Author's note: Happy Tuesday! :D

Chapter 9: Goodnight Ducklings

"Oy! Careful!" Charles called out. "You're losing a couple!"

Raven bumped shoulders with him comfortingly. "He knows, Charles," she told him. "They'll catch up; they're persistent."

Erik looped an arm around Charles's waist and rested a hand gently on his far hip. "You did raise them, after all," he muttered dryly in Charles's ear.

Charles blushed and frowned irritatedly. "I just don't want any of them to get lost."

The three of them along with all of their other friends were gathered in the park. Through some polite inquiries, Charles had found a mutant who had a pair of beautiful, bird-like wings. His name was Warren, and he was currently running around the grass in the center of the park, flapping his wings energetically while the ducklings chased him and tried to do the same. They weren't truly ducklings anymore, but young adults, but everyone had immediately vetoed Charles's label of "adolescent Anas platyrhynchos," so "ducklings" it was.

Charles had finally managed to get the ducklings to imprint on Warren enough to follow him around, though it had taken a lot of delicate fiddling with his telepathy and he still wasn't certain that that was what had even convinced the ducklings that Warren was a suitable replacement parent. He was sure that Warren's physical similarity to the ducklings had something to do with it, though Raven gave him side-long looks whenever he suggested this that definitely said, "You can talk to animals, Charles. Get over it."

Erik had managed to avoid the issue entirely by not saying a word whenever Charles started to frown at the ducklings too hard.

It was the first sunny day in a week, and only the third time that all of the ducklings had followed Warren for more than a minute. Everyone had come outside to celebrate, and all of them except for Charles were watching the proceedings with amusement.

"Hey, look!" cried Alex. Everyone looked up and saw that one of the ducklings had flapped a few inches off the ground. There was a chorus of "awww"s from the watching group.

"Aww, how cute!" Raven cooed.

Next to Erik, Charles had gone still. He stared open-mouthed at the duckling that had just succeeded in flying for the first time. Erik watched him amusedly. Are you alright? he asked silently.

I just . . . Charles covered his mouth with his hand. "They're almost grown up," he choked out.

Erik tried not to chuckle as he wrapped his arm farther around Charles's waist and hugged him from the side. "They do that," he murmured to Charles.

"Charles, are you crying?" demanded Raven.

"Shut up," Charles muttered, and he hid his face in Erik's shoulder.

"Look! There goes another one!" Sean shouted, and Charles looked up again, his sorrow forgotten in favor of amazement.

Warren laughed and called out to them, "I think they're getting tired." It was true; most of the ducklings had given up and were lagging behind.

"Okay," Charles called back. "Maybe we can try some more tomorrow." Warren stopped running and walked back over to them. Charles gave the ducklings a little mental nudge and they obediently followed him back to the group. They clustered around Charles, quacking at him. "Oh, you did very good," Charles murmured to them, and he crouched down to their level. Erik and Raven exchanged an amused, fond look; there really was no one else quite like Charles.

"Lunch time!" shouted Angel, and everyone stood up excitedly.

"We're going out to celebrate Darwin acing his physics test. Wanna come?" Raven asked Charles.

Charles straightened and very carefully didn't look at Erik. "Oh, that's very kind but–"

"–We've already eaten," finished Erik. Charles nodded in confirmation.

"Uh-huh," said Raven. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Charles. "We'll see you later."

"Yup," said Charles with a bright smile.

"I'm driving!" called Sean.

"No, you're not!" everyone else said, and the group moved off.

The ducklings were now perfectly fine with wandering around campus or the park nearby, so Charles let them be as he and Erik drifted in the opposite direction as anyone else. Charles put his hands in his pockets and bumped into Erik companionably as they walked. Erik's mind was all warm contentment Charles, and Charles gave him a little nudge of Erik ducklings smile in return. They somehow ended up at Charles's flat without saying a word, and Erik closed the door with only a twitch of his fingers. Then his arms were around Charles's back and Charles had his arms around Erik's neck and Erik was kissing him. Charles sighed contentedly. Good, he thought at Erik.

No, Erik thought back quite clearly. Perfection.

Charles broke the kiss and looked at him amusedly. Erik gave a little disappointed sigh. "What?"

"Perfection?" Charles asked.

Erik looked embarrassed. He shifted his hands to Charles's hips. "Yes?"

"I got a very strong sense of self-satisfaction from that remark," Charles told him.

"Mmm," said Erik, who was mostly paying attention to the way Charles's mouth moved when it formed words. Charles looked at him until Erik finally looked up and met his eyes. Erik raised his eyebrows innocently. "Yes?"

"You don't think it's because of you that we're together, do you?"

Erik repressed a smile. "As I recall, you didn't do a very good job of moving things along."

Charles made an indignant noise. "That is not true."

"Really." Erik slid closer and touched his nose to Charles's. Charles slid his hands into Erik's pockets in retaliation. When Charles didn't otherwise react, he pressed a light kiss to Charles's ear. Charles shivered and pretended he hadn't.

"Yes. I've had a plan all along," Charles said smugly.

"Oh?" said Erik, nuzzling Charles's neck. "And what was that?"

"Step one: charm you with my brilliant intellect." Erik snorted and ran a hand under Charles's shirt, over his lower back. Charles arched into his touch and sighed. "Step two: convince you that you were madly in love with me." Erik gnawed on Charles's ear. It was distracting, so Charles kissed him.

Erik pulled back. "And step three?"

"Hmm," said Charles, with the smirk that Erik loved best. "Fall in love in with the most wonderful man I've ever met."

Erik only froze for an instant before he regained his composure. Charles almost didn't sound like he was joking. As casually as he could, he smoothed a strand of Charles's hair behind his ear. "Most wonderful? I told you that flattering me will get you nowhere."

Charles looked up into his eyes. The smirk was gone from his mouth, replaced by a soft smile. He traced Erik's jaw lightly. "That's because I'm not."

"Hmm." Erik caught his lips in an open-mouthed kiss and Charles let out a small noise that might have been a gasp. He let his senses run out over all the metal in the room, all the metal on Charles, and he could feel his pulse through his watchband and the tightness of his trousers through his belt buckle, and – really, Charles?

Okay, okay, you win, Charles protested. I'm sorry, it was unfair to say that –

No, said Erik, and he followed it by such a feeling of love Charles yes that he felt Charles's knees actually go weak for a moment. Perfection, he insisted, and Charles smiled in his mind.

Yes.

Charles did not get his doctorate in four years. He got it in six and a half.

After the ceremony, Charles talked nonstop so quickly that no one could get a word in edgewise, so they all just grinned at him while he babbled and asked them questions he didn't give them time to answer. Raven finally succeeded in dragging Charles to a pub, and when he got his drink he finally had to stop talking for a moment. He put down his drink, turned to Erik, and said brightly, "Erik!"

Erik smirked at him. "Yes, Dr. Xavier?"

Oh. Charles liked the sound of that. He blushed, beamed at Erik, and didn't stop smiling for the next three hours.

"So what with my graduation and sudden lack of free time, I'm afraid I won't be able to continue this blog." Charles smiled a little sadly into the camera. "Thank you all so much for your support over the years (years! Can you believe it?) and for sticking with me. I'm glad if I've had even the slightest influence on current politics, and I hope that you don't mind that I might have become slightly biased towards the policies of a certain Erik Lehnsherr."

Charles cleared his throat. "And, in response to the insightful comment by charlesluvr99 (that's with a u, by the way), 'R you and Erik fuking?': yes, yes we are.

"We wish you all the best. Until next time, goodbye!"