Alright, griezz, honey… Go. Read. The Hawkeye series that we've repeatedly said is the best thing in the universe (as well as the subsequent Hawkeye series starring Kate). When we looked to the composition of the Board, we literally pulled up the panels from the moment Derek Bishop agreed to the kill order on Kate and Clint (as well as other panels from other issues showing the Board meeting, since their composition shifts based on who has power at any given time, or even who has the potential for power and ideas to get more) so as for who is IN the Board? That's Hawkeye comics knowledge, man. We didn't make that decision. I mean, we played around with some of it? But that was literally a snap by snap of panels from the comics, and it wasn't even a full meeting of the Board, so…

As for the bomb plot… um. Listen. These are the same people who hired a clown with a tear-face to flirt with Kate and then roundabout try to kill Clint by first deafening him and putting his brother in a wheelchair and then…. I guess… send all the tracksuits en masse? It was not a very well-thought-out plan, yo. You're giving them waaaaay too much credit here, bro. These are the same people who have the TRACKSUITS on their Board membership, bro. Crazy bad guys, bro.

And on this Board, Fisk is just ONE voice. Sure, he's the head of it (or thinks he is), but you've got the likes of Viper… Masque… tracksuits… Lissen. This is a really weird composition of bad guys, and the ONLY thing they agree on is that they are out to get money. If one of them proposed a mail bomb, the response would be "sure why not; if it works, then that's great, and if not, then hey, no skin off our nose and hopefully it hit one of the X-men." Let's be real here. Not everyone is a criminal mastermind in this organization.

Besides, the Board isn't solely a Kate problem. It was originally a Clint problem that Kate got pulled into (and let's be real, Ringmaster? IS a Clint problem), and they sometimes bug Spidey, Daredevil, SHIELD….. It's NOT just a Kate problem, though right now they're annoyed with her simply because her father was on their board and, according to comics canon, he was worth billions. So yeah, they're trying to get that back. Because any supervillain organization focused on money would like billions of dollars. It's a no-brainer. But their composition as a whole isn't solely "people out to get Kate and Clint." Dog, for example, would just like to screw with Logan as much as possible? So … you know… getting involved with a guy who freaking had a hand in Mariko's death is kind of … obvious.

Once again, let me HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading Matt Fraction's run of the Hawkeye series, as well as the current run of Hawkeye comics starring Kate, which is currently exploring not only Kate's rivalry with Masque (let it be known that we wrote it all of the Masque stuff in the 714 first before that series started to really flesh it out and had her involved with actually bodysnatching Kate omg GO READ IT!) BUT ALSO validated our theory that she's a carrier for genetic power potential (*not to brag but omg we know our characters okay? *is still tickled that the reveal in the 616 just proved us right)

So yeah, long story short, please for the love of Galactus go read moar Hawkeye comics always.

Chapter 10: Daisies In The Fall

For Hank, the trip into town to go on a picnic with the Wrights and with Daisy was a much-needed break from the relentless pace that he'd been dealing with for the last little while.

Not all of it was bad news, of course — he quite enjoyed being part of the wonderful news for Logan and K — but Kate and K's missing time, as well as the repeat offense for K, compounded with the explosion on their own front doorstep and the usual pace of dealing with the first week of school in Westchester as reckless teenagers were wont to show off their powers to each other…

He was glad to get some time to relax.

Daisy was running a bit late but had called to say that she was on her way. She had to work late again, a hazard of her occupation, as Hank well knew. But that simply meant that when Hank arrived at the park, the only ones there were the Wrights. Anton and Rachel were already setting out the blanket on the grass — and the rest of the food on one of the picnic tables, since little 6-year-old Mary Beth simply refused to eat anything on the same level as the ants.

Her older sister, Leslie Ann, waved happily over at Hank when she saw him coming, standing up on the bench by the picnic table so that she could be taller. "Mr. Beast!" she sang out, waving frantically to get his attention, and he couldn't help but chuckle at the huge, beaming grin that split her face when he waved back to her.

Rachel smiled warmly at him as he sat down with the family. "Is Daisy not with you?" she asked sweetly, though by that point, Hank had spent enough time around Annie and her sisters to understand the second half of that question, even if it had been left unsaid.

"She's simply running a bit behind," Hank said serenely.

"You're s'posed to come together," Leslie Ann told him matter-of-factly, bouncing her head from side to side in time with her dangling, kicking feet as her puffy pigtails bounced with her. "That's what you're s'posed to do when you got a girlfriend, silly."

"I'm sorry," Rachel said, shaking her head at her oldest daughter as she tried to corral the little girl. "She's…"

But Hank just smiled and waved a hand. "She's entirely right," he said, turning to the bright-eyed little girl with a twinkle in his eyes. "What do you think, my dear girl? Would flowers be appropriate to make it up to her?" he asked, honestly curious to see what the precocious little 9-year-old would do.

"Oooh, yes!" Leslie Ann agreed quickly, wriggling off the bench to immediately skip off to go and collect wildflowers — as many as she could find before Daisy got there.

Anton was already shaking his head as he helped Rachel set out the paper plates for the sandwiches and chips. "She must like you," he told Hank. "She did the same thing to Scott when he and Annie started seein' each other."

Hank couldn't help but smile at the mental image of one of his oldest friends being subject to the little girl off picking flowers at that very moment — at an even younger age when she surely would have been impossible to say 'no' to. "She's an intelligent young lady," Hank said, unable to stop the smile from widening.

"Gets it from her mother," Anton said without missing a beat, which had Hank chuckling all over again at the obvious affection between the two of them, especially when Rachel reached over to grab Anton's hand and give it a little squeeze.

It was only a few minutes later that Daisy arrived, looking a bit harried after a longer-than-expected shift, but there was no mistaking the warmth in her smile when she saw the group of them waiting for her — and Hank in particular.

Hank crossed the grass to meet her and offer her his arm to walk with her the rest of the way to the picnic table, unable to stop smiling her way as he covered her hand with his. "I'm glad you could join us, my dear," he said with a playful sort of twinkle in his eyes that got a laugh out of Daisy as she shook her head at him.

The two of them sat on the bench opposite the Wrights, though Hank had barely taken his seat before he felt a small hand tugging on his fur and looked down to see Leslie Ann with a handful of dandelions, holding them up to Hank with an expectant look on her face — and obviously trying to hide behind him so that Daisy wouldn't see what she was up to.

Hank glanced toward Daisy and couldn't help but smile when he saw that she had angled herself so that she looked as if she had simply no idea that the little girl was even there, then turned back to Leslie Ann to gently take the handful of flowers from her. "Thank you, Leslie Ann," he said with a warm smile that she returned in spades.

"You gotta give 'em to her," she said, making shooing motions with both of her hands.

Hank just chuckled and turned to Daisy to show her the child-sized handful of flowers — which she of course looked positively tickled over. "What's this for?" Daisy asked.

"An apology for my lack of manners in not coming myself to sweep you off your feet to take you to this picnic," Hank said with a smile.

Daisy let out a delighted laugh as she tucked one of the daffodils into her hair. "Apology accepted," she said, rested her hand on Hank's.

Hank smiled even wider at that and brushed back her hair around the daffodil. "In the words of the Immortal Bard," he said, which was already getting a wide smile out of Daisy, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date."

"Oh my gosh," Leslie Ann whispered to her mother — though probably not as quietly as she meant to — all but climbing into Rachel's lap and totally enraptured by the couple sitting across from her.

Daisy hadn't been able to stop smiling through the whole thing, of course, and for just a moment, she glanced toward the Wrights and then leaned forward to steal a kiss from Hank.

Which immediately earned a squeal of delight from Leslie Ann and an 'ewww' from her little sister.

But Daisy and Hank and the Wrights weren't the only ones out picnicking that afternoon. It was a pretty enough day that both Kurt and Logan had decided to give it an honest effort and take the girls out. Of course, that meant Logan picked the spot — and with his talent for finding picturesque places … well. The scenery was, of course, perfect.

The trees that surrounded the lake were still green, but the sumac bushes and the sassafras had already turned bright red. And by the water, the wind was blowing lightly — just enough to push their hair back if they faced it. "So … I mean … how is this supposed to work?" K asked, though she wasn't looking to the rest of the group, instead focused on some spot further into the trees.

"Well," Logan said, following her gaze. "We can let Kurt and Kate set things up... you know, since I found the spot." He took a few steps over and put his arm around K's shoulders as they had already started out toward the woods. "We'll just … be back. Need to check the place out a little bit." He shot a grin Kurt's way for just a moment before he and K simply disappeared into the woods.

"They … are so not coming back any time soon," Kate laughed.

Kurt was already shaking his head and chuckling as well. "No, they aren't," he had to agree — though he also couldn't help but think that Logan had the right idea. He leaned over to kiss a spot just behind Kate's ear and couldn't help smiling to himself a little more when she leaned back into him.

"We said we'd have a picnic," Kate said, shaking her head at him.

"We did, didn't we," Kurt said, though he had started to kiss her again, along the edge of her jaw, and she laughed as he pulled her down until she was looking up at him, her hair splayed out on the blanket on the grass — which was as far as they'd gotten into setting up the picnic.

She shifted a bit so that she was squarely under him, the only thing keeping the distance his arms holding him up so that he was looking down at her. "We're never going to have a picnic, are we?" she asked, smiling with her teeth pulling at her bottom lip.

"I'm not complaining," he shot back, smiling a bit wider before he closed the distance and got wrapped up in a kiss, teleporting them both elsewhere and away from prying eyes.

And while it seemed like half of the X-Men were involved in romantic trysts of some kind or another, the youngest soon-to-be member of the team had made his way to a meeting Scott had set up with Warren Worthington III about getting a scholarship.

He was grateful to Scott, obviously. He really, really was. But he was sure the interview was already off to a fantastically bad start when Warren opened the door and looked almost automatically defensive, taking a step back when he saw the young man who looked so much like Victor Creed in his doorway.

Tyler let ot a sigh and let his shoulders drop so he looked as nonthreatening as possible. "Scott called ahead?" he prompted. "I'm Tyler."

"Yeah … I just … wasn't ... " Warren took a breath and let out a laugh. "I am 99% sure I just lost a bet of some sort. Sorry. Hi, Tyler. Come on in." He stepped back to make room for Tyler to walk by him, obviously still more than a little wary. It was easy to see.

Warren closed the door behind him and walked over to his desk — rustling his feathers a bit before he sat down. "Let's get started, shall we?" Warren said, looking a lot more approachable all of a sudden. "Why don't you tell me about yourself and what it is you do? I'm not even going to try and be shifty about it — I'm very interested in what you have to offer."

"Then I should be honest up front," Tyler said as he took a seat across from Warren. With first impressions out the window, at least he could come across as honest and approachable — as much as possible. "I'm not much of a fighter. I'd actually rather go to medical school and do something like what Dr. McCoy's doing — be on the team but focus on medicine mostly."

"Really?" Warren didn't bother to hide that he was surprised, but Tyler was pretty used to that reaction, too. He looked like he should be out there tearing people up, not putting them back together, and he knew it. But then Warren started up with a slow smile and started to nod. "The poetic justice is kind of astounding, actually."

Tyler couldn't help but smirk and nod. "You can blame my mom for that," he said, starting to relax the more at ease Warren himself looked. "She put herself through night school so she could be an EMT."

"Taking after her, then?" Warren couldn't help but chuckle.

"I sure hope so," Tyler said honestly. "Even before I figured out what I could do with my powers, I wanted to do that — help people."

Warren couldn't stop shaking his head and smiling at the kid sitting in front of him who was so clearly the opposite of his father. "And that's why you want to join the team?"

Tyler nodded.

Warren's feathers fluffed out a bit — he couldn't help it — and he nodded. "Sounds about right," he said, then leaned forward. "Alright, Tyler. Let's talk about where you want to go to school."

And while just about everyone else was out and about taking advantage of the gorgeous day, the little Summers family was at the institute — though they too were outside enjoying the weather.

Annie had set out a blanket that the kids could crawl around on without getting onto the grass — since, inevitably, once they got something in their hands, they wanted to put it in their mouths. Chance in particular had already almost eaten a spider last week when he managed to get into the grass before Annie saw him.

The twins were starting to develop personalities of their own now — and while Chance was definitely the more active of the two, Charlie had a wicked sense of humor that both Scott and Annie were coming to appreciate.

Charlie was a sweetheart most of the time, not making too much of a fuss when it was time to eat or time to go down for a nap (which, on the other hand, was world-ending for Chance, who wanted to be a part of everything and only seemed to fall asleep when he had worn himself down and fallen asleep in the middle of the floor somewhere or on the shoulder of whatever X-Man was closest). But when it came to talking? It was a different story.

Chance was already trying to talk all the time, jabbering "mamamama" and "dadadada" simply because of how many times Annie and Scott had said it to him (though Scott was pretty pleased about the fact that he'd gotten his son to say "dada" first). He'd try it out with different consonants — "bababababa" and "kakakakaka" and different variations — and would watch Scott and Annie whenever they talked to him with a look of concentration, like he was trying to figure out how they were doing that with their mouths.

But Charlie? Charlie would just start laughing whenever anyone tried to get her to talk. It wasn't limited to Scott and Annie, either. Storm, Kurt, Forge, Remy, even Logan all got the same reaction — a whole lot of belly laughs and then a boop on the nose with one chubby finger.

So at the moment, Scott was holding his little girl one on knee trying so hard to get her to say "dada" first — while Annie wrestled with Chance to get him to sit still enough to eat. He was screaming — but not really because he was mad. It was just that he'd discovered he could be loud, and he loved shouting "AAH" at the top of his little lungs.

Charlie was watching her brother with her nose scrunched up and her forehead wrinkled before Scott won her attention by tickling her and getting her to giggle. "Can you say 'dada'?" he asked her for about the hundredth time, smiling at her widely.

She just giggled and started blowing raspberries at him.

Scott let out a sigh and shook his head, though when he looked up and caught Annie grinning at him, he couldn't help but smile back at her.

"She's just as stubborn as you are," Annie said, that same playful grin lighting up her features as she finally released Chance, and the little boy immediately pushed himself up onto all fours and started to explore.

Scott watched Chance do his version of a crawl — getting up on his hands and knees and then belly-flopping forward — before he looked up at Annie. "No, I think she gets it from you."

Annie let out a laugh and shook her head. "You're seeing things, Mr. Summers."

"Must be the view," he said with an easy smile as he leaned back with Charlie and let the little baby girl rest on his chest and blow bubbles at him. "Too distracting."

A solid blush rose up on Annie's face before she reached over and hit him in the arm. "Flirt."

Scott just grinned up at her, and though he couldn't move much while Charlie was sitting on top of him, Annie took the hint and settled down next to him to kiss him.

Which was, of course, Charlie's cue to say, "'to-o-o-o-op," complete with an obvious pop at the end of the 'p' and a wicked grin.

Scott and Annie broke apart, both of them looking surprised, before they glanced down at the little girl, who simply fell apart in giggles all over again, blowing raspberries at them.

"Did your daughter just say 'stop' as her first word?" Annie demanded of Scott, hitting him in the arm.

"My daughter?"

"You did this somehow, I just know it!" Annie insisted, though she was laughing hard, and he had to shake his head at her and pulled her down for another kiss.

"Sure, Annie, whatever you say," he said, grinning at her when the kiss broke, and she laughed all over again before she had to stop kissing him to rescue Chance before he could make it all the way off the blanket and start eating grass again.