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Winter was on them, snow falling and covering the world in white and silence.
It was weird walking through a park after a job, still in costumes, but there was also something romantic about it.
Mr Creed had put his jacket on her shoulders, and Birdy wasn't cold, probably because the size difference between them made the jacket look like a coat, arriving at her knees… it was also nice Mr Creed's penchant for inner furs, because it kept her extra warm, and in this weather she couldn't ask for more. He also somewhat shielded her from the snow falling with his big body.
Lately he was weird, she would say he was almost nostalgic, like he realised he was missing out something. He asked for many sessions with that other telepath to remove blocks and false implants.
It wasn't that she wasn't capable of doing the same, but it required violence and cold blood, and she didn't want to make him uneasy in her presence, he was already too snarky and an ass-hole without other reasons.
He was chatting softly, sometimes his ears twitched and he told her that there was a squirrel or some kind of other small animal that still lived in the big city. It was such a peaceful moment after a bloodbath, that Birdy was a little bit perplexed, but who was she to say anything? If he wanted to be romantic, he could be, even if there wasn't anything between them: Birdy didn't think that being kept half prisoner, half secretary by the guy she was sent to kill was a good start for a relationship.
But sometimes Mr Creed wasn't a bad boss, just weird, and so they were crossing the park side by side, like they were a couple. He even stopped on the bridge over the small river, looking at the water and lights reflecting on it. He really looked… lonely and a bit sad, maybe he was sad for the cat? She had to forcefully remove the target's cat from his arms, because he wanted to bring it home. If he wanted a cat, he could wait until they were back home in Vancouver. Not before. She didn't want to drive from New York to Vancouver with a cat in her car. No, no, no, no. Big no.
It was kind of cute the way his ears twitched, he looked like a giant feline with those slightly pointy ears. But then, then he suddenly stopped, dead on his tracks, eyes focused on a far away point. His face scrunched and then he crouched and started running on all fours, without a word…
"MR CREED!!! Wait! He left me alone in the park at night?! Oh, why do I even…"
She started running after him, even if he was way too fast for her, but at least she could follow his tracks, since he wasn't hiding them.
It took her 10 minutes to reach her boss, she was so furious! She lost his track when it reached a more populated area, and she finally got him just thank to a signal she put in his costume. God forsaken cat man, running away, and now he was in an alley, crouched, something in his arms.
"Boss, I told you no cats until we're in Vancouver!"
He looked at her, light reflecting on his eyes and hissing. She'd be scared, because he looked like a fairy tale monster, and she knew he was even worse, but there was something…
"Not a cat. Stop screaming!"
And he started making sounds, like meows and coos. She felt her eyebrows jump up, and she got closer: what did her boss steal in the middle of that snowy night?!
He tried to hide what he had in his arms, but it cried a bit, and Mr Creed went all purrs and meows, and protective. She came nearer and…
"Boss. You should put the baby back! You don't go around stealing babies!"
"I won't put her back in the trash! It's winter, and snowing!"
"In the trash?"
"What do you think, I ran to steal some random newborn from a crib because you said no to cats?! She was crying, and she's not older than few hours!"
Birdy looked at the baby, so small in those big, big arms and she saw it, even in the dark: lilac skin, a fluff of magenta hair, pointed ears and emerald eyes, weird, darker marks on her small, chubby face.
"We can't bring her home, Mr Creed…"
He squinted at her and hissed, dangerous and protective of the baby. It was so weird seeing him like that, but they couldn't…
"Mr Creed, you -"
"Shut up, Birdy, and bring the car. I cannot walk around with Fuchsia here! Move! Take a taxi if needed, I'll be waiting. Be fast, I don't want any superhero getting on my ass!"
She shrugged and did as she was told: it didn't matter and the baby needed a shelter. Maybe she could reason with him later…
In the meanwhile, Victor was weirded out by himself: he never had any paternal instinct, just that one time, and look what happened: he got stabbed in the back and left to experimentation like a guinea pig. Disgusting. But he heard the distressed crying of the baby, and it was dark, and cold, and he remembered how awful it was the cellar… so he followed the sound and found her, just with her blanket and her mutations. He just couldn't get himself to leave her there, okay?! Just a couple of hours old, all small and pink, and those beautiful emerald eyes! He just took her in his arms, sharing his warmth, and she stopped crying, the stench of fear and cold diminished. She probably would need food soon, but meanwhile she was safe and warm. His heart was doing something weird and his instinct too, what with that sensation of intestine churning when Birdy said no? He even hissed and snarled at her, like she was trying to steal something from him. The baby made distressed sounds and he felt himself purr. Weird. He needed away, knowing his cub was safe.
"Get your head straight, Creed, kid's not yours, and she ain't a cub," he told himself.
He found himself touching the small baby all over, trying to cover her in his scent, so no one could mistake her as someone else's cub. Probably his head didn't want to get straight. Probably he wanted to keep the baby, with those beautiful eyes, like gems. It reminded of his own when his mutation went crazy and he had white eyes… but his weren't so beautiful. He was mesmerised. Hell, he was probably bewitched and under a spell, because he was feeling a weird warm sensation deep inside of him.
He was still crouched in the alley when Birdy arrived with the car, and he jumped in the backseat, taking the extra blanket Birdy kept there and putting it around his baby. A venomous hiss erupted from his chest.
"Not. Yours!"
"Mr Creed?!"
"I wasn't talking to you. We need formula, and diapers, and things for the little one."
"Mr Creed, we should get her to a hospital, and leave her there."
"She's fucking fuchsia, Birdy! With marks on her face, and for sure they're not tattoo! And she doesn't have pupils! Do you think she'll be treated well?! Her parents fucking threw her in the garbage in the middle of the fucking snow, and she was just born!"
Birdy took her time to reply, mostly because she knew he was right. Still, they were mercenaries, killer for hire, a baby didn't suit well with it all. But for once her boss was acting like a decent person, not like the ass-hole he normally was.
She was trying to elaborate a thought, when he suddenly stopped purring and spoke.
"Stop somewhere, as I said she needs formula. And diapers. I don't want to hear anything if not that you have the things."
She looked at him in the mirror and he was curled protectively around the small baby. He sensed her watching and an amber eye looked back at her.
"Look where you going, Birdy. Look where you going. I'm the only one who can heal in this car."
And so the supposedly romantic night turned into something weird, with her doing something she never ever thought of: buying baby things. Mr Creed had her buying a ton of stuff, and when he got fed up because she didn't know anything about babies, how could she be such a disaster?! And the formula wasn't…
In the end he snarled at her and he went in the convenience store, scaring the hell out of the old man, showing him the baby for size, and he re-emerged with things and a warmed up bottle of formula, feeding the shrimp. It was unnatural. He looked more monstrous than normal with the baby in his arms, a clawed hand on her head, keeping it up. At least he apparently didn't kill anyone in the store.
In silence, she drove to the hotel they were staying in. Maybe this was the effect of so many sessions, maybe this was the wounded and frightened kid that was still inside of him, the one she saw just once, the one that had immediately laced to her.
Creed called the front office and asked for a crib, and what they needed to warm the milk and then they asked if he needed also all the necessary to clean the bottles. He was perplexed, he didn't know anything about it. He said he needed everything and to send someone with kids for a quick chat, then closed the call.
One hour later, they had survived a crash course on babies and what to do with them, and they were seated on the sofa.
"I don't know what to do with a baby, Mr Creed…"
"I… me neither."
He was watching the baby sleeping in his arms: she didn't have fear of the giant who was keeping her. It was strange how kids didn't think he was dangerous, and sure he wasn't a threat for them. Now she was all clean thanks to the lady, and she didn't have other scents if not his and her own; he had to stop himself from licking her, because he was no animal. No animal. Maybe a monster, but not an animal.
"Boss?"
"Mmm…?"
"You remember which is our line of work, yes?"
"Eh "
"We can't keep her, it's too dangerous!"
"What if… what if I retire? It's not like I don't have money."
"I didn't sign up to be a parent."
"You signed up to kill me, and I kept you when you failed."
"That's… technically true. But I'm no mother."
"Well, I'm not asking you to be one. I'm just saying I'll keep her. If you don't want, I'll stay awake at night until she'll sleep more, and I'll take care of her. I just need you to step in if I get… if I'm not safe."
Birdy sighed. There were so many things going on, and she had been fed up with her boss before leaving for this job. Now? Now she could see something different, what with the stroll in the park, the jacket and the baby. Maybe she didn't have to betray him, maybe she should let him have this baby, and probably a cat. Probably she should have let him take the cat, but if she did, the kid would be dead. So many crossroads and she wasn't a seer.
"We should sell the Vancouver mansion and downsize to a smaller place, in a mutant friendly community. Dangerous people know about our Vancouver place."
"You check for it, Birds, maybe we're not much of parents material, but at least we didn't throw a newborn in a dumpster. Maybe…" he stopped talking, looking softly at the small bundle. "Here. Take her for a little bit, I need to take a bath. You should keep her like this."
He put the small baby in her arms, and she was tense like a spring. He moved her arms and hands in the best position and, with a longing stare, finally went to take his bath.
Birdy sighed, and took a deep breath and an operative decision: she won't betray her boss, and she'll tell him about the people looking for him with unsavoury intentions.
She sat at their computer and started it: maybe she could look for information about what to do with a newborn. After a while, she heard Victor leaving the bathroom.
"Boss?"
"Mmm?"
"You should take lessons from Wolverine: at least he adopts older strays!"
Sabretooth let out an amused snort and took his baby back. He had thought during his bath: he cannot keep calling the baby shrimp, or cub, or fuchsia, even if she definitely was fuchsia. He wasn't great at names, so he opted to use the name his mother had thought for him if he would be a girl.
"Let's go to bed, Clarice. And don't listen to Birdie, she doesn't know what she's talking about!"
Birdy started her job, looking for new IDs and connections. A doctor, a new place, a safe haven. Maybe they could steal the X-Men blue doctor, he seemed safer than that Sinister freak. And she declined all the jobs they were contacted for.
Life would be different now, with a kid. Clarice, eh? Such a sweet name. Maybe Mr Creed was a fairytale monster for real, one of those who protected places, instead of destroying them. She just had to wait and see what the future would bring.