Theme Challenge #1: Love
Theme #1: Love
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Erik/Charles
Word Count: 293
Warnings: None
Erik has spent years without even the notion of romantic love; the last real feelings of fondness and devotion he had for anyone dying with his mother. Love, for Erik, is something that drunken girls (or less often boys) slur out as they scratch their nails down your back, something to pretend you didn’t hear. His concept of romance involves picking the other person’s clothes off the carpet before you sneak out the door.
Charles, in contrast, has what he knows is a rather fairy-tale vision of love. True love- the kind where the handsome prince stabs a dragon a few times and then crowns the princess queen- is not exactly a realistic idea, but years of reading stolen storybooks under the covers has left him with lasting expectations. Charles is the sort of man who stays the night, cooks you breakfast in the morning, and then slips off silently before anyone realizes what’s going on.
Erik bites and Charles kisses, Erik thrusts and Charles rises up to meet him. They compromise, in their ideas and in their bed, and neither of them is quite prepared to call what they have anything other than “an arrangement”. Charles is still waiting for his prince and Erik is still a staunch non-believer in romance.
So it’s a little startling when Charles sits across from Erik, moving his chess pieces around the board, and realizes that his prince is already there. Erik has a similar moment a few days later, lying with his arms around Charles stomach and his lips pressed against the back of his neck; when his heart suddenly feels very, very full and his chest begins to ache in a not-completely-unpleasant way.
Sometimes, they realize, love isn’t what you think it will be.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Erik/Charles
Word Count: 293
Warnings: None
Erik has spent years without even the notion of romantic love; the last real feelings of fondness and devotion he had for anyone dying with his mother. Love, for Erik, is something that drunken girls (or less often boys) slur out as they scratch their nails down your back, something to pretend you didn’t hear. His concept of romance involves picking the other person’s clothes off the carpet before you sneak out the door.
Charles, in contrast, has what he knows is a rather fairy-tale vision of love. True love- the kind where the handsome prince stabs a dragon a few times and then crowns the princess queen- is not exactly a realistic idea, but years of reading stolen storybooks under the covers has left him with lasting expectations. Charles is the sort of man who stays the night, cooks you breakfast in the morning, and then slips off silently before anyone realizes what’s going on.
Erik bites and Charles kisses, Erik thrusts and Charles rises up to meet him. They compromise, in their ideas and in their bed, and neither of them is quite prepared to call what they have anything other than “an arrangement”. Charles is still waiting for his prince and Erik is still a staunch non-believer in romance.
So it’s a little startling when Charles sits across from Erik, moving his chess pieces around the board, and realizes that his prince is already there. Erik has a similar moment a few days later, lying with his arms around Charles stomach and his lips pressed against the back of his neck; when his heart suddenly feels very, very full and his chest begins to ache in a not-completely-unpleasant way.
Sometimes, they realize, love isn’t what you think it will be.