This is my first AU fic, and it wasn't at all what I thought it'd be...at first, it was going to be a coffee shop AU, as that's one of my ultimate kinks, but I didn't feel like writing one. Then, suddenly about two weeks ago, I got this brilliant business world AU and I started writing. It doesn't particularly follow the "business world," but I changed it to my liking.

Erik is the CEO of Shaw Enterprises, while it's rival, Cerebro Enterprises' CEO is Charles. They meet as strangers.

First chapter's honestly not very interesting, but I've written the next two chapters already (: I'll post the next one tomorrow, most likely. We'll see how much interest in this fic (interest=reviews).

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: First Class nor do I own it's characters. Beta'ed by the lovely ReadbyRain15.

10/15/11: I would like to let everyone know that I will not be updating this fic. However, if you'd like, continue to read. Plenty of people have told me that they had induced a cavity with the fluffiness of this fic, and I am so proud for that.

Courting My Rival

01. Typical Days Are What He Lives For

It is a typical day, and typical days are what Erik Lehnsherr lives for.

He wakes up early, at 5 am as usual, and brushes and flosses his teeth (must keep these teeth healthy, he thinks, though he'd never tell anyone) and hops into the shower for a hot, steamy fifteen minute shower. After, he lets his hair air-dry, going off for breakfast at the diner nearby—he will never try to cook again, not after that specific incident with the eggs in the frying pan, temperature spiked up too high—where he orders his usual french toast and black coffee.

The blonde upbeat waitress's name is Raven (he had learned that after going to the diner for months and finally asking for her name weeks ago—he is not the type to warm up to people so easily, but he had relented when it was she who continued to take his orders), and he chats with her for a while, though still a bit uptight. She teases him for it, which makes him get slightly flustered, then brush it off like he would dust. He leaves when Raven is just about done with her shift this morning—why she was working so early, he has no idea and is frankly slightly sorry for her, though he knows her well enough that she doesn't want pity—and drives forty minutes to Shaw Enterprises.

He parks in his special parking space, which so happens to be relatively close to the entrance, and takes his suitcase, walking briskly in.

Emma Frost, his secretary, says hello, and he says so back, nodding his head in greeting. He is early, as he always is, but that is the way he lives—precise, on time, and alone—and he likes it that way.

His day goes by normally, not fast nor slow, with people coming in and out of his office despite his protests for them to leave. He looks over reports on how Shaw Enterprises is doing—he is the CEO after all; he has to look over everything—and has a small coffee and bagel break at roughly 1:27 pm to substitute for lunch, as always.

He looks over the reports again, still chewing on the plain bagel in his hand, wondering why they are behind. Granted, they were only behind by one percent against their rival corporation, Cerebro Enterprises, but one percent was a lot. He shouts a bit into the phone, completely intimidating the person on the other line, who had just picked up the phone to answer, and is not at all who Erik thought he was. Yes, just a typical day.

x-x-x

Shaw Enterprises was a large, successful company, previously owned by Sebastian Shaw. Everyone depended on their software, Erik knew, and so they had millions, billions sold (he wasn't sure how much yet, as the latest version had been released quite recently). It was the ultimate software against viruses, hackers, and anything that could possibly get in, or so Shaw Enterprises claimed, so why were they behind Cerebro Enterprises? As far as he knew, nothing new had been released for months, so it couldn't be right.

Erik closed his eyes as he let the paper fall onto his desk, bring both hands to cover his face.

He should quit.

He really should.

But he didn't. He never did.

And those thoughts stayed in his head all day, as even more people stream in and out of his office to consult him, to ask him for advice, to report to him on trivial things that could have been said at a different time.

He didn't take another break, though he knew he should, but he had too much work to do.

There had been too much work thrust into his hands, he thought. He wouldn't have even been in this situation if that damn Shaw had gotten his act together instead of going bankrupt. It seemed as if one day Shaw was running the company with Erik as his close assistant, then the next, he had gotten bankrupt (twice now, Erik remembered) and had all the work handed over to Erik to stress and ponder over.

That, however was not the most horrible part. Though people would say that he was a stoic, uncaring man, Erik hated firing people. But he did, swiftly, looking away when the fired employee got slightly emotional—it had depended on the type of person, but emotion was always involved—and walking away, slamming the door to the fired-employee's office in the process. He didn't do it often, but it always had to be done. He would often try to push the task onto Frost, but she always refused due to the fact that she was a prideful woman who didn't deal with those kinds of things.

Erik argued with her about that, sometimes, because though she had pride, she was his secretary. And therefore, she was obligated to. But in the end, it was always him doing the firing.

Frost had always treated him like that, and he was slightly thankful for her. His employees had always been quite afraid of him, and that fear had increased after he had suddenly gotten the CEO position of the company. She had always been loyal to the company, to Sebastian Shaw specifically (as she was his lover, after all, though no one would dare say that to her face) and continued to treat Erik as if he were simply still the assistant.

He got home late, at approximately 11 pm, though he wasn't sure. By the time he made it into his apartment, it was nearly 12, and he almost went to collapse on the couch.

The only thing that stopped him from doing so was to check his e-mail. Frost had often mentioned to him that his Blackberry was very distracting, and so she had basically banned him from using it at work.

He checked all three of his e-mail accounts, and when he finally got to his default one, he scrolled down his inbox and sorted through the e-mails, moving the spam messages into the trash. Finally, he found the one he had wanted, beaming to himself (an overly large grin that showed way too much teeth) as he read it.

Subject: #524: Chteau Latour Pauillac
Show details 6.22pm (6 hours ago)
waitinglist[at]chteau[dot]com to eriklehnsherr[at]gmail[dot]com

#524: Erik Lehnsherr

Mr. Lehnsherr, we would like to inform that the wine, Chteau Latour Pauillac, is available tomorrow morning. Please come early, as we have limited stock.

Thank you

x-x-x

Subject: #518: Chteau Latour Pauillac
Show details 6.02pm (8 hours ago)
waitinglist[at]chteau[dot]com to cerebroxmutation[at]live[dot]com

#518: Charles Xavier

Mr. Xavier, we would like to inform that the wine, Chteau Latour Pauillac, is available tomorrow morning. Please come early, as we have limited stock.

Thank you

Charles grinned. He would wake up early the next morning, he tells himself, and would pick up the wine before work, shoving the paperwork aside on his desk.

See, told you: not a very interesting chapter. The next one will have Charles/Erik in it for sure. Review if you would please?