"I bought you ice cream," Topher announced. "And spared you having to talk to Gen." Really, it was tremendously fortunate. "My kid with Peter," he explained.

"Hey!" Topher objected. "She was cool."

Beat.

"After she stopped calling me Mom."

"Peter's influence," Topher claimed, uncharitably. "Did you have any?"

Well, of the two that it could be, only one was reasonable. So yay for Topher for figuring it out.

"Huh," he said. "Two brothers. Like... Val-Val." Yes, Topher, very good. "Hopefully you guys were more creative with the names, or else that might have gotten confusing."

"Well, those are lame," Topher decided. Politely.

Topher shrugged. "It was short for Genevieve," he said. "Not sure where that came from. The other kids I had that weekend were more obvious. Like, the kid I had with Tony was named after his mom, and the one I had with Billy was named--" Oh, wait, that was embarrassing. Topher turned bright red before finishing, "Antonia."

"Yuh-huh," Topher confirmed. "I blame Billy."

Sure, Topher. Suuuure.

"Hey," Topher said, "I was perfectly happy to name the penguins after him and leave it at that." Because that was normal.

"It's 'cause I'm in touch with my feelings," Topher declared.

TOPHER. NOT TRUE.

"It's a gift," Topher said. "You should work on it."

Oh, Topher. Silly, delusional Topher.

Topher was having the vague -- and probably untrue, he thought -- sensation that he was being laughed at.

"What?" he demanded.

Topher paused. That was a fair point.

"Yeah, well," he grumbled. "Still."

'Still' nothing, Topher.

Willpower was right up there with empathy in Ben's store of talents, it was true.

"Good," Topher said, definitely not blushing or shifting in any way. Nope. "The food was good, and we, like, talked and stuff, and we got to fly a little, and yeah. Good."