Chapter 9
The Professor barely got time to settle down at his desk to start his working day when someone knocked on the door of his office. He sighted, readying himself for another incident or a quarrel between the youngsters he had to resolve.
“Come in,” he drawled wearily and glanced up from his papers.
Charles’ eyes widened slightly in surprise as Peter Maximoff was standing in the doorway. For his time being at school the young man has never stepped in this room or sought Xavier’s company. Was it about his tense encounter with Scott in the morning?
“Peter,” he said hesitantly as if his own eyes could trick him. “Did something happen? Come on in. Take a seat.”
Throughout his school life the speedster had been in the principal’s office countless times before the killjoy realized his speeches about discipline and the importance of education were all in vain. So being here now felt like he traveled back in time to his teenage years that, apart from the Pentagon prison break, weren’t really fun.
Before the young man could utter a word Erik appeared behind his back. It seemed like the Master of Magnetism was no less surprised to see Peter here then was Charles. For a moment father and son were just looking at each other in silent contemplation.
Silver-haired Maximoff noticed that the men’s beard was now much shorter as, apparently, he heeded his advice and took care of it, but what truly made the speedster happy was that his father looked less like a ghost now. It wasn’t about his appearance, it was about the glow of life that was slowly returning to his bluish eyes, a glimmer of hope for the people who cared about him that no matter how many times life tried to break him, Lehnsherr chose to stand up.
Erik, for his part, had the chance to remark some changes in Peter’s face that came with age. His cheekbones were now more pronounced, there was a subtle shadow of stubble on his chin and cheeks that seemingly was as gray as his hair. The hairstyle also changed since the Pentagon, it was considerably shorter and it suited the boy better, the locks falling on his forehead were wavy, just like Wanda’s. A hitherto inconspicuous detail in his features now caught Lehnsherr’s eye – there was a single freckle on the tip of the boy’s nose which somehow added up to his mischievous personality.
Charles watched these two attentively, trying to guess what they were thinking about. Once again, proving that invasion of privacy wasn’t his thing.
Unfortunately, the moment was ruined by the pen that suddenly rolled from Xavier’s desk and fell with a thunder-like in this silence sound, making them all flinch.
Lehnsherr turned his head towards the Professor. “Raven took your troublemakers to the ring. Looks like she decided to give them a chance to blow off the steam.”
The man sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Not sure it’s the right course of actions.”
“I think you can trust her on this. Of all people, she is the one who can find the way out,” Peter intervened, mentally going back to the moment in Cairo when Mystique’s speech knocked some sense into Magneto.
“I believe her training session includes you too,” Erik pointed out.
“Me?” The young man snorted, pointing at himself. “I’m as cool as a cucumber.”
A corner of his father’s mouth lifted. “What are you doing here, then?”
When Wanda asks for something, it’s hard to say “no”, Peter thought. And if speak in general you are the reason behind it all.
“I though Prof must have hella work to do so I’m here to offer my help,” he answered with a shrug.
Xavier’s brows went up. It was the last thing he expected to hear from the young man who couldn’t be busy doing only one thing not to mention sitting still and quiet at the desk.
“It’s mainly forms and students’ files,” the man kind of warned the speedster. “I don’t think it will be any of your interest to sort it all out for hours.”
I sure as hell won’t be captivated by that, silver-haired Maximoff agreed but wasn’t going to retreat.
“Hours? You definitely need my help.” He cracked his knuckles, accepting the challenge.
“Don’t miss the once in a lifetime opportunity, Professor,” Lehnsherr advised jokingly.
In truth, Erik came to this office for the same reason as did Peter. He noticed tiredness crept up into Charles’ features from sleepless nights, incidents at school and probably it was the aftermath of the battle with En Sabah Nur, too. As Lehnsherr took the accountability for the latter on himself, he decided to help his old friend with school matters. Even if it were some paperwork. After all, these were his last days here since the Master of Magnetism was planning to leave the school and find his place in life all over again.
A smile bloomed on Xavier’s lips. “So now I’ve got two assistants?”
“Don’t get too excited” Erik’s eyes said.
In a minute, the Professor took a huge box out of somewhere and placed it with a loud “thud” on his desk.
“Not that much of a work here,” the speedster remarked, expecting to see something on the larger scale. Like a room stuffed to the brim with document cases where you’ll wither and die from boredom or cut all your fingers with sheets of paper and bleed to death. In any case, this office-like job ended on a macabre note in the speedster’s imagination.
Lehnsherr shared the young man’s opinion on the amount of work, starting to think that Xavier just exaggerated the problem.
The telepath bended down and took another box from under his desk.
“When did you manage to accumulate so many papers?” the Master of Magnetism got surprise.
Charles gave him a rather impish grin. “As I said, school for mutants is still a school.”
“Well, we have a telepath, a Master of Magnetism and the fastest man alive, I think we can cope with two boxes of recycled wood, right?” Peter tried to cheer the men up (himself included).
“Oh, there are three boxes, actually. I have one more over here,” the Professor corrected him and barely kept the laugh in as Erik and Peter exchanged glances, “Is it too late to have a change of heart?” was written all over their faces as both of them were men of act.
Lehnsherr sighed but scooped the nearest pile of papers and settled down in the chair. “I guess it’s time for Hank to modernize your system.”
Silver-haired Maximoff snorted. “I bet Wanda will retire from his lab then.”
“How is she, by the way?” Charles asked, his voice was filled with genuine care.
He was on his way to check out Wanda, Scott and Ororo, maybe have a talk with them about traumatizing things they saw, when he stumbled upon not at all peaceful gathering in the corridor. Then Moira came unexpectedly to visit him and take a look at the school, later the fire happened…In a nutshell, it was already a hell of a day and it was highly unlikely he would be able to talk with the young people before the very dinner.
“Suffering a fit of migraine and moral grinding,” the young man replied, a somewhat regretful expression crossed his features but he blinked it away, slipping on the signature perky mask everyone had already got accustomed to. “But mostly migraine.”
“What we gotta do with it?” the speedster uttered next and to his embarrassment his voice turned into a comical grunt at the end because unlike Erik, he straight off took the whole box not at all prepared for it to be that heavy.
Watching Peter plop down on the vacant seat basically hugging the carton made the corners of Xavier’s lips turn up. A childish grown-up.
“I had to renew, or rather, recollect the information about my students, add a few more on newcomers and put away on those who decided to leave. To my shame, three weeks of setting it aside turned into three boxes of mixed-up documents I, now seems like we, need to sort out into fifty-seven files.”
A contemptuous look from the speedster befell on the documents instantaneously.
Despite the usual liveliness and waggishness coming in waves from Peter, Lehnsherr could still spot the aftermath of the morning conflict in him, a fleck of unease was lurking in the smallest details – his jaw sank downwards as if it were barely able to withstand its own weight, his eyes looked darker without the usual twinkle in them, shadowed with something that apparently occupied his mind. The fact that he even knew the boy’s ticks took the man aback for a moment but believed to be lost curiosity had already resurfaced from the depths of his soul.
“What was the matter between you and Summers?” Erik asked, startling the young man.
Peter tried to wave it off. “Teenage stuff, nothing to worry about.”
His father raised a brow not at all convinced. “You and Wanda bristled up like a pair of hedgehogs.”
“Did you just seriously call us two prickly balls with social issues?”
It was perhaps the first time when the Master of Magnetism broke under somebodies’ gaze…because he huffed a laugh, the sound so sudden and rich it bounced from the cabinet’s walls, pleasing immensely a son and an old friend of his.
“They are nice animals, able to survive in tough conditions,” the man tried to exonerate the comparison.
The speedster crinkled his nose. “They are nasty.”
“Fine,” Lehnsherr relented, a faint smile was still dancing on his lips. “So, you two took a fighting stance because…”
Sis, you send me straight to inquisition. You owe me that pineapple pie you used to make for Hanukkah, silver-haired Maximoff whined, hoping the message would reach the addressee.
Even though Charles didn’t approve prying-out-the-answers tactic in dealing with problems, he couldn’t deny the desire to know what was the cause of two conflicts at once, especially the one that included Jean, usually a peacemaker. That’s why when the speedster briefly shifted his attention to the telepath, kind of waiting for him to intervein, he didn’t find what he was looking for.
“Let’s say Scott doesn’t have all pieces of a puzzle yet throws catchy words around,” Peter drawled cryptically. “Heedless behavior but as I said nothing to really worry about. We’ll figure everything out.”
“I hope so,” the Professor replied on exhale. “Please, remember you can always talk to me if you need.”
The speedster gave him a short nod, plunging into paper work. He still felt his father’s perspicacious gaze but opted for inaction, a rare thing for him if you asked his mother or sister.
It was either a petty spar indeed or something personal, ‘catchy’ as Peter said, Erik concluded.
He was about to get to the business that brought him in this office in the first place when once again he witnessed a miracle that was mutation. For the time being here Peter’s powers manifested only in his ability to chatter without a stop and the man began to forget what this boy could do, what he had already done.
While Maximoff ran through various documents staffed in the box his hands moved with such speed Lehnsherr’s eyes were barely able to detect the movements, it was more like a turbidity you would unsuccessfully try to blink away.
‘Extraordinary’ was one of many words that sparked in Erik’s mind. And apparently on his tongue too because the young man glanced at him with something resembling a complacent grin.
Now organized piles of papers were laid in a line on Xavier’s desk, making the telepath and the Master of Magnetism look like two loafers.
Charles picked up one, leafing through a formed file on Ah Lam Yang, one of the newcomers. Creeping up the school walls ivy was her courtesy as she had an amazing connection with flora.
“That’s impressive,” he mumbled. “Thank you, Peter.”
Silver-haired Maximoff gave him an “easy peasy lemon squeezy” shrug.
“Not only for that but for saving my students and my friends here and for getting involved there, in Cairo. I should’ve said this a long time ago, actually. I apologize for my silence. I don’t take such things for granted.”
Peter didn’t really expect anyone to appraise something he had done without a second thought, least of all from Xavier who hadn’t even been here at that ill-fated moment, still a simple “thank you” was always a way to make a day better.
The gears in Charles’ mind that were always working rapidly came to a halt as the dots suddenly connected into a rightful guess.
“You are not responsible for the tragedy that had befallen the Summers family, Peter.”
The heart in the young man’s chest leaped then stop for a moment, stroke by the words. His throat went so dry it was a miracle he was able to get out, “I would prefer for you not to look into my head.”
There was some strange heaviness pressing on him and no sooner he realized that it wasn’t the weight of the fear of the family secret being exposed but the actual weight. When the young man turned his face, he almost flinched, not at all prepared to accept the fact that Erik set aside the papers and put his hand on his shoulder at some point, looking into his face with something Peter was afraid to confuse with genuine concern.
“You’re doing it again,” the man said quietly.
The speedster blinked in complete incomprehension of this simple phrase so Lehnsherr had to tilt his head slightly. Maximoff’s gaze traveled to the pointed direction to see his foot tapping rapidly, threatening to bring destruction to the shiny floor. It took longer than it should’ve for the fastest human on Earth to stop his own limb because panic overtook the young man’s mind, plunging him into a state of inebriation of some sort.
Erik clapped him briefly on the shoulder before he took his hand away, the absence of his steading touch now felt wrong.
Peter’s blanched face made Charles hasten to clarify things.
“I assure you I didn’t look into your mind. In fact, it’s not an easy task for a telepath to read your thoughts.”
It soothed right until the better part of the “affirmation” fully dawned on.
“Meaning you tried?” the speedster uttered with his brows raised, more a statement then a question.
A bit guiltily expression crossed the man’s face. “I was just checking how you were doing in the first few days after the end of the world situation. You seemed…lost.”
He was indeed, understandably so – it was the first time in many eyers the speedster had to cope with life without using his gift, he also had to explain it all to his worried mom and shell-shocked Wanda, aside from living under one roof, more like in one bunker, with the man who was his father. But he didn’t dare to think of it right now.
“That’s pretty screwed-up, Prof, really,” the young man replied instead. “You could’ve just asked.”
“Would you tell me anything other than ‘I’m all good’?” Charles asked with a sad smile also familiar with some of the speedster’s habits.
A challenge sparked in Erik’s eyes. “Is there no room to leave some things to yourself?”
“What if the room is already filled to the brim?” the man retorted with a meaningful look.
The Master of Magnetism snorted bitterly. “There’s always an excuse for a mind trick.”
Although his father’s gesture of stepped in (kind of) was nice, Peter fidgeted in place sensing the growing tension in the air. He had no desire to explore where this conversation could lead these two.
“Did you get it?” he intervened. “Why I seemed lost? Did you get the answer?”
It was an attempt to shift their focus as well as a way to know what Xavier was still able to find out in Pandora’s box that was the speedster’s mind.
Charles broke the contest of shooting mental daggers with his old friend/nemesis on occasions and sighed somewhat ruefully, flicking his attention back to the young man.
“It’s quite a task to keep up with the stream of your thoughts. An attribute of your mutation, I presume. I only grasped that some family matter bothered you but couldn’t discern it any further than this general idea.”
Silver-haired Maximoff sank into the chair ever so slightly, not ready to let himself get carried away by relief.
“Do you… hear inner dialogues or it’s more like looking at the images?”
“It’s a good question,” Charles noted, always pleased to find that intense curiosity in young people. “One I’m afraid I can’t answer to the full extent. Let’s say I look into your head right now and ideally it would feel like I have a second voice in mine. It’s a bit different with memories.”
He stopped for a minute searching for the right example.
“The closest comparison I can offer you is watching a film with a few differences though. Not only I can be a viewer but feel the emotions and get what a person thought at that particular moment. I can restore the long-forgotten memories as well as alter them.”
A memory of his own came to Lehnsherr’s mind, the one that the telepath found somewhere in the depth – his mother and he were lighting up a candle in celebration of Hanukkah, his father was there too, snatching a piece from challah he always asked to make a bit sweeter than it should be. Reminiscing these simple happy times always made love for his long-lost parents shine brighter and pain from being robbed of the right to have them by his side for far longer than he had pinch harder.
He relented a bit towards Charles. At the end of the day, it wasn’t fair to blame the mutant for using his gift when he thought it necessary.
“And what’s with me?” Peter went on with questioning. “You can’t hear my thoughts clearly or see a full picture? At any moment or it depends on something?”
Charles tilted his head, an interest of a researcher lighted up his features. “We can test it right now if you want.”
The young man gave it an actual thought while watching the Professor lifting his hand in slow motion. The knowledge might’ve proved to be useful in the future, even the nearest, considering at least two mutants around him who had telepathic abilities.
“Nah, I’ll pass, thanks,” the speedster crooned before Xavier could touch his temple and work his magic. “I forgot to inform the bats in my belfry about upcoming visitors so they didn’t have time to do a clean-up.”
Even though Peter thought Charles a trustworthy man who could give a piece of sensible advice, especially when it came down to Erik, the speedster considered it to be the last resort, something he and his twin could use in case of a fuck up (and the chances of it happening were high). Who knew what the telepath would see in his mind if he looked into it right now? Regardless of the mutation’s attributes, the young man didn’t have any desire to stumble and ruin something that wasn’t even build yet.
Xavier’s mouth curved into a half smile as he gave Peter a short reassuring nod of knowing the boundaries.
“What were you doing that day here anyway?” Erik suddenly intervened, looking at silver-haired Maximoff. “As far as I know you weren’t Charles’ student.”
So much of having a room for something private, shot through his old friends’ mind.
Stop compromising me! Peter got indignant and anxious at the same time from playing a ping pong of hard questions with these two.
He lifted his shoulder in a half shrug, feigning nonchalance. “Happened to be passing by.”
‘He was looking for you’ Hank told Charles three weeks ago. The man himself never tried to bring it up and by the kept silence from Peter, the telepath got it that whatever the matter was, it either resolved or simply ceased to exist for the speedster who seemed in no hurry to leave the school.
“It’s a long way from Washington to Westchester,” The Master of Magnetism remarked.
“Not that long if not move at a snail’s pace,” the speedster parried.
The corners of Erik’s eyes crinkled, softening the look in them, giving Peter a glimpse of him being unbothered for a moment by the seemingly endless tribulations of his life. A moment that miraculously vanquished the doubts swarming in the young man’s head giving in to the hopes blooming in his heart.
“In any case, I’m glad you are here. Both of you,” Xavier concluded, sensing a positive shift in the general mood, and also made a mental note to have a word with Mr. Summers.
As if silver-haired Maximoff was not a speedster but a telepath, he turned his face to the Professor. “If you’re gonna talk to Scott don’t mention me. I feel like a snitch even though I didn’t actually tell you the reason of our…temperate altercation.”
“Temperate altercation,” his father repeated, smirking much to the young man’s amusement. “Shall remember that.”
Xavier ignored the remark, keeping his attention on Peter. “Well, I don’t see how sharing what bothers you makes you a ‘snitch’.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” the speedster replied and noticing the man’s incredulous expression hastened to add, “I mean, I can’t say I didn’t think about it but after Wanda’s lecture on self-deprecation and all…She is the master of beating the shi – shady mindset out of you. Verbally, of course. In my case.”
He snatched Erik’s untouched portion of documents to sort them out while the man’s memory revisited all the moments when he witnessed Peter’s twin’s temperament. Wanda seemed like the one you wouldn’t want to trifle with and as the morning showed, the silver-haired boy had a bit of fire in him as well. Quite a captivating duo.
“What I’m trying to say is that you should talk to Scott only if you believe it’ll help him somehow,” Peter uttered, forming new students’ files on the desk. “Otherwise let him process it all on his own.”
A piece of advice on giving someone time coming from impatient by nature speedster was a surprising thing to hear but it also made the words weight more, reminding Charles that not everything called for his interference.
When the telepath emerged from his thoughts the two mutants across his now staffed with packed documents desk were already staring at him expectedly.
“Care to join me for lunch?” he asked after all, having a sudden desire to leave the office and take a moment for himself, enjoying the company of his friends who, for some reason, despite all the differences, reminded him of a father and a son at the moment.
....
A seed of remorse was slowly but surely growing in Scott’s hart with each lunge he made towards the imaginary enemy following Raven’s commands. Lehnsherr didn’t kill his brother, albite him taking the Professor was the provoking factor for Alex to use his powers. Strike. But in that case, he could blame Hank for building dangerously explosive reactor right under the school that led to its total distraction. Strike. Peter acted heroic when he proceeded to get everyone out of here, even someone’s dog. And he spat an unfair accusation right in his face. Strike. Wanda had to witness her father’s torture and reminisce her own horrifying memory in one night. She could easily prick him in return for hurting her brother yet she chose to only cool him down with the truthful words. Strike. Even Kurt got the portion of undeserved vitriol in his address. Strike.
“Five minutes break before the second round!” Mystique announced, accompanying it with a clap of her hands that ripped the young man out of the whirlpool of thoughts.
The mutant seemed unaffected by the night’s event, her face held no traces of insomnia or distress on that matter. Inadvertently Summers’ mind went back to Lehnsherr as he shuffled to the bench in the corner of the room and plopped down onto it, shoving his hair back away from his sweaty face. Did his memories haunt him? Did he have any regrets? Would he go back in time and do things differently if he knew the outcome of his actions? What was it like for the twins to know Magneto was their father? He could ask them, of course, but would they even want to speak with him now?
The young man let out a heavy sigh. Having a life of a friendless High School student didn’t seem like a hard pill to swallow anymore.
“Here,” he heard Jean’s voice that made him lift his head.
“Thanks,” he replied, taking the bottle of water from her hands with a semblance of a closed-mouth smile.
These were actually the first words they said to each other since she left his room in the night. Jean sat with him on the floor for about an hour after he woke up and tried to talk his anxiety down before Hank stopped by, reminding them about school’s rules.
“Didn’t expect to see you here,” Scott admitted when the girl took a seat beside him.
She smirked rather bitterly, studying the lines on her palms. “Me neither.”
Going forward inevitable ‘why’, Grey expanded her answer, “Right after you left, Wanda and I had an argument of our own. Nothing really serious. Basically, it flared up out of nothing and ended up the same way.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Summers said genuinely.
The girl pressed her lips into a thin line. “Looks like today brings the best in us.”
“Or it’s just I was patient zero.”
Jean shouldered him; a faint smile tugged the corners of her lips.
She then spotted Kurt who walked in the room and stopped in the doorway with a glance at her, hesitant if he should come up to them or keep the distance in case their mutual friend was still not in the mood.
But Scott noticed him too and determined to fix his screw-ups starting with the young man, raised his hand and waved it slightly, an invitation and a consolatory gesture of a kind.
The teleport settled down next to Grey and posed a question that almost made the mutants smirk, “What’s up?”
Peter’s influence finally made itself felt.
“I think it’ll be safe to say that throughout Raven’s class we kicked dozens of non-existent asses,” the red-haired telepath informed him jokingly.
“Or to put it simply – we’ve been punching the air like a bunch of idiots for the last hour,” Summers added.
Wagner took in the sight of a few more students around them whose breathing was ragged and faces reddened as if they ran a marathon just about now. His friends looked no way better, by the way.
“Sounds…intriguing,” he drawled, not knowing what else to say.
Scott made a face and took a generous gulp of water, the plastic crushing in his hand with crackling sound that drew full of envy eyes of those who didn’t think to bring a drink with them.
Jean cast a somewhat unsure glance at the teleport. “Where are the others?”
“Ororo and I parted our ways at the cafeteria, Peter was also there, having lunch with Magneto and the Professor, and Wanda is probably at the lab with Hank. I heard they’re working on a big project.”
That messed up Grey’s plan on going down to the level one and deal with the conflict because her friend seemed to be busy with something really important not only to her and McCoy but to many out here so the idea of reconciliation had to be postponed till the evening.
“She was unhappy with how it all turned out too,” Kurt tried to sooth the red-haired telepath as her shoulders sagged a little.
She gave him a nod of appreciation, her eyes radiant with light that reminded of Charles in a way.
“I think we need to gather up before the dinner to make everything right.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” Scott agreed.
“And Kurt,” he then added awkwardly, “I’m sorry. Really, man. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“I get that,” Wagner replied simply but truly meaning it, to his friend’s relief.
Full of enthusiasm, he offered, “I can tell Peter and Wanda about it, maybe we’ll set up time and place for the meeting.”
“It would be great,” Jean replied, living up. “Thank you.”
The teleport stood up, ready to get down to business and also practice his powers when all of a sudden Mystique’s figure appeared right before him.
“You’re in time. We’re going for the second round.”
“Oh, I’m just visiting,” Kurt replied, waving it off with a shy smile.
Raven narrowed her yellow eyes.
“No, really. I was going to talk to Wanda and Peter about –”
“One hour won’t do anything.”
Or will fully cool down two more youngsters, she thought, not sure if the twins were more Lehnsherrs, thus emotionally explosive, or Maximoffs, for some reason imagining their mother a calm and soft woman (young Ms. Maximoff would’ve taken a fighting stance no less skillful than the one the mutant taught her students for that sort of depiction).
“But this will do you good too,” Darkholme said in a tone that left no room for argument and took the teleport by his elbow, leading him to the ring.
Jean and Scott swapped a glance but there wasn’t much they could do except to obey the woman’s order. At the end of the day, she was giving them a lesson on how to be strong and resilient without having to depend on their mutant powers so they raised to their feet and trudged after her.