Chapter 10: "Here Be Dragons"
Kurt and Kate had taken about a week to themselves ahead of Valentine's Day to go down to the beach house in the Caribbean — bringing the kids along as well, since the girls loved to make sand castles and play in the gentle waves.
The bamfs loved it, too and were playing with the kids when Kate and Kurt wanted a little privacy. So that the whole week had been exactly what the two of them wanted: a chance to relax and slow down.
Kaleb was lying down on the towel on the beach with a determined little look on his face, trying to move forward with little noises with each effort. He wanted to play with his sisters, clearly, though he was still too little to do much about it, and the bamfs were only fueling him, encouraging him in their chattering language as best they could. It was totally entertaining to watch, though, and both Kate and Kurt had to laugh as they watched Kaleb pull himself around.
"He's going to be hard to keep up with when he figures out crawling," Kate chuckled, leaning back into Kurt.
"Not to mention teleporting," he teased.'
"Yeah, but that's far down the line," she pointed out.
"Yes, let him walk first," Kurt laughed.
Kate shook her head and leaned further back, tipping her head so she could steal a kiss. "You just can't wait for them to start teleporting," she teased him.
He shrugged lightly, an almost sheepish expression on his face. "It will be fun."
"You'll all be impossible. Dramatic little elves," she laughed. "How will I keep up with you?"
"Just hold on," Kurt teased.
"You say that now — because that just means I'll have to stick close to you," she laughed. "Any excuse."
"And you think that will change why?"
"Oh, I hope it never changes," she said, pulling him down to kiss her.
While Kate and Kurt were enjoying themselves, Kari and Krissy were further down the beach building sand castles. Krissy was trying to show her little sister how to pack the sand just right so they could make good, solid walls, but Kari was still too little to get it, so Krissy just shook her head at her.
"Okay, okay. You just build a biiiig pile of sand right here, okay? That can be the mountain where the dragon lives," Krissy directed, and Kari giggled delightedly and nodded.
"What you makin?" Kari asked.
"I am gonna make the castle," Krissy said. "That's where the princesses live."
"Do the princesses have a little brother?"
"Mmmhmm. If you want," Krissy said, patting her little sister's hand.
"What about a prince?"
"That's the little brother."
"Noooo." Kari broke into giggles and shook her head. "No! Prince Charming!"
"Ohhh." Krissy sat back, wide-eyed, as she realized what her sister was asking. "No. No Prince Charming."
Kari scrunched up her nose. "I wanna Prince Charming."
"Why?"
"I wanna Prince Charming!" Kari's tail was switching behind her as she balled up her hands. "I wanna!"
"Okay, okay!" Krissy held up both hands. "Okay, you can have a Prince Charming, okay? He's… he's a pirate, so he's in the ocean right now."
Kari considered this for a long time before she nodded. "Okay. That works I guess."
"Pirates are cool," Krissy said consolingly. "You gotta cool Prince Charming."
"O-kay."
Krissy scooted over and gave her sister a hug. "Your pirate can come help our princesses fight the dragon later, okay?"
"What if it's a nice dragon?" Kari asked.
Krissy giggled. "That's silly."
"Nu-uh. Kitty has a nice dragon!"
"Okay, but this one is a mean dragon."
"Why?"
"Because you gotta fight a mean dragon! You can't fight a nice one, silly!"
"I guess."
Krissy hugged her sister again. "We can play pretend there's a nice dragon after the mean one, okay? He can be friends with Lockheed."
"Okay," Kari replied quietly. "He needsa friend."
Krissy nodded happily. "You can make a mountain for Lockheed's friend," she suggested. "Lots and lots of sand — right here, okay?" She pointed out a spot close to her castle. "Then he can come visit the princesses whenever he wants."
The girls set to work — Kari building her mountains for the evil and the good dragon and Krissy building the castle itself — and were completely engrossed in what they were doing. So much so that they didn't notice that they weren't alone until a man sat down with a pair of plastic buckets and a smile.
"You'll get more sand if you have something to keep it in," he told the girls, who both glanced at each other curiously, since neither of them had seen this person before.
"You're not a princess," Krissy said with her eyes narrowed.
He smiled back with a toothy grin. "No, I'm not," he agreed, though he knelt down nearby, still offering the buckets. "But I do know how to build castles."
Krissy regarded him carefully before she tentatively reached out to crab the purple bucket. "You can make your own castle," she said.
He nodded once and then simply started on his own, humming to himself a tune that was almost familiar.
Kari was the more curious of the two, and she just couldn't ignore the singing anymore as she abandoned her mountain. "What's that?" she asked, still maintaining a little distance — with the pink bucket clutched in both hands.
"What?" he asked, glancing up at her for just a second before he kept meticulously working on his perfect little castle's tower.
"You singing," Kari said, still cautiously inching over. "My sister sing too. She's really, really good."
"I'd like to hear that," he said with a little smirk. He gave them both a little smile before he started carving at the towers — putting in windows and details on what should have been stone.
By that time, Krissy had come to investigate too, and she was totally wide-eyed watching him work. "How do you do that?" she asked in awe.
"Lots of practice," he replied before he held out a thicker piece of dune grass and started to show her how to draw the stone. "You must be very careful, what you take away."
Krissy nodded seriously and scrunched up her whole face in concentration as she followed where he was showing her, sighing out her annoyance when it didn't work out as perfectly as his did. "This is hard."
"It just takes practice," he promised, looking as kindly at her as he could. "I'm sure a smart little princess like you can figure it out quickly enough."
Krissy grinned delightedly at the compliment and nodded, her tail swishing happily behind her. "Like Mama practices shooting," she said happily, going back to her drawing.
"Can I play?" Kari asked, inching forward carefully as she watched her sister work.
The stranger extended another piece of grass like Krissy had toward the little elfling. "Of course."
Kari let out a delighted giggle as she took the piece of grass in her hands and set to work absolutely destroying her little mound of sand, though she didn't seem to be bothered as much as Krissy was that she wasn't getting it perfect.
"She'll learn," the man said quietly to Krissy when he saw her making a face toward her sister.
"She's still little," Krissy said with a heavy sigh. "That's what Papa says."
The three of them were working in relative quiet, both girls purely intent on their projects, when there was a little 'bamf' and one of Kurt's bamfs popped in to check on the girls… before prompting breaking into a look of panic and disappearing once more.
Hardly a second later, Kurt teleported to where the bamf had been, and when he saw the scene before him, he looked instantly thunderous. "What are you doing here?" he demanded of his now-normally colored father.
"What have you to fear, my boy?" Azazel asked with a widening grin.
"That wasn't an answer to my question," Kurt said, his eyes narrowed and his tail switching as a few of the bamfs popped in to teleport the girls further down the beach — and behind Kurt. Both of them looked surprised... and then a little upset.
"Just checking in on my legacy," Azazel replied. "If you must know."
"Don't come near my family again," Kurt said, teeth bared, in nearly a growl.
But Azazel just chuckled as he got to his feet and dusted off his hands. "Oh yes, very intimidating."
"Careful now," Kurt growled low. "You're not immortal anymore — or have you forgotten?"
"No, but that doesn't mean I'm powerless," Azazel replied.
"How did you get out of prison?" Kurt asked.
"If I tell you all my secrets, what fun would I have?" he challenged with a laugh.
"No matter," Kurt said, waving his hand. "You're going back. Now." With that, he simply teleported to where his father was and grabbed him by the arm, teleporting both of them elsewhere — still in the ocean, but to the floating prison that was the Raft.
The SHIELD agents there quickly responded to the intrusion — though they switched from addressing an intruder to taking Azazel into custody as the former demon king simply looked smug. Kurt narrowed his eyes, staying put until he could see with his own two eyes that his father was safely locked away, before he was sure to tell the head agent, "If he escapes, tell me the second you know it, please."
The agent nodded his head in agreement, then paused when he looked Kurt up and down. "Do you need medical attention?"
"What?" Kurt frowned and then quickly looked himself over, surprised to find that he was, in fact, bleeding from his right side, where Azazel had been standing in relation to himself. He swore in both English and German when he realized it, pulling his shirt up so he could see the clear, long cut for himself. "Was is…" He trailed off, simply furious. "No, thank you," he told the agent before he teleported back to the island where he had just left his family.
The girls were both clearly scared, not understanding what was happening, and Krissy ran straight to him as soon as he reappeared, her eyes wide. "Papa, where'd you go?" she asked.
But Kurt just went right to looking both of them over. "Are you hurt?" he asked, concerned for both of them. "Any scratches?"
The girls shook their heads in unison. "No, Papa," Kari sang his way, looking concerned for him as she patted his cheek while he was bent down so close to her.
"We just made sand castles," Krissy said, her hands clasped in front of her nervously. "Did we do something bad?"
"No, no," he assured them both quickly, pulling them into a hug. "Not a thing. But that man .. you should not talk to strangers."
"But this is Mama's island," Krissy said. "She has strangers like the pilot and people like that!"
"Yes, but that one man … he is no friend to us."
"He show Krissy how to build castles," Kari said, snuggling into her clearly worried father to give him a kiss. "It's okay, Papa."
"We won't talk to him again," Krissy promised.
By that time, the bamfs had brought Kate and Kaleb over as well — and Kate looked to have been filled in on what had happened, if the look on her face was any indication. "Is everyone alright?" she asked breathlessly, holding Kaleb tight to her chest.
"It seems so," Kurt said, though he showed her the cut when the girl's attention was elsewhere with the bamfs.
"What did he want?" Kate asked in a soft whisper, frowning over his side.
"It appears as if he got what he wanted. For now." Kurt let out a sigh. "I never felt it."
Kate's frown only deepened at that, and she leaned forward to kiss him. "You know, I don't think the 'X-Men don't kill' rule applies to creepy ex-demons who creep around our kids," she said softly.
"I'm certain it doesn't," Kurt agreed. "And if Scott wants to argue with me on it, I'll take it to a vote."
"If Scott argues it, I'll sicc Annie on him after I tell her he was with our girls."
"He won't argue it," Kurt promised.
Kate nodded and then leaned forward to steal a kiss. "I'm glad you're alright, even if he did get your blood," she said. "It could have been worse."
Kurt sighed at that, though anything else he would have said was drowned out for the moment when Kaleb chose that moment to let out a high-pitched little squeak and then burst into giggles at his own noises.
Kate relaxed and looked down at Kaleb, a smile creeping over her face. "You're just like your father, sweetie," she teased the little boy.
"We should probably think about heading back," Kurt said.
"Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled about the idea of staying anyplace your dad can get to," Kate had to agree with a sigh. "Would you wrangle the girls? I'll get Kaleb dressed for the weather."
"Of course," he agreed before he teleported to the two little ones, greeting them again with tickles. "It's time to say goodbye to the beach."
"Awwww," the girls chorused together. "Do we have to?"
"We do," Kurt told them, still smiling. "I'm sure that there will be sweets waiting for us when we return, though."
"Oooh, Valemtimey sweets," Kari giggled delightedly.
Krissy wrinkled her nose. "Too much kissing," she sniffed. "I don't like it."
"Good," Kurt said in an unnecessarily stern tone, purely to watch her giggle.
She gave him a little kiss on his cheek. "Kissing Papa is okay, though. And Mama," she told him as she hooked her arms around his neck so he could carry her when they went home. And with Kate finished getting Kaleb wrapped up for the cold February in Westchester, the little family appeared a few moments later back home in the kitchen — surprised to find that there was a little more of a celebration than they had expected.
Wade and Lisbet were there, as were most of the people in the mansion, and when Wade spotted Kate, he made a beeline right for her to spin her around in a hug. "Katie-bug!" he declared. "Perfect timing! Celebrate with us! Drink with me!"
Kate couldn't help but laugh as he spun her around and then set her down. "What's going on?"
"The lunatics got engaged," Logan explained.
At that, Kate broke into a disbelieving laugh, and she set Kaleb down for a moment so she could properly tackle Wade into a hug. "That's amazing!" she declared, her feet leaving the ground as she very nearly toppled him. "That's the best news I've heard all day!"
"It just happened," Eleanor said with a little smile from where she was perched on the counter, sitting happily with a pink cupcake in hand. "You guys missed it by maybe a couple hours."
"But you got it on camera, right?" Kate asked.
"Obviously," Eleanor giggled.
"She helped him plan the whole thing," Lisbet said with a wide smile as she wrapped her arms around Wade to steal a kiss.
"I had help," Eleanor said, still grinning, though Lisbet didn't catch the wink Eleanor shot K.
"And of course, as soon as it was official, Miss Annie Summers insisted on making a celebration of things," Lisbet said with a grin.
"Well, that's what happens when you join the family," Kate said, beaming as she snatched Kaleb back up before he could get too fussy about not getting attention.
It was no surprise at all when Chance and Charlie were the ones to come out of the kitchen carrying cupcakes with wide smiles and handing them out to everyone. "They all have red for Deadpool," Charlie told Kate.
"That's perfect," Kate told the little girl, ruffling her hair. "Your mom is smart, just like you."
Charlie giggled delightedly and nodded her agreement. "Uh-huh," she said, skipping off to give out more cupcakes.
Of course, anyone who had been around the kids could have predicted the fact that Chance went right to Elin with the cupcakes, holding one out to her with a grin.
She looked down at the cupcake and then up at him and gently shook her head. "No thank you."
Chance looked devastated. "But… but it's Valentine's," he said, staring at her with wide eyes.
"You already got a Valentime," Krissy sang at him. "You can't have two."
Chance looked between Krissy and Elin, looking totally gobsmacked. "But… cupcakes. You gotta have cupcakes on Valentines!"
"You have them with your Valentime," Krissy explained as patiently as she could. "And we don't need Valentimes." She had her hand on her hip as she gave him her sassiest pose and snatched up a cupcake. "Cupcakes are for kisses. No. Kisses."
Chance goggled at Krissy, then shook his head out at her. "Then how come you're eating a cupcake, huh?" he challenged her.
"I like frosting," she shot back. "Elin only took 'em because she liked you."
Chance simply stared at Krissy for a long moment before his shoulders slumped. "I don't like this new rule," he grumbled under his breath, climbing into a chair with his arms crossed as he set his chin down on the table, pouting and not eating his cupcake.
Scott and Annie shared a look, and Annie rolled her eyes toward the little boy, making it clear that she wanted Scott to do something about the sad little Kindergartener, so he let out a breath and sat down next to Chance. "You alright, bud?"
"I don't like Valentine's Day," Chance grumbled.
"I'm sorry about that," Scott said, rubbing the little guy's back as he pouted. He wasn't sure what to do to cheer him up, and the little boy just kept up the sad routine, so Scott let out all his breath. "You're not gonna eat your cupcake?"
"I don't want a cupcake," Chance said.
Scott leaned down to see Chance's expression and then nodded. "Okay, if that's what you want, I guess I'll just have to eat your cupcake," he said seriously.
Chance just shrugged. "Okay."
Scott frowned at his pouting little boy before he finally shook his head, picked Chance up, and flipped him upside down over his shoulders. "Come on," he said as Chance couldn't help but shriek with surprise as Scott carried him upside down over to where some of the other kids were. "Do you guys wanna help me and Chance build a snowman?" he asked, to a chorus of nodding heads and giggles.
Chance twisted around a little bit until Scott finally set him down, giggling despite himself at the rush of blood to his head from being upside down. "Elin, you wanna play too?" he called out. "We're gonna build a snowman. No cupcakes, just snowmen!"
She glanced up at him for a moment then nodded her head. "Okay," she called back, scrambling away from her dad and little sister.
Scott had to smirk, relieved to see Chance grinning again as he played with the other kids. That kid had his heart on his sleeve, and if this was how he was in Kindergarten… He shook his head. Well, he had Annie for help with the rest.