"That's amazing. Is he raising the three kids on his own?"

"With a little help from his friends. We're all very 'it takes a village' around here. And Landri's parents are occasionally...well. Themselves. But he's the one who goes to bat for them if he needs to."

"Yeah... our grandparents know his parents. It's good that Lan has someone on his side."

Angelique rests a brief hand on Felicia's elbow. "Quite. We're all doing our best. But sometimes there's nothing you can do..."

Felicia mirrors the gesture. "We appreciate that you mean when you say that."

Fernanda glances at the small found family. "At least we will have someone to ask for advice if-or-when we ever adopt on our own."

"I'm sure he'd be absolutely delighted to provide parenting tips."

"I will make a note of that. Anyway, I wanted to talk you about collaborative artifact work and if you know who would be interested."

"Do you think Aaren and 'Chelle would? We have some ideas that involve multiple lightning elementals and while we have Theressa, most of our family is either air or fire."

"Even if Aaren isn't, I can guarantee 'Chelle will be. She loves experimenting with things." Beat. "Although I'm sure you can talk Aaren into it."

"Great." She looks over to see if Aaren is unoccupied from hugs.

Percy waves her over, doing his reacting before the act thing.

Felicia does come over then.

Lan links arms with Percy and draws him off apparently to show him something in Angelique's garden that he absolutely has to see.

"Hi," Aaren says with a smile, watching his boys go.

"Hey, we just remembered that we had some experiment ideas that use multiple lightning elementals. Would you be interested in some non-mad magical science?"

Aaren thinks for a moment. "Well, so long as you promise it's not going to be mad, I'm sure I can find a way to help out."

"Certified 100% non-mad. Theresa even got sick of doing the maniacal laughter. Also, we take safety precautions."

"...'Chelle might be disappointed in the lack of maniacal laughter," Aaren says with a small laugh. "But I'd be delighted to help out."

"Cool. We can she could borrow the lab coat and googles if she is inclined. We have to figure out a date and that requires some scheduling, can I have your number?"

Aaren is very glad that he doesn't actually blush. "Yes, sure, here..." And when she's ready, he'll give her his number.

She writes it down, smiles at him. "I will get back to you in a day or two."

She has a really good smile.

She really does. And it's infectious at that. "I'll be waiting with bated breath."

"I will try not to keep you hanging for too long."

Aaren smiles. "I should probably round my kids up and head home."