[Truth serum!] The boy can't be more than four, but talks like he's six, and moves like a pinball pinging around it playfield: ping! Zip! Zoom! He skids to a stop five feet away from Erik, a little cloud of dust at his feet. Is he holding a purse over one shoulder? Yes. Also, he has a few bugs caught in his white-and-brown hair.
"Hi." Caution. Curiosity. Stranger Danger. "I'm Max." He squints, and then all at once, "my codename is Fastmanslaughter. Doyouhaveacodename?"
Ping! Zoom! Now he's behind Erik, taking an action figure out of his purse that looks like--oh, yeah, that's Tommy Shepard in his Speed uniform. "This is my cousin Tommy, exceptnotreally--" He holds up the toy, and then--zip! He's off to one side, never quite bridging the distance between them.
"Mymomsaysyou'remygrandpa. Do you know my mom? Her name's Woolfbutnotliketheanimal--"
Zip! He's very close to Eric then, his gaze wide and frank before poof! He's sitting with his legs crossed underneath him, making his action figure 'fight' with a battered Batman toy. Now, he's not even looking at him. (Pow! Pow! He cracks the plastic figures against each other.) "And! I have two sisters. Do you have any sisters?"
Zip! Where did he go?? Max... Fastmanslaughter is up in a tree, still regarding Erik with that air of wariness even if he keeps coming back. "We're all goingoutforHalloween--" His words run together like water. He's perpetual motion.
Ping! Right back to Erik, close enough to touch his hand. He stares up at him, eyes large and dark in his brown face. "What's your favorite candy? I like Snickers, but Mama says we have to be careful of the 'Big Sugar Train'. She doesn't like candy."
He holds his arms out on either side of him as if to ask, 'WHO DOESN'T LIKE CANDY?!'
As he does so, a brick falls out of his purse, very nearly landing on Erik's foot.
Finally, blessedly, he takes out the Speed action figure and holds it up almost timidly, head tilted back to look upupup at him. "You're really tall." 'Fastmanslaughter' squints against the sunlight. "Do you want to see my Speed toy?"
All of... this takes Erik back, for the first time in a long time. He can only imagine that this is what it was like to raise Pietro when he was young, and Erik finds himself glad that it wasn't him who was responsible for raising a young Pietro. He can't imagine how he could have handled Pietro even with Magda, much less as a single father.
"Max," he repeats to himself, instantly aware of where the name comes from. It's the same name his mother and father gave him. The same one he swore he would never use after the war, because it had become too painful to use it. He is glad that the name has survived in his family. His alias could use some work, though. "My name is Erik, though friend and foe alike know me as Magneto."
He strains his eyes, keeping track of his grandson. For as difficult as this is, he imagines that Pietro being able to keep up with him makes this easier. As he lists question after question, Erik knows that he cannot reasonably decipher and answer all of them, so he focuses only on what he deems as the essentials.
"I am indeed your grandfather, your father's father. And I had a sister once. She... passed, when I was young. Before you father was born." When the boy is older, Erik will show him the numbers tattooed on his arm, and explain what he has endured to make it here, and how Ruth really perished.
"I have only met your mother a few times, I'm afraid. Your father and I aren't as close as I'd like." But maybe it will change soon.
When Max pauses with the toy, Erik studies it with his eyes before gently taking it. "Thank you." Is that... when did Tommy have a toy made in his likeness?
