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It all started innocently enough. It was just another day at the hospital and Dr. Xavier was making his rounds through the children’s ward as usual. People would say, he was the perfect paediatric. He was patient with children – and even more so with the agitated parents, but able to be firm if need be – capable of making gentle demands for what was best for his little patients, even if it meant banning the overly hysterical parents from the room. He always set aside some time for his little patients, listening to what they had to say, even if they were just telling him for the tenth time about what they had seen on TV. And he seemed always rather cheerful, a smile on his red lips, blue eyes shining brightly and the freckles on his nose adding a dash of cheekiness.
Everyone liked him.
Everyone said he was amiable, easy to approach and always in the mood to chat or listen to you.
Even those who didn't know him were of this opinion.
All, except Dr. Erik Lehnsherr, head of radiology. He knew it all to be lies! Countless times he had tried to ensnare the smaller doctor in conversation. How often had he waited patiently in the cafeteria during lunch break until Dr. Xavier would line up to get his lunch and he'd sneakily slide in right behind him? But no matter what conversation starter he tried, Dr. Xavier would always respond rather monosyllabically – if at all. And once he got his food he would hurry away so quickly, that it seemed rather impolite for Erik to follow.
Erik had even tried making a detour through the children's ward, a place he rather avoided because – well, for one it had children in it and for another, they were sick children, which made them even more irritating. But the few times he saw the mop of familiar brown hair appear at a distance or round a corner, he was bitterly disappointed by Dr. Xavier suddenly walking through a door before he drew level with him or turning on his heel and heading the other way.
That charming exterior, those innocent blue eyes and sweet smile, all a lie. Those red lips, deft hands... well, he could still fantasize about those – yet only fantasize.
But that is not the start of this story. This begins during one of Dr. Xavier's night shifts, where he came upon a room of his little patients, all of them still too excited about today’s visit of the clown doctors to go to sleep. And then one of the children told Charles, if he wanted them to go to sleep, he had to tell them a story, because that's how it's done. So Charles settled down to tell a story... but found his memory of fairy-tales was rather shaky and children notice such things. So before they could start to argue if little red riding hood had a red cape or a red cap, Charles decided he would tell a new story. But what to tell? And that's when one of the children said they wanted a story about bunnies and Charles had immediately thought of a pair of oddly magenta-coloured fluffy bunny-slippers complete with floppy pink ears, belonging to one Dr. Erik Lehnsherr. The only thing fluffy about him, as some would argue. And because Charles had a huge crush on Dr. Lehnsherr, that rendered him incapable of holding a normal conversation with the man in person, he told them of the 'Amazing Adventures of the Fluffy Bunny Erik and His Magical Magenta Bunny-Slippers'.
And from that day on, whenever he had some time, and the children were in the mood, he would continue to spin on the tale.
This story would have ended right there, if not for one (another) fateful night.
The children's ward happened to be understaffed during one particular night-shift and when two emergencies happened at once, Dr. Lehnsherr was called over to help out. While the nurse on duty tended with emergency Nr. 1 – a child having been sick all over their bed, that left Dr. Lehnsherr with emergency Nr. 2 – a child having a nightmare, waking the other children in their room, leaving them all rather anxious and scared.
Dr. Lehnsherr admitted, though only to himself, he would have rather dealt with emergency Nr. 1. Yet there was nothing for it. He braced himself then opened the door to 'the place of nightmares'.
Of the five beds, three were empty, their occupants all crammed into one of the remaining beds while one empty bed seemed to have been viciously attacked by pillows. The four children sharing one bed now, had pulled up the blanket like a shield, looking fearfully in the direction of the empty beds, while the remaining child was sitting on his bed, playing on his Nintendo, apparently unfazed by all that was happening around him.
“What the he...” Erik stopped himself in time. “Hello children, I'm Dr. L... Erik.” He was proud of himself for having remembered to use his first name when dealing with kids. Rule Nr. 1, build some trust.
Four pairs of eyes focused on him. “Are you here to kill it?” The red-haired girl piped up.
“Kill what?”
“The monster! It crawled under Steve's blankets while he was sleeping and bit him in the foot!”
Erik sighed. “Ok, first I want to look at Steve's foot.” As he approached the scared children and walked past the bed the 'monster' was supposedly hiding in, the children screamed. He couldn't help it, he frowned at them. “What is it now?”
“We thought the monster would leap out at you.” A blonde boy said.
“You are very brave.” The second girl in the troupe piped up.
Erik just shook his head then looked between the blonde boy and the other with a brown spiky haircut who was hugging one of the pillows and pouting. “Alright, which one of you is Steve?”
The blond boy raised his hand.
“Good, now why don't you show me your foot where the monster bit you.”
Steve had to wriggle around a bit to get his feet out from under the blankets. The other three children made no attempt to give him any more space. It irritated Erik and made him even more certain that he had no patience when it came to dealing with children. Finally Steve had his feet sticking out from under the blankets.
Erik looked at the rosy skin, then took one foot, lifting it to examining it more closely, then the other. “Can you wriggle your toes?” Steve did so. “Looks fine to me. You sure you got bit?”
Steve looked a bit uncertain. “Well... nearly bit?”
Erik straightened again. “All right, I'll check about that monster now.” Ignoring the children’s gasping and huddled whispering, he went over to the bed, picked up the fallen pillows and placed them on the other two emptied beds and finally pulled back the blanket to reveal nothing, except a lonely teddy-bear.
“Bucky!” Steve was out of the bed and cuddling the teddy-bear in under a second, all worry about any monsters forgotten.
Erik smirked. “No monster after all.”
“Bucky must have scared it off... or maybe you did Mr. Doctor Sir!“ The boy conceded and Erik almost felt like smiling.
“Anyway, looks like all the monsters are gone now – and it's just Dr. Erik.”
“Like the bunny?” One of the girls exclaimed suddenly.
“What bunny?”
“The one who goes on all those adventures. He is a fearless bunny and travels far and wide and fights evil and goes to the strangest places and he...”
"He is wearing the bunny-slippers!" The brown-haired boy, who had stood up in his bed to get a better look, exclaimed and suddenly everyone was craning to see. The two girls slipped out of the shared bed and came over to look.
Erik tried to be stern. “Go back to your beds right now!”
"And they really are man...mango...magneto-couloured!" Clearly the children ignored him, more fascinated by his feet and the bunny-slippers he always wore. They were comfortable for when he needed to be on his feet the whole day. And he could move in them without making any sound. Perfect to sneak up on lazy staff.
"Magneto-coloured?" Erik blinked, baffled.
"Yes, it is like not red, not purple but in-between. It's a magical colour!"
"Magneto is not a colour!" The Nintendo-boy piped up from where he was sitting on his bed alone.
"Duuuuh, is too!"
“It's not. It's..” He screwed up his face in concentration. “Man-gen-ta!”
“You mean magenta!” Finally the children’s babbling seemed to make more sense, though only for a moment.
“Yes! So are you Fluffy Bunny Erik?”
Again it was the child that had looked unaffected by the whole monster-excitement that showed a little bit of sanity. “He can't be. He is no bunny!”
The red-haired girl seemed less convinced. “But his name is Erik and he has the magical ma-ma-magnento bunny-slippers aaaaaand – he maybe just turned himself into a human.”
“I'm a doctor!” Why did he feel the need to reason with a bunch of small children?
“Oh...” Steve seemed to finally catch on. He looked up at him, still cuddling his teddy-bear, his face scrunched up as if he was processing something. “So you are Dr. Fluffy Bunny Erik!”
x
Word spread faster than any sickness.
The next day nothing happened but then the day after that – there was what, for lack of a better word, one might call a bouquet of carrots sitting in a vase on his desk. He found that odd, but didn't think much about it. On day three after the Dr. Fluffy Bunny mix-up though, he found a lone carrot stick taped to his locker, some leafy greens had replaced the paper on the clipboard he usually used when he took his rounds, during lunch someone stole – STOLE! - his dessert and replaced it with an offending carrot, as he'd just gotten up to fetch the salt.
Finally his shift ended. He was happy to get out of this madhouse, when he realised he had forgotten his pager and as he went back to fetch it from his office, he found a trail of carrots leading from the desk in his office to the break-room where someone had put a bunny-cage and hung a cardboard note on it which read: “Home, sweet home! - Dr. Fluffy Bunny”. His pager was in the cage, of the culprit there was no sign. He suspected – well, actually everyone.
Of course no-one dared call him Dr. Fluffy Bunny to his face, but he heard it whispered behind his back. And there was no end to the flood of carrots. During the course of the next week he found carrots and greens in the unlikeliest places. There was even carrot juice once.
Erik was annoyed and angry, glaring at everyone, suspecting everybody - but of course he knew who really was to blame for all this. Whoever thought it funny to tell children strange stories about a fluffy bunny with magenta-coloured bunny-slippers!
X
All Erik could find out – despite cunningly interrogating the children – was, that the person who started the carrot-complot was a man and he was called Dr. Eggs by the children. The only description he got was that Dr. Eggs was tall (but really, who wasn't from a child's point of view), and was wearing a white coat.
Erik puzzled a long time over the name. It sounded like a nickname the children probably had given the man because of his looks. A bald guy probably. Well Erik would keep his eyes and ears open, he would find the man and then give him a good kick in the butt courtesy of his bunny – slippers.
X
“Psst…”
Raven looked up from the magazine she was reading in the little break-room. She was positive she had heard something, but there was no-one to be seen. Her last night-shift had been two days ago, so it couldn’t be from exhaustion that she was hearing things. Perhaps it was just the coffee-maker making weird noises. She went back to reading the magazine.
“Pssst!” There was the sound again. She looked up. “Anyone here?”
“Pssssssssssssst!” Came the almost aggressive reply, followed by a really faint “Raven!” The noise came from the direction of the broom cabinet. She stood up and walked over and tore the door open. Charles jumped back startled and looking pale.
“What the hell are you doing in here Charles?”
Dr. Charles Xavier, tried to wrestle the door from her but to no avail. He threw a panicked look in the direction of the empty break-room. “Is he still here?”
“Who?”
“Lehnsherr!”
“Have you been hiding in here from Dr. Lehnsherr?” She sounded aghast. “What has gotten into you?” Her brother, friends with everyone, always smiling charmer was hiding from someone?
“He … It’s complicated. He will…well I don’t know what he will do if he finds out – hate me, probably.“ Charles sounded miserable.
“Finds out what?”
Charles hesitated. “Dr. Fluffy Bunny…“
She frowned, then her eyes widened and she snorted with laughter. “No! You?! You are the source of the nickname?“
Charles actually blushed. “It was just a story I invented. The children in my ward asked me for a story and all I could think of was…”
“Dr. Lehnsherr in a playboy-bunny outfit?” She raised an eyebrow and gave him a wicked grin. “Charles, for all you playing the sweet children’s doctor you sure have a kinky mind.”
“No, it wasn’t like that. I just…well it’s the bunny-slippers of his and then the bunny of my stories needed a name and of course the first thing that came to my mind was Erik.” Charles closed his eyes. “Well, maybe I have been thinking a little bit too much about Dr. Lehnsherr.”
“Why don't you talk to him, I mean the story would be the perfect starter. You walk up to him, smile and tell him – hinting that you find his colour-blindness when it comes to his footwear adorable and if he doesn't want to nibble at your carrot stick – or whatever.”
“Raven!” Charles eyes widened aghast. “I surely will not.”
“And I thought I had your style of pick-up lines down perfectly.”
Charles sighed. “They aren't that bad.”
Raven raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe they are, a little bit. Anyway, when it comes to him, I feel I can't use them. They are too... well, not good enough!”
“Really? Okay. But why do you hide in here? Obviously Dr. Lehnsherr doesn't know it's you, so...”
“Because whenever I see him, I feel like I can't think properly and just want to kiss him and say stupid things. It's horrible... and also because of this.” He held up a bunch of carrots.
“Don't tell me you are also among the people who leave carrots everywhere for him to find? You can't be that stupid, Charles. I'm sure he'll forgive you for telling the story, but not about this.”
“No! Of course not. I was collecting those. I thought, if I could stop this thing, get my hands on all the carrots before Lehnsherr can see them, people might get bored with leaving them and soon everything would be forgotten.”
Raven looked unconvinced. “You really think Dr. Lehnsherr will forget this any time soon? I mean, have you heard about the rabbit – cage?”
Charles winced. Who hadn't? “Well – what else can I do?”
“How should I know?”
“You are his assistant, and my sister, so...”
“I already gave you advice, it's not my fault you aren't taking it. With his bad taste apparent in his choice of footwear, he might even find your cheesy pickup-lines adorable.”
“I told you, whenever I see him I get – tongue-tied.”
“Ask him to give you therapy.”
Charles rolled his eyes, but before he could answer, suddenly a familiar voice interrupted them. “Raven? You're still here, I need you down at the...”
Raven slammed the door to the broom cupboard shut and whirled around. She gave Erik her most innocent smile. “...CT scan. Yes, sorry, will go right down.” And she hurried past Erik. He might investigate the cupboard or he might not. Either way, she felt it safer to put as much distance as possible between herself and any possible danger zone.
X
Charles tried to stay still and quiet while at the same time he attempted to shift back into a dark corner of the broom cupboard. 'Please don't find me, please don't find me...' It was like a mantra that was interrupted by bursts of illogical desire to be found. 'Please find me and ravish me!'
He heard someone move around, then nothing. But he didn't dare come out. It was hard to judge how much time had passed. 'I'll count to hundred, then I get out...' Counting, Charles felt himself slowly relax. Suddenly the door was wrenched open. Charles let out a startled scream as he suddenly found himself face to face with Dr. 'Fluffy Bunny' Erik. His heart was racing from shock and something else. Dr. Lehnsherr looked surprised, then slowly a wide smile formed on his lips.
“Dr. Xavier. Now what are you doing hiding in the broom cupboard?”
Charles opened his mouth and closed it. 'Great, like a fish.' He licked his lips. 'Say something! Something witty! Impress him!'
“Playing hide and seek with some of the children?”
Charles nodded, cursing himself for not thinking of that himself. But his overly active imagination was providing him with pictures of grabbing Dr. Lehnsherr's tie, pulling him close and kissing him. Closing the door and locking them both in the dark – together. With only their hands left to explore what they couldn't see.
“Though aren't you a bit far away from the children's ward for them to find you?”
'Because I hoped to be found by you!' No he couldn't say that. Why did all his pick up lines seem suddenly inferior when faced with this man?
Dr. Lehnsherr raised an eyebrow. Surely he was getting annoyed by Charles' silence – thinking him rude, or stupid. THAT was what Charles had always wanted to avoid. 'Quick say something. Anything!' “Do you like carrots?” And of course he said the wrong thing.
Dr. Lehnsherr's raised eyebrow turned into a frown, then he looked down and noticed the carrots in Charles' hand. The carrots left for him, that Charles had collected in an attempt to spare him another day of teasing about the new nickname. And of course Dr. Lehnsherr jumped to the wrong conclusion. “You! You are behind that stupid joke?!”
“No! Nononono! I never... I only … I didn't want you to see, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault...”
But Dr. Lehnsherr only grabbed Charles' hand holding the carrots, pulling it up and shaking it accusingly. “Then what is that? Do you think I'm stupid?”
Hell, it was going all wrong. “No, I think you are...” But he stuttered to a halt, too many words trying to get out and none seeming to be the right one. 'Adorable, wonderful, gorgeous, sexy, fluffy, beautiful, interesting, intense...'
Dr. Lehnsherr's eyes narrowed. “What?” He stepped closer, crowding against Charles.
In the narrow space Charles could smell the other man's cologne oddly mixed with the smell of hospital. He would have to get closer, bury his nose at Erik's neck to get past the hospital smell and be able to take in the warm taste of Erik. Taste. His mouth surely would taste nice. Charles took hold of Erik's cravat, pulled him closer and put his mouth against Erik's.
Erik gasped, his lips felt soft and compliant, parting enough so Charles could dip his tongue between them, running it along Erik's teeth, gently nudging to get further... And then his brain caught up with Charles. He was kissing Dr. Erik Lehnsherr! He just grabbed him and kissed him and he didn't even ask or say anything as a warning. Charles sprang back like he'd been stung and without even looking at the other man's face bolted past him. He only stopped once he was far away, back in the safety of the children's ward. It was a small consolation that he had managed to hold on to the carrots. At least those wouldn't bother Erik anymore. And he would have to stay away from Erik. Would he file a complaint? This did count as sexual harassment, right?
Would he get away with a warning or lose his job?
Would Erik hate him?
X
Erik still stood there dumbfounded after Charles had long gone. Charles who had ignored him, refused to speak to him, had suddenly kissed him.
Erik raises his hand to touch his still wet lips, then licked over them. Then he looked at his hand. 'Damn it, why did I let go of him?' He turned around to follow, but of course Charles was long gone. He sure surprised him. He would have never thought – the way Charles acted, why had he never said anything – or flirted with him. He was so outgoing and friendly with everyone except him, so why act so – reserved with him? Erik drifted out of the break-room. Why was he so – shy?
Could it be because he had feelings for him? “Oh...” Before he could start heading for the children's ward and search for Charles, the loudspeakers went on. “Dr. Lehnsherr please come to the CT room 348...”
With a groan he stopped and got back to work.
X
The sky was already turning dark when Erik finally found a little time to himself and he headed straight to the children's ward. Of course he didn't run into Charles, that would have been too convenient. Charles' office was empty and he didn't find him in the break-room, so he asked one of the nurses. To his chagrin the guy told him that Dr. Xavier's shift was already over. He was about to trudge back to his office, when another nurse intercepted him. She had heard him asking for Dr. Xavier and she happened to have seen him still in the hospital. He usually did a little check up on his small patients before he went home. So Erik ended up in front of one of the many doors leading to a room full of children, and hopefully, Charles.
Quietly he opened the door and peeked in. The room was oddly familiar, despite the similarity all hospital rooms seemed to posses. But then he spotted a familiar red-headed girl and a blond boy clutching a teddy-bear in his arms.
The children were all sitting up in their beds and on a chair in the middle sat Charles. He was telling a story.
“...so Bunny Erik hopped away. But he soon realised he just couldn't hop as cheerfully as he usually did. He looked down at his feet, that were missing their magical magenta bunny-slippers terribly.
The sight of his bare feet made him sad and angry and he swore revenge on the snow queen and her minions of Arctic foxes.
But how was Erik supposed to fight her without his magical magenta bunny-slippers?
Now one of the foxes, the one in charge of carrying one of the slippers, was actually not that bad. He had grown up playing with rabbits, and now he felt a little confused and bad, for what they had done to...”
Fascinated Erik listened as Charles, without the help of a book or notes, spun his tale. So this was the root of the mystery. Dr. Eggs... Eggs... X! Like in Xavier. Everything finally fell into place. Well not everything yet. But suddenly Erik felt less irritated and angry but rather flattered. Did that mean Charles was really thinking about him when he told those stories? He would have been content listening and watching, if not for Steve suddenly pipping up. “We can ask him!”
Startled, Charles looked at the boy. “What? Who?”
“Dr. Fluffy Bunny Erik. We can ask him how he'll get his slippers back, he's standing right there.” Steve pointed directly at Erik.
Six pairs of eyes looked directly at him. Charles went white as a sheet.
X
They were standing outside the children’s room. Erik would have preferred, if they could have gone somewhere more private. He would have even agreed to another broom cupboard. But Charles appeared rooted to the spot.
“Charles...”
“I'm terribly sorry about this – mess. About the story to start with, I never thought this would get back to you in such a way. With the carrots and all and – the bunny-cage.”
“Charles...”
But Charles was studying the floor with great concentration and ploughed on.“And for that other thing. I should not have – I mean I am fully aware that this is sexual harassment and I – well I didn't know what I – well that is, I did know but you were – I mean I am not blaming you, you did nothing wrong. I am to blame for just kissing you. I regret that. Not the kiss. But not asking or saying something. But I never seemed to be able to come up with the right thing to say when you showed up. And believe me I gave that a lot of thought, what to say. But nothing I could come up with seemed special enough. And all I can hope is that you don't hate me, and if there is anything I can do to apologise I will. I'll make sure you aren't bothered by any more carrots, I'll ...”
Erik frowned. It was like some floodgates had been broken open. All the silence from before was now replaced by – babbling. Cute babbling. Adorable babbling. Erik only could follow so much. But Charles didn't want to stop and as cute as it was, Erik had something very important to say.
So he grabbed Charles' shoulders and stopped his mouth with a kiss.
X
Two months later.
“Oh my god, Charles, what is your costume?” Raven was torn between shock and hysterical laughter when she saw her brother in his costume for the hospital Halloween party.
“Well I rather hope it is recognizable!” He turned towards her, swaying from side to side a little, since the conic shape of his costume severely limited his movement.
“You do know that carrot – costumes are only adorable on under 1 year olds?”
Charles sighed. “It's part of a bet – or dare, rather.”
“Oh... with him?” Raven's interest was peaked.
“Yes. Are you ready to go?”
“Of course.”
“But you ...” Charles looked at his sister's skimpy costume, consisting of harem-pants, a glittery bra-thing and lots of blue body-paint.
She raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to comment. “I'm a djinn!”
“Ok. Lets go.” He actually wished carrots could come in sexier shapes too.
X
Charles got some amused looks as they arrived at the party, but he hardly noticed, scanning the crowd for Erik. The previous years, Erik had always showed up without a costume for the Halloween – party, so Charles really wasn't sure what to expect. It had all started out as a joke that somehow turned into a bet, though they hadn't really determined what the winner or loser would get or have to give. So maybe Erik would just show up in his normal clothes and brush it all off and Charles would be stuck as a carrot for the night.
Then he saw him. That is, he saw the fluffy white rabbit ears stuck to Erik's head first, then... 'Fuck!' Erik was wearing a leather jacket and tight jeans, but he had a huge fluffy bunny-tail stuck at butt-level. Charles felt his mouth water as he watched Erik bend down to pick something up – and he realised he wasn't the only one watching. 'How does he manage to pull off a bunny costume looking so damn hot while I am an unshapely carrot?'
Then Erik turned around and Charles felt his knees go weak. Erik wasn't wearing anything underneath the leather jacket.
As Erik spotted Charles a huge smile spread on his face and he came over and Charles realised there was actually something written on Erik's naked chest. He felt his cheeks grow warm and his heart skip a beat as he read the words. 'Charles' Fluffy Bunny'
“Hello lovely carrot! You look delicious to my bunny eyes. May I nibble at you?”
Charles grinned. “Well, I don't just let any bunny have a taste of me, but you are such a …” Charles took a deep breath, “sexy bunny, I can't say no.”
They kissed, and Charles slid his hands underneath Erik's jacket.
“I feel at a disadvantage here.” Erik looked Charles' costume up and down.
“Apparently carrot-costumes don't come in a sexy variety. Believe me, I checked.”
“Oh, you will always be a sexy carrot to me, especially when I think of peeling the costume off you. Though if you had wanted sexy, you could have gone for body-paint.”
“I see you have gathered some experience with that.” He pointedly looked at Erik's chest, still feeling a little flustered about the declaration.
“Well it is true, and with the costume I wanted to make sure it's clear there is only one person who is allowed to touch my fluffy bunny tail.” Erik finally seemed to have found what he was looking for and his fingers closed on the zip of Charles' costume. He started to pull it down but Charles stopped him. “Since the costume is made of velvet and rather warm, I might have decided not to wear a shirt underneath.”
Erik raised an eyebrow. “Are you teasing your bunny?”
“I may or may not be, but if my bunny wants to find out about that I would highly suggest we go somewhere more private.”
Erik grinned. “Alright, lets see how fast a carrot can run when chased to my office by a bunny. I'll even give you a head-start.”
X
The cleaning personnel coming in early the next morning were rather surprised to find various parts of a carrot costume strewn haphazardly around the corridor leading to Dr. Erik Lehnsherr's office. And someone had taped onto the door a scribbled note. “Dr. Fluffy Bunny finally caught the carrot!”