There is a warmth, a zeal to Erik's voice that Ned has never heard before. He'd noticed a strand of idealism in Charles, over the course of their friendship, but now, for the first time, he sees traces of something very similar in Erik. It's focus is different, but some ineffable quality is exactly the same.
That Erik is passionate about his power is all too obvious, and Ned doesn't blame him. It doesn't strike Ned as dangerous, like his own powers, or Charles' or River's or even Galen's. Of course, it could be used for harm, but the potential for unintentional harm seems far more remote. It is a beautiful force to be augmented and mastered, rather than something awful and out of control to be contained and limited as much as possible for the good of everyone.
Erik can choose when he wants to use it, and to what degree, and for what. Ned imagines that must have made keeping it hidden much easier than his own ability. Erik can touch metal without molding it, the way he is doing now. Ned doesn't have that option, with dead matter.
Just underneath his admiration, unacknowledged but increasingly powerful, is an undercurrent of envy. How different would his own life be, if he had Erik's power? He would not have been able to bring back Digby, true. His mother would have still died in the kitchen that day, but Ned wouldn't have been responsible in any way. And Charles Charles would have lived; Chuck would have grown up with a father, even if Ned's own had still abandoned him. A thousand other things that his power had kept him from doing would be possible. It is not necessarily the idea of himself as a mutant, as different, that Ned hates, so much as his specific ability.
He swallows back this bitter tide, because he knows how inappropriate it is, how pathetic. But he can't help saying, a little tightly, "I'd give anything for a power like that."
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That Erik is passionate about his power is all too obvious, and Ned doesn't blame him. It doesn't strike Ned as dangerous, like his own powers, or Charles' or River's or even Galen's. Of course, it could be used for harm, but the potential for unintentional harm seems far more remote. It is a beautiful force to be augmented and mastered, rather than something awful and out of control to be contained and limited as much as possible for the good of everyone.
Erik can choose when he wants to use it, and to what degree, and for what. Ned imagines that must have made keeping it hidden much easier than his own ability. Erik can touch metal without molding it, the way he is doing now. Ned doesn't have that option, with dead matter.
Just underneath his admiration, unacknowledged but increasingly powerful, is an undercurrent of envy. How different would his own life be, if he had Erik's power? He would not have been able to bring back Digby, true. His mother would have still died in the kitchen that day, but Ned wouldn't have been responsible in any way. And Charles Charles would have lived; Chuck would have grown up with a father, even if Ned's own had still abandoned him. A thousand other things that his power had kept him from doing would be possible. It is not necessarily the idea of himself as a mutant, as different, that Ned hates, so much as his specific ability.
He swallows back this bitter tide, because he knows how inappropriate it is, how pathetic. But he can't help saying, a little tightly, "I'd give anything for a power like that."