my loathsome lover (cherik fanfic)

chapter 4

"Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn't shake
Thought we built a dynasty like nothing ever made
Thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break up...." (miia, dynasty)

When he was returning from one of his runs, Erik went into the kitchen extra early in the morning. He was trying to avoid running into Charles, but that was exactly what happened. It wasn't suprising, though - Charles was the kind of person who would go the extra trouble to meet his friend, while Erik would do exactly the same for the opposite reason.

The young man was comfortably sitting in his wheelchair and sipping some black tea with milk as always, knowingly waiting for him. He wasn't really a morning person since he usually sat in his office late into the night, but it was the only way to actually meet Erik. Yet the metal bender quickly went to the coffee machine and ignored his friend anyway.

"Good to know you're still here, alive and well... you've missed our daily rounds of chess for a whole week now," Charles remarked. Every day he had been waiting for him to show up, only to be disappointed in the end. He could have just read his mind to know, but he didn't want to invade his privacy any further, although it might have been too late for that now. Erik also hadn't said a single word to him since then.

"Yeah, I decided to cancel it completely. Figured you'd know." Erik wasn't really surprised to find out that Charles wasn't reading his mind anymore, but he also didn't care or at least he pretended not to. One time was enough for him to stop trusting him. The man was good at holding grudges....

But he had to admit that Charles was pretty much his only friend in this whole school and the week had felt lonely without him. "It was pretty stupid of me to play chess with a telepath anyway," he finally said as he grabbed his cup of coffee and walked out the door.

"Hey, don't ever accuse me of cheating again, my friend!" the telepath yelled after him, clearly offended by the insinutation. Both of them knew he would never even think about cheating, he liked to win fair and square.

Instead of going to Charles' room in the evening as he used to do so frequently just a little bit over a week ago, the man visited a different room that was also very familiar to him - at least the person used to be a few years ago. Right now it was empty, but he knew she would be back in a few minutes, so he decided to wait near the window. That would ensure a dramatic effect.

"Erik- What the hell are you doing here?" the woman exclaimed. She was surprised to say the least. They hadn't had a proper conversation in years and sneaking into her room certainly wasn't the right way to start one, but she expected nothing more from him. "Remember what you told me back then? Get lost. I want to go to sleep."

He didn't move a bit and kept staring outside, until he turned around to face her.

"It's truly a pity that you're back to your human form, Raven. Hiding here under Charles' roof, when we've both seen you're capable of so much more." He always knew exactly what to say to push her buttons, but she wasn't going to let him convince her so easily this time.

She changed during her teaching time in the school - to many of those children she was a hero, even if she didn't see herself as that. She actually liked her job and wanted to show the kids how to accept themselves.

"Same old game, Erik... at least Charles isn't trying to turn me into a killer," the shapeshifter responded and remained comfortable in her human form. She had started to get used to it and appreciated it more, although Charles didn't mind her blue form now either. "What are you up to anyway? You must have some kind of twisted plan and I'm going to uncover it before you can hurt my brother again."