Tugging the skirt of your dress straight, you take one final glance in the mirror and smile, satisfied with the result. Nearly eight years on from the day you got this dress and you can still pull it off. Though, you reflect, it probably wouldn’t matter too much if you couldn’t, after all this is hardly a special anniversary, celebrating nine years since your first date. Ten years, yes, but for some reason Peter’s really excited about this date. You’re not sure why, it’s only dinner, but then again it is going to be the first time you two have had on your own together for a while, what with you being very busy rushing around after Charles Xavier, being his personal assistant, and occasionally helping Peter and the rest of the X-Men on various missions, when you can afford to be spared.
The mansion is definitely the kind of place that keeps you constantly busy, but you kind of like that, and you’re glad that Peter finally seems to have found his feet in doing something he not only enjoys but is good at. Super-speed, after all, is highly useful in helping save the world every now and again and he takes his role as one of the team very seriously. For the first time in both of your lives, you also have friends, the people you’ve bonded with over the last eight years and who now feel as close as family. For ages, you, Peter, Kurt and Ororo had bets on whether or not Jean and Scott were going to get together, because whilst it was obvious that he had feelings for her, Jean had been very reserved about admitting to hers, largely because she was nervous about the strength of her Mutation. But now the four of you were vying for the position of “Cutest Couple” in the school.
There’s a knock at your door and you smile, knowing it’s Peter. He always does this now before dates, pretending he’s picking you up like he used to when the pair of you lived back on your street. You skip a little in your eagerness to open it, thinking back to the first mission you two undertook upon arriving at the mansion, and how long ago that seems now...
It all happened really fast, as most things do when Peter’s around. But whatever you were expecting when the pair of you came upon the mansion, having passed the gates bearing the sign Xavier’s Academy for Gifted Children a moment ago, that it looked to be, well, like it was beginning to explode, really. At any rate, the next thing you were aware of was that one second Peter was standing right next to you, holding your hand, and the next he was standing on the grass in front of the mansion, a vast lawn that only a second ago had been empty but was now filled with students and professors, some of them landing softly on sheets that had been conveniently thrown over the trees to cushion their falls, and the mansion had been completely destroyed.
“What-?” You cut yourself off as what had just happened hit you and you ran to Peter’s side. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”
Your question was aimed at one of the Professors, a tall thin man with glasses, who quickly turned to the pair of you. “How...Where did you two...?”
“We’re looking for the Professor,” Peter answered, grabbing your hand to tug you closer to him. “She’s his new intern.”
You blushed. “Nearly.”
“Well...” Professor McCoy, you’d find out that was his name later, glanced back at the wreck that had once been the mansion. “They took him away.”
There were murmurs and whispers of awe around you and you looked over to see the blue Mutant woman everyone knew as Mystique standing in your midst. Your jaw dropped and you squeezed Peter’s hand tightly, pressing closer to him. “That’s...that’s...”
“I know,” he muttered back.
“What’s happened?” You both turned to see a boy roughly your age wearing an unusual pair of glasses racing up to you. Behind him were a dark girl, a pretty red-head and a boy who was blue all over with pointed ears, a tail and only six fingers instead of the usual ten. “Where’s Alex? Where’s my brother?”
Peter looked around and shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I got everybody.”
“You got all these people out?” you asked, hugging him, and feeling more than a little impressed. After all, you knew how fast Peter could move but you were still proud of him in that moment.
“Alex was closest to the blast,” McCoy said, gently.
Peter glanced apologetically at the boy. “Sorry.”
The red haired girl came up closer to the boy as he looked back over the wreckage of the explosion. “Alex...”
You looked around, hoping someone has a time manipulation Mutation so that you can go back and rescue Alex before the explosion. You knew Peter did his best even if he couldn’t rescue everyone and you hoped he didn’t beat himself up over this. Before anyone could say anything else, however, the sound of aircraft overhead caused everyone to look up. Several military helicopters landed and a woman who claimed to be a CIA agent ran to meet them, ignoring Mystique’s warning of “Wait!” before a blast came that knocked all of you – with the exception of three Mutant students who escaped by hiding – completely unconscious.
“I want her!” Colonel Stryker ordered, pointing to Moira. “Him!” He pointed to McCoy. “Him!” He pointed to Peter. “And her!” He pointed to Mystique. Then, he pointed to you too. “And bring her along too, we can use her for leverage!”
You weren’t aware of the journey over to wherever it was you woke up but you were aware of the fact that when you did wake up, it was in a very uncomfortable position. You were dimly aware of Peter shouting your name somewhere far away as you raised your head before realising your arms were restrained above your head.
“Peter..?” You blinked, looking around but seeing no sign of him. The room you were in was small with metal walls and empty apart from yourself. You looked up to see the manacles restraining you covered your hands like mittens, like somehow your captors were aware of your powers.
“Let her go!” Peter demanded, and you then noticed an old battered intercom in a corner of the room. You frowned. There must have been a camera in the room somewhere too because it sounded like Peter could see you from wherever he was, even though you couldn’t see him.
“Tell me where to find Charles Xavier, and your friend won’t get hurt!” an unfamiliar voice commanded right back.
“It’s not him you should be worried about,” Moira said, but then the intercom cut out on your end and you didn’t hear anymore.
“Peter!” you shouted, tugging on your restraints. “Peter, can you hear me?”
There was no response, so you assumed the camera must have been switched off too. You sighed before closing your eyes and concentrating very hard on using your powers to free yourself. After all, one thing you knew with absolute certainty was that when metal gets very, very cold, sub-zero level cold, it shatters, and this was just what happens with your restraints as you froze them. Yanking your arms free, you shook them out to get the circulation flowing back again before running to try the door. Your captors hadn’t taken any chances, however, and there were no gaps in the door you could freeze to expand the thing open.
“Damn!” you muttered before concentrating hard on trying to freeze the lock off. You paused, momentarily, when Charles Xavier spoke inside your head, sending out a telepathic message to the world from whoever was holding him hostage. Shaking your head, you resumed your escape plan, spurred on by his words. Your efforts must have shown through on the other side because a moment later a voice you recognised as belonging to the boy who was Alex’s brother suddenly exclaimed “Hey, is someone in there?”
“Yeah!” You called back. “Is there a door lock on that side?”
“No! Hold on, get away from the door!”
You did as he said, and a minute later a laser came ripping through the door, cutting a small door for you to escape through. You blinked as it fell away and the boy, Scott, quickly replaced his glasses. “Whoa!” You darted through the gap to join him, Jean and Kurt. “Thanks.”
“Come on, they know we’re here,” Jean urged, and the four of you ran off to find the others. Behind you, you could hear men, it sounded like armed troops, coming after you. Immediately, you spun around.
“I’ve got this!” You shot a sheet of ice across the floor, and as your captors rounded the corner, they all slipped and fell like skittles.
“Wow!” Kurt exclaimed. “That was good!”
“Thank you!” You raced along with them and eventually came across the room where Peter and the others were being held. Kurt used the (very faulty) intercom to tell them to get away from the door and Scott again used his powers to set them free. The second Peter saw you he grabbed you for a hug before repeatedly kissing you until you pushed him off, punctuating each kiss with an “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“Peter, I’m fine,” you insisted. “Really.”
“Let’s go,” Scott said, and together the eight of you made your escape to a hanger where a large aircraft awaited you. On Mystique’s insistence, you bundled yourselves into flight suits before strapping in and McCoy steered the ship to where Jean claimed Xavier was being held. Along the way, Mystique told you about how there used to be the X-Men but now only she and McCoy were left. She seemed down, so Jean piped up about how her famous televised speech had made her a hero in everyone else’s eyes, and Kurt concurred about how her speech changed his life.
“Me too,” you agreed.
“Me too,” Peter added. “I mean, I still live in my mom’s basement, but everything else is...well, it’s pretty much the same. I’m a total loser.”
The others laughed, good-naturedly. You, however, glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “A loser with a girlfriend.”
Peter squeezed your hand. “Ok, but I still live in my mom’s basement.”
“It’s a cool basement,” you insisted, resting your head on his shoulder. “No one else has the Pac-Man arcade game.”
Peter flushed as Scott glanced at him. “You have an actual arcade game in your basement? How’d you swing that?”
“Don’t ask.”
You giggled, leaving the others wondering whether they ought to trust Peter around anything worth stealing in future. After what felt like hours but really wasn’t that long at all, you arrived in Cairo, which of course threw you, since you’d never been outside of America without your passport before, but you supposed since this was an emergency it didn’t matter that you weren’t there legally.
To be perfectly honest, you wouldn’t remember much of the battle in the years to come, because everything was happening so fast and a lot of it would blur together with future missions. The facts as you remembered them were thus; Peter helped Mystique to get closer to Magneto, aka his father, whilst you ran with McCoy, Jean, Scott, Kurt and Moira to find Charles. Your group got separated from each other several times, and once you had to fight off the Mutant calling himself Angel, though he shortly became entangled in a brawl with Kurt and an aeroplane, that ended badly for him, and thankfully not for Kurt. You spun around to see Apocalypse in the distance. He was standing with his back to you a few yards away from your boyfriend, who had now become separated from Mystique and then you heard him cry out as the ground seemingly shot up around him, encased his leg and a horrible crack followed as Apocalypse broke his leg.
“Peter!” Your voice was lost among the rest of the noise and you began to run towards them, but the Mutant called Psychlock was also making her way towards Peter, sword in hand. You gasped as Apocalypse ordered her to finish Peter off, before forming an ice ball you hoped would be strong enough to knock her out with. But then Psychlock turned her sword on Apocalypse instead as Peter struggled to free himself. You frowned, ice ball still raised, and then Apocalypse grabbed Psychlock around the throat, making her turn back into Mystique. You understood then she had tried using her Mutation to gain his trust and then finish him off. Apocalypse had her almost on the brink of death before you shot forwards and threw your ice ball at the back of his head instead. It hit him and shattered into a million pieces, and whilst it caused him to drop Mystique, who lay on the ground unconscious, it wasn’t hard enough to hurt him in any way. Peter looked up as Apocalypse turned to you, his mouth quirking unamused.
“What...was that?”
You formed another ice ball for him to see, although whether you could do any actual damage with it was now debateable. “Let Peter go!”
“(Y/N), no!” Peter shouted, still trying to free himself.
Apocalypse stalked towards you, ignoring Peter’s shout for him to leave you alone. You hesitated, wondering whether you should strike now or not. He smirked, glancing over at Peter. “Touching.” He looked back at you. “You’re stronger than you know. Perhaps I was hasty in choosing my Horsemen.”
You stared him down, defiantly. “I would never join you. What you’re doing...it’s sick.” You looked over at Peter, who was silently willing you to run, you could see it in his eyes, and his desperation for you to be safe suddenly made you feel stronger. In fact, seeing him hurt because of this Apocalypse guy...it made you angry. Yet you felt fully in control of your Mutation for the first time in your life. “Added to which, you just broke my boyfriend’s leg, and no one does that to my boyfriend!”
You took three steps back whilst saying it and then flung the ice ball at him with such a force that Apocalypse was knocked off his feet, landing inches away from where Mystique still lay. Peter stared at you, both impressed and startled as you raced to his side, hoping that if you froze the earth around his leg you could shatter it and free him. Apocalypse was back on his feet faster than you’d reckoned, however, and the next thing you knew his hand was around your throat just like it had been around Mystique’s moments earlier. Peter yelled out, unable to do anything, just hoping someone could help you.
“That was a very foolish thing you just did,” Apocalypse growled.
You struggled in his grip, kicking and trying to make him let you go. But luckily, Charles was able to use the mental link between them to get Apocalypse to let you go. As the two faced off, you scrambled to your feet just as McCoy and Kurt arrived. McCoy broke the earth around Peter’s leg and grabbed Mystique before Kurt teleported you all to where Charles and Moira were waiting with Jean. Encouraged by Charles, Jean then unleashed her powers on Apocalypse, aided by the Horseman named Storm, who had changed sides during the battle, and Magneto, having also seen the light. Eventually defeated, Apocalypse disintegrated, never to be seen again.
You leaned against Peter, relieved, all of you breathing heavily, except for Kurt who had passed out from over-exerting himself. “(Y/N), why didn’t you run?” Peter scolded, wrapping his arms around you. “You could have been killed.”
“So I was supposed to let him kill you instead? No fear!” You looked up at him. “Anyway, I didn’t like the way he called you a child.”
The others chuckled, relieved. Charles, however, looked over at you with interest. “You’re (Y/N)? My new intern?”
You smiled. “If you’ll have me.”
He smiled back. “Well, it’s not every interviewee who’d turn up for their interview several days early and then help save the world. I’d say that’s dedication.”
“Hold on!” Kurt shot up, suddenly awake again, looking around the room. “What did I miss?”
Everyone laughed, just relieved to be alive.
After that, Charles and Erik, as everyone now knew him as, repaired the school together. Peter decided to hold off telling Erik that he was his son, for now, and you respected his decision. When they were both ready for it, they’d talk. For now, the pair of you were happy as you were. Along with Jean, Scott, Storm and Kurt, you and Peter joined the next generation of X-Men, coached by Hank and Raven, as you now called them. But you were more of an emergency X-Man, or rather X-Girl, really, as you didn’t join them on every mission, unless they felt they really, really, truly needed someone with very strong ice powers. Of course, Storm could do things with ice as well, so there were times when you weren’t needed on missions, which was just as well because Charles liked to keep you super busy. As time went on, you became less of an intern and more of a PA for him, a position you loved.
But tonight, you’re both free of any work obligations, tonight it’s just you and Peter and nothing can spoil it. You smile to yourself when the knock on the door comes and rush up to open it, expecting to see Peter standing there with his usual cocky grin, eyes widening when he sees how good you look. What you don’t expect is the red-rimmed eyes, the slightly flushed cheeks and the stuffed-up greeting of “Hey! You look beautiful!” He takes a deep ragged breath through his mouth. “Come on, or there won’t be any food left!”
You took a step back from his arms. “Peter, you’re not going anywhere like this.”
“Like what?”
“Well, you’re sick.”
“What’re you talking about? I’m fine.” To your ears, it sounds more like he’s saying “Wad er you talken aboud? ‘M fide.” Which isn’t normal for Peter by any means.
You shake your head and pull him into your room, putting a hand on his forehead. “Sweetie, you’re burning up.”
“It’s hay fever,” Peter insists.
“No, it isn’t,” you insist right back, firmly.
Peter’s shoulders slump. “Alright, so I’ve got a bit of a cold, but I’m okay, really.”
“Peter, can you hear yourself?” You laugh. “You can barely talk right now. No, come on, we’re staying in tonight.” You prod him towards your bed. “In you get.”
“What? No!” Peter protests. “It’s our anniversary!”
“We can do it another time, come on, get your clothes off.”
Peter blinks. “I’m sick and you want to have sex?”
“No!” You swat at him as he grins, playfully. “I want to get your temperature down.”
Peter sighs but pulls off his jacket. You’ve never seen Peter sick before, since he rarely gets ill, but you’ve seen him injured often enough to know he’s actually a very good patient, even though he can get a little stir-crazy staying in bed for hours on end. You think back to after Apocalypse broke his leg, how you signed a sweet I Love You message on his cast, along with the ones from everyone else wishing him a speedy recovery. Which, it being Peter, it was.
He watches as you sit down and slip your shoes off, having no need of them now the pair of you are staying in. “Sorry.”
“Peter, it’s okay.” You smile. “It’s not like it was a special anniversary or anything.”
“Yeah, but I wanted it to...” Peter cuts himself off with a sneeze. “I wanted it to be.” He sneezes again.
“Aw, sweetie,” you coo, passing him the tissues. He looks so vulnerable like this it’s adorable.
“I bet I go through this really quickly,” Peter mumbles, wiping his nose. “I bet you anything tomorrow I’ll be fine.” He looks at you apologetically. “I knew I shouldn’t have got so close to those kids earlier.”
You laugh, softly. “You loved the attention, really.”
Peter manages a smile. “I really am sorry. You look so beautiful...”
“Peter, it’s fine, really,” you insist. “If I have to spend our anniversary taking care of you, then that’s what I want to do. Now, do you need anything? Water? Medicine?”
In the end, Peter proves again he’s an easy patient, in fact you practically have to force some chicken soup and fresh orange juice on him because he insists he isn’t that hungry, but he eventually complies. You keep a large jug of water by the bed and dig out every kind of cold medication you can think of, including painkillers to help keep his temperature down, and make him as comfortable as possible. Peter insists you’re not to kiss him because he doesn’t want you getting his cold, although you ignore some of his protests in favour of kissing his forehead under the guise of checking his temperature. When it starts to go down enough for him to start shivering, you make sure to tuck him up and snuggle down beside him, once again ignoring his protests that he doesn’t want you to catch this. Eventually you both fall asleep although you wake a few times in the night to check his temperature, which keeps on fluxing between hot and cold, and each time you rearrange his blankets before falling asleep again.
When you wake next, it’s morning and Peter’s awake too, lying beside you staring at the ceiling thoughtfully.
“Hey,” you smile, sleepily, lifting your head, causing him to look at you. “How’re you feeling?”
Peter smiles, shrugging. “I still feel kinda bad.”
“Well, you sound a lot better.”
“No, I mean physically I’m better, I’m feeling bad emotionally.”
“Oh, Peter, really, it’s okay,” you say, sitting up. Thankfully your dress isn’t too crumpled, so you can salvage it for tonight. “We can out for dinner tonight instead, no one’ll know the difference but us.”
Peter sighs, sitting up. “No, it’s not okay. I wanted last night to be perfect and getting a cold wasn’t part of the plan.”
You frown, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
Peter takes a deep breath. “Alright, you know what, I’m gonna do this now before anything else happens.” He shifts and you swear he just ran out of the room for a second before settling in front of you again. Bewildered, you let him take your hands, watching you intently. “Okay, so...you know how in school there were people who’d get together and they’d swear they’d be together forever and then it just didn’t work out?” You nod, wondering where he’s going with this. “Well...there was a tiny part of me that used to be scared we’d end up like that. You know? Like we’d drift apart or work would make us split up or something...but nothing has.” He grins. “You know, it’s been nine years and I’m still as in love with you now as I was that first night you babysat for us.”
“Aw.” You smile. “Peter, I love you too.”
His grin widens, although he looks nervous now. “So...” You watch as he brings out a small box from behind his back and what’s about to happen suddenly hits you, and you throw up both hands over your mouth and gasp, trying not to shout out in wonder. Honestly, you’d never thought that, despite how much Peter wanted to be with you, that he’d make this sort of commitment, you’d just never been able to picture it. But now it was really happening and you were momentarily speechless. “(Y/N)...” Peter pops open the box, revealing the most beautiful engagement ring you’ve ever seen in your life. “Will you marry me?”
You nod, lowering your hands. “Of course I will!” Part of you can’t believe this is happening even as Peter slides the ring onto your finger, beaming, and you fling your arms around his neck and hug him tightly. You feel the biggest wave of happiness wash over you as you realise that you’ve been secretly wanting this but had never actually imagined it would ever happen. Then you feel something else and quickly pull away from him as you give a cute little sneeze.
“Oh!” Peter looks worried. “You got my cold!”
“No, it was just one sneeze-!” You cut yourself off with a second sneeze. “Okay, maybe two.”
Peter grins, apologetically. “You’re not going to go through this as quickly as I did. Don’t worry.” He kisses your forehead. “I’ll take care of you just like you took care of me.”
You smile, weakly. “Some soup would be nice right now. But I guess this means we’ll have to hold off dinner for a while.” Peter’s on his feet and at the door in a second but when he pulls it open, you see Jean, Scott, Kurt and Storm all quickly try to hide, unsuccessfully, around the door frame. “What are you guys doing here?”
Peter looks like he’s about to explain but Jean gets there first. “She said yes, then? You said yes, right?” she adds, looking at you.
“I...” You look at Peter. “Did everyone in the school know about this before I did?”
“Um...”
“Pretty much,” Scott cuts in as Jean and Storm rush in to hug you.
Peter shoots to your side, looking apologetic. “Still want to marry me?”
You smile. “Do I have a choice?” As the girls start gushing about planning your wedding whilst Scott and Kurt throw in their congratulations, you glance over at him and nod, seriously. Yes, of course, you want to marry him, right now you want nothing more than to spend the rest of your life with Peter Maximoff.