TCR 48 Dinner with the Demigods

I was pretty sure Scorn was messing with me, but…

“Not just no, hell no. I am not taking in that damned bear. I don’t care how unhappy he is in the zoo.”

My woman finally gave in and let out a soft laugh as she tried to hide her grin. “Evil woman.”

She snorted. “You asked if I had any ideas, you didn’t say they had to be good ones."

We both looked up as an unseen presence touched our minds as our subterranean coach pulled into the Palace terminal. Scorn seemed to be having a silent conversation with who I assumed was Carol.

Then she took my hand and led me out of the private car, which was a little more casual contact than I was used to from her.

She must have picked up on it since she turned to me and blushed a bit. "It boosts the feeling I pick up from you, which helps block out everyone else. You don't mind, do you?"

I squeezed her hand and grinned at her as I unloaded how happy I felt about it.

She didn’t quite turn her face away in time to keep me from seeing how red she went. Slipping her hand out of my grip she slipped ahead and I almost had to jog to catch up with her in the elevator where she had gotten her face under control.

Stepping in and spinning around to face the door next to her, I held my hand out as the doors shut.

She took it.

Light Knight and Bravada had their own tower in the Palace arcology. A nine story structure with a garden on top and another smaller three story watch tower up above that. The lower floors were each about six times the size of my house, even with all the additions.

I had seen the immense hand carved front doors on a TV special once, but instead of going in that way, we went up five more floors of the main Palace structure to a discrete door that led into a room with a service elevator and some trash chutes, and from there into the family kitchen.

Bravada, one of the few Rank 5s in the world, a contender for the strongest person in the world, was standing in there barefoot as she cooked up something spicy smelling while wearing a worn looking frilly apron.

She also had a nice looking yellow blouse and a peach skirt under it, but still, when it came to cooking you think she would have people for that.

“Brenda! Why didn’t you bring him in the fancy doors, we're trying to impress tonight." She reached behind herself to pull the knot on the string of the apron so she could remove it to hug Scorn without getting her daughter’s dress stained.

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Then I was wrapped up in rock hard arms for a quicker hug of my own. "Thank you for coming, Brenda wasn’t sure until this morning if you could make it.”

I held up the jug of Applejack. “I brought something for us to drink, but I’m not sure if it goes with what smells like Mexican.”

She grinned. “We are having Carnitas with pork, Cider will go well with it.” She raised an eyebrow and pointed at the basket with four smaller bottles in my other hand.

I raised it up. "Something my Grandmother calls Appletinis for anyone without a Brutes resistance. The Jug is for the rest of us.”

Shimmer drifted into the room. “Dibs.” Unlike her mother or sister, she was dressed casually in yellow pants that went just below her knees, and a green hoodie.

Her mother waved a hand at her. “Emma, I told you to go change.” Shimmer sighed. “Moooom, I work with him. I don’t need to get dressed up.”

I had never heard her whine before.

Her father in a white shirt and gray slacks walked up behind her and set his hand on her shoulder, “It’s the official meet the boyfriend dinner sweetie. That means dressing up a little. The Capri's are fine, but lose the hoodie. Now scoot.”

As she rolled her eyes and wandered off, Scorn tried to follow behind her as her father crossed the room toward me.

Nope. I clamped my hand around hers and tugged on it.

Skin contact strengthened her empathy, right? Feel my panic woman.

Rank 5s.

Core can raise a tower of stone and steel in minutes.

Bravada can knock it down barehanded.

The guy whose daughter I've been hooking up with can lift that building up in a blue field of physics defying force and crush it with a thought.

He held his hand out to me.

“Good to see you Scott. We should talk.”

Scorn made her escape. Me and her father played a game of pool.

Light Knight had his own English pub two floors down from the levels of the tower he and his family actually lived in. Complete with a pool table, a dart board, and a Jukebox softly playing hits from the oughts.

Along with its own bar with taps, but he had opened up a bottle of Grandma's best, taking an experimental sip with a pleased look. “Dam.”

Then he hid the remaining three bottles in three different places.

“It’s the best chance I have of ever getting a second bottle of the stuff.”

I’m a passable player at Pool, at least with simple shots, but Knight pretty much ran the table on me. And having shown off that he can beat the rival male attempting to lure away one of his girls. He got around to talking to me.

"I grew up in a world of normal humans before enough people Triggered that Superpowers began to be a thing, so my way of thinking still wants to mention the age difference."

He gestured at the triangular bracket thing. “Rack them up.”

As I did so he continued. "But it's different for us now. You're young, in body at least. It's other issues for you and her. Even with regular healing treatments, and your head start, Scorn will catch up with you in age, then begin to pass you in fifty years or so.”

I cleared my throat and lifted the bracket thing away. “Fifty years is a good run for a relationship. But I more worried about her passing before me than her looking older than me seventy or eighty years from now."

Knight gave me a look, then nodded. “Your break.”

Actually, since he sunk the eight ball last I thought the rules said he could keep going, but I guess he wanted me to at least have a chance at playing every now and then.

Still, he waited until I was about to shoot before asking. “So you two are serious then?”

I scattered the balls randomly around the table. Ha, like I was going to make a good shot without you messing with me. Can't screw up someone up when they had little to no clue what they're doing.

Somehow I sunk the four ball, at least I thought that's what the solid yellow one was.

“Solids. As serious as two people who've been together for a month or so can be.”

He looked thoughtful, as he waited for me to line up a shot before he said anything else. Luckily we were interrupted by a buzz from an intercom.

“Dinner is ready Light Bright, so stop torturing him and come upstairs.”

Knight snorted. “We’ll try to finish after dinner, let’s go eat.”