Lex, the good guy in all this

Sorry about the plain text, no frills post, but Blogger and I are disagreeing again. ~Rebecca



"Good morning, Marissa," Lex trilled happily as he walked into Marissa's office. She looked up with an annoyed glance,one eyebrow cocked and her mouth twisted to one side making her look very much like a tiny, pissed off goth princess. Her hair was mostly black today with only the tips dyed electric blue and she had a heavy coat of kohl around her eyes, reinforcing the goth princess impression, though she was actually a very highly skilled witch and herbalist. The pissed off look was quite genuine, of course. She was always harangueing him to knock before barging into her office. To be fair, Lex had considered knocking but discarded the idea. He'd already called her by her name rather than the pet name he'd given her when she first came to him as a child. Knocking on top of that would only serve to put his former ward on guard.

"Did you want some thing or did you just want to stare at me and grin like a cat?" she asked peevishly. Lex grinned even bigger. He couldn't help it; he loved it when someone said he was grinning like a cat. He was a cat part time, of course. But as an Egyptian demi god, his animal form was that of a sphinx cat and that breed was not known for its charm. Lex liked to think his sly grin evoked thought of the Cheshire Cat from that delightful children's story. He had, in fact, read that story to Marissa quite often, though she had been too old for bed time stories, just so she would always associate him with the grinning cat head.

"I was just wondering, my dear, what your plans were for the fair next week." The monkey-child--no, no, Marissa! rolled her eyes and huffed. He knew full well she had a booth at the fair and was planning to spend the time selling iced coffee and hand-blended frappochinos while her werewolf husband and stepsons enjoyed the festivities. Which was what brought him here, of course. "Oh, that's right," he purred. "You are planning on working the whole thing rather than relaxing with your family."

"Do you have a point and are you going to get to it anytime this year?" she said snidely.

"I was just thinking," he said as he slinks deeper into her domain, that since I was denied a vendor's license to sell beer, I could, perhaps... spell you at the Java Joe's booth so you can spend some quality time with those darling pups of yours. They are only young for a short time, you know--"

"Mayor Gil made me promise not to let you sell or give away any free samples of any of your brews as a contingent for allowing me to have a vendor's license," she said woodenly.

"I'm not asking to be allowed to distribute any of my concoctions, child. I am offering to watch your booth so you can have some quality family time."

"What's the catch?" she asked, suspicion coloring her words.

"No catch, I assure you. Only I overheard those darling nephews of mine commenting about how it would have been nice if their mom could have joined them. Something about having two parents available to get them on the throw-up rides." That last bit was absolutely true. Loki and Thor had wanted to pair off with their parents on the tea cups so they could have a contest to see who could get the most spins without ralphing. Lex knew he had her with that one. Despite not being the boys' real mother, Marissa loved them fiercely.

"You promise not to do anything that could get the booth shut down?" She demanded. Lex held his right hand solumnly over his heart and bowed, an Egyptian vow he knew she would accept readily since no god, even a demi god like him could violate such a vow.

"We'll, ok, then. You better not make me regret this."

"You won't. I too have no interest in annoying Gilbert on this matter. No, no Egyptian Gold. No Dead Jackel Ale. Not even any glow-in-the-dark soft drinks. I also promised not to sell any of my concoctions at the fair."

"Not even your Ever Fresh Ice or Nubian Frozen Treats?" Marissa demanded.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Lex replied seriously. "This is a family friendly event, after all, and most of my concoctions are either medicinal or erotic in nature. Besides, my specialty ice creams count as concoctions and are therefor covered by my promiss on threat of being thrown out of the poker club." That was also regretfully true. He like Gil a great deal, but it rankled him to have been banned so callously. No, the whole point of this was to get back at his erstwhile friend. So long as he was working the Java Joe's booth, Gil was going to have to post someone on him to make sure Lex kept to the bargin. This time, he was going to be bad by being in his best behavior. And while every official eye was on him... who would be available to make surethat no one else was selling Lex's wares on his behalf?