Disclaimer : I do not own X-MEN.

The epilogue, everyone :)

Thanks to Captaingeek, once again for editing this chapter and this whole story :)

"IT'S A SHARK!" a high pitched squeal was heard from the living room. Charles raised an eyebrow, stopping in his attempt to make some drinks and titled his head out from the kitchen's entrance.

"Huette?"

The five-year-old girl continued to scream as she ran into the kitchen. Her sunny yellow dress flew by her movement when she went to hide behind her dad's legs. Charles sighed, placing a hand on top of her tousled dark brown hair while she giggled.

"Where's my meal?" Erik later entered the place, face serious but hands reaching out to grab her. Charles had to laugh when Huette pulled his legs backward together with her to avoid the older mutant.

"Daddy, it's a shark! He wants to eat me!" she cried out, pointing a finger at her papa and Charles made a motion to hit his husband on his shoulder. Erik initiated a hurtful expression at them with a fake 'ow'.

"I've hit the shark. He won't hurt you anymore, Huette." Charles chuckled, kneeling down to take her into his arms while Erik gave her another of his shark grins. Huette stuck her tongue at him before she hugged her dad tight around his neck. Charles gave his lover a halfhearted scold, pinching him on his nose tip.

"Aren't you suppose to help the others with the preparation?" he questioned as he went back to stir the orange juice he was making. Erik shrugged, leaning against the fridge while at the same time, stealing a cookie from the plate beside Charles' jug of juice. Huette continued to snuggle against her dad, giggling at the same time when Charles pecked on her cheek.

"They are doing fine. I've tied Sean on the pillar at the veranda. He won't get any chance to destroy the party."

"You did what?"

"Charles, last year party's incident is enough." Erik deadpanned while Charles felt shivers running through his nerves at the thought of popcorns exploding from the machine and drowned the living room like flood.

"Where is Galen anyway?" he attempted to change the topic and his husband decided to go along.

"Somewhere. With Hank. I need to warn him to stop kidnapping my son." Erik muttered under his breath and Charles smiled, putting down the jug of juice and cookies in the tray before he lent Huette to him. Huette jumped into his arms and started to squirm, a sign that she'd rather running around the manor instead of being carried around like a child.

Erik complied nonetheless.

"He just loves being with Hank, to learn things and all." He reasoned with his lover, carrying the tray with him to the living room. Erik followed him from behind but close to his side.

"He's five." Erik retorted, earning himself a twitch of an eye from his spouse. Charles shook his head.

"And you're unreasonable."

Erik chuckled before he pecked on his spouse's cheek and hurriedly left, probably to pick up their son. Charles just sighed with a smile on his lips.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Huette and Galeeen-"

"Hey! Why is Huette first-" Galen interjected with a frown.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO UUUSSS…!" Huette went to cut him back, screaming the last line into his ear and Galen covered his ears painfully. The others laughed, happily ushering them to blow the ten candles on their huge cake. Huette grinned while Galen staring excitedly at the candles.

"Make your wish, little monsters." Erik patted their heads, causing them to pout before they closed their eyes. Huette folded her hands in front of her dress, a smile on her pink lips and Galen bowing down his head, hands in the same motion as his sister's was.

A moment later, Galen opened his eyes and was about to blow off the candles but Huette was one second faster than him, quickly inhaling a huge amount of air and exhaled through her mouth. All the candles were blown off before Galen even had the chance to take a short breath.

Charles stared at his daughter.

Huette was holding onto her laughter, a hand on her stomach while another still holding on the plastic knife. Galen was glaring at her, his aqua blue eyes were burning with frustration and annoyance.

Erik only raised an eyebrow.

"How many birthdays are you going to blow off candles for me?"

"Aww, come on, Mama's Boy! I'm your best sister, of course you'll let me do it every year!" she cooed, amusement danced in her silver blue eyes.

"Correction. You're my ONLY sister…unless if Daddy decides to give us more siblings." Galen meekly retorted but his glare deepened. Unfortunately, it was immune to his younger sister. Huette just nonchalantly shrugged her shoulder before leaning forward to peck him on his cheek.

"Happy birthday, big brother," Huette smiled and Galen involuntarily blushed.

"Happy birthday, little sister," He mumbled timidly, looking away. Raven 'aww'ed beside Charles while Charles rolled his eyes at his twins' interaction. The others watched as they cut the cake together, both grinning ear to ear.

When they went to eat all the foods that were already prepared, Charles stood by his husband's side, sharing a piece of cake with him. Erik, once in a while licked the butterscotch cream away from his lips when no one was watching.

"Huette just has to stop doing that." Charles sighed, taking his turn to feed his lover while Erik just shrugged his shoulders, the kind of gesture that Huette had learnt to use when she was ignoring people's annoyance at her.

"Galen isn't complaining much. They're twins; they'll know each other's boundary." Erik replied, not much concern in his tone. His arm went to wrap around Charles' waist and kissed his neck. Charles hushed him away, trying to keep a decent distance between them when the others were close and Erik only obliged when two pairs of hands pulling him away.

"What?" he frowned looking at his children. They were staring at him with large eyes but strict ones.

"Don't bother Daddy!"

"Said the troublemaker," Erik retorted back at Huette, fondness visible in his tone.

"I got your gene." Huette shot back, devious grin appeared on her face. Erik only scoffed at her remark, having no other way to escape the argument. Charles smiled at the twins when both of them struggled to stand in front of him. They stood like a straight rod, faces stoic and Charles just had to wonder, what mischievousness they had planned to get him into this time.

"You say it." Galen started it, mumbled to his sister while he elbowed her. She grumbled at him, elbowing him back with equal force.

"It's your idea, you say it!"

Galen glared at her, pushing her again.

"You agreed!"

Huette rolled her eyes and pushed him back.

"You're older!"

"Five minutes! It didn't count!"

"It did! You're a wimp!"

"You're a bully!"

"Mama's Boy!"

"Daddy's Girl!"

"Pretty face-"

"Okay, stop it, both of you." Charles quickly stopped them when they had started to push each other hard. Huette stuck her tongue at her brother and Galen made a motion of cutting it with his fingers. Then the twins decided to go back into well behaved manners, standing again side by side, facing their Daddy. Charles sighed with a smile.

"What is it, Galen?" he decided to ask the older twin first and Galen blushed red. He shared a look with Huette and Huette produced a dozen of white roses in a bunch, in her arms. Charles blinked his eyes, he didn't realize that Huette was holding onto it until now, since she had the ability to make invisible of herself and things that she touched.

The girl gave the bouquet to her brother and Galen turned to hold it out to him.

Once again, Charles blinked his eyes out of surprise.

"We heard stories before… from Aunty Raven, Uncle Hank and others and we… we want to thank you, for giving birth to us. Thank you, Daddy." The 5-year-old stammered but smiled at the same time. Huette was blushing beside him, looking up at Charles with her bright and lively eyes. Charles tried very hard to think of something to reply but then, he was speechless.

Erik stood behind him, a smile on his face as he watched them. Charles slowly went to kneel on his knees and wrapped his arms around the twins. He pulled them close to him until his face was buried on their touched shoulders and he couldn't help not to cry.

Huette and Galen glanced at each other, troubled expressions on their faces, probably feeling bad for making their Daddy cried.

"Thank you, children… thank you." Charles murmured, hugging them closer and when Erik went to enclose his little family in his arms, Huette and Galen also started to wail loudly like the 5-year-olds they were, out of happiness.

"They are such sugar." Charles chuckled, his eyes closed as he kissed the centre of his husband's palm. Erik sighed behind him, wrapping his arms tighter around his lover's waist. Charles shifted backward, letting his husband spoon him comfortably on their king sized bed.

"Yes. Just like you, Charles." He kissed on his nape, all the while interlacing their fingers together.

"I always wonder, you know… why every night of their birthday, you'll get me to bed earlier just to hold me like this?" Charles questioned quietly but affection was visible in his tone. Erik was silent for a moment, however he didn't pull away, just stay fixed behind his back. Charles hummed softly, opened his eyes and turned in his hug to look at him.

Erik stared down at him before he leaned down to kiss him.

The kiss was short but gentle and chaste. The real kiss from one Erik Lensherr indeed.

"I just want to make sure that you're still here…" Erik murmured slowly and Charles felt his heart sink by the answer. He wrapped his arms around Erik's chest and pulled him closer, if that was even possible. He felt like telling his husband that the night before he woke up from his coma, he dreamt about their first meeting but decided that it could wait.

"Erik, I'm still here, I'll always be here." Charles replied, shuddering at the way Erik held him close and Erik pressed a kiss on top of his head.

"I know, Charles, I'll make sure that you'll always be here." Erik kissed him again on his lips, his hand on his chin and Charles kissed him back feverishly, his arms went to wrap around his neck. Once they pulled away, Charles leaned to rest their foreheads together, a beautiful smile grace his face.

"Yes, Erik, don't you ever dare to let me go."

A/N : With this, I put a fullstop on this story :) Captaingeek is working on the sequel, the drabbles about the twins and their family. Go check on her profile for the story :) I just posted a sequel for 'From Paris : With Love', be happy to check on it if you want to :)

Anonymous Reviews' Replies :

Alicia : Yes, he is alive :) I am indeed thought about that too but on second thought, perhaps I didn't have much courage to write it all down there. :) You got it right, I planned to write for their birthday and I hope you'd enjoy this to the core :D Thanks for reading this, dear! (hugs) :D

vampirerule117 : Yes, happy ending for all of you :) I hope you'd enjoy the whole epilogue too. Thanks for reading this anyway :D (hugs)

DreamingSkies : I was unable to reply you through private message so I placed you here :) I hope you did enjoy the whole epilogue, thank you so much for reading this anyway :) (hugs)

Thanks to Littleluck, MirrorFlower and DarkWind, Aisha-Yan, Captaingeek, Amarentha, callietitan, Harco8059, Kerei Happiness, Alicia, Utena-Puchiko-nyu, vampirerule117, DreamingSkies, LadyGhai, HeartlessLittleHamster, Ms. Unusual-in-Groovy-Ways, FrankensteinsMonster, suselinde, nekoshuichi69, DrowPrincess, SaradocCraver101, julietdeannabartlett and xXQuoth NevermorexX for all those lovely reviews.

Review please.