Charles Xavier's Seven Deadly Virtues (3/3)

[tzzzz]

Part 2

CHASTITY

“I think we should send Angel,” Erik remarks casually, moving his knight to put Charles in check. If not for the wheelchair and the curious absence of a Scotch and a martini, this could be one of their games a year ago - chess and strategy.

Except instead of gazing a Erik in that love-lorn adoring way that Charles is embarrassed to admit he used to, he’s scowling. “You and I have historically done well at recruitment.”

“Yes we have. But you and I are both busy men. Between your work in DC and setting up the school and my ‘other business,’ there isn’t a lot of time for recruitment. I agree that we should still handle the delicate cases together and that Angel is not the one to send to talk to parents about putting children in our care, but as useful as she is as a fighter, Angel doesn’t have the skill set for espionage work, which is the majority of our current agenda. And she’s missing too much of her own education to be a teacher. She needs to feel as though she is being of some use.”

“Since when do you care about feelings?” Charles knows that it’s his jealousy talking. For all of his brusque attitude and lack of charity towards weakness, there is one emotion towards which Erik is always sympathetic - the feeling of powerlessness.

“A general takes interest in his soldiers, Charles. Loyalty must be earned and of all our recruits, Angel is the least trusting of authority.”

Charles snorts. “More than Frost? She’d punch her diamond fist through your face if it were in her best interest.”

Erik waves it away easily. “I can understand the Machiavellian, Charles. Emma’s self-interest is easily identified and easily controlled. Angel’s feelings of inadequacy, however, make her unpredictable. You’ve read her. You know her past - she was heavily abused by her stepfather.”

“She told you this?” On one hand, Charles finds Erik to be the most unlikely person from whom to seek comfort. Charles himself fully admits to being the “nurturer” in their little makeshift household. Though Angel and Erik share an anger at the way the world has treated them that perhaps draws them together.

“She went with Shaw because he promised to treat her like a queen - the way no man has ever treated her. She’s desperate for approval.”

“So you’re going to step in to be the father figure?” Charles doesn’t need his psychology degree to understand that Erik is right - the best way to manage Angel is through her need for approval from a father-surrogate, but he’s frankly a little disgusted that Erik, or any man, is eager to fulfill that role for someone who undoubtedly confounds that desire with a sexual one.

“She’s already cast me in that role whether I like it or not. And as strange as it may be, Charles, I’m not immune to the rewards of serving as a mentor towards these young people.” Erik can’t mean that sexually, but Charles finds himself thinking it nonetheless.

“You have done an excellent job of it with Raven,” Charles admits. “And to a lesser extent with Alex.”

“Thank you. Though I think those have been joint efforts for the both of us. I’ve told her she should talk to you, but I think Angel is intimidated by you.”

“By me? A cripple and the official pacifist among us?”

Erik chuckles. “Believe it or not, you can be quite intimidating at times. Even to me.”

Charles frowns. It’s not like Erik to so blatantly admit to a weakness. There is a tenderness in Erik’s smile that lets Charles know that this admission is meant as a gift, but he can’t help but be indignant.

“I can’t help my power. You’re the one flying the flag of mutant and proud.”

“I’m not talking about your power, Charles, though you can’t fault anyone for being rationally terrified of what you are capable of.”

“If not my power, then what?”

“Well, to someone like Angel - your education, your race, this giant mansion. It’s easy to look at all you’ve accomplished and feel as though you could never be equal to it.”

Charles ignores their chess game, wheeling around the table to get closer to Erik. “Do you feel that way, my friend?”

Erik gives him a soft smile, cupping Charles’s cheek. “No, I find your upper-class British sensibilities more amusing than intimidating. And I know that we may not have had the same type of education, but I know that the lessons I learned are no less valuable than yours.”

“Yes, I can see how the ability to garrote a man with his own belt is much more useful than memorizing the works of Chaucer.”

“Infinitely more so,” Erik agrees. “Though I didn’t quite escape Chaucer either. Schmidt was especially fond of the Prioress’s Tale.”

Once again, Charles must feel guilty for being glad that Shaw is dead and that part of him that wishes he had suffered even more for what he did to Erik.

“If not my power and not my so-called ‘sensibilities,’ then what about me could you possibly find intimidating? Without my power there’s no question who between the two of us would win in a fight.”

Erik sighs. “I didn’t think you would understand.”

“Explain it to me and I’ll try.”

Erik stands, pacing agitatedly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Charles. But sometimes you’re too good. You’ve forgiven me so completely, when I think I would’ve killed you if you had gotten me paralyzed. You’ve taken this whole terrible situation much better than I ever could have expected. You still love me after all the awful things I’ve done and you still have faith in humanity after they’ve proven you wrong time and again. A part of me thinks you are naive, sometimes even stupid, but I admire that you can. Sometimes I feel like I’m tainting your virtue just by standing next to you.”

Charles is shocked, to put it mildly. He wishes, not for the first time, that he could stand and wrap Erik in a tight embrace. But a small mental nudge has Erik dropping down in front of him so Charles can pull him into a tight hug, kissing him gently and running tender hands all over him. How could Erik possibly feel intimidated by Charles when Erik has survived things that would have killed Charles or driven him insane? Charles has had the luxury to be good while Erik has had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of good in his soul, which makes him all the more breathtaking.

“I’m not that good, Erik,” he whispers. “I’m arrogant and certainly more of a hedonist than you are. I can forgive you because I have had the benefit of having seen thousands of lives - after seeing how many people are corrupted by vengeance and how many regret that they could not forgive, forgiveness is easy. I am selfish too - not as much as some would be with my power, but more selfish than I think you would be.” Selfish enough to keep all the jealousy and resentment he’s been feeling concerning Erik to himself.

Erik pulls back from Charles embrace. His eyes are shining and love is rolling off him in waves. Charles can’t help but bask in the feeling, dancing on the edge of Erik’s mind - just short of crossing the line into reading Erik without his prior permission.

Erik’s kiss begins chastely but is soon transformed by heat and passion. As far as Charles can tell, Erik has forgone sex for the entirety of Charles’s rehabilitation, so he’s probably desperate for it now. Charles can’t help but get swept up in Erik’s passion. They kiss for a long time, until Charles looks down to see the zipper of his pants slide down, seemingly of its own accord. Erik’s hand is reaching for him, but Charles feels nothing but numbness down there, despite the fact that before even a relatively chaste kiss from Erik would have had him hard and straining.

“Stop,” Charles says.

Erik pulls back, looking disheveled, a lopsidded, roughish grin on his face. “I suppose a bed would be more appropriate.” From his mind, Charles can see that he intends to sweep Charles up like some fainting heroine in a romance novel. It’s not the embarassment of needing that kind of treatment that causes Charles to still Erik’s hand, however.

“Erik, I don’t know how much you found out from the doctors, but I don’t think that . . . this might never be possible.”

Erik rocks back onto his heels with a frustrated sigh. “I’m sorry Charles. I suppose we should have discussed it before I practically jumped you. You seemed to be enjoying yourself, however.”

Charles can’t help but smile. “Last I checked, my lips were fine.”

Erik grins. “More than fine.” Then he sobers. “Look, Charles, I understand that we’re going to have to make a lot of changes because of what I did to you.” There it is again - the guilt that Charles despises. Objectively he knows that Erik isn’t just here out of pity, but it grates nonetheless. “I realize, now, how foolish I was to assume that just because you are content mauling me with your mouth, that you might be ready for more right away. Take as much time as you need. We can talk to the doctor together, if you’d like. I know that some of it will inevitably be awkward, but we’ll find a way to make it work.” He punctuates his statement with a chaste kiss.

Charles sighs. It’s come to this, finally. Charles doesn’t doubt that they can salvage something out of this. He can tell by the bulge in the front of Erik’s trousers that Erik still finds him attractive, wheelchair and all. But it wouldn’t be fair to Erik to keep him bound to a cripple when he has so many other possibilities. He could find someone whole, who will appreciate him as much Erik appreciates them. He could even find a woman who would give him the children that Erik seems to desire, even as he represses that want.

As for Charles, he’s frustrated at what he’s lost, but when he thinks about it, really thinks, he doesn’t feel like he’s gone without sex for nearly a year. He feels good. There’s no driving urgency to run passion to its completion. He would have sex with Erik because he still, more than anything, wants to make Erik happy. But if Erik would be happier with someone else, then Charles can’t really see the need for the charade.

He’ll always love Erik and he knows that Erik is not a man who forgets something like the love Charles’s telepathy has confirmed he feels for Charles. That is more than enough. Hell, he’d rather know how much Erik loves him than have doubt-filled, meaningless sex with him for the rest of his life.

“Erik,” Charles says. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not sure I will ever be ready for more.”

“Then I’ll wait.” Erik is stubborn to his core.

“And if I don’t want you to?” Charles asks.

They stare at each other a long time before Erik stands, pacing, looking caged and angry. “So this is it? You’re breaking up with me?”

Charles takes a deep breath, steeling himself for what he knows he must do. As much as he’d love to keep Erik beside him in his bed, to keep the kisses and the simple touches, he can’t do that to Erik, when he knows that Erik could have more. Erik deserves everything.

“Erik, I love you and you will always be my friend, and my partner and companion as long as you will have me, but I think it’s best if you moved to your own rooms again.”

“So you are breaking up with me.” Erik’s deadly matter-of-fact calm is more terrifying than his anger.

“In the sense that we can no longer continue the romantic aspect of our relationship, yes I am.”

Charles can feel the hurt rolling of Erik in waves, but he comforts himself in knowing that he is doing the right thing.

There are tears threatening at the edge of Erik’s eyes as he crouches down in front of Charles’s chair and makes one final plea. “If this is just a sex thing, Charles, I would rather stay with you. If what we have now is all we’ll ever have, than I would rather have it than not be with you. I did this to you, after all. I can accept the consequences.”

Charles doesn’t have the energy to have this fight again, but he must point out, “I don’t want you to stay with me out of guilt, Erik. That’s the last thing I want.”

“It’s not guilt! It’s accepting that I took this away from us. What I won’t accept is us having nothing.” Charles wants to believe him, but he was once a red-blooded and fully functioning man. He knows how hard it is to go without. He knows that for a while Erik won’t mind kissing him and jerking off in the shower, but eventually he’ll want more. Eventually he’ll need to find someone to at least have sex with and even though Charles thinks he has it in him to allow that, he knows that he would be absolutely devastated if Erik fell in love with someone else while still with Charles. No, better they stop this before it comes to that.

“Oh, my friend, what we have will never be nothing.”

“Then let me stay with you. I understand that you don’t feel up to it right now, but maybe later you will. And if you never do, then at least we’ll be together.”

“It’s more than I don’t feel up to it, Erik,” Charles sighs. “I don’t want it.”

Erik nods. “Okay, but you want to be with me and I want to be with you. We want the same thing.”

“No, my friend, we do not.”

Erik turns away before Charles can see the tears, but he hears the ragged inhale of breath, wet with moisture, his hand rising to wipe at his eyes. Charles is teary-eyed too, but he doesn’t call Erik back when he pushes himself to his feet, his usual grace gone. It’s ever harder not to call Erik back when he walks out the door, but Charles can do it. They’ll still see each other, talk strategy over drinks and chess. They’ll be okay. Erik will see. Soon enough he’ll realize that it’s all for the best.

KINDNESS

“Good job today, Raven,” Charles remarks. He can’t help but feel grateful for the opportunity to see his sister as the mature, competent woman that she has grown into. He still doesn’t need to see her naked and he still wants to keep her out of danger, but he glows with pride the same way he did all those years ago when they invented her blond form to fool Charles’s parents. Sometime in the intervening years, Charles had forgotten to marvel at the wonder of Raven’s mutation and her skill at using it. Bless Erik for reminding him how truly amazing his sister is in both body and soul.

Raven makes Striker’s face blush to show her pride even as she plays it down. “Most people don’t expect that there could be an exact duplicate of person walking around with their face.”

“Still, Raven, I don’t know where you came up with that brilliant outburst in Court today. His own wife didn’t even doubt.”

“I had enough opportunity to watch your mother and Kurt fighting,” Raven shrugs. They’ve started talking a little more about their childhood now too. Charles is beginning to wonder if being crippled is the best thing that ever happened to him. No one ever thought about him consciously as unapproachable before, but now he realizes what Erik meant when he accused Charles of arrogance. Without the blinders of his pride and the oblivious confidence it gave him, Charles has become a confidant, someone more human - even to his sister. He should have been able to do this for her long ago, rather than doing the British thing and sweeping their traumatic childhood under the rug, ignoring her insecurities about her appearance, and dealing with her slight crush on him with denial instead of honest examination.

“Well at least it served some purpose,” Charles grumbles.

Raven leans down and spontaneously hugs him. It’s weird with her wearing Stryker’s face, but Charles can feel the familiar outlines of her mind brushing up against his. She’s been more open about his telepathy as of late. Charles attributes the change to a conversation she had with Erik in which he accused her of hypocrisy for punishing Charles for asking her to hide her mutation while she forced him to cage his telepathy.

“I’m glad Erik asked you to do this instead of Emma.”

“I should hope so.”

Raven rolls her eyes. “Charles, she’s not that bad.”

“Ms. Frost uses her telepathy as a blunt instrument. The only difference between her method’s and Erik’s is that you can’t see the scars she leaves on the outside.”

“Except Erik usually leaves bodies, not scars.”

Charles ignores her comment. For all Raven was apparently ready to fall into Erik’s bed at the first hint of a compliment, she has initially thought he was dangerous for Charles. “And she has no art for subtlety. Running around dressed like a stripper, as though wearing all white would make it classier. People will remember her.”

“What’s wrong with being memorable?” Raven asks. They’re back to their old argument again: to hide or not to hide?

Charles believes in standing by his convictions, but he’s also come to realize that he could due to be a little less condescending about it. “Nothing, Raven. It’s just that it rather defeats the purpose of this particular assignment, doesn’t it? Considering that our main objective here is to make sure we’re forgotten?”

Charles is far too aware of how conspicuous the wheelchair makes him, but instead of using his identity as Professor of Genetics, as Erik suggested, Raven had gotten him a military uniform and suggested they forge him an identity as a decorated veteran of special ops, working with Stryker.

“I guess you have a point,” Raven agrees. “But why not be memorable if you’re going to wipe their minds afterwards anyway?”

“That just further proves why Emma Frost is like using a chainsaw to cut a piece of paper. What I’ve been doing is taking advantage of people’s natural inability to remember more than a certain number of faces and whatever worries they happened to have. Instead of forgetting meeting us entirely, they remember meeting with Stryker and his aid but being too preoccupied with something else to remember the details.”

“Maybe Emma just isn’t as good as you. Not everyone can be the great Charles Xavier,” she teases - a welcome change from the delicate way she treated him just after the accident.

“Indeed not. Now, that reminds me. While your were busy making a scene in the Courtroom earlier, I received a message from Ms. Frost. She and Azazel are back from Russia and Erik thinks we should regroup at the mansion tonight.”

“Good. I begged off a dinner meeting with McNamera due to the divorce proceedings.”

“Yes, the divorce. We need to win that.”

“What do you mean? He was horrible; his wife deserves all she can get. How do you even win a divorce?”

“His wife was cuckholding him five times over and can barely be found at the bottom of a bottle of vodka.”

“Charles, I’m not going to be Stryker forever. Just because your mother . . .”

“Raven, this has nothing to do with our mother and has everything to do with the fact that Stryker’s newborn son is a mutant.”

Raven gapes. “That’s not funny Charles.”

“You’re right. It’s not funny. Ironic, yes, but deadly serious.”

“Did he know? Is that why he was so interested in these things?”

“No. Simon is just a baby. He has mental abilities of some kind. He may be like myself and Emma or something else entirely. Right now all he’s done is project his dreams. The Strykers thought they were just having nightmares. I wonder if I did something similar as a child. Maybe that’s why mother . . .” Between the two of them he doesn’t need to finish the sentence. Raven knows that it ends with ‘didn’t love me.’

She pats his arm in a clumsy attempt at comfort.

“Well, watching him develop will be interesting to say the least,” Charles pronounces.

“What do you mean?” Raven asks. “I’m not going to stay as Stryker. We’ll have to fake his death eventually.”

“Well we can’t just leave him where he is!” Charles explodes. “His mother is on edge with those dreams. If she hadn’t been needed in court today, she was planning on drowning him. You need to go back there tonight - take care of the boy. Hire another nanny tomorrow so that Mrs. Stryker doesn’t even need to see him.”

“Couldn’t it just be that post-pregnancy psychosis thing?” Raven asks. Of course, as an orphan herself, she resents the idea of a child being removed from its family. “Mrs. Stryker will get over it.”

“I don’t think she will.” She doesn’t know about mutants, but she is as racist as they come and its not hard to extrapolate from there what she’ll do to a child who is ‘different,’ one she already fears and almost hates.

Raven nods, slowly, as if battling with herself. “Charles, I trust that you saw something awful in this woman’s mind, but I can’t divert time from our other mission to be the kid’s dad.”

“That’s why we’re going to take Simon in,” Charles replies confidently.

“And what about his other son, William? Is he a mutant too?”

Charles sighs. “It’s too early to tell. You and I manifested before we can remember, but Erik didn’t until he was 12 and Alex until 16. We’ll have to take him in as well.”

“Charles, that’s outrageous. Our house is no place to raise children!”

Charles scoffs. “It’s only going to be a school.”

“Fine. It’ll be very wholesome, but you’re meant to be their teachers, not their parents.”

“Raven, you of all people should know that there will have to be some live-in students for whom the school will have to be family. As much as we all want otherwise, we know that there are parents who will not accept mutant offspring.”

Raven’s sadness looks even more devastating on Stryker’s sallow face.

“Fine. But you’d better break it to the Ice Queen that there will be a baby in the house. Even if you are the stronger telepath, she’d probably eviscerate you with her bare hands if any of her outfits are ruined by baby spit up.”

Charles laughs.

“And you’ll have to break it to Erik,” she adds. “I doubt he wants a baby interfering with his plans for world domination.”

Actually, Erik loves children. Charles has caught him looking fondly on children playing on more than one occasion and the last mutant that they’d tried to recruit before Cuba had begged off because she had a baby, but Erik had held the little boy with such awe that he barely noticed her mother showing off her power of minor fire manipulation.

But, as much as children make Erik happy, he is also the master at putting his own happiness below the needs of the mission. Charles wonders if Raven is right and that with a baby in the house, Erik will have to spend more time off on the other bases in order to protect the child from his plans.

“I’ll take care of it.”

A little mental manipulation and they win the custody case that very next day. Mrs. Stryker is shocked that the judge wouldn’t award even partial custody to the mother, but she is secretly glad - last night, when her husband had, in a rare act of kindness, offered to stay in the house with the children while she spent the night in a hotel, she had gotten the first night of nightmare-free sleep since her second trimester. She hadn’t even needed alcohol to keep the dreams at bay. She’ll miss William Jr., though. He’s only 4 years old, but already so much like his father.

CHARITY

As predicted, Erik had been as taken with little Simon as he had been with the last infant Charles had seen him hold. He’d rocked and cooed at him, not even bothering to remove his stupid helmet and the ridiculous cape he’d taken to wearing before scooping him up in his arms and calling him a beautiful boy in German.

“He’ll be a telepath, like you?” he asks Charles, after pulling the helmet off when Simon reached for it. Erik is smiling for the first time Charles has seen him after he ended things six weeks ago. Not that he’s seen much of Erik. Between frequent trips to Russia and the way Erik has been throwing himself into the construction of a new cerebro, Charles only sees Erik at mealtimes, and then Erik efficiently shoves food into his mouth before wishing everyone a pleasant day and leaving.

“It’s too early to tell,” Charles replies. He can’t help but grin at the sight of the Great Magneto making faces at an interested baby. “That his powers have a mental component is all we know right now. Emma and I don’t know how much power we had at this age, but I do remember how hard it was for me, to learn the difference between thoughts and voices. I didn’t really learn to talk for a long time, didn’t cry either, just compelled my parents to do things for me. Thank god I never actually talked to them mentally, because I hadn’t learned words until I understood how much they wanted me to speak. Simon won’t have to worry about that. I’ll shield him if I need to and get him to speak mentally as well as verbally. ”

“He’ll be your son, then,” Erik replies.

“He’ll be a student.”

“Charles, if you raise him from a baby, he’ll be your son in all the ways that count. If he becomes half as powerful a telepath as you are, he’ll be your rightful heir.” Erik looks regretful now, but distracts Simon from his unhappiness by floating a few of the metal balls he keeps as weapons above Simon’s head like a mobile. Erik would make a wonderful father, Charles thinks. No, Erik will make a wonderful father, because now that Charles has let him go, he’ll be free to find someone who will give that to him. Charles himself will have his own students, and he has Simon now.

“I suppose,” Charles acknowledges. “Though, thanks to your completion of Cerebro, I think we’ll have more students in here soon. This morning I managed to locate Alex’s brother for him.”

“Scott?” Erik asks. Charles had forgotten how close Alex had gotten to Erik after Cuba. Of course Erik would know about Scott. He probably knew before Alex shyly asked Charles to help him find the brother he’d lost.

“Yes. He has a similar mutation to Alex, but he shoots blasts from his eyes. He’s in a special orphanage for handicapped and troubled youth, but I think we can do better. We’re flying to Omaha tomorrow to pick him up. You could join us, if you’re not busy. Sean and Raven-as-Stryker are taking care of Will and Simon while we’re gone. And I have a list of potential adult recruits for Angel.”

“Excellent, I’ll get them to her. I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you, however.”

“That’s fine. You’ll be here when Scott arrives, though? I know Azazel and Emma are otherwise occupied, but I was hoping that as much of his new family as possible could be here to welcome Scott home.”

Erik sighs, running a hand through his hair, regret is pouring off him so powerfully that Charles has to pry. “Erik, what is it?”

Erik meets his eyes and for the first time Charles realizes that Erik isn’t just sad - he looks exhausted.

“I’m not sure that the students should get to used to me,” Erik replies.

Charles’s heart is in his throat. He knew it was beyond what he could hope for Erik to agree to teach, but they were partners still, weren’t they? United for the mutant cause? “What do you mean?” Charles hoped that this wasn’t some expression of the death wish that Charles had hoped died with Shaw.

“I’ve started to realize that though we are fighting for the same thing, I don’t think that our business can be intertwined in any way.” Erik looks down at Simon and Charles can feel that Erik already cares for him and wants deeply to protect him. “Not only does ‘our other business’ - my business, really - have anything to do with a school, but if this is meant to be a sanctuary for mutants, then it must be the strongest sanctuary it can be. Like it or not, what we’ve been doing is risky and I don’t want you or the children to be at risk.”

Erik is right of course. Their “other business” has really always been Erik’s business. The goal of a safe world for mutants might be the same, but the means that Erik and Charles are going about it are so different. But from the moment that he’d pulled Erik out of the water in Florida, Charles had wanted him by his side. All of his dreams had them working together, not staying apart for the greater good.

But it was, indisputably, the right choice. “What do you have in mind?”

Erik takes a deep, bracing breath. He doesn’t look any more ready for this than Charles is, but he’s clearly been planning this out for some time.

“We’ve already taken over Shaw’s facilities and financial assets. We’ll obviously need your help from time to time, especially with Cerebro. And I will set up safehouses that will be accessible to you at any time, but there will be some that you won’t know about - for all of our protection. Any mutants of the appropriate age either of us finds will have the choice about which wing of our movement they would like to join. I will be in contact, whenever you need me.”

“You’ve talked this over already with the others?” Charles asks.

“Yes. Mystique, Emma, Angel, and Azazel will work with me. Havok, Banshee, and Riptide will stay here. Beast will split his time.”

Everything else, Charles could have predicted, but Hank’s choice took him by surprise. “I thought surely Hank would stay on as an instructor.”

“Only until you find a suitable replacement.”

“But . . .” the boys were on Charles’s side. He’d trained them and cared for them. Except that was wrong - Erik had helped just as much.

“Beast is a high caliber researcher that we found in an experimental government lab. Not only is teaching schoolchildren a waste of his talents, but any one of his experiments could potentially be dangerous to the students. At his request, I’ve already been building him a lab in our Swiss base. He can blow himself up and nothing will suffer but the Alps. Azazel will transport him back here for a week each month, where he can work on less dangerous things with you.”

“What about Will? He needs Raven here.”

“Raven will stay here until the two of you are finished with your memory wipes, at which point we will tell Will that his father is dead.”

“Erik, we can’t.”

“His father is dead, Charles. I killed him myself.”

“And Azazel? I was counting on him to teach.”

“Azazel can be where he wants when he wants. Besides, we just rescued another ten mutants from the Russian facility, remember? Once you teach them English, I’m sure one would be happy to help you teach the students Russian. I think Piotr said he once wanted to be a school teacher.”

“Speaking those other mutants, when can I meet them?”

“The ones that want to learn will be here in the morning.”

But Erik won’t be. Erik will be gone. Even though Charles doesn’t doubt they will still see each other, Erik will be somewhere else, doing something else and probably only telling Charles about it when it blows up in his face.

Erik stands, easing the baby into Charles’s arms. “If there are no objections, Azazel, Angel and I will be leaving for Argentina soon.” He bends down to kiss Charles’s forehead. On one hand it’s a paternalistic gesture, but on the other it’s so tender that it breaks Charles’s heart.

Erik pauses, but Charles is not going to ask him to stay. He know he has to let Erik go.

“Goodnight, my friend,” Charles manages, hoping that he sounds stronger and more confident than he feels.

“Goodnight.”

It sounds like goodbye.

The end.

P.S. Charles and Erik will return soon in “Erik Lensherr’s Seven Heavenly Sins.”