Theme is "Family"
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As usual, 10 drabbles... with a bonus track? Ey.
#1 House of M - Seen and Heard
A loud shattering crash interrupted the diplomatic meeting before it even got off its feet. The visiting ambassador reacted in paranoia of underhand attack, but any accusation of treachery did not come when he discovered the true cause of it all. Instead, he paled impressively for someone of green complexion and uttered a strangled, high-pitched sound.
Scattered over an expensive carpet were so many crystalline fragments that had once been a priceless sculpture dating back thousands of centuries in age, a treasure from the Emperor’s own collection that His Majesty had only so recently gifted to the House of M as a token of goodwill.
Prince Thomas sat in the center of it all wearing nothing but his diaper, unscathed and unrepentant. The toddler grinned as he held his hands up to the towering figure of Magneto.
“Lumpy!” he greeted joyously.
--
#2 Something Amiss
For the first years of his life, it never occurred to Teddy that he was different from other kids. All he knew was that he was never alone, and he had someone who cared for him, who protected him, who loved him very much. For a while, that was all he needed.
Then one day, as he played in the sandbox with a few other children his age, a big man suddenly came up to them and swooped down to grab one of his playmates. Not only did the other boy not fight back - not at first, anyway - but he shrieked with laughter and squeaked requests for the tickling to stop. Teddy watched the two of them leave, both so happy.
It was then that he noticed it. He was still thinking about it when his mother picked him up and brushed the sand from his clothes.
“Mama,” he asked her, “what's a 'Daddy'?”
--
#3 Exiles - Thicker than Water
Despite the time she had spent on Earth-616, TJ Wagner found it hard to adjust to the idea of her father not being with her mother … or her mother being with someone else entirely. It was even weirder when her mother … when this world's Wanda - one who was not a mutant - was so nice to her and felt so much like a mother.
Then again, she was one. Just not to her.
While one little boy was out in the grass and play wrestling with Pietro, another little boy was clinging to Wanda’s skirt and staring up at her with her blue fur and her tridactyl hands and her yellow eyes. Two children who might have been her brothers, either younger or older. She was not entirely certain-
Then the boy suddenly left his mother's side and came up to her. He looked like Wanda, but he also looked like his father in the way he regarded her … and in that way he smiled at her. She managed to smile back and reached forward to ruffle his hair, earning a happy giggle for it.
“Hi there, little guy,” she greeted.
“Well, would you look at that,” Wanda commented, her smile warm and gentle. “Billy usually doesn't like strangers - you must be someone very special.”
TJ worked the lump that had formed in her throat. The kid suddenly grabbing her hand and wrapping himself around it in a possessive hug didn't make it any easier. She had no place here in a world where Nightcrawler never met the Scarlet Witch or even knew of her existence.
But she would have loved to have a little brother like Billy.
--
#4 AU - One False Step
William growled through his teeth and turned on the mutant priest.
“You listen to me,” he snapped. “You are not my father. You are a furry blue gerbil, a hypocrite and a narrow-minded bigot who hasn't taken a good look at himself in a mirror lately. I don't care if Mom likes you, and I don't care if Tom likes you. I care that you think you have some say in who I am or what I do.”
“Son, if you just consider-!”
“I told you I'm not your son!” William spat back. “My last name is not Wagner. I'm not Catholic. I'm not breaking up with my boyfriend just so you can pretend I'm not homosexual. And most of all, I'm not going to be sorry about blowing you to pieces if you ever abuse Ted or his family again!”
“William Simon Maximoff!”
Both the boy and the man turned to find Wanda in the doorway. Kurt saw the pallor in her face. William saw the tears in her eyes. It hurt. He had a pretty good guess whose side she was on, and it hurt.
“… I won't be home until morning.”
Before either adult could say a word against it, there was a strong gust of wind and the boy disappeared from sight.
--
#5 AU - In Life, In Death
There were no mournful goodbyes. They would not demean the significance of the mission with sorrow. Not when they were aiming to win this war with everything they had.
As Billy suited up in preparation, his only company was Eli from where he stood by the tent flap.
“You’d better come back, you hear?” Eli told him gruffly. “Cos’ if you don’t, I’ll march over there and haul you in myself.”
Billy did not answer, his attention completely devoted to making sure he had everything in working order. Eli did not interrupt him again.
At last the youth straightened, fully dressed in his combat uniform with his weapon slung over his shoulder. He started toward Eli and stopped just in front of him.
He did not have to say a word. They understood one another just fine; the scars on their bodies were proof of it.
The long vertical line down Eli’s blinded left eye where Billy had sliced him with an old pocket knife.
The jagged horizontal strokes over Billy’s throat where Eli had slashed him with a broken bottle.
The stripes on their backs where they had each been punished for one thing or another.
The sunken pucker over Eli’s right kidney from when he had pushed Billy out of a bullet’s path.
The raised diamond over Billy’s left lung from when he had placed himself between Eli and an incoming dagger.
The marks on their forearms where the syringes had gone in, when either one readily gave his blood for the other’s survival.
Finally Billy smiled humorlessly and reached forward to clasp Eli’s wrist, squeezing once, then twice. It was a familiar gesture, with different meanings for the same occasions.
I am your brother.
I will give everything for you.
I will come back for you.
Eli did not smile back, but he reached forward and reciprocated the gesture.
“Damn right, kiddo,” he growled. “Don’t forget it.”
Because really, when all they had left in the world was each other, brother would not abandon brother.
Brother would not leave brother alone.
--
#6 Secret Invasion - The Long Road Home
For a moment, there had been no Pro-Registration and no Anti-Registration. There had been no multiple division of Avengers, either Mighty or Secret or whatever. There had been no fuzzy gray line that separated the good guys from the bad guys. There had only been Earth’s defenders on one side, and the Skrull invaders on the other. It had felt so good, so pure and so honestly right.
And then it was over. The day was won. Cassie shrank back down to normal size and looked over the heads in the crowd of strangers, wondering if things could ever go back to normal again. She had thought she had friends in the fifty states and in the camp. But with all the sleeper agents that had been part of the Initiative, who could she trust anymore?
If she couldn’t go back to Camp Hammond… where was she supposed to go now?
“Cassie!”
She turned. The Young Avengers were standing there, waiting. They were grim and solemn - and really, who could blame them? - but it had been Tommy who called to her; not the Vision who loved her, nor Kate who after the Vision was most likely to forgive her. Tommy, the one who had held his grudge against her for as long as he could and never voluntarily talked to her. Until now.
That meant a great deal.
Still not exactly friendly, Tommy scoffed and called again, “… Are you coming or what?”
She could not have reached their side sooner.
--
#7 Family for Kate
Family did not need a table that fit twenty when it was only ever occupied by one at a time, with fancy gourmet dishes and prim and proper servants ready to clean up afterwards.
Family was slouching on an ugly couch or sitting cross-legged on the floor, everyone crammed into a tiny living room with a box of cold pizza and a few bottles of pop, inane chatter and light juggling of who got “trash duty” filling the air.
Family did not need elaborate vacations where each person got to go to a different place in the world - any place their heart desired - … just not together as a unit.
Family was taking time off from a rigorous training session or after a lousy day in school to go outside with an old ball and chase each other with it until everyone was panting and sweating and too tired to get back to the original program.
Family did not need a bribery of money and expensive gifts as a means of appeasement and reconciling differences.
Family was personally making the effort to make sure the other was okay, no matter how awkward or childish or eventually embarrassing such a move was, until said other got the hint and accepted the apology.
Family did not need a huge, near empty house with a seat for a shrink when someone was feeling depressed.
Family was just there, willing to listen, willing to do something nice to shake the slump, willing to find the jerks who caused the hurt and hurt them back.
Considering all that, Kate knew she could never give up being a Young Avenger.
Not without a serious fight.
Not while that family did not give up on her.
--
#8 Family for Tommy
His was a father who walked out one day and never came back. He hadn’t even been drunk or depressed or out of a job. His only excuse was that he was “sick and tired of it all”.
His was a mother who pretended she had never married that “loser”, and brought home boyfriend after boyfriend. She was still pretending that he wasn’t a mutant or an escaped criminal, or that deep down, she wasn’t terrified of him. And honestly, she was lousy at it.
His was a home that did not welcome his presence. It never really did.
Not like that old, worn out building he visits every day, where he knows he will always find someone.
There is Eli to throw a towel at his head and tell him to get his butt in gear - he needs a spotter.
There is Kate to shamelessly flirt with, and in turn humor him a little; depends on her mood and how much Eli may or may not have messed up.
There is Ted to invite him to sit down and play a video game, since Eli is either on mission or at work, and he is dying to try something in Halo he just discovered on the internet but needs a partner for.
There is Billy, and if he isn’t in the middle of a spell that more often than not backfires, to share out a pizza with him- because Billy is Reform and Tommy doesn’t care - while the “We Are Magically Reincarnated Brothers From Another Life” pitch goes on and on and on and on.
There is Cassie to freak out because he walked in on her doing something incredibly girl-related, and it becomes a game of hide and seek with her the size of an ant and her screams so unintelligible and squeaky it’s kind of funny.
There is the Vision to just sit down and talk to for a little while, to understand that he isn’t always a speed demon and was once a regular kid with emotional baggage like everyone else, and to just hear him out with whatever baggage he’s still got left.
Some cheesy idiot once said home is where the heart is.
And Tommy knows exactly where.
--
#9 Family for Teddy
There is nothing to say. Except…
His father is dead, was dead long before he figured out who the man - the hero - really was.
His mothers both are dead, one he never knew and the other he loved so much but never told enough.
There is only Billy. And if the Avengers are going to come out and decide he’s too dangerous to stay, then…
There is just nothing else left.
--
#10 X-Men: Endangered Species AU - Be Careful What You Wish For; “Family for Wanda”
“Kids, dinner,” she called. “Come on now, it’s your favorite.”
She never had to call them twice - in the pattering of feet, her two children arrived at the table almost immediately. Her aunt was already seated, happily going on about all the fortune teller had predicted in her coming future. Wanda smiled and nodded politely without believing a word of it, and then she noticed something shine silver in a pair of small hands.
“William? Sweetie, where did you get that watch?”
Willy looked back up at her and then pointed at his brother. “Tommy gave it to me.”
“It was just left there!” Tommy defended himself immediately. “He didn’t want it anymore!”
“Now Thomas, what did I tell you about taking other people’s things?” she reprimanded lightly. He squirmed uncomfortably. “There will be no stolen things in this house. First thing after dinner, you two are putting it back.”
“But it’s broken, Mommy,” Willy pointed out, holding it up for her to see.
“Well, that can’t be helped can it? Put it away now.”
“Okay…” The watch was tucked in an old handkerchief and set aside. “… but can’t we fix it?”
“Some things are just meant to be broken, dear.” Scooping up a hefty serving for each plate, she passed them to the eagerly waiting hands. “Don’t let that trouble you.”
“Yes, Mommy.”
Wanda looked over the two of them, each so identical and yet so unique. She fondly stroked back their messy hair, and finally looked to her talkative aunt.
“No, Aunt Agatha, I’m very certain she did not mean the baker. The man’s still happily married with ten children, you know…”
--
--
#Bonus-11 House of M - It's On, Witch
Even his own son with his reputation for hotheadedness thought he was being incredibly petty and not thinking this through. Both his daughters had tried to calm him, speaking for the wretched weather witch and her callous words. She was a woman facing problems with her incorrigibly polygamous husband and needed an outlet, either one or the other said. How could she find peace and fulfillment in anything when she found neither in her marriage bed?
No matter what they said, Magneto had his mind made up. After all that he had been through as a child, after the harsh battle he had to fight against all that prejudice as a youth and then as an adult… That moment Queen Ororo dared compare him to the monsters who had persecuted him for his blood - and killed his loved ones in the name of that self-righteous persecution - was the moment she had gone too far.
Something bumped into his shins, and he looked down. A toddler looked back up at him with wide innocent eyes and raised his hands imploringly.
“Up! Up!” he chirped. “Lumpy, up!”
Where his son's criticism and his daughters' reassurances had little effect, the sight of his grandson brought him a moment's pause.
Despite what little time he could spend with them, he inadvertently found his favorite between Wanda's twins. William never strayed far from his mother, but Thomas was constantly escaping the nursery to find him, following him around like a shadow … seeing all these cold and cruel behaviors that hailed back toward human roots without understanding any of them.
The grandchildren. He had to think of them. Of their future.
He could leave the insults be, show that bit of forgiveness - or was that weakness - to that woman and her family… And then one day when Africa rivaled Genosha in power, they would come not with their words but with swords. At a time when the young would be the ones to face them.
That decided it.
They would not waste a decade on insults and harsh language. He would settle it now.
Thomas squealed in delight when his grandfather reached down and scooped him up with one hand, the other pressing a button to resume the call he had made.
“Give the human T'challa my sincere regards,” Magneto informed the mercenary on the other end. “And Sabertooth...? Make sure he's dead.”
The African Majesties could antagonize him as much as they saw fit, but he would not leave either them or any potential offspring of theirs to move on and threaten his grandchildren.
“I promise you,” he spoke to his grandson, “your future will be better than mine.”
--
*
#10 would be the prequel to the first two scenarios presented in Theme is “Children”. For those who are unfamiliar with X-Men: Endangered Species, someone posted scans in the forum found here: http://thegreenlanterncorps.com/Forum/showpost.php?p=517781&postcount=13
#Bonus-11 was originally going to be scrapped, but I clung and begged and pleaded and cried like a baby until the Crow finally agreed to let us keep it. If only I knew how to do that with my father when I was younger, I’d have a pet dog by now.
As usual, 10 drabbles... with a bonus track? Ey.
#1 House of M - Seen and Heard
A loud shattering crash interrupted the diplomatic meeting before it even got off its feet. The visiting ambassador reacted in paranoia of underhand attack, but any accusation of treachery did not come when he discovered the true cause of it all. Instead, he paled impressively for someone of green complexion and uttered a strangled, high-pitched sound.
Scattered over an expensive carpet were so many crystalline fragments that had once been a priceless sculpture dating back thousands of centuries in age, a treasure from the Emperor’s own collection that His Majesty had only so recently gifted to the House of M as a token of goodwill.
Prince Thomas sat in the center of it all wearing nothing but his diaper, unscathed and unrepentant. The toddler grinned as he held his hands up to the towering figure of Magneto.
“Lumpy!” he greeted joyously.
--
#2 Something Amiss
For the first years of his life, it never occurred to Teddy that he was different from other kids. All he knew was that he was never alone, and he had someone who cared for him, who protected him, who loved him very much. For a while, that was all he needed.
Then one day, as he played in the sandbox with a few other children his age, a big man suddenly came up to them and swooped down to grab one of his playmates. Not only did the other boy not fight back - not at first, anyway - but he shrieked with laughter and squeaked requests for the tickling to stop. Teddy watched the two of them leave, both so happy.
It was then that he noticed it. He was still thinking about it when his mother picked him up and brushed the sand from his clothes.
“Mama,” he asked her, “what's a 'Daddy'?”
--
#3 Exiles - Thicker than Water
Despite the time she had spent on Earth-616, TJ Wagner found it hard to adjust to the idea of her father not being with her mother … or her mother being with someone else entirely. It was even weirder when her mother … when this world's Wanda - one who was not a mutant - was so nice to her and felt so much like a mother.
Then again, she was one. Just not to her.
While one little boy was out in the grass and play wrestling with Pietro, another little boy was clinging to Wanda’s skirt and staring up at her with her blue fur and her tridactyl hands and her yellow eyes. Two children who might have been her brothers, either younger or older. She was not entirely certain-
Then the boy suddenly left his mother's side and came up to her. He looked like Wanda, but he also looked like his father in the way he regarded her … and in that way he smiled at her. She managed to smile back and reached forward to ruffle his hair, earning a happy giggle for it.
“Hi there, little guy,” she greeted.
“Well, would you look at that,” Wanda commented, her smile warm and gentle. “Billy usually doesn't like strangers - you must be someone very special.”
TJ worked the lump that had formed in her throat. The kid suddenly grabbing her hand and wrapping himself around it in a possessive hug didn't make it any easier. She had no place here in a world where Nightcrawler never met the Scarlet Witch or even knew of her existence.
But she would have loved to have a little brother like Billy.
--
#4 AU - One False Step
William growled through his teeth and turned on the mutant priest.
“You listen to me,” he snapped. “You are not my father. You are a furry blue gerbil, a hypocrite and a narrow-minded bigot who hasn't taken a good look at himself in a mirror lately. I don't care if Mom likes you, and I don't care if Tom likes you. I care that you think you have some say in who I am or what I do.”
“Son, if you just consider-!”
“I told you I'm not your son!” William spat back. “My last name is not Wagner. I'm not Catholic. I'm not breaking up with my boyfriend just so you can pretend I'm not homosexual. And most of all, I'm not going to be sorry about blowing you to pieces if you ever abuse Ted or his family again!”
“William Simon Maximoff!”
Both the boy and the man turned to find Wanda in the doorway. Kurt saw the pallor in her face. William saw the tears in her eyes. It hurt. He had a pretty good guess whose side she was on, and it hurt.
“… I won't be home until morning.”
Before either adult could say a word against it, there was a strong gust of wind and the boy disappeared from sight.
--
#5 AU - In Life, In Death
There were no mournful goodbyes. They would not demean the significance of the mission with sorrow. Not when they were aiming to win this war with everything they had.
As Billy suited up in preparation, his only company was Eli from where he stood by the tent flap.
“You’d better come back, you hear?” Eli told him gruffly. “Cos’ if you don’t, I’ll march over there and haul you in myself.”
Billy did not answer, his attention completely devoted to making sure he had everything in working order. Eli did not interrupt him again.
At last the youth straightened, fully dressed in his combat uniform with his weapon slung over his shoulder. He started toward Eli and stopped just in front of him.
He did not have to say a word. They understood one another just fine; the scars on their bodies were proof of it.
The long vertical line down Eli’s blinded left eye where Billy had sliced him with an old pocket knife.
The jagged horizontal strokes over Billy’s throat where Eli had slashed him with a broken bottle.
The stripes on their backs where they had each been punished for one thing or another.
The sunken pucker over Eli’s right kidney from when he had pushed Billy out of a bullet’s path.
The raised diamond over Billy’s left lung from when he had placed himself between Eli and an incoming dagger.
The marks on their forearms where the syringes had gone in, when either one readily gave his blood for the other’s survival.
Finally Billy smiled humorlessly and reached forward to clasp Eli’s wrist, squeezing once, then twice. It was a familiar gesture, with different meanings for the same occasions.
I am your brother.
I will give everything for you.
I will come back for you.
Eli did not smile back, but he reached forward and reciprocated the gesture.
“Damn right, kiddo,” he growled. “Don’t forget it.”
Because really, when all they had left in the world was each other, brother would not abandon brother.
Brother would not leave brother alone.
--
#6 Secret Invasion - The Long Road Home
For a moment, there had been no Pro-Registration and no Anti-Registration. There had been no multiple division of Avengers, either Mighty or Secret or whatever. There had been no fuzzy gray line that separated the good guys from the bad guys. There had only been Earth’s defenders on one side, and the Skrull invaders on the other. It had felt so good, so pure and so honestly right.
And then it was over. The day was won. Cassie shrank back down to normal size and looked over the heads in the crowd of strangers, wondering if things could ever go back to normal again. She had thought she had friends in the fifty states and in the camp. But with all the sleeper agents that had been part of the Initiative, who could she trust anymore?
If she couldn’t go back to Camp Hammond… where was she supposed to go now?
“Cassie!”
She turned. The Young Avengers were standing there, waiting. They were grim and solemn - and really, who could blame them? - but it had been Tommy who called to her; not the Vision who loved her, nor Kate who after the Vision was most likely to forgive her. Tommy, the one who had held his grudge against her for as long as he could and never voluntarily talked to her. Until now.
That meant a great deal.
Still not exactly friendly, Tommy scoffed and called again, “… Are you coming or what?”
She could not have reached their side sooner.
--
#7 Family for Kate
Family did not need a table that fit twenty when it was only ever occupied by one at a time, with fancy gourmet dishes and prim and proper servants ready to clean up afterwards.
Family was slouching on an ugly couch or sitting cross-legged on the floor, everyone crammed into a tiny living room with a box of cold pizza and a few bottles of pop, inane chatter and light juggling of who got “trash duty” filling the air.
Family did not need elaborate vacations where each person got to go to a different place in the world - any place their heart desired - … just not together as a unit.
Family was taking time off from a rigorous training session or after a lousy day in school to go outside with an old ball and chase each other with it until everyone was panting and sweating and too tired to get back to the original program.
Family did not need a bribery of money and expensive gifts as a means of appeasement and reconciling differences.
Family was personally making the effort to make sure the other was okay, no matter how awkward or childish or eventually embarrassing such a move was, until said other got the hint and accepted the apology.
Family did not need a huge, near empty house with a seat for a shrink when someone was feeling depressed.
Family was just there, willing to listen, willing to do something nice to shake the slump, willing to find the jerks who caused the hurt and hurt them back.
Considering all that, Kate knew she could never give up being a Young Avenger.
Not without a serious fight.
Not while that family did not give up on her.
--
#8 Family for Tommy
His was a father who walked out one day and never came back. He hadn’t even been drunk or depressed or out of a job. His only excuse was that he was “sick and tired of it all”.
His was a mother who pretended she had never married that “loser”, and brought home boyfriend after boyfriend. She was still pretending that he wasn’t a mutant or an escaped criminal, or that deep down, she wasn’t terrified of him. And honestly, she was lousy at it.
His was a home that did not welcome his presence. It never really did.
Not like that old, worn out building he visits every day, where he knows he will always find someone.
There is Eli to throw a towel at his head and tell him to get his butt in gear - he needs a spotter.
There is Kate to shamelessly flirt with, and in turn humor him a little; depends on her mood and how much Eli may or may not have messed up.
There is Ted to invite him to sit down and play a video game, since Eli is either on mission or at work, and he is dying to try something in Halo he just discovered on the internet but needs a partner for.
There is Billy, and if he isn’t in the middle of a spell that more often than not backfires, to share out a pizza with him- because Billy is Reform and Tommy doesn’t care - while the “We Are Magically Reincarnated Brothers From Another Life” pitch goes on and on and on and on.
There is Cassie to freak out because he walked in on her doing something incredibly girl-related, and it becomes a game of hide and seek with her the size of an ant and her screams so unintelligible and squeaky it’s kind of funny.
There is the Vision to just sit down and talk to for a little while, to understand that he isn’t always a speed demon and was once a regular kid with emotional baggage like everyone else, and to just hear him out with whatever baggage he’s still got left.
Some cheesy idiot once said home is where the heart is.
And Tommy knows exactly where.
--
#9 Family for Teddy
There is nothing to say. Except…
His father is dead, was dead long before he figured out who the man - the hero - really was.
His mothers both are dead, one he never knew and the other he loved so much but never told enough.
There is only Billy. And if the Avengers are going to come out and decide he’s too dangerous to stay, then…
There is just nothing else left.
--
#10 X-Men: Endangered Species AU - Be Careful What You Wish For; “Family for Wanda”
“Kids, dinner,” she called. “Come on now, it’s your favorite.”
She never had to call them twice - in the pattering of feet, her two children arrived at the table almost immediately. Her aunt was already seated, happily going on about all the fortune teller had predicted in her coming future. Wanda smiled and nodded politely without believing a word of it, and then she noticed something shine silver in a pair of small hands.
“William? Sweetie, where did you get that watch?”
Willy looked back up at her and then pointed at his brother. “Tommy gave it to me.”
“It was just left there!” Tommy defended himself immediately. “He didn’t want it anymore!”
“Now Thomas, what did I tell you about taking other people’s things?” she reprimanded lightly. He squirmed uncomfortably. “There will be no stolen things in this house. First thing after dinner, you two are putting it back.”
“But it’s broken, Mommy,” Willy pointed out, holding it up for her to see.
“Well, that can’t be helped can it? Put it away now.”
“Okay…” The watch was tucked in an old handkerchief and set aside. “… but can’t we fix it?”
“Some things are just meant to be broken, dear.” Scooping up a hefty serving for each plate, she passed them to the eagerly waiting hands. “Don’t let that trouble you.”
“Yes, Mommy.”
Wanda looked over the two of them, each so identical and yet so unique. She fondly stroked back their messy hair, and finally looked to her talkative aunt.
“No, Aunt Agatha, I’m very certain she did not mean the baker. The man’s still happily married with ten children, you know…”
--
--
#Bonus-11 House of M - It's On, Witch
Even his own son with his reputation for hotheadedness thought he was being incredibly petty and not thinking this through. Both his daughters had tried to calm him, speaking for the wretched weather witch and her callous words. She was a woman facing problems with her incorrigibly polygamous husband and needed an outlet, either one or the other said. How could she find peace and fulfillment in anything when she found neither in her marriage bed?
No matter what they said, Magneto had his mind made up. After all that he had been through as a child, after the harsh battle he had to fight against all that prejudice as a youth and then as an adult… That moment Queen Ororo dared compare him to the monsters who had persecuted him for his blood - and killed his loved ones in the name of that self-righteous persecution - was the moment she had gone too far.
Something bumped into his shins, and he looked down. A toddler looked back up at him with wide innocent eyes and raised his hands imploringly.
“Up! Up!” he chirped. “Lumpy, up!”
Where his son's criticism and his daughters' reassurances had little effect, the sight of his grandson brought him a moment's pause.
Despite what little time he could spend with them, he inadvertently found his favorite between Wanda's twins. William never strayed far from his mother, but Thomas was constantly escaping the nursery to find him, following him around like a shadow … seeing all these cold and cruel behaviors that hailed back toward human roots without understanding any of them.
The grandchildren. He had to think of them. Of their future.
He could leave the insults be, show that bit of forgiveness - or was that weakness - to that woman and her family… And then one day when Africa rivaled Genosha in power, they would come not with their words but with swords. At a time when the young would be the ones to face them.
That decided it.
They would not waste a decade on insults and harsh language. He would settle it now.
Thomas squealed in delight when his grandfather reached down and scooped him up with one hand, the other pressing a button to resume the call he had made.
“Give the human T'challa my sincere regards,” Magneto informed the mercenary on the other end. “And Sabertooth...? Make sure he's dead.”
The African Majesties could antagonize him as much as they saw fit, but he would not leave either them or any potential offspring of theirs to move on and threaten his grandchildren.
“I promise you,” he spoke to his grandson, “your future will be better than mine.”
--
*
#10 would be the prequel to the first two scenarios presented in Theme is “Children”. For those who are unfamiliar with X-Men: Endangered Species, someone posted scans in the forum found here: http://thegreenlanterncorps.com/Forum/showpost.php?p=517781&postcount=13
#Bonus-11 was originally going to be scrapped, but I clung and begged and pleaded and cried like a baby until the Crow finally agreed to let us keep it. If only I knew how to do that with my father when I was younger, I’d have a pet dog by now.