The Puppeteer - X-Men

Twenty Three

It took them two hours to find Peter Maximoff in the phone book. In that time, Lily was silently suffering in pain as she made soup for Charles, practically forcing him to eat it. Logan had his own bowl, who knew that time travelling five decades made you hungry.

Peter lived close, only one town over, which made Lily somewhat happy. She wasn't a fan of flying.

"Let's go now then" Charles said, about to walk out the door in his pyjamas and robe. "Get changed. Now" Lily spoke and Charles frowned. "Charles, I am in a lot of pain right now. Just go" she begged and he walked up the stairs, disappearing from sight.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Logan asked gruffly. "I'll be fine" she shrugged him off. "You know, we're pretty good friends in the future" Logan commented. "Yeah, I can tell. You call me Lizzy when you're stressed, meaning the name is natural and I know I wouldn't let anyone call me that. Charles is the only one allowed to call me Elizabeth and you don't seem like the kind of guy to call me that out of spite" Lily explained and Logan raised an eyebrow.

"You kinda run out of things to do in a mansion with a drunk and a depressed man that turns into an oversized blue cat" she shrugged. "I am not depressed or an oversized cat!" Hank protested and Lily chuckled before wincing. "What? What is it?" Hank asked urgently.

"Chill out, please. I'm using about 90% of my energy to keep my abilities in check" she sighed. "You're still afraid of your powers?" Logan asked. "I'm not in the future?" she asked with wide eyes. "No, not at all" Logan replied. "Oh, I envy myself. That's a sentence I never thought I'd say" she muttered and Logan chuckled.

Charles came back downstairs, appropriately dressed, and Lily saw the hint of a genuine smile on his lips when he saw the smile residing on hers. They made their way out to the car and Lily tried but failed to convince Charles not to drive so, her and Logan sat in the back of the car, both of them silently fearing for their lives.

Logan grunted loudly as Charles made a swift turn, jerking the two to the side. Lily's jeans slid across the fabric of the seats and she smashed into the door, a groan escaping her lips which quickly becomes louder as Logan slammed into her. "Fuuuuuck" she groaned as Logan moved back to his previous spot, glaring at Charles. "Apologies" Charles raised a hand but didn't look at them.

"You alright?" Hank asked, turning back to look at the woman. "Don't talk to me" she whispered and he promptly turned back around. "You really should have let one of us drive" Lily said in a light tone and Charles looked at her in the rearview mirror.

Both Hank and Logan nod enthusiastically. "Lily. Do you remember the last time I let you drive?" Charles spoke up and the smile vanished from Lily's lips in the blink of an eye. "If I recall, it was Hank who went with me" she remarked and Charles looked to Hank.

"Worst decision of my life" Hank spoke and Lily scoffed, moving forward to punch him but Logan caught her arm, stopping her from concussing the man. Hank flinched away but started laughing when he saw the look on her face, Charles joining in. Lily huffed and leant back in her seat, crossing one leg over the other as Hank and Charles wouldn't stop giggling like little girls.

"I thought you didn't giggle, Charles?" Lily raised an eyebrow accusingly but that only made the two men laugh harder. "I wasn't that bad!" she protested, although she knew it was a lie. But inside, she was happy to see her brother like this again. Charles laughed loudly and made another turn, sending Lily flying into Logan this time. "Sorry" she mumbled, pulling away as red creeped up her neck.

Logan cleared his throat, saying nothing as the two men up front laughed even harder. "What happened?" Logan asked and Lily looked at him, pleading him to shut up. "She crashed the car" Hank finally said after controlling his laughter. Lily sighed as Logan looked at her expectantly. "Yeah, I crashed" she admitted and Logan laughed slightly.