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If she knew what Charles had planned, she never would have agreed to come to the school to visit him. After everything that happened, to say she was a broken woman would be an understatement. Coming home to be with Charles filled a part of the ache in her heart, but only one part of it.

It was a complicated triangle between the three of them. And one of them had tried to do some terrible things to her. That never made a relationship easy.

Mystique padded her way gently into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. To make him more comfortable, she wore the blonde hair and actual clothes. She had no problem with who she was, but she felt that Charles still did. She didn't let him know how that still hurt her. All she wanted was someone to want her for her who she was. Her blue skin. Her scales. Not some fake persona.

"Morning Charles." Leaning down, she kissed his cheek, before making her way over to the coffee machine. "Did you sleep well?"

And Charles was obviously keeping some things to himself. It was better to let them discover what he was planning when the the time arrived, which should be any time now, he thought, checking his pocket watch.

He looked at Raven, visibly surprised and startled to see her appearance. "Raven, you don't have to do that for my benefit. This is your home. You need to be comfortable here," he said, touching her hand as she kissed him on the cheek. He was tired of acting dumb when surface thoughts had obviously told him something else. Those were always open to him whether he wanted them to be or not.

Erik was the king of walking into a situation when he wasn't quite ready to handle it, but he was also getting used to the idea of being on his own schedule after ten years imprisonment. He stood in the door way to the kitchen watching Charles and Raven and feeling like he had just walked into a trap.

What kind of a trap he had yet to figure out. "It's always been easier for her to lie then tell the truth," he says cooly as he finally reveals his presence to the others.

"Charles, we both know..."

Her voice trailed off as she heard a voice. That voice. A shiver ran down his spine as she slowly turned, seeing him in the doorway. Her hands trembled and it was hard for her to keep her focus. Slowly, she shifted back into her true persona. "You would know a lot about lying, wouldn't you, Magneto?"

She turned back to the coffee machine, her movements slow and deliberate as she poured herself some coffee. She was trying hard to remain calm, inwardly seething with anger. You did this on purpose, she thought to Charles. I trusted you. Her head shook and it was hard for her to not just storm out of the room.

Slowly, she moved over to the fridge for some milk. "Clearly, it's your home, not mine. If you're inviting whoever you want to stay in it." She turned back to Erik, unable to keep the pain out of her eyes. "Why are you here?"

He gave Raven an arched brow. A part of him did miss the facade, but it was a facade and he wouldn't have that any more in this house. He had to get over what left over feelings there were. The resentment and pain was caused in no small part by him desiring to hold onto an image of what he believed the truth to be. Because what he believed and what the truth actually was, were two different things. He had begun to realise that before, but speaking to them was making things more clear.

Charles said nothing to their bickering. They needed to do it to figure out how they fit together now too.

I did. I gave him the same invitation that I gave you. Our home is open to all who need it.

He didn't give her a verbal answer, nor did he say anything to Erik either. They were going to need to hash this out.

No one does "I am pissed off and hiding it" better than Erik. He remains in the doorway watching Raven with an ice cold gaze. "I was invited," he replies, "just like you were and I accepted with the understanding I would be welcomed home."

There is so much Erik wants to say, to explain to Raven, but he won't do it when she is angry at him she'll just end up twisting his words to suit her own ends. The one thing he doesn't hide is the way his eyes sweep over her blue form as if drinking her in. He missed being able to do that.

Raven sighed, trying to remain calm. It wasn't fair that he looked good. He always did. Setting down her coffee cup, she crossed the room and stood in front of Erik, glaring back and forth between them both.

She did not shy away from his gaze. In fact, she reveled in it. She knew her body and was not afraid of it. Her own eyes moved up and down his body, enjoying it. "I am sure you are welcome here. It is his house. I don't have any say."

She sighed, staring into his eyes. "You tried to hurt me."

Charles wheeled himself over to the coffee and poured himself and Erik each a cup as well. It was something to momentarily distract himself from what was happening between Erik and Raven at that moment. He had never seen both so energetically charged before. Perhaps the fact that neither was hiding anymore? But he didn't want to dwell too much on that.

"It's actually our house, Raven. All of ours. You both have the understanding now that I don't want to do this alone." He needed them more than mere words could express. The conviction in his words, in his demeanor, it was being carried by his hope alone. He hoped that the three of them wouldn't end on separate paths again. He hoped that they could work together peacefully. It was his vision. And who was he with his vision if he couldn't help maintain peace in his very home?

Edited 2014-05-27 22:44 (UTC)

"You pressed a knife to my throat the last man to do that died on said knife," Erik snaps. The words are a reminder to both Raven and Charles that before he met them he was on a dangerous path, a dark lonely one that they saved him from. In trying to save the president he had been trying to live up to the standards they had set him and failed.

He believed after that that he deserved the pain that followed. The loss of the Brotherhood it was all because of him. "I am making an attempt to make up for the mistakes of the past....Raven there is so much about Trask and I that you don't know....can you give me a chance to explain?"

Raven blinked. "You tried to kill me too. Neither of us have been very loving." It was their home. That was what he had said. Before Cuba she had believed it. She had felt safe with them, but now? She wanted to turn off the anger and just be Raven again, but could she? After being Mystique for so long?

Her shoulders sagged as she moved over to a chair to sit down. She wanted to believe. That was why she had come back in the first place. "Talk."

It was so hard for her to trust again. The ache in her heart that was from these two men was not so easy to fill. So tired was she that she didn't even try to hide her thoughts from Charles. "I'm listening." She didn't know the truth, the future Logan had told them about. Maybe if she did, she wouldn't feel so broken.

There was still anger inside of his heart, but he was letting it go. The anger was not the answer. Logan had spoke of his power coming from his heart and if he had anger, resentment, and loathing over taking his heart, he would not be as powerful as he could be. Power came from fear, taking the fear away from others. Showing them how to be better. He had seen the transformations already, what Raven and Erik had been before and then after. Scrimishes and war made things rocky for everyone, and Charles mentally burdened. He couldn't see anything or anyone outside of himself.

"We can't burden ourselves by our errors in the past. It won't help us make a better future." And that's what all three of them wanted. Different approaches, but it was what they wanted. "We can do this united. Any one of us is only one piece of the whole. There is something to be gained from each of our perspectives."

Erik took the cup of coffee and sat across from Raven looking her right in the eyes. It should be noticed that since they rescued him Erik hadn't worn anything with short sleeves or short cuffs, his arms and legs remained even more hidden then before.

"Trask knew where to find the Brotherhood because of me," he says softly, "he gained access to me and used it to great affect. Raven the only reason I didn't kill himself was because.....you were in harms way...you and Charles."

Raven sighed, holding her cup firmly in her hands, using it as an anchor and trying to remain calm. Seeing him like this, so close to her, it was was something she couldn't ignore. She gazed up at Erik, looking in his eyes and wishing she had her brother's gifts.

"He what?" It was then that she looked down at his arms, beginning to really notice. Charles was right. They were stronger together. Just being in same room with them made her feel better, but it would take time before her heart felt whole again. She tried to be okay with what he did, but it still hurt. He had sacrificed the others for her. For Charles. She wasn't sure what how her perspective could help. She was so full of pain, of longing.

"What kind of access? What did he do to you, Erik?" Her heart started to soften as she listened to him, picturing all sorts of terrible things that might have been done to him. Even if what he said was true, he still had tried to kill her. It was hard to let that go when her heart belonged so fully to the two of them.

Charles carefully maneuvered the chair, coffee in one hand, and joined them at the table. Erik had recounted the story to him earlier. Civility continued and Charles chose to be silent, allowing the two their conversation, letting his concentration drift between the both of them. He had imagined there being a time for them to be together once more, but he didn't expect it to happen so quickly. The change in his own approach allowed exciting results. Now he could process what was unfolding in front of him. This was new ground for them. Forgiveness was necessary. He never thought he would feel that toward Erik, but in order to prosper it had to occur.

Erik lays his arms on the table and rolls up one sleeve revealing needle tracks, many, many needle tracks. "He...took samples from me...tested my tolerance for pain. All things Shaw did, but Trask took without caring how much he hurt me."

Erik swallows. "Then he would heal me and talk....talk about things that didn't seem to matter. But they did.....he learned about the others in those conversations and he would find them...and tell me about his experiments later...thank me for progressing his research. It was like the camps all over again."

Slowly, Raven rose to her feet and padded around the table, moving until she was beside Erik. Kneeling on the floor at his feet, she reached up and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. No matter how angry that she was, she never wanted to see Erik the puppet at the hands of Trask or anyone.

Her hand seeks his out, aware that Charles is still there but only really seeing Erik. Not Magneto, but Erik, the man who told her once she was beautiful just as she was. Her head rested against his shoulder as she hugged him tight, hands rubbing up and down his shoulders.

"You're safe now. Nobody else can hurt you," she said softly. She didn't want to see his arms. Or his scars. She just wanted to hold him.

I was a fool, she thought to Charles. I feel so stupid.

The time frame hadn't occurred to him until now. "He did this to you after Kennedy was shot." There was no means for Erik to escape and no metal to be found. Charles eyes burned with intense disgust. "No wonder you first went after Raven." He didn't want her going through the same fate, while making it appear she meant nothing to him. It wasn't quite sane logic, but he had a better understanding now.

"And what you did with the sentinels and the stadium was the best way for you to decredit him." Perhaps Erik was exercising more control than he had previously thought. But the effects of isolation were definitely visible as well.

Charles put a hand on Erik's arm. He would go into anyone's mind for this man, and for Raven.

You were doing what you thought was best, he reassured Raven.

Erik is too strong to completely break down in Raven's arms. He's seen too much pain and darkness for that. But he does know when to take comfort when it is offered. He hugs her back tightly mourning those lost brothers and sisters in his own way.

"Our future meant nothing if that man died. But discredit his research and at best we could have earned a few more years of quiet before we were discovered," he mutters, "I wanted to kill him Raven dear god did I want it but that might have made things worse."

Raven sighed, biting her bottom lip as she held him close. One hand reached out, covering her brother's hand on Erik's arm. The three of them could be together again. It would be a rocky path to forgiveness, but one that they could all traverse if they tried.

She listened, not speaking as Erik and Charles spoke to each other. Her head nodded in understanding, a tear slipping down her cheek. She had never felt more grateful than she did in that moment for Erik and Charles being in her life. He had made his choices. While she couldn't agree with him, she could forgive him. "You did what you had to do."

She shivered, not wanting to move, not wanting this moment to ever end.

Both Erik and Raven had become federal fugitives and Charles felt indifferent to it. Perhaps it was from left over apathy, or something anew. At one time in his life, he believed in the law, that justice would prevail. The events leading up to and after Cuba had taught him so much. A part of him had become disillusioned with the system. People's fears getting in the way of the law. What mattered, he believed, wasn't the law itself, but the intent behind the actions which negated the law. Erik's release was necessary for him to be able to get through to Raven. The greater good.

Charles was creating a new plan. In order to create the kind of future that he desired, decisive plan and action needed to occur. He needed Erik and Raven with him.

Erik lifted his head looking first at Raven and then Charles, the blue orbs filled with a mixture of grief and hope. "Forgive me in any way you see fit," he said, "but know this. I would make the same choices today that I did in front of Trask. My convictions will not change..only the way I go about revealing them."

Erik's words sent a chill down her spine that she didn't think she would ever have. Coming here had been a set up, but she was starting to really feel like there could be progress. That there could be forgiveness between all of them. She wanted to be with Charles, she really did.

She wondered how she could go forward when Erik clearly didn't want to. Slowly, she pulled away from Erik. Sharing a look with Charles, she went back to her chair and sipped at her tea. Her hands cradled her mug, sipping at the warm liquid and trying to focus on that.

He doesn't want to change, Charles. He never will.