They have, Erik realises, fallen into a routine. It's a subtle shift that's hard to pinpoint precisely when it began, but they are here now and it's difficult to decide how he feels about this.

Xavier Mansion: West Wing

02:06

Like clockwork every night, Charles will roll over, wrap an arm around his waist, one leg thrown over Erik's legs and the other jammed right between Erik's thighs. His breath will come out in short soft bursts against the back of Erik's neck, while Charles snuffles and groans, squeezing him tighter.

Erik will elbow him in the gut and wonder exactly when he became the equivalent to a child's stuffed toy.

02:45

The second time Erik wakes up, it's to the sound of shuffling feet. Frankly he's surprised he's slept this long. He's lying on his back now and Charles has got his leg hooked over him, the side of his cheek pressed against Erik's throat, snoring lightly, completely dead to the world.

Fucking asshole.

Sometimes Erik envies this ability of his to fully block out the rest of the world and fall asleep so easily, regardless of what lurks underneath his easy smiles and flushed cheeks. Erik it seems has been under the misinformed impression that a telepath would have difficultly sleeping, what with a thousand silvery strands of thoughts running rampant, tugged at the seams constantly around them.

Charles, it seems, is eager to defy Erik's expectations.

He waits a few beats in the stifling heat. There's the sound of the floorboard creaking outside their room which goes off like a cannonball - well, technically it's Charles' room, except that it hasn't been, not for a while, and what's the point, the children know thanks to Alex walking in and promptly leaving with a shriek - and Erik knows with absolute certainty that it's got to be Sean.

If Charles were awake he'd go and investigate. Of course, the last time he did that he returned blushing furiously with a copy of Playboy confiscated from Sean's room, courtesy of Alex. That was a good night.

Erik decides it's best to leave it.

Boy needs to build his stamina, and he's seen the issue, it's pretty damn good stuff.

Jayne Mansfield could do with a few more admirers.

04:20

Charles hand is in his hair and Erik's starting to get a crick in his neck. He also needs to take a piss. He contemplates how quickly he can remove himself from Charles hold.

04:25

Good god, Charles is like an octopus.

04:27

It takes him a further two minutes before he can extract himself from Charles' vice-like grip. Charles sniffles and groans and Erik can't help but drop a kiss on his forehead and brush his hair back until he's quiet again.

God, he's pathetic.

Erik's never been more grateful of the fact that Charles can sleep like the dead.

04:32

He doesn't like to delve into these things too much, but Raven's taken hostage of the bathroom and he really does need to use the facilities. Right now, to be specific.

He bangs hard on the door for the third time. 'Raven, for Gods sake what are you doing?'

Theoretically it shouldn't be a problem. They live in a mansion, a castle with a thousand rooms, and probably more bathrooms than that. Except that this is Erik's bathroom, and he doesn't want to come in and have it smelling of some sort of fruity shampoo and accidentally sprits Chanel No 5, only to have Charles tease him mercilessly about this while the kids laugh into their cereal bowls. It's happened before - they couldn't eat with their spoons and forks for the rest of the day, he made sure to bend Charles' more than the rest.

The door opens a crack and Raven's face peeks out. 'What do you want?' she asks.

He raises a brow. 'What do we use the toilet for, Raven?'

'Well go use another one, I'm in here,' she snaps back at him with a huff.

Erik tries to be fair, he really does, except he can't when it comes to this. 'Raven, this is my bathroom. Out. What are you doing in there anyway? I'm sure it doesn't take that long to use it.' Raven starts to flush a deep shade of red and Erik smirks at her. 'Unless you're taking part in an activity not yet known to mankind. Please do share, Raven.'

She lets out a long insufferable huff, before looking down at Erik's feet, then back up at him making sure to avoid his eyes. It's as if she's working herself up for something, talking herself into some courageous act that might just turn into a fiasco. Erik's starting to get a bit worried, both by her shifty looks like she's got porn hidden behind the toilet, and if Charles finds out he'll promptly put the blame squarely on Erik's shoulders, and his desperate need to relieve himself. There's only so much his bladder can endure.

'Well?' he prompts.

She takes a deep breath and opens the door completely and Erik gets to take a good long look at her for the first time.

It's quite a bloody shocker.

'Oh,' he says with all the eloquence he can muster.

04:57

'Ow,' Raven yells out, hand lunging for her hair and Erik slaps it away in reprimand. She's sitting on the floor between his legs while he's perched on a horrendous burgundy coloured chintz that Charles is too attached to for his liking.

'Exactly what were you doing, Raven? This is the kind of problem I expect from Sean.'

She's got some odd fruity – he doesn't think he'll ever stop being surprised by this peculiar trait of hers- dubble bubble gum stuck in her hair, looking at the floor sulkily while he's saddled with fixing it all. This is the kind of thing Charles is better equipped to handle, these kinds of motherly, responsible duties.

She lets out a grunt in response, and Erik flicks her ear before trying to tug the gum out again. She's getting cheekier by the day. It's a nasty mess, all tangled up and he's not sure what she's been doing but it's spread over to practically a good chunk of the patch below her ear. She can't get rid of it through changing form, which was his first suggestion. Of course the mutinous look in response gave him enough of a vague idea what would happen if his solutions continued to follow in a similar pattern.

'I'm waiting, Raven,' he says while managing to break off a small piece of gum.

'It was a dare,' she says moodily and when he pulls a particular chunk harder than strictly necessary she quickly amends her statement. 'Alex said I couldn't do it.'

There are times, dozens of them really, when he thinks that by this point they're no longer just children, that they've come to accept there are dark corners and hidden shades lurking in a sunlit room, that the world is a cruel place where people will strive to knock you down as hard as their selfish desires can accomplish. Then something like this happens, and he's reminded, no, they're still children at the heart of it, childish and filled with odd impulses with no reasoning behind their decisions. And here they are building some kind of army with them.

'And then Hank,' she spits his name out like a curse, 'he thought I couldn't do it either. They were all trying to blow bubbles.' Erik notices she's pink all of a sudden, perhaps realising the idiocy of her situation. 'You know, see who could blow the biggest bubble, and then Alex said I couldn't do it 'cause I'm a girl.'

He can't quite grasp this all. 'And you actually listened?'

She tilts her head up and looks at him. 'Yes. And do you know what, I won.' There's a very obvious hint of defiance in her voice, like she's daring him to try and tell her off. She knows him too well and a while ago this would have left him feeling unsettled, wanting to flee. Instead he gives her a stern look, not letting on to the fact that he's hoping that she made sure Alex got some gum stuck in his hair, too. She turns back around when no response follows and he carries on with his job, silently, well proud of this bizarre shit.

05:15

Sometimes he can't quite believe that this is what his life has come to, pulling out bubble gum and listening to the woes of a teenage girl, in a house full of juvenile delinquents.

He feels like he's Elizabeth Bennett, except his Mr Darcy is a good for nothing idiot who sleeps all the time and uses Erik as a pillow.

05:30

He walks back to his room, making sure to check by all the other rooms.

They all have bedrooms on the same floor. Initially Erik's was on the third and Hank slept on the first in order to remain closer to his lab - the boy's practically anthropomorphosised the place.

After a while though, Sean was no longer keen on the idea of sleeping on a floor with just Alex as company. Charles unfortunately won't tell him why this is, says it's a sensitive matter. Since then they've all slept on the same floor, and there's enough room in this vast dungeon to accommodate them all.

05:31

There's the noise of rustling and shuffling while light bleeds through under Sean's door. Erik stops directly outside Sean's bedroom and waits a beat or two.

Erik bangs on it twice, and says in a deep, authoritative tone, 'Knock it off.'

He hears the sound of a high pitched squeal in response and carries on in a leisurely stroll.

05:35

Charles is sprawled all over Erik's side of the bed. He has to tug the covers a few times, tangled as they are in Charles' legs and then as gently as possible he nudges him over to his own - right side damn it - of the bed.

He closes his eyes and basks in the silence and peace of finally getting some sleep.

05:37

Two minutes later Charles is plastered to his back, hot and sticky, his cold nose touching the back of Erik's neck.

Erik laments at the injustice of it all.

07:00

He wakes up to the sight of Charles staring down at him, all flushed and pink, sweat dampening his brow, his nose practically touching Erik's. This close he can see the ever changing shades of blue that are constantly a new surprise to Erik, a novelty he never gets tired of deciphering.

Charles smiles at him. It's all cheek and charm.

'Hello,' he says, before leaning in, pressing a hard kiss to Erik's lips. 'You're finally awake,' he adds in that awfully bright, cheery way of his that's just not appropriate for so early in the morning, before kissing him again.

It's hard to hold a grudge against Charles when he does things like this. It's as if during the night he knows, is acutely aware despite being asleep that Erik needs reassurance, only capable through the physical contact, the glide of skin, and Erik, regardless of how annoyed and irritated he gets, needs it, the weight of Charles' body anchoring him down, holding him the way gravity never could, never will be able to, not without Charles.

So no, he can't hold his grudges with Charles, he loves him too much.

07:15

Erik walks into the kitchen freshly showered to the sight of Charles flipping eggs and humming the tune to Flintstones, while Hank joins in at the chorus. Times like these he can't believe he's, for all intents and purposes, married to this man.

This man-child, if he's to be blunt about it.

07:18

Charles and Hank have a ritual.

Every morning, at a point where it's too early for the average human to be functioning, Charles and Hank seems to go beyond this and willingly get up at six in the morning, sometimes earlier, to go on a run.

He remembers one particular weekend when they had a series of obstacles set up to test Hank's agility and speed against everyone. Erik suspects it was more to do with Charles finally having another excuse to shop. They have a pond right at the back with an abnormally large number of tadpoles and fish, it's perhaps the one place that Sean won't go and stick his nose in. Charles says it's because he's feeling guilty. Erik doesn't give a shit; he enjoys it either way. The kids had to climb over a high wall and through different sized pipes Erik had shaped, and then they had to wade their way through the pond.

Erik won't comment on how it happened, but somehow a metal pipe went slightly rogue and pushed Sean into the pond with the fishes.

Sean was terribly jittery for the rest of the day.

If Erik is downstairs before they complete their run, he gets to see the results first-hand. Charles will usually look proud, though Erik can tell he's quietly sulking inside. Charles is secretly competitive, and this is something they all learned the hard way when playing Scrabble one night. Erik will never forgive Alex for suggesting the damn game in the first place.

Hank will return looking pleased and content with himself.

07:19

Hank's doing his daily crossword.

Erik takes a seat next to him. Without looking up, Hank grabs The New York Times that he collects every morning for Erik, and passes it to him, before dotting the 'i' with triumph.

07:20

The timer goes off with a 'ping' and an odd smell starts to spread through the kitchen.

07:23

Charles carries on humming another mundane tune and Hank coughs discreetly before looking very pointedly at Erik.

Erik continues reading his article on the invention of silicone breast implants. It's either that or face Charles.

07:24

Sean is the first to come stumbling into the kitchen in his pyjamas looking thoroughly disgruntled. Erik's not certain if it's remotely possible to surpass the level of unhappiness Sean seems to be displaying until the boy catches sight of Charles placing his third egg into the pan. But he does, and then he looks at Erik, very clearly pleading for him to save Sean. Erik just hides his face behind the newspaper.

He's not going to get involved in this again.

07:25

The thing is, Charles can't cook.

He really is utterly shit at it.

Except nobody has it in their heart to tell him this, not with him cracking eggs with the kind of enthusiasm and a manic gleam in his eye that would put Betty Crocker to shame. He's just about mastered the art of cooking eggs - sunny side up is tricky for him, though.

This is why most mornings Erik does the cooking, except when Charles gets in the kitchen early, like today for instance.

07:29

Alex and Raven are the last to come, just as Charles sets their plates down at their places, smiling at them all, clearly quite proud of himself. Charles takes a seat next to Raven and tucks in, talking about an article he read, unaware of the hesitant looks and quiet signals taking place between them all.

They're all safe to an extent, if they eat fast and chug down as much water as they can after.

07:31

Alex kicks him under the table, darts a quick look in Charles' direction, before saying in a low tone, 'We should have gotten the damn dog for Raven. Could have snuck the food under the table and it would have eaten it all. You just had to say no,' he says disgustedly, throwing Erik a dirty look. 'And here I thought you were the fun parent,' he mutters, before hastily shoving a forkful of egg into his mouth, and grimacing.

07:33

Good God, are eggs supposed to be this fucking runny?

07:45

Charles rises first.

'Erik it's your turn to do the dishes with Raven,' he says, jerking his head towards the fridge.

Aah, of course, The Timetable.

07:47

The timetable.

It's written in funny, cursive writing, with glitter smattered everywhere thanks to Raven. It's how they decide who's doing what, so that every one has a fair go at all the chores, and nobody can whine about how they've been tricked into doing double duty.

It'll also be the death of Erik, because, somehow, he's always left with washing the dishes in the morning.

And the afternoon.

And the night.

Throughout all of this, he's always partnered with Raven. This can only mean further talks about feelings. He's beginning to suspect that Charles is doing it on purpose, cowardly coward that he is.

Sometimes Erik would very much like to throttle Charles, except he can't because there'd be mutiny and he'd be left on his own with four unruly teenagers, and he doesn't think he could handle that. Not without killing them all in the end.

He longs for the days where he wasn't required to be a responsible adult.

Those were the good days.

Raven beams at him, a sinister look in her eyes. 'Ready Mom?'

Oh God, of course he's the mother, of course.

AN:

And that's about as far as I got. I think I wrote the first half way back in June, then posted it on AO3. The final half's been a work in progress for the past nine months. God knows if I'll ever finish it and write about the rest of the day.

Feedback is awesomesauce. :D