Chapter 144 - Free For The Holidays
For Tommy, asking Addison to be his girlfriend had gone pretty much exactly like he'd expected it to go - which was to say that all the people he'd been sleeping with were furious with him, especially after all that time he'd spent reminding everyone that he wasn't looking for anything serious.
Madison took it the worst, obviously. And Tommy had to admit that that was fair, considering they were twins, and he'd definitely been into both of them. She had screamed in his face - a lot - and had come close to slapping him a few times.
He almost wished that she would have connected, because he knew the only thing holding her back was the fact that he was royal. And he was usually happy to trade on his family name, but he really had been feeling like trash about the whole thing, and he was starting to think maybe he deserved to take the hit.
He wouldn't say any of that out loud, obviously. That would be admitting defeat. And it also might invite someone who could make it stick to hit him.
Whatever the case, he was official with Addison, and that meant that his family members would start sticking their noses into his business any second now, he was sure of it.
He just wasn't expecting the first family member to confront him about his dating choices to be his aunt Lorna, of all people.
She didn't make a scene, and she didn't declare her intentions. She simply pulled him aside after a family dinner and put her arm around his shoulders, steering him down a metal hallway so they could talk without being overheard.
"I've been looking into your new girlfriend," Lorna said, and immediately, Tommy shrugged her arm off of his shoulders and held his hands up defensively.
"I really don't want to hear about it," he said. "I know everything I've done leading up to now has been…" He paused to look for the right word.
"Reckless, selfish, and self-destructive?" Lorna offered for him.
"Thanks, Aunt Lorna. Really feeling the love."
"You seemed to be having trouble to admitting to having any faults, so I thought I would help you along. Any good aunt wants to help her nephews, right?" Lorna teased easily.
"Sure, sure, you keep telling yourself that."
Lorna smiled at him easily and then leaned toward him, her eyebrows raised significantly. "Tommy, I was part of her parents' arrest. They were Acolytes - part of the team that tried to kill Scott when he got here."
Tommy did his best impression of looking like he already knew that - because he should have known that. He used to be amazing at spying for Storm, and he'd genuinely enjoyed getting to zip from shadow to shadow collecting information. How something like this could have escaped him…
Except he knew exactly why he hadn't known. He wasn't paying attention to family ties or anything strategic like that. He'd been after sex. And on top of that, he was actually caught up in his studies, too. He had a lot on his mind!
Lorna watched him try to play it cool for a while longer before she leaned in, both eyebrows raised. "I know our family absolutely can't say anything when it comes to who you're related to, but-"
"But I'll be careful," Tommy promised. "So far, I'm not seeing any signs of evil, though."
"Uh-huh," Lorna said, not at all bothering to hide her smirk.
"Yeah, yeah, get your jokes in now," Tommy said.
"Oh, that doesn't sound like me at all," Lorna laughed, and Tommy snorted and shoved her shoulder.
Mia had taken plenty of kids on tours of the institute, and she had seen all shades of awe on those kids. It was different with everyone, and she always enjoyed it.
But there was something genuinely enchanting about the way Noh approached the world. He seemed to want to drink in every detail, and he always seemed genuinely excited the more she told him about Earth and the customs she had grown up with. He loved to talk with Hank about the emergence of the X-gene and about Charles Xavier's theories about it; he took to every musical suggestion people gave him; and he was visibly delighted every time Mia suggested a new place to go out on a date - it was one more place he could explore.
There was something about the zest and enthusiasm with which Noh approached literally everything he saw that Mia couldn't help but be drawn to. He made everything feel like a new discovery, and she couldn't help but get swept up in his excitement.
And he was especially thrilled that he had come to the institute during the holidays, because it meant there were all sorts of new traditions, new cultural tidbits he could pick up.
It took him absolutely no time at all before he had fully embraced the Christmas sweater idea. After all, he hadn't had much in the way of clothing to start with, and he'd gotten some money to buy new clothes. And since everyone was wearing sweaters and warm clothing, he had a bunch to choose from. And once he learned that Mia liked to swear his sweatshirts when she got cold, he bought a bunch of those two and barely even wore them before he handed them over for her to wear most of the day.
She'd told him that it was usually a sign that they were fooling around if they were stealing each other's clothes, and he had simply looked her up and down, grinned, and said, "Okay," as if that clarified anything. They'd only been on a few dates, so she hadn't gotten that far with him - and she'd had to swear as much to her parents.
He liked the mistletoe tradition, of course, but literally every guy in the school did, too. The more interesting part was that he actually went to the library to look up the symbolism and had spent a good hour the next day talking to her about deadly plants and what it meant to venerate them.
He'd get stuck on things like that, little details that didn't seem to mean much but that he liked to pick apart.
And then, of course, the Christmas songs hit, and he enjoyed just about every single one of them, though he got thoroughly annoyed that such beautiful harmonies and catchy phraseology came from "Baby, It's Cold Outside," because, he said, "I may not understand all the innuendo of your language, but I understand 'no'."
And at that moment, he was sitting with Leslie Ann, completely enraptured as she explained that her grandfather was in a memory care unit and that she and the other Hales were going to sing a few carols to the others who were there. Noh had absolutely no concept of something like that - he admitted frankly that he didn't expect to live longer than a few decades of "usefulness" - and he was taken in by both how sad Leslie Ann was about her pappaw and how much love she kept expressing for him.
When Noh saw Mia watching him, he grinned her way but made sure to thank Leslie Ann for her lesson on elder care on Earth, as he put it, before he made his way over, specifically waiting until Mia had stepped under some mistletoe before he closed the distance so he could kiss her.
"Having fun exploring?" Mia asked.
Noh beamed at her. "Always. Would you like to explore some more with me? Lexi Barton was telling me about peppermint sticks and hot chocolate, and I thought that sounded like the perfect thing to try to begin a date."
"It really does," Mia agreed, still smiling and caught up in his enthusiasm. "Just let me get my inducer, and let's go."
She teleported back to her room, still caught up in her smile. This… this was nice, in a way she hadn't realized she needed. She had fallen for Tommy because he was fun, because he took things in his stride, because he had an energy she always wanted to match. And Noh, for the first time, was filling that hole - on top of being adorable and wide-eyed and reminding her that the world she lived in was full of wonder and not just full of the kinds of people who were the reason she had to wear an inducer.
Yeah, she was definitely glad James had introduced her to Noh.
For the first time in a long time, James was waiting for Billy when he got out of his last class just before the Winter break. Once again, James had pushed too hard to get ahead … in a class and situation that Billy was very sure he was never behind to begin with.
"Have anything else you need to do before we get the hell off of campus?" James asked with a bright smile that was rarely seen recently.
"I'm not the one with pushy 'teachers' that insist on extra time," Billy pointed out - but to his pleasant surprise, James just laughed and pulled him over to steal a kiss.
"Then let's get moving. There's very little I want to pack before we head out."
"Are you still set on bringing Morticia?" Billy asked, not at all surprised when James nodded.
"She needs to get out a little too. Hunt some lizards."
"And chew up tropical flowers."
"Exactly." James took Billy's free hand. "I was considering leaving her with Dad for a while. They say pets help lower stress-"
"Normal pets, sweetheart. She might help your dad, but she'd drive Annie crazy eating the heads off the flowers and bringing her half dead kills."
"Maybe she's a cat person …"
"I've met cat people; I think I'd know if she was one," Billy couldn't resist teasing.
"Who do you know?"
"Cute little girl whose family moved here a little bit ago. She's a huge Hawkeye fan and keeps asking to meet her. Totally gotta bring Kate here to make that happen…"
"Huh."
"Huh?"
"Mmhmm. Didn't think you had one on deck like that."
"I'm full of surprises," Billy teased him. "Thought you loved that about me."
"I do. Now you're gonna have to prove it though."
"Okay. Kate needs the good cheer anyway," Billy said. "We'll sicc her fan club on her when she comes here for Christmas with Nate."
"Perfect. Now. What can we do until then?"
"I'm sure we'll think of something," Billy said philosophically - but with a grin that spoke to all kinds of trouble.
James smirked crookedly. "You could try surprising me with your secret sneakiness."
"Okay," Billy said without missing a beat. "But not right now. You'd see it coming, obviously."
"Yeah it wouldn't count at all."
The drive to the apartment was pleasant - more so than usual since for the past month or so anyhow, when they could travel home together, it had been mostly in silence as James was too wiped out to be, well - like this.
Once they got home, it really didn't take long for them to pack up - and Morticia seemed to know something new was going to happen. She surprised both boys when she simply climbed into her carrier, purring all the way - and a few moments later, Billy had wished both of them directly to the palace in Genosha.
As always, the warm tropical air hit like a breeze, and before they could orient themselves, Wanda was there to greet them. And once they were settled in, James let Morticia out of the cat carrier. She purred happily, curled around first James's legs, then Billy's - and then trotted off to explore. And a moment later, James picked Billy up bodily simply to carry him over to his bed and fall over sideways with him and curl up, with Billy laughing the whole way.
Remy had been considering his options for some time, and he didn't like the conclusion he had come to.
The woman Sinister was looking into, the one who had taken Viper's place in Hydra (though Hydra was fracturing and chafing at the thought of a woman in charge who wasn't Ophelia Sarkissian), was dangerous enough that, if Sinister gave her name to Apocalypse as a recommendation for a Horseman, the fight could only end in tragedy or trauma.
But Sinister had thick telepathic commands in place when it came to Remy's work helping him do what Apocalypse wanted him to do so that Sinister could focus elsewhere. He'd yet to figure out how to warn his team properly other than to say that Hydra was a gathering problem, but that was always the case, wasn't it?
He couldn't tell them who was at the head of Hydra, either. And he was under strict orders to work alone.
Sinister had blocked him from asking for help from any of his allies … but Sinister knew that Hydra had its own enemies, especially this particular Hydra head.
He didn't like this plan. He didn't like the idea of setting free a torturer and a murderer and worse. But more than anything, he didn't like that he had to go back to Genosha in order to set the guy free from its prisons.
He waited until the royal family was distracted; it was the first night of Hanukkah, and everyone would be at the palace. But he had come two days ahead of his planned breakout so he could see how Wanda had changed the prisons themselves.
The first thing he noticed was that the cells were largely empty. Wanda didn't have the same paranoia her father had; the vast swathes of cells were useless to her. But even under new management, there were still ne'er-do-wells. A few Acolytes - the ones that had attacked Scott the second he came to the island for the trial - were deeper into the prison, but Remy noticed with a grim smirk that the older part of the prison, the part where he'd once been, was still in use.
That was where he'd find Vojteck.
Even though Wanda had thrown the man in that part of the prison in anger for what he'd done to Billy and James and Kate, it was still better than Remy remembered it. The smell of unkempt prisoners was gone, and the place was clean, if depressing and dark.
Remy had stolen an image inducer from Westchester, so he looked like one of Wanda's guards at the moment - after a good bit of tweaking on his part. The image wasn't perfect, but no one was looking too closely.
And he had a second inducer, this one copying one of Mia's looks when she was a preteen. Once he had freed his prisoner, they could walk out of Genosha looking nothing like themselves.
He still hated this plan, but he had limited options.
With a quick glance over each shoulder, Remy unlocked the door and found Vojteck sitting on the ground, glaring at him as he came in with a look so much like his father that the family resemblance was hard to miss. He was tightly bound in chains, but he looked healthy - Remy was, strangely, glad to see that, considering how he'd spent years of his life.
Remy didn't say anything as he knelt down beside Vojteck and began to work on the locks on his chains, though as soon as Vojteck opened his mouth to say something, he held up a hand to stop him.
"I ain't listenin' to orders, and I ain't here for your benefit," he said sharply - his voice tight when he was trying his best to ignore how clammy he felt in that prison. He was going to be ill if he thought about it too long. "I'm assumin' you know who the Hand raised up to try for Hydra's throne, oui?"
Vojteck narrowed his eyes, watching as Remy freed first one hand and then the other. "And what, exactly, do you want me to do about that?"
Remy chuckled as he got to his feet and let Vojteck get himself to his feet. "Exactly what you been wantin' to do. And make sure you burn de body, or dis gon' keep happenin'."
Vojteck scoffed but rubbed his wrists. "And what's your angle?"
"Dat's not your business."
"It is when you're setting me free on her," Vojteck said, still regarding him with narrowed eyes.
"You want me to jes' lock you back up, then?"
Vojteck scoffed but didn't press anymore. "What's your plan to get out of here? I can't exactly walk free on Genosha."
"Dis 'bout it." He tossed the second inducer to him. "Don' act like yo'self and you might jest get outta here alive."
"Fine." Vojteck adjusted the inducer and made a face at the preteen girl it turned him into. But he wasn't stupid enough to look a gift horse in the mouth, and with barely a glance back at Remy, he dashed out of there.
The Fantastic Four had a few different holiday parties planned, some with bigger groups of heroes and some with just family and close friends. And Bobby figured it was a good sign that Johnny had asked him to come to both kinds.
Of course, as soon as Bobby got to the Baxter building, he realized that Johnny had plenty of mistletoe hanging nearly everywhere, and he laughed when almost immediately, he got pulled into a very nice hello kiss.
"Happy holidays to you too," Bobby said, still smiling. "You have something to do with the decor?"
Johnny grinned with his arm thrown out over Bobby's shoulders. "What makes you think that?"
"Just a guess," Bobby said, smiling wider. "Hey, Franklin! Your uncle went nuts with the mistletoe, huh?" he called out.
"He always does," Franklin called back. "Kind of sad, really."
"You hear that, Johnny?" Bobby teased, nudging Johnny in the side with his elbow. "Your nephew can see right through you."
"He's just mad that he's not kissing anyone," Johnny shot back.
"What?" Bobby looked back toward Franklin. "I swear, if you take a page out of your dad's book of lack-of-flirting…"
"He did," Johnny said gleefully. "Of course, kid's kind of screwed on both fronts. Not like my sister has ever had any game."
"Ha! That's funny," Bobby laughed. "Remind me how many bad guys fall immediately in love with her again? Much as you like to think you have the magnetism of the two of you…"
"I mean, really, just the one doofus that refers to himself in third person …"
"Yeah, I've told you I think it's weird that you've managed to get a bad guy weirder than some of what we deal with, right?"
"Can't claim it all, popsicle," Johnny teased, though he wasn't really hitting his usual joke level in spite of the crowd and the fun around them.
Bobby dipped his head and stole a kiss. "Not feeling the holiday cheer?"
Johnny shrugged, putting a bit of space between them as he redirected to get a drink. "I don't know. Maybe? I'm making an effort, though."
Bobby frowned at that before he reached down to grab Johnny's hand. "So, either you need to get away from the party with me, or you need to go drinking and partying."
"What? No. It's fine. Just have to get things going, that's all," Johnny said, forcing a bright smile.
Bobby frowned and ran his thumb over Johnny's knuckles. "If you say so," he said, then glanced over his shoulder. "I'm gonna go say hi to the other hosts, but if you're still down in the dumps when I get back, I'm kissing the hell out of you."
With one last glance back at Johnny, then, Bobby made his way over to Sue and pulled her over to kiss her cheek under the mistletoe. "Hey, you're the best Mrs. Clause I've seen this year," he teased her. "Love the Santa hat."
"You made it!" Sue said warmly before she pulled him into a hug. "I wasn't sure if you were going to or not, but I'm glad you're here."
"Yeah, I've been helping get the X-Men readjusted to everything that stupid trial did to throw off our team lineup," Bobby admitted.
"How are the kids holding up, anyhow?" Sue asked. "I know Scott has to be a wreck."
Bobby blew out all his breath. "Yeah, I try to visit him when I can. He's pretty low, especially since Kate's due in a little over two months, and that's his first grandkid, you know?"
Sue grinned. "I am not jealous of him on that front."
"Not ready to be a granny?" Bobby teased. "From what I hear, Franklin's nowhere near the heartbreaker he could be."
"He's just … cautious," Sue defended.
"Hey, I'm not knocking that part," Bobby said. "Just have to tease him when he's always taking shots at me and Johnny." He paused and tipped his head toward Johnny. "Is he doing okay, by the way? He seems… Did you guys have a bad run-in with, like, some evil alien or something?"
Sue frowned as she looked past Bobby to where Johnny was hamming it up. "No? He seems to be just the same idiot he always is."
"Maybe it's just me then," Bobby said, though he was frowning. "I don't know. Guess I'm just … everyone I love back home is traumatized, so I'm always gonna worry when someone's acting unlike themselves, right?"
Sue popped up to kiss his cheek. "You're the sweetest snowman around."
"I'm the only snowman you know," he teased.
"Doesn't make me any less right."
"Sure." Bobby took a deep breath and let it out. "Anyway, I'm gonna go cheer up your brother. But I couldn't not say hi to you, you know? You're my favorite member of the Four, I hope you know."
"Well, you do have taste," Sue said. "And hey. Don't let Johnny get you down. You know how he is. Stupid is just … it's a state of being for him."
"Yeah, I seem to remember you warning me about him self-destructing when we first started dating, like, almost twenty years ago. You'd think he'd have grown, huh?"
"And unlike you, who has grown up more and had to deal with crap, he's still … Johnny. 'M sorry about that."
"Nah, it's okay. When he's not overthinking, he's a blast," Bobby said easily, though now he was the one whose smile was a little tight as he made his way over to Johnny, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into an impolite kiss. "Hey, handsome, your mistletoe is everywhere."
"Well hello to you too," Johnny said, looking perfectly taken back. "Is there … did I miss something big? Or … are you alright?"
"I was gonna ask you the same thing," Bobby shot back. "You're off your game."
Johnny laughed, almost frowning as he did so. "My game? Is always on. Are you sure there wasn't something on your end that has you all … overly … affectionate?"
Bobby rolled his eyes. "Geez, try to cheer a guy up at the holidays."
"I am already cheered," Johnny said. "But if you want to ditch out and go fool around or something, we don't need a production, I don't think."
Bobby shook his head at Johnny and socked him in the shoulder. "Yes, absolutely, let's go ditch out," he said.
Up in Johnny's room, Bobby and Johnny were debating whether or not to put in another appearance at the party or spend the rest of the night fooling around again. It was really more a matter of not wanting Sue to get on their cases, since they were both perfectly happy where they were, but they were flirting with the idea all the same.
They'd just ditched the whole idea and had started back into kissing when Bobby's phone went off, and Bobby pushed Johnny back at the shoulder, grinning but holding up his other hand between them.
"Hold on. This might be important," he said, though he laughed when Johnny gave him such an offended look. "What, you're not a superhero too?"
"I take my time off very seriously," Johnny said, though he backed off just enough that Bobby could see what was going on. For now.
Bobby grinned and stole one more kiss before he picked up the phone. "You okay?" he asked, because Remy didn't usually call.
"Jes lookin' for someplace to be. Middle of de holiday season, and Remy been so busy, he ain't kept track 'a where everybody goin'," Remy said. His tone was as careless as always … except for the fact that Bobby could hear his voice shake slightly in the pauses between words.
"Yeah, I'll meet you in Westchester," Bobby said instantly - because that had been exactly how Remy sounded when he'd visited him in Genosha in prison. Trying to sound careless but barely keeping himself together. "What happened?"
"Nuttin'."
"Sure." Bobby shook his head. "Be there soon. Meet you at Ororo's swing," he added, knowing Remy would probably not want other people knowing he was having a hard time. He hung up and then looked over at Johnny, who was frowning. "Sorry. I know it's a bad move, but he never calls unless it's important."
"You're kidding right?" Johnny said. "Who's freaking out?"
"Good friend," Bobby said, already sliding out of his side of the bed to look for his clothes.
"You're not even going to tell me who it is?" Johnny asked, though Bobby was sure he should have been able to figure it out by the ringtone alone.
Bobby blew out his breath as he grabbed his pants. "Look, it's… he doesn't call unless it's important. He's - I don't want to spread my friends' drama around; it already gets spread all over the news, you know? Just… you know I wouldn't ditch you if it wasn't important, right?"
Johnny was frowning, but couldnt come up with a good argument at the moment. He simply wasn't expecting to be on the receiving end of a ditch out like that. "Sure."
Bobby let his shoulders drop at Johnny's tone and came back over to steal a kiss. "Sorry. I was trying to cheer you up, not…" He sighed again. "Superhero life, huh? Always dramatic." As he was getting dressed, his phone pinged again, and he frowned down at it.
"Sure, no worries," Johnny said.
"Yeah." Bobby narrowed his eyes when he saw the texts coming in. This time, it was Ororo. That Hydra creep who had tormented James, Billy, and Kate had broken out of Genoshan prison. Genosha was on lockdown, and Wanda had put out the call to the others to look for him in case he'd already gotten off the island. "Damn. Damn," he said as he pulled his socks on, watching the messages come in. "Vojteck's loose."
"I feel like I maybe should know what that means."
Bobby stopped pulling his clothes on and turned to look at Johnny. "Viper's son?" he said, absolutely incredulous.
"Oh. Okay, Knew that sounded familiar."
"Yeah." Bobby shook his head. "I need to find out where Kate is. James and Billy are on Genosha, but…"
"Yeah, sure," Johnny said, then attempted a tease. "It's all fine when you go chasing after teenage girls in the middle of the night, but if anyone else does it .."
Bobby let out a scoff of pure disbelief and shoved Johnny back. "Come on, Johnny. The guy tortured her. I'm worried, okay?"
"It's just a joke, take it easy," Johnny said. "I didn't mean anything by it."
"Yeah, just… sore spot," Bobby said. He dragged his hand down his face as he got his shoes on and got to his feet. "Rain check?"
"Sure, sure. You got it," Johnny said, then instead of their usual quick kiss in situations like this, Johnny turned to get dressed as well.
Bobby was heavily overthinking everything that had happened with Johnny by the time he got to the gardens outside the school, so he was almost glad to know that Remy was having a hard time, because at least then he could focus on helping someone else and not on the complicated nature of dating someone who was terminally incapable of getting serious.
Remy was sitting on the swing, and Bobby skated over to sit next to him. "You okay?" he asked, bumping Remy's shoulder. "I'm surprised you're not right there with Ororo trying to find the Hydra twerp, the way she's sounding the rallying call."
"Dey startin' where he started out."
"Ah," Bobby said, instantly understanding - and starting to get an idea of why Remy would be having a hard time. "You know, no one's gonna get mad at you for not wanting to be back there." He glanced down at his phone to see the continued messages. "James can't get a scent. Damn kid knows too much about his powers; there's pepper everywhere." He read through a few more messages and then blew out his breath through his cheeks and put his phone away to focus on Remy. "You okay? What set you off?" he asked. "And don't bullshit me."
"I cain't," Remy said after a long while, even that much coming out as stressed and weary.
Bobby let his shoulders drop and reached out to put his hand on Remy's shoulder. "Okay," he said. "So, how can I help?"
Remy sighed heavily and after a long moment, managed a half hearted shrug. "Prolly not a damn 'ting."
"Okay." Bobby watched Remy for a long time and then nodded to himself. "Okay, well, let's talk about something else until you're feeling more like yourself?" he offered.
Remy nodded, staring at his hands the whole while.
"So… just came back from the Four's holiday party, actually," Bobby said, leaning back into the swing so his head was flat and he was looking up at the stars.
"Don' sound like dat crew know how to t'row a party worth a damn if'n you wanna leave dat quick."
"Was actually having a good time," Bobby said with a crooked smirk.
"Oh?" Remy asked, turning his way with a raised eyebrow. "Ain't gotta waste no time on ol' Remy if you got better tings to do, Rober'."
Bobby could feel his cheeks turn a bit red before he shrugged it off. "Hey, you needed me," he said simply. "And anyone who dates me has to put up with me putting the X-Men high on my list of priorities, especially considering how hard it was to get the team back up and running, you know?"
"Is dat what you doin' now tonight?" Remy gestured to himself. "Cause 'dis ain' really a problem like dat."
"Yeah, well." Bobby cleared his throat.
Remy watched him for a long moment. "What dat fool go screw up now?"
Bobby let out a tired laugh. "That obvious?"
"Jes' t'inkin' bout the players."
"Yeah, well, considering the players, it's kind of a normal problem. He's gotta learn how to put up with me dropping everything for this family, and I've got to learn how to deal with him self-destructing as soon as we get into a groove."
Remy shook his head. "He a damn fool."
"Yeah, I know," Bobby said. "We're two peas in a pod, I know."
"Not from where ol' Remy's sittin'."
Bobby grinned over at him and then sat up straighter. "Yeah, well, Sue's been helpful translating for me," he said.
"She be more helpful is she crack dat boy upside de head."
"She has," Bobby laughed. "And, hey, we're just dating. If he doesn't pull his head out, I'll… I don't know. I'll figure something out."
"Mmmhmm," Remy said, drawing it out longer than any of the others would have.
"It's… he was the first guy I dated," Bobby said, blushing harder.
Remy reached over to pat Bobby's knee. "You don' gotta explain. It just ol' Remy. Don' mean nothin' - jes' pointin' out he ain't no teenager no more. Ought stop actin' like one."
"Yeah." Bobby bumped Remy's shoulder. "Thanks. I've been in my head about this."
"You de one dat come to help me an you sayin' 'thanks'? Dat ain't right, Rober'."
Bobby laughed again. "Well, you told me you couldn't tell me what was bothering you, so I just…"
"Dat much is true," he agreed. "But you let ol' Remy find a better way to repay you 'den to just give a lil 'thanks.'"
"You're the one giving me advice," Bobby said, blushing.
Remy turned toward him dramatically with one hand over his heart. "Advice? Remy Etienne LeBeau ain't never give no advice to no body dat don't ask fo' it."
"Okay," Bobby said, though he was smirking hard. "Sure."
"Jes' talkin' about some damn fool and de obvious shortcomin's is all. Don' remember advisin' any ol' ting."
Bobby laughed. "No, Remy, tell me how you really feel."
Remy shook his head. "Mm-mm. Not today."
"Okay." Bobby smiled and offered Remy a hand up. "So, you're looking better, and the night's still young. Should we help with the search?"
"Depends on if dey need us," Remy reasoned.
"Let's be real. They always do," Bobby teased.
Remy nodded as he thought it over. "Well … Bill-y prolly plenty fine where he at. Dat rat boy have to be carryin' roun' a death wish to go toward him right now. I know lil James wanna have a word given a chance. You wanna go see how Miss Kate holdin' up, den?"
"Actually? Yeah. I was just telling Johnny I needed to check on her," Bobby said. "Sorta got protective when I was on patrol at Cambridge for those kids."
"You know you cain't go callin' on dat girl jes now, knowin' what we do wit'out bringin her some-t'in sweet."
"Or a new ceramic bowl," Bobby chuckled. "But you're the master of soul food. I'll follow you."
Kate and Nate had big Christmas plans, and Kate had even asked Nate to telepathically help her turn off any weird smell aversions or nausea or anything like that if it cropped up throughout the day, so that they could go to the big Christmas dinner that Annie and her family would be throwing at Scott's place and then go to the Avengers' Christmas bash in New York. They were on very different time zones, so Annie and Scott's dinner would be basically a big brunch, and they'd have plenty of room for whatever Tony and Jan planned.
They'd be absolutely wiped out by the end of the night, but, hey, that was just the way things worked when Scott was stuck on Genosha.
Besides, Kate was kind of looking forward to all that madness. She felt like she was hungry all the time, especially as she got closer to her third trimester. If she wasn't feeling sick, she was starving. There was no in-between.
And it was immediately apparent that Annie had hoped Kate was hungry, too, because almost as soon as Kate and Nate arrived, Annie called Kate over to the kitchen to help taste test a few things.
Nate shook his head at the blatant pampering but wasn't going to call it out. Instead, he went over to where James and Billy were already joking around with Alex and Lorna's kids. "Thanks for wishing us over," Nate said, bumping Billy's shoulder. "Heard your Hanukkah got a little bit derailed by a stupid Hydra doofus."
"It was only derailed for a little bit," Billy said, grinning over at James. "Yeah, sure, the first night got interrupted, and I'm still pissed that little creep managed to escape, but…" He shrugged without looking away from James. "The other nights've been fine."
Nate shook his head with a disbelieving laugh. "Right, well, happy holidays to you too, obviously," he said. "Thought you'd be madder, honestly."
"I floated for a little bit, and James was mad about the pepper," Billy said, pulling a face. "And what language was it you were swearing in when I told you he must have had some kind of magic talisman because I was having a hard time magically locating him to yank him back?" he asked James.
"Um … fifth dimension Kree mixed with Japanese and Swedish," James said. "They make weird connections sometimes."
"I didn't hear about the thwarted magic," Nate said.
"Yeah, i didn't even think of trying it until the next morning," Billy admitted. "I've done it before - did it with Annie's kidnapping - but I usually don't want bad guys to come my way, you know?"
"I kept wishing that little jackass would try, but … wouldn't you know. No dice," James said with a shrug.
"Yeah, he's not that stupid," Nate said, shaking his head.
"He's probably dealing with Hydra idiocy," Rachel said as she slid over to join them - having gracefully escaped Leslie Ann trying once again to convince her to let her join the team before she turned sixteen. "Kate was telling me yesterday that Hydra's got a new leader. No ID, just a new Lady Hydra." She shrugged easily. "I say we let them fight each other for a while. Makes life easier for us, right?"
"No sense of adventure, huh?" James teased, perfectly straight-faced.
"Oh yeah. I'm boring," Rachel agreed without missing a beat, also straight-faced.
"Glad you finally admitted it."
Nate laughed and pointed at Rachel. "Got you there."
"Sure, Nate," Rachel said and shoved his shoulder.
"And … eyeroll, hair flip, and pretend like you're more mature than everyone else," James said in an undertone to Nate, who started snickering even more.
Rachel rolled her eyes - and then caught herself and let out a huff. "Anyway," she said, blatantly steering the conversation elsewhere.
"Two out of three," James whispered to Nate, then raised his voice for Rachel. "Come on, Rach. You can't be so busy that you wouldn't want to take down Hydra."
"I'll pencil it in," Rachel said, shaking her head.
"We'll do it before Leslie Ann makes the team," America teased - if only because she'd been talking to Leslie Ann and wanted to see the girl get huffy.
"Then we have a few years," James said, largely because he'd heard most of Leslie Ann's latest argument by distance alone - and he knew that Steve wanted the age limit higer anyhow.
"Just one," Leslie Ann said. "And not even that. I'll be sixteen next year! Lexi just joined the team, too!"
"Yeah … but Cap says that's too young," James said, shaking his head slowly. "And he isn't asking for anything else for Christmas…"
"He hasn't changed the age yet," Leslie Ann insisted.
"Lex did get her new ID card for Christmas," Kate said, her legs swinging over the edge of the counter as she popped a sugar cookie into her mouth. "But James is right; Cap wants the age higher."
"Yeah, but that's Lex - and Cap's afraid of your mom," James said.
"For good reason," Kate sang out happily. "Right, babe?" She grinned over at Nate, who mumbled something completely unintelligible. "We're married and Mom still every once in a while strikes terror into his heart."
"I think that's Russian for she likes you," James said.
"Sometimes, I feel like it is," Nate said under his breath just for James. "And anyway, it's better than when they were both pressuring me about not being married and stepping up to the plate while she had the ring, y'know?"
"It's all fine now," Rachel said. "You're both doing well -"
"All three of us, you mean," Kate said, still in an obviously great mood.
"Oh, obviously. What was I thinking, miscounting like that so badly?" Rachel laughed.
"I know, and I'm getting more obvious by the day, Rachel," Kate said, pointing at her stomach. "Annie's brother-in-law had to put me up here!" She gestured toward Anton, who shrugged easily and went back to what he was doing - which was mostly getting whatever Evie and Annie asked him to grab for them while Craig set the table.
And beyond the party, Scott was talking to Lorna in his office. She had a few things she wanted to warn him about when it came to the Acolytes - especially since Tommy had decided to go ahead and date this girl. Obviously, even with his bad decision-making lately, she didn't expect him to give away Scott's location. But she did want him on alert.
And for Scott's part, he was relaying a few leads that Remy had for them. They weren't necessarily about Vojteck's recent escape, but Remy had been looking into Hydra (as a way to blow off some steam, he'd told them) and knew they had someone taking up the Lady Hydra mantle. Remy only had rumors to report; he hadn't been able to get as close as he wanted. But she sounded like a piece of work just from what Remy did have for them. And intel about Hydra finding a female leader dropping right around when Vojteck disappeared didn't exactly feel like a coincidence. Vojteck would probably find a bigger following in Hydra than a woman would.
They were deep in discussion about the implications of everything going on - so they didn't realize dinner was almost ready until Nate nudged Scott telepathically.
Hey, Kate says you're slacking, because all the other Hale men are helping to put dinner out, and if you want to be a Hale man, you gotta step it up. Her words, not mine.
Scott let out a scoff of disbelief and then held his hand up toward Lorna. "Sorry, that's my son telling me my daughter-in-law thinks I'm not being a good host."
Lorna chuckled at that. "I really didn't mean to keep you."
"No, it's fine," Scott said immediately - though when they rejoined the others and he saw that the Hales were, in fact, getting the food ready to serve, he felt bad enough that he slipped in to help and kissed Annie's cheek.
Sorry, he projected to her, and she smiled and shrugged.
I was eavesdropping a little bit. Sounded important, so I let y'all be.
Eavesdropping, huh?
Hey, you're the one who's left your mind open so your kids can talk to you and so I can reach out. And you usually rush to greet your kids. I was curious.
Scott smirked. He'd forgotten about the path he'd left open for Annie while they'd been practicing. It's just starting to feel natural, I guess. Having you in my head.
Oh, good. That means the practice is paying off. She stood on her toes to kiss him. And it's fun to listen to everyone without having to hear everyone. Thanks for helping me. I'd have hated to get overwhelmed and not be able to have a big Christmas dinner.
Anything you need, Annie, Scott promised - and then took the pitcher of water she had just finished filling so he could place it on the table.
In a rush of laughter and delicious smells and teasing, everyone ended up at the table, digging into the Hale cooking and genuinely getting into the spirit of things, even if it was too warm for Christmas sweaters and snowball fights.
But the second America asked if she was okay with the tropical location for Christmas, even teasingly, Annie got talked over: her other niece, Mary Beth, immediately started to gush about how excited she was for Alex to take her and her sister and her parents to go to the beach. They'd made a whole vacation out of the Christmas visit, and clearly, those girls were going to have a blast.
And as far as the Summers kids could see, this was exactly what their dad had needed. This was the Christmas he'd been worried they wouldn't be able to have while he was on house arrest. They had family there, and everyone was enjoying themselves. And they even did a gift exchange after dinner.
The only drawback was that this was the first of two Christmases planned, so everyone who had plans to go to the Avengers' party did have to duck out. Thankfully, by that time, it was late enough that everyone could call it a night if they were tired enough (though not everyone was).
Still, all three Summers kids made it a point to hug their dad tightly before the night was up. And Kate wrapped him up once they were done and couldn't resist teasing him about how lucky he was with all those Christmas leftovers.
Which was how Annie ended up sending Kate back to the other side of the world with a small grocery bag full of leftovers.
Kate had asked Billy to wish her to her apartment first so she could drop off Annie's leftovers, and besides, they had a little bit so they could refresh and prep for the other party.
But that meant it was just her and Nate in the apartment when Clint and Natasha stopped by bearing gifts.
"Ho, ho, ho!" Clint called out happily, dropping a small stack of presents on Kate's counter. "You two have been all sorts of naughty this year, but we love you anyways and bought you cool stuff."
"Ohmigod, Dad," Kate said, laughing as she came over to wrap her arms around his neck for a hug.
"You holding up okay? Summers tropical vacation didn't wear you out?" Clint teased.
"Nah, with the Hales there, I think they would have carried my plate for me if I'd asked," Kate laughed.
"So would Nate," Natasha laughed as she slipped over to Nate and gave him a soft hug - and pushed a present into his hands.
"Merry Christmas," he said, surprised into a smile - especially when he opened it up and found a blank cookbook where he could write down the recipes his stepmother kept giving him.
And tucked in the front pages of that cookbook was an old Russian recipe - with a handwritten note on the back:
Because family traditions matter. This is for yours.
Nate had barely read the note and glanced up before Natasha caught his gaze and then popped on her toes to kiss his cheek.
"Merry Christmas," she said and then slipped off to join Kate and Clint, where Kate had just opened her present from her parents and was delighted by the gorgeous purple maternity dress.
Nate smiled as he watched them and put the cookbook up in a cabinet. He'd known Kate's family long enough to know exactly what they were doing. This was them making sure he knew he was just as much part of their family as Kate was part of his.
And he'd known that, obviously, but it really was nice to have the reminder after all the drama that had led to their wedding and everything else. And that alone had him relaxing way more than he'd realized he was tensed up.
Nate and Kate weren't the only ones to grace the Avengers with their presence for the annual Christmas celebrations. James had convinced Vision that he needed to go 'home' to spend some quality time with his father … and surprising everyone, Vision agreed with a troublemaking crooked smile.
He was the very last person Tony had expected to see, but … he was glad to see him all the same, and before long, the Christmas traditions of the various Avengers were coming into play - and fast. For the most part, Billy and James tried to keep out of the middle - instead opting to be present and involved with each other. An easy enough task when Billy kept using the excuse of mistletoe even though James never bothered looking up once before he cheerfully dove into another kiss.
And while they were making up for time lost in college classes, Jan was trying to keep breathing for as hard as she was laughing at Vision and Tony, who were playing it up for the new kids and their families that had come in for the socializing superheroes.
"Hey, we're going to Westchester," Mia called out in an attempt to break up Billy and James - even if she and Noh had been doing some of he same already.
"Have fun," James called back.
"Aren't you going to see everyone there, too?"
"Maybe tomorrow," James said - earning a grin from Billy as both Kate and Nate relaxed as well. The holidays were great, but … Kate was tired from all the travel they'd done so far - and the crowds definitely were wearing on her more than usual. Staying put - or nearly staying put was much better than yet another well intentioned group of friends and family.