Chapter Text
“Alright, alright,” Chase laughed. “Get back inside the car, you aren’t dogs.”
“It’s so sunny here!” Kaz grinned, pulling his head back inside the window. Bree exchanged a smirk with her brother from the front seat.
Oliver, pulling back in as well, seconded: “Yeah, even I feel how hot it is.”
“Sit,” Chase said firmly. “Belts on.”
“Mine’s already on,” Oliver sniffed.
“Yeah, mine too,” Kaz said, followed by the click of him buckling himself in.
Four of the five members of the Elite Force had been dragged into this vacation by Chase and Bree’s mother. Tasha Davenport had suggested that the team was long overdue for a vacation in a way that was not a suggestion. She virtually wrangled them into a jet, then a car, demanding they stay at the Davenport mansion in California for a week or so. Skylar had to swear up and down that she would join a few days in once she was done vacationing with her own family to appease Tasha.
Chase smiled, merging off the highway onto the suburban roads. Almost home.
The smile waned a little. Almost everyone would be there: Tasha, Leo, baby Naomi, Douglas, Taylor and Logan, even Daniel.
Mr. Davenport was in Beijing on business, which wasn’t all that surprising. Adam was a different story. He was away taking summer classes at the university and made it known that he wouldn’t make it, despite it being only two hours from their home. It seemed like his brother was pointedly avoiding him. It made sense given how sour their last interaction was.
Chase lightly shook his head. No sense dwelling on it now. It was a beautiful August afternoon, just past his birthday, and he was also enjoying the sun glittering off the coves. Rhode Island, where Centium City was located, had coves, too. But there was a big difference between the frigid cold waters up in the Northern part of the country and the sun-kissed tides in Southern California.
Bree gently nudged his side with her elbow. He glanced down at her.
You okay? She conveyed. She didn’t know the extent of his and Adam’s recent issues, but she obviously knew both of them well enough to recognize that they were present.
Chase offered her a small smile, nudging her back. Yeah.
She shoved him again, harsher, for good measure. Chase snickered, putting his free hand up in surrender.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she challenged, snobbishly adjusting her sleek sunglasses.
As the siblings began playfully bickering, Oliver nodded sagely.
“Told ya. Pay up.”
Kaz sighed heavily, fishing a wad of cash from his cargo shorts’ pocket and depositing it into Oliver’s waiting palm.
“And what’s that about, boys?” Bree turned around in her seat, ignoring Chase’s protests about unsafe road etiquette.
“We made a bet about how long it would take you two to argue,” Oliver admitted without hesitation, unfurling the bills to count out his haul.
“We’ve been traveling for eight hours, thirty-two minutes, and fifteen seconds-”
“No one asked,” Bree interrupted Chase.
“Well, sue me for thinking we were doing good-”
“Weh, weh, weh,” Bree mocked.
“Yeah, you were,” Oliver agreed, neatly placing his winnings in his wallet. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
“I bet it would be max twenty minutes,” Kaz confessed around a yawn.
Chase shot him a perturbed look in the rearview mirror.
“Hey now, babe,” Kaz defended. “Money is money.”
“It sure is,” Oliver teased, patting Kaz’s head. Kaz smacked his hand away, jamming his fingers into his ribs. “Ow!”
“Yeah, ask my credit card statement,” Chase glared at his boyfriend again. “That’s my money.”
“Mhm, because your million-dollar allowance got real dented by me.”
“Ugh-”
“Alright, alright,” Bree cut them off, though there wasn’t any annoyance in her tone. There was an undercurrent of excitement. Chase saw why as they turned down the winding road full of mansions. “We’re here.”
~*~
The large door swung wide open.
Bree and Chase broke into massive grins. Tasha barreled into the two, uncaring about nearly tripping and snapping her ankle due to her high heels. “Oh, my gosh!” she gasped, hugging them tightly. They returned the embrace, with Bree wrapping both of her arms around Tasha and Chase looping one of his over his sister in order to do the same. “Oh, I missed you!” she pulled back, still holding their shoulders to look them over. She scowled at their slightly beaten-up selves, raising her eyebrow in a demand disguised as a silent question.
Bree and Chase both immediately became incredibly sheepish for their mighty stature as famous bionic heroes, hurriedly babbling the explanation of their latest scuffle from a mission the previous day over each other.
Quiet snickers pulled them away. Kaz and Oliver, clearly tickled at their demeanor around Tasha, quickly killed their laughter when they received twin glares.
Tasha looked the siblings up and down once more with pursed lips, glancing over Bree with a smile at the other two boys.
“Hi,” she said brightly. Kaz felt the familiar fluff from last fall build in his chest. Apparently, it worked on Oliver as well. They largely only knew her from Douglas’s hospitalization, her very brief hour-ish visit to the tower, and the care packages she sent to the team. But still, Kaz felt the urge to melt into a puddle at her exuding sheer maternal love.
He adjusted Chase’s duffel bag strap on his shoulder, as he was, of course, bringing in all of Chase’s luggage while forcing Oliver to carry the rest (including his own), clearing his throat. “Hey, Mrs. D.”
Tasha wrinkled her nose. “You can call me Tasha, sweetie. Both of you can. Now come inside and set all of that mess down.”
~*~
The blast of AC was nice as the team entered the threshold. Right as Kaz and Oliver finished setting their bags down by the entrance, a loud shout caught their attention.
“Bree!”
Bree beamed, rushing to hug a girl who stood a few feet away. She was a little taller than Bree, slightly muscled, and had long black hair tossed up in a ponytail. She was also wearing a strange-looking holographic device over her eyes.
Chase smiled as the two girls swayed back and forth for a few steps.
“Chase! Bree!”
“Hi,” Chase greeted. Kaz and Oliver jumped as a larger shape than they were expecting rounded the kitchen corner. He wasn’t Adam-sized, but still bigger than anyone else in the room. He also had black hair that was slicked out of his face and a splash of freckles across his nose– a nose that looked like the other girl’s, and sporting the exact same smile she did, too. He quickly crushed Chase in a hug, dropping him back onto the carpet after a few seconds.
That meant they knew each other pretty well, as he was clearly aware that Chase wasn’t usually much for physical affection. Well, obviously, this dude knew the Davenports well; he was standing in their house.
He pulled Bree into a side hug while the other girl embraced Chase, separating and smiling in Kaz and Oliver’s direction. “Hey! I’m Logan!” he waved with his free arm. “That’s my sister Taylor.” they returned waves, exchanging a glance of mutual awkwardness.
“Oh, this is Kaz,” Bree pointed at him. “That’s Oliver.”
“Where’re the kids?” Chase looked around the otherwise empty space.
Taylor chuckled. “You mean Leo? Who’s a year younger than you?”
“Among others,” he sniffed.
“They’re all in the lab,” Tasha replied, busying in the kitchen. “I’ve almost got dinner ready.”
“Uh… want help?” Kaz asked.
“He’s a good cook,” Oliver added awkwardly.
“I’ve heard,” Tasha smirked. Chase blushed. “I’m okay, though. Just waiting for it to bake a little longer.”
“Aw, you talk about me?” Kaz teased, leaning into Chase’s space. Tasha laughed.
“Shut up,” Chase nudged him.
“Get your ass up here,” Bree said into her phone, presumably hanging up right after as she tapped the screen once before slipping the device into her pocket. The silence that persisted for a beat made her explain: “I summoned the children.”
~*~
Oliver and Kaz didn’t have any idea where this “lab” was located, but the stampeding footsteps from a hallway behind the kitchen caught their attention. Leo, clearly inheriting his hugging prowess from his mother, tackled Chase and Bree into the large sectional as they organized their luggage to give the two newcomers a tour. All three siblings collapsed into the cushions in a torrent of laughter and limbs, becoming a certified pile of bodies when a smaller one joined.
Taylor, rocking a baby that was passed to her when Leo freight-trained by, exchanged a smile with her brother. Tasha grabbed her phone out of her apron pocket, hurriedly snapping a photo.
After they detangled themselves, their hair and clothes disheveled from the impact, the younger boy noticed Kaz and Oliver standing a few feet away. “Oh, ‘sup, I’m Daniel,” his mouth was full of braces. The other boys were struck by his strong resemblance to Bree and Chase, maybe even more of a resemblance than Adam had with them. He looked at his cousins. “This the Kaz?”
“Unfortunately,” Bree quipped. Chase smashed a throw pillow into her face.
~*~
“Alright,” Tasha carried over a large glass dish of steaming hot grilled chimichurri chicken to the table, joining it to the pesto pasta and salad she’d already arranged. “Dinner’s served!”
Chase hovered over glasses of water and silverware, pulling out Tasha’s seat at the table’s head for her.
The millisecond he and Bree chose one side of the long glass dining table, Kaz and Oliver crowded in beside them. They had stayed absolutely glued to both of them throughout the brief tour of the bottom floor of the mansion, feeling too uncomfortable around anyone else– except for Leo, as they’d hung out with him quite a bit when he visited the tower in May.
“Ow,” Chase muttered at the jostling of the boys sitting on either side of him. Oliver’s elbow damn near took out Bree’s eye. She shot him a look. He held his hands up in an apology.
Tasha cleared her throat to get their attention. “I just want to say thank you guys for coming all the way here. I know you’re all busy saving the world–” chuckles scattered across the group. “But I truly appreciate it. Dig in.”
~*~
“Mrs. D,” Kaz swallowed his mouthful of food before continuing. “This, right here,” he gestured to his plate. “Is world-saving.”
Tasha laughed. “Thank you, sweetie.” he nodded earnestly, immediately diving back into his food. Chase smiled at him fondly. As Kaz watched him speak to Logan and Daniel about their bionic training, he noticed Leo and Taylor holding hands over the table– as the former bickered with Bree about stealing her pillow and the latter enjoyed the chaos between the siblings. That made him instinctively reach to his left, taking Chase’s hand on his lap. Chase squeezed them together before returning to his conversation.
Kaz leaned behind Chase to see Oliver, who he’d noticed was particularly quiet. Oliver was scowling at his phone, scrolling. What the heck? The scowl didn’t shift, even as Bree violently stood to shake Leo over the table, to their mother’s vehement protest.
Naomi giggled from her high chair, clapping her little hands together. Tasha smiled involuntarily, wiping the baby’s chin.
~*~
Kaz and Oliver wound up in a guest bedroom on the bottom floor. As they gathered their bags in front of the door, they saw Daniel hug Tasha down the hall. “G’night, Aunt Tasha.”
“Night, sweetheart,” Tasha said, kissing his scalp while balancing dozing Naomi on her hip. She’d been put to bed after dinner, but was being fussy from all the excitement. Once the door to his apparent room shut, she made her way over to the other boys. “You guys don’t need to share a room. Honestly, it isn’t a problem, we have plenty–”
“It’s okay, Mrs. D,” Kaz interrupted, noticing Oliver’s immediate embarrassment by him tensing and flushing. “No worries.”
Tasha pursed her lips slightly. “...Alright. I’ll be upstairs if you need anything. Sweet dreams.”
“Thanks!” Kaz waved as she exited the hall. He elbowed Oliver, who was still red in the face. “Let’s get this shit inside.”
~*~
Kaz flopped onto the comfortable bed in the middle of the room, sinking right into the rich-person mattress that he had become rather accustomed to since moving into the tower. Oliver dragged his suitcase to the dresser across the room, beginning to unpack his neatly folded clothes. In Kaz fashion, he’d chucked his own bag into the corner, not bothering with settling in for the week as he’d rather just dig through it every day.
The room contained a large king bed, a TV on the wall in view of it, a dresser, and an attached bathroom. Kaz remembered from the blur of the tour that all of the bedrooms had en-suites. Rich people. There was a couch with a coffee table further off. This was literally a hotel room. And there were many in the house.
Jeez. Kaz thought to himself, snickering at the extravagance. He liked to make fun of Bree and Chase for some of their privileged kid behaviors, like Chase not knowing how to use public transportation, but they were shockingly down-to-earth, given their environment.
He folded his arms behind his head, kicking his shoes off. His hand floundered on the nightstand for the remote.
“You’re not going to change?” Oliver wrinkled his nose as he zipped his suitcase. “Or shower?”
“Eventually, my friend,” Kaz nodded sagely. “First: garbage TV.”
Oliver rolled his eyes, walking into the bathroom. As the shower hissed on, Kaz found the trashiest reality show he could. This was Skylar and Bree’s fault. They were bad influences.
~*~
A soft knock on the door pulled Kaz’s attention away. “Yeah?” he called.
The door opened. Kaz brightened. He muted the TV, hovering out of bed.
“Hi,” Chase smiled, opening his arms to receive the hug.
“Hey,” Kaz kissed his cheek. “You settled in?”
“Yep. You?”
“This house is crazy.”
Chase snorted.
The bathroom door opened. “Oh, hey, dude.”
“Hey,” Chase smiled again as Oliver floated over. He was in a ginormous sweatshirt that was probably Skylar’s and blue plaid pajama pants. “Do you guys need anything?” Oliver was relieved that he didn’t bring up them sharing a room. He knew Chase knew about everything and didn’t judge him, but it was still mildly mortifying that he couldn’t sleep on his own despite the fact that he’d be eighteen in less than a year.
“I’m going to miss you terribly,” Kaz dramatically sniffed. The other boys rolled their eyes. “Why must that evil lab take you away?”
“So that I don’t glitch and kill everyone in this house,” Chase deadpanned.
“I’ll take that risk.”
“You would,” Oliver nodded. He and Chase laughed.
“Yeah, I would,” Kaz confirmed, yanking Chase to him to kiss his cheek.
“Ew,” Oliver grimaced, flying back to the bed and sitting on the side that wasn’t contaminated by Kaz's germs.
“If you need more blankets, there are some in the closet,” Chase directed that toward Oliver.
Oliver flashed him an okay sign, going back to frowning at his phone.
“Love you,” Kaz pecked Chase on the lips.
Chase kissed him in revenge. “Goodnight. Behave.”
Kaz wriggled his eyebrows at him. Chase fondly shoved his face away, closing the bedroom door behind him.
Kaz stretched, making his way to his duffel bag to change.
~*~
Bree swung her feet off the cyberdesk, chatting with Taylor as both girls got ready for bed. Bed being standing up in glass boxes, of course.
Because Adam wasn’t there, which she didn’t want to dwell on, Logan would be using his capsule that night. He had called to get approval from Adam, understanding the capsule privacy clause as well as any bionic person. That did, in fact, piss Bree off. Not that Logan would be in Adam’s capsule, but that her brother picked up his call fairly instantaneously, compared to him skirting around her calls for the past week. She really wished she knew what he and Chase were apparently fighting about, and why it was enough to ignore the whole family.
Taylor drew her back to the present, laughing at something that Logan said as he climbed into Adam’s capsule. The two girls would be sharing that night, as Taylor didn’t feel like packing her capsule from the island. Bree didn’t mind, as they’d had slumber parties that way previously when they were at the academy.
Taylor leaned against the cyberdesk she sat on. “Honestly, Bob is the least of our worries when it comes to these kids.”
Bree hummed. “Man, that bad?”
The girls giggled to each other.
“Anyway, did you see the new Harry Styles album coming out?”
“Yes!” Bree grinned. “So excited. I saw him in concert a couple of months ago.”
“Sick,” Taylor gasped. “Any pictures?”
“Duh,” Bree fished her phone out, beginning to scroll. She passed it to Taylor for her to look through as the door to the lab hissed open.
Her younger brothers were yapping as they walked in, some nerd bullshit that she didn't bother to decode. She grabbed her brush, running it through her predictably windswept hair.
“Are you sure I can’t hang out down here?” Leo complained.
“The last time you shared my capsule, you drooled everywhere and whined for the next twenty-four hours about your back hurting,” Chase pointed out
“You have no evidence.”
“I do,” Chase countered. “None you’d want your girlfriend to see, I’m sure.”
Leo blushed. “Yeah, fine, whatever. Jerk.”
“I’m going to show her, just for that.”
“No!” Leo shrieked, trying in vain to snatch his phone. Chase easily held it out of his range. The others laughed at his misfortune. “I hate all of you.”
“Sure, man,” Bree teased, making kissy faces at him.
“Yeah, goodnight. Jerks. The whole lot of you. Jerks.”
~*~
Tasha awoke to a gentle knock on her door. The sun flowing into the master bedroom made her squint.
“...Yes?” she asked, pushing herself up. Her eyes were barely open, voice hoarse from disuse.
“Ah, crap, sorry, Mom,” Leo cringed. Bree and Chase were with him, all hurrying into the room.
“I told you it sounded like she was still sleeping,” Chase said as he put his hands on his hips.
“Yeah- well-”
“No one cares,” Bree cut their argument off. “Sorry, Tasha. We’re heading out to breakfast.”
“We already got Naomi up and changed,” Chase continued.
“Logan’s going to hang out with her,” Leo added. “So no rush.”
“It’s okay,” Tasha yawned. “I can get up–”
“Nonsense,” Chase cut her off. “You already did a ton of work for dinner last night. We’ll bring you breakfast; you just worry about going back to sleep. Which I told them you were.”
Tasha smiled at her kids. She waved them in, kissing each of their temples in her usual morning greeting for them. “Alright. You all be safe, okay?”
~*~
Leo knew staring was rude. He’d been taught that by his mother. But he literally couldn’t help it. Oliver was being weirdly quiet, boring into his phone as Chase drove them to their favorite Mission Creek cafe. Chase was casually pointing out spots on a mini-tour for Kaz, who sat in the front with him. They were in a DavenMiniVan in order to fit everyone. Leo would be lying if he said he missed Logan a little, but Logan had insisted on watching Naomi. Leo figured he, reasonably, didn’t want to change out of pajamas. Leo was honestly astonished that Kaz had changed. And that the guy was conscious before eleven. Chase really had evolved him.
So with Chase and Kaz in the front, Bree and Taylor took the middle two seats, and banished Leo, Oliver, and Daniel to the back bench. Leo sat between them to avert any awkwardness, as he already knew both of them, but that didn’t really matter, since Oliver was glaring at his phone the whole drive. Leo keyed back into his conversation with Daniel.
“So this is the infamous Skylar?” Taylor asked, nudging Bree with a grin. Bree looked at her home screen. It showed the two after the concert she’d mentioned, laughing together and holding glowsticks.
Bree smiled involuntarily. “Yep. The one and only.”
“When is she coming? I can’t wait to meet her.”
“A couple of days.”
“Hope it’s before we leave,” Taylor adjusted her bangs. “That’d suck.”
“Aw, when are you leaving?” Bree pouted.
“A couple of days,” Taylor repeated.
“That already sucks.”
“Someone has to watch over the island when Douglas comes here.”
“Man,” Bree sighed. “We gotta do like… twice a month meetups.”
“I’m so there,” Taylor agreed.
Kaz ran his hand up and down Chase’s leg, enjoying his tour. Not because Mission Creek was especially incredible, but because his boyfriend frankly was, and seemed so happy to be back.
The group pulled into a street-adjacent spot in downtown, filing out of the van to head to a nearby cafe in the warm morning sun.
Kaz held Chase’s hand as he led the way down the brick walkways. Oliver trailed behind them, still holding his phone. Daniel skipped beside Bree, regaling her with the latest gossip from his middle school.
Leo took Taylor’s hand at the back. She flinched slightly, wriggling away and jogging to catch up with Bree. Leo blinked. That was weird.