He wants the comfort of being able to say that he knew this story. He knew how it ends and how it began and the precise moment of its midpoint. He yearns for this knowledge so that he might be able to wrap around him like a safety blanket. But he doesn't know this story, not at all.

"Never be afraid to play the long game, boys" she warns. [Soulmate AU] Companion piece to Orange-Violet Blooms

Hermione goes back in time and then returns. Nothing changes.

It is slower in coming, certainly. But then all the best things are. [Soulmates AU]

When Charles is young he is completely taken with the idea of fairy tales and happy endings. He spends a lot of his life searching for his own happily ever after. No one told him that you don't find your own happy ending. It finds you. (Or, the four times Charles fell in love with the wrong person and the one time he fell in love with Erik)

The memories make you nostalgic; thinking of those days before this war started in earnest, when you were all just playing at being mutant the way young children play at being adults.