Chapter Text
Most people who were intelligent or at least had survival instincts knew not to be in the same space with Erik when he was sick. Nearby metal tended to warp when he sneezed or blew his nose, and as Raven liked to say when he wasn’t paying attention, misery only elevated Erik’s crankiness to near-epic proportions. Darwin, fortunately for the rest of the house, saw Erik’s flushed face and undignified, swollen, runny nose and, after making sure he had tea and orange juice, cleared himself and everyone else out to run errands.
Only Charles stayed, after pointing out that his old owner, the world’s craziest crazy cat person Dr. Xavier, had left him the entire mansion and as Erik could hardly kick Charles out of his own house and Charles was not an outdoor cat, he was staying.
Of course, “staying” for Charles didn’t mean sunning himself in the library or napping in one of the bedrooms. It meant “sitting right on top of Erik,” who was much too sore and weak to protest Charles climbing on top of him.
“Get off me, you’re too hot,” Erik complained as Charles kneaded contentedly on Erik’s hip. “It’s like wearing a furry electric blanket.”
“Mrrrrr,” Charles said, before telepathically adding You’ll be having chills next and kneading at Erik some more. His claws made prick-prick noises against the afghan Erik had, despite his weakness, managed to pull over himself.
Sure enough, Erik went from near-roasting to absolute zero within two minutes. As he shivered miserably, Charles made a concerned noise and hopped off Erik’s hip. A moment later, he squirmed under Erik’s chin, presumably because he felt Erik would breathe better through a faceful of greyish cat hair.
I‘ve told Darwin and Sean to pick up some chicken soup while they’re out, Charles said as he began to purr. I hope you save me some.
“I’ll think about it,” Erik rasped. Charles rumbled happily and tucked himself into an even tinier ball, his paws over his eyes.
Very much against his will, Erik drifted off to sleep.