A/N - HI ROBBIE. Yes, I just ... love the bad teenage decisions. How bad can they get though? HMMMM? I have thoughts. lol

okay, so. I have to make a correction. I did the math, and though my math can be wrong, it's not ten years. It's more like 12 since we last checked in with little Katie and the sweetpeas that K rescued. Oops. Potato, potah-toe.

Chapter 2 - Don't Do The Crime

When Kate got in from her run with Scott, she was tired, sore, sweaty, and miserable. It didn't help that before they'd even started the run, Scott had taken her aside and given her a lecture about how bad it looked for one of the few humans in the school to skip that particular class. And that just had Kate feeling pretty crummy, because it wasn't like she didn't hear all the time at school that she didn't belong there - or, conversely, that she was like the humans that still hated mutants after Erik ran roughshod over them.

And he'd made sure to let her know that since she was a junior X-Man, her actions also reflected on the team.

So, yeah, while she didn't have the tough run with Logan, she did have the total guilt trip from Scott, and she wasn't happy about it.

She was totally ready to crash - except that when she got to the kitchen, Kurt was there.

"Kate," Kurt said, looking perfectly surprised as he finished mixing up a full pitcher of iced coffee. "I didn't realize you were up so early. If you give me a few minutes, I'll have some iced mocha to share."

She blinked a few times, not even noticing how hard Scott was smirking as he passed both of them by to go upstairs to where Jean was probably still asleep - assuming the kids weren't awake yet.

"What are you doing up so early?"

"I knew that if I didn't get up and finish this myself that K would get to it first, and I didn't trust that she wouldn't turn it into something else entirely."

"That's… a very good point," Kate said, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"And it is officially spring," Kurt said, mixing in the chocolate.

"That's true," Kate agreed as she sat down at the table, her head tipped to the side as she watched him.

"What did you do to offend Scott so?" Kurt asked, peeking up at her as he worked, wearing a sly smile the whole time.

"I… may have skipped his class and therefore offended his honor and the honor of my family and of the junior X-Men and my entire species," Kate said, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling.

"That sounds very serious for one class."

"Yeah, well…" Kate shrugged. "It… doesn't look good for the only human in the class to skip human-mutant relations."

"I don't know," Kurt said as he put some ice into a pair of glasses. "It seems to me that one of the few humans in a school full of mutants knows well enough how to handle mutants respectfully."

"That was kind of what Tommy said when we skipped," Kate admitted. "But I like your version better." She waved him over and, once she had her glass in hand and had taken a long drink, let out a sigh of pleasure. "Yes. This is exactly what I needed. My hero."

"Any time," Kurt said with a smile.

Kate leaned back, still smiling to herself and enjoying her morning for the first time— even if she was very, very tired. "Do you do this every morning and I just missed it? Because that would be a crime."

"I could," Kurt said. "But then I feel as though I may need to change the flavor every day."

"Right. I forgot you can't stand to be bored," Kate said, shooting him a teasing grin.

"I thought it might be a fun surprise that way," Kurt countered.

"Also something you're known for," Kate teased. "Don't think I don't know about you and Kitty teaming up on Remy, because I do."

Kurt rested his hand over his heart, doing his best at looking mortally offended. "I have no idea what you mean."

"Oh, sure," Kate laughed. "You're totally innocent."

Kurt's innocent expression stretched into a wide smile an instant before he teleported over to her, still grinning. "I am. Totally innocent. Always."

"You're such a liar," she laughed.

"I merely stretch the truth when it needs it," Kurt said, then offered her his hand. "Did you want a refill or some help shortening your trip upstairs?"

"Yes, both of those things," Kate agreed. "I need to sleep for a week."

He nodded and pulled her to her feet to teleport her up to just outside her room, then disappeared only to return with a full pitcher of iced mocha. "Hopefully this will tide you over."

Kate burst out laughing before she threw her arms around his neck in a hug. "Du bist ein Held!"

Kurt laughed and then swept into a deep bow. "At your service," he said before straightening up and then disappearing again.

Kate was still grinning and shaking her head to herself as she let herself into her room. She set the pitcher down and changed before she picked up her spoils and headed for her parent's suite, not trusting that one of the other students wouldn't snatch the pitcher while she was off saying hello to her mom. When she got there, it was clear her father wasn't back yet, or the door would be open, so she let herself in, carrying her full pitcher as she passed James and ruffled his hair. "Hey, James," she said.

"I thought you were in trouble," James said, though he didn't bother trying to straighten his hair up as he turned to watch her.

"I was," Kate said. "But Kurt let me steal his iced mocha."

James frowned at that, scrunching his nose up. "Why?"

"Because he had some to spare, I guess," Kate said. "And he has good taste."

"I thought…" James stopped mid sentence and then simply sat down again. "Nevermind."

"What?" Kate sat down by her baby brother with an easy smile.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head.

"Okay, keep your secrets," Kate said, kissing the top of James' head. "I'm going to down a pitcher of this stuff and then crash. Scott gave me the full 'you've got to live up to the name' lecture."

"So don't do the thing that made him do that," James said.

"Yeah, no danger of that happening, seeing as Tommy and I broke up," Kate said, making a face. But when James raised an eyebrow, she put a hand over her heart. "For real this time. Not like last time."

"Okay," James said slowly. "Does that mean you're watching movies tonight with us?"

"Sure I am," Kate said, giving him a little hug. "Are Jubes and Kitty coming too — or is Kitty flirting with Piotr tonight?"

"He's really old," James said.

"He is. I tried to tell her that, but she won't listen to me. I'm the little sister of the bunch."

"It's kind of gross."

"It kind of is," Kate said, booping him in the nose. "You're smart, James. You know that, right? And not just at math and school stuff."

"Nope."

"Well, you are," she said, getting back up and heading off to find K — though she didn't quite make it there before K and Sophia caught her and Sophia came running up to her to hug her leg.

"Hey, Soph," Kate said, bending down to pick up her baby sister. "Why are you up this early?"

"Hi," Sophia said brightly, leaning back to reach for James.

Kate laughed and let her sister back down again before she lifted her pitcher to salute her mom. "Hey, Mom."

"Um-ummm," Sophia was saying, toddling after Kate with her arms out, opening and closing her hands. "Share."

"You have good taste," Kate teased.

"Don't you dare," K warned as she scooped Sophia up and away from the half-empty glass Kate had left on the coffee table.

"Yeah, I wasn't gonna," Kate promised.

"How was the run?" K asked. "Was it worth the face sucking?"

"Ugh." Kate rolled her eyes. "Scott gave me a lecture about living up to my family name and the X-patch and everything."

"Was he wearing a flag when he did it?"

"No, but he had the full-on Disappointed Dad look and you know I can't handle that look, Mom. I can't."

"It's his greatest weapon," K said with a shrug. "And he knows it."

"Evil genius," Kate said.

"I'll make sure he hears that," K said.

Kate shook her head. "Yeah, no. I'm in enough trouble as it is, thanks."

"Have you even talked to Tommy yet?" K asked.

Kate winced one eye shut. "Um, no?"

"You a scaredy Kate?"

"No," she said quickly. "But I'm trying to put a little - I do like kissing him and he's hard to say no to and—"

"Yeah, I don't know how but you managed to take after me too much. Stop that."

"Can't. I love you too much, Mom," Kate smiled her way.

"Still — you're supposed to be smarter, please," K called back to her.

"I'm trying," Kate promised. "I did stop him, after all. I'm not that easy."

"That's something," K said in a flat tone before she held her hands up. "Not judging on you."

"He …"

"Wasn't judging on him either," K sang out. "He's been like that since he was old enough to walk."

"Yeah, I know," Kate said, then let out a sigh. "Maybe I should take a break from boys for a while. I keep getting in trouble."

"Cute new girl?" K asked.

"We'll see," Kate said. "But I just meant maybe I suck at dating."

"Runs in the family. Can't be helped," K told her. "So don't make the same dumb mistakes I did, okay?"

"If a cute, sweet rich guy comes along and saves me from an egomaniac and starts wanting kids, I'll let you know," Kate replied without missing a beat.

"Oh good; those are the dangerous ones," K said. "Almost as dangerous as the ones that have all your same interests and are patient enough to wait you out."

"Definitely. At least with Tommy, the problem's straightforward." She paused. "Was."

"Yeah. His grampa was the egomaniac that floated when his panties got twisted. It might be genetic."

"Billy's the one that floats, Mom," Kate laughed.

"And he's the sweeter of the two. Weird."

"Hey, Tommy's sweet too," Kate defended.

"I know," K said, blinking at her. "But he needs to have a sugar crash before that happens."

Kate shook her head. "If you say so. Me? I'm just taking Kurt's coffee from heaven and hiding until my legs stop killing me," she said, once again snatching up her pitcher as she headed for the door.

K closed one eye as she watched Kate. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, Kurt totally took pity on me when he heard I got a Scott lecture."

"How much did he make?" K asked, crossing her arms.

Kate held up the pitcher in answer.

"And he gave you the whole batch?"

"I was really sad-looking and post-Scott?"

"No one is that sad-looking."

"I'm also cute?" Kate pointed out.

"Yeah, okay, that too," K agreed.

Kate grinned at that and waved over her shoulder before headed back out the door of the suite to go back to her room, leaving K to shake her head at how much like her Kate was turning out to be.

It wasn't long after Kate had disappeared that K took Sophia to spend a little time with Jean, since the whole morning commute thing was a lot easier when Sophia wasn't feeling fussy like she was after Kate refused to share her coffee with the little girl.

James was almost relieved to get to the little genius school that Tony had found for him and Maria, but he hadn't gotten the chance to sit down for more than a few minutes before Maria made her way over to say hello like she did every morning.

"Hi, James!" she sang out, reaching over to fix his hair, since it was always sticking up some way or another. And then, like always, she kissed his cheek. "G'morning."

"Good morning," he replied with a little smile. "Do you know what we're supposed to be doing today, or are we leaving early?"

"Nope, we're staying," Maria said. "I didn't catch all of it, though. Peter was showing me how his webshooters work, and I think he can fix 'em for me to use without super strength, and I got distracted maybe thinking about having powers, so I wasn't paying attention this morning."

James ducked his head so he could peek up at her. "Do you think you'll have powers?"

"Maybe," she said with a shrug. "My biggest brother does, but my other brothers don't, so it's a tossup."

James nodded. "If you could pick, what would you want?"

"Flying," she said without missing a beat. "I like flying with Mom and Dad, but I wanna do it myself."

"Okay but wings or armor?" James asked, smiling a little wider and all but ignoring the teacher as he pulled out his math book.

"Wings for sure," Maria said, nodding seriously. "Or armor with wings. Why not both?"

"I like that," James agreed. "But you'd need your colors."

"Uh-huh. Lots of pink and bright blue," she agreed.

"Easy to spot," he said as the two of them started on their work - though both of them were absently running it down and paying more attention to each other than their math.

"So's yellow and so's red."

"Yep, but my Mom wears black," James said.

"Your Dad wears yellow," Maria said.

"Yeah, he does. But I don't know if being easy to spot is the best idea all the time."

"Are you gonna wear black?" Maria asked, twirling her pencil between her fingers.

"Probably oughta see if I can even be a hero first," James said. "I don't know if I want to if Kitty's still tryin' ta kiss Piotr. Or if Kate's still being gross with Tommy."

"Oooh, yeah, you gotta keep your sisters from bein' dumb. That's important. My dad says boys only want one thing, but he won't tell me what yet."

James frowned at that. "Your dad's weird sometimes. I thought he tells you everything."

"He does!" Maria said in a sharp whisper. "But he says that's something he'll tell me when I start kissin' boys more than just sometimes like I kiss you."

"I hate when they put conditions on stuff," James said. "Probably just worried about sex. That's what my Mom and Dad are watching Kate for, anyhow."

Maria nodded slowly. "She's not stupid though right?"

"Not most of the time," James agreed.

"Grown-ups are weird," she said, nodding fervently.

The two of them continued chatting, heads together as they worked for most of the day like they did almost every day, though by the middle of the afternoon, it was pretty clear that James wasn't feeling quite like himself, and he was sniffling a lot.

"You really don't look so good," Maria said, her eyes wide with concern as they walked out of their last class. "Don't get me sick - I hate bein' sick!"

"Keep your lips to yourself, then," James teased.

"Oh, but that's so hard," Maria teased right back.

James chuckled at that but didn't argue with her. "I don't think I'll be back tomorrow."

"I'm sorry you're not feeling good," Maria said. "I like having class with you. You're my favorite."

"I'd hug you, but I don't wanna get you sick."

Maria tipped her head to the side … and then hugged him anyway. "That's okay. If I get sick, I can watch cartoons. And I like hugging you."

"You just like hugs," James said with a little smile.

"Uh-huh. All the time, from everyone," she agreed.

The pair of them climbed into the car to head to Westchester with all of Maria's siblings, though as soon as they were loaded up, James pulled his feet up under himself and half curled up on the spot to sleep on the way back.

Tony didn't wake him up either and when they got to Westchester, he let the kids pile out of he car before he picked James up to carry him to the Howletts' suite. The little guy seemed to catch every single little bug that went through the school, so when it happened, Tony just took him to his Mom and let her know what was up.

"Delivery for one 'James' Mom'!" Tony called quietly, rapping on the door with one hand as James was curled right up - just a little smaller than the other boys his age.

"Again?" K said, looking over her shoulder at him from where she was half curled up with Sophia — just into a good nap. "He's going to end up doing most of his schoolwork here at the rate he's going."

"I asked Hank to look into it, actually, but he says he's just… susceptible. Nothing wrong with the immune system or anything. But I did check," Tony said.

"Aren't you just the little mother hen?" K teased as she situated herself so that James could lean on her and snuggle up as soon as Tony half roused him and set him down.

"Hey, I was curious how he could get so sick when his parents are healers, okay?" Tony said, shrugging openly.

K raised an eyebrow and smiled his way. "You could have just asked me, you know."

"You had your hands full when Sophia came down with the last thing he brought home from school. I thought I was being polite?"

K nodded. "Which was actually very, very sweet. As usual," she said.

"Don't spread it around," he teased.

"Everyone knows that already, Mr. Stark. But if you'd asked, I could have told you I was sick a lot when I was little. It's just the way it is."

"Huh. Didn't realize that was a pattern," Tony said. "I mean, in hindsight, it makes a weird kind of sense?"

"I don't know if it was the case with Logan or not, but it wasn't fun for us out in the woods."

"The magic of technology," Tony said with a nod.

K was watching that James was settled in — already asleep where he'd curled up into her side — and she found herself glancing up at Tony. "Think you can take the other one to lay her down? I'm kind of stuck now."

"Oh no. What a nightmare. A tiny little girl."

"I know, it's a burden for you, isn't it?" she teased.

"Definitely," he laughed, scooping Sophia up before he rearranged her and settled in contentedly in the chair nearby so they could chat.

"You're such a squishy little thing," K said, smiling at how Tony had so quickly gotten comfortable.

"You've been saying that for years now, and it doesn't make it any truer," Tony shot back.

"If something is inherently true, then it can't get any more true," K replied. "There's nothing wrong with it, Tony. They love you."

"I'm just so darn loveable," Tony said, grinning easily down at Sophia. "And I've got a house full of boys, so…."

"You do at that," K agreed. "And we've got all of Logan's girls. And James."

"Yours, mine, his, and ours," Tony teased.

"As it's been from the get-go," she said, nodding.

"And probably will be for a while if Maria gets her way. She told me this morning she's marrying James, so watch out," Tony laughed.

K laughed along with him. "Well, I hope he's alright with that."

"She knows what she wants; what can I say?"

"They're seven," K said, still laughing.

"What, you didn't want to get married when you were seven?"

"No."

"I wanted to be a dragon. I'm still sad about it."

"I'm sure you could fit fire-breathing into your suit," K replied with a grin. "If you wanted to."

"Don't think I haven't looked into it," Tony said, laughing outright.

"Could be a new team-up," K almost sang. "Dragon and Phoenix …"

"Talk like that and I'll get a laser beam up my—"

"I said team-up, not sordid affair. Clean your ears out, old man."

"Can't — they're as dirty as my mind."

"I think it's good that James is as sick as he is most of the time - gotta try and give him a chance to keep from being that dirty himself."

"I know; I'm such a corrupting influence," Tony teased.

"Absolutely," K agreed. "Wouldn't be any fun if you weren't."

"You know Howie's chasing girls now too," Tony said with a smirk.

"I'm not surprised," K said. "Katie broke up with Tommy. Again."

Tony leaned forward, more interested at that. "What do you think — is our girl finally done or are we going to find them making out in the hall by next week? They've been on again and off again for a couple years now."

"I don't know," K said. "Sounded like he was pushing a little too much."

"Need me to tell him to be respectful?" Tony grinned. "I mean, the messenger's not great, but…"

"Ah, let it go. He's running mornings with Logan right now. No powers, and under threat of a horsewhip, so …"

"Good. Keep the mini-Magneto away from our girl."

K smirked. "Funny you put it that way," she said. "He told the kids he'd have Billy get a piggy back ride from his brother if he talked back, but he didn't ask Billy. He asked Teddy."

"Oooh, smart," Tony said, nodding approvingly. "Me, I'd've just stranded him in space for a few days — no gravity, no friction, no running — but I like that threat too."

"If he'd pushed too much, he'd probably have lost something vital. Eli almost did."

"Eli was full of crap and I should have blasted him into Mars for treating her like he did."

"Logan nearly killed him. It was your work sweetie that stopped him."

"Yeah, well, Steve's like that," Tony said, waving a hand. "Not that the kid got off easy. You ever heard a dressing down in respecting women from Captain America and then got stranded in the Bronx?"

"No, can't say as I have," K said.

"The man can make you feel like you kicked your own grandma just because you overslept…"

"Tony," K almost sang. "Have you ever gotten a dressing down in respecting women from Captain America and how come I haven't heard about it yet?"

"Um. I plead the Fifth."

"I need the timeline, Tony. Please."

"Pleading the Fifth!" Tony sang back to her, honestly chuckling to himself.

"So mean to me," she said. "I should tell Cap."

"You just want to set up a camera to record the star-spangled man."

"I really, really do," she agreed, grinning broadly.

"Well, tell you what, if Katie ends up back with that speedy little punk, I'll sic Cap on him just for you, huh?"

"Yes, please," she said. "Logan said he's calling him a Quicksilver knockoff. To his face. He's not taking it real well."

"Yeah, I don't imagine he is. The kid really is idolizing Pietro, too," Tony laughed, shaking his head.

"Pietro thought it was hilarious," she said. "Go figure."

"Your in-laws are weird, K. You know that?"

"At least it's just the one side," she said with a shrug.

"True. I think I did a pretty good job with Vision, if I do say so myself," Tony said, puffing himself up.

"It's a good thing he's advanced since then," she teased. "On his own."

"You wound me so," Tony teased, one hand on his heart.

"Payback for your hiding behind the Fifth."

Tony grinned outright. "Hey, I know my rights."

"Clearly," she agreed.