A/N: I forgot to say in any of the earlier notes-happy Valentine's Day!
Charles's eyes were still prickling fifteen minutes later. Erik's mother had offered to make them all an actual breakfast. Charles was used to energy bars for himself, unless he woke up early enough to find the maid and ask for her to make Raven some eggs.
"You have a lot of different kinds of bread." Charles noted quietly. He sipped at his tea.
"The old people who live beneath us give us food whenever I fix something in their apartment." Erik said. "D'you want any condiments?"
"Jam, I suppose." Charles nudged Raven. She was seated on his lap, and watching Ms. Lensherr move around the kitchen with some wariness. "Raven, do you want some toast?"
"Mmhm." Charles was fluent enough in tired five year old that he could interpret that as a "yes please". Well, a yes, at least. And he really wasn't in the mood to press her for the please right now.
"Here." Erik passed them a basket of different slices. Charles stared. "Take the one with the seeds, its best with jam."
"Thanks." Charles hesitantly took two pieces and the jar Erik passed him. "Look, I can pay you back for this."
"We're not that hard up." Erik said. He quickly corrected his tone. "I mean, it's fine. Mama, were you making tea?"
"Ja." Charles shifted uncomfortably as Erik's mother put a fresh cup down next to him. He was horribly aware that they were both drinking coffee, and clearly the only reason the tea was brewed in the first place was because of him. "Raven, would you like something to drink?"
"Mmhm." Raven didn't look up.
"Raven." Charles said. To chastise for being rude, or to let slide because she's tired and scared…
"It's fine." Erik's mother smiled understandingly. "Milk, maybe?"
"That would be lovely, thank you." Charles sipped his tea again. "And thank you for the bread. And um, jam and such."
"It's just breakfast." Erik said. "Seriously."
"I will need to go to work in minutes." Ms. Lensherr said. She looked a bit frustrated. "I can try to come home early."
"It's fine, Ms. Lensherr, really." Charles said quickly. He wasn't enormously familiar with the world of average jobs, but he didn't want her getting fired over him.
"That's very nice." She shot him a smile. "Erik, Schauen dir nach ihm."
One of these days, Charles needed to learn German. He was sure he could take a class in it at Oxford.
"Ja, Mama." Erik replied.
"Tschus, Charles, Erik." Erik's mother said. Charles stared down at his jam while she put on a coat and left.
"So." Erik said, clearing his throat.
"I have some schoolwork I need to catch up on." Charles blurted out.
"I think I do too." Erik shrugged. "I've got my textbooks here, if you want them."
"Oh no, I brought mine." Charles finished his piece of bread and got up, picking Raven up and putting her in the chair next to his. She was actually nibbling on her toast now, thankfully. He hesitated, trying to find how to word his next statement. "I um…do you mind if I lock your apartment door?"
"It's already locked." Erik said.
Oh. "Do you mind if I check?" Charles flushed.
"Go ahead." Erik looked at Raven. "Hey, you. What do you feel like doing today?"
"Coloring." Raven mumbled.
Charles checked the door. It was locked, and there was a deadbolt on it. That made him feel infinitesimally better. But in the rush to get out of the house, he hadn't managed to get anything of Raven's but another set of clothing and one of her books…
"I've got a notebook." Erik offered. "And some purple pens."
"Purple?" Raven perked up.
"Yeah." Erik got up. Charles focused on the ground. "They're in my room. Let me just grab them for you." Erik took the maybe four steps that were required to get from the kitchen to his room.
"Am I going to school?" Raven asked hesitantly.
Charles crouched in front of her chair. "No, not today."
"Tomorrow?"
"Maybe." Charles had a chem test tomorrow, he needed to be in school, and he hadn't brought a change of clothing for himself anyway. Oh, and he needed to call Moira, before she called their house to ask why Raven wasn't in school.
"I also found green and red pens." Erik walked back into the room. Charles scrambled back up. "Here."
Raven reached for them, and for the notebook Erik had given her. Charles coughed loudly. "Thank you."
"Thattagirl." Charles sighed. "Erik, I'm sorry, but I need to call her school…"
"Do you need a phone?" Erik sat down opposite Raven. He was also holding a Classics textbook.
"I have my cell." Charles hurried to the bathroom and dialed the number for Raven's kindergarten, praying that he would catch the secretary before they called home. The phone rang.
"Lincoln Elementary?"
Charles breathed out in relief. "Hi, this is Charles Xavier."
"Charles!" The secretary brightened. "Hold on, I'll connect you to Ms. McTaggert. We noticed that Raven wasn't in today."
"She's sick." Charles said apologetically. "I hope you didn't waste time calling home already - I haven't been able to get to the phone."
"No, I was just going to start the parent notifications." Thank any and every higher power that may or may not exist. Charles waited. "Just a sec, I've paged Ms. McTaggert. I hope you aren't sick too?"
Charles bit down on his tongue before answering. "No, not yet. Raven isn't very bad - she's just sneezing too frequently, I don't think she even thinks she's sick. But what with all the flu scares lately, I thought it would be best to make sure she didn't infect anyone."
"Ooo, has she not gotten her shots yet?" The secretary asked sympathetically.
Shit. Charles had completely forgotten that he needed to schedule them both appointments for flu shots. "No, but she has an appointment coming up soon, mother arranged it last week."
"Good on you for not bringing her in. After those lice last year…" Charles could practically feel the woman shudder over the phone. "Here's Ms. McTaggert. You look after yourselves, don't go getting sick too."
"I'll do my best." Charles waited as the phone passed hands. "Moira?"
"Charles!" Moira greeted him cheerfully. "Raven sick?"
"Unfortunately, with very light flu symptoms." Charles swallowed and rebouncied his tone. "I just wanted to let the school know we hadn't made an impromptu move to Britain or anything similar."
"Don't even joke." Moira said. "Well, she's not missing anything but coloring and the differences between T, E and F."
"I'm guessing you'll be writing FEET on the board quite often today." Charles rubbed his forearm around his stomach, and was rewarded with a dull throb of pain. "Good luck containing the odorous jokes."
"I have a small file in my brain devoted solely to reasons why smell-related humor isn't high grade material." Moira replied. "Will Raven be back tomorrow?"
"I…" Charles swallowed. Crap, crap, crap. "I'm hoping she'll be fine by then, but there's a faint possibility I'll keep her home another day. Just to be safe, since I'd really rather not risk infecting your entire school."
"Thanks for the consideration." Moira said wryly. "Well, I've got to get back to the classroom before a fight breaks out over the new crayons."
"If the kindergarteners tear you limb from limb, I'll be sure to send flowers."
"If only that wasn't a legitimate concern." Moira sighed. "I'll see you around. Give your parents my best, and tell Raven we all miss her."
"Will do." Charles ended the call and stretched. His back felt surprisingly okay.
Having gathered textbooks from Erik's room (and resisted the enormously strong temptation to poke around), Charles sat down across from Raven. "What are you drawing, sweetheart?"
"A dragon." Raven beamed at him.
Charles glanced at Erik, who raised his eyebrows. Charles couldn't actually tell how the mass of squiggles was a dragon either. He restrained a laugh.
"What are you doing in classics?" Charles asked. Anything to keep Erik talking so he didn't have to think about how he was going to get them both back home without Kurt blowing up.
"Gladiators." Erik shrugged.
"Ah." Charles debated making a joke about homoeroticism and decided to just concentrate on his physics book. "I think Raven has a children's book about someone named Spartapuss, if you want reference."
"Thank you for that generous offer." Erik rolled his eyes. "I mean, really thanks. I guess it could provide…cultural something."
Great. "Are you doing any Latin translations?"
"I would be amazed if our teacher even knows Latin, we're just talking about culture and different we - foods and sh - stuff."
"Oh." Charles resigned himself to studying physics and trying not to think about how his mother was doing right now.
Erik was just now realizing how grateful ought to be to his mother.
"No, Raven, we can't go to the Aquarium."
"I want to see a shark!"
"Raven, its two towns over, and its naptime anyway." Charles said severely. "In fact, I've let you stay up about half an hour past your naptime because Erik's here and you were drawing with him."
Erik was under the impression that he had been nodding while Raven babbled and scribbled, but that worked.
"No!" Raven took a deep breath.
"Raven, I am going to count down from ten." Charles had somehow managed to duplicate the voices of every primary school teacher Erik had ever had. "Erik, can she sleep in your room again? I'm sorry, I realize it's a bother - "
"It's three thirty, it's not like I'm sleeping there." Erik said.
"Raven, I'm going to count down from ten. If you're not in Erik's room when I get to one, I'm not reading you a story before nap." Charles said. Raven glared. He paused. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five."
It was truly amazing how each number managed to sound direr than the last.
"Four." Raven turned and marched off to Erik's room, a scowl planted on her face. "That's my girl." He turned to Erik. "I'll be right back."
Erik watched Charles retreat into his room and wondered how a day where he'd literally done nothing but study and listen to a five year old had managed to be this exhausting.
Charles was back a few minutes later. He sat down at the table and shuffled his notes. "Sorry."
"She still has a naptime?" Erik asked.
"She didn't sleep well last night, I assumed she'd crash whenever I gave her the okay." Charles coughed. "I sort of use naptime as a way to make her be quiet. God help me when she learns to tell time and realizes my strategy."
"Yeah." Erik's phone buzzed. "Give me a minute."
"By all means." Charles shifted. "Um, may I use your computer?"
"Sure. If it doesn't boot up immediately, just hit…" Erik winced internally. He was going to try to not talk about hitting things. "Just nudge the modem gently. It's on the kitchen table."
"Okay." Charles padded into the kitchen. Erik flicked open his phone.
U & Charles are both out! Is it
: ( Or ; )?
-J
Erik had a moment of panic. There was no way in hell Charles would want Janos knowing about any of this. He stared at the phone, tapping the edge with his fingers.
"Erik?" Charles glanced at him.
"Janos texted me. Apparently he noticed that you were out."
"Would you mind not telling him that I'm here?" Charles ran a hand through his hair. "I'm so sorry, I don't mean to make you lie on my behalf, especially not to your friend, but…"
"Don't worry about it." Erik slowly began the laborious task of finding out which letters corresponded to which numbers. Freaking texting…
I'm sick, jackass. No idea about Charles.
His phone beeped a response seconds later. It made Erik wonder about how much time Janos had spent texting to acquire those kinds of skills.
Heads up 4 2morrow: classics quiz & English project due
Erik grimaced.
"Everything okay?" Charles was busily typing at the keyboard.
"Just an unexpected quiz." Erik shrugged. "Do you want me to ask Janos to ask around for your homework?"
"Erik, the sight of your abysmal texting skills is making my fingers hurt. Don't bother." Charles frowned at the monitor. "Besides. Someone already sent it to me."
"Ms. Munroe?" Erik asked.
"No." Charles clicked on something. "I have no idea whose email that is."
Erik got up and moved behind Charles to peer at the screen. "perfection14 at yahoo?"
"Whoever it is, they did my English homework and I think they stole the study guide my calc. teacher uses." Charles blinked at the screen. "Trust me, Ms. Munroe wouldn't do that."
"You do have an email from her." Erik pointed out.
"Yeah." Charles closed the tab. "I'll check it later."
"Okay." Erik sat down next to him.
"Do you want help studying for Classics?" Charles asked.
"Nah. Classics isn't actually that hard." Erik was honestly regretting not spending any time studying at the beginning of the year.
"Is there something I can help with?" Charles looked around. "I've cleaned Raven's room for her, so if there's something you need to get done in the apartment, I'm sure I could be of some use."
Erik thought. "I have to do the dishes from breakfast."
"Excellent." Charles looked heartily relieved.
Doing the dishes went by quickly. Erik didn't say much.
"I'm going to head back home tonight." Charles said, when Erik was putting the basket in a cabinet.
"What?" Erik turned around.
"I think it's for the best."
"You know you can stay here as long as you want, right?"
"Yes, I've gotten that impression." Charles shrugged and kept rubbing what Erik was certain was a completely dry plate. "But I can't just completely upend everything and take off. All of Raven's things are at home, and so are mine, and besides mother is there, not to mention the fact that Kurt will find out that we're here at some point and then you'll probably end up out on your heads, and I'm really not going to do that to you. You and your mother have been far kinder to me than warranted anyway."
"We really haven't been." Erik said. "Are you sure you don't want to get your things and just come back to stay here?"
"All of my things wouldn't fit." Charles mumbled. "If I go between five and five thirty, he'll probably be eating dinner, and I can just lock us both in my room."
"If you're not in school tomorrow, I'll call the cops." Erik offered.
Charles blanched. "Please don't."
"I'll come over myself then." Erik said.
"Erik, please." Charles swallowed. "I know, you want to help, but it's not that simple."
Erik let out a frustrated noise. "Fine. Are you sure you don't want to stay one more night?"
"I don't want to impose." Charles shook his head.
"Can I do something?" Erik realized that the tone was angry and immediately corrected it. "I mean. Is there anything which I can do to help?"
"Not really." Charles said quietly. "I'm going to go pack up my things."
It was in this point in Erik's life that he came to an essential realization about his character. That being that he hated, nay, despised, being on the sidelines.
A/N: I'm going to try to actually write the next couple of chapters and finish this fic now