"Well, you know what they say---the party does not truly start until someone's cock has caught on fire."
'That can be arranged,' Magneto snarked as he strolled through the gate to Shaw's ever-rollicking abode. A wave of his hand and the double doors' metal hinges swung in on themselves with a dull boom. He paused, his cape fanning at his thighs dramatically.
'I would apologize for my late arrival, but someone needs to drag themselves away from your endless revelry to get to club business,' the young maverick said. 'Ah, but I agreed not to utter the letter X all night, didn't I?' he smiled ruefully.
Those had been Shaw's instructions while they were boxing the week before last in the bowels of the Hellfire Club. It must have been a sight to behold. Every stroke of Shaw's fist was stronger, more practiced and measured than Erik's, but Erik had the advantage of quick, cunning reflexes. They were both drenched in sweat by the time they fell into enough of a rhythm to banter-- though Shaw did most of that.
'You're working too hard, my zealous comrade--' a flexing uppercut Erik dodged with a leap back on his toes. 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy--' Shaw followed through with a punch that would have landed straight where Erik dodged if he hadn't arched his back like a cat to twist away. 'The club would like you if you let them--' the knuckles of his off hand gave a rapid jab, and Erik was so far off his balance that said knuckles reamed his jaw. His back hit the wall before he could gasp at Shaw's strength. Then the ruthless bastard's knee was in his gut and he was choking out a laugh as he hocked up half a lung on Shaw's thigh.
In the present, Erik cast about the velvet and marble venue and flushed. What a change. To go from being corralled in pens, ducking his head and repressing his powers, and being hunted like an animal through Poland's wilderness to-- this-- to being embraced, celebrated even in the midst of all this opulence... a few people in dresses and fine suits were turning their heads and smiling, creeping curiously closer.
Shaw's hand clapped his shoulder. The Hellfire branch leader grinned. He pressed a drink into Erik's hand as though the metal charmer were a guest of honor. Erik's heart rose in his throat and he downed nearly the entire drink at a go without realizing.
'This is madness,' he said. But for a moment he was so intoxicated by the novelty of being ushered toward people who wanted his introduction that it sounded like a compliment.
Indeed, it sounded almost like gratitude.
