more werewolf fic--chapters 3 & 4
Here are the next two chapters! There may be a short break, since I'm leaving for England on Monday...but we're about half done, I think. Have some hurt/comfort, and cuddling.
Title: More Than All The World (The Werewolf’s Tale) (chapters 3 & 4 of probably 8) (chapters 1 & 2 here)
Rating: probably R by the end, but PG for now
Word Count: 4,177
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All of this I think Erik sees it as a wartime necessity, a price that he's paying for a greater good -- he'll be a weapon and abandon compassion and mercy because that's what he believes mutantkind needs. But I think part of him still recognizes that those "weak" qualities have their own kind of value. And that's one of the reasons he needs Charles -- to remind him that, even if he doesn't see himself as "human," he's still a man, and he can be more than a weapon, and he's allowed to feel hope, and he's capable of loving someone.
...that's just lovely. And I do agree. Erik knows full well that Charles's way is *better*, in the sense of more desirable; he wants to be loved and to be able to love and to know compassion and peace. He just can't believe that Charles's dream is practical or achievable--in fact, the dream is only hiding the harshness of reality--and so, with all the sadness in the universe, he'll fight against Charles. And love him, at the same time. (Charles, of course, needs someone to give all the optimism a solid anchor, a counterweight, from time to time: what we hope people can do or be, versus what they so often choose to do and be.) (The other thing is, of course, for exactly the reasons you say, Erik is the one who can keep Charles from losing hope, when Professor X's fight feels like an endless losing battle; Erik will always tell him it's worthwhile, because Erik does believe it is.) (Also, on a personal level for them: Charles IS a constant in Erik's life, irritating, enthusiastic, challenging, kind, loving and beloved. Erik would never want to see him so badly scarred by despair that he'd stop being Erik's other half.)
Oh, yes, all the cuddling! Wolf!Erik is happy to provide warm-furred snuggles. Y'know, after the painful revelations...
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Eavesdropping, are you?
Mmm…maybe. You honestly think I smell delicious?
I-you-It’s a wolf thing!
Like sugared tea and parchment, you’re thinking. Illuminated manuscripts. I might not mind that one. Charles grinned at him, ducked into the wardrobe, started looking for a warmer and less decorated shirt, pulling the too-elaborate one off over his head. Better than wet dog.
Come here and I’ll make you smell of wet dog, Erik retorted, and then, when Charles didn’t emerge from the wardrobe, got up and trotted over there. Charles wasn’t looking, buried in clothing; Erik put a wet nose into his leg, and waited for the satisfying yelp.
Charles jumped, and spun around. Nearly fell over. Grabbed the nearest shirt.
Erik, shocked, forgot everything else, and stared.
Charles-
Erik, don’t-
Charles, what happened!
The scars were all too plain. Old, clearly. Not new. Long-healed tracks of silver, of twisted flesh, of shining snarled skin. They sliced through cinnamon-cloud freckles like deadly comets.
Please don’t, Charles whispered, and dropped his gaze, and Erik had the impression of blue eyes closing, hidden behind shaking hands. Hints of blood and cruelty and fire-heated iron, sizzling around the corners of those memories.
I don’t-I don’t tell people, Erik, please don’t look at me-
Charles, you-He never had seen Charles shirtless before. Charles’d always been careful to stay dressed, to sleep in an undershirt, to throw on clothing even before the castle servants came knocking with morning tea and toasted muffins. But Charles had been tired enough to forget, just now, with him. And Erik’d followed him into the wardrobe and made him remember.
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