Title: Ghost Story
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
Rating: G
Length: ~670 words
Content notes: off-screen character death (erm, title says all)
Author notes: *waves* First time playing here! I have wanted to for quite some time. :) This is for the genre challenge.
Summary: "How come you're haunting my room, anyways?" Erik says one day. "Shouldn't you be haunting your own house or something?"



Erik's mom spends five minutes getting to the point of it. First she asks Erik if he remembers how Charles got sick with the flu a few days ago. Then she explains, very softly, how dangerous the flu is to kids like Charles. How easy it was, for Charles to come down with pneumonia.

That Charles is -

Erik knows better than to interrupt his mom when she's talking, so he waits until she's waiting for him to answer her before he says, "Yeah, I know. Charles already told me."

*

When Erik gets back up to his room, he glares at Charles. "You made my mom cry."

Then he tries to punch him on the arm, just like he always does, but instead of his hand making a thwapping sound, it goes right through Charles' shoulder. Erik's hand feels cold and tingly for half an hour afterward, instead of warm and tingly like it usually does when he hits Charles. It's a really weird feeling - almost as weird as not being able to sense any metal in Charles' wheelchair, since it's a ghost too.

"I'm sorry," Charles says. "I didn't mean to." He reaches up and rubs his shoulder, even though he supposedly didn't feel anything when Erik's hand went through him.

*

"How come you're haunting my room, anyways?" Erik says one day. "Shouldn't you be haunting your own house or something?"

Charles' house is perfect for haunting; it's so huge it could have come right out of a ghost movie to start with, and hardly any of the rooms get used so it's spooky on the inside too with all sorts of dust and cobwebs and possibilities. If Erik was going to haunt a house, Charles' house would be first on his list.

"I don't like it there anymore." Charles looks down and picks at his cuticles, and Erik wonders if he picks any skin off if it will be real skin or ghost skin. "My mom is really sad - her thoughts hurt. And she can't see me or hear me so I can't help. Here is way better."

"...Oh."

*

Erik gets a chess set for his birthday that year. He likes it because the pieces are metal, but he hates it because the instructions confuse him and make him feel dumb.

"This game is stupid," he says. He wishes he could of gotten a video game instead.

Charles, though, peers at the manual thoughtfully. "If you turn the pages for me, I could maybe figure it out and tell you the interesting parts."

Not only does Erik have to turn the pages, but when they start actually playing he has to move all the pieces too. But he doesn't really mind.

*

Erik is sick and tired of going to visit head shrinks.

"I don't think you'll have to anymore," Charles says. "This latest one thinks I'm a coping mechanism and I'll go away when the time is right. I think your mom liked to hear that. The first one said you were a compulsive liar and the second one said you were a sociopath."

"I'm not a liar. But what's a socio-whatever?"

"I think it's what they call you if you tell the shrink you're mad you can't have my video games," Charles says. "That was stupid of you."

"Well, no one else is using them," Erik says. He doesn't know why this doesn't make sense to any of the grownups. Probably for the same reason none of them can see Charles. "And you're not a coping whatever-it-was, you're a ghost. I don't know why nobody listens to me when I tell them so."

"Yeah," Charles says. "You want to know what I think? I think that if I went away, you'd be really sad. That's what I think."

Erik's stomach twists around at the thought of what if 'Charles died' meant Charles was gone. "I wouldn't care."

Charles beams at him, like he's just said something really nice. "Okay. I'm not going anywhere anyway."

"Good." Erik thinks maybe he sounds a little too relieved, so he adds, forcefully, "You better not."