Erik's Moving Castle: Part 3/3
Title: Erik's Moving Castle
Author sunryder
Artist amoralambiguity
Verse: First Class AU
Word Count 16,810
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Erik/Raven, Erik/Charles
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Fusion
Summary: Carles Xavier had accepted that he was doomed to be ordinary while Raven and Hank got to be extraordinary. Of course, that was all true right up until Charles flirted with the handsomest fellow he'd ever seen and got cursed into a crippled old man for his trouble. Now Charles is hiding out in a moving castle with a fire demon named Logan who has a cigar problem, a magical apprentice and accidental firestarter named Alex, and the same handsome man who got Charles into this mess in the first place. A man who just happens to be the great and terrible Wizard Erik.
Link to art master post: HERE
Links to chapters: 1 | 2 | 3
A/N: This fic was done for the xmenbigbang, which once again was run like well-oiled machine. The mods are awesome! All of my love and devotion goes out to amoralambiguity who has been amazingly supportive through this process despite the fact that I re-wrote the story half a dozen times. Her masterpost is HERE, and I tell you that you have to go and make a fuss, it's so amazing!
Charles's sleep was surprisingly comfortable, something that he attributed more to his exhaustion than to the lumpy mattress that Alex had brought him. Judging by the quality of the light coming through the windows looking out over the Wilds it was still fairly early in the morning, but late enough that if he'd been at home Charles would've felt like quite the layabout. As it was, he took advantage of the spryness that came with a good night's rest and pushed his mattress away from Logan's hearth and over to a wall that seemed a bit more out of the way. Logan, it seemed, didn't wake until Charles began precisely folding the blankets and placing them in the just off center on the bed so they wouldn't be knocked over or impede someone who felt like sitting there. Logan, of course, snorted at Charles's fussing and said, "You could'a left the mattress where it was, kid."
"But how would you have spouted flames the next time you wanted to terrorize Alex if I left it there?" Charles teased, and Logan had the good grace to smirk in return. (At least, Charles was fairly sure it was a smirk. There was only so much one could tell about the facial ticks of a talking flame.)
Once he got the bed squared away Charles took at long look around the room that was intended to be a kitchen, but judging by the shelves full of mismatched bottles and jars, and the loose papers and books that seemed to take up every spare surface, he assumed this functioned as a living room and study as well. Charles walked over to the closest shelf and ran his finger over the wood, leaving a thick dark line behind in the white dust that covered the surface. He blew the coating off his finger, only to break into coughs when he breathed the foul stuff back in. "Is there some manner of organization to this mess that eludes me, or is it just anarchy?"
Logan smirked in amusement (again, Charles assumed more from the tone of his voice and the bright yellow of the fire than from the shape of his mouth), "Erik pretends that he's got a system. When he goes looking for something he just rips through all the crap until he finds it."
"Well, that's… terribly inefficient."
"Freakin' stupid is what it is, you can say it, kid."
Charles snorted, "I believe I shall refrain from insulting the man whose kitchen I'll be sleeping in for the near future. However, I do believe that I have found a way to induce Erik into letting me stay."
"You're gonna be his maid?"
Charles rolled his eyes, "I do believe that the socially appropriate term is 'Assistant'."
One particular flame over Logan's eye quirked up in a manner vaguely reminiscent of an eyebrow and the demon snarked, "Alex is his assistant."
Charles ignored that flaw in the plan and made his way over to the kitchen cupboards while he replied, "And a man cannot have two assistants?" Unfortunately those cupboards were filled with books rather than food, so Charles made his way over to what appeared to be a bureau instead. "Besides," he continued, "Alex will be Erik's assistant to further his own study of magic, I will be his assistant in business. Two entirely different things."
"And what do you know about business, kid?"
Charles was about to snap something back about how he had successfully been in charge of the family shop since he was nine, thank you very much, but he stopped himself before the words could come spilling out. Telling the intimate details of his life to a fire demon who already knew about his curse seemed like a thing so foolish as to be on par with Raven and Hank storming out into the wilds to get a spell from Erik in the first place, and seeing how that plan was going, Charles was not in the mood to repeat it. Instead he turned back to Logan, his own clearly delineated eyebrow raised and replied, "You're going to have to work much harder than that if you want my story, Mr. Demon."
"Nah, I don't think so," the demon smirked, and this time Charles was sure about that expression.
Charles just huffed and pulled open the bureau drawers to find a block of cheese, bacon, a jar of half-drunk orange juice, and eggs rolling back and forth like they were unbreakable toys. Charles stared at the contents for a moment, wondering what sort of organizational system would lump these things together, but decided he was too irritated with Logan to ask.
Of course, he didn't have to, and the fire demon interjected, "Erik divides the food by meal. The bread'll be in the middle drawer for lunch."
"That… actually makes a surprising amount of sense."
Logan shrugged, "He ain't stupid."
"No, I don't imagine you could be and manage to be a wizard of his caliber."
Charles slipped the necessary ingredients into a basket that was functioning as a lantern-shade and made his way back towards Logan's fire, stopping to grab a long-handed frying pan from under the sofa. Then he stopped and stared at Logan in shock for a moment before he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't even think, do you mind if I use some of your flame to cook breakfast?"
Logan just stared at Charles like he had been speaking a foreign language. Charles stood there for a long moment, certain that flinching away from Logan's stare would be exactly the wrong thing to do in this moment. Charles let himself blush as the object of such unrelenting scrutiny, but he remained still. Eventually Logan settled down into his logs, shrinking in on himself in a way that that spread out the mass of his fire to make for more even cooking. Or at least, Charles assumed that was the purpose of Logan's motion, but he stayed put until the fire demon growled, "You gonna cook or not, kid?"
"Oh! Yes, yes, of course. Thank you." Charles lined the pan with bacon and gently pushed it forward into Logan's space, careful not infringe too much on the fire demon. Of course, Logan's response to that was to grab the edge of the pan and pull it all the way forward like a blanket. Charles had the good grace to laugh at his own sensitivity, and cooked the rest of the breakfast with far less timidity, chatting pleasantly at Logan about how fond he was of cooking.
The smell of bacon was enough to draw Alex nose first down the stairs. Charles smiled brightly at the boy and wished him a good morning, which, in combination with the warm food that the boy looked like he hadn't seen in months, actually got Charles a smile back; unpracticed though it may have appeared. The boy went to clear off one end of the table, attempting to create enough space for the two of them to sit when Charles interrupted, "You know, perhaps we should have breakfast over here, you and I."
The boy paused in his already awkward tidying, "Like, on the floor?"
"Well, perhaps we could find a pillow or two to spare my knees the discomfort of stone, but I thought it might be nice for all of us to have breakfast together."
"Together?" Both Alex and Logan replied simultaneously.
"Of course! We can't all just sit in our separate corners and not speak to one another."
The man and the fire demon look at one another like Charles was addled and Logan replied," Yeah we can," while Alex quickly tacked on, "We usually do."
"Yes well, despite what you might 'usually do', if I am to manage this business I must insist that we all spend a little more time together."
Alex opened his mouth, clearly about to ask what 'together time' had to do with the running of the business when Charles steamrolled right over the top of him and declared, "Now, Alex you grab the plates, I'll grab the pillows, and Logan let me know if anything starts to burn." Charles discovered that the benefit to being a little old man was that the young seemed disinclined to tell you when they thought you were being ridiculous, and Alex grabbed the plates with no complaint. Together Alex and Charles settled in on the pillows, and placed the sturdiest of the plates as close to Logan's fire as they could manage. Logan, of course, stared at the plate like he thought Charles had lost what little was left of his mind after the stress of being changed, but he didn't comment, and Alex was too busy devouring his breakfast to care. Despite the initial shock, together the three of them ate a content breakfast, Logan mocking Alex for eating like a wolf, Alex mocking him for being intangible, and Charles laughing at them both. In truth, the breakfast was quite pleasant.
Of course, it was pleasant right up until the front door of the castle shook.
Beside the door was a hand-sized dial that Charles had somehow missed in his earlier perusal of the space. The dial was a flat metal circle divided into four sections, each marked by their own messy stripe of paint. There was a notch scratched into the wall above the dial, which Charles supposed was the Wizard's rather unsophisticated method of demarcating which section was the one in use. The entire time Charles had been here the dial had been turned to the strip of green paint, while the kitchen windows all showed the Wilds outside. Now the dial spun so the deliberately drawn line of black was turned to the mark and the windows showed nothingness.
Alex shoveled in his last few mouthfuls of egg like he thought he was going to get into trouble for daring to eat. Of course, when the door burst open to reveal the Wizard Erik slipping out of an uninterrupted slick of blackness, Charles could understand Alex's concern. The door flicked shut behind Erik of it's own accord, and he tossed off his jacket onto the floor, not even aiming for the coatrack that Charles was almost certain was a still living tree. Erik began rolling up his sleeves and went to yell for Alex, then froze when he took in the scene of domesticity before him.
While Erik stared at them all like he wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at, Charles did the same at the man in question. If possible, Erik was even more striking than Charles remembered, a benefit of seeing the man in his natural habitat, he supposed. The man was dressed casually, a loose shirt tucked into long breeches and nothing but the black overcoat that he'd tossed off to the side. Frankly, for a man of the wizard's station he was very nearly undressed. And yet, it suited him, like this level of dishevelment was precisely the way he was meant to be and any time you saw him otherwise was the mistake.
Inadvertently Charles put his hand up to check his own hair, a guttural reaction that no one could seem to tamp down then they were stuck by the beauty of someone. Then Charles remembered he'd been aged several decades and no amount of primping would have ever made him handsome in the first place, let alone now that he was bald.
Unlike Charles, Erik quickly got over his own surprise took a look around the room, picking up details that might explain why Charles was there before he settled his focus on the rucksack by Charles's mattress. Charles puffed out his chest and snapped, "That's my bag," though to be honest, he didn't quite know why he was so offended by Erik paying attention to his luggage.
Erik ignored Charles's statement and looked to Logan with an expression that Charles would almost categorize as surprise. Then, because neither one of them had the temperament to make things easy on Charles by just speaking, Logan seemed to answer Erik's question with a flicker of the flames around his face that Charles had no idea how to interpret.
Then together both man and demon turned their attention to Charles. He had the vague impression that the two of them were attempting to separate Charles's skin from his bones by using their thoughts, but after a long moment of nothing happening, Erik actually reached out his hand into the empty space between he and Charles and pulled. Charles felt something like air but decidedly not, rip past him, and still nothing happened.
Charles quirked an eyebrow and dryly asked, "If you're quite done trying to see if I'm something unsavory then perhaps we could move on to the business of the day and then maybe Logan will be kind enough to let you have some breakfast."
Erik just blinked, then turned back to Logan with an expression that Charles knew full well meant, 'what the hell'? Charles cleared his throat again and strode over to collect the really rather posh jacket that had no businesses being on a floor quite this disgusting. "Wizard Erik, I presume? My name is Charles, and Mister Logan has contacted me about being your business manager." Charles ran a soothing hand over the bark of the tree masquerading as a coat rack until the tree shivered and stuck out a branch for Charles to hang up Erik's jacket. "I had thought Mister Logan was exaggerating about the state of your affairs, but now that I've seen your utter lack of organization and the frankly appalling state of your laboratory, I have decided to accept the job offer."
Logan somehow managed to have his elbow propped up on one of the logs and his chin resting in the palm of his hand, watching Erik be steamrolled over the top of like it was hilarious. Erik turned to the fire demon and Charles tried to just keep on talking so Erik wouldn't have the chance to question anything until the opportunity was long past, but Erik tossed up his hand to silence Charles, and based off Alex's frantic hand signals, Charles decided to keep his mouth shut. Rather than reply, Logan just grinned, which seemed to be all the certification the Wizard needed.
Erik smirked, something dangerous and feral that did things to Charles's blood pressure, and stepped directly into Charles's space, staring down at him like he had when they were dancing. Charles flushed red and cursed that age was supposed to strip you of these guttural reactions to the handsome. "So, what precisely are you intending to manage?"
"I should think that was obvious," Charles snarked, stepping out of Erik's personal space.
Of course, the wizard took his as a sign to follow after him and somehow trick Charles into pressing his back up against the wall, penned in by the strength of Erik's arms. Which Charles had to admit, was going to be fodder for dreams for many nights to come. "You'll be handling me, then."
Charles forcibly reminded himself of Raven's laughing face and dropped under Erik's arm and out of range, pointing over to the bookshelves full of mismatched papers and unlabeled vials, "I was actually going to focus on those first. Any handling of you as a businessman will have to wait until I've seen you actually interact with a…" Erik came to stand behind Charles, the length of his front pressed up against the line of Charles's back, "customer."
"I assure you," he breathed into Charles's ear, "I am excellent at… interacting."
Charles sunk back into Erik's embrace for half a moment, drawn in by the way the man made his blood sing, but after that moment Charles forced himself to straighten up and move away. "I do believe that if you ask nicely then Logan will let you make some breakfast, but I would like to get started the organizing. As it stands I fear there's a very good chance I might perish of old age before I get things finished."
With his back to Erik, Charles began to make sense of everything scattered across the kitchen table, planning to use that as his base of organization. But because he so ardently refused to look at Erik, Charles missed the frustrated look that the wizard and his fire demon exchanged.
XXXXX
Charles spent the rest of his day working on the anarchy that was Erik's kitchen, beginning with the piles of paperwork that seemed to have taken up residence practically everyplace in the room. There were stacks lining the kitchen table, several binders tucked under the couch cushions, a notebook in the dinner drawer (with no food), and spare scraps of paper tucked into every nook and cranny that Charles happened to stumble across. He made it his first order of business to get all the paperwork into one place, and then hopefully begin dividing it into categories.
While Charles organized, young Alex spent the day on Charles's mattress in the corner, a pile of books beside him and trying to figure out how to light a candle without a match. (Apparently Alex's natural gift was for fire, but it tended more towards large explosions than controlled finesse.) Alex set a few random bits of the kitchen accidentally on fire while he studied (thankfully avoiding the kitchen table every time). When something would burst into flames Erik would look up from the book he was pretending to read and with a flick of his wrist pull the flame back into nothing. (Charles was desperately curious about the relationship between these two men, because despite Alex's obvious frustration, never once did he shout at Erik for the exercise.)
While Charles worked and Alex studied, Erik sat in the window bench overlooking the wilds and watched Charles organize while he pretended to read. Charles never actually caught the Wizard looking of course, but the hair on his neck stood up every time he turned his back to Erik. Added to that, occasionally he could feel the brush of Erik's magic along his skin, a little different every time it touched him, but there was something about it that was so uniquely Erik that Charles knew the wizard had spent the whole day staring at him for reasons unknown.
Just as Charles was contemplating pulling both men away from their work in favor of lunch, there was a furious knock on the door. Logan was sprawled on top of one of the logs in the hearth, aimlessly puffing away on his cigar when he grunted, "Hammer Bay door." The poorly painted dial beside the door twisted around so the blue streak pointed up to the mark on the wall. The scene outside the kitchen windows shuddered into a view down a long boulevard and into a city by the clear, blue seaside.
Erik didn't look up from the book he was 'reading' to toss a mostly empty bottle at Alex's head. The boy groaned and complained, "Come on man, I handled him last time!"
"And yet," Erik snorted, "I don't care because you're living in my house."
Alex dropped back onto the bed with a groan, mumbling about the annoyance that was little old men. Charles ignored the bite of pain that came with wondering if despite all the small affections that Alex had shown him that was honestly his opinion, and instead stormed for the door. He dramatically rolled his eyes at the both of them, the useless lot that they were. Erik gave no sign that he saw or even cared, and simply flicked his wrist and wrapped himself up in invisibility. Charles snorted; it was just like the man to skirt his responsibilities. Charles lifted the door's heavy latch and swung it open, only to be barreled over.
The 'little old man' that Alex had been dreading was, in fact, not quite so little at all. He was broad in the shoulders, with a strong jaw, and a long, lion-like mane of thick, while hair. (And no, Charles was not bitter about his own baldness at all.) The man immediately began to ramble in a language that Charles had never heard before. He stormed over to Alex on legs that were far more sure than Charles's own, and Charles began to suspect that the man wasn't nearly as old as his white hair would lead you to believe.
Alex just sighed at the fuss and went over to the bookshelves that Charles had yet to tidy and began looking for whatever it was the man was so ardent about getting. While Charles was distracted by the show, hands came out of nowhere and grabbed Charles underneath his arms and hefted him back to his feet. Charles very nearly squeaked at the motion, but even after a few scant touches he knew that it was Erik. The Wizard tugged Charles out of the way of the door and ran a soothing hand along Charles's spine before he removed the touch and became nothing.
The white-haired man's tone slipped from chiding to angry, and he and his screams stepped far to close to Alex for Charles's liking. The boy looked ready to set the man on fire for whatever he was saying when, from one step to the next, Erik materialized behind the shouting man. Erik seized him by the back of the jacket with far less care than he had used on Charles and started to drag him to the door. The man looked over his shoulder to turn his screaming to whoever was touching him, but he froze at the sight of Erik. Of course, he quickly regained himself and went back to shouting, but that pause was enough for Erik to cross the whole of the kitchen and throw their visitor unceremoniously out the still open front door.
The door slammed shut behind the man of its own accord, and the dial twisted immediately back to the green paint of the Wilds. Alex sagged onto a cleared corner of the table and groaned, "I hate that old bastard."
"If it's any consolation he won't be coming back for a month." Erik shrugged.
Alex looked up at him in horror, "You threw him out on his ass and he's not gonna stay away for years?"
Erik gave him a leer, "If he doesn't get his potion he doesn't get it up."
Charles blushed furiously, "You're making him a potion for, for… that?"
Alex snickered and Erik deliberately loomed over Charles, "You mean a potion to get him hard, Charles?"
"I mean," Charles sputtered, "whatever it was that you meant."
Erik pressed up against him, pushing Charles up against the wall beside the door, "I mean he's strung himself out on potions and spells trying to regain his youth so he can keep his much younger wife interested. It's such a shame isn't it?" Erik paused to put his hands of Charles's hips, "to be stuck with someone who doesn't burn your blood, doesn't make you feel alive."
The dial beside Charles's shoulder thankfully chose that moment to spin. The sound pulled away Erik's attention for long enough that Charles regained his common sense and got away from Erik's looming presence. With a cackle, Logan called out, "Capital door." Erik rolled his eyes and looked back to the wall where Charles had been, then glowered at the old man when he realized that Charles had fled the scene of the flirtation and taken refuge on the other side of the room. Erik was obviously irritated about something; probably that Charles wasn't playing along in his quest to successfully seduce everyone, old men included.
Erik tossed open the front door while he was busy glaring at Charles and thus missed the frankly stunning woman standing at his front door. She donned a teasing smile and asked the shoulder that Erik had facing her, "Is this a bad time?"
Erik jumped and turned to the door with a look that Charles almost thought of as panic, "Emma!" Erik calmed immediately and slouched against the doorframe trying to look casual, "I wasn't expecting you."
The tease to her smile grew a little more like a smirk, "Yes, I can see that." They stood there awkwardly for a moment before she asked, "May I come in, or are you intending to perform a spell for me on the stoop?"
Erik started and moved out of Emma's way, letting her sweep into the room and everything looked pathetic in comparison. (Not that Charles had managed to make the room anything near presentable over the course of the day, but he didn't need one of Erik's women making it look worse.) She glistened, long curls of white-blonde hair bound up at the crown of her head, exposing the long, pale line of her neck, and leaving the shimmering white lace of her dress uncluttered. If Charles hadn't been so torn between heartbreak and disgust then he would've been tripping over his own tongue at the sight of her. But as it was, Charles desperately wished that he could be anywhere but here. Anywhere that wasn't watching Erik plaster on a smile for this woman, a smile so perfectly reminiscent of the one that Erik had used on Charles on May Day.
Emma cast an amused but accepting glance around the room, "Erik, darling, I didn't know you were planning on renovating. If you'd told me I would've sent along the man who did all the work on my townhouse."
"We're organizing, not renovating," Alex snapped. The boy was slouched up against the wall beside his pile of books, guarding them all against Emma's presence. Charles had assumed this Emma was just another posh lady (or, more likely a particularly beautiful one) living in the capital, but Alex's reaction meant she was someone to be avoided. Of course, Erik ignored that completely in favor of the opportunity to have someone to flirt with.
Which Erik did with a vengeance.
He constantly invaded the woman's space, sliding up close and peering down at her from his advantageous height (which was not nearly the discrepancy that Erik had with Charles). He crossed the whole array of lascivious smiles, none of them the one that came naturally to Erik's face, but all of them striking nonetheless. Erik waived her over to one of the chairs that Charles had cleaned off just this morning and proceeded to flirt with her furiously under the guise of seeing how the latest spell was treating her. Of course, it didn't help matters much that every time Erik stepped behind her she tipped her head ever so slightly back, exposing the smooth path down the column of her throat and down to her breasts.
Charles wanted to escape, but he had never been anywhere else in the castle, and he felt uncomfortable with this being the first time that he browsed around the rooms. He moved to a tower of books in the far corner of the room where he could at least pretend to give Emma the privacy that was due to a client and pulled Alex along with him to help. He left Erik and Emma to their flirting, ignoring the roiling in his own stomach and made Alex read off book names to him while he wrote them down as the first step to an index.
As his transaction wore on, however, Erik started to get frustrated. Charles could see it in the tense line of his shoulders and how the occasional reply to her questions was blunt in its honesty rather than delicate. (Erik was naturally predisposed to be as aggressive as possible in his words, but Charles was well aware that it was something he kept pent up when he wanted to make a good impression.) By the time they were done Erik spent most of his time glowering either at Charles or at Logan, who was contentedly masquerading as nothing but a fire. Judging by the way Emma snapped back on her gloves, she was not pleased with the utter and obvious lack of attention. She left in a fury, barely waiting for Erik to do his duty and open the door for her.
The moment the door closed behind her Alex once again snapped, "And I hate that smug bitch, too."
A day was plenty of time to teach Charles that Erik didn't like being questioned, and the Wizard snapped back, "We need her, Alex. She's and her family are the most well respected Ladies in the kingdom. One good word from her gets us commissions that last for months, and when she's pissed then you and I get stuck eating nothing but buttered noodles!"
Alex was no wilting flower, and he stormed forward shouting, "Starving would be better than having her around!"
Charles moved to step between the two men, to interrupt their tirade before it got ugly, but he felt the sting of heat on his hands stopping him. Logan had stretched up and out of the fire to glance one of his own fingers against Charles' skin, not enough to burn, but enough to grab his attention. Logan gave Charles a minute shake of the head, telling him not to interfere.
"You can't hate everyone in the city for having money, Alex. That's a sure way to make sure you starve!"
"Oh that's rich," Alex snorted, "You lecturing anyone on the drawbacks of hate!"
"I'm allowed to hate people who want to kill me!"
Alex tossed up his hands, "And what do you think Emma wants done with me?"
"She doesn't want you dead, she wants me to marry her so she can have Witches for children!"
Alex just stared at Erik like he was an idiot before screaming, "And what happens to me when you do? If I'm not in your care I go back to the prison and I'm hanged!"
All the fight drained out of Erik and he wrapped Alex up into a hug. The boy struggled futilely for a few long moments, refusing the warmth of Erik's comfort, but soon enough he just collapsed against Erik's chest and mumbled, "I don't wanna go back."
Erik gripped the boy tighter and hissed, "No matter what, you will be protected. I've made arrangements with every last Witch and Wizard I know that if something happens to me then you'll be taken on as student by someone else. You'll be a Wizard Alex, I promise, and then that damn sentence won't matter anymore and you'll be free to live your life however you choose." The two men stood in silent comfort for a moment before Alex realized that they were hugging and slipped back in embarrassment.
The boy's cheeks burned bright red, and he awkwardly cleared his throat before he muttered, "Glad we got that cleared up," and ran up the stairs to hide in his room.
Erik just grinned at the boy's retreated back, then he looked over to Charles and the smile immediately faded into a grimace. Charles stuck out his chin and tried to pretend that he wasn't wondering what he could've done in the last hour that made the sight of him so distasteful. Erik gave both Charles and Logan a stiff nod, then swept up his coat and stormed out of the castle and out into the Wilds.
Charles sunk down on the ground next to the hearth and asked, "Logan, what just happened?"
The fire demon shrugged, "The kid's got talent with fire."
Charles stared at him foolishly expecting a more thorough explanation than that, but when none came Charles supposed it did make enough sense. Alex was predisposed to flashes of temper that burned hot but not terribly long. It made sense that he and Erik would communicate, not through discussion, but through the occasional bought of vicious yelling until Alex's temper got the better of him and he said what he really meant under all that bluster.
Charles drew his knees up to chest, "If I may ask, what was the other thing they were talking about. The… 'sentence'?"
Logan puffed out a long breath of his latest cigar (which he'd reached for the moment the door had closed behind Emma and he no longer pretended to be an ordinary fire). He stared at Charles, once again taking the measure of him before speaking, "Usually kids don't come into their magic until they're sixteen. They come in early for two reasons: sheer power, and trauma. Alex is both." Logan paused to take another long draw of his cigar, a surprisingly gentle action that let Charles have a moment to regroup.
"Whatever other magic Erik manages to teach him, the kid'll always be a fire starter. It's what he is, and he's one of the best that there's ever been. And coming from a fire demon that's saying something. About the time the kid should've been accidentally lighting the fire for dinner or making water boil, his mother got re-married. The bastard she picked liked to smack around Alex and his mom."
Charles's features settled into a hard look, "I assume Erik has taken care of the man?"
"That's the trouble, Alex took care of it himself." Charles started in surprise, and Logan continued. "One night the bastard turned his fists against Alex's baby brother, and the kid lost control. He set the bastard on fire, burned him alive. But the kid had no idea what in the hell was going on, no idea how to contain it, so the house burned down around them. The bastard and the mother both died in the blaze, but Alex had enough innate skill that he wrapped his arms around his baby brother and the both of them walked out of the wreckage unharmed."
"Please don't tell me that Alex got charged with murder for a moment of accidental magic."
Logan gave a sharp and frustrated puff, "Got it in one. Luckily for the kid, Erik was in town. He turned up at the courthouse and explained that it was an accident, there was nothing the kid could've done to prevent it. Then Erik swore on his honor and his magic that he'd see Alex trained properly so that nothing that this would happen again. And the judge accepted those terms."
"So if Erik was to turn Alex out…"
"The kid would be hanged for the murder of two people."
"And his brother?"
"Erik offered to keep the kid here, but both he and Alex decided that this was no place for him. Erik's got enemies aplenty, and all his enemies are Alex's enemies now, so Erik put the kid someplace safe."
Charles thought for a moment, "The black dial?"
Logan smirked that Charles had it figured it out so quickly, "Yup. Once a month Erik will bring the kid in and he'll spend the weekend with Alex. The kid is annoying as hell, but Alex gets happy when he's around, so there's hope for him."
There was a tone of finality to Logan, so Charles left the rest of his questions for another day, returning to the tidying. He went on steadily like that for another hour before Alex came back down the stairs looking sheepish. Charles just smiled, but held back his comments on what had happened earlier in the day, making the boy a sandwich instead. Alex blushed, but gave Charles a grin in reply. Alex put aside his studies and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Charles restore order to the main room of the house. Something seemed to have unblocked between them now that Charles had seen Alex and Erik fight it out, and suddenly the boy was telling Charles all about his studies (he had a habit of turning anything into an inferno when he was angry, so Erik was teaching him control), his family (the little brother was named Scott), and some of the adventures he'd had with Erik (Charles really didn't want to ask what the who of them were doing stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean in the first place).
By the time night rolled around and Charles fed them both again he was really quite happy, magically inflicted old age and Erik being off goodness knows where aside. The second half of the day was really quite beautiful, right up until the moment that Erik strode back into the castle, smelling of ale and with lipstick smudged along his mouth.
Erik didn't have the stumble of the well and truly drunk, but neither was he truly sober. He went straight to Alex and dropped a kiss into his hair, grinned back when the boy smirked at him like he was an idiot. The wizard then slid over to Charles and ran a hand along his shoulder, only to have Charles smack it away. It seemed every moment of happiness Charles eek-ed out of this castle and his terrible condition, Erik managed to come crashing in and rip it all away once again. Charles was not in the mood to be Erik's plaything while he dealt with his boredom. The Wizard tried to tease, but Charles rose stiffly from his wobbly chair and sighed, "If you gentlemen will excuse me, I am… tired."
Erik put his hand low on Charles's hip, "Come on-"
"No!" Charles snapped, surprising them all. He took a deep breath and continued, "I am old, Erik. I need my rest from the flights of such young men."
And to Charles's heartache, Erik let him go.
Erik stared at him until he settled peaceably into bed, then stormed up the stairs without so much as a goodnight. Alex looked up from his book and gave an awkward smile, "There's this girl in Oxford, near the Wilds. He, uh, he thinks she's interesting. Which for Erik is a pretty high compliment."
Charles gave Alex a sickly sort of smile in reply, then settled down into his bed and wrapped the covers up over his head. He had intended to stay awake until Alex went up to his own room, but the boy seemed determined to keep watch over Charles until he fell asleep. Eventually Charles gave in, sinking into slumber while Alex forced himself to keep trying that candle.
Hours later, when Alex had gone to bed (leaving his books still scattered about), Charles rolled over to see Logan still awake in the fireplace, puffing on another cigar. "Why're you still awake, kid?"
Charles wanted to snap something vicious about he deserved to be as irritable as he felt like, thank you very much. He’d been robbed of decades, forced from the moment when his life was just beginning to instead be shuffled off to the very end. He’d finally thought that perhaps it was his turn to have something good, something with steel blue eyes and a smile that made his heart stop, only for that something to willingly flirt with everything on two legs, including Charles’s own sister. A sister, who according to Alex, was the light of Erik’s life, and who had been snogging not twenty minutes ago with a man who made Charles’s soul ache, a man who had gotten Charles cursed in the first place. Charles bit his tongue and said instead, "Logan, may I ask you a purely hypothetical question?"
The demon smirked, "Sure, kid."
"If, perhaps, I might want to have a consultation with the Witch. How would I go about arranging that?"
Logan puffed out a slow breath, like he was surprised by the question and trying hard not to show it. "She's gonna charge you for turning you back."
“As will you, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Whatever I charge you for the information, it’s gonna be nothing compared to what she’ll ask of you, kid.”
Charles thought about replying with something mocking, but lying to Logan felt wrong somehow. He sunk back into the pillows and murmured, "I don't particularly care. I can’t go on like this."
Author sunryder
Artist amoralambiguity
Verse: First Class AU
Word Count 16,810
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Erik/Raven, Erik/Charles
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Fusion
Summary: Carles Xavier had accepted that he was doomed to be ordinary while Raven and Hank got to be extraordinary. Of course, that was all true right up until Charles flirted with the handsomest fellow he'd ever seen and got cursed into a crippled old man for his trouble. Now Charles is hiding out in a moving castle with a fire demon named Logan who has a cigar problem, a magical apprentice and accidental firestarter named Alex, and the same handsome man who got Charles into this mess in the first place. A man who just happens to be the great and terrible Wizard Erik.
Link to art master post: HERE
Links to chapters: 1 | 2 | 3
A/N: This fic was done for the xmenbigbang, which once again was run like well-oiled machine. The mods are awesome! All of my love and devotion goes out to amoralambiguity who has been amazingly supportive through this process despite the fact that I re-wrote the story half a dozen times. Her masterpost is HERE, and I tell you that you have to go and make a fuss, it's so amazing!
Charles's sleep was surprisingly comfortable, something that he attributed more to his exhaustion than to the lumpy mattress that Alex had brought him. Judging by the quality of the light coming through the windows looking out over the Wilds it was still fairly early in the morning, but late enough that if he'd been at home Charles would've felt like quite the layabout. As it was, he took advantage of the spryness that came with a good night's rest and pushed his mattress away from Logan's hearth and over to a wall that seemed a bit more out of the way. Logan, it seemed, didn't wake until Charles began precisely folding the blankets and placing them in the just off center on the bed so they wouldn't be knocked over or impede someone who felt like sitting there. Logan, of course, snorted at Charles's fussing and said, "You could'a left the mattress where it was, kid."
"But how would you have spouted flames the next time you wanted to terrorize Alex if I left it there?" Charles teased, and Logan had the good grace to smirk in return. (At least, Charles was fairly sure it was a smirk. There was only so much one could tell about the facial ticks of a talking flame.)
Once he got the bed squared away Charles took at long look around the room that was intended to be a kitchen, but judging by the shelves full of mismatched bottles and jars, and the loose papers and books that seemed to take up every spare surface, he assumed this functioned as a living room and study as well. Charles walked over to the closest shelf and ran his finger over the wood, leaving a thick dark line behind in the white dust that covered the surface. He blew the coating off his finger, only to break into coughs when he breathed the foul stuff back in. "Is there some manner of organization to this mess that eludes me, or is it just anarchy?"
Logan smirked in amusement (again, Charles assumed more from the tone of his voice and the bright yellow of the fire than from the shape of his mouth), "Erik pretends that he's got a system. When he goes looking for something he just rips through all the crap until he finds it."
"Well, that's… terribly inefficient."
"Freakin' stupid is what it is, you can say it, kid."
Charles snorted, "I believe I shall refrain from insulting the man whose kitchen I'll be sleeping in for the near future. However, I do believe that I have found a way to induce Erik into letting me stay."
"You're gonna be his maid?"
Charles rolled his eyes, "I do believe that the socially appropriate term is 'Assistant'."
One particular flame over Logan's eye quirked up in a manner vaguely reminiscent of an eyebrow and the demon snarked, "Alex is his assistant."
Charles ignored that flaw in the plan and made his way over to the kitchen cupboards while he replied, "And a man cannot have two assistants?" Unfortunately those cupboards were filled with books rather than food, so Charles made his way over to what appeared to be a bureau instead. "Besides," he continued, "Alex will be Erik's assistant to further his own study of magic, I will be his assistant in business. Two entirely different things."
"And what do you know about business, kid?"
Charles was about to snap something back about how he had successfully been in charge of the family shop since he was nine, thank you very much, but he stopped himself before the words could come spilling out. Telling the intimate details of his life to a fire demon who already knew about his curse seemed like a thing so foolish as to be on par with Raven and Hank storming out into the wilds to get a spell from Erik in the first place, and seeing how that plan was going, Charles was not in the mood to repeat it. Instead he turned back to Logan, his own clearly delineated eyebrow raised and replied, "You're going to have to work much harder than that if you want my story, Mr. Demon."
"Nah, I don't think so," the demon smirked, and this time Charles was sure about that expression.
Charles just huffed and pulled open the bureau drawers to find a block of cheese, bacon, a jar of half-drunk orange juice, and eggs rolling back and forth like they were unbreakable toys. Charles stared at the contents for a moment, wondering what sort of organizational system would lump these things together, but decided he was too irritated with Logan to ask.
Of course, he didn't have to, and the fire demon interjected, "Erik divides the food by meal. The bread'll be in the middle drawer for lunch."
"That… actually makes a surprising amount of sense."
Logan shrugged, "He ain't stupid."
"No, I don't imagine you could be and manage to be a wizard of his caliber."
Charles slipped the necessary ingredients into a basket that was functioning as a lantern-shade and made his way back towards Logan's fire, stopping to grab a long-handed frying pan from under the sofa. Then he stopped and stared at Logan in shock for a moment before he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't even think, do you mind if I use some of your flame to cook breakfast?"
Logan just stared at Charles like he had been speaking a foreign language. Charles stood there for a long moment, certain that flinching away from Logan's stare would be exactly the wrong thing to do in this moment. Charles let himself blush as the object of such unrelenting scrutiny, but he remained still. Eventually Logan settled down into his logs, shrinking in on himself in a way that that spread out the mass of his fire to make for more even cooking. Or at least, Charles assumed that was the purpose of Logan's motion, but he stayed put until the fire demon growled, "You gonna cook or not, kid?"
"Oh! Yes, yes, of course. Thank you." Charles lined the pan with bacon and gently pushed it forward into Logan's space, careful not infringe too much on the fire demon. Of course, Logan's response to that was to grab the edge of the pan and pull it all the way forward like a blanket. Charles had the good grace to laugh at his own sensitivity, and cooked the rest of the breakfast with far less timidity, chatting pleasantly at Logan about how fond he was of cooking.
The smell of bacon was enough to draw Alex nose first down the stairs. Charles smiled brightly at the boy and wished him a good morning, which, in combination with the warm food that the boy looked like he hadn't seen in months, actually got Charles a smile back; unpracticed though it may have appeared. The boy went to clear off one end of the table, attempting to create enough space for the two of them to sit when Charles interrupted, "You know, perhaps we should have breakfast over here, you and I."
The boy paused in his already awkward tidying, "Like, on the floor?"
"Well, perhaps we could find a pillow or two to spare my knees the discomfort of stone, but I thought it might be nice for all of us to have breakfast together."
"Together?" Both Alex and Logan replied simultaneously.
"Of course! We can't all just sit in our separate corners and not speak to one another."
The man and the fire demon look at one another like Charles was addled and Logan replied," Yeah we can," while Alex quickly tacked on, "We usually do."
"Yes well, despite what you might 'usually do', if I am to manage this business I must insist that we all spend a little more time together."
Alex opened his mouth, clearly about to ask what 'together time' had to do with the running of the business when Charles steamrolled right over the top of him and declared, "Now, Alex you grab the plates, I'll grab the pillows, and Logan let me know if anything starts to burn." Charles discovered that the benefit to being a little old man was that the young seemed disinclined to tell you when they thought you were being ridiculous, and Alex grabbed the plates with no complaint. Together Alex and Charles settled in on the pillows, and placed the sturdiest of the plates as close to Logan's fire as they could manage. Logan, of course, stared at the plate like he thought Charles had lost what little was left of his mind after the stress of being changed, but he didn't comment, and Alex was too busy devouring his breakfast to care. Despite the initial shock, together the three of them ate a content breakfast, Logan mocking Alex for eating like a wolf, Alex mocking him for being intangible, and Charles laughing at them both. In truth, the breakfast was quite pleasant.
Of course, it was pleasant right up until the front door of the castle shook.
Beside the door was a hand-sized dial that Charles had somehow missed in his earlier perusal of the space. The dial was a flat metal circle divided into four sections, each marked by their own messy stripe of paint. There was a notch scratched into the wall above the dial, which Charles supposed was the Wizard's rather unsophisticated method of demarcating which section was the one in use. The entire time Charles had been here the dial had been turned to the strip of green paint, while the kitchen windows all showed the Wilds outside. Now the dial spun so the deliberately drawn line of black was turned to the mark and the windows showed nothingness.
Alex shoveled in his last few mouthfuls of egg like he thought he was going to get into trouble for daring to eat. Of course, when the door burst open to reveal the Wizard Erik slipping out of an uninterrupted slick of blackness, Charles could understand Alex's concern. The door flicked shut behind Erik of it's own accord, and he tossed off his jacket onto the floor, not even aiming for the coatrack that Charles was almost certain was a still living tree. Erik began rolling up his sleeves and went to yell for Alex, then froze when he took in the scene of domesticity before him.
While Erik stared at them all like he wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at, Charles did the same at the man in question. If possible, Erik was even more striking than Charles remembered, a benefit of seeing the man in his natural habitat, he supposed. The man was dressed casually, a loose shirt tucked into long breeches and nothing but the black overcoat that he'd tossed off to the side. Frankly, for a man of the wizard's station he was very nearly undressed. And yet, it suited him, like this level of dishevelment was precisely the way he was meant to be and any time you saw him otherwise was the mistake.
Inadvertently Charles put his hand up to check his own hair, a guttural reaction that no one could seem to tamp down then they were stuck by the beauty of someone. Then Charles remembered he'd been aged several decades and no amount of primping would have ever made him handsome in the first place, let alone now that he was bald.
Unlike Charles, Erik quickly got over his own surprise took a look around the room, picking up details that might explain why Charles was there before he settled his focus on the rucksack by Charles's mattress. Charles puffed out his chest and snapped, "That's my bag," though to be honest, he didn't quite know why he was so offended by Erik paying attention to his luggage.
Erik ignored Charles's statement and looked to Logan with an expression that Charles would almost categorize as surprise. Then, because neither one of them had the temperament to make things easy on Charles by just speaking, Logan seemed to answer Erik's question with a flicker of the flames around his face that Charles had no idea how to interpret.
Then together both man and demon turned their attention to Charles. He had the vague impression that the two of them were attempting to separate Charles's skin from his bones by using their thoughts, but after a long moment of nothing happening, Erik actually reached out his hand into the empty space between he and Charles and pulled. Charles felt something like air but decidedly not, rip past him, and still nothing happened.
Charles quirked an eyebrow and dryly asked, "If you're quite done trying to see if I'm something unsavory then perhaps we could move on to the business of the day and then maybe Logan will be kind enough to let you have some breakfast."
Erik just blinked, then turned back to Logan with an expression that Charles knew full well meant, 'what the hell'? Charles cleared his throat again and strode over to collect the really rather posh jacket that had no businesses being on a floor quite this disgusting. "Wizard Erik, I presume? My name is Charles, and Mister Logan has contacted me about being your business manager." Charles ran a soothing hand over the bark of the tree masquerading as a coat rack until the tree shivered and stuck out a branch for Charles to hang up Erik's jacket. "I had thought Mister Logan was exaggerating about the state of your affairs, but now that I've seen your utter lack of organization and the frankly appalling state of your laboratory, I have decided to accept the job offer."
Logan somehow managed to have his elbow propped up on one of the logs and his chin resting in the palm of his hand, watching Erik be steamrolled over the top of like it was hilarious. Erik turned to the fire demon and Charles tried to just keep on talking so Erik wouldn't have the chance to question anything until the opportunity was long past, but Erik tossed up his hand to silence Charles, and based off Alex's frantic hand signals, Charles decided to keep his mouth shut. Rather than reply, Logan just grinned, which seemed to be all the certification the Wizard needed.
Erik smirked, something dangerous and feral that did things to Charles's blood pressure, and stepped directly into Charles's space, staring down at him like he had when they were dancing. Charles flushed red and cursed that age was supposed to strip you of these guttural reactions to the handsome. "So, what precisely are you intending to manage?"
"I should think that was obvious," Charles snarked, stepping out of Erik's personal space.
Of course, the wizard took his as a sign to follow after him and somehow trick Charles into pressing his back up against the wall, penned in by the strength of Erik's arms. Which Charles had to admit, was going to be fodder for dreams for many nights to come. "You'll be handling me, then."
Charles forcibly reminded himself of Raven's laughing face and dropped under Erik's arm and out of range, pointing over to the bookshelves full of mismatched papers and unlabeled vials, "I was actually going to focus on those first. Any handling of you as a businessman will have to wait until I've seen you actually interact with a…" Erik came to stand behind Charles, the length of his front pressed up against the line of Charles's back, "customer."
"I assure you," he breathed into Charles's ear, "I am excellent at… interacting."
Charles sunk back into Erik's embrace for half a moment, drawn in by the way the man made his blood sing, but after that moment Charles forced himself to straighten up and move away. "I do believe that if you ask nicely then Logan will let you make some breakfast, but I would like to get started the organizing. As it stands I fear there's a very good chance I might perish of old age before I get things finished."
With his back to Erik, Charles began to make sense of everything scattered across the kitchen table, planning to use that as his base of organization. But because he so ardently refused to look at Erik, Charles missed the frustrated look that the wizard and his fire demon exchanged.
XXXXX
Charles spent the rest of his day working on the anarchy that was Erik's kitchen, beginning with the piles of paperwork that seemed to have taken up residence practically everyplace in the room. There were stacks lining the kitchen table, several binders tucked under the couch cushions, a notebook in the dinner drawer (with no food), and spare scraps of paper tucked into every nook and cranny that Charles happened to stumble across. He made it his first order of business to get all the paperwork into one place, and then hopefully begin dividing it into categories.
While Charles organized, young Alex spent the day on Charles's mattress in the corner, a pile of books beside him and trying to figure out how to light a candle without a match. (Apparently Alex's natural gift was for fire, but it tended more towards large explosions than controlled finesse.) Alex set a few random bits of the kitchen accidentally on fire while he studied (thankfully avoiding the kitchen table every time). When something would burst into flames Erik would look up from the book he was pretending to read and with a flick of his wrist pull the flame back into nothing. (Charles was desperately curious about the relationship between these two men, because despite Alex's obvious frustration, never once did he shout at Erik for the exercise.)
While Charles worked and Alex studied, Erik sat in the window bench overlooking the wilds and watched Charles organize while he pretended to read. Charles never actually caught the Wizard looking of course, but the hair on his neck stood up every time he turned his back to Erik. Added to that, occasionally he could feel the brush of Erik's magic along his skin, a little different every time it touched him, but there was something about it that was so uniquely Erik that Charles knew the wizard had spent the whole day staring at him for reasons unknown.
Just as Charles was contemplating pulling both men away from their work in favor of lunch, there was a furious knock on the door. Logan was sprawled on top of one of the logs in the hearth, aimlessly puffing away on his cigar when he grunted, "Hammer Bay door." The poorly painted dial beside the door twisted around so the blue streak pointed up to the mark on the wall. The scene outside the kitchen windows shuddered into a view down a long boulevard and into a city by the clear, blue seaside.
Erik didn't look up from the book he was 'reading' to toss a mostly empty bottle at Alex's head. The boy groaned and complained, "Come on man, I handled him last time!"
"And yet," Erik snorted, "I don't care because you're living in my house."
Alex dropped back onto the bed with a groan, mumbling about the annoyance that was little old men. Charles ignored the bite of pain that came with wondering if despite all the small affections that Alex had shown him that was honestly his opinion, and instead stormed for the door. He dramatically rolled his eyes at the both of them, the useless lot that they were. Erik gave no sign that he saw or even cared, and simply flicked his wrist and wrapped himself up in invisibility. Charles snorted; it was just like the man to skirt his responsibilities. Charles lifted the door's heavy latch and swung it open, only to be barreled over.
The 'little old man' that Alex had been dreading was, in fact, not quite so little at all. He was broad in the shoulders, with a strong jaw, and a long, lion-like mane of thick, while hair. (And no, Charles was not bitter about his own baldness at all.) The man immediately began to ramble in a language that Charles had never heard before. He stormed over to Alex on legs that were far more sure than Charles's own, and Charles began to suspect that the man wasn't nearly as old as his white hair would lead you to believe.
Alex just sighed at the fuss and went over to the bookshelves that Charles had yet to tidy and began looking for whatever it was the man was so ardent about getting. While Charles was distracted by the show, hands came out of nowhere and grabbed Charles underneath his arms and hefted him back to his feet. Charles very nearly squeaked at the motion, but even after a few scant touches he knew that it was Erik. The Wizard tugged Charles out of the way of the door and ran a soothing hand along Charles's spine before he removed the touch and became nothing.
The white-haired man's tone slipped from chiding to angry, and he and his screams stepped far to close to Alex for Charles's liking. The boy looked ready to set the man on fire for whatever he was saying when, from one step to the next, Erik materialized behind the shouting man. Erik seized him by the back of the jacket with far less care than he had used on Charles and started to drag him to the door. The man looked over his shoulder to turn his screaming to whoever was touching him, but he froze at the sight of Erik. Of course, he quickly regained himself and went back to shouting, but that pause was enough for Erik to cross the whole of the kitchen and throw their visitor unceremoniously out the still open front door.
The door slammed shut behind the man of its own accord, and the dial twisted immediately back to the green paint of the Wilds. Alex sagged onto a cleared corner of the table and groaned, "I hate that old bastard."
"If it's any consolation he won't be coming back for a month." Erik shrugged.
Alex looked up at him in horror, "You threw him out on his ass and he's not gonna stay away for years?"
Erik gave him a leer, "If he doesn't get his potion he doesn't get it up."
Charles blushed furiously, "You're making him a potion for, for… that?"
Alex snickered and Erik deliberately loomed over Charles, "You mean a potion to get him hard, Charles?"
"I mean," Charles sputtered, "whatever it was that you meant."
Erik pressed up against him, pushing Charles up against the wall beside the door, "I mean he's strung himself out on potions and spells trying to regain his youth so he can keep his much younger wife interested. It's such a shame isn't it?" Erik paused to put his hands of Charles's hips, "to be stuck with someone who doesn't burn your blood, doesn't make you feel alive."
The dial beside Charles's shoulder thankfully chose that moment to spin. The sound pulled away Erik's attention for long enough that Charles regained his common sense and got away from Erik's looming presence. With a cackle, Logan called out, "Capital door." Erik rolled his eyes and looked back to the wall where Charles had been, then glowered at the old man when he realized that Charles had fled the scene of the flirtation and taken refuge on the other side of the room. Erik was obviously irritated about something; probably that Charles wasn't playing along in his quest to successfully seduce everyone, old men included.
Erik tossed open the front door while he was busy glaring at Charles and thus missed the frankly stunning woman standing at his front door. She donned a teasing smile and asked the shoulder that Erik had facing her, "Is this a bad time?"
Erik jumped and turned to the door with a look that Charles almost thought of as panic, "Emma!" Erik calmed immediately and slouched against the doorframe trying to look casual, "I wasn't expecting you."
The tease to her smile grew a little more like a smirk, "Yes, I can see that." They stood there awkwardly for a moment before she asked, "May I come in, or are you intending to perform a spell for me on the stoop?"
Erik started and moved out of Emma's way, letting her sweep into the room and everything looked pathetic in comparison. (Not that Charles had managed to make the room anything near presentable over the course of the day, but he didn't need one of Erik's women making it look worse.) She glistened, long curls of white-blonde hair bound up at the crown of her head, exposing the long, pale line of her neck, and leaving the shimmering white lace of her dress uncluttered. If Charles hadn't been so torn between heartbreak and disgust then he would've been tripping over his own tongue at the sight of her. But as it was, Charles desperately wished that he could be anywhere but here. Anywhere that wasn't watching Erik plaster on a smile for this woman, a smile so perfectly reminiscent of the one that Erik had used on Charles on May Day.
Emma cast an amused but accepting glance around the room, "Erik, darling, I didn't know you were planning on renovating. If you'd told me I would've sent along the man who did all the work on my townhouse."
"We're organizing, not renovating," Alex snapped. The boy was slouched up against the wall beside his pile of books, guarding them all against Emma's presence. Charles had assumed this Emma was just another posh lady (or, more likely a particularly beautiful one) living in the capital, but Alex's reaction meant she was someone to be avoided. Of course, Erik ignored that completely in favor of the opportunity to have someone to flirt with.
Which Erik did with a vengeance.
He constantly invaded the woman's space, sliding up close and peering down at her from his advantageous height (which was not nearly the discrepancy that Erik had with Charles). He crossed the whole array of lascivious smiles, none of them the one that came naturally to Erik's face, but all of them striking nonetheless. Erik waived her over to one of the chairs that Charles had cleaned off just this morning and proceeded to flirt with her furiously under the guise of seeing how the latest spell was treating her. Of course, it didn't help matters much that every time Erik stepped behind her she tipped her head ever so slightly back, exposing the smooth path down the column of her throat and down to her breasts.
Charles wanted to escape, but he had never been anywhere else in the castle, and he felt uncomfortable with this being the first time that he browsed around the rooms. He moved to a tower of books in the far corner of the room where he could at least pretend to give Emma the privacy that was due to a client and pulled Alex along with him to help. He left Erik and Emma to their flirting, ignoring the roiling in his own stomach and made Alex read off book names to him while he wrote them down as the first step to an index.
As his transaction wore on, however, Erik started to get frustrated. Charles could see it in the tense line of his shoulders and how the occasional reply to her questions was blunt in its honesty rather than delicate. (Erik was naturally predisposed to be as aggressive as possible in his words, but Charles was well aware that it was something he kept pent up when he wanted to make a good impression.) By the time they were done Erik spent most of his time glowering either at Charles or at Logan, who was contentedly masquerading as nothing but a fire. Judging by the way Emma snapped back on her gloves, she was not pleased with the utter and obvious lack of attention. She left in a fury, barely waiting for Erik to do his duty and open the door for her.
The moment the door closed behind her Alex once again snapped, "And I hate that smug bitch, too."
A day was plenty of time to teach Charles that Erik didn't like being questioned, and the Wizard snapped back, "We need her, Alex. She's and her family are the most well respected Ladies in the kingdom. One good word from her gets us commissions that last for months, and when she's pissed then you and I get stuck eating nothing but buttered noodles!"
Alex was no wilting flower, and he stormed forward shouting, "Starving would be better than having her around!"
Charles moved to step between the two men, to interrupt their tirade before it got ugly, but he felt the sting of heat on his hands stopping him. Logan had stretched up and out of the fire to glance one of his own fingers against Charles' skin, not enough to burn, but enough to grab his attention. Logan gave Charles a minute shake of the head, telling him not to interfere.
"You can't hate everyone in the city for having money, Alex. That's a sure way to make sure you starve!"
"Oh that's rich," Alex snorted, "You lecturing anyone on the drawbacks of hate!"
"I'm allowed to hate people who want to kill me!"
Alex tossed up his hands, "And what do you think Emma wants done with me?"
"She doesn't want you dead, she wants me to marry her so she can have Witches for children!"
Alex just stared at Erik like he was an idiot before screaming, "And what happens to me when you do? If I'm not in your care I go back to the prison and I'm hanged!"
All the fight drained out of Erik and he wrapped Alex up into a hug. The boy struggled futilely for a few long moments, refusing the warmth of Erik's comfort, but soon enough he just collapsed against Erik's chest and mumbled, "I don't wanna go back."
Erik gripped the boy tighter and hissed, "No matter what, you will be protected. I've made arrangements with every last Witch and Wizard I know that if something happens to me then you'll be taken on as student by someone else. You'll be a Wizard Alex, I promise, and then that damn sentence won't matter anymore and you'll be free to live your life however you choose." The two men stood in silent comfort for a moment before Alex realized that they were hugging and slipped back in embarrassment.
The boy's cheeks burned bright red, and he awkwardly cleared his throat before he muttered, "Glad we got that cleared up," and ran up the stairs to hide in his room.
Erik just grinned at the boy's retreated back, then he looked over to Charles and the smile immediately faded into a grimace. Charles stuck out his chin and tried to pretend that he wasn't wondering what he could've done in the last hour that made the sight of him so distasteful. Erik gave both Charles and Logan a stiff nod, then swept up his coat and stormed out of the castle and out into the Wilds.
Charles sunk down on the ground next to the hearth and asked, "Logan, what just happened?"
The fire demon shrugged, "The kid's got talent with fire."
Charles stared at him foolishly expecting a more thorough explanation than that, but when none came Charles supposed it did make enough sense. Alex was predisposed to flashes of temper that burned hot but not terribly long. It made sense that he and Erik would communicate, not through discussion, but through the occasional bought of vicious yelling until Alex's temper got the better of him and he said what he really meant under all that bluster.
Charles drew his knees up to chest, "If I may ask, what was the other thing they were talking about. The… 'sentence'?"
Logan puffed out a long breath of his latest cigar (which he'd reached for the moment the door had closed behind Emma and he no longer pretended to be an ordinary fire). He stared at Charles, once again taking the measure of him before speaking, "Usually kids don't come into their magic until they're sixteen. They come in early for two reasons: sheer power, and trauma. Alex is both." Logan paused to take another long draw of his cigar, a surprisingly gentle action that let Charles have a moment to regroup.
"Whatever other magic Erik manages to teach him, the kid'll always be a fire starter. It's what he is, and he's one of the best that there's ever been. And coming from a fire demon that's saying something. About the time the kid should've been accidentally lighting the fire for dinner or making water boil, his mother got re-married. The bastard she picked liked to smack around Alex and his mom."
Charles's features settled into a hard look, "I assume Erik has taken care of the man?"
"That's the trouble, Alex took care of it himself." Charles started in surprise, and Logan continued. "One night the bastard turned his fists against Alex's baby brother, and the kid lost control. He set the bastard on fire, burned him alive. But the kid had no idea what in the hell was going on, no idea how to contain it, so the house burned down around them. The bastard and the mother both died in the blaze, but Alex had enough innate skill that he wrapped his arms around his baby brother and the both of them walked out of the wreckage unharmed."
"Please don't tell me that Alex got charged with murder for a moment of accidental magic."
Logan gave a sharp and frustrated puff, "Got it in one. Luckily for the kid, Erik was in town. He turned up at the courthouse and explained that it was an accident, there was nothing the kid could've done to prevent it. Then Erik swore on his honor and his magic that he'd see Alex trained properly so that nothing that this would happen again. And the judge accepted those terms."
"So if Erik was to turn Alex out…"
"The kid would be hanged for the murder of two people."
"And his brother?"
"Erik offered to keep the kid here, but both he and Alex decided that this was no place for him. Erik's got enemies aplenty, and all his enemies are Alex's enemies now, so Erik put the kid someplace safe."
Charles thought for a moment, "The black dial?"
Logan smirked that Charles had it figured it out so quickly, "Yup. Once a month Erik will bring the kid in and he'll spend the weekend with Alex. The kid is annoying as hell, but Alex gets happy when he's around, so there's hope for him."
There was a tone of finality to Logan, so Charles left the rest of his questions for another day, returning to the tidying. He went on steadily like that for another hour before Alex came back down the stairs looking sheepish. Charles just smiled, but held back his comments on what had happened earlier in the day, making the boy a sandwich instead. Alex blushed, but gave Charles a grin in reply. Alex put aside his studies and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Charles restore order to the main room of the house. Something seemed to have unblocked between them now that Charles had seen Alex and Erik fight it out, and suddenly the boy was telling Charles all about his studies (he had a habit of turning anything into an inferno when he was angry, so Erik was teaching him control), his family (the little brother was named Scott), and some of the adventures he'd had with Erik (Charles really didn't want to ask what the who of them were doing stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean in the first place).
By the time night rolled around and Charles fed them both again he was really quite happy, magically inflicted old age and Erik being off goodness knows where aside. The second half of the day was really quite beautiful, right up until the moment that Erik strode back into the castle, smelling of ale and with lipstick smudged along his mouth.
Erik didn't have the stumble of the well and truly drunk, but neither was he truly sober. He went straight to Alex and dropped a kiss into his hair, grinned back when the boy smirked at him like he was an idiot. The wizard then slid over to Charles and ran a hand along his shoulder, only to have Charles smack it away. It seemed every moment of happiness Charles eek-ed out of this castle and his terrible condition, Erik managed to come crashing in and rip it all away once again. Charles was not in the mood to be Erik's plaything while he dealt with his boredom. The Wizard tried to tease, but Charles rose stiffly from his wobbly chair and sighed, "If you gentlemen will excuse me, I am… tired."
Erik put his hand low on Charles's hip, "Come on-"
"No!" Charles snapped, surprising them all. He took a deep breath and continued, "I am old, Erik. I need my rest from the flights of such young men."
And to Charles's heartache, Erik let him go.
Erik stared at him until he settled peaceably into bed, then stormed up the stairs without so much as a goodnight. Alex looked up from his book and gave an awkward smile, "There's this girl in Oxford, near the Wilds. He, uh, he thinks she's interesting. Which for Erik is a pretty high compliment."
Charles gave Alex a sickly sort of smile in reply, then settled down into his bed and wrapped the covers up over his head. He had intended to stay awake until Alex went up to his own room, but the boy seemed determined to keep watch over Charles until he fell asleep. Eventually Charles gave in, sinking into slumber while Alex forced himself to keep trying that candle.
Hours later, when Alex had gone to bed (leaving his books still scattered about), Charles rolled over to see Logan still awake in the fireplace, puffing on another cigar. "Why're you still awake, kid?"
Charles wanted to snap something vicious about he deserved to be as irritable as he felt like, thank you very much. He’d been robbed of decades, forced from the moment when his life was just beginning to instead be shuffled off to the very end. He’d finally thought that perhaps it was his turn to have something good, something with steel blue eyes and a smile that made his heart stop, only for that something to willingly flirt with everything on two legs, including Charles’s own sister. A sister, who according to Alex, was the light of Erik’s life, and who had been snogging not twenty minutes ago with a man who made Charles’s soul ache, a man who had gotten Charles cursed in the first place. Charles bit his tongue and said instead, "Logan, may I ask you a purely hypothetical question?"
The demon smirked, "Sure, kid."
"If, perhaps, I might want to have a consultation with the Witch. How would I go about arranging that?"
Logan puffed out a slow breath, like he was surprised by the question and trying hard not to show it. "She's gonna charge you for turning you back."
“As will you, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Whatever I charge you for the information, it’s gonna be nothing compared to what she’ll ask of you, kid.”
Charles thought about replying with something mocking, but lying to Logan felt wrong somehow. He sunk back into the pillows and murmured, "I don't particularly care. I can’t go on like this."