Better Together
They were unable to squeeze into two taxi cabs for the ride back to the airport so they were split into groups of two. Peter had insisted that he ride in whatever cab that Raven happened to be in. He had missed his aunt and wanted to run her ears off with questions about all of her adventures. Erik couldn’t help but feel like a second class citizen in comparison to Mystique. Peter had always been closer to Raven than his other children, the two seemed to share a kindred spirit. A spirit that came with sarcastic remarks and mischievous pranks.
So Peter, Raven, Erik, and Charles were all crammed into the cab whilst Logan and Hank rode comfortably to the airport. Peter didn’t seem to care that he was wedged shoulder to shoulder between his Dad and Raven. Erik was trying not to let his irritation get the best of him. What kind of father got annoyed with his son so soon after being apart for such a long time. Erik couldn’t help but feel guilty so he didn’t say anything to the mile a minute questions that Pietro was shooting at Mystique.
“Aunt Rae?” Peter started another question to the amused woman who was wearing her normal blonde disguise.
“What’s up kiddo?” She asked seemingly unphased by the teenager's youthful enthusiasm. What Erik and Charles didn’t know was, Raven was carrying her own maternal guilt. Peter seemed to bring forth all of her buried guilt and thoughts of the little blue baby she left at the convent. She often wondered what Kurt would be like, would he be soft spoken and quiet like his father or loud and obnoxious like his mother. She didn’t even know if it was right to call herself his mother, what kind of mother abandoned her baby in a soviet nunnery.
“If you're my Aunt does that make Charles my uncle? Or does the fact that he and my Vati keep making eyes at each other make him my future step dad?” Peter asked and Erik felt his cheeks warm and he could hear Charles choking on his coffee in the front seat of the cab. Both men turned to stare at Raven who simply flashed the stubborn duo a mischievous smile.
“Oh he’s definitely your step-dad, they were actually together at one point before the beach divorce. That was how I met you Vati, My brother saved him from drowning in Florida while he was on a Nazi hunting mission,” Raven chattered ignoring the protests from both men. Peter was grinning broadly at the stories and looked between his father and Charles wiggling his silver eyebrows.
“I see you haven’t matured much in the ten years I have been gone,” Erik huffed and Raven’s face darkened.
“I have matured plenty, you two just need to learn to have a little fun. Life is too short and too dark to dwell on unhappiness. You guys obviously still love each other and need to get over yourselves and your grudges. You end up back together anyway if what Logan is implying is true, why drag it out and make each other miserable!” Raven snapped and Peter shrunk in his seat he hadn’t meant to start an argument. Raven wasn’t having it though, she had lost so much and she didn’t want to watch the two men she loved the most keep carrying on in a grudge filled haze. They had always made a better team together. Erik and Charles stared at Raven for a long time, so long that they were still staring when the cab pulled up in front of the airport. Charles generously tipped the driver apologizing for the argument and walking towards the airport's entrance. Peter had already taken off and was probably already relaxing on the airplane or rifling through Charles personal things.
Erik was apprehensive about taking Pietro back home as well as being excited to see not only Wanda but his daughter he never got to meet as well. He was apprehensive of Magda’s reaction, she wasn’t a woman to be trifled with and he knew he would have to answer for his actions. She would not be happy that he had taken their child out of the country without her knowledge or consent. She would also be livid about her child breaking him out of the pentagon. He was upset about that too it put Pietro on a radar that Erik never wanted any of his children to be on. They would be looking for someone who moved fast like he did now, it also didn’t help that the boy had already had run-ins with the police already with his kleptomaniac nature. The boy would have stolen a Monet with no qualms had he not realized what he had done. He just wanted life to go back to a semblance of the normalcy he had before Dallas, if that normalcy involved Charles it would just be a bonus.
***
The second plane ride was a bit more smooth than the first one, Pietro had put himself to sleep pretty quickly into the flight, he didn’t have much sleep the night before. Raven and Charles had some much needed time catching up, there were still some bitter feelings but they were on the road to recovery. Erik had tried to stay quiet and out of things for the ride home. His thoughts were on ways he could fully stop Trask. If Logan was still here it meant that the future was still unsure. Erik couldn’t take anymore uncertainty in his life. He needed to know that his children would live long full safe lives. If that wasn’t possible he didn’t know what could stop him from burning the entire world to the ground.
“Erik are you okay?” Raven asked and Erik could feel Charles' eyes fall onto him. He did his best to avoid meeting Charles’ gaze. The whole situation was uncomfortable and as much as he wished he had handled the entire Cuba situation differently, it wasn’t something he could just say he was sorry for. Charles had every right to hate him, much less want to rekindle the romance they once had. He could see that Charles had been struggling. He smelt the alcohol on the man’s breath and he had seen the dilated eyes. If they could overcome this then nothing could tear them apart again. If Charles would take him back he would not let him go again. He couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t make stupid rash discisions, it was his nature to do that but he could promise not to make the same stupid rash discisions.
“I’m concerned, Logan is still here. That has to mean that everything isn’t okay yet. We still need to stop Trask, he is supposed to debut his sentinels at the White House we need to stop him,” Erik’s voice came out passionate as it often did when talking about mutant rights.
“I have to say that I have similar concerns, we should reconvene at Westchester. We need a plan to stop him and we need to work together on this, I think separating is part of the problem. Mutants will always be stronger together, it's easier to divide and conquer two opposing factions,” Charles voice was gruff but calm. It seemed for once that he and Charles were finally on the same page if not the same sentence.
“Agreed, we need to work together and we need to be at the White House together two days from now. I do have a half thought out plan,” Erik replied and both Raven and Charles looked apprehensive. They felt that most of his plans were overly dramatic and ridiculous.
“What’s your plan?” Logan asked.
“The Sentinels are made out of plastics and polymers and I won't be able to control them if they set them on us. I can go to the factory tonight and infect the sentinels set for the White House with steel so that we won't be surprised if they turn them on us” Erik told them, he hadn’t thought much more ahead of that. He frankly wanted to murder anyone who was bigoted enough to entertain Trask at all and that included Richard fucking Nixon. That wouldn’t go down well with Charles or his ex-wife and children.
“That’s actually not a bad idea, as long as your plan doesn’t involve assassinating the bloody president,” Charles agreed and Erik couldn’t help but catch the other man’s blue eyes.
“I would like to assassinate this president, anyone who would support Mutant destruction doesn’t deserve to sit as president. I won't though, it would bring too much visibility to my children, especially since one of them helped bust me out of the pentagon,” Erik quickly informed them when he saw Charles' horrified gaze.
“I know you would bloody well want to assassinate the president, that’s why I brought it up so you know that I am one hundred and seventy five percent not okay with that course of action. If we are to impeach Nixon it needs to be done through politics not a coup,” Charles groaned slightly but there was a slight smirk to the corner of his mouth. Erik couldn’t help but think that this had to be the most productive conversation the two of them have had since nineteen sixty-three.
“I need to get Pietro home to his mother but I will meet up with you guys much later tonight at the manor,” Erik changed the subject, thinking about Nixon and Trask only made him angry. He didn’t make the greatest decisions when he was angry. The last time he had been truly livid in Charles’ presence he had left the love of his life bleeding out on a beach in Cuba and took his only sister along with him just to rub salt in the open wound.
“Good luck with that Erik, she might actually kill you. Also Charles you might want to hold off meeting her because she will kill you for dragging her baby boy into something dangerous like that. She’s an Eastern European lady and they are scary when they are mad. She must have the patience of a saint if she hasn’t managed to murder Erik yet.
“ I can assure you Mystique, she most definitely does not have the patience of a saint, she just isn’t going to kill her children’s father. The kids would cry,” Erik cracked a rare joke, images of Magda hurling dishes and the occasional flower pot at his head coming to mind. She was always able to find something that had zero metal in it to throw at him when she was particularly angry at him.
“I must say I am not looking forward to meeting her again, we may or may not have impersonated police officers,” Charles made an ugly face.
“Yeah she’s gonna come kill you after she kills Erik,” Raven giggled at the men’s fear of the children’s mother.
“Who is gonna kill who?” A sleepy voice asked from behind Erik. He turned to look at the fifteen year old whose silver hair was sticking up in all different directions. Erik could feel the smile form on his face looking at his son. Somethings didn’t seem to change with age, Pietro had always woken up looking like he had rolled in a field.
“Your mom’s gonna kill Charles and Erik, and after that she will probably kill you if she still has energy,” Raven laughed and Pietro’s eyes widened. He had kind of forgotten about what consequences of breaking his Vati out of the pentagon with strangers who were pretending to be officers. His mom would kill him and Wanda and Lorna would have great fun in keeping him from running away.
“Do we have to go back home?” Peter gulped and started rubbing the back of his neck as he often did when he got nervous.
“Yes Pietro we both will have to face your mother’s wrath. We must be brave,” Erik told his son with a hint of amusement in his voice. He too was apprehensive of Magda’s reaction but he desperately wanted to see his other children.
“I don’t know, I kind of like being a coward,” Peter tried to convince his Vati.
“Suck it up buttercup you’re going back home,” Raven chortled at her surrogate nephew's discomfort.
Peter went on to whine for several more minutes much to everyone’s annoyance. Well almost everyone’s annoyance, Raven seemed to be enjoying herself almost too much. Raven couldn’t help it though she had almost all of her family back after being alone for so long. It was nice and she knew better than to take even a second of it for granted. Erik tried to have the same positive attitude but he had never had the same patience as Raven or Magda, as much as he tried. Not enough meditation in the world could keep his annoyance at bay for very long especially with a child like Pietro.
“Can everyone sit down, we're about to land,” Hank called from the cockpit.
“Thank God” Charles muttered, he could feel his treatment wearing off and he didn’t have another. Charles didn’t want Erik to see him like that, feeming for his drugs. The treatment had started off for his legs but he had grown addicted and it wasn’t a pretty sight when the treatment wore off.
“Are you okay?” Raven asked her brother quietly, she couldn’t help but notice the cold seat forming at his temples.
“I will be, I just need to get home,” Charles said to his sister who viewed him with suspicion. CHarles changed appearance and demeanor hadn’t escaped her notice and she had every intention of interrogating her brother the first chance that she got him alone.