Work Text:
The sun had begun to crest in the sky overhead at the mansion. In the courtyard below, the group of mutants was enjoying a leisurely game of basketball before lunch. The open window had their lively voices filtering up from below as Charles Xavier transferred to his wheelchair from the couch. He exited the room, wheeling down the hallway past his office toward Erik’s nearby. Upon opening the door, he saw Magneto in his form-fitting uniform standing near the large desk. The man’s gloved hands sorted through a stack of papers as he bent over it.
“There you are,” Charles announced, an easy smile on his face. He said this despite being well aware of where the other mutant had been.
Erik looked up from what he was doing to turn toward the telepath. “Charles? Did you need something?” He discarded the papers to approach his friend, a look of concern crossing his face. “You could have let me know telepathically and wouldn’t have had to come all the way here.”
“It’s good for me to get up and around,” Charles countered, smile still hovering on his lips. He looked up at Erik as he came closer. “And the only thing I needed was to see you.”
Erik’s smile was warm when he leaned down to press his forehead to his friend’s, laying a hand on his shoulder. A sudden playfulness overtook Charles that made him grasp that gloved hand as the other mutant straightened and turn his wheelchair in such a way that caused Erik to tip off balance. Magneto gasped when he found himself falling, but was soon gathered up into Charles’ lap. He braced himself instinctively with an arm around the other mutant’s shoulders.
“Charles! Your wound… what if it opened?” Erik admonished. He was referring to the small exit wound of the removed feeding tube. Now closing over, it was covered with a small bandage beneath the telepath’s shirt.
“I’m fine,” Charles reassured. One of his hands supported Erik’s back while the fingertips of the other played across his friend’s broad chest. “How else am I supposed to get you where I want you when you’re parading around in such a uniform?” he joked. “Surely, you’re trying to tempt me.”
The hand on Magneto’s chest traveled upward to card through his silver hair. Charles watched Erik’s eyes flutter closed at the motion, well aware of how much the man enjoyed it. Drawing Erik’s face downward, the professor leaned upward, seeking out his full lips. For a few moments, the pair enjoyed a light kiss. Before the telepath managed to deepen it as he pulled Erik closer, Magneto began to extricate himself from the embrace.
“Charles, I’m going to end up injuring you if I keep sitting on you this way,” Erik explained. “It’s putting too much pressure on your abdomen.”
Disappointment replaced the telepath’s easy mood. “I know that I’m still healing, but I’m hardly fragile, Erik.” He perked up again when something occurred to him. “If you’re worried about me straining myself, I doubt I would if we were to cuddle in bed tonight.”
Magneto looked down at where Charles began to stroke his gloved arm. Some poorly defined emotion passed through his eyes briefly at Charles’ suggestion. “That might not be the best idea while you’re still healing,” Erik told him. “I’m not exactly a light sleeper.” He pulled away, changing the subject. “It’s nearly lunch time. You must be getting hungry. I’ll make you something.”
Charles followed Erik out of the room as the other mutant headed towards the elevator, trying not to feel disappointed. It had taken several months, but he was finally beginning to feel like himself again. Knowing with certainty that the love he’d always felt for Erik was returned seemed to have helped rekindle Charles’ desire for physical intimacy. His friend’s change in outfit hadn’t helped matters. Sometimes Charles idly wondered how those gloved hands might feel wandering across his bare chest. He’d also thought of an addition to the form-fitting ensemble. The well-known X-Men logo was sadly lacking from Magneto’s attire, and the telepath had the perfect idea for where it should go.
Through his feelings of frustration, the telepath felt a sense of guilt. Erik had been nothing but attentive during his recovery. The man had taken it upon himself to help Charles with his daily needs, which thankfully the telepath had been able to perform himself lately for the most part. It was the companionship that Charles had found again with Erik that he valued most above the possibility of anything overtly sexual. He enjoyed the easy, gentle embraces that Erik was free with when they were alone. And the other casual displays of affection that the pair shared.
Despite being tempted, Charles didn’t want to use his telepathy to pry. He had assured Erik, unprompted, that he wouldn’t enter his mind without permission, beyond the mere presence on the periphery of his thoughts. Charles didn’t want Erik to think that the only privacy he could have in his own head was within the confines of that helmet that still sat on the shelf in his office. But the professor didn’t need his mutant abilities to sense the reluctance in his friend at deeper intimacy. Charles couldn’t help worrying that the months of Erik’s caregiving had caused Magneto to no longer view him as an object of desire.
*******************************
The dead of night saw Magneto wandering aimlessly around Charles’ office, haunting it like a ghost. He was wearing loungewear and a dressing gown, woken up from sleep as he’d been. Erik had been free from the night terrors he used to have with frequency for months, but now they seemed to have caught up with him.
The sound of the door softly creaking open had him turning toward it. Rogue stood in the doorway briefly before entering the room. She pushed the door behind her after entering, intending to close it, but it remained slightly ajar.
“I saw the light on in here as I was walking by,” Rogue began as way of explanation. “Having trouble getting back to sleep?” she guessed. Her expression was one of quiet sympathy.
Magneto sighed, turning his body to lean back against Charles’ desk, bracing his hands against it. “I thought that the nightmares had left me finally, but they’ve returned. Things have been going too well lately. I should have known that something would come up to interfere with that.” He looked up at her as she crossed the room, smiling ruefully at her. “It seems the past will only let me be so happy.”
“Hasn’t the professor been able to help with that?” Rogue asked.
“I haven’t told him yet. I don’t want to trouble him with it while he’s trying to recover. I’ve dealt with them on my own for years, I can do that for a bit longer.”
Rogue looked surprised. “How would he not already know? Y’all share a bed sometimes, don’t you?”
“Why would you assume something like that?” Erik asked her, flustered.
Rogue tipped her head to the side, folding her arms. “You’ve been making doe eyes at the professor since he woke up. And the professor looks at you like you hung the moon most days,” she told him. “Other folks ‘round here might be oblivious, but I tend to notice things like that.”
“I was trying to be discreet for his sake, given everyone’s lingering feelings about me,” Erik replied, briefly rubbing the back of his neck. “Besides, he’s likely not strong enough yet for any kind of… nighttime activity. I’m fine with that.”
“But is the professor?” Rogue offered.
Erik gazed off to the side, remembering Charles’ playful antics earlier in the day and the telepath’s disappointment at his reluctance. “With every romantic relationship I’ve had, I end up ruining it eventually,” Magneto finally admitted. “It might be better for us to leave things like this.” He told this to Rogue, but sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.
“Erik, I don’t believe that.”
“Why not?” Magneto said, turning his head to finally look her in the eyes. “I ruined things with you.”
Rogue looked away briefly before she sighed. “I’m pretty sure both of us were responsible for that,” she told him. She came closer to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Just because we weren’t meant to be doesn’t mean that the same thing will happen with you and the professor.”
Magneto tilted his head toward her, expression downcast. “Charles has seen me at my darkest, but not at my weakest. I wore that helmet of mine for years, hiding from him. He only knows some of what torments me. What if seeing it, experiencing it, as I sleep finally drives him away like everyone else? If a romance fails with him, I might not be able to keep Charles as a friend.”
“But I’m your friend,” Rogue said, her smile soft. She squeezed his shoulder lightly to encourage him to look her in the eye. “There was a lot of awkward dancing around each other these past few months, but I am. I care about you. And the professor’s way more understanding than me or anyone else. There’s nothing you could show him inside yourself that would make him turn away.”
Magneto covered the gloved hand on his shoulder with one of his own briefly. “Thank you, Rogue. I’m good at talking, but not about what I feel. I intend to try with him, though.”
After Rogue bid him goodnight and headed off toward her room, Magneto decided that he should do the same. He was well aware of how he would likely lie awake in bed for some time. Erik figured that it would at least give him some time to think of what to say to Charles in the morning. Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the movement around the corner, draped in shadow.
Gambit watched Magneto leave the professor’s office, slippers making a soft sound as he walked down the hallway. Remy hadn’t set out to follow the older mutant, but had noticed him while heading out to get a midnight snack from the kitchen. Gambit didn’t fully trust the other man despite what Scott or any of the others thought. Despite Magneto’s positive actions, Remy had been waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. The sight of the man entering Xavier’s office to prowl around was suspicious enough for him to check it out secretly.
Watching Rogue enter the room a short time later had something heavy settling into the pit of Gambit’s stomach. The door was ajar, so he couldn’t help but quietly approach the room to peer through the gap. Remy couldn’t hear the words of the conversation due to their hushed voices, but the familiar way the two spoke together was obvious. The soft smile Rogue had given the older mutant as she squeezed his shoulder set Gambit’s teeth on edge. When Magneto leaned closer after placing a hand atop hers, Remy found that he had to look away. He didn’t know what to think. There had been a strange tension he’d noticed between the pair for months that was far different than what was between Magneto and the other X-Men due to their opposing sides. How long had the two mutants been meeting in the professor’s office of all places in the middle of the night? Dejected, Remy headed downstairs, sure that a drink was now in order instead of that snack.
***************************
The next day, Erik resolved to speak to Charles in private after breakfast. But there was a change in his friend’s mood that made Magneto hesitate. Charles seemed pleasant enough, but there was a strange reticence about him. Even the presence at the back of Erik’s mind seemed as though it had pulled back somewhat. This honestly frightened Erik. It reminded him of not sensing the man as he lay motionless in the infirmary. He wasn’t sure if he’d truly upset his friend yesterday, or if Charles was taken with some new illness.
During the evening, Erik invited Charles to a game of chess in his office. It had been some time since they had last played. When Charles’ mood seemed to improve at the suggestion, Erik knew this had been a good decision. He even made that fragrant tea that Charles liked. The pair bantered as they used to during the happy times before the rift in their friendship, and the nostalgia of it chased off Erik’s worry. But as the hour grew late, Charles’ mood became distant once more.
“Is something wrong?” Erik asked, finally addressing it despite his misgivings at doing so. “You’ve seemed quiet all day. Are you feeling unwell?” Magneto wondered if he was keeping the telepath away from some much needed rest, and chided himself for it silently.
Charles smiled at him, but there was a sadness that clung to it. “No, I’m not ill. I’ve just been thinking. It’s been selfish of me, with all the flirting and schoolboy games I’ve been trying with you lately. I’ve been feeling better, but it has led me to wanting things you aren’t ready to give.”
“What? No, that’s not-“ Erik stammered. He’d been trying to work up the nerve for this conversation, but this isn’t how he’d thought it would go.
“I didn’t want to pry, but I can sense how you’ve been conflicted over this without using my abilities. I’m not upset with you,” Charles reassured. “This kind of thing can happen to couples at times.”
“You helped me with daily care when I was barely able to sit up by myself, and I’m grateful to you for that,” Charles continued. “You saw me at my least glamorous, cleaning up after me. Seeing someone in such a state is hardly conducive to romance,” Charles tried to joke before regarding Erik seriously. “If you feel… less attracted to me now, or aren’t interested in that sort of intimacy, I’d rather you be straightforward with me, though. My ego isn’t so fragile that I can’t handle it.”
“That’s not it at all,” Erik insisted. He needed to explain, but felt as though he didn’t know the right words. “I love you,” Erik began, looking into the other mutant’s eyes, needing to have it said aloud. He wondered suddenly if he’d said it enough lately to the other man. “There aren’t even words for how much I’ve come to love you. The fact that you feel the same is more than I could have hoped for. But that same happiness makes me afraid that I’ll lose it,” Magneto explained, finally admitting the intrusive thoughts that he’d been plagued with regarding their relationship.
“I’ve hurt people before while caught in the terrible dreams that plague me. I’d never forgive myself if that happened with you, especially while you’re still healing. You might even become trapped in them with me due to your telepathy, which would be even worse.” Erik broke eye contact to look at the chess set between them on the table. “Besides, I’d hardly even know what to do if we were in bed anyway,” he finally managed to admit, embarrassed. “Awkward fumbling with another boy when he and I were barely men hardly counts as practical experience.”
“You won’t hurt me,” Charles told him with a certainty that Erik didn’t share. “And your prowess in bed isn’t what’s important to me. I just want to be close to you.” The professor reached out to entwine the fingers of one hand with Magneto’s against the small table. “Having you here by my side had been like a dream.”
Erik’s pessimism got the better of him as he gazed at their interlocked fingers. “What if the reality of loving someone as flawed as I am is too much for you to bear? Losing your friendship as well as your love would destroy me,” he insisted.
The professor wheeled around the table to get closer to Erik. “You will never lose either of those things,” Charles told him, and the conviction in the telepath’s voice made Erik want to believe it. The professor placed a hand on Erik’s shoulder. “If you don’t feel ready, we can wait. Just don’t hold back on my account. Trust me to let you know what I can handle.”
“I’ve always trusted you,” Magneto said. “Even when we fought, even when I thought you’d grown to hate me, I still trusted you.“
“Even in my anger, I’ve never hated you,” Charles told him. “And there’s nothing that I’d see inside of you that would make me start.”
Charles gave Erik that knowing smile of his that he found beautiful and infuriating all at once. When Charles’ hand slid up the side of his neck, Eric let the telepath pull him closer. Charles began to kiss him, lightly at first. Then his hand slid back into Erik’s hair, gripping lightly as the telepath canted his head. When Charles tried to part his lips with his own, Erik could only oblige him, letting his mouth be taken. Flushing, he wondered if he should thank or be jealous of whoever taught Charles how to kiss this way. After a few moments, the telepath pulled away slightly, his eyes hooded.
“I admit that I haven’t fully recovered yet. Even so, there are things that we can do together despite my lingering weakness.” Charles’ eyes suddenly seemed intense in the low light of the room. “Erik,” he urged, voice thick. His fingertips ghosted across the skin of Magneto’s cheek. “Come to bed with me, my sweet.”
In the face of the emotion housed in the telepath’s eyes, all Erik could do was nod his agreement. He followed Charles out of the room and down the hallway, a nervous anticipation fluttering in his gut. Erik still couldn’t help but feel out of his depth due to his lack of experience with men. Something soothing crept over him like a balm, warm and reassuring, projected from Charles. He sighed, most of his misgivings evaporating in the face of it.
In a few moments, Erik was sitting on Charles’ bed while the telepath took care of his nighttime routine. Erik fiddled with his open shirt idly as he waited. He turned toward the telepath exiting the bathroom, an encouraging and eager smile on his face. Erik slid over so that Charles could transfer to the bed. The pair shifted around until they both got in a position on their sides, facing each other. Charles’ aggressive kisses had a pleasing tightness settling low in Erik’s gut. The pair began to explore each other’s bodies with their hands and lips. Erik found to his delight that Charles’ nipples were quite sensitive as he laved them into hardened peaks.
Charles guided Erik’s mouth up from his chest to his lips to kiss him breathless before pulling away. “You take such good care of me, Erik,” Charles told him. “Let me take care of you tonight.”
At the telepath’s urging, Erik discarded pants and underwear and moved to sit up against the headboard. Charles propped himself up on an elbow next to his lap, sliding his hand teasingly up Magneto’s thigh. Just the idea of Charles’ mouth on him had Erik half hard before the telepath even touched him.
Erik couldn’t help the soft moan that spilled from his lips when Charles took his hardening erection in hand, stroking it slowly from root to tip. A moment later, Erik looked downwards to see Charles’ head descend into his lap, then was treated to the warm, wet heat of his mouth. He wanted to watch his length disappearing between Charles’ lips, but his body had other ideas. Erik’s back felt the need to arch, his head pressing against the wall behind him. Embarrassing sounds spilled from Magneto’s lips as Charles took his time, sucking him like he was savoring the taste of him, head bobbing slowly in his lap.
One of Erik’s hands gripped the sheets while the other massaged the telepath’s shoulder. He tried to bite his lip to stifle the sounds that he continued to make. But then came Charles’ voice in his mind, sweet as honey and hot as molten iron, saying let me hear you, and Erik had to obey.
When Charles’ hand moved from holding him at the base to rolling his testicles rhythmically, Erik made a sound he didn’t recognize. When the telepath used two fingers to massage behind them, Erik choked on the groan exiting his mouth. His toes began to curl and he couldn’t quite stop the short rutting motion that his hips insisted on making. Charles thankfully didn’t seem to mind.
It wasn’t long before delicious pressure began to build low in Erik’s gut, the muscles of his stomach fluttering. He moaned out to Charles of how close he was in warning, but this made the telepath take him deeper on each downstroke. Charles did something with his fingers that had Erik’s hips stuttering upwards as he suddenly emptied into Charles’ waiting throat. Erik slumped against the headboard as he tried to catch his breath. Charles pulled away from his lap, propping himself up so he could regard Erik’s flushed face after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The telepath smiled that little smile of his as he brushed back the long silver hair he loved so much to get a better look.
Later during the night, Charles was awakened from sleep when Erik began to toss and turn in bed, muttering as he slept. In his mind’s eye, the telepath could see that the other mutant was caught in a nightmare of death and pain. Charles shifted to face him, stroking a soothing hand across Erik’s brow. At the telepath’s urging, the horrors faded away in favor of a more pleasant memory, when Erik first felt the call of the Earth’s churning iron core and the field arcing from the planet’s poles into space. Of the moment when he felt himself rise, hanging suspended upon it midair, joy and peace surging through him.
A soft smile spread across Erik’s face as he settled. He turned against Charles’ body, slinging an arm across the telepath’s chest. He snuggled up against the other mutant sleepily with a soft sigh. Charles brushed his pale hair out of his face as it caught the moonlight.
“Pleasant dreams, my love,” Charles told Erik as he pulled the covers higher over them both and settled down to join him in rest.