Dating an X-Man is Hazardous to Your Health

Chapter 3: People Suck

Once the little group got to the jet, Peter got them in the air as everyone else gathered around the two X-Men who had been rescued. Natasha was still saying something in Russian to Logan, while Clint had taken up his attempt to break through the collars again, which was going a little better this time with no forced breaks to shoot at guards.

And Kate was still fussing over Kurt, to absolutely no one's surprise. She was all but tucked into his side and ran her fingers lightly over a garish purple mark on his temple before she pressed gentle kisses there and just generally looked like she wanted to tuck him in and make sure no one ever looked at him sideways again.

"A-ha," Clint said at last, about half an hour later, when the collar finally came off Logan and he chucked it across the plane with relish. "Alright. Second time should be easier. But that was some complicated workmanship, guys."

"That's because they try to improve the locks when we break out of them, mein Freund," Kurt pointed out. "And Storm is incredibly adept with the tiniest of lockpicks."

"Makes sense," Clint agreed, shaking his head with a little sigh before he twirled the small pick in his fingers and got up to cross over to Kurt. "Okay, bud. Your turn. Kate's gonna have to share with the other Hawkeye for twenty minutes."

While Clint was working on Kurt's collar, Natasha kept fussing over Logan and muttering quietly until he finally covered her hand with his and answered her right back in a slow, soft tone. She smiled outright and just gave him a solid hug before she let him rest, turning to Clint with a smirk. "Haven't you got that open yet? I thought you were quicker the second time out of the gate."

"I didn't realize I was on a half-life timer," Clint said out of the corner of his mouth, though nobody who was paying attention missed the fact that he worked that much faster at the prompting.

"Well now you know," Nat countered — clearly in better spirits.

"Good to know where the goalposts are," Clint said, but he was smiling wide at Natasha's antics. The teasing seemed to have spurred him on, and when just a few minutes later, he heard the little click of a lock coming undone, he let out an obvious cry of satisfaction — and then a louder one of surprise as almost as soon as the collar was off, a little army of blue imps came popping in looking ready to fight. Half of them had swords drawn and the other half had pounding fists — and there was a low rumble of little growls that would probably have been intimidating if it wasn't for the fact that there was no one to fight — and they quickly realized that when they saw who all was in the jet.

"Don't worry, guys," Kate said to the nearest couple of bamfs with a little subdued smile - once they were done berating her, of course. "We got him."

The little bamfs paused for a moment, looking between Kate and Kurt, before a few of them just poofed away, while the others turned their attention elsewhere. A couple of them bamfed over to Logan to sort of peer at him and poke at his face, another few climbed into the space between Kate and Kurt to demand hugs before leaving or to chatter at Kate to apparently tell her off for not including her in the rescue effort — as if she knew how to call them in the first place — and one of them approached Natasha with a look of guarded interest. When she looked its way, the little guy bared his teeth at her, and she did it right back - surprising him into a sort of giggle before he poofed closer and just started to watch her as she sat next to Logan and looked out for him.

Once they got back to the mansion, the group of rescuers and rescued X-Men were greeted at the hangar by the little group of Storm, Hank, and Jubilee. The three of them looked relieved to see Logan and Kurt coming out of the jet on their own steam, even if they were leaning on Nat and Kate respectively — neither of whom seemed to mind.