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Henry thought no one could get a read on him. Maybe no one had ever properly tried before, though, because a good too many people were actually good at it.
Ellie started it all.
The redhead woman had just casually mentioned it a week after they started Triple Threat, the two of them sitting in the back of Charles’ helicopter after a successful mission.
Henry wasn’t listening, honestly, just enjoying the cheerful lift in the man’s voice as he let it play at the back of his brain. He was still decompressing, feeling the adrenaline fade and leaving him tired. A normal person might call it ‘relaxing’.
And then there was Ellie. Slouched in a seat, looking like a bored child, looking uncomfortably crafty.
She got his attention by waving her hands.
‘Him,’ She was catching onto ASL quickly, lazily signing words with ease. ‘Yours?’
Jesus. Henry’s heart jumped. He shrugged his shoulders, face carefully impassive.
Ellie didn’t look bothered. Mimed headphones, signed something new.
‘Boy. Friend.’
Henry shook his head, quickly, too long to look casual.
The woman wrinkled her nose at him. Unbelieving.
‘Friends only,’ Henry signed quickly.
‘He knows?’ Her brows raised. ‘Not boyfriend?’
Henry made a face at her. ‘Yes.’
They weren’t involved. What a weird question out of nowhere. Like two guys couldn’t just be good friends.
Just because Charles dropped everything for him and got him a sanction. Picked up him and Ellie and started Triple Threat. Pulled them through each heist with the joy and enthusiasm of a man with everything he wanted.
Just because Henry genuinely liked him, trusted him, meant they were in love, huh?
Henry’s heart was racing.
‘He’s a good person,’ he signed to Ellie. ‘Good friend.’
The woman nodded, once, not openly disagreeing, but her expression betrayed outright ridicule.
-
The next person who brought it up was some nobody, an annoying voice pitching over bitter winds.
“Hey! Question.”
Henry slowed.
He had been walking back to his government-issued quarters and minding his own fucking business. He was hungry and he wanted to relax, prepare for the mission tomorrow.
He was not thrilled, turned on his heel with a steely expression he often reserved for missions gone bad. Ones that brought him face-to-face with people he really didn’t care for.
This kid ignored every ‘fuck off’ warning Henry was giving and got entirely too close, leaning into Henry’s personal space until the thief had to lean backwards in order not to taste the same air.
“You and Charles?” The guy asked, like Henry was someone he knew. A friend.
The thief stared. This seemed to unnerve the soldier somehow.
“Uh...are you guys…” The guy raised his eyebrows. “You know.”
Yeah, Henry knew, but he was going to force this idiot to say it.
“You guys going out?”
Henry rolled his eyes and that’s as far as he got.
“We used to date,” the moron blurted, and didn’t that just yank the rug from under his feet? “So it’s cool. I just wanted to know.”
Henry was frozen, grocery bags still in hand, looking this guy up and down.
There was a lot to unpack there.
Why did he care? Why did he think it was something someone who was dating Charles wanted to hear? Why did he assume that if Henry was a jealous boyfriend type, he wasn’t about to punch him in the teeth?
...Charles was...open to dating guys?
Henry inhaled, sharply, and turned on his heel.
He had thought to say no, and in the end decided to just say nothing.
“Hey!” The military guy shouted after him. “I just want to talk!”
Charles would have felt obligated to explain. Ellie would have shot him a rude gesture. Henry continued on, ignoring him, burning inside.
-
“No, I just assumed you guys were dating from the get go,” Ellie told Henry over a lopsided cafe table outside the hotel they’d been put up at. “You know. ‘Any friend of Henry’s is a friend of mine?’”
“He’s just like that.” Henry said shortly.
“I had no way of knowing that kind of thing,” Ellie pointed out. “And anyway, now that I do know him, I really don’t believe that.”
That caught his attention. Henry looked up from a badly-burnt croissant, expression sharp.
Ellie shrugged. “Charles is a nice guy,” she said, “But you ever notice he doesn’t really trust people?”
Uh…
Henry shook his head.
Ellie kindly didn’t berate him and instead ticked off memories on her fingers.
“He’s always the first to point out a possible problem,” She started, “He warns us about people not to talk to. He doesn’t have like...real friends, not outside of us which is weird because a lot of people like him. Isn’t that weird?”
Well, yes. Henry inclined his head. He was likeable, pretty sure he was liked, but he literally never hung out with anyone. Ever.
Honestly, he’d wondered what the hell Charles did before they moved onto base.
“He doesn’t let anyone touch his aircraft without him watching over their shoulders. Isn’t that weird for a soldier?”
Henry wasn’t sure how he’d answer that. Not like he knew any other soldiers well.
“He does not trust our informants, even though some aren’t even as dangerous as us, Henry doesn’t that strike you as weird?”
Uh...was it?
The thief shifted, pushing his plate away, shoulders locked.
Ellie looked like she was pitying him, pulling at a strand of frazzled red hair.
“I’m just saying,” She told her friend, “He came for us.”
Henry picked at a loose sleeve in his sweater.
“You know,” The thief continued, tapping her fingers over the table, “He didn’t even ask what we were doing there.”
-
Henry was a proud human being, but he had been humiliated many times in his life. He lay awake thinking of a few of them, after all. Had his share of moments.
This, however? This blew all of that out of the water.
Henry’s confident facade shattered and his jaw dropped.
Charles himself started to laugh. Not a happy, cheerful laugh, but frantic and with a wild expression in his eyes.
“It’s imperative going forward,” General Galeforce remained the only calm person in the room, “That we avoid any future incidents-”
“It wasn’t like that-” Charles caught himself and froze. “-Sir.”
“I don’t care what it was like, it’s what you’re signing,” The General snapped down at the boy like he was a child.
Henry felt a bit like he was being caught in a familial argument.
“But...Sir,” Charles’ hands behind his back were tightened until his knuckles were straining, “Who...has the clearance to see this?”
Huh?
Henry looked over at Charles, bewildered, and thought of the guy who had approached him about dating Charles. His ex.
The General looked the pilot in the eyes for a long second.
Did Charles not want someone to think he and Henry weren’t involved? Like badly enough that this signing was more about- rather than-
Henry was sweating now despite the chilly office.
“Sign, Charlie,” The General said.
Charles reluctantly picked up a pen.
Henry watched him scribble unintelligibly, only the first C readable.
Did he not want to be mistaken for Henry’s lover this badly? Bad enough that he was worried other people would see?
Be ashamed, maybe?
Henry stared at the solemn look in the other’s face, the tight line of his lips.
He handed the pen to Henry without looking at him. Henry felt a bit sick.
He picked the pen out of Charles’ hand without touching his fingers. Bent over the paper.
Signed something that more or less said they couldn’t bang during missions or on base, lest Triple Threat be broken apart due to ‘undue distraction’ and ‘unprofessionalism.’
Henry’s elegant, looping handwriting twined with Charles’ quick scratch and something about it hurt to look at.
-
“You big idiot!”
It was the nicest Ellie had been to him in seven minutes. It might be because he was really bleeding out, was actually going to fucking die now.
Henry was having trouble seeing, just leaned heavily on Ellie and hoped she wasn’t being slowed down by him.
He felt really cold and that was not a good sign. He forced his legs to move, trying not to think about it, if he thought about it too much he was going to just drop and he’d never get back up.
Ellie’s frantic, hot breaths shook into a laugh of relief.
“Henry!” Strong arms caught him under the armpits, and Henry sagged against Charles’ body.
His voice rumbled in his ears, comforting and familiar.
“I’m fine, yeah, I went down not far from here but I’m okay, ditched just fine, Ellie what happened out there?”
“Hey,” Henry gargled, trying to lift his head and failing, “Wasn’t our fault.”
“It was absolutely our fault,” Ellie was telling Charles, “I fucking told him not to push it.”
“Here,” He was being gently laid down. It felt nice. “Ellie, I don’t wanna ask, but can you go get-”
Whatever she was supposed to go get, she was already gone getting it.
Henry looked up, bleary eyesight taking in his pilot’s handsome face. Backlit by greenery untouched by frost, sunlight outlining him in a golden glow.
He was absolutely the most gorgeous human being he’d ever seen.
He wanted to say that, actually.
“Chhhhshhhh” was all that came out of his mouth, a strange hissing noise and a good deal of coughing.
“Don’t, Hen, just stay still. I've got you.”
His voice was so gentle. Soothing.
Had always been. Riddled with human tics and nervous vernacular, a lazy kind of sweetness built into it and warming each sentence.
Nice.
You were nice.
Thanks for it all.
Henry had been at peace. Willing, watching his hand be held and happy.
Then Ellie dropped down next to him, eyes rimmed red and furious.
If you die I will fucking tell him, so don’t you fucking dare.
-
Being badly injured meant he had to sit out the next few missions.
Henry was pissed off.
Ellie and Charles were given someone else to infiltrate bases with, Henry was told to get plenty of bedrest and not move.
He did that for about half a day. Then he got bored.
Out of revenge, he broke into the General’s office and stole every pen in the office. Snatched the usb connector for his mouse. Stole his lamp for good measure, to see if he could get it out of the office without being stopped.
Turns out he could, but it was harder to get rid of than he thought.
Henry sized up the lamp in his hands, then the mailbox in front of him.
Maybe. It was going to be a close fit, though, and he’d have to be careful that no one watched him shove it into the mailbox. That’s the sort of thing people remember. He had to be vigilant.
So when someone walked around the corner, Henry leaned back against the mailbox. Just a regular dude holding a lamp outside of someone’s residence.
He got a little closer and Henry nearly dropped it to be better on guard.
This guy was tall. Handsome. Strong, definitely your typical military type, and he was sizing Henry up.
Henry wasn’t unused to being harassed a little if he was alone on base, but something about this guy was off.
He stood in front of Henry, not within his personal space but still too close.
“Calvin,” The guy said, and Henry raised an eyebrow.
“Overheard him say you guys got hurt out there.”
Correction: Henry got hurt and it took another six hours for Charles to be like ‘Oh yeah, also I’m injured too crashed the copter again’ and instead of writing up a separate incident they wrote it with Henry’s. But yes, sure.
So he nodded.
“You have to watch out for him,” The handsome asshole said, “He’s not as capable as everyone pretends he is.”
Ice shot through Henry’s veins. He straightened to his full height, nearly eye-to-eye with the man.
Please.
Charles was not only capable, he was one of the best. Still young, he was vibrant and strong and always ready to risk his wellbeing (be it taking responsibility for Triple Threat’s fuckups alone or actually laying his life on the line) for other people.
So get out of here with that bullshit.
Henry shot him a dismissive look and turned.
This guy caught his shoulder. Gripped it, hard.
“I mean it,” He said, “He’s got flaws nobody should be overlooking. Don’t count on him to save your life.”
Henry didn’t flinch even though his fingers were digging into his shoulder.
The look in his eyes was just...mean. Nothing else behind it.
Henry could deal with hatred. This empty sort of rage, just wanting to be angry and knock Charles down?
He couldn’t deal with that.
“Fuck off,” Henry told him, ready to be hit for it, but the guy just let him go.
He didn’t waste time. Took his fucking lamp and started to walk away, grinding his teeth to powder.
“I’m just saying,” The man snapped behind him. “You switched sides because of that guy. Why? We both know the dick wasn’t that good.”
Henry stopped.
For a second, he envisioned beating the man’s skull in. Just to wipe off the smarmy look for a split second and see real fear.
But that really wasn’t Henry’s style.
So instead he looked over his shoulder, quickly memorized his face, and promised himself to start looking through documents the second he was back home.
Henry kept walking, pace even and unbothered. His hands were shaking unnoticeably.
He was going to make that bastard’s life hell.
-
“One of these days,” Ellie told him, arm in arm as they were dressed to the nines, “You’re going to have to say something.”
Henry nearly glittered in this light, priceless jewels accented in his tailored suit. Ellie was dressed much the same, in a slender jumpsuit and jewelry so heavy she’d outright refused to wear the headpiece. Henry had offered instead.
And only now had he begun to be uncomfortable. It had nothing to do with jewelry.
“What?” He played stupid as they entered the golden ballroom.
The redhead shot him a disappointed look, which somehow hurt more than irritation or anger.
He scanned the ballroom again, feeling ashamed.
God, these people lived like they were Regency Lords desperately trying to prove their wealth. Henry was taking a couple things from this room before they went back to base.
In the golden light, Charles was busy working his way into the younger crowd. His naturally vibrant, sunshine personality had grabbed the attention of several young Toppats and they were chatting together with building energy.
Henry watched him from the sidelines.
He was dressed in dark colors, Charles in a dazzling white. He was bathed in the golden colors of the ballroom, grinning ear to ear with a dazzling sort of smile that was enchanting to watch. Look at.
He whirled around with a girl from the crowd, laughing with her about something, and Henry swallowed.
He was happy. Watching. So….
Henry amended his question.
“Why?” He asked softly.
Charles caught sight of them. He couldn’t say or do anything, of course, but the manic grin on his face softened to something sweet when he met Henry’s eyes.
The affection curling under Henry’s skin damn near lit him on fire. He watched Charles avoid that part of the ballroom from then on. Avoid the distraction.
“Because,” Ellie said, having watched the whole thing, “I think he’s waiting for you to say something first.”
-
Forget Galeforce, this was fucking worse.
“Give me back the intel,” Reginald Copperbottom told Henry coldly, “I’ll tell you where your pilot is.”
The thief had to take a second to himself.
The Toppat Leader was watching him from only twelve feet away. They were both beat up from their scuffle and both dead tired. The Toppat had a gun trained on him, but Henry was almost willing to be shot at this point.
Fucking Copperbottom. Had the guy ever seen Charles before the abduction?
“I know how important he is to you,” Reginald said, as if he were some kind of cartoon villain on some aging tv program, “And you’re irritating enough for me to kill him just on that.”
“Don’t,” Henry grit. “Fine. Let’s talk.”
Copperbottom did not lower his gun, but Henry did see the tenseness in his shoulders ease.
“I am perfectly happy telling you where the officer is being held,” The other man said patiently, “As soon as you retrieve something for me. Something important.”
Oh, please.
“I’ll do you better than that,” Henry forced the sentence through his teeth. “Give me Charles- now- and I’ll get yours back.”
He saw Reginald blanch and oh yes. It was absolutely worth shooting himself in the foot for the expression on his face.
The guy seemed to choke, caught off-guard by Henry deducting exactly why he needed plans for The Wall.
Wasn’t like Henry wasn’t already acquainted with the place. He’d just waltz in, find the redheaded bastard and walk back out. Get Reginald his husband back and tell Charles it was time to fucking retire just a year into their missions.
“I need Charles to fly,” Henry lied smoothly. “No one else.”
Copperbottom’s gun slowly lowered.
But honestly, did everyone in the world know?
-
“Oh, absolutely,” Ellie told him. “Even Charles knows by now, and he was the second-last to know, of course.”
“Wh-” Henry couldn’t force the whole world out, staring with distress over a barely-eaten sandwich. “Charles?!”
“Probably not just how much,” Ellie said with all the affection of a smug sibling, “But oh yes. You can only hide those longing gazes for so long, Stickmin. Even from Charles.”
The thief covered his face with his hands.
“Don’t think of it like a bad thing,” The redhead comforted him with a tone that didn’t feel overly comforting. “Charles is the type of person who would have told you by now he wasn’t interested. Nicely, of course, but he isn’t the type of guy to let you go on pining, you know?”
“I’m going to go back and ask Copperbottom to throw me off the ship.”
“You know, I’m not sure he’d do it anymore,” Ellie tucked back into her own lunch. “I think you might actually have a little of his respect now.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Ask Liam to kill you instead, he might actually do it. He hates you.”
Behind the barrier of his hands, Henry smirked.
He’d deserved what he’d got. He wasn’t sorry.
“Or better yet, go talk to Charles. I mean it, I’m tired of watching you two look at each other like kicked dogs.”
Henry shot her a tired glare from between his fingers.
Ellie didn’t look impressed.
“Look, Diamonds,” She said with annoyed affection, “We’ve been friends for too long at this point for me to coddle you. Tell Charles because he fucking deserves to be told. And you almost do.”
The woman stole more fries from his plate and Henry let her.
She wasn’t wrong.
-
It was harder to do than he thought. In the end, it worked better to not think at all.
They came back from a test flight. Just scoping out, Charles flying as close as he could get without arousing suspicion, Henry quickly taking notes of what he saw. No teams to give them intel before the big mission. Just them, and Ellie back in town trying to talk to the locals.
Henry honestly liked this better. Felt more like they were wild rebels instead of agents. Especially since Copperbottom wasn’t actively out to get their blood currently. They could steal some things, pass on some information, and call it a day. Much more laid back.
So yeah. He was in a good mood. Charles seemed to be, too.
“Weird how we’ve gotten here, right?” The pilot chatted to his partner as they headed back to base, “This whole thing has sort of evolved, know what I mean?”
Henry did, and signed so.
“Feels like we’ve been doing this like, way longer. I can barely remember what missions before you were like.”
Henry’s heart leapt out of his chest and Charles seemed to slam his own spine against the back of his chair.
“I….just mean…” The pilot scrambled. “Without you guys tagging along. No. Not tagging along. You’re my team, I’m not saying-”
He was way too nervous than someone actively landing a multi-million-dollar piece of machinery should be. Henry was getting nervous watching the ground approach.
“I am so sorry,” Charles said, wincing as they landed roughly. “I just mean...you know. Uh...without you.”
Henry couldn’t keep the smile off his face if he’d been so inclined to try.
“With you, I really like what I’m doing,” Charles continued desperately, “And stop me if I’m getting annoying, I can’t get all my thoughts to-”
It really didn’t matter, because thinking wasn’t on Henry’s itinerary.
He’d unbuckled, leaned way over, kissed Charles on the mouth in a desperate, giddy flush of adoration.
Charles immediately gripped his arms, inhaling sharply, lips parting against Henry’s in a way that made him weak.
Fucking finally. Now everyone could leave him the fuck alone.
Henry was nearly in his lap at this point, pushing back his headset to touch his hair, feeling Charles smile, his hands slide up his arms, down his back. Comforting, longing, delighted.
Henry moved back just enough to look at him, the dazed, lazy smile on his face. He kissed it, slowly, thumbs smoothing over cheekbones.
Charles laughed against his mouth, gently pulled him back, looking up at Henry with dazzling, warm adoration.
Joy bubbled in Henry’s chest.
“Hey, Charles.”
-
“What did you expect me to say?” Ellie asked when Henry told her. “I told you so?”
He shrugged a shoulder. Nodded.
The woman shook her hair, fiery-red locks swishing around her shoulders. “Nah. Good for you both. You deserve one another.”
That said something about either him or Charles, and he wasn’t sure which.
“Don’t bother breaking the news to anyone else, though. They won’t be surprised.”