Work Text:
A week after being adopted by Charles, Raven was still hiding out in his bedroom most of the day. Fortunately, his room was so enormous that this was not difficult, and Charles made the servants not see her.
"Here, I've got all the photographs I can find," Charles said, plopping an album and an arm full of frames on the bed. "Surely you can find something useful here."
She jumped out from under the bed and climbed up beside him. "But it has to stick for a long time! I've never made a face that has to last for years and years."
Charles gave her a few hand-tinted photographs of his mother at around Raven's size; they didn't know Raven's actual age. "It won't be the same for years and years. It will grow up with you. And it doesn't have to be exactly my mother's face. Just enough so that people recognise us as siblings. Honestly, I take after my father more."
"I don't think you do," Raven argued, pointing at a wedding photo in a heavy frame. "Look, his chin is all pointy and his eyes look mean. Also, he's got glasses."
Charles drew himself up and made a huffy noise. "You haven't even met him yet, you don't know anything."
"I know Mother is worried about him coming home and so are you."
"For someone who was breaking into houses a week ago, you have a lot to say about my family." He sounded very huffy now, and Raven rolled her eyes.
"Dummy, I have to pay attention or how could I copy people? It only failed on you because you could see inside my head."
"And because I'm very astute!" Charles laughed and poked her in the ribs. She wriggled away, giggling.
He opened up the album again. "Anyway, look at the pictures and try to pick how you want to look. When you come to school with me you'll need to look the same all day."
"I'm practicing as hard as I can! It's very tiring, like standing up very straight all the time."
"Well, let's make it easier for you. Why not use your own face and body shape? Just change the colour and flatten out your scales."
"Oh, I never thought of that!" She concentrated and let the change ripple across her skin, making it smooth and pink and exactly the same colour as Charles's. She left off the freckles, though. They were too hard to keep the same all the time, and anyway they could be added later.
"That's great! Now your eye colour, then your hair."
Raven looked closely at the photographs of Sharon Xavier, and changed her hair to soft golden waves, and her eyes to a clear, medium blue. It did feel easier to keep the shape of her face the same, it was true.
"That's lovely, Raven. Except of course you'll need some clothes."
"Oh, I can make clothes, don't worry."
"Isn't that harder than wearing them? And don't you feel the cold?"
Raven made herself a knee-length sailor dress, a copy of the one Sharon Xavier was wearing in an old photograph, and coloured it a soft green. "I don't get cold as quickly as most people. It is easier to wear clothes than make them, but then you have to worry about losing them when you run away."
"You don't have to run away anymore, I promised. But that dress should actually be navy blue and white, because it's a sailor dress. A uniform."
"Oh! There, is that better?"
"Perfect! Now let's go down to tea and remind Mother that you're her daughter. We'll have to visit New York one of these days and pay a fine for registering your birth so late." Catching the look on Raven's face, he added, "Don't worry! We have plenty of money. It's just a way to make sure you can stay."
If it wasn't scary to him, then it wouldn't be scary to her. "Let's have tea."
Raven didn't have to make her own clothes for very long: Sharon took her to New York to "get her out of that dreadful old-fashioned thing" and it was the most animated Raven had ever seen her. She loved dressing Raven up in ruffled gingham or floral dresses and Mary Janes, and showing off her pretty daughter to her friends in the city. At first Raven felt awkward, then worried that Charles would be jealous, but he assured her that, as a boy, he had no interest in shopping with his mother or going to a ladies' lunch. It became their special time, being driven up to the city, shopping for Raven – she was growing quickly now that she was no longer hungry – and dining at a fancy hotel. Sharon never talked to her much, but she let Raven snuggle against her side in the car, and Raven loved to press her face to Sharon's side and smell her soft floral perfume.
When Brian Xavier came home from the important government scientific job that they weren't allowed to ask about, he didn't seem in the least bit troubled to have suddenly acquired another child. Raven knew that some of it was Charles's doing, but really, his parents didn't seem to pay very much attention to him. Brian Xavier did have mean eyes in person, but he had very little to do with Charles or Raven, taking his wife to the city for mysterious parties while Charles and Raven stayed home with the servants.
"You are a funny little thing," he said to Raven one morning at breakfast. "How is it that you have my accent and Charles kept his mother's?"
"It must be the other children at school," Sharon said, blinking in the bright morning light and sipping her strong coffee.
"I suppose so. Better work on those American sounds, Charles. Now, Raven, have you started school yet?"
"No, sir," Raven whispered, worried about the sudden focus on her.
"I expect you'll be starting in September then. Charles's day school is very good, isn't it, Charles?"
"Yes, sir! This year we're starting classes in the science labs, and –"
"Excellent." He scribbled in his ever-present leather-bound notebook. "I'll have my secretary make sure she's enrolled, then."
School was very strange to Raven. Charles had started teaching her to read over the summer, but the class level varied from children who were already reading books on their own to children who couldn't write their own name, so Raven fitted in more easily than she had thought. Some of the girls – apparently the girls should stick together and not play with the boys – had been to school the year before but most of them hadn't, so they could all become used to the strange and arbitrary rules and the slightly scratchy uniforms together. She didn't mind the classes, though it was hard to sit still for so long, but she loved it when the teacher read them stories, or when they were allowed to draw and paint, or sing songs. And it was very exciting to mingle with other children who didn't scream or run at the sight of her, though she was always aware that it was a conditional acceptance, and it was a relief to go home with Charles at the end of the day.
At the end of the term, Charles was very worried about Raven's report card.
"If it's not good, I'll smooth it over with Father, but he's very concerned that we do well in school."
"I'm doing well! I've been every single day!" Indeed, Raven had attended three more days than Charles had, when he'd been felled by strep throat.
"We'll see," Charles said, fretting. They took their report cards home on the last day, to find that Charles had a string of A and A+ grades, which was apparently acceptable, and Raven's grades ranged from C for penmanship to a lone A+ for attendance. They had to present the cards to a recently-arrived Brian after dinner, and Charles was so worried about it that it infected Raven, too. Instead of the cataclysm she expected, though, Charles was given five dollars and Raven patted on the head.
"Good girl," Brian told her, barely looking at her card, though he went through Charles's line by line.
"Did you make him do that?" Raven asked Charles later.
"No, I was standing ready to stop him punishing you! I suppose grades aren't as important for girls as for boys."
"Why not?"
"Well, a dumb girl can live off her husband, but a dumb boy can't live off his wife."
"That doesn't seem very fair on boys. I mean, there must be as many dumb boys as dumb girls. I guess Father is just worried about you, then."
"I'm not dumb!" Charles flashed back at her. "He only wants to make sure I go to a good university."
"Would it even matter if you didn't? We could get married and live off each other."
Charles burst out laughing. "We can't get married, silly. You're my sister."
Raven was terribly disappointed at that. She couldn't imagine finding someone else she trusted as much as Charles, and she didn't want to marry some stranger. Maybe she wouldn't get married at all, like Miss Friedlander, the housekeeper.
Charles didn't spend much time with his father, but it was more than Raven did: handing over her report card was the last conversation she ever had with him, and only saw him twice more before the morning two men in uniform parked their car in the driveway.
"Oh no, oh no," Sharon said, dropping the brush she was using on Raven's long hair. "Raven, find Charles and go to your bedrooms right now."
Raven did, knowing perfectly well that Charles could eavesdrop from anywhere in the house, and that's how they found out that Brian Xavier had been killed in an experiment gone wrong in a secret research base. Raven gasped out loud, so shocked that she reverted to her blue form.
"Change back!" Charles told her, with a slap to the upper arm. His face was expressionless.
"Don't hit me!" She changed, though, terrified that her whole life would change again, out of her control. "What are they saying? Is Mother all right?"
"No, she's fallen down, but the soldiers are helping her. One of them is a friend of Father's, Doctor Marko, and the other is their boss."
"Can we help her?"
Charles's lips had gone white. "No, she said stay here. Let me concentrate, Raven."
"Sorry." She pressed her fingers to her mouth to remind herself.
"They said he died in an accident but Mother can't see him because his body was exposed to dangerous chemicals. He has to be buried in a special safe coffin but they can bring it here to the family graveyard. And we're not allowed to talk about what happened, only that he was killed working for the war effort. Doctor Marko is going to stay for a few days to help organise things. The secret research base sounds a long way away."
Charles's voice sounded a long way away, too, but he didn't cry or even look sad. Raven wished she knew how to help him, but she couldn't even remember her parents, just an orphanage where they hid her and a girl with no arms in a closet when prospective parents showed up. Charles still had one parent, surely that was better than none?
Strangely enough, it seemed that Raven's job was to cry on behalf of Charles and Sharon. Neither of them shed a single tear, but when Raven cried in the night – more from fear and uncertainty than from missing Brian – Charles would sit on her bed and stroke her hair until she went to sleep. When she cried in the daytime, Sharon would hug her, which she had rarely done before, and tell her that everything would be all right. Lots of very important people came to the house to shake Charles's hand and say meaningless things to Sharon, but Raven wasn't required to do anything other than be quiet, so she let Sharon put her in uncomfortable frilly dresses and brush her hair and dry her tears, because that seemed to make her happy. She let Charles help her with her schoolwork, because that seemed to keep him occupied, rather than staring into space. She did not, though, go out of her way to be nice to Kurt Marko, who seemed to have moved into a guest bedroom. She hated the way he talked to Charles and called him "young man", and she hated the way he completely ignored her and talked over the top of her head to Mother. He had a lot of questions about Father's will, but Sharon only sighed and told him to ask the lawyers.
Brian Xavier's body in its lead coffin took so long to arrive overland on secure trains that by the time the funeral was held, it was time for the reading of the will. Raven and Sharon were still in their black funeral dresses – Raven was rather sad she wouldn't get to wear her pretty black velvet frock with a Peter Pan collar again – and Charles and all the men in black suits or dress uniform. They cut a strange sight all seated around the long table with the family lawyer at the head, where Brian usually sat. Raven was dreadfully bored, but Charles was taking it seriously, so she didn't dare kick him under the table and point out the lawyer's hilarious moustache.
The lawyer read out the will, which was very short, and, once Raven noticed everyone was looking very surprised, she sat up straight and tried to pay attention.
"So what does that mean for Mrs Xavier?" Kurt Marko asked the lawyer.
The lawyer spoke slowly and clearly, as if he was a teacher explaining a problem to the class. "Mrs Xavier has full use of the house and grounds as long as she lives, with an income attached. However, the property itself, along with all possessions, the insurance payment and the residual estate is placed in trust for Charles. My firm will be the trustee until Charles comes of age. An additional trust for Charles and Raven's education has also been established."
"Don't you think it's better for their mother to manage that?" Kurt snapped.
"My opinion is irrelevant, Doctor Marko. The terms of the will have been set and I see no grounds to challenge them."
"Oh, Kurt, just leave it," Sharon said, wearily. "I appreciate you looking out for me, but isn't it best left to Charles? The house has been in the Xavier family for generations and Brian always wanted to make sure it stayed that way."
"There we have it," the lawyer said, with a sideways glance at Kurt. "You have thirty days to challenge the will if you decide to do so, but I would strongly recommend against it."
"Of course you would."
Sharon spoke over Kurt. "Raven, darling, let's go upstairs. It's been such a long day." She took Raven's hand and pulled her away.
"Charles!" Raven called telepathically and he picked up her shout.
"I hear you. Look after Mother and I'll be with you soon."
"Good! I don't understand any of this!"
Sharon, as it turned out, was far more interested in the brandy she had in her medicine cabinet than Raven's tiredness, so Raven went to her room to wait for Charles instead. The big china doll that Sharon had given her for her last made-up birthday sat in the corner staring at her, so Raven crossly turned its to the wall.
"No staring!" she told it, and let her blue form slide into being. She took off her pretty black dress, changed into her soft flannel nightgown and curled up in her bed. Her door locked and Charles had the only other key, so she wasn't worried about someone coming in and seeing her, even if he was perpetually concerned about it.
"Raven, it's me," Charles said, not long afterwards, locking the door behind him. "You shouldn't be blue if you can help it, not with visitors in the house."
"Okay." Raven tiredly changed back to her pink form and sat on the edge of her bed. Charles sat beside her, his new suit stiff across the shoulders.
"Kurt Marko is after Father's money," Charles told her. "He thought the money would all be Mother's, and he wanted to marry her."
Raven wrinkled up her nose. "But wouldn't he live here, then? Yuk."
"Luckily, Father left the money to me, not to Mother, so it will do him no good to marry her. I think she wants to marry him, though. I don't like it at all."
"Can't you make her not want to?"
Charles shifted uncomfortably. "There's, um, there's adult stuff there and I don't really know what to do with it."
"Oh, you mean sexual intercourse?" Raven had hidden out in a brothel for two weeks, once, and seen some very surprising things. On the other hand, it had helped her understanding of human anatomy beneath clothing.
"Raven!"
She ducked her head. "Sorry."
"Anyway, I don't really understand how it all fits together, so I don't dare change it. The sadder Mother is the more she dislikes him, but the more she wants him to tell her what to do, and it's all a big mess. And he reminds her of Father, though I don't know why."
"They smell the same," Raven said helpfully. "Probably from working in the same lab."
"Oh. You and Mother must have better noses than I do. But the point is, Doctor Marko might not marry her now, since the money is mine and not Mother's. But the money Father left her until she dies is also quite a lot, so maybe that will be enough for him."
Raven had a terrible thought. "Charles, what happens if you die? Then where does the money go?"
Charles got to his feet, frowning. "I hadn't thought of that. I'll read the lawyers' minds and see what would happen."
"Yes, please."
"Raven, I'd never let you be thrown out. I promised you, remember?"
Raven tried to be stoic, but she felt her lip wobble. "I don't even care about that! I just don't want him to kill you for your money! Don't leave me on my own!"
Charles rushed over to hug her. "Of course I won't, Raven. I promise. And don't worry – if he tries to hurt either of us, I'll stop him. He doesn't know what I can do."
Raven cried on his chest and felt Charles cry a few big tears that plopped onto her head. She didn't say anything, in case he had to pretend not to cry, but hugged him very hard, pressing her face into his skinny boy body for safety.
Two nights later, Charles came to Raven's room, which surprised her as she'd been asleep, not crying.
"Raven, did you hear anything?"
She sat up, blinking, and automatically changed to her usual day mask of pink skin and gold hair, though her eyes still adjusted to the dark better than anyone's, no matter how she made them look. "Um, before you came in?"
"Yes, before that. Voices. Shouting."
"No?" Raven yawned. "Who was shouting?"
"I'm not…I'm not sure. Mother's asleep, Kurt's gone off to his job, and it wasn't any of the servants who are sleeping here tonight. Mr Walsh is awake in the garage, but he's reading the newspaper and worrying about his brother in the war."
"Well, it wasn't me. What kind of voice was it? Ooh, is it a burglar?"
"No, I like burglars," Charles said, with a fond kiss on her head. "I think it was two men, but I couldn't really make it out."
"You were probably dreaming, Charles." She hesitated, seeing his worried face. "You could stay here, just in case there are men around. I'll protect you."
"Thank you, Raven," he said, perfectly seriously, and climbed into bed with her. It was a big four-poster bed that Sharon had had painted white and gold, so there was plenty of room for both of them, and they went back to sleep together.
A few nights later, Charles and Raven had stayed up late listening to Bob Hope's American Variety show on the radio, since Sharon had started going to bed earlier and earlier, leaving them to their own devices after dinner. Doctor Marko was visiting again – they still didn't know where the secret government lab was, but it was somewhere where he got a tan – and Charles and Raven knew to make themselves scarce whenever they could. This time, they'd gone to the old parlour to listen to the radio.
"There, did you hear it?" Charles asked Raven, suddenly, turning down the radio volume.
"I was listening to that!" she protested, but stopped when she saw how serious his face was. "No, I only heard the radio. Was it the two men again?"
"Yes, but I still can't make out what they're saying. It was closer, this time. One of them sounded like Father, but I'm not sure."
"Well, it wasn't him, since he's dead."
"Thank you, Raven. I was actually aware of that."
"Okay, I'll listen." She strained her ears as hard as she could, but apart from their breathing and a faint wind outside, she couldn't hear a thing. Suddenly, something creaked and she jumped. "I heard that! Was that the house?"
"Let's go look."
"No, let's not!"
"Oh, come on. You can practically see in the dark. Let me link up and we'll both be able to see."
Raven really didn't want to leave the well-lit parlour, but she didn't want Charles to go alone, either. "Okay, but you have to hold my hand. No arguing."
"All right, I'll hold your hand." He linked their minds together and they peered out into the dark corridor. It was deadly quiet. Raven hesitated, but Charles pulled her forward and they proceeded down the hallway towards the dining room and kitchen. It was all dark, and there was little moonlight. This didn't bother Raven's vision, but it meant that there were a lot of corners she couldn't really see into.
A creaking noise came from the kitchen and Raven squeezed Charles's hand more tightly.
"Is anyone there?" she asked him over their telepathic link. "Can you detect them?"
"No," Charles said, and his telepathic voice was a bit wobbly. Nonetheless, he kept moving forward and Raven went right with him so that he could use her night vision. He slowly pushed the heavy kitchen door open and Raven squirmed on the spot, more scared about what they couldn't see than what they might.
There was nobody there. The wind blew outside and the creaking noise repeated. This time it was clearly from the window frame, which was, along with many things in the house, slightly dilapidated.
"I'll have to have someone fix that," Charles muttered, relieved.
"You should! It doesn't explain the voices, though."
"Maybe the radio wasn't quite tuned."
"Maybe," Raven echoed, but she thought Charles had sounded quite certain when he told her what he had heard.
"Raven, darling," Sharon said one morning at the breakfast table, with Kurt in Brian's seat and Charles sulking down the other end.
"Yes, Mother?" Raven was surprised to be spoken to at all. Sharon hadn't even been dressing Raven for dinner or brushing her hair recently. That left Miss Friedlander to look after Raven's hair and she always put it in two tight braids that Raven had to wiggle loose by growing her hair a quarter inch at the scalp.
"Darling, we have very important news. Kurt and I have decided to marry."
"What?" Charles shouted, pushing his chair away so hard it fell over.
"Sit down and listen to your mother," Kurt snapped.
"It will only be a registry office wedding because of the war, of course, but I want you to be my little flower girl."
"You can't get married!" Charles said loudly, but not at shouting volume. "What about Father?"
Sharon looked very tired. "Charles, your father passed away. Kurt was your father's best friend and he has been very kindly looking after us ever since."
"Your father and I agreed to care for the other's family if anything happened," Kurt added. "It's a very dangerous job."
"That's right," Sharon said, "And we have decided to marry. This is not a matter I am going to argue about with a little boy."
Charles opened his mouth again, then suddenly turned and fled the room.
Raven jumped to her feet. "I would love to be a flower girl! Thank you very much! Congratulations!" Then she raced off after Charles.
"Those children need discipline," Kurt said, at a volume Raven could still hear as she ran up the stairs. Sharon's reply was softer.
Raven found Charles in his room, lying face down on his bed crying. She knew Charles hated being caught crying – he said it wasn't manly, whatever that was supposed to mean – so she knocked on the open door and waited. Eventually, she got a muffled response.
"Come in, Raven."
She sat beside him. "We'll be late for school. Mr Walsh is starting the car."
"I can't believe they're getting married! Can't she see that Kurt Marko is after her money? And also he has a son, a bit older than me? He'll probably come to live here too."
"Really? That sounds nice," Raven said. She liked having an older brother. Maybe two would be even better.
"No! No, it doesn't! This is my house and she can't just decide to bring him here. He can't replace my father!"
Raven patted his back. She wasn't really sure why he was so upset, but she supposed Charles didn't have much practice at his family changing. "You could change their minds?"
"It doesn't do any good if I still know what they really want, does it?"
Raven sighed. Charles could go on all day about telepathic morals if she let him. "Come on, it's time for school. You don't want to hang around here all day with Kurt."
That did the trick. Charles got to his feet and hurried off to the bathroom to wash his face, then took Raven's hand.
"Raven, I'm really glad I have you for a sister. Never leave, okay?"
"I won't!" Raven gave him a quick hug, even though she knew he didn't like having his school uniform crumpled, and he hugged her back.
That night, Charles came into Raven's room and woke her up. "Raven, I can hear the voices again. I'm…I'm starting to think it might be ghosts. Maybe Father's ghost."
Raven sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Are ghosts real?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe I just didn't know anyone who died until now."
"Some girls at the orphanage died, but I never saw any ghosts. Maybe they were happy to get out of there."
Charles patted her hand. "I'm glad you got out of there."
"Me too! Well, if it's ghosts, can you control them? With your mind, I mean?"
"Do ghosts have minds? The Flying Dutchman just sails around forever, but the Headless Horseman could chase after people."
"We could find out!" Raven tried to sound brave, but really she would rather stay in her bed. If the ghosts were bothering Charles she'd have to help. She particularly wished Charles hadn't mentioned the Headless Horseman, though.
"All right, let's go." Charles linked his mind with hers, so they could see in the dark, and they crept out of Raven's room and down the back stairs.
"Can you still hear them?" Raven asked, through the link so as not to scare the possible ghosts off.
"Yes, this time! I really think one of them is Father."
"Who's the other ghost, then?"
"I'm not sure. Here, I'll link you in."
There really were two men's voices, arguing. Raven jumped, startled, not because she hadn't believed Charles, but because having tangible evidence of their existence was such a shock.
"Oh! You're right, that's Father. Is the other one Kurt?"
Charles frowned. "Now that you mention it, it might be. The voices are coming from this way."
They crept up the front stairs and along the hall and Raven realised that they were close to Sharon's room.
"Charles, is this right? Why would there be ghosts around Mother?"
"I don't know!"
Sharon's door opened suddenly, and the two children gasped and flattened themselves against the wall. She paid them no attention. Dressed in a long robe, she wandered down towards Brian's old study with a glass in her hand. Her hair was a mess.
"Are the ghosts going with her?" Raven asked.
"No, they're still right here. Come on, let's look."
Raven was shivering now but she was determined not to let Charles go alone, so she took his hand for comfort. They peered into Sharon's bedroom.
Kurt was in the bed, much to their surprise. He was snoring lightly, his chest bare and his arm stretched across the bed. The room smelled heavy and alcoholic.
"It's not on her, it's on him," Charles whispered out loud, but Kurt didn't wake.
Suddenly Raven could hear the voices, as transmitted to her by Charles, perfectly clearly, Brian Xavier and Kurt Marko, their voices raised.
"She has some kind of shape-changing ability," Brian said. "I don't know where Charles found her."
"The telepathy. Must have brought her in." Kurt didn't sound surprised. "How's Cain doing on the tests?"
"His protein levels are markedly raised, same as the others, but there's still no manifestation. We should increase the dose if there's no response by next month."
"It's making him sick," Kurt said. "There must be some other factor involved apart from the radioactivity. I mean, the girl had her ability before she came to you, didn't she?"
"You can't exempt Cain just because he's your son! I've never once exempted Charles, not even when we had to smuggle the doses to New York!"
"Well, it actually worked on Charles, didn't it? Maybe we started Cain too late. We have to stop."
"We are not going to stop! Look at those protein levels! He'll break through soon."
Raven clutched Charles's arm. "This isn't ghosts. This is a memory."
Charles was open-mouthed in shock. "They gave us medicine? Those vitamin tablets…"
"I never took mine, they tasted bad," Raven told him, patting his hand.
Kurt's memory didn't stop there.
"Brian, stop! Cain can be the control, then. Put that back."
"I will do no such thing."
There were clanging noises, and a gasp from Kurt. "Brian? Brian!"
"He's waking up. We have to go!" Charles pulled Raven out the door with him and they hurried away before they were spotted.
They climbed back into Raven's bed and sat side-by-side, their knees pulled up.
"I think he killed Father," Charles said, quietly. "It's not literally a ghost but it may as well have been. He tries to forget it when he's awake, but when he's asleep he can't stop himself thinking about it. Projecting it."
"But he's sad about it. Mother said they were best friends."
"We should tell the police."
Raven stared at him, wide-eyed, and felt her eyes slip from blue to gold. "Tell them what?"
Charles laughed, a weird brittle sound that wasn't his usual laugh at all. "You're right, Raven. You're completely right." He hugged Raven so hard that she squeaked. "You're the only one I can trust. I'm so glad you're my sister."
Raven stretched her body a bit so she could breathe. "I love you. I'll always be on your side."
They stayed that way for a long time, until Raven started to doze off. Charles tucked her into bed and kissed her on the forehead.
"Good night, Raven." His footsteps echoed on the bare wood of the hall floor, the house so silent that, apart from Raven's sleepy breaths, it sounded like he was the only living thing remaining here.