Chapter 3: Pick A Team
August 4
SHIELD Base Two
"So you're sure you still want to be a field agent?" Coulson asked as he and Skye made their way to Fury's office.
"Yeah, for sure," Skye said, nodding as she kept stride with him.
"And it has nothing to do with wanting to be on any particular teams?"
Skye smirked. "I don't want to be on Logan's team, if that's what you're asking," she promised.
"No, I was thinking you'd like to be on a team with May, or even the rest of the Awesomes. Though … you know that Weapon X won't be operational forever, right?"
"Yeah, I know," she said. "And for your information — just for the future? Logan and I saved the entirety of the Tahiti team with Clara so… just file that away, AC. We make a great team. Him and me."
"I know, I read the reports," he said with a nod. "I just want to make sure you're going into this for the right reasons."
She turned to face Coulson a little better and gave him a reassuring grin as well as a thumbs up. "Don't worry — I just want to be more involved, that's all."
"Well this is certainly one way to do it … director," he teased with the tiniest of smirks before he pushed Fury's door open for her.
"Oh, now you're starting too?" she grinned back at him as she slipped past him.
"Yes I am," he replied with a little smile.
"You know that means I outrank you," she teased.
"Not yet," Coulson replied as they took their seats in front of Fury, and Skye smirked and mouthed out 'soon.'
"If you two are done fooling around, we've got actual work to do," Fury said as he dropped the files in front of them both. "We have a solid lead on Garrett. I want him gone. He's still got enough intel on SHIELD to cause us issues."
Skye leaned forward with a sort of frown on her face, though she nodded carefully. "Where's he been holed up?" she asked in a tone that said she'd been trying to find him.
"It wasn't easy," Fury said with a deeper tone. "But he finally popped up in Three. We wouldn't have found him at all if he hadn't ticked off the Yashida family. They were hiding him until very recently."
"That would explain things," Coulson said with one eyebrow raised.
"So, whenever you two are ready, we can go."
"Ready when you are," Skye said, making a sweeping gesture. "But…" She paused and looked torn for a moment, trying to decide between the pick and the honest question before she settled on, "Aren't you too old for this kind of thing, sir?" with a crooked grin.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Fury said with a look.
Skye beamed at him before she slipped out to go get ready, grabbing the gauntlets from her room before she met up with the two SHIELD higher-ups in the hangar.
In short order, the three of them were airborne, with Fury piloting. The flight was quick and quiet, and when they headed out to get into the mission, all of them were deadly serious and on the hunt.
The trail to Garrett took them past the areas controlled by the Yashida clan — and as they passed it was hard to miss the way that the guards seemed that they were watching them, tracking their path even as they remained perfectly hidden.
Subconsciously, Skye tugged at the edges of her sleeves that covered her gauntlets. "Glad we're not fighting them," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Coulson.
"No kidding," Coulson replied. "Those guys are nasty."
The three of them made their way further in, close to the tech sector. Even in hiding, it seemed Garrett had a taste for lavish things, and with some of the more powerful tech families in the area, even the houses that weren't owned by one of the big families were nice — to keep up the appearance of the neighborhood. And Garrett was at the top of what amounted to an apartment complex — though he had the entire top floor to himself. Or all to Hydra, as the case was.
Skye took the chance to stand back and watch Fury and Coulson work together. The two old SHIELD agents worked easily side by side as they disabled the security measures and cleared a path. Skye almost felt like she was there to take in the show — not that she minded. Technically, she was still "training." And who else could say that they got to see Coulson and Fury doing this kind of stuff up close and personal?
"You get that laser mic working yet?" Fury asked as they got closer to the right couple of houses. "Or are we planning on doing a surgical strike on every apartment in this place?"
"Please," Skye said, waving her hand. "Fitz helped me put the final touches on this thing, like, the second I got back from Seven."
"I'm surprised you could concentrate with all the hubbub going on," Fury said dryly.
"I know how to multitask."
"Mmmhmm," he replied as she focused on which was the one housing the small Hydra group. When she pointed it out, he looked to the apartment buildings on either side of it and picked the one that was an extra story taller. "We'll go in from up top," he decided.
"Got it," Coulson said as he stood up, already moving to where Fury had pointed out.
From there, it was just a matter of timing. They could see Garrett's men pacing and keeping their watches, but it wasn't long before Garrett himself was spotted — in high spirits in spite of the fact that all intel said that he and his men were facing an inevitable forcible removal from Three by Yashida's men.
When the group of black-clad soldiers left the room, Fury pointed to the one next to it before Coulson shot a grappling line across the short distance that separated the two buildings.
They slid over — one at a time, with Skye in the middle — before they regrouped and listened to what Garrett was trying to say to rally his troops.
"Does he ever shut up, or is this one of those 'just loves the sound of his voice' situations?" Skye asked.
"Yes," Coulson said with a little smirk. "That's it exactly."
"So … why did you ask me to come along with you then? Just to share in the torture?"
"You said you wanted field experience," Coulson pointed out. "And I'd like to see what you can do to think about team assignments."
"Fun," she said almost under her breath as it seemed like Garrett was really getting running.
"What do you think, Coulson?" Fury asked. "You think your girl can nail the shot from here?"
"That's what all her scores on the range say," Coulson said, though he was watching Skye, who startled the slightest on realizing that both of them were focused on her.
"Well… yeah," she said, trying to recover. "I can hit him from here."
"Well, now's your chance," Fury said, perfectly calmly.
She glanced his way and took in a deep breath before she nodded and got Garrett in her sights. He was still pontificating, going on about how SHIELD had no idea the "rude awakening" they were in for — big talk when SHIELD had District Five almost entirely out of Hydra's control — as she took in a deep breath, held it, and pulled the trigger.
As soon as she'd fired, she'd closed her eyes, so it took a moment for her to realize that all hell had broken loose — and all of Garrett's men were in a panic trying to figure out what had happened and who was responsible. Which was the perfect cover for Fury and Coulson to do their thing.
They barely seemed to take a second to think about it before they physically moved her to a safer hiding spot and started picking Hydra agents off one by one, not a word spoken between them as they seamlessly covered each other and Skye.
When it was all said and done, the two of them had cleared the room and confirmed that Garrett was dead. It wasn't until after that when Skye seemed to get her wits back about her and rushed to an open laptop in the Hydra-infested apartment to pull the hard drive and pocket it.
"As long as they haven't changed codes on me, we should have intel on this in, oh, fifteen minutes after we land," Skye said with a little nod, trying to regain a little of her usual confidence.
"Wonderful. Do it as soon as we get back," Fury said. "I'd like to get moving before Yashida decides to make a move on us."
"Yeah, I hear that," Skye agreed quickly, already moving to fall into step with the two of them with a little more get-up-and-go.
With the excellent job that Fury and Coulson had done clearing the place, though, they really didn't have problems getting back to the jet — beyond that same creepy feeling that they were being watched all the way through Yashida territory. And with Fury at the stick, it didn't feel like any time at all before they were back at the base and, as she'd promised, Skye had the intel from Garrett's computer in Fury's office by fourteen minutes after landing.
"Thank you, Agent Skye," Fury said as he took over on the laptop. "No need to debrief."
She nodded at that. "Makes sense," she said, scooting along and out of the room — and headed down the hall to where she knew her favorite space heater would be.
As it turned out, Logan and Kurt were drinking and joking around, both of them grinning — though it was pretty clear that Kurt was deeper into it than Logan was. They were leaning halfway against each other and chuckling as Peter tried to talk them into reprising their singing career.
"Kurt might, but I'm nowhere near that drunk," Logan chuckled even as he lifted his glass again, though when he saw Skye, he raised it a bit higher. "You need one, darlin'?"
She grinned at him and slid over to where he was to steal his glass from him. "Yes please," she said, getting settled in. "How long has this been going on?"
"Probably not near long enough," he replied. "But all the big bosses were gone and May finally paid up… so…."
"And with May in charge and owing what she did…" Kurt added, his grin growing more crooked.
"Actually, Miss Maria Christina Hill is in charge for the moment. Or .. she was."
"She's on the other side of the base," Kurt said, waving his hand. "Doesn't count."
"Well, May left after she had a drink with us," Logan pointed out. "Other side of the base."
"This is also true," Kurt said with a serious nod. "We," he said, leaning forward and grinning Skye's way, "have been unsupervised."
"But … if we go by age, we can say that Quill was in charge," Logan decided.
"Nonsense," Kurt scoffed. "We could never say that."
"Yeah, well — we can blame him for letting us get liquored up. Buncha underage troublemakers." Logan leaned closer to Skye to whisper the rest. "You know. Because he's busy with Kitty. Distracted."
"Yes, well, that's what happens when the mistress kills the wife," Skye chuckled.
"He got lucky," Logan decided with a nod.
Skye grinned and leaned into Logan as she finished off the glass he had been holding for him. "Got your tense wrong there, sweetheart," she teased.
"Did I now?"
She grinned even wider. "Yes. He's getting lucky. Get it right."
"I'm still questioning how wrong I am, because I still think I'm right."
"That's because you're incapable of admitting you're wrong," she accused him.
"I can admit it," he argued. "But I'm just sayin'. They've been gone a long time. Unsupervised. Nothin' sayin' we both ain't right."
"Really. Both of you," Kurt interjected, looking a little stern. "That's my katzchen you're talking about."
"Not everyone can keep going with longingly staring into each other's eyes and holding hands. She's a grown ... " Logan stopped when he saw the look of betrayal and tried for a moment to hide the smirk before he shook his head and began to pour more whiskey. "You need another drink. I can't talk to you like this."
Kurt shook his head at Logan, tipping his head back to look up at the ceiling. "You are incorrigible, mein Freund."
"Then why do you keep stickin' around?" he asked.
At that, Kurt brought his head back to a more normal position and grinned at Logan. "Where else am I going to find a best friend like you?" he asked.
Logan grinned back at him and nodded. "Fair enough." He turned to Skye. "So what are we doing? Do I need to get you all liquored up so you can sleep?"
She shook her head with a little smile, though she muttered out a "maybe" as she laid her head on his shoulder.
"That sounds serious," Logan said, tipping his head down to look at her.
She shrugged lightly and waved her hand. "Oh, yeah. It's fine. Just shot a guy is all."
"You kill 'im?" Logan asked, suddenly more interested in her than the previous conversation, especially when she paused.
"Yeah, I did," she said finally, though her tone betrayed her attempt to look nonchalant about it.
He nodded and waited for her to finish the second drink before he took the glass out of her hand, stood up, and picked her up to carry her off. "You need some privacy. And less liquor."
"No, no, the drink's helping," she said even as she was sliding her hands around his neck to hold on a little better.
"Yeah, I know all about how much the drinking helps," he said with a nod. "Don't make my mistakes too."
She paused at that, met his gaze, and melted into a warm smile as she kissed his cheek. "You're such a good guy," she whispered in his ear.
"Shows what you know," he countered flatly.
"Hey, I know plenty," she said. "I know a lot of things. I'm the future director of SHIELD."
"Uh-huh. Well, I know you probably need to curl up and sleep for the next twelve hours or so."
That had her grinning and nodding to herself in agreement. "Yes," she said. "That sounds really, really nice."
"Then that's what you'll get," he promised. "I won't let anyone bug you."
August 9
Briefing Room in Tahiti
The mood around SHIELD in general was high, because it really felt like they were making progress in the three-way war between the Capitol, Hydra and SHIELD. With the Capitol destroying Hydra bases on Natasha's intel, and with Hydra missing its top scientist and one of its leaders — both of whom were well tucked away in SHIELD's prison — SHIELD had a solid hold on nearly half of Marvel's districts. All the outer districts except for Six and part of Five had allied themselves with SHIELD, with Seven being the exception and preferring to stick to their own business. They were confident they could make inroads into even the inner districts if they played their cards right.
Hydra's hold on Six was too hard to break for the moment, but Three… Three was in the air. And even One and Two, while incredibly loyal to the Capitol, had potential, possibly, to sway their efforts toward fighting Hydra more than fighting SHIELD — if nothing else, because they were already feeling the strain from a highly reduced supply of food from the outer districts.
Riding the high of their recent successes and pressing for more, SHIELD was getting ready for a big push — several missions out at once.
There were far too many of them to brief all at once, and the missions were so varied and far between, but Coulson started out with the groups that would have to travel the furthest. He'd just finished sending off the group of Parker, Quill, Barton, and Summers to Twelve to investigate reports that someone — possibly Hydra — was taking advantage of the remote location to try and press-gang kids into slave labor in the mines, thinking SHIELD wouldn't pay as much attention to the smallest district in Marvel.
With a group like that going out to put a stop to it, whoever was in Twelve was in for a rude awakening.
Coulson's next meeting was with a group headed to Eleven, and while he wasn't surprised at all to see that Miles Morales was all but bouncing in place — and early to the briefing as he was filled with excitement, as usual — he was surprised to see Luke Cage and Jessica Jones chatting easily all the way into the room, moreso when he saw the easy way Luke had an arm around the girl's shoulder. He knew that Jessica didn't like to be touched, and he knew that Luke preferred to be left to himself — and while the two of them had indeed been friendly ever since Jessica was brought back to life, Coulson was still trying to wrap his head around just how friendly they were with each other.
Last to arrive was Ororo, who seemed to be getting taller every month as she approached sixteen. She was usually piloting, so Coulson didn't see her as often as the others, and he was always, always taken aback by how much she'd grown since the Games. She and Cassie and the other younger tributes ... Coulson would never get used to seeing their childhoods pass him by.
"This should be a relatively easy mission," he promised the group of them once they were seated. "Eleven has been an ally of SHIELD's since the beginning. We're going to try and shore them up a bit, give them supplies and support."
The group of kids nodded their understanding at that. "They could use it," Luke said in a low tone.
Coulson nodded. "You and Jessica will be in charge of making sure the rebels in Eleven get some much-needed medical supplies." He turned Ororo's way. "And I'd like you and Miles to go to a few key places in the district. Shore up support."
"You've got Eleven's support," Miles pointed out, his nose wrinkled up the slightest bit in confusion.
"Yes, we do," Coulson said. "We have the support of the people who have been rebelling against the Capitol since the very beginning." He carefully folded his hands in front of himself. "What I'm asking you to do is help us to shore up support from the general populace themselves."
"And you think we can do that." Miles pointed between himself and Ororo, still looking confused. "I don't know who you've been talking to, but I wasn't exactly Mr. Popular back home."
"Neither was I," Ororo said with a small frown and a nod.
"I think you'll be surprised," Coulson said with a soft smile at the two young people. "And I'd like you to at least try."
Miles and Ororo glanced at each other and then both simply shrugged. "Can't hurt," Miles said with a little nod.
The group that Coulson had hand-picked for Three was almost a no-brainer, though explaining that to the two old Three residents had proven to be an interesting undertaking.
"You've got to be freakin' kidding me," Stark said, his jokes falling to the wayside as Logan stepped into Coulson's office. "He is not on our team. Coulson. Agent. No."
But Coulson had held up both hands to try and placate Tony just a bit. "Hear me out before you say something you'll regret." He fixed Tony with a look, and only after the young genius let out a sigh and pulled one corner of his mouth back into a resigned expression did Coulson continue.
"You and Rhodes have the bigger part of this job, absolutely, but one sector that you've yet to breach — that SHIELD as a whole has yet to breach — is the other side of Three. The powerful families that aren't as well known in the tech district."
"The criminal sect. That does make sense," Tony said with an appraising look Logan's way.
"You know as well as I do that the Yashida clan is every bit as influential as your father," Coulson said.
"But they won't have any dealings with anyone that doesn't speak Japanese and understand their culture," Stark pointed out. "What's our resident lumberjack going to do for us there?"
"Speak with them," Coulson said. "In Japanese."
Both Tony and Rhodey looked Logan's way for a moment, but with very different expressions on their faces. Rhodes was amused, but not surprised in the least. He'd known as much from their last foray into Three — but Tony had somehow missed that tidbit.
"Oh come on," Tony said, with a look of disbelief as Logan took a seat on Rhodey's other side.
"O shiri no itami," Logan muttered, though it wasn't clear who he was speaking to, and Coulson gave him a look for it.
"I've heard you use that one before, and it better not mean what I think it does."
"It probably doesn't," Logan replied as he settled in. "but you can tell me what you think it means and I'll tell you how close you are."
Coulson gave him a drier look than usual but brushed past the comment as he started to tell them about the details of their mission — and as much as Stark hated to hear it, Logan was the right fit for the job.
"I can't believe you're our foreign language guy," Stark muttered as the three of them headed for the hangar, though if he was expecting an apology from Logan, he would be waiting a long time.
There were enough missions heading out that Coulson wasn't the only one briefing either. Hill had picked up a few briefings herself, and by the time that she'd finished telling May and Skye about the simple peacekeeping mission to Seven, she was already prepared to just man the tech aspect of things and watch over the massive group of operatives out and about.
She met Coulson in the hall outside of the last briefing rooms. "So, you're sure that this massive push is a good idea?" she asked as they fell into step together. "Seems like an awful lot of kids running wild at one time."
"Not sure you noticed, but … they're not kids anymore," Coulson replied. "And I don't think most of them have been in a long time."
She slowed just a bit in her pace, and he predictably slowed with her. "Are you planning to monitor them?" Hill asked. "I was planning to meet up with Fury and see how long he took before he started picking favorites to listen to. It's almost like he stacked some of these on purpose just for the swearing potential."
"Like he's never done that before," Coulson said with a crooked smirk. "Remember the debacle in Ten when we were scouting six years ago?"
"I'll have you know I try very hard to forget things like that," Hill replied. "It's just not something you want to go back to very often."
Coulson's smirk just widened at that, and he shook his head to himself as he held the door open for her into the main monitoring office. "Come on — let's see how wild those kids will be running around unsupervised."
She raised an eyebrow at him as she passed him by into the office, though it was quickly apparent once they got settled in that there would be, quite simply, plenty of swearing to go around.
Surprisingly, most of the trouble was the victors, not the Tahiti kids. America Chavez, despite the fact that she was clearly dating the dark-haired little stylist from Eight, had apparently taken a liking to Betsy Braddock, and was very loudly detailing exactly what she liked about Betsy to an increasingly scandalized Kamala Khan. And Peter Quill was determinedly refusing to call Scott Summers by his given name — though Clint wasn't exactly helping matters there. And Logan … seemed to be annoying Tony by just his presence on the team and what he was assigned to do there.
Probably the most peaceful group of kids — over the radio, at least — was the one they'd sent to Eight to check into Norman Osborn's company. The district itself was a solid ally of SHIELD's, but Osborn himself had never actually picked a side, so Kate, Kurt, Kitty, and Bruce had been sent to check in on him — and the most surprising part of their chatter was the fact that Kate and Kurt were being mostly professional and that Bruce and Kitty were deep in conversation on some technical matters.
Coulson knew that Kitty was smart, but hearing her go toe-to-toe with Bruce just solidified it for him, and he made a mental note to make sure she got a little more time in the lab — even if she was doing well in fight training and had the best marks in infiltration for any of the Tahiti kids. The girl could get into anything.
But really, those were the only surprises. Beyond that, it was the normal, excited chatter as the kids got into place, and Coulson leaned back with a cup of coffee and half an eye on Fury. It could be fun, he decided, to see how long it took before the swearing started.
To both Hill and Coulson's surprise, the swearing 'seal' was broken by Rhodey. Not mid-mission as expected … but when he and Tony met up with Logan again.
While Stark and Rhodes were out testing armor and fighting the good fight — it appeared Logan had simply had a traditional tea time with the head of the Yashida. When they saw him headed to the plane - perfectly clean, no blood or sweat anywhere, the older victor simply started swearing.
"Anyone pick Rhodes in the pool?" Coulson asked, and Hill slowly shook her head.
"That team's out of it then," she replied. "There has to be something the others would swear over."
"I actually had my money on Jessica Jones," Coulson admitted.
"Well, maybe you can get second place," Hill said with a shrug. "I put my money on Quill."
"No, he's got someone to pick on — or haven't you heard the chatter on the radio this whole time?" Coulson smirked.
"I have," she said, nodding. "Someone should talk to him about that. Kid's going to get a complex if he keeps it up."
"Sounds like you're the woman for the job," Coulson said.
"You know how well the victors listen anyhow," Hill said, sounding almost resigned to it already. "I just don't know why he has to bring it up. It's not like it's impactful at this point."
"You should tell him as much," Coulson said, still with that same smirk in place.
"Alright, just as soon as you get Stark to drop the attitude."
Coulson actually chuckled at that. "Fair enough."
District Eight
The Oscorp building stood taller than everything else in the area in District Eight, and as the little group of Tahiti kids got to it, Kate just had to shake her head.
"It's a good thing we didn't bring Clint," she whispered to Kurt. "There's a compensation joke here, and he would say it to Osborn's face."
"I'm sure he would," Kurt agreed. "But he's got Peter ...s. Both of them."
Kate giggled at that. "Lucky him."
"Oh, I don't know," Kurt said with a smile as he kissed her cheek. "I think I'm pretty lucky with this assignment too."
"Are you two going to flirt the whole time?" Kitty asked with both eyebrows raised. "Because if you can't stop … maybe someone was right about you two."
"Why would we stop?" Kurt asked with an impish grin and one hand around Kate's waist.
"Why would you prove Logan right that maybe the holding hands and staring at each other isn't enough?" Kitty asked with an expectant look.
"Did you want us to just… right in front of you?" Kate countered with one eyebrow raised and a smirk at Kurt's expression.
"Could be educational," she replied without a beat missing, her arms crossed.
"Why don't we just talk with Osborn before we start any classes," Bruce suggested.
"I'm just riling them," Kitty said. "There's no danger there of these two doing anything but you know ..." She clasped her hands under her chin and did her best false swoon, complete with fluttering eyelashes.
"Well, Osborn has cameras everywhere," Bruce said mildly. "So unless our Nightcrawler is an exhibitionist…"
"You never know," Kitty said with a little shrug as she bounced over to Bruce. "Once that Pandora's box gets cracked open … anything could happen."
"We'll encourage them to get with the program when we can be sure the Green Goblin won't have evidence," Bruce suggested to her in a low whisper.
"Does that mean you're on our side to pick at them until Kurt loses his temper?" she asked just as quietly.
Bruce just gave her a little smirk. "I can tell you from experience — no sense in not seizing the chance. And she's there."
"Great; let's get this mission going then. I want to get back quickly if we can."
The four of them approached the Oscorp building that way — with Kitty and Bruce ready to go and Kate and Kurt halfway watching them with suspicion. But when they arrived, it was to find Osborn's guards, not the victor himself.
"No entry," the guard said, looking over the group of them with a serious frown.
"We just want to say hi," Kate said with her sweetest smile, though it was obvious the guard wasn't buying it.
"Is there any way that we could speak with ?" Bruce said, sounding much more reasonable than Kate's attempt. "Or … even set up an appointment to meet with him?"
The guard looked them both over. "You can call ahead for an appointment, but he won't take it," he sneered. "No soldiers, no agents. Green, blue, or white."
"All the same," Bruce said, perfectly calmly. "Perhaps he might be more open if he knew that I'm keeping my options open for labs to work in." He extended his hand for a moment, looking perfectly confident. "Bruce Banner, formerly of District Six. I'm an inventor. I'm sure he's aware of some of my work. Most of it was assimilated by the Capitol after my death in the Games."
The guard seemed taken aback. And maybe it was simply the fact that Bruce was so polite and matter-of-fact about it, but the guard did at last raise an eyebrow and allow them to make the appointment request.
It wasn't much, but on the other hand, as Bruce pointed out when they turned around to head back, "At least we know he isn't talking to Hydra or the Capitol either."
"I don't see how anyone can try to sit on the sidelines like that," Kitty said, her arms crossed as she shook her head. "How can you not get involved? Even if you try to stay out of it, a war across the whole country is going to affect you. Like it or not."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he's just waiting to see who comes out on top of the dogfight," Bruce said, shaking his head to himself.
"Yeah, well…" Kate blew her breath out, moving her bangs with the whoosh of air. "That just makes him even more of a creep. I mean, I know Pete and Gwen said he tried to help them, but he totally hit every one of my creep radar buttons when we were tributes."
"Creep radar?" Kitty repeated with a smirk.
"Oh, don't act like you don't have one," Kate said, shoving Kitty in the shoulder with a smile. "Every girl does."
"Oh, sure. I've just never heard it described that way," Kitty snickered.
"Everyone has one," Bruce corrected. "Don't pretend like guys don't get creeped out by crazy women too."
"Voice of experience?" Kate sang out sweetly.
"His mentor was the Red Skull," Kurt pointed out. "Imagine the conversations between him and Viper…"
Kate and Kitty glanced at each other and both did a full-body shiver. "Eww."
"She was around from time to time," Bruce said. "They have a thing."
"I need to take a shower just hearing about that," Kate said, shaking her head fervently. "Ewww."
"Without sounding too creepy? I'm told there might be a water crisis," Bruce said with a smirk. "You should conserve. Especially if you're just rinsing off the creeps."
"I think he's trying to suggest that you save water and shower with an Elf." Kitty was giggling to herself as she nearly skipped along with them.
Both Kate and Kurt paused and glanced at each other, significantly pinker around the edges. "We… you…" Kate muttered.
"That was what I was saying. But … I was trying to be more subtle," Bruce said, shaking his head to himself.
"Well, I'm not," Kitty said, grinning at Kate and Kurt. "I'd rather my best friend in the world was happy."
"He'll get with it. Sooner rather than later if he's smart," Bruce said to Kitty. "And if he doesn't, then his best friend will start being not subtle."
"You do know we spent a few days in Four bunked up, right?" Kate said, flushing even deeper.
"And … you're still not breaking any rules?" Bruce asked, frowning.
"It's none of your business," Kate said.
"Well no, of course not, but seeing as I've had this talk before — and it turned out well — I feel like I had to at least try for your benefit." Bruce held up both hands. "Won't push you. Promise."
"Well, you can just tell everyone to stop, because — because we are and just — shut up," Kate spluttered. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation right now."
Bruce and Kitty shared a look and started snickering, though again, Bruce was quick to look non-confrontational. "Okay, Kate."
"It's no one's business," Kurt said calmly. "And … though it's no one's concern, I will ask you to please trust us on this and do not try to send Logan after me again."
"Again?" Kitty repeated, both eyebrows raised high as she leaned forward.
"I'm not giving you the details," Kurt said flatly.
"At least out of everyone here, I didn't need the push from Logan," Kitty pointed out, her chin tipped up.
"That's because everyone saw Peter tackle you in the hallway and carry you off in his victory lap," Kate shot back.
"He was thanking me for killing the Wicked Witch of the West," Kitty said with her nose tipped up.
"Very thorough gratitude," Kate said.
"Yes, yes, very very thorough," Kitty giggled.
Kurt held up both hands. "Please, there are some things that I don't want to hear about my favorite katzchen."
At that, Kitty fell apart laughing, holding her stomach as she folded halfway over. "Awwww, but I just want to make sure you're just as happy!"
"Morseo," Kurt shot back, one arm around Kate with her hand at her waist. "And I didn't need to kill anyone to win my love's affection."
"Well I didn't need to," Kitty said. "I already had his affection. It was just … housekeeping."
"Same," Kate said. "But if you want to help… you and Bruce can pilot."
"I'll make sure the mics are off," Bruce said, elbowing Kitty as they reached the jet. "As much as we're behind you for this, we still don't want to broadcast it back to Fury's desk."
…...
From Japanese (romaji):
O shiri no itami - pain in the backside
