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Nathan had been staying at the mansion for three weeks when he decided that his father was behaving strangely.
Not dangerously strangely. Scott was not avoiding meals, locking himself inside the Danger Room, or volunteering for missions no one else wanted. Those were usually the warning signs Nathan watched for.
This was different.
Scott seemed nervous. Distracted. Secretive.
Nathan knew exactly why.
He simply had no intention of confronting him about it.
His father had spent most of Nathan’s life missing the opportunity to tell him important things in the correct order. Nathan had learned that forcing Scott into a conversation rarely made matters easier. It usually resulted in awkward explanations, unnecessary guilt, and at least one Summers attempting to sacrifice himself for reasons only vaguely connected to the original problem.
No. This time, Nathan would wait.
Scott would tell him when he was ready.
Until then, Nathan could continue pretending not to notice the evidence scattered throughout the mansion.
There were cigarette packs hidden inside the bottom drawer of Scott’s desk, beneath several folders labeled with student assessment reports. Scott did not smoke. He disliked the smell and had once lectured Remy for twenty minutes after catching him near the east balcony with a cigarette.
There were leather jackets hanging in Scott’s bedroom closet. Several of them. They were too long in the sleeves and too broad across the shoulders to belong to him.
Next to Scott’s neatly arranged belts were two with enormous silver buckles.
Nathan had also discovered cans of Canadian beer inside the pantry, occupying the shelf where Scott usually kept Nathan’s favorite fruit juices.
That had nearly offended him.
The most obvious evidence, however, was neither clothing nor contraband.
It was the way Scott and Logan behaved around each other.
During Nathan’s previous visits to the past—even when Jean had still been alive—Scott and Logan had always maintained a careful distance. Sometimes it had simply been tense. Whatever affection or respect existed between them had always been buried beneath years of rivalry and stubbornness.
Now, they sat together.
Not merely near one another. Together.
Logan took the chair beside Scott at breakfast even when several others were free. Scott automatically handed him the sugar without being asked. Logan brought Scott coffee during faculty meetings and somehow knew exactly how much milk to add.
Once, Nathan had walked into the lounge late at night and found Logan’s arm stretched along the back of the couch behind Scott’s shoulders.
They had moved apart so quickly that Logan nearly spilled his beer.
Apparently, everyone else in the mansion was blind.
Or deeply committed to pretending to be.
Nathan could not decide which possibility was more alarming.
He was sitting beneath one of the trees in the mansion’s garden when Scott finally approached him.
Nathan had several books spread across the bench beside him, all borrowed from Hank’s private collection. Forge was at Muir Island, and Kitty had left on a mission with Kurt and Piotr, which meant Nathan had been helping Hank with several science and technology classes.
The students had been fascinated by future engineering.
Hank had been less fascinated when Nathan informed the class that half of their textbooks would eventually be considered dangerously inaccurate.
Scott stopped in front of the bench with a stack of mission reports held against his chest.
“What are you doing?”
Nathan looked down at the open book in his lap. “Reading.”
“I can see that.”
Scott exhaled through his nose. “I meant why are you out here?”
“Killing time. Hank gave me these.”
Nathan lifted the book slightly. Scott nodded, though he barely looked at it.
He remained standing.
That was the first sign.
The second was the way his fingers tightened around the mission reports.
Nathan closed the book.
“What is it?”
Scott glanced toward the mansion, even though no one was close enough to hear them.
“We need to talk.”
Nathan leaned back against the bench. “I imagine I know what this is about.”
Scott went completely still.
“You know?”
Nathan watched the alarm spread across his father’s face and decided to offer him an escape.
“No,” he said. “But I can read your mind and save you the embarrassment.”
Scott frowned. “You are not reading my mind.”
“It was a practical suggestion.”
“I need to say it aloud.”
Nathan gestured toward the empty space beside him. “Then sit down.”
Scott sat, placing the folder with the mission reports on his knees. For several seconds, he said nothing.
Nathan waited.
His father stared straight ahead at the mansion.
“Logan and I are in a romantic relationship.”
Nathan nodded. “I know.”
Scott turned toward him so abruptly that several papers slid from the stack.
“You know?”
Nathan caught one before it reached the ground.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You have never been particularly good at hiding your emotions.”
Scott looked offended. “I am very good at controlling my emotions.”
“Controlling them and hiding them are different things.”
“I wear a visor that conceals half my face.”
“You also wear your heart on your sleeve.”
Scott stared at him.
Nathan handed back the examination. “There are cigarettes in your office, Logan’s jackets and belts in your bedroom, and Canadian beer where my juice is supposed to be.”
“The juice is in the refrigerator.”
“That is not the point.”
Scott looked away. A faint flush appeared across his cheeks.
Nathan continued, “You sit together. He brings you coffee. You touch his arm when you speak to him. He puts his arm around you when he thinks no one is looking.”
“That happened once.”
“I have seen it three times.”
Scott’s blush deepened.
“For the record,” Nathan added, “none of you are subtle.”
Scott rubbed one hand over his face. “I thought we were being careful.”
“You were.”
Nathan paused.
“It simply was not effective.”
Scott gave him a long, exhausted look.
Nathan almost smiled.
Almost.
His father’s expression soon became serious again.
“I was worried about how you would react.”
“Why?”
“Because of your mother.”
Nathan’s amusement faded.
Scott looked down at his hands. “Jean was your mother. She was my wife. I did love her. I still—”
“Dad.”
Scott stopped.
Nathan chose his words carefully.
“I am an adult.”
“I know.”
“You frequently forget.”
“I do not.”
“You introduced me to one of your students last week as your boy.”
Scott cleared his throat. “That was an expression.”
“I am older than several governments.”
“I am aware.”
Nathan’s voice softened.
“You can make your own decisions. Loving someone else does not mean you have forgotten her.”
Scott did not answer.
Nathan looked toward the garden.
“My mother mattered to you. She always will. Moving forward does not erase that.”
Scott’s shoulders slowly relaxed.
“I did not want you to think I was replacing her.”
“You could not.”
Nathan turned back to him.
“But you are allowed to be happy.”
Scott’s mouth tightened, as though he were trying not to show too much emotion.
Nathan decided not to embarrass him by mentioning it.
After a moment, Scott said, “Logan told me how he felt first.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
That was unexpected.
“He had been drinking,” Scott admitted.
“That is less unexpected.”
“It was late. He had consumed far too much whiskey, and he told me he had been in love with me for years.”
Nathan waited.
“The next morning, he said nothing,” Scott continued. “He acted as though the conversation had never happened.”
“You were disappointed.”
Scott gave him a sharp look.
Nathan shrugged. “You are easy to read.”
“Yes,” Scott said dryly. “Apparently.”
“What happened?”
“I confronted him.”
“And?”
“He said his memory was fucked up.”
Nathan stared at him. “He forgot confessing his love to you?”
“That was his explanation.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Scott’s lips twitched.
“We went out a few times. Then, one day we were training together in the Danger Room and I told him I wanted him.”
Nathan considered that.
“In the Danger Room?”
“It was after a combat exercise.”
“That does not improve it.”
“It was not planned.”
“Clearly.”
Scott gathered the mission reports and stood up.
“You are taking this remarkably well.”
Nathan reopened his book. “I have known for weeks.”
He did not mention that he had known for considerably longer than that.
Some advantages of time travel were best kept private.
That evening, Nathan was in his room repairing one of his weapons when someone knocked.
“Come in.”
Logan opened the door.
He stepped inside but remained near the entrance, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans.
“Your dad said he told you.”
“He did.”
“And?”
“And what?”
Logan frowned. “How’d you take it?”
Nathan set the weapon aside.
“Do you need my blessing?”
Logan barked out a laugh. “No.”
“Good.”
“Wouldn’t hurt, though.”
Nathan studied him for a moment.
“Do not expect me to call you Dad.”
Logan grimaced. “Wasn’t planning on it.”
“Or stepfather.”
“Definitely not.”
“It would be strange.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
Nathan gestured between them. “I look older than you.”
Logan looked him over, taking in the graying hair, the weathered face, and the general exhaustion that came from surviving several decades in a ruined future.
After a moment, he nodded.
“Yeah,” he said. “You do.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes.
Logan’s mouth twitched, but the amusement faded quickly. He shifted his weight and glanced toward the floor before looking back at Nathan.
“For what it’s worth,” he said, his voice quieter now, “I ain’t gonna hurt your father.”
Nathan held his gaze.
No sarcasm. Only a rare, unguarded seriousness.
“I know.”
The certainty in Nathan’s voice seemed to catch Logan off guard.
Nathan knew Logan’s future. He knew how fiercely the man could love, even when he tried to disguise it as irritation, loyalty, or duty. He knew Logan would stand beside Scott when armies fell and timelines collapsed.
The following morning, Nathan found Laura in the Danger Room.
She was dismantling a training drone with her claws when she noticed his presence. She did not turn around.
“You know, right?”
Nathan crossed his arms. “About our fathers?”
Laura sliced through the drone’s central panel.
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“They are not discreet.”
“No.”
Laura finally looked at him.
Nathan asked, “How did you take the news?”
She shrugged. “I do not mind.”
“That was easy.”
“My dad said I would see Scott in his bedroom and office more often.”
Nathan waited for the rest.
Laura looked back at the broken drone.
“That was all.”
“He has a gift for communication.”
“Yes.”
She kicked aside a piece of metal.
“Do you know about the betting pool?”
Nathan went still.
“The what?”
“The team has been betting on whether they are together.”
Nathan stared at her.
“And when they admitted their feelings,” Laura added. “Everyone participated except them.”
“Everyone?”
“Most of them.”
Nathan’s mind began rearranging the conversation he had had with Scott.
Logan confessed first.
Drunk.
Scott admitted his feelings later in the Danger Room.
Nathan smiled slowly.
“I think I know who won.”
Two days later, Scott and Logan gathered the team in the lounge.
Nathan stood near the back with Laura while Scott announced, with unnecessary formality, that he and Logan had begun a relationship, detailing when they confessed their feelings towards one another.
For one second, no one reacted.
Then Charles removed several bills from his wallet.
Hank sighed and did the same.
Storm handed over a folded note. Rogue, Remy, Bobby, Jubilee, and Bishop followed.
By the time they were finished, Magneto was holding more than three hundred dollars.
Scott stared at him.
Logan looked around the room.
“What the hell is this?”
“A private wager,” Magneto said.
Scott’s mouth fell open. “You were betting on us?”
“Not exclusively on whether you were involved,” Hank explained. “There were additional categories.”
“Additional categories?” Scott repeated.
“The location of your first mutual confession,” Charles said.
Scott turned scarlet.
Logan pointed at Magneto. “How’d you win?”
Magneto folded the money with a satisfied smile.
“Because, my dear Wolverine, both of you are painfully predictable.”
“We are not,” Scott protested.
Magneto raised one eyebrow.
“You have been devouring one another with your eyes for years, Cyclops. Neither your glasses nor your visor ever fooled me.”
Scott looked as though he wanted the floor to open beneath him.
Logan, on the other hand, appeared almost impressed.
Beside Nathan, Laura gave a quiet hum of agreement.
Nathan crossed his arms and watched his father attempt to deny the accusation while carefully avoiding Logan’s gaze, which only proved Magneto’s point.