my loathsome lover (cherik fanfic)

chapter 13

"Well you look like yourself
But you're somebody else
Only it ain't on the surface
Well you talk like yourself
No, I hear someone else though
Now you're making me nervous
You were the better part
Of every bit of beating heart that I had..." (you're somebody else, flora cash)

Erik was standing right next to the door waiting for Raven to come out. She insisted on talking to Charles first and somehow managed to convince him to let her. Every minute that passed made him more nervous. He desperately wanted to know whether Charles was alright. None of them knew what went down in his head once he decided to fight their latest enemy on his own. He had been unconscious for a few hours and had just woken up. Finally, the door opened.

Raven held him back, when he meant to go in. "Erik, that's not a good idea." He lightly pushed her away to be able to enter, ignoring her warning. Whatever was going on, he wanted to know. Especially if Charles was hurt. He ran over to him and sat down on the bedside. At first glance he didn't seem to be wounded, but the damage might have been internal. "Are you hurt?"

Charles seemed confused and disturbed as if he didn't recognise him. "Excuse me, but who are you?" He asked, although Erik didn't seem to take it seriously at all. "This is no time for your little jokes, Charles. Raven scared me for a second. I thought you might have been injured." He told himself to not be so worried next time. He had a tendency to go mad as soon as something happened and then it turned out to be nothing.

"I wish I was joking, but I'm afraid that I'm not." His serious tone left no doubt that he indeed wasn't joking at all. "It seems like you genuinely know me and my sister, but I don't know who you are. I can't remember ever meeting you before today... She mentioned you were my 'partner'. Did she mean business partner or - uhm, you know-?"

Erik almost laughed out loud, because this situation was ridiculous. "We slept together before I was a teacher at your school, so I believe the business aspect is subsidiary." It hurt a little bit to see Charles be so opposed to the idea of them being together, but he had always been less comfortable with his sexuality. "What's the last thing you remember?" He then asked, while getting up again. He didn't want to make Charles more uncomfortable. "Maybe it'll all come back slowly."

"I'm not sure, actually. I know that I run a school with Hank, Raven, Logan and other people. I remember my students... It's a school for mutants!" He then shouted as if he just remembered. "I used to have mutant abilities myself, didn't I...?" Charles was more asking himself than Erik.

"You were a telepath. It looks like she somehow took away your abilities... you won't be able to do anything without them." Erik didn't really know how to deal with the situation. Charles seemed like himself - he talked and looked like his usual self - but there was still something different about his demeanour. "Still, why don't you remember me?"

"No idea, but from what I can tell you must have been very important to me. Maybe even just as important as my powers." The old Charles would have easily sacrificed his powers for Erik. The only reason why he used them in the first place was to help others. This new version of Charles didn't seem to understand why he would ever risk so much for other people.

"You had a bit of a soft spot for me." Erik responded with a little grin on his face. Then his expression got more serious. "But believe me when I say that I'm the last person who could ever understand why you forgave me as often as you did. No matter what I had done... That's just the kind of person you were."

"Did it ever occur to you that forgetting you might be what's best for me?" Suddenly Charles appeared to be in some kind of distress. "I remember now... You're Magneto. You got me paralyzed and then you abandoned me, you wanted to kill my sister and then you almost got me killed. Get out of my sight."