Ho Yay / X-Men: First Class

Just lying in bed together at a strip club. Like you do. No homo...

• Oh, dear lord, Charles and Erik. Deep heart-to-heart talks, chess games, intimate mind-linking, Erik cradling Charles's injured body and trying to kill the person responsible, the list goes on. There were numerous reviews pointing out how their bromance could be read as a closeted homosexual relationship. This exchange at the end practically makes it canon:
  Emma: Where's your telepath friend?
  Erik: Gone. Left a bit of a gap in my life, if I'm to be honest. I was rather hoping you would fill it.
• If you don't feel like reading this entire page, then you can watch the "Are They Gay? Professor X and Magneto" video instead.
• Worthy mention: the sheer number of times these two cry for each other.
• "It is a little bit of a mini-tragedy that him and Magneto don't, you know, have sex and become married and become best friends." This is coming from James McAvoy, one of the ACTORS. Hell, he and Michael Fassbender play off of each other so much in interviews for the movie that James even started trolling by saying that he and Michael were in love. The fandom EXPLODED. One reporter outright asks McAvoy at the ''Days of Future Past'' London premiere if he and Fassbender kiss.
  Interviewer: I know a lot of the fans loved in First Class the relationship between you and Mr. Fassbender, Charles and Erik, there was an intimate moment or two, there was a connection, do we finally get to see them kiss?
  James McAvoy: (laughs) Air kiss. Air kissing and Eskimo kiss.
  Interviewer: You know if you're air-kissing, he could use his weight to pull you closer.
  James McAvoy: (laughs) It's good, he could try, certainly buy me dinner a few times first.
  • The same reporter then tried his luck with Fassbender.
    Interviewer: I know a lot of the fans [..] responded very well to the bromance, the masculine friendship, the intimacy that you shared with James McAvoy on the screen the last time. I asked him any chance of a kiss, and he seems willing if you're game.
    Michael Fassbender: (sings) Sometimes when we touch, the honesty is too much... (laughs)
    Interviewer: I'm welling up! That's an emotional moment.
• Michael Fassbender has admitted that he had portrayed Erik as being captivated by Xavier's charisma.
  Fassbender: The first thing that James [McAvoy] did was he brought a little mischief, a little bit of a rebel to Professor X. Which I think really was very clever because looking at it from where Erik is standing, there was something about that he found very endearing, and he was charmed by this man. I think that's why the fans really react to the bromance thing, there's a real sort of Butch Cassidy element that he brings to it, James, which I thought was really smart.
• Their first meeting comes off a lot like a Meet Cute. Charles saves a drowning Erik, hugging in the water to calm him down, and they share this exchange:
  Charles: I'm like you, now calm your mind.
  Erik: I thought I was alone.
  Charles: You're not alone. Erik, you're not alone.
• Erik, who has known Xavier for only two days at this point, basically admits that he thinks Charles is cute when he calls him "an adorable lab rat." Seriously, when was the last time you saw Magneto playfully tease another male character in this manner?
• At the strip club, Charles and Erik are very comfortable lying in a bed together. They spend half of the time looking into each other's eyes◊ instead of the half-naked women.
• In a deleted scene, Charles projects Erik in drag (yes, you read that correctly) and remarks, "You've never looked more beautiful, darling." There are a million other things Charles could've conjured with his mind to make Angel giggle, and creating an image of his best friend in make-up, with a ginger wig, dressed in a sparkly blue miniskirt, fishnet stockings and go-go boots is, uh... unusually kinky.
  • The "It's good isn't it?" just beforehand. Technically, he's talking about his telepathy, but really Charles, you do seem a bit too pleased with yourself.
• When Erik magnetizes himself to the hull of the Blackbird to protect Charles as the plane is spinning out of the control... well, their bodies are right on top of each other and they're both screaming, plus Charles is gripping very tightly to Erik's wrist...
• Erik ferociously barks, "I SAID BACK OFF!!!" to the youngsters like a predator who wants to defend its wounded mate. If Charles was indeed dying, Erik would selfishly be the only one who could say goodbye to him—even Raven (whom Magneto respects more than the other mutants present) isn't "allowed" to be near her foster brother.
• In the truck where Charles mentally renders his team invisible to the Soviet soldiers, Erik's hand is on the inside of Xavier's thigh.
• Just as Moira and her team are about to ditch Lehnsherr at the residence of the Soviet official after he becomes a security risk, Charles bluntly tells her, "I'm sorry, I can't leave him," and runs off after Erik.
• The USA Network's commercial for First Class's Blu-Ray/DVD release includes this cheeky line: "Unfortunately, [Charles and Erik] working together to prevent nuclear Armageddon was not great for their relationship."
• ''First Class'' could've been marketed as a family comedy about two foster dads (Charles and Erik) trying to raise several rowdy teenagers, and it wouldn't be far from the truth.
• Historically, chess has been used as a metaphor for romance and sex. Think about it.
• Darwin and Alex have their little moments. There is a scene where Darwin places his hand on Alex's stomach, and just a few seconds before Darwin dies, who does he reach out to? Alex.
• Hank and Alex is a pretty popular pairing in the fandom, too.
• On the villainous side, Azazel and Riptide. Their pairing is just as popular as Azazel/Mystique.

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