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Charles was a horrible patient.
Raven would remind him of this very frequently when they were younger, and she had very little sympathy for him when he ended up curled under the covers of his huge bed, nose dripping or head pounding or throat sore. Thankfully, no matter what he told anyone else, Erik was something of a pushover where Charles was concerned, no telepathy required.
That was how he ended up curled up in his bed, a well made pot of tea and some matzo ball soup on a huge tray with a very determined ex-Nazi-hunter turned mutant trainer curled up next to him.
"I'd prefer you not get sick, Erik."
Despite his protests, Erik continued to stay cuddled under the blankets, a book in hand, while Charles poked at the food. He knew he had to eat something, and the soup was quite good, but he didn't much feel like eating it.
"I'll be fine."
Charles could feel Erik's thoughts, at least a few of them, that had concluded that he had evolved a superior immune system to Charles'. Erik had rarely been sick as a child, and Charles had to admit that it seemed unlikely he would start just because he had settled down.
At least Erik's superior genetics meant he could keep the man close even though he was feeling miserable.
"I love you." Charles' own heart twisted and fluttered when he said it. "And I do appreciate you loving me even sick and miserable."
Erik didn't return the endearment; thankfully Charles had already accepted that whatever had started between them after Cuba was still too new for Erik to be loose with his words the way Charles could be. Instead of saying anything, Erik wound his arm around Charles and pulled him close, kissed his forehead, and then grabbed a tissue from the end table.
When it ended up pressed against his nose, Charles blew, wishing that the temporary relief to his sinuses might remain, but they were closed again almost as soon as he could take a deep breath. He groaned and buried his face in Erik's chest.
"I do not know how anyone can deny you when you are pouting, Charles." Erik gave him another kiss to the crown of his head.
Charles resolved to abuse Erik's weakness mercilessly and dragged him into a near-scalding bath so he could breathe and straddle Erik's lap, kissing him senseless while not in danger of suffocating on his own mucus.
i
Hank also thought that Charles was a horrible patient.
Charles could tell, he was a telepath, after all.
"Well, you seem to be on the mend, professor, but I'd take it easy for another day or two."
Charles buttoned up his shirt and tugged a sweater back on over the shirt. "I've been remiss in my training with the new students, Hank. I can hardly afford more time spend recuperating. Thankfully Erik didn't catch whatever I had." According to Hank it had likely been the flu.
"Um... yes, about that..." Awkwardness spiked in the back of Hank's mind.
He frowned. The relationship between Charles and Erik was still new, although hardly tentative - he and Erik had spent many months spent dancing around each other before Shaw was killed - but Charles had thought the children had started to accept...
"I did some research." If Hank's skin had still been pink he would have been blushing furiously. "On... mechanics."
Charles felt his eyebrows raise, unbidden. "Hank, if you have questions about your sexuality..."
"Nononononono...." Hank answered immediately, hands waving off what Charles had been about to say. "This is about you and Erik."
"And?" He had no idea where this conversation was going, and he didn't pluck the information from Hank's mind without his permission, but he did his best to look accommodating and willing to hear whatever it was that was bothering Hank.
"IfoundsomethinginyourteststhatIran."
Charles blinked, again, taking a few moments to unravel what it was that Hank was trying to say.
"And... humans usually produce one distinct type of gamete and..."
Hank was trying to administer... some sort of lecture on the birds and the bees, Charles supposed. "I am a genetics professor, Hank. I understand how human reproduction works. I do not think that Erik and I have anything to worry about on that count."
"But you do!"
The other mutant covered his mouth, looking completely mortified.
"I never noticed before on any of your blood work because... well it's always been sporadic, just once or twice since last May, but I've been running blood work daily and... you... um... hormonal fluctuations and... temperature variations... and... I... vestigial... or... functional... and..."
Charles just stared at the man, bewildered, before Hank pushed a thought into his mind to avoid having to say it out loud.
"I'm a hermaphrodite?!"
"Technically I'd say... semi-hermaphroditic." Hank looked down at his hands.
Charles processed the information for a moment, bewildered and shocked and confused. "I'd say I've been exceptionally lucky then."
It was Hank's turn to look bewildered.
"Having a child while I was working on my dissertation would have been absolutely impossible!" Which he realized, belatedly, said a lot more about his behavior in grad school than was strictly necessary for a young man to know about his professor.
ii
Erik, at least, took it rather well, all things considered.
"You don't have a vagina."
"Really, Erik..."
"I checked."
"Technically, I do not think the presence of a vaginal entrance was first and foremost on your mind at the time."
Erik's eyes glazed over just slightly from the reminder and Charles had to admit that it made him feel exceptionally fond. He rewarded the man by sliding his arms around Erik's waist and kissing his neck until the action became more and more heated, nibbling lips giving way to teeth and teeth giving way to biting and licking and sucking that would leave Erik forced to wear turtlenecks for the rest of the week.
Charles was truly starting to enjoy himself, legs wrapped around Erik's waist, still fully clothed, when Erik paused. Charles whimpered.
"You could get pregnant?"
He sighed, head flopping back against his pillow. "Technically, although it seems statistically unlikely given..." He trailed off, not quite wanting to remind Erik that he'd been more than a bit of a slag in college. "We'll start using rubbers."
Erik flushed, and suddenly Charles realized it wasn't the fear of getting Charles pregnant that had made Erik stop, it was the hope of getting Charles pregnant that had made him stop.
"Oh."
Erik pulled away, embarrassed and ashamed, and Charles had to remind himself that only one of them was the telepath in the relationship. He sat up and wriggled to the edge of the bed where Erik was now sitting, looking away. "Erik, love."
Nervous, sea blue-green eyes flicked towards him.
"I think you would make a lovely father." And it was hard to express how much he'd always wanted children, always.
iii
Hank hadn't expected advice for how to increase conception chances, but after some basic guidelines and some obscene hand gestures, Erik had taken to the project with gusto.
The sheer quantity of notes put some of Charles' dissertation research to shame. Charles' day planner, previously given over only to a few notes like 'lunch with Moira' or 'review journal article by today' now included temperature tracking and weekly hormonal fluctuation tracking numbers (care of Hank), time and position details of every sexual encounter (some pre-scheduled, others notated after the fact like the vigorous over-the-desk fucking Erik gave him one Thursday afternoon), a little check box for indicating prenatal vitamins having been taken, and a little frowny face at the end of each month when Charles didn't end up pregnant.
Erik had hunted Nazi's for over fifteen years of his life. It shouldn't have been surprising that he fucked like a man on a mission.
And fucked.
And fucked.
By the fourth month, Charles was so flexible that he could hook his legs up against Erik's shoulders for two rounds of sex and keep the position for a half hour afterwards while Erik stayed inside of him and whispered sweet nothings in German while stroking his belly.
"I think you need a break," Hank told him as Charles frowned at the negative pregnancy test in Hank's lab.
"While I think you'll find my ass in agreement, Hank, we appear to be contending with a statistically anomalous event and failing to continue to try will certainly yield no positive results."
Hank looked like he was going to be ill, the root of his fur looked like it might have been turning green.
"I just..." Hank shook his head, shook his head again. "You're a telepath, Charles. Being stressed out and concerned, and Erik being stressed out and concerned, isn't going to make you... relax enough to..." He made some sort of hand gesture that seemed to encompass everything in the idea of 'get knocked up and stop traumatizing me by asking me to check your hormone levels and make more suggestions for sex positions'.
The boy might have been over a decade younger than Charles, but he did have the right of that.
"And?"
"Alex may have threatened me with a shave if I didn't get you out of the house." Hank coughed and adjusted his glasses. "He's walked in on the two of you four times already in the last five months."
"That's less than once a month!" Charles said, completely ignoring that perhaps it was a bit more than most people would be comfortable.
"So," Hank continued, also completely ignoring what Charles had said. "The two of you are going to Miami. No drinking, no smoking, no caffeine, take your pills, and try the..." Hank's mind supplied the rest 'the one where Erik hammers you from behind and oh god my lab bench will never be clean again so I'm just going to buy a new one and take the money out of the school upkeep funds'.
vi
The beach was warm and delightful. Charles spent most of the day reading journal articles while camped under an over-large beach umbrella while Erik swam, and ran, and turned down at least two dozen vacationing co-eds, and left Charles with a constant, low-grade awareness of his arousal.
Dinner for their third night was an intimate affair at a local Italian restaurant. Erik had three glasses of wine throughout dinner, Charles stealing the pleasant, warm, buzzed sensation from his lovers mind. The corner they were in was private, and Charles' powers made it more so, and the two of them spent dinner with their fingers tangled together, each feeding the other bites of food or plundering each other's mouths for the lingering taste of marinara or wine.
When they arrived back at the hotel, Charles threw open the windows wide, letting in salt breeze and the light of the half moon. Erik joined him there, arms sliding around Charles' waist and mouth pressing against Charles' neck.
"I love you, Charles." He still never said it enough, but the words made Charles' toes curl.
Erik's long fingers curled around the hem of Charles' shirt, tugged it up, and shucked it back into their bedroom. His fingers then slowly ran down Charles' chest, starting at the curve of his neck, down enough to play with his collarbone, swept down to pinch gently at his nipples. Charles' hissed, softly, enjoying every moment, the way Erik stood behind him, strong, nose and lips still teasing at his throat and the back of his ear.
"I..." Erik fell silent, his hands running down over Charles' stomach, and then lower, resting at the top of his pants, then lower. Long, obscenely long, fingers spread out low across Charles' belly, over the fine line of hair below his belly button. The two of them stood like that, Erik's cock half-hard against Charles' ass, Charles panting just from Erik being near him and touching him and wanting him.
The feeling, them standing like that, made Charles' insides twist pleasantly.
"I want this, Erik. I want you. I want your child growing inside of me." He wanted it so badly that it was sometimes painful. He hated every month when he had to go to Erik, eyes sad, and tell his friend, the other half of his soul, that Charles still wasn't able to give him back the one thing that Erik thought he'd lost forever. Family.
Erik slowly unbuckled Charles' belt, half with his mind, half with his free hand, and he pulled that away, unbuttoned Charles' pants and pressed them down. Charles got down on his knees, pressed lightly uncomfortable into the patio chair, but Erik stayed right behind him, hand still held against Charles' belly. Erik slicked his fingers, slid two inside of Charles easily, and started to open him up, slick him and prepare him.
Charles shivered, between the cool sea air and the way Erik was slowly unmaking him with every gentle thrust of his fingers.
They made love like that, out on the patio, face to face, Erik's mouth against Charles' murmuring tender nonsense words, his hand still pressed tight against Charles' belly, Charles' hand pressed on top of Erik's. Erik came, hot and desperate, inside of him, filling Charles completely, stretching him, leaving him feeling warm, body trembling.
Their bodies stayed pressed together like that until Charles' back twitched just enough to be painful and Erik carried him back inside to rub his back, fingers digging in gently. When Charles grew hard again, Erik took Charles' erection into his mouth and sucked him slowly.
Charles came again and pulled his knees to his chest, clinging like that desperately. Erik laid down next to him.
"You look beautiful."
"Men are supposed to be handsome," Charles reminded him.
'Handsome, then."
They slept tangled together in each other's arms, hands locked over Charles' belly. He couldn't help but hear the scattered dreams and thoughts and feelings of his lover, of Erik. He knew Erik didn't let himself dream like this often, even his subconscious not quite able to let himself believe he could have what he wanted.
Charles ached from it, Erik sitting with him on the grounds of the estate, home, hands pressed against Charles' swollen belly; Erik with a tiny bundle of pink with dark hair pressed against his chest; Charles reading to a tiny child while Erik sat with his arms curled around them both.
He pressed an imagine into Erik's mind, just a variation, Erik's arms wrapped around Charles' waist, belly huge, while their oldest teethed on Charles' fingers. Erik shifted in his sleep, fingers clenching into Charles belly and his chest twisting with want.
v
"Wait. What?"
Hank's eyes were huge in response. "Charles... that was the whole point, right?"
"Well, yes," Charles answered. "But it's quite one thing to consider in the abstract and another entirely to..." He ran his hand down, brushing over his belly, still completely flat, but... "How long?"
"Based on... math." Sex math, because Hank was second only to Erik and Charles when it came to Charles' cycles, much to the blue mutant's constant chagrin. "About seven weeks."
"Miami, then."
He tried to decide if he felt different, but there really wasn't anything physically different; maybe he was a big queasy. Mentally, however, his mind was scattered, happy, terrified, and happy again.
"I'll be going then, and... thank you, Hank, for everything." He gave the mutant a hug, fingers carding through blue fur.
Charles left the thermometer with Hank, took the little print out that showed the elevated hormone levels that indicated that yes, Charles was in fact pregnant, and headed out of the lab. A few of the younger children - used to the idea that Professor Xavier might be a bit sad at the end of the month - came up to him to deliver hugs. Ororo even gave him chocolate and a flower, which he shared with the girl out on the grounds.
He got to watch Erik as he put Alex little Scott through their paces, a few of the even younger kids trailing behind 'Mr. Erik'. The weather was too cold, fall approaching with a vengeance, but that just meant that Erik looked rather rugged in the sweats with a trail of perspiration running down his back and front. Charles felt a strong desire to go up to the man and lick him.
"Come on, love, I have a few things to get done today, so let's head in."
Ororo helped him putter around his room, the prenatal vitamins would continue to be a must but the diary... he smiled, flipped back through it and saw the little frowning face drawn at the end of august. He flipped back to September, drew a smiling face and circled it.
Nothing would do but olives for dinner, and strawberries. In deference to different taste buds he managed to avoid the worst possibly combinations and instead made puttanesca and then fresh strawberries and cream for dessert.
Erik found him in their study, Charles curled up on the couch with his feet under him, trying to discretely avoid Erik noticing he was trying to mop up tomato sauce with a strawberry.
He sat down next to Charles, and when Erik wrapped his arms around Charles' waist he slid easily into the larger man's lap. "How are you feeling?" The question was typical of them lately, and even when the answer was 'fine, but not pregnant' Erik had taken to listening and sympathizing and it made Charles love him even more.
"Fine. Hungry." Charles nuzzled into Erik's ear. "Pregnant."
Charles found himself splayed out on the couch only seconds later, his shirt hiked up almost to his neck. Erik kissed his belly, nose tickling against the hair there. "I've seen more impressive dinner bellies, Charles!"
He laughed, just letting Erik press his forehead there, kissing and touching. "Just wait until I am huge and annoyed and constantly hungry and cranky and cursing at the skies because of you Erik Lehnsherr."
"It can't possibly be worse than how grouchy you are with flu."
It was way, way worse, but completely worth it. Erik and Charles both agreed. Everyone else in the house had an entirely different opinion on the matter.