A/N Thank you again to every one who has reviewed! We really do appreciate it, and it makes us want to write lots more. So, today, for your enjoyment, we have two new chapters, since the first is rather short.
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"Right people, get ready!" Tea shouted out through her newly found bullhorn. "Second day of shooting and we have a lot to do!"
"And John?" Kaya called out to the mad Aussie. "Don't set the set on fire again, okay?"
"Sure," John replied in that non-committal way.
"'Cause if you do, I will steal your flame thrower, and Tea here will 'port it over to Timbuktu."
"Okay, fine," John agreed. "Just don't steal my baby flamethrower."
"Riiiiiight," Kaya said, shaking her head. "Okay, places everyone!"
"Lights, Camera and Action!" Tea yelled through her bullhorn.
Rogue and Eric were sitting in her room, talking about everything and anything that Eric had seen on his long journeys. Then, he gave Rogue a bag, containing the present he had brought back for her.
She took it out of the bag, and ran her hand over the cover of the book.
"Utopia," she read off the cover.
"It means paradise," Eric explained as he took the book and began flipping through it. "This may be a bit thick for an eight-year-old. But we could add it to our library."
"Will you read some?" Rogue asked, feigning excitement.
"It's been a very long day," Eric sighed.
"And you're a husband now," Rogue put in.
"Yes, I'm a husband. But a father first and forever," Eric said. "We've been two peas in a pod, you and I, for a long time. I suppose this will take some getting used to."
"Did you see the way they ate their supper?" Rogue asked, changing the subject. "It was perfect! Like a dance!"
" Do you like them?" Eric asked, smiling.
"Very much."
"Good, good," Eric said, then paused, not looking forward to what he was about to tell her. "Because I have to go to Avignon in a fortnight."
"But you just got back!" Rogue protested
"I know," he sighed
"For how long?"
"Only... three weeks."
"One," Rogue demanded stubbornly, hoping to make a deal with her 'father'.
"Two," Eric tried to insist
"One!"
"T... two."
Rogue held out her hand, and Eric did the same, playing a game of rock paper scissors to decide how long he would go for. Rogue won and Eric sighed, rolling his eyes
"All right, one," he agreed. "Come on, go to sleep."
"'Night," Rogue said as Eric walked out.
"Sleep tight," he said from the door.
"And that would be cut!" Tea shouted through her bullhorn. "Would it not?" she asked, turning to Kaya, still with the bullhorn.
"Deaf now," Kaya said, rubbing her ears.
"And you weren't before?" Tea asked teasingly.
"Change scene!" Kaya yelled.
A few days later, the entire household were once again assembled outside, but this time, they were bidding farewell to their master rather than welcoming him home.
"I've never seen so many gloomy faces around here!" Eric said with a small chuckle. "I shall be back in a week."
"Then go. The sooner you leave, the sooner we can celebrate your return," Raven said sadly.
Eric kissed her on the forehead, then turned to his three daughters. "Perhaps by then, the three of you will know each other better." He crouched down in front of Rogue then, who was looking very sad to see him go. " I'm counting on you to teach them the ropes around here. The Baroness isn't used to getting her hands dirty."
He smiled at her one last time, then got off, and up onto his horse, where Bobby handed him the reigns
"Thank you, Maurice," he said as he took them.
"Maurice!" Tea repeated, shouting through the bullhorn.
"Bobby!" Kaya shouted over to the set.
"What? I didn't do anything!" Bobby said defensively.
"For once," Tea murmured
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Kaya sighed, exasperated. "I was correcting Magneto!"
"You dare to correct me?" Magneto asked, flaring up and beginning to hover.
"YES!" Kaya yelled, flying right up into the air again, her voice becoming much louder than it should have been.
"Perhaps power struggles would be better fought off the set? Hmm?" Charles spoke up from where he sat.
"Yes, you're probably right, Professor," Kaya said quietly, nodding. "Umm, can someone put me down?"
"Coming!" Tea shouted through the bullhorn, before 'porting up to retrieve her sister.
"Thanks," Kaya said as she flumped back down in her chair. "Okay. On with the play."
"Safe journey, master," Bobby said, still more than a little worried at the evil glint that came into Magneto's eyes every time someone called him 'master'.
Eric nodded to him, then began to gallop down the driveway of the great house.
Raven sighed, then clapped her hands, bringing her three daughters to attention. "Come along, ladies. Back to your lessons," she said curtly, as though the events of the morning had been a mere disturbance to her. Jean and Kitty followed her, starting into the house.
"Wait!" Rogue called out, making Raven stop in her tracks. "It's tradition. He always waves at the gate."
Raven shrugged, giving Rogue a 'like I care' look, before stepping into the house. Rogue ignored her, then ran after Eric to see him wave at the gates. Half way down the drive though, Eric pretended to feel an awful pain in his chest, and he grabbed at it, before making a wonderful show of falling off his horse.
"Papa!" Rogue screamed, having seen this all, and she began to run towards him down the drive. "Papa!"
Rogue's yells brought Raven out of the house, and as soon as she saw Eric on the drive, she suppressed a snigger and began running towards him.
When Rogue had reached Eric, she knelt down next to him, taking his hand.
"Papa!"
"Eric!" Raven cried as she arrived, kneeling down next to her dying husband.
"I-I love you," Eric whispered to her, before turning to his daughter. "I love you."
"No," Raven gasped as Eric's head lolled back.
"Papa!" Rogue screamed, still holding onto his hand.
"Eric!" Raven called, as though trying to call him back from the dead, before a note of genuine terror crept into her voice. "You cannot leave me here. You cannot leave me here!"
Realising that he is gone, Raven got up and fell into Bobby's arms, sobbing. At the same time, Amara and Tabitha try to pry Rogue away from the body of her father, but she fights them off.
"Leave me, leave me!" she shouted through her tears. "Papa, please come back!"
It would be ten years before another man would enter her life. A man who was still a boy... in many, many ways.
"And that would be a cut!" Kaya shouted, leaping out of her chair. "Well done every body! Now," she said to Tea. "You can't say that didn't go well."
"Yes I can," Tea retorted through the bullhorn. Kaya, already annoyed with the thing, swipes at it, trying to snatch it away. But before she could reach it, Tea teleported it away.
"That's not fair," Kaya replied.
"Ja, I know," Kurt mumbled in the background. "I can't teleport things independently of myself."
"Come on," Kaya said. "That went really well."
Tea grinned, teleporting the bullhorn back to her hand. "Are you kidding? Magneto nearly killed you!"
"No he didn't," Kaya replied calmly, ignoring the bullhorn.
"Yes, I did," Magneto murmured.
"No, he didn't. He doesn't have enough power to do that," Kaya replied, just as calmly.
"Really?" Wanda asked, already starting to ponder the possibilities.
"Really," Kaya replied, nodding. "But that doesn't mean I want to get myself in a fight with him."
"Oh," Wanda said, then slouched off.
"We ought to go, too," Kaya said to Tea. "Before something else happens."
"Same time tomorrow everyone!" Tea yelled through the bullhorn. And she 'ported herself and Kaya out of the vicinity.
