"Raven has made pancakes for breakfast," Charles informed his sister when she opened her door to him the next morning. After quickly showering and changing into her mini black skirt and tucking her white blouse into it, her flat black shoes on her feet she had heard a knock on the door. She looked at her brother through narrowed eyes as he closed her door for a moment and she began to make the bed.

"Don't think that I forgive you," Emma informed Charles and he raised a brow, his eyes going wide and his hands moving behind his back, clasping together.

"I didn't think you would have," he admitted with her. "But think logically, Emma, you and Erik arguing would have scared Angel and at the moment we need as many mutants as possible."

"But he was being mean!" Emma whined and Charles had to resist the urge to tell her that she sounded like a little three year old who was bickering in the playground with a friend. "And I couldn't say anything back to him because you were controlling me! I'm your sister, Charles. You can't do that when it suits you."

"I'm sorry," Charles said to her genuinely, his eyes looking like that of a lost puppy as he stared at his sister. "I'm sorry for controlling you, Emma. I know I shouldn't do it often but you need to understand that you can't bicker with Erik over every little thing."

"I know that," Emma snapped at Charles. "I just can't help it. He winds me up so much, Charles."

"He informed me that you were rather amiable last night," Charles said to her and she raised a brow at him, puffing up her pillow and dropping it down on the end of her bed.

"He told you what happened?" Emma asked, surprised that he would even mention what happened considering he was so private and kept himself to himself. Telling someone about a nightmare was like admitting he had a weakness and Erik wasn't one to be weak.

"He did," Charles spoke. "Although no thought is safe for him so I had to drag it out of him."

Emma chuckled and nodded, reaching for her black blazer and shrugging into it.

"Sounds more like Erik," she spoke to Charles and he grinned gently.

"So can we please forget these little incidents?" Charles enquired. "I would like to be able to find the rest of the mutants without worrying about you two mauling each other to death."

"I'll be good as long as he is," Emma promised her brother, moving over to the door, pulling her black curls from under her collar as she moved and Charles followed her, not even bothering to think about trying to get Erik to behave.

...

"Are you coming or not, Emma?" Charles asked Emma as they prepared to go and find the cab driver and Emma looked back at Raven and Angel who were in the recreation room, discussing clothes and fashion together. Raven had said she would stay with Angel at Division X to keep her company and so Emma had the chance to either go with her brother and Erik or to stay with Raven. The latter option seemed much more preferable than the first. Emma bit her lip gently and crossed her ankles as she looked back at Raven.

"I'll stay with Raven and Angel," she shrugged. "You'll be back soon though, won't you?"

Charles chuckled, resting his hands onto his sister's shoulders before kissing her on the top of her head quickly.

"I know there is only so much girl talk which you can endure," he said to her and she looked at him gratefully. "I shall be back in a day or so."

"I'll see you later then," Emma said, urging Charles to go as she saw Erik stood behind him, his face showing impatience and boredom as he looked onto the siblings.

"Look after them," he said to her and she nodded once. She was basically the same age as them so she didn't know why she needed to look after them. But then she remembered Raven and her careless habits and she thought that maybe Angel had the same trait considering how they were getting along swimmingly.

"I will," she promised and Charles began walking to the door.

"I shall see you later, Raven," he called out to the young blonde who managed to stop talking to Angel and turn back to look at Charles.

"Bye!" she shouted out to him and they took off. Emma remained quiet as she looked at the door shut and then began to wonder about what to do with her time alone. Ever since Moira MacTaggert had entered their local pub life had been hectic and now it had stopped for a day. She placed her hands onto her hips and sighed gently, hearing Raven and Emma talk about boys and she quickly left the room.

...

"Your sister never told me why she was crying that night," Erik said to Charles, the two men stood on the sidewalk and looking out for the mutant cabdriver who they knew would be in their area soon. Charles stuffed his hands into his pockets as Erik folded his arms, his sunglasses hiding his eyes and any emotion which he had. Charles looked up to him for a moment and then back onto the street.

"It isn't really common knowledge," Charles muttered. "I don't think anyone knows about that nightmare apart from Raven and I. She didn't even tell her ex boyfriend and the two of them were close until the end."

"She managed a relationship?" Erik asked; mock surprise in his voice as he looked at Charles who did not look one little bit impressed before he ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back into its right place. "Sorry."

"Damon and Emma were extremely close at one point," Charles informed Erik. "She doesn't like to talk about him either."

"We have time to kill," Erik shrugged, chewing on his gum loudly as his eyes continued to gaze onto the road and Charles chuckled once.

"I don't think I am at liberty to say," he admitted. "I don't even see why you are interested considering you hate her so much."

"Because you know everything about me and I am guessing you shared that information with her," Erik said, looking at Charles who bit his lip once and looked at the ground.

"I simply told Emma to leave you be due to your past. She wasn't being fair on you," Charles said and Erik snorted once.

"I don't want anyone judging me on what happened in the camps," he hissed once. "If she hates me then I don't want my past to change her opinion because she thinks it has to."

"It is a large secret, Erik," Charles simply informed him. "Emma...she saw something as a little child which no one should have to see..."

"I'm not going to push you, Charles," Erik assured him. "I was just curious as to what had gotten the stone creature so upset."

"If you weren't my friend then I would have to play the defensive brother, Erik," he warned him and Erik couldn't help but grin.

"Does that involve punching me for insulting your sister?" he wondered aloud and Charles mused for a moment, wondering if he had it in him to do that to Erik. "You can think about that...I think this is our guy."

...

"Do you always tend to sit out here and read?" Erik wondered the following day as he found the young Xavier sat on the grass with her book in her hands. She was laid on her stomach, avoiding her eyes from being directly in line with the sunlight as Erik stood above her, his shadow towering over her body.

"I like the peace," she murmured. 'So that is your cue to bog off.' She spoke in her head, remembering Charles's plea for her to try and get along with Lensherr. Erik settled himself down on the ground, his arms pushed out behind him and supporting his weight as he basked in the sun. Emma managed to peer up at him as he looked to the sky and she then returned to her book.

"I didn't say thank you to you the other night," Erik spoke quietly and Emma finally dropped her book from her hands and it shut on the ground quickly. She huffed as she picked it up, flicking through the paper pages.

"It was page three hundred and seven," Erik murmured to her.

"Why are you thanking me?" she wondered aloud. "Can I have it written down on paper to record this monumental moment?"

"Don't ruin it with your sarcasm," Erik warned her. "I'm trying to be pleasant. Civil at least anyway."

"So why are you thanking me?"

"For waking me the other night," he shrugged, shrugging out of his leather jacket and throwing it to his side, leaving him in a white polo shirt and his brown pants. "I suppose your intentions were...nice...if that's the word."

"You can use that word if you want," Emma shrugged. "It seemed like a bad dream."

"Bad is an understatement," Erik mumbled, "but then again, you'd know all about bad dreams."

She looked at him again, folding her page as she did so and she raised a brow as he refused to look her in the eye, instead he remained studying the sky.

"Charles told you, didn't he?" she snapped. "He tried to comfort you by telling you that I have the same problem."

"He didn't tell me what it was about," Erik assured her, not wanting to get his friend into trouble.

"Good," she muttered.

"He also mentioned that you had managed a relationship," Erik spoke again and Emma finally sat up, bending her knees and resting her bum on her heels as she did so.

"Did he basically give you my whole life story?" she wondered and Erik grinned from behind his sunglasses at her.

"No," he spoke. "I was just curious as to why you were running and crying for Charles the other night."

"I could swear that we have had this discussion multiple times, Erik," she drawled. "It really is none of your business but if you are so intent in finding out what I dreamt about then I will tell you."

Erik watched as she flushed red. She looked drained and tired, her eyes showing emotional pain and her body tense as Erik remained silent, too intrigued by her to do anything other than that.

"I found my father hanging dead in our family greenhouse when I was eleven years old and I have nightmares about it too often for my liking," she stopped for a moment, waiting for his reaction but he didn't move. He didn't even look disturbed about what she had said. And then she remembered that he had lived during the war in a concentration camp. He was surely accustomed to much worse sights. "And then there is the case of Damon. My ex boyfriend I refused to sleep with and so he took up with someone who was much more willing. Does that answer all of your questions?"

Emma quickly stood up, bending down to pick her book up before pushing her hair behind her ears and rushing to the door. As she placed her hand on it to push it open she heard his voice call out to her, soft and calm as if what he said was so simple. He said it without any emotion at all. He could have been asking her to pass him the salt with more hatred that what he had said.

"I watched my mother being shot in front of me."

Emma remained still, her hand resting on the door and her lip quivering as blood surged around her body and she waited for him to say something further to her. She couldn't physically bring herself to look at him and see him staring at her. The intensity of his gaze was already felt burning through the back of her head.

"We all have a history."

Emma pushed the door open, moving back into Division X and moving a small droplet of water from the corner of her eye as she rushed into the corridors, searching for her room quickly. Erik stood outside in the cool breeze, wondering why he had just told her that. He couldn't stand her one little bit. He couldn't stand her standoffish attitude or the way she always held her nose in the air, acting like she was better than anyone. But he had just shared his darkest secret with her. He couldn't place his finger on it.

...

"You look flustered," Charles informed his sister at dinner that evening. Raven and Angel had been whipping something up in the kitchen as they spoke with Darwin, trying to be accustomed to living in such close conditions even though they were all strangers. Emma had been stuck in her room, thinking about what she had just shared with Erik before she realised she should go for dinner before Charles found out something was wrong.

"I just had a brisk walk here," she shrugged, smiling encouragingly at her brother and he remained silent, not believing her at all. "I'm fine, Charles. You don't need to look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"That face...the concerned 'I really know what's going on here' face," she explained, moving past him and into the kitchen. "It doesn't become you."

"Em!" Raven exclaimed when she saw her sister. "Where have you been hiding all day?"

"I've been reading and I lost track of time," she lied, sniffing the air quickly as she did so. "It smells good anyway."

"Sunday Roast," Raven said as Angel began to quickly place things onto plates and Darwin helped her. The pair of them seemed to be getting on well if no one else was. "I thought that with us being so far from Oxford then we could bring Oxford here."

"Good idea," Emma nodded and Raven looked down at her sister before whispering;

"And I know Charles is homesick slightly."

"Aren't we all?" Emma asked rhetorically before hearing her name being called out from the kitchenette doorway.

"Emma," Erik said deeply and the girl in question and Raven turned to look at him for a moment as he stood there with his arms by his side. "Can I have a word?"

And then he turned on his heel and quickly walked from the recreation room. Raven looked at her sister for a moment, her eyes wide as she wondered what was going on.

"Why does he want to talk to you?" she wondered.

"Maybe because I'm just that much of a social being?" Emma asked her sarcastically and Raven snorted, hearing the timer go off which distracted her attention.

"Okay then," she said with as much sarcasm as her sister and Emma followed Erik's trail to the courtyard outside the recreation room. She folded her arms in the cool night air, shivering slightly as she raised a brow at the metal bender.

"What I told you," he began, "is classified information."

"The feeling is mutual," she admitted.

"Good," Erik nodded quickly. "I don't know why I told you. Maybe your annoying attitude made it slip out...I don't know."

"I thought you were trying to be civil to me?" she wondered and Erik snorted.

"Trying being the chosen word," he mumbled. "I just want it to be clear that this information stays between us."

"I wouldn't have it any other way...well I would...I wouldn't have told you but you pushed me too far," she shrugged, running a hand through her hair as she tried not to get mad with him again and he nodded at her.

"You'd best be getting back in," Erik said to her, seeing Raven peering out the window in the most conspicuous fashion which she could manage and Emma turned around to see the same thing, catching her sister's eye. Raven blinked quickly and pretended to be preoccupied as Emma rolled her own eyes and Erik itched the back of his neck. "I think dinner is ready."

"Are you not joining us?" Emma wondered, her voice suddenly soft and Erik looked at her for a moment. She was so small and her petite frame made her so vulnerable. Why did Charles bring her with him? Surely he didn't think that she would be safe from a man like Shaw? She needed constant protection. Erik shook his head at her.

"I need to go and look some things up," he mumbled back to her. "I'll see you later."

Emma turned on her heel and walked back into the recreation room as Erik remained stood to the spot, watching her leave before he shook his head, removing the thoughts he had about her arse from his mind.

...

A/N: Thank you very, very much to all of my reviewers! I am so glad you are liking it as much as I love writing it! Reviews are welcome as always! So please do leave me your opinion! Thanks!