Note: Takes place between When Will Met Grace and I Want You To Spit In My Face.
Summary: Charles sighs heavily, resigned to the fact that his first Gay Pride has now reached the feared state of botched up… He's twenty one and Raven, fourteenth year well engaged, finds his ever-present blush absolutely hilarious.
A Place To Fit In
Charles sighs heavily, resigned to the fact that his first Gay Pride has now reached the feared state of botched up –Raven says it's a total disaster, but she has no idea what a real disaster is. The weather's absolutely horrible, the music has trouble making itself heard, and he won't even talk about the kind of offers he's received so far… as if it weren't bad enough to be propositioned by drunken, overly butch guys in a heavily hormone-laced inebriated land, he's got to hear it in front of his baby sister!
He's twenty one and Raven, fourteenth year well engaged, finds his ever-present blush absolutely hilarious. She's disguised as a pale, redheaded kid with freckles and artfully messy short hair. She wanted to come in her true form, and Charles would have agreed were the circumstances different, but he's a telepath, he knows what people think, how many of them still regard the joyful, noisy parade as something that shouldn't be there, think they're really all trying to make spectacles of themselves! And there should be laws against that and even the occasional but ever terrifying: someone should shove it up their ass real rough, see if the dirty fags don't go back to girls after that!.
Charles is all for being proud of who you are, and he really resented pleading for Raven to come out as more ordinary today, but he can't stand the idea of exposing her to even more blind hatred than there already is. He is an optimistic, he really is –has to be if he wants to survive- but he's also able to hear what people think, meaning he's also a realist, at least part of the time, and he's sure as hell not going to let his baby sister provide a bunch of rapist wannabe perverts with any more wanking material than they already have, thank you very much!
So they're both here in disguise, pretending to be more ordinary than they really are, because Charles' hands are moist enough from just the stress of being there, being among other people like him -partly like him anyways- which, as wonderful as it is, feels somewhat terrifying, because Charles still doesn't feel like he properly belongs there, and it's a bit disheartening, but not enough so that it spoils all the fun.
He's got to work hard to push homophobic thoughts out, though –maybe he should have mingled with the cortege more, to make the happy thoughts louder, but he's still staying at the edge of it because no matter how hard he tries, he hasn't been able to stay in the middle of a demonstration since he was little and his very first one went… bad. Like, really, really bad. Still, at least Raven's having fun, even if he can sense her disappointment that there isn't anyone with original skin color or funny appearance –well, not any funnier than a guy clad in a rainbow-colored shower curtain, anyways- so there's that.
But then, as they make their way down the streets along the flow of people, there's a sudden movement, Raven is jerked away from him, people run into each other and Charles feels completely smothered in bodies and minds and thoughts and it's too much like this first time, way too much, and he's panicking now he can feel it in the way thoughts aren't filtered properly anymore and he doesn't know what to do, can't bring himself to build his defense back, can't slow his breath, he sees too much, hears too much, feels too much, dozens, hundreds of informations at the same time and it's spinning, spinning, spinning and he's feeling dizzy and sick and where is Raven? Need to find Raven –need to make sure –where –ohgod –need to –have to –RavenRavenRavenRavenRaven…
He doesn't realize people have stopped in their track and started looking around them until a strong pair of arms seize him by the middle and force him into an alley and hold him in place until his head feels a bit cleared and he knees them in the stomach with a precision that comes from years of boxing lessons. The stranger yelps and releases him and Charles lunges for the main street but he's stopped by something that looks like a cross between a guy and a wall.
"Woah there buddy," the Wall says. "Take it easy man, you're freaking out the whole parade… I'm assuming it's you anyways. The telepath?"
Charles wants to run and hide, but they're stronger than he is, both of the guys, and he won't be able to fend them off if he doesn't get a hold of himself, so he allows the Wall's strong voice to lull him back to calm, back to a state where he can begin to think coherently again.
"Raven," is the first spoken word to leave his lips. "My sister, I need to…."
"Don't worry," First Guy says, "my boyfriend's calling for her right now, he'll find her soon, and he'll bring her back, 'kay? But you gotta calm down dude, or we're gonna have spectators and half the parade on our back faster than you can say Registration Act."
Charles is calm enough by now that he sees the reason in that statement, and he forces himself to breathe, deep and long, like he used to do when he was younger and he had to, had to keep quiet in the Manor –noise in the Manor never was a good idea, and he's always managed to stay silent, despite everything, so once he's in the right frame of mind, finding his breath back comes relatively quickly.
"Better," the Wall says. "My name's Darwin, and surfer there's Alex. You okay?"
"I'll manage." Charles grunts –at least his voice isn't shaking or anything… it's a bit sad to see how well he manages panic, but he supposes it comes with the history. "Where's my sister?"
"Charles!"
Raven flings herself at him, all blue scales and red hair and teary yellow eyes, and she buries her nose in his neck, like she does every time she's anxious while at home, her small frame pressed along his, warm and solid and comfortably alive through the sobs and plaintive gasps she lets out.
"Never do that again!" She whines, and all he can do to ease her fear is to say he won't, he won't, promisepromisepromisepromise.
"Thank you," Charles manages to choke at the guy who brought Raven back to him, a pale, freckle-faced redhead with sheepish smile and good-natured demeanor. "Thank you very much. I don't know how to repay you."
"Well, buy us a coffee and we'll call it even," the guy says with an easy smile, drawing a matching one from Charles, who is still clutching Raven's frail body with all his might.
"Seriously" First Guy –Alex- interrupts without bite, "can't you at least wait 'til I'm gone to flirt with the first handsome guy you meet?"
Raven giggles at that, and Charles is left at an uncharacteristic loss for word. He's been called a number of things before –cute, mostly, sometimes pretty, and even chou, once, when he visited France for a High School trip- but handsome's never been a part of it. At any rate, he thinks Alex or Darwin –even Alex's boyfriend fit the definition much more accurately than he does.
"Nope," Boyfriend grins –and Charles is instantly reminded of Moira when he first met her- "it's funnier to see you fuming on the side. I'm Sean, by the way. Sean Cassidy. You?"
"Charles Xavier," Charles says. "This is my sister, Raven." Raven nods, but doesn't disentangle herself from his arms. "Thank you again for helping us. The three of you. Coffee doesn't really cover it… what do you say I treat you all for lunch?"
They start by resisting, of course, they're good guys and they don't want to cause him inconsiderate spending –of course, they don't know Charles just came into a massive inheritance- but he manages to convince them eventually, without even sneaking a peak at their thoughts even once, and they set off toward the nearest café, where Charles treats them to a rather royal lunch, which the five of them enjoy greatly.
Turns out the three of them are Mutants, too. Darwin, apparently, is the one who changes to respond to his environment –Charles overhears a thought here or there that tell him Darwin's a nickname, and a good one at that. Sean is, to put it in Alex's words 'forever banned from shower singing' and Alex is the one whose mutation isn't explained.
Charles resists looking in his brain for his answer –mostly because Raven is watching him very insistently, and she's picked up on his lessons about moral a little bit too well in his opinion, but well. As far as his family is concerned, Raven fills the role of the one who changes –as she proved when she took a new appearance before they left the alley they'd all met in- and he's the one whose mutation isn't explained.
Darwin, Alex and Sean all laugh when he tells them neither Raven nor himself are banned from singing in the shower, though.
They talk and talk and talk for the rest of the afternoon, all thoughts of the parade completely forgotten as Charles, Alex and Sean rejoice in the knowledge that they're not alone, that there are others who are both mutants and gay and proud to be both, even though there's no Mutant Pride Parade. –Yet, Raven says, and the glint in Alex's eyes matches Charles at that tiny word. It's the glint of someone finding a crazy thing to do and clinging to it with all their might.
That night, after Charles has tucked Raven into bed and made sure the kitchen will be manageable for breakfast tomorrow –he'll probably never get over his old habit of scattering books and papers all over the place, wherever he is- he calls Moira, who is away in California for a family vacation and has to bite her fist not to be heard squealing when he tells her about how he met Alex –'why are all the hot one gay, Charles? Did you do something to him?'- Sean –'You are going to introduce us, right?'- and Darwin –'that is a wicked trick, my friend! Like a chameleon, only better!-
Charles doesn't tell her about the crazy project that half formed itself in his and Alex's minds, though. That idea is for Mutants, and Mutants alone, and though she'll be more than welcome to celebrate once it's launched, working on it will be something Sean, Alex, Darwin and himself will work onto among themselves, among Mutants.
Among what, Charles realizes with a start, may very well become the first place he's ever completely fitted in.