stykera | MHA #4, Saturday Morning

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MHA #4, Saturday Morning

Last night had been a good night. Stark's suit had suffered a little once they made their way from the party back to Summer's apartment but that was to be expected. The suit, along with Summer's dress, was on the floor of the bedroom while Stark and Summer were quite cozy and comfortable in her bed.

It was a good day for a nice, quiet lie-in. Neither of them had any plans or anywhere to be and they had a vague plan for a trip to discuss. Sure, they might need food or coffee at some point but until then they could just enjoy a peaceful morning, together.

"I said I would show you the hotels I looked at," Stark said. "Here." It had taken a minute to locate his phone but he was now back in the bed where he belonged, snuggling back up to his favorite person, and holding out the phone for her approval. "The restaurant in this one I think you'll like." Because it was pink.

[For the scandalously modded owner of the apartment and obviously nobody else who else would be there? Honestly. Although, like, I guess people could knock.]

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Stark looked up at the ceiling as if that would offer any clues. It did not.

"Why would there be someone in my apartment. You're the only person who ever comes there...usually. I..."

Well, there were occasional impossible and improbably visitors? Maybe it was them. Or Chiana come to visit! That would be better. Or would it?

"I like the idea of shooting your grandfather, I'm sorry, but I do." Another sigh and Stark was heading for the bedroom door.

"Should we look?"
He was regretting not having his perfectly reasonably sized pulse pistol with him right now, yes.

"Wanting to shoot my grandfather," Summer assured him, "just means you're a good judge of character, Stark."

It was distracted, though, her attention on the ceiling still, where the thumps seemed to have ceased, but she felt like she could still hear the pitter-patter of little feet up there, and she shook her head.

"Well," she said, "I'm not going to let whoever is out there just keep tearing through my apartment and terrorizing my cat."

A cat who, it should be noted, was now at the bedroom door, yowling and scrabbling at it to be opened. Summer didn't waste any time in opening it. "Hey, Pancakes, who's--"

As soon as the door was opened, Pancakes bolted past the two of them and took a near dive underneath the bed. Summer took a moment to look at Stark, and then cautiously proceeded forward.

And straight into a small redheaded child.

"Ooof!" said Cass, blinking it off before she looked up at Summer, and then at Stark. "Hey, Mom! Hey, Dad! Really cool of you to actually be dressed this time, now, if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to get to the cat."

"...oh."

It was difficult to tell what sort of expression was on Stark's face when he recognized the child. Shock, perhaps, and maybe relief. A dash of joy. Some confusion.

"Hello, Cass. It's...we weren't expecting you?"

"Well, duh," said Cass, rolling her eyes at Stark for a moment, "of course not, that's the whole point of these weekends is that you never see it coming even when you think you do."

Oh, yeah, she was definitely her mother's daughter.

"Anyway," she continued, gesturing toward the rest of the apartment, "Bixby's in the kitchen looking for food."

She tried to push past Summer again, but Summer wasn't having it, blocking her way and putting her hands on the girl's shoulders to steer her back from whence she came. "Oh, no you don't," she said. "You leave Pancakes alone, she hasn't done anything to deserve you little monsters bothering her today." She sighed a little, marching Cass forward and giving a look over at Stark. "That's probably Ziya, then, right? Upstairs in your apartment?"

"We tried to find her at the portal!" Cass offered, as if wanting to make sure that they didn't think she and Bix had been bad half-siblings. "But we couldn't! She must've got here either before or after we did!"

"I should go and get her," Stark said, nodding. "Though she could have just come down here, she should remember from last time. But I'll go look."

There wasn't anyone else who could be upstairs. Any other impossible children he'd ever had no longer had other parents on the island and they'd only shown up when they had 2 fathers to tend to them. Ziya was the exception to so many rules.

"Thank you, Cass, for looking for her. I'll...I'll be right back." With his other impossible daughter! The blue one who hurt his heart in so many ways every year even as she healed it.

He patted Cass's shoulder as he walked out of the room and headed for the stairs and his own apartment where surely his precious and impossible blue child would be waiting for him!

Oh, Stark. Your world was just destined to be one of constant disappointment, wasn't it? Because by the time he got to the apartment, there certainly was no precious and impossible blue child waiting for him. Instead, he'd find slightly larger bespectacled child, poking her head out of the kitchen when she heard the door open, with a cupcake in one hand and wiping a bit of frosting from her mouth with a napkin.

"Oh, good," she breathed out in relief, stepping out to go and meet him. "There you are. I really didn't want to go poking around that creepy old house in the woods." She shuddered at the mere thought of it, but her attention to the important stuff snapped right back in. "Are you and Father having a fight again? Why is all the coffee in your kitchen so terrible?"

Stark's life was an endless series of disappointments broken up by fleeting moments of joy, yes.

"...what?"

Very good, Stark. Excellent start.

"Here I am," he said after a moment. "And here you are but I'm afraid, I'm sorry, I don't...we haven't met yet. Who else were you looking for? And is the coffee that bad I usually add a lot of sugar. And cream. I usually buy mine at the Perk instead of making it but sometimes I need my own but..."

Oh. Now his brain was catching up.

"Did you say 'Father?' and 'creepy old house in the woods' ?" Oh nooooo.

"I did say 'Father' and 'creepy old house in the woods'," the girl confirmed, pushing up her glasses, "and you are much too young to be losing your hearing, Dad. But here."

She ducked back into the kitchen, to finish off her cupcake and return with a box of several more to offer out to him.

"I brought you these from the bakery. The really fancy ones are, of course, for Father, but if you decided you wanted them instead, it's not like he'd be able to tell that he'd missed them."

That's what he got for being in a creepy old house in the woods instead of an apartment that was easily broken into. The lock had clearly been manhandled and finangled into opening several time before.

"Thank you," Stark said automatically as he took the box. "Perhaps we can share some with...your siblings. Are you alone up here?" Not hiding a blue girl somewhere? "These look very good. You went to the bakery before you came here?"

And further mangled his lock which had been a gift from someone!

"And...do you need me to help you find your other father?" He had a terrible feeling about this.

That was a very long list of questions, but the girl was used to that sort of thing from Stark, so she just cleared her throat a little, adjusted her glasses, and squared her shoulders as she went over them all carefully as with a fine-toothed comb.

"What do you mean, siblings? And, yes, I am alone, I have examined the place thoroughly. Obviously, yes, I went to the bakery beforehand, it was a matter of finding you or Father or cupcakes, and clearly, cupcakes took priority. And..."

She trailed off at the last point, lifting her chin defiantly against her own cowardice. "If you could fetch him, that would be greatly appreciated. I...don't like the look of that place. It's..." Scary "suspicious."

"It's an odd place," Stark said carefully. "Yes. It's...we could go together, if you like?"

He was going to push aside the lack of Ziya for now and focus on the two small gingers downstairs.

"Downstairs, with Summer. You have a brother and a sister. Half. Cass, and Bixby. They like cupcakes too."

The girl was giving Stark a very strange look at this whole half-siblings suggestion, but her curiosity was also getting the better of her. She took a moment, to consider the half-dozen cupcakes she got (because, of course, it was a better deal to get the half-dozen, and the dozen would have been excessive).

She counted softly on her fingers. "So, that's one for you, one for each of them, one for this...Summer person...I already had mine, so that still leaves one for Father..."

She nodded. "Alright," she said. "I had planned for us each to have two, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to share, especially since I apparently have half-siblings. Is Summer their mother?"

"Summer is their mother," Stark confirmed. "I'm their father. So they're your siblings. And...I thought you might have another sister. She's not here though..."

"But yes, let's share the cupcakes. Which one will your father like best, do you think? You can pick. And maybe I could call him? I'm not supposed to ambush him and I think this would count..."

"The very fancy one with the coffee filling," the girl said, immediately, with a firm nod. "That one has to be for him. And, yes, I think you should call him..."

She gave Stark a somewhat disparaging look. "A call is hardly an ambush."

But she also knew how her father could get when the two of them were fighting, too. He was so dramatic that everything probably felt like an ambush.

"Right. He'll appreciate the coffee," Stark said, nodding. "Very good choice. And for now we'll go downstairs and share the other cupcakes and I'll...call Ignis."

Try not to sound too excited, Stark.

"Unless you'd like to call him from my phone? Or Summer's?" he suggested as he turned to head back downstairs. "He might prefer hearing from you."

As she started to follow him out of the apartment, the girl rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "Yes, fine," she said. "I'll talk to him. But I really wish the two of you would just talk to each other when you're fighting instead of going through me. I'm your daughter, not a mediator."

"You're right," Stark said softly, still heading downstairs. "That isn't fair of us at all. I'm sorry."

"Come downstairs for a while and we'll decide what to do then. Summer might have a better idea."

He hoped she did anyway. "Here. This apartment, right downstairs from mine."

He nodded to the door and rapped his knuckles on it twice before opening it. "I've brought your sister," he called out, "just...a different one."

"...a different one?" asked Summer, blinking over from where she had just gotten the two of them settled at the table with some breakfast, and now, after Cass and Bixby exchanged an excited look, she knew everything she'd just managed was about to come crashing down into chaos.

In fact, Cass gasped. "New sister just dropped!"

Her chair scraped on the floor behind her as she scrambled out of it and went rushing toward the door, with Bixby following close behind, and Summer was just shaking her head at all of them.

"Oh!" Cass grinned excitedly when she saw her. "Older sister!"

Actually, Calli was about the same age as the both of them, but that was fair, she definitely did look older, especially when she lifted her chin and adjusted her glasses as she inspected the other two children.

"Hi, I'm Bixby!" Bixby said. "This is Cass. It's short for Casser--"

"Bixby!" Summer warned. "Don't."

He grinned, unashamed, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Callida," she said. "It means Clever. Most people just call me Calli. I brought cupcakes, but there's only enough for one each, and the coffee one in the back has to be saved for my father." A sigh. "Once my dad can actually be bothered to call him."

And through all that, Summer was just sort of shifting her look worriedly toward Stark. "No Ziya?" she asked.

Stark shook his head, trying not to look as pained as he felt. "No Ziya."

And he was going to deal with that later he couldn't deal with it now.

"I have to call Ignis." That was the more pressing issue. "About...his daughter."

The look he was giving Summer now was very clearly a cry for help.

"Oh, Stark..."

And Summer would also have a few things to deal with there, later, and she was about to move over to him for what was likely some much needed comfort, but that last part pretty much stopped her in her tracks.

"I'm sorry," she said, not for the lack of Ziya, but for her apparently terrible hearing, "Ignis??"

"Calli's Father," Stark said, still giving her a blatant 'help me' look.

"She doesn't want to go to the creepy house in the woods to look for him." She was clever, wasn't she? "So she found me first. But I...do you think you could tell him?"

"They're fighting again," said Calli, with a roll of her eyes, as she led herself be lead back over to the table by Cass and Bixby, half-wondering if this most recent fight had anything to do with her dad's secret Oops-All-Redheads family here. Cass and Bixby were far more interested in the promise of cupcakes, having an eager look into the box to see what was available.

"Oooh!" said Cass, darting a hand in. "Claiming the pink one before Mom does!"

"Or Dad," Bixby pointed out, as he took a much longer time deciding, because he wanted to try and make sure that he didn't pick one that someone else would want.

"And already had mine," Calli said, "so don't worry about me."

"Oh, don't worry," said Cass, already with frosting on her nose as she peeled away the wrapper, "we weren't going to."

And while all this was happening, Summer was just shaking her head and trying not to laugh now. "Yeah," she told Stark, "I'll call him. But seriously, dude? Ignis? Also, like, how do you end up having a kid with a chocobro before I do when I've known them for practically ever? I mean, I guess I could have one running around. Maybe I should check the gym...."

But her phone was already out and she was pulling up Ignis' number, and she was making the call and waiting for him to pick up, so she just left a message.

"Heeeeey, Igggggy, it's Suuuuuuummmer. I'm sure you're already drowning in fake kids from your hot goth girlfriend, but Stark picked up a stray that's apparently yours and his. Anyway, her name is Calli, she seems very smart and judgmental and has a coffee cupcake that she's saving for you, so, quite honestly, I'd believe it. Call me back when you get the chance, we'll keep an eye on her until then! Oh, hey, and if you hear anything from Gladio, by like, any chance, let me know? I'm just curious. Okay, talk to you soon, byeeeee-eeeee."

And then she ended the call and looked at Stark. "Well. Guess we'll see where that gets us."

Watching the three of them looking over the cupcakes was, at least, a solid indication they were all his. Or belonged to some version of him at least.

"That will go much better coming from you than from me," Stark said to Summer. "I think."

Why couldn't he have had a nice shirtless child with Gladio, instead? ~~or better yet, Prompto!~~

"Come have a cupcake with us," he continued, reaching for her hand.

"Yeah, Mom!" the gingers chorused around mouthfuls of cake.

"They aren't even gross," Cass said, grinning.

"Of course they're not gross," said Calli, immediately offended at the implication. "Why would I pick out gross cupcakes?"

But the frown of consternation that wrinkled her brow was growing deeper by the moment, not at all helped when Stark held out his hand for Summer's and she took it. She looked at Summer for a moment, before her eyes went back to her dad.

"So do you...both...have...girlfriends here?"

"Oh, no," Summer interjected quickly, "I'm not--"

"Everybody," Cass interrupted her mother's interruption, "has all sorts of weird mom and dad combos for this week. You went through the portal, right? This is where all our parents met--"

"Not all," Bixby reminded her, "Ziya's mom was from before, remember?"

"Oh, yeah! Okay, so it's where some parents met. You'll see when we leave the apartment, there's gonna be kids like us everywhere, and parents like our Dad who are all confused about all of it. It's pretty fun. I'm glad we came back again this year."

"I'm glad you enjoy the confusion," Stark said, giving Cass some serious side-eye. "Someone ought to."

"It's an odd weekend," he said, turning his attention back to Calli. "For everyone. You're familiar with the island but not with...this? You knew where my apartment was. And the bakery. And the house in the woods."

He wasn't going to address the 'girlfriend' question. Best just to let that go.

Calli shrugged a little, pulling out a phone from her pocket and holding it up to demonstrate. "I ran some logistics," she said, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "And I think....some of it was just some kind of...intuition, I guess? When I showed up, all I really knew was that I should find you two."

A beat.

"After getting cupcakes."

"Where do you live then?" Stark asked. "If not on the island?"

Had Ignis moved him somewhere in this very strange version of reality? That was odd enough in and of itself.

"You did very well, tracking down the cupcakes and me."

"Insomnia," Calli said, a little slowly, with a sort of uncertainty that came from the bizarre feeling of one of your fathers asking you questions they should already know. Her eyes also darted to Bixby and Cass to see if there was any recognition about it from them. "That's where I took the portal from. And it really wasn't that difficult, all I had to do was run a locator that told me where I was, and then I just searched for your names and a residential directory popped up listing where you're both apparently staying. Pretty straightforward, honestly."

"I didn't know we had a directory," Stark said. "But this island is always a surprise. You should tell your fathers you want to visit, the other version of them, sometime."

What could possibly go wrong there?

"And...Insomnia is where Ignis is from, originally, isn't it? I've never been. Yet?"

Alternate universes were weird, okay?

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MHA #4, Saturday Morning

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