"Erik, how… What are you doing here?" The look on Charles' face would have been comical if tears weren't clouding his eyes.
Erik flinched at the use of his given name, but made no correction. "The Beast came calling. Apparently the fur ball was worried about you." He tried to clamp down on He wasn't the only one, but he was sure the thought escaped anyway.
Charles remained silent, staring at the now-empty chessboard in front of him. Erik moved further into the room, the weight of the helmet strange after a few days without it.
"You look like hell. Don't they feed you?"
Charles' eyes flicked to the metal on his head. "I see you're still wearing that silly thing."
"It matches my cape."
Charles snorted and Erik hoped he couldn't hear the underlying worry behind the nonchalance. This was not the Charles Xavier he knew. Slowly, he mentally recapped all he had seen that night: Hank waiting for them in the garden, the puff of red smoke as Azazel disappeared, the wooden ramp covering the front steps – He froze.
"Charles," Erik swallowed hard, "won't you stand and greet me?"
Charles remained silent and seated, but Erik didn't need to be a telepath to see the look of anguish cross his face. Something wasn't right.
"Charles…" Erik's heart thudded against his chest. "Stand."
Charles bowed his head and gave it a gentle shake, causing a tear to splash on the wood in front of him.
"Charles, stand up!"
"I can't!" he slammed his hand down on the desk. "Is that was you wanted to hear? I can't!"
And with that he pushed away from the desk, and rolled back into the bookcase – and finally the piece of metal that had been humming against Erik's senses made its presence known.
Bile rose in his throat as he stumbled from the room.
xxxxxx
Hank waited, listening to the rise and fall of voices, until the door banged open and Erik tumbled out, face pale, eyes haunted. He threw the metal helmet off as if it suffocated him and leaned against the wall, panting, until his gaze landed on the beast standing by the stairs.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he choked out.
"You needed to see for yourself."
xxxxxx
Charles' hands shook as he cradled his head in his palms. Of all the ways he had envisioned their reunion, that was definitely not one of them.
A wall of emotion hit him and stole the breath from his lungs. Guilt. Pain. Rage. A distant clatter meant the helmet had come off and skittered across the hardwood floor.
Charles clutched at his chest for the hurt felt too real. Erik's emotions were crashing over him like a wave; drowning him to the point where he no longer knew whose pain was whose.
xxxxxx
Alex came strolling around the corner tossing an apple in the air, blissfully unaware of the two worlds that had just been rocked. But at the sight of Erik gripping his hair in his hands, he froze and let the apple fall to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Hank immediately straighten and take a step towards him, though what good the Beast could do if a laser-wielder and metal-bender came to blows was beyond the teen.
YOU ARE READING
Rumor Has It - CHERIK
Romansa"Did I hear the doorbell earlier?" "Yeah, but I'd steer clear if I were you. It seemed a little tense. I don't know what's going on, but there's a kid out there who looks freakily like the prof." Nearly six months after Cuba, Charles' life is turned...
