STEEL-MINDED | erik lehnsherr

CHAPTER TWO

Grace wasn't sure how long he'd been standing there by the time she'd noticed. She looked up and he was looking at one of the posters pinned to the wall. He seemed to be fine immersed in the description of one of many various mental illnesses.

"Can I help you?" She said, asking him that for the second time that day. 

Erik turned at her voice.

"Hmm? Oh, right."

He walked towards her desk.

"I just thought I should let you know that I'm staying," he said. Grace nodded.

"Ok," she said. He didn't move, it was as if he was expecting her to say more. The was a heavy silence for a moment.

"What is it you do exactly?" He asked, "Are you telepath? An empath?" Grace blinked. The way he asked was so abrupt and blatant, it almost caught her off guard.

"No," she answered slowly. He raised an eyebrow. "I... I control energy."

"Explain."

Grace wasn't sure why he wanted to know or why he was being so forceful about it but she felt compelled to answer his demands.

"For example I can remove the kinetic energy from objects. If someone... shot me I could remove the energy from it so instead of it going through my skin it would bounce off."

"Then what's with the emotion thing?"

"Emotion thing?"

Erik looked into her eyes, he could see she was as confused as he was.

"Doesn't matter."

"OK." 

He spun on his heel, turning to leave.

"We've all lost people, Erik," Grace called after him, "You aren't alone in your pain anymore. We understand."

"I doubt that."

"You're not the most powerful either, not the most dangerous," she said.

Erik froze. He clenched his jaw, his hand becoming a fist.

As he turned to face her, Grace felt that she should have run at the look on his face. She ignored her primal instincts, all of which told her to get away from him at any cost.

"Are you threatening me?" Erik asked slowly.

From the corner of her eye she could see the metal ruler on her desk shift slightly. She may be a fool to be unafraid but she wasn't unaware.

"No," she said, "Why? Do you feel threatened?"

He didn't reply, instead he stared at her for a while a glint of malice in his eyes. He could have gone two ways; strangle her or smile.

He let his lungs deflate, he seemed to relax, release tension.

For a second Grace thought he was going to change his mind but he turned once again and left.

Walking out of the room he ran into Hank who send a confused look after the mutant.

"What did Erik want?" He asked.

"Nothing much," Grace said, "boring stuff really."

Hank chuckled nervously.

"Doesn't sound like Erik," he commented, "from what I've seen of him he's more of the 'I've got a mission' type."

"He wanted to see if I was a threat."

"And?"

Grace wasn't sure if she found herself surprised by Hank's apparent wariness of Erik or not.

"And I think he's come to the conclusion that no, I am not a threat."

"Good," Hank said absentmindedly.

It took a second before he realised what he'd said.

"As in he's not someone you want to get on the bad side of," he corrected. Grace nodded slowly in agreement.

"No. No, he's not."