Author's note: Alternate titles include "Are You My Mother?", "Cheeper By the Dozen", and "Warm, Fuzzy Ducklings." The first two have since been re-appropriated as chapter titles. This chapter is also posted on tumblr.

The Universe, somewhat Alternate: Near future. Professor X and Magneto never existed, but the events from X-Men still went down. Mutant-human relations are now more of a social and political issue than a war-based one.

Edit: Ansgard and Wisgard are in the process of translating this fic into German! The link is in my profile.

Chapter 1: Today

Sometimes, there is a day that changes someone's life irrevocably. Very rarely, however, there is a day that changes many people's lives without any of them even realizing it. Today is one of those days.

"Really, Raven, I don't understand it. He's clearly intelligent, so why can't he see that pointing out why mutants are always better than humans isn't the way to resolve our differences?"

Raven sighed and shoved her hands deeper into her pockets as they walked across the park. One thing that was very nice about attending the University of Oxford was all the parks nearby. However, despite the sun shining brightly, the spring air still had a bite to it that made her nose turn pink. "Charles, I really don't know."

Charles chewed on his lower lip absently. They came to the edge of the pond and stopped. Ducks were swimming on its surface, and a few approached Charles and Raven curiously. Charles sighed. "I just wish he would use the media attention for something that would really make a difference in mutant-human relations. If he keeps preaching how nothing has changed and nothing ever will, I'm worried there is going to be serious resistance and political repercussions. We don't need to repeat history."

Raven looked down at a curious duck that had waddled up on land and was looking at her expectantly. "Can't I bring some bread some time?"

Charles blinked and refocused momentarily on reality. "No, Raven, you know it's not good to feed them. We've disrupted their lives enough as it is. It's bad for them to be dependent on us."

Raven looked at him pleadingly. "But they look so disappointed."

Charles narrowed his eyes. "Really, Raven, you're in university. Those eyes aren't going to work on me anymore."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What about my birthday present last year?"

"Oh, well. It was your birthday."

Raven grinned and bumped against him. "Riiight."

There was a moment of silence. A few ducks quacked at them. "I'm sorry, I've been talking about Lehnsherr for the past hour, haven't I?"

"Yeah. It's fine. I know how important this stuff is to you."

Charles looked at her sharply. "It should be important to you too, Raven. If Lehnsherr succeeds in convincing the politicians that all mutants are arrogant and reactionary, it's going to be the 70s all over again."

"Charles, my rights are just as important to me as the next person. I just don't see why this Lehnsherr guy is the one who bothers you so much. You've never even met the guy."

Charles looked at his feet. "I suppose he just has so much influence over the debate. He may be an authority on human-mutant history, but a book or two isn't a replacement for a logical evaluation of his ideas. Everyone is always fawning over him. I feel like he gets interviewed at least once a week, and he has the freedom to tour the country giving talks. Until I get my PhD and graduate from here, I don't have a chance at that kind of power, and it's possible I never will."

Raven smiled. "You've got your blog."

Charles looked up and smiled back at her. "Yes, my blog, which is seen primarily by my own classmates. It hardly has an influence on most current voters or legislation."

"Hey, you're always saying that young people are the politicians of tomorrow."

"Yes. I just wish they were the politicians of today."

They resumed their walk, a lazy circumnavigation of the pond. They passed under some trees and Raven suddenly stopped. "What is it?" Charles asked, and then he saw where she was looking.

Raven knelt down and at peered at the nest. It was settled between the reeds at the edge of the pond and the roots of a tree. It would have been hidden to most ground predators, but from a human's eye level it was mostly visible. A clutch of eight white eggs was neatly placed in the center of the nest.

Charles knelt next to her. "Mallards," he said quietly. "Don't touch them or the mother might abandon them."

"I know." Raven looked out at the pond. There were no ducks nearby. She looked at Charles with a frown. "How far away would the mother go?"

"Well," Charles said slowly, "Male Mallards leave the females after mating, so she does have to hunt for herself."

"What if she got killed?" Raven asked quietly.

"Or abandoned the nest. They do that, sometimes, if another bird lays an egg in the clutch or–" Raven gave him a look. Charles winced. "Sorry, rambling, I know. If you're worried . . ." Raven's big eyes looked at him and Charles felt like a big brother again, telling six-year-old Raven that they couldn't take home every animal they found. "We can wait here. She wouldn't be gone for more than an hour, I think."

Raven smiled. "And we should probably be quiet, right?"

Charles rolled his eyes. "Yes, I won't bore you with politics, I promise."

An hour and a half later, it was clear even from their distant vantage point that no duck had appeared. Charles chewed his lip while he thought. "Alright," he said finally. "It's getting dark. We have a couple of options. I think I have space in the lab to set up an incubator, and I know we have a heat lamp, so I'll just need to make sure no curious students touch them." Charles closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. "Or we could try and find someplace to take them."

"Guess it's settled," Raven said happily, and stood up. "Take off your vest. We need something to carry them in. Hurry up, remember that there's that party tonight."

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I." Charles pulled his sweater vest over his head and spread it out carefully next to the nest. "I thought the party doesn't start until eight. We have nearly three hours."

"Yeah, and we've got to eat dinner, and I've got to get dressed, blah blah," said Raven. "I hear Logan's supplying the booze. It's going to be wild."

Meanwhile, Erik Lehnsherr, best known for his work concerning mutant-human relations and their development through history, was on the phone.

"I don't see why I can't just stay in London."

There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "With all due respect, Mr. Lehnsherr sir, if you get to London a week early, (a) you're probably going to be living on the street because we can't pay for that, and (b) some nosy reporter is sure to find you and eat you alive. We really don't need that to happen again."

Erik ground his teeth impatiently. "I appreciate your concern, Janos, but I can't exactly live at the train station either."

There was a short silence. "Oh. You're already there."

"Yes. I am."

"I see."

"And why couldn't you have told me that the conference had been moved three hours ago?"

"I didn't know," Erik's personal assistant replied irritably. "They only just called. Look, get yourself a ticket to – what would you prefer? Relative obscurity or absolute obscurity?"

"Someplace with an inn and a decent pub," Erik ground out.

"Maidenhead it is, then."

"Fine," Erik snapped.

"It'll give you some time to work on that new book you're writing."

"Goodbye, Janos," Erik said, and hung up. This was going to be a long week.

"I love everyone at this party!" Charles roared. Everyone around him screamed loud enough to be heard over the music. Raven grabbed his hand, giggling, and pulled him over to a chair.

"You look like you need to sit down," she told him with a grin. Some of her drink splashed on her dress and she didn't notice.

"Nonsense," Charles told her, but sat down anyway.

Sean bobbed up out of the crowd. "Charles! Do you have time to go over the electrophoresis lab with me tomorrow?"

"Sweetheart, Charles is out of commission," Raven told him, patting Charles's shoulder. "He is very drunk and not capable of doing science, or talking about it."

"Raven, don't be silly," Charles told her. He raised his eyebrows at Sean. "Aren't you a little young for this party?"

Sean made a face. "No, I'm eighteen."

"Well, Sean, let me tell you something," Charles said, and beckoned him closer. Sean leaned in obligingly. "That girl over by the window has brown eyes with a green central heterochromia – or heterochromia iridum in latin – a combination which is sometimes mistakenly called hazel. It is caused by–"

"Genetics," Sean finished with an eye-roll.

"And the environment," Charles added emphatically.

"Charles, that line does not work on everyone," Raven said.

"Mention the Latin," Charles told Sean. "That's very seductive. And Raven, your love-life would be significantly improved if you would follow my lead."

"Your lead?" Raven did not look impressed. "Charles, dearest, I am not looking for one-night stands. You aren't capable of having anything else."

Charles frowned. "But that's what I want."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"I'm going to leave now," said Sean, and disappeared back into the crowd.

"I know you're still not over Hank–"

"I am completely over Hank," Raven said too loudly.

"–But that's no reason to act like this. I have strategies for wooing people into long-term relationships too, you know."

Raven sat down beside him with a sigh. "I know, I've tried them."

Charles looked at her. "What?"

Raven slumped in her seat. "I guess I never told you this, but when we were little . . . I totally look up to you, you know . . ."

Her eyes filled with tears and Charles realized that they were both a little drunker than they had realized. He patted her arm awkwardly. "I know."

"All of my relationships have been based on yours," Raven said, and her voice sounded choked now. She hiccuped out a sob. "I try so hard, but they always fall apart." She broke down over her drink and her skin turned rather blue.

"There there," Charles said, and pulled her into a clumsy hug. "I know I'm not the best role model."

"But you are," she sobbed. "It's me."

"Nope," Charles told her. "And you know what, I'm going to prove it to you."

"What?" Raven looked up at him, and Charles felt like a kitten had just sunk its cute little claws into his heart. She sniffed and wiped her face with her hand. "How are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to avoid the very strong temptation to hit on that woman over there."

Raven collapsed against him in giggles. "You're the worse."

"I am."

"Hey, Professor X," said someone, and Charles and Raven looked up. Alex, Armando (or Darwin, as everyone had taken to calling him after a certain biology seminar), and Hank were standing in front of them. Alex and Darwin looked ecstatic. Hank looked uncomfortable but also mildly drunk. To help out, Charles handed him his beer.

"Hello, all," said Charles.

"Hey guys," Raven said cheerfully next to him, pointedly ignoring Hank. "What's up?"

Alex's grin widened. "I have a dare for you, Professor X."

Charles raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"

"I dare you to break into the lab and use the prototype."

Raven frowned in confusion. "But the lab isn't – oh." Her eyes widened and she stared at Charles. "You wouldn't," she breathed. "It's completely off-limit to students."

"Except for a certain someone we're not talking about right now," Charles pointed out. "And by that I mean Hank." Okay, maybe that hadn't been very diplomatic, but diplomacy wasn't at the top of his list of priorities right now. He looked back at Alex. "What do I get if I do it?"

"I will let you help me on my physics homework for the next week."

Charles's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"That's a deal, not a dare," Hank muttered, but everyone ignored him.

"Really. Also, if you don't do it we get to tell the whole school that you chickened out."

"I accept," Charles said, and put out an unsteady hand. He and Alex shook hands while Raven whooped in excitement.

"This is like breaking the law," Raven whispered (or rather, said clearly) into Charles's ear as they trooped across the lawn towards the academic buildings. While Alex and Darwin talked about some event at the party that Charles had missed out on, he heard her listing off all the college and county statutes they were about to break. Charles was very proud of his sister for wanting to be a lawyer, but sometimes it drove him crazy. It briefly occurred to him that she might feel similarly about his own area of study.

The Cerebro prototype itself had gotten the university quite a bit of legal attention. Director Frost headed the project herself. She claimed that when it was completed, Cerebro would allow any mutant telepath to conduct broad surveys of large populations, find missing persons, and any other benevolent uses public institutions could come up with. It was both a technological marvel and a serious breach of privacy. With the new laws requiring both freedom and regulation regarding mutant's powers, the concept of Cerebro was caught in the middle of a political battle. Oxford had gone ahead and built a prototype anyway, but they weren't allowed to use it, and hadn't – theoretically. Charles had been itching to get his hands on it, of course, if just for the engineering aspect of the thing, but so far he had resisted. As a student, he had had absolutely zero justification for it.

Until now.

They walked quickly through the dark hallways of the building it was housed in. Charles told them all to be very quiet, which resulted in everyone, Charles included, dissolving into giggles. They stopped in front of a steel door that was very clearly locked. Hank, after much prodding, punched in the password to the keypad and opened the door.

The room was much larger than Charles had expected. The walls were covered with equipment, control panels, and even an observation area to protect the scientists in case the thing started spitting sparks. Everything was neatly put away, and it wasn't hard to figure out where Cerebro was. It was right in the center of the room. Everyone except Hank stared for a moment, and then wandered over to inspect the controls.

"I hope you really know how to work this thing, Hank," Darwin said dubiously, looking at some dials.

"Hmm," agreed Charles, and went over to get a closer look at Cerebro. There was a place for him to stand and a half-wall in front of it, though Charles wasn't sure why. The main apparatus was clearly the helmet-like thing suspended from the ceiling. There were a lot of wires. Charles's mind tried to drudge up what he knew about the machine. It was for telepaths only (check) and was supposed to extend their reach many times beyond what it normally was. Charles had seen the official proposal and it looked plausible on paper. It was also very possible it didn't work.

Suddenly, Charles wasn't quite so sure about this anymore.

"I assume that's the on button," said Raven, and Charles joined her and the others at the control panel. There was a large green button that said "ON."

"Yeah, I agree." Charles peered at the knobs. Most of them were unlabeled. "Could you give us some help over here, Hank?"

Hank wandered over and looked dismally over his shoulder. "Yeah. Let me get it set up." Everyone moved back, and Charles went back over to Cerebro. There were clear marks on the floor for his feet, so he stood on them. He wasn't really sure how to put on the helmet-like thing, but Hank came over a moment later and secured it. Raven stood just in front of Charles and grinned. "Find me a boyfriend, will you, Charles?" Beside him, Hank tensed and moved away.

"If there is a man for you in England, I will find him," Charles said. Come to think of it, he had no idea what Cerebro's reach was, but that was probably an exaggeration. "Probably," he amended, and Raven giggled.

"Everyone stand over here, just in case," Hank called from near the controls. Raven went, though Charles could still see her in the corner of his eye. "You might want to brace yourself," Hank told Charles. Charles took a deep breath and put his hands on the small wall. "Ready?"

"Ready," Charles supplied, and Hank turned it on.

It was as though someone had taken away the dulling effect of the alcohol, every shield he had put up, fifty more shields he had never known he had, and ripped them all away. He probably yelled, and he might have heard Raven shouting something, but Cerebro had already grabbed hold of his mind and yanked him along for the ride.

It was amazing. His mind raced outward in a full circle, passing quickly through every mind he came across. It moved so quickly he was already a town away by the time he thought to slow it down, and several more before he managed to do so. Cerebro pushed against his mind, wanting him to move faster and in all directions, but he dug his mental heels in, focused on the most populated area he could sense, and took a look around.

He was in Maidenhead, he decided. That was what it felt like when he took in all the minds collectively. Cerebro was dragging on him, though, so he let it pull him through each of their minds individually. He got just bits and pieces of their minds – schoolteacher, thoughtful, worried, crying, kind. Most of the town was sleeping, so Charles supposed it was a bit later than he had thought.

He was about to let Cerebro pull him farther away, out towards London – what would London be like, he wondered – when he felt something catch his interest. He slowed down again and looked more closely. There was a mind somewhere, strangely awake and focused, like a little flame burning against the backdrop of the sleepy town and the empty countryside. It wasn't just that the man was awake – because he was a man, Charles could tell as he circled closer, or at least that was how he identified himself – but there was something intense about him. This was a man who cared passionately about things, and he was thinking about something like that right now. His mind was sharp and he was clearly fiercely intelligent, but there was something sad, some anger that floated just below the surface . . . Cerebro didn't allow Charles any specifics, only impressions, but he knew he was right. Charles was beginning to feel tired, but he wanted to stay with the man and his thoughts, and he hung on for a few more moments before he finally let himself be tugged onwards. Cerebro reached the edges of London but Charles didn't want to go any farther, so he locked down his shields enough to say, "Hank, turn it off."

He was suddenly back in his own, alcohol-blurred mind, but the pleasant buzz was gone.

"Charles, are you okay?" Raven's concerned eyes appeared in front of his own. She looked very worried. "Did it hurt you?"

"I'm fine," he said distantly, because he was. Tired, but fine. Hank began to undo the straps and everyone crowded around. "Raven," he said slowly, and she stopped trying to hug him. He licked his lips, which had gone dry, and met her eyes. "I didn't find your perfect man," he said, "but I think I found mine."