Chapter 8 - The Big Birthday Bash

James was passed out cold when his phone started buzzing, and honestly, he was worn out enough that he just didn't hear it — or he did and knew that if it was serious, someone would be by to let him know that he actually needed to move his butt.

When he heard the bamf just inside his door, he almost automatically replied, "Okay, I'm getting up, where are we going?" though he didn't even open his eyes or push himself up yet.

"James," Kari said, her voice ringing with concern. "James, did you see Alyssa's broadcast that went out last night?"

"I saw it when it was recorded? So I didn't think I needed to screen it," he said, cracking open one eye and still looking like he'd rather be sleeping. "Chance did a fabulous Cyclops impression."

"Yes, it was very good, but did you know you and Alyssa were being recorded after the fact?" Kari asked more urgently.

"What?" he said, blinking up at her for a moment before he finally started to move.

"I've got about a dozen texts from her swearing up and down that she didn't know her sister was going to do that and asking if you're ignoring her because you're mad," Kari said. "But yeah, there were about two minutes of flirting and kisses added on to the end of that broadcast."

"Just kisses?"

"Pretty much," she said, still looking nervous.

He let out a breath and shrugged. "Could have been worse, then," he said, reaching for his phone, then swore when he saw exactly how many texts and missed calls there were. He shook his head and sent a text back. I was asleep, not ignoring. It's not the end of the world.

It is, though! Alyssa texted back, followed quickly by, The site went DOWN we were slammed so hard.

He stared at the text for a minute and looked up at Kari. "Okay. What?"

"Well, it's just that your Death image doesn't exactly work to a lot of people's advantage when you're going to be that sweet," Kari said, though she couldn't quite stop her smile. "And it doesn't help that it's a human that you're being sweet to. I mean, no one here has a problem with it, but I can tell you now that my mom's news contacts are already buzzing on this one."

James covered half of his face with one hand. "Oh. Crap." He thought about it for just a moment. "How is this news? There are so many more important things going on."

"Umm, I don't know," Kari said, pulling on the end of her tail nervously. "I think it's something to do with the whole Horseman and Superior Rising and that whole image was just shattered to pieces."

"That wasn't my image anyhow," James said. "That was what they slapped on me."

"See, I know that, and you know that, but… well…" Kari pulled on her tail. "They've been replaying Scott's speech to the UN about you four and how you were nothing like yourselves and… I think so far, it's not too bad. Sort of… what else was he right about kind of thing?"

James sat up and let out a breath. "So … he's not mad, is he?" James said almost flatly. "Throw me a shirt, please."

Kari teleported over to his dresser to do just that. "I don't think he's mad. I don't know. I came right here after I saw the broadcast," she admitted.

James took a moment and tried to text Alyssa back. Relax. Please. I'm not mad at you. I know you didn't do it.

Please don't be mad at Kelly either. She thought she was doing me a favor by trying to make the questions about you being single stop.

She has the world talking about it. So. Probably a whole new set of questions.

She didn't think it would blow up like this.

I wouldn't think so either. Everything important going on and these idiots want to talk about a pair of teenagers.

I'm really sorry.

It's fine. Don't worry about it. Really. I'll catch up with you sooner than later, I'm sure.

It was such a good interview and it went so wrong and I'm so sorry you're getting dragged into the news because of it!

I'm not? Not really. Chance is going to be irked that his message got slammed, but … we have people that know how to deal with this. And it's not like it's anything bad for a change. I'll talk to Hawkeye and Stark.

Please tell Chance I'm SO SORRY!

Tell him yourself — he'd rather hear it from you. Talk to you later; we have a party to get to still, right?

If you still want me along...

Of course I do.

Then I'm still planning to come. I really would like to!

It'll be a blast. Try to relax - and turn off the news.

When James looked up from his phone, he wasn't surprised to see Kari watching him intently. "Is she okay?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

"Freaked out pretty hard," James said, cringing a little. "She said it shut down her website."

Kari let out a low whistle. "I'll talk to her if she's still freaked out."

"You might have to," James said, though he looked down at his phone and had to laugh. "Oh. Of course. Two guesses as to who most of the other texts are from."

"If they're from Billy, we need to worry about your world-ending relationship scandals," Kari couldn't help but tease.

"Ha ha. I haven't seen Billy yet, no," James laughed. "Worse than that." He tossed her the phone so she could read the delighted texts from Tony. "He's a horrible mentor."

Kari couldn't quite stop her laugh as she read through the texts. "He so is."

"He is proud. I am ashamed now. I wasn't before … but …"

"Well, rightfully so," Kari laughed.

He let out a breath, letting his shoulders drop all the way before he got to his feet. "Okay. Let's go see how bad this actually is."

Kari reached over to give his hand a little squeeze. "I'm sure it'll all blow over. Like you said, it's just two teenagers flirting, right?"

"I guess that depends on what was said," James said. "I haven't seen it. Have you?"

Kari nodded, a bit of purple on her cheeks. "Mostly teasing and goading each other into kisses," she said. "Nothing overly involved, just… it was really sweet and cute, honestly."

"Then what the actual hell?"

"If it'll help, I could always find Howard Stark and kiss him in front of some paparazzi to distract the gossip columnists," Kari offered with a teasing smile.

"I'm … reserving any reaction until I see our parents' faces. That should tell me everything I need to know."

But when they got downstairs, it looked like the adults were even looking a bit smug over the coverage, especially when the cycle came back around to Scott having told the UN that the Horsemen weren't dangerous. "They act so surprised," Annie was muttering with a little smile as the anchors admitted that it had been a fair assessment, if the video was anything to go by.

James stopped and glanced toward his parents — both of whom seemed to think that the paper and coffee were far more engaging than anything on the screen, though K did as she always did and gave him a little smile before she snuggled in with Logan.

So from there, he glanced at Kari, then got some coffee to go find Kate. She wasn't too far - just in her office — and Kari knocked on the door to warn her before they stepped in.

Kate looked up and then smiled at James and waved him over. "Congratulations, you have Jessica Jones in your corner now," she informed him.

"I didn't realize I needed her in my corner," James said.

Kate laughed and shook her head, closing her laptop as she leaned forward. "Someone said it was an act, and she is now facetiously offering to be your agent. It's hilarious."

"So … Mom and Dad are being … them. Annie is acting like this was just bound to happen sooner or later and you're laughing. What the hell does that mean?" James said before he sat down across from her.

"It means this is going pretty well, all things considered," Kate said. "People are coming around to the idea that you and the other Horsemen are genuinely good people, they're starting to question what else is wrong about all the misinformation, and on top of it all, it's got people saying how lucky your girl must be — and how nice it is to see big name celebrities in a real, unstaged relationship."

James had been frowning through the whole morning's festivities, but at hearing that, he relaxed. "Alright a) I'm not a big name anything. And b) If it'll help the others … okay then."

Kate gave him a smile. "Trust me on this, James: your interspecies relationship debut is going miles better than mine," she said.

"You were doing really well … then you made it gross." He shook his head at her. "Would you do me a massive favor and tell that to Alyssa? I'm pretty sure she's about to have a heart attack."

"Sure, I'll record her a message if she needs it," Kate said.

He shook his head and simply handed her his phone. "I can't believe anyone even cares."

"Welcome to the X-Men," Kate said dryly as she put the phone up to her ear and then started on a long and reassuring ramble with Alyssa on the other end, making sure to put the girl at ease - and even offer a little advice from her own time dating an X-Men on what to do about the naysayers.

As always, when James and Logan's joint birthday came around, it was a solid party, with pretty much every hero who could make it coming to drink with Logan or give James a hug — or tackle, as was always the case with Wade.

Logan was keeping James close, highly entertained with how most of the heroes outside of the X-Men were handling the news that had been staying on the airwaves. Especially seeing as Tony seemed to be tickled.

Thankfully, there was enough tact to go around that when Kari brought an overwhelmed-looking Alyssa along to the party, at least the adults knew enough not to overwhelm her any further.

"Have trouble getting out?" James asked, though Logan still kept a hold on him — at least until Deadpool moved on to other things. Which he seemed reluctant to do.

Alyssa looked sheepish as she nodded. "Kari offered me a lift when I told her there were cameras outside my door."

James looked apologetic at that. "C'mon. Have a seat with us," he said, then leaned closer to her. "If Dad lets go of me now, Wade will climb into his lap. It's a real issue, since he promised Scott he wouldn't stab anyone tonight."

"So you're pretty much spoken for?" Alyssa asked with a whisper of a teasing grin.

"Just until my aunt gets a hold of him again," James laughed. "But this is kind of where the party is anyhow ... so …"

"Relax," Logan said, before he pushed a shot her way. "You're not driving anyhow."

Alyssa smiled lightly. "No, I guess I'm not," she had to agree, leaning a little further back into James as she said it.

"You might want to wait on that until the rest of the table has them," James advised, and it wasn't until just then that Alyssa started to take in who, exactly, was seated with them at the big table. Nightcrawler, Captain America, Iron Man … Nick Fury and the new SHIELD director, too. Not to mention Cyclops, Captain Marvel, and the Black Widow. And all of them were laughing and joking around and had obviously been drinking already for a little while. "This is how Dad likes to spend his birthday. On odd years."

"This… is not quite the party I was expecting," Alyssa said, looking rather starstruck — though she didn't seem to be complaining too much and even had a little smirk on her face.

They waited just long enough for everyone to get a shot glass in front of them before the whole table lifted up their glasses and had a drink — with half of the guys at the table shouting and laughing as soon as they'd thrown them back. It was loud. And hilarious. And strong. But after Wade had a shot with the table — and had ruffled James' hair and stolen a selfie between Logan and James — he finally skipped off, singing to himself.

But it was a little too late for Alyssa to ditch to get James to herself, considering that the infamous redhead next to her was already pouring another round and speaking in rapid-fire Russian.

"Come on, Tasha, you know I'm not that good when you go fast," Logan said in almost a growl that had Natasha grinning at him. But when the bottle ran dry and the whole group of them started to let out a loud and low 'awwwwwww', James couldn't help but grin.

"I'll be right back," he promised Alyssa, then jumped up to get a fresh bottle for the table as the conversation got loud and bright. Everyone was in a good mood. Laughing, grinning — it was easily the most excited and enthusiastic she'd ever seen so many of them at once.

"C'mere, kiddo," Logan said, when he saw Alyssa was looking more shy and withdrawn than anything else. "He'll be right back."

Before she could argue it, Natasha pushed her over - and filled her seat. "She's trying to go easy, malen'kiy dyadya."

"So am I," Logan chuckled before he threw back what little was left in his glass. It was quiet in that corner for a short moment as Clint took the open spot by Natasha and kept her occupied — and Steve and Scott were sharing a word that had that entire side of the table distracted. Which was just what Logan was waiting for before he tipped his head Alyssa's way. "You holdin' up alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm not much of a drinker though," she said quietly, wide-eyed and nervous.

"Not what I was talkin' about, but that's good to know," he said. "I meant all the unwanted attention. You alright?"

She blinked at him when she realized what he was saying and then nodded quickly. "It's … more attention than I'm used to. I got the odd person on campus with the podcasts, but this is a whole other level."

Logan nodded at that. "This is more or less what you were hopin' for long term, though," he said. "You'll have to get thick skin in that business."

"Oh, I know," she said quickly, looking up again. "I just didn't think I'd need it for my dating life?"

"Blindsided the hell out of him too," Logan said, nodding.

"Is he okay? I mean, really. He wouldn't tell me if he wasn't…."

"Oh sure," Logan said, shrugging. "He's used to this level - but the wrong kind of attention. He'll be fine. This is mild compared to the back side of it."

"Yeah, I'm glad it's been positive," Alyssa said sincerely. "I was so mad for him with all that people were saying about him last year."

"It's part of the gig," Logan told her. "Sooner or later, seems like everyone has to deal with it."

Alyssa nodded. "But it's nice when the scuttlebutt's positive," she said. "Little bit of a change of pace."

"Not my side of the tracks, kiddo. Can't help there."

"Maybe K's sister should set up a cam of you and her flirting," Alyssa said dryly. "Seemed to work wonders."

Logan had to chuckle at that. "Nah. Lisbet's half scared of her sister. She knows better." He put his arm around her shoulders. "Let it go. Nothin' too rough came out of it."

"I really am sorry. I know it came out of nowhere, and it wasn't done out of malice or - or trying to grab attention or anything," she blurted out. "My sister didn't mean anything by it either. Honest."

"Gotta stop apologizin'," he said, shaking his head slowly.

Alyssa leaned back and shook her head. "Well, at least I know where James gets that from," she said with a small smile.

"Oughta listen to that much anyhow," Logan said before the whole table started cheering with James' return - with three more bottles of whiskey for them.

Logan got up — as did half of the table when they lifted their glasses, still being obnoxious for the sake of it — and he pulled Alyssa with him to give her a quick hug and tell the two of them to get lost. "You don't need to get three sheets in on your first decent party here," Logan teased.

Alyssa looked rather stunned and flustered but couldn't help but grin as she took James' arm and nodded. "Thanks for sitting with me," she said, still smiling to herself.

Logan was waving them off — and Steve was pouring the next round already — shouting to the group about how Logan was cheating. Again.

"He's just mad he can't keep up," James chuckled, pulling her away from what was becoming the competitive drinking table.

"I… don't think anyone can keep up," Alyssa said, looking over her shoulder.

"They really can't," James laughed. "But they try. They still try." He grinned wider at her. "It's even more fun the next day when no one can handle bright light or clocks ticking. And Dad's whistling and enjoying his coffee like nothing happened."

"That seems cruel," Alyssa said, sliding into his side a little more.

But James was smiling as he pulled her closer still. "Maybe … but that's his entertainment. And they all know better."

Alyssa nodded at that as she laid her head on his shoulder, though they didn't make it all the way away from the table before the very littlest mansion resident came through, one blue cupcake in hand as she tried to pull it apart and then grinned up at James.

"Hi!" Ariel beamed at him and then held her hands up to be picked up.

"Hi," James said, stepping back to pick her up and then pull her into a kiss on the cheek. "What are you doing, troublemaker?"

"Nummy nummy," she explained, showing him her cupcake with a little grin.

"You picked a blue one?" he said. "Is that your favorite?"

Ariel nodded. "Mmhmm." Her tail was swaying happily as she swirled a finger in her icing to hold it up and show James. "Nummy."

"Have you shared with Chance yet? He really, really likes frosting."

Ariel scrunched up her nose as she thought about it, looking around the room until she found Chance seated with Elin and looking already a little bit like he was feeling the buzz, then giggled. "Down, down, down," she chanted, halfway trying to climb him for her appointed mission.

"Do I get a kiss?" James asked as he tickled her.

Ariel giggled madly and tried for just a second to get away, though she gave that up entirely and then melted into a hug and kissed his nose. "Wuv you. Down bitte."

"Love you too," James said as he crouched down with her. "Remember, now. Chance likes his frosting in his nose, Engelchen."

Alyssa was already laughing as she watched the snowy white elfling run off to go mess with Chance, then laughed even harder when Ariel practically climbed up Chance's side and shoved the whole cupcake into his nose as hard as she could. Which, considering who her dad was, was a pretty substantial cupcake shove.

James managed to keep from completely falling apart laughing, though he was smiling — and when Chance looked over, James just gave him a little wave and pulled Alyssa over to keep on moving. "No fun sometimes unless you own it," he told her.

"Plus, they needed the baby attack," Alyssa pointed out, smiling herself. "Do you always get elflings to do your bidding?"

"He loves baby attacks," James said. "And I get all of them to do my bidding."

Alyssa smiled at that. "Did you get Kari to ask if she needed to come get me? That was really sweet, by the way — circumventing the bad guys. You know. The ones with camera."

"No," James said, looking a little surprised to hear it. "I thought you asked for the lift, to be honest."

"No, she offered,' Alyssa said. "I mean, I did ask if she knew any way to get past the camera guys… and then… poof.'

"That's her family's specialty," James said. "Makes me dizzy."

"Realy?" Alyssa asked with her eyebrows up.

"Yeah, family thing," James said. "Probably the senses. Bugs all of us — but Dad refuses to acknowledge it unless it's been a long, connected string of teleports."

"It does smell a little… strange," Alyssa admitted.

"Brimstone," James laughed. "Takes a little getting used to."

"Rotten eggs," Alyssa said, scrunching up her nose for effect.

"Roughly, yeah," he agreed. "So, since we're not going for alcohol consumption - got any ideas?"

"It's your birthday," Alyssa said.

"Yeah," he agreed slowly. "But you've had a harder week."

Alyssa bit her lip as she considered things and then looked over at the table of carousing superheroes and let her shoulders drop. "I think … maybe we could just find a corner and curl up and watch… I mean… I've never seen so many heroes in one place and…"

He leaned over and stole a kiss. "You got it." He pulled her over to the quietest corner, and the two of them settled in. There wasn't really a whole lot else to do anyhow. Not considering that everyone was there — and if he was to go out with the way the press was, he'd most certainly need to call for a little back up. And he didn't want to mess with the party.

But while Alyssa and James were just settling in, Chance still had his hands full with Ariel — and Elin was of course no help at all when there was a very small, stronger than normal elfling determined that he should have all the frosting.

"Come on, Chance - I thought you liked to encourage them," Elin said calmly. "And if you don't get all your frosting, then we can't go take a dance … so … load up your sugar, Super Sweet Summers."

Chance shook his head at her. "Elin, I have frosting in my nose," he said, still trying to wipe some of it off.

"I can't help you with that," she laughed.

Ariel laughed along with Elin, clearly having the time of her life as she started singing "num num" to Chance until he finally gave her a huge, troublemaking grin and bit into as much of the cupcake as he could fit in one bite, earning a yelp of surprise from the tiniest elfling.

"Oh, now you woke up the frosting monster," Elin said with a growl. "Watch out, little elfling."

"Oh no!" Ariel said, wide-eyed and giggling as Chance tried to do his very best impression of scary with a mouth full of chocolate cupcake - though he was helped along by a lot of tickling while he tried to very quickly chew and swallow.

Which was how Sying found them when he caught up to Ariel at last — and burst out laughing at the frosting-covered pair of troublemakers having a tickle fight in the living room. "Have you been playing with Aunt Elin and Uncle Chance?" he teased as he scooped Ariel up by the ankle, letting her dangle for a moment until she got a good grip with her tail and he righted her to give her a kiss.

"No idea what got into her," Elin laughed.

"Oh, I know. She has such angelic genes, she never gets into trouble," Sying said with as much of a straight face as he could muster.

"If you're done with the frosting monster, I think I'll take him for a little dance. Is that alright with you, sweetpea?" Elin said to Ariel before she reached over to boop her nose.

Ariel made a big show of thinking about it before she squeaked out a little "da" and then buried her face in Sying's neck — a little worn out from all the playing by that point.

Chance was smirking as he got to his feet and pulled Elin into a long kiss that left her with blue frosting across her face too. "At least let me clean up," he teased.

"Oh, please do," she said, smiling at him as she wiped some of the frosting off of herself. "You're a mess. What got into you … trying to eat it through your nose?"

"I don't know what came over me," he laughed. "I think I went temporarily insane because I was so dazzled by my wife."

"Yeah, I think you're more drunk than you let on, sweetheart."

He grinned and leaned over so that his chin was on her shoulder. "I think there was more than whiskey in the shot your dad gave me," he admitted.

She broke out laughing. "Of course there was," she said, grinning. "How else is he going to get more than a little tipsy? It was a present from Thor."

"That explains why it's working," Chance nodded. He couldn't help but grin at her. "First year legally able to drink and your dad has me on the Asgardian stuff," he teased.

"He's only sharing it with other healers," she pointed out. "Look at Uncle Spangles." She tipped her head to where Steve was positively dying laughing.

Chance nodded at that, grinning as he watched K and Logan double-teaming Steve — which not only had him laughing but had Scott in near tears. "This is my favorite part, you know," he said. "Watching Dad get into it."

"It really is nice," Elin agreed. "Though the fact that Mom is refilling Steve's glass when he's focused on someone else and then accusing him of trying to cheat everyone by holding back …"

"I think she gets more devious when she can't drink," Chance said, shaking his head.

"She absolutely does," Elin agreed. "And she's hitting Dad just as hard."

He turned toward her with a crooked sort of grin. "You gonna do that?" he had to ask, though it was obvious it was more of a tease than anything else. He was trying not to push, especially since Charlie had pulled him aside to let him know Elin wasn't really ready yet, if the honest fear Charlie felt from her was any indication. And that was fine. He'd told Elin the ball was in her court, so he wasn't pushing, even if he was kind of pining. He didn't have control of that part, really.

"I'm not a real big drinker as it is," she replied before she kissed him again. "But who knows ... if I'm told I can't …"

"I think it's a switch that's, like, biologically programmed in. Get a 'no' and want to do it more," he teased.

"Both sides of the family," she agreed. "Yours too."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he laughed. "Mine isn't stubborn or contrary at all."

"No, not at all," she said, nodding her head at him slowly. "So if I told you that you couldn't dance with me ... "

"I would absolutely not take it as a challenge and sweep you off your feet," he said as seriously as he could.

"Then I'll just have to test that out," she said, stepping back from him. "I'm going to go find a new dance partner. You just … do whatever suits you."

Chance burst into a laugh before he rushed over and picked her up bridal style. "No, you're not, you're coming with me to the kitchen for a cupcake," he informed her. "That I will eat with my mouth and not my nose."

"Don't you think you've had enough cupcakes?" she laughed. "You're going to get sick at the rate you're going."

"Then you'll have to split it with me," he said. "So that I don't eat the whole thing. Frosting monster that I am."

She looked like she was thinking it over, but he didn't wait — particularly since he already had her off the ground. "And if I don't wanna?"

He grinned at that and leaned in to start very slowly kissing her and taking his time about it. "Then I'll convince you."

"You only get so many of those," she told him. "Sure you want to use it on a cupcake?"

"Not just a cupcake — a cupcake kiss," he said. "Those are important, El."

"And it is someone special's birthday," she said, nodding.

"So it's pretty much tradition," he agreed.

"So … I suppose it'll be alright for Dad and James' birthday," she said, sounding entirely put out.

He just started to laugh as he nodded and started to carry her off. "Just because it's such a special day," he agreed, still shaking his head at her and grinning to himself as he did.