Title: When It Rains
Pairing: Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
Rated: T
A/N: Ohhh, it feels so good to write these two again! It's been ages! Reviews are love!
The children hard at work to hone their abilities, two hopefuls ready to interview for a position at the academy this evening, Erik helping Hank set up the new Cerebro and Charles making muffins because what better way to celebrate a wonderful evening then making and sharing homemade muffins? He did this quite often, actually, when things were going so right and he had a few moments to relax, the others would be drawn to the kitchen by an ever so delightful smell and be greeted with a table covered with baking trays filled with several flavors of the amazing muffin. It was the general consensus that this was a habit that never needed to be broken. Raven had grown tired of the pastry years ago but loved watching her brother bake. He was quite messy and tended to hum loudly as if the only one in the room, he also talked to himself here and there. There were times that he would try a new idea or recipe, Charles would taste the batter and project the taste he was experiencing to the others to get their opinions. They were not all so pleasant.
It truly was a wonderful evening.
"Charles! Charles, snap out of it! Look at me, Charles, you're hurting us, what happened?" Sean fell to his knees next to Erik who was currently shaking a limp bodied and wide eyed Charles on the kitchen floor. Alex had bolted out of the room when the pain grew so strong he was emitting red sparks. Raven was crying with her hands over her hears, body shifting from form to form. Hank was nowhere to be found.
"Erik, I don't know how much more we can take! I'm ready to blow my head off with that gun of yours! It hurts-" Erik smacked Charles across the cheek, growing frantic as the piercing screech in their heads grew louder and began to send a grinding pressure to the backs of their skulls. Could a telepath really make a brain explode? He sure wasn't ready to find out. Erik looked down into wide open, pupils fully blown, blue eyes, red strings filling the whites and a single tear ripping down his pink cheeks. What had happened so suddenly to make Charles this way? Why was this happening? Emma? No, she was off finding a replacement for Shaw. What could he do? How could he make this stop if he didn't know why this was happening? Were they going to die? Would they go brain dead and turn into a vegetable?
'Charles, you have to stop this. Fight it, whatever it is that's making you do this, you have to fight it. I'm right here, liebling, can you hear me? I'll never let you go, I love you, but you have to stop, you have to stop, Charles. You're going to kill us all.'
Erik lowered his head to Charles' chest, unable to think properly anymore, and in that moment, the ringing and pain had stopped just as abruptly as it had started. He looked up to Charles calmly, noting that his pupils had returned to normal and his eyes had relaxed back into their regular state, he was also breathing regularly now unlike the quick shallow breaths prior. Charles glanced around frantically, processing everything that had just happened. Raven pulled herself up to her brother and rested her head on his shoulder, sobbing silently as the recently absent pain still rang violently through her body.
"She's dead, Raven."
:: :: :: :: ::
The sitting room was full of anxiety and confusion, tension so thick anyone could barely breathe without feeling like the wind had been knocked out of them. It had been almost an hour since the pain had stopped, Erik was taking care of Charles in the kitchen before bringing him out to explain his outburst to the others. Hank had returned shortly after the incident had occurred, he'd been in the woods surrounding the mansion, it was the only place he could go outdoors without being spotted by civilians. Apparently, he had also been affected, grass and crumpled leaves littered his blue fur from when he had fallen to the ground in excruciating pain, high pitched ringing on the most absurd volume he'd ever heard boiling his brain to mush. At least, that's what it had felt like.
Erik walked out with Charles, finally, one hand holding his bicep firmly, the other around his waist for support. Charles was pale, eyes red and puffy, he'd been crying and Raven was gone. Erik sat the professor down in his favorite chair and rubbed his shoulder before kissing him on the head. All eyes were on the telepath.
"I'd like to say," came a soft, cracked voice, "I'm so terribly sorry for what I've done. I can assure you, it is a one-time ordeal, and it will never happen again." He spoke slowly, as if breaking bad news to a child. "Years ago, I was about fifteen years of age I believe, I had managed to establish a permanent mental connection with my mother. Raven and I were concerned of her drinking habits after our father had died, I wasn't even sure if I could do such a thing at the time, but we needed to make sure someone was keeping a constant eye on her. We haven't spoken in years, after out last fight about her drinking, but I managed to watch and take care of her with this connection, keeping her out of trouble and out of danger. It seems that as of recently, the connection had begun to fade, my concentration focusing completely on all of you, defeating Shaw and starting the academy, keeping everyone safe from the government." Erik squeezed Charles' shoulder reassuringly and projected a sense of calm and peace when the professor's voice began to shake further. "About an hour ago, in Cork, Ireland, my mother stepped into a vehicle, intoxicated, and killed a young man and his son in a car accident… Herself included." He let the silence in the room settle for a bit and swallowed deeply. "Now, if you'll recall, I was in Shaw's mind when Erik… Took him out. Nothing happened to me because it was only a temporary connection. I've had this mental bond with my mother for almost twelve years now, almost half of my life. Seeing, feeling, experiencing her death, I shut down. All I knew was that one moment, I was seeing the accident happen through her eyes and the next, everything was white and cold. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't taste or feel or smell anything. And when I woke up, I was on the kitchen floor with Raven, Erik and Sean."
Alex closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face. Hank and Sean sitting in silence, letting Charles' words sink in. Eventually Hank nodded slowly and adjusted his glasses.
"I'm sorry about your mother, Charles, I really am, but this can't happen again. Alex nearly exploded by the sounds of it, he- you could have killed us. I understand you didn't have a say in the matter but we have to make sure this doesn't happen again." Charles nodded once, closed his eyes and pressed his lips together.
"I have no other connections like the one with my mother, I can assure you it won't happen again. I'm sorry for hurting you all, if you wish to leave because you no longer feel safe, I can ar-" Alex shot his head up with a dumbfounded look on his face.
"And go where? Professor, you're all I've got. You said it was a one-time thing, and so far you haven't lied to us, so if you say it won't happen again, it won't. Where else could we go? This is the safest place we can be, and it's because of you. I'm not going anywhere." Sean slapped his knee and smiled half-heartedly at the telepath.
"Ditto. There's no way in hell I'm leaving. Your muffins are too amazing. Forget it." Charles smiled back at the boys and silently thanked them with a tip of his head. Erik patted Hank on the shoulder and cleared his throat.
"I think you should go check on Raven. She's not handling the news too well and you seem to naturally calm her down just being in her presence. I think she went to her room." Hank huffed and pushed to his feet, patting somewhere between Charles' chest and shoulder before walking off.
:: :: :: :: ::
It was night time now. Charles stood by the window of his room in only his sleeping trousers, looking up at the stars and feeling the cool breeze blow through his hair. A warm hand rested on the small of his back, fingers tracing over the bullet scar that almost ended his walking days and slid firmly around his hip, pulling his body close to Erik's. Charles sighed softly and whipped a tear from his cheek, sniffling once before turning to bury his face into Erik's neck. Two strong arms wrapped around his waist, a sculpted jaw rested on his head, deep, calming humming vibrated in Erik's throat, their bodies perfectly warm and perfectly fitting. A word in Erik's voice echoed in Charles' mind.
'Kaddish'
"Do you mind?" Erik asked out loud. Charles smiled and shook his head softly, closing his eyes and listening quietly as Erik began reciting the prayer. "Yis'ga'dal v'yis'kadash sh'may ra'bbo, b'olmo dee'vro chir'usay v'yamlich malchu'say, b'chayaychon uv'yomay'chon uv'chayay d'chol bais Yisroel, ba'agolo u'viz'man koriv; v'imru Omein." As Erik continued the prayer, Charles thought back to his childhood. As lonely as it was until Raven showed up, it wasn't a bad one. He thought of the times he saw his mother laugh, the times that she smiled, the times that she sang or hummed, the times that she held him when he cried over an injury, the times that she took care of him when he was sick. If he could go back and change it all, if he could somehow make it so she had remained that way, happy, content, not living out of the bottle, he would. He would with all his might.
But now. Now is too late. And too late is just the beginning of something new.
He didn't believe in any god or heaven or hell, but he hoped there was one and he hoped that she was in a better place. It's all he could do for her now.