A/N: Inspired by a quote I heard while cleaning the family room; "Well played, boys."
Disclaimer: OH MY LEHNSHERR, STAN LEE, HOW WERE ERIK AND CHARLES NOT TOGETHER?
Erik sat down in the chair, quietly unfolding the newspaper, so as not to disturb the other children. In retrospect, he probably should have realized something was up, seeing as all the children were not only in the library too, but they were all being extremely quiet.
Sean and Alex sat at a desk, poring over the comics. (Oops, I meant arguing over them, not poring.) Raven sat down, a magazine draped across her lap, and Hank sat at the other end of the very same couch, his nose buried in some book full of complex laws and equations. The silence was short-lived, as it was interrupted by a certain Ginger's voice.
"How'd you do it?" Sean wondered. Erik ignored this, thinking he was once again talking to Alex. He ruffled the paper and kept reading, stopping only when he realized the children were staring at him.
"What?" he said gruffly, growing uneasy under their stares, as though they were silently accusing him of a crime.
"I think Sean was asking you a question." Hank states. Erik rolls his eyes, and looked to the screaming mutant. Sean stared back at Erik, looking immensely scared.
"Well?" Erik barked.
"Oh, well I was just, uh, wondering how- how- you managed to move the satellite dish...?" Erik frowns. Why did he want to know? He certainly wasn't looking like he actually wanted to know... Well, there wasn't much harm in telling him, so why not?
"Charles... Helped." Alex rolls his eyes.
"That doesn't really make it any clearer," he pointed out. Erik narrowed his eyes, but decided to simply explain himself rather than get angry.
"Charles accessed some memories for me, that I had forgotten, because he told me true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity. What it is that lies between, I do not know, but... It helped." Alex nodded, satisfied. Sean sat back next to Alex on the chair they were currently sharing, a thoughtful expression occupying his face.
"Love," Raven suddenly chimed in. Everyone's gazes turned to her, Erik's the most intense. "Love. That's what lies between rage and serenity. It's not easy, but true love isn't that hard either."
"Love can be tragic," someone said in a small voice.
"What do you mean, Alex?" Sean asked, identifying the previous speaker. The blonde looked up at his friends.
"When I was locked up, there was this guy... People called him Waiting Walter. A few years ago, he fell in love with his best friend, Gracie or Gilley, or something. They'd been best friends. He'd been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, he'd been framed for murder. Tragic, because he was on his way to tell her he loved her. He got arrested before he had the chance to talk to her. A few weeks later, he earned rights to have visitors. He requested her to visit him... But a five days earlier, she had died in a car crash. It messed him up something fierce," Alex said, his voice cracking. "And now, he's a just a ghost... Waiting for her to come so he can tell her he loves her."
"Whoa... That's so sad." Sean was the first to speak after Alex finished this speech. Alex merely nodded.
"It's almost like one of those fables... Say it while ya can." Raven mused. Erik stood up abruptly, causing everyone to stare at him. When he saw the looks he was giving him, he blushed a little, before mumbling something along the lines of;
"I've got something to tell Charles." The children continued staring the direction he had gone off in until they were sure he was out of ear shot.
Raven grinned.
"Well played, boys."
A/N: Lol five million points to your house if you can guess what Erik had to tell Charles.