Round 12

May 09, 2014 21:59

Warning for spoilers is currently required for prompts regarding Apocalypse (if the prompt is about something that wasn't in a trailer, then a warning is needed).

Welcome to Round 12 of X-Men First Kink

Rules )

prompt post, round 12

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Fill: The Consequence of Faith 2/2 nevcolleil July 25 2014, 21:11:23 UTC
Raven lets herself into the mansion when no one answers her knocks at the front door. She might have gotten irritated at the lack of response ('Really, Charles?' she thinks. 'I grew up here, too, remember? A locked door's not gonna stop me.') but when Charles doesn't even respond to her screaming, inside her head, 'I BROUGHT YOU A PRESENT!' Raven knows that something is up.

Neither Charles nor Hank is in the mansion proper. Raven has to search for them, carefully ignoring everything she notices about how much has changed in her brother's home since the last time she was here.

(Or ignoring things as best as she can. The empty liquor bottles and overfull ashtrays cause an ache in her chest, and the syringes and other paraphenalia lying around Charles's bedroom like he just really doesn't fucking care who sees them cause her to shake.)

The basement is the last place where Raven looks, because she can't think of anything Charles and Hank would have to do in the bunker - that's just where they used to train with Havoc. But the basement has changed, too, and about a dozen different corridors branch off from one end of the bunker now, not all of them finished.

Raven follows one that is until she sees lights and hears voices at the end of tunnel.

There's a large, metal hatch open there. The hallway leading to it is dusty but litter-free, so Raven's approach isn't heard by Charles or Hank as she comes up on them having some kind of argument.

Not that they look like they would have noticed her coming if she'd been stomping her feet through gravel.

"I'm not saying quit. I'm just saying you should take a breather... Rest a little. We can-"

"Have a nice lunch, take a little nap, yes?" Charles's voice is so- "And all the while, Logan could be anywhere. He could be-"

Charles's voice breaks, and Raven thinks her heart breaks with it.

She definitely made the right choice. It terrifies her that she'd even thought twice about it.

"If he is, Cerebro can't change that," Hank says quietly, sadly.

But Charles sounds no closer to giving up his, apparent, determinaton to keep looking for Logan until he finds him or drops. "You don't understand..." Charles almost sounds like he's pleading with Hank to try. "I saw what that man did to him, that Stryker. I can't- I won't let that happen again, Hank, not again. I have to keep looking. I can't stop. He could already be-"

"Charles..."

Raven can't listen to anymore.

"He isn't, Charles."

Raven steps into the chamber where Charles and Hank are arguing - which is obviously Hank's own homemade version of the Cerebro the CIA had once let them use - and where she can see the boys and they can see her.

Their identical, shocked expressions as they gape at her would be comical, except that neither of them look like they've stepped out of the basement since getting back from DC. Charles's face is unnaturally pale, his eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot.

Raven swallows past the thickness in her throat when Charles says her name.

"Raven..."

She's not here for her, though.

The words feel good in her mouth - this proof that Charles didn't put his trust in her foolishly - and Raven says them gladly. "I think I found something of yours."

"What? Where?" Hank asks, not catching on.

Charles is a telepath, though, and too frantic, still, to be polite. Not to mention, welcome - at this moment - to pluck whatever he needs out of Raven's head. She thinks loudly so Charles will know it, and Charles sucks in a breath. If the sound's a bit more like a sob than Charles would probably feel comfortable admitting, Raven will never say anything about it.

"In DC," Raven says, in as even and casual a voice as she can. "He's in the back of my car now."

'Oh, Raven, thank you...' Charles thinks at her, with a bright, watery smile, and she gets the feeling he thinks it because he doesn't trust his voice just yet, in the face of her surprise.

That seems to be going around. Raven bites her lip and thinks, 'No problem, Charles. I kind of owed you one.'

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