As a longtime Magneto/Xavier shipper, I wasn't quite thrilled with the end of Days of Future Past. So this story is exactly what it says in the summary: an AU Cherik ending (for the 2023 timeline). I tried to keep it as close to canon as possible, which is why it starts off with a line from the movie. In some ways, this is a companion piece to my story "Best-Laid Plans," which is my take on Erik at the end of the movie's 1973 timeline - but it can be read independently, too.

(For my own reference: 80th fanfiction, 5th story for X-Men.)

The Future That We Bring

"You and I have a lot of catching up to do," Charles says, smiling, and Logan smirks at what an understatement it is. Summarizing the last fifty years of a life that he doesn't remember living can hardly be called catching up.

Charles falls silent for a moment, and Logan assumes that he's wondering where to begin, but then he says, "All right, I've just asked Storm to cover your history class for you." Logan realizes that he must've used his telepathy to communicate long-distance across the mansion. "Now that that's taken care of... well, I'm not even sure where to start. If you just woke up from 1973..." He pauses and chuckles a bit, then offers, "Why don't you have a seat, Logan? After all, this could take a while."

Logan smiles back at him, but as soon as he sits down in the nearest chair, his sense of relaxation bursts like a bubble, and he leaps up again, alarmed, for Magneto has just come into the view through the window. He's walking down the sidewalk towards the main wing of the school, and he looks every bit the harmless, docile old man, carrying a briefcase and a few books. But just the sight of him is enough to make Logan unsheathe his claws. He can still the metal twisting through his body, writhing in and out, he can still feel it...

Charles turns in his hoverchair and follows Logan's gaze out the window, but he doesn't seem to understand what the problem is. "Logan, what - " he starts to ask, bewildered, but Logan cuts him off.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Logan snaps, seething. He storms over to the window and gestures to Magneto, still calmly walking by outside, with his claws. "How the hell did he even get in here? Doesn't the school have any damn security in this future?"

But Charles still isn't alarmed in the least. He joins Logan at the window in his hoverchair and puts one hand on his arm. His expression falls somewhere between surprise and amusement. "Logan, please calm down. Erik is a teacher here," he explains slowly, "just like you are."

Logan bristles at Magneto being described as like him in anyway. Magneto is drawing closer now, and as he walks past their window, he looks right over at Logan and Charles, nods at them, and continues on his way, just as if he does this every morning. Does he? If he really is a teacher at the school in this future... does Logan call him Erik now? Are they friends? Is that possible?

In a daze, Logan watches Magneto's back until he disappears through a door to the main building, then he walks slowly back across the room and sits down hard in a chair opposite Charles's desk, slightly stunned. "What?" he asks finally, because it's all that he can manage to get out.

"I understand that this all must be a lot for you to take in," Charles says, still perfectly calm, as he guides his hoverchair across his office and back behind his desk. "I suppose that in your last memory, Erik and I were still... antagonistic. But I assure you, he's now a teacher here."

"What?" Logan asks again.

He means it as an expression of disbelief, but Charles assumes that he's asking what subject Magneto teaches. "German, French, and Spanish. It's actually made the curriculum much simpler to have one person who can teach all the languages. Would you like something to drink? Can I assume that you still take your coffee black?"

Logan nods distractedly, and Charles turns and taps some buttons on a strange, futuristic-looking machine on a shelf behind his desk. A steaming mug of coffee suddenly appears almost out of nowhere, and Logan realizes that the machine must be some sort of advanced coffee-maker, or even a food replicator. That machine didn't exist in the Sentinel-ridden 2023 that he remembers. Perhaps its inventor was a mutant who'd died young in that future.

Charles holds the coffee cup out to him, and as Logan leans forward and takes it, he suddenly notices that the surface of Charles's desk isn't wooden, like it was in his memories. It's metal. Logan glances over its legs and base. The whole damn desk is metal. It makes him uncomfortable, and he slowly drinks a sip of coffee, wondering what the hell else is different in this future.

"How long has Mag... uh, Erik been teaching here?" he asks after a pause.

"Oh, several years now, ever since that incident on Genosha Island... but of course, you probably don't remember that."

"But if he teaches here... does he live here, too? Here at the mansion?"

"Yes, actually, he and I - " But Charles stops abruptly, as if he just thought better of whatever he was about to say, and Logan feels vaguely grateful for that. He's already had enough surprises for one day; he doesn't need mental images, too.

But then he remembers watching Magneto control the Sentinels on the White House lawn, and his near-assassination of Nixon. What had happened to his plans for mutantkind to inherit the world? Logan knows that he should feel relieved at seeing Magneto here; after all, the entire point of sending him back to 1973 was to create a better future, and Magneto working with them, rather than against them, would certainly fit into a better future. But still, Logan can't reconcile that angry younger man in the helmet with the seemingly-harmless older man who just walked by the window.

He searches for words, then finally asks, "But he's not... he doesn't... do anything else?"

Charles looks puzzled for a moment, then answers, "Well, he does metalwork on the side. Let me see here..." He scans his desk, picks up a pen, and holds it out to Logan. It's a heavy silver pen, and when Logan peers closer, he sees that it's engraved with Charles's name. Charles goes on, with such pride, such fondness in his voice, "He makes things - pens, watches, jewelry, things like that, mostly. It's been an extremely successful business. He just recently started a line of Judaica items, too - mezuzahs, shabbos candlesticks, kiddush cups, Torah yods."

Logan blinks. Out of those last several words, he recognized only candlesticks and cups.

He must look confused, because then Charles puts the pen back down and says, "Oh, but you probably meant... well, Erik still fights very hard for mutant rights, of course. We all do. He and I don't always see eye-to-eye on every issue - far from it, in fact - but for the most part, we manage to work together." He smiles as he says this, and Logan slowly starts to relax again. He can't remember ever seeing Charles look so damn happy. Maybe he can wrap his head around Magneto being a teacher here. After all, he supposes that he has to.

It occurs to him that maybe Mystique is working with them in this future, too. Maybe she's even here at the mansion somewhere. Hell, Logan could've passed right by her on his way to Charles's study and didn't know it. He almost asks Charles about her, but then he decides against it. He needs to get at least some information on the past fifty years before he learns any more about the present.

"Now..." Charles asks slowly, "what's the last thing you remember?"

Logan's mind goes back to DC, to 1973, to what feels like only moments ago to him.

"Drowning."

P.S. I'm very grateful to my brother for beta-reading this, although I disagree with his description of it as "very homoerotic." Hahaha!

P.P.S. One story review to the first reader who can tell me where the title of this fic comes from. (No cheating!)