AN: A lot of fluff in this one, but I think it'll get better later once the action starts rolling. -crosses fingers- Sorry about the wait. School, ya know.
He smelled her before he saw her. That familiar scent of her. He loved it, but at that moment, it made him a little nauseous. Reminded him of the circumstances under which he'd left.
"Didn't bail on you, ya know," he started off tentatively, lifting the two bags from the bed of the rusted blue truck. "If I hadn't come back, I would've sent for you..."
"I know," she replied, her hand settling lightly on the small of his back. She stood on tip toe, pecking him on the cheek. "I knew you'd be back sooner or later, after you got some of the wanderlust out. I'm just surprised you actually found..."
"There's nothing serious between me and her," he added quickly, almost as if afraid she thought...
Kitty laughed, her arms wrapping around his waist. "Oh Jesus, Logan, I know that! I was around back when she followed you everywhere. Sadi was absolutely adorable as a child. When Gambit died, we all knew you'd feel responsible for her."
"Jean Luc seemed to think I had the intention of taking advantage of her," he explained, shifting the weight of both bags to one arm, and pulling his wife of almost a year-and-a-half close to his side.
Kitty rolled her eyes playfully. "Well, if you'd just wear the ring like you're supposed to, you probably would get less of that from concerned grandfathers. As it is, I'm just glad to have you back home."
Wolverine scoffed a little. "Home, huh? Sometimes I wonder if this is any sort of home anymore, or just a graveyard waiting to claim us all." He scanned her briefly out of the corner of his eye. "So really, what gives? Why aren't you pissed?"
She shrugged, sighing contentedly upon snuggling up close to his side. "You took a communicator with you. I was one cry of 'wolf' away from having you back here within a few days. You're really not as much of a badass loner as you'd like us to believe. You have strings, just like everyone. Some more binding than others," she mused, guiding the hand he had on her hip to her lower midsection.
Wolverine halted dead in his tracks, looking down on her. "You trying to tell me something, Kathryn?"
Kitty shrugged, still smiling serenely. "Nothing you don't want to know." Stepping forward she took his hand, and led him up toward the mansion. "Now come on, I want to go visit with Sadi before dinner. If I'm lucky, I'll actually be able to convince her to go shopping for clothes with me and Ororo. I'll bet she doesn't have a single decent piece of feminine clothing in that bag..."
"We kept all your things," Bobby assured her while they worked together to put sheets on her small dorm room bed. It wasn't the same room she'd had that adjoined with her father's, that one had long since been taken by a pair of young mutant siblings, so the two children would always be close at night.
Sadi tried to smile at Iceman, and practically failed. "That's nice, but you didn't have to. I really never had any plans to come back. No offense," she added.
"I'm sorry," he said, glancing shyly at her across the blanket they were spreading across her new bunk. "I'm sorry about your dad and everything... We basically grew up together. I was more than ten years older than you, but it still felt like we were almost..."
"Siblings?" Sadi supplied, smiling wolfishly.
Iceman chuckled. "Yeah, siblings. I babysat you so much, we might as well've been brother and sister."
Sadi blushed a little. "Yeah, well, I had a crush on you from age seven to ten, and I don't think that's very sisterly."
Bobby grinned too. "I know you did. I remember when you'd sit in my lap by the lake, and pretend to use my powers to make ice sculptures. You said you were going to have all the mutations when you grew up. It—made me think about my life, more than once. It reminded me how lucky I am--especially when it turned out you didn't have a mutation."
Sadi grinned wolfishly. "Yeah, I guess you were pretty lucky to have me around," she joked.
"So..." he continued after a moment's pause, carefully keeping his eyes on the bedspread his hands were smoothing. "Tell me about being a vigilante in New Orleans."
Her eyes jumped to his face. The comment caught her off-guard. She wondered if she should feel angry or ashamed."That's strange," she finally said, avoiding his gaze. "I don't remember Logan being such a gossiper."
Bobby shrugged. "Yeah, well, that makes two of us."
Sadi's features smoothed, turning stoic. The lines etched into her face told she'd worn that same damaged expression more often than not the past four years. "So, I guess he probably told you I was a thief too, didn't he?"
Iceman shrugged. "What's it matter? Your father was a thief, and he got along all right here. I just..." he paused, as if trying to think of the words he needed. He reached out, brushing his thumb across her cheek. "I just don't want you to feel like you need to leave again. I missed having you around. I'm not going to lie and say everyone did, because I know they didn't. There were mutants here who didn't like you, because you're human--but I liked having a little sister."
"I'm not any use around here," she admitted, both to him and to herself.
Bobby smiled gently. "I don't know about you, but I've sort of made a career out of being useless. My videogame collection can attest to that."
Sadi smirked, tossing a pillow at him.
