carlyinrome | FIC: Disadvantage (X-Men, Charles/Erik, PG-13)

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Huh. I wrote an X-Men: First Class story for

copa_cetic the other day, and after two days of being up at AO3, it already has more hits than my most popular story.

Huh. Why can't people get this excited about my Thunderheart stories?

The story in question: Charles has seen an expensive bottle of English cologne on Erik’s dresser, but to Charles he always smells metallic, like the earth after a good rain. Usually, Charles is good at understanding how other people see the world, but with Erik he is sometimes not sure what is reality as other people see it, and what is echoes of Erik’s thoughts and memories. How he sees Erik, and how others see him. It is not a question of reality, or of truth, because these things are subjective. It is just that he is at a disadvantage where Erik is concerned.

“I win again,” Erik says, a grin slicing across his face. “You need to find your game.”

He bends for a moment, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Beads of sweat course down his neck, splatter against the ground.

Charles’ lungs burn. This is the third lap around the grounds he has lost to Erik, and Erik is only more pompous with each victory. Charles tries to stretch the fire from his joints, and not to glower. Usually winning isn’t important to him, but there’s something about Erik’s ever-growing self-satisfaction that that drives him from reason.

Erik stretches up. “Ready to go again?”

Charles catches the spark of mischief in Erik’s eyes, and for a moment, without willing it, he reads Erik’s mind. Erik has Charles in hand, his fingers gripping his hair; he is forcing Charles against the manor’s wall and kissing him so hard his lungs burn as they do now, after three races around the grounds.

Charles flushes, and forces himself out of Erik’s mind. He starts running before Erik can call time. Behind him, he can hear Erik curse, and then laugh, his feet pounding the earth.

Charles will win this race.