For writerverse on livejournal.
Charles Xavier was not the ideal roommate. He knew and acknowledged that but there wasn't that much he could do to change it. Of course, in the beginning, he'd tried which had apparently been mistake after mistake. When he'd tried to do the laundry, he'd nearly caught the dryer on fire. When he'd tried to do the dishes, his roommate had had to go through and do them all again. When he'd cooked dinner, he'd caught the noodles on fire and had scorched a black hole on their tile when he'd dropped the pan on the way to the sink. Since then, Charles had been relegated to the fool-proof tasks (taking out the garbage and putting away the dishes namely) and he'd been working hard to be the best roommate that he could be since he didn't do as many chores.
It wasn't that Charles didn't want to be better at things. He'd just grown up with three maids, two nannies, cooks and enough people around that meant that he'd never lifted a finger around the house. Since coming to college, Charles had learned that he was sorely lacking basic survival skills. He supposed that he was just lucky that his roommate hadn't gotten too fed up yet. Very, very lucky. The 'with benefits' part of the relationship that they had probably had a bit to do with it. After burning the hole on the floor, Charles had knelt down there to give his roommate a blowjob and that had seemed to calm him down rather nicely at least.
It was a Tuesday night and Charles had actually done the dishes with the help of one of the members of his study group. He had hooked up with Jen enough that he didn't feel bad asking her to help him and he felt incredibly accomplished. She'd helped him with a few other things as well, cleaning up the place and the two had even lit candles in the kitchen to make the place smell nice. Charles hoped that Erik would be appreciative of the effort that he'd put into it.
After he was done, he had retired to his room, closing the door so that he could finish up his project by himself. It was bound to be another few hours before Erik got home and the two would probably figure out dinner together. Erik tended to take pity on Charles and cooked enough for the both of them when he wasn't too exhausted. Charles returned the favor by always ordering enough takeout when he it was his turn to do dinner.
The sound of the door opening made Charles lean back, cracking his knuckles and standing up as he decided that now was as good as any time for a short break. He'd be done within the hour and that was the last of his homework. Perhaps Erik would be up for a few hours in bed if he wasn't too exhausted. He was just getting ready to open the door when he heard Erik's voice.
"Charles!"
Charles frowned, wondering what in the world that Erik could be yelling at him in that tone of voice about. He might just be excited about so many chores being done but Erik didn't exactly sound happy. Charles opened the door slowly, not sure what he expected to find and stepped out of the room. When he saw what Erik was yelling about, he froze and that was when the smoke detector started going off.
"What did you do?" Erik asked, moving frantically towards the front door so that he could grab the fire extinguisher that was in their hallway. "Never mind, I don't care just-"
Charles couldn't hear him as he was too far away and he immediately jumped into action. He grabbed the piles of paper that weren't on fire next to the candles that the two had lit and he winced as he realized that the papers so close must've been what had caught on fire. "Well damn," he muttered, mostly to himself as Erik came in with the fire extinguisher.
"Neighbors called the fire department. They're on their way," Erik said as he pulled the pin on the fire extinguisher.
"No! Hold on!" Charles said, immediately stepping in front of Erik. The flames weren't that high yet and he immediately started gathering up everything else that was around the fire that he could reach.
"Damn it, Charles, get out of the way! Don't be ridiculous!" Erik said, anger evident in his voice as he tried to step around Charles.
Charles wasn't about to be deterred though and he just stepped in front of Erik again, pulling the papers close to his chest. "Do you know how many hours that I spent on this? Go ahead. You can spray now."
The look in Erik's eyes promised retribution later as he aimed the extinguisher and began squeezing to extinguish the flames. Charles watched in dismay as the spray covered the countertops and he sighed quietly, thinking about the fact that he'd just cleaned it. No good deed went unpunished, he supposed. That was what he got for trying to clean.
The two were silent as Erik worked, the firefighters arriving as Erik finished extinguishing the flames and they were ushered outside and to the ground while the firefighters made sure that everything had been taken care of.
"What in the world were you thinking? Lighting candles like that around those stacks of papers?" Erik asked, more frustration than anger in his voice with these words. He looked exhausted, dead on his feet and Charles knew that he probably was. While Charles had offered to cover more than his share of the rent, Erik had put his foot down on that and he worked hours at the diner down the street to cover his portion of the bills. The two had been tentative about adding more onto their 'with benefits' relationship but for now, Erik was firm on not wanting anything more than half.
Charles looked up at the sky, wondering if he looked at the clouds long enough whether he could avoid the subject forever. Knowing Erik the way that he did, he doubted it but he figured that it was worth a try. How could he admit that he'd screwed up even this? Charles had tried, he truly had. Although, really, Erik was probably going to blame him since he'd been told not to do any sort of chores like that again. "I did the dishes with a friend and we decided to light candles to make it smell nicer," Charles said defensively, still not looking over at his roommate.
There was such a long moment of silence that Charles sighed softly and looked away from the clouds, down at the other man and saw him staring incredulously at Charles. The look put Charles on the defensive and he crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow. "You did the dishes. And then lit some candles that caught the kitchen on fire?"
"When you put it that way, I sound like an idiot," Charles said primly, not appreciating the incredulous tone of voice that Erik had used. As if only a child would be stupid enough to do such a thing. Charles would have Erik know that Jen had grown up in a home without any maids. She knew how to do the dishes at least. He blamed her for lighting candles close to the papers.
Erik's lips twitched in such a way that Charles wondered if his roommate was really going to yell at him before he started laughing and Charles groaned, looking away. "I told my mother when I moved in with you that I was sure that life wasn't going to be boring and you prove me right day after day," Erik told him, an affectionate smile on his lips as the laughter died down.
A flush slid up Charles' cheeks as he thought about Erik's mother. He knew that Edie didn't exactly approve of him, mainly because he failed at simple things like not leaving candles unattended. He couldn't help but feel a burst of warmth over how fond that Erik sounded. "You're laughing at me."
"Yes, I am," Erik agreed simply, shaking his head and looking up at the sky. He let out another quiet laugh before he was stepping forward, slipping his hand into Charles' and grinning at him. "Thank you for attempting to do the dishes. I told you that you weren't allowed to do that anymore though. And this is why."
"Technically the dishes were done just fine. This was after," Charles pointed out, a small smile forming on his lips.
Erik nodded, looking up as the firefighter came up to them, telling them that they were clear to go back inside and to be more careful in the future. "I think that we should just order takeout tonight."
"Ooh, that would be my pleasure," Charles responded. He felt Erik give his hand a little squeeze before they were walking back up to their apartment. Charles wasn't exactly happy by the turn of events but at least Erik was amused more than anything. Oh yes, he was very lucky to have Erik as his roommate.