AN: Short multi-chap about Raven and Charles' relationship. I know their relationship is fairly complicated, but I'm trying to stick to the light and fluffy side. Hope you enjoy!
"Good night, Rav—I mean, Miss Xavier!" The third-year Biology Major who has been eyeing her all evening goes rigid when he notices something behind Raven.
She doesn't need to turn around to know exactly what he saw.
"Good night to you, too, Mr. Xavier! I'll… um… just go now. And I'll see you in the seminar on Friday!" He says hastily, and all but runs out the door.
Raven turns around on her pub stool and glares at Charles. He is leaning against the bar while holding a beer, sleeves pushed up to his elbows. He looked comfortable enough, except for a small frown on his face.
No, Charles Francis Xavier, Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Assistant, wouldn't fail a student just because they are hitting on his sister, but he certainly is happy to let the wide-eyed undergrads and rest of the world think that he would.
Raven rolls her eyes. "What was that for?"
"Your honour." Charles says half-heartedly.
"He was nice!"
"Not the word I would use to describe his thoughts."
"You are a hypocrite." Raven points out. "I'm sure it's no worse than whatever thoughts that comes across your head when you chat up a girl in a pub."
A dark expression crosses Charles' face ever so fleetingly. "That's why I only talk to girls whose brothers are not in the pub." He says flippantly.
"Oh God, you are horrible. Fine! If you won't let other boys buy me a drink, then you can buy me one. I want a gin and tonic."
Charles raises an eyebrow. He turns around and asks the bartender for a cola.
Raven is still pretending to be asleep on his shoulder when Charles stops reading. They are about four pages into his thesis, and to be honest, it's something of a battle to keep awake at that point.
"Raven." Charles says softly, no louder than when he had been reading earlier. She doesn't move.
He lets out something between a chuckle and a sigh, and slowly eases himself from under Raven, supporting her weight until her body is lowered gently onto couch. She hears him leaving the room, and wonders briefly if he was going to just leave her on the couch like that.
She can hear him in her bedroom and the rustling of the bed sheets. A moment later, Charles returns, and wordlessly tucked his arms under her shoulders and knees. He is stronger than he looks. Raven doesn't hear any heavy huffing and puffing when Charles lifts her up in his arms and carry her into her bedroom, never bumping into anything in the cramped flat. He puts her down on the bed, and pulls the cover over her. He must have gone into her room earlier to pull the covers off, so it would be easier to tuck her in right now ...
Oh god, Raven realized with horror, her brother is going to tuck her in. Part of her longs for the gesture, the love and care that it implies, but she fervently reminds that part of herself that she is also twenty years older than any age for which tucking in is necessary. If she lets Charles treat her like a baby – no matter how comforting it can be at times – he would never stop.
So she opens her eyes and snaps, "Charles, I'm not five. I don't need you to tuck me in."
Charles just smiled at her smugly. "Really? Sorry, but I lost track when my baby sister asked for a bed time story just earlier." Oh, he planned this, didn't he?
"Ugh." Raven groans. "I hate you. Go work on your thesis. Make science. Leave me alone."
And of course, Charles just laughs. "Good night, Raven." He says, and turns to leave.
"Don't forget to go to bed before the sun comes back up, you idiot!" Raven yells after him.
As if he hadn't heard her at all, Charles simply says "See you in the morning, love" in his Wise-Big-Brother voice before he closes her bedroom door lightly behind him.
"Of course you are not coming. I've seen Agent McTaggart's memory. This is dangerous."
"You can't make me stay here and worry about you!"
"You don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine. Just look after yourself for a few days. A week. Two at most. I've been off longer at conferences." Charles says without even looking up from packing a suitcase.
Raven finds him absolutely exasperating. "'No need to worry?' It's the CIA. What, it's only dangerous for me but not for you?"
Charles finally looks up. "It'll be more dangerous if I'm worried about you."
She knows that he means well, but she isn't giving in.
He gives her that look, a Charles-patented fusion between a disappointed parent and a sad puppy. It's a look that has been equally effective at getting the most cynical of the pretty girls to coo over him and the most incorrigible of students to reevaluate their academic goals. If Raven didn't see it at least five times a day for the majority of her life, she might have caved and immediately pledged her soul to guard their Oxford apartment in his absence and pray for his safe return.
But Raven does see that look five times a day. In fact, she saw it twenty minutes ago at breakfast when she wanted to get a cake instead of something healthy. So she gives him her look, something she'd like to call fierce-female-who-will-rule-the-future and Charles calls petulant-child.
She'll probably be worried about his safety wherever she is. Although she believes that Charles is trying protect her, she doesn't believe that he is right in trying to do it.
"If you leave me here, I'll go the pubs every night." She says it like it's a threat. It's Charles' own fault that it works likes one.
"They won't serve you. Not if they want my business again." Charles frowns. Good. That's a sign that he isn't as confident as he sounds.
"I'll get boys to buy drinks for me. You know I can. And you know they'll want to. Not all of them are that scared of you."
There is a moment of silence. Raven knows she has won when Charles resorts to his Big-Brother-Glare.
"You have thirty minutes to pack." He says icily.
She doesn't waste a single second.
- to be continued -
AN: Thank you for reading! Comments and reviews would be nice ;)