A/N: I know it's late by two days and I apologize. :/ Life got in the way at first and then, to make it worse, the stupid chapter wouldn't turn out how I liked it. I think I rewrite parts of it like, 4 times. *pout* Anyway, I can essentially guarantee that this chapter isn't going to be as good as the first two and I'm sorry for it. But this one is way long and I PROMISE to make the next one better~
A/N 2: HOLY CRAP, ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS? THIRTY FREAKING FOUR REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER? THAT'S INSANE. I HAVE OFFICIALLY DIED AND GONE TO CAPSLOCK NECESSITY HEAVEN. THAT IS ALL.
A BIG THANK YOU TO: nezumi13, ticktock22, vampirerule117, almostgone71, lowi, X, callietitan, Pri-TheBishounenPuppeteer, ferbear , kaesaku, Ms. Unusual-in-Groovy-Ways, izzabella11, Amarentha, bitch.'.chang, SopHiE, better-days, ellise, WithLoveFromTorchwood, ladynarutochan, AussieGirl411 , YB Fan, ssangel12, Margot57, Little Draca, Asplode, Romanec, Beccatdemon13, MirrorFlower and DarkWind
THANKS FOR THE WORDS + REVIEWS TO: Dizzy, Love is My Middle Name, DrowPrincess, TridentBearer1
WORDS USED FROM: Tridentbearer1 and Love is My Middle Name together, by accident I used bear, kidnapping and experiment :/ so yeah~ THANK YOU BOTH.
SUPERNEWS: I HAVE A BETA. THAT IS beautiful Love is My Middle Name, after intense amounts of coercion and begging (not really), has agreed to be my beloved beta. And let me tell you, she is my DREAM BETA. Like, you know those authors/bfflbeta teams that like finish each other's sentences and live in each other's brains? WE ARE LIKE THAT (or I want to be anyway xP). But in all seriousness, she is like…amazing. She puts up with a lot from me, is very understanding and isn't afraid to tell me when I have something wrong. She is also great to bounce ideas off of and keeps me on my toes about posting as much as she can. Trufax, because of her, I have the next like, 4 chaps outlined. BOW DOWN TO HER.
And I don't know if she'll approve of this, but since I've basically waxed poetic about her already, I figure I can't embarrass her much more. SO here it is. She is an author as well, as should be expected, and she has one fic. This fic is EPIC. It's a oneshot for the Chronicles of Narnia fandom and you guys, seriously, you WANT to read this if you're into Chronicles of Narnia at all. It's called "The Waltz" and it's just so. well. written. If you think I'm a decent writer, then you DEF want to read hers because she is BETTER.
I worship at the altar of her writing skills.
That being said, any mistakes found are my own since, even after she edited it, I continued to tweak the fic. Bad move, I know. But yeah.
WARNINGS: a slight bit of cursing, OOC, fluff, whump, one-sided love (for now, and only because Erik doesn't even know) and finally, a vague, vague mention of sex. Sort of. In wet-dream format. But it's barely there and it's like, at the very end.
Disclaimer: GOD I wish I owned. If I did, then Charles would have stopped Erik from his destructive rampage by KISSING him out of it. Who else agrees that THAT would have been WAAAYYY more affective?
Side Note:This chapter is pre-everything going to shit. So Erik is still the 'good guy' (the phrase being loosely used of course) and is teaming up with Charles. So basically, this is like...that training sequence where it's like the calm before the storm. :D ENJOY and again, R AND R.
Just for Reference: Sean – Banshee, Erik – Magneto, Charles - Professor X, Hank – Beast, Alex – Havoc, Raven – Mystique, Angel Salvadore – Angel Salvadore
It takes a couple of months, but both Charles and Erik eventually get acclimated to being parents… sort of.
Kind of.
Mostly.
Ok, Erik more so than Charles. But in his defense, Charles' childhood had little to do with adult role-models, which allows for some leeway. Despite all that, both have had some revelations; there are some rules that must be followed at all costs.
Rule Number One: No means NO. It does not mean "Yes" and it does not mean "Maybe". It means NO.
Both adults have figured out that any leeway can and will be shamelessly exploited by the kids. Admittedly, Erik is far better at employing this one than Charles is, but Charles manages to hold his own at least thirty percent of the time, he thinks.
Rule Number Two: Absolutely no sugar for the kids after 4 o' clock in the evening, no pop, no tea, no chocolate. They do not get anything that has even a hint of sugar in it, end of discussion. Any pleading or begging is to be ignored and the phrase, 'Please, please just one last piece!' is not to be fallen for. The children will not sleep if this rule is broken, and more importantly, neither will him or Erik.
Erik is better at this one too, but Charles knows it has less to do with not letting them have sugar and more to do with the fact that Erik never has anything sugary anywhere near him. The damned bastard has no soul: he won't eat or drink anything sweeter than black coffee. Charles, unfortunately, always has a small chocolate stash on his person and therefore, is at a disadvantage with this rule as well.
Rule Number Three (possibly the most important of all): The second any child starts to look devious, run, especially if it's Sean, Hank, Alex, or any combination thereof. This situation will either end in the adult giving in to something crazy, running away shamelessly or, once in a blue moon, saying no. The odds of the last happening are dishearteningly miniscule, thereby leaving options one and two as the only plausible options. The safest and least damaging route is to run, pride or no.
That last rule is one that both Erik and Charles have learned to swear by. In fact, they've learned to tag-team the children when possible so that they never have to deal with that alone.
Seriously.
They've turned running away into an art form and can now do it without the kids ever realizing that that's what they're doing.
All things considered, it's no wonder Charles panics so badly when all five of the demons start whispering in hushed words and shutting up the second they see an adult. Of course they forget that 'Mom' is a telepath and, not five minutes later, Charles knows exactly what's going on and that only makes things worse.
They're trying to make them move into the sampe room together; oh god, they're trying to make them shack up. These are the thoughts that enter Charles' mind when he first figures out what's going on. He can't say that he's horrified by the thought, per se. But considering that he now has far more to lose than anyone else, Charles would rather not be within twenty meters of the disaster that is waiting to happen.
After all, putting him in the same room as Erik for any extended period of time would be paramount to shoving a piece of metal at a magnet (no power joke intended); and Charles really, really doesn't want to have to explain why he won't stop blushing or why he keeps falling over himself every time he and Erik are getting ready for bed.
But he digresses.
Anyway, it starts off vague, what the kids are planning; they figure that a movie here and a suggestion there are enough because the adults of the house are smart enough to pick up on the hints.
They're quick to find out how wrong they are.
It begins with Alex.
He wants to use movies as a weapon, although why he needs a 'weapon' of any sort for something like this is beyond everyone but Sean and Hank. But then, Sean, Hank and Alex are three of a kind, all crazy in some way.
Still, Alex stands that after five viewings of the 'Parent Trap,' no other plans will be needed because, shit, no one could be that unaware unless they're a special kind of oblivious.
Five viewings later, he's forced to eat his words; Erik and Charles are of that special kind.
It's not a bad plan, to be fair; in all honesty, Erik is the only one who's really out of the loop. But Alex forgets to take into account one very important thing: he forgets that Erik is Erik. So even though he shouldn't be, he's surprised when his father-figure gets up suddenly and walks away.
It isn't until later that he realizes why Erik reacted that way and even then he thinks that it's because Erik is German and that his manly sensibilities had been insulted. This idea is only further cemented when, the next day, Erik wakes him up at the ass-crack of dawn and makes him work out.
Only Charles knows the full extent of the effects that the movie had on Erik besides his hurt manliness. Only Charles knows that when Erik got up and walked away, he'd been thinking of his mum and dad back when they'd been alive. Only Charles knows that Erik locked himself into his room for the rest of the day in order to properly angst.
As it is, it takes Charles hours of coaxing to lure the man back out and even then, it's only with the promise of wurst and a Die Hard marathon.
He thinks that it's the end of it and they can move on with their lives.
Of course, he's wrong.
The next attempt is made almost a week later, by Hank and Sean of all people.
They're supposed to be a dream team with a fool proof plan and a perfect execution.
They end up being barely cohesive; it's like they can't decide on the best stop. Better yet, it's like they have no idea what they're doing.
One of the two starts leaving little bits of poetry around.
Charles isn't quite positive on which, but he suspects Hank seeing as Sean, god bless the boy, wouldn't know how to interpret a poem that's already been written, much less actually fashion one.
Masterpieces such as 'Roses are red, violets are blue, they both belong in the same bouquet, and so do you,' 'A room to be shared; yet the rooms are separate; please fix this error,' and on one memorable occasion, 'Parting is such sweet sorrow, that thou shall say good night till it be morrow. But thou dost not have to. Seriously.' are left all over the place.
Charles suspects that last one was influenced by Sean, but not flat out written by him. He's pretty sure Sean doesn't know who Shakespeare is. Hank most likely wrote it while Sean tweaked it.
Either way, the poems are placed everywhere - in the cereal boxes, in between couch cushions, the television, pinned to one of Erik's turtlenecks.
Nowhere is safe.
Mercifully, Erik doesn't seem to understand what the hell is going on and is choosing to be amused by the bits of badly written poetry. He doesn't get any of the poorly veiled hints because he doesn't get what the kids are trying to do.
Charles bitterly wishes for the same luxury because dammit, he is so sick and tired of having a small heart-attack every time Erik picks up one of the damned scraps. It's not like Erik is going to figure anything out unless he suddenly gets telepathy somehow; but it's not so easy to convince his heart of that.
He feels marginally better when the stupid things finally stop after three full days of torture, only to plummet to rock bottom again when he realizes that it's the other one's turn.
Fuck.
The only good thing is that the other child's plan is rather quick to go into effect; it's all done in one shot so that Charles doesn't have to worry about it so much.
It's a letter. More specifically, it's a letter written in Charles' handwriting that basically begs Erik to move into the same room with him because he's all alone in his big room and really just wants someone to snuggle and play roommates with. It's a letter that Charles didn't write.
The resemblance of the handwriting on the letter to Charles' own, however, is uncanny.
Charles is pretty sure that this is all Hank's doing, goddamn him and his dexterity!
Thankfully, Erik takes one look at the letter before proceeding to laugh instead of blowing a metal-based gasket. Not so thankfully, he bloody frames the thing and won't stop making fun of Charles about it even though he knows that it wasn't Charles who wrote it.
But whatever, Charles figures; it's still better than the gasket thing. He doesn't feel like being mauled by paperclips, nor does he want the children to go through it.
They'd deserve it though, the little hellions.
He doesn't even bother to hope that this rubbish ends here. This time around, he's right.
Angel and Raven (the traitor!) take up the attempt after that, and their idea is, by far, the cleverest. It's so cunning and so, so devious that Charles is almost frightened.
In fact, of all the things they could have pulled, well, he doesn't expect anyone to actually do this.
He doesn't realize that this could happen until he suddenly has a lap full of an extremely horny Erik. Charles is so surprised that his brain temporarily blanks out and, for two glorious minutes, he actually believes that it's his new found love-interest attempting to seduce him.
"Come on, Charles," he practically purrs, "It would be so much easier to just share."
And Charles, well, he's sold - hook, line, and sinker. He'll pretty much agree to anything Erik says because Erik is in his lap and being seductive and…
…then the mental giggling comes through and Charles wastes no time in pushing 'him' off because there is no way that this isn't Raven. He intimately knows Erik's mind, and he knows Raven's just as well. Erik's, he knows, is full of sharp edges and planes and potential. Raven's is elegance and warmth and strength with, of course, a heavy dose of mischief.
Most importantly, Erik does not giggle. He just doesn't.
So when 'Erik' looks up at him, all betrayed and almost pouting, he merely raises an eyebrow and Raven guiltily changes back into her true form. Charles is left to try and quell the hurt and affection that bubbles out. He wants this; he wants Erik badly and it hurts that he was there, just within reach, for a few minutes. The disappointment is nearly crushing. But the fact that the kids are trying so hard also warms his heart a little. He does love them, after all.
Hell, he doesn't even punish Raven after this one; he just lets her walk away. It must be love.
Love or not, he has to wonder about how stupid the kids really are.
Through this entire debacle, they have been forgetting to factor in the most important thing of all: they've been forgetting that one of their parents is a telepath and therefore, strict measures have to be taken if they want to be subtle about hiding anything.
They haven't quite learned that Charles knows all whether he wants to or not.
In this particular case, he's quite adamantly ensconced in the 'I really wish I didn't know' camp.
He's been choosing to ignore it and to watch in one part amusement and three parts panic as the kids get more and more devious in their attempts. He came to the conclusion a long while back that as long Erik doesn't realize, which he never will Charles has any kind of say, then the plan will never reach fruition. So Charles focuses most of his energy on Erik not finding out, as opposed to stopping the kids.
It's been going splendidly, for the most part anyway. Charles has been doing a pretty damn good job of keeping Erik in the dark.
And then, of course, Erik finds out anyway because Raven is dumb enough to try the 'if not one then the other' plan of action. That is to say, when Charles dismantles her plan from his end, she goes running to Erik in the hopes of fooling 'Daddy.'
At first, Charles panics even further; then he realizes that there are pros to the impending debacle, like the children backing off because of Erik terrorizing them into it.
As assumed, when Erik finds out, there is a bit of an explosion. Well, actually, at first Erik simply raises an eyebrow, utters an amused 'no,' and walks away. But then Sean won't shut up about it and Erik just sort of explodes and screams that he will never, ever, sleep in the same room as Charles or any of them so they should all shut up.
This sort of makes Charles sad; he wants to curl up and ask if Erik really has that much of a problem with him. But he knows better than to look a gift horse in the mouth and mostly, he's relieved because thank god! No more awkward movies or poorly planned 'dates' or bad poetry. He figures that he should just thank god for small blessings and pretend this never happened.
He should've known better, story of his life.
Instead of taking the rejection for what it is, the kids drop the idea of being covert and start to be outright forceful in their methods. They show their true, manipulative, bratty colors for all to see.
The first person to try something is Hank, whose main method of coercion involves statistics out the arse and a whole lot of talking.
"Generally speaking, children with two parental figures are known to be much more productive in later life. As the two true adults of the household, it falls upon you two to fill that role. A byproduct of filling said roles involves truly acting the part, which means you must do things that a regular married couple would do, up to, and including, sleeping in the same room…."
Charles has to admit, the boy can talk.
"And in the event that you have more than your average two and a half children, you can up the percentage by a minimum of twelve percent…."
And talk…
"So then you multiply by pi and suddenly the probability ratio is expanding on the left side of the chart, which denotes a negative result…."
And the more he talks, the more rabid he starts to look. Charles feels unkind as he thinks it, but the beastly look is not helping with the effect; rather, it's helping too much.
To make things worse, Erik actually looks like he's interested in what Hank has to say. This is most concerning because when Erik looks interested in something one of the children has to say, it usually means that he's attempting to figure out the best way to torment them, all in the name of revenge of course.
The kids haven't learned that lesson either.
About an hour later, when Hank thinks he's succeeded, Erik sends him on his way to the lab. Erik then proceeds to remove all ways out via his powers and melts every viable thing of interest in the lab. He doesn't allow Hank out for four full hours, not even when the boy begs out of sheer boredom.
When Charles asks about it later, Erik merely shrugs.
"He'll live," he says with a grin, "It's like being grounded and not being able to sneak out. All that crying and moaning is him being bored and trying to get out of it is all."
Charles can't honestly say he understands, but whatever.
At least the kids seem to take something out of it; they don't make their next attempt until a week later. And even then, it seems that only Sean is brave (or stupid) enough to actually try anything.
He uses what he thinks is a tried and true method: pouting and whining.
It's worked before so it should work again, he thinks. For all intents and purposes, it should work and it would've. Unfortunately for him, he picks a most inopportune time to do this and it does not go as planned. At all.
In fact, it ends rather explosively and Sean has to turn back and admit defeat.
But he learns a lesson: he learns that Erik at five in the morning is almost exactly like Erik at noon, but even more cranky. Where Erik of noon might hesitate before causing destruction to anything that disturbs him, Erik of five in the morning…does not.
Sean's broken wristwatch can attest to that.
So can the lump on his head.
And so can the rest of the household, actually.
After Sean's attempt, Erik proceeded to storm around the house, wake everyone up, and scream at the top of his lungs, that he 'will never share a room with anyone, ever. Not Charles, not you kids and not any combination thereof.' He made it quite clear that if they 'do not stop with this madness, there will be hell to pay.'
And then he stormed off to god knows where, probably to angst. Again.
Despite everything, Charles can't help but chuckle a little because all of the kids have the same thought simultaneously. 'Drama queen,' they all mutter before snorting and walking off. But it's not so easy for Charles because, well, he may sort of be in love with Erik and it kind of, sort of does hurt that the man refuses to sleep in the same room as him.
This time though, he wants to ask about it; he wants to see where he stands with the metal-bender. He thinks they're at least friends. But then again, why would Erik be so vehemently negative about sharing rooms if he didn't feel some kind of dislike for Charles?
Charles doesn't realize that the answer to his query is only going to make him fall harder for his friend or there is no way he'd ask.
But he does ask and Erik's answer both warms and saddens him.
"It's not…" Erik says, looking utterly uncomfortable, "I'm not…I'm not the best of roommates. I have…nightmares. I won't room with anyone because I'll probably keep the kids up and worse in your case. For you, it might even bleed through since you're a telepath…."
Charles then proceeds to feel like an utter arse because, shit, as bad as he feels for his friend, he's also incredibly relieved because Erik doesn't hate him.
And then he temporarily stops functioning or something apparently because the next words out of his mouth are, "Honestly, Erik, I think it would probably do you good to stay in the same room as me. I could probably block the nightmares or, at the very least, help you through them."
Having said which, he promptly snaps his mouth shut and, after realizing what he's done, begins to pray that Erik won't take him up on it.
But Erik, the poor soul, actually looks hopeful before he remembers himself. Then, he just sort of shrugs and tries to affect a nonchalant tone, "Whatever you want Charles."
And this sort of terrifies Charles because, holy shit, what has he done? He's basically opened himself to more torture by making that suggestion. He doesn't want to have to explain how he magically appeared in Erik's bed at fuckitall o' clock in the morning. That would be beyond humiliating and Charles would have to explain things and Erik will leave and everything would be sad.
Charles really doesn't want that.
But he sort of does and he's more confused now than he was when Raven started to go through puberty and was just starting to have mood swings; and Charles had no idea why because he wasn't (and still isn't) allowed to read her mind and it was bad and GAH!
So he makes a nonchalant sound in response to Erik's slight acquiescence and buckles down to plan. He needs to stop the kids from actually trying again because it might actually end up with him and Erik rooming together.
What sucks is that he still can't decide which he'd like better, so he just plans for it to not happen.
And so when Angel and Raven plan something again, this time with Raven turning into himself, Charles simply ups their training. If Raven is training hard and is tired, then Raven won't be becoming Charles. It works.
When Angel, Sean, Alex and Hank start to plan...something, involving a wrench, fire, a screwdriver, some fur, spray paint and a can of diesel, he immediately puts a stop to it by making them train with Erik. At the end of the day, the kids are just too tired to do anything and that's just how Charles likes it.
He's almost ashamed to say that it has less to do with the danger involved with the items and people, and more to do with his desire to thwart any further attempts at permanently putting him and Erik in the same room.
Charles thinks, that's that, no more of this foolishness.
And once again, he's wrong.
Murphy's Law: 1000, Charles: 0.
The day that all of Charles' (not so) carefully laid plans go to shit starts off gorgeous.
The kids have somehow managed to sucker the adults into a picnic and everything's good.
Sean is bugging Charles into making him a sandwich because the one he makes (experiments with) turns out mysteriously inedible. It's also turned a curious shade of purple.
Purple.
How Sean accomplished that, Charles doesn't want to know.
Alex is doing the same thing and pretends that he only wants Charles to make his sandwich because he's lazy. But Charles knows that he wants to feel like he's a part a family and that, for some reason, includes having 'Mom' making the food. Charles makes a note to teach Alex about a little something called chauvinism even as he makes the boy his sandwich. He doesn't want Alex to get beaten on a later date if he were to ever open his mouth to an actual woman, god forbid.
Angel, Raven and Erik have been happily munching away for a while now since they were the first to extort sandwiches out of him.
Hank is too busy examining the fauna around them to do something as trivial as eating. Charles makes him a sandwich anyway because he's pretty sure that the boy will come whining later on.
Things are good.
And they only get better when the kids all decide that they want to 'explore the land,' leaving Erik and Charles behind to just laze around. More specifically, Charles lazes around and just thinks while he waits for Erik to finish his pushups and come join in.
He thinks about everything with Erik and the rooming situation and would it really be so bad to room with the metal-bender? Because yeah, okay, Charles might embarrass himself; but at the same time, he gets to see Erik's sleepy face regularly. Plus, Erik seems to have truly horrifying nightmares and, as a result, seems to get no more than four hours of sleep a night.
Charles is pretty sure that it isn't healthy for Erik to sleep so little on a regular basis. He knows that lack of sleep leads to slower thought processing, which leads to bad decision making. What if, as a result of Charles not stopping his nightmares, Erik does something spectacularly stupid? Like what if he declares war on the world and attacks an entire armada in a fit of cranky, sleepless rage? What if he makes all the piping in the house explode?
Charles can't help but shudder because he can totally see the exploding pipes thing happening. He doesn't want to lose his ability to shower or go to the bathroom for any amount of time.
Then again, as selfish as it sounds, Charles really doesn't want to humiliate himself…
He doesn't want to lose Erik's respect, rather, he wants Erik to lo-
He doesn't get to finish that thought because suddenly, there's a terrified scream from one of the kids, Angel judging by the sound, and everything is put on the backburner as he and Erik race to where the sound originated from. Terrified kids usually mean hurt kids, or kids in pain, or kids in a state that'll break Charles' heart.
Charles really can't even stand the thought of his kids not being safe.
The only thought in Charles' head at that point is the fervent hope that the children are all safe and unharmed. The fact that all of them are mutants and therefore fully capable of taking care of themselves doesn't even enter his mind because no matter what, they're just kids and god, please, please, please let them be safe.
Even Erik, who doesn't normally allow his emotions to show on his face, looks utterly frightened as he runs. He loves the children too, after all.
At some point, Charles starts trying to get a mental trace on the kids and it's like trying to grab water because he's too panicked and the kids probably are too. It's just a bad combination. And then, when he finally latches, it's Angel's mind and all he can hear is, 'Oh god. Oh god. Oh God' and at the very end, he hears a terrified sounding, 'Sean! NO!'
And then he can't keep himself attached to her mind any longer because he's freaking out and god, what the hell happened?
He grabs Erik's hand so as not to lose him and flat out sprints to the kids' location.
When they get there, it's a fucking mess. It looks like several of the trees have been barked up with what looks like a chainsaw and the earth has been ripped apart. And in the middle of all that is Angel, with tears running down her face and she looks like she lost a fight in all the worst ways.
Charles doesn't even think about scanning her mind as he wraps her up in a hug and tries to comfort her. Hell, by this point even if he did think to do it, he wouldn't because he has no control and he'd probably rip her mind apart without meaning to.
It's Erik who has to question her, even as he cards his fingers through her hair; it's Erik who gets the general gist of what happened because Charles is basically locked into comfort mode and can't be arsed to do such things like figuring out what's going on.
That is, until he does hear about everything as Angel talks to Erik; and then he's telling Angel to find the others and get them to the house because, essentially, Sean has been kidnapped by a bear, of all things, and Charles isn't going to take that lying down. If that bear has harmed a single hair on Sean's head, Charles fully plans on making it rip itself apart.
As he takes off with Erik in tow, he doesn't notice Angel wipe all signs of tears from her face and whip out a small walkie-talkie, "Distraction: Successfully Completed."
He doesn't hear Sean's voice come back with, "Copy that. Operation is a go; rendezvous at the mansion for further instructions from Raven."
He does notice that something seems a bit off, but he chooses to ignore it.
He's too busy being focused on finding his boy.
It isn't until two hours later that both Charles and Erik finally stop looking for the boy and it's only in order to regroup. Erik figures that they should go back to the mansion, check on the other kids, and ask Angel for more specifics about what happened.
Charles almost doesn't go back because he's worried sick about Sean; every passing minute is another minute that Sean spends scared and Charles loathes it. But he can see the logic behind going back to the mansion, even if he does hate Erik a little for actually being logical in a moment like this.
When they finally do make it back to the mansion, something seems off. The first person they encounter is Raven and she's smirking like the cat that's just gotten the canary. It's sort of frightening and if Charles hadn't been so engrosses in trying to figure out how to get Sean back in one piece, he would have been alarmed. Instead he just absent-mindedly nods in her direction before continuing on. The feeling of something being off comes back, but Charles pushes it to the back of his mind so he can examine it later.
A few minutes later they pass Alex and Hank, and the two are carrying what looks like a…couch?...between them. It's a tad bit weird and when Charles turns to Erik, the man not only looks confused but also suspicious, like something is terribly off and he can't figure out what it is but he's too worried about Sean to really be bothered.
Charles can sympathize. He continues on and pulls Erik with him; they can analyze the oddities later.
By the time they figure out where Angel is, Charles has realized the need for a first aid kit. They don't know what condition Sean is going to be in and they need to be prepared for all eventualities. So Charles sends Erik to question Angel once more while he goes to grab the first aid kit from his room.
This is where shit hits the fan.
When he first walks into the room, he thinks he's walked into the wrong room by accident because he distinctly remembers his room not being empty. At first, he figures that, in his worry, he's walked into one of the hundred empty rooms in the mansion. But then, he walks out and sees his name on the door and well, it is his room.
So then…what happened to all of his things?
Where is his desk? And his comfortable chair? And his favorite couch…
A sudden image pops in Charles' mind, one of Hank and Alex carrying a couch down the hallway, and Charles has to pause for a second and think.
And wait, none of the kids even seemed worried that one of them is, for all intents and purposes, missing…
In that moment, everything clicks.
Just to make sure that he isn't jumping to conclusions, Charles takes a deep, calming breath and does a quick scan of the kids' minds.
He finds that his conclusions are not wrong at all.
And then all he knows is fury.
He's glad to find that everyone has congregated to the sitting room when he finally stomps his way in, the first words out his mouth being a very gritted out, "Where. Is. Sean."
The kids all freeze, shocked looks on their faces.
Erik, who has just walked in so he could talk to Angel, looks shocked too.
No one speaks, so Charles asks again, and he's barely stopping himself from throttling someone, "Well? Where. Is. Sean? I know you know where he is. Or would you rather I tell you to fetch him from Raven's room?"
Still, no one speaks, but there's a sense of terror now. Charles doesn't even have to look into the kids' minds to know that this is not what they've been expecting. But he does it anyway and it only infuriates him further because apparently, they've been expecting a laugh over this, as though it weren't a big deal.
Erik is the one who finally breaks the silence with a hissed out, "What are you talking about?" It seems that he's still confused about what's going on, but instinctively knows that he's been had.
Charles has no qualms about filling him in. Let Erik be mad at the kids too; they deserve it.
"The children," he spits out, raw fury coloring his words, "sought to remedy our room situation by faking Sean's being mauled and taken by a bear so that while we were searching for him, they could just move all of my things into your room. They figured that we'd be too distracted to stop them."
As expected, Erik is furious too and the dark look on his face promises wrath of untold proportions.
The kids cringe in expectation of punishment, thinking that they are going to be so grounded, and that it's going to suck. They expect it because it is the penalty that's most often used and they're prepared to take it. What they don't realize is that they are so much more than grounded.
What they're not prepared for is Charles turning his back on them, his posture rigid. They're not prepared for Charles practically spitting at them to stay away from him. And they most certainly are not prepared for Charles' walking away from them without looking back.
It's utterly terrifying because it's everyone's worst nightmare.
Raven, who looks absolutely frightened by now, tries to stop him, "Mom?" Her voice is quiet, barely a whisper, but it carries in the room as though she'd screamed. She wants him to turn around with the usual reassuring smile on his face; she wants to hear an 'it's ok' and an 'I love you guys no matter what.' She wants him to never turn his back on them again.
Instead, Charles turns around for just a minute, rage in his eyes and what he says freezes the heart of every single one of the children. "I'm done," he grits out, "I'm done." Then he's walking away.
Even Erik's heart freezes a little at those words, even though he's done nothing wrong and Charles doesn't mean it the way it sounds. And if he feels like that, well, it hits him that the kids are probably feeling worse.
When he turns to them, they look shell-shocked; they look like they've lost everything and they don't know what to do.
They look like they're on the verge of tears and utterly bereft because what Charles just said and did makes them feel so alone. Their world is ending because they are no longer welcome to revel in Charles' presence or go to him for comfort. No more bothering him just to see him react, no more random hugs, no more training, no more joy or love or anything. The person they consider to be the mother of their family no longer wants them.
And to make it worse, they completely deserve it because they brought upon themselves.
Angel is the first to burst into tears and she's quickly followed by Raven and Sean. Alex succumbs to tears as well, even though he tries so hard not to. Hank doesn't cry, but he looks sort of dead, like he has no reason to live. Depression is eating at them all.
They instinctively turn to Dad for comfort, just for one second, before they turn away again. They've come to the conclusion that they can't expect comfort from him either because he's probably just as furious, if not more so. And suddenly everything is twice as bad because now they haven't just lost their mother but also their father. They no longer have a family.
The sobs begin to get more heart-breaking.
And as Erik watches on, he can't help but let his rage fade a little. He wants to stay furious; he wants to do what Charles did because that would teach them a lesson. But he finds that he can't. They are just kids after all, and he knows what it's like to go to extremes to accomplish something. To their credit, they did have good intentions; it's not as though they were planning to kill someone...
Erik looks at the weeping children once more before sighing; he can't really stay furious with them. Angry? Yes, definitely. And are they getting punished? Absolutely. Until they're at least 40 years old.
But, well, they're still his kids and he isn't about to leave them thinking that their 'parents' hate them.
With another sigh, he pulls the nearest child into a hug.
They all adopt surprised looks, hopeful looks, even as they cry but before long, he's surrounded by a mass of bodies.
Erik takes the time to carefully explain why Charles reacted the way he did. He explains that the reason why they're so upset is because they actually thought that Sean was in a life-threatening situation and it made them panic; that it was cruel to do such a thing to Charles and himself because it hurts a parent to think that their children are suffering.
The kids squirm guiltily before nuzzling in some more, and Erik spares a moment to wonder if they were all puppies in a previous life before going back to his scolding explanations.
He spends another twenty minutes assuring them that while their mother may be upset for now, he isn't going to be that way for. He'll come around, Erik says, a few days from now, things will be back to normal.
He smiles as the kids slowly calm down.
He then proceeds to ground them all for three months, with no privileges of any kind, no TV and no shopping. They will wake up at five in the morning to laps with him every single day for two months, plus they will take on additional chores for a month. They will also not be allowed outside for the duration of their sentence unless it's specifically cleared by him. With that, Erik sends them on their way.
The kids are subdued as they go back to their rooms.
An hour later, after everything is settled, Charles is sitting on his bed, which is now in Erik's room, with his head in his hands. He's exhausted and he really just wants a nap. But goddammit, he's still too wound up so the most he can do is curl up, close his eyes and try to stave of the oncoming migraine.
What the hell had possessed his stupid children to do something like this? His stupid, idiotic, nincompoop children; what the hell had made them think that this was a good idea? Just how many times were they dropped on their heads when they were babies? Did they think this was funny? Did they think that it'd be a great prank to throw Erik and himself into such a….panic?
Well, it wasn't.
Charles can honestly say that he's never been more terrified than when Angel fed them the story of the bear. The very thought of Sean or any of the kids, or Erik for that matter, being lost, alone and scared...
He does a quick scan of the house, making sure that everyone is inside and safe.
During the sweep, he can sense the distress the kids are in and it pulls at his heart; a small part of him wants to get up right now and make everything better. But this time, he isn't going to give in. There is no way he can excuse things away; they've just gone too far. He's afraid that if he goes near them before he cools down, he will do something drastic, something he'll regret and he won't even mean to do it.
Unfortunately, it's looking like he won't be cooling down anytime soon because he just can't understand what they were thinking.
So he just curls up and vaguely wonders how he didn't see this while they were still thinking about it. Usually, he knows what they're thinking but this time, he didn't have a clue. So how…?
A few minutes of thinking yields the only possible answer: Raven. She's been with him the longest and, as such, she knows the best way to block things she doesn't want Charles catching onto from her mind.
She probably taught it to the other kids.
This does not make Charles feel better.
He doesn't bother to move even when Erik walks into the room; doesn't even flinch when the metal-bender's voice cuts through the silence. He simply allows the other man to bring him down from his cloud of rage.
"Their intentions weren't bad, you know," Erik says, rather rueful sounding, "They just wanted us to be in the same room together. They didn't intend to cause us so much worry."
Charles only grunts slightly as he curls in further, but he's listening as Erik continues.
"I think…that they aren't used to having parental figures in their lives. They don't realize that we worry about them."
And here, Charles has to snort again for several reasons. He can't believe that Erik is the one talking him down from a rage. He also can't believe that he's actually trying to see where the kids come from because Erik usually yells first and asks questions later. It would actually be funny if he weren't still angry.
Silence reigns for a seconds, then Eric is talking again, this time his voice is softer.
"They…"
Charles hears Erik stop and then sigh before the other man is moving to it next to him.
"They think you hate them Charles."
Charles just sort of grumbles into the pillow even as his heart twinges again, he wants to say that maybe does hate them a little for all this. But he knows that isn't true. Even as he tries to cling to his fury, he can feel it starting to slip away. Mind, he's still angry, but the all-encompassing, irrational rage is slowly starting to dissipate.
"You need to let them know that you still want them Charles, they seriously think you're going to make them leave and not want anything to do with them."
Charles really feels a bit guilty at that; it really hadn't been his intention to do that. He'd just wanted to get away for a bit so he didn't do anything that he'd regret. He thinks that maybe he should talk to them, but then his head pounds again and he just winces and curls up some more.
His head hurts too much to really concentrate, much less forgive the kids. He's still a little too irritated right now.
He doesn't even notice when Erik tsks.
Charles does, however, notice when Erik starts massaging his temples, fingers strong as they knead the pain away from Charles' head. God, that feels good and he's pretty sure he's going to fall asleep at this rate.
Before that, he should probably tell the kids that they can stop being over-dramatic now; but he's warm and sleepy and doesn't really wanna move.
So he does the next best thing.
The last thing he does before he falls asleep is send out a mental message to the kids. He doesn't want to leave them thinking that they're no longer loved. He never wants them to feel like they're unwanted, even when they've done something atrocious.
'You aren't forgiven, not by a longshot. But…I still love you guys.'
He's out before he gets any of the responses back. He doesn't hear their sobs of relief or their extensive apologies.
When he wakes up a few hours later, he's surrounded by kids and Erik, whot seems to be awake and staring at the ceiling. When he asks what's going on, in a whisper of course, Erik merely shrugs.
"They all just sort of walked in and just huddled up. And of course," he sniffs here as though exasperated, "they dragged me into it too…"
But Charles can't help but smiling because, even as Erik says that, he's gently arranging Angel so that she's more comfortably laying across his chest.
His smile only widens when Raven snuffles slightly and Alex proceeds to burrow in some more. Sean's already neatly tucked in between his two 'parents' and Hank is basically taking up half the bed as he burrows into Erik.
It's all very cute.
He turns to Erik when the man starts to speak again, his mouth quirked in a slight smirk, "So, now that everything is said and done, it'd probably be best if we just stayed together, yeah?"
And yeah, it's probably a joke to Erik, Charles knows that. At the very least, he knows that Erik doesn't mean it in that way. The man was just talking about their staying in the same room together as roommates.
But his breath still catches a little and he can't help but quietly chuckling out of pure happiness as he responds as nonchalantly as he can, "Why not? After all the effort these little idiots went through…it seems a waste to just move everything back. Besides, who knows what else they'll do if this 'plan' fails?"
They both shudder.
Then, Erik grins and pets Alex's head, "Atleast, they gave us each our own bed…"
Charles also smiles, "Even if they did put them together, assumedly after I fell asleep since they were definitely apart before I did. How did they manage to not wake me up when they did that?"
He watches with fascination as Erik turns a rather interesting shade of pink and begins to flounder. And then, after a bit of struggling, Erik merely shrugs and points at Hank, and then he's curling up himself to get a few hours of sleep.
It doesn't take long for Charles to figure out what happened after that; Erik's odd reaction and the fact that all the beds in the mansion are made of metal make sure of that.
Charles can't help but chuckle fondly, wishing he could just reach over and kiss the stupid man.
Erik can pretend all he wants to be a tough, disciplined, demanding badass; but it's really hard to think of him that way when he's doing sweet things like moving the immense beds together just so his kids can curl up around him and Charles comfortably. It's hard to see him as a badass when he's giving up all his insecurities and his love of personal space just to keep the children happy.
Then, all Charles can see is a man who loves his children so much that it hurts. But whatever, he figures he'll let Erik cling to his illusions if they make him feel more comfortable.
Charles doesn't stay awake for much longer after that, but he does make one last observation before he nods off again.
This is not how he imagined the first time Erik and he share a bed; those rare, rare times he allows his mind to wander and there is steam and urgency and pleasure and harderfastermore.
Instead, it ends up being Erik, Charles and all the kids crammed on two beds that were pushed together.
Somehow, Charles is perfectly fine with that. He honestly can't say that he's disappointed.
End Notes: Hope that wasn't too, too bad. TT^TT Still lookin for those three word clusters~~ Also, R AND R! xD I wanna see how many chaps it takes to hit 100 reviews! :D Please make my life?