Chapter 10
Erik typically didn't stay around after a battle ended but he couldn't just leave this time. Charles was still there, the X-Men, all of the brotherhood. Maybe he could leave, but he couldn't bring himself to.
He sat on the ground, looking out towards where the sun was sitting. No one was around, they didn't seem to know he was still there anyway. Not until he felt approaching metal. Charles.
The man came to a stop next to him. Erik didn't pull his eyes away from the sunset but he felt Charles put the brakes on his chair. Then he started to move again and before long, he was sitting on the grass next to Erik.
"How are you, my friend?" Charles asked and Erik sighed softly. There was something in his voice, as though he knew. And Erik couldn't dismiss the possibility that he did.
The question was a loaded one. How was he? Did Charles mean after the battle? Or in general? Those questions had very different answers.
"I'm fine," He answered vaguely. "How are you, old friend?"
"Feeling exactly like that. Old." He replied, looking out where Erik was staring and leaning back on his hands. "The kids are all making it worse. You should hear some of the drama that goes on in a school."
"You would know more about that than I would," Erik replied, "I never spent much time in a classroom, after all."
"It's all who kissed who, one cheated on the other, she loves him but he loves someone else. I'm just left sitting there thinking they're like twelve. What do they know about love?"
What indeed? Erik was in his fifties and still knew nothing about it. But he could successfully say that after twenty years he loved Charles. It was beyond some little schoolboy crush these days. Charles was almost all he could think about. The first thing in the morning he wanted him in his arms. Right before drifting off he would wish for Charles to curl up against. It was getting to be ridiculous. It was-
"It hurts," Erik whispered before he could stop himself or even think about what he was saying.
"What?" Charles asked, looking over at him and Erik wondered if he even realized what he had said.
"Loving someone who doesn't love you. It hurts. Cut the kids some slack, even if they are twelve."
"My friend," Charles stated with an unsteady laugh, "I don't make light of their issues. I do what I can to take them seriously."
For a while, the two of them set in silence and Erik began to think he had gotten away with what he had said. It was stupid. He couldn't say anything to Charles. Charles couldn't know that Erik had been in love with him since he was first pulled from the ocean all those years ago. He couldn't know that the entire reason for their battle today was so Erik could see Charles again. He sounded desperate, pathetic. He was glad for the helmet so there was no chance of Charles finding out what he was thinking about.
"Who do you love? Or did?" Charles asked, as though he could not just leave it alone. It led to a sharp inhale from Erik.
"It's not important, they don't feel the same about me," Erik replied, falling back on the ground so he was laying on the grass. The sun had set leaving him with nothing else to look at and he couldn't simply just look at Charles. Not for this conversation.
"Did you ever tell them?" Charles asked, and Erik wished he had the ability to teleport. He could just float himself away but that didn't seem right. He would still be there while Charles called after him.
"Not exactly. They know I loved someone. They didn't know it was them," He replied, he had just told Charles, after all. "It's been years though, if they felt the same they would have said something."
"What if they thought the same about you?" Charles asked back and Erik couldn't accept that. If Charles loved him he would have said. Or done something to show it, right?
"Tell them the next time you see them. Show them how you feel." Charles gave a single nod as though trying to convince himself as well. And then he was moving to get his chair back into position to move back into.
Erik moved before Charles at the chance. He would take Charles's advice and show how he felt. He pressed his lips against Charles's and it was the most terrifying moment he had experienced in years. Since he left Charles bleeding on the beach at least.
There was no response from Charles and Erik practically jumped back away, to his feet. If only he could run faster, super speed, or something.
"Erik, wait," A hand grabbed his cape and Eirk couldn't move. He knew there was no other option. Slowly, he turned and faced Charles.
"Come back down here, please?" Charles asked and, really, Erik knew he would do anything Charles asked of him, no matter what it was, no matter how stupid or dangerous. He moved back down to the ground in front of Charles and then found his arms full.
"I love you too, you just surprised me," Charles whispered before finally returning the kiss, pushing Erik back so he was laying on the ground and Charles was fully spread out on top of him.
It was perfection.