"Charles!" Raven hisses in exasperation as she herds her obviously inebriated brother down the hall. "You are not setting a good example for the kids!"
"Settle down, mum," Charles returns, patting her cheek fondly as he fumbles off his coat. "What they don't know won't hurt me."
"Charles, everyone here looks up to you," Raven tells him seriously, hanging the oversized black coat onto the hanger.
Charles smiles as he totters a bit in adjusting to gravity without the extra weight. "What, an old fart like me?"
"Why do you keep going out like this?" she demands. "Can you ... oh, I don't know, not be a slut for a few weeks?"
He looks at her and for a moment seems about to say something, and then with an easy smile, shrugs.
Raven frowns. "Can't you talk to me about it?" she asks, her voice smaller. "You always treat me like a child."
Charles reaches over to take her hand and press it against his chest. "Oh, dearest, you're my baby sister. It's an older brother's prerogative to be bossy and overbearing—although you seem to have usurped the position quite thoroughly."
Her fingers close tightly on his, and Raven leans into him, whispering, "You're my only family. I just ... I just wish I was enough."
"Raven," Charles murmurs in a strained tone.
"What is it?"
"I think--I think I'm going to throw up."
"Ugh!" Raven launches herself away. He doubles over—laughing. Once she registers the joke played on her, she glares and heatedly huffs off to her room. "You idiot black-hearted bastard!" is heard echoing after her.
Charles collapses to the floor, his chuckles dying away. "Well, you had a nice show," he comments to a door opened just a crack a little further down.
Erik opens it fully and leans in the doorframe. "I could hardly help that. Whether it was entertaining or not, is another matter," he remarks dryly.
"I can't face you." Charles turns away.
"Really. Am I that intimidating?"
"No, literally." Charles squints at Erik's backlit shadowed form. "Could you turn the lights down, please?"
"That depends. Are you planning on coming in?"
YOU ARE READING
An In-Between Interlude
Fanfiction... in which Raven doesn't understand why Charles feels the need to get drunk and sleep around, and Erik does.
