𝐌𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐟𝐟 • Wish You Were Here

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 2)

Charles was sitting in the common room with everyone in guilty silence. They hadn't known that Peter didn't know about Raven and Jean being buried. Nobody knew. It didn't take long before Hank and Kurt began blaming themselves, so Charles did his best to comfort them and make sure they knew it wasn't their fault.

"I should have told him," Hank just kept repeating.

"I should have too. I knew you hadn't, but I still didn't," Kurt argued.

"It's neither of your faults. You shouldn't have had to tell him news like that in the first place. I should have been there. I should have helped him and instead, I left. I'm sorry. You two had done a great job of looking over him when he needed it."

Hank just shook his head.

"But as you said, you weren't there." And the way Hank spoke those few words with such bitterness made Charles wince, but he deserved it. He knew he deserved it. "I was. I was the first person to see him when he woke. I should have told him."

"I was there too though," Kurt spoke. "I could have told him too, but I didn't. I just waited for him to ask, but... he never did. I guess overtime... I just forgot that he hadn't known."

And Charles was going to respond, he was going to apologize to them both, but he felt something sharp and cold. It was grief and guilt. It was a noose tying around Charles' neck, suffocating him. And at first, Charles thought it was still coming from the common room, but he sucked in a sharp breath when he realized it was coming from downstairs. In the kitchen, Peter and Erik were choking on remorse and shame, guilt and grief, and pity.

Everyone was staring at Charles with concern now, noticing how his face had twisted in pain, but he waved them all off and reached out to Erik telepathically.

"Erik?"

There was no response. Charles was about to reach out again when he finally heard a reply.

"He doesn't know." That's all Charles got. Erik had sounded so in shock, so breathless, it scared Charles to think what Erik might mean. He had half a mind to go down and investigate for himself when he heard Erik's thoughts sound in his head once more. "Nobody told him. He doesn't know what happened. He doesn't know anything, Charles. Just that it's all gone."

Charles didn't need Erik to clarify what he meant. Peter wasn't there when everything happened. He just woke up to find that everything he once relied on as a constant in his life was now all of a sudden long gone. Charles knewthat Peter wasn't there for everything, but he never realized that it meant he still wouldn't know two years later.

Hank and Kurt blaming themselves held so much more weight now. They weren't just blaming themselves for Peter not knowing where Raven and Jean were buried. They were blaming themselves for leaving Peter without any answers.

Even being a telepath, Charles missed so much. Sure, he would never outright look into the speedster's head – not that he could due to the fact that Peter's mind had always moved too quickly for Charles to keep up with – but looking back there were so many signs. This whole time everyone thought Peter was just struggling to come to terms with the fact that his friends had abandoned him, but that wasn't the issue. Mean, Charles knows for a fact it was one of the issues, but the main problem was that Peter was never caught up after everything. And how was Peter meant to cope with all this, when he didn't even know what he had to cope for?

"Number five: How long before I have to leave?" he heard Erik ask. It left Charles confused. What was Erik talking about? Before he could question his old friend, Erik continued listing off question after question, slowly breaking down more and more after each one.