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Charles was pulled from the soft grip of sleep by someone's consciousness pressing against the edges of his shields strongly enough to ping his attention. Fear climbed up his belly as he struggled to push himself onto his elbows while he pressed back against the mind edging along his consciousness, horrible, terrifying thoughts of being attacked rushing through him and blinding him with panic. They didn’t have students yet, not while they were still planning out the school, but Charles knew there were some out there who’d heard of what he was doing and disapproved.
He didn’t want his dream to end before it even began. Panic kept building until finally he was awake enough to recognize a thought pattern he would never forget.
Erik, he pressed forward subconsciously, the name echoing through his mind as he let himself sort through the familiar expanse of Erik's lovely, familiar psyche.
Charles pushed himself out of his bed and transferred himself into his chair sloppily as he dug through Erik's mind to find everything that had changed, shamelessly looking through his memories and sorting through his thoughts, unable and unwilling to hold himself back if Erik was letting him in. And oh, how Erik was letting him in. As Charles got himself into his chair and pulled a blanket off the end of his bed and over his lap, Erik beautifully opened up his mind for Charles to sort through.
It was easy work to get himself out of his bedroom and start wheeling towards where he could feel Erik, who had only just moments ago entered the mansion. From a glimpse at Erik's memory, it was clear that he had been waiting outside the front door until Charles started sifting through his mind, at which point he considered it safe to enter. You will always be safe here, Charles projected fiercely, ignoring a twinge of hurt that Erik could have ever thought otherwise.
I know that you would never turn me away, but it's difficult to believe I deserve to be here, Erik pressed back, and Charles could feel his mind forming another thought that he was going to project onward until the moment Erik made sense of the large metal shape that was moving towards him and what that must have meant.
Charles soothed over the sudden grief with a soft brush of his mind to keep Erik calm. The next time he went to push his chair he found that he didn't have to, and he rolled his eyes even as he settled his hands neatly in his lap while his chair moved down the hall, guided solely by Erik’s mutation.
He let out a long breath as he was wheeled through the halls. He knew that Erik was waiting for him with a nervous apprehension climbing up his belly and making his heart race just as quickly as Charles' was. Well, at least he wasn't the only nervous about seeing the other after so many months spent apart. As much as Charles wanted to feel angry about the way Erik had left him...he couldn't, not now, not when he could see just how terrified Erik had been following his interaction with Shaw and how horribly trapped he'd felt before he locked Charles out.
That day hadn't been a good one for either of them. They’d both made decisions they regretted deeply. It was clear to him now that he was in Erik’s mind that he wasn’t the only one who regretted what happened that horrible day on the beach. Now that Erik was here, Charles didn't think that any of those decisions truly mattered, not when he was certain they were coming back together.
Charles' chair turned around the very last corner before the front room where Erik was waiting for him, and Charles’ heart was beating out of his chest as apprehension climbed up his throat and made it difficult to breathe. He watched himself approach through Erik’s gaze and felt the overwhelming appreciation that outweighed any of the guilt brought up by seeing the chair.
Erik was there on his knees, hands already reaching out and drawing Charles in. Their palms slid together easily, without a single second of hesitation despite all they'd been through and all they hadn't been through, as Erik had left him alone on that beach. It was impossible to do anything other than tangle their fingers together and hold on tightly, his hands shaking but steady in Erik's sure grip as he looked into a pair of eyes he never thought that he would see again.
“I am so, so sorry,” Erik whispered, the sincerity of his words echoing loudly through his mind and impossible for Charles to miss or ignore.
He leaned forward until he could rest their foreheads together. Their minds were already so intermingled that the press of their skin just echoed the connection they already had. It’s not alright, Charles projected honestly, moving in so their lips brushed together as he said, “But it’s a start, and that’s all we need.”