The Element of Change {Xmen first class}

Ch. 13 "The Promise"

A/N: So remember when I said the last chapter was going to be the last? Well... this is actually the last.

Erik had gone to talk to Charles about his idea for Genosha, an island where mutants could be free to be who they were meant to be. That was Erik's purpose for coming here, yet the metal wielder found his mind continually drifting back to the young girl who had just left. She was Lei's daughter. Lei, the young woman who had melted his frozen heart in a way he never thought possible. Lei, the woman who had made him feel again. But it had been four years since the incident with Apocalypse and even longer since he'd last seen the water bender. He shouldn't be feeling this way.

Erik ran his shaking hands over his head, pulling at the ginger strands as he battled between speaking and leaving all together. "Charles, who is that girl's father?"

"I don't know," the Englishman responded quickly.

One of Erik's eyebrows rose and he stared disbelievingly at his old friend. "Come on, professor," he said bitterly. "Through all we've been through, you haven't once lied to me. Don't start now."

The professor sighed and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. He knew that if Erik came here, he'd start asking questions. It had been four years since Charles last saw Erik, and Erik chose to question about one of his students?

The telepath's silence was agonizing for the older mutant and led his mind to wonder. Lei had spent years at the Mansion teaching. She had helped Charles recover. She had run to him after spending years with Erik on the run.

Then Erik began to detect similarities between Charles and the young girl. Her peach complexion, unnaturally blue eyes, the warmth with which Charles greeted her. 

The hands that were running through Erik's hair fell to his sides and balled into fists. Anger began to seep into his veins as he felt the grip he held around his emotions begin to slip. "She's yours, isn't she?" He seethed.

"Erik..." the telepath whined, running his hand over his bald head before looking up at the agitated mutant.

"Isn't she?" He asked again.

Charles didn't respond, just looked at him with his blue eyes. The same blue eyes that Lei's daughter had.

"I knew it," Erik mumbled, dismissing the telepath with a wave of his hand as he turned to leave.

"No, Erik. She's yours," Charles called out. Erik's gray eyes widened and his hand on the doorknob stilled. "Close the door... friend," the telepath ordered.

And for the first time ever, Erik Lensherr listened.

"And if you're thinking of similarities," Charles said, wheeling around his desk and towards Erik. "You should realize the similarities she shares with you. Her eyes aren't blue, they're steel, just like yours." The Englishmen smiled lightly as he looked up at his old friend. "And she's just as stubborn."

A rare, genuine smile began to creep up Erik's features before falling. "Why didn't I know about this? I'm her father," he growled out between clenched teeth. He had already lost one daughter, and he wasn't about to lose another. "I had a right to be in her life."

"I know, Erik." Charles paused and looked down at his hands, which were bundled together on his numb legs. "Lei didn't talk about it a lot," he finally said, thinking back to the day the water bender had finally returned to the mansion.

Charles thought he would never see her again after that day at the Whitehouse grounds. After they had saved President Nixon, Logan had disappeared, Raven had left again, and Lei had followed her heart and finally left with Erik. It hurt Charles to see them go, but he knew Lei loved Erik, and Charles wasn't going to stand in the way of Lei and her happiness. Not again. Charles and Hank both thought he had made the right decision, but that was before Lei returned two years later, pregnant with Erik's child and scared out of her mind.