Max Eisenhardt had grown up his first years of life with some of the most loving parents any kid could ever dream of. They did all their work at work, never home; spent every holiday – birthday's included – with them; and taught him and his siblings the simple necessities of life like bike riding. Max was 11 when any hopes of continuing this ideal life was crushed.
A single man – Sebastian Shaw – defined the life that Max had yet to live. The eleven-year-old was quickly split from his family to be put in the care of Shaw during the Jewish concentration camps. After witnessing his mother be shot before his eyes, young Max spent the rest of his years trying to resurface any metal manipulating powers that he had had. He was unable to do so through many years, much to Shaw's displeasure.
On one of Max's sneak outs for food, he ran into a friend from his long-since-forgotten childhood – Magda, a young Gypsy girl. By the time the camps were liberated, not only had he saved Magda from the gas chambers, but from being executed by gun fire as well. Not long after the camps, the two were married and had a daughter named Anya.
In hopes of fitting in with Magda's people, Max Eisenhardt changed his name to Erik Lehnsherr. Many of the people they lived with knew of the two being Holocaust survivors, but none of them knew of the life of Max Eisenhardt.
The family soon moved to Soviet Russia in hopes of an easier life. Everything was normal until the day Erik snapped when his boss cut him short of his pay check, manifesting his mutant powers that hadn't been exposed since the early days of the camps. By the time Erik came home, he found officers called in by his boss outside the currently burning down inn they had been staying at. Magda was safe on the ground, but Anya was in the upper-floor window surrounded by flames. Erik attempted to use his newly rediscovered powers to save his daughter's life. Instead he was held back by the officers and forced to watch his daughter fall out of the window and burn to death. Horrified by Erik's powers, Magda left him, not telling him of the two twins growing inside her.
Erik Lehnsherr spent the next few years of his life hunting down the ones who had taken all that he loved from him. The guards that shot his family. The guard who laughed at him each time Erik was forced to eat the rotten bread off the floor. The officer that rounded him from his home. The one who threatened to shoot Magda. All wile while hunting down Sebastian Shaw - the one who truly made his life a living-hell.
And then a cheeky British-American pulled him out of the water.
xxxxx
"Erik, I'd like you to meet Wanda and Pietro Maximoff."
Erik looked down and watched as the spilt tea seeped further into the carpet, trying his hardest to ignore the two squirming beings on Charles' lap.
"They're quite adorable aren't they?" he heard Charles say. He looked up to see him pinching the girl's cheeks.
"Charles…" It came out at a much lower growl than intended.
The telepath seemed oblivious to any disapproving noises Erik would make. "Pietro definitely has your face structure, but little Wanda here is the lucky one, getting your eyes and all…"
"Charles, I feel like I'm mis-"
"And it appears she got your hair too! If they didn't look so much like you, I don't know if Raven would have even known which ones to pick up from the orphanage…"
"Charles…" Erik watched as Charles' pristine smile faltered ever so slightly. He followed the telepath's gaze to see the metal lamp in the corner's disfigured appearance.
"Oh. Wanda, Pietro, it looks like I need to talk to your father for a little bit. Would you mind leaving the room for a few minutes?"
The two kids eagerly nodded their heads and scampered out the door, just as the realization hit Erik.
Father?
The metalbender's visitor went fuzzy on the edges and tunneled into blackness.
xxxxx
Thud.
Charles quickly spun around to see an unconscious Erik face down on the carpet. He skidded down onto his knees to Erik's side. "Erik?" he screeched in a high voice that he's never admit to making. He grasped onto Erik's shoulder and flipped him face up only to be greeted by a face full of blood. "Oh my god, Erik?"
Much to the telepath's relief, Erik's eyes flickered open. "Oh, thank god," was all he could manage before burying his face into his chest. "Darling, I think you nose is broken…" he half laughed, half sobbed.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall…" Erik chocked out.
Charles slapped him on the shoulder, and pushed himself up into a standing position. "I think we should get you cleaned up," he suggested with a hand outstretched towards Erik.
"Alright…" he said, taking the hand in front of him and following him into the adjoined bathroom.
By the time Erik made it into the bathroom, Charles had somehow already managed to dampen a washcloth so he could apply it directly to his face the exact moment he walked into the door. Charles immediately began dabbing it onto the still fresh blood on his friend's face.
Erik glanced over at the image set for him in the mirror. Charles standing on his tip-toes, trying to stay eye-level, a glistening red washcloth in his hands. Erik nose was in a position he tried to not let his eyes linger on for too long. If you could get over the bloody and guts of it all, it was rather domestic.
"I think I got it all," Charles said, finally standing flat on his feet again. He walked over the sink and began rinsing out the washcloth. Erik sat down on the edge of the tub and rested his head on his hands. After a few minutes, Charles sat down next to Erik, being as close as physically possible without actually sitting on his lap.
"There really mine?" Charles gave a cautious nod. "But, when? ...how?"
"Something tells me you know how..." Charles said as a week attempt to lighten the mood.
Erik only responded with a glare. "You know that's not what I meant... It's just, do you know anything about the mother?"
"I know that the birth certificates had Magda Lehnsherr on the mother's line..."
Erik tensed even more next to him, if that was possible. "But she left...we never...she didn't tell me..."
Charles threw an arm around Erik's shoulder, and turned his head so he could lean his forehead on Erik's. "Listen to me. I don't know what happened between you and Magda. And I don't want to know until you're ready to tell me. But even if she never did tell you, and left you, you need to look at the bright side of things. You're here, with all of us, Shaw is gone, and now you've been blessed with two wonderful children who are open to loving you. You need to forget whatever has gone on in the past, and worry about now. All of us, me included, are going to be here for you. We can raise Wanda and Pietro with the others, make up for anything else they've gone through. But first you need to trust me, and go and talk to the two of them."
Erik stayed still for a second, and then slowly nodded.
"But maybe we should have Hank look at your nose first."
Erik nodded again.
"Come on, let's go get that nose looked at." Charles jumped up a little too enthusiastically, and nearly galloped out the door. Erik didn't even budge, but instead decided to stay with his face buried in his hands. When Charles realized Erik wasn't following him, he slowly appeared in the doorway again. "Erik?"
"She must have been just pregnant with them, when Anya died...and then she left...so she didn't tell me..." Charles took his spot back next to Erik's side. "And alright, she didn't tell me. But then she ditches them? Sends them into the orphanage? What mother can do that to a child? Their child?"
"Erik..."
"And, sure. I get it, she has all right to get up and leave because of my powers. But you don't ditch your own children. I don't care what you think is wrong with them, they're your children. You don't send them to...it's not a good place...and she knows that it's...god damn it! She knows firsthand what goes on there! They're her children..." the rage was practically bubbling through Erik's ears. He attempted to take a deep breath. "Come on, let go to Hank..." he growled, stood up and headed towards the door.
"Erik." Charles stood up and walked over to where Erik was standing. He pulled the taller man down into a deep hug. "I love you."
After a moment, Erik reciprocated the hug. "Thank-you," he said, looking Charles directly in the eyes. Both of them had a slight red tint to the corner of their eyes.
"Gosh, when did we become so bloody emotional...?"
"When did you become so bloody British?"
"Let's go get fix that nose," he said through a smile, offering Erik a hand.
xxxxx
Erik sat on the raised doctor's table, his legs hung over the side, nose firmly back in place. He shifted his gaze around the room until his eyes met Charles'.
"Right, so, um...I'm going to go now..." Hank muttered as he backed out of the room.
"I'm sorry, if I would have just told you like a normal person, then none of this would have happened..." Charles rambled, pacing back and forth on a line.
"Charles..."
"I should have waited, or at least told you first, or..."
"Charles, I want to..."
"I should have told you...god, I'm an idiot..."
"Charles." He said it firmly enough to get Charles out of his rant. "I want to meet my kids."
"I know, and you have every right to be...wait. What?"
"I want to meet my kids."
xxxxx
"Raven, if Erik and I could have and minute with the two?" Charles asked when they made it to the room Raven was watching Wanda and Pietro in.
"O, yeah. Of course." Raven happily got up and left the room.
And then there were four.
"I'll give you three a minute..." Charles said grinning widely and exiting the room.
And then there were three.
Erik stood there, jaw gaped, unsure what to do or say next.
"So! You're our dad?" a too happy, high pitch, innocent voice asked.
It was that moment the Erik melted into two.
He collapsed down onto his knees and had an armful of giggles in a matter of seconds. These were his children. Right here. Alive and unscarred. Immune to everything happening around them. Leaving and breathing right before his eyes. He began tearing up for at least the third time that day.
"Are you alright Vati?" Pietro asked.
"Look! He's crying! Vati? Are you hurt?" Wanda shrieked with a touch of worry.
Vati? Erik tried to choke out.
"Vati?"
"O, my Lieblings, these are tears of joy." Erik chuckled, feeling more elated than he thought was humanly possible.
"You're happy?" Wanda asked.
"I'm very happy."
"I'm very happy too!" Pietro cheered jumping on Erik, tumbling him over onto his back. The two children were climbing on top of him as if he were a jungle-gym.
Erik couldn't bring himself to care.
xxxxx
Outside the door, Charles couldn't find a reason to remove the smile from his face, knowing that he gave Erik this moment of peace.
A/N: Please Review!