{Author's Note: Would you look at that! We're in the third month of the 'new' year. Not sure how that happened so quickly…Also, I feel like not too much happens in this chapter (and it's shorter than usual), but here it is anyway.}
Their eventual arrival back at the school was about as bad as Peter expected, if only because he was the center of attention.
Gunther (or Gunner as most called him) and Cole—the two explosive pre-teens that had unintentionally put Peter in the hospital—greeted him with a handful of balloons and a homemade 'get well soon' and 'we're sorry we almost killed you' cards, which Peter tried to graciously accept, plastering an affable grin on his face, while also extricating himself from their company as quickly as possible. He kept the cards, but passed the balloons off to the next set of tykes he passed that didn't quite reach his shoulder.
He didn't blame the kids. Who among them hadn't caused or at least nearly caused an explosion in their pubescent or pre-pubescent mutant youth? And unlike some of Peter's childhood antics, theirs hadn't even been intentional. But just because Peter understood, that didn't mean he wanted to be around a bunch of people asking him how he was feeling—great!—or why he hadn't moved himself out of the way—oh ya' know? Everybody has an off day, right?
But even with Magneto standing over his shoulder the whole time with a glare that clearly said 'back the fuck off' it still took more than an hour for Peter to remove himself from the welcome wagon and find sanctuary, stealthily bowing out when Erik's back was turned.
He took shelter in the attic. It wasn't a well-used room, probably because it was typically locked so that kids couldn't gain access to the roof and accidently pitch themselves over the edge. But the pathetic excuse of a lock that served as a barrier to most was a mere inconvenience to Peter. He was actually surprised that nobody else had yet to pick it, or maybe they had, and they were just savvy enough to relock it when they left. Kudos to them if that was the case.
A couple of telescopes had been added to the room since the last time Peter had been there, which was probably a sign that someone was planning on adding astronomy—or maybe astrology depending on what student or teacher had lobbied for it—to the list of eclectic school subjects. Back in his day, letting guys into home ec and girls into shop class had been his school's biggest step outside of the classic core curriculum.
Careful to avoid the sun, Peter peered through one telescope, but having never been trained how to use the contraption, and not sure what—if anything—he could look for during the day, he failed to focus anything and was just about to give up when a voice spoke behind him.
"Hey."
"Christ, man! Warn a guy!" Peter exclaimed, nearly poking himself in the eye with the eyepiece, as he turned around to see Scott hovering cautiously in the open doorway, which Peter was sure he had closed, so . . . so much for being aware of his surroundings. Guess Erik was going to have to keep up his training on spatial awareness, so he could learn how to jump at actual objects and people instead of shadows and apparitions.
"Sorry." Said Scott, clearing his throat.
"Whatever. No blood, no foul." Said Peter with a shrug. "But if you came to find me to give me a spiel about life choices and good versus evil, can we not? I've filled my social quota for the day."
"I'm not going to lecture you, and I'll be quick." Said Scott seriously.
Peter snorted. "Want to rethink that? No one is quick around me."
"Okay. Point taken. But seriously man, I just want to talk to . . . clear the air."
Peter put his hands out to the side and wafted the air dramatically. "Air seems pretty clear to me. Mission accomplished. You can go now. I don't have the energy for this."
"Look. I'm—I'm just trying to—I'm sorry you got hurt, man. Okay? Really. That's it. That's what I wanted to say." Scott said, as he grimaced like he was constipated.
"I don't need you to apologize for something you had no control over, Summers. So either apologize for something you've actually done or leave me alone." Peter replied, crossing his arms.
Scott looked frustrated for a moment. And yea, maybe Peter shouldn't be winding him up, but he hadn't lied. Even if he couldn't sleep, he was still shit tired. Scott's nostrils flared, but when he spoke again, he was calm.
"You're right. I'm sorry. I've been angry about a lot of things lately, and I took that out on you because I needed someone to blame."
Peter plopped down on one of the couches that now looked somewhat out of place among the star gazing equipment. It probably looked like a dismissal, but in truth, he was really just feeling drained and needed to sit down before gravity took him down.
"Yea? Is that how you really feel? Because a couple of days ago you seemed pretty sure of yourself too." Peter replied, raising an eyebrow at the other mutant. He wasn't opposed to the concept of letting bygones be bygones, but he wasn't going to waste his time getting along with someone if the only reason he was apologizing was because their shared benefactor put him up to it.
Scott took a deep breath, before answering. "I know. I was, and I'm not gonna lie, I still feel that way for the most part. I'm never going to get along with Magneto or understand why you do get on with him, but I was wrong to say you're to blame for Alex. Obviously, you're not invincible. I had this idea in my head that you were, but when you couldn't move fast enough to save yourself from being impaled, I realized you weren't. And pretty much everyone else here is alive because of you. I can appreciate that now, and I don't expect us to be friends. . . . I don't think either of us want that, but I think we can get along enough to function as teammates."
"Wow. Quite the speech. Been practicing all day?"
"No."
"Well then, who got off their ass and pulled the stick out of yours?"
"No one." Scott said through gritted teeth. "But Jean did speak with me. And the Professor."
Surprise. Surprise. Scott was lucky Erik wasn't on that list, because if he had been, there probably wouldn't have been much of a discussion involved.
"Cool, thanks. At least now I know who to avoid for a while if I don't want to have a similar conversation." Peter said, throwing an arm over the back of the couch.
"Yea, so, are we good?" Scott asked, like some half-ass apology—though Peter had to admit was probably genuine—could make him forget the piercing pain he'd felt during each heated interaction he'd had with Scott that had nothing to do with the shrapnel that had pierced his skin. But he tried to remember that a decade separated them, and he sure as hell didn't have a filter or a grip on his emotions when he was sixteen or seventeen years old, not that he did now either, so he should probably cut him some slack, but at least he had some more perspective on life now, as little as it may be in his dad's opinion.
"I don't know if I'd ever describe myself as good, let alone both of us, but I'll refrain from putting any of your possessions on the roof for the foreseeable future." Said Peter kicking his legs up onto the couch.
"Setting the bar high." Said Scott a little sarcastically.
"Or low you might say." Said Peter, smirking. "Since I just agreed to let your things stay a couple floors down."
"Funny." Said Scott, clearly not amused.
"Just so we're clear though," Said Peter, fingers tapping on the couch's armrest. "I'm not going to stop hanging out with Erik, so if that's going to be a problem with you, then I guess we still have a problem."
Scott's eyelid twitched. "Well, it's not ideal, since he goes against everything the X-Men stand for."
"Does he though? And but. Is there a but coming? Or do we still have a problem." Peter asked as the conversation started to end up where he'd originally expected it to go.
"I just don't get it. Why do you want to spend time with him?" Scott asked exasperated. "I know I wasn't before, but now I am genuinely trying to understand here. Help me out."
"I don't have to help you understand my life or explain myself to you." Peter said, his fingers stopping their tapping to grip the armrest tightly enough to leave a dent within the leather.
"You kinda do, man, if you want to be part of the X-Men. Or at least—you have to explain yourself to Mystique." Said Scott, crossing and then—as if trying to be less confrontational—uncrossing his arms.
"Who says I haven't?"
"Have you?"
"Not much to explain. Don't you know that she and Erik hung out in the 'sixties?" Until Erik got himself imprisoned (falsely so) for assassinating the president, but he wasn't going to remind 'Team: We Hate Erik' of that. "So if you want an explanation, go ask her, but you and I both know she's not going to tell you jack shit."
"Maybe I will."
"Fine. Please do."
"Fine." Said Scott, echoing Peter, but not sounding particularly fine about it. Peter didn't really care one way or the other if Scott did ask Mystique. She hadn't spilled his secret yet. Why would she start now? He was done with replaying the same conversation over and over again.
"Fine." Peter repeated again because he was petty enough to want the last word.
But apparently, Scott wasn't finished. "I just don't get it! He's not a good guy."
"Didn't I just say—you don't have to get it. But for your information, you don't know him. He's not—he can—he's complicated. I like spending time with him, okay? Is that such a crime? We get along. He listens to me. He doesn't freak out if I go off on a tangent. Is it really that difficult for you to tolerate what I do in my free time? We're not plotting world domination, and I don't even know how long I'm going to hang around here anyway, so if you can just put up with it for a little while, it might not even be a problem for long. And certainly not your problem." Peter said as he twisted his bracelet around his wrist as if some part of his mind hoped it would take him away somewhere like Dorothy's ruby slippers.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Said Scott, suddenly very alarmed, almost as much as when he'd stared down out a bleeding and close to dead Peter in horror.
"Nothing. Never mind." Said Peter, who hadn't planned on sharing the fact that Erik had invited him to tag-along wherever he ended up with anyone, and he wasn't going to start with Scott, especially when he hadn't even decided if it was something he wanted to do yet and he didn't know if it was still an option on the table.
"You're leaving? Or planning to?" Scott asked, looking like Peter had just declared that he was going to do something insane, like run for office. Or maybe drop a baseball stadium on the office of the country's highest leader.
"What's the matter? Gonna miss me?" Peter asked grinning inanely, but when Scott didn't break his appalled stared, he sighed and went on, dropping the grin. "I don't know. Maybe. As you've thoroughly noted, I'm not much of a team player, and it's like you said, right? I'm just a squatter. It's not like I'm a student or a teacher here. And if I go with Erik, I wouldn't have to pretend to be either."
"With Erik!" Scott shrieked, quite embarrassingly in Peter's opinion. Guess he hadn't read between the lines, which was Peter's fault for assuming that he'd inferred more than what he'd explicitly stated."You can'tgo with him! Are you insane?!"
Quite possibly.
"The jury's still out on that I think." He said instead. "Personally, I think the best I can hope for is a hung jury."
"Leave, if that's what you want to do, Peter, but don't go with him! With Magneto! You remember Cairo? Or D.C.? I'm sure you remember that one better than me. Everywhere he goes he leaves destruction and death! You're throwing your life away if you go with him!"
Peter shrugged. "Maybe that's why I should go with him, not the throwing my life away part, but because It's when he's felt alone that he's done bad things."
Wasn't that why most people did bad things?
"So, what? You think you'll be his conscious or something? You?" Scott asked incredulous.
"Phht. I don't think that Scottie. I've probably broken just as many laws as him—granted, probably a lot fewer felonies—but sometimes people just need someone to tell them they're being a shithead. Like Jean with you, for example." Peter replied, picking at one of his fingernails with an air of nonchalance.
"Gee thanks." Said Scott derisively, and then he just shook his head. "But that's not a fair comparison. There is no comparison to him. If you go with him, things are not going to end well for you."
"Funny, you're not the first person to tell me that." Said Peter, running his hands through his hair in an attempt to calm himself, but he was aware that it may have just made him look stressed. "And you probably won't be the last. But if I didn't listen to my mom, then I don't think there's a very good chance that I'm gonna listen to you, and believe it or not Scott, I really don't have much to lose."
With that, Peter, rushed past the younger mutant in blur. Leaving both wondering if they had ended up better or worse for having spoken.
Erik entered the kitchen, but when the only occupants were a couple of kids—neither of them his—throwing grapes around like darts, he turned around immediately.
Debating whether to check outside next or head upstairs, Erik paused long enough for Raven to find him hesitating at the stair landing.
"He ran upstairs earlier." Raven commented without prompting, immediately knowing who Erik was searching for. "But you might want to let him have some time alone. I'd like to say you get a pass under the circumstances, but the fact is that you did spend the last few days with him pretty nonstop. Give the kid some space to breathe."
"He shouldn't be doing that yet. The running." Erik replied, not bothering to engage in any back and forth where he pretended that he wasn't looking for Pietro, and cutting Raven off before she could say more.
"Which means if you tell him not to, he's only going to run more." Raven answered with a smirk.
Erik nodded. She wasn't wrong. "Where's Hank?"
It would be good for him to examine Pietro. Just to make sure he was recovering as expected. He'd had a big meal at the restaurant, but he was quite sure he hadn't touched the leftovers Erik had gotten him; and he really would be needing more food soon.
"Not sure." Said Raven with a shrug. "I think he's avoiding Charles."
Erik felt a swell of gratitude for the other man. Hank wasn't as adept as him and Raven at shielding his mind, and now that Hank—oh god, and Kurt—knew Erik was Pietro's father, it was going to be more difficult to keep that fact from Charles and the rest of the world.
"He's doing okay though? Peter, I mean. He seemed . . . distracted." Raven asked more serious now.
"He's recovering." Erik replied cryptically, and then, because his life was such that he didn't have anyone else to talk to about his worries for his son—besides his ex-wife who wasn't currently available—than his ex . . . . whatever Raven was he added, "I think he's keeping something from me."
"He's a kid, that's what they do." Raven said, leaning gracefully against the banister. "Keep things from their parents . . . from what I've observed anyway. Can't say from personal experience obviously."
"This is different. Something scared him." Erik replied, and proceeded to tell Raven what had happened at the hospital. He felt a bit bad about sharing the incident with Raven. His whole argument when trying to get Pietro to open up to him had been because he would keep the information close to his chest, but the boy hadn't actually shared anything with him in that regard, so he hoped he wouldn't come to regret sharing what he had simply observed.
Raven listened intently and without interruption to Erik's tale. Her jaw set in a hard line.
They were both so serious all the time. Even Erik could recognize that. In another life they would be made for each other. But unlike Erik, Raven hadn't always been that way. He still remembered her joking around with their band of misfits, barely more than a kid herself at the time.
"I think you're right." Said Raven, her face—if possible—going even more solemn.
"I—what?" Erik replied, shocked. They might agree on certain things, but Raven was rarely one to outright agree with him immediately.
"I think this is different than a kid just hiding parts of his life . . . " She glanced around, making sure they were still alone and then continued more quietly "from his father. When he fell the other night, something scared him then too."
"What fall? When did he fall?!" Erik asked, advancing on Raven, but, to her credit, she didn't even flinch.
"You really never heard? He woke the whole floor and all the kids were gossiping about it, but I guess if you were on one of your late night walks and then the whole hospital trip happened . . ." Raven said, trailing off. "Basically I heard him scream, then I showed up and he was on the bathroom floor, and when I asked what happened he didn't answer at first and when he did, he made up some excuse about a spider and slipping on a non-existent wet floor."
"You should have told me this earlier." Erik replied, voice hardening.
"You're not entitled to know everything, Erik. The fall wasn't life threatening, and he didn't really want you to know." Said Raven, unmoved. "But I didn't exactly promise I wouldn't tell you."
Erik's nostrils flared as he tried to control his breathing. "How do I protect him, if he won't tell me what's wrong?"
Raven shook her head. "You're asking the wrong person. I'm the last person that should be giving anyone parenting advice . . . but no one here wants anything bad to happen to Peter, Erik. You don't have to be the only one looking out for him. If something is wrong, we'll all figure this out—You, me, Hank. . . . Charles if you want to include him."
"He's my responsibility."
"Maybe. But Peter's his own full-grown person." Raven stated matter-of-factly.
Aware of metal rolling closer, Erik didn't answer.
"Still zeroed in on Peter I see, Erik." Said Charles as he wheeled himself into the foyer.
"Still inserting yourself into other people's business, I see, Charles." Said Erik, turning his back to Raven, so that they stood, united against the other mutant.
Charles chuckled. "I am once again only stating the obvious—that you've taken quite the interest in him."
"And you've not taken an interest in him? Excuse me for caring. He was just released from the hospital. Perhaps you should be more concerned about his well-being." Erik growled.
"I am concerned. For all my students and my wards. But you hardly left the hospital the whole time he was admitted. Would you do that for any other person here?" Charles asked.
"I don't know, Charles. Shall I go around stabbing people, so we can find out?" Erik asked deadpanned.
"Honestly, Erik." Said Charles with a sigh, "Your theatrics continue to be impeccable."
"Please. You both need to take a chill pill. I swear I wake up some mornings and run into one of you two and think I've traveled back in time to the sixties the way you two argue." Said Raven, rolling her eyes as she stepped between them, forcing Erik to take a step back with a hand to his chest.
"Well, I'm not surprised you feel that way when one of us continues to act as though we are on the brink of attack and is set on pulling as many as of us with him as he can. Apparently, starting with Peter." Said Charles, losing some of his calm.
"We are not on the brink of attack, Charles. We have been attacked. We are being attacked. We are being hunted. We are being picked apart and dissected as you stay here in your glass house, refusing to acknowledge that it is breaking around you. I tried your way! For ten years! I built a life while you—if Hank is to be believed—tried to destroy yours!" Erik voice rose, unaware that they were now gaining a bit of an audience as a few small heads peaked out of nearby classrooms.
"I know you are still hurting my friend, but you cannot continue to blame all of humanity for the acts of the few. And if you put Peter on the path I'm afraid you're set on continuing upon on, you will both be lost." Charles replied, his voice laced with pity.
"You think if I fall, I want him to fall with me? I am not the one who inserted himself in his life to use him and then throw him away! Was he not good enough for your school when he really needed you? Would he have been too difficult for you? Too out of control? No? Because it seems that only now that he is more grown and more capable, that you want to claim him. But he doesn't need you now. What he needs is to know how to handle the world as it is, not how you wish it to be." Erik answered edging around Raven to tower over Charles.
"That's not fair, Erik. If Peter had wanted a place here, once we were up in running again, he would have had one."
"He was a child. He didn't know to ask!"
"Then I'm sorry. Is that what you want to hear?! I am. But I am here for him now!" Charles answered, finally matching Erik's own volume.
"The problem with that Charles, is that now I am too." Erik replied, his voice like ice.
"Your anger is going to get you both killed."
"Not if your unwavering trust in the good of humanity kills us all first."
"Erik, come now, don't—"
But Erik was already walking away. He wanted to go find Pietro. To check on him. But maybe Raven had a point, he didn't need Erik hovering every minute of the day. Erik was trying to be reasonable. Better he try to get some shut eye now, so that he was up when Pietro was awake later when the rest of the school was asleep and vulnerable to attack.