if words could make wishes come true

[morethanhuman]

"Would you stop that?" Erik said, the exasperation in his voice not quite enough to cover over the laughing undertone it held. "You're the one who was put so out of sorts by my levitating an olive jar, and here you are nearly setting the hotel on fire."

Jordan shot him a look, an arched eyebrow and a pursed mouth that were somehow unmistakably her own, despite appearing on features that had yet to become familiar. She also ignored his request, and continued to pass a ball of flame back and forth between her hands with little flicks of her fingers. The fire was self-contained, but every now and then a little tongue of orange would fizzle up into the air, hissing as it dissipated. He hardly noticed them; his eyes were fixed on the fiery sphere and the corona of flame that clung to Jordan's palms as she tossed it back and forth. Incredible. He could barely contain his excitement.

He hadn't believed it at first— neither phenomenon, and Erik couldn't decide which was more preposterous: that passing through one of the hotel doors could grant mutant powers to someone who hadn't been born to them, or that going through another could send a person back out with a completely different body than the one they'd gone in with.

Well— not completely different. Jordan still had neat, dark hair and bright blue eyes, pale skin and a wry, soft mouth. But they looked very different on her usual body than they did on the trim, smartly dressed man currently sitting beside Erik, playing catch with a handful of fire. "Don't be such a killjoy," she admonished, but she was laughing too, and it was still Jordan's laugh, even if it was an octave or two lower than normal. "I'm not going to set anything on fire."

"You say that now," Erik teased. "But when the arboretum goes up in flames, don't think for a second I'll stick around to share the blame."

Comments

[morethanhuman]

With a graceless clatter that felt even more out of place after Charles's unflappability, Erik pulled out a chair and settled himself into it, stiff and upright and with his elbows tucked neatly onto the chair's arms. Jordan sprawled easily beside him, her loose posture a direct contrast to his obvious nerves.

"I haven't seen you in months," he said to Charles, hearing as the words left his mouth that they sounded more accusing than the polite observation he was attempting. Softening his tone, he added, "How's New York?"

He'd been asking after the school, but it wasn't the mansion he thought of, the city suddenly looming large in his memory. They'd stayed there just the one night before finding Darwin, and he'd barely bothered to protest before letting Charles drag him out to dinner, to a club, to several martinis more than he'd ever have drunk under normal circumstances. Russia hadn't been far off, then; he'd been on fire with wanting Charles, torturing himself with it, and that night was a hazy buzz of arousal and color in his memory. He'd almost given in and made a move, and damn the consequences— couldn't remember, now, why he hadn't. Two weeks later it had all been moot, anyway, but the memory stood out nevertheless; one more missed opportunity.

Erik realized he was letting his mind wander and snapped the train of thought off as fast as he could, glancing at Jordan with a thin smile. "Someday the hotel will let me out so I can take you for a visit. New York in the '60s— it's a singular experience."

[hopeagain]

To Charles' credit, his wince was minute, just a slight squint of his eyes and twinge at the corner of his mouth as if he were briefly struggling with his already-strained facade. It was akin to torure, the flash of Erik's dizzying nostalgia followed so quickly by the reminder of his own reality. The question hadn't intended to be barbed, but it stung all the same.

"The school's doing well enough," he allowed, which was true when placed against the larger context of the absolute debacle the president's assassination had been, but an outright lie under any other circumstance. "I'm afraid that you'll find the world as a whole much changed in these last years. You're better off here, I'd say, with the way things have been going."

He tipped his glass Erik's way and then took another gulp. It had been awhile since he'd been properly drunk; today seemed more and more like the opportune time for it.