fh_trips | Kohala Coast, Hawaii | Morning & Afternoon | Tuesday

//I think I know what you mean,// Jono replied, with a small nod of his head. //Th'weekends are so short, you barely get to know who they are before they're off again. Some of them never t'be seen again.//

He didn't entirely know how be felt about that.

//They're no less real for it, but... timelines, and all. They had to come from somewhere. We just might never see those places, ourselves.//

"Just some of those timelines seem so impossible, it's like trying to imagine a fairy tale is real or something," Karla said. "Like Bobina, my iron-handed daughter with Bobby--who, by the way, was the one who carried her for nine months. I know that that future is real for her, but it's never going to be mine. She was like a dream brought to life for a few days. But then others seem so real it's hard to remember than they're still only possibilities."

She rested her chin on her hand and looked at Jono. *What did you think about the futures you got to see?* she sent.

//Well, I didn't see many,// Jono noted, thoughtfully. //Vedder is my daughter with George, of all people. And in Vedder's timeline, I'm apparently th'worst father ever.//

No. Really. He had somehow managed to be a more negligent parent than his own, who had managed to forget to send him even socks for Christmas this year.

//Elizabeth's, though...// He had no idea where to start, in regards to that one. //She's a good gel. I wouldn't mind a future with her in it. Though there were some things she said about it that were a bit...//

He waved a hand around a little. There wasn't really a word for the way he felt about potentially losing his powers, somehow surviving, but only thanks to Akkaba, who somehow turned him into a freakish Junior Apocalypse.

It was difficult to file Elizabeth into the 'probably never happening' pile, but... Honestly. Blue?

"Oh, you heard about giving the guitars a bath then?" Karla teased gently. "The girls assured me they were sorry."

She had heard the girls talking about Jono being 'in disguise' here and blue at home, but she knew full well she wasn't understanding everything. But she was more than willing to listen, if he wanted to talk.

And, if not, there was always teasing to be done. Obviously.

//It's th'fact that they said guitars, plural, that hurts th'most,// Jono replied. //If I ever do become a parent, I think th'first thing I'm going to have to do is find a trustworthy, child-less guitar-sitter. I've had conversations with that Stratocaster.//

Giving Strat a bath was kind of like attempted murder, in that light. Oh Fandom, you and your weird weekends.

//That didn't seem like such a terrible future for you and yours, though. But what sort of a name is 'Nommy?'//

Karla sputtered on her beer, laughing as she mopped at her face with a napkin. "Not his real name!" she protested. "He wouldn't tell us what his real name was! But...come on. You saw those cheeks of his. He comes by the nickname honestly."

That sputter totally had Jono smirking at Karla from across the table. Victory.

//He certainly does. I should be thankful that Elizabeth's only real resemblance to her father is visible only when she lets her soul-self come out.//

"When I kissed him goodnight that first night, he complained and said it wasn't a real kiss," Karla said, ducking her head and smiling. "Apparently, I have to nom on his cheeks first. Then I can kiss him goodnight."

That child was ridiculously cute. Ridiculous.

"What about Elizabeth's Soul-Self?" she asked. "I never saw it."

//It's on fire,// Jono reported. //I had to take a minute to get my head around that one. I've known a few people who could've been mother to a child with a flaming bird that occasionally spreads up around her.//

Really, he had been thankful that Elizabeth hadn't been Jean's. Scott would have blown another hole in him, for that one.

//Goodnight kisses were Raven's job, that weekend.//

Obviously.

"Your life is so strange," Karla informed Jono. Potlike. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that."

Just how many flaming bird-women were there?

"Did you play her a lullaby instead?"

//There were hugs,// Jono replied.

Hugs had been kind of like an amazing accomplishment for him, all things considered.

//I'd been... a bit distracted.// And then, because there was perfectly good beer here, and he didn't want to ruin the moment, he added on a hasty, //bedtime must've been an adventure for you with yer brood, hm?//

She hadn't even wanted to ask about hugs, actually, knowing what she did about how skittish Jono had been. She'd figured lullabies on the guitar might have been a good compromise.

So she took the slight topic shift and ran with it. "Six girls. One me. Bathtime. You do the math. I don't think the second floor females' room has recovered yet. And then we all had to sleep on the floor because there was some complex formula to figure out who got to sleep next to me involving arcane factors like comparative cookie sizes and who'd held my hand last."

Jonothon's eyes actually widened a little at the description.

Wow, he'd gotten off lightly.

//Oreos are all th'same size,// he offered, attempting to make future children invasions simpler on her, somehow. //It's a shame, I suppose, that you've only got two hands to divide up between them all, though.//

"Then they'd probably argue about who's face got washed the longest or something," Karla groaned. Funny how much harder she'd been hitting the beer since the children had come up in conversation. A week later and she still hadn't recovered. "I don't think I was ever so glad to have been an only child as I was watching them wrangle about everything."

Of course, since most of them were normally only children anyway, that might have been a consideration.

//I can't disagree, there,// Jonothon replied, a note of a chuckle sneaking in edgewise, somewhere in his words. //I can't imagine what life would've been like, growing up with siblings.//

Considering the way mutancy ran in the genes, and just how much his parents failed at parenting, he'd probably be babysitting another shunned Starsmore right this very moment, instead of hanging out in Hawaii. And that would suck.

"I had Morton, when he was around. That was enough for me," Karla said, with a shake of her head. "Now I'm Dinah's little sister, which means I get all the perks of being a bratty sibling and none of that pesky 'sharing' stuff."

//Well, not none of it,// Jonothon pointed out with a nod toward the beer. //But I can certainly see th'charm in it, I suppose. I have a few younger siblings, myself. Ben's been a good big brother, at least.//

"I barely see mine," Karla said. "Chuck and Claudia and I don't really travel the same circles and I have no idea what happened to Denise--" boy was that a loaded comment, unbeknownst to Karla "--though I do keep meaning to look in on Leo."

But things kept coming up, like rescue missions and little children and the like.

"I'm pretty sure that Ben sees me as the sister he never had," she added, grinning. "Sometimes as the sister he never particularly wanted, either."

//I see Ariel often enough,// Jono mused. //She stops by th'shop, now and then. Makita's always been a bit independent. But they're both not bad people.//

He wiped out the X that he'd drawn in the table-salt, and started idly trailing his fingers through the mess, some more.

//I need to track down Ben again, I think. We haven't mocked so-called horror films together in a while.//

"You should! Watching movies would make an excellent alternative to him getting sunburned all over" Karla offered, like the good sister she was.

She was tempted to mention Ben's scars to Jono. She thought the two of them might understand one another. But it wasn't her place to say it.

"You should," she said again. "I think you two have more in common than you'd guess."

Jono nodded a little, thoughtfully.

//He was... there. I mean, after Didi... went.// How else was there to say what had happened, really? //I really should look him up again. I'm... bloody terrible at keeping in touch with people. I need t'work on that.//

Though how he'd contact people after grad, he had no idea.

There were these magical inventions called 'letters,' Jono.

"If you'd like, I can nag at you until you do!" Karla suggested brightly. She was such a good little helper! "I'm very good at nagging."

Very, Jono. Very.

But writing took time and effort! Time, Karla! And effort!

... He'd have to start gathering mailing addresses.

//I don't doubt it,// he replied, fairly lightly, himself. //I might have to take you up on that, actually. If you don't, I'll probably start looking for excuses not to.//

Much like he'd spent the first few days of the trip, sulking in his room and making up reasons to not go outside and appreciate that he was in freaking Hawaii.

Yeah. It'd probably be for the best if Karla never found out about that. Or she'd drag him to Glacia in the middle of winter and let him appreciate that.

"Consider yourself nagged," Karla said, smirking. "And now, at any moment, I will pop up and pester you about Ben. This'll be fun for me on several levels!"

//I suppose I shall have to hold my breath in wait?//

Har, Jono. Har, har.

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