Enemies (2)
It was a Saturday evening. Charles was at a club at a party to celebrate the beginning of the semester. He was with Raven and a new friend she brought along, a shy but very intelligent guy named Hank McCoy. Charles was supposed to have a great time. But instead, Charles was thinking about Erik Lehnsherr.
Even though the night was still young, Charles had already emptied his second drink and was about to order a third. Raven chatted with Hank who was working towards his Ph.D. in biochemistry. Under different circumstances, Charles wouldn´t have stopped talking to him but right now he was too busy getting drunk and being furious about Erik.
Raven sat next to him, her legs pressed against Charles´ like they had thousands of times. But since Erik accused Raven of being in love with her brother, every touch was making Charles uncomfortable. He had to admit that maybe, just maybe, Erik was right. Raven smiled brightly at him, trying to get his attention even if she was actually talking to Hank, she touched Charles a lot and sometimes even seemed to flirt with him. It was impossible for Charles to understand how he had not noticed this behavior sooner.
“What´s with the long face, Charles?” She playfully poked his cheek, trying to get him to participate in the conversation. The later the night the louder the music became and by this time understanding each other was already getting difficult.
“Nothing,” he sighed, taking a sip from his third drink. He should have eaten more before attending.
“Don´t tell me this is about Erik Lehnsherr again.” God, his sister knew him too well.
“Erik Lehnsherr?” Hank asked. His eyes hadn´t left Raven for the entire evening, even Charles had noticed but Raven was either oblivious or had decided to ignore the looks Hank gave her.
“A guy from the Chess Club who dared to beat Charles at chess,” Raven explained while barely holding back a chuckle. “Charles can´t stand it when people are smarter than him.”
“I wasn´t thinking about Erik!” Charles protested weakly. “But I want to clarify that just because he beat me at chess once-”, it had actually been three times already, but his sister didn´t need to know that, “doesn´t mean he´s smarter than me!”
“Yes, yes, sure.” And now Raven rolled her eyes at him. Wasn´t she supposed to be the more mature one of them, her being two years older and stuff? Now she turned to Hank again and grinned. “Did I mention that Charles calls him his arch-nemesis?”
“I see,” Hank replied politely and took a sip from his non-alcoholic beverage of choice.
“I was NOT thinking about Erik!” He might have shoved his sister a little too roughly because she shrieked and hit his shoulder in return.
“Charles, stop moping around and enjoy yourself! We are students, we are at a party, the music is good! Go to the dance floor or find someone for the night. We can do whatever we want now!” Her enthusiasm rubbed off onto Charles. Raven was right; now that thousands of miles separated him from his parents Charles no longer needed to hide his One Night Stands.
He made his way towards the bar, already feeling the three drinks he has had. He forgot about his spinning head immediately, though, when he spotted a gorgeous brunette woman at the bar who seemed to be nervously glancing around. Charles straightened his shoulders and then went to introduce himself with the charming smile that had gotten him laid a dozen times before.
The woman introduced herself as Moira, glanced him over, and then invited Charles to sit with her. Her girlfriends had gone off to dance, Moira explained to him, but since she herself rarely wore high heels she had hurt her ankle within the first five minutes of dancing and had now been left by her group at the bar. Charles ordered drinks for them while he offered to keep her company, for all selfless reasons, of course.
Moira turned out to be good company and Charles was already looking forward to taking her home at the end of the night. He had finished his fifth drink and his head started to feel heavy. His mind wandered a little. Yes, Raven was right, no one was stopping him from bringing people home with him whenever he wanted. And – he barely dared to think about it – whoever he wanted as well.
Charles had figured out his bisexuality only last year but the thought of ever bringing another boy home back in Scotland would have been ridiculous. His mother or his step-father would have thrown the poor boy out before Charles would have even made it into his pants. Now however....
Moira cleared her throat and Charles snapped back into reality. She said something to him but Charles wasn´t listening. His eyes fell upon a familiar face.
“Excuse me,” he said, already getting up from his seat at the bar. “I´ll be back in a minute.”
Before Moira could object Charles was already heading towards Erik who leaned against the wall watching the crowd on the dance floor. He was wearing the exact same outfit he wore at the campus as if he accidentally stumbled upon the party on his way back from class. Charles was not having it.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded to know. The alcohol was making his head spin and the loud music didn´t help to alleviate his dizziness. “Are you stalking me?”
“What are you talking about, Xavier?” Erik groaned. “This is a college party, I´m a college student. I have the same right to be here as you do. On the other hand, I probably have more right to buy alcohol than you do.”
A smug grin appeared on his face. Charles fought for balance and finally decided that there was no shame in slightly leaning against the wall for support.
“Very funny. Good thing you have your cheekbones to distract people from your jokes,” Charles slurred. Could this nightclub please stop spinning so that he could collect his thoughts in peace?
At least Erik looked taken aback by Charles´ comment. He frowned, leaned back, and let his steel-gray eyes wander upon Charles once again.
“What´s that supposed to mean?” he finally asked.
Stupid Erik with his stupidly broad shoulders was playing dumb now. Would you still think that he could be smarter than your brother, Raven? Charles might have said those thoughts out loud but at least he had regained his balance and that had to count for something so he wasn´t overly concerned about it.
“I´m here with a woman,” he continued and since he was slurring his words so much by now, Erik actually moved closer to listen to him. “A woman, you heard me? Not my sister. Of course.”
“Go home, Charles, you are drunk.” Erik actually reached out to grab Charles´ shoulders but the Brit was faster and evaded the touch.
“Don´t tell me what to do!” He glared at Erik and for a few seconds, it even seemed to work. Erik sighed.
“Whatever. Not my problem.” He turned around and left. Charles couldn´t believe the audacity this man had! They were arch-enemies! Didn´t Charles deserve at least a few minutes of cocky banter?
Sulking, he made his way back towards the bar only to find the place where he had left Moira just a few minutes prior empty. He sat down, ordered another drink, and waited for her to return. After fifteen minutes Charles had to admit to himself that she had probably left with her girlfriends. Thanks, Erik.
He emptied his glass before attempting the long way back to the table where he had left Raven and Hank. His sister was nowhere to be found when Charles collapsed into his chair and Hank nervously fidgeted his glass.
“Where´s Raven?” he asked and had to repeat his question two times until Hank was able to understand him.
“She left to dance with some guy. I don´t think she´s coming back.” Hank looked disappointed. Then he eyed Charles who had to hold his own head in both hands in the hopes it would stop spinning.
“Are you... alright?”
Hank probably regretted asking that question because as soon as Charles opened his mouth the whole story started spilling out of him. How rude Erik had treated him, how Erik beat him at chess, how he tried to make Erik stop smoking by coughing and ruining his focus, how Erik had accused Charles of fucking his sister, how Erik had ruined his conversation with Moira, and finally how these ridiculously good looks were wasted on a guy like Erik.
“I see,” he said after Charles had finished. “Do you want to hear my opinion on that matter?”
“Sure.” Charles was too drunk to care, anyway.
“I think you have become used to being a child prodigy all your life. Correct me if I´m wrong but you probably were ahead of other children since you started school, nobody could compete with your intellect. I understand that well, it was the same for me, you see.” Hank fidgeted on his chair. “But now you´re faced with other people with similar intellect. You are no longer the smartest person in the room wherever you go. I remember how harsh the realization felt that oneself is not the smartest person in the world, even if it had seemed so for all one´s life prior.”
Charles´ drunken brain took a few seconds to catch up.
“Even if Erik were actually smarter than I am it doesn´t excuse him being rude.”
“I know,” Hank sighed. “But on the other hand, he has been a member of the Chess Clubs for years, everyone there knew and accepted his quirks, or so it seems. And then you, a 17 year old freshman, join the club and demand he changes his behavior to accommodate you. I´m not saying that he wasn´t rude, dragging your sister into this and everything, but I mean... you were the one who drunkenly started a fight with him at a party, so... I think you might be part of the problem here.”
Charles was floored. “You should think about becoming a diplomat, Hank.”
“Thank you, but I think I´ll stick with biochemistry.” Hank quickly adjusted his glasses. “Maybe you should take a taxi home. You don´t look like you are going to have fun if you stay here.”
Without any objections, Charles let himself be escorted to the nearest taxi stand. He thanked Hank for his insights – he had to repeat that twice as well until he was understood – and asked the driver to drive slowly. His stomach was already not feeling so good.
Charles could barely remember the drive back to his flat; he might have fallen asleep. After paying the driver he stumbled up the stairs, completely forgetting about the elevator. Finding the key for the door took another five or so minutes but finally, he stumbled into his bedroom only to fall head-first onto his bed.
Bone-crushing exhaustion overcame him. Charles decided to just stay like that and worry about getting undressed later. The last thought before he fell asleep was something along the lines of Hank being right. He should go and apologize to Erik.
Erik quietly got up from the bed. According to his phone, it was half-past three, the whole building was asleep, only Erik couldn´t find any peace. He glanced at the woman occupying his bed; he didn´t have the heart to send her away earlier. The room still smelled like sex and sweat so he opened the window, careful not to wake her up.
Three unread text messages greeted him as he unlocked his phone. All from Magda, his ex-girlfriend. Erik´s finger hovered above the icon. He swallowed and finally found the courage to read them. The screen illuminated the otherwise dark room and he quickly lowered the brightness to not disturb the woman´s sleep.
The messages were basically different iterations of “Let´s talk”. Erik frowned. He decided to put on his bathrobe; replying to Magda was already weird enough, he didn´t need to do that sitting nakedly on his couch. His mind was racing, dozens of options playing out inside his thoughts.
“It wasn´t your fault,” he wanted to write. “It was no one´s fault. I don´t want to see you. Move on with your life, you deserve it. Do not message me again. I don´t think about it anymore.” That was a lie, Magda would see through it immediately.
The darkness of his room seemed to suffocate Erik as he was sitting there on his sofa, the loneliest human in the world. The woman in his bed turned in her sleep. He held his breath and waited until the room became quiet again.
He contemplated not answering at all. In the morning, Magda would notice that he had read the messages. She would not stop reaching out to him, maybe she would worry. And even after everything they had been through, after every hurtful word said to one another Erik didn´t want her to worry about him.
“I don´t want to talk about it,” he sent her, turning off his phone immediately afterward.
With a small sigh, he settled onto the couch, folded the arms underneath his head, and stared at the window, waiting for the morning to come. He didn´t even feel like playing chess.
By 10 AM on Sunday morning Charles had showered, eaten breakfast, changed his clothes, and gotten his headache under control. Accomplishments to be proud of, in his opinion. The weather was pleasant so he decided to walk to the college´s dormitory where Erik lived.
Getting Erik´s address had been easier than expected. Cheung, the guy from the chess club who seemed to be somewhat close with Erik, had texted Charles back immediately after Charles had reached out to him about an hour earlier. Apparently, other members of the Chess Club weren´t going out on Saturday nights. Or at least they weren´t as hungover.
The entire dormitory seemed to still be asleep by the time Charles arrived there. He made his way towards the third floor where Erik´s room was supposedly located. Once he had found it, he briefly wondered whether it was too early when he heard footsteps inside. Straightening his shoulders, Charles knocked on the door.
The footsteps hesitated then they made their way towards the door and only a second later Charles was faced with a grumpy-looking Erik Lehnsherr, barefooted, in nothing but a bathrobe. Charles later wished he had had more control over his body but at this very moment, he swallowed. How a man could look this good with a bed-head was beyond him.
“Charles,” Erik said with visible surprise.
“Hi...ehm... good morning,” Charles replied. He had carefully prepared his words in advance but somehow Erik had worn more clothing than just a bathrobe when he and Charles had had this conversation in his head.
A frown appeared on Erik´s face. He stepped outside his room and almost closed the door behind him, shielding his room from Charles with his body. With his arms crossed in front of his chest, he asked: “What do you want? It´s Sunday morning!”
“I just wanted to apo-” Charles didn´t get to finish his sentence as the door behind Erik was opened once more.
“Raven!” Charles cried out.
“Charles!” Raven shrieked at the exact same moment.
For a moment, the siblings stared at each other dumbfounded, closely watched by Erik. And to make matters worse, Raven was only wearing a white T-shirt, likely Erik´s because it barely covered her hips. She appeared to not wear anything underneath.
“You sleep with my sister!” Charles exploded into Erik´s face, a full five feet and six inches of rage. Raven had already fled back into the dorm room, leaving only Charles and Erik to fight this out.
“It is called a One Night Stand, Xavier,” Erik reprimanded him, barely concealing how he rolled his eyes at the younger man. “She is an adult, I am an adult, sometimes adults do adult things with each other.”
For a few seconds, Charles contemplated punching Erik in the face. He hadn´t punched anyone in the face outside of a boxing ring but right now he was more than willing to try. Erik still looked down on him with this cool, stoic expression that drove Charles insane. He finally regained his balance.
“Fine. Have fun.” This might not have been exactly what he had said but Charles couldn´t for the life of him remember how he got out of this conversation or even the building. All he knew was that Erik apparently had no intentions of reconciling. Peace was no longer an option between them.
By the time Tuesday rolled around, Erik had almost forgotten about the unpleasant encounter with Raven´s brother. He was sitting at his usual spot in the Chess Club, smoking and practicing different Sicilian Defense Openings with Liam. He had just started to forget the world around him and immerse himself into the practice when the door was opened with much more force than necessary and Charles stormed into the room.
Both Liam and Erik looked up to notice that half the members of the Chess Club were staring at the young Brit. Apparently, Charles had not forgotten about their brief encounter on Sunday.
Without a word, Charles grabbed the packet of cigarettes conveniently laying next to the chessboard. Erik said nothing but he felt the anger rising like a wild animal in his chest when Charles opened the window and threw the packet as far as he could. Everyone went quiet, all eyes were focused on the two of them now.
Erik had never in his life backed down from a fight – he had to admit that this tendency of his had led to more problems than solutions but he was willing to test his luck once more. Without breaking eye contact, he put out his remaining cigarette inside the ashtray and got up. Charles was a small man, barely 140 pounds, so Erik wasn´t afraid of him.
But the fury he radiated seemed to intimidate Liam who moved away ever so slightly as the two opponents glared at each other.
“Did you only sleep with my sister to spite me?” Charles asked more calmly than Erik had expected from him in this situation.
“Don´t be ridiculous,” Erik scoffed. “She was the one who threw herself at me at that party. We danced, then she asked me to leave with her. This might sound strange to you but I personally think little about other men when a pretty woman is about to seduce me.”
He wanted to look up and see the faces of their captive audience but Charles looked like he was going to start a fistfight any second now. Erik discreetly corrected his stance just in case. He had been in a street fight or two and knew better than to be caught off-balance.
But Charles didn´t attack him. He actually seemed to deflate in front of his eyes, looking young and hurt. Erik relaxed his stance again, not wanting to provoke a fight in front of the Chess Club. With a sigh they both turned away from each other, Charles returning to the common room and Erik sitting down opposite of Liam again. His opponent seemed to be still frozen from the shock of what had just happened.
“What?” Erik snapped at him. “Do you want to play or not?”
Without his cigarettes, Erik had a hard time focusing back on the game. His heart was still pounding, his body itched for a fight, for some kind of release of the tension. He had felt like this a thousand times before and he hated it.
“Did you really sleep with his sister?” Liam asked after a few minutes of tense silence.
“Yes,” Erik simply replied. He felt the admiring looks of his opponent but didn´t comment on them. He was not in the mood for small talk, so he jokingly added: “Don´t tell my girlfriend.”
Usually when Erik played chess the time flew by but today the two hours of practice stretched into an eternity. Charles didn´t return from the common room to play against him and Erik only played half the amount of games he usually did. As soon as the club ended, he was up on his feet, ready to leave.
Charles apparently felt the same need to get away so they almost bumped into each other on their way out. Charles shot him a glare. Erik might have made a snarky remark if Raven had not entered the picture at this very second. He hadn´t noticed her until she grabbed his arm and greeted him with a smile. If she had even noticed her brother she sure did a very good impression of ignoring him.
“Hey,” she smiled at Erik. “Do you want to get coffee?”
Erik had no desire for coffee or even Raven´s company – One Night Stands were called like that for a reason after all – but he knew Charles was watching them with horror and jealousy so he said: “Sure. Let´s go.”