Hot Water

Posted on Tue Feb 17th, 2026 @ 10:53am by Kennedy Kelly & Alaric Thane

6,817 words; about a 34 minute read

Mission: Episode 7: Pathogens and Contagions
Location: X-Mansion - Basement
Timeline: March 7, 1992

One of the worst kept secrets at the mansion was the recreational use of the hot tub connected to the gym. Originally installed for therapeutic purposes, it quickly became a luxury that most people dared to exploit at least once.

Kennedy was no exception, waiting until the students were sent to bed she would sneak down and enjoy the bubbles and heated waters while she read and ate chocolates. Wrapped in a terrycloth robe and clutching her book and box of gold wrapped candies she entered the hot tub room only to find it already occupied.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here.” Kennedy meekly replied “I’ll go.”

A towel, which Alaric had draped over his shoulders as he had walked to room earlier, was now hanging over a bench behind the hot tub. Underneath the bench was a pair of brown sandals. He was currently sitting in the hot tub and enjoying a rather relaxing moment. His head was leaned backwards against the edge of the tub and his eyes were closed. Until he heard a voice.

Alaric glanced up at Kennedy with a faint smirk, steam curling around his face.

"Relax. You’re not intruding. I was...experimenting," he admitted, tilting his head forward. "I kept hearing about how this thing was supposed to be relaxing, so I thought I’d see for myself. Can’t say I mind it. Besides, as fun as Earth winters are, they're still miserable to me. Limbo wasn’t exactly cozy, but at least it didn’t bite through your bones. Well, like the cold does."

He gestured lazily at the churning bubbles. "Feels a bit like sitting in a cauldron, though. Half expected a demon to crawl out of the foam and try to drag me under," he said dryly and added a grin.

She scrunched her nose in rabbit like disapproval at the mental picture he provided of being dragged underwater by a monster. “Come on now, it couldn’t have been all bad all the time.”

Kennedy sat down on the edge of the hot tub across from Alaric and placed her feet in the warm water. She set down her chocolate and her book by her side and they both looked at the cover of the book in unison.

A medieval prince held a woman in his arms as their eyes remained locked in a smoldering gaze. As if there was any doubt about what the book was about, the title gave it away, The Prince’s Passion was scrawled in looping cursive over their heads.

Kennedy cleared her throat as she turned a bright shade of mortified pink before she picked up the book and placed it on the opposite side of her body. “You had to do something for fun.”


When he saw the cover, he grinned and chuckled a little. He wasn't familiar with that kind of book, but the cover told him all he needed to know. That, and Kennedy's reaction. He chuckled again at her placing it out of sight before answering.

"Honestly, no, it wasn't all bad all the time. Just most of the time. But what was fun for me in that place probably wouldn't be considered fun here. A few things come to mind though." He paused as a distant look came over him, and he smiled. "When I was younger, Mother...Lorna...would tell me bedtime stories of the exploits of the X-Men. How they saved lives and protected others. I would play out everything in my mind as she told them."

"I also enjoyed going to the top of the Askani temple," he said. "I'd lean out the windows and stare into the skies, watching the auroras of magical energy. They would snap and crack as they swirled about and faded from one dark hue to the next. All against a blood-red sky filled with dark clouds and lightning. And then I'd look out at a river of molten rock as it burned bright and flowed across the barren ground. It was all a deadly beauty and a reminder of the evil that ruled there."

Then he came back to himself, shook his head, and looked at Kennedy. "I guess this thing really does relax you. Oh, there was also the 'occasional' prank on a goblin. They were the most hilarious. I used to make them chase illusions or teleport them in circles until they were dizzy." He laughed, rather loudly at that one.

"But those few things aren't what comes to most minds when I speak of Limbo. You will probably be the only one," he said.

She chuckled a little at his stories but it was more because he was sharing something beyond the horrors that plagued his childhood. "You should tell more people about the good things, it makes you seem more..." Kennedy was inclined to say human but knew better. "Approachable."

She opened the box of chocolates and handed him one of the gold foil wrapped balls. "Here." Kennedy settled back onto her perched seat on the edge of the tub before helping herself to a piece of candy. "They aren't the best chocolate but I've always liked them, they feel fancy." She unwrapped it and took a bite, examining the inside of the chocolate while she chewed. "A lot of the Askani in Kamar-Taj, they seem afraid of you. Why?"

He thanked her, unwrapped the chocolate and followed Kennedy's example of taking a bite. "Son of the Goblin Queen and heir of Belasco," he said nonchalantly. "Honestly though? Probably because there’s nothing like seeing said heir sprout horns, wings, and a tail to make you rethink your life choices. I keep telling them, I don’t bite…much."

His smirk faded as his tone shifted. "But it’s most likely more than that. Limbo doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation. To them, I'm proof that everything gets corrupted there. And a reminder of all they’ve been taught to fear. Doesn’t matter what I’ve fought to become, some of them see where I came from first." He glanced at her, eyes steady. "And I don’t hide it, the dark parts or the arcane sorcery. I don’t pretend the shadows aren’t part of me. Rather, I embrace it all and that makes people nervous because they see it as a threat."

He finished the rest of the chocolate. "But I'd never hurt any of them." Then a thought struck him. "Are lots of the mutants here afraid of me?"

"No I don't think anyone is afraid of you... at least not anymore." There had been some surprise when he first changed into his other form but he was still welcomed and accepted. "Then again, it takes a lot to phase this group."

As they sat and talked, Kennedy became comfortable enough to finally conceded to her desire to get into the hot tub. Standing up briefly, she disrobed and revealed the blue and white pinstriped two-piece bathing suit she had on underneath. The long willowy lines of her body gave her a swan-like appearance as she gracefully dipped and sank into the bubbling waters. She winced slightly from the heat but the sensation eventually became inviting.

“Did that fear make friendships hard?” Kennedy asked as she brought her knees up to her chest in the water.

Alaric watched as she joined him in the hot tub. "It did," he said bluntly. "When I was much younger, not so much. I was a cute little boy with horns and clawed feet. Who wouldn't want to spend time with that." He grinned and continued, "As I got older and Limbo took more of a hold on me, I spent most of my time with Mother and the two Elders. The dark magic I was learning didn't help the situation either. But regardless, I still protected them as much as I could. They are my people, even if there aren't many friends among them."

“Clawed feet? You and Kurt could have shared shoes.” Kennedy said with a laugh but she couldn’t avoid the pang of sadness mentioning Kurt created in her. He was gone and dead as far as she was concerned, lost to illness just like the rest of them. Despite everyone else’s optimism that they would recover… she knew better. Kennedy was terrible at hiding her emotions and Alaric watched as her expression dulled a little and the light left her eyes. But using her own form of magic, she stuffed the sorrow down and hid that darkness from him.

“I’m sure they care about you and respect you, I didn’t mean to make it sound like they had no regard for you.” He was still so noble in his response, honor bound and loyal to a default. There was something endearing about his dedication to his people, especially in this day and age where people were two-faced and scheming. Kennedy felt like she knew what she was getting from Alaric, there was integrity in his actions. “I just meant to say that power and responsibility can be isolating, it’s like the saying goes, heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

Alaric caught the quick change of her countenance to sad memory and then back to the present. He left it alone, saying nothing. They had all been put through a lot over the last year.

"I'm certain that there is care and respect from the Askani," he said. "But the power and responsibility you mentioned does create a gap where they care from a distance. Sometimes it's hard to see from under the weight of the crown." He grinned at her analogy. "I suspect that's why Mother said I would learn to make friends easier here than I would in Kamar-Taj."

“Yeah this place is pretty accepting…” Kennedy glanced up towards the ceiling and towards the rest of the school while she thought about her time at Xavier’s. Her mother had dropped her off here in a final act of compassion for her situation and to this day she wondered how much her mom really knew about Charles Xavier. “Before I lived here, I had dozens of friends. My weekends were always occupied and I was never hurting for someone to hang out with. Then I got into some trouble and they all vanished. It was social suicide, not a single person I went to school with or dated has spoken to me since that terrible day. So I guess I really shouldn’t put too much of an emphasis on friendship when the friends I once had all walked away the moment I became hazardous to their social status.”

Kennedy stretched out one of her leg and allowed her toes to peek out from the frothing waters as she continued to think about her and Alaric’s situation. “I’m sorry about your dad, I know you came here to be closer to him too.”

Now it was Alaric's face that shifted. He'd only gotten to spend a short while with his father before the virus took him and forced him into statis. The more his mind lingered on Scott, the heavier his chest felt. He remembered the way his father’s voice carried. It was steady, clipped, never wasting a word, and yet full of conviction.

The look on his face settled into something calm and unflinching. Whatever was beneath would stay buried. What surfaced instead was quiet resolve, steady as steel.

“I did come here to be closer to him. And we were, if only for a while. Father and I had good times together, and those are what I hold onto.” His gaze flicked down, catching her toes peeking out of the water. “I’m sorry about your friends,” he added quietly. “But didn’t that give you more time with your mother and father? With family?”

“Oh…umm…no.” Kennedy replied as she lowered her head and shook it, she forgot that Alaric wasn’t here when she had arrived, he was yet another new face that had replaced the old. “My family disowned me when they found out I was a mutant, my father was a well known politician that campaigned on his anti-mutant stance. He was assassinated by the government in order to fuel all the anti-mutant laws that are now in place. It’s kind of ironic, if he had publicly embraced his mutant child he wouldn’t have been the martyr that they needed him to be.”

She spoke about her past with a fairly even keel to her tone. Her eyes were sad but overall Kennedy seemed like she had come to terms with what had happened to her family and herself. “It’s just me now, I don’t have anyone else that considers me as family. That’s a big reason why I haven’t left the mansion despite being done with school, I still want a home and people to fill it with. Living someplace else by myself… I don’t think I could even if I had to.”

Family, whether bound by blood or by choice, was the one constant that held Alaric together in Limbo. It was a sense of belonging that kept him from breaking apart as he grew. As such, hearing Kennedy's story struck a deep chord.

"I am truly sorry to hear that. No parent should treat their child with such disdain or carelessness because they are different," he said. Then he smiled, albeit crookedly. "But it seems as if there's one thing you can count on while living here, it's that you won't ever be by yourself. Even when you think you're going to be the only one in a room." He gestured to the hot tub and laughed.

“That’s true.” Kennedy agreed with a brief chuckle, “There is never any hot water and the last slice of pizza will always be taken, but I like it that way. My eyes were opened to a lot of things when I arrived here, I considered myself worldly but in reality I was really sheltered to how different people live. I feel like I’m learning more by being around people who aren’t like me and at the end of the day we have a lot more in common than we think we do.” She unwrapped another chocolate and examined its bumpy surface before taking a bite. “At least that’s what I tell myself when the junior students take the television for cartoons every weekend.”

"Cartoons and cold showers, what more could we ask for?" he said. "But you’re right…being around people who live differently, it changes how you see things. This last year for me outside of Limbo has been...how do you say, a learning curve. There, everyone lived pretty much the same way, generally speaking. I grew up thinking that survival was central to life, like it was the only thing that mattered most of the time. But here on Earth, there is so much more to life. Even if it’s fighting for the last slice of pizza or a turn at the television."

"But that phrase you used, considered yourself worldly." He paused momentarily, not necessarily out of embarrassment but rather as if he were dissecting the word. Like he was turning it over as a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit. His tone then softened with an understated wit woven into it. "Even after one year, I find that I still have trouble grasping meanings. That word 'worldly,' what does it mean in that context? Someone well-traveled, or just someone who knows where to find better pizza?"

“Both.” Kennedy replied with a touch of humility, “I thought because I knew what a Sajjāda was and the difference between Ionic and Doric that I had a better understanding of the world and because my families were some of the first who founded this country that I knew what it meant to be a true stalwart. I thought I had this world and my place in it figured out. But I don’t…”

She crumbled the gold wrap of her chocolate and chucked it into the box it came from with a frown on her face. “I don't know anything about people and why they are the way they are. There’s a difference between watching people from your tower above them and walking the streets with them. My eyes opened when I spoke to people and saw what was really happening to mutants, then I really couldn’t go back to the way I was before.”

"Not knowing isn’t a weakness. It just means you’re still learning." He leaned back slightly, watching the surface of the water ripple. "Most people cling to their certainty until it rots them from the inside. At least you can admit you don’t have it all figured out."

His tone remained steady, "There are worse things than realizing you don’t have all the answers. Pretending you do is what blinds people. What you said...walking among people instead of above them? That’s already more than some ever manage."

"I guess so..." Kennedy said with a shrug of her shoulders but he could tell that she had appreciated his sympathetic words. "I was raised with the expectation that I should be perfect, that everything I did needed to prove the point that my family was flawless and beautiful, that we were role models and examples that the rest of the world should admire. Any mistakes or missteps were heavily scrutinized. It's hard for me to step out of those expectations, even when I'm the only one who's holding onto those standards."

"But then again I'm one to talk..." Kennedy said as she looked over at Alaric "I wasn't raised to be... what is the term? Ruler of All?"

Alaric gave a low chuckle. "Belasco was never known for being understated. 'Alaricus Tantus'...his grand heir, his weapon, his future Ruler of All." He shrugged, sending ripples across the water. "The name stayed with me even after Lorna took me out of his stronghold as a toddler."

A smirk tugged at his lips, though his eyes carried something heavier. "I might be the Lord of Limbo, but Belasco and I are nothing alike. Lorna raised me. My bedtime stories were the exploits of the X-Men. My training, how to fight and how to use what I am, came from her lessons under Xavier and my father. Belasco ruled for cruelty’s sake. I do it because I need to. Those who still live in Limbo deserve something better than the hell he left behind. Though, there still has to be a heavy hand in order to put an end to the philosophies and way of life he left behind."

“Do you still go back to Limbo?” Kennedy asked, while it was known that he made monthly trips to Kamar-Taj there wasn’t really a lot of talk about Limbo. “I know you said it’s getting better and all but isn’t still… awful?

"Not as often," he admitted. "And yes, it’s still awful. Can’t argue with that description." A low chuckle escaped him before his tone steadied again. "Any improvement in Limbo is in the smallest of things. Belasco spent far too long shaping it into a place of torment. The evil runs deep in the bones and memory of that realm… it’ll take years to burn it out."

He sank a little lower into the bubbling water, letting the heat ease against the tension in his shoulders. For a moment, the hot tub felt almost absurd. The quiet, comfortable normalcy pressed against memories of fire and blood. His hand drifted along the surface, breaking the ripples, as if testing whether this peace was something real he could hold on to.

“So a king of nothing?” Kennedy asked but her tone wasn’t meant to insult or wound him, it was more a realization of what he was now. His past and his future were two very different things, an idea that she could more than relate to. “Your people are safe in Kamar-Taj, the mystical knowledge and items in that city will take generations to uncover and they are probably the most capable people to defend it. Combined with being able to meet your father and become an X-Men, I can see why you decided to stay. And probably to keep Jean company… I’ve never heard anyone cry like that before, when your dad went away. It was like part of her own soul was ripped away.”

Kennedy paused for a moment, it had been a hard day for all of them when the provided ‘solution’ for the very sick X-Men had been proclaimed by Connor. Essential but damning goodbyes that she had taken as permanent. She knew better than to say it out loud, especially to someone like Alaric, but she considered all of them dead. Their stasis pods were just another version of a coffin, the chamber that held them a very expensive mausoleum.

“It’s good that you stayed, for her, and to protect this place.” Kennedy commented while examining him from across the waters. Her eyes were a piercing blue and he felt them surmise him. “But it’s hard to come to terms with all of that… when everything you expected to happen suddenly falls apart.”

Alaric came up out of the water and back to a more relaxed sitting position. He grinned and then put his finger to his lips, "Shhhh, we'll keep that 'king of nothing' to ourselves for now." He chuckled before continuing, "But it's accurate. My people are here, my family is here, the team Lorna wanted me to become part of is here, and Limbo needs time to heal. Besides," he added with a smirk, "as it's Lord, I can still banish people there if necessary. It sort of brings new meaning to the phrase 'go to hell.'"

At the mention of his father and Jean's crying, Alaric slowly nodded. "They were closer than anyone I've ever met. I suspect it was due to their psychic bond. So maybe in a way, part of her soul did get ripped away."

He shifted slightly, moving his legs away the water jet they'd been near. "I'm glad I stayed," he said. "I would like to have stayed longer in Kamar-Taj, but Lorna wanted me to come here and learn and grow and get to know my other family." He felt Kennedy's gaze. It was almost like she was trying to piece together who he was.

"True. I don't think we ever fully come to terms with this sort of thing. We just learn how to cope as we move forward. And it never falls apart the way you expect, either. But once it does, you see what’s still standing... and that’s worth holding onto. It may not be what you planned for, but sometimes it’s enough. I wanted more than just one year with my father. But I had that year, and I still have my Noverca, Jean."

“Yeah, you get knocked down three times so you stand up four times.” Kennedy agreed with him and finally smiled, it was a subtle slow curve of her mouth that eventually blossomed like a flower. “That’s what we do as X-Men, keep going and keep fighting.”

Alaric smiled and nodded, "It's no wonder I seem to fit in then, at least to a degree." He casually waved his hand and a chalice appeared, filled with cool water and a few ice cubes clinking the inside. He looked at Kennedy and said, "What goes best with that kind of chocolate that you have? If you're thirsty, that is."

"I guess it depends on the kind of person that you are..." Kennedy said with a shrug as she ran her fingertips across the bubbles on the surface of the water. "Some people like coffee and chocolate, kids like milk with it, foodies often pair it with red wine. I guess if you're boring, you could just drink it with water but there also aren't any rules, just what sounds good to you is fine. So what would you prefer?"

Alaric laughed, "I suppose that makes me the boring person." He took a sip of cool, yet metallic flavored, water and set the chalice on the edge of the tub.

"You strike me as someone with a fine taste in food and drink," he said. Of course, the things she'd mentioned earlier regarding her past played into his reasoning. He waved his hand and a similar chalice appeared on the edge near her. "Red wine it is. But I do apologize in advance. It will taste a little... off. Limbo taints whatever I try to conjure from this realm. One of the unfortunate by-products of the dark arts from there."

“Holy cow… you can do that.” Kennedy examined the drinking vessel that had appeared by her side, its dark red contents smelled like wine. “You could be the most popular guy here if everyone finds out you can just make them contraband out of thin air.”

Kennedy took a sip from the chalice, the strong tannins in the wine created a drying, grippy sensation in the back of her throat that caused her to cough a little. “It’s three months without a trip into Salem Center and an essay on morals and ethics if you’re caught drinking underage. But you don’t even have to walk past the wine cellar.” She took another sip and was more prepared for the flavor and mouth feel that followed, “It’s not terrible once you get used to it.”

"Little things like this aren't too difficult. But larger things require more concentration and power here than I've ever had to do in Limbo," he said. "But I still tend to forget the rules and laws of this realm, even after one year. With the ban into town and an essay, I'll try to keep this little instance to myself," he said, grinning.

“Hey, your secret is safe with me.” Kennedy raised the glass before taking a rather long and eager sip.

"It definitely takes some getting used to, with all of it. The conjured water has a bite to it. Like the seltzer water here, but with more of a metallic flavor." He took another drink. "Though honestly, these drinks and their oddities and flavors would be lifted up as grand tastes in Limbo. I've had some rather horrible concoctions over the years."

“What’s the grossest thing you ever ate in Limbo?” Kennedy asked with a smirk as she suddenly decided this would be the perfect opportunity to play twenty questions. “And what did it taste like?”

Alaric didn’t answer right away. He leaned back against the hot tub, eyes unfocusing slightly as he was remembering something. A time when he was out on patrol and came across a group of demons that outnumbered him. He hid for several days as he was tracking them and could only eat what he scrounged.

"There was this thing," he finally said, looking back to Kennedy. "We called it a 'mire grub.' Picture a centipede the length of your forearm with a translucent body. Like... half-melted wax and cartilage. You can see the organs moving inside when it breathes. And it breathes loudly. Like it wants you to know it’s alive."

"It lives in the sludge pools," he continued casually. "If you don’t cook it, it secretes a toxin that numbs your tongue and makes you see shadow things crawling under your skin. The first time I had it, the grub was definitely cooked. But when I bit into it, it popped." His expression was unbothered. "Flavor-wise? Imagine if a snail and a fish had a baby and that baby was carried in a dragon’s armpit."

“That is the grossest thing I think I have ever heard.” Kennedy said with a look on her face like she had just sniffed sour milk. “Why did you eat that?”

"It's a rather long tale, but I'll try to keep it short. I was out on patrol one evening and found a group of demons heading in the direction of our home," he began. "They were more in number than I could handle alone. So I followed and tracked them for several days. I hid in caves and under outcroppings along the way. My food was whatever I could find that didn't eat me first."

“I don’t think I could survive in Limbo.” Kennedy replied before taking a large sip of wine that made her wince from the burn it created down her throat. “If I didn’t get eaten by some beast on day one I would probably starve to death.” Her cheeks were turning a flushed shade of pink from the drink and she felt hot both inside and out. “Is it warm in here?”

"Then if you ever go to Limbo, I’ll escort you and make sure nothing tries to eat you and that you’re properly fed." Alaric caught the pink rising in Kennedy’s cheeks and smiled. "It is indeed hot in here. Though I suspect it's the Limbo sorcery that's tainted the wine and causing the burn. That was a decent sized drink. I can offer a trade; wine for ice water, if you’d like to cool things down."

“It refills itself when you drink from it.” Kennedy replied as she took another long drink from the goblet and watched as the wine level returned to full. Ignoring his comment about switching to water she took sip after sip, marveling at how the goblet never emptied. “That’s pretty amazing.”

"It is," he said. "All part of the sorcery." He watched as she continued to sip, the faint shimmer of the goblet’s surface reflecting in her eyes. "But you must take care not to lose yourself in it."

He leaned back, resting one arm along the edge of the tub. "It has a way of giving endlessly, until you forget what you were taking in the first place. It’s generous, seductive…and rarely without a price." His tone softened, a touch of wry humor breaking through. "Though in this case, I imagine the worst consequence is a headache and all that accompanies it."

“No, I’m fine...” Kennedy replied before she hiccuped and promptly placed her freehand over her mouth. “I like wine, I prefer it to something like beer.”

She had started out the night with only her feet in the water but now Kennedy was deeply sunk down into the waters with only enough of her upper body exposed so that she could keep drinking. The bubbles foamed around her and plastered her stray strands of blonde hair to her neck, turning the golden color to something muddy and brassy.

“What’s something you’ve never told anyone?” Kennedy asked as her cheeks became a bright pink in color and he felt her toes infringing on his side of the tub.

Alaric tilted his head back against the rim of the tub, thinking. He was wondering just how much truth she could handle. And how much he was willing to part with. It was then that he felt her toes brush against his. The touch was light, almost accidental though not quite. When he saw the bright pink in her cheeks, his focus was broken for a moment and a faint smirk appeared.

"Careful," he said softly and teasingly. "You’re encroaching on dangerous territory." He winked as he played off any seriousness.

"Alright," he continued, his tone shifting to quiet and steady. "Something I’ve never told anyone… Everyone has seen the DarkFang, that which I can transform into. It's a part of me that doesn't belong in this realm." He paused a second and sighed. "Limbo leaves scars, exacts a price, and corrupts. The part that isn't common knowledge, DarkFang is the price I've paid for twenty years." He left her mind to guess at what he'd experienced even as a toddler.

Alaric looked at Kennedy then, humor returning to his voice. "That’s why I don’t drink much. The darkness doesn’t need any help getting chatty." He wiggled his toes against Kennedy's. "How about you? What's something you've never told anyone?"

She giggled a little from his wiggling toes before she took a moment to answer the question that was bounced back to her.

“Sometimes I’m glad that my dad died.” Kennedy looked down into the ruby red wine in her glass as she spoke. “The day he died, he was going to announce that he was running for President. And while his death helped spur the MRA forward, I think him winning that election would have been so much worse.” She took another long drink before looking up at him. “That’s awful to say, isn’t it?”

Alaric thought for a moment. "No, perhaps not completely so. There are mothers and fathers and novercas, but not everyone who sires or births a child is worthy of those names. They are simply our genetic heritage." HIs mind drifted back to one who'd left him. "The woman who gave birth to me...she is not my Mother and she never will be. She abandoned me in Limbo, left me to the demons and Lord Belasco’s whims. I have seen her once and have no desire to ever see her again. And as long as Mother Askani inhabits Kamar-Taj, I trust no one will."

There was severe disdain in his voice, a controlled venom that exposed old scar tissue from his childhood.

For a brief moment, his countenance darkened, and when he spoke again, it was almost as if he were reciting an incantation. "I’m glad she’s wandered into the dark between dreams and never found her way back. Condemned to drift within the ruins of her own caged mind. Forever cradling a phantom child while staring into a mirror too shattered to ever show her face again." The darkness left just as quickly as it appeared and Alaric smiled, taking a drink of water from his ever-filling chalice.

“Oh yeah… what happened with Aurora was kind of a mess. I…um… I knew her a little bit but not well.” Kennedy said with a shrug and another sip, “Scott was booted from the school the day I arrived and then I kind of got lost in my own problems so she and I never really connected. But I could imagine being a mom right now, I don’t even know how to take care of myself let alone another helpless person. It was a stupid thing for her to do.” She paused for a moment, realizing how awkward it was to speak so off the cuff about his conception and the demise of his parents relationship but the wine was making her less filtered. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”

Alaric waved his hand dismissively. "Think nothing of it. I suppose what meant was..." he paused, searching for the right phrasing, "we don’t get to choose our parents. We only get to make the best of what we’re given."

He lifted his chalice, the faintest smirk returning to his lips. "To making the best of it," he said, "and to being better than those who've gone on before us." He realized they were still opposite one another and not close enough to tap their drinking vessels together. He moved next to Kennedy and held up his goblet again.

Alaric noticed that her cheeks were flushed with a warm, rosy glow while a few loose strands of hair clung to her templates. Kennedy’s eyes were bright but also a little glassy and wild with an unguarded sparkle that comes from being tipsy enough to laugh too easily. “To making the best of it.” She agreed before raising her glass and crashing it into his. The force was too much and it caused the wine and water to slosh out and down their hands. With little regard for the mess she had made, Kennedy took another long drink from the goblet and felt her head really starting to spin.

Alaric saw that Kennedy was getting a little more than tipsy. "Here," he said, reaching for the chalice of wine, "I think I've probably enabled you enough." He chuckled a little and continued. "Besides, we can't have you drunk drowning in the hot tub, now can we? I'd probably end up back in Limbo if that happened."

“I’m fine!’ Kennedy said with a pout and a sloppy reach across Alaric for the wine he had taken away. She over extended herself in her intoxicated state and she tumbled under the bubbles of the hot tub. She reappeared as quickly as she had gone under, but she gasped for air in surprise.

“Maybe I’m not fine.” She seemed annoyed with herself as Kennedy now resembled a wet cat rather than a pristine socialite. Her ponytail was heavy and soggy as her mascara smudged under her eyes. Out of instinct, she ran a thumb under her eyes and tried to fix herself. She noticed Alaric watching her through all of this along with his grin.

“Stop, don’t laugh at me.” She said with her own smile and a chuckle. Kennedy raised her hand and splashed him until he too was soaked. “There, much better.”

Alaric didn’t bother to dodge the splash. In fact, he took it full on, water streaming down his face and hair plastered to his forehead. For a second, he simply blinked through the droplets, then gave a slow, deliberate swipe of his hand across his face. "Ah, poetic justice," he said dryly, though his grin betrayed him. "That seems about right."

He leaned forward, eyes sparkling with amusement. "You do realize," he added, voice dropping to that teasingly calm tone he had, "this means war." Alaric put both hands into water and splashed Kennedy back twice, despite her already soaked condition.

“Ewww… it’s hot tub water,” Kennedy squealed as she attempted to protect herself from the soggy assault. She turned her head and laughed as he drenched her but aside from her mild protests she didn’t really fight back or attempted to stop it.

He just looked at her, hair stuck to her and face smudged with mascara. Then while shaking his head, a rare, fond smile appeared. "You might be the only person I’ve ever seen who can fall into chaos and make it look charming."

There was a brief pause after his words as Kennedy’s eyes found his and a moment of tension filled the small space between them. The sensation set off a silent alarm in the back of her mind, a mental warning that her affection always ended poorly for her and terribly for others.

“Well it’s about time that you figured that out…” She collected herself and replied in a cool, casual tone. Placing her arms on the edge of the tub she hoisted herself from out of the water. Despite her head spinning from the wine, Kennedy managed to lift herself with that careful, elegant grace that seemed to be a part of her DNA just as much as the X-gene was.

Her movements were fluid and deliberate as she made her way over to her towel and previously discarded book. As she dried off her lean, wet figure Kennedy paused and noticed that he was watching every move she made. “... I make everything look good.”

Standing up and wrapping herself up in her robe, she collected her things and offered Alaric one more smile, this time it was coy and charismatic. “Have a good night Alaric, don’t stay in for too much longer.”

Alaric grinned, "Indeed you do." He watched as she collected her things and then smiled at him. That coy, charismatic curve of her mouth hit him harder than any spell. It was soft, playful, and just elusive enough to make him wonder if she knew exactly what she was doing.

His own smile softened despite himself. "Good night, Kennedy," he said quietly, voice touched with a warmth he didn’t often let surface. "And…I’ll keep that in mind." He watched her go, lingering just a second longer than he meant to, the ghost of her smile still roaming his mind as the water rippled around him.

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