Chapter 15 - Summer Lovin'

Logan and his family hadn't been in Japan more than two weeks before it was finally time for Scott and Annie to follow with their own group. It had been ages since they'd been to Japan at all, let alone with Logan. Getting the reports back that the ninja presence was 'minimal' seemed to be enough to lift Annie's spirits, though the boys were crestfallen at the prospect.

But to the entire group's surprise, they weren't staying in the city but in the same little house that Logan had used before, nearer to Mount Fuji, with bamboo forests all around it.

"Kids can explore for a while," Logan said. "Can take 'em into Tokyo when it's not the weekend and more crowded than it needs to be. You an' me gotta meet up with Hisako. She's got a couple spots she's favorin'."

"Are they safe?" Scott asked as the two of them stepped out of the traditional house, already excited to see what Hisako had come up with that Logan hadn't shot down already.

Which left the kids to their devices.

"Now that they're gone …" James turned to Chance and Cody. "We can get outta here."

Cody immediately broke into a huge grin. "Lead the way — you know the best places to have fun around here."

"There's a bunch of lakes close by … most of the stuff to do that'd be real fun—"

"—Cause trouble—"

"—would be in the city," James finished, giving Cody a glare. "So unless you're in a rush to be in the big city, we're better off just screwing around in the woods."

"Lake sounds fun," Chance pointed out. "Kayaks?"

James tipped his head to the side. "Well … yeah. But … I was thinking you might be more up to whitewater rafting." He gave them both a purely troublemaking grin. "I know a place … but if you'd rather just float around, I suppose that'd work too."

"No way," Cody said, the grin widening. "Whitewater rafting it is. Let's go."

And as soon as the boys darted out to head off for adventure, Charlie and Chloe took K's list of interesting places and headed out to the local village to enjoy the walking tours that showcased the many waterfalls and red bridges and temples. They might not have known how to speak the local language, but they were truly ready for some solid 'sister' time.

That was more or less how they spent their time for the week and a half they were there, too. Almost every day, the boys would disappear for some kind of shenanigans, and the Summers girls would explore — though they ended up bringing Sadie along with them before too long, which helped their exploration immensely to have a translator around.

But … once it was all over, and they'd chosen their new satellite location — and gotten all of the very technical, very extensive paperwork started — it was time for the group to gather up, since they weren't going to see each other until the end of summer at the very earliest. And though Logan had left the vote up to the group, he was a little surprised to see that they'd all chosen to lean towards a sushi farewell rather than some of the things that Charlie had suggested.

Somehow, it had ended up being the first time all of them had gotten together as a full group, and Chloe was highly entertained by having Elin translate everything that they had set in front of them and trying to pronounce it herself.

"I thought for sure you'd have picked some of this up by now," Elin said as she again told her that the piece in front of her was 'o-toro'.

"Well …. Maybe I have some of it down? But it's more fun to be told for sure," Chloe said before she paused, her chopsticks held up in front of her. "Which one was it I didn't like?"

"Toko," Charlie said with a laugh. "Even I figured that one out already, and I don't need to."

"Ooh, right. That was … squid? Or …"

"Octopus," Elin said before she slid a few things to her that she knew she did like. There were a few jokes back and forth, and on the other end of the table, the boys were more or less doing the same thing, though with a lot less reliability, since James was entertained with the faces Cody was making at several of the offerings.

"You'll like this one," James said, looking perfectly reasonable as he slid a red-topped piece of nigiri in front of Cody.

"That's some kind of fish eggs, isn't it?" he said, frowning at the little bite. "I'm fine with the fish, but the eggs … I don't know."

"You can't even tell they're there," James promised before he picked one up and popped it into his mouth. "Just gives the rice a little flavor."

But when Cody tried it, he immediately made a face at the crunching sensation of the tiny eggs. "What. Is. This?" he said, forcing himself through it but not enjoying it one bit.

"Tobiko," James said, handing one to Chance to try out. "Flying fish roe. I like the crunch."

Cody pulled a face and shook his head. "Of course you do."

Still smiling, James pushed another nigiri onto Chance's plate. "This one is Elin's favorite. Just fyi."

"What is it?"

"Anago," James said, then tipped his head to the side. "Can't really find it in the States very often. But Unagi is a good substitute."

"Yeah, but what is it?" Cody asked, leaning over the table to try to pull James' attention.

"Barbequed eel," James said before he took a piece himself.

Chance raised an eyebrow and then looked Elin's way. "Okay, be real. Is this your favorite or is your brother insane — or both?"

"Short answer is yes," she said with a laugh. "It's really good here too."

Chance just had to shake his head at that before he shrugged and popped it into his mouth, then quirked an eyebrow Elin's way. "Huh. I was half expecting something evil because — James," Chance admitted with a smirk. "It's not half bad."

"If he was being evil, he'd tell you to try the sea urchin roe. Definitely an acquired taste."

"Yeah, no thanks," Chance said with a laugh, shaking his head.

"If you want the good stuff — and not the over the top stuff — don't listen to him," Elin advised. "I'll show you the best ones. Not like Mr. Shock Factor here."

Chance grinned her way crookedly. "Thanks, El."

"No problem. You'd starve if you trusted this one."

"Yeah, what would I do without you?"

"Probably go down the street for noodles," she pointed out. "Or hibachi. Or … I dunno. A burger."

Chance laughed as he went back to the sushi. "Whatever you say, El."

"That's what you say when you know I'm right and don't want to admit it," she said, tipping her chin down a touch.

But that just got an even wider and more crooked grin. "Whatever you say, El."

"Proof positive," she laughed. "You ready for something else now, or are you going to trust James?"

"I think we just proved you're the safe bet. I'll follow you."

She gave him a grin and then simply started to show him which was which and how to tell which ones tasted stronger by color over name and description as the group finished up their dinner. After that, it was a quick goodbye among the kids more than anything else, and James was sure to knock Cody off his feet just for the sake of doing it.

"See you in a few months!" James called out before the rest of them shared quick hugs and the Summerses headed back to Westchester.

While the Summers clan had been in Japan with the Howletts, Krissy had taken the annual trip with her family to the beach to start off the summer the right way — so both Chance and Krissy were in excellent moods by the time they met up with each other for their tour of Europe.

They had decided to start north and work their way south, ending in Paris — which had been far more romantic when they were planning the trip when they were still dating, but all the same, they wanted to hit the highlights.

So for the moment, that meant skiing in Norway — which they sincerely hoped would work out better for them than it had the last time they'd gone skiing.

Still, both of them had a bamf apiece and a panic button, so they were pretty confident that everything was going to be fine.

And it ended up being three days of nothing but snow, coffee, and a whole lot of skiing. Chance even tried his hand at snowboarding the third day instead of skiing, and he'd almost gotten the hang of it by the time their last day was over, though Krissy stuck to skis.

They were just packing up to head to Denmark — Krissy wanted a picture with the statue of Hans Christian Anderson — when Krissy noticed something a little further off and teleported to go investigate.

And right there, on the mountain, she was surprised to come face-to-face with a fair-haired, blue-eyed boy in a collar — who looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

That surprise lasted for all of a second, though, before he reached out to grab her wrist, and of course, her first instinct was to reach for him as well, to try and reassure him. After all, whoever had put a collar on him … he was in trouble.

But when he pushed the sleeve of her coat back a bit, she immediately yanked her hand back, staring at him with wide eyes. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"You're an X-Man, aren't you?" the boy asked.

"Well, yes, but what are you doing out here?" Krissy asked. By that time, the bamfs had caught up to her, and they'd brought Chance along as well, who was eyeing the newcomer warily. "Who did this to you?" she asked, gesturing to the collar he was wearing.

"Long story," the boy said, looking between the two of them and regarding Chance with some serious suspicion as well. He shook his head and held out a hand for her to shake. "I'm Christian."

"Krissy," she said, reaching out to take his hand, but instead, he stepped forward and reached for her face.

She teleported away in an instant, and Chance pulled out the Stark guns that he had promised to take with them so that they'd have a little extra protection. "Don't take another step," he told the boy — Christian — with the gun leveled right at him.

"They're just about to tell you the same thing," Christian said — as a few Norwegian soldiers started to melt out of the surrounding trees toward the group.

"Oh, come on," Chance said in a tone that clearly read how annoyed he was. "We haven't even been on vacation for a week and already this kind of crap is happening?" he asked Krissy's way.

She smirked at him. "Yeah, I know, it's a real drag being us," she agreed before she teleported away - and Chance disappeared with his bamf an instant later.

Not that they had gone too far. Chance reappeared far enough out that it wasn't immediately obvious where he was — but still close enough that he could see Krissy if he needed to. And Krissy — Krissy had teleported right to Christian and grabbed his arm to teleport off with him again, meeting up with Chance before they did one more 'port, this time to Muir Island, guided by the bamfs.

"If there's something special about that collar, like it's going to blow up or something, you better tell us right now so we can get you to Shadowcat," Chance said as soon as they'd arrive, while the blond looked incredibly disoriented from the whole thing.

It took a couple of blinks before it seemed like Christian had even registered that they moved before he quickly shook his head. "No… but it's got tracking and a sedative, so as soon as they realize…."

"Not a problem," Krissy said, nodding before she turned to her bamf. "What do you think — Shadowcat or Storm?" The little guy chattered at her for a moment, and she nodded seriously. "You're right. Shadowcat has Lifeguard with her, and if there's something horrible in this collar thing, he'd be good to have on hand."

"Wait a minute-" Christian started to say, but before he could put up any more of an argument than that, the bamfs had teleported all three of them to Chicago.

And they weren't a moment too soon, either, because Krissy had barely called out to Kitty that they had found someone that needed some help before Christian started to sag - probably from the sedative that he'd said was in the collar — and Chance caught him before he could hit the floor.

"What happened?" Kitty asked as she and Lucy got there and Lucy directed Chance on taking the unconscious mutant down to the medical wing. "I thought you two were on your dashing romantic getaway."

"We were," Krissy said, glossing over the fact that it wasn't really a romantic getaway at this point anyway in favor of just making sure that this kid got some help before he ended up back in a weapons program. "But I guess some people can't see a gorgeous purple Elf and not decide they have to have one," she added with a little sniff.

"Norwegian weapons program," Chance explained when Kitty looked his way. "They don't have those muzzle things like the Russians do, but they apparently have tracers and sedatives for their recovery to keep their mutant 'weapons' from running away."

"Not for much longer they won't," Kitty said as she looked over the gadgetry around Christian's neck and made a face at it before she called David down to take a look at it — so he could pick it apart. It was a newer design, after all. "Unless Howard wants a summer project," she added.

David's response over the comms was a little laugh. "I think Howard would appreciate it if I stopped giving him projects and let him flirt with pretty girls."

"Summer project it is," Kitty sang out. "You can send the specs over to him so he won't even have to leave New York."

"You're just mean, you know that?"

"I do indeed. Learned from the best, after all," Kitty said with a smirk before she turned back to the two junior X-Men with a smile. "Don't worry about it. We'll take care of this kid, and we'll have that collar off of him in no time."

"Thanks, Kitty," Krissy said with a smile before she darted closer to wrap her up in a hug.

"Try not to get into too much trouble, okay?" Kitty teased lightly as she returned Krissy's hug.

Krissy simply responded by drawing a halo over her own head. "Me? Trouble? You must be thinking of the wrong elfling."

"Oh, sure," Kitty said with a laugh. "Go ahead; have fun in Europe."

"Thanks," Chance and Krissy sang out, almost in unison, before they disappeared with the bamfs. They had missed their boat ride out to Denmark by then, but they could take a more direct route anyway, and they arrived on the beach in two poofs of blue, since the bamfs were running the show for long-distance teleports.

Krissy shook her head as she turned to Chance. "Okay, I'll admit — this was not how I expected this vacation to start."

"Does it ever go the way we're expecting it to?" Chance pointed out with a little smirk. "I mean, we are X-Men."

"True," Krissy had to agree, laughing, before she took his arm. "Come on. There's a statue that I wanted to pose with."

From there, it really was simply a matter of sightseeing for the two of them — and coming down from the adrenaline high of the fight. By the time they day was over, Krissy was passed out asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, so it fell to Chance to do the massive group email that they were sending out every day to both of their families as well as their friends to update them on their adventures — and to make sure that they had an early warning system if anything did go wrong, like Sying emailing Elin every day.

After all, that was the whole reason Sying had only been missing for a little over two days, instead of the full month he had been gone with the Shi'ar.

Hey everybody,

So if you've talked to Kitty, you may or may not know: today me and Krissy wrapped up our skiing trip and were headed to Denmark, but we ended up taking an unexpected detour. I guess the Norwegian authorities saw Krissy and her fur and tail, and it wasn't hard to put together who she was.

We're both fine, but they sent a kid about our age to come after us. We don't actually know what his powers are because he didn't get to use them, but we were able to get him away from the Norwegians and took him to Chicago to get the collar off of him.

Did a little sightseeing to calm down after that — you can probably tell from a few of the pictures that we were running on a bit of adrenaline. But hey, big smiles, right?

Anyway, Krissy's totally wiped, so I'm the one doing the daily overview this time, so I know I'm probably lacking in the usual gushing details, but hey, I'll let the pictures from Norway and Denmark speak for themselves, huh?

See you guys soon!

~Chance and Krissy

It seemed like everyone was taking a turn with the Howletts in Japan, first the Summerses and then the Wagners had spent two weeks in the middle of July… and, of course, the whole of the emailing group was just waiting for Ael and the dancing octopus when that came up.

I'll let the footage do most of the talking for me, but … I am ninety percent sure that Ael was going to lose his tiny Kree mind when we took them out for lunch tonight. Dad wasn't going to do it, really. But he just heard too much cringing and complaints about all the fish that he decided to order the katsu ika odori don for anyone that wanted to try it. So you know.

Himself. Mom. All of us in the immediate family, really — even Malin tried it. But also … Noh. Sying was trying to be tactful for his brother's sake, but the truth of it was: he was laughing so hard at Ael's reaction to it when the squid started trying to crawl out of the rice bowls that I don't honestly think he could have managed it without shooting a tentacle out of his nose.

Which would have been a great video to send too, if I'm being perfectly honest. But it didn't happen, and Jubilee insisted we hit noodles afterward … partly because she was crying from laughing about it.

James has asked me to link to an album so he doesn't have to upload into the emails all the time … you can just check there to see if there's new stuff, and I don't know what's wrong with him, but there aren't as many landscapes this time out. He's getting more artsy, guys. I'm sorry.

See you at the start of school — and probably not sooner.

Elin

Chance and Krissy were in Paris when they saw the email from Elin come in with the video of Ael, and by the time they had watched the full freakout — which was just as much in Kree as it was in English — both of them had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard.

The best part was the fact that Sying had somehow convinced him to stay in his seat after the initial freakout until the squid moved again, and then, he had somehow managed to slip past all of his speedy siblings to get out.

Though it was also hilarious to watch the fact that Noh was playing a perfect straight man and just calmly eating the whole time … and the fact that the twins were in tears because they could clearly hear everything going on in Ael's head… and the fact that the Howletts were doing that thing when they couldn't stop laughing when they gave up on even trying to stop.

It was really fun to watch, honestly, and they went through it three times before they finally could hardly breathe and had to put it away.

And back in the non-digital-hilarity world, this was the last stop of Chance and Krissy's European trip, and Betsy had let them borrow her apartment so they could stay for a few days.

"Wonder if she would have let us stay here if we were still dating," Chance said as the two of them sat out on the balcony with the lights of Paris in the distance. It really, really was a romantic sight.

"I don't know," Krissy admitted. "She was definitely watching out when we were at Muir Island."

"Yeah, and I noticed she stopped right around March. She probably knew we were done before we did."

"You have a telepathic brother and sister and an empathic twin. Why are you surprised about this?" Krissy pointed out.

"Good point."

Krissy smiled and shook her head at him as she leaned back in her seat. "So," she said, looking out toward the lights in the city. "You're going to Canada pretty soon here."

"Yeah. Thanks for giving me that push, by the way."

"You practically drool all over yourself whenever you see the flying suit," she pointed out. "You were going to be all… pouty if you didn't at least try it out."

"Seriously?"

Krissy grinned at him. "Don't pretend you wouldn't be, because I know for a fact that you get downright mopey."

He shook his head. "If you say so."

She grinned even wider. "I do."

"Well, what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're staying in Westchester, right?" When Krissy nodded, Chance gestured her way. "So … you got any prospects?"

"Oh my gosh, Chance. Are you really asking me who my secret crush is in the City of Love?"

Chance flushed pink. "I guess I am," he admitted. "I just thought…" He looked out toward the city. "I dunno."

"You were thinking you wanted to bring someone else out here, huh?" Krissy asked, and when Chance looked even redder, she reached over and squeezed his arm. "It's okay. I … was kind of thinking that too. I mean, my parents got engaged here, you know."

Chance raised an eyebrow her way. "And?"

"And… I don't really know," she admitted. "But I think that's a good thing. I'm only sixteen. I've got plenty of time to find someone that I want to take to the Eiffel Tower and propose to them."

"You are so your mom," Chance couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh come on. It's a great story."

"It is, but come on — you were just saying you're too young to have it all planned out… and now you have it all planned out."

"I'm a romantic; what can I say?"

Chance shook his head and laughed at her. "Yeah, I kinda figured that out."

She grinned at him and rested her chin on the palm of her hand. "Okay, but what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're, like… come on, Chance. You're graduating this year. You've got to have plans. You're a Summers. Aren't you guys made of plans?"

"You are confusing me with my sisters."

"Clearly," Krissy said, shaking her head. She watched him for a while longer before she smiled lightly. "You should ask her out."

"I don't think she — hey." Chance turned to face Krissy with his eyebrows high. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Krissy grinned broadly, her tail swaying behind her and betraying how entertained she was. "Oh come on. We've known each other our whole lives. Or, at least, my whole life. You think I don't know you like my best friend?"

"Krissy…"

"No, it's okay," Krissy said, still smiling at him. "Really. I was totally flattered that you picked me. I kinda figured it was a 'couldn't decide between two good choices' kind of thing, but… I think you'd rather be taking her on a tour like this."

"It wasn't like that," Chance said, shaking his head. "I really liked you."

"I know," she said. "Your sister would have busted you otherwise."

"Kris…"

She shook her head and smiled. "I promise: I wouldn't mind," she said. "I would have been jealous and horrible if you'd picked her first. Maybe we just had to figure this out," she said, motioning between them. "After all, everything happens for a reason."

Chance couldn't help but smile at her and lean over to kiss her cheek. "You know something? Whoever you find is going to be so lucky."

She grinned at him. "And I expect to be maid of honor when you figure it out."

"Kris… you're insane."

"I'm serious," she said. "I may not be in love with you, Chance, but I still love you both, and I want you to be happy, and if my two best friends got together?"

"You wouldn't know what to do with yourself," Chance said, shaking his head. "In this highly hypothetical situation. Seeing as I've never been able to get her to go out with me."

"You're just mad I'm right."

"Yeah, Kris. The girl I've never dated who is way out of my league is definitely my future wife. You're totally right."

Krissy rolled her eyes and leaned over to poke her finger in the center of his forehead. "You think too small."

"You get way too far ahead of yourself."

"My way's more fun."

Chance batted her hand away. "Look, I'm just… I'm just going to try and finish my senior year without anyone trying to kill me, okay? That's my school year resolution."

"I mean, I wouldn't complain if you were murder-incident-free all year? But you gotta maybe think a little bigger."

Chance laughed. "We clearly gotta get you back to Westchester. You're drama-deprived."

"And totally right!" she insisted, drawing herself up.

He let out his breath and leaned back, shaking his head. "Yeah, okay, so I like her. But could you do me a favor and not go overboard? You know she tends to do exactly the opposite of whatever you try to push her into, right?"

"Yes, Chance. In my entire lifetime of being best friends with Elin, I did, in fact, manage to pick that much up."

"I'm just saying."

"I'm not going to screw up your romantic life," Krissy giggled, shaking her head at him.

"Just…" Chance shook his head at her. "I dunno, Kris. We'll see how it goes. If she's even interested."

"Uh-huh. So I can be the maid of honor, right?"

"Kris—"

"Chance, you're overthinking it," Krissy said.

"Yeah, what could there be to overthink that my ex-girlfriend is trying to set me up with her best friend?"

Krissy laughed and leaned back. "Fine. I won't push. If you must know, I want Elin to be happy too, but you can sit over there in your little land of 'she's too good for me' and pine."

"You're not funny."

"I am. I'm hilarious."

Chance shook his head at her and then tossed one of the mint chocolates they'd been snacking on at her so that it hit her smack in the middle of her forehead — and that was enough to spark an entire chocolate war that, at least for the moment, kept Krissy away from dangerous topics like Elin.

The Howletts only had a couple weeks left in Tokyo before they were headed back to Westchester, but while they were still there, they were helping Hisako put on the final touches to the satellite location … and part of that meant training Hisako's distant cousin — Takashi — on how to help.

While Logan and K were helping Hisako iron out the final details, Elin was tasked with teaching Takashi how to deal with new people who had a thousand questions. They were nearly halfway through her final tips and encouraging thoughts when she realized how he was watching her.

He was clearly mesmerized and not even trying to hide it as he grinned her way. "Have you been listening to me?" Elin asked.

"Every word," Takashi promised before reciting back her last bit of advice and then positively beaming her way. "You're very pretty."

Elin paused, not at all expecting that from him. "Thank you," she said.

As she opened her mouth to compliment him, he blurted out, "Would you please join me for the festival tonight? I know it's short notice, but I would love to show you around."

She couldn't help the smile — Takashi was a nice guy, and he'd been a lot of fun around Hisako, so she didn't see anything wrong with heading out with him. "I think that sounds like fun," she agreed. "I'd like to see where the new places are."

He grinned wider somehow and offered her his arm. "We can go now … I can take you to lunch if it's alright?"

She paused and called out to her father to ask permission, which, of course, Logan gave and the two of them headed out. They spent their free time together for the next week before Takashi worked up the nerve and kissed her — surprised that much more when she kissed him back.

Though as soon as the kiss ended, she put up one hand between them. "You know we're not staying, right?" she said.

"I know."

"So you know this is very short-term," she said, to which he let out a breath but nodded.

"Yes. But … we can have fun while we can, right?" he said with a grin that Elin only thought about for a moment before she nodded in agreement.

And once again, we've reached the end of another volume. Keep your eyes peeled since the next volume "A Series of Unfortunate Decisions" will be available SOON at robbiepoo2341's account. But for now, take a breath, let it soak, and thanks again for reading. (yeah, we're not done yet. No where near.)