A/N: Okay, so basically, this all takes place at the mansion, and yes, I'm aware the mansion scenes only spanned ten days, but fuck that shit, lets make it a YEAR! Why? Because every other scene has them either angry or dying, and that is fun for no one. Anyways, the title is called 'The Passings Of A Tired Mind' because after my first viewing the movie (I've seen it a total of five times now) I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about how cute Erik and Charles were during the movie, and how I could incorporate that into fanfiction. So most of this story is from me on my laptop at two in the morning. Anyways, I'll be slashing as many people as I can, but the main pairings are Erik/Charles, Raven/Hank, and Sean/Alex. I have little regard as to keeping this close to cannon however, I still try. The main theme here is Cherik goodness, so put on your slash goggles and get to reviewin'!
"How did you survive?"
Erik scoffed at his own question slightly, sarcasm brimming as the six of them approach the mannor. The grandness of it all mesmerized the younger mutants, and Charles just smirked at the remark.
"He had me of course." Raven chirped.
The large doors creaked as they opened and Charles led them to each of their temporary rooms. "Raven, you know where everything is, why don't you show the others around..." Raven smiled, nodded, and continued to lead the mutants into another room. Erik still stood by Charles as the others exited, Raven motioning for him to follow along as he shook his head in reply.
"I rather look around myself." A look toward Charles told him he wouldn't be alone whilst wandering the halls. Erik sighed and asked where he'd be sleeping for the time being. He walked along side Charles down winding hallways and seemingly endless stairwells as their shoulders casually touched, and occasionally the other would flinch, not knowing if the contact would be acceptable. Charles didn't even notice the touching, just the awkward flinching away when it happened.
"Something wrong, Erik?" Charles, having already read the other's mind, asked sarcastically. "Because I won't bite you for happening to brush past me, or for anything at that measure." Tight lips curled upward, but only for an unnoticeable second.
At last, after many paces throughout the mansion, Charles opened a mahogany door and stepped aside, signaling for Erik to walk inside the room. The celing was high above their heads, the soft glow emitting from the window lighted the room, and the wood walls shone from the varnish that coated the panels. The distinct lack of metal objects in the room discouraged the man who now inhabits it, the warm-colored wood surrounded him, depressed him in an odd way.
Charles stood in silence for a while as Erik took in the room, looking over the structure of the bedroom and admiring it's condition for it's age.
"So, you'll be residing...?" Only after realizing how the question sounded, and that Charles was smiling at the thought did he try and correct himself. And of course the telepath beat him to it.
"Exactly across the hall, if you must know." Charles exhaled loudly before speaking again. "I'll let you get settled. If you have trouble finding anything, feel free to ask either Raven or I." A sharp turn of his heel and he was out and into the hallway, heading for God-knows-where in the castle of a house.
As he made his way down the foyer, he spotted Raven laughing and talking to rather flushed and timid Hank. "Sorry to intrude, but where are Sean and Alex?" Raven quirked an eyebrow and looked up at Charles.
"Where's Erik?" Raven tilted her head and looked around Charles trying to find said man. She stiffened when she realized how desperate she sounded, and answered Charles instead. "Kitchen."
He nodded in response, continued down the hall, and tried desperately not to let Raven's odd curiosity about Erik's whereabouts bother him. Failing horribly, he turned around sharply on his heels and confronted the shape-shifter, a false smile masking over his face. Raven sighed, she could already tell where this conversation was going.
"Out of random interest, he left with you, you came back without him, I was curious. Gosh Charles, could you be anymore strange?"
Charles stood there for a moment, processing her words carefully."I could be more strange if I tried, I bet."
Hank darted his eyes between the two, the conversation skipping around to fast for him to keep up. Charles noticed this and looked back at Raven before smirking at Hank. "Careful Hank, there might just be some competition in this house." Raven's jaw dropped and made an incredulous sqwak and Hank laughed nervously at Charles's statement. After smiling innocently at Raven, the telepath made his way past the couple and continued on his way to the kitchen.
"Heh, he- he was kidding, right? You don't like Erik... do you?" Hank tilted his head and bit his lip, awaiting Raven's reply.
"Of course not. Don't take him seriously okay?" Raven didn't meet the other's eyes when she spoke. Hank sighed and smiled, Raven looked down as Hank leaned against the wall with relief. "I still need to unpack, I'll talk to you later okay?" Hank beamed and nodded his head as Raven turned and entered her dorm.
Erik could always tell when the telepath would leave his mind.
The sudden feeling of loneliness that would wash over him, overwhelm him, and even scare him a little, was the first tell-tale sign. Though, no matter how hard he tried, he could never tell when Charles would enter his thoughts. He could only ever feel the over-powering sense of loss when the mind-reader was abscent. Erik never bothered to call him out when he did read his mind, the casual finger gliding down the side of his head when he did this was very obivous to the metal-bender, but he would calm his mind and let the stranger root around until he could feel the flutter of loneliness return to him.
Although he has said many times that Charles was not welcome in the other's mind, Erik knew this a lie. And so did Charles.
As Erik's suitcase hit the floor, he felt a pang of loneliness hit him, and he cursed quietly to himself as he came crashing down onto his bed. His eyes fell and the last thing he could feel before he fell asleep was an odd sensation he could only describe as comfort. His tired mind heard a voice, a very warm and inviting voice, quietly whisper, 'Good night, my friend.'
Sean and Alex retired early after briefly training with Charles, as did Raven and Hank.
Charles strolled through his small library, looking for something he had not already read, squinting in order to see past the dust that draped over the series of books, which were neatly organized on wooden shelves. He let his hand travel to his face and gently placed two fingers against his temple, still slowly walking down the isle of books. He searched for no one in particular to look to, the dreams of the younger mutants were common, and therefore boring to the telepath. He hesitated before even grazing the thoughts of Erik, made sure he was asleep before returning to the man's mind.
Erik's dream was bloodied and dark. Rain pouring as thick as the blood that soaked the ground beneath a boy. Dark hair covering his eyes, suspenders hanging from the boy's starved frame. The metal from the barbed fences vibrated and shook with the boy's increasing anger, a man in a black suit behind him whispering in German while the boy tore the buttons off of the man's suit, along with every other metal object in the youth's sight. The barbed wire shot from the fence and tangled itself around the man, twisting and sawing through his flesh. As the man fell to the ground, wires still attacking him, the boy screamed into the nothingness, rain washing the blood away. The awful sight cleared and Erik had returned to consciousness.
Charles backed out of the other's mind slowly, somewhere between shocked and horrified, he exited his library and quietly walked towards Erik's room. He pressed his ear against the door for a moment before softly tapping against the bedroom door, just loud enough for the other to hear.
Erik sat upright in his bed, his hands threaded through his own hair, grinding his teeth to keep from screaming. He leaned against the headboard and didn't bother hiking up the sheet around his scarred frame. "Yes?" The words were meant to come out calmly, failing, they came stuttered and jittery. Charles poked his head through the doorway, half of his body in the room, timid as he spoke softly.
"Are you alright?" Erik rolled his eyes and faced the telepath.
"No."
Charles closed the door behind him and walked swiftly across the room, over to Erik's bed. He stood at the bed for a moment, not knowing what to do until the other looked at him and darted his eyes toward the bed, and scooted over for Charles to sit. Charles hesitantly sat gently on the edge of the bed, resting against the headboard along with Erik. They sat in silence for a while before Erik decided to speak.
"Why are you still up? It's three in the morning." Charles jumped at the sudden break of silence, but replied calmly.
"Insomnia, had it since I was a kid. I have a very busy mind, constantly on overdrive, it's hard to find sleep when your brain has other things in mind." Erik sat and considered the telepath's words, slowly piecing the conversation in his tired mind.
"And why did you knock on my door?"
Charles flushed. He knew of Erik's dislike of having his mind read, it was an intrusion of privacy. Charles sunk a little with guilt. "I heard you wake up, figured you had a nightmare. I was... worried." Erik smirked, he knew a lie when he heard one. But he didn't pry, nor did he call the telepath out. He also knew a kind gesture when he saw one, checking on him was nice, to say the least.
"Thank you..." Erik's voice drifted off, slowly falling back asleep with Charles by him.
They sat upright in the bed, asleep when Raven found them the next morning. She gasped and sniggered and informed the other mutants that 'Professor X' and 'Magneto' would be late for training this morning.