Chapter 10: Abracadabra
Billy woke up the next morning in nearly a daze. His throat was still sore from how much talking he'd done the day before, but a quick glance to his left confirmed that Teddy was right there beside him, and to his right—
He grinned at the little girl who was watching him with that same little head tilt as before. Her brother was still asleep, but she was wide awake, just… observing.
"Come on," he said in a soft whisper as he scooped her up and out. "Let's get some food before I get to play twenty thousand more questions, huh?"
The girl simply watched him for a long moment. She and her brother reminded him a lot of the James in the universe he'd just left, not very… talkative or touchy. If there was anyone in the universe who could remedy that, though, he was sure it was Teddy, since he'd married the sweetest man in the world, so he wasn't too worried, even if he was upset on the kids' behalf if he thought about it too long.
Though he was too tired to do that, for the time being.
"We need to come up with a name for you, honey," he told her as he headed downstairs, with the girl on his hip, to the smell of coffee and pancakes. She only watched him in return, and he grinned at her and booped her on the nose — which she seemed to have no idea how to react to.
"Morning, Sunshine," K called out to him with a little smirk. "Swedish pancakes for the more sophisticated. I think Annie has those awful fluffy ones if you prefer."
"Think you could whip me up something with some extra berries for my friend here?" he asked with a small smile.
"Sure can," she replied as she poured him a mug of coffee and pushed it his way. "Extra whipped cream for either of you? I heard you had a rough couple of days."
"What do you think, honey? Whipped cream?" he asked the little girl, who just watched him carefully. "Ah… let's just assume we'll do the normal version?"
K pushed the bowl toward him. "Why don't you let her taste it," she said slowly. "I don't think she knows what it is."
Billy nodded his thanks and put a little of the cream on the girl's plate. She was still watching both him and K until Billy started to eat before she finally stuck one little finger into the cream and put it in her mouth experimentally. Her eyebrows shot straight up, and she very quickly scooped the rest of what was on her plate into her mouth.
"That looks like a 'more please' to me," K said, setting the bowl closer.
"Oh, definitely," Billy agreed with a little laugh as he watched the little girl getting more and more surprised — and delighted — as Billy let her have more of the whipped cream. She had more or less the same reaction to the berries, too, and breakfast suddenly became that much more entertaining watching her happily munch the berries and cream.
"Need more?" K asked offhandedly as she poured herself more coffee. "Of anything?"
"Just more coffee, thanks. I had a long night and then woke up early with a headache, so… caffeine is appreciated," Billy said.
"Just make sure you eat too," she replied before she topped him off. "Then go back to bed. You shouldn't be doing the zombie walk."
"I'm supposed to be meeting up with Cyclops and Doctor Strange and a few other people this morning."
She let out a little noise and waved her hand. "They can wait."
He laughed and then decided to see if they actually could… He concentrated for a moment, then nodded to himself. "Yeah, but they're going to be grumpy about it. And Strange is going to be even worse than usual."
"So, are you putting up your shingle as a fortune teller now?" K teased. "I'll find you a crystal ball."
He laughed and shook his head. "That's … no. That's not really how this works, I think. I can just see … it's like I can see all the possibilities at once. That's not really predicting the future, is it?"
"You could sell it that way," she said with a smirk.
"I think I'll pass, thanks," he said as he scooped a few more berries onto the little girl's plate. "I'd rather focus on other things right now anyway."
"Yes. What's her name?" K asked, watching the little one carefully.
"I don't know yet," Billy said.
"That is shoddy fortune teller work," she accused, pointing a finger at him.
He chuckled. "I don't want to look ahead on this one. I want to decide with Teddy."
"Well you should be able to at least figure out a name, Madame Billy."
"When Teddy gets down here with her brother, we'll hash it out," Billy promised.
K grinned at him, enjoying picking on him, as always. "Then I guess I'll stick around to make sure they get hot food too. Logan is still pinned down by a few little ones. I utterly abandoned him to his fate."
Billy grinned at that, though as she passed him on her way to get more of the Swedish pancakes going, he snagged her by the arm to pull her into a hug, since he wasn't going to move with the little one on his lap with her berries and cream.
"Okay," she said before she hugged him and the little one. "What was that for?"
"For trusting me," he said. "And… for not grilling me about … everything."
"Benefit of being one of the local pains instead of any kind of leader is that we don't have to worry about that stuff. Not really." She kissed his temple. "And why the hell wouldn't I trust you? You're darling."
"Well, I did accidentally create an entire reality where Weapon X is in charge of the whole planet," he said dryly.
She waved her hand again. "Bygones."
"Is your old man going to say the same thing?" he couldn't help but ask.
"When you get to be as old as us, you learn early on that once it's done, it's done. Doesn't make a bit of sense to get all worked up about it," K replied. "Mind you, I'm far better at this than he is. But since everyone here is here and not … whatever, I don't think he'll be too uptight. He did sleep with half a dozen kids camping on him, after all."
"Oh man. I … I need to see all that," Billy said with a grin.
"It happens from time to time. He gets this wonderful expression on his face like he's entirely put upon, then I get slower kisses. No telling what's going on in his head."
"Yeah, no, I know it happens, but where I just was, the youngest were Sying and James, and there weren't any more after that, so the pile was significantly shorter."
"That's no good for him," she said, scrunching her nose. "But... Chance asked Logan to teach him karate last night. So that'll be fun."
Billy broke into a laugh that he just couldn't stop. "Some things don't change no matter what universe you're in."
"Was he running a tiny dojo there too?" she asked. "I need to know for definitely not teasing reasons."
"Well, no, but…" Billy leaned forward with a small, teasing grin and drew a quick square in the air so that K could peek into the neighboring dimension to check out Logan's careful instructions on camping techniques to a very determined five-year-old Chance.
"He's so good with them," K said in almost a purr.
Billy nodded and snapped his fingers as the little window disappeared — and he felt suddenly much more exhausted. "He's maybe, what, a day or two out of being controlled by Weapon X for four years and that is what he's up to."
"You say that like you're surprised," K said, shaking her head slowly. "First thing he'd need to do is get into the woods." She tipped her head to the side. "Well. Or second."
"That's true," Billy said with a little nod and a smirk. "And your first priority was James, obviously. Though believe me, you're spoiling them in that world just as bad."
"Someone needs to," she defended.
"Well, you were the one who decided the Summers kids were coming with you," Billy said. "At least, that's how it looked from the outside."
"No, that … sounds accurate."
"I'll keep an eye on that other dimension, let you know if you go the official adoption route or just keep them as your wards so Elin and Chance aren't… y'know."
"I'm sure that if the kids were on board, it'd be a done deal," K said. "And … adoption doesn't count for … that. He'd still be a Summers." She crossed the kitchen to get a glass of chocolate milk for the little one in Billy's lap. "And I don't know what you're talking about … 'spoiling'. Nonsense."
"Oh yeah, no evidence for it whatsoever," he chucked as the little girl in his lap seemed to be nearly overwhelmed by the chocolate milk on top of the berries and cream.
Billy was totally wrapped up in the wide-eyed adorable little girl — so much so that he very nearly missed the handsome green hero who sat down next to him with a dark-haired little one in his lap as well.
"Morning," Teddy said as he leaned over to steal a kiss, and Billy grinned broadly. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Headache," Billy said, gesturing to his eyes.
Teddy raised an eyebrow but didn't get to ask much more than that when the little boy he was holding quickly became absorbed in his sister's antics as the little girl pushed berries and cream his way with serious enthusiasm.
"I ... I didn't get to ask with everything that was going on last night… what's going on with these two?" Teddy asked after K had arrived with a chocolate milk for the little boy as well. "I know you and Erik rescued them, but ... is there a plan here?"
"They don't really have anyone... or any paperwork ... or… they don't technically exist," Billy explained as he scooped a few more berries in front of the twins.
Teddy tried not to grin too hard as he nodded his understanding, since it was probably impolite to grin at something so serious, even if he was already catching on to what it meant. "Alright."
"They need names," Billy said, and Teddy abandoned trying not to grin.
"Alright," he said again, ruffling the little boy's hair, and the boy looked up at him in surprise, clearly not sure what to do with that.
"We'll think of something," Billy said, grinning as he watched Teddy with the little boy, and it didn't take long before both of them had their heads together as the bounced a few ideas between them.
They had very nearly settled on a couple of options when Kate got down for coffee and let out a little squeal of delight. "I heard you were back, but nobody told me about this!" she said, gesturing at the two Young Avengers and the kids.
"Morning, Kate," Teddy said with a smirk.
"Morning, Teddy. What the heck?" Kate said, her hands on her hips and a huge grin on her face.
"It's a long, long story," Billy said, gesturing for his friend to take a seat. Kate did so — though she made sure to grab her coffee first, of course — and she was still grinning all the way up until she got a proper look at Billy and did a kind of double-take.
"What…?"
"Demiurge," Billy said, glad that, at least for Kate, he had a chance of a short explanation.
"Really?" Kate's eyes were wide as she watched Billy's expression for any sign of a lie, though the literal galaxies were really enough to convince anyone.
"Yeah. I broke reality, sort of fixed it, and came back like this. It was a long week," Billy said.
Kate stared at him openly for a long moment before she seemed to catch herself and looked back down at her coffee. "So… did you … what, magic yourself a set of twins?"
"He so did. Meet Abra and Cadabra," K said with a smirk. "This is what happens when he has to wait for things."
Billy flushed and quickly raised both hands as he shook his head. "No. No. They…" He gestured at the twins and then let out a long sigh. "So, Rachel and Erik were destroying Weapon X bases? And these two were in one of them. No family, no records, so…"
"So we're keeping them," Teddy finished with a broad grin that had Kate clapping her hands together in sheer delight.
"They're perfect," she declared, watching the two little ones as they took turns getting their fingers sticky in what was left over of the berries and cream now that they'd had their fill — occasionally glancing up at the adults in the room to see if anyone was going to stop them and then diving back into it all over again.
"We're not sure how old they are," Billy admitted. "Maybe about a year."
"Make it a year and have yesterday be their birthday," Kate suggested. "I mean, you get to choose, so why not pick when they got new dads?"
Billy and Teddy glanced at each other and broke into matching grins. "I like it," Teddy said with a nod.
"Of course you do; it's perfect," Kate laughed, leaning back with her coffee. "So ... what are Abra and Cadabra called when they're at home?"
"That's what we were just trying to figure out," Teddy admitted.
"Well, don't let me stop you," Kate said, shooing them ahead. "You need something just… you."
"Thanks, Kate, that's really helpful," Billy said.
"I think I got an eyeroll, but it's hard to tell when the galaxies are always moving," Kate shot back with a grin. "So I'm just going to have to assume you didn't and that I'm amazing."
Billy rolled his eyes at that — but then, Kate was right. It was impossible to tell that he was doing it. "Where's the rest of the Wagner clan?" he asked instead.
"Playing with their dad and his best friend," Kate said, waving her hand. "Kurt left to rescue Logan from at least part of the snuggle pile and never came back, so I can only assume he's been lost to the snuggles. Oh no."
"Oh yeah. That's such a terrible fate," Billy chuckled.
Kate laughed at that, leaning back as she took another long sip of coffee. "So, have either of you talked to America yet?" she asked.
Billy and Teddy glanced at each other. "Umm…"
"Yeah, you need to before she comes to kick your butt herself," Kate said, shaking her head. "I know you needed your half-Skrull snuggles, but some of the rest of us were worried about you too."
Billy let out a long sigh. "She's gonna be mad either way."
"Like ripping a band-aid, Billy," Kate teased. "She'll be less mad if you have names to give her, though. For Abra and Cadabra."
"Stop calling them that, Kate. They're going to start responding to it," Teddy said.
"And?"
"And those are not their names."
"Says you."
"Yeah, says me, and I'm their dad."
Kate's grin widened to obnoxious proportions. "I know, and isn't it fun to say?"
The boys couldn't help laughing at that as they shook their heads in unison, though they had to admit: "Yeah, it is."
Kate beamed at her two friends before she set her coffee mug down. "I'm texting America now to tell her you're up and joking around, so you'd better have names by the time she gets here."
"Kate—"
"I wonder if she'll even bother with flying or if she'll just star portal over."
"Kate—"
"You're right. She doesn't know about your star face yet. She'll probably come normally."
The two of them shook their heads at her, knowing there was no stopping Kate — or America — and especially not Kate and America — so they very quickly got back to whispering through the names now that they had a deadline. It was lucky they'd narrowed it down to just a couple options before Kate got there, or this would have been much harder.
America wasn't the next to arrive, though, as apparently the kids had finally taken mercy on Logan and Kurt, and the mansion residents in the kitchen could hear the stampede of giggling kids and bamfs before they even made it to breakfast, all squeals and laughter and a lot of "no cheating!" coming from the ceiling as Krissy and Sying raced each other.
The noise level had both of Teddy and Billy's new twins leaning back and watching with a fair bit of caution as the small army tumbled into breakfast, tugging on K's pant legs for berries and sweets and generally being as rowdy as usual.
Krissy was the first to spot the newcomers, though, and she ran down the side of the wall at top speed, nearly falling over her own tail before Kurt caught her one-handed. "Papa, look! Billy came back and he brought new friends!" she declared happily.
Kurt smiled as he righted the sideways little girl and kissed the top of her head. "Yes, Prinzessin, but he doesn't want you to fall over your tail before you can meet your new friends."
"I got excited," she said in a quiet little voice that had Kurt laughing. She shook out her braids and then squirmed to be let down so she could skip over to where a few of the kids had crowded around Billy and Teddy and the twins — though not too close, since Logan was sure to tell them to give the kids some space with how unsure the little ones looked over the whole situation.
Sying had somehow managed to climb up onto the table, though, and he was watching the twins with eyes almost as wide as the two little ones. "Did you ask Santa for twins too?" he blurted out at last.
"Billy, you know what that makes you, right?" K stage whispered with wide eyes. "Oooh, and it fits too. Because … you know ho ho."
"You're hilarious," Billy said.
Sying tipped his head to the side. "They kinda look like you," he said at last. "Except for your have the whole sky in your eyes. Is that how you got twins? Did you have to magic them for you like you magicked my mom and everybody else?"
"No, no, we adopted them," Teddy explained when Billy looked like he had no idea what to do with that line of questioning.
Sying nodded thoughtfully. "Okay," he said, though his nose was still scrunched up as he worked it out.
"They're shy," Charlie said, trying to wave to the little boy and getting a little stare in response.
"They're just not used to lots of people, sweetie," Kate said with a smile, though she looked over the top of the kids heads to catch Logan and Kurt's attention to sign Weapon X rescues so that the men were caught up. It was obvious that Logan had to bite back a growl; his response was to take a few steps away from the group of kids for a moment.
"And there's lots of us," Charlie surmised before she gave the twins a kind smile. "That's alright. Maybe we can play quiet things later."
"I'll keep an eye on them a little later so you can get yourselves cleaned up," K offered to Billy and Teddy. "They could use a bath, I'm sure."
"Well, if you don't mind," Billy said hesitatingly, "I think we'd like to stick with them as much as possible, though."
"We'd be happy to," Logan replied. "Unscented soap …"
Teddy was the one to catch on first and nodded quickly. "Right, right. And I'm sure I can… stargaze or something with my downtime," he said, nudging Billy's shoulder with his and getting an affectionate huff in response.
"It won't take us long," K said. "And the best part is really after they have all that … funk scrubbed off."
"Not to mention the berries and cream from all the spoiling," Billy had to tease.
"Like she won't give them more later," Logan chuckled.
"And she says Annie is bad about the spoiling," Kate teased.
"Well, I don't give them chocolate," K defended. "I never said I wouldn't spoil them with fruit."
"Still technically sugar, I'm just saying," Kate said, sticking her tongue out at her friend.
"Yes, but mine is healthier. And natural. And when they get bigger, they can fight bears for it," K said with a smirk. "In the blueberry patch."
"I can't fight bears," Chance said, sounding alarmed. "I'm still learning."
"No one fights bears until they're older," Logan said, playing along.
"How much bigger?" Chance asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"For you?" Logan asked. "Bigger'n me."
Chance took just a second to very obviously size Logan up before he nodded. "Alright. I got time."
Billy couldn't help watching the whole scene with a look somewhere between totally amused and… something totally different before he shook it off. "So, uh, someone said you were teaching Chance karate?" he said, trying to cover.
Logan turned his way with one eyebrow raised. "Well. He did ask. Elin will take it easy on him."
"Elin can kick circles around me," Chance added helpfully.
"You'll catch up," Logan said over Chance's head.
"I'm practicing a lot," Chance said with a huge grin. "Dad's helping me practice."
Logan and K were both smirking hard at that, but neither of them said a word about it as they took their seats on the opposite side of the table as Billy and Teddy.
Chance was just telling Billy and Teddy — and anyone else who would listen — about how his karate lessons were going - and how he was going to be just like his dad when he got bigger ... when the conversation was interrupted by a bright, five-pointed star.
"Oh, hey. I was wrong. She did take the fast way," Kate quipped as America stepped through the star.
"She was worried sick," K said, ignoring the girl herself.
America shot them both a dry look before she made a beeline for Billy, clearly headed for a hug right up until she saw him properly and drew up short and just… stopped.
"Hi, America," Billy said sheepishly.
"When did this happen?" America demanded in a hoarse tone that she just didn't use, gesturing at Billy's face.
Billy looked his best to look properly apologetic. "It was an accident—"
"It was a… it was an accident?" she repeated, totally sideswiped as she stared at Billy.
"Well, if I'd known, I would have said something to you…"
"You…" America shook her head and sat down in the nearest chair as Teddy tried hard not to smirk at the fact that their usually combative friend wasn't nearly as combative. She had good reason, after all. "I came all this way," she said.
"Yeah, I sort of broke this reality in two? And created a new one?" Billy tried to explain. "You had the right reality ... I just screwed it up."
"And I missed it."
"You really didn't miss much. Last time was better," he said with a little laugh, thinking of how Teddy had kissed him out of the clouds to get a handle on the Demiurge.
"Obviously," Teddy said with a smirk.
America just stared at both of them for a long while. "So," she said finally, slowly, "do you feel any … different?"
"Tired," Billy admitted. "I have to focus all the time just to see everyone here and now and not in a hundred other possible worlds or timelines."
"But you can?"
"If I want to," Billy said, watching his friend carefully. She had her hands clasped under her chin in a sign he recognized and wasn't actually that comfortable with, so he cleared his throat. "So. Have you met the twins?"
America seemed to blink back to reality as she looked at the frankly overwhelmed-looking little ones. "When…?"
"My grandfather and the Phoenix and I rescued them from an evil black ops group last night," Billy said, waving his hand. "You know. Adoption was taking too long the normal way."
Teddy let out a snort of a laugh at that. "Yeah, that's what happened."
"He's admitted it," K said quietly. "No taking it back now. Lucky little Abra and Cadabra."
"Tell me that's not what you're calling them," America said, which earned a snort of laughter from Kate.
"The best part is that she believes they might," Logan muttered into K's hair.
Teddy and Billy shared a glance and a nod before Teddy gestured to the little boy. "This is Harry, and that's Sammy. Or… Harold and Samantha, but let's be honest. No one is going to call them that."
"No one," Kate agreed with a laugh.
"She's Abra," K said with a wave the little girl's way. "And he's Cadabra. And they both like whipped cream and berries."
"Grammy K," Sying said with a little laugh. "They gotta have normal names! Not just silly Grammy K names!"
"Nuh uh," K shot back in her best bratty tone.
"Uh huh! What are they gonna call them at school?" Sying shot back with his hands on his hips.
"That depends on which school they go to," Elin said quietly.
"Smart kid," Kate said with a grin K's way.
"She gets it honestly," Kurt chuckled.
The twins were starting to get worn out from all the excitement of the morning, and honestly, so was Billy — from all the excitement of the past few days — so he flagged K once the kids had all gotten their fill of breakfast and had moved on to playing with each other.
"Is that offer still open?" he asked. "To clean them up?"
"Yep," Logan said as he and K got to their feet. "I'll let you know if they have any problems."
"Thanks." Billy gently handed Sammy to K, and the little girl seemed perfectly comfortable with her new berries and cream provider, though Harry looked a little suspicious of Logan but latched onto his shirt all the same for balance.
Billy watched the two of them for a moment and then let out a breath. "If you need me, I'm going to take a nap… and then I have one last thing that I think most of the adults around here would be interested in." He had a spark of trouble in his gaze. "Something I started when I went full Demiurge, but I have to finish it in this reality."
"Tease," Kate called out his way.
"That's your problem, not mine," he shot right back, and she just laughed at him.
Teddy came up behind him and draped an arm over Billy's shoulders. "Come on. Let's go stargazing," he teased.
Billy let out a sigh. "You're never going to let that die, are you?"
"Never ever."
Logan and K got the two little ones upstairs without any troubles, and though Sammy was friendly enough — and familiar with K — both of them were wary of Logan.
K kept the little girl on her hip as she started up the water, and in short order both of them were quite a bit nervous about getting into the tub. But the ferals took their time and kept gently working with them until they were both cautiously playing in the water.
It took Harry a bit more time to try, but once Logan got him splashing his sister — and giggling at the bubbles the splashes made — both little ones started to relax and have a little fun.
They let them play and splash and mess around until the water was cold and both of them were worn out. Once they were wrapped up in towels, they were quick to snuggle in to their new feral friends to fall asleep.
Both K and Logan tried to catch a familiar scent on the little ones, and both of them were relieved when there wasn't anything that was a tie to anyone they knew. "Not clones," Logan said with a smirk. "So let's get them to their new dads."
K nodded and got the two little ones dressed up in some snuggly new clothes. They carried the twins over to Billy and Teddy's room to gently knock. "I know they're waiting up," K whispered.
"All clear," Logan rumbled when Teddy opened the door. "Not clones of anyone."
Teddy's shoulders slumped in obvious relief as he gently scooped up Harry. "So they're not going to turn out evil or anything?" he couldn't help but tease.
"Getting them out of Weapon X was probably a real good start to avoiding that," Logan replied.
"No kidding." Teddy gently pulled Sammy up as well — sneaky about the third arm shapeshifting so that he could finagle the two of them for a moment before he went back to being two-handed. He glanced back to where Billy was passed out on the bed and grinned. "We'll come get you when everyone's up again. I 'convinced' Billy to let me in on his last little surprise, and it's really a good plan."
"No rush," K said with a little wave.
Teddy just laughed in response as he took the twins inside.