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Charles walked into the library where he knew Erik would be. Erik had recently adopted the library as his own for when he wanted time away from the kids. He didn't have Charles's patience, yet he could do that one thing Charles wishes he could do.
Seeing Erik resting on the couch in front of him, Charles called out to him.
"Erik, can I talk to you?" Charles asked tentatively.
Erik looked up from what he was doing, gesturing for Charles to sit next to him. Charles did as he was told, sitting next to Erik, yet not really looking at him. There was no need to get distracted when he wanted to have a serious conversation with Erik with his stupidly tight turtlenecks.
"How do you do it?" Charles asked quietly.
"Excuse me?" Erik replied.
"How do you do it?" Charles asked louder.
"How do I do what?"
"Talk to Raven like that," Charles said, feeling exasperated that he had to say it out loud.
"What are you talking about, Charles? You take to Raven all the time."
"Not the way you do?"
"I talk to her the exact same way that I talk to everyone else, besides you maybe," Erik smirked as he saw the blush spread across Charles's cheeks.
"You talk to Raven...about her skin...the way I've never been able to."
"What do you want to tell her?" Erik looked on suddenly with interest.
"That... that... I can't do this," Charles said, immediately standing up before being pulled back down.
"Charles," Erik said softly. "What would you want to say?"
"But... but...," Charles stammered.
"Pretend I'm Raven. What do you want to tell her?"
"I wish I could tell her she is beautiful. That her skin, her real skin, is beautiful. Why can't I tell her that?"
"Why wouldn't you be able to tell her then? Do you not believe it?" Erik asked intensely.
"Of course I believe it, but just because I believe it doesn't mean others will."
"Doesn't explain why you can't tell her that."
"People have a hard enough time accepting my mutation. I can hear how they feel about my mutation. I don't have to read their minds to know that. Feeling their surface thoughts is enough. To understand how much they hate me, the very fact that I exist, when they find out. I can only imagine how they respond to a physical mutation. I don't think that I could stand the thought of her getting hurt because of it. I don't know what I would do if I saw her... So, I'll ask again, Erik. 'How do you do it?'"
Looking up, Charles sees that Erik was crying. He was about to ask why the normally stoic man was crying when he heard a voice toward the door.
"Who are you talking to, Charles? I heard you say my name."
Standing in the doorway was Erik. Charles looked back and forth between the two Eriks. The one beside him gave a sheepish look while the one by the door looked at his double with an arched eye. The Erik sitting next to him sudden;y morphed into a blue Raven who lunched at him. Hugging him and saying sorry, she continued to cry into Charles's shirt.
"Why didn't you ever tell me before?" she asked him.
"I was too scared," Charles replied.
"I guess you should have been. I'm too stubborn for my own good," Raven said, causing the two of them to chuckle.
"Keeping that in mind, may I ask one thing of you?" Charles asked sheepishly. After Raven looked at him suspiciously, Charles continued with, "While I find you beautiful, you are still my sister, and there are teenage boys around. I ask that you still wear clothing."
This cause Raven to look down, noting that she was, in fact, naked and started laughing at the fact.
"Sure, you old prude. I can do that," Raven said, wiping away her leftover tears and walking out of the room, looking down as she passed Erik, who was looking at the two of them with a confused look.
After Raven was a ways away, Erik asked, "Do I want to know what that was about?" as he walked toward Charles.
"No. It's a sibling thing."
"Are you sure? You were calling for me," Erik said, sitting next to Charles and pulling the man closer to himself.
"Well, your services are no longer necessary."
"You weren't saying that last night," Erik chuckled.
Charles pushed the larger man away from him as he got up from the couch and walked out of the room.
Maybe your services might be needed tonight, after all, Charles pushed into Erik's head.
Erik stood up, happy to oblige the blue-eyed angel.