Archive of Our Own ^beta

Day One

“Bloody hell!” Charles Xavier exclaims, as he’s woken from a deep sleep by a bag being put over his head. He hears laughter. “This isn’t funny!” He protests.

“It’s a little funny,” A voice says. His sister, Raven.

“Raven!” Charles yells, struggling against the two mystery people who are now carrying him.

“Oh, relax, Charles.” Raven says, and he hears doors opening as they walk through the house. “Honestly, you’re such a baby sometimes.”

“About being kidnapped by my little sister in the middle of the night?! You think I’m being a baby for being kidnapped!?” He huffs as he’s stuffed into what is, presumably, the backseat of a car. “Honestly, I knew moving in with you was a bad idea. Don’t do this, Raven!”

She laughs, “But it’s tradition, Charles. Can’t fuck with tradition.”

Raven and all her friends live in a big house together, on the edge of campus. It used to be that Charles had his own apartment, but ever since he maybe… kind of… sort of… sunk his mom’s boat over the summer, she's cut him off from family funding. Which was… fairly understandable, if inconvenient.

A few of Raven’s roommates had graduated, so she invited him to come and live with her now that there was space. He has to share a room with another newcomer, one Erik Lehnsherr, a quiet guy who wasn’t even there when Charles went to bed, but the rent split nine ways was affordable and really, he doesn’t have any other options. Not any that were close to campus, anyway.

“I did not sign up for this hazing! This is a violation!” Charles insists.

“I don’t think they care.” Another, new voice, mumbles from beside him. Charles bristles, but shuts up.

The car’s engine roars to life, Raven’s strange, bouncy pop music playing over the speakers.

“I throw the apple into the sky, feels like you never understand me, so I just want to drive…”

Charles tries to count the turns of the car to figure out where they’re going, but he’s not even sure which way they turned out of the driveway, so it’s pretty pointless. And they’ve done at least three U-turns, two of which sent Charles careening practically into the lap of whoever’s beside him.

“Sorry.” He murmurs, embarrassed. “If they’d bothered to put my seatbelt on…”

“Or if our hands weren’t tied.” The person agrees. He (Charles is pretty sure they’re a he) has a gruff, low voice. Actually, he sounds a lot like…

“Are you Erik?” Charles asks.

“Yeah.”

“I’m your roommate, Charles. We met earlier?”

“I know. I figured there wasn’t another brit living here.”

The car comes to a screeching halt, and Charles is flung forward, hitting his face on the center console. The music turns off.

“We’re here!” Raven announces. Charles gets pulled out of the car, and pushed toward who knows where. Someone snips away the duct tape around his hands.

And then he hears the car drive away. Without them.

Charles whips off the blindfold, staring after Raven’s headlights disappearing into the darkness… of a wooded road.

They're in the middle of the woods.

“Well, this is just great.” Charles sighs, and turns to see Erik, crouched on the ground and looking inside a box.

“Looks like they left us a gift.” Erik says, taking out a flashlight, four beers, a family-sized bag of potato chips, and a chess set. “‘Back in two hours.’” he reads off a folded piece of paper.

There’s a bench where the road ends. Charles picks up the chess set and a beer, and gestures to it. “Shall we?”

Erik gives a small smile, “It looks like we’ve got nothing else to do.”

Day 26

Charles walks down the stairs of the student union to see two guys yelling at each other.

“You’re a fucking liar, Sebastian!” One of them says, and Charles realizes it’s Erik.

“Look, Erik, please, just hear me out!” The other guy (Sebastian?) says, reaching for Erik’s hand. Erik swats him away.

“Don’t touch me! You lost that privilege when you slept with someone else, Stück Scheiße!”

“Look, we can figure this out, okay?” Sebastian says, his voice irritatingly calm. “Just give me a chance.”

Erik winds up for a punch. Charles, quickly, darts over.

Don’t do this, Erik. He silently implores the man, grabbing his arm and pulling it back down. Out loud, he just says, “It looks like you’ve got a bit of a problem here, don’t you?” and smiles at Sebastian.

“And who are you?” The taller guy asks, giving him an imperious look.

“Oh, I’m Charles.” Charles shrugs, “But, I’m afraid, that’s really none of your business. I’m not going to pretend to know what my friend Erik here just called you, but I’m sure he was correct. So, why don’t you just leave us alone and go be a douche somewhere else, yes?”

Sebastian’s smug look falters. He stares at Charles for a second, then back at Erik, then sniffs and walks away.

“I had that under control.” Erik growls. Charles lets go of his arm.

“He’s definitely not worth facing assault charges for. C’mon, let me buy you lunch.” Charles says, and gestures back at the student union. He’s already eaten, sure, but Erik looks angry and probably not fit to be around general society on his own right now.

“But…” Erik trails off, sighing. “Okay. Thank you.”

Charles smiles at him.

Day 99

“Ten!” Everyone screams in unison, counting down with the New Year’s ball drop on the TV.

Charles smiles as Erik sits down on the couch beside him, drink in hand.

“Nine!”

“You okay?” The other man asks, raising his voice above the clamor.

“Eight”

Charles nods.

“Seven!”

“Just a headache. I get them sometimes.”

“Six!”

“Well, let me know if you need anything.” Erik says, with a smile.

“Five!”

Charles grins back. He likes it when Erik smiles, even though the sight is rare. Especially since his breakup with Sebastian, which got even uglier than the fight outside the union.

“Four!”

Charles still remembers the night it was truly over. The night Erik said he wanted to call him. And Charles said “Don’t do this, Erik. Don’t do this to yourself.”

“Three!”

And he didn’t. He went to bed, sleeping soundly across the room from Charles, not at Sebastian’s place for once. And then for every night since.

“Two!”

It was nothing if not a relief. Charles likes knowing Erik, who has quickly become one of his closest friends, isn’t trapped in a relationship that hurts him. He’s too good for that.

Erik shifts closer.

“One!”

Day 100

Everyone cheers, and suddenly, Charles and Erik are kissing. Someone (most likely Raven) makes a “whoop”-ing noise.

Erik pulls away, “Was… that okay?”

Charles breaks out in a grin. “Definitely.”

He presses closer to Erik and kisses him again.

“Okay, scooch over you two, you’re hogging the couch.” Raven says after a few minutes, sitting down on one of Charles’s legs.

“Ow!” Charles exclaims. “Raven, don’t do that!”

“Aw, but it’s so much fun.” She teases.

“You realize that when you interrupt him, you’re also interrupting me.” Erik points out.

“Whatever. You’re literally roommates, you’ve got two beds to make out on riiiiiight down the hall. You don’t need the couch.”

Charles and Erik get up, lingering by the snack table.

“You know, we are roommates…” Charles points out.

Erik sighs, “What, are you going to say that we shouldn’t do this?”

Charles smirks, “Not at all.”

Erik grins, taking his hand and pulling him up the stairs.