(no subject)
Title: First Month
Fandom: X-Men First Class
Characters: Erik/Charles, Raven, Angel, Moira, Hank, Armando
Word Count: 11,658
Rating: T
Summary: During their search for new recruits, Charles spends a month convincing Erik that Erik impregnated him by using his powers next to him.
Author's Notes: This was originally supposed to be pure crack, but somehow evolved into something a tad more serious. One scene was inspired by a fanart that I can't seem to find anymore, so if anyone knows where it is, pass me a link so I can include it.
“I think tomorrow is going to be our lucky day,” Charles said as they made their way into their room, the hotel only having one to spare but with separate beds. He threw his bag onto the bed nearest the door, claiming it as his own as Erik used his power to lock the door behind them. He was in such a good mood, he didn’t even bother to warn him about what had happened the last time he had done that. In fact, if he had his way, they wouldn’t even talk about the subject at all. He collapsed into one of the two chairs, relaxing in a way he rarely did. Relaxation often brought the unwanted thoughts of others, but with Erik, he found he wouldn’t mind the stray thought or two.
The mutant for which they were searching had very few other options available to him, which would likely make him very agreeable to come with them. Not to mention he possessed a very strong desire to learn how to control his gift. After the last reception, they could both use someone who was willing to at the very least listen to them. Erik pulled the other chair across the room and angled it so it was facing Charles’. In one swift movement, he scooped up Charles’ foot and plopped down in the other chair.
“Let’s take a look at that foot, shall we?” he said as he pulled the foot in question into his lap.
“Erik, let me go.” He struggled weakly, accidentally bumping his other shin into Erik’s legs, but he wasn’t feeling any strong desire to escape. He felt it oddly comforting that Erik was actually concerned with his well-being, albeit in a rather teasing fashion. He held Charles still by the ankle, and easily pulled off his shoe and sock. Hank had taken out the stitches before they left, and he was satisfied to see that it was actually healing rather nicely with no signs of infection. Frankly he was much more interested in what was going on in Erik’s mind as he sat there cradling his foot with his large hands, carefully studying the healing wound.
There was the same fierce intensity that ran underneath everything he did, but even deeper was a strange sort of guilt, a guilt that Erik refused to acknowledge and understand himself. To extract the source of it, he would have to probe even deeper which was sure to alert Erik to the fact that he was doing something he had technically promised not to do. It was one thing to dive into Erik’s mind to save his life, but quite another to do so just to figure out what he was thinking while his thumbs were gently moving over the curves in his foot. Not to mention there was still the pressing matter of where those other thoughts had come from, the ones that prompted him to start their little game in the first place. The only other place they could have been coming from was Erik, but a gentle surface probe revealed nothing of the sort and they only seemed to flare up when Angel was around. Not that Angel had shown any interest in either one of them, and Charles knew he had been responsible for that. Neither one of them really needed that sort of distraction at the moment anyhow, not that he was following his own advice, not with the way Erik’s hands were moving on his foot. He exuded a confidant ease that sent shivers of desire down his spine that he found difficult to ignore.
“Instead of the nightly scalp massage, what if I give you a foot rub?” Erik asked, running his thumbs down to his heels for emphasis and rolling them in circles.
Charles didn’t see how that would negate any of the prenatal instructions given to them by Hank.
According to him, the primary reason for the scalp massages had been to establish direct contact and to release endorphins. While it helped with the headaches, he didn’t have one today, and he couldn’t deny the way Erik’s hand moved across his foot felt just as good, if not better. He reached down to untie his other shoe, leaving it and the sock abandoned on the floor. It joined his other foot in Erik’s lap, crossed at the ankle with the other one.
‘Greedy’ the thought came clearly from Erik’s mind, but his was smiling and did nothing to remove his feet from where they were resting very carefully on Erik’s thigh. He also made the effort of allowing Erik to choose where his feet were placed, given that the tendrils of pleasure radiating from the ministrations of those hands made him distrust the control of his own body. Erik’s mind, on the other hand, was infuriatingly calm as he ran his fingers between his toes and caressed back down the sides. He may not mind getting injured so much in the future if Erik was always going to take such good care of him.
‘I could get use to this’ he thought at Erik, not trusting his voice at the moment. If he would have known that it was going to feel this good, he would have requested Hank to demand foot rubs for him instead. He didn’t want to make any awkward noises of contentment, but he didn’t think Erik’s efforts should go unappreciated either. Still, direct feedback to his brain might be a little too personal in this instance as in his current state he wasn’t sure what he would transmit and what he would be able to keep to himself. Like the way he suddenly found himself wishing Erik was just a little bit more like the Erik in those unwanted fantasies from earlier, a little more bold, a little more sure of what he wanted. Instead he was left with the harsh reality of an Erik who was considerably more hesitant, an Erik who didn’t necessarily have room in his life for such distractions. Erik who projected a considerable amount of frustration and guilt at seemingly random intervals. Erik, who to all intents, had vivid fantasies about himself and Charles whenever Angel was around, although she wasn’t the one who could read minds.
“I think that’s enough for now,” Erik said, pushing both feet carefully off his lap and placing them gently on the ground. Without offering an explanation, he rose from the chair and made his way swiftly into the bathroom.
“Erik?” he called after him just as the bathroom door shut behind him, as impenetrable as the wall that Erik had suddenly placed in his mind. “Erik?” he tried a little louder, but it was followed momentarily by the sound of the water turning on in the shower. To pry into his mind now would be a breach of privacy they would both likely find uncomfortable. He supposed at some time they would have to address the issue of what had just happened, but apparently tonight was not going to be it.
He crawled into his bed, stretching out with a small sigh. At least tomorrow should prove to be full of potential, even if this night hadn’t ended up quite the way he would have expected. Erik was in the shower a long time to the point where Charles was drifting off by the time the water stopped. He was almost fully asleep by the time Erik finally stepped out of the bathroom, fully dried and wearing a pair of cotton pajamas. By that point he was only aware of Erik as a presence in his mind as he made his way to the other bed.
“Goodnight, Charles,” he said simply before using his power to flick off the light.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At least things weren’t awkward over the next week between the two of them, although Erik was more emotionally closed off than normal. They still met each other for breakfast, pre-dawn so Charles was not distracted by the waking thoughts of others. Erik didn’t cook so much anymore, but there were still days when he was feeling exceptionally generous that breakfast would be waiting for him. The best part about breakfast with Erik was the silence, a comfortable reminder that neither of them was alone anymore. And, now that the number of younger recruits were growing, Raven was usually too tired from staying up late with her new friends to interrupt them first thing in the morning. Even better was the whole pregnancy façade finally seemed to be coming to an end, what with him not caring, Raven being too busy making new friends, and Erik still feeling awkward about what had happened. He did miss the friendly, teasing camaraderie they had going on for the first few weeks, but he supposed this relationship was better for them. Given his general demeanor, Charles didn’t think Erik would have been able to keep up the playful attitude for very long. He may have wanted to, but there were too many obstacles from his past.
They had both finished eating but were lingering at the table, neither one willing to go quite yet, even though a few others were starting to stir. Most of them weren’t ready for breakfast, but one was, and Charles would not be wholly opposed to her company although Erik would likely have a different opinion on the matter. He needed to extend his social network to someone beyond Charles eventually.
Besides, the three of them were going to be working closely together for the foreseeable future, and it was about time they all learned to at least tolerate each other’s presence. Granted, Moira didn’t trust Erik and Erik didn’t trust anyone, but he was not about to spend all his time making sure the two of them never interacted. So he didn’t bother to give Erik any warning that she was going to be joining them. Breakfast was the perfect place for them to get to know each other.
“Good morning, Charles,” Moira greeted him as she entered the kitchen, making her way to the refrigerator to grab a yogurt and the orange juice. “Erik,” she added as she dropped a piece of bread into the toaster.
Erik had a brief mental image of the toaster having a slight malfunction and her toast getting stuck, strong enough for Charles to sense it. ‘Erik, please don’t,’ he sent along with a few waves of calm. No matter how much he managed to make it look like an accident, Moira would be inclined to blame him for it regardless.
“When are the two of you leaving for New York?” she asked as she brought her breakfast over and sat down at the table with them.
“This afternoon, if possible.” There were a few things they had to take care of before they left, like making sure Alex was settled in nicely and that Raven was up to bonding with both of them while they were gone. He also had the nagging feeling he should talk to Angel again before they left, but he knew once she made her mind up to leave, nobody would be able to say anything to stop her. As a bonus, however, the only way she would ever leave was if something better came along, and the odds of that happening were exceedingly slim. At the current moment, she would have to go right back to stripping.
“Don’t forget about the budget meeting on Friday,” she reminded him, because she was worried that Erik would try to drag him out of it by keeping him away longer than necessary on a mutant hunt. Or get him into some other sort of trouble that would keep him away.
“I won’t forget,” he promised. Even though Erik thought the idea was absurd, he would never do anything intentionally to keep Charles from attending. In fact, for some reason, he seemed to be oddly excited by the prospect.
Their flight for New York ended up being the following morning, having to take a later flight to deal with the fact that Raven was having a slight breakdown about having to babysit all the time, making sure that Angel did not go running off and Alex did not try to use his powers before they had the chance to assess what kind of damage he could do. While Charles did his best to assuage Raven, Erik spent his free night shopping. When he finally returned, he gave no indication of the nature of his purchases, but he was feeling rather smug about them. Unfortunately, calming Raven was taking most of his energy at the moment, as her babysitting duties were taking away from her time that she would much rather be spending with Hank.
“At least you get to spend all the time you want with Erik,” she retorted sharply before turning on her heel and storming from the room. Her words stayed with him on the entire short flight to New York as he occasionally glanced over at Erik who he knew suffered from severe bouts of seasickness. Being wrapped in the cocoon of metal while flying through the air, however, didn’t seem to bother him. If anything, he seemed oddly comforted by it. Charles himself found it oddly comforting to know that should something happen to the engines, Erik would very likely be able to save them.
But it was Raven’s voice that haunted him every time he looked over at the man sitting next to him who was becoming aware of his increasing glances but was not the least disturbed by them. The amount of time he spent with Erik was, in fact, obscene, especially considering how they had just met, however he did not mind the comfort of his presence, and Erik had not vouched any complaints of any sort either.
The problem with Raven’s statement and what prompted him to continue to stare at Erik was the implication that he wanted to spend time with him in the manner that she wanted to spend time with Hank. Outside of that one brief moment when Erik had been doing delectable things to his foot, he really hadn’t given the matter much thought. Generally speaking, when he was with Erik, there had always been other things to focus on. Now that Raven had brought the subject into the open, he found he could think about little else. More specifically, how Erik would respond to it. His subconscious mind was apparently not opposed to the idea, at least not when Angel was around, but he had bolted from the room when things had started to take a more intimate turn. Of course, that could have just been a byproduct of a lifetime of a fear of intimacy and trust issues. For his part, Charles was not repulsed by the idea, even if he had been a little shocked when he first received the images if only because he had not been expecting them. If would likely take some getting used to the idea, but if wasn’t like they didn’t spend every waking moment in each other’s company. In fact, it could prove to be quite the interesting experiment.
“You keep staring at me,” Erik pointed out once they were three-quarters of the way though their flight, raising an eyebrow questioningly as he looked at Charles.
“Am I?” he feigned innocence even though he had been perfectly aware of what he had been doing. He had just been hoping Erik would be too decent to call him out on it even though there had never been much chance of that happening. “Sorry. I was just thinking about something Raven said to me earlier.”
“And what did your darling sister say now?” he asked as he settled back into his seat. “That I should invest in a pair of handcuffs? That I defiled you on Moira’s bed?” A quick scan of Erik’s brain revealed that Raven had indeed broached both subjects with him. He thought about scolding her when they returned, but Erik seemed to have gotten over it already. Perhaps he should tell Erik the truth, revealing
in the process how much he enjoyed the time they spent together. But there was no where for Erik to hide up here.
“She asked me if I thought you might be able to fly.”
Erik glanced over at him and Charles wondered if his lie had fallen short given the distrust floating on the surface of his thoughts. “And what’s your assessment?”
“I believe you can do anything you set your mind to.” Which was exactly the answer he needed to hear, and Erik relaxed back into his seat with a general air of contentment. And he didn’t seem to notice as much when Charles would glance his way, gaze lingering slightly longer than it should have on the stubble of his jaw or at least he did not seem to mind it much. Which didn’t meant he should feel obligated to look at his leisure, but he certainly was not going to feel guilty about it either.
Once the plane landed, Charles feeling marginally better now that he was down on the ground, they found a hotel they could leave their things at before hunting down the first target. Of course they were going to be taking separate rooms; they did have separate rooms at headquarters as well, but even though Erik was always just a thought away, Charles was starting to feel lonely whenever Erik was not physically nearby. Which was likely very unhealthy for him, and he briefly considered expanding his circle of friends some time soon. That was about as likely as Erik doing the same and for much similar reasons.
“I think I’ll wait outside,” Erik said once they arrived at their destination, thinking of what had happened the last time they had encountered a fellow mutant in a backstreet. There were certainly more glamorous locations than the decrepit apartment building off the alley, a very dingy alley that smelled like garbage and stale feces, but he didn’t understand why Erik would have any objections to going inside.
“You sure?” he asked because he honestly believed they were in this thing together and he really didn’t think it was healthy for Erik to be dwelling on a single failure when there were so many to choose from. Erik only nodded, only half paying attention, the other half scanning the alley for pieces of metal that didn’t belong, like rusty nails that could penetrate Charles’ shoe.
Leaving him to his business, he made his way to the filthy door. The window next to it was broken, and the door initially stuck, but with a good push of his shoulders, it swung open with a groan.
“Hello?” he called as he stepped into the foyer. It didn’t look like the landlord enforced any sort of strict maintenance policy, and a mouse squeaked in the corner. There were six people in the building, three in one apartment, two in another, and the mutant he was looking for was alone on the third floor.
Alone, and not expecting any company. He made his way to the staircase, placing his hand temporarily on the railing before pulling it away from the sticky mess he found there. No one bothered him on the steps; most of the people who lived there preferred to keep to themselves which made it the perfect hideaway. On the third floor, he stopped and stared at the closed apartment door. If Erik had come with him, a simple thing like a locked door would have posed no problem.
“Hello?” he called outside the door, rapping his knuckles lightly against the wood. The presence inside the room stiffened, thinking rather loudly about who would possibly be calling on him. “Excuse me, Tom? I just want to talk to you,” he said as he tested the handle and pushed ever so slightly on the door.
There was a surge of panic from within and the door slammed open as someone went rushing by him. “Tom, wait!” he called after the young man, fearing in his panic he might accidentally hurt someone else. He was moving too fast for Charles to properly track him, and even his thoughts were racing so fast that it was difficult to anticipate what he was going to do next. But he did know that the man was armed with a gun, that much had been clear in this thoughts, and that was the primary reason he went chasing down the stairs after him. He burst out the front door, finding Erik still scanning the alley for loose pieces of metal. The man was still somewhere in the area, but he was moving so swiftly he couldn’t actually get a location on him.
“Did you see anyone come out here?” he asked as Erik looked questioningly up at him. He shook his head and Charles tried again to pinpoint the mutant’s location. Tom finally stopped long enough for him to find him, standing directly behind him, discovered just in time for Charles to hear a gunshot echo through the alley.
He found himself temporarily trapped between the man’s desperate fear and Erik’s anger as he slowly turned around to face their target. He tried to ignore the bullet hovering in the air behind him and focused instead on Tom. “We’re not here to hurt you,” he tried to explain even though he didn’t need to be able to read his mind to know that he was absolutely terrified of them. Actually, he was more terrified of whichever one of them had managed to stop his bullet, and he threw the gun to the ground before turning to flee. Erik dropped the bullet that had been fired, allowing it to clatter harmlessly to the alley before taking a few steps after the man, his pursuit hindered by Charles placing his hand across his chest to stop him.
“Erik, let him go,” he instructed, and though he was frustrated with the prospect, Erik stopped trying to follow him.
“He tried to kill you,” Erik growled, and underneath the anger was the quiet desperation of how lost he would have been had he lost his only friend.
“Lucky for me you were there to protect me then,” he said, placing his hand on Erik’s shoulder. It was supposed to be a reassuring pat, nothing more, to help calm him down, but his fingers lingered on the smooth leather of his jacket. Besides it had actually turned into quite an interesting test of Erik’s capabilities.
“So we’re just going to let him go?”
In the blink of an eye, Charles fantasized about what it would like if he pressed his lips to his, to taste the bitterness of his anger and the sweetness of his concern. As vulnerable as he was at the moment, Erik probably wouldn’t even think to pull away. “He’s terrified of us. There’s nothing we could do now to change his mind.”
“Couldn’t you get in his mind, make him less afraid of us?”
“I used my abilities once on Angel to show her a nice trick and now she doesn’t trust me.” Which was actually quite the understatement. The other day he had overheard her wondering if any of the others were even mutants or if they had just captured her alone for the CIA to perform sadistic experiments on.
She had not found his trick as amusing once she had begun to think about the implications of what he could do. “I’m not making that mistake again.
“Come on,” he said, letting his hand drop from Erik’s shoulder, feeling his confusion at the twinge of disappointment that surged through him at the loss of contact. “New York is a big city. There are plenty more mutants to find.”
None of which were much more receptive to their advances. Some actually stayed long enough to hear them out; none of them agreed to go back to Washington with them. Quite simply, all the mutants they encountered were concerned with one thing above all else. Survival. The prosperity of the world meant little to them when they did not even know how they were going to make it to the following day. So it was with a heavy sense of failure they returned to their separate rooms. Charles bid Erik a good night’s rest, making sure to lock the door tightly behind him. Tom was not the only mutant they had aggravated that day. He rummaged around in his bag in search of his nightclothes. It had been a long day, and they had another one of mutant searching before it would be time to head back to the CIA. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a little more fruitful in the results. He changed and performed the necessary hygiene ritual before crawling under the covers of his bed. If he just drifted his mind a few rooms down, he would be able to sense Erik, even with the interference of the other clientele.
It wasn’t long before he felt Erik’s mind coming towards his room, which was odd enough given the late hour. He shortly used his power to unlock the door, and Charles turned the table lamp on and sat up in bed to find him framed in the doorway with his gun at his side, an odd picture since he was also dressed in his nightclothes.
“Erik, what are you doing?” he asked as Erik shut and locked the door behind him. He didn’t answer him directly, but Charles got the impression from his mind that he was worried about something. He moved directly to the other bed, placing the gun on the bedside table between them before dropping down on top of the covers. “You have your own room,” he pointed out since Erik seemed to be making himself comfortable.
“The CIA won’t know if it’s empty.” Erik used his power to flick the light back off. “Besides, it would look more suspicious if we only put one room on the bill.”
Which Charles supposed was true, and it seemed like Erik had no intention of leaving, at least for the moment. He pulled the covers closer to his chin and tried to snuggle further down into the pillow, doing his best to grow more comfortable and block out the thoughts of the other occupants. He also didn’t know why Erik felt the need to bring his gun into the room, or how he had even managed to sneak into the hotel in the first place. An hour or so later, Erik’s mind was still restless, projecting so loudly that he was making it difficult for Charles to sleep. And if it had been someone other than Erik with him, he might have been worried about the gun lying between them as well.
‘Get some sleep, Erik’ he sent along with a feeling of safety that could be attributed to Erik’s presence. It seemed to content him for the moment, and it wasn’t long before they were both drifting off to sleep.
The next day proved to be just as unsuccessful although none of the mutants openly attacked them. Charles personally believed it was a step in the right direction. By the time they searched out dinner, Erik was feeling increasingly agitated. He kept thinking about how they were on such a short time frame and how limited their success had been. In the very corner of his consciousness, he was even starting to think the entire scenario was a complete waste of his time. He needed to come up with some way to distract him, or else his churning mind would keep him awake all night as well. Besides, it wasn’t healthy for him to keep all that anger bottled up inside. There was one thing he knew for certain that would pull his mind away.
“We should probably start thinking about names for the baby,” Charles suggested as they walked side by side back to their hotel.
“Excuse me?” Erik asked, glancing at him askew. It did draw his mind momentarily away from hunting Shaw.
“We need to think of names for the baby.” He gave his stomach an inviting pat, trying hard not to grimace. Here he thought they could move past the pregnancy thing; he was really going to have to find some other way to occupy Erik’s mind.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for that?” he asked with a grin, taking the bait and reaching over to briefly rub his belly. If they kept this up for too much longer, eventually he would have to start making himself appear a little heavier in Erik’s mind, which was really more effort than the situation warranted.
“If it’s a girl, we should name her Charlotte,” he suggested.
“Erika,” Erik countered swiftly, almost like he had known that Charles was about to make that suggestion. He would hate to think he was becoming predictable. That was supposed to be everyone else’s occupation while he managed to amaze those ignorant of his gifts.
“Clearly this is a matter we are going to have to give more thought to,” Charles said as they approached the front door of their hotel. Erik’s mind was occupied elsewhere, frankly not concerned with whatever they were going to name their experiment. Which he believed was an interesting word choice considering he knew Erik was well aware that there was mutant offspring forthcoming. At least, it would not be through him.
Erik stayed in his room again that night. He brought the gun with him, that much he could tell from the surface of his thoughts, but it remained hidden. Besides, the next day they would have to go back to the base where there would be the CIA, the budget meeting and the younger mutants to contend with. The time they got to spend with only each other for company was swiftly running out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“How could I possibly pass up an opportunity from someone such as yourself?” their taxi driver remarked once they had finished their pitch. Given the nature of his mutation, Charles had been fairly certain he would be agreeable. At least this way they had been able to end the trip on an upbeat and positive note. Except Erik didn’t exactly appreciate the way he had looked at Charles when he said that.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” he asked, leaning forward aggressively in the seat. He could destroy the entire car if he were so inclined.
“Just that he’s a very convincing man,” he tried to explain defensively, a little worried perhaps about the sanity of at least one of the passengers he picked up.
“It’s the pregnancy glow,” Erik said, reaching over to possessively rub his lower belly.
“Erik!” he scolded, simultaneously pushing his hand away and selectively erasing the past thirty seconds from Armando’s memory. The last thing he needed was for somebody else to be drawn into the whole farce. “He’s just trying to be friendly.”
“A little too friendly” Erik muttered, keeping a careful eye on where their driver was looking.
“So how did the two of you find each other?” Darwin asked, mostly unaware that he had just lost a small chunk of his life. It wasn’t exactly an important part anyway.
“Charles is carrying my child,” Erik explained, reaching over again to give his stomach another brief pat.
“Erik!” He quickly altered Armando’s memory again and pushed Erik’s hand away and dropping it back safely into his own lap. Fiddling with the man’s memories in such quick succession was bound to cause some sort of permanent damage. Erik tried to put his hand back, but Charles pushed it back down to Erik’s knee, keeping it down with a firm pressure. “That’s quite enough, Erik. I think you’ve proven your point.”
“Are you sure, Charles?” Erik asked as he leaned back in the seat with a grin that reminded him terribly of what a shark might look like if it could smile right before it was about to eat a helpless baby seal. A thought dangled in the front of his mind, something about the upcoming budget meeting, but when Charles tried to investigate it further, he found himself confronted with a rather carefully constructed mental shield, better even than the ones he had taught Raven how to build. Clearly he had underestimated Erik’s abilities, and Erik just continued to give him the same grin as if he had known that Charles was going to go in after the thought.
“Erik, what did you do?” he asked, but of course if he couldn’t even graze the answer from the surface of his mind, Erik simply was not going to tell him.
Considering the budget meeting was less than twenty-four hours away, at least he did not have to spend a good deal of time agonizing about the situation. Granted, Erik didn’t make the remaining time for him easy either. Apparently he had gone far too deep into Erik’s mind during that first encounter and a part of his consciousness was still stuck in there or something. At any rate, it seemed like they were always connected at some level, more than he was with a random person in the room, even the loud projectors, and Erik, having discovered this connection, gleefully used it to his advantage. By sending him mental images of Charles taking care of their child and Uncle Hank and Aunt Raven being placed on babysitting duty. Which would not have been so intolerable had he not started projecting these images at three in the morning, and years of envisioning what he wanted to do to Shaw had honed his imagination to pinpoint perfection. Understandably, he was not in the best of form when he showed up for the budget review five hours later since Erik had decided not to desist until six. How a man who had spent his adult life hunting Nazis could come up with such a long fantasy about raising a child was frankly uncanny. Well, at least the first fifteen minutes they spent going over the expenses so he wasn’t really needed at that point. Besides, he had made sure to keep everything completely justifiable.
“There’s just one thing we’re concerned about,” the budget coordinator said as he placed the file folder down and pushed his glasses back on top of his head.
Charles’ first reaction was to believe that the hotel had called them and informed them the second room had not been in use for the two nights that they were there and that he better explain what really happened to them before they could get the wrong idea. “Look, if this is about the empty room, Erik was just worried about me.”
Instead of the understanding he was expecting, all he got from them was confusion, none so more than Moira who was sitting right next to him and starting to wonder if what Angel had said about them was true.
“I was actually referring to the fifteen thousand dollars spent on baby supplies,” the accountant said, raising an eyebrow at him from across the table and wondering if he should look into this empty room scenario. Charles sighed and wiped his memory clean of him ever making that statement. Which still left him in his current predicament, since even if he managed to wipe their memories, he couldn’t exactly get rid of the expense report itself without questions being asked. A thought that was immediately followed by how Erik could have possibly spent that much money on baby supplies and when he even had the time to do it.
“I’m sorry, but Angel’s pregnant. She came to us that way,” he lied since even if they didn’t believe him, all he would have to do was give them a gentle nudge. And when no baby emerged, well, he would just have to take care of that later.
“Five cribs?” the man asked him incredulously.
Touché, Erik. “She’s having quintuplets.”
When they finally released him from their careful scrutiny and he made his way back out into the hall, he knew Erik would be waiting for him even if he hadn’t been able to sense him out there.
“I take it the meeting didn’t go so well,” Erik said as he fell into step easily beside him.
“I had to tell them Angel was pregnant.” She truly was never going to trust them, not after that. “I think you’ve proven your point sufficiently, Erik.”
“Just to be clear, you can’t get pregnant through any other means, can you?”
“I don’t think so.” Charles would have been lying if would have tried to say he wasn’t a little intrigued by the wave of relief that passed through Erik. “Did you have something in mind?”
“How ‘bout a game of chess?”
Fandom: X-Men First Class
Characters: Erik/Charles, Raven, Angel, Moira, Hank, Armando
Word Count: 11,658
Rating: T
Summary: During their search for new recruits, Charles spends a month convincing Erik that Erik impregnated him by using his powers next to him.
Author's Notes: This was originally supposed to be pure crack, but somehow evolved into something a tad more serious. One scene was inspired by a fanart that I can't seem to find anymore, so if anyone knows where it is, pass me a link so I can include it.
“I think tomorrow is going to be our lucky day,” Charles said as they made their way into their room, the hotel only having one to spare but with separate beds. He threw his bag onto the bed nearest the door, claiming it as his own as Erik used his power to lock the door behind them. He was in such a good mood, he didn’t even bother to warn him about what had happened the last time he had done that. In fact, if he had his way, they wouldn’t even talk about the subject at all. He collapsed into one of the two chairs, relaxing in a way he rarely did. Relaxation often brought the unwanted thoughts of others, but with Erik, he found he wouldn’t mind the stray thought or two.
The mutant for which they were searching had very few other options available to him, which would likely make him very agreeable to come with them. Not to mention he possessed a very strong desire to learn how to control his gift. After the last reception, they could both use someone who was willing to at the very least listen to them. Erik pulled the other chair across the room and angled it so it was facing Charles’. In one swift movement, he scooped up Charles’ foot and plopped down in the other chair.
“Let’s take a look at that foot, shall we?” he said as he pulled the foot in question into his lap.
“Erik, let me go.” He struggled weakly, accidentally bumping his other shin into Erik’s legs, but he wasn’t feeling any strong desire to escape. He felt it oddly comforting that Erik was actually concerned with his well-being, albeit in a rather teasing fashion. He held Charles still by the ankle, and easily pulled off his shoe and sock. Hank had taken out the stitches before they left, and he was satisfied to see that it was actually healing rather nicely with no signs of infection. Frankly he was much more interested in what was going on in Erik’s mind as he sat there cradling his foot with his large hands, carefully studying the healing wound.
There was the same fierce intensity that ran underneath everything he did, but even deeper was a strange sort of guilt, a guilt that Erik refused to acknowledge and understand himself. To extract the source of it, he would have to probe even deeper which was sure to alert Erik to the fact that he was doing something he had technically promised not to do. It was one thing to dive into Erik’s mind to save his life, but quite another to do so just to figure out what he was thinking while his thumbs were gently moving over the curves in his foot. Not to mention there was still the pressing matter of where those other thoughts had come from, the ones that prompted him to start their little game in the first place. The only other place they could have been coming from was Erik, but a gentle surface probe revealed nothing of the sort and they only seemed to flare up when Angel was around. Not that Angel had shown any interest in either one of them, and Charles knew he had been responsible for that. Neither one of them really needed that sort of distraction at the moment anyhow, not that he was following his own advice, not with the way Erik’s hands were moving on his foot. He exuded a confidant ease that sent shivers of desire down his spine that he found difficult to ignore.
“Instead of the nightly scalp massage, what if I give you a foot rub?” Erik asked, running his thumbs down to his heels for emphasis and rolling them in circles.
Charles didn’t see how that would negate any of the prenatal instructions given to them by Hank.
According to him, the primary reason for the scalp massages had been to establish direct contact and to release endorphins. While it helped with the headaches, he didn’t have one today, and he couldn’t deny the way Erik’s hand moved across his foot felt just as good, if not better. He reached down to untie his other shoe, leaving it and the sock abandoned on the floor. It joined his other foot in Erik’s lap, crossed at the ankle with the other one.
‘Greedy’ the thought came clearly from Erik’s mind, but his was smiling and did nothing to remove his feet from where they were resting very carefully on Erik’s thigh. He also made the effort of allowing Erik to choose where his feet were placed, given that the tendrils of pleasure radiating from the ministrations of those hands made him distrust the control of his own body. Erik’s mind, on the other hand, was infuriatingly calm as he ran his fingers between his toes and caressed back down the sides. He may not mind getting injured so much in the future if Erik was always going to take such good care of him.
‘I could get use to this’ he thought at Erik, not trusting his voice at the moment. If he would have known that it was going to feel this good, he would have requested Hank to demand foot rubs for him instead. He didn’t want to make any awkward noises of contentment, but he didn’t think Erik’s efforts should go unappreciated either. Still, direct feedback to his brain might be a little too personal in this instance as in his current state he wasn’t sure what he would transmit and what he would be able to keep to himself. Like the way he suddenly found himself wishing Erik was just a little bit more like the Erik in those unwanted fantasies from earlier, a little more bold, a little more sure of what he wanted. Instead he was left with the harsh reality of an Erik who was considerably more hesitant, an Erik who didn’t necessarily have room in his life for such distractions. Erik who projected a considerable amount of frustration and guilt at seemingly random intervals. Erik, who to all intents, had vivid fantasies about himself and Charles whenever Angel was around, although she wasn’t the one who could read minds.
“I think that’s enough for now,” Erik said, pushing both feet carefully off his lap and placing them gently on the ground. Without offering an explanation, he rose from the chair and made his way swiftly into the bathroom.
“Erik?” he called after him just as the bathroom door shut behind him, as impenetrable as the wall that Erik had suddenly placed in his mind. “Erik?” he tried a little louder, but it was followed momentarily by the sound of the water turning on in the shower. To pry into his mind now would be a breach of privacy they would both likely find uncomfortable. He supposed at some time they would have to address the issue of what had just happened, but apparently tonight was not going to be it.
He crawled into his bed, stretching out with a small sigh. At least tomorrow should prove to be full of potential, even if this night hadn’t ended up quite the way he would have expected. Erik was in the shower a long time to the point where Charles was drifting off by the time the water stopped. He was almost fully asleep by the time Erik finally stepped out of the bathroom, fully dried and wearing a pair of cotton pajamas. By that point he was only aware of Erik as a presence in his mind as he made his way to the other bed.
“Goodnight, Charles,” he said simply before using his power to flick off the light.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At least things weren’t awkward over the next week between the two of them, although Erik was more emotionally closed off than normal. They still met each other for breakfast, pre-dawn so Charles was not distracted by the waking thoughts of others. Erik didn’t cook so much anymore, but there were still days when he was feeling exceptionally generous that breakfast would be waiting for him. The best part about breakfast with Erik was the silence, a comfortable reminder that neither of them was alone anymore. And, now that the number of younger recruits were growing, Raven was usually too tired from staying up late with her new friends to interrupt them first thing in the morning. Even better was the whole pregnancy façade finally seemed to be coming to an end, what with him not caring, Raven being too busy making new friends, and Erik still feeling awkward about what had happened. He did miss the friendly, teasing camaraderie they had going on for the first few weeks, but he supposed this relationship was better for them. Given his general demeanor, Charles didn’t think Erik would have been able to keep up the playful attitude for very long. He may have wanted to, but there were too many obstacles from his past.
They had both finished eating but were lingering at the table, neither one willing to go quite yet, even though a few others were starting to stir. Most of them weren’t ready for breakfast, but one was, and Charles would not be wholly opposed to her company although Erik would likely have a different opinion on the matter. He needed to extend his social network to someone beyond Charles eventually.
Besides, the three of them were going to be working closely together for the foreseeable future, and it was about time they all learned to at least tolerate each other’s presence. Granted, Moira didn’t trust Erik and Erik didn’t trust anyone, but he was not about to spend all his time making sure the two of them never interacted. So he didn’t bother to give Erik any warning that she was going to be joining them. Breakfast was the perfect place for them to get to know each other.
“Good morning, Charles,” Moira greeted him as she entered the kitchen, making her way to the refrigerator to grab a yogurt and the orange juice. “Erik,” she added as she dropped a piece of bread into the toaster.
Erik had a brief mental image of the toaster having a slight malfunction and her toast getting stuck, strong enough for Charles to sense it. ‘Erik, please don’t,’ he sent along with a few waves of calm. No matter how much he managed to make it look like an accident, Moira would be inclined to blame him for it regardless.
“When are the two of you leaving for New York?” she asked as she brought her breakfast over and sat down at the table with them.
“This afternoon, if possible.” There were a few things they had to take care of before they left, like making sure Alex was settled in nicely and that Raven was up to bonding with both of them while they were gone. He also had the nagging feeling he should talk to Angel again before they left, but he knew once she made her mind up to leave, nobody would be able to say anything to stop her. As a bonus, however, the only way she would ever leave was if something better came along, and the odds of that happening were exceedingly slim. At the current moment, she would have to go right back to stripping.
“Don’t forget about the budget meeting on Friday,” she reminded him, because she was worried that Erik would try to drag him out of it by keeping him away longer than necessary on a mutant hunt. Or get him into some other sort of trouble that would keep him away.
“I won’t forget,” he promised. Even though Erik thought the idea was absurd, he would never do anything intentionally to keep Charles from attending. In fact, for some reason, he seemed to be oddly excited by the prospect.
Their flight for New York ended up being the following morning, having to take a later flight to deal with the fact that Raven was having a slight breakdown about having to babysit all the time, making sure that Angel did not go running off and Alex did not try to use his powers before they had the chance to assess what kind of damage he could do. While Charles did his best to assuage Raven, Erik spent his free night shopping. When he finally returned, he gave no indication of the nature of his purchases, but he was feeling rather smug about them. Unfortunately, calming Raven was taking most of his energy at the moment, as her babysitting duties were taking away from her time that she would much rather be spending with Hank.
“At least you get to spend all the time you want with Erik,” she retorted sharply before turning on her heel and storming from the room. Her words stayed with him on the entire short flight to New York as he occasionally glanced over at Erik who he knew suffered from severe bouts of seasickness. Being wrapped in the cocoon of metal while flying through the air, however, didn’t seem to bother him. If anything, he seemed oddly comforted by it. Charles himself found it oddly comforting to know that should something happen to the engines, Erik would very likely be able to save them.
But it was Raven’s voice that haunted him every time he looked over at the man sitting next to him who was becoming aware of his increasing glances but was not the least disturbed by them. The amount of time he spent with Erik was, in fact, obscene, especially considering how they had just met, however he did not mind the comfort of his presence, and Erik had not vouched any complaints of any sort either.
The problem with Raven’s statement and what prompted him to continue to stare at Erik was the implication that he wanted to spend time with him in the manner that she wanted to spend time with Hank. Outside of that one brief moment when Erik had been doing delectable things to his foot, he really hadn’t given the matter much thought. Generally speaking, when he was with Erik, there had always been other things to focus on. Now that Raven had brought the subject into the open, he found he could think about little else. More specifically, how Erik would respond to it. His subconscious mind was apparently not opposed to the idea, at least not when Angel was around, but he had bolted from the room when things had started to take a more intimate turn. Of course, that could have just been a byproduct of a lifetime of a fear of intimacy and trust issues. For his part, Charles was not repulsed by the idea, even if he had been a little shocked when he first received the images if only because he had not been expecting them. If would likely take some getting used to the idea, but if wasn’t like they didn’t spend every waking moment in each other’s company. In fact, it could prove to be quite the interesting experiment.
“You keep staring at me,” Erik pointed out once they were three-quarters of the way though their flight, raising an eyebrow questioningly as he looked at Charles.
“Am I?” he feigned innocence even though he had been perfectly aware of what he had been doing. He had just been hoping Erik would be too decent to call him out on it even though there had never been much chance of that happening. “Sorry. I was just thinking about something Raven said to me earlier.”
“And what did your darling sister say now?” he asked as he settled back into his seat. “That I should invest in a pair of handcuffs? That I defiled you on Moira’s bed?” A quick scan of Erik’s brain revealed that Raven had indeed broached both subjects with him. He thought about scolding her when they returned, but Erik seemed to have gotten over it already. Perhaps he should tell Erik the truth, revealing
in the process how much he enjoyed the time they spent together. But there was no where for Erik to hide up here.
“She asked me if I thought you might be able to fly.”
Erik glanced over at him and Charles wondered if his lie had fallen short given the distrust floating on the surface of his thoughts. “And what’s your assessment?”
“I believe you can do anything you set your mind to.” Which was exactly the answer he needed to hear, and Erik relaxed back into his seat with a general air of contentment. And he didn’t seem to notice as much when Charles would glance his way, gaze lingering slightly longer than it should have on the stubble of his jaw or at least he did not seem to mind it much. Which didn’t meant he should feel obligated to look at his leisure, but he certainly was not going to feel guilty about it either.
Once the plane landed, Charles feeling marginally better now that he was down on the ground, they found a hotel they could leave their things at before hunting down the first target. Of course they were going to be taking separate rooms; they did have separate rooms at headquarters as well, but even though Erik was always just a thought away, Charles was starting to feel lonely whenever Erik was not physically nearby. Which was likely very unhealthy for him, and he briefly considered expanding his circle of friends some time soon. That was about as likely as Erik doing the same and for much similar reasons.
“I think I’ll wait outside,” Erik said once they arrived at their destination, thinking of what had happened the last time they had encountered a fellow mutant in a backstreet. There were certainly more glamorous locations than the decrepit apartment building off the alley, a very dingy alley that smelled like garbage and stale feces, but he didn’t understand why Erik would have any objections to going inside.
“You sure?” he asked because he honestly believed they were in this thing together and he really didn’t think it was healthy for Erik to be dwelling on a single failure when there were so many to choose from. Erik only nodded, only half paying attention, the other half scanning the alley for pieces of metal that didn’t belong, like rusty nails that could penetrate Charles’ shoe.
Leaving him to his business, he made his way to the filthy door. The window next to it was broken, and the door initially stuck, but with a good push of his shoulders, it swung open with a groan.
“Hello?” he called as he stepped into the foyer. It didn’t look like the landlord enforced any sort of strict maintenance policy, and a mouse squeaked in the corner. There were six people in the building, three in one apartment, two in another, and the mutant he was looking for was alone on the third floor.
Alone, and not expecting any company. He made his way to the staircase, placing his hand temporarily on the railing before pulling it away from the sticky mess he found there. No one bothered him on the steps; most of the people who lived there preferred to keep to themselves which made it the perfect hideaway. On the third floor, he stopped and stared at the closed apartment door. If Erik had come with him, a simple thing like a locked door would have posed no problem.
“Hello?” he called outside the door, rapping his knuckles lightly against the wood. The presence inside the room stiffened, thinking rather loudly about who would possibly be calling on him. “Excuse me, Tom? I just want to talk to you,” he said as he tested the handle and pushed ever so slightly on the door.
There was a surge of panic from within and the door slammed open as someone went rushing by him. “Tom, wait!” he called after the young man, fearing in his panic he might accidentally hurt someone else. He was moving too fast for Charles to properly track him, and even his thoughts were racing so fast that it was difficult to anticipate what he was going to do next. But he did know that the man was armed with a gun, that much had been clear in this thoughts, and that was the primary reason he went chasing down the stairs after him. He burst out the front door, finding Erik still scanning the alley for loose pieces of metal. The man was still somewhere in the area, but he was moving so swiftly he couldn’t actually get a location on him.
“Did you see anyone come out here?” he asked as Erik looked questioningly up at him. He shook his head and Charles tried again to pinpoint the mutant’s location. Tom finally stopped long enough for him to find him, standing directly behind him, discovered just in time for Charles to hear a gunshot echo through the alley.
He found himself temporarily trapped between the man’s desperate fear and Erik’s anger as he slowly turned around to face their target. He tried to ignore the bullet hovering in the air behind him and focused instead on Tom. “We’re not here to hurt you,” he tried to explain even though he didn’t need to be able to read his mind to know that he was absolutely terrified of them. Actually, he was more terrified of whichever one of them had managed to stop his bullet, and he threw the gun to the ground before turning to flee. Erik dropped the bullet that had been fired, allowing it to clatter harmlessly to the alley before taking a few steps after the man, his pursuit hindered by Charles placing his hand across his chest to stop him.
“Erik, let him go,” he instructed, and though he was frustrated with the prospect, Erik stopped trying to follow him.
“He tried to kill you,” Erik growled, and underneath the anger was the quiet desperation of how lost he would have been had he lost his only friend.
“Lucky for me you were there to protect me then,” he said, placing his hand on Erik’s shoulder. It was supposed to be a reassuring pat, nothing more, to help calm him down, but his fingers lingered on the smooth leather of his jacket. Besides it had actually turned into quite an interesting test of Erik’s capabilities.
“So we’re just going to let him go?”
In the blink of an eye, Charles fantasized about what it would like if he pressed his lips to his, to taste the bitterness of his anger and the sweetness of his concern. As vulnerable as he was at the moment, Erik probably wouldn’t even think to pull away. “He’s terrified of us. There’s nothing we could do now to change his mind.”
“Couldn’t you get in his mind, make him less afraid of us?”
“I used my abilities once on Angel to show her a nice trick and now she doesn’t trust me.” Which was actually quite the understatement. The other day he had overheard her wondering if any of the others were even mutants or if they had just captured her alone for the CIA to perform sadistic experiments on.
She had not found his trick as amusing once she had begun to think about the implications of what he could do. “I’m not making that mistake again.
“Come on,” he said, letting his hand drop from Erik’s shoulder, feeling his confusion at the twinge of disappointment that surged through him at the loss of contact. “New York is a big city. There are plenty more mutants to find.”
None of which were much more receptive to their advances. Some actually stayed long enough to hear them out; none of them agreed to go back to Washington with them. Quite simply, all the mutants they encountered were concerned with one thing above all else. Survival. The prosperity of the world meant little to them when they did not even know how they were going to make it to the following day. So it was with a heavy sense of failure they returned to their separate rooms. Charles bid Erik a good night’s rest, making sure to lock the door tightly behind him. Tom was not the only mutant they had aggravated that day. He rummaged around in his bag in search of his nightclothes. It had been a long day, and they had another one of mutant searching before it would be time to head back to the CIA. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a little more fruitful in the results. He changed and performed the necessary hygiene ritual before crawling under the covers of his bed. If he just drifted his mind a few rooms down, he would be able to sense Erik, even with the interference of the other clientele.
It wasn’t long before he felt Erik’s mind coming towards his room, which was odd enough given the late hour. He shortly used his power to unlock the door, and Charles turned the table lamp on and sat up in bed to find him framed in the doorway with his gun at his side, an odd picture since he was also dressed in his nightclothes.
“Erik, what are you doing?” he asked as Erik shut and locked the door behind him. He didn’t answer him directly, but Charles got the impression from his mind that he was worried about something. He moved directly to the other bed, placing the gun on the bedside table between them before dropping down on top of the covers. “You have your own room,” he pointed out since Erik seemed to be making himself comfortable.
“The CIA won’t know if it’s empty.” Erik used his power to flick the light back off. “Besides, it would look more suspicious if we only put one room on the bill.”
Which Charles supposed was true, and it seemed like Erik had no intention of leaving, at least for the moment. He pulled the covers closer to his chin and tried to snuggle further down into the pillow, doing his best to grow more comfortable and block out the thoughts of the other occupants. He also didn’t know why Erik felt the need to bring his gun into the room, or how he had even managed to sneak into the hotel in the first place. An hour or so later, Erik’s mind was still restless, projecting so loudly that he was making it difficult for Charles to sleep. And if it had been someone other than Erik with him, he might have been worried about the gun lying between them as well.
‘Get some sleep, Erik’ he sent along with a feeling of safety that could be attributed to Erik’s presence. It seemed to content him for the moment, and it wasn’t long before they were both drifting off to sleep.
The next day proved to be just as unsuccessful although none of the mutants openly attacked them. Charles personally believed it was a step in the right direction. By the time they searched out dinner, Erik was feeling increasingly agitated. He kept thinking about how they were on such a short time frame and how limited their success had been. In the very corner of his consciousness, he was even starting to think the entire scenario was a complete waste of his time. He needed to come up with some way to distract him, or else his churning mind would keep him awake all night as well. Besides, it wasn’t healthy for him to keep all that anger bottled up inside. There was one thing he knew for certain that would pull his mind away.
“We should probably start thinking about names for the baby,” Charles suggested as they walked side by side back to their hotel.
“Excuse me?” Erik asked, glancing at him askew. It did draw his mind momentarily away from hunting Shaw.
“We need to think of names for the baby.” He gave his stomach an inviting pat, trying hard not to grimace. Here he thought they could move past the pregnancy thing; he was really going to have to find some other way to occupy Erik’s mind.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for that?” he asked with a grin, taking the bait and reaching over to briefly rub his belly. If they kept this up for too much longer, eventually he would have to start making himself appear a little heavier in Erik’s mind, which was really more effort than the situation warranted.
“If it’s a girl, we should name her Charlotte,” he suggested.
“Erika,” Erik countered swiftly, almost like he had known that Charles was about to make that suggestion. He would hate to think he was becoming predictable. That was supposed to be everyone else’s occupation while he managed to amaze those ignorant of his gifts.
“Clearly this is a matter we are going to have to give more thought to,” Charles said as they approached the front door of their hotel. Erik’s mind was occupied elsewhere, frankly not concerned with whatever they were going to name their experiment. Which he believed was an interesting word choice considering he knew Erik was well aware that there was mutant offspring forthcoming. At least, it would not be through him.
Erik stayed in his room again that night. He brought the gun with him, that much he could tell from the surface of his thoughts, but it remained hidden. Besides, the next day they would have to go back to the base where there would be the CIA, the budget meeting and the younger mutants to contend with. The time they got to spend with only each other for company was swiftly running out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“How could I possibly pass up an opportunity from someone such as yourself?” their taxi driver remarked once they had finished their pitch. Given the nature of his mutation, Charles had been fairly certain he would be agreeable. At least this way they had been able to end the trip on an upbeat and positive note. Except Erik didn’t exactly appreciate the way he had looked at Charles when he said that.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” he asked, leaning forward aggressively in the seat. He could destroy the entire car if he were so inclined.
“Just that he’s a very convincing man,” he tried to explain defensively, a little worried perhaps about the sanity of at least one of the passengers he picked up.
“It’s the pregnancy glow,” Erik said, reaching over to possessively rub his lower belly.
“Erik!” he scolded, simultaneously pushing his hand away and selectively erasing the past thirty seconds from Armando’s memory. The last thing he needed was for somebody else to be drawn into the whole farce. “He’s just trying to be friendly.”
“A little too friendly” Erik muttered, keeping a careful eye on where their driver was looking.
“So how did the two of you find each other?” Darwin asked, mostly unaware that he had just lost a small chunk of his life. It wasn’t exactly an important part anyway.
“Charles is carrying my child,” Erik explained, reaching over again to give his stomach another brief pat.
“Erik!” He quickly altered Armando’s memory again and pushed Erik’s hand away and dropping it back safely into his own lap. Fiddling with the man’s memories in such quick succession was bound to cause some sort of permanent damage. Erik tried to put his hand back, but Charles pushed it back down to Erik’s knee, keeping it down with a firm pressure. “That’s quite enough, Erik. I think you’ve proven your point.”
“Are you sure, Charles?” Erik asked as he leaned back in the seat with a grin that reminded him terribly of what a shark might look like if it could smile right before it was about to eat a helpless baby seal. A thought dangled in the front of his mind, something about the upcoming budget meeting, but when Charles tried to investigate it further, he found himself confronted with a rather carefully constructed mental shield, better even than the ones he had taught Raven how to build. Clearly he had underestimated Erik’s abilities, and Erik just continued to give him the same grin as if he had known that Charles was going to go in after the thought.
“Erik, what did you do?” he asked, but of course if he couldn’t even graze the answer from the surface of his mind, Erik simply was not going to tell him.
Considering the budget meeting was less than twenty-four hours away, at least he did not have to spend a good deal of time agonizing about the situation. Granted, Erik didn’t make the remaining time for him easy either. Apparently he had gone far too deep into Erik’s mind during that first encounter and a part of his consciousness was still stuck in there or something. At any rate, it seemed like they were always connected at some level, more than he was with a random person in the room, even the loud projectors, and Erik, having discovered this connection, gleefully used it to his advantage. By sending him mental images of Charles taking care of their child and Uncle Hank and Aunt Raven being placed on babysitting duty. Which would not have been so intolerable had he not started projecting these images at three in the morning, and years of envisioning what he wanted to do to Shaw had honed his imagination to pinpoint perfection. Understandably, he was not in the best of form when he showed up for the budget review five hours later since Erik had decided not to desist until six. How a man who had spent his adult life hunting Nazis could come up with such a long fantasy about raising a child was frankly uncanny. Well, at least the first fifteen minutes they spent going over the expenses so he wasn’t really needed at that point. Besides, he had made sure to keep everything completely justifiable.
“There’s just one thing we’re concerned about,” the budget coordinator said as he placed the file folder down and pushed his glasses back on top of his head.
Charles’ first reaction was to believe that the hotel had called them and informed them the second room had not been in use for the two nights that they were there and that he better explain what really happened to them before they could get the wrong idea. “Look, if this is about the empty room, Erik was just worried about me.”
Instead of the understanding he was expecting, all he got from them was confusion, none so more than Moira who was sitting right next to him and starting to wonder if what Angel had said about them was true.
“I was actually referring to the fifteen thousand dollars spent on baby supplies,” the accountant said, raising an eyebrow at him from across the table and wondering if he should look into this empty room scenario. Charles sighed and wiped his memory clean of him ever making that statement. Which still left him in his current predicament, since even if he managed to wipe their memories, he couldn’t exactly get rid of the expense report itself without questions being asked. A thought that was immediately followed by how Erik could have possibly spent that much money on baby supplies and when he even had the time to do it.
“I’m sorry, but Angel’s pregnant. She came to us that way,” he lied since even if they didn’t believe him, all he would have to do was give them a gentle nudge. And when no baby emerged, well, he would just have to take care of that later.
“Five cribs?” the man asked him incredulously.
Touché, Erik. “She’s having quintuplets.”
When they finally released him from their careful scrutiny and he made his way back out into the hall, he knew Erik would be waiting for him even if he hadn’t been able to sense him out there.
“I take it the meeting didn’t go so well,” Erik said as he fell into step easily beside him.
“I had to tell them Angel was pregnant.” She truly was never going to trust them, not after that. “I think you’ve proven your point sufficiently, Erik.”
“Just to be clear, you can’t get pregnant through any other means, can you?”
“I don’t think so.” Charles would have been lying if would have tried to say he wasn’t a little intrigued by the wave of relief that passed through Erik. “Did you have something in mind?”
“How ‘bout a game of chess?”