Had so many ideas for stories but just wasn't satisfied with what I had. Hopefully this is the first of many.
Obviously AU, happens about two months after the D.C showdown.
'Stop this; you have to listen to me. You have to come home,' he pleaded.
'I know exactly what I have to do.'
"This is a surprise."
"What are you doing here?" She'd asked not the least shocked to see him. She'd been replaying their conversations in her mind ever since she'd limped away from Erik at the White House and though Charles had let her walk away from him for a second time; she didn't think he'd leave her be for too long. Two months was more than she had expected if she was honest.
"I remembered," he said.
"You promised once we would come to Paris. We were going to tour the bridges and see the river."
He kept his distance and she appreciated it. Glad that he seemed to still be giving her space. Of course getting on a plane and returning to this city was more than a coincidence than she wanted to admit. In fact it was very possible that he was ready to have that talk they'd never had a chance to have.
"Not just any river, this is The Seine. It's 776 km long and most of its length is available to tour."
"I don't need a history lesson," she cut him off before he could really get started. It was too much like the old days when he'd find some odd bit of information and she'd be his sometimes unwilling audience until she could distract him with something else.
He looked crestfallen and she had to bite her tongue to keep from apologizing. It wasn't his fault that she was angry with herself for still gravitating towards him even after all this time apart.
"No, I imagine you don't. I'm sure there's very little left for me to teach you about the world," he said it with a smile but it wasn't a happy one.
"That's true." She softened her tone and relief swept over his worried features.
"How's your leg?" he asked.
"Healing. Yours?"
"Not healing," he answered.
She didn't want to cause him any more pain but she needed to know why he'd been unable to stop Erik from hurting her and despite what she told herself, Raven still cared for him and she was curious about how he'd regained his mobility. "Why couldn't you stop Erik?"
He smiled again and it was deeply bitter. "The serum I take let's me walk but…"
"Takes your power." She finished for him.
"Can't have both, I guess." He looked away from her and they both glanced at the darkening sky.
Raven was pretty sure that despite what she'd seen and done, she was not quite ready to deal with this new Charles but she owed him for not contacting him once since his accident.
"I'm sorry." It was an unnecessary apology but she did it anyway. He looked so closed off and dare she say lonely. 'Could my absence have really affected him this deeply? What had Erik called me, oh yes, 'Charles' Raven.' Had Charles missed his Raven?'
Small droplets of rain began to fall lightly and he looked up at the sky. 'Me too,' he whispered into her mind but she shook her head to dislodge his voice.
It would be too easy to fall into his honeyed tones. Too easy to pretend that she could just stand and talk to him and not wish for things to be different. For her friends to be alive, for Erik to not be so angry and for him to be whole and them...he was too deeply entrenched in the things she had told herself she could never have.
"Will you continue to take it?"
"No." he said it matter of factly and without any kind of pity for himself in his voice.
"You'll give up…"
"Yes. My powers are needed. My legs are not." He interrupted her.
"When?" Perhaps neither one of them was fully resigned to their given roles.
"After tonight. I wanted to walk the bridges of Paris, just once and I really am glad that you are okay."
"As well as I can be." She replied.
"Would you walk with me?"
"There are 37 bridges and I can't really walk well. Mostly limping." She waved at her obviously bandaged leg.
"Of course. I didn't think." He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and glanced once more around. "I guess…"
"We could stay right here," she said leaning a little more on the railing of the bridge.
"Here? It's raining."
"Its just water and this is a bridge."
"It is."
"You promised me a great many things and failed."
"Raven, I know that-"
"Keep your promise now, Charles."
He walked closer to where she stood until he too could lean on the railing but not invade her space.
She limped closer to him, mostly because she wanted to but also to put him at ease. "Not what I had in mind for our first trip to Paris," he said.
"Show me."
They stood in the very same spot, she wearing a ridiculous white summer dress with a black and white stripped hat and he in a dapper pair of black slacks and a cream colored shirt that complimented her dress.
She was holding a bouquet of flowers and he was carrying a bottle of wine. She was smiling and holding onto his arm and he had the other wrapped around her waist. It was getting dark but she looked at the sky and back to him with a smile on her face.
"That's it?" She said as the vision faded.
"That's it."
"It was nice."
"It was." He replied.
"It wasn't real," she said.
"No. It wasn't."
"It'll never be real," and she was sorry.
"I know," and he was too. Charles moved off the railing and tossed the last of his serum into the river before making his way back to the hotel and then back to the lonely mansion that had to be reopened.
"No wine?"
He turned in surprise. "Wine?"
"There's a café. We could sit."
"My chair is at the hotel." He said already feeling the tingling and hearing the echo of voices that signified the return of his powers.
"How long do you have?"
"A few hours." He replied.
"I can walk with you," she offered and wrapped her arm around his before he could reply and he wrapped his other arm around her waist to help take the pressure of her leg and before she changed her mind. "We could order a glass at the hotel."
"A bottle on one condition."
She stumbled and he righted her. "What?"
"Tell me what you've been doing. Tell me how you are doing."
"Why?" His grip tightened on her waist and she realized that she'd started to move away from him.
"I want to know who you are." He said softening his grip and allowing her to retreat if she wished.
She did, "why?"
"I thought I missed you but what I see now is that what I missed never existed. The little girl, I rescued all those years ago and that I've been pining for all this time, has been gone for many years. I'm sorry it took all this madness to see it."
"We can't go home Charles. Too much has happened. Too much has changed."
"That depends on your idea of home, Raven. Your idea of change."
She looked away from him and back to the river. "They say if you listen hard enough and let your worries go that the river speaks to you." She turned back to him, "what would the river tell you?"
"That's between the river and I," he reached out his hand and waited. She glanced at it then took it, "but I'd be willing to tell you that and anything else you want to know."
"Anything?"
"Whatever you want to know."
"This won't change anything." She said again but curled her hand around his arm and they began to walk back to his hotel.
"We decide that." He said and laid his hand on top of hers.
"We?"
"You and me against the world."
"Watch out world." She said and squeezed his hand back.
'I believe in you. In us.'
"I know."