“That you’re alive? No. That you exist? Me, Leo, Mama, and Dad, far as I know,” she answers

@stream-fire

“Okay…..will they mind? Like, do you think they’ll be okay?”

Em thinks. “It will be a big thing to realize… but they’ll welcome you with open arms”

“Is Mom a mutant?”

Em nods. “Daughter of Magneto. One of the strongest on record”

Mikey jumps up, carefully handing the bunny back to Em. He digs through his bag, pulling out a binder filled with old photos, news clippings, and even old arrest reports.

He shows Em one of the reports, a teenage Lina is not taking her mugshot seriously, poking her tongue out.

“This is her, isn’t it?”

Em chuckles at the photograph

“It is.. that would’ve been around the time she had you. She had no clue what to do…” she pulls out a photo of Lina and Luna in the garden side by side, Luna sitting in front of her grandmother getting her hair braided while listening to folktales. “That’s her, the older one. The younger one is my daughter, Luna”

“Oh wow.” Mikey pulls another photo out from the binder.

Em recognises her mother and Pyro, but there’s three more teenagers she doesn’t know.

“Is one of them my father?”

Em shakes her head. “None of them… that’s Uncle Pyro,” she points to him in the picture, “and obviously there’s Maman, but I don’t know the others”

Mikey nods.

“The Young Hellfire Club.” He reads off the back of the photo.

“Gambit, Frenzy, Slipstream, Pyro and Magfire.”

“Oh, I know some of them… Magfire is Mama, Gambit is Remy. Pyro is uncle Pyro… and I didn’t recognize him, but…” she points to Slipstream. “That’s your father”

“Oh.” Mikey looks over the photo again intently.

“And that…” she goes through the folder, finding a report on Magneto, “is one of your maternal grandfathers”

He stays silent, carefully tracing over some of Erik’s features, finding small similarities.

“These pictures, you can’t see the colors but… you look… you look like mama”

“Mama…” He whispers without realising.

She hugs him tight, she herself emotional over this

Mikey shifts them so he’s the one holding her, wrapping his arms around her almost protectively.

“Thank you.” He murmurs.

Em still isn’t used to being on the receiving end of affection like this, even after finding a family. But she doesn’t mind this. She has a big brother, the one she’s wondered about.

“Leo… he thinks about you,” she whispers. “He and mom talked about you, the day we found out. He asked if she thinks you’d have been friends, if she thought his big brother would have liked him”

“I’m sure I will.” He muses quietly to himself.

“A little brother…two of them.”

She smiles gently. “How about… how about I take you home? Even if it isn’t tonight, eventually. You can meet us all”

“Yes… Leo’s quiet. His head is too loud, he deals with a lot he won’t talk about often. He’s a telepath and osteokinetic — he can control bone. Wyatt… he’s the opposite. Also a mutant and part super soldier, full of energy, bouncing off the walls, sweetest kid you’ll ever meet”

“They sound wonderful.”

“Do you want to wait? Or go now?”

“I wouldn’t want to pressure them.”

“Mama and papa are the only ones home — Novie is with her boss, Charlie and Wyatt are visiting with Auntie Peggy and Leo is out til three hours from now”

“Alright…I think I can do this.”

She hugs him a little tighter. “Come on. Let’s get you home”

“Home.” He muses.

As they drive out of the city, Em tells him stories. Fills him in on their family, about their mother. A

As he listens, a whirl of emotions settles into the pit of his stomach.

He watches silently out the window, just listening to Em, his sister, talk.

When they arrive home, it’s beautiful. She lets him take it in, waiting by the porch as she goes into find her mother, holding the bunny

“Mama? I have two gifts for you”

Mikey starts trying to smooth his hair, hastily tucking his shirt in and trying to rub out scuffs on his boots.

Dammit, he should’ve said he wanted to go back to his apartment and change.

A moment later Em leads Lina out by the hand, letting Lina hold the plushie.

And she looks exactly like he does, as Em smiles softly. “Mama, meet Mikey… you’d know him as Jace,” she says firmly. “Big brother, meet our mama”

Lina covers her mouth with her hand, welling up.

They both stand in shock for a moment, and then they’re flinging themselves at each other, clinging tightly.

“Mały króliczku, mój mały króliczku.” Lina sobs, stroking Mikey’s hair.

Em watches, tearing up at the sight as her father comes to watch with her.

“She’s calling you little bunny,” she tells Mikey softly. “It’s her name for you. She calls all her children after animals, it’s how she shows love”

Mikey sniffles, burying his face in Lina’s shoulder.

“Momma.”

Em wants to give space, but in the end she’s only human as she hugs her mama and brother, crying as she translates every Polish phrase of love Lina rattles off

Lina strokes her hair.

“Thank you Lis.” She kisses Em’s forehead.

“None of this was me, Mama,” she answers simply. “I just gave him a lift”

Mikey curls in close to Lina, he feels warm, and fuzzy, like he’s small.

He clings to her, one hand snaking out to hold onto Em.

Em hugs him tight, helping them both get into the house. Onto the sofa, where she sits nearby

Mikey fiddles with the scrap of blanket still tied around his mother’s wrist.

“Momma.” He says again, like he’s trying out the word, and he smiles.

“I have so many questions Momma.”