After explaining what happened to Vivi, and getting a wrought-iron talk about how she was who she wanted to be and whoever told her otherwise needed to shut their mouths and sit down, Libia recieved a call from a very distressed Ben.

"Hey, um...," His voice shook, and she knew the tone well.

"What did you do?" She groaned, and Damon looked at her in question.

He cleared his throat on the other line, "I-I kind of met up with Dad...and um...you know we talked...and uh...he asked about D-...Damon...,"

Libia flickered a glance at Damon, and then let out a curse under her breath.

"Why'd you meet with Dad? And why did he ask about Damon? And why didn't you avoid the subject?" She was speaking through her teeth towards the end, and a bit unhappy.

"I-It didn't cross my mind that I'd start babbling!" He exclaimed. "Anyway...well I started babbling. He wants you and Damon over here. Now."

"Now? I'm in school, Ben," She hissed at him.

"I know. I told him that."

Her eyes stared blankly at the wall as a vision of Damon's head on a pike crossed her mind. If her father would pull her out of school, and tell her to bring talked-about boyfriend, she knew that she was done for.

"What the fuck did you say to him?" She was past caring about cencorship just then, and Vivi snorted in laughter. Vivi laughed a lot when she did things out of character. Her other friends were silent as they listened in.

"I-I might have...mentioned the motorcycle...and in effort to evade the question of whether you had been on said motorcycle...I mentioned the tattoo."

"You what?" She yelled, her voice echoing through the room. 

Even Damon jumped at the sudden exclamation.

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to! I promise I did not mean to!" He pleaded with her, "Look he's getting impatient so please, please just get over here as fast as possible. I'm afraid if I go back in there I'll start babbling and confess some of my indiscretions."

"Oh and God knows we don't want that!" She spat through the phone, voice dripping with cynicism. "I'll be there post haste, my dear brother." She smacked her phone down on the table, fuming.

Damon reached out and touched her arm, and she looked up at him, so angry that tears were in her eyes.

"Can I kill him, please?"

He shook his head. "You'd go to jail, and then you'd have to eat refried beans and play table hockey with a bunch of sweaty old men."

She pouted. "I hate refried beans."

"Can you tell me why you're tempted to go on a murdering spree?" He asked, moving his hand up to her neck where it was tense and squeezing lightly to relieve the pressure.

"He told my dad about the tattoo." She said, a little calmer with the warmth of his touch on her skin.

Damon winced. "And I'm guessing he's not happy."

"Do you like shiskabobs?" She asked him suddenly.

He quirked an eyebrow, but shrugged. "I guess so."

"Well I hope you don't mind becoming one then."

He winced and then smiled. "That bad, huh?"

"Okay, hold on," Vivi inturrupted, and Libia looked over to realize they were all leaning in, staring at her.

"What?" She finally asked when no one said a word.

"You have a tattoo?" They all exclaimed, making her blink.

She furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. Had she ever told them about it? She realized that it never really came up.

"Yeah," She replied, shrugging. "I do."

They all gaped at her and she raised her eyebrows. "Is something wrong?"

Damon grinned at their faces, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

She looked up at him with a frown. "We have to go."

"Go? We?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"My dad wants both of us to meet him," She muttered, eyebrows lowering into an upset glower.

He smiled, amazed at how adorable a person could look while angry, but then her words registered.

"Wait...both? As in you and me? Meeting your dad?" He had to swallow, as the words left a bad taste in the back of his throat - he worried that soon the only thing he would be tasting was blood, especially since he knew all the juicy details of his and Libia's relationship.

Vivi laughed out loud, followed suit by everyone else.

"Good luck," She told him with a sympathetic smile.

He let out a grimace, gripping Libia's hand under the table. "Gee, thanks."

They left the school reluctantly, stopping at the front office to explain that there was an emergency. Damon explained that he was Libia's ride, and the principle agreed to let them go - he gave Libia a warning that her attendance record was starting to dwindle, but she only gave him a sheepish smile before exiting the room.

They didn't rush to the cafe, slowing at stoplights to hope that they would turn red - they didn't. They reached the cafe in a little over ten minutes, despite their slow pace, and Libia felt her stomach crawling with nerves. She looked at Damon, and he was staring through the windshield, preparing himself to die.

"Ready?" She asked, and her voice was soft.

He looked at her, her brown eyes glowing in the sunlight that glinted off of his mirror. Her hair was pulled over her shoulder, tumbling down over her chest, and brushing her thighs - they were slightly red from where it had irritated it and she'd itched it absently. He let out a heavy breath, reaching over to take a strand of her hair into his fingers. He lifted his eyes to her and murmured, "One thing before I die," 

He leaned across the seat before she could ask, and he grabbed the back of her head, pulling her into a full-on kiss that never ceased to send chills down her spine. But this time it was slow, without haste or urgency, but a kiss conveying his every feeling to her. 

She felt dizzy when he finally pulled away, and grinned at her, although his eyes were as dazed as hers.

"Let's go. I feel like I can face death now."

Wordlessly, she unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the car, feeling as though she'd just been thrown into the clouds as she stumbled slightly.

With a confident smile, he met her at the front of the car, throwing an arm around her shoulders, and holding her close to him. Where had his nervousness gone? She saw not a hint of fear in his eyes, but only bravery and a steel resolve, clashing with a look for her that she could only describe as infinite adoration.

She could feel his own confidence pouring over her, like a tap turned to full blast. It strengthened her, strangely enough.

Ben watched as they strolled down the narrow sidewalk to the door. He knew she sounded different on the phone from how she was that morning, and as much trouble as he'd gotten them in, he was relieved that she seemed to have talked it out with Damon, and he brought her back to her senses.

That didn't change the fact that he was about ready to punch him. He knew Damon's car, as he'd seen it many times, and the last thing he expected to see as he watched them speak briefly in the car was him...doing that with his sister. 

He knew that - obviously - they did that kind of stuff, but he'd never had the displeasure of witnessing it himself. He didn't like it. In fact it made him angry.

Of course, Ben had hardly noticed the fact that his father had gone dead still, lost in his own thoughts, so when he finally looked up as the door opened, he caught his father's murderous gaze. 

Oh no. He thought, eyes widening. He saw it too.

He was glad, in that moment, for the fact that Maria was pinning him into the booth, as he looked at Damon as if he wanted go valting over the table at him. 

"So," Damon began, standing with his arm securely around Libia, who was staring at her father with a gaze that would kill a lesser man. "I take it you're the famous "dad" I've heard so much about."

And without a word, he knudged Maria, and she took their daughter from his lap where she scrawled away - oblivious. Maria stood for him to slide out of the booth, and he did so, slowly and calculatingly.

He took three steps to where Damon stood, and Damon knew what he was going to do before anyone else - except maybe Ben - did, as he dropped his arm from around Libia's shoulder and pushed her behind him slightly.

And he did exactly as he expected. The punch was so vicious that it knocked Damon back. It rang through the shop, a low thud that resounded in Libia's ears. She stumbled back, trying to catch Damon as best she could to keep him from falling too hard. The patrons of the shop began to murmur in alarmed voices, and one of the employees ran to the back of the shop.

"Dad!" She shrilled, too shocked to say anymore, and he cut her off, anyway.

"You stay away from my daughter," He told him, voice deadly calm, "You low down delinquent."

Libia ignored his words, carefully examining his face as she was knelt down beside him. He looked at her, long and hard, before turning his gaze back to his father with a challenging smirk. "You're gonna have to do more than that," He lifted his hand to his bleeding nose, "That is, if you really want me to stay away from her."

Libia knew that this whole feud was foolish. His father obviously had seen them kissing, and with all of the stuff that he had just been fed, he was in a blind rage. 

"You stop right there!" Libia said, her voice steely and trembling with anger as he took a step forward.

Her father looked at her, his eyes narrowing. 

"And you! I really thought you were more responsible than this, Libia. I genuinely thought that your knew better than to-,"

"To what?" She snapped, cutting him off, "To be my own person? Or perhaps you thought that I would always be the mediator between you and mom's fucked up situation. Maybe you thought I'd always be under both of your thumbs for the rest of my life, cleaning up the mess that you both left behind."

Seeing Damon hurt didn't exactly lift her mood. Her hands were trembling with anger as she carefully brought his face a little to the left to examine the bruise that was forming above his cheekbone. He pulled them away from his face, staying the shaking with his own steady fingers, and carefully standing on his feet, pulling her up with him.

Her father was staring at Libia with a slightly surprised expression. Both Maria and Ben were standing there waiting to jump in if he made another move towards Damon. 

"Libia, you're too good for this," He said to her, ignoring Damon completely this time. "You deserve better."

Libia blinked in bewildered amazement, processing what her father just said. Her mind spun with anger as she clenched her hand around Damon's.

"Did you really just-"

"No, Libia," Damon murmured, cutting her off with a gentle voice. She looked at him in confusion, anger still boiling under the surface. He smiled at her, and it was a little sad. "He's right."

They all stared at Damon, eyes widening in surprise. Even her father froze at the adoring look he held for her - like she was his one and only source of happiness.

"What? Damon, what are you-," She tried again, but he lifted a hand to her face, silencing her.

"You could do better than me. You deserve better than me - so much better."

"Damon," She protested, this time angry at him. "Don't you dare say another word!"

"Libia," He murmured, turning to face her fully, and, to her father's surprise, ignoring everyone else as he let a small grin appear on his face, staring down at her. "I love you."

Her anger was suddenly stunted, eyebrows raising and glare dissapating. "I love you too," She replied, head tilting. She was left wondering why he suddenly felt the need to say those words, when he let her go and turned back to her father.

"Shall we go somewhere else to talk? Seeing as the manager may be on his way to kick us out."

Her father, anger stunted slightly by the surprise, glanced around as he suddenly remembered where he was. He turned around to look at his wife, who held their daughter in her arms. She sucked her thumb as she watched her father with clear and intelligent eyes. Even as a child she reminded him of Libia.

"Yes," He agreed, suddenly reaching up to rub his neck in shame. "Let's...take a walk. Ben, will you stay with Maria for a while?" He asked him, and Ben blinked, glancing at the woman.

She smiled kindly at him, and he realized with a jolt that he couldn't hate her, nor his half sister. He never did. She was a human being who got caught up in a lot of drama thanks to their dad, but she was a sweet woman none the less. 

"Yeah," He hesitated, and then murmured, "I'm sure we can talk about...like...baseball or something." 

His father ignored his nonsensical muttering, glancing at his wife and child once more before walking past the two and leaving the cafe.

They glanced at each other with a look that showed a mixture of relief and apprehension for what was to come, before quickly following him out.

***

So, yeah. It's been a while. A week and a half. Yeah. Sorry for not updating in a while. I've had stuff happening and my cat ran away so we've been looking for him. He came back though! Yay!

Anyway guys, Q/A time!

So what do you think of the news about Libia's mother? What will Libia say when she finds out?

What do you think of her dad's wife? And the little girl? You may not have much of an opinion right now, but I promise you'll see more of them in the chapters to come, and you'll get to know the little girl a lot more. She's freaking adorbs.

I'm bad at relationships between main and side characters so I'm sorry Vivi and her friends are kind of...vague. In revising this story once it's finished I'm going to add a lot more detail to their relationship.

Anyway, I love y'all! Hope you enjoyed and if you find any problems like grammatical or spelling errors please let me know! This chapter is unedited as always so bear with me. c;