I own nothing, this is all for entertainment. (as everyone knows)
Fair warning, this is a continuation of my story Repercussions, for those who asked me to continue it, and I would highly recommend going to read the previous story before going anywhere with this one. I've recently begun to fall in love with Nickel Creek, and the lyrics seemed to represent what was happening in this chapter and so I named the chapter after the song 'Jealous of the Moon.' I recommend you listen to it while reading.
Jealous of the Moon
The first thing that he recognized as he was waking was a splitting pain in his head, and the presence of many wires and tubes everywhere on him. Erik cursed, he hadn't died, and he was at the mansion, probably in the lab. The thought of being on one of the thinly covered lab tables made him shudder violently, which quite frankly, hurt. He opened his eyes, which were very crusty and tried to move his head, only to realize that he had a respirator attached to his face. He reached up and began to remove it, which made some alarms go off and suddenly Hank was rushing into the lab.
"You're awake!" Erik shot him a look. "I suppose you want the respirator off…" He scratched his neck nervously and Erik raised an eyebrow which made the younger man spring into action, gently removing the sensors and wires, and finally the respirator. "I should tell the Professor that you're awake." Erik sat up quickly in alarm, shaking his head.
"No. He'll know. No need to tell him." Erik glanced at the smiling boy who chuckled nervously.
"I guess you're right. I'm glad you're okay." Erik raised an eyebrow and snapped out of his brooding for a moment. This boy- no, man- was probably the sole reason that he was even alive. He straightened up, as dignified as he could be in the hospital gown that he was wearing. (Where they got such a thing and who put him in it, he did not particularly want to know.)
"Dr. McCoy?" The blue man looked up at him from the machine that he was turning off. "I would like to thank you, for my life that is, I seem to be in your debt." Hank seemed to be shocked by this.
"You saved all of us and stopped a nuclear war, and you believe that you're in my debt?" Erik clenched his jaw, only a little bit hurt that his appreciation was shot down so bluntly. He stood up and started out of the room.
When he reached the door, he paused, his hand on the doorknob. "I only wished to extend my thanks. Without you, I would no doubt be dead." And better off for it, but he was not going to express such thoughts. "I'll take my leave." He pushed the door open and stepped out, the floor cold against his feet.
"Hey! Take it easy!" The doctor shouted out the door and he sighed, the injury would prevent him from much physical activity, and he would heed the order, as he wanted to recover as quickly as he could.
He needed to get to his room before anyone could see him, before Charles could see him. He didn't want to see the blank expression and cold unfamiliarity that he knew he would be presented with, if Charles even wanted to see him at all. He inhaled sharply and grasped his side, it was still somewhat painful to breath and the sudden movement was worse. He vaguely wondered just how long he had been unconscious, but it really was of no consequence at the moment, all he really had to do was get out of here.
He entered his room without encountering anyone on his way and quickly dressed, pulled out his suitcase and threw all of his things into it. Suddenly becoming desperate to leave, having ruined his only real friendship that he had ever had, he wondered briefly who he was fleeing from. He knew that he couldn't really be fleeing from Charles as he knew somewhere inside him that the man would never want to ostracize him. But he also felt that the man would now be different. They wouldn't have the familiar friendship that he had grown to treasure; Charles would now pity him and be careful with him when they were together, not wanting to dissolve the friendship entirely, but also not wanting to lead Erik on.
Erik shook his head in disgust. He would save both of them the awkwardness, save Charles the trouble. Save himself from the pain such a relationship would bring. He closed his bag and looked around the room for a moment, a thought struck him, would it be better to leave now and never see Charles again? Or to see him every day and face the repercussions of his idiocy, see the rejection?
The first option was decidedly better. His door opened and he looked up sharply to see the smiling face of Raven, or Mystique as she now called herself. "You're awake!" Erik raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly.
"It seems that I am." She didn't seem to be phased by the caustic quality of his tone.
"I'm going to have everyone fix a great dinner and we're all going to celebrate the fact that our mission was successful! We haven't done that yet because you were the main person to save everyone.. and you were in bad shape, so it just didn't feel right." Her eyes drifted to his suitcase. "What are you doing?" He voice was steady and low.
"I'm packing." She clenched her jaw with such force that it was incredibly visible.
"I can see that." Her voice was low, dangerous. "But why are you packing?" He sighed, which was decisively more painful than it should be.
"Because I'm leaving." She stepped closer and hugged him tightly, aware that as soon as she let go, he was going to walk out the door, down the stairs, out the front door and past the gate, never to come back.
"You're not allowed to leave. Have you told Charles? He won't let you do this, you know." It was Erik's turn to clench his jaw. She moved back a little bit, able to feel that he had tensed. "Oh no, you wouldn't do that would you?" She searched his face for a moment and looked away. "You were going to leave without telling him. Why? Why are you leaving in the first place?" She pulled him closer once again.
"I made a mistake, and I cannot retract my actions. It would be much easier if I were to leave before Charles could talk to me about it." His stomach churned and his chest clenched, from a pain that had nothing to do with his wound.
"What did you do?" Erik looked at her beautiful, searching, golden eyes and let his shoulders slump the smallest bit, Charles was going to tell her anyways, they were very close as siblings, he might as well tell her now.
"I told him that I loved him, and I do. But it would now mess things up, and the school has to run smoothly for everyone to remain safe. I will not jeopardize any of you." She looked up at him and if he hadn't known better, he would think that she was about to cry.
"How do you know that he doesn't return your feelings? What if you're just throwing it all away? And you're wrong?" Chills ran down his back and arms with the strange and weak sense of hope that came with her statements. But he remembered the immediate shutdown of Charles' usually open face after his confession. She had a good thought process, but she was wrong.
"He doesn't feel the same." She slumped even further against him and he was almost ashamed of himself for upsetting her like this.
"There's nothing I can say to get you to stay, is there?" He smiled down at her and shook his head.
She stepped back and half-smiled at him, wiping her face as she had started crying at some point. "Then I wish you luck, Erik. Come back some time."
He nodded at her, but did not agree aloud, because in truth, he knew that he was not going to return. He stepped by her and quickly exited the mansion, walking off of the grounds, towards the gate, absorbing every sight that he could, knowing that he was not going to see this beautiful estate again.
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"Charles." He looked up sharply at his sister's voice. She seemed to be upset and looked like she had been crying.
"Raven, what's wrong?" She took a deep breath and gave him a deeply scornful look of which he was surprised, but did not search her mind as he knew she would be offended if he 'violated her privacy' as she had claimed at some point.
"I can't believe you. I can't believe." She huffed and sat down crossly in the chair that sat across from him, chess table in between, his and Erik's game still set up and prepared for them to complete once Erik woke up. If he woke up, Charles' mind seemed to hiss at him. "He left. Because of you." Charles looked at her, shocked.
"Who left?" As far as he was aware, everyone but Moira was still on the property, but she had no real recollection of the place and had been sent off. But Moira was definitely not a boy and therefore could not be called he, which frankly, left Charles confused.
"Don't act like you don't know. Playing dumb has never been an attractive act of yours." Charles raised his eyebrows.
"Raven, I assure you, I have no idea what you are talking about." She crossed her arms and slumped further down in her chair in what was most likely defiance of some sort. She gritted her teeth and held her arms closer to herself.
"Erik. He left." Charles' eyes went wide and he stared at her in a sort of disbelief.
"Don't be ridiculous, he hasn't woken up yet." Charles honestly did believe what his sister was saying, but he really didn't want to believe her. Didn't want to think that Erik would have left without telling him, slipped out and gone away, especially after what he had said before he had slipped into the coma that Charles desperately wanted to believe he was still under.
"He has, you can ask Hank. He left soon afterwards." Hank, how is Erik doing? He sent the quick message to the doctor and was soon filled with the other man's confusion.
He left sometime this morning, professor. I thought you knew that. I thought he projected that he was awake to you; he implied so, at least. I would have come and alerted you if I hadn't thought you already knew… Charles drew a deep breath at the man's statement. He turned back to Raven.
"Why didn't you tell me he was leaving?" Charles asked almost frantically. Erik was out there somewhere, most likely walking, and he had not even recovered from his wounds yet. He sent out a search and could not find him, so he must have gotten a ride because he was out of Charles' range, at least when he wasn't using Cerebro.
"Because you are the reason he left. Really Charles, how could you reject him like that? When he was dying?" It was now Charles' turn to be utterly confused.
"Rejected him? I did no such thing." She looked at him. "I told him that I returned the feelings, after recovering from momentary shock." They stared at each other for a few moments.
"He didn't hear me." Charles' statement was coupled with Raven's statement of 'He didn't hear you.' They both stood up abruptly.
We need to find him.
Thank you to those who reviewed on Repercussions (the title is now spelled correctly.) I loved the praise and I'm very thankful to BloodFeud who pointed out my typo. I'm going to continue this story for a bit more, a few chapters if you want them. (: