Fic: The Heart's Dark Crossroads (XMFC, Erik/Charles, NC 17)

[ginbitch]

Title: The Heart’s Dark Crossroads

Fandom: Xmen: First Class

Pairing: Erik/Charles

Length: c. 6k

Beta: The sublime kate_lear and the beautiful fengirl88 (and vice versa). Words can’t describe how grateful I am.

Warnings: Sex (explicit), homophobia (comparatively non-explicit)

Rating: NC17

This fic was originally written for a fic-exchange prompt by splintercat on erik_charles which

Comments

[ginbitch]

I am utterly blown away by this comment! Thank you very much!

I am so glad you felt this slightly redeemed the film - not least because many of your criticisms were justified. Charles _is_ prissy and smug and complacently patronising - at least at the start of the film (even if his control of his powers may not be as perfect as he thinks...). In some ways, he has much further to come as a character than Erik, who is traumatised but who knows who he is. I think that's probably what made me start to wonder how on earth Charles would cope with the vast and uncomfortable fact of being gay in the hostile context of the early 1960s. Researching the period detail on this one - working out what he might have read, seen or thought - was one of the great pleasures of writing this and I'm so glad you thought it worked. I suspect I wrote a lot of my own coming out into this story and I'm glad you didn't think that it felt clunky.

I am particularly glad that you liked George - and that you felt he offered an acceptiable alternative to the film's questionable treatment of black characters. I found myself wondering a lot about the mutants who _didn't_ join Charles and Erik - and their motivations. This is a 'verse in which the personal and political collide on such an epic scale, and in such multifaceted ways - there's lots of aspects of that to explore beyond what was given on screen.

But most of all, I'm delighted you though that the writing worked - the highest possible praise, especially from you! Thank you very much!

*glows*

<3 <3 <3