Prof. Charles Xavier

This is not the evening Charles had imagined when Erik had suggested ambushing their target away from both their workplaces. He'd imagined Erik in a dark coat and hat, down some shady back alley, grabbing the gentleman by the arm and telling him in hushed tones that he had nothing to fear.

Instead, he's sat at a small table in a dark corner of an extraordinary loud bar, the vast majority of the space given over to bright flashing lights and a dance floor. Cerebro, and more classic forms of investigative work, had taught them that their intended new recruit to the teaching staff liked to come here at night, and Erik had decided the place had just the right amount of anonymity to make it a safe meeting ground.

All very well for Erik, all dressed up on the dance floor. All very well for Darwin and Alex, who seemed to have come along purely to get drunk and fall all over each other. For Charles, all he seems to be allowed to do is sit in the corner and keep an eye on their mark.

//This is not fair// he decides to complain to Erik.

Over the next few days, Hank experiments with the dose of his drug, until he's happy he's found a formula that keeps Charles awake, alert and seizure-free. He cannot offer such a remedy for the block to his powers, but with every dose Charles regains more and more sensation in his legs, and the excitement of that takes the edge off the disappointment that his mind is still silent.

Within a week, Charles is able to feel all the way down to his toes, is able to move his feet and bend his knees. Another week, and he's desperate to try and walk. Hank is unconvinced, pointing out that the Professor's legs will be weak after so long without use, despite the physiotherapy to keep the muscles from wasting away. But Charles will not be swayed, demanding Erik help him try to, at the very least, stand.

As important as it is to train the children of Charles' school to their full potential, the professor also feels it equally important to make sure that the staff train their own abilities. Just because they are staff now, not pupils, doesn't mean that they have learnt all they can. It's for that reason that he makes sure time is set aside, every week, for the faculty to train together without having to play teacher.

Of course, having time away from being teachers has a tendency to lead to more than a little messing about, especially when Charles and Erik aren't there watching over their faculty. With Charles absent from training today (something to do with too much paperwork), and Erik running late from whatever he was up to, it doesn't take long for the rest of the staff team to start playing up.

"Bet you can't knock over the satellite dish." It's Sean's dare, stupid, because he believes it can't be done. To prove his point, he turns and screams at it with all his might, causing no effect whatsoever.

"Bet I can," Alex answers, and again he only says it because he doesn't truly believe that he'd have such power. Letting lose his own power, he aims the destructive beams at the base of the huge tower. The structure is massive, he doesn't expect his lasers to do anywhere near enough damage to actually send the thing toppling.

Which is why he looks so very alarmed when the huge thing, capable of flattening the vast majority of the school, starts to groan and tilt.

Charles is playing with his breakfast this morning, strange for a man with such a sweet tooth. Breakfast is his favourite meal of the day, what with all the pastries and other sugary things on offer, but today he's jam-covered toast around his plate, letting it go cold.

"Do you think we should be checking Cerebro more often?" He voices his thoughts to Erik, looking across to his lover. "What if... what if we're missing children who would benefit by being here?"

Charles is tired and stressed. When he'd started his school, he'd imagined a house full of children learning and training, without a care in the world. He hadn't thought about the realities of homework, tests, end of term exams.

That's why he's still sat behind his desk, the same place he's been all day, trying to work out some way of standardising a testing regime for such a wide range of abilities. It's giving him a headache, and he doesn't feel as though he's made any progress all day.

Really, today, Charles just wants to be left alone. He doesn't blame anyone for what happened a year ago, he says that again and again and he truly means it. That doesn't mean that he can be happy about it, and really, all he wants is a day of solitude to come to terms with the anniversary.

It's been a year since he last stood on his own two feet. He's come a long way, but he still remembers with painful clarity just how it had been before the bullet had lodged itself in his back. He's still not quite accepted the fact that he's never going to walk again.

He'd appeared for breakfast, but had headed upstairs straight after, locking himself away in his office. Erik will doubtless come looking at some point, but he hopes that won't be for a while.

Charles isn't surprised to find no sign of Erik when he finally makes it to bed, nor is he surprised to find himself waking up alone in the morning. It's with a heavy heart that he gets himself ready for the day, clear now that Erik's not going to find him and apologise for yesterday's arguments.

He's just about dressed himself when the knock comes at the door, and his sister's barging in before he has so much as a chance to call out. She's talking too, before he can remind her about manners.

"Alex has locked Erik in the drawing room. Do you know how hard it is to lock Erik anywhere? And now you're going down there too, and we're not letting you out until you've got over this little squabble of yours. Really, it's pathetic."

"Raven, there's nothing I want to sa-"

"Tough. Go on. Now."

Charles sighs. Any fight against Raven is always a losing one. He has no choice but to follow her.

Yet again, Charles finds himself hooked up to Cerebro, though this time he's not looking for more students. The list is full, at least for this year coming, the list they already have stretching their resources to the maximum. Now, all that's left to do is find an extra couple of adult hands to help with the teaching and running of the school.

There's a wealth of grown mutants out there, but many have grown up resenting their abilities, or hating humankind for the isolation they feel. Charles wants neither in his school, poisoning the minds of the young and impressionable. Still, after an hour connected to the machine, he has a good length list of potential staff, both local and country-wide. He's sure there must be more across the seas, but he sees little point in pushing himself to look that far.

Finally pulling away the headset, he relaxes back in his chair, exhausted.

Charles is bored. The last week, he's been almost unbearable with it, pushing everyone to almost impossible lengths in their training to try and find something to work on. He wants to be recruiting, wants to start putting his vision of a school into action.

But he also knows what needs to happen in order for that dream to become reality. And whilst he'll happily go back to Cerebro - he'll take epilepsy over boredom any day - he also knows Erik will be terrified by the idea.

He's on the verge of talking to Hank privately, to ask for another session without Erik's knowledge, when memories of the day he'd been left alone with Scott come back to the forefront of his mind. He'd promised his lover there would be no secrets between them, and he doesn't want to break his promise.

And so here he is, hovering at the edge of the Danger Room where he knows Erik is working with Alex. His intention is to catch his lover when they finish training, to talk to him when he'll most likely be in a good mood.

It's the first half-decent day of the year, weather wise, and it has made the children even more energetic than normal. Charles doesn't regret his choice to come off of Hank's drugs, and he's very happy to have his ability back, but by lunchtime he has had quite enough of the noise, distraction and general sense of over-excited energy. He dreads to think how the place will be, when the number of people inhabiting the mansion goes into double figures.

Before he retreats to his office for the afternoon, he pulls Erik aside and suggests he take the rest of the household out for the afternoon. He had originally been intending to spend his afternoon in the Danger Room with Alex, but considering Sean's concentration that morning had been so low he'd managed to blow out all the windows in his old car - rather than teaching himself to hover above the ground - he's now rather against the idea of being alone with Alex and his ability.

For the most part, the rest of the household seem delighted by free leave to go out and enjoy the sunshine. There's an ice-cream parlour just opened up in town, and according to Alex Sean has a thing for one of the serving girls. The only person, in fact, who seems dead-set against leaving is Scott. The second the idea's mentioned, even with the promise of ice-cream, the little boy had stuck in his heels and demanded to be left with Daddy. In the end, Charles lets him stay. He's happy enough to take his reading into the drawing room and keep one eye on baby Scott.

The little boy settles quickly once the others have gone, content to play with his toys on the rug and only pestering Charles for conversation or attention every so often. Glad of the peace and calm, Charles manages to read for the best part of an hour before his concentration starts to go. Putting his papers down at his side on the sofa, he turns his attention fully to the little boy. He only just manages to call out his name, however, before that strange sense of full-bodied pins and needles courses through him. He doesn't even have time to work out why the sensation is familiar before he loses consciousness.