I could go with the obvious choice here and say that either Charles or Erik or both a plagued by hay fever, BUT since I’m from Switzerland, I think this could be modified into an AU in the mountains!
Charles, recently rendered para- or tetraplegic in an accident (or “accident” if there was foul play on the Markos’ part), travels to Europe - probably Germany or Austria - for a stay in a sanitarium for high society. He’s heard that the fresh mountain air is prone to refreshing the spirit and aiding the body in its healing, and he decides to take his chances in the Alps or so. And since his stay coincides with haying season and the enormous terrasse of the sanitarium borders directly at a field, he gets to see some sexy mean sweat on top.
Then, one day, while he’s reading a book on genetics or something equally nerdy, he gets approached by one of the workers. The man is tall, slightly younger than Charles, and very handsome, with a shock of white hair and eyes the colour of a summer thunderstorm. At first, Charles thinks he’ll ask for money or a cigarette, but they simply get talking instead.
Now, this is where the paths could diverge, either towards something purely fluffy, with a flirty summer romance in the hay and Erik taking Charles stargazing and Charles checking out Erik’s arse during the day while he works in the field and then having Erik sneak into his room at night so he can ravish him.
Or, just food for thought, this could go somewhere into the direction of A Cure for Wellness (which I’ve seen ages ago and can only vaguely remember the plot of but the whole horror mountain sanitarium aesthetic has stuck with me). Erik tells Charles of strange going-ons in the Sanatorium, of patients’ sudden deaths even though they were getting better, fieldworkers going missing never to be seen again, eerie sounds coming from the basement and the Sanatorium director’s suspicious behaviour. Said Sanatorium director does, of course, go by the name of Sebastian Shaw.
Erik is scared for the safety of his family and his whole village, and Charles promises to help him investigate. They do, uncovering information which would interest the police very much, but before they can find a way off the mountain and to the village to report Shaw’s crimes, Erik vanishes off the face of the earth.
And since this AU is set in a German-speaking region, we could also have Irene Adler and Raven Darkhölme joining in, with Irene being another guest at the Sanatorium and Raven a nosy (and also very gay) chambermaid. Charles asks them for their help, and together, they descend into the darkness of the basement, in search of answers and - more importantly - in search of Erik.
I can remember it and I can also very vividly trace the path of how it came about 😂 I was watching a YouTube compilation about two musicians, thought they were cute together, stumbled over a link in the comment section and landed on AO3! My first fanfic ever read was RPF about twenty one pilots, a fic referred to as The Forest Fic in wide parts of the fandom. Honestly, I was not prepared, didn’t read the tags, was taken aback my mostly everything, and also the rating should be a notch higher, but I don’t regret reading it to this day.
