For the ask game: idk if you've watched it (or tumblr osmosis'd) but a heated rivalry AU? 👀, alternatively, an AU wherein their powers are opposite - charles was always the one who could control metal and erik the one who has telepathy? <3
AHHHHH sorry this is so late, but thank you for the ask!!! Unfortunately I've never seen heated rivalry but I can give you six (instead of five, as a bonus) facts that would happen in a mutation swap AU:
Erik would grow to hate humanity because of all the horrible things he can hear in people's heads underneath their surface facade, and uses his powers to emotionally torture Nazis and track down Shaw through their memories.
Charles only uses his powers constructively, never to destroy things or hurt other people. Erik doesn't know why and he doesn't get the chance to ask.
The first thing Erik falls in love with is Charles' mind because it's the closest thing he's ever felt to his memory of his mother. He's in awe of Charles' emotions all the time because they're like nothing he's ever felt in anybody and they make him want to believe in something again.
Charles has a big imagination, so he probably had entertained the idea of telepathy existing before meeting Erik, but it was completely removed from the expectation that he'd ever meet someone who could actually do that, since the only mutant he'd ever met was Raven. He's instantly smitten with Erik's mutation (almost more than Erik himself) when they first meet. He wants to know everything about it, thinks it's absolutely incredible and wants to be in Erik's head all the time. This makes Erik even more smitten with him.
Charles still gets paralyzed xoxo but it's because Erik accidentally lashed out with his powers while fighting Shaw and he hurt Charles in a way that can't be fixed oops.
Erik is the one who chooses to leave instead of Charles telling him they don't want the same thing, because he can read Charles' mind and comes to his own conclusion that they can't compromise. It takes him a long time to realize that he was wrong.
Let’s play a game. Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.
