A/N: - Adult situations ahead. Just so's you know. Thank you very much for reading and thank you even more to everyone who reviewed, it meant a LOT and I'm so sorry this took so long to write!
"Morecroft's a psychopathic torturer. Half in love with whoever it is she's inflicting pain on and panics every time she starts to kill them." Hank sighed. It seemed like they'd been questioned by the well-meaning x-men for hours but after they had arrived there had been food – which, even though it was as simple as a ham sandwich, tasted like heaven – and a few jokes, Kit had checked on the children and Layla, who had been fine, and now they were settled in one of the study's. Jean, Scott, Logan and, of course, Kit. "Book seems to be a run-a-round, a lackey doing the intel for the other two. Glass is the one you want. Dangerous. Psychopath with a brain."
"We can handle that." Logan smirked, glancing over at Jean. "We got some brains on our team."
"Please don't smoke here, the kids are listening at the door and some of them can smell what's going on in here." Kit said quietly from where she sat right on the edge of one of the sofas before yawning hugely. Logan grunted and slid the cigar back into his jacket. Without thinking about what he was doing, Hank moved over to sit beside Kit, letting her lean against him.
"I think we'd better report to the Professor, he'll want to know what's happening." Jean said, rather tactfully, tugging on Scott's jacket as she pushed away from the desk they were leaning against. "Logan, you coming?"
"Yep." With a look of deep resentment Logan pulled himself out of the chair and slouched out of the room leaving Hank and Kit alone with a slightly awkward silence. Hank frowned into middle space, trying to think of a way to break it. Something immediately sprang to mind as Kit sat forward, putting her face in her hands.
"So. Con artist huh?" Hank asked with a smile, Kit turned to glare at him through the mesh of her fingers.
"If you're going to tell me to hand myself in for my previous crimes I'm going to tell you to stick it where –"
"I wouldn't dream of suggesting such a thing, Miss Kincaid." Hank shrugged, laughing on the inside when her jaw dropped with shock and clicked shut a fraction of a second later. "We have a thief at the school, you know, Remy Lebeau."
"Remy Etienne Lebeau?"
"You've met?"
"I think I owe him money." Kit murmured, flicking a stray piece of hair from her shoulder. Hank reached over, brushing a hand down the entire luxurious length of her hair. She practically purred.
"The first thing I'm going to do tomorrow is buy you a decent brush." He murmured, a smile on his face. She turned to him, eyes narrowed, and he could almost see the acidic retort lining up behind her lips – he cut it off effectively by leaning forward and kissing her for a long, long time. When she had relaxed once more, pliable and wound around him as tightly as he could ever possibly wish, he pulled away slightly. "Do you believe in happily ever after?"
"Oh do shut up, Mr secretary, and come home with me."
"For once I'm quite prepared to not argue."
"Hm."
Hank growled loudly as the covers were yanked off him, cold air rushing in where wonderful warmth had been only moments before. He reached out blindly, scowling and down right bloody refusing to open his eyes to the morning's light.
"Don't bother" A familiar voice, thick with left over sleep, grumbled in his ear. "The kids have taken it for their tent. It's a Friday." Kit said, as if that explained everything, rolled over, flinging an arm over him and spooning up behind him and buried her face in the warm spot that lingered between his shoulder blades. Hank shivered as she sighed.
"I hate children" He growled without really meaning it.
"So do I" She replied, voice muffled, he could feel her lips moving against his skin, "it's no wonder we get on so wonderfully" She laughed silently, he could feel that too…an interesting little vibrating movement against his back. He rolled over carefully, cracking one eye open to look at her. She was lying there, arms around him still, but with one side of her face pressed into the pillow, frowning against the light, her hair – as usual - was a mess…and she was pouting a little. It wasn't a particularly pretty sight – even with the pink ruckled silk slip she'd managed to get into at some point bunched up around her thighs – but it was…cute. Cute. A word he'd never ever thought of in relation to her before. Hanks grumpiness slowly dissipated as he looked down at her, "keep looking at me like that and I'll gouge out your eyeballs with a spoon" she said without opening her eyes.
"I never knew you were so affectionate in a morning" He replied with a slight smile, feeling her hips undulate against his own lazily.
"And your breath stinks" She added, cracking open an eye as a grin started to form.
"Yes well you're a wreck first thing in the morning, you don't see me complaining do you?" He snapped back with a low growl as they rolled over together, he was on his back, looking up at her. She stretched as she laughed, hands flat on his chest and her legs either side of him.
"A wreck, huh?" She asked, hips rocking against his own, chin resting on the back of her hands. Hank chuckled deeply, his hands running down her thighs.
"How would you describe someone who's face is practically stuck to the pillow with drool?"
"The best lay your ever likely to get." She said richly, sitting up as she raised an eyebrow. The motion of her hips stilled though they did shift as she stretched, spine arching in a 'c' and her arms way back. Hank appreciated the view with a rather smug grin.
"And one I fully intend to enjoy-"
"Later. Come on, boss, we're late to the office as it is." Kit rolled away and got up, proceeding to pick her clothes from amongst his.
"We're going to work? Today? I'm the boss! Can't we just phone in sick?" Hank whined, earning himself a withering look. "Oh alright." He snapped, rolling off the bed and pulling his pants on with enough force to risk ripping them.
"Come on, I'll make waffles for everyone."
"Ooh waffles."
"You have got to be joking." Kit glared, narrow eyed and full of spite, at the luckless delivery boy who held a large bouquet of stylishly arranged flowers, although the effect was rather knocked off by the pink balloon that was attached to it.
"No, ma'am, the label says Kit Kincaid, I've got the address and everything. You just need to sign, ma'am." The boy babbled, struggling with both flowers and clipboard.
"Fine. Whatever." Kit snatched the board, standing up from the desk she had been working at, and scribbled a signature. "Wait." She yelled as the boy, having deposited the flowers on the corner of the desk, made a dash for the door. "Here." She handed over a twenty, saw the brief look of confused gratitude and tried to resist a smirk. "Well? Leave."
"Yes, ma'am!" Kit rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the flowers. Whoever sent them had taste, she had to admit. Calla lilies – shaded such a delicate pink that they looked like they were blushing – nestled amongst white carnations and shockingly pink peonies…it was definitely a gift for a woman. Kit found herself reaching out to touch the petals gently, they were still warm from the hothouse…
"So do you like them?" Hank asked from where he leaned against the doorway, hands rammed into his pockets.
"Flowers?" Kit asked without turning to look at him, sarcasm in her voice warring with the look of warmth and affection on her face. "How original."
"There's a card too" Hank pointed out, quite casually, pretending not to pay her any attention. Kit shot him a look full of distrust and reached into the pale pink blooms, finding the card and flipping it open with her thumb, awkwardly using one hand to tug out the little disk of paper,
"A man may boast himself invincible by men; never by woman" She read out. Hank watched her over the top of his glasses and bit back a grin as her expression changed for a few seconds as she gazed down at the little card obviously re-reading just that line, her gaze soft and what looked like touched tears gathering in her eyes before she blinked them away, "pop the balloon" She looked up at him, the mask of aloof coldness held in place by a hairs breath, "pop the balloon?" She warbled. Hank let the grin out, shrugging one shoulder as he sat back, folding his hands behind his head. She sighed as if much put upon, snatching a pair of scissors from his stationary pot and taking a vicious stab at the pink balloon. Something small and silver clattered to the table and Kit frowned, a tiny puzzled smile curling one corner of her mouth, "keys?" She asked, jingling the little circle on one finger, "lots of keys? Is this a clever metaphor because if it is-"
"I have many friends, being slightly more amiable than you usually are has it's advantages after all" He grinned at the look of indignation on her face as she spluttered, "And one of my friends happens to be a rather influential property developer with seven or eight spare buildings on his account at any one time. Sometimes he takes aforementioned houses and sells them, other times they're developed or knocked down and what have you" He waved a hand dismissively, watching her face fall into a puzzled frown. "Am I boring you?"
"Is there a point to this?" The keys had been lowered now, hanging by her side.
"Eventually. My friend, this property developer you remember? He came across one particular house that he couldn't bring himself to destroy" He held up a hand, leafing through a stack of paper before finding what he was looking at and handing her a little booklet, "he didn't want to sell it to some anonymous stranger either"
"I'm not surprised, it's practically a mansion" Kit said dryly, wondering what this was about,
"So he was in a dilemma, until I offered to take it off his hands for him" He explained calmly, "for a very reasonable price of course. Minimal in fact. I thought three cents was quite the phenomenal price"
"Did anyone ever tell you boasting is a sign of insecurity?" She asked with narrowed eyes as she threw the little leaflet, trying not to look at the picture of one of the most beautiful houses she had ever seen, "and still you have yet to reach a point" She said scathingly, "you've taken so long I've forgotten what my question was"
"The point, Kit" He said as he stood up, walking round to lean against the desk, arms folded as he stood little more than a foot away from her, "is that I've had this new place freshly decorated by yet more friends of mine and…I'm giving it to you" She blinked but didn't react beyond that. "Or, more specifically, I'm giving it to the kids you look after. Xaviers School for the Gifted, is quite happy to put up funds for Kincaid's Orphanage for X-Positive Children, as much as you need and you can see there's extensive grounds for them to run round in, a pool and a basketball...are you ok?" She was gasping, her knees giving out as she backed towards a chair, her hand covering her mouth as she stared wide eyed at the papers she still held in her hand. Anyone watching from outside the office would have seen a handsome blue man moving towards a woman who looked distressed, silently mouthing words of comfort before she looked up at him, obviously unable to say anything before launching herself forward. Anyone watching from outside the office would have seen the blue man fall back under an onslaught of passionate kisses and the two of them disappearing behind the large oak desk. Anyone watching from outside of the office would have noticed that the couple didn't reappear from behind the desk for quite sometime. As it turned out, deep inside their souls both Kit Kincaid and Hank McCoy believed in a type of 'happy ever after', an ending or beginning, that they were both prepared to venture into.
The end
TBC…?