XMMF Ficlet: "Reassurance", Bobby/John, Charles/Erik. 550 words, rated PG
Written for this week's prompt at Xmenflashfic, which is to go to your playlist and hit "random shuffle" and write fic based on the first song that plays. Mine was Placebo's "Bitter End", so behold, here be some angst.
Title: Reassurance
Author: Sionnain
Pairing: Bobby/John, Charles/Erik
Verse: Movieverse
Rating: PG, mostly angsty.
Challenge: Songfic Challenge, #6
Summary: Sometimes reassurance is hard to give.
Word count: 550
“I should have gone after him.”
Bobby Drake is sitting in Charles' office, looking very miserable. He has an almost palpable need for reassurance clinging to him, obvious even if he weren’t sitting across from a telepath. Charles hopes he has some reassurance to give the younger man, but he’s not too optimistic about that.
“Why do you say that?” Charles asks him patiently, though he already knows the answer. Because you think you could have stopped him from leaving with Magneto.
“Maybe if he knew that someone cared…” Bobby trails off, and Charles can see flashes of things in Bobby’s mind; guilt over what they’d done, how Rogue didn’t know. The thought that maybe if he’d been honest, told John how he’d felt, maybe John wouldn’t have left.
Charles remembers the last conversation he had with Erik, years ago, in this very room. I can’t make myself believe in this, Charles, not anymore. Not even for you.
“Sometimes that isn’t enough,” Charles says sadly. “Sometimes people leave, despite how much we love them or care about them.”
“But what if it would have been, and I never told him?” Bobby argues, his voice tight. “He’ll do something awful, Professor, for Magneto. People will die.”
“Yes, I suspect he will.” Charles has no doubt about that. John’s talents are too valuable for Erik not to exploit.
“How do I live with that, then?” Bobby demands, eyes searching, leaning forward slightly in his chair. “Knowing I could have stopped it if I could have made John stay?” His mind is full of images of infernos; destruction and death caused by someone he loves.
There are still nights Charles wakes up in a panic, remembering what Erik had nearly succeeded in making him do at Alkali. The betrayal of it cuts deep, even now, even after everything that has passed between them in the years since Erik left and became Magneto.
“John made the decision to leave, just as it will be his decision to do whatever it is Magneto asks of him,” Charles points out. “You are not responsible for anything he will do in the Brotherhood, Bobby.”
Bobby looks at him for a moment, as if he wants to say something, but doesn’t. You don’t understand, he thinks, and in his obvious frustration makes no attempt to shield his thoughts.
Charles thinks of all the people Magneto has killed on his quest for mutant superiority, of the harm he’s caused. He thinks of all the things that remained unsaid the day Erik left the mansion for good, though he doubts there was anything he could have said that would have changed Erik’s mind.
Charles remembers Rogue after Liberty Island, waking up from nightmares of twisted metal and sharp pain. Scott, grief-stricken, pretending otherwise for the sake of the team. Jean, dead beneath the cold waters of Alkali Lake, the closest thing to a daughter he’d ever had.
Charles thinks of the power he had to make Erik stay, the power he didn’t use, and wonders what might have been if he had used it, after all.
He forces himself to stop thinking that way, because it’s far too late for regrets. He almost tells Bobby that, but he doesn’t think that’s very reassuring, so he doesn’t.
It hasn’t been long enough since John left, anyway, for Bobby to understand.
Title: Reassurance
Author: Sionnain
Pairing: Bobby/John, Charles/Erik
Verse: Movieverse
Rating: PG, mostly angsty.
Challenge: Songfic Challenge, #6
Summary: Sometimes reassurance is hard to give.
Word count: 550
“I should have gone after him.”
Bobby Drake is sitting in Charles' office, looking very miserable. He has an almost palpable need for reassurance clinging to him, obvious even if he weren’t sitting across from a telepath. Charles hopes he has some reassurance to give the younger man, but he’s not too optimistic about that.
“Why do you say that?” Charles asks him patiently, though he already knows the answer. Because you think you could have stopped him from leaving with Magneto.
“Maybe if he knew that someone cared…” Bobby trails off, and Charles can see flashes of things in Bobby’s mind; guilt over what they’d done, how Rogue didn’t know. The thought that maybe if he’d been honest, told John how he’d felt, maybe John wouldn’t have left.
Charles remembers the last conversation he had with Erik, years ago, in this very room. I can’t make myself believe in this, Charles, not anymore. Not even for you.
“Sometimes that isn’t enough,” Charles says sadly. “Sometimes people leave, despite how much we love them or care about them.”
“But what if it would have been, and I never told him?” Bobby argues, his voice tight. “He’ll do something awful, Professor, for Magneto. People will die.”
“Yes, I suspect he will.” Charles has no doubt about that. John’s talents are too valuable for Erik not to exploit.
“How do I live with that, then?” Bobby demands, eyes searching, leaning forward slightly in his chair. “Knowing I could have stopped it if I could have made John stay?” His mind is full of images of infernos; destruction and death caused by someone he loves.
There are still nights Charles wakes up in a panic, remembering what Erik had nearly succeeded in making him do at Alkali. The betrayal of it cuts deep, even now, even after everything that has passed between them in the years since Erik left and became Magneto.
“John made the decision to leave, just as it will be his decision to do whatever it is Magneto asks of him,” Charles points out. “You are not responsible for anything he will do in the Brotherhood, Bobby.”
Bobby looks at him for a moment, as if he wants to say something, but doesn’t. You don’t understand, he thinks, and in his obvious frustration makes no attempt to shield his thoughts.
Charles thinks of all the people Magneto has killed on his quest for mutant superiority, of the harm he’s caused. He thinks of all the things that remained unsaid the day Erik left the mansion for good, though he doubts there was anything he could have said that would have changed Erik’s mind.
Charles remembers Rogue after Liberty Island, waking up from nightmares of twisted metal and sharp pain. Scott, grief-stricken, pretending otherwise for the sake of the team. Jean, dead beneath the cold waters of Alkali Lake, the closest thing to a daughter he’d ever had.
Charles thinks of the power he had to make Erik stay, the power he didn’t use, and wonders what might have been if he had used it, after all.
He forces himself to stop thinking that way, because it’s far too late for regrets. He almost tells Bobby that, but he doesn’t think that’s very reassuring, so he doesn’t.
It hasn’t been long enough since John left, anyway, for Bobby to understand.