Only Raven seemed to understand what Charles meant as she grinned and jumped in excitement, her bubbliness returning for the first time since that night. Everyone else was just confused, and remained that way even as they were horded into the back of a military truck, all the suitcases and luggage already there clearly Charles wasn't joking when he said that he was sending them all home.
The canopy roof protected them from the winds as the truck rolled on for what was sure to be a lengthy ride, so everyone tried to get comfortable in the truck. Raven had her head resting on Charles' shoulder as he talked to Moira, the two of them engaged in a spirited discussion. Sean looked bored out of his mind, staring down at the ground between his legs, and if Ivory craned her neck she could see him clicking his heels together trying to entertain himself as best he could. Alex wasn't fairing much better looking out the open back of the truck and counting how many trees he could see flying by, in his head he was also completely unaware that he was comparing the green landscape and the blue sky to Ivory's eyes. Charles new though, and smirked into his conversation. Erik was the epitome of cool calm collected sitting with his back perfectly straight, not seeming bothered at all by the rocking of the truck.
Beside her Hank was pouring over a large textbook that had illustrations of an airplane depicted all over it, that she couldn't understand if she tried, but what interested in why he seemed so interested in planes all of a sudden. She was looking in confusion at the book he was reading and happened to glance up to see Erik looking at her in curiosity, Ivory flushed and turned her attention to the back of the truck and the miles of green landscapes flying by.
After when felt like a couple of forever's, the truck finally rolled at a stop and Charles perked up immediately nudging a dozing Raven and the two of them were first out of the truck. The rest of them following groggily. Alex turned around to offer Ivory a hand down out of the truck which she gratefully accepted and they joined the group, only to be stopped short at the sight of an enormous mansion.
"This is yours?" Sean asked, gawking.
"No, it's ours." Charles responded, a small twinkle flashing in his eye as he looked back at them.
"Honestly Charles, I don't know how you did it, living with such hardship." Erik mumbled sarcastically, as he took in the sight.
Raven made her way from the back of the group making her way between Erik and Charles and standing by her brother's side. "Well, it was a hardship softened by me." She joked as Charles kissed her loving on the side of her head. She sighed obviously happy to be home. "Come on, time for the tour."
Raven led the charge to the large wooden doors and Charles pushed them to open with ease and the group was welcomed to the sight of a beautiful staircase and a hanging chandelier that was mesmerizing in its shininess. And Raven wasn't kidding when she talked about a tour. The mansion was enormous and they had only gotten through the west wing where the young mutants would be residing, before Charles gently told his sister that the rest of the house could be viewed after lunch.
Charles' housekeeper prepared a lovely lunch for them, and true to his word Charles allowed Raven to finish up her tour of the gigantic mansion, though with the absence of Charles and Erik.
Finally, mercifully Raven released the group from their impromptu tour and everyone retired to their rooms. Despite it being still relatively early, the night before no one had a very comfortable sleep so the pull was much too hard to ignore.
For the majority of them anyway, Ivory was still having trouble falling and staying asleep in a new place and found herself in the kitchen around 10 o'clock that night staring out the window and the moonlight she could see reflecting off the lake that was back there, and thinking about how this mansion could comfortably hold the kids from the orphanage a few times over. A sudden voice from behind interrupted her musings.
"Can't sleep?" Ivory jumped a little and turned to see Erik leaning against the doorway to the kitchen clad in pajama bottoms and a grey tank too, by far the most casual she'd seen him since they met.
"I never sleep well in new places." She replied honestly turning her attention back out the window flipping her long braid over her shoulder, "You?"
"Pretty much the same." He responded as she heard him move towards the cupboards opening them then the tinkling of glasses as he grabbed one of them, "Drink?"
He offered casually and Ivory turned around fully to see him dropping some ice cubes into two tumblers, "I'm twenty." She reminded him.
"People like us have had to grow up much faster than anticipated," he said pouring a generous amount of what she could only assume was whiskey into both glasses, "No pressure, but I won't tell if you won't." he teased holding out one of the glasses.
Ivory took it after a moment of hesitation giving it a curious sniff before taking a sip, Erik watched for her reaction to the drink and when it was nothing but a simple hum he seemed pleased.
"So, what's your story?" Ivory asked scooting around the counter and pulling herself to sit on top of it.
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone has a story." Ivory explained.
"You first." Erik responded leaning back against the opposite counter.
"Well, I didn't know my father and my mother kicked me out when I was nine, the nuns found me and that was it, I've been living there ever since. Story's over." Ivory smirked taking another sip of her drink.
"Something tells me you're leaving a few things out." Erik smirked.
"I'm guessing your story starts with those numbers on your arm." She shot back nodding to where his arms were folded across his chest.
Erik stiffened but unfolded his arms looking down at the numbers inked onto his forearm. "Very perceptive." He hummed.
"Well when all the other kids started getting adopted and I didn't I learned to fade into the background," she explained leaning back on her hands, "People tend to say more when they think you're not listening, or looking." She added pointedly. "I'm guessing Shaw did that to you?"
"Shaw ripped my family apart," he said darkly, "I lived through the holocaust, my mother and I. When they tried to separate us, my powers went crazy. Shaw took us both when he found out what I was, then he gave me an ultimatum, he said either move this coin," As he spoke a single silver coin levitated out of his pocket and floated in the air between them, "Or he would kill my mother."
Ivory looked at how intently he was focused on the coin floating in the air and put two and two together, "You couldn't do it." She stated rather than asked plucking the coin from the air.
"So he shot her, right in front of me."
"And you've been following him all this time?" She questioned to which he nodded, "Are you going to kill him?"
"The first chance I get." He said with a nod, "I have to, for my mother."
"I killed a group of my classmates when I was seven," Ivory said finishing up her own story adding on the parts she had purposefully left out and Erik looked up, "I didn't mean to." She added shakily, "But they just wouldn't stop. You know when you're a kid, you think the whole world revolves around you. Until one day you realize that's not true. But when you're alone as a kid, the others see you as weak, and that's when the bad things happen." Tears were rolling down her face now as long repressed memories came to the surface, "I ran into the woods, and they followed me. I told them – I begged them to stop. They didn't. Then the trees they just reacted. Snatched them all up, then they were the ones begging. But I couldn't stop, I didn't know how. I could feel everything that they were feeling, I hated that feeling so much," she finally looked back at Erik and realized that as she spoke her hands hadn't stopped fiddling with his coin, and in his eyes she say sadness, and remorse and understanding, "How's that for a story?" she asked sarcastically tossing him back his coin which he caught deftly with one hand.
"Best one I've heard in some time." He shot back and Ivory huffed a laugh and wiped her face.
"I hate thinking about that." She said before hoping off of the counter, "I think I'm ready for bed, thank you for the drink, goodnight Erik."
"Ivy," he said grabbing her wrist before she could leave, "You don't need to be ashamed of what's happened in the past, all it did was prove that you're stronger than you thought. The world tried to break you and you didn't let it. You're like me."
"And what's that?"
"A survivor." He said simply but with vigor.
Ivory stared at the taller man taking in his words before nodding and surprising him, if the was he tensed up was any indication, by wrapping her arms around his waist in a hug. He tensed for a moment and Ivory wondered if he wasn't used to such contact and was about to pull away when he responded by gently wrapping his arms around her shoulders in return.
"You called me Ivy," Ivory mumbled into his shoulder.
"Sorry." Erik said quickly releasing her and taking a step back.
"It's alright, I've never had a nickname" Ivory told him while turning to leave the kitchen, "Goodnight, Erik."
After the heart-to-heart with the last person she would have been expecting to be so open about their life and past, Ivory made her was back up to her room and fell asleep much easier than her failed attempts before. Probably had something to do with the alcohol in her system making her feel all warm inside, but whatever it was she slept better than she had in the past two nights.
And the next morning she woke up feeling refreshed, but that's what a full night's rest would do for you, well a night's rest at least since she and Erik had been talking in the kitchen for longer than she realized having crawled into bed sometime around one in the morning. The clock on the wall across the room had the big hand on twelve and the little hand on nine. Hopefully she hadn't missed breakfast, Ivory thought to herself climbing out of the bed and grabbing some clothes to head into the bathroom.
She got dressed in a red crochet tank top and a pair of patterned shorts with brown sandals, since Charles had said that training wouldn't officially start until the following day giving the mutants some time to settle in fully and recuperate before the hard work began. Which they all appreciated.
When she rounded the corner to descend the staircase then down to the kitchen when she caught a certain metal-bender just at the bottom of the staircase.
"Erik." She called down to him and he paused turning to face her and waiting for her to finish coming down the stairs which she did in a rush.
"Good morning Ivy."
"Morning," she responded falling into step beside him, "I was hoping to catch you before we met up with the others."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just," she sighed stopping outside the doors to the dining room where conversations could be heard just beyond, "Could you maybe not tell the other about what we talked about last night?"
Erik furrowed his brow, "Ivy?" he seemed disappointed that she didn't want to embrace her homicidal past, perhaps not fully disappointed. But definitely confused.
"I know what you're gonna say. And I'm sure that Charles already knows, but I'll tell the others when I'm ready. Please?" She looked up at him with pleading eyes and he sighed before nodding.
"You have my word." He conceded.
"Thank you." Ivory said and he nodded again before pushing open the doors to the dining room and holding it open for her to slip inside and he followed behind.
A chorus of 'Good morning' greeted the pair as indeed everyone was already down there, but luckily it looked like breakfast had only just began so they quickly claimed their seats, Ivory being waved over enthusiastically by Raven and Erik took a seat next to Charles.
Ivory thanked her for holding a seat and when she asked her why, Raven responded with a mischievous smile.
"Us girls gotta stick together. Right?"
Ivory smiled, "Right." She said before grabbing her plate and helping herself to the spread of food all along the table.
"Everyone," Charles said form the head of the table bringing all conversations to a paused as they looked to him, "I want you to enjoy yourself today but I do have one request, please visit Hank's lab at some point today to give some blood sample. It would help immensely in your training."
There were various sounds of confirmation across the table and Charles nodded looking pleased as everyone's conversations picked up again.
"Hey," Raven whispered to Ivory leaning her head down to speak quietly to her so she did the same, "How about a tour of the house today?"
"I thought we did the tour yesterday?" Ivory responded speaking in hushed tones just like Raven was.
Raven scoffed, "Please this house is literally hundreds of years old. It's got a bunch of hidden nooks and crannies to explore. I already talked to the boys, their in. Except for Hank, he's got science stuff."
As she spoke Ivory looked across the table to Alex and Sean who were both looking back at them and nodding imploringly like they could hear the conversation happening. Maybe they couldn't hear it but if Raven said they knew about the secret tour already then it was likely that they already knew what the girls were whispering about too. So with that Ivory nodded as well, "Sure, sounds like fun."
Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: I think we all do.
Ivana Bocanegra: Lol, sex will come but probably not during this movie. Cuddles for sure though. I do hopefully want to cover up until Apocalypse, but since Alex was a part of the Vietnam War during Days of Future Past, it's highly unlikely he'll play a big role in that movie but I can definitely write Ivory in substantially. I don't plan on killing him in Apocalypse but I'll cross that bridge when I but it. I'll look into the video you mentioned too.
I know this chapter was kind of short, but since it's the start of exam season it's all I had in me. The next one will hopefully be longer.
Also to anyone who might be concerned, don't worry, there will be nothing romantic about Erik and Ivory's relationship. But I'm a sucker for a good Father-Daughter/Brother-Sister dynamic and I feel like Erik is the perfect candidate.
So next chapter is exploring the mansion, there will be flirting and a pool table involved. Let me know what else you would like to see happen.
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.