Chapter 3
Peter almost slept through breakfast, jumping from the bed at the last minute, nearly knocking his sister. Thankfully, she only rolled over, pouting in discontent, drawing an ear to ear smile out of the speedster. He hogged the duvet over her, picked up the packages left after their dinner and walked out of the room.
On the way to the morning meal silver-haired Maximoff stopped a few times to massage the back of his numb neck, marveling at how he even could doze off still sitting in his sneakers, seemingly with his mouth open because now it was dry as the Sahara Desert.
The cafeteria was mostly empty save for a few still students, its quietness got on Peter’s nerves so he put on the headphones, listening to Rush’s latest album ‘Permanent Waves’ and chewing down on already cold pancakes drizzled with maple syrup.
Somewhere half through his late breakfast, the young man spotted Lehnsherr purposefully approaching his table. It was never clear from his face whether he wanted to say ‘hi’ to you or to stab you with your own fork, so Peter took his headphones off, anticipating his fate.
Erik took a long look at the young man, noticing his still sleepy face and ruffled hair. “Can I sit?” he asked, pointing to the spare stool nearby.
The speedster forced down the last piece of the meal he was chewing on, clutching at the fork, just in case. “Yeah, sure.”
Actually, the Master of Magnetism was just about to make a cup of black coffee, which for the last weeks was the only thing that kept him on his feet, when he saw Peter sitting by the window surrounded with mountains of pancakes. He felt a sudden urge to know if he and Wanda were alright, especially not finding the letter by the speedster’s side.
“So…” Peter began, breaking first under the awkward silence. “Wanna pancake?”
Lehnsherr hesitated, not knowing what he actually tried to achieve sitting here. He barely knew the boy. Though in comparison to other people at school, they were practically best buddies now. “Were you going to eat it all by yourself?”
The speedster gave him a half shrug. “Food is my fuel. But I can share.”
As if to proof the statement, he pushed a plate of morning treats towards Erik.
“May I take a cup of coffee instead?” the man asked.
“Help yourself,” Peter replied, making a sweeping motion over the table.
Erik took a sip from the cup, put it back on the saucer and cleared his throat. “So, is everything alright?”
“I’m not going to make a canapé out of you, you can lay it down,” he added bitterly, nodding to the fork the speedster still clenched in his hand.
“Oh, it’s just…” the young man stumbled, smirking nervously. “I can’t eat with my fingers, can I?”
Damn it, he swore, knowing full well what a pathetic excuse it was.
Lehnsherr lifted his brow with a rather sarcastic “Uh-huh”, but then relented. After all, the boy was being cautious, considering Magneto’s reputation.
“For real,” Peter tried to rehabilitate. “Can you imagine me stuffing these pancakes into my mouth, hands covered with the syrup?”
The corners of Erik’s mouth turned up ever so slightly. “I can, actually.”
At that, the speedster rolled his eyes dismissively.
“You and your sister are fine?” the man asked again.
Peter’s heart leaped suddenly in his chest, surprised that his father was even interested in their well-being. He pulled himself together, ready to feign nonchalance but something in Erik’s face made him give an honest answer. “She has a heart of gold, you know? She doesn’t like to show it, playing a role she thinks suites best at the time, but some things touch her deeply, especially when it comes to our family. That’s why she reacted the way she did.”
“I understand,” Lehnsherr said in earnest. Then added silently, startling Peter, and himself, “My parents and I were separated in Auschwitz. I spend five months as a lab rat there.”
The young man pressed his lips together, trying to keep his emotions at bay. When he and his sister first found out who their father was, their mom mentioned that the war took away Erik’s parents. Wanda tried to find something about his past and his family, but there was nothing useful. The fact that the man decided to tell a part of his life to Peter meant a lot for the young man.
“Our gram lost her little sister and our grandad within a year due to the Nazis, forced to flee to another country, leaving everything behind,” the speedster said, offering a piece of the Maximoffs’ family history.
Lehnsherr was silent for a moment. Then he posed a question, hitting the right nail on the head, “Peter is more of an American name, but your sister’s…Is it Polish?”
The young man swallowed. “Yes.”
“So, you’re Polish then? At least partially.”
What kind of interrogation is that? Does he suspect something? Peter thought nervously.
“I guess,” he replied, then took a sip of orange juice from his glass. “I never really thought about it as we were born and raised in the States.”
Erik had noticed the speedster’s growing anxiety and had to press his lips together to prevent another question slipping out of his mouth.
Keep the boundaries, he reminded himself, knowing firsthand how hard it might be to talk about matters of the past that had left a permanent mark in your heart.
Peter’s gaze flicked to something behind Lehnsherr, a bit of amusement returned to his eyes. Before the man turned his head to see what caught the speedster’s attention that something, or rather someone, revealed himself first.
“Erik,” Hank said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Didn’t expect to find you here.”
Maximoff didn’t know if he wanted to squeeze McCoy in gratitude for breaking this unnerving conversation, or to wrap him in a curtain and send him flying like a rocket for breaking the rare moment with his father. “Nobody kinda expected to find you here either,” he said at last, stopping somewhere between these two moods.
The Master of Magnetism reached for a cup of already cold coffee, but Peter managed to catch something that was close to a smirk on his face. An unfamiliar feeling unfolded in the speedster’s chest. No, it wouldn’t be fair to call it unfamiliar, he knew that feeling well, the person who caused it that what caught Maximoff of guard. Whenever someone in his family felt down or had a bad day, he tried to do everything in his power to put a smile on their faces again, and now he felt the same towards Erik, whom he barely knew.
“Yes, right. I was actually looking for you, Peter,” McCoy began, uncrossing his arms and adjusting his glasses. “I want to apologize for the yesterday’s incident. I couldn’t possibly know your family history and didn’t think I would touch a sensitive topic. I’m sorry.”
“Ignorance does not excuse you,” Erik said offhandedly and looked up at the man who was still standing there clearly feeling out of place.
The speedster’s gut told him that if he kept silent another “incident” would happen and this one won’t be only verbal, considering strained relationship between Beast and Magneto (he remembered their fight in the fountain seven years ago, which he glimpsed on the news, it was…ouch).
“We good, man,” he said lazily. “Don’t have a cow, it’s only morning.”
Doubt crossed McCoy’s features. “Are you sure?”
The speedster nodded. “Yep.”
“Alright then,” the men replied, perking up. “I’ll go talk to your sister.”
“Good luck with that,” Peter said, sounding sympathetically and stood up, leaning on his crutches.
Erik got up too, though in truth he had nowhere to go and nothing to do right now.
“Did she take deep offence?” A concerned line appeared between Hank’s brows.
The three of them left the cafeteria, Beast and Magneto falling into step beside limping Maximoff.
“She won’t go easy on you,” the speedster warned. “She may be all smiles and pretty eyes, but she is stubborn as hell, and vindictive at times. Especially if she got up in a nasty mood, and you’re on the way to wake her up right now, so...”
“Looks like luck is on your side today, Hank,” Lehnsherr suddenly said.
McCoy and Maximoff followed his gaze. In the large window that overlooked a small clearing covered with a neatly trimmed lawn, they saw Wanda playing with the children, her face was as beaming as the morning sun.
“Maybe you can come with me?” the scientist asked hopefully.
Peter made a face. “Don’t embroil me into this, I’m tryna stay neutral. But I know for sure she is interested in your laboratory and stuff.”
Hank blinked at him.
Don’t tell me I have to spell everything out for you, the speedster whimpered to himself.
“Not as test animal, obviously, but as a fellow nerd. She is bad at math, but it doesn’t diminish her great intellect,” Maximoff explained. “Anyway, look before you leap, man. And don’t turn me in.”
McCoy grimaced at the “nerd” from the speedster’s lips, but listened to his instructions nonetheless. He nodded his thanks and walked outside.
Lehnsherr and Maximoff watched his receding figure, staying in the shadow.
“It looked like you equipped him for a battle, and not for a conversation with your sister,” Erik noted, amusement sparking in his eyes.
“You’ll see,” Peter kind of promised.
To be honest, at first Hank thought that Wanda had overreacted. He didn’t ask anything offending or inappropriate, and didn’t and couldn’t really know about the darkest moments in her family’s past. But when he thought it through, he realized that he messed up. He remembered how insecure and secretive he had been when it came to his mutation. Even now he used his serum all the time, justifying it by the fact that with his large clawed paws it was impossible to work in the laboratory, when in reality he sometimes felt like Dr. Jekyll with a blue and furry version of Hyde. Wanda said she didn’t have her brother’s powers, but she said nothing about having no powers. What if it was something insignificant in her opinion, something she could hide. What if she didn’t want the world to find out she was a mutant. Even if she didn’t have a mutated gene, she was protecting her brother. Taking into account their family history, that outburst of anger was simply her defense mechanism.
Now, armed with the speedster’s advice, he approached the girl. “Wanda, can I talk to you for a minute?”
When Maximoff turned to him, her smile stayed in place, but her eyes pierced McCoy with coldness.
Wanda’s day began uncharacteristically late for her. When she finally opened her eyes, the sunlight caressed her cheek with its warming touch, the sounds of birds’ cheerful song and the chatter of students were heard from the outside. A series of sleepless nights, fatigue from Raven’s class, and a “pleasant” conversation with Hank must have drained the last bits of energy left in her body because she didn’t even remember how she fell asleep, but judging by the time on the clock and her personal senses, she had been dreaming for at least fourteen hours. As soon as she washed off the remnants of sleep, brushed her curling hair and dressed up, the girl left her room to find Peter, but was instantly surrounded by a swarm of children who begged her to play with them. Their lighthearted mood and cackling left Wanda unarmed and within moments she was already chasing them down the corridor playing tag.
Now, the kids were buzzling around the girl, a barrier of a kind between her and Hank.
“I take it you have something in mind again,” she said, her voice void of emotions.
“I want to apologize for crossing some sort of line yesterday,” McCoy said, his anxiety unexpectedly growing under Maximoff’s gaze. “As a scientist I’m used to pursue the lead of obtaining new knowledge and I guess sometimes I may be blind when –”
Wanda’s attention flickered to a girl that pulled on her hand impatiently. “Thirty seconds and I’m all yours,” she assured the little intruder with a smile.
Did I really have a minute to do the talking? shot through Hank’s mind.
“You know, I devoted my whole life to science and in a way, I think, it affected my communication skills,” he tried again, sounding less and less confident.
Maximoff narrowed her eyes. “The beginning was promising, the ending sucked, however. If you excuse me, I’m going back to the kids. Thanks for the words, Mr. McCoy.”
With that she turned around and started to walk away.
Peter screwed up his face, observing Hank. “Totally deflated.”
“I take it she didn’t accept the apology?” Erik asked, watching the scene.
“Maybe you would be interested in visiting my lab?” McCoy offered hastily, following the girl. “Not for the genetic tests, of course. Just to take a look at the place.”
Wanda stopped abruptly.
“Uh-oh.” The speedster’s nose crinkled. “You made a wrong turn, man.”
Lehnsherr lifted a brow. “You know your sister that well?”
The hint of doubt in the man’s tone didn’t escape Peter’s notice. Challenged, he decided to show off. Just a little bit. “She will face him with the deadly attitude.”
The girl turned to face Hank with her chin high and gave him a dirty look.
“Now she will fold her arms, and you will see ‘the fight or fly’ stance,” the young man said.
Wanda folded her arms over her chest, as if she was a solid object nothing could move.
“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” the speedster concluded.
Erik smirked, impressed by how well the young man knew his sister, from her character traits to nonverbal language, all in detail.
“Are you trying to buy me?” Wanda asked, narrowing her eyes.
McCoy was taken aback. “What? No! Of course not!”
“Sometimes he reminds me of a fish washed ashore,” the Master of Magnetism said, shaking his head slightly.
Peter snorted, giving a mental point to his father for the humorous remark.
“Well, it looks like you think me a cranky child who can be reasoned with a lollipop,” the girl went on. “‘Just to look at the place’ sounds more like a sop to me. I am, or was, really interested in your inventions and engineering work, but it seems like familiarity breeds contempt in some cases.”
“I’m genuinely sorry for offending you and your brother, I had no such intention, believe me. I spend little time around people,” Hank said in earnest. “And sometimes it’s hard for me to find a common language with them. I didn’t know you’re familiar with anything I do, or more, interested in it, so if you’ll ever want to share your thoughts and ideas, I would love to see you in my lab.”
There has been probably a limited number of people who could really grasp who you are, Hank, hasn’t there?Did you give them that chance, or you don’t need anyone? Wanda mused, looking into his blue eyes.
A boy ran up to her, his curious eyes darting between Hank and the girl. “What are you doing? Why are you so sad? Did you have an argument here? I feel…I feel anxiety, I guess, and…and regret or –”
“Darren,” Maximoff said, her voice gentle but firm.
As disappointed as Wanda was with McCoy, she didn’t wish to violate his privacy, it was against her moral principles.
“I appreciate your apology,” she finally said to the man, her eyes softening a bit. “I’ll think about your offer.”
Maximoff turned to the kids, spread her arms wide, switching to a lighthearted mood with supersonic speed, and shouted with a gleeful smile, “Whom am I going to catch first?”
The children shrieked, and scattered along the clearing, laughing.
Hank let out a sigh he was holding and gave silver-haired Maximoff a thumbs up.
“The final say is hers, but it looks like he won my sister over, thanks to the kid though,” Peter said somewhat content.
Erik watched as the little mutants ran away from Wanda, who herself looked like a teenager in her Converses with sunflowers, washed blue jeans and yellow polo shirt. The joy on their faces, that carefree cackling tied a heavy knot in the man’s chest. He could easily imagine his little Nina among them. For some reason, it seemed to him that she would have liked Wanda, and probably Peter, a lot, maybe she even introduced them to her “friends”, birds and squirrels, mostly.
But he would never see his daughter’s smile again, would never kiss her good night in the forehead or hear her cheerful “papa”, because she wasn’t here anymore. He promised her that no one will take him away, but it turned out that his little girl was taken away from him, as were Magda and his mother.
Suddenly it was unbearable to be here, to be alive under the sun when his loved ones were plunged into darkness, all dead. Erik turned around and silently walked away, leaving Peter with a mixture of feelings.
“He is grieving,” Ororo said from somewhere behind his back. She approached the young man, adding quietly, “You didn’t see him then, in Poland.”
Silver-haired Maximoff looked down at his new sneakers, and asked, “How bad was that?”
Munroe slid her hands into the pockets of her breeches, her gaze became distant. “When we and Apocalypse…when I saw him, he was broken, his T-shirt stained with blood of his family, or maybe police officers. He came to that factory to kill the workers.”
The speedster was torn between asking what happened next and forgetting everything Ororo said. “Why did you join that psycho?”
She didn’t say anything for a while, collecting her thoughts. “I wasn’t living, I was surviving since my parents died. I was alone, scared and hungry, stealing and running every day. The man saved my life, promised me a better one. I thought I could help someone like me, an orphan and a mutant. It was enough for me to follow him then.”
“And now?” Peter glanced up, meeting her dark brown eyes.
Munroe’s mouth curved into a small smile. “And now I know I was foolish, but my choice led me here, and I’m glad of it. I hope the better life is waiting us all somewhere around the corner.”
Maximoff returned her a smile and wished for his father to still have hope, too.
....
Around midday Peter, Wanda and Ororo found themselves at the library where Scott struggled with his assignment for the Physics class (whether you fought Apocalypse or not, you still had to get a high school diploma). Together they decided that a little break won’t hurt the young man’s studying and settled down to play Monopoly. At first it was lively and fun but within an hour it turned into a bloody buttle when Ororo, and later Peter, went bankrupt, leaving Wanda and Scott face to face. Somehow, Summers missed the moment when Maximoff managed to collect exactly those streets that he most often got on and build expensive hotels which were robbing him every freaking round. Poor Cyclops fought until his last breath, or to be accurate last dollar, but had to admit his defeat after all.
When they were finally done the room was empty of other students as they had been scared away by over enthusiastic shouts and loud swearing.
During the time silver-haired Maximoff ran for the snacks (using a bit of his superhuman speed while Wanda was too engrossed in the game), Jean and Kurt joined the gang. They decided to play again, but this time divided into the following teams: Magnificent Duo (Peter and Kurt), Sneaky Foxes (Jean and Wanda) and Striking Dragon (Ororo and Scott).
The dragon turned out to be less striking than Munroe and Summers hoped, their attempt at victory went down in flames rather quickly. As sneaky as Jean and Wanda were, it was hard for them to come to a consensus on whether they should spend or keep their money, so Magnificent Duo established their superiority, celebrating it loudly.
After sitting for hours, the mutants collectively admitted their butts were numb and decided to choose another game. Even Wanda with her stiff after Raven’s class muscles was all in for that.
The choice fell on Twister with the speedster as a referee. From time-to-time people sneaked into the library to see if there were a heated argument or a drunken party. Imagine their surprise when instead they saw Scott slipping on the vinyl sheet in his Star Wars socks, bumping into Maximoff, who tripped over Kurt’s tail, which almost hit Munroe across the face so that the girl flinched, accidentally elbowing Jean in the ribs. Peter was laughing so hard he hiccupped every five seconds.
When it was time to go to dinner, they had already started playing Who Am I? trying and failing to explain to Wanda that she was Burt Reynolds. She guessed it after all, chewing on the curried chicken, but it took a great deal of Grey’s self-restrain not to give the whisper into the girl’s mind.
After the meal Summers asked Jean to help him with the assignment he set aside “only for an hour or so” that accidentally turned into six hours instead. Ororo went to Jubilee’s room, and Kurt decided to get some fresh air, leaving the twins to themselves.
“You know, if you keep looking at Xavier’s table so intensively some might think you’ve got a crush,” Wanda teased, leaning to her brother.
Peter made a face. “They’re all old.”
“Well, Xavier is rather handsome,” his sister mused, then chortled at her brother’s expression.
“Didn’t know you’re into bald guys,” the speedster bantered. “I will definitely inform Kurt about that newly discovered fact, before his eyeballs fall out from hypnotizing you with his stare.”
“What?” she queried, a deep line appearing between her brows. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Uh-huh,” Peter hummed with a grin.
And how does she not notice it? he thought.
“What bothers you, Pete?” Wanda suddenly asked.
The speedster sighed, meeting her soft gaze. “He is not here.”
Maximoff didn’t need to hear anything further to know whom her brother meant. She didn’t see Erik at dinner too.
I know he is still at school. Did something happen?
We had a full conversation today. Like where not only I talk.
The girl tilted her head, intrigued and worried, because something in Peter’s face told her it wasn’t a lighthearted chat. “Let’s get out, we have been sitting here for far too long.”
The twins left the cafeteria and went upstairs to the speedster’s room. Peter told his sister about the conversation with their father, and mentioned what Munroe said about her first meeting with Lehnsherr.
Wanda remained silent for several minutes, absentmindedly twisting the ring on her finger.
“That he is no saint we knew from the very beginning,” she finally said. “When I look at him…”
“Yeah, I know,” the young man muttered.
Maximoff glanced up at her brother. “Did you change your mind?”
Peter hesitated. He was obsessed with the idea of finding Erik, getting to know him since he first heard the truth, whereas Wanda was rather indifferent, she believed they just put their lives together and there was no need to mess things up because of someone who probably won’t even accept them. Now it looked like the girl became more eager to make their family complete than Peter was.
“You know, I think we should tell him. If not for the happy family reunion, then just for the sake of our mental clarity, to unburden ourselves,” she went on. “And if something goes wrong,” Wanda added, looking at the speedster’s worried expression, “we will figure it out. There is nothing we can’t do when we’re together.”
....