Strange Bonds Between Strangers
Author's Note:
So a word on what this is, it's not exactly the movie continuity but it uses the cast, it's not Ultimate X-men...it's...well I don't know what it is yet but let's find out together shall we? This is set in the movieverse and I just started writing it. I've tweaked the years forward a bit because I may turn this into a series...I'm not sure yet.
Warnings: Rated T for now I guess it's slash but I don't know yet, I can make it very blatant if I want or more precisely if fans want, so yeah...let's hear what you have to say and I may post a part 2 with some action and some slash. I can also get very explicit if the mood catches me...it's all based on what the masses feel. I think it came over a lot slashier than I intended.
Cast: James McEvoy and Michael Fassbender as Charles & Eric respectively.
Erik had been 5 when his father had been killed by guard brutality in Auschwitz. His mother had died the next year, being force to march to Loslau but Erik had escaped, his chains had broken apart and he had run as several guards found their helmets constricting, shattering their skulls. A young boy fleeing through the countryside...he was saved by Russian soldiers after they marched on Auschwitz and liberated what was left of the prisoners. They had found him starved and cold, wandering the countryside near the place he had been forced to call home because home was where your family was and that was where his father was buried and his uncle and his aunt and his grandmother and his cousin...he was alone.
Charles had been lucky. Blessed in comparison. His sorrows had been subversive, more subtle, more...drawn out. His ailing mother and his bullying step brother, he felt guilty for the bad dreams but he had Erik to help now. Charles had been plagued by half remembered whispers in his mind, the shock of every thought in a five mile radius striking an unprepared young mind...it had left him blocking off parts of his memory and feeling utterly isolated. He had been lecturing in Scientific Ethics when Erik had tracked him down through his work on what he called "the X-gene" a project he could never seem to get funding for. He'd left a simple note under Charles' door during class time and
They had sat in an alcove of the Massachusetts in and Erik had poured the vodka, eyes intensely staring into Charles. "Do you think it's possible, genetic mutation allowing for capabilities never before seen in nature?"
"That's the part the board had trouble with...cheap science fiction they called it...but yes" Charles nodded, leaning forward to keep his voice quiet but still allowing himself to be heard. Erik leaned in as well. "I know it can happen. I think it already has. I think it's happening right now..."
"...happening right now" Erik seemed dazed as he spoke, their faces inches apart, a time for sharing secrets. "You think that there are people that are...different like you suggested?"
"Yes. I know there are" Charles said, a smile tugging on his narrow mouth. He had dimples – this was obvious because he smiled a lot. He leaned in a hairs breath closer. "People with incredible abilities, amazing powers...they're out there..." They're right here
Erik shivered and then looked at Charles. "You..." he murmured.
"Promise not to tell?" Charles said slowly. "I know we've only just met but...I feel I know you"
"What did you do?" Erik said, moving in just that millimetre closer
"Thoughts I..." I can project thoughts...I can hear them too...I don't read minds without permission but...I could...oh dear...you're going to react badly...I...
Erik put his hand over Charles' and shook his head. "Not at all" his strong jaw set in an expression of determination. "Watch" his brow crinkled and Charles gasped as the knives and forks from their dinners rose up and drifted along the table.
"Amazing..." Charles murmured. "We should be careful"
"Yes I...I've never really shared this with anyone. I never thought I could, find someone like me I mean, someone who...understood who...was one too"
"Was one what?"
"A ...Mutant"
"Oh. Yes" they stared at each other, faces close in the dusky light of the corner. Everything seemed quiet around them, the air was pregnant with potential...Erik's lip twitched and he seemed about to say or do something...when a cheer rose.
Charles and Erik dived apart, the moment of awareness ruined by the other people in the bar. "Looks like someone has finally beaten the beer challenge" Charles laughed nervously. "They fill up the big –um – cups and...and the contestants drink without spilling a drop and the first one to win and not throw up is...is declared the winner and drinks here for free until their record is broken..." he was flustered. Erik was confused.
"I...how novel" Erik said with a slow laugh. "Not my cup of tea though"
Charles bit his lip. "I can't believe it...I can't believe I'm not alone...I...let's get out of here". Erik looked at him, his expression unreadable and a faint question on his lips. "My apartment is nearby we can talk there. I live alone. My parents bought it for me..."
Erik seemed unsure but then nodded. They had left into the cool December night and it occurred to Erik that really Charles should have been going home for Christmas surely. He knew the Xavier's were wealthy – when he'd been looking around Harvard he had found at least five generations connected to the campus somehow. Or maybe it was only three but one had been very enthusiastic.
They walked close together through the dark. It was 1967 and all was well, a light dusting of snow had started falling at dusk and was caking the paths in all its frozen glory. They were silent, their hot breath hitting the cold air so feathery clouds arose off their lips. "People need difference so they have a defined line to exact their violence on, the people that need to exact their violence are those who most hate themselves, they last out at the people that are different out of envy or insecurity" Charles was reciting the words off. "Difference is suppressed by a majority so that it can feel powerful but it will always fear the day the minority is a minority because it has power the majority lacks."
"You read my articles?"
"Yes. You were writing about the Latverian death camps not so long ago...but it goes deeper doesn't it... you have something inside you that is eating away at you. I can understand that."
They stopped at the door to a town house and Erik glanced at the bells on the side of the door, one had a card that read Prof. C. Xavier in the little plastic slip. Charles was fumbling for his keys. "Allow me" smiled Erik, caressing the lock on the door, feeling the hum of the metal, making the mechanism turn slowly so the door swung open.
"Hah...useful"
"Yes."
Erik liked proximity to Charles, it was grounding, there was something about the young man that was... soothing... he liked to think it was the fact they had their...abilities in common. But there was more to it than that.
They climbed the stairs to the second floor, Charles joking about a good work out on the steps and how it was quiet and most of the people here were away for the holidays. "We could scream our heads off and no one would hear us" he chuckled as he found his keys and opened the door.
The apartment was neat, meticulously kept and...warm...there was a chaos of files with coloured paper jutting out of the pages, models and charts, a small kitchen on one side, a small bathroom on the other and a very small bedroom just ahead, all based around a sofa, every wall was a bookcase and even some of the floor.
"I should go" Erik said suddenly. Charles was in the process of taking off his coat.
"What? Why? You only just arrived. I want to talk more about...our abilities"
Erik felt colour rising to his face. "I – I have to...too much to drink, I've had too much to drink and the hotel I'm staying in is unpleasant and I don't want to spend too long away from my things" – the small bag of them that there were. "I should let you sleep; you probably have class tomorrow or today if it's after midnight"
"...Tomorrow is Saturday" Charles said slowly.
There was an awkward pause.
"Yes I suppose it is."
"It's because I'm telepathic isn't it" murmured Charles. "I don't read people's minds without permission, not unless I must, I used to be a lot more...flagrant in its use but...not anymore..."
"No! No it isn't that it's just...well I...it's all very strange to find out that you are a...a mutant as well" he looked around the hall to see if any of the room doors had opened. "...I don't want to overwhelm you...I...ha-ha...so yes I will leave and...And we should see each other again soon." Charles looked upset. Erik felt terrible but he was afraid of his thoughts being read, of broadcasting too loudly...
"Tomorrow?" Charles' eyes flicked to the clock. "Today even? We can try to do some tests, I mean with another sample I might be able to prove the X-gene exists."
Erik nodded. "Yes okay...Tomorrow...yes...at 2 o'clock?"
"Here?"
"Y-Yes okay. I'll ring the bell" Erik said as he pulled the door closed and allowed himself a moment to rest his head on the cold varnished wood. He swore he could hear Charles on the other side of the door...this was...very unusual...to meet someone so like you...Erik didn't want Charles to see the big ball of hatred eating away at him. Erik had lost everyone and it had grown that seething rage to a greater size...and now he was wondering if it was that same hatred that had pushed people away...no not wondering...he knew it. The telepath had given Erik a new power the ability to read his own mind and his own soul.
Erik didn't analyse why he hurried away, back to a rattrap on the other side of town. He just did.
But he wasn't alone anymore. That was well worth remembering.
=======BREAK
The day after their first meeting Erik had been nervous to approach Charles again, he had rung the doorbell and been told to go on up by a nice lady at the door. His own suspicious mind had critiqued her for being so trusting...he needed to stop that...right? Eventually there would be more of them, more mutants, and that would give guidance...right? To society? They'd see that this was a group of people that weren't deserving of torment because they could offer so much...
Charles answered the door in a towel and shirt, toothbrush in mouth, half his face covered in shaving cream and a single sock on his foot. "Mmffmmmeemffrspfft"
"What?"
"Sorry. Overslept" Charles managed to say as he tried to avoid dribbling toothpaste. He hurried into the kitchen, then realised he meant to be in the bathroom and hurried across the small apartment. "PFFT! There's coffee brewing"
"Oh...thanks" Erik said.
"Don't bother with the fridge, I can't even cook toast and all I have is two eggs and some milk, not even enough to scramble". Erik made French toast.
"Oh wow a breakfast that isn't cereal" Charles said as they sat on his couch and ate. "Oh and it tastes good!"
"It's not breakfast after two in the afternoon...and you learn to cook when you travel as much as I do"
"Where have you been?"
Erik blinked. "South America mostly" he said slowly. "Paris. Latveria. Ireland. Lots of places really"
"You're a journalist?"
"Sort of. I needed money and writing travel guides helped, and then it became political commentary on the places I visited. I wanted to make the world stand up and take action against injustice...seems they didn't care quite so much."
Charles shrugged. "Things take time, no change is instantaneous"
"Not even for mutants?"
"Not even for mutants" Charles smiled.
"I wish we could do something"
"How do you mean?" Erik looked at the other man over the tiny table in the corner of the kitchen. He'd had to beat off a landslide of paper to make space at it for more than a single bowl of cereal.
"If someone had taught me how to be ready for my powers, if I'd had peers, a structure, people that could show me how to look after myself...how to do some good with my powers..." Charles sighed. "I'd love to be there when the explosion happens"
"Explosion?"
"Oh I estimate that in about 10 years the first surges in mutant births will really be noticeable" he chewed on his French toast thoughtfully. "Can you imagine? A whole generation of children born with the potential to change the world"
Erik pursed his lips. "For the better" his mind flickered back to Bolivia and the escaped Nazi...the old man in the bar...the knife...the end of that worm's life...it was a cold feeling. A wrong feeling. He should not be feeling that around someone as hopeful as Charles.
"Maybe" Charles said. Then he gasped and winced.
"What's wrong?" Erik asked.
"N-nothing" Charles said slowly. "Just...ah...just a headache, I've been trying to control my reception ability for thoughts and...Well, its tricky sometimes people are broadcasting stuff they subconsciously want to tell people". Erik tensed slightly. "But all I get is the pressure, nothing specific, just...a feeling".
Erik pursed his lips. "Do I scare you?" he asked, not sure why he let the question come out but... he needed to know, from Charles of all people.
"...Yes" Charles said at last. "I'm scared for you. You scare me because I see a good man getting lost in something dark and the world suffering because of that loss."
Erik stared at him. "...What?"
"I can feel a lot of emotions coming off you, not thoughts, it's not empathy either...just...I feel your turmoil. It's up to you to decide if you want it to consume you but I for one believe that we can save lives of humans and mutants if we work together"
Erik covered his face. "I have nightmares...of...of being put in a cage by humans, being labelled and tagged and...I was in Auschwitz I will NEVER go back, Charles, NEVER...and I fear the humans because I can feel it...that hatred...waiting for them to find out about us...we're different and they will kill us for it". He felt Charles' hands on his own, pulling them from his eyes, the lean young man kneeling before him on the tiled floor.
"We can't give in to hatred and fear, Erik. Don't hate the ignorant, pity them, don't lose yourself, your good heart, to the darkness, we can show people how wrong they are if we just try" he said softly.
"I'm not a good heart, Charles"
"I think you are"
"You wouldn't if you knew me, you don't know me Charles, and you don't know what I've done...do you?"
"No" Charles said. "But it's eating away at you...and I do know you Erik, I know what you want to be, what you can be, I don't need to read minds to see that. I know you can be a hero so long as you let go of the pain and hatred and rage"
"How can I!" Erik roared.
"By remembering that every day you live happily, every day that you deny them the fear they put in you and the hate they wanted to make you feel...every day is a victory over something evil. Don't let it drag you down. That is how they win...you are a good man, do not let them take that away from you"
Erik took his friends hand. Yes. Friend. "I...I don't think I've ever met someone so sure that there is good in the world as you, Charles Xavier"
Charles gave a roguish grin. "You're a flatterer, my friend, I think I have waited my entire life to meet you, I think we have a big journey ahead of us both. Call it a hunch. I also think you've been alone too long. So long that you've never had to talk to someone about this sort of thing and it's built up until the centre couldn't hold anymore". He offered Erik some coffee.
"I actually hate the stuff" Erik confessed reluctantly
"Are you a tea man?"
"Precisely"
Charles beamed. "Splendid, I can't tolerate coffee either, I just keep it for guests and it's about the one thing in this kitchen I can make without being a fire hazard!"
They spent time in Charles' lab, running blood tests, trying to isolate what it was that made the mutants what they were, it appeared to be a mutation on the X-Chromosome, meaning that girls were twice as likely to be mutants but that father's were often the key factor in mutant state of a child due to the activator being carried in male sequences.
It was all beyond Erik after a certain point but Charles would light up and as they sat by the fire with Erik's newspaper articles on people with strange abilities around the world and Charles' charts and notebooks full of findings.
It was like an excited puppy with a new toy or a child on Christmas.
"I figured it out" he said one night over a nice glass of red wine and some Chinese food and yeah it was very feminine but ... damn it if it didn't relax them both.
"I always thought something was...different when I touched the minds of other mutants, I noticed it with you and I've sensed that difference in the brainwaves before, it didn't make sense until I met you...a lot of things didn't make sense until I met you" he grinned nervously. "I think I can sense the specific set of brainwaves that mutants have in order to control their abilities. Even when they aren't actively using their powers the brainwaves are latently detectable"
"So we can find them?"
"Yes"
"And then what?"
The question hung in the air as Charles fiddled with his folder. "My family home is empty ever since my mother...died...it's got a ton of land attached to it and lots of space..."
"Please Charles we hardly know each other" Erik joked.
"Haha" Charles laughed awkwardly. "...I think we should open a school"
Erik raised his eyebrows. "For mutants?"
"Yes. Exactly!" Charles exclaimed. "We could teach them to control their powers in a safe environment and guide them to...to...well...sort of like who they are, not to resent mankind but to try and prove them wrong and better the world, be heroes"
Erik pursed his lips. "And what if they still persecute us? Come after us? Gas us?"
"We have to believe, Erik" Charles said slowly. "We have to believe there can be better, if we gather enough people, guide enough mutants, if we help the world then we can get rights realised and be treated as equals"
"That's a nice dream...but it's naive, they're full of hatred"
Charles frowned. "If we give them a reason to hate us they will, if we prove them wrong and aspire to more than enemies of mankind...we can do so much more" he looked at Erik who now seemed brooding and uncomfortable. "My mother was a human – does that make her evil?"
Erik's eyes flashed. "She's dead"
"That doesn't answer my question!"
Erik rose swiftly, the cutlery near him rattled and hummed. "Humans hate that which is different, humans will always treat us like monsters, we have more power than them, we can lead into a bright new future and they choose, instead, to persecute and hate us"
"You assume!"
"I know! Because all minorities are the same"
"Does persecution against a minority make hating right?"
"It's not persecution! It's retaliation!"
"And if you kill millions of humans it's not genocide?"
"No because it was pre-emptive" Erik clapped his hands over his mouth.
Silence hung between them, the horror on Erik's face was something he would never have betrayed to anyone else...Charles was pulling truths out of him, seeing all of him...and... "I wouldn't have cared to say that to anyone else" Erik said at last. "But you are different"
"Yes. I'm a mutant"
"No...You're...you're...something else..." Erik murmured as he looked at Charles, slowly raking his eyes over the gangly young man who usually carried such a confident swagger but was so empathic on the inside. "You make me think the way I see in my mind is the wrong way, that the path I chose...was wrong."
"We can...talk about it"
Erik stepped in closer. "No...I...Not yet"
Charles held out his arms. "...I've been told I can be a very huggy if that helps"
Erik laughed. "I'm not a hugging person"
"Fair enough" Charles murmured.
He seemed disappointed. "...Thank you" Erik said and gave a hasty hug to his friend.
TBC