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“Good morning Mr Lehnsherr, Mr Xavier.” Wanda and Pietro's home room teacher greeted as they came up the school driveway, approaching them both with a hand poised to shake. His eyes lingered on Charles and his wheelchair for a moment before flicking away. “Good morning, Mr Moors I presume?” Charles asked politely, holding out a delicate looking hand to shake. Mr Moors nodded and took it, shaking it carefully. Erik nodded but offered no other greetings, leaving the pleasantries to Charles to deal with. “It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Wanda and Pietro have been talking about you for weeks.” Charles continued as Erik pushed his wheelchair forward at the same speed as the teacher so the two could talk.
“That's wonderful to hear, I just wish we didn't have to meet under quite these circumstances.” Mr Moors agreed, leading the way and holding the door open at reception for the other two men. Charles gave a kind smile, accompanying it with a “Thank you.” While Erik was again quiet. Charles smiled and gave a small wave to the receptionist behind the glass, who waved a few fingers at him in return as she balanced a phone on one shoulder and wrote something down in a book. As Mr Moors turned his face away, she removed her hand from the pen, allowing it to keep writing as she reached for a post-it note. Charles nodded and winked as he went past.
As they approached the corridor leading to the year four classroom Erik stopped, looking at one of the clocks on the wall, then his watch. “I'll go tell the others where we are.” he told Charles, glancing at the teacher before nodding at him and turning to go in the other direction. “Good idea, tell them I'll be there soon enough please.” Charles called after Erik's retreating figure, who just raised a hand in signal that he got the message as he left. Charles gave a little sigh then flashed the teacher another warm smile, following after him into the classroom.
As soon as they got into the classroom, Wanda and Pietro looked up from where they were silently sat in their seats, eyes darting towards the door as their teacher came around the corner. As soon as they saw Charles they both darted out of their chairs, running towards him with a little squee of “Daddy!” in perfect unison as they both half-chucked themselves at him, throwing their arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. “I don't think now is the time you two, run along back to your seats please.” Charles ordered, somehow keeping authority with his sweet and dangerously innocent voice. The twins sighed and climbed off him, running back to their seats and sitting down, frowning and pouting.
“Are you two going to tell him what you did, or am I?” Mr Moors asked, crossing his arms and looking at the two twins expectantly after a moment. When he was met with silence, the teacher continued for them instead. “Fine. I hate to say it, but Wanda and Pietro assaulted another pupil at break time today.” Mr Moors filled in, glaring at the children. Charles turned his head to look at them, his warm face settling into a slightly disappointed look that made both children shrink into their chairs a little; knowing they had managed to disappoint Charles always made them feel awful. After a minute of silence, Charles asked “Do you have anything to say about this?”, looking between Pietro and Wanda, unamused.
Wanda spoke first, her voice slightly wobbly, like she was going to cry, even if it still held traction. “He said our whole family are freaks, just like us.” She defended, Pietro nodding next to her in agreement. “And he kept insulting us all, for the things you tell us make us special.” Pietro tacked on to his sisters sentence, both of them holding hands with each other. Charles looked back at the teacher, briefly, earning a nod to clarify what they said was, in fact, true. “Wanda, Pietro, I know what he did was wrong, but violence isn't the answer now, is it?” Charles asked, face settling into a slightly more cheerful expression, but it was still obvious he was not impressed with their behaviour. “No Charles.” They both chanted back, making the teacher turn around to look fully at Charles again. 'Run and get your bags you two.' Charles thought fondly, projecting it to the children before nodding his head towards the cloakroom. The twins rushed off, Pietro darting ahead of his sister.
“Charles?” the teacher asked, looking confused. Charles made a small hmm noise, slowly tearing his eyes away from the children before darting them up to the teachers. “Yes?” Charles asked, giving a cultured smile with sweet eyes, looking as innocent as a man could. “Charles Lehnsherr?” Mr Moors asked doubtfully, as it set in to his head that this was not actually the twins father. Charles caught on suddenly, laughing lightly and grinning wider. “Oh heavens no, Charles Xavier!” He specified, laughing sweetly. “Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!” Mr Moors instantly apologised, looking worried that he had offended someone. Charles just waved it off with a hand. “Not to worry, it happens all the time. Erik, Mr Lehnsherr, isn't the best at social.” Charles responded, putting on another heart-warming beam as the children came back in, carrying their bags and cautiously walking back over to Charles, as if levelling how much trouble they were in.
'I can see why you did it.' Charles moved his hand to his temple and thought it, sending the message to both children as he stared calmly. 'Run along then' he added on, moving his hand. “Go on then.” he said out loud, at that two as they ran out the room laughing and playing some degree of catch tag as they went. Charles watched them leave fondly, his smile growing as he saw Erik coming back their way as well. “May I ask what relation exactly you are to the twins then?” the teacher asked, perching heavily on the side of his desk. Charles wheeled forward a bit and tilted his head as he looked up. “Of course. I suppose I'm their, oh I don't even know how to describe it...” Charles thought for a moment, running through what exactly he was to the children in his head.
“Father Charles, you can say that you know.” Erik strode into the room, positioning himself just behind Charles and taking the handle on the wheelchair in one hand. “But legally I'm not,” Charles fired back, biting his lip to stop his grin getting any bigger as he turned his neck to look at Erik lovingly. “Legally my ass, We all know you might as well have adopted those two as well as the rest.” Erik muttered, taking a playful swipe at Charles's arm. Charles just shook his head with a silly grin, earning a hair tussle from Erik. “Now now Luv, I didn't adopt them all.” Charles replied. Erik raised his eyebrows and mouthed “Would if you could.” Getting Charles to nod in agreement.
“You'll be the death of me Charles, I swear.” Erik said from behind him. Charles turned back to the teacher, acting completely indifferent as he answered “Yes luv.” Erik snorted again ; while Charles ignored him, focusing his attention on the teacher. “It was a pleasure to meet you Mr Moors, but we best be on our way before Alex and Raven manage to destroy the academy, again.” With that, Charles and Erik took their leave, bickering softly and jokingly as they left.
~Flash forward six months~
“Mr Moors, how wonderful to see you!” Charles exclaimed as he opened the door, wheeling himself back to hold it open. “Come in.” Mr Moors stepped into the manor house, looking around at the few things he could see. Charles was smiling again, this time donned in a festive Christmas jumper with little antlers stuck on his head. “I apologise about how informally we invited you to the party.” Charles added as he led the way down a corridor, leading towards the ballroom.
“It was lovely of you to ask at all.” Wanda and Pietro's teacher replied, interest sparking his eyes as he looked around as he walked. Charles gave a contempt kind of hum and carried on, again holding the door for the teacher as he ushered him into the ballroom. “I'm afraid most guests aren't here yet.” Charles said. Mr Moors looked at the large group of people in the room, wondering how many people are coming? “Not many.” Charles instantly said, before freezing solid for a split second as he realized he responded to a thought, not a spoken sentence.
“Anyway, these are the children I was on about. Obviously you know Wanda and Pietro.” The two waved at their home room teacher as they ran over, clambering onto Charles. He grinned and ruffled their hair before sending them on their way with a little pat, watching them race off towards Erik. “That's my sister Raven,” Charles continued, pointing a finger at Raven, who gave a small wave. “And that's Darwin with the elf hat, Sean is the one with the red scarf, Angel's the girl in the black dress, Tommy is the one racing Pietro, Alex is holding the glass of wine and Hank is the one with the glasses.” Charles reeled off, before turning away to go off to Erik. “I'll leave you to get acquainted.” Charles said promptly, leaving. As he left Raven approached, holding out her hand as she introduced herself personally.
As Raven handed the teacher a glass of mulled wine, Mr Moors looked back over the room, taking in the huge family before he caught sight of Erik and Charles, who appeared to be snogging across the room, half-hidden by the Christmas tree. “I know right? And this is those two holding back, feel for us lot in the mornings.” Raven said from behind his shoulder, making him jump. She laughed and took his arm, leading him off to meet everyone else.
From their corner, Charles and Erik broke apart, smiling softly at each other. “I really appreciate this you know, celebrating Christmas with us all.” Charles muttered, sparkling blue eyes reflecting his sincerity. Erik made a mhm sound, nodding his chin towards one of the windows. “Company.” He said blandly, kissing Charles's cheek and walking off, just catching Charles's exaggerated frown in time. Erik waited until Charles was answering the door again before projecting Maybe later, when we don't have company. Charles fought back a toothy grin, replying with a sarky Maybe