It hadn't taken long at all for word of Logan and K's engagement to spread, and when Noh and Jubilee got back from their space honeymoon, they wasted no time in getting in on the excitement. Jubilee just about had a fit before she flung her arms around Logan's neck to kiss his cheek and then do very nearly exactly the same thing to K.
As for Noh, he just very seriously told K that if she should require a lawyer after her wedding day, he would gladly return the favor before he broke into a grin and a laugh and spun her around in a hug.
But with the two of them back, it didn't take Annie long to point out that they should have their poolside "meeting" to prep for the next fall semester at the school now that everyone on staff was in one place, and nobody argued when it meant a grill-out and swimming, anyway.
Of course, there really wasn't much in the way of "planning" or "meeting" while they were out at the pool, not just because everyone was more interested in swimming or in teasing both the newly married and the newly engaged couples but because, honestly, they were just going to reuse the same curriculum that they had used the year before — and the year before, and the year before.
Still, as everyone was getting hot dogs or burgers, Annie insisted that there was at least one matter of business that she wanted to get cleared up, and she was so persistent about waiting until she had everyone's attention that eventually they just had to let her say her piece so they could go back to swimming in peace.
Annie made a little noise as she cleared her throat and looked over the group before she drew up her shoulders and beamed at them all. "I'm going to need someone to take over my classes for a few weeks around January," she told them as Scott was completely unable to hide the grin behind her. She rested a hand on her stomach with a little smile. "I just hope there's room in the mansion for a little one," she said, watching their reactions for a moment as the assembled group — sans the two ferals, who were looking smug from their pool chairs — went from total shock to excitement in the space of a few seconds.
After that first beat of stunned silence, there was, of course, a flurry of congratulations and hugs all around in celebration of what Kate was already calling the "mini boss."
"Do you have names picked out yet?" Peter asked curiously — one of the first to get there and wrap up the Summers family for himself.
Annie and Scott shared a look for a moment before Annie just nodded. "Yes we do," she said, though her smile only grew when it became obvious that she wasn't going to elaborate.
"Will you share with us, or is it too early?" Storm asked with an openly cheerful expression.
"We wanted to save that for when he or she makes the big debut," Scott admitted.
"Then we'll be forced to speculate and offer our suggestions," Storm replied, smiling warmly as she reached over to pull Scott into a long hug.
Annie laughed at that. "You can try, but we've already picked names out."
"Then perhaps this will just be suggestions for future occasions," she answered, still with that same, ever-growing smile.
"Like tiny little Kree," Kate whispered in Jubilee's ear with a troublemaking grin.
"Or itty bitty demons," Jubilee returned. "Ones that end up saying more than 'bamf'."
Kate shook her head. "You first, Jubes. You're a married woman. Unless you want Kurt to get in trouble. He's a good Catholic, you know."
Jubilee rolled her eyes dramatically and pushed Kate's shoulder. "Is that going to be how this is going to go forever and ever? I have to do everything first?"
"You are older," Kate pointed out.
"That's a fine point," Jubilee said, and though Kate looked triumphant for a moment, she burst into a laugh when she realized that Jubilee was making a show of looking around the poolside area. "Where is the old lady,anyhow?"
Kate looked around as well for a moment and then shrugged. "Smarter than us," she said. "She heard about the baby glitter and got outta Dodge."
"Yeah, she's got evasion down to an art form alright," Jubilee muttered with a little frown.
"Well, you know how it is. You can only spring so much on a person. Proposal's plenty for a person to process," Kate said, shrugging.
Jubilee just shook her head. "She's not processing that at all. That ... freakin' sneaky ferals. Kitty will be so mad."
Kate pushed out her lower lip for a moment as she tipped her head to the side. "I thought Kitty wanted them to get engaged?"
"She wants them to get married."
"Yes, well — I hear you have to get engaged to do that," Kate pointed out.
"Except she nearly had a panic attack when I asked when the big day was." Jubilee crossed her arms, rolled her eyes, and looked annoyed in general. "Do the math."
Kate tipped her head further to the side as she studied Jubilee and then just let out a big breath. She knew she didn't have any room to judge K when the fact that she was even considering long-term plans with Kurt still scared the life out of her... But she also couldn't blame Jubilee for wanting Logan to be happy, all things considered. "Well," she said at last. "Baby steps, I guess. She said yes — setting the date is next."
"Yeah, but for her? That could be twenty years from now." Jubilee shook her head. "That ... she only agreed to slow him down. It's like a bookmark."
Kate thought about it for a moment and then broke into a wicked grin. "You're forgetting one thing, my dear Jubilee," she said as she motioned toward Kurt, who was in the middle of hugging Scott and congratulating him fervently. "The best man isn't going to wait forever. Or the officiant, whatever he decides to be."
"Yeah, well — that might have been Logan's way of slowing him down too. Pick a role. Sneaky damn ferals, I'm telling you." Jubilee tipped her head to Kurt. "He could spin on that question forever. And Wolvie doesn't want to scare her off."
Kate had to laugh but Jubilee was absolutely, completely right about that. "I know. He's tragically adorable going back and forth on it. Last night, he was sure he wanted to officiate, but this morning, he was working on a best man speech in his head. It's just... so cute."
But Jubilee was still glaring toward where Logan and K had disappeared, apparently not much in the mood to talk about Kurt's wedding excitement. She was still glaring hard when Remy arrived at the pool with a little frown.
"Hate to go an' break up dis here gatherin', but it do seem we got a small problem dat needs addressin'," he said with his hands in his pockets. "One a' da kids from de school done got hisself in a bind."
"Sounds like something needs shooting," Kate said quickly. "And I need to shoot things. Where am I headed?"
"Oregon coastline," K said as she and Logan stepped out of the house just behind Remy. She shot Kate a little smirk. "Partner."
Remy chuckled and leaned over toward Kate. "Miss K already done beat ya to claimin' de mission," he said.
"Good thing she doesn't mind sharing," Kate said as she climbed out of the pool and called over her shoulder, "Don't worry, boss man, we'll bring the bird back all nice and dry. I'll try not to drip everywhere." She just laughed when Scott gave her a look as she toweled off. "You coming, Kobold?"
Kurt just grinned at her and teleported over to where she was. "At your service, as always, Vögelchen," he said as he raised her hand to his lips with an impish grin.
"Prytt med kärlekfåglar," K said with a smirk.
With the team picked out, Kate and Kurt teleported off together to quickly change out of their bathing suits and towel off — with the ever-helpful bamfs offering hair dryers, towels, washcloths, and so on — before they popped down to the blackbird, where Logan and K were already waiting for them.
"Getting away from the glitter," Kate said in a low tone to K that she was sure Kurt couldn't hear.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," K replied with a totally innocent expression.
"Right." Kate smirked at her for a moment and then looked to Logan. "You flying?"
"You can if you want," he offered. "Scott's not around to nit pick."
"You know that's an easy fix, right? Just threaten to crash him," Kate said with a grin as she slipped into the pilot's seat.
"He doesn't fight me when I fly," Logan said. "We went around a long time ago."
"Must be nice to have experience under your belt," Kate teased. "Only benefit of being old."
"Like he takes that into consideration," Logan said with a shake of his head.
She grinned at him. "Good thing I never listen to people being idiots," she said as she started up the takeoff procedures.
The coordinates Remy had given them took the little group along the coastline, and once they deplaned, Kate had to grin as she slid up beside Kurt, grabbed his hand, and said, "Turns out we didn't need to change out of our swimsuits."
"Except for the fact that this water is quite cold," Kurt pointed out, gesturing out at the waves over the rocky beach.
"Well, I heard that when you get cold, it's good to snuggle up with someone," she teased. "Might be an old wives' tale though."
At that, a slow grin spread over Kurt's face, and he chuckled. "Oh, in that case, we should finish this mission quickly and hurry for a swim before we head back." He shrugged. "Maybe let Logan fly on the way home. We can't leave the couple alone too long."
"I like the way you think," she agreed, resting her head on his arm as they walked along the coast toward the network of caves where the kid was supposed to be hiding from whatever trouble had caught him during his summer vacation.
"Who's going in?" Kurt asked as the other two came to a stop with them, already eyeing the outside of the caves, where there were still plenty of places to hide in all the pock-marked nooks and crannies — not to mention the dark caves themselves that still smelled a bit like high tide.
Kate tipped her head to the side for a moment. "Not a fan of dark, small places," she admitted before she broke into a little grin and looked over at K. "What say we make the boys take the slimy little caves?"
"Works for me," K said with a shrugged up shoulder. "And as long as they get back before the tide does, we'll be just fine." She was looking at the high water line in the rocks around them with a little frown.
"Kurt will 'port them out if it gets too close," Kate said. "I know how yours feels about water."
"It's the sinking aspect," K said. "Not very buoyant when you're solid muscle and metal."
The guys shot them a little look but headed into the caves all the same, with the bamfs trailing alongside them wielding purple flashlights. One of them made a big show of picking up his tail to keep it from getting in any of the wet, slimy coating on the ground, baring his teeth at the mossy stones.
Kurt called back to the girls just before they walked into one of the larger caves in a teasing tone: "Don't start the picnic without us!"
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Kate called back before she turned to K and gestured with one hand to the rocks and roots and trees. "Hope you don't mind climbing. I'm a fan of free climbing myself," she said, already grinning to herself as she climbed up a bit higher. "It's a great way to get away from people."
"Nope, don't mind at all. It's kind of relaxing," K agreed, taking to the craggy wall. "Then we can be all worn out and sweaty when the guys get back. It'll require a dip ... possibly of the skinny variety."
"Betcha we find our missing student up here. Nobody wants to go in those musty caves anyway," Kate replied without looking over her shoulder, more focused on getting her next handhold than on seeing what kind of smirk her comment got from K.
The two of them continued their ascent up the wall in silence, both of them clearly enjoying their climb and content to just go up with their own thoughts, though when they reached the top, they weren't all that surprised to find that the rock-scattered cliff didn't seem to have any sign of the kid they were supposed to be looking for — or even any decent hiding spots. So it looked like their best shot at finding the student would, in fact, be the watery, dark caves.
"Guess we go back and check on the boys," Kate said with a sigh, and K just chuckled as the two of them made one last sweep of the clifftop before they looked back over the edge — though before either of them could start the descent, they were both assaulted from behind, rough hands grabbing their arms and clapped over their mouths.
The guys and bamfs searched the caves thoroughly, and after a while, Logan had to let out a little huff. "There isn't even an old scent in here," he said as he turned to Kurt. "Why don't you see if the girls found anything worthwhile, I'm sure neither one of 'em could sit still to just wait."
Kurt chuckled to himself and hit the radio. "Ladies, we are going to guess you didn't start the fun without us, but have you seen any sign outside? Our search here is for naught." The two men shared a little smirk, sure that they'd get some kind of sassy response from either of the girls, but no answer came through the comms.
"I doubt that they didn't hear it," Logan said, already heading back the way they'd come with a deeply settling frown. "And they were in good moods when we left 'em. Unless.... You think the cave might be blocking the signal?"
"That may be the case," Kurt said quietly, tipping his head toward the cave entrance as he put a hand on Logan's shoulder ready to teleport them the rest of the way. "I'll keep trying, but let's head back quickly all the same."
Logan nodded his agreement, and a moment later, the two men were back at the entrance of the cave — their earlier good mood gone in an instant as they realized that not only were they not getting a response from the girls but that the caves themselves had gone completely quiet. They couldn't see a single one of the bamfs.
They had barely stepped outside into the light, when they were attacked from both sides by massive men with nets that sparked and popped when they made contact.
Kurt tried to teleport as soon as the first spark arced and snapped at his skin, but he found he was trapped, and as he looked over at Logan, he had to cringe as his friend had already blacked out from the sparks. When Kurt didn't go down right away himself, one of their abductors rushed cracked him on the back of the head, sending him into blackness as well.