«I shouldn't be in love with you!»
Despite the angry desperation with which the words were flung at him Erik’s hope rose. Not all was lost, he wasn’t too late to redeem himself, to make amends for the horrible mistake of putting vengeance before love.
He should have never left. He knew that now, oh, how he knew it. But the days following the accident had been a whirlwind of guilt and terror and he’d had no idea how to handle it all. In the end he’d done what he always did - channelled everything into a seething rage; an obsessive need to hunt down the driver of the other car and make him pay with his life for the damage he’d done.
If only that driver had truly been responsible for the accident… but Erik had been the one not paying attention to the road.
“Please,” He said simply, raising his hand's palms in a gesture of peace. “Please Charles, talk to me. I can never undo what I did to you -he glanced at Charles’ legs- but I want to know if there is some way out of this mess where we don’t end up alone again. Because for all that it’s worth, I love you.”
| ~ | There was a swift moment of abashed silence hovering over his furiously roaring mind; a wisp of guilty remorse for snapping at Erik like that, just the second when those last three words left his lips. Charles wanted so desperately to give in, wanted to believe that his estranged friend meant it; but he knew it was a lie. It had to be and it fuelled his anger even more, than it amplified the lovesick agony inside his heart.
➝ «Erik Lehnsherr; don't you dare talking about love. Don't you dare trying to waltz back into my life with a lie like that. I knew you were selfish, but I never reckoned you as cruel. How can you talk about love, when you left me without a trace after that accident? How can you talk about love, when you abandoned me and never thought of even letting me know you were still alive? How can you talk about love, when the only part that remembers you as beautiful and bright is the broken hollow in my heart?»
➝ The device at his back droned dangerously, but Charles didn't care, when the tears he had tried to hold back started falling down freely.