Immortal Tales #Wattys2020

Epilogue

2019 seemed like the kind of year where no matter how bad things were, they could always get worse.

Then, it came 2020.

You would think surviving the end of the world twice in a couple of months would have been enough, but NO, a global pandemic just had to crash her friend's child birthday party.

Luz was overworked, overloaded and overtired with rescuing immortals and immortal children all over the world. She needed a break.

What she didn't need, was stupid people going around protesting for not wearing a mask.

She was grabbing the last of her supplies at the supermarket, when a woman practically tackled her to the ground for her right to breath freely.

-Listen lady, this is a piece of fabric on your face! - she screamed exasperated. -Do you have any idea of how much harder it was it to breathe the masks built in the Middle Ages? This is NOTHING compared to the precautions we took during the Black Death and ... -

The lady (her name was probably Karen) seemed taken back by the crazy teenager talking about knights and lost kingdoms. Mathias stopped her before she could jump on the woman.

Not that she would have.

She was keeping her social distance.

-Hello mamacita - he said putting a hand over her back. -Andre and Isaac are waiting for us -

She let him carry her away.

The "Not-so secret lair" (as Mathias had named it) was an entire building in the centre of Manhattan. It turned out that the immortals had contacts and money spread all over the world thanks to the illegal manoeuvres of the mist people. It had been easy for them to track the money down and make a huge investment.

Every single floor had been hired out by immortals. Not all of the ones that had worked for the mist people had agreed to their simple lifestyle, too wrapped in the mistery of path-changing or simply too far gone, but most of them had accepted Luz has a sort of leader. She hadn't wanted an official title, but she did require Mathias to call her "boss". 

Life was full of simple pleasure like this one.

Isaac and Andre gave birth to a beautiful seven pounds girl who responded to the name of Alex.

Alex was now one year old, so it was still too early to understand if she had taken up the immortality gene or not.

Luz had been doing some research in the field and was pretty sure to have narrowed it down to a couple of essential traits in the X chromosomes, but there was still a lot of work to do. It would just be so much easier if they could tell who was immortal just by looking at their DNA.

As Luz and Mat entered the common living area, they found Jane wearing only a towel peacefully sitting on the couch.

-Sup - saluted Mat and went straight to the kitchen to laid down the cake ingredients. It turned out that a good mechanic was also a good cook. Which was ... convenient.

-Daniel? - Luz asked smiling.

Jane laughed. -Oh, he is BOUND to cross that threshold at some point and I cannot wait to see his face! -

Luz rolled her eyes. -You most definitely have a crush on the dude. -

Jane waved her hands in denial. -I DO NOT. I just like to play with his head. He's always so dark and reserved, it makes me wonder ... DO NOT look at me like that. I don't get crushes.-

Her eyes travelled to Mathias whistling in the kitchen.

-Speaking of ... - she started.

-Please let's not go there! - she whispered, her cheeks burning red. - There is just way too much work for anything else at the moment. We keep travelling every day to rescue the remaining immortals and there is no time for ... dates or stuff like that. -

It was Jane's turn to roll her eyes.

-Or you could just do him instead and worry later about labels. He's pretty cute. - Andre had appeared behind her, accompanied by Isaac and their newborn Alex. Alex was giggling happily shifting from her father's arms to ... well, her other father's arms. Andre had decided to shift into a man form as soon as he gave birth. He told them all he was DONE with period cramps for a while. -That's how I got Isaac anyways. -

Isaac blushed and muttered something about having to change Alex's diaper and disappeared into the bathroom.

-I see you have adapted to parenting quite well -

Her friend laughed isterically. -Oh yeah, never had the need for sleep anyways. But I do love the little devil to bits. And she is so gorgeous, all Isaac no doubt. -

Luz didn't mention that to her all babies looked like peeled potatoes. Andre could live without that. Plus Alex was terribly cute in her peeled potatoey kind of way.

They went to help Mathias in the kitchen, or better, to keep him company while he did all the work for Alex's cake.

-I am thinking a two stores vanilla castel - he was saying while mixing some white sugar with a brown sludge. - And sparkles of course. Lots of sparkles. Luz can you warm up the oven for me? -

The sight of Mathias wearing pink oven gloves and covered in flour was way too amusing. He must have noticed her staring because he threw some of the sugar in her direction.

-Feel free to take a bite later - he winked. -But now I need an engineer. My cake is dangerously tilting. -

Andre and Jane giggled like teens. Luz ignored them and helped putting some stuffing on the right sight of the pastry.

-Cheers mujercita- he said moving to the next dangerous task: the chocolate filling.

-That's new, what does it mean? -asked Andre. Despite knowing 54 languages, he refused to acknowledge Spanish as one. He would have denyed it, but Luz new that it was because of that taco accident.

-Mat ... - she warned.

-Wifie - he translated as if listing groceries.

That left Jane and Andre without a reply. Jane almost dropped her towel.

-He tricked me! - she complained. Mat licked some sugar off her face, which did not help with her explanation. -We had to sign these adoption papers for an child who had been left alone by an immortal parent and ... -

-he will arrive in a few days by the way, I told Daniel they would have to share rooms - commented Mat.

-... And he told me it was all part of an act, that I had to sign stuff and all. - she glared at him accusingly. -He lied and now he won't sign an annoulment until I take a vacation from the job! -

Mat wrapped his arms around her neck, and she didn't push him away.

-She was just as grumpy during our honeymoon, can you believe it? - he kissed her on the cheek.

Luz turned around abruptly and bit his lip.

-Ah! - he gasped and then sucked in his lip. -Take a vacation amor, or we stay marrried. -

-FINE BY ME - she stomped her foot.

-These might just be the worst vows I have ever heard in my life. - commented Andre, who had somehow found a pack of popcorn.

Mathias gave her friend a meaningful look. -At least you are not married to her. -

-WE ARE NOT MARRIED -

-A weekend, take just weekend off. - offered Mat. His hands busy again swirling chocolate mousse. -In fact, I might have already booked it for next week. AND before you said no, listen up... -

He stopped mixing and put both his oven mittens on her shoulders, his green eyes staring right though her. To be honest with herself, Luz would have said yes to anything he asked when he was this close to her.

-Paris - he said seriously. -I know you say art is a waste of time, BUT I have seen the way you look at paintings and pictures. Think about it, the Louvre, the Museè d'Orsay, the baguettes. The place has everything. I got you two tickets so you can take anyone - he gestured significantly at himself. - and I mean anyone on the trip. Please say yes. Also you owe me a date. -