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“Class dismissed. Ah, hold on, can I speak to…” Charles trailed off, finding himself unable to place the name of the student sat at the back of the classroom. He sighed, pretending to be checking his notes as he rubbed at his temple, searching the boy’s mind for his name.
“Dan! Yes, can I speak to you please, Dan, it will not take a moment.” He said with a smile, sitting back in his chair. He let the moment of worry fade as he spoke with the young mutant about his grades. Everyone forgot names sometimes, it was nothing important.
It was a few weeks later, several quick mind-reads having occurred in the interim, that Charles began to worry. Not wanting to cause unnecessary upset to Hank by mentioning it, Charles kept quiet and continued to stew over the issue in private.
*
“Erik? What the hell are you doing here?” Hank growled as he opened the front door and finding him on the steps.
“Charles called for me.” He murmured quietly, before pushing past Hank and stalking down the corridor. He most definitely was not in the mood to argue with Beast right now.
“Oi I’m- Erik?!” Charles yelped as he saw who the intruder in his bedroom was. He had been attempting to continue dressing himself after Hank had gone to answer the door, but dropped the sock he was holding and stared at his old friend in shock. “Why are you here?”
Frowning, Erik sat down. “You called me here, Charles. You were rather insistent.” He muttered, eyebrows raising slightly at the last part. “Raven is fine, don’t worry.” He added.
“Raven?” He echoed, before remembering that was his sister’s name. “Right. Good. But you must be mistaken. I didn’t call you here, old friend.”
“Check, if you don’t believe me.” Erik said, lifting his helmet off and placing it on his lap. “I was sleeping. You made contact.” He moved to sit beside him, deliberately not looking at his withered legs. Eyebrows furrowed, Charles reached up and touched his temple. Immediately, he heard a voice. His voice.
/Erik, Erik I’m so scared, please come, please I’m begging you. Something’s wrong, I can’t tell Hank, I can’t tell anyone oh god Erik please…/
Charles pulled away suddenly, fear glowing in his eyes.
“I…I don’t remember…” he managed, before choking on a sob as he realised. Hanging his head, he ran a hand through his hair.
“Erik, I’m…starting to forget things. Names, mostly, but sometimes more. Just now, I didn’t know who Raven was. I wake up and can’t remember why my legs don’t work. I wonder why you aren’t here, or what I’m a professor in…” He trailed off as Erik pulled him into a tight embrace.
“Ssh..” he hushed gently, face in Charles’ hair. “You’re probably just under a lot of stress. We’ll get you back to normal, well, normal as you can be, anyway.” He murmured, smiling when he heard a soft laugh come from Charles.
“Thank you, Erik.” He breathed.