Fic: you on my mind (X-Men: First Class, PG)
title: you on my mind
author: ilovetakahana
word count: 1235
fandom: X-Men: First Class [movieverse]
characters: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Darkholme, Emma Frost
rating: PG
notes: After hearing "Together in Electric Dreams" by Human League over the weekend I was struck by the image of Charles and Erik swing dancing, with each other and with other partners. It was one of the songs I learned to dance to when I was at high school, and the other one is "You On My Mind" by Swing Out Sister. Both these songs helped me write this [and provided the title and the cut text]. Links lead to extended versions of the tracks.
Also archived at http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/.
Charles smiles and side-steps Raven’s errant feet nimbly, just in time, and it’s just as well because he’s not really looking forward to being trod on by her stiletto-heeled boots. Lovely shoes, and he’s told her many times that they make her look amazing, but once is enough, thank you.
The song goes on and on and “Ready?” is all the warning Charles gives before he spins her through another complicated set of steps. Raven laughs with delight and manages to avoid stumbling, and that’s plenty of reason for Charles to twirl her.
“Oh god stop already, getting dizzy,” Raven says, and Charles maneuvers them off the dance floor, and she drops gracefully into a chair at the corner table where she left her purse and he his jacket. “Man, Charles, I really don’t know where you get it from.”
He makes a wry, amused face at her even as he offers her a glass of water, which she all but snatches from his hand. “I did have to go to all those dance classes. The ones you missed because you were learning how to fight?”
“You could have dropped the classes at any time and gone back to your books, I don’t know.”
Charles shrugs, conceding the point.
Dance to him is...well, it’s a liberating thing, and he finds solace in it, and he always comes back from a night spent to the rhythm and to the movement exhausted and clear-eyed. “Same as you, really,” he explains, “you find peace in punching and kicking and throwing. I find mine in threading the steps of a waltz.”
“Except you don’t waltz as often as you do the swing.”
Charles laughs. “It was just an example. Besides, the type of dance is irrelevant, really. I can lead or I can follow. It’s good to do both, change it up, every once in a while.”
As if on cue, the music switches to something else, and while several people on the dance floor cheer they also clear it in a hurry. The track is infamously fast, and it’s caused several groups of dancers to fall into hysterically giggling heaps, too easy to miss the steps because of the rapid beat.
Charles misses all of this, though, because he’s too busy watching the man and the woman still dancing - she’s wearing even more precarious-looking heels than Raven’s, and a perfectly fitted white skirt that flares out dramatically with every kick and spin.
And she’s leading the man - who is all long lean lines, who dances with a whipcord grace, whose grin is wild and unfettered, laugh lines all around his eyes and his mouth.
The two dancers shimmy and sweep and they cover nearly the entire floor as they go through their figures.
“Wow,” Raven says, nearly breathless with admiration. “What I wouldn’t give to dance like that.”
The song comes to an end, and Charles is among the first to applaud - and the woman, unexpectedly, steps behind her taller companion, bright red blush blooming across her cheeks.
The man shakes his head and murmurs something to her, and pulls her back to his side, and he gestures to her, directs the applause her way.
And when that pair steps off the dance floor, they make a beeline for the table right next to Charles and Raven’s, and the woman sits down and crosses her legs primly - and takes her shoes off. They hear the man laugh and watch him put a hand on her shoulder, and say “I’ll get you something to drink.”
Predictably, Raven leans over. “You guys. Were amazing.”
The woman smiles and plays with her pale blonde hair. “Oh, thank you. It takes a lot of practice - mind you, Erik didn’t even want to learn how to dance, and now we do this as often as we possibly can.”
Charles rolls that name around in his mind, smiling to himself. The man who follows so well - his name is Erik, and he’s a hell of a dancer, and it will be a pleasure to watch him dance again.
And then he hears his name, and looks over to see that - of course - Raven is sitting at the blonde’s table, and they’re shaking hands. “Raven Xavier, and that’s my brother over there. Charles, come meet Emma,” she says.
He does. “Your dancing was brilliant,” he says.
“Emma?” And the man - Erik, is standing next to Charles, several inches’ difference in their heights, and he’s holding two drinks, and he’s blinking owlishly down at the table.
“Erik, these are Charles and Raven,” Emma says, smiling widely.
“Pleased to meet you,” Erik says, recovering instantly. “Please tell me she hasn’t started telling you about how we started out yet.”
“Well I’m going to ask now, since you look so scared,” Raven teases.
“I’m not going to embarrass you too much, baby brother,” Emma says.
Erik groans quietly, and starts laughing.
There are handshakes all around, and Erik’s hand around his is rough and warm and huge, and Charles sits down with alacrity.
They’re all soon engrossed in conversation, and Charles finds himself bantering as easily with their new acquaintances as he does with Raven, until - “...really popular song around these parts, no idea why,” Emma says, as the speakers play the opening bars of “Together in Electric Dreams”.
“That’s Charles’s favorite song,” Raven says, and she grins at him and makes a shooing motion. “Go, go, you won’t leave this place happy till you get to dance to that.”
“You seem like you’re going to sit it out, so how can I do anything?” Charles asks, reasonably.
“How about dancing with someone else?” Erik says.
Emma smirks and blows out a sigh of relief. “Oh, finally.”
Charles feels his eyebrows climbing towards his hairline - but he smiles and gets to his feet, and he manages to quell his blush, and he walks to the dance floor with Raven and Emma giggling after him, and he turns around to offer his hand to Erik.
Erik smiles, a slow grin that lights up his eyes, and he takes Charles’s hand easily, and they step into each other with barely any effort at all, like they’ve been dancing together all their lives.
Charles is more than happy to follow Erik, this time - and he’s glad he does because they kick and spin together, never letting go of each other, and the dance is like an electric current that thrills along his nerves, that moves his feet and all of him, bypassing the brain completely, reckless wild rhythm, and over it all he’s very conscious of Erik watching his every movement.
He knows he’s watching Erik just as closely.
When the song ends, there’s a wolf-whistle in their direction, and Erik laughs and covers his face with one hand.
Charles laughs, and pats Erik’s arm, and says, sincerely, “Thank you for that. I enjoyed it very much.”
“So did I,” Erik says - and then he blushes. “Any chance it could happen again?”
“Certainly it can,” and Charles fumbles in his pockets for his mobile phone, offers Erik his number. “Next week?”
Erik grins, and there’s no music playing, but that doesn’t stop him from grabbing Charles by wrist and shoulder and then dipping him - and the grin grows wider at Charles’s half-surprised laugh. “I look forward to it.”
author: ilovetakahana
word count: 1235
fandom: X-Men: First Class [movieverse]
characters: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Darkholme, Emma Frost
rating: PG
notes: After hearing "Together in Electric Dreams" by Human League over the weekend I was struck by the image of Charles and Erik swing dancing, with each other and with other partners. It was one of the songs I learned to dance to when I was at high school, and the other one is "You On My Mind" by Swing Out Sister. Both these songs helped me write this [and provided the title and the cut text]. Links lead to extended versions of the tracks.
Also archived at http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/.
Charles smiles and side-steps Raven’s errant feet nimbly, just in time, and it’s just as well because he’s not really looking forward to being trod on by her stiletto-heeled boots. Lovely shoes, and he’s told her many times that they make her look amazing, but once is enough, thank you.
The song goes on and on and “Ready?” is all the warning Charles gives before he spins her through another complicated set of steps. Raven laughs with delight and manages to avoid stumbling, and that’s plenty of reason for Charles to twirl her.
“Oh god stop already, getting dizzy,” Raven says, and Charles maneuvers them off the dance floor, and she drops gracefully into a chair at the corner table where she left her purse and he his jacket. “Man, Charles, I really don’t know where you get it from.”
He makes a wry, amused face at her even as he offers her a glass of water, which she all but snatches from his hand. “I did have to go to all those dance classes. The ones you missed because you were learning how to fight?”
“You could have dropped the classes at any time and gone back to your books, I don’t know.”
Charles shrugs, conceding the point.
Dance to him is...well, it’s a liberating thing, and he finds solace in it, and he always comes back from a night spent to the rhythm and to the movement exhausted and clear-eyed. “Same as you, really,” he explains, “you find peace in punching and kicking and throwing. I find mine in threading the steps of a waltz.”
“Except you don’t waltz as often as you do the swing.”
Charles laughs. “It was just an example. Besides, the type of dance is irrelevant, really. I can lead or I can follow. It’s good to do both, change it up, every once in a while.”
As if on cue, the music switches to something else, and while several people on the dance floor cheer they also clear it in a hurry. The track is infamously fast, and it’s caused several groups of dancers to fall into hysterically giggling heaps, too easy to miss the steps because of the rapid beat.
Charles misses all of this, though, because he’s too busy watching the man and the woman still dancing - she’s wearing even more precarious-looking heels than Raven’s, and a perfectly fitted white skirt that flares out dramatically with every kick and spin.
And she’s leading the man - who is all long lean lines, who dances with a whipcord grace, whose grin is wild and unfettered, laugh lines all around his eyes and his mouth.
The two dancers shimmy and sweep and they cover nearly the entire floor as they go through their figures.
“Wow,” Raven says, nearly breathless with admiration. “What I wouldn’t give to dance like that.”
The song comes to an end, and Charles is among the first to applaud - and the woman, unexpectedly, steps behind her taller companion, bright red blush blooming across her cheeks.
The man shakes his head and murmurs something to her, and pulls her back to his side, and he gestures to her, directs the applause her way.
And when that pair steps off the dance floor, they make a beeline for the table right next to Charles and Raven’s, and the woman sits down and crosses her legs primly - and takes her shoes off. They hear the man laugh and watch him put a hand on her shoulder, and say “I’ll get you something to drink.”
Predictably, Raven leans over. “You guys. Were amazing.”
The woman smiles and plays with her pale blonde hair. “Oh, thank you. It takes a lot of practice - mind you, Erik didn’t even want to learn how to dance, and now we do this as often as we possibly can.”
Charles rolls that name around in his mind, smiling to himself. The man who follows so well - his name is Erik, and he’s a hell of a dancer, and it will be a pleasure to watch him dance again.
And then he hears his name, and looks over to see that - of course - Raven is sitting at the blonde’s table, and they’re shaking hands. “Raven Xavier, and that’s my brother over there. Charles, come meet Emma,” she says.
He does. “Your dancing was brilliant,” he says.
“Emma?” And the man - Erik, is standing next to Charles, several inches’ difference in their heights, and he’s holding two drinks, and he’s blinking owlishly down at the table.
“Erik, these are Charles and Raven,” Emma says, smiling widely.
“Pleased to meet you,” Erik says, recovering instantly. “Please tell me she hasn’t started telling you about how we started out yet.”
“Well I’m going to ask now, since you look so scared,” Raven teases.
“I’m not going to embarrass you too much, baby brother,” Emma says.
Erik groans quietly, and starts laughing.
There are handshakes all around, and Erik’s hand around his is rough and warm and huge, and Charles sits down with alacrity.
They’re all soon engrossed in conversation, and Charles finds himself bantering as easily with their new acquaintances as he does with Raven, until - “...really popular song around these parts, no idea why,” Emma says, as the speakers play the opening bars of “Together in Electric Dreams”.
“That’s Charles’s favorite song,” Raven says, and she grins at him and makes a shooing motion. “Go, go, you won’t leave this place happy till you get to dance to that.”
“You seem like you’re going to sit it out, so how can I do anything?” Charles asks, reasonably.
“How about dancing with someone else?” Erik says.
Emma smirks and blows out a sigh of relief. “Oh, finally.”
Charles feels his eyebrows climbing towards his hairline - but he smiles and gets to his feet, and he manages to quell his blush, and he walks to the dance floor with Raven and Emma giggling after him, and he turns around to offer his hand to Erik.
Erik smiles, a slow grin that lights up his eyes, and he takes Charles’s hand easily, and they step into each other with barely any effort at all, like they’ve been dancing together all their lives.
Charles is more than happy to follow Erik, this time - and he’s glad he does because they kick and spin together, never letting go of each other, and the dance is like an electric current that thrills along his nerves, that moves his feet and all of him, bypassing the brain completely, reckless wild rhythm, and over it all he’s very conscious of Erik watching his every movement.
He knows he’s watching Erik just as closely.
When the song ends, there’s a wolf-whistle in their direction, and Erik laughs and covers his face with one hand.
Charles laughs, and pats Erik’s arm, and says, sincerely, “Thank you for that. I enjoyed it very much.”
“So did I,” Erik says - and then he blushes. “Any chance it could happen again?”
“Certainly it can,” and Charles fumbles in his pockets for his mobile phone, offers Erik his number. “Next week?”
Erik grins, and there’s no music playing, but that doesn’t stop him from grabbing Charles by wrist and shoulder and then dipping him - and the grin grows wider at Charles’s half-surprised laugh. “I look forward to it.”