Chapter 5
What started as enthusiastic offer pretty quickly turned into grueling weight lifting workouts. Wanda and Hank were carrying boxes with robot parts from the bunker to the lab on the level one. A few trips to elevator and back to the storage made Maximoff sweat so she switched from a loader to a sorter.
“For fuck’s sake!” the girl exclaimed as she sneezed for the tenth time. “These lads must clean this mess up.”
Even in the yellow light of the lamps that hung from the sailing of this tin, she could see the layers of dust on the boxes that she had to drag around and decide whether their contents would be useful. It looked like McCoy didn’t touch any of it for the last seven years which was basically since he “borrowed” sentinels after DC incident with Magneto and then-President.
“I was just beginning to think that you decided to goof off,” Wanda sneered though you could hear a note of accusation in her voice when she spotted a movement somewhere to her left.
It’s been a concerning while since Hank came down here and she struggled to move one particularly large and heavy box that didn’t want to succumb to her efforts, or curses, or even persuasion.
When McCoy didn’t dignify her teasing comment with the answer the girl raised her head to see what was wrong. Practically everything was wrong because her gaze met a pair of steel grey eyes instead of blue.
“Mr. Lehnsherr,” Wanda got out trying to shake off her surprise. “I took you for Frank. I mean Hank.”
Jesus Christ, she hissed at herself as she felt an embarrassed flash creeping up her face. Stop screwing up, Maximoff!
Erik stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest. He has been here for quite some time, since “for fuck’s sake” to be precise, waiting for the girl to notice him. But she seemingly was so emerged into her own head or her miserable attempts at moving the box that he was no more than a wall or a shelve for her. For the time standing here the man felt like he was invisible.
Wanda scrutinized him openly, looking for a trace of grudge or discontent but she only found a spark of amusement in his eyes.
“Need help?” Erik finally asked.
Sandwiched between the wall and the box, the girl waved her hand dismissively. “I’m good, I can do it on my own.”
Suddenly a muscle in her jaw twitched, her nose crinkled and a loud “achoo” burst out of her, bouncing off the metal walls.
Out of indignation, the girl slammed her hand on the box, cursing under her breath.
Lehnsherr’s mouth curved into a smile. He jerked his head slightly and the box moved to the middle of the room.
“I had everything under control,” Wanda objected, but quickly relented with a good-humored eye roll. “Fine. Maybe I hadn’t. Thank you.”
“What are you doing here?” the man asked, walking to the box to take a better look at it.
The girl slid the lid of the container open, revealing a load of rubbish that didn’t resemble anything close to the sentinels. She put her hands on her hips and sighed ruefully. “I earned the trust of that evil genius so now I’m in the midst of robbing him and selling the stuff on the black market. As you caught me on the crime scene and now know my plan, I offer you to become my partner. We’ll split the money and become immensely rich.”
They swapped a glance; Wanda’s deep green eyes gleamed with mischief that matched her conspiratorial tone. To be honest, Erik had no idea what brought him to the bunker, but he definitely didn’t expect to see someone else here, least of all the speedster’s sister. But he was glad he ended up here. Even just a glimpse of light was much needed in Lehnsherr’s life full of unending sorrow.
So, the man decided to accept her invitation to play along. “Well, if we’re partners now, you can call me Erik. Though I very much doubt that the box of old spare parts and fragments of I-don’t-even-know-what will make us ‘immensely rich’.”
Contentment warmed Wanda’s soul from seeing that more relaxed, lighthearted version of a man, whom she called none other than a father in her head since the moment they met. This and the idea of finally dropping “Mr. Lehnsherr” that felt horribly wrong every time she said that made her smile brighter than you could expect in such circumstances.
“What if it’s like a Pandora’s box?”
“Did we just let out a few troubles?”
“The only trouble we let out was the extra dust.” The girl crinkled her nose. “Pandora’s box was full of crap, that’s for sure, but there was also hope on its bottom. So, what if there’s something valuable and preferably whole hidden within a pile of rubbish?”
“That’s…a way to look at it,” the man said, surprised by a positive approach of someone who spent there more time then clearly wanted.
Wanda gave him a quizzical look. “Wait before I break my nail. Or sneeze again.”
“No sneezing, please,” Lehnsherr said, wincing at the recent memory. “You’ll leave us deaf.”
“Very gentlemanly of you,” the girl grumbled, drawing a subtle chuckle out of Erik.
The Master of Magnetism lifted his hand ready to sort out the metal things from the box but heard a disapproving “tsk”. “What?”
“There are consequences of being lazy at your age,” Wanda teased. When Erik’s brows went up, she added, “Don’t get me wrong, generation and manipulation of magnetic fields is cool, but there may be some things that need to be handled with caution so I suggest to do this the old-fashioned way.”
She squatted down beside the box and began pulling out one thing after another carefully. With nothing left to do, Erik followed her.
“Usually people say I control metal, not magnetic fields,” he noted.
“People are unobservant ignorant fools. For the most part,” the girl crooned. “So-called “control over metal” would have never given you the opportunity to levitate, create force fields and submit ferromagnetic substances to your will.”
Lehnsherr’s eyes bored into her face. “Rather accurate analysis of my powers for a simple observer.”
Wanda raised her eyes, her expression unyielding. “You basically disintegrated half of the buildings on this planet while staying in the air over destroyed Cairo with force field around you so strong even Peter couldn’t get through it. Streams of magnetic elements erupted from the ground wiping everything away so I barely got out of my own apartment. How do you like this observation?”
“Yet you sit here with me,” he said, narrowing his eyes slightly.
No trace of fear, or condemnation was written across her features.
“Why shouldn’t I?” the girl asked, tilting her head. “Besides, it’s more like you are sitting here with me. I’m honestly surprised that this “here” is still underground, untouched by anything. Even the dust from the 60s seemingly in place.”
As soon as she said that, Wanda felt tickling sensation in her nostrils, her eyes watered from trying to hold the sneeze in, but eventually she lost it and another “achoo” erupted from her.
She glanced up to the ceiling and grunted, “I swear to God I will lock McCoy up in here and make sure he breath in as much dust bunnies as possible!”
“He’ll break the door. Sooner or later,” Lehnsherr warned jokingly.
“Really?” Wanda asked, screwing her face. “Shit! Well, I guess I’ll come up with something in that case.”
The men smirked, shaking his head. “What exactly are we looking for?”
“Anything that will help in resurrection of a robot,” the girl mumbled, absorbed in contemplation.
“Buried the hatchet with Hank?” Erik bantered.
“If one day you hear that his brows caught on fire, it wasn’t me,” she crooned.
That made Lehnsherr chuckle and proved rightfulness of Peter’s words. Vindictive indeed.
“Why are you here then?”
“Remember I joked about rent pay in the morning?” Wanda glanced up at her father, her face open. “I feel like a stowaway, or some con men, who just uses Mr. Xavier’s hospitality and gives nothing in return. Working with Hank is my way of making a contribution.”
Erik could easily understand that. Every day he woke up here, he thought of how much he owes to his old friend and tried to return the favor by doing practically everything Charles asked or hinted to do. But at the end of the day, Lehnsherr didn’t have anywhere else to go, whereas Wanda and Peter had.
“What does your family think about you and your brother being here?” he asked, genuinely interested.
Wanda pouted, mulling his question over. “It’s complicated.”
Something in her answer made Erik push further. “Is that why you and Peter turned into ghosts when Charles said about your mother’s call? It’s so complicated that you better stay here than go back home?”
“We didn’t turn into ghosts,” the girl objected. “We were just…a little surprised. I also could have borrowed my mom’s car without her permission.”
Lehnsherr gave her a pointed look.
“I left a note!” Wanda exclaimed defensively under her father’s gaze. “And she wasn’t really mad at me, so we’re good. Besides, I’m an excellent driver, her car is safe with me.”
“I don’t think that the safety of the car is what really worries her,” the man tried to explain, thinking of why it was often difficult for young people to understand that no material thing in the world means more for a parent than their own child.
The girl looked away, her expression became more thoughtful and serious. “Yeah. I know that. But what is safety? Just a fancy word with no attachment to a real place in this world. It’s never permanent.”
That made Erik furrow. Come to think of it, the statement proved to be truthful throughout his life, but what made the girl think that way? For some reason it didn’t sit well with him.
When Wanda finally turned to face him, she shook whatever it was off and slipped on her usual mask of amicability. “You know what? I shouldn’t have stopped you from using your powers to sort things out. This bloody container is bottomless, we can dig through it till night.”
Then a line appeared between her brows. “And I just now realized that we won’t even understand that the night has already fallen.”
Sudden change of topic didn’t trick Lehnsherr, but it was obvious that further discussion of the subject was now closed.
“What about valuable things that needed to be handled with caution?” he asked, remembering the very reason why he was sitting on the floor surrounded by rubbish.
“The bloody fiend dumped me here alone. If something breaks, it will be on his conscience,” the girl declared with a shrug.
“If you say so,” Erik uttered, not unamused.
He raised his hand and every thing that contained metal obeyed to his call, rising into the air. Wanda watched her father with her eyes wide opened. She reached out and touched the rusty pliers that hovered over the box. The girl felt the metal instrument resisting her, as if it had a tight spring that held it in place, allowing only the slightest movement of the object before it went back to its original coordinates.
It was kind of strange for the Master of Magnetism to see how Wanda’s eyes sparked and her face transformed in something close to awe. It reminded him of those rare moments when he showed Nina these “little tricks” and it always made her look at him as if he was a sorcerer in the flash. Maybe if he listened to the inner voice and began to teach her control over her powers instead of letting them develop naturally, then his daughter would have been still alive.
Wanda noticed distant expression in her father’s eyes that now were gleaming in the deem light of the bunker, his jaw set and the metal things that were under his control began to lose their original shape, bending and twisting.
“Mr. Lehnsherr,” the girl called in a broken voice. “Erik.”
It brought the man back, pulling him out of the abyss of guilt and sorrow. His gaze sharpened and numerous bolts, levers and whatnots returned to their previous state, lowering to the floor.
Wanda tried to drain back down the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. The pain she saw on her father’s face made her heart clench. She switched her attention to the container, shushing her emotions.
“I think we have found what we were looking for after all,” she said feebly, picking up an actuator and a piece of still useful cable. “That will do for today.”
The strained silence in the room flailed between them for a moment that thankfully didn’t last for long.
“Wanda,” they heard McCoy’s voice. Then the scientist showed up in the doorway and as his eyes stumbled on Lehnsherr his expression downgraded from friendly to “you again”.
“Erik,” he uttered without enthusiasm.
“Hank,” Wanda mocked. She just couldn’t help it.
“Where the hell have you been? I thought you sacked off,” the girl went on. “If it wasn’t for Erik I would have died from boredom, or pulled a muscle while you were loitering somewhere.”
The scolding part amused Erik, waving off the tension, but it took him by surprise that Wanda found his company pleasant.
“I decided to grab some food for you, but met Raven on my way back here. She asked me to help her with a few things and I think I’ve lost track of time,” Hank exonerated himself.
The girl’s expression turned foxlike. “So Raven, huh?” Then she added, making the poor doctor blush, “Well, if it were her your spent so much time with, I can’t really be mad at you.”
Lehnsherr ducked his head to hide a smile. He stood up, stretching his muscles. Judging by the way his legs and the small of his back were stiff, he had been sitting here for eternity. “What time is it?”
“A quarter to seven,” McCoy chimed like a clock, without even looking at the actual watch on his hand.
Although he still wouldn’t be able to do that since his hands were full with two cups of coffee and a package of pretzels.
“A quarter to seven?” Wanda exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
She had to clutch at Erik in order to keep upright since her leg was so numb, she couldn’t even feel it. She expected him to flinch or give her a pointed look, instead the man looked sympathetically at Wanda, obviously fine with her practically hanging on his arm.
“Do we have everything we need for the sentinels?” she asked, wincing when blood circulation in her limb resumed its work.
Hank took in the sight of the bunker, his gaze slid from one box to another then to the details now scattered around large container, Lehnsherr and Maximoff. “I think I’ll check it out just in case we missed something, but overall, I believe we’ve got everything to begin our work at the lab.”
The girl turned her face to Erik. “Care to join our gang of nerds? I believe three bright minds can conjure something truly meaningful.”
Actually, it’s my laboratory, the scientist thought indignantly, having no desire to work side by side with the Master of Magnetism.
“After our morning encounter, I couldn’t even imagine that I would later hear no less than two generous offers from you,” the man bantered, earning a grimace from Wanda.
McCoy fidgeted in place, wondering when these two buddied up. The fact that Maximoff called Lehnsherr by his first name didn’t escape his notice, too.
“I don’t think Hank shares your enthusiasm about me taking part in his work,” Erik replied at last.
But by the small crinkles around his eyes Wanda understood that though it was practically a “no” from him, her offer still made him gladden.
The girl gave her father a smile and let go off of him, flicking her attention to McCoy.
“Oh, Hank, you really brought some fuel for us,” Maximoff finally noted, approaching him. “That’s so thoughtful of you. Thank you.”
She took one cup from his hands and closed her eyes, breathing in the smell of lifegiving drink. Instead of taking a sip, she turned around and carefully handed it to Erik. “A cup of coffee before dinner?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” he replied with a rather sly glance at McCoy.
“I have another, last for today, offer. Let’s drink it on our way to dinner. Anywhere you like, actually, as long as it’s not here. I’m starting to feel claustrophobic,” Wanda admitted.
“You go, and I’ll stay here for a while. I want to be done with this place today so tomorrow we wouldn’t need to leave the lab,” Hank replied, putting the package of pretzels on the nearest shelf, accidentally brushing away at least an inch of dust.
Maximoff stopped breathing immediately and practically ran away from the room, trying not to spill her coffee from already half-empty cup.
The scientist looked at Erik, puzzled.
“You seriously need to clean up here,” the man answered.
Lehnsherr found the girl waiting for him on the way out of the bunker. As soon as he approached her, Wanda lowered her voice to say, “Maybe we should close him here for a few hours?”
The man looked over his shoulder at Hank who was already rummaging through the boxes. “He will miss the dinner.”
“He has pretzels,” she noted offhandedly.
To Wanda’s utter surprise, the Master of Magnetism held out his hand, the mechanism of the door screeched and it simply closed.
“Erik, what are you doing?” they heard McCoy shouting. “Open the door! It’s not funny!”
The girl had to cover her mouth with her hand to contain the laughter, her eyes twinkling with pure amusement.
“He talks too much at the table, it’s unnerving,” Lehnsherr said with a half shrug.
....
While his sister was literally somewhere under the ground, Peter was bored on the school grounds. Although he was more lost, then bored. He got used to spending his days at his mom’s basement, which practically became a real hideout from the world, or he played with Lora, or chatted with Wanda on the phone. And now he was in unfamiliar environment, interacting with record number of mutants. Man, that was bad! A bit confusing too.
Before lunch Jean gave Maximoff and Ororo a lesson in archery, though her attempt to teach them went down in flames. Munroe’s concentration was so on point that she did an inside-out shot. Only not an arrow hit the target, but the lightning. Peter didn’t like the bow, or the bow didn’t like Peter, it didn’t really matter since the speedster couldn’t hold it properly. In the end, he got rid of it and was throwing arrows like darts, demonstrating his accuracy.
Somewhere in the middle of the day, he accidentally stumbled upon relaxing out on the patio Kurt, and since teleportation seemed like a super cool ability to Peter, he bombarded the young man with questions. To Wagner’s misfortune half of them were left unanswered, because he himself didn’t really know what he was capable of, leading to Maximoff coming up with a brilliant idea – to try things out. The two of them traveled around the school, popping out and disappearing in the middle of halls, classes, and once in Summers’s bathroom (thankfully empty). At some point Nightcrawler ran out of energy and they were in a free fall into the pond for a few seconds before the young man wrapped his tail around the speedster’s wrist and teleported them to the kitchen. The landing though wasn’t smooth as they practically bumped into the tiled floor with a loud yelp, scaring the hell out of snacking Jubilee. The girl then invited Wagner and Maximoff to play a computer game she bought just two days ago and Peter, as a true video game lover, accepted her offer, dragging Kurt along.
“Mystery House” bewitched young mutants for three full hours so when they finally tore themselves from the computer screen it was already dinner time and the day basically came to its end.
....
When someone snaps at Magneto in the middle of peaceful morning, it attracts a bunch of onlookers. When the same person enters the cafeteria in the evening of the same day by Magneto’s side, it causes everyone in the room to stare with their jaws dropped.
“I wish you sneezed at least once,” Wanda said, walking beside Erik. “Just one tiny sneeze would make me feel better.”
“That’s probably the strangest wish I’ve ever heard of.” The man chuckled. “I thought you’ll sneeze your lungs out at one point. Are you allergic to dust?”
The girl scrunched up her face, trying to remember any similar situations. “Well, I thought I wasn’t until now. Or it’s just the dust from the 60s has a special impact on me.”
“Why precisely from the 60s?” Lehnsherr asked, emptying his cup.
“I found a newspaper from 1962 with such layer of dust I was barely able to see the numbers.”
The corners of Erik’s mouth lifted slightly. “1962 was the year I met Charles, Raven and Hank. Before them I thought I was alone. Then we found other mutants.”
Wanda turned her head to the men. “So, it’s when everything has changed.”
“Did you already tell him?” Raven asked, leaning closer to Peter while they were choosing the dish to dine.
“Ah?” the speedster lifted his head, confused.
Mystique nodded somewhere to her left and when silver-haired Maximoff looked that way, he saw his sister having a conversation with their father. It looked like she was telling some story to him, gesticulating expressively, her face beaming. Erik replied something and gave her a small but genuine smile. A picture of an idyllic father-daughter talk brought to life.
Peter’s brows rose slowly as he didn’t believe his own eyes. “As far as I know we didn’t tell him anything.”
“How does Peter address you?” Wanda asked Lehnsherr, putting their empty cups into the container for dirty tableware. “It popped out in my mind earlier this day and keeps haunting me.”
The question made him recollect some of recent encounters with the speedster. “It’s mostly ‘you’ or ‘man’, I guess.”
The girl giggled. “Yeah, sounds like my brother. Be glad he doesn’t call you “Mr. Magnet” or something along these lines.”
Magneto’s witty reply was shamelessly interrupted by Xavier, whom neither Lehnsherr nor Maximoff noticed earlier.
“For God’s sake, what happened to you?” the Professor exclaimed, assessing them.
Erik and Wanda swapped confused glances, then looked down at their clothes. Both looked like they spent their day as participants in some sort of underground labyrinth game on surviving.
“Very gentlemanly of you, Charles,” the man bantered.
The girl’s lips wobbled, fighting an impish grin.
“Erik and I were sorting out “the hidden treasures” in the bunker to help Hank with his robotic idea,” she explained. “Needless to say, someone should do the cleaning down there.”
Charles’ eyes wandered to Lehnsherr. “And where is Hank?”
“We didn’t dig your best buddy somewhere in the yard before dinner, Mr. Xavier,” Wanda sneered. “He is just –” She cast a glance at her father, meeting his bluish eyes. “– doing extra work with determination of a true scientist.”
The man smirked. “We can put it that way, too.”
The telepath took a long shrewd look at Lehnsherr and Maximoff, trying to comprehend this unexpected tandem. He noticed a spark of amusement in his old friend’s eyes, a rare phenomenon now, a warm smile tugged Xavier’s lips and he abandoned other questions. After all, they didn’t really dig Hank, right?
“Let’s have a dinner, then,” he said at last and headed to Raven and Peter, who were watching the scene like a pair of hawks.
“Fancy to take the vacant place at the table?” Erik suddenly asked, facing Wanda.
As tempting of an offer as it was, the girl, however, couldn’t accept it. She came here because of her brother, and as she continued her stay at the school, he remained her top priority.
“It would be a poor strategy on my part. See, the weirdos I share a meal with usually sit by that large window,” she pointed to their table, making Wagner, who was chewing on his French fries, choke under Lehnsherr’s gaze, “so if by any chance our mutual friend comes in time for dinner, I’ll just jump out of it very effectively and very dramatically and run away into the night.”
“Not bad of a plan, I must say,” the man admitted, chuckling.
Wanda grinned. “Well, if something goes wrong, you can join my cowardly ranks.”
“I’ll rather fly out of it since Hank is a good runner.”
The girl pouted. “Seems like I have a flaw in my plan.”
“What’s plan?” Peter intervened, shouldering his sister.
What the hell is going on?
I’ll tell you everything, but not now and definitely not here.
“This information is not to be disclosed,” his sister joked in a serious voice. “But if I run, don’t try to catch up with me.”
Don’t pay attention, just play along.
The speedster narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“If you want to run away from Hank you’ll need Peter,” Erik noted.
Peter was ready to strangle them both, unable to solve this charade. Why did his sister have to run from Hank? Why were they covered in dust? What was going on?!
“I’m of no use right now,” he said just for the sake of not looking like a third wheel in a conversation.
Lehnsherr cast a glance at the young man’s leg free from the cast. “Why is that?”
Seizing the opportunity, silver-haired Maximoff complained to his father, “Hank ‘strongly recommends’ not to use my speed for a few days as a precautionary measure. I’m allowed only to walk like you two and that’s all. Absurd, right?”
“Sounds logical, actually,” the man replied. “But I’m sorry to hear that.”
It was true. Seeing the speedster in action gave him a clear understanding of the fact, that for Peter his mutation was a gift. Now, though temporally, he couldn’t use what was as natural to him as breathing and it distressed him.
“Thanks,” Peter said in earnest.
Standing here with his sister and their father felt organic for a moment, as if they were a family sharing not only genes, but also deep understanding of each other.
“I brought you a few tissues,” the young man suddenly remembered. “Cause, you know, you look like –”
“Don’t even finish this sentence,” Wanda warned, taking an offered piece of paper from her brother.
Erik did too with a closed-mouth smile as a sign of his gratitude.
“Well, have a good evening,” he said after a moment, and, as Wanda replied with her polite “you too”, walked away.
Maximoff swiveled to his sister. “What did you do? Did you cast a spell on him or tricked him into something? Why does he look so strange? Why do you look so unperturbed? Where have you been? I thought you were going to visit Hank’s lab. Where have you both been?”
“My dear brother, relax,” the girl crooned with an impish grin. “I didn’t do anything aside from having a conversation with him. I’ll get ahead of another stream of questions and say that we didn’t touch family topic. I mean…he asked about the morning call, but it didn’t lead to a big revelation.”
Then her stomach rumbled demanding something more significant than a cup of coffee. “I’ll give the details as soon as I feed my inner monster.”
The speedster was ready to swoop his sister in his arms and rush away from here, but he thought better of it, knowing full well that this tactic would have unpleasant consequences on behalf of scolding Wanda and aching leg. It left him with one option only – fell into step beside the girl, anticipating her story.
Once the twins took their seats, everyone at the table glanced up at preening Wanda.
“Did you dig your way down to the lab?” Scott teased.
The girl grimaced. “Ah-ha-ha. Funny. Readying yourself for a career as a stand-up comic in case you fail another physics test?”
“I passed it today,” the young man grumbled, making everyone at the table titter. The struggle was real but Summers emerged victorious (cheat sheets that he and Jean had been writing till 2 a.m. didn’t count).
“You have a little smudge on your cheek,” Kurt noted sheepishly to Wanda.
“Kannst du mir bitte helfen?*” she asked, handing him a tissue, as she was already busy trying to wipe away a stain of machine oil from her T-shirt.
“Ich?*” Wagner pointed at himself hesitantly.
“Na ja, außer dir spricht hier nur mein Vater Deutsch, nicht wahr?*” she replied.
Familiar with the meaning of the word “Vater” Peter elbowed his sister and looked around, his gaze sliding over Xavier’s table. But everything was fine and he sat back, putting his hands behind his head, practically sprawling on his stool.
Wagner took the tissue and with his hands a bit shaky, carefully wiped away the dust from Wanda’s cheek, doing it slower than was necessary, actually.
As Ororo watched the scene, her mouth curved into a smile. Her eyes then stumbled on silver-haired Maximoff, a “Is he flirting with my sister? Gross!” was written across his face in neon letters so she had to pressed her lips together to contain her laughter.
....
It took two hours, one broken claw and a dozen of sneezes from Hank to free himself but he did it. As soon as he got out of the bunker, he rushed to the cafeteria, which was already empty, and then to Charles’ office in hopes to find Lehnsherr there and kick his ass.
“I think the last time I had hot chocolate in my cup was probably in the fifties,” Xavier mused, a smile playing on his lips.
Raven grinned. “Isn’t that right around the time when you slipped on the tiled floor in the kitchen in your funny-woolly socks and poured it all on yourself?”
“Can’t remember anything like that.” He looked at the ceiling, pretending to be wracking his brains.
“But I remember it clearly! You had been whining about your burnt chest for three days after that!” Darkholme burst out laughing at the memory.
The moment Charles raised the cup to his lips in attempt to hide his embarrassment Beast stormed into the room, practically ripping the door off its hinges.
“Ouch,” the Professor hissed as he flinched in surprise and spilled the steaming drink on his chest.
McCoy surveyed the office, his nostrils flared and he growled to himself, “Must be in his room then.”
“What happened?” Raven asked hastily, standing up from the couch. “Where have you been?”
“Can someone give me a napkin, please?” Charles intervened.
“Lehnsherr locked me in the bunker,” Hank complained, crossing his hands over his chest. If he pouted now, he would have looked like an offended little boy.
“A napkin would still not hurt me,” Xavier insisted.
Darkholme rolled her eyes. Good Lord, are there any adults in this house?
“Close the door and sit, you’ll wake the kids up,” she ordered to McCoy, then walked around the table and pulled out a box of tissues, handing it to the telepath. “Looks like the fifties all over again to me.”
The Professor gave her a pointed look, but thanked for the help. Hank meanwhile sat in the chair nearby.
“Why did he do that? What happened between you two?” the telepath puzzled, cleaning his shirt.
“Because he is an asshole, that’s why.”
Raven snorted, taking the empty seat. “And if being more precise?”
Xavier’s eyes sparked. “Was Wanda with you by any chance?”
“Actually, she was,” McCoy said, taking a better look at his broken claw.
Damn it! Maybe try to file it? Definitely should file it, or else I’ll rip something…or someone, the man thought.
“What Wanda has to do with it?” Mystique asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Hank, can you give us more details, please?” Charles turned his face to his friend.
“Well, Wanda and I were sorting out the necessary equipment in the bunker. More precisely, she was sorting it out, and I was carrying the boxes to the laboratory. Then I met you.” Beast glanced rather sheepishly at Raven. “When I came back Erik was already there and it looked like they had some sort of conversation. He is no longer Mr. Lehnsherr to her, by the way, but simply Erik.”
The last line was uttered in a resentful tone.
“I noticed it, too,” Xavier agreed. “They seem to have found a common language, although I must admit I didn’t expect it.”
“It doesn’t lead us to Hank being trapped in the bunker,” Raven reminded.
McCoy leaned back further into the chair, folding his hands on his lap. “Literally nothing happened between us. He just closed the door and left.”
Raven lifted her brows. “And Wanda was with him?”
The man simply nodded.
Bonding activities in the Lehnsherrs’ style, apparently, the woman thought, snickering to herself. But it couldn’t escape her notice that neither Peter nor Wanda still didn’t tell anything to Erik about the family ties they shared, making her wonder if they were willing to do so at all.
When Charles spoke, it was practically the same observation that Raven mulled over in her mind, “Whatever it was, Erik seemed to shake off the burden of grief for a longer moment today. I only hope for that spark of peace to stay with him.”
The three of them fell into silence, thinking about all the hardships and losses they had come through, pulling each other from the dark, or dragging along. Eventually life always brought Charles, Erik, Raven and Hank together in times when they needed that the most. Just like now.
....
When Wanda’s head touched the pillow there was a smile on her face she couldn’t and didn’t really want to contain. It was the first day at Xavier’s school when the girl finally got to spend some quality time with her father, have a real conversation with him instead of prim “Wanda” and “Mr. Lehnsherr” they threw at each other in the course of the past week.
The twins lived fourteen years with one parent only, not knowing even the name of their father to then find out he was a world known criminal and finally meet him at twenty-one. Regardless of circumstances, Maximoff was thankful for this chance and she couldn’t resist the desire to finally bring the family together. The only thing that made Wanda’s heart stammer was that that family will never be complete without Nina, their little sister who was lost to the cruel fate.
....
*Can you help me, please?
*Me?
*Well, apart from you, only my father speaks German here, doesn't he?