CC's Notes: Yeah, picking a Godparent isn't usually something done by sheer virtue of availability or how 'busy' someone is with their own kids. It's usually someone you're closest to that you know would raise your kid right should you end up dying. So … the number ONE and ONLY choice for Logan's firstborn would simply HAVE to be his best friend. Kurt. Any other choice would be totally untrue to the character.
As for Daken - part of the reason we pulled him into this at all was because he seemed to realize he'd missed out with his dad when he was 'dead'. It was HIM, not an outside force that is having an effect on the way he handles matters with his father.
Robbie's notes: lol well Kate definitely had a hand in getting him to embrace the wacky weirdness and be part of the team, like CC said, we've been very, very slowly pulling him toward the light side. (Kicking and screaming.) He doesn't really want to be a "white hat type," but he is growing and changing as a character, and there are so many people that have influenced that, himself first and foremost.
Chapter Five: Do I Get A Say In This?
Kate was a bit surprised when it was Noh who met her on her way to the Avengers for the team tradeoff thing. "I thought Logan wanted to come today?" she asked, and Noh shrugged.
"Apparently, he had something else come up with K, and I was more than happy to step in," he said easily, though he leaned forward to add in a conspiratory whisper, "Besides, I think it would be best if you came with me. I wanted to speak to your counterpart, and you seem to know how to best pin him down and get straight answers from him."
"That's a lie," Kate laughed, shaking her head. "Nat's good with him. I just ... sort of babysit him, really."
"Even so, I think I'd like your help," Noh insisted as they climbed into Kate's little car for the drive over. "Or at least your presence."
"If you say so," Kate said with a little shrug. "What, are you intimidated by the tire fire of a human being?"
"To be honest, I'm still a bit … wary of anyone who was on the Avengers when I was the Protector," Noh said with a sheepish smile. "I was a different person then — but it is difficult for many of them to see past that."
"That's a big list, considering the Avengers roster."
"Well, you did ask."
Kate shook her head at her old friend as the two of them made their way to Avengers Tower, though the conversation quickly turned to singing instead of talking once she cranked up the radio — because it was impossible for things to go any other way.
When they arrived at the Avengers Tower, Kate very nearly laughed at Tony's expression, as it was clear he had been expecting someone small and stabby, not tall and alien, as Kate's partner — though she made sure to give him a hug and tease him all the same. "What, I'm not cool enough to be exciting? Shame on you," she laughed.
"It's not for me, really," Tony said, trying to play it off. "Think of Thor, he's going to be so let down."
"Noh, make note of that. Start learning Swedish. I'll buy you a Viking costume on the way home," Kate said with a smirk that had Noh laughing.
"That ... is not strictly necessary," Tony said with a frown.
"If you say so." Kate made a show of looking disappointed before she looked around the Tower. "Hey, have you seen the other Hawkeye?" she asked. "Noh wanted to ask him something, I think."
"I think … he was upstairs," Tony said with a frown. "What does the visitor from the stars want with our Hawkeye?"
"Simply advice," Noh told him without elaborating any further.
"Sure you don't want to talk to … oh … anyone else?" Tony teased.
"Hey." Kate put her hands on her hips. "Clint's a good mentor. Just because you don't have an awesome and plucky babysitter doesn't mean you should be jealous."
"I tried to get an awesome and plucky babysitter, but apparently she's already booked up with someone stabbier than me."
"Too slow," Kate said philosophically as she pulled on Noh's arm with a grin. "Come on, Marvel Boy. Let's find us a Hawkeye so you can get advice on, like, how to find adorable stray dogs or whatever the heck you want to ask him."
When they found Clint at last, Kate almost had to shake her head, because of course the first place they should have looked was the roof. He was up there with Kamala, and the two were just chatting. Even though Kate cleared her throat to let them know they had an audience, the two of them still finished up what they were talking about first before they addressed the newcomers — apparently, Kamala was struggling with balancing college life with an Avengers career and all her other personal stuff and just needed someone to vent to.
"Not like I can really help with the college suggestions, but hey — you ever get overwhelmed, you just call me and I'll pretend to have an accident or something," Clint was teasing her. "You know — get the focus off you if you're running late or having an off day or something."
"He's serious, too," Kate said as she came up to the two of them and wrapped the younger woman in a warm hug before she did the same to Clint. "He's an adorable idiot who means well."
"Hey, Kate," Kamala said, grinning as she looked over at Noh. "What happened to your usual partner in crime?"
Kate let out a dramatic sigh. "I don't even know anymore, Kamala," she said, throwing her hands up. "Nobody wants to play with me, apparently. I've been tossed around from partner to partner."
"Hey, if nobody wants the Hawkeye teamup, they are clearly missing out," Clint said with an easy grin. "Which reminds me — you and I? We haven't bothered any of the Board creeps lately, and this is just unacceptable."
"It really is," Kate said, chuckling. "Well, it's summer vacation now, and unlike The Overachiever here, I'm not doing summer school for any of my students." She shot Kamala a little smirk, and the younger woman stuck her tongue out. "You pick a day, and we'll bring back the Hawkeyes storm just to remind everybody not to mess with us, huh?"
"Sounds like a plan," Clint agreed. He was leaning against the nearest wall with his arms crossed as he looked the two of them over. "So, what's the plan for the exchange program? Or are you just here to bother me?" he teased.
"Actually..." Kate looked over her shoulder at Noh. "I think Noh wanted to ask your advice. Try not to die of shock."
Clint widened his eyes dramatically and looked over at Noh. "What, you finally decide those guns of yours are too clunky? Go for something more elegant?" He mimed shooting a bow and arrow. "I'm not an official archery teacher, but I did help Katie here when she was a little older than four," he added with a teasing grin.
"Oh, shut up," Kate grumbled his way, though with obvious affection in her tone.
"Actually… I wanted to ask you more of a question about dealing with teammates," Noh admitted. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked to Kamala. "I'm sorry — do you mind if I steal Clint for a moment? I can return him to you for a friendly ear when I've finished if you like."
Kamala just laughed and shrugged. "I'm sure he's done listening to me ramble about college life. He's all yours Marvel Boy." She held out her hand for a fist bump, which Noh returned with a little grin, before she excused herself back down into the tower.
"So, what's up?" Clint asked easily, twirling one of his arrows between his fingers. "If you're here for advice on being married to a teammate, I'm just going to stop you there, because I sucked at it. So ... anything else, shoot."
"No, nothing like that," Noh said quickly, taking a bit of a breath before he looked to Kate. "Actually, it's more that some former teammates of mine have recently resurfaced. One in particular."
Clint raised both eyebrows at that and leaned forward a bit. "I'm assuming you're not talking about the ones from when you were on the team with me or Kate?"
Noh laughed and shook his head. "No. Osborne's Avengers," he explained. "Daken is trying to reach out to connect with his father, which is his right if he chooses to, but I don't think the rest of my teammates understand the extent to which he should be avoided." He glared Kate's way as the younger Hawkeye looked halfway betrayed.
"You came here to tell on me," she accused him, and Noh grinned impishly.
"You are the one who was making plans with Daken for another adventure," he replied, which got Clint to nearly drop the arrow he was twirling.
"You what?" He turned the full force of an open, shocked stare on Kate. "Katie ... he's… that guy is a psycho and a half-decent shadow of his dad. He's…" Clint shook his head. "That's such a bad idea."
Kate looked between the two men for a moment with her arms crossed. "Right. Because of the three of us, you two really have room to talk about felons who want to start maybe not being felons."
"Yeah, well, as a former felon? Let me tell you — there's not many people who pull off the transition to 'good guy' well," Clint replied with a bit of a glare. "And that kid? He's not like Marvel Boy here with his head on backwards on a new planet being used by five different kinds of bad guys. He knows what he's doing and does it anyway."
"Says the reformed con artist, thief, and assassin."
Clint pointed at his own face. "Not a psycho."
"Look, he promised his dad he wouldn't screw with me, and it's an honor thing, so hey, if he's trying, might as well keep an eye on him," Kate pointed out.
"You do realize that his handle literally means 'no honor,' right?" Clint pointed out. "That's not his actual name. That's what he's chosen to go by."
She blew out her breath at him in frustration. "Okay, Dad. Sorry for having a little faith in people to change. My bad." She threw up both of her hands and glared at the two of them. "You gonna ground me?"
"Don't tempt me. You're in the tower now, Katie Kate."
"I'll have you know I have vast experience escaping from and being rescued from towers. This doesn't scare me at all."
Clint rolled his eyes at her, shook his head, and tried a different angle. "Look. Just be careful, huh? Last time you were on a team with a known bad guy, I'm pretty sure you ended up getting your butts handed to you and your heart broken." He had his arms crossed and steadfastly didn't look at Noh for that last part.
"Life experience. Which I learned from." Kate shook her head at both of them again and then threw her hands in the air. "This is stupid. I'm going to go find Cap and kick his butt. You two can stay up here and play 'control Kate's life' some more if you want, but actual Kate will be down having fun." With that, she stormed down the stairs, leaving Noh and Clint on the roof frowning after her.
"I… didn't mean to upset her," Noh said quietly after a moment, which of course, had Clint chuckling.
"C'mon, Noh. Let's just… give her some time or something," Clint suggested as the two of them headed inside.
When Scott caught up to K on the grounds, he was wearing an easy smile and had his visor in one hand. "You ready to take on another sim today?" he asked.
"Yes, please," K replied. "I was going to go take a ride, but that sounds so much better."
"Well, we did say same time, right?" He tipped his head for her to follow as they headed for the mansion.
"We did, yes," she agreed. "It's just … I was catching some resistance."
"Logan again?"
"Of course," she said with a little laugh. "Who else?"
He shook his head with a little smirk. "Well there's no point in keeping you cooped up and untrained. That's just asking for danger," he pointed out.
"You know, that is exactly my argument," she replied. "And it's not like with the training I have, I need to be put in bubble wrap."
Scott grinned at that and nodded. "He'll come around," he assured her, then paused. "Well, maybe. In the meantime, he's not in charge of training schedules."
"True," she said with a nod. "I don't think he'd be nearly so overbearing if it wasn't for the little trick Sinister pulled. Still mad I don't remember the big reveal with your pretty brown eyes."
He shrugged at that but looked a little embarrassed. "No big deal, really," he said as he opened the door for her.
They were halfway to the Danger Room with Kurt spotted them and teleported over with a curious expression on his face, head tipped to one side. "Are you headed to the Danger Room?"
"Yeah — do you want to queue up the sim for us again?" Scott asked. "That last one was actually kind of fun."
Kurt looked between the two of them before his gaze fell on K. "I was thinking more of a 'save the mutant' situation this time around," he said.
"That last one wasn't bad," K said with a little frown. "It was just a lot of fun. Good warm up."
Kurt looked between them again, visibly torn, before he let out a breath. "I'll run it for you both again, make a few adjustments," he suggested. "Since you both had fun — wouldn't want you to get bored with the same program twice."
Scott grinned at him. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed as the three of them made it to the elevators and headed down.
A short while later, Scott and K were waiting for the sim to start in the Danger Room as Kurt finished the last few touches and tried to keep a neutral expression on his face before starting up the program for the two of them. He was sure that his tweaks had kept only lower-level baddies anywhere near targeting K — and most of them were actually going for Scott, though K was sure to help deflect those that were getting too close to him.
It was a tough call for Kurt since, actually, Scott was clearly having a good time — something that was rare enough on its own that he didn't want to interfere. And the two of them were working well together ... and K was doing as she promised and staying careful as she fought her way through the sim. All of it was very acceptable and not-upsetting at all until Scott asked Kurt to ramp up the next stage in the program and K nodded along with him.
Kurt paused over the controls, trying to figure out how to stay true to his promises to both K and Logan, until there was a little bamf and he turned to see that one of his little friends had brought Logan right into the booth.
"What the hell's going on in here?" Logan asked as he turned to look down into the Danger Room.
"Actually, nothing upsetting so far," Kurt told him quickly. "Low-level bad guys for K — and Scott's getting better at the wide-range beams. I just… don't think we should ramp up the difficulty level. At all." He paused. "Scott disagrees."
"Screw what Scott thinks; he can do the sim alone if he wants a challenge," Logan argued. He turned to where the comm button was and hit it. "You're done, sweetheart. Come on up."
Scott looked up at the booth with an obvious frown. "We're only halfway through the sim. Unless it's an emergency, you can wait."
"Run it alone. If you need help, I'll help you," Logan argued.
Scott glared his way for a second, a visible red tinge to his eyes before he took a breath. "This isn't just my program. K's running it to train for Weapon X — or did you think she didn't need that?"
"She doesn't need to train for that right now."
K pinched the bridge of her nose as the boys started to get wound up properly.
"Because you said so?" Scott asked, glaring harder as he crossed his arms and actually had to put the glasses back on for a second so he didn't shoot the booth on accident — he still didn't have that full control when his temper got involved. "I didn't realize you were in charge of training sims."
"Got nothin' to do with the training sims, Slim. Don't make a big deal outta this."
"Why don't you wait another fifteen minutes, and then whatever's so important, you two can get it done," Scott replied, shaking his head. "The world doesn't revolve around your whims."
"Not the way this is gonna go down." With that, Logan left the booth and headed down to where K and Scott were, even as Scott tried to call out his codes and get it rolling, though Kurt wasn't letting it start either. "You wanna run it? Run it alone. Kurt will keep you from going too far." K had her arms crossed and was looking down at the ground as Logan approached them.
Scott on the other hand was positively glaring. "So that's how you're playing this? You know what's best? She doesn't get a say?"
"Scott," K started to try to defuse him. "That's not … entirely it." She turned to Logan. "I'm fine. Just back off a tiny bit and let me do my thing."
"No," Logan said with a little frown. "Come on. We can do something else."
"I guess I wasn't aware I needed to ask your permission to run a sim with your fiance," Scott all but spat out. "Or that she needed it in the first place."
"It's not about permission," Logan half growled. "It's about keepin' her safe."
"Seems to me like it's about control," Scott shot back.
Logan took a deep breath and walked by K and right up to Scott. "Not even close. But thanks for playing." He tipped his head toward K. "It's about making sure she doesn't get hurt. Her or the little one." He watched Scott process for a moment as Scott quickly went from angry at Logan to totally disarmed. "You still wanna spar with her?"
Scott was stunned into silence, jaw slightly dropped despite an obvious attempt not to look that gobsmacked. Finally, after a long moment, he said, "No."
"Didn't think so."
K and Logan were halfway out the door before Scott got it together enough to try again. "Logan, I…" He shook his head. "Congratulations."
"Have fun on your sim," Logan replied. "You two can talk about it later."
Scott was clearly still in a bit of a state of shock as he simply watched Logan and K leave until, finally, he shook his head. "I think that's enough for today, Kurt, thanks," he called up to the booth as he opted to head back up to… process.