Light A Way

32

It was one of those mornings that Charles had so wished for. He had no trouble whatsoever remembering waking beside Elsie, shortly before flying out and confronting Shaw. It was a pleasant memory, well the morning was and waking up with her by his side, not the rest of that day. No, the rest of the day he would be glad to block out. It was the day where everything seemed to just go and slip away from him. Really, honestly, truthfully, he did not wish to have these thoughts so early in the morning. Though really, when glancing at the bedside table clock, when did nine in the morning class as 'early'? He had gradually found out that he was becoming quite accustomed to sleeping in. Usually he was an early riser, up at dawn and already busying around with some task for the rest of the morning.

He mainly blamed university for this. The educational structure forced him to get up early and forced him to focus on something for hours on end. He didn't have that now. Nor did he really have anything to get up early for. For the first time in a long while, Charles was at a loss. What did he have to get up for? Of course he would get up, but really what did the day bring for him? Being suddenly flicked he looked sharply to the side. Elsie was only really a set of eyes and a hand. Though the hand quickly dived back under the duvet and her head nestled against the pillow some more before her eyes slid shut.

"Good morning to you too then." Charles commented dryly.

Elsie's eyes opened slowly as she glanced up at him. "It's too early to be in a mood already."

"It's nine," Charles couldn't help but smirk slowly. Clearly someone thought nine in the morning was early. Though really when he really listened, he couldn't hear any movement from the rest of the house. Evidently everyone else was still asleep. When he mused over this he supposed everyone did have quite a bit of rest to catch up on.

"I don't care if it's one in the afternoon, Charles...you can't wake up in a mood, I mean how's that possible?" Elsie asked sounding truly confused. She dared to wiggle her hand out from the duvet and rub her eyes. She groaned while doing so though, she didn't want to be awake this early. She was having a lovely dream which involved a well enjoyed shopping trip, it was brilliant to her really. But now all she was greeted with first thing was Charles looking already deep in thought, annoyed, and slightly sad looking. His eyes specifically, they were not as light and bright as they usually were. They seemed to have dulled, he looked tired. Honestly how that was possible she didn't know, but he just seemed tired. Propping herself up onto her elbows she looked at him worriedly. Charles looked at her curiously when she suddenly shot up. "Radio static."

"Sorry?" Charles questioned with a raised eyebrow. He expected her to continue on from her earlier sentence, not start a new confusing one. But then again, he shouldn't be surprised. Elsie was many things, and surprising was perhaps the most common thing.

"Well radio static is this thing where-"

"I know what it is, Elsie. I was just wondering why you bought it up." He rolled his eyes and propped himself up, slowly but surely he sat up and leaned against the headboard. Stretching his arms out in front of himself he looked down at her.

"It's noisy and annoying, yeah? And...no matter how much you want to, sometimes you can't block it out when trying to tune into the correct station, right?" Elsie sat up and pushed her hair out of her face and over her shoulder. Charles frowned, still not understanding where she was going with this. "You can always turn the volume down," she said while looking at him and placing two fingers against his temple. "Surely you have volume control." Being able to hear nearly everyone's thoughts must take a toll, she presumed that perhaps since the accident he had maybe lost control and was getting bombarded by unwanted noise. That for sure could explain why he seemed tired despite clearly sleeping well.