"Say!" Raven's voice chimed up again, both Erik and Liesel looked back at her as she stood up. She brushed herself down and clasped her hands behind her back. She looked at them with an innocent smile. Brushing her hair over her shoulder briefly she shuffled forwards off of the mat and stopped by Liesel's side. "You said it is your birthday next week, right? We should totally do something for it!" Raven said excitedly, the thought of a party excited her, it would be a good thing for everyone; or at least a good thing to relax to through all the training. Liesel looked uncertain over the suggestion, whereas Erik looked between the two before running a hand awkwardly through his hair. He hadn't realised, but one thing he remembered well when it came to birthdays and Liesel: she didn't celebrate them.

In fact, she hadn't celebrated one once since he knew her. She had a celebration forced on her when she was a child, and that ended in disaster really. So it was made a point to leave her alone when it was her birthday. Blinking suddenly from a realisation, he glanced down at the auburn haired woman in front of him. She was still trying to fathom out a way to kindly decline Raven's suggestion, clearly. His mind suddenly pieced it together; that she had not celebrated a birthday since losing her sister. The one person she was most close to, apart from himself, that she would naturally celebrate with, was gone. He presumed one twin celebrating when there should be two was a lonely, painful affair. With or without those they were friends with around them.

"That's if we're still here," both eyes flicked up to him. One sharp green pair, thankful for his intervention and what he had actually said. The other calm blue and annoyed that he had intervened and over what he had spoken. Raven clearly didn't agree with Erik's slight pessimism. Or she didn't quite like him shooting down her suggestion, in a roundabout way.

"Touché," Liesel wagged a finger in the air and smiled thinly at Raven. "We have so much to do! Celebrating my birthday is pretty minor on the ground scale of things, no?" She continued on from Erik's general statement. Honestly, she was okay without celebrating her birthday. To her it was just another day, another year older, same old, sort of same old. When really, in comparison to her last birthday, a lot had changed for her.

"Fine! But if we're still here, we're doing something." Rave said in a playful yet serious tone while pointing a finger at Liesel. Narrowing her eyes slowly she smiled when Liesel saluted and gave a firm nod. Seeing as how that was agreement enough, Raven slipped past the two and walked away.

"Thank you," Erik looked down at her, Liesel stood frowning deeply. Blinking slowly and standing with her eyes shut for several moments she eventually looked back to him. "I really didn't want to shoot her down and say no...she seemed so happy at the idea of a party."

"It's probably just the party thing which made her happy."

"Hey!" Liesel exclaimed and swatted a hand at him. She frowned and pointed a finger at him before shuffling past him and walking out into the corridor. She didn't quite agree with Erik's words, that sounded a bit mean really. That the only reason why Raven suggested the idea of a party, was because she just wanted to go to one. Liesel had sort of cottoned on that the blonde had been a shut in, not through her choice, but probably more from her brother; but she had also learned that Raven was a bored teenager wanting fun, so if she got that, and got to celebrate Liesel's birthday too, why wouldn't she suggest such a thing?

"Come on, it didn't take them long back in the base, did it?" He followed after her, and suffered a look being shot his way. "I'm just saying, any excuse to mess around..." Erik trailed off, honestly if given any chance he was rather sure everyone would stop what they were doing right now to go do something else. Though yes, sure, they were all here voluntarily. But that still didn't mean they didn't still take any chance to slack.

"Why are you here?" Liesel asked while taking to walking up the stairs. She didn't actually know why Erik had come to find her, she was quite content spending time with Raven, even if she couldn't train like she wanted to, or even like Raven wanted to. She was still too sore and aching, even as she walked she could feel muscles hurting.

"No reason." Erik said it so flippantly that Liesel honestly wasn't surprised.

"You're bored." Liesel smirked and looked to him as he walked up the stairs two at a time. "I never thought I'd see the day when you're bored!" She laughed and turned the corner to head to her room. "Ah," she held a hand up and smiled at him. Pointing to the side, her smile grew. "That's your room, liebe." Pushing open her door she backtracked into it with a smile still on her face as she looked Erik up and down.

"Locked doors and me don't work, remember?" He shifted his weight and crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow he merely smirked at her while watching the smile grow and her hold in her laughter.

"Best keep that information to yourself." Liesel said while slinking around the door. She looked out at him as he stayed standing in front of her room. With a sigh she hung her head, holding up a hand she looked back to him. "Five minutes, at least give me that." Erik inclined his head and backed away to his room. Liesel sighed, shaking her head loosely she grabbed a change of clothes before heading to the bathroom to shower and dress.

----

He didn't even give her five minutes. In fact he waited until he heard her retreat into the bathroom before entering the room. Shutting the door behind himself, he idly walked over to the bed and made himself rather at home. Crossing his arms he stared at the wall opposite, and even at the door which led to the bathroom, but that became ultimately boring. Erik wasn't likely to pass the time in his room any better, to be honest. If left to his own devices, he'd be doing exactly the same thing, just obviously in the next door room.

Maybe Charles was onto something, being on his own wasn't a good thing. That wasn't to say that was why he was spending most of the time with Liesel, whenever she opted to be on her own in her room. Because face it, they'd still be closed off and away. Even with company, Erik was sure this was defying a point somehow. No, his sudden boost in accompanying Liesel stemmed from being around in case Azazel decided to crop back up; which he doubted, but could never be too careful. There was the impending threat of Shaw which naturally caused small moments of pause, and in those moments he couldn't think of anyone else to better spend the time with. Mainly because when it came down to it, it would be them against him.

Erik already had that in mind. No one was going to stop him, no way. If anyone was going to put Shaw down, it would be him, Liesel, or a combined effort. Face it, out of everyone else gathered who wanted his downfall more? He wasn't disputing that everyone wanted the man dealt with. But everyone had their own reasons, most stemmed from being roped into this. Erik was hunting for Shaw long before he made a move to team up with the Russians, or even not, he had no idea when that team up even happened. But the point being: even before the CIA caught wind of what Shaw was up to; Erik was already following leads, tracking people down, dealing with those who decided fighting back was a genius idea, before all of this...whatever this still really classed as happened.

The question that more often than not stuck at the forefront of his mind was: how to actually finish Shaw off? He had made it quite clear that he was not an easy man to deal with. Erik would certainly need more than just a stolen knife, and gun. Even with Liesel's aid he had to double think over this, would both of them be enough, truly? Feeling a lingering weight in his pocket, he uncrossed his arms and reached in. His fingers clutched onto the small metallic object which he kept on his person, most times. Retracting his hand, he opened his fist and looked to the coin which sat there cold, and unmoving. Yet it gave off its own pulse in his hand as he flicked it into the air and caught it.

Flicking it from one finger to the other, he simply looked up as the bathroom door opened. Liesel seemed rather oblivious to him being present. But then considering she had a towel over her head, she was rather oblivious to most things around her. Reaching up she placed a hand on top of her head and pulled the towel off. With a quiet sniff she looked at him with a sidelong look, and through damp, tangled locks of hair. "Why hello again, Erik. Fancy seeing you here."

"I know what were the chances?" He quipped back, he tried to sound sarcastically joking, tried being the word. His mind was still stuck on how to kill Shaw, and those thoughts transitioned to his tone sounding tense.

"I'd say the chances were rather high." Liesel smiled and pushed her hair out of her face. She gave a small shudder as her hair impacted against her once dry t-shirt, which was needless to say no longer dry. Pulling the towel up she commenced rubbing her hair so it'd dry quicker. "What's that?" Seeing as how she was down the other end of the room still she could barely make out the object he was playing with in his hands.

"Nothing," Erik replied and watched as she narrowed her eyes. Leaning forwards he pulled one knee to his chest and outstretched his arm across his knee. She dropped her arm and looked to his hand as he held the little object out between thumb and forefinger. Flinging the towel quickly into the bathroom she simply stuck her hands in her trouser pockets and shuffled over with a curious frown. The closer she got naturally the more her frown turned to one of curious anger. She was curious as to why he still had a coin, swastika still in brilliant vivid detail, but she was clearly also angry that he even still owned the thing.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she reached out and took it from his grasp. She turned it over and pressed her lips into a thin line. She glanced up at him, Erik had simply taken to leaning against the headboard watching her with a blank, emotionless expression. "Why?" There was no point avoiding the main question. So she just came out and asked it, and in return she got a slow, gentle sigh.

Moving forwards he pushed damp locks of hair over her ear before gently running his fingers across her cheek. All the time she just sat and watched, and waited for an answer. "As a reminder."

"You'd actually want something from then? No, you actually need a reminder? Goodness sake, Erik...I didn't even know you still even had something like this..." Liesel had nothing from the past, and she thought it was perhaps for the best.

"Don't be like that." He said while going to take the coin back only for her hands to enclose it and for her to lean away from him. "Really, Liesel...really?" He questioned while pointing a finger at her fisted hand. "How good is your grip?" It ended up not being too brilliant really. After trying to pull back from the pull which came from the coin she vaulted forwards with it, and awkwardly ended up sitting in his lap. Liesel let out a quiet yelp, and was going to move before an arm encircled her gently. Though he hesitantly kept her in place, Erik allowed her to sit up and look at him.

"Why a reminder?" Liesel asked quietly while he looked at the item back in his hand. He seemed to lose himself in his thoughts, even becoming quite transfixed by narrowing his eyes downwards at the dull coloured coin. His gaze centred back to her though when she placed a hand to his face and made him look at her.

"Without this coin, we wouldn't have gone right on that snow covered road. We wouldn't have been found by the allies, and we wouldn't have been rescued from a possible worse fate if we went left." Erik explained while turning it over in his fingers, he looked to Liesel as she blinked several times. She had no idea that it was the same coin from back then. She had absolutely no idea that he had been hanging onto it since way back then. "But," Erik's voice pulled her from her thoughts as she looked back at him. "It is also the route and reason as to why my mother died." He explained in a tense voice. No one else knew of this, though he wouldn't be surprised if Charles did with his mental interfering. There was a sound which was akin to a gasp from Liesel, he looked at her as she looked at him sadly. He frowned, what other reaction was he expecting? It was a rather immediate emotion to feel considering the circumstances. "See, I've been thinking all which ways to enact this reckoning which has been coming his way for years. At first I did honestly think that stabbing the man would be enough; but we saw how that ended. He is without a telepath now, so perhaps shooting might be a better suggestion? But then clearly as he took down the base, he got shot and that did little to nothing. Coupled with you, I am not certain our powers could finish him off; weaken, yes, kill, perhaps not. But...if it gets to the point where he is so physically weak, then there's this." He held the coin up again, Liesel glanced at it and then at him. "How? That's a good question," he smirked. Her look alone portrayed the question. "I have found that a man can't get up from an injury from the heart or head. Choose your pick, it'll be one of them."

"Why?" Liesel asked while reaching out and placing a hand it over the one he held palm facing upwards with the coin idly sitting.

"He killed my mother because I couldn't move this coin. Let's see if he can do the same when asked. You can call this bitter irony." Erik said in a rather blunt tone while slowly interlacing his fingers with hers. By now he didn't see the point to sugar coat things when he was around her. If anyone here was likely to ever truly understand his whys and reasons, it was her.

----

Edited: 11/June/2019

Reedited: 18/August/2021