so I'm running 'cause I've run outta time

[eveniftheskyfalls]

live to die another day

Charles Xavier was born in Westchester, New York to Brian and Sharon Xavier. Brian, a military intelligence officer, was killed when Charles was eight, and not long afterward, he started having terrible headaches. After a few weeks, the pain went away, but he realized he could hear the thoughts of other people as if they were talking out loud, and try as he might, they wouldn't go away entirely. He didn't tell anyone about what he could suddenly do, afraid that they'd think he was crazy and send him away, and tried to find a way to make it stop. Eventually, he found out it could be useful, but for the most part, he was afraid and wanted it to go away.

When he was ten, he convinced his mother to adopt an orphaned girl he found sneaking into the kitchen looking for food. Raven Darkholme became his closest friend and only confidant after she found out what he could do and wasn't afraid of him, even though she made him promise to stay out of her head. Not long afterward, Sharon remarried to a scientist named Kurt Marko, who brought along a son who was older than Charles and Raven. Both Kurt and Cain were physically abusive, and Sharon was too busy falling into alcoholism to do much by way of intervening, so Charles stepped up to protect his mother and sister and was often the target of the abuse. His life goals quickly became getting out of the house and taking Raven with him as soon as possible.

Fortunately, when he graduated from high school early and was planning on heading to Harvard, he was able to talk his mother into sending Raven to private school away from the mansion. At Harvard, he double majored in psychology and biology and graduated at the top of his class. Shortly before graduation, his stepfather and mother were killed in a car accident, and about a year later, Cain was reported presumed KIA in Afghanistan.

Charles got a job in military intelligence and began putting in applications to the CIA, looking to become a field agent. Raven was safely away at Sarah Lawrence College studying fashion design by the time he finally got the job, and after all the important paperwork was filed, he quickly began earning a reputation as a talented, dedicated young agent, and adopted the codename Felix Leiter for use in the field. By this point, he had grown comfortable enough with his powers to occasionally use them to supplement his fieldwork, but still felt uncomfortable with them as a whole, and didn't push his limits, restricting himself to what basically amounted to parlor tricks.

That would change when he was assigned to a joint investigation with MI6 to track down the terrorist organization headed by Sebastian Shaw. Leiter was partnered up with his British counterpart James Bond, and although the two's work style and personalities seemed to clash more often than it didn't, they did somehow manage to make a good team. Felix could sense there was something off about his partner, but never went deeper, still afraid of what he was capable of and eventually being found out. The two took down a minor figure in Shaw's organization, but shortly thereafter Charles discovered Raven was being held hostage by his group and rushed into the situation without thinking about it. A shoot out in a dilapidated building in Venice ended in Felix getting stuck in an elevator and nearly drowning, but James managed to get him out in time, in the process revealing that he could manipulate metal and thus was like Charles.