timey wimey

Charles had been waiting for this day ever since he was told about it, he just wasn’t sure when it would actually happen. Now that it was here, he finally felt like he could help her. “Hello Violet,” he smiled warmly at her, “it may be hard to understand, but you are one of these gifted individuals. You got here by using your power, you travelled through time.”

Charles answered her unasked question in her head, ‘Those weird things are the fashion in this year.’ It was easier to be open and honest when one pops up on his doorstep with questions. Especially since she just showed up years away from her real life and her parents. Charles hoped he would have time to tell her more before she popped away again. He definitely wanted to help her get home safely too. “So no, they aren’t costumes. You’ve travelled forward in time to the year 2020.”

Violet had always been different. She’d always felt different, and it had never been praised as a good thing. But the Professor’s words were warm, and he called her gifted as he smiled at her. For the first time, she could wonder if her difference were somehow good. “I.. I travelled through time?” Violet looked around herself in awe.

It might be strange to others how Charles always knew something was going to happen. When she popped up in the garden, he wasn’t exactly surprised. He didn’t know what was going to happen, but here she was. Charles was already on his way to her when they met in the middle.

“Well, my friend, you are at the Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Individuals like yourself. You can call me Professor Xavier, or just Professor if you like. What’s your name?” He knew how scary it could be for children, and he wanted to help her as best her could especially since she’s been here before. He knew this was the first day her powers manifested and she’d just travelled through time.

Violet, unbeknownst to her younger self at the present, had told Charles a long time ago that she had appeared in his garden as an eleven year old. That it would happen in his future at some point. But she’d not given him any more details past that. She knew it would happen because she remembered it, and she had set it up for herself. Violet was always navigating time travel alone, relying on her instincts, and she tried not to give away the future too much. 

His hand glued to the back of his neck and he leaned back when he grinned. Thankfully she wasn’t rude or anything, he wouldn’t have to awkwardly saunter away now. “Yeah, kind of. I’m Peter, not to be confused with Pietro or Piotr, or any other Peter’s. I’m Parker… I mean Peter Parker.” He tended to ramble when he felt nervous, and he did now just because he was thinking maybe he’d be asked what his powers were and he’d have to lie. “Nice to meet you… uh… sorry? What’s your name?”

“Peter Parker. Nice to meet you.” Violet didn’t recall having met him in her jumps further than this (her past, his future), but it was entirely possible. She did tend to meet a lot of people, and she’d been quite young in some of her jumps to this time period. His awkwardness was amusing more than annoying, clearly just nerves. Violet herself had a tendency to overtalk at times, and get on tangents way too easily. “Violet. Pretty sure I’m the only one. Unless there’s a new one since I was last here.”

“Okay, so maybe I set the bar really high and you should probably bring it down a notch… or five.” Peter rubbed his hands together and cackled like a cartoon villain before he coughed on accident. Looking nervously around, he stepped away from the woman and did a back flip. See, literally anyone here could probably do the same thing if they’d been in the training room at all. Peter didn’t even originally mean to do a back flip, he just panicked and did the first thing he could think of.

“Ta da! I know, I know. See I told you to lower the bar.”

***

Violet chuckled at both the instruction to lower her expectations and the sudden coughing fit caused by the villain laugh. She didn’t know who this kid was, but he was funny. Eccentric. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help the snort when he did a backflip. “It was a good back flip at least. You’re new here, right?” she asked. She hadn’t seen him before, but that didn’t mean much. She popped in and out, and sometimes couldn’t keep her own timeline in order. But she didn’t think she’d seen him before.

Violet was pretty sure that was a high bar to clear. Maybe not for most twenty four year olds, but she... wasn’t most twenty four year olds. Then again, she was still intrigued. She raised an eyebrow expectantly, an interested smile on her face. “Go on then. Change my life. What is it?”

“Like he hasn’t been part of a time fuck up before,” he grumbles, rubbing a hand down his face. It seemed that time travel had only negatively affected his family, they didn’t have the luxury of control (however recently acquired) that Violet did. But then he was just being bitter, wasn’t he? Violet didn’t deserve that shit and he knew it but he often took out his frustrations in all the wrong places. “I know,” he says a bit softer then and leans his elbows on his knees. “If I don’t get my shit together they’ll probably end up sending my sister though, and no one wants that.”

“All the more reason not to,” Violet replied, barely taking Arlo’s grumble on board. She’d had years to adjust to time travel, and although it had taken her to some terrifying places--and she still had the proof on her body--she knew that she could trust it more than most. Most people weren’t meant to mess with time. “You don’t want that,” she replied with a scoff. Truth be told, Violet didn’t know Arlo’s sister much. She’d caught glimpses, but much of the time Violet didn’t interact with too many people. It made it easier to keep track of her timeline. Especially around here, where it was already so complicated.

Venting to Violet felt a little safer than doing so with Olivier. Which wasn’t exactly fair, considering he was Arlo’s best friend but there were some things he wasn’t ready for Oli to hear yet. If at all. They were things he probably already knew, given their psi-bond. Then again, Oli didn’t like taking peeks without permission. “But it’s not enough, I’m not enough,” he mutters as he glances around before sitting down heavily on the bench of the training room. It was empty besides them, a safe place for them to talk about things no one else here could know besides their comrades. “Funny how they wouldn’t even think to entrust my dad with this sort of thing and now they’re acting like I’m the only Summers around to do this.”

Violet sighed. “Arlo. We’ve been over this. Your dad coming back to do this could mess with more things than we mean it to.” It wasn’t impossible though, Violet knew that from experience. She’d met her past self before, protected herself even. But Violet seemed to exist in a weird liminal space, never truly belonging to any time or place. It was lonely, but it was all she knew. “You’re not doing it alone either.”

Violet was getting better and more controlled with her jumps, finally. She could pick where and when she wanted to appear for the most part. Sometimes, however, the universe still pulled her without her permission. That was how she’d initially met Arlo Summers, how she’d ended up so far into the future. Even here was the future to her, having been born in the 1970s. But future and past meant very little to her any more. What meant more was trying to fix this timeline they were on.

“But?” His phrasing implied a but in her mind. “What is it?”