X

If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?

[xrebcrn]

Part of him still kept doubting it until Charles opened his mouth, like he was expecting it to be some kind of trick. Maybe it was. Maybe he wanted it to be. The alternative was…insulting.

“And it’s the height of manners to let people think you’re dead, is it?” To the world, it was Erik who made the questionable choices. It was Erik who was vilified and thrown to the metaphorical wolves. Not that he cared. Public perception had never mattered to him. But there were moments - exactly like that one - where it made him bristle just a little.

He kept a bit of distance between them - a few long steps. “I watched you die, Charles. Yet here you are. How?” He looked almost exactly as he had the day they’d met all those years ago in Israel. Erik considered saying more. Something like I deserve an answer, but maybe he didn’t. He hadn’t been able to stop what happened.

Charles’ lips pursed at the response. He knew that picking up scattered thoughts was intrusive, but that never exactly stopped him before. He could tell Erik wanted to continue pushing, wanted to question him further. He wasn’t sure what more the other had said, he didn’t press that far, but he appreciated that Erik didn’t speak up past his last question.

‘You needn’t worry. You’ll be back to thinking I’m dead soon enough,” Charles found himself assuring the other. He wasn’t going to step into the shadow of his former life. He wasn’t ready to get back into the swing of that. 

His hand lifted as he brought his fingers to his temple almost threateningly. “I’m sorry, old friend.”

[xrebcrn]

There had been increasingly little reason for Erik to go into the city as the weeks wore on. He continued largely because it was the easiest and most effective way to see what was happening. Depending on others to tell him everything he needed to know was just asking for some crucial detail to be omitted. And maybe some small part of him was just waiting to be recognized and looking for the challenge.

It was still early enough that day for the sidewalks to be relatively empty. People were going to work, mostly just focused on their coffee and cell phones. Erik watched them over the top of his sunglasses. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes…they ticked by uneventfully.

Something out of the corner of his eye. No. Not something. Someone. Someone who couldn’t really be there. But as the figure continued on, something told him to move. Erik crossed the street with long steps and started to follow him. The instant he caught a better view of his profile, he knew that what he thought he’d seen was real. Charles.

Since his return, Charles hadn’t bothered seeking out anyone from his past life. Whether that was out of disinterest, distrust, or his reluctance to return to the mutant activist life wasn’t a known-fact yet. He’d acquired a job as a Geneticist rather easily with his trick of mind, forging a document here and there until his legal first name was Xavier, thus eliminating the fear of anyone finding him by his former name. 

He’d been working for the company for a couple of months now in peace and should have considered that a blessing in disguise. Of course, it’d come crashing down around him any minute now -- in this minute. 

He’d always had a special link to Erik’s mind. They were the oldest of friends, and even when they were enemies... well, keep your friends close but your enemies closer, is the old saying for that. His mind picked up Erik’s in the crowd long before he realized the mutant was following him.

Stopping in his tracks, Charles focused on the world around them, slowing it to a halt so he could turn uninterrupted and without an eavesdropper. “I don’t believe it’s polite to stalk someone, my friend.”