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Chapter Text

Mornings at Westchester mansion were always calm and quiet. The countryside was quiet and the sound of nature greeted the inhabitants upon waking up, welcoming them into a new day. Usually, Charles would prepare breakfast with Hank while Raven would impatiently wait by the coffee machine. Moira would sit at the table, reading the paper or some important files she had immediately picked up upon getting downstairs. And Erik would sit at the counter, watching Charles’ every move, eyes following his hands as he prepared the food. Alex and Sean would eventually make their way downstairs, as well, never too keen on getting up this early in the day. They may have only been at the manor for a few days but Charles felt as though this routine had become terribly familiar.

“This house is giant, Charles. I can only imagine how many times we will get lost here.” Erik joked as he sat down at the counter, as per usual, arms crossed over his chest as he watched Charles prepare some scrambled eggs. “I feel so lucky that I have a good sense of direction or else I might have gotten lost.”

“You got lost at the CIA base looking for the gym, Erik, so you’re sense of direction can’t be that good. You will definitely get lost at least once while we stay here. You’re just lucky it hasn’t happened, yet.” Charles chuckled to himself, stirring the scrambled eggs as a smirk appeared on his lips. “I would bet on it.”

“And you got lost looking for the kitchen there, so don’t you even think of mocking me.”

“I am not mocking you.”

“He says mockingly.”

Charles just laughed pouring the eggs into the pan and looking around the room for a few seconds. “It’s good to be back home.”

“Did you prepare some of the basement rooms for further training?”

“I did. It took a few days but I think we still have enough time.”

“How can you be so sure?” Erik stood up and walked over to Charles, leaning against the counter to eye him in worry. “How would you know that?”

“I don’t know but it has to be true.” Charles shrugged a shoulder. “What other choice is there other than to make it work? I’m sure that it will be enough time to train everyone and show you a way to ignite your abilities that doesn’t rely on anger.”

“Anger has always been sufficient.”

“Sufficient doesn’t mean that it helps you show your true potential.” Charles said gently, smiling up at his friend. “I know you have it within you to do whatever you set your mind to. If we find another way to ignite your powers you might even be able to pull Shaw’s submarine right from the ocean.”

Erik shook his head. “I have tried it before and it didn’t work.”

“We will find a way.” Charles promised. “Would you be so kind as to fetch Sean and Alex? The food is almost done.”

“I can do that.”

Erik ducked out of the kitchen and made his way upstairs, calling out to Sean and Alex. They weren’t in Sean’s room and Alex’s room was empty, too, so Erik set out to look for them. When he found them they were in one of the unused rooms, Sean sitting on the windowsill and Alex standing next to him. They were looking out the window, pointing out how giant the estate was.

“Breakfast’s ready.”

At the sudden noise, Sean was startled and Alex quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him off the windowsill so he wouldn’t fall. Both of them looked at each other before they began laughing.

“Careful there, Sean. Your powers are not yet trained enough that they would allow you to fly with your sonic scream.” Erik chuckled. “Wouldn’t want you to fall.”

“If you hadn’t snuck up on us, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten so startled.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt whatever you were doing sitting in an open window on the second floor but breakfast is ready.” Erik said and moved toward the door before he turned to smirk at them. “Just so you know, I can come up with five better location ideas for a friendly hangout, that don’t involve nearly falling to your death, from the top of my head.”

“Funny.” Alex rolled his eyes a little at Erik. “I’m here to help you all. Not to make friends.”

Sean tried his best not to show the hurt that settled deep in his chest at the realisation that the man he’d thought of as a friend might not want to be his. “We’ll be down in a few minutes!”

---

It took about twenty more minutes for Sean and Alex to arrive at the kitchen. And when they did, Charles looked up in question while Erik quirked an interested eyebrow at them. Raven just chuckled quietly, earning herself a confused look from Moira. Charles looked at Raven in similar confusion before turning to the two young men.

“Why are you two so late? Didn’t Erik get you twenty minutes ago?”

“Did you two get lost?” Erik smirked.

Raven snorted at that and looked over the edge of her coffee mug. “Or were you two too busy to get here earlier?”

Alex groaned in annoyance as he flopped down next to Hank, leaning back in his chair. “I regret playing truth or dare with all of you in the CIA base. You are horrible. I should have stayed in my room.”

“What exactly happened that night while we were gone?” Charles inquired, a small smirk appearing on his lips as his friends kept bickering. “What did you all do?”

“Don’t you dare.” Sean narrowed his eyes at Raven, sitting down right across from her to glare at her. “I’m warning you.”

Raven laughed a little and raised her hands in mock defeat. “I’m not the one that dared you two to do that. Angel dared you.”

“You could have just said no.” Hank shrugged as he munched away on a piece of toast. “But you went along with it.”

“Alright, all of you be quiet for a second.” Erik interrupted, very intrigued. “What happened?”

“Can’t tell you.” Raven shrugged. “That stays among friends. I don’t want them to tell you what I was dared to do either.”

“Does it have anything to do with the broken pool table by any chance?”

“No, Erik, it doesn’t.”

Raven gave a little laugh before grinning at Alex and Sean. “Come on, I’m just teasing you. We’re all friends here, right Sean?

Sean looked at her with a little frown on his face before shrugging. “I guess.”

“I can’t deny that I’m intrigued.”

Raven chuckled at Charles’ comment and went back to eating. “Had you not been too busy going on your homoerotic road trips with Erik, you might have seen what happened.”

“Alright, that’s enough.”

Charles nodded at Erik’s exclamation and looked back at the two young men who had just come inside. “I guess we won’t find out, so let’s just eat breakfast. Please, help yourself to whatever you want. I made enough for us all.”

The two took the invitation and helped themselves to some food while Raven kept quietly talking to Hank. Charles was terribly interested in what they were talking about but he wouldn’t ever think of looking inside their heads to see, so he just accepted his defeat and went back to eating. Raven couldn’t help but notice how strangely quiet Sean had gotten and made a mental note to check up on him later. Erik quietly ate his food, unsure of how to engage with his new housemates. He had been alone for so long that he didn’t even know what he would possibly talk about. Thankfully, Alex spoke up soon after, asking about further training his abilities and Charles went on a long tangent about his plans for doing so. Erik breathed a sigh of relief as he listened to his partner talk, content to not have to speak to anyone during this meal.

Once they were done eating, Hank offered to do the dishes and Alex volunteered to help him. Everyone else went off to do their own things. Sean went to unpack and Raven soon joined in, leaving Moira to call back to the CIA in peace. Charles and Erik went upstairs to go play chess.

“Why do they always play chess?” Sean mused as he started to pack his trousers into the wardrobe of the room. “Is there a reason behind that?”

“It’s probably an excuse to spend time alone.”

“Gross.” Sean made a face at that innuendo. “I really don’t want to think about any of my friends doing what you probably mean by alone time.”

Raven gave another little chuckle as she leaned back on his bed. “Is that why you’ve been so quiet at breakfast? Were Charles and Erik’s stolen glances too much for you? Because trust me, I understand!”

“No, that’s not it.” Sean said, frowning a bit and Raven’s face fell. “It’s a bit more complicated. I’m not good with talking about my feelings.”

“Is it because of the jokes I make about them? I totally support you no matter what your sexual orientation is, so if you’re gay--”

“I’m not. Well, I-- I mean-- I’m into guys. But not just guys. I have always been into girls just as much.”

“I think that’d make you bisexual then. So were you so quiet because I made you uncomfortable with my jokes?” Raven asked tentatively. “I’m sorry if that’s what your silence is about. But I guarantee you that I solely poked fun of Erik and Charles because Charles is my brother. It’s sisterly teasing, I guess.”

“That’s not at all what I’m unsure about!” Sean interrupted her abruptly, shaking his head quickly. “I totally get that this is all just friendly teasing – trust me, I have a lot of siblings. And I know you’d accept me the way I am. But it’s not about my sexuality or crushes or anything like that. It’s about how I’ve never had a group of friends before and I’m just unsure of how to interact with you all.”

“You’ve never had a group of friends before?”

“I mean, I’ve obviously known people and had acquaintances but I’ve never been as close with them as I am with you all. Most of them didn’t even know about my mutation. I had a best friend in elementary school but she moved away and after that, I never really had many friends. And I’ve always been too talkative with people or too clingy. I really don’t want you all to get tired of me like everyone else eventually did, so I figured staying in the back and not coming on too strong would do the trick.”

Raven nodded along as Sean rambled about his worries before speaking up. “Sean, you’re not too talkative or clingy or anything you call yourself. We like you being here. I’m sorry I didn’t understand your worries before, but now I think I do.”

“It’s alright. I am terrible at talking about my feelings.”

“You said you had a lot of brothers and sisters. Didn’t you ever talk to them about their friends? Didn’t they give you advice?”

Sean began to laugh at that, a dry and almost ingenuine laughter. “I was the middle child of seven. My two oldest brothers were constantly with one another and the sister that was older than me prefered to spend time with her friends. My two younger sisters were twins so they were very close and my youngest brother was only three when I left home to go with you guys. I think that’s why I was always so overbearing about my friends. I just wanted someone to stay by my side.”

Raven got quiet for a few seconds before she smiled softly. “Now you have us. And I mean, you and Alex are friends, aren’t you?”

“Alex said he’s not here to make friends, so I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” Sean muttered, fumbling around with the shirt he had picked up. “And I totally get it after what happened to Darwin. They’ve gotten pretty close and then he died. It must have fucked with Alex pretty badly.”

“But you want to be his friend.”

“But I don’t want to come on too strong, either. And I don’t want him to get annoyed by me or find me overbearing, especially if he needs some alone time after Darwin’s death, which I totally understand.”

“You’re right; that sounds like it’s not easy.” Raven mused before she gave Sean a comforting smile. “In all honesty, I think we all just need a bit of time to grow closer to each other. But whatever happens, I’ve got your back.”

“Thank you.”

---

“Checkmate.”

Charles smirked up at Erik, kicking his King over with his Bishop. Erik shrugged it off and leaned back in his chair, looking back at Charles who simply smirked a little.

“And I swear I didn’t read your mind.”

“I know. I can tell when you are inside my head. And I trust you to not look into my mind without my consent.” Erik said off-handedly. “Rematch?”

“Of course.” Charles nodded and leaned forward to put the pieces up again. “But Erik, I wanted to talk to you about your plans for stopping Shaw.”

“Why? We will fight him and stop him by killing him. It’s easy.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t.”

Without another word, Erik stood up, startling Charles. He headed for the window and looked out upon the estate, back turned to the other man who was now getting up, as well. Charles sighed a little before Erik began talking again.

“You don’t understand why I need to do this, Charles. You could never understand what he took from me and what he did to me.”

“You’re right. I can never understand but I can see is how much it pains you. Erik, killing him isn’t the solution. He should be held accountable for his actions.” Charles stood and walked over to Erik. “And that won’t happen if we kill him.”

“No prison in the world could hold Shaw. If we don’t kill him, this will all repeat itself over and over again until the day we can’t stop him anymore.” Erik hissed. “He will plunge the world into war because the humans won’t be able to figure out that he is behind this. Or maybe they simply don’t want to figure it out with how hellbent on war they always were.”

“Now you’re doing them wrong. Not all humans are like that Erik. There are wonderful and caring people out there.” Charles said sternly. “Moira is one of them.”

“You knew about my plans before we teamed up. Don’t pretend that you didn’t.” Erik said sternly, anger creeping into his voice. “I was fine before I met you.”

“You were.” Charles nodded in agreement. “But you also enjoy being by my side and you care about everyone else here, as well.”

“Get out of my head.”

Charles shook his head and came a bit closer. “I am not in your head. I can tell that you care about us by the way you act. But I can also tell that you’re concerned about what will happen after we’ve defeated Shaw.”

“Charles--”

“Rest assured that when all of this is over you are still more than welcome here. We’re partners and friends. And we are lovers.” Charles said softly, now standing mere centimetres from Erik’s form. “I don’t know the extent of your feelings for me but I care about you far more than you might think. And I would love to have you stay here with me.”

“My feelings?” Erik said almost too quietly for Charles to hear. “What do you think my feelings are?”

“Love.” With that, Charles grasped Erik’s shoulder, his hand a comforting and grounding weight on the other man’s shoulder. “I think you love me and I also think that it terrifies you.”

“I do.” Erik admitted and he had turned to Charles, eyeing the shorter man next to him. “What are you feeling for me?”

“Love.” Charles repeated and leaned in impossibly close, pointedly ignoring the tears that were gathering in Erik’s eyes now. “It’s fine to admit to those feelings, Erik. You don’t have to be afraid.”

“Can we not talk about this now?”

“What terrifies you about your love for me?”

“Charles, please, not tonight.”

Charles sighed a little in defeat but nodded, knowing better than to push Erik into a corner. He wanted to man to be comfortable around him. He didn’t want to push him away, either. So instead he opted for dropping the subject for now.

“We can talk about it another time.” Charles promised gently. “May I kiss you?”

“There’s no need to ask for my permission. Just to it.”

“I care about you, Erik. If you don’t want me to kiss you, I won’t.”

“I want you to. More than anything.”

Chapter Text

“You need the sound waves to be supersonic. Catch them at the right angle and they should carry you.”

“And they should carry me.” Sean quietly repeated Hank’s words, trying to mask his fear with humour. “That’s reassuring.”

Alex wrung his hands a little as he watched Sean cross himself, worried for his friend’s safety. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Hank could build a flight suit or that he doubted Sean’s abilities – it was simply the fact that he’d come to care for the other man a lot, no matter how much he’d tried to distance himself from everyone else. And now Sean was hurling himself out the second-floor window. The blond swallowed as Charles and Hank retreated from the window to give Sean a little space. The ginger pressed off the building and let himself fall, emitting a little screech that was definitely not loud enough to produce a sonic scream.

He plummeted down into the bushes below as Charles rushed to the window and asked if he was alright. Alex, however, didn’t hear the answer because he had already left the window and was now rushing downstairs to check on Sean. He would never admit it but I was terrified of losing another one of his friends. When he made it through the backdoor he heard Raven and Erik laugh as Sean pushed himself onto his feet, pointing upward at the window to threaten Hank and Charles. The latter quickly set out to come downstairs.

“Are you alright?” Alex inquired once he’d made it to Sean’s side, holding out a hand to help the other out of the bushes. “Come on.”

“I’m fine.” Sean nodded lightly and brushed the leaves off his clothes before he looked up to see Alex’s outstretched hand. He gave a thankful smile, genuinely touched by the fact that Alex had come downstairs to check on him and grabbed his friend’s hand, carefully stepping out of the bushes. “I’m fine, I promise.”

“That’s good. Wanna take a break?”

“Sure, but I have to get the suit off first.”

That’s when Charles rushed through the door, immediately coming over to examine Sean for any injuries. “Sean, are you sure you’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine.” Sean smiled lightly. “Just pissed off that it didn’t work and that you made me jump out there for no reason.”

“But you did well.” Alex smiled, rubbing Sean’s upper back. “I mean you held your arms in the right position.”

“He still didn’t fly.”

They all turned to the sound of the voice to find Hank coming toward them, muttering about how Sean hadn’t been able to fly. As he undid the flight suit, he examined it once more and made sure that the suit itself wasn’t the problem.

“He tried his best.” Alex defended the other man, rolling his eyes at Hank’s complaints. “Maybe it was because of the suit you designed.”

“No, it was because he wasn’t emitting a sonic scream.” Hank explained, seemingly a little irritated by Alex’s accusation of his suit being the problem. But within a few seconds, he lit up and turned to Charles. “If we try to let him jump from higher up, he will have enough time to scream loud enough.”

“What?” Alex snapped, quickly turning fully toward Hank and shaking his head vehemently. “No way! Why would he need to get even further up? Wasn’t jumping out of the second-story window enough?”

“No, not enough to lift him with the sonic scream.” Hank explained. “Alex, I know that you are concerned but he will surely be fine.”

While Sean felt incredibly touched by his friend’s concern for him and the way he stood up for him despite claiming to have not come to make friends, he also knew that he had to train his powers. So he quickly interrupted the fight. “How high would be high enough?”

“You can’t be serious.” Alex mumbled at Sean’s question, turning to face his friend. “You’re not seriously thinking of listening to him and getting higher up.”

“Alex, I’ll be fine.” But his confident smile faltered as he turned to Charles. “I’ll be fine, right? I trust you.”

Charles nodded with a comforting smile. “If Hank thinks it’ll work, then it surely will. Now we just have to figure out what to use.”

Sean went quiet for a second, eyeing the house before letting his eyes wander around the estate. “Maybe the satellite dish?”

“Has everyone here completely lost their minds?” Alex’s voice was rising in volume by the second as he stared at Sean in utter disbelief. “The satellite dish, he says! He wants to be thrown off the fucking satellite dish!”

“Alex.” Sean said softly, bringing his hand up to Alex’s shoulder and rubbing it comfortingly. “Calm down. You trust in my abilities, don’t you?”

“Alex, Sean will be fine.” Charles said softly, now also putting a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “For now, you two can go to your room and calm down while Hank and I talk this through. And I can assure you that if I let Sean do this, it will not end up hurting him. I would never hurt any of you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” Alex mumbled, obviously still very worried about Hank’s suggestion but not up for more discussions on this topic for the time being. “We’ll get back to you later.”

“You take the afternoon off to calm down, alright? And make sure Sean saves his voice for tomorrow, alright?”

“Thanks.” Sean smiled and took Alex’s wrist. “Come on. You need to sit down and relax for a few seconds.”

Alex sighed but let Sean lead him inside. Charles watched them with a smile, glad to see that Sean was able to calm his friend down. Then he turned to Hank who was now fumbling around with the flight suit. When Charles cleared his throat, the other man looked up.

“And the two of us will have a talk about your idea now. I know that you think it’ll work but we need to make sure Sean is ready. I have no doubt in your inventions or his abilities but this is his decision to make and he needs to be ready for it. I care about all of you and I don’t want any of you getting hurt.”

“Yes, of course. Let’s go down into the lab and I’ll show you how it will work.”

---

Hours later found Alex and Sean in the latter’s room. The ginger was curled up on his bed, playing away on a Gameboy while his friend sat on the window sill. It wasn’t until Sean had lost his game of Tetris and chucked his Gameboy onto the pillow that he realised how quiet it had gotten. When he looked up, he saw Alex staring out the window into the distance. Gingerly, Sean got off the bed and quietly approached his friend, stopping when he realsied that Alex was looking across the estate at the satellite dish.

“I trust Charles.”

“I know. I do, too.” Alex sighed, not looking away. “But I don’t trust Hank’s suit. It’s nothing personal but he just seems too eager to try it out on you and after it didn’t work today, I’m worried. I’m worried about you.”

“You’re worried about me?” The ginger whispered, feeling warmth spark in his chest at the implications of how much Alex must care for him. “But if Charles says that I’ll be fine, then I will. You don’t have to worry.”

“I hope you’re right.” Alex whispered before looking back at Sean. “Maybe you could wear something metal and if you really don’t manage to fly, Erik could probably lift you by the metal thing you’d be wearing.”

“I could ask Erik.” Sean said before reaching out to poke at Alex’s arm teasingly. “Now stop worrying. Let’s talk about literally anything else.”

“Yes, sorry.” Alex chuckled and hopped off the windowsill before leaning against it, taking in his friend’s tense stance. “You seem tense. Are you alright?”

“Alex?”

“What’s up?”

“Yesterday you said you weren’t here to make friends and I really don’t want to come on too strong, especially after what--”

Before he could finish, there was a knock on the door and Alex quickly called out for the person to come inside. It was Charles, peering in with a friendly smile before he saw that the young men were just standing by the window and he came inside completely, leaning against the doorway.

“Dinner is almost ready. Will you come downstairs? Hank and I talked about the plans for tomorrow, by the way, and I figured I could tell you over dinner.”

“Sure, we’ll be down in a second.”

Sean smiled at Charles and the older man left, closing the door behind him. Then the ginger looked back at Alex, about to ask him to go downstairs. He found Alex looking at him in concern, a frown deeply set on his features.

“Sean, do you think--”

“We can talk about it later.”

---

After an uneventful dinner, interrupted by Alex and Hank arguing about the safety of the plan, all of the inhabitants of the manor went to bed. And when the next morning had finally arrived, Sean was rudely awoken by Hank who wanted to prepare him. After they had a quick breakfast, Hank started getting Sean ready, helped him into the suit and once more explained the plan to him. All the while Alex was carefully watching them, making sure that Sean was well and safely strapped in. Once Sean was fully suited up, Charles clapped his hands once and gained everyone’s attention.

“We can go then, can’t we? Erik asked to watch, as well.”

“What about Raven?”

Charles smirked at Hank’s question but shook his head. “As much as I know how much you’d enjoy showing off your wings to her, she wants to help Moira. It’s probably nice for her to have another woman around.”

“Let’s just hope those wings work.” Alex mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. “If anything goes wrong I will--”

“Alex.” Sean interrupted and walked over to his friend, draping an arm across his shoulders. “If Charles trusts Hank, then so do I. After all, I trust Charles.”

“And I would never betray that trust.” Charles smiled softly. “Now come along, will you?”

“I trust Charles, too.” Alex said, leaning into Sean’s embrace just a little, feeling too worried to push him away. “I just don’t trust Hank after it didn’t work yesterday.”

“That’s simply because he wasn’t up high enough. Look at it this way: a parachute won’t open either if you aren’t up high enough.” Hank explained. “It wouldn’t open if you jumped from the roof but it does open when you jump out a plane.”

“That actually kind of makes sense.” Alex sighed and nodded before turning to his friend. They’d known each other for about a week now and though Alex had always tried to distance himself from people, he couldn’t help but feel fondly for the other mutant. He was just unsure of showing it, too used to solitude by now. But he still worried about him. “Sean, can we talk about what you said yesterday?”

“I guess.”

That’s when Erik opened the door and looked upon the scene in front of him, raising an eyebrow in question. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.” Sean nodded before taking a deep breath and turning to Erik with newfound confidence. “Let’s do this.”

But Sean’s confidence faltered as soon as they had reached the top of the satellite dish. While everyone was now preparing for him to jump, he was clinging to the railing. Erik was eyeing the drop in interest, Alex was complaining to Charles who was trying to calm him down and Hank checked his calculations for the suit one last time. All of them did, however, quickly turn when they heard Sean speak up.

“I’m gonna die!”

“Look, we’re not going to make you do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. You know that, right?” Charles asked softly, putting a comforting hand on Sean’s arm.

Alex nodded quickly, stepping closer to Sean and happy about the opportunity to maybe stop this whole exercise from taking place. “Shay, if you don’t want--”

“Here let me help.”

Erik reached out and pushed Sean off the dish in one swift move. And Alex felt as if his heart had just stopped. He heard Charles scream out Erik’s name in an accusatory manner. Said man simply crossed his arms while Charles and Hank looked over the rails, trying to see how Sean was doing. But both of them were pushed back by Alex as he almost threw himself off the dish after Sean with how quickly he rushed to the railing, looking down at the other in sheer panic.

“Sean, scream! Please, scream!”

Alex was yelling at the top of his lungs, not caring that the others all saw how deeply he cared for the other man. In a fraction of a second, the idea of Sean dying from the fall had pushed all doubts from his mind, leaving him with nothing but the realisation that although he’d really tried to distance himself from everyone after Darwin’s death and that he hadn’t come to make friends and, he had made them all the same. Thankfully, Sean started screaming and eventually managed to produce a sonic scream which lifted him back up into the air thanks to the suit. Alex felt lightheaded with relief when he saw that the suit was actually working, succeeding in making Sean fly. He cheered as he heard his friend scream in amusement.

Charles sagged against the railing in relief before he broke into a smile at Sean’s excitement about flying and Hank quickly started jotting down something on his pad with the plans of the suit. Erik stood back, smiling proudly as he watched his plan succeed.

“You’re doing it, Sean!”

“Charles, you were thinking the same thing.” Erik muttered from behind all of them, smiling a little when the brunet turned to him. “And it worked, didn’t it?”

Alex turned on his heel upon hearing Erik’s voice and the metal bender gave him a questioning look right before the blond tried to tackle the other mutant to the floor. Charles had to physically restrain Alex but that didn’t stop the blond from screaming at Erik.

“You pushed Sean off a satellite dish! Do you have any fucking brain cells in that head of yours? I thought Hank was bad for even coming up with this idea but you are a whole new level of moronic!”

“Alex, calm your mind. Sean is fine.” Charles said softly, trying to soothe Alex. “He’s fine and--”

He was interrupted by Sean managing to scramble back onto the platform where Erik brought up an arm to catch him so he wouldn’t fall off with the force of his landing. Sean took several deep breaths, mouth hanging open in amazement before he turned to Alex with a huge smile.

“Alex, I did it!”

And without a second thought, Alex drew Sean’s into his arms. The ginger gasped in surprise before he quickly embraced Alex, holding him tightly and breathing a small sigh of relief. Charles smiled while Erik watched in slight amusement at the whole situation. Alex then pulled back and took a deep breath.

“I might have actually made some friends here, I think.”

“I sure hope so!” Sean chuckled before sighing. “But, hey, about what I was trying to say: I just wanted to let you know that although you might not see me as a friend, I see you as one. I mean, if you don’t want to be friends that’s totally fine with me but--”

“Shut up, Sean.” Alex interrupted with a small smile. “Of course, we’re friends. I’m sorry if I was a dick – I’m so not used to having other people around me and after what happened at the base--”

“Alex, if this is too much, it’s fine. I’m always too brass and loud.”

“You’re great the way you are, Shay.”

Erik interrupted them with a small smile. “I’m glad you’ve managed to fly, Sean.”

“Thanks.”

Alex huffed at Erik’s words but couldn’t deny that they did in fact sound heartfelt. “I agree with you on that one but it was still a dick move to push Sean off the satellite dish.”

“He wasn’t going to jump on his own.” Erik commented and looked at Sean. “And I need all of you to be at your top form when we face Shaw. I agreed to be part of a team and I intend to keep my teammates safe.”

“That’s so sweet of you.” Charles said softly, one hand curling around Erik’s arm. “But then again, I think everything you do is endearing.”

Sean leaned closer to Alex at that, pointing at Charles and Erik with his thumb. “Raven was right in calling your road trips homoerotic, I guess.”

“You haven’t heard?” Hank asked in amusement. “You two are really oblivious.”

“You’re a couple?” Alex asked in shock. “Who knows except for Hank?”

“Everyone here.” Charles chuckled before shaking his head. “We got closer to each other during those road trips on more than one occasion. And we eventually decided to make it official. Just last night, though, Erik confessed his love to me.”

“Fewer details, please.” Sean made a face but chuckled nonetheless. “I seriously can’t imagine Erik of all people confessing his love to someone!”

“It was so sweet.” Charles smiled fondly. “He was so sincere and sweet.”

“Charles!” Erik snapped softly, glaring at the short man. “Don’t tell them that.”

Sean then looked at everyone else before looking down the satellite dish. “Now that we settled all of this, can we please climb back down?”

Erik nodded at that. “Good idea.”

“Don’t want to be pushed off again.” The ginger chuckled and Erik rolled his eyes in amusement at that statement.

“I’ll never live it down, will I?

“Never live it down? It happened ten minutes ago.”

Chapter Text

It was the night after Sean’s flight that a storm had swept across the countryside and all the inhabitants of Westchester Manor were forced to stay indoors. Moira had taken up one of the guest rooms and Raven had visited her. The two of them had eventually taken to playing board games and talking about Moira’s work. Hank had reclined in his room to spend some time alone while Sean and Alex were both in their respective rooms.

And Erik had visited Charles for a chess match that had soon turned much more intimate. They had enjoyed each other’s presence after a stressful day full of training, worries and fears. It was comforting how familiar these intimate moments were even though they hadn’t met each other that long ago – Charles had once chalked it up to them simply being very compatible. Once they had finished, both of them lay in Charles’ huge bed, listening to the winds howl around the manor.

Everything was quiet for a long time and Charles had been convinced that Erik had fallen asleep on him, head tucked into his neck and the telepath’s hands soothingly carding through his hair. But then he stirred and looked up.

“You know that I would have never let Sean get hurt, don’t you?”

“Of course, darling.”

“Charles, I’m being serious.” Erik said and looked at his lover. “His suit was full of metal zippers, buttons and clasps. I would have caught him and lifted him had he not managed to scream.”

“Erik, I know that.” Charles said in earnest, leaning down to press a kiss to the other’s hair. “You care about them and I know that. I trust you that you would never hurt them or let them get hurt. I also know why you push them so hard every time we train and I understand that.”

“I don’t want them to get hurt in the fight against Shaw.”

“Oh, my darling.” Charles held Erik a little tighter, his hand leaving his hair to cradle his cheek. “You’re really going soft.”

“I am not.”

“You are such a sweetheart.”

“Stop mocking me.”

Before Charles had the chance to answer to Erik’s amused chastising the whole mansion was shaken by a high-pitched, ear-piercing supersonic scream. Charles and Erik covered their ears as several glass objects in the room shattered into a thousand little pieces. Charles was about to react when Erik jumped to his feet, tugged his sweatpants on and hurried into the hallway. Had Charles not been just as worried as his lover he might have laughed at how much Erik’s quick reaction was proving that he cared about everyone in the mansion and was indeed going soft. Instead, Charles jumped to his feet as well, tugged his pyjama pants and shirt on, hurried into the hallway and managed to catch up to Erik.

When the two of them arrived at Sean’s door, the other inhabitants of the manor were already there. Raven stared at her brother with wide eyes, shocked and concerned. Hank looked as if he was expecting the worse and Moira looked at Charles as if she expected him to somehow immediately know what was going on.

“What happened? That was Sean, right?”

“It was.” Raven nodded at Moira before turning to Charles. “You knock.”

Charles nodded and knocked a few times before taking a step back to wait for a reply. When none came he knocked once more and leaned closer to the door, Sean could hear him from inside.

“Are you quite alright?”

“Yes!” Came the voice of a very freaked out Sean. “Go away!”

“Could you come outside and let me check up on you?”

“Give me a second!”

And surprisingly enough, Charles could hear Sean and Alex quietly arguing inside the room, shuffling around and shouting at each other in whispers. It made him wonder why he was in his friend’s room but that was a topic for another day. Eventually, the blond opened the door, looking quite freaked out as he leaned against the doorframe to appear casual. Sean was behind him, face flushed a bright red as he vehemently averted the eyes of everyone else.

Then Charles spotted the broken windows and the shard of glass on the floor. His eyes trailed through the room to find all other glass objects such as picture frames, bottles and the mirror on the wall broken, as well. It was Moira that broke the silence, chuckling a little as she pointed to the window frame behind the two young men.

“Is that a bird?”

And indeed, a large bird had flown in through the broken window. Charles sighed softly, watching the rain from outside patter into the room while the bird flew circles and knocked everything off the dressers.

“It sure is.” Hank nodded before turning back to Alex. “What happened?”

Erik looked at Sean, taking in the ruffled sheets and the tissue paper before giving a slight chuckle. “Sean is apparently really loud. In every situation of his life, it seems.”

The ginger let out an embarrassed groan, his face going redder than before – if that was even possible – and he let it drop into his hands where he buried it. Raven began to laugh and even Moira seemed amused by the whole situation, never minding the chaos in the manor. Hank seemed embarrassed and Charles was just about to speak when Alex piped up, putting his hands onto his hips and glaring at Raven.

“Oh, as if none of you has ever masturbated.”

“I’m just wondering why you’re here.”

“I came here to help!”

Sean made an embarrassed noise and Raven began to laugh. “With what exactly?”

“Not like that.” Alex groaned in exasperation, rolling his eyes. “My room’s like two doors down so I came over when he screamed. I was not helping my friend jerk off if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Charles quickly got in between their bickering and looked at Alex. “Are you two injured? Alex, you said you were two doors down the hall. Are your ears alright?”

“Yes.” Alex said. “I wasn’t that close by. They’re just ringing a bit.”

“Maybe we should all invest in earmuffs.” Erik suggested jokingly and earned himself a glare from Sean who was now lifting his face from his hands again. “Hey, it was just a suggestion!”

Raven chuckled from behind Charles. “Or you could gag Sean.”

“Will you all stop it?” Charles rolled his eyes. “Sean, are you okay?”

“I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole. This has to be the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened to me and that’s saying something because I’m quite the awkward guy. But apart from that, I’m fine.”

“It’s no big deal. Windows can be replaced, birds can be caught and no one is injured.” Charles reassured. “You’re still learning to control your mutation and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m sure that soon you will be able to have an orgasm without causing property damage.”

Erik couldn’t help but chuckle a little and Raven flat out snorted at Charles’ words. Sean groaned at the older man’s words and now resorted to burying his face at Alex’s shoulder from behind. The blond just glared at Erik and Raven, arms crossed over his chest. Charles sighed softly and shook his head, motioning for his friends to quiet down.

“Sean, this is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Just the words ‘you will be able to have an orgasm without causing property damage’ make me want to crawl into a hole and never come back out!”

Moira leaned over at that to talk to Charles. “He’s right, you know? That was quite the embarrassing and patronising thing to say.”

Charles just waved her off and looked back at Sean. “Things like that happen and I’m not angry at you. We can replace the windows, catch the bird and clean up, alright?”

“Things like this always happen to me.”

“They happen to everyone.” Charles reassured before smirking a little. “Once in university, I brought this woman home with me and we slept with each other. I somehow lost my grasp on my powers for a few seconds and projected my thoughts onto Raven. She came to my room and banged on my door to yell at me.”

“It was so gross.” Raven shivered but then laughed a little. “When I was younger and on my first date with a boy from my school, I was so nervous about our first kiss that I accidentally shifted into him.”

“She begged me to erase his memory.”

“And like a good brother, you did.”

Erik looked up a Sean and then sighed reluctantly. “A few nights ago, Charles and I slept with each other and I got a bit carried away. I turned all the curtain rods in his room into heeps of tangled up metal.”

Sean looked at Erik in surprise before quickly beginning to laugh, relieved and clearly not as embarrassed anymore. Erik just watched him laugh in such a carefree manner and smiled a little, glad to have calmed the younger man down. He felt Charles’ hand curling around his arm and he could practically feel the other’s fond smile but vehemently ignored him.

“How about we get the bird outside, clean the worst of the glass up and have Erik weld something to block the window frame with so the rain doesn’t get in?” Charles suggested, eyeing Sean and Alex who were now calming down again, no longer laughing as much as they had been. “Sean can stay in some other room tonight and tomorrow we’ll clean everything up properly.”

“Good idea.”

“You can stay in my room.” Alex nodded and then looked around the room. “I guess we should start cleaning up but I don’t want any of you to make fun of Sean – especially Erik.”

“It’s fine.” Moira shrugged a little, smirking to herself. “I mean, he doesn’t really have the high ground here. When I saw what he’d done to your curtain rods the other day, I initially thought it was a weird design choice.”

“Yes, and the design called ‘this is too close to finding out who pitches and who catches’.” Raven chuckled, grinning proudly when Hank snorted behind her. “And I don’t want to find out, to be honest.”

“You are all unbearable.”

“Enough of that now!” Charles exclaimed, not feeling up to discussing the more intimate details of his and Erik’s relationship with everyone in the room. “Now could we please be reasonable and clean this up?”

“I’ll get the bird outside.” Alex sighed and looked at the animal that was now sitting on the closet. “Reminds me of that weird bird poem we had to read in Highschool.”

“Do you mean ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe?”

“The me.” Raven said dryly and Hank almost choked laughing.

“It’s a good poem.” Erik said nonchalantly before surveying the room. “I’ll clean up the glass. Moira, would you help me?”

Moira nodded and tied her hair into a ponytail. “I’m on it. Raven, come and help us.”

“Sure.” Raven nodded and carefully stepped into the room. “But maybe you should really use a gag next time.”

“We could lend you a gag.” Erik commented and started picking up some of the glass while Raven made a face in the background. “But it was worn before.”

“Gross!”

Moira nodded in agreement before joking dryly. "I might gag."

“Alright, I think that’s quite enough!”

Everyone listened to Charles that time around and began to clean up. Raven, Charles, Moira and Hank began to clean the glass while Erik fashioned a makeshift shutter for the window from the metal of the broken mirror on the wall. Sean and Alex were ushering the bird outside. Once the shutter was in place, Erik and Charles started helping clean up as well and the telepath looked back at Sean in worry.

“You’re literally projecting how upset you are onto me.” He said softly. “You don’t need to be embarrassed.”

“I feel bad that you all have to help me out now.”

“We’re a team. And we’re friends, remember?” Raven said, sounding almost offended. “Of course, we’ll help you. Almost all of us here know that mutations can sometimes cause issues. You’d help us, too, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.” Sean nodded before looking back down at the glass he was picking up. “It’s just super embarrassing that you have to help me because I--”

“Sean, seriously, it’s fine.” Erik interrupted, gaining the ginger’s attention. “If it makes you this uncomfortable, we won’t ever mention it again.”

“That’s really nice of you, Erik.”

“I’m just looking out for you.”

Charles smiled softly before leaning closer to Erik and placing a gentle kiss on his cheek, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he began speaking. “You’re not going soft at all, darling. There’s no way you are.”

“Charles, less talking, more cleaning.”

“Softie.”

“Charles!”

Chapter Text

Erik had always known that adjusting to living with other people would be hard, especially after so many years spent on his own. He had managed to adjust well at the base and the road trips but now in Charles’ house things felt much more domestic and it was harder to get used to. And the fact that everyone in the manor seemed adamant about incorporating Erik into their daily routines and activities was making it no easier.

Everyone was constantly around each other and Erik found himself wondering how that was possible given that the manor was quite big. But when he’d gone to his room to change he’d been chatted up by Raven who talked to him about the training plans for the next day. Afterwards, he’d gone to the bathroom, intending to get ready for bed when Sean had rushed in, proclaiming that he needed to use it and ushering Erik out. Why he hadn’t just gone to one of the other bathrooms around was beyond Erik. He had simply gone to use the bathroom down the hall and then went for his room, meeting and being greeted by Alex on the way before he finally made it to the door. And once he’d opened it Charles was there, sitting on his bed and smiling brightly.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Charles chuckled and patted the bed next to him. “You don’t mind if I spend the night in your bed, do you?”

“I sense that you might have ulterior motives here.”

“Only if you want to. If you don’t, then I’ll be content to just sleep next to you.” Charles’ amused face faded and he looked at Erik with a much more serious expression. “You don’t look like you’re up for any ulterior motives today.”

“I am not.”

“Then we just enjoy each others’ presence tonight.” Charles smiled and once more patted the mattress of the bed. “Come lie down with me, Erik.”

Erik quickly moved across the room, getting under the covers just as Charles did the same. He reached over to turn the light off and lay back against the pillow to which Charles quickly settled against him, one arm thrown across Erik’s chest. Erik’s hand drifted to the other man’s hair where he began to card his fingers through his curls. He felt Charles’ hand reach up to gently stroke his jaw and closed his eyes.

“Sleep well, darling. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

And as was so often the case, Erik was asleep rather quickly with Charles’ arms wrapped around him, his warmth engulfing him. Charles fell asleep shortly after, fully expecting to be awoken early in the morning by Erik getting up. He had quickly found out that Erik rose rather early in the day. And while Charles himself had no issues with getting up early, especially if it meant they’d have more time to train, he loathed having to let go of Erik.

But this situation didn’t arise because, in the early morning, an hour or two before Erik would normally get up, Charles was awoken by the feeling of someone calling out to him mentally. He sat up rather quickly, unsure of who it was and whether or not someone needed his help. But his questions were quickly answered when there was a knock on the door and Charles managed to identify the person knocking to be Sean.

“Charles?” Erik whispered from next to him, sitting up and looking at the door. “Did someone knock on the door?”

“It’s Sean and I can feel his distress.”

Charles was out of bed in an instant and quickly opened the door to reveal a terrified Sean, looking back at him with teary eyes and a panicked expression.

“Sean, what’s wrong?” Charles asked gently, reaching out to rub the young man’s arm comfortingly. “You’re in distress.”

“I can’t find Alex!”

“Why don’t you come inside and tell us what happened first and foremost?”

Sean nodded and followed Charles, letting himself be manoeuvred into sitting down on the foot of the bed. Erik scooted back against the headboard to give the two of them some space. He knew he wasn’t the best at comforting people, most of the time rather opting for finding solutions to problems rather than giving moral support. But fortunately, Charles was there to comfort Sean. The telepath was great at soothing people and comforting them, so Erik gladly stepped back to let him handle the situation.

“Would you tell me what happened, Sean?”

Sean nodded and began to talk, his voice thick with tears though he tried his best to hold them back, not wanting to cry in front of the two older men. “I had this terrible nightmare. We were fighting Shaw and-- and he killed Alex while I-- I was just standing there, uselessly watching and held in place by an invisible force.”

“Sean, you had a nightmare and that’s all it was. Alex will be fine, just like the rest of us. We will all come back home alive and well.”

“How can you be so sure?” Sean whispered, a few tears beginning to run down his face. “Shaw is so strong. He killed Darwin. How do you know that he won’t kill the rest of us, as well?”

“Because when he attacked the CIA base all of you were unprepared and alone. Now you‘re training and preparing for the fight. And most importantly, you aren’t alone anymore. We are a team now and if we stick together, we’ll be alright.”

Charles was now stroking Sean’s hair, soothingly repeating that they would all be fine and Erik decided that perhaps his input about Shaw was needed. And although he himself worried, he knew that he had to be optimistic now. “I know how you feel, Sean. You’re right about how dangerous Shaw is and I won’t deny that his people are powerful, as well. But Charles is right, you know -- we are not alone.”

“Thank you.” Sean whispered before he looked up at Erik, the tears now freely running down his cheeks. “But before I came here I actually wanted to go see Alex but he isn’t in his room. We need to go find him. What if something happened?”

“We’ll go looking for him, dear. Don’t you worry.” Charles promised and stood up, looking back at Sean. “Where do you think he might have gone?”

“Can’t you find him telepathically?”

“I could but I don’t want to intrude on him or break the trust he gave me to not get inside his head without a reason to do so. If we don’t find him, I will. But I think we should actually try to find him before I do that.”

“Then let’s go find him.”

The three of them set out to look for Alex and surprisingly enough it was Erik that found him. He was on one of the balconies, sitting on a bench with his legs pulled to his chest as he watched the sunrise. Erik slowly approached, not wanting to startle him but Alex had noticed him already.

“What do you want?”

“Sean came to us because you weren’t in your room and he worried.” Erik said as he sat down on the bench next to Alex, looking straight ahead at the rising sun. “Are you alright?”

“Pretty much.”

“Can I help?”

“It’s just all a bit overwhelming.” Alex sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve always been a pretty solitary guy – for good reasons – and now I have to live in this giant manor with a whole group of people. And I apparently have a best friend now who needs me and wants me around all the time, even after the last friend I made died. I don’t know how to explain it, I think--”

“It’s just hard to get accustomed to.”

Alex looked at Erik in surprise, sitting up straight now. “Exactly. How do you know that’s how I’m feeling?”

“I feel the same way.” Erik still looked at the sunset, not daring to look back at Alex just yet. “I’ve been on my own for a long time. It takes some time to get used to but trust me, you will. During my road trips with Charles, we spent a lot of time in close quarters with each other and it took some time to get used to after spending years on my own. But I did get used to it. And I assume I’ll get used to this new living situation, too.”

“You’re right.” Alex nodded at Erik. “I think I just need a bit of time after spending such a long time on my own.”

“And I know this is hard to believe but please don’t blame yourself for what happened to Darwin, Alex. It’s not your fault that Shaw killed him.” Erik said, still avoiding Alex’s eyes. “I understand how hard to believe this is but it really wasn’t your fault.”

“You understand?”

Erik was about to speak up when he heard Charles calling out for him and Alex. When he turned back to the doors he saw the telepath coming out onto the balcony, Sean right behind him. As soon as the ginger saw Alex he relaxed visibly and Charles proceeded to soothingly tell him that everything was alright. And as soon as Alex saw Sean’s frightened face he was off the bench to get to his friend’s side.

“What happened, Sean?”

“I had a nightmare.” Sean admitted, sighing a little as he looked a Alex. “And I wanted to see you and make sure you were alright but you were gone. I was pretty worried.”

“What was your dream about?”

“You died.”

Alex took a deep breath before beginning to talk. “Listen, Sean, I can’t promise you that I won’t get hurt but I will try my best to stay out of harm’s way. You gotta do the same for me, though.”

“I will.”

Erik spoke up then, moving across the balcony to get to Charles’ side. “Shall we start making breakfast?”

“And here I was, thinking we’d get back to bed.” Charles heaved a sigh but nodded. “I really hoped for a few more minutes in your arms.”

“I suppose a few more minutes won’t hurt.”

---

That day, neither Sean nor Alex mentioned the occurrences and conversations. But Erik and Charles didn’t really mind, although the metal bender was sure that his partner actually wanted to address the younger men’s fears. Still, he stayed back and let them train, not wanting to intrude. And by the time night once more rolled around Alex and Sean seemed fine, so Charles really saw no reason to bring the topic up again. Erik was still slightly concerned about how the following night would be for the two but eventually, he deiced to ignore his worries. If the two of them needed help, they would seek someone out.

He was currently getting ready for the night but strangely enough none of the other inhabitants of the manor were around. Raven didn’t chat him up, Sean didn’t chase him out of the bathroom and Alex didn’t greet him in the hallway. When Erik went to his room, Charles wasn’t there either. And when he exited his room to go look for the telepath he saw light burning in the kitchen. So, he ventured downstairs, figuring he would find Charles there. But as soon as he entered, he realised why he hadn’t seen anyone else around.

Everyone else was in the kitchen, sitting together at the kitchen island while Charles was making them all something to drink by the look of it. Raven sat next to Hank, talking to him in hushed noises while Sean had his head lying on his folded arms and Alex was resting his on the ginger’s upper back. Moira was leaning against the counter next to Charles, talking to him in a quiet voice as she sipped on a mug. Erik took in the scene just as Charles turned around, two steaming cups in his hand.

“Erik, do you want to join us? Moira said she was cold and I offered to make hot cocoa. Sean and Alex overheard us and instantly insisted I make them some, as well. And when we got downstairs Hank and Raven were already there.” Charles explained with a soft smile. “Where you looking for me?”

“Yes.” Erik admitted before chuckling. “I was pretty surprised to come to my room and not find you waiting for me for once.”

“So you missed me?” Charles teased, fluttering his eyelashes dramatically. “That’s so sweet of you.”

Erik just rolled his eyes but Charles could see the small smirk on his lips as he sat down opposite Sean and Alex. “Are those two awake?”

“Sean is awake.” The ginger grinned, his voice coming muffled from where his face was buried in his arms. “He’s awake and listening.”

“Alex is, too.” The blond imitated his friend speaking of himself in the third person. “They’re just waiting for the hot cocoa.”

“I’ve got two mugs right here.” Charles said gently and set them down in front of the two young men. “I put little marshmallows inside.”

“Team Mom.” Raven chuckled and she supported her head on her hand, gaining herself an eye roll from her brother. “I’m not being mean. I think it’s sweet how caring and nurturing you are! That would probably make any woman fall for you.”

“Lucky for me, I don’t need anyone to fall for me because I got Erik over here.” Charles chuckled and pecked the taller man on his cheek before going back to making more hot cocoa.

“If Charles is the Team Mom and he’s in a relationship with Erik, does that make Erik the Team Dad?” Alex mused, making Sean next to him nearly choke on his drink.

“A big happy family.” Moira said softly and took another sip from her cup. “Charles, this tastes really good, by the way.”

“Thanks.” The man in question smiled before looking at Erik. “Do you want some, too?”

“If you’re offering.”

Hank piped up at that and looked around the room. “While we’re all here, we could talk about the suits I’m making for us. Any colour suggestions?”

“How about something blue?” Raven suggested. “That’d be a good idea.”

“Because you are blue?” Alex laughed before turning to Hank. “How about something green?”

“Not green.” Hank shook his head before quietly thanking Charles when he handed him and Raven two mugs. “That’s not a complementing colour for Raven.”

“How about yellow?” Raven asked and began sipping the cocoa. “Is that better?”

“How do you think yellow is just as complimenting as blue?” Erik teased, making Raven laugh.

“I’m just going through basic colours.”

“How about the design itself?” Charles suggested and finally sat down next to Erik, placing two more mugs in front of him and his friend. “What material are you planning on using, Hank?”

Hank then began to talk about his ideas for the suits while everyone listened to him. Sean and Alex eventually went back to lying halfway on the counter, quietly sipping on their cocoa while Moira hoisted herself onto the kitchen counter. Raven was still listening intently, head supported on her hand as she watched Hank. It was only a few minutes later that Erik felt Charles take his hand, lacing their fingers together as he listened to their teammate, as well. Erik smiled a little, moving his thumb to rub Charles’ hand as he let his eyes wander around the room.

As Erik sat in the kitchen, talking and joking with everyone else while they all drank hot chocolate and Charles held his hand, he realised that he had gotten used to living with them a lot quicker than expected. And he realised that he didn’t mind one bit. His evenings would likely not be as quiet and peaceful as they had been in the past but he didn’t care because they were also not as lonely.

Chapter Text

“Would you need any help with that?”

Erik couldn’t help but roll his eyes affectionately as he felt Charles wrap his arms around him from behind, resting his head against his shoulder. He shook his head quietly, going back to preparing breakfast and mixing the dough for the pancakes he was making. Quietly Charles began to hum along to the slow rhythm of the song that was playing over the radio on the kitchen counter as he looked at what Erik was doing.

“What are you making?”

“Pfannkuchen.”

“Like pancakes?” Charles mused, looking over Erik’s shoulder at the thin layer of dough he was pouring into the pan. “They look a bit thin.”

Erik shook his head and moved the pan to evenly spread out the dough. “They’re not American pancakes. They’re Pfannkuchen and I’m pretty sure you can easily spot the difference, can’t you?”

He felt Charles nod against his back before the arms around his waist tightened. “Not that I don’t think it’s absolutely endearing that you got up to make us breakfast, but I would have also loved it if you’d stayed in bed with me a little longer.”

While the dough was slowly baking in the pan, Erik turned his head to press a kiss on Charles’ cheek. “I will make it up to you later.”

“I hope you will.” Charles chuckled and rested his cheek against Erik’s upper back, gently beginning to sway with the music.

To his surprise it was Erik that turned around, letting the metal spatula flip the dough in the background, and wrapped his arms around Charles’ waist before he began swaying them along to the music. This got a small chuckle of surprise out of Charles before he leaned his head against Erik’s shoulder, slowly beginning to move along with him.

“You’re a good dancer.”

“We’re not really dancing.” Erik muttered in amusement. “We’re swaying along to the music, Charles.”

“Then you’re a good swayer.”

Erik was about to answer, to pull back and tell Charles he needed to get back to making breakfast when they were interrupted by an ear-piercing scream of ‘Morning’ ringing throughout the mansion. Charles covered his ears, letting go of Erik as he watched the utensils all over the kitchen shake with the force of the scream, several of which fell toward the floor. Before any of them could hit the ground Erik stopped them, quickly getting them back onto the counter.

The next thing they heard was people starting to move around upstairs and Raven yelling at Sean to stop screaming. Hank spoke up soon after, trying to calm Raven down while Alex’s laughter rang throughout the manor. Charles and Erik looked up when Moira stepped inside, still in her pyjamas and looking rather annoyed with Sean’s yelling.

“I’m lucky I was already awake and getting ready when he started yelling. Otherwise, I might be up there yelling at him right now.” Moira joked, sitting down at the table. “At least he controls his powers, even if he does so to annoy us.”

Charles chuckled a little and shrugged. “I think Raven is doing a great job, yelling at him without you.”

That’s when Sean came running into the kitchen, quickly rounding the island and grabbing onto Erik’s arm in order to turn him and hide behind him. Before Erik could question him, Raven stomped into the kitchen, snapping at Sean about how annoying he was. Hank was close behind, trying to calm her down while Alex had now stopped laughing and was instead hurrying after Sean.

“Raven, relax.” Alex tried to soothe her, getting in between her and Sean. “It was a joke. No need to get so annoyed.”

“You weren’t in the room next to his when he screamed like that.” Raven grumbled, crossing her arms. “I nearly got a concussion from how hard I hit the ground when I fell out of my bed.”

“Yeah, I was in the bathroom down the hall.” Alex chuckled before shrugging. “At least we are all awake now.”

Erik pulled his arm free from Sean’s grip, still not keen on much physical contact from anyone that wasn’t Charles. “Let’s just have breakfast and start training.”

“Good idea!”

---

Training that day had been hard but it also came with a lot of success. Sean had managed to fly once more while Hank had started running without trying to keep his mutation hidden, leaving Charles behind to stare in awe at how fast he was. In the afternoon, Raven and Erik had gone for a run while Charles, Hank and Sean accompanied Alex to the lower rooms of the manor where he would try to hit the target mannequins with the suit designed for him the previous day.

And Alex was pretty worried that Charles had simply stepped to the right of the mannequin and ordered him to try again. Sean and Hank were watching from the door, both looking rather unsure of the whole situation but the telepath was just smiling at Alex, completely trusting him to hit the target.

“Come on, you have to try.” Charles urged softly, giving Alex a reassuring smile once more. “You won’t know if the suit works unless you try it out.”

“Don’t you want to step aside?”

“No, I trust you to hit the mannequin and not me. I have complete faith in you.”

“Bad decision!” Alex called back, voice climbing an octave higher as he realised how certain Charles was of this idea. “I don’t know if you recall what happened to the mannequin and the rest of the room the last time.”

“I have much more mannequins to spare, don’t worry.”

“Why do you have so many mannequins?” Sean piped up from the door, clutching the fire extinguisher Hank had handed him. “And where do you keep them?”

“That’s not important.” Charles waved the ginger off and smiled back at Alex. “I do remember you hitting the rest of the room the last time but I also remember that you hit the target. And I trust you that you won’t hit me.”

“Fine, but I won’t hear any complaints when you get burned.”

“I won’t need to complain.” Charles smiled. “I know you can do it. I have complete and utter faith in you.”

Alex nodded, taking a deep breath while Hank gripped onto the doorframe and Sean covered his eyes with one of his hands though he was still too interested to not peak through his fingers. Charles gave Alex one more thumb up before he buried his hands casually in his pockets. And then Alex fired, having some difficulty aiming at first and hitting the floor before he managed to aim his beam at the mannequin, lighting it ablaze as he tried to keep his footing.

Hank was in awe, dropping the extinguisher and clapping while Sean began to cheer Alex on. The blond eventually stopped the beam. He stumbled forward at not having to keep his footing against the power of the beam anymore. Charles looked at the burning mannequin before he came hurrying over to give Alex a clap on the back, smiling brightly at the younger man.

“You did well! The rest of the room isn’t on fire and neither am I!” Charles praised, waving Sean and Hank over. “And in time you will learn to control your mutation without the suit but for now, this suffices.”

“Thanks.” Alex mumbled before looking up at Hank. “And thanks for the suit.”

“You’re welcome.” Hank said before giving Alex a grin. “Guess I’m not so bad after all, right?”

“Right.”

“Shall we go back upstairs? I think you’ve trained enough for today.” Charles suggested as he looked around the room at the other three men. “We could go and see what Raven and Erik have been doing.”

“Good idea.” Hank nodded and started moving toward the door. “I wanted to show Raven what I found in the samples I took from her.”

“Is that what people call it nowadays?” Charles teased and Alex snorted.

“They call it that or ‘playing chess’, I guess.”

---

The rain had started seconds after Raven and Erik had made it inside the manor, coming in through the kitchen’s backdoor, both glad to not have been caught in the approaching storm. Raven began to undo her shoes while Erik grabbed a glass of water, stretching a little after their run, looking up when he heard the woman chuckle to herself.

“I never understood whose idea it was to put all of you guys in grey sweatpants.”

“Probably your brother’s.”

Erik’s dry answer made Raven burst out laughing and she abandoned her plans of taking off her shoes in favour of doubling over. It took her a few seconds before he grabbed onto the counter and straightened back up, still chuckling quietly.

“I’m glad to amuse you.” Erik smirked a little, leaning against the counter. “He probably enjoys the sweatpants on me as much as you enjoy them on Hank.”

“Hush!” Raven hissed, glaring at the other mutant before she smiled softly. “I really like you, you know? I’m glad you chose to stay.”

Erik nodded at that, giving Raven a quick smile. “I’m glad to have stayed, too.”

“When all of this is over and Shaw is dead, will you stay?”

“You’re putting me on the spot.”

“I’m just asking a question, Erik.” Raven said, crossing her arms now as she looked back at him. “We could protect each other and really make a difference. I’m not always on Charles’ side and I don’t always agree with him but if he can get the government to back us up, maybe we can make a real difference.”

“How do you know they won’t turn on us?”

“Charles trusts them and I trust Charles.”

That’s when the door opened and Hank, Sean, Alex and Charles came inside. Hank waved at Raven and she gave him a small smile. Erik watched her for a few more seconds before Charles caught his attention and he turned to the brunet, giving him a soft smile.

“Did you get here before the rain started?” Charles asked, running a hand through Erik’s hair. “Seems dry so I’ll take that as a confirmation.”

“I did make it back before the rain started.”

“Good.” Charles then gave him a big smile. “Alex managed to hit the target today. They’re getting better by the day, Erik.”

“That’s good to hear.” Erik couldn’t help but smile as Charles looked at him with that big smile of his. “You’re a good teacher.”

“You think?”

“Don’t be so humble!” Sean exclaimed, plopping himself down on the counter. “You should teach other mutants, too.”

“I thought about it before but I was never too sure.”

“You’ve changed my life. There are bound to be hundreds of us that need help just like we did.” Alex reasoned, leaning against the counter. “Maybe talk it through with Moira.”

Sean nodded eagerly. “And we could be the good example that shows that you’re an amazing teacher and totally capable of helping mutants control their powers!”

Charles listened to them, feeling more secure in his idea now. He had toyed with it a few times after they had all begun training, thought of rebuilding the manor to house mutants and thought of having his friends teach them. But he’d never given it too much thought, much too focused on the situation at hand. He looked back up at Erik who just gave him a firm nod, assuring him that it was a good idea and Charles smiled.

“After we defeat Shaw, I will bring it up with Moira.”

Chapter Text

“Let me help you.”

“I can do this myself.”

Charles eyed Sean’s shaking hands as the young man shovelled noodles onto his plate. Alex kept bouncing his leg nervously, Raven was worrying her lips and Hank was fidgeting with his fork. Moira seemed distracted and Erik was obviously pretty concerned. Everyone was on edge but they were very clearly trying to deal with their issues themselves. It had been like this for the past day or two.

And it surprised no one that they were nervous with the fight against Shaw only one more day away. Though Charles tried to assure them that they had trained enough, that they were strong and capable, their fears persisted. Charles could hear it, even though he always kept out of their heads as promised. He could hear the racing thoughts they kept accidentally projecting and could sense them calling out when they had nightmares. Now Charles was a telepath, not an empath but there was no mutation needed to sense the tense atmosphere and fears.

Moira kept herself busy, running back and forth between the CIA and the manor, trying to make sure every last detail of their plan was thought out. Charles had come to know the telltale way her eyebrows would shoot up and her eyes would widen when she once found a part of the plan that needed to be revised.

Raven was now constantly trying to help Hank as best as she could and keep herself occupied. She was trying to help him with the suits, with the jet and with training but it was obvious that she couldn’t aid him too much. And it bothered her. Hank himself was trying to improve on his inventions and especially the suits, overworking himself to the point that the other inhabitants started to worry. Charles had tried to calm him down, to tell him that everything would be fine but Hank continued to lock himself away in the lab for hours on end.

Alex and Sean were trying to distract each other through training, games or simple conversation but more often than not they ended up in a fight. Everyone could hear them yelling at each other, arguing about anything from a small misunderstanding to huge topics like the upcoming battle. Fortunately, they were always quick to resolve these arguments but Charles worried nonetheless.

Even Erik was nervous, though he was excellent at hiding it. But Charles knew nonetheless and it wasn’t because of his telepathy, either. He had simply become an expert at reading his partner by now and knew the signs of Erik being nervous. He would push himself harder during training, would ask about the others’ progress in much more detail and would get lost in thought more often. Charles tried his best to calm Erik down, to distract him and to try and reassure him but he himself was not faring much better than everyone else.

He knew how high the stakes of this mission were, how the fate of the world depended on the outcome and he knew how powerful Shaw was. It only made him worry about his friends more. In the few weeks spent with them, Charles had come to love his teammates as though they were his family and the thought of them in danger sent his mind reeling with panic. But he’d be damned if he let anyone else see his fears. On the contrary, he kept reassuring his teammates, he kept going over the plans with them and distracted them. Yet, it was obvious that his efforts weren’t helping as much as he’d hoped they would.

“Sean, won’t you let me help you?”

“No, I’m fine.” Sean insisted and sat back down, now reaching past Erik to pour the sauce onto his noodles. “But thank you; I appreciate your help.”

“No problem at all.” Charles smiled comfortingly. “Now let me ask you one more time whether or not you have any questions regarding tomorrow.”

“No, Charles.” Raven answered, putting her fork down. “You asked us several times. It’s not the plan we worry about. It’s the strength of our opponents.”

“I know.” Charles sighed and looked at his sister. “But I’m sure that whatever comes our way, we will be able to deal with it. After all, we are good at adapting. How else would we have survived and made it this far?”

Much to Charles’ delight that made Alex chuckle. “Do we get genetics and evolutionary science lessons at the dinner table now?”

“No, I simply wanted to encourage you.”

“Thank you. Your efforts are nice and all but I’m still pretty nervous about tomorrow. And I think I’m not the only one. I mean Sean is practically shaking.”

“I’m nervous. When I’m nervous my hands shake.” Sean grumbled, rolling his eyes a little. “Leave them alone.”

“Them?” Hank chuckled at that. “Your hands?”

“Yes, ‘them’ means my hands.”

Erik smirked teasingly. “Do they have a mind of their own?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Magnet-Man?”

Raven began laughing now, too. “Didn’t we decide to call him Magneto?”

“We did.” Alex grinned. “But Magnet-Man sounds fine to me.”

“Oh, very funny, Alex.” Erik teased back. “You all pretend as if Magneto is exceptionally creative. All you did was put an ‘o’ at the end of the word ‘magnet’ and called it a day.”

“You’ll be using it in the future. Don’t lie to us.” Moira smirked which made Erik laugh.

“I will most certainly not.”

Charles leaned back in his chair and smiled, watching all of them teasingly argue with each other. At least for a few minutes, his friends seemed to be happy and distracted. It made Charles incredibly glad to see them laugh again, especially after he had spent the last few days watching them grow more terrified the minute. Now the telepath could only hope that his predictions about how the fight would go were correct.

---

But later that evening Charles realised that his hopes for his friends to have a calm night were not going to come true. He could sense their uneasiness and hear their fears, no matter how hard he tried to block them out.

Erik next to him turned to his side, throwing an arm over the telepath’s chest and burying his nose at Charles’ neck. It was surprising to Erik that Charles had never teased him about how ready he was to soak up any affection the telepath was willing to give. But in all honesty, Charles was simply glad to provide Erik with any affection he was willing to take. The metal bender had opened up to him during the past few weeks and Charles hoped that even after the impending fight was over, he would stick around. He reached up to run his fingers through Erik’s hair, making the man look up at him questioningly.

“Charles.” He whispered softly. “I’m not even a telepath and I can hear you overthinking. What’s wrong?”

“I know you aren’t a telepath but how can you not tell how terrified everyone else in the mansion is? Moira is still on the phone with the CIA, Hank is going through the plans yet again, Raven is pacing her room, Sean is crying and Alex is trying very hard not to cry, too.” Charles explained, still running his fingers through Erik’s hair. “Do you think we should try to talk to them?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t. They need some space and time to figure out their feelings themselves.” Erik explained softly, trying his best to be sensible about Charles’ feelings. “I know you want to protect them but you can’t protect them from their own fears, Charles. Sometimes people just need to deal with their emotions on their own.”

“I know you’re right but I still worry.”

They were quiet for a few moments, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain outside, the wind howling around the manor’s walls and Charles couldn’t help but think how fitting this weather was for a night like this. But he couldn’t stay quiet for much longer

“Are you scared?”

“Of course I am but as you said, we prepared well and the important thing is to work past our fear now so we can try to overcome it for the greater good.”

“Is the greater good the peace we could bring or your revenge on Shaw?”

Erik was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, his voice darker than before. “You know the answer to that, Charles.”

The telepath sat up at that, ever so gently pushing Erik off to get a proper look at him. Confusion flashed across Erik’s face as he sat up, too. And Charles sighed deeply, feeling his fears rise again. He knew that Erik wouldn’t stray from his plan and he understood why, but the thought of his partner endangering himself for his plans scared him.

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Erik, I don’t want you to end up in one of these graves. I love you.”

Erik sighed as he heard how tight Charles’ voice sounded, how close he must be to tears, yet how hard he was still trying to stay collected and optimistic. “Then help me, Charles. If you help me we will be able to finally rid this world of him together.”

“Listen to me very carefully, my friend: Killing Shaw will not bring you peace.”

“Peace was never an option.”

Charles got off the bed at that sentence, the tears in his eyes now overflowing as he began to quickly pull on his sweater. Erik seemed genuinely taken aback and got up after him, grabbing for his hand.

“Where are you going?”

Ignoring the tightness and obvious traces of fear in Erik’s voice, Charles turned to him. All the fear and hurt he’d held inside for the past few days was spilling out. He had tried his best to keep everyone optimistic, calm and together but no matter how hard he tried, he was failing. Everyone was frightened and he was failing them. He was failing his friend, letting him fall to his desires for revenge. And he was terrified of how things would end up for them.

“I’m going to my room. I understand your need for revenge, Erik, I really do. But you’ve become consumed by it. These thoughts of revenge are more important to you than any of the people in this house are. I thought we had grown closer, become a family. But I was wrong. Do you even care what would happen if something happened to you?”

Erik’s hand tightened around Charles’, now genuinely terrified of losing this man that loved him so dearly, that cared for him unconditionally. “Charles, you know that I need to do this! Nothing will--”

“Save it!” Charles pulled his hand free from Erik’s, tears cascading down his face as he shook his head. “You had the chance to be part of something bigger than yourself but you don’t care. Everyone in this house cares for you so deeply. They would do anything for you but you don’t care about anything other than your revenge. It will be your undoing and I cannot stand by and watch, Erik.”

With that, he left and Erik listened as he walked down the hallway to his own room. Charles was gone and Erik slowly moved back to his bed, sitting down on the edge of it and sighing deeply. The telepath would never understand his need for revenge, would never come close to understanding what Shaw took from him. And still, Erik felt guilty for how he’d handled this situation. It was clear that Charles was afraid, that he feared for Erik’s life and perhaps, the metal bender should have tried to calm those fears instead of arguing with him. Charles had always supported him, had saved his life and given him a home. And Erik felt horrible for not having been able to give him the same sense of security and hope back.

---

When Raven heard Charles’ door slam shut, she quietly tiptoed into the hallway, not keen on having her brother find her wandering around this late in the evening. She knew he was already worried enough so she went to Hank instead. After knocking on his door and getting no answer, she opened it slowly. Inside Hank was sitting at the table, various plans littering it. Raven cleared her throat and Hank winced visibly, startled by her sudden appearance.

“You startled me there.”

“Sorry.” Raven chuckled. “Are you still working on the plans?”

“I was.” Hank sighed and rubbed his face. “I think everything should work out now. Do you want to stay here for a while? You seem nervous.”

“I am but I’d love to stay with you.” She smiled before nodding toward the doors. “Should we maybe get ourselves some tea from the kitchen? I’m sure Charles had some teas that might calm our nerves.”

“Shouldn’t you know?” Hank chuckled. “You lived here.”

“But I have never been an avid tea-drinker.” Raven gave a short laugh before holding out a hand to Hank, flexing her fingers in invitation. “Come on, let’s go.”

Hank smiled at her and let himself be helped up and to his delight she kept their fingers interlocked as she led him down to the kitchen. Once there, Raven told him to sit and then went to work preparing some tea for both of them. Hank sat back and watched her, smiling to himself softly, happy about the opportunity to spend alone time with her.

“I really like you, Hank.” Raven said then, out of the blue. “I’m glad we met. When I’m with you, I feel appreciated for my talents, for my abilities and not for my looks. Most people I’ve met have only focused on my appearance but you compliment me on how interesting my mutation is or how good I am at fighting.”

“I think you’re the most interesting person I’ve ever met.”

“Even amid telepaths or metal-benders?”

“Even amid all the people in the world.”

“I wish more people would think so and see me for my inner worth, instead of being taken aback by my mutation -- even other mutants are taken aback by it.”

Hank nodded along to her words before giving her a soft smile. “I’ve been working on something that could potentially eliminate our physical mutations. Our abilities would stay but we would look more normal on the outside.”

Raven’s face fell into a frown though she seemed more thoughtful than upset. “So you do care about what I look like.”

“That’s not what I meant. You’ve expressed that you prefer--”

“Would you want me less if I looked like this?” With that, she changed into her natural form and gave him a questioning look. “Or do you prefer the other Raven?”

“I think you look beautiful either way.” Hank whispered before he sighed a little. “Yet, I think that people would accept us more if we looked more like them.”

“Lately I’ve been talking to Erik a lot, you know? And I’ve concluded that it shouldn’t matter what I look like as long as I can use my powers for something that will shape and change the world.” She said in confidence. “We’re stopping a war tomorrow. People should thank us for that, regardless of what we look like. They should care about what good we did.”

“Aren’t you scared of still being ostracised? What if they don’t care that we stopped a war because we are still different?”

Raven was quiet for a few seconds before she began to pour hot water into a mug, ignoring Hank’s question. “What tea do you want?”

Hank took that as his cue to stop talking about the topic. “I’ll have what you have.”

“Alright, then chamomile it is.” She smiled before turning to her friend with a much more serious expression. “Hank, do you think we will all still be together after the battle is over?”

“I hope we will.”

---

The rain was now pouring outside and Alex kept looking out the window, holding a sobbing Sean in his arms as he tried his best to focus on the trees outside and distract himself from his own tears. Mentally describing things had always helped him when he had to stop himself from crying – he hadn’t needed it often lately but it was still doing the trick. The wind was howling harder now and Alex had to admit that Sean’s sobs matched it quite well. He would have joked about it had his friend not been this distraught. They’d been talking, trying to find some distraction but Alex had made a comment that had sent Sean into a fit of sobs. Once more he tried to calm the ginger down, running a soothing hand up and down his back, the same way he’d seen Charles do it when Raven was distraught after the destruction of the CIA base.

“Sean, calm down.” He whispered for what felt like the hundredth time in the last half an hour. “You need to calm down.”

“How can I calm down?” The ginger sobbed out, his fear clear in his voice. “How can I calm down when you tell me you would literally die to protect me as if your survival is less important?”

“That’s not what I meant. I just wanted to assure you that I’d keep you safe.”

“I don’t want you to keep me safe!” Sean snapped and pulled back a little. And though he was now seemingly angry, Alex was glad that he wasn’t crying quite as hard anymore. “I want you to keep yourself safe so we can all go back home together!”

“I will keep myself safe.” Alex assured earnestly. “Somehow I always do.”

At that, Sean took a shuddering breath and nodded slowly, reaching up to wipe at his eyes. “Alex, will you promise me to watch out for yourself? Try to put yourself first just this one time.”

“I will do my best.” Alex said before putting a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “But for me to do that you need to promise that you will keep yourself safe, too.”

“I will and I’ll also do my best to protect you.”

“You’re not any better.” He chuckled, forcing his laughter past the lump in his throat as tears rose in his eyes. “I mean, you want me to put myself first and keep myself safe. Yet here you are, telling me that you’ll protect me like you’re not important?”

And despite his best efforts, he burst into tears on the last syllable. Sean gasped quietly in shock at seeing Alex start crying and quickly reached out to gather him in his arms, making quiet shushing sounds.

“Please don’t cry. That’s not what I meant, at all! Of course, I’ll look out for myself.” He promised, holding Alex’s head against his shoulder. “I just want you to know that if you are in danger, I will come to your aide.”

“Can we please just promise to watch out for ourselves, even when we’re trying to help each other?”

“That’s what I was trying to say.”

Alex chuckled at that, through tears and not nearly as lightheartedly as he usually did but it brought a smile to Sean’s face.

“I don’t want to come on too strong but I’m really glad to have you as my friend.” Sean said softly, a genuine smile on his lips. “I really like you. When this is all over, can we stay here? Together?”

“I’d actually really enjoy that. I’ve never been much of a team player but you guys and you, in particular, made me feel right at home.” Alex explained, looking back at Sean. “We’ll be fine and after tomorrow, we’ll help Charles with his school and just enjoy our days here.”

“Then let’s just stop worrying about tomorrow and instead look forward to the day after tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

“Good morning. I hope you’re all doing well.”

Charles looked around the kitchen of Westchester Manor. It was in the early morning hours of the 28th of October 1962 that they had all assembled there to prepare for the fight ahead. The telepath knew that all of them had passed rather tumultuous nights, full of fears, worries, fighting and tears. But he genuinely hoped that after this day, everyone would feel better and they could all focus on more positive things.

Raven sat at the table, running her finger along the edge of her cup nervously. After growing up with her, Charles had learned that she would always find something to fiddle around with when she was nervous. Next to her, Hank was looking through some files while absentmindedly drinking his coffee. Sean was slumped against Alex, his finger trembling ever so slightly as he poured both of them something to drink.

“I was pretty nervous but I think Hank and I managed to distract each other.” Raven explained but rolled her eyes at Alex’s grossed out expression. “We talked, you douche!”

Sean chuckled softly, setting the jug of juice down to give Charles a small thumbs up. “Alex and I managed to calm down eventually. We tired each other out.”

“Just as gross.”

“No, Raven, we literally just cried.”

“I know.” Charles smiled empathetically as he sat down across from them. “I was in the hallway after leaving Erik’s room and heard both of you crying. Do you need to talk about it or are you feeling better?”

“We’re feeling better.” Alex nodded and looked back at Charles. “But thanks.”

That’s when Erik entered the room and Charles visibly tensed up at his greeting, turning to give him a small welcoming smile. Erik held his gaze for a moment before walking up to the coffee machine. The telepath’s gaze followed Erik’s movements as a frown spread across his features. He wanted to apologize to the man and make up but on the other hand, he was still hurt by Erik’s apparent lack of care for the other inhabitants of the house and him.

“Trouble in paradise?” Raven asked tentatively. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before your different viewpoints clashed, especially with this fight approaching.”

Hank raised a shushing finger to his lips. “Do you have to ask about it so openly?”

“I was under the impression that my brother was all for openly speaking about problems.”

Charles turned and gave her a half-hearted smile. “I am but I don’t want any of you to worry about this. I can assure you that we will work this out on our own and that it will not impact our work.”

“Charles is right.” Erik nodded in agreement, moving toward the table. “This is a matter that concerns us, so we will deal with it.”

Then they all started eating breakfast. For the most part, it was quiet, almost uncomfortably so. Sean tried to joke around a few times to light the mood while Raven tried to distract everyone with questions about mundane topics but they quickly quieted down when no one seemed to enjoy these conversations at the moment. When everyone had finished breakfast they went to suit up. Down in the lab, Hank had laid out their suits and they all followed him so he could help them.

“Alex?” Sean had his arms stretched out as he looked at the other man. “Can you zip me up? The zipper is stuck.”

Alex eyed him and laughed at how the suit hung off the ginger’s frame. “No, I think this suits you even better. Maybe you should just try to fly with an unzipped suit.”

“So I can fall out of it and land in the ocean? No thanks!”

“Of course, I’ll help.” Alex said and walked over, helping the taller man zip up the suit. “There you go.”

“Thanks, you’re the best. So how do I look?”

“Surprisingly good given the ridiculous designs of the suits.”

“Very professional.”

Charles chuckled a little at Erik’s teasing as he watched the others and put on his gloves. Raven had suited up and so had Hank. Erik was in his suit, as well, currently closing the straps of it. Alex and Sean were ready.

“Is everyone about ready?” Charles asked as he looked around the room. “Moira says she’ll get us to the hangar and then accompany us.”

“We’re ready.”

“About that.” Sean piped up in between Erik and Charles. “I really need to pee.”

“I just helped you zip up!”

“I’m joking!” Sean laughed a little. “This suit would be an ordeal to get off.”

“It’s also an ordeal to get on.” Raven chuckled, pulling the zipper a little lower. “And I actually hate things that have a turtleneck on them.”

“You hate things that have a turtleneck on them? You mean Erik?”

“Exceptional humour.”

“No!” Raven snorted at Alex’s joke and Erik’s complaint. “I meant on clothes I wear!”

Sean was now laughing in the background, slightly doubling over. “Alex, stop! If you keep making me laugh I might actually need to use the bathroom and then you’ll have to unzip this suit for me because these zippers suck.”

“The zippers are perfectly functional!” Hank joked. “I really don’t understand what issues you all are having with them.”

Charles piped up at that, reaching down to unzip the zipper on his thigh before zipping it back up. “Are these zippers on the thighs serving any function or are they just an aesthetic feature?”

“Will you all stop making fun of the suits I made?” Hank exclaimed jokingly. “They are flight suits designed to withstand extreme g-forces! Havok and Banshee’s suits were designed to work in perfect tandem with their powers.”

“Havok and Banshee.”

Raven grinned as Sean repeated the names Hank had used. “We have to use our codenames now, Sean!”

“Magneto is still not really creative.” Erik mumbled, making Charles chuckle.

“As if you won’t go on using it.”

And to Charles’ great joy, Erik gave him an amused smile. The telepath figured that he could perhaps try to talk out their issues on the flight to Cuba. He gave Erik one more look, silently asking if he was ready to which the other man nodded. Charles then looked back at his friends.

“I suggest we leave now.”

---

It took Charles some mental convincing to muster up the courage to confront Erik once more. The last thing he wanted was to agitate the man any further – he felt how important this day was for Erik. And he didn’t want another argument to start, either. But he felt as though he needed to talk about their fight sooner rather than later. So while everyone else was distracted, Charles went over to Erik who was busy storing their weapons in a crate at the back of the jet.

“Erik, may I talk to you?”

“That depends.” The metal bender commented as he closed the crate. “Do you want to continue arguing with me? Will you accuse me of being selfish again?”

“Erik, I’m sorry for accusing you of being selfish.” Charles sighed deeply, taking a seat on the crate Erik was kneeling in front of. “My emotions got the better of me and what I said was out of line. I worry about you tremendously and I worry about what would happen to us should you be killed.”

Erik looked at Charles for a long time before he answered. “I won’t be killed.”

“We need you, Erik.” Charles insisted, ignoring Erik’s statement. “I need you.”

“You need me?”

“I do.” The telepath admitted, reaching out to take Erik’s hand, once more initiating physical contact. “I love you, Erik. All I want is for you to be happy, but I saw how you were fueling your powers through nothing but anger for so long and I’ve stood by while you suffered with your emotions. I don’t want you to suffer and I don’t want you to die, Erik.”

“Charles, I promise you that I will be fine.” The other man insisted before sighing deeply. “But I need to do this.”

“When I first met you I told you that you weren’t alone. I still stand by what I said. You are not alone and if this is really what you need to do then I will have your back.” Charles promised, squeezing Erik’s hand tightly. “You have me for as long as you need me. But I do need you, as well.”

“How can you promise me that you will have my back even if our views clash so harshly? Wasn’t last night a testament to what will happen if we disagree?” Erik stared down at their hands, not moving even an inch. “You can’t possibly promise me these things.”

“I may not be able to help you with all your plans, depending on the means you choose to meet your ends, but I can promise you that I will always be there for you.”

“Charles--”

“I’m not trying to sway your mind or make you feel guilty. I just feel that before this fight starts I need to tell you how much you mean to me. I need you and I trust you completely. And I hope I conveyed how much I trust you by how I confided in you and how I’ve opened up to you. I think what I’m trying to say is that I need you just as much as I know you need me. Do you understand?”

“I think I do.” Erik nodded and squeezed Charles’ hand. “I won’t abandon you, Charles. My revenge on Shaw has nothing to do with you. Once he is dead, we will go on to protect our own kind -- you and me, together.

“Together.”

Chapter Text

“I can make arrangements for you two to be sent back home.”

Charles watched from the hospital bed as Alex stopped looking through the cards on the bedside table to stare at him in complete shock while Sean stood up from his chair in an instant, so quickly that it made him flinch with how much it hurt his broken ribs. Even Hank gave Charles a look of complete incomprehension. They’d come to visit Charles in the hospital – or more precisely, Alex and Hank had because Sean had still not been discharged.

“Charles, what are you even talking about?”

“Alex, there is no way I can build a school now.” Charles said in defeat and Alex could see the tears gathering in his eyes. “Not only did I lose the ability to walk, but I also lost my sister and Erik. How can I even-- I can’t do it without them.”

The three watched in shock as Charles, who had always been smiling, optimistic and comforting, began to cry in earnest, tears running down his cheeks and sobs wracking his body. The heart monitor still connected to his index finger by a clip began beeping faster and Hank jumped into action, stepping up next to him to put a calming hand on his shoulder, fumbling over his words in the hopes of comforting his friend.

“I can’t even imagine how painful this must all be for you but-- but you can still do this. You can still help those-- You can still help other mutants!”

“No.” Charles managed to get out between heavy sobs, shaking his head as he desperately tried to convey his feeling. “I can’t do all of this alone!”

“You are not alone!”

Alex and Hank turned to Sean at his outburst, watching as he held his chest in pain, the yelling having moved his broken ribs way too much. Even Charles looked up slowly, eyes still teary but his sobs lessening as he stared at Sean in surprise.

“You are not alone.” Sean repeated, quieter now as he supported himself on the frame of Charles’ bed. “For weeks you’ve been telling us that we’re a team and that we’re not alone. You’ve promised us to have our back, so why shouldn’t we have yours?”

Alex snapped out of his stupor and nodded quickly. “He’s right. We went through a lot together. You think we’ll just abandon you because you’re injured or-- or because you have doubts or because-- because of your grief?”

“Really for someone so smart and renowned, you’re being pretty dumb.”

Hank wanted to give Sean a glare for that last statement but when he heard Charles start to laugh, he quickly backed down, instead turning to his friend who was now holding his stomach as his laughter rang out through the room. Alex took a relieved breath and Sean grinned proudly.

“What? I’m right and I should say it!” Sean chuckled, rounding the bed to sit down at the foot of it. “We’re a family, Charles. You’re like our overprotective, overbearing but caring older brother. We’d never just leave you.”

Charles reached up to wipe his tears with the pad of his thumb before nodding his head slowly. “Thank you. But please do not feel obligated to stay with me. You owe me nothing. I helped you because I wanted to, not--”

“We know!” Alex exclaimed and shook his head. “You helped because you wanted to help, but we’re staying because we want to stay.”

Hank sighed then and sat down on the chair next to the bed. “This will be hard for all of us and especially for you; there’s no denying it. It’ll take some time to come to terms with everything that has happened and it will take a while to get used to not being able to walk, no doubt, but we’ll be there for you because you’re always there for us.”

“If you don’t stop, I’m going to cry again.”

“Please don’t. I think the nurses outside were already freaking out the first time until they saw that we were already comforting you.” Hank joked softly. “The heart monitor is still connected to you, after all.”

“What would happen if you masturbated while connected to it?” Sean mused and Alex gave him a weirded out look. “What? It’s a valid question!”

“Can he even-- You know, get hard still? How much can you feel?”

“Believe it or not, masturbating in a hospital room has not been the first thing on my agenda after they told me I would never be able to walk again.” Charles joked dryly, leaning back in his bed once. “But I haven’t lost all sensation below the waist, just most of it.”

Hank put a hand onto Charles’ arm then. “We stick together, alright?”

“Thanks.” Charles nodded before looking over at the cards and flowers he had been gifted. “I really appreciate all of you being there for me and I care about you so much, please never doubt that. I just can’t believe Erik and Raven are gone.”

“Honestly, neither can we.” Alex admitted, leaning onto the bed frame and looking over at the cards, too. “It’s strange not having them around.”

“It’s not just strange, it’s so-- I feel so empty without them.” Charles mused, absentmindedly stroking over the edge of his blanket. “My childhood was lonely before Raven came along. We grew up together, we’ve experienced a whole childhood together and now she’s just gone. I have no idea if she’ll ever come back.”

Sean’s face fell at that and he swallowed. “It probably sounds dumb because I have six siblings but I’ve been pretty lonely throughout my childhood, too. The one constant I had, my best friend from school, moved away when we were both ten years old. It’s really hard when someone who’s been with you for so long just leaves and you lose contact with them.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Sean.”

“What I’m trying to say is that I totally get where you’re coming from and that your feelings are like, totally valid.”

“Eloquent.” Alex snorted and smiled when Charles gave a little laugh. “I think once your school is up and running, you ought to give Sean over there some literature classes.”

“I’m being sensible!”

“Sensibility? Who are you? Jane Austen?”

That got a genuine laugh from Charles who was not looking back at his friends. “Raven loved those books when she was small. I used to read them to her a lot.”

“Would you look at that? Raven is probably more eloquent than Sean, too.”

“You all suck, do you know that?” Sean chuckled and leaned against the bed frame at the foot of the bed. “Hey, Charles, did they say when you can go home?”

Charles shook and leaned forward to check the papers on the bedside table. “They say they need to run a few more tests. But you can all stay in the manor for as long as you need to. Once I’m discharged I’ll be right there with you, again.”

“Then we’ll start with the preparations for the school, right?”

“Right.” Hank nodded at Sean before picking up one of the cards from the bedside table. Moira had dropped it off, though sadly she hadn’t been able to see Charles because at the time he’d been with a physical therapist and she hadn’t had much time to stay. “We should call her soon, shouldn’t we? She’s probably wondering about your plans for the school. Or did you talk to her about it, already?”

“No, I didn’t.” Charles took the card and scanned it before smiling. “But you’re right. We should contact her. Not just because of the school, but also because she probably worries about us.”

“That sounds like a good plan.” Hank nodded in agreement. “So we get the manor ready for the students, ask for Moira’s help in getting the CIA to back us up and then go recruiting students, am I right?”

“Yes.”

“Charles?” Alex piped up, voice a little subdued. “I’ve heard a few people in the hospital talking about the war now and it got me thinking that Sean and I could be drafted, too. I mean you and Hank aren’t at risk because of your work and I think your age, too. But Sean and I could still be drafted.”

Charles looked up at Alex, face contorting into a frown. “I will look into it and see if there is a way that the two of you could be exempt from the draft, though right now I can’t come up with a reason to.”

“Maybe if they were teaching at the school.” Hank mused. “With Moira’s help, the school could be backed and funded by the CIA. She has already related the events on Cuba to them and as far as I know, they believe that we are on their side. So perhaps they can help. We will think about it.”

“Thank you.”

Sean looked around the room before smiling at Charles. “How about we talk about something else for now? The hospital food is kind of gross, isn’t it?”

“Sean, this isn’t a bad stand-up comedy show.” Alex chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back against the bed. “Are you forcing Charles to listen to your comedy routine now because he’s still on bed rest and can’t escape?”

Charles laughed at that, letting himself fall back against the pillow dramatically. “I guess there is nothing I can do but listen to his comedic genius now.”

“I was trying to change the topic!”

“There are better topics of conversation.” Hank commented, looking back at Sean.

“Oh, really like what?”

“The wheater?”

“That’s worse!”

Charles leaned back, listening to his friends bicker and he couldn’t help but smile. Things were still horrible. He had still lost his ability to walk, his sister and Erik. But he had Hank, Sean and Alex. And for that, he was unbelievably thankful.

Chapter Text

It had been over a year since that fateful day on Cuba and a new fall had rolled over the country, bringing along warm autumn days and the changing colours of the leaves. Everything seemed so peaceful that Charles felt almost optimistic that things would finally work out the way he was hoping they would. Even with months full of appointments, doctor’s visits, planning and meetings with the CIA, his evenings tended to be spent in the manor with his friends. It was almost as it had been before Cuba.

But Charles knew things would never be the same again and he tried his best to not let that discourage him. After all, he told himself he should be grateful for how well his plans for the school were shaping up. With Moira’s help, they had been able to convince the CIA that Charles and his team were on their side, that they had risked their lives to stop the impending war and that they merely wanted to help. The CIA had eventually agreed to back the school up by offering them protection. That knowledge was a great relief for Charles because previous to Moira’s work he’d been worried about how to keep the school and its future students safe. Now the manor had been prepared to welcome the first students, rooms furnished for them to stay in and Charles was tracking down young mutants through Cerebro.

Yet, while on the outside everything seemed to be working out fine, it was obvious that the inhabitants of the manor were struggling. Charles was still grieving, mourning his past and the loved ones he had lost. Hank was uncertain of how to help and had decided to not speak up on any of those serious topics, especially after they’d not been talked about for so long. Sean and Alex were trying to hurry the opening of the school along now that the drafting lottery had begun, afraid of being chosen and hoping that against all odds a teaching position would save them. And despite his own struggles, Charles was trying what he could to keep his friends with him.

It was on another sunny day in late June that Sean and Alex were in the living room, sitting on the windowsill and talking away when Charles wheeled himself into the room, coming to a stop next to them. He couldn’t help but smile to himself as he saw how much more relaxed and happy they were now that the fight on Cuba was behind them. And he swore to himself that he’d do anything in his power to keep them with him.

“I hope you two are ready to go on the recruiting visit today. Hopefully taking you two with me will convince the kids that I can actually help them as I helped you.”

Sean let his head fall back against the wall as he looked back at Charles. “That was today? Wasn’t it tomorrow?”

“It was today, Sean.” Charles chided affectionately. “I told you to write it down.”

“I don’t write these things down.” Alex snorted. “I’m not an old man like you.”

“Writing important things down in a planner makes me an old man?” Charles asked in amusement, raising an eyebrow at Alex. “I’d say it makes me dependable if anything!”

“Well, whether it makes you old or dependable, we still have to go, right?”

“Yes, you do.” Charles crossed his arms and looked at the two expectantly. “Just because you forget doesn’t mean you don’t have to come!”

Sean shrugged and pushed himself off the windowsill, righting his sweater while Alex begrudgingly got up. Charles gave them a please smile before setting out for the door and the two young men followed him. After all, they really wanted to get the school up and running as soon as possible – for themselves and Charles, too.

Thus, they set out to the house of the two twin girls they’d be inviting to the school that day. And everything went great until the only thing left to do was convince the parents to let their kids move into the school because they were unsure if their children should go to a boarding school but Charles was trying to assure them that it was simply until they wouldn’t endanger anyone anymore. While Charles was discussing the curriculum and the housing situations with the parents Alex and Sean were keeping the twins occupied by playing with them in the garden.

“You’re just as tall as my big brother David!” The older twin, Hazel, laughed happily as she looked up at Sean. “He always helped me reach the monkey bars when playing in the garden!”

“Really?” Sean chuckled, crouching down to get on eye-level with the girl. “Would you like me to help you reach them?”

“No, I can do it myself now!” Hazel said proudly and pointed at the bars. “Watch!”

She sprinted to the monkey bars before climbing up the steps and jumping to reach the bars. Alex watched in amusement as Sean flinched at her jump but then clapped when the girl managed to grab onto the bars and began to make her way across them.

“That’s amazing!”

Hazel kept going and jumped off at the end of them. “See? I don’t need anyone to help me and I don’t have to be super tall to reach them, either!”

“That’s right.” Alex had been busy playing Cat’s Cradle with the other twin, Maeve, but had now lowered the string in his hands to grin up at his friend. “You’re right, though. Sean is really tall. But he’s also very clumsy.”

“I’m not clumsy!”

“Just this morning you were standing in the kitchen and tripped without even walking.” Alex laughed, making the girls giggle. “You are definitely clumsy.”

Maeve doubled over in laughter and her sister joined in. “David is also really clumsy! He always drops everything and keeps tripping over his own feet.”

“Where is David? I haven’t seen him around.” Sean mused, looking back at the house. “Did he move away for college or is he at work?”

The girls quieted down at that, Hazel slowly moving over to her sister and Maeve looking down. Sean and Alex shared a worried glance, both contemplating whether or not to say anything. But Maeve spoke up before they could, explaining the situation.

“No.” She whispered sadly, not meeting their eyes. “He had to go fight in the war. Two months ago Hazel and I turned ten and just two days later, he had to go because he was nineteen. Mommy said that a lot of big brothers have to go fight in the war.”

“Uh-huh.” Hazel nodded at that. “Three big brothers from other kids in our class had to leave with David, too.”

“You two are really lucky that you don’t have to go, yet.” Maeve looked back up at Sean and Alex then. “I wish David was that lucky.”

Both Alex and Sean fell quiet at that. The ginger looked at the girls sadly and Alex swallowed a little, trying to not let his unease show. Their numbers could come up soon, as well. Even though Alex hoped that against all odds their teaching positions would allow them to stay at home, he also knew that could only happen once the school was actually open and running. That was also why Charles and Hank were hurrying the opening of the school along so much.

“Don’t worry about him too much.” Sean was the first to speak, making everyone look at him. “I’m sure he’ll come home soon. And when he does he’ll be so happy to see you again.”

“I miss him.”

“I can totally understand that.” Sean said as he once more crouched down in front of Hazel. “I have siblings, too. But they are very far away and I rarely ever see them. I mean we were never really that close but I totally get what it’s like to miss your siblings. Missing them is good, though, because it means you love them.”

“Sean, do you think David will come back?” Hazel whispered and wrapped her arms around Sean’s forearm. “I’m scared he won’t.”

Sean began patting her back comfortingly while he looked at Alex for help. Luckily, Alex chimed in, leaning forward on the bench he’d been sitting on to face Hazel.

“I totally understand why you worry about David, buddy. What he’s doing right now can be really scary, huh?” Hazel nodded and Marve agreed quietly, grabbing for Alex’s arm in fear. “We always worry about the people we love, but you know what? They would do anything to come back to us and I’m sure David will do anything to come back to you two.”

“You’re right. He promised he’d be back soon!”

“See?” Alex looked at Maeve with a comforting smile. “And I’m sure your brother isn’t going to break his promise, is he?”

“No way!” Hazel exclaimed in agreement, letting go of Sean’s arm before looking up at him. “Hey, can we play a board game?”

“Sure thing!”

---

The next day started with Sean and Alex in the ginger’s room, lying on the bed and talking quietly. The visit had been a success and the twins’ parents had agreed to let them transfer to the school after Thanksgiving break. Charles had been delighted and both Sean and Alex could tell how much this meant to him, how much the possibility of being able to help others again lightened his spirits. They themselves were happy, relieved that soon the school would be up and running with more students yet to come. Charles had found lots of young mutants all over the country and this visit had just been the start. Still, worry was gnawing on Sean’s mind and he couldn’t help but fear that their number would come up before they could start teaching.

“Do you think we’ll get the school running before we get drafted?” Sean whispered, looking over at Alex. “I mean, I’m terrified of fighting for one, but I also heard that they do terrible things once they find out you’re a mutant. I heard that they experiment on you, cut you open and try to figure out how to use your genes to further their own goals.”

“Where did you hear things like that?” Alex looked down at the other man, a frown appearing on his face. “Sean, we’ll be alright. Charles is doing everything he can to get the school running as soon as possible and we made another big step toward that goal today. The twins are just the start. Soon this place will be bustling with children and we’ll even have the CIA to back us up. And then we’ll be fine.”

Sean nodded quietly and sighed. “But if we do get drafted, do you think we can stay together? Can you try and stay by my side? I don’t know if I can do it alone.”

“If I can, I will stay by your side.” Alex said gently though he knew that they could just as easily be separated. “Besides you’re so clumsy, I couldn’t possibly leave you alone.”

“I’m not even that clumsy!” Sean chuckled before closing his eyes. “Okay, let’s talk about something else. What was your dream job as a kid?”

“When I was a small boy I really wanted to be a pilot and fly a fighter jet at least once in my life.” Alex chuckled before a frown overtook his features. “Now I just hope I never have to see one up close in real life.”

“When I was a little kid I wanted to become a singer.” Sean explained with a smile, opening his eyes to look up at Alex again. “We had a nanny and she was probably so annoyed by me singing all the time but she always told me how good I was.”

“Is she still with your family?”

“Yes, she’s taking care of my younger siblings. You know what I loved as a kid?”

“No. How would I know?” Alex laughed. “I met you like a year ago.”

“I loved to ride my bicycle. It was the one thing my brother and I used to do together. But once I hit a root while riding through the woods and hurt my leg really badly.” He recounted, looking up at Alex still. “My brother Aidan had to carry me home and we went to the hospital immediately. Turned out my leg was broken and my mother was so angry because we rode the bikes through the woods. For days she went on about how she had warned us not to ride the bikes there.”

“I loved to play soccer.” Alex said before chuckling. “One time when I was the goalie, I caught a ball with my face and that’s how I lost my first baby tooth. But the other kids were so excited that I caught the ball that I barely even felt the pain of being hit square in the face.”

“My brother once insisted that he could kick a tin can off my head with a soccer ball and had me standing in the garden, balancing one on my head.” Sean laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared.”

“Not even now?” Alex teased gently. “You could go to war but that is, of course, nothing compared to you getting a ball kicked at your head.”

“I wanted to distract us from the topic of war and you bring it up.” Sean chided softly, poking Alex’s side accusingly. “Can we talk about literally anything else?”

“Hey, Sean?”

“Yes?”

“How the hell do you trip while standing and doing nothing?”

---

Meanwhile, Charles was setting up the room he had prepared for Maeve and Hazel. Like most of the rooms in the manor it had been furnished with two beds, a wardrobe, two nightstands, some desk space and a few decorations. Moira had helped Charles with the interior design, happy that he was readying the school for the upcoming students. The twins had been given a list of necessities to bring and told that they could pack any toys or decorations that they wanted.

And while Charles was sure they would prefer to bring their own toys, he still wanted to provide the twins with some of his old ones should they not have any to pack. Thus he ventured into the storage room on the third floor. It was a repurposed guest room full of boxes. Charles had been planning to simply dig up some of his old board games or childhood toys to bring down for his future students but he stopped all he had been doing when he found an old box labelled as ‘Raven’.

Gently, he lifted the box into his lap, a soft smile appearing on his face as he opened it. The box was filled with some of the things she’d used to play with. Charles scanned the items inside, nostalgia clouding his mind as he took out the dolls she’d played with when she had been younger before he caught sight of the fake doctor’s kit she had loved when she had gotten a bit older.

Charles could remember the time he’d been sick in bed, alone and upset about it. Why he had even hoped that his parents would have done more for him than simply getting him medicine and leaving him to rest was now beyond him but as a child, he had been really upset about it. But Raven had come to him in the afternoon and had pretended to take care of him. She had spent the rest of the day testing his reflexes with a little hammer and pretending to listen to his lungs with the fake stethoscope. And despite his sickness, Charles had played along, distracted and happy about Raven caring.

As he dug further he found the metallic yoyo that had belonged to Charles before he’d gifted it to Raven. She had spent hours practising with it. He found an unsolved Rubik’s cube and immediately remembered the time Raven had played with it on a rainy afternoon just to immediately give up on it when Charles had invited her to play with him.

His nostalgia only got heavier when he got past the toys and found old drawings of hers. They ranged from simplistic and childlike drawings of her and Charles to artistic sketches from when she’d been older. Charles had to chuckle when he realised how the birds had evolved from wriggled lines to detailed life-like pencil sketches.

Charles couldn’t ignore the tears gathering in his eyes as he stared down at a drawing of him and Raven, holding hands in a garden full of wriggle-lined birds and colourful flowers. Alone in the storage room, he allowed the tears to fall, his grief overtaking all other feelings as he clutched the drawing to his chest.

He truly missed her. But he also knew that he did the right thing in letting her go. Even if he was mourning her departure and desperately longed to at least talk to her just once, he knew that he shouldn’t contact her. She needed to live on her own now. All her life, Raven had lived by Charles’ side and her need for freedom was understandable. Still, he wished he could see her smile once more, could hear her laughter one more time and could speak to her again.

Charles only stopped looking through the box when Hank called out for him to come downstairs. He told him he’d be down in a few minutes and began to stack the boxes away, intending to get them downstairs later that day. After folding up Raven’s drawing and tucking it into his pocket, he wheeled out of the room and locked the door once more. Then he made his way to the kitchen.

But what he saw when he arrived in the kitchen stopped him in his tracks, arms falling to the side as he took in the terrified faces of Sean and Alex. Dread spread through his body as he approached them, fearing that he already knew what was going on.

“What happened?”

“We got a draft notice.” Alex said weakly, waving a letter around. “We’re to report for induction in three days. If we are found fit for fighting we’ll be drafted.”

“Both of us.”

“We’ll have to fight in Vietnam. We have to go to war.”

Charles felt his heart drop into his stomach. The two young men that he had come to know and love like brothers were supposed to fight in a war. And he couldn’t shake off the feeling that it was due to his failure of opening up the school fast enough.

Chapter Text

Sean and Alex passed their examinations. They were deemed fit to fight and so they were preparing to leave on Monday, in three days' time. And Charles could feel their fears, their worries. It was Friday afternoon when Charles had been working that he felt a particularly huge projection of Alex’s fear, full of flashing images of fighting and being experimented on because he was a mutant.

Hank had persisted on it not being Charles’ fault but nonetheless, the man felt as though it was. Alex and Sean trusted him and he had failed them. It wouldn’t have been the best solution but perhaps a teaching position in a school protected by the CIA could have kept them at home. But he hadn’t been fast enough.

Now there was nothing he could do about it, at least not alone. For the better part of the week, since the report for induction had come in, he had contemplated calling Erik. It had been in a moment of weakness when he had been sorting through his papers and found a few photos he had taken of him and the two younger men during their training for Cuba, that he had written a letter to Erik. It had been sent to an address Moira had found though she had made it clear that Erik might have already relocated. Charles had felt her guilt about those words.

Erik had never answered his letter, so Charles had decided to call him on every number that he could possibly connect to the other mutant. But each time he’d been told that the person on the other end knew no one with the name Erik Lehnsherr. Hank had been telling him to use Cerebro which Charles had been against at first -- he had promised Erik to never enter his mind again.

Charles had always been someone Erik had trusted. From the first time they’d met, over countless road trips, nights spend in each other’s arms to their deep conversations over a game of chess, Charles had known that Erik had trusted him. Erik had trusted him enough to invite him into his mind more than once. But then he had put on the helmet and effectively blocked out the telepath. Even still he loved Erik very dearly. Charles had spent so many days, roaming the halls of the manor and wishing to see Erik’s face behind every turn he took. But with every corner he had rounded and with every time the metal bender had not been there, his hope of seeing him again had faded more and more.

He still loved Erik.

And before Cuba, Erik had often talked about how much he cared about the inhabitants of the manor so Charles hoped that perhaps he could help. Charles had to contact him -- he had to try. Not for himself but for Sean and Alex – or at least that was what he told himself. He found Hank rather easily in his room, sitting by the fire and reading.

“Hank, would you help me with Cerebro?”

“You want to contact Erik.”

“Please don’t misunderstand my request. I don’t want to contact him for my own selfish desires, even though you can probably tell that I miss him. I need his help. We need to find a way to keep Sean and Alex here with us.” Charles then sighed softly. “I try not to think about it and I would never tell it to the two of them but through Moira, I’ve heard how some units experiment on mutants and I cannot bear to have that happen to Sean and Alex.”

“You think Erik can help?”

“I think we can find a solution together.”

Hank smiled at him comfortingly and stood up, putting a warm hand on Charles’ shoulder. “I would help you even if you wanted to contact him purely because you miss him. I can see how much you do, Charles. It’s very selfless of you to push that aside to help Alex and Sean.”

“We need his help, Hank.” Charles whispered. “My feelings for Erik would just complicate everything and we can’t risk that right now.”

“You need to stop pushing your own feelings aside to help others.”

---

Meanwhile, Alex was busy packing his duffle bag while Sean sat curled up on his bed, watching his movements intently. Eventually, Alex decided to address his friend’s staring and turned to him.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Do you think we’ll be able to still stay together?”

“I hope we won’t get separated but I really can’t promise you anything, Sean.” Alex whispered mournfully, guilt gnawing at his heart as Sean’s face fell. “I’m so sorry, Shay, but I can’t lie to you. I will try to stay by your side but I don’t think they care much for friendship or family at the moment.”

“Yeah, I doubt it.” Sean said and got up before leaning his head against Alex’s shoulder, sighing miserably. “We just stopped fighting. We just won the fight against Shaw and now we have to fight again.”

Alex nodded along before he turned and slung an arm around Sean’s shoulders. “It’s unfair, I know. We shouldn’t have to fight for these conflicts but I doubt there’s a way to escape it now.”

“I’m so scared.” Sean whispered and Alex could hear the strain in his voice. “I don’t want to die and I don’t want you to die. I don’t want to get experimented on. All I want is to help Charles with the school and live my life with you and this little family.”

“I can only second that.” The blond commented. “But we have to be strong now, alright? And we’ll get through this. We’ll go to Vietnam because we have to, we’ll fight and then when the war is over we come back and make those dreams come true.”

Sean looked up at Alex, a few tears slipping down his face. “Do you think we can do that? Do you think we can come back here once we return?”

“Just think of having to go to war as a setback.” Alex whispered, trying to calm Sean down and realising how much he hated seeing his friend upset. “How much longer could the war possibly go on for? Instead of starting our lives here now, we’ll just have to wait a bit longer.”

“It’s just a setback.” Sean whispered, repeating Alex’s words. “We’ll just get to all of our plans once we get back.”

“This is not the end of our plans and our future.” Alex said firmly. “We still have our dreams and our families and our friends. And we’ll see them all again and start our lives for real. We’ll just have to wait a little longer.”

“Our dreams are still unthreatened.” Sean nodded and looked up at his friend with a small smile. “What was it we said before the fight with Shaw? We should stop worrying about tomorrow and start looking forward to the day after tomorrow.”

“Exactly and the same applies now. How about I finish packing tomorrow? How about for now we just have some fun and try to distract ourselves? What do you want to do?”

“We could go outside and explore the estate a bit more. We haven’t had much time to do it before.”

“That’s a good idea.” Alex said before he began laughing. “Maybe we can find out where Charles keeps all those mannequins he used when training me. I know you’ve been trying to find out where he kept getting them from.”

“That’s a good idea.”

---

Meanwhile, Charles was getting desperate. No matter how hard he tried and how far he reached, he couldn’t reach Erik. And deep down he knew it must have been because Erik didn’t want to be contacted. He must still be wearing his helmet, effectively blocking Charles off. With a sigh of frustration and desperation, Charles put the cap down and ran his hand through his hair.

“I can’t reach Erik!”

“It’s alright. We’ll just change the setting and try it again.” Hank said encouragingly, desperately trying to cheer his friend up though he saw how close Charles was to giving up after trying for almost two hours. “I must have set it up wrong.”

But Charles knew that was not the case. Hank had built Cerebro and knew every button, nook and cranny on the machine. It was highly unlikely he’d set it up wrong. The settings weren’t the problem when it came to finding Erik. The problem was that Erik didn’t want to be found. Still, Hank tried again, reasoning that it was hard to calculate the reach the machine had to have since they didn’t know where Erik had relocated to and that it was therefore likely that he might have set something up incorrectly. But whether or not that was a lie, it motivated Charles to try again. He put the cap back on and Hank gave him an encouraging smile.

“Alright, try it again. I set the reach to a much bigger radius. If Erik is anywhere in the States, you should be able to locate him.”

Charles nodded before closing his eyes, wandering through thousands of minds until he almost laughed in relief when he felt himself brush against Erik’s all too familiar mind and realised that his old love was still in the country. He wasted no time trying to talk to him.

“Erik, love, please hear me out. I’m not contacting you for any selfish reason. We need--” He stopped abruptly and opened his eyes, slowly reaching up to take the cap back off. “He’s gone. He must have put that damn helmet of his on. We’ve lost him and I’m sure he’ll keep the helmet on for a while now because he knows we can reach him.”

“What do we do now?”

“I don’t know.” Charles admitted and shook his head. “All we can do is start the school as soon as we can and then try to get Alex and Sean back home with the explanation that we need their help for training.”

“We should try that. Maybe Moira can help us out. She managed to get the CIA to back us up, after all. With her on our side, we can get them back soon.” Hank said encouragingly and put a hand on Charles’ back. “You know this is not your fault, right?”

“It feels like it’s my fault, though.” Charles looked up. “I was supposed to protect them and I failed. It took too long to open the school, to get all the plans worked out and to get the CIA to help us. Had I been faster, none of this would have happened.”

“You had your own problems to deal with.” Hank said softly, looking at his friend with a worried frown. “You had so many doctor’s appointments, and physical therapy and you dealt with the pain of losing your sister, your ability to walk and your partner. And still, you never stopped trying. You still did your best to get the school up and running as fast as possible.”

“I know that, Hank. I still can’t help but feel that this is my fault.”

“Charles--”

“Your fault?”

Both Charles and Hank turned to find Sean and Alex at the door. The ginger was staring at them in shock while his friend crossed his arms and shook his head in disbelief. Charles was about to speak up but Sean was quicker.

“Charles, this is not your fault. I mean, we saw you try your best day after day, no matter how you felt yourself. It was bad luck that our numbers were picked. You tried your best.”

“Really, Charles, we don’t blame you. We just hope that once we can go back home, we’ll be able to come back here and help with the school.” Alex nodded in agreement, earning himself a gently smile from Charles.

“You are always welcome here. This is your home as much as it is my home.”

Chapter Text

A month after Sean and Alex’s departure, they received a letter from them, stating that special task forces had arrived to filter out mutants but that they would be fine.

Two months after their departure, Alex wrote them a letter stating that they had gotten separated but that he was still in contact with Sean and that they were both alright, safe and healthy.

Three months after Sean and Alex’s departure, Charles was ready to open up his school and reach out to more potential students. He had been in close contact with Moira who had been tirelessly working on keeping everything up to the CIA’s standards. Charles was thankful to have Moira at their side, not only because she was their contact to the CIA and fought for them, but because she was also a lovely friend to have around. The letter’s from Sean and Alex had started getting sparse with weeks in between them. One of the letters from Alex had stated that they had reunited but now he would be transferred across the country to a different training site.

Five months after their departure, the letters had altogether stopped and though Charles worried about the implications of this stop carried with it, Hank tried to assure him that there might be an entirely harmless reason for the loss of contact, such as issues with the postal service or a letter getting lost. But no matter how hard he tried, his friend wouldn’t let his mind be soothed so easily.

The fact that around seven months after the two men had been drafted, both Sean’s father and Alex’s mother separately reached out to Charles, asking whether or not he had any information on their children, only made his worries grow. These instances made him realise that no one had heard of either of the two young men in months. Fortunately, he and Hank still managed to finish preparations for the school.

Eight months after Sean and Alex had left, potential students started applying to the school, leading to a lot of recruitment visits from Charles and Hank. The two of them stuck together throughout it all, having each other’s backs and helping the other during the recruitments. Charles was grateful that Hank had stayed by his side throughout everything, his recovery, his grief, the recruitments, the draft and all their troubles.

Eleven months later there was not a single student attending the school. And it wasn’t due to a lack of applications or interest. Hank tried to get to the bottom of why Charles hadn’t been sending out the acceptance letters to the students they had visited but in the end, he decided to not push his friend. Charles was having a terribly hard time, blaming himself for his friends being drafted, not to mention his still everpresent grief over losing Erik and Raven. Hank deemed it better to wait and not confront Charles about the delay.

But Moira didn’t seem to agree. Because one morning she simply showed up at their doorsteps, boxes of paperwork and envelopes in her arms. After being asked inside, she quickly made her way up to Charles’ study and knocked. And once he’d asked her inside, she made quick work of putting the boxes down in front of him, giving him a serious expression.

“Charles. Why is it that I have records of over twenty applications to your school, some of them ranging back weeks, but not a single acceptance letter has been sent out?”

“It’s not that simple, Moira.”

“Do you not have any envelopes? Because I brought you some!” She said and rummaged through the box, pulling a few out before she reached into her purse and took out some stamps. “I got you these, too. Are we going to send them out now?”

“Moira, we’re not ready for them. This school isn’t ready for them.”

“You repurposed all of the excess rooms in the manor to accommodate learning or housing, you stocked up on tons of supplies and you even wrote up a curriculum that has been greenlit by the CIA. Now you either stop with your excuses and send out those letters with me or you tell me what’s really going on, so we can fix that.”

“I failed them.”

“Who?”

“Everyone. I can’t bring students to this place to teach them after I failed to open the school in time to perhaps keep Alex and Sean here. They trusted me and I couldn’t protect them.” Charles eventually confessed, guilt settling deep in his chest as he spoke those words aloud. “I don’t understand why you and Hank believe that I could protect these children.”

“Charles, you didn’t fail them. This isn’t your fault.” Moira said softly, putting the stamps and envelopes down to round the table and sit down on it. “I know it’s hard to believe but you can read my mind if you want to, so you can see that I’m being genuine.”

“Everyone leaves me or is forced to leave. I can’t do this alone.”

“You aren’t alone, Charles. Hank is still here and I am still here. And we’re not going to leave you anytime soon.” She smiled. “Sean and Alex had to leave due to reasons completely out of your control. That is not your fault.”

Charles looked up at her now, a deep frown etched into his face. “I couldn’t keep Erik and Raven around, either. I don’t know where they are and I can’t even locate them. I failed them, too.”

“Erik left because you two wanted different things. He left on his own accord. You didn’t fail him, Charles. And Raven left because humans have continously failed her throughout her life, not because you did. It was not your fault. I would never lie to you about that.”

“But I failed Darwin, Sean and Alex. How will I be able to protect all these young, innocent and vulnerable students?” Charles turned to look at Moira with fearful eyes. “Moira, is this self doubt not showing that I’m far from ready?”

“No, it’s not. This self-doubt is showing that you care about your students’ safety, that you reflect on issues of the past and that you are determined to make this school a safe haven.” Moira put a hand on his arm, rubbing her thumb in soothing little circles. “Charles, I’m your friend. I would never lie to you.”

“Moira, I am not ready.”

“These children need help. Some of their mutations are a danger to themselves and others. If anyone can help them, it’s you. You may not believe in yourself but I believe in you, Hank believes in your, the parents of these children believe in you, Sean and Alex believe in you.”

“Why won’t you understand that I can’t do this alone?”

“Because you aren’t alone. You have Hank, you have me and you have the CIA behind you. What happened to your plans and ideas? What happened to the Charles who was so eager to help these young mutants, so eager to help form a world where they can live amongst humans peacefully?”

“Please, leave.”

Moira huffed a breath and turned on her heel, leaving everything she’d brought with her on the table. But before she reached the door, she turned to Charles once more, repeating what he’d said at the CIA base all those months ago back at him.

“I expect more from you.”

---

When a week passed without Charles sending out the acceptance letters Hank finally accepted that the school would not open any time soon. He resigned himself to this idea and decided not to push the subject anymore. It tore Charles apart to see this resignation from Hank but he felt so hopeless. He really wanted to help those children but he feared that he couldn’t.

Darwin had died and he hadn’t been able to save him. Alex and Sean were away risking their lives and he hadn’t been able to stop that from happening. Raven had left him and he had not heard from her in months. Erik was gone and he couldn’t reach him. And though he knew he wasn’t alone, though Hank was still there for him, helping him, comforting him and even spending every other night lying in Charles’ bed by his side, Charles felt alone.

It was horrible how much everything reminded Charles of those he’d lost. When he moved through the halls, every nook and cranny reminded him of his childhood with Raven, the hiding spots they’d found in the manor or the games they’d played in those halls. Alex’s shoes still standing by the front door reminded him of the younger men’s evening walks across the estate where he’d enjoyed solitude when things in the manor had gotten too hectic. When Charles sat by the fire it reminded him of Sean curling up on the sofa and warming his hands because somehow he always got cold, especially during the winter months.

When he was alone in his bed, more often than not he’d let his fingers skim along the edges of the wristwatch still lying on the bedside table. It belonged to Erik. He had not taken it with him. He had not taken anything with him. Charles smiled fondly as he remembered how impatiently Erik had looked at the watch during training or their road trips.

He had started to associate a great many things with Erik. The watch belonging to him was by far the most understandable thing. Another thing was a fork that Erik had misshapen while Charles was using it to mess with him. Charles had told Hank about the fork reminding him of Erik a few weeks ago and the other man had seemed so horribly worried.

Hank worried about him an awful lot. Once he had seen Charles wear what was unmistakenly Erik’s turtleneck and had tried to talk to him about this break-up – as he called it – but Charles had shut him down. Even after everyone around him had figured out how much Erik’s departure had hurt, Charles still insisted on pushing his feelings away. But Hank had still stayed, even if Charles hadn’t been ready to talk about it -- he’d spent the night curled up next to Charles, talking to him softly and comforting him.

Slowly, Charles was coming to realise that this attitude was doing far more harm than good. Now that he was thinking about the fork incident, he felt terrible. Hank just wanted to be there for him. Maybe he was right and it was time to talk about Erik, time to try and move on. He could still hold onto the hope that one day the metal bender would come back to him but he had to try and accept his absence for the greater good.

He’d have to apologise to Moira, as well. She had been right in her insistence. She reminded him an awful lot of himself in that aspect – pushing others toward their full potential and insisting even when they doubted themselves. Charles decided that once he was done talking to Hank, he would call her. He had to at least try and get the school running. It was what these students needed and perhaps with Moira and Hank by his side, he’d actually be able to help them and keep them safe. And in time, Alex and Sean would come back, too. He would be able to do it. With or without Erik.

Thus he made his way downstairs to seek out Hank and found him in the sitting room. The man was busy, hunched over a book when Charles entered. He slowly wheeled himself over next to the armchair Hank was sitting on. Without looking up, Hank greeted him, keeping his eyes fixed on the page. But he did look up when Charles slowly leaned his head against Hank’s shoulder.

“Are you alright, Charles? What do you need? Should I stay with you tonight?”

Charles swallowed, unsure of whether or not this was the right time to breach the subject of Erik, especially after he’d pushed away Hank’s attempts of talking about the metal bender before. So Charles decided to test the waters first, to see whether or not Hank was in the mood for that subject.

“I’m just lonely and in need of some company, I suppose. What are you reading? Would you mind if I stayed with you?”

But Hank saw right through Charles’ words and shook his head slowly, though he nonetheless leaned it against the top of his friend’s in a silent offer of comfort. “Charles, please be honest with me. What do you need?”

“I need to talk to about Erik. I need to move on.”

Chapter Text

“Erik?”

About a week had passed since Charles’ talk with Hank and the man had started to get better. It had taken a lot of communicating, reassurance and tears but Charles was slowly getting better. Hank had spent hours after their initial talk about Erik, just lying in bed next to Charles and comforting him but he would have done it again in a heartbeat if it meant that his friend was feeling better. So he didn’t hesitate to offer a shoulder to lean on to his friend whenever he needed to talk during the last week.

Charles had also called up Moira, had asked for her help with the acceptance letters and they were now all ready to be sent out, come the beginning of the next week. It seemed that Charles had truly started to move on. So to say that Hank was not thrilled when he opened the front door one evening to find none other than Erik Lehnsherr in front of him was an understatement. He was in fact quite furious. But he still kept his voice down, not wanting to alert Charles to Erik’s presence before he could find out why the metal bender was back.

“What are you doing here?”

“Can I speak to Charles?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“I’m not letting you inside until you tell me why you’re here. You were gone for almost two years and you have no idea how hard things were around here. Charles actually tried to contact you, you know?” Hank felt anger bubbling up in his chest but he tried his best to swallow it down. “We needed your help.”

“How could I have possibly known that? How could I have known that Charles wasn’t contacting me because he missed me or wanted to change my mind?”

“Charles would have never contacted you for his own feelings or interests because he knew you trusted him and he never wanted to betray that trust. We needed your help. He needed your help.”

“What do you even mean? Needed my help for what?”

“He needed your help protecting Sean and Alex. Their number came up in the draft. They left almost a year ago and were moved all the way across the country. Now we’ve lost all contact with them because their letters have stopped.”

“How would I have been able to stop that?”

Guilt was washing over Erik at Hank’s words, weighing down heavily on his chest. Sean and Alex used to be like family to him. He had gotten to care about them and now they were missing. It made him wonder if maybe he could have helped them, could have somehow helped find their whereabouts and bring them back home.

“We could have at least tried to figure something out.” Hank snapped quietly, his anger getting the better of him. “You could have at least heard what Charles had to say when he tried to contact you. Charles loved you. Sean and Alex were your friends. I was your friend. But you left us all. You left Charles paralysed on a beach, left your friends behind and now you come back here, expecting me not to be angry at you! I saw Charles mourn you every day! It hurt to see my friend like that! And you took Raven with you!”

“Hank, let me talk to Charles.”

“What about? The least you can do is be honest with us! I won’t let you inside until you tell me what you want from Charles.”

“His help.”

Hank’s face fell at that and he blinked at Erik in surprise. The metal bender sighed deeply before running a hand through his hair. Then, quietly and slowly, he began to recount what had happened during the past year and a half.

“Things have been far from easy.” Erik explained, not meeting Hank’s eyes. “Raven left me merely two months after we left you all, deciding to do things her way. Azazel went with her and I can’t find her anymore. I know she’s able to take care of herself but I still worry. But that is not why I came here.”

“Then why did you?”

“Surely you’ve heard rumours of mutants being experimented on; mostly the ones that were drafted and found by the military. But the mutants that had come with me are in danger now, as well. Angel and Emma got taken by Trask and his people. And Janos disappeared. I have reason to believe that he was taken to be experimented on, as well. It took me far too long to realise this but even if Charles and I have different opinions, the core of our beliefs is the same. We want mutants to be safe and I’m afraid, my way is not working. I fear that I need Charles’ help in stopping Trask and getting everyone back safely.”

“Raven disappeared? Angel was taken by Trask? How long has she been with his people?”

“She was taken about three months ago and when we tried to get her out, Emma was captured, too. Raven left over a year and a half ago and Azazel went with her.” Erik explained, now finally looking back at Hank. “I can’t free them on my own. I need your help and Charles’ help.”

“What makes you think we would help you after everything that happened?”

“I hurt him, I get that. And I hurt you, Sean and Alex. But I need to speak to him.” The metal bender explained before heaving a miserable sigh. “We can help Angel and Emma. And if Sean and Alex aren’t sending you letters anymore, it might be because Trask’s people have gotten to them, too. We need to help them. But I cannot do it alone.”

“And you think you will stay throughout all of that?”

Erik and Hank turned to see Charles in the doorway to the living room, wheeling himself up to their guest. It was clear that he had been listening to them but Erik knew that Charles had probably been aware of his presence before he had even rung the doorbell. He kept his eyes trained on Charles’, guilt once more creeping up on him as he saw his friend in the wheelchair after he had hit him with that bullet and the telepath’s hurt expression did nothing to ease his mind. But though Charles looked hurt, he also looked determined.

“If we agree to help you, will you stay? We will need time to come up with a plan to free Emma and Angel. What if it takes longer than you were expecting? How will we get Sean and Alex back to safety? If you’re right and the reason for their lack of letters is that their mutation has been found out, they might be gravely injured by the time we find them. Do you think you’ll stay throughout the time it’ll take to heal their physical and emotional wounds? You say you care about them but do you care enough to stay? Do you care about Hank? Or me?”

“I do.” Erik said firmly. “I care about them still and I care about you. My way has obviously not been working. What I said on that beach still holds true: We want the same thing, you and I. But maybe your way will help in achieving the goal of keeping mutants safe – at least for now. And even if I may never fully agree with you, I can still try to work with you towards a similar goal.”

“Why should I trust you?”

Charles crossed his arms. He wanted nothing more than to give in to the hope that Erik would stay, that he would not abandon him again. But he had been feeling too lost for too long. No matter how much Hank had cared for him, he could never push away how betrayed he had felt by Erik’s departure.

“You don’t really have a choice here. You need my help as much as I need yours.”

“You’re right.” Charles admitted after a moment of silence. “But you blocked me out when I tried to reach you before.”

“I can’t block you out anymore. I’m not wearing the helmet.”

“Why would I trust you not to put it back on?”

Erik was quiet for a few seconds before raising his hand and moving his fingers, summoning the helmet into his hand. Charles felt hope rise in him as he watched Erik clench his hand into a fist, crumbling the helmet in the air before he let it fall in front of the wheelchair. It took a few seconds for Charles to tear his eyes away from the clump of metal by his feet but when he did, he looked up at Erik with a much gentler expression. Hank watched as he reached out a hand to the other man, flexing his fingers in invitation.

“Come inside then. We shouldn’t plan these things in the open front door.”

“May I?”

“I am inviting you inside.” Charles said with a small smile. “How about we sit down and talk about it? Tomorrow we will start devising a proper plan and maybe we can get Moira to help us, as well.”

Erik nodded quietly and stepped inside, following Charles into the sitting room. He should not feel any negative feelings towards Moira because it had been him that had left Charles and he had no right to be hurt by the knowledge that the two of them were still close. And yet, he felt his chest clench as thoughts of Moira and Charles’ potential romantic entanglement flooded his head. But at the moment, that was the last thing he should concern himself with.

“Sit down, Erik.” Charles gestured toward the sofa as he manoeuvred his wheelchair around the coffee table so he could sit opposite Erik. “Hank, would you be so kind as to make all of us a cup of tea?”

Hank eyed Erik wearily, not really keen on the idea of leaving him alone with Charles after everything that had happened. But a gentle reassuring nod from the telepath was enough to calm his nerves, so he quickly left for the kitchen. Now alone with his old lover and friend, Erik couldn’t find the right words to say, so Charles was the one to initiate their conversation.

“I listened in on your conversation with Hank but could you be a dear and tell me once more what happened to everyone that had left with you?”

“Raven left a few months after we left you, along with Azazel and I cannot find either of them. Then on a mission to recruit another mutant, Angel was captured and taken away. While we tried to rescue her Emma got captured and when I got back to our home there was no trace of Janos to be found.”

“You came here because you have no one left, then.”

“No, I’ve come here because I realised that I made mistakes. Fellow mutants were captured by Trask’s people and are being experimented on the right as we speak. Charles, I don’t fully agree with your ways but I need your help and I’m willing to try things your way.”

“I will help you.” Charles promised but then his smile dropped. “But personally I have a hard time letting myself trust you again after we were on our own for so long. I am not trying to make you feel guilty but I need your word that you won’t abandon us when we need you, Erik.”

“You have my word.” Erik looked at him mournfully. “I know an apology is hardly enough but I am so terribly sorry that I shot you and--”

“Shot me? Erik, that was an accident. And you even pulled the bullet out before it could do more damage than it already had.” Charles explained, voice softening as he shook his head. “Moira was shooting at you and didn’t intend to hit me while you defended yourself and also didn’t intend to hit me. I never blamed you for that.”

“You didn’t?”

“I blamed you for leaving us and for not hearing me out when I reached out to you for help.” Charles explained and though the topic was connected with a lot of pain, he managed to keep his voice calm and steady. “But it’s been two years since that day on the beach and I’ve moved on. I’ve healed.”

Erik watched Charles for a few seconds, trying to will away the pain he felt at that statement. Charles had moved on, not only from the pain of the happenings on Cuba and the consequences of them but also from Erik. And it hurt. Yet, he managed to shove those feelings aside, instead of focusing on the positive implications of Charles’ words. The telepath has started to heal emotionally and if that entailed moving on from Erik, then he would have to accept that. At least it meant that Charles was doing better.

“I’m glad you did.”

Chapter Text

Mornings at Westchester mansion were still calm and quiet but they had changed significantly over the last two years. The countryside was still as quiet and welcoming as always and Charles would still prepare breakfast with Hank but that was about the only similarity. Things were far from how Erik remembered them being before Cuba. No Sean and Alex were sitting at the table, quietly talking to each other and no Raven was waiting impatiently for the coffee machine. Moira wasn’t sitting on the counter talking to Charles anymore, either. But Erik would still sit at the table, watching Charles’ every move, eyes following his hands as he prepared the food. He had spent the night in his old room, after Charles had offered it to him and Erik had tried his best to ignore how the evenings now were different, too.

“Thank you for letting me stay.”

Charles nodded absentmindedly, quietly instructing Hank to finish the eggs so he could talk to Erik before wheeling himself to the table. “Everything is the way you left it. You didn’t take anything with you, after all.”

“I didn’t.”

Charles watched him for a few seconds before wheeling himself away from Erik and nodding toward the phone. “Once we’ve eaten, I will call Moira. I talked to her on the phone yesterday when you were already in bed, and she kindly offered for us to come over. She says that perhaps we can find where Sean and Alex have been moved to, as well as gather information on Trask.”

“Is Trask not working with them?”

“As far as I know, he has received small funds for what he had described to the people in charge as military experiments. I’m fairly certain they’re trying to keep those experiments a secret and pretty much on the down-low.” Charles said, the strong abhorrence he felt at the thought of those happenings clear in his voice. “It’s easy for them to experiment on young soldiers that were drafted and then claim they died in the line of duty or got fatally wounded during a training accident.”

“So you’re saying they wouldn’t want word of those experiments to reach the citizens so they’re trying to keep it all on the down-low?” Erik reasoned, narrowing his eyes in question. “I’m sure the families of those young mutant soldiers would be horrified to find out what was actually happening to their sons.”

“But Moira is still on our side. She always has been.”

Erik tried his best not to feel jealous at that statement, though rage bubbled up in his chest. He knew he had no right to feel this way because he had been the one to leave Charles but he still couldn’t quite keep the negative emotions from settling in his mind. Hank then suddenly came over, frying pan in hand as he put it down on the table, making Erik and Charles look up at him.

“While I was working for the CIA I’ve heard of Trask and his attempts to get funding for his experimentation on mutants. He talked about mutants posing a threat but their mutations also being of great potential to the military.” Hank explained as he busied himself with putting plates on the table. “No one took him too seriously. After all, they didn’t believe in mutants before Shaw and our teams came along.”

“And now the world knows about our existence and Trask had the proof he needed.” Charles concluded, looking up at Hank. “Moira once mentioned funds going to an experimentation centre across the country, off from most civilians.”

Hank nodded at Charles’ words. “Makes sense if they’re trying to keep things on the down-low to avoid public outrage. Even if most people don’t particularly like mutants, I’m sure families of those experimented on would be outraged and go against these tests. I hope Moira can help us.”

“I have complete faith in her.”

---

After Charles’ call to Moira, they had all been invited to the CIA base to talk about what to do next. It was strange to be back and Erik couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to the rooms beyond the large windows, thinking of the night his old team members had been celebrating in one of them. Now they were all gone.

The ground that had been charred and covered in broken glass after the fight with Shaw was now covered in grass again. There were flowers blooming in the decorative patches by the walkways as though Darwin hadn’t perished in this place, as though Angel hadn’t defected there and as though none of it had ever happened.

“What are you thinking about?”

Erik blinked in surprise, turning to face Charles who was wheeling himself along next to him. “Care to take a look?”

“I won’t invade your mind, Erik. Quite frankly, I don’t want to.” Charles said, turning back in the direction they were going in. “You just looked lost in thoughts – and not in a good way.”

“What kind of flowers are those?” Erik nodded his head toward the flower bed in front of one of the large windows.

“I think those are poppies and petunias.” Charles explained, voice quieter now as he realised what room they were passing. “It looks as though the whole facility hasn’t been destroyed two years ago.”

Erik turned to Charles once more as the man stopped his wheelchair to take a look at the room beyond the glass. Hank had stopped, as well, eyes dark with sadness as he remembered the night they’d been attacked, how they’d tried to protect each other and how Darwin had died.

“It’s surreal.” He said softly, making both Charles and Erik look at him. “They simply cleared the debris from the ground, rebuild the base and planted pretty flowers. It’s as though people didn’t die here.”

He turned when he felt Charles’ hand on his arm, a comforting weight to ground him in the moment as the telepath gave him a sad look. “I am so sorry, Hank. But you’re right when you talk about how surreal it is. Perhaps you’d like to talk about how you feel about that once we get back to the privacy of our home. If you do, I’m always there.”

“Thanks, Charles, but I’ll be fine.” Hank gave him a small smile. “We need to focus on getting everyone back to safety.”

Charles looked at him in worry for a few seconds, well aware of how good Hank was at pretending things didn’t bother him. “Just remember that I’m here for you.”

“I know.”

Before either of them could say any more, Moira was walking toward them, waving a hand and smiling at Charles before she stopped at the sight of Erik. She stopped dead in her tracks, hand falling to her side as she eyed him from head to toe, worry and reluctance clear in her eyes. But she quickly steeled her expression before once more setting herself in motion.

“Welcome back, Erik.”

“It’s nice to meet you again, Moira.”

Charles inwardly cringed at their conversation, at how stiff and forced it was. It was clear that Erik didn’t trust Moira and it was clear that she still had a lot of reservations and negative feelings about him.

“Charles told me that you need our help. Lovely of you to show back up to ask for it.” Moira said, her dislike clearly showing in her voice and words. But a small mental reminder from Charles that they needed Erik’s help made her put on a forced smile again as she motioned behind her. “I prepared a room for us to talk in.”

“And that room is safe? No one will listen in on us?”

Moira’s face fell at that and she shook her head. She had always had an open mind for Charles to look into, never rejecting his mental presence and always offering him to check to prove that she was telling the truth. So Charles could hear her thoughts clear as day and they were filled with nothing short of anger at Erik’s question and his lack of trust in her.

“Why would I invite you to offer my help just so I can have people spy on you?”

“You say that as if it’s not a valid concern we should have when the government offered people like Trask money to experiment on mutants.”

Moira took a steadying breath at that and Charles could hear how she held herself back from snapping at Erik. “The public can’t know about these experiments which is why the CIA would never spy on a group of people that could very easily find out and expose them.”

“Are you saying we have leverage?” Hank threw in, seemingly confused.

“For one, we have a telepath. They don’t know that we know, but they are aware that Charles could easily find out. That’s why no one really wants to interact with him right now and why they send me.” Moira explained. “Charles could very easily notice them spying and then look into their minds and find out about all of these experiments. I know he never would invade their minds like that but they don’t know that.”

Erik crossed her arms at that, eyeing Moira in concern. “Why should we trust you? They sent you to talk to us and you know about the experiments.”

“Because I’m not supposed to know. I went behind everyone’s back to find out about it because Charles asked me to. He was worried about his friends’ disappearance and I was worried about them, as well. All the CIA knows is that you came here for help with the school because that’s what I told him you were here for.” Moira explained, voice laced with irritation now. “I’m not asking you to trust me, Erik, but Charles does and that should be enough.”

“Then lead the way.”

Chapter Text

Alex was finally back.

He was sitting across from Charles in the jet, looking around at the other people present and more specifically eyeing Erik suspiciously. Charles couldn’t blame him, though, not after the metal bender had left them on Cuba. He suspected that things could even escalate into fighting, given that both Erik and Alex weren’t known to calmly talk things though -- respectively they tended to walk away from the issue or resort to anger.

But at the moment, Charles couldn’t even worry about these things because he was too relieved that Alex was back. Moira had managed to locate him at a military base in a Texan desert, far from most civilisation and she had been almost certain that this site was meant for experimenting on mutants. Fortunately, they had come right on time and managed to free Alex and the three other young men held there, all be it with some difficulties.

Charles had snuck them past security and soldiers by blocking his team from their minds. And it had all worked out well until one of the other men had panicked, alerting soldiers to their presence with his voice. Yet, together they had managed to fight their attackers off and get back to their jet where Moira and Hank had been waiting for them. And though it had been strenuous for Charles, it had been absolutely worth it because, for the first time in over a year, Alex was back with them. He was back and safe. The young man looked rough, bruised up and emotionally drained but he was safe.

And after dropping the three other mutants off where they had wished to be dropped off, they were now finally making their way to the manor. But the atmosphere in the plane was far from ecstatic. Things were tense and Charles quickly decided to inquire if Alex was feeling quite alright.

“You’re being very quiet. Is something the matter?”

“Thank you for coming to get me.”

“I would have never left you to be experimented on.”

Alex gave him a tight smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “It still took a lot out of you and I appreciate that you helped me. And that you helped those other three guys. I got to know them a bit while we were waiting in that tent for days and they all seemed like ordinary men, trying to get back home to their families.”

“I’m sure they’ll be alright now.” Charles said softly, smiling comfortingly though he knew that emotional healing wouldn’t come too easy for these men and neither would it come easily to Alex – not with the violence and hate they had all encountered. “They all had very interesting mutations, though. Who was the man with the indestructible skin? Was it Thomas?”

“It was.” Alex nodded slowly. “Jonah had the ability to conjure up some sort of force field and Leonardo could spit balls of fire.”

“Sounds similar to Angel’s mutation.”

That simple statement from Erik made Alex turn to him, eyes narrowing. “Where is she anyway? Shouldn’t you be with her, Raven and those other mutants you left with? You left us for them, so why are you here?”

“Alex.” Charles tried to soothe the man and put a hand on his arm to calm him down. “Erik came to ask for our help because--”

“To ask for our help?” Alex looked almost flabbergasted. “We’ve been trying to get you to help us but you didn’t care and now you come here because you need us! You should be grateful that letting you stay is Charles’ decision to make because I would have sent you away!”

Erik knew Alex had every right to be angry at him but he couldn’t leave his situation unexplained like that. There were other peoples’ lives on the line. He quickly shook his head at the younger man’s words. “I asked for help because Angel and Emma got taken by Trask, Raven and Azazel disappeared and I’m pretty sure Janos is being experimented on, as well.”

“So them you care about but when Sean and I got drafted and exposed to possibly being experimented on you ignored our calls for help?”

“I didn’t know that this was why Charles was reaching out to me.”

“Yeah, of course, you fucking didn’t!” Alex snapped and then stood to approach Erik, pointing an accusatory finger at him. “Would it have been that hard to just listen to him for five damn minutes?”

“I left because Charles himself said that we didn’t want the same thing and I wanted to protect our own. Why won’t you believe me that I am trying to help now?”

Alex huffed at that, glaring at Erik in absolute anger. “How? How have you--”

“Enough!”

The two of them turned to Charles who had moved into his wheelchair during their fight and was now approaching them. And he looked displeased, to say the least. Alex took a few deep breaths before offering his apologies.

“You need to stop this fighting. We can’t let our personal feelings get in the way of helping our friends and fellow mutants.” Charles said sternly before turning to Alex. “Erik helped us get you out and he will help us get Sean back. And we will help him free everyone else. Perhaps together, we can take Trask down.”

“And you believe that he will help us?”

“I do. I know that his priority is to keep mutants safe and if working together with us can accomplish this, then he will help us.”

“So you’re fine just being the means to an end for him?”

That struck a nerve with Charles and he quieted down for a second. There was a rather striking truth to Alex’s question. Erik had come back because he needed help because he wanted to get his fellow mutants to safety, not because he’d missed Charles. And as much as Charles hoped and wished that maybe being missed was at the very least a small reason for why Erik had come back, it wasn’t likely. But if it meant getting his friends and fellow mutants to safety, if it meant stopping Trask, then he would be able to ignore how this knowledge hurt him and work through it.

“I have to be.”

He watched as Erik stared at him, mouth opening once before closing and opening again. But he didn’t speak and eventually just snapped his mouth back shut before averting his eyes. Charles took a deep breath before he looked back at Alex who was now looking at him with a worried expression. Even Moira had turned in her seat after trying to actively ignore the fighting, not able to now overlook the pain in Charles’ voice. Alex then opened his mouth to speak but Charles silenced him and shook his head.

“I have to be.”

---

The rest of the flight back was quiet. Hank kept himself busy with the plane, ignoring how much it pained him to see his friends in such a hurt state, ignoring the guilt he felt whenever he looked at Alex’s wounds for not being able to help him sooner. Moira was still checking in on Charles from time to time, worrying for the man who had become such a dear friend to her over the past year. The last thing she wanted was for him to be in pain again, not after he had just started to heal. Charles himself was watching both Erik and Alex, concerned for his friends and trying to overshadow his own hurt feelings with his care for others.

But eventually, they reached the manor. Hank insisted on quickly treating Alex’s wounds. The man initially refused but once he’d seen how truly upset and pained Hank looked as he inspected the wounds, he accepted. It luckily didn’t take long and with everyone retiring to their rooms, Charles was showing Alex to his old one, watching as the younger man hesitantly opened the door and stepped inside. He looked around for a few seconds before turning to Charles.

“You haven’t touched it in over a year?”

“I knew you would come back.”

“Thanks to you.”

“Thanks to all of us.” Charles corrected gently. “You must admit that even Erik helped in the rescue, no matter how much you dislike him.”

Alex sighed before sitting down at the foot of his bed, watching as Charles wheeled himself over to sit opposite him. “I don’t dislike him. This may sound stupid because I yelled at him so much but I’m not sure if I’m even angry at him anymore.”

“Your feelings aren’t stupid. Whatever you feel is valid, Alex. And whatever you feel about your experiences at that base is valid, too.”

“They hadn’t done anything to us, yet.” Alex explained, looking around the room now before his eyes locked on something. “I can count myself lucky that I’m not at a dingy experimentation room like Sean probably is right now.”

Charles followed Alex’s gaze and his eyes landed on a radio standing on the desk. It was Sean’s radio that he’d apparently brought to Alex’s room during one of their many hang-outs and then forgotten there. When Charles looked back at Alex the young man looked close to tears. In his haste to comfort him, he ended up manoeuvring his wheelchair next to the bed to rub his friend’s back.

“It’s my fault.” Alex whispered, accepting Charles’ comforting touch but doing nothing more. “I promised Sean to stay by his side and I just abandoned him. He’s probably being cut open and in agony as we speak and I just let it happen.”

“Alex, no, don’t say that.” Charles tried to soothe the younger man. “I know this might be hard for you to hear but sometimes things are out of our control.”

“No, I should have helped him and-- and I should have never-- This is my fault.”

“Help me understand how this is your fault. What should you have never done?”

Alex just shook his head and Charles felt his heart break for the young man as he watched him try to control his breathing. It was obvious that there was something Alex wasn’t telling him but Charles didn’t want to pry too much and upset him even further, let alone look into his mind. But on the other hand, he was getting worried about what might have happened to cause Alex this much distress.

“Alex, why do you think this is your fault? I don’t understand why you would think that. Would you explain it to me or is it too painful for you to say?”

“Look for yourself.”

“I won’t look into your mind unless you explicitly allow me to.”

“I can’t say it.”

Charles sighed softly, reluctantly raising two of his fingers to his temple. “Tell me if you want me out or if I see something I’m not supposed to and I will stop.”

Alex’s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, fears and anger -- at the government, the military, the war, at Erik, but mostly at himself. But underneath all that anger, hidden away in the deeper parts of Alex’s mind, as though he was trying to hide it from even himself, was guilt and despair. And Charles was worried to find out where these feelings came from and why Alex was blaming himself.

Carefully, Charles delved in deeper, focusing on the man’s memories rather than his feelings. There were flashes of soldiers dragging him around, of people yelling. Someone was begging not to be separated from his brother, another person was trying to fight back just to be knocked out. And then he saw memories of Sean.

Memories of Alex and Sean during their training, the ginger’s hair shorter than it had ever been during his stay at the manor. There were flashbacks to them training, learning to fire a rifle, but also of them sharing laughter and small moments of peace. Charles checked on Alex then but the man kept his eyes closed as he breathed deeply, mechanically and consciously to keep himself calm.

“You’re looking in the right place.” Alex whispered. “But this-- this is strange.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“I need you to understand.”

So Charles kept looking until he finally found what he was looking for. A memory from a rainy day, of Alex and Sean’s unit on a run by the base when things went wrong. There was a fight between two cadets and Alex got caught in the crossfire, being shoved around and threatened when he tried to mediate.

Then there was a flash of red. Alex had lost control of his powers when he was being shoved against a tree and threatened. A nearby patch of shrubbery was ablaze. Then everything hit the fan and he was being cornered by some of the other cadets. The ones that weren’t threatening him were stepping back now, afraid to get hit by him.

Sean tried to intervene, tried to pull the other men away from Alex. He was shoved back, yelled at for defending a mutant who had from the other cadets’ perspective attacked them during the fight. Charles could see Alex locking eyes with Sean as the ginger opened his mouth. Alex was shaking his head, knowing what Sean was planning on doing but the other man wasn’t listening to him.

In an attempt to help Alex and keep him safe, Sean outed himself as a mutant, as well, sending his fellow cadets tumbling back and holding their ears. Some of them fell, others started bending over in nausea. And then their instructor, a big and stern-looking sergeant, yelled at Alex and Sean to come with him.

Charles slowly pulled himself from Alex’s mind, feeling shocked and terribly upset by what he had witnessed. Sean had defended his friend. Alex had simply tried to break up a fight and lost control. His friends had accidentally outed themselves and paid the price -- Sean was still paying the price. Charles felt tears brim in his eyes as he realised that Alex blamed himself for it. But there was no time to dwell on his own feelings because Alex was now crying and desperately trying to control his breathing. And to see Alex, who had rarely expressed his emotions so openly before, crying shook Charles to his core.

“He’s going to-- to fucking die, Charles! And it’s-- you saw why it’s my fault!”

“Alex, you lost control. That is not your fault.”

“My power puts everyone in danger!” Alex snapped back, despair horribly clear in his voice as he stared at Charles with tears running down his face. “It got Sean taken to-- to a fucking laboratory to be cut-- to be cut open and experimented on like a damn lab rat! And it got Darwin killed!”

Charles once more reached out to put a hand on Alex’s shoulder but the man withdrew, standing up now and shaking his head. But Charles tried to soothe him verbally again as he wheeled himself after Alex. “This is not your fault. You were not the one that took him to be experimented on. And you were not the one that killed Darwin. Shaw killed Darwin, Alex. That was not your fault.”

“I can’t do this right now. Can you leave?”

“While I’m not sure if I should leave you alone right now, I also want to respect your boundaries.” Charles explained, wheeling himself toward the door. “I’ll leave you to yourself but if you need me, call out to me and I will come.”

Alex just nodded and Charles left, reluctant to leave his friend alone but aware that the other man needed to be alone now. Down the hallway is where he met Erik. The man stopped in his tracks as he saw Charles.

“Are you alright, Charles?”

Charles took a deep breath, willing away all the feelings that rose at that simple question coming from Erik, willing away the hope and hurt he somehow felt simultaneously. “I’m doing fine, thank you for your concern. Things are far from easy, that’s all.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“For the time being, I’m afraid not.” Charles shook his head and tried to pass by Erik who got in his way. “Erik, all you can do right now is stay with us.”

“Then I will.” Erik nodded as he stepped out of the way again. He was quiet for a few seconds, eyeing Charles before he spoke up again.“Would you care to join me in my room for a round of chess?”

“Not right now. I’m sorry, Erik. I just can’t do this right now.”

Erik eyed Charles for a second and then spoke up again, always direct and confrontational. “You don’t want me here, do you?”

“What? Of course, I do!” Charles defended himself, turning his wheelchair to face Erik. “That’s not what my reluctance is about.”

“Then why won’t you look at me or join me for a simple game of chess, Charles?”

“It hurts.” Charles admitted suddenly, almost shocked by his admission before he quickly explained what he meant. “It hurts to spend time with you when I’m well aware that once this is all over you will just leave me again. I can’t let myself hope and love like that again.”

Erik quieted down at that and he stayed quiet for a few seconds. Then his mouth opened slowly but before he could answer, Hank came up the stairs and ran down the hallway to where the two men were. Both Charles and Erik turned to him, facing the man who looked both happy and close to tears now.

“Charles, you need to come downstairs. We have a visitor.”

“Are you alright, Hank?

“Doesn’t matter.” Hank waved him off, fixing Charles with desperate eyes. “You need to come down and confirm that it’s really him. I can’t-- I find it hard to believe that it’s him and I need you to confirm before-- before I let myself be happy about it.”

“Who is it?”

“Darwin.”

Chapter Text

“How? Just how?”

Darwin would have almost laughed at everyone’s incredulous and dumbfounded facial expressions, had he not known how his seeming death must have affected them. Alex’s mouth fell open to ask a question but he couldn’t form any words so he just closed it again. Darwin gave Alex a comforting smile before shrugging his shoulders because he actually didn’t understand how he’d survived himself.

“I adapt to survive. I don’t really know how but I managed to pull myself back together from what was left.” He explained, looking at the baffled faces of Alex, Charles, Hank, Moira and Erik. “It just took a long time because of how-- because of the extent of my injuries. After I regained consciousness, I spent a few days hidden at the CIA base until I overheard someone talk about this manor and how it belongs to Charles.”

No one answered and Darwin was almost moved to speaking up again to fill this silence. But then Alex snapped out of his stupor and reacted, diving in to embrace Darwin and hold him tightly. Everyone else watched as Darwin brought his arms around Alex’s body, quietly assuring the younger man that he was alright. Charles looked on for a few minutes before he spoke up, still completely baffled.

“We are so immensely happy that you managed to adapt and pull yourself together.” He said in earnest, a smile appearing on his face. “And I think I speak for everyone when I say that.”

“Definitely speaking for me.” Hank said and slowly approached to wrap his arms around Alex and Darwin. “We thought you had died. I can’t believe that-- that you’re fine!”

Darwin just held the two of them for a few more seconds before he drew back to look at Charles and Erik. “I have to address the elephant in the room, Charles. Feel free to not tell me but what happened? Was it Shaw?”

“It wasn’t Shaw.” Charles said, eyes flickering to Erik next to him for a few seconds. “It was an accident during our battle with him that--”

“It was my fault.”

“Erik, I told you before that I don’t blame you.”

“You might not blame me but I do!”

Charles looked at Erik for a few seconds, worried by his words but he then decided to not discuss this in front of everyone. Frankly, he wasn’t even sure this topic would ever be discussed again with how much his and Erik’s relationship has changed -- with their trust in each other no longer there.

“Where are Raven and Sean?” Darwin asked and he quickly turned to face Alex when he heard his sharp intake of breath. “Please, tell me they’re alive.”

“They most likely are.”

Darwin’s face fell at Charles’ answer. “Most likely?”

“Why don’t we all sit down together in the living room? What happened after the attack on the CIA base is such a long story and I feel like we should tell it to you in a more comfortable and safe environment, rather than in the doorway.”

Hank nodded at Charles’ words and gave Darwin a small smile, hoping to comfort his friend. But when he saw Darwin’s worried and shocked expression, he put a hand on his back to stir him in the right direction. “Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

---

“So you two separated and then things all went downhill?”

Erik and Charles shared a small glance while Hank reared up to explain to Darwin why his two friends had gone separate ways. But Darwin was faster and before anyone could speak up, he was talking again.

“Then it’s a good thing that Erik came back here and you’re working together again. I mean, with that Trask guy out there looking for mutants and a lot of our friends missing, it’s good that we’re all together again.”

“We?” Alex piped up, leaning forward in his chair to look at Darwin. “Are you saying that you’ll help us?”

“Is that even up for debate?” Darwin seemed incredulous by Alex’s question. “I’m not going to let my friends get experimented on!”

“Darwin, we really appreciate your help, but are you sure?” Hank asked quietly, worry seeping into his voice. “You just got back and this could all be really dangerous.”

“I won’t let my friends get abducted, hurt or killed if I can help them.”

“That is incredibly brave of you, Darwin.” Charles said with that hopeful expression of his that Darwin knew all too well, even after spending only a few days in the presence of the other man. “With how much you must have suffered you still want to help the people who need you.”

“It’s the right thing to do.”

“Are you sure?”

Darwin nodded at Alex’s question. “I’m sure. So, what’s the plan?”

That’s when Hank stood up and walked over to the desk in the corner of the room, gathering the files there in his arms before coming back to dump them onto the coffee table they were all seated around. Darwin looked at Hank in interest, an eyebrow raised while everyone else leaned forward to get a good look.

“We brought Alex home just today after Moira located him in a military facility far from anyone.” Charles explained, giving Alex a quick glance over. “She said she would try to find information on Sean’s whereabouts and then come back over. But she said it might take a day or two because she doesn’t want to raise suspicion and risk Sean or any other mutants being moved somewhere else.”

“Does that mean for now we’ll just wait until Moira comes back?”

“I think it would be good for everyone to get a bit of rest. You and Alex have just come back. Tomorrow we’ll surely have the information from Moira.”

---

Charles had just moved himself onto his bed and arranged his body so he could lie down when there was a knock on the door. He quickly pushed himself back into a sitting position and turned toward the door.

“Come inside, please.”

“Charles?” Hank asked as he slowly opened the door, looking at the other man. “Could I speak to you?”

“Of course, Hank.” Charles nodded and patted the other side of his bed. “Sit down, will you? I hope you don’t mind that I have already moved onto the bed.”

Hank shook his head and closed the door before moving to the bed and gingerly sitting down. “I don’t mind. I was actually about to turn down for the night myself but I-- I felt uneasy being on my own right now after-- after everything that happened.”

Charles slowly nodded along with Hank’s words and then pulled back his covers. Hank had stayed in Charles’ room on multiple occasions, mostly to comfort his friend after Cuba and Erik’s departure. Now Charles felt it was his time to be there for Hank and offer him comfort throughout the night. Hank seemed to understand the gesture and quickly shook his head.

“I don’t want to impose.”

“Please, Hank, I can see that you shouldn’t be alone right now. That’s completely understandable, by the way.” Charles said gently, his hand raising the covers off the bed. “Lie down with me and we can talk or be quiet – whatever you prefer.”

Hank looked at Charles for a few seconds before slowly toeing off his slippers and manoeuvring his legs underneath the covers. He leaned against the headboard and looked straight ahead, not wanting to meet Charles’ eyes at the moment.

“It’s too good to be true.”

“What is?”

“Alex and Darwin being home.” Hank whispered before sighing. “Erik came back to help us, we found Alex and Darwin survived – I should be happy. But I can’t. I’m afraid that any moment disaster will strike us again, like Erik turning on us once more or Alex being found or Darwin getting injured or you--”

“Hank, please try and breathe.” Charles interrupted his friend’s breathless rambling, a hand finding its way to Hank’s back to rub it in soothing circles. “As I said your feelings are totally understandable but I need you to try and calm down a bit. You need to breathe.”

“Even breathing feels hard right now.”

Charles nodded thoughtfully before leaning closer so we could wrap the arm that had been rubbing Hank’s back around his friend’s shoulders instead. “Would you believe me if I told you that I completely relate to that statement? Sometimes, I also feel like I can’t breathe like it’s all too much. On Cuba, when the realisation sank in that I lost my sister, Erik and my legs I felt like all the air had been knocked out of my lungs.”

“What did you do? What helped?”

“You did.” Charles confessed, rubbing Hank’s arm now. “You, Moira, Alex and Sean helped me – but mostly you. I feel like I don’t thank you enough for that but you really pulled me through terrible times. And no matter what happened, you were always there to help me, physically and mentally.”

“Of course, I did. You’re my friend.”

“And that’s why I’m going to help you.” With a gentle smile, Charles pulled Hank closer. “Whatever it is you need, I will give it to you. Is there anything you think might help right now? What’s the first thing that comes to mind?”

“I’m not sure.”

“There are no wrong answers here, Hank.”

“Can I stay for the night?” Hank asked after a few seconds of silence, finally turning to look at Charles. “I think I need to not be alone right now.”

“Of course.” Charles nodded quickly, glad that he could help Hank. “If there is anything else, I’ll do it. I’d do anything to help you. Well, I don’t think I could perform a tap dance to cheer you up but I would certainly try if you needed me to.”

That got a laugh out of Hank and he slowly leaned his head onto Charles’ shoulder. The telepath smiled at that, relieved to see Hank laughing. But then Hank’s shoulders began to shake and Charles all too quickly realised his friend was crying. It took him a moment of initial panic to realise that this wasn’t a bad thing, though. Hank had kept his emotions so well guarded and had put on a brave façade for so long, that his crying was surely going to help him relieve some of the negative emotions he was feeling.

“I’m sorry.” Hank sobbed out quietly. “It’s just-- The last time I thought things would work out was-- was at the CIA base when we were laughing and thinking of code names and-- and then people died and things went downhill. And I tried to keep positive because at the manor we were almost like a family again, even with the threat of Shaw but-- but then on Cuba, that family was torn apart and I can’t lose everyone again.”

It was a little hard for Charles to properly embrace Hank from his position and he would have much preferred to be able to get onto his knees to simply wrap his friend up in his arms but he still managed to hold him tightly as he cried. And Hank seemed thankful, wrapping his arms around Charles’ waist and crying into his shoulder.

“I understand your feelings.” Charles whispered, blinking against the tears forming in his eyes because Hank was so distressed and on top of that, he had voiced thoughts that the telepath himself had worried about. He was terrified that Erik would leave again and that they’d never find Raven or Sean. But at the moment, he had to push those thoughts away to comfort Hank. “But you don’t have to be afraid, Hank. Shaw only managed to overpower you because you were alone and untrained. Now you’ve trained so much and we have each other. Whatever comes our way, we can deal with it together.”

Charles was aware that he was simply paraphrasing what Erik had once said to Sean before their battle in Cuba but it did wonders at calming Hank down. The brunet looked up at Charles with teary eyes and nodded slowly.

“You’re right.” He whispered earnestly. “Do you really believe we can help fellow mutants and stop Trask together?”

“I do. I’m sure by tomorrow, Moira will have Sean’s location. When I was on the phone with her earlier today, she was talking about how she knew exactly where to look for the files she needed and that she only needed a window of time where she could get to them undetected.”

“I’m glad that you kept a good relationship with Moira. Honestly, I was worried it would get strange since she was obviously in love with you and you were with Erik.”

“Moira understood that I didn’t have romantic feelings for her and she would never hold that against me. We’re friends and I know that she is happy that way.”

“I’m glad.” Hank nodded before looking at Charles. “But even if we get Sean back, do you think we can stop Trask?”

“Yes, I think so.” Charles said softly, though he himself was doubtful after so many setbacks and misfortunes but he’d be damned if he let Hank see these doubts. “Should we try to rest or would you like to keep talking?”

“I’d like to lie down.” Hank said and slowly withdrew from Charles’ embrace. “Is it really alright if I stay?”

“Of course. You’ve stayed for my sake so many times, it’s only fair that you get to stay because it’s what you need.”

Hank smiled thankfully and lay down, watching as Charles rearranged his body so he could comfortably rest, as well. It took a few moments but Hank knew that Charles didn’t like him helping with these everyday things unless he specifically asked for help. So he just patiently waited until Charles was settled and had turned off the light. Then he took off his glasses, put them on the nightstand and looked back at Charles who was now lying on his back and looking at the ceiling.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, of course, Hank.” Charles said softly, not wanting to worry Hank about his own feelings at the moment. “Thank you for asking.”

“Are you sure? I can only imagine that Erik coming back must be hard for you.”

Charles just gave Hank a reassuring smile. “Your concern is very kind but I’m fine. For now, we need to focus on the larger issues and I really can’t concern myself with my feelings for Erik.”

“Swallowing your feelings down isn’t good.”

“Like you’re one to talk.” Charles chuckled and glanced at Hank. “You don’t have the moral high ground here, my friend.”

Hank laughed quietly and sighed. “You’re right, I don’t. But nonetheless, if you ever want to talk about it, please tell me.”

“I will.” Charles smiled at him once more before turning his head toward the window. “Now go to sleep, Hank. And if you need anything, don’t hesitate to wake me.”

Hank nodded and closed his eyes, face still turned toward Charles. “The same goes for you. If you need anything, wake me.”

“Thank you, Hank.”

And with that, they quieted down. It didn’t take long for Hank to fall asleep and Charles waited until his friend had drifted off before he allowed himself to rest, as well. Hank had been there for him nonstop and Charles wanted to help him now. But the other man’s words were still running through Charles’ head, stirring worry in him. Like matches that lit fires, they sparked up scenario after scenario of what might go wrong, of Darwin being injured, of them finding out Raven had perished, of Erik abandoning them, of Trask rising to power, of them never finding Sean.

Charles sighed quietly, hands folded on his stomach and eyes still turned toward the window, as he willed these thoughts away. Catastrophising thoughts were not going to solve anything and they would only agitate him further; he knew that much. Still, he couldn’t help but feel like this was the calm before the storm. Things were just going too well at the moment with Darwin, Erik and Alex back and Moira looking for Sean. Erik was even trying to get close to Charles again. It was all he had wished for since things had gone downhill for him. With another sigh, Charles closed his eyes and focused on Hank’s breathing instead.

For now, they were at least not standing still and things were actually starting to look up. But it was still hard to hope again.