(NOT MY CHARACTERS, OBVIOUSLY.) Daken meets Gabby. Daken meets Jonathan. Laura had been used to her empty apartment, but the more wolverines she draws there, the better she feels, she has to admit. Then, here comes Johnny. Johnny meets Gabby. Johnny meets Jonathan. He might even meet Daken. The real one. (Kinda sequel of SURPRISE)

Daken has yet to meet Gabby. To Laura, it is evident. He is her brother. As soon as she had mentioned his existence, Gabby had decided he was hers, too. She isn't sure Daken would think it that simple, he had explicitly said he didn't want anything to do with the twice removed clone, even though he had kinda helped when she talked things through with him as she decided to keep the girl with her. But still.

And Gabby… Laura thinks the girl deserves a lot of things she has no idea how to give her… Laura has no clue how to be normal, no inkling of how to be a family. She needs help. She has friends who would offer advice, obviously. But Daken is family. Long ago, she had promised herself that she'd only take as much as he was willing to give, but… Well, people keep telling her she is allowed to want more from life, and she wants her brother.

It's the first time she ever considers coercion toward Daken, would things not go her way. It doesn't come to that, fortunately. She might still wonder at the fact that all she has to do to convince him is to say please. (He calls her a menace and asks her not to ever use that voice again. She has no idea what he means.) This meeting is going to be, well, interesting. Or catastrophic.

She waits for it with a sort of wary fatalism.

Daken stands elegantly dressed on her threshold, too smart for their little flat. He makes it look smaller. Shabbier. There are traces of Gabby's mess everywhere and Laura feels a little self-conscious letting him in. She takes a deep breath to brace herself. Something tickles her nose. It smells fresh and soothing. Pheromones?

"Daken!"

"I think we both need it," he says, utterly unapologetic. Weirdly, it reminds her of Logan and his Canadian beer.

And suddenly she sees it. He is hardly through the door, but seems undecided about coming deeper into the flat. His coat is still on, he makes no move to get rid of it. His hands are deep in his pockets, balled like fists, not caring about breaking the elegant line of the piece of clothing. His head is held high, his posture perfect (she wonders if it has been ingrained in him), but his eyes flutter everywhere, hardly making contact with hers. He is as awkward as she feels, and it floors her a little. He is as lost as she is. Figuring out this family thing as he goes, just like her…

She instinctively reaches for him to hug. He extricates his hands from his coat, tries to embrace her back, doesn't know exactly where to put his arms, his palms. She's seen him flirt a lot, use his body as a weapon of mass seduction… His incertitude only makes her grip harder, more urgently.

"It's OK, practice makes perfect," a voice pipes. Laura turns and sees Gabby. Couldn't wait, could she?

Laura feels her brother take a deep breath against her neck before he releases her. Then he resolutely faces the reason for his visit.

Daken is so tall. Gabby is so small. He is not exactly towering over her, Laura has seen him using his size to intimidate people before; this is definitively not it.

He doesn't know how much interest to show. In doubt, go analytical:

"She really looks like you. She…" He makes a vague gesture near his face with his hand, "frowns her nose just like you."

Laura reaches for her own face, feels it slightly scrunch. She flushes a little but Daken doesn't see, still detailing Gabby.

Suddenly, as if his knees were giving up under him, he crouches gracefully, this time his head a bit lower than hers.

The concentration on Gabby's features is intense. Something is passing between them, Laura thinks.

"So much curiosity and so little fear," Daken whispers, his eyes squinting the tiniest bit, not leaving her face. And then he acts too fast for Laura to react. His hand is already lunging for Gaby.

Snikt.

His claws spring a breath away from the skin of the child's face. Then, slowly, almost trace the scars on her brow, her cheek. Gabby doesn't blink. Doesn't breath. One corner of his mouth lifts up, appreciative.

The girl raises her own hand, slowly.

Snikt.

"We're really the same," Gabby softly breathes out. As if she hadn't believed it till now, in spite of what Laura told her.

Her claw is smaller, whiter. To be honest, it isn't much compared to his. But it's here.

"Indeed." Daken's voice is very soft. His eyes searching.

Their claws clink softly against one another.

"Can I join?" Laura asks. One of her knees hits the ground; she reaches their level. It should look ridiculous. She just knows she wants to be a part of this.

Snikt.

"What is it, a reenactment of 'One for all, All for one'?" Daken says, falsely annoyed. He makes it sound corny as hell.

Laura is not sure what he means, but the words please her: "I like that."

"You have no idea where this comes from, don't you?" He looks dismayed, and resumes, long suffering: "I have to get you books. You can't go wrong with classics, you know?"

"I like books," Gabby intervenes. "Is there strong-willed women in the book it's from?"

Daken solemnly nods. "I've always related to Milady myself. She could fit the trope. But I'm not sure Laura would recommend her as a role model," he answers, very seriously. But then again, Laura had gotten to know him as particular about his books. Like they're more real than actual people.

She have never really paused to think Daken would have to meet Jonathan too one day or another when the (real) wolverine became part of the family. Laura is already lucky Gabby let the animal out of her room only after she had a little time to meet her brother.

And honestly, it's already one of her favorite memory, Laura admits in the privacy of her thoughts. Just the face of him. To be fair, they might have, well, jumped him a little. He was just aware of a dinner invitation at their home. He hadn't expected the fur ball at all, which had thrown itself at his legs as soon as it was let free to roam the house.

"This is Jonathan," Gabby says. "He is a wolverine. A real one."

Daken… freezes. His face goes blank. To his credit he doesn't even take a step back confronted to Jonathan's… enthusiasm.

"That. Is a wolverine."

"He is cute, isn't he?" Gabby comments. But Laura thinks Daken is not really paying attention.

"Like in, Wolverine, capital W."

The corner of his lips twitches. A smile that doesn't know how to be born.

"Yes," Laura confirms. There might be a hint of glee hidden somewhere in her voice.

"Yes, that's my point. Big bad Wolverine's namesake is a cute little thing." His eyes don't go as large as saucers; that's only in books. But his eyebrows are raised now, his eyes shining, their clear hue exceptionally vibrant.

"Not that cute," Laura can't help but point. "He chews a lot of things. Bad wolverine," she says, pointing at the animal with a menacing finger. "You don't get to eat my socks."

This is the last nail in Daken's coffin. His bark of laughter surprises even himself. Laura… has a glimpse of the child he could have been in another existence. Yes, already a favorite memory indeed. Even though it's bordering on painful, because one instant, the resemblance with Gabby is uncanny. And it doesn't last. Daken and his fucking self-control, Laura allows herself to grouse inwardly. It wouldn't do to swear in front of Gabby.

Gabby is doing the dishes after their little dinner, junk food and frozen pizza Daken pretended he hated when Gabby was eyeing the last slice but didn't dare take it. They might have eaten with their claws, and their secret will never leave this place (Daken joined but looked horrified, which might be why Laura had done it in the first place).

Laura thinks it's ridiculous, seeing Gabby at the sink. This is the particular chore her little sister usually avoids with a passion, while she herself doesn't mind it. She wants to impress her new brother, Laura supposes, and it's kinda cute. Laura just hopes Gabby doesn't think she has to impress her brother. She is sure Daken is not going to help the girl, she heard him tell dish soap was murder on nail varnish, but he keeps Gabby company, still sitting at their kitchen's rickety table (it's new in the flat but still second hand), sipping tea Laura once bought on a whim, and which Daken said was "a not horrible blend" when he spotted it on the shelf. Laura doesn't really like tea; Gabby doesn't drink tea. (Yet. She looked interested.) Daken doesn't mention how odd it is finding some in her home, Laura doesn't mention she remembers Daken once saying he is a tea-drinker.

Laura has heard a noise from the living area, earlier. She has left her siblings to their own devices to investigate, but she still can hear the sound of their voices in the background, indistinct but soothing. She had thought Jonathan had toppled something over (again) but doesn't see what at first sight. She straightens a few things of Gabby's in the room since she's here. Daken has left his greatcoat on the back of the couch. Jonathan is currently playing with one of the sleeves, it's dangling at paw's reach.

"Ho, no, you don't!" she admonishes the animal in a low tone. She goes to save the garment, put it somewhere safer. It almost slithers from the piece of furniture before she gets to it. Daken's phone escapes from its pocket, falls dully on the carpet, lights on following the slight shock.

The window of a message app is still open on the screen. Daken has typed a quick text (Quick for Daken. Daken never abbreviates ANYTHING in his texts.) with an image file attached: Jonathan in all his glory, all pleading eyes for the piece of jerky dangled just out of reach. [To: Match Boy / Johnny Storm] This is ridiculous. Look what people are really afraid of when they hear the name Wolverine… The message is in there, waiting patiently to be sent, deleted or saved.

Laura actually remembers her brother snapping a picture of Gabby and her (for comparative purpose, he had pointedly said) and one of their pet. She remembers his fingers flying on the screen afterwards, typing a few words, and a pause, index in the air, a slight frown, and the way he had dismissed the phone as if it burned a second later, relegating it in his coat, all the while carrying a whole discussion with Gabby about books she had to read.

Laura thinks for a second, phone in one hand, coat in the other. She and Daken, they work. Because they don't interfere in each other's life, mostly. They're comfortable but keep a safe distance. There's a continual, subtle formality. They don't drop on each other unannounced; they don't call randomly on a whim baring emergencies like the existence of a clone:sister. Laura even stopped asking about the state of Daken's healing factor since the night he had snapped over the phone that if she only felt responsible for him because he was vulnerable, they had nothing else to say to each other. (She hasn't even mentioned his arm when he arrived, but she observed that though whole, it still looked weak. Baring emergency, she won't ask.) In consequence, their conversations are odd, far and few between, since they left Mystique's ship.

But they're all the more precious to her. She has told him when she stopped dyeing her hair yellow and blue. He has told her about an old acquaintance of his (Daken's words, Laura heard in his voice he was more) who, he had just learned, had died anyway, even though he thought he had spared him this fate. She has told him about taking the name Wolverine. He has told her about the Dark Avengers and how he thinks she'll be a better Wolverine than any other person having born the name. (He has told her to ditch the primary colors scheme as well. She's not sure whether she'll ever agree to it completely.) There's a kind of unofficial schedule. She knows more or less when her brother will call to check in.

This, this is a spontaneous text, to be send to someone with whom you're used to share things on impulse with, on a daily basis, as they come. Daken had that with Johnny Storm. Once. And he doesn't anymore. That's what the unsent message tells her. It makes her sad, suddenly. She kind of thinks her brother deserves more people to care about. He is better at it than he thinks. Her fist grips the phone harder. He is a better brother than she had thought he ever would be, so she can let it slide that he is not always a good person. She likes being able to be selfish from time to time.

Laura worries her bottom lip a little with her teeth. Then decisively presses SEND with her thumb. She drops the coat and the telephone on the couch again and hastily leaves this area of the flat. Gabby smiles when she reenters the kitchen space. The corners of Daken's lips are shyer but still curve upwards.

"Still sure you don't want to try your tea?" he asks. She ignores the light flavor of sarcasm in his voice and leans against the wall, just drinking the sight of them.

Hardly a handful of seconds goes by before her brother's phone discreetly vibrates. Daken is considerate that way: usually, he mutes the ringtone of his phone when he has company. Laura finds it endearing. But wolverines (the human and the real ones) have keen hearing anyway. For a full second, Daken looks like he is about to ignore the call and remains seated. But he caves with an apologetic gesture and stands up, brushing past Laura on his way to the living room.

"You were Wolverine, once," the voice says in a strange, amused and accusing non sequitur.

Daken's mind goes blank for a second; the voice is too familiar.

"… Johnny. I… How…"

"You're speechless." Johnny doesn't sound smug. Mildly surprised, at most. His tone then upgrades to close to heartbroken. "You didn't think I'd answer if you texted me."

"I didn't," the mutant answers on reflex.

"Dammit, Daken—"

"I didn't text you, I mean."

"I did," Laura says, suddenly here on her tiptoes, hand on Daken's shoulder, also leaning towards the phone so they both hear.

"Laura? Is that you?"

"Hello, Johnny." Daken finds it funny that she almost waves while talking, even though Storm can't see. "I'll let you talk with Daken, now."

"Ho." And after a beat, "I can hang up, since you didn't really want to contact me." He sounds crestfallen.

"No! Don't." And, yes, Daken does surprise himself. He breathes out slowly through his nose. Then, quieter: "I wanted to. Laura just sent the message, I wrote it. I just, didn't… send it," he lamely finishes. And where is his usual smoothness? he irritably thinks.

"Ho."

"Force of habit, you know. Realized it was stupid."

"Yhea. I do that to. Something happens, I want to tell you and… I don't," Johnny forlornly concludes. "It happens all the time." He emphasizes the words as if it meant something.

"But we're not these people anymore." Never were, Daken doesn't say, even though he doesn't know whether he's protecting his original lie or does Johnny a small mercy. Why on earth didn't he just shut down the conversation right away?

Daken had crafted the man Johnny met so well. Off the black nail polish, the metal glint of the piercings. In the jean and nondescript t-shirt, the shy loose body language when they were alone, the apparent openness. Daken is used to make his whole body a bait, to dangle what they want in front of people, in order to get what He wants. It's second nature to him. Even though Johnny looked but never touched, he knows he had him hooked. He could smell it.

Daken doesn't even know how he got so caught in his own lie that he found himself missing it. (Not true. He knows, he just doesn't admit it. It's when Johnny kept texting, kept calling, kept talking, kept meeting, even after the time of the Dark Avengers was long past, when the F4 didn't need any inside man anymore.) For his part, in his mind, maybe Daken was just maintaining an asset. Perhaps he got blindsided by the easiness of it all. And it had sometimes been so much fun, like breathing for the first time. It had been addicting, if he had to be honest. Not to be needed for something. To be wanted just to be there.

It's funny that, had he never known this from his time in Johnny's company, he might not have been able to recognize it in Laura. This absence of ulterior motive. Laura who knows who he really is, the bad and the worst. Unlike Johnny. Which is why, even though Daken is quite confident he can believe in Laura, he knows, knows, that Johnny's friendship (God, how corny has he become, how the mighty have fallen, he hates with a passion this hackneyed word for self-serving mutual interest…) is just a parody, an illusion. He crafted it himself, after all, he would know. It would pop like a bubble on his claws, if Johnny really were aware of whom exactly he was bestowing his gifts onto… Clinging to it after the Heat fiasco just feels like a delusion.

"Nonsense," Johnny says, cutting through his thoughts. He sounds so sure. "We just got sidetracked by a death or two."

Daken feels something tightening in the back of his throat. He doesn't know if it's a laugh startled out of him, a pained groan at Johnny's naivety, or something else entirely (and even worse). So he clenches his jaw and stays silent. His eyes close on their own volition. With his keen hearing, he focuses on the breathing at the other end of the line, it's kind of lulling and familiar, and he knows what he should do. He just has to wait. You've got to be two to tango, and Johnny will learn he can't sustain a conversation all by himself, right?

"Yhea." Johnny sounds suddenly a tad defeated, as if the silence were too heavy, were enough to sap him of his levity. And after another beat, "You can call me, you know."

"Not a good idea." Daken winces. He wasn't supposed to answer. He knows what he should do, what a joke. Still, Daken can't totally erase a trace of fondness in his tone and hates himself a little for that.

"Why?"

"Some people are not wired to care." And he knows it's his turn to have the weight of certainty on his side.

Daken has learned a lot since Romulus' disappearance. He's been free to roam the world on his own terms. It might have been equal parts triumphs and disasters, but he is learning. While he still thinks his master's mantra is mostly true, no one cares; it seems to know a few improbably rare exceptions. Laura for example. He also knows that even if he wanted to, it is not in his nature to care. (Donna comes to mind, but others too, people he crossed path with through the years, felt sometimes kinship to, but that he never stopped to save or to love.) He starts to wonder whether he's always been that way or was made to be that way, but in the end, it doesn't really matter. Psychopath is a comfortable cloak to wear; it keeps everybody from wondering. People are still as insubstantial as ants as far as he is concerned. Realistically, at this family thing, Laura does the job for the both of them, which is why it's weirdly difficult to deny her at times.

"But, you care about Laura. Don't you?" And if Johnny eerily echoes his own thoughts, the fantastic man suddenly sounds unsure.

"Laura is virtually unkillable, I don't have to worry about caring or not about her. She'll be fine whether I do or I don't."

"So you worry about me." This coldness sounds foreign in Johnny's usually warm voice.

"I didn't say that," Daken snaps. But inwardly, he comes back at his wording. He didn't mean to say that, did he?

"So why don't you hang up, then, since even talking to me is too much for you," Johnny pushes.

Ha, the Human Torch is reverting to type, Daken thinks. Anger is always a primary answer with Johnny. Impulsive. Quick to get incensed. Quick to flame on. Daken is going to get what he wants. "I'm going to," he says.

"Liar. I dare you," and, low and behold, Johnny can do vicious, too!

And now it is easy. For all that he is a consummate liar, Daken rarely bluffs. He quietly cuts the communication.

"Done?" Laura asks a moment later from the threshold of the room.

Daken lets himself fall back on the battered couch. He feels listless. To top it all, Jonathan tries to climb him.

"Hey, you. You've made such a mess," Daken tells the reared up wolverine which has his front paw on its guest's thigh.

"I doubt it's the critter's fault," Laura intervenes, letting herself be seated beside him on the couch. It's not that she is judging her brother. It's just it's not often in herself to shy from the truth.

"I blame you too," Daken says, the same moment Gabby, the smell of dish soap trailing in with her, joins them in the living room space, demanding: "Don't call him a critter. What did he do?"

Daken never answers.

They all hear it at the same time. The sonic boom in the distance. Then the mighty whoosh of displaced hot air. They see the light of a fireball pass the living room's window, making the panes tremble. It's only a handful of seconds before someone knocks.

Laura watches Daken's profile; her brother intently looks in the direction of the doorway for a moment.

Another series of knocks. Polite but stubborn.

He lets his head fall against the backrest. His arm is thrown over his face. His lips are curled in disgust.

"I'm not here," Daken says.

"You're being melodramatic," Laura retorts, standing up. Gabby is already racing to the door.

"I'm going to."

"Liar. I dare you."

So Daken does, obviously. How has he not seen it coming?

Shit.

Johnny is staring at his phone. His fist is clenched around it. The metal casing is warming up incredibly fast, he reminds himself to let go just in time. How could it go so wrong so easily?

Because some people are not wired to care, apparently. What does it even mean! He hates that Daken actually sounded gentle.

The problem with loss is that it's not exactly cumulative. Maybe it's for the best. Maybe you can deal with only one grief at a time, because it would be impossible to live with all of them at once.

He misses his family like mad. They are the one big loss. And still, even though the sadness feels always there, weighing on him, he can't miss them as a whole. There are days he'd give everything for a hug from Sue. And others he would beg for remembering the exact same tone of voice Reed used when he was explaining something wonderful. And still others he would surrender everything for the feeling of his fingers in his nephew's and niece's hair. For months he has agonized about the fact there is nothing he can do to get to them, to save them.

Daken is a different matter altogether. Daken's rampage, months ago, the one of a drugged-out-of-his-head dying mutant, had left scars and nightmares on Johnny's mind. Daken had been ready to risk innocent lives; he had hurt Reed. Johnny had been ready to burn him in retaliation, dammit. And Daken had died anyway: at that time this pain had had nowhere to go. Johnny had felt numb. Horrified to be unable to mourn someone he had once called a friend.

And then, the weirdest day ever. It was not long before he lost his own family. Sue had cornered him, talking to him gently. Daken had survived, somehow. But Logan, of all the horrors, had just killed Daken. That's how Johnny had learned about both, the same day. Johnny can't even fathom how it could have happened. How a father could do that to his son, even an estranged one.

Bizarrely, it had been easier to shed a few tears that time. And also wonder… What if I had been able to find out he was alive before it all came down. What if, then? Would I have reached out for Daken?

To think he would ever be thankful for the existence of death seeds? Yes, he had been. Absurdly so, when he heard the mutant was once again roaming the world. Well, Daken seems not to want to stay dead, honestly. And he relief is always huge to hear about him from third parties from time to time, whatever the circumstances, when he had thought for a while the mutant was gone forever.

There even has been days in the recent months, when he has missed Daken like a missing limb. These days are always the easiest to deal with, comparatively, in the clusterfuck that has become his life since his family's disappearance. Usually because Daken seems to always resurface, and sometimes it feels enough to know he is alive. Yes, the world somehow seems better with Daken alive somewhere, how strange… So it has also been easier till now to sit on his grudge and never resolve anything between them… Until the next time Daken would die, he sometimes thinks with a dark humor which scares him a little, so callous with the idea of Daken's very existence.

It's just Johnny has always felt they would simply settle things, one day… (But somebody once told him one day meant never, he doesn't remember who, so now it sticks with him, this saying. And still…) He has steeped in this confused hope for so long…

In reality, he has had his chance and he has blown it, never reaching out first himself. There's nothing left to salvage. That's what Daken is telling him. Maybe he has just waited too long.

Reed would come up with a foolproof plan to make it all better. It's not Johnny's style. Johnny just flames on.

"Who are you?" he says, looking at the kid who has opened the door.

Johnny is pretty sure Laura lives here. He knows it was Logan's apartment, once; Sue had the address in an old notebook of hers he has kept. But this is not Laura, even though the stance and the assessing gaze are eerily familiar.

"Rude," she answers, with a stubborn downturn to her lips.

She looks like a small pissed off Laura. But people don't get deaged that often. Normally. Even if they see a lot of weird things in the hero community. Could it really be Laura? Time Travel? But, the scars… Younger self from another dimension? That happened to a bunch of X-men recently, right? Is there a younger Laura running around these days? Johnny is a little lost, and thrown. He hadn't expected a roadblock so soon in the game.

The kid doesn't offer to introduce herself and honestly, he is so used to people recognizing him that he doesn't even think of his own side of the introductions.

It feels like a stand off. He tries again.

"I'm looking for… Laura." He sighs in relief as he spots her coming over the kid's shoulder.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea," she tells him, first thing. "Pushing Daken into a confrontation is never a good idea."

"Hello Laura," he answers, sheepish. "Nice to see you again."

He has not met with Laura a lot, but he has crossed path with her a few times when she came to watch the kids. (My favorite babysitter, Sue used to call her.) And he can honestly say he liked her. Something seems to loosen in her shoulders, and a hint of a smile softens her face.

"Hello Johnny. You're welcome here, but if I were you I wouldn't have come."

"Who is he? Why shouldn't he have come?"

Johnny had forgotten the child already, he'd confess.

"He's here for Daken," Laura says, putting her hands on the kid's shoulder.

"What does he want with him?" And, wow, that's suspicion. Usually kids like him. Her little fists are clenched at her side. This particular angle of the wrist before the claws pop, he recognizes it. It's when the idea hits him.

"Laura… I know people in your family sometimes look younger than they are, but you're not her mother, are you?"

"Ho, for God's sake, Johnny, you're ridiculous." It comes from behind the girls.

It's his voice. It's Daken. It feels like a rush. Daken's still here, Johnny didn't miss him, the mutant didn't leave before Johnny could reach him. It was a shot in the dark, really. Thinking that they would both be at Laura's place. Relief feels like a shot of hard liquor on an empty stomach.

Then, Johnny's brain stalls. Daken is a lot older than he looks too, he suddenly remembers. The oldest guy in the room, Sue used to say about Daken. It's how he knows it's a even possibility with the wolverines.

"She is yours?" Johnny hardly recognizes his own voice; it's just an octave higher than usual.

Daken slowly blinks. It reminds him of his and Sue's cat when he was a kid. The animal blinked that way when he sometimes looked at his human and couldn't figure him out. (Or thought he was plain stupid. It was a cute cat with a mean streak, after all.)

"It's Gabby. She's my sister."

There's like a shimmer in Laura's stance, she looks like she stands marginally prouder. Gabby whips her head so hard towards Daken that Johnny reflexively winces. When Laura and Gabby smile at each other, there's a kind of triumph in the look they share.

"That she is," Laura says with deep satisfaction.

"You've said it. It's official, now," the girl adds at Daken's intention.

Daken freezes, and then actually growls as if just realizing what he has just uttered.

"Don't let it go to your head." He is closer now, raises his hand and reaches for Gabby as if to ruffle the child's hair but aborts his gesture at the last moment with a soft hiss.

"What's wrong with your arm?" Johnny asks, frowning.

"Nothing's wrong with my arm," Daken snaps. There's a warning to drop it in his voice. It comes complete with narrowed eyes. It reminds Johnny he might have lost the right to ask personal questions. But it sounds like such an innocuous inquiry that Johnny really feels the burn of the rebuttal.

"I have coffee," Laura says, a tad too loud and still mostly ignored.

There's an awkward silence. Gabby makes to stand closer to Daken, while he is glaring at her new guest, seizes his hand authoritatively (the other one, the one without the tattoo), pushes her brow into it and puts it half on her hair, and keeps it there, griping it with both of hers, face stubborn. That draws Daken's attention, obviously. He struggles a little to get the right words past his throat, Johnny notices.

"I get it, what you wish," he tells the girl. "Just, don't expect too much."

Which is also more or less what Daken told him on the phone. Why does he have to resist so much the attempts to get close to him? Johnny feels like he is missing some critical input. He doesn't know whether to feel relieved or not that he is not the only one struggling to get through Daken.

"You're alright," the girl, Gabby, states.

Daken sucks in a deep breath, as if he were steadying himself. Johnny could swear his first reflex is to wrench his hand free, but the kid holds on.

"Your standards are as low as Laura's," he comments.

"You're doing alright," Gabby insists.

"You are," Laura echoes.

"Hm, I've come to see the wolverine, obviously," Johnny adds, totally conscious he might be spoiling a moment. But he may be trying to rescue Daken who seems uncomfortable with all the feelings oozing around. It's what friends are for, right?

"Which one?" the kid smartly points, releasing her brother at last and focusing on him, not exactly mollified.

"What?"

"Laura is. Jonathan is."

"Ho! Yhea, that's true," Johnny replies. Jonathan? he thinks. Who's that? "I meant the actual one. He has sent me a picture," he explains, gesturing to Daken who glares in response. "He was too, once, you know? Wolverine." Johnny adds in a stage whisper. (He could almost swear he hears the mutant say, And never ever again, under his breath.)

"He was? How come I didn't know?"

"We've met like five minutes ago," her brother points.

"A few hours, now," Laura serenely corrects.

"Even so," Daken glowers. OK, Now, Johnny feels like he is intruding. They've just met? How come?

"Where is Jonathan, by the way?" Gabby asks, looking around her.

"Bathroom. I've closed the door," Laura tells her. "You know how he jumps new people."

"Wait, that's the wolverine's name?" Johnny asks of Daken. Who doesn't bother to answer him, but addre)ses Laura:

"He has jumped me. How come you didn't warn me?"

"But it wouldn't have been as much fun, Daken," Laura says, all wide-eyed innocence.

Daken does the cat-blink thing again.

(TO BE CONTINUED - SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER)