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It’s been a few days since Logan had “awakened” to this new, more peaceful future and he’d spent two whole days of that time with the Professor for that history lesson. Surprisingly, it was a long tale and it was during the first day that Logan noticed there was a difference to the man. The Professor he knew was a stern though caring man and he had a welcoming smile like that of a father but it was sometimes too stiff. The Charles he knew from the past was bitter, reckless and stubborn. This Professor though, was very much like the Professor he knew but he had a—dare he say it—tune to his voice and a skip to his er…wheeling.
The older mutant couldn’t really put his tongue on it but there was just something.
It was mid-morning when Logan was having a late breakfast, his History classes were always in the afternoon anyway and company suddenly came in the room with a light breeze. Turning to his side, he wasn’t surprised to find Pietro sitting on the empty space beside him and half way through a candy bar. The boy was obviously a man now but his hair was still that odd colour and was wind swept, he still had this cocky look to him but he was also grinning and his eyes were alight with mischief. It was obvious that the kid (he will always be a kid to Logan) had done something and because it was Pietro, it was bound to be something big.
“Shouldn’t you have grown up by now?” Logan grunted at the other.
“And be a boring old dog like you?” Pietro cocked a brow and Logan glared, about to give the boy a piece of his mind when—
“Erik! Look at what your son has done this time!” Charles’ voice rang outside the hall and Logan was surprised, a yelling Charles was a rare sight to behold and not even in combat did Charles use such ferocity.
“My son? Why does he become my son when he does something wrong?” Was the response from a disgruntled Erik, who had just ended his class and was on his way to the library.
Beside him, Pietro began to laugh, “man, don’t you just love it when they start yelling?”
Logan shook his head, not answering because a part of him did want to see this—the only time he ever saw the two argue was during the past in the plane and they nearly died because of too much tension. May be during his other, now non-existent life he’d never have believed that the Professor and Magneto would hold a shouting match in the hallway but after the plane ride, Logan found out that when the two men were together, it was like a collision of forces and explosions.
“That’s not the point, Erik—”
“Oh, is that how it is? Then why was he your son when he helped a cat off a tree and then my son when he stole a dozen candy bars from the preschool?”
“We’re too old for this—”
“Well, out with it—what did he do this time? Steal candy from a baby?”
“Let me finish, Erik—”
Pietro fell off the stool, laughing hard like an overgrown teenage boy.
It was sad that Charles didn’t let them keep any alcohol in the school because Logan could really need a few bottles.
Logan and Hank were best buddies and the former often found himself in the latter’s lab when he’d no classes to teach and danger room sessions to assist. The older mutant never thought it would’ve been possible back in his old time, with him and Hank having started off at the wrong footing but now, it was practically a norm.
Hank was mixing a chemical of sorts, Logan wasn’t sure when he walked in. The blue-furred mutant greeted him but didn’t look up from his chemicals though Logan knew he was welcomed in the lab. Quietly he hovered around Hank, looking at the honey-coloured liquids that were in vials. They had no labels but Hank seemed to be mass producing them.
“What’s that for? Fur softener?” Logan teased.
Hank grunted, “you wish. It’s for the Professor.”
Alarm bells rang in his head, substances and the Professor were never a good mix especially when the esteemed man had quite a troubling youth with drugs and alcohol, “what do you mean?”
Turning away from his work, Hank sighed and took off his glasses, “it is what you think it is—the old ah, you could call it a painkiller, I suppose, that I’d made for both the Professor and I decades ago. Though these are far less potent than the original make.”
“What does the Professor need them for?” Logan frowned, he wasn’t exactly an upstanding citizen but he didn’t like the thought of the Professor relapsing into a high and cowardly mess.
At that, Hank hesitated and Logan had to give him a long and hard stare before the furred-mutant gave in and said, “w-well, when he and Erik…uh, feel adventurous, the Professor uses these.”
When he’d gotten no response, he quickly added, “it gives him the feeling of his legs but not completely seal off his telepathy. Only a small portion of it is left but according to him, he’d need to touch a person to get into their minds.”
“Let me get this straight, Beast,” he picked up a vial and held it to the other, “you’re making them Viagra from your DNA.”
Sighing, “this is why you’d wish it was fur softener.”
In his time, the Professor rarely left the mansion without his trusted students: Ororo, Jean or Scott and later, Logan. Though he was a powerful telepath, there were many ways to take advantage of him and capture him—or worse, kill him. It didn’t help that Charles preferred talking things through than taking up arms.
This Charles was a writer, an accomplished one if Logan judged by the amount of invitations they got for the Professor to agree to a book signing or fan mail. He wrote a variety of books, mostly catering to the mutant population. Logan had found one of the children’s books the Professor had wrote lying around in the mansion, it was about a boy who ran too fast and it didn’t take a genius to figure out who the book was talking about. But it was one of the latest books, Confessions of a Shifter, that was going to get a book signing event over the weekend. It was going to be a big event, he’d heard his teenage students gossiping during free period and he also knew Charles was looking forward to it since the book was inspired by his sister.
But—
“No, Charles, you can’t go alone!”
Logan rolled her eyes, a groan escaping his lips as he passed by the Professor’s study and lo, there he was arguing with Erik again.
“I’m a telepath, Erik, for god’s sake, I am capable of handling myself!”
“Do you really believe that?” Erik scoffed then, “no, Charles. Scott and Jean are off to take the children to a field trip and Ororo and Logan have to fill in their other classes.”
“I’ll be meeting Raven there, if that makes you feel better.”
“It’s a two hour flight!”
“Come now, Erik, tell me you’re pulling my leg—you can’t be this unreasonable!”
“I’m not being unreasonable, Charles! Remember that time when children were all over you like Santa Claus on Christmas?”
“They were children, Erik. Not a group of assassins! Really, I don’t know what’s with you and this…over protectiveness! I’m disabled, yes but I can handle a book signing and my sister will be there with me the entire time—”
Logan could hear the sound of something breaking but knowing that Erik was in there with the Professor, unless they started really yelling, he didn’t think he was needed. Besides, if Erik needed him, the man would just tug his skeleton or bring him in the room—which was a dick move, really. At least the Professor spoke in your head, no pain involved.
“What have you done, Erik?” The Professor gasped loudly and Logan was so close to suggesting to them to lock their doors because their little arguments were starting to get annoying instead of funny.
“I’m doing this for your own good, Charles.”
“No! How can I move around without the wheels of my chair?! It’s called a wheel chair for a reason! Put them back!”
“This way,” and Logan grunted as he heard the smirk in Erik’s voice, “you won’t be able to go anywhere without me. This is fair, Charles.”
The Professor sighed exasperatedly, “if you wanted to come to the book signing with me, you could have just asked, Erik. I would have said yes.”
“This was far more entertaining, wasn’t it, lieb?”
A chuckle, “you owe me a new chair. Now, shall we go back to that game of chess?"
Logan found the wooden pillar too tempting to bash his head onto if not for the fact that he’d break it before it would cause a damaging concussion.
Logan turned his head up before the girl could knock on his door, he found Marie standing by the door of his classroom looking nervous and shaken. The young mutant had been in school for the past year and a half, slowly getting a hang of her powers with the help of the Professor and it’d been quite some time since she showed such a pale look.
“Logan, can I…uh, talk for a second?” She asked hesitantly as her eyes darted around the room.
The girl also showed a preference for him, which was surprising because Ororo and Jean were much better at this than he was but Logan strangely felt protective of the girl and gestured towards an empty seat, “okay, shoot.”
Stepping in the room, Marie inhaled deeply, fiddling with her fingers for a while and Logan had to wait patiently (a feat, he realized, he only gave to this girl) for her to be comfortable and speak.
“I—I uh, I…I accidentally touched the-the…um, Mr. Lensherr.” Deep breath, “I-I touched Mr. Lensherr.”
He didn’t see anything bad about that, except that Marie probably could push him around for a while but lucky for him, she wasn’t an ass like the original metal-man.
When Logan didn’t say anything, Marie knew he was waiting for her to explain and she really didn’t want to but she had to get her point across. She couldn’t live with this but she couldn’t talk to anyone else about it and the Professor wasn’t around.
“I-It was only for a short while, I didn’t even get his powers but—uh, I…uh, I got his uh, thoughts instead,” she flushed red, “he—they—the Professor—they were—sexting.”
“Excuse me?”
“Telepathic sexting,” she said, looking torn between crying and burying herself in embarrassment. “I didn’t even know you could do that and-and I just can’t look at them and I don’t know what to do.”
“Does Mag—Erik even know?” A migraine was coming, he could feel it.
“I hope not!” She squeaked, “I can’t live with them knowing!”
“Go to Jean.”
“But—” She can’t. She can’t ask Jean because that would scar her, too. And it was worse for her because the Professor was her mentor and idol in all things mutant.
“Look, kid, no amount of therapy can help you with this. Have Jean zap your memories or something, it’s one thing you should live without.”
Three hours later, Jean threw his door open and gave him a telekinetic slap which Logan knew he probably deserved but he couldn’t help the reflexive curse of, “what the hell?!”
“It’s one thing I want to live without!” She said before turning on her heel towards the door and before she left, she added, “Marie’s fine! I’m not, god!”
When people questioned about Marie, Jean and Logan, the only answer they got was a glare. When Scott asked and Jean gave him the truth via telepathic visual message because he was always impossible when it came to Logan and Jean talking, it was the one rare time where he wished the two just kept to themselves.
Logan had almost forgotten about the other kid until he saw a woman clad in a very revealing but elegant red dress walking down the hall, her luggage levitating behind her as she walked on her red heels that clanked on the wooden floor.
“Wanda! What the hell are you wearing?!” Erik exclaimed when he exited his room and his students behind him snickered—god, Logan shook his head, this really was a different time because kids snickered at Erik in his presence without fear of being locked in a metallic cage.
The woman grunted and rolled her eyes, “nice to see you, father.”
“You are a grown woman, you should know better than to—”
“Ah, Wanda, you’ve arrived!” Charles smiled brightly as he rolled into the hallway, earning a glare from Erik which he expertly ignored.
“Dad!” The brunette grinned and immediately wrapped her arms around the older man.
“Charles!” Erik gasped, “don’t you dare humour her! Look at what your daughter is wearing! She clearly got this from your side!”
“He’s still prudish, see?” Wanda stage whispered and Charles chuckled.
“Yes, he’s never had a good sense of fashion, do understand the old coot.”
“Charles!”
“Really, Erik, why do you blame her choice of clothing on me? It’s the current trend on the television nowadays, hardly my fault.”
“You let your sister run around naked—”
“That wasn’t my doing! That was yours.”
“Oh, do you really want me to remind you of the time you ran around naked in the snow back in the ‘90s? In public, might I add, you old coot!”
As they began their too common spat, the students either snickered or walked away, the older ones too used to it that all they could do was roll their eyes. Wanda wore a large grin and was soon joined by her brother, suddenly appearing beside her with his arm casually draped around her waist.
“Told you it was fun,” he said, wearing an identical grin.
“Ah, it’s good to be home,” she agreed and left the two bickering men.
The three of them were in the Professor’s study, Raven and Charles playing chess while Logan stood at the corner of the room. It was time for his history lesson and the Professor was in the middle of telling him the events of the ‘80s when the idea hit him.
“I got it now,” Logan said, stopping the Professor mid-story and Raven mid-move. Both siblings looked to him questioningly.
“I get what’s so different about you now,” the oldest mutant in the room said, looking at the Professor, “you have a family, this school, Beast viagra, chess—you’re happier.”
At that, Charles smiled wide and brightly, “I don’t know about that, but I am happy.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what’s different. You’re far more chipper than the Chuck I knew.”
Raven grunted, “a sad Charles is something I’ve yet to see—well, since the 70’s, at least.”
She laughed and was joined by Charles. Logan liked to add that a giggling Raven was also a sight to see but couldn’t due to the knock on the door.
Erik entered the room, “are you finished with today’s lesson, old friend? We still have a chess game to finish.”
“I think we’ve had enough for today,” Charles answered, his wheel-less chair turned towards the door.
“Please tell me you guys stopped using chess as a euphemism for sex because that is just old and wrong,” Raven laughed and Logan’s eyes widened at the identical grins the Professor and Erik were wearing.
“Good night, Raven, Logan.”
Raven cheerfully greeted them back and also left the room but not before giving Logan a pat on the shoulder, not needing to be a telepath to know that he was facing some serious trauma.
Left alone in the room, all Logan could think of were the many times in a day that Charles or Erik proposed a game of chess and really, for people so old, he didn’t think they had the stamina even with Beast Viagra injections.
Then after the shock subsided, he realized he’d take the sexual exploits of Charles and Erik over the skies darkening and filled with Sentinels killing them one by one like meat to be slaughtered. But damn, they were energetic for old people.