Avery was in the middle of making dinner when Christian arrived. When she saw him covered in little cuts and with his arm in a short cast her guilt multiplied by ten.

“What happened to you?!”

The disbelief was at least somewhat real because she hadn’t realized how hard she accidentally chucked him into the building by using him as a launch point. He didn’t have any other internal injuries, did he?!

“I got into a car accident,” he lied. “I’m really fine—it’s mostly bruising and soreness—but I did break my wrist and got a bunch of little cuts from flying glass.”

“I’m so, so sorry,” Avery said lamely, knowing it wouldn’t make up for anything.

His unknowing sacrifice resulted in everyone getting the insulin they needed so it had definitely been worth it but that didn’t change how bad she felt about it. She led him to the couch and fussed over him until the kitchen timer went off and she had to go take the lasagna out and toss the salad while it set.

When she called him over to the table he noticed the cake box on the counter and squinted at it. “Who is Maribel and why did you make a cake telling her you love her?”

Avery snorted. “Maribel is my friend’s girlfriend. I owed him a favor so I said I’d make him a cake and he told me what to put on it.”

“Right, that makes more sense. I guess I’m a little out of it.”

Guilt flooded through her yet again. He was probably more hurt than he was letting on yet he still wanted to come over here instead of going home after work. He was still in his work clothes though he had taken off his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt to be more comfortable.

Christian came over after work so often it might be a good idea for her to suggest keeping more comfortable clothes here to change into so he didn’t have to go back and forth if he didn’t want to hang around wearing a suit all night. That wouldn’t be too weird, would it?

Avery offered the suggestion once they were at the table and he nodded his agreement that it was a good idea, unable to speak since his mouth was full of lasagna. She was glad she did something right. She may as well try to minimize his discomfort as much as possible considering she was the reason he had a broken arm.

She let him pick what to do after dinner and he wanted to cuddle and watch a specific movie. She didn’t mind at all and took extra care to be gentle with him because of how sore he was.

The doorbell rang about halfway through and she sighed. That had to be Jorge.

“I think my friend is here to get his cake. Hang on,” she said as she stood up to get the door.

“Sup, Güera?” he asked with a nod once she opened it.

“Not much. Hanging out with my boyfriend. Thanks for coming over to get the cake even though I owe you. I was afraid of it getting messed up on the subway.”

Jorge noticed Christian sitting on the couch and peered at him with interest. “So this is the fabled boyfriend, huh? I saw on Facebook but wasn’t sure I could believe it because I thought you and Angelo would die single.”

Avery scowled at him. “Angelo very well might with how picky he is. Come say hi.”

“Right, sorry. Sup, Güera’s boyfriend? I’m Jorge.”

Christian had already turned around to see the commotion when they were talking about him and he gave Jorge a friendly smile. “Christian. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too. Angelo is gonna be so mad I met you first! Anyway, thanks for the cake. See you in a few weeks,” Jorge said as he took the bakery box and waved behind him as he left.

Avery locked the door behind her before settling back on the couch where her boyfriend put an arm around her shoulders. He regarded her curiously. “Why do your friends call you Güera? What does it mean?”

“It’s slang for ‘white girl.’ Because I’m an albino. It’s done affectionately though; they aren’t insulting me. They rarely call me anything else. Angelo started it when we were kids so now his whole family refers to me that way too. Jorge’s his cousin.”

“Huh. Do you have any other nicknames?”

“Aves. My dad and other best friend call me that. I’m cool with anything really. What about you? Do you have any nicknames?”

“My family calls me Chris and I’m used to it but prefer my full name,” Christian said with a shrug. “Chris is too casual for my personality so it would be weird if anyone else called me that.”

Avery raised an eyebrow. He was always calling himself boring one way or another, wasn’t he? He was the least boring person she knew and not only because he was usually out flying around in a mask.

“Are your family members casual people then?” she asked.

He let out a sharp laugh. “Sometimes too much so. You’ll understand if you ever meet Liam.”

She supposed she would. He already sounded like an overly casual person based on what little she had heard of him. She hoped she got the chance. They were still in the early stages of their relationship so it was too soon to meet family members. Who knew if they would be together by the time that would be a normal thing to do?

Avery wanted to believe they would. That this wouldn’t have to come to an end. Guilt about injuring him aside, she had been so happy with Christian. Happier than she thought was possible after her father’s death.

In a perfect world she would be able to hold onto that happiness forever but the world was far from perfect. It was broken and she was trying to fix it as best she could, which was why they were on opposing sides. He maintained the law even if the law was wrong.

She snapped herself out of her melancholy thoughts to respond. “My dad was fairly casual too. So was my uncle Horatio—Angelo’s dad.”

“You mentioned before that the two of you were raised together. Was Horatio your dad’s best friend?” Christian asked.

“Yeah. My mom left when I was little to pursue her career and didn’t stay in contact. Horatio’s wife died of cancer when I was in elementary school. They were two single dads doing their best to raise us without female influence. Since my dad didn’t have any other family the Cruz clan sort of adopted us.”

“That’s good. That they sort of adopted you, I mean.”

Avery smiled fondly. “I’m very lucky. They feed me well on holidays and, as you already saw, Angelo has my back no matter what. He drives me crazy a lot of the time but he’s all I’ve got now that my dad is gone.”

Christian didn’t say that she also had him but she understood why. It was because their arrangement was always meant to be temporary and he didn’t want to draw attention to that and ruin the mood.

“Sounds like Liam,” he commented, which made her laugh.

“I guess that’s a male family member thing. How much older are you than him anyway?”

“Six years. Apparently my mom wasn’t sure whether or not she wanted to have another kid because I was a bit of a handful. By the time she made up her mind there was quite an age gap.”

Avery barely managed to hold back a snort. A bit of a handful, huh? She could see having a child with the ability to fly being a struggle for a first-time mother. Especially if he couldn’t control it when he was little and ended up floating away half the time unintentionally.

It would be hard to keep that from people. Superpowers did exist but they were rare. Not everyone that had them became a hero or villain either. Some powered people wanted to live their lives in peace.

She was glad she hadn’t been born with powers. Even without a mom she had a normal, happy childhood because she had the best dad in the world. It wasn’t until he became obsessed with stopping Hunsacher that things took a turn for the worse.

“My mom didn’t want kids in the first place. Thought I only got in the way, which was why she left me with my dad. She’s a politician and is married to another politician these days…or so I heard.”

Her mother thought that Levi and Avery dragged her down so she left and found someone who better suited her needs. Someone who already had children from a previous marriage and didn’t expect her to produce any more. She was a congresswoman and as a public figure there was a decent amount of information about her on the internet. That was the only reason Avery knew these things; they hadn’t been in contact since she left.