Chess was such a simple pleasure for Charles. The rock solid logic needed to play pleased him, as did the intimate knowledge of your partner's mind which players strived to achieve. The combination of logic and knowledge were used to predict many different possible outcomes, planning ahead and trying to work out which route your partner was likely to take and how to defend against it, even turn it to your own advantage.

The way a person plays chess can tell you a lot about the person, Charles had discovered. You can understand how their mind works by scrutinizing which pieces they move and when, you could also use it to understand how that person thinks your mind works, how they think you imagine the game going. You can tell if a person is hasty or patient; if they are logical or abstract; cunning or gullible. Charles liked how chess opened a person up like a book, but that was all a little too easy for him since he could read a person without the aid of carved pieces and a checkered board.

But it was with his current partner where Charles found the most pleasure in chess. Erik Lehnsherr did not turn into an open book as soon as the board was set. He remained closed to wandering eyes and Charles couldn't tell what move he might make next, without using his powers of course. It presented a refreshing challenge.

But there was something else Charles liked about his evenings playing chess with Erik. The atmosphere between them was intense and heavy as the two men channeled their focus into the game and he enjoyed the closeness it gave them. Close moments were a rare thing with Erik, he was usually a locked door on the outside. Invading his mind was one thing but it didn't hold a candle to Erik willingly opening up to him. Chess gave the two of them something to focus their hands on, something to stare at to avoid eye contact and that made having difficult discussions so much easier, because neither was focusing on the other's reactions just their words.

But tonight was an exception. Tonight was more of a challenge in self-control for him and the air between the two men was so tense Charles felt he could cut it with a knife, it burnt him to have to focus on the game when all he wanted to do was focus on his friend. But he kept his eyes riveted on the board, pretending to be considering as Erik pondered his next move.

"You're not focusing" Erik said, without even lifting his eyes.

"Sorry?" Charles asked, startled from his thoughts by Erik's breaking the silence.

"Your mind isn't here, it's elsewhere"

'It's not elsewhere at all' he thought 'My mind is right here, right now. It's not my fault there are more interesting things to focus on than this game'

But he didn't say that, instead he said "Suddenly developing telepathic powers now are you? Because that's my department"

"Not exactly. But I can beat you in 4 moves, a situation I have been setting up for some time, and you haven't made a single move to stop me even though I can see at least 3 routes out for you"

For the first time that evening Charles paid real attention to the game he was playing, and immediately noticed that Erik was right.

"I'm sorry my friend" he said "I've been a little distracted this evening"

"I noticed" Erik said with a smile, Charles shot him a questioning look. "I've been subtly rearranging this room ever since I noticed you were a little distracted and you haven't spotted a single thing, not even when I floated a spoon right around your head"

All Charles could think of to say was "Oh"

"Care to voice your thoughts?"

Charles smiled a little ruefully "Thank you for the offer, but I don't think that would help"

"Why not?"

"This is an internal struggle, I'm afraid. I would not wish to burden you with it"

"Are you sure that's why you won't tell me? It's just, you've been sending me odd looks for days now. I'm beginning to think that maybe it's something to do with me" Erik said slowly, his eyes riveted on Charles, intent on reading his reaction.

"No, not at all" Charles replied, just a little too quickly. Erik smiled, his eyes cold like a predator.

"Well now I think we both know just how true that statement is"

"Yes, I think we do" Charles said, hating the way his voice refused to rise much above a tense whisper.

Erik rose to his feet, his face a neutral mask as he began to pace around the room casually. "But the real question is why I'm playing on your mind so much" he said, doing a pretty good impression of a detective interrogating a suspect. "Could it be something I've said, something which has perhaps unsettled you or struck a nerve?"

He threw a sideways glance at Charles to judge his reaction, who was sat stiff in his chair and staring straight ahead.

'Please, let's not play this game' Charles thought to himself, terrified that when Erik finally found the reason he wouldn't be able to hide it from him.

"Not something I've said then" Erik said, continuing his slow circuit of the room. "Perhaps it's a secret, something to do with me that you can't tell"

Another sideways glance, still no reaction from the professor.

"Not a secret" he continued, his voice getting slowly softer "How about trust, I know that's a bit of a difficult subject between the two of us"

Charles flinched at that, he had to say something. "It's not trust Erik. We have our differences, you and I, but I do trust you"

"If not trust then what, Charles?" Erik asked, stopping his walking and staring at his friend. He tried to meet Charles' eyes but couldn't quite catch them as the telepath avoided his gaze. "I'm not trying to trick you Charles" he said, allowing a little kindness to seep through his voice "I just want to know what's wrong"

"Nothing's wrong, Erik. I just…" he began the sentence, but knew he'd never be able to finish it.

"Just what?"

"Nothing, it's nothing" he stuttered, pulling out of the confession he had so nearly begun. Staying here with Erik, with it just being the two of them, he knew was too dangerous. Erik watched as he got up from his seat, making a beeline for the door and hoping that Erik would let him go with at least a little dignity left. But that was too much to hope.

The door slammed shut and Charles heard the sound of it locking. "Erik, please" he said turning to the metal user, "I'm tired, let me leave"

Erik shook his head. "Not until you tell me what's wrong"

"I told you, nothing is wrong"

"Alright, if nothing's wrong then what's so right?"

"Wh-what?" Charles stuttered, a little startled by how Erik had just pinpointed an issue in his head. Was what he was feeling wrong or right? He couldn't tell.

Erik's eyes lit up, his mouth forming the shape of a silent 'ah' as he realised he'd hit upon something.

"What's so right in the world of Charles?" he pondered allowed "Something to do with Erik which is right in the world of Charles"

"Erik this is childish"

Erik began to move closer to Charles. "It seems we have abandoned our game of chess" he said, then moved over to the board and moved a piece. "Your turn Charles"

Erik watched his friend walk towards the board, suspicion lacing his every mood. The telepath stood and contemplated the board, and Erik took the chance to move in close behind him, whispering mere inches from his ear "Make your move Charles"

Charles flinched from the closeness of his friend's voice. He leant down and moved a piece, quickly retreating to the other side of the room.

"I could not possibly explain to you the depth of my internal dilemma" he said, as collected as he could make himself.

"Why don't you show me instead?" Erik suggested, moving across the room to be closer to his friend, only this time Charles held his ground and allowed him to grow closer.

"Would you rather I showed you?" Charles asked carefully.

"If that's the way you'd rather have it"

Charles' eyes danced with possibilities and, looking deeply into bright blue, Erik could see that his friend was trying very hard to make a decision. He was running out of patience.

"Shall I make the decision a little easier, Charles?" he asked. He moved with the speed of a striking snake, grabbing Charles' arms and pushing him towards the nearby wall, pinning him there "Now it's a lot simpler" he said with a grin "You tell me what's on your mind or I don't let you go"

"Erik, let me go" Charles said, not struggling but instead staring straight into his friend's eyes. "Please, Erik, don't make me do this" his voice broke suddenly from his usual collected tone to a pleading one.

"Do what, Charles?"

To Erik's surprise, he found Charles' head leaning in, their faces only a few centimeters apart. Their eyes connected and locked onto each other as their breath mingled into one and the hot air was the only thing between them.

"Do what, Charles?" he repeated in a whisper which was hot and heavy and hung in the air between them.

Charles just stared into his friend's eyes with a deep intensity that made something inside the metal user squirm. A desperate, animalistic anger flared inside him and he pinned Charles harder into the wall.

"Damn it Charles, don't play mind games with me. Do what?" His voice was quiet but cold and intense, with a danger lacing it that Charles couldn't help but detect and even fear.

Neither man could have defined the way they felt in that moment, because neither man knew. This moment was the embodiment of Charles' Xavier's dilemma, it felt both wrong and right to be this close to Erik, and now he had to make a decision.

Charles' face was suddenly puzzlingly calm, a hint of regret tainting his features. "This" he said quietly and before Erik had pieced together what was happening, before he had mastered the feelings he couldn't name which were swimming round and round in his chest, Charles had shaken one of his arms free and had his hand held against his temple in a far too familiar gesture. Erik suddenly found that he had no control of his own movements, he was frozen.

Charles shook himself free of the frozen Erik and didn't release him until he was halfway across the room.

"Open the door Erik" he said quietly and Erik was too shocked and mixed up not to do so. With a wave of his hand the door swung open and the telepath walked calmly from the room, leaving Erik alone trying to work through his feelings and why he felt so damn empty now that Charles had left.

He had pushed too hard and in doing so had screwed things up with Charles. But what had happened? In that moment when the two were so close they could feel each other breathing he had wanted something. But what had he wanted? He couldn't tell.

Or maybe he could.

Maybe he was just trying to hide it from himself because the truth was just a little too much to take, and a little too much to hope that the same thing that had just happened to him had been happening to Charles for longer than either knew. It was just a little too much to hope that the thoughts of confusion and feelings of painful disappointment were running through the telepath's head at the same time as they were running through his.

He stood in the middle of the room like a statue, even though he had long since been released by Charles' invisible grasp. Because it wasn't the telepath's powers which had Erik frozen now, it was something else to do with him. In the brief moments when they had been so close, Charles Xavier had put the finishing touches to a spell he had been unconsciously casting on Erik for quite some time, and only now did the metal user finally see it.

But if only Erik knew that the hopes he wouldn't let himself have were not too farfetched at all. For upstairs in the mansion, in a certain telepath's bedroom, lay the man which so filled Erik Lehnsherr's thoughts and he had his hands over his face as he tried to hide from the world and berated himself again and again for having let his shield slip and almost let Erik in.

How could he have been so stupid as to let Erik know something was up? Why did he let the metal user play games with him? And why hadn't he left long before it got that far?

And then there was that moment; when Erik had him pinned against the wall he could feel the power surging through his friend's veins and he couldn't make sense of what he had been feeling. He had been so close to letting go of all his self-control and letting an impulse he didn't – no, couldn't – understand overrun him. But what had he sensed in Erik? It was too good to be true, and so it can't have been. It must have been his imagination. But he did sense something there, something so confused and so desperate that it mirrored his own feelings almost exactly.

But Charles wouldn't let himself be that foolish. The feelings he was feeling were his alone, Erik surely didn't share them.

It was mid-afternoon when Charles finally dragged himself from his room. He had mastered his outer appearance and had calmed himself down inside to a degree at which he could start to try and unravel his feelings, a task which he knew could take weeks but he might as well start right away.

He slipped out of his room and into the silent corridor and headed towards the library, although it was the scene of the event which had caused him so much distress, it was also the place where he found it easiest to focus. He encountered no one along the way, which pleased him, and he arrived in his sanctuary unnoticed.

Sitting in his favourite chair he picked up a book and sank deep into his own mind. However his solitude was broken 10 minutes later when someone else entered the room. Looking up he saw the last person in the world he wanted to see, and the only person in the world he wanted to see. Erik.

Erik had the door shut behind him before he noticed Charles, sat casually in a chair with a book, staring at him. He started when he saw his friend and the atmosphere in the room seemed to turn to ice.

"Sorry I – er – I…" Erik stuttered "I didn't think anyone was in here"

Charles just looked at him.

Erik turned to leave "I'll, I'll leave" he said quietly.

"Erik, wait!" Charles called after him, springing to his feet. Erik turned, expectant.

"I'm, I'm sorry about earlier" Charles stuttered.

"Sorry? You're sorry?" Erik asked, instinctively closing the distance between them in a few strides "You have no reason to be. I'm the one who should be sorry, and I am. I pushed you too hard, I had no right to try and force you into telling me what you didn't want to"

But Charles was shaking his head again "Erik I invaded your mind and froze you, I had no right to do that"

Erik looked at Charles who was so open right now, so innocent, and suddenly all those confused feelings from earlier made sense and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Charles was still stuttering out his apology for something he really didn't need to apologize for, but Erik didn't hear the words anymore. He put a careful finger on Charles' lips, shushing him.

"Erik, what are you-?" Charles began to ask, but he was cut off by soft lips which were suddenly pressed against his in an impulsive and risky move on Erik's part. For a second Charles was frozen, he couldn't respond to the gentle lips which continued to kiss him. But after that second his mind was suddenly clear and he knew, just like Erik did, that this was what he wanted. However he realized just a fraction of a second too late because Erik pulled away, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry" he said, starting to back away. But Charles was having none of it. He grabbed Erik and pulled him to him, holding him there with one arm around his waist and one on the back of his head, and he was taken over by a hunger he couldn't sate. Erik found hungry lips on his, finally responding with a power and want as strong as his own.

There was a click as Erik instinctively locked the door without even looking, but this time it wasn't to keep Charles in but to keep the rest of the world out, lest they should intrude on this perfect and unexpected moment.

Charles was stronger and more forceful than he'd expected and to start with he was taken aback as the telepath took the lead, but Erik was the more experienced and the stronger and it wasn't long before he had control again. He slowly pushed Charles towards the wall, just as he had done several hours earlier. Only now the action was done out of lust and desire and the confused emotions in both men were perfectly clear.

This had to be right, thought Charles as he felt the solid wall pressed against his back and the strong hands pinning him there. There was no way it could be wrong when it felt so right to have Erik's lips on his, for their breath to be one and for his entire body to tingle at the slightest touch.

"You know" Erik whispered into Charles' ear. He kissed him again, his lips somehow both soft and rough, gentle and powerful, before continuing "We never got to finish that game of chess"

"It can wait" Charles whispered back.