This is an AU and may lead to another story. I'll see if you guys like this one so you need to review!
Erik doesn't have many visitors to his plastic prison. There's Charles of course, he visits every month. Scott came in once, just to shout at him and threaten to blast him with his bolts. Erik wasn't exactly bothered by that. The boy didn't have it in him to kill. And Rogue had come once though she'd never actually walked into the room, just hesitated behind the metal detector.
So all in all, Charles was the only regular out of the X-Men that came to visit him. The others had never come back. Not that he cared. He cared about Charles and his other reliable visitor.
The first time he'd come to visit, he said nothing. He'd sat and stared at Erik with those piercing hawk-like eyes that brought back several memories. He'd sat there and watched Erik until he'd been told to leave. When he'd left, he'd glanced over his shoulder and smiled. No-one else, except maybe his partner, would have noticed it.
The second time he came was two weeks later. He still had blood on his right hand. Erik had pointed it out, despite vowing to keep silent, to just glare at the boy. He'd laughed then, throwing his head back and laughing. He'd gone on to make a rude comment about gas station bathrooms and then told Erik, in grim detail, about the man he'd killed and the mutant-hater he'd taken out on the way. It was the mutant-hater's blood, the mutant-hater that had died screaming and begging for mercy.
"And what did SHIELD think about you… indulging yourself?"
Another laugh and a slight crinkle of his eyes that told Erik it was genuine. "I told my handler it was collateral. I don't think he believed me but hey, they don't want to lose one of their best agents."
"You haven't changed a bit, have you?"
"Probably not. Why alter perfection? Tasha thinks I need my head looking at."
"Probably right."
He laughed and left, giving Erik a wide grin.
He visited, time and time again, giving Erik the highlights of his missions and telling him all about the mutant-haters he'd tortured or handed over to Mystique. Apparently, as a special treat, he'd even been allowed to go down to a mutant-hater's cell in SHIELD's prison and have some fun. Erik loved to listen to his protégée's stories, hands flashing through the air like when he'd first met Erik and Charles. Then he arrived an hour after Charles left. He walked in and saw the chess board.
"Charlie's been here?"
There was almost a pang in the younger man's voice. Charles, despite his awkwardness around a deaf selective mute, was something of a role model to the boy, as Erik liked to think he was.
"Yes. I would have thought a man with your connections would have already known that Hawk."
Hawk grinned. "I heard a rumour. But I never trust rumours I haven't started. Nice of him to bring a glass set. I would have brought you a wooden one. Harder to tell which is black and which is white with glass."
Erik chuckled. "Not that that would be a problem for you."
"No. But I am exceptional. As you told me. And then gave me a dictionary when I didn't understand what that meant."
"I remember. You drove Hank and Alex mad quoting random words and their definitions."
Hawk settled down and produced what he'd been hiding from behind his back. It was a large present, gift-wrapped in purple and red.
"I wrapped it myself."
There was so much pride in his voice. Clearly he'd used a whole roll for each colour. When Erik eventually unwrapped it, he discovered the Lord of the Rings series and the Hobbit.
"You like those, right?"
Hawk's face was so full of worry, like it always was when he handed out presents. Erik still wanted to kill his father for putting that worry in his heart.
"I've never read them. Are these the ones with Gandalf?"
"Yep. And you so look just like him."
They sat and argued over the relative merits of Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Jeremy Renner for half an hour until Hawk left.
"See you."
Erik broke out two weeks later. Before he left, however, he made sure he took the books with him.
He turned up 30 minutes after Erik left. He saw the carnage that had been wreaked by Erik and couldn't help wishing he'd been here 35 minutes earlier. He could have headed off with Erik, turned his back on SHIELD, Fury and Coulson and done it with ease.
"You alright pal?" asked a guard.
"Yeah fine."
Four years later…
Erik is about to open the bunker door to get some space from several very loud people when he hears a knock. He swings the door open and a very familiar face looks at him.
"Room for two and a half more?"
There are no greetings and no niceties but there never are. The blond-haired man and the redheaded woman have never done the polite thing. It's one of the reasons Erik loves him.
"Always Clint."
A tired smile crosses Clint's face and he steps into the bunker, leading his pregnant partner with him.
"Thanks Pops."