The Memory Tree 4/?

Fandom: XMFC
Title: The Memory Tree
Chapter: 4/?
Rating: G
Pairing: None. Charles/Erik if you squint.
Summary: Every year, Raven comes home for Christmas.


2022

Raven dropped the appearance of the student she'd used to get past the school's security and tried to smile at Charles. It fell flat as she looked at him and saw lines and wrinkles, skin stretched too far and hands shaking with the effort of holding out her mug of hot chocolate. She had always been his younger sister, but while she stayed young - a vague memory of a furless Hank McCoy whispered 'leukocytes of a teenager' - Charles was growing increasingly older.

"I can practically hear you worrying," Charles teased, but his cultured Oxford accent was getting thin.

"You can hear me worrying," she replied dryly, hugging him carefully and fixing his lap rug almost obsessively.

"Raven," Charles said quietly, in the leader-voice she hadn't heard since they were children trying to stop a world war, as he laid his hand over hers. "Raven, stop. I'm fine."

She frowned at the paper-like skin but nodded and withdrew with her mug. Was Magneto also getting frail? She hadn't noticed, but then why would she? She was with him all the time, she might have missed a gradual decline; seeing Charles only once a year she could spot the change immediately. Picturing Magneto, comparing it to her memory of him from twenty years ago...there was a difference. He wasn't as frail as Charles - he was more physically active, always had been, as Charles couldn't be since The Beach - but he had recently begun delegating tasks that would have been routine even a year ago.

Charles and Magneto were getting old.

The thought gave her a chill not even the perfectly made hot chocolate could warm, and she shivered as she sank further into her seat.

~How is he?~ Charles' voice whispered in her mind, as strong and stronger than he ever had been. Mentioning Magneto was against their unspoken rules for Christmas, but she'd already broken the rule by thinking about him. The very fact that Charles was asking meant that he /wasn't/ reading her mind, very much on purpose.

"He's...slowed down," she said eventually. "He's not on the front lines any more. It's mostly his son and daughter who run the Brotherhood, now."

"It must be difficult for him to see them..." Charles trailed off, seeing things only he and Magneto knew. Despite the years they'd been in the Brotherhood, despite their leadership, she still didn't know much about Piotr and Wanda, much less why Magneto winced sometimes when Wanda smiled or Piotr frowned. Sometimes she thought that might be why he was withdrawing from the rest of them.

The fire's crackling filled the silence for a few long minutes before Charles changed the subject and they continued talking, but the memory of the longing in his mental voice stayed with her long after she left the mansion.