I Can't Leave Him
A/N: This is not meant to be taking place in any sort of recognizable continuity, nor is it intended to be taken seriously.
Thank you so much to ShadedRogue who so kindly beta'd this for me. :)
"Charles," Moira began, "you know we both care about you very much." The matching gentle, concerned expressions she and Raven wore as they sat side by side on the couch couldn't possibly be a good sign.
Charles gave them both a pleasant smile in return. "I know."
"And, well," Raven said, her brow wrinkling slightly. "It's just that…in light of recent events…"
Charles gave her an encouraging smile. Everything about his expression and posture seemed engineered to put her at ease, but Raven had known him long enough to know when he was uncomfortable and trying to pretend otherwise. She gave Moira a helpless look.
"It's Erik," Moira said, leaning forward and placing one of her hands on Charles' knee.
He looked down at it, marvelling at how strange it was to see her hand on his knee but not to feel it. He looked back up, meeting Moira's eyes with a look of practiced wide-eyed innocence. "What about him?"
Raven made an exasperated sound in her throat. "Charles, after everything that's happened…"
"You can't be serious about staying with him," Moira finished for her.
Charles looked from one to the other, a small hurt frown on his face. He shook his head. "I can't leave him."
"Look, Charles," Moira said in a calm, reasonable voice. "We could keep you safe—it wouldn't be at all difficult to get a restraining order, not after what has happened. You don't have to be afraid of him."
Raven nodded encouragingly.
Charles looked down at his folded hands in his lap and sighed, then looked back up, his gaze taking in both women once more—the hardness in Moira's eyes and the determined set of her jaw, the deep sadness in Raven's eyes and the way her lower lip trembled slightly. "I am not afraid of him," he said, his voice filled with confident sincerity.
"After everything he's done?" Moira looked and sounded incredulous.
Charles smiled sweetly, resting his chin in one hand with a sort of faraway look in his eyes. "There is so much more to him than just pain and anger; there's good too—I've seen it."
"Charles," Raven said flatly, glaring at him, "he put you in a wheelchair." She clenched her teeth and wrapped her arms around her midsection as though she were cold.
"Well, yes," Charles admitted with a small frown, "but you have to admit it's a groovy wheelchair!" He grinned brightly and ran his hand over the smooth metal of the arm appreciatively.
Raven shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. "Charles," she choked out, "you're in denial."
Charles' eyes hardened, flashing with anger. "No, you're the ones who are in denial. You can't just accept that I'm with Erik, can you? That he chose me over Raven and that I chose him over Moira." His eyes flashed from one to the other, filled with a sense of self-righteous victory. "Well, I think it's about time that both of you faced facts and bloody well moved on!"
"That is not what this is about!" Raven shouted, swiping angrily at her tears with her sleeve.
"Charles," Moira said, moving her hand on his knee in a way that possibly could have been soothing if he had been able to feel it. "We just want you to be…okay."
"Oh Moira," Charles said, taking her hand gently in his own, "I am so much better than okay. I am happy, so very happy." He sighed. "I appreciate that you—that both of you—want to protect me, but I don't need protection, not from Erik. Ever since—well, ever since this," he gestured to the wheelchair, "he's barely so much as raised his voice to me. So you see, you have nothing to worry about. I'm perfectly safe." He smiled kindly at both of them.
Raven appeared entirely miserable and defeated as she looked helplessly at Moira.
"Alright, Charles," Moira said, giving his hand a squeeze. "But if you ever do feel that you need help, for any reason…"
"I'll know who to ask," he said with a soft smile.
Because, really, if he needed help with anything, he would ask Erik.
A/N: I am a terrible person… (I regret nothing!) Also, some sort of virtual cookies to anyone who can point out all of Charles's quotes from the movie.