Notes: Wow. Volume 10 already. I can't believe it.

If you haven't caught up with Volume 9 (All the Best (Man's) Plans) on Canucklehead Cowgirl's account, then you absolutely should because it has a Very Important Happily Ever After that you neeeeeeeed to read.

I'm assuming you have, though, if you're ten volumes in with us ;) So without any further ado, let's get right into it! :D

Chapter 1: "A Whole Lot of Sweet Blonde Kids"

Kurt was still in a grand mood after he'd seen his best friend married, and for days after the wedding, he could be seen grinning to himself and occasionally making a point of teleporting to wherever Kate was to snag her for a quick kiss, regardless of how many students were around to applaud and giggle over it.

At the moment, he was relaxed with a cup of coffee and a good book in the living room, occasionally glancing around the room at the various students and faculty members spread throughout the room either relaxing or grading tests or studying for them.

After a moment, Kurt's gaze landed on Tyler, who, he noticed, wasn't nose-deep in any textbooks but in a set of scriptures and a notebook, his mouth pressed in a little line as he seemed to be deep in thought.

Kurt crossed the room, head tipped to the side curiously. "What is it you're working on?" he asked with a wide smile — honestly interested and a bit pleased at the chance to find someone else deeply involved in spiritual matters.

Tyler looked up at him for a moment in surprise. He'd been deep in thought and simply had not realized Kurt was there — but he recovered quickly and gave Kurt a shy smile. "Oh, well ... my bishop asked me to speak in church, so I'm just trying to write up some notes."

"What's the topic? Perhaps I can help," Kurt offered, his smile only widening.

"That would be great," Tyler agreed, returning the smile, though a bit more sheepishly. "I'm supposed to be speaking on charity and compassion. I've got most of what I want to say in my head; I'm just looking up scripture references right now for, you know, the meat of it — to have some solid examples for my outline, that kind of thing."

Kurt nodded and settled in beside Tyler as the young man flipped through the Topical Guide he had in his set of scriptures, a useful sort of appendix that gave scripture examples for various topics. Kurt also broke in with a few verses that he had found in his own personal study, while Tyler had a few of his own from his early-morning seminary classes at the church as well, and within half an hour, the two of them had more than enough material for Tyler's talk in church, and the young man was positively grinning.

"Thanks," he said as he put a marker in Moroni Chapter 7 in the Book of Mormon, which had several good verses about the love of Christ. "Sometimes it helps to have someone else to bounce ideas off of, you know?"

"My pleasure," Kurt said warmly. "I truly enjoy this sort of thing; I'd be more than happy to help again if you ever need it."

"I'll have to take you up on that," Tyler said with a bit of a laugh. "I'm trying to stay sharp on my studies so I can prep for a mission after graduation — take a couple years before I start at NYU. If I get in," he added quickly, though Kurt was already grinning at that.

"I'm sure you'll get in," he assured Tyler, who looked a bit sheepish at the outright compliment.

Tyler rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. "That's what I'm hoping for," he told Kurt before he seemed to be chewing something over in his head. "Hey, do you… would you be interested in coming to hear me speak? You don't have to—"

"I'd love to," Kurt assured him quickly, the warm smile spreading even wider.

"Really? Great!" Tyler beamed at him. "I mean, Mom and Henry and Tammy are going to be there, but it's always nice to have some friendly faces in the crowd."

Kurt couldn't quite stop his smile from growing that much more as he heard the young man refer to Dr. McCoy by his first name — though he knew it had been a slip. Hank had been over at Daisy's house for Sunday dinners on a regular basis, and if Kurt was reading the situation right (and he was sure he was), the good doctor was completely smitten with Tyler's mother.

And it wasn't just Daisy who was getting Hank's affections. Kurt hadn't missed the fact that Hank was doing more for Tyler than the usual mentor responsibilities. Tyler was hardly ever out of Hank's lab when he wasn't in class — except for the occasional escape to the living room for some quiet to do homework when the med bay was busy or crowded. The two were all but inseparable as Hank was helping him to get together his college applications as well as gently guiding him to explore the extent of his powers.

The fact that Tyler seemed to adore Henry was certainly a mark in his favor when it came to dating Daisy, and Kurt simply couldn't help but think maybe it was time Henry made it official and became a father to the young man — or a stepfather, at any rate.

But he had his own wedding to attend to first, in just about a month and a half, so Kurt decided he would save the teasing for a little later. Unlike the two ferals in their midst, Kurt was fairly sure that Henry could be depended upon to actually act on it.

He grinned a bit wider and put his hand on Tyler's shoulder. "I'll be there," he promised.

When Sunday came rolling around, it was clear Tyler was a bit nervous about speaking, but he looked sharp in his nicely-pressed white shirt and tie as he and Hank and Daisy, along with Tammy, drove out that morning. Kate and Kurt were taking a more "direct" route to the little Mormon church building on the corner of the road, so Kate was running a little later than everyone else as she finished up her mascara — since she didn't have to be ready until later.

But finally, they were also ready to go, and Kurt teleported them to the parking lot at about the same time Hank drove up and parked, so the whole group of them were able to walk in together.

The little group of fairly colorful mutants and X-Men attracted a few looks in the small meetinghouse, though since Hank had come before to different activities for Tyler, they were already used to one fuzzy blue X-Man in their ranks, so the glances Kurt's way were really more about the tail than anything else.

They sat down in a pew toward the front so that they would be easily visible to Tyler at the podium where he'd be speaking, though he wasn't sitting up with the other two speakers for that Sunday's program yet. Instead, he was seated on the far right side of the stand, with two other boys his age in white shirts, while a couple rows of boys aged 12-15 were seated as well.

Tyler's bishop, Bishop Graham, opened up the meeting with some announcement as well as a grin as he welcomed the visitors. They sang a hymn, and after the invocation, they went through a few matters of business for the ward before they sang another hymn — though this time, during that hymn, Tyler and the other two boys were setting up trays with bread and water for the sacrament.

After the hymn, Kurt looked like he might just burst grinning as the congregation bowed their heads for the blessing on the sacrament, and it was Tyler's voice at the microphone saying the blessing.

After that, Tyler headed up to the stand. He was the first speaker of the day, and he did perfectly well — though when Kate glanced over, it was hard to tell whose expression was better. Daisy looked perfectly proud, Henry had his chest puffed out a bit, and Kurt was positively beaming ... not to mention Tammy never once looked anywhere but at Tyler. Ty had a pretty well captive audience there.

Once the meeting was over, the all made it a point to individually hug Tyler and tell him what a good job he'd done, and he was properly grinning by the time they let him have half enough space to breathe. It didn't escape Kate's notice that he was definitely pink when Tammy hugged him, and she was all but biting her lip to keep from saying something about it.

The two teens finally broke off to go to the Sunday School meeting for the youth, so the adults had to content themselves with grinning between themselves as they talked about what a good kid Tyler was — pretty much the exact opposite of his father.

Tyler, meanwhile, seemed to be riding a high as he stuck by Tammy through most of Sunday School, and during the priest's meeting with the other 16- to 18-year-old boys, he seemed to have moved on from being nervous about speaking to being nervous about something else entirely.

So when he met back up with Tammy in the hallway, she tilted her head at him for a second. "What are you still nervous for?" she teased him quietly enough that no one else could hear. "You did great! I heard Kurt talking about how impressed he was at the Bible references you knew by heart."

Tyler grinned at that but shook his head. "I'm glad everyone liked it," he told her honestly before he took a deep breath. "I was actually thinking about the Halloween party next weekend, though."

"Oh, have you decided what you're going to be?" Tammy asked with a wide grin. "Me and Brye have some ideas that we've been working on with some of the other kids…"

"Actually, yeah, I got my costume a while ago," Tyler said, starting to smile again. "I was just… actually, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go… with me?"

Tammy had turned suddenly a bit pink, her deep brown eyes wide. "Like… like as a date?" she asked.

"Yeah." Tyler looked even more sheepish than before, and the two kids fell into a bit of silence for a second as Tyler waited for her to answer him and Tammy digested the question.

"Well, yeah!" she said at last with a wide grin. "I'd love to!"

Tyler let out all his breath in a quick rush and broke into a wide smile. "Great!" He paused, now totally unsure of what to do, because he'd only planned up to the part where he actually asked her on a date.

Thankfully, Hank came around the corner about that time to round the two of them up so they could get to the car and head back home, though it was pretty clear when he saw the two slightly pink and grinning kids that he had a good idea of what exactly had happened as he smiled softly to himself.

This year's Halloween bash wasn't a masquerade or anything, so at last, it was time for Jubilee and Noh to actually debut their Spaceman Spiff and Hobbes costumes, to the delight of everybody in the mansion. K and Logan had returned from K's little cottage in time to catch the party, and K had made no secrets about being excited for that particular debut.

K was positively delighted by Noh's tiger-stripe look, and before he headed down to go set up the music for the party, she grabbed his arm and pulled him aside to tell him something low enough that no one could hear, but it had him grinning from ear to ear before he nodded and zipped off somewhere.

"What'd you tell him?" Jubes asked curiously.

"You'll see."

Jubilee raised an eyebrow and shook her head — though she didn't, in fact, have to wait long to find out what K was up to. As soon as she opened the door to the ballroom, Noh came bounding toward her and literally tackled her to the ground, grinning wide as he kissed her for the pure terror in her eyes for a hot second.

"I see you're living up to the Hobbes name," Kate said, grinning, as she and Kurt also came down to join the party — dressed as Antony and Cleopatra. The little bamfs were a mixture of Roman and Egyptian costumes — some of them with little golden bracelets, others wearing little wrappings, clearly mummies, though they kept trying to unwrap each other, and the rest with little togas.

"Well, this costume has been two years in the making," Noh pointed out with a small smirk. "I should really make the best of it." He helped Jubilee back to her feet with a little smile before he kissed her properly.

"Are you going to do that every time I open a door?" she asked.

"I just might," he teased with a grin, sneaking another quick kiss before he headed to go start up the music.

The usual suspects for the Halloween parties started to file in after that. Kate's friends were sure to be there, though America pretended she was annoyed when Lucy went right over to hug Daisy, since they knew each other from work.

"C'mon, Luce, everybody else wants to meet you too," she pointed out, though the little blonde simply smirked at her and feigned deafness as she kept right up with catching up with Daisy, asking about how things were going with Hank — who was standing right there and clearly used to the two women's antics.

America was finally able to get Lucy away when Daisy got distracted by Tyler coming in, dressed in a cricket suit with a stick of celery as the Fifth Doctor, while Tammy — Tammy seemed to be rocking a look right out of Storm's wardrobe, elegant and perfect… with white hair to match.

In fact… as the students started to trickle in, it was quickly apparent that several of them had based their looks on their teachers. Not the X-Men look — no, that would be too easy. Brye, the dark-haired girl who could talk to animals, had her hair spiked up at the sides and was wearing flannel; another girl was wearing tee shirts and telling bad Bobby-style jokes at every opportunity; a couple girls had pulled off a perfect imitation of Jubilee and Kate; and there was even one kid dressed as Noh and wearing a sign on his back that said "sparkly moon dust man."

America laughed outright as she pulled Lucy over to the group of teachers. "Hey, Spiff, I think the kids might've outdone you in the outfits this year," she said, grinning at Jubilee.

"It's because they heard about me and Jubes and our spectacular switch-off a couple years back," Kate said, though she was giggling as she saw that the normally shy Sophia — the scale-covered mermaid that Kate had a soft spot for because she was Kate's first X-Man rescue — was dressed like K and talking with the "sparkly moon dust man", trying to come up with more and more ridiculous things to call him between stealing kisses with Brye that were not at all subtle, all while Brye was clearly encouraging her and offering various nicknames in Sophia's ear.

Meanwhile, Kurt was chuckling to himself at Rico, who had plastered a pair of blue ears to his head and had painted his own scorpion-like tail blue. "I've heard that imitation is the highest form of flattery," he whispered to Kate with a widening grin, and she laughed, though when Rico found his girlfriend, Ziggy, who dressed as Kate, and the two of them proceeded to loudly declare their love and gush all over the place, still totally in character, the rest of the group had to laugh at the looks on Kate and Kurt's faces.

"Looks like most of them are in your drama class," Jubilee pointed out to Kurt. "So you really brought this on yourself."

"I thought that the students had been doing this long before any classes pushed them in that direction," Noh said with a smirk to match Jubilee's. "After all, I believe they started calling you two Mr. and Mrs. Elf."

"Oh, don't you start," Kate threatened, shaking her head at Noh, who grinned all the wider.

"Why not? You might as well get used to it, Mrs Elf," K muttered over her shoulder on the way out. She and Logan weren't too far off from their Halloween counterparts with the not-subtle kisses — though they were clearly going to take it elsewhere.

"We are not letting the students start nicknaming us," Kate insisted. "No, no. They'll never stop if you give them an inch."

"Little bit late for that," America pointed out, smirking wide as she waved K's way. She had been grinning when she caught sight of Scott and Annie, who had dressed the twins as Raggedy Ann and Andy, and it was clear she already had teasing plans in her head.

"What makes you so sure it was the students?" Logan called out as a parting shot from the doorway.

"Enabler!" Kate called back to him, hands on her hips.

But America was already taking Kate's arm to redirect her attention. "Kate — you gonna do that when you and Kurt get around to the little ones?" she teased, pointing out the twins. Charlie was fighting with the ribbon in her hair, but Chance was clearly enjoying the whole thing, giving out high-fives and fist bumps to anybody that wanted them.

Kate gestured at the bamfs and their assorted Roman and Egyptian getups. "Yeah. Already done that, thanks. We don't need any more."

"Oh, but you so do," Jubilee countered.

Kate rolled her eyes at both girls before she decided the only way to get them to shut up was to get them out on the dance floor. She seized them both by the hand and dragged them out with her. "Come on, girls. Let's show these amateurs how to party," she declared, which was enough, at least, to get them all dancing, though it didn't look like either of them were done with the teasing.

They'd been dancing for a bit when a latecomer arrived to the party, looking a bit sheepish in her vampire costume, though as soon as Kate and her fellow former Young Avengers spotted her, there was practically a stampede to go hug her.

"Cassie!" Kate threw her arms around her friend. "What are you doing here?"

"This is a party, isn't it?" Cassie pointed out with a grin. "And it's not a party without me."

"You know that's right," said Billy as he took his turn wrapping her up in a hug.

"Thought you weren't allowed to play with the dangerous kids," Tommy said with a wicked grin.

"I'm — Tommy, I'm not fourteen anymore," she said, shaking her head at him. "I moved out ages ago. Anyway — it just took me a while to get my feet under me is all."

"Does this mean we're going to be seeing Stature back out in the field?" Teddy asked with a wide, almost hopeful expression.

"That's what I'm hoping to do," Cassie admitted before she looked Kate's way. "I was wondering if we could do a little training. I'm way out of practice."

"Anytime, anyplace, you name it," Kate promised quickly before she wrapped her friend up in another warm hug. "Welcome back."

Cassie grinned and hugged her friend before she put her finger in Tommy's face with a little smirk. "And you," she said, as Tommy looked half affronted and put his hand on his chest. "You're coming with me."

"What for?" Tommy asked.

"You got an invite to the X-Men, you lunatic," she said, hands on her hips. "And you're not on the team yet?"

Tommy laughed and held up both his hands in defense. "Um, to be fair? I was traveling the cosmos with my best friend?"

"And what's your excuse now?"

"Um…" He grinned and seized her by both arms. "Let's dance!"

The other former Young Avengers had to laugh as Tommy pulled Cassie out and found a spot by the speakers so he could pretend not to hear anything she asked him.

"Does this mean we'll be seeing more of your friends?" Kurt asked Kate as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and planted a kiss on top of her head.

"Well, at least one of them," Kate said, still smirking as she watched Cassie and Tommy dancing.

"Oh, don't worry," Billy assured them. "Tommy is going to have to stop being… like he is... at some point. David's off in between dimensions now, so…" He shrugged. "No more excuses."

"This is Tommy. He loves excuses," Kate pointed out.

"Yeah, good point." Billy smirked for a second. "But he's also my idiot brother. I'll get him to come around eventually."

"You're gonna try to talk sense to that kid?" America asked, chuckling.

"I might just smack him in the head, actually."

"Oh — then I'm coming too," America said, which had Lucy outright laughing at her.

The little group of Young Avengers spent most of the rest of the party teasing their two friends — though each and every one of them denied being the one that had spilled to Scott that Cassie and Tommy were thinking about getting back into the superhero business when he came over with a wide grin.

"You know, if you really need the practice, we've got plenty of sims you could run," he said, mostly directed to Cassie, since she was the one who hadn't been using her powers in years. At least — not in public or in the big superheroic way.

Cassie looked a bit surprised for a second before she couldn't help but switch to a far more excited grin. "That would be cool," she admitted, and the group of them very suddenly figured out who the culprit was when a bamf behind Scott gave Kurt two thumbs up — and Kurt didn't look the least bit apologetic about it.

"Just let me know when you'd like to come by, and I'll be sure that there's someone experienced on the board for you," Scott said.

"Thanks," Cassie said with a genuine, albeit nervous, sort of laugh. "Probably a good idea in case I break something. I haven't gone big in a while."

"You been sneaking around as tiny Cassie?" America asked, her troublemaking smile widening as she clearly approved of this idea.

"Maybe." Cassie shrugged up to her ears. "It's kind of helpful when I'm trying not to draw attention to being late to class."

"Aren't you graduating soon?" Teddy asked curiously.

"Yeah. Took some summer classes and everything to speed it along after I switched majors," she said. "But I should still walk in April. You guys should come."

"Of course we're coming," Teddy said as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "You're like — our baby sister! Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Guys, I'm not that little," Cassie grumbled, though she was smiling — used to the friendly ribbing about her age.

"You so are," Kate teased.

"To be fair, you're still older than the rest of Kate's students," Billy teased. "Even if they're all taller than you."

"Hey!" Cassie put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, she can't help it that she's itty bitty," Tommy laughed.

"Ok. That's it." Cassie shook her head and very quickly shrank down and skirted away — done with the conversation — though she did reappear on the other side of the dance floor a while later calmly getting herself a drink and looking supremely satisfied with herself.

"Well that's one way to get out of a conversation," America chuckled.

Kate had to laugh and nod her agreement, though when she checked her phone to see what time it was, she had to shake her head. "Oh, hey, I gotta dash. I promised I'd stop by Clint's place before the night was out. You know — before Gerry's bedtime."

"Oh yeah, gotta get your glitter fix," Jubilee called out teasingly, which had Kate shaking her head at her friend.

"Go be Aunt Katie," Billy said, shooing Kate with both hands. "We'll handle Tommy, seeing as your fearless leader has Cassie all set to go."

Kate smirked at him for a second before she rolled her eyes and grabbed Kurt by the hand. "If we hurry, maybe we'll be back before Wade's had too much sugar," she whispered to him, which got a deep chuckle and a tender kiss on the cheek before he teleported with her off to Clint's apartment.

When they knocked on the door, Clint answered with a wide grin. He had a bowl of full-sized candy bars in one hand and Gerry in the other, and the little guy was wearing what had to be the cutest little Hawkeye costume Kate had ever seen. Some of that stuff had to be authentic.

"Aunt Katie!" the little guy pushed against Clint to be let down so he could toddle over to her and hug her leg, and she had to laugh and picked him up to kiss his cheek.

"Trick or treat!" she said with a wide grin.

"Heya, Katie," Clint said as he handed her a full-size Three Musketeers at Gerry's insistence that he had to 'give candy, daddy.'

Kate grinned even wider as she ruffled Lucky behind the ears, then looked past the grinning golden dog to see that Natasha was there too, along with Jess — both of them dressed to the nines as vampire slayers — which was fitting, since Clint seemed to be dressed as Dracula.

"I like the costumes," Kate called to Jess, who grinned.

"Well, Clint wanted to pick out Gerry's costume, and I told him: only if I get to pick yours," she said easily as she and Natasha shared smirks.

"I Hawkeye," Gerry told Kate very proudly, showing her his little bitty suction cup bow, and Kate nodded her agreement.

"You sure are, bud," she told him before she ruffled his curly blond hair and he giggled with delight.

"Do you two make it a habit to come here every year?" Kurt asked conversationally as he headed over to the two vampire slayers, though he was grinning wide and clearly teasing them a bit.

"I heard there was good candy," Natasha said, stone-faced serious.

"And sugar," Kate said with a little laugh.

"And this is our last stop on the trick or treating tour," Jess explained. "Gerry insisted."

"Did you get lots of candy?" Kate asked. She directed the question to Gerry, but her gaze was on Natasha, who delicately raised an eyebrow and, with a smirk, gave the slightest of nods and mouthed out 'later.'

Gerry was giggling as he pointed at his little trick or treating bag. "Lots," he told Kate, nodding fervently, and she ruffled his hair again as he tried to bat her hands away with a little "nooo." Kate laughed and set the little guy down, and he made at face at her before he climbed up into his mom's lap.

"Is the mean ol' Hawkeye messing up your hair, sweetheart?" Jess asked, grinning down at the pouting little boy.

He nodded, which earned him a little cuddle until he stopped pretending to pout and looked over at Kurt. "Bamfs?" he asked with a small grin that had Kurt chuckling.

"They're dressed up as Egyptians and Romans today," Kurt said about a second before the first of the little guys popped in with a giggle and wave, and Gerry positively cackled with glee. He wormed his way back down out of Jess' lap to go play with the bamfs, who had plenty of practice not only with him but with the twins back at the mansion. Jess kept half an eye on the group of them the whole time as they took turns playing with Gerry.

Clint sat down on the couch by Natasha, and as soon as he did, Lucky jumped up to join him, more than content to curl up on both of their laps so they couldn't move and to accept any pets and rubs and scratches that he could get from either of them. "How's the party at the mansion?" Clint asked over Gerry's delighted giggles as the bamfs started to wrap him up like a mummy to match them, stealing the wrappings from each other in the process.

"Amazing as always," Kate said, leaning against the wall. "You should see Forge as a Stormtrooper. I'm pretty sure he's got working armor."

"Of course he does," Clint laughed, shaking his head.

"He set up Storm with working Ghostbuster gear too," Kurt said with a wide smile. "It puts your costume from last year to shame."

"Well, that's cheating," Clint said, laughing a bit harder, just before a loud 'ah-HA' echoed in the kitchen as apparently Deadpool had managed to jimmy open the window to let himself in.

"Here we go," Kurt muttered under his breath — still shaking his head at how the two Hawkeyes had seemed to develop a strange sort of normalcy with Deadpool during the holidays, Halloween in particular.

Kate had to laugh, though, when Deadpool found them in the living room with a wide, obvious smile. He was wearing what looked like a perfectly tailored-to-him Miss Marvel outfit, complete with a scarf that he was trying to make look like it was billowing behind him despite being inside. "Trick or treat!" he declared.

The adults in the room either shook their heads or had to chuckle at him — but Gerry asked very loudly, "Who's DAT?"

"Prepare to be amazed, little guy, because today, I am Miss Marvel-pool," Wade said, striking a pose with his hands on his hips and trying to shrug his shoulders so the scarf would still flap. He grinned a bit wider as he looked over at Gerry and noticed the mummy bandages around his arms and legs. "Oooh. Oooh, now you look just like your dad!" he declared as he started to take pictures.

Jess picked up Gerry and set him on her knee as she tipped her head at Wade. "The candy bowl is by the door," she told him. "Since you're trick or treating."

As Wade beamed and skipped over, arms swinging merrily, to pick out a full-size candy bar, Jess leaned over to Natasha and Clint. "I need to get him to bed," she said pointedly, which had Natasha smirking, though Clint looked let down.

"Yeah, guess it's late," he said with a sigh.

Jess rolled her eyes as she leaned over so Gerry could give his dad a goodnight kiss. "We'll stop by later," she promised as Gerry proceeded to give everyone enthusiastic goodbye waves — even Wade.

Once Jess and Gerry had left, Wade went right over to Kate and Kurt and wedged himself between them to drape an arm around each of their shoulders and pull them both closer. "You two practicing?" he asked. "Getting ready for the baby Wolvie? Gonna be the best auntie and uncle ever?" He was half bouncing in place. "My money's on a little boy, but you two aren't in the pool!"

"What pool?" Kate asked, half hesitantly and knowing it was dangerous to ask questions like that around Wade.

Wade took a deep breath, but Clint cut in. "He's taking bets on if it's a boy or a girl. Among other things." Clint shook his head Wade's way. "Still don't know what the heck a hawkcrawler is, but that's involved too."

"Oh, lord," Kurt said, shaking his head with his eyes closed. "Why?"

"Why not?" Wade asked with an open shrug. "Come on, aren't you curious, Bamfmaster? Wanna know if it's a niece or a nephew? I know you do-o-o-o-o."

"As long as the little one is happy and healthy, it truly doesn't matter. They will be cherished either way."

"Good answer," Natasha said with a little smile as Kate had to nod in agreement and kiss Kurt's cheek.

"Well yeah, but don't you want to know? Get little baseball outfits for the little girl or pom poms for the little guy or — or — you should be curious about this!" Wade informed Kurt.

"We've got a pretty even number split now," Clint said with a growing grin as Kate gave him a look that clearly said 'don't encourage him.' "I mean… Cyclops got one of each, then we have Dani and Gerry…so two boys, two girls. It's a tossup. Scales're balanced."

"I don't think that's quite how it works," Kurt said. "And I think K would choose to keep it to herself as long as possible, if her history of secret-keeping is anything to go by."

"If that's the case, you won't know for years after they're born," Natasha said with a smirk.

"That's why the betting pool's so good," Wade explained as if he was talking to a kid. "Nobody's gonna know for ages. It's anybody's game!"

"And you said you're betting on a boy?" Kurt said. "Where is popular opinion trending?"

"Popular opinion sides with me," Wade said, drawing himself up a bit, then paused. "Well, just barely. It's pretty even."

"Proof then that you are wrong," Kurt said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Ouch." Wade put a hand over his heart with a look of exaggerated betrayal — which was easier to see than usual, since he'd rolled up his mask so Clint could read his lips, like he usually did when he stopped by the apartment. Then, a slow smile started and he leaned forward. "Waitaminnit. Why? What do you know? Do you have… insider information?" He looked quickly over both shoulders, then leaned in uncomfortably close to Kurt. "C'mon, I won't tell."

"If I did, I certainly wouldn't tell you," Kurt grinned. "But as I understand it, it's too early to tell anyhow."

Wade looked crestfallen. "Oh come on. Pretty please? You can trust me! I won't tell a soul." He mimed zipping his lips shut.

"The number of people that knew about the pregnancy at all was small. Who have you told to get the betting pool going?"

Wade put a hand over his heart and held his other hand up. "Hey, hey. This is a special occasion for you guys. Only people who are already in the know are allowed to place bets." He grinned for a second before he added, "As for the other betting pools… no such rules."

"What other betting pools?"

This time, it was Natasha who cut in. "Something about you two and a hawkcrawler, which no one understands. Then there are tallies on weddings, not to mention the next person to make Jameson's list besides Spiderman and our little Hawkeye here… you'd be surprised how many bets he has going on."

"And you know this how?" Kate asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I know about everything," Natasha said with a satisfied smirk.

"Tell me about the weddings," Kurt said. "Who's on the list?"

Wade took a deep breath and in rapid fire, Derby announcer style, launched into a description of the current odds stacked up on whether or not Logan and K could get themselves married before the big German Catholic wedding at the beginning of December, complete with "...aaaand we've got Kart racing down the outside stretch and going into the third turn … it's too close to call, folks ..." and everything.

"Who's bet on that one?" Kurt asked curiously, his tail moving slowly behind him. "And at what point do you close betting?"

"I'll have to close it by Thanksgiving, seeing as you two will have it in the bag by then," Wade pointed out. "Unless the other two just go and elope and throw off my whole shtick!" He threw his hands up in the air and looked up at the ceiling.

"Has anyone blown their bet yet?" Kurt started to smile.

"Couple people tried, but I said nuh-uh, no way, I'd know about that sorta thing."

"What do you have open still for dates, and can I buy a block?"

"Most of my betters are assuming that you two will take care of it first, truth be told — but I might be able to help." He took out his phone to show Kurt who had bet where, and Kurt simply picked the entire week that the wedding had happened and offered Wade two hundred for the block.

"Are you picking for next year? Because I know how you guys are with time travel — and there will be no cheating here, mister," Wade said as he wagged his finger in Kurt's face.

Kate had to grin at Wade. "Oh, no — I can vouch for him. There was no time travel," she said, her eyes wide and serious but sparkling with laughter.

"But… You're picking something that was like. Two or three weeks ago," Wade said slowly before he realized what Kurt was saying. He paused and looked shocked for a moment before everything shifted. "Date. I need the exact date and time and who was there now." He sounded totally insulted by the time he finished.

"No," Kurt replied.

"It was super private, Wade," Kate said soothingly. "Small, private, quick little wedding, just to get them married before something awful happened like, Hydra or something." She draped an arm over his shoulders even as they slumped the slightest, already working on redirecting him before he could work himself up too much. "Come on. I took some pictures on my phone."

"It's not the same," he whined even as he let Kate lead him off. "I wanted to catch the bouquet. And kiss the groom."

"She aimed for her target," Kurt said. "But if it makes you feel better, a lot of people simply weren't invited. You weren't singled out."

Wade let out all his breath in a long sigh. "It's still not fair," he whined mostly to Kate and rested his head on her shoulder as she shook her head at him and tried to steer him into a seat.

"I got some really good shots with my lovely bamf assistant," she promised him as she started to thumb through the pictures with him, though he let out a long, loud, horribly sad noise when she got to the kiss pictures — almost as depressed-sounding as the one he let out when he saw that Cyclops had walked the bride down the aisle.

Wade seemed to be trying to build himself up to something, making little huffs as he repeatedly shrugged his shoulders. "You know .. It's fine," he said finally. "I mean. I wouldn't even know whose side I should sit at anyhow. Bride or groom."

"Well, maybe you should've sat on K's. Nobody on her side, really," Kate said consolingly. "You know, in this hypothetical 'if the wedding wasn't way private' situation. There were no sides anyway."

"So it was an X-men-only affair?" he asked.

"More or less, yeah. And family," Kate said, steadfastly not looking at Natasha.

"But we're practically brothers," Wade said. "If family was allowed…"

"No, I mean, like... " Kate tried to explain. "Like, families?"

Wade stared at her expectantly and gestured to himself. "And…"

She sighed and gave up entirely. "And there's a wedding in Germany where you can catch the bouquet if you want," she said in a blatant attempt to redirect him. "Which… we should get back to planning, actually. We've got, what, five weeks left and I still don't know what I'm doing for my 'something new'..." She looked to Kurt in an obvious plea for help.

"Thank you for the chocolate. I'm afraid she's right — we must get going," Kurt said to the three of them as he offered Kate his hand. "And Happy Halloween." With that, the two of them had simply teleported to the mansion before they could dig themselves any further into the Wade issue — leaving Clint and Natasha to deal with a slightly betrayed Deadpool.