AN: Well, I was re-watching X-Men First Class to prepare myself for the new movie coming out and I ended up getting reminded of all the ship feels I have for Erik and Charles. So... Yeah. I started writing this. I am going to be essentially rewriting the movie, at least from the point that Charles and Erik meet. This will be a fix-it-fic (though it will still have plenty of angst) so the ending will be happy. I am also going to pull some from the comic canon that isn't mentioned in the movies. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Charles felt the wind whip around him as the Coast Guard ship steadily moved along through the water. Something inside him reveled in this new excitement. This was a thrill of an entirely different kind than he was used to. Instead of throwing back shots and hitting on people in bars, he was on his way to help stop a potential threat to the government. A threat who seemed to have mutants on his side.

Really, Charles couldn't decide if he was more excited about the adventure itself, or about the possibility of learning more about the two new mutants he had seen in Moira's mind. He had spent far more time than he wanted to admit trying to think of all the different ways genes could mutate to create such intriguing traits. He wondered if the woman who could turn her skin to crystal had a mutation that was similar to Raven's. He also tried to decide if the teleporter carried a physical mutation that allowed him to relocate his atoms, or if instead it was a mental mutation that allowed the instant transportation.

Raven would have laughed at him and called him an idiot if she knew about all the thoughts going through his head. Thankfully, she was not present on the ship, and even if she were Charles was confident that he was hiding his fascination well. Since Raven was not the telepath in the family, his genetic ponderings would stay happily unnoticed.

Another burst of salt water sprayed up into his face and Charles once again used his sleeve to wipe the mist away. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the movement of men lowering small boats into the water off the side of the larger ship. His heart beat just a little faster as he squinted out into the darkness. They were getting close.

Within a minute, Charles could see the glow of another ship. As the lights grew, so did his anticipation of what was to come. Vaguely he pondered what exactly he may have gotten himself into here; he was far from the hero type. What business did he have trying to aid in capturing a terror threat?

As the lights of the Coast Guard vessel snapped on, and the smaller dinghies sped out in front, Charles resolved that, regardless of what he was getting into, he was stuck with the choice now. Besides, it would probably be fun.

Moira strode up beside him, looking towards the bright yacht floating innocently in the waves. "Is he there?" She asked Charles, though it was more like yelling. With the wind still buffeting them as the ship plowed closer to their target, it was hard to hear anything that wasn't a yell.

A voice rang out on the loudspeaker, making Charles' ears ache, "This is the U.S. Coast Guard. Do not attempt to move your vessel. Stay where you are."

Charles tuned out the physical voice and reached with his mind out across the water. "Shaw is on board." He confirmed out loud. Satisfied with that knowledge – but still keeping part of his mind focused on Shaw – he started searching the rest the ship for more information. He caught the presence of two other people before he felt a wall slam down around the yacht's occupants.

"I've lost Shaw," He stated instantly to the agents beside him. He repeated the words moments later as he determined for certain that he could not penetrate the shield. As he pushed harder with his power, he continued relaying his findings out loud to whoever happened to be standing near him. "There's something blocking me. This has never happened to me before." Sudden clarity hit him, filling him both with wonder and trepidation, "I think there's someone like me on that ship."

"Like you?" Moira inquired from beside him.

Charles spared her a quick glance. Raven would have scolded him for speaking only in partial thoughts, leaving the people around him behind in the wake of his churning mind. "I'm Sorry," he quickly clarified, "A telepath."

His hand lowered from its customary placement at his temple as he marveled in the knowledge. He also noted a distinct feeling he had never experienced before. He was quick to throw up mental blocks of his own as for the first time in his life he realized exactly what it felt like to have a telepath trying to get into your head. It was like a strange tickle at the base of his skull, telling him that someone was trying to pull some deep secret from him.

"This is incredible," he mused. "I can actually feel her inside my mind." Realizing that his wondering statements were really rather pointless to the agents, and that they likely needed him to actually communicate properly with them; Charles turned and said, "I'm very sorry but I don't think I'm going to be much help to you tonight. You're on your own."

Charles looked out towards the yacht again and wondered which of the mutants was a telepath. It was astounding to know that there were people on that boat that he couldn't feel. Being cut off from someone's mind was a unique moment for him. It wasn't like he spent his days diving into people's brains, but he always knew in the back of his head that it was at least possible if he wanted. Now, to be faced with a situation where it was quite literally not possible for him to access someone, was flooring.

More so, however, was the distinctly tornado shaped funnels spiraling towards the Coast Guard dinghies. That sight brought Charles out of his pondering thoughts quickly and the words, "Oh my God," escaped his lips before he even had time to process them.

In that moment, seeing good men go flying into the water as a violently engineered storm flipped their vessels mercilessly into the cold waves, Charles finally lost any element of fascination that remained. It felt remarkably like sudden sobriety. It became obvious in an instant that this entire situation truly was dangerous and potentially deadly. It wasn't a story he would joke about with his next random bar hook-up, it wasn't a case study of new mutations for his thesis, it was real life and it was getting ugly quickly.

The agent who had offered them his facility – an agent Charles realized he had never bothered to learn the name of – reacted quickly. He ushered Moira and Charles inside the Coast Guard ship and the telepath was only too eager to oblige. The open deck of a ship seemed like a terrible place to be in the face of loose tornadoes.

He hadn't even realized his mind was still searching blindly across the water until the second that his power touched someone else. The blank wall that the yacht provided was accented by a new unfamiliar mind that was slightly closer to where Charles was. "Stop stop stop stop stop," He immediately told the retreating agents. He was so heavily focused on the new person that Charles was reasonably sure he may have just said the word, "stop," a frankly unnecessary number of times.

The sharp and unexpected spike of anger drove a shocked cry from Charles' lips before he could stop himself. He reeled backwards, hitting his back against the wall of the stairwell as his hand rose instinctually to his temple. The anger still burned bright in his mind, but the surprise wore off and the telepath swiftly regained composure.

Dimly he recalled Moira asking if he was okay so he informed her, "There's someone else out there," as he moved past her and back out to the deck of the ship. Something about the new presence made him feel ashamed for retreating the second things had gotten dangerous. He followed the loud scream of an anguished mind until he located the source. "There."

The way he pointed seemed wholly unneeded though as an anchor, and all of its metal chain-links, snaked into the air. A clearer beacon was hardly possible. When the heavy anchor dove down and came crashing to the yacht it became evident that the new player was most definitely not working with Shaw. The chain ripped through the entire top floor of the vessel with ease, crushing plastic, metal, and glass on its way. As Charles watched the easy destruction – saw that the force had even torn the anchor entirely away from the rest of the chain – he found himself very glad that someone capable of something like that was not against him. The enemy of my enemy and all that.

There was another flare of anger and Charles tore his eyes away from the loosely hanging chain embedded in the yacht. For the first time, he actually looked at the man that his power had sought out and noted with some concern that the mutant was not – as he has assumed – safely in a boat. He was treading water, dwarfed by the ship beside him and still surging with fury.

With growing alarm, Charles realized that the man was not treading water at all. He seemed to be being dragged along by something – coming closer to the Coast Guard ship. Without hesitation, the telepath looked deeper into the man's mind, needing to know exactly what was happening. The sheer force of rage beating against Charles' mind made it hard to focus but when he finally fought past the surface emotions he could feel the fleeing submarine beneath the water.

Through Erik's mind – because that was the name Charles had found inside the man's head – he could acutely sense the metal sliding through the water and the strain of trying to hold it back from its retreat.

Cold fear trailed down Charles' spine as he searched the metal-bender's mind for any sign that he intended to release his grasp on the sub. He found none.

"Let go!" He screamed at Erik even though he knew it was useless. Even if the man could hear him over the water splashing around his ears, Erik certainly couldn't hear past the roar of anger that filled his entire mind. "You've got to let it go!"

Charles briefly focused on the people standing behind him on the ship's deck, "There's someone in the water, you've got to help him," he demanded before screaming again for Erik to let go.

He watched with despair as the submarine dove deeper, dragging the man down beneath the water entirely as it went. Determination welled up inside Charles as he decided that he was not going to let Erik die. If words alone could not get to him, then perhaps Charles would have to use more than his mental powers to solve this problem.

With that resolution on the edge of his mind, Charles tore off his jacket as he raced along the deck. Without a second thought, he dove off the side of the giant vessel and crashed into the water below. Erik's mind was a beacon under the water, shouting out in anger and frustration that thudded against Charles' skull.

As his hand wrapped around the shoulder of the drowning man, Charles felt a tiny flicker of surprise and confusion that was quickly flushed out by the consuming hatred. Erik hardly spared him a seconds notice before he returned to the task at hand. Charles pulled himself closer until his arms circled Erik's torso and he fought to drag the man to the surface.

You can't. You'll drown. He said into Erik's head in as calm a tone as he could muster. He continued trying to physically force the metal-bender above water but it did no good.

You have to let go.

Charles felt guilty doing it, but he stretched farther into Erik's mind searching for some way to get through to him. Flashes of memories piled up in his head, flickering rapidly through and tearing something within Charles' heart. Pain, loss, torment, and a desperate desire for vengeance. If they were above water, he was certain the foreign feelings and memories would have dragged tears from his eyes with ease. Right now though, he did not have time to dwell on anything except getting Erik to let go.

I know what this means to you, Charles pressed into Erik's mind, trying to convey the truth of his words, but you're going to die.

The mutant's head was so stubbornly set on thinking of nothing but rage that Charles feared his thoughts weren't even getting through. He thought of all the times when Raven had lost control of her power in a flurry of emotions and with one last push of power into the man's head Charles begged, Please, Erik, calm your mind.

The fight started to go out of Erik at the mention of his name. The drag of the submarine finally stopped and the body in Charles' arms went slack as Erik allowed himself to be dragged to the surface.

AN: Next chapter will be Erik's point of view now that Charles has saved him. Look forward to it :)