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Charles was resting tiredly in his chair, head leaning on his hand as he looked unseeingly at his chessboard. There was a game halted in motion, only half a board of pieces remaining and all awaiting a turn that was never going to come. Charles could remember the way he'd insisted he and Erik start playing a game the morning before leaving for Cuba, using Erik's mutation to move their pieces from his bed as they tried to ignore the impending reality neither of them wanted to face.
So much had gone wrong that day. It haunted Charles' dreams on the nights he slept and kept him awake for hours on end the nights he didn't. Grief and sorrow were strongly featured during those nights, and despite himself, Charles often found himself mourning all the things that he lost on that wretched beach.
Charles was pulled from his thoughts as his bedroom doors swung open without a touch. He looked up to the doorway and tried for a smile, knowing immediately it'd fallen flat by the look on Erik's face. Erik--one of the few things he'd kept that day, while his sister and his dreams of the future and his legs had all slipped through his gasp--stood in the doorway in a pair of joggers and a soft-looking sweater. Charles thought him the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
His lover strode directly towards him, and Erik's rough palms tickled the skin of his cheeks and made him shiver as he cupped Charles' face. “Liebling, what's wrong?” Erik asked him seriously, looking into his eyes with a mask of concern covering his face that echoed through his mind sincerely.
Charles shrugged, and he knew the smile he gave was full of melancholy. He leaned up, pushing himself against the armrests of his chair to brush their lips together, humming happily when Erik's stubble caught against his cupid's bow. Nothing's wrong, Charles pressed into his mind, as he didn't want the slide of their lips to end.
They kissed slowly, Erik bent over to keep their lips pressed together. Charles wrapped his fingers around Erik's forearm and ran the tips of his fingers lightly over his taut skin. Humming happily, Charles let his mouth fall open as Erik kissed him deeper, fingering through Charles' hair. He let the kiss draw on and on, cupping Erik's elbows as he opened their mind-link so their pleasure echoed between them.
“This is a lovely hello,” Charles commented breathlessly, their lips brushing together as he spoke.
“The only greeting you deserve,” Erik told him sweetly, moving his hands to the arms of Charles' chair as he levelled their eyes out, giving Charles a piercing stare. “Now don't think I've forgotten what I came here for just because you're an excellent kisser. What was bothering you?”
Charles' eyes cut over to the chessboard without any thought of his own, and Erik bussed a kiss to his cheek as his own eyes cut across the room. He felt Erik's lips twitch into a smile against his face, and a fond brush of memories washed over him from Erik's mind.
“Perhaps we should start a new game?” Erik asked him, a strand of hope laced through his voice and shining brightly in their shared mind-space. His eyes, when Charles looked into them, were filled with a swirling emotion that Charles took for love, and he felt a genuine smile tug at his lips even as he pulled Erik down onto his lap.
Erik laughed, wrapping his arms around Charles' neck and raising an eyebrow. Charles grinned at him, pressing forward a series of plans he intended on following through on before they started a game of chess, and said, “We can start a new game after I'm satisfied.”