Fic: Beneath the Surface - (5/?) Charles/Erik
Title: Beneath the Surface (5/?), Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4
Fandom: X-Men: First Class, Charles/Erik
Genre: AU; Drama/Romance
Rating: PG-13 for this chapter, possibly up to NC-17 later.
Word Count: 6800
Summary: Charles is a young marine biologist and activist that, one day, makes the find of his lifetime. Inspired by this fanart
Author's Note: Still un-beta'ed.
They sat on the short wall of the balustrade in front of the large mansion, its three-story corpus enthroned high above the surrounding green. It had been built some years before the War of Independence, inspired by even older Elizabethan manor houses back in the Old World. The house had changed owners many times, had, as a silent witness of history, seen wars and periods of peace, deaths and births. And every time he came back here, Charles felt, in a very sublime way, humbled by the massive impressiveness of the mansion. How a building of this size must seem for Erik Charles could only guess.
It had been interesting to observe, a little troubling at times when Erik had tried to hide his anxiety sitting in a moving vehicle for the first time in his life. He had stared in wonder at the tall skyscrapers in the distance as they had driven past Queens and Manhattan, and then relaxed visibly as they had entered more rural areas. But the first time he had set foot into the mansion a few hours previously, Charles could have sworn Erik had not felt comfortable.
He doubted that his apartment in Manhattan would have been a better idea though, the space itself a little more cozy and simple but the surrounding metropolis filled with noise and lights too odd and possibly even frightening for someone that had never seen civilization. Or had he? There were still so many secrets surrounding that man, and even though Charles had been reluctant at first to try uncover them, their conversation that night had made him feel more confident with at least trying.
After they had arrived early in the morning and woken up their housekeeper Agnes who had been surprised to even see Charles and Raven this summer - usually they only spent the holidays here and occasionally a few weeks in spring or fall - Raven had started busying herself in setting up one of the rooms on the first floor for Erik and finding some more clothing for him. There was still plenty left of their father's, who had been a little taller than Charles. Alex and Agnes, who both believed Erik to be an acquaintance of Charles' that worked in ocean conservation as well, had gone to help her, leaving the two men alone now.
“I suppose this is quite a change to what you know,” Charles said, a little unsure as how to start their conversation. They both faced the vast green meadows and fields surrounding the mansion, the lake with a paler green shade and the trees in the distance, dark against the blue sky.
“The air smells different,” Erik replied. “Not as crisp and salty,” he continued, his brow slightly furrowed in thought as he tried to put into words a sensation he had obviously never known before.
“So you've never been that far inland, have you?”
“No,” Erik shook his head and briefly looked at Charles. His position could have seemed comfortable: one leg crossed underneath the other that was dangling over the edge of the wall, lower arms on his thighs, but there was always something tense and alert about him, never fully relaxed - still a wild animal, ready to jump and flee should any danger arise.
“But you've known people, land-walkers as you call them? Aside from...” Charles did not bring himself to speak the name.
“Yes,” Erik replied as monosyllabic as mostly, and Charles felt a small, slightly exasperated chuckle escape him.
“Forgive me, my friend, but you don't give many detailed answers even if I do ask the questions.”
There was that hint of a smirk on Erik's lips again, and Charles was relieved to see it, feeling like the initial awkwardness between them, the oddity of two people from two worlds as different as they ever could be trying to understand each other slowly faded, bit by bit every day.
“Fair enough,” Erik replied and seemed to ponder his words for a moment. Charles gave him the time he needed.
“Before... when I was a child, we visited the lands sometimes. In the summers we often swam to these waters, an island a little further North. I believe you call it Nantucket. My father's mother had a house there.”
“Your... your grandmother?” Charles asked in wonder. “She was human? I mean, a land-walker?”
“She was. When our kind mates with yours, the offspring will be one of us.”
The scientist in Charles took that bit of information with great astonishment, trying to understand the biological circumstances for it. A yet unknown gene, a sort of mutation maybe, he tried to imagine but still could not come up with one single logical explanation how this should work. How a simple change in human DNA could enable a being to assume the properties and appearance of a fish, and he had to acknowledge that there were still things in this world that simple science didn't suffice to explain.
“But your parents were both like you then?”
Erik nodded. “We are all born land-walkers, though. Once pregnant, the females can't transform until the child is born. So I was born in my grandmother's house, and we stayed there until I was two years old.”
“That's fascinating,” Charles couldn't help to say but immediately wanted to bite his tongue. He didn't want Erik to feel like he was seeing him as some sort of curiosity.
Erik did not seem to read any negative implications into his words, however. His brows merely twitched upward for a fraction.
“So, um... did you have to learn how to swim then?” Charles went on after clearing his throat.
“No, or at least I don't remember it. It must have come as second nature to me, quite literally.”
“But you did go back to visit your grandmother. I hope you don't mind me asking, but how exactly did that work? I mean, you said your lower body transforms pretty soon after it's touched water. How do you...” Charles made a waving hand-gesture, feeling chuckle rise in his throat as he tried to picture it.
“We don't have to crawl on land and wait until we dry, if that's what you mean,” Erik replied, if Charles guessed right mildly amused. “It's not an easy task, but we can change completely even in the water, if it's not for too long. It takes a lot of concentration and effort, though, and I haven't attempted it in a long time. I'm not sure I could even still do it.”
“Ah,” Charles nodded, more and more fascinated and intrigued with every detail he learned. “So what about your grandmother though? When did you stop visiting? Did she...”
“She died of old age when I was twelve. We did not know any other land-walkers, or none that we could trust enough, so my parents and I stopped going there. Someone else bought her house after that, I suppose, as she had no living relatives. At least none that your world knew or should know about,” Erik explained. There was a thoughtful, perhaps slightly melancholy look in his features, but to his surprise Charles found him smiling ever so faintly, and he understood that the memory of at least that part of his life did not cause him any pain.
Charles met Erik's gaze with a little brighter smile then. “So that's how you remember chocolate. And know what cars are.”
“Yes, that's how I remember chocolate,” Erik repeated and the minuscule smile on his lips became a tiny bit more prominent, spreading over his features and reaching his green eyes. “And cars, though I've only ever seen them from the distance. My grandmother's house was at the far north end of the island, quite cut off from the rest of it. Hardly anyone ever came that way.”
“The perfect symbiosis between your world and ours then,” Charles concluded, and Erik nodded. And with that background information, it was easy to imagine that Erik had learned much more that just that.
“So you probably know quite a bit about our world then. More than I would have thought. Forgive me if I ever sounded patronizing in my explanations.”
“You apologize a lot,” Erik remarked dryly but there was a spark of amusement in his eyes.
Charles had to laugh. “Well, yes. Maybe because I'm an idiot, a lot.”
Briefly pursing his lips as if in consideration, Erik shrugged. “I probably wouldn't go that far.”
“Oh thank you, that's too kind of you,” Charles chuckled and lowered his own gaze then, looking down onto the green grass before them. He had meant to ask so much more, above all else about Erik's history with Shaw - information that was most crucial to what may lay ahead - but he could not bring himself to disturb the moment of peace between them. There was something in the presence of the other man that filled him with emotions he could not even quite name: a mix of wonder and gratitude to take part in this man's life, to have gained his trust and maybe even friendship.
“Speaking about cars...” Erik tore Charles from his reverie, his body immediately tense and alert again, and Charles realized this was not a sign of him feeling threatened but merely a natural instinct. He followed Erik's gaze then towards the small road that led up to the mansion, and although there could have hardly been anything to be seen between the trees framing the road, sure enough a yellow taxi appeared moments later, the faint sound of the engine only reaching Charles' ears then, again proving how sensitive Erik's hearing and possibly other senses were.
“That must be Irene,” Charles said. When they had departed from the Hamptons early in the morning, Raven had not wanted to wake Irene and have her get ready and pack in a hurry - she had also yet to tell her that their beach house had burned down - and so she had simply told her girlfriend that they had arrived at the mansion earlier than expected and asked her to take a cab from White Plains.
Irene must have texted or called her to announce her arrival, because even before the taxi reached the driveway, the front door opened and Raven hurried out, almost running towards where the taxi would park. The sight made Charles smile with longing and a little bit of envy at what they shared.
“She is Raven's girlfriend?” Erik asked as the taxi came closer, and it sounded as if he had difficulties wrapping his tongue around the last word.
“Yes,” Charles replied, not really sure how he should explain this to Erik who may not have ever heard of same-sex relationships. He did not want to treat him like a child, but in some ways Erik was just that, clueless and oblivious to so many things that others had grown up simply knowing. “Some people don't pick a partner of the opposite gender,” he said and gave Erik a small shrug. “It's not just about the best chance for reproduction for our race. Although it also occurs in the animal kingdom, quite frequently in mammals, even marine mammals such as dolphins. But I've never heard about fish... But you're not fish, so...” He felt stupid.
“I think I understand,” Erik said with that slightly amused look again before he turned his gaze back towards the taxi that came to a halt. Charles breathed out and chuckled.
“So it doesn't seem too odd for you?”
Raven opened the passenger door and wrapped the other woman into a tight hug as soon as she got out. The sound of their voices only reached them as a faint murmur, but Charles could hear a laugh of delight from Irene after she kissed Raven and a similar one, though it could have been a sob, from his sister.
“Not as odd as what you learned exists.”
Charles chuckled at that, softly shaking his head.
“Don't you want to go say hello?”
The taxi driver had taken out Irene's suitcase, and Raven was just done paying him after what looked like Irene scolding her for doing so but smiling with clear joy. The trolly now in one hand, her other wrapped around Irene's waist, Raven directed them towards the entrance, and she briefly raised her arm to wave over to Charles and Erik. Irene followed suit, her unseeing eyes vaguely set in their direction as a soft gust of wind made her long, dark hair swirl around her face.
“Later, I'm sure they'll want to be alone for a bit.”
“What will she tell her about the fire?”
The smile on Charles features faded, and he took a deep breath before he turned his gaze back towards the grass and trees in the distance. “I'm not sure. Raven said she'd come up with an explanation not too far from the truth but without revealing... well. Too much about you. But it's possible she'll mention that we have a suspicion. I doubt Raven could lie to Irene or keep too much from her, you know? They're partners, lovers. They share everything.”
“They are lucky,” Erik said simply, no sign of concern or distrust in his words or in his features. But the same kind of envy mixed with admiration that Charles had felt. Or so he imaged.
~*~
Raven had not been able to keep much from Irene, as predicted. She had told her everything about the fire, Shaw's visit and the fact that Shaw was after Erik. She had only left out one detail, saying that she did not know everything about Erik's past yet, which was still very close to the truth. Irene, gentle and considerate as she was and as Charles had always appreciated her, did not ask any questions, neither the first evening when they had all shared dinner (Alex had stayed as well upon Charles' invitation, and he'd stay even longer because Charles had offered him to fix a few things around the house and gardens until he could find a new job) nor over the course of the next few days. But sometimes, when he caught her listening very closely or reply with careful gentleness to Erik, he thought she must suspect something - clearly nothing even remotely close to what Erik was, but maybe that there was more to him than met the eye.
Erik was doing well so far, as far as possible in face of the circumstances. He did not complain or withdraw from the others much, but Charles often got the impression, especially when Erik was standing by a window and glancing out into the distance, that he longed to be back in the ocean more than Charles could imagine. He had shown him the indoor pool the day of their arrival, and Erik had been using it ever since - in privacy. Not only because Charles wanted to give him that but also because he was making sure to keep an eye on Alex and Agnes so neither of them would get the idea to go into the basement level and find him there, should he shift partially into his shark-shape.
Tonight had been the first time Charles had gone down there while Erik was present; Agnes had already retired to her apartment and the other three were in the living room, watching TV. But he had kept his distance and had only put the fresh clothes and towels onto the bench in the entrance area of the swimming pool, not catching more than a glimpse of movement in the large pool from where he had stood behind the chest-high wall separating the entrance from the main area. Though it had been difficult not to look in the hope he would see again what was, although extraordinary, already fading from his memory.
When he came back upstairs and approached the living room, he heard hearty laughter coming from Raven, Irene and Alex. Especially Raven was gasping between high-pitched giggles as the others audibly took deep breaths to calm themselves, and the sounds made him smile as well, relieved that despite the distress a few days ago his sister was able to enjoy herself untroubled and wholeheartedly.
When he entered the large room, however, approaching the sofa from the side and not yet catching a full glimpse of the program on TV, all three of them - even Irene who, by now, recognized most people by the sounds of their steps - froze for a second before they burst into such roaring laughter that Raven started crying in earnest.
Charles frowned. “What the hell is going on?”
Irene was the first to cease her laughter while Alex still grinned and shook his head, breathing hard. Raven was wiping her eyes. “We're... we're watching 'The Little Mermaid'.”
Alex gave a rather odd, high-pitched staccato of close-lipped giggles.
“Um, alright. So that's funny because....” Charles asked, still not quite sure what had caused such an uproar of hilarity. Of course, for Raven, there was some kind of resemblance between the story of the film and what was going on in reality, but that still didn't explain why the others laughed so much as well, he wondered as he sat down on the free spot on the couch beside Raven and Irene. Alex was sitting in a large armchair next to them.
“Because the prince's name is Eric!” Raven exclaimed and covered her mouth, snorting with tears of laughter.
“That's an interesting coincidence, yes, but...” Alright, he felt a faint smirk on his features then, but he still did not fully understand.
Raven shook her head, her mouth still covered by her hand while Irene only smiled mildly. Alex, however, grinned over at Charles and his eyes lit up with mischief.
“Your sister was telling us how you wanted to be a merman when you were a kid.”
Burying her face on Irene's shoulder, Raven choked with laughter, and her girlfriend chuckled merrily as well. Charles felt his face redden, not quite sure whether he should find this hilarious or be rather affronted. It probably was funnier when you had been there from the beginning.
“Why are you even watching this?”
“It was on when we switched the channels,” Irene replied with a shrug while her girlfriend slowly calmed down a little.
When Charles looked at the TV to see Ariel and the prince go on a romantic boat ride through the lagoon and the first tunes of 'Kiss the Girl' started, Alex burst into chuckles again and Raven joined in, pressing her hand onto her belly and, in high pitched whimpers, said, “Oww, oh God, my belly!”
“You're being ridiculous,” Charles said scolding them. “I don't even have red hair.”
“No, and you're also a dude, but it's still funny,” Alex replied with a constant grin on his face, and it struck Charles only then what the hilarity of the parallelism was supposed to imply. He felt rather uncomfortable all of the sudden.
“It is,” Raven said. “Though it should be the other way around.” Very suddenly, the grin faded from her lips and she looked over at Charles with her eyes wide, and he, too, felt like his heart gave out for a beat in shock at revealing something to Irene and Alex that they shouldn't know.
“Because he always wanted to be a merman, not a merman that wanted to be human. That's what I meant,” Raven explained then and Charles breathed out. Nobody seemed to have made any more sense of her words, and thinking about it, that little slip of tongue alone would never have been enough to reveal something to them that nobody would imagine to be real in their wildest dreams, anyway.
“So, if you were the prince in this movie,” Alex started as if he was asking a serious question, “you'd want to go with her in the end and live under the sea?”
“Oh God!” Raven cried, new giggles rising. “Charles always used to sing that song when we were kids.”
“Under the Sea?” Irene asked and Raven nodded, though she merely smiled now, obviously no energy left to laugh out loud.
“Aww, dude, that's really cute,” Alex grinned. “But I have to disappoint you, mermaids aren't real. Right Erik?”
Charles froze inwardly before he turned his head towards the living room entrance. Erik, dressed in a sweat suit that Charles had bought for himself but that had turned out to be a little too big, stood there and eyed the four others with a slightly confused look on his features, his brows raised in the middle, mouth ever so slightly open. Then he nodded and came closer.
“No, they're a myth.”
“See?” Alex went on, taking no notice of the seriousness in which Erik had replied. “Sorry, dude, but you'll have to make do with something with two legs. Which is probably better. I mean... how would you even fuck something with a fish tail?”
It was very unfortunate that Raven had taken a sip of her coke that moment because she choked and snorted, spilling most of it over her and Irene's lap.
Charles just really hoped Erik did not take any offense in this. Or worse: explain that fish had a cloacae and that some species, such as sharks, engaged in penetrative reproduction and why the hell was he even thinking about this now?
“Although, Mermaids are kinda hot. I think I could live with underwater blow jobs,” Alex went on.
“Eww, Alex!” Raven exclaimed. “Too much information.”
“What?” the young man laughed and Raven still frowned at him, only briefly glimpsing over at Charles who guessed she felt a vague sense of inappropriateness about the topic in Erik's presence.
“Pervert.”
“Oh come on! We're all adults here. Hey dude, sit down,” he said toward Erik who still stood but then followed the invitation and took a seat in the second armchair next to where Charles was sitting on the sofa.
“Yes we are, but still. This is Disney! You can't turn this into porn. That's just wrong.”
“Aww man,” Alex sighed and rolled his eyes, though he was still smiling.
“What is this?” Erik asked just a moment later after he had watched the large flat screen television for a while. He had joined them watching TV before - as he had told Charles his grandmother had also owned one, and he could remember having seen movies in his childhood though he had played outdoors much more than inside.
“Dude, seriously. You've never seen 'The Little Mermaid'?” Alex asked in obvious befuddlement before he reached for the bowl of chips on the coffee table and started eating them in large portions.
“No,” Erik replied matter-of-factly. “What's it about?”
“It's about this young mermaid, Ariel,” Irene started to explain. Her brown eyes were fixed on Erik's general direction, and she leaned forward a little for him to see her better. “She dreams about exploring the world of the humans, but her father forbids it. One day she meets this Prince who, as a funny coincidence is called Eric.” Alex let out another brief giggle but shut up immediately when Charles shot him an admonishing glare.
“She actually saves him from drowning,” Irene went on, and for a tiny moment, unobserved by Alex with his nose in the chips bowl, Erik's gaze flickered to Charles. “And she falls in love with him. So for her to be able to be with him, she goes to this sea witch, Ursula, who turns her into a human but takes her voice. And Ariel has only three days to receive a kiss of true love from Eric, otherwise she'll turn back into a mermaid and will belong to Ursula.”
“Yeah, and if Prince Eric wasn't such a douche,” Alex said and raised his hand in Erik's direction, apologetically, “he would've kissed her already.”
“Aww, Alex. I didn't know you were such a romantic,” Raven said mockingly. “In your own, weird way.”
“So what happens when she kisses him?” Erik asked.
“Well, she's supposed to remain human then, but that doesn't happen,” Raven replied.
“Hey, no spoilers, Erik hasn't seen the movie yet. Dude seriously. Who hasn't seen 'The Little Mermaid'? Where have you been living? Canada?”
“I've been there a couple of times,” Erik replied dryly and Charles stifled a laugh. Just last night they had sat over a map of the world, and even though it was a little difficult for Erik to recognize the shapes of the coastlines by only knowing what they looked like from the water, he had been able to show him roughly where he had traveled. The Gulf of St Lawrence between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland had been among the places, and Charles had, in return, told him what they were called and whatever else he knew about them.
“Where are you from anyway?” Alex asked then, and Charles was starting to feel a little worried he might ask too many questions that would be difficult or impossible for Erik to answer.
“The area,” Erik just replied as vaguely as possible. “But I've traveled a lot.”
“Ah, right. You're a marine biologist as well, huh? Or what exactly do you do?”
Erik's brow twitched just a fraction. “The oceans have been my main focus, yes.”
Not visible to Alex, Charles gave him a small smile.
“And you work with Charles on some project?”
“You could say that,” Erik replied again, but Raven looked at Alex, rolling her eyes.
“Don't be so nosy.”
Alex laughed out and leaned back against the couch after handing the chips over to Irene. “You were more fun when you were cracking up about the movie. Hm, maybe we should watch 'Finding Nemo' next. At least that's more of a dude's film.”
“Or maybe we could watch something that's not made for little children,” Charles suggested, thinking that maybe it might be better not to watch another movie that was set mainly below the sea. For various reasons.
Both Alex and Irene seemed to ponder the possibilities, and Irene just opened her mouth to speak when suddenly the faint beep of the alarm system resounded from the hallway, the alert sound indicating that someone or something had been spotted by the motion sensors, entering the property. Charles frowned, and Raven, too, looked at him in alarm.
“I'll go check that out,” Charles said as calmly as he could muster, not wanting to raise any worries in any of the people present, least of all Erik and Raven. “Maybe just a fox or rabbit or something.” He smiled briefly at them before he made his way towards the control panel by the entrance. A monitor was embedded into the right wall next to the door, beside it the input field with which he could set or disable the alarm as well as switch between the various cameras installed in and around the house. He did the latter and soon found the image of a taxi driving up to the main entrance, coming to a halt a second later, a fact that alone calmed him already. Surely Shaw would not come by cab, or would he?
Just another few moments later, the relief in him became more solid as he saw a familiar figure exit the cab, the tall, rather skinny frame of a young man with dark hair and glasses. But his arrival at this time of night, almost ten o'clock, as well as the rather sombre look on his face as he approached the front door made Charles wonder what the hell Hank was doing here and why he hadn't even called first.
Before he could ring the door bell, Charles already opened. “Hank, is something wrong?”
The young man gave him a small smile, but his eyes looked clearly troubled, his forehead in a deep frown. “Um... yes. I mean... I think someone's after me.”
“What?” Shock shot through Charles' veins, and he automatically looked around to see if he could spot any other cars, but Hank shook his head.
“No, don't worry. I don't think they followed me here, but... ugh, where do I start?”
“Why don't you come in first,” Charles said as calmly as he could muster and let his friend inside, closing the door and entering another code into the alarm system that would cause a louder tone should anyone come near the mansion. Just in case.
“Hey, Hank. What are you doing here?” Raven had come into the hallway, and even though Charles wasn't sure how much she had heard he could see the worry written clearly on her features.
“Um I...” He didn't seem sure whether he should talk now, in front of her, and his eyes darted from Raven to Charles and back. Charles nodded at him and placed a hand on his upper arm, squeezing it briefly to encourage him.
“When I got home tonight, there was a car in front of my house, a Bentley or something. At first I didn't think much of it, but when I went upstairs I heard voices and my name being mentioned. So I stayed out of sight and listened. There were these two men, talking to Mrs. Miller, you know, that old lady on the second floor.”
Charles nodded, impatient for Hank to go on and unable to reply even if he had wanted to say anything. His throat felt constricted.
“So they were asking for me, when I'd get home, if she knew where to find me. And they sounded kind of friendly at first, because she kept answering them, but then they asked about you. If she knew you as well and and if you sometimes came to visit. He made up some story about being an old friend of yours and that he couldn't get a hold of you and had heard your house in the Hamptons had burned down. And I don't know, it sounded kinda fishy.”
“My God, that was Shaw,” Raven gasped faintly and brought her fingers up to her mouth, staring at Hank with eyes wide.
“What happened then, Hank? Did you talk to the men?”
Hank's eyes, still widening, were fixed on Raven for a moment, but then he slowly shook his head. “No. As I said, they just seemed... dodgy. So I went back outside and hid behind the trash cans. And I heard them when they walked back to their car.” He stopped, his brow furrowed in thought as his eyes strayed to somewhere on the floor, behind Charles. “Maybe it wasn't a Bentley. I'm not sure.”
“That's not important. What happened then?” Charles urged.
“One of them said something about driving around the block and then coming back to wait for me. That I'd have to show up at some point and that they'd have something to get to you then. I swear, it was like in a bad Mafia movie,” he chuckled helplessly, but his eyes remained clouded with fear as he swallowed softly. “So I waited until they had rounded the corner and then I ran. Got a couple of blocks south and took the first cab that stopped and drove straight up here.”
“Shit, that really was Shaw,” Raven said again and hesitantly came a few steps closer. “How did he even know Hank was there that night?”
The young man seemed confused, his blue eyes darted from Charles to his sister, brow twitching in thought. “Wait. Shaw... you mean that guy you've been trying to get to for a while, right?” he asked Charles who nodded. “But... what does he have to do with...”
“Oh now I get it.” Unknowingly to either Charles, Raven nor Hank, Alex had appeared in the doorway of the living room, and Charles took a deep breath, trying to hide his feeling of frustration. “Your house didn't burn down because of an accident. That was that Shaw guy. Because you went snooping around.”
“Your house burned down? Seriously? That part wasn't made up?”
“No, it happened last night. I drove them up here.”
“Wait a min, how did you know we're here anyway?” Raven asked, and Hank barely seemed able to concentrate to answer her in regards of the information he had just received. “Erm, Charles emailed me last night that you'd be here. But... guys, what's going on? I'm kinda freaking out here a little. What does any of this have to do with the night I was there and that injured diver?”
“Because Shaw's after me.” Erik, followed by Irene, now also stepped out into the hallway, and Charles suspected that it would not be possible to only feed them bits of information or even outright lies any longer. Erik seemed to think the same; he shared a long gaze with Charles then, resigned but also determined. “Shaw's after me. Charles and Raven saved me from... from drowning after I got into a little confrontation with him.”
“No shit!” Alex exclaimed in astonishment. “And then he tried to burn your house down?”
Charles nodded feebly. “At least that's what I suspect.”
“But why? I mean that's pretty insane, even for a guy like him,” Alex went on and Charles looked again at Erik, helpless and clueless as on how to reply, how to explain everything to them without revealing what Erik was.
“That's simple. He killed my parents, and I saw it happen,” Erik said, his jaw tight, gaze not directed at anyone anymore, but Charles could not miss the anger and sorrow on the other man's features, that cold and icy hatred that overshadowed every good and pleasant emotion that had surfaced slowly over the past days. How he wished he could have spared him all of this.
“But why didn't you go to the police then?” Alex asked, his voice getting louder now with disbelief and rising concern.
“That's a good point. Actually, I'm gonna call them right now,” Hank suddenly said, panicked, and reached into his pockets, only to groan out a second later. Charles suspected he didn't have his cell phone on him.
“Hank, we're not going to call the police,” Charles said before his friend could get the idea to use their phone.
“Why the fuck not?” Alex replied. “Seriously, dude, you're saying the guy burned your house down because he's after the witness of a crime? And you're not gonna do anything about it and just let him?”
“Shut up, Alex, you know nothing about this, okay?” Raven snapped at him, more desperate than really angry.
“Then fucking explain it to me!” Alex now positively shouted. Charles felt like he needed to sit down. Or have a drink.
“That's what we're doing right now, aren't we?” Raven retorted but Irene laid a hand on her shoulder soothingly.
“Please, everybody, let's just calm down, alright? We can all sit down and talk about this quietly.”
She had kept silent the entire time, just listening, and Charles was thankful for at least one voice of reason here, someone that, no matter how strange and threatening the situation seemed, could keep it together. He was even more thankful for her patience and not asking any further questions on top of the existing ones.
“Okay, sorry,” Alex said placably, and Hank added, in a similarly calm but nonetheless worried tone, “Why can't we call the cops though?”
“Because it's complicated,” Charles replied, feeling that the words meant nothing, nothing to soothe anyone's worry, nothing to justify the lack of taken action. He rubbed his forehead and collected his thoughts. “Shaw's a very powerful and dangerous man. I'm sure he's got plenty of friends in high places, and it's unlikely they'd arrest him simply on a whim when I tell them I suspect he set fire to my house. I mean please, think about it for a minute. If he's capable of doing something like that, of finding you, Hank, he would not let us mess with him.”
“So we're just supposed to lean back and do nothing?” Alex said in disbelief, his temper barely contained.
“Yeah. I can't even go back home. I mean if he's as dangerous as you say who knows what he'd do to me. What am I supposed to do now? I don't even have anything with me. I'd just gone to throw something in the mailbox and left everything at home.”
“I'm really, really sorry, Hank. And I promise you I'll do everything to fix this.”
“I'm sorry Charles, but how?” Hank did not sound accusing or angry, but the sheer despair and fear that now fully surfaced in sight of full disclosure tore at Charles heart and made his stomach turn.
“Don't put the blame on him”, Erik said, crossing the distance and stepping close to where Charles was standing still near the door. There was suddenly something sharp to his tone, something... protective that Charles had not yet seen in him. “If you need someone to blame then it's me. Shaw's after me, none of you. I've put you all in danger. I should not be here.”
“Erik no,” Raven said with a deep sigh.
“I'm sorry, but I should leave. Shaw wants me. You have no business with him. If I leave he'll leave you alone.”
Charles felt numb with dread, a knot forming in his throat, and he barely managed to swallow it to speak. “Erik please, we've been through this. You can't leave. He'd find you, and you can't face him alone. You know that. Please don't go.” He could not bear it, could not think of Erik being all alone out there, living in constant fear of being caught... or constant need for vengeance until Shaw was dead or Erik died trying.
“Charles.” His voice lowered, Erik stepped aside, though not still far enough to be completely out of ear shot to the others. “You know I could disappear. It's the only way.”
“But you wouldn't, my friend,” he said and, following an impulse, reached out to grab hold of Erik's lower arm, desperate to not let him leave. “You wouldn't stay away, or would you? Can you promise me that you'd go far, far away and never come looking for him for the rest of your life? Can you?”
Erik's face was still hard, the muscles in his jaw clenching as his gaze wandered down to Charles' hand on his arm. He did not reply.
“Okay, as much as it sucks that we're all in this mess, I think you should stay,” Alex said then, almost surprisingly calm. “You don't know that Shaw would let us off the hook if you were gone. I mean, how's he even supposed to know that we don't know where Erik is? Should we give him a call and say 'Hi, the guy you're looking for is gone and we have no idea where he went. Please don't kill us' or what?”
“Do you really think that's what he'd do?” asked Hank skeptically. “I mean, maybe you're overestimating him a bit. Surely he wouldn't...”
“He burned our house down, Hank,” Raven interrupted him with emphasis. “I'm not sure there's anything I'd put past him anymore.”
“Okay, please, we have to think this through,” Irene now said. “Erik can't leave, that's for sure. And Hank can't go back home either.”
“Great. My turtle will starve then.”
“Does anybody have a spare key to your apartment?” Irene asked and Charles could see Hank nod despite the frown on his features. “Yes. Mrs. Miller.”
“Good, then you can call her and tell her you had to leave town for a while. Make something up about a death in the family. Maybe even tell her a false location. That way, if Shaw comes by again, she can put him on a wrong track. And you,” she turned to Alex, her unseeing eyes looking almost at him. “You wanted to stay for a bit anyway, so that's exactly what you're gonna do. While we're all together we're safe. And we can try to find a solution for this.”
But what if we never do? Charles had not allowed himself to think it until now, but suddenly everything seemed a tenfold more threatening and real, and it was getting really difficult to stay optimistic about this.
“We're gonna run out of clothes,” Raven snorted bitterly as she looked from Hank, who was even taller than Erik or Alex, to the other two male guests.
“We'll order something online and have it express delivered,” Irene replied and gave her girlfriend a smile.
Alex rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air. “Seriously. Girls. We're talking about a guy that possibly wants us all dead and you're worrying about shopping?”
“I'm just being pragmatic,” Raven replied, slightly offended.
The hint of humor that had risen during the past few moments hardly lasted, though. Erik still stood tense, looking as if he wanted to bolt any second, and Charles noticed only then that he was still holding the man's lower arm. He almost shied away, but instead he felt his thumb move, rather unconsciously, over Erik's skin.
“Erik please,” he said again, softly, and he tried to find the other man's gaze, meeting it a moment later. “Alex and Irene are right. We gain nothing by you leaving. And I can't bear to think of you gone and him still on your heels. Stay.”
He almost didn't dare breathing while he looked into Erik's green eyes, trying, hoping to find a trace of agreement in them. And at last, Erik nodded.
Charles breathed out in relief.
~ TBC ~
Chapter 6
Fandom: X-Men: First Class, Charles/Erik
Genre: AU; Drama/Romance
Rating: PG-13 for this chapter, possibly up to NC-17 later.
Word Count: 6800
Summary: Charles is a young marine biologist and activist that, one day, makes the find of his lifetime. Inspired by this fanart
Author's Note: Still un-beta'ed.
They sat on the short wall of the balustrade in front of the large mansion, its three-story corpus enthroned high above the surrounding green. It had been built some years before the War of Independence, inspired by even older Elizabethan manor houses back in the Old World. The house had changed owners many times, had, as a silent witness of history, seen wars and periods of peace, deaths and births. And every time he came back here, Charles felt, in a very sublime way, humbled by the massive impressiveness of the mansion. How a building of this size must seem for Erik Charles could only guess.
It had been interesting to observe, a little troubling at times when Erik had tried to hide his anxiety sitting in a moving vehicle for the first time in his life. He had stared in wonder at the tall skyscrapers in the distance as they had driven past Queens and Manhattan, and then relaxed visibly as they had entered more rural areas. But the first time he had set foot into the mansion a few hours previously, Charles could have sworn Erik had not felt comfortable.
He doubted that his apartment in Manhattan would have been a better idea though, the space itself a little more cozy and simple but the surrounding metropolis filled with noise and lights too odd and possibly even frightening for someone that had never seen civilization. Or had he? There were still so many secrets surrounding that man, and even though Charles had been reluctant at first to try uncover them, their conversation that night had made him feel more confident with at least trying.
After they had arrived early in the morning and woken up their housekeeper Agnes who had been surprised to even see Charles and Raven this summer - usually they only spent the holidays here and occasionally a few weeks in spring or fall - Raven had started busying herself in setting up one of the rooms on the first floor for Erik and finding some more clothing for him. There was still plenty left of their father's, who had been a little taller than Charles. Alex and Agnes, who both believed Erik to be an acquaintance of Charles' that worked in ocean conservation as well, had gone to help her, leaving the two men alone now.
“I suppose this is quite a change to what you know,” Charles said, a little unsure as how to start their conversation. They both faced the vast green meadows and fields surrounding the mansion, the lake with a paler green shade and the trees in the distance, dark against the blue sky.
“The air smells different,” Erik replied. “Not as crisp and salty,” he continued, his brow slightly furrowed in thought as he tried to put into words a sensation he had obviously never known before.
“So you've never been that far inland, have you?”
“No,” Erik shook his head and briefly looked at Charles. His position could have seemed comfortable: one leg crossed underneath the other that was dangling over the edge of the wall, lower arms on his thighs, but there was always something tense and alert about him, never fully relaxed - still a wild animal, ready to jump and flee should any danger arise.
“But you've known people, land-walkers as you call them? Aside from...” Charles did not bring himself to speak the name.
“Yes,” Erik replied as monosyllabic as mostly, and Charles felt a small, slightly exasperated chuckle escape him.
“Forgive me, my friend, but you don't give many detailed answers even if I do ask the questions.”
There was that hint of a smirk on Erik's lips again, and Charles was relieved to see it, feeling like the initial awkwardness between them, the oddity of two people from two worlds as different as they ever could be trying to understand each other slowly faded, bit by bit every day.
“Fair enough,” Erik replied and seemed to ponder his words for a moment. Charles gave him the time he needed.
“Before... when I was a child, we visited the lands sometimes. In the summers we often swam to these waters, an island a little further North. I believe you call it Nantucket. My father's mother had a house there.”
“Your... your grandmother?” Charles asked in wonder. “She was human? I mean, a land-walker?”
“She was. When our kind mates with yours, the offspring will be one of us.”
The scientist in Charles took that bit of information with great astonishment, trying to understand the biological circumstances for it. A yet unknown gene, a sort of mutation maybe, he tried to imagine but still could not come up with one single logical explanation how this should work. How a simple change in human DNA could enable a being to assume the properties and appearance of a fish, and he had to acknowledge that there were still things in this world that simple science didn't suffice to explain.
“But your parents were both like you then?”
Erik nodded. “We are all born land-walkers, though. Once pregnant, the females can't transform until the child is born. So I was born in my grandmother's house, and we stayed there until I was two years old.”
“That's fascinating,” Charles couldn't help to say but immediately wanted to bite his tongue. He didn't want Erik to feel like he was seeing him as some sort of curiosity.
Erik did not seem to read any negative implications into his words, however. His brows merely twitched upward for a fraction.
“So, um... did you have to learn how to swim then?” Charles went on after clearing his throat.
“No, or at least I don't remember it. It must have come as second nature to me, quite literally.”
“But you did go back to visit your grandmother. I hope you don't mind me asking, but how exactly did that work? I mean, you said your lower body transforms pretty soon after it's touched water. How do you...” Charles made a waving hand-gesture, feeling chuckle rise in his throat as he tried to picture it.
“We don't have to crawl on land and wait until we dry, if that's what you mean,” Erik replied, if Charles guessed right mildly amused. “It's not an easy task, but we can change completely even in the water, if it's not for too long. It takes a lot of concentration and effort, though, and I haven't attempted it in a long time. I'm not sure I could even still do it.”
“Ah,” Charles nodded, more and more fascinated and intrigued with every detail he learned. “So what about your grandmother though? When did you stop visiting? Did she...”
“She died of old age when I was twelve. We did not know any other land-walkers, or none that we could trust enough, so my parents and I stopped going there. Someone else bought her house after that, I suppose, as she had no living relatives. At least none that your world knew or should know about,” Erik explained. There was a thoughtful, perhaps slightly melancholy look in his features, but to his surprise Charles found him smiling ever so faintly, and he understood that the memory of at least that part of his life did not cause him any pain.
Charles met Erik's gaze with a little brighter smile then. “So that's how you remember chocolate. And know what cars are.”
“Yes, that's how I remember chocolate,” Erik repeated and the minuscule smile on his lips became a tiny bit more prominent, spreading over his features and reaching his green eyes. “And cars, though I've only ever seen them from the distance. My grandmother's house was at the far north end of the island, quite cut off from the rest of it. Hardly anyone ever came that way.”
“The perfect symbiosis between your world and ours then,” Charles concluded, and Erik nodded. And with that background information, it was easy to imagine that Erik had learned much more that just that.
“So you probably know quite a bit about our world then. More than I would have thought. Forgive me if I ever sounded patronizing in my explanations.”
“You apologize a lot,” Erik remarked dryly but there was a spark of amusement in his eyes.
Charles had to laugh. “Well, yes. Maybe because I'm an idiot, a lot.”
Briefly pursing his lips as if in consideration, Erik shrugged. “I probably wouldn't go that far.”
“Oh thank you, that's too kind of you,” Charles chuckled and lowered his own gaze then, looking down onto the green grass before them. He had meant to ask so much more, above all else about Erik's history with Shaw - information that was most crucial to what may lay ahead - but he could not bring himself to disturb the moment of peace between them. There was something in the presence of the other man that filled him with emotions he could not even quite name: a mix of wonder and gratitude to take part in this man's life, to have gained his trust and maybe even friendship.
“Speaking about cars...” Erik tore Charles from his reverie, his body immediately tense and alert again, and Charles realized this was not a sign of him feeling threatened but merely a natural instinct. He followed Erik's gaze then towards the small road that led up to the mansion, and although there could have hardly been anything to be seen between the trees framing the road, sure enough a yellow taxi appeared moments later, the faint sound of the engine only reaching Charles' ears then, again proving how sensitive Erik's hearing and possibly other senses were.
“That must be Irene,” Charles said. When they had departed from the Hamptons early in the morning, Raven had not wanted to wake Irene and have her get ready and pack in a hurry - she had also yet to tell her that their beach house had burned down - and so she had simply told her girlfriend that they had arrived at the mansion earlier than expected and asked her to take a cab from White Plains.
Irene must have texted or called her to announce her arrival, because even before the taxi reached the driveway, the front door opened and Raven hurried out, almost running towards where the taxi would park. The sight made Charles smile with longing and a little bit of envy at what they shared.
“She is Raven's girlfriend?” Erik asked as the taxi came closer, and it sounded as if he had difficulties wrapping his tongue around the last word.
“Yes,” Charles replied, not really sure how he should explain this to Erik who may not have ever heard of same-sex relationships. He did not want to treat him like a child, but in some ways Erik was just that, clueless and oblivious to so many things that others had grown up simply knowing. “Some people don't pick a partner of the opposite gender,” he said and gave Erik a small shrug. “It's not just about the best chance for reproduction for our race. Although it also occurs in the animal kingdom, quite frequently in mammals, even marine mammals such as dolphins. But I've never heard about fish... But you're not fish, so...” He felt stupid.
“I think I understand,” Erik said with that slightly amused look again before he turned his gaze back towards the taxi that came to a halt. Charles breathed out and chuckled.
“So it doesn't seem too odd for you?”
Raven opened the passenger door and wrapped the other woman into a tight hug as soon as she got out. The sound of their voices only reached them as a faint murmur, but Charles could hear a laugh of delight from Irene after she kissed Raven and a similar one, though it could have been a sob, from his sister.
“Not as odd as what you learned exists.”
Charles chuckled at that, softly shaking his head.
“Don't you want to go say hello?”
The taxi driver had taken out Irene's suitcase, and Raven was just done paying him after what looked like Irene scolding her for doing so but smiling with clear joy. The trolly now in one hand, her other wrapped around Irene's waist, Raven directed them towards the entrance, and she briefly raised her arm to wave over to Charles and Erik. Irene followed suit, her unseeing eyes vaguely set in their direction as a soft gust of wind made her long, dark hair swirl around her face.
“Later, I'm sure they'll want to be alone for a bit.”
“What will she tell her about the fire?”
The smile on Charles features faded, and he took a deep breath before he turned his gaze back towards the grass and trees in the distance. “I'm not sure. Raven said she'd come up with an explanation not too far from the truth but without revealing... well. Too much about you. But it's possible she'll mention that we have a suspicion. I doubt Raven could lie to Irene or keep too much from her, you know? They're partners, lovers. They share everything.”
“They are lucky,” Erik said simply, no sign of concern or distrust in his words or in his features. But the same kind of envy mixed with admiration that Charles had felt. Or so he imaged.
~*~
Raven had not been able to keep much from Irene, as predicted. She had told her everything about the fire, Shaw's visit and the fact that Shaw was after Erik. She had only left out one detail, saying that she did not know everything about Erik's past yet, which was still very close to the truth. Irene, gentle and considerate as she was and as Charles had always appreciated her, did not ask any questions, neither the first evening when they had all shared dinner (Alex had stayed as well upon Charles' invitation, and he'd stay even longer because Charles had offered him to fix a few things around the house and gardens until he could find a new job) nor over the course of the next few days. But sometimes, when he caught her listening very closely or reply with careful gentleness to Erik, he thought she must suspect something - clearly nothing even remotely close to what Erik was, but maybe that there was more to him than met the eye.
Erik was doing well so far, as far as possible in face of the circumstances. He did not complain or withdraw from the others much, but Charles often got the impression, especially when Erik was standing by a window and glancing out into the distance, that he longed to be back in the ocean more than Charles could imagine. He had shown him the indoor pool the day of their arrival, and Erik had been using it ever since - in privacy. Not only because Charles wanted to give him that but also because he was making sure to keep an eye on Alex and Agnes so neither of them would get the idea to go into the basement level and find him there, should he shift partially into his shark-shape.
Tonight had been the first time Charles had gone down there while Erik was present; Agnes had already retired to her apartment and the other three were in the living room, watching TV. But he had kept his distance and had only put the fresh clothes and towels onto the bench in the entrance area of the swimming pool, not catching more than a glimpse of movement in the large pool from where he had stood behind the chest-high wall separating the entrance from the main area. Though it had been difficult not to look in the hope he would see again what was, although extraordinary, already fading from his memory.
When he came back upstairs and approached the living room, he heard hearty laughter coming from Raven, Irene and Alex. Especially Raven was gasping between high-pitched giggles as the others audibly took deep breaths to calm themselves, and the sounds made him smile as well, relieved that despite the distress a few days ago his sister was able to enjoy herself untroubled and wholeheartedly.
When he entered the large room, however, approaching the sofa from the side and not yet catching a full glimpse of the program on TV, all three of them - even Irene who, by now, recognized most people by the sounds of their steps - froze for a second before they burst into such roaring laughter that Raven started crying in earnest.
Charles frowned. “What the hell is going on?”
Irene was the first to cease her laughter while Alex still grinned and shook his head, breathing hard. Raven was wiping her eyes. “We're... we're watching 'The Little Mermaid'.”
Alex gave a rather odd, high-pitched staccato of close-lipped giggles.
“Um, alright. So that's funny because....” Charles asked, still not quite sure what had caused such an uproar of hilarity. Of course, for Raven, there was some kind of resemblance between the story of the film and what was going on in reality, but that still didn't explain why the others laughed so much as well, he wondered as he sat down on the free spot on the couch beside Raven and Irene. Alex was sitting in a large armchair next to them.
“Because the prince's name is Eric!” Raven exclaimed and covered her mouth, snorting with tears of laughter.
“That's an interesting coincidence, yes, but...” Alright, he felt a faint smirk on his features then, but he still did not fully understand.
Raven shook her head, her mouth still covered by her hand while Irene only smiled mildly. Alex, however, grinned over at Charles and his eyes lit up with mischief.
“Your sister was telling us how you wanted to be a merman when you were a kid.”
Burying her face on Irene's shoulder, Raven choked with laughter, and her girlfriend chuckled merrily as well. Charles felt his face redden, not quite sure whether he should find this hilarious or be rather affronted. It probably was funnier when you had been there from the beginning.
“Why are you even watching this?”
“It was on when we switched the channels,” Irene replied with a shrug while her girlfriend slowly calmed down a little.
When Charles looked at the TV to see Ariel and the prince go on a romantic boat ride through the lagoon and the first tunes of 'Kiss the Girl' started, Alex burst into chuckles again and Raven joined in, pressing her hand onto her belly and, in high pitched whimpers, said, “Oww, oh God, my belly!”
“You're being ridiculous,” Charles said scolding them. “I don't even have red hair.”
“No, and you're also a dude, but it's still funny,” Alex replied with a constant grin on his face, and it struck Charles only then what the hilarity of the parallelism was supposed to imply. He felt rather uncomfortable all of the sudden.
“It is,” Raven said. “Though it should be the other way around.” Very suddenly, the grin faded from her lips and she looked over at Charles with her eyes wide, and he, too, felt like his heart gave out for a beat in shock at revealing something to Irene and Alex that they shouldn't know.
“Because he always wanted to be a merman, not a merman that wanted to be human. That's what I meant,” Raven explained then and Charles breathed out. Nobody seemed to have made any more sense of her words, and thinking about it, that little slip of tongue alone would never have been enough to reveal something to them that nobody would imagine to be real in their wildest dreams, anyway.
“So, if you were the prince in this movie,” Alex started as if he was asking a serious question, “you'd want to go with her in the end and live under the sea?”
“Oh God!” Raven cried, new giggles rising. “Charles always used to sing that song when we were kids.”
“Under the Sea?” Irene asked and Raven nodded, though she merely smiled now, obviously no energy left to laugh out loud.
“Aww, dude, that's really cute,” Alex grinned. “But I have to disappoint you, mermaids aren't real. Right Erik?”
Charles froze inwardly before he turned his head towards the living room entrance. Erik, dressed in a sweat suit that Charles had bought for himself but that had turned out to be a little too big, stood there and eyed the four others with a slightly confused look on his features, his brows raised in the middle, mouth ever so slightly open. Then he nodded and came closer.
“No, they're a myth.”
“See?” Alex went on, taking no notice of the seriousness in which Erik had replied. “Sorry, dude, but you'll have to make do with something with two legs. Which is probably better. I mean... how would you even fuck something with a fish tail?”
It was very unfortunate that Raven had taken a sip of her coke that moment because she choked and snorted, spilling most of it over her and Irene's lap.
Charles just really hoped Erik did not take any offense in this. Or worse: explain that fish had a cloacae and that some species, such as sharks, engaged in penetrative reproduction and why the hell was he even thinking about this now?
“Although, Mermaids are kinda hot. I think I could live with underwater blow jobs,” Alex went on.
“Eww, Alex!” Raven exclaimed. “Too much information.”
“What?” the young man laughed and Raven still frowned at him, only briefly glimpsing over at Charles who guessed she felt a vague sense of inappropriateness about the topic in Erik's presence.
“Pervert.”
“Oh come on! We're all adults here. Hey dude, sit down,” he said toward Erik who still stood but then followed the invitation and took a seat in the second armchair next to where Charles was sitting on the sofa.
“Yes we are, but still. This is Disney! You can't turn this into porn. That's just wrong.”
“Aww man,” Alex sighed and rolled his eyes, though he was still smiling.
“What is this?” Erik asked just a moment later after he had watched the large flat screen television for a while. He had joined them watching TV before - as he had told Charles his grandmother had also owned one, and he could remember having seen movies in his childhood though he had played outdoors much more than inside.
“Dude, seriously. You've never seen 'The Little Mermaid'?” Alex asked in obvious befuddlement before he reached for the bowl of chips on the coffee table and started eating them in large portions.
“No,” Erik replied matter-of-factly. “What's it about?”
“It's about this young mermaid, Ariel,” Irene started to explain. Her brown eyes were fixed on Erik's general direction, and she leaned forward a little for him to see her better. “She dreams about exploring the world of the humans, but her father forbids it. One day she meets this Prince who, as a funny coincidence is called Eric.” Alex let out another brief giggle but shut up immediately when Charles shot him an admonishing glare.
“She actually saves him from drowning,” Irene went on, and for a tiny moment, unobserved by Alex with his nose in the chips bowl, Erik's gaze flickered to Charles. “And she falls in love with him. So for her to be able to be with him, she goes to this sea witch, Ursula, who turns her into a human but takes her voice. And Ariel has only three days to receive a kiss of true love from Eric, otherwise she'll turn back into a mermaid and will belong to Ursula.”
“Yeah, and if Prince Eric wasn't such a douche,” Alex said and raised his hand in Erik's direction, apologetically, “he would've kissed her already.”
“Aww, Alex. I didn't know you were such a romantic,” Raven said mockingly. “In your own, weird way.”
“So what happens when she kisses him?” Erik asked.
“Well, she's supposed to remain human then, but that doesn't happen,” Raven replied.
“Hey, no spoilers, Erik hasn't seen the movie yet. Dude seriously. Who hasn't seen 'The Little Mermaid'? Where have you been living? Canada?”
“I've been there a couple of times,” Erik replied dryly and Charles stifled a laugh. Just last night they had sat over a map of the world, and even though it was a little difficult for Erik to recognize the shapes of the coastlines by only knowing what they looked like from the water, he had been able to show him roughly where he had traveled. The Gulf of St Lawrence between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland had been among the places, and Charles had, in return, told him what they were called and whatever else he knew about them.
“Where are you from anyway?” Alex asked then, and Charles was starting to feel a little worried he might ask too many questions that would be difficult or impossible for Erik to answer.
“The area,” Erik just replied as vaguely as possible. “But I've traveled a lot.”
“Ah, right. You're a marine biologist as well, huh? Or what exactly do you do?”
Erik's brow twitched just a fraction. “The oceans have been my main focus, yes.”
Not visible to Alex, Charles gave him a small smile.
“And you work with Charles on some project?”
“You could say that,” Erik replied again, but Raven looked at Alex, rolling her eyes.
“Don't be so nosy.”
Alex laughed out and leaned back against the couch after handing the chips over to Irene. “You were more fun when you were cracking up about the movie. Hm, maybe we should watch 'Finding Nemo' next. At least that's more of a dude's film.”
“Or maybe we could watch something that's not made for little children,” Charles suggested, thinking that maybe it might be better not to watch another movie that was set mainly below the sea. For various reasons.
Both Alex and Irene seemed to ponder the possibilities, and Irene just opened her mouth to speak when suddenly the faint beep of the alarm system resounded from the hallway, the alert sound indicating that someone or something had been spotted by the motion sensors, entering the property. Charles frowned, and Raven, too, looked at him in alarm.
“I'll go check that out,” Charles said as calmly as he could muster, not wanting to raise any worries in any of the people present, least of all Erik and Raven. “Maybe just a fox or rabbit or something.” He smiled briefly at them before he made his way towards the control panel by the entrance. A monitor was embedded into the right wall next to the door, beside it the input field with which he could set or disable the alarm as well as switch between the various cameras installed in and around the house. He did the latter and soon found the image of a taxi driving up to the main entrance, coming to a halt a second later, a fact that alone calmed him already. Surely Shaw would not come by cab, or would he?
Just another few moments later, the relief in him became more solid as he saw a familiar figure exit the cab, the tall, rather skinny frame of a young man with dark hair and glasses. But his arrival at this time of night, almost ten o'clock, as well as the rather sombre look on his face as he approached the front door made Charles wonder what the hell Hank was doing here and why he hadn't even called first.
Before he could ring the door bell, Charles already opened. “Hank, is something wrong?”
The young man gave him a small smile, but his eyes looked clearly troubled, his forehead in a deep frown. “Um... yes. I mean... I think someone's after me.”
“What?” Shock shot through Charles' veins, and he automatically looked around to see if he could spot any other cars, but Hank shook his head.
“No, don't worry. I don't think they followed me here, but... ugh, where do I start?”
“Why don't you come in first,” Charles said as calmly as he could muster and let his friend inside, closing the door and entering another code into the alarm system that would cause a louder tone should anyone come near the mansion. Just in case.
“Hey, Hank. What are you doing here?” Raven had come into the hallway, and even though Charles wasn't sure how much she had heard he could see the worry written clearly on her features.
“Um I...” He didn't seem sure whether he should talk now, in front of her, and his eyes darted from Raven to Charles and back. Charles nodded at him and placed a hand on his upper arm, squeezing it briefly to encourage him.
“When I got home tonight, there was a car in front of my house, a Bentley or something. At first I didn't think much of it, but when I went upstairs I heard voices and my name being mentioned. So I stayed out of sight and listened. There were these two men, talking to Mrs. Miller, you know, that old lady on the second floor.”
Charles nodded, impatient for Hank to go on and unable to reply even if he had wanted to say anything. His throat felt constricted.
“So they were asking for me, when I'd get home, if she knew where to find me. And they sounded kind of friendly at first, because she kept answering them, but then they asked about you. If she knew you as well and and if you sometimes came to visit. He made up some story about being an old friend of yours and that he couldn't get a hold of you and had heard your house in the Hamptons had burned down. And I don't know, it sounded kinda fishy.”
“My God, that was Shaw,” Raven gasped faintly and brought her fingers up to her mouth, staring at Hank with eyes wide.
“What happened then, Hank? Did you talk to the men?”
Hank's eyes, still widening, were fixed on Raven for a moment, but then he slowly shook his head. “No. As I said, they just seemed... dodgy. So I went back outside and hid behind the trash cans. And I heard them when they walked back to their car.” He stopped, his brow furrowed in thought as his eyes strayed to somewhere on the floor, behind Charles. “Maybe it wasn't a Bentley. I'm not sure.”
“That's not important. What happened then?” Charles urged.
“One of them said something about driving around the block and then coming back to wait for me. That I'd have to show up at some point and that they'd have something to get to you then. I swear, it was like in a bad Mafia movie,” he chuckled helplessly, but his eyes remained clouded with fear as he swallowed softly. “So I waited until they had rounded the corner and then I ran. Got a couple of blocks south and took the first cab that stopped and drove straight up here.”
“Shit, that really was Shaw,” Raven said again and hesitantly came a few steps closer. “How did he even know Hank was there that night?”
The young man seemed confused, his blue eyes darted from Charles to his sister, brow twitching in thought. “Wait. Shaw... you mean that guy you've been trying to get to for a while, right?” he asked Charles who nodded. “But... what does he have to do with...”
“Oh now I get it.” Unknowingly to either Charles, Raven nor Hank, Alex had appeared in the doorway of the living room, and Charles took a deep breath, trying to hide his feeling of frustration. “Your house didn't burn down because of an accident. That was that Shaw guy. Because you went snooping around.”
“Your house burned down? Seriously? That part wasn't made up?”
“No, it happened last night. I drove them up here.”
“Wait a min, how did you know we're here anyway?” Raven asked, and Hank barely seemed able to concentrate to answer her in regards of the information he had just received. “Erm, Charles emailed me last night that you'd be here. But... guys, what's going on? I'm kinda freaking out here a little. What does any of this have to do with the night I was there and that injured diver?”
“Because Shaw's after me.” Erik, followed by Irene, now also stepped out into the hallway, and Charles suspected that it would not be possible to only feed them bits of information or even outright lies any longer. Erik seemed to think the same; he shared a long gaze with Charles then, resigned but also determined. “Shaw's after me. Charles and Raven saved me from... from drowning after I got into a little confrontation with him.”
“No shit!” Alex exclaimed in astonishment. “And then he tried to burn your house down?”
Charles nodded feebly. “At least that's what I suspect.”
“But why? I mean that's pretty insane, even for a guy like him,” Alex went on and Charles looked again at Erik, helpless and clueless as on how to reply, how to explain everything to them without revealing what Erik was.
“That's simple. He killed my parents, and I saw it happen,” Erik said, his jaw tight, gaze not directed at anyone anymore, but Charles could not miss the anger and sorrow on the other man's features, that cold and icy hatred that overshadowed every good and pleasant emotion that had surfaced slowly over the past days. How he wished he could have spared him all of this.
“But why didn't you go to the police then?” Alex asked, his voice getting louder now with disbelief and rising concern.
“That's a good point. Actually, I'm gonna call them right now,” Hank suddenly said, panicked, and reached into his pockets, only to groan out a second later. Charles suspected he didn't have his cell phone on him.
“Hank, we're not going to call the police,” Charles said before his friend could get the idea to use their phone.
“Why the fuck not?” Alex replied. “Seriously, dude, you're saying the guy burned your house down because he's after the witness of a crime? And you're not gonna do anything about it and just let him?”
“Shut up, Alex, you know nothing about this, okay?” Raven snapped at him, more desperate than really angry.
“Then fucking explain it to me!” Alex now positively shouted. Charles felt like he needed to sit down. Or have a drink.
“That's what we're doing right now, aren't we?” Raven retorted but Irene laid a hand on her shoulder soothingly.
“Please, everybody, let's just calm down, alright? We can all sit down and talk about this quietly.”
She had kept silent the entire time, just listening, and Charles was thankful for at least one voice of reason here, someone that, no matter how strange and threatening the situation seemed, could keep it together. He was even more thankful for her patience and not asking any further questions on top of the existing ones.
“Okay, sorry,” Alex said placably, and Hank added, in a similarly calm but nonetheless worried tone, “Why can't we call the cops though?”
“Because it's complicated,” Charles replied, feeling that the words meant nothing, nothing to soothe anyone's worry, nothing to justify the lack of taken action. He rubbed his forehead and collected his thoughts. “Shaw's a very powerful and dangerous man. I'm sure he's got plenty of friends in high places, and it's unlikely they'd arrest him simply on a whim when I tell them I suspect he set fire to my house. I mean please, think about it for a minute. If he's capable of doing something like that, of finding you, Hank, he would not let us mess with him.”
“So we're just supposed to lean back and do nothing?” Alex said in disbelief, his temper barely contained.
“Yeah. I can't even go back home. I mean if he's as dangerous as you say who knows what he'd do to me. What am I supposed to do now? I don't even have anything with me. I'd just gone to throw something in the mailbox and left everything at home.”
“I'm really, really sorry, Hank. And I promise you I'll do everything to fix this.”
“I'm sorry Charles, but how?” Hank did not sound accusing or angry, but the sheer despair and fear that now fully surfaced in sight of full disclosure tore at Charles heart and made his stomach turn.
“Don't put the blame on him”, Erik said, crossing the distance and stepping close to where Charles was standing still near the door. There was suddenly something sharp to his tone, something... protective that Charles had not yet seen in him. “If you need someone to blame then it's me. Shaw's after me, none of you. I've put you all in danger. I should not be here.”
“Erik no,” Raven said with a deep sigh.
“I'm sorry, but I should leave. Shaw wants me. You have no business with him. If I leave he'll leave you alone.”
Charles felt numb with dread, a knot forming in his throat, and he barely managed to swallow it to speak. “Erik please, we've been through this. You can't leave. He'd find you, and you can't face him alone. You know that. Please don't go.” He could not bear it, could not think of Erik being all alone out there, living in constant fear of being caught... or constant need for vengeance until Shaw was dead or Erik died trying.
“Charles.” His voice lowered, Erik stepped aside, though not still far enough to be completely out of ear shot to the others. “You know I could disappear. It's the only way.”
“But you wouldn't, my friend,” he said and, following an impulse, reached out to grab hold of Erik's lower arm, desperate to not let him leave. “You wouldn't stay away, or would you? Can you promise me that you'd go far, far away and never come looking for him for the rest of your life? Can you?”
Erik's face was still hard, the muscles in his jaw clenching as his gaze wandered down to Charles' hand on his arm. He did not reply.
“Okay, as much as it sucks that we're all in this mess, I think you should stay,” Alex said then, almost surprisingly calm. “You don't know that Shaw would let us off the hook if you were gone. I mean, how's he even supposed to know that we don't know where Erik is? Should we give him a call and say 'Hi, the guy you're looking for is gone and we have no idea where he went. Please don't kill us' or what?”
“Do you really think that's what he'd do?” asked Hank skeptically. “I mean, maybe you're overestimating him a bit. Surely he wouldn't...”
“He burned our house down, Hank,” Raven interrupted him with emphasis. “I'm not sure there's anything I'd put past him anymore.”
“Okay, please, we have to think this through,” Irene now said. “Erik can't leave, that's for sure. And Hank can't go back home either.”
“Great. My turtle will starve then.”
“Does anybody have a spare key to your apartment?” Irene asked and Charles could see Hank nod despite the frown on his features. “Yes. Mrs. Miller.”
“Good, then you can call her and tell her you had to leave town for a while. Make something up about a death in the family. Maybe even tell her a false location. That way, if Shaw comes by again, she can put him on a wrong track. And you,” she turned to Alex, her unseeing eyes looking almost at him. “You wanted to stay for a bit anyway, so that's exactly what you're gonna do. While we're all together we're safe. And we can try to find a solution for this.”
But what if we never do? Charles had not allowed himself to think it until now, but suddenly everything seemed a tenfold more threatening and real, and it was getting really difficult to stay optimistic about this.
“We're gonna run out of clothes,” Raven snorted bitterly as she looked from Hank, who was even taller than Erik or Alex, to the other two male guests.
“We'll order something online and have it express delivered,” Irene replied and gave her girlfriend a smile.
Alex rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air. “Seriously. Girls. We're talking about a guy that possibly wants us all dead and you're worrying about shopping?”
“I'm just being pragmatic,” Raven replied, slightly offended.
The hint of humor that had risen during the past few moments hardly lasted, though. Erik still stood tense, looking as if he wanted to bolt any second, and Charles noticed only then that he was still holding the man's lower arm. He almost shied away, but instead he felt his thumb move, rather unconsciously, over Erik's skin.
“Erik please,” he said again, softly, and he tried to find the other man's gaze, meeting it a moment later. “Alex and Irene are right. We gain nothing by you leaving. And I can't bear to think of you gone and him still on your heels. Stay.”
He almost didn't dare breathing while he looked into Erik's green eyes, trying, hoping to find a trace of agreement in them. And at last, Erik nodded.
Charles breathed out in relief.
~ TBC ~
Chapter 6