Notes: And our victory tour continues. Poor Logan hates this whole thing, and Skye and Coulson aren't big fans either. In fact, I don't think anybody's really all that happy… January is not a kind month to our kiddies, apparently.

Chapter 25: "Still Waters Run Deep"

January 3

District Eleven

Skye was supposed to be watching the people on the list for each district, but this kid in particular was going to be a hard case. His dad raised him on his own after his mom died in the Games — teenage pregnancy, ostracized, the whole nine. He was tight with his dad, almost adorably so, even if his dad was gone all the time. The man worked hard — and he was on Fury's radar for how well he could get along with both Sentinels and the people in the district, which was all but impossible around those parts. And it was probably why he was close with the mayor and close with Fury. Though how that was possible was beyond Skye.

But his dad wasn't the one she was supposed to be profiling. Instead, she was looking at the fourteen-year-old kid who was tall for his age and lanky — and always, always grinning. While his dad was able to get along with everyone because he was unassuming, this one got along with everyone because he was just so darn cheerful.

Even Skye, who was clearly dressed in her SHIELD clothes and so was getting a wide berth from everyone else in the district, wasn't immune to his cheerful greeting as he waved her way on the way to the big gathering.

He was the last on her list to observe as she made her way back to the gathered group to find Coulson, shaking her head at the options in front of her.

The other boy on radar was almost the opposite of the cheerful little guy. Seventeen already, tall, muscular and sporting a white streak in the front of his hair that was too perfect not to be natural. He was part of a radical closet religion that was so close to an old world witchcraft that half of the district was scared of the kid. She would definitely be putting in her notes that if they wanted to up the scare factor, he was the best choice, even if he was actually nice when she'd observed him. (That was the problem. So many nice kids on this stupid list.) But it would certainly look good. And the Capitol would love the white streak.

For the girls, there were two front runners as well. A young woman named Lambeau who seemed to have a bit of a talent for all things electronic in spite of being all the way out here in the agricultural district. Reports had come in that she'd been keeping all of the machinery with electronics up and running with no wait time for Capitol mechanics to come out to fix them. She was bright, and cheerful, and it seemed like everyone liked her.

Skye had a feeling she was on Fury's list specifically to die so he could have her talents in the secret wings of SHIELD where the workshops and stuff were that Fitzsimmons were always going on about. And that didn't exactly sit well with Skye, since, well, she had been recruited for similar talents, and she didn't think it would be a great recruitment pitch to get, you know. Murdered.

But on the other hand, she was smart, she was happy, and she'd be a darling in the Capitol. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to be self-confident enough to make it through the Games at least a little further than the others had.

The other girl — well. She was the picture perfect teacher's pet. Everything about her was polished and perfect. Even with dust clouds swirling at her feet, this girl seemed to be above all of the dirt and mess. She was quick, clearly on top of her job, and her sisters all looked every bit as perfect as she did. It was a bit unnerving in such a dirty and labor-intensive district to see the little group of perfectly groomed girls flitting amid the rest of the kids.

She was another one that was incredibly smart — though her skill set seemed to be more classical in that she was far above par in literature, math, and what little science the Capitol would allow. It was a little off-putting, how perfect she was — which might not actually be a bad thing. The Capitol loves a well-groomed and intelligent tribute, right? Show that the districts are well-cared for and some other crap?

Either way, one of these two brilliant kids was going to get used up by the Games, and Skye couldn't help but notice the way everyone in the district was shooting her looks as she passed. She knew it was because of the uniform, but there was still a part of her that felt like maybe they knew she was here to choose which kids would die.

"How's it looking, Skye?" Coulson had to ask when the two of them met up again. She just looked too deep in thought for it to be nothing.

"We're draining off some of the smartest and best kids from where they're needed," she told him honestly.

"To go somewhere they're needed more," Coulson replied.

"I know, I get it, but it just — it's stupid to walk around knowing you're weighing out a person's life."

"We can't argue about this for the whole tour, Skye. I don't have a say in it outside of making recommendations for the best ones to choose."

"It's just different from doing the whole thing as algorithms and file markups is all," she grumbled.

"It's always worse when you put a living, breathing person to the name," Coulson agreed.

"Do the 'operatives' know about this? I mean… if I went down there, would they know I was part of the team that put them in the Games?"

"Absolutely not," he said shortly. "They may suspect, but no one has confirmed it."

"O-kay," she said, though from her tone it was clear she didn't think that was a good idea. "But when we're all said and done, I'm blaming you if I get swarmed by angry undead people who would be totally justified in swarming me."

Logan didn't really pay much attention as they headed out to the stage in District Eleven. It would prove to be an odd one compared to other districts simply because the mayor's son was one of the tributes killed.

The people in the district didn't seem to be interested in Logan much one way or the other, and when he managed to glance up at the platform for Ororo's family, he had to frown on seeing that it was empty. He stared at the empty platform for a while, and though he didn't step forward for a speech, he managed to break protocol again — in a new manner — when he did step forward to T'Challa's father and shook the man's hand, keeping his remarks between them and well away from the microphone — to the irritation of those that were trying to put on a show.

Although he had more or less tuned everyone out — he hadn't missed the replays on the train that outlined how both T'Challa and Ororo had died. He also hadn't missed the way that the announcers were talking about T'Challa and T'Chaka. The mayor looked confused for a moment as Logan kept his back to the cameras and managed to block himself from their view as he muttered something low and quiet that had T'Chaka very suddenly nodding solemnly before the two men parted company — and Logan stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Moira as if to dare her to try and force him to do anything.

T'Chaka paused and glanced back at Logan before he went back to the microphone and finished up, thanking their friends from District Seven before the show broke up.

Logan and the little group barely got off the stage before they were stopped. "What did you say to him?" the Head Sentinel demanded.

Logan looked him up and down with a glare of his own, the two of them just out of sight from any cameras or the general public. "None of your damn business," Logan replied. But Moira gave him a look that was hard to miss as the Sentinel looked like he was getting wound up. "But seein' as you need a lesson in tact, I told him that I thought it was honorable for the son of such a reputable family to have given everything for an orphan girl," Logan replied. "I told him that his son was better than just about all of them that were in that shooting gallery for dying the way he did. Protecting her."

When the man didn't let him go, glaring at him, Logan took a step closer and continued in a low growl. "Now take your hands off me before I break 'em."

That finally got the Sentinel to back off a bit, and Logan brushed past the Sentinel and past a nondescript SHIELD agent in a suit, too, who had a pleased sort of expression on his face as he watched the exchange. As soon as he was in a more secured area, he sent the word out to Hill.

"Put the others on notice. Our victor isn't very talkative. Timeline is cut substantially."

Seeing as one of the tributes this year was the mayor's son, it was a little easier to get past the usual security for his residence — but harder to be sure that they had enough time. Typically, the grieving families got to go home as soon as the speeches were done, which meant Mike and Clint weren't sure when to expect unexpected visitors. Which — as Clint pointed out — was oxymoronic anyway.

Clint rushed through picking the lock once Mike got them through the district, directing Clint on how to come around from the outside, since the tall blonde would rather stick out in Eleven — not that a half-cybernetic guy was that much more subtle. They were both antsy to get out of there and avoid getting caught, so when they cleared the house and dropped by the Sentinels' place as well in record time, they were feeling a bit pleased with themselves when Maria Hill came over the comms in their ears to inform them — and everyone else out in the field — that the timeline was much shorter than they'd been told in the debriefings.

"Get it done fast — prioritize and work efficiently and get out."

Clint just rolled his eyes at the transmission as he and Mike booked it back toward the jet. "Like we weren't already trying to high-tail it."

"Clearly, you haven't worked with her yet," Mike said. "If she doesn't tell you what and how to do it, doesn't matter how many times you have. You won't know, according to her."

"Yeah, well, I'm not a real big fan of micromanagement. Or … management," Clint said with a shrug.

"Then you're not going to be a big fan of the next few runs of missions," he replied.

"Least we're out here doing something, though. Could be stuck back with the vampire," Clint pointed out, panting slightly as they reached the edges of the district borders.

Tahiti Hangar

Since Ororo was one of the pilots for the massive runs of missions, she was scheduled to spend most of her time out in a jet. But thanks to the combined efforts of the resident Tahiti genius squad, the jets had been outfitted with little screens in the holds — not in the cockpits, because "no distracted fliers allowed," according to Tony.

She was waiting in the hangar to pick up Peter for the next run; she already had Steve with her. And honestly, she hadn't really been thinking much about watching the broadcast of the victory tour. She liked Logan from when they had interacted in the Capitol, but they hadn't seen each other in the Games, and she knew if they said anything about her at all, it would just be about how he'd gone with Steve to take on Cletus.

And that really wasn't something she wanted to relive.

But Steve had switched on the broadcast — whether to kill time or out of curiosity or whatever else, she wasn't really sure. And Ororo couldn't quite fight the curiosity either, so she ended up with her chin on Steve's shoulder, watching as the broadcast covered Logan's arrival.

They showed the family platforms, too, and Ororo wasn't surprised to see that hers was empty. The Capitol wouldn't consider her new family, her found family, to be eligible, but she found that she was searching the people shown in the crowd for familiar faces, like Forge — who looked… he looked downright crushed. She felt her mouth go dry seeing her friend like that and — for a moment — closed her eyes to stem the tide before it could overflow inside her.

She didn't have anything to say at all when Steve turned her way, and she was grateful that he didn't ask her anything or try to offer any words, because that would just feel empty.

She watched Logan speak to T'Challa's father and was surprised by how similar T'Chaka and T'Challa looked. Or maybe it was just that they had that same, resigned expression, the one T'Challa had been wearing since pretty much the moment he was reaped.

The cameras didn't catch what was said, but Ororo had a feeling it was enough. Enough to properly remember T'Challa and enough to give T'Chaka a moment of grief in privacy.

When she saw Logan — when this was all over — she would be sure to tell him she was grateful, because her district partner had deserved that respect.

As the broadcast shifted when Logan left, she cleared her throat and clapped her hand on Steve's shoulder. "Thanks," she muttered quietly.

"Yeah. No problem."

January 4

District Ten

"There's got to be something in the water," Skye mumbled. She was still on the train with Coulson and staring down at the files for the kids she was supposed to look over at the next district.

"True story," Coulson replied with a straight face. "At least, if you're judging just by the ones on our radar here. It's a good thing that we're really just confirming on the ones Fury wants."

"They're insane." Skye made a face. "I know I'm the one who added in the prison system, but seriously… they're… eww."

"Even with that, you only have one from the prison on your list. The other is supposed to be from a fairly well-respected family. If … psychotics are considered respectable."

"I know every Games needs their bad guys, but I'm telling you, I'm not drinking anything while we're here. I'm serious."

"There are a lot of kind souls here too — consider this a culling-the-herd trip."

"Yeah, first time I don't think I'll be too torn up about taking them out of their districts. Ten could use a break." Skye made another face and closed the files. "Not that we'd have time for much more. No family for either of the tributes from this past year, and it's not like the new victor is talkative."

"He's gotta say something sooner or later though," Coulson said. "I hope."

"You really think he's gonna start talking in the psycho district?" Skye raised an eyebrow.

"He did kill one of them," Coulson said with a shrug, and the two of them met gazes for a moment before Coulson started to shake his head. "Alright... No. No not really."

"He killed one and helped to kill the other. And he didn't really seem torn up about it, so… my money's on the next district," Skye said, leaning over in a whisper. "I mean… Kurt Wagner."

"Yeah. that's going to be a rough one. I'm more curious on what the families are going to do there. I'll bet the kid won't handle it well, though I sincerely hope he proves me wrong."

"He made it through Twelve alright," Skye reasoned.

"By the skin of his teeth," Coulson corrected. "And he's probably still under the false assumption that he and Bishop were on good terms."

"True," Skye had to admit. She picked up her files and shoved a flash drive in her pocket, where she was keeping a running tally of her notes. "Alright. Let's get this over with."

Logan's showing in Ten was almost … hopeful for the agents. Again, he didn't have a thing to say, though he also didn't look the least bit broken up about it either as he simply crossed his arms over his chest and looked to Charles and Hank instead of the crowd.

The escort of Ten was sensational, though, and he seemed to have plenty to say before he introduced the group from Seven, though when he gestured for Logan to step forward, Logan simply settled into a deep glare that clearly was meant as a dare.

The gray-haired, mustachioed man cleared his throat a few times and simply moved on to other things, leaving Seven's officials only slightly embarrassed for their new victor's refusal.

With the compressed timeline, Steve was a bit worried about Peter rushing through everything and making mistakes, because the kid was clearly nervous about getting back on time to get in the air so they could split for their respective next assignments.

But Steve couldn't be there to watch out for Peter the whole time, so he just had to trust the younger Tahiti operative to be on the top of his game setting cameras in the mayor's office while Steve took the Sentinels' headquarters. At least for this district they didn't have to worry about bugging the Victor's Village, because Charles and Hank really spent more time in the Capitol than at home anyway.

But Steve had to laugh when Peter's voice came over the comms. "Are you listening to this escort guy? His voice carries, Cap. I mean, it carries. I think they can hear him in the Capitol without the microphone, just lean him out the train window and let him shout until he turns purple."

"Okay, he's buying us a little time? So maybe don't hate too hard on the guy. It's not like he's calling anyone a menace or anything," Steve replied with a little laugh.

"That's because he doesn't know us yet, Cap. We are menacing. I'm terrifying, personally," Peter shot back, obviously laughing.

Steve just had to shake his head at that, smirking to himself as he finished the rest of the setup and — thanks to the talkative and opinionated escort — even had enough time to double-check the placement before he headed back to rendezvous with Peter.

He was almost concerned for a moment when he didn't see his partner at the rendezvous point — until Peter poked his head in Steve's face, upside-down from the low awning roof of one of the ranch-style homes nearby.

"You're late," Peter told him semi-seriously.

"You're upside down," Steve said with a smirk.

"I was bored waiting for my slow-poke pardner," Peter said in an exaggerated cowboy accent. "C'mon. This town's about to be too full for the both of us." With that, Peter flipped over the edge of the awning and landed, crouched, beside Steve to flash him a thumbs up and then stick said thumb in his imaginary belt buckle before the two headed off.

January 5

District Nine

"This one's got a lot of family names," Skye said doubtfully as she dropped into the seat next to Coulson on the train. "Aren't people going to notice at some point?"

Coulson let out a sigh and nodded his head at her assessment. "I know the algorithm is picking these based on their abilities, but if it's all the same to you, I'd like to just … throw out any family names if we can. They've been hit too hard already, and it will definitely look staged if we keep hitting the same families."

"Good, then I won't bother with last year's twin brother — or her little sister," Skye said, already tossing the files. "And that sweet little Wagner girl?"

"Yeah, don't … don't have her in the running."

"No kidding. That — that would be hard to watch." She let out a long sigh as she tossed that file as well.

"So that leaves the one girl," Coulson said with a sigh. "How about the boys? Any choice there — or are we getting down to default there too?"

"We've got two left," Skye told him, a bit of sparkle coming back into her gaze. "And I've got to tell you, both of them are going to be good for drama if this pans out right."

"How so?" he asked. "They looked like a couple of regular kids last I read."

"Yeah, but it's more their relation to other tributes. I mean — this kid with the taste for detective novels has a thing for our girl pick? And the other one… I looked into his background because of the last name, considering our options for Seven…"

"You can't get those lumberjacks out of your head can you?" Coulson teased. "Does it hurt your concentration that we brought the one with us?"

"Oh definitely," she said with a smirk. "The problem is they stay in my head and not in my reality." She gave him a wide, troublemaking grin before she went back to the file. "Anyway, I looked into it, and we might have a whole separated brothers angle if we go with Fury's pick for Seven. Not like the Twelve-Four dynamic. I mean real brothers, sent to different orphanages."

"That would draw some drama," he said under his breath. "Excellent distraction."

"And better than the tired old romance angle. They overplayed that last year," Skye agreed, blowing out her breath.

"Yeah, where there was nothing there to play," Coulson agreed.

"Which is dumb — I mean, there were actual romances that were going on. Or trying to. Nine and Twelve, the Two romance… it was just lame."

"Yeah, but they were sweet romances. They wanted to play up the darker, dirtier angle. And the public bought it."

"Well, we do want distractions," Skye said, shrugging openly. She ran a distracted hand through her hair before she blew out all her breath. "Anyway, it seems like we've already got a pretty good idea, but I'll take a look at the two guys just to be sure. And drop by the girl's place to double check she hasn't, I don't know, had an accident or breakdown in the past two days that would take her off the list."

"Try to dig up another girl for a reserve. I do not want to hit any of last year's families if we can help it, but we need a backup in case this choice has, like you said, some kind of accident to prevent her from competing."

"Can do," Skye said.

Charles had made sure to stick close to Logan, as he predicted that Nine would prove to be especially difficult for the young victor. The nightmares that had been plaguing him hadn't ebbed in the least since the tour started, and the one that had gotten him up in the wee hours of the morning had been intense.

"It'll be fine, Logan," Charles tried to reassure him before they headed toward the stage. But Logan didn't acknowledge him as Jubilee stepped in and started her last minute primping. His ears were ringing as Moira went through her usual prep, and it was clear to all of them that it was going to be spectacularly bad for him.

Jubilee never took her hands off of him. If she wasn't readjusting a stray lock of hair or fiddling with his collar, she was smoothing out the fabric as it lay across his shoulders with a worried look on her face. But through it all, Logan just stared forward blankly.

Every footstep he took echoed in his ears as the mayor of Nine went through his long, wandering speech. When Logan stepped out, he tried to make a point not to look at the families. Or the crowd. Moira pinched him lightly, her little cue to get him to look up, but Logan turned his head toward the previous victors of Nine. And he quickly realized he'd missed something vitally important.

Erik Lensherr, the second victor, looked as if his whole world had just been ripped from him.

His face was the picture of perfect agony, and without thinking about it, Logan followed his gaze into the crowd, only to frown deeply at the scene unfolding before him. The woman on the platform for Wanda had her hand clamped over her mouth and her gaze firmly locked onto Erik. Both of them looked to be on the brink of a breakdown. It didn't make sense.

Until he saw the boy next to her.

He was tall and had almost white hair that looked swept back … and nearly every feature on his face was identical to Erik's. He looked between the victor and the boy quickly and made the connection as Erik's whole posture seemed to simply … melt a bit. A sob tore itself from the woman's throat, and Logan turned away from what he felt should have been a private moment.

He hadn't thought about what he'd see when he once again looked up.

The woman on the other podium had the same mask of grief that Logan had already come to recognize. They called it a victory tour, but in every weeping mother's face, he saw what it really was. A chance to torture the families — and make the murderer face their other victims.

Logan locked eyes with her and tried to form the words … even if no one heard them… but he just couldn't. Not when his attention was drawn by a young girl that suddenly buried her face in the woman's shoulder. He glanced at the boy on her opposite side that stood there bravely with tears streaming down his cheeks as he just stared back at Logan.

But then the wind caught the blue satin ribbon in the girl's hair, and something in him just … crumbled.

He couldn't hear anything. He couldn't even feel it as Jubilee and Moira ushered him off. All he could see was that little girl with the ribbon that matched the ones he'd tied to Kurt's wrists.

Coulson watched as Jubilee and Charles had each tried to talk to Logan, but it just didn't register with the kid. He let out a bit of a disappointed sigh as he leaned toward Skye.

"It looks like we're in for a roller coaster with this one," he said. "I had hoped he'd be alright. Fury is not going to be happy."

"It's so flat," Kate said as Carol set them down on the outskirts of District Nine. She had never been to Kurt's district before — though she had been to several of them now over the course of all the missions the Tahiti kids were running — and she wanted to take in as much of it as she could.

She really should have realized it would be this flat, since Nine was known for wheat fields, but … they just seemed to stretch on forever and ever. Kate had long ago come to terms with the fact that Twelve was the smallest district and that her entire home was considered to be just the size of a few neighborhoods in comparison to some of the other districts. But it still surprised her, sometimes — the size of the world she hadn't been allowed to see until now.

She could just imagine Kurt out there, swinging a scythe in wheat that was taller than he was, telling pirate stories with his friends when there wasn't an ocean in sight, and the thought made her smile, though she straightened up and cleared her throat when Carol gave her a knowing sort of smirk.

"Oh, shut up," she muttered, which just had Carol smirking that much harder.

The girls had to rush more than any of the pairs before them had, because this time they had to get through two victors' houses as well as the mayoral and Sentinel spaces — though the sped-up timeline was likely the only reason Kate was allowed in Nine while Logan was, because that meant she was rushing through both Erik Lensherr and Drax's houses rather than being tempted to try and drop in on Logan and see how he was.

And she really, really wanted to check in on him, especially after she had seen him in Twelve…. If that was how he handled her district… Well, he hadn't even killed her. Kurt… that was something else entirely.

Maybe if she rushed, she could still pull off a peek.

Kate ran through both of the houses and placed the surveillance devices quickly and exactly where they'd all practiced in the simulation room. The corners and hidden spaces in each room were well-covered by the time she left, and she had broken into a bit of a jog when Carol's voice came over the comms.

"Things are wrapping up over here; I'll have to meet you at the jet. Do you know how to do pre-flight?"

Kate frowned. "What's the rush?"

"I don't know — I didn't watch the show, but it's breaking up. I barely got out of the Sentinels' HQ before the crowd started to disperse."

Kate sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. "I've only done flight sims a couple of times," she admitted.

"Fine — just do what you can. I'll meet you there," Carol replied, and Kate just let out a frustrated sigh. She'd hoped for a little more time, but now even she could see the first of the dispersed crowd coming in from the main square.

She wished she was going back to base, where Kurt was — since he wasn't scheduled for anything until halfway through the tour — but even if she was, she wasn't sure what she could do, seeing as Essex was keeping the boys and girls so well separated. But if he was watching — and she knew he was — he was going to need a hug at least. The fact that it had been so short didn't exactly bode well.

Tahiti Wing

Back in the Tahiti compound, Kurt had finally found a bit of free time after training, and he picked up a sandwich and a water bottle to more or less camp out in Tony's workshop so he could watch the broadcast.

"If I'd known this was a picnic, I'd have prepared better," Tony said dryly as Kurt sat down.

"I only have a little time for lunch, and unlike the girls, I can't just watch on Pepper's tablet," Kurt pointed out as he unscrewed the cap of his water bottle.

"It really hasn't been anything to watch, to be honest," Tony said, leaning back in his chair as he dug out a bag of his own snack food — which he kept stashed all around the place. "Pretty harsh, actually."

"How so?" Kurt asked as the broadcast showed the short recap of the Games for him and Wanda leading up to Logan's arrival.

"Well, he has yet to say a word publicly," Tony explained as he gestured toward the screen.

"He's never been talkative," Kurt said, though he was frowning at the news.

"Yeah, but this seems... different," Tony said, pausing and frowning over his words. "Not so much like he won't, more like he can't."

Kurt frowned at that and fell silent, watching the broadcast as it turned to the families — to Wanda's first as her mother and brother and sister gathered on the platform. He remembered that Wanda had a twin brother, and for a moment, Kurt looked away, suddenly unable to look at the young man on the platform — because he could only think of Stefan and Amanda.

And of course, when his own family was shown, it was impossible for Kurt not to let out a little gasp of pure… well, everything. Grief, yes, but also happiness at seeing them again. Frustration that he couldn't be there in person, anger that they were grieving when he was still alive — not to mention he was just downright upset to see them so … stricken. Stefan was of course still trying to be brave, but Margali and Amanda…

Kurt had to look away and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.

When Logan arrived, Kurt saw for himself that Logan was determined not to look at the family platforms, and he couldn't really blame him. That was torture in itself, seeing them so upset. It was just another reminder of the damage the Games had done, and it was even worse knowing that the grief and pain just ... didn't need to happen.

Kurt watched his friend for a moment, sure that at least it was a good sign that he wasn't playing the game the Capitol expected of him — but then there was a bit of a distraction, something going on with Erik.

That's where Logan's gaze was anyhow, and that's where the cameras went as Erik and Wanda's family shared what was clearly a private moment, the emotions palpable even through the screen. Despite the fact that this was supposed to be Logan's show, the commentary from the Capitol exploded, pointing out the similarities between Wanda's brother and Erik as the pieces fell together for everyone watching.

No one had known — or they would have played it up much more before now. And it was clear even Erik hadn't known for sure, if the look on his face was any indication.

Tivan and Uatu were in the thralls of fresh drama as they marveled over all the implications of this revelation. They hadn't expected anything like this to work with, clearly, and with such a silent victor, they were delightedly latching onto it.

"Do you think there was even the slightest suspicion on his part?" Tivan cackled.

"I'm sure she knew," Uatu pointed out.

Tivan was all but giggling now. "Can you imagine? Sending your daughter off to fight and having to trust that your estranged lover would get her through… What a heartbreaking turn of events for the whole family." But Tivan didn't sound the least bit 'heartbroken.'

Kurt tried to tune out the commentary, though the camera was still frustratingly focused on Erik, with Logan almost a background decoration at that point, since it was clear he wasn't going to give them any salacious tidbits. But even in the background, Kurt could see that Logan's entire expression had changed, and it took him a moment to realize that the way Logan was pointed, even if he was no longer looking up — would have put him looking at the Wagners.

That was it for Logan. Kurt could see even in the background that he'd just… shut down.

"We have to see him," Kurt said softly.

"This is what happens," Tony said, shaking his head as he sat up a little straighter in his chair. "This is what they've always done. It doesn't make it any worse just because we knew him."

"Yes it does," Kurt insisted. "And what they're doing… we finally have a way to help. We have to see him. He doesn't have to suffer like this — it's pointless, needless, and downright cruel." His eyes were flashing, his lunch forgotten as he just fumed.

"There isn't anything you can do for him," Tony argued. "And he's got it coming for what he did."

Kurt was on his feet in an instant. "You don't know what you're talking about," he half snarled.

"You're right, it was just me that didn't get hit by tracker jackers."

"You have no idea what the Capitol did to him in those Games," Kurt spat out. "Don't talk about what you don't understand."

"What I understand is that your friend got screwed up in there. I saw the difference firsthand from when he helped save me to when he took me down. He's not the same as you remember him."

"The Games changed all of us — and none of us deserved it," Kurt said, still furious. "None of us had it coming, and if you ever say my friend deserves the torture they're putting him through again, I won't leave you in one piece." His hands were in fists at his sides, and it was clear he was only just reining in his temper. He was speaking through his teeth as he added, "You're a genius, Stark. Why don't you do a little research and find out just what actually happened in those Games."

"I think I will," Tony replied, though he was regarding Kurt with a fair bit of caution by that point, especially since the younger boy looked like he was ready to throttle Tony then and there. "But I'm standing by my opinion."

Kurt glared at him hard before he said simply, "I look forward to your apology," and all but swept out of the room before he could lose his temper further and do something he wasn't entirely sure he would regret.