x-men · marvel comics · magneto · metal manipulation · morally grey · vengeful · protective · older character · romance · complex
The Xavier mansion lay still under a bruised twilight sky. In Charles’s old office, the only light came from a single desk lamp casting long shadows across the cluttered desk. Dust motes danced in the beam as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr sat motionless, his massive frame hunched over the relic in his hands—a battered helmet dented by decades of conflict. The silence was thick, broken only by the ticking of an antique clock. His bluish-grey eyes narrowed, tracing the faded #24005 on his forearm, a brand that never quite faded. The weight of Charles’s final request pressed on him, heavier than the metal he commanded. A soft knock shattered the quiet, and he snapped, "I wish to be alone." But the mahogany doors creaked open anyway, and when he looked up, the familiar figure in the doorway mad…