Out of Their Element

Chapter 7

It was date night for the Ripple-Lumen family. Vapor with her playdate with Mandy and Ember and Wade's date-date.

Wade tied up Vapor's whispy hair into pigtails and patted her head when he was done. "Aaand there!" he announced. "All done." He turned his daughter around to look in the mirror and asked her, "What do you think?"

Vapor stroked her chin, taking great care to admire her reflection. She squinted her eyes in silence, leaving Wade sweating with anticipation.

"I..." Vapor leaned forward, closer to the mirror.

Wade grit his teeth.

"... Love it!" Vapor drew back and clapped her hands together. "Thank you daddy!"

Wade let out a breath of relief. "Oh good! I mean— I knew you were going to like it." He puffed out his chest proudly. "Let's go show mom." He gathered Vapor in his arms and headed towards the room he shared with Ember.

"Hey, Em'!" Wade had called out to her. "Those plastic bubble barrettes actually turned out well."

"Really?" Ember poked her head out of the bathroom. "Let me see." Soon the rest of her followed as she stepped into view and Wade's jaw dropped. To him, Ember always had a superior sense of style. But it has been quite a while since they've seen each other all dressed up.

All of her clothes were made out of a nonflammable material, such as this long sleeve dress that stopped at her knees. The dress exposed her back in a long V shape. She also wore comfortable boots for walking in case there was a water hazard.

Wade began to pick himself back up. "Ember, you look so..."

Vapor butted in, pushing past her father's legs to go hug her mother. "Beautiful! You look beautiful mommy!"

Ember laughed lightly, embracing Vapor in return. "Yeah? I dunno, I think it might be much."

Wade shook his head adamantly. "No way! You look amazing. It's perfect."

Vapor tore herself from Ember's arms and bounced around. "What about me?" she asked. "Don't I look amazing?" She began to float up in the air, rising no higher than Ember's knees.

Ember stooped down to pat Vapor on the head. "Of course you do our little Steam Beam. We are killing it."

Vapor cackled, lifting up her tiny fists. "Killing it!" she chanted. "Killing it!" Her voice was shrill with laughter.

"Maybe let's not say that around other people." Wade pointed out hastily.

Vapor stopped chanting, only laughing evilly.

Ember and Wade shared a glance.

"Quite the gremlin we've brought up." Ember said while standing up straight and placing her hands on her hips.

Without hesitation, Wade said that she gets it from Ember. Which was true after all. Both girls were tenacious as a wildfire. "She's a lot like you, actually." Wade realized.

"Are you sure about that?" Ember asked, bearing the same puzzled expression as her daughter as they both looked at Wade. They both had their heads tilted at the exact same angle, down to the very last degree.

Wade stared at them for a moment until her burst out into laughter. "Nooo, not at all. I don't think that."

Ember and Vapor looked at each other and shrugged.

"Ah well," Ember continued. "We've got placed to be, don't we?" If Ember and Wade were to get to their movie on time, they needed to start heading out now to drop off Vapor at the Dewdrops.

While she was over there, Ember and Wade planned a night on the town, much like their first ever dates were. When planning this outing, they couldn't pick one thing to do. There were just so many fun things and so little time!

If one thing was for sure, Ember and Wade would be sure to enjoy it together.

***

The Dewdrops' home was much larger than the Ripple-Lumens. Fountains, falls, and foliage were everywhere. It seemed about right for a wealthy family of water, earth, and mud elementals.

Once Vapor was dropped off, she and Mandy played in the garden. Vapor quickly learned that Mandy was all too good at hide-and-seek around here as each time it was Mandy's turn to hide, she would flatten herself amongst the flower beds trying to pass off as dirt.

Each time Vapor would eventually find her by the small giggles that managed to slip out of Mandy's mouth and by the mere fact that first was not as shiny as mud. Vapor had to look very closely to discern this.

After a while the girls got tired of playing and took to talking.

They tossed stones as they walked and talked.

"You should've seen Ash apologizing to me after my daddy put his mommy in her place." Vapor exclaimed before immediately covering her mouth with her hands. "Oops! I wasn't supposed to use those words."

"Put her... in her place?" Mandy echoed. She tilted her head and mud trailed off from her hair and onto the ground.

Vapor nodded. "Yeah. He told me how he did it."

"I thought your mom was the tough one." said Mandy.

Vapor simply gave a shrug. "They both are."

"Wow..."

"When I grow up to be a mommy," Vapor hopped up onto a decorative rock and flexed her little arms, "I'm going to be just like them!"

"But... you are tough, Vapor." Mandy suggested while playing with her fingers. "Way tougher than me. I could never talk to Ash like you do."

Vapor smirked. "Well that's easy. All you have to do is tell him no. Like this. No!"

"No?"

Vapor cupped her hands around her mouth. "Noooo!"

Mandy squeaked. "No..."

Vapor sulked, lowering her hands. "C'mon... you can do better than that!"

Mandy took in a deep breath, summoning her voice from inside of her. Vapor waited with anticipation. Mandy's cheeks were so round and full of air, they nearly popped.

Finally, with all of her gusto, Mandy let out her pent up frustration of being a shy mud girl.

"Nooooo!"

Vapor was nearly blow away. She clapped her hands together in a round of applause. "Now that's how you do it."