Prompt Post: ROUND FOUR
ROUND FOUR IS CLOSED
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<< ROUND THREE | ALL ROUNDS | ROUND FIVE >>
Rules post.
Posting Guidelines.
Flat view.
Updates Post (WIPs only)
Fills Post (completed Fills only)
damalur's firstclasskink on Delicious.
Volunteers always welcome.
There is a delay on comments appearing when there is a URL in the message body. This is due to an LJ anti-spam ( Read more... )
They’re silent all the way to the cellar and don’t exchange many words while Charles shows Erik the plans he and Hank have been working on. The tension Charles is feeling is all one dark mass in his chest and it’s only when Erik says, confidently, “I can do this. I’ll need some more material to work with.” that part of that mass breaks off and dissolves and Charles recognises it for what it was. The concern that this wouldn’t work.
It hadn’t really been worry that Erik couldn’t do it, he knows that. Just the nameless dread that some distant part of him names as ‘parental’ that something would go wrong and the boys would be left for even longer before they could find them.
He lets out a small, relived sigh and says “Whatever you need, Erik. There’ll be suitable things around the mansion we can use.”
* * *
Charles lets Erik rope Azazel and Riptide into bringing the steel needed for the frame to the cellar, just letting him know where in the outbuildings Hank had been collecting the scrap.
The frame needs an overlay of more conductive metal to work though, and he goes himself to collect up the silver and copper needed for that. He catches Raven and Angel in the kitchen and gets them to carry away the large copper pans that should provide enough metal, and he’s in the long gallery in front of an open display cabinet when Emma strolls in and finds him.
She watches him loading up silverware onto a bedsheet in silence for a moment and then frowns and leans over to look at a piece more closely. “That’s a George II fruit basket there.”
Charles throws her a distracted glance and tips the contents of the cutlery case he’s holding onto the sheet. “Yes? I’m well aware of its provenance, Miss Frost. It’s been in my family for five generations.”
Emma was showing more emotion than Charles had ever seen her give now. Her voice has a shrill note as she says “And you’re just going to melt it down for parts?! It’s worth thousands!”
He bends down with care and gathers the sheet together, throws it over his shoulder with a slight grunt before he looks at her and answers softly “Its worth to me right now is limited to the help it will be to get my students back. No more.”
Emma says nothing else to him as he leaves the room.
* * *
Erik shows no more interest in the value of the metal than Charles, and the mass of material is carelessly piled up in the centre of the floor till he needs it.
Erik works quickly but quietly, and the clank of metal objects working their way from the pile at his command or the creak of straining steel as he stretches it out along the walls is all that can be heard for a while. Then, when they were quite a way into the build and the majority of the frame was up, Erik suddenly asked “Would you have let me know?”
Charles looks up from where he was poring over the plans and says distractedly, “What?”
He can see the rigid line of Erik’s back where he stands at the wall opposite, read the tension in it. Erik repeats himself “Would you have let me know?” He glances over his shoulder but only looks at Charles’ hands where they’re resting on the blueprints “If you hadn’t needed me to form this metal for you, Charles. Would you still have let me know the boys were in danger?”
Charles’ breath catches in his throat and he waits till Erik drags his eyes up to meet his before he replies, voice shaking a little with the pressure of getting his point across, “Of course I would, Erik. They’re your boys too. Just as Raven is still mine. That’s never something I’ll take away from you.”
Erik looks back at him silently for a moment, then nods his head and turns back to his work. Charles frowns at his back for several minutes before rubbing a hand over his face and turning back to the blueprints.
Once this was over, he and Erik were going to have to talk.
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Me gusta, author. Me gusta.
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Of *course* Erik loves the boys as much. He's just a big marshmallow under that titanium exterior ;)
Tiny bit more up - apols, I was briefly distracted by writing porn 'n stuff...
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