Chapter Text
"Honestly, Charles. I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship."
Erik's words had a bite to them, and he knew deep down they shouldn't have — it just felt unfair. It wasn't Charles' fault that the camps happened, it wasn't Charles' fault that Erik had lived through something his own mind still fought to deal with, and it wasn't Charles' fault that the telepath had been born into money and grew up in a mansion while Erik starved and had to give away his humanity.
Still, it felt unfair, Charles' fault or not, and it made Erik bitter, loving Charles or not.
"Well," Raven's voice sounded from behind them, the girl making her way to stand between Erik and Charles, a vicious look in her pale blue eyes that made Erik wonder if she wouldn't kill him where he stood for saying those words to Charles. "It was a hardship softened by me."
Erik watched Charles smile, red lips curving up before they were placing a kiss to Raven's hair, the girl's eyes still on Erik like she was waiting for a wrong move to attack. Terrifying, if Erik was being honest.
They followed Charles inside the house, the kids looking around themselves in awe at the giant mansion, well-kept by the looks of it, but empty. There was a quiet look of sadness in Charles' eyes for a moment as he looked at one of the sitting rooms, telling everyone to go explore the house and meet him there in half an hour so he could show them their rooms.
"Darwin," Charles called for him with a smile, Darwin's eyes going to him immediately. "There's an elevator nearby if you want to explore the upper floors."
"We'll find it," Alex said with a grin, taking the back of Darwin's wheelchair to wheel him away quickly as Darwin laughed the whole time.
"Do you think it'll be long until his legs work again?" Raven asked, arms crossed as she watched Darwin and Alex disappear.
"His body is slowly adapting back to what it was," Charles said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Once Darwin's body feels like Shaw's attack won't damage it, it'll turn back."
"I should've been there," Raven muttered to herself, body flickering until she was in her blue form again, yellow eyes downwards. "I could've stopped that if I hadn't left that night…"
"It's not your fault, Raven…"
Once alone, Raven accompanying the other kids reluctantly, Erik dared to wrap his arms around Charles' waist, nose buried against the chestnut locks on Charles' head.
His hair smelled of Erik's shampoo, and the thought made Erik smile to himself for a second.
"You make an angry comment about my wealth in one moment and then hug me tightly in the other?"
"You're hard to let go, Charles," Erik hummed against the other mutant's hair, placing a kiss to the side of his head and lowering his lips until he was able to kiss Charles' cheek. "And you have a look on your face… Something made you sad."
"Oh, it's nothing, darling," Charles sighed, turning around to look at Erik, hands holding Erik's face gently. Charles' eyes were of a deep blue that seemed to leave Erik breathless everytime he looked at them. "This is the sitting room my mother used to hang around in, that's all. I miss her."
"Was she a good mother?"
Charles smiled then, something nostalgic crossing his eyes as he nodded.
"The best," he said, a smile on his lips while he thought about Mrs. Xavier. "She used to take me to the kitchen late at night when I couldn't sleep and give me hot chocolate. It tasted pungent, but she always tried her best so I always drank it all."
"That's kind of you."
"She always said I was too soft for my own good…"
"I might have to agree with her on this."
"And yet neither of you seem to want to leave me for it," Charles raised his eyebrows after his words, a quiet challenge for Erik to say he was wrong. Erik honestly couldn't.
"My mother's food was always good," Erik said before he could stop himself, his voice quicker than his mind. "She would- She-"
"She cooked for you?" Charles asked, a kind look to his eyes now.
Charles knew why Erik hesitated, he knew what Shaw had done to Erik's mother — he knew everything about Erik, according to the telepath's own words. Still, it seemed hard to tell Charles about something as mundane as Edie Eisenhardt's cooking, sharing a piece of his life when it was still normal enough while Charles shared some of his. It was what friends did, what lovers did. Erik wished he could just say it, share this with Charles, but it wasn't easy to share after holding everything to himself for so many years.
"She did," Erik resorted to saying in a quiet voice, tone final, making Charles sure to know that conversation, at least for his part, was over. "Did your mother cook for you?"
"She tried sometimes," Charles hummed out, taking Erik's cue to change the subject back to himself. It was comforting to know Charles wouldn't push. "But I don't think Hell had many kitchens for her to practice before becoming my mother."
Erik blinked a few times, Charles' mouth closing almost immediately as he looked up at Erik like he had just said something wrong.
"What-"
"Anyway," Charles chuckled out nervously, waving his hand in the air dismissively. "Will we be sharing a room? I'd like to share a room. I think it would be most appropriate since, you know, we're having sex and, uh, we can- The beds are big, you know? And, um-"
"Charles, by Hell's sake," Raven's voice sounded behind them, the two men pushing away from each other. Raven seemed to look at them with annoyance all over her eyes. "Be more discreet, will you?"
"Oh," Charles said intelligently, Erik's mind still trying to get a grip on what had just happened. "Alright. I'm sorry, love."
"Moira wants to talk to you in the kitchen," the girl warned, Charles nodding and giving Erik a quick last glance before walking away with wide steps.
Raven turned to leave as well, stopping in her tracks and turning around to stare at Erik again. She had a smile on her lips as she said, "Charles' mother is a first class whore. You can quote me on that."
As the girl finally left, Erik was left wondering what the fuck was going on there.
Erik was still breathless when he laid on the bed, one arm under his head as his free hand held Charles close, the telepath not much better than him as he breathed heavily, face still flushed from the sex they had just had. He looked incredibly beautiful like that, face red and lips redder and plumper than they already were, hair a mess and tickling the skin of Erik's bare chest, but not enough to make it uncomfortable.
There was a quiet sated feeling in the room, and Erik grinned at himself with smug satisfaction at being able to make Charles lose control of his powers enough for him to project. His fingers traced invisible lines against Charles' back, imagining he was tracing the freckles he knew were there.
"Erik?" Charles called, his voice quieter than normal. He seemed to be almost asleep, his telepathic presence carrying that haziness that Erik recognized as being barely awake.
"Yes?"
"Can I tell you a secret?"
Erik frowned, looking down at the man in his arms and watching his closed eyes, eyelids resting gently over flushed cheeks, slowly going back to the normal paleness Erik was used to. By the way Charles' mind felt around him, it didn't seem like something bad, but it was curious…
"Of course," Erik said.
It took a while for Charles to answer, and Erik thought for a moment that he had fallen asleep, before his lips moved again and he muttered, "My family, the people who raised me… They were all demons."
Erik's frown deepened, seeing the calm way Charles said those words, wondering what they meant. Erik tried to ask what it meant, questioning the meaning behind them, but Charles was fast asleep already, a light snore hitting Erik's ears and Charles' projection turning into a soft soothing feeling of someone already having the beginnings of a dream.
Maybe Charles wanted to say his family wasn't as good as he had painted them to be — Raven had made that comment about Charles' mother the other day, after all. Erik sighed to himself at the thought that maybe the hallways of this Westchester mansion hid more than he thought they did, holding Charles a little tighter and brushing a kiss against his hair. They had each other now, no demons remained; it should bring Charles some comfort like it brought Erik.
He woke up later that night, barely realizing he had slept, feeling like he was being watched. For a moment, Erik was sure he saw a woman with curly dark hair standing at the door of the room, red eyes staring at Erik with a warning in them. She wasn't there anymore when he blinked.
Charles didn't seem bothered by Erik messing around on his things, so Erik didn't stop, taking every book that caught his attention out of the shelves, opening every drawer, and reading every paper he found. Charles just sat next to the table lamp, book in hand and looking incredibly comfortable with his feet up the couch, hair all over the place and clothes rumpled from moving around throughout his reading.
Erik opened a drawer on the desk that laid unoccupied in the room, frowning when he realized that there were pictures there. He took the small pile out, seeing the first one a picture of a blonde woman and a harsh-looking man, a baby in the woman's arms as she smiled at the camera. Charles' family, maybe; the demons he had talked about.
Charles' head perked up from his book then, as if catching the curiosity in Erik's mind, and Erik just watched Charles' face lighting up with a smile, putting the book away and getting up in a swift movement to stand by Erik's side.
"Oh my- I forgot these were there," Charles said with a delightful laugh, staring at the old picture with his eyes shining.
"Your mother and father?" Erik asked, frowning as Charles shook his head.
"Mother and stepfather, actually. My father was killed when I was ten months old- I believe just a few months before this picture, actually…"
Erik blinked a few times, staring from Charles to the picture.
"I'm sorry for that," Erik offered, seeing Charles wave his hand dismissively.
"Don't be. For all I've heard about him from Mother and Pai- Um, Kurt… Father was an awful man. He got what he deserved, and I don't mind never having met him."
Erik stared at Charles then, trying to let those words sink into his mind. Erik knew Charles to be kind and to find good in everything and everyone most of the time; and then, there were times where Charles seemed the complete opposite of it, his caring nature going away to give space for that almost eerie and calm apathy. Erik had killed people before, and although he knew Charles would stray from killing someone due to his own view of the world, there was something that showed Erik that, if Charles ever decided someone was worth killing, he'd do it without batting an eye. He had seen it almost happen while they were in Russia, with Emma Frost, but other than giving the woman a huge headache, Charles hadn't killed — he didn't seem far from it, however.
He thought about asking how Charles' father was a bad person and what made his mother and stepfather tell him those things, but refrained from doing so, moving on to look at the next picture on the pile with Charles watching closely.
The first few were Charles as a baby, the sepia colored pictures not capturing the blue of his eyes, but they seemed to be wide and bright from a young age. There were a few of Charles and his mother, and even fewer of Charles and his stepfather. Erik stopped again on a picture of an older Charles, maybe six or seven, sleeping on his bed with a knife in hand. It looked incredibly wrong to see a child holding a knife in their sleep, but Erik remembered their trip through the country to look for the other mutants: before sharing a bed, Erik would see Charles putting a silver-bladed knife under his pillow every night.
"For protection," Charles had said once when Erik had questioned, and he wondered why a telepath, of all things, would need a knife for protection. He didn't question it further.
"You used to sleep with a knife as a child too?" Erik said now, eyes moving to look at Charles, who looked back at him like he was surprised at the question.
"Mother wouldn't allow me to sleep without it," he shrugged. "She would usually look over me in my sleep, and then Raven started doing it when she arrived, but the knife stayed in case something happened."
"That's-" dangerous, Erik wanted to say, but he knew that, as a child, he would've loved having a knife with him for protection. Shaw hadn't allowed metal around him when Erik started to realize he could fight back. Instead, Erik ended up saying, "Wasn't she worried that you'd get hurt?"
"Oh, I did cut myself a few times, but she'd say it was a good lesson so I didn't repeat it the next night."
"Your mother sounds…"
"Overprotective, I know," Charles smiled, as if he missed the woman he was talking about. That wasn't the word Erik was looking for at all. "She just wanted to keep me safe. She always said I was the only tolerable child in the world, and that it would be a pity to lose me, although she always said she'd drag my soul back from Heaven or Hell if something ever happened to me."
"Interesting childhood."
Charles smiled again, unaware of the way Erik seemed to be having a hard time to put together a concise picture of Mrs. Xavier in his mind: bad at cooking, a first class whore according to Raven, a demon, overprotective, and maybe a menace to be around young children.
"Surely it was an eventful one."
Erik looked up at the dark window that he knew was Charles' room — by extension, his room as well — and sighed, feeling sweat running down his face. It was dark outside, the late night colder than the day had been, and Erik bent down for a moment to stretch his body. He was ready for another lap around the estate's grounds, too worked up to sleep. They'd meet Shaw the next day, and Erik intended it to be the last time he'd see the other man.
Part of him wanted to go back to the room, to take a cold shower and climb under the covers next to a very naked Charles. The telepath would complain about the way Erik's body would be cold after the shower, but he'd scoot closer anyway, as he always did, as if Charles latched onto any kind of comfort he was able to get. Erik wasn't soft, he was sharp edges and hard planes, but he figured that Charles changed that sometimes, rounding out the edges and making Erik into a safe and comfortable thing.
Sometimes, Erik wondered if he wasn't looking at it the wrong way, and Charles liked the sharp edges after all.
He pushed the idea of going back to bed with Charles away, getting ready to run again until he got rid of the nervous energy his body had accumulated. He stopped, however, when he noticed someone nearby, a dark shape next to one of the trees. He turned to look at the invader, ready to pull any metal he felt around him to kill them, when the figure walked out of the darkness until she was visible.
The dark-skinned woman seemed familiar for some reason, like he had seen her in a dream, dark brown eyes staring at Erik with an edge of danger to them. Her hair was a mess or curls that framed her face and fell over her shoulders, her body framed by a long crimson dress, feet bare for what Erik could notice. There was an air of danger around her, as if she'd attack if given the chance, and it somehow reminded him of Raven — maybe worse than the girl, a little less stable than Raven. There was a lit cigarette between the woman's fingers, Erik saw, and he just watched in silence as she took a drag of it and blew the smoke into the air.
"This is private property," Erik ended up saying, a warning for the woman to leave.
She didn't seem bothered by it, smiling like Erik was the funniest thing she had ever seen. Erik didn't like that one bit.
"Is Charles asleep?" The woman asked instead, and Erik halted.
"Who are you?"
Erik gave the woman an once over again, quiet jealousy simmering just under his skin as he wondered if this was one of the women Charles had been with before they met. Part of him found the idea ridiculous; the woman was beautiful, and yet something about her… It didn't fit quite right.
"I've been watching you, Erik Lehnsherr," she said, pointing at Erik with her cigarette. The smile on her lips reminded Erik of one of Charles', the same one he wore when he felt like he had the upper hand on something. "Or should I say Max Eisenhardt?"
The few metal things around Erik rushed through the air to meet him, smooth surfaces elongating until it all turned into sharp points and edges, directed at the woman. The only people who knew Erik's birth name were dead now, and he suspected not even Charles knew it, buried deep inside Erik's mind where no one would be able to touch it, with the memories of a better life, before he became Erik Lehnsherr.
"Oh, please, put those down," the woman scoffed, as if Erik getting ready to attack was nothing but an inconvenience. "I'm just playing with you. You seem to take good care of my little roach, so I'm trusting you won't let him down."
"What?"
"You're heading to something dangerous tomorrow, Erik Lehnsherr," she shrugged, completely ignoring Erik's confusion like she was making the most sense. "You better make sure not to hurt my boy, or I'll find a way to make your life a living hell. I was warned of one of the possible futures for tomorrow, and I hope you don't choose the one where I'll be forced to end your existence."
"Get out of here before I kill you," Erik warned, too tired all of the sudden to deal with that crazy woman. She seemed to only roll her eyes, waving her hand and taking another drag of her cigarette as she turned around to leave.
"I'll be here once Charles comes back," she said loudly. "Hopefully you'll come back too and I won't have to hunt you down! I quite hate a manhunt."
Erik just watched as she disappeared between the shadows, metal falling to the ground by his sides with a soft thud against the grass. He tried to understand the woman's words, tried to figure out who she was and what she meant when she called Charles "her boy" — because who else would she mean by that? It was clear she had been threatening him on Charles' behalf for some unknown reason.
After a few minutes just staring at the darkness, and a few looks at some shadows where he swore he saw red eyes watching him, he decided to go back inside and to the comfort of Charles' company.
Shaw was there, he was right there in front of Erik, and whatever he had done to that room was keeping Charles away from Erik's mind. It was almost agonizing to not feel Charles there anymore, the calming presence in contrast with the maelstrom of feelings going on in Erik's own mind.
Before either Erik or Shaw could try to attack each other, before Erik could try to get that stupid helmet from Shaw's head, there was a snapping sound and a cloud of smoke that smelled of sulfur around them. Shaw's teleporter.
"No, that's not happening," the red-skinned man said, grabbing both Erik's and Shaw's arms quickly and poofing out of the room, until Erik was stepping on sand again, the sound of the beach loud against his ears.
What the fuck had just happened?
"Oh, thank goodness, Erik. You're alright!"
Erik turned his face to see Charles approaching him hurriedly Moira right behind him with a frown as she looked from Erik, to the teleporter, to Shaw. Angel and the other mutant who were with Shaw seemed to just watch everything with frowns, the same expression on Alex's, Sean's, Hank's and Darwin's faces. Raven seemed only mildly annoyed.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Shaw rasped out next to him, and part of Erik's mind remembered he had business to finish, turning to try to tackle Shaw when Charles finally reached him, pulling him back before he could.
"Hold on, Erik," the telepath asked, Erik's eyes down on him as he tried to understand what the fuck was going on. Charles, in return, didn't look back, instead turning to look at the teleporter with an exasperated expression before loudly saying, "Really, Azazel? A bloody Nazi?"
"It's work, Charles, trust me," the teleporter — Azazel — grunted out. Next to them, Shaw had the decency to look as confused as Erik. "It's not like I could really choose."
"Bullshit! You constantly bend the rules."
"Watch your mouth, boy," Azazel warned, something in his eyes shifting all of the sudden. "Don't tell Lilith this happened."
"If he doesn't, I will," Raven's voice sounded nearby, the girl standing a few feet from them with her hands on her hips, yellow eyes boring on Azazel. "I knew the deaths at the CIA headquarters were familiar- You almost killed our friend, you maniac."
"That's quite enough of this madness."
Shaw seemed to be ready to attack, all eyes going to him as his body shook with the energy he had accumulated. Before he could land a blow, Erik heard Charles saying something about the helmet, and suddenly Azazel poofed again, a series of teleports making Shaw's attention falter, until Azazel stood nearby with the helmet in hands. It took a moment for Erik to understand why Shaw wasn't moving all of the sudden, eyes going to Charles to see the man standing there with an uncaring look, blue eyes staring at Shaw with that cold gaze that made Erik almost afraid of the other man.
"How do you know him?" Was all that left Erik's lips then, Charles' eyes looking at him as he seemed to be trying to understand Erik's question, until understanding dawned on him.
"Oh, Uncle Azazel? He helped raise me."
Erik blinked once, then a few more times, looking at Charles like he was something unreal. He looked at Azazel then, seeing the mutant's eyes on Erik, no signal of opposition from him, like Charles was telling the truth, not even bothered by being called Uncle Azazel.
A series of things seemed to click in Erik's mind, almost too fast, enough that he felt dizzy. Don't tell Lilith, Azazel had said; I was raised by demons, Charles had confessed on a sleep dazed night; the pictures of Charles with the knife on his bed; the eerie way Charles behaved from time to time, as if that soft spoken lovely professor from Oxford had seen things that desensitized him to some horrors; the woman just the night before in the red dress, threatening Erik to not hurt her boy... It felt like a macabre list of things that somehow all pointed to the confirmation of that quiet confession Charles had made that night a little over a month prior.
He looked at Azazel, wondering if he was even mutant, or something else completely.
"I know you want to kill him, Erik," Charles said all of the sudden, Erik's attention going back to the telepath. He couldn't decide how to feel. "But I can make it painful for him if you let me do something first."
"What?"
"Trust me?" Charles asked, bright blue eyes looking up at Erik. Whatever epiphany Erik had just had, he'd be lying if he said he didn't trust Charles still.
Erik nodded, seeing a smile on his red lips. The smile was too soft, and the contrast of that sweet look on Charles' face at the vow of trust from Erik and the screaming that came from Shaw all of the sudden was terrifying. He knew it was Charles causing those screams to come out from Shaw's throat, and, as he looked at the man kneeling on the sand, Erik got the confirmation that Charles was dangerous when he wanted to be.
Shaw seemed desperate, crawling around before stopping and curling into a ball on the ground, looking around like his eyes saw something else that wasn't the beach around him. When he started clawing at his own face, nails digging into the skin as if he wanted to pull it out, Erik felt like he couldn't turn his eyes away. When he did, to look at the reactions of everyone around him to the scene, he found all the others with their backs turned to what was unfolding there — all except Raven, who seemed almost proud of what she was seeing. He looked again at the blue skin and the yellow eyes of the girl, something now telling him that Raven wasn't a mutant like them after all.
"What are you showing him?" Azazel asked, and Erik almost jumped where he stood as the man — demon? — got closer.
"Raven showed me once what Hell looks like," Charles said with a shrug, blue eyes watching Shaw with a calm that didn't fit the image of Shaw with his face bloodied as he kept scratching his skin, now almost looking like he wanted to pull his eyes out of their sockets. "I don't think he's reacting well to it."
Azazel patted Charles' shoulder like he was proud, and the scene was almost too much for Erik to handle.
"When you said you were raised by demons," Erik was finally able to say, Charles' eyes turning to look at him curiously. "You didn't mean your family was bad…"
"What? No, no," Charles shook his head, crossing his arms and looking almost embarrassed. On the ground, Shaw's screams kept going. "Azazel and the other two demons who raised me killed my parents when I was a baby, but I guess I was a very charming baby and they decided to take care of me."
"He was a very charming baby," Azazel said with a sigh, as if he missed the baby Charles used to be. "Made even Lilith love him."
"Lilith," Erik repeated. Azazel nodeed.
"I was there too," Raven suddenly said, closer now, and Erik stared at her for a moment before sighing and running his hands across his face.
This was a lot.
Shaw stopped screaming all of the sudden, Erik's eyes going to him and seeing him taking a deep breath, the sand around him stained with blood, as his arms shook to keep him upright.
"You can go ahead now," Charles said, his voice still calm, and Erik decided not to question anything yet — there was too much to question, too little time — and just stepped forward, until he was kneeling in front of Shaw.
The man's face rose hesitantly, his eyes looking at Erik like he could barely see him. There was blood all over his face and over his eyes, so it wasn't too hard to believe his vision was impaired now. One bloodied hand suddenly grabbed at Erik's arm tightly, Erik jerking back immediately at the grip.
"Back," Charles' voice commanded, and Erik watched as Shaw did as he was told, eyes fogging up for a moment as Charles' telepathy worked on him.
"Please," Shaw whispered once he was away from Erik again. "Please, don't. Don't send me there- Don't send me there!"
It didn't take much for Erik to understand Shaw was talking about Hell, that whatever Charles had shown the mutant had been enough for Shaw to beg for his life to Erik. There were tears falling from Shaw's eyes now, and Erik couldn't imagine that he felt good against the scratches on his face.
"You killed my mother," was all that Erik said, the coin floating from a pocket on his suit. To his surprise, Shaw seemed to only pettily cry harder.
Shaw's body fell to the ground with a muffled thud once the coin went through his head, and Erik got up to see the man who took everything away from Erik dead on the ground, now knowing that, maybe, Shaw was suffering somewhere else.
There was a hand on his shoulder then, and Charles came into view. Behind them, the kids and Moira seemed to be moving again, Charles releasing his hold on them finally, now that Shaw wasn't screaming like he was being murdered anymore. Erik stared into the blue eyes of his lover, knowing now what Charles was capable of. Maybe he was sick, maybe he had seen too much evil already, but he didn't fear Charles — he wasn't evil after all, despite the creatures that raised him.
Part of him wondered if he shouldn't run away from the man raised by demons, but he didn't. Instead, Erik leaned forward to rest his head against Charles' shoulder, hand holding Charles by his waist as Charles' hands carded through Erik's hair gently, like he hadn't just helped Erik to kill a man, and tortured said man, for that matter. It was just Charles there, his Charles; sweet and unhinged Charles, but his nevertheless.
"Christianity keeps ruining everything," Erik mumbled, barely hearing his own words. "Including my lover's family. And now there's a Hell."
Charles snorted a bit at that, humming and pulling Erik a little closer.
"It's complicated," Charles said, probably talking about Hell. Erik couldn't handle complicated just yet. "Mother is jewish, though."
"I won't even try to think about this."
"Better not, yeah."
"Hey, both of you," Raven called, both of them turning to look at the girl — demon. "I think the humans will attack the beach."
"Let's get out of here," Azazel said with a sigh, offering his hands for people to take. "If you die here, Lilith and Paimon will have my head on a silver platter."
Erik felt suddenly exhausted when they entered the mansion, everyone around him looking just as tired, Charles included. Erik's arm was around the telepath's waist, holding him up as he lost his balance once in a while with every other step. He smiled up at Erik, a little sheepish, and the contrast of that look and the scene Erik had seen unfold in Cuba was almost wild.
"Migraine," Charles explained as he leaned heavily against Erik again. "Doing that to Shaw took its toll."
Erik was about to take Charles in his arms and carry him towards their room so they could shower and talk — Erik needed to understand, to know exactly how Charles grew up, to maybe understand the man he loved now; kind, and yet capable of torturing a man with a smile on his lips — but Erik didn't get the chance to pick Charles up, stopping in his tracks together with the others when everyone noticed two people coming out of one of the rooms of the house.
Erik didn't know one of them, the person tall and elegant in their movements; although they wore men's clothing — an impeccable dark black suit that only made their pale skin look paler — Erik had some trouble figuring out their gender. The eyes, however, was the part of him that caught Erik's attention: black where they should be white, and blood-red irises. The other person, Erik recognized as the woman from the night before, red dress changed into a dark blue one against her brown skin, curls still falling over her shoulders, no cigarette this time.
Charles seemed to tense up for a second in Erik's arms, looking at the unexpected visitors for a second before he relaxed again, blinking his blue eyes over and over again until a smile appeared over his lips.
"Mother?" He asked, eyes on the woman.
He shouldn't be right, not when the woman seemed to be around his and Erik's age, and yet she smiled with clear happiness in her face, opening her arms wide for a hug. Charles gently pulled away from Erik's hold to go to her, looking almost too giddy for someone who was almost passing out.
"Oh, roach," the woman said with so much feeling in her voice that Erik was only able to stare. That was, if what Azazel had said while they were at the beach was right, Lilith — Lilith, who was hugging Charles like she wasn't a demon who killed children by what the old stories he read a long time ago said.
"What are you two doing here?" Charles asked, looking from Lilith to what Erik could only imagine was the other demon. "I thought I wouldn't see you two again…"
"It's surprising you didn't see Lilith," the other demon said with a calm voice, a smile on their lips. "She has been watching you ever since you left for college."
"I just wanted to make sure my little devil would be okay alone-"
"I'm right here," Raven argued. Lilith didn't seem to care.
"Look at you," she continued, making a tsk noise with her lips. "I can't believe you used to be that little flesh ball, you're so tall and handsome now… If you were actually one of my children you'd be a great Incubus."
Erik wasn't sure if he was surprised or not when Charles just replied with a "Thank you, Mother."
"Will you introduce us to your friends, roach?"
"Oh, of course," Charles nodded, turning around and smiling at everyone. As Erik looked around, he saw he wasn't the only one who didn't exactly know what to think of the situation. "Everyone, these are Lilith and Paimon. They raised me."
"Paimon like the demon?" Sean asked.
"Exactly," Paimon answered, a dangerous smile on their lips. Even Sean stayed quiet after seeing it.
"Mother, Paimon- these are my students and friends, and Erik."
"He doesn't even try to hide," Raven mumbled next to Erik, shaking her head.
"Oh, Erik," Lilith said, walking towards him and offering the back of her hand for Erik to kiss, apparently. Erik didn't dare try it. "How nice to meet you."
Erik stared at her. She stared back. There was silence for a few seconds as Erik refused to answer to the same woman — demon? — who had threatened him the night before, then Lilith pouted, eyes flashing red for a moment.
"Unmannered boy," she muttered. "Just like her."
"Her?" Erik asked, seeing Lilith wave a hand.
"Ah, you know," she turned back, already walking back to Paimon's side. "Eve."
Erik blinked a few times, then decided not to think too much about it.
Charles was curled by Erik's side as the night fell dark outside, breathing calmly and tracing invisible patterns to Erik's chest as Erik did the same to Charles' back. They had talked, Charles had explained how he ended up being raised by three demons — not counting Raven — and Erik felt like he understood a little more of the situation even if it still felt surreal. The natural way in which Charles had told him that Lilith, Paimon and Azazel had killed his parents had made Erik feel a chill up his spine.
"I know you think it's weird I don't resent them from killing my biological family," Charles had said with a shrug, eyes away from Erik's. "But Lilith told me my own mother offered me so she could live when it happened, and I saw it in her mind. I don't really feel much love for the real Sharon Xavier, although I can't say I don't pity her."
Now, in silence as they laid there, Erik wondered how Charles would be if it all had been different, when suddenly there was a noise coming from the closet. Both Charles and Erik perked their heads to look at it, seeing the door slightly ajar and showing the darkness inside. In the dark, Erik noticed red eyes gleaming against the blackness.
Erik was ready to attack, reaching for every piece of metal inside the room, when Charles sat up, pulling the bed sheets to cover his chest and keep Erik's lower body covered.
"Mother!" He exclaimed, slightly annoyed.
There was another noise from the closet, and the door closed shut with a loud bang, both of them staring at the room's door when the sound of someone stumbling on the hallway reached their ears, until Lilith entered the room with a very guilty smile on her lips.
"Did you call, roach?"
"How long have you been inside the closet?"
"What closet?" Lilith asked unconvincingly.
"Mother."
"I was just, you know," she swayed a little, seemingly looking for the words. "Making sure you were safe. Can't leave my boy with any man like that."
"Did you-"
"I didn't see you having sex," she quickly added, and, at the very least, she seemed sincere. "I arrived a few moments after."
"Mother-"
"I'll leave you with your man since you don't seem to need me," she waved her hand in the air, starting to close the door. "Glad you two can't have kids. Keep at it."
The door closed again, and both Charles and Erik stayed in silence. Erik was about to open his mouth to ask if this would happen often when the door opened again. Raven was the one standing at the door frame now, looking livid.
"Lilith was in your closet?" She asked. Charles nodded, at least looking as confused as Erik was — his family or not, he seemed to have trouble understanding them. "That bitch! What a hypocrite."
Raven closed the door with a loud noise, leaving the room quiet again.
"So," Charles said, turning towards Erik looking like he had no idea how to react to what had just happened. "Welcome to the family...?"
"You're lucky I love you."
Charles smiled down at him, and, despite everything, Erik smiled back.