Title: I Never Want to Move
Fandom: XMFC
Rating: T
Length: ~550 words
Author notes: Set in my Father of the Bride AU.
Summary: Househunting isn't going very well, but then Charles has an idea.



They're on their way back from yet another crappy open house when Charles says, "Maybe we're going about this the wrong way."

"Yeah. I definitely agree with you. We should just stay in the apartment for a few more years," Erik says, more to get a reaction than anything else.

Charles rolls his eyes. "What I mean is, we keep looking at all these one-story houses, and you've hated every last one of them. I haven't really cared for any of them either. So maybe we should approach this from a different direction. We could start looking at two-story houses."

"No way," Erik says. Charles can't do stairs. What's he trying to say, he doesn't mind being stuck using only half of the place they buy? That's not happening. "We'll just keep looking until we find something we like. We will, you'll see."

"That's not what I meant. I was thinking...well, no matter where we move, we're going to have to do all sorts of renovations anyway. We could even put in an elevator if we need to, so maybe we shouldn't limit ourselves while we're looking."

"An elevator." It seems like a really weird idea to Erik. Elevators belong in hospitals and fancy hotels, places like that. Their apartment complex doesn't even have one; that's why they had to move to the ground floor a few years back. "That sounds like it would be pretty expensive."

"Yes, well. We can afford it." Charles sounds vaguely apologetic, the same way he did the first time he mentioned his trust fund. Erik's still not sure if he's embarrassed about it as a general thing, or if he thinks he has to be because all that money makes Erik nervous. Like it's not bad enough that Charles' family is worth hundreds of millions (maybe even billions; Erik's never asked. He's better off not knowing). Now Charles has a seven-digit bank account, and Erik goes into a cold sweat every time he thinks about it. "If we still don't see anything we like, we could even have something build for us, you know?"

"I don't know."

"I might even prefer to do it that way. It would be nice to live somewhere that was built for me from the ground up, not just renovated to make room for me later. If that makes sense."

"It makes sense," Erik says. Actually, it sounds pretty similar to Charles' rationale for buying everything new instead of used, but he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Besides, it's really not that bad of an idea, especially considering that a house is a way bigger deal than the used microwave they had a huge fight about last week. They're not looking for a starter home; Lorna's going to grow up in this house, so they had better be really sure they're both happy with it before they sign anything.

"That is just as ridiculous as it was the last time you brought it up," Charles says. "We can always move again in a few years, if we want to. I'm not sure why you think we can never move again after we buy a house."

*

Later that evening, once they've picked up Lorna from Erik's mom's, eaten dinner and put her to bed, Charles says, "The more I think about it, the more I like the elevator idea. We could get stuck in it and be basically forced to have sex to kill the time anytime we wanted to."

Erik thinks about it. "I'm sold."

"Really?"

"Completely."