Title: Extinguished
Pairing/Characters: Charles Xavier x Erik Lehnsherr.
Warnings: Mentions of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, those sort of things.
Rating: T for darker themes.
Summary: Again. The fire alarm in his college building went off again early in the morning, that made the third time in a week. Someone must have been doing this deliberately to deprive Erik of his wonderful sleep.
Again. That damn fire alarm had gone off again, this time at 2:30 am on a Thursday early morning.
Erik, like most college kids, had his fair share of late nights partying, but never this close to exams and never had he woken up the dorms with his antics. Since the beginning of the college year the fire alarm in his dorm building had gone off at least eight times, each time there would be no sign of danger or problems with the alarm itself.
No, someone had deliberately been pulling the alarm for shits and giggles.
He could only be thankful that the sudden up in activity had happened in May rather than back in December when the winter months had been blistering cold. The alarm had gone off twice during that month and then hadn't been pulled again until over a month later.
Taking his time that morning Erik stepped outside of his dorm building, finding the rest of the students gathering outside as well and looking just as irritable as Erik felt. This one marked the third time in a single week the alarm had been pulled, three days that had deprived Erik of much needed sleep for studying and upcoming exams.
Crossing his arms as the morning chill blew across the campus Erik couldn't help but to shiver lightly, he only wore a white tank top and boxers to bed and he always awoke too drowsy to think about grabbing a coat or anything to throw on himself. Even now he hadn't thought about it even knowing that there had been no danger.
Thinking of being cold, he glanced over towards the stairs that lead down away from the building and towards a little square that had benches and a fountain. Sitting on the top steps was a student Erik had seen around but never spoken to, Charles Xavier. He didn't know much about the other student other than he was younger but skipped ahead several years from being absolutely brilliant.
Erik could confirm that much, he had been in a few of the other's same classes and whenever there were projects to be shown in front of the class Xavier's would be phenomenal. The only other thing he knew was that Xavier kept mostly to himself, didn't really have a group of friends he hung around with. Only showed up to parties on occasion, drank a bunch and then would leave without speaking to a single soul.
In fact, now that he thought about it...Xavier always sat in a similar spot when the fire alarms went off, he always seemed to be one of the first outside and he always was dressed appropriately for the weather when no one else was. It didn't seem right, the kid wasn't the type to enjoy causing others problems. He was overly polite, the only time Erik had ever interacted with him if you could even consider it that, was when they had bumped into each other in the hallway.
Xavier had quickly picked up the things they had both dropped and apologized profusely before stepping around Erik and disappearing down the hallway towards his destination.
Firemen arrived, checked the scene and grumbled again to one of the staff that they should put up a security camera to catch whoever was constantly doing this. The school had tried but some parents had threatened to sue, saying that their children's privacy was at stake with camera's everywhere. Everyone knew how stupid that sounded but alas the school had given up, no cameras were going to get installed.
Soon after the firetruck left everyone started flooding back inside to catch their winks of sleep. Standing off to the side Erik waited until there was no one left, Xavier hadn't gotten up to go back to his room and instead sat staring at the gushing fountain down in the square and held the small blanket he carried tighter around his form.
Stepping over he startled the younger man with a slightly booming voice, "Not going inside?"
The other practically jumped out of his skin and turned to look wide-eyed at Erik. "O-Oh, hi. Um, yeah actually I was just about to get up and head in." A blatant lie, Erik could have spotted it a mile away. So when Xavier made no move to get up and go inside as he had suggested, Erik instead walked forward and sat next to him on the steps.
"How do you always have a jacket or blanket handy when that alarm goes off?" Erik forced his voice not to sound accusing and instead a bit light-hearted, playful as if he hadn't started to put some of the puzzle pieces together here.
"I'm...psychic?" the other joked back with a small smile. "I'm sorry." Xavier apologized as if he had done something wrong, yeah Erik definitely knew who was pulling the alarm all of the time now. "You look cold, here." the smaller of the two pulled the blanket from his shoulders and draped it around Erik's almost-bare ones to stop his shivering.
"Thanks. Can't sleep?" he asked then, still not voicing what he knew and trying to skip around the subject to figure out what was going on in Xavier's head.
"Yeah...something like that. Being stuffed up in my room alone gets exhausting, thought I'd sit out here for a bit to clear my head." The dorm rooms did get stuffy Erik could admit, especially when you were one of the unfortunate kids who had to bunk with another. Even more annoying if that other was party animal Alex Summers, a future drop-out in Erik's mind.
"Do you play chess?" Erik asked lightly and was met with confused eyes, he gestured down the steps. "They have chess tables down here, do you play?" He was met with a nod, moments later they were sitting across from each other and beginning their game. Neither spoke during the entire match but Charles whipped him hard.
"Damn! I don't think I've ever wiped the floor with me so hard before in chess!" he exclaimed. "I'm sorry." the apology came out of nowhere in Erik's thoughts and he blinked, lifting his gaze from where his king was tipped over to meet Charles sad blue eyes. "What are you sorry for?"
"B-Beating you...? Oh and keeping you up so late, I'm sure you need rest with exams coming up." Xavier's voice sounded conflicted, sorry for those things yet happy that Erik had spent some time with him and kept his mind off of whatever was flying around inside of his head. "Don't be sorry."
After that, they bid each other a good night and went their separate ways to their dorm rooms. Erik had walked slowly and watched down the hall, making sure Xavier actually went to his room.
The alarm wasn't pulled again until one week later. Exams were two weeks away but for the first time the alarm didn't irritate him when he awoke to it. This time Erik took his shoes and a coat and walked straight over to where Charles sat, "Let's have a rematch."
When they sat together and the light from the sconces illuminated them Erik could see water built up in Charles' eyes, water that wasn't allowed to flow like a huge dam had been constructed to keep it all inside. Charles didn't speak a single time during their three games, and Erik didn't ask him to. He only made comments, not questions, so that the other student wouldn't feel pressured into talking.
Not until they were about to head inside did Erik feel a light tug on his coat sleeve and a small voice muttered, "Thanks...for the games." Even though he still seemed timid and small, Charles' eyes had flushed away the tears and were left a little brighter, his face seemed a little calmer and during the last match his hands hadn't shaken so much while moving the pieces around the board.
"Anytime."
He had no idea what made Charles feel so awful that he needed to pull the fire alarm at night, whatever it was haunted the younger student which was evident in his eyes. Erik had been glancing more at Charles during classes, in the lunchroom, and in the hallways than he ever had given before and watched his mannerisms.
It happened again the next morning, and twice the following week. The only difference now being that Charles would wait for him at the chess tables instead of on the steps. They talked more after the third time, making light conversation about menial things.
Erik never had the courage to speak up about it, worried that if their little unspoken truce became spoken he might just break the young man he had come to care about in his own way. They were friends, more than friends? He honestly didn't know, all he knew was that the thought of Charles sitting alone and upset gave a pain to his own heart.
The thought of something happening to Charles, or Charles doing something to himself...Charles not being at school anymore. They were all thoughts that had recently started to crop up in his mind, and they all scared him half to death.
Erik had no idea what he was doing, should he treat Charles like glass and keep up their new status quo? Or should he be more persevere and attempt to sit with Charles at lunch, in the library, talk to him before classes? He had no idea which would be better, which was more comforting to the lonely student who had nudged into his life out of nowhere.
And, he was running out of time. Exams were next week and then there would be break time before class resumed in August. What would Charles do when he didn't have a fire alarm to pull to call Erik to his side? Somehow he would have to work out a way to contact the other, get Charles' phone number or email to check up on him periodically.
Then class-time would return and so would their little ritual of chess after the alarm pulling.
Was he doing enough? Erik desperately wanted to do more, to put more smiles on Charles' face that he rarely was able to pull out of the younger man. Yet every time he tried to even hint at anything retaining to the fire alarm being Charles' doing or what might be ailing him, the other would look like a deer in headlights. Ready to run and never come back, to lose what might be his only way of making himself feel better when his issues dipped darkly.
He was scared. Scared that one day Charles might decide not to pull that fire alarm.