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He can hear the raucous music and loud voices long before he steps through the door and the view that greets him does not disappoint. Young men and women – probably all university students – dancing, drinking, and just generally enjoying life. Something he himself hasn’t had a chance to do for months. He lets his eyes wander across the room, trying to take it all in. In one corner a group of girls are happily bobbing along to some popsong Erik has never heard before. In the other corner a group of men are gathered around a pool table. And right in the middle of the crowded room – grabbing everyone’s attention, including Erik’s – is a floppy-haired boy with pink cheeks and cherry-red lips downing a yard of ale while the people around him cheer.
Erik looks on in amazement. A few drops of the ale manage to escape and slide down the young man’s chin and it is as though Erik’s eyes are compelled to follow them. For a brief second his entire body wishes that he were those drops of ale. He is utterly and entirely mesmerized.
Finally the entire yard of ale is gone, much to the ever growing crowd’s delight, and the young man slams the empty glass onto the bar top with a cheerful woop. He wipes a hand across his lips and leans forward to say something to the blonde girl next to him. Erik can’t make it out but it does not appear to be something flirtatious because she just nods and starts walking in the opposite direction.
The girl leaves but the young man is still surrounded by a large group of other people and Erik is being pushed back towards the door. He starts to feel like he is lost at sea and being pulled further and further from a safe harbor. There is something about that floppy-haired boy and Erik needs to get closer to him.
As he starts pushing into the crowd the young man turns around and his eyes lock with Erik’s. A slow smile spreads across his bright red lips and Erik feels like a single ray of sunshine is glowing across his face. A tether between them pulls him closer and closer as the people in the crowd part like the Red Sea and move out of his way. If he didn’t know better he would think something was making them move.
Finally they are standing face to face. So close that their toes are touching. The young man gives him another brilliant smile.
“Hello,” he says, reaching out to shake Erik’s hand. “I’m Charles Xavier.”
“Erik,” Erik says, possibly, slightly breathlessly. “Lehnsherr. Erik Lehnsherr.”
“Lovely to meet you Erik,” Charles says, still keeping Erik’s hand firmly folded against his palm. “You have to excuse me for being so forward, Erik, I blame the yard of ale I just drank, but I have to tell you that you have a gorgeous mutated MC1R gene.”
Erik is still slightly dazed. “I’m sorry, a what?”
“Red hair,” Charles says, releasing Erik’s hand and touching two light fingertips to Erik’s temple where his buzz cut has just started growing out.
“Thank you,” Erik replies, still not entirely sure exactly what is happening.
“Would you like a beer, Erik?” Charles asks. “And perhaps we could get a table somewhere a little more private.”
Erik nods. “Yes,” he says. “I would like that very much.”
He follows Charles. First to the bar to get drinks and then to a small table towards the back of the room away from prying eyes.
“So, Erik,” Charles says after taking a sip of his beer. “What do you do?”
“I’m in the army,” Erik says.
“The British Army?” Charles asks.
“No, the US,” Erik replies. “I’m on leave at the moment and so I decided to do some traveling. Get to see the world before I truly commit to a life in the armed forces.”
“And do you like what you see so far?”
Charles winks and lets the pad of a finger play across the back of Erik’s hand. Erik pulls in a breath at Charles’ brazen flirting. He knows that two men sitting closely together, talking intimately, perhaps even their hands touching, could bring about a lot of unwanted attention. He has learned how to hide that part of himself just like he has taught himself to hide the other deviant side of him. To everyone who meets him he is just Private Lehnsherr. He is never Erik, the young man who likes other young men, and he is certainly never the man who can bend metal at will.
But somehow something tells him that maybe Charles is different to all the other people he has met.
“I am,” Charles says, taking Erik’s hands in his. “I am different. I’m like you, Erik. A mutant.”
For a second Erik’s heart stops. How can he tell? How could he know that? Erik hides everything so deep down, how can Charles know just by looking at him? Erik feels panic starting to creep up his spine. He pulls his hands from Charles’ grasp. Maybe Charles isn’t different. The thought that he should push Charles away and make a run for it flits across his mind.
Erik, calm your mind.
A soft voice speaks inside his head. Charles’ voice.
You have nothing to worry about. Please, just calm your mind.
“How do you do that?” Erik whispers roughly, panic still fading in and out at the back of his mind. “You’re in my head.”
“You have your tricks, I have mine. I’m like you Erik,” Charles says with a surprising calmness and assuredness.
“I thought I was alone.”
“Erik, you’re not alone,” Charles says, smiling warmly. “There are many more just like us. All with their own different talents.”
“And yours is mind reading?” Erik asks. He is still a little on edge, but Charles warm presence all around him feels reassuring now that he can tell Charles only means well.
“I’m a telepath, yes,” Charles says. “And you can control the earth’s magnetic field. It’s a fascinating mutation, Erik. You have an amazing gift”
“I’ve never thought of it as a gift,” Erik says.
“Well, if you’ll let me I will do everything in my power to change your mind.”
Erik looks down at Charles’ thumb gently stroking his knuckles, then up at Charles’ bright, twinkling eyes, and for the first time in a very long time he thinks that maybe this – his mutation – isn’t a curse.
Charles smiles so brightly at him. “You know, Erik,” he says, “I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Then he winks and Erik knows that neither of them is imagining just friendship.