AN: So, who feels slightly emotionally bruised by the previous chapter? (I do, I wrote it!)
Thank you for the enthusiastic comments ;) I hope this one is fun, too.
The car was safely stowed in the garage and he could finally reacquaint himself with the house after his relaxing, slow trip around Canada. He appreciated Professor's suggestion at the time - he had been getting restless, but the cops in the area were not getting any less vigilant. Fortunately, he was still only local news when he left, and by the time he came back, new and more important terrorist threats surfaced, making one kid from somewhere unknown a relatively uninteresting topic for law enforcement.
Also, Hank managed to produce a very convincing set of documents for a completely different name, birth date and birth place.
Also, he managed to get his nose slightly out of alignment in one of the lumberjack bars he sampled in the wilder part of the country.
Once he shaved off his hair - down to a very recruit-like buzzcut - he stopped looking in any way like the kid from the 'WANTED' posters. Which was just perfect.
He was quite happy with his situation, he had to admit. He got his old room, there was even some of his stuff still in the attic - Hank knew best where to look for it - and he had free run of the school grounds, unlike the younger students.
"You do" Professor interrupted his thoughts. "But I will ask you to consider it your home, not your school. You are too old to be a student here, anyway."
Sean sat up on his bed.
"Hello, Professor. I must say, this thing you're having here, it's amazing. That many kids under one roof and the house still standing? I thought our first group, all that time ago, was going to blow it up."
"At the time, it was mostly Alex and his lack of aim, that's why it seemed like we had an explosion every day" Charles smirked. "Now we have mostly children - actual young children, not like you boys were. Their powers are interesting, but only some of them are strong enough to make the school shake. Jean, of course, yes. But she is fortunately very much under control."
Sean nodded.
"Do you need me anywhere? I mean, I can't properly teach, as I'm not really good at anything in particular, and I never got a degree. Still, I could probably at least help during P.E."
Charles smiled widely and Sean felt a small cold thrill going down his spine. Uh-oh.
"Now that you mention it, yes. I'd like you to take some load off some of the teachers. P.E. can use help, definitely, if for no other reason than having a gang of boisterous talents on the court and trying to control them at once. But, at the same time" he pulled a handful of brochures from his pocket. "You could read through these. You can get that degree, you know. You could live here, God knows I have rooms to spare, and commute to the nearest college. If you pick a good, useful major, you could work outside the school. Not every mutant must be a teacher here."
Sean picked up one of the colourful leaflets.
"Art therapy? Really?"
Charles shrugged and wheeled himself out.
"Just a suggestion! Read them, there may be something that sparks your interest. And if not, well. You can always get a teaching degree and come here tutor the younger kids, the ones who have gaps in their education."
He left and Sean flopped back onto his bed, tossing the leaflets to the floor. For now. He was planning to sleep all day, just to make use of that fabulously soft and clean bed.
Late next night he felt an overwhelming need for milk. Milk wasn't something he could really keep for a longer time on the road, so he missed it terribly. On the other hand, he knew very well Alex would be merciless, should he see him with a glass, so he managed to stay away from it for the whole day.
Kitchen was empty and only a tiny light was illuminating the surfaces. He managed to pour himself a glass and moved to the window to look out on the grounds, still in the moonlight.
He heard a moan, which stopped his hand mid-raise.
Another, much longer moan.
"Charles!"
That was that kind of moan. He smirked.
"Charles! Oh, yes, good!"
Wow. Professor, you dog.
"Yes! Charles, oooh..."
And there was some... squeaking.
Sean's eyes widened.
Oh, my. The bedsprings.
"Mmmm..." the voice rose slightly. Whatever Charles was doing, it was sooo keeping her happy.
Low rumble of Charles' voice was to indistinct for Sean to work out specific words.
"YES!" she shouted in a funny, laughing way.
I should probably tell Charles they have to keep the windows shut.
The kitchen door opened and he looked guiltily away from the window.
"Is there any milk left?" Alex grumbled.
"Sure. Half a gallon at least" Sean offered weakly.
"Good. Can't sleep."
Alex rummaged through the fridge and came up with the bottle, a package of sausages and some sliced yellow cheese.
"Wanna sandwich?" he asked, eyes half closed.
"Yeah..."
"Bread is behind you."
"Ooooh, Charles!"
"GODDAMMIT!" Alex growled, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Really! Some of us are trying to sleep. Also, some of us are..." he stuttered, reddening.
Sean snorted.
"Not getting any?" he finished for his friend, turning towards the breadbox. "Really, how long can they keep it up?"
Alex picked the bread knife from the drawer.
"Anything from ten minutes to five hours. Mostly depends on her day. Today was probably a particularly good one. We can count on not catching any sleep until morning."
Sean gazed at the ceiling.
"And they... wait, you mean this is someone, like, steady?"
"Yes. And yes, most of us are not getting any, because we live miles away from civilisation and, well, in the kids' wing. One day I will kill him, just out of sheer frustration."
Sean chewed on his sandwich slowly.
"Could we maybe ask them to keep it down, just a bit? Not that I mind, my room is on the opposite side, but if some kids wander into the kitchen and hear this..."
Alex perked up.
"That may actually be a reason that will work for him!"
"And for her?"
"MOIRA!"
Sean's hand froze halfway towards the forgotten glass of milk and he stared at the ceiling.
"He's boinking Agent MacTaggert?" he hissed towards very, very amused Alex. "Why didn't you tell me he's... with Moira-frigging-MacTaggert!?"
"Shh" Alex listened for a moment more. "Wow, I think they might have actually broken that bed. Not that I'm going upstairs to check or anything, but I think I've heard something hit the floor."
"Oh, Lord" Sean swallowed the rest of his milk. "And how long has it been like this?"
Alex bit into his sandwich and chewed, thinking.
"Maybe three months. She just showed up, out of the blue. Then she helped Hank to get Charles back into working condition. And now, well. She's making use of that working condition."
"So, Moira has been here, for all this time?"
"She's the viceprincipal" Alex explained. "That includes student consueling, standing in for any teacher who needs some help and threatening our esteemed leader with, I quote, slapping him into the next stage of evolution, unquote, should he behave like an idiot again and try to crawl into a bottle or something equally stupid."
"Wow" Sean inhaled the last of his sandwich. "So, wanna sit for a moment on the quieter side of the corridor?"
"Nah, I'm good" Alex weaved the offer away. "I think they are done. Maybe I'll be able to sleep in a bit, I don't have anything in the morning."
The morning came bright and slightly crispy. Sean pulled on a pair of sweats and a woolen sweater, considering breakfast to be an important meal, but definitely not a dress-up one.
The kitchen wasn't exactly full, but three pre-teens on one end of the table and two grownups at the other made it seem lived-in.
"Good morning, Sean" Charles greeted him in slightly absent-minded manner, picking up his cup.
"Good morning, Professor. Agent MacTaggert."
She looked up at him and smiled.
"Hello, Sean. There is coffee in the pot, if you want some, and the tea is brewing. And Alex picked fresh rolls in the morning, there should be some left. Mostly everything is like it used to be" she cocked her head. "Well, except for some stuff being moved to the lower cabinets" she kissed Charles' temple.
That whole operation was made all that much easier simply because she was sitting in Charles' lap all that time, with one of her hands threaded through the man's hair.
Sean shook his head and reached for the coffee.
"Hot" Charles said, not even raising his head from the newspaper.
"Yeah, thanks."
He poured himself a mug and stood by the counter, watching all of them. Finally, the bell rang and the kids started to pick up their things. In a minute, only the three grownups were left in the kitchen. Sean busied himself with preparing a roll with some pickled cucumber he found in the jar.
"Ah, Sean" Charles interrupted his very careful non-surveillance of their movements. "There is a running contest today that could use another judge. If you want to help, it starts in three hours, by the old storage shed."
"Sure" he finally had to turn back towards them, but he took an escape from the conversation by biting into his roll and chewing it carefully and slowly.
They looked nice together.
Moira was all poised and correctly coiffed, but sitting in Charles' lap, on a wheelchair, took away some of that fierce official feeling. Currently she was busying herself with Charles' tie and smoothing away the random locks of hair that escaped the confines of his ponytail.
She looked much as she did the last time they saw her - just before she went for a walk with Charles and never came back.
She actually looked even more... bright. She was staring adoringly at Charles, who was obviously trying to play the suave British aristocrat - his tea and his newspaper - completely ignoring a gorgeous woman perched in his lap.
'I am not ignoring her' he suddenly heard in his mind. His eyes snapped up towards Charles who was watching him over the edge of the newspaper. 'And thank you for the visualisation. I hope I'm not that boring.'
"Love" Charles caught one of Moira's hands and brought it up to his lips. "We have office hours in a few minutes. We should probably get going."
"Also, we're probably making Sean lose his appetite" she added with a smirk.
He choked just a bit.
Charles laughed and pulled her in for a kiss.
As far as Sean could see, there wasn't anything at all chaste about it.
"Now, love, hop off, I don't want your skirt to get snagged on the wheels. Also, I think there is some issue on the ground floor. Some parents are arguing. If you could go and see what it's all about, I will join you in a second."
She stood up and straightened her cream coloured shirt.
"Do I look respectable?"
You look snogged Sean managed to stop himself from saying, but obviously leaked the thought as Charles shot him A Look.
"Yes, a very proper deputy headmistress. Just, ah, this" he reached up and rubbed off some of her lipstick that got smeared when they kissed. "Now, perfect."
She leaned and gave him a small peck on the cheek.
"I'll deal with them. You talk to Sean, I suppose you need to discuss a lot."
As she left, Charles trailed her with his eyes in a rather obvious way. Sean hid a smirk behind a new roll.
"Yes, nauseating" Charles said suddenly. "But I'm afraid you will have to deal with it."
"Nah, professor. That's cool. She's cool. Also, that's your home, after all."
Charles drank the last of his tea and collected the dishes.
"Do the washing, would you?" he asked. "Normally Moira does this, but with these parents arguing downstairs..."
"Sure, prof. No problem" he saluted with half of the roll. "Also, if there's anything around the house that needs doing, let me know. Otherwise I'll go bother Hank in his lab, or something."
Charles laughed.
"I will find you enough things to do to keep Hank's research safe" he finally promised. "There's always the library to order, if we run out of chores."
He turned the wheelchair and rolled to the door.
"Was there anything else?" he suddenly turned to Sean. "I thought... nevermind."
"Actually, professor..." he chewed a bit of the roll for a moment. "You might consider, you know, closing your windows. Sometimes."
Charles was suddenly red, very, very red.
"Ah, well" he spluttered. "What?"
"Alex is not getting enough sleep" Sean provided. "Also, getting a glass of milk in the middle of the night is just a tiny bit embarrassing these days. But, on the other hand" he smirked. "I have to say I do admire your stamina. And hers."
"Dear Lord. I'm so..."
"Yeah."
So. Questions? Doubts? Screams of incredulity?
Throw the tomatoes my way!