Notes from robbie: Well lookie here. We're finally going to Canada. I'm still ridiculously entertained by the fact that THIS is the most dangerous place for this little group. Those syrupy-sweet Canucks. Gotta watch out for 'em ;)
Glad to see people are still enjoying this - even when we take long breaks so I can go to Comic Con and CC can go hunting ;)
From CC: About damn time. Canada awaits! There is some fine advice in the first part of this chapter, so pay attention. Thank you for the kind reviews, glad to see you're still sticking with us. No idea how long this break for me and my run away into the woods episode will last so - enjoy!
I am particularly happy to get that creeptastic SOB in the rear view mirror, and griezz - I am SURE I have that comic somewhere. I loved Alpha Flight. My only problem was how much of a jackass Mac became. So. Keep your eyes open for a much more acceptable Mac at some point.
Chapter 11 "Oh Canada"
Once the three of them were ready to leave Clint's apartment, Kurt offered Kate his hand before he rested his free hand on Logan's shoulder, and the three of them disappeared — only to reappear a few moments later in the deepest woods Kate had ever seen.
The trees were tall and very wide around, the moss underfoot was soft, and there were ferns nearly as tall as Logan was. He led the way as Kate looked around them, her hand clamped onto Kurt's arm as the sounds of the forest still sang out around them. When they got to the little log cabin set in by the large, still lake — complete with a tiny island in the distance, Kate had to make her commentary.
"They use this place for postcards, don't they?"
"There are all of about a dozen people that have been here," Logan told her. "So — no."
She blinked in surprise at that and looked between the two men. She'd been trying to joke, but that kind of revelation needed to be addressed. "Oh. So… I didn't know it was that private. Should I… you don't have to share with me."
"You're here. I wouldn't have suggested it if you weren't welcome," Logan told her without looking directly at her as he simply opened the door.
"Okay. Good." She nodded once as she stepped through into the cabin and let out a breath, unable to stop the tease now that she was sure it was okay to be there. "It really does look like something out of a painting or a postcard."
"You two can take the room to the right — should have a decent enough view."
She grinned over at him. "Pretty sure all the views in this place rate higher than decent, but… thanks," she said.
Kurt shook his head and leaned closer to her as Logan went back outside. "The girls decorated the spare room — but he didn't let them go crazy. Definitely more feminine than the rest of the place, though. We can have a little fire tonight on the beach if you wish."
"That sounds perfect," she agreed and rested her head on his arm. "Hope you don't mind sleeping in a pink palace - sounds like they had a blast."
"That actually was one of his rules — no pink."
"Purple then." She grinned. "My favorite." She picked her head up off his arm to grin at him wider. "Especially on you."
"You'll definitely need to work harder than that," Kurt replied as he scooped her up to give her the tour.
"I'm just getting started," she promised, wrapping her arms around his neck as she just grinned at him.
"Lucky for you there won't be another living soul around us for a good distance," Kurt teased.
She leaned in to nuzzle into his neck and land a little kiss as well. "You mean lucky for you," she said with a little grin. "Because I am just getting started, and you will be properly purple by the time I'm done with you."
"Promises, promises," he countered. "But feel free to try to your heart's content."
"Never could resist a challenge," she said, laughing, before she just began to kiss his jaw up to his ears and then started to giggle.
He closed his eyes with a soft intake of breath. "You have a perfect memory, my dear."
Although the plan had only been to stay for a few days, it was nearly a week when Kurt finally sent the bamfs out in search of his old friend that had been off in the woods, doing whatever it was he needed to do to come back to himself. When he returned, Kate had to laugh outright — in a week he'd grown a full beard and somehow, he didn't look incredibly dirty. He seemed to know exactly how he looked, though, since the first thing out of his mouth was that he needed to shave before they left.
"Is it the Canadian thing or the Wolverine thing that makes you go mountain man so fast?" she teased when he emerged looking more like himself.
"It's actually the mutant thing," he replied with a little smirk. "My mutant thing anyhow. Happy coincidence for the rest of it."
"Healing, claws, and beard hair. That's some power set you've got there," she said with a grin.
"Glad to see you're back to your happy self," Logan countered, his eyes twinkling.
She just tipped her head Kurt's way. "His fault entirely," she said, the grin turning into something a little more mischievous.
"Yes," Kurt agreed. "And thank you for the use of your cabin. Though — I admit I was hoping you'd be around a bit more than just the welcome and then our exit."
"Consider it a thank you for putting up with me."
Kate snorted. "You make it sound like it's so terrible," she said, rolling her eyes. "Like you're not a blast following around. Pirates, ninjas…" She grinned again and shrugged as if that was explanation enough.
"If you say so," Logan said quietly. "No idea what they'll have for this next one, though. Soldiers likely. Hope that's the bulk of it."
"What kind of soldiers?" she asked curiously. "I'm pretty good at kicking Hydra butt — and a few other kinds of trouble."
"Find out when we get there," Logan told her with a shrug. "But they probably won't be on anyone official's books. Private company or blacked out department."
She nodded her understanding. "Okay. Time to introduce myself, then," she said with a crooked grin. "Make a lasting impression."
"This … is another one of those cases where you don't have to be nice," Logan told her. "The guys that work for this group — they're nasty. So don't give them a chance to kill you."
"Don't worry," she said, the grin turning into a determined frown and nod. "I still plan to have my Storm sleepover when this is all over." She gestured at the extra quivers she'd brought. "And I have explosives. More of them this time."
The two men shared a look and they both seemed as though they approved of her line of thinking. "Do you have a problem with underground facilities?" Kurt asked.
She shook her head. "Only in that I can't shoot them from further out. But I'm fine shooting up close too."
"If you lose your bow, what's your backup?" Logan asked.
"I can still detonate arrows without shooting them," she said with a light shrug. "And I'm pretty good with just about anything you can throw at me for staves and swords."
"Well then go take a peek in the closet and pick a few things out," Logan offered. "I'd rather you had something on hand."
She broke out into a genuinely excited grin and rushed off to go look at what he had to offer in terms of toys, and when she came back, she was wearing a sword at her hip. "Bit heavier than what I'm used to. I'm a fencer," she said, the grin wide and bordering on obnoxious. "But I helped kill a version of Kang the Conqueror with something like this."
"Good enough," Logan said with a nod before he looked to Kurt. "I guess we go to the lake then. Unless you wanna tip off Henry and 'Ro before we get into trouble — for a change." He smirked. "You know. So they don't go looking the wrong way."
"I'll send him a message on where he should land the jet — but we could call your friend Heather, seeing as she'd be Storm's first call anyhow." But Logan shook his head.
"If we call her, she'll start poking around and tell us that the facility is empty. No telling if it's empty before or just after she starts calling." He pulled a face. "No. Let's just go. Hank coming with the 'bird is good enough. Besides, if this one here doesn't reach out to her little entourage fast enough one of 'em will come pokin' around." He then turned to look at Kate with a smirk. "When was the last time you checked in?"
She pointed a finger at him accusingly. "I don't check in. I feed the wild wolves," she teased. "And for your information, I sent them a very beautiful picture of me and a baby deer the other day, so they should be fine."
He smiled the slightest. "Okay. We'll see. But if you start getting a hundred text messages while we're beating back a platoon of freakin' super soldiers, I'm gonna go ahead and say I told you so."
"Gonna have to wait until we're done beating back the platoon at least. It's on silent when I'm fighting so it doesn't buzz when I'm sneaking."
"At least there's that," he said giving Kurt a meaningful look.
"It was one time," Kurt pointed out with a sigh.
Kate cackled gleefully. "Oh my gosh, he just old man-ed you."
"And did an amazingly good job of it too," Kurt said with a shake of his head. He sighed and took hold of both of them, to teleport out. "I hope you know that is going to come back to bite you," he told Logan just before they disappeared from the cabin at the lake to reappear on a mountain overlooking what seemed to be a hangar built into the side of the rock face below them. The wind was cold — even though it was summer — and the whole feel of the place was just a bit … oppressive.
"You know how some places just look like evil lairs?" Kate whispered so low that she was sure only they could hear. "This is one of those places."
"You have no idea," Logan muttered to himself.
"Lead the way, Logan," Kurt said. "You know this place far better than I do." With that, they started to slip down the mountain side, careful and quiet in their approach. When they got a bit closer, they could see that the massive doorway was unguarded except for a few cameras that Kate was easily talked into shooting down.
"Are you sure that there are even people here?" Kurt asked after Kate pointed out that the cameras she'd shot down looked old. But Logan just nodded his head and stayed silent, following an invisible trail that the others couldn't have found. Kurt seemed a bit on edge until Logan found the hidden door to let them in, though now Kate was a bit nervous at the lack of resistance. Once they were past a cross-hall, and well on their way further into the hidden corridors, Kate started to notice a pattern of triple slashes in the metal walls and random spatterings of old bullet holes.
They got to a spot where clearly, the trail forked and Logan paused, weighing out his options. "Labs or control panels?" He turned to the other two to get their take. "Labs will be an instant fight and what we came here for — get some 'test subjects' out before they're hurt. But, we do that and the baddies will cut and run — and send in reinforcements. Go to the controls, and we'll stop the guys in charge, but that pretty much guarantees that the kids'll be killed before we get there."
He looked between them for a moment. "Splitting up isn't an option. Dampeners are likely in the control booth. Protection for the docs after — well. Someone that thought they were important got hurt up there."
"Gotta be the kids," Kate said, looking between the two men with a bit of a wide-eyed look. "Not even a question, right? Save people first."
"That's why I asked," Logan said. "I can't even count the numbers right -—different shifts. Old scents. But those up in the booth — one is familiar. The rest are new."
"We'll introduce ourselves next time," Kate said, patting the second quiver strapped at her leg.
"If you come with next time, you mean."
"I put my number in your phone while you were passed out at Clint's place," she shot back. "Speed-dial number 5, right smack in the middle for you, so you know where to find me for next time."
"Five? Who ranked above you in your head?"
"The huggers," she said with a grin. "Kurt. Fury. Cap. Storm - Spiderman and Beast are in there too."
"You know you started something now, right? The girls are gonna be mad."
"I don't know all of them. You can change the settings to add them in — but I stay on the list."
He shook his head with a little smirk. "Jubes usually programs them in for me. I won't pick speed dials."
"Well, when this is over she can do whatever the heck she wants — but I'm still number 5."
"Jubilee will want to check you out herself — or she'll erase you," Kurt warned, though he couldn't hide the smirk at her antics. "She decided on her own that Rachel didn't deserve to be on there because 'she's a telepath'."
"As long as she doesn't hate archers, I have no problem there." Kate grinned wide. "People love me."
"She's very protective — and doesn't allow any women's names that she doesn't know," Logan laughed.
"Then I guess I have a date with Jubilee and some pizza after we're done here," she said. "Who knows — she might end up liking me so much we ditch you guys and do our own thing. It's been known to happen." She had her hands on her hips and a huge smirk on. "You know. Girls kicking butt, taking names, leaving guys in the dust."
Logan returned the look and turned to Kurt. "Hank fix the vampirism yet?"
"Actually," Kurt said. "Henry had it figured out, but we haven't been able to apply it yet."
"Why the hell not?" Logan asked as he straightened up — current mission suddenly put on the backburner as he needed to know the answer to that question immediately.
"Because the anti-viral that Henry created is missing a key ingredient we thought was gone forever." Logan frowned but caught up quickly.
"What do they need? Just blood?" Kurt nodded with a little smile. "Then that's next up when we leave here. How else is she going to stay on number five otherwise?" He went back into his crouch as he turned to start the tracking again.
They crept forward again, the damage on the walls and the floor more obvious the further they went — all the way to where the hall widened and a large pair of double doors concluded the hall.
"There is no sneaky way in," Logan told them. "So... no reason to try."
Kate grinned and reached for her quiver. "Explosives?"
"You blow up any damn thing you want, darlin'."
The grin only widened as she pulled out the exploding arrow. "Alright, then. I'll knock." With that, she let the arrow fly, already reaching for a second in case the first didn't knock the doors entirely off their hinges.
As the doors blew inward, the three of them rushed, and once they were inside, it was pretty clear that the intel that Logan had gotten from Zoe was good — and it was fresh. All around the large room were different stations set up for various kinds of experiments — none of which were being used at the moment, thank goodness, but — still. They had been used recently, if the blood on the floor was any indicator.
Logan dove right at the scientists in charge, ignoring the gunfire as it opened up around him, and Kate took aim to remove the gunmen. Kurt dove in on the other side of Logan — swords drawn as he teleported around the lab removing weapons from the hands of the men holding them and attacking those that got too close to Kate.
The group split for a moment as Kurt moved to trying to take out the supports that held up much of the machinery and test equipment while Logan and Kate laid waste to the soldiers — and as Kurt worked, it was clear he was giving each of the lab pieces a look of pure disgust.
The doors opposite the way they'd come in opened up to allow in the droves of super-soldiers that Logan had promised Kate — and all of them had their own special list of abilities that made it hard for the trio to kill them.
Kate had been focused on taking out the guys with guns at first and was quickly moving through most of her first quiver as she just kept up a steady stream of arrows as the new super-soldiers burst their way in — some big-looking guys joined the fight, and a strange group of girls as well. She had just let an explosive arrow fly in the direction of one of the biggest guys she could see when things just — felt weird.
Kate hadn't ever felt something like this before, but before she could think too much about it, she knew she had to turn her attention back to the fight — those two guys wrecking things that had to be stopped. She reached back for another arrow, tracking Kurt's path as he kept teleporting around and waiting for him to stay still long enough for her to get a good shot. He had just paused long enough to pull out the supports and some wiring of lab equipment to give her a good shot, and her shoulders relaxed, breathing evened- just as he turned to face her head on.
A tri-toned scream ripped through not just the room but straight through the heads of everyone in the complex as Logan ran his claws into one of the blonde girls standing high above the lab floor. She was still alive — but once he twisted his wrist, and she dropped to the grated floor, the other two turned their attention on him — and focused their considerable abilities on making him feel nothing but the sensation that their sister had just been subjected to — only amplified as much as they were capable of.
At the girls' scream, Kate had started to blink, and by the time Logan had started screaming as well, she had realized what she was about to do and let out a shout of her own as she spun on her heel to shoot at the remaining blondes, absolutely furious as she shot one of them through with three arrows at once to make sure she couldn't possibly miss, and then the last one got an explosive, because she was just feeling that mad, muttering under her breath, "Try and turn me on the sweetest, nicest… ugh. Show you a thing or two. Don't ruin this for me."
In a blink, Kurt had teleported over to Logan and gotten him out of the catwalks and down near Kate so the three of them could regroup. "Are you alright, liebling?" he asked, one hand outstretched to lightly touch the spot right between her shoulderblades after she released her arrow.
"Am I…? I could've shot you!" she said, clearly fuming.
"I saw you — I would have been gone before the arrow left the string," he assured her. "Congratulations on your first psychic attack."
"You gonna put it in her baby book?" Logan asked with a little chuckle, though he darted off before he could see the look on Kate's face at that. "Gonna go get those kids out."
Kate glared his way. "Oh, he's getting reading glasses and a cane for his birthday," she muttered, not to anyone in particular, before she bounded after him. "Wait up, old man! Don't sprain anything important! Like a hip!"
"Looking for baby's next moment already?" He teased back. "I don't have time to take a picture of you for it."
"And heaven knows your grandfatherly urges are just screaming for pictures," she countered.
"They really are," he said with a laugh. "Though you might want to add a couple greats to that, kiddo."
"I'm not that young," she said, pulling a face.
"But I am that old," he replied as they came up to where the kids were being held. She rattled the door for a moment and dug to find a trick arrow that might do the trick - when he simply sliced through the locks. "Come on — I can tell you about the days before your new fangled horseless carriages later."
"Better get in all the good stories before seven — I hear that's when bedtime is at the home," Kate replied.
"You gonna read to me after that?" Logan asked with a smirk.
She blinked at him innocently. "Oh, I dunno — I'm so young. I'm still learning the alphabet."
"You're right, I'll help you sound out the hard words," he laughed.
Kate just grinned at him as she took a sword to some of the equipment in the area before they moved on. The two of them burst into the next room over to find… just the one guy guarding the rest of the kids. He was lanky and blonde, and he clearly had a major attitude problem.
"Get outta the way, Kyle," Logan said. "I don't want to hurt you any more than you ask for."
But the blonde just responded by darting forward and slashing Logan across the chest until his claws scratched against the metal covered bone. Logan glared at him for just a moment before he rushed forward.
The two of them locked into what was almost a wrestling match, though with far more claws and snarls. Logan saw the hesitation as Kate tried to decide whether she should try to help or just get to work on the locks. "I can handle him — get them out," he called out between hits.
"Got it!" she called back before she turned back to the kids and just brought the sword down on the locks as hard as she could to break them open enough to level the cages open. She crouched slightly to be at eye level with her very best smile as she just started to offer her hand to each of them in turn and pull them out, keeping half an eye on the fight as she did so — so that she didn't accidentally pull them into the line of fire.
"It's okay. You're safe now," she said with her warmest smile and gentlest tones, making sure to look each of them over as carefully but with as much subtlety as she could manage so they didn't see the look of worry. Kids. She couldn't stand bad guys who did this kind of thing to kids.
"HAWKEYE!" Logan shouted out to catch Kate's attention as Kyle had managed to push Logan back off of a platform and was rushing her way.
She had the presence of mind to duck for safety away from the kids as she threw herself sideways and went for a hard uppercut that she was kind of hoping would have staggered him a lot worse than it actually did, and he returned with a blow that sent her reeling back several steps, though she regained her footing just in time to jump out of the way of his rushing attack.
As Kate more or less tumbled out of Kyle's reach, Kurt bamfed in and rushed toward the kids to push them in the right direction. "The building is on fire," he called out, just to gauge his teammate's reactions before he helped Logan get back to the fight.
"My fault!" Kate shouted back as she kept trying to keep out of Kyle's reach. "My bad on that one — too many explosives!"
"No, no," Kurt called back. "I think it was from the equipment that started sparking back there. After it fell from the ceiling. Someone cut it, but we can't know for sure who. When destroying evil bases, though, one can't be burdened with worrying about who did what."
As Kate seemed to be keeping up with Wild Child, Logan took over letting kids out — but the action seemed to catch Wild Child's attention again, and as Kate swung with her sword, he dodged out of the way and rushed for Logan.
As he slammed Logan against the wall of cages, the kids within them recoiled and tried to hide as the two ferals started sounding positively unhinged with growls and snarls. They dove into each other like rabid animals as Kate tried to dart in to try to calm the kids down.
She came around the other side and just started talking in hushed tones, remembering the stories the Communion had enjoyed as she just tried to sound as nonthreatening as possible, pulling them out fast. It was work just getting some of them to look at her for a much as they were trying to hide, so it was slow going.
She looked over to where the boys were fighting the wild-looking blonde just as Kurt and Logan got creative and with a bamf and a slash — the blonde fell still.
She let out a sigh and approached the last of the kids, who was still very much tucked in a corner and looked absolutely terrified. "It's alright," she said. "Look, see? The bad guys are down. You're okay," she half-whispered, but the little girl just recoiled as soon as Kate held out her hand, and Kate frowned hard when she realized that the girl was scared of her. "I'm not — I'm not going to hurt you, I promise," she said, but it didn't seem to be working.
When Kurt saw that she'd hit a little hiccup, he headed over to try and help. "It's alright, little one - we're here to help you," he offered with his kindest smile — but apparently the image of a blue demon with flames threatening the room in the background wasn't the most reassuring thing that could have happened. The girl just curled in on herself tighter and half buried her face in her arms with her knees drawn up.
With a frown, Kurt turned to Kate. "I know why she wouldn't go to me, but I don't understand why she wouldn't come to you," he said.
Kate looked down at herself to check and see if she was bleeding or something, then shook her head. "I don't know either," she admitted. "Just… scared I guess?"
Kurt looked over his shoulder to where Logan was talking low to the other kids, checking them over. "Logan — we need your help," Kurt called out quietly. He turned back to Kate. "Try to contain yourself, please."
"Me? What am I gonna do?" she asked.
He smirked at her and shook his head. "Just behave."
She smirked back and in a low whisper said, "You never ask me to do that."
"For the little one, behave," he said with a wide smile now as Logan crouched down next to them.
"What's the problem?" he asked as he glanced over at the little girl. "What did you do, Kate?"
"I just… I didn't do anything," Kate said quickly. "I just tried to talk her into coming out? I didn't even touch her."
Logan turned to the little one and pulled his cowl off to look at her a little easier. "Hey little darlin', what's your name?" The little one stayed balled up but at least peeked up at him. "This is Katie, and the fuzzy guy is Kurt. I'm Logan — we just want to get you out of this place to somewhere safe." When she looked up a little bit more, Logan gave her a little smirk and just kept talking low to her until she started to uncurl herself and finally reached out to take Logan's hand.
When she moved forward, she rushed and wrapped her arms around his neck so he could carry her. Logan just wrapped her up in a hug and tried to shush her as Kurt laid a hand on Kate's arm as a silent reminder to behave while Logan got the kid to simmer down enough to get moving.
"That is why I asked for you to behave," he whispered in her ear. "When no one else can get a little one to come out — he does."
She was grinning and leaned in to whisper in his ear quiet enough that the little girl wouldn't hear, "Giant. Hug. Magnet."
"Keep it to yourself," Kurt whispered back. "The last thing we need is for the bad guys to purposely pick up little kids to use as bait."
"Totally understood. But I can only behave long enough to drop the kids off. Once it's the three of us?"
"Nail him," Kurt said with a laugh. "I'll just sit back and watch."
She grinned widely. "Oh, this'll be fun," she said before she turned back to the rest of the kids to help herd them out of the quickly burning facility.
Logan led the way, though it was a matter of false starts when several of his preferred paths were already blocked with flames and debris. He turned to look at the group of kids and locked his jaw before he told them as a group to stay tight, and don't stop moving — no matter what.
They turned to go into one of the labs, crossing through what looked like a surgical suite before going into the next room — which had various tubes and vials with odd looking bits floating in what looked like glowing green water. There was fire blocking another path, and then the group found themselves going through a room that had all kinds of scary-looking machinery and an oddly hot metallic scent to it that even Kurt and Kate could smell easily as Logan ushered them through it, pointedly not looking at anything in the room. From there they went through a control booth to find a back hall that he promised led to a clean exit.
As they rushed down the oddly untouched, sedate-looking hall small explosions echoed behind them and the sound of the fire raging was easily heard in the background all the way up until they stepped outside into the fresh air.
Logan looked irritated but finally turned to Kurt with something for him to do. "Alright. They're out. Take Kate up first, then get the kids on the plane. I'll see if I can talk her into teleporting up — otherwise, I'm going to start up the mountain."
Kurt nodded and, moments later, Kate found herself on the jet, where Henry was waiting for them. She took just a second to kiss Kurt, who still smelled of smoke from the fire and not just the teleporting, before he went back and started bringing kids.
A few of them looked in awe of the jet as they looked around, and some of the older kids even asked what kind of plane it was as Kate just beamed at them and promised they were in for a treat. She had no idea what to say when they asked where they were going, and she simply deferred to Henry for any questions like that, though a few of the kids seemed wary of the big guy until he cracked a huge smile that seemed to melt them.
When Kurt came up with the last pair, because the girl Logan was carrying was flat refusing to allow Kurt to teleport them, he was quick to answer whatever questions the kids had. Some of them were excited to meet some of the X-Men, and they helped to get the younger kids settled faster. Kurt clearly had on his entertainer hat as he told the kids stories while he ran through the pre-flight checklist, and Henry tried to check them over for any pressing issues.
While the kids were trying to imitate an acrobatic move that Kurt had demonstrated, he turned to Kate and filled her in. "Logan will be here shortly. That little girl was too scared to 'port, and he didn't want to force her."
Kate was grinning at him as she nodded her understanding, her gaze half on the kids who were trying to do little somersaults. "You're good with them. Guess it's part of being a teacher," she said with a smile.
"We'll take most of them to see Heather and Mac Hudson — old friends of Logan's. They have a team here in Canada," Kurt told her. "They'll get them to their families. The rest — we'll take back to the States."
"And then you're going to have to teach me some of those flips and tricks," she said with a little grin. "Clint showed me a few, but he was a sharpshooter, didn't do as much with the acrobatics. You are impressive." The grin widened as she looked up at him. "And fun."
"I do try," he admitted before he took a short bow. "And it is so much fun."
"It looks like it." She looked back at the kids and grinned as one of the little girls shyly showed off that she already knew how to do a cartwheel. "You have a little troupe now. In addition to the bamfs. Small army of adorable."
"The troupe is going to be broken up shortly," he said. "But it is nice to have a tiny fan club."
She giggled, wearing her most troublemaking expression. "Just wait until I give your tiny blue army little plastic bows."
"Oh, I don't know how wise it is to arm them," Kurt said with wide eyes. "That seems like asking for trouble."
"They'll be foam-tipped or sucker-tipped. I'm not that much of an adrenaline junkie."
"Oh good, you had me a bit nervous there for a moment. They're trouble enough with the swords, and I have no idea where they got them."
"They are devious." She shrugged and stepped a little closer to him with a little smirk. "I figure I'll give them the cute foam kind before they get bows of their own without my supervision. Or am I assuming too much?" She asked that last part fast.
He took her hands in his and kissed her bruised knuckles. "If you stay with me, for any amount of time — be it weeks or years — please don't ever leave them unsupervised. This world simply isn't ready for that." He laughed a bit. "Don't forget, they are little demons."
"Cute little demons," she said with a grin to match his. "But no, no way would I leave them unsupervised. I turned around to get coffee once at Clint's place and they'd wrapped like ten bows in Lucky's hair one time, and I think they were just doing it to prove they could." She laughed. "And I've only known them for, what, a little over two weeks?"
"They like you," he admitted.
"They have horrible taste," she teased.
"I disagree," he said with a frown. "They like you and me — and Logan … they like picking on Kitty." He tipped his head to the side. "It's a short list, but a good one."
"I was teasing," she said and stood up on her toes to kiss him. "They have excellent taste with a list like that."
One of the rescued kids LOUDLY asked what a switch was for — his hand on the lever as he'd somehow managed to slip around Henry and with a peek, Kurt teleported over to stop him, picking him up and removing him from the cockpit area as Logan finally arrived with the little girl still attached around his neck.
"You know where we're headed?" Logan asked when he arrived.
Kurt nodded as Henry tried to talk the girl with Logan into letting go so he could make sure she wasn't hurt. "Hudsons first," Kurt said. "Henry has already figured out which kids will be coming back to the school with us." He turned Kate's way again. "Unless you've had enough globehopping with us."
"I could do this all year, blue boy," she said with an impish grin. "And into the next."
"Then let's see how far it takes us," he agreed with a grin to match hers as they climbed into the cockpit to fly back.