CATACLYSM || X-Men

6| good vibrations

Washington DC, 1962

"I can't stop thinking about the others out there. All those minds that I touched. I could feel them. Their isolation, their hopes, their ambitions," Charles paused, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked back to his friends. "I tell you, we're at the start of something incredible, Erik. We can help them," he tried to get him on board again. Rose shook her head, knowing her old friend would take more to convince.

    "Can we?" he asked, confirming her suspicions. "Identification— that's how it starts. And ends with being rounded up, experimented on, eliminated," he listed, lifting his brows expecting one of them to try to fight him. Not that either would disagree, but they had more hope.

    "Not this time. We have common enemies-- Shaw, the Russians. They need us," Charles tried.

    "For now," Erik replied simply, turning back to his game of chess with Rose.

    The girl and the telepath shared a look, the former looking away with a small sigh at the sight of the board. "You play dirty," she joked after several minutes of quiet, having lost the game against the man.

    "You play too nice," Erik replied, smirking at her as her eyes rolled.

    "Next time we can play with a metal board, and you can feel me moving the damn things with some extra hit of electricity," she taunted, Charles smiling at their teasing. He knew they had a bond they couldn't explain, but it gave him hope to see them both like this. It was almost as if they were more than pain, and dread, and exhaustion.

    "Charles? Would you like to play with a man, instead of a girl who can't handle losing?" Erik offered, making Rose scoff in mock disbelief, but she smiled wide anyway, happy to see him cooperate with them.

    They fell into a quiet game again, Charles often turning back to the sight of the reflecting pool and the far off Washington Monument and Smithsonian.

    "I do have to admit. You know your spots," Charles told Rose as she lay back on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, staring up at the statue of the man she'd met years ago. One of the first she'd revealed herself to.

    "I have a thing for views," she told him as she leaned back on her elbows to look at them both.

    "I bet," Erik replied, her smile widening a little.

    "That's not what I meant," she chuckled, knowing she meant the way she'd flirted her way into the club when they looked for Angel.

    "Hey, that did the job. We appreciate your help," Charles nodded, but both men burst out laughing in the next minute, Rosie shaking her head at their immaturity. "I have never seen such confidence," he tried to explain, smiling widely at him, his eyes turning soft. Smiling, Rosie quietly thanked him, as Erik watched her sit comfortably in their company.

    It made him apprehensive about their future more than he'd previously expressed. She seemed happier than he'd ever seen her. He dreaded the day it would be ruined.

    "Looked like you'd done it before," he commented, Charles looking to him in surprise. While he agreed, he didn't expect Erik to be so bold about it.

    With a secret smile, Rosie moved and picked up one of the knights from the chessboard, and took off one of Erik's pieces. Looking back up at him, she raised an eyebrow, questioning if he wanted to continue with the same topic. He didn't move, instead matched her stare, until she was sure he wouldn't regret it.

    "Everyone has a weakness," she nodded softly, both men watching her. "It just so happens that since the dawn of time, men who find women attractive have had sex as a weakness in common," she shrugged, making both of her friends smile a little.