The Xavier House

Saturday's Family Meeting

"So then what are we going to be doing today?" Hank asked as the family settled down to breakfast. Erik had cooked this morning and with him in the kitchen you could guarantee that the food was going to be great. And it was. Everyone was eating quickly and sighing in appreciation for how good the eggs, sausages, toast, fried tomatoes and mushrooms were. Scott seemed to be the only one that had paid any attention to Hank's question.

"Can we go to the park? I want to try out my new skateboard." he said enthusiastically, the word 'skateboard' got the attention of his twin Alex.

"Yeah! I want to try a new trick with my blades." He said with as much enthusiasm as his brother. By 'blades' Alex meant his roller skates. He had gotten them two weeks ago for his birthday when Scott had gotten his skateboard. They had been presents from Charles and Erik after the boys' mother had seemed to have forgotten that it was their birthday, again. So far the weather had been too bad for the boys to try out their new presents.

"Well it seems as if it's going to be a nice day, anybody else want to come?" Charles said.

"I can't I've got homework to do." Wanda said, but even if she didn't have to do schoolwork Charles reckons she would have said no anyway. Wanda wasn't really an outdoor girl.

"I was going to go round Tony's to see if he needed any help with a project he was working on." Hank said and Erik raised an eyebrow.

"Is this project dangerous Hank?" he asked and the boy looked at him with innocent eyes.

"Of course it isn't, you know I'd never do anything that was stupid or extremely dangerous." Hank looked at Erik with the best innocent eyes he had, unfortunately Erik had known Hank for the past seven years and could tell when he was putting on an act. Erik also knew what Hank's friends were like,

"If I know Tony Stark, and I do, whatever 'project' he is working on is highly dangerous and potentially lethal." he said. "Remember what happened last time." Hank did of course know what Erik was talking about when he said 'last time'. It had been four weeks ago when Hank had gone to Tony's house for a project and they had ended up having to call the fire brigade when they had accidentally caused a small explosion and set half of Tony's lab on fire. Hank hadn't been to the Stark house since then.

"Oh Hank, you can go but I expect you to be sensible and don't get up to anything stupid that could potentially kill you or maim you." Charles said as he started to collect everyone's empty plates.

"What about you Pietro, what are you doing today?" Erik asked the boy, who so far had been completely silent during breakfast.

"Can I come to the park with Alex and Scott?" He asked and the two twins immediately said yes and started to share with the slightly younger boy what tricks they were going to try.

"Before everyone starts their day, myself and Erik wanted to talk to you all about something rather important." Charles said as he handed the rinsed plates to Erik to be put in the dishwasher.

"What's up?" Hank asked.

"It's nothing bad is it?" Wanda asked alarmed, Pietro looked at his sister worryingly and then looked between Charles and Erik.

"No it's nothing bad, actually myself and Erik think that it's an extremely good thing but we all have to agree otherwise we will be unable to go through with it." Charles said. They looked at him in confusion. Charles sat down and motioned for Erik, who was still stacking the dishwasher, to sit down as well.

"What's this all about Charles?" Hank asked, Charles smiled at him.

"Well you all know about Erik and I, how we've been together for quite a while now..." Before Charles could continue Alex jumped up.

"You're getting married aren't you! Can we come to the wedding!" He shouted. Charles shook his head and laughed a little.

"Calm down Alex we're not getting married." Charles said to him.

"Yet." Erik said under his breath, Charles gave him a little kick in the shin.

"Right well, let me continue please. Myself and Erik were talking last night about how he's always around here and how you lot seemed to recognise him as a father figure like you do me. Is that fair?" Charles asked and there was a chorus of yeses.

"Well of course we do!" Alex exclaimed. "He's always here, he cooks and cleans and helps us with homework. all the things you do Charles, he does, except the fact that he can cook better than you." Everyone, including Charles laughed at that. After everyone had calmed down Charles continued.

"Yes well the fact is that Erik spends more time here than he does in his own flat so we had a conversation and decided that if we can talk to Logan and he gives the all clear, that Erik can move in here with us." Now that he had finally told them Charles was a little nervous about who would react how, but apparently there was no need for worry.

"Live with us, forever?!" Scott burst out. Charles and Erik both smiled at him.

"Yeah Scotty, how would you feel about that?" Erik asked. Scott nodded quickly.

"It'll be great, we can play football all the time!" Erik chuckled.

"Maybe not all the time Scott, but we'll definitely be able to play more." Erik looked at all the others, waiting for the next opinion in him moving in. Hank spoke up,

"I just have one question," he said and Erik nodded at him to go ahead and ask, "why have you only just decided now, you could have moved in ages ago."

Charles and Erik looked at each other, they didn't really have an answer for that.