The rain pattered softly, hitting the window and the pavement in a rhythm that mimicked Raven's keystrokes. She liked the brightness the laptop screen gave the room, compared to the dreariness outside. The fact that she was talking to a cute boy on the other end of the wifi lent it more of a warm glow, if she was honest with herself. She still checked over her shoulder every so often to make sure no one was behind her—Mom and Step-Pop Xavier wouldn't exactly give Bryan top marks.
She was safe here at school, but still...you never knew who was listening...
"Talking to your boyfriend again?" Charles' voice teased in her mind. If it wasn't so annoying it would be creepy, but growing up with a mutant (and proud!) for a brother made the intrusions smooth and almost expected. Raven was as used to his comments as she was to her own thoughts.
Automatically, though, she closed the computer as if Charles was nearby. She groaned internally.
"Oh, be civil—I'm not even in the room." His voice seemed to come from the right—outside the window and in the rain shower that was quickly becoming a deluge.
There, across the street at the cricket pitch, she glimpsed the shape of her brother emerging from the...well, the blurry side of the window. Lightening fast, she typed out a last IM to Bryan,
MissTik: Got to go. Playing in the rain!
As she skipped to the door, she saw the other boys following Charles onto the field from the academic side of campus. Hank, Scott, and Alex...and, of course, Erik. The usually stoic young man was ill at ease on a sports field, which she saw Charles trying to relieve by whooping and hollering a bit, tossing his wet hair.
Although it stung a bit, seeing Charles and Erik side by side like this, playing around like the puppies with the others, she couldn't help but be happy for Charles. And for Erik, even if she thought he was quite fit in his long-sleeved t-shirts, and gorgeous with his brooding, watchful demeanor. And even if he didn't see it himself.
See that Charles was falling in love with him. Despite what Erik showed to the rest of them, she knew he was falling, too.
The group came nearer to her study spot, already drenched. She yelled, loud enough for all of them to hear instead of just mentally calling Charles an idiot. "You're going to be completely covered!" She could see the mud splattering around their ankles, making its way up their pants.
He skidded to a halt, out of breath and exhilarated by his galumphing. "Ah! But it's Oxford mud, Raven!" he called.
His excitement was contagious, no matter how dirty they were all going to get, and she hurried out into the street and onto the pitch to meet him. Erik stopped short nearby, breathing hard.
"I'm not seeing the great fun in this yet, Charles," he said, resting his hands on his hips. Hank slapped his shoulder as he ran past to catch up to Alex, chasing his fellow mutant with triple the speed of marathon runner. They were lucky no one was out on the pitch.
Scott tagged him from behind, urging Erik to join the "fun". Reluctantly, but with a small smirk on his face, the stern young man followed.
"Careful not to soak those khakis, Erik!" Raven yelled. She couldn't resist. He had clearly not been prepared for this sort of diversion. "You'll catch pneumonia!"
Her brother made to run off after his friends, but stopped himself, whispering gently in her ear, "Don't make too much fun—he's never played in the rain before," before giving her arm a brief tweak, charging into the fray.
Her heart slipped a beat, something only her brother had ever been able to make it do. Poor Erik. No wonder he felt so uncomfortable. She imagined it must be twofold, the uneasiness. Charles was always at peace with whatever he encountered, deciding on a course of action that he was sure to meet with his exceptional intelligence and buoyant personality.
He hadn't talked with her about his feelings towards Erik, but she could see it in the way he looked at him, at how he wanted to help him adjust. But Erik, he was least trusting of people, and would be even more reserved about his feelings, particularly romantic ones. She wished...she wished that he felt that way about her.
Maybe it would have been different if she'd been born a mutant like her brother. Then they'd have something in common. "Mutant and proud!" That stupid toast Charles used to pick up women...
Women. So of course the one guy (besides Bryan, obviously) that she showed any interest in, Charles felt a special connection to. And proud, genius, optimistic Charles knew that he couldn't pass Erik up—that he couldn't leave him the way he was. When he needed him like he did, when he needed all of them.
She guessed that would make her his sister. Raven felt herself smile. Another brother. Mutant, no less. Well, things wouldn't exactly be that different, would they?
Alex, Scott, and Hank were still slapping happily through the muck, splattering themselves and each other willy-nilly as they enjoyed the rain. Charles ran with them, hanging behind a bit to draw Erik into the game. Erik smiled, hesitant but making an effort. "Take off your shoes!" Charles said to him, talking over the commotion. "Take. Off. The shoes!"
Raven watched as her new brother looked at Charles and then, stoically, comically, removed first one shoe then the other.
"The socks! Take off the socks!" Hank yelled, his head firmly in the grip of Alex. Scott slammed into both of them, and Charles and Erik dashed in to meet their makers.
With a parting look at her laptop—if anyone stole it, she supposed Charles could just search the students' minds until he found the culprit—Raven finally raced into the heart of the pitch, launching herself atop her brother (the biological one) and getting him muddy all across his waist.
Beaming with accomplishment, her gaze drifted over Charles' head to the periphery of their little circus. Erik still managed to find a way to hover awkwardly, even when grinning maniacally at their idiocy. She realized it was because everyone was paired off. Erik felt alone when Charles wasn't beside him, no matter who else was there.
Dismounting a little less gracefully than usual—she and Charles had a lot of practice with piggyback rides and unexpected tacklings—Raven made her way over to Erik. Perhaps an annoying little sister would make him more at home.
Slowly, casing her target, then at full speed, she sprinted across the field, seizing him around the neck in a mockery of a hug. He thwarted her attempt to drag him into the action by rolling her over his head and into his arms like a baby-doll. She gave a growl of protest, dissolving into laughter at the unexpected move. He pulled her tighter to his chest, so that she was unable to maneuver her arms to escape and could only wriggle in a fit of giggles and frustration.
"See, I knew you could have fun," she said, loud enough for only Erik to hear, laughing to soften any offense he might take. She blew some of her blonde hair that had become draped across her nose, making it fly across his jacket's arm.
"I knew you could be a load of trouble," he said, his voice straining with the effort to contain her. Finally, when they were almost to the rest of the group, he put her down stoutly on the ground. "If you trained a bit you might actually get free by yourself one day." He nudged her shoulder.
Indulging in a whim, and perhaps a delayed sympathy to Charles comment about playing in the rain, Raven didn't allow him to be free of her just yet. She kept her arms around Erik's neck, locking him into a permanent bow. "It's okay to love him, you know." She said, softly. His eyes took on a sudden look of panic. His instinct was to protest, but she was strong enough to stay him for a few more moments.
"We all do, it won't make a difference if you do. Besides, he loves you already."
He looked as if his thoughts were far away. Released from her grip, Erik made no move to follow her back to the group, so she grabbed hold of his hand, pulling him along. She smiled, watching his own face transform. She had never seen his eyes glint like that before—well, maybe, when he was sparring with Charles over some moral quandary. When those two were walking through a difficult physics problem. When he was talking with Charles at all.
"Come on," Raven said, tugging him into what had become a family wrestling match. She acted like he should have already known. "We love you too."