Work Text:
HENRY WOKE WITH A THUD, hearing a groan of annoyance. He let out a deep sigh in realization that Charlotte hadn't slept while he was. He'd sworn she'd plopped down in a chair across from him as he dozed off, but he quickly inferred that she hadn't sat there long.
The blonde blinked sleep from his eyes, raising a hand to rub them and taking a big breath in. He didn't know how to stop his friend when she was deeply rooted in investigating a big bad like this.
For the past two weeks, several low risk victims- usually people without homing or family. Vulnerable always. They'd all been blitz attacks, and no police force in any district even opened missing persons reports. Nobody was looking for those people because they were street dwellers, prostitutes- things like that. The criminal was organized, though. The abduction sights were always pristine despite the grimness of the bodies.
Dystopia was the crime central of Tokyo, the team was used to death, but this was different. The amount of missing and death reports had skyrocketed, resulting in Charlotte leaving any sort of rest behind.
Henry stood up quickly upon the second slam. It sounded like she was taking her frustration out on a keyboard at the control center. He remained still for a moment, not knowing exactly what to say to her. He couldn't stop her from looking, hell, he wanted to stay up forever until they found the guy too; though maybe if she just had a fresh pair of eyes…
The teenager rounded the corner, scanning the room. A clock above the several computers told him it was roughly five in the morning. Jasper was most likely out at the noodle shop down the block, he had realized that a fogged brain wouldn't do them good. The man who worked at the resurfacing always seemed to clear his head, so Henry wasn't complaining.
The room was dimly lit, and Charlotte was standing, her chair pushed backward from its spot. Her hands were gripping the desk firmly.
“You know, it's not good to look at all of those screens in the dark,” he began, pausing in confusion at the words that he'd just uttered. She'd definitely left an impression on him.
“You do that all of the time.” She responded grimly. Her voice was unusually shaky even under these circumstances, which made Henry move instinctively forward.
He looked her up and down. She was paler than usual, and she shook, her body tensing every few seconds. “Char, you need sleep.”
She whipped around, and Henry's heart dropped into his stomach. There were tears in her eyes. This case was tearing her apart. Her screens were filled with the images of innocent people, battered and bruised, eyes open with the last emotion they'd ever felt-- fear. “You know I can't forget about this. Not like you can.”
Henry flinched. “I'm not forgetting. But you know better than anyone that you won't get anywhere when you're tired. People need to reboot just like your tech does.”
She pursed her lips. “Sorry. I didn't mean… I just can't stand this. I thought I could deal with this city. I have been. This is just-”
“Different.” He finished for her, putting his hands in his sweatpant pockets and stepping closer to her. Henry found himself glancing at his shoes, as if he was unable to meet her gaze. How could he when she looked so broken up. She almost looked like one of the people on her screens.
“Different. Like you lately.”
“Yeah? I think I have living with you to thank for that.” He told her, his brain only just coming to the conclusion as he spoke the words. She had given him more empathy than he'd had even months before. She'd made him care more than he thought he was capable of.
“Or maybe you're just out of being an asshole considering how irritable you've been toward Jasp lately.” She crossed her arms.
That was another thing. Jasper was making him increasingly angry, and he wasn't even doing anything out of the ordinary. He was just being his regular self, but Henry had blown up at him at least three times in the past week. “I- it's not,”
Henry blinked as she gave him a stare. More specifically, that stare.
“What?”
“It's because he's got a good thing going with that guy at the noodle shop, isn't it?” She asked, throwing him almost off balance. Her eyes were boring holes into him, sending a chill down his spine.
“Huh?” He wasnt jealous.
“You haven't dated since Swellview. Since a long time in Swellview.” She told him, raising an eyebrow yet softening her gaze. “It's okay to miss the feeling of caring for someone, but that doesn't mean you stop caring about the person who's being cared for.”
Henry was at a loss for what to say for several seconds. Was he jealous? That didn't make any sense. He watched Charlotte as she smirked tiredly, her eyes narrower than usual due to her obvious lack of sleep. “You should really take a nap, at least. You look exhausted.”
And eat. And just relax. Her curls were strung loosely and more messily around her face than he’d seen rarely. She was always so particular.
“You're diverting the conversation.” She told him, a hint of something he couldn't read in her voice. “I know it didn't work out with that girl you met when you got here. That doesn't mean you have to stop looking.”
Henry shook his head. It wasn't like that. He hadn't stopped looking… he just didn't feel the need to anymore, that was the mystery. He'd always liked flirting with quite literally any pretty girl around him. Something had obviously changed, he just couldn't put a finger on what. “I don't need to look.”
Charlotte clasped her hands together, letting out a soft chuckle. “You're so different.” The dark haired girl turned back around, grunting a bit as she leaned down and turned off the monitors in front of them.
“No, I'm not.” He argued. But he was, wasn't he?
“Then what are you? Lonely?” She turned back around to face him.
Lonely. Something about that word stuck to his brain. That was exactly the emotion that he hadn't pinned to Charlotte's tone earlier. They both were, and it made sense. Dating was harder in a place like this, and horrible with being a vigilante.
“I dunno… no? No.” He muttered, rethinking his words. “Yeah… yeah I guess? I don't see you getting with anyone either.”
She glared at him. “This isn't about me.”
“This is about you. You haven't slept in two days, I woke up to you slamming on your custom keyboard that you adore and barely let me use.” He countered
“Since when do you profile me like this?” She asked
He shrugged. “Probably since we started sharing a base. I never used to be able to read you but it's easier now.”
“Read me. You are profiling.” She shook her head. “Alright then. What are you reading off of me right now?”
“You're tired. You're upset and guilty that you haven't found the criminal. You're an overachiever and you don't like failing things. You're at a block right now and that's why you aren't focused, and you're lonely too. If I'm lonely, so are you.” Henry stopped. When had he ever, ever, said something remotely realistic? He hadn't realized how much he knew Charlotte, how much he cared.
She took an unconscious step forward. “I'm lonely.. because you're lonely. What is that supposed to mean? Just because I'm empathetic doesn't mean I'm sorry for you.”
Henry shifted. “Not sorry, no.”
She stared at him quizzingly.
“Just feeling the same.”
“The same about what?”
Henry didn't know. He kept surprising himself with the words coming out of his mouth. He hadn't known he could ever change this much. He hadn't seen it until this conversation.
Charlotte let out a whispery laugh, placing a hand on her side. “You're full of yourself, Hart.”
“You're ridiculously stubborn.” He fired back, though his voice was barely argumentative. It was gentle, understanding despite how annoying it was to watch her watch around like a corpse.
“I can profile too. That you're mad at Jasper just because he has someone and you don't. How you sleep on the couch and not in your room because you can't stand the noise of the air conditioning and street noise. You're changing because you're living with us and you don't want to-”
“This is all irrelevant-”
“And you want someone.”
He wanted someone.
“No I.. I don't want someone.” He told her, a realization dawning on him. He sounded like he'd just solved a life-long problem he'd never been able to decipher.
Charlotte looked at him, completely aware of how close they’d gotten to each other during their light-hearted bickering “What do you want then?”
He sucked in a breath of air, furrowing his eyebrows. The blonde tried to look anywhere but into her eyes for a moment. When he dared to glance back at her, he saw the anticipation covering her face. “Not to be lonely.”
She stood silently, staring at him with her mouth hanging slightly open.
“And for you not to be lonely.”
He took a small step forward, raising his hands gently to her face and cupping her cheeks. He was moving in auto-pilot- mind screaming a million words. His eyes lowered to her lips.
They had always felt lonely. But they had never truly been alone.
They met each other in the middle, lips gently clashing together, and she melted into him. One of his hands moved lightly to her hair. They hadn't ever been alone. They had always been right alongside one another.
Charlotte pulled away first, leaning her forehead against his. The girl whispered against his lips. “We don't have to be lonely.”
“Hmm?” He asked with a slight smirk.
She kissed him again.