Work Text:
Charles Rowland couldn’t believe the situation he found himself in right now. He is sitting on Esther Finch’s kitchen floor, not tied down but unable to leave his spot. The last thing he remembers is saying goodbye to Crystal and . . .
“Oh. There he is,” Charles hears her sickly sweet voice before he sees her walk into the kitchen. “Pow! Bam! Fire, burning, remember that?” Esther laughs, putting her weight on her iron cane and tipping her head back to really show him the hysterical situation she put him in.
Once she’s done laughing, Esther kneels down to be eye level with Charles. She stares at him for a long moment as he writhes against the floor. “I’m feeling bad that I trapped you in that little box, but the two of you are just so hard to pin down. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t want you to ruin my plan and try to rescue your pal.”
At the mention of Edwin, Charles lunges forward to attack Esther. He merely moves an inch before he feels the sting of iron pressing against his neck. It isn’t a surprise to find that she used iron to keep him in place, but across his neck? That’s a new low, even for him.
“Nasty sting, innit,” she mocks, wiggling her finger at his neck. “If you couldn’t tell, the choker is iron.”
Charles seethes, “Where is Edwin?” He needs to find Edwin. There isn’t any doubt in his mind that Esther has a disgusting plan up her sleeve, and he needs to be there to protect him. He needs his Edwin.
“‘Where is Edwin? Where is he, mate?’ Oh, that never gets old.” He watches Esther slowly push herself off the ground, laughing at Charles once again to cover up the pain in her body. Thanks to their case work on Becky Aspen, Esther hasn’t been able to feed her giant snake to stop her from aging, and it’s taking a massive toll on her. It’s reassuring to know that, but also terrifying for what she has planned.
Esther gives Charles a little pout. “Honey, don’t be jealous. Once I get your little lover boy up and screaming, I’ll come back to play with you.” She leaves with another laugh, disappearing down the hall into another room, which Charles can only assume Edwin is in.
It’s no use screaming for Edwin at the moment; he’s probably knocked out and held down by iron as well. With little energy Charles has, he needs to use it on getting out of the iron choker to rescue Edwin in the other room and get the fuck out of this house.
The kitchen is messier than last time. Pots and pans are thrown everywhere, the incense smell is stronger, and the stupid crow is perched next to the window. When he heard from Edwin that Monty tried to make a move on him on the swings, Charles was ready to come at him with his own swing (of the cricket bat).
In the midst of shooting daggers in Monty’s direction, he hears Edwin’s hoarse voice yell for him. The same way he called for Edwin minutes ago after becoming conscious. It’s reassuring to hear him, but also terrifying to know he’s around the corner from everything that is about to go down in the other room.
Charles swallows hard before screaming back. His body jerks forward, running his neck along piercing iron and burning a line across his adam's apple. It stings, his neck feels raw, and there’s no way he’s getting out of this unless he can get into his backpack, which is conveniently out of his arms reach.
His own screaming is drowned out by Edwin’s own screaming and the whirring of the contraption that Esther set up. It’s tortuous to hear his partner’s voice in so much pain, especially after the hell incident. He doesn’t deserve this. Edwin is too good for this world.
Monty crows at him. It infuriates Charles that out of every room in this house, he’s stuck with the bloody crow, who still has the audacity to try and talk to him.
Charles won’t give Monty the satisfaction of getting into his head. Right now, Edwin needs him, and he needs his backpack, which has his lock pick set and an assortment of weapons he can use on Esther once he gets her hands on her.
His first reach towards the bag nicks the top of his throat. The tips of his fingers couldn’t even reach the fabric of his bag, if only he was born with longer arms or learned a spell for objects to fly into his hand. . . . Maybe he shouldn’t have been born with longer arms, they would look disproportional and silly against his lanky body.
The screaming from Edwin is louder, which only pushes Charles to try harder to get to his backpack. He scoots along the floor to use his foot to nudge the backpack, and it works for a second, but the iron cuts against the tip of his chin this time and it makes him wince back.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Crystal and Niko sneaking through the front door. It’s a pleasant surprise to see Crystal after their heartfelt farewell at the Tongue and Tail Butcher Shop.
“Crystal, Niko,” he whispers in relief to grab their attention. Both girls turn their heads at his voice, sighing in relief to find Charles and not Esther. “Get me out of this thing,” Charles lifts his head back to emphasis the iron around his neck (only to catch himself on it once again). The iron stings feels iron hot against his throat, which he didn’t think was possible compared to his past iron burns, but there’s first for everything.
Niko reaches Charles first, kneeling down in front of him on the floor to talk to him. “We have to help Edwin,” she says in her soft voice as she nods in the direction of the other room.
“So do I,” Charles coughs out.
“I know you love him, Charles, but you have to kill the snake in the cupboard,” Niko says as she stands up from the floor.
“It keeps her young and strong,” Crystal adds. “We’re going to handle Esther and rescue Edwin, we need you down there when we take her down here.” She nods her head at Niko, who takes that as their cue to keep going, at least that’s what Charles catches as they leave the room.
“Niko!” he quietly shouts, “Crystal, wait —!” his voice cuts out, creating a nasty cough at the base of his throat where the iron burned.
The girls never take a second glance back at Charles, and he wasn’t going to fight them about his role to save Edwin, he just wanted his backpack. So much for getting their attention to help him out with the choker.
Charles can’t give up now. He hears Monty squawk as he carefully slides on the floor towards his bag once more. It’s a much slower process this time, keeping one eye on the iron around his neck and one on the backpack.
His arm slips out from behind him, but he catches himself before his neck takes any more damage, and that’s a relief. The bag, on the other hand, was kicked back a few inches due to losing his balance. It’s frustrating to watch himself fail at an easy task while wearing a fashionable choker (which would look good on him any other day if it wasn’t made of iron).
The bloody crow screeches again at Charles’s mistake. His throat hurts too much to talk, so instead of responding with a witty comeback to express his hatred for the bird, Charles sends him a nasty glare from the floor and tries for his bag again. He can’t give up on Edwin now.
He takes a deep breath, readying himself to make another attempt to grab his backpack. Charles knows his shoe is brushing against the straps of his bag, and as long as he can push it close enough to grasp in his hand, this torture would be over.
Without realising it, Charles makes the executive decision to push through the pain to grab it. Edwin would hate the idea, but he isn’t here right now and probably facing something far worse in the other room.
It doesn’t take long for his neck to feel like it’s engulfed in flames. The iron is eating away at the neck of his incorporeal body, making him want to give up and find another solution. Just as Charles is ready to back away, the backpack falls into his lap.
His arms pull his body towards the wall, releasing the pain from his neck. He looks up to find Monty on the counter above his head, crowing cheerily at his job well done to grab Charles his backpack. It’s a surprise to the ghost to find Monty helping him out, but who is he to complain, he can free himself now.
Charles gives the crow a wonky smile as he opens his mouth to thank him. The words are caught in his throat as he feels a breathy gasp leave his lips, which is ultimately strange, but not something he wants to worry about now.
Instead, he gives Monty a thumbs up and a playful grin. It seems to satisfy the crow, cawing in response and flying back to his perch to act like he had nothing to do with Charles’s escape.
It isn’t hard to find the lock pick kit in the pocket universe. Charles uses it enough to know what the kit feels like and its precise location in his bag.
The choker has a simple lock on the right side of his neck, only taking max 30-seconds to take off, which feels brills to finally take off of his neck. But right now, he can’t take long to dwell on the fact his voice stopped working as there’s a hungry snake in the basement that needs his attention.
Charles doesn’t waste any time climbing into the cupboard. It’s a bit of a rough start once he enters the snake's den due to the large drop and the mountain of the shoes (that doesn’t do a great job at breaking his fall).
The snake hisses in agitation by his entrance, circling slowly around the outer wall of the enclosure while Charles stands in the centre of the room. He doesn’t hesitate to reach into his bag-o-tricks to pull out his cricket bat, his favourite weapon of choice.
Without even realising it, the snake opens its huge mouth and lunges toward Charles. His immediate reaction led him to smack the snake square in the head with the bat, creating a wood splintering sound in his ear.
That is not the sound Charles wants to hear right now. Neither is the hiss coming from behind him. If that snake wasn’t happy before, it's beyond pissed now.
Charles places half of the cricket bat back into his bag (as the other half is missing in the abundance of shoes), trading it out for his striking sword that Edwin had him sharpen a month ago. He completely forgot about the sword until his partner reminded him about it. They got it from a ghost’s private collection after they solved his case. (It was a super easy case; the man managed to slip and impale himself.)
A nasty smirk crawls against Charles’s face as the snake charges for him again. The first swipe misses it completely, catching the floor and a couple of shoes. The snake exposes its fangs before its next strike, and it gives Charles the perfect opportunity to line up his next attack.
His swing hits right behind the snake’s head, but it doesn’t cut deep enough to swipe it clean off. Charles opens his own mouth to taunt the snake, forgetting about his own issues with an iron wound across his throat. So much for provoking the beast.
It’s fine. As much as he loves talking, it’s not necessarily important to fight a magic snake. The sword, on the other hand, is necessary to fight the magic snake, which is the key to killing it. Not to brag or anything, but Charles is pretty good with a sword after his fencing lessons with Edwin.
Please let Edwin be okay. Esther’s device sounded real scary from his place on the kitchen floor and it took a lot out of him to not run over once the iron was free from his neck. He trusts the girls to free him, even though he wanted it to be him.
Right, the snake.
The two of them circle around each other for nearly a minute before the last charge happens. The snake strikes first, moving slower than usual but with the same amount of bite as last time. Charles runs towards the snake with a scowl and stops last minute to duck under its large mouth. The sword strikes cleanly through the snake’s neck, falling to the ground with a huge crash.
He’s done it.
Now to find a way out of the snake pit.
—
It’s oddly quiet as Charles crawls into the kitchen. The moment he pulls his legs out of the cupboard, the magical snake room collapses before him. Looks like Esther has a regular-old cabinet in her kitchen again.
Before he joins his friends in the other room, Charles reaches into his backpack to pull out his broken cricket bat. It might not work as well anymore, but it’s still an intimidating weapon to use, especially if it gives people splinters.
He carefully creeps towards the doorway, ready to strike anybody that jumps out of him. As he draws closer to the doorframe, Charles hears frantic whispers and heavy breaths. If he thinks about it, Esther must be dead because she would be attacking them right now, which means his own work on the snake was a success.
A small sigh falls out of his mouth as he enters the new room. Esther is on the ground (not breathing), Niko is on the ground (breathing and bruised), Edwin is checking on Niko’s injuries, and Crystal–
“What the fuck happened to your neck?”
Charles stands in the doorway like a deer caught in headlights. His neck can’t look that bad, right? It was only an iron burn, definitely not as bad as a hickey on his neck. (That was a funny day.)
Like it was slow motion, he watches Edwin’s head turn away from Niko, eyes bug out of his head, and stumble over the jumbled up furniture to be with Charles on the other side of the room. This seemed like the moment the two boys would hug, maybe share a kiss, but no, Edwin’s hands reach around Charles’s neck and begin to examine the burn.
“Oh, Sweetheart, what happened?” Edwin says softly, running one of his thumbs around the tense part of his neck. It makes Charles’s eyes well up with tears a bit.
He blinks back the water in his eyes and takes a huge breath before sharing the worst part of his injury. The words “iron choker” are lost on his tongue. It makes him look like a blubbering mess as he angrily huffs nothing in Edwin’s direction.
His partner turns away from Charles, “you two said he was perfectly fine in the other room.”
“He was fine,” Crystal barks back. “How was I supposed to know he was going to hurt himself?”
“It’s Charles, he always hurts himself!” Edwin snaps back at a louder volume. His breath quickens at an alarming rate as he looks back at Charles. “I don’t want to hear it from you right now.”
It’s a good thing Edwin won’t be hearing anything from Charles right now.
Niko lifts herself up from the floor with the help of Crystal, who doesn’t look happy with Edwin’s outburst. “We asked Charles to take care of the snake while we saved you from the energy draining device, and by the looks of it, he succeeded.”
Charles leans around Edwin to give her a thumbs up and a big grin. Despite the voice issue, he did a great job at the task he was assigned to do to save his partner. He may not be happy right now, but at least he hasn’t disappeared into thin air (or gone back to hell for the third time).
Speaking (thinking) of Edwin, he was trapped in an energy draining device? Why aren’t they worried about him? Esther was sucking the afterlife out of him, he only lost his voice, and Niko was on the floor; what happened to her?
Edwin has moved to be inches away from Charles’s neck with his pointer finger touching the most delicate part of his neck. He flinches back, grabbing ahold of Edwin’s wrist to make him stop. His partner understands and backs away from Charles to give the two of them space.
Once Edwin’s attention is on him, Charles takes his free hand to point at the broken table, then motions to the body across from him to ask about his injuries. It wasn’t noticeable at first, but Edwin has singe marks down both of his sides where the prongs were probably jabbing at him.
To think that his boyfriend was strapped down to a table, unable to move, screaming for Charles to help while his energy was being drained puts a bad taste in his mouth. Worse than whatever he’s feeling from his own injuries.
“Dear, I am fine. It was nothing but a pinch,” Edwin says in his reassuring tone, which wasn’t that reassuring to hear at this moment. At that same moment, a shock runs over Edwin’s body and takes a sharp breath in pain. Charles can only roll his eyes in return.
A heavy set of footsteps from the other side of the room catches their attention. Niko’s full body weight is against Crystal’s as they slowly walk towards the boys. “If you two are done,” Crystal groans out, “we’re going back to what’s left of the apartment. Niko hit her head pretty hard, Jenny’s probably worried sick about us, and I’m so fucking tired.”
Charles steps around Edwin to give the girls a confirming nod. He would’ve loved to tell them to get rest and promise their return to help fix up the shop, but Edwin places a firm grip on Charles’ upper arm and pulls him back.
“You’re not going anywhere. We’re going back to the office,” he says matter-of-factly.
This isn’t what Charles wanted to happen. How dare Edwin be their voice of reason in a time of need for their friends. He stomps his loafer on Edwin’s boot and gives it a little kick for emphasis on his bad attitude. Charles desperately points at their friends and tries to tell him to “help them” since he can’t do it himself.
“Charles, I’m okay,” Niko says softly. “Crystal is going to keep an eye on me and my possible concussion, but I don’t think I hit my head that bad.”
“Niko, you can barely stand up without seeing black dots in your vision.”
Edwin’s mouth opens to reply with a retort, but quickly shuts it. He doesn’t like seeing Niko hurt; she doesn’t deserve that kind of pain in her life. “I do hope the both of you are okay. Esther is a cruel woman and I’m grateful for your help.” Edwin gulps down another breath, obviously having a hard time voicing his emotions to people other than his boyfriend.
“Please forgive us, forgive me, as I need to assist Charles and find out how severe the burn is against his vocal cords. We will come back tonight to discuss where the five of us will go from here, but at the moment, we need to attest to our injuries.”
The whole room stands in silence as they stare at Edwin. It wasn’t like him to make the detective agency’s priority resting after a case, as half of the group is ghosts, but when it comes to Charles, he’ll stop at nothing until he’s back to his normal self.
“Wow, Edwin, I didn’t think you had it in you to be so caring of others.”
“Don’t get used to it, Crystal. You don’t have half a– Charles, would you quit kicking me.”
It doesn’t take long for Edwin to find a mirror outside of Esther’s house, locate the London office, and transport the two of them via mirror travel. He didn’t want to risk using any of the mirrors in her house in case she enchanted them with an awful spell.
As soon as they’re through the mirror, Edwin pulls Charles into a ghost crushing hug and buries his face into the side of his neck (avoiding the scarred area). Charles returns the gesture, wrapping his own arms around Edwin and sighing contently into his arms. He feels Edwin leave a small kiss under his ear before stepping back from Charles to place his hands on his boyfriend’s shoulders.
“You shan’t scare me like that again. I am really happy that you’re okay, but I . . . I am,” Edwin looks away from Charles’ face and takes one of his hands to wipe at his cheek. “I am very concerned about your willingness to hurt yourself for me. Don’t waste your afterlife for me.”
This conversation took a very different turn than Charles expected to have in the office. It breaks his nonexistent heart that Edwin feels this way, because he deserves everything that Charles has to offer. There’s no afterlife without Edwin by his side.
Charles tries to speak. He tries to voice the thoughts in his head out loud for Edwin to hear and understand how important he is to him. It comes out as wheezes and awkward pop noises, and it grabs Edwin’s attention to turn back to face his partner.
The frustration is shown clearly on Charles’ face. He has so much to say about fighting the snake, checking on Edwin’s injuries (which he still hasn’t done), and his own feelings about the concerns his boyfriend has over protecting him. It’s going to drive him through the roof if he’s not able to speak ever again. He’s not going to know what to do with himself.
It doesn't help knowing the last time Edwin ever heard his voice was when they were both in pain.
Tears well fast in Charles’ eyes. Both his hands fly up to his face to cover his eyes and pretend that he isn’t crying over the thoughts in his head. It brings back so many awful memories from his childhood that he isn’t ready to relive that part of himself.
“Oh, Darling,” Edwin’s voice cracks. “I’m going to touch your shoulder and walk you over to the couch,” he narrates quietly to not alarm Charles of his actions. His hands never leave his face as Edwin walks him over to the couch and sits him down. Edwin takes this time to grab a few books off the shelf, some paper, and one of his pens before sitting with Charles on the couch.
As soon as he feels the dip of Edwin’s body on the couch next to him, Charles wipes the wetness away from his eyes and swings his legs over his partner’s lap. This is how they usually sat with each other when cases weren’t going on, but with Crystal joining the team and traveling to Port Townsend, they haven’t had time to themselves lately.
With the books and stationery supplies brushed off to the side, Edwin lets Charles to sit halfway in his lap. One of his arms wraps around the back of the couch while his other one brushes the tear stains off his cheek. This moment between them allows Edwin to pull his face towards him and leave a satisfactory kiss on his lips. Both boys smile at each other.
Edwin takes his hands back for a second to make a couple of strange gestures in the air. His right pointer finger points at himself, then he raises both hands to head height and brings them back towards his chest with his fingers spread open, and completes the action using his right pointer finger to point at Charles. This action is repeated a couple times until Edwin speaks up.
“I. Love. You.” Edwin emphasizes each word with the hand motion, which in any other circumstance would make Charles roll his eyes. It should’ve been obvious to him that Edwin would know British Sign Language.
Charles watches closely as he copies the hand motions to sign the words back to Edwin. The two grin at each other as Charles points at himself, completing the small sentence that his partner taught him.
“I am sorry for upsetting you with my words. It was inconsiderate of me to say that when you don’t get to ‘banter’ with me, so I will save anything I have to say for when your voice is back.” Edwin sighs to himself and brushes Charles’ curls off his forehead to leave a light kiss over his skin. “You have the voice of an angel, and I can’t wait to hear it again.”
Charles doesn’t know whether to cry from Edwin acting so soft with him or the fact that he can’t stand the fact that his voice is gone. Either option is upsetting him enough for tears to well up once again.
“Hey, stop,” Edwin traces his fingers down Charles’ face to grab his attention. “No more crying unless you want to see me cry, which upsets you than it does me.” Charles finally laughs. It’s a silent laugh, but it’s a laugh nothingless at one of Edwin’s comments. “I want you to write to me on this paper while I read about ghost anatomy and the history of iron on spiritual entities. May I take a closer look at your neck to see the severity of the burn?”
He lifts his chin to showcase the long burn mark at the base of his throat. It doesn’t feel great from the few times he ran his fingers across the mark, which Charles can only imagine how gnarly it looks.
Edwin leans in close to his neck. The only time he’s been this close is when they’re making out and it’s frustrating to know that Charles won’t be receiving anything like that at this given moment. He would’ve preferred it though. . .
“You seem to have burned through the layers on your neck, which would’ve completely ruined your vocal cords, but as a ghost, it doesn’t seem severe. Nothing like the time you cut off a finger before we found that our limbs grew back.” Edwin pulls his head away to find Charles grinning at him. It was one of his grins where he knows what he did was wrong, but finds the situation funny anyways. (The same one he gave Edwin the night he cut off his finger.)
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Charles gives him an innocent shrug and wiggles his left pinky finger in front of his face. The case truly freaked Edwin out terribly, but Charles doesn’t regret his mistake. His pinky finger wasn’t useful at the time anyways!
The memory makes Edwin exaggeratedly roll his eyes, which is exactly what Charles expected from him. If his afterlife goal isn’t to drive his partner to insanity, then what is?
Edwin grabs the book on ghost anatomy and indulges himself in the reading. It’s quite impressive how fast he can focus on the reading in front of him, especially with Charles draped across his lap like that.
So much for his boyfriend distracting him from thinking about his burned throat. It was so much better when Edwin was talking and kissing him. Now his nose is in a book, his legs are on his lap, and their living space is dead quiet.
To pass the time, Charles lays his head down on Edwin’s shoulder and closes his eyes. He wishes ghosts were able to fall asleep, because after a day like this, he could sleep for days. No wonder Crystal and Niko were so tired. . .
“Char,” Edwin whispers. Charles doesn’t respond, pretending to be asleep on his shoulder. “You and I both know that ghosts can’t sleep. Do you happen to remember the type of iron used around your neck? Or if Esther mentioned anything about enchanting it?”
His eyes remain closed as he shakes his head in response.
“Okay, then,” he hears from Edwin, who makes a commotion to grab the other book next to him to read about the history of iron on spiritual entities. Charles has no idea if he’s found anything useful reading the previous book, but he must be onto something.
It doesn’t take long for Charles to get bored resting on Edwin’s shoulder. There’s nothing in the room to stimulate his mind besides his own thoughts, which he shouldn’t be listening to right now. When he opens his eyes, he spots the pen and paper in his lap and smiles to himself when an idea comes to mind.
Charles doesn’t get the chance to draw as much as he used to when he died. Sure, he draws runes, summoning circles, and other pictures that Edwin asks for when it comes to cases. In reality, Charles likes to draw realistic scenes out in nature or the people he sees out in the city, and more recently, Edwin when he’s not paying attention. His profile from this angle is absolutely gorgeous and it will definitely take his mind off from not being able to run his mouth.
Their dynamic of drawing and reading goes on for another hour. Edwin starts flipping between both books to cross references his thoughts and ideas on the situation and Charles gets so far into his sketch, he adds every single freckle and mole on his boyfriend’s face.
Without looking up from the book, he hears Edwin ask, “what have you been up to, Love?” Charles has never flipped a piece of paper so fast.
Edwin debates on dropping the subject, but knows Charles was up to something he clearly doesn’t want him to see, which makes him curious. Charles Rowland knows better, and already had a backup plan to solve the peculiarity of his paper.
“Charles, does that say ‘would you still love me if I were a worm?’”
It’s a good backup plan. Instead of answering his question, he draws a little worm underneath the question and points an arrow in its direction.
“I don’t really understand the question, but I think the answer is yes? I love you regardless if you’re a worm.” Edwin looks away awkwardly and moves one of his hands to adjust the bowtie on his neck, which is how he discovers that he’s been wearing the same clothes since Esther’s house. This only embarrasses him further.
“Anyways, I think I found useful information. As we know, iron burns last from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours, depending on the severity, which means the mark should go away in a few days. However, whatever spell Esther put on the iron chain, assuming she put a spell on the chain, is the reason you have long term effects. The only downside is that it doesn’t look like there’s a counterspell to reverse the damage, it will wear off on its own.”
Well, that isn’t exactly what Charles wanted to hear as the solution.
“I’m sorry there isn’t anything else I can do for you, but the damage isn’t permanent, which is the most important part of my research.” Edwin closes both of the books and lays them off to the side to free both up the space on the couch. For the first time in hours, he looks over at Charles, raises an eyebrow at him, and smirks. “May I see the drawing now?”
Damn. He can’t hide anything from Edwin. Reluntitly, Charles flips the paper over and looks away shyly. It’s definitely not his best drawing of Edwin, and maybe his hair is a bit out of place and the nose is running a little long, but –
“I always adore your drawings, but I believe you would call it ‘aces’,” Edwin says, grinning at the back of Charles’ head as he whips his head around upon hearing the foreign word out of the Edwardians mouth. “Although, you added a lot more freckles on this drawing than you usually do. Did my complexion change?”
Charles shakes his head at him. He takes the end of the pen and pokes at the freckles on Edwin’s face, neck, and collarbones. It’s not everyday Edwin has this much skin exposed, so he’s taking any opportunity he can get to acknowledge them.
With the first piece of paper, Charles writes ‘Always there. Never this close to you when I usually draw, but they’re my favourite kissing spots.’ underneath his initial worm question. It takes Edwin a second to read the words, as his penmanship wasn’t the best, but finds his face growing warm.
“Favourite places to kiss? I don’t know if I believe you, you might have to prove it.”
As Edwin begins to lean closer towards Charles, thinking he was sneaky asking for kisses, Charles places his empty hand on his partner’s mouth to push him away. The look on Edwin’s face is priceless. He has never looked so offended to have Charles’ hand on his mouth.
Charles takes his pointer finger to point at himself, then scribbles out the words ‘take care’ on the paper, and points at Edwin. When he doesn’t seem to understand, Charles goes on to tug at the clothes he’s still wearing, runs his finger along the open sides of his shirt, and pulls a sour face.
“I told you not to worry about me,” Edwin sighs. “I would love to get out of these clothes; they make me rather uncomfortable.”
The two boys stand up from their spots on the couch, not before laying their books and papers on the hardwood floor, and phase through the door into their bedroom. Charles finds himself walking over to the dresser as Edwin sits down at the end of the bed. He watches Charles move around the room to find the supplies he supposedly needed to take care of Edwin, which consist of their health spellbook, a washcloth, and the weighted blanket.
The spellbook is handed to Edwin as Charles sets the other two items down at the centre of the bed. He hates that Edwin put his own needs aside to take care of Charles, but he’s not surprised. It’s Edwin; he only cares about knowledge, his books, and the love of his afterlife.
Charles tugs on the sleeve of Edwin’s shirt and mimes pulling the shirt over his head. He does this motion five times before his boyfriend realised what Charles was asking, then promptly rolled his eyes. The shirt comes off in one swift movement, which flusters Charles greatly. Edwin looks pleased with his forward decision as a man who barely likes to show an inch of skin.
This moment doesn’t last long as both of their eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. They find the two puncture wounds on the sides of Edwin’s stomach to be a deep purple colour, almost black, with faint lines spidering out from the wounds. The sight makes Charles’ stomach drop. He can’t imagine how bad the four other wounds look on his thighs.
“That looks rather unfortunate, doesn’t it.”
This time it's Charles’ turn to roll his eyes. He sits down on the bed next to Edwin and watches him flip through the small book to find the healing spell that will fix the gashes on his body. It’s upsetting to think about Edwin being stuck in the contraption merely hours ago. He is very thankful for his friends to come rescue them when they did. The situation could’ve been a lot worse if it wasn’t for Crystal’s powers and Niko’s quick thinking.
Thankfully, Charles doesn’t have to think much longer. It only takes Edwin a couple minutes to find the correct spell and mumble the words under his breath. The washcloth ends up glowing a sickly green colour and produces an earthy smell. It’s honestly a bit disgusting and it takes everything out of Charles to not gag at the thought of touching it. Alas, Charles wants to take care of his boyfriend and must be strong for him.
Once he picks up the pungent cloth (not without making a sour face), he places it against one of Edwin’s wounds. It makes his breath hitch in discomfort, but the purple colour fades almost immediately.
The two stay quiet as Charles rubs the washcloth on the other gashes and waits patiently for Edwin to bring his trousers down to his knees. Usually, Charles finds Edwin half naked in their bed to be a wonderful sight after a long day (or a week in Port Townsend), but alas, that is the last thing Charles should be thinking about right now. However, he loves Edwin’s thighs. That’s besides the point.
The rest of his puncture wounds slowly disappear and sting even worse than before. Once the last one vanishes, Edwin slumps back on the bed and sighs deeply. Charles tosses the washcloth towards the other side of the room and slumps back next to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Edwin blink a new shirt and trousers into existence, taking away any imagination of Charles’ mind from earlier.
“You need to be more discreet when you ogle me.”
Charles rolls his eyes and turns over to knock his head against Edwin’s shoulder in embarrassment. Yes, he’s allowed to stare lovingly at his boyfriend in the privacy of their home, but sometimes he can’t help it when they’re in distressing situations . . . or during a case . . . or around their friends.
Okay, maybe Charles needs to work on the appropriate time to ogle.
“Thank you, Darling.” Edwin kisses the top of his curly head and pulls him impossibly closer. They lay together at the edge of the bed for a couple minutes before they awkwardly shuffle to the top and climb under the weighted blanket. A few elbows were thrown at each other, Edwin almost fell out of the bed, and Charles trapped himself under the blanket. Their evening might not have gone as planned, but it was them.
—
“Charles, if you get in my way one more time, I’m going to lose it.” Crystal huffs in his direction as she continues to walk out of the Tongue & Tail Butcher Shop. Everyone is helping Jenny, Niko, and Crystal move out of Port Townsend to London with the boys, and Charles can’t figure out where to stand.
Niko walks past him next with Edwin on her heel. His nose is stuck in a book while she’s holding a box labeled ‘Explicit Manga’, which leaves Charles to believe that Edwin is going to be occupied for the next thirty minutes.
Once everyone is outside the shop, and Charles is no longer in people’s way, he continues removing the little pieces of glass from the floor. The mess from Esther’s kidnapping made the butcher shop unusable for Jenny to continue her work (unless she received a loan from the bank, but it was ultimately decided she should move with everyone back to London as she secretly enjoyed their company). So, obviously, it was time for a new start.
It’s only been two days since the incident. The burn mark on Charles’ neck has faded away tremendously, but his voice hasn’t returned. Edwin gave him a couple of kisses on his neck to make it “heal quicker”, which Crystal found that hard to believe. In Charles’ opinion, though, it definitely made him feel better.
He heads to the alley next to the shop to throw away his hands full of glass when he sees a pesky ball of fur running out from behind the garage bin. One of those damn cats is stalking them again. Charles thought they heard the end of it with the Cat King, flirting with his man and attempting to seduce him on multiple occasions. That was his job.
The feline disappears around the back of the building as Charles draws near it. He wants to follow the cat to avenge Edwin and give the Cat King a piece of his mind, but a hand grabs at the back of his jacket and drags him back towards the shop. His footing gets caught on the uneven pavement and trips into the back of his boyfriend.
“Why did I know you were going to pick a fight today?”
Charles adjusts his footing and brushes off the faux dust off his jacket, a habit he’s picked up from hanging around Edwin for the last three decades. Edwin has an unamused look at his face as he stares at his boyfriend, waiting for an explanation for his actions. (Charles doesn’t have one.)
He points a finger at the large garbage bin and attempts to sound out the word “Cat”. The word falls short on his tongue, which isn’t a surprise to either boy, but they weren’t expecting to hear anything out of his mouth. Charles was wheezing! Albeit, it didn’t sound great, but it was an improvement to his silence.
The wheezing was like music to his ears; Edwin, on the other hand, was trying to smile at the noise and pretend that he found the sound as endearing as his boyfriend. It was not.
“The Cat King shan’t bother us anymore, and as glad I am to hear you wheeze at me, the girls still need our help.” In one fluid motion, Edwin spins on his heels and begins to walk back towards the butcher shop. Charles waits a few moments before he decides to follow him, head hung low with embarrassment.
“Besides,” Edwin says in a low voice, stopping before the corner of the shop, “the Cat King gifted me a white lily, and we both know I prefer chrysanthemums.”
The comment only made Charles’ blush worsen.
—
Edwin’s mood turned sour the moment he remembered his promise to Niko. The promise to travel back to London via the mortal plane. The mortal airplane to be exact.
It wasn’t like Charles had a say in the original conversation. He still couldn’t talk. His wheezes were a little more predominant, but still sad and pathetic, which makes Charles feel sad and pathetic.
Anyways, Edwin forgot about his promise and now he’s got his resting grumpy face. One of Charles’ favourite Edwin faces. (Naturally, his other favourite Edwin face was his reserved smile only meant for his boyfriend’s eyes.) (It’s truly a beauty.)
The grumpy face continues to present itself for the entire ride to the post office, a Goodwill, Panda Express, the airport, and on to the plane itself. It was honestly impressive.
With his back straight, arms crossed, and a frown, Edwin sits in the uncomfortable airport seat across the aisle from his friends. Charles sits on his other side, struggling to find a comfortable sitting position in the middle seat he chose for himself. The window seat was also an option, but that would’ve put an entire seat between him and Edwin, and that wasn’t going to fly in his book.
“Is Charles okay?” a soft voice asks from the adjacent seats. “He looks more uncomfortable than usual.” Niko leans halfway into the aisle to get a better look at him as his foot slips to kick the seat in front of him. It jostles a bit, but not enough to alarm the living person ahead of him.
“He’s fine,” Edwin says without a glance.
“Are you okay?” she asks next. Her eyes blink owlishly at him, and Edwin can tell the way this conversation is going to end whether he likes it or not.
He sighs deeply into the seat in front of him before turning to his best friend. “I am doing better than before. Just a little shaken up from everything. You know, planes weren’t that common back when I was alive. We used horse-drawn carriages, trains, and–”
“We get it,” a drowsy voice says from behind Niko, “you’re old. Can you please stop talking so I can fall asleep?”
“Crystal,” Edwin says calmly, “I don’t want to hear it from you. Planes might be safer mode of traveling in this century, but I have not forgotten–” a shove towards his back interrupts his train of thought. Charles rolls half of his body onto the ground with his elbow digging into Edwin’s back and legs flying into the air.
Niko gasps at the sight, starling Crystal into taking off her eye mask to look at her ghost friends. On the other side of Crystal, Jenny remains completely unbothered with her own eye mask, headphones, and neckpillow.
When Edwin finally turns around to face Charles, he has a sheepish grin on his face and an unmistakable grin that is layered with guilt. His mouth opens to try and explain himself for his actions, thinking his voice would have improved from the wheezing it was doing a couple days ago. Charles was correct, his voice did improve, but he wasn’t saying any words. He was making sounds.
“Don’t try to explain yourself, you’ll only hurt yourself further.” Edwin finally uncrosses his hands to grab ahold of Charles and sit him upright in the plane seat. Once seated, Edwin swiftly lifts up the arm rest between him and Charles and the one between the window seat and Charles. He takes him by the shoulders once more to drag him down to lay his head down in Edwin’s lap and drape the rest of his body in the empty seats. “Please settle down now, Love, we’ll be back in London in no time.”
Edwin isn’t one for pet names in public, so it catches Charles off guard and makes him grin even more than before. Charles isn’t used to being manhandled by him either, but that’s a feeling to explore another day.
To no one’s surprise, their moment is ruined with their friends cooing and gagging at them. Niko looks like she’s going to explode with happiness, which is the only thing she should be explording from, and Crystal looks like she wants to pass away.
“I’m sorry you hate seeing two people in love, Crystal, especially when it comes to your reserved Edwadian friend and hyperactive rude boy friend courting each other.”
“Can we go back to when I didn’t know you were dating and pretend like you’re just really close friends who sometimes kiss?”
“No.”
—
They’ve hardly been back in London for more than two days when Charles calls for an impromptu movie night. It wasn’t impromptu to Charles, as he’s been itching for one since they arrived to Port Townsend, but it was to Edwin as it wasn’t on their calendar. (Their movie nights are scheduled for the first and third Friday of every month, and occasionally after a stressful case.)
The ghosts helped the girls move into their new flat after right the flight As soon as the last box made it inside, Edwin had hopped through a mirror and returned to the office. For someone who has been deprived of his office and cases for nearly two weeks, he lasted longer than Charles anticipated.
It didn’t take long for Crystal to kick Charles out after that. The last thing he remembers her saying was: “Please go spend time with your boyfriend, don’t come around our flat for at least a week, and I hope you get your voice back soon” then slammed the door in his face.
To be fair, Charles saw that reaction coming. The five of them have spent a lot of time together in the last week, and as much as Charles enjoys the new company, he’s spent over thirty years with Edwin and only Edwin, and he missed that.
Which is exactly why the movie day was called upon.
Edwin was sprawled across the couch with a book in his hand when Charles entered through the mirror with a DVD case in his hand. It’s been ages since he’s watched Back to the Future , and after spotting it in a nearby thrift store, he needed one of their Charles and Edwin movie nights.
He could feel Edwin’s eyes trail him as he walked around the room, dumping his backpack on the ground, removing a few outer layers, and popping the disk into player. After pushing a few buttons on the DVD player, the opening screen appeared before him, and Charles couldn’t believe his luck that it wasn’t a dodgy copy.
“Would you care to share which moving picture you put on the television?” Edwin asks from behind his book. “And why we are watching a movie on a Tuesday?”
He knows better than to ask Charles a question in this state. His throat still feels like crap and the noises he wheezes out don’t make a lot of sense. Charles didn’t want to justify his actions, so instead, he makes his way back over to the couch and crawls across Edwin’s body, knocking his book out of his hand, and draping himself over Edwin.
This type of reaction never fails to make Edwin smile to himself. The weight (or lack of weight) of Charles brings a different kind of comfort that he can’t put to words from his brain. He’s never liked being this close to somebody, but it’s different with Charles. It’s always been different.
Charles’ head lays across his chest, a hand carding through his thick curls, with legs intertwined with each other and arms tucked up against the couch.
It feels nice.
Edwin sighs with content as he finally turns his head to figure out the plot of the picture on the screen in front of him. It’s a little bright for his liking, and the characters look a little funny–
The scene makes Charles laugh. Like genuinely laugh out loud into fabric of Edwin’s shirt. He didn’t even realize it happened until he felt his boyfriend’s hand freeze in his hair out of pure shock. It made him laugh more.
“I would critique you for laughing at a stupid joke in the film, but this is the first time in a week that I’ve heard your voice. It makes me . . . it makes me quite happy to hear you again, Angel.” His joyful laugh begins sounding wet and sorrowful, which makes Edwin tear up a bit. He brushes his hand over Charles’ forehead to place a small kiss at the crown of his head before resuming running his head through his hair.
“You’re going to be better in no time.”