Prompt Post: ROUND SEVEN
ROUND SEVEN IS CLOSED
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<< ROUND SIX | ALL ROUNDS | ROUND EIGHT >>
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... )
Erik never returned his pencil, and Charles didn’t bother to ask for it back-he had more where that came from, anyway-but he did find himself paying more attention to Erik because of it. At first, he wondered if Erik hadn’t returned it because he never found another pencil to use, but he realized after only a few days that Erik came to class with a different pencil each day-or none at all sometimes, which was slightly disconcerting considering the necessity of the tool.
Charles didn’t want to wonder things about Erik. He didn’t want to be curious about anything, even something as small as why Erik never seemed to have his own pencil, for fear of what he would unintentionally do to know these things. Erik might have seemed able to tolerate being near Charles, but he didn’t think Erik would be okay with Charles looking into his mind.
It was inevitable, he thought. Erik was the nicest anyone had been to him, and it made him curious and hungry to use his telepathy, despite his best attempts at crushing it down inside himself. He never stretched those muscles; never let it out if he had a choice because it only caused him grief.
It just meant he would have to be even more careful around him. Charles was endlessly grateful that Erik had left him alone thus far, but he wasn’t one to tempt fate if he could help it, especially considering that Erik was already quite intimidating. Charles couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would look if he were trying to be scary.
“Today you’ll be working with your lab partners,” Charles’ biology teacher said, and he couldn’t help the feeling of dread that came over him at her words.
Erik said nothing, but that was fine because Charles didn’t say anything either.
The teacher passed out one packet per pair, and Charles took theirs immediately, reading over the instructions before he started setting the series of experiments up. It would be better this way, Charles reasoned. Erik wouldn’t have to do any of the work, probably didn’t know the work to be able to do it in the first place, and he could still get a good grade because Charles knew this material well enough that the experiment wouldn’t be difficult at all for him.
Charles would have been fine if Erik had tapped his pencil boredly on the table, pretending to help as half-assed as he could. He would have been okay if Erik had wandered to become the third wheel on another pair to leave Charles completely alone.
Instead, what Erik did was equal parts confusing and scary. He said, “aren’t we meant to work together on this?”, and his tone of voice was so casually offended that Charles actually flinched.
It seemed to take a lot to raise his eyes to Erik’s face, and even then he only made eye contact for just a moment before looking back down at the page before him as if to say I’m paying attention. “If you insist,” Charles said, his voice sounding startlingly robotic to his own ears. He moved the paper between them.
Erik gave an exasperated sigh, leaning closer to Charles so he could read easier. “You don’t have to sound so excited about it,” he mumbled irritably.
Charles frowned, stammering out, “I d-didn’t mean-that is to say-“
“Save it,” Erik interrupted curtly, and Charles shut up immediately. “Let’s just get this over with,” he said, and Charles couldn’t have agreed more.
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