Fluff

Chapter One - The Talk

There were very, very few things Emily wanted to do less than explain to her mom how she had--through no fault of her own--become a villain.

Worse, she then had to explain how she had acted and possibly earned just a little bit of that title.

The problem was, of course, that Emily wasn’t in the habit of lying to her parents, and even if she was, she had five little sets of eyes paying attention to her as she related an abridged version of the adventures she’d had over the past couple of weeks. Teaching her little sisters that it was okay to lie would be... a catastrophically bad idea.

Her mom sat in Emily’s chair, hands on the arm-rests and purse on her lap. She was staring somewhere past Emily’s shoulder, deep in thought. She had been listening, making all the right sounds and even asking for some clarification, but so far she hadn’t really said much.

It was somewhat comforting. When Emily had a rough day at school, she had often returned home to rant to her mom about it. Her reaction had often been similar then too. “So?” Emily asked.

“Give me a moment, sweetie, I’m processing.” Her mom took a deep breath, then let it all out in a long woosh. “You know, when I came here, I was making up all sorts of terrible scenarios in my head. Oh, and some not so terrible ones too. But this? This was all rather unexpected.”

Emily twiddled her fingers together. She wanted to sit down and maybe hide under her blankets, but that would have been far too awkward. So, instead, she just stood in the middle of her room while her little sisters watched from her bed and from where they sat on the floors. “I’m sorry.”

Her mom bent down, placed her purse on the floor, then she stood up and pulled Emily into a tight hug. “Don’t be sorry,” she whispered. “In fact, you have nothing to apologize for. You did your best with a situation that you were very much not ready for.”

“Thanks mom,” Emily said.

“Mom’s right,” Athena said. “You did good work, Big Sis.”

Emily felt her mother stiffening just a smidge as Athena spoke up.

They broke the hug--after her mom gave her a final reassuring squeeze--then it was time to address the elephants in the room. “Okay. Clearly, things have been difficult, but you’ve made the best of it. Now... well, now the question remains; what do you intend to do?”

“I was hoping not much,” Emily said. “I have those files from Cement, I’ll look over them and see if there’s anything urgent there, but if there isn’t, then I think the best thing to do now would be to lie low and try not to attract any attention.”

A slow nod was her mother’s reply. “That’s a nice plan, sweetie. How realistic is it?”

“Realistic?” Emily asked.

She got a gesture to her sisters in reply. “These five seem quite active, moreso than you were at their age, I think, and even if you were quiet you were a handful sometimes. Not to mention this place is far too small for six people to be living in it. Then there’s the money issue. Food and clothes aren’t free. And they need an education.”

“Right,” Emily said past the sinking feeling in her gut. “I can find work, maybe?”

“I think you’re going to need more than just a part-time job, sweetie. Kids are expensive.”

“We could brainstorm ideas on how to make more money,” Athena suggested.

Emily spun around, but she was too slow to put the idea down, the others were already tossing out ideas.

“Getting enough money to live a comfortable life should be everyone’s responsibility,” Teddy said. “So we’ll just take everyone’s money, then redistribute it evenly.”

“We can steal stuff,” Trinity said. Three racoon-eared heads nodded all at once. “Break into people’s homes, like that one time, and just take all their stuff.”

“I bet I could make someone so afraid of money, that they’d just give all of theirs to us,” Athena said.

“No,” Emily said. “Just... no. We’ll find a more honest way to make money.” She ignored the pouting in favour of keeping her sanity.

“Money would be a solution, yes, but it’s not the biggest concern.” Emily’s mom started to pace the room. It was a familiar mannerism, but her mother had a way to make it look far more graceful. “We need to find proper lodging, and a secure source of income, then we can take care of the rest. How are your classes going?”

“Ah, well so far? I’ve been doing all of my homework, and the tests and such aren’t for a while. We’re still doing introductory things,” Emily said.

“Good, good. I know how excited you were to start learning, I wouldn’t want that dream to fall apart over this.”

“Thanks, mom.”

Emily’s mom smiled. “No problem. Now, since I didn’t expect to drive all the way back home tonight, I booked a place at a BnB. I can do a little bit of babysitting for the next couple of days.”

“That’s... nice,” Emily said. “But two days isn’t a very long time to figure things out.”

“It’s enough time to make an educated choice,” she replied. “You don’t have to face all of this alone. Didn’t you mention doing a training thing with the heroes? I’m certain they would listen to your story and that they could help.”

Emily cringed back.

In reality, it was a logical and even smart choice to make. The heroes were, ostensibly, good guys. They’d offer her some help if she approached them. She wasn’t sure, but she had the impression that her power was very strong. Or at least very versatile. She basically had five weaker powers in the form of her sisters. The PR potential there was also noteworthy. Her sisters might have been little brats, but they were cute brats.

There were a lot of hero-themed products out there. Emily could just imagine someone putting Teddy’s face on something like dog-grooming products, or using Athena to sell glasses or Trinity to... sell... trash bags? She shook her head.

The problem was that she didn’t trust the heroes. That, and for all the help they’d offer her, they’d ask things in return.

“I’ll figure something out,” Emily said.

She wasn’t entirely out of resources herself. She had her sisters, she had information of questionable value from the town’s last resident villain, she had a few contacts in the world of supers and masks.

Better yet, she felt increasingly confident in her own ability to figure things out. That wasn’t to say she was that confident, but it was a lot more than when she’d started out.

“If you can babysit them all for just a day or two,” Emily said. “Then I’ll do my best to find a way to take care of everything, I promise.”

Her mom eyed her carefully, then the woman’s eyes watered and she pulled Emily into yet another hug. “Oh, my baby’s growing up so fast.”

“Hey!” Teddy said. “The boss ain’t a baby.”

“She said ‘my baby,’ you idiot,” Athena said.

“Yeah, so? Boss don’t belong to her neither.”

Emily sighed. “Girls, please don’t insult my mom. In fact, just listen to her as if she was me, okay?”

It took a bit, but she got three (technically five) affirmatives from the girls. “So what do we call the Boss’ mom?” Teddy asked.

“Grandmom?” Athena asked.

“You’re not my daughters,” Emily pointed out as quickly as she could.

Her mom chuckled. “No, I don’t think I’m quite old enough to be a grandma, not yet. Please.”

“Uh, how about The Grandboss, then?” Athena asked.

“That’s a good villain name,” Trinity said.

“Let’s not give my mom a villain name, please,” Emily said.

Teddy shook her head and pointed--rather rudely--right at Emily’s mom. “She’s your mom, which makes her important, and you’re like, the best villain around, so she has to be at least a bit secretly villainous.”

“Teddy, my mom’s not villainous,” Emily said.

“Well, I have had a few less-than-charitable thoughts before.”

“Mom!”

“If the Boss is our sister,” Athena said. “Then that makes the Boss’ mom our mom too.”

“I... I don’t know how I feel about that,” Emily said.

Teddy eyed her. “But you said that sharing between sisters was important.”

“I don’t think this is entirely the same.”

Her mom chuckled, then patted Teddy on the head. The bear-girl leaned into the touch. “I don’t mind being called mom. I have been called worse before. Besides, they aren’t entirely wrong. If they are your sisters, then I suppose I’d be something like a step-mom, at most.”

“Step-Boss,” Teddy said. There was a definitive note in the word, as if she’d just given the answer to an obvious question.

Emily closed her eyes. The day had far, far too many ups and downs for her to deal with, and it was far from over.

***