X-Men: First Class 2011 © Marvel Studios

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The next morning, the mutants were gathered together for breakfast. Today they were given a break from any further work with the CIA due to the fact that they needed their own time to process the information given to them. Even Hank was given a day off from his own research.

Raven and Aurora sat in front of each other, conversing about their interests in men and how to properly wing out your eyeliner. Aurora sat with her legs crossed under the table, contently munching on her French toast. Charles walked in with a folder in hand and Erik following his trail.

"Good morning, lovely ladies. How are you two getting along?" He says with a cheery grin.
He walks towards Raven and gives her a hug and then moves over to Aurora to kiss her cheek. She looks up at him and smiles sheepishly.

"I'm guessing that chat over coffee went well yesterday?" Raven says playfully.

"I told you he was your boyfriend," Erik muttered walking towards the end of the table with a coffee mug in hand. He sat down and took a sip, looking at Aurora with a raised eyebrow.
"I hope you two aren't too kinky."

Aurora shoots him a playful glare and continues to gnaw on her toast. Hank walks in and waves shyly and takes a seat at the table as well. He mutters a good morning and hides behind the cup that he held in his hands.

"Still not comfortable with the whole 'living with other mutants' thing, Hank?" Charles states.
"Sorry, I'm not much of a socialite,"

Raven and Aurora both say something at the same time:
"Neither is Charles"
"Neither is Erik"

The two men look at them with 'what the hell are you talking about' expressions. The girls laugh and even Hank chuckled along with them.

"You barely met me a few days ago!" argued Erik.
"I'm a telepath. Any and every social interaction that you can recall is something that I can see,"

"I have plenty of friends!" Charles argued as well.
"Four doesn't count as plenty, Charles."

The men look at them feeling defeated by their reasoning. Erik leans into his chair and clutches onto his mug, smirking ever so slightly. Charles huffs and puts his hands on his hips.

"You two are so much alike." He mutters under his breath.

They all ate their breakfast together with no mishaps or deaths involved. They enjoyed each other's company, happy to learn more about each other. Hank became more comfortable with being himself around them and slowly let loose.

Remembering the promise her brother had made, Raven brought up the subject of training their control over their mutations. Charles happily complied and so did everyone else in the room.

Raven was paired up with Hank while Charles handled Aurora and Erik. The trio strolled around the facility for a minute before they found a room that they were able to use. They walked into the office meeting room.

Aurora sat in a chair that was against the wall and Erik stood, leaning on a desk that was at the front of the room. After shutting the door, Charles turned to face them and smiled.

"I'm glad that you are both allowing me to help you," He starts.

"Aurora, you're a telepath just like me, but you have difficulty focusing your psionic blast when you become agitated.

Erik, you have difficulty with using your powers without being angered or under extreme amounts of stress. Those are both two things that can be easily fixed just so long as you learn to control yourselves."

Both of the mutants look hesitant about what Charles is saying. Both doubt that they can do this, even with the help of Charles. Erik looks at Aurora and she blinks at him, not saying a word out loud or in his head. Aurora is the first to pipe up about her doubt.

"How are you going to get me to practice the blast without hurting anyone?"
"You can practice on me."

Her eyes go wide as her heart nearly stops. She always had a bad feeling whenever the subject of her using her blast was brought up.
"I can't possibly do that! I do not want to hurt anymore people!"
"You won't hurt anyone, Aurora. Don't worry. What you did to Mai won't happen again!"

Her body goes rigid as it did back at the Xavier home. She feels her chest grow heavy as it gets harder for her to breathe. Her hands and feet go clammy as her heart pounds against her chest quickly. Her hair changes its color to a dark blue and her eyes flash a bright red.

"Are you alright, Aurora?" Erik asks, utterly confused by the sudden way she's acting.
"Christ, I'm so sorry, Aurora!" Charles quickly realizes what he has triggered and he quickly rushes to her side.

"Is it alright if I touch you?" He asks hurriedly. She nods quickly as she feels her throat run dry. Charles kneels in front of her and grasps her shoulders tightly. He looks into her panicked eyes, trying to get into her head.

"Erik, I need you to go get me a blanket from her room. If you can't get in, just ask Raven!" Charles says to him. Erik quickly complies and rushes out the door.

"Charles, I-I can't b-breathe," Aurora stammers.
"Aurora, listen to me. I need you to break down the walls that you put up. I can't get into your mind if your walls are up! Breathe, calm your mind."

Charles was doing everything he could to somehow stop the anxiety attack that she was currently having. Aurora felt everything around her slowly dissolve as the attack got the best of her.

"I need you to take down the walls. I can't get in if they're still up." Charles softly screams.

Aurora takes in a shaky breath and shuts her eyes trying her best to take them down. She feels a smooth something slide through her head and she knows that Charles made it in.

With her eyes still shut tightly, she sees a vision of her happily smiling with her family when she was much younger. Her breathing begins to subdue as her body stops quivering.

Slowly, she recovers from her panic attack. She opens her eyes to meet the terrified gaze of Charles' blue eyes. He laughs nervously as he feels her calm.

She breathes a few times before collapsing into his chest. His arms wrap around her protectively as he mutters millions of apologies over and over again. She clings onto him and clutches his shirt, clearly still shaken.

"I'm so, so, so sorry, Aurora! I should have never brought- I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry,"

Raven comes bursting through the door with a soft blanket in her hands. Everyone who stood outside that door looked even more panicked than Aurora was. Raven ran to her and wrapped her arms around her too.

Aurora shook everyone off of her as she excused herself to go to her room and rest for a little while.

[ Charles ]

Charles stands up to move out of her way as he sees Raven guide Aurora to her room. Seeing them off, he slumps into the chair where she sat and pinched the bridge of his nose. He heaved a heavy sigh.

"What were the exact words that you said to her before her attack?" Hank asked coyly, walking into the room.

"I mentioned a girl named Mai who she had a bit of a rough past with…" He said, not looking up. He sinks into the chair even further as the shame and guilt begin to take over his pride.

"There are things that trigger those reactions, you know. She's just sensitive to those events. Just don't bring it up when you talk to her."

Erik walks in and takes a seat on the desk he was leaning on before. He looks directly at Charles trying to read his expression. Charles felt like pudding that was being mushed in a plastic cup. He felt horrible, especially since he had feelings for her. He silently hoped that this wouldn't change the relationship that they had.

Out of nowhere, Erik chuckled.
"What's so funny about this, Erik?" Charles muttered miserably.
"Nothing except for the way you're acting now."

Charles looked at him, clearly confused at what he was saying.

"It's pathetic really. For a pair of telepaths, you two can't even figure out that you're both madly in love with each other. In fact, you're so in love that even your obvious flaws don't faze either of you; it's disgusting."

Hank meekly nodded and agreed with Erik, for the first time ever. Charles looks at them, shocked that his interest in her was this obvious. He opened his mouth to say something, but was left with nothing.

"I'm going to go check on the girls. I'll tell you guys what happens." Hank says gesturing towards the door. Erik asks how he was going to do that, and Hank merely tapped his temple.

After he walked out the door, Erik and Charles sat there looking at each other. Erik picked up a metal paperweight and a shaped metal flower that stood on the desk where he sat. He made them float towards Charles and held them in place a few feet in front of him.

"The flower is Aurora and the paperweight is you." He starts.
"The flower is delicate and should be handled with care right? Well, that's how Aurora seems to be. You're a paperweight. You keep things in place and keep them in place using your weight."

Erik moves the paperweight so that it hovers over the flower.
"What happens if you drop a heavy paperweight on a delicate flower?"

He drops both things and the flower is quickly broken into many pieces, the paperweight slightly chipped.

"The flower breaks and the paperweight is left chipped; a little hurt, but not as broken as the flower." He catches Charles' gaze and looks him straight in the eyes.

"It's a metaphor Charles. All I'm saying is that if you put too much weight on her shoulders, you're going to break her and she'll still love you in a really messed up way."

Charles looks up at him, shocked. He never thought of himself like this. After what he's caused today, is it true that he might really break his delicate flower? He bites his lip, thinking exactly what he is doing to her.

"…What do you really mean by this, Erik?"
"As mutants, we're all connected as a family; brothers and sisters of all races and cultural backgrounds. We should never break another mutant and still consider them the love of your life."

Erik stands up and opens the door to leave. He stops in his tracks to turn look over his shoulder.
"Don't rough her out all too much, Charles."

Then he turns back around and leaves.

Charles is left speechless. He felt the need to make this right now. He stood up, put his fingers to his temple, and found Hank's mind.

"Hank? It's Charles. Is Aurora alright?"

"She's alright. She just needed a quick break from the outside."

"Did she say anything about wanting to be left alone?"

"No, she just said that if anyone needed her, to just knock."

He left his head and jogged out the door. He was racing to her room to clear the thoughts in his head. He had to make this right once more.

A/N: I apologize for the large delay in the updating of this story! Just been busy with packing for a trip that I have coming up.
This will also give me a chance to say that this story will be put on a brief hiatus for the month on JULY 22, 2014.
I'll be updating until then, though! Thank you so much for reading and supporting this story.

Please review, favorite, or follow this or me if you'd like to!