Friendly Fire

Needless to say, Erik woke up determined. He had a game plan and he was intent on putting it to work. Logan or not, he was winning Charles back. He shot out of bed way before the sun had even risen and went for a jog. On the way to the shower he heard the soft singing of one telepath. The metal bender had not heard Charles sing in person for years, it was a different experience all together.

Erik recognized it as one of the songs he wrote in the height of his music career. One the metal bender remembered Charles singing to him, the telepath straddling his hips and pitching his new song. It had been the middle of the night and Charles couldn’t get it out of his head.

Then

“Erik,” Charles whispered, shaking the metal bender to consciousness. “I think I’ve finally got it.”

Erik groaned, throwing his hand over his eyes and grumbling about the time. The telepath chuckled, climbing on top of the older mutant and trapping him between his thighs.

“Darling,” Charles urged again until Erik glared up at him in the dimly lit room. Charles had a notepad in one hand and was grinning brightly down at the metal bender. “Excellent, you’re awake.”

“Libeling, can’t this wait till morning,” Erik grouched but sighed in defeat at the pleading blue eyes. “Okay, go on.”

Charles beamed happily, clearing his throat and begun to sing, “I'll make you happy, baby, just wait and see. For every kiss you give me, I'll give you three…”

When the telepath finished the song, maybe the metal bender was just slightly more in love with him, even if he did wake him up at 3:30 in the morning.

Now

Erik moved towards the singing, it was Jean’s room and when he listened closer he could hear the soft giggle of his daughter. Their daughter. It still was unbelievable.

“You can come in, Erik,” Charles whispered into his head, his singing didn’t stop as he spoke. He sounded hesitant and apologetic. Maybe they both were.

“Didn’t know if I was welcome,” Erik responded but pushed the door open anyway. Jean was sitting on the stool in front of a mirror as Charles braided her red hair. The telepath looked exhausted as if he had been awake all night and only slept a little. Maybe Charles had been thinking about their fight or maybe Jean had kept him awake.

“Vati!” Jean exclaimed, waking happily at the metal bender. She had not called him that before, Charles must have told her to do so.

“Guten Morgen, Schatz,” Erik greeted, moving closer and using his powers to shut the door. “Braids today?”

“Yup!” Jean answered then stuck out a red dinosaur stuffed animal to show it off to Erik. “Daddy found my T-rex! Scott accidently put it in his toy box.”

“Isn’t that..?” Erik began asking.

“Devil Dinosaur, quite right,” Charles said, finishing off the braid with a black ribbon. “I’m afraid Scott and Jean are quite obsessed.”

“You are welcome, Erik. I’m glad you stayed… I want you here,” The telepath said softly into Erik’s mind at the same time as he told Jean to brush her teeth.

“I’m sorry, Charles. For what I said, for everything. I want to make this work,” Erik responded, the telepath’s eyes grew soft and adoring. This is what he was doing it for, to have Charles look at him that way again. He wanted that. He just needed to figure out how to have this and keep the brotherhood. Compromise, the dreaded word.

“I’m sorry too. I let my temper get the best of me,” Charles replied, the tip of his lips turning up at the metal bender.

“Our fights used to end much better if I remember correctly. A lot less clothing,” Erik flirted, Charles cheeks heated slightly as Erik pushed the memories at him. The telepath chuckled and shook his head.

“Ah, I can’t quite do all the acrobatics I used to,” Charles answered, his eyes still gleaming with love and happiness.

“No less creative, I imagine,” Erik said, pushing affection at the telepath.

“I wouldn’t know, I haven’t been with anyone since the accident,” Charles responded, looking away from him and fiddled with the leftover ribbon in his hands. “Never anytime for that stuff. With the children always running about.”

Erik blinked in surprise, a rush of happiness shot through him at the thought, Logan wasn’t with Charles. No one had been. The metal bender felt wrong for feeling so happy about this, then he remembered Raven. Erik couldn’t say the same. Every ugly feeling he had over the past couple days, Charles had been feeling and worse.

“Daddy, can we have pancakes for breakfast?” Jean questioned as she ran back into the room, cutting off what Erik wanted to say to the telepath.

“Of course, my love,” Charles agreed, reaching forward and wiping toothpaste from her cheek.

“I can make them?” Erik offered, not wanting to sit in his own guilt for any longer. He was on the path to making it up to them. Jean celebrated, grabbing Erik’s hand and started tugging him to the kitchen.

“We have to go now or Sean will drink all the milk,” Jean informed.

While Jean dragged Erik to the kitchen, Charles went to Scott’s room giving a soft knock before entering. The boy was sitting crossed leg on the bed and had a photo album opened before him.

“What are you looking at, darling?” Charles questioned as he wheeled further into the room.

“I’m trying to remember Mr. Erik. Alex and Sean say I used to call him Vati,” Scott answered, the telepath scrunched his eyebrows and glanced at the album. It was pictures they took the first month they had with the boys. The picture Scott was focused on was the one where they were throwing water balloons at each other. The metal bender had been cheating by using metal to sling it at everyone. It was such a fun day, Charles treasured it. The telepath sighed softly, reaching into Scott’s mind and scanning for the memories the boy was looking for. All memories of Erik were almost completely forgotten, memories fade. Especially with time.

“You did,” Charles confirmed, unsure of what to say to the young mutant. “You remember him leaving?”

“Yeah, a little,” Scott said with a nod. “You wrote those songs about him too. I saw his name on the wedding invitations in the attic.”

Charles paused at that, all the wedding things had been shut up in the attic for a while. After Erik and Raven had left, Charles couldn’t bear to look at them anymore. The wedding had been so soon and everything had been ready.  Now it all collected dust.

“Yes, he is,” Charles responded, he truly didn’t know what to say to him. Things were complicated, too much for someone so young for him to understand. Children were curious though and Scott never liked being excluded.

“If you guys were going to get married then why did he leave? You only marry someone if you love them, did he not love you anymore?” Scott questioned, his eyes hidden by the red glass and Charles heart ached.

“He did love us but it was… is complicated,” The telepath answered. “He wanted different things than I did or he had a different view on how things should go. On what we should do. Sometimes you can love someone so much and it not work out.”

Scott’s eyebrows came together in thought and the telepath sighed, skimming over the younger mutant’s mind. His thoughts were going over the fuzzy memory in the hospital, watching the anger in the older mutants voice as he said he was leaving. The emotions were the strongest thing that mixed with the memory.

“Come on, love. Breakfast will be ready soon,” Charles said with a tired smile.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Erik held Jean on his hip as he flipped pancakes on the stove. Hank stumbled into the kitchen, looking almost as exhausted as Charles. If he weren’t for the blue fur, he would most likely see big bruises under his eyes. Alex followed him in, same sluggish moves and yawns.

That was weird. Charles he could chalk up to their argument or even Jean but Hank and Alex too. Did they all stay up late? Maybe Scott had kept them up? But then why didn’t Erik hear anything. It was quiet last night.

“Rough night?” Erik questioned, innocently.

“Fuck off,” Alex grumbled as he sat loudly and put his head on the table. “Coffee.”

“Erik,” Hank greeted, more politely as he poured two cups. He set one down in front of Alex and kissed his head.

“You’re welcome to the pancakes,” Erik said, gesturing to the stack he had already finished.

“Vati made them with chocolate chips,” Jean informed them brightly, a juice cup in one hand and her other hand hanging on Erik’s neck.

Alex looked up from where he was resting his head, taking a sip of his coffee, saying, “I know. He used to make them for us.”

Erik frowned, this was going to be harder than he thought. Sean was the next one to walk in, still in his pajamas and tired. They were all tired. Erik knew for a fact Hank was annoyingly chipper in the mornings. Something was going on.

“Why is it always night-” Sean started to grumble when Alex elbowed him. “Ow, why did you do that?”

“Shut up,” Alex snipped, nodding his head to Erik.

“Oh,” Sean said, grabbing a cup of coffee. “Hey, Child Abandoner. I thought you were Logan.”

Logan chose that moment to walk in, cigar in his mouth, and to Erik’s surprise was looking the same as he always did. With the way everyone was this morning, he wouldn’t be shocked if he too was exhausted.

“Just be grateful it’s not Chuck making the pancakes,” Logan huffed, grabbing coffee and moving to lean against the door.

“Logan, my tolerance for your smoking in the mansion notwithstanding, continue smoking that in here,” Charles said as he wheeled into the room with Scott trailing behind him, “and you'll spend the rest of your days under the belief that you're a six-year-old girl.”

“You’d do that?” Logan questioned, raising his eyebrow.

“I’d have Jean braid your hair,” Charles responded, reaching out his hand and telekinetically putting out the cigar. “Never smoke around the children.”

“Daddy, Vati made chocolate chip pancakes!” Jean exclaimed, wiggling in Erik’s arms. The metal bender for his part was in shock, Charles was more powerful then he previously thought.

“That’s new,” Erik projected at the telepath and Charles gave him a shrug.

“I told you before I’ve grown with my pain,” Charles responded to him as he got Scott into a chair and a plate of pancakes.

“That’s why you think Jean will be a telepath,” Erik thought mainly to himself but also at Charles. He knew the telepath was still tucked in his head. “Is that a third mutation now?”

“Not really, it is technically an extension of telepathy,” Charles said, fixing a cup of tea for himself and letting himself be dragged into a conversation with Scott.

“How powerful?”

“Not very much. I can do little things; my telepathy is much stronger.”

“Was there a meeting last night I wasn’t invited to?”

“What?” Charles asked, shocked by the jump in subjects. The telepath was only truly shocked while speaking this way if he was exhausted. Another factor pointing to something going on last night.

“You and everyone else seems to be exhausted,” Erik commented, sitting with Jean at the table and cutting up her pancake. In the corner of his eye, he watched Charles.

“Well, if you must know the boys stayed up watching some sort of film series and I couldn’t sleep,” The telepath lied and Erik knew he did. Charles was a good liar to the untrained eye, years of being a celebrity did that to you, but Erik knew him. Five years did not change Erik’s ability to read the telepath, nine years of a relationship together allowed him to know the telepath deeper than anyone.

“Dad, can Mr. Erik help me with target practice today?” Scott questioned, drawling the telepaths attention to his son. Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise, scanning over the boys mind to make sure this was an innocent enough query.

“Hell no,” Alex almost shouted through their connection. The telepath would have flinched if not for years of practice.

“Scott is trying to remember Erik. I don’t think he will hurt him. You can go with them if you want,” Charles responded.

“I suppose that would be alright if Erik wants to?” The telepath answered, looking towards the metal bender.

“Of course,” Erik agreed, shocked but pleased by the request.

“Jean before you ask, no,” Charles stated, reading the intention from his daughter’s mind. “The danger room is only for the mutants who need help and adults.”

“Did you still want to go to the jewelry shop today?” Charles questioned Alex telepathically and the plasma mutant looked conflicted. Alex had asked him last night if he would come with him to pick out an engagement ring for Hank.

“But what about Scott?” Alex asked in return. “I don’t trust him around Erik.”

“We can wait until after the practice or you could have Hank sit in on them,” Charles offered, the younger mutant mulled it over in his head, debating with himself before nodding at Charles.

“Can you ask Hank to watch them?” Alex asked, glancing briefly at the mutant before back to Charles.

“Already done,” Charles responded, having already had a conversation with Hank about it. The scientist thought Charles needed to have a meeting with Emma and Alex was coming to help.

Erik was watching Charles when he turned to look at him, his eyes were calculating. The telepath knew Erik was suspicious of the reason they were tired. Erik could always tell when Charles was lying. Hopefully Scott would provide enough of a distraction.

The telepath cleared his throat and slid his eyes to his plate. He just needed more time to get everyone on board with telling Erik and making sure the metal bender could be trusted. As much as Charles adored the man, he knew him too well to trust him blindly anymore. If their argument had proven anything, he still had things to work through. Mainly Erik’s relationship with Raven. That particular betrayal had been one of the worst of his life, even more so than leaving. He could understand where Erik came from, he knew the mutant had always wanted to hunt Shaw down but at some point, the metal bender had drawn a line. Just as he thought they were taking the final steps, Erik suddenly took steps back, leaving the telepath confused and hurt.

Regardless, if the two had not slept together before hand, emotions of some sort had been involved with them. It was one of the reasons Charles struggled so much to allow anyone else into his heart or his bed. He went undesirable and unwanted. There was a time after Jean’s birth and things had begun to settle down that something had formed between Logan and himself. They had flirted and even kissed but he had to stop it. He knew how unfair it was to the other mutant. He had wanted to feel wanted so bad and he still did. Logan would have been a place holder for Erik and he did not deserve that. They were much better friends then anything, truly.

“Chuck? You listening?” Logan grunted, the telepaths eyes snapped up to the other mutants and he flushed noticing the table was staring at him.

“My apologies, was I projecting?” Charles questioned, praying to whatever entity existed that he had not been. The lack of sleep could have caused that and god forbid the children or worse, Erik hear what he was thinking about. 

“No, I was askin if you still wanted me to drive you to town?” Logan asked for apparently the second time. Charles let out an internal sigh of relief and tightened his control on his telepathy. Pointedly ignoring the searing gaze of one metal bender.

“Yes, if it isn’t too much problem. I apologize, I am quite tired,” Charles said apologetically, giving Logan a smile. “Alex will be joining us, I need his opinion.”

“For what?” Scott questioned, his brain was more awake now and pushing questions at Charles. Alex almost always sat in with him during his training and he wondered what could be so important to miss it.

“Gym equipment,” Alex answered quickly, shoving a forkful in his mouth.

“Quite right,” Charles agreed, sending a wave of amusement into Alex’s mind at his poor coverup.

“Are you sure going into public is safe right now?”  Erik projected and Charles almost sighed in irritation.

“I see no reason why I shouldn’t be going.”

“Maybe because you just released a new album and you haven’t slept; your control is poor if you’re sleep deprived.”

“It is not truly your concern, Erik,” Charles answered back, shutting down the temporary connection to their minds. He rubbed his temples, blocking out the loud thoughts of the children and one metal bender.