Charles groans and shakes his sore hand, looking anywhere but the ground where Erik is rubbing at his jaw.
"The fuck?" Roxy whispers, biting back a shocked smiles. Charles had always claimed to be adamantly against violence. And now he was going around absolutely decking people.
"Good to see you too, old friend," Erik says. "And walking."
"No thanks to you," Charles growls.
Erik pulls himself back up. "You're the last person in the world I expected to see today."
"Believe me, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to. If we get you out of here, we do it my way - no killing."
"No helmet," Erik says with a bitter grin. "I couldn't disobey you even if I wanted."
"I'm never getting inside of that head again," Charles sneers stepping closer to the other man.
Peter raises his eyebrows at Roxy, but she only shrugs. Apparently there was a lot she didn't know about good old Charles Xavier.
"I need your word, Erik."
Right as the metal bender grants him the smallest of nods, the doors at the back of the kitchen open, and a group of guards rush in with guns at the ready. "Nobody move!"
Roxy freezes, suddenly tense. Peter glances down at her to see an unreadable expression caught on her face.
"Charles?" Erik looks to the other man, but Charles won't look at him.
"Hands up, or we will shoot!"
Roxy grasps Peter's jacket sleeve, still looking straight ahead at the guards. Her body has rebelled against her, and locked her bones in place. Her throat seizes up, wide eyes locked on the closest guard's gun aimed to fire right at Charles' head. All she can do is stand there, stupid and silent and scared. Suddenly she's thirteen again, trapped between a threat and a wall, praying to a god that didn't answer.
Peter frowns down at her in confusion.
"Freeze them, Charles," Erik commands.
"I can't," Charles murmurs making Erik turn to him.
"Hands up! Now!"
Erik resolutely turns back to the guards, and suddenly the kitchen is rattling and shaking, metal appliances trembling and beginning to life into the air.
"No!" Charles shouts, pushing back on Erik's chest, but before anyone can think to do anything, the guards are thrown though the air and to the ground. Roxy watches one punch himself in the face and another get hit by a flying plate, as her fist grabs at empty air. She looks to the spot where Peter was just standing and finds it abandoned.
Her eyes quickly scan the kitchen, now quiet except for the sound of the sprinklers still raining down from the ceiling, and find the boy on the other side wearing a stolen hat and his Walkman headphones. Their eyes meet, and he sends her a small smile.
Roxy lets out a breath, sagging in relief, rushing across the chaotic room and stepping over an unconscious guard towards him. Hank, Logan, Charles, and Erik stare in shock for a moment before Charles refocuses and follows her over.
Peter grunts as Roxy slams into him, wrapping tight arms around his chest and pressing her forehead into his shoulder. He flounders, surprised at the gesture and unsure of where to put his arms. She was so close. Could she hear his heart thumping like a bass drum?
"Thanks, Maximoff," Roxy mutters.
Peter hesitantly settles with lightly hugging her back, and when he looks past her, Charles has narrowed eyes.
"Alright, let's go," the man states gruffly, walking past her with the other adults following.
Roxy quickly pulls back, all leftovers from their encounter wiped clean from her face where a grin now sits. "Aye-aye, captain!"
As Logan passes Peter, he claps him on the shoulder and murmurs, "Thanks, kid."
The boy grins, looking down to Roxy to make a joke, but is caught off guard by the deeply unfriendly look on her face as she watches the Wolverine walk away. The teenagers follow closely behind.
"You two have a history?" Peter whispers with a teasing tone and hoping that Roxy doesn't think he's being too nosey. Just like that, a smile is back on her face, and she smiles up at him, silver eyes gleaming.
"Never met him before today," she says instead of answering.
. . . .
The heist team rushes out the employees-only back door into an empty lot, and immediately all split into separate directions. The blaring alarm becomes more distant as they gain distance from the Pentagon. Roxy can hear at least one helicopter overhead and police sirens getting louder, but she ignores the noise and sticks to her assigned route back to the getaway car trying not to appear suspicious to any potential onlookers.
When she arrives at the car, Peter is already there. Of course. She could have also used her mutation and maybe even have beat him there, but for some reason she'd needed a minute to herself. She was a bit embarrassed about her reaction back in the kitchen.
With six members in their party and five seats in their vehicle, Charles and Logan had opted to take a taxi to the airport while Hank, Erik, Peter, and Roxanne kept with the rental car.
The teenagers sit in the back seat, waiting for Hank and Erik to arrive.
"I like your necklace" Peter says suddenly after noticing Roxy fidgeting with the clasp, the quiet of the car taking its toll on the hyperactive mutant.
"Thanks! It's a pocket watch. Isn't it so pretty? Wait, look at this." Roxy pops open the latch, revealing the clock's face and an intricate inscription on the inside of the bronze case. She leans across the middle seat and hands it to him so that Peter can see better.
Neatly engraved in the metal was the message 'To J, with all my love. Time stands still with you. -M'
"Oh, nice," Peter says, tracing the words delicately with his finger. "Who are J and M?" He suddenly feels stupid. Did J or M somehow stand for Roxy? And all of her flirting has been a misunderstanding? And the love of her life is-
"I don't actually know!" Roxy says, excited to talk about this with someone finally - Charles always dismissed her when she'd brought it up before, saying that he didn't have the patience to speculate about such things. She notices that Peter looks relieved, for some reason. "But isn't that so sweet?"
"Time stands still..." Peter muses and smiles, looking up at Roxy with a soft expression that she can't read. A lock of his metallic hair falls in his face, but this time Roxy restrains herself. "That's a bit on the nose, huh?"
"I know, right? And so romantic!"
"What's romantic?" Hank asks as he opens the car door and climbs into the driver's seat. He directs a little scowl at Peter as if somehow the kleptomaniac had done something wrong. Peter leans back to his side of the car.
At the same time, Erik opens the passenger side door and gets in, not appearing thrilled at the sunglasses and baseball cap he is wearing.
("This is ridiculous. I find it highly unlikely that someone driving down the highway will look over and recognize me," he had grumbled earlier but relented after a glare from Charles. Roxy had then offered him her fanny pack to complete the look, but the ex-prisoner shut her down with a terse "...That won't be necessary.")
"My pocket watch is!"
From the passenger seat, Erik glances briefly behind him. "That looks old," he comments, and the girl looks surprised that he's addressing her. "Where'd you get it?" He turns back to the front as Hank starts the car and takes off.
"Charles gave it to me a few years ago. It used to belong to a good friend of his with a power like mine. After I-" Roxy falters, glancing down at the watch and rolling the thin chain between her fingers. "I lost control of my mutation, but the watch focuses my ability and lets me stop time when I stop the watch hands."
She feels Peter watching, and glances up expecting to find judgement or worse - pity. He probably never had issues with his mutation. Instead though, he just knocks her shoulder with his and smiles. A weight slips off her. He leans closer to her conspiratorially, and she mirrors him.
"Did you hear about the guy who ate his pocket watch?" Peter asks casually.
"I can't say I did."
"What, really? You're kidding. It was all over the news, how-"
"Just give me the punchline, Maximoff!" Roxy chuckles.
"It was really time consuming," Peter deadpans.
Hank groans, and Erik rolls his eyes, but it doesn't matter because Roxy laughs. And the way she looks at him is so satisfying that Peter thinks he could live off just the memory of it for the rest of his life.
"That was so cheesy."
"You got a better one?" Peter scoffs with a smirk.
"You know I do. Why did the belt maker say when his client asked him to make a belt of clocks?"
Hank turns on the radio.
. . . .
Logan and Erik have already boarded the jet, but the others stand off to the side.
"Peter, thank you very, very much," Charles says kindly as he shakes the boy's hand. "You take care."
Charles tosses him the rental car keys. "Do me a favor and return it for me?"
"Sure. Hey, I saw your flight plan in the cockpit - why are you going to Paris?"
Roxy looks devastated. "Paris? You're going to France to fight bad guys without me, Carlton?"
Hank tenses, feeling an argument growing, but then Charles gives her a meaningful look. A slight pout graces Roxy's face, but then she gives him a tiny nod in return. Hank lets out a breath, thankful that whatever Charles said to her, earlier when they arrived, was apparently enough to placate her.
"Well... Just bring me back a cool souvenir, will ya?"
"Only if you never call me Carlton again. And let your aunt know you're alright. And don't try to follow us, alright? And-" He pauses, surprised that Roxy hadn't interrupted him. "Stay safe, obviously."
Roxy grins. Charles reaches forward to pat her shoulder awkwardly, but she brushes him away and wraps him in a brief hug which the man doesn't have enough time to return. "Be careful, Charles. You too, Hank."
They both give her a small smile and then start heading up the boarding stairs. The teenagers turn away, but the telepath calls out to them.
"Just... take it slow, Roxanne. You too, Peter. And keep each other out of trouble, please."
The young mutants laugh and exchange a playful glance. Roxy winks.
"We'll certainly try our best!" Roxy yells back, fully intending on ignoring that request.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A/N: within 48 hours I found out that evan peters was in wandavision & then watched all 9 episodes... i recommend
thx for reading (: as always, I appreciate every single one of your comments & thoughts
- charlie 👑