Walk like a gentleman

[coolexec]

Who: coolexec & arethebettermen
What: 2am is a perfectly reasonable time to show up drunk to pimp the prof's ride
Where: Xavier Mansion
When: After Tony has met up with Zinc, before Pepper arrives; any random night between those two happenings
Warnings: Likely language

Comments

[arethebettermen]

Admittedly, it was Mei that dreamed up the wheelchair, not Charles. Even if Charles had dreamed it up himself, it wouldn't have been motorized. He wasn't expecting to have to wheel himself around an entire bloody city, but that was the way things worked apparently. He rubbed the inside of his tender palm, hissing slightly at how knotted up his hands were.

He couldn't stop Noah from doing what she did, but he could stop Tony from doing something stupid and getting himself in trouble. Once Noah returned and if Tony wasn't alright, he knew Noah wouldn't forgive him--right away, at least. He was doing what he could for both his friends.

Charles looked up at the very loud and uncontrolled thoughts of one Tony Stark as he approached the mansion. Charles never needed the city's telepathic ability to speak, so it didn't bother him at all to talk to Tony like this. He sighed and went back to work, projecting a simple thought into his head: The door is unlocked. The bedrooms are on the second floor. If the door is locked, stay out of it.

[coolexec]

All of those things would be minor details that, if explained to Tony, would have had a hand come up to cut Charles off or have Tony say that it was boring and that he didn't care and that some people should shut up and let a genius work. And probably not complain if AC/DC spontaneously started blasting. You had to let a man do his thing but no one had explained any of it to Tony but he'd probably still have given Charles a look that said 'could you be anymore of an idiot?'

Jesus! So he might not have been expecting to hear thoughts all of a sudden because hey, he was drunk and they'd had two teneka free weeks so he was still getting used to going back to normal for Promenade. You know I can probably dream the door off or just dream up the necessary things to get rid of the door if I feel like snooping. You're not exactly going to be able to stop me if I feel like poking around your place in some sort of bizarre retribution for you being in my head and stuff even if that doesn't usually bug me but whatever I'm kind of drunk

[arethebettermen]

You're going to end up 'sleeping it off' anyways, and the pillows are from the forties and twenties, not the sixties. Charles corrected him. He hadn't updated the mansion at all, so it was still designed and decorated as his father had. His birthfather, not his stepfather. He didn't look up from his work, or well what he called work, writing away in the files he had on the desk in the study.

And, you would be amazed at what I could make your mind think. He pointed out. Not that he would. He trusted Tony not to walk into locked rooms, because they were locked for reasons of his students who were not here, not for his own reasons. If Tony wanted to walk into his room, Charles wouldn't stop him. The wheelchair doesn't need to end up like your suits, Anthony. I don't need to fly.

That was meant to be a joke, but he didn't want jet packs or repulsion things added to it.

[coolexec]

Great so you have small pox infested crap on your beds. He was being difficult for the sake of being difficult because that's how he was when he'd been drinking and hey, Charles might have spruced the place up, groovified it but no, it looked like the interior designer had been a Victorian after all. Maybe he'd be able to sneak in some modern things; did Charles even have a TV? Or did he have an old fashioned wireless sitting in the corner of some quaint family lounge.

Please. You have no imagination, you wasted it all on studying when you should've been partying, probably knocking up some poor Oxford girl with dreams who now has this cranky psychic baby that doesn't even need to cry to get her attention. Ow god damn fucking stairs. Yes, he'd tried to negotiate the stairs and had sort tripped on the way up before abandoning that idea. It wasn't like he'd find Charles up them but he'd wanted to keep exploring anyway. Look, in this city you never know. Trust me on that one.Those mental images? Yeah from when the first ever

[arethebettermen]

Your sensitivity for the times astounds me. Charles replied sarcastically, rubbing his temple. It was much easier to deal with Tony when they were both drunk and not in emotional lockdowns. Well, at least Charles was. Tony always avoided his feelings.

Though honestly, if Tony was in the same room with him at the very moment, Charles would have either sent him some rather rude mental pain spikes, or he would have punched him. He wasn't in the mood to defend how he lived his life, because he knew Tony wouldn't truly listen, given he was aiming just to be an ass... and quiet frankly, he was doing a marvelous job at it.

The study, which is on the first floor. Continue exploring if you wish. I'm working, not brooding.

[coolexec]

You will never know the true depths of my sensitivity. Tony did actually have sensitivity, it was just a little hard to find it. Like a lake where you could paddle along in the shallows until all of a sudden a steep plummet appeared out of nowhere and you struggled to keep your head above the water. Fortunately, there was a good solid barrier preventing people from getting to the drop off point.

Tony had won magazine awards for being an ass. It was genetic.

It's...the time is...the time is immaterial but it's still night because we can't talk. He was annoyed with the blurred vision where he couldn't make out what the hell his watch was actually saying but really, it didn't matter because not even Pepper would keep working even if she was in emotional upheaval and probably, she often was or at least in some pit of despair from trying to run Tony's life. I'm coming to see you. I have more booze. It's good booze. You need to get your drink on.

[arethebettermen]

Not everyone in the world uses alcohol to solve their emotional troubles. Charles pointed out. He wasn't much of a drinker, even if he did have his times of getting drunk, and he certainly didn't use alcohol to solve his problems. Mainly because alcohol brought them all out instead of anything else. He closed the folder on the desk and moved to the next one.

It's two-twenty am.

[coolexec]

It's not about solving something, god, it's about... Whoops he almost fell there. It's about delaying it until you can repress it. I know it's not solving something and you are killing my buzz which is just bullshit.

The study door then banged open and Tony in all his drunken splendor of dirty jeans, dirty hoodie and an even dirtier wifebeater underneath leant in the doorway. Because it was the only way to stand upright because standing still was a hell of a lot more difficult than moving and shit there was the room spinning again. The smile was false, tired and overwrought as he went to try to negotiate sitting in a chair (two of them, goddamn trickster bastard chairs).

Why the fuck are you doing paperwork at this hour. You're doing this thing all wrong.

[arethebettermen]

Charles was already looking up at the door when Tony unceremoniously entered, eyebrows raised, entirely unimpressed by the childish display. Tony may have been his best friend in the city, but the man still could act like a twelve year old when the moment called for it. He raised his eyebrows and gestured for Tony so sit himself down in one of the chairs before he hurt himself as he stumbled around.

God sakes. Was this what Miss Potts had to deal with all the time? His admiration for the ginger haired woman was growing day by day.

It's a hobby I find myself doing given I can't go and 'chat up' ladies at the bar and be rather successful in gaining company for the evening. Charles replied sarcastically. I can repress my emotional troubles without the need of alcohol, Anthony, but the offer is most gracious of you.

[coolexec]

This was a new side to Charles he was seeing now, the emo repressed 'oh woe is fucking me' side because Tony might not deal with his life in a healthy way but he actually dealt with it. He pushed people away because he was uncomfortable. He made plans without telling anyone when he thought he was going to die because he felt guilty and couldn't express things properly. He argued with Pepper. He made an ass of the proceedings in Washington. So his emotions were up front and volatile - they were out there. Pepper and sometimes Rhodey were privy to the deeper things even if they didn't talk about them. He knew what he was doing and he was Iron Man now too. That was something he did for good, trying to make up for things he'd done or things he had been complicit in because guilt by association was still guilt.

Jesus I cannot take this and your self-pity dressed up as though you're being witty and sarcastic tonight. This is me okay. I am a glorious fuck up half the time with my personal life. If women look past you then fuck it

[arethebettermen]

It's not the lack of walking nor the inability to have sex that is the ground breaking life changing thing. Though if people want to think that, then I'll gladly allow them to believe that. Charles looked down at the pen in is hands. The entire world didn't need to know his messed up life, let alone how messed up his head was. He felt terrible enough with telling Noah about it. She didn't need all his baggage on top of hers. He looked back up at Tony.

He wanted to snap back at the man across from him, but what was the point? Tony didn't know the complete details of how he was paralyzed, of what happened. That was more for his own safety, so Charles convinced himself, more than a lack of trust in the man. Charles did trust him. He just didn't let people in to that level because that was how he stayed safe. Instead he picked a different approach.

You believe my methods of keeping my burdens to myself is counter productive to helping others.

[coolexec]

Did you listen to me? Like at all? Or were you just indulging me right there? He wanted to get up and pace around and ideally he wanted to actually yell at Charles but he'd picked a bad time seeing as Soledate was over and he couldn't talk at night anymore.

Actually, do you even listen to yourself? You know everything about me. You know about my relationship with my father - not even Pepper and Rhodey know that whole story - and about my feelings about basically everything and what do I know about you? That your sister left with your best friend, that you mindwiped the woman you loved - and do that to Noah and there is nowhere you can hide from me, got it? - and that you blindside everyone whenever anything gets too close to your feelings. So fuck you. Because I don't know anything about you, I don't know how you ended up in that chair and you know about how I almost died in Afghanistan and again from palladium poisoning. Did you even have friends Charles? Because this is what friends do. They share the good and the bad

[arethebettermen]

Charles' expression fell completely at that, his gaze dropping back down to the desk as his shoulders sagged. Tony was right, of course. Tony didn't realize how well he knew him. It didn't take a PhD to tell that Charles Xavier was someone who focused on others and shared nothing about himself. It also didn't take even a high school degree to tell that Charles did not open up to anyone easily, if at all. He didn't need to open up to Raven, because she had seen his life, and she understood. With Erik it was more Charles trying to keep him balanced and sane rather than getting Erik to help him. It was never really helping about himself, because there wasn't a point to helping himself

[coolexec]

There were times when Tony hated being right because when he was then it could be with laser guided accuracy, hitting the nail on the head without even meaning to because he ran his mouth and didn't think because he had a thick skin for the most part. Whatever remaining colour there was drained out of his face and he set the bottle down, leaning on the desk, almost mirroring Charles but he had one hand rubbing the kink out of the back of his neck and the other was busy pressing his eyes hard, little bursts of lights behind them.

He both wanted to hear what Charles said and didn't because this was the same sort of stuff Charles had picked up from him but Tony wasn't expecting that and that was half the problem here; Charles projected this image of being some affable young genius guy when there was so much more going on underneath all of it apparently. Christ parents fuck you up. He hadn't meant for that part to be heard but it needed to be said after all. Parents left marks, fingerprint impression bruises the lightest touch or

[arethebettermen]

That was a saving grace of being a telepath: he could understand what they truly meant. At this moment it was helpful, but most of the time there were thoughts that he wished he hadn't heard. Those were things he kept to himself no matter what. Charles sighed, his eyes closing. He hated being so emotional. Even after he relived Erik's memories, he disregarded how it felt immediately.

Thanks to Noah, I do know I'll end up a bald old man with quite a few mutant students running around. Charles said, though his voice sounded softer. Raven knew... then Raven left, which you know. I told her to go with Erik because it was what she wanted. She wasn't happy living with me any longer, because I misunderstood how she felt. I promised her, when we were still children, I wouldn't read her mind. Unfortunately that meant I had no idea how she truly felt about herself and was completely blind to the fact she wasn't happy with who and what she was. There's no way anyone can fix that, I'm afraid.He absently started spinning the pen on the desk. The

[coolexec]

I heard that I'll want to make all superheroes go on some sort of register, get Captain America killed and put a bunch of kids in jail. He'd read up on that world, on what the other Billy had said and none of that looked like him, none of that seemed like something he was going to do. He was sure that if you saw a glimpse of the future that was going to actually happen that you would be able to feel the hallmark of it, that your stomach would do a little flip as your mind went 'oh fuck'. He hadn't had any of that. You don't know everything that's going to happen.

Through a great deal of concerted he managed not to think anything about Raven even if he still couldn't get around how she had left Charles when she must have known this, must have known what his life was like.

Every girl goes through that or I guess they do - when I was younger I was at MIT, way younger than anyone else there and I'd graduated before I could legally drink. I missed out on that part of figuring out how girls work. But they're better at anyone else