Thunderbird || X-Men

Chapter 24 ~ Erik's Plan

The late morning sun shined brightly through the windows of Erik's apartment. I hugged onto my pillow a bit tighter and grabbed onto the bed sheet, expecting to feel a shape there. I didn't see Erik's body beside me, and instantly, it worried me. But once the warm smell of breakfast being made passed through the room, I was calm. Erik, the somewhat gentleman he was, made us breakfast.

I was about to get out of bed and greet him when the door creaked open. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, just to see what he would do.

"Love..." he cooed. I felt the bed sink in as he sat beside me. "Wakey wakey." I didn't budge. I heard some rustling, and then all of a sudden, a soft object hit me right in the face.

"Hey!" I yelped, pulling myself up. Erik had a pillow gripped in his hands and a wide, cheeky smile on his face. "Did you-"

"It worked, didn't it?" He laughed heartily.

"What a wake up call!"

"Well wasn't really a wake-up call. I knew you were already awake."

I fell backward laughing. "How'd you know?"

"I didn't, but thanks for confirming it." I grabbed a pillow from behind me and slapped him with it in his shoulder. He tackled me playfully, knocking me on my back as we wrestled in a fit of laughter.

After we calmed ourselves down finally, Erik sighed.

"Oh yea, I made breakfast by the way." He told me, sitting up. "Thought it might make you feel a bit better."

"Thank you, Erik." Erik got to his feet and walked towards the door.

"And Kayla?"

"Yes?" I replied, already up and grabbing a pair of pants.

"You're worth more to me than you know." He says before leaving the room, closing the door gently behind him. I pondered his words for a moment. I felt like that was important. I knew that at some point, Erik and I had to stop Raven. It was something I almost completely forgot about. Something stirred in me on that day. It was a realization of what was going to happen after this was all over.

I walked out into the kitchen, still wrapped up in thoughts. Erik was sitting at a small table with breakfast in front of him, crunching on a piece of toast. He smiled sweetly as I entered, but his smile faded when he watched the lights flicker. I sat down across from him, the flickering of the lights catching my attention.

"Is everything alright?" Erik asked worriedly. Little did he know, I was planning out everything in my head. Overthinking was an understatement at that point.

"What are we going to do about Raven? Do you have a plan?" I asked him.

"Yes, I have a plan. Plus it'll kill two birds with one stone." Erik took another bite of his toast.

"You always liked killing more than you had to." I said, stabbing a sausage and placing it on my plate.

"Love, it's a figure of speech-"

"I know, I'm just saying, what are you going to do? I know you better than anyone, you're going to try and bend this situation and get what you've always wanted, a war."

Erik stopped mid-crunch, his eyes wide. He swallowed loudly.

"Kayla, what's gotten into you?" He questioned. "The war's already begun. You know killing Trask isn't enough..."

"Killing one man was never enough for you, was it?" Erik was silent. He sighed, placing his face in his hands.

"Erik, what are you going to do?" I repeated. He didn't respond. "What are you-"

"I'm going to control the sentinels." He finally admitted. I was dumbfounded by his answer.

"Okay but, how are you going to fix this?"

"I'm not going to fix it because it's not broken. I'm going to make it better." He said firmly. "If they can't trust their sentinels, they won't manufacture them, especially if they kill innocent humans. The world will finally see how powerful mutants can be, and we can get the respect we deserve."

"Erik that's fucking crazy!" I yelped, slamming my hand on the table. As I did, the power went out. Erik sighed again.

"I know it's crazy. But if things go as they should, it'll work."

"You don't know that..." I replied. Erik gritted his teeth for a second, shaking his head.

"I'm the only one who knows that..." Without saying another world, he got up from the table and into the next room, the door slamming. I was now alone in the kitchen, a lone sausage on my plate, and my mind too full to function. Soon enough, the lights came back on.

~

I had all of my things in a small bag at my side. Erik had let me borrow it for my return to the mansion. I was about to leave his apartment and board a plane back to New York, back to Charles's mansion. I knew I needed to help in any way I could, and I was no help stuck in Paris.

Erik leaned against a wall. I knew he was waiting for me to say something.

"Erik, I-" I quieted down when I heard the TV.

"Tomorrow, in front of the White House, the President will make his announcement. He will be joined by Secretary of Defense Laird-"

"Kay-"

"Shhh, shut up." I snapped at Erik, running to the TV.

"And has even sought the help of renowned scientist Bolivar Trask, his special advisor to combat this mutant issue." The news anchor explained.

"That's where she's going." Erik murmured.

"You've got your plan, Charles has his." I reminded him.

"Are you going to tell Charles what I'm going to do?"

I looked back at him, standing up straight and grabbing my bag. I made my way toward the door.

"I should..." I began, throwing on my coat. Erik looked away for a moment. I couldn't help but feel some way about this whole situation. "Anyway, I've got to leave. I can't miss my flight. Charles is probably worried sick, you know how he is." I said, opening the door. I turned to leave when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"I love you." Erik said, quickly embracing me before I could leave. I hugged him back even tighter.

"I love you too." We both parted. Erik looked exhausted as if building the confidence to do that was difficult.
"And, I'm gonna regret this later, but I'm trusting you. Don't fuck this one up, this better work." I half-joked, poking his chest.

"Please be safe, love." He planted a soft kiss on my lips.

"And stay out of trouble." I added, walking through the doorway. I waved one last goodbye his way as I walked down the steps. Even when I was leaving the parking lot, I saw him from his apartment, watching me leave. All I could hope was that, when this ordeal was all over, Erik would be the good man I knew he could be.

(Okay, this is kinda crazy. I just reached 10k reads on this and I just wanted to thank you all so so so so SO much for reading! This book has been in the works for a while now and it's only halfway complete, and already it's hit 10k. I normally don't write author's notes because I don't like interrupting the flow of the story, but this is super important and I had to write something for it. So thank you so much for reading, voting, commenting, sharing, and everything else. We could never reach this milestone if it weren't for all of you guys. Thank you again, sorry for the note, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!)