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(no subject)

WHO: Erik Lehnsherr & Alex Summers
WHERE: De Chima
WHEN: 27/01
WHAT: Making sure Erik is okay
WARNINGS: this is going to be some pretty heavy stuff referencing their canon, Holocaust, death, etc

Alex never meant to tell Erik like that. He still wasn't sure if he ever meant to come out to Erik at all. But the point was then that he had. He had to keep moving forwards and hope that their friendship or whatever it was actually, just happened to be stronger than the mess up it was right then.

Which explained why Alex was looking for Erik in person. It was a lot harder to ignore Alex in person after all. Which was why when Alex finally spotted Erik he made straight for him. He wasn't going to give him chance to get away. They needed to talk.

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Erik is honestly not that hard to find. He mostly frequents places in a couple of neighborhoods in De Chima, near the places where he lives and works. The fact that he's got more on his mind than usual today doesn't change his routine at all. He's just got more on his mind than usual is all. He's also not expecting someone to come looking for him.

"Alex?"

"Of course it's me." Alex hadn't seen Erik in person for a while. But then again he thought neither of them had really changed all that much.

He did notice that Erik somehow seemed a little distracted. Certainly not like their conversation previously.

"I figured if we needed to fight we could do it in person, but you seem distracted?" Like it was when something was brought up over dinner when everyone just wanted to eat, instead of debating mutant politics or their homework or something equally as awkward over a meal.

"I know. I just wasn't expecting to see you." He's surprised, that's all. They'd only talked over video before.

"Why would we fight?" Alex seems to think all the wrong kinds of things about him lately.

"I didn't know if you'd still want to talk to me. I figured in person was better." Alex was a mess, turning up in a new place. Finding out how he was going to die. Finding out what little Charles had actually done to stop other things. It was a big deal for him. Not that he wanted to say that. Then there was tell Erik other things. It all added up quickly. That was before you started to include the people he'd found there.

"There's no need to fight. Have you done anything to make me stop talking to you?" He hasn't stopped talking to Charles, and they have bigger fights than he's ever had with Alex.

Either Alex is making no sense, or Erik's distracted by his mood.

"I'm not sure any more." Alex answers honestly.

"Are you okay?" Because Alex is confused and a little concerned for Erik. "You seem..." He waves a hand in a vague manner.

He could brush it off and say that he's fine, that it's nothing, but this is Alex. Alex probably already knows some of this anyway, so what's the use in hiding it? And then there's David's exhortation to make sure that people don't forget what happened, and his promise that he wouldn't.

Well. He has to talk about it if he's going to make sure it's not forgotten.

"Today is the anniversary of the day the Soviets saved my life. And the lives of many others."

Alex took a breath in and nodded. "That's..." He let the breath go. "That's important." More than whatever is going through Alex's head in any given moment. This is big important things.

"You want some company?" Alex could keep his mouth shut. He could listen when needed. This was definitely a time that needed it.

"I wouldn't turn it down." That's easier than coming right out and asking for it.

"You can tell me about it, you'll be shocked to hear I probably didn't pay all that much attention in my classes at school." Alex thinks he'll learn better from Erik, because he made it real. Erik standing next to him made the whole thing very real.

"Shocking." Or not. "How do you even start with a story like that? People died. There was a war. More people died."

"Not what I meant but..." Alex didn't push like he might have done on a different day. "I was in Vietnam, I know what war looks like."

He shakes his head. "Not this one. Neighbors, friends, family disappeared, with no warning. Sometimes they came back. Most of the time they didn't. Entire neighborhoods vanished."

Alex opened his mouth, then closed it again. The idea that happened was terrifying. That Erik had seen this did start to explain why he had acted the way he had. "I... it must have been terrifying. So when this started happening with us...?" on a very small scale. Mutants vanished and never came back. He looked sick.

"I was in prison. I didn't know it was happening until later." He has his theories about how and why he was arrested and convicted in the first place, but those aren't important right now.

"If mutants don't pay attention to what's happening, then the same thing will happen to us." That would be twice in his lifetime, and he wants to avoid that. "Humans will wipe us out if they get the chance. They've already tried. And this time no one will come to save us."

"So we have to look after ourselves." He sighed. He hated that.

But he has his concerns about that and what could happen. Make things even worse.

"There were people who helped us." Not armies, because they had a different purpose there, and he doubts armies will get involved this time like they did before. "But there were far more who didn't. Who did nothing."

Which means one thing. "We have to look after ourselves."

Alex doesn't know what to say. He doesn't. Which is usually when he ends up saying something spectacular for all the wrong reasons.

But he doesn't.

He just reaches to pat Erik on the arm.

Then he finally says, "I agree with you."

"You say that now, but it's never that easy." He knows how the world views him. Of course the humans do, because they don't want to hear the message he has for them, but even some mutants. Being on his side isn't easy.

"When have I ever been easy?"

Give him a moment to realize what he's just actually said.

His expression is a mix of horror and a little ashamed at what he just said.

"Don't answer that." He huffs. "Our lives have never been exactly easy. Why should this be any different?"

"It won't." Charles never wanted to acknowledge that, in a misguided hope that their lives could be like those of the humans that surrounded them. But that was never going to happen from the moment that the mutation appeared. "Which is exactly why we have to do it. So that maybe lives will be easier in the future."

Edited 2020-03-05 02:12 (UTC)

"So we're doing this for the kids?" Oh he had to say it. He couldn't just let that go without a comment like that!

"I don't feel all noble."

"For them, and for mutants who haven't been born yet. Maybe my grandchildren won't have to go through what I did."

That's his hope, anyway, even if all he ever accomplishes is not letting people forget what happened.

"I wondered if I would ever have kids. Guess I know my answer now. I got a nephew though." Alex thought that for everything Erik deserved to have a family legacy to follow him.

"Your brother has a son?" Scott's not even an adult yet, no wonder Erik's surprised at this news.

He's not sure how he feels about more Summerses, either. ;-)

He nods. "Yeah, here I do. Seems like an alright kid considering my brother."

More Summers more trouble! It's good... right?

"He must have his mother to thank for that." Because he's not sure it comes from his father or his uncle.

"Probably. He told me who she was but I'd never met her." Alex would likely agree...

"Who is she?" Not that it's likely to mean anything to Erik, considering the Scott he knows is still a teenager and all.

"He said a clone of Jean." Well, he might know who Jean is?

"Someone's cloning mutants now?"

He does know who Jean is, but that's not the part he's focusing on right now.

"Apparently, but it not exactly the same world as ours."

Priorities, Erik. Please.

"Scott is my older brother there."

Erik has problems with priorities sometimes.

"There are theoretically an infinite number of different worlds with the same people in them. Which makes it harder to know who's from the same world as ours."

They're from the same world at least. So there's something familiar.

Alex is glad that they're at least the same world, if different points in time.

"People seem to know a version of me from this other place. They don't seem to fond of him though."

"So they've met him." Sorry, Alex. At least in Erik's case, he can say it's because the Scott he knows is a teenager. He hasn't met the adult version.

"Thanks. I knew I could count on you for support." But it's not got quite the bite behind it as it could have had.

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