Annie jumped as K hit the glass of the booth, just to fall down and dive right back into the simulation she was running below. Scott had barely flinched when it happened, and by the time she'd hit the ground, Logan was already shouting out suggestions.
K had been at it for almost an hour, and it was clear even to Annie that she was wearing down quicker now. Nothing had changed in the program outside of Scott occasionally tweaking one setting or another that seemed to cause a more vicious reaction from the snarling blonde mountain of a man below.
"Do you always run these programs until someone... collapses or somethin'?" Annie asked with some concern.
"No," Scott replied distractedly as he watched with a trained eye. "That's just what these two idiots ask for."
Kate patted Annie's knee and tried to redirect her attention to some of the different flower arrangements they'd been looking at. "Don't worry about it," she said. "Really — she's having a blast with her..." She glanced up at Scott with a smirk. "...recently renamed program."
"I told her to quit changing it to that," Scott said as he glanced Kate's way. "She wasn't nice about it. This morning it had been changed to 'don't be a little bitch, Scott'."
"Funny, I thought that was Sabretooth's name," Kate said, the smirk getting wider.
"Apparently it is," Scott said shaking his head. "I think it was a warning."
Kate just chuckled and looked back at Annie, who was still watching the training but trying to look like she wasn't. "I know it looks like she's losing right now, but that's how you learn," Kate tried to explain with a sigh. "You should've seen when Logan started me on hand to hand."
Annie turned toward Kate and let out a bit of a sigh. "Oh, I know," she said. "I tell my students that all the time — learn from losses. But it's one thing to lose in a simulation...."
Kate put her hand on Annie's arm. "Hey. We're not going anywhere. You're not getting rid of us that easy — I still need your opinion on wedding dresses. The dress you picked out for the proposal went over swimmingly."
At that, Annie had to smile and playfully swatted at Kate. "If I'd known it was for a proposal—"
"You'd have totally spilled it. Sorry, Annie, but you do not have a poker face," Kate said, shaking her head.
"Still!" Annie crossed her arms and shook her head at Kate for a moment before she let out a little laugh and looked back down at the flower book, turning to the next page full of purple tulips.
Meanwhile, Scott leaned forward, looking on expectantly as K managed to climb up Creed's back. She reached around his neck to try and slice him, but in a flash, he'd grabbed her by the hair and slammed her into the ground. He had rushed over her, one hand holding her down and the other with claws outstretched when the sim died — and she just laid there for a moment, trying to catch her breath.
Scott let out a breath as he shook his head, and Logan went to her side, kneeling and talking to her low about what had gone wrong as she just panted and nodded. Scott waited until it looked like Logan was done talking before he hit the comm. "That's enough for today," he said. "You're going to wear yourself too far down the way you're going."
Logan smiled at her as she pulled a face at Scott's helpful suggestion, but stayed next to her until she was ready to be pulled to her feet. The two of them took a moment as Logan took her into a hug and very obviously was whispering to her before the two of them headed out of the Danger Room.
"You two might want to find somewhere else to be," Scott said, turning at last toward Annie and Kate. "Logan's class is coming in here in a few minutes."
"Oh, is it already that late in the day?" Annie glanced at the nearest clock and then put a placeholder in the book and slammed it shut. "Come on, Kate, let's go upstairs, then. We can munch on some popcorn while we look over the options here."
"I'm always in favor of popcorn," Kate said with a little grin as she offered her shoulder for the very, very pregnant Annie to pull herself to her feet, and the two of them headed for the elevators with little waves in Scott's direction.
The girls were pouring over bouquets again when K finally made her way into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. She leaned against the counter for a moment before she decided the dangers of sitting with wedding planners were less than the dangers of falling over with a full cup of coffee.
She didn't try to be social and avoided interrupting them as she took a seat somewhat nearby and just leaned over her coffee mug with her eyes closed, breathing in the scent of it.
It was another few moments before Annie seemed to notice that K was there, and she grinned up at her. "Do you want to borrow the book when we're done?" she asked politely. "You could always use a few ideas to jumpstart things."
"No thank you, I'm good," K said easily.
"You really should at least start thinkin' about things like this," Annie said, shaking her head. "Maybe set aside some time for wedding planning after you get yourself beaten silly."
K smirked at her a little bit. "What do you think I'm doing in there?" K asked. "That is my wedding planning for now."
"How is gettin' beat to high heavens any kind of wedding planning?" Annie asked, looking slightly mortified before Kate put a hand on her arm.
"Annie," she said in a low tone. "You know how Sinister's trying to ruin your husband's life?" When Annie looked at her with wide eyes, Kate tipped her head K's way. "Well, Sabretooth would also like to make sure Logan stays miserable. This is called preventative planning."
Annie's eyes widened even more as she thought it over, then asked, almost cautiously, "Is it like that with every superhero's wedding? An archnemesis to ruin the day?"
"No," K said. "But ... that little bitch has a habit of killing the women Logan loves. It's his hobby. I'm just trying to make that insanely hard."
"Oh," Annie said quietly. She folded her hands in front of her for a moment and then let out a breath. "Then... I guess that would count as wedding planning."
"I know you're hoping for something big? But honestly, if we can ever get it together just to get it done — I don't think we can do anything 'normal'. It will be crashed," K said. "So ... another reason I'm just not looking forward to anything or putting a date on it."
"That's completely unfair," Annie said, now sounding more offended on K's behalf than anything else.
"Fair has nothing to do with it," K told her. "It is what it is. If it wasn't him, it would be someone else trying to be an ass."
"There's a long list of bad guys," Kate agreed, shaking her head.
Annie started to smile just the slightest bit as she looked over the other two women. "And you two are very good at fightin' 'em off," she said with a little smirk.
"Oh, the best," Kate agreed, laughing.
"Need work," K mumbled.
"Well, everyone does," Annie pointed out with an easy smile. "That's how you stay sharp. I mean — I might not be a superhero, but I work on my own job just as hard. I take classes in the summer, that sort of thing..."
"My problem, with him specifically," K said glancing up at her. "Is that I want to make sure it hurts."
"Oh!" Annie blinked at her for a moment. "Oh, well, I guess that's fair," she said after a moment. "He's trying to ruin a wedding. You've got a right to be angry about that, after all."
"That ... is not," K shook her head, knowing full well that Annie was trying to keep the focus on wedding arrangements. "One of many reasons."
Annie chuckled and leaned forward a bit, her eyes sparkling for just a moment as she told K, in all seriousness, "Kate showed me the picture of you and that man." Her smile widened a bit. "I appreciated it."
"I kinda want to skin the blonde and turn him into a throw rug," K told her with a smirk. "But it wouldn't work with what I want to do to him to take him down."
Annie leaned back and tipped her head at K for a moment. "I know Scott said you used to be ... an assassin of some kind? But you still surprise me sometimes," she said, shaking her head with a soft, almost disbelieving smile.
"I surprise myself sometimes," K countered with a little smile. "But what I did back then — there really wasn't any room for creativity. It was all get the job done in the time frame and get back or else."
"So where did you grow this imagination of yours?" Annie asked, though she looked almost like she didn't want to know the answer.
"My parents' stories from the old country," K said. "Grew up on stories of the Norse Gods and their ... achievements. Stories about the Vikings. That's actually what I have in mind for Creed, but Logan said it's too gruesome."
"Logan said that?" Kate asked, looking up from the tulips.
"It was an execution method the Vikings used. They called it a blood eagle. I won't explain it, but it was ... pretty terrible. The thing was — if the person being executed moved or made a noise, they would lose their shot at Valhalla." K smiled softly. "I have never met anyone that I thought deserved that death until this creep."
When Kate winced, Annie just looked disturbed for half a second before she shook her head at K. "I think you are officially banned from tellin' my children bedtime stories," she said.
K just smirked her way. "Oh, I wouldn't do that," K said. "Those old Norse stories are too rough for most adults today. Like how they've warped the Grimm tales from what they once were."
"We'll stick with Goodnight Moon and stuff like that," Kate suggested.
"I do like ," K said.
Kate let out a giggle at that one. "Ooh, next time I visit Clint when Jess is letting him babysit Gerry? I've got to record him reading Fox in Sox. He gets so flustered. It's hilarious. Gerry dies laughing every time."
"I always thought One Fish, Two Fish was fun at high speeds," K said with a little laugh.
"Leslie Ann had The Cat in the Hat memorized by the time she was two. They latch onto the funniest things," Annie said.
"They seem to go for them. All of them," K said with a nod. "I had a neighbor years ago that loved Green Eggs and Ham — her mother fell apart laughing when we made green eggs for the kids."
"We should do that for the little ones down the road," Annie suggested with a warm smile. "I'm sure there will be plenty."
"Well, you've got two in there," Kate said, trying to deflect. "We'll all have our hands full helping out with the mini bosses."
"Yeah, they won't be spoiled at all," K teased.
"Oh, honey, if you haven't seen my Scott spend a day alone with his nieces, you don't know how right you are," Annie laughed quietly. "Even if we weren't living here ... two little girls on the way? Trust me; they'll be spoiled."
"He's a pushover," K said. "And a good boy, your Scotty."
"Oh, I know. Why do you think I married him?" Annie replied with a grin.
"What, you mean it's not part of some elaborate scheme to take over the X-Men?" Kate teased. "Annie, you've been lying to me!"
Annie laughed out loud and shook her head. "Oh, no. Y'all can have your team full of danger. I'll just stay here and read Anne of Green Gables in the meantime."
"You do know that time period sucked, right? Romantic fluffy lace and crap aside," K pointed out.
Annie let out a sigh. "Yes, but it's a good series. And where I got my name, I might add."
"That's likely the best part about that stupid series — the revival of older names."
Kate smirked as she scooted a bit closer to Annie. "Is that what you're gonna do for your twins? You have a favorite book picked out for them?" She tipped her head at Annie's bump. "They're, what... Jo and Beth?"
"Thing One and Thing Two?" K added with a grin.
"Nancy and Georgia?" Kate was grinning too. "Susan and Lucy?"
Annie laughed and shook her head. "I'm not giving you any hints!" she insisted. "It's supposed to be a surprise." She grinned at the two women for a moment. "But you know, you could both use some of those names."
"Stop. You are not funny," K said pointing a finger her way.
Annie just grinned wider at her. "Oh, so you'd rather have boys?"
"I'd rather not. Not any time soon, for sure."
"Yeah, I'll do the wedding thing, but that's not happening," Kate agreed fervently.
"That's what you said about getting married," Annie pointed out.
"For vastly different reasons," Kate promised, holding both hands up in front of her to illustrate just how much she disagreed with the turn the conversation had taken. She shook her head, looked up at K, and then let out a sigh. "You know what, I'm tired of tulips. Let's take a stab at some reception venues. Up in my office. Change of scenery might get the blood going to the brain."
"Have fun," K said with a wave. "I had another idea for Tony to play with."
"Have fun with that," Kate said with a smirk. "He was just about drooling all over himself for the last one."
"Clearly, he needs a hobby," K replied.
"Clearly," Kate agreed. She offered her shoulder to Annie to stand and then waved K's way. "We'll be looking through cute little German villages and stuff if you need us."
"I'm thinking more about incendiary and explosive pistol rounds," K replied with a bright smile.
The days after that leading up to Logan's birthday were subdued, though as the date came nearer, most everyone at the mansion was getting more and more anxious, since Sabretooth had, of course, disappeared off of everyone's radar. As usual.
Noh had promised that the security upgrades he'd done since the last attack were complete and should be more than enough to stop him in his tracks. But even so, it didn't do much to ease either Logan or K's minds and Logan and Scott had conspired with Kurt to be sure that one of them was with K at all times when she was down at the horse barn doing lessons or even just handling chores.
To say she was unamused was an understatement of massive proportions. "What is the point of all the training I've been doing worth if I'm going to have a beefcake escort everywhere I go anyhow?" K asked Kurt the afternoon of the party that he'd arranged. They were in the barn doing chores, and the bamfs were trying to help, but honestly just made a bigger mess of things — spilling grain in the aisles and hosing down the stalls while trying to fill buckets.
"I'm pretty sure I can handle walking to the house alone," she grumped as she cut open a new bale of hay.
"I'm quite sure you can," Kurt assured her, though he was smirking. "But seeing as I'm headed that way myself, I think I'll come with you anyway."
"You wouldn't be headed that way if you hadn't been down here babysitting me to begin with," she pointed out. "Which is a waste of your time too."
"I don't mind," Kurt said. He shrugged lightly and then muttered a few words in German toward the bamfs, who were still trying to help.
K let out a sigh and sat down on a bale of hay in the aisle. "So ... tonight. What are we looking at? How ... friendly do I have to be?"
"As friendly as you like — but I do think you'll get along with the people who are coming, really," he told her honestly. "Logan gets along with them — for the most part," he added with a bit of a teasing grin.
"You, are a troublemaker," she said, pointing a finger at him. "Is this some kind of test or something?"
Kurt put a hand over his heart. "Would I do such a thing to you?" he asked, though the teasing grin was only widening.
"Yes."
"Well, I have it on good authority that your best wedding planning is done in active training," he teased. "If we put them all in the Danger Room, will you be able to put out the table assignments tomorrow?"
"You're really not funny, you know that, right?"
"Ah, but you only tell me that when you don't like the joke," he said, still grinning.
"Because it's always the same jokes that aren't funny," K said looking up at him half-serious. She stood up and brushed off her jeans. "I guess it's time to head up and 'meet the family'."
Kurt looked almost serious as he shook his head and offered her his arm. "Oh, I assure you. Anyone who considers themselves to be actual family to him didn't make the guest list. Adoptive family? Yes."
"That really isn't reassuring," she said as she took one last look around the barn. "Okay, let's get this thing going, I guess." He offered her his arm, and the two of them walked up to the house, though her hackles were up the whole time — the sensation of being watched was strong, though she didn't see any sign of anyone, and there was no trace on the wind of anything out of place.
When they got up to the house, the resident party planner had, in fact, gotten everything rolling to what K considered ridiculous proportions — but was certainly to the level of normal for Kate. People were already trickling in, and Kurt was kind enough to introduce her to the guests as they showed up, seeing as Logan hadn't returned from a quick run with Scott and Storm.
It was ... frustrating. And hard to keep up, since Kurt made sure to introduce her to everyone individually as Logan's fiance, and then wait while they all asked the same. Damn. Questions. She was starting to have a hard time forcing the smile on her face, though Kurt seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it
When a new wave of people came in that Kurt seemed to have been waiting for, K tried to pull back from him, but he gave her such a look. "You need to know these people," he promised. "All of them." She looked tired, and he just smiled. "Come on — I'll let you hide once Logan gets here."
"Oh, right. So I have to go through this crap twice. Not an evil demon my ass," K grumbled as Kurt dragged her over to meet Heather and Mac Hudson.
She tried to force a smile but was completely unprepared when Heather all but threw herself at her for a hug. "Don't worry," Heather said. "There are enough heroes here tonight that we don't have to worry about the 'birthday problem'."
K glanced at the massive grin that Kurt was wearing as she tried to dig deep for cordial. "Thanks," she said through gritted teeth before she managed to shake it off a bit. "But I'm really not worried about that anyhow." To K's surprise, Heather latched on to her and dragged her off to meet 'the old team', with Kurt waving his fingers at her before he headed off to find Kate.
He spotted her across the ballroom, fussing over last-minute arrangements, and couldn't help himself but to teleport directly behind her and wrap his arm around her waist just to kiss her behind the ear. "Your celebration is a success already, liebling."
"And it'll stay that way," Kate replied, though she turned her head to kiss his cheek and took hold of his arms to wrap him tighter around her. "Just wait til the birthday boy gets here. Regaining the Hug Magnet title for sure."
"Oh, easily," Kurt agreed. He tipped his head toward the knot of Canadian superheroes. "I set Heather on K."
Kate followed his gaze and couldn't help but grin. "Oh. She's never allowed to meet Annie," she said with a little giggle. "That... that would be world-ending."
"It's happening," Kurt said. "It almost has to. You know Annie wants to compare the different teams. Who better to introduce her to than one of the leaders of Canada's finest?"
Kate giggled and leaned back into him. "You're having way too much fun with this," she teased him.
"I really am," he agreed. "K has gotten quieter and quieter — and she's shut down to single syllable, single-word responses when she gets all the wedding questions."
"Little imp," she teased him fondly as she kissed him again.
"It has to come out from time to time," he said. "It may as well be for a good cause."
"And here I thought you were saving it up to mess with me all the time," she teased him right back.
"Would you prefer I kept all my evil tendencies for you?" Kurt asked with a widening grin.
"Kurt, sweetheart, your evil tendencies consist of teasing and being adorable," she said. "We need to talk about your definition of evil."
"I believe if you asked K, she would have an entirely different list of words to describe me tonight."
"I'm not interested in her list," she shot back, leaning into him.
"This is true," he replied before he kissed her and teleported them across the room. "So what can I do to help?"
You're doing it," she assured him. "Playing perfect host. You're cute when you're performing."
Across the room, Heather had finally worked her way through the team, and though K had done her best to keep up some level of friendliness, it was clear even to non-Hawkeyes that she wasn't anywhere near comfortable around Alpha Flight.
Heather and Mac had gotten caught up with a few of their teammates, laughing and wrapped up in some kind of story when K found her out and turned to get away from them — whatever that took — but she didn't get far. Not when Harry Tabeshaw blocked her path with a warm smile.
He started out grinning, which was enough to get her to give him a second look, but the little "That little group of snow jockeys are somethin' else aren't they?" had her laughing outright. He didn't need to have Kurt or anyone else introduce her — he'd figured it out all on his own, and Harry had more sense than most of them put together, since his next move was to offer her a drink, his arm, and a speedy retreat to a less loud section that lacked Heather's excitement and Mac's slightly too big for himself personality.
"It looks like Harry's decided that flirting is the best method to keep K around," Kurt told Kate with a little smirk. "I'm not surprised."
He grinned at her, and a moment or so later, the noise in the room ticked up a bit as Scott, Storm and Logan finally showed up. Kate watched as the focus of all the old friends shifted to the new arrivals, and she had to shake her head as K used the opportunity to slip away from the party as a whole and try to skirt around the edge of the room toward the door. "We've got a runner," she said quietly to Kurt before she tipped her head K's way.
Kurt stole a kiss before he teleported right into K's path, only to take her arm and start to drag her toward the tight knot of people nearest Logan. Once he made a point to hand her over to Logan, and Logan had taken a good hold on her, Kurt shot her a smile and went back to Kate with a laugh.
"Yep, there's the imp again," Kate said, grinning as she slid her arm around his waist and took a step closer to him.
The rest of the party went on just like that — Kurt made sure to keep K from leaving when she managed to slip away from Logan for a moment, and outside of her trying to pull a runner, there were absolutely no problems. No security breaches. No uninvited guests. It was ... pretty peaceful.
None of them had expected it to go as smoothly as it had, and at the end of the night, it was a bit of a surprise when the first guests started to leave that they found Creed just outside the gates — totally restrained and sedated. No one took credit, but of course, Fury authorized a pick-up immediately.
There were no foreign scents around him and no indication as to who might have done such a thing. At least ... not until the next day, when the mansion got an unexpected and rather impatient guest.
Noh was outside with his headphones on as he was double-checking the outer security that morning to see if there was any sign of who had left the trussed-up Sabretooth for them when Daken arrived at the front gate, and Noh had to simply stare for a moment at his former teammate before he quickly took off the headphones and looked Daken over.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, completely bewildered on seeing one of Norman Osborne's old Dark Avengers.
"I'm here to see my father," Daken replied with a little frown as he looked Noh up and down. "I trust he received my ... gift?"
Noh frowned for a moment and crossed his arms. "You're a day late if you're here to wish him a happy birthday."
"I wasn't invited, so I didn't try to say hello," he said in a bored tone. "I assumed all these ... white hat types would take my appearance the wrong way." His gaze went back to Noh for a moment. "What are you doing here, anyhow?"
"I've made this place my home," Noh said, his arms still crossed. "And made it my business to keep out unwelcome guests from my home."
Daken let out a little snort of laughter. "Well. I didn't come all this way to be turned back." At that, he moved to simply walk past him.
But Noh moved fast to stand in his path. "You should know I'm one of those white hat types you mentioned before, and I take exception to a villain entering this place," he said with a glare.
Daken let out a sigh and pulled off his sunglasses to fix him with a glare of his own. "I'm not exactly a villain," Daken said with a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. "But if you can't wait to get your hands on me — come on then."
Noh let out a noise like a hiss from the back of his throat before he pounced, his first hit hard and fast enough that even though Daken had been prepared for it, it still sent him back several steps. But Daken all but snarled and jumped right back at Noh, pulling out the claws at about the same time Noh's bracelets morphed to give him his dual guns.
Daken cranked up his manipulations as he tried to push Noh away — grasping him by the forearms as Noh had him more or less pinned already on the lawn with the force of an overly hard hit. He was trying to literally scare the Kree warrior back, but he found himself having to concentrate far harder than he'd anticipated to even make a dent in his emotional armor.
As Noh pressed his advantage, Daken suddenly leaned forward and tried to steal a kiss with a laugh. "You've got me on my back, now what?" Daken chuckled. "Are you ready to show me how flexible you are?"
Noh was visibly shaking, though whether it was fear or disgust was hard to tell for any outside observer. Daken twisted himself so that his grip was a bit tighter inward by the time his pheromone twisting finally started to work a bit, and just to be mean, he popped the claws in his wrist to skewer Noh's arms.
K had been in the horse barn doing chores when the fight broke out, but she didn't really catch what was happening until she heard Noh cry out. She rushed toward the scuffle — when she finally saw it was starting to reverse. The tall, dark-haired man in front of her was pushing the sweet little stardust angel backwards, and she just couldn't allow that to happen, so without taking a moment to think, she hit the call button on the comm at her hip and ran forward.
The stranger looked up just in time to see her before she launched herself at him and hit him like a wrecking ball. Just that quickly, Noh was released from his manipulations and was able to regain control as K started the fight fresh, not even asking who the heck this guy was.
But this new player was a lot more trained than Creed or some of the others she'd been fighting, and he just played dirty. The scuffle went on for a short moment, and the guy did end up pinning her with her hands next to her head as he shook his head and looked her over.
"So you're my father's new plaything? I should have known he'd go for one that would sympathize with ... him," he said, glancing up at Noh. She struggled and fought to get loose, but he just chuckled at her.
With half a shout, Noh rushed for him again and simply seized the back of his clothes to pull him off of K and kick him hard in the side. He returned the favor and pounced on Daken to pin him, though not before he'd been sure to leave five sharp fingernails in his arm for repayment.
"You're not welcome here," Noh hissed out. "Now leave before I detonate those claws in your arm."
A familiar 'bamf' sound echoed the lawn, and Logan and Kurt rushed forward as Daken spotted them. "Would you call off your guard dogs?" Daken called out to the newcomers. "I came to talk! You were supposed to find me before you went for the Silver Samurai. I'm tired of waiting."
Logan had gone to K and helped her to her feet before he and Kurt shared a quick look. "Let him up, Noh. I did say we had business with the Samurai."
Noh paused and looked between Logan and Daken before he did just that, releasing his hold on Daken but never dropping his gaze or his glare.
"Most people make a damn phone call," Logan said toward Daken as he pushed K behind him.
"The Samurai is about to make a play on Madripoor," Daken said. "If you want to take him down, you better do it before then. And I want to help."
"As though you'd do anything but to further your own interests," Noh all but growled low in his throat as he wiped the blood from his arms with a deep glare. "Help is not a term I'd think you familiar with."
Daken sighed. "Yes. I have interests in Madripoor. But he knows that." He glanced between Noh and K for a moment. "Why are you even here?"
"That's not really your concern," Logan replied for him. "When is this supposed to happen?"
"Five days, at most," Daken replied, picking at the remaining blades of grass stuck to his clothes with a look of loathing.
"And we're to trust your word on this?" Kurt asked, his tail switching behind him. "You can't even keep your word not to hurt Logan's friends."
"Have I harmed you?" Daken challenged. "You and the little Hawkeye were the only ones I said I wouldn't hurt." He gave him a twisted little smile as if that was proof of his honesty. "Marvel Boy wasn't on the list. Or ... her."
Kurt frowned hard. "You shouldn't need a list," he said, but Noh was already shaking his head.
"I don't need your protection to take down this feckless child," he said, glaring at Daken. "Regardless of age — the behavior is the same with this one."
"If I go to Japan with you, I'm taking people with me. You can't bother them, or I'm not going to go," Logan said simply. "I know you want to play your little games, but I just don't have the patience."
K just watched Daken carefully, an open expression on her face as she analyzed him more thoroughly than before. "What's the story here?" K asked, looking from Logan to Kurt.
"I'll fill you in later," Logan promised. "The point is that he likes to play games."
"But he won't be going to Japan alone," Kurt added, taking a step closer to his friend. "I'm flying."
"I won't play with anyone you bring," Daken said with a bored sigh. "Unless they play with me first." He was glaring Noh's way. "No matter how much they regret their missed opportunities."
"Indeed. I could have removed your head when still I was considered a villain," Noh said low.
Daken just smiled at him easily. "You can always try. It could be fun. Boys will be boys and all that."
"Yeah, that's a big 'no way'," K said with a look of disgust as she watched the back and forth between Noh and Daken. "You — are not allowed to play with him."
He only turned halfway toward her. "What makes you think that I would listen to you?" He was laughing at her in a mocking manner as if it was the most ludicrous thing he'd ever heard.
"You want to find out the hard way, you little shit?" K snapped back. "Stop — whatever the hell it is you're doing." She waved her hand his way. "I don't know what it is, but it makes me want to hit you."
His smile fell a bit, and he frowned before he actually did back off on the pheromones in the air. "I want to move on Harada before the weekend," Daken said, turning back toward his father, but not taking his eyes off of K. "That should be more than enough time for you to make your arrangements and get there." He took a business card out of the inner pocket of his now battered suit and stepped toward Logan.
"Please," he said actually looking sincere for a moment. "Call me when you get to Tokyo." He looked K up and down very carefully. "You might want to clear up your affairs before you move forward with this one."
Logan stepped forward and took the card. "I'll call." With that, Daken crossed the lawn nearer to Noh and picked up his sunglasses where they had fallen in the grass, watching him as he cleaned the lenses with a little smirk.
"See you soon," Daken said to Noh as he put his sunglasses back on and started back toward the gate.
"So," Kurt said, long after Daken had stepped outside of the gate. "We're going to Japan then?" Logan nodded and looked toward his best friend.
"Yeah. Oughta pick out a few people to go with," Logan said as he considered things. He looked at Noh. "I don't trust him, but I do have to deal with Harada."
"I'd be more than happy to assist you in correcting his behavior should he try to double-cross you, and I'm sure he will," Noh said.
"I know he will," Logan agreed. "If you can keep from tearing into him before he starts it, you're welcome to come."
"I would certainly like to," Noh admitted. "If nothing else because I don't trust him in the least." He let out a sigh. "I suppose I could keep from attacking him outright."
"I'm guessing this is the wayward son?" K asked, to which Logan simply nodded. "Yeah, I think you're going to have trouble keeping me from going along."
"If she's going, then I most certainly am," Noh said quickly. "I didn't like in the least the way he spoke to her."
"Min favorit barn," K said toward Noh with a fond smile. "Skyddande och vacker."
.....
Translations from Swedish:
Min favorit barn - My favorite child.
Skyddande och vacker - protective and beautiful
From German:
Liebling - darling