Work Text:
There’s an all night cinema on the corner from Charles’ dorm room and he’s excited. He’s not even been away from his parents for more than three months, but everything is still new and happy and he can’t even hold in his glee. Raven, bless her for toddling after him and transferring schools, looks up from her book and frowns at him.
“Stop projecting.” Her voice is stern, but full of endearment. “You’ll miss your awful re-mastered piece of trash.” Her smile is ear to ear as Charles scoffs at her and grabs his coat.
“How dare you! This movie is a classic and if you didn’t have a final, I’d be forcing you to go.” Charles kisses her on the cheek and then grabs his keys. “I’ll see you at five. Try and sleep, even if it’s just an hour.” He watches her smile and go back to her book.
A two dollar movie is perfect to take the stress off of his mind. Also, getting out of this dorm building with all the thoughts and terrors of finals is a must. He hates being a telepath during finals.
--
It’s two dollar night and they’re showing the re-mastered version of Gone With The Wind. Erik has seen it about a dozen times and it never gets old, but he really shouldn’t see it tonight. Janos is glaring at him from across the table because he’s trying, and failing, to bully Erik into sleep. They’ve got tests in the morning, and neither of them is going to be awake enough to make coffee. The whole of campus will suffer.
“You have seen it enough to recite.” Janos tells him.
“And you’ve seen Sucker Punch that many more.” Erik counters, and Janos’ glare changes.
“But it is very good.” Janos protests, even as Erik knows he’s won. He stands and begins to gather his things, and Janos just pouts at him. “We will get Starbucks, yes? When you come home?” Erik just nods without really paying attention. His keys and change are flying around his head as he runs out of the apartment.
--
The cinema is cramped to the nines and Charles knows that if he hadn’t of gotten here early he’d have been out of a seat. He hasn’t even bothered to get popcorn or a drink, all the excitement too busy floating about in his head. Everyone’s mind is muttering, and he can hear each and every thought as if this entire room was whispering into his ear.
All he wants is for the lights to dim and the previews to roll so the commotion will halt. The group in the aisle come in screaming and Charles winces, clutching the arm rest next to him. Someone walks by and there’s an odd scrapping sound. Charles whimpers and the person stops, backing up quickly as if stumbling.
He comes into Charles’ view and says something out loud, but Charles can’t hear it at first. The voices roar up, but he has to force them aside when the man taps his shoulder again.
“Tell me you’re alright.” Blue eyes and an accent so sweet it’s almost painful. The stranger is gorgeous and Charles’ focuses on him to drown everyone else out. “I take it you’re a telepath?” Charles nods and the man smiles. All teeth and a sort of creepy endearment.
“How ever did you guess?” Charles doesn’t mean for it to come out as cranky as it does, but his head is ready to explode. The stranger motions toward the seat, asking to sit without a word, and Charles nods.
A hand remains on his shoulder even as the stranger settles. “I grew up with one in foster care. You learn to tell when one is in distress or you suffer for it.” The stranger roots around in his pockets and sets a drink on the armrest between them. He pulls out three silver balls and begins rolling them around on the fingers of his right hand.
‘I’m Erik.’ The thought is simple, not too far away but close enough that it doesn’t sound like an irritating whisper. Charles wants to reach out and squeeze the mans hand in thanks, but he doesn’t have the time. The lights dim and they both turn to the screen, leaning back in sync. ‘I hope you don’t mind my mindless quoting. Gone With The Wind is a favorite of mine.’
Charles grips the hand in his; he could kiss this man. ‘I don’t mind at all.’
--
Charles finds that while he adores quoting the ever lovely Scarlet, Erik is so much better. He whispers and thinks the lines with conviction that rocks Charles to the core. He’s never felt so much passion for this movie roll off of another person, he’s thought he was the only one all this time. They huddle together and before they know it they’re sharing the drink, mumbling the lines and sighing at the most appropriate of scenes.
At one point Charles gets so caught up he reaches out, both mind and hand just to latch onto something familiar. Erik squeezes his fingers and doesn’t even flinch, his mind nudging Charles gently. He’s just on the surface, just outside anything other than directed thought. His presence does get nudged out, but there’s an open spot for him to huddle in if he needs to.
Charles ends up doing it three more times, asking before each nudge. Erik practically claws him in, wrapping him in… something each time he settles just on the edge of Erik’s mind. It’s so blissfully quiet there, only the feedback of the movie and Erik’s raw emotional anchor of love for this film. The feeling is so sweet, so wonderfully warm against his scratched raw thoughts. Erik is making him so happy, he could just die.
His hand gets squeezed extra tight. ‘You’re projecting your emotions, my friend. I know we both share the same love for this masterpiece, but I must ask you to reel back.’ Charles can feel every ounce of his embarrassment swell up and he checks each of his locks. They are all tight, undeterred from their purpose. He frowns in confusion as Erik mutters the lines and leans closer to Charles.
Heat and warmth and… oh goodness. Goodness. Charles isn’t projecting his own emotions. He’s echoing Erik’s.
When Erik squeezes his hand and smiles at Charles in the dark, Charles has to double lock himself because wow, his heart just skipped a beat. Charles looks back at the screen and sighs.
“I can’t go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.” He mutters along with Rhett. Erik hums happily and god does he want nothing more than to throw himself across the chair into Erik’s lap. Charles realizes that he is the worst and doesn’t even care.
--
Erik keeps getting waves off Charles, all of it simple stuff like delight, excitement, a long suffering sigh before Charles can even let it go. It’s sweet and makes his chest flutter. The last time he’d been around a telepath she cheerfully admitted she wasn’t his biggest fan, but she’d still run to him first when she’d needed help. Her telepathy was cold and trembling, sharp as a knife when she couldn’t control it. Charles’ telepathy was nothing like Emma’s though, while it was still scared it was also warm and inviting.
His power felt bigger but refined, like it was built out of century old bricks and concrete. Immovable to Erik, but still a solid force to lean against. Everything about him was so old school, so wonderfully perfect and riveting. He had never been more excited to be at a two dollar movie than he was right now. Janos was going to kill him. There was no way he’d be getting them Starbucks.
--
Five in the morning rolls around and the cinema clears of people, but most had left halfway through the movie when they couldn’t stop yawning. Erik stays through the entire feature and even helps Charles up so they can stretch. They both end up lingering outside the building, arms hugging their chests in the chill.
“That was so wonderful.” Charles tells him, even though he’s shivering. The temperature seems to be dropping again, and all Charles wants to do is wrap himself up and head home. Then again that’s not true. He wants to stay and talk to Erik. Which is slightly alarming, now that he thinks about it. He’s only known the man as long as Gone With The Wind, but even that feels like more than enough.
“Yes, it really was.” Erik smiles and taps his foot on the ground, as if he’s nervous, “hey, are you… doing anything after this?” Charles has to sleep for a class that he’s going to have a test in.
“No! Nothing. Are you?” Raven is going to hang him by his toes from the roof of their building.
Erik beams at him and Charles decides he doesn’t give a fuck. Pardon his French. “Do you want to get breakfast with me?” Erik asks him, and it might be forward, but god help him.
“I would love to.” Charles feels his heart flutter. “Let’s also exchange numbers, in case we want to do this again.”
--
Erik never brings Janos that Starbucks.
--
“Charles.” Raven is sitting at the kitchen table when he finally makes it home after class, and he wants to tell her not now, but she’s got a look on her face that says otherwise. He would give anything to sleep right about now, but instead he walks toward the table. “You didn’t come home last night.” He should feel guilty.
“No, no I believe I did not.” He doesn’t.
Raven sighs and leans over the table, poking his wrist. “You’re about to pass out, aren’t you?” He nods and she actually smirks. “Brilliant, this is the perfect time to tell you then.” His eyes are closing slowly when he hums for her to continue, pulling out a chair as he lowers himself into the seat. “I’m pregnant.”
Charles misses the chair and hits his head on the corner table.
--
Janos hits him with three different text books when he finally wakes up in the infirmary, and each of them hurts far too much. Erik didn’t have a single problem taking his finals, in fact he’s sure he aced them, but getting down the steps after they were turned in happened to be disastrous. His friend is cursing at him in Spanish, then shoving air in his face until he feels satisfied.
“You owe me coffee.” Janos says bitterly, then puts his textbook down. “Now why the fuck were you not home after that movie?” Erik just sighs and flops back on the bed.
“Would you believe me if I told you I think I’m in love?” He listens to Janos scoff. “He’s got the most beautiful eyes, and he says groovy. Who in their right mind still says that?” Janos leans over and squints at him in confusion. “And he loved watching Gone With The Wind. He wants to go see something next week, we’re thinking Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Janos makes this noise and pushes back from the bed.
His arms are crossed when Janos looks over. “You have either hit your head enough to be delusional, or you have finally found the only other human being on this planet that is as dysfunctional as you.” Janos waited, then groaned. “Oh god, you have found your soul mate.” Erik sighs and starts patting his pockets for his phone.
“I’m going to text him.”
--
“Charles? Charles are you awake?” Raven waves a hand in front of his face and her brother groans. “Your phone got a message while you were out. Here.” She passes it over and Charles blinks at it in confusion. It takes him a moment to figure out what the words mean, but then he’s grinning and covering his face while his phone falls to the pillow.
Raven pokes him a few times until he looks over at her, still grinning. “Don’t start.” He complains, and Raven just smiles at him. “I have had a long day and you can’t judge me.” Raven smiles and pushes hair out of his face with an indulgent huff.
“You fainted when I told you I was pregnant.” Raven whispers. Charles groans, then stares at her before covering his face again. “I felt that. I’ve got no reason to lie to you.” She gives him a gentle shove. “You’ve known I’ve wanted a child, and you know I’ve been looking for a donor ever since I turned twenty.” Charles groans louder at her.
“I don’t have to meet him, do I?” He asks, peering through his fingers.
“Of course you do.” She scolded before patting his cheek. “He’s really sweet, and not interested in me, so you don’t have to worry about me running off with him. We met at a P. M. M. four months ago, and he’s a teleporter. We go out to dinner on Thursday’s-”
“That’s where you go on Thursday’s?” Charles stares at her in shock. She’d been telling him she had night classes.
“And,” she cut in, “he agreed to be my donor on the simple condition that he gets to help me name the baby. Also that he can get pictures, but that’s nothing to worry about. He signed a form and we went to a clinic together three and a half months ago.” She smiled and Charles made this strangled noise.
“You only knew him for two and a half weeks before you let him knock you up?” He felt all the oxygen leave his lungs.
“Charles, calm down or you’ll pass ou- oh not again. Stop passing out from telepathic overload.”
--
Erik is in a class when his phone starts blowing up. The teacher ends up kicking him out of the class and he loses his mind. He looks over his phone after stuffing everything into his bag and then feels his eyebrows shoot up in alarm. Two dollar movie night guy has texted him about twelve times. He doesn’t even bother reading them, he just calls.
The stranger picks up and instantly sounds frantic. “I know this might not be appropriate, but I am so glad you called! I needed to talk to someone other than my sister because she’s the main reason I’m even calling. Not that I’m calling because you called, but-”
“Hey, you’re getting away from yourself,” Erik mutters, “I need you to breath my friend.” He waits, listening to the other man breath. It takes a while, but he can hear him count and sigh. “Better?” The other man hums. “Good, now in small words, tell me why the world is ending.” He smiles when the other man laughs.
“I am dreadfully sorry,” he sighs once again, “alright, my sister decided she wanted to have a baby and suddenly she’s pregnant.” Erik lets him blather and smiles as he walks toward the parking lot. The other man just keeps talking, and Erik keeps listening in on the stream of worries and frustrations. It’s cute how concerned he is, but it’s even sweeter that his first thought was to contact Erik of all people.
They didn’t really know one another though, and it was slightly concerning, but he still thought it was sweet. “My friend, may I interrupt you?” He asks when the other man draws in a breath. He pauses, then smiles when the other man makes a noise for him to continue. “Your sister is perfectly capable of making her own choices, it sounds like you’re scared of losing her and it’s causing you to overreact. I’ll bet you anything you’re projecting right now, your neighbors must be rather miffed at you.” The other man whined and Erik heard a thunk.
He must have hit his head on a desk or something. “I am an idiot. A scared, frustrated idiot.” The man says, then laughs. “Well, while I’m on a roll, do you want to cut class and go get dinner with me? A date like dinner?” Erik tries not to choke.
“We’ve known each other for-”
“I know,” The man cut him off quickly, “it can be a friend date. Or not a date, or whatever, we could just-”
“Away from yourself.” Erik reminded him. The other man sighed, though it was pleasant this time. “Anyway, I would love to go to dinner with you, where to?” The other man made a happy noise
“How would you like to get some tea and biscuits?” Erik smirks.
“God yes.”
--
Charles and Erik spent the next four months getting tea and seeing movies together, and it was fucking perfect. Every single day was amazing and nothing could make him diminish the giant crush he had on Erik.
And then Raven started throwing up on everything.
--
Around the fifth month of Erik knowing two dollar movie guy, Janos wanted to kill him. He hadn’t gotten laid in over half a year and yes he was taking it out on his roommate, but he was a very sexual person and he had needs! All Janos wanted to do was fuck someone or get fucked by someone, and all Erik wanted to do was lament about some mystery douche bag that Erik refused to name.
He was out there probably getting laid and Janos was stuck here unable to catch anyone’s eye.
At least he had passed his classes… god damn it he was going to jerk off again.
--
Erik says ‘I love you’ the day Raven goes into labor. Two dollar movie guy screams in both excitement and fear, apparently labor effects telepaths with sympathy emotions. They all end up ushering Raven into Janos’ car and get her to the hospital while she screams into her phone.
“Yes, the baby is coming now, get to the hospital!” She ends up breaking two of Erik’s fingers with her contractions before the donor shows up and she proceeds to turn his hand into a stress ball.
Erik commends Raven on her taste in features, Azazel is attractive. The red skin really makes him pop, but he‘s nothing compared to her brother.
Two dollar movie guy ends up screaming at him more than once in place of Raven, since she can barely string two words together. Janos just keeps feeding her ice until the doctor comes in and tries to make them all leave.
--
Raven has broken two of Erik’s fingers and keeps screaming and projecting things into his head, most of it pleas for the pain to stop. Charles wants to kill Azazel, but he knows it’s only because Raven is in pain and they hadn’t given her pain killers yet. When the doctor finally comes in, Janos does something that causes someone to shout and Charles has to shut everyone down.
He plants enough suggestions in everyone’s mind to shut them up, then watches as his sister becomes a mother and holds the cutest screaming ball of blue in the world.
“Oh, he is lovely.” Erik tells her, petting Raven’s hair as she kisses her baby. The nurse takes him to be measured and weighed, and Azazel squeezes her hand one last time as the rest of it is finished. She projects how there are far too many people in the room, and Charles forces nearly everyone to leave and wait in the hall.
When the nurse finally places a swaddled baby in her arms and asks for a name, she turns to Azazel and he smiles. “Kurt.” He says, and then brushes hair away from the infants forehead.
“You’re lucky to have a father so dedicated.” The nurse says as she writes something on a chart.
“Oh, I am not the father,” Charles narrows his eyes at him, ready to rip into his mind, “This boy is Raven’s. Just the way she wanted it.” Charles instead sends waves of gratitude toward him and relaxes in the chair across the room.
--
They have been playing pass the baby for an hour, and now they’re all hungry. Raven’s already gotten to the point of breast feeding and calmly telling them all she’ll rip their throats out with her feet if they don’t leave and get food, so Erik ushers them downstairs. All four of them are huddled around a table in the cafeteria, clutching coffee cups and shaking slightly. They’re all a bit rattled.
“So…” Azazel’s voice is low, “how do you two know Raven? I know that Charles is her brother, but-”
“Ha!” Janos lets out a startled sound and it makes Azazel halt. “I knew you had a name! You could not remain ‘my dearest’ forever.” He took a long sip of his coffee and Azazel just stares at him.
“Your name is Charles?” Erik asks, and Janos chokes. Azazel quickly pats his back with his tail.
“Yes my love, but you’ve known that since we first met.” Charles sets his cup down as Erik raises one eyebrow.
“No, I dare say I’ve never been told your name.”
Janos looked like he was ready to dump his coffee on the both of them. “How? You two have been together for months!” Charles watched him shake, then sent a wave of ease. “Do not do that, you both infuriate me.” Janos spat. Azazel sighs, hand scooping under Janos’ arm.
“Come, you need whiskey.” He mutters, and Janos doesn’t even fight as they walk toward the exit. Charles rubs the back of his neck, looking up at Erik in confusion.
“I could have sworn I told you, but why didn’t you ask? Janos’ is right, it’s been months.” He asks. Erik just smiles and lean in to kiss him.
“Because, my darling, I’ve never needed a name to see the face of the man I fell in love with for two dollars.” Charles flushed and groaned before he leaned in to kiss him.
--
“They are awful! Did you know they met through a shitty movie?” Janos slurred from the roof of… god only knew.
“I believe Raven told me something of the sort.” Azazel mutters, not as bad off as Janos but getting there.
“Neither of them like anything sensible.” Janos knew he was slipping into Spanish, but he is too frustrated to care. “They do not even like Sucker Punch.”
Azazel made a noise of distress. “How dare they. That movie is a masterpiece.” His tail lashes out once before he grunts in surprise when Janos throws his arms around him in a hug.
“I am going to kiss you.” Janos warns. “And I am drunk, so I apologize.” He would have continued, but Azazel was already lowering them to the gravel as they began to kiss.
--
It’s two dollar movie night and they’re playing Gone With The Wind the night Erik sees Charles at the end of the aisle. Only this time, they’re not watching the movie.
They might quote the lines, but when they hold each others hands it’s because they’re married now. No more silly flirting, just them.
“And look, I don’t even have to wait for you between husbands.” Charles whispers as he leans in to kiss Erik.