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Erik never thought he would have to experience this feeling of his heart shattering into a million pieces again after Nina.
Then he met Peter. Peter, who was a glimpse of a light in the darkness that had seemed to encompass him in the months following Apocalypse. Peter, who showed him a way forward to a shared future where he could be more than Magneto or Erik, one where he was once again a Father.
Erik didn’t know if he could handle losing that title again.
Peter had been missing for forty-three hours and seventeen minutes.
It had been almost two days since anyone had seen his son.
Erik hadn’t been expecting for his son to go missing while he was running to the grocery store for some ice cream. He had always thought that if he was going to lose Peter it was going to be during a mission or fight against some higher power. Somewhere where it was going to be Erik’s fault for not being strong enough to protect all that he had left.
“Where is he, Charles?” He screamed at his old friend. They had had this conversation countless times the last forty three hours and Charles’ answers never seemed to change.
“I wish I knew,” the man said, moving to be closer to Erik. Erik’s head was cradled in his hands as he felt a hand reach out and grip his shoulder. “We will find him, I swear it.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” He spat, shrugging the hand off and standing. “I’m going to see if Raven has any leads.”
Erik marched out of Charles’ office, not from anger but instead with despair.
They were never going to find his son.
It had been nearly ninety six hours since anyone had seen Peter and what had previously remained of his hope was now gone. Erik couldn’t believe that someone had managed to take his speedster of a son without a singular witness or sign of where they went. Peter was fast and more importantly he wasn’t stupid- his boy was smarter than most believed. Peter would have put up a fight, it would have been public.
He never even made it inside the grocery store for the ice cream.
It had been a week and Peter was still missing.
Erik wished he knew what to tell Peter’s mother who kept calling. Peter called her every Sunday. This was the first Sunday he had missed in 6 months.
Erik was once more in Charles’ office, he had spent most of the last week in the room too afraid to enter his own room at the risk of sleeping.
“Charles,” Erik mumbled half asleep from his position on the man’s couch. “Is he alive?”
"Would it make you feel better if I said yes?" The man answered, sounding concerned.
“No.” Erik replied, tears beginning to drip down his face.
All he wanted was for his son to come home.
He missed his light in the dark.
Peter wasn’t sure what had happened, one minute he was walking into the grocery store for ice cream and the next he was waking up with a piece of metal gripping his neck.
The metal was cold and seemed like it was turning his entire body to ice. His limbs were heavy and he could feel himself shaking against the wall he was propped up against.
He hated the cold.
Letting his eyes adjust, he starts to look around the dim room before raising his hands to his neck to pull at the metal.
The metal wraps tightly around his neck, restraining him. Peter’s fingers brush along it, hoping to find a weaker joint where he can pry it loose to no avail.
Peter wasn’t sure how long he had been in the room. There was a dim light bulb that shut off when he assumed he was meant to sleep but Peter wouldn’t dare to close his eyes until they forced themselves closed.
The dark meant he was alone. The dark meant that he had been missing another day, another day that his father was likely raising hell on earth to find him.
It had been nearly two weeks and Erik finally had a lead, thanks to Raven.
She had spent the last two days hounding her government spies for any bit of information they could find about anyone who had taken his son and finally they had something- an offshoot of Trask Industries.
Finally, Erik had a target.
The light in the room had yet to come on for the day when Peter started to hear things being banged into the walls. As the noise got closer, Peter couldn’t decide if he should be worried or excited.
On one hand it could be his captors finally deciding to do something with their captive besides mocking him from the door.
On the other it could finally be his team coming to save him.
The light finally turns on as the door to his room starts to creak and bend, the sound of metal being forced to do another's bidding.
Peter only knew one person who was able to make metal do that.
Erik.
The door bangs open and reveals a shadow standing in the doorway with light echoing around it. As the figure enters the room he lets out a nervous titter.
It was Erik who had come to save him after all.
Peter doesn’t remember much of leaving the room. He remembers the feeling of a full breath entering his lungs for the first time in a while when his father gently bent the metal off his throat mumbling about inhibitors.
He remembers feeling the sun warm his cool skin as his father half carried him to the jet while he was clenching his eyes closed at how bright the sun was.
He remembers a steady ride home to the mansion as he sat between Charles and Erik with them mumbling to one another about after .
He remembers being carried into the hospital wing where Hank was waiting with the lights already dimmed.
He remembers starting to fall asleep and grabbing onto Erik’s hand.
“Stay?” He asked the man. Erik had this air of safety about him that Peter couldn’t help but feel comforted by. He knew if Erik was near he would be safe.
“Of course.” The man said, gripping his hand just as tightly.
Erik couldn’t believe his son was finally home safe. He couldn’t believe that someone put a collar on his son. They wanted to restrict his gift and use him as a glorified lab rat for their inhibitor and it made Erik sick just thinking about it.
His wonderful light had been kept in the dark for weeks, unable to feel the warmth of the sun or the breeze rustling through his hair as he ran. He should have killed those men when he had the chance.
Erik was deep in his thoughts at his son’s bedside when the boy himself began to stir.
“It’s not your fault y’know.” Peter said without opening his eyes. “They were looking for a target and I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It isn’t your fault that some imbecile decided to kidnap you, Pietro.”
“Oooo, pulling out the full names here are we.” Peter joked.
“I’m serious, did you ask to be kidnapped?”
“No.”
“Exactly. You didn’t ask so it isn’t your fault, end of story.”
“Then it can’t be your fault either,” Peter quipped. “You didn’t ask for them to kidnap me so you can’t hold onto the blame either.”
“I knew not to let you go alone. I know the dangers that roam this world ready to strike at any moment.”
“Dad,” Peter said, reaching out to grab both of Erik’s hands, “Look at me. It isn’t your fault. I’m here now, I’m okay. We’re okay.”
“You’re okay.” Erik repeated, letting out a small breath.
“We’re okay.”
Erik let out a deeper breath this time, finally letting all of his worries and stress from the last few weeks go. Peter was here, he was alright. They hadn’t even really hurt the boy minus some malnutrition and the bruising from the collar. Everything was going to be alright.
Peter wasn’t Nina, he wasn’t lost and gone forever.
Erik got him back.
He was never letting go of him again.