Chapter 2
It was not until late at night that Erik, completely worn-out and fed up with all those so-called April Fool’s tricks, finally had a chance to chill out, sprawling in an old armchair. It turned out that the kids decided to season this very day with some festive air which it ought to manifest and for the whole afternoon they roamed around the mansion, tickled pink and shouting in exhilaration, chasing each other and pulling pranks on the jinx once they got their paws on him. They wreaked havoc in this place and then all hell broke loose, wherever they set foot on, it was one helluva disaster.
Patience driven to the limit, after the third time she had been hit by a water balloon Raven had had enough and determined that she would crucify whoever dared to make any trouble. Storming out of the room, she trod on the carpeted floor in the direction where the racket came from with a face like thunder, and dragged Erik along while she was on her way there as a second, who chanced to pass by at that very moment.
Before they could even blink their eyes the kids all fled in a rush of panic at the sight of them, or more specifically, him. The mansion reverted to tranquility, but still a huge mess. So for the rest of the day Erik did nothing but helped clean and tidy up this place along with Raven.
‘It’s a strange thing that Peter’s not into any of this. Don’t you think?’ murmured Raven thoughtfully out of suddenness, her eyes alighting on a streak of blots on the carpet she was about to tackle.
Erik’s head shot up at the mention of the boy’s name and the moment that name was brought into topic, the fragments of what had happened earlier this day all deluged in his head. Honestly speaking, he hadn’t thought about this for a while, cause giving a reprimand to some troubled kid literally was not something worth remembering or fussing about. He swept it out of his mind the second he strode over the threshold, but it was only when Raven brought it up that he realized maybe he shouldn’t dismiss the episode that soon cause obviously something odd was brewing up.
‘Maybe that’s because he found something way more intriguing than this child’s play, like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, that he’d rather spend a whole afternoon stay in his own room.’ said Erik. Stay in his own room. It sounded nice, but that was exactly where all the peculiarities lay.
The boy locked himself up in his own room ever since that conversation and as far as Erik could see this simply meant something had gone haywire. It was like this boy was beside himself, cause normally he liked messing around. He loved being under the spotlight and having everyone’s attention. But now he tucked himself away from everyone, to sit alongside the gloomy shadow of his own, wallow in self-pity and… seriously ponder on Erik’s words? It just didn’t make sense. In the normal course of things he didn’t give a fig what others said to him, good or bad, right or wrong, he just deemed it some old wives’ tale and mostly snorted it off.
But not this time. It was like he was indeed downhearted by what he said. Like he truly cared.
Altogether it was preposterously peculiar. And clearly Raven shared the same thought, judging from the deep frown on her face. She dropped the work which was only halfway through on the spur of the moment and rushed upstairs. She stayed there for about half an hour doing god knew what and when she came back, she looked like she could kill. When their eyes accidentally met, for a split second Erik labored under the illusion that she was shooting bullets at him from those two amber muzzles.
Huh, so she knows, muttered Erik inwardly. Nonetheless he feigned indifference and continued his work at hand undisturbed. Neither he nor Raven mentioned it again after that and they finished the clean-up in silence. A silence pregnant with tension though.
Now seated cozily in the armchair, while gazing absentmindedly at the ceiling, once again his mind uncontrollably wandered back to what had happened this morning, reflecting on all the eccentricities, and those menacing looks from Raven.
The funny thing was, just like Peter, normally he wouldn’t care about what other people did or said but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t go back to think it through. And this time, when he sat there mulling it over, the more he contemplated, the more inadvisable his earlier behaviors seemed to be.
He knew Peter had been raised by a single mother and needless to say, the absence of a father in the course of upbringing could affect a child profoundly. He was fully aware that this kid had been longing for a father figure. Bothering Charles every now and then and eyeing those who had received a gift from their fathers jealously had made it crystal clear. So this whole thing, in all likelihood, might be as he claimed, a harmless deed. Nothing wrong, save his bad timing –arranging it on April Fools’. On no account would anybody in his right mind do such things.
Anyway, Erik figured he better find a chance to sort this out, to sit down and converse reasonably with the boy, apologize if he needed to. Not today though. The boy had to learn his lesson and learned to have a think before he acted, regardless of whether the act was on reasonable grounds or not.
Inclining to drowsiness, Erik dismissed all those thoughts and rose to his feet, flexing his aching limbs a bit before he slowly walked to the nightstand to pick up his snake plant and repositioned it on the ledge. Through the wide-open windows, a cool breeze blew in, breaking on Erik’s face. He stood inhaling a few intakes of fresh air as his glanced around the lawn lying beneath – this often promised a pleasantly cool day. Looking down, he was pleased to see that the leaves of the snake plant restored to their former vitality, to a certain extent. Except the soil… Erik’s fingers brushed past it and a shaft of chill flowed in on contract. Still wet, a whisper of incredulity sounded in Erik’s head.
Weary enough, he had no intention to figure out what that meant. He was ready to make for the bed, when a cascade of water suddenly splashed from above. For an instant Erik was wide awake, and so was an onrush of indignation, called up from deep inside him.
‘For fuck’s sake!’ cursed Erik under his breath, rushing back to the window and poking his head out to see what was going on there. One second later came Scott’s impatient voice.
‘…man, this reminds me of some self-made, shoddy beer that was left in the cellar for years reeking of stale sweat.’ grumbled Scott, forcing the words out amidst a fit of coughs.
‘It’s called soda, thank you very much.’ retorted Peter with heavy sarcasm, clearly pissed off, ‘And the taste which you described as stale sweat is in fact acidity.’
‘Not much difference here.’
‘That’s not the reason for splashing it all. You are wasting my hard-earned treasure and that’s a life sentence according to my law!’
‘Alright gangs, calm down, please–’ Erik heard another voice joined in the conversation. It was Jean Grey’s. Lots of people up there,it seems. It looked like the youngsters were throwing a party, had it not been for the boiling tension. There was a moment when Erik was certain that Peter had lost it for a fraction of a second, when he jumped down Scott’s throat. It was a rare thing to see the boy actually blow a fuse. In short, there was something about the way he behaved that didn’t fit. The boy was acting weird. He was not himself ever since that conversation.
Erik flicked a quick glance up, but nothing came into view except for a huge, far-stretching canvas of sky. Out there was pitch-black. Today would soon be history. He could wait it till this day worn out, and later tackle him about what caused all this peculiarities but on second thought, maybe the better choice was to get this done as soon as possible, considering the urgency.
He ascended to the third floor, strode across the corridor while he mused on what he ought to say exactly after they met, but ended up with the idea that he might as well winged it. Once again the brass plate, etched with the name ‘Peter’, bumped into his sight as abruptly and curtly as it had been earlier this day. But instead of directly barging in, he stationed himself a mere step away from the door. Inside there the young X-men were still hot on bicker.
‘Folks, trill out, would you?’ He heard Jean mutter in a begging voice.
‘You heard him–’
‘Scott, we are not here for this, remember?’ said Jean sternly.
Scott sighed, ‘Fine.’
‘Good to see we are on the same page now.’ said Ororo briskly, ‘Now let’s move to the real business. Peter, have you confessed everything to him?’ She paused, during which time Peter must have given her a brief negative response, Erik assumed. Cause she almost broke into a yell of disappointment at once, ‘I can’t believe you are still keeping him in the dark! You should tell him. The sooner the better.’
‘Well, it’s not like stopping someone on the street and telling him he had a note written with ‘I’m an idiot’ stuck on his back. You can’t deal with this the same way as you do with that.’ mumbled Peter.
‘But he deserves to know–’ Jean exclaimed, echoed by Kurt, who kept repeating ‘she’s right’ all the time. ‘And seriously Peter, you are getting things too complicated. Just go find Erik and tell him, and– oh no,’ she gasped, ‘he’s right outside now.’
Deathlike silence domed over them. For an instant Erik felt they were all cocooned in a thick bubble which no sound could penetrate through. Although divided by the door, Erik was sure that at the moment they were sharing the same blank expression.
He didn’t know if he should show himself or not. Perplexity had reigned his mind since the moment he heard his own name brought into the conversation and he wondered what it was that was so important that they summoned a meeting here in the dead of the night.
Well, whatever it was, it involved him and Peter. That was the only thing Erik can be sure of.
Time ticked by. But the kids hadn’t made any move yet, hence Erik chose to be the one to strike first. He pushed the door open and walked in. The youngsters were all in there, huddling together, faking indifference and evading his eyes.
‘Quite a party here, isn’t it?’ Erik croaked, glancing from one to the other, ‘I suppose you are all geared up for tomorrow’s training?’
‘We are right about to make preparations. Are we, gangs?’ Scott hastened to say, eyeing his friends meaningfully. Jean was quick on the uptake.
‘Yeah, yeah. We are about to do that… Well then, see you tomorrow guys.’ said she heartily, forcing a curt laugh. She trotted to the doorway and disappeared in a heartbeat, with Scott, Kurt and Ororo closely on her heels, all filing out of the room. Ororo, bringing up the rear, closed the door behind her. Deathly still ensued, which was, well, preposterous. Considering you had Peter alongside, who was well-known for his blabbermouth.
Clearly the boy was in no mood for blabbering. Turning his back at Erik, he busied himself smoothing his training suit, doing it slowly, which was so not Peter-ish. For a moment all Erik could hear was the rustle he made when he endeavored to smooth out the creases, and his own ragged breath, an internal shriek deep in his lung, craving for an answer.
‘Care to give me an explanation for all this?’ asked Erik. He had had enough. All these peculiarities had driven him up the wall and he really needed someone to unravel the mystery for him.
In response to his question Peter just murmured ‘Nothing’ as he bustled around, tucking a heap of crumpled clothes in the wardrobe and sweeping the garbage into the trash bin. Preoccupied with his own stuff while he wandered freely in the room, paying no heed to Erik, as though he had merely been a speck of dust on the carpet.
Or, what was simply more plausible was that the boy was holding grudge to him for what had happened in the morning that he’d rather take him as something invisible. Erik mentally told himself that he should see it coming.
‘Peter, I noticed that today you've let your temper slip out of gear for several times.’ Erik began a moment later, ‘Such fierce mood swing will surely affect your performance in the training and it's really no good thing. You gotta bring it under control.’ He regarded him with a look of concern, ‘Normally you are not this ill-tempered. I assume it had something to do with what happened this morning? I thought it through after I came back and maybe, yes, maybe–’ he emphasized, ‘I was a bit too harsh on you cause I’m sure you meant no harm. I will apologize if that is what you demand–’
‘Don’t fuss over it.’ Peter interjected in an air of nonchalance. Though he masked it well, Erik could feel his displeasure. He had it all written on his deeply-lined forehead.
‘Then so be it.’ Erik shrugged, ‘But we are not over yet.’ he stopped Peter just in time before he swiveled around, ‘Tell me what it is that you are holding back from me.’
‘Nothing.’
‘I’m not stupid, Peter.’ persisted Erik with resolute determination, staring fixedly at Peter, ‘And you know I have a thousand ways to extract whatever you are trying to hide from me so I suggest that you better save it and tell me directly.’
For the first time Peter flicked his eyes up to look straight at him. Their eyes met in a way the same as acquaintances, who had not seen for ages, bumping into each other on the street when they least expected it. Bemusement, hesitation and slight uncertainty all chased after one another across their faces for a second. And then dawning comprehension shot up their heads. They started sizing up the man standing in front of them, like what Peter was doing right now. He studied Erik in a serious manner, but his lips twitched into a touch of teasing smile. Heaving a sigh, he wavered between whether he should act his age or he should just instinctively act the fool and burst into a helpless guffaw like he always did in a situation like this.
‘Don’t blame me for not warning you then.’ He said at last after a momentary consideration. Seeing that Erik showed no sign of letting it go, Peter continued, ‘Alright. Sit down, Erik.’
‘I’d rather stand.’
Peter shrugged, ‘Still, I highly recommend you do as I say. Anyway, let’s play two truths and a lie. Here we go, listen – I’m a mutant, I’m your son, and Apocalypse is my half brother. Pick your answer, dude.’
‘That’s not very challenging. Cause I know Apocalypse could in no way be your – wait, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?’