Triple Date?
“So, are we allowed to call this a triple date? You and me, Eddie and Pietro, Wanda and Ralph?”
Sage laughed and rested her head on Addy’s shoulder for two seconds before she had to move again because they were walking. “Sure. Let’s do that. Do you think we can find a place that will let Ralph in while we get hot chocolate?”
“Actually, yeah! There’s a little place about a block or two from here where they let dogs in.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yep. We go in there sometimes when we’re taking Ralph on a walk and we need a drink.”
“Well, then. Lead the way, m’lady.”
Adeline glared at her. “Sage, you’re my girlfriend and I love you, so you get a pass for that one. The next time you say that word, I will bitchslap you into next year.”
Sage tried to repress her giggles. “Noted.”
---
“Ralph, sit. Sit. Good boy!” Eddie rubbed the dog furiously behind the ears when he obeyed, turning a bright grin on Pietro. “See, I told you he listens to me!”
The girls all shared a look and a small smile, because the boy was adorable.
“Good job, buddy.” Pietro winked at him, and then turned to Adeline. “So, what exactly are your intentions with my baby cousin?”
Sage groaned and buried her head in her hands as Adeline laughed. “Pietro.”
“What? You know that your dads will ask. I’m just trying to prepare her for the dating interview. Otherwise, they will destroy her.”
“Oh, gee, thanks. I’m glad that you think that I can’t hold my own, Pietro.”
“I didn’t say that. But you don’t know her dads.”
“You’re right. But I’m not worried. I love Sage, and Sage loves me. Even if they don’t approve, we’re dating, and that’s all she wrote. If that changes, then that changes, but that’s between Sage and I, not anyone else.”
Sage smiled softly and laced their fingers together. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Wanda wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes. “You guys are gross.”
“Pietro?” Eddie tugged on the older boy’s sleeve, staring up at him intently.
“Yeah, Eddie? What’s wrong?”
“Are you the really fast guy that fights with the Avengers? Because you look just like him.”
Sage could’ve sworn that she felt her heart stop beating. She willed herself not to whimper as Addy turned to look at her. “Well, Eddie, you see-”
“Yeah, I am.” Pietro grinned broadly as if he couldn’t see Sage dying directly across the table from him. “Wanda usually fights with us too!”
Sage slowly dropped her head onto the table, and was tempted, oh so tempted to start beating it against said hard object. “Pietro-”
“What?”
“Она не была готова сказать ей, идиот.” Wanda hissed at her brother, running a hand up and down Sage’s back soothingly.
“Как я должен был знать?!”
“Язык тела, Пьетро.”
Pietro groaned and glared at his sister.
“Sage?”
“Yeah?” Sage slowly lifted her head to look at Adeline, trying not to let her anxiety show on her face.
“Will you come with me to the bathroom really quick? I just- I’ve gotta pee.”
“Yeah, of course.” She offered her girlfriend a tight smile, and made quick eye contact with Wanda, trying to relay that it was alright.
“What’s up? Or did you actually have to pee?”
“Your cousins.”
“Yeah?” Sage felt the panic rise in her throat, but tried to stay calm. “Is this because they’re Avengers? Because I can explain-”
“When you asked me what I would do if Tony Stark was your dad, that wasn’t a hypothetical question, was it?”
“Um…”
“Sage.” Adeline pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “We just had a conversation about communication, and you’re doing it again. I-”
“No! Wait, okay? I didn’t mean for it to happen like this. This was not planned at all, and I was genuinely going to tell you, okay?”
Addy fixed her with a skeptical look. “Explain.”
“I wasn’t sure how you would actually react to my entire family being made up of the Avengers, okay? So I introduced you to the non-famous ones first - Sam, and Aerin. Then Pietro told me to maybe start introducing the rest of them to you slowly, to see if you recognised them or not, because Natasha said that you met her, and you didn’t recognise her. I was going to tell you about Tony and Loki before you met them, or Thor, or Bruce, I promise. I just didn’t know if you would know about Pietro and Wanda, and I was trying to avoid you freaking out as much as possible, because I love you, but in the back of my mind, I’m still terrified that since you found out that Tony Stark is my dad, you’re going to, like, ditch me because he used to be awful, or use me to get to him, and I don’t think that you would do that, but-”
Addy finally got fed up with the other girl’s rambling, and yanked her forward, pressing their lips together firmly.
Sage’s eyes widened, as her brain gave a screeching sound and a blue screen of death, and then closed them as quickly as she’d flung them open, hands fisting in Addy’s flannel.
They broke apart, both panting slightly, Sage raising her eyes to meet Addy’s, looking slightly confused and worried. “I- was- did we just-”
Addy grinned at her breathlessly. “Okay, so I meant to do that at a different, better time, but I guess now’s a good a time as any, right?”
“Oh my god.” Sage laughed slightly, looking astonished, her eyes shining with love. “I love you. But- but we have to talk about this, don’t we?”
“The kissing thing, or the ‘Hi, I’m Sage, and Tony Stark is my dad’ thing?”
“Both?”
Adeline cupped Sage’s face in her hands and leaned their foreheads together for a moment, before pulling back slightly to look her in the eyes. “As for the kissing thing, I’d rather do it more often as opposed to talking about it. Unless that’s an issue for you, in which case we can discuss it for years, and we never have to do it again if you don’t want to.”
“I didn’t say that!”
She grinned again and gently kissed the tip of Sage’s nose. “The parental thing isn’t a big deal to me. They’re your dads, and to me that’s all that matters. That and getting their approval to date you. I don’t care if your dads are Alan Menken and George Clooney, okay?”
Sage started giggling, and put her hands on Adeline’s hips, rubbing the fabric of the other girl’s flannel between her thumb and pointer finger. “Alan Menken and George Clooney? You think? That would be, like an intensely unattractive couple. Like, I don’t think even George Clooney can balance out Alan Menken.”
“I don’t have an opinion on the matter. I’m a useless lesbian. But, hey. I’m serious, okay? I love you. Nothing’s gonna change that. Unless you, like, sing when you sleep, because that’s gonna be a problem.”
Sage laughed again. “I don’t think that’s gonna be an issue. I love you.”
“I love you too.”