"Well... maybe we should try to work on creating lots of really happy memories?"

"Do you have something in mind?"

"Not particularly, I'm pretty good at not letting my emotions take over, making new ones sounds like lots of work. But given that they're happy ones it should be good work? I should spend a lot of time with you guys."

"Okay, but if we're just sort of sitting there I don't know if that'll coalesce, what do you want to do?"

"I dunno! My strongest memories were Christmas with you two."

"Aww! Now I'm jealous."

"You didn't really miss all that much," Miranda says. "Well, at my place, I don't know about Karen's."

"No miracles occurred, it was just Christmas. I mean, it was still Christmas but it wasn't things besides Christmas."

"Well, it was just, like, the first time I actually spent Christmas with anyone other than mum. Well, I guess I spent one Christmas with dad when I was zero but that doesn't count and besides it'd probably not be a happy memory."

"Um?"

Sigh. "Dad was a fundamentalist jerk who left when I was one and morphed accidentally for the first time, calling my mum a demon and me demonspawn." Pause. "Discovery of part of this information by a boy named Rufus triggered my worst Hulk incident, which triggered my ability to properly think and talk about this."

"Oh."

Willow looks between them and shakes her head vigorously. "Well, I have an idea to help with all of this. You three are visiting me this summer at my parents' summer place!"

"I'm not totally sure my parents will let me visit a Muggle house. But I can ask."

"It's really big! And there's a pool, and video games, and horses!"

"Uh, the other parts are really cool but I think I'll pass on the horses."

"Aw come on! I have this really sweet pony called Minnie, I bet she'd like you! She likes everyone!"

"If you say so..."

"What's wrong with horses?"

"They're animals."

"Oh, right, animals mostly don't like you except your owl."

"Yep."

"I wonder why."

He shrugs. "My current hypothesis is that the Universe thinks that if I had access to animals I'd take over the world too quickly and it wants to make life a bit harder for me."

"...you know, at this point I don't even know if you're joking anymore."