"I'm sure you'll stop exploding things soon," Elaine reassured. "For self-preservation if nothing else." She paused for a moment. "Although I'm going to hide my favorite glass, just in case." She grinned so Kae would know she was teasing.

Kae snickered. "Yeah, let's stick with plastic for now," she agreed with a wry grin. "You and Capsicle can work on that. I think I'm going to go find Bruce again and get a few ideas from him for next time I get pissed off. Which, knowing this group, will be soon."

Elaine patted Kae's arm.

"I'll see about picking up a big roll of bubble wrap for you," she said. "There's no stress relief like bubble-wrap."

Kae laughed. "Oh god I'm going to drive them insane with that," she said, although she didn't sound at all sorry about that.

Elaine grinned, and then really snorted.

"Oh god, Kae, what if we gave a roll to Bruce?" she said. "Can you just imagine it? Him and his rage-monster and a roll of industrial-size bubble-wrap, you know, where it's just a chain of bubbles the size of your face?"

Kae started laughing. "Oh god the look on his face!" she gasped. "I can just imagine. He'd be spluttering, you know how he does when he has no idea what's going on? And he'd be so confused."

Elaine giggled.

"Exactly," she said. "He'll be too confused to be angry anymore."

"Yup." Kae grinned. "We must try this sometime." Because now she really wanted to see the reaction for herself.

"We will, promise," Elaine replied.

Thankfully, the media firestorm died down fairly quickly after that, enough so that Elaine could leave the tower and not get mobbed by people. And really, it was none too soon, either, because Thanksgiving came up quickly and it was time to visit with the family.

"We have to leave early," she told Steve. "We have to get out of the city before the parade starts, or we'll never escape."

Steve nodded. Early wasn't a problem for him. "Alright. How early were you thinking? And do I need to bring anything?"

"We don't need to bring anything," Elaine replied. "It's not mandatory, unless you have some sort of special food needs, which I doubt you do. And we just need to be out of the city itself before the parade starts. My grandparents are out in White Plains."

Steve nodded. "Alright. We can manage that, then." He squeezed her hand, smiling faintly. "I think I'm glad we're not going to be here for Thanksgiving." Because Kae had already bullied and browbeaten the other males into helping her prepare dinner. A proper dinner, not just take-out like Tony had wanted.

Elaine grinned.

"I kind of am, too," she replied. "I hear Tony's not exactly a chef."

Steve actually shuddered in remembrance.

"No. No he's not. Not at all. Clint is a good cook, but Tony? I'm amazed that man has lived as long as he has. He set the kitchen on fire last time he tried to cook. While boiling water."

Elaine bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"I heard Bruce is a good cook, though," she pointed out. "All that time in India and all. I think between him, Clint, and Kae, they'll managed."

"Probably. But it'll be fun to hear how many fiascos there were." Steve grinned. Just because he was normally serious didn't mean he didn't like hearing about the screw ups, so long as they weren't dangerous screw ups.

"We can ask JARVIS when we get back," Elaine said, grinning a bit.

Only days later, Steve found himself driving out to Elaine's grandparents' house, feeling only a little like he was going to his doom. He'd been informed that meeting the family was the worst part of dating any woman; although since the information had been coming from Tony, he had to debate how accurate it was.

"We're here," he said quietly, finding a spot and pulling over.

"Alright," Elaine said. She smiled a bit. "Just relax. The Clan really isn't uptight or anything. Honestly, we watch people throwing pumpkins around all afternoon on Thanksgiving."

Steve snorted at that. "You forget, I haven't had a family Thanksgiving in a long time." And he wasn't even counting the 70 years he'd spent in ice. But he got out and opened her door for her.

"It'll be fine," Elaine assured him as she let him help her out of the car. "You've met my uncle Benjamin. My other uncle is Mitchel, my father is David, my grandfather is Robert. Those are the names you'll probably need the most."

Steve nodded, walking next to her up to the house. He could already hear the insanity inside, and it actually made him relax a bit. He was an Avenger, and he lived in Stark Tower. Insanity he could deal with.

Elaine had barely touched the door when she heard faintly from inside "Guys check out the sweet car out front!"

"Well, they know we're here," she commented to Steve. "They spotted the car you borrowed from Tony."

"I'm not surprised," Steve said wryly. Tony's tastes were too flashy for him, but it had been the only option, so he'd taken the least obnoxious car of the lot.

"Well, we may as well go in," Elaine said opening the door. She was greeted almost immediately with a chorus of 'hey, Lainey's, but a silence fell over her cousins when Steve walked in. Finally, one of them went "No way. I thought Uncle BJ was joking."