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Charles leaned against the frame of the tall window. The bright light of the morning illuminating the books lining the numerous shelves. When he'd woken up in an unfamiliar, nice bed a few days earlier, he hadn't imagined it would leave him here. In a lovely library, inside a lovely house, owned by…
Pushing down the surge of heat suffusing his body, Charles picked up a well-read copy of Darwin's Origin of the Species. Considering that it had only been five years since the book had been published, this copy had been read and re-read multiple times. A copy of the book that had fueled his own research, his own studies. Half of London's scientific upper crust had laughed at Charles' theories, while the others had at least listened to him. Enough for him to earn a grant to do his studies.
It had also lead him to the young Hispanic man who had, with a wave of his wrist, somehow thrown Charles into the cold and murky waters of the nearby river. He was unsure for how long he'd been in it, torn along its currents as he'd been half unconscious. His current host had apparently dragged his sorry carcass out of the cold water and cared for him.
Or at least had his staff of the manor care for him.
Charles wasn't sure it was good for him to imagine the tall, handsome Lord Lehnsherr caring for him. In bed. Personally.
"Mr. Xavier," Lehnsherr greeted him as he entered the library, stopping just inside the door. "I was wondering if I might find you here."
"I am feeling a little restless, my Lord," Charles admitted, taking in the man's impeccably dressed appearance.
Lehnsherr raised an eyebrow when he noticed what Charles was holding. "You said you were a man of science, Mr. Xavier, pray tell, how do you feel about Darwin's findings and publishings?"
Charles opened his mouth to answer, then shut it. He made a conscious effort to never read people. Yet, he got the indistinct impression that, however he answered this, it would define his future relationship with his new acquaintance.
So, instead of going off like he'd normally do, Charles took a moment to consider the situation. Was he not a perfect example of mankind evolving? Had he not witness one or two other people who would fit this description perfectly as well? Including the man who had dropped him so rudely in the cold water of the river?
"I find the school of Darwin more than interesting in general." Charles stared unseeingly at the leather bound cover of the book. "From the moment I first read it, I realized that while they are theories, and thus can be questioned, they made my own observations and ponderings seem less far fetched and in many ways, they put me on the path I am now following."
"Ah yes, I did enquire about you with a few friends in London," Lehnsherr said, carefully careless in his tone, though Charles wasn't fooled.
"And what did they say?" Charles was curious. While Darwin divided waters, Charles had made it boil occasionally with his ideas. Too bad he couldn't use his own ability as an example - he'd be branded a charlatan or worse yet, incarcerated and seen as a danger. People might think him naive, but he wasn't a fool.
"They did tell me that you had some wildly exotic ideas about human evolution, making Darwin's theories seems perfectly sane compared." Lehnsherr's serious demeanor lightened a little. "However one of them mentioned that your theories might be very much in my interest."
Charles almost asked how, why, then stopped himself. "I thought your interests lay mostly in metals and modern engineering," he said instead. He tried not to sound too inquisitive.
Lehnsherr, leaned against the door. "Do you remember nothing at all from the moment I pulled you from the watery grave?"
Charles almost said no, then caught images that were most definitely not his own. "You were dry!" It escaped him in a moment of clarity. "How did you get me out of the water without…"
"You said you didn't remember," Lehnsherr said, now sounding a little on edge, his pale eyes darkening a little, almost as an omen, a warning.
"I don't," Charles admitted. He caught another image, this time even more sure that Lehnsherr was doing it on purpose. This time it was of him being lifted out of the water - nothing touching him, as his unconscious body drifted from the water to the muddy shore. "How did you know I'd-" Charles cut himself off.
"That you could see the moment in my memories?" Lehnsherr stepped forward, and suddenly his nonthreatening demeanor vanished like dew before the sunlight. "You were in my head, I felt like I was drowning when I rode by the river that day."
Charles stared at him. "I guess it makes sense, I was panicking, probably barely conscious-" he broke off, staring at Lehnsherr, trying to swallow through the bile suddenly rising in his throat.
Instead of staring at him in disgust or distrust as the few people Charles had ever shared his secret with had, Lehnsherr seemed to relax. His looming attitude seemed to drain away and left was the man who, while reserved, seemed like a genuinely good and trustworthy man.
"Can you pick thoughts from my brain?" he asked curiously.
Charles blinked in surprise. Should he go the road of truth? Could he afford it?
Lehnsherr sighed deeply, raised his hand and waved it at the orrery on desk in the corner. The metal balls representing the solar system's planets detached themselves from their sockets and rose into the air, following each other like pearls on a string as they sailed around Charles' head, then hovered in a cluster over Lehnsherr's hand. To only shoot back to their sockets and reattach themselves as if they had never been moved in the first place.
"I don't know how powerful I am," Charles blurted out. "I could hear people's thoughts from a young age."
"How can you, a man of science, not have tested your limits?" Lehnsherr looked and sounded less stiff now.
"Because I frighten myself, sometimes," Charles admitted, sinking back to lean against the window sill. "I would dearly like to know my limits, but I am afraid to experiment because it would involve sharing my secret with other people."
Lehnsherr stepped closer, this time there was nothing menacing about his body language. By far, it now carried a touch of eagerness in the set of his shoulders, the shine of his eyes. He even lifted one hand, almost as if he was going to touch Charles. "Would you be amenable to sharing with me, to allowing me to offer my connections and not inconsiderable wealth in the quest for such knowledge. In the search to find if there are more of us."
Charles stared at him for a moment. "Why would you make such an enticing offer, my Lord?"
"I refuse to believe that you and I are the only ones, and I feel science can give me a lot of the answers I seek." Lehnherr had stepped close enough to touch in his eagerness.
"You wish to find more like us," Charles clarified.
"Yes, and I want us to be as much as we possibly can be," Lehnsherr explained. "Darwin found that the stronger genes survive, I can only wonder if we are the next step in human evolution."
'Or an aberration,' Charles wondered to himself, but Lehnsherr's enthusiasm was catching. "The question is if you would want what we find to be shared with the Queen's scientific London," he argued.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Lehnsherr said with a wave of the hand, then let it sink down to rest on Charles' arm.
Such a breach of etiquette, though one Charles wouldn't' dream of commenting on. It felt as if the touch was searing heat through his shirt.
"We form a special branch of evolution and society, you and I, Mr. Xavier. Can you truly say, as the scientist you are, that you are not the least bit curious."
Charles licked his lips, feeling the rasp of their dryness against his tongue. He didn't miss the flash of heat in Lehnsherr's eyes as he followed the movement.
"I get the feeling, Mr. Lehnsherr, that if we do indeed embark down this unknown road," Charles warned, "we may not like the reception we will get when we get to the end of it."
"Is not more important the journey than the destination?" Lehnsher teased, his hand heavy on Charles' arm still.
"You truly have a gifted honeyed tongue," Charles relented. "Passionate heart as well."
Lehnsherr licked his lips, eyes darkening. "Surely not as gifted with words as you, my good sir."
Charles tried to ignore the wave of attraction that washed over him - his own mixed with Lehnsherr's. The whole experience serving him with a sort of double vision.
"I do not know what to say," Charles said.
Lehnsherr shifted his grip, taking both Charles' hands in his own. "Take your time to find your reply to my offer, but know that I believe we want the same thing."
Charles stared at the strong hands holding his own. "And what would that be?" he managed to get out.
"To not be alone."
Charles finally looked up from their still clasped hands, meeting Lehnsherr's unflinching stare. "I never believed I was the only one, and I want to know we're not just a coincidence of nature." Lehnsherr's smile widened into something inherently dangerous, yet Charles felt no fear at all. "Then there is only for me to accept your offer, my Lord." Charles felt, for the first time in a long while, that he could breathe a little more freely, that the world was growing a little bigger with each exhale.