The Professor had asked to see you in his office, he claimed he had something important to discuss with you.

     You had dropped Scott off along with Alex. You were hanging out with Alex at a small coffee shop, taking mugshots of him, when he got a phone call from his parents claiming that Scott had destroyed half of his school, with his eyes.

     Alex had feared that Scott was also going to have a mutation like his, but he wasn't expecting to come home to a 'blind' Scott.

     You sat in the backseat with Scott as Alex drove to the mansion, you could almost hear Scott's heartbeat over the soft murmurs of the radio. You saw him with his head down, his forehead crinkled, most likely from trying to squeeze his eyes shut as tight as possible to stop his mutation from destroying Alex's car.

     You noticed his hands shaking, his leg bobbing up and down nervously, you reached over and held onto his hand comfortingly.

     "Don't worry, Scott. You're going to be okay," you spoke softly to him, he nodded, but you knew he didn't fully believe in you.

     You sighed when you realised his nerves weren't going anywhere, and pulled his body to yours, holding him, running your hands gently through his hair trying to calm him down slightly before you arrived at the mansion. His arms wrapped tightly around your waist, his head buried into your shoulder. You knew he was scared.

     "We're almost there." Alex looked up at the rear-view mirror towards the both of you, you nodded at him and gave him a smile, he nodded back before looking at the road once more. Scott seemed to freeze up when Alex stopped the car, signalling that you had arrived. "It's okay, Scott, they're going to help, just like they did for us." He smiled at you as he turned around in the car.

     "You ready?" You asked Scott who gulped and nodded his head slowly.

     "Don't really have a choice," he mumbled causing you and Alex to laugh lightly.

     You got out of the car and went to help Scott out and up to the stairs in front of the mansion. Alex opened the door and you all walked in, you were about to look for the Professor when a red headed girl was bumped into by Scott accidentally.

     You watched as she stopped the papers from flying everywhere, causing you and Alex to pause—both of you planning to pick them up for her.

     You smirked as she said Scott's name, knowing that she read his mind, but he was a little oblivious to that fact.

     When you found the Professor, he was with Hank and asked Scott to demonstrate his powers, destroying the Professors favourite tree in the process.

     Hank mentioned something about ruby quarts and glasses before you and the Professor went to his office to discuss whatever it was that he claimed he needed to tell you.

     "I see you're still with Alex." He smirked at you, you rolled your eyes at him.

     He had tried setting you up with Alex, along with Erik and Hank who tried to help him with his plans. You shook your head at him, at least he didn't read your mind without permission like he used to do.

     "No, Charles," you told him. "We are best friends, always have and always will be." He noticed the change of tone in your voice and the dropping of your smile towards the end of that sentence, he tilted his head.

     "I assume that there is more to this," he said as you sighed. "And my assumption would be correct." He motioned for you to sit down.

     "Charles, I don't have time for a heart-to-heart conversation about feelings." He raised an eyebrow. "Fine." Your jaw tightened. "But this means I get to hammer questions at you about Erik." It was your time to smirk when you noticed his smug look disappear. "I know about the cerebro stalking you do with everyone." You crossed your arms as you sat down.

     "Okay, but it's my turn to question you, your inquisition can happen later." He waved his hand at you, clearly wanting to change the subject.

     You let out a laugh before watching him lean forwards slightly towards you.

     "Now, I know that I could easily go through your mind and find what I want, but where is the fun in that? At least when I question you I get to see you struggle for words and blush, further proving my point." You glared at him. "You like him," he admitted like a teenage girl at a sleepover. "I'm not a teenage girl." You looked down with a smile.

     "I thought you said you wanted to see me struggle?" You continued to smirk.

     "I said I was asking the question." He pointed his finger at you.

     "I know, but you never asked one, you said a statement." You regretted that, and your eyes widened in realisation to what you just said.

     "So, you do like him." He grinned.

     "Okay, Charlotte, you want to go straight for the jugular?"

     He glared at you, not liking the teenage girl at a sleepover reference continuation.

     "How's Erik? Hmm? Because I'm sure you know what he's been up to, in fact, I'm pretty sure you know what he had for breakfast."

     You couldn't believe how blunt he had become over the years. He used to enjoy speaking in riddles, confusing you, getting you to think. Like a Rubik's cube. Now he was just getting to the point of things.

     "Okay, cutthroat-" You smirked at him, you knew it was now a competition between the two of you. "I bet you fifty that you and Alex get together by the end of this week." He was such a teenage girl right now. But if he wanted to play, then you'd play.

     "I see your fifty and raise you a hundred, that it won't be the end of this week." He stuck his hand out to you.

     How the hell did you get here? How the hell did you get to placing bets with the Professor?

     This trip back to the mansion was meant to be for Scott. You leaned forwards and shook his hand, regretting it immediately. Before getting up to go find the brothers.

-

     You walked back outside to where you had left them, hoping that they wouldn't be too far, you assumed that they stopped to go talk somewhere, and you guessed that that place would be the courtyard, with the tables and benches. You were about to show yourself and ask how everything was when Scott's voice stopped you in your tracks.

     "So." You could almost hear the smirk on Scott's face as he dragged out his words.

     "No." Alex shut him down almost immediately.

     "Oh, come on. You can't keep putting this off," Scott sounded desperate.

     "Watch me." You shook your head at Alex's childish behaviour.

     "C'mon, Alex, she won't be around forever, one day you're going to lose her to someone else." You crossed your arms and leaned against the wall separating you from the two of them, wondering what Scott was on about.

     "Just drop it, Scott." Alex tried to shut him down again.

     "No," Scott argued. "No, you like her." You furrowed your eyebrows, why did Scott sound so desperate about this? "I know you do, in fact, you love her." You would have known if Alex acted differently to another girl, you would have known about his crush.

     "Scott," Alex warned.

     "If you don't tell her, I will." You could almost see the smirk appear on his face as he spoke.

     "Are you blackmailing me?" Alex scoffed.

     "Maybe," Scott answered back. "Just tell her, I'm getting sick of hearing you mope about how she was asked out on dates and came back upset because they didn't treat her right and how you wouldn't have treated her like they did. I'm sick of hearing about how good her hair smells, or how funny her joke was, or how cool your day was with her. Just. Tell. Her." You could hear him pound his fist on the table as he spoke.

     "I'm not liking this confidence, go back to the scared little brother you were an hour ago." Alex more than likely crossed his arms at this point.

     "Alex, as your brother, I'm telling you, just tell her how you feel," Scott pleaded.

     "Why don't you tell the redhead that you like her?" Alex teased.

     "I barely know her," he reasoned. "Whereas you've known her for most of your life, be a man, bro." You almost cringed at Scott. You thought that enough was enough, as you decided to show yourself.

     "I'm not telling her that I'm in love with her, Scott." You didn't know who this girl was, but you knew that she was probably being tortured not knowing that Alex liked her. You knew you were. Alex's back was towards you, Scott had noticed you and froze.

     "You just did." You stopped walking. You gulped as you processed his words. Alex liked you. Alex was in love with you. Alex turned his head to look at you. "I'll go see if the Professor needs to see me about the tree," Scott excused himself and gave you a look as he brushed passed you.

     "Uh, you didn't hear that, right?" Alex scratched the back of his head.

     "I was here from 'so'," you admitted. Alex groaned and laid his head on the table. "So," you dragged out your words like Scott had done and rocked slightly on your feet.

     "This isn't happening," Alex muttered before standing up in front of you. "Ignore everything that you heard," he told you.

     "I don't want to." You shook your head.

     "Why?" He sighed.

     "Because you like me." You smirked. "I knew my charms and good looks were too strong for you to ignore." He rolled his eyes. "I said it before Cuba, and I'll say it now, I own your ass, Summers." He chuckled.

     "Actually, what you said before Cuba was 'don't fall in love with me', although I'm sure you were just being a show off back then...Doesn't seem like much has changed." He crossed his arms.

     "But look at you now, you love me, and what did I tell you?" You were enjoying this, usually, he was the one to tease you.

     "Not to fall in love with you," he sighed, he knew you were only teasing him. "But I'm sorry, I was going to fall in love with you anyway." He uncrossed his arms and threw them out to the side in defeat. "I was never one to follow orders." You continued to smirk.

     "That gave you the bad boy edge." He shook his head with a light laugh.

     "Give it a rest, that was years ago." He rolled his eyes again.

     "Actually, it was only six years ago when you stopped wearing the leather jacket and brooding look on your face religiously." He glared at you playfully.

     "Ha, ha," he replied sarcastically before his face dropped and he sighed. "Now you know." He looked down.

     Maybe it was time to stop teasing him and time to gain that hundred and fifty the Professor owes you. You decided enough was enough once more, you weren't going to wait for the end of this week to do this, you grabbed hold of the collar of his jacket and pulled his closer to you, pressing your lips to his.

     At first, he didn't respond, not processing that you were actually kissing him. But eventually, he closed his eyes and kissed you back, his hands going straight to your waist while yours snaked around his neck, dragging his body closer to yours.

     You weren't sure why you hadn't done this earlier—granted that you weren't sure how he felt about you before, and you didn't want to ruin the friendship you had with him, this was nothing like you experienced before, with previous boyfriends. That was if you could call him that, it was just one kiss.

     Alex's thumbs rubbed gently onto the exposed skin of your hips, before gripping them and pulling them closer, continuously repeating this action, his head nudging yours as he deepened the kiss, almost losing himself at your touch.

     You knew both of your breathing had deepened as you tried to catch some air in between each time your lips disconnected for mere milliseconds before connecting once more. But neither of you made the move to pull away completely.

     Your right hand was tangled in his hair, gently pulling at it, while your left hand cupped his cheek. Your mind going blank as you melted at the feeling of his soft lips on yours, he bit your lower lip gently, lightly tugging on it before kissing you with more force and pressure, as if it would be the last time he would ever get to touch you.

     You didn't even register the cough from behind you, or the louder more fake cough until Alex pulled away. Both of your lips slightly swollen and a darker red.

     Alex smirked to himself as he noticed your eyes widened, he pulled your head to his body, your arms wrapping around his waist as you hid your face from whoever was behind you. Alex seemed to grow more confident and smug by the second.

     "Told you," you could hear Scott speak up after the silence. "You owe me twenty, Hank." You heard a sigh—obviously Hank's.

     "Okay, well you owe me fifty," you recognised Jean's voice.

     "What?" Scott questioned.

     "You said that they would admit their feelings, I said that they'd kiss," she told him.

     "That wasn't kissing, that was them eating each other's faces, I was sure one of them was going to disappear," you groaned while Hank spoke up, the sound of money being scrunched up and passed around.

     "Still kissing," you could tell Jean shrugged like it was nothing while counting money.

     "I owe her one hundred and fifty," you heard the Professor mutter. "You couldn't have waited two more days? You could have waited until the end of the week to tell her you liked her?" You could feel Alex shrug as his arms moved around your shoulders, his right hand holding his left wrist as he stood still.

     "I hate you all," you sighed before turning your head to look at them. "I want my money, Charlotte." You smirked at the Professors deflated expression. "And the inquisition." He waved you off before turning away.

     "Let's leave them alone, I don't want to stick around to watch them suck each other's faces off like vacuums." The others all grumbled with responses and agreements leaving you and Alex alone.

     "Wipe that smug look off of your face, Summers," you told him as you looked up to his face.

     "Looks like you're not so smug now." He grinned. "Oh, and another thing." You raised an eyebrow. "I own your ass." You huffed as he laughed at your expression, holding you tighter in his arms.