Cherik One-shots

A Secret Place(Cherik)

A Secret Place(Cherik)

There are lots of things people don't know about the Xavier mansion. The secret room behind the bookcase in Charles's office, the hidden pathway down to the big fish fountain that only works at sundown, or the game room in the attic through the back door with the strange blue doorknob. Charles had lots of time in his childhood to explore the place he calls home, and after a while, you learn things that no one else knows. Of course, he showed Raven these secret places, but when there's a house full of people these hiding places become even more meaningful.

Tomorrow was the day, as Erik says, "Where everything will change. For mutants and humans alike." The day they go after Shaw. There was so much buzzing through Charles's head and he just needed to clear his thoughts. So he went to the one place he knew he could.

***

The water flowed over his back leaving a trail of cool droplets in its place. He dove deeper into the water, letting all the fear he had been shoving beneath his skin wash away. It was freeing to not be pressed down by the worried voices of his teammates. As he resurfaced the cool air hitting his face made him smile. He swam, letting all his worries float away. As his head plunged back through the water he thought he heard the faint click of the steel door shut.

"Charles?"

He let the water rush over him.

"Charles are you there?"

He swam deeper feeling the pressure in his ears increase. He continued to swim deeper until he could feel the rough bottom of the pool. He pushed off the bottom with his feet and rushed up until he broke through the surface of the water. Gasping for air, he slowly whipped the water from his eyes and pushed his wet brown hair out of his face.

"Charles, there you are, I saw you go under. I was starting to get worried," a voice said from behind him.

"Erik?" he breathed, turning around. He swam over to the ledge, "What are you doing here?"

How the hell did Erik even get down here? He'd never shown anyone his secret places. Let alone even mentioned them to anyone besides Raven.

"Moria sent me to look for you. She wants to go over plans with you for tomorrow. It would have taken me forever to find you if Raven hadn't told me when to look," Erik said chuckling.

A shock of realization flew through Charles's head. Raven told him where to look that made more sense.

"I see," Charles muttered. He really didn't want to leave the pool. He wanted to stay free of all the voices, of all the worries. But as he was sitting on the ledge he noticed that Erik's voice was not filled with fear or worry. It was filled with certainty. He knew exactly how tomorrow would play out, and he wasn't worried. It was refreshing to hear a voice like that. He was so tempted to just tell Erik to leave and let him stay in peace. But he just couldn't find it in himself to ask him. If Erik went back, then Moria would try and find him and that wouldn't end well. But then again it was Erik and he always enjoyed spending time with him.

"Are you going to come out of the pool?" Erik asked, breaking Charles train of thought.

"No, I don't think so. Moria will have to come and find me herself."

"Are you serious? She will kill me if I come back without you."

"Then come and stay with me here. She'll just think you got lost or something."

"What?" Erik asked looking Charles dead in the eyes. It was pretty intimidating. Charles didn't want to repeat himself in fear that Erik would just run off and leave him.