Chapter Text
Erik didn't know why he even came to the mansion. He didn't know what it meant, the only thing he was sure he knew was what he wanted, and what he wanted was Charles.
He was so sure of it that he hadn't slept. The evidence of that showed under his eyes in a dark crescent moon.
He could tell that Charles noticed them because he could always see his eyes linger in sympathy. He was so caring that it made him naive. Maybe that's why Erik felt the way he felt. He finds that he can't even admit to himself what that means.
" You alright , my friend?" Charles asked " You seem deep in thought."
Erik got brought back by the fact that Charles just called him friend. They were anything but and that could go either ways.
" What's on your mind?"
" Why don't you come and find out?" Erik tested with a righteous smirk, because the senseless sound that was coming out of his mouth sounded too serious.
Charles couldn't help but smile back and Erik noticed that a rosey colour bloomed on his cheeks.
" I'd rather hear it from you." Charles finally answered with honesty that Erik could only take his word for.
" Well, I guess I'm just wondering-" Erik was thinking about what he was going to say instead of what he wanted to say because what he wanted to say was ' I'm just wondering when we're going to kiss again.' But what he really does say is.
" I'm just wondering what we were going to do today. " He says and a part of himself tenses rather than eases.
. . .
Erik had been at the ' X mansion ' for a total of two days, the first day was spent sleeping rather than talking. He thought he never felt like talking. Today proved him wrong.
He found that he in fact had so many things to talk about at once and realised later that he barely let Charles say a word. But he couldn't stop, it felt like he hadn't seen Charles in years, even when they had to save the future or whatever, they weren't on good terms.
So that means no talking.
It felt like he finally got his friend back. He didn't know if it was safe to play it just as that.
He assumes that Charles just passed off that kiss as an action that meant nothing. But Erik wouldn't have done it if it didn't. Charles should've heard it, Erik screamed it in his mind.
Charles never answered back.
Erik made do with what he could build now. Because all he needed was his friend back.
" This film can't be all that scary, Erik." Charles said while the title illuminated the screen and the film started.
" I don't know, Charles." Erik looked to the screen with a shit eating grin. " 'The exorcist ' is a pretty sinister title."
" I'm not a wimp, Erik."
" Alright, don't say ' I didn't tell you so'"
" You do know I'm an adult, right?"
They were sitting in a leather sofa close to each other. It might be the only time Charles can relax during the day without his wheelchair.
Erik had an arm around the head of the sofa which just happened to be around Charles shoulders. Not touching his shoulders but available to.
They decided to watch The exorcist during the day with the curtains closed and Charles was offended that it was because Erik thought he'd be frightened easily.
" I'll be fine."
" We'll see."
30 mins later…
The girl’s head turned all the way around in an uncomfortable crunch and she stared to someone off the screen, Erik was wondering how scary it would be if the demonic girl turned the way they were facing as if looking at the camera, at them.
Charles faced him so quickly that Erik thought that his neck would make the same crunch.
" No, don't think that." Charles was jumpy.
Charles had been jumpy the entire film and flinched away from the screen like it wasn’t just the screen.
Imagine if a demon was haunting THIS mansion?
Possessed him to move erratically and use his body as a tool to kill at its own will.
" Stop, Erik."
Crunch.
Erik imagined the sound so clearly in his mind that it gave Charles a jolt of fright.
Erik started twisting erratically like the girl in the movie, and putting his eyes back in his head. Then faced directly to Charles.
" That's not funny, Erik."
Erik didn't move.
" That's still not funny."
Erik still didn't move, his white eyes flickering and pulsing.
" Erik?"
A loud sound erupting from the television made Charles looked towards it and almost jump out of his skin.
But what made him jump out of his skin more was Erik grabbing onto him and pulling him in.
" Aghhhhh." He shrieked and Erik couldn't suppress his laughter. It was the first time he had truly laughed like that since long before he could remember. The sorta laugh that made your sides sore was always the laugh that was worth having. He discovered that now because the bubbly laugh he let out made him feel like, well him.
It was also the first time he had heard Charles screech like that. Everyday he’s discovering new things that make his face burn, and they all seem to come from Charles
" ERIK." Charles yelled out. Squirming slightly under Erik’s arms.
" So you are scared?" Erik asked with a laugh.
" YOU , scared me." Charles retorted, a pout played on his face and Erik felt his face grow warm. As he admitted, he was discovering new things about himself everyday.
" You shouldn't have made it that easy, my telepathic friend." There it was again, that word, friend.
Charles went quiet and it was then that Erik realised that he was shaking slightly. He sympathised more now and decided to give him another shot. Even though it was fucking hilarious.
" Do you want to watch something else?" Erik asked with a less ego- hitting voice.
" Y-yeah." Charles looked to the screen where the girl was now crawling backwards.
" Sorry, what was that?"
" Erik." Charles said sternly, like he was going to break but his voice levelled like it was going to fall , like a massive rock about to fall off a high mountain
" I didn't hear you."
" ERIK TURN IT OFF."
Erik barely had to focus for the television to turn off with a click. though one arm was still around Charles, and neither of them made any effort to move it again.
" What do you want to watch now." Erik tested it " Scaredy cat."
" You scared me." Charles said quietly like he was ashamed of ever being scared of anything.
Erik's arm tightened around him.
Then Charles almost physically lit up a lightbulb.
" What about Gone with the Wind?!" Charles said excitedly.
" Isn't that film hours long?" Erik said groaning.
Charles head bent back so that he saw the entirety of Erik's face from his chin to his hair.
Those blue eyes almost caught Erik in a trance, and right then he was glad he wasn't standing up.
" Why, you got somewhere to be?"
Erik just laughed in return and got up to put the film on.
A while later…
Charles head was resting against Erik's shoulder after a while of watching pure drama and romance go on for two hours or so. Erik didn't know if Charles was awake or not, he just knew he was deathly afraid to move.
The film had his eyes glued to the screen like they had never done before. He doesn't even think he sat down for this long.
The next scene seemed like the one he would remember forever as the background was a warm red and orange and Scarlett and Rhett looked beautifully in love.
Rhett pulled scarlet close so that their bodies left no space between them.
Their entire relationship was violent natured and messy and this scene just changed his entire opinion.
" There's one thing I do know, that is that I love you Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going into pieces around us , I love you. Because we're alike bad luts both of us, selfish and shrewd but able to look things in the eyes and call them by their right knees."
" Dont hold me like that!" Scarlett looked the other way, her eyes closed trying not to see something that will make her heart shatter or melt.
" Scarlett." Rhett pulled her hair back so that her head was thrown backwards and was looking up at him.
" Look at me." Rhett said " I loved you more than I loved any woman , and I've waited longer for you than I've waited for any woman." He kissed her on the forehead.
" Leave me alone!" Scarlett weeped.
" There's a soldier in the south who loves you Scarlett ." Rhett said " Wants to feel you in their arms and carry the memory of your kisses into battle with them. Never mind about loving me, you're a woman sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful memory. "
He looked to her with such love in his eyes that the camera never even existed.
" Scarlett, kiss me." They kissed like it was going to be their last and Erik took it personally. The music swelled in the background, that didn’t make it better.
He felt his throat close and itch and his eyes sting with salt.
So that’s how Charles felt when he left, again and again.
He decided that moving now and seeing if Charles was awake was better than the pain he'd experience looking at the screen.
" Charles?" He looked down to the brown fluff of hair and lightly ruffled it with his spare arm that wasn't holding Charles' weight.
His hair was long now and lightly grazed his bare neck, Erik liked it better this way. Not under pressure of looking perfect but instead looking free and not like his scruffy look and a scratchy- looking beard, the beard was gone and his hair was long and silky like it was always meant to be.
He lightly lifted the head towards him so that he could see his face, and surely enough his eyes were closed , the blue ocean eyes shut out from the world. He looked so peaceful, with his mouth slightly open but not enough to drool or snore, his lips were only slightly parted.
Without even trying Charles was beautiful.
Erik’s entire body warmed up. He had never felt that way before, he guessed that this was the sorta decade where he would experience new feelings good or bad.
He put his free hand on the back of Charles' head and let the other go under his legs and hoisted him up , gently.
He had gotten lighter, which to be honest the last time Erik saw him he didn't look like that helping himself was his favourite thing to do. But something in Erik's heart sank when he lifted his body off the leather sofa.
Charles' face squished up against Erik's chest as they walked up the stairs, and he let it happen even when they made it to his room.
He managed to keep a hand firm around him so that he could open the covers and tuck Charles under. He pulled the duvet over him and stood there admiring until it became creepy.
He wished that he could stay here, not where he was standing but as close to Charles as his shirt was. He wanted to be his skin, he wanted to be close enough so that he could be called his. He wasted those ten years of his life, now he wanted them back. Maybe he didn't know back then how to even properly spend ten years, now he did.
He wanted to spend his entire life with Charles. Whether it was good or bad, it was Charles and Charles was everything.
Charles is a good person, it was Erik that made him question that. But Erik wants to be good too, deep down he knows… thats what Charles felt that day.
" There's so much more to you than you know, not just pain and anger, there's good too I've felt it." The only reason why Charles felt that was because Charles was there.Thats what made Erik good.
You can’t change the way people are. But you can change how they are around you. That’s what Charles did.
Charles was the good. Charles could be anything without Erik. But Erik could be nothing good without Charles.
" Erik?" A small voice ached with exhaustion. " How'd… I get here?"
Erik was thrown off guard by the diamond eyes that caught him so in place even though they're relaxed and minimised to tiny slits.
" I-I carried you." Erik toyed with the collar of his turtleneck.
" Oh." Was all he said until his eyes sparked like a lightbulb being switched on. " How was Gone with the wind?"
Erik felt his throat tighten.
" Didn't finish it."
Charles lowered his eyebrows in an angry expression.
Erik knew Charles thought that he looked stern but in reality he looked closer to an angry cat than to an angry man.
Erik only smiled and decided to cut this interaction short.
" Goodnight." Erik turned to leave.
" Wait!" Charles exclaimed loudly.
Erik turned to meet Charles' fearful eyes, and he already guessed before he said it.
" What if I get possessed?"
Erik smiled and without a second though climbed into the queen size bed beside Charles.
" You're such a wimp." Erik said through breathy laughs.
" I am not."
" Yes, you are."
They were both looking at each other on opposite sides of the mattress.
The old mansion creaked while they were in silence , and Charles flinched and his eyes flashed with alert. Erik is glad that he hadn’t left so soon.
Eriks hand made a slow move towards Charles. He was watching it as it came closer to him, not In fear, he never flinched away. But in curiousity of what would happen next.
The hand that reached out turned to Erik entire arm wrapping around Charles and pulling him in to Erik's chest.
Charles' breaths came even then.
" We can keep the light on if you want." Erik closed his eyes basking himself in the feeling of Charles on him.
The last word that came out the other man's mouth that night was :
" Thank you."
Erik still felt like he never deserved that kindness.
The kindness that was Charles.