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Charles stared up at the ceiling of his dorm room, stomach tied up in knots.
He’d had to endure yet another round of heckling from Shaw and his cronies, and the stares and snickers that followed him around campus were becoming less and less subtle as time went on. Charles had no doubt that it wouldn’t be long at all until the heckling spread beyond Shaw’s circle. The only reason he had been spared thus far was because most of the campus still remembered Erik. Or, more specifically, Erik’s possessive streak and his tendency to react…badly when jealous.
Still, now, at the tail end of Erik’s semester abroad, that memory was fading, and fading quickly. It was only a matter of time before they joined in as well.
The looks and giggles and cat-calls were all far from pleasant, but it wasn't as if Charles could really do anything about it. To speak out would only make matters worse. Still, it wasn't the bruises to his ego he was worried about, weren’t what had Charles feelings physically ill. Erik would be back soon, and Charles was…beyond thrilled. He loved Erik and had missed him desperately and couldn’t wait to be with him again. And therein the problem lay.
Erik would be back. And Charles couldn't wait. But Erik being back also meant that Erik would hear everything that was being said to Charles. Being said about Charles. Things Charles' hadn't been able to work up the nerve to tell him about online. Their relationship was very new when Erik had packed up for his semester abroad, and Charles hadn't wanted to risk having a fight long distance.
He knew there was a chance Erik would leave him when he heard. Charles had had a bit of a…reputation before they’d gotten together. At the very least, he would have all of the break between fall and spring semester with Erik and Erik alone. Perhaps by the time courses finally got started up again, the whole thing would have blown over.
And if it hadn't, well...at least Charles would have the break with Erik.
A sharp knock at the door drew Charles out of his self-pitying brooding.
Charles considered pretending not to be in, but eventually dragged himself out of bed and to the door, too tired to bother putting on a pleasant mask before opening the door.
Erik stood in the doorway, bags over his shoulder and under his eyes.
“Honey, I’m home!” he said, a wide but weary smile breaking across his face.
Charles threw himself into Erik's arms, wrapping his own firmly around Erik's ridiculous waist before angling his face up for a kiss, trying not to whimper when Erik dropped his bags without a thought, cupping Charles’ face to better return the kiss enthusiastically.
Skype meant it hadn’t been very long since they had seen each other, but chatting every day for an hour or so had nothing on what it was to have Erik back in his arms after so long apart, how it felt to finally smell him, feel him, taste him.
When they finally stopped kissing, Charles simply wound his arms tighter around Erik's waist, burying his face in the other man's chest and just letting himself be held, savoring having Erik actually there.
"I missed you," he murmured into Erik's chest, clinging tightly.
"I missed you too," Erik murmured, stroking Charles' hair with one hand before placing a tender kiss to the top of his head and then wrapping his arms around Charles in turn.
Charles let himself be held for a moment before making an effort to pull himself together, reluctantly attempting to extricate himself from Erik's grasp only to find his efforts thwarted.
"Erik, we need to get your things inside."
"Nope. They can sit out here all night for all I care. I'm not letting go of you."
"Erik," Charles said, attempting to sound exasperated, but he ended up sounding incredibly fond instead. "It's a fire hazard. And you'll have to let go of me at some point."
"Fine. It wouldn't do for you to burn to death," Erik said, sounding extremely put upon. "But I challenge that second assumption."
With that, Erik pulled Charles upward, wrapping him quickly in a bridal style carry before aiming several well-placed kicks at his bags, managing to shove them just inside the door before crossing the threshold. Charles couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
"You ridiculous man!" Charles giggled helplessly as Erik carried him across the room. "Fine. Fine! You've made your point. Now put me down before you hurt yourself."
"Pfft. My bags were heavier than you are." Erik said, jokingly, before he stared down at Charles with a slightly furrowed brow. "You've lost weight. I'll have to yell at Alex. I put him in charge of pulling you out of the lab while I was away."
Charles rolled his eyes.
"No matter. My mother's been asking about you. She'll fatten you up in no time, mark my words," Erik said with a smile before tossing Charles on the bed and following soon after.
"You're back." Charles said, brining a hand to rest on Erik's chest, staring down at it in disbelief. "You're really back."
"Yeah," Erik said, his voice soft. "I'm here."
Charles leaned up and gave Erik a soft kiss. "I'm so, so happy to see you. But I thought you were staying a few weeks after your term ended, enjoying the sights?"
"I saw plenty of the sights. Europe will always be there. And every time I saw anything, all I could think was 'Charles would love this' and well...I'd rather see you."
Charles didn't say anything, just kissed Erik again.
Things didn't progress any farther than kissing and a little light petting that evening, Erik jet-lagged and exhausted from hours of travel and Charles worn down by hours in the lab and his coursework, coupled with the emotionally draining experience of his time on campus of late. Still, when Charles woke up the next morning, Erik wrapped tightly around him, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so rested.
The night had apparently done wonders for Erik too, because by the time Charles stumbled out of his room he was already running late for his second class (his first having been missed by quite a large margin) and covered in several hickies that were too far up his neck to ever have a chance of concealing with a collar. Judging by the way Erik had smirked when Charles had discovered this fact and his offer to let Charles borrow one of his turtlenecks, Charles was willing to wager all of his not insubstantial fortune that that had been rather the point.
Erik's visit had been so distracting in the best possible way that Charles had completely forgotten about his woes with the student body and frankly he was too busy running to his class to even notice any of the looks he was getting. Still, that was all moot as soon as he got to his third class of the day, the one class he and Sebastian shared.
Sebastian had transferred to school the semester after Erik had gone abroad. As a result, he was unaware both of Erik's reputation and of the fact that he and Charles were in a relationship, for all that it was just over a month old when Erik had left. As such, Charles had been willing to forgive the friendly flirting, for all that he shut it down as quickly as possible and refused to reciprocate in any manner. Still, Sebastian had persisted, and Charles had been forced to reject him time and time again, struggling to remain polite until finally it became clear that politeness would not work. Still, he did his level best to be as pleasant as possible when he finally lost it and told Shaw exactly where he could shove his offers.
That was, of course, when the whispers had started. And the advances hadn't stopped.
Charles managed to slip out of the lecture hall before Shaw cornered him, but he could feel his stomach sinking as he realized the full implications of Erik's early return. There would be no buffer between Erik and the rumors. He would hear them all. He would be hearing them all today.
Charles tried not to look too dejected as he made his way over to the lab, planning on trying to forget himself in the routine of research. Part of him felt as if he should be spending as much time as possible with Erik before he inevitably left, but Charles knew at this point there was no hope of Erik not having heard the rumors. The only thing he could hope to do was try and avoid the conversation he was terrified was coming for as long as possible.
Several hours later, Charles jerked away from the apparatus at the sound of a set of doors flying open, turning in surprise to see Erik standing in the doorway. The expression on his face was unreadable in the worst possible way, and Charles swallowed as he stalked his way over, trying to steel himself for the inevitable.
He was thus taken completely by surprise when, once Erik had stomped his way across the lab, instead of asking the question Charles was dreading, Erik swooped down and claimed Charles' mouth in a bruising kiss, hands fisting in the lab coat Charles had forgotten to take off when he had left his lab station to begin analyzing data. For all that he was confused, it didn't take him any time at all to return the kiss.
Erik broke the kiss, only to step back in and initiate something much more tender, leaving Charles breathless for an entirely different reason.
“Hi,” Erik whispered when he pulled away, pressing his forehead against Charles’.
“Hi,” Charles said, smile spreading over his face. “What’re you doing here?”
“Dragging you to lunch. And then back to your room. Literally, if necessary.”
“Very caveman of you,” Charles said with a small grin, shoving aside his worries. Erik was still here. He was going to enjoy that while it lasted, however long that would be.
“I have decided to indulge the inner caveman today, it’s true,” Erik responded grin sharp in a way that suggested danger. “Come on, I grabbed take-out on the way over. Your research can wait, especially given all the extra hours McCoy tells me you’ve been pulling.”
“Traitor,” Charles muttered to himself as he took the hand Erik offered to him to haul himself up, noting for the first time that Erik was wearing gloves.
“If you don’t want them telling tales on you, you should pick friends who aren’t quite so easily intimidated,” Erik responded with a smirk, throwing one of his arms around Charles’ shoulder and pulling him close. “Come on, my bike’s parked outside.”
That explained the gloves at least.
As for the rest of it, well…they would have to have a conversation at some point, he knew, but he wouldn’t be the one initiating it. In the meanwhile, however, he simply burrowed himself further into Erik’s side, letting out a small, contented sigh.
They had made it to the parking lot when Charles realized that he was still wearing his lab coat and, more importantly, that he had left his jacket in the lab.
“Shit. Erik, I need to go back.”
“What? No. I’m not letting you anywhere near that building anytime soon. I refuse to lose you to the siren song of your experimentation. Your data can’t have you. I’m back now. It’ll just have to get used to sharing you again.”
“I’m still in my lab coat. And I left my jacket inside.”
Erik held out his gloved hand, palm up. Charles glanced back and forth between Erik and his out stretched hand before tilting his head and cocking his eyebrow.
“I’m going to take your lab-coat back inside and grab your jacket,” and Charles’s expression, Erik rolled his eyes, though his smile undercut his exasperation. “I told you I wasn’t letting you near that building, and it isn’t as if you can ride without a jacket. Now,” he wiggled his fingers, “give it here.”
Charles shrugged out of the coat and handed it over, but not before pulling Erik down into another kiss.
Erik pulled away with a smile and an “I’ll be right back” before jogging into the building.
Charles was headed over to Erik’s bike to wait when he heard it. “Xavier!”
Charles tried not to cringe. Shaw. Of course it was Shaw. Reluctantly, he turned around, braced for Shaw’s usual crude comments only to stagger in shock. The man looked terrible, one eye turning black and lip split.
“Too much of a coward to face me yourself, Charlie? Have to have someone else do your dirty work? You little…”
“I thought I made it clear, Sebastian,” Erik called across the parking lot, long strides quickly closing the distance between them, “that you weren’t to speak to him again unless it was to apologize.” Erik stepped neatly between them, passing Charles his jacket before tugging off his gloves to reveal battered knuckles. “Since the first lesson obviously didn’t stick…”
“Erik,” Charles said, grasping onto his boyfriend’s bicep, “he’s not worth it.”
“Spreading lies about you being unfaithful to try and get into your pants and making your life miserable seems fairly worth it to me,” Erik snarled. “I know you aren’t fond of my particular method of problem solving Charles, but I swear to god…”
Charles felt warmth flood through him. Oh. Oh. Erik knew. Erik trusted him. Erik’s silence had been out of fear of Charles’ disapproval. He was so relieved he felt like he might cry.
“Come on,” he said, chest feeling too tight in the best possible way. “You promised me Chinese food and a day in bed.”
Erik turned, seemingly to follow, before rounding on Shaw and delivering a precise punch to his face that ended with a wet sort of crunching.
“Next time you leave limping, understand?” he hissed as Shaw held a hand up to try and stem the flow of blood. “Until you get it through your thick skull that he’s not interested.”
He climbed onto his bike and Charles climbed up behind him, wrapping his arms around him tightly before Erik started the bike and they sped off towards home, leaving Shaw behind them.
When they arrived and Erik parked the bike, his expression when he turned to face Charles was that of a guilty man awaiting sentencing. Charles reached up and pulled him down into a long kiss, trying to convey everything he couldn’t put into words.
“What was that for?” Erik asked when they pulled apart, “not that I’m complaining, mind, but…”
“My boyfriend’s back,” Charles responded, grin splitting across his face.
“Yes, he is,” Erik said, kissing Charles on the forehead. “And he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“You’re still in trouble for breaking Sebastian’s nose,” Charles said, trying to sound firm.
“And you’re in trouble for not telling me what was going on. I had to scare it out of someone I overheard making…remarks.” At Charles’ expression, he held up his hands placating. “No violence, I swear. Just intimidation. Only Shaw was harmed in the making of this production.”
“Fine. Let’s go make it up to one another, shall we?”
“Lets.”