Chapter Text
Charles ultimately blamed Raven. She rolled her eyes, but he pointed out that everything bad that ever happened to him could be traced back to something she had done.
She couldn't really deny that.
**
They were at a Westchester University spring break house party when Raven was a sophomore in college. Charles was a graduate student and actually taught a class at teh University himself - fortunately, none of his students appeared to be in attendance at this particular party.
“Look at the two hotties that just walked in,” Raven muttered into her drink, just loud enough for her brother to hear.
Charles casually glanced at the front door to see two tall men walk in: one black-haired with a vertical scar on one side of his face and the other was probably a model, because he was certainly the most beautiful man Charles had ever seen.
Staring at the second man, Charles misjudged how close his mouth was to the level of liquid in his drink and ended up inhaling part of his cosmopolitan. He choked while Raven patted him on the back, amused.
They both watched as the men greeted the host from about twenty feet away. “They’re brought good beer,” Raven observed. In fact, they were carrying a case of Firestone’s 805.
Charles made a face. “As if any beer is good,” he said disdainfully.
“You might want to try not being a complete snob from time to time,” Raven said breezily. “That is, if you ever want to get a date.”
“I don’t have any trouble getting dates, thank you,” Charles replied automatically as he continued watching the auburn-haired man as he put the beer in the fridge. He was just wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but the way the muscles moved under the skin of his arms--
“Oh, I am so sorry,” Charles heard behind him as someone bumped into Raven. Raven then bumped into Charles, making him spill some of his drink and hiss in displeasure. He scowled and turned to Raven to find that the tall black-haired man had apparently spilled a drink on her.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Raven said, with a big besotted smile, when it clearly wasn’t, since the front of her shirt was drenched in beer to the point that it was see-through.
“Excuse me,” Charles said sharply to the man, despite the fact that he was not quite a foot taller than Charles. “Is this you usually pick-up women?”
Raven’s jaw dropped and a flush crossed her features as she stared at Charles in mortification. He just glared at Scarface. He knew how guys thought; this guy was no doubt pursuing his sister and if he thought--
“Azzy,” An amused voice said behind Charles. “I told you it was a bad idea.”
Charles whirled to see the auburn-haired hottie standing behind him, a smirk on his lips and his hands on his hips. His eyes snapped to Charles’ face when Charles turned around and he extended a hand. “I’m Erik,” he said.
Charles accepted his hand and shook it, feeling a little dazed in the presence of someone who could surely rival Michaelangelo’s David for male beauty. “Charles,” he said, and then cleared his throat, because it felt like something had gotten stuck in there.
Erik’s eyes lingered on Charles’ face for a moment, then shifted to Azzy with a small smile. “See? It’s not hard.”
Charles felt like he was missing something.
“Really, I’m fine,” Raven said, holding her wet shirt away from her skin so it wasn’t quite so see through.
“I’m wearing a shirt under my jumper,” Charles said with a sigh. “I can give you that. Let’s find a place to change.” He steered Raven down the hall and into a vacant bedroom. They went inside and shut the door.
Raven was giddy as they both took off their shirts. “Okay, yes, spilling a drink on me was juvenile, but it’s still kind of flattering,” she said with a giggle.
“It would have been more flattering if he had approached you himself, instead of sending his friend,” Charles muttered, feeling annoyed. His jumper was wool, so now he would be itching all night.
Raven frowned as Charles tossed his white T-shirt to her. “What? His friend? What are you talking about?”
Charles frowned too as he put his jumper back on over bare flesh. “Wait. Which guy do you like?”
“Azzy,” she said, as if it were obvious. “The guy who just spilled beer on me, hello.”
“Oh.” Charles suddenly felt a little better about life. “I just thought - I mean, Erik is the one who looks like a model. I thought you liked him.”
Raven looked at Charles for a moment with a puzzled expression before a smile crept across her features. “Oh. Ohhh. I see.”
Charles flushed. “You see what?”
She grinned at him. “Doesn’t matter. Thanks for the shirt, brother mine!” She flounced out of the room.
"Everything bad that happens to me is because of her," he muttered to himself. He couldn't bring himself to be too upset about it, though, when there was the prospect of getting to know Erik better.
Raven and Azzy were nearly inseparable the rest of the night. Charles and Erik spoke a little bit more, but Charles found himself feeling uncharacteristically tongue-tied around the other man. And while Erik was certainly friendly to him, there was nothing he did that gave Charles a clear indication of interest...and, Charles was distracted that his sister’s tongue was down Azzy’s throat all night.
Charles tried very hard not to be too overprotective of the step-sister he shared an apartment with, but the coming months tested his resolve. Azzy and Raven started spending a lot of time together and it became very obvious that they were having sex, and frequently, to Charles’ great discomfort. And unfortunately, Azzy never brought Erik over or even talked about him much.
One day when Azzy was over Charles made what he hoped was a casual inquiry about his friend Erik. Azzy grinned at him like Charles wasn’t hiding anything.
“Erik doesn’t live around here,” he said. “He was just visiting for Spring break. He’s coming back this summer, though - we go on a camping trip every year.”
Ah. That would explain why he hadn’t seen Erik around since Raven and Azzy had started dating.
“He’s straight, though,” Azzy said casually, his eyes glued to Raven as she walked into the room.
Raven frowned prettily as she sat on Azzy’s lap. “Who’s straight? Oh, are you talking about your friend Erik?”
“Mm-hmm,” Azzy replied, obviously getting distracted by the way Raven was nuzzling his neck. “Straight as an arrow.”
Well, that sucked. Charles tried to swallow his disappointment. He’d already been chiding himself for feeling very nearly obsessed with a man he’d met once at a party over a month ago, and to find out he was straight was...Charles tried not to think the word ‘devastated’, but it seemed the closest to how he felt. He excused himself to his room for the evening.
**
“No,” Raven said into the phone about a month later. “I don’t understand, and I’m not going to 'just be cool about it’.”
Charles had just walked into room and paused immediately, surprised to hear that tone in Raven’s voice. She saw him but did not acknowledge him, frowning fiercely at the floor.
“Why do you think I don’t like camping?” She said suddenly. “How would I ever know, if I’m not ever invited to go?”
Charles couldn’t hear what the person on the other end of the phone said, but he could guess that it was Azzy. Azzy had said something to him about camping, a while ago...Charles retrieved a wine glass and poured himself some wine as he tried to remember.
“Well at least ask him!” Raven said, exasperated.
“What’s going on?” Charles finally said.
“Azzy and Erik have some kind of ‘bros-only’ deal for their camping trip this weekend, and he’s being a fucking ass about it,” she snapped. “Yes, you are,” she said into the phone.
“Ah.” Charles considered as he sipped his wine. He had never been camping, but it didn’t seem to be the kind of thing he would enjoy. It made him think of bugs and dirt and everything smelling like smoke. “Well. Let me know if I can do anything to help.”
"Well, Charles is a guy, can he go?" Raven said into the phone.
Charles stared at her in shock. "What?!" he yelped.
She smirked at him and spoke into the phone again. "Sure, I'll wait."
"Raven, why did you say that? I don't want to go camping!" Charles' heart was pounding. He'd never been camping, but he could think of one reason he might want to...except that reason was straight, and he didn't want to put himself or Erik in an uncomfortable position.
Raven rolled her eyes at him and mouthed something he couldn't understand.
"Oh he does?" The word were spoken to the phone, but Raven had a surprised tone to her voice and her eyebrows were raised nearly to her hairline. She looked at Charles.
"That's...okay. Yes, thank you, Azzy, and tell Erik thank you as well. We'll see you both Friday." She looked enormously pleased with herself as she hung up the phone.
"Raven..." Charles sighed.
She was immediately defensive. "He told me camping wasn't for girls, Charles! How am I supposed to respond to that?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe break-up with him?" Charles said pointedly. Charles tolerated Azzy but in his heart of hearts the better he knew the man the more he felt his sister could do better.
"Charrrrrles," Raven said, putting on a pout and walking over to lace her hands behind his neck. "It will be fun. Erik was the deciding factor, you know. When he heard you wanted to come he told Azzy both you and I should come."
Charles sighed again. "First of all, Erik is straight, so while I'm sure I will enjoy his company it's not quite the treat you are implying. Second, neither you nor I has ever been camping. We don't have any camping equipment--"
"--So we'll shop for it together!" Raven said excitedly, her eyes sparkling. "We'll need a tent...I mean I'll probably stay with Azzy and you probably won't want to stay in the tent with us--"
"Definitely not," Charles agreed fervently. "Can we buy an RV?"
Raven laughed. "No, Charles! But we'll both need sleeping bags, and maybe some food that we can cook on a fire..."
"Cook? Without a microwave?" Charles was aghast, which only made Raven laugh harder.
"Two nights," She said imploringly. "If you hate it, we never have to do it again."
Charles sighed far more dramatically than was probably necessary. "Fine."
**
Shopping was fun, at least. Of course they spent far too much money but Charles figured if they hated camping he could always donate the equipment to a homeless shelter...that made spending the money a little easier to swallow. On the advice of the salesman at the sporting good store, they now had a dome tent (which the salesman assured him even a 7-year-old could put up); two sleeping bags which were guaranteed warm down to twenty degrees fahrenheit; two queen-size inflatable mattress pads; a single-burner stove that ran on propane; camping dishes, silverware, and pots; two thermoses; and two long camping lighters. It was hard to stop purchasing items because all Charles could think was This isn't a hotel; if I don't have something I can't just call the front desk! And really, the range of what he could need in two days’ time was quite large.
But when he found himself considering if he should buying special camping nail clippers, he realized he needed to draw a line and face the idea that he may just have to live without some things for a few days.
It was a terrifying thought.
Raven assured him that Erik and Azzy were bringing fire-making materials, but the one thing Charles was looking forward to about camping was making s'mores, so he made sure that their grocery shopping list - their last stop before leaving town on Friday - included graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows.
**
"How's it going?" Erik asked calmly, only a hint of amusement in his voice.
Raven and Charles had arrived at the campsite after Erik and Azzy, and Raven had immediately run off to go do something with Azzy...get firewood, Charles thought she had said, but he uncharitably thought they were probably just making out.
Charles had decided to set-up his tent before the sun went down completely, and was finding it a little more difficult than he anticipated. "The salesman said a 7-year-old could set this up," Charles groused. "I guess I should have brought one."
Erik laughed and Charles couldn't help smiling at the happy sound. Erik was wearing jeans and a thick plaid flannel shirt of blue and green that contrasted with his hair color very nicely and really brought out the turquoise-like color of his eyes.
"Can I help?" he asked. "My tent is a similar design."
"By all means." Charles had laid the tent out per the instructions, he'd assembled the poles, but trying to get them into the little sheaths on the tent was proving difficult.
"The trick is to make everything about pushing," Erik said, easily pushing a pole into a sheath in a way that would make a 7-year-old jealous. "If you pull, they come apart."
There was a sexual innuendo on the tip of Charles' tongue but he swallowed it, watching Erik's hands instead; those long, tapered, fingers which he could only imagine would feel so good--
"Charles?" Erik was looking him in amusement. The tent was perfectly set-up and looked like the picture on the box.
"You're brilliant," Charles said, "Or, I'm an idiot."
Erik smirked. "Can’t it be both?"
Charles snorted and went to get his sleeping bag from the car. Erik trailed him, laughing, which surprised Charles but he supposed the other man didn't have anything else to do; after all, Erik's tent was already set-up.
The campsite that Erik and Azzy had picked out was quite large and mostly flat, although the ground behind Charles' tent sloped steeply down into what looked like a dry riverbed overgrown with brush. It was a somewhat shaded site, and this late in the afternoon there was dappled sunlight coming through the trees, making everything glow a little more orange than usual.
"I've never been camping before," Charles confided to Erik as they arrived at Charles' car.
"I gathered that," Erik said drily.
"Well, for being a smartass, you can help me carry some things," Charles said lightly, tossing Raven's sleeping bag into Erik's arms.
"I expect no less," the other man said with a grin. He kept looking at Charles and it was...distracting.
Once Charles had his bag and everything else he thought he would need, they started the trek back to the campsite. The campground rules were apparently that cars had to be parked only on the asphalt near the entrance, so it was a little bit of a walk to the site.
"Is there any kind of a plan for dinner?" Charles said abruptly. "Azzy said something about me getting some hot dogs, so I picked up a package. I usually microwave them."
Erik shook his head. "That is a crime against hot dogs. They’re a lot better roasted over the fire. Um..." Erik hesitated for a moment before continuing. "You didn't happen to notice what kind you bought?"
"I did, actually. It's a preservative-free chicken dog from Trader Joe's," Charles said. "Why?"
"Oh, good. I was just asking because I don't eat pork."
"Oh." Charles didn't know if it would be rude to ask more about that, but he was curious. "Is that a choice for health reasons, or...?"
"Uh, well. I'm Jewish, sort of. I mean my parents were, and I try to...do what I can, anyway." Erik's voice seemed less confident than it usually did. he didn't say anything else for a moment and then said abruptly, "My parents died in a car accident when I was twelve."
"I'm sorry," Charles said, automatically but full of genuine feeling. "That's terrible."
"Yeah. Thanks." Erik squinted at him, as some rays of the sun caught him fully in the face, and Charles felt suddenly...honored, that Erik was being so honest with him. It was disarming.
"Where did you live after your parents died?" Charles asked.
"With my aunt." They arrived back at the campsite and Charles tossed his sleeping bag in his tent and put Raven's in Azzy’s. "Unfortunately I had to move across the state and away from all my friends, including Azazel. So we make it a point to see each other as much as possible, ever since then. That's how this camping tradition started."
Erik sat down in one of the folding chairs he'd brought and Charles followed suit. "You would go camping when you were twelve?"
Erik grinned. "Well. We called it camping; the adults called it running away until they realized I always came back."
Charles tried to imagine himself camping when he was a young teenager and couldn't see it. He shook his head ruefully. "We've lived very different lives, my friend."
"I'm sure," Erik agreed easily, but there was a tightness around his eyes.
"My father passed away when I was five," Charles continued, feeling that Erik was getting an incomplete impression of him and wanting to correct it. "My mother would have been mortified by the idea of camping. The only thing she really wanted was for me to be able to ‘comport myself with aplomb’." He said the last part with a snooty Connecticut accent.
Erik's lip twitched. "I can contort myself with a plum, is that close enough?"
Charles laughed at the ridiculous joke. "I'd like to see that," he said before he could stop himself.
"I'd be happy to give you a demonstration." The words were spoken in a richer, lower, quieter tone, and to Charles' ears it sounded like liquid sex. He glanced at Erik, startled, only to see a slow smile creep across Erik's face that then turned into a laugh.
"Azazel never said you were a flirt," Charles said recklessly. Even if this man was straight, he was fun.
Erik lifted one eyebrow. "It takes one to know one," he said with a smirk, and then his eyes snapped on something in the distance behind Charles and he waved. Charles turned his head and saw Raven and Azazel coming back carrying firewood.
"Besides, it's more fun to be surprised, isn't it?" Erik murmured, right in Charles's ear. Charles jerked in surprise and Erik laughed, heading over to Azazel and Raven.
"This weekend is going to be the death of me," Charles muttered to himself.