Cherik One Shots

Charles is not a Telepath

Summary- Charles is engaged, and Erik promptly cuts all ties with him. Charles is determined to salvage their friendship and find out what's wrong, and Erik is convinced Charles won't like what he finds.

(They both have their mutation, the title has nothing to do with that)

Warnings- Moira/Charles, Cherik ending, angst, wee bit o' smut (aka mentions of smut)

Word Count-3602

Note- btw, I got this idea from this story (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1971390) and absolutely loved it. The actual stories aren't necessarily alike, just the idea and summary is :) Also, might write an Erik version, just need "wife" ideas.

***

Charles knew it happened when he showed up with a bottle of champagne and his newly engaged fiancée, Moira MacTaggert.

Erik, he considered, to be his best friend. When they play chess, when they lead the X-Men, when they share a simple laugh— all moments Charles missed replaying. He wanted Erik to be his best man, be by his side on the most important day of his life, but after that party, he hadn't seen his face, much less felt his presence.

The party was planned, but as to not spoil the surprise, it went unnamed. It consisted of his leading partners/friends, some but not all being Erik, Scott, Jean, Raven, Logan, and Ororo. He had informed Scott of the engagement solely because Jean already knew, and the two had become the designers, decorating as such without being too obvious for the unsuspecting guests and if Moira were to see it beforehand.

That's the only assumption Charles could think of: perhaps Erik was upset that he didn't tell him about the engagement first? It wasn't exactly like Erik to become so angry from a relatively normal secret, but he always did have a weak spot in reading Erik. For him to take off, though, so suddenly, after Charles popped the champagne and Moira showing off her ring, to then seemingly vanish off the face of the Earth? Charles didn't buy it.

Naturally, Charles asked around, asking anyone, everyone if they'd seen where he'd gone, or why he'd left. No replies. He'd hardly gotten to celebrate the evening, mind occupied by Erik. Moira attempted to ease his mind, coming up with easy lies like "a family emergency," and when Charles quickly countered with, "we are his family," then she'd pet his arm and say, "maybe he just needed air."

Charles pretended like the lies helped, only so he wouldn't hear more of it. He was forced to deal with it later, but never gave up trying to search for his mind the rest of the evening. He'd have to use Cerebro, he quickly realized, and leaving in the moment to do so would raise suspicions, so he just fake smiled and drank the day away.

He didn't know why he was so anxious about it. Sure, wouldn't anyone in this situation? It irked him in a particular way, though. Like it was his fault, that he'd done something wrong. But what? Did he forget to do something with him earlier that day? Surely not. They'd had breakfast together, matter of fact, and Erik had seemed perfectly fine. He was smiling as he always did when they were alone, unafraid of others seeing his abundance of emotion as weakness. They had great conversation, it never ending, only when Charles had seen the time and his engagement plan was going to run its course within the hour. Erik had paid, despite Charles begging him not to, but it made him happy so Charles tried not to complain too much. It was such a lovely morning; Charles truly couldn't understand what went wrong.

Here sits Charles, a month later, never having found a trace of Erik. Not through Cerebro, not through connections, not through anything. He was incredibly tempted to fly the world, track him down himself, quick to find everyone's so called help useless. However, he was, yet again, calmed by Moira. Her leading theory was sweet in nature, but unlikely: "Maybe he wanted what we have and went out searching."