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

[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 monster attack had happened, strange spidery things attacking the suit, attracted to the power source in his chest as others had gone to attack some hellbeast worm.

Where the hell are you anyway. Are you sitting around and being brooding and British and quaint?

[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, it's their loss because they're not worth it. Noah didn't look past you. Pepper wouldn't look past you. Natalie probably wouldn't look past you because you are a good guy. He ran a hand over his face, exhausted because this wasn't how he'd sort of thought this would go even if he knew that it would. You need to be who you are which is probably not this. So you can't walk now, whatever. You're still who you were. Are you going to be a good example to the people you're trying to save by acting like this? 'Oh look I'm going to help you and show you how one day you will be accepted now excuse me while I go sit here and will myself into having consumption of the brain like a maudlin asshole'.

[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 and the plain fucked up and even I know that and I have two friends in my own world.

[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.

In all honesty, the entire onslaught was so similar to what Noah had said, that he was actually surprised. Though, he wasn't sure why he was, because Noah and Tony thought the same way. It would figure the two people he considered friends in the city were so similar that one could say they were practically siblings. Charles twisted the pen in his hands again, eyes focused on the papers in front of him.

'... you're my oldest friend.'

'I'm you're only friend.'

'Thank you for that.'

Charles raised a hand to his face, resting his chin in his palm. Congratulations, Tony Stark, you successfully brought down one of the most powerful mutants.

No. He finally said. I don't have any friends. Not anymore. Raven was gone, Erik was gone, and now this. What would you prefer I tell you, Anthony? How my father died when I still a little boy, how my mother remarried to his lab partner? How he was an abusive stepfather and my mother couldn't take the fact my father was still dead and disappeared into socializing and drinking her way into a life where she didn't have to remember I was there half the time?

Charles looked up at him. Yes, Charles was screwed up. Maybe not as much as Tony, maybe more. But, unlike Tony, he didn't broadcast it for the world to know. Being a telepath is not as amazing as you all think it to be. I can hear things that I've never ever wanted to hear. What if I were to tell you that one of the first things I heard my mother think, when my mutation manifested, was that she couldn't stand to be around me because I was far too much like my father, and that me simply being there was hurting her more than actually helping her?

[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 deep cracks that kept opening up, edges crumbling away unless someone was brave enough to attempt to bridge the gap or until there was some effort made to try to stitch the edges shut again.

You know what happens if you don't let this out to someone? It's going to fester. Your childhood fucking sucked, probably worse than mine because I couldn't hear just how few fucks my father gave about me, I couldn't hear whatever my mom thought about me but you know, when I got packed off to boarding school I figured that out. But whatever, you know all of that. It was easy to guess that Tony and Charles' mother probably had a few things in common with the society drinking to forget their problems, to pretend that things were alright. You don't lock that up in your head and overanalyse it forever. You'll end up some bitter old man filled with regret.

None of what he said came out how he wanted it to but he hoped Charles would actually see what Tony was aiming for.

[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 next thought tumbled our without him meaning it to, Erik is a hypocrite. I suppose that makes Raven one as well now.

[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 at hiding what the hell is going on with them. Pepper was a master of it. Tony only knew she was hiding things because how could she not when she had to deal with him day in and day out, picking up all his messes and then dealing with his lies and theatrics when he was dying and before she knew he was Iron Man even if the latter was a fairly brief period.

Wait, what? I feel like I just missed something having some internal reflection there.

[arethebettermen]

I would prefer not to know what will happen. even though a friend of mine accidentally showed me a few things.

Charles shrugged. I suppose so. Her 'going through that' was different because she's a mutant. No, not different, just far more insecure. Charles raised his gaze back up to Tony, eyes narrowing in confusion for a moment before nodding. Oh.

My apologies... that was a thought that wasn't meant to be broadcasted. Charles said softly. It is... he trailed off. He wasn't even sure how to say or explain it and not sound like a child through a fit. Erik accepts every mutation, except my own. In fact, he outright shut mine out. Most do, human or mutant, but when your best friend is said to stand for your kind? It's a tad difficult to accept.

[coolexec]

Some of the things I've done just don't make sense but I definitely want the Avengers deal with Captain America and Thor because that sounds pretty fucking badass. Actually being on the active team roster after being shut down by Fury sounded badass because you always wanted what you couldn't have after all and Tony wasn't really used to being denied anything he'd set his mind on.

If you guys are going to go for the whole bonding with humans thing, you can't have everything always about being a mutant because people can't relate to that. It's a divide. I have met some messed up girls. He gave a wry half-smile as he said that because most of them were the girls who showed up at parties to latch on to the first guy that gave them even a hint of interest. There are probably human girls just as insecure. Maybe worse.

God Erik sounded like such a class act.

He sounds like a dick. No Tony wasn't going to sugarcoat it because it was the truth here, from what he'd heard about Erik so far. Am I ever just going to get the whole story about this because it's going to eat away at me and you know about Stane and I'm all about us having an equal bromance.

[arethebettermen]

It took a moment for Charles to sort through Tony's thoughts to see just who he was referring to with "Captain America" and "Thor", but a small smile spread on his face as soon as he found it. Allies for Iron Man. Everyone needed allies. The X-Men, as he was now calling them thanks to Moira, had each other. He had his doubts there would be allies for them outside of Promenade, should his students ever arrive in the city.

If they ever arrive in the city, I suspect I will see less of you. That might be good for you. Charles commented with a small smirk. He knew Tony wouldn't just leave him alone even if these Avengers showed up. It's more of what Raven's mutation is that leads me to say that, not necessarily that she is a mutant and not a human.

He trusted Tony, but he wasn't sure he should give his sister's insecurities away so freely.

At the comment about Erik, Charles merely sighed. The story about how we met and then parted ways, or the story about the wheelchair?