The Lovely, the Dark, and the Deep [Cheesi]

[Lion]

The greeting just made Theo smile, that he was heard and responded to. He leaned his head against hers after she had done so and he sighed softly, enjoying the feel of her breath, the pulse of that strong heart to course blood through that equally strong body. She was a pillar for sure, an example of the strength of all Pilots and their invulnerability. Theo might never grace the covers of anything that wasn't “SCIENCE! NOW!” magazine, but he'd sure as shit seen her in everything from paparazzi magazines to fashion blogs, and new training tech for Pilots in Travica.

And she had fascinated him every time. Theo was a fan and sure he'd gotten initially starry-eyed, in a moment like this however, he wasn't bogged down by any illusion as to who Andromeda was on those covers. He didn't care for any of that nonsense. He had Andromeda here in his arms, and what other man could ask for more than that? Other than the usual but they did that already.

His eyes squinted as they tried to meet hers, but she kept her gaze at bay, refusing contact and he leaned in close to kiss her forehead.  Something was kind of wrong here. Different than the soft kiss she'd given him before.

“Hey,” he whispered to her and tilted his head to bury her face against his chest. “Are you ok?” Typical words to say when someone was about to cry, or so it felt. She was holding on to something. What it was he couldn't tell, but his instincts told him to just hug her close. His hand fell to her back and he gently rubbed it. “Hey now, what's the matter?”

[Cheesigator]

It wasn't as if Theo was stupid, and for a good few moments she wasn't sure why she thought he might be. Why she thought he might not notice her sucking in a breath, tense as she curled up with him and just tried to bury herself in his arms. Almost like she hoped if she tangled herself within him enough she might just melt away and cease to exist, and that thought honestly felt very comfortable right now.

But Theo wasn't stupid, and he did notice her on the verge of tears. He hugged her tighter and his voice became softer, comforting. She wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but something in her responded and she had to choke back the urge to sob, tears streaking down her face despite that. What the fuck was he doing to her?

“Nn,” She pursed her lips, taking in a deep breath through her nose as she tried to force herself to calm down. “Nothing. It's nothing.”

She didn't fight it when he tucked her head in against his chest, but aside from that she was clueless on what else to do. She'd never been a snuggler, so she just let her arm drape over his midsection, still hugging him close.

[Lion]

The gesture of that hug was genuinely unexpected and it wasn't at all lost on him. Theo wasn't that stupid, when it counted for something important. No other flippant booty calls or love affairs had happened where someone started crying because the fucking was just that bad. Although if it was he'd figured there'd be fewer tears and more “Haha. That was awful. Ain't ever happening again punk.” Followed by a quick stomp off the premises.

But when Andy did it, he didn’t ignore it as he might have been wont to do. Theo let her cuddle into his chest, the warmth of the moment they shared and the soft thudding of his heart against his ribcage was nice. It was nice feeling held and pressed against, even if it was by a stranger that just wanted his dick.

Theo shifted so that the pillow propped his head up so that he could look more at her, shifting his head to continue to brush her hair back. “You sure? It doesn’t seem like nothing,” he muttered. But he didn’t press it anymore. Just let his thumb roll around the corner of her eyelid and brush away some building moisture.

He closed his eyes and breathed gently. “It’s kinda nice. Having you stay,” he mumbled. Not sure if he should say something or if keeping his mouth shut would have been better. Either way his tongue waggled regardless and he just kept gently stroking her face.

[Cheesigator]

He asked again if she was okay; he really wasn't stupid, not like a lot of other guys. She didn't know how to react to this, to whatever he was doing to her. Holding her close, touching her softly, speaking so gently. It called to something deep within her that found it soothing and it threatened to pick at and tug down the walls she'd built up, and that thought terrified her and put her on edge, in the back of her mind.

She didn't know how to respond when he caught those tears and wiped them away, but when he said what he did next she finally met his gaze again. She stared at the man like he'd suddenly grown a second head, clearly thrown off guard and confused and unsure if she should be upset or.. Or..

“Nice??” She echoed, quickly wiping the other tear away as she looked away, brows furrowed as her brain struggled to process what she'd just heard.

She'd never been told that; nobody enjoyed her company, and that was the way she preferred it. Even if deep down maybe she wanted to make others happy, herself came first and everyone else could fuck off--and they always did. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am, see you never again.

But neither of them had left yet, in fact he was holding her so tenderly, like the way you did with a lover in a film or something. Oh--oh. That was it, that was his schtick. A good way to get people coming back for sure if you treated them special every time.

As she came to that conclusion she visually relaxed a bit, shoulders losing their tension and the alarm fading from her eyes as her brows eased and she rolled her gaze.

“You must be crazy, do you even know who I am?” As if that kind of thing was going to work on her--and yet, she knew somehow that it kind of was.

Maybe for just tonight it wouldn't hurt so bad to just pretend.

[Lion]

Did he know who she was? Did she know who he was? Apparently having very important parents disown you really did make you a nobody and he was genuinely 100% bonafide ok with that. Her question, however, made his eyebrows raise high on his forehead and he snickered.

“Do you know who you are?” he countered, although he knew it was clearly a stupid question. “I’m the guy that lucked out here. Now, if only I could think of some stupid cheesy line to ruin everything here. Maybe that did the trick. I dunno, the buzz is kinda wearing off, but I’m ok with that.”

Man did he know how to ramble when he was half dazed, half tired, half-horny, half satisfied, and fully - thoroughly even - enjoying the company of another. He really didn’t want it to be over and maybe some small part of him was hoping that if he kept talking long enough it wouldn’t. Then he’d be back to dealing with the knowledge that his little sister was getting hitched against her will, that the Colonel was intent on repeating history, and that the despair he’d hoped to keep at bay in his eyes would become apparent to Andromeda.

“Yeah I know who you are,” he answered. Theo shifted his form so that he was flat on his back again and shoved her fat purple head onto his shoulder, into the crook of it so he could look at her better. “Your thick thighed Andy, and a great lay, and a badass Pilot, and you’re probably thinking that you just want me to shut the fuck up. And you’d be right. But I keep talking because maybe I’ll be able to charm the panties off you again or whatever.”

His hand laid lazily on her side and he gently fingered where her panties had otherwise been. “Oh, would you look at that, gone. Huh,” he muttered, snorting a bit from the foolishness he’d been entertaining. “I guess the real truth is, I must be absolutely crazy. Because I just like you. I’m having fun. Are you having fun?”

It was an honest assessment, and nothing in his eyes betrayed feelings of an untruth. There as mirth in the orange of them, and in his goofy grin. Which he thought at this moment was dead sexy, but he probably just looked like he’d taken too many painkillers and looked like he had a lazy eye.

[Cheesigator]

"I'm having fun. Are you having fun?"

She'd been content to brush off his ramblings as him being tired and kinda buzzed, would've ignored it and just rolled over to sleep, but something about the way he said that, the way he tried to smugly grin at her, struck a chord in her that hadn't been plucked at in a really, really long time.


"You're having fun, you're enjoying this! Stop lying, you bitch!"

Suddenly the feeling of Theo underneath her head felt like the weight of the hand holding her down as her screams were muffled. She felt the raw red marks on her throat, the pressure behind her back of a looming presence.

At some point she'd sat up, putting a hand over her face as she tried to pull herself back out of it. Sometimes alcohol helped, sometimes it made it worse. This was the latter; the clenching feeling twisting in her stomach and chest as she remembered something breaking in her in Candyland as she held a man's head down on the floor, other on his neck as she rode him and she felt the sense of power that she'd lost just months before. Felt the satisfaction of her fingertips raking down his skin and leaving raw, bloody marks.

She hadn't cared if he liked it or not, even though it turned out later he did. Was that wrong of her? Was it justified?

What was she fucking doing?

As the thoughts started seeping into her mind one after another, over and over, she remembered nearly every person she'd shared a bed with, even now, how none of them cared about each other. Not them for her, or her for them. What was her goal here?

The air in the room was starting to get noticeably hotter, all things metal starting to glow red and change their shape, the color of any remaining light from electronic fixtures twisting and changing in luminosity, emitting strange smells as the atoms within were mixed and tampered with.

It was the barest whiff of the scent that snapped her out of it, as she realized what she was doing. In a moment it stopped, the metal fixtures sizzling as the molecules stopped moving and they cooled off. She got up from the bed, snatching her clothes from the air with her telekinesis and throwing them on.

This had to stop.
She had to stop fucking doing this.
She just wished she could fucking figure out how!

As she was pulling her shirt down over her head she remembered that Theo had asked her a question and she turned to look at him over her shoulder; there was something strange in her eyes.

"No, not really."

She didn't wait for his response, turned to the door and left, letting it slam shut behind her.

[Lion]

Well that wasn’t at all what he’d planned. Not that he had any plans, but if he did, it definitely wasn’t any of -- whatever the hell that was. She up and left so fast, she made him practically dizzy. Theo blinked and when the residual dust of her exit fell to the ground, he sat up in bed and rubbed his face.

“Well ok then,” he muttered to himself. “She’s crazy.”  He shrugged it off, not taking it personally because nothing he had done had been particularly wrong. He’d been on plenty of dates and outings and getwhathaveyous to know when he dun fucked up. That was, not one of them.

In any event, it’d be another few weeks before he decided to hit up Travica again. Work kept him busy, and Travica was far. When he got leave, it was usually his favorite place to go, and seeing his mom and hanging out made the tiring journey all that much more worth it.

And what better mother and some time was there than walking around a mall complex trying to find something nice for her. That he was paying for of course. And of course nothing he’d picked out for so far was to her liking, and it was walking around for the last 3 hours that was starting to grate on his nerves. He loved his mom, he really did, no one else in the world he had left really other than his sister. But even that was on a contingency plan.

“We’ve been to 5 stores already,” he whined, trying not to sound petulant, but the evidence was painfully obvious to her.

“What, you don’t like spending time with your mother?” she countered.

“Ma, don’t even go there, you asshat,” he snorted. “But we’ve been shopping for literally hours. Scoured this mall, and you’ve already made your steps for the day twice over. And yet we have like 2 shopping bags. A sweater for your cat. And like a pair of boots for me.”

“Pfft. Watch your mouth, Theodoryk. I’ll still swat you. Calm yourself, boy. Or I definitely will.” She fixed her hair with one stray hand and cleaned her eyebrows with the other. He was busy carrying the bags of course. “The point of this, is to spend time with your mother. Just in case you forgot. And I’m having a great time. Look, there’s a Go-Go Starship game, like you used to play when you were a kid. Wanna have a go?”

“Noooo,” he wailed overdramatically. Although he eyed the small game machine and the space ship that was occupied by small children. “Ok, maybe just one game.”

“That’s my boy,” she laughed and shoved him off toward the game. “Then, we’ll worry about buying me something.”

[Cheesigator]

If there was one thing Andromeda was good at, it was ignoring the real problems she had to face within herself to focus on something else and excel at that instead. It was much harder for her to admit to herself that she wasn’t perfect like she wanted so desperately to be, or at least to seem to be, than it was to pour her all into other activities and keep up that reputation she had. Easier to be a perfect Pilot, and a gigantic asshole, than it was to work on herself.

And so when she got home she downed some more booze and went straight to bed.

But life had other plans--she couldn’t run and hide from herself forever.

Today she was a rare sight in one of the Travican mega malls, a main feature of a new collection opening in a store featuring a designer collaboration that she’d been the main model for a few months back. The press was eating it up and the mall was swarming; she was also good at looking gorgeous in just about anything you put her in, but for the event the designers had determined she needed to wear something as flashy as her public persona.

So she found herself at the store entrance, talking with VIP customers, signing autographs and taking photos, shockingly well-behaved and good at putting on an amicable face for the crowds. She was decked out in the most expensive evening gown from the collection, which she’d also received as a gift--an open shoulder with a steep v-neck that ended just below her navel. The bodice was decorated in glittering iridescent Swarovski crystals, shimmering brightly as she turned under the light and standing out in the stark contrast of the deep royal blue sateen fabric. It was a closely fitted number that flared out in a mermaid-style skirt at her knees, ending just shy of her ankles to show her strappy high heels, also adorned in crystals, and also a part of the collection.

Inside she hated how restricted her movement was in this dress, but she knew she looked damn good in it at least. The layered crystal necklace that laid over her collarbone and breastbone felt cold and heavy in the air conditioning, and the heels were already starting to hurt. She’d much rather be at home, but she put on that gorgeous smoldering smirk that she’d always been so good at in every photo, despising every time someone felt bold enough to put their hands on her shoulders, back or around her waist for the time it took to take a selfie.

After a few hours of that she was given the go-ahead to take some time to leave the event which she was glad of, but as she slipped out through an employee exit into the main part of the mall she paused, realizing it’d been a long time since she’d last been in here. Even though wandering alone was dangerous (in the sense of being swarmed by fans, anyways) she found it worth it to go explore and see what had changed in the last few years.

Naturally there was a lot--stores had come and gone, and there were new stalls selling wares, new restaurants to try, new attractions for the kids. But the arcade area was still there, which she vaguely remembered one time beating her brothers in some scifi games one time when they’d come here under the nervous watch of several nannies. As she slowly approached (often stopped by excited civilians for sometimes up to ten minutes at a time) she blinked when she thought she recognized someone on one of the games--and found herself staring when she realized it was Theo, her most recent lay. Oh, gods.

What the fuck was she doing?

[Lion]

Go-Go Starship wasn’t just any arcade machine with a spaceship cockpit and a flight simulator screen. It was the ULTIMATE  IN COBRA STARKILLER ACTION GAMING, with ULTRA POWER THRUSTERS, PYRONIC MISSILES, PLASMA CANNONS, and ANTIMATTER HYPERBLASTERS! YEAH!

At a local arcade near you! AND ALSO AVAILABLE IN YOUR LOCAL STORE! GET YOURS TODAY!

Theo played that game relentlessly as a child. When he was casually avoiding the Colonel’s wrath, when he stayed up late at night trying to beat his high scores. He had been pretty sure he’d beat some kind of record too. And remembered the day quite vividly when he did, having stayed up almost 48 hours fighting waves upon waves of Cobra horde.

He was trying to save the Legion of course, and his was the only vessel equipped with the right antimatter blasters that could destroy the Queen Cobra. No on else could stand a chance and his entire squadron had been destroyed already, and it was up to him. But finally, after 7 packs of Fizzy Lifties, 3 extra cheesy pizzas, and firmly strict 30 second bathroom breaks, he did it. He beat the high score and then not long after the Colonel stomped in and smashed his computer with a club.

Theo pushed all these thoughts out of his mind as he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand. And after shoving off all those tiny kids and sitting in the cockpit with his knees up to his shoulders, his hand on the throttle and the attached metal headset indicating things onscreen and off.

“Look at you go, Theo. You’ve got three bogies hot on your starboard side,” his mom cheered on next to him.

“Roger, Red Pigeon,” he quipped and righted the stick until he could swerve and avoid them.

“You still got it.”

“Damn right I do.”

He was quiet in his concentration, until someone was leering in the window at him (the game was situated close to it and he felt his mom’s hand jabbing into his shoulder. “Theo. Isn’t that Andromeda Messiere?” she asked, and gestured her head to her.

He stared back for a moment, eyes taking her in in that glittering gown and strapped heels and he grinned before hearing his ship explode in game. Ah well, that was a good run anyway. “HI!” and waved his hand like a nerd.  A blushing nerd? No, Theo didn’t blush. But he was definitely happy to see her again.

And waved her inside.

[Cheesigator]

What… Was he doing?

Andromeda stared with eyebrows furrowed, clearly not amused as she saw he was playing the starship game with an older woman there inside with him. It was her who got his attention, and then he sat there waving at her like a fool.

Her first reaction was to roll her eyes and walk away, the last thing she needed was bad publicity of her doing weird things like hanging out in childrens’ arcades or something, how strange would that be? As if it wasn’t hard enough for PR to keep her out of trouble based on her abhorrent personality alone; the more she stirred up the angrier the manager always got.

But she thought she heard some kids squealing her name some helluva distance away, so before she was spotted she quickly ducked inside.

Totally not because she wasn’t secretly itching to talk to someone like normal for five seconds or anything. Put away the nice face.

“Oi, what do you think you’re doing? If PR catches you they’ll--” She blinked as it occurred to her why it probably didn’t matter to Theo and crossed her arms over her chest. “Ah, nevermind. Nobody really knows you exist so I suppose it doesn’t matter much.”

She glanced at the screen, seeing how long he’d lasted and scoffing. “And yet you suck at this game. Were you even trying?”

She glanced over at the older woman though, eyes narrowed as she assessed her thoroughly. They looked somewhat similar, and judging by her age…

“Is this your mother?”

[Lion]

Theo stopped caring that he died. Even if this current game wasn’t his best score. Nothing would beat that time as a kid, but seeing Andy like that in that dress was a close damn second. He admired her for a moment, and blinked when someone asked him a question. Oh that’s right her mouth was moving, as it usually does.

He blinked again. “Oh wow, something crazy actually didn’t come out of it,” he said, genuinely shocked. “But yeah, this is my mom Amitra. Amitra, this is --”

“Pilot Noble Andromeda Messiere,” she finished and reached out to take Andy’s hand even if she didn’t offer it. She shook it delicately before letting it go and putting her arm around Theo’s shoulders. “Theo you didn’t tell me you were friends with a famous Pilot.”

“Mom, I’m a Pilot.”

“But you’re not a Titan.”

“Pfft, rude,” he rolled his eyes and got off the starship machine. “But yeah I know Andy. We hung out a while back.” Hung out was a better way to put it than drunkenly boned. He didn’t want to know about his mother’s sex life and she didn’t need to know about his.

“You’re even prettier in person,” Amitra glowed and beamed before looking back to her son. “How did you guys meet? I guess Pilots just all know each other. Theo lives very far away though. Comes to visit me on the weekends.”

[Lion]

.

[Cheesigator]

Andy studied his mom for a moment, ignoring Theo’s obvious staring because she was very used to the staring whenever PR put her in something sexy. What could she say, she had great tits.

“Amitra,” She mimicked, shaking the woman’s hand with a grip that was firm yet soft--the strong iron handshakes were reserved for other Pilots and assholes. “Pretty name.”

The banter between mother and son was arguably cute, though she’d never be caught dead using that word out loud. She stepped back enough to let Theo stand up, and while her initial reactions were wont to be a snarky bitch, the voice of the Titan’s PR agent was ringing in her head, practically telling her to play nice with the mother of another Pilot whether she wanted to or not.

So she gave Amitra a cordial smile, bowing her head slightly in humble acknowledgement of the compliment. “It takes pretty to know pretty.”

Her seafoam green gaze flicked between Theo and his mom, unsure if she should trust him not to run his stupid mouth even to his own mother.

“At the pool,” She supplied with a soft shrug. “Decided to have drinks after, it was a while ago though. He seems tolerable enough I suppose. And a very good son to visit his mom, far more loyal to family than I can be bothered with.”

[Lion]

He was pretty sure she was going to just run her mouth and sprout whatever nonsense amused her or would make him out to be a douchebag to his own mother. She was Andromeda Messiere and he wouldn’t really expect anything less of her, to be honest. And yet…

She surprised him. He watched her steadily and her factual response took him back. There was an edge of truth to it without it being the whole truth and that was both surprising and pleasing. Fuck, he was actually smiling, he couldn’t help himself!

“What can I say, guilt tripping is her psychic power,” he shrugged and put an arm around his mom to hug her. “But she’s the sweetest.”  He leaned in and kissed her cheek really hard, smudging her foundation until it was on the side of his cheek. He snorted when she pulled away and momentarily glowered at him.

“He’s all excited from playing GoGo Starship, it makes him overly affectionate,” she laughed and reached up to return the humiliation by squishing his cheeks together and mushing them like the mom she was. “Lookit this face!”

“MOM!” he grumbled and pulled away.

“See that, so grumpy. It’s like I don’t even exist to him.”

“M o m,” he grumbled again. “Don’t even go there.”

“Anyway, say Miss Messiere, shall we go and get a drink, standing here isn’t doing us any good? Watch my bags, would you, Theo? I know a great martini place just around the corner from here.”  And she dawdled off with Andromeda whether she said yes or no.

And Theo was left with the shopping bags in tow.

[Cheesigator]

There was a moment where Theo smooched his mother on the cheek and there was a playful moment between the two where Andy felt something pang in her chest.

It was jealousy. She'd never met her mother and her dad had always treated her like an object, unlike her brothers who got anything and everything they could have ever wanted. She knew nothing about her mother; only the one crinkled photo she'd found in her father's office one day and scurried away with, a photo of him standing next to a tall vixen with enough of Andy's own facial features to recognize her as likely her mom. She didn't look like mother material, with the seductive smirk she wore in the photo and her hand lingering on her father's chest, layered black hair making her look like a wild lion. Probably why she left.

Andy stared at the two of them for a moment, unsure if what they were doing was a societal norm or not, since she knew nothing of how adults should act with their mothers in public, and thus had no idea how to react other than stand there with a fake and polite smile.

She arched an eyebrow, finding their antics mildly amusing, and when Amitra invited her for drinks she could have sworn she felt her muscles sag inside of her with the wave of relief that followed. Her feet were killing her and sitting down in a bar away from small children sounded like paradise.

"Oh, certainly! Nice of you to offer, I could definitely use some drinks. So have you always been here in Travica?" She asked, following the woman's lead and letting Theo trail behind them as the two walked side by side to Amitra's bar of choice.

[Lion]

It was partly awkward to be hanging out with his mother and the actual living version of his once boyhood crush. Theo tried to spend as much time with Amitra as he could and work and commute took a lot of that quality time away from him. That said, he didn’t mind at all when this stranger just came in with her glitzy high heels and swept his mom away from him.

HOly shit she was hot.

It was fine letting him walk behind the lot of them because it gave him some quality time to admire Andy’s ass in that dress. It cupped it the curvatures of it and he found him staring away longer than he intended until they were lead off by Amitra in another direction.

“This is my favorite font of worship,” she announced. “All my friends are here.” She walked in like she owned the place and casually removed her coat as they walked in through the dim lighting of Lulu’s Lounge. “Zack Nathaniels, Captain Zorgan’s, and a perfect chardonnay.” She hummed and greeted the bartender who welcomed her by name. The hostess showed them to an available seat and offered to take her coat.

Amitra settled into the chair at a smaller table just as a server came by to take their drink orders. Theo pulled out a chair from another table to sit with them.

Amitra settled in and observed the menu momentarily and hummed softly. “Hmmm, I’d like a nice crisp riesling if you have one, dear, thank you.”

Theo just ordered a glass of rum and a cola and then looked between Andy and his mom again. “Make that 2 shots.”

[Cheesigator]

You could say Andy remained blissfully unaware of the grown man drooling over her ass behind her, but really it didn’t matter one way or another because she was used to it--and besides, he wasn’t the only one looking.

She completely ignored the hungry gazes of passerby as they ogled her in that dress and those heels, with her hair and makeup done to be immaculate. She was more focused on the conversation with Amitra; drawn to her like a moth to a flame, she found herself mesmerized by how friendly, warm and outgoing the woman seemed to be outright.

Andy never knew her own mom, and she sure as shit hadn’t met anybody else’s ever before. The closest she’d ever gotten were the maids in the house as a kid, but none of them dared get close to troublemaking Andy for fear of what deep shit they could be roped into if they did.

She found herself smiling softly as the two of them chatted, and she felt her stress and irritation from earlier melting away as they sat at a table in Lulu’s. Amitra had a certain zing and spark to her personality that Andy found fascinating, and she almost forgot to order her drink when the waiter turned to look at her expectantly.

“Lemon drop with extra shots, I want it to burn.”

For now it was like Theo was all but completely forgotten where he sat as Andy immediately turned back to Amitra, curious to learn more about her but not exactly sure which questions to ask. What do you talk about with someone else’s mother?

“Are you still working?” She asked curiously, crossing her legs at the knee as she rested her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand.

[Lion]

Theo was content to be forgotten for now, but he was forced to watch this interaction between Amitra and Andy as if he was watching a really long movie where he knew the ending a mile away and was strapped to the chair he was currently sitting in. Of course the reality was much nicer, he could have left the situation at any time but like hell was he going to just walk away from hanging out with his mom just because Andy was there.

He got to see her maybe once a week if he was lucky. But it was extremely grim reality that held him back: That his mom, his favorite person in the whole wide world, was going to become friends with his boyhood crush, who likely found him to be the cringiest person in the world.

He knocked back the rum and cola way quicker than he wanted and immediately ordered another one, along with a big greasy sandwich to follow. He was here, and this conversation didn’t involve him, he might as well chow down and get comfortable.

“Oh heavens no,” Amitra laughed at Andy’s question. “I’m divorced, retired, and a freeloading ice cold bitch when I please. I have investments that keep me happy, and I get alimony from my garbage ex-husband. So I am very comfortable in the finances department. I donate a good deal of my time and money to organizations I’ve thoroughly checked through. Some of them for animal shelters, and one of them is a creative arts group for children.”

She smiled at Andy and sipped her wine. “I’ve been behind on the Titans’ activities of late. Everything is quiet on the dome-front, right? Your life must be very exciting.”

And Theo was still invisible. He loudly crunched on his turkey bacon cheeseburger and slurped on his drink with a bendy straw.

[Cheesigator]

Andy sipped at her drink, pleased with the amount of vodka burning her esophagus, and tilted her head curiously as Amitra responded.

Garbage ex-husband?

She finally glanced at Theo and acknowledged his presence, assuming that that garbage ex-husband was probably his dad.

Andy didn’t know much about love but she did know shitty dads. She knew those very, very well.

She looked back to Amitra, wondering what a creative arts group for children even was. Painting class? Maybe? She’d never really been tapped for family-friendly PR, and her childhood never included anything fun and extracurricular like that might’ve been.

When Amitra asked about the Titans, Andy set her martini glass down and shrugged. Things were the same as always there; her squadmates hated her and the only one who tolerated her was the Commander, and even then it was with the level of tolerance of an alcoholic forced to babysit his wive’s friend’s kids for the weekend.

“Oh, terribly exciting.” She rumbled. “It’s mostly just routines right now, and PR events. I’m afraid I’m not allowed to talk much about it though, confidential info and all that. But I can assure you the dome is safe.”

Part of her itched to talk about the scathing looks she got every time she climbed out of her mecha, the level of distrust and irritation she could feel coming off of her squadmates in waves every time they sat in a meeting together. Truth be told if it weren’t for her abilities as a Pilot and how exceptionally skilled she was as a fighter they probably would’ve tried to remove her from the Titans a long time ago.

It didn’t matter, none of them mattered. She just wanted to watch the world burn either way.

The larger part of her didn’t want to talk about herself much though, so she instead turned the conversation back to Amitra.

“So what exactly is that creative kids thing you mentioned? I’m not really put with kids much for events.”

[Lion]

Theo was partly listening. He was busy balancing his straw on his lips and leaning against the back of his chair. Truth be told he was bored out of his mind and would have gone anywhere but here if it weren't for his mama. Still it was nice not having to entertain. He could just be a fly on the wall and in that way he could be present without having to commit too much of himself to the moment.

So he remained quite juvenile in his straw balancing, content to look bored as his mother and Andy carried on.

Except when Andy asked about her program.

"Its a music program," he answered. "For kids who don't have access to that kinda stuff and wanna mess around with it."

It was an offshoot answer and Amitra rolled her eyes at her son. "Yes, he's got some of it right. Music is what I've thought to focus on right now. We rotate out different arts and trades that the kids might be interested in. So right now kids can pick an instrument to learn and we pair them up with an instructor to teach them. And then they get together to practice in group sessions. It's very exciting seeing them blossom. The instruments and tools of course are free for them to use. I tried to get Theo here to play something, but it never did stick."

"That isn't true. I'm an excellent kazoo player," he said defensively. "You just never asked me to play for you."

"Then you can play for me when we get home."

He pursed his lips, balancing the straw still. "Alas, I don't have my kazoo with me."

Amitra sighed and looked back to Andy. "I guess we're going to get a kazoo before we head back."