THE X-MEN FIRST CLASS KINK MEME: PROMPT POST

[iambickilometer]

You know why you're here. You've seen the movie. You're asking yourself, "So where was the gratuitous Emma Frost as White Queen in a corset? When did Mystique totally make it with Beast? WHY IN HEAVENS DID XAVIER AND MAGNETO NEVER MAKE OUT

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[fill] cross-country 1.4/?

[anonymous]

Hank checks the mail slot daily until the next letter shows up, a thin envelope that slides in almost two easily in a pack of catalogs and bills. Alex’s handwriting is verging on illegible to the point where Hank’s not entirely sure how his end of their correspondence continues to arrive intact, but there’s something satisfying about getting a proper envelope, with a neat, tri-folded sheet of paper enclosed. The letterhead says Charles F. Xavier, and seeing it makes Hank wince with a forgotten fondness. He likes the Professor, who proofed his application for the fellowship for him despite everything that happened in the wake of that day on the beach, with Erik and Raven leaving, and the bullet--Charles was astoundingly present, perhaps more present than he had been prior, as if he had suddenly realized how vast the stakes were.

The X-Men were recruiting too, of course, quietly filling up the School. And Hank’s research was to help them all, to make a point, trying to use mutant genetic material to understand who they were, essentially, reading the smallest maps. Hank had met Watson and Crick, just once, when he was still working for the CIA. That was before Watson had come out publicly against mutants and Crick had started encouraging them to breed, to improve the human race.

The DNA itself, though. Hank kept the information about his sources and his motives opaque, but the techniques he was developing alone were significant enough to be of interest to the fellowship committee. The rest of his work was for the X-Men and for himself, to fill the hollow pieces of his understanding.

10/26/66

Alex--

I don’t shed anymore than you’re shedding when your hair clogs the drain. I just have more of it. I don’t know why I’m telling you about this.

A publication called the San Francisco Oracle has started showing up in our mail slot. You know anything about this, since you’re an expert on the city? It’s rather peculiar. They gave me the impression outlawing LSD was something of an unpopular decision. Raven says she had nothing to do with it, but I think we might be subscribed?

All the same here. Raven and I mostly try to avoid talking about recruitment, because it’s rather awkward. But good to hear that Darwin’s back. Is there anyway I could get ahold of his genetic material? Pure energy, sounds iffy, but if there’s something--

-H

p.s. If it’s not drugs, I imagine you shot a man in Reno.

Re: [fill] cross-country 1.4/?

[anonymous]

As a scientist, I appreciate the pretty phrase of "reading the smallest maps". Also, I love that you translated Watson's bigotry and Crick's "benevolent" eugenics views.

The story is also just plain lovely. I'm fond of broody Hank.