Chapter Text
“D'you really think their brother's gonna be here?” A soft voice floated to Kai’s ears, breaking through the darkness of the dream they were enduring.
“Not sure,” another voice said, that one more familiar. They relaxed, leaning back against the hard surface they were on. “But if not, I know the perfect Brit to find him, even if he'll bitch about not getting enough screen time.”
Kai shifted and squirmed a little, the more their brain restarted, the more pain they realized they were in. Why were they in pain? What happened?
Flashes of memory came to them, quick and sharp and making them desperately wish that they were still asleep. The panic of being chased. Agony in their wrist. The complete and utter despair of knowing that they were doomed.
Deadpool. Sutton. So much fucking blood.
Wade.
Kai’s eyes opened.
They were still in the car. It was empty except for them and not moving anymore. They were pressed up against the door and curled up in a way that they knew their back was going to hate them for the instant that they tried to shift. Their wrist throbbed and they glanced down at it. God, it looked like it shouldn’t’ve even been attached to their hand anymore. It was all swollen and purple and still splattered with brownish dots that must’ve been dried fucking blood. Because they were caught by a mob boss that had a ridiculous grudge against them. Because they thought they were gonna die. Because they got saved by Deadpool in the most Deadpool way possible.
Because they got caught in the middle of a slaughter between their best friend and their worst nightmare.
Their head fell back to thump against the window.
What the fuck were they supposed to do now?
A tap on the window directly behind their head would’ve made them jump out of their skin if they had any energy left to care. As it was, they twitched and tried to uncurl and fuck, fuck they were right. Their legs were both numb and their neck hated them. They settled on just kinda lurching forward so that they wouldn’t fall out of the car if someone opened the door.
“Babyface! Welcome back!” The door opposite them opened and there was Wade poking his head in. “You got good timing, kid. We just got here.”
“Wade?” Well, it looked like their mouth was not moving as fast as their brain was, because that one word made him look at them in a way that made their stomach twist itself into knots.
“Gimme a sec, don’t move,” he said and disappeared from their sight.
They were in a tunnel made of crates, looking at a sliver of the warehouse and Deadpool was there. Deadpool was there and he was Wade and he was shoving a knife into their grip and dripping blood and–.
The door opened behind them and an arm wrapped around their waist and pulled them out of the car. They squeaked and flailed and kicked, knowing that they were about as strong as a goddamn kitten but they were getting sick of being fucking manhandled.
“Put me the fuck down!” Kai tried to sound intimidating but their voice cracked and no amount of their struggling even made the person grabbing them stumble.
(It was Wade, it had to be Wade, they didn’t know what they would do if it wasn’t Wade.)
“Jesus Christ, fine!” Wade said almost directly into their ear and something in them actually relaxed, no matter how much they told themself that he wasn’t trustworthy any more. That he lied to them. They were set down on their feet to stumble forward and catch their balance on the car. Their legs were still a little numb and protested the need to walk. Kai told their legs that they could suck it the fuck up, they were not letting Wade carry them again. “No need to be a little bitch about it.”
“Shut the fuck up, Wade,” they panted. Suddenly they were out of breath. It was annoying.
“Goddamn, you woke up on the wrong side of the carseat.” He was leaning against the car to look at them straight on and it swayed with his weight. Kai watched him out of the corner of their eye. He was still wearing the whole Deadpool getup, sans only the mask. The swords were even still on his back. They remembered seeing their reflection in those swords. “Usually it takes at least a minute before you’re trying to bite my head off.”
“I don’t–,” they tried and failed to come up with a comeback. They couldn’t even find a good swear. Wade’s face did something weird as he looked at them. He reached for their arm. They flinched and he pulled back. They swore that they could hear the leather of his gloves creak as his hand clenched.
“What’s wrong?” Oh shit, that was his ‘don’t even think about lying to me’ tone.
“You lied to me.” That was not what they’d meant to say.
“No, I didn’t tell you.” His mouth twisted. “That’s different and you know it. Now, really, what’s wrong?”
Well fine. If thats how he wanted to play it. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
He stared them down for a minute, his eyes dark and sharp and terrifying in a much different way than they’d almost gotten used to in the past few hours. He searched their face. A gut clenching moment passed and he shrugged, pushed off from the car, and made it shake.
“Alright, whatever you want.” He waved them forward. “Now, c’mon, you want that arm fixed or not?”
Kai followed him in almost a daze, holding their messed up arm into their stomach to keep it from hurting too bad. His back was peppered with holes busted into the suit and the fabric was a deeper reddish-brown than the rest of it. They could see chunks of his scarred skin as he shifted and walked.
He’d hugged them. Right at the beginning of the fight breaking out. It had been tight and painful and terrifying to be bear-hugged by Deadpool. The fear scrambled their brain. Which meant they hadn’t realized what it had been for.
Kai would be the one riddled with that many holes, if not for him. He didn’t just get them out of there, didn’t just keep them from dying.
He’d saved their life.
The realization came with a solid lump of something in their throat and a burning red blush to their neck. They pushed the feeling down as much as they could. It was not the time.
“Anything?” Wade said, cutting through the complicated tangle of whatever that Kai was trying their hardest to ignore. They looked up to see Vanessa standing at the biggest fucking door they had ever seen outside of a museum entrance. What the hell?
“Nothing,” she said. “I’m starting to think they don’t like me.”
Wade wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into his side. She didn’t even flinch as she was tugged against the holster on his hip. “Not possible, baby. It’s the morning, they’re probably all in class or some other plot-convenient sidebar.”
Kai backed up a few steps and looked around. They were standing in front of the most ostentatious, old money goddamn mansion that they’d ever seen. The walls were red brick and crawling with perfectly green ivy. The windows were that kind of wavy glass that you only got in really old houses. The yard itself looked like it would be more likely to be called grounds.
Where they fuck were they?
“HEY ASSHOLES,” Wade yelled and banged on the door with the hilt of a sword, making them jump about a fuckin foot. “I KNOW YOU CHANGED THE FUCKING LOCKS ON ME. LET US IN!”
The door creaked open so quickly that Wade nearly hit the person that opened it in the face. Kai almost expected them to be some sort of butler looking guy but no, it was apparently the day where every single instance of bad luck they’d earned piled onto them at once. Because the person that opened the door was the most gorgeous butch that they’d ever seen. She was built like a truck, with a round, stern face, short dark hair, and a cropped fucking muscle tee. Her lipstick was black, her eyebrow was pierced, and her face was pulled into a deep, unfairly hot scowl.
And there Kai was, hair faded from months without dyeing it, wearing the same clothes they hadn’t had the chance to wash in almost a week, cradling their dead looking arm, and covered in half dried blood.
The universe hated them.
“The fuck do you want, asswipe?” Oh shit even her voice was hot.
“Goth Ellen!” Wade yelled, sheathing the sword and going for a hug in one smooth motion. She ducked around him easily and kicked him in the ass as he went by. He stumbled and fell onto his hands and knees with a thunk. Oh God. What that what love felt like?
“Worst one yet, dude,” she said, rolling her eyes and walking up next to Vanessa. “Hey.”
“Hey Ellie,” Vanessa said, pulling her into a side hug that she didn’t push away from even though her whole vibe screamed ‘touch me and lose a hand’. “Where’s Yukio today?”
“France, last I checked. Some mission they didn’t want me on because they didn’t want anything on fire, I guess.” She shrugged and looked at Kai. They tried not to shrink back too much. “Who’s the kid? And why’s he look worse than usual?”
“Couldn’t you have waited five minutes before resorting to violence, Warhorse?” Wade was back up and leaning against the doorframe. “And the kid’s why we’re here.”
“Don’t think I won’t blow your ass up, dickhead. You kidnapping now?”
“C’mon,” he said and looked actually serious at her. “You know I wouldn’t. Kai’s a friend.” They were not reacting to that. “They got on the wrong side of a mob boss and I dealt with it but they got caught in the crossfire. Not actually because I can do my fucking job but y’know what I mean.”
“Okay. And you came here and not a hospital because…”
Embarrassingly late, it finally clicked.
The X-men.
“My brother’s a mutant,” they blurted out and then instantly regretted it. “I haven’t seen him in years but Wade thought–he thought–.” They withered under the stares of all three of them.
“I thought your intrepid leader could point us in the right direction, if he wasn’t already here,” Wade finished.
Ellie stared at them for another agonizing second, her eyes raking them up and down and no doubt cataloging everything about them that was beaten and battered and filthy. They tried not to squirm but the ever-present ache in their arm made it hard to keep still.
After an eternity, she nodded.
“Yeah, alright. They’re going to the hospital wing first though. That arm looks like shit.”
And without another word, their group was led into the X-Men’s fucking mansion house.
What was happening?