Chapter 14 - World Tour

Things on the romantic front… weren't resolving themselves like Chance and Krissy had both hoped.

It wasn't the same anymore. They still had a blast together whenever they were just hanging out, but even sharing small kisses just… felt different.

Not that either of them admitted it out loud, after everything that they'd put into being with each other. But at this point, it really was obvious - they were better off just being friends.

There wasn't really a single point when they had come to that conclusion, but by the time there was only a handful of weeks left in the semester and they were looking ahead to their tour of European adventures, they were broken up in all but official word.

Not that it was going to stop them from their planned tour of skiing, sailing, and general shenanigans. But it was going to be far less about romance and a lot more about the pure fun of it.

Mac was supposed to come and speak at the school about what his school had to offer later that day, and Krissy and Chance walked down together all the same. It wasn't like they'd stopped being friendly with each other, though they'd already had a few people who thought that they were still together, just because they were still… together.

"So, headed back to Westchester in the fall, right?" Chance asked.

"Yeah, that was the deal. I had to do a full year here first," Krissy said.

"You're not going to stay?"

Krissy shook her head lightly. "You know I really just came for you, right?"

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"I'm not," Krissy said with a little smile as she reached over to squeeze his arm. "I'm not sorry about any of it."

He grinned at her and shook his head. "You're something else, Kris."

"I know." She smirked over at him and then let out a breath. "What about you? You're coming back home to do more with the team, right?"

"Actually… I'm not sure," Chance admitted. "If it weren't for the fact that I don't think I could do this school on my own, I might stay here."

"Really?"

"Well, obviously, I'd come back for team practices, but… I kinda like doing things outside of our family. You know - new stuff."

"You like the flying lessons."

"No, I love the flying lessons," he agreed with a grin as they settled into their seats.

Mac had shown up dressed to impress - without the jet that most of the other speakers used, instead simply flying in on his own with his Guardian suit, in high spirits and honestly doing a fine, inspiring job when he spoke with the kids on what the Canadian school had to offer. And the red and white suit wasn't anywhere near as obnoxious up close as K had insisted it was oh, so many times.

Krissy could practically see the wheels in Chance's head turning, and she reached over to pinch his arm. "You know, you only have a year left of school," she whispered. "You can go wherever you want."

Chance raised an eyebrow her way and then had to shake his head and smile. "I'm pretty sure my dad would have a heart attack."

"My dad survived me being in Europe for a whole year," Krissy pointed out. "I think yours can handle you being a short flight away."

"I'm pretty sure he'd think you were betraying the whole team just for saying that, Kris."

"And they say I'm the dramatic one," she said, shaking her head at him.

"Well, you are."

"Yes, but still." She pinched his arm again. "You're old enough to make your own decisions, right? And I can see you drooling over the suit." She shooed him with both hands. "Come on, Summers. Live a little."

"I hate it when you 'Summers' me."

"But it works," she pointed out.

He shook his head at her and rolled his eyes, but he made his way over to where Mac was all the same, rubbing the back of his neck a bit. "So, hey, is that invite still open to see the workshop on the suit?" he asked.

Mac shot a grin his way and seemed to brighten up another notch. "Door's always open," he said.

"Then I'm gonna have to stop by," Chance said. "I gotta admit - the suit's too cool to pass up."

"It kinda is," Mac agreed before he waved Chance over to show him some of the controls near his wrist. "I picked up another twenty knots on the trip over - against a headwind. Speed's getting better all the time."

Chance grinned at that as he looked over the controls. "How's the compensation? I mean, you're not exactly in a suit of armor."

"More streamlined than that," Mac replied. "So it's pretty slick, really. Amping up the power source and the storage cells are doing wonders to the output."

Chance nodded, still grinning. "Any chance you'd let someone else take a spin?"

"You're a little short to use mine," Mac said. "Gotta be within a couple inches. So … not quite, but you're close."

Chance smirked. "Hey, with my genes, that's pretty much a guarantee sooner or later."

"Oh, for sure. You'd probably need one for a taller guy by this time next year," Mac laughed.

Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "You know… I really might," he said, a bit more seriously.

Mac nodded. "You'll be every bit as tall as your dad, I'll bet. So … you'll have me beat in no time."

Chance nodded for a moment before he took a deep breath. "So, uh, enrollment period ends in August right?"

Mac stopped and watched Chance for a moment, sure that it was some kind of a trick. "Yeah, two weeks before school starts."

"So you'd - um - I mean, I'd still need to go home for team practices and stuff but could we work that out, maybe?"

Mac stared at him for a moment. "You're not asking hypothetically, are you." It definitely came out more like a statement than a question.

Chance shook his head. "I really just… I want to prove I can do it outside of Westchester. On my own."

Mac's smile had been replaced with a much more serious expression, but he was nodding along. "I don't have a problem working around your team schedule if that's your only concern."

Chance broke into a relieved smile. "Great. Now I just have to tell my dad."

"I'll know when you do," Mac said, the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Chance couldn't help but smirk too. "Alright, well - I'll see you then. I'm really looking forward to seeing the workshop."

"First couple days are short - we'll spend some time," Mac agreed before he dropped a hand on Chance's shoulder and gave him a squeeze. "We'll be lucky to have you."

Chance couldn't help but grin at that. "Thanks, Mac."

It had been a long day for Scott, with a team practice as well as a test he was running for his class, so Annie hadn't been surprised at all that he had come to bed late. When he was overly busy and stressed, he would often go for a run or run a sim in the Danger Room after the team and the kids were done with it.

It had actually been a while since Scott had come to bed late, though. Charlie had even said something to Annie about how relieved Scott felt now that Charlie and Cody were back on this side of the Atlantic. The separation hadn't been good for him; he was too much of a family man.

Not that he wasn't worried about the kids anyway. Charlie had never had such an emotional load as she'd had when she used Amy to look for Cody. Cody was still awash with guilt over having attacked two members of the senior team and agreeing to go with Sinister - and was nervous about what Sinister would do about that deal in the future. And Chance was all the way in Europe, so it was hard for Annie and Scott to gauge how he was doing. But almost dying wasn't good for anyone, let alone a teenage boy that had been a target for a supervillain since he was a baby.

Chance didn't know it, but Moira and Annie had been in close contact, and that was helping - and Scott talked often with Betsy. Moreso after Sinister's visit to Muir Island. But they were still worried.

So when Annie saw that Scott had Chance's most recent email pulled up on his phone, she leaned over and rested her chin on his shoulder once he had finally sat down beside her in the bed. "He's fine, Scott," she said gently. "He has good people looking out for him."

"I know."

Annie let out a breath and snuggled in next to Scott with her arm around his middle. "Yeah, I'm worried about him too. All of them. Even Chloe is more stressed; she thinks that woman is going to get around to bothering her one of these days, too."

"I know," Scott said heavily. "You know K told me Chloe was terrified when she got her powers. For that very reason."

Annie turned to look at Scott and then kissed his cheek lightly. "We have good people backing us up too, you know. Even if that woman gets the kids, she won't keep them for long. You know that."

"It's what happens before we get there that worries me," Scott said softly.

Annie nodded, thinking of Chance in particular. She'd been worried about him since the day Sinister had realized he was human and had left him on the floor when he grabbed Annie, Charlie, and Kate back when he was still in his old form and was studying the babies the X-Men were having. And she'd been worried more still since he started training to join the team and had been subjected to bullying the whole time. And she was worried every time he went on a mission.

But she couldn't put words to all of that. So she simply said, "yeah," and then reached out to pluck Scott's phone out of his hands. "Let's not think too hard about it right now. We're prepared. We've done everything we can-"

"We can always do more," Scott said, shaking his head as he tried to get his phone back.

Annie bent backward so that Scott would have to reach over her, practically on top of her, to get it back. "Scott," she said when he, predictably, followed the phone, "you're not paying attention to me."

"Annie-"

She shook her head and then stole a kiss. "Scott."

That finally got Scott to stop and look her full in the face, seeing for the first time the look she was giving him. And then, he couldn't help but smile. "I thought you were worried about the kids."

"I am, but I can multitask," she said before she pulled him into a long, lasting kiss. "Can't you?"

Scott grinned and kissed her back, and it wasn't long at all before, at least for a little while, neither of them was thinking about Sinister. At all.

The next time Chance was in Westchester was for another team practice - and everyone there seemed to be in high spirits. Krissy had noticed that boys were avoiding Elin now instead of leering at her, and now Nolan was the one getting snickered at.

The practice had gone well with everyone in good moods like that, though Chance had been a bit distracted thinking about how his dad was going to handle him asking to go to Canada, and he almost missed it entirely when Krissy started laughing hysterically at Elin's 'he cries afterward' response to the rumor mill.

Krissy shot him a little look when she noticed how distracted he was. "Oh, go talk to him already, would you?" she said, shaking her head at him.

Chance shot her a look for it, but she stood her ground, and he finally shook his head. "Okay, fine," he said, and didn't miss Krissy's smirk at him as he headed up the stairs.

She had somehow become even worse about that since they stopped kissing.

Chance was still pretty nervous as he made his way up to the booth where Scott and Logan were going over the team's performance on the last sim they'd run. He cleared his throat a bit to get their attention. "Hey, can I… talk to you? When you're done."

Both of them turned at the same time, Scott with a little smirk, Logan with a more appraising expression, but they weren't turning him down. "We were just finishing up," Scott said. "What's on your mind?"

Chance took a deep breath and looked between the two of them. "So, uh. Fall semester's my senior year, and I was thinking I'd like to try one of the other schools," he said quickly.

Logan crossed his arms and leaned back, watching him fidget, but he left it to Scott to deal with. And Scott just watched Chance, the smirk gone as he nodded carefully. "Where did you want to go?"

"Canada," Chance admitted, biting his lip and halfway wincing and anticipating an argument over it.

Sure enough, Scott raised both eyebrows and leaned forward. "What? Why?"

"Well, I really liked being in Europe and getting some different classes and I just…" Chance took a deep breath. "I want to prove I can do it. On my own. Outside of the team that I grew up in."

Scott was already shaking his head, "Chance, you already proved you can handle it-"

"To you. And to me. But Dad, I want to be taken seriously, and I don't want to just be Cyclops' kid, okay?"

Logan hadn't moved a muscle for their short back and forth, instead simply watching Chance the whole time. "I get it," Logan said finally.

Scott turned to Logan with a look of total incredulity. "What?"

"It's gotta be hard being the only non-powered guy around," Logan reasoned. "This is for himself. And I can even see why you'd mesh with Mac. Same story."

Chance took a deep breath and nodded. "I've already okayed it with him for me to come home for the team when I need to," he said.

"Still don't think it's a good idea," Logan added.

Chance frowned his way even as Scott was giving him a look that seemed to say he was agreeing with Logan and hated that this was the case. "It's not like the people after you are going to come after me," he pointed out to Logan.

"If I said they were you wouldn't believe it anyhow," Logan pointed out.

"Anyway, I just… I kinda want to work on Mac's suit with him. It's interesting to me, and I get it. I like flying. And he said he wouldn't mind letting some overly smug kids get their butts handed to them by a kid with no powers to take them down a few notches, so …" He looked between the two of them. "I know you don't like Mac. But I want to try it."

"I like Mac just fine," Logan said. "It's the people around him that make me think twice. The ones he doesn't pick to have around him."

"And I'm sure you could still work with him without attending the school," Scott tried to reason. "You don't have to go to a different country just to prove a point."

"I kind of do, though," Chance said. "Every other school is run by the X-Men. This isn't. This is just me. Proving I can handle it outside of the safety net."

Scott frowned at him for a long time before he finally let out a breath. "Fine." He shook his head. "If you're dead set on it, you're old enough to make your own decisions."

"Team members still gotta carry a panic button," Logan pointed out. "Unless you're thinkin you want off of that too."

Chance shook his head. "No way. I'm still coming back to Westchester. I just… want to prove I can do it. Maybe to myself or maybe I just need to show everyone else it's not just my name that got me in." He held up a hand. "I know. I know that's not what got me in. I remember the tests. But I want other people to know it too. I want to be taken seriously and not just… treated like a bad copy of my dad."

At that, Logan looked for a moment like he couldn't quite believe his ears, but he didn't comment on it, instead, just shaking his head to himself and re-adjusting the way he had his arms crossed.

"You know when team practices are," Scott said, shaking his head and resting his forehead on one hand propped up at the elbow.

"I'll try to come back for more than just that," Chance promised. "It's closer anyway."

"Then…" Scott let out a breath. "Alright. But you need to keep your comm and your panic button on you at all times."

"I will," Chance promised, breaking into a grin before he rushed out of the booth to go tell Krissy - since she was waiting for him to get it together and ask anyway.

Scott turned in his seat toward Logan as soon as the door was closed. "I blame you."

"What else is new?"

"All that talk about proving himself and taking it seriously," Scott said. "Well, congratulations - now he's taking it so seriously he thinks he has to prove it to the rest of the world too."

"You really think this is all on me?" Logan asked. "He's been listening to the picking and teasing for years. Every fight he's been in has been from some jackass calling him less than what he is." Logan shook his head. "Kick me if you want to, but this isn't my doin'."

Scott let out a frustrated noise. "He wants to go to Canada."

"Right. With the guy that has a suit that can fly." He gestured toward the door. "If he was pushing to go disappear in the woods, I'd agree. All my fault."

Scott gave him a dry look for that one and then let out another frustrated sort of noise. "If he comes home with one of those suits, I'm still going to find a way to blame you," he promised.

"Even if he doesn't you'll find a way to blame me," Logan replied before he got up to leave. "Believe it or not, I'm used to it." He stopped in the doorway and turned back toward Scott. "You wanna run a sim? Maybe something easy. Relaxing. You know. Like taking out Alpha Flight?"

Scott couldn't help but smirk as he started to nod. "You know, I think that would be good. I haven't stretched in a while."

"Might even be useful," Logan agreed. "Who knows."

Scott's smirk widened as he joined Logan and headed down to the Danger Room.

Once it had become more or less common knowledge that Chance was going to Canada for his senior year, Krissy really wasn't that surprised that her dad cornered her shortly thereafter to ask her what, exactly, her plans were.

"Don't worry, Papa," she said soothingly. "I'm going to stay in Westchester. Europe was fun, but there's no place like home," she added with a little smile.

"Oh?" Kurt said, looking her way with one eyebrow raised. "Then you'll be joining us for the summer vacation?"

"Well, yeah, on the weeks I'm not doing stuff with Chance," Krissy said with a nod. "We already scheduled our skiing and stuff."

"Let me see your schedule," Kurt said, hand out already.

Krissy pulled her phone out of her pocket to hand it over. "It's not a full tour like the Summerses did last year, but we wanted to hit some highlights. It's not like we were sightseeing on Muir Island."

He frowned at the list, smirking when he saw that she planned to see the general area of Germany that he'd spent so much time at as a child, but then he looked outright disappointed as he shook his head. "You're going to miss the two weeks that we're going to Japan with the Howletts."

"What?" Krissy reached over to snatch her phone back. "When?"

He tapped the top of her phone. "Second and third week of July."

Krissy looked over the list and then shook her head. "Oh. Okay, no, we can move that," Krissy said. "I am not missing that. No way. And we can see the ice caves in Iceland anytime; it's not a scheduled thing."

"Are you sure you want to reschedule that easily?" Kurt asked with a smirk.

Krissy looked up at him. "Um. Yeah. Obviously."

He started to smile at her. "I'm not complaining, I just thought I should warn you that ninjas may not be a contributing factor by the time they've been in the country for that long. So if that's what you're hoping for … "

"Papa, it's Japan with my best friend and my family - what on earth would make me not want to go?"

He tipped his head at that, but didn't comment on what he was thinking directly. "I can't imagine."

She grinned up at him. "And besides, like I said, it's not on continuous tour, just highlights. We're planning to come back… I want to go to Oz with Ael; it's pretty much a tradition at this point. And Chance isn't going to miss Cody's birthday. You know. Stuff like that."

Kurt nodded at that. "Yes, I can see that," he said. "Have you told your mother about your european tour plans?"

"She's the one who insisted we have bamf babysitters," Krissy said with an impish little smile. "Don't worry so much, Papa."

"Do you need bamf babysitters?" he asked, looking a little more harsh.

Krissy shook her head. "No, she's just being paranoid," she said. "I told her that there's nothing to worry about. I mean, Chance and I aren't even really… we're not really together anymore, so it's not like there's anything to babysit."

"What happened?" Kurt asked, shifting from stern to concerned easily and seamlessly.

Krissy looked up at him in a bit of surprise and then bit her lip. "Oh. We just… we've been kind of drifting for a while now. I really do care about him, but just… not… that way, I guess," she admitted, her ears drooped a bit.

Kurt pulled her over into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Then that's a very mature decision to make - and remain friends."

She hugged him tightly and let her shoulders drop a bit. "Well, it would have been harder if he still liked me, or if I still liked him, but I think we both just… don't," she admitted, very softly. "Which is stupid. He's cute and sweet and we should work together, shouldn't we? I mean, we have a blast as friends."

"Just because you're close and are adorable does not make it a sure thing for a relationship," he couldn't help but grin. "If that was the case, I would have been proposed to half a dozen times, I'm sure."

Krissy laughed and shook her head at him. "Well, that's just because our whole family is adorable." She glanced up at him and let out her breath. "But really - you don't have to worry. We just want to have fun and see the world. I'm not going to come home with a promise ring or something, okay? That's just… not what's happening here."

"I am reasonably sure that Elin single handedly made promise rings very last season."

Krissy laughed and hugged him again. "Thanks, Papa. And thanks for telling me about the Japan trip. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"It wouldn't be the same without you," he told her with a little squeeze.