Summary: It's too late by the time Erik returns to the mansion, Charles is already gone.
The news arrived in a whisper, spoken to one and then another until it reached his ears.
Erik had felt fear before but in this moment with those words echoing in the silence around him the fear inside him felt new, like cutting open every old wound and making them raw.
Erik flees, he runs until he can fly but...
It's too late, Erik know the second it happens, the Helmet left behind, in his rush he tells himself later but the truth, the truth he hides and drowns behind his sorrows until he forgets it and all he remembers is feeling foolish for leaving the Helmet behind.
Erik falls from the sky when in happens, reaches out and lets Charles sink into him, away from the pain that echoes in Erik's own, different but the same and they don't speak but Erik knows every word that Charles never dared tell him, never dared risk before.
There is no reason not to now.
Erik stays there, blood watering the dirt he'd hit when Charles reached for him, fist clenched in anger as tears of sorrow fell from his cheeks.
And then, like the flickering of a dying candle, Charles is gone from his mind, no matter how Erik reaches, grasps at him, Charles slips away like smoke through his fingers until Erik is once more left alone within his own mind.
For a second Erik thinks about going back, about not continuing forwards... but Charles had called to him, asked him... begged him and Erik... Erik had let Charles down so many times before that he could not bare to do so one more time.
Erik arrives at the Mansion to see it burning, children are scattered across the grounds, some of them trying to stop the flames, others helping the rest flee far enough away to be safer. Erik walks forward and finds the child he needs, a young girl who has storms in her eyes.
He places his hand on her shoulders and guides her into making a storm, the clouds roll in, the sky darkens and thunder booms around them and for a moment the children shiver in fear of this strange man that they do not know who creates a storm with one of their own.
And then the storm breaks and the rains fall harshly and thick and hail comes with it until the fire is doused by the water that falls heavily around them.
Erik leaves the child to her storm and walks towards the ruins, ruins that he had once called home, for so brief a time.
But Erik does not care about the structure, only what it hides. There are children, or maybe not so much children but young adults, Erik thinks he spies Hank among them but if he does the other is using his 'cure' again because there is no hint of blue fur. They follow him carefully and help those that didn't make it out of the fire from the ruins as carefully as possible, Erik finds bodies, alive or dead, he makes no note as he calls to the others to help them before he moves on.
He has not found the one he searches for and will not stop until he does.
The children stop to rest, Hank almost completes a request for Erik to join them but stops, nods and brings Erik a bottle of water and something to eat. Erik takes the water and the sandwich, passing the food to the first child that crosses his path and keeps searching.
He does not know how long it has been since he arrived when he finds him, it has been dark for hours and it is one or more of the Children's powers that illuminates the area.
Erik does not shout for anyone when he discovers him in the rubble, he only drops to his knees next to him and carefully digs him out, lifts him up into his arms, like a bride and carries him out of the rubble.
The rain falls softly around them as Erik carries him and he stumbles over shifting brick and crumbling wood, but he does not fall, does not lose his hold on his burden, just shifts, lets Earth's magnetic fields steady him and keep them from falling until there is grass beneath his feet again and Children in the near distance.
And then Erik lets himself fall to his knees.
His tears mix with the rain and he does not know if he is glad for it as Hank runs to him and falls by his side.
Hank reaches, he asks but Erik's silence is telling and Hank knows, he knows.
Hank stands, he stops the children, catches the older ones to keep them away, he does not say it, does not have to, not with the way that Erik clutches the man in his arms, holds him and tries to shield him from the falling rain, but there is nothing left to shield, not really, hasn't been since before Erik arrived, and maybe Hank knew that, maybe they all had but... but some small part of Erik had hoped, had hoped that he was wrong.
Erik does not know what to do, there is so much to do, the children need a place to stay, the Mansion needs rebuilt, the children will need healing and possibly some kind of grief counseling, and... they need a teacher, a small voice whispered.
It sounded so much like Charles that Erik looked down at the man in his arms, but the face remained the same as before, still and soft, eyes shut, bruised and singed over his cheeks and at the tips of his hair. There was ash in his hair and on his clothing but there was no movement, no indication that he'd spoken, aloud or mentally.
Erik buried his face in Charles' hair, he knew what he should do, he should leave, set Charles gently on the wet grass and run, run back to his lair and his small band of followers and never look back, never come back.
But... but how could Erik leave Charles again, how could he leave Charles when he needed him.
The rain began to peter out hours later, the sun peaking through the clouds and Erik wondered if the girl had let it die out or if she had fallen asleep and the storm finished the course she set it on. There was still some smoldering from the wreckage but Erik did not look, he knew that some of the children were finishing up their searches but they left him alone, mostly because Hank stood watch over them.
Erik stood up slowly, Charles in his arms and Hank walked with him towards the garden, several shovels following along with metal scraps that twisted and bent before racing ahead, by the time they arrived at the center of the garden there was a grave dug and the metal had again twisted and bent until a coffin lay next to it.
It was gentle, the way Erik settled Charles in the metal coffin, as though he were laying Charles in a soft bed instead. He shook his damp coat from his shoulders and lay it over the still form before he covered him from view and lifted the coffin into the grave, the shovels lifting the dirt and throwing it into the hole, hiding the coffin from their sight.
There was nothing to say and Erik had no voice to say any words that he might have wished to, instead he turned away and left the shovels to their work and began to plan.
It did not take long for the Mansion to be rebuilt, not with the skills that each child had and Erik himself.
Hank still expected him to leave any day but Erik remained, he spoke softly to each child and encouraged them to be the best they could and to use their gifts to help others but never at risk to themselves. Each child had been gifted a bracelet or necklace made from metal and Erik used them to keep track of them all, meditating and searching for that goodness Charles had said was within him.
Erik sometimes wondered if the goodness inside him had been placed there by Charles.
Erik still wanted Mutants to be safe, to be equal to humans and not hated or feared but suddenly surrounded by all these children he was afraid for them, he reached out to politicians, found some that were Mutants, found some Mutants that were willing to go through legal channels and fight legislation and laws that would require registration or allow people to kill children that showed signs of being Mutants.
Erik placed ads and commercials as far and wide as he could, promising that they would take their children if they were Mutants, no questions, no age restrictions, not all of them were Mutants, not all of them even acted like they might be but suddenly that didn't matter, they became part of them by virtue of being left to them for such reasons.
Perhaps it was the little voice in his head that sounded like Charles that made Erik let them stay, the one that said, 'Teach them that there is no reason to fear us', that said, 'Teach them that we are just like them and send them out into the world to teach others.'
Or maybe Erik was tired of being filled with anger and sorrow and letting vengeance and fear guide his life.
There were days of quiet, while the children were in their classes, whether at the Mansion or at the school that let the children attend with Humans as long as they didn't use their powers to hurt others or cause any damages or put children in any danger that Erik would just wonder the grounds, thinking about how easily the children had settled after the fire and how glad some of them were to attend a school away from the Mansion, the little Storm girl would use her powers to water the public schools garden and she was told by Hank not to make storms to get out of their Physical Education classes, much to her friend's dismay.
Most days, when the quiet became too loud, Erik would find himself down in the Mansion's garden, and he'd sit next to a small metal cross that marked Charles' grave and he'd talk, sometimes in German, sometimes in English, and sometimes he'd whisper secrets in Polish, stories about his mother, about his father, from before the War and he'd wish some days that Charles could hear him.
He'd wish that he hadn't been too late.
A/N: I don't know where this came from. Like I was doing something and then felt an urge to write and this came out and it will probably make people cry and I'm sorry for that but... well.
There is possibly some unrequited/un spoken Charles/Erik feelings, at least those were the Vibes I was getting as I was writing but you might be able to just read it as a strong friendship.