The most realistic part of this fic might be
the one whole paragraph about the elevator.
But yeah, enjoy.
 |
| { credit } |
Charles/Erik, AU without any superpowers or seriousness
“Because I don’t want to,” protests Charles, and wraps his mouth back around the straw sticking out from his drink. Which is, indeed, a cocktail. What? Men can drink cocktails too. Especially that it’s called cock-tail and the man in question is Charles. It just fits, you know?
“Seriously, she’s looking at you like she’s already picturing you naked,” Hank tries to yell louder than the music.
Charles squints at the girl standing a few feet away. He’s got to admit, she does have a pining look on her face.
“Come on, man,” adds Logan in a low growl. You can tell he’s had enough of this hesitating to open his mouth; he’s very talkative, as per usual.
Oh boy, this is going to be hard. With a resignant sigh, Charles makes his way to the girl, and starts talking to her. The guys observe the scene from the background excitedly, but become disappointed when Charles returns, no more happy-looking than before.
“She’s nice,” admits Charles.
Logan just shakes his head and gulps down the rest of his beer, but Hank looks properly confused. “So? Why aren’t you with her, then?”
“I‒ It’s just‒”
“You know we are here because of you, right?”
“No, I know… I didn’t ask you to do this though,” says Charles. In fact, he doesn’t want to do this at all.
“Ay, if you don’t wanna be here,” grunts Logan, and his deep voice is especially difficult to be heard through the loud throbbing of the music, “let’s go outside. Maybe we’ll have a chance to hear each other there.”
Charles shoots a smile at him. “Splendid.”
So they start walking; Charles’ apartment is the closest, being only a few blocks away, so they head there. Although Hank still seems to be confused, fortunately they drop the topic, and drift to more harmless grounds. And because of Charles not being in a particularly good mood now, their conversation mostly consists of Hank babbling. By the time they arrive at the building where Charles lives, his best estimate is that Logan’s said two full sentences.
“Such fun, eh?” Charles nods in their general direction while opening the door. “Let’s not do that again.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” says Logan. Hank waves goodbye.
Charles does his best to keep quiet as he gets up to his floor. The elevator’s been off for months now, half a year perhaps, and the tenants have kind of found their peace with it. Everyone stopped giving it a second thought a while ago, and they automatically head to the stairs without as much as a glance towards the elevator. On his way up Charles wonders if it’s been fixed without anybody noticing, but then the sober part of his brain decides on not liking the tipsy part of his brain because even if they didn’t notice the end result, surely they would’ve at least seen the bunch of repair… people. God, drunk brain! Get lost.
As he marches down the hallway to his apartment, he bumps to a wall one time and trips on his own feet as a result, but he tsks at it, so it’s fine. The keys clink with the lock as he fumbles to get them to enter the small, tight… Oh yes, that is definitely an intersection of the two parts of his brain.
Speaking of which, his brain ‒ both parts, but mostly the intersection ‒ wanders towards the picture of a particularly good-looking fellow next door.
And like clockwork, said fellow peeks out his door.
“Mind keeping it down? I can’t sleep with all your thumping and giggling,” says the man.
“Oh really?” Charles giggles, and realizes he didn’t realize he’s been giggling. “Is that way too adorable for you? Maybe a turn on?”
The man raises an eyebrow on his grumpy-looking face. “Sure. I’m so turned on by drunk people.”
“Who says I’m drunk? I’m not drunk,” Charles states as he inches closer to the guy he definitely sees as a mega-gorgeous demi-god at the moment. He places a hand on his muscular chest and looks up. “I might be a bit tipsy though.”
“Uh huh.”
Charles laughs. “Ah, there is that precious smile! You can’t keep that stern face on too long around me! I always break you, Erik.”
“You can’t break me,” he says, and Charles is too drunk to notice the seriousness in his voice. “But you sure know what to do to make me smile.”
Charles giggles some more before getting on his tiptoes to press a kiss on Erik’s mouth. He’d go further and deeper, but Erik puts his arms around his waist and pushes him, firmly yet tenderly, through the door.
“Let’s get you to bed,” says Erik as he leads him into his bedroom where Charles, of course, absolutely knows the way to, and he’s happy to oblige.
“Oh, I’d like that…”
“Don’t think for a second that I’m going to fuck you in this state. You’ll sleep here under my watch, and that’s it.”
“And also because you’d like to cuddle.” Charles smirks at him knowingly.
Erik won’t admit that out loud, he’s not the guy to be affectionate with his words, but he does get Charles naked, tugs him in bed, brings him a glass of water (makes sure he drinks it), and hugs him tight when he finally gets into bed too.
The next thing Charles takes notice of is the light being very bright and the warmth of Erik’s body being gone. He’s very pleased to find a fresh glass of water on the nightstand when he opens his eyes. He’ll make sure to give a five-star review for his hotel.
After a few minutes of getting his pieces together and then hiding those pieces under last night’s jeans and shirt he just can’t be bothered to button, he walks out to the kitchen where he finds his perfect demi-god at the stove, humming lightly.
“Owner takes good care of you, especially when you’re drunk, and even cooks for you in the morning. Absolutely recommend staying here. Five stars.”
Erik lets out a laugh without turning around. “I took the liberty to make pancakes, I hope it’s okay with you, your majesty.”
“I hope you mean that with a capital M,” says Charles as he settles down on a chair behind Erik.
“Of course, your Majesty. Your breakfast, your Majesty,” Erik mimics a robot voice as he slides a plate to him, and so takes a short break to kiss him. “What got you so drunk yesterday?”
“Again, I’d like to remind you that I was not drunk,” says Charles, and takes a small bite of his pancake, determined to wait for Erik to finish cooking. “I was out with the lads. They said ‘guys’ night,’ so Raven wasn’t invited.”
“She must’ve been bummed about that.”
“Eh, remember that time we all went out together? I told you about it, I reckon. When she was there, and got all defensive about me getting to know Moira…”
Erik huffs with a hint of jealousy in his voice. “Ah yes, Moira.”
“Come on…” Charles gets up and walks to the man to hug him from behind.
“Don’t you ‘come on’ me until I’m just your little secret. I swear it’s like I’m a lab rat.”
Charles sighs. “We’ve been over this. You’ve seen Logan and all his macho-ness, I think you can imagine his reaction, and you know how protective Raven is… I’d rather not lose any friends. But I am going to tell them, I just want to find the right moment.”
Erik switches off the stove and turns around to face him. “And if the right moment never arrives?” He seems like he’s not even waiting for an actual response but rather just hesitates whether to say the thought that’s lingering in his head.
“What?” Charles asks, and the look on Erik’s face is like he’s read his mind.
“I think you’re just ashamed of me,” Erik finally spits out. He doesn’t break eye contact though.
Charles’ face falls. “Why would I be ashamed of you?”
“I don’t know if it’s my personality or my gender. I’m honestly hoping it’s just the second one because if it’s me, that raises a whole lot of questions.”
Charles looks at him with the pure expression of ‘You seem like you’ve been over those questions a lot in your mind,’ and pulls him close. “I’m not ashamed of any part of you. I’m just not ready yet.”
“So you’re a coward.”
Charles is slightly taken aback at that but can see Erik’s point. “Look, Raven has this thing today. I’ll try to tell her today.”
“One person? Wow.”
“I want to give a finger and you want the whole hand…”
“Okay, if it’s only one person at a time, there’s no trying. You tell her today.”
So it happens that the day goes by without Charles saying anything about Erik or just guys in general. It’s not that he doesn’t mean to do it, but it just doesn’t come up, and he can’t make himself start the topic.
Erik checks on him after Raven’s left (it takes no real effort to hear the chatter on the other side of the wall ‒ or lack thereof), and Charles says “I’m sorry… I have so many thoughts in my head all the time, it’s hard to focus sometimes,” and that he’s going to try again. Erik tries to set his mind right by fucking him hard into the mattress.
The next day goes by uneventfully, and so does the day after that, and the one after that, without him saying anything to anyone. Erik is starting to get pretty impatient which, as Charles discovers, is a mildly terrifying state of his, and in all honesty, he really doesn’t want to see what he’s like in full impatience or anger mode. Or, well, at least not when it’s not sex-related.
More than a week later he’s got his friends over which basically means some friction between Raven and Moira, and some visible pining between Raven and Hank. Jean’s not there, so Logan’s okay. Actually, Logan’s always just okay, silently radiating alpha male energy from a corner somewhere.
Raven’s explaining an incident that happened at work earlier today when a guy made a pretty obscene comment on her appearance.
“I mean, apart from the rudeness of that,” says Hank, “I can actually see the resemblance. You do look like Jennifer Lawrence.”
Logan hums in agreement.
“You could do some kind of a cosplay or something, you know, become her. People get famous for this kind of stuff now.”
“What would she do with fame?” Moira chuckles.
The doorbell rings at that point, and Charles feels very lucky to be able to escape from whatever hell’s about to be raised. But when he opens the door, he’s not sure anymore.
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s so nice to see you too, darling,” Erik smirks at him teasingly, then holds up the bottle of wine in his hand. “Movie night, remember?”
Oh shit, he completely forgot about that. He’s so happy to see him, and he’d love to spend time with him, but…
“Yeah, of course I remember, but my friends insisted on coming over because Raven’s had a really bad day, and‒”
“Great, so you can introduce me,” Erik says with a pointed look.
“Yeah, about that…”
Now Erik looks disappointed, and it breaks Charles’ heart. “How long are you planning on keeping this up?”
The memories of all the times Charles has gathered his courage to tell them are now raining back into his mind like a heavy thunder, and looking up at Erik’s sad face, he feels shame crawling up in him. What a coward he’s actually been! Ridiculous.
Before he could answer though, Erik pushes him away from the door with a grunt, and marches into the living room determinedly. Charles hurries after him.
The chatter dies out when they spot Erik, and Charles can see the way Logan instantly sits up, alert, and also recognizing the other alpha male energy in the room. He doesn’t have the best past with that.
“Hello,” says Raven. Charles can almost see the hearts in her eyes, and it moves something uncomfortable in him.
Erik just firmly stares back at all of them, then cocks his head slightly to the side to look at Charles. The little shit even manages to angelically blink at him.
Charles sighs resignedly. “Guys, this is Erik,” he says, and slides an arm around the man’s waist, “my boyfriend.”
Even though Charles thought he knew his friends very well, he wasn’t expecting this. The next thing that happens is… nothing. Everyone just looks at them blankly, maybe familiarizing Erik from head to toe for a few moments, and then they smile, nod, and go back to continue their conversation as if nothing happened.
Charles feels paralyzed with disbelief. Have they always known? Has he somehow hinted at Erik specifically? Or is it that they just don’t care?
He feels a hand on the side of his face, and then sees Erik in front of him, smiling. “See, it wasn’t that painful,” he says, and God, he has no clue. He slowly kisses Charles on the mouth before putting the bottle of wine at the table, for which he earns some happy noises in return, and sits down at the opposite side of the couch from Logan.
With all his charm, Erik smoothly involves himself in the conversation, although he’s not so much different from Logan in the amount of talking time. Everyone seems to like him. Especially Raven.
Charles sort of relaxes, and goes to sit beside Erik. He puts his head on the wide shoulder and smiles.
A couple of hours pass by, full of fun and talking, then they decide to take their leave. After the door closes, Erik looks at Charles with an annoyed expression on his face, and says, “That was enough for a lifetime. Your friends are lame.”
Charles has to, almost physically, stop his hand from facepalming himself. Or Erik. An irritated eye roll has to do instead, at least for now.
Nincsenek megjegyzések:
Megjegyzés küldése
Gondolatok? Kritikák? Kérdések?
Kíváncsi vagyok a véleményedre! Ha szeretnéd megosztani, ne habozz. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°