A/N: Revised edition! Yeah!

I'm what?"

"Failing." Erik stared incredulously at Ms. Munroe. Sure, he'd gotten a couple of bad test grades…well, mostly bad test grades actually, and he'd missed a couple of homework assignments, but failing? "I'm sorry Erik, but your grade in my class has been going into a downward spiral for this entire term. And from what I've heard from my colleagues, so have the rest of your grades." Ms. Munroe folded her arms and frowned at him across her desk. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Erik stared at the little pink slip. "Can I do any extra credit?"

"No. Extra credit is for students who want to bump up their grades from B+s to As, not students who show no effort whatsoever. My recommendation is that you find yourself a tutor."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Most of the students here were afraid of Erik. Mainly because he wore leather jackets and smoked and glared at everyone.

"I'll tell you what." Ms. Munroe sighed. "I can get you one of my brightest to tutor you, if you promise to actually put some effort into your work."

"Okay." Anything to avoid bringing that little pink slip home to his mother. She'd be crushed, unless Erik could find a way to convince her it didn't actually mean he was failing. Unfortunately, her English wasn't that bad. "Who?"

Ms. Munroe leaned around her desk. "Charles, may I speak to you for a minute?"

Oh no. She had to be kidding.

"Yes Ms. Munroe?" Charles Xavier, possibly the worst person to hang about for any length of time, hurried up to the desk. Erik groaned.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favor, and tutor Erik here." Erik was praying that Charles would say no. Ms. Munroe was a cool teacher - she was actually from Africa, and had white hair that half the school swore was genetic and the other half claimed was dyed, and taught an interesting class.

Sure, Erik slept through her lectures on Environmental Science most of the time, but the couple times at the start of term he was awake he'd been interested. So surely, surely, she could tell that making Erik spend any amount of time with Charles freaking Xavier was a terrible idea.

"I can do that." Charles turned his enormous blue eyes on Erik. "What are you having trouble with?"

"Nothing." Erik lied. "I can bring up my grades on my own."

"You certainly cannot, or you would have done it by now." Ms. Munroe said sharply. "Charles is my best student Erik, and you're likely to fail if you don't let him help you."

"But…" Charles flashed him a smile. Charles always smiled at people, a trait Erik found positively bewildering, considering how few people smiled at Charles.

"Look, we can meet up after school okay?" Charles shifted his backpack strap. "Unless you have a study hall today or tomorrow."

"After school in the library." Erik glared at Charles. Ms. Munroe sighed.

"I'll see you there." Charles trotted back to his desk and picked up the rest of his books. Erik couldn't believe his bad luck. He stalked out into the hall, half hoping someone would give him an excuse to start a fight.

That wouldn't look good on his report card, but it would sure as hell help his mood.

"Hello, Erik." Emma fell into step next to him. "You look happy."

"Shut it, Frost." She snickered. Erik was one of the few people in the school who could get away with rudeness towards Emma Frost, the undisputed queen of Manquin High School. Emma Frost was blonde, gorgeous, and every boy in school was willing to do nearly anything to get her attention.

Charles was an exception to that rule.

"Move, fag." Erik glanced across the hall to see Azazel shove Charles into a locker hard enough to make the much smaller boy rebound off it. That was the generally accepted reason for Charles not ever trying to impress Emma.

Erik thought it was possible that Charles was just smart enough to know that he didn't have a chance with Emma anyway, seeing as no one had actually confirmed whether or not he was gay. Janos claimed the guy had kissed him and asked him out, but Erik was…not entirely sure that Janos could be trusted.

Anyway, considering that Charles was short and slight and had succulent pink lips and long fingers and wavy brown hair, and had never dated a girl, it was no wonder the rumor mill had labeled him as gay. And the resident Teacher's Pet - Charles was always talking to a teacher, or answering a question, and he carried around more books than the entire cheer squad combined.

Erik had never had a conversation with him and never wanted to have a conversation with him. But somebody had to be at the absolute bottom of the social ladder, and Charles had accepted the position with a cheerful attitude. Erik himself had been instantly categorized as the bad boy, and accepted into Emma's circle (he wasn't quite sure how that happened, but suspected it had to do with his looks).

"Little shit." Azazel grumbled. He moved to a position by Emma's shoulder. "I swear, next time he bumps into me with that enormous backpack, I'm knocking his head off his shoulders."

"Be careful." Erik sighed. "That's my new tutor you're talking about."

"You cannot be serious." Emma burst out laughing. A rare action, for someone Erik had (at least inside his head) nicknamed Ice Queen. "The Professor is going to be spending time with you?"

"At least you can confirm for us whether he's as rich as they say he is." Janos offered. He always appeared when Azazel did. Both of them were on the football team, and Erik suspected the entire female population at Manquin had a crush on one or the other.

Not that he blamed them, Janos was gorgeous. Not that Erik had ever looked.

"Oh, he's loaded." Emma opened her locker and sneered across the hallway at Charles. The boy had recovered from his brush with the lockers quickly, and was loading different books into his backpack. "Principle Shaw knows the Xaviers - they could buy the crown jewels if they wanted to. Makes you wonder why he doesn't wear better clothes."

"Who knows." Azazel leaned against the lockers. Azazel didn't carry books around. They appeared on his desk. "So your highness, are we going out tonight?"

"You wish." Emma sniffed. Erik and Janos snickered. "I'm going to spend the night giggling over Erik's date with Professor 'I'm going to Oxford' Xavier."

"It's not a date, it's Ms. Munroe forcing me to spend time with that little nerd!" Erik snapped. His gaze flickered across the hallway. Charles either hadn't heard them, or was ignoring them. "I'd ditch him, but she'd throw a fit."

"Whatever you say Erik." Emma rolled her shoulders.

Erik leaned against the school and hoped that maybe his tutor wouldn't show up. It would be a bit humiliating to be ditched by the lowest of the low, but then he wouldn't have to go through with the session. Unfortunately, Charles trotted up as soon as Erik lit a cigarette.

"Did you know that smoking can give you 12 different kinds of cancer?" Erik stared at Charles.

"And hello to you too."

"It also makes your teeth and fingernails yellow. And it's illegal to buy cigarettes if you're under eighteen." Erik ground his teeth. "It also smells positively revolting."

"These sessions are going to be hell." Charles smiled at him.

"So could you please stop?" Erik rolled his eyes and extinguished his cigarette. "Thank you."

"You know Ms. Munroe wants you to tutor me, not critique my personal habits."

"Well yes, but since if you smoke near me I'll inhale the smoke and that increases my risk of cancer, I'm really only worrying about my health. Though yours is probably suffering as well." Charles yanked a book out of his bag. "What subject do you want to start with?"

"What do you mean, which subject? You're only helping me with Enviro." Charles smiled at him apologetically.

"Well, the thing is, Ms. Munroe told the PreCalc teacher and the Classics teacher and the History teacher that I'm your tutor now and they all told me to help you in their subjects…" Charles shrugged sheepishly. "Apparently, you're on the point of failing in those subjects too."

"Great." Erik groaned. His mother was going to kill him.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I can catch you up." Charles smiled at him. "It's just going to take some effort."

"Joy." Erik scowled. Charles held out the book. "What is this?"

"Our Environmental Sciences textbook, and I'm a bit worried that you don't recognize it. Did you do any of the homework?" Erik thought. He wasn't that bad a student, he'd done quite well back in Germany…

"I did the worksheets." Charles rubbed his forehead.

"So, about one homework in seven. Right. Do you at least have your own copy of the textbook?" Erik flushed angrily. He'd been going to buy one, but then he'd seen their electricity bill, and he hadn't had the heart to ask his mother for the money. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Pardon?" Charles blinked at him.

"That you didn't have the money." Erik stared at him. Charles backtracked. "Um, not that I mean that in a bad way, and I swear I'm not going to broadcast that or anything…please don't kill me?"

"How did you know that?" Charles had managed to take several steps back. Erik fought back amusement. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Oh, really? Thanks!" Charles stepped forward. "It was written all over your face."

"Great." Erik sighed. All he needed was a rich kid making comments about Erik's relative state of poverty.

"So, you can just have my textbook." Charles dumped it into his arms and began rummaging in his bag. "Now, I know I've got a preCalculus textbook…" it was dragged out and tossed at Erik. "And here's the World History!"

Erik stared at the mound of books he'd been given. How much were these worth?

"I can't take these." Charles zipped his backpack up again.

"Yes, you can. I can buy new ones. Besides, you're never going to pass if you don't do any of the reading, and if you don't pass I won't get any extra credit for tutoring." Erik had seen a few of Charles's test scores. He really didn't need extra credit.

Teacher's pet.

"Do you want to start with Environmental Sciences, since that's one you're in the most danger with?" Charles asked. Erik shrugged. "Good enough. I've got half an hour at the very most for this, so we can't really get deep into it, but I can at least figure out a study plan."

"You've got places to go?" Upon reflection, insulting the kid who was supposed to stop him from failing half his classes was a very bad idea. But thinking before speaking was never Erik's area of expertise.

"I have to pick up my little sister." Charles didn't seem insulted. "Do you have any study halls?"

"No." Lie, but Erik wasn't going to be caught dead with Charles during school hours.

"Well, I can't send anyone else to pick Raven up." Charles bit his lip. Erik tried not to be distracted. "Do you mind coming along? She's a quiet kid, and once I've got her we can go to a library."

"Whatever." Erik felt it would be somewhat rude to refuse such a simple request, especially when Charles had just given him three freaking textbooks. "Is it far?"

"Only a five minute drive." Charles led the way to the parking lot. Erik frowned.

"Aren't faculty the only ones allowed to park here?"

"Dr. Carroll takes public transit, and he said I could have his space." Teacher's pet. Charles trotted over to a BMW.

Charles had a foreign car that cost more than Erik's entire apartment building, and Erik couldn't afford textbooks. Life was unfair. Erik glanced around to make sure no one was watching - not that anyone hung out in the faculty parking lot, but better safe than sorry - and got in.

Erik hadn't been this close to small children in years. Charles hurried forward, scanning the crowds of elementary school students. Erik followed and tried not to touch anything.

"Charles!" Charles suddenly smiled, and for about a minute Erik could swear there was nothing else in the world except Charles, who was glowing. He blinked and shook his head.

"Hey Raven!" Charles grabbed an adorable blonde girl and tossed her in the air. "Did you have a good day?"

"Mmmhm." The blonde girl, whom Erik assumed to be Raven, caught a glimpse of him. She immediately buried her head in Charles's shoulder. Erik tried not to be insulted.

"Raven, this is Erik. Erik, meet my little sister, Raven." Two bright blue eyes appeared over Charles's shoulder, before Raven ducked her head again. "We're going to the library so I can help him with some schoolwork, okay?"

"Mmmhm." Charles smiled at Erik apologetically. Erik shrugged. He wasn't good with kids anyway. Unlike Charles, who, within five minutes of them being at the library, had found Raven a picture book and gotten her seated on his lap.

Those people who didn't think gay people should have kids clearly didn't know shit.

"So, how about we start with the homework. That's page 134, questions 1 to 13." Erik flipped to the page. "Do you understand any of this?"

Erik stared at the page. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Charles took one look at his face and quickly flipped back a chapter.

It took five chapters before Erik was working with things he actually recognized. Charles coughed.

"Well, we'll start from here then. I can see if Ms. Munroe will let you make up the work instead of doing tonight's homework, because if you don't understand this you certainly can't do our current work…" Charles shifted his chair closer to Erik's. Erik moved away.

"Whatever."

"Look, no one here knows you okay?" Charles rolled his eyes. "There are about three kids from our school who come to this library, and none of them come to the section meant for five year olds. So relax." Erik flushed. "Anyways. Let me explain the tectonic plate movement."

After two hours of explanations, Erik's mind was ready to implode. Also, he'd found out that Charles was better at explaining things than half the teachers he'd had, even the ones back in Germany.

"I think that's a good enough stopping point for today." Charles closed the book. "You look like you're either going to start screaming or curl up into a ball and whimper."

"I don't whimper." Erik emphasized. Charles raised his eyebrows.

"Of course not. That noise you were making when I was drawing the diagrams for the lunar pull was just manly growling." Erik laughed despite himself. "Do you have any questions about your homework for your other classes?"

"Um." Erik wasn't sure what his homework for his other classes was. Charles shot him an exasperated look.

"Erik, I'm trying to help you, but you've got to put some work into this. Don't you want to graduate?" Yes, Erik wanted to graduate. For his mother, if for nothing else. She'd worked so hard trying to get them to America, trying to get Erik any sort of future…

"I'll study." Erik finally said. Charles smiled at him, and it looked a little bit like the world-shattering grin he'd given Raven. Who was now asleep on Charles's lap.

"Excellent! Do you want to meet up tomorrow to go over PreCalculus?" Erik shrugged. He supposed that avoiding being at home to actually study was better than avoiding going home by wandering through the city until he found something to do.

"I guess." Charles got up, holding Raven on one hip. She yawned and snuggled her head into his jacket. "Your sister is adorable."

"Thank you." Charles smiled down at Raven. "Do you have any siblings?"

"No." Thank God.

"Pity, I find that they greatly enrich one's life." Maybe for the rich. "Do you want a ride home?"

"I'll take public transit."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow!" Charles gathered all his books into his arms. "Look over the textbook and see if you have any questions." Erik watched Charles leave. With Raven on his arm, he could've been a literal angel.

"Wo bist du gewesen?" Erik sighed and chucked his textbooks on the moth-bitten couch of the apartment. He still had trouble calling it home. "Wo hast du die Bücher bekommen?"

"Mit…" What was he supposed to call Charles anyway? He was hardly a friend. "Mit einen Klassenkamerad. Er hat mir bei den Hausaufgaben geholfen."

"Gut, gut." His mother beamed. Erik sighed. "Ist er gut in der Schule?"

"Ja Mutter." He really hated lying to his mother. "Ist das Essen fertig?"

"Ja." He went through their apartment to the kitchen. It was really a tiny place, with a living room that had only one small television and a couch, two closet sized bedrooms, and a kitchen that doubled as a dining room.

And despite that, they were still behind on rent. Charles probably lived in a huge house in suburbia with his darling little sister and read books and was gorgeous. Which Erik didn't think and even if it was slightly true it wasn't something he cared about, and why did he remember that one time Charles had wet his finger to turn the page of a textbook so vividly?

Erik was pretty sure his inability not to think about that was a bad sign. And that his neighbors were getting ready to play loud, impossible to sleep through, music. Again.

Fuck his life.

A/N: I fixed the German! *Fistpumps* Okay no, a wonderful reviewer did. But I'm still happy about it.

The translation is:

Mother: "Where have you been? Where did you get the books?"

Erik: "With…with a classmate. He was helping me with schoolwork."

Mother: "Good, good! Are you doing well in school?"

Erik: "Yes mother. Is dinner ready?"

Mother: "Yes."

I really love reviewers!