Chapter Text
21. Edwin winced and Charles yanked his hands back. “Shit, sorry, you okay?”
“I spent seventy-three years in Hell, Charles,” Edwin said. “Human-soft hands on a minor injury are not going to undo me.” His voice was just tight enough to make it sound like he wasn’t quite telling the truth. Or, well, he wasn’t gonna be ‘undone’, but he wasn’t okay, either.
“Yeah,” Charles answered, “but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. Sorry.”
Another press of the solvent-soaked cloth to the potion scald and Edwin actually made a slight sound, and Charles bit his lip hard. “Sorry, love, I’m trying.”
22. Charles pulled his arms around himself and rocked where he was curled on the floor of the office. “I’m sorry, I love you, I’m trying, I’m sorry.”
Edwin’s hands hovered over Charles’s shoulders. “It’s alright, Charles. I love you. You don’t need to be sorry.”
23. Edwin huffed. “You’re insufferable.”
“Love you too,” Charles said, and grinned like a cat.
Edwin rolled his eyes so far a living human probably couldn’t’ve done it.
24. “Charles, please - please put it down.”
Edwin’s voice was trembling, and Charles didn’t understand why.
“It’s dangerous, Charles, it’s lying to you, please.”
Charles frowned. “It’s not lying,” he said, and turned back to Edwin, and a glow lit Edwin’s face. “It just wants to help. It can make me better, Edwin.”
“It’s hurting you, you don’t need to be better, Charles, just - ”
“I DO!” Charles’s voice came out like thunder and Edwin jumped back and Charles stepped forward, and Edwin leaned back for some reason but didn’t step away again. “I can keep you safe from Hell forever, Edwin, I can stop you from getting hurt. I can be better, stronger, enough.”
“The dagger thrives on half-truths and lies,” Edwin muttered towards the ground, like he was reciting his case-files instead of listening to Charles.
“We thought that, Edwin, but we were wrong. Look - I’m not weak anymore!”
He gestured with the hand holding the dagger and something happened on the other side of the stone circle and Edwin jerked and then went still. Charles almost looked over to see what had frightened Edwin, so he could destroy it, but it didn’t matter; it couldn’t get close enough to hurt either of them now, not while Charles was strong.
“I won’t fail again, Edwin, you don’t have to be afraid.”
“...and can be broken by Truth,” Edwin finished muttering, and his eyes widened and he looked back up. “Charles, I want you to say it.”
“What?” Charles asked, and something in his hand almost-burned, but he wasn’t weak enough for burns anymore.
“The one thing we both know is True, Charles, True down to the bottom of your heart. I need you to say it.”
“I need to be better.”
“That’s a fear that you believe, Charles, it’s not a Truth. Tell me the Truth!"
Charles tilted his head to the side, and for a split-second the almost-burn felt like warmth.
“I love you.”
25. Charles grabbed up his backpack and went for the door. “Love you,” he said, and went to head out -
“Love you,” he heard from behind him, and he almost dropped right through the floor.
26. “I’m so sorry, Charles, I’m so sorry, I - that was… that was unforgivable. I don’t know how I could ever…” Edwin trailed off, and it was the closest Charles had seen him to tears in years, and it hurt like hell. Edwin hadn’t even said anything that bad. It was just… it was a bad day, and… “I’m - I told you I’m not good with people. I don’t…”
Charles shrugged, and the weight of the backpack on his shoulder pulled more than usual. “And I told you that was fine. Don’t care. Love you anyway.”
27. Charles finished brewing the tea - or, well, the tea-like potion, which tasted absolutely awful, and was being drunk for medicinal purposes, but it had been a very long time since he could say he was making a cuppa, and he was going to get whatever tiny benefits out of this awful week that he could, okay - and handed it to Edwin. “Here you are, love you. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Love you too,” Edwin said absently, and Charles felt more warmth than he’d gotten from the magical heat of the tea.
28. “Edwin. Edwin, stay with me. Come, on, Edwin, I love you, don’t fucking leave me, Edwin!”
Charles dropped his head onto Edwin’s chest. “Edwin. You’re supposed to say it back.”
Charles’s head dug into Edwin’s unmoving sternum, which didn’t mean anything, because ghosts didn’t breathe, and -
“Love you too,” came out in a gasp, and Charles looked up at Edwin’s blinking eyes, and burst into tears.
29. Edwin walked past the sofa, where Charles was lying as close to sleep as ghosts get, on his way out of the office. “I’ll be back by the time the runes mature. Love you,” he said, and Charles muzzily said “love you” back.
30. “Charles, I love you.”
Charles turned back again. “Great. Love you too. Can we go?”
“As more than a friend, I’m afraid,” Edwin said, with almost more pain than when he was being torn apart, and Charles stopped.
+1. Charles stared at the ceiling of the office, legs draped over the side of the sofa.
“Why’d you apologize?”
“Hmm?” Edwin hummed without looking up from his book.
“On the steps. You said ‘as more than a friend, I’m afraid’. Why? You know I love you.”
Edwin glanced up with a smile. “I do, yes. You have told me enough. But that is rather different.”
“Not sure it is,” Charles said, then settled back into silence as Edwin went back to his book.
“It would be fine, right,” he said suddenly, “for you to love me like that, because I love you, yeah? So you know I wouldn’t mind you saying it back.”
Edwin sighed and half-closed his book with a finger tucked in to mark his place. “I was saying something a bit different, Charles, as you know. Something that might cause… discomfort. Or pressure.”
“Right,” Charles said, and twisted his lips to the side while Edwin watched him. “It didn’t, though.”
“I am glad,” Edwin said, and started to go back to his book.
“I don’t think that’s something you should have to apologize for,” Charles said quickly. “I mean, even if it did make me a little uncomfortable. Which it didn’t! But I know I made you feel weird back in the ‘90s when I started telling you I love you.”
“Rather longer than that,” Edwin said quietly.
“But it was good for both of us, anyway. And since you know I love you, I don’t think you should have to apologize for it. So I’m not going to either.”
Edwin froze, eyes wide, like he’d seen a ghost. Charles turned his head to the side to look at him straight-on, and felt warm all the way down to his toes.
“I’m in love with you, Edwin.”