Thank you, to everyone who read, commented, faved, and etc to Nesting who made me feel like it was worthwhile writing this. This is going to have a bit of a darker tone to it and at this moment I'm not sure how I want it to end yet.

Please let me know what you think of this as a sequel and/or a story on its own I would love to know what people think.

I'm thinking around 4 chapters of this story, that may be subject to change.

Xavier Institute - 1998

Eight long years had passed since Erik Lehnsherr had come back to the X-Mansion and ultimately decided to stay and settle down there, he had to chalk it up to the best decision of his life. There had always been constant reminders in his life that he had made mistakes, all usually in anger or despair for what had happened to him in the past. Now it finally felt as if Erik could just focus on the future and put horrible thoughts and events behind him to relish in the atmosphere of the Xavier Institute and his family that resided there.

Life there had become a routine of ever-changing events, most were predictable when it came to Erik's day but there were always surprises around the corners when you lived and taught at a school for young mutants.

Waking up that chilly morning the metal bender pushed himself up from the bed only to see his breath in the air and snow lightly falling outside. A groan of discomfort came from below where a very asleep, but now cold Charles was laying after losing his living heating blanket. Yawning Erik hit the off button for the alarm which was set to go off in about five minutes at 6:45 am for him, Charles wouldn't need to wake up until their second alarm which was set for a few hours later.

The wooden floor was cold beneath his feet that morning as it had been the last month since the temperature dropped, coincidentally it had gotten freezing right around Christmas time giving the students plenty of snow on the ground that had stayed even through the New Year. Heading over to the closet to pull out a sweatshirt and pants to swear for the day the tall mutant also grabbed two extra blankets and proceeded to tuck them over his lover to stop his shivering.

Leaning over the sleeping form Erik pressed a quick kiss to Charle's soft brown hair and muttered ever so gently, "Morning liebe." Before retreating to the bathroom and getting ready for the day. He had always used to take morning jogs by himself until one day he had discovered a group of morning loving students waiting for him by the foyer who had requested to join him for such a job. It was completely optional of course but now the invitation went out to anyone and everyone who felt like running in the wee-hours before school started, normally Erik's little group tended to be around 5-10 students even now when it was cold out.

It had taken some getting used to at first having a little trail of ducklings following in his footsteps as he jogged, but now the sound was familiar and welcomed. Erik would even dare to say that he might miss those shuffling steps if they disappeared one day.

After exercise, he would retreat to his room for a quick shower and go downstairs to help get things ready for breakfast, when it was ready usually Charles would be coming downstairs and greet him with a sleepy but happy smile. Both men were starting to show their age, Erik's hair had a tinge of silver lining places and jogging tired him just a bit more than it used to, for Charles they both hated to admit it but his hair was starting to thin a bit. Not to mention as of late Erik had started to notice little things about his lover, like his brain would just space out at times like it never had before, at least often enough that it was noticeable now. Also that he had more and more headaches as the months passed despite him not even using Cerebro that often anymore, just little things that were sending yellow flags in Erik's mind that his loves health might be deteriorating faster than would be liked.

Breakfast was also about the only time he would see his own children now, Wanda and Pietro were twenty and going on twenty-one this year and very much adults. Both had quite the grip on their powers, Wanda's had spiked a bit when she hit puberty but with Erik and Charles plus all of the other skilled teachers there to help her through it she learned with some but less difficulty than if she'd been elsewhere. Nowadays Wanda was taking classes in New York, right now headed towards becoming a lawyer but that had changed before several times in the past. Charles always insisted that he had plenty of money for her to explore whatever studies she wanted without worry, the same extended to Pietro but the boy didn't seem all that interested in taking up the offer like his sister.

While his sister was off taking classes most days, her brother usually did odd jobs around the mansion. Much like his father, this mansion had become Pietro's safe place and he loved being around everyone that lived there. When he had been little he had clung to people he knew mostly like Erik, Charles, Wanda and even Logan but he had eventually flourished and now was quite the social butterfly with other mutant children. He could often be found helping out with the younger kids who all thought he was quite hilarious.

Much to his sadness there had been one day when the twins had approached Erik and humbly request he stop using his pet German names for them, saying that they were too old for such names if they wanted to be taken more seriously by the other students. Begrudgingly he had agreed and soon after that had gotten out of the habit of calling Charles mause and nowadays often just called him leibe or liebling instead since it rolled off the tongue nicely.

This morning wasn't much different than Erik's usual, he had kissed Wanda's forehead before she headed off to the city for class, he'd given Pietro his usual respectful 'good morning' and then smiled seeing sleepy Charles wheel his way into the kitchen and request tea. He had been ready and poured a hot cup just the way Charles liked it and watched the man sip, and sigh out, "Perfect~ Erik have I told you that you always make the perfect cup of tea somehow?"

Rolling his grayish blue eyes the taller man muttered, "At least twice a week." Not seeming to mind the hordes of kids grabbing plates and food from the buffet style feast Erik continued their conversation, "You've been more tired lately...are you not sleeping well?" Erik could see the slight rings of darker color that were formed under Charles' still bright blue eyes, it always seemed as if Charles slept really well and deeply during the night but perhaps he had thought wrong.

"Just a bit of stress since the school has doubled in population the last year and a half." the telepath said back out loud but answered more fully between their minds. I can feel the worry radiating off of you, I promise it's just stress. That didn't seem to relax Erik anymore but it was enough to get the slightly older man off of Charles' case, at least for now since they had breakfast to eat and children to teach.

Things between the two men had become quite domestic in the last almost-decade, it had taken time as usual but they had now put things in the past properly and given closer to each other about this and that. Amazing what could be done with a relationship when you were consistently there to put effort into it together, it helped of course that they had two adorable trouble making children to look after together.

So why was it that Erik felt like the telepath was ultimately hiding something from him, it had been this way for awhile but the subject hadn't concerned him until it started affecting Charles health like it was now. Perhaps it really was stress over having so many children, then Erik could try to take some load off of the mans' shoulders, or maybe that family fortune was dwindling and Erik could help figure putting it into stocks so that it would continue to support them. No matter what it was, he wanted to fix it so that he could see Charles wheel around with the energy he always seemed to have, Erik had always admired that quality from the day they had met up until now still.

Several weeks flew by and still the subject bothered Erik, especially seeing those dark rings only get worse under his lover's eyes, and yet still Charles avoided it like there was absolutely nothing wrong. They had been together long enough that the metal kinetic could very well feel when something was wrong even in slight changes of behavior and this one was tingling his senses worse than any before for some unknown reason.

With no other choice that he could see Erik went into Charles' study one early morning after his jog and started to rifling through papers and drawers. Looking for bills, papers, letters, anything that could explain what was bothering his love so much it was making him exhausted and stressed enough to sleep all night and still be tired in the morning.

There was nothing of the like, sure there were bills but they were all set up to be paid, and letters could get nasty but there was nothing that Erik nor Charles hadn't dealt with before with ease. There was though, one plain folder at the bottom of a stack of papers in the left bottom drawer of Charles' desk, very obviously put at the bottom as if to be out of sight and out of mind. Flipping through it Erik recognized this as a medical examination, dated a little over two years ago he might add, and for a handful of tests.

Most came back negative, other than one highlighted line in the middle of the page which read with awful lettering Positive. Re-reading that line several times to take it in Erik swallowed the lump in his throat that tasted of bile and the man quickly grabbed the single piece of paper before marching up to their shared room. He projected in a very angry message, Charles we need to talk. Right fucking now. Meet me up in our room or I swear your chair is going to be floating up here no matter what you're doing right now!

Sitting on the edge of their bed he stared at the white piece of paper a little longer before crumpling it up between his hands with a searing passion. Clenching his eyes for a brief moment Erik could feel the movement of his lover's familiar wheelchair going up the elevator and coming down the hall to their room. Snapping his eyes open when the door did and he heard a soft voice call, "Erik, darling what's wrong? You sounded angry."

"Yes, I'm angry!" He threw the crumpled paper on the floor and pointed at it as if accusing it of treason, "I just found a medical examination from in your desk that says you have...a degenerative brain disease!? That thing is dated about two years ago, two fucking years and I've never heard anything about this!"

All of this had caught the telepath by surprise, he had long since stopped distrusting Erik and therefore didn't delve into his mind very deep nowadays to see what he really was thinking or meant by things. Though he had been hiding this a long time, he had no right to ask why his lover had been foraging through his desk distrustfully of him when this was something that very much affected them both. Charles had no right to hide this as long as he did, and Erik knew it. "Why, why did you hide this? Two years is so long, you should be going to the doctor regularly for treatment and-and checkups, medication, that stuff!" his anger had quickly deflated into pure worrying.

His wheelchair rolled closer to Erik and Charles reached a hand to place over Erik's shaking one. "I'm sorry." the words were a bit stiff, the younger man had taken so much effort into blocking that sickness out it was almost as if he himself had forgotten about it and reality was coming crashing down on him. "I knew I was going t have to tell you eventually but we were so happy, you...were so happy I didn't want to tear that away from you."

The metal benders rougher hand turned and clenched, holding onto Charles' for dear life, "You should have told me, I'm pissed at you. But I'm mostly worried, diseases like that start slow but they get moving quickly. We need to take you to a doctor to check your treatment option-" he was cut off towards the end though by Charles muttering, "I don't have any." leaving them both blankly staring at each other for a pregnant pause.

"At my age, the treatment they have is only about 30% chance of working, but I'm certain that the treatment would mess with my telepathy and I might end up hurting someone...a lot of people. I did think about taking something to suppress my telepathy while undergoing the treatment but-" the shorter man gave a small gasp when Erik suddenly knelt so that he was able to hug Charles tightly while still in the chair. "b-but I don't think I could handle not having it, being able to feel and help so many people."

Being cut off from it would be like losing another pair of legs for Charles, maybe even worse since the man tended to rely on his ability to make up for his immobility. Perhaps he could have survived cutting it off for a time being if his legs were intact, but after years of no use even if he took that serum Hank had once created for him it would take months if not longer for the muscles to reform and become mobile again. Charles began sniffling and he reached his arms around Erik's back to grow closer to the embrace, "I'm so sorry I don't know why I'm crying all of a sudden."

"Maybe medicine won't work for you, what about normal means? Did the doctor tell you to limit yourself at all?" Erik's voice still had a hint of anger in it from earlier but he was trying so hard to be comforting and supportive, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy on either of them in the long run. "Well he did tell me that running a school full of kids probably wasn't good for me, but I love it so much I don't think I could retire."

Pulling back from the hug Erik tugged his long sleeve down a bit more and raised his arm to wipe the slowly drying tears from Charles' freckled cheeks, "I'm going to find a way to fix you, I don't care what it takes Charles. I'll hunt down every medical expert on the globe, I'll find a mutant who is good at this sort of thing, I'd kill-..." after that the words all but died in his throat and Erik corrected himself, "I would do anything for you to stay by my side even a little longer."

Nodding his head Charles' blue eyes sparkled with his unshed tears, "I know that, it's also a reason I didn't tell you sooner. When you put your mind to something you don't rest until you find an answer and I guess I just wanted things to stay the same for awhile. Though I can't stop you from researching I guess." a small hopeful smile graced his lips, "I'll tell Wanda and Pietro myself, they should hear it from me."

Grabbing his wheels the man started to turn as if to head off to brief the children if they were around, but Erik's powers tugged his wheels to an immediate stop. "This is why I'm still angry at you, stop trying to do this alone. We will tell the children, and the staff, together Charles. Perhaps we don't have rings on our fingers but I'm close enough to a husband to you that I deserve to be a pillar for you to lean on in times like this just as you've done for me in the past. Promise me that you'll let me help you...or I'm not going to let go of your wheels." his voice had started out rocky but warmed towards the end in a very slight teasing manner to lighten the mood.

Tugging on his wheels with no avail Charles lifted his eyes to look back at Erik who was standing close by still, "I promise. I've been so tired lately so I'd be quite a fool to refuse your kind offer." he finally agreed and it was only then that the taller mutant finally felt some pressure relieve off of his own shoulders. The tightness that had resided there out of worry for his lover was loosening and becoming a clenching feeling in his heart instead, he wasn't sure which feeling he preferred at the moment.

A/N: So I've decided I really don't want to put out false information or end up offending anyone so I'm going to leave Charles' sickness unnamed and open to interpretation. I hope this doesn't bother anyone too much.
Also, this was pretty much a setup chapter, more interesting things will happen in the next.

Next Chapter Summary: Charles had been under the assumption that his sickness would lessen his powers as he got worse, when the opposite is shown to be fact he puts not only his families lives in danger but the entire school.
Erik becomes reacquainted with an old helmet.