Super: Origins (44 page)

“Ron, these are my co-workers. This is Lex, Casey, and Riss. Please say hello to them.”

He looked up a little dubiously, especially when he had to tip his head back to see Casey's face, but he stepped forward and bowed to each of them, then managed a quiet, “Hello.”

Casey laughed and knelt in front of him. “Lily, he's adorable,” she said, and then to Ron, “Hey, Ron, I'm Casey. Why don't you come in here and we can get you some cookies?”

Lily frowned as Casey drew Ron off into the front room. “Not too many sweets,” she called after them. Lex smiled a moment later as she heard Ron's exclamation once he saw the decorated tree and table full of baked goods.

“How about some tea or coffee?” Lex asked as the other four stepped into the kitchen.

Riss and Lily poured themselves coffee before moving into the common room, while Lex and Mr. Chen waited, Lex leaning on the kitchen counter, while water heated for tea. After asking how his family celebrations had gone, Lex looked straight at her teacher for a moment.

“Mr. Chen, thanks for coming out. I hope this didn't take time away from your family, but I'm really glad you could make it,” Lex said quietly, stumbling slightly over her words due to sudden shyness.

“I'm glad we could come,” he replied, carefully watching the tea kettle on the stove. “The rest of my family gets tired early, anyway.”

Lex smiled to herself as she got the cups ready for the tea. When they emerged into the other room a few minutes later, they both smiled at the chaos of Casey and Ron playing on the floor, examining all the presents under the tree. Lily and Riss had perched on a couch nearby, watching the other two. Lily talked in low tones about how the day had gone so far while Riss nodded in response.

Casey started serving up dessert once they'd all arrived, insisting that everyone had to at least try something. Lex decided to have a little piece of everything, and found the chocolate cake rich and decadent, the apple pie sweet with just the right bite of cinnamon, and the pumpkin pie mildly sweet with a rich custard. Ron wanted to do the same thing, but Lily insisted that he choose one thing that he wanted, so he had a piece of pumpkin pie instead, declaring it to be his favorite. Since he and Casey still sat together on the floor, when his mom wasn't looking, Casey sneaked him bites of her piece of chocolate cake, much to his pleasure. About halfway through dessert, Lex heard a small noise in the front hall, and looked up to see Serena standing by the kitchen door, a look of surprise on her face, as well as the tracks of tears. A split second later, the apparition had disappeared.

Feeling a shiver run down her spine as she wondered what had gone wrong, Lex got up and leaned down to whisper into Casey's ear. “Can you wait to open presents until I get back?”

Casey nodded, giving Lex a serious look as she ruffled Ron's hair. “Don't worry, we'll keep ourselves entertained until then,” she muttered.

“Excuse me for a few minutes,” Lex said to the room at large. “I'll be right back.”

She cut a large piece of cake and then went to the kitchen to quickly make some tea, glad that the water had retained some heat. Once done, she put everything on a tray and hurried upstairs. When she got to Serena's room, she knocked but heard nothing.

“Serena,” Lex called out, “I'm coming in.”

She had to adjust her eyes a bit as she did, since the only illumination in the room came from a small lamp on the bedside table, but eventually she could see Serena sitting at the vanity table crying. Lex swallowed against a lump in her own throat and brought the tray over, leaving the tea and cake in front of Serena.

“My beautiful girl, what's wrong?” Lex asked, putting down the tray and picking up a hairbrush.

Lex took the hair sticks out of the long hair in front of her, bringing Serena's askew hairstyle completely down and then began brushing her hair out. At first, Serena just kept silently crying, looking into the mirror, but after a while she closed her eyes and leaned her head back, relaxing her shoulders against Lex.

“My parents want me to marry this dork of a distant cousin who's been kissing my father's ass for the past few years and following him around. They say they want him to run the company when my dad retires in a few years and they only want someone 'with the family name' to run the business. I told him they should just have him change his name, but they said some dumb shit about how someone closely related should be running it, even if it's just by marriage. I'm not marrying him. I don't–” Serena broke off and paused for a few moments, looking alarmed, and then sighed, her shoulders drooping. “I don't care if they disown me, I'm not marrying the guy.”

Lex thought for a few moments, switching to a comb to smooth out a small section of Serena's hair so she could braid it. “Did they ever talk to you about running the company?”

Serena snorted. “I don't think so. They never said anything that I can remember. I figure I'm just an embarrassment to them, why would they want me running my family's business?” She paused for a few seconds then, obviously sorting through some old memories. “But now I'm wondering if maybe they did eventually want me to take over. It wasn’t ever anything they came right out and told me, though.”

Serena picked up the cake and took a small bite, then looked up at Lex in the mirror, all without moving her head. “What are you thinking about? I can see that something's is going on in that big brain of yours.”

Lex responded slowly, still mentally assessing the situation. “Serena, I know you're upset, but could you come downstairs for a while? There are some presents for you, and I know everyone would like to have you there. If you do, I promise I'll see if I can think of a good alternative to propose to your parents so that hopefully you won't have to make such a hard choice. Deal?”

Laughing and picking the cake up, Serena stood. “Deal. If you're on the case, I'm not worried. Let me change and I'll be right down.”

Lex went back downstairs, everyone's eyes on her as she took the final step into the common room. “Serena will be joining us in a little while to open presents. Should we try to figure out who each package belongs to so that we can just start unwrapping them once she gets here?”

By the time Serena joined them, Casey and Ron had divided most of the gifts into little piles for everyone, still laughing and giggling on the floor, playing around and examining all of the wrapped packages.

The two of them started the unwrapping pandemonium, Casey allowing Ron to open most of her presents, too. At one point, the little boy was excited enough about a gift to run over to his mom and show her. It was a set of the first few anime DVDs from one of Lex's favorite series, and Lex found herself looking at the floor in mild embarrassment.

“I didn't know if he was a fan, so I got a gift receipt so that you can switch up for other videos, if you want,” Lex said, finally pulling her eyes up to meet Lily's. The other woman was shaking her head a little.

“Yes, he's a fan, that's why he's so excited,” she explained as Ron ran over to hug “Auntie Lex.”

Casey's presents included two new dresses, one from Lex, a short, cornflower blue piece with a V-neck, but it appeared modest next to the one Serena picked out, a black latex dress cut low in front and back with a mid-thigh length and grommets and lacing running down one side to just below the hip instead of a regular seam. Looking at the dress, it seemed that was the only way to get into it. Serena cheered and raised her fist to the sky when Casey took it out of the box and looked at it somewhat dubiously.

“Finally, you'll have something other than jeans to wear when you go out with Lex and me! You should wear that when we go back to the Nest the next time. Vinnie asks me about you every time I go there now.”

Casey blushed, shaking her head with a snort of laughter as she bundled it back into the box before Ron could have a good look at the dress. She also thanked Riss profusely for her gift, a small collection of vegan cookbooks. Riss shrugged in response, saying, “Well, I've eaten enough of your cooking, I figured I should do something to help out other than prep work.”

Serena seemed happiest with Lex's gift, a certificate from a local adult toy and clothing store. “I figured you could find something you liked for the next time we go out,” Lex explained. “They came highly recommended by some friends of mine that like to wear leather, so I think you'll like whatever you get from them.” She also liked Casey's gift a lot: a pair of short engineer's boots. Serena immediately put them on, and Lex thought they looked amazingly good on her tiny feet.

Lily got a collection of small, expensive things: a black and gold silk scarf from Lex; some exclusive perfume Serena had picked out; a thin, exquisite metal watch with a second hand from Casey; and a GPS from Riss. When Lily looked at Riss in surprise at the last item, exclaiming that she'd wanted one, Riss just raised an eyebrow. “I heard,” she said, smiling a little.

Mr. Chen just gazed at the gifts he'd received from his students for a moment before looking up at them with a small smile to bow and thank them. Lex and Casey had gotten their heads together and had liked the idea of getting a really nice set of brushes and a paperweight for his calligraphy. They'd found the brushes easily enough, but had trouble finding a paperweight they both liked until Casey shopped in Chinatown one day and happened on a small shop where she found it. The weight had been carved from green stone and showed a curling, curving dragon spread out long with a good heft to it. Casey and Lex both grinned at each other excitedly when they saw his reaction.

Riss seemed quite taken by Lex's gift, a new, super thin laptop. “Most of the ones you have seem to be the old bulky kind,” Lex explained. “I thought you might like one of the newer models, with better specs than what you'd get off the shelf.” Riss finally turned her attention from it long enough to thank Lex, her fingers still on the keyboard, obviously wanting to investigate right away.

Lex realized, as everyone’s attention turned towards her, that she’d saved her own presents for last. She reached for the first one, then, as she glanced around at her friends before starting to unwrap it. Once done, she realized Casey had managed to get someone to make a whip, one made of what looked like braided metal. “You could ask Mr. Chen to help you learn how to use it, or I'm sure you could figure it out on your own,” Casey shrugged. “You don't seem too bad with flexible weapons, from what I've seen.

Serena had gotten her a black latex dress, fitted from shoulders to waist and with a square neckline and short sleeves, then a skirt that billowed out a little to fall to just above Lex's knees. She howled when Lex held it up to herself to see how it was going to fit, causing Lex to blush and pack it back into its box. Lily's gift was a large jar of salve that she'd made herself. She explained that if rubbed on sore muscles, it would speed up healing so that most of the damage could be taken care of during a normal night of rest. “Of course,” she added, looking obliquely in Mr. Chen's direction, “it helps if you're not overworked the next day, as well.” Her grandfather raised an eyebrow in response.

Riss had a ghost of a smile as Lex opened her gift, a set of strategy games purported to be able to learn and continue to get more complex as a person played them. “I also improved that crappy laptop they got you when you came here, so that you can actually use it to play these games,” Riss said with an approving nod. Lex smiled but raised an eyebrow in return, wondering when Riss had found the time to do that.

Mr. Chen had given Lex a book about continually improving your singing voice, but then he told her, “Actually, there's something else. Follow me.”

Lex trailed him down to the martial arts studio, where she noted a wooden practice dummy in the corner of the room, reflected infinitely in the mirrors on each wall. She thought she recognized the equipment, probably from a martial arts film she'd watched.

“You can use this to practice your sticking hands when I'm not here, if you don't have anyone else to practice with,” he said, with a nod.

Lex stepped up to the wooden dummy and ran through the first few exercises of sticking hands, a practice designed to tune you into the energy and movements of your opponent, while she swallowed against the sudden ache in her chest. She gave up a minute later, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands, and cleared her throat, trying to calm herself.

“Thanks Mr. Chen. Thanks for the gifts and for your kindness. You are the greatest teacher I've ever had.”

She had to stop, since her throat was closing and her tears were coming freely now. Lex had pulled a tissue from her pocket, trying to get it under control when she heard Mr. Chen's voice from behind her.

“The only way one can become a great teacher is to have a great student. I have as much to thank you for, Lex.”

The two of them walked silently back upstairs and rejoined the others, who'd been discussing their gifts, the holidays, and everyone's plans for the new year. After a few hours, the Chens had to leave, so Casey gave them all plates of cookies and she packed another piece of pumpkin pie for Ron to have later.

Lex sat back on the couch after they left, feeling relieved that she no longer had hostess duties. Riss and Casey both looked curiously at Serena, who studiously examined her gifts and pointedly looked no one in the eyes until Casey finally spoke out.

“OK, so what happened earlier?”

Serena looked up and sighed, appearing more annoyed than upset about the memory at that point. “My parents want me to marry this idiot who's been following my father around trying to be his business successor.”

Riss' eyebrows nearly met her hair, and Casey seemed taken aback, as well. Lex watched Casey try to put together a response, but Serena waved it away. “Don't worry about it. Lex offered to think of something else to propose to my parents, so I'm not worried,” Serena said, grinning at Lex. After a pause she continued, less enthusiastically. “Anyway, even if they don't go for whatever she comes up with, I'm not marrying him. They can disown me for all I care.”

She looked down for a long moment, then back up at the other women, who'd all fallen silent. “Hey,” Serena said, grinning now, “when I left, I was so pissed that I took their special bottle of cognac. They usually have one out for the holidays, and they hadn't even opened it yet. I think my dad once told me that each bottle costs 50 grand or something like that.”