Erik stood with his back against the brick wall, his arms crossed firmly across his chest as he tried to stay still. His stomach was churning, excited nerves twisting through his body and giving him the urge to throw up. He bounced back and forth on his feet, eyes darting around him in search for what Charles had said he'd be wearing. Erik knew he wasn't standing in the best position to be seen, but he wanted to make sure that Charles actually came before he showed himself. Sighing, he checked his phone for the umpteenth time, 09:56 AM, Charles should be there soon.

Shit.

A large group of loud people walked past him, effectively blocking half the view of his surroundings. He pushed himself off the wall, glaring at the group, and cut through them. Not being able to see where he was going, he stumbled on a crack in the pavement and lost his footing, accidentally falling into someone.

Strong, small hands grabbed his biceps, one arm moving to hook around his waist to stop him from face planting. One of his own hands fisted in the stranger's loose shirt as he regained his balance. He looked down, intending to apologise mindlessly and walk off, only to stop short, his eyes widening. The stranger gasped, his ridiculously red lips parting slightly as the bright blue eyes widened. Erik trailed his eyes down – brown hair, pale skin, short, blue cardigan, white shirt, grey pants-

"Erik?"

-British accent. A familiar British accent.

Charles.

Erik leant down, closing the gap between them by gently pressing his mouth against Charles'. The shorter man kissed back hesitantly, and Erik's hand loosened its hold on Charles' clothes, instead moving to hold the man around his waist lightly. The kiss was chaste, a simple movement of lips against lips, but Erik thought it was the best he'd ever had; never mind they the fact that they were standing in the middle of a walkway.

He pulled back enough so he could look at Charles' face while he talked, deciding to stay within the man's personal space. He cleared his throat and smiled, "That would be me."

Charles grinned up at him, a faint blush covering his cheeks. His mouth moved but nothing came out, as if he was trying to formulate a sentence but the words weren't coming to him. "You've got a lovely set of DNA," he murmured after a bit, accompanied by a soft laugh, as if he couldn't believe the situation was actually happening.

"Same could be said for you," Erik whispered.

Charles kept grinning, "I certainly hadn't expected that as my hello."

"I promised you a kiss, didn't I?"

"You did," the shorter man replied, "And it was lovely."

"They only get better from here."

"There'll be more?"

"Of course there will be," Erik said, "Unless you don't want more?"

Charles shook his head, "I want more."

"Good."

"We should move out of the walk way."

Erik nodded, pulling away completely but holding a hand out for Charles to grab. The other man did, his fingers intertwining with Erik's. "I believe I made a promise about being a ridiculously-in-love couple in the park?"

"Looks like all of my dreams are coming true today," Charles said, swinging their hands slightly.

Erik squeezed Charles' hand, pulling the smaller man behind him as he weaved through the groups of people and across the street towards the park. "I can't believe we're actually doing this."

"Me neither," Charles replied, stepping closer to Erik's body. "I want to sit you down in front of me and just look at you."

"That can be arranged," Erik said, side stepping an angry lady with a pram. "I think I'd like to do the same to you."

They walked along the sidewalk, Erik keeping Charles close by, his grip on the other man's hand firm. "I have to admit, I didn't think you'd he so attractive."

Erik chuckled, turning his head to look the man in the eyes. "You mean all of your prior text-relationships haven't been with attractive people?"

"Funny," Charles deadpanned. "You're the first, and hopefully the last."

Erik smirked, and Charles had to swallow. Seriously, he got lucky with this one. "Do you mind lying on the grass?"

"No."

"Over here, then," Erik tugged him to their left and walked towards a shady spot under a tall tree. He let go of Charles' hand, dropping to the ground and sitting crossed-legged. He sent an expectant look towards Charles, who giggled as he dropped unceremoniously next to him.

"So..."

"So?"

Charles couldn't help but smile like an idiot, looking towards the grass around them for a moment before meeting Erik's eyes again. "This is surreal," he said, one hand moving towards Erik's sleeve. "I mean, I can't believe it's actually you."

Erik shifted closer to him, his hand grabbing Charles' once more. He ran his fingers down Charles', tracing the small creases and marks covering them. "Part of me didn't think this would happen."

"I never knew you could fall for a wrong number." Erik grinned at him, and despite the amount of teeth and shark-like quality, Charles found it endearing. "I'm serious, I wouldn't have spoken to you again had you not asked me what happened."

"Are you glad you made someone dislocate their knee?"

"I didn't make him-" Charles cut himself off, rolling his eyes. "No, I'm glad I got my sister's number down wrong."

"Had the first few texts not been so odd I probably wouldn't have kept texting, though."

Charles pouted, actually pouted, and Erik was so fucking thankful that he'd kept texting a stranger.

They stayed quiet for a little longer, both just staring at each other while trying to keep the silly grins off their faces. "I suppose we need to talk about some things," Erik said, eventually, and sighed as his free hand pulled stands of grass from the ground.

Charles nodded slowly, manoeuvring his body so he was lying down, his back to the floor as he tilted his head to the side, looking up at Erik. "Where do we start?"

Erik couldn't help but smile at him as he, too, moved so he was lying down. He had his head propped up with one hand, his body resting on its side, and let his free arm wrap loosely around Charles' small waist. It felt weird, being this affectionate in public – or at all, really – but there was something about Charles that drew him towards the other man, and he couldn't quite keep his hands from touching.

"I don't know."

"How about," Charles all but whispered, "We start with the elephant in the room, and I'll tell you that right now you're making my heart beat so fast I think it's going to burst from my chest. Or that I really want nothing more than to kiss you again. Or that for the past month or two your messages have been the best thing about my day. Or that I've never felt more connected to a person in such a short time and that it's ridiculous that I could like you so much already, and that I honestly believe that I'm only going to like you more as time goes on. Or that at times, the reason I don't reply for a bit is because I want it all to sound perfect. Or that I've been stressing out for weeks now because we've been hinting at a romantic edge to our relationship, and I always wished you weren't joking because I really, really, really, like you, Erik."

Erik, for all the shit that was going through his head, couldn't settle on something to reply with. Instead, the hand resting against Charles' skin moved to cradle the man's head, and he leant down to kiss him again. Longer, this time, and a little less chaste. "I was never joking," he murmured against Charles' skin. He leant back again, his hands tracing mindless patterns against the skin of Charles' neck.

Charles gasped at the touch, "Good."

"No really, if I was ever distant it was because I was scared – I still am. You just—you—I don't even know, you're like nothing I've ever experienced before. You just—"

Charles' soft fingers traced his cheek lightly, "You can't articulate it?"

"Yes, no, I don't know. I'm usually good with words."

Charles kept smiling at him, "Just try."

Erik stayed quiet for a bit longer, taking deep breaths as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say, "My reputation is going to go down the drain with what I'm about to say."

"I'm sure I'll like you afterwards anyway," Charles said, and Erik grinned.

"You do something to me no one else ever has. Like right now; I'm hardly ever this affectionate with anyone, never mind in public." Erik shifted his body even closer towards Charles, "Everything we've talked about, it's caused a reaction I just don't have. You make me want to stupid things. I mean, I want to make sure you eat breakfast every day, and listen to you rave on about it when it's good. I want to let you read me your thesis and your research, and not complain at all. I want to listen to the stories about your students and your ridiculous outings with your sister. I want to wake you up early, ignore all your protests, and take you somewhere so I can show you the bloody sunrise."

Erik sighed, his arms tightening around Charles, "I want to sit in a kitchen, watching you bake, and let you feed me any leftovers because I've come to the conclusion that everything you bake is amazing. Hell, I want to watch you cook, and then eat the horrible result in a bid to make you smile. I'll even teach you how to cook, if you want. I want to be able to text you and call you whenever I want, but I also want to have the choice to see you in person and touch you, because now that I've started I don't think I can stop."

Charles' eyes were a bit wet when he smiled at Erik this time, one hand holding the back of Erik's neck as he looked at him. He leant up; mouth pressing against Erik's hard. It felt a bit ridiculous, doing this in the middle of a park, but Charles couldn't care less, and nor could Erik, it seemed.

Erik pulled back, panting slightly "I'm going to let you know now that I won't be doing this whole emotions thing again, not for a very long time, at least."

"It's okay," Charles replied, unable to keep the smile off his face, "I'll live."

"No, seriously, I'm blaming this on the fact that I practically haven't slept in a week, and the adrenaline that comes with meeting you."

"You can't take any of it back, you realise," Charles mumbled, "You've already turned me into a puddle of goo."

Erik kissed his forehead, "I reached my goal, then."

Charles stayed silent for a moment, content with just lying next to Erik.

"I know you want to ask something."

Charles sighed, his movements hesitant as he asked, "Do you want to try and be a thing?"

"Define thing."

Charles whacked his chest with his free hand, "You know what a thing is."

"Is that what you want?"

Charles nodded, his lip between his teeth. "It's what I've wanted for a while, now."

Erik shifted, his eyes staring into the bush surrounding them. "I want to try, if you do, but I've never been very good with sort of thing."

"Neither am I, really, but we can learn," Charles replied. "But seriously, if you don't want to-"

"I want to," Erik cut him off. "Believe me, darling, I want to. I just don't want to fuck this up."

"You won't."

"You can't guarantee that."

"I have a pretty good feeling, though."

"We don't even know each other's last names," Erik pointed out. "That seems like something we should know."

Charles smiled, "Xavier," he said. "Charles Francis Xavier."

"Isn't there a saying that goes 'never trust a man with three first names'?" Charles pouted at him, and Erik thought his chest might explode. "Okay, okay," he said, "I'm Erik Lehnsherr."

"That's a beautiful name."

"You're obliged to say that."

"Perhaps," Charles replied, "But now that we know each other's last names, does that mean we can try and be a thing?"

Erik sighed, smiling, "Like think one and thing two?"

"You're ridiculous."

"You love me."

Charles kissed his cheek, "Perhaps."

Erik sighed, "I'm agreeing to be in a relationship with someone I met via text."

Charles beamed at him, "We're going to have so much fun, darling."

"Yay," Erik groaned playfully.

"Mmhm," Charles hummed. "Does this mean I can tell my sister the weird man I've been texting is now the weird man I'm dating?"

"Of course," Erik laughed. "As long as I can get a photo of you in tweed to prove to Emma that people can look attractive in it."

Charles grinned, nodding, and sat up, his torso twisting so he could look at Erik. "As much as I like this spot, I'm not the biggest fan of PDA, either, and I've been fighting the urge to jump you for over ten minutes now."

Erik moved so he was standing, one head reaching to the ground so he could help Charles up. His hands found their way to Charles' hips, a flirtatious smirk on his face. "Who am I to deny you that?"

Charles grinned and kissed the corner of Erik's mouth, "My apartment isn't far from here."

"Lead the way, liebling. There's a lot more you haven't seen."

Charles laughed, his hand grabbing Erik's as they moved through the park. "Don't tease me, darling, or I'll find an alleyway."

[10:03 PM]

Calling in sick was today was totally worth the afternoon we had.

[10:06 PM]

You're absurd, but you're also cute, so it's okay.

[10:07 PM]

Also, I totally expect my 'nice to meet you' cupcake next time.

[10:07 PM]

Can I feed it to you?

[10:08 PM]

Can I eat it off you?

[10:08 PM]

I think that can be arranged.

That's it!

…but not really, because I have the urge to write the little dates they talked about, and other little short fics about them getting caught texting etc. it might take a while for anything else to get written, though, as I'm pretty busy with school and such, but keep an eye out anyway.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to all the comments and likes this got, I'm generally surprised at the reaction but I couldn't be happier! I hope the meeting lived up to your expectations, I know how much some of you wanted it.

I had a lot of fun writing this, and I'm actually really sad to end it.