Old Friend

*warning: This chapter deals with elements of violence and torture. Proceed with caution.*

Chapter 5

Erik got up before Charles woke up, and found no reason to wake him. He got dressed and left Charles sleeping, in order to have breakfast.

He had some business downtown today, but would be free after that. He left, hoping it wouldn’t frighten Charles to wake up alone.

Nonsense! Erik thought. Charles is all but fragile, not matter what his physical body tells us. Being alone for a few hours won’t give him any trauma. Although if Erik would have known what would happen while he was gone, he never would have left the room at all.

Mystique and John were already sitting by the breakfast table when Erik entered the kitchen. They said good morning, and he greeted them back, though he noticed that Mystique didn’t look him in the eyes like she used to. Erik realized she might be angry for some reason, but he couldn’t figure out why.

“I’m heading downtown for a while,” he told them. “Ravenll yll you make sure Charles gets his breakfast?”

“Sure, I’lle sue sure of that…” Mystique murmured while she was stirring her teacup without drinking anything.

Pyro was also looking a bit weird, fingering his lighter continuously. It wasn’t like either of them to be acting like that, and Erik almost asked them if something was wrong. Had it something to do wCharCharles? he wondered.

But he didn’t have time to ask anything before another person entered the kitchen and sat down by the table. It was Sabretooth. The blond giant sat down next to Mystique without saying a word, and Erik couldn’t help noticing that Mystique winced.

It surprised him a lot. Sabretooth and Mystique fighting was nothing new; it happened often, but Mystique was usually not afraid of him. Had he really hurt her this time? If that was the case, he would not get away with it, Erik decided.

“I had better get ready,” Erik said after drinking a cup of tea and eating a plate of cereals. It had been a quiet and gloomy breakfast, and the atmosphere around the table was all but cheerful. Erik suspected that something was wrong, but he decided not to interfere unless it got worse. Maybe he had made a mistake letting Victor Creed rejoin?

“I’m going soon. Raven, then you will take care of Charles until I get back?” he asked knowingly.

Now Mystique looked up. Erik expected to see something in her eyes, but the look in them was blank when sookeooked at him.

“Yes, of course,” he replied. “I will make sure of that.”

“Good. I’ll see you later.”

Erik left the breakfast table and his three fellow mutants, heading out to his car.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As soon as Erik had left Mystique felt Sabretooth’s menacing and scornful eyes on her, and felt a strong urge to run away from the table. But she wasn’t going to. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“Aren’t you gonna feed Xavier soon?” the large mutant asked mockingly.

“Not yet,” Mystique replied without looking up. “And I won’t tell you where he is. Don’t expect that.”

Sabretooth laughed to himself. You don’t need to, he thought. I’m not as stupid as everyone thinks I am. I’ll find out some other way.

He wasn’t going to attack Mystique again, partly because Pyro was sitting by the table, and because it wouldn’t help. Mystique was loyal to Magneto in rain and shine. Instead of brute strength, which was norm his his field, he would have to use his wits.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Charles immediately noticed that Erik was gone when he woke up in the morning. Instead of his old friend, there was a note on Erik’s side of the bed. Charles picked it up and started reading.

It said, with Erik’s trim handwriting:

“Charles, I had some business downtown, so I am probably gone when you awake. I told Raven to come by with your breakfast. See you later. Yours,
Erik”

Charles sighed. Of course. He didn’t know what kind of “business” Erik had, but he wasn’t looking forward to another one of Mystique’s visits. The woman was freaky, and besides they didn’t like each other. But of course he wanted breakfast, and if Mystique was to deliver it, he had to tolerate her.

Mystique came by 11 o’clock. She entered his room with a light knock in her usual blue shape, carrying a food tray. The breakfast included a plate of cereals, a piece of toast, a teacup and an apple. Charles assumed she had made it herself.

“Good morning,” he greeted and forced himself to smile.

Mystique simply looked at him with her yellow, cat-like eyes, and placed the tray on his bedside table.

“Do I need to empty your bedpan?” she asked matter-of-factly.

“Yes, please, that would be good,” Charles replied and stuck his hand under the quilt and pulled out the basin. He had only peed once this morning, so there wasn’t much in the bedpan.

Mystique took it without words and disappeared into the bathroom to empty and wash it. She really disliked being Xavier’s “nurse” but if Erik wanted her to be, she wouldn’t object. She also wondered if Erik had slept with the telepath. She strongly suspected that he was at least *going to* if he hadn’t already. But she wasn’t going to ask Erik, and definitely not Xavier either. It was their business, and they could do as they pleased.

She returned to Charles with the bedpan and handed it to him. He accepted the basin and stuck it under the quilt.

“Do you need any more help or can I leave now?” she asked.

“Where was Erik going?” asked Charles.

Mystique shrugged. “Why do you ask?”

“It was only a question. Are you always so nice? Or is it just me?”

Mystique sighed loudly and leaned against the wall.

“Xavier,” she said and avoided using his first name on purpose. “You don’t like me anymore than I like you, so what’s the point in pretending? That would be hypocrisy. I come here only because Erik asked me to, and I keep my promises to him. I don’t know why he’s keeping you here, and I won’t speculate, but you’re not here because I want to. I think what happened to you was terrible, but your X-men could take as good – if not better – care of you as we can. I don’t understand Erik, but I won’t question him either.”

She was also about to tell him he was the reason why she had sore and aching arms, but didn’t. She qui quite sure Xavier didn’t have to know that.

“I do hope we understand each other,” she finished instead. “I’ll be back in a few hours unless Erik’s come home.”

With that she spun around and elegantly moved her blue body toward the door. She didn’t look back at Xavier when she left. Charles didn’t mind. He didn’t like having Mystique’s eyes on him anyway.

He placed the tray on his lap and started consuming his breakfast. Charles had to admit Mystique was a good cook. He wasn’t sure why, but he had never expected her to be the cooking type. Apparently, he was wrong.

Charles chewed and ate slowly, and really grasped the opportunity to enjoy the meal. He wouldn’t get another one until this afternoon, he realized, so he had better make it last.

He saved the apple for last. When he had eaten his cereals and drunk his tea, he put the tray back on the bedside table, and chose a magazine to skim through. Mystique had left him both serious non-fiction and cheap scandal chronicles. Charles had got a hold of a scandal chronicle; obviously it belonged to either Mystique or John, since Erik had never been interested in such, as far as Charles knew anyway.

Charles wasn’t either. The private life of various celebrs dis didn’t interest him the least, but he still skimmed through the magazine, mostly just for fun, while he was eating his apple.

Charles longed for Erik. He missed his company, but also his touch. Despite that he had almost been asleep when it happened, Charles clearly remembered what Erik did last night. He had touched him intimately. Very intimately, and Charles didn’t exactly mind it. If Erik wanted to caress him again, Charles wouldn’t stop him. It would be nice to feel a hand except his own down there again.

Charles fidgeted when the door to his room suddenly opened. He expected to see Mystique, or maybe Erik, but it was neither of them.

It was Sabretooth. At first Charles refused to believe it. He believed his mind was playing him tricks. He blinked once, but didn’t really expect Sabretooth to be gone when he opened his eyes again. He was no vision, and no dream, but real, and really was standing there.

The feral blond giant slowly closed the door behind him. He was so huge he had to crouch down when he came in.

Charles was completely petrified. He didn’t know what he had in mind, but he was sure of one thing – Sabretooth wasn’t planning anything nice.

The giant leered maliciously while he approached the bed where Charles lay, totally helpless. He only had one thing on his mind. This would be fun!

“So Mags keeps you here!” he triumphed. “His own bedroom! I can’t believe I didn’t get that at once!”

Charles desperately tried to recoil when the clawed maniac approached the bed, but he had no chance, of course. His legs didn’t obey him, and even if his lower body had functioned normally Sabretooth would have been too fast for him.

Sabretooth grabbed the paralysed old man by the throat with his large hand and immediately pressed him back into the mattress. Charles tried to scream, but the scream got stuck in his throat and couldn’t get out. He was completely helpless. Sabretooth was many times stronger than Charles, and now he couldn’t use his telepathy.

“No new tricks?” Sabretooth growled and brought his face close to Charles’ while he squeezed his throat. Xavier could barely breathe and the older man’s terror and helplessness excited him. Sabretooth hated everything Charles Xavier was, and blamed him for everything that had happened to him after the incident at Liberty Island three years ago. Now he would take revenge, and he was really going to enjoy it.

He tore the quilt off Charles’ body with his free hand and kept him pressed down with the other. The sight before him made his grin broaden.

“So you’re naked, I see? But that’s how ol’ Mags wants you, isn’t it? Has he fucked you yet? No? No, he’ll probably wait till you’re feeling better. He’s so considerate, right?” Sabretooth mocked. “But he will fuck you. I’m sure of that. If he still wants you after I’m done with you, that is!”

Charles started to panic. He realized there was absolutely nothing he could do. His physical strength was laughable compared to Sabretooth’s, and if he struggled he’d only worsen his own situation. What was Sabretooth going to do to him? Beat him? Kill him? Rape him? Oh God, no! This couldn’t be happening!

The lack of oxygen started to make Charles’ face red. He closed his hands around Sabretooth’s massive forearm in a feeble attempt to get his hand off, but for no use.

The blond giant laughed at his attempt and started passing his clawed index finger over Charles’ chest, down toward his belly. He *could have* buried his claws deep inside Xavier and gutted him in two seconds, but he wasn’t going to. Not yet, anyway.

“Do you know what I can do to you?” he slowly whispered in Charles’ ear. “I could gut you like a fish. I bet your blood would taste good. I’m sure of that. You look vital despite that you’re a cripple.”

He pulled his claw over Charles’ stomach and passed it lower, until it reached his pubic hair. Charles whimpered miserably when the lunatic grabbed his penis and started to squeeze it.

“Do you like this, you little faggot?” Sabretooth sneered. “I’m sure you do. Would you like it if I fucked you? I can be nice and do it, if you want me to. I can split you open with my cock. I don’t have to use my claws when I’ve got other weapons!”

Charles was pretty sure that Sabretooth was right. He risked dying if he was raped by Sabretooth.

The hold of his throat tightened and the lunatic’s sharp claws pierced Charles skin, and the old man thought he’d die. At the same time etooetooth’s claws broke through the foreskin of Charles’ penis. Charles barely felt it. He was already passing out. Soon he wouldn’t feel anything anymore.

Suddenly Sabretooth actually let him go. Charles reflexively clutched his throat and sucked air into his lungs, which gratefully accepted the oxygen they had been denied.

“You didn’t say “please”, so I’ll leave your ass alone for now!” Sabretooth hissed. “But if you even breathe about this ags,ags, I’ll come back and kill you!”

Then he left.

Charles lay down and breathed spasmodically for several minutes after his attacker left. He was so deeply shocked, terrified and something else too, which he couldn’t really define, and also surprised that he was still alive in the first place.

His throat ached, and so did his penis. Warm blood trickled from the scratches, but he didn’t feel it. Charles curled in a fetal position and fell asleep or lost consciousness – he couldn’t tell which himself, but he was relieved.