Winter reunion

[mistressofelements]

Ororo didn't really have a problem with Christmas, but she didn't really care about it either and the Professor... well, he really sort of did. Not that he would ever force anyone to get into the spirit of things, everyone was quite free to do as they pleased when it came to that but it could not be denied that the mansion became increasingly jolly the closer they got to Christmas day.

In the end, she decided that she might in fact wish to spend the holidays elsewhere.

Things had been rocky with Erik of late, to say the least, and she wasn't entirely sure if he would actually welcome her presence, but she still sent him the adress to the cabin she'd rented together with the message "I have something for you", and... well, hoped.

Comments

[mistressofelements]

"The information on how to reverse the cure... We'll share it with you. If you want it."

If he didn't, he was a fool.

[prefers_magneto]

"If we still need it, it's because the 'cure' is still out there," he told her, pointing out, beyond the cabin. "And whose fault is that?" He looked at her again, unable to maintain the facade, his gaze sad and tired and pained. "You should have let us clean house. Your hands would be clean, his hands would be clean and the problem would be gone."

[mistressofelements]

She stepped closer to him again, and if he let her she would carefully reach out to take his hands.

"And what about your hands? I care about you too much to just... Treat you like some sort of tool or weapon, don't you know that?"

[prefers_magneto]

He does let her, even as he argues her logic.

"But that's what I am. My hands have been dirty since I was thirteen years old. The only difference is that now I decide what my targets are, and I protect our people. I have chosen to protect our people because somebody has to and I can. I won't watch them herded and slaughtered; not again. I won't allow it to stand. I won't let them have the means, because when they achieve the means, they'll use it. Don't you understand? There's no 'I told you so' at the end of this scenario. It's life or death, for every single one of us."

[mistressofelements]

Well, she wasn't expecting him to just give up. Getting to hold his hands was enough for the moment.

"If you look at yourself as just a... A thing then soon enough you'll start seeing other people that way too, and if you can't see people as people then what is the point of anything that we are trying to do? Then you will have turned into the very thing you are trying to protect us all from and you will start hurting not just people you think deserve it, but anyone who just happens to be in your way."

[prefers_magneto]

He looked at her with the sort of wariness one reserves for things you want so much that you don't trust they're real. The 'too good to be true' reservation.

"Are you trying to 'fix' me? Because I'm not sure it's possible, but it's probably sweet that you care enough to want to."

[mistressofelements]

"No, I'm not trying to fix you. I'm just... trying to make you see yourself from my perspective."

Not that she didn't think there was a great deal inside him that was broken and that could do with some healing, but she didn't think she could do that. The only one who could fix Erik was himself.

But someone had to make him want to.

[prefers_magneto]

"I don't understand how you can think I'm not a monster. I was designed that way. It's not philosophy; it's an observation."

[mistressofelements]

"If you did what you do because you enjoyed it, then I would think you were a monster."

[prefers_magneto]

"I do what I do because it has to be done, but you don't agree with that."

Still he didn't pull away from her touch.

[mistressofelements]

She stepped just a little bit closer to him, keeping hold of his hands as a strange sort of hope fluttered in the pit of her stomach.

"You don't have to agree with people to love them."

[prefers_magneto]

"So I'll do what I think is right and you'll do what you think is right and the inevitable betrayal is some sort of collateral damage? How can I trust you now?"

He was asking her. He really, really wanted to know how.

[mistressofelements]

"I don't know."

She wanted to have an answer for him, but the truth was that she didn't.

"I didn't have some sort of plan to hurt and betray you. I just... Had to act."

[prefers_magneto]

"I was doing it for you," he told her evenly, clearly making an effort to keep his emotions under control. "And for all of us."

[mistressofelements]

She wondered just what feelings it was that he was keeping such an iron grip on, her own situation rather similar as she struggled to stay calm.

"I know. I can't let you kill people for me, Erik."

[prefers_magneto]

"She wanted you dead. She took something from you that's beyond value and she took joy in it and she never wanted you to have it back. She deserved her fate. Now she's still out there and she still knows how the 'cure' worked and she can refine it and she's a danger to all of us because she thinks we're an abomination. She'll destroy us the first chance she gets and you and Charles are the ones who gave her that chance. Why do you think that's right?"

[mistressofelements]

"Because I don't have the right to decide who gets to live or die any more than they do!"

Storm is no saint. She will defend herself when attacked and yes, at times that might involve lethal force but she will do whatever she can to avoid that first.

[prefers_magneto]

"You make it so complicated. You get to decide that you get to live. You get to decide that our people have the right to exist. Everything that follows that is their choice. They're the ones that choose to act against us; I've made it clear what that means."

Abundantly, publicly clear on more than one occasion.

"If you refuse to protect yourself, you can at least let me protect you."

[mistressofelements]

"Erik, you're not protecting me! I understand why you think this way because sometimes... sometimes I do as well, but all you are going to do is make things worse."

At least that was how she saw things. She had to, because if not... how was she going to control all the rage she had inside?

[prefers_magneto]

He didn't think she should. He thought she should let it out. Use it.

"Things got worse on their own without anyone trying to stop it the last time. I'm not going to let it happen again. I can't watch it happen again," he told her earnestly. "I won't watch you burn and do nothing."

[mistressofelements]

And leave natural disasters in her wake?

"We're not doing nothing. We're just not doing what you think needs to be done."

She let go of one his hands, so that she could reach up and gently cup his cheek.

"You're not going to lose me, Erik."

[prefers_magneto]

"None of you understands. There will be no warning. They'll come for us in the night with force and with lies and we'll lose everyone and everything. They'll humiliate us because they can and they'll kill us because they want to. The only way to stop it is to make them understand that they can't, that it will be revisited on them a thousand fold if they even consider trying it."

[mistressofelements]

"I have not been through the same things that you have, but I have seen what people are capable of. I have seen what they are capable of, and I have seen what I am capable of, and that scares me just as much as all the hate and fear that surrounds us. I'm not going to let them turn me into a monster."

Her hand dropped from his cheek to clench around the fabric of his shirt.

"And I know you think you already are one but you're not."

[prefers_magneto]

"If I can't stop it because I recognize it, then what am I for?" he asked her.

[mistressofelements]

"If that is the only worthwhile reason to exist, then what do you think I'm for?"