Charles stared between them for a few minutes. He tried to respond maturely but the first question that came to mind was, "Wait, did you guys...kiss?"
Erik stayed silent, watching Charles cautiously, but Raven seemed to be bouncing with excitement and didn't mind telling stories of the past. "Of course. I said he was my ex, not my babysitter. God, Charles."
Erik took a step closer to Charles. It was much like approaching a wild animal. No, this was Charles. It was like approaching a lost puppy. Or a stray cat. Yeah, the cat seemed like the best comparison. As expected, when Erik reached touching distance Charles took a step back. Thoughts were rushing through his mind and he needed to work things out on the inside before he could discuss it. Erik stared at Charles's closed eyes before sighing and turning to Raven. He spoke to her in a whisper, "So…why didn't you tell me you had a brother?"
Raven scoffed, but quieted her voice as well, looking worriedly at her brother and regretting the blunt words. "Um, it's kind of a long story, but…" She smiled up at Erik. "It's a story that is finally over." Raven explained to Erik the adoption situation, knowing Erik of all people would understand being adopted, being different. He listened, but his eyes were trained on Charles the entire time.
When she finished, his hand brushed through his hair. "Fuck, that's why when he saw my room… Fuck, Raven. He knew it was you."
Raven gaped at him. "Wait, do you still have that ridiculous story board on your walls?"
Erik shrugged. "What else am I supposed to do with it? It's not done."
Raven looked appalled. "Well first of all, it's not even a story board. It's my rushed horrible drawings just scattered around cause you don't have a plot yet! That is so embarrassing. Who else has seen your room? You can't just display my drawings like that, Erik! Those are horrible."
Erik rolled his eyes and put a hand on her shoulder. "They're gorgeous. Especially for sketches. Raven, your art work is incredible. You need to give yourself more credit." Still, his eyes remained on Charles who hadn't yet moved. Raven's lips pressed together as Erik's hand slid off her shoulder and he moved toward Charles.
Raven grabbed his wrist. "Erik, stop. Don't interrupt him right now."
Erik shook her off. "No, he's done. He twitched when I touched you."
Charles let out a visible sigh. "I had a feeling you were watching me."
Erik brushed his hand through Charles's hair as his eyes opened. "What else is there to look at?"
He smirked and his gaze flickered at a very offended Raven. She balled her fists. "You know what? I'm going inside. You two are both assholes to me and you're perfect for each other. I've actually been meaning to set you up for the last few months but I guess you beat me to it."
She barely closed the door when the two boys were kissing. It was silent between them for a while. Charles opened his mouth to ask about Erik and Raven's past relationship, having mentally repented for calling Raven a bitch, when a window opened.
"Ow, fuck." Something hit Erik and fell to the ground. Raven slammed the window shut and it was quiet again.
Charles reached down to pick up the object and cocked his head. "Why'd she throw this at you?"
Erik's face was red as he shoved the bottle of Vaseline into his jacket pocket. "You have so much to learn, Charles."
-x-
After the longest, most torturous night of her life, Raven shot down the stairs. Raven saw Charles groggily eating breakfast. "Did my present come in handy last night?" Raven's face looked torn between amused and disgusted.
Charles moved to take another bite of his pop tart but missed his mouth. "Not that I know of. Erik put it in his pocket and left."
Raven's jaw dropped. "He just left?"
Charles squinted his eyes. "Well no, I mean we talked some more about me and you. Kissed. Then he left.
Raven's hand fell on her hip. "It was Friday night! Why didn't you ask him to stay?"
Charles looked appalled. "I'm sorry, did you want to hire us as your nightly entertainment? I would assume a sister would not be too fond of her brother's better half coming over at night."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, you and Moira were definitely louder than you and Erik would be."
Charles paled. "And how exactly do you know that?"
Raven grabbed Charles's second pop tart and walked away with a shrug. Charles moved to get up and start getting ready. He took his time, knowing he had plenty of time until- It's already noon? No, his watch must be wrong. He knew Raven slept late, but she was usually up by 10 and-
A horn honked outside and Raven didn't even turn as she yelled from down the hallway. "I KNOW WHOSE HORN THAT IS."
Charles stood frozen, ignoring Raven and debating whether or not to open the door in his pajamas or go change. For some reason, he felt like Erik might prefer to see him in his pajamas and the thought made him blush. A shadow of a thought crept behind his mind, harshly questioning himself and saying that it wasn't nearly as kinky as Loki, but he shoved the thought away in order to maintain his mental health.
Charles opened the door and blinked into the sunlight. He could see Erik's outline but not yet see the details of his fa-
"Mmph!" Charles startled and fell backwards as Erik dove in for an unexpectedly hot kiss. It left the both of them panting against the wall with the front door still open. "Well, is that how you start your mornings then?"
Erik kissed Charles nose. "Just thinking about how much I wish I'd woken up to that."
A door closed softly, but loud enough for Charles to hear, upstairs. A voice called down, "Charles! What was that noise?"
Charles stared into Erik's eyes, again frozen this time with fear. Charles whispered to Erik, "Go to the car. For god's sake do not make a noise. I thought I'd have more time than this. I slept in."
Erik narrowed his eyes. "It's 12pm. When do you usually wake up?"
Charles tried to decide if Erik were being sarcastic. "If you have similar sleeping habits to Raven, it's a time of morning you've not seen for years." Charles was still and then made a mime of gouging his eyes out. "Oh god, please remind me not to put you, Raven, and sleeping into the same sentence again."
Erik began to walk out the door with a smirk. "Charles, I told you we never slept together."
Charles stared after him with a stupid shocked look on his face. The door closed silently and Charles smiled to himself. "You did tell me that…"
"Tell you what?" Brian Xavier was holding a thermometer and immediately moved to check Charles's temperature.
Charles tried to slap his hands away. "Dad. Dad! What are you doing?"
He managed to land a hand on Charles's forehead. "Hm…you're not warm. You haven't woken up this late since you were 4. You're alright?"
Charles blushed. "Yes, Dad. I'm fine! I…need to talk to you in fact."
Brian nodded and sat at the table, folding his hands. "Ah, it's an ailment of the mind, not the body."
Charles's lips pursed slightly as he sat next to his dad. "You've…always told me you thought I could do anything I ever wanted." Charles allowed the sexual innuendo to get out of his head as fast as it had entered. That one too. Wonderful, trying to come out to his dad and only thinking about sex. Well Erik had just snogged him senseless in his kitchen, maybe he was allowed to be a bit distracted.
Brian sat patiently in Charles's silence. "You seem distracted."
Charles sighed. His dad knew him better than anyone, yet they rarely talked too deeply. Charles liked to assume playing chess with someone allowed you a glimpse into their mind. Charles made eye contact with his father. "Well, you know Moira and I had broken up. Just a mutual agreement that it wasn't working out right."
Brian held the intent gaze in his son's eyes. "Yes. And you've moved on to someone new?"
Charles smiled and let out a shaky laugh. "God, you know me better than I do."
Brian Xavier ruffled his son's hair. "Charles, I think everyone knows you better than you do. You're a very open person and I think that's wonderful."
Again, Charles let out a shaky laugh. "Yes, well I hope that's the case because that would make this conversation much easier." Charles took a deep breath. "Dad I…They're wonderful. So sweet, caring, protective. You'd love them. We could all have a chess tournament, they're amazing. Beat me, twice. I'd like to see who'd be victorious between the two of you. I've already met their parents so it's not fair for them not to meet you and they're actually outside now because I woke up late and I was supposed to talk to you earlier and then I slept in but now you're here and they're here and-"
"Charles, breathe." The run on sentence made less and less sense as it had gone on. Brian waited on his son. He had a feeling he knew where the conversation was going and the pronouns were making it blatantly obvious. "I would love to meet him."
Charles stared at his father as a warmth he hadn't felt in years burned through him. He threw himself into his father's arms, tears streaking down his cheeks. "Dad…"
Brian tightened his arms around Charles for a moment before pushing him away. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go get him!"
Tears were still brimming in Charles's eyes. He grabbed the door knob, then turned. "Oh, Dad! His name is Erik." Charles darted out the door.
-x-
Brian let out a breath he was holding and mentally thanked Raven for bringing such news to him first. Raven was the child that was much more willing to talk, because she didn't see subjects of discussion like this as anything too serious. She just would blurt out something and god help you if you reacted wrong. When Raven had approached him one day and blurted out the word bi, Brian waited for the end of the word. "Bi what, Raven?" It was a term in his vocabulary, but it was usually much more than just a prefix. He expected Raven to end the sentence with bipolar so when she said bisexual, it took a bit of explaining on Raven's part to bring him up to par on the subject. Some animals he studied acted in much the same way, so it was rather easy for him to apply the idea to humans. Relatively. He'd been raised into a boy girl world and this world Raven was introducing to him was a bit of a shock, but for some reason he felt relieved. Maybe he knew his children needed a world like this for them.
Maybe he was just glad of another thing being told to him that Sharon would never hear. She would try to disown Raven for sure. And then blame her for influencing Charles. It would be ugly. It was for the best that she secluded herself to her childhood rooms. Brian missed who she used to be, don't get him wrong. On some lonely days, he came very close to researching exactly what had to be done to get divorce papers. He couldn't bring himself to do it. If their second child had lived on, they'd be in a beautiful flawless relationship still, but the death had wrecked her. And nothing Brian tried could help her. Nothing but her alcohol.
It killed him whenever he looked at her. Her cold eyes, were warmth once lived. Her rigid shoulders that once could be often coaxed into a dance. A bitter voice that was no longer capable of the beautiful songs she used to sing. She was lost. Brian watched the woman he loved die and be replaced with everything Sharon hated about her mother. Sharon vowed to not be like her mother, yet here she was now, the spitting image of her.
Brian found himself staring down the hallway toward her rooms when the door clicked open again, soft voiced floating down the halls. The house brightened at the return of an emotion the rooms had long lost, Brian hadn't even laid eyes on the boy his Charles had chosen, but he could already tell this was much more than a crush. After all, it was always Charles who stayed strong, Charles who took charge, Charles who brought love back into their home.
-x-
Ecstasy was an understatement for the chemicals zipping around Charles's veins. Erik barely got the door open when Charles tackled him almost all the way into the back seat. "He wants to meet you."
Erik, at first gently, then harshly pried Charles's arms off himself and struggled for breath. "Shit, does hugging like that run in the family? Do I need to hold my breath when I walk in the house to meet your dad?"
Charles moved back and sat on Erik's lap. "Erik, this isn't going to be…I mean, you and Raven seem like friends now, but it's not…is it weird? I haven't quite decided for myself if it's weird yet. Have you?"
Erik shook his head as he ran his fingers through Charles's hair. "I've kinda just been focusing on you. Raven and I only dated for a couple of months. Not long enough to be too serious." Erik paused. "Then again you and I have been dating for what, two hours? And we've declared love." Charles's entire body may have turned red at that. Erik chuckled and continued on. "Just because I know you too well, I'll go into detail." Charles smiled ashamedly. Yes, people do know him more than he knows himself. "Loki and I had officially broken up back in late April. I met Raven before that though. Yes?"
Charles's eyes had lit up and Erik could see a highly impatient question there. "Late April you say? Is there anything that happened that would cause you to remember the exact date?"
Erik stared, not understanding. "Um it was the 21st. Like Loki would let me forget. 'You will forever rue the day that' blah blah blah."
Charles's eyes shone. "Thank you for the present then."
Erik sighed. "I would really love if you stopped talking in riddles, Charles."
Charles smirked and wrapped his arms around Erik again, much more lazily this time. "You broke up with Loki on my birthday."
Erik laughed. "You're welcome. I definitely planned it around that date for you. Definitely. Humor me though, I thought you were going to say that was when you broke up with Moira. So when was that?"
Charles 'tch'ed and waved his finger in Erik's face. "I did not 'break up with' Moira. We had a mutual agreement to stop dating. It was rather close to then I suppose. We broke up on April 2nd."
Erik stared at Charles, expecting to laugh off a bad question, but ended up generally shocked. "Well fuck me." Erik leaned forward to kiss Charles gently. "And I meant that as both an expression and an invitation."
Charles bit Erik's lip playfully. "Why should I fuck you? Let's just discuss this as the expression and worry about the invitation later."
Erik pecked Charles on the lips. "April 2nd is my birthday…supposedly that is. That's the day I consider my birthday. It's not exactly on record. But it's a close enough coincidence for me."
Charles giggled then realized Erik's expression was not the giddy laughter that Charles felt, but much more sober and passionate rather than young and light hearted. "You don't take coincidence lightly, I presume?"
Erik brought his thumb to Charles's lips and traced them. "You can hardly call something like this a coincidence. It's something one might call…destiny."
Charles tried to continue the dramatic moment, he really did. But this was Charles Xavier, fashionably early was written into his dna. Charles glanced at the clock and Erik sighed. "You're probably the only person in the world who I could say the word destiny to and you don't laugh in my face, but you check the clock. I swear to you, time isn't running out." Erik could've stopped. He knew he could've stopped. He would've stopped there with Loki or Raven, but Charles wouldn't laugh at him. It was so true with Charles… "Time will never run out for us."
Charles's eyes glued onto Erik's. The time was forgotten for the first time in his entire life. His eyes were wide and vulnerable. "Say that again."
Erik brought his lips to Charles's ear. He bit his earlobe and listened to Charles whimper. "Time will never run out for us."
A lot ran through Charles's mind in that moment. Just a few weeks ago, he was checking the web for Broadway auditions and trying to stop himself from wishing he were sleeping with Moira at night. Now here he was, laid bare. An entirely new part of himself brushed off from where it'd been hiding. And not only had Erik allowed this part of him to emerge, Erik had allowed this part of him to shine.
-x-
Charles was giggling again as he walked Erik to the door. The idea of introducing his dad to his boyfriend was unbearable. Charles opened the door and saw where his father was looking. Nothing could stop his laughing faster than that hallway. Erik saw Charles's countenance harden and threaded their fingers together immediately. Charles squeezed Erik's hand and took a deep breath. "Dad?"
Brian Xavier turned around and if Erik were drinking something he would've spit it up. Charles glanced up at the startled Erik. Brian looked equally confused. "Sorry. You guys look exactly alike."
Charles let that sink in a moment and then realization set in and he could not stop laughing if he tried. The hallway was out of his mind easily and all that mattered now was that Erik was currently at war with himself for finding Charles's father attractive.
Brian Xavier's social awkwardness actually proved a blessing in this moment. "So, Erik. I hear you're good at chess?"
