xmenfirstkink | round 3 overflow post

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round 3 overflow post

Round 3 Overflow Post

This post is for Round 3 fills only. We ask that when a round hits 8500 comments, fillers begin moving their fills to this post.

Format:
SUBJECT LINE -- Round #, short description of fic (ex: "Alex/Hank, lab partners")
--- Link to the prompt
--- Text of the prompt

--- Link to the fill
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--- Entire text of the fill

EXAMPLE:
Prompt: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/6437.html?thread=1038472#t2038174

Charles/Erik -- Charles is a bakery owner whose most frequent customer is Erik.

Fill: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/6437.html?thread=0139482#t4502942

Charles started off the morning the same way he always did...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Anchor post for a fill for this prompt:

Prompt might be triggery for some.

So: Alpha/alpha domination clash, Erik, Shaw. The winner, traditionally, takes the other's omega. Who is Charles.

(1) Shaw kicks Erik's ass and is like, mm, pretty omega. Waits until Charles is in heat. Makes Erik watch Charles try so hard not to want Shaw. Which doesn't work --> Shaw is brutal and Charles loves it until it's over. Shaw goes, if you'll willingly be mine, I won't execute Erik. (aaand this is a PWP but possibly, longer plot with Erik escaping, overthrowing, reclaiming etc etc)

(2) Erik, reluctant about the whole taking-the-other-guy's-omega tradition, but hey, he's not gonna say no. And Shaw's omega is very very pretty (of course he is, Shaw culled him out out of loads of people) and kind of terrified and Erik has to coax him into it. (Alternatively, be a little rough/manipulative. You know you want this, etc etc, complimenting him and saying it'll be good) Erik ends up claiming him, and either has to convince everyone that it's not about gloating about Shaw, or be unabashedly yeah, he's just spoils of war.

imma evil person

Originally posted: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/3278.html?thread=4462030#t4462030

Warnings: Dubious consent and very broad hints at some nasty, nasty things done to Charles by Shaw.

Opening Gambit

The young man in his bed was everything Erik expected Shaw's omega to be: pretty and submissive, so traditional a picture of an omega that Erik half-fancied Shaw had stolen him out of a Victorian novel. Someone had given him a bath and fresh clothes, but he still wore the bruised marks of his capture upon Shaw's death -- and, of course, a power suppressor collar.

Erik sat down on the bed, an arm's length distance away, and reached out to thumb the dark circles under the omega's beautiful blue eyes as gently as he could. The omega flinched, but didn't resist the touch. Best to ease him into serving Erik's pleasure. "What's your name?"

Something close to incredulity flickered across his face, but it quickly smoothed over into impassive neutrality. "Charles."

"I apologise for the inconvenience of the collar," Erik said, choosing his words carefully, because he wasn't sorry for the collar's necessity. "It's only a precaution until I've claimed you. What's your mutant power?"

"I understand." Charles had a cut-glass British accent, stripped of any inferences of his actual origin and spoke only to his probably expensive education. He smiled, wry and self-depreciating. "I'm a telepath with some measure of skill, though not, as I understand it, at Miss Frost's level of expertise."

Erik didn't let his eyes drop to the collar around Charles's neck, but he discreetly probed its construction and electromagnetic signature with his power anyway, wary of the possibility of sabotage. Satisfied that everything was in working order, he gripped Charles's hips in his hands and pulled Charles closer. Under the linen trousers and thin white shirt, Charles was very warm. "You haven't been with Shaw for long, have you?"

"Two heats. No children." Which went some way towards explaining why Charles was kept away from the public eye -- so secret, in fact, that the Brotherhood hadn't known he existed until after Erik slit Shaw's throat open. Shaw could never admit that his superior alpha genes were incapable of siring a child on an obviously fertile omega, if Charles's scent was any indication.

Erik gave in to temptation and kissed the pale column of Charles's throat, just above the collar, breathing in deep. Charles's pulse quickened. When Erik drew back, Charles's eyes were dilated, the blue barely visible around his dark pupils. His omega scent deepened as Charles tentatively placed his hands on Erik's shoulders, turning Erik's mouth dry with wanting. He hadn't been entirely happy about having to fuck Shaw's former omega to seal his victory over Shaw, but even Erik didn't buck tradition if he didn't have a good reason to. It wasn't so bad, so far: Charles was attractive and smelled good, and didn't look as if he was mourning Shaw too deeply.

"Take off your clothes," Erik growled.

Charles blushed prettily but did what he was told, stripping off his clothes to reveal a pale, well-fed body that tended towards slenderness. His fingers were blunt and workman-like, mottled with faded inkstains. They unbuttoned the shirt gracefully enough, and the look of them against Charles's soft belly was distracting. Charles started to fold his clothes when Erik held up a hand, stopping him.

"On your back. Sit up against the bed and display yourself." When Charles hesitated, Erik smacked him on the thigh with the palm of his hand, hard enough to discipline but not to injure. "If you know what's good for you, Charles, you won't make me repeat myself."

To Erik's satisfaction, Charles obeyed with alacrity, pushing himself up the bed to lean against the headboard. Placing his feet flat on the cotton bedspread, he parted his thighs wide, his eyes not quite meeting Erik's gaze. Charles wasn't physically aroused yet, but that would change soon: losing one's alpha in a dominance clash triggered a milder form of heat in an omega, easing the claiming by his or her new alpha. Erik vaguely remembered overhearing a radio lecture on its evolutionary purposes, but he hadn't thought then that he would find the information relevant.

Erik got off the bed to undress, keeping his eyes on Charles. He pictured Charles as a young recruit, one that needed to be helped along but not coddled, and said, burnishing the steel of his words with warmth, "Get yourself ready for me."

Charles swallowed and closed his eyes. One of his hands curled around his cock, slowly stroking it into hardness. So Charles liked a gentle touch, Erik thought, and speculated idly on whether threats were enough to keep Charles in line, or whether they had to be sweetened with coaxing. Charles's hole was already shiny with slick, gaping slightly as Charles panted, his eyes still screwed shut. Erik began to wonder whether he had to talk Charles through step-by-step when Charles slid two fingers into his mouth and sucked, lips stretching obscenely around the digits, then reached down to push them into himself.

Charles's mouth fell open with a soft cry as he worked himself open, slickness trickling around his fingers. His eyes, when they blinked open, were unfocused and distant. Erik shed his clothes quickly and crawled into the space between Charles's thighs, pulling Charles's legs up so his calves rested on Erik's shoulders. "I'll mount you properly later," he said, and Charles shuddered. "But for now--"

Erik took his cock in hand and pushed, Charles's pained, hitching cries stuttering into a gasp as the head popped past the initial resistance. Charles was wet, wetter than Erik thought he would be, even with the triggered estrus phase. Erik leaned down and smoothed the frown between Charles's brows with the tips of his fingers, biting kisses along Charles's jawline and shoulders.

"It's all right," he breathed, drawing back slightly and fucking into Charles, forcing out another gasp, this one higher in timbre. Erik began fucking him in earnest, Charles's hands wrapped around the iron bedframe to brace himself against Erik's thrusts. "You'll love this-- beautiful-- I'll have you suck me off and taste yourself on my cock--"

And he did, later. Charles sucked cock as sweetly as his red, spit-slick mouth suggested he would. Erik thought of Shaw and his dying eyes and grinned, viciously satisfied. The forced heat cycle lasted only for 24 hours, but it was no hardship to keep Charles in his bed night after night. Charles opened his legs readily and didn't even ask for the collar to be removed in return, though it must have chafed his skin. Erik made a mental note to have Frost scan Charles for any information he might have had, then pushed it to the back of his mind, turning his attention to mouthing the crook of Charles elbows and their constellations of freckles and small, odd scars.

------------------------------------------

"You!"

Erik looked up from his copy of yet another of Riptide's tedious reports. "Mystique. How was the Pentagon mission?"

"Don't even play that card with me, mister." His second-in-command scowled. "Didn't I ask -- no, begged -- you to recall me when you finally take the fight to Shaw? It's been three weeks, you asshole."

"If I'd planned it, I would -- but I had to seize opportunities as they come, you know that. If I waited for you, I would've missed the chance to challenge Shaw, once he confronted me over Frost's defection."

Mystique still looked unreasonably angry, but he saw that she took his point, however grudgingly. She shifted from one foot to another. "Did you... find anyone with Shaw?"

"Only his omega," Erik shrugged.

"Yeah, I heard. Like, with a million times more detail than I ever wanted to know." Mystique shot him a look that was equal parts irritation and disapproval, but sly mischief lurked at the upturned corners of her mouth. "Is he really that sexy? Or were you just replaced with a pod person? Seriously, Magneto, lunchtime quickies?"

"News of my proclivities were wildly exaggerated." Erik nodded towards the doorway, sensing the metal of Charles's collar approaching rapidly. "As for his attractiveness, judge for yourself."

He would be glad, once the dust settled, that what happened next unfolded in his private chambers rather than in the public areas of the Brotherhood's Genoshan headquarters, but he himself only recalled it in a jumble of images and sounds: Mystique's face paling into a cerulean hue, Charles croaking out Raven as if he'd been punched in the stomach, Mystique screaming take it off, take the collar off in Erik's face, the suppressor collar skittering across the floor as Mystique wrenched it off Charles and kicked it away. Before he knew it, Mystique and Charles were wrapped around each other in a tight embrace, her blue skin standing out starkly against Charles's complexion and the neutral shades he favoured.

"I never stopped looking for you," Mystique wept into his shoulder, mindless of the wet stain spreading across Charles's shirt.

"Shaw said he'll kill you if I tried to make contact," Charles choked out, tears falling into Mystique's hair. He frowned, slightly. "Wait, why are you naked?"

"Oh, Charles," Mystique half-laughed, half-sobbed. "I'm so glad you're--"

She abruptly stopped, jerked away, and spun around on her heels to face Erik. "You-- you fucked my brother?"

Erik started to back away, realised how it would look, and stood his ground. "Mystique, nothing I did was anything less than what any alpha in my situation would do. I won him fair and--"

"What's fair about turning my brother into your fucktoy? He's a fucking professor of genetics, not some omega debutant brought up to be barefoot and pregnant."

"Raven--"

"Shut up, Charles."

"Are you challenging me now, Mystique? Truly? Very well, then--"

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't beat the shit out of you--"

"Raven!"

"What, Charles?"

Charles laid a hand on Raven's arm and squeezed lightly. He looked, Erik realised, utterly unlike the docile creature who inhabited Erik's bed and obeyed every order with nary a murmur. He pulled Raven's unresisting hand towards him and placed it on his stomach.

"I don't think it would be very diplomatic of you," Charles said, "to murder the father of your unborn niece. Or nephew, but I have a good feeling it's going to be a girl."

------------------------------------------

That night, Erik avoided Mystique's furious, judging eyes and Charles's carefully opaque countenance by escaping to the small, badly-maintained library for the research he should have done when Charles fell into his hands. He found what he was looking for in a popular science magazine several years out of date: an article on the omega estrous cycle, breezily and badly written.

The cycle triggered by the new alpha offers several evolutionary advantages, he read. First, the alpha is less likely to kill or reject the omega outright, leaving him or her vulnerable. Second, pregnancy strengthens the new bond. An alpha instinctively seeks to protect his or her pregnant omega and the child the omega carries. This also has the added benefit of drawing the alpha's attention away from any children sired by the omega's previous alpha, lessening the likelihood of hostility and violence.

Erik tore the article out of the magazine and carried it back to his bedroom, which was conspicuously empty of Charles. He felt his mouth twist -- Raven had insisted, loudly, that Charles live with her for the time being, but he noticed that Charles didn't make more than a token protest. Then again, he supposed that with Raven being an alpha, Charles was used to following orders issued by his sister. He wondered if they were close as children, if they had other siblings. He didn't even know their surname.

He slept badly that night, restless dreams chasing him into wakefulness. His mood wasn't improved when he strode into the room that served as his private chambers to see Raven and Charles curled together on the rococo chaise longue, Charles's head pillowed on Raven's lap.

She scowled at Erik. Again. "We're only here because Charles is your omega--" she snapped out the word "--by law."

"Your graciousness is noted," Erik said mildly, pouring out a cup of coffee. The breakfast tray on his desk was Charles's work, he saw -- no mistaking the toast cut with military precision, the arrangement of pots and cups and a cloth napkin. Probably intended as a peace offering, or at least a sign that Charles was willing to open negotiations on their relationship.

He pretended to unfold the first of the day's newspapers, intent on ignoring the siblings. An Intelligence dossier on Charles was tucked under the pile of newspapers, securely bound with fine steel wire to ensure that neither Charles nor Mystique could tamper with it without leaving behind evidence. He cast the wire aside with a flick of his power and flipped open the brown folder. Xavier, Charles Francis.

"You're sure you're pregnant?" Raven murmured into Charles's ear, her voice pitched low and meant for Charles alone. Too bad for her that Erik's hearing was exceptionally sharp. "It's been less than a month."

"I know the signs of a successful mating," Charles whispered, his tone clinical and detached. "It's not my first pregnancy. Of course it doesn't mean that I'll successfully carry it to term."

Raven drew in a sharp breath. "What happened to your baby?"

"The child wasn't mutant."

Erik looked up. Charles's face was tranquil, his voice entirely devoid of emotion. But his fingers grasped Raven's hands tightly, the knuckles white with strain. Suddenly Erik could no longer bear to be in the same room as him, feeling himself crowded against the wall by Shaw's ghost and the reams of unspoken memories, demanding that he too remember his own.

Just before the door closed behind him, he heard Charles say, softly, "If it happens again, promise me you'll--"

Erik didn't wait to hear the rest.

END

Sorry I didn't follow your prompt exactly, anon. ^^

Oh, this is wonderful, smutty and hinting at so much angst and plot in the background too! Could there perhaps be more in this verse?

Lovely work.

Please please let there be more. This is plotty and wonderful, and you can't leave us like this *whines*

NO, DO NOT END IT LIKE THAT!!!!
you have written a really tantalizing piece with so many loose ends and open questions that it'd be a shame to end it here.

OH MY GOD ANON COME BACK DON'T END IT THERE THIS IS SO AMAZING

You've said so much with so little; that being said, I could DROWN in this universe. If you ever feel like writing more in this verse, I would read it LIKE A BOSS.

No, how can it end there?! There is so much opportunity for a story where the child is mutant or not a mutant and Erik confronts his own prejudices.

I want to see whether Erik and Charles can begin a romantically, other than just a sexual relationship.

But having said that, I'm very happy with what you wrote. Outraged Raven FTW! Bookmarking, too!

omg, more more PLEASE let there be more!! Like how Shaw got Charles in the first place - those scars in the crooks of his elbows are probably from being injected with drugs, right?! o___O And - as mentioned above - the possibility of a child bringing their issues with each other into relief. And moar smut, pls pls pleeeeeease ...

Sorry for sounding so greedy: it's just that you've got something amazing going, even in such a short space!

"END"!? B-b-but, there certainly needs to be more!! Enjoyed this a lot, anon, and I want to see their relationship develop further. There's so much so much potential for it to be a longer story.

I didn't actually plan on writing more, but I got to thinking about the mechanics of the "Opening Gambit" universe and, uh, this came out. This sequel is it thought -- I've got no other inspiration. Anybody who wants to write another sequel or an AU to this AU or whatever is very much welcome to do so.

Warning: Dubcon. Consent issues. References to violence, including murder and infanticide, and trauma.

En Passant

Erik hadn't ever considered before how alphas were held hostage to biology as much as omegas were, until he found himself instinctively drifting towards where he sensed Charles was -- and realised that he'd been doing it all day, much to his horror. It was humiliating, to be circling around an omega as if he was guarding a nest. He told himself that it would be a while yet before Charles's pregnancy could be confirmed, let alone the actual identity of the child's father, but he knew beyond doubt that Charles wasn't lying.

"Congratulations, sugar. You've got your hands on the most powerful telepath on earth."

He didn't know why he ever thought that Emma Frost was a challenge to read. Compared to Charles and his frustratingly deceptive softness, Emma was as transparent as air. Her slightly puckered mouth, the flat stare -- they all spoke of betrayal and envy. Erik considered this, looking back at her over steepled fingers, mentally playing a child's lullaby until she grimaced and turned away.

"So Shaw wasn't as forthcoming with you as you led us to believe," he said.

Her shoulders lifted. "Clearly, we were both mistaken. Though Shaw does seem rather less impressive as a villainous mastermind, now that I know where he learned his adorable little tricks to keep me out of his head."

"How powerful is Charles?"

"Let's put it this way, darling: he could turn my mind upside-down and inside-out with less effort than you'd need to lift that chair." She raised her eyebrows. "When the collar came off yesterday, it was like the Fourth of July on the astral plane."

"I'm a telepath with some measure of skill, though not, as I understand it, at Miss Frost's level of expertise."

Clever Charles, to be able to tell the truth and lie at the same time. Erik felt himself go cold, despite the sudden rabbiting of his heart. If he'd known he was bedding someone that dangerous... he would never have taken off the suppressor collar, Mystique be damned. Emma eyed him with viper-like amusement and, possibly despite herself, something close to sympathy.

"I wouldn't worry too much about Xavier," she said. "I can't get past his shields, but Mystique doesn't believe he's capable of harming a fly. I'm inclined to agree -- he's far more worried about protecting your spawn than taking over the world with his mind."

------------------------------------------

Charles was in his bed when Erik finally made it to his room, irritable and exhausted. He paused at the doorway, eyeing the mess of brown hair on a pillow and the glimpse of one pale, freckled shoulder. Erik hated surprises, and once again Charles pulled the rug out from under him. He wondered if Charles knew the Brotherhood was running a mission today with him at its lead, and hoped to strike while Erik was too tired to be at his best and likely -- though not on that day -- injured.

His fingers itched to summon Shaw's helmet and a complement of guards to subdue Charles while he fastened the damned collar around Charles's neck.

"There's no need for that." Charles sat up, rubbing his eyes and switching on the bedside lamp. He was topless, the sweep of his collarbones and the dark nubs of his nipples displayed to Erik's eyes. Despite the continued uneasiness, interest stirred in Erik's gut.

"I can't trust you," Erik said instead, because it was true.

"I know." Charles sounded neither surprised nor indignant, and his gaze was steady. He folded his hands in his lap. "All the same, until yesterday we had a-- workable relationship. I would like to open negotiations for its continuation."

Erik crossed the room and sat down on a chair, placed at an angle facing Charles's side of the bed. "Make your bid, then."

"In exchange for my protection and the protection of my unborn child, I'd like to offer you my services as a telepath. I'm sure you're well aware by now that I am rather stronger than Miss Frost." Charles's mouth quirked into a faint, fleeting smile. "I would do anything you ask of me -- unearth secrets, incapacitate someone, anything at all -- as long as it doesn't endanger my child or my life up until the child is born."

Erik leaned back, considering. He hadn't been expecting this -- had expected, actually, a baser offer. "I need a guarantee you won't turn against me, or your offer is useless."

"I'm willing to wear the collar until and unless my abilities are needed, though I'd prefer not to." Charles shrugged. "I fear there aren't many things that can contain me and still leave me in good shape. But if it makes a difference: I promise not to use my telepathy against your interests. And I swear to stay out of your head unless asked."

"Can Mystique vouch for you?"

"She's not part of this," Charles said, every syllable cracking with ice. Erik felt his eyebrows rise at Charles's tone. "If you bring her into our agreement, I'll consider it broken."

"Then you leave me with little choice but to ask Frost to scan you." Erik rose to his feet and started to undo the clasp of his jacket. "I accept your offer pending the scan, and your agreement not to bar her way into your head."

Charles flinched, but nodded his assent. Erik wondered why he ever thought Charles's eyes beautiful, now that he could tell how little they expressed Charles's feelings -- if he had any that didn't revolve around his child or Mystique. Shaw's perfect dead-eyed omega doll, with a brain that could be as coldly rational as it was intelligent. What would Shaw have done to Erik, if he hadn't escaped when he did? Shaw had cut into Erik -- literally and metaphorically -- in the name of science and shaped him into a weapon, but Erik didn't think he cared about breaking Erik's spirit beyond it being an amusing by-product. Could he have turned Erik into a parody of an omega, rolling over for any alpha? The thought disturbed Erik. Shaw was convinced of the ascendancy of mutants -- as was Erik, but surely he would treat his own omega better than this -- and he supposed Shaw saw himself as an alpha to Charles as a mutant would see himself in relation to a human.

There was a rustle of fabric. Erik looked up from his shirt buttons to see Charles drawing back the blankets, feet swinging to the floor. Charles was naked under the covers, which he seemed to regard as entirely irrelevant as he padded towards Erik. He raised his hands to Erik's shirt, stopping just short of the line of buttons, giving Erik a questioning look. At a stiff nod, he undressed Erik swiftly, with easy, practiced movements.

Erik placed a hand on Charles's shoulder when the last of his clothes were put away, pushing down. Charles knelt obediently, hands flat on the floor, bracketing his knees. Erik slid his hand along the line of Charles's neck to his jawline, tipping Charles's face up with a finger. Charles looked the same as he always did, except when he was around Mystique. Raven. Hard to think of her as Mystique, after yesterday -- she was Raven Xavier and sister of Charles now, as much as she was Mystique, his second-in-command.

Perhaps the resentment made him rougher than he should be, fucking Charles's mouth with deep, relentless thrusts until Charles's eyes took on a watery sheen. Charles was still gasping when Erik pulled him to his feet and turned him around to face a wall, bent at the waist, hands braced against the peeling wallpaper. Erik slid a finger into Charles and sure enough, Charles was already slick and ready for him.

This time Erik was gentler, mindful of Charles's condition. He brushed his knuckles down Charles's belly as he rocked inside, thrilled despite his caution -- he was going to have a child. Charles didn't make a sound, head hanging low between his arms, not until after Erik was done and they were finally in bed for the night: a long, raspy sigh, one of relief and exhaustion.

Erik ran a hand idly down Charles's side to his hips, then reached over to stroke the inside of his thighs. "I'm surprised this wasn't included in your negotiations."

"It's pointless to bargain with something I have very little control over," Charles said, matter-of-factly. He didn't seem to notice or care that Erik withdrew his hand instantly, stung and about to launch into an angry rebuttal. Charles pulled the blankets over his shoulders and turned onto his side, facing away from Erik, switching off the bedside lamp.

For a few minutes, Erik watched the dark outline of Charles's body. Then he lay back and thought about Charles's offer, already planning where and when to send him for reconnaisance. He'd have to use Charles judiciously.

------------------------------------------

Frost duly scanned Charles the next day in Erik's chamber, both of them sitting across from each other, eeriely blank-faced. Erik paced the perimeter of the room, while Mystique sat perched on the armrest of Charles's chair and divided her glares between Erik and Frost. Time seemed to have stretched into infinity when Frost finally blinked and rose from her chair, regal in her usual whites.

"He's clean," Frost said, turning towards Erik. "No secret plots, not even a desire to drop a teaspoon of arsenic in your morning coffee. Unfortunately for your purposes, darling, Shaw didn't tell him anything he considered useful."

She tilted a cool smile towards Charles. "But our dear Sebastian did use him as an assistant, so you may want to consider assigning him to the labs. Apparently he was considered quite a brilliant geneticist."

Charles was silent, though his hands trembled a little. Erik waited for him to say yes or no -- anything at all, even suspicion -- to Frost's proposal, but he might as well have been waiting for a reaction from a brick wall. Mystique leaned over and wrapped an arm around Charles's shoulders, drawing him close. Irritated, Erik dismissed Frost and Mystique, over Mystique's vociferous protests.

He eyed Charles with a faint, weary disgust. Erik was surprised, then, when Charles opened his mouth and said, "I would prefer not to serve the Brotherhood as a scientist."

Erik leaned forward. "Why?"

"Our agreement was based on the use of my telepathy, not my scientific knowledge. If you've read my file, then I am sure you know that our views don't coincide." One hand drifted down to press low on his stomach. "I was told I'm a good teacher, before-- before. Perhaps I can help train the younger mutants."

"One way or the other, you will be building an army," Erik pointed out.

Charles gave him a thin smile. "Raven assured me that not every mutant child taken by the Brotherhoood becomes a soldier."

Erik shrugged. "True. Not all mutations, however beautiful, are useful for our current purpose."

"Which reminds me -- it will be quite late in the gestation period before I can confirm whether I'm carrying a mutant child. I would like to raise her, nevertheless," Charles said. His back was ramrod straight, hands clasped together, like a Brotherhood operative about to deliver a report. "I realise this will complicate things, but if she's not a mutant I thought I could pass her off as Shaw's child, given that the pregnancy occurred very soon after my arrival here."

Erik bit down on his instinctive refusal -- it was abominable, for one of his own flesh to be passed off as Shaw's -- and forced himself to consider Charles's words carefully. He hissed, then shook his head slowly. "No. I won't make a decision now. Not until after I know whether the child is human or mutant."

Charles stared at him, a strange hardness in his blue eyes, then looked away. His mouth was set tight with some unknown emotion. Anger, Erik guessed, or possibly contempt. It was impossible to tell.

------------------------------------------

Erik saw little of Charles outside their bedroom over the next few weeks. His attention was wholly consumed by the piecing together of intelligence reports, and tracking down a CIA facility in Virginia that allegedly held a group of mutants. It turned out to be true, though the mutants there were strangely reluctant to leave. A misguided attachment to their human handler, Erik assumed, that persisted even after the man died by Azazel's hand. He'd been about to kill the auburn-haired human woman who seemed to be the man's second when the girl with dragonfly wings intervened, and the Brotherhood were forced to stand down or risk killing the mutants.

In the end, only the boy who shot energy beams from his chest left with the Brotherhood. His name was Alex Summers, he said. No family, except for a long-lost younger brother. He was afraid of his own power.

It was unacceptable.

Charles took custody of Alex as soon as they arrived in Genosha, hustling Alex towards the kitchens. He'd wrapped an arm around the boy and talked to him in a gentle, hushed tone, and Erik was about to order Charles to take Alex to Frost for debriefing when Mystique caught his eye.

"Leave it," she said, but softly, without rancor. "Charles knows what he's doing. He's good with lost children."

"Alex Summers is not a child."

"He's not an adult either. You can see it in his eyes -- the kid with the scream is more of grown-up than he is." Mystique raised her chin, clearly steeling herself for a fight. "I called ahead to tell Charles we were coming with Alex."

"You did what?"

"Telepathically, all right? Nobody can put a trace on it."

Somehow that became standard operating procedure for rescues and recruitment. Erik grew used to the sight of Charles, dressed in his usual baggy cardigans, waiting patiently in the Brotherhood's compound with a wool blanket and a first aid kit. His hands were deft and kind, even with the mutant who'd had sharp quills like porcupine, and the people he spoke to turned to him like plants seeking sunlight.

Erik paid more attention after that, nagged by a sense of disquiet. He thought Frost would object to Charles getting to the recruits before her, but she was pleased instead, saying, "Oh, darling, my job's much easier when they aren't quite so traumatised. All that crying does put one off."

A month after Alex's arrival, Erik accidentally came across him training in the open field just outside the main building. Charles stood by the hastily-made wooden targets -- too close, making Erik's skin prickle with alarm. Alex's chest glowed. Erik was about to yell, throw Alex across the field by the belt buckle, anything--

Alex hit all the targets dead-on.

Whoops of joy echoed through the air as Alex pumped his fist, circling the targets in a victory lap. Erik smiled and turned to leave, but an unfamiliar voice made him stop in his tracks. He frowned, glancing back towards the two mutants. Charles was grinning, his face open and joyous, a stranger to Erik. He'd been laughing, Erik thought with a jolt. They'd slept together for months and shared meals almost daily, but he'd never heard Charles laugh.

------------------------------------------

Well into Charles's fourth month of pregnancy, just as he was beginning to show, the Brotherhood captured a CIA agent.

"You know what to do," Erik said to Charles, nodding towards the agent, bound securely to a metal chair bolted to the floor. Charles pressed his lips together and stood before the human, well out of arm's reach, in the unlikely event that he broke free.

"I'm sorry for this," Charles said to the human, and there was enough true sincerity in it to make Erik growl. The apology fell on unappreciative ears: the human began spitting out curses, struggling in his bonds.

Charles wasn't flashy -- Erik had seen him use his telepathy on mutants before, and aside from his habit of placing the tips of his fingers to his temple, Charles didn't go for blatant displays of power. Whatever he was doing, though, it had a dramatic effect on the human: his entire body jerked into rigid stillness, mouth working silently for a minute before he started screaming, howls bouncing off the concrete walls.

When Charles finished, the human was weeping openly, the acrid stench of urine rising from his clothes. Charles studied him with alarming compassion, then pressed his fingers to his temple again and murmured, "Sleep. Peacefully."

"You didn't need to do that," Erik said, as soon as they were safely ensconced in his private chambers.

"I wanted to," Charles said, simply. He sat down on the chair in front of Erik's desk. "From what I can gather from Agent Levine's mind, the CIA has put together a mutant strike force. Code name 'Muir Island', headed by a Moira MacTaggert. They found another telepath, by the way -- a woman by the name of Elisabeth Braddock. She taught Levine some basic shielding, but he was a poor student."

Erik hissed under his breath. "So the humans are recruiting mutants to fight their own extinction."

Charles stood, drawing his jacket tighter around himself. "You do realise," he said softly, "that mutants and humans are of the same species, don't you?"

"It was the humans who drew a line between us." Erik didn't need to explain -- he knew Charles was aware of the laws that were beginning to be passed in a number of countries, the creeping interest in the study of mutants among world governments.

"It was a mutant who cut my child out from my body," Charles said, steady and precise. "The same mutant who killed your mo--"

Erik grabbed Charles's arms and shook him, hard, fingers pressing deep into Charles's flesh. Charles cringed but didn't cry out, his eyes wide like a frightened deer. "This conversation is over," Erik snarled, leaning down into Charles's face, so close he could smell the soap Charles used. Gardenia oil and sandalwood, the same one Mystique occasionally hoarded. And, under that, Charles's own scent, startlingly arousing.

He spun them around and walked Charles backwards a few steps, then pushed him down onto the chaise longue. Charles's face was pale, but the afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows lent a golden cast to his skin, smoothing over his imperfections. Erik wanted to consume him, taste the hidden corners of his heart and the secrets he kept enclosed in his fists, begging for someone like Erik to pry them open.

Erik unbuckled his belt, the metallic clink sounding loud in the silence.

Charles lowered his eyes and began shedding his shapeless, baggy clothes in a tidy heap on the floor. Erik paused, watching him. He typically put on layers of clothing despite the Genoshan heat, but went to bed nude, ready for Erik. It was vaguely dissatisfying, in a way -- Erik never had the pleasure of unwrapping Charles, never had cause to linger overmuch with foreplay.

Erik crawled between Charles's thighs, careful not to put any pressure of Charles's abdomen. There was something thrilling about taking Charles like this, Erik still fully dressed except where he'd unzipped his trousers and pulled out his cock, Charles naked and exposed under him. Charles's areolas were darker now, the nipples more prominent. Erik stroked them with the back of his fingers -- once, twice, thrice -- and pinched gently.

Charles made a small, choked-off sound. His eyes were closed. Erik traced Charles's brows with his lips, kissing the eyelids. He ran his palms up Charles's arms to cup the shoulders, marvelled at the surprising breadth of Charles's chest. The pale, freckled skin twitched under his fingertips, even as Charles tilted his head back to bare his neck. Pleased, Erik licked the elegant curves of Charles's clavicles, and reached down to push Charles's legs farther apart. Charles's eyes slitted open, a gleam of blue just visible under his lashes.

Erik took his cock in hand and thrust in firmly, forcing another small sound from Charles's throat. He frowned. Charles felt a little dry. No matter -- Erik groped for Charles's cock and stroked the flaccid flesh, as he gently rocked in and out. Charles bit down on his bottom lip, sweat beading on his forehead. Erik brushed them off with his free hand; Charles's skin felt cool and clammy under his fingers.

He could sense the iron in Charles's blood, the rapid pumping of his heart. He stroked Charles's cock faster, thumbing the head. Charles's pulse jumped, but he remained stubbornly unaroused. For the first time, Erik felt-- uncertain of himself. He felt ridiculous, not knowing how to please Charles.

"Tell me what you want," he murmured, caressing the rim of Charles's ear with his lips. "Tell me and I'll do it. Anything, anything at all."

Erik drew back, almost pulling out of Charles, and thrust in deep, screwing into Charles. He gasped into Charles's hair -- Charles was tight, so tight it left Erik poised on the knife's edge between pleasure and pain.

"Fuck." Words fell from his mouth in an unchecked stream, in-between grunts. "Do you feel that, Charles? If I could, I'd keep you like this forever -- chain you to my bed, fucked open for me."

Charles stiffened. "Get off me," he said, high and thready. "Get off me."

Erik must have blacked out for a second, because when his eyes blinked open again he was half-way across the room, butted up against the heavy oak of his desk. Charles's face was drained of all colour, his eyes open but unfocused. He curled into himself, his breathing ragged and rapid. His eyes closed again as he clamped a hand over his mouth, his entire body shaking.

"Go away," Charles whispered through his fingers. "Leave me alone. Please, god, just leave me alone."

He wanted to-- Erik didn't know what he wanted, could do, but seconds later the door to his chambers swung open with a loud crash, Mystique spilling through with a blanket trailing after her. Her chest was heaving, her eyes wild, and Erik recognised in them the look she carried on kill-and-destroy missions.

"He's having a panic attack," she snarled at Erik, throwing the blanket over Charles's body and tucking it around him. "I was with Frost -- I think every telepath on this island thought they survived a heart attack."

"What's wrong with him? We weren't doing anything out of the ordinary."

Mystique stroked Charles's hair back from his face. "Maybe it was having to force his way into Levine's mind," she said. "He wouldn't do something like that normally. It might've been different if he was born an alpha, but Charles always had this thing about ethics and consent."

She started rubbing Charles's shoulders -- trying to warm him, Erik saw. "Anyway, how did you convince him to do it? Also, ugh, fucking zip up, no one needs to see you hanging out like that."

Gathering the shreds of his considerable dignity around himself, Erik made himself decent, watching Mystique speak to Charles as a mother would to a wounded child, soft and comforting. Charles's breathing gradually evened out. If he was this powerful, if he could make Erik lose seconds, perhaps minutes of his life and affect every telepath within range, what else could he do?

"If he can't control it, he'll have to wear a suppressor collar," Erik said.

Mystique's golden eyes narrowed. "Over my dead body."

------------------------------------------

Charles did wear the collar, after all, without any attendant loss of lives. The Xavier siblings apparently had a lengthy argument about it behind closed doors, from what Erik gathered through Azazel, and though Mystique refused to speak to Erik for an entire fortnight she put the collar on Charles herself. Charles flinched when the collar locked with a click, but gamely gave Mystique a tender, wavering smile.

"Raven, please don't be angry. It's all right," he said, dropping a brotherly kiss on Mystique's knuckles. Erik's mood soured. "Better you than anyone else."

It wasn't such a terrible thing, Erik thought. He allowed Charles to deactivate the collar for few hours a day, longer if he was training or counselling new recruits. Sometimes Erik took it off when they were in bed together and he felt like kissing every inch of Charles's body, marvelling at the rounding belly, a gesture that came easier now that Charles seemed more responsive. Especially after he began indulging Charles and allowing him to spend the night alone whenever he had to use his telepathy at Erik's behest.

If the child Charles carried was a mutant, Erik's life would be as complete as it had ever been.

Towards the eighth month of Charles's pregnancy, Erik came across him and another omega -- a mutant girl -- talking quietly in the library. The door was slightly ajar and they hadn't seen him, absorbed in their conversation, and Erik was admittedly curious.

"If there's one similarity between humans and mutants, it's this business with alphas and omegas," Charles was saying. "You needn't worry so much, my dear. What you-- we learned as children still applies, even when the alpha in question is a pyrokinetic mutant."

"I'm afraid," the girl said in a small voice. "I mean, I know she loves me -- she does! -- and she's really good to me, but you hear stories and I don't know what I'll do if she. You know."

"Yes, I know," Charles said. Erik frowned. Was Charles's telepathy active? No, the collar was still on.

"At least she agreed that we could use birth control for a few years, until things get better around here." The girl was wringing her hands, tearing a wad of tissues into pieces. "I hate that I can't just say no. What if she becomes someone like Daddy's alpha? It's just. Sometimes I'm still not entirely comfortable."

"It's best that you talk to her about this. She's a good person, and one of the better alphas I've met." Charles lapsed into silence. "I haven't had the best of luck with alphas. Please don't ever let yourself use this, but I've learned over the years that fantasies of, um, that is, sexual fantasies -- well, they help make it easier, when... your respective desires don't align, so to speak."

The girl sucked in a breath.

Charles squeezed her hands. "In a perfect world, we would never have to speak about it like this. But I'm afraid the world is far from perfect, at least for now. What helps, my dear, is that you're not alone. You know where to go to for help, don't you?"

Erik resisted the urge to smash through the door and demand that Charles explain himself, even as the girl nodded, smiling the luminous smile that Erik had seen on a hundred mutant faces, all directed at Charles.

------------------------------------------

"Does Charles find me attractive?" Erik said to Mystique, over their daily debriefing.

She leveled a flat stare at him. "You are a terrible conversationalist."

"If you can resist from passing judgment on my personality traits, answer the question."

"I don't think it matters," she said, kicking back in her chair. "Look, I can't explain it very well, but Charles is different, after Shaw. He really did a number on Charles -- I really wish you hadn't claimed him when you did, though I suppose you suit his needs well enough. If he had a list of 'qualities in alphas I want to mate with', desirability is so far down the list, it's not funny. It might be better, actually, if he doesn't find you fuckable."

"That's nonsense," he said. "Besides, Charles was Shaw's omega, not his lab rat."

Mystique tossed down a folder. "You know as well as I do that matings don't always happen on rose petals after being ordained by romantic fate. You should've treated Charles the way you would any mutant subject you found in Shaw's lab. You're going to regret not having done it, sooner or later."

Erik drifted towards one of the tall windows, looking down at the grounds. Below him, Charles sat surrounded by a ring of mutants of all ages, hanging on to his every word. There seemed to be more of them by the day, Erik thought.

"He's not going to raise an army against me, Mystique."

"Sure," she said. "But what will you do if he never loves you back?"

END

I really love this anon. I find myself crying for Charles and hoping that he somehow gets himself free of this cycle so that he can take care of his baby and be happy. I also find my self angry at Erik for obvious reasons and for Raven, I feel like she kind of sees what is happening and is just accepting it, she sees how unhappy her brother is and yet refuses to really go to the extreme to save him :(
I hope you continue this soon!!!!

Anon!author

(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 03:45 (UTC) - Expand

I know you write "this is it," so I won't grovel and plead for continuation. At least, not until I review the entirety.

I think the chilly realism of Charles' mood & actions is matched by the fantastic imagery you use to describe him. Erik realizing that behind those beautiful blue eyes lurks an unfathomable power ... brrr. Being (deep at heart, really!) the schmoopbeastie that I am, I desperately want them to find some way of working things out, to have a child together and be happy. My brain was cycling through ways to do this: Erik has a dead!mom!related nightmare, and the equivalent to the Rage & Serenity menorah memory finding occurs! In Bed! That would fix things! And then they live happily ever after, right? RIGHT?

Except this is one 'verse in which I can see the two leads having a formidable alliance, but overwhelming love only on one side. Charles does seem so traumatized that the happily ever after ... seems distant, in terms of realism.

... which makes me want to curl up in a corner and sniffle. But that's OK!

In sum: this is great, I really *really* want to know what will happen with the child (my desperate-for-a-happy-ending brain has come up with a scenario in which post-nightmare!Erik growls to Charles: "You really think I would kill a child? My own child?" and Charles is all: zuh? o___O. OR SOMETHING.)

So, because I want to know, I wish there were a way of bribing you to continue. But if that's it, that's it, so in sum: thanks so much for this!

And the dubcon was deliciously dark. Purrr.

Anon!author

(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 03:43 (UTC) - Expand

Oops, forgot to put a warning. The snippet above has DUBCON and NONCON references

(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 03:47 (UTC) - Expand

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iheartdraco11.livejournal.com - 2012-02-01 04:05 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 04:09 (UTC) - Expand

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anutty1.livejournal.com - 2012-02-01 07:04 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2012-02-08 11:22 (UTC) - Expand

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furius.livejournal.com - 2012-02-20 10:25 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anon!author

subtilior.livejournal.com - 2012-06-06 20:46 (UTC) - Expand

Oh man, I seriously hope someone picks up your invitation to write more of this, as I would love to see Erik finally getting a fucking clue. You are treating him just like Shaw did, Erik.

Mystique is very interesting here -- upset on her brother's behalf, protective of him, but also missing a few vital pieces of perspective due to the fact that she is herself an alpha and not an omega.

I LOVED Charles conversation with the other omega. It really highlighted some wretched aspects of this world.

Also, and it wasn't clear in the first story, but they are on Genosha? As in, the country that Erik rules and makes the laws for. As in, he's the one responsible for the law that says omegas are the property of their alphas. BRRRR.

Other readers have called for a happy ending, with a Charles and Erik reconcilliation, but I say FUCK THAT. This Erik doesn't deserve Charles. I just want Charles to find sanctuary elsewhere -- maybe on Muir Island -- and raise his kid and put his life back together.

Anon!author

(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 02:18 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 03:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anon!author

(Anonymous) - 2012-02-01 06:59 (UTC) - Expand

(deleted comment)

Anon!author

(Anonymous) - 2012-02-02 00:03 (UTC) - Expand

Oh, quite, quite dark. I really felt for how alone Charles felt in this story, despite having Raven (whom he really isn't sharing his plans with anyway). At least his child will decrease his loneliness.

And I just kept thinking that Erik was so stupid - partly not his fault because many of his reactions as an alpha were so culturally ingrained. It didn't occur for his to think in this and that manner.

I also loved the little snippet where the child is dreaming and Charles is being BAMF and plotting how to make omegas the top of the food chain.

Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse, non/dubcon

Opening Gambit 1a/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Opening Gambit 1b/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Opening Gambit 1c/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Opening Gambit 1d/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Re: Opening Gambit 1d/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Re: Opening Gambit 1d/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Re: Opening Gambit 1d/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

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Re: Opening Gambit 1d/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Re: Opening Gambit 1d/1 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 1/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 2/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 3/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 4/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 5/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 6/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

En Passant 7/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

Re: En Passant 7/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)

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Re: En Passant 7/7 (Charles/Erik, Charles/Shaw, omegaverse AU, warning: dubcon)