Flickers (Charles Xavier)

Chapter 30

"I hear you've been giving all the students homework."

Hank glanced up at Iris' smirk. He frowned, "What's wrong with homework? Have they been complaining about me?"

He cursed inwardly. He really thought that he'd got the teaching thing down.

Iris laughed, "I hardly ever gave them homework because I was the nice, cool teacher. I go away for a few months and I come back to find that you've been giving the students homework after every lesson. They're exhausted."

"Well, it benefits their education. I bet they've learnt more in the last few months than they ever knew before."

"I've started giving them homework to prove a point, now." Iris narrowed her eyes at him as she took the last bite of the sandwich in her hands, "I don't want them all thinking I'm a bad teacher."

Hank rolled his eyes, "Whatever, Iris. You know you're their favourite teacher. Even more than Charles."

At the mention of Charles, Iris' smile fell slightly. Hank cursed inwardly again – he was so careless with his words sometimes.

Seeing Charles and Iris reunite two days before had been upsetting to watch. Both of them had looked so broken without the other one, he hadn't been able to watch. He hated this. Charles had been his best friend for twenty years, and Iris for ten. He'd watched them fall in love the first time, and then again the second time, and everything about their relationship made sense. They completed each other in a way he'd never seen between two other people. He didn't believe in soulmates or anything like that, but if he had, he would have bet on them being soulmates. He hated seeing how they were now – like two halves of a whole, broken in two.

He cleared his throat, trying to distract her from her thoughts about Charles, "Shall we go back in? I've got a couple of things I need to get done this afternoon."

Iris nodded with a smile, collecting up their lunch things and standing up. As she brushed the grass off of her trousers, she murmured, "It's nice being back here."

Hank grinned, "Yeah, well it's nice having you back. Even if it's just for a little while."

They approached the front set of doors and Hank pushed them open. They paused to let some students run out past them before making their way back inside.

In front of him, Iris stopped abruptly. Hank almost walked into her, and when he looked up at what had made Iris stop, the breath rushed out of him.

"Raven?"

She was standing in the middle of the corridor, looking just as radiant as when he had last seen her. He was surprised by her appearance- her choice of not wearing her natural blue form.

"I... You're-" He tried to speak, but he was stammering.

"Not blue?" She smirked, "Looks like you and I have that in common now."

"No, I meant..." Hank shook his head. He couldn't get the words out. Raven had always left him slightly dumbstruck, and even now he felt like a tongue-tied teenager. "You're back. I never thought I'd see you here again."

"Yeah, me neither," She muttered, glancing around slowly.

"Has something happened?" Iris asked with a frown, "It's great to see you, Raven, but there must be a reason that you're here."

Suddenly, a figure darted in between the three of them- a young teenage boy with blue skin and a tail waving around behind him.

"I'm blue. I'm Kurt." He grinned, and Raven glanced at him as if she had completely forgotten that she'd brought him with her.