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”What the…” Erik growled when he woke up. Or he tried to; only nothing came out, except a slight snuffing sound. Oh no, this wasn’t happening, not at all. His head felt like someone had been playing bongos with it, or possibly just run over it with a lorry or two.
His vision finally settled, which brought on the second problem. The world looked strange. Firstly, it was way too big. Since when had tables been so big? And secondly, where was Charles? He had been there, hadn’t he?
“Charles?” He croaked, but got out nothing but a snuff. Fuck this! Charles!
Oh god, what happened? Charles’ mental voice sounded… well, strange.
Charles? Where are you? He sent back, anxiously.
The sound made him turn around. No, no no no no! This wasn’t happening.
I’m afraid it is, Charles sent him apologetically, as if it was his fault.
And how would it be your fault that we were turned into hedgehogs? You don’t need to apologize to me, Charles. Also, what kind of a mutant power is to turn other people into animals?
Sorry, I’ll stop- oh. Charles the hedgehog snuffles his nose and taps closer. He is smaller than Erik is, and dark chocolate brown with white in his spikes. Familiar blue eyes stare Erik back from the little furry face.
Are you all right, Erik? Erik can feel concern behind the sent words.
He snuffles loudly, a hedgehog style of snort, Yes, of course.
Charles looks relieved. This is absolutely ridiculous. How can a hedgehog have so many expressions, Erik finds himself thinking.
Yes, well. I guess we should find Hank. He can fix this mess, I hope, Charles sends him then.
Erik
Charles
///
Finding Hank wasn’t, unfortunately, as easy as it sounded. One, they weren’t even anywhere near the base, and two, they had no means of communicating with them.
I could try to contact Raven, Charles offered. After a while they had to admit their defeat. We’re too far, Charles sent, also, I think that being a hedgehog interferes with the range of my abilities.
So, non-existential plan B it was. Leave it to the metal bending hedgehog extraordinaire. They wiggled themselves out through a cat hole on the door, opened with a little push of Erik’s power.
Out on the pavement they stopped side by side. Oh, everything looks so different from down here, Charles sent to Erik, barely containing his amazement.
Erik didn’t bother to enjoy the view; instead he scanned the road for threats. All clear, come now Charles, he sent and set out to the left, keeping himself near the neatly cut hedgerow. A Hedgerow for the hedgehogs, he mused quietly. Oh the irony.
They didn’t get so far. As it happened, it was already quite late autumn and it was starting to get very cold and very dark, very quickly.
We need a place to stay for the night, he sent to Charles. Charles had been unusually silent during their roaming through the bushes. Now he seemed to snap out of his musings. They stopped near someone’s back yard, beneath a big, bare rose bush.
There’s a nice pile of leaves, Charles sent to him after a while.
What, you can’t possibly mean- Scheiβe! Erik cursed and had no chance but to follow. Charles had gone already, burying himself to the aforementioned huge pile of leaves.
Maple leaves, he made an absent minded observation before digging himself in after Charles.
Okay, he had to admit that the pile of leaves was way more comfortable than it looked. He blamed it partly to his hedgehog side and… to Charles. He had a magical ability to make everything more comfortable. Like right now, snuggling closer to him, sharing his body heat with Erik.
Charles had dozed off, but something was keeping Erik awake, despite the lingering exhaustion. Then he heard a silent crack, like something had stepped on a stick.
Danger! His instincts screamed. Careful, not wanting to wake Charles, he eased his way out of their pile of leaves.
A damn fox, he cursed. I’ll teach you to try and hurt what’s mine, he snuffled darkly, unintentionally bristling up his spikes, sticking them out like an over-sized pincushion of revenge.
The fox was blissfully unaware of the danger that was waiting for it in the very near future. All it saw was a possible evening snack.
Well, let’s see… Erik mused and extended his power, feeling for any useful metal in the near vicinity.
Oh, yes. This should do it. He would’ve chuckled out loud if he could’ve.
The poor fox didn’t know what hit it. For your information, it was a king-sized frying pan. Bless all the fans of outdoor cooking, Erik thought, and made his way back to his Charles who hadn’t even moved during his brief absence.
Later on that day, the unconscious fox was the source of a great deal of puzzlement amongst the residents of that house.
Charles and Erik were already far away when that happened, on board a freight train and on their way back to base.
///
Wake up, we’ll arrive soon. Charles’ voice in his mind woke Erik up.
He bristled up his spikes and snuffled loudly. Where exactly?
He had lost count already; they had jumped from train to another train to a bus and to another train more times than he remembered or even cared to remember.
Close to the base. It’s the next station, and then we have to walk or somehow catch a lift.
Oh, wonderful. Walking long distances as a hedgehog was so damn enjoyable. He glanced at Charles and noted that he seemed a little drooped. So much so that even a hedgehog could look like that.
We must eat something soon or we won’t make it, he mused.
Eating in the hedgehog form was far from a feast, as it turned out. You got to be kidding me, Charles. Worms?
Charles nodded back. It’s what hedgehogs eat naturally.
Well, we are not really hedgehogs, so worms are out of question! Erik sent back, not bothering to contain his repulsion. We have to find something else.
As it happened later, they did find something else. Oh golly, did the metal bending come in handy sometimes. After devouring a baking tray full of freshly baked gingerbreads, they had to take a little break before continuing their journey. Charles had stuffed himself full, and looked absolutely adorable trying to get the last crumbs from the tray. What am I thinking? Erik scorned himself. But, Charles was…. Well he just was. Erik couldn’t really describe it. It was like Charles was his own personal sun, light and warmth. And, in his defence, he had never claimed to have any poetical talent whatsoever.
Charles seemed to finally notice Erik’s gaze. Instead of saying anything, he just sent a brief wave of contentment mixed with affection. Shall we go on now? Erik could only blink and follow Charles. What had just happened?
///
Raven! Charles’ mental call disturbed Erik’s quiet musings.
What, did you contact her? He sent impatiently.
He had to wait until Charles had finished his communication. Yes, finally. She and the others have been really worried about us. They were putting together search teams. Erik could hear the regret between the sent words. Charles was upset for making his sister and others worry about them.
You couldn’t help it, he sent back, trying to comfort him.
Charles nuzzled him, poking his delicate nose to Erik’s chest where there were no spikes. You’re right, I’m just being silly.
Charles’ nuzzling him made him… tingle? Was that the right word to describe it? He felt so warm and content, just staying that way for the last syllable of recorded time.
I really do care about him, Erik realised suddenly. Oh, do I really care.
///
After that things got slightly blurred, partially thanks to his Great Revelation of His True Feelings, and partially just because they finally got found.
Oh, the base. He had never believed that he’d be so happy to see that big ugly excuse of a building again. They got carted away to Hank immediately after their arriving. Raven carried them both in her arms. Erik didn’t really care for that but if that would hurry the fuck up his chancing back to human form…
Charles chuckled at his thoughts. I agree with you. It is a tad bit humiliating to be carried around like this.
Hank had been ready for them. After shuffling around his impressive array of science stuff, he came up with a tiny vial of serum.
“This should quicken your transformation back. From what I can see, I’d guess that you would turn back into yourselves at your own time, but it would take significantly longer. “
After the injections, they were carted to a safe location to wait for their transformation back. After some spike bristling, Erik got his will through and got to stay with Charles.
He couldn’t really explain why, but the thought of being separated from Charles was not one he could bear at that moment. In the end, they snuggled together on what seemed -- to the eyes of a hedgehog -- to be a never ending sea of bedspread.
Erik fell asleep next to Charles, both of them instinctively snuggling closer to each other. If someone else would’ve been watching -- and no one was, honestly -- they would’ve seen two little balls of spikes sleeping side by side. And if Raven happened to have some photo evidence, it was never mentioned to Charles or Erik. As it was, Charles probably knew about it anyway.
Erik woke up to a feeling of something pressing against him. He opened his eyes slowly, and the first thing he saw was mop of unruly brown hair. Some of it was tickling his nose. Also, his left arm was as asleep as it possibly could be before necrosis starts to set on.
Not wanting to wake Charles up, he eased his arm carefully from beneath his friend’s body. Danke Gott, we’re finally back to normal.
Erik didn’t have a long time to relish his feeling of relief as he noticed something else. Of course we’re not wearing any clothes, you idiot, he berated himself. So, he was very much naked, and so was Charles. No, just don’t think about it, don’t think about it don’t-
“Good morning, Erik”, Charles’ voice interrupted his whirlpool of thoughts.
“….” He didn’t know what to say.
After a brief struggle, Charles fixed his still sleepy eyes on him. “Go back to sleep”, he ordered, and snuggled closer to Erik, burying his nose to Erik’s neck.
We can talk later, he sent then.
Well, Erik guessed they could do with a little more rest. And Charles was so damn comfy. A little sleep couldn’t hurt. And if he happened to cuddle little closer to Charles as well, well, he had no objection to that.
The last thought on his mind before the sleep claimed him once more was mine.
Yours.
