Cherik High School Au

Different

Charles' head lowers in shame and embarrassment. I didn't ask Erik to come, Raven. It was his choice to skip school. Charles says to his sister telepathically.

"This is Erik?!" Raven almost yells. Charles winces. 

"Yes. I'm Erik." Erik says without taking his eyes off Charles. "My god, what happened?"

Charles shuffled his feet. He didn't want to say. He tried to turn but something stopped him. The metal locket that was tucked under his shirt. 

"Erik" Charles said softly and almost weakly. "Let go of my locket and let me turn around." 

Erik's mutational grip on Charles' locket immediately disappears. "W-What?" Erik's eyes were wide.

Charles' eyes grew wide after a second. It was at that moment that Charles realized.. he had fucked up. 

With nothing to stop him, Charles turned and almost ran to his room. 

"Better go follow him." Raven said quietly to Erik. 

Erik just stood there. "H-how did he know?" 

"Go follow him and find out." 

Erik glanced over at Raven before following Charles. He stopped in front of a door that had a science pun on it. 

Erik knocked on the door. "Go away, Raven." 

"Please try again" Erik responded in the most robot voice he could create. He tried to doorknob. Unlocked. 

Slowly, Erik turned the knob and opened the door. Charles was laying face down on his bed. Erik walked over to the side of his bed. "How did you know?"

Charles didn't move. He didn't want to move. Maybe if he just stayed super still, Erik wouldn't see him! 

"Charles, how did you know?" Erik repeated slightly louder. 

Because you aren't the only one with powers, my friend. Charles transmits mentally to Erik. 

"Wha- are you in my head?" Erik took a step back. Charles turned to face him. Charles gave a small nod. Please. Don't be afraid. I'm like you!

"Get out of my head!" Erik stumbled back, hands over his ears. "Please."

Charles stopped transmitting thoughts but transmitted a calm sensation to Erik. After about a minute, Erik looked up. "How did you-?" 

"I have a telepathic mutation that allows me to hear thoughts, transmit thoughts, transmit feelings, and make a person think a certain thing." Charles explained quietly. 

"I-I thought I was alone." 

Charles shake his head softly. "You're not alone, Erik. You're not alone." 

There was a short silence between the two as Erik made his way over to Charles' bed and sat next to the telepathic teen. 

"Now will you tell me what happened?" Erik asked, looking at Charles. 

Charles didn't answer. 

"I'm not the one who can read minds, Charles. Please tell me." 

"I spent most of my life in England. It was my father's favorite place to stay. He loved it there. Both my parents were rich. We had two houses. The one my mother grew up in, the one here and the one in England which was my father's." Charles started. 

"My father was a scientist." 

An image- a memory- started to form in Erik's mind. Lehnsherr immediately recognized it as Charles' memory. 

A man in his thirties stood next to a short, skinny boy. The boy had to be Charles. "He would let me help him with his experiments. Most of which involved nuclear gasses." 

The man turned slightly to face Young Charles and Erik could see that the present time Charles looked exactly like him. Charles' father was saying something but Erik couldn't hear what. Young Charles was nodding wildly and looked super happy. Adorable, Erik thought. 

"His helper- partner in crime, Father used to call him- Kurt was very nice in front of my father and the two were good friends. But Kurt was awful to me whenever my father wasn't around. Not quite abuse. Not yet, anyways." 

Another man who looked older than Charles' father stepped into the room in the memory. Charles' father smiled widely at him. The two men chatted very briefly before Charles' father had to leave. Kurt then turned to Charles and began to scold him. Young Charles looked hurt and upset. 

The memory changed. 

A slightly older Charles than  the first memory stood, waiting at the doorway. Kurt opened the door. Kurt seemed sad but Young Charles knew he wasn't. 

"One day, my father and Kurt were doing an experiment. It went wrong and a fire broke loose. My father got stuck. Kurt wasn't stuck and could easily get out. Kurt could also as easily have saved my father. But he didn't and left my father to die."

The memory showed Kurt apologizing to a woman who had to be Charles' mother. 

"Kurt married my grief-filled mother  and moved in with his son, Cain."

A younger boy showed up. The boy had the same neat and tidy hair style and stern look in his eye as Kurt. 

"By this time, my mother had began to drink. She would get drunk more and more times as life went on. A year after my father died, I met Raven. She's like us as well. She's a mutant. She can shape-shift at will. I found her trying to steal food from the kitchen."

"When my father died, we started to stay more and more in the house here. I met Raven there and was able to use my abilities to convince Kurt to let her stay. Raven was two years older than me."

"Me and Raven were homeschooled. Cain wasn't. Our tutor... she got fired for trying to stop Cain and Kurt from abusing us-me when she found out." 

An image of a strawberry-blonde haired tall female stood arguing with Kurt. 

"At first it was just Cain throwing around an occasional punch. Then it got worse and more frequent. Kurt even joined in when he found out." 

"My mother... she was too out of it from the alcohol she was consuming to even notice. She's been in and out of the hospital recently from the drug addictions she got herself into." 

"Cain had just found out that my father's money was going to me and not splitting between us two since we are so close in age. He stopped me and asked me if I was going to give him some." 

Charles being stopped by Cain showed up in both teen's mind. Cain was seen asking Charles. Erik winced, not from pain, when he saw Cain throw a fist at Charles. 

"I told him no. He punched me again. I fell to the ground. He told his buddies to follow him to get some beers. He stepped on my wrist." 

The scene Charles was describing played in Erik's mind. 

"Doctor says the bone cracked. I won't need surgery just time." 

Charles' head felt light but he shook it off, thinking it was nothing. He turned to see Erik's face. Erik was staring into distance. 

"Erik?" 

Charles didn't realize he was swaying in place. Then it came to him. Charles hadn't blocked his thoughts like he always did. He put up the wall that blocked his thoughts from the outside world and thoughts from him. 

Erik blinked. 

Charles felt his consciousness snap due to overuse of his powers. Erik turned to him just as Charles slumped over.