So happy for all the readers out there. Makes my heart soar that you actually like my writing.

Erik flipped through the schedule Emma had sent him, making notes of locations and then researching them on one of his laptops. Occasionally, he would glance up at the top of the dresser where he'd set up a couple other computer screens with the surveillance feeds.

"You know," a voice interrupted him, "if you're going to keep muttering to yourself in German, I'm going to have to learn the language. Or at the very least start toting a dictionary around with me."

Erik turned to see Xavier in the doorway wearing red plaid pajama pants and a white t-shirt, arms crossed over his chest. He hadn't been aware he'd been talking out loud, let alone in German. "You should be in bed," he replied curtly and turned back to what he'd been doing. Schools were rather predominant locations; maybe because of his profession?

"I should be, but I couldn't sleep."

Erik spared a glance to check the time. Nearly three in the morning. He should wake Alex for the next watch soon.

Xavier came and sat on the edge of the bed, carefully avoiding the papers. "Do I need to let you know when my boyfriend and I have a date planned?"

That garnered him Erik's full attention as his head whipped around. "What?"

Xavier grinned. "I have a date Saturday evening with my boyfriend. We couldn't make it last week so I rescheduled for this week. That was before you showed up."

Erik scowled. "You're not going," and he turned away again. It was hard to focus with him there, starting to bounce up and down on the mattress.

Xavier didn't leave; instead, he continued, "So what do I tell him?"

"Tell who?"

"Kevin. My boyfriend."

Erik muttered, "Ist mir egal (translation: I don't care)."

Xavier mused, "I could tell him my bodyguards are incapable of protecting me in public. I'm sure he'd be very concerned about that."

Erik gritted his teeth, annoyed. "I'm not your bodyguard. An diesem punkt fühle ich mich eher wie lhren gottverdammte babysitter (translation: at this point I'm feeling more like your goddamned babysitter)." He felt comfortable complaining in his native language since Xavier admitted he couldn't understand it.

Xavier retorted, "Is that not what Jean and Angel are doing for my sister right now? Or are they helping her with her homework?"

Fair point, Erik thought, but still replied, "You're not going."

Xavier said a little triumphantly, "Then you're admitting that you can't protect me in public."

Erik glared at him, even growled a little, but Xavier remained unrepentant, meeting his gaze squarely. Unhappily, and extremely reluctantly, Erik gave in. "I want to know where you're going, what time, how long, and you do not arrive or leave with him, is that understood?"

He expected Xavier to balk at the restrictions but he just smiled and said, "Understood. Goodnight, Erik."

Xavier left and Erik swore several times under his breath in German. Xavier called from across the hall, "I need to go shopping for a German-English dictionary tomorrow!"

Erik called back, "Go to bed, Xavier!" and shook his head. He was starting to wonder if he could actually make it two months without strangling Xavier.

Charles settled himself at the table with a cup of tea and pulled his laptop over to check his email. It was rather interesting to note that he no longer had to rush to get to work on time. He actually had a few minutes in the morning to savor his tea. Then again, that could be due to the three men now living with him who all woke up extremely early. Erik entered the room after his shower. He apparently went for a jog every morning no matter where he was.

Charles studied him over the tip of his mug. Erik was very well built, muscular, trim. Charles was just dying to see if his chest was as ripped as he thought it was. Grey eyes caught his from across the room and Charles quickly returned to his email, embarrassed to be caught looking. Four days and there was no denying that Erik was a very attractive man. You have a boyfriend, he sternly reminded himself and then proceeded to take another look at the agent.

Erik abruptly swore. In German. Another thing Charles was starting to learn: Erik spoke in German when he was particularly upset or annoyed or just didn't want anyone else to know what he was saying. Rather unfortunate that Charles was finding it a turn on. "Your sister wants to attend a party tomorrow night."

It took Charles a moment to realize that Erik's comment was directed at him. "Sorry, Raven wants to what?"

"Go to a party. Tomorrow night."

"She goes to plenty of parties. You'll recall I mentioned she was a bit of a wild child," Charles reminded him.

Erik growled. Charles was rather amused by it. "Did you actually just growl at your phone? Or was that directed at me?"

"Both." The glare was back, unfortunately. "I've just remembered our conversation last night. And I can't very well tell her no when I told you yes."

Charles tilted his head. What did he mean by…oh. Right. The point Charles had made about Erik not being able to guard him in public now extended to include Raven's social activities as well. Oops. Sorry, Raven. He shrugged. "I could talk to her, if you like. She might be more inclined to listen to me. I don't approve of most of the parties she attends anyway. She meets some rather strange people."

He could see he'd stunned Erik by offering to tell Raven no himself and bit back a smile. "You'd back me on this?" Erik asked and Charles could see Alex twist around from where he was lounging on the couch to watch them. Scott was in the kitchen, trying and failing to act like he wasn't watching.

Charles nodded, smiling. "Of course. Big brother prerogative and all. She'll understand."

Erik still sounded a bit stunned as he said, "All right, I'll let Jean and Angel know." Even as he pulled out his phone, he shot Charles another look that said he couldn't quite believe Charles was serious.

Charles took a sip of his tea, enjoying the fact that he'd managed to surprise Erik. He'd known from practically the moment they'd met that Erik didn't like or approve of him and his campaign. After their little adventure at the soup kitchen, Charles decided that he would be his natural buoyant self and win Erik over with persistence. He did feel a little bad, tricking Erik into agreeing to chaperone his date, so siding with him against Raven's party made him feel better. He'd explain it to her later; she'd understand and go to another party on a different day. Or after his date ended. Either way, it wouldn't be a big problem, he was sure.

Erik hung up and headed for the kitchen, poured a mug of coffee, and threw over his shoulder, "Still waiting on that itinerary." Alex and Scott exchanged confused looks but Charles knew what he meant by the seemingly offhand comment.

Charles couldn't help but grin as he sipped his tea. "I'll talk to him at lunch."

The first date had been interesting, but in the end a success so it was no surprise when Erik agreed to chaperone a second one the following Saturday. Kevin had been cleared—normal guy with a job sitting in a cubicle, no priors, nothing that could cause a problem. Alex thought he was rather boring, actually, but there was no accounting for taste. Date number two was just as boring for the agents as the first, which was a good thing, he supposed. All in all, Alex had been kind of bored with this assignment—not that he was complaining! At least, not where Erik could hear him. He followed his brother and Charles down the sidewalk, trying to keep an eye out while not bumping into people. Harder than you think, especially on a Saturday night. Everyone apparently had date night tonight.

Erik led the way to the crosswalk and Alex couldn't help but laugh. He was always such a grump, Alex couldn't help but needle him whenever he could. Tonight was no exception, and Alex had chosen to pick guys at random and ask Erik to rate their attractiveness. The fact that they had their earwigs in made it safer and even Scott joined in a bit, which was a surprise in and of itself because Scott had become a stick in the mud once he started dating Jean. Who Alex liked…most of the time.

They were the only ones crossing the street at the moment so Alex fell back a few paces. His thoughts drifted so he didn't see the car pull away from the curb. None of them did. Or, if they did, they didn't take notice. It was a busy night after all, so what did it matter if one car pulled out? It accelerated, still unnoticed. Still perfectly normal.

Alex's foot caught on something and as he stumbled, he saw the car coming up fast. He did some quick calculations and figured they'd be well out of the way by the time it reached the crosswalk. So he kept walking, but watched the car out of the corner of his eye, just in case. Scott and Charles were talking in front of him, but something seemed off; a tenseness to Charles' shoulders that hadn't been there a couple hours ago. Had something happened that he should know about? Maybe Kevin had said something that Charles took offense to. Or Erik did, Alex thought with a silent laugh.

The car jerked to the side and Alex saw it was now in the middle of the street…and moving faster. He looked behind him; plenty of space for it to pass through.

Then it clicked.

In that split second, Alex knew two things: the car was aiming to hit Charles. And he was the only one who realized it. The driver must have caught on to Alex's realization at that moment because the engine revved.

Alex bolted forward, crossing the remaining distance and tackled Charles, throwing an arm out to grab his brother, too. The three of them hit the ground, sliding a few inches and the car zoomed past a second later with a rush of air that was too damn close.

They all slowly sat up and then Erik was there, demanding to know what the hell he was thinking, was everyone okay, etc. Alex felt a hand on his arm and turned to meet shockingly blue eyes.

Charles said softly, "Thank you."

"What the hell happened?" Erik said again and he actually looked concerned.

Alex gestured vaguely in the direction the car took. "The car was aiming for Charles. I didn't have that much time to think. I just…reacted."

Scott threw an arm around his shoulders and tugged him close. "Good job, little brother."

Alex squirmed. He hated when Scott got all big brother on him like that in public.

"Thanks for saving my life, too," Scott added as he let go.

Alex felt his face heat and stood up quickly. "Yeah, well, it's my job, right?"

Scott squeezed his shoulder. "Right."

Erik helped Charles to his feet and asked, "You okay?"

Charles nodded, looking rather pale. "A couple scrapes is all."

Erik inquired, "Alex? Scott?"

The brothers exchanged looks. Scott said, "We're good, Erik."

Charles added, "We're lucky it wasn't worse, thanks to Alex."

"Okay," Alex said loudly, uncomfortable now, "can…can we go now? We're drawing attention."

The others looked around and Erik headed for the Tahoe, still gripping Charles' arm.

Erik returned from his run to find Xavier on the couch, scowling at the television. "What is it?"

Xavier glanced up at him briefly. "The reporters found out about last night's adventure. Though thankfully, there's no shot of me."

He sounded disgusted. Erik opened his mouth to say something when his cell phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and sighed. Mason.

Erik slid the button across the screen. "Director, good morning."

"Why did I send you to New York?"

"Sir, it's not—"

"Because right now it looks like you're screwing up."

Erik moved to the kitchen for a little privacy, sparing a thought as to the location of the brothers. "Nothing happened, sir."

"Nothing. You want me to tell the President that his possible successor nearly died last night but that it was nothing?!"

Erik winced. How the hell did Mason know it was Xavier?

"Sir, if you would just let me—"

Mason interrupted him, "I thought I could count on you to keep your personal feelings for the man aside. If you're doing less than your best for any reason, Erik, so help me…"

Erik bristled. "Sir, it was a busy Saturday evening and everyone and their dog was out last night. There was no way to tell that the driver of the car had nefarious plans until it was nearly on top of us. Alex saw, reacted accordingly, and the only result was a couple scrapes. Sir."

Mason was silent for a moment. "No more outings like this, Erik."

Erik only just kept from letting his breath out in relief. "No, sir. No more," he quickly agreed. Hopefully, Xavier would agree as well. Maybe after last night, he'd be a little more inclined to listen.

"Tell Summers good job. And I expect not to hear anything like this again, is that clear, Erik?"

Erik ran a hand through his sweaty hair. God, he needed a shower. "Understood, sir."

"Good." Mason hung up and Erik slowly lowered his phone. Mason hatte ihn fast von der zuordnung übernommen. Das war ziemlich erschütterungen zu erkennen (Translation: Mason had almost taken him off the assignment. That was rather jarring to realize).

Xavier's voice broke the silence, tentatively asking, "Are you in trouble?"

Why did he care? He'd just get another agent to watch him. "No," he responded after a second. "Where are Scott and Alex?"

"War room." Xavier studied him.

It took Erik a minute to recognize the nickname Xavier had given the spare bedroom after seeing the setup. It was actually rather apt; he liked it, surprisingly enough. "I'm gonna take a shower. Any plans for the day I need to know about?"

Xavier shook his head, that thoughtful look still on his face. "Just some grading. I'm falling behind a bit. Oh, and Raven might stop by for a bit later on. If she's not too hungover."

Erik nodded and headed down the hall. He'd approach the no more outings rule later.