A/N: Real life is such a pain. It seems like whenever I think I've found some time to sit down and write, something conspires to drag me away from my keyboard.

After the show that night, with Raven's pep talk still in mind, Erik figured he'd hang around for a while and maybe try for an actual conversation with Charles. Nothing personal, nothing heavy, the weather was probably a safe topic, the guy was nervous as a kitten around him as it was and he didn't want to make it worse. But he wasn't sure exactly how to start so he hovered about at the end of the bar for what seemed like forever and eventually he managed to talk himself out of it.

"Need any help?" He asked, turning to Raven. She was drying glasses and putting them away as Hank washed them.

"Yeah, sure. You could go round and collect the last few glasses from the tables for me if you want." She paused briefly. "Or you could quit worrying about what to say and just go help him put stuff away."

Erik sighed.

"And get my damn head bitten off."

Raven tossed her glass cloth on the bar top, folded her arms across her chest and glared at him.

"Did you actually listen to anything I said earlier?" She asked.

He ducked his head sheepishly and mumbled.

"Patient and persistent. I was listening, I just…" He dared a glance over his shoulder at the man who was suddenly and unexpectedly making him feel like some dumb kid trying to get up the nerve to ask a girl to the school dance, except he was thirty two years old, Charles wasn't a girl and he was hoping for more than just a dance. He turned his gaze back to Raven who was looking at him with one eyebrow raised expectantly. He sighed again. Raven was amazing, she was easy going in a way that few people were, accepting, even encouraging but she would never truly understand how difficult it was for a man like him to approach another man, even when he was fairly sure that man shared the same inclination. "It's not easy." He said feebly.

"Sure it is." She told him. "Jeez, you're not asking him to marry you. You're not even asking him on a date, you're just helping him put a few things away before we lock up. Now go." She waved her hands at him. "Make with the persistent, otherwise I'll have to lock the two of you in a closet together overnight and then you'll have to at least talk to each other."

"Okay, fine." He grumbled. He wasn't entirely sure if she was joking or not but he was pretty sure that being locked in a closet with him would have the opposite of the desired effect on Charles so he wasn't going to take that chance. He took a deep breath, wiped his hands on the front of his pants and walked towards the stage.

He tried to keep his steps light and even as he climbed the steps and he rounded Charles in a wide circle so that the other man wouldn't think he was a threat. The last thing he wanted to do was to startle him, he was likely to bolt if he did that. Charles was gathering up the sheet music that had been left on the stands and as he drew a little closer to him Erik noticed the man tense slightly so he stopped mid step and stuffed one hand in his pants pocket.

"What can I do to help?" He asked, already knowing instinctively what the answer would be and deciding he wasn't going to let Charles just brush him off. "These go in a closet right? He continued , wrapping his hand around the center pole of a nearby stand and lifting it off the ground .

"Yes but I can…" Manage on my own. Erik didn't need to be a mind reader to know what Charles' next few words were going to be and he wasn't about to let him finish his sentence. Judging by his pursed lips and annoyed frown Charles knew it too. "End of the hall, on the left." He said with a resigned sigh and went back to collecting the music while Erik took his hand out of his pocket and picked up another stand.

Carrying the stands down the hall, he tried desperately to think of something to say to Charles but couldn't think of anything. He wondered if maybe he shouldn't say anything at all, if he should keep his mouth shut and just kinda hang around until the other man finally started to relax around him. Yeah, he decided, that was probably what he should do. Patient and persistent he reminded himself.

He made two more trips, each time with two more stands, and each time he said nothing, only watched while Charles busied himself reorganising the stage. When Charles finally acknowledged that there was nothing else for him to do, he grabbed two of the stands himself and hurried down the hall with them, passing Erik on the way. Erik took the last two stands and carried them to the storage room, unintentionally blocking Charles' exit as he stood in the doorway with them. For a moment they just stared at one another in awkward silence then Charles took them from his hands with a clipped thank you and turned his back. Having put them in their place, and taking far more time about it than was strictly necessary, Charles turned again, clearly expecting Erik to be gone or at least have stepped aside. Erik had not moved.

"Excuse me." Charles mumbled, keeping his head down and his gaze fixed to the ground.

Erik wasn't quite sure why he stood his ground. He certainly hadn't planned to trap the other man this way, he'd done that once before and it hadn't worked out so good, but now that he had he found he couldn't make himself move.

"Excuse me." Charles said again, a little louder, a little firmer. Perhaps Erik hadn't heard him the first time. Erik still didn't move. "I said excuse me!" He snapped, panic beginning to set in.

Erik stared down at the top of Charles' bowed head and frowned. He threw out his earlier decision to stay quiet until Charles was comfortable with him because it was obvious he'd ruined that now, and opened his mouth.

"You really don't like me at all do you?"

Charles' shoulders stiffened and he clenched his hands into fists at his sides. He took a deep breath for courage and dared to look up. Erik was gazing at him so intently it made him blush. In that exact moment he wished more than anything that Erik would look at him that way in a more… intimate setting and he wished he could let himself look at Erik that same way. But he couldn't. He couldn't let himself look at Erik at all, he couldn't even let himself think about it because thinking about Erik was dangerous and would only lead to trouble. Thinking about Erik could get him arrested, or worse.

"I don't even know you." He mumbled, attempting, and failing to duck beneath the taller man's outstretched arm.

"Well then, maybe we should change that. We could get a drink or something when we're done here, and just talk."

Charles froze completely, terrified. Erik could practically feel the tension in the other man's body even from a couple of feet away and he wished he'd kept his big mouth shut.

"I d… d…I don't th… think so." Charles stammered. "I have a lot to do and Raven will be…"

"Hey look, it's okay, it doesn't matter. I just figured working together might be easier if we could find some way to get along but I get that you're a busy guy. It was dumb of me to ask." He hoped Charles took his explanation at face value and didn't over analyse. He'd already made a mess of things and if Charles blew a fuse over whether or not he'd actually been asking him on a date, he was pretty sure he'd never be able to fix things.

Erik dropped his arm and took a step back. The tension that had held Charles so rigid just seconds before, seemed to ease a little and he offered Erik a polite nod as he hurried through the doorway, giving the man as wide a berth as was possible. Erik bit his lip as he debated his next move. Patient and persistent he thought. What in the blue blazes did that even mean anyhow? Persistent sure wasn't working, patient was likely to see both of them die of old age before anything happened and Erik's brain was going to skip out on him if he didn't figure something out soon.

"Wait." He called out, not really sure why. He wasn't expecting Charles to stop and he didn't know what he'd do if he did anyway but he called out all the same. "Wait, please." He reached out instinctively, grabbing Charles wrist to keep him from leaving.

Charles allowed himself to be pulled back, no surer of his motives than Erik was. A small part of him wanted to stay, wanted to be close to Erik and hang the consequences. A larger part wanted to run for the hills but worryingly, the smaller part seem to be stronger right now. Still though, he couldn't bring himself to look up, to meet the other man's eyes. The fear was too great.

"Please." He mumbled weakly. "Please let go of my arm."

"Charles I… I don't want to… I'm not… I just… I'm…" Charles I like you. I don't want to trap you. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to be with you. I'm starting to care about you. Somehow he just couldn't get the words out and maybe that was a good thing. Maybe he'd misread the man, maybe he'd misunderstood Raven, maybe Charles wasn't like him after all. It wasn't as if he'd ever given any real sign that he was at all interested in him as anything more than a musician and colleague. "Sorry." He said letting go of his hold on the other man. "I uh… Well I guess we don't need to be buds to work together right?"

"Right." Charles answered, great waves of relief washing over him.

"So I'll stop bugging you then."

"Thank you."

Erik just nodded. After a moment he sighed heavily and started to walk away. Charles watched him leave in silence and in spite of everything he couldn't help but feel a little sad. Why he felt sad and whether it was Erik he felt sad for or himself, he didn't know. He just knew that the fear of discovery his feelings for Erik had brought to the surface made his gut twist and churn just the same as watching him walk away had.

Coming up: Erik changes his mind about not bugging Charles and Raven tries to make Charles see sense.

Reviews appreciated