Flying Lessons (Charles Xavier x Mutant!Reader)

Y/n looked down at the forty-foot drop below her. This was not how she wanted to spend her evening. She had never been a good at climbing trees and yet here she was, at the very top of the tallest tree on the extensive lot of Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters.

Y/n had moved into the school a few mouths ago. There weren’t that many students there yet, it was still starting up, but she loved all of the friends she had made.

Y/n had immediately hit it off with Charles. He was witty and handsome and charming. What more could a girl ask for? She was pretty tight with Erik too. It surprising actually, he wasn’t exactly a social butterfly. Raven and Y/n were been practically joined at the hip ever since Y/n moved in.

But Y/n considered Charles to be her best friend out them all. They talked almost constantly; most of their conversations were telepathic so they hardly ever stopped. It wasn’t uncommon for one of them to burst out laughing for no ‘apparent’ reason during the day.

Charles had always liked the way she thought, from day one. She was funny, caring, optimistic – Y/n could be a bit naïve at times, but that was something he loved about her. Charles didn’t have much innocence in his life anymore.

And every night Y/n would go over to his study with a bottle of bourbon and they would just relax together. Speaking wasn’t necessary, and offend they wore out all topics of conversations during the day. It was enough to just be in each other’s presence. It made them both happy. And that’s what’s really important.

When she first arrived at the school, Charles had promised her help with her mutation. Y/n had never really gotten the knack of it. And at several points in her life she believed it didn’t actually exist. She was still a little shocked that she was going to a school for mutants.

Y/n could control air and wind currents. Well… control was a strong word. She was almost never in control. And Charles had promised to help her with that.

For most of her life, Y/n pushed her mutation down; defying it’s very existence to the point of dilution. Now, in her early twenties, it was extremely difficult to bring her powers to the surface. And more importantly to maintain control.

Charles started her off with something easy: pushing a pencil off of his desk. Y/n could effetely create a breeze around her; she had that down long before she moved into the Xmen’s mansion. Now she just had to focus all that energy on the pencil. Honestly, it was a piece of cake.

Next Charles had her levitate a paperweight. That was much harder. Focusing and sustaining enough air to keep something floating was so much more difficult than knocking it off a table. Most of the time Y/n would put to much force into it and just blow the paperweight straight up into the ceiling. She thought that was hilarious. Charles did not.

But that was months ago and the young woman had made a lot of progress since then. Charles was very proud. He loved the way Y/n beamed when she made a breakthrough. He could almost feel the happiness radiating from her. Recently he urged her to try something harder, challenge herself. And Y/n did. She decided to learn how to fly.

She had always loved the idea of flight. Maybe it was in her blood (or maybe the love developed when she played Peter Pan in a school play and spent half her time on stage running around with her arms outstretched making whooshing noises). Either way Y/n wanted to try as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, Charles did have a school to run and didn’t have a lot of time for one-on-one training with her anymore. This made both Y/n and Charles upset.

So Y/n decided to do it by herself. Seemed pretty straightforward right? Same concept as the paperweight. Should be fine right? Wrong.

So wrong.

At first everything was fine. Y/n walked out to a clear spot on the grounds, right by the forest at the edge of the property. The evening air was cool and peaceful and sun was just beginning to set, leaving an orange and pink sky behind it. Y/n started with just a couple inches off the ground. This was defiantly a struggle. Floating was like trying to stand on a yoga ball in the middle of the ocean.

In three seconds flat she ended up on the ground with a face full of dirt.

Y/n stood and spat the grass out of her mouth. ‘Well, a little dirt never hurt anyone,’ She thought. She tried several more times with even less success. All of this failure frustrated her. Y/n was stubbornly determined to learn how to fly tonight. It’s very child’s dream! And she felt like she would be failing her six-year-old self if she didn’t do this.

On the seventh try Y/n really got pissed. Why couldn’t she just do it? Everyone else here seem to have a tight grip on their powers! They made it look so easy. The girl stood up, clenching her fists. ‘This time I’m going to do it God damn it!’

Y/n closed her eyes and concentrated every last amount of energy she had on lifting herself off the ground. The trees near by started to rustle. A cool breeze brushed her fingertips and tousled her hair. The girl took a large breath. She could feel the energy pumping through her veins. It was intoxicating. Her eyes shot open. This was going to be a good one!

 With a massive burst of power Y/n shot off of the ground, lifted up on huge gust of wind. She laughed with joy. ‘Holy shit! I did it! I’m flying!’ She thought. Y/n set her jaw and braced herself for the fall, just as she did seven times before.

But it didn’t happen. She just kept going up. Y/n heart started racing. ‘Ok time to go down,’ She thought. The girl willed herself to calm down, knowing the more worked up she got, the less control she would have.

It didn’t work. She just kept going. It was all happening so fast. Twenty feet. Then Thirty. Fear shot through her, ‘There’s no possible way I’m walking away from this,’ She thought. Suddenly another gust of wind blew her to the side, towards the tops of the trees. Her arms were pin wheeling as she was tossed helplessly in the wind.

Y/n’s back hit something hard and she cried out. She twisted around to look. It was a tree. She drabbed onto it fiercely, trying to anchor herself. And just as suddenly as it started, her serge of power stopped. Leaving Y/n clinging to a branch far, far from the ground.

The girl pulled her self up until she was sitting on a branch. She wrapped her arms around the trunk and looked around.

Y/n was very high up, almost at the very top the tree. And the branch she was sitting on wasn’t that strong. She could already feel it straining under her weight. Y/n cast her eyes down, trying to figure out if there was any possibility that she could climb down. The drop was sickening. Honestly, she was scared to move. Y/n quickly closed her eyes and hug the tree tighter.

‘This is what I get for trying to fly. Leave that to birds and professionals.’

Y/n took a deep breath as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. That was a lot of work she’d just done; a lot of mental energy. She rested her head against the rough bark of the tree and tried to clear her mind. Dizzy was not a good thing to be forty feet from the ground.

Y/n sat there for several minutes trying to recuperate. Finally she cracked one eye open.

The sun had set and darkness was just starting to fall over Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters. Y/n could still see fairly well, but it was going to be pitch-black soon and she sure as hell wasn’t spending the night in the forest, let alone at the top of a tree! Time to get some help.

‘Charles?’ Y/n thought as loudly as she could. She scrunched up her face when call to him. He liked to make fun of her for that saying, “making that face won’t help your mental projection.” Y/n still did it anyway.

‘Charles?’

Nothing.

‘Charles! I know you can hear me!’

---

The young professor was sitting at his desk, pouring over paperwork. There was a surprising amount of red tape for running an undercover mutant school. Especially one that taught young children self defense in dangerous situations.

He would much rather be spending his evening with Y/n. Charles smiled softly as his pen continued to scrawl across the longwinded legal documents.

‘Charles?’

That was Y/n. He could recognize her voice anywhere. He sighed. She knew he had things to do tonight. And honestly he just wanted to finish this and go to bed!

‘Charles? Charles! I know you can hear me!’

‘Yes, I can Y/n. But I’m trying to focus.’

‘Yeah, sorry about that but…’

‘The quicker I finish this the quicker I can pay attention to you! So in the mean time go talk to Raven or someone.’

He could feel her annoyance. Charles thought he might have heard a little comment in the back of her mind about how prissy he could get when he was tired, but he choose to ignore it.

‘Well, Charles. I seem to have, um… gotten myself into some trouble.’

‘Is Erik mad at you again?’

‘No this is real trouble… like… bad trouble,’

Charles eyes shot up.

‘Where are you?’

---

Y/n watched from her perch as Charles crossed the lawn towards her, mentally explaining to him what the problem was. She tried to make it sound better than ‘I’m stuck in a tree’.

Soon enough Charles was standing underneath the tree looking up at her. He started laughing.

“Shut up! It’s not funny,” Y/n shouted down.

Charles practically doubled over, hands on knees, gasping for air.

“How did you get up there?” He wheezed, trying to pretend he wasn’t laughing.

“I just told you, I flew! Stop laughing at me!”

Charles chortled again, that bastard.

“That is remarkable progress.”

“Thank you,” Y/n pouted noting the obvious tone of humor in his voice.

“Why would you fly up there if it was too high for you to get down?”

There was a pause. “I didn’t exactly… expect to end up here. It just sort of… happened,”

Charles straight up giggled.

“Shut up Charles!”

He composed himself. “Ok well, have you tried climbing down?”

“Well you see there’s a little problem with that …I’m too scared to move,” Y/n voice broke. She really really didn’t want to climb down.

“Just try, love. I promise you won’t fall,” Charles realized how scared Y/n was feeling. A pang of guilt hit him. Antagonizing the situation had defiantly not been the best idea.

Y/n knew that was a white lie. He had no idea if she would fall. But how else would she get down?

She glanced down anxiously.

“If I die, it’s your fault,” The girl huffed.

“You’re not going to die,” He muttered knowing arguing was pointless.

Y/n pried her fingers from the bark. It took a lot of mental strength since every fiber of her being was telling her to hold on tight. She took a deep breath and shifted on the branch she was sitting on. Y/n unsteadily got to her feet, making sure she had solid footing. As soon as she straightened up a sharp and audible crack echoed through the woods.  

Y/n screeched and threw her arms back around the trunk. Charles’ face paled, he started forward knowing there was nothing he could do.

The girl looked down at the branch she was standing on. There was a break a quarter of the way down the branch, were she had placed her right foot. It was hanging on by just a few splinters. Luckily there was still a small nub to stand on, right where limb met tree. Unluckily it was a very small nub. Y/n clung to the trunk with both arms, barely standing.

“Are you alright?” Charles shouted up, trying to see her through the foliage. Y/n was too busy trying not to hyperventilate to reply. “Y/n, talk to me!”

“I’m ok.” Her voice was shaky. “The branch is breaking and I’d really like to come down now.”

Charles inwardly swore at himself for not being able to do anything. Why couldn’t he had a physical mutation like Logan or… Logan!

“I’ll get some help.” Charles raised his sender fingers to his temple, mentally calling both Logan and Erik. Logan was easily strong enough to climb to the top, and help bring her down. And if all else failed Erik could use some kind of metal trick. “They’ll be able to do something.” He muttered to himself.

---

“Yeah, I can’t get up there,” Logan’s gruff voice broke the silence in as the three men stood looking up at Y/n.

“WHY NOT?” Y/n shrieked down at them.

“I’m too heavy, the branches would break before I got half way up. Sorry kid.”

Y/n groaned. Her arms were starting to shake from exhaustion.

“Why don’t you climb up there and save your own damsel in distress Charles?” Erik taunted. “You’re light enough. And we all know she likes you better anyways.”

It was a very good thing for Erik that he had lowered his voice when he spoke. If Y/n had heard any of that she might have fallen off right then and there.

“Shut it,” Charles snapped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘Don’t piss off Erik,’ He mentally coached himself. ‘You need him right now.’

He opened his eyes, “Would you please just… help!” He whispered, exasperated.

“Fine. Fine.” He muttered in response. He stepped forward. “Step aside gentlemen. Let a real man show you how it’s done.”

“Watch it bub,” Logan growled.

“Is that Erik?” Y/n called down, not entirely sure what was going on down there.

“Is that even a question?” He replied.

“I’m gonna… take that as a yes.”

Erik smirked and pulled the metal bracelet he wore off of his wrist. Another three metal spheres rose out of his pocket simultaneously. He always had metal on him just in case. Still, it was a good thing that he had extra pieces on him tonight.

The metal morphed together creating one large bubble. It resembled shimmery liquid suspended in mid air. It gently floated up to where Y/n crouched.

She yelped as she saw it emerge through the leaves. A floating ball of metal was not something you see everyday, even living with Erik Lehnsherr.

“That’s you, right Erik?” She asked.

“Obviously.”

Y/n watch cautiously as the orb flew closer to her and wrapped itself around her waste.

“I’m going to lower you down now alright?”

“Alright.”

The metal squeezed her slightly; it felt like getting a very tight hug. A tight painful rib-bruising hug.

“That means you have to let go of the tree, love,” Charles prompted.

“Oh! Yeah. Right. I can do that!”

She didn’t move.

“You have to let go now,” Charles said again.

“Totally. I can completely do that. Because, to come down… I have to let go.” She still didn’t move.

‘Y/n,’ Charles spoke in her mind. ‘You’re going to be alright. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You know that.’

Y/n took a shaky breath and peeled her arms away from the tree.

“There we go,” Charles muttered in relief.

Y/n felt the metal around her waste tug her forward. There was a scraping sound as her shoes struggled to stay on the branch. The girl gasped, completely terrified, as her toes left the nub leaving her stranded in mid air.

Her arms instinctively went to the band around her waste, desperate to find some kind of security. Y/n’s legs dangled in the air. It was a strange feeling, to have nothing underneath you, no wind, no ground, no nothing. Y/n didn’t like it one bit. That, mixed pain of being held up by your ribcage, made flying down an unpleasant experience at best. But all of this took a backseat in her mind, as she was consumed with the idea of dropping to her death at any moment.  

“Please don’t drop me. Please don’t drop me. Please don’t drop me,” She murmured under her breath as Erik deftly maneuvered her through the branches. Of course the leaves were too thick or Erik to see everything. So Y/n got some scrapes and bruises. But it was nothing compared to what she would have gotten if she’d slipped.

Erik rolled his eyes. Like he would ever drop her.  

“You’re doing great Y/n,” Charles soothed, noting her rapid breathing and wide eyes. “Almost there.”

The approaching ground was coming a little to quickly for Y/n’s liking so she squeezed her eyes shut. The grip she held on the metal around her waste turned her knuckles white.

Erik’s actions rarely affected people positively –From the soldiers he killed as a boy, to the innocent people he put in danger when he was seeking vengeance. He was very aware of this, and with Charles’ help he had been working to change that. With Erik’s hardened exterior and general personality it was a challenge. But Charles helped him never the less. He taught him to look for opportunities to do good. And Erik thought he saw one now.

Y/n floated down directly into Charles’ outstretched arms. He clutched the slight girl to his chest. He was grateful that she was safely back on the ground and even more grateful that she was in his arms.

Y/n buried her face in his neck, thanking the stars that she had made it down. The girl felt the cold metal around her waste unwrap itself as Erik whisked it away. She landed lightly on her toes still being mainly held up by Charles.

Y/n wrapped her arms around his neck as she felt his strong arms pull her closer. His hand caressed her hair with the gentlest to touch. They stood in each other’s embrace for several minutes.

Erik and Logan exchanged looks. Both had ‘I knew it’ written all over their faces. Of course they knew it. Everyone knew it.

Y/n’s heart was still pounding in her chest, so hard she thought to might pop out. The smell of Charles surrounded her; she could feel his warm breath on her ear, and the small smile that curved his lips.

The shock of the situation and the fear of flying both up and down a tree were finally wearing off. But the adrenaline sure as hell wasn’t. Y/n brought her head up to look at Charles. She studied his face; from his perfect jawline, to his eyes as deep and blue as the ocean, to those lips that made her want to do something impulsive.

Charles looked back at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking with out having to read her mind. She was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen. Y/n brightened up his day without effort; he didn’t know what he would do without her.

They stood entranced in each other’s eyes, their noses almost touching, their eyes never straying.

Without thinking Y/n leaned in brushed his lips with her own. Slowly, she added more pressure; letting the feeling of his soft lips enraptured her. Finally Charles couldn’t wait anymore and pressed his lips firmly to hers.

‘Oh God, they’re having a moment,’ Logan thought as loudly as possible but the young telepath was a little to preoccupied to notice. Erik just smirked and rolled his eyes.

Eventually they broke apart, breathing heavy.

“I’m glad you didn’t fall,” Charles said gazing at her in a sort of daze.

“I’m glad I didn’t fall too,” Y/n smiled. She hoped it was too dark for him to see how pink her cheeks were.

Charles’ eyes wandered up to the small cut on Y/n’s forehead, undoubtedly from her trip down. He brought his hand up and gently smeared the trickled of blood away with his thumb. “Let’s go back to the house and get you cleaned up. I think a cup of coco is in order after all that.”

Y/n smiled and nodded.

The young telepath put his arm around Y/n’s waste and guided her through the woods and towards the house; she was still a little unsteady on her feet. Erik and Logan followed behind them. But not too closely. They didn’t actually want to hear the inevitable kissing.

Y/n turned to Charles. “I though you had work? Do you really have time for a hot chocolate break?”

Charles stopped and turned to look at her. His hand gently brushed her cheek. “You, my love, are much more important to me than some silly paperwork,” He said, he leaned in and kissed her again. Y/n smiled into the kiss. In this moment she could not have been happier.

“This is your fault, you know,” Logan huffed, looking at Erik. He didn’t want to see this, he didn’t ask for this.

Erik snickered. “I did all the rescuing and yet…he gets the kiss.”