Work Text:
Kurt started to walk into the kitchen, looking for a snack. There were voices coming from inside the room but that wasn’t going to stop him. If there was one thing he had learned, it was that people always seemed to hang out in the kitchen—in any room, really there was hardly ever an empty room at the school.
The part that did make him hesitate right outside the door was when he made out who one of the voices belonged to. An accented voice that was almost difficult to place but there was certainly a hint of German, confirmed when he heard what was said.
“You’re favorite tea, Schatz, just how you like it,” The voice said. Magneto, Kurt was sure of it. But what was he doing at the school? And who was he calling pet names?
“Thank you, love,” came the reply and Kurt stopped moving all together, his hand hovering in the air by the door. The Professor. It was Magneto and the Professor in the kitchen together, drinking tea.
That didn’t seem like too strange of a thing, they could be discussing politics or the school. Kurt was sure they’d have a lot to talk about. But Magneto knew the Professor’s favorite tea and exactly how he took it. And he was calling him Schatz. It wasn’t just a normal meeting between the two of them.
Turning on his heels, Kurt made his way back upstairs and into one of the common rooms that the X-Men tended to frequent. He needed to find someone to talk to about this, he couldn’t keep it to himself. There had to be an explanation but he didn’t know what.
As he opened the door, practically storming into the room, he felt eyes on him. Ororo, Jean, and Peter all were watching him.
“What’s going on?” Peter asked, his eyes moving with Kurt as he paced back and forth in the room as though he couldn’t stay still. He couldn’t, really.
“I-“ He hesitated, thinking about what Peter had said about Magneto being his father. Was it wise to tell him about this? The boy couldn’t be certain.
“Kurt, what’s going on?” Ororo asked, her voice a little more cautious than Peter’s had been and he sighed before flopping back onto the couch in the room.
He glanced around at the other three, “Did you know Magneto’s here?” He asked, “I was going to go get a snack but he and the Professor are in the kitchen having tea.”
The other three exchanged glances, “Well,” Jean said after a moment, “They used to be friends, we all know that. Maybe they still meet up on occasion and talk? Even if they are on opposite sides now, they may still keep in touch?”
“Maybe,” Kurt said, “But I don’t think I would remember how my friend took his tea years after we stopped being friends.” But he couldn’t disprove her theory. He didn’t hear what they were talking about after all. Even if Magneto was using names for the Professor and the Professor was returning them.
“I believe I ended up with one of your shirts.” Ororo stopped. She shouldn’t have, she should’ve kept walking as though she hadn’t heard anything. But that was the Professor’s voice and who’s shirt did he end up with?
All she had wanted to do was to talk to him. She had been working on her homework for the night and had one question left that she could not find the answer to. She decided she would check in with the Professor and make sure she had the page numbers for the assignment right but this didn’t seem like the best time to knock on his door.
“Of course, it was one of the black turtlenecks,” he said in a fond voice, but one that sounded like he was trying to lace it with annoyance. “I think that’s the only kind of shirt you own, isn’t it, love?”
‘Love’? Who was the Professor calling love, Ororo wondered. As far as she knew he wasn’t seeing anyone. He didn’t have the time and she’d never suspected he was interested. Besides, who would someone like the Professor date? It just felt wrong.
Come to think of it, in all the time she had known him, she’d never known him to go on a date or out with another person. However, he had, over the last weekend been gone to some kind of mutant politics thing, some bill that was being voted on. She wasn’t really sure how that worked. Perhaps he hadn’t gone alone and someone had joined him. Someone he was calling love and accidentally ended up with one of their shirts.
“So you thought you’d do me a favor?” The Professor asked, “Leave a shirt in my suitcase on purpose? What am I supposed to do with that?” After a brief pause, she heard him laugh, “I’ll keep that in mind, darling. And maybe I’ll slip something of mine into your suitcase next time.”
Okay, ew, Ororo decided, that’s enough of that. She wasn’t certain but that sounded a little too much like flirting, whatever that tone in his voice was. She didn’t want to think about what the Professor could be slipping into his lover’s bag the next time they saw each other.
Quickly, Ororo turned and walked away from the Professor’s office. The help she needed with one of her assignments could wait until the following morning, she decided. No amount of assignment points would be worth standing there and hearing more of their conversation.
For a brief moment, she considered going to tell all the other’s about what she had heard but, ultimately, she decided against it. The last thing she wanted to do was admit to the others that she had been eavesdropping on the Professor of all people.
It was a couple of hours later as she was about to drift off to sleep that what the Professor had said really sank in. Black turtleneck. The only kind of shirt they owned. There was only one person she could think of that seemed to own a lot of black turtlenecks but surely not. It couldn’t be.
A meeting, they were having a meeting with the Brotherhood, and really, Jubilee didn’t know why. It seemed like a stupid idea to her. If this feud between them could’ve been solved by talking, she thought it would’ve been by now.
The only thing she knew for certain was she was getting a little grossed out looking at Toad who seemed determined to keep his tongue out through the entire meeting but that was something she tried to not focus on.
It was difficult though, not looking at that when the only other source of entertainment in the room was the Professor and Magneto who had been arguing for the last—she checked her watch—twenty-seven minutes. Who could go on and on arguing about the same thing for twenty-seven minutes? Especially when they had been having the same argument for the last twenty-seven years .
“Yes, yes, so you’ve said, Charles, time and time again. My friend, preach it all you want. It has yet to happen and that is because it never will,” Magneto was saying where he was standing over the Professor. “I don’t know how many ways to tell you you’re waiting for something that will never come.”
The Professor sighed, “Erik, I do hate it when you loom over me. You know that, why don’t you sit down and we can talk about this like civilized people?”
“Because you will keep making the same three points you’ve been making since ’63. The same points I’ve proven wrong more times than I care to count and yet, you still believe the best in them.”
And boy was Jubilee wrong when she said twenty-seven years. It never entered her mind just how long the Professor and Magneto had known each other but maybe that was how they had come to argue like an old married couple.
“And I keep having the same hope that if I tell you enough times, you’ll start to believe me,” The Professor continued
Magneto shook his head, “There are many things you’ve told me repeatedly, my friend, things that I will never believe, no matter how truly you mean them. Actions speak louder than words, you taught me that. I will believe it when you can show me everything you say. Until then, well, there are some things that I just believe to be impossible, some love that even you wouldn’t be able to give. Until you have proof, I suppose we’ll just agree to disagree. Brotherhood,” He nodded to the members and they all left the room.
Jubilee looked around the room once they were gone. The Professor was still staring at the door where Magneto had just left, almost wistfully. She was wondering what she had just witnessed but, as she looked at the other X-Men, she realized she was in the majority. None of them knew what Magneto was talking about.
It seemed the only one who did was the Professor and he certainly wasn’t going to fill in the rest of the room about his private matters.
There was someone else in the mansion. Jean could tell that immediately. It was late at night and something had woken her up. It took only a moment to realize what it was.
The Professor. It was the Professor projecting something out which didn’t tend to happen. He stressed complete control over powers and especially for telepaths. As far as she knew, he had mastered the ability but now something was different.
It wasn’t just her that was getting something from him though, she realized, as she stuck her head out of the door. Up and down the hall, more than one of the others were doing the same.
“What’s going on?” She asked Scott, feeling like he would know what it was, if anyone.
“I don’t know. Did you feel him, too? The Professor?” He asked, “I guess he woke all of us up. Do you think something’s wrong? Should we go check on him?”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Logan said, walking down the hall, “I’d stay away from the Professor’s room for the next half hour or so at least if I were you.”
Jean reached out to catch his arm, stopping him in his tracks. She hadn’t even known he was there but it would seem he knew what was going on anyway. Maybe he could fill in the blanks for the rest of them.
“Logan, what’s going on? Is the Professor alright?” She asked in a soft voice.
He turned to look at her, “I’m not gonna answer that first question, if you want it answered, I’d ask the Professor in the morning if I were you. But he’s fine, probably more fine than you’d think right now. Now if you don’t mind, I’m gonna put some space between me and the smell. And maybe find a drink somewhere.”
With that, he was gone and Jean watched but it only took a moment before she felt the Professor in her mind again, projecting something that he would prefer not to think about at the moment. She looked back to Scott, then Jubilee, Ororo, Kurt, and Peter, “We should try to get away from here, I think.”
“Where are we going to go?” Kurt asked, starting to walk away from his room, ready to follow the rest. Even if none of them knew where they were going to go.
“As far away as possible,” Peter said, speed-walking down the hall, as though he knew more than anyone else about the Professor’s activities. “Maybe California? Canada? Is it too late to find Logan and see where he’s going? I wouldn’t be against Antarctica.”
“Antarctica,” Jubilee agreed, “That sounds like a safe distance from whatever is going on here. Anywhere as long as it’s a few thousand miles away.”
“But what’s going on?” Kurt asked as he walked down the stairs with the rest of them but no one seemed to want to talk about whatever was going on upstairs. Or even wanted to think about what they had just experienced.
Scott just wanted to know what the hell was going on.
Locked into battle with the brotherhood and leading the X-Men had been taking all his attention. At least until he heard the Professor yelling out. At first, he paused, a mistake from where he was battling Avalanche, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. It only took a moment to make out what was being yelled.
“Erik!” Not that shocking, but then Charles continued, “You’re ankle, that’s your bad one isn’t it?” And honestly, he just couldn’t figure out what was going on there. Maybe the Professor was going to target Magneto in his weak spot, but he sounded concerned about him, a little too much worry in his voice for something like that.
Slowly, Scott circled Avalanche until he could see the Professor and Magneto behind the other man. He watched as Charles tentatively touched Magneto’s ankle with nothing but care and worry on his face. It certainly wasn’t the look one should have on their face when they find a weakness on their lifelong enemy. It was more like the look on his face when Jean had a migraine.
It made no sense why the Professor would be looking at Magneto with that look. They were enemies, not anything else . They shouldn’t care if the other is hurt, they’re in a battle, after all. Everyone was going to get hurt. That was how battles worked.
And why was the Professor rolling closer to Magneto and touching him with such gentle and caring touches. What the hell was going on?
Avalanche knocked him to the ground and Scott focused back on the battle he was locked in. He shouldn’t have let his mind wander so much anyway.
It was something he let slip his mind until the battle was over and he made his way back to the jet. There, he found the others but it took him a moment longer to find the Professor in the crowd. He was about to approach him to ask what the hell he was doing but Jean stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
So, instead, he found himself listening in instead. The Professor was rolling over to Magneto—who had his leg propped up on one of the jet seats. The Professor handed him an ice pack and he heard him asking:
“Does ice still help the most with the pain, my friend? Or heat now? I can go find something warm if it would help more?” He offered but Magneto shook his head.
“No, the ice will do wonders, I’m sure. But really, Charles, I’m fine. I could’ve gone back with the others. I don’t want to impose on you,” His voice sounded different than Scott had ever heard it and he wanted to know, more now than ever, what was happening.
“Oh, my friend, you’re not imposing on us at all. Just let me fuss over you for a while longer. It won’t hurt either of us. Come back to the mansion and give yourself time to heal. Then you can leave.
Magneto was still at the mansion after having been hurt in battle. The Professor had insisted that he come back with them and things had been tense, to say the least since that point. It was as though no one knew what to do or what to say. Walking on eggshells, afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing.
Most of the students seemed to be afraid of Magneto, Peter was sure he was the only one who wasn’t afraid of his dad. In fact, he was rather glad he was there for a while. It gave the two of them a chance to get to know each other and spend time together.
But Peter wasn’t the only one that Erik was interested in spending time with. More than once, Peter had gone looking for his dad and found him talking to the Professor. It was a little strange but Peter had been certain that something was going on there for long before this point.
They were all sitting around in what used to be a formal living room—it wasn’t anymore, a TV had been hooked up and Peter and Jubilee had donated some gaming systems to the mix—it served as a hang-out space now. Peter was on the couch, his head hanging over the edge of the seat, his legs thrown over the back as he watched the TV upside down.
The door to the room opened and his dad walked in. He almost sat up but then he realized the man was going straight for the Professor instead of him.
From where he was sitting, he watched as the Professor looked him over, and then between his brows came together in a look of confusion. “Shorts, Erik?” The Professor asked, seeming amused. Peter could understand that. He wasn’t sure that he had ever seen his father in anything but pants before.
“Charles, it’s the middle of summer and this place is huge. Your a/c is shit and I’m always hot, you know this by now. A personal heater," Erik replied simply.
Peter watched the others all exchange looks like they couldn’t understand what was being said. It was like they really had no idea what was going on between his dad and the Professor. Was Peter the only one who knew, or had suspicions?
“And have you shaved your legs? They look very smooth,” Charles commented.
Across from Peter, Scott’s mouth dropped and a look of shock crossed Jean’s. Kurt was still watching the TV but even Jubilee had paused her game to look back at the two adults.
“How do you know his legs look any different than usual?” Scott asked, “I don’t think anyone has ever seen Magneto’s legs before.”
Charles turned as though just realizing that the two of them weren’t in the room alone.
“I don’t think I want to know the answer to that,” Jubilee said. “But I know I’ve never seen them.”
Ororo added, “And they look like they haven’t seen the sun in their life either. Magneto, you could blind someone with those things.”
“You think mine are bad, you’ve never seen how white Charles is under these cardigans he wears year-round,” He said, pinching the material between his finger and thumb, giving it a little wiggle.
“Why are you seeing the Professor without a shirt on?!” Scott asked, his voice a higher pitch than Peter had ever heard it before. He sighed and turned around so he was sitting on the couch the right way.
“Just tell them all what’s going on,” He said, looking at his dad and the Professor, “Put them—and more importantly, me—out of our misery.” He saw the look on his dad’s face and sighed, “Come on, you two are hardly subtle. And Scott is about to have some kind of breakdown.”
The Professor and Magneto shared a look and then the Professor sighed and nodded, “Alright, yes,” He said, wrapping his arm around Erik, “Perhaps we haven’t been hiding it well. In my defense, I wasn’t really trying to hide it. It just sort of happened that way. If anyone had asked, I would’ve told the truth.”
“Yes, what?” Scott asked, “Told the truth about what, what are you two doing?”
From the door, Peter heard Logan say, “Well, I’m not going to be the one to explain anal sex to him. Chuck, you need some better sex ed around here I think.”
Peter groaned, the Professor’s face turned red, and Erik had a rather smug look about him. Scott was still sitting with his mouth opened, Jubilee and Jean were trying not to laugh. Kurt was looking anywhere but at the others in the room and Ororo simply rolled her eyes with a look of amusement on her face.
With nothing else to be said, Peter stood up, “Thank you for the mental image, old man,” He said, “And Professor Stepdad, I’ll see you again when I can look at you without said mental image. Same to you Pops.” He turned and walked out of the room. At least now everything was out in the open. A little too much, truthfully.