Chapter 2
Erik had 99 problems and 97 of them were Charles leaving.
He knew it was irrational. He knew it was only for a week and he knew he should tune down being so attached, but damn it was hard because he was attached.
Life so far, especially in the last few months, taught him that nothing good ever happened when Charles and Erik were separated for any reason. Like maybe another portal would open up and swallow one of them to another world. Maybe the anti-possession tattoo won’t work on mutants and one of them will be possessed again. Maybe one of them would burst spontaneously into flames, really anything could happen, he wouldn’t put it past their luck.
Not to mention how lonely it will be for him to be without Charles for a week. Sure, he wasn’t literally alone, with Raven, the children, and the Avengers and Winchesters’ constant visits won’t give him a moment of peace and quiet, but he was usually feeling alone whenever Charles wasn’t around.
He was pathetic. But dammit, what’s wrong to be pathetic for his husband? That just meant their marriage was a success.
In the past few months, Charles’ attempts to properly use his legs increased tenfold. Being forced to run around in another world for your life with barely functioning legs would do that to a person.
Now, Charles absolutely refused to be supported or helped in any way regarding walking. He insisted on doing everything on his own, going up and down the stairs several times, despite how it left him panting for air and with wobbling legs. Pushing himself to run a full circle around the perimeter of the mansion every morning, making Erik forced to watch as Charles collapsed on the ground after each run, panting, wheezing, pained, but damn grinning like an idiot, that Erik didn’t have the heart to force him to stop.
Charles was stubborn, relentless, and ruthless when he set his mind on something. Now, he set his mind on erasing any trace of weakness in his legs and there was no stopping him, nor did Erik even want to stop him. He just stood to the side, keeping a vigilant watch to step in the moment Charles needed him to. No matter how much it killed him to just observe most of the time, forcing himself to do it and let Charles get up on his feet on his own, literally.
Seeing Charles so determined and stubborn, only increased Erik’s respect, admiration, and love for his hot-headed husband.
But now, Charles was leaving for a week and Erik wouldn’t know what was happening to him, what was going on with him, what he was doing, for an entire week and it kills him, it absolutely kills him.
He should go with him, but they both learned to never leave the school at the same time anymore. It wasn’t fair for the children, who saw them as their father figures, and they didn’t want a repeat of the demon incident where a few of the children actually got hurt.
Never again.
But it didn’t lessen his pain about not being able to go with Charles.
He was thinking about all that, as he watched Hank and Logan bring the luggage down the stairs towards the front door, with Charles coming down the stairs slowly at his own pace, but on his sole power, and Erik was so proud of that, despite him watching closely from the bottom of the stairs, in case he needed to interfere.
For some irrational reason and borderline based on jealousy, the fact that Logan was going with Charles irked him to no end.
It was stupid, irrational, and not fair for the grumpy, tall mutant, but he couldn’t stop his feelings nonetheless. He couldn’t forget that at some point in Logan’s life, he was actually interested in Charles, even if that was probably ten years ago and he never made a second move on Charles from the moment Erik dropped a building on his head in his jealousy rage, but those feelings, even if they were no longer there, left Erik always irked and twitchy whenever Logan was around Charles’ general area.
It was unfair. Mainly because Logan was a big asset as an X-man. Despite his rudeness, grumpiness, and total disregard for orders, he was loyal, strong, and actually cared. He would willingly protect any of them with his life, but sadly, Erik still didn’t trust him enough with Charles.
There were a handful of people he trusted with Charles. People he knew if Charles was with them, he would be safe, he would not be desired in such a way, and would always be protected. Those people included the Stark-Rogers couple and the Winchester Couple. He knew these four would die trying to keep Charles safe at all costs if they were with him.
He trusted everyone else on some levels as well, but as he said, he had standards when it came to Charles and the company he was with at the moment.
Damn, he really was pathetic.
“Do you have any idea how loud your thoughts are?” Erik snapped out of his own head, at the sound of Charles’ teasing voice right beside him.
He blinked as he suddenly realized that Charles was standing beside him now, giving him an overly amused, teasing smile.
“Good. Then now you know exactly how I feel about this whole thing. You saved me so much time and breath that will fall on deaf ears anyway.” Erik rolled his eyes, giving Charles a very pointed look.
That’s because he tried every way possible to convince Charles not to go to that conference, suggesting that he should just leave it for Hank to go and that it was alright if he didn’t go, but his husband being the stubborn bastard he was, insisted on going anyway and Erik had to refrain from pulling his own hair out from the ball of stubbornness that he married.
“That’s such a lovely term of endearment. ‘Ball of Stubbornness’. Darling, you will make me blush from your sweetness.” Charles teased him with an amused smile, making Erik scowl at him, but Charles was unperturbed like usual. He was never affected by Erik’s glares anyway and he wasn’t going to start now.
“Just-just take care of yourself, will you?” Erik sighed in defeat, there was no point. The private plane was ready for the takeoff. Hank and Logan are probably in there by now and just waiting for Charles. There was no point in even trying again by now to convince him otherwise.
“It’s just a conference, Darling, nothing to worry about,” Charles murmured, stepping closer to him to cup his cheek gently, smiling up at him. “I will be here before you know it. Don’t burst into flames until I come back, all right?”
“I can’t promise that,” Erik murmured with a faint smile, heart clenching in his chest as he leaned down, wrapping his arms around Charles’ waist and kissed him deeply like he was suffocating and Charles was his air, as he clung to him until the last possible second.
Charles wrapped his arms around Erik’s neck in return, pulling him closer, as he kissed back just as desperately.
They both failed to notice that the front door opened and two sets of footsteps were approaching them, too absorbed in each other’s embrace to notice much of anything else.
“Hey, Charles? Charles. Charles. Charles.”
“What? what?” Charles finally pulled away as he and Erik turned sharply to Tony, who stood there with Steve smirking at them, after calling his name over seven times.
“Oh, you had a mutant on your face, but now it’s gone, so you are okay.” Tony just grinned at them, while Steve shrugged with a content smile. He seemed to reach a point of contentment in dealing with Tony’s colorful personality, that nothing Tony did or said could deter or get on his nerves anymore. Such a nice state to reach after short years of marriage.
Charles rolled his eyes at his friend, while Erik narrowed his eyes at Tony, willing his glare to burn him alive for ruining their goodbye moment.
“What are you doing here?” Erik glared at Tony even more, when he didn’t seem affected at all by his usual glare.
“We are here to see Charles off and make sure you don’t hang yourself from being depressed about the short separation,” Tony answered easily, and Charles barely managed to stop Erik from reaching over and strangling Tony with his bare hands. Not that he would have gotten close enough with Steve standing there, but just trying would have been enough for him.
“That’s overly nice of you, Tony,” Charles smiled at him, but his smile turned sly as he trailed his eyes between the couple. “That’s why I am guessing it’s Steve’s idea?”
“Hey, I have my nice moments!” Tony defended indignantly, eyeing Steve’s pointed look at him, and the twitching of his lips, before rolling his eyes. “But yes, it’s America’s Ass’ idea this time.”
“Then you wouldn’t mind carrying this for me, then.” Charles teased as he pulled up his carry-on and threw it Tony’s way, who stumbled as he caught it.
“Damn, Charles, it’s a carry-on! What did you put in it? A fridge?” Tony groaned as he looked down at the block of steel he was currently carrying.
“Books,” Charles answered easily in a tone that suggested he found it weird that Tony even asked.
“Did you put the entire library there?” Steve asked with a raised eyebrow, as he took the bag from Tony to carry it instead, noticing that it was indeed heavy even by his standards.
“I am a fast reader and it is a long trip. I need to be prepared.” Charles defended with a pout, that was making Erik look at him with a fond smile.
Charles gave Erik one last kiss, before finally stepping away with a smile, eyes still lingering on his husband.
“Are you sure you don’t want to see me off by the plane?” Charles asked with a small pout, finding it sad that Erik wouldn’t be there, seeing him off by the private plane.
“I wish I could.” Erik sighed sadly, looking apologetically at Charles, genuinely feeling bad about this. “But I promised a group of the kids that I will help them out with something and I am already late in going to them. I am sorry, Schatz.”
“No, no, the children come first, of course.” Charles smiled at Erik, but the smile didn’t really reach his eyes, as he stepped towards Steve and Tony. “It’s quite all right. I have Steve and Tony to see me off. I will see you in a week, Darling.”
With that, Charles smiled at Erik one last time, before grabbing his suitcase and wheeling it behind him as he made his way towards the door.
Steve, Tony, and Erik stared at his retreating back for a second before the first two turned to raise an eyebrow at Erik, who sighed miserably with a shake of his head.
“Just make sure he is well situated in the plane, please,” Erik muttered quietly, before turning stiffly to leave them there and walk up the stairs towards the students waiting for him.
Tony and Steve exchanged a look, before shrugging and moving to catch up with Charles.
They surprisingly struggled to keep up with Charles, who was fast walking towards the private plane that Hank had waiting for him in the small airport they arranged in a small part of the wide field surrounding the mansion.
Charles being able to fast walk was good to see, but it was also weird to see. Because why was Charles so impatient to leave?
They finally made it to Charles at the bottom of the stairs that led to the plane’s door, where Charles finally stopped and turned to face them.
“Damn, Charles, are you this eager to fly away?” Tony panted as he stopped by Charles, trying to catch his breath after the short, but exhausting walk. Charles had always been faster than him in jogging. Looks like he was slowly gaining that again from his healing legs and Tony couldn’t even try to stop the happiness it filled him for his childhood friend.
“I am not eager to fly away,” Charles muttered with a frown, eyeing the plane with an uneasy look and hesitancy.
“What’s wrong?” Steve asked in confusion, tilting his head at Charles’ strange behavior and nervousness. “I know for a fact that this is not fear of flying, you don’t have that, so what’s going on?”
“I have a bad feeling I can’t shake off.” Charles blurted out after a minute or so of racking his hands through his hair nervously, worry etched on his face. “I have a feeling that something will happen the moment I leave. I can hear something unsettling in the air, but I do not have enough evidence to prove it. It is just-just my gut is telling me something is about to happen.”
Steve and Tony eyed him for a second, before exchanging a quick look, then looked back at their friend.
“It could be because you are nervous about leaving without Erik for the first time in years,” Steve murmured reassuringly, trying to put the telepath at ease a little. “You have bad experience in leaving the school for a while, it is understandable.”
“Yeah, Steve’s right, you are just nervous and upset that Erik has to stay behind,” Tony confirmed with a soft smile, patting Charles on the shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be bad omens or ominous signs. You are leaving for only a week. Don’t worry.”
Charles trailed his eyes between them for a second, hesitating and nervous, before sighing in defeat.
“You are right, it is probably just this,” Charles murmured sadly, before looking up at them again, a pleading look in his eyes. “Please, just don’t leave him alone this week. Take care of him, will you?”
“Of course, Charles,” Steve promised with a soft smile, while Tony gave him a thumbs up and a wink, that only increased Charles’ worry.
With one last look at the mansion and a smile at his two friends, Charles finally boarded the plane to leave for his destination.