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Charles was nearly asleep when he heard the knocking against his door. It was a quiet rasping of knuckles against wood that slowly pulled him from the soft clutches of rest until he was blinking his eyes open as he sat up in bed. Grumbling to himself, he cast his eyes to his window to find that it was definitely night, and then cast his thoughts further through the room until they brushed over the familiar consciousness standing outside his bedroom door.
You can come in, Erik, he projected, sending along a thread of confusion over why Erik hadn't just entered his room like he'd down countless nights over the last handful of weeks.
Erik opened the door slowly, starting by only sticking his head into the room. His mind lit up with arousal-laced-appreciation at seeing Charles sprawled out in bed, and he huffed out a laugh as he fell back onto his mattress. What do you want? he asked, jaw cracking with a yawn.
Erik moved the rest of the way into the room, and Charles noted that he was fully dressed in tight-fitting pants and a turtleneck. A good look on him, for how it showed off his incredibly long frame. Even if he was slightly annoyed at being disturbed when he was finally just falling asleep, he couldn't stop the way his eyes appreciatively tracked over Erik's fame.
Just as Charles was about to ask what in heaven's name Erik needed of him, the other man took a deep breath and squared up his shoulders.
“Come with me?” Erik asked him with a wide grin that showed all his teeth. There was a gleam in his eyes that seemed manically happy, though Charles still huffed out a breath as he rolled out of bed and left the thought of sleep behind.
“What is that has you so excited at such a time of night?” Charles asked him as he pulled on a pair of pants before doing a quick scan of his floor to see if there was a shirt to toss on.
A soft, plush sweater hit him in the head. Charles made a face as he grabbed the fabric and pulled it far enough away from his face to see what it was, nose scrunching in confusion when it was a sweater. “Wear that.” Erik's demand was clipped with short words, but a quick look at his very surface thoughts showed that it was because he was embarrassed.
Face smoothing out into a soft smile, Charles tugged the sweater over his head and found that it was the slightest bit too big with its sleeves falling to the beginnings of his fingers. He liked it, liked it even more that it smelt like Erik, and liked it even more for the way Erik smiled at him when their eyes met. Rolling his eyes he pressed forward with, You're a ridiculous man, even if his heart was fluttering.
Erik inclined his head in agreement and grinned at him charmingly. Goodness, but he was an attractive man.
“Do you trust me?” Erik asked him heavily. Charles sucked in a sharp breath as the air between them seemed to grow taut with tension.
After a long moment of silence that seemed to drag on forever, he said, “Yes. Of course I do,” so certainly that the truth in his words was undeniable, and found that it shocked him just as much as it seemingly shocked Erik by the widening of his eyes.
Erik nodded, said a firm sounding, “Alright,” and then he held out his hand without saying anything else.
There was nothing for Charles to do but take his hand and lace their fingers together. It felt a bit strange, seeing as they'd never held hands before, but Charles followed after Erik as he took them from his room, the door closing behind them. As nice as holding Erik's hand was, it was a nicety they were only allowed within the walls of the mansion and they both knew it, but Charles squeezed his hand back and allowed them that peace.
Charles opened his mouth to question what the hell Erik thought he was doing when he was lead out the doors that opened onto the back patio, but he bit his tongue and kept the question down when Erik shot him a wide, shining smile. Clearly, there was something that he was excited for, incredibly so, and Charles didn't want to take his fun away. There were very few times where either of them got to have any amount of downtime with the way they were planning and training and trying to whip the children up into some sort of battle-ready shape.
They were busy, preparing for something none of them were ready for—not even Erik, no matter what he thought—as they did their best to get ready for the coming threat, and there hadn't been much time for smiles or laughter. If Erik was this excited about something, Charles wasn't going to bring him down. They walked a few feet out onto the lawn, until they were far enough from the house that the light above the door no longer reached them. It was still bright; this far out into the country, the sky was an endless expanse of twinkling stars, the moon full and bright.
Charles turned to Erik and raised an eyebrow when he found the man was already watching him. The hand not tangled in his grabbed his hip and pulled him forward, wrapping around his back once they were pressed together. Charles smiled up at him, pressing his confusion along the edges of Erik's mind as Erik leaned down and kissed him. Erik kept kissing him, so Charles let himself get lost in it, settling his own hand against the back of Erik's neck to keep him in place as they traded sweet kisses.
After a few long minutes, Erik pulled back enough to rest their foreheads together and said, “Thank you for coming out with me.”
“Of course,” Charles told him, as he already knew there were very few places he wouldn't follow Erik to. “Can I ask why we're out here?”
Erik nodded, and then stepped around Charles before hugging him from behind and resting his chin on Charles' shoulder. He could feel Erik's stubble brush against his cheek before his lips smoothed over the skin warmly, and Erik's voice was soft when he said, “I wanted to see you in the moonlight.”
“You ridiculous romantic,” Charles accused, but he let the overwhelming surge of emotions building within his chest bleed over into Erik's mind so he would know exactly how Charles was feeling without having to put the tremendous amount of feelings into words that neither of them was anywhere ready for.
“Thank you,” Erik told him, and through the link between their minds, Charles heard all the things he was thanking him for: for pulling me from the water, for showing me I wasn't alone, for giving me a home, for being that home.
Charles nodded, covering Erik's hands with his own and linking their fingers together over his stomach. He rested back against Erik's chest, trusting Erik to support some of his weight as a soft smile crossed his lips. He looked up at the moon, shining down on them spectacularly, and committed this moment to memory.