#erik absolutely gave charles a metal necklace

[thefandomfurry]

Due to request I offer Cherik picnic 🥰 @lopsidedghoul

[weepywillowsap]

WHUMPTOBER CHERIK (but happy ending): Charles wants to save a human village. The only problem is that they don't trust the fae. Erik is his loyal protector, with a deep hatred of humans. But time is running out and Erik has sworn his life to protect his prince. Even if it is at the cost of his own.

The smell of damp soil and rain clung heavily in the air. Erik trudged his way through the thick soil that clung stubbornly to his boots slowing him down. Around him everything was in chaos. Humans were everywhere, running around haphazardly, attempting to escape their village before the dam broke and washed everything away. Long lines of villagers were already making their way under the guidance of Charles’s men to the high grounds of Alagaesia. The first time in a century that humans would breach the protective barrier and step into the magic land. Erik fought down the anger that rose within him at the thought. He would deal with it later, his first priority was to get the prince to safety.

The din of voices and the smell of wet and rotten food grew stronger as he moved further into the village, pushing past the throng of people who were rushing outwards, with little care of who they stepped on in the way. Erik extended his metal sense, zoning in on the familiar sword and necklace of his prince. He found him standing alone in the middle of a group of people, trying to reason with them. Erik could hear raised voices as he drew nearer, he undid his pouch and let the three metallic spheres he kept therein float out and spin lazily in the air behind him. His lips curled in disdain as a familiar anger thrummed in his veins. He could hear Charles pleading, trying to explain to the worthless humans that this was not a fae conspiracy to lead them to the unhallowed lands, the dam would not hold. They would all be swept away.

All eyes drew towards Erik as he stepped into their direct line of view. He felt a warning pinch in his head from Charles. Erik smiled widely, letting all his teeth show. They did not have the time to negotiate with fools. They had tarried here much longer than was safe. Even from this distance he could feel the massive force of the river slamming against the foundations of the dam, the metal holding the rock together, weakening and starting to bend.

“You will not take us demon, we want nothing from your kind” the man standing in front of the group snarled at Charles, his eyes shifting uneasily in between the short, seemingly innocuous man standing in front of him and the newcomer with the manic grin and the spinning spheres.

Erik reached the circle of men and stared at them disdainfully, ignoring the anger coming from Charles. It had become almost second nature to him at this point.

“I can feel the dam you foolish human” Erik drawled, I can feel it give in piece by piece under Jalyaara’s onslaught” he looked around taking in the scared faces around him,

“You were foolish in your pride that you could ever hope to control the blessed one, and now you are foolish enough to refuse the help you do not deserve”

He turned to Charles in the ensuing quiet, “we need to move my prince, if they choose death, then so be it. If we don’t leave now, we will meet the same fate”.

Charles looked at him with the familiar determination in his eyes that always made Erik’s heart ache. His mouth was a displeased straight line and his chin was set, he turned away from Erik without answering and addressed the people once again.

“Please, you know as well as us that what we speak is truth” his voice softened, “we can’t let hatred stop us from choosing what we know is the right path”

He sounded so earnest, his hands open and his eyes pleading, that some people were moved. Some broke out into muttering and whispers.

“Please we do not have long, I give you my word, you will reach Alagaesia safely and from there you can safely return” Charles pushed, “my word as a prince and my word as the lord of Westchester”.

Erik could see the group wavering, but every second was precious. They were already late. Logan was waiting for them at the gates. He looked up at Charles and pushed his urgency at him, he was not exaggerating. It would be too late any second now.

Charles refused to turn and look at him. Erik could read anger in the lines of his face, he was still angry about their fight to leave the humans to their fate. He could tell Charles would not listen to him because he knew Erik did not value their lives equally. It hurt somewhere deep in his chest, as it always did when Charles turned away from him. Love was foolish, Erik knew, it was not for him. Yet, and yet he could not help himself.

“We have to leave my king, it is my duty to see you across safely. Please do not make me break my life’s oath” he pleaded, looking at Charles who was still standing stiffly.

“My life’s oath, Erik, is that all life is worth saving. It does not fall on you to determine who can live and who dies” blue eyes looked up at him, “I will not leave here till my duty is done”.

The mass of people around them looked more uncertain than ever, a voice broke out from the middle,

“I will go, I will come with you”.

A thin woman with her two children said, her voice trembling. “On your oath as a prince”

Charles immediately looked at her and steadily said in the ancient language of humans and fae, “I swear upon my life”.

The woman nodded at him and took her children and started walking rapidly towards the gates, following the thinning crowd of people as the village emptied quickly.

It was as if it was the final straw, the group broke and people followed her, their faces grim and clouded with fear and mistrust.

Only the man who had shouted at Charles and a couple of men remained,

“I will die before I trust the fae”, he spat at the young prince’s feet and turned to move back towards him home.

Erik almost killed him on the spot for this insult, but a sudden warm hand on his arm stopped him.

“Please reconsider, this is foolishness” Charles pleaded again.

The men spat at his feet, and left.

“My prince, we need to leave..” Erik began,

“Yes, yes I know, but the men” Charles said frustrated,

“They have chosen what they have chosen for themselves, pray do not make them choose for us” Erik took Charles by the arm and forced him to look at him.

“If we do not leave, if you don’t lead the humans into Alagaesia they won’t survive. The wards will not let them through. Atleast for their sake, if not mine, move”

Charles looked at him finally, his face was haunted and tired. They had been trying since the night to wrangle the villagers and convince them to leave.

“Yes, yes you are right of course”

Erik released a sigh of relief and turned to run towards the gate with Charles, they barely had any time now.

It was only a few hundred yards but the wet mud made the process difficult. Their boots kept sinking into the mulch and slowing down their progress.

“I did not think you would come back” Charles panted at him as they ran across the main village.

Erik almost snorted, to think that Charles would think he could stay away.

“I do not always have to agree with you my prince, but I should not have let my anger get the better of me” Erik chanced a look at Charles and then turned away, “I can concede that you were right this once. It was our duty to try”

He heard a small amused huff from Charles, and looked at him. His eyes were bright and he looked a little less gaunt than before, “the mighty Erik admitting I am wrong. I will have this day celebrated”

Erik only snorted and sighed in relief as he neared the gates. Logan was standing outside waiting for them impatiently.

“Cutting it mighty fine there eh bub?” he said as they neared him.

Charles bent in half as they stopped next to him, panting from the run, balefully eyeing Erik who stood next to him perfectly calm and put together.

“We do not have time to rest, his highness has tarried longer than was wise”

Charles straightened, the haunted look returning to his eyes again as he turned to Logan and said, “we could not convince everyone”

Logan kept a comforting hand on Charles’s shoulder and said “everyone chooses their own path Chuck, we do what we can and then we move along”.

Erik ignored the annoyance that he felt at that gesture. It was not his place.

A sudden crack of thunder in the sky startled them and people screamed in the distance. The rain around them started falling harder. Erik extended his metal sense again, he could feel the dam and he could feel it giving way slowly but surely. There was a give, a dissonance in the metal used that he had not anticipated. He startled and his eyes widened. No. Could they have been so foolish?

“Erik?” Charles looked at him worriedly, tuned into his emotions as always. “What is wrong?”

“Aurelium” he breathed out, trying his best to tamp down the fear rising in him. They had run out of time

He could hear Logan curse in the background,

“What does that mean?” Charles asked, “Erik” he said steadily, placing a bracing hand on his back.

“The fools used Aurelium where they ran out of Ferrum. The dam won’t hold” even as he said it out loud, a sense of finality overcame him. The monetary panic gave way to absolute calm as he looked into the beloved blue eyes.

“It means that the dam will not hold, I thought we had longer but I was mistaken” he ignored the rightness of the words and turned to Logan,

“From my path to yours, I pass the torch onto you”.

Logan looked up at him in grim acceptance, sorrow lining the years on his face, “it is mine to bear as it was yours, to the end of this life and next”.

Charles was looking between them, panic rising in him as he took in the meaning of the words. He looked at Erik wild eyed, “no! Whatever you think you are doing I forbid it. I forbid this foolishness”, his voice rose in pitch and choked off at the end.

“There is no other way” Erik looked at Charles and drank him in, “if I do not hold the dam now it will flood and sweep everyone away. Sweep you away. All of this will be for naught”

“We will make it” Charles began a little hysterically, “we will rush, we will make it..”

“No” Erik held him by the shoulders to quieten him, ignoring the despair he could see rising in the man in front of him“if I don’t go now..this is my duty and my honor”

“Fuck your duty” Charles snarled, grabbing and pulling Erik towards him “I will not forsake you, how dare you..”

He was interrupted by Logan, who caught him by the waist and made him let go of Erik,

“Logan what!” Charles turned furiously at him,

“I am sorry your highness, but we need to move” and started to bodily drag him away.

“Erik! ERik. You can not do this, you can not leave me. You promised me!” his voice cracked in the middle as tears started streaming down his face.

Erik took a step towards him despite himself, Charles was shouting but Erik couldn’t hear. The rain fell steadily over their heads and the sky rumbled and the dam heaved. He cupped Charles’s cheek softly with his hand, ignoring the despair in his eyes and took in his face for the last time. The blue eyes were rimmed with red, his face was pale, porcelain. His hair was matted on his face, he was the most beautiful being that Erik had the pleasure to love.

He took in a final moment to feel the warmth of Charles's face on his palm.

“You can’t leave me” Charles was sobbing, “let me come with you, I need you by my side”

Erik stroked Charles’s face with his thumb as he let go, “Charles" he said, savouring the name, "you say the cruelest things”

He took a step back, ignoring the prince’s shocked face, and was walking away from his life before he turned back and damned them all.

Charles was shouting in the distance. Erik had no illusions that if he was still in possession of his mind sense, he would have made him turn back. For a moment he thanked the stars, that it was still bound within him tightly. But Emma would know what to do once they found her in Alagaesia. The ache of the future rose in him with every step forward.

He ran as close to the dam as he could and when he could no longer wait, he let his awareness spread and became one with the metal of the dam. It was creaking and crumbling and groaning and it would not hold. He let himself go, searching that one point between rage and serenity. The fire that coursed through him was all love. Under his direction the metal fought, all the metallic objects in and around the village flew towards him, melding with the dam. Strengthening and reinforcing. It was a symphony. He was in the middle. The force of the river rammed into the dam, and he could feel it as it was an extension of himself. He had to hold on. For the people, for his duty, his companions, for Charles. He stood there directing the metal as long as he could. He ignored the pain of over exertion, there was something wet trickling down his nose and ears, but he could not pay attention to it. He stood there for what seemed like a century. He was giving way, a blackness was rising and threatening to overwhelm him. He was teetering at the edge when a sudden crack surprised him, there was a smell of sulphur, and he collapsed. Blissful nothingness.

X

In shock Charles sat on the top of the hillock that marked the entry into Alagaesia. He had managed to open the barrier and let the people cross into the land safely. He remembered nothing. He was numb and he was staring down at the village when with a deafening boom the dam gave way and a furious torrent of water gushed out. There were shouts all around as the river flew swiftly and inexorably wiping and drowning everything in its path. Even from the safety of their altitude, it was a horrifying sight. Amidst the fear of the humans, Charles was shouting till his throat was raw. A part of his mind had just blacked out and turned to nothingness. Erik, Charles thought despairingly, before he kneeled over and passed out.