Chilly Boulder- Sunday afternoon

[throughaphase]

Like just about everyone else on island, Kitty had kids. Both girls, both mutants, both apparently interested in the superhero thing, and those last two things kind of freaked her out a little. She didn't worry so much about Petra, since she was older and had mentioned being an X-Man once or five times, though Kitty didn't want to think too hard about how she got here. Because weird. Then there was Lexi, who was still small enough to have to be watched, and who was the result of a current relationship where Kitty tried not to think too far ahead. Well, there went that...

This kind of situation called for ice cream, both because ice cream was a good idea in general and because it stopped Lexi from hinting that she wanted it. And if Kitty ended up regretting letting her get whatever she wanted, well, that was entirely her own fault.

[Open!]

Comments

[ahawkwardphase]

What Lexi had was what some people might call a sundae. There was ice cream, and there were toppings. It was just that there were various kinds of ice cream and she'd asked for anything that looked good on top of it (the fact that they didn't have gummi bears was a real disappointment), and there was no way she was going to be able to finish it.

She'd put in the effort, though.

[throughaphase]

"That's a lot of ice cream," Kitty noted, just slightly worried that she was going to be dealing with a sick daughter later. "You're sure you want all that?"

[ahawkwardphase]

Lexi nodded, digging her spoon in. "Yep. All of it."

[throughaphase]

"We might have to go to the park later to burn off all this sugar," Kitty said. Because if she got the kid hopped up on sugar and she couldn't get to sleep, she was pretty sure she couldn't pass that off to Clint.

[ahawkwardphase]

"I'm good with that," Lexi decided, eyeing her mom's ice cream. "Do you want some of mine?"

Hers was a lot better than her mom's. She bet that was what this was all about.

[throughaphase]

"What kind did you get?" Kitty wondered. Maybe if she took some of it, Lexi would be less hyper later?

[ahawkwardphase]

"Bubble gum and chocolate and that green one and strawberry syrup," Lexi told her.

And she was learning that all those things didn't really go together.

[throughaphase]

That... sounded really gross, yeah.

"That sounds adventurous," she tried, and notice how Kitty wasn't digging in. "Do we let you do stuff like this at home?"

[ahawkwardphase]

"Dad does, but you're not s'posed to know about it," Lexi said, and then bit her lip because oops.

[throughaphase]

That was just as weird as hearing herself referred to as "your mom."

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that, how about that?" Kitty said, since it wasn't like it was her reality or anything. "Do you get to do that a lot?"

[ahawkwardphase]

"Sometimes, when you're not home. You're a better cook," Lexi nodded.

She'd moved on to just picking the toppings off her ice cream by now.

[throughaphase]

"You do know I made pancakes from a jug yesterday, right?" Kitty checked.

[ahawkwardphase]

"You can still eat those. And you know how to make vegetables that aren't squishy and gross," Lexi said.

[throughaphase]

"This is true," Kitty said, and smiled. "My kid eats vegetables? I knew you were cool."

Check out the positive reinforcement going on here.

[ahawkwardphase]

"Only 'cause I have to, so I can get big enough to be a superhero. I'm going to be old enough soon," Lexi said with a nod.

[throughaphase]

"Before you even know it." Especially considering how early Kitty herself had started. "You know, there's a lot of other things you can be besides a superhero, too."

Because ugh, all the worries.

[ahawkwardphase]

"You sound like Dad," Lexi warned. "I don't want to be bored! I want to help people and fight bad guys."

[throughaphase]

It made Kitty so happy to know Clint was with her on that, even if she probably should have guessed that.

"Non-superhero jobs aren't boring," Kitty told her. "And you can help people in other ways, like being a doctor or a teacher..."

She was definitely not suggesting anything that potentially ever got Lexi shot out, put her in the middle of fighting fires, or shot her out into space. And with that, Kitty realized maybe she was more protective than she thought.

[ahawkwardphase]

"If I was a teacher, I'd have to go to school forever," Lexi said, like that was a death sentence, before looking thoughtful for a moment. "Could I be a puppy doctor? Not a doctor for all animals, 'cause some of them are gross. Just puppies."

[throughaphase]

"You can definitely be a puppy doctor," Kitty told her, so okay with that career path. "That means you can be a hero for dogs like Lucky." Only smaller.

[ahawkwardphase]

Lexi considered that for a moment. "I guess that would be okay. I'd be like a hero for puppies. Would you and Dad be proud of me?"

[throughaphase]

Ow, ovaries, owww.

"Sweetie, we're going to be proud of you no matter what you do," Kitty told her. "Promise."

[ahawkwardphase]

"Okay," Lexi said, around a mouthful of sundae toppings. "But I still want to be a superhero if no one needs a doctor."

[throughaphase]

Kitty smiled, finally digging her spoon into a little bit of Lexi's ice cream that wasn't grossly tainted by syrup. "Tell you what. If no one needs a doctor, you have my okay to be a superhero," she said. "You still need to eat your vegetables, though."

[ahawkwardphase]

"Awww, you're mean," Lexi said with a weetiny pout.

[throughaphase]

"No, I'd be mean if I made your dad make the vegetables all the time and didn't let you have ice cream ever," Kitty pointed out. "See, I'm still awesome."

[ahawkwardphase]

Lexi giggled at that. "You are awesome, Mom. Thank you for all the ice cream." Even if the combination was not so great.

[throughaphase]

It'd be wrong to keep her, right? Clint would probably mind? There'd have to be a Conversation, probably.

"You're welcome. And thank you for being awesome right back," Kitty said, pushing her ice cream more to the center of the table so Lexi could get some that was unruined. She could deal with a little bit of hyperactivity.