the morning after meme (expanded)

[bottecellie]

the morning after ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ a meme → COMMENT WITH YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME, FANDOM, AND PREFERENCE. → PICK A CHARACTER YOU WANT TO TAG AND HIT UP RNG (01-10), OR CHOOSE A SCENE OF YOUR OWN. → PLAY NICE; NO WANK, FLAMES, OR GENERAL HUMBUGGERY. ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ the scenarios ① BREAKFAST IN BED: YOUR PARTNER'S UP AND ABOUT -- MAYBE DRESSED, MAYBE NOT -- AND IN THE KITCHEN. WHAT ARE THEY MAKING YOU? COULD IT BE... GRILLED CHEESE? ② HIT ME BABY: THEY'RE SUCH A PEACEFUL SLEEPER. A PEACEFUL, SEXY SLEEPER. ACTUALLY THERE'S TOO MUCH OF THAT SLEEPING HAPPENING. WHY DON'T YOU WAKE THEM UP, WORLD'S KINDEST ALARM? ③ ESCAPE FROM AZKABED: YOU WAKE UP TO FIND THEY'RE RUMMAGING ABOUT FOR THEIR CLOTHES, ABOUT TO LEAVE. WHY THE RUSH, AND CAN YOU CONVINCE THEM TO STAY? ④ THE AFTERNOON AFTER: AND THE EVENING, MAYBE EVEN THE MORNING AFTER AFTER... HOURS HAVE PASSED BUT YOU JUST CAN'T LEAVE EACH OTHER! OR MAYBE ONE OF YOU JUST WON'T... ⑤ HANGOVER FROM HELL: THERE'S A TIGER IN THE CLOSET, A BABY IN THE BATHROOM, AND A TOTAL STRANGER CURLED UP BESIDE YOU. WHO IS THIS PERSON BESIDE YOU SMELLING OF TEQUILA AND REGRET? DO THEY KNOW ANY MORE ABOUT WHAT, OR WHO, WENT DOWN THAN YOU DO? ⑥ WET AND WILD: DON'T FEEL TOO LONELY WAKING UP BY YOURSELF -- THE SHOWER'S ON AND THE SOUND OF WATER FALLING IS MIGHTY INVITING. WHY DON'T YOU GET CLEANED UP -- OR DOWN AND DIRTY ALL OVER AGAIN? ⑦ I'LL SLEEP WHEN I DIE: SLEEP? WHAT IS THIS SLEEP THING YOU SPEAK OF? DAWN'S BREAKING AND NEITHER OF YOU HAVE GOTTEN A WINK, OR WANT ONE. WHO'S READY FOR ROUND asjldkjl? ⑧ A BITTER PILL: TURNS OUT THE REASON YOU SCORED WASN'T YOUR SPARKLING WIT AND MAGNETIC CONFIDENCE. YOUR PARTNER HAD AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE -- THEY ALREADY KNEW IT, AND YOU'RE ABOUT TO. RECON? REVENGE? REBOUND? TAG AND FIND OUT, IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH! ⑨ THIS ISN'T MINE: THAT SLEEPY PERSON IN YOUR LIVING ROOM HAD A GREAT NIGHT -- WITH YOUR ROOMMATE. WELL, MIGHT AS WELL GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER WHILE YOU'RE BOTH THERE, RIGHT? ... RIGHT? ⑩ WILD CARD: ROLL MORE THAN ONCE AND COMBINE SCENARIOS, CHOOSE YOUR FAVOURITE, OR MAKE UP YOUR OWN! Stolen from here.

Comments

[cerebral]

"Mm, you could have chosen another sort of apology. And I still would have made breakfast." Charles, that is not an innocent smile at all, stop pretending.

Turning back to face the shower head, he remarks, "As it stands, I'm choosing to take that as a compliment to my coffee making skills."

[serene_rage]

That got him a smile, an honest, if vaguely predatory smile. A far cry from the dangerously predatory one that only came through once in a while, "Yes, it's the coffee, of course."

He wasn't exactly crowding the other man, but he was definitely in Charles' personal space, reaching up past him to snag the shampoo, "Did you not just hear me say an apology was unnecessary? Breakfast, however, is, most important meal of the day, or so I've been told."

[cerebral]

"I did; I'll have to remember that for any other time you'd like an 'apology.'" There's an almost sing-song quality to his voice, and he purposefully moves back a step (which is about as far as he can go, really).

And to further add to the teasing, "I'll keep a supply of toast on my person instead."

[serene_rage]

"Terrible idea." He replied, nudging the other man's head back, going about washing his hair as if this were something that happened every day, "You'd attract mice. And wayward teenagers." He was only half-joking about that second one, as far as he'd been able to tell Sean, at least, was always hungry, and would generally eat whatever was put in front of him.

He tilted his head as of considering this, "Though I suppose it might come in handy if we ever got lost in the woods."

[cerebral]

His eyes close and there's a contented little noise as soon as Erik starts playing with his hair. To the point where he's almost distracted from the conversation entirely. "Mm? I'll stay vigilant for wicked witches. Or I'll try, anyway. Sweet tooth."

Charles' hands, in the meantime, go to rest on the other man's shoulders. No one wants any repeat accidents.

[serene_rage]

"Hm, suppose it's up to me to keep you out of trouble then." He replied, fingers scrubbing against the other man's scalp, more than a little amused at just how easy it was to derail the other man's line of thought.

Really, at this distance there was little to no chance of Charles actually falling. Erik nudged at the other man's head, tilting it back into the spray to rinse the soap out.

[cerebral]

Once the soap is sufficiently rinsed, his eye peeks open in the facially expressive equivalent of that would make a change. (hello there Mr. submarine lifting, Russian invader). "Better yet, I'll act as bait. You sneak up with a giant candy cane. It's a flawless plan."

While Erik presumably tends to his own hair (their height difference making the reverse a little difficult), Charles reaches for a sponge to make soapy. "Back first?"

[serene_rage]

Of the two of them, Charles was the one with no apparent self-preservation instinct, throwing himself into the damn ocean after a complete stranger. Pot, kettle, hello, nice to meet you.

"Mm, please." He replied, shifting around easily in the enclosed space, already scrubbing vigorously at his own hair, "And a candy cane is hardly my style, but I suppose we could make it work."

hahaha yesss, that's so true

[cerebral]

Or in his case, a perfectly legitimate way of making new friends.

"There's a sad lack of metal in magical forests. It's the best I could do on short notice." Strategies aside, he begins to soap Erik's shoulders and upper back in slightly firm, circular motions.

[serene_rage]

The tragic thing was that the tactic had actually worked for him, which meant that he was likely to try it again, either with an actual ocean or a metaphorical one.

As always, there was a lingering tension down Erik's spine, a taut readiness that never really went away, even in sleep, "Mm, suppose you're right." He replied, "Though some witches have iron teeth, and generally the ones with gingerbread houses have stoves big enough to cook children in, likely also made of iron. There's a lot I could do with a stove that size." Or a handful of teeth, but that went without saying.

[cerebral]

"I've never heard the teeth part." He continues to soap although, for a moment, his fingers absently trail at Erik's lower back as he recalls something. "In British folklore, iron was always meant to ward off evil."

Satisfied with his handiwork, he starts to rise away suds, before gently tapping Erik on the upper arm. "You can turn around now."

[serene_rage]

He rinsed out his own hair before answering: "Baba Yaga, she's one of the original Grimm's, based on a ... Slavic folktale if I'm remembering correctly." Clearly despite what Erik tried to claim, there was more to him than his vengeance, "Iron teeth, flew around in a mortar with a pestle for an oar, lived in a house on chicken legs."

A rolling shrug followed, "Iron's used as a ward against evil in a lot of places."

[cerebral]

It was the incidental moments like this that Charles enjoyed most. When the information, the insights into Erik Lehnsherr came freely, rather than when he looked for them.

"I used to like the Arthurian legends best when I was a boy." He begins the process of soaping the sponge more as he thinks back. "My father had the most beautiful leather bound copy from the nineteenth century. It's still in the library downstairs."

'Had,' 'is.' The difference in tense in palpable and he's not sure exactly what to feel. And so he keeps soaping, before offhandedly mentioning, "I wanted to be Merlin."

[serene_rage]

"I could see that." He said, tugging the sponge easily from Charles' grasp to scrub the other man's back in turn, "Considering that's rather what you already do." The sage instructor role did seem to suit the younger man, despite his age. Or lack thereof.

"Don't recall that I ever had aspirations like that." Mostly he'd just wanted to make it through the week in one piece, and then the day and occasionally he could remember living hour to hour, all in Shaw's care.

[cerebral]

"Hey." He gives a tiny frown that borders on a pout, before turning around, ready to be scrubbed. But not before looking over his shoulder to say, "I'll have you know I wasn't finished with that."

Not that he was enjoying himself, or anything (or trying to steer the conversation from less melancholy subjects).

[serene_rage]

"No, of course you weren't." He replied, dropping a quick kiss to Charles' bare shoulder before scrubbing the sponge over the spot, "You were just going to stand there and wring it for a while longer, I understand."

[cerebral]

"I could have been planning something; now you'll never find out." When all else fails, flirt mercilessly. "Your chance has passed, Mr. Lehnsherr."

[serene_rage]

"Mm, yes, because you're the devious criminal mastermind here." Not that Erik was, but at least he'd had some practice at it where he presumed Charles hadn't.

[cerebral]

"It's legal in Illinois, at least." ...sir. "And I could be devious if I wanted to."

There's a slight protest in his voice at that.

[serene_rage]

His brow arched as he switched their positions again to nudge Charles into the spray once more, "Does that mean I should consider myself lucky that we aren't in Illinois? Or was that a hint as to where we're going next?"

Clearly Charles could be devious when he wanted to.

[cerebral]

"That's a long way to drive for what I had in mind. Of course, if you're insistent on my being well-behaved, I understand completely."

Don't mind that smile, Erik. The one that's far too innocent and bright-eyed for its own good.

[serene_rage]

Erik knew that smile well, as he knew the breezy tone, "Honestly, Charles, it's like you don't even know me at all." He replied, shaking his head, a smile of his own inching into place.

It was nothing short of amazing, really, how Charles could get an actual smile from him so easily.

[cerebral]

It wasn't something that Charles took for granted. Still smiling (albeit slightly more slyly) his fingers drift out to Erik's chest and tip toe their way up to his shoulder. "Are you saying you like my nefarious plans?"

And then, pulling his hand back, "You're far too much of a bad influence."

[serene_rage]

"I will admit to liking the idea of you having nefarious plans. And I also sincerely doubt that I've been that bad of an influence." After all, he knew Charles at least half as well as the other man knew him, "You're the sort who's always had them, just never had a reason to let anyone know about them, hm?"

[cerebral]

Biting at the corner of his mouth, Charles shrugs as nonchalantly as possible. "It always felt big enough carrying one secret." With a small smile, he also admits, "And... I think I like being able to have nefarious plans with another mutant."

It wasn't that he disliked humans --obviously not-- but there was a degree of understanding with Erik that he'd never had with anyone before. As a man of science, he didn't believe in notions of true love. Still, there was a feeling he had sometimes, that somehow they were meant to collide.