Honestly Charles, I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship
Erik knows sounds bitter and spiteful, but right now he doesn't care. His defences, which Charles had so ably torn down, are slamming right back up.
And anyway, the guy has a fucking castle. What did he expect their reactions to be?
…
They're talking about their mutations. Erik isn't joining in, but merely listening.
"My mutation first, well, it sort of erupted quite dramatically when I was seven," Charles tells them when it's his turn.
"Seven!" exclaims one of the kids whose names he can't be bothered to learn, though going from the sound it might be the one who can shatter glass. "Mutations usually appear in puberty. What the hell happened with you?"
"Well, seven was a very emotional time for me," Charles jokes, and damned if Erik doesn't spot an avoidance technique when he sees one.
Then the explosive one who they found in a prison asks him when and how his mutation manifested. He glowers, but then Charles starts talking and the conversation has turned to something else without anybody realising it.
He can't help thinking that Charles is good. The poor kids didn't stand a chance.
…
Erik had been taking a walk when he found the memorial. Small, almost tucked out of the way. The memorial of Cain Xavier. Five years old when he died, and, if Erik is right, born around the same time Charles was.
Seven was a very emotional time for me.
Erik knows better than to ask Charles. Even with the miniscule amount of tact he has he knows he can't just walk up and ask about dead relatives, and even if he could, he knows he wouldn't get an answer. The whole place reeks with death, no matter how much Charles tries to present it as their new start. There are rooms you Do. Not. Enter. Photos that Charles avoids looking at as he passes them and Erik is pretty sure Charles only took them here because there was nowhere else to go.
…
This is yours
No, it's ours
Erik had thought it was just a line, Let's come play happy families because I'm the rich kid who's going to save you all, and so he had taken offence to it (it still hadn't stopped him from leaving). It hadn't taken him long for him to realise just how much Charles wanted it to be true.
It's ours
…
Erik is good at finding information, and not being caught whilst doing so. Admittedly it is harder now because people are watching him and he can't use methods like torture, which he had become somewhat reliant on. Damn Charles. And damn him for making him care so much that he wants to find out what's hurting him.
He has a new tactic though, because he was, sort of, if you looked at it a certain way, CIA, and he uses that little nugget ruthlessly. He's almost enjoying himself when he finds out the truth.
Cain Xavier was murdered. By his stepfather, Kurt Marko.
…
Listen to me very carefully, my friend, killing Shaw will not bring you peace
Erik looked at Charles and wondered how he could have ever thought Charles Xavier was an innocent, unaware of the true horrors of the world. And he knows Charles understands his cause. But the problem is they are just as determined as each other, but with entirely different goals. Charles wants to save the world, whereas Erik wants to destroy anybody who has ever hurt him.
…
The death certificate said that Kurt Marko had died of a stroke, but when he had dug deeper it was clear from the medical records that they weren't quite sure, all they were sure about was that his mind was broken and a stroke was as near as they could get.
Peace was never an option