randomplaces | Sal's Earth. Republic of Newfoundland. December 2020 pt 2

Vic looked around the new, larger living room, his mind going back to days when there had only been room for two couches, a couple chairs, and a little bs. He wasn't totally comfortable in this larger space yet, even though he'd helped to build the new house after Wolfen's little accident with the hot water heater had knocked the old one off its stilts.

Frowning and rumbling quietly, the big mutant sniffed, then felt himself relaxing. -Nah. Still smells the same. Cleaner, food, fishguts, 'n hooch.-

"Y'gonna take a load off, or y'gonna stand there 'n block the road?" the gruff female voice intruded on his musing, and he looked over a shoulder with a blankly quizzical look.

"'At don't work on me, 'n y'know it." Logan smirked at him, then got one bare foot up and booted him on the backside.

Vic grumbled and growled, but moved out of the way, only to perk and look down as he felt a tiny form tucked into the crook of one of his arms. Instantly, everything was fine.

"Good luck gettin' 'er back, b'y." Jav sniggered from where he was sprawled in one of the armchairs with a mug of coffee and Bailey's.

"The heck're you wearin'?" Logan continued on her way to the seating spot she wanted to inhabit, already munching from the heaping plate that she held easily in one hand.

Jav grinned broadly and straightened up a little to show her that the front of his red sweatshirt said, 'I tried to get into the holiday spirit, but I couldn't get the @#$% bottle open.'

"Cute." Her tone said it wasn't as she grunted and settled on her husband's lap. Hank put an arm around her, but never paused his discussion with Ramada of a DNA diagram that one of them had drawn on a reindeer napkin.

Vic ignored them all as he smiled down at the tiny, dark-haired girl that he was now holding. "Hey, half pint."

"Unca Vic." Rose smiled back broadly, showing her lack of teeth and some dimples that would have the boys swooning someday. "Me hep you eat?"

Vic assessed the contents of his own heaping platter, then nodded. "Yeah. Think I got some stuff here y'kin taste." He walked over to the nearest couch and set the platter on the coffee table by a couple bottles and some empty cups and glasses, then pushed Lou's feet up and sat in the new empty space. The former Commando never even twitched or lightened his log impersonation.

"Is he still breathing?" Rob looked over from playing 'Life' with Ree and Sadri.

"Yeah. He's just tired." Vinny, or 2-4, leaned back in the sling chair, then yelped softly as he somehow managed to nearly tip himself out of it. Again.

Vic sniggered quietly and gave Rose a dab of maple bacon frosting on the end of a teaspoon, his mind absently going to his wife as looking at Ree reminded him of Trace. He loved that woman, but her tendency to dye her hair unnatural colours was vaguely alarming. Especially this neon pink she'd succeeded in doing this last time. He was going to have to do something about it, because looking at your wife wasn't supposed to hurt. He just had to get her somewhere out of Jeimu's immediate thing throwing range first.

"Where'd Sal go?" Thrit sat up and looked away from the documentary he'd been glued to on a tablet that sat in front of the couch he, Niner, Falen, Not-Atin, Zach, Ben, and Rhea were sitting on.

"What? The @#$% kinda question's that?" Leeroy scowled at his brother from where he was being a pillow for a sleeping Sam. "Ye was after sayin' 'bye t 'er when she 'n Marda 'n Darman 'n them went shoppin'."

Thrit blinked at him, then looked into his Santa Clause mug. "Alright. Who slipped me a roofie?"

"Slipped you... Hey, that's mine!" Niner snagged the mug back and downed the contents in one pull, other hand out to fend off any attempts to reacquire the drink.

Thrit didn't try, he was distracted by the screen again as the narrator talked about baby auks leaping off ledges into the sea many metres below.

Vic snerked, then looked over his shoulder to where Kurt was up on the corner of the kitchen island, busily mixing something in a punch bowl and chatting with Corr, finding the clone a lot less grating on his instinct now that the metal prosthetics had been replaced with some complex and lifelike looking ones. Vic was glad that Jabez's husband could feel things again nearly like he had with his first hands, but still thought it wasn't fair that Corr had gotten a Christmas gift early while Vic himself had to wait for all his.

"More?" asked Rose hopefully, and Vic looked down at her.

"How come yer still up when all the other cubs're sleepin'?"

The baby blinked puzzledly, then looked around. "Umm..."

"'Cause 'at's how she rolls, b'y." Wolfen looked over with a cheeky grin from where she was destroying Ven on 'Overwatch', eyes dancing under her bouncy curls.

Vic snorted at her, then checked the corner where Celeste poured over a book with Brian Peddle. Seeing that they weren't doing anything that he could object to, he mused a little at the difference between the two sisters. Wolfen was a flash of shadow, a quicksilver sassbrat with a smart comeback for everything and an ever ready laugh. Nothing abashed her. Celeste on the other hand was quieter, more prone to frowning, and not so active as her sister. Part of that last was probably because she didn't want to leave the Peddle kid behind too often.

Vic frowned at Brian, taking in the boy's messy mop of black hair and Spanish looks. A studious and earnest, though slightly batty, kid, his dark eyes seemed to have been focused on Celeste since the day that Sal had tucked her two month old daughter into the basket with the newborn boy. Brian was easy going and avoided battle when he could, but no other kid in Port Aux Basques wanted to take him on after they'd seen him deal with one of the other Councilmember's grandson the day his dad had accepted a Council seat. There was just no way a kid could spend part of his life surrounded by former soldiers and not know how to deal with a fight. Vic was still surprised the other kid hadn't thought of that.

"The heck're you drinkin', Blue?" Logan's disgusted voice pulled Vic from his thoughts again, and he studied this small alternate of the sibling he'd spent part of his life trying to kill. He still wasn't too comfortable around her, but at the same time her acceptance of him felt like forgiveness for some of the things he knew he'd probably done back in his hazily remembered past.

"Er, it's called Strawberry Quick," Hank explained, looking at his wife quizzically.

Vic chuckled as Logan made a spitting sound and got up to go dump the drink out and refill the cup with hot chocolate from the urn for the kids. Then he turned his head as Lou grunted softly and grinned at the black haired boy who now sat on the somnolent clone's stomach. "What're yeh doin', Pete?"

"Sitting." The eight year old grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners like Albus's used to.

"Y'think Lump there's gonna like yeh sittin' on 'is guts?" Vic let Ben suck on a piece of ham.

"I's thinkin' 'e ain't even gonna notice," said Pete frankly, crossing his legs and sitting his plate on them.

"Nah," said Leeroy, distracted by his hand on Sam's baby bump. "S'usta bein' a butt warmer."

Vic snorted as he watched the bump change shape, then looked around again and settled back to eat and protect his family.