Chapter 2: "The Romanoff Women"
Scott and Annie hadn't gone far for their anniversary that year, just ducking away for a few days of privacy — and they were back for Cody's birthday the next day. The littlest Summers had turned one and, as was customary, Annie had to make him a cake to smash.
But honestly, Cody seemed less excited about the cake than he was excited about the fact that the Howletts were back from their vacation, and he ran straight to James to wrap the older little toddler in a big hug. The two little boys dissolved into a pile of giggles as their parents more or less stepped around them and watched the silly little ones and their happy reunion.
"You'd think it's been months," K said, shaking her head as Chance ran over to do the exact same thing to Elin, only he also made it a point to shyly kiss her on the cheek.
"Yeah, they're just ... attached for some reason," Scott said with a shrug as he watched his two sons excitedly hugging their respective besties.
"Oh yeah, not a learned behavior at all," K said with the most sarcastic tone Scott had ever heard.
Scott shot her a very dry look. "They do spend a lot of time with the other kids, and you know how Krissy and Kari are about hugs and sweets."
"Yeah, well. Fury doesn't have a picture of the kids hugging on his desk. That's all I'm saying."
"That was a special circumstance," Scott defended with his arms crossed, though it was clear she didn't buy it for a moment.
"Was the circumstance that you missed him terribly and were overcome with emotion? Because … that … is also apparently genetic."
"He was dead. It really doesn't count," Scott insisted even as Charlie decided to get in on the hugging and wrapped her arms around Logan at the knees.
"It's one of my favorite pictures in the world," K told him.
"Of course it is," Scott deadpanned.
"Two of my favorite guys ever? Getting along? On film? Amazing." K said as she made her way over to him. "You don't even hug your brother like that."
He shot her an even drier look than before before his expression very suddenly changed into a smirk and he picked her up in a spinning hug. "You're right — I should do that more often for other people," he told her when he set her back down.
"That was perfect. I'll take one every morning," she said before she popped up on her toes and kissed his cheek.
He shook his head at her before he tipped his head at the kids who were still giggling and hugging. "Help me gather them? Clint and Natasha are getting here soon with Zoe — and you know that'll be a whole other round of hugging.
K nodded before she whistled shrilly to catch the kids attention. "Guys," she said, bending down so she could look at them better when they all turned her way. "Logan needs a dogpile, don't you think?"
The entire group of them broke out in beaming smiles as Chance led the charge with a war whoop. Cody brought up the rear and running as fast as his little legs would carry him to keep up with the older kids to join the dogpile — and they all valiantly tried to bring Logan down.
"Maybe you wanna join 'em?" K teased Scott's way.
"I'm good, thanks," he said, giving her another dry look as the kids were giggling madly and drawing attention from the kitchen, where Kari had escaped her mom and was making a mad dash to join them.
"Kate! Maybe you wanna help them — Scott's shy."
A moment later, Kate appeared in the doorway as well. She had Sying in one arm and Krissy in the other, and both kids were looking absolutely livid with each other. "You guys want to help?" Kate asked in an obvious attempt to get them both to play.
"Nein!" Krissy squirmed in Kate's grasp, and Sying glared at her. "Wanna race again. Sying cheated."
"How did he cheat?" K asked as she made her way over to take Sying out of Kate's arms.
"I didn't cheat," Sying insisted. "Krissy won."
"He cheated, he cheated, he cheated," Krissy sang back at him, little arms crossed as her tail was twitching behind her.
"Do you think he went slow for you?" K asked.
"Ja!" Krissy nodded fervently, and Kate caught K's eye with a look that confirmed that, yes, that was what had happened.
"He's trying to play fair," K told her as she snuggled the little boy. "Because he's way faster than everyone else."
Sying nodded with wide eyes. "Daddy says not everybody can run as fast or pick up big things, so I gotta be fair and be careful."
"He's right," K agreed before she gave him a little kiss. "But Krissy doesn't want you to go slow for her."
"But then I win always," Sying said, wrinkling his nose in confusion.
"Nu-uh," Krissy sang out. "I fast too!"
"Maybe this is a lesson she wants to learn for herself," K told him.
He wrinkled his nose even more. "But it's not fair."
"You can't help how fast you are, and even if you keep winning now, she'll probably beat even you someday," K said as she glanced toward Kate and Krissy.
He giggled and leaned in to whisper, "Nu-uh."
K giggled with him and nodded her head. "She might."
"Even if I don't play fair?" He looked skeptical.
"Even if you run at top speed, she still might beat you."
"See?" Krissy stuck her tongue out at him triumphantly, but Sying was just grinning wide.
"But that also means you can't get mad when he beats you now," K told her. "Because he will win."
"Okay… but I'll still win," Krissy insisted as she scrambled to be let down. "RaceyoutoLogan!" she called out, blatantly cheating as she ran toward Logan before Sying was even down from K's arms.
Kate chuckled as she watched Krissy and Sying run to join the dogpile. "They've been arguing all morning. She hates it when he tries to do stuff like that, but he's not wrong."
"No, he's not. But she's got this stubborn streak that I just … I don't know where it comes from. Gotta be from her father's side, though, I'm sure."
"Clearly," Kate agreed, though she was rolling her eyes and smirking at K.
It wasn't long before the rest of the kids from outside the mansion showed up — Zoe and her parents first and then Dani, Gerry, even Eleanor and Magda.
Of course, as soon as Magda showed up, she and Charlie were off, the two of them giggling and trading stories about their summer vacation adventures. Magda was so excited about her new house in town and how she was going to get to see her grandfather and cousins all the time now.
Gerry went right to his Aunt Katie to tell her all about how excited he was for Kindergarten and how much he was working on his letters and numbers so he could help other kids learn them too. "And Mom says I gotta be careful talking about everybody here and all my friends, because not all the other kids know about the 'Vengers and the X-Men, so I'm not supposed to tell them everything, even if I think my family is the coolest," he explained to her happily. "And then when Chance and his sister start Kindergarten next year, I can show them all about it! Won't that be really cool?"
"You're going to be amazing at school," Kate agreed with a grin as she hugged him tight before he wriggled out of her grasp to go talk Chance's ear off about Kindergarten coming up.
Zoe, meanwhile, seemed to have made it her mission to make sure that Cody was having a good birthday. She had at some point grabbed hold of his hand and didn't seem to be that interested in letting go as she made sure to get him to the table where his cake was and point out the frosting to him. "See?" she pointed. "For you."
Cody just kept trying to get her to let go of his hand, though. "No, no," he said, frowning.
"For you," Zoe insisted, still trying to pull him over before Annie was quite done getting everything set up.
But Sying intervened and grabbed Zoe's other hand with a little frown and a shake of his head. "No, Zoe," he said very seriously. "No means no."
"But yummy," Zoe said, pointing up at the cake. "For Cody!"
"But no means no," Sying insisted. "Annie not done — let's play?" he offered, now pulling Zoe along by the hand as Cody looked relieved to be freed and immediately ran away to go hang out with James.
"Nyet." Zoe pulled her hand away and crossed her arms with a scowl, and Sying looked very lost as he tried to figure out how to help.
"Sying, do you want to help clean up the extra frosting?" Annie asked.
The little boy brightened up immediately and climbed up the table, nodding fervently. "Yes! Yes please!" he sang out as Annie put him to work, freeing up Zoe to sulkily make her way over to where the other kids were.
Still, it was hard for Zoe to keep sulking when Kari wrapped her up in a hug with a whispered, "Hi, Zo!"
Of course, with all of Zoe's earlier insisting, it was proving a little difficult to get Cody to actually want anything to do with his cake when it was ready, as he was stubbornly insisting that he did not want to set down. "Wanna play," he kept saying, trying to scramble back down every time someone put him in front of the cake.
Annie tried several times to get Cody to try his cake, but each time, he just got more and more insistent and stubborn. Finally, before anyone noticed what she was doing and could stop her, Zoe got fed up with Cody, grabbed a handful of his cake, and threw it in his face.
For a moment, everything was silent as Cody seemed to be trying to figure out if he was going to cry or not. But then he saw the smug look on Zoe's face and decided that revenge was the better option, though probably none of the adults had expected the small wrestling match that developed from there and splattered bits of cake everywhere until Natasha and Scott were able to get the two of them separated — though by that time Zoe was giggling maniacally every time Cody shot her a glare.
"Vindictive little Summers," K muttered to Logan, who had to try hard not to laugh at that one, going so far as to pull her over into a hug and kiss her temple so he could chuckle along with her.
Natasha took her little girl off to go hose her down, and it was clear to everyone that she was getting a talking to for her behavior, but she didn't look sorry in the least even as she was sullenly escorted over to Cody to give a forced "sorry" through her teeth.
Cody glared at her and stuck out his tongue before he jutted his chin out and walked right past her to go find something and someone else to play with.
"Sorry about that, really," Clint muttered to Scott, shaking his head at his little girl as Zoe had her arms crossed and was glaring defiantly at anyone who looked her way. "She's… I'd say she's going through a phase, but…" He rubbed the back of his neck and did his best to look apologetic.
Scott sighed and shook his head. "He's stubborn too," he admitted. "And it's alright — no one saw her until she had the cake."
"Yeah, she is a Romanoff."
Thankfully, the rest of the party managed to go off without any more of the kids getting into fights once the party games got started for the older kids and the younger kids got to play with some new toys. By the time it was time to go home, even Zoe had dropped her glare and was halfway attached to Kurt and insisting that she wanted to stay with Uncle Kurt and Aunt Katie and not go home at all.
"Sweetie, we have to put Kari to sleep. She's smaller than you, and she needs a nap," Kate explained gently, ruffling Zoe's red curls, but the little girl just stuck out her lower lip.
"I nap too."
"Yes, you need a nap too," Clint said, still trying to pry Zoe off of Kurt without hurting him, since she had a couple handfuls of his fur and was holding on tight.
"With Kari."
Clint let out a breath and shook his head. "No, sweetheart. We're going home, but we can play with Kari later, okay?"
"Nyet."
"Da," Logan said before he reached over and started to tickle her.
"Nyet, Nyet, Nyet!" she said, gasping and giggling, though she'd let go of Kurt because of all the tickling and was trying to wriggle away from Logan.
But Logan had a solid grip and he kept tickling her until Clint had a decent hold on her and she had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. "Be good and maybe next time you can spend the night."
"Sto-o-o-o-p," she moaned, still trying to wriggle. "No. No tickle!"
"Are you gonna be good?" Logan asked.
"Yes. Da. No tickle!"
He finally stopped and gave her a little kiss on the forehead. "Quit givin' your dad a hard time. He can't take it."
"It's genetic," Clint said with a little smirk as Zoe crossed her arms but nodded at Logan.
"Thank you," Natasha whispered over Logan's shoulder as she gave him a little kiss on the cheek.
"She's just like her mother," Logan whispered back.
"I was not that stubborn."
Logan gave her a look, with one eyebrow raised, as he crossed his arms. "You really wanna try that line with me?"
She smirked. "I was an angel," she said sweetly, just to needle him.
"Yeah, sure you were. Must be gettin senile in your old age," he teased.
"Impossible," she said with a dismissive wave. "I'm not a day over seventy."
"I know better than that," Logan whispered. "Or your math is bad. Could be a sign of something."
She laughed and kissed his cheek. "Like you can talk."
"Yeah? I don't look anywhere near my age. Not a gray hair yet either," he said low with a little smirk.
"Hey. I'm proud of that first gray hair. Do you know how long that took?"
"Closer to eighty years, I'm guessing."
"Oh, relax. I'm still in top form, and I'll put you on the ground if you don't believe me," she said lightly. "It's nice not to look twenty-three."
"You can try, but I don't want you to break a hip," he teased.
"You wish," she laughed. "You just want an excuse not to be embarrassed."
"Big talk, little girl."
"And I have the training to back it up," she said with a little smile.
"Yeah, no idea where that came from," he said as he pulled her over for a hug. "Try somethin' new — like teachin' that little girl how to be nice. You know, before she ends up with an idiot."
"Like I'd let that happen," Natasha said. "And she can be nice. You should see her with Kari and James. She just thinks Cody is an idiot." She smirked a bit wider at that. "Because he doesn't listen to her."
"Yeah, nothing like you at all," he replied.
"Shut up," she laughed before she kissed his cheek and headed over to Clint as the little family packed up to go, with Zoe still a little pouty but finally behaving for her dad as they all said goodbye.
Remy was waiting in the high-rise for his sneak thief to come by, just watching for any sign of movement in the place he had staked out.
The authorities weren't interested in this presidential suite because it wasn't one of those big, fancy houses. But this particular woman, who had swindled several well-meaning family members — along with five husbands — out of their life savings… she was a prime target for this little French thief.
Remy had noticed what the police were overlooking — there was an underlying method to this little thief's targets. It wasn't just that she was hitting the rich who were scumbags — she was hitting those who had wronged people personally. Family members with their inheritances stolen. Friends who had been cheated for their kindness. People like Robbins whose own son was a mutant — according to JJ's gleeful report at the height of the political storm two years ago. Her targets had enemies.
Add to that the fact that none of the fences Remy knew had seen or even heard a whisper of the missing valuables, and Remy was certain that this blonde had a little more going on than just a Robin Hood complex and a good power set for thievery.
It was a quiet night, and the wind had been still all evening, so when a slight breeze came through and played across the windows, Remy was sure that the thief had made her way inside.
As before, Remy had already taken the liberty of relieving the safe of all its valuables, but this time, he stayed in the other room, seated lazily on the couch as he waited for her to find the present he left for her instead of the contents of the safe.
He heard the little gasp before the girl slipped into the room, her windy form sliding under the crack of the door before she reformed in a whirlwind, her arms crossed and a slight flush on her cheeks as she held the single long-stemmed rose that he had left for her in the safe between her long fingers.
"What ees thees?" she asked, a bit of a fire in her expression as she turned the rose over and over in between her fingers.
Remy shrugged lightly, though he couldn't quite stop the smile. "Seemed like an' awful lot o' trouble for a pretty tief to go tru witout sometin' waitin' for her at de end."
She let out a huff, but, Remy noticed, she didn't toss aside the rose either. "Why do you interfere?" she asked instead, shaking her head the slightest bit. "You are an X-Man; you see my work with ze senator who cause so much la difficulté, non?"
"You gon' cause more trouble, petit," Remy told her with one eyebrow raised. "He ain't gon' like de idea of a mutant tief goin' tru his home."
But at that, she laughed breezily. "He won't say anee-thing," she said confidently. "He is missing too many … important things zat he would like to stay hidden." There was a little troublemaking sparkle to her gaze as she looked Remy over. "So zere is no reason to look so serious, X-Man. Eet ees no good look for you."
At that, Remy broke into a wide grin her way and sat up a bit straighter. "Ol' Gambit look good in anything, petit," he told her, still wearing the wide and increasingly crooked grin.
She let out a little scoffing noise, "Oh, you mangle ze language."
"What's de matter, cher? You ain't never heard a Cajun before?"
She looked him over once more, appraisingly, and then laughed. "Do try to stay out of my way," she told him at last, and though Remy realized what she was doing a moment before she faded back into her breezy form, he was a split second too late to stop her as she blew him a kiss and disappeared literally on the wind.