Spectacular Timing [X-Men: First Class - Erik/Cockblocking, Erik/Charles + More] (5 +1)
Title: Spectacular Timing
Summary: Erik is the master cockblocker of the First Class.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Erik/Cockblocking, Erik/Charles, Alex/Armando, Sean/Angel, Raven/Hank, Alex/Hank, Moira/Charles
Words & Warnings: ~3300 / Reference to canon character death
Disclaimer: X-Men and all associated = the property of Marvel and Fox.
Notes: Originally written for this xmen_firstkink prompt: Erik really, really, really enjoys cock-blocking others. This is evident in the movie when he interrupts Hank/Ravens intimate moment by yelling out "kinky". 5 times Erik cock-blocks someone & 1 time the team cock-blocks him...
I had the best time ever writing this, guys. Erik/Cockblocking is totally my OTP now.
Also at AO3.
5.
Darwin’s had his eye on Alex since Charles introduced them. It hasn’t escaped his notice that Alex’s been looking back.
Alex makes himself solitary, carving his own little prison out of the air around him, and it hurts Darwin a lot more than he expected to see it.
Angel and Raven are watching TV in the common room and Alex is nowhere to be seen so Darwin tells himself he needs a way to find him. In moments his sense of smell sharpens and he can pick out Alex’s more masculine scent from those of the women.
Darwin follows his nose and finds Alex sitting in one of the courtyards, the agents that are supposedly there to protect them giving him a wide berth. Darwin slides onto the bench beside him, nose telling him all about Alex’s day (cereal for breakfast, long shower, weights training, another shower, two sandwiches for lunch, afternoon in his room, the chicken they had for dinner), and Alex flinches away slightly.
“Hey, man,” Darwin says, sprawling some, letting his leg bump up against Alex’s. Alex flinches away again. “What’re you doing?”
Darwin expects something like small talk, some kind of deflection, but instead Alex sighs and tips his head back.
“I missed the stars,” Alex says, staring up at the sky. “I mean, I wanted to be in solitary, I wanted to keep people safe - but it didn’t mean I missed things you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Darwin says, watching Alex’s profile. “You’re still worried about it, aren’t you? Hurting people.”
Alex’s involuntary movement away from him every time he moves closer is enough to prove that but Darwin thinks he wants to hear it from Alex.
“You don’t know what I can do,” Alex says quietly, closing his eyes.
“Bet you can’t hurt me,” Darwin says, raising a hand to ghost his fingers over Alex’s cheek. Alex’s eyes snap open as he grabs Darwin’s hand, head jerking back.
Darwin meets his stare with one of his own, challenging, and the air is electric between them. He’s thinking of risking a lot of trouble and moving in when -
“Beautiful night, isn’t it?” Erik’s voice, faintly amused, comes from behind him. Alex releases Darwin’s hand like he’s been scalded and Darwin makes a frustrated noise.
“Yeah,” Alex says, looking over Darwin’s shoulder.
“You should come in,” Erik adds. “We have a new guest.”
Alex stands up immediately and Darwin doesn’t blame him, to be perfectly honest, Erik’s got the sort of voice that makes every suggestion a command. Darwin stands slower and turns, knowing what he’s going to see before he sees it; Erik’s half-mocking smile.
His enhanced sense of smell is still working, he realises as he follows Alex back inside, and he can’t quite figure out where he recognises one particular smell that’s floating around Erik from until they meet with Charles in the corridor
There’s a piece of knowledge that could come in handy one day.
4.
Angel is probably the prettiest girl Sean’s ever seen. Don’t get him wrong, Raven is something too, whether blue or blonde, but Angel’s confidence just gives her an edge.
Sean knows he’s nothing special to look at but he likes to think there’s a certain something about him that the ladies like.
He’s just not sure what it is.
So he’s pretty smooth around Angel, casual like, making some jokes and playing it real cool. She seems responsive, too, which is more than he can say for pretty much every girl he’s ever liked. At least - she seems to be laughing with him rather than at him.
He makes his play one afternoon. They run into each other in the kitchen (and he hasn’t been hanging out in there for an hour just waiting for her, seriously) and Sean is again all these things: smooth, charming, funny, cool.
“So, hey, you seem like someone who knows how to have a good time,” he opens with. Angel hides a smile behind her hand and offers him a challenging gaze.
“Cassidy, I’ve spent the last few years being all about good times,” she says, tilting her head. “What sort of good time are we talking about?”
Sean swallows, feeling the back of his neck heat up, and he desperately resists the urge wipe his suddenly sweating hands on his pants.
“When Erik and Charles picked me up I had some stuff on me,” he says, raising his eyebrows on ‘stuff’, hoping she takes the hint.
Angel steps closer, leaning against the counter beside him, laughter in her beautiful eyes.
“Good stuff?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Pretty good, yeah,” he says, nodding slightly frantically. Angel walks two fingers up his forearm and he nearly shudders.
“That sounds like a gas,” she says, leaning in close enough that he can feel her breath on his cheek. “How about we -”
“Good afternoon, Angel, Sean,” Erik strides into the room with a blatant disregard for any action Sean may have been about to get. Sean barely stops himself from groaning.
“Later, Cassidy,” Angel says, winking and swishing out of the room.
All Sean can do is stare at Erik as he takes milk out of the fridge. Erik gives him a mildly questioning look, something of a smile tugging at his lips.
“Did I interrupt something?” Erik asks. Sean stares.
“This - is so uncool,” Sean says, throwing his hands up and stomping out of the room. He passes Charles just outside, the other man hiding a laugh behind hands, and he frowns harder.
Un. Cool.
3.
Raven is determined that this time nothing is going to get between her and stealing a kiss from Hank. She’s liked him since she saw him, so quiet and smart, and she’s tired of waiting for him to realise that.
Before she even heads off to the lab she makes sure that Erik is installed with her brother for their regular chess game, she’s not being busted by him again - he thinks it’s funny but it’s really not.
She grabs some coffee from the kitchen and checks her reflection in the shiny metal door of the fridge. She hesitates for a moment, wondering if she should try him in her natural form in the hopes that it might shock him into doing something. She shakes her head at herself. No. She has to be normal for this.
“Hey, Hank,” she rehearses as she walks through the complex. “Just thought you might like some coffee. And me.”
She laughs at herself. Maybe it is time to be direct with Hank - just not that direct. Her best chance is probably just to kiss him and be done with it. He can’t mistake that.
“Hey, Hank,” she says as she pushes the door open. “Thought you might like some coffee.”
And me, she adds silently, smiling as he gets up from his table too quickly and knocks things flying.
“Oh, uh, thanks, Raven,” he says, taking the cup from her when she joins him.
Raven hitches a hip onto the edge of the table and makes sure she’s well within Hank’s space. Hank’s already blushing and it’s adorable.
“What’re you working on?” she asks, looking up at him from under her eyelashes.
“Uh, I’m, uh -” Hank’s eyes roam the lab, looking anywhere but at her and it makes her smile, he’s so nervous. “Cerebro data. Trying to see if I can make it more efficient, less taxing on Charles.”
“Cool,” Raven says, laying a lingering hand on his arm. Hank stills, eyes finally coming to rest on hers. “I think it’s amazing, what you can do.”
“It’s not really that amazing,” Hank says, ducking his head.
“I think you’re brilliant,” she says, leaning up, he’s just close enough that she could press her lips to his, she’s sure he’ll get the hint then.
“Raven, I -” Hank starts but doesn’t move away.
The table shifts away from her and she stumbles, a little surprised noise dropping from her mouth. Hank catches her arm and smiles apologetically at her, as if the table moving is his fault.
“Oh, hello Erik,” he says, looking over her head. Raven scowls. She knows exactly who’s at fault. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s me, actually,” Charles says as Raven turns around. “We were talking and I had an idea for how Erik can help us with Cerebro. I had to tell you straight away.”
Raven meets Erik’s eyes as he follows Charles into the room and she almost hates his stupid smirking face. If it wasn’t for Charles she would - she would - well, she doesn’t know what she’d do, but it would teach Erik a lesson.
Erik’s eyes slide away from her as Charles starts talking to Hank, honing in on her brother to absolute exclusion of everything else, and it’s hard to be angry at someone who’s completely forgotten you exist.
She huffs out a breath and leaves them to it, not willing to put up with Erik making eyes at Charles for another hour just because he’s being brilliant.
2.
Alex knows he’s been a mess since Darwin’s death. He’s been all over the place. Charles has told him enough times that his guilt is so loud that sometimes Charles can’t block it out. What’s he supposed to do about it? Shaw used his energy to kill Darwin. It’s all his fault.
This is what he’d tried to tell Darwin, Armando, people around him always got hurt. He has to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
He never thought that Hank’d be the one to fix that for him.
It’s a heady feeling - this sudden ability to focus his blasts - and he can’t stop himself from hugging Charles after it happens. Charles pats him on the back and leaves him to practicing but Hank hangs around, setting up mannequin after mannequin.
Eventually Alex tires himself out, gets that dry internal staticky feeling that means he needs to recharge, and he ends up sitting with his back against the wall of the bunker, grinning like a fool.
“Your power is incredible,” Hank says, sliding down to sit beside him, stretching out those ridiculous huge feet. “I mean - the readings I’m getting are nothing short of phenomenal.”
“It’s amazing to not be afraid of it,” Alex admits without meaning to be so honest. It’s true, though. “Thank you.”
“I can’t imagine,” Hank says thoughtfully, “what it’s like to be afraid of yourself. When I was a kid other kids were afraid of my feet but I never was.”
“It’s not exactly a picnic,” Alex says, turning his head to look at Hank. He thinks he’s beginning to see what’s got Raven so stuck on Hank. Maybe it’s the adrenaline but Hank looks pretty good against the flickering light coming off a mannequin that hasn’t quite gone out.
“I’m sorry you’ve always felt that way about yourself,” Hank says, earnest. “But now we’re altogether you’ll never have to feel that way again.”
“Thank you,” Alex says again, reaching out and grabbing one of Hank’s hands, squeezing.
“You’ve already said that,” Hank says, shifting awkwardly, flushing.
“This is a different thank you,” Alex says, leaning in a little bit. “For something else.”
“What?” Hank asks. Alex watches his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallows.
“For making me safe,” Alex says, leaning in a little further and -
The bunker door clangs open and Hank starts so hard that he pulls away from Alex entirely. Alex suppresses a sigh as Erik comes through the door.
“Charles told me you’ve found your control,” Erik says, looking down at Alex. “Care to give me a demonstration?”
Alex pushes himself up the wall and resists the urge to grumble. That’s the second time Erik’s done that, interrupted something like that, and (from stories told by everyone else) if Alex didn’t know better he’d say that was Erik’s mutant power.
Sean’s right. It’s completely uncool.
1.
Moira doesn’t think she’s imagining the subtle pull of tension between her and Charles. Of course, he had flirted with her the first time they met - but she’d got the impression since that he’d flirt with anyone once he’d had enough to drink. She’d even seen him start it on Erik, once, which struck her as a bad idea.
One evening he excuses himself from his regular chess game and sits with her in the study he’d provided her, helping her to parse through the CIA’s intelligence on Shaw.
Around ten he pours them both a glass of brandy and begins to tell her stories about the mansion he grew up in. He had a lonely childhood before Raven came along, with a cruel stepbrother and cold stepfather, but he still speaks of the house warmly.
“What about you?” he asks, sitting turned towards her on the couch they’re sharing, one leg folded across the other and his head resting propped on one palm.
“I’ve got a big family,” Moira said, smiling briefly. “Scottish Catholics, you know. Lots of brothers and sisters.”
“Of course,” Charles says, smiling a loose smile. “I had thought your name was very Scottish for such a lovely American girl.”
Moira blushes slightly and ducks her head, using the movement to obscure shifting closer to Charles on the couch. In a world of uncertain futures she knows one thing for sure - she doesn’t want to let Charles slip through her fingers.
“Things could be tight,” Moira continues. “So many kids to feed and things still being up in the air after the war.”
“It can’t have been easy,” Charles says, swirling his brandy contemplatively.
“I never really noticed,” Moira admits. “My parents were good at keeping us unaware of how bad things were sometimes. It’s only recently that I’ve realised how hard they worked for us.”
“I hope you’ve paid them back now that you’re in such good standing with the government,” Charles says, a smile tilting the corner of his mouth up. Moira laughs.
“How much do you think someone like me gets paid?” she asks, spreading her hands. “I barely make enough to keep my apartment.”
“You don’t have to stay there after this if you don’t want,” Charles makes the offer with such ease that Moira is momentarily stunned. “After we save the world I’m sure we’ll need a liaison with your people. Who better than someone who already knows us very, very well?”
There’s something almost sly in his tone, skirting the edges of flirtation again, and the urge to lean across the couch and press a kiss to those brandy soaked lips is almost painful in her chest.
Moira opens her mouth to reply but before she can ever frame a syllable Charles’ eyes take on the faraway look he gets when he’s hearing something she could never hear in a million years of evolution.
“What?” she asks instead as he brings two fingers up to a temple, an action she figures must help him focus.
“Erik,” he says quietly, fingers coming away. “Not sleeping well. Again.”
The light tone has gone from his voice and the moment slides through her hands like silk. They sit there for a moment longer, Moira’s hands firmly in her lap, before she sighs.
“Go and help him,” she says, waving a hand.
“You’re sure?” Charles asks but his eyes are already turning toward the door.
“He’s going to need all the rest he can get when we find out where Shaw is,” Moira says, leaning back against the armrest. “We’re done here for the night anyway.”
“Thank you,” Charles says, giving her a smile which is unlike any other she’s seen.
The smile he keeps for Erik, she thinks as he gets up and strides out of the room. She hadn’t believed the others when they complained about Erik always busting them when something interesting was about to happen - but apparently he was capable of doing it without even being conscious.
Well. Who needed annoyingly charming English mutants anyway? Moira downed the last of her brandy and turned back to her files.
+ 1.
Erik’s always been a master of timing and he doesn’t think he could have timed this any better if he tried. The spark that’s been going back and forth between him and Charles has been leading to this moment all along.
He and Charles had spent a long day training in the grounds, Charles thinking up more and more things for Erik to manipulate and coming to the conclusion that Erik wasn’t simply a master of metal but rather a Master of Magnetism, if you will, my friend.
Erik’s never associated his abilities with joy and Charles has been unpicking that knot of pain and rage with deft mental fingers since they first met. Now Erik finds himself more relaxed than he has ever been and, though the constant pressure of Shaw’s continued existence still weights the back of his mind, he thinks that maybe he can find peace with Charles, if not with humanity.
Here they sit, a late dinner finding them alone in one of the three dining rooms, and words and ideas flow between them like a current. Charles had insisted they occupy one corner of the long table and so their legs bump against one another beneath it, companionable and easy.
“Do you realise,” Charles says, leaning forwards, “if it’s truly the magnetic field of the Earth that you’re manipulating - you could use this to fly?”
“How would that be possible?” Erik asks, even though he already knows the answer. It’s something he’s been considering for a long time.
“Effectively you would repel yourself from the Earth,” Charles says, demonstrating with his hands. “It wouldn’t be quite as free as Sean’s ability allows him - but it could be terribly useful in a tight spot.”
Erik bites his tongue over the several innuendos based around ‘tight spot’ that enter his mind at that moment. By the way Charles looks slightly away and the tips of his ears redden he thinks he doesn’t manage to clamp the thoughts down quick enough.
“Something to bear in mind for the future, at least,” Erik says instead, pressing a knee to one of Charles’. Charles smiles and once again Erik entertains the thought of stealing that smile away with his mouth.
“You know,” Charles says slowly, leaning further across the table. “I wouldn’t exactly be against that.”
It takes Erik a moment to realise that he must have broadcast the thought loud enough for Charles to hear despite his promise to never read Erik’s mind again unless asked. Erik licks his lips and Charles’ eyes dip to watch. The metal cutlery on the table rattles.
Erik leans in, closing the gap that Charles has already shrunk, raising a hand to slide into Charles’ hair in the way he’s been imagining for too long. Charles’ breath puffs softly against his face as Charles leans his head into Erik’s hand. Erik tilts his head and -
“Charles!” Hank bursts into the room and Erik starts, knives and forks crashing across the table. Hank’s eyes widen when he sees them and Erik can almost see him mentally backing out of the room.
Charles barely disguises a laugh as Hank stutters his way through an apology and practically flees the room, explaining that he’d only wanted to show Charles the progress he’d made with his serum. After Raven suggested it to him.
Erik supposes he deserves that for deliberately blocking Raven’s attempts to seduce Hank on more than one occasion; and the time he stopped Darwin and Alex, and Sean and Angel, and Alex and Hank.
“Ah, Erik,” Charles says, leaning back in his chair. “Seems you’re receiving a cold revenge. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to make an enemy of Raven so soon.”
It’s a fair point. But Erik still feels like he’s won the war when Charles leans across a moment later and kisses him with an intent that coils want down his spine.
Summary: Erik is the master cockblocker of the First Class.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Erik/Cockblocking, Erik/Charles, Alex/Armando, Sean/Angel, Raven/Hank, Alex/Hank, Moira/Charles
Words & Warnings: ~3300 / Reference to canon character death
Disclaimer: X-Men and all associated = the property of Marvel and Fox.
Notes: Originally written for this xmen_firstkink prompt: Erik really, really, really enjoys cock-blocking others. This is evident in the movie when he interrupts Hank/Ravens intimate moment by yelling out "kinky". 5 times Erik cock-blocks someone & 1 time the team cock-blocks him...
I had the best time ever writing this, guys. Erik/Cockblocking is totally my OTP now.
Also at AO3.
5.
Darwin’s had his eye on Alex since Charles introduced them. It hasn’t escaped his notice that Alex’s been looking back.
Alex makes himself solitary, carving his own little prison out of the air around him, and it hurts Darwin a lot more than he expected to see it.
Angel and Raven are watching TV in the common room and Alex is nowhere to be seen so Darwin tells himself he needs a way to find him. In moments his sense of smell sharpens and he can pick out Alex’s more masculine scent from those of the women.
Darwin follows his nose and finds Alex sitting in one of the courtyards, the agents that are supposedly there to protect them giving him a wide berth. Darwin slides onto the bench beside him, nose telling him all about Alex’s day (cereal for breakfast, long shower, weights training, another shower, two sandwiches for lunch, afternoon in his room, the chicken they had for dinner), and Alex flinches away slightly.
“Hey, man,” Darwin says, sprawling some, letting his leg bump up against Alex’s. Alex flinches away again. “What’re you doing?”
Darwin expects something like small talk, some kind of deflection, but instead Alex sighs and tips his head back.
“I missed the stars,” Alex says, staring up at the sky. “I mean, I wanted to be in solitary, I wanted to keep people safe - but it didn’t mean I missed things you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Darwin says, watching Alex’s profile. “You’re still worried about it, aren’t you? Hurting people.”
Alex’s involuntary movement away from him every time he moves closer is enough to prove that but Darwin thinks he wants to hear it from Alex.
“You don’t know what I can do,” Alex says quietly, closing his eyes.
“Bet you can’t hurt me,” Darwin says, raising a hand to ghost his fingers over Alex’s cheek. Alex’s eyes snap open as he grabs Darwin’s hand, head jerking back.
Darwin meets his stare with one of his own, challenging, and the air is electric between them. He’s thinking of risking a lot of trouble and moving in when -
“Beautiful night, isn’t it?” Erik’s voice, faintly amused, comes from behind him. Alex releases Darwin’s hand like he’s been scalded and Darwin makes a frustrated noise.
“Yeah,” Alex says, looking over Darwin’s shoulder.
“You should come in,” Erik adds. “We have a new guest.”
Alex stands up immediately and Darwin doesn’t blame him, to be perfectly honest, Erik’s got the sort of voice that makes every suggestion a command. Darwin stands slower and turns, knowing what he’s going to see before he sees it; Erik’s half-mocking smile.
His enhanced sense of smell is still working, he realises as he follows Alex back inside, and he can’t quite figure out where he recognises one particular smell that’s floating around Erik from until they meet with Charles in the corridor
There’s a piece of knowledge that could come in handy one day.
4.
Angel is probably the prettiest girl Sean’s ever seen. Don’t get him wrong, Raven is something too, whether blue or blonde, but Angel’s confidence just gives her an edge.
Sean knows he’s nothing special to look at but he likes to think there’s a certain something about him that the ladies like.
He’s just not sure what it is.
So he’s pretty smooth around Angel, casual like, making some jokes and playing it real cool. She seems responsive, too, which is more than he can say for pretty much every girl he’s ever liked. At least - she seems to be laughing with him rather than at him.
He makes his play one afternoon. They run into each other in the kitchen (and he hasn’t been hanging out in there for an hour just waiting for her, seriously) and Sean is again all these things: smooth, charming, funny, cool.
“So, hey, you seem like someone who knows how to have a good time,” he opens with. Angel hides a smile behind her hand and offers him a challenging gaze.
“Cassidy, I’ve spent the last few years being all about good times,” she says, tilting her head. “What sort of good time are we talking about?”
Sean swallows, feeling the back of his neck heat up, and he desperately resists the urge wipe his suddenly sweating hands on his pants.
“When Erik and Charles picked me up I had some stuff on me,” he says, raising his eyebrows on ‘stuff’, hoping she takes the hint.
Angel steps closer, leaning against the counter beside him, laughter in her beautiful eyes.
“Good stuff?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Pretty good, yeah,” he says, nodding slightly frantically. Angel walks two fingers up his forearm and he nearly shudders.
“That sounds like a gas,” she says, leaning in close enough that he can feel her breath on his cheek. “How about we -”
“Good afternoon, Angel, Sean,” Erik strides into the room with a blatant disregard for any action Sean may have been about to get. Sean barely stops himself from groaning.
“Later, Cassidy,” Angel says, winking and swishing out of the room.
All Sean can do is stare at Erik as he takes milk out of the fridge. Erik gives him a mildly questioning look, something of a smile tugging at his lips.
“Did I interrupt something?” Erik asks. Sean stares.
“This - is so uncool,” Sean says, throwing his hands up and stomping out of the room. He passes Charles just outside, the other man hiding a laugh behind hands, and he frowns harder.
Un. Cool.
3.
Raven is determined that this time nothing is going to get between her and stealing a kiss from Hank. She’s liked him since she saw him, so quiet and smart, and she’s tired of waiting for him to realise that.
Before she even heads off to the lab she makes sure that Erik is installed with her brother for their regular chess game, she’s not being busted by him again - he thinks it’s funny but it’s really not.
She grabs some coffee from the kitchen and checks her reflection in the shiny metal door of the fridge. She hesitates for a moment, wondering if she should try him in her natural form in the hopes that it might shock him into doing something. She shakes her head at herself. No. She has to be normal for this.
“Hey, Hank,” she rehearses as she walks through the complex. “Just thought you might like some coffee. And me.”
She laughs at herself. Maybe it is time to be direct with Hank - just not that direct. Her best chance is probably just to kiss him and be done with it. He can’t mistake that.
“Hey, Hank,” she says as she pushes the door open. “Thought you might like some coffee.”
And me, she adds silently, smiling as he gets up from his table too quickly and knocks things flying.
“Oh, uh, thanks, Raven,” he says, taking the cup from her when she joins him.
Raven hitches a hip onto the edge of the table and makes sure she’s well within Hank’s space. Hank’s already blushing and it’s adorable.
“What’re you working on?” she asks, looking up at him from under her eyelashes.
“Uh, I’m, uh -” Hank’s eyes roam the lab, looking anywhere but at her and it makes her smile, he’s so nervous. “Cerebro data. Trying to see if I can make it more efficient, less taxing on Charles.”
“Cool,” Raven says, laying a lingering hand on his arm. Hank stills, eyes finally coming to rest on hers. “I think it’s amazing, what you can do.”
“It’s not really that amazing,” Hank says, ducking his head.
“I think you’re brilliant,” she says, leaning up, he’s just close enough that she could press her lips to his, she’s sure he’ll get the hint then.
“Raven, I -” Hank starts but doesn’t move away.
The table shifts away from her and she stumbles, a little surprised noise dropping from her mouth. Hank catches her arm and smiles apologetically at her, as if the table moving is his fault.
“Oh, hello Erik,” he says, looking over her head. Raven scowls. She knows exactly who’s at fault. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s me, actually,” Charles says as Raven turns around. “We were talking and I had an idea for how Erik can help us with Cerebro. I had to tell you straight away.”
Raven meets Erik’s eyes as he follows Charles into the room and she almost hates his stupid smirking face. If it wasn’t for Charles she would - she would - well, she doesn’t know what she’d do, but it would teach Erik a lesson.
Erik’s eyes slide away from her as Charles starts talking to Hank, honing in on her brother to absolute exclusion of everything else, and it’s hard to be angry at someone who’s completely forgotten you exist.
She huffs out a breath and leaves them to it, not willing to put up with Erik making eyes at Charles for another hour just because he’s being brilliant.
2.
Alex knows he’s been a mess since Darwin’s death. He’s been all over the place. Charles has told him enough times that his guilt is so loud that sometimes Charles can’t block it out. What’s he supposed to do about it? Shaw used his energy to kill Darwin. It’s all his fault.
This is what he’d tried to tell Darwin, Armando, people around him always got hurt. He has to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
He never thought that Hank’d be the one to fix that for him.
It’s a heady feeling - this sudden ability to focus his blasts - and he can’t stop himself from hugging Charles after it happens. Charles pats him on the back and leaves him to practicing but Hank hangs around, setting up mannequin after mannequin.
Eventually Alex tires himself out, gets that dry internal staticky feeling that means he needs to recharge, and he ends up sitting with his back against the wall of the bunker, grinning like a fool.
“Your power is incredible,” Hank says, sliding down to sit beside him, stretching out those ridiculous huge feet. “I mean - the readings I’m getting are nothing short of phenomenal.”
“It’s amazing to not be afraid of it,” Alex admits without meaning to be so honest. It’s true, though. “Thank you.”
“I can’t imagine,” Hank says thoughtfully, “what it’s like to be afraid of yourself. When I was a kid other kids were afraid of my feet but I never was.”
“It’s not exactly a picnic,” Alex says, turning his head to look at Hank. He thinks he’s beginning to see what’s got Raven so stuck on Hank. Maybe it’s the adrenaline but Hank looks pretty good against the flickering light coming off a mannequin that hasn’t quite gone out.
“I’m sorry you’ve always felt that way about yourself,” Hank says, earnest. “But now we’re altogether you’ll never have to feel that way again.”
“Thank you,” Alex says again, reaching out and grabbing one of Hank’s hands, squeezing.
“You’ve already said that,” Hank says, shifting awkwardly, flushing.
“This is a different thank you,” Alex says, leaning in a little bit. “For something else.”
“What?” Hank asks. Alex watches his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallows.
“For making me safe,” Alex says, leaning in a little further and -
The bunker door clangs open and Hank starts so hard that he pulls away from Alex entirely. Alex suppresses a sigh as Erik comes through the door.
“Charles told me you’ve found your control,” Erik says, looking down at Alex. “Care to give me a demonstration?”
Alex pushes himself up the wall and resists the urge to grumble. That’s the second time Erik’s done that, interrupted something like that, and (from stories told by everyone else) if Alex didn’t know better he’d say that was Erik’s mutant power.
Sean’s right. It’s completely uncool.
1.
Moira doesn’t think she’s imagining the subtle pull of tension between her and Charles. Of course, he had flirted with her the first time they met - but she’d got the impression since that he’d flirt with anyone once he’d had enough to drink. She’d even seen him start it on Erik, once, which struck her as a bad idea.
One evening he excuses himself from his regular chess game and sits with her in the study he’d provided her, helping her to parse through the CIA’s intelligence on Shaw.
Around ten he pours them both a glass of brandy and begins to tell her stories about the mansion he grew up in. He had a lonely childhood before Raven came along, with a cruel stepbrother and cold stepfather, but he still speaks of the house warmly.
“What about you?” he asks, sitting turned towards her on the couch they’re sharing, one leg folded across the other and his head resting propped on one palm.
“I’ve got a big family,” Moira said, smiling briefly. “Scottish Catholics, you know. Lots of brothers and sisters.”
“Of course,” Charles says, smiling a loose smile. “I had thought your name was very Scottish for such a lovely American girl.”
Moira blushes slightly and ducks her head, using the movement to obscure shifting closer to Charles on the couch. In a world of uncertain futures she knows one thing for sure - she doesn’t want to let Charles slip through her fingers.
“Things could be tight,” Moira continues. “So many kids to feed and things still being up in the air after the war.”
“It can’t have been easy,” Charles says, swirling his brandy contemplatively.
“I never really noticed,” Moira admits. “My parents were good at keeping us unaware of how bad things were sometimes. It’s only recently that I’ve realised how hard they worked for us.”
“I hope you’ve paid them back now that you’re in such good standing with the government,” Charles says, a smile tilting the corner of his mouth up. Moira laughs.
“How much do you think someone like me gets paid?” she asks, spreading her hands. “I barely make enough to keep my apartment.”
“You don’t have to stay there after this if you don’t want,” Charles makes the offer with such ease that Moira is momentarily stunned. “After we save the world I’m sure we’ll need a liaison with your people. Who better than someone who already knows us very, very well?”
There’s something almost sly in his tone, skirting the edges of flirtation again, and the urge to lean across the couch and press a kiss to those brandy soaked lips is almost painful in her chest.
Moira opens her mouth to reply but before she can ever frame a syllable Charles’ eyes take on the faraway look he gets when he’s hearing something she could never hear in a million years of evolution.
“What?” she asks instead as he brings two fingers up to a temple, an action she figures must help him focus.
“Erik,” he says quietly, fingers coming away. “Not sleeping well. Again.”
The light tone has gone from his voice and the moment slides through her hands like silk. They sit there for a moment longer, Moira’s hands firmly in her lap, before she sighs.
“Go and help him,” she says, waving a hand.
“You’re sure?” Charles asks but his eyes are already turning toward the door.
“He’s going to need all the rest he can get when we find out where Shaw is,” Moira says, leaning back against the armrest. “We’re done here for the night anyway.”
“Thank you,” Charles says, giving her a smile which is unlike any other she’s seen.
The smile he keeps for Erik, she thinks as he gets up and strides out of the room. She hadn’t believed the others when they complained about Erik always busting them when something interesting was about to happen - but apparently he was capable of doing it without even being conscious.
Well. Who needed annoyingly charming English mutants anyway? Moira downed the last of her brandy and turned back to her files.
+ 1.
Erik’s always been a master of timing and he doesn’t think he could have timed this any better if he tried. The spark that’s been going back and forth between him and Charles has been leading to this moment all along.
He and Charles had spent a long day training in the grounds, Charles thinking up more and more things for Erik to manipulate and coming to the conclusion that Erik wasn’t simply a master of metal but rather a Master of Magnetism, if you will, my friend.
Erik’s never associated his abilities with joy and Charles has been unpicking that knot of pain and rage with deft mental fingers since they first met. Now Erik finds himself more relaxed than he has ever been and, though the constant pressure of Shaw’s continued existence still weights the back of his mind, he thinks that maybe he can find peace with Charles, if not with humanity.
Here they sit, a late dinner finding them alone in one of the three dining rooms, and words and ideas flow between them like a current. Charles had insisted they occupy one corner of the long table and so their legs bump against one another beneath it, companionable and easy.
“Do you realise,” Charles says, leaning forwards, “if it’s truly the magnetic field of the Earth that you’re manipulating - you could use this to fly?”
“How would that be possible?” Erik asks, even though he already knows the answer. It’s something he’s been considering for a long time.
“Effectively you would repel yourself from the Earth,” Charles says, demonstrating with his hands. “It wouldn’t be quite as free as Sean’s ability allows him - but it could be terribly useful in a tight spot.”
Erik bites his tongue over the several innuendos based around ‘tight spot’ that enter his mind at that moment. By the way Charles looks slightly away and the tips of his ears redden he thinks he doesn’t manage to clamp the thoughts down quick enough.
“Something to bear in mind for the future, at least,” Erik says instead, pressing a knee to one of Charles’. Charles smiles and once again Erik entertains the thought of stealing that smile away with his mouth.
“You know,” Charles says slowly, leaning further across the table. “I wouldn’t exactly be against that.”
It takes Erik a moment to realise that he must have broadcast the thought loud enough for Charles to hear despite his promise to never read Erik’s mind again unless asked. Erik licks his lips and Charles’ eyes dip to watch. The metal cutlery on the table rattles.
Erik leans in, closing the gap that Charles has already shrunk, raising a hand to slide into Charles’ hair in the way he’s been imagining for too long. Charles’ breath puffs softly against his face as Charles leans his head into Erik’s hand. Erik tilts his head and -
“Charles!” Hank bursts into the room and Erik starts, knives and forks crashing across the table. Hank’s eyes widen when he sees them and Erik can almost see him mentally backing out of the room.
Charles barely disguises a laugh as Hank stutters his way through an apology and practically flees the room, explaining that he’d only wanted to show Charles the progress he’d made with his serum. After Raven suggested it to him.
Erik supposes he deserves that for deliberately blocking Raven’s attempts to seduce Hank on more than one occasion; and the time he stopped Darwin and Alex, and Sean and Angel, and Alex and Hank.
“Ah, Erik,” Charles says, leaning back in his chair. “Seems you’re receiving a cold revenge. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to make an enemy of Raven so soon.”
It’s a fair point. But Erik still feels like he’s won the war when Charles leans across a moment later and kisses him with an intent that coils want down his spine.