Title: Nesting

General Rating: M

Chapter Rating: T, for violence and language.

Pairings/Characters: Cherik (Charles Xavier x Erik Lehnsherr), family dynamic-CharlesxErik!Wanda!Pietro, mentions of other characters.

Summary: Set between and after XM:Apoc. Erik returns to pick up Pietro and Wanda from where he'd hidden them, only to find Charles has beaten him to it. Unhappy that someone else is attempting to raise his children Erik goes to confront Charles, only to be accepted in with the usual welcoming arms. His children are happy here and he can't tear that away from them, but he also will not leave without them, leaving him confused as to what to do and what he really wants.

Chapter Warnings: Violence, death(nameless characters), language. Canonically disabled character.

A/N: So this takes place between and then after X-Men: Apocalypse. Erik was married to Magda but instead of having Nina like in the movie he had Wanda and Pietro. This chapter is mostly world building and setting things up, next chapter will be actual interactions between Erik, Charles and the twins.

Erik's names/alias' : Henryk Gurtszky, Magneto, Erik Lehnsherr
Translations: bärchen - little bear - German (due to my Headcanon that even if they lived in Poland that Erik likes to give pet names in German)

Poland, 1983

The wind was cold against his face as Erik Lehnsherr, known in these parts as Henryk Gurszky or in other parts of the world by Magneto, rushed home to his family. Rushing through the door he had begun packing and shoving things into their suit cases until his wife, Magda, came in with a worried glance on her face. "Darling, what's wrong?"

"We're exposed. I saved a man from a painful death and now we're fucking exposed because of it!" Erik half yelled, Magda didn't flinch because she knew the anger wasn't directed at her and that Erik would never harm her or their children. That didn't mean she wanted to just up and pack though, "We can't just leave, this is our home...this is our children's home!"

Completely stopping his fervent movements to pack Erik moved and took Magda's hands in his own gently and kissed one, "We are their home, Pietro and Wanda need us and only us. Four walls made of wood is nothing compared to losing a mother or a father." Their eyes connected for a small moment, love mixed between them in that simple stare, and Magda nodded. "I'll get the children packed." she agreed before moving away and rushing to the twins room.

Moving back to his packing it was only half a minute later that his wife came back in with a rushed tone to her voice, "Wanda isn't in bed, Pietro was asleep and said he didn't notice her leaving! I-I also didn't see her out back in the play yard." and with that Magda was gone and grabbing her coat to rush outside to the backyard where there were a small woods.

"Shit." Erik grunted and started to rush downstairs himself, only to be stopped by a small hand on the back of his shirt. Forcing a smile to his face Erik knelt down and rubbed his son's arms gently, "Pietro be a good boy and go back to bed, Mama and I are going to find where your sister went off to." The sleepy boy shook his head though, he knew something more than just that was going on. "I don't want to be in here alone Papa."

Brushing a hand through the boy's silver speckled hair Erik gave in, standing up and picking up Pietro in the process. "Don't worry bärchen, I won't ever leave you alone." He promised before going out the door after his wife and daughter.

It was early in the morning but the sun was starting to rise and bring light to the land around them as they passed tree, after tree, after tree. Only to stop at the most horrific sight Erik had witnessed in his six years of living in Poland. Wanda was kneeling, and sobbing over her mother's body which had been impaled by an old fashioned wooden arrow through the chest. There wasn't all that much blood but the look in his wife's lifeless and wide eyes was enough to make even Erik want to puke.

Stumbling over a branch Erik set Pietro down next to his sister, he was taking in the sight himself but just stared and was probably full of shock. Erik checked her pulse but as he had expected, he found nothing there, he was too late. Standing up the mutant clenched his hands so tightly that they were turning white at the knuckles, "What have you done you monsters!? She's human, she was no threat to anyone!"

The group of half a dozen men were silent, a few of them had guilt written over their faces but most of them were stern as if they hadn't done a single thing wrong. Erik recognized them as local authorities, though they weren't wearing badges or carrying anything metal. One of them finally had the nerves to step forward, "Henryk...or should I say, Magneto. I need you to come with us." he pulled out a news paper clipping from back in 1973 when he had tried to kill President Nixon in the US.

"I would have come with you quietly, I would have...If you hadn't just killed my innocent wife..." Unclenching a hand Erik summoned a metal coin from his pocket and with the flick of his wrist he commanded it through each of their necks, slicing the main carotid artery found there and watching all of the bodies hit the floor of the forest.

Feeling his hands shaking as he caught the coin and dropped it back into his pocket Erik heard a faint sniffle and light call of, "Papa..." from his daughter. Turning around Erik moved and picked up the twins before walking briskly back towards the house. "Don't look back chldren...don't look back."

Erik was quick to pack only the essentials before carrying his five-year-old twins out and down the road towards the nearby and very small village. During the walk, he had felt Wanda on and off crying into his shoulder, but Pietro was still like a doll and hadn't said a word or barely made a move since seeing his mother.

Though he had never expected to use it, Magda has given him the name and address of some friends of hers that lived in this small village where they could drop the children off if they ever had an emergency. Although he was sure this wasn't the type of emergency she had in mind, Erik couldn't think of where else he could stash his precious children with the authorities after him. Erik refused to put them in danger of that kind, especially when an old friend had been released into his system. Anger.

Just like decades ago Erik could feel the anger running through his blood and felt the want to kill all who he felt was responsible for killing Magda, for tearing a wonderful mother from her children, for making him feel more alone than he had in years. The last time he had remembered being this hateful and angry was before he met Charles Xavier, that night in the harbor when the young man had pulled him to the surface had been the start of suppressing those awful feelings.

By the time they made it to the village the sun was higher in the sky for mid morning, walking up to the door Erik kicked it since his arms were full of his twins that he was refusing to loosen his grip even slightly. It took a moment or two but the door was answered by a man that Erik recognized, by Magda's description, to be Mikal the husband of the house.

Wide eyes stared at the family of three standing at the man's doorstep, "Can I um...help you? Wait aren't you Magda's husband?" he asked, recognizing the twins since Magda had brought them over occasionally for visits. "What's going on...Henryk?"

Pushing past the man Erik set the twins down on the little kitchen table and turned to Mikal, "My name is Magneto." his voice was deeper than usual and with a warning edge to it. "I assume you know who that is, don't you?" before he could even finish his sentence Mikal was nodding quickly and had obviously stiffened at the mere name.

"Good. Magda was...Magda is...she's gone, and authorities are after me." Taking a few steps forward Erik motioned a hand and brought a kitchen knife forward towards the man's throat but not touching. "She said that if there was ever an emergency, you would take care of the children for a time being. They're innocent, you have no need to fear them or authorities looking for them. All you need to do is make sure they're happy, healthy and taken care of while I'm gone, do you understand?"

Erik stared, watching the man swallow hard but hadn't answered yet, "Do you understand!?" he yelled in a booming voice, "You and your wife will take care of them while I'm gone!" Mikal got the message and nodded quickly, "O-Of course, I mean they're just children I have no reason to throw them out in the cold!"

They were only five but so far neither of the twins had shown signs of being mutants, and though part of him had been excited to see what powers they could exhibit, right now he was seeing that being human was far safer for them. He hoped to God right now that they were as human as their mother. "Good because I will be back, and if I find them mistreated in any way you know what will happen." the knife then flew to the side and embedded itself deeply into the wooden wall.

Turning back around to look at the twins, both were looking down at their dangling feet, as if refusing to look at him, Erik's heart sunk. His children had just witnessed him kill half a dozen men after Magda's own death, and now had watched him threaten a man violently and was about to leave. How he wanted with all his heart to take them into his arms, kiss everything alright and whisper his love to them.

So without doing any of those things his heart desired, Erik walked out the door and didn't look back. His mind already plaguing him with images of Pietro and Wanda crying their eyes out wishing for their mother to hold them.

Poland, 1986

After the long struggle with En Sabah Nur, which by working all together they had all won against him, Erik hadn't gone back to Poland to fetch his children right away.

First and foremost it was because the authorities in most countries were still after him, though it seemed since he had been quiet and peaceful for the six years prior and then his help with taking down En Sabah Nur, the need to track him down was quieting. Now, fully three years later, it was at its all time quiet.

The second reason had been simply because of his fear. Erik hadn't left the children in a kind or reassuring way and worry plagued his mind if they even wanted to see him after these years. They would be eight years old now and though still young, much more aware of what had happened not to mention any thoughts Mikal and his wife Jamie had put into their heads about their father.

So for those three years between leaving the children and where he was now, Erik had been soul searching. Trying to grieve over Magda and convince himself that all children wanted was their parents' love, that his children still would want to see him more than anything after all that had happened.

Finally, he'd gotten himself to go back to Poland, first things first he had brought a bouquet of flowers to where he had buried Magda. Apologizing fiercely to her for not visiting sooner and not taking care of their children how he should have, somehow he could feel her love and trust even in her death and looking at her grave gave Erik comfort.

Half a day later Erik stood at the doorstep to where his children were living, he had been standing there for the past ten minutes trying to build the courage up to knock. Finally bringing himself to do it Erik sucked in a quick breath to suppress the anxiety boiling in his stomach and then waited. It took less than ten seconds for someone to answer the door, a young woman with dark hair answered and Erik could only assume this was the wife of the house, Jamie.

"Um hello I-I'm..." that must have been a sight, one of the most powerful mutants in the world reduced to a stuttering nervous mess. Luckily the woman seemed to recognize him, "You're Henryk right or, should I call you Magneto?" there was a deep frown on her face. "I suppose you're here to pick up your children finally but I'm not sorry to tell you that they aren't here." This woman seemed completely fed up with something and Erik had a bad feeling it had all to do with him and his twins.

A cold cover settled over Erik's skin and his dark tone returned to his voice, "What do you mean they're not here? What have you done with them? Did the police-" the woman dared to cut him off though.

"No, we didn't hand them over to anyone like that. I'll tell you what happened, we took care of them for six months before weird things started to happen around the house. Unexplainable things and I know, I know, it was them!" She sounded a mixture of scared and angry as if she'd gotten a bad deal on something and wanted nothing more than to be out of that deal.

"Mikal and I were just about to give up on trying to deal with it, we were going to give them up to the orphanage but that's when a young man came to our door. For the love of me, I forget his name but he was terrible at speaking Polish so lucky for him that Mikal and I speak decent English." The woman kept going on and on with her story and it was making Erik fidget, he just wanted to know where his children were not the whole eighty chapter book.

"Said he ran a school over in America but his accent sounded more...something else. He said he ran a specialty school and that was all I needed to hear to send them off, besides the children seemed quite taken with him already at that time."

A specialty school over in America, there could only be one man that all pertained to. "This man, was he in a wheel chair?" Giving a nod Jaimie agreed, "Yes actually, I was surprised an owner of a school let alone someone in a wheel chair would come out to this small village to pick up two children personally. I never even asked how he knew they were here, I sort of assumed maybe you'd sent him."

Shaking his head Erik growled at her, "You're lucky I do know that man or your head wouldn't be attached to your body anymore." There was nothing else he wanted there so Erik turned to start walking away, a new sort of anger filing through him. Charles had taken in his children and never told him? Surely that optimistic idiot was filling their heads with crap and telling them how even though their father had probably left them forever in that Polish village, just as he'd been left on that beach in Cuba, they could stay with him at his school forever.

It pissed him off like nothing else to know that someone else was raising his children, sure maybe he had left them with people he barely knew but Erik had been intent on coming back. Knowing Charles the man wasn't going to give the kids up very easily and was more than likely to make it his purpose in raising them himself.

The only thing he could be thankful for was that Charles was a bit soft, he would smother those children with love and give them anything they wanted. They would probably be spoiled rich kids when he saw them again, and he was going to see them again.

Westchester, New York, 1986

The Xavier mansion looked the same as when Erik had left it three years ago after helping to rebuild it and then leaving. A nostalgic feeling washed over him, so few but influential nights staying here, drinking whiskey and playing chess, teaching young mutants how to control their powers. It was one of the very few places that held little to no bad memories, mostly good ones of he and Charles, Raven, Sean, Alex, Hank...before he let his mind wander to more of the old team Erik put a stop to his thoughts.

Somehow Erik had been thinking that Charles would feel him approaching the school from miles away, after all, he wasn't wearing his helmet and was open for the telepath to feel. There was no such greeting but walking into the mansion Erik knew why, this place was a school, of course, it was crawling with children going from class to class. So many thoughts and feelings were around that surely they could easily distract Charles from feeling someone that he wasn't expecting to ever see again.

Some of the older children gave him odd looks as they seemingly could notice that he didn't quite belong here, yet no one stopped him or even asked if he needed help. Part of him felt softened by this sight, those normally empty hallways now filled with life and laughter, young mutants who were learning and happy. A place where they didn't have to be judged for their powers, just like Charles' dream had always been.

Erik? a familiar British voice sounded in his head, Erik! How wonderful of you to drop by! Give me a moment I'm upstairs but I'll come down and greet you when I can. I'm afraid I'm a bit wrapped up at the moment.

Figuring he'd make it easier on the man Erik half ignored that and projected his thoughts back to Charles, No need, I'll come up to you then. We need to talk.

From what he could see Charles was utilizing the first floor as the classrooms, so while the children were going to learn the second floor was pretty quiet and dead. Walking down the hallways Erik felt confident he'd be able to find Charles easily enough, and actually, his feet felt like they were moving on their own. Feeling a bit of irritation Erik was positive Charles was riding his conscious just barely to act as a map to his location, only to be proven right when he came down the end of a hallway and saw the familiar wheel chair by a closed door.

Charles was sitting in it and knocking gently on the door with his knuckles, "Come now your sister wasn't lying, come out so we can ta-Ah Erik you found me!" a smile spread over the telepaths' lips. "Such a nice surprise you coming to visit, what do I owe the honor?" Though the last time they had met had left off on somewhat decent terms Erik found this level of acceptance a bit odd even from Charles Xavier.

Crossing his arms Erik stopped a few feet away, "Like I said, we need to talk Charles. Where are my children?"