Work Text:
Erik had seen Charles nervous before, of course, especially because Charles had a talent for being nervous about almost everything whenever he stopped to overthink stuff, and Erik had said a million times that it was Charles’ special talent, but Erik hadn’t seen Charles as nervous as he was that day - at least he didn’t remember ever seeing him like that.
It was supposed to be date night that Friday for them and, since it was Erik’s turn to choose, they had planned to go to Charles’ dorm, watch a movie, and get some takeout food and snacks - something calm and that would allow Erik to hold Charles more often than what an outing would allow him. They had done that, had ordered the food and Erik had arrived at Charles’ dorm with a bag of the cheapest snacks he could find and that he and Charles loved, although, the whole time, Erik noticed just how off Charles seemed to be.
“Are you okay, Schatz?” Erik had asked earlier that night when he helped Charles sort their snacks, seeing a small smile appear on Charles’ lips at the pet name. “You seem worried about something.”
“It’s nothing, don’t worry.” Charles had answered with a wave of his hand and a sigh. “Stressful day, that’s all.”
Erik realized only much later that he had used “it’s nothing” to dismiss Erik’s question and hadn't explained the situation properly, which was always a red flag considering he only didn't talk when it was something. They had been together for a whole year now, Erik knew at that point that, if something bothered Charles, his mind turned into a turmoil of thoughts even if he wouldn’t say anything about it. The difference that night, Erik noticed, was that the turmoil was affecting him enough for his façade to break. Charles was usually good at hiding when he was upset.
It was only after they were halfway through Mary Poppins and there were empty food cartons on the ground next to them that Erik really started to get worried.
Charles had a strict rule of no phones during their date nights, unless it was needed or urgent, so they could enjoy each other's presences without it. It wasn’t a hard rule to follow considering Erik focused too much on his boyfriend whenever they were together - and he had been really impressed when Charles didn't get scared on their first weeks of dating when Erik revealed he already knew small things about Charles' behavior just by looking that only him had ever noticed -, but, that night, Charles had picked up his phone multiple times during the movie and stared at the lit screen before putting it away without actually doing anything other than that. It wasn’t hard as well to notice how he wasn’t really paying attention to the movie, and Erik decided that the “it’s nothing” clearly was something.
“Someone’s forgetting their own rules.” Erik tried joking, smiling lightly as he looked at Charles, his blue eyes turning to look at Erik with some confusion. Erik pointed at the phone on Charles’ hand for a moment. “You’ve been using your phone the whole night.”
Erik’s expression turned into a frown when, instead of smiling and teasing Erik back like he normally would, Charles looked extremely guilty, putting the phone down again and pressing his lips into a tight line.
“I’m sorry, love.” Charles quickly said, his voice weak like it would get whenever he thought he did something wrong. Uh oh. “Won’t look again. I got a little distracted.”
“Alright,” Erik paused the movie immediately, Charles’ expression turning into a frown now as he looked at Erik again. Erik, in return, turned a bit to sit facing Charles, a serious look in his eyes. “What’s going on? There’s something bothering you.”
When Charles opened his mouth quickly to reply - too quickly for it to be the truth -, Erik quickly added, “And I know for a fact it isn’t nothing.”
He watched as Charles' face changed a few times as he tried to find a good answer, probably ready to omit why he was so off the whole night again, but Erik just waited, eyes never leaving Charles'. At some point, Charles clearly gave up on lying, sighing heavily as his shoulders fell a little, eyes going down as well.
"Sorry, I'm just not really my best today…" he confessed, pouting slightly as he talked. "I had a fight with Raven again and she hasn't answered me ever since this morning… I'm worried I upset her too much this time."
"Is this why you keep checking your phone?" Charles nodded, taking the device again only to purse his lips at the lack of new texts there. "You know she never stays angry at you for long, Charles."
"Yes, but this time she seemed really angry. I tried apologizing but she hasn't even read my texts and it's eating me alive."
"But you apologized, didn't you? She'll see it when she comes back and it'll be fine." Erik scooted closer to Charles, pulling him into a half-hug, Charles going to him willingly. "Maybe she's just busy, you know how taxing college is being on her, and she just forgets her phone sometimes to focus on it."
"I don't like when you're the logical one…" Charles mumbled, resting his head on Erik's shoulder.
"One of us has to be when the other is being stupid." that earned Erik a harsh poke to his ribs, making him chuckle before he pressed a kiss to Charles' head, his soft hair tickling his nose for a moment. "But it's gonna be okay, Schatz."
"I know. Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't really focus on you tonight."
"I'm not mad or annoyed at you, if it helps me saying it."
"It does, actually." Charles said, raising his head to give him a gentle smile, a kiss being pressed to his lips moments after. "I guess I just got a bad case of the blues today."
"Well, there's still the snacks on your desk." Erik raised his eyebrows as he made the offer, seeing Charles smile a little wider. "I did bring those chips you like and that will probably kill you faster."
"Oh, perfect for the moment." Charles joked, already getting up from the ground to get to the desk. "You know me so well, love…"
"One day I'll get you to stop eating those."
"I'll end you where you stand if you try to keep me away from my chips."
Erik chuckled, watching as Charles went to the other side of the room with less of a tense air about him now, probably hanging onto Erik's words to calm himself down. As he did it, he heard a quiet ding by his side, his eyes darting over Charles' phone on the ground to see the phone screen lit up with a new text, Raven's name there with her text right underneath it.
> Sorry, I've been busy the whole day. And it's alright, dumb-dumb, I wasn't that mad <3