A/N: Okay, so a small drabble I set out to write got a liiiitle out of hand and became this ficlet XD It's set in my Futureverse AU, but you don't need to read 'The Stars Burn Bright for Us' in order to understand this one...it might be helpful; but this DOES NOT follow TSBBFU canon, it's more like a scene I decided not to use. Basically, instead of being mutants, the characters are part-human, part-alien hybrids, who are persecuted against, living in a futuristic time period. Charles is a diplomat, traveling to a far-off planet to restore peace between the natives and the humans. He captains a government ship with his part-alien crew. Erik and Sean are co-pilots, Alex is in charge of weaponry, Hank is their engineer, and Raven is the ship's doctor.

This is dedicated to Bramblerose4, of course. Her continuing story 'Our Stars' also follows Futureverse canon.

Read and review!

~LoverBoyWonder

Erik shuffled into the cheerfully-painted galley, his dark clothes at odds with the brightly painted kitchen where Charles was currently working.

"Erm..." Erik didn't know what to say; Charles looked busy, bent over the oven with his back to Erik, and besides that the pilot was rather enjoying the view.

"Oh! Erik!" Charles straightened up, delighted, and clapped his hands- which were covered with oven mitts, of course- together, causing a cloud of flour to puff out and settle in the captain's hair. Erik laughed at Charles' flustered state; the captain was attempting to brush the flour out of his brown locks with his oven mitts, which only added more flour to the mess. Charles decided it was futile and turned his attention back to the pilot.

"What are you wearing?" Erik asked, eyeing the other man's getup strangely.

"It's an apron; something all males used to wear on Earth a long time ago. This one was Raven's idea," Charles shrugged. "But what brings you to the kitchen, my friend?" he asked, changing the subject
hurriedly. Erik flushed. "Sean kicked me out of the cockpit," he answered truthfully.

"Why?" Charles asked resignedly.

"Nothing I did, Charles, I can assure you. He said something about putting us in autopilot and a 'hot box' in the rec room or some such thing; apparently it's an old Earth ritual..."

The refrigerator door suddenly popped open, and Hank stuck his head out, causing Charles to jump and Erik to curse loudly.

"Sorry," the engineer said, "Sean is hotboxing the rec room? I need to go help him- I mean, stop him! I need to stop him!"

Erik and Charles just stared at the man in the fridge.

"Uh- I definitely wasn't tunneling into the fridge to steal food.
Nope, not me. I was just...rewiring the cooling circuits!" Hank looked guilty, but before Charles or Erik could say anything, the engineer pulled his head back into the fridge and swung the door shut.

Charles stared at Erik. Erik stared at Charles.

"Really, I could cut the smouldering tension between you two with a knife," Raven remarked, holding up a large serrated blade she had pulled from a drawer. Neither man had heard her enter the galley.

This time, it was Erik's turn to jump into the air, startled; but Charles just looked at his sister as if she always visibly carried large, sharp objects with her. "Please put the knife down, Raven," he asked, and she complied, replacing it in its drawer gently. "Raven, Sean is about to do something in the rec room which is probably illegal, and it seems as though Hank won't stop it. Would you mind stepping in?" Charles asked her, and Raven waved her hand as she began making herself a sandwich with the scraps of food remaining from their last planetside supply run.

"Make Alex do it," she suggested as she layered some small, fishy-looking objects onto what looked like a miniature sneaker but seemed to be made out of cheese.

Erik shook his head. "Alex was in the cockpit with Sean when I left," he reported. "Actually, I think they were planning together."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll do it," she said, picking up her strange meal and heading towards the galley door. "But you owe me. And nice apron," she called over her shoulder to Charles as she left, and
he shook his head.

He chanced a peek at Erik, who mostly just looked confused; but then Erik made eye contact, and something in the pilot's expression changed, like the dawning of a new idea written on his face. Erik took a step towards Charles, and another, and Charles felt his back pressed against the cool metal of the small table next to the dishwasher. He was sure he was blushing, and suddenly he felt nervous, and hot under the collar, but it wasn't his proximity to the other man, it was-

"Erik! My chocolate chip cookies are burning!"

Charles scrambled to open the oven, which was belching black smoke. He began coughing and Erik, ever the hero, heaved a sigh and pulled Charles back. He pulled one of Charles' silly floral-print oven mitts onto his hand- where did Charles find these things, honestly- and reached into the oven, removing the tray of now blackened cookies.

"They're ruined," Charles wailed, but Erik, who was looking at the tray of singed desserts contemplatively, pulled a cookie from the tray, blew on it, and took a bite with an audible crunch.

"They're good," the pilot said, and Charles gaped.

"Pick your jaw up off the floor, you're collecting space-flies," Erik advised, finishing off the cookie. Charles hurried to obey, closing his mouth but still looking at Erik, shocked.

"What? I like burnt foods," Erik shrugged. He looked at Charles suggestively. "Want to taste?" the pilot smirked. Charles barely had time to voice his objections- namely 'I don't like burned cookies' and also 'Erik dearest, the oven is catching fire'- before Erik had moved to stand in front of him again, and suddenly there were warm lips on his, and a tongue tracing patterns on the roof of his mouth, and he could taste smoke and heat and chocolate. He moaned loudly into Erik's mouth.

Erik chuckled, a deep rumble against Charles' lips, and continued ravaging the other man's mouth. The captain fisted his hands in the back of Erik's turtleneck, making sure the pilot couldn't go anywhere.

Erik groaned and straightened up, untying Charles' apron but leaving it hanging around the captain's neck.

"Clothes off," the pilot commanded. "But the apron stays on."

Charles shivered in the warmth of the galley as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off; unzipped his slacks and stepped out of them; pulled off his socks and briefs and stood waiting, pink apron the perfect companion to his similarly-shaded cheeks.

Erik shuddered in delight as he shucked his turtleneck and unbuttoned his pants, throwing them who-knew-where and not really caring where they landed...which was incidentally inside the burning oven that both of them ignored in favor of more pressing matters.

Oh, was Erik glad he had forgone underwear this morning. He had just bent Charles over the side of the metal table when-

"Heeeey guys," Raven entered the galley, sounding completely stoned, "Was gonna make 'nother san'wich-" She caught sight of the two men, both naked except for Charles in his pink, frilly apron. "Oh. My. Goooood! Charles- SEAN! I WIN THE BET!" she yelled at the ceiling.

"Oh- ooh! Raven," Charles struggled with coherency as Erik tigtened his grip on Charles' hips, "Are you a-AH! Are you all right?" Erik traced a path down the captain's spine with his tongue, ignoring
Raven's presence altogether.

Raven contemplated the tableau before her.

There were many things she could have said to fill the silence.

She offered simply "The oven is on fire," before turning around and walking out of the room.

Charles screwed up his face in concentration as he pushed through the fog of desire in order to focus on his surroundings, and sure enough, the oven was burning merrily. The firelight made long, flickering shadows on the wall, and smoke filled the room. "Erik!" Charles stood up, 'We have to get out of here, now!" He dashed to the exit, pushing the door open as Erik turned, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and sprayed the fire to put it out.

Charles grabbed the pilot's hand and dragged Erik out of the kitchen and towards their sleeping quarters. Both men were oblivious to the fact that, yes, they were now running naked- mostly naked, in Charles' case- through the ship's corridors and whoever was monitoring the security cameras, if anyone, could probably see them.

The pair hurried upstairs, and they attempted to get into Charles' room. Attempted, because Charles was trying to enter the code but Erik was trying to make out with Charles, which was not helping, especially not with Charles' pressing erection.

Alex, Sean, Hank, and Raven walked past, most likely headed to a rec room. Raven punched Sean in the arm, and the redhead's eyes went wide as he noticed Charles and Erik. "No way," he declared, but fished around in a pocket for some bills, which he pressed into Raven's waiting hand. All of the crew looked kind of out of it. Whatever Sean had been doing...Charles didn't want to think about it. It probably wasn't permanent.

He hoped not, anyway.

He finally got his door to open, and he grabbed Erik's hands, pulling him inside and letting the door close with a whoosh behind them.

They collapsed together onto the bed, Charles writhing in pleasure as Erik traced the captain's wiry frame with strong hands. Erik flipped Charles over, preparing to enter him, when-

"Autopilot faulty. Pilot needed to report to the cockpit. Autopilot faulty. Pilot needed to report..." the shipwide computer repeated the message.

Erik growled in frustration.

"Go," Charles moaned, but then steadied his voice. "Erik. Go!"

Erik gave a withering glare at the speaker mounted on the wall, kissed Charles once more in desperation and apology, and then left.

Charles sighed. He walked across the hall to the bathroom and took care of his arousal, and the computer silenced its warnings as Erik took control of the ship.

Well, Charles hoped it was Erik. He didn't want to think about Sean piloting in his current state. Charles returned to his room and fell asleep on the bed, not even bothering to dry his hair or get under the rumpled covers.

Erik continued to fly the ship.

Hank and Raven left the rec room in favor of 'exploring' the engineer's sleeping quarters and possibly the sickbay as well.

Alex and Sean passed out in sleep on the rec room floor, tired out from swapping 'Yo Mama' jokes for a good thee hours.

That was how Charles walked into the cockpit next morning with terrible bedhead, only to find a naked Erik and a very tired-looking Sean piloting the ship.

"Never again," he heard Alex groan from the weapons console behind them.