Christmas at the Lang's: Book Four

13

But it turned out, Stephen had been hiding his Just Dance ability from them this entire time.

He was a total boss at this game! He totally shocked everyone when he and Cassie started on a fairly easy dance, but both of them only got two hundred points off the maximum score, which was amazing. Hope, Hank and Janet just clapped politely, but none of them had really seen Cassie's dancing skills in action before now, but he, Maggie and Paxton had, and they knew how good she was. Since learning her first cartwheel at six years old, she'd progressed significantly when it came to dancing and gymnastics.

But apparently Stephen had too. Even though he must have been at least twenty five years older than his competitor, and while Scott wasn't saying he was old, he was surprised that Stephen was just as good and energetic. Both of them were a perfect match against each other, and their scores were almost, if not, perfect, and exactly the same as each other. He must do wizard yoga or something.

Both Loki and Scott were totally speechless watching them, which was not in character at all. Scott had been silently betting on Cassie, and he suspected Loki had too, but Stephen was, well, amazing at this. Plus he wasn't even using magic. Even the cloak had fallen still, watching hypnotised apparently.

They finished "Don't Start Now" (by Scott's new favourite, Dua Lipa) and everyone erupted into applause, seeing they'd got exactly one point off the limit each. That was nigh impossible on Just Dance, as far as Scott was concerned. So that was when they decided to tackle some harder dances, and when Hank's phone started buzzing and pinging with notifications.

"You're not going to answer them now, are you?" asked Scott, disappointed, from where he was sat next to Hope, his head on her shoulder, as Hank started to get up. "It's Christmas."

"Got to," Hank sighed. "Kinda urgent. And I'm going to need to take Hope with me."

Scott sighed. Hope patted his head and apologised, then stood up, Scott falling sideways into her empty space. Damn it, he liked hugs. He watched them leave the room from his fallen position on the sofa.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Loki asked exactly what he had been thinking. "Does anyone else know what they're going off to talk about? Because it's very suspicious."

Everyone else, even Janet, shook their heads. The fact that Janet didn't know was surprising, since she lived with them and everything. Heck, the fact Loki didn't know was surprising, because he was an actual telepath.

Scott decided to bring up that point, looking at him from the weird angle where he was half-sitting, half-lying on the sofa. "Aren't you a mind-reader? Can't you figure it out?"

"Doesn't work like that," he reminded him. "Kinda complicated, but it's like how I couldn't find out some things from Wanda, but I could other things. But I hope whatever it is, they tell us soon, because you don't need telepathy to see it's serious."

"That's for sure," Scott sighed. He didn't bother to get up. Now with only him, Janet and Loki on the sofa, they could spread out a bit more.

Cassie shrugged. "Dad, I don't know why you're so worried. You're a superhero, and you can handle anything."

"Why thank you," Scott said, miserably. "But you know, even superheroes worry at times."

Cassie frowned. "Well, I suppose we'll take your mind off it for a minute by totally embarrassing ourselves doing "Ice Cream"?"

Scott smiled evilly. "I like this one," he said, while Stephen sighed, "I hate this one."

To be honest, for a song rated "Hard," Cassie and Stephen did really well. Not as well as with the other songs, but Scott would've had enough trouble remembering which character he was, never mind the actual dance. So he couldn't say anything.

By almost seven o'clock, Cassie and Stephen were starting to wear themselves out (he wasn't surprised, since they'd been dancing for almost two hours) so Scott ordered everyone to the kitchen to make sandwiches if they didn't want to starve. He was definitely not a cook.

They hadn't even cleaned up after dinner, but Scott thought it could wait until tomorrow. He'd be alone and bored as hell tomorrow. Unless something cropped up in the superhero world, which was very unlikely. None of the Avengers really called him, even though he kept reminding them it was all thanks to him they saved the universe. And Luis's van, but mostly him.