Logan was pissed. It wasn't his usual angry face as Sean and Alex, annoyingly, called it. No, he was well and truly pissed off. Living with a group of mostly mutant children (even if they were legal leaving home age) had made him tolerant of a lot of thing. Like waking up to drunken kids entering the apartment at god knows what time in the morning or the property damage Hank swears wasn't because he'd turned his apartment into a lab.

In all honesty, Logan actually enjoyed the company of the other mutants, although he wasn't overly sure about Erik and seriously wished the guy wouldn't bring sketchy looking characters back to the apartment. Sean and Alex probably caused him the most trouble, though they knew the line that Logan wouldn't allow to be crossed and generally avoided him. Darwin and Angel were the quieter members of the building, though that didn't stop them getting involved in the noise and general disturbance occasionally. Raven and Hank weren't much trouble either; either that or they just kept their trouble away from Logan. The new neighbour, Charles, had proven to be Logan's best tenant, considering the young professor generally kept away from Logan and out of the trouble caused by the younger kids. Which was why, Logan was surprised that this latest bout of trouble had been caused by Charles.

…..

The suits had knocked on his door late Saturday morning, and that of itself had been enough to make Logan gruffer than usual. They showed him a standard government badge, and Logan glared straight at them, wondering which of the kids the one these men were after was. Not that it mattered overly much.

"What do you want, bud?" Logan said, feeling the edges of the metal claws tip underneath his skin.

"We work on behalf of Dr Mark Warren." A growl escaped Logan's' lips and the two suits backed a step away, involuntarily. While Logan didn't go with the other mutants in the house to attack the labs, he still demanded to know what happened so if need be he could step in to help. Mark Warren had been mentioned by Erik as being the one believed to have run the last lab.

"I don't like government scientists on my property." Logan didn't bother trying to keep his intent from his voice.

Suit 1 opened his mouth to continue talking and Logan had to admit the man had balls, if nothing else. "Dr Mark Warren in interested in the progress of his step-son, we're told he lives here." Logan frowned, having not expected a man who experimented on mutants to have one as a step-son. They handed him a picture asking, "Do you know him?"

"Professor Charles Xavier?" Logan was a little confused. The picture was of a younger Charles, who seemed a lot happier than he did now. Probably because the kid in the picture isn't wearing a suppression collar or in a wheelchair, Logon thought a little unhappily.

"No mutant should be allowed a degree." Suit 1 muttered and Logan growled fully then, wanting nothing more than to slam the door in their faces. Except while he would relish in the fight, he didn't want it to come into this house what with the younger mutants upstairs.

"Perhaps we can talk to him." Suit 2 asked, though Logan had a feeling it wasn't a request.

"He's out." It wasn't a lie but suit 1 and 2 obviously thought it was.

"Where?"

"I don't keep track of my tenants." Logan snarled, knowing full well where Charles would be. "I'll tell him you called." Before either suit could say anything, Logan slammed the door shut in their faces.

"They were looking for the Prof?" Alex's voice drifted from the bottom of the stairs and Logan turned, fixing the younger with an angry glare. "Sorry." Alex held up his hands in surrender.

"If you heard the conversation, make yourself useful and tell him about it." Logan replied, turning back into his flat and seriously hoping that whatever the suits wanted it wasn't dangerous.

…

After the conversation with Erik, Charles had started coming into the café more and more often, dividing his time between talking with Erik, tutoring Alex, Sean and Scott (Alex's younger brother), talking science with Hank or anything with Raven. Right now, he was sat at the table, alone for once, working on his current thesis.

"Hey Professor." Alex said, sitting in the seat opposite him. Charles sighed; he'd told them to just call him Charles but Alex had insisted.

"What's wrong?" Charles asked, immediately concerned when he saw that Alex wasn't wearing his usual happy smile. From the corner of his eyes, Charles could see that Sean and Darwin were looking over at their table. Raven was working the counter and hadn't noticed, thankfully.

"Some guys in suits came looking for you at the apartment." Charles' paled. "Don't worry, Logan scared them off."

"What did they say?" Charles was attempting to keep the fear and worry from his voice but he could tell from the Alex was watching him that he wasn't succeeding.

"They mentioned your step-father." Alex answered and Charles felt his heart clench at that.

"Okay, thank Alex." Charles didn't need to hear anymore. It was obvious from the way Alex kept opening and closing his mouth that the younger mutant wanted to say something but Charles ignored it, instead he collected his things and went to wheel the chair away from the table.

"You want me to come back with you."

"No, no, thanks Alex I just need to…I have somewhere to be." It was hard for Charles to organise his thoughts. He'd thought he was free from the man. Thought he would leave him alone but apparently not. In all honesty, Charles didn't know what he was going to do, now. Probably have to move again because whenever he knew his step-father and knew he couldn't allow him to find out about his friends.

…

"What was that about?" Sean sat in the seat previously occupied by Charles when he asked this. Darwin pulled a chair up to the table as well.

The crowd had thinned a little so Raven also made her way over to their table, having watched the way Charles exited the building in a lot of haste. "What's wrong with Charles?" She pointedly looked at Alex.

"You remember that lab we busted the other week." Alex asked, leaning in so no one heard him. "The Doctor who ran it, Dr Mark Warren, is looking for Charles."

"Why?" Darwin asked. Raven's eyes had turned her usual yellow when Alex had said that, while Darwin and Sean just looked incredulous.

"He sent two suits to apartment, Logan scared them off but I overhead them say Charles is this Doctors' step-son." Raven didn't even blink and Alex looked at her accusingly, especially after seeing the disbelieving looks that crossed Sean and Darwin's faces. "You knew?" He hissed.

"Erik told me not to say anything. What did they want?" There was a hint of ear in her voice and Alex shrugged because he had no idea.

"You think it has something to do with why he wears that collar." Sean asked.

"Whatever it is, we need to tell Erik." Raven was showing her protective side, something that was strictly reserved for Hank and now, apparently, Charles. The other three mutants nodded their heads in agreement.

….

As soon as Alex had told Erik what he had overheard, Erik had stormed straight to the apartment building. Without bothering to knock, Erik popped the lock of Charles' front door, letting himself in. What met him was a sight he hoped never to see again. Ever.

Charles' belongings were scattered over the place, his one suitcase lying open. The professor himself was sitting on his wheelchair, his brown hair sticking out haphazardly as if he'd been running his hands through it, while his eyes were wild deep blue. Erik's eyes were drawn to the redness of Charles' neck, however, from where the collar seemed to have chafed the skin. Currently, Charles was pulling at it and without a second thought; Erik used the metal in Charles' watch to pull his hand away from the collar.

"What's wrong?" Erik asked but Charles didn't seem to answer. He didn't even seem to realise that Erik was standing there. It was an odd sight, Charles always seeming completely calm and not at all phased by anything. "Charles, you need to stop that Charles." Erik clamped his hand over Charles' hand that was pulling at the collar. The physical contact seemed to bring Charles back to reality as he stopped.

"Erik, what are you doing here?" Erik thought it was completely amazing how easily Charles could pretend nothing was wrong.

"Alex told me about the visitor. I came to see if you were alright."

"You didn't have to. I'm fine." Erik raised an eyebrow, motioning around the room, which caused Charles to drop his eyes to the floor. "It doesn't matter; I'll be out of your way by tomorrow."

"You're moving." Charles nodded and anger bubbled through Erik. "You can't move." The younger mutant looked a little startled at Erik's outburst, who quickly covered his own concern by saying, "The kids would miss you and there's no one else who can talk science with Hank. Also, Logan likes you." Charles actually snorted at that, making Erik grin.

"I find that hard to believe."

"He wouldn't have covered for you if he didn't like you. Anyway, you're the only tenant here who doesn't give him any trouble." Erik supplied. "You have to stay."

Charles only shook his head. "My step-father, he's not exactly tolerant of mutants and if he comes here…I don't want any of you to get hurt because of me."

Erik seethed silently, keeping his face neutral for Charles' sake however. "We can handle ourselves and Raven wouldn't let you go even if you wanted to. You don't want to do you?" Charles shook his head and Erik let out a sigh of relief. "Good." A sudden thought flashed across Erik's mind, the image of the last lab they'd raided and before he could stop himself he found himself asking, "Is you're step-father the one to make you wear that collar?" Charles choked then. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want." Erik quickly covered up his mistake of asking, not wanting to make Charles clam up like the first time they'd spoken. He valued their friendship too much.

"I wish it were that simple, my friend. Really I do." There was a bitterness in Charles' tone that Erik hadn't heard in his friend before.

"The explain it to me."

"I'm afraid it's not a pleasant story."

"I've lived through worse." Erik said, causing a sadness to fall in Charles' eyes. "You don't have to say anything you don't trust me with."

"I want to tell it. I've never told anyone before and I do trust you Erik." Erik felt honoured to hear that. "Take a seat." Charles motioned for Erik to take a seat and he did so, waiting for Charles to start talking.

Next Chapter will be Charles' past so look forward to that

Please review and hope you enjoyed :)