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[gone_byebye]

The door opens onto an alley in New York City. It nearly always does.

"We go around the front and into the Firehouse," Ray says. "The door tends to lock behind me when I head to Milliways. Don't worry, the guys are all used to me bringing home strangers."

Comments

[creator_raven]

Maybe if it were closer to Halloween . . .

Nevermind.

Raven makes a face at Alex.

"Now, I think, it is mostly a matter of jumping and flapping."

And cheating.

Always cheating. Raven is good at it.

[gone_byebye]

Alex beams with a huge, shiny smile, and starts flapping his arms exactly the way Raven told him to. "Get a picture of this too, Uncle Ray!" he cries, and then jumps.

[creator_raven]

And it isn't quite that he can fly, half-feathered as he is.

Not on his own.

But Raven has his fingers tangled in a small snarl of thread, and maybe that will span the gap well enough.

Regardless, Alex goes up and . . .


Stays up.

[gone_byebye]

Joey's eyes are the size of pancakes at the sight. Ray's aren't far behind. At least he's got his wits about him enough to start furiously snapping photographs of his gleefully (if somewhat awkwardly) flying nephew.

Even if Catherine's gonna go ballistic over this.

[creator_raven]

As if Raven cannot undo what he's already . . .

Hush.

He's grinning up at Alex, black eyes bright with barely-hidden laughter.

Time passes.





"You are, perhaps, ready to come down?"

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah," says Alex. "I gotta pee."

Joey snortgiggles.

[creator_raven]

"Better to wait for that, yes."

And very carefully Alex begins to drift toward the ground.

Raven frowns a little, concentrating.

[gone_byebye]

Joey starts to draw breath for another laugh, or to call out to his brother, or something. Not that it matters; Ray claps one hand over his younger nephew's mouth without even looking.

Alex is doing his best to come down very, veeeeeeery carefully. Cooperating with Raven is good!

[creator_raven]

Raven casts a quick glance at Ray.

"It is the landing that is not so easy, often enough. Catching is not impossible?"

[gone_byebye]

"I can catch," Ray says quickly, setting the camera aside and darting over to an approximately acceptable position. "Okay, Alex? Try not to put your foot in my eye or up my nose or anything, okay?"

[creator_raven]

"I do not think he is that small, perhaps."

Raven wrinkles his nose, still watching Alex.

There we go, and a little to the left, and--

[gone_byebye]

"Raven, I have an amazing talent for catching totally unsuitable object with my-"

WHUMPH goes Alex.

"-well, this time it was arms instead of face," Ray finishes, setting his nephew carefully down on the ground. "Alex, what do we say?"

"THAT WAS REALLY REALLY COOL! THANK YOU, RAVEN!"

[creator_raven]

Raven grins brightly and ruffles Alex's hair.

"You are, I think, more than welcome. Flying is a thing not to be missed."

He grins at Ray, too.

"Now--there is the trouble with the feathers."

Hmm.

[gone_byebye]

"I kinda like them," protests Alex, but Ray gives him a Look. "I can't keep them?"

"Definitely not," Ray says. "I'm already going to have to buy your mother a whole bunch of bath stuff at that store she likes just to even out her temper."

"Okay," Alex says with a bit of a pout. "No more feathers."

[creator_raven]

And if Raven says, very quietly, 'Another time, perhaps' as he plucks off one particularly large and black feather, well, what of it?

And then Alex is back in his own skin, feather-free and safely on the ground.

It is a victory, perhaps. Of a sort.

"Bath stuff? Soap is not enough?"

[gone_byebye]

As far as Ray is concerned, there's nothing wrong with spending time in feathers. But his sisgter, well... she's normal, y'know?

"Not if you take your bathing seriously," Ray says as Alex grins. "This place has all kinds of bath bombs- they're the size of my fist. You drop them in the bath water and they fizz and hiss and turn the water colors and put all kinds of smells in the water and air. Some of 'em have glitter and stuff in them, too."

He looks at Raven thoughtfully.

"You know...."

[creator_raven]

Raven looks back, entirely unsuspicious.

"Glitter?"

This is innocence, right here.

Right.

Here.

. . . Right.

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, yeah," Ray says. "And there's stuff that you rub on your skin that leaves glitter behind, and stuff that sticks gold glitter in your hair. Or, you know, other people's skin and hair and stuff."

Alex is giving his uncle a suspicious look. In his limited experience, grown-ups don't put a lot of stock in glitter.

"Catherine likes the stuff they sell, so I figure if I buy her a gift box she'll be less mad at me. Wanna see their stuff?"

[creator_raven]

"Yes."

Raven's answer is remarkably prompt.

"It would, I think, be very interesting."

He grins down at Alex.

"It is a question of tricks, this."

Sort of.

[gone_byebye]

"Uncle Ray's not good at tricks."

"Quiet, Alex," Ray says firmly. "Okay. Let's get going."

He's not taking Ecto; she's impossible to find parking for. A taxicab will do just fine. Especially given how CROWDED the Herald Square area can be at this time of day. People EVERYWHERE. Vendors EVERYWHERE. Street crazies proclaiming the second coming of you name it. The smells of roasted meat on sticks and fried things and baked things and-

"There we are," says Ray. "That's LUSH."

[creator_raven]

Raven looks at it.

"It is very--"







"busy."

[gone_byebye]

"Popular place," Ray says. "Alex, Joey, you know the rule."

"No touching the ballistics," says Joey.

"No jelly fights," says Alex.

"And you break it, you bought it. Okay, guys. Let's go."

The store itself is tiny, but packed to the rafters with displays of different bath bombs. They look like the grapefruit section at a grocery store, if grapefruits came in blue and lavender and sparkly. The front window is loaded with artistically arranged translucent soaps, and one wall is devoted to hair products- including a stack of glittering gold things that, upon inspection, turn out to be intended for leaving glitter on your hair and nothing else. The opposite wall is full of 'bubble bars', some of which are swirly-colored, some solid; one stack of pink items is similarly sparkly, and marked TURBO BUBBLE.

Let's not even get into the section of specially selected mud.

[creator_raven]

Raven is torn between the bubble bars and the hair glitter.

Obviously, at least to start with, the glitter wins out.

"They are only one color?"

Raven looks crushed.

"It is, I think, very unfortunate."

[gone_byebye]

"Most people seem to be pretty happy with the overall effect of the gold, sir," says the blonde young woman who appears at Raven's elbow. "Although if you really want to make for an interesting effect, you might want to try one of our dusting powders- here, this is Candy Fluff. Don't eat it, just wear it." She holds out a container; it's scented powder, yeah, but it's got iridescent glittery flakes scattered through it. "If you put a little of this on your hair and then comb it through, you'll have that color glitter in your hair and you can put the other bar on afterwards, plus you'll have the smell the whole time- I'm guessing you're looking for something to go clubbing?"

[creator_raven]

Raven looks almost startled.

"Seals?"

What?