Lights of love

Erik woke up on the third day of Hanukkah with a hand gently stroking his hair. He opened his eyes to see Xavier smiling at him.

"Good morning, my love" Erik said.

"Good morning" the professor replied, still running his hand through Magneto's long hair. "I like your hair."

Erik thought that maybe Charles missed having hair and let out a small laugh.

"I heard that" said the professor.

"I didn’t say anything, my love" Erik replied before giving Xavier a couple of kisses on the cheek.

Meanwhile, in Morph's room, they were waking up, stretching their arms, and letting out a big yawn. They sat on the bed and noticed the flower Logan had given them yesterday, still sitting in a small vase of water on their shelf. It still looked as beautiful as the day before. Morph flopped back onto the bed, cheeks flushed, thinking about Logan.

Later, before lunch, Logan stopped them in one of the hallways. He said he had something for them and reached into the inside of his jacket. What he pulled out was a rectangle wrapped in gift paper. Morph took it and carefully unwrapped, it was a photo of the two of them in a brown frame. Morph was in their mutant form, and unlike other photos, Logan was smiling.

"All the photos you have, whether with me or the team, are from your old form, so I thought you might like one of how you look now" Logan explained.

Morph gave Logan a hug, and it took him a few seconds to put his hands on their back and return the embrace.

"I really appreciate it, Logan" Morph said softly, and Logan felt his heart race again.

Morph placed the photo on their nightstand next to their bed. They remembered that was the same spot where Logan used to keep a photo of Jean (with Scott). They hadn't been in Logan's room for a while and wondered if the photo was still there.

In the afternoon, the twins had arrived. Wanda started chatting with Jean and Rogue while Pietro talked with his father.

"Do you remember that time you had a beard?" the speedster asked.

"Yes, during that alien invasion?" Magneto said, recalling it. "I remember when the X-Men asked me for help, I didn’t want to. I was too closed off to care. But when they told me you were in danger…"

Erik looked at Pietro for a few seconds before continuing. "I had to do something. I know I haven’t been a father for most of your life, so I don’t expect that to change overnight. But I’m trying to be a better person for you and your sister."

"Oh," the younger mutant seemed surprised by that. "I was going to say that with a beard, you looked like a rabbi but without the hat."

Magneto let out a small laugh.

"Are you okay?" Morph asked from the doorway. "Are you choking?"

"I was laughing."

"You can laugh? Wow, I’d never have guessed" Morph teased.

Magneto gave them a serious look.

"We should tell the professor about this" Morph continued joking, and Pietro chuckled. "It’s a Hanukkah miracle!"

A while later, Morph was looking for Logan. They went to his room and saw the door was closed.

"Logan?" They knocked before opening the door. There was no one inside, Wolverine was probably training in the Danger Room.

Morph noticed the photo of Jean was no longer on the nightstand. They stepped into the room to see if Logan had placed it somewhere else, but they couldn’t find it.

"Something wrong, bub?" Logan asked from behind them, and Morph jumped slightly.

"Oh, no, nothing" the shapeshifter explained. "I was just looking for you. We're about to light the candles."

When everyone was gathered, Magneto was about to light the candles when he turned to look at Wanda and Pietro. He looked back at the menorah and paused for a moment before turning again.

"Would you two like to do it?" Magneto asked his children.

"Really?" Pietro asked, surprised.

The twins approached the menorah. Wanda used her powers to light the first candle, and then Pietro took that candle to light the others.

When Magneto walked the twins to the school’s entrance, Pietro surprised him with a hug.

"Thanks" he said as he pulled away "for trying."

After that, he took his sister, and they left quickly. Magneto smiled.

On the fourth day, Logan had spent the entire morning carving a wooden dreidel. He had used a branch from one of the professor's trees and shaped it with one of his claws. He was sitting on the grass finishing it when he saw Magneto walking through the garden. Logan stood up and approached him quickly.

"Does this look right?" he asked, holding out the piece of wood.

"You're giving them a dreidel?" Magneto started questioning him. "Why are you giving gifts? Are you trying to impress them?"

"Just tell me if I did it right or not" Wolverine growled.

"You just need to add the letters, one on each side." Magneto grabbed a stick and drew four Hebrew letters on the ground. "There you go, so you don’t mess them up."

"Thanks." Logan extended one of his claws and carefully engraved the letters.

A little later, Wolverine found Morph sitting in front of the TV.

"Anything interesting on, bub?"

"Not really" the shapeshifter said, turning off the television. "Do you want to do something? Maybe train?"

Logan shook his head and pulled something out of his pocket.

"I heard they play with this during these holidays" he said, showing them the dreidel.

He saw the surprise and excitement on Morph's face as they quickly stood up, approached him, and took the object in their hands.

"I haven’t seen one of these in years!" Morph grabbed Logan's wrist. "Come on, I’ll teach you how to play."

Logan felt warmth from Morph’s touch, and he spent nearly the entire afternoon with them while they explained the game and shared childhood stories.

Later, Logan went to find Magneto, who was in the professor's office talking with him.

"Everything okay, Wolverine?" Erik asked.

"I just wanted to thank you again for this morning, and I wanted to ask if you could help me with the other gifts too." Logan didn’t enjoy spending time with Magneto, but he loved spending time with Morph. Seeing them happy was worth it.

He loved Morph more than he hated Magneto.

"Sure" Erik said, nodding. Logan left the room, closing the door behind him.

"It’s sweet how hard Wolverine tries for Morph, don’t you think?" Xavier asked.

"You haven’t given me any gifts" Erik replied.

"I was planning on giving you a big one at the end of the week. Don’t be jealous" Xavier said.

"I’m not jealous, Charles. Don’t be ridiculous."

"But if you’d really like more gifts, I can give you something tonight" Xavier said with a sly smile.

Erik turned, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"You can help me undress, how does that sound as a gift?" the professor teased.

Erik smiled. "That would be a nice gift."

When the twins arrived, Morph showed them the dreidel Logan had made and explained how to play. They lit the candles, and shortly after the twins left, as the rest of the team chatted, Erik rolled behind Charles and placed his hands on his wheelchair.

"It’s late, Charles. You should rest."

"It’s not even 9 PM, Erik. I’m not that old" Xavier said before seeing Erik’s look and understanding. "Oh, I see. On second thought, maybe going to bed early does sound good tonight."

"Is the professor okay?" Cyclops asked Jean.

"Yes, don’t worry about it" she replied with a knowing smile.