Chapter 10
When Erik walked into the laboratory, he witnessed a scene that would be called “Scientists in distress, or how to lose a mind in six hours underground” if some artist decided to picture it.
McCoy sat back in his chair with his legs stretched out before him, his hands with the fingers making a rather tense steeple rested on his abdomen. It seemed that the man was fully consumed by his thoughts as he peered into the wall barely blinking.
A swiveling office chair creaked in the other part of the place, begging Wanda, whose gaze was fully focused on the ceiling, for mercy from time to time. A pencil held her pulled into a messy bun hair in place, a few unruly locks framed the face which seemed even paler then usual thanks to the immaculate white coat she wore. Or maybe it was just a repercussion of the horrible night.
Whatever it was Lehnsherr had no chance to guess it at the moment because his head was on the verge of starting to spin from looking at her. The man flicked his eyes, taking in the sight of Hank’s laboratory he has never been in before. When he came to Charles’ house for the first and unfortunately the last there simply was none and then…and then the blow wiped it all away so he and Jean worked on this place, guided by the old house plans, adding something new along the way. Thus, two-level basement with rooms resembling hangars was born. Regardless of the toys Beast began to collect in here again the place was still spacious enough to put a jet.
A large table that was snowed under numerous sheets of paper attracted Erik’s attention. Taking a closer look, he realized that before him laid detailed schemes of sentinels with charts, equations and calculations which, judging by the worn in some places paper, have been redone many times.
“You do know that sneaking in is a bad habit, don’t you?” Wanda said in a hushed voice already standing by his side, arms folded over her chest.
Erik tore his attention from the schemes and glanced at the girl to find her green eyes shining with something hardly placeable.
“Sneaking up too,” he remarked impishly.
The girl pulled on a face. “Busted.”
For a moment she simply enjoyed being in the same room with her father yet the question that prickled the tip of her tongue didn’t go away.
“What brought you here?”
“Simply decided to drop by and check if Hank still has his brows.”
A soft chuckle escaped Wanda’s lips before her gaze traveled from her father to the scheme of sentinel’s head she and Hank drafted in the morning. In fact, everything was ready to start an actual work – building the machines – but failed tests with sensers set it all back, forcing an agonizing circle of creating and giving up on the two of them. They took two breaks for lunch, tried to shake the stress off, even thought of going outside to breath in some fresh air but eventually decided to split up, wrack their brains for the solutions in silence. Swiveling in the chair was Wanda’s strange way to stay focused on the sentinels, forbidding her mind to wander elsewhere.
A prolonged pause was disturbed by Lehnsherr posing a bewildering question, “Where did you learn that song?”
The girl looked at him with her brows raised.
“The lullaby you sang to the boy,” he explained. “Where did you learn it?”
The corners of her mouth turned up slightly at the memory that came to her mind. “My grandmother used to sing it to me and Peter when we were kids. It worked like a sleeping pill on my noisy brother and made me think of many others who carried the words in their minds and souls. I believe it raised my interest in history.”
She turned her face to her father, meeting his eyes. “Why? Did it sound familiar to you?”
“I grew up with this lullaby, too. My mother sang it to me, then I sang it to my daughter, Nina,” his voice broke on her name a little but it was enough for him to duck his head, brows drawn together.
An impulse to hug him or at least put a hand on his shoulder, try to sooth that pain was almost irresistible.
Tell him the truth, Wanda’s inner voice whispered. Tell him he is not alone.
But would it make Erik’s life easier or it would confuse his grieving soul even more, turning him regretful of lost opportunities or making him flee from the school because he didn’t really need it all?
“I know it’s just empty words, but I’m so sorry for your loss,” the girl said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Lehnsherr didn’t know if it were her tone far from empty, or her glistening eyes swimming with genuine emotions, but he let the words out, “They came after me. I saved a man at work, used my powers, and someone spoke to the police. Nina was so scared when they came to take me. ‘Nie pozwolę im cię zabrać’* she repeated again and again. She couldn’t control her powers, they only manifested.”
The muscle in Erik’s jaw twitched as he was fully consumed by the very much alive memory. “One of them loosed an arrow…It pierced my Nina and my wife at once. I killed the policemen right there.”
The revelation was no less sharp than an arrow, piercing Wanda’s heart, shuttering it into pieces just like the set of test tubes that stood on her right. The sound so sudden and startling, it made both of the mutants flinch.
The girl swore under her breath, scolding herself for letting emotions take full control over her. She cast a quick glance at Hank, ready to meet his round in astonishment eyes but he wasn’t even looking in their direction. Her friend was too emerged into his thoughts to hear or notice anything as he was hurriedly writing something in the notebook.
When Wanda shifted her attention back to her father the look in his eyes was one of a man who had gotten the proof of his guess. “So you do have powers after all.”
“I’ve never said I don’t have any,” the girl remarked, her face unreadable.
“Still, you didn’t display them.”
Wanda shrugged unapologetically. “I didn’t really have the chance to show off.”
The man lifted a brow. “I recall you struggled with the boxes in the bunker.”
“I recall me saying I had everything under control,” the girl deadpanned.
“Hmm” of a somewhat quizzical nature escaped Lehnsherr’s throat.
He flicked his eyes to the broken test tubs, then back to Wanda.
“What’s your gift? Telekinesis? Telepathy?”
She didn’t respond straightaway, pondering. The girl wasn’t ashamed of her mutation and being discovered didn’t bother her either since she was at the school for those just like her, yet it was odd to discuss that matter, explain to somebody, much less to her father, what her powers were. Besides, Wanda was pretty sure she didn’t reach her full potential, there was still a lot to learn about herself.
Her hesitation was mistaken as a sign of fear so Erik tried to encourage the girl. “You shouldn’t hide your gift. Not with me, rest assured.”
“It’s actually a bit of both and something else entirely,” Wanda replied finally with a spark of pride in her eyes. “But a picture is always worth a thousand words.”
She lifted her hand, her long fingers moved smoothly as if she were a genius at the piano. But instead of melody the girl conjured red streams of energy that glowed and waltzed all over her hand, wrapping around the shards of glass and gathering them up. One fragment joined another like a piece of puzzle until all six test tubes resumed their original form and were put back into the holder.
Lehnsherr picked up one, rubbing the gleaming in the fluorescent light of the lab surface with his finger. It was solid glass with no cracks or any hint that the tube was pieced together mere seconds ago.
Wanda watched as fascination washed over her father’s features and when he looked at her, there was nothing but pure curiosity of one mutant in powers of another in his eyes.
“Your psionic powers prevented Charles from looking into your mind,” Erik drawled, piecing the facts together. “That’s how you woke us all up.”
“That’s how we ended up together in one memory at a time in the first place,” the girl admitted, twisting the ring on her finger. “I let my guard foolishly down and when my mind traveled to one of you, Benjamin’s power caught me but wasn’t able to properly break through. My own power kept the grasp on your minds, linking us one to another and shielding from any other intruders.”
A line appeared between her father’s brows. “Why then we saw your memory?”
Wanda’s green eyes locked on Erik’s blue, it felt like he was the one who could read it all, both, in her head and in her heart. She didn’t want to lie so she tried to explain, omitting some details.
“I just had to pull you out. I didn’t really know how, so I tried to drag you all into my mind, make a safety net of sort for you before I could shut down the primary source of that mess. And, in a way, it worked out. But your memory awoke one of my own…unpleasant moments.”
Then a faint smile made its way to her face. “It’s why you are here, isn’t it? To confirm I’m a mutant.”
“The trajectory of that bullet led to one outcome only.” Lehnsherr’s face darkened when he remembered the cop pointing his gun at unarmed Wanda and pulling the trigger without being pushed to do so. “No one would have survived a piece of metal flying to the head unless they have the power to reflect it.”
“Or absorb it, on that matter,” the girl noted before letting out a sigh. “But you’re right, I, though unintentionally, was able to reflect the bullet. And all of them have got their fair share that night.”
Ask he for the details now, she would've willingly given them to him but Erik chose another path. The look on her face held no regrets, adding it up to what he had already learnt about Wanda, Peter and their family, the man had got a strong feeling that whatever she did to the policemen, it was no match to their dastardly attempt to take away her life. Even if she killed them (and Erik didn’t believe in it) he wasn’t the one to judge.
“Is it why you think safety only a fancy word? Because the ones who should guard and help fucked up?”
Wanda’s lips parted slightly in surprise. “You’re an attentive listener.”
It earned her a somewhat pointed look.
“Well, I would count this incident as a drop in the ocean,” the girl uttered, but instantly regretted it because her father’s face darkened a bit more.
Shut up, Maximoff, just shut up, she thought ruefully, fighting the urge to slap herself.
“Safety does not correlate with the outside world for me. It’s not about places or people that “should” do “right things” in the service of society, it’s about people I love and care. Safety correlates with my family being alright, preferably by my side.”
Couldn’t be said any better, Erik thought.
A barely visible smile on his face found its twin on Wanda’s.
“If I’m being honest, I thought you or Ms. Xavier would pry the answers out of me right after we all woke up but you kept surprising me with your silence,” Wanda admitted, guiding them away from the somber topic. “Until now, of course. Looks like you are the curious one out of this tandem.”
The smile on her father’s face became more evident. “You do know no one really calls Charles Mr. Xavier?”
She feigned genuine confusion. “They don’t? I never noticed.”
But the mischievous glint in her eyes testified against these words.
Suddenly a loud thud and clutter bounced from the lab’s walls and when the two of them turned to see what was wrong, they found puzzled Hank sitting on the floor, parts of the office chair scatter around him.
“Is it my chair?” Wanda asked, raising her brow.
It took all her might not to start snickering at the look on her colleague’s face.
Lehnsherr, on the contrary, wasn’t even trying to hide his amusement. “More like was.”
The two staring figures with their arms crossed over the chests didn’t help the blush that was already creeping up McCoy’s face.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how it happened. I only needed a new pen so I jump to your desk and – I didn’t expect the chair to be so…breakable,” he justified himself, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Looks like the swiveling option had its limits,” Wanda crooned.
“Does it mean you delivered your vengeance and Hank’s brows are now out of danger?” her father uttered with pretentious disappointment.
That made her break the character and chuckle.
“Can you fix it?” the girl asked, flicking her eyes to McCoy after all.
The man pointed his finger at her in a “it’s a good idea” gesture as if he didn’t even think of it and began to search the desk drawers for a screwdriver.
“Can’t you do it yourself?” Erik asked with a slight tilt of his head towards the “erector set”.
Wanda snorted. “It doesn’t mean everyone around may just chill out.”
“For that ‘everyone’ should be at least aware you have the power to do such things,” the Master of Magnetism remarked.
“Well, if it were any of their business, I would shout it from the rooftops,” the girl drawled, a fleck of stubbornness sparked in her eyes.
“I believe it may be their business because, you know –” he smirked rather sarcastically “– we’re at the school for mutants.”
“But I’m not in school so it kind of gives me the rein to relief myself from the duty of making big mutant revelations.”
“Hide and seek game ends with disillusionment.”
“Speaking from the experience?” almost slipped out Wanda’s mouth, but she stopped herself in time.
She shook the newly forming tension in the air off and took a deep breath to put out her temper.
“Alright. I see that you are coming from a good place so I’ll try to explain. I don’t make a parade of being a mutant but I’m not hiding it either. If the occasion calls for my powers, I use them, you saw it firsthand.”
“However, it didn’t seem like you wanted Hank to see it,” Erik made a fair point, his brows still drawn together.
“Oh, Hank,” Wanda sneered and cast a glance at the scientist who was fixing the poor chair. “This guy is an exception. Once he sniffs out there are mutant twins loitering around, he will start his “we need to run a few tests to find bluh-bluh-bluh” song anew. I’m afraid one more incident with my direct involvement and Mr. Xavier will charge me with a penalty.”
It was never an easy task to convince Lehnsherr of anything yet the girl’s words reached the target. Maybe when one adamant person tries to persuade another headstrong individual, the universe simply has no choice but to work wonders.
“Not sure about the penalties but Charles loves to give speeches,” the man replied.
“I think it counts as such,” Wanda noted, scrunching up her face.
The father and daughter exchanged glances and smirked almost simultaneously, falling back into peaceful state.
“So, you want me to keep it a secret,” Erik concluded.
The girl pouted, doing mental calculations. “Let’s call it a precautionary measure to guard my affable image against unwanted complications because there definitely will be some if Hank asks about my or Peter’s DNA again."
“Affable” wouldn’t be the first word to pop up in Lehnsherr’s mind if someone asked him to describe Wanda. But good manners and friendliness – qualities easy to fake – had no real value for the man, he saw much more in Peter’s sister and the young man himself regardless of the masks they put on, so he gave the girl a nod of understanding that earned him a soft smile in return.
By the time these two were done conversing, McCoy had already fixed the chair and was in the middle of testing its reliability.
“I think everything is all right now,” he concluded. “But if you want, I can swap with you.”
Maximoff, followed by her father, walked to her working place and plopped down rather boldly on her seat, swiveled a few times in it and seemingly satisfied, replied, “I’m kind of attached to this one. But thank you.”
The corners of the man’s lips quirked up and when he turned to face Erik, genuine easiness was surprisingly still intact.
“Decided to pay us a visit?”
The Master of Magnetism slid his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Wanda intrigued me with the progress in your project.”
Wanda’s brows went up at this statement in “Really? Couldn’t come up with anything better?”
“Now it’s mostly regress concerning the most crucial details,” McCoy said with a bit dejected sigh.
“Probably because your elaborated system has too many of them. Sometimes the simpler the better.”
Unaccustomed to having someone in his laboratory who could correct, least of all question, his ideas Hank, at first, looked for the hint of mockery in this comment but when he found none, his brain began to mull the words over. He swapped a glance with his colleague who has been eager to have Erik here since the day one and finally relented, thinking that maybe – maybe – it wasn’t that bad of an idea.
“I take it you have something in mind?”
Lehnsherr gave him an enigmatic shrug.
“Does it mean you accept my earlier offer?” Maximoff asked, her face lit up with hope.
“Only if you don’t include me in the “nerd gang”,” the man answered in half-joking half-warning manner.
The warning part was wiped clean by Wanda’s jubilation though, as she punched the air with soundless “yes”, making Hank shake his head ruefully in hopes he wouldn’t regret the decision later, whereas Erik did the same but in puzzlement for why this kid was so invested in his life here.
....
Once Lehnsherr put on the white coat, the three of them plunged into work, discussing and scheming a completely new concept of the sentinel. Minutes merged into hours that passed by unnoticed before a new figure appeared within these blue tiled walls.
“Whoa, I now have a family of scientists,” Peter blurted out taking in the sight of his sister and father thoughtfully writing something down in the notebooks.
A pencil in Wanda’s hand snapped, its half almost hit the girl in her forehead, diverting Erik’s attention from the young man.
“I mean you remind me of a family of scientists,” the speedster tried to correct himself, panicking. “Not a family but like a gathering. With Hank included, of course. I mean a gathering of colleagues. You’re like men in white, a committee of nerds I’m friends with. I mean not like friends-friends but personally know. I mean –”
For better or for worse, the look on their father’s face was unreadable.
“What are you doing here, brother?” she cut the chattering off. “I thought you were going to spend the day helping Mr. Xavier.”
“Yeah, but I think he got tired of me because he ran out of the things, I could help him with,” silver-haired Maximoff drawled in a tone that was as strained as a smile on Wanda’s face.
The moment of freaking out would’ve dragged on for much longer if Lehnsherr didn’t make a remark. “Or maybe he indeed ran out of the tasks. After all, how much paper work does this school really inquire?”
Nothing betrayed disturbance, confusion or anger in his voice or face so the twins exchanged glances and breathed out. That was close.
Peter screwed up his face a little. “I dunno, man. The more time I spent around him, the more he rubbed his temples.”
“So Mr. Xavier was the one who had to pull a sickie,” the girl teased and dodged a piece of unfortunate pencil the speedster darted at her a second later, throwing one in return. It didn’t reach the target either but clicked against the floor.
“Hank will be enthralled to know two kids were playing in his lab,” Erik sneered, watching the wooden thing rolling to his foot.
“You old people are so grouchy,” silver-haired Maximoff said on exaggerated exhale.
“Anyway,” Wanda interjected with a derisive grin dancing on her lips. “Does your visit have an actual purpose or you just spontaneously decided to check your dear sister and the old man out?”
Smartasses, shot through Magneto’s mind as he glanced up at the ceiling.
“Thought you may give me a tour of the place you’re hanging out at.”
I have an idea.
Maximoff narrowed her eyes slightly not quite catching what it could be. She turned to their father with “Excuse me for a moment, please”, took off her white coat and headed with Peter by her side to the laboratory’s equipment as if the young man was indeed interested in an excursion.
“How do you feel about going to a concert?” he offered, already shaking a bottle with hazard pictogram on it.
“If you don’t want to put on another light show, you better put this down.”
Peter pulled on a face, mimicking his sister’s all adult-like seriousness, but followed her advice.
“You still want to go? Without our –” she stumbled, struggling to identify the status of those with who they were spending much of their time these days “– weirdos?”
The speedster lifted his brow. “Too grown up to have fun with your bro?”
It earned him a pointed look and a nudge with the elbow.
“You know it perfectly well that I’m all for having yet another adventure with my bro. I just thought you were more into dragging someone into a little escapade than actually going and listening to Elton John.”
“As if you didn’t pursue the same goal,” silver-haired Maximoff teased, drawing a tsk out of the girl. “Besides, we can still throw an escapade. Just with less people involved. And it won’t be really anything against the rules. I mean, we’re like adults and we’re like on a break. We’re not even on a break because it’s not a college or something. I don’t know if staying here makes students out of us. Don’t take you into account, you’re always a student.
Now was the time for Wanda to lift her brow. In suspicion because she sensed a real offer coming her way and it was still a mischief of sorts.
“The point is, the two of us can go alone or we can take a few more people for company.”
Here we go, his twin thought.
“I assume you have candidates in mind?”
As a matter of fact, Peter had two so-to-say “verified” options and one Wanda would surely question, not without cause though.
During the lunch break, when he was in the middle of barbecue chicken pizza’s consumption, shamelessly excessive, by the way, Ororo came up to him.
“Are you alright?” she asked, her voice unusually soft.
The speedster cast a perplexed glance at her because he was more than alright at that moment, much thanks to the perfect match of spiced chicken, tomatoes and cheese and the smoky flavored sauce that was smudged all over his mouth.
“Kurt told me you and Wanda quarreled with Scott and Jean,” the girl explained, choosing a neutral way to describe an unfair accusation and a petty spar.
“Better now,” he admitted honestly. “Wanna slice?”
Munroe agreed with a half-smile.
“And your sister? Is she working at the lab again?”
“Yep. I’ll probably pay her a visit later but she is fine too. Thanks for asking.”
Not pushing for the more detailed answer, the girl nodded and changed the subject of their talk.
“What you’ve been up to? I heard there was a fire in the morning. Know about it?”
“Yeah, kinda saw it firsthand. Typical mutants’ business. Erik and I have been helping Prof with the papers. They’re sitting over there –” silver-haired Maximoff jerked his chin at the two man who were still waiting for the speedster to bring them promised lunch “– probably gossiping about annoying youngsters loitering around.”
“And how the father-son-spending-time-together thing is going?” Ororo asked, genuinely curious.
Aside from the simple fact that Erik Lehnsherr was the twins’ father and the three of them, or mostly it was Erik plus one of the Maximoffs combination, were seen together more and more often, the gang didn’t know the status of their relationships. And there was never a good chance to ask about it so not to seem too inquiring and pushy. Up to this moment.
Peter didn’t have a clear answer to this question. On the one hand, it was difficult to call these interactions a real relationship, on the other hand, he liked spending time with Erik, it even seemed sometimes like the man lived up to the expectations that the speedster had when imagined the father.
Contradictory thoughts were summarized by the young man into short and laconic “Quite good. We just need more time to figure things out.”
“What are your plans for today?” he asked, filling two plates with pizza slices.
Ororo gave him a shrug. “I had a few ideas, mostly connected with our night outing so...”
The fact that for the past two days all they talked about was their trip to New York somehow slipped from Peter’s mind but the girl’s words were a, perhaps, much needed reminder.
Why the hell not? shot through his mind.
“So…?”
A confused line appeared between Munroe’s brows. “Are we still going?”
“Well, my sister is the driver so we should ask her but I don’t see why one bad morning should screw up the whole plan.”
Once the girl realized that the speedster was serious, her face lit up.
“Then I should go,” she said hastily, grabbing one more piece of the midday snack. “See you at dinner, right?”
Without waiting for Peter to answer, she practically flew out of the cafeteria, rushed by her own ideas regarding the upcoming adventure, drawing a chuckle out of the young man.
He himself sped off (unfortunately only within the capabilities of an ordinary human) towards Lehnsherr and Xavier who by that time must have been objecting his earlier claim on being the fastest man alive when Jubilee crossed his path.
“Hi!” she exclaimed, flashing the speedster one of her sweet smiles.
Before silver-haired Maximoff was even able to open his mouth and greet her in return, the girl chattered, “There’s a rumor going around the school that you and your sister had a fight with our love doves. Did Jean really put on a telekinesis show right in the middle of the hall? I mean, if we don’t count shaking the house, she had never done anything like this before.
A rebuttal was already forming on the tip of the young man’s tongue but he yet again was cut short.
“I even heard she and Wanda brawled over Scott. Though I personally thought your sister and Kurt were a thing, they’re so cute together. He is clearly into her. And she seems flirty and all. That’s none of my business, of course, but they would be such a cool couple. Anyway, a few guys and I are planning to play ball, come if you aren’t busy doing some big things cause, you know, I saw you with Magneto a few times…”
She left the phrase hang unfinished between them and when Peter didn’t find what to say, overloaded with the number of words thrown his way, Jubilee simply winked at him with “We’re meeting in the park” and walked way.
Jesus! What a way to talk, the master of chattering himself thought, coming to his senses.
The whole thing crossed the speedster’s mind in a minute before he answered to Wanda, “Well, I had a word with Ororo and she was all in for it. She even had some plans made concerning our outing. We can also ask Jubilee. I don’t think she wouldn’t want a little adventure.”
“That’s practically a girls’ trip,” his sister bantered, giggling.
“If you bat your eyelashes Kurt may want to go too,” the young man parried.
At that Maximoff stick her tongue out.
They walked further into the laboratory, almost completing a circle back to where Erik sat alone with the notes, casting a curious glance at the two of them once in a while.
“Do you think we can take Jubilee with us?” she asked after all. “I like her, I really do but what are the chances of her not spilling out all the details of the trip even before we get into the car?”
Peter gave her a “You have a point” look, then sighed.
“To be honest, I think we can still go all together. Like we originally planned.”
“Even Scott?” Wanda asked carefully.
“I mean, you said it yourself he had a rough night and was pissed with himself. It’ll be useful for him to leave the school grounds for a little while. For all of us.”
As the girl flicked her eyes at the speedster a warm smile tugged her lips.
“If you say so,” she agreed with a shrug. “The keys are in the first drawer of my nightstand.”
Silver-haired Maximoff furrowed in confusion, drawing a little smirk out of Wanda.
“It would be better if we move the car somewhere or else the sneaking out situation may turn problematic. Didn’t you notice how much noise the tires make when touch the gravel?”
“Wisenheimer,” the speedster muttered dramatically when they returned to their point of departure, also known as Erik and the desk.
When Wanda left it without a comment, Peter added (just for the sake of annoying a sibling), “You know, there’s a gossip going around that you and Jean fought over Scott. Also, you and Kurt are dating.”
Somebody just lit up a match and threw it in gasoline.
“What?!” the girl exclaimed in indignation.
“I actually thought so at first too,” Erik suddenly interjected, adding fuel to the fire and the speedster’s amusement.
“What?!” Maximoff repeated, her nostrils flared. “Me fighting over a boy? Over Scott?!”
The young man folded his arms over his chest, a wicked grin dancing on his lips. “So the part with you dating Kurt and being two cute little beans doesn’t bother you?”
“Who in the hell even said that?” Wanda inquired with a deadly look.
“People?” silver-haired Maximoff offered.
“It’s small wonder,” Lehnsherr said nonchalantly.
The girl flashed him a glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I saw you two at the dinner a few days ago and…” their father chuckled and held up his hands. “Wrong assumption, my bad.”
“If you meet these people tell them to fuck off,” Maximoff said to her twin, then pointed a finger at him. “And if I hear one more joke connected with me and Wagner, I swear I –”
Peter smirked. “It’s more like a connection between you and –”
“You asked for it,” she cut him off, throwing the white lab coat quickly on her shoulders, and launched an offensive with a foxy-like look.
“C’mon, sis,” the speedster drawled, though a bit anxiously, and began to move back to the exit. “I was just fooling around. Joking, you know?”
An unconvincing attempt at coaxing only pushed Wanda to make a sharp move to close the distance between them. It was enough to make the young man sprint out of the lab with his eyes widened.
“Run, joker, run!” the girl yelled mockingly and when he briefly turned around to give her a middle finger, she gave him two and a grimace in return.
“Scoundrel”, she muttered to herself, taking a seat at the desk.
“Can you teach me how to give the creeps with minimum effort?” Erik bantered, not quite comprehending Peter’s sudden change from joking to running.
Wanda gave him a once-over. “If it’s my brother you need to scare off, you are now fully equipped.”
The man looked down at himself, then back at the girl. “Lab coat?”
“Right assumption this time,” she crooned, looking for a new pencil in the drawer. “With one correction though – it’s not about the lab coat specifically but white ones in general.”
Amusement began to dissipate from Lehnsherr’s face, his forehead furrowed. “Never would’ve thought someone like Peter could be afraid of such things.”
He had the courtesy to frame it as a simple remark whereas in reality it was nothing other than a question Wanda had the gut not to answer straightaway, deliberately choosing to find what she was searching for first and also testing her stamina under her father’s gaze.
“It was easier to go for twins when we were little. Peter had the same dark hair as me but when the mutant gene stood out, it began rapidly turning gray. Mom obviously freaked out, because, well, that’s not what usually happens with an eight-year-old kid, so she and him, and I for company, went to every hospital we could afford at that time, asking doctors and running endless tests. It didn’t help the stress he had already had with these changes and I believe it led to a sort of phobia, an association of hard times with material thing he saw more often than should’ve. Its intensity lessens with each year passing by but who knows if it fades away completely.”
She let out a tired sight as if voicing this little piece of their childhood drained the remaining energy in her.
The act of taking her coat off when the girl went to give the speedster a tour now appeared to be a considerate gesture. It also made her latest escaped to shake his nerves look more childish albeit Erik guessed it right, Wanda would’ve never crossed the line.
“You’re lucky to have each other,” he uttered simply because there wasn’t really anything else he could say aside from overused “I’m sorry”.
A little grin bloomed on Wanda’s face. “Definitely.”
She then rubbed her temples, the corners of her eyes going up and down.
“Headache?” her father asked with a note of sympathy in his voice. Almost like Peter did in the morning.
“That’s what you get when measure swords with a powerful psychic and a half-telepath while keeping four more consciousnesses in your own mind,” the girl replied with a bitter smirk. “A bit of haywire in the room, to boot.”
“Mine had seen better days too.”
An image of a boy strapped to a chair flashed through the girl’s head, his scream – her father’s scream – flooded her ears so suddenly and so intensively it seemed as if she stood behind that glass wall again, helpless to change anything. A powerful mutant watching such things while sleeping? It was no wonder the décor in their spaces didn’t survive the night.
Noticing Wanda wince, Lehnsherr suggested, “Maybe you should call it a day?”
Wanda covered her face, the tips of her fingers icy cold against her heated forehead.
“Or maybe I should try my hand in interior design,” she said on exhale after a rather long pause and leaned back in her office chair. “You didn’t fix the damage there, did you?”
Through the now dulled expression on her face Erik could still see that something else besides the headache tormented the girl but as he said to Charles earlier that day there must be a room for privacy, even his inquisitive nature knew the boundaries when it saw ones.
“Does something betray a slob in me or you just looked into my mind?” the Master of Magnetism kind of bantered, surprisingly calm in the matters of his mind safety.
Wanda looked him dead in the eye and replied firmly, “I never did and I will never do.”
The man lifted his brow. “Even if I ask?”
“You will ask to get into your head?” she clarified, adorning her words with a considerate portion of derision. “A snowball’s chance in hell.”
The corners of Erik’s mouth turned up slightly but it was enough to blunt the unease curling in the girl’s chest. That screaming in pain boy grew up in a strong man who regardless of all the trauma he got still was able to be amused by a simple quip.
“So a slob than.”
Wanda held her hands up, giggling. “By no means. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would dare to call you like that.”
“I can easily imagine you or Peter mocking me over even lesser matters,” he deadpanned and slacked in his chair too, abandoning the idea of going back to the notes he was writing down meticulously before the silver-haired boy showed up here.
“What?” The girl scrunched up her face, scandalized. “We would neeever.”
It was probably the most mischief-promising “never” Lehnsherr has heard in his life and it drew a light chuckle out of him.
“I found them!” they heard McCoy’s enthusiastic voice before the scientist walked into the lab with a handful of rolled posters.
He laid them on his desk and began to explain how he started making sentinels’ schemes in 1973 but never finished them because Charles didn’t welcome the idea of training his students, least of all with the help of the gigantic machines.
As he continued talking, Maximoff tilted her head slightly towards Erik and said in a hushed tone, “Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who accidentally forgot about Hank.”
She indeed felt a stung of guild though the girl would’ve not traded this past hour with her father (and partially with Peter) for anything.
The man leaned to her a bit too to answer, “Not sure about accidental part but...”
They swapped a glance that was one of true partners in crime and stood up from their seats, determined to interrupt Hank’s monologue and start an actual work.
....
When Scott lifted his arm to knock on the door, it shook grotesquely as if he was a cartoon character. Part of it were nerves, but mostly – a side effect of clearing his head through intense exercising. Raven’s training proved him unready for a real battle, where you should punch the enemy with your fists not with words that were one more proof of him being only an easily compromised teenager. Besides, the owner of the room he was now standing before was as far from enemy as possible.
Before the knock-knock could even happen, Summers was almost knocked down by the whirlwind that threw the door open on his way to the hall.
Silver-haired Maximoff barely outmaneuvered a head-on collision, flinching away in time.
“Jesus!” he exclaimed not prepared to see someone on a threshold. “Don’t pull this trick on girls, it’ll likely earn you a scream at best and an orange juice shower at worst.”
In a split second the speedster achieved a thing neither Jean nor Kurt was able to in the course of the whole day, namely – drawing a signature smirk out of Scott.
“Sharpened reflexes’ origin explained,” he bantered.
A smug “yep, you have an honor to hear a piece of advice from the main ladies’ man of Washington” look could be read easily on Peter’s face before he teased back, “Seems like Hank did a poor job with your glasses. Jean’s room is down the hallway, you’re exactly five doors away.”
Summers rubbed the back of his neck. “Erm…Yeah. I actually wanted to talk to you.”
The expression on Maximoff’s face became more mindful. He could be as good of a listener as of a chatter box.
“Look, I was an asshole in the morning,” Scott began, both of them still standing on the threshold of the speedster’s room, one didn’t ask for the permission to come in, fully focusing on delivering a thought he was mulling over the better part of the day, and the other one shamelessly forgot about hospitality, feeling unstressed among potential eavesdroppers. “I shouldn’t have said any of it to you. I won’t deny, after the whole craziness with Apocalypse ended, I sort of thought why everyone here are still alive when Alex is not and if you had an actual chance to save him…You may be showy-offy sometimes –” Peter raised a brow, refraining from commenting nonetheless “– but it doesn’t mean you won’t try to help others when truly needed. I know you would’ve saved him too if you could. I’m sorry, man. For saying all this bullshit and offending you and Wanda. I didn’t mean any of it. Though I’ll lie if I tell I’m at peace with Magneto even considering he is…He is who he is to you.”
It was hard to look at the face of the facts and object that his father, not a terrorist in Peter’s eyes yet obviously not the best man in the world, didn’t have a hand in what happened. As much as his growing filial feelings for Erik made the young man want to defend him, he couldn’t deny Scott’s right to be angry with the Master of Magnetism and his actions.
“Thanks for admitting it all openly,” silver-haired Maximoff said in earnest. “I get where you’re coming from and I don’t hold grudges.”
They nodded to each other in acknowledgement and it was like a weight off Summers’ back. Perhaps more from finally voicing the thing that kept nagging at him for quite a bit of time than from being forgiven for blurting it out thoughtlessly.
A second passed before the speedster asked, “How ‘bout meeting at ten?”
His friend furrowed in bafflement, making Peter roll his eyes at the sluggishness of others’ minds.
“To sneak out and go to…” he crooned, hinting.
The glasses didn’t give silver-haired Maximoff the chance to see how much Scott’s eyes widened, albeit the surprise tangled with excitement could’ve been easily deciphered in his voice when the young man asked, “We are still on?”
A lopsided grin bloomed on the speedster’s face. “Sure thing.”
Suddenly, Kurt puffed beside them. He took in the sight of his friends, trying to comprehend if there were yet another quarrel but having found rather positive atmosphere instead, flashed them a smile and said, “The Professor invites us all to dinner in ten minutes.”
“Are you his pager now?” Scott teased.
“Looks like Prof downgraded us to the baby level. If it gets that way, he’ll soon start to spoon feed us,” Peter quipped.
The young men were the first to witness a gold worthy moment, something so rare no one saw it before, the eighth wonder of the world – a pointed look from Wagner (it could’ve probably led to a full-fledged eye roll if added Lehnsherr and Wanda to this duo).
“He wants us to sit at the X-Men’s table,” the teleport added.
All three of them knew why or at least suspected a good natured yet still unpleasant moral debriefing coming their way. It didn’t excite, to say at least.
“See you there,” Kurt said when nothing else seemed forthcoming from his friends and disappeared.
“‘What a sordid state of affairs’ as Wanda would’ve said,” the speedster muttered.
“I wouldn’t say –” Wanda began but stumbled when someone put their hand on her shoulder from the back.
“Kurt!” she exclaimed in a tone that equally resembled a curse and a genuine worry. “What the hell are you doing?”
The young man had to bend over and gasp for air because his appearance in the girl’s room resulted in a way he failed to anticipate.
Well, there were actually three things he failed to anticipate. First of all, the teleport had no intention to intimidate her and puff in the room rather targeting the place next to the door from the hall’s side. Secondly, who knew Wanda’s reflex would be to punch an unexpected guest in the ribs? Thirdly, Magneto was there.
“That was actually a good right hook,” Erik complimented Wanda.
“Thanks, da – s Problem dabei ist. Ich könnte ihm die Rippe brechen.*”
‘Dad’ almost slipped out of her tongue and her brain couldn’t come up with anything for a substitute so she switched to German for it to sound like the abrupt pause was nothing more than hesitation on the grammar matter.
This sarcastic “thanks, dad” came so naturally to the girl it gladdened and frightened, considering that voice she one more ordinary consonant, things could’ve taken on a dramatic turn.
“Mir geht’s gut, kein Problem,*” Wagner made an attempt at reassuring her but an involuntary grimace of pain and a hand held to his side proved quite the opposite. “Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you. The Professor asked to invite you to dinner.”
Maximoff lifted a brow. “To what do I own a personal invitation?”
But there was no need for the young man’s reply because the answer lit up in her mind instantly, drawing a curse out of her. “Scheiße.*”
“Ich wusste nicht, dass du so gut Deutsch kannst*,” Lehnsherr remarked, teasing.
The pleasant accent he had when speaking English was gone, replaced by perfectly performed German sounds. It was actually the first time the girl heard her father using his mother tongue, the language she chose to learn in part because it was one of the most spoken languages in the world, in part (mostly) because it gave her the feeling of getting to know someone who should’ve been in her and Peter’s lives since their birth.
“It’s called ‘cross cultural communication’,” Maximoff apprised in jest. “How is a native speaker supposed to understand me if I’m unable to express myself in a customary for them way? A simple “Das ist schlecht*” can’t do my feelings justice.”
“Surely,” Erik agreed.
The “play along” game was a magnetizing thing to contemplate, especially because the undisguised joy was written all over Wanda’s features, from her shining eyes to lips twitched in a warm smile, and Lehnsherr seemed to be at such ease Kurt questioned if it were the same man who almost teared the world to pieces. He averted his gaze after all, not wanting to be an intruder in the father-daughter moment, taking in the sight of his friend’s room instead.
“What happened here?” the teleport asked, gaping at the wall behind the headboard, the newly installed wooden panels reminded of crusted soil, it was all cracks and wreckage. The shade of the lamp that once stood on the nightstand changed its ordinary form to something that looked like a date laying among ruins of the porcelain. It all stroke him as being especially abnormal in contrast to immaculately made bed and the rest of the space, which, incidentally, had been denied of any personal things, making it impossible to guess who lived in there unless rummaging through drawers.
“I feel like my artistic approach to room redecoration is being criticized,” the girl drawled with deceptive pensiveness in her gaze.
The young man held up his hand as if he was going to wave off any insult Maximoff could possibly find in his question when Erik said, “Well, that’s the matter of taste and questionable ideas.”
Just about ten minutes ago when they were done with the work in the lab, Lehnsherr, not having a clue when he accepted Wanda’s offer of help with restoration of his space, found himself debating with her over having the curtain rod sticking out of the wall as a clothing rack.
“You just need to visualize it,” the girl coaxed, reminding of a TV advertisement. “Once you hang your shirts here the need in having a closet will be gone. In fact, you could pick an outfit from bed.”
The idea, of course, was met with a look and eventually rejected, limiting the interior innovations to a simple clean up, but afterwards they silently coordinated to come down to dinner together, stopping by Wanda’s room to pick up her jacket first. A quick stop turned into an unexpected encounter with the teleport.
Maximoff parried the jest with a rather philosophic “All ideas are questionable at some point as well as the concept of taste. It simply depends on individual perception.”
Her father shook his head ruefully. “You and Peter have the answer for anything, don’t you?”
A foxlike grin flourished on the girl’s face.
She then turned to Kurt and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t take things seriously, darling. I’m just fooling around. Though one thing I mean in earnest – I apologize for hurting you. In no way I had the intention to act the way I did towards you on purpose.”
The intricate lines on the young man’s face had come to life when he smiled, for a brief moment, however, catching a hard-to-read look from Lehnsherr.
“I’ll probably go, tell Ororo about dinner,” the teleport said a bit awkwardly and dissolved into thin air after Wanda gave him a quick nod.
“‘Towards you on purpose’ was a very nice part of apology.”
A loud tsk of annoyed nature escaped the girl right before she practically pushed the man out of the room, muttering something in indignation that only made him chuckle more.
When they finally stepped into the cafeteria, their friends had already assembled around one table. In a way it felt like the first day of Wanda being at the school, practically two generations of mutants sat together, a ticklish silence hovering above them. But curious glances were now replaced by unsure and even cautious. Jean tried to detect twins’ moods, Scott having dealt with, as it seemed, the more easy-going one, prepared himself for a talk with Wanda, who on her part thought that her and the red-haired telepath should’ve handled the situation better. Kurt, an unwitting player, and Ororo, an unwitting left-out, but overall taking an uncomfortable position between sort of two teams, hoped they all would go back to peaceful cohesive type of relationships after all.
Like last time, the responsibility for breaking the tension had befallen on Xavier’s shoulders. Having taken a sip of water from his glass, the man decided to start with a neutral topic. “How are things going in the laboratory?”
McCoy took his glasses off to wipe them down. “Aimed at the right direction now, I hope.”
“All hail to Erik and the change his heart had,” Wanda added, giving Charles a warm smile with a subtle trace of a play. “Thankfully no chessboards involved.”
“If your moves were calculated in the same way as the equations concerning light sensors, I’m afraid the game would’ve ended before it even started,” the Master of Magnetism drawled nonchalantly before a line appeared between his brows, clearly in pretense. “Oh, I forgot. You don’t know how to play.”
Peter grinned, a piece of spicy potato still in his mouth. “I warned you about the knowledge of math.”
“Erik just exaggerates,” Hank stood up for his colleague. “We only recalculated it five times to get where the mistake was made.”
A sudden fit of coughing was heard from the other side of the table.
“Still better than you and physics, Scotty,” Wanda remarked with a mockingly sweet smile, peeking out from behind her brother’s figure to see the chocked on amusement teenager.
“But I passed it!” he immediately fended off.
“On the fifth try,” Jean reminded, involuntary weighing in on Maximoff’s side.
The Professor ducked his head to hide an unprofessionally big smile at that, especially when a recent memory of Miss Russel’s face beaming no less brightly than the young man’s in the day of successfully completed test flashed through his mind.
“You could’ve asked me for help,” McCoy said a bit resentfully, as if he was the smartest kid in the class yet no one ever asked to copy his homework.
The food on the plates abruptly picked the interest of those present at the table (they loved Hank, of course, (well, Lehnsherr didn’t mind him) but he sometimes couldn’t stop himself from gushing over things not clear to an “ordinary” mind).
Raven was the first to redirect the topic of discussion with half-question half-statement to the youngsters. “So you all are at peace now?”
Neither the twins nor Grey and Summers planned on having an audience while figuring out their situation but delaying it had no sense.
Having shared a quick look with the red-haired telepath, Maximoff said for them both, “Jean and I pricked each other a bit for the tonus. That’s it.”
The tone made the claim sound like it was indeed it.
“And I paid disrespect towards Wanda even though she didn’t deserve it,” Scott kind of explained, then turned his face to the girl. “I’m sorry.”
The young man’s sincerity didn’t arouse doubts yet she cast a glance at Peter before saying anything.
It’s fine. No ill-feeling or self-flagellation. Promise.
“Don’t do that again,” Wanda replied, articulating every word as if she wanted to engrave them in Summers’ head. “It was me who got up from the wrong side of the bad today and I swear, I was ready to fucking fight you if you didn’t stop talking.”
The weight on Scott’s shoulders on that matter dissipated completely, leaving him with one uncharitable on forgiveness person only – himself. But it was the battle he preferred to go through with friends by his side.
Mystique smirked, not at all surprised to hear something like this from Magneto’s child. “Teaching Charles’ students a few jabs wasn’t in vain than.”
The look on Charles’ face was one of reproachful.
“Good that Wanda didn’t take part in it or I would’ve got it worse,” Kurt noted, rubbing his side.
Ororo’s brows went up and she slowly, unsure if she got the phrase right, asked, “Wanda hit you?”
“It was an accident,” the girl retorted in a coaxing manner, looking mainly at taken aback Xavier. “He appeared out of the blue in my room. Literally. I have a witness.”
She pointed at Erik with the fork before picking up a piece of red pepper from her pasta salad.
A very reliable one, McCoy sneered to himself but didn’t voice it because, truth to be told, the Master of Magnetism had never minced the words, honesty was his thing.
A big brother mode was fully on when the speedster asked, “Did you decide to snoop on my sister?”
“I meant no such thing!” Wagner defended. “It was a mistake!”
If Eric knew that you snuck into hisdaughter’s room, that would've been too weak of excuse, Raven thought, amused.
“Kurt, we don’t invade others’ privacy, and Wanda –” Charles couldn’t believe he really should say it to the twenty-one year old Oxford student “– we don’t punch or use any other type of violence against other students. Or teachers. Or visitors.”
Erik’s mouth twisted in a small smirk at the sight of the girl obviously trying to restrain an epic eye roll.
“And you said screaming and juice shower are bad outcomes,” Summers meanwhile said in secretive tone to silver-haired Maximoff.
The young man gave him a half shrug and a reply that came out with a fair share of pride. “It’s just she’s a rare gem.”
“I got it, Mr. Xavier. I’m not a street hooligan in need of moral lessons,” Wanda clipped.
As if in proof to her prevailing positive qualities, Benjamin approached the girl and tugged the sleeve of her denim jacket.
“Oh, hello, my little superhero,” Maximoff crooned warmly, turning in her seat and leaning a bit further so to be on the same eye level with the boy. “How are you faring?”
The motherly look in her eyes narrowed the world to them only, calming down the anxiety he felt when even thinking of nearing the table full of adults, some of whom he saw on TV.
“I played ball with Mike and Darren after breakfast. Then we had a reading class with Mr. Perez. The story is about a donkey who found a magical pebble. Did you read it?”
Wanda swapped a glance with her brother.
“Is it the very one that was banned for portraying cops as pigs?” he sneered. “The most read book at our house.”
“Or the only one somebody has ever read,” the girl whispered to Benjamin with a wink, drawing a titter out of him and a look from the speedster. “Our sister loved this book when she was around your age so we had to read it for her almost every evening.”
“Now we’re on everything bunnies related,” Peter confided in the whole table.
“Yeah,” Wanda drawled in agreement with a grimace that was a twin to the speedster’s.
“Anyway,” she chirped as her attention flicked back to the boy, “I’m glad you had a good day, Ben. As I said – never underestimate the power of your own mindset.”
A smile made its way to Charles’ lips at yet another wisdom heard from Maximoff, this time from another one.
Timidly, with a glance at the silver-haired speedster, then, for some reason, at Lehnsherr, Benjamin pulled out a bouquet of brightly yellow sunflowers from behind his back.
“May I ask you for a favor?” he uttered in an adorably serious way.
“Are you bribing me with the flowers, young man?” Maximoff chuckled softly and waved her hand in “go ahead” gesture.
“It’s not for me, it’s for my friends. Ah Lam and Neesha came here from another part of the globe and miss home. I miss mine too but my mom promised to take me for the weekends so I’ll be fine. I thought maybe you can sing your song to them and it’ll help a little. Just like it helped me last night.”
Actually, despite having an emotional day, the first thing Wanda did when walked into the cafeteria and spotted her brother’s silver hair was looking for Benjamin. She saw him pecking a sandwich amongst four more children who all together reminded her of baby birds left alone in the nest for too long.
“Sure your music taste won’t be questioned afterwards?” the girl bantered.
Benjamin nodded energetically, his eyes already shining.
“Very well than, I’ll come when they go to bed.”
Right before the boy buried his face in Maximoff’s hair, closing his little arms around her neck in a tight hug, Mystique witnessed, perhaps, the most genuine smile she had ever caught a glimpse of in her life.
When Benjamin let go off of Wanda, the speedster ruffled his hair kindly and said, “Don’t forget to finish your dinner, kiddo.”
Happy with how it all worked out, the boy left the bouquet on Maximoff’s lap and rushed back to the window table where his friends were waiting for him, pretending their hardest to look like they weren’t trying to hear at least something out of the conversation.
The lighter mood prevailed over for the rest of the evening as the youngsters and X-Men, Erik included, chatted about everything and nothing. They parted their ways – Wanda to fulfil her promise, the rest of the gang to discuss their sneak out and the older generation, well, just to do a typical for older generation thing, to have a rest – when the sun had already hidden, leaving a multihued sliver of light on the horizon.
....
*That's the problem. I could've broken his ribs.
*I'm alright, no problem.
*Shit.
*I didn't know that you know German so well.
*That's bad.