This story is set (mostly) after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, but makes several references to Days of Future Past as well throughout the story.

I don't own X-Men or any of its franchise.

Dropping Hints

My mom once knew a guy who could do that . . .

It hit him. Like a punch from one of the bullies he used to be unable to outrun, it hit Peter. The man he'd saved from the Pentagon was his father. His long-lost dad. The man his mom told him about when he was younger, the man she'd dated that had been able to manipulate metal.

Metal.

And he'd broken him out! He'd stood next to him and held his neck to prevent him from getting whiplash. He'd saved him from non-metal bullets. He'd actually talked to him!

This realization was so powerful that the ping pong ball Quicksilver was playing with hit him in the chest. Well, that ended his the one-man game of ping pong. But that wasn't important. This was. Now that he knew who his father was, he was going to find him again. He was going to talk to him, and he was going to tell him the three words he'd always dreamed he'd tell his father.

When Charles had first told him about Erik and his powers, Quicksilver hadn't even made the connection. So excited was he at the thought of breaking into the Pentagon that the words had rolled off him like wind rushing past his body at some infinity miles an hour. But it was true, and after breaking Erik out of prison, it'd taken him a full week to realize it. There was only one man in existence, that he knew of, that could wield metal. His father.

Zipping into his mother's room, he found a picture of Lehn, his mother's nickname for Erik when they'd dated, and Magda on their very first date at the top of a skyscraper. Yup, it was him all right. He looked practically the same, and it was a wonder that with several pictures of Lehn around Peter hadn't realized Erik's identity the moment he'd seen his father's face in prison. Whatever.

Magda still talked about her first date with glee, even after so long. Each time she mentioned it, her face lit up in childlike wonder. It was amazing, she'd said, and she was still unable to shake the feeling of excitement she'd felt after Erik had lifted her to the top of the skyscraper using a nearby metal drainage grate. Granted, after being spotted dining at the top of a building that wasn't meant to accommodate people, police had surrounded them and demanded that they come down.

No, Erik hadn't killed anyone. But he had made it very hard for the officers to wield their weapons. Erik, not threatened at all by half a dozen officers with guns drawn on him, had simply descended with Magda by his side and walked through the line of police cars, holding the guns and bullets at bay with a simple outstretched arm. Magda was smitten. She hadn't cared that he was practically a criminal and defying the law, in fact that was what made him so alluring. That, and the first time that she and Erik met, he'd saved her from a horrific car accident. That had probably helped a bit.

But one night, something had happened. They'd had a huge argument, and Erik had said he was leaving. It was the last night she ever saw him. Of course she couldn't stop him. She hadn't even told him she was pregnant. Some months later, Quicksilver had been born.

This entire story, Peter had sat through. The stories of his father that Magda told him were one of the few things that could cause him to pause and actually listen to his mom for at least five minutes. Usually, he just listened to her for five seconds before continuing on. Five normal seconds, that is. Which for his super speed time, was about four or so hours. It was a long talk.

It wasn't that he didn't love his mother, though. He did. In fact, two years ago for Mother's Day, he'd overheard Magda talking to his sister that she wanted a special necklace. So, naturally, he'd gotten it for her. By then it was second nature for him to race into any building, grab whatever he wanted, and race out. She hadn't been happy, though. When he'd presented her with her Mother's Day present, she'd demanded that he take it back. So, begrudgingly, he had. So much for a happy Mother's Day.

He was so distraught at the rejection of his present that Peter had even considered getting a job in order to pay for the necklace that Magda wanted. No, way. The only way Peter wanted to work was with his super speed. That didn't sit well with other, normal-speed people.

Peter sat down on his bed with a popsicle in his hand, mulling it over a bit. His father's identity was no longer a secret to him. Talk about ironic that a simple jaunt into the Pentagon would result in his locating the one man he'd always asked his mom about when he was younger. It was funny, though. He'd seen his father on TV before. Television specials aired every so often about the infamous mutant who'd murdered Kennedy. That was what'd gotten Erik into the Pentagon in the first place, but Peter hadn't made the connection throughout the years that this man was his father. Magda had never told him, and maybe that was why Peter never figured it out. Only after Peter broke into, and out of, the Pentagon had he realized the truth. And now that he knew who his father was, Peter could search for him. He could now find and talk to him.

As Peter obtained another five popsicles and returned to his room, he began thinking back to four years ago when his powers had first emerged. With hindsight, it was awesome to have the power of super speed, but in actuality when his powers had come about, they'd caused him quite a bit of trouble he hadn't counted on . . .