Hey there lovely readers!

Have a slightly longer ficlet today. I consider it part of the "Azazel, number one babysitter"-verse, but it's set quite a bit later in the storyline. Perhaps some romantic development may count as spoilers for some, but it's not hard to guess who my OTP in the X-Men-Universe is and that they would come together eventually.

Pietro and Wanda are seven and have been going to Charles' school for about half a year now.

Enjoy!

bold = people speaking telepathically


"But it's boooooring!" Pietro complained, flopping around on the double bed the twins shared until he was hanging with his head and upper torso upside down over the edge.

Wanda nodded decisively, although she remained seated on the bed beside their father, sitting cross-legged.

Erik sighed.

Truly, it was great to see his children so comfortable and at ease they would whine about boring schoolwork.

He still remembered them waking whimpering from nightmares, even unconsciously too afraid to make any noise.

He remembered the first time he had an argument with Mystique after the children had arrived, too caught up in their fight to think of two little traumatized kids and what the loud voices would do to them. He only realized his mistake when Azazel popped between him and Mystique and took them away to the roof, telling them to get it out of their systems up here before they completely destroyed the trust the twins had tentatively developed.

Erik had blanched and practically flown down the stairs, only slowing his steps in the flat so as to not to disturb his children further. Seeing Pietro and Wanda huddled together in the wardrobe, half hidden behind the coats and jackets, tear stains on their cheeks and pressing their little hands to their mouths to muffle their sobs, had broken his heart. After teary apologies from his part he had been able to gently coax the spooked children out of the wardrobe and calm them down. He had vowed to himself to never put them through this again, and he had kept his promise. All discussions within hearing range of the children were kept civil and if they threatened to escalate he could always rely on Azazel to transport the participants elsewhere until they calmed down.

They had all come a long way since then and Erik was very glad the worst troubles of his children right now were bedtimes and schoolwork.

He took a hand of each of his children and spoke patiently.

"Pietro. Wanda. Schoolwork is important. You widen your horizons, you learn how to think and how to discuss and to make up own minds. Part of school is learning things you don't see the immediate use for but which can still come in handy later.

Besides", he added with a smile, "you don't want your uncle Charles to give you his disappointed look, now do you?"

The twins exchanged thoughtful glances.

Nothing was worse than Charles' disappointed look, which Erik knew from first hand experience. He could withstand (and had withstood, in the past) a great deal of physical torture exponentially better than Charles turning his big blue eyes on him and saying "Honestly, Erik".

That was usually all it took nowadays and the great Magneto crumpled like wet paper. (Not that he minded particularly.)

Come now, said an amused voice in his head, long since welcomed back there, I'm not as bad as all that.

I didn't say you were bad at all, Charles. After all, you only use the considerable power of those baby blues for good things.

The laughter he heard at that made a smile tug at Erik's lips as well. He concentrated back on his children.

"Anyway, when you've finished your homework, I was thinking uncle Azazel could take us to that lovely café in Montmartre we were visiting last month. What do you think?"

"Can uncle Charles come, too?" Wanda asked at once, not to Erik's surprise. The twins adored Charles at least as much as he did.

"He's certainly welcome to. Why don't you ask him if he's free later this afternoon?"

Wanda was delighted and closed her eyes – it helped her concentrate when speaking telepathically – only to open them up again a minute later and to bounce from the bed, practically running for her desk.

"He said he was looking forward to it and that we should write neatly, please."

Pietro sighed but trudged after his sister, resigned to his fate.

Wanda was usually the quieter one, happy to follow her brother's lead. But when she got an idea in her head she was a force to be reckoned with and Pietro wisely went along with her in such situations.

Erik smiled and went to give his children each a kiss on the forehead. "Thank you. Come find me when you're done."

"Will do, papa", Wanda waved absent-mindedly, already deeply engrossed in her maths book.

Erik left the children to their studies and went to see if he could distract Charles for a little while. After all, there had to be some perks with moving back into the Xavier mansion.

Such excellent ideas, my dear. I'm in the study.

The trademark Shark grin broke out on Erik's face. The afternoon was definitely looking up.


Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!