fade away.

twelve.

"We should start your training," he advised. August nodded.

"Yesterday evening -when you had one of your episodes- you said something," Charles told her. "You said the same exact words that I once said when I first met Erik. Can you tell me what you saw?"

August furrowed her eyes in concentration, thinking about last night. Though she remembers everything vividly.

"When I looked at you," she began, "you were sopping wet. You were wearing completely different clothes, and you looked panicked. You just looked different, and somehow I knew that it wasn't the present you that I was really looking at. But before I had any time to decipher what I was truly looking at, the real you returned. Dry, no more water, dressed in that day's outfit."

"When I first met Erik, it was to stop him from killing Shaw. He was so hurt, and I was trying my best to calm him, which is why I probably looked panicked in your vision," Charles informed. "It seems that you saw me at a different period of time. So, perhaps your mutation has something to do with time."

"Like my father," August muttered, looking down at her hands.

"Only better in every way," Charles grinned, setting his hands on her shoulders. August smiled at him.

There was something about Charles that made August unexplainably happy and giddy all of the time. He was always there for her; he was there to comfort her and help her realize that perhaps her mother was right. Life may be sad, but there were people like Charles to make it beautiful. Charles understood her like no one else ever has. August doesn't have to worry about opening up to him and revealing her deepest secrets, because he already knew, and he's accepted her as a friend.

There was no denying that Charles meant something to August. He meant something deeper than a simple friend. August wouldn't classify it as love, but a liking would most definitely suffice. Not a brother like, or a friend like, but a lover kind of like. It seems absurd to think now that it crossed August's mind, but it was true.

Charles stared into August's emerald eyes, and August did just the same with Charles. They were both so utterly captivated in each other's presence.

Charles's hands slid down August's arms, stopping at her wrists where he gripped. He took a small step closer, his gaze never faltering from August.

Charles halted when he was an inch away from August's face. Their breaths mingled together, their chests barely touched, and their feet grazed each other's lightly. Charles glanced down at August's lips before returning his eyes back onto hers.

August nodded, signaling that it was okay to continue, because she honestly didn't mind the unsettling feeling that rose in her stomach and chest.

Slowly, Charles's lips met hers. It was patient, and their lips soon melded together perfectly. August set her right hand on the crook of his neck, while her left gripped onto Charles's sweatshirt. Both of Charles's hands were settled on the small of her back; his fingers pressed into her spine, pulling her impossibly closer to where they could feel the other's heartbeat.

August has never kissed anyone before, and she couldn't bother herself to do so after this. She didn't have much knowledge of the subject, but she was most definitely sure that it was absolutely perfect in every way.

Pulling away slightly, they allowed themselves to catch their breaths. With eyes still closed, August wrapped her arms around Charles's neck, setting her forehead against his.

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

August pulled back slightly, a smirk on her lips as she looked up at Charles.