Encounter ((closed))

[Shade]

((roughly three weeks after Christmas))

It was cold but dry day, the air chilly, but fresh. Good enough weather to consider spending part of the afternoon outside even if one didn´t really have much to do. Feeling she could need a sniff of fresh air and not being busy with much Shade had walked out onto the mansion grounds in her winter boots and jacket and after a little walk settled on a flat rock near the boathouse. From instinct rather than active choice of place.

She had not heard of Gambit since Christmas but, trying to live up to standards of reasons to worry, had decided not to worry yet. Whereever he was, he might have things of his own to do, guild business or something similiar. There was no reason to worry yet she had told herself even though she missed him and wished he´d call.

But it wasn´t worry occupying her mind, it was contentness as she was sitting on that rock, legs pulled towards her body and losely hugged with her arms and she was trailing after her own lazy thoughts.

[Erik Lensherr]

((Before 'Loose Ends'))

"Hello, my dear." Erik had gone for a stroll through the gardens, since the mild cold weather they were having didn't bother him too much. Further off in the distance, he spotted a familiar figure. With a smirk, he approached her, though she didn't detect his presence until he had come directly behind her and spoke.

[Shade]

Shade had been completely relaxed and furthermore was not easily scared, but when she heard a voice behind her she just in time managed to suppress a flinch. Not because he would have frightened her, but because even though she had heard that Magneto was staying at the mansion, she had not crossed paths with him ever since he had disappeared - and thus him showing up behind her back all of a sudden was a surprise to put it mildly. Her thoughts briefly strayed into the direction of metal, finding with a relief she could not quite explain that she was not wearing any metal jewelery (the only jewelery she was wearing being the voodoo bracelet) and her winter boots not containing metal either. She didn´t know what she expected, heck how could she now that she was still trying to get her thoughts running with their usual preciseness, but it felt better to know tre was no metal in her reach.

For a few seconds she did not move at all. Then she turned around to look at him. The last time she had seen him seemed ages ago and she suddenly noticed how much she had changed since then. "So it´s true you´re around." she said after another moment of silence, managing to sound calm and neutral, quite a different reply from what he would have gotten as a welcome after an absense when she had still been in the Brotherhood.

[Erik Lensherr]

He smirked as she turned around. "Yes, the rumors are true. I've returned, and undoubtedly, my children are telling stories to others as if I'm the bogeyman."

[Shade]

Shade was inwardly glad that he was no empath - otherwise the mix of emotions that were stirring inside her would barely have remained hidden from him. A strange mix, mostly anger, but she managed to hold it back. "Met them." she said, her tone distant, not the friendly tone she would use with a friend or person dear to her, not the tone she had used with him back then, but clearly stating her distance. "such a nice bunch." She didn´t comment on the latter, there was no necessity to and she would neither pick up on nor contradict his obvious sarcasm.

[Erik Lensherr]

"They're perfectly cheerful," he said sarcastically. The two of them were nothing but a disappointment. His offspring, who had shown much potential, especially Wanda. And it had come to nothing.

He noticed something different about Shade, and it wasn't that she wore no metal. She seemed rather...distant. Yet he decided not to comment on it yet.

[Shade]

"Not exactly the term I would have used." Shade gave back turning her head again. She felt little motivation to discuss Magneto´s misbehaved children, especially since, even though she did not like the two of them she had been pondering about Pietro´s behaviour in particular, coming to the conclusion that part of his behaviour at least could not come from nowhere. And if Magneto spoke of them in such a manner, that just undermined her opinion.

There was a whole bundle of questions racing to her mind, rooting from anger more than curiosity. Where had he been? Well, she had at least an idea about that. Why hadn´t he returned and made his return known? And, coming down to that all, why the hell had he left her best friend here alone, with a broken heart and having to deal with first a pregnancy and then a miscarriage obviously not giving a damn? Part of her inwardly growled at these thoughts, an inner voice whispering at her that he deserved as much of a payback as she was capable of, but she rallied that tiny part of her back. She was better than that, she told herself.

[Erik Lensherr]

"I thought you were fluent in sarcasm, my dear," he teased gently. "My dear children have problems containing themselves, even in the best of times."

[Shade]

Shade gave him a thorough look. His tone was just the same he had always used with her. Calm, gentle, friendly... luring. He had lost nothing of his charms, only now she was able to see them more clearly, making her aware. "I thought the sarcasm to be too obvious to pick up on it." she remarked, standing his gaze. She briefly remembered how difficult that had once been and noticed with some content it no longer was.

[Erik Lensherr]

"Of course," he trailed off, looking at her curiously. Something had changed with her; she was seemingly more distant than he remembered, though it had been awhile since they'd spoken.

"So, did you miss me?" he asked, a wry grin forming.

[Shade]

The correct answer to that would have been a yes. Not the whole time, but the first couple of weeks. When she and Rogue had been worried and gone looking for him. When they had wondered what had become of him and urged the Professor to use Cerebro. But the correct answer would also include that she had stopped missing him after a while. When she had lost her naive view on that man, had seen how he had betrayed Mystique, how he had left Rogue, how he would have used her... very likely without ever living up to his offer of helping her in her revenge... before she had abandoned the thought.

"I hope you´re not smitten to hear that no, not recently." she said with a hint of sarcasm.

[Erik Lensherr]

"You break my heart," he told her, smiling. Though her words did actually disappoint him somewhat.

[Shade]

Shade looked away for moment, gazing across the grounds and towards the boathouse. He had twisted her heart when he had started that little affair with Rogue. Not broken it, but squeezed painfully, also because that had been the thing that had triggered er slow disillusionment. She wondered whether his words were all farce or whether there was something behind them. He was a charmer, someone who knew how to lure people, but some of the conversations they had had had been conversations between friends and she asked herself whether Magneto noticed her distance. "Well, you broke Rogue´s." she said looking at him again, talking in a small talk voice as if stating something obvious.

[Erik Lensherr]

He hesitated for a moment, her words sinking in. "I admit, our relationship got started around my unfortunate...accident. There was nothing I could have done." He had been in a hospital in Canada for a long, long time.

[Shade]

His words told Shade a lot. One, that her and Rogue´s suspition was obviously correct, since the "accident" could refer to nothing else but an unpleasant encounter with the twins. Two, that he was either trying to justify himself in front of her which was unlikely or that he was still trying to be charming and put the plus on his side. She raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "Which I guess means you told her just that as soon as you returned." she said. She knew he had not done that. It had been her to tell Rogue that Magneto was back, because he had not even bothered to go and see her after all he had made her go through.