Rei nodded and headed back for the others, Erik walking after them placidly.

Once they were back at camp, Rei let Cal out so she could actually meet him and let him be with Niko.

When Niko saw his brother, he sighed and gave Cal something of a flat look.

"You didn't even make her work for it," he said.

"Shut up," Cal muttered. "I wasn't just going to leave you."

"I had help," Rei admitted, patting Erik's shoulder. "So I had it easier than I probably should have." She grinned.

"He still should have made you work for it," Niko said, sending his brother a bit of a Look. Cal ignored it. "He's capable, I know he is."

Rei just shrugged. "Maybe he missed his brother," she said, unable to help the little teasing grin.

Niko rolled his eyes and whapped Cal, just because, before backing off to let them get to know one another. Cal just rolled his eyes at his brother in return.

Rei grinned and then held out her hand to Cal. "Hi. I'm Rei. This is my friend Faye. We're traveling together."

Cal shook her hand, a little awkwardly.

"Cal," he replied. He glanced around the camp, and his eyes narrowed very slightly when he saw Loki and Thor.

"Don't worry about them, they're fine," Rei said with a bit of a shrug. "Really, it's those two you have to watch out for." She nodded to Erik and Logan, who looked faintly smug and bored with a beer, respectively.

"Them I understand," Cal said. He glanced over where Tony was still cackling over something. "It's the ones like him I keep an eye on."

"Tony is crazy and I doubt anyone but other Tonys understand him," Rei said blandly. "Or Bruces."

"No kidding. And they are stupidly popular right now," Cal said bluntly. "With the whole comic-movie shit going on. And hell, he's a mad scientist, practically."

"Yeah, that's part of the appeal," Rei agreed. "And the amusement potential. Those two have been very amusing."

Cal snorted.

"What, blowing shit up?" he asked.

"In part, yeah," Rei admitted. "That and Sciencing back and forth. Which does sometimes involve explosions."

Cal made a face.

"Point Nik at them," he said. "He's into all that kind of shit. He likes science."

Rei snickered. "I'm sure you could join them if you asked," she told Nik. "Go on and get settled in, I think we're staying in for the rest of the day." She looked at both of them.

Cal shrugged and meandered his way over to Erik and Logan. Them, at least, he could probably talk to. Niko considered for a moment, and then headed a bit closer to Tony and Bruce for the moment to see what they were doing.

Rei settled down quite happily at that, keeping an eye on everyone. Life was good, and would be for a while.

Faye settled down as well, sitting back to watch Tony and Bruce do their Science thing. That was always amusing to watch.

About a year passed in relative peace. Rei didn't expand her group any, but she did get closer to all of them.

And then they found trouble again as they traveled.

Faye had gotten closer to her group as well, although she'd added one new face to her group: somehow, she'd managed to stumble upon a Castiel while they were in the TV territories, and she couldn't let the opportunity slip by. She'd learned only later that Castiels weren't common, and were actually rather reclusive, and she'd been surprised at her luck.

Then trouble started again when they got to the next town.

Rei blinked when the guard at the gate took longer than normal examining their dexes. He looked at the catch dates before handing Rei's dex back to her. Her group had all been with her for a while.

Faye, on the other hand, got held up.

Faye paused when she was stopped.

"Is something wrong?" she asked cautiously. She glanced at her three and then back at the guard as he examined her dex. "They're my only bishies, I don't have any others."

"Your last one is recent," the guard said carefully, not relinquishing her dex yet. "Fairly uncommon, too." He eyed her and Castiel carefully.