Chapter 5: Cupcake Kisses

Annie had made her amazing Valentine's Day cupcakes again that year, so of course all of the kids knew that they were going to get sugared up. The smell of chocolate and cinnamon could be found through the entire mansion, and it was resting heavily in the kitchen in particular, where Kate and Kurt had brought the little kids in to get their sweets — along with K and James.

They waited until Annie had finished with her tall buttercream icing and had everything all put out on plates before they got their own cupcakes, beaming with happiness as they got red and pink icing all over their fingers and faces.

Elin was kicking her feet over the edge of her chair and half singing to herself as Krissy dove into her cupcake nearby, her tail swaying slowly behind her as she grinned and relished her frosting.

Chance didn't eat his cupcake or touch his icing, though, as he climbed up to the little pig-tailed Howlett girl and slid his cupcake over to her with a shy sort of grin. "Happy Valentines," he said with a little nervous laugh.

She looked from him to the cupcake and tipped her head to the side a bit before she swiped one finger into the frosting to taste, and then — having misinterpreted so much from watching her parents in recent months with cupcakes — she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. "Happy Valentine," she replied before she gave him a big smile and picked up her granola cookie to hand to him.

Chance was brilliantly red and grinning as he took the cookie and started to giggle as Annie and Scott shared a look over the adorable kids' heads. Annie was barely containing herself to keep from laughing, and Scott looked like he couldn't decide whether to say something or just… enjoy the cute giggles from both Chance and Elin.

K on the other hand was doing her best to act as if she hadn't seen a thing as she settled James in with some sweets of his own.

"He your Valentine," Krissy told her best friend happily.

"Okay," Elin said, still kicking her feet and half singing to herself.

"Papa says today is about wu-u-u-v," Krissy sang out as Kate couldn't contain herself and buried her face in Kurt's shoulder to keep from letting the kids see her dying of laughter — though he wasn't far behind her.

Elin turned Krissy's way and watched her for a moment. "Give kisses out," she said with a shrug.

"You gotta wuv when you kiss!" Krissy insisted.

"Okay," Elin replied, still half singing and twisting her shoulders as she played.

"They've been watching," Kate giggled into Kurt's shoulder. "And paying attention. The icing. K. The icing." She was half beside herself giggling over the whole thing.

"She's a smart girl," K replied with a little shrug.

"It's adorable," Annie said with a wide smile. "He's such a flirt — I'm sorry."

"For what?" K asked. "They're just being sweet."

"Sweet and silly!" Sying sang out happily as he licked some of the icing off of his fingers.

"Speaking of which," Kurt said with a little smirk, pointing with his tail toward the window at the car driving up the driveway as Tyler and Tammy arrived from their honeymoon.

"Are they coming home early?" K asked as she glanced up at Kurt.

"We offered them the beach house for as long as they wanted to use it — there was no timeline," Kurt said with a bit of a shrug.

"The pilot just stayed on call until they needed him," Kate added. "But you know how Ty is about missing too much school. Little genius that he is."

"That or he wanted a cupcake," K muttered quietly. "And all that goes with it."

"Kisses!" Krissy agreed with a high-pitched giggle as she gave Elin a bit of a smirk.

"Cupcake kisses," Elin said with a nod.

At that, Chance scooted over to Elin again and grinned her way as Scott looked like he couldn't even believe what was happening. The little boy picked up the cupcake and ran a finger through some of the icing left to boop some on Elin's nose and started to giggle. "Cupcake kisses?" he asked.

She giggled and nodded and kissed him again as Kurt chuckled at the whole thing. "It's a good thing Logan is on rotation with the Avengers with Brye," he laughed.

"He's got nothing to complain about," K said with a wave. "Right, kids?"

"Right!" Chance called out happily. "It's Valentine's Day!"

"And what is Valentine's good for?" K asked.

"It's for cupcakes and for chocolate and flowers and kisses!" he listed off happily.

"That's right, sweetheart," K laughed before she looked up at Scott. "He gets it. This is good."

"He's a smart kid; he picks things up from watching the team," Scott said, shaking his head.

"What do you think, Chance? Does your dad need a cupcake kiss?" K asked.

"Everybody needs cupcake kisses," Chance said, nodding seriously, and Annie broke into a genuine laugh at that.

"Yes, I think you're very right, sweetie," Annie said, taking a glob of icing from her own baking to smear it across Scott's face before he could react and then grab him by his shirt to kiss him hard.

"I see Valentine's Day is going well for everyone," Tyler said with a dry smirk as he and Tammy came through the doors, still snuggled up with each other and suntanned.

"As always," Annie replied with a little giggle, still smiling up at Scott.

"You two are back early. You get done?" Kate giggled.

"Real cute," Tammy said, shaking her head as she stuck her tongue out at Kate.

"Did you expect them to that fast?" K asked with a laugh. "You two still aren't done."

"That's entirely true," Kate agreed as Kurt snagged one of Annie's cupcakes with his tail and she just started to grin even wider.

"Don't worry, Ty; it's fine. Not everyone can show a little restraint," K teased.

But at that, Tammy just raised an eyebrow as she looked around the little group and understood in a second what the icing was being used for - and instead of stealing herself a cupcake, she just picked up some of the icing from the bowl telekinetically so she could skip straight to the kissing.

"No, they can't," Tyler laughed and nipped at her hand. Tammy laughed along with him — and then shrieked when Tyler picked her up and swept her up in his arms to give her a long, deep kiss, grinning when the kiss broke and she had icing on her face too. "To be fair, if I just carry you everywhere, you'll lose all the icing fights," he told her.

Tammy laughed and pulled a few more globs of icing over with a wave of her hand. But Tyler caught more of it as he reached out to grab the icing out of the air — and prove he was right about winning the icing fights.

Little Kari was giggling through the entire display, but Cody was starting to get a bit fussy, likely a little tired, and Scott gently swept the little boy up while Tyler and Tammy were still well-occupied. "Have fun," he told Annie, giving her a quick kiss as he headed toward the stairs to put Cody to bed — when a voice that they hadn't heard in quite some time echoed through the room.

"Looks like you made enough for guests," Creed rumbled out from just outside of the kitchen. "Nice to get a warm welcome for a change."

Annie let out an audible gasp and dropped the pan she had been holding as Kurt barked a few words in German to the bamfs, little poofs of smoke echoing around the kitchen as they made sure all of the little ones had at least one bamf to get them out of there.

In a flash, all of the kids — and anyone who had been holding one — had been teleported off to K's cottage, which was the usual emergency hideout for situations like this. The kids were all wide-eyed and worried, and Kate was trying to shush Kari as she had clearly picked up on the fact that something was wrong and had started crying. The bamfs brought Scott and Cody back too, but the little guy was well asleep, and as soon as Scott arrived, he took just a second to look around the cottage and put Cody down before he demanded to go back.

And back in Westchester, the heroes who were left were ready for a fight. "Annie too," K said low to the bamf nearest her shoulder, and the little guy gave her a quick sort of nod before he latched onto Annie's shoulder — taking her out of there fast. She shouted for Tyler and Tammy to get out of there as well as she and Kurt dove in to attack Creed.

Creed chuckled as the two of them started the real offensive. Kurt of course disappeared for a moment to retrieve his sword, but once he got back, it was a driving fight that quickly found its way out of the kitchen and deeper into the mansion. Though the two of them looked deadly serious, Victor was grinning — clearly enjoying himself.

He'd anticipated Kurt's teleport and met him with sharp claws and a wide grin before he threw Kurt halfway across the living room. Before K could make the rush, though, Scott made his reappearance known as he shot for Victor's center mass.

The shot knocked Victor back several paces, and as he fell back, Tammy and Tyler — clearly having not listened to K — arrived to help as Tammy threw out a hand to pick up the falling Sabretooth and pitch him as hard as she could into the chandelier ... and then into the floor in rapid succession, leaving a Creed-shaped dent in the hardwood.

As he landed, K was already in motion and airborne herself to try and stab him in the face — but clearly, Victor had been itching for a fight for too long. Even though he wasn't recovered, he managed to catch her wrists and slam her down next to him. As he got to his feet, he dragged her along with him and pulled her tight to him.

"You're outnumbered and you know it — put her down," Scott all but demanded.

"Never did care much about numbers," Creed half purred out. "But I can still tear up everyone here without breaking much of a sweat." He made sure K was covering anything vital before he grinned Scott's way. "Go ahead. Take your shot. Killin' her myself would be nice, but knowin' you'd have to explain yourself to the Runt might make it worth my while."

It was a bit of a stalemate as the X-Men tried to find the right angle to attack, and K just looked like she was getting more and more mad as she drove her heel toward him - trying to break his foot or hit a muscle in his leg. "I am sick and tired of being the stupid bait — take the shot, Scott." But Creed was holding her right in front of him and had one hand wrapped around her throat, the tips of his claws just barely piercing the skin — clearly as a deterrent to anyone trying to just yank her away. His other arm was across her waist, holding both wrists in one hand.

Scott let out all his breath, clearly frustrated with his limited options before he quickly fired off a blast at Creed's head, aiming to catch the side as he blasted through not only flesh but part of the wall with the high-intensity but refined beam. It certainly knocked Creed off balance, but as he flinched away from the shot, he clenched the hand around K's throat and sliced through everything of importance — before he simply threw her at Scott.

Scott moved to catch K as best he could to try and keep her from taking any more damage than she already had, falling to one knee as she knocked into him. He looked openly wide-eyed and upset over the extent of her injuries, muttering a little apology as he set her down.

With a low snarl, Victor closed the distance fast and backhanded Scott before Scott could get back to his feet — hard enough to knock him sideways a solid five or six feet. He pounced on the X-Men's leader and brought down his claws, tearing into him from shoulder to waist down to the bone. He was drawing back to rip him open the rest of the way when Tammy focused every bit of concentration she had on simply stopping his momentum — and then threw him across the room.

"I'll keep him there — you help Scott," she called out to Tyler.

Tyler nodded and rushed over to where Scott and K were as a few of the bamfs had appeared in various stages of agitation — worried over Scott, worried over K, and worried over their injured big brother in the living room as they chattered at Tyler.

"If you guys are gonna get them outta here, don't take them to where the kids are," Tyler said. "They don't need to see this."

One of the little guys nodded fervently and mimed out pushing a pair of glasses onto his little face as a couple of the others were checking over K and Scott even as Tyler was healing Scott. But when Tammy let out a cry of frustration as Creed was proving hard to hold back telekinetically — they teleported both of the injured X-Men out of the way as soon as it was clear Tyler had done enough that Scott at least wasn't going to bleed out.

As Tammy's concentration shattered, Tyler turned with a snarl to meet his father head-on. He'd never ever let loose like that before, but there was no reason whatsoever to hold back, and he knew it. Nothing short of being totally ruthless would stop Victor, let alone kill him.

But his vicious assault was misdirected; there was no way that he was going to be able to power through his father. As tall and broad as Tyler was, Victor was bulkier and had over a century of fighting and killing under his belt — every second of which he enjoyed.

"They teach you to be submissive here, boy? That is what they do best, ya know," Creed said with a smile and a growl as he kept just out of Tyler's reach. "Gotcha trained to roll over and show yer belly — just like ol' Chuckles would have wanted."

"What do you care?" Tyler snapped back with a growl.

"I care cause yer gonna be sullyin' my rep runnin around with the goodie two shoes crowd as dashin' as you are."

"Got a rep of my own to defend — so stay out of it," Tyler replied shortly as he tried to swipe at Creed.

"You're gonna have to stop me, pup," Creed growled back before he darted forward and hit Tyler in the side of the head — claws retracted — as a warning. "Why don'tcha get smart and just walk away from this white hat crap? They're using you just as bad as anyone else will."

Tyler snarled at that and pulled a move out of K's handbook to grab Vic's arm while he was close enough and simply drive his claws down that arm as his own kind of warning.

"Takin' lesson's from the Runt's little … " Creed growled before he charged him, no longer in the mood to play little games with the boy. He was all claws and teeth as he slashed at Tyler, but that was interrupted a bit, and Creed's focus was shot for just an instant, when he realized that Tyler was using Logan's techniques. Redirection, using his motions against him, and keeping calm as he got his shots in on him too. "Drop that kung fu bullshit and fight me like a man!" Victor snarled out in frustration as he couldn't land a hit on the boy.

"What, you can't keep up, old man?"

"Shoulda known you'd take tips from a coward," Creed growled out.

Tyler bared his teeth as he dodged one of Creed's swipes. "I don't know … seems like the coward here is the one using a five-foot woman as a human shield."

"She's dead weight anyhow," Victor said with a sneer. "Not much different than your mother was, to be honest. Just another worthless little frail."

All of Tyler's calm demeanor evaporated in an instant, and for just a second, he stared at Victor, blinked, and then broke into an honest to goodness roar as he charged toward Sabretooth to try and tear him apart as viciously as he could.

Victor looked taken aback by the swift change in the young man, but then as he was taking his licks, he couldn't help but chuckle. "There it is. That's what I needed to see," Victor said. "Nice to know there's more of myself in you than just a resemblance."

But that — that was enough to tip the scales back to Victor's favor as Tyler simply seemed totally sideswiped by the comparison.

Victor hit Tyler hard with a right hook that sent him sprawling backward. Before Tyler could even consider trying to get up again, Creed was on top of him, pounding on him or slashing — whichever struck his fancy — and muttering all the things they had in common, mentally tearing him down with every word.

"You leave him alone," Tammy demanded. She was well-worn from trying to hold him back earlier, but she still had enough steam to toss sharp bits of broken chandelier at him.

"You got a little woman trying to protect you. No, that ain't like that rotten little sawn off fireplug at all, is it?" Creed said, ignoring the debris as he continued to half-growl out his venomous abuse.

"Rather be like him than you any day," Tyler spit out through his teeth.

Tammy was right in the middle of a string of threats when a muted bamf echoed the room and she disappeared — and half a second later, Tyler was freed up as a little adamantium-laced rage ball blasted into Victor to give him six deep holes to think about.

No words were spoken between the two of them — though it was clear that Logan didn't care how Victor had gotten there, just as long as he was stopped. Now.

Their fight didn't stay in the living room long, and with a big crash — through the window — the two of them ended up outside, moving much faster than Tyler could track. Blood was flying and hits were easily heard — even over the growls and snarls.

"Easy there, big guy," said a metallic-laced voice from nearby as Iron Man arrived with a little bamf on his shoulder, crossing the room in a few strides as Tyler could hear the little intake of breath even through the helmet as Tony's armor looked him over. "You took some serious damage, kid."

"We gotta go help him out," Tyler said, frowning as the two ferals duked it out fiercely.

"Yeah, don't worry. I brought toys," Tony assured him as he held up an arm to pull back a panel and showed Tyler something a lot like K's little shockers. "Stay here and don't pass out alright?" he called over his shoulder as he dove toward the fight.

Logan had switched over to his more focused version of fighting and managed to pop up and kick Victor in the face with a spinning kick. It knocked the big blonde terror back far enough from Logan that Tony could take the shot — and with a loud arcing noise, Victor hit the ground hard.

"I had it, bucket head," Logan muttered.

"Sure did." Tony glanced over at Tyler. "Where's the rest of the team?"

"They can't be too far," Logan said as he brushed himself off a bit.

"Scott and K were pretty badly torn up," Tyler said with a deep frown. "The bamfs took them down to go see ... go see my dad." He was glaring at Victor hard as he said it, half leaning against the doorway. "I only got started on healing Scott before this idiot interrupted me."

"Yeah, well, don't worry about that creep for now," Tony said. "He's not going anywhere anytime soon."

"How bad is pretty bad?" Logan asked, heading toward the med lab already. "And where the hell is everyone else?"

"Kurt and the bamfs got Annie and Kate out with all the kids," Tyler said, heading after Logan. "Don't know about the rest, though."

At that, Logan simply nodded and took off at a jog — sure that whatever it was that had Creed calling… this was not going to be good.