Baxter Preserveis an area of open space in North Salem, New York (County of Westchester, like the Xavier Mansion)

My apologies if there are mistakes, English is not my first language, so even if I verify, some might escape.

Please feel free to point them out for me !

"telepathy"

Disclaimer :I don't own anything related to X-Men

ILLUSION :

Chapter 5 :

Their day had been extremely busy and eventful for the two men, concerning both Charles' training and their relationship. Indeed, Charles had managed to extend his field of influence even more than before, which, probably due to his use of Cerebro, was far easier for him. It had certainly taught him how to manage so many minds at the same time without hurting neither them nor himself, and indeed, the strain felt usually when extending his power's range was almost absent. He had worked on controlling the animals on the Preserve, one by one, several in the same area, and finally several little beasts at completely different regions of the park, all the way increasing the difficulty of the task he'd asked of them, because the control needed increases with the reticence of the subject. For instance, he had managed to awake a female owl close to midday, to make her fly around for over an hour though passing by several preys without any sort of hunt. To spice up the exercise, Erik had agreed to participate. While Charles was ordering something to one or more animals, Erik had to think of a word the shortest time he was able to, and the goal was for Charles to catch every one of them. When Charles was satisfied with that he devised another work : He was to enter Erik's mind to explore a bit without being detected, and this exercise was rendered more difficult as Charles was trying really hard to not actually seethe memories or thoughts, not that it worked everytime, even if he didn't tell Erik of this special trouble.

However, another turning point in their relationship, though not the last of the day, came when Charles dared to ask permission to control Erik's mind.

"Erik – had he begun hesitantly – I would like to try another exercise, now that I have someone close enough to me to actually want to help me, because ordering animals is all well and good but the human mind is something else entirely. I... Would you... give me permission to... take control of you...?" had he finally asked while avoiding Erik's eyes.
Erik had been stumped and had drawn a blank for a moment. Indeed, relinquishing his mind to exploration and to full control were two very different matters, but only after a small amount of time looking into his friend's eyes, who had looked up probably at the absence of a resounding no, he had been able to see, deep in these eyes, all the sincerity, concern, empathy and hesitation his friend was feeling, reassuring him, although the love hidden deep in this gaze may have help to determine his decision. Therefore, he agreed to help Charles. For once he was participating in a sort of experimentation willingly and almost eagerly... Certainly a change !

Consequently, Charles took control of his friend, making him do things like freeze, turn over himself, answer questions with the truth or a lie, any sort of action that erik wouldn't have done normally, etc... He, of course, made a point to not overstep his boundaries and so never asked anything humiliating or reminiscing of the tragedy Erik had lived, even if there certainly was an undertone of it, by the mere act of testing.

Among the things Erik would retain from this day, the most important one was surely to never again underestimate Charles Xavier. This man was a master to keep people in an illusion of safety next to him while he had the ability to do virtually (almost for real !) anything with anyone. He didn't want to imagine what would have happened had Charles been submitted to a childhood like his. Erik was honest enough with himself to know that his desire of vengeance inside someone as powerful as Charles (that is alone, and not even talking about all the people ready to follow him) would have been a disaster, worldwide. He certainly didn't understand how could Charles think he, the metal-bender, become more powerful than him.

Now, they were just relaxing a bit, though Erik could still feel Charles in the background of his mind, in a companionable silence, when they were surprised by sudden heavy rain. In a matter of seconds they were completely soaked. They ran toward a gigantic oak, and settled under it to wait for the moment to pass. As it was still quite warm and their wet clothes were truly uncomfortable, they decided to at least take off their shirts.
However, they had forgotten what was hidden by these shirts. While the presence of scars on Erik's skin was not a surprise considering his past, it was still a wholly different affair to see the proof of inhumanity in human kind. So, of course, Erik was quite uncomfortable to show this proof of his suffering, but knew intellectually that Charles was already aware of their presence along with the whole rest of his life, even if he never mentioned that his knowledge extended that far.

Yet, the big shock came for Erik when he saw Charles' back for the first time. You see, Charles was not accustomed to pay attention whether he was alone to change or not seeing that the only other one in the mansion besides the domestics was Raven, who was not ignorant of the problem anyway, which is why he completely forgot about his own set of scars, only to be reminded when he felt deep feelings of horror, concern and rage emanating from Erik. At this point, Charles didn't have an inkling of an idea as to how act in such circumstances. Only Raven was aware of these scars, and that was because she was here when the actual injuries were made and were in need of care. Otherwise, he never had to wonder about a person's reaction to them, even with his one night stands, he made sure most of them didn't really remember anything in detail. But, with Erik, it was a different matter. His opinion of him had become so important recently that now Charles was petrified. He could feel his color vary between red and starkly white, his body was beginning to shake, and his mind was at the same time going in circles and being completely blank.

Erik for his part went through several emotional states extremely fast. He was extremely surprised to discover his friend's scars, it hadn't even occurred to him that Charles might not have an ideal life so far, what with the mansion, the money, etc... Then he became concerned, not knowing what had happened, if they still made him suffer, or if the responsible one was still around, to finally settle for rage, as usual for him, although the ideas of sweet tortures he had in mind for the bastard who made this were new in their origin. He had an imperious want to obliterate in the most possible way those responsible for this ignominy. No one was allowed to hurt his Charles ! Wait, HIS Charles, since when...? Oh well, why not... might as well admit it already ! Yet, his irrational anger decreased like molten snow as soon as he saw the state of panic of his very dear Charles. He knew he had to do something...
"Charles - he began gently – calm down... There is no need to panic..." it was obviously not working, not surprising since he had never been good with words. So he decided to act instead. He approached slowly his friend, only to awkwardly take him in his arms. He could feel Charles tensed in his embrace, but didn't let go. He wanted to make Charles understand he was here for him.

Little by little Charles relaxed in his friend's hold. He let himself be held and supported, then sat on the ground, still in Erik's embrace.

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