "I'm not Supergirl!" she protested, knowing he knew about Superman at least, or he would never have understood her comment about Krypton earlier. "If I was gonna have a logo, it'd be a spark, like this." She snapped her fingers, producing a large spark of flame that died almost as soon as it appeared. "Hey, if we were a duo, we could be the Flaming Feathers!"

"It's just a thought!" He leaned away from the spark she produced on her fingers, more out of instinct than anything else. "Flame and feathers don't really go well together, Fliss!" he pointed out with a chuckle, though he trusted her implicitly. He'd known her long enough now to know she would never intentionally hurt him, even though his gut instinct was to avoid her flame as much as he could.

Watching him lean away, her smile softened as she dropped her hand. "I'd never hurt you, you know," she reminded him quietly. "If I ever did, I wouldn't mean to. Merri says that the magic gets easier to handle when the whole puberty thing is over, like the teenage hormones make it all crazy and out of control."

"I know. I trust you, Fliss," he said, reaching to take her hand as if to reassure her that he wasn't afraid of her, even if he was wary of her flame. "I don't have any magic," he pointed out. At least, as far as he knew, he didn't. He'd just been cursed or gifted with a pair of wings on his back.

"You don't need magic." She met his gaze with a fondness in her expression as her fingers tangled with his. "I think you're pretty awesome as you are, even if you can't see it. I don't see the wings, not any more. I just see you."

"I don't see the fire anymore either," he told her, but then he chuckled as that was a bit of a lie, since it was hard not to notice sometimes. "At least, I don't think about it too much." He looked down at their linked fingers for a moment. "I think you're pretty awesome, too, Fliss," he told her a bit shyly.

She bit her lip, his shyness rubbing off on her as they talked quietly. "That's nice to know," she admitted in a low voice, glancing toward the door as though she expected her father to be standing there sniggering at her nerves. "Luc, um ....would you ....that is, I ....may I kiss you?"

Lucas lifted his gaze to meet hers, looking a little surprised at her question. He'd been ready to ask her the same thing in the garden earlier before her siblings had interrupted. He blushed a little, mostly because he thought he should have been the one asking that question, but she had beaten him to it. "Only if I can kiss you," he replied, though there wasn't much logic in that reply.

The amber glow in her eyes was back, but it wasn't a threat of flames to come. Shifting closer, she bit her lip again, fighting down a very inappropriate giggle. "I, um ....I've never kissed anyone before," she confessed, feeling butterflies bouncing around her stomach nervously.

"Me either," he replied, heart beating fast and hard. "Except my mom," he added, with a nervous laugh, thought that kiss hardly counted. He wondered if he should close his eyes or keep them open. What was the proper etiquette of kissing" Should he pause a moment to have a breath mint' He didn't even have a breath mint! How many times had he seen people kiss in the movies and on T.V. and even in real life" Why was he so nervous"

If Luc was nervous, then Fliss was doubly so. She knew she should really have waited for him to ask her for a kiss, but she had a feeling they were both as shy as each other. If they kept waiting for each other, they might never get past holding hands at all. Swallowing, she leaned closer, feeling her face light up in a blush as she felt his breath on her lips. "Moms don't count."

His insides were fluttering nervously and his palms were starting to sweat, but he leaned a little bit closer, terrified he'd do it wrong. What if she didn't like it' What if there were no sparks" What if he kissed her and it felt like she was kissing her brother" Should he pucker up" Should he wet his lips" Should he keep the kiss chaste, only touching his lips to hers or should he be more bold" Was there a right or wrong way' So many questions and so few answers. "Neither do dads and little brothers," he told her. In the end, he decided to close his eyes as he leaned in, just touching his lips very gently to hers at first with soft, tender pressure.

He didn't need to worry about there being no sparks - with Fliss, there were always sparks, literal and otherwise. How else would they have managed to have maintained their friendship throughout the school year? As his lips touched hers, she found her confidence again, reassured that he did want to kiss her after all, easing closer to press just a little deeper into that kiss. Nothing that crossed the line of innocent chastity, but definitely not the kind of kiss you gave your mom.

The kind of kiss you gave your mom was just a brief touch often to a cheek, rather than to lips. Though that first kiss was innocent, it was full of warmth and desire and longing, not only of physical desire, but that of the heart and the soul. Lucas found himself lifting a hand to touch her cheek as his lips explored hers, warm and gentle.

After a long moment, Lucas pulled very slowly and gently, and almost reluctantly, away, opening his eyes to the girl in front of him, wondering just how she had managed to set his heart on fire with one simple kiss. He touched his forehead to hers, his fingers trailing down her cheek. What was he supposed to say after something like that' Words didn't seem to suffice.

Words weren't necessary. It was just one kiss, but it set them both alight in ways they couldn't have predicted. First love was always the sweetest, the most memorable, even if it couldn't truly be called love. For Fliss, it felt like a beginning; not a new beginning, for she didn't need everything to start afresh. But the beginning of the path that would take her to adulthood. A path that she might not simply walk along ....with Lucas to guide her, there was every possibility that she would fly.

((You know, this started out as another "little scene" to introduce Lucas ....and got epic! Lots of fun, though. Huge thanks to my partner in crime!))