vanillajello | To and in St. Louis, Friday FT

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To and in St. Louis, Friday FT

Man, was it ever fun to be one of the attendants on a flight where members of your family were among the passengers. Especially when it was your dad who was totally having super major flight anxiety and ranting to your brother a little too loudly and battling with his seatbelt.

Kate had to stride down to isle to where Marshall and Max were sitting. "Sir, calm down," she told her dad, in her best polite flight attendant voice, silently thankful she didn't need to watch over them on their connecting flight to New York for the film festival. Max looked a sweaty mess. "You're making the other passengers shit themselves."

"Okay, then you tell that fucking pilot to quit hot-doggin' it!" he snapped at her, gesturing wildly above his head, at the compartments there. "Honey, I need my pills. Please." Huh? Kate gave her brother a confused look for an explanation. "He stole a handful of Mom's wacky tablets," Marshall drawled. Sigh. Of course he had. Kate went to retrieve them from his bag. "Just don't OD on them on my flight, that would not look good."

Neither Gregson guy seemed to appreciate the joke.

-----

They made it to St. Louis in one piece, thankfully, and once they were there, Kate led her brother and father to the VIP Kloudklimbers' Klub lounge for a breather. One of the little perks of working at SkyKans. Max still looked a little bad, though. In a high on pills kind of way, so Kate fussed over him, even if it was just a little. Still enough for him to wave his hands at her a little and say, "Oh, hey, honey, I'm fine, I'm not going to embarrass you at your... work place."

"Don't get your hopes up," Marshall muttered, darkly. Kate was a little surprised by that. "What?" she asked, glancing back to where their dad had veered off to look at departure times. "What's the matter with you?"

"It's Dad," Marshall said, frowning at her. "I know he's all freaked out about the plane and stuff, but why is it that in this family, the two of us always end up having to take care of our parents?"

"I don't know," Kate replied, and for a while there she had genuine sympathy in her voice, but then she was distracted by a familiar form sitting on one of the couches a little way away. "Not my problem right now. Hey, is that Evan?" And it totally was, so she tugged on Marshall's sleeve, already pulling him along. "Come on. Dad, come meet Evan!"

Evan was... surprised to see them, to say the least. "Hi," he said, immediately getting up, like a polite person. "Uh, Kate. And... ?"

"Oh, this is my dad, Max," Kate said, gesturing at her father. "Dad, this is Evan. You know, my favorite commuter?"

"Right, Evan the commuter," Max said, with a too wide smile as he stuck out his hand to be shaken. "Good afternoon, sir. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." He evn did a little bow, which made Evan look a tad uncertain before Kate said, with a lowered voice, "He's taken the panic'n'pill approach to flying." Then she gestured at Marshall who was still sulking a bit, though she didn't know what for. "And this is my... fun and happy brother, Marshall."

Well, at least he shook Evan's hand civilly enough. "Uh, hello Gregsons," Evan said. "Welcome to St. Louis, gateway to the west. The Mound... Big Lou..." It was kind of hard to believe he worked with talking to people for a living. He chuckled a little, embarrassed. "I am working way too hard on behalf of St. Louis."

"Why are you here right now, anyway?" Kate wondered. "Not to be all stalkery or anything but didn't you say you didn't have to fly anywhere this week."

"Oh," he said, "I got, uh... A last minute thing in Kansas. And it's going to be interesting too, because my ex ––"

He didn't get to finish that sentence, because suddenly someone yelled out "I'm a ninja!" and ran to them and... Tried to climb up Max's back. Yeah. Someone's kid was climbing up Max's back. "Oh! Fuck! My back!"

"Monty!" Evan snapped. "Get off of Mr. Gregson. Monty!"

... Annnd it was Evan's kid. Right.

-----

So, apparently, Evan's ex had had to switch kid weekends at the last minute, and now Monty was going to have to come along to Kansas with his dad. Which meant they were going to be on Kate's flight back. Considering the kid was running around, screaming, climbing up the stairs only to throw bits of paper down from the landing while his father yelled his name over and over again from down below? Yeah, that was going to be an absolute delight, she was sure.

It was a relief when she got to walk Max and Marshall to the elevators once it was time for them to catch their connecting flight. "Oh, God," Kate murmured to Max, once they were waiting for the elevator to come. "I like Evan just fine, but that kid."

Max shook his head and looked like he wanted to rub his back at the mere memory. "Oh, that kid's a handful," he said. Kate pouted at him. "I don't know if I want to deal with that on my plane." That got a wane smile from him. "What am I gonna tell you, Katie Kate?" he asked. "I can't even get on an airplane without kicking and screaming like a baby, and you already dealt with that. You're fearless. You get on airplanes all the time." He held up a hand, kept his thumb and index finger close to each other. "You were this close to living in Japan. You're all grown up, little girl. You don't need advice from me."

That was when the ding sounded and the elevator doors opened. "I love you," Kate sighed, smiling a little, and giving both father and brother a little wave as they got in and the doors started to close. "Have a great flight."

Max's face went serious at that well wishing, but he was someone else's problem now. Kate glanced back at the lounge. Evan was still yelling at Monty. So she was going to pretend to be busy with her phone for a while. She sent a few 'missing you' type texts to Bod, then went through her contact list until her gaze fell on a name she'd been meaning to check in on post spring break, anyway.

She pressed the call button and hoped Luke would save her from the boy monster for at least a moment.

[ooc: NFB, taken with major tweakage from USoT S03E08 'Chicken 'n' Corn'. Mainly for that guy she's calling, though other texts/calls are welcome too.]

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As per usual these days, Luke was doing nothing of importance so the phone barely rung before he was picking up. "Hello?"

"Oh thank Christ." Hello to you too, Kate. "Or, Hermes or whoever. At least now I don't have to just pretend I'm busy on the phone."

A beat. "Oh, hi and everything."

"Hi," Luke said, chuckling. "I'm actually super bored so I don't mind being used right now. Is work bad or something?"

"Ugh." That said everything, didn't it? She glanced at the lounge. Yup, Monty was still being a brat. "I'm at the airport in St. Louis and my friend Evan is here with his kid. Or, his hyperactive spawn."

"So you're on the phone with me to avoid interacting with a child," Luke said, sounding amused. "That's not very nice, Kate."

"Hey, this particular child almost gave my dad a back injury!" Kate protested. "I can never call Percy a brat again. This kid's worse."

"Now I find that hard to believe," Luke told her. "Be thankful this kid can't drop a waterfall on your head."

"He was up on the stairs throwing bits of torn up paper down into the lounge earlier." Go Evan's parental authority! Sigh. "He doesn't need waterfalls."

"Normally I'm a kids type of guy but that kid sounds like a jerk," Luke said. "Probably get fired or arrested if you yanked on his hair or something, right?"

"I'm actually more concerned with losing his father's friendship," Kate replied and, Jesus, she sounded like she was almost considering it. "'Cause he's one of the better frequent passengers we have."

"Ah, I see," Luke said, nodding. "Well. You could always trip him and say it was an accident."

"I don't know, he might get a nosebleed and that would suck." A beat. "Because they're on my flight back to Kansas. Which would mean having to take care of him. No thanks."

"Sounds like you're stuck with him," he said, shaking his head. "You have my sympathy."

"Slim comfort but thanks." Siiiigh. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and hoped she didn't somehow manage to smudge her makeup with that. "So, how's Fandom? Boring?"

"Hit the nail on the head," he said, sighing. "Well, boring and awkward. Predictably, my talk with Percy didn't go well so now I'm in hiding."

"Hiding? Seriously?"

She wished she could have sounded more surprised, she really did.

"Ugh. Boys."

"Hey." That was sort of offensive. And true. "It's not my fault the more I talk the worse things get. Doing the opposite couldn't hurt."

"Yeah, but mostly 'cause not talking means nothing moving," Kate pointed out. Speaking from experience. "Don't hey me, you know I speak the truth."

"I'm obligated to defend my sex every now and again," Luke said. "Even if what you're saying might be true."

"Pfft." So there. "Oh, hey, not to distract from your romantic misadventures, but this is almost related: Moosh and Dad just left for New York, so we're down to just the ladies holding down the two forts. Wanna come hang at some point this weekend?"

Yeah, she'd pretty much come up with that idea just now. It was how she rolled.

"Sure, it'll help out with the whole hiding thing." And he liked being around Kate too but he figured that went without saying. "I'd be honored to up the testosterone levels over in there in Kansas."

"Great!" Well, at least her ability to be pleased at things had not been damaged by Monty yet. "I have a bunch of errands, not to mention work, and time is completely fucked between here and Fandom, so I'll probably... get back to you when I figure out exactly when, but still, awesome. I don't feel like being alone with the Craine sisters right now."

"Well I have nothing planned for...forever so I'll be around when it's good for you," he said. "It'll be nice to be around normalish people again."

Wow it was sad Luke considered the Gregsons normal.

Yeah, Kate agreed. "Duuude," she drawled, sounding wryly amused. "Thinking that can't be healthy."

Even if things had been... sort of okay at home, lately.

"I'm comparing your family to mine," Luke reminded her. "So, yeah, you guys are way up there when it comes to normalcy in comparison."

"Well, I guess when you put it like that," Kate relented. "At least we're all mortals. And I'm not trying to date my cousins. Of course I only have the one and she's just a baby."

"Hey, hey, Percy and I don't share any DNA...but, yes, we are cousins." No denying that. "At least we're not like my uncle who tricked his niece into marrying him and then forced her to live in the Underworld for half the year?"

"Oooh, that's Hades, and..."

Just wait for it, she'd totally read about this. On Wikipedia. It'd come to her.

"Persephone! Right?"

Luke chuckled. "Very good. They visited Fandom once, you know. I managed to avoid them. Wasn't as lucky in avoiding my father or Poseidon but you can't win them all."

"It's the Parents Weekend rule," Kate replied sagely. "I never managed to avoid all the people I wanted to, either. But, I've moved from resident to guest so I don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Yeah I don't have to worry about that much either since everybody thinks I'm dead," he said. "Though I guess I do have to worry about people coming on Percy's side. They all think I'm evil."

"Well, if it gets really bad I can come around for the weekend and just, like, stand next to you with a sign saying 'Not evil' pointed at you," Kate offered with some more wry amusement.

"And then you can have a sign pointing at me saying 'Not a slut', in case Bod's guardian shows up again."

"Well I could just punch him instead of holding the sign for you, that'd work." Sure it would.

"Yeah, as much as it would be interesting to see a ––" Thankfully, she lowered her voice because getting weirded out looks was a SkyKans no-no. "–– demigod and a vampire duke it out, that sounds like a very bad idea. But I do appreciate the sentiment."

"Any time," he said. "For the record, I could totally kick a vampire's ass."

"Yeah, I don't know," Kate replied, with a thoughtful little click of her tongue. "This is Silas. I mean, I don't know how old he is but he's pretty badass from what I can tell."

Even if the damage she'd received from him was all emotional.

"Yeah, but I'm the best swordsman in the last 300 years," he bragged. "Or I was, rather. I haven't really been in the salle since my last sword melted when I blew up. Celestial bronze is hard to come by in this world, who knew?"

Kate snorted "Yeah, I remember what you are."

She was no stranger to bragging and she'd been trained in knife-wielding by the best swordsman in the last 300 years, after all.

"Doesn't mean you could necessarily take on someone like him. Especially if you didn't have a sword, like you apparently don't. Also, do you even need special bronze anymore, now that you're... well, there?"

"No, I don't. But my last sword could hurt mortals and it was a big symbol of how off the rails I was," Luke said, shaking his head. "I don't want to be able to hurt them again."

"Yeah, I get that," Kate couldn't help saying. "Though I have a friend who pointed it out to me that you have to watch out for the mortals as much as for everyone else."

But of course, Jack was a werewolf now, so. Showed what he knew.

"Well that's where the teleportation and telekinesis come in handy," Luke said. "Means I can deal with mortals without chopping their heads off."

"... True." Well, she really couldn't argue with that.

She glanced at the clock on the wall, then made a face at it. "Ugh, I think it might be almost pre-boarding time."

"Oh right, you need to go do your flight attendant thing." Luke still found that funny. "Well have fun. Don't get thrown up on."

"Or throw an unruly child out the door at 10,000 feet," Kate supplied with a sigh. "I'll do my best. And I'll get back to you about Kansas. Later, sensei."

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To and in St. Louis, Friday FT

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