Archive of Our Own

The Heist, or: All is Fair in Love and War and Apparently Criminal Operations

Charles wasn’t paying attention to the minds around him when it happened. In his defence, banks were usually full of bored employees going through the motions and bored clients waiting for their turn. The summer heat made everything even more stifling. Charles sighed, wiping his forehead. His time would be better spent reviewing Hank’s latest lab report. Which is why he was caught completely off guard, along with everyone else, when the doors slammed open and a voice declared: “Ladies and gentlemen, you know the drill. This is a robbery, hands in the air, the usual!”

Charles, startled, turned his wheelchair towards the entrance, and saw a man, face partially hidden by a metal helmet, hands outstretched to apparently levitate two rifles in the air. A telekinetic? He tried to reach his mind, but his powers found nothing. Either the helmet or some other barrier kept the man’s mind shielded from telepathy. Wasn’t he sweating, wearing that metal thing in the summer heat?

One of the employees rung the alarm, to the robber’s clear displeasure. “Didn’t you hear me? Hands in the air!” He shouted, and flicked one of his hands towards the man, pulling his arms up, apparently by levitating his watch. Charles filed this information away. 

“I want everyone here in the front where I can see you while I empty the vaults!” The robber ordered, making the rifles turn around menacingly. The crowd was quick to oblige the strange request. Thankfully it was early morning, therefore there were no children involved; still, many of the clients were elderly and clearly panicking. Charles tried to think of a way to reason with the man, but not much came to mind. The robber’s face was nothing but sharp determination. He didn’t look desperate, or even angry. He was a man on a mission. He seemed young, around Charles’ age, but nothing seemed to indicate he could be easily swayed. 

Once the crowd had collected in the atrium of the bank and laid on the ground, a loud clang resonated from the back. Charles was shocked to see the vaults’ thick reinforced steel doors wrenched out of the wall as if they were made of paper. Inside the vaults were cabinets where, Charles supposed, money was stored. Another flick of the robber’s hands and those too were moved as if weightless, flying towards the front. 

The robbery was almost over, but police sirens could now be heard in the distance. This clearly displeased the man. 

“Listen carefully, I don’t want to take any human lives, but I will if necessary.” His gaze roamed the atrium, and stopped on Charles. “You.” Those eyes, icy blue and just as cold, made him uneasy. 

“You’re going to be my ticket out of here.”

Before he could reply in any way, his wheelchair moved on its own, clearly under the control of the man, and floated towards the exit of the bank.

“Wait, you can’t just…” As he started to protest, Charles realised it was probably better to go along with the man’s plan. Better him, who had a way to protect himself if things went south, than a scared civilian. Worst case scenario, he could use a mind trick on the police. 

The robber looked at him intently, apparently puzzled by his relative acceptance of the kidnapping, but didn’t say anything and exited the bank, controlling Charles’ wheelchair, the money cabinets and the rifles all at the same time. Sure, he was a dangerous criminal, but that took serious skills , and Charles couldn’t help but be impressed. 

There was a van waiting outside, because apparently this robber was nothing if not prepared. He opened its door and loaded Charles and the cabinets in as the police cars rounded the corner towards the bank. 

“Wait, are you going to-” Charles tried to say, but the van’s door slammed in his face, his protest going completely unanswered. 

A crash resonated from the street, and Charles extended his mind to feel what was happening outside his field of view: apparently the mysterious robber had uprooted a lamppost and barricaded the road, buying time for his escape. He didn’t waste time or try to harm the cops, he just jumped in the van, face red, likely from the effort of coordinating his power display.

“How much longer are you planning to keep me? I have appointments to get to...” Charles asked, rolling his eyes at the man from the rearview mirror. He had no plans of remaining kidnapped much longer. 

The robber sent a disbelieving glare his way, but otherwise ignored him, even as he broke every conceivable traffic law.

Charles debated whether the robber had recognised him from anywhere and was thus aware of his sizeable assets. Not being able to read his mind was becoming very annoying. 

“You… you’re a powerful mutant. Why do you need money?” He eventually decided to ask. 

“It’s none of your business, human.” Was the cold response.

Well, Charles didn’t need his powers to know he’d apparently struck a nerve. Whatever the reason, it was evidently a personal one, and it was clear the man appeared to hold a grudge towards humans. 

“You know, it’s not nice to assume things.” Charles mused, watching in fascination as the sentence seemed to immediately capture the robber’s complete attention.

“What do you mean?” He asked, looking back at the road with some annoyance. The police sirens were starting to get a little weaker, but still too close for comfort. 

“You know, my little sister liked to consider humans completely separate from us too.” Charles said instead. “She even joined an activist group.”

That seemed to get the man’s attention. Charles wondered how much more he should share to make him give any information in exchange. Raven’s full story was not one he wanted to just blurt out to any stranger, especially the part where she left the family for a powerful, charismatic and incredibly dangerous mutant Charles had never seen, only heard of. 

As it turned out, Charles didn’t need to say anything else, because the robber sighed, wiped his sweaty forehead and removed the helmet. Giving Charles immediate access to his mind. He didn’t force his way in, wary that the man might have already had encounters with telepaths, but waited as the man had to focus on a difficult turn to brush lightly on his surface thoughts.

Which made him immediately aware of one thing. The man’s name.

“You?!” He couldn’t stop himself from blurting it out. “You’re Erik Lehnsherr ?!”

The robber, Erik apparently, almost swerved off the road.

“You’re a fucking telepath?! Stay out of my head!” He ordered, and immediately reached for the helmet again.

“I can’t believe Raven joined a gang of bank robbers!” Charles, for the first time since the robbery and kidnapping had started, thought about alerting someone, like Hank. The scientist would have no problems getting out of the situation, and Charles could use the mind of any passerby to call the mansion, now that he was once again cut out of Erik’s mind.

“We… I…” Erik seemed to hesitate, and stopped talking for a second, apparently listening to something. What, Charles wasn’t sure, since there were no noises except for regular traffic sounds. Then he realised.

No police sirens.

“I can’t believe it.” Erik muttered, while changing direction, now headed out of town. “Of all the men in New York, I kidnap Charles Xavier.”

“Yes, well, I’m not particularly happy about it either.”

“Listen, let me get this stuff to where it needs to be, and I’ll explain. I owe Raven at least that.” Erik conceded, looking and sounding too surprised to put up a fight. 

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere until I see Raven.”

“Well, you see, about that…”

>>>

“Kidnapped?! What do you mean she’s been kidnapped?!” 

For someone in a wheelchair, Charles Xavier sure had a way of making you feel insignificantly small, Erik thought. The man looked intimidating, despite his sweet professor looks. Of course, the fact that Erik now knew he was standing in front of one of the most powerful telepaths in the continent certainly weighed in.

Charles didn’t appear scared at being kidnapped and taken to a secure house, or at being, for all appearances, at Erik’s mercy. No, he seemed perfectly in control, without an ounce of uneasiness or fear. Erik felt… actually a little excited at that. Someone like that could be a huge help to his plan. Of course, first he needed to be convinced Erik had nothing to do with Raven’s kidnapping.

Raven had come to him roughly a year prior, attracted to his ideas regarding mutant superiority and not particularly discouraged by his methods. They had started investigating a new, privately funded company that looked a little too interested in applications for mutant powers. What they weren’t expecting, however, was for Trask Industries to have their own mutant guards. Including a telepath. Raven had been captured, and Erik’s attempt at forcing his way in thwarted. His bruised ego had to concede this wasn’t something he could do alone. He needed resources. Which meant he needed money. Which brought him to bank robbery. And apparently, now, Charles Xavier.

Raven had been very hesitant about revealing anything about her past life, but she couldn’t help but complain about how, in her opinion, her brother was wasting his immense powers working as a private researcher.

Erik felt safe enough wearing his telepathy-proof helmet, but not knowing the scale of Charles’ powers was still unnerving. For all he knew, the telepath could be contacting the police miles away from them, or who knows what else.

On the other hand, Erik had to remark how Charles didn’t seem particularly fazed at the idea of remaining in a metal wheelchair that Erik could easily control. It made Erik feel weak, being the one intimidated and cornered in his own safe house. Which annoyingly, went in tandem with a new undercurrent of respect for the man in front of him. 

Sighing, he called a chair to him and sat down in front of Charles. 

“All right, let’s start from the beginning. How much do you know of Trask Industries?”

Charles seemed thrown off by the question. “Well, I know they used to work for the Department of Defence, but recently went private with financial support from the Worthington labs. Some of the epigenetic stuff they put out is actually pretty advanced.”

“Yes, well, it turns out their field of studies includes weaponizing mutant powers. Or suppressing them. And they took Raven.” Erik summarised. 

“What?! You can’t just say something like that and expect me to believe you with no proof!” Charles retorted, looking at him with contempt, more than rage. “How do I know you aren’t keeping Raven yourself and are using me?” 

Erik pressed his lips together, forcing himself to remain calm before answering, and took a moment. Charles Xavier seemed to have the uncanny ability to press every single one of his buttons. He knew what the man wanted from him. The damn helmet removed. This way, confirming his story would be a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, if Charles was good enough, this could also give him complete control of Erik’s mind. And according to Raven, her brother was more than capable.

Erik sighed. No matter the risks, Charles hadn’t shown an ounce of weakness or defiance, even with his powers rendered almost null and his escape routes blocked. And the look in his eyes made it perfectly clear that despite all that, Erik didn’t have the upper hand. He had kidnapped a man in a wheelchair, and was barricading behind his helmet. So much for the charismatic leader he wanted to be. 

“Fine.” He eventually spat out. Charles had seemed perfectly content waiting for him to make a decision. “We’ll do it your way.”

Slowly, almost regretfully, Erik removed his helmet. 

Charles could have probably put Erik Lehnsherr to sleep and called for help. But he didn’t. Instead, he carefully brushed the other man’s mind, feeling Erik offering as little resistance as he could, and pushing to the front the memories Charles was looking for. 

Him welcoming Raven to a group of mutants, all happy to see her and encouraging her to change to her true form. Erik and Raven studying one of Trask’s articles. A blonde mutant woman tricking them, revealing herself as a telepath and knocking down Erik. Erik’s rage and pain at the discovery that Raven was gone. And finally, him going toe to toe with a black haired mutant whose powers seemed to revolve around explosions, and narrowly escaping capture himself.

Charles came out of the memories with a gasp, breathing accelerated. 

“Believe me now?” Erik asked, a little self-deprecating smile on his face. 

“I believe,” Charles started, regaining his breath, “you need help.”

Erik, who had been halfway to putting his helmet back on, stopped, clearly surprised at that declaration.

“Raven is missing, and clearly you don’t have the resources, or power, to rescue her alone.” Charles explained, and there was a bit of sympathy in his grey eyes, but it was kind, not pitiful. “Now, I certainly don’t approve of your methods. Why were you stealing money in the first place?”

Erik hesitated, then put the helmet down, almost too stunned to even debate it. This wasn’t how things usually went for him. People took one look at his destructive powers, bursts of anger, and overconfidence, and that was it. Even the mutants that had followed his ideas hadn’t stayed for long. Yet this man witnessed the full force of his anger and most damningly the chaos in his mind and didn’t so much as blink. 

Charles offered a smile, likely at least superficially aware of Erik’s turmoil. “Now, this is just a suggestion, but how about we relocate to a place the police isn’t actively searching for, and you leave the money here to be found by the authorities? I can promise I have the funds for our operation.”

Erik had to physically shook himself out of his speechlessness. “Our ... Operation?” 

“Well, what would you call it then?” Charles was still smiling, as if he’d guessed Erik’s response already. 

Erik couldn’t help but smile back, showing his teeth. “A heist.”

>>>

Hank slammed the door on his way out, making the whole wooden frame rattle.

Charles sighed. He obviously hadn’t taken the news very well, and not just Raven’s kidnapping. Erik’s presence hadn’t helped, as Hank couldn’t help but see the mutant as the reason Raven broke up with him and left.

Charles almost wanted to check in Erik’s mind whether the two were indeed a couple. The idea unsettled him, maybe for loyalty towards Hank or because Erik seemed just a little too old for Raven. Despite that, he had no real reason to dig around in the man’s mind, especially since he seemed to have completely discarded the helmet, a show of trust that made Charles feel… almost proud, like he’d tamed a feral animal. 

“So... He’s still going to help us, right?” Erik asked, nodding towards the closed laboratory door.

“Yes, but he’ll need some time to adjust to the news. Us, in the meanwhile,” Charles started, not missing the way Erik arched an eyebrow at the mention of an us . “We need to figure out what, and who, we need for this… heist.”

“Our operation.” Erik corrected, almost teasingly. 

“Yes, well, that.” Charles was surprised at feeling a little blood rush to his cheeks hearing his previous words in that taunting tone. It appeared that Erik Lehnsherr, metallokinetic, ruthless mutant rights activist and bank robber, liked to banter. 

“I do know someone we could use, but you’re not going to like this.” Erik started, clearly enjoying whatever he was about to say. Charles repressed the need to roll his eyes and gestured for him to continue.

“He’s in a maximum security prison.”

Charles rolled his eyes. “You want me to help you break out a dangerous criminal?”

“My other idea involves illegal fighting rings.” Erik offered, as if raising a valid point.

Charles gave him one of his best “disappointed professor” looks. It only had the effect of making a smile with too many teeth appear on Erik’s face, one that made him look like he was about to bite something. Charles took a second to not think about that.

“Would it help,” Erik started, still enjoying Charles’ unease a little too much, “if none of these potential recruits had actually hurt anyone?” 

Charles was about to answer, but Erik continued: “Not unprovoked, at least.”

“I’m starting to believe the word heist is a dangerously accurate description of this operation, Mr. Lehnsherr.” Charles said, but he was grinning. 

Someone who could effortlessly keep up with him in an argument was likely going to come back and bite him (possibly literally, considering Erik’s wild smiles), but for now, it was a dangerously pleasant novelty.

>>>

Erik could only watch in awe as the guards accompanied the prisoner down the corridor, without a single follow up question. All it took was for Charles to look at the prison director and declare they had orders for the release of Alexander Summers, and nobody had so much at blinked at them wrong. Erik was dying to ask whether Charles was actually using his powers on all the guards or they were simply following the director’s orders. 

Alexander Summers seemed certainly surprised to see them. The boy wasn’t protesting, not overtly, but he appeared to be less thrilled that any other prisoner would at being granted a pardon. 

“Thank you, director, we’ll take it from here.” Charles said, all business. The director didn’t remove the handcuffs, but that wasn’t a problem.

“Where are you taking me?” Their target asked, but half-heartedly. Was he really that nonchalant about his situation or was Charles influencing him as well?

“I’m afraid that’s classified.” Charles answered, then turned to Erik. “Do you mind accompanying Mr. Summers to the car? I’ll finish up… the paperwork.”

Erik had to fight a grin. Well, wasn’t Charles Xavier smooth when he wanted to. And damn impressive to witness.

He took one of Alexander’s bound arms and gently guided him outside, encountering no resistance. 

“You’re not really a cop, are you?” The boy asked, now clearly more interested. 

“Nope.” Erik answered, and flicked the cuffs open. “Now, I have a proposition for you, Mr. Summers.”

The boy was watching his freed wrists in awe. “Please, Alex is fine.”

>>>

“Let me get this right, I get distracted for a moment and you help a mutant with destructive powers evade a maximum security prison?” Hank repeated, sounding a little hysterical. 

“I think I said this already, but the fact that he’s blue is so cool .” Alex commented, looking very excited at the idea of interacting with other mutants. Hank just sent him a wary look and then returned his stare to Charles, clearly expecting some kind of explanation.

“He was only imprisoned because he tried to protect his little brother.” Erik offered. “And he wants to help us rescue Raven.”

“Yeah, protect his little brother by killing the kidnapper through explosions!” Hank retorted.

“Not explosions, Hank.” Charles corrected. “If I understand his powers correctly, Alex can absorb the energy in any given environment, store it and release it in plasma form.” 

That captured Hank’s attention. “Do you need to consciously absorb radiations or is it an automatic process?” He asked, taking a step towards Alex to better assess him.

“Uh… I always have some stored, I guess?” Alex answered, a little uncomfortable under the scrutiny. “Especially since releasing it is a bad idea.”

“I’d like to conduct a few tests, maybe check the released plasma’s radiation level, whether the mutation acts on the dendrocytes only or if it is a full body…” Hank started muttering, not paying Charles or Erik any more attention, and going to grab his notebook.

“Well Alex, you’ll be in good hands.” Charles said, and Erik nodded in agreement.

“In good blue hands!” Alex specified, making Hank groan. 

>>>

“You know, I have to admit, what you did at the prison was impressive, Professor Xavier.” Erik commented, in a teasing, yet sincere tone.

Charles faked a little bow, accepting the compliment. He couldn’t exactly say that he was indeed trying to show off in front of the other mutant, after having witnessed Erik’s incredible skills. 

“Unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t work at the fighting arena. From what I’ve heard, that place is a cacophony of adrenaline-filled minds, which would make it pretty loud for you.” 

Charles had to agree. Especially when several mutant minds were involved, his powers were trickier to use on a larger scale, and he didn’t have much experience controlling mutant minds in the first place.

“So, who’s our target, and what did you have in mind?”

Erik explained that one of the reasons Trask’s mutant security was able to counteract him so easily was because one of them, called Azazel, used to be in Erik’s group. The man was then seduced by the allures of absolute power promised by Trask and his mutant allies.

“You see, the head of Trask’s security team is Sebastian Shaw, and he’s allied with Trask because whatever experiments Trask is doing on mutants, Shaw thinks they’ll help him in his deranged thirst for power.” Erik said, and his face got dark mentioning Shaw.

“He’s the energy-controlling mutant I saw in your memories, isn’t he?” Charles asked, trying to figure out exactly who they were going up against.

“Yes. And he’s incredibly powerful, especially when he has backup from the telepath, Emma Frost. And now they have a teleporter too. That’s Azazel’s power, along with some weird devilish stuff.” Erik waved his hands around, likely imitating one of Azazel’s abilities, but not too dissimilarly than when he used his own power. “He’s the spitting image of Satan, I don’t know if you’ve seen him in your mind tour.” He added, and Charles shook his head.

“No, I don’t think I have. But what’s his connection with the fighting ring?” 

“You see, the guy has a son. And now, he clearly isn’t winning any Dad of the Year awards, since I managed to track the kid in the fights. I was monitoring the ring because it used to be another one of our targets. The kid’s called Kurt, and appears to be a teleporter too. Very useful for stealth.”

Erik didn’t add anything else, and Charles didn’t really need more information. If this ring employed mutants fighting against their will, it was a good enough place to dismantle. 

It took them a few days to track down people who could get them an entry pass to one of the fights, specifically one that involved Kurt, under his stage name of Nightcrawler. Charles procured some cash they could wave around, pretending to be interested in betting on the fight, and Erik had even asked some pointed questions about the cages and how they could keep a teleporter inside. Their source hadn’t revealed all the tricks, but they had learnt that the cages were mostly made of iron, which made the whole rescuing process much easier.

Alex had offered to come with them, but Charles and Erik were of the opinion that he wasn’t ready for such a field mission yet. Even Hank had agreed, despite how much agreeing with Erik pained him. The scientist was developing some sort of energy collector that would help Alex channel his plasma projections without wrecking havoc to a room.

>>>

“There you go, let me get the door.” Erik said, opening the door to the car as he unfolded the wheelchair and brought it in front of Charles with his powers.

“What a gentleman.” Charles couldn’t help but say, enjoying Erik’s small embarrassed frown.

They made their way into the arena with little difficulty, despite the guards looking with contempt at Charles, who definitely didn’t look like the usual patron. The underground fighting ring wasn’t exactly wheelchair accessible, but Erik managed to maneuver him in a good spot in front of the cage without anyone clueing in on his powers. He then left with the money to find the fight manager and butter him up, hoping to get some time alone with Kurt to make his proposition before resorting to plan B.

Charles was surprised to see a blonde teenager standing next to him, almost against the ceiling-to-pavement cage, looking worried as opposed to excited like the rest of the crowd.

“Everything alright, kid?” He asked, trying to sound gentle but not patronising. It didn’t seem to have a lot of success, as the guy shot a glare his way, turning slightly incredulous as he assessed Charles.

“Yeah.” He answered, dismissive. “You should probably get out of the way. The cage is electrified.”

Well, that was an interesting piece of information. “Really? Is that how they keep the teleporters in?”

That captured his attention. “What do you know about teleporters?” He asked, finally turning towards Charles and staring him down.

“Hey, hey, kid, calm down.” Charles put his hands up in a show of innocence. “I just know one is in today’s fight.”

“Would you stop calling me kid? It’s Warren.” He finally offered, still looking suspicious.

“And I’m Charles. Now, you see, I’m not really here for the fighting. But I’ve heard this teleporter has really impressive powers.” Charles said, deciding to follow his instinct, that was telling him this Warren kid knew more than he let on.

“Yeah,” Warren finally stopped scowling, and looked lost in thought. “he really is impressive.”

Charles decided to provoke him a little. “So are you here to bet on him?”

As he suspected, this only irritated the blonde. “No! I would never ! I’m here for-”

But he couldn’t finish the sentence as the lights were suddenly switched off and the announcer’s booming voice declared the fight about to start, and began introducing Kurt in the most over the top way possible. Warren’s attention was now fully to the still empty cage, and he went back to looking worried. 

Charles did a quick mind search to figure out where Erik had disappeared to, and finally located the man on the other side of the arena, next to the announcer. His mind subconsciously went in lockdown as he felt the telepath brush against it, but then he relaxed minutely. Apparently Erik was able to recognise Charles’ mind, despite having felt his presence only once. 

Erik sent a clear thought his way: No luck getting Kurt. Switching to plan B .

Charles sighed. Plan B involved considerably more destruction than plan A. 

Warren’s sudden shout took Charles’ attention away from Erik’s mind and back to the ring, where a blue-skinned mutant had just been brought in, looking absolutely terrified, but determined.

“Kurt! Hold on, I can bail you out!” Warren was screaming, failing to get the other’s attention, his voice lost in the crowd’s clamour. Well, apparently Warren was at the match for the same reason they were. 

Charles was about to approach the teen, when an ominous metallic screeching resonated, and the cage vibrated. Erik .

“What’s going on?!” Warren shouted, looking around to find a possible culprit.

“Hey! Warren, calm down!” Charles grabbed the boy by an arm, trying to get his attention. “Kurt’s going to be fine!” 

“What are you talking about?! The cage is going to collapse!” Warren yelled back, shaking his arm free and attempting to run towards the cage.

However, that was the moment when it came tumbling down, electrical wires shorting out and huge debris not made of metal crashing down. 

Charles watched in horror as a piece of concrete from the ceiling cracked and started to fall on top of them. He had a split second to try and jump out of his wheelchair, when a metal beam appeared on top of him, shielding him from the debris.

Erik was suddenly at his side, a panicked expression on his face. “Are you ok?”

“This thing, where you save me from your own attempts at killing me? Not a fan.” Charles wheezed, still recovering from the shock.

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting the cage to be anchored to the ceiling. And I was focused on keeping our blue friend alive.” Erik sounded truly apologetic, and he clasped Charles’ shoulder and squeezed, a little awkwardly, like he wasn’t used to positive human contact.

Their almost a moment was interrupted by a bamf ! And Kurt appeared in front of them, with a distinct smell of sulphur accompanying his teleportation.

“You! You freed me!” He exclaimed in a thick German accent.

“Kurt!” Warren appeared, holding his left shoulder, which appeared injured, but looking ecstatic to see his friend was ok.

 “Bist du das, Engel?” Kurt whispered, in awe. 

“Yes! I came back for you! Then these two messed everything up!” Warren shot a glare at Erik and Charles, moving so that he was between them and Kurt. “We need to leave, the owner will start looking for you soon enough!”

“No he won’t.” Erik interjected. Charles immediately turned to him with an accusing look. “I didn’t kill him,” he said defensively, “I simply chained him in one of the small cells at the back. And he’s going to need to be welded out.”

Charles rolled his eyes, but let it slide.

He addressed the two kids: “I can offer you two a safe place, where no one can force you to fight.”

The two still looked wary. 

“And we could really use Kurt’s help to save others like you, who are kept captive in a lab.”

That had Warren’s immediate attention. “Do you mean Worthington Labs?”

“Yes, though our information tells us it’s mainly Trask Industries who does the mutant kidnapping.” Erik answered, now regarding Warren with more interest, assessing him.

“Yeah, no. Warren Worthington wants nothing more than to get rid of every single mutant’s power, whether they want it or not.” Warren had his fists clenched as he said that, and Kurt was looking at him with sympathy.

“How do you know all this?” Erik questioned.

“He’s my father.” Warren spat out. “And the only reason why he rescued me from the ring was to try and test his latest cure trial. Not that I let him.”

“So you’re a mutant?” Erik asked, more interested at the idea of talking to one of his kind, like he always was.

In lieu of a response, Warren took off his jacket.

“He’s an angel.” Kurt sighed, looking in awe as white feathered wings unfurled from Warren’s back. 

Erik blinked at odd coincidence of such a pair.

>>>

“Thank you Hank, I’ll be down in a minute to check on everyone.” Charles put down the phone and went back to finishing breakfast, when Erik strolled in, looking freshly shaved and put together.

“How are the kids adjusting?” He asked, helping himself to the coffee and putting two new slices of bread in the toaster.

“Well, Kurt is enjoying himself immensely, Warren gave us a lot of dirt on his dad, and Alex… Alex is still wreaking havoc on most of my garages, but there are improvements.” Charles summarised, tracking Erik’s movements as he sat down at the table, positioning himself very close.

Charles had to force himself not to follow Erik’s mouth as he took a sip of coffee. He kept catching himself giving Erik’s… form… way too much attention.

“Charles, I wanted to apologise again for the accident at the fighting ring.” Erik started, putting a hand on the table, close to Charles’ but not touching it. “I didn’t consider the consequences of my actions properly.”

“You kinda went back to full mutant criminal there.” Charles commented. “But, I have to admit…” He trailed off, unsure whether to take the risk or not.

“Mmh?” Erik prompted, looking him straight in the eyes. 

“...I did think your power display was astounding.” Charles finished, not breaking eye contact despite the heat rushing to his cheeks.

Erik’s wild smile in his full force gave him shivers .

“The feeling, Professor Xavier, is definitely mutual.” He said, in a low voice, wetting his lips at the end of the sentence, perfectly aware of Charles tracking the movement.

“Professor, you still having breakfast?” A loud voice interrupted the moment, and a moment later Alex entered the kitchen. Charles chastised himself: he’d been so… distracted, he didn’t even pay attention to his surroundings. 

“Hank sent me up to call you, as I’m apparently his secretary now.” Alex drawled, not paying the two much attention and helping himself to Erik’s long forgotten toast slices. “And, I’m sorry about the Bentley Professor, I had no idea I could collapse steel pillars.” Alex added, as if Charles was supposed to know what he was talking about. Should have probably paid more attention to Hank’s reports.

“It’s fine, Alex. Not like I do much driving now, right?” He reassured the kid and shot a look at Erik, who appeared very smug and completely collected. “Well, I think we should probably all go down and see your progress, shall we? I also actually wanted to tell you about a possible recruit, Erik.”

Erik arched an eyebrow, interested, but apparently not yet done humoring him: “Well, of course. That is, after all, what we have been discussing, isn’t it?”

Charles shot him a warning look as they followed Alex down to the basement levels that had been previously used as garages for his father’s car collection. Now they were being converted in training grounds for the new mutants and extensions of Hank’s lab.

When they reached the basement, Kurt seemed to be training his teleport ability, trying to move through electrical fields. Warren was supervising from above, and Hank was collecting data and operating the device creating the field.

When he saw them, Hank paused the training to brief Charles on everyone’s progress. He seemed to sense something was a little off, and squinted at Charles and Erik suspiciously, but thankfully didn’t ask any questions.

“So Charles, was there actually a recruit you wanted to tell me about?” Erik asked after a while. He was currently helping hone in Warren’s reflexes, mainly by throwing pieces of metal at him while the boy was in flight.

“You see, there was a time when I wanted to do this, training young mutants and providing a safe place for them, even without any criminal operations planned.” Charles started, trying to skirt around the fact that his dream never came to fruition since Raven abandoned the family and accused him of being incapable of truly relating to mutantkind. “And I even had a few recruits planned, one of which has the power of intangibility.”

“Oh, that’s interesting.” Erik grinned, and Charles decided to focus his attention on one of Hank’s monitors.

“And I thought I might contact her and see if she’s in need of a place to stay and a… uh, compensated occupation?” Hank rolled his eyes at the last words, but didn’t seem as antagonistic of their plan as before. Spending some time with the new recruits was doing him some good.

“I’ll tell you all the details tonight. For now, let’s see what Hank and the kids have been up to unsupervised…”

>>>

Later that evening, Erik joined Charles in the study, almost surprised at finding the telepath with a glass of scotch. 

“May I?” He asked, gesturing to the bottle. 

Charles nodded. “Sure. Would you perhaps fancy a game of chess?”

Erik furrowed his brows. Not exactly was he was expecting, but he would take it. He was pretty good at chess, but Charles seemed to be even better, and for a while they played in silence. 

“I sure hope any mind reading is considered cheating, here. Even reading other people’s minds for their chess talent.” Erik eventually teased, trying to regain the upper hand by thwarting Charles’ plan to get rid of his bishops.

“Aw, come on, Mr. Lehnsherr, do I look like the type?” Charles said, with a mischievous smile, and the kind of twinkle in his eyes that really shouldn’t be appropriate for someone wearing a checkered vest and yet made him look all the more inviting. 

Erik had to swallow, and once again force his full attention back to the game.

“So, did you talk to our new possible recruit?” Erik asked, because apparently the new recruit was their back on track topic of conversation.

“Yes, Miss Pryde said she’ll come by tomorrow to listen to our proposition. No crimes involved, would you look at that.” Charles answered, eating Erik’s bishop. “And check.”

“As a curiosity, I know you don’t actively read my mind, I would notice your presence, but how much can you perceive passively?” Erik asked, a little out of the blue maybe, as he took Charles’ rook in response.

“Mmh, I can usually get mind signatures from everyone in my immediate range, and I sometimes get very loud thoughts or emotions without meaning to, but apart from that, I’ve become quite good at blocking everything else.” Charles answered, staring down at the board, planning his next move.

“What are you getting from me, with a quick read?” Erik pressed.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Charles double checked. “All right then…”

Erik watched in absolute pleasure as Charles’ cheeks turned pink.

“I’m, uh, sensing a strong interest .” He stuttered, and Erik smiled showing his teeth, because he didn’t need to read minds to figure out it made Charles stare at his mouth a little too long.

Charles bent forward, arching towards Erik. “The answer to your next question is yes .” He murmured, sounding a little out of breath.

Erik closed the gap between them, sucking on Charles’ lips and tasting bitter scotch. One of Charles’ hands scrambled to find purchase on Erik’s jacket, and knocked over a few chess pieces in the process.

“Mmh, Professor, is that a forfeit?” Erik murmured, but Charles didn’t offer an answer, and simply sighed and went back in for another kiss. 

Erik responded immediately, clever tongue plying Charles’ lips open and forcing him to keep up or be devoured. It had been… too long since Charles had kissed anyone like that, with electricity spiking under his skin, with the promise of doing much, much more. Without interrupting the kiss, Erik pulled Charles’ wheelchair towards him so that the chessboard wasn’t between them anymore, and suddenly Charles felt hands in his hair, pulling, not forcefully, turning his face to the side so Erik could kiss down his jaw, the juncture of his neck and finally, close his teeth on Charles’ pulse point. 

The sound that left his mouth at that was undignified at best. Erik’s teeth were going to be the death of him. Charles bit his lips to avoid moaning out loud, and pulled Erik back in for another kiss, getting his lips bitten instead. That time, his groan was soothed by Erik’s tongue.

It did occur to Charles, after a few more languid moments, that they were essentially making out like teenagers in the middle of his study, where anyone could enter, not to mention Erik was still theoretically a criminal, who maybe had a history with Raven, and morally the implications were just… All that occurred to him, but it didn’t make him want to stop, not when Erik’s hands were cradling his jaw and he was making these breathy sounds, gasping a little for air before diving back into Charles’ mouth, driving him mad. 

Time to either stop or relocate to a room with a bed. 

Charles sighed and decided to districate himself from Erik. A quick assessment only served to tell him what he already suspected: they were both disheveled, with bitten red lips, and what was likely going to turn into a bruise was blossoming on the right side of his neck.

“I… I don’t usually…” Charles started, trying to catch his breath. 

Erik nodded immediately. He was no stranger to flings, and adrenaline-induced trysts, but Charles certainly didn’t look like the type. Maybe it was better to let it be for the moment, and see where it lead, whether it was simply physical attraction or not.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to justify yourself to me.” Erik said. “The priority is freeing Raven. We can figure out… everything else after that.”

Charles remained still for a moment, unsure. Erik’s dismissal (because that was undeniably what it had been, not a rejection but neither much more than that) shouldn’t come as a surprise, yet it shook him, just a little. A part of him wanted , regardless of how untimely or unwise it might have been. 

But Erik was right. A kiss could be nothing. They had other priorities, and maybe it would happen again, it would happen more, it would turn into something, maybe when all was said and done they could talk about it. 

It was a lot of maybes. 

“Maybe we’ll revisit this conversation after our operation.” Charles eventually agreed, returning to sit in front of Erik, with the chessboard separating them. “Fancy another game?”

>>>

Alex looked at the half-melted remains of a wheel rim he’d used as target practice. The stump he’d set it on was untouched. Some alone practice in Charles’ immense garden was helping, he liked working by himself. And he was finally getting precise, thanks to Hank’s device. The scientist was way more boring than anyone looking like a blue sabretooth had any right to be, but there was no denying he was competent.

“Wow, that’s a really cool power!”

Alex immediately turned to the source of that unknown voice. A cheery red-headed boy, around his age, waved at him. 

“Who are you? And how did you get here?” Alex immediately asked, readying himself in a fighting stance. Was this guy another teleporter?

“Whoa, whoa, dude! No blasting me please. I’m Sean, and I simply jumped over the perimeter wall. It’s not like there’s any alarm…” He rambled, and Alex could hear he had an Irish accent.

Now, Alex knew they didn’t have any real perimeter alarms because Charles basically acted as a living surveillance camera, and the fact that he hadn’t intervened yet likely meant this Sean guy was harmless. Still, he didn’t relax just yet.

“Why are you here then? Taking a tour?” If the dude was hoping to get a look at some mutants, like they were zoo animals, Alex was going to blast him. 

“Don’t really have anywhere else to be, explosion dude who still hasn’t told me his name.” Sean shrugged. “If you want the whole sob story, parents kicked me out for being a freak, and there’s a few articles in the papers about this Xavier fella financing mutant refuges and stuff…”

If that was the truth, Sean had indeed found a safe place, criminal operations aside. But Alex wasn’t a telepath, and simply looking like a hopeless teen didn’t mean you were harmless. He himself was proof of that.

“Anything that can prove your story? Maybe you were sent by Trask to spy on us.”

“By who? Anyway, if you want proof…” Sean looked around, checking their surroundings, which consisted of endless unkempt gardens. “Cover your ears.”

Alex thought about not listening to the warning, just to be contrary, but eventually complied, making sure to send Sean an expectant look.

The guy sent another goofy grin his way, then turned towards the empty grass and screamed .

It wasn’t like a siren or an alarm, it was more of a sonic wave, that made Alex’s ears ring and flattened the grass. 

“God damn !” Alex cried out once his head had stopped feeling like an over-shaken can of soda.

A loud bamf resonated, followed by the telltale smell of sulphur. Sean’s scream clearly hadn’t gone unnoticed. 

“Hi! I’m Kurt! Professor Xavier said to come to his office, bitte .”

>>>

“All tests seem to suggest Kitty can get into pretty much any type of cell they might have set up.” Hank reported, placing a pile of papers on Charles’ desk. “However, and I’ll have to confirm this when she comes back, her intangibility also deactivates any electrical circuits present in the surfaces she passes through, therefore it’s likely her entrance would be noticed.”

Charles hummed, looking through the reports. “It’s still good news, since Kurt’s teleportation might be useless if Trask had access to Azazel’s powers.”

Hank sighed, and fell, more than sat, on one of Charles’ chairs. 

“I’m sorry, Hank. You must be feeling a little overworked. I promise I’ll be more involved in the training, now that we likely don’t need other recruits.” 

“You do know this is a bad idea, right?” Hank asked, ignoring Charles.

“What? But I thought you agreed with the idea of rescuing the-” Charles started, but was interrupted.

“No, not the dismantling of ex government agencies, apparently we’re all committed to a life of crime, I meant… whatever you think you’re doing with Erik.” 

Charles wanted to deny, but he could feel his cheeks reddening, giving him away. “I…” 

“I’ve seen the way you look at each other. Something has happened, and I don’t think it’s a fantastical string of chess victories.” Hank added, looking expectantly at Charles.

He didn’t even know what angle to use. It wasn’t anything serious? Was Hank worried because Erik was a criminal, or was he still hung up on the idea that Raven had had a thing for him? Also, was it really appropriate to get a lecture on his sex life (or lack thereof) from his younger colleague? 

He was still trying to think of a proper answer when he sensed someone approaching.

“I’m going to rain-check this conversation since Erik is about to enter the room.” 

Hank rolled his eyes. 

As if on cue, the door opened. 

“Charles, Hank, something happened.” He didn’t seem like he was about to rely good news, face twisted in a grimace. “I got contacted by a young mutant. She’s in a bad situation, and I’d like to go and talk to her. Alone. She… apparently shares some of my world views.” 

“What happened to her?” Charles asked, immediately worried. How many young mutants in need of help even existed? He wished he had a way to just… contact all of them, let them know he could offer a safe place. 

“She became involved with some criminals.” Hank was about to say something, something likely containing the word hypocrisy , but Erik lifted a finger to stop him. “ Violent criminals.” Hank shook his hands in a ‘so-so’ gesture. 

“You should go to her.” Charles stated, ignoring Hank. “Let her know we’ll gladly offer a place to stay.”

“And lengthen her criminal record.” Hank muttered, earning an eerily synchronised glare from both Charles and Erik.

>>>

“That is so cool …” Sean sighed, watching Ororo and Warren race each other, a whirlwind around the mansion. 

“Mmh.” Alex seemed less impressed. “Isn’t the thought that you could shoot them down with a yell comforting?”

Sean threw him an incredulous look. “Not particularly, Mr Violence-is-the-solution.”

Alex just shrugged. So the new girl had weather powers and could fly. It didn’t seem as impressive as Sean was making it sound. She was tough, Alex liked her, and she seemed to be the only one who understood what being caught by the police for using your powers meant. Also, she could create lighting storms, and those always provided him a lot of radiation to absorb. 

“Sean, do you have a minute?” Charles called. He and Hank came in with an odd suit. “Me and Hank thought about a new way to implement your powers.”

“Oh?”

“So how do you feel about flying?” Charles asked.

Sean’s face lit up like Christmas had come early. 

A few hours and one faceplant into a bush later, Sean was up and flying, and Alex was incredibly grateful for whoever ordered a box of noise-cancelling headphones.

Charles was glad he’d started getting more involved in the development of the young mutants. He was surprisingly good about it, it seemed. Most of the time they just weren’t used to someone understanding their powers and offering guidance without ulterior motives. Once Raven was rescued, maybe he and Erik could find some common ground and keep training the young mutants, even without criminal operations planned. He did quite like being called Professor.

“I don’t know if I mentioned this,” Erik started, watching Ororo train, “but Shaw has a mutant who makes tornadoes. I’m sure any building they have will likely be impervious to her powers.”

“The high security areas, yes, but I doubt the whole of Worthington Labs is armoured.” Charles answered. “Besides, how likely are they to have covered everything in rubber?” He added with a grin, pressing two fingers on his temple to communicate with the mutants in flight. Ororo stopped in mid-air and summoned a bolt of lightning. 

“Worst case scenario, I can provide them with a few extra conductors…” Erik added, thoughtful. “I’ll be in your studio, I want to check the floor plans again.”

Erik spent the best part of the afternoon refining their plan. The one crucial thing missing was a good way in. Charles assured him that his telepathic abilities could shield them, even from Frost, but ideally, having someone who could access Trask’s compound in advance would give them precious intel. 

Once evening came and Charles still hadn’t checked in, Erik decided to go find the man to ask if he had any ideas. He knocked on his bedroom’s door and Charles let him in, likely having sensed his arrival. That weird radar thing he did was so subtle even Erik couldn’t feel it happening. It was a little creepy, but not as invasive when it was Charles doing it. 

Charles was halfway through changing his shirt. Erik froze for a second, floor plans forgotten. Charles looked… Inviting. After a moment of indulgence, Erik looked away, and noticed that the room smelled faintly of smoke, and a half-burned piece of cloth was discarded on the floor. His face must have betrayed his alarm, as Charles immediately explained: “Alex.” He let out a long-suffering sigh. “I’m starting to think Havoc will be his codename.” 

“Are you…” Erik forced himself to keep eye contact. “You’re not hurt, are you?” 

Charles shook his head, and started to grab a new shirt from the wardrobe, that was handily equipped with lowering racks, easily accessible from a wheelchair. Erik couldn’t help but track the movement. 

“I actually came to talk to you about entry points…” Erik said, willing himself to focus. “It might be a good idea to consider going through Worthington labs, get an appointment with some excuse, as they are less guarded.”

Charles hummed, getting dressed. “It’s a good idea, but then we’d spend more time in, with more chances of being recognised or intercepted by their telepath.”

Erik conceded the point. They needed to find a way to do some reconnaissance undetected.

“There.” Charles said, doing the last button on his shirt. “We can go back to the study, now that I’m presentable.”

What a shame.

Charles stopped in his tracks, and looked up at Erik with a knowing smile.

Erik arched an eyebrow, and feigned innocence.

“Well then, Mr. Lehnsherr, why don’t you show me what you had in mind?” Charles teased, challenge clear in his grey eyes. 

Erik didn’t need any further encouragement. With a flick of his hand, he commandeered Charles’ chair to come to him then up, bringing the man in perfect kissing range. Charles laughed as he was lifted up, and didn’t waste any time, immediately locking his arms around Erik’s neck. 

“Impressive display of metallokinesis, you get full marks.” Charles murmured against Erik’s lips. 

Erik gave up on snarky remarks and kissed him instead. Charles sighed, melting a little in his arms, and Erik quickly re-positioned them against the nearest wall, holding Charles by his legs, and letting the chair go back on the ground. Charles didn’t seem to be bothered by being held against a wall and kissed within an inch of his life, and responded in tow, biting on Erik’s lower lip and smiling once that induced a groan. Erik took his time kissing Charles, enjoying the way their bodies were pressed against each other, and how he was almost looming over Charles while holding him in place. He used this leverage to keep Charles from squirming when he started kissing down his neck, biting that spot at his pulse point that rewarded him with a muffled curse, and hands tightening around his neck, pressing his face against the spot, urging him to continue. 

“Do you- mmh - mind taking this to the bed?” Charles proposed. Erik didn’t pause and instead just hummed his approval as he finished the bite, that was sure to turn red soon. 

Charles didn’t expect Erik to be able to carry his weight to the bed, since he couldn’t exactly cooperate and hold on with his legs, but he had underestimated Erik’s resourcefulness. He felt himself be tugged up by his... belt buckle? Well isn’t he impressive. Erik’s power display was, as usual, a turn on, and Charles had to kiss him . Erik gasped, and didn’t respond, mumbling something about needing to see where he was going. Charles just huffed and sent a mental overview of the room to his mind, then reattached their lips. 

Erik seemed to be doing a good job of kissing and carrying at the same time, except that neither of them had accounted for the half-burn remains of Charles’ shirt still on the floor. Erik stumbled, and they fell on the ground with a loud thump, right beside the bed. 

Erik immediately pulled himself up on his elbows. “Fuck, Charles, are you alright?”

Charles couldn’t help but laugh. And then pull Erik by his collar, putting his mouth back where it was needed.

>>>

Charles had all the young mutants in one of the mansion’s many salons, with a diagram of different powers and abilities interconnecting held up against a wall. Erik was next to him, ready to intervene with information about Shaw and his accomplices’ powers. Ororo and Kurt were giving him their full attention, while Warren seemed to be only partially listening, trying not to broadcast his boredom too loud to Charles. Kitty was doodling, but Charles sensed her mind still listening carefully for the parts where she was involved. Sean and Alex… Charles needed to remember to schedule a one-on-one meeting to update them. Separately. 

Just as he was comparing the possibilities of Kitty and Kurt’s abilities in passing through different obstacles, Hank barged in. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but I might have found something interesting.” 

He was holding a stack of papers of various kinds.

“So, I was conducting basic searches for any Trask or Worthington employee I could find on articles and company logs, to see if I could find any way to approach them for information without their telepath learning about it…” Hank started. Erik nodded, it was a good idea to see what other allies Shaw might have. “And I was also monitoring recent disappearances, especially if the victim was a known mutant.”

Hank pulled out a newspaper article he must have photocopied from somewhere. “You see, almost a year ago this mutant woman disappeared with no trace. Her name was Anna Marie and her husband, Remy, was blamed for the disappearance but never convicted.” The article had a picture of a happy couple, and the title suggested she had left after he’d discovered she was a mutant. “Now, the interesting part is that the husband is mentioned in a few Worthington press releases as a secretary.”

“So you think he what, worked with Worthington Labs to get rid of his mutant wife?” Kitty asked, sounding affronted on behalf of the poor woman. 

“Well that is precisely what I thought,” Hank answered, and pulled out a different stack of papers. “Until I went to check this guy’s criminal records and found several dropped charges for a plethora of reasons, including the creation of an illegal gambling ring.”

Erik frowned. “This doesn’t change much. It just makes the guy more shady.”

“Yes, right, except it was a mutant gambling ring. The guy’s a mutant. He’s covered his tracks well, changed name and everything, I only figured it out thanks to a facial recognition software I’m testing.” 

“So what you’re saying is that this was a mutant couple where the wife is suddenly outed and disappears, and her husband changes identity and starts working for a company that kidnaps mutants?” Ororo summarised. “Either he’s planned a long con and was working for Shaw the entire time…”

“Or his wife has been kidnapped and he’s undercover trying to get her back.” Alex concluded, now much more interested in the conversation. 

“Exactly.” Hank said, clearly pleased with his discoveries. “And if you add in the fact that he works as a secretary for the Worthington side, as opposed to closer to Shaw and his security team at Trask Industries…” 

“It seems we might need to have a few word with this… What’s his name exactly, Hank?” Erik asked, eyes already laser focused on the task ahead.

“Remy LeBeau, currently under the alias Robert Lord.”

>>>

The days that followed were hectic. Erik, Charles and Hank went together to contact “Mr. Lord” and they were more than impressed. The man didn’t take long to trust them, mainly because he remembered Erik’s attack to Trask Industries. Remy had incredible abilities, ranging from molecular acceleration to static and psionic interference to telepathic abilities. Not only the accelerating energy always present in his body could shield his mind from telepaths, but he had slight hypnotic abilities who could simply… convince a telepath there wasn’t anything wrong with him. It was how he had managed to lay low and infiltrate Worthington Labs without being outed as a mutant by Emma Frost. Hank’s intuition had been correct, his goal was rescuing his wife (“Please, never call her Anna Marie. It’s Rogue.”). She apparently had the ability to syphon away energies and mutant powers, and Worthington Labs was very interested in exploiting that in their search for a mutant cure. 

With Remy’s insights, the plan started to shape. Erik’s notoriety meant he had to stay in the rear guard, while Charles and Remy would bait from opposite sides. Similarly, Warren couldn’t simply walk in his father’s laboratories, and was tasked with overseeing from above with Ororo. Kurt, Sean and especially Kitty would be fundamental for helping the prisoners escape their cells. 

Charles was also training everyone to work while mentally linked. That way, everyone could talk to the other members of the team regardless of whether they were inside the building, up in the air, and hopefully also within the cell block. Erik was the exception to this connection, as he simply couldn’t stand the presence of so many minds invading his own. He had reluctantly agreed to stay linked with Charles, but was fully prepared to bring his helmet in case of emergencies.

They spent almost if not all their time training and revising the plan and coming up for alternatives for that plan and not much else. Hank, bless his brilliant mind, was researching how to access Trask’s control panels and possibly straight up cut off their electrical feed. Even if they had additional generators, it was impossible to power mutant-retaining cells and multiple laboratories only with independent electrical sources.

>>>

Charles spent the day before they intended to enact their operation mainly training everyone against telepathic attacks, trying to make sure they wouldn’t be completely caught off guard by Emma Frost’s powers. By the end of that training exercise, he had a wicked headache and felt entirely too aware of everyone around him, his shields weakened by the power usage. He went to rest right after dinner, huddling in bed with a dissertation on magnetism that was sure to capture all of his attention and shut his mind down to get some sleep.

He was so engrossed that he didn’t notice anyone approaching his room until there was a knock on the door.

“Yes?” He asked, even as his powers covered his previous slip and identified the mind signature.

“It’s Erik. May I come in?” Erik replied, still outside the door, perfectly gentleman-like.

So. Erik. Knocking at his bedroom door, quite late in the evening. Didn’t leave many options about his motives, did it? What a terrible idea, it was.

“Of course,” Charles answered, because ever since meeting Erik he’d become quite fond of terrible ideas.

Erik wasn’t in his pyjamas, but he’d changed out of their training suits, wearing instead a plain white shirt on black trousers. Erik’s idea of casual. Charles couldn’t help but let his eyes wander leisurely all the way down his body. Damn, wasn’t Erik Lehnsherr a sight for sore eyes. Charles bit his lower lip in anticipation. 

Did you just look me up and down and then bite your lip? 'Cause if you did we're having sex. Right now.

Well. 

Charles looked back up at Erik’s face, and arched an eyebrow.

“I might have caught that, Mr. Lehnsherr.”

Erik had the decency to look chastised, at least for half a second, before giving his best sharp smile and saying: “Then you know you might be overdressed, dear Professor.”

Erik unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, and started walking towards the bed. Or, stalking really, like a hungry predator. Charles sat up properly on the bed, hastily getting rid of his striped pyjama shirt. He looked back up to see those icy blue irises reduced to thin bright circles in a sea of black. 

“Before we proceed, Charles…” Erik started, sitting down next to him. “I need you to know-”

“Shh, it’s fine.” Charles interrupted, sensing Erik’s discomfort. “You’ll tell me tomorrow.” 

“But-”

Charles kissed him, effectively ending that conversation. He had a feeling he knew what Erik wanted to say. No matter how attracted they were to each other, this, whatever they were doing, wasn’t meant to last. They led completely different lifestyles, and there was the morality problem Charles was doing everything in his power to ignore. Erik was a criminal, who would most likely leave after their operation was over, and take Raven with him. Again.

Charles let the kiss distract him as well, pushing away any thoughts unrelated to the present moment, where Erik was not-so-gently biting down his neck as he got more comfortable on the bed. Soon, he was on top of Charles, balancing himself on his knees as he finished unbuttoning his shirt, all while his lips never left Charles’ skin. 

Well, count me as thoroughly impressed. Charles sent his way, not trusting his voice not to break in an embarrassing moan. He let his hands roam Erik’s chest, (And of course he was ripped, since when did criminal activity give you abs?) , and settled them at his waist, urging him back up for another kiss, this one wetter and a little more desperate as their bodies aligned together, Charles’ pyjama pants leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination about his… interest in the situation. Erik smirked, putting more of his weight on Charles, grinding down. The embarrassing moan did come out at that, but Charles didn’t really care, not when Erik was hard and panting against him, hands going down to unbutton his trousers, and then free both of their cocks. 

“Do you mind if I-?” Erik asked, leaving the sentence hanging. 

“Huh?” Charles asked, already feeling a little too light-headed to pry the rest out of Erik’s mind.

In response, Erik kissed him again, with purpose, sucking on his tongue like he would on a- Oh.

“Mh-hm…” He tried to agree, squirming a little under all that attention.

Eyes closed, Charles still felt the shark grin against his skin, as Erik ended the kiss to slide down, and then lower. 

Charles sighed as Erik pushed his legs open, hands slowly sliding over his thighs, removing his pants completely to then settle on his hips, eyes laser focused as he settled down. Erik Lehnsherr between his legs, ready to put that mouth on his cock, now that was a sight.

And he took his time with it, licking long stripes from bottom to top, gathering the wetness there, using just the barest hint of teeth, clearly hellbent on driving Charles insane, firmly holding his hips still when he tried to squirm, unsure if it was away or towards the maddening pleasure. 

“Erik, please…” Charles panted, overwhelmed, hands fisted in the sheets, feeling his skin burn everywhere Erik was touching.

Without a word of acknowledgment, Erik listened to his plea, and diligently took the head of Charles’ cock in his mouth. 

“Oh, ffuck…” Charles moaned, hips thrusting up on their own accord.

Erik barely flinched, tightening his grip on Charles’ waist and relaxing his mouth to take more of him, and Charles really needed to stop being impressed at Erik’s display of skills, or he would not last, at all. 

His thoughts scattered again once Erik started sucking in earnest, and he turned to try and muffle his eager sounds, for once glad he and Erik weren’t completely mind linked, so he wouldn’t feel how wanton he was. 

Erik sucked cock like he did everything else: with a terrific display of skills and sharp, cutthroat efficiency. It didn’t take long for Charles gave up on trying to remain as composed as possible and just let Erik hold him down, nails biting into his hips, sure to leave more bruises. He was getting dangerously close to coming, and while it was a shame to end it, this might be the only time he had with Erik, and he wanted everything he could get.

“Erik…” He moaned, getting a hum in response, and oh , what a terrible thing to do, when he was already so close! “‘M close…”

Erik simply hummed again in acknowledgment, and sucked harder.

Charles’ eyes rolled to the back of his skull as he tensed, surprise making it too hard to control his reaction, and then he was coming, the sounds coming out of his mouth completely out of his control, all barriers down, accidentally catching a few stray thoughts from Erik’s mind, mainly sensations, mainly hot and wet and hard . 

Erik pulled off to admire his work, Charles completely spent, naked and panting, slowly coming down the high. Ignoring his own arousal, Erik laid down beside him, content to be pulled in a lazy kiss.

“I was telling you to stop so you could fuck me, you know,” Charles murmured against his lips, hands pointedly going to Erik’s crotch, lazily rubbing his erection.

“Does that mean I can’t fuck you now?” Erik responded, cradling Charles’ jaw, fingers not-so-subtly pressing on one of the bruises he’d left earlier.

“No, it doesn’t, but you’ll have to give me some time, I still feel half-melted into the sheets…”

Erik smiled at Charles’ sleepy tone. 

“Oh, and I’m sorry I went in your mind earlier, I really didn’t mean to…” The telepath added, frowning.

“It’s fine, you definitely weren’t prying, and you were projecting as well, did you know?”

Charles’ horrified expression told him that no, he hadn’t been aware that the mind reading had been mutual. 

“What? So you…”

“Felt part of your orgasm? Mmh-hm.” Erik finished for him, enjoying the blush that spread over Charles’ cheeks. 

“If you want, we can do it again,” Erik said, a little hesitant. “Just… surface sharing.”

“Are you sure?” Charles asked, clearly pleasantly surprised at the suggestion. 

Erik nodded, and Charles touched their foreheads together. He likely didn’t really need contact, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless. 

Erik was suddenly aware Charles’ sensations. It wasn’t a gradual process, it never was, one second his thoughts were only his own, then abruptly, there were more. Charles was mainly projecting contentment, some anticipation and an undercurrent of leftover arousal. Erik was sure his sensations were significantly less calm. Erik focused on Charles’ sensations and went in for a kiss, noting how Charles met him halfway, mouth sliding open. His hands kept teasing Erik’s cock, with a little more intent now that he could gauge each reaction. 

“If you keep doing that, there will be no fucking…” Erik said half-heartedly, tongue still partly in Charles’ mouth. 

Charles huffed a laugh, halting his hands. “Well, luckily for you your mind is doing wonders to get me back in the mood…” He palmed Erik’s ass, digging though his back pockets to retrieve the items inside.

“How did you get lube?” Charles asked, sounding delighted. “Did you steal it from Hank’s lab, you criminal?”

“There will be no talking about Hank in bed, and that’s final.” Erik stated, only half serious.

Charles, not looking ashamed at all, stole a quick kiss before asking: “Do you mind if I prep myself? It’ll be quicker, and-” he got close, breathing the next part against Erik’s lips: “you can listen in, if you want.”

Erik just nodded, knowing his mind and body were doing most of the agreeing for him. Charles, very pleased with himself, quickly squirted some of the lube in one of his hands and rolled on his back. 

Watching Charles finger himself, fingers dripping with lube slowly and leisurely stretching his entrance, while at the same time getting constant vibes of pleasure through their mental link, was almost too much to bear. Erik tried to close his eyes after a while, but that made it much, much worse, as he could still hear everything, Charles’ breathy pants and the slick sound of his fingers working; and the mental connection only seemed stronger when he tried to relax. 

When he couldn’t stand it anymore, he grabbed the back of Charles’ neck, pulling him in for a rough kiss. 

“You better be ready now.” He growled, climbing back on top of Charles and kneeling between his legs. 

He paused for a second, suddenly vary about simply grabbing Charles’ legs to hold him in place. 

“It’s not weird if I…” He gestured towards Charles’ motionless legs. 

The man huffed a laugh. “It’s endearing of you to ask after manhandling me around several times, but no, it’s not weird.” 

Reassured, Erik recovered the condom and put it on, then he repositioned the two of them so that he was holding Charles’ legs around his hips. “Ready now?”

Charles tangled his hands in the sheets, sending confidence and anticipation through the link. “Do your worst.”

Erik was only happy to oblige, thrusting in with one smooth movement, finding little resistance and getting close to no discomfort from the mental link. He wanted to start slowly, ease Charles into it, but it was absolutely impossible , not after having waited so long and with the doubled sensations assaulting him, clouding his thoughts.

He set a quick and dirty rhythm, with Charles letting him move his body however Erik preferred, using his grip on Charles’ hips to meet his cock halfway, breathing harshly for the exertion. 

Charles was holding on to nothing, knuckles going white, chest heaving, moaning loudly and obscenely, completely blissed out and too overwhelmed to even think of touching his own dick, that was back to full hardness and leaking over his belly.

Kiss me? Charles asked over the link, sending some embarrassment as well. At what, Erik honestly had no idea: Charles looked gorgeous, taking his cock so well and enjoying every second of it. Nonetheless, he bent down to fulfill the request, a messy kiss, not much more than panting in each other’s mouth, disrupted by Erik’s quick thrusts rocking Charles’ body and making it hard to maintain contact. 

It didn’t take too long for Erik to be close, the mental feedback loop of pleasure making him feel like an overcharged battery, close to short-circuiting.

He couldn’t help it, he bit down Charles’ neck as he came, hard enough to leave the indentation of his teeth, trying in vain to suffocate a groan. Charles almost shouted in response, hands coming up to pull at his hair, squirming under Erik, completely overwhelmed. Erik stayed inside, teeth locked on Charles’ neck until his orgasm high went down. 

Charles said something, some kind of appreciative comment that was mostly intelligible, and Erik used the last of his energy to climb off and lay beside him, licking over the bite mark and jacking him off, quick and dirty.

“Bad enough for you?” He asked against Charles’ skin, unable to resist one last tease.

Charles was a little beyond words at the current moment, and simply moaned in response, and Erik was suddenly slammed with the force of Charles’ orgasm through their link, white hot pleasure cancelling everything else as the telepath spilled in his hands. Erik held him through the aftershocks, until he could feel the oversensitivity setting in.

They laid down for a few moments, neither of them talking, slowly regaining some semblance of coherent thought. Charles gradually shut down the link, leaving it to the usual surface brush that Erik was used to.

“Well that was… Not how I was expecting the night to go.” Charles said eventually, aware that something needed to be said. 

“Yes.” Erik hesitated, then went on: “With everything that could happen tomorrow, and afterwards, I thought…” 

Charles shushed him. “I’m glad you did.”

“I should probably go back to my room, let you get some rest…”

There was a pause, then Charles sighed, a quiet resigned huff of breath.

“Yes, it would be best.”

>>>

Erik was confident in their plan, but that didn’t make separating from Charles and the others any easier, as they approached Worthington Labs while he and Hank drove away. 

Worthington Labs had recently opened a new branch after their merger, a high security compound right next to Trask Industries’ main office building. The two buildings were even connected by an architecturally pleasing glass corridor. According to Remy’s information, there was also a secret underground level, and that’s where the more distasteful operations were conducted, and more importantly where their mutant prisoners were kept and experimented on. Unfortunately, he wasn’t high ranking enough to get access to the lower levels, so he couldn’t provide any floor plans or details on the types of security in place.

However, Hank was sure that whatever measure they had in place, it had to be linked to the city’s power grid. Even if Shaw could supply the cages with energy, it was unlikely they’d waste him for something like that, and Erik knew the man was too prideful to do it. Also, it wasn’t suspicious for a laboratory to have shockingly high energy consumption. And Hank was sure he could black out their facility. He just needed something who could sort through dozens of metallic wires and easily reroute them.

They parked not too far away from the Trask Industries building, and right next to an electrical manhole that Erik opened with a flick of his fingers. Hank handed him a flashlight, and then he sent a quick thought to the others through the mind link Charles had in place. 

We’re ready.

The first response came from Warren and Ororo, who were patrolling the skies, completely hidden thanks to the thick cloud layer that coincidentally enveloped half the city.

We just saw the others enter, skies are all clear.

Hank told Erik about the replies, as the metallokinetic was only linked with Charles, then jumped in the electrical utility vault.

>>>

“Professor Xavier, welcome to Worthington Laboratories! Dr. Worthington will receive you shortly.” The secretary was all professional smiles and poise as she escorted Charles and Sean to a waiting room. Nonetheless, Charles could tell she was actually pretty nervous. The public entrance had mutant scanners, and they undoubtedly had gone off as he and Sean passed through. They were pretty advanced tech, with one specific major flaw: they worked on proximity, and therefore couldn’t tell how many mutants were in a room, or distinguish between two people next to each other. Or three.

Charles smiled amicably at the secretary, while Sean acted as a bored teen, pacing around and attracting the attention of the security guards, no doubt alerted that at least one of them was a mutant. Charles took his time and mentally sweeped the building, making a headcount, and most importantly determining the location of the underground level. He kept his touch as light as possible, in case he encountered the mind of any of Shaw’s mutants, who were familiar with telepaths. Once he had a better grasp on the layout, he called Kitty through the mental link.

Are you ready to go down, Miss Pryde?

Kitty straightened up from where she was slumped against the wall next to him.

Just tell me how many floors, Professor.

She was camouflaged using her powers, with an added layer of mental cloaking, courtesy of Charles. 

In the third room down the corridor on the left there’s an elevator shaft hidden behind a bookshelf. You can use that to reach the containment facility. 

Kitty sent her acknowledgement through the link, then disappeared, passing through the wall and started heading towards the elevator. Charles sent her another thought. 

It’s likely that there will be more mutant sensors around the elevator, don’t go down until Hank deactivates the electricity.  

Kitty acknowledged, and went ahead to be in position. 

Meanwhile, the secretary had seemed to gather enough courage to say: “While Dr. Worthington has agreed to give you a tour of the facility, he would prefer…” She hesitated, clearly at odds between being polite and obeying her boss. “Not to have any untrained personnel in the laboratories.” She concluded, with a pointed look towards Sean. 

Charles was about to make up an excuse, but the teen beat him to the punch, snorting a laugh and looking at the secretary like she was insane.

“Oh yeah, great idea lady, I imagine you’ll be pushing the Professor’s wheelchair?” He said, sarcasm turned to max, even as he sent Charles a quick mental apology. “Or leave him alone to do it, making him have to choose between taking notes on whether you’re cool enough to be given money and move ?” The secretary was paling more and more after every word, clearly mortified to be scolded by a teenager in front of a possible major investor. 

“I’ll inform Dr. Worthington about your presence.” She murmured, and left the room as quickly as possible. 

“You do that.” Sean said, looking awfully pleased.

>>>

Remy spared a thought for whoever was watching through the security camera. He was sure that whatever they were expecting, it wasn’t a Worthington employee flanked by a blue teenager and a guy glowing red. However, that was the quickest way to get reported to Shaw, considering he was standing in front of his personnel’s entrance. And if there was one way to get the man’s attention, it was the chance to recruit more mutants into his… whatever deranged power-hungry scheme he was cooking. The plan was simple: Remy would say Alex had approached him as a way to get to Shaw, and was bringing Kurt as a “prize” for the experiments Worthington Labs was conducting. Remy would play the part of the helpless human employee caught in mutant affairs, and they’d have access to Shaw’s office. 

He didn’t have to fake the startle when the door opened revealing none other than Emma Frost herself, as always dressed way too elegantly for any security detail. The telepath scowled at the three of them, and Remy prayed that Charles’ tricks would hold up. 

“Madam Frost, I assume.” Alex said, clearly used to appearing intimidating despite his age. “I’ve heard you might have a use for someone adept at wreaking havoc.”

She didn’t answer immediately, and Remy felt her powers brush his mind. 

She’s checking Alex’s story. She’ll see what we want. Professor Xavier’s voice resonated in his head, but Remy didn’t relax yet.

“Shaw has questions.” Emma eventually said, apparently satisfied by what she’d seen in their minds. “You too.” She added, coldly, turning towards Remy. “As for our prodigal son…” She signalled, and suddenly two guards were flanking Kurt, handcuffing him with what looked like electrified handcuffs. Kurt gasped in pain when they were clasped around his wrists. 

Emma guided them up a flight of stairs, ignoring the elevator. Remy catalogued the layout of the place, noting how the stairs also went down, transmitting the information to everyone else.

Kitty’s voice resonated in his head. 

There’s no stairs on this side, and the elevator doors are hidden. It’s more likely the cells are only under Worthington Labs.

Remy acknowledged, and then felt Hank send a thought.

We found the transmitting cables, we’re ready to leave them in the dark.

Charles’ answer came almost immediately.

After they get to Shaw. I’m with Worthington now, but ideally we’d like visuals on everyone, and I can’t see Trask anywhere, he must be somewhere shielded from my powers.

Remy was silently glad nobody else had anything to add after that. The more telepathic activity going on, the higher the risk Emma would catch any of it, and blow their cover. 

They only went up two floors, clearly still in the part of the building reserved to Shaw’s team, as no actual employees could be seen. Emma led them down a corridor, and if Remy was correct, closer to the junction between the Worthington and Trask buildings. It made sense for Shaw to stay close enough to both buildings, so he could quickly intervene on either side. 

They were finally escorted into an office, and Shaw himself looked as Remy remembered him: self-assured, with an infuriating little smile and a look that told the room he was ready to monologue. 

His office was directly linked with the glass corridor, confirming Remy’s suspicions, with one of the walls made entirely of windows overlooking Worthington labs. And that wasn’t the only glass in the room: oddly, there was a glass cage, big enough to house a human, though not comfortably.

Shaw smiled when he caught him looking towards the cage, and that was when Remy realised it was a trap.

>>>

“And this corridor leads to Trask Industries, our current main partner for all engineering projects.” Worthington said, gesturing towards the impressive, if odd, glass double doors.

Charles nodded politely, or would have, except in that exact moment he lost all contacts with Remy and Alex. He tried not to show it on his face, but Sean likely wasn’t as good, because Worthington scowled.

“Anything wrong?”

Charles quickly scrambled for an excuse. They needed to check on the others. “It’s just… We heard all kinds of things about Trask Industries, and… Would it be possible to have a quick look at their facility?”

Worthington hesitated, and really, they didn’t have time for that. Charles took over his mind and sent him to open the corridor, which required several codes and some sort of bumpy badge scanned in. 

As soon as the door was open, Charles was tempted to just… knock him out, but it would be too risky to leave him passed out on the floor, not to mention there were likely cameras. He took a breath. Sean was radiating worry, but he needed to remain calm. 

They crossed the corridor, with a still mind-tricked Worthington following them. 

When they got to the other side, it was pure chaos.

Remy was cowering behind a charred desk, hands on his head, clearly in pain. Shaw was towering over him, concentrated energy gathering in his hands like solid air, with Emma Frost next to him, unmoving but clearly using her powers, likely the reason their mind link was broken. Alex was locked in the glass cage, looking barely conscious. No sign of Kurt, but Charles hoped he was being taken down to the cages as planned.

“Shaw!” He yelled, hoping to distract him for that split second he needed. 

Both him and Emma turned to him, clearly surprised.

“They knew about me!” Remy yelled. “This bitch got to Rogue!”

Charles didn’t waste time reacting to that. He’d already used Emma’s momentary distraction to send the mental equivalent of a tidal wave against her and Shaw. 

They recoiled, and for a moment killing Remy wasn’t the first priority for anyone in the room. Charles took a breath, preparing for Emma’s retaliation, and could only send one last thought through the link before engaging her: 

Hank, now!

>>>

Bolivar Trask watched as his computer died, along with every other electrical-based object in the room. Another day, he would have waited before worrying, but he’d just received a call from Shaw. Apparently, one of the mutants linked to their captives had just entered the building with some backup. Shaw had assured him that two of them had already been taken care of and properly caged, and not only he was personally handling the third, but he’d sent Riptide to do a perimeter sweep, so to not worry about any sudden winds. However, the power short-circuiting right in the middle of a possible attack couldn’t be a coincidence.

He felt safe enough in his underground office, but maybe this was an opportunity to test his new pet projects. After all, those didn’t need electricity… 

>>>

Kitty was more than a little nervous, alone in the compound while everyone else seemed to be engaged in various stand-offs. Warren and Ororo had sent a quick alarm through the link warning about a flying mutant discovering their location, Kurt Remy and Alex had been cut out of the link, and Charles had stopped answering after sending Hank the signal. 

However, now that the lights were off, it was her turn to spring to action. She passed through the elevator doors and found herself in the shaft. Her powers allowed her to phase and shift through any type of matter, and therefore essentially walk on air itself. She didn’t need the elevator, or any stairs, she could just shift through various air levels and descend to the cells. On her way down, she noticed a line of sensors and magnets, still apparently activated and projecting some kind of field, though it didn’t appear to affect her in any way. It temporarily deactivated as she phased through it, as did all electronic devices, but flickered back on immediately.

Kitty estimated she was four or five floors underground when she finally arrived at the end of the elevator shaft, and phased through the elevator cabin itself to arrive on the cell level. 

Still cloaked, she took a moment to assess the situation: there were ten cells, made of some kind of glass and still powered, likely by an emergency generator. Eight of them were occupied. Raven and Remy’s fiancée (Rogue, Kitty reminded herself) were closest to her, while Kurt was on the other end, next to a steel door that led who knows where. He was the only conscious one, and was currently engaged in a conversation with a red-skinned mutant. Azazel, if she remembered Erik’s information correctly. All the other cells were guarded by humans holding what appeared to be dart guns. Kitty couldn’t suppress a shiver when she realised those could contain a version of the cure Worthington was trying to synthesise. 

Okay. So, she only needed to get Kurt out, knock out his devil dad and ten more cure-wielding guards, make Raven and Rogue regain consciousness and leave through a currently out of order elevator. Of course.

If literally anyone could spare a hand, I’m a little outnumbered down here! 

While she hoped someone would come to help, she could still get started. 

Kitty got to Kurt’s cell undiscovered, while Azazel was saying: “...still couldn’t get past the anti-teleportation barrier. Face it kid, you’re stuck in here!”

Well, that explained the weird field, and added one more problem for her future self, but her present self had more pressing matters. She phased straight through Azazel, which caused him a good amount of vertigo and nausea, and gave her enough time to phase halfway through the cell door, disrupting any power going through it. 

A very confused Kurt saw his estranged father suddenly kneel down and his cell door shift open. Unfortunately, so did the ten guards.

Kitty quickly phased Kurt’s handcuffs and returned visible, while still intangible. “Those are cure bullets!” She warned, and Kurt wasted no time asking questions, and jumped to the top of a cell, narrowly avoiding a volley of darts. While up there, he used his tail to disarm a guard, and smacked him in the face with his own gun.

“I cannot teleport, but I’ll keep them busy!” He declared, in the midst of a series of acrobatics that kept him out of the guns’ range. “You free the others!”

Sure, Kitty thought, mainly to herself, I just need to get past Satan over here…

>>>

Charles struggled to regain his breath as he slammed against the glass wall, wheelchair and all. Shaw was getting ready to send another blast his way, and his mind was still completely shielded, Emma Frost doing her worst while unmoved by Shaw’s blasts, since she could apparently turn into diamond. Wouldn’t that have been useful to know…  

Shaw was unfortunately doing a remarkable job at keeping him and Sean at bay, while trying to get to Remy. Apparently he’d decided the energy manipulator was the biggest threat, which just spoke volumes about the guy’s ego. Regardless, they were currently stuck. And Shaw was getting more confident by the second. They couldn’t take another blast. Charles felt the glass behind him crack.

Sean got back to his feet, unsteady but clearly ready to defend Charles. There wasn’t much he could do, his sound waves useless against Shaw, who could simply absorb the kinetic energy in them and return it to the sender. Yet he was up, in between Charles and Shaw, sparing a look for Alex too, still stuck in the glass cage.

But Shaw went straight for Remy, kinetic energy shifting around his fist. Remy was on the floor, passed out, bleeding from the temple from where he’d been thrown against a bookshelf. His powers had proven useless, every supercharged object thrown at Shaw only strengthening the mutant’s energy reserves. 

Charles felt his vision blur, Emma taking advantage of his fear to try and gain the upper hand in their mental standoff. His mind was a cacophony, no one voice standing out, just a constant pressure , preventing him from focusing. 

Then the glass wall shattered.

Charles braced, covering his face against the incoming flurry of glass shards, and saw Sean drop to the ground as well. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, you know the drill.” A very familiar voice drawled from behind him.

Relief flooded his veins: Erik was there. Charles could feel his focus returning, vision sharpening as the pressure from Emma eased as he regained control of their mental struggle. 

Erik didn’t waste any more time with grand entrances, and immediately sent a volley of metal towards Shaw and Emma. The projectiles stopped as soon as they came in contact with Shaw, the mutant’s power draining all kinetic energy from them and effectively stopping them in midair. 

Shaw laughed, catching a shard of metal with one hand, plucking it from the air.

“Give up, boy, your tricks are useless against me!”

Erik didn’t raise to the taunt. 

I was expecting you to do that.

He flicked his fingers down, dragging the shard to the ground, and Shaw with it.

Of course, Charles realised, Shaw can’t actually absorb magnetism, therefore he has to keep draining each piece of metal constantly. A minimal distraction, and they’re back in Erik’s control.

Galvanised by finally seeing Shaw lose some of the upper hand, Charles renewed his efforts to keep Emma contained, while restoring his team’s mental link. 

“Professor!” Sean called. The boy had reached Alex’s cage. “Can I get him out?”

Charles spared the cage another look, taking advantage of the momentary lull in the fight. It was some type of reinforced glass, clearly engineered to resist strong energy blasts, as Alex’s efforts had been in vain. But maybe Sean had an ace up his sleeve…

“You need to find the harmonic frequency!” Charles yelled back, and unfortunately he couldn’t do much more than that, as Emma had recovered from the volley of metal and had decided it was easier to simply charge at him.

Only to be knocked back by Sean’s warning shout. Charles wondered if her insides were diamond too: it couldn’t be pleasant, sound ricocheting off all those sharp angles…

Cover your ears! Charles projected at everyone in the room, especially Erik, who was busy keeping Shaw away from Remy’s unconscious form. He only had a split second himself to turn away from the cage, then Sean was unloading the full power of his scream, pitch shifting as he adjusted to the needed frequency. Even Shaw seemed rattled, and tried to load an energy blast, but Erik wasn’t giving him enough time to shoot anything, throwing everything he could, including power cables stripped from the walls that kept trying to wrap around the man. 

The cage shattered, glass shards scattering in silence as Sean’s scream still filled the air. Alex looked rattled but ready to fight, grinning proudly at Sean. 

Charles didn’t miss that, in the commotion, Remy had left the room. And unfortunately, he noticed as he took a quick headcount, so had Worthington.

>>>

Remy sprinted down the corridor, ignoring the pounding in his head. He just had to get to the stairs. By now, the little invisible girl had likely reached the cages, except in their plan there was no angry Azazel and Shaw and Trask weren’t aware this was a rescue plan. He really hoped Charles would have a moment of rest to add him back to the mind link. 

Remy got to the elevator right as two guards rounded the corner. Ah, fuck. He hoped they were humans, he was pretty banged up already, and was expecting enough resistance downstairs.

He quickly looked around for something to supercharge. Where’s a good deck of cards when you need one? He’d have to shock the guards the old way. If they didn’t shoot at him first, which, he realised at the two drew their guns, was becoming more likely by the second.

Then a hulkling blue figure jumped out from behind them and knocked them out in two quick strikes. 

“Hank! Thanks, you beast!” 

The scientist shrugged. “I was going down to help Kitty, and I just heard from Warren and Ororo: they’ve taken down the tornado-summoning mutant and they’re on their way, they’ll come down the Worthington side while we cover this one.” He summarised, quickly and efficiently. “Charles is a little overwhelmed, but he should have you linked back in soon. You good?” Hank added, checking on Remy’s heard wound, which had thankfully stopped bleeding.

“Yeah.” Remy shrugged it off. “I want to get back my Rogue.”

Hank nodded, a similar determination in his eyes.

The elevator was still out of order because of the blackout, so they had to take the stairs. Hank barely needed stairs at all, leaping from one side to another and swinging off the handrails. He got down first, stopping in front of the reinforced steel door that had to lead to the cells. Remy joined him as fast as he could, signalling him to move aside. Opening doors was easy for someone with his powers, regardless of what alarms or mechanisms were in place: he only needed to supercharge the lock, and the door would usually swing open. 

This one was no exception, however what waited for them on the other side, that was unexpected.

“What on Earth are those things?!”

>>>

Warren took extreme delight in slamming one of his father’s guards against the wall with his left wing, gun clattering uselessly on the ground as the man faded into unconsciousness. There was no sign of the man himself, Warren Worthington senior, but as nobody had seen Trask either, it wasn’t unlikely that the two were regrouping. 

Ororo was up ahead, already close to the elevator, which was useless without power, but neither of them really needed it. It was quite the clever idea to not have any stairs, and then keep the Trask exit better guarded, as that would be the one any escaped prisoner would have to use.

They pried open the elevator doors and flew down, Ororo creating a nice current so that Warren barely had to flap his wings at all, restricted as he was by the width of the elevator shaft.

Their mind link was still on, and they could hear that Kitty and Kurt were in trouble, surrounded by too many guards to actually get to the cells. Warren clenched his teeth, speeding down. There was no way he was letting Kurt get caged. Not again. 

They landed on top of the elevator cabin and immediately got busy dismantling a ceiling panel to gain access. Kitty and Kurt sounded exhausted, barely managing to avoid the makeshift cure bullets, let alone actually free Raven and Rogue. Warren couldn’t wait to get there, and explain a few things about hurting his friends to those bastards. 

When the panel cracked open, Warren wanted to go down immediately, but he wasn’t that reckless. Ororo was the smarter choice, as she could blast any guards in the vicinity with gusts of wind. 

Warren followed her immediately, flying up above the cages. There wasn’t much space to maneuver, but he was meant to be the distraction, allowing Kitty to free the others. 

“ Engel !” Kurt exclaimed, standing on top of a cage himself, clutching at his bruised left arm. A red-skinned mutant was close by, fangs bared. 

“Get away from him!” He yelled, flying straight for the bastard, knocking him off the cage, and on top of one of the guards still standing. 

Not that Ororo needed much help, still relatively fresh even after taking down Riptide. Warren had only a quick mental warning before she unleashed a lightning storm. He barely managed to push Kurt off the metal cage, gliding them to safety on the ground. 

Kitty appeared next to them, looking glad to be able to return physical. 

“Thanks, you guys. Everytime one of those darts passed through me, I swear I could still feel it, icy cold.” She shivered. “Ugh.”

Warred surveyed the room: the guards were down, and so was Azazel. Speaking of which… 

“I’m sorry about your father, Kurt… How do you say? Es tut mir leid. ” He tried, feeling a little ridiculous.

Kurt turned to him, looking shocked, black eyes looking even bigger than usual. Warren felt himself flush under the sudden attention.

“ Engel , there is nothing to be sorry for. You saved me. Again.” 

Ororo sighed. “All right, we don’t have time for any of that . Kitty, think you can phase through the cells?”

Kitty was likely about to agree, when Hank yelled through the mind link: SENTINELS!

Then his presence disappeared.

Everyone paused.

“Uh… what’s a sentinel?” Kitty asked.

Warren shrugged. “Likely nothing good. Maybe Raven will know?”

They formulated a quick plan: Warren was going to help carry the other prisoners up the shaft to pass the teleportation barrier, so that Kurt could teleport them out. Ororo and Kitty would get to the Trask side of the underground level, where it looked like Hank was having trouble. As for Raven and Rogue, they’d leave the choice up to them. Warren was sure they were being kept purposefully unconscious, likely with a sedative-infused bandaid, or something along those lines.

Kitty phased through Raven’s cell door, and her powers stopped the circuit, making it unlock. 

Time to start the rescue.

>>>

Erik’s hand grasped his shoulder, half in reassurance and half, Charles suspected, to balance himself. 

Shaw had decided he needed a change in location, and had blasted the room with all the energy he had left. Erik had shielded them with a makeshift barrier of cables and metal scraps (Charles had spotted a manhole cover, likely what Erik had used to break the window), but the fallout still hadn’t been pretty.

“My head is spinning…” Groaned Sean, as Alex dug him out from under the remains of a bookshelf. “Is this how you guys feel after my screams? I hate it.”

Charles took a moment to reassess his mental links. Hank had warned everyone about a new obstacle, in the underground lever below Trask Industries but not in the cells. In other words, right below Charles. The cell area itself was quiet, the rescue was ongoing, but Raven and Rogue were still unconscious. 

“Where’s Shaw?” Erik asked, still holding on to Charles for support. He looked pale and frazzled, but his eyes were pure steel. 

Charles sensed for Shaw’s mind, hoping that Emma’s powers were draining, after the constant fight. 

“He’s in the elevator shaft. He must have given power back to that section.”

“Fuck.” Alex swore. “Hank’s outnumbered.”

“We’re going.” Erik decided immediately. Then he seemed to hesitate, and looked around.

Sean was back on his feet, looking a little green but otherwise unscathed, Alex was already glowing red, and Charles managed to appear unruffled even with soot on his face and a half-burnt shirt.

“Of course we are.” Charles covered Erik's hand with his own, looping their fingers together. Erik seemed startled by the contact at first, but then he squeezed Charles' shoulder, expression softening.

“I can levitate you down the elevator shaft.” Erik said, going back to planning. “Sean, can you take Alex?” 

The redhead nodded, after double-checking that the explosion hadn’t damaged his flying harness too much. 

Charles felt oddly proud at their determination, and eagerness to follow Erik.

“Well then, lead the way, Mr Lehnsherr.”

>>>

Charles, as always, couldn’t help but stare in admiration at Erik’s power display, as the metallokinetic lowered him down the elevator shaft, while resting on a floating piece of metal himself, and sealing the opening, so that it would be quite hard for anyone else to follow them, or escape. 

What awaited for them on the lower floor seemed like complete chaos, at first. 

Five giant machines took up most of the space, humanoid but lifeless, made of some clear plastic material, with copper wirings visible underneath. They seemed to be shooting beams of energy at Hank and Remy, who looked roughed up, and had been drawn into a corner on the opposite side of the room. 

To their immediate left however, Shaw and Emma were disappearing into a small concealed door. Charles immediately focused on them, deciding to leave the giant machines to the others. Whatever was beyond that door, it couldn’t be reached by telepathy, but Charles wasn’t about to let them escape so easily. He sent a blast of mental energy towards the two, one so powerful it literally paralysed them where they stood, Shaw with still a hand on the door. 

“I’ve got them!” He exclaimed, already feeling the overwhelming pressure Emma was starting to exert on his mind control. It was like someone choking him from the inside.

“Wonderful, Charles!” Erik replied, and his admiring tone did wonders indeed for Charles’ conviction. “Let me handle these trash cans!”

Suddenly, because the situation wasn’t apparently chaotic enough, another door blasted open, thunder cracking in the background.

Charles felt the minds entering the room, and nearly lost the struggle with Emma then and there.

Raven .

“You need backup, my love?” A new voice asked, as a brown-haired woman ran across the room to Remy’s side. So that was the famous Rogue, Charles guessed. She seemed understandably furious. 

Erik didn’t waste much time with tearful reunions, and instead quickly took control of the situation. Everyone divided in pairs, more or less, with Raven going to help Hank, and Ororo and Kitty engaging another of the robots, or Sentinels as Hank had called them. Alex and Sean were already trying to contain a fourth one, which meant Erik had the last one to take care of.

The damned things were sturdy, and apparently impervious to most mutant powers. They needed to think smartly about this, and Charles could barely help them, struggling to maintain control over Emma. And Shaw himself wasn’t exactly a piece of cake to keep still. 

It seemed like Ororo’s lighting was useless, the machines were apparently built to withstand energy outputs, no doubt programmed to be able to contain Shaw, if he ever went rogue.

“Kitty, you give it a try!” Ororo yelled.

“I don’t think I can phase through energy that dense!” She answered, looking very much intimidated by the hulking machine.

Ororo narrowly flew out of range of another blast. “I’ll keep it busy!” 

She immediately started creating fog, trying to restrict the Sentinel’s vision and keep it focused on her, and Kitty visibly took a deep breath, gathering the courage to get close. 

Meanwhile, Raven was proving very hard to hit, backflipping around her Sentinel with effortless grace, giving Hank time to recover. The blue mutant seemed entranced, looking at her in awe. 

Charles turned his attention to Remy and Rogue, and oddly, they seemed to be taken advantage of a small second of reprieve to kiss. Well, Charles could relate to the need, but it really didn’t seem like the time!

He couldn’t spare them much time, as one of Sean’s banshee screeches resonated, making everyone falter for a second. However, it seemed like he and Alex had the situation under control, with the Sentinel stunned and ripping at the seams under the vibrations. Alex seemed ready to blast its insides. 

Erik suddenly appeared in front of him, hands dancing as he commandeered metal rods to coil around the Sentinel’s circuits, crushing its arms and rendering it unable to fire. 

“Everything under control, Professor?” He asked, and he didn’t even sound out of breath, wasn’t that unfair. 

“If you make sure I’m not distracted, Mr. Lehnsherr…” Charles muttered under his breath. Erik laughed, a wild sound accompanied by the crashing sound of the Sentinel collapsing.

It wasn’t the only one: with another piercing scream, Sean managed to expose the Sentinel’s internal wirings, and Alex did what he did best, and wreaked havoc on a second robot. 

Galvanised at seeing that the Sentinel’s weakness seemed to lie inside them, Kitty found the courage to phase through hers, and reappeared on the other side clutching a bundle of wires. The Sentinel short-circuited and fell at hers and Ororo’s feet.

“God, I’m tired of this!” Raven said, exasperated, as she ducked out of range of another blast. “Don’t these thing have an off switch?”

“Even if they did,” Hank replied, appearing to actually consider the question. “Trask would be the one to have it.”

“All right then.” She replied, seemingly struck by an idea. In a second, she changed, turning into the smaller figure of Bolivar Trask. 

“ Stop !” Raven-as-Trask yelled, and surprisingly, it seemed to work. At least for a moment, the Sentinel paused, stunned. 

With a giddy smile ill-fitting of Trask’s face, Raven turned to the one remaining Sentinel, the one Rogue was engaging. Remy was on the floor, apparently passed out again, and one of Rogue’s hands was glowing, with the dark pink energy her partner usually emitted when supercharging objects. She didn’t hesitate, and immediately unleashed it on the Sentinel, trying to overcharge it. And while the robot may have been built to withstand impressive amounts of energy directed towards it, nobody had apparently considered a Sentinel’s power being amplified, and redirected against it. A bit of a design flaw, really.

The Sentinel exploded, with a roar that shook the entire basement, and triggered a chain reaction that took down the other stunned robot and whatever was left of the three dismantled ones.

>>>

Charles blinked awake, and the first thing he felt was that he was lying on the floor. The room was half-destroyed, for what he could see through the dust and smoke. He must have passed out for a moment, because he could feel all his mental connections had been reset. 

Suddenly, Kitty was at his side.

“Professor, are you alright?” She asked, a little frantically. 

Charles nodded, mind already at work to check on everyone: Hank and Raven were a little banged up but conscious, while Rogue had been too close to the explosion and was still passed out, blood trickling from an ugly scratch, with Remy still out cold. Thanks to their powers, Kitty and Ororo were mainly unscathed, and Erik was disentangling Alex and Sean from a pile of debris, but their minds didn’t show any sign of long-lasting damage. 

Their enemies, on the other hand… Charles sighed, and slowly sat up. His wheelchair wasn’t too far, but it was half-crumpled by a Sentinel’s arm. Wonderful. 

“Erik, there was a secret elevator in the office. Shaw and Emma are going back up with Trask.” He said, and he probably sounded as exhausted as he felt. 

Erik immediately snapped his attention back to him, while metal pieces kept moving in the background, freeing the two mutant boys.

“We need to end this.” He declared, already crossing the room to get to Charles. “They’re outnumbered, and these Sentinels were clearly their best shot.”

Erik kneeled next to Charles. “Will you come with me?”

Charles almost huffed a laugh. Typical of Erik, asking when it was too late, and the decision was out of Charles’ hands.

“Of course.” Charles answered, because he’d learnt that while he could not control Erik Lehnsherr, he also couldn’t stop himself from helping him.

Erik’s usual hard gaze softened, and his hand grasped Charles’, a quick thankful gesture. 

“I’m sorry, is what I think is happening, actually happening?” Raven’s voice came from behind them, heavy with disbelief.

“What, your mutant supremacist ex seduced Charles and turned us all into Criminals?” Hank asked, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Erik huffed, apparently unbothered by the comments. “Are you two planning to help or just provide colorful commentary?”

After that, the moment of levity was over. In moments, Erik had Charles’ wheelchair back in working shape and Hank was helping him back on it, while Raven had gone to check on Rogue’s wound.

They split in two groups, with Alex, Sean and Kitty staying down with the wounded; and Ororo, Hank and Raven going back up with Erik and Charles.

Trask’s office-bunker was clearly equipped for all kinds of emergencies, including a backup generator and apparently, an emergency elevator. One of the computer monitors was on, with a protocol on screen containing the Sentinels’ programming, clear instructions to go after anyone identified as a mutant. 

“What was Trask even planning to do with those?!” Hank asked, scandalised, as they climbed in the elevator. 

“Nothing good, that’s for sure.” Raven answered. “It’s probably better that we got rid of them in their early stages.”

Charles agreed, but with everything that was going on, he really didn’t have the time to process that. His priority was keeping them shielded from Emma. Her and Shaw couldn’t be much of a threat now, not after that explosion, and Trask wasn’t a problem, now that his Sentinels had been taken care of.

The elevator dinged open.

And that was when Charles realised they’d made one crucial tactical mistake.

>>>

Erik felt his blood chill in his veins.

There was an execution squad waiting for them.

At least a dozen men, all holding guns that were surely equipped with cure darts. Right behind them was Warren Worthington senior himself, not looking particularly intimidating in his rumpled suit, and no weapons of his own. Regardless, they’d dismissed him, and he’d had time to regroup, and ambush them.

Fuck.

The first volley of darts came before the elevator doors had finished opening. But Erik was faster, reflexes sharpened by years of training and fighting.

He molded the doors themselves into a shield, and felt the darts ricochet off it. 

The others remained paralysed for one more second, then they sprung into action: Ororo flew up immediately, sending strong wind towards the guards, hoping to disarm them. Hank took one of the door pieces as a personal shield, and started moving in, Raven close behind.

Keeping an eye on Charles, Erik focused on the metal objects closest to the guards, or even on them: watches, bracelets, belt buckles, even an earring could be turned into a weapon capable of incapacitating, as long as it contained nickel. He knocked out a good half of the guards like that.

“It’s over, Worthington!” Charles shouted over the chaos of the fight. Erik winced: he’d gone into the fray, the idealistic fool!

“We’ve freed your prisoners, and destroyed the Sentinels. Stand down, and if you’re lucky I won’t make you forget the entirety of your research!” Charles continued, as always sounding perfectly in control, even when facing a firing squad.

“I doubt you’ll be able to.” Worthington replied, deadpan. Then there was a gun in his hands, and he took the shot.

Erik’s panic didn’t make time slow down, didn’t give him time to react, stop, think, do anything at all. All he knew was that one moment there was a cure dart heading for Charles’ heart, and the next he was on the ground, an icy cold spreading from his side. It felt like someone had injected anti-freeze in his veins.

>>>

There was a deafening clang as all the metal previously in motion crashed on the ground, abruptly deserted of control. The room froze, and Charles thought it was surreal, that everyone had decided to pause just as his mind stopped working, incapable of processing the sight in front of him. 

Erik was struggling to breathe, taking in lungfuls of hair, struggling to inhale. Yet he looked almost untouched, only a small trickle of blood pouring from his left side. From the dart that had been meant for Charles.

This can’t be happening. Not to Erik.

Charles physically stopped himself from thinking about it, about the implications of that small entry wound. He couldn’t. Didn’t want to. 

It threatened to come out anyway, it was spilling already, he couldn’t hear any of the sounds of the inevitably still ongoing struggle, couldn’t see anything but Erik’s chest, raising and lowering frantically, as he took air in. Worthington wouldn’t stop, he would surely take another shot, Charles needed to do something … 

It was too much.

Charles screamed, either out loud or just in his head. It all came out, like a dam bursting, a shockwave that flattened anyone in the room (not Erik, never Erik ), shutting their minds down like a blow to the head. And it didn’t stop. Charles’ mind instinctively searched for each and anyone in the building that had been a threat, and there were no mental defences capable of holding him now, Emma’s walls crumbled like shredded paper, and her and Shaw fell. 

Worthington wasn’t so lucky. Charles opened his mind, a string of memories unrolling in front of him, and he crumpled everything and anything even vaguely related to the cure, erasing them but leaving behind the sensation that something had been there, and then forcibly removed. It wasn’t a painless process.

When he came back to himself, it was almost like waking up after being knocked out cold himself. Erik was still at his feet, looking at him with a mixture of admiration and something indescribable. He seemed a little better, still panting but not actively struggling to breathe. 

Something blue moved in his peripheral vision, and then Raven appeared next to them.

“Are you alright? You froze the entire room after that bastard took the shot, and then everybody just… dropped…” She asked, looking from Charles to Erik, visibly worried. 

“I… I don’t…” Suddenly he felt heavy, thoughts like molasses. And everything went dark.

>>>

Hank was going to need one hell of a holiday. Did Charles just knock out an entire building worth of people? Just how powerful could he be?

He physically shook his head, trying to regain some semblance of focus. Charles was out, Erik about to be soon, body still fighting against that cure, which seemed to be acting like a poison.

They needed to get out of there.

“Hey, have you seen my fath- What the hell? ” Hank turned to the door at that new voice, only to see Warren and Kurt entering the elevator room, with matching shocked expressions.

“We…” Warren started, clearly still processing the mayhem. “Kurt teleported all the prisoners away, and then I wanted to make sure my father wouldn’t, well…” He gestured to Worthington’s unconscious form. “I guess he didn’t.”

“Is the Professor alright?” Kurt asked. 

Hank needed to make some executive decisions, fast.

“Warren, do you think you can find where you father keeps the formulas?” He asked, and was relieved when the teenager nodded. “Alright, go with Kurt, I’ll need all of it.”

The two didn’t question it, and turned to leave, when Hank added: “Oh, also Kurt, since we’re all on the path of criminality…”

>>>

Ororo came flying down the emergency elevator shaft, now broken like the other two thanks to Erik ripping away the doors.

“We’re leaving.” She said, simply, not trusting herself with more. “I’ll carry Remy and Rogue up first, Kitty you can help me while you climb on your own, right?” 

Kitty nodded. She had bandaged Rogue to the best of her abilities. Ororo then turned to Alex and Sean. “We’ll be right back for you two.” The girl promised, and the two started the climb up.

“You know what makes me mad?” Alex asked after a little while, apropos of nothing.

“Uh, pretty much everything?” Sean replied, confused.

“Those cells. I’m not going to risk those bastards using them again.” Alex stated, and without waiting for any rebuttals, he got close to the door that lead to the cell corridor. And started glowing.

Ororo came down in that moment. “Wait, don’t-!” She tried to say, but it was too late.

Alex unleashed long rings of energy down the corridor, detonating the entire section. The building shook.

“We’re underground! It’s going to collapse on us, genius!” Ororo yelled, and she quickly grabbed the two boys and summoned the most powerful updraft she could manage, propelling them all up, with Sean opening his battered harness to save her some weight. 

On the main floor, that was starting to shake as well, Hank was the only one left. “What happened?”

Amongst the destruction, Sean laughed, a little hysterical. “Alex got mad!”

Hank cursed under his breath. “Teenagers.”

>>>

Erik woke up all at once, disoriented and in a frenzy. He almost hit Charles in the face.

“Hey, hey, calm down, you’re ok…” The man tried to soothe him. Charles had lost some of his usual poise, looking a little haggard with his hair ruffled, bags under his eyes and at least three days work of beard.

“What, where… Charles?” Erik rambled, still feeling like he should be panicking, but with his head too scrambled to remember why.

He was in one of the many bedrooms of the Xavier mansion, laying in a bed with an IV drip next to him that he must have dislodged during his flailing. 

“You were… hit, by Worthington, remember?” Charles murmured tentatively. 

Erik’s blood chilled in his veins. He remembered that cold. 

“Hey, no, wait, wait…” Charles’ hands clasped his, a gentle but firm grip that anchored Erik. They were warm.

“Me and Hank, we’re trying to reverse engineer Worthington’s formula,” Charles started, still hesitant. “after all, the cure was just a prototype.”

“And… did it work?” Erik asked, forcing the words out his closed throat. 

“Why don’t you have a go?” Charles replied, the ghost of a smile on his face, the first since Erik had woken up.

Erik looked around for some iron, and settled on the pen resting on the bedside table. He called it to him. 

For a moment, nothing happened. 

Then the pen trembled, and hovered in the air, trembling a little. Erik let it drop back down, feeling exhausted already.

“That’s it?” He whispered, mostly to himself. He felt emptied, a used container ready to be thrown away. 

“No, Erik, look at me.” Charles urged, gently tilting Erik’s face up so that their eyes met. “Your powers are still there, and that’s what’s important. You’ve been out for almost a week, you’re dehydrated and exhausted.”

Erik sighed. It was really hard to be mad at Charles when he was so… logical. Erik didn’t want logic. He wanted a few eternities to scream and cry and exhaust himself so that he didn’t have to think about who he was without his powers. 

The bedframe rattled.

“Easy now,” Charles soothed, thumb stroking against his shaking hands.

“I almost moved the whole bed.” Erik murmured, stunned.

“Yeah, and with a few more doses of Hank’s antidote and a decent meal in you, you’ll be commandeering my wheelchair around in no time.” 

Erik relaxed minutely. They weren’t gone. Not really.

“Worthington will pay for this.” 

Charles huffed. “He already has. I don’t know if you remember, but I may… have overreacted, after you got shot.”

He summarised his outburst.

“You mind fucked Worthington and blew up the place?!”

Charles had the decency to look chagrined. “Alex did most of the blowing up…”

“Oh, Charles…” Erik sounded terribly fond. “You criminal.”

It was inevitable, really, reaching up to Charles’ collar to pull him into a kiss. Charles was careful, vary of Erik’s state, kept his lips soft and sweet, a gentle pressure. Erik was severely tempted to bite them. But first, he had to clarify something.

He pulled away, enjoying how Charles chased his mouth, before composing himself.

“Charles, there was something I wanted to tell you, that night we spent together.”

Charles deflated a little, before visibly steeling himself. “I’m not going to cage you, Erik. Once you’ve recovered, you’re free to go. Take Raven, if she wants to come. Maybe try not to get anyone kidnapped again.”

Erik frowned. “For a telepath, you’re not very perceptive, are you?”

Charles looked confused.

“I’d like to stay, if you’ll have me.”

Charles’ joy was so overpowering Erik could feel its tendrils reaching in his own mind.

>>>

“Ugh, is this how it’s going to be like from now on? I’m moving out!” Alex declared, upon entering the kitchen.

Charles hastily separated from Erik, trying to assume a semblance of authority. Erik simply smiled, showing his teeth. 

“When you’re done complaining, Alex, you should check with Hank about repairing the window in yours and Sean’s room, the one that was shattered last night…” Charles commented, failing to contain a smile at how that made the teenager blush about as red as his powers. 

It had been two weeks since their so-called Heist, and things were still trying to assemble themselves into a routine. Remy and Rogue had recovered, but still hadn’t left. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry to leave, really.

“Think our operation was successful, Professor?” Erik asked, watching the teenager’s retreat. 

“Well, let me recap, Mr. Lehnsherr: we rescued Raven, we dismantled their building, appropriated their research, and accidentally saved mutantkind. And while we were at it, Hank decided it was a good idea to send Kurt to steal the entirety of Trask’s stash of treasury bonds, so we also robbed them.”

Erik smiled, bending down to press a kiss against Charles’ neck. “Bit of an upgrade from robbing banks.” He bit down, relishing in the little gasp of surprise that caused.

“I dread to think about what you’ll involve me in next.” Charles said, already getting distracted by Erik’s wicked teeth.