euphoria

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"Do you like me?" Charles snapped out of writing progress reports to see Ash, who was sitting on the table, head resting gently on her fist.

"I-I have been feeling certain things towards you, but I have n-no idea what that might be-"

"AHA! I KNEW IT!" Ash turned out to be Raven, who'd seemingly transformed into Ash just to get the truth out of him.

"Haha, very funny. Why did you do that?" He inquired, intrigued.

"I knew that if I just asked you like this you'd pass it off as 'she's like a sister to me.'. I see the way you look at her. You, Charles, have a crush." She grinned, sitting down in front of him. "What makes her so special? I want to know everything." She eagerly egged, leaning forward.

"I don't have this so-called crush. Never even heard of it. I actually need to go and train Miss Cyrus, so..." He shuffled his papers into a neat pile, standing up before Raven got a chance to question him further. "Why do you call her Miss Cyrus?" He looked at her inquisitively, pondering for a moment.

"It's more of a professional courtesy rather than a show of affection. I don't think I'm on first name terms with her."

"She calls you Charles."

"Raven, I'm very sure she wouldn't want to call me Mr Xavier or Professor Xavier. It's much more comfortable calling me Charles." He left, entering the training room where Ash was busy examining her new suit. It was different to the others: a dark red, sleeveless jumpsuit with an bicep holster on each side, one carrying a gun with refills while the other carried a knife. Her hands were covered with fingerless gloves, black multi-purpose, all weather boots on her feet.

"I take it Hank's been busy." He chuckled, resisting the temptation to look her up and down.

"Yeah, he knew the capacity of my powers so he created something that would hold it's own if I do have to use my fire." She explained, gesturing to herself.

"Can you show me what you can do?" He gestured to the target, standing far back. He watched, enraptured, as the tongue of flame circled round her wrists again, her irises turning that dazzling shade of burning red, a fireball forming in her hand before a beam shot from her hand, the blaze lighting up Charles' eyes as he admired her. He didn't know why she in particular caught his eye. Why everything she did fascinated him like a bee drawn to honey. Or why he thought Raven was right in saying he had a crush, and how he longed to answer the question of what was so special about her but couldn't find the right words to describe her.

"Charles! Help! Please!" The flames still exploded from her fingertips, scorching the other side of the room, tears reigning her permanently blushing cheeks. He ran towards her, placing his hands on the side of her head as he knelt in front of her, trying to distribute the pain and help her stop. It felt overwhelming, something he'd never felt in someone before. His only hope was to distribute the pain, finding tears falling down his face too.

'You're a useless child! You don't deserve a parent's love!' Pain, sorrow, determination, they filled him like water in a glass, overflowing as if he was being hit over and over.

'Spare her, spare Jean, just take me!' He felt protective of someone, he didn't know who, but whoever this was, he wanted to protect them with his life, but he didn't want them to feel sad because of what was to happen to him.

'Jean?! JEAN?!' Loss struck his heart over and over as he was thrown into a memory of someone searching through a flaming house, crying out as the roof collapsed. When the flames stopped, he pulled out of her memory with a gasp, his eyes still watering.