You Are My Sunshine

Erik was alone, he wasn’t really alone, he was actually surrounded by people. His brotherhood, his group would make the difference for mutants. He wouldn’t stop fighting until no father had to worry about a mob coming for his family in the night just because they were different. Erik had never felt lonelier than he did now though. He had thought he had something precious with Charles but they had different ideas. Charles wanted to hide away and wait for the problem to correct itself. That wouldn’t happen keeping quiet had only lead to evil men gaining power, he would never again mind his business and let the government handle something. No Erik was an angry man and all the sunshine had left his life with the death of his daughter.

He was jerked out of his thoughts when he heard someone playing the song. Her song, that was Anya’s song, he had sang it to her every night before bed so that she might not forget how much he loved her. They had taken her though the mob, they had taken his sunshine; and when he enacted his justice his ‘wife’ had called him a monster. He would never understand how she could side with the mob over their daughter. He had been totally justified in killing those men they would have done the same to him and they had done the same to his daughter. His innocent little girl that hadn’t even manifested a gift.

“You are my sunshine, my only sun” Angel was singing to one of the younger mutants they had rescued from an abusive home before Erik cut her off. Erik had planned on having Azazel drop the child off with Charles in the next day or two. The brotherhood was no place for children and Charles was going to be opening a school anyway.

“Sing something else not that song” He snapped a scowl firmly on his conventionally handsome face. He stormed off after that to his quarters trying to get the melody to quit playing inside his head. He didn’t need any reminders of Anya. Thinking of Anya only distracted him from the goals at hand.

“Geez Erik what the hell crawled up your ass and died” Raven snorted. Erik gave her a withering look not in the mood for her games.

“Raven I’m not in the mood” He spat rubbing at his temples. Sometimes he felt that he and max were two completely different people. Max had been full of hope for the future and had so much love to give. Max along with his hope and love had died with his daughter. There was a time he thought he might be feeling some sort of love again but he had fucked that up too on the beaches of Cuba.

***

Anya had made the twins go about life as normal even dying Pietro’s hair so that the school wouldn’t ask any questions. Anya wasn’t too concerned when Magda didn’t come home at least she wasn’t concerned for the first five days. It wasn’t unusual for their mother to leave them alone for long periods of time and Anya was the caregiver anyway.

On the sixth day without their mother Anya was actually concerned. The twins had started to ask questions that she didn’t know the answer to.

“Anya?” Pietro’s small voice asked her. She looked down at her little brother, his chubby cheeks were red with tears.

“Awe what’s wrong Pie” She asked, scooping the five year old into her arms. Before he could answer Wanda also walked up to her scooting in as close as she could to her sister and Anya wrapped her other arm around Wanda.

“We’re scared that Mama isn’t coming home,” Wanda said, her cheeks just as red as Pietro’s. Anya wouldn’t admit it but she was also scared that their mother wouldn’t come home. The more time that passed it seemed that, that would be the likely answer.

“I know Wands, if she’s not home by the first we will figure something out” Anya said to them trying to sound strong but her own voice was becoming thick with unshed tears.

“What happens after the first?” Pietro asked, burying his face further into his sister's threadbare jacket.

“Well rent is due on the first so we will pack up and leave and we will go find Papa” Anya said a determined lilt to her voice. That would be the only option, they would be homeless or separated into the foster care system. Anya couldn’t let that happen, bad things happened to mutant kids in the foster care system, she had worked too hard to give her siblings a somewhat happy childhood for them to be taken into something like that. That meant the only option was to find papa or find someone that could find Papa.

“Can you guys be brave for me until then?” She asked them.

“Yeah” they chorused together in a way that only twins could.

“You know Papa would sing me a special song when I was little and sad” Anya suggested and the twins looked up at her with wide eyes.

“Can you sing it sissy?” Pietro asked, looking up at her with his pretty gray eyes that looked so much like her Papa’s.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray, you’ll never know dear how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away” Anya softly sang ignoring the sad second verse of the song just like her Papa always had.

“You sing pretty sissy” Wanda yawned against her and Pietro hummed his agreement.

Once Anya was sure that the twins were fast asleep in the bed the three of them shared; she began pulling her mothers largest suitcase out. She needed to get their go bag ready because if the landlord came before they left it would be harder to get away. The landlord would probably call DHS which would put a stopper on all of her plans to find her Papa.

Anya gathered up five changes of clothes for each of them as well as the small half filled photo album. She then took a deep breath and went to the drawer where their Mama kept her bill money. She counted out the money there was a little over two hundred dollars that was more than she had been expecting. She could only hope that would be enough to last them until she could track down Papa.

With all of their necessities packed and ready to go Anya finally let herself lay down. She let her tears go when she was laid out next to the twins. She was tired of being the strong one. She still just wanted to be a little girl, none of it was fair.

When Anya woke up the next morning she got the twins dressed and ready for school. She walked them to their kindergarten and then started the long trek to the public library. She wouldn’t be going to school that day, they would need to research who to go to. It would have to be a mutant or someone that knew mutants.

She made her way into the library and she received a stern look from the elderly librarian. Anya waved at her as friendly as she could as if this was where she should be and not in school.

“You. Child shouldn’t you be in school?” She asked her tone while not unfriendly was certainly stern.

“Yes ma’am I’m homeschooled my Mama dropped me off here to work on my book report whilst she finishes grocery shopping. She should still be outside so I can go get her” Anya said, making her eyes as wide and cute as possible.

“I don’t think that’s necessary dearie what are you doing your book report on?” The elderly librarian’s tone was softer now and she had a fond look behind her cat’s eyeglasses.

“The diary of a Young Girl ma’am. Papa said it’s important to know where we came from and how blessed we are to have what family we do have” She recited because that was something that her Papa had been passionate about so it wasn’t a lie persay.

“Oh dearie I’m so sorry let me know if I
You need any help with your report” The woman said with a strange look in her eyes. Anya had learnt early on that adults tended to quit asking questions when you brought up the Holocaust, it made them uncomfortable.

“Yes ma’am” Anya said, giving her biggest winning smile. After wandering out of the librarian's eyesight Anya shot over to the nonfiction section searching the M’s for mutants. It took her a while but she found a book by a Dr. Charles Xavier on mutations and genetics. Most of the book went over her head but she read that the man lived in Westchester NY. That wasn’t far at all, only an hour's train ride from where they lived! She tried not to get her hopes up because this man still might not be able to help her find Papa but it was the only lead she had. She shoved the book into her backpack for safekeeping.

Now she just needed to figure out how a thirteen year old and two five almost six year olds would get their hands on train tickets without an adult. Anya didn’t let it bother her though that would be a worry for another day.

***

The first of the month came more quickly than she would Iike. Anya’s mother wouldn’t be coming home, she had abandoned them to fend for themselves. Anya’s resentment was building up inside of her and she didn’t much think the woman deserved to be called a mother anymore. She had kept them from a father that would love them and take care of them and then she went ahead and abandoned them anyway.

“Wake up” She shook the kids shoulders jostling them awake. Wanda groaned she had never been a morning person like Anya or Pietro.

“Morning sissy” the little boy yawned scratching his mussed hair where the silver was already peeking through at the roots.

“Good morning, I was thinking we’d have pancakes for breakfast since we will be traveling” Anya said and Pietro became a blur bouncing up and down in childish excitement. Wanda intrigued also cracked an eye and Anya had to hold back a chuckle. It seemed pancakes were enough to rouse her sister.

“Mrs. Reed is gonna read us Harold and the Purple crayon today” Pietro charttered happily as he seated himself at the table of mismatched chairs.

“Pie you guys aren’t going to school today remember what I said about today” Pietro looked down trodden for a minute before his grumpier twin opened her mouth.

“Don’t you wanna find Papa Pie?” Wanda asked, shoving a huge bite of pancake in her tiny mouth, her auburn hair sticking up in every direction.

“Oh yeah!” His smile was back on at full force. Anya was both excited and scared they were truly on their own now.

“After you guys are done with breakfast I want you to go put on your best set of clothes. We can’t look out of place, we don’t want people to become suspicious of us. Wanda I also want you to let me braid your hair. ” Anya said to them it was serious this whole mission would be down the tubes if the right adult asked the wrong question. The twins nodded their agreement continuing to eat their breakfast.

Anya got up tossing her half eaten pancake in the garbage, she was too nervous to eat. Besides she had packed some sandwiches for the trip. She walked to the washroom and stared at herself hard in the mirror, her own black brown eyes staring back at her. She sighed picking up the hairbrush and yanking it through her dark wavy hair before she secured it out of her eyes with a black headband. She was already dressed in her best dress, a green one that her mother had gotten her for hanukkah last year in a rare act of kindness and sobriety. It was a little tight from where she grew but for once she didn’t look like the poor kid.

“You look pretty sissy” Wanda’s voice came from the doorway. Wanda was wearing a pink dress that her papa had gotten for Anya when she was the twins' age. It was a hand me down but it was well made and Wanda looked good in it.

“You do too Wands” Anya smiled before she had the smaller girl sit on the edge of the tub so she could braid her hair back into two plaits finishing off the ends with a length of pink ribbon to match the dress.

Once they were cleaned up and ready to go Anya told the twins that they could fill their backpacks with whatever important items they wanted to keep and that she had already packed clothing for them.

“Are you guys ready?” she asked, trying to hide the crack of apprehension. She was scared but she needed to be strong for the kids.

“Let’s go find Papa,” Wanda said squeezing Anya’s hand.

The trio set off towards the train station trying their best not to look out of place. They made it there in what felt like no time at all and Anya had to take a deep breath. She confidently walked up to the ticket booth.

“I need three tickets to Westchester” she said confidently not a tremor in her voice to be found. The attendant looked at her unimpressed and she acted like it didn’t bother her.

“Where’s your mom kid” the greasy attendant asked.

“Oh she’s coming she has to get the rest of our luggage she told us to wait for her at the platform” Anya explained with a false cheery smile on her face.

“Whatever kid I don’t particularly care, that’ll be eight fifty,” he said and Anya slipped him the money.

“Thank you sir” she said with a wave and headed to the platform getting herself and the twins settled into their seats. She had done it and she got them onto the train without any hard questions. All they had to do was wait now until they got to Westchester.