"Good. I want you to feel safe." He's never going to let anyone hurt Erik again. What Shaw did to him is unforgivable. It's why Charles had kept up that psychic hold on the evil bastard despite knowing that Erik was going to kill him. It was justified, and since it was clearly Shaw or Erik, and who knows how many more who were going to end up dead that day, the choice had been an easy one to make, and it isn't one he's going to regret.

"Now let's play a game. And don't bother saying you'll go easy on me because you never do." Charles starts by moving one of his pawns, sort of carelessly, not giving it much thought, deciding to keep it simple at first. The challenging moves can come later when Erik least expects it.

A couple of games and a few more drinks later, and Charles is reading a book out loud while seated next to Erik. He's put a blanket over the man and pulled up the armrest so they can get comfortable next to each other. "You know, the point of me reading to you is so you'll get some sleep. It'll be hours before we land and we both know you didn't get much rest last night." Sean had accidentally broken his bedroom window, again, and he'd insisted that Erik fix it right away because he wasn't going to share a room with Alex. Charles had only found out about it in the morning when the boys had told him about it.