What Goes Around, Comes Around

Magneto's name has gone through several variations; a different one for each of the X-Men incarnations. For the purposes of this fanfic, his name shall be Eric Magnus Lennsherr. Xavier has referred to him as both Eric and Magnus; this is explained by the fact that 'Eric' was his college friend, but when he took on the mantle of Magneto, their friendship ceased. 'Magnus' shall forever be associated with his enemy. Still, they are one and the same.

Of course, just because Pietro lived with Wanda, instead of at the Xavier Institute, didn't mean he and Rogue weren't spending time together. He was just as fast as he'd ever been, and his and Wanda's apartment was only eighteen miles away. Fifteen minutes by car as Scott drove, ten minutes by air as Storm flew, and twenty-seven seconds by foot as Quicksilver ran.

While at first it was hard for the rest of the X-Men, they eventually became accustomed to seeing Pietro around the mansion and grounds. He soon became a fixture there, always by Rogue's side – especially once he tuned seventeen. Xavier even arranged with Logan for him to join in the other mutant's training sessions.

Rogue was ecstatic to have her boyfriend with her so often. Kitty was happy for her friend; Kurt was rather leery but trusted his sort-of-sister's judgment. Evan had developed a crush on Wanda, and had pretty much given up on his previous enmity with the speedster in his efforts to try and get into the female twin's good graces. Jean just gave a little smile whenever she saw Rogue and Pietro together; she thought that they were sweet and were good for each other, taming each other's wilder impulses.

Scott, however… Scott had taken up Evan's discarded mantel as Pietro's tormentor.

And after almost a year of dealing with Scott's sniping at and about her boyfriend, Rogue was getting fed up with it. She couldn't even watch TV with the other X-Teens in peace without Scott raining on her parade.

Seeing Scott approaching, and knowing he wanted to have another talk with her about her relationship with Pietro, Rogue held out her hand to ward him off. He stopped a few feet away from her and crossed his arms, waiting for her to speak. Closing her eyes, she raised both her middle fingers to her forehead in a gesture of mock-thought and said, "Wait…Ah'm trying ta imagine you with a personality." Sighing in mock-resignation, she removed her fingers and opened her eyes. "It's no use. You're still a dick."

Scott huffed. "I see that Pietro has been a really bad influence on you, Rogue," he said superciliously.

"You have to be kidding, Scott," Kitty broke in from her position on the couch next to Kurt.

Ray paused his fight with Kurt over the remote control to add, "Yeah, Scott, Pietro's been a good influence on Rogue." Then Kurt pulled him back into the tussle and they rolled across the floor in front of Jubilee's hastily moved bare-but-with-still-drying-toenails feet.

"She used to be much worse. A real bitch," Amara finished, applying another coat of nail polish to her toes, before trading the bright rose pink for Jubilee's clear-with-gold-sparkles so she could add a second coat.

Throwing his hands up and sighing heavily in the universal gesture for exasperated surrender, Scott left the room to find Jean. Her moods may have been mercurial, but at least they made sense.

Pietro had been aware for some time of how much trouble Scott Summers had been causing his girlfriend. For some reason, Scott had never approached Pietro directly with his reservations about his relationship with Rogue. Pietro figured that had something to do with Wanda's influence, and made a mental note to buy his sister some of those atomic sourball candies she was so fond of. But right now, he had to deal with one meddling mutant.

Having already decided on a plan of action, all that was left was to track Scott down and implement it. If Summers had a girlfriend of his own to spend time with, he wouldn't be harping so much on Pietro's relationship with Rogue. Plus, it was pathetic that over a year after Jean broke up with Dumb Man Duncan, Scott still hadn't made a move.

After zipping just inside the door to the rec room, and noticing Scott and Jean sitting on opposite sides of the couch, both sneaking longing looks at the other, Pietro gave a mental cheer. This would fit into his plans perfectly.

Seeing that the two lovebirds were so busy looking/not looking at each other that they hadn't even noticed him, Pietro groaned theatrically. When both of his fellow mutants' attention was on him, he tsked and said, "Boy, there's enough UST in here to cut it with a knife! Why don't you two just admit that you want each other and skip to the naughty part already?" He leered playfully, platinum eyebrows dancing mischievously.

Jean blanched and Scott turned as red as his visor. "I don't think our relationship – or lack thereof – is any of your business, Maximoff."

Pietro sighed with put-upon forlornness. "Sure it is, Summers. It's the duty of any man in love to see that the rest of his teammates are as happy as he is. Or, at least, it should be," he clarified, a thoughtful frown on his face. He shook himself and continued, "Me and Roguey are deliriously happy, and I think if you'd just remove that stick from your butt and realize that Red's been waiting months for you to make the first move, that you and Jean could be almost as happy and me and Rogue are."

Blushing, Jean said, "I think Scott's right, Pietro, it really is none of your business. Thank you for caring, though." And thanks for bringing it up, she sent mentally. Maybe this will get him to actually do something.

No problem, toots, he thought back. Turning to Scott, he sniffed haughtily. "Well, if you both feel that way, I guess I'll go for a run. See ya!" With that, he jetted off to make mischief in another part of the mansion – or find Rogue, whichever came first (and was more fun – Rogue, natch).

After he found Rogue, Pietro spent the next hour regaling her with tales of his antics. Pretty soon Rogue had a sore stomach from all her laughing.

"So Ah can see you're havin' fun causin' havoc around here, Speedy," Rogue said as they sat by the pool in the cool quiet of the evening.

Wiggling his toes in the water, Pietro grinned. "You know it, babe."

"But what's with ya tryin' ta set Jean an' Scott up?" Rogue asked, bumping his shoulder with her own. "Ah didn't think you'd be one ta play matchmaker."

Pietro shrugged. "Being a yenta is in my blood, I guess."

"A yenta?" Rogue's brows knitted in a frown. "Ah remember Kitty said that once. Isn't 'yenta' tha Yiddish word foh matchmaker?"

Pietro quirked a grin and nodded, but stayed silent.

"Ah didn't know you were Jewish, Silver," Rogue said softly, scooting closer to her boyfriend. "Ah mean, Ah knew Magneto was, but…" But Pietro's father was a sore subject for more than one reason. And Pietro had been raised by his foster parents, besides; were the Maximoffs Jewish?

Pietro frowned slightly and turned to face her. "Well…I'm not, really. My biological mother wasn't, and in Judaism, religion is passed down by the women in the family," he replied. "It's the one part of my heritage from Magneto – aside from the white hair – that I'm not ashamed of."

It was rather telling about their relationship that Pietro wasn't willing to speak of his father by his given name.

After turning the topic over in her mind for a few moments, Rogue offered, "Ah think that if ya believe in a religion, then that makes ya a part of it, no matter what yer parents were. If ya believe in Judaism, then that makes ya Jewish."

Pietro paused in thought, then nodded slowly. "I think you might be right, Rogue," he said, his seriousness evident in both his tone and the fact that he hadn't called her by a nickname.

Wanting to lighten the mood, Rogue grinned and punched his arm. "Ah always am, Speedy," she said, voice dripping with mock-haughtiness.

Pietro snorted and rolled his eyes.

Chuckling, Rogue leaned in to kiss away his frown.

Delivering news such as this was never easy. But it was part of his duty to these young children he mentored…even if they didn't live in the mansion proper.

Wheeling into the rec room, Xavier waited until the gathered teenagers had quieted down at his entrance before he spoke. "Pietro, I need to speak with you," he said without preamble. "And Rogue, as well," he added as a seeming afterthought.

Pietro looked at him askance, but nodded and got up from his seat on the couch next to Rogue. "Ah…sure thing, Professor X."

Once they were out of earshot of the others and safely ensconced in his private office, Xavier turned to the two teens. He sighed. "I rather think Wanda should be here for this, but I am unable to get a hold of her, and I wanted to be the one to tell you, before you found out from…other sources."

Pietro and Rogue exchanged confused glances.

Sighing, Xavier said, "Pietro, I just received some news regarding your father."

Pietro tensed. "What sort of news?" he asked guardedly.

Sighing, Xavier looked up into the young man's eyes, his own bright with muted sadness. "Rather distressing news, I am afraid. I asked Rogue to accompany you for moral support."

"Moral support?" Pietro asked. He exchanged a confused look with his girlfriend. If Magneto had perpetrated some injustice on the normal humans, not only would it have been all over the news, but he wouldn't need moral support. Needing moral support implied that something personal was involved, and Pietro had long since grown accustomed to hearing about the latest cruel acts his father had visited upon humankind in the name of proving the superiority of mutantkind.

"Pietro, your father is…" Xavier heaved a sigh. "There's just no easy way to say this. Eric is dead, Pietro. He died of liver failure last night."

Pietro was shell-shocked. He didn't even know how to feel, but that didn't seem to matter much at that moment, since it was as if his emotions had just shut themselves off. He could deal with them later, right now he needed more information. "Liver failure?" he managed to ask.

Xavier nodded slowly, keeping a close eye on the boy's reaction. "Apparently his advanced age coupled with his overuse of his magnetic talents caused a build-up of iron in his bloodstream. Too much for his liver to handle, and so it just shut down. The coroner reports indicate that it most probably precipitated a heart attack or else he might have pulled through."

Pietro nodded numbly. He stood stock-still in silence for several minutes, before finally shaking his head dazedly "I…don't know how to feel," he admitted. "He…was my father, and yet…"

And yet Eric Magnus Lennsherr was also Magneto, one of the most feared criminal masterminds since Al Capone, and quickly following in the footsteps of the much-reviled Adolf Hitler as he sought to prove the superiority of mutantkind by way of humankind's genocide. Magneto had never been much of a father to Pietro, having dumped him into foster care when he was ten, after checking Wanda into that asylum. Pietro had had five father-free years of life before Magneto showed up again, and he couldn't say he had been pleased to see him show up again.

But now that Magneto was dead…

Now that Eric Lennsherr was dead…

Pietro was finally free. Free of his father's influence. Leaving the Brotherhood had only been a stopgap measure; he knew Magneto could track him down at any time. Wanda's hex powers were powerful, but eventually even the threat of her retaliation would not have held Magneto off.

Now neither of them had to worry anymore.

But there was still a small part of Pietro's heart that mourned for what might have been. The true father-son relationship that he might have had with Magneto had neither of them been mutants; had his father not lost his mother to childbirth, had Eric not lost his own childhood and family to the concentration camps.

The tension in the air was so thick that even Wolverine's Adamantium claws might not have cut through it. That wouldn't really have induced relaxation, but it might have made Rogue feel less like Pietro was going to snap.

"I…need to think," Pietro said at last. "I'll take care of telling Wanda, Professor. Rogue, I…"

Giving her boyfriend a rather wan smile, Rogue nodded once and gave him a quickly aborted hug. Pietro was practically vibrating, and it was more than just difficult to hold onto him. "Go for a run, Speedy. Ah'll be here for ya when ya get back," she said huskily.

Tossing a grateful look over his shoulder, Pietro did as directed – and was gone in less than the blink of an eye.

Rogue helplessly watched as the metaphorical dust settled in her boyfriend's wake, and felt torn in too many directions. She wanted to cry (because she didn't know if Pietro would or not, even though he was hurting), or hit something (Magneto, for dying and making Pietro hurt when he didn't even care about his son as an actual person, as opposed to his 'heir'), or scream (about the unfairness of people who actually have parents, but they still don't care about you), or run after Pietro (even though she'd never be able to catch up to him if he didn't let her), or just…

Rogue wanted so desperately to make things better for Pietro, and knew she could only be supportive while he worked things out for himself. And that…was really more than frustrating. So she just gave the Professor a helplessly cracked smile, and headed to take a walk and wait for Pietro to come back.

"Pietro?" Rogue said softly before peeking around 'their' tree. It was the tree they had literally run into each other in front over a year ago, and on their first year anniversary, Pietro had swiped Lance's pocketknife and carved a heart into the trunk, with their initials inside it.

Pietro was almost too busy wallowing in his own confused misery to notice that she knew he was there even without actually having laid eyes upon him.

Almost.

"Hey, Rogue," he said tiredly. "Pull up a patch of moss."

"Thanks," Rogue said, and flopped down next to him. She squirmed uncomfortably, and then, reaching beneath her butt, pulled out a couple of twigs and sticks.

After a few moments, Pietro said, voice still holding a hint of dazed shock, "I told Wanda." He winced belatedly. "When I left she was…hexing up little glass replicas of my fa– Magneto and throwing them against the wall. And smiling as they shattered." He gave a theatrical shudder, but his ice blue eyes were missing the normal spark they had when he was teasing his sister away from her hearing.

"Good thing you still have some paint leftover from when you redid the living room walls," Rogue said, hesitant to ask Pietro to elaborate on…well, anything. His feelings, his thoughts… She'd never actually grieved for anyone before, but she had a feeling it wasn't exactly an easy thing. Even though Pietro and his father had never gotten along, Magneto had always been there, and now…

…he wasn't.

"I want to hate him," Pietro blurted out, voice radiating distress. He glared furiously at the ground. "For making me have to deal with…caring. About him," he qualified.

Rogue stayed silent, sliding over to be a comforting support against his side.

Pietro's face twisted up, and sighing, he slumped down against her. "But I also want to grieve, because I hated him enough when he was a-alive–" he choked to a stop, blinking back tears. "I suppose there was always a part of me that hoped…" Pietro ducked his head. "Hoped that one day my dad would…well, be a dad, y'know."

Seeing that her boyfriend was starting to spiral down deeper into depression, Rogue decided to interject…something…to take his mind off his problems. It probably wasn't the right something, but she had to at least try. "And stop trying ta take ovah tha world," Rogue added wryly.

Giving a soft snort, Pietro blinked tear-misted eyes. "More of a side-effect, but…yeah." He sighed, allowing one tear to fall down his cheek. "Now…I'll never get the chance."

To know what things could have, remained unsaid between them, but still understood between two people who knew each other as well as Rogue and Pietro.

Fiddling with the spiked leather collar around her neck, Rogue started to say something, stopped, started again, and then finally just blurted out, "Ah miss the old Irene." Share an' share alike…Ah guess.

Pietro perked up a bit; Rogue rarely ever talked about her life in Meridian, and she'd made only a few casual comments about Irene Adler, the blind mutant known as Destiny. Her unexpected broaching of this touchy topic was more than enough to pull him partially out of his funk. "The 'old' Irene?"

Rogue nodded jerkily, eyes focused to the far left of the middle distance. "Ah miss when Ah thought that she took care 'a meh 'cause she cared about meh… Now Ah know that she was only doin' Mystique a favah." Her voice was thick with held-back emotion, her accent even more intense for the wealth of feeling.

"I don't know how anyone could spend so much time around you and not care about you at least a little bit," Pietro said honestly. He privately thought that that was why Mystique stayed away from her children so much – because she was afraid that being reminded of what could have been would cause her to go straight.

And no matter how much better that would be for all concerned, change was still…difficult, under the best of circumstances. Just think about Magneto…

…or not. Pietro shoved those dismal thoughts away, and snuggled closer to the love of his life.

Time passed in the small grove of trees, the sun setting on another day, though different from those before.

As always.

Finally, the silence was broken at the twilight's end, stars starting to speckle the night sky with a bright new hope.

"Thanks, Rogue," Pietro said, voice a quiet hush in the stillness of the forest. "For being here for me," he qualified.

"Ah was glad ta," Rogue said honestly. She bit her lip, and stared pensively at the ground. "Ya know, just 'cause Magneto's dead doesn't mean ya don't still have family, Pietro," she murmured. Rogue wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close to her side. "Ya have Wanda and tha rest of tha Brotherhood, and…meh." Flustered at this atypical – for her – outpouring of emotion, she averted her gaze from his searching eyes.

It was too soon for him to be able to smile, but the warmth in Pietro's eyes did it for him. "I know, Rogue."

"Ah…Ah love ya, Pietro, ya know that… Don't ya?" Rogue said, blushing almost as red as her hair. They'd never actually said the words before, but they had certainly been felt.

Maybe it wasn't too soon for him to be able to smile…just a little bit. "Yeah," Pietro replied. "I…I love you, too, Rogue."

She flashed him blinding smile of her own, and a little bit of the darkness in Pietro's heart got burned away. Things might not ever be the same anymore, but…that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. And they'd get through their problems together.