Joyce Knightly February 23rd,20XX

Aaron held me in a hug and tried his best to wait while I calmed down, but it was difficult. It wasn’t like Destia was super badly hurt or anything, and they said that she’d be up on her feet and back to normal in under a week.

But still.

On her first day of meeting with the scientists?

And it had to happen on the same day that Eva had used her powers. Aaron didn’t even know about that yet, and then the twins were fighting and it looked like I’d dug up some trauma in Archer before and-

“Joyce, you need to calm down and breathe. I’m here if you want to talk… well, I’m here even if you don’t want to talk. But you need to calm down before we do anything. You aren’t on your own, but I can’t help unless I know what’s happening. So calm down and when you’re ready, I’ll still be here to listen.”

I could hear how shaken he was from the way his voice trembled, but I could also hear his efforts to sound calm.

Well, he’d come down to get looked over by the scientists and to be there for Destia during her first meeting with the scientists. I doubted he’d expected to walk into the dump fire that things currently were.

“Well, I had the kids come to the company and talk about their Squire activities... It honestly didn’t go great, but we got some ideas. Then Eva used her powers on Harvey, I think the two of you have met before, he helped with your first campaign for my company. I don’t think he noticed anything, but I’ll monitor him.”

“Ahh, that must have been difficult. Did you talk to her yet?”

“She passed out after using her powers so I ended up having to talk to Archer… Ugh, I think I scared him a lot too.”

“And Kaja called all in a panic to tell me how hurt Destia was.”

Kaja had called alright, but she hadn’t been as gentle with her words as to use the word ‘hurt’ when describing Destia’s injuries. They were bad, but the way she had described them made it sound like the poor girl was on her deathbed.

“Yeah, she called me too. What are we going to do about her? She can’t use her powers as things are. I also saw a couple of cuts on the neck that she tried to hide from us… or wait, let’s not work for now. Just relax.”

I could see how tense he was, and I knew he wanted to get things done, but he was trying his best to be considerate.

As reluctant as I was to do so, I unwrapped my arms from his torso and lightly pushed out of his embrace. I couldn’t let him baby me when there was so much to do.

“Thanks love, I needed that… a lot. But I’m fine now. I need to do something about Destia’s powers-“

He pulled me back into his embrace with more force than usual and held me tight. He wasn’t a super physical person, so I knew that this was for my sake, but I appreciated it all the more.

“You mean that ‘we’ have to figure something out. Don’t cut me out of this, Joyce. Just because you can handle something on your own doesn’t mean that you should. And you aren’t exactly ‘handling’ it too well right now.”

Okay, he poked a bit of fun at me there, but I let it go.

He wasn’t wrong.

I tightened my grip on his waist and slightly pinched the flesh on his back, hard as it was to get a handful.

“Ah- why?!”

But as much as he whined, he didn’t let go. I finally relaxed into his warmth and let myself enjoy being spoiled, even if it was just for a while.

“We do still have to figure out something for Destia.”

“I gave it some thought and came up with a few things. You remember when I went skydiving?”

Ah.

The good mood I’d had slightly waned, and I fought off the temptation to pinch him again. How could one figure out they had superpowers one day and go risk their life a few days after? It wasn’t even up to a week.

“Ah! Why- no, I know why. But hear me out. You know how they give out jumpsuits and goggles to deal with the wind and the cold up there? Well, wouldn’t that, or something like that, work for Destia? As for the shoes, I worked with a company a few years ago that specifically made hiking sneakers. They’re heavy as hell but they’re durable.”

As he came up with ideas for how to help Destia, I was suddenly ashamed that I hadn’t asked him earlier.

It was easy to forget since he was so handsome and nice, but he had graduated on the principal’s list from high school and he wasn’t doing poorly in his classes despite everything else that he had going on.

He wasn’t a genius, but he was a lot smarter than one would think.

Then again, he also tended to let himself look dumber than he was. He’d always had a lot more confidence in his body than he did his head, so he rarely, if ever, shared his thoughts and would prefer to go along with others.

“That’s awesome, Aaron. Could you send me the company’s number? We’ll buy the shoes for now but I’ll see if I can’t poach any of their designers to come work for us. And the jumpsuits are an awesome idea. I’d already been planning on getting you all uniforms so this works out well.”

If I recalled correctly, they made those jumpsuits from a relatively thick plastic-cotton blend. If I could make it slightly thinner overall but pad the areas like the neck and ankles, then it would make for a lovely look for the team.

It would also work as protective gear for Destia and Aaron.

I’d initially been reluctant to make a team uniform since I’d worried that Tillo and Kaja would feel restricted by them. That worry had quickly faded once I’d seen them shrink to a third of their original heights, but keep their clothes as they were. I realized they could just adjust their clothing size as they changed their forms.

There had also been the issue of convincing Aaron to support me on making the kids wear matching clothes, but there was no way he would say no to me now. After all, it was practically his idea.

He paused on his encouragement and I could feel a grimace on his face even though I couldn’t see it.

“Well, we’ll talk about that. But now that’s done, what else is bothering you? Even if I can’t come up with an immediate solution, two heads are always better than one.”

I tightened the hug he tried to pull out of and buried my head in his shoulders, completely letting go.

“Exactly! I’m so lucky to have you, love.”

Even though I somewhat said it to prevent him from trying to convince me out of the uniforms, I meant it with all my heart.