Telky (Charles Xavier Love Story)

Chapter 11

The next day Seraphina didn't know what to say, or do, and thus she spent her time in silence with Erik. She suspected he might be either annoyed or amused with her actions but he didn't say anything.

Alex, down in the bunker currently, had improved with his aim apparently. She could certainly feel it.

For whatever reason, she had taken to reading any number of odd books in her spare time. Right now she was rereading the Fellowship of the Ring. It was an amazingly complex book, with a good portion of background. Erik disturbed her by making a noise. She looked up at him.

"What?"

"You're smiling at the book again." Seraphina then frowned.

"No."

"Yes, you are." She huffed. 

"I didn't think I did that."

 Erik snorted. "Clearly."

"I'm not sure what to say to that."

"Don't say anything then." She scrunched her face up.

"Then I'd feel awkward. You started talking, and that makes me feel obligated to keep talking. Look what you've done." she said. Erik raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't done anything. You did that all to yourself." he responded. She frowned again and turned the corner of the page to mark her spot, and stood up to leave.

"Have fun." he called to her. She threw a look over her shoulder. "You're insufferable." she said and left the room. He gave her a cheeky smirk as she closed the library doors.

Seraphina walked down the hallway and left the house, taking to a walk around the grounds.

"He knows he's annoying, and he uses it against me." She mumbled to herself as she sat herself at the base of a tree not quite as tall as the others. Looking up she saw two rope knots where a swing might have been.

Before her eyes, the knots twisted and elongated themselves, twining together to form a somewhat humanoid shape. Seraphina gasped, and stood up immediately.

"Who-what are you?" She tripped over her words. The rope opened what must have functioned as a mouth.

"Not here. But, I can be when you need me." It said. Seraphina stared at it with a confused expression.

"I used to swing from this tree as a child."

Seraphina jumped and looked over her shoulder to see Charles standing there. She turned her back to the knot-person, only to see it was back to the remains of a swing. Fantastic! She was hearing and seeing things. Too long she remembered she hadn't said anything to Charles.

"It's a nice tree." She commented dumbly.

He chuckled walking forward until he was side by side with her. "Yes." he sighed.

"Have you been avoiding me-?" he started to say until she cut him off.

"Oh, Charles, no. I've just-ugh, I don't know." She put her face in her hands. He pulled them away and held them in his own.

"I'm not sure if what I feel is just attraction or love. It's confusing, and messing with me." She said, looking him in the eye. He nodded.

"Does one choose to love, or just fall into it?" Seraphina couldn't help it. She laughed, a clear, high note.

"How many girls did that swoon?" She asked. Charles laughed as well. "Pick up lines are not my best quality."

"I heard from Moira your genetic mutation setup." He lifted a hand and dragged it down his face.

"I wasn't entirely sober. I hoped that would remain unspoken of." he admitted. She smiled. 

"Too late." There a moment of silence between the two.

"Are we settled then?" Charles asked her. He knew the moment she kissed him he loved her, it just took a few days to figure it out. Most would consider them moving along fast, but as cliche as it was, it didn't feel like that.

"Yes. I suppose we are." Seraphina decided. She guessed if it wasn't right, the relationship would fall away like most others she'd had. With a withering glance thrown towards the tree, the two walked away from it, heading back to the house.

"That's where we're going to find Shaw." Erik said, the first to speak after watching President Kennedy's speech on the missile crisis.

"How do you know?" said Alex. Seraphina answered him before Erik or Charles could.

"Two superpowers facing off, and he wants to start world war three. Shaw won't leave anything to chance." she said grimly. Seeing Alex's face, she patted his shoulder and sat herself next to Darwin, whom she hadn't spoken to as much the past few days.

"So much for diplomacy." Erik snorted, turning away. "I suggest we get a good night's sleep." Charles followed, and soon after Raven and Hank left the room.

"I never did thank you for saving my life." Darwin began a little timidly. Seraphina didn't quite notice how much Erik's presence affected the three young men, but to Darwin he was pretty intimidating.

"I'm sure if the others had it in their power to do so they would have, but my abilities just allowed me to act with less resistance." Seraphina stated. She was thinking over something that took up half her attention.

"Still though." he insisted. "I owe you one."

Seraphina looked over at him then with a kind expression. "Darwin, you don't owe me anything." she told him. Darwin just looked away. Alex and Sean sat in chairs opposite the other two. They looked so lost to Seraphina.

"Do you think we'll die?" Sean asked her. She was the second oldest in the motley group of mutants, only three years younger than Erik. She had an almost motherly appeal about her, and had seen too many horrors yet turned out lovely. 

Seraphina pondered his question with a small frown tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Sean, I want to believe we'll all live. That each and every one of us will come home at the end of day alright, and happy. But the back of my mind, niggling thought keeps telling me that will not be so." she said quietly. Sean's face fell drastically. She knew it would happen, the truth does that. "But for your, and all of our sakes I hope the only person to die tomorrow is Shaw. Charles is my friend, maybe more than that," the boys smiled at the hint, "but I will not be able to sleep at night knowing the man who ripped apart my childhood, murdered Erik's family, my own, and countless others, is still alive. Bars mean nothing to someone like that." 

By the end of her rant her voice had raised. She wasn't shouting, but perhaps a pitch too loud. Sean and Alex seemed comforted by this. If she still had hope in this mess, they could too.

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Ok folks, we're almost at the end of First Class! I sincerely hope you all liked this chapter, it irked me a little how I struggled to write it. Anyways, I'm not making three separate books. As far as I can see for now, it's going to continue on in this book. Comment thoughts and opinions, please! There are at least 14 of you all who read each chapter, I want to know what you think!