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It starts with a flash of white, leading into a painful, long-lasting headache as the memories return one by one, shocking and all-encompassing, like he was dunked into ice water.
Then, darkness. A darkness so whole and so heavy it makes his lungs burn with need, trying to take a breath of air but being unable to as the pressure increases against the inside of his skull.
You failed again. he thinks to himself, Is this really so difficult?
He hates himself for it. He thinks it must be the first time, every time, but every time after the first he is painfully proven wrong, as memory after memory spills into him until his head is full to bursting.
He doesn't know what the memories are now. Only in that headspace is he allowed to know.
What he does always remember is the sense of resolve; The courage and determination that warms him down his fingertips and toes, and he tries again, reaching back into the light, and the headache fades as the memories are erased before he's dumped back into the real world.
That's all Henry can recall. That's all that he's allowed to recall.
There were no stars in the sky tonight. As Henry looked up at the grey-ish sky above him, he seemed to recall that there used to be more of them. Out here, in the middle of rural New York state, you'd think you'd be able to see more stars than this, but there were only a handful of the absolute brightest. He couldn't even point out which one was Sirius, the dog star, the brightest star in the sky as seen from earth; There were just too many blank spots between them, and too many of them that were close to the same brightness.
Henry glowered off into the rapidly-developing city in the distance, just barely close enough to be seen easily over the curve of the earth. Who decided to build so many cities as to completely obscure the night sky from view? That person deserves to be fired!
Then again...maybe Henry should thank them instead. After all, it was currently saving him from a panic that was pressing against the back of his eyes right now, too obvious to be ignored, but subtle enough that it isn't overwhelming. He would take what he could get.
"Henry?"
Henry spun around as Charles climbed up the ladder to the roof, catching his relieved smile as he spotted him sitting there under the sky.
"Ah, there you are." Charles carefully stepped over the rickety shingles on the roof, which still needed mending to keep all the rain out, "Mind if I join you?"
Henry sighed, trying to still his frantic heart, "Not at all. Come here."
"Sorry I startled you."
"No worries."
Charles sat beside him, throwing a blanket over both of their shoulders so they could cuddle together, "Are you looking at the sky?"
"Trying to, yeah." Henry glared up at the sky, "Can't even find Sirius."
"Can't even find Sirius!" Charles repeated incredulously, "Honestly, this sky sucks. It's not even black, just a washed-out grey."
Henry snorted, "You have no idea what Sirius is, Charles."
"No, I don't. I just wanted to match your energy."
Henry laughed, gently elbowing him, "Sirius is the brightest star in the sky as seen from earth."
"Oh!" Charles looked back up at the sky, then squinted at the very few dim lights that could be seen, "Yeah, that tracks."
Henry rested his head on Charles' shoulder, and his smile fell.
"You're going to run again, aren't you?"
"What!? Hey! That was one-!"
"I'm not talking about that weird alliance you forged with the toppats."
Henry let his breath go.
Charles' expression hardened until his multicolored eyes glowed a vivid bright green under his fluffy bangs, "You always get this restless energy right before you run away, as if you're too anxious to stay in one place. Don't run tonight, Love. Please. It always makes me worry that one day, you'll just float off, and I'll never see you again."
"Charles, hearing you say that is exactly why I want to keep running off." Henry swiftly argued back, "You can trust me, Charles. I won't just disappear forever. I'll always come back to you."
Truth be told, he had no idea why he always felt this urge to run off between missions and vacations. Maybe it was the ex-criminal in him growing fearful of being caught if he stayed in one place for too long, or maybe it was just because he always felt anxious and restless letting all his surroundings grow mundane and ordinary, exactly how he feels when he's trapped, like in the prison, or the complex, or kidnapped and tied up somewhere else.
"You can run off if you like. I obviously don't want to hold you back." Charles smiled sweetly at him, "But don't be gone for multiple days like last time, and please answer your phone when I call. When you're used to friends dying on the job, seeing them vanish is just really scary, you know?"
He did know. Henry knew that if Charles just up and left like he liked to do, he would be pretty damn worried too.
"Okay, I'll leave my phone on." Henry said at last, "And I'll try not to be gone for too long."
"Promise?"
"Yeah." Henry offered a tired smile, "Think you can keep to your side of the bed tonight?"
"No problem. Just push me off if I get in your space by accident."
That was what Henry liked to hear.
He left a grateful kiss on Charles' cheek before standing up, "Come on. I'm ready for a shower. You first, or me?"
Henry's eyes were wide open at the crack of dawn.
The panic that had been pushing against the inside of his skull the previous night had tripled, forcing him to breathe fast to compensate. He quickly dressed himself and then left, running as fast as he could to the neighboring city.
Charles had told him not to run out that night.
He didn't say anything about the next morning.
Henry's nerves were on fire as he wound between the streets, sneaking through construction sites to get out faster, so he was all too ready to react when a group of people suddenly jumped him from a dark alley.
He twisted to kick his attacker in the knee, making them flail and drop the gun. The others came at him with bats and a crowbar, but his adrenaline rush made him faster, dodging the first batter and then burying an uppercut in the gut of the other. He crossed his arms over his head so the crowbar hit his forearms, not his head, and then he swung his leg out to trip them, scrambling for the gun before the first could find it again.
He pocketed it and then ran for his life, barely daring to look back, vision blurring as the panic was all he could feel.
He didn't stop running until he was on the highway, going south.
His eyes cracked open as the sun shone in them, his muscles sore from the trek. He was on his back in the back of an empty truck, cruising along the mostly-empty highway going west from New York. He had no idea where he was on the map, he didn't even know which state he was in, so he was going to have to pick up that information at the next rest stop.
That suited him just fine. Somehow, feeling like he was moving, on the run, completely out in the middle of nowhere where nobody could find him eased his panic like nothing else could. He couldn't help it. He was a free bird, he told himself, meant to migrate with the seasons, change with the tides, not stick to one place, bound to one area forever.
Then he thought of Charles, and he cringed as he checked his phone.
Charles hadn't called yet. When Henry made his little escapades, he usually completely turned his phone off, or even left it behind, preferring the use of payphones if he absolutely needed to contact anyone from his ordinary life. Today though, he decided to boot it into simplified mode and then turned all location services off. It wouldn't completely help him stay hidden, phones always have a way of tracking you no matter what, but at least this way, Charles would hopefully not have so many heart attacks. He deserved that much, at least.
The truck finally pulled off the highway, stopping in a small town that nonetheless looked pretty lively and populated in this area. Once the driver pulled up into a gas station and left the truck to go inside, Henry quickly climbed out and headed in after him.
Henry perused the isles of snacks, eyes darting around to take in the brilliantly-painted walls of the gas station. He was no expert, but it looked like he was in West Virginia, heading towards Charleston. That wouldn't do at all. He needed to go further west, where there was more empty land. Better chance of disappearing that way. He'd been from the frozen tundras of northern Canada to the searing deserts of Arizona to the warm sandy beaches of Florida, and everywhere in between, and in all his experience traveling, the more rural land, the better. Oh, and better carry bear spray with you just in case.
Henry found something to eat, a generic bag of salty chips that looked like they were more salt than chip. He had built up a list of essentials in his head over the years, including the aforementioned bear spray, a lighter, a sharp pocket knife, and $200 in cash. No credit cards where he was going. He always kept a few hundred dollars withdrawn in his supplies, just for such an escapade.
He quickly bought the chips and then left, snacking on them as he moved into the warm afternoon sun.
He lingered by the door, keeping a sharp eye out for someone who might be headed west. Not many people were leaving though, and all of them turned the wrong way, either heading up north or going further east.
He tossed the empty chip bag and stopped at a drinking fountain, just realizing at that moment how thirsty he was (no doubt aided by the saltiness of the chips). When he finally lifted his head again, he saw someone heading out to the road going west.
He would have to run to catch up, though. In just a few bounds, he had carefully landed in the back of the truck, hidden between lots of planks of wood and toolboxes. He settled in to wait as the truck turned back onto the highway, going west.
"Hey! Get outta my truck, you freeloader!"
Henry pulled the gun he still had on him, "Let me hitchhike to the next roadstop, and you get to keep your life."
It was a total bluff. Henry knew he didn't have the guts to murder someone just for the sake of convinience, not now that he had been pardoned for so long, but the man just climbed back into the truck, looking 100% done with this situation.
"Fuck my life."
Henry at least had the decency to leave quietly, before the man had even known he had left, and he was already in the next gas station some distance away, too nervous to get into another confrontation.
It was late evening now, and he was in Indiana. He was just about to start looking for another snack when something stopped him in his tracks.
His phone suddenly rang.
He jumped, on edge immediately, and he ducked out of the station to look at his phone.
Charles.
He'd almost completely forgotten about him. He wasn't in the mood for a lecture, but he'd promised he would answer, so...well...
He let it ring three times before finally answering.
"Henry!?"
The shrill voice didn't help his state of mind.
"Uh, h-hi Charles, listen-!"
"Like hell! I'm not in the mood for your excuses! Where the fuck are you!?"
Henry's patience was already wearing thin, but he tried to stay calm regardless.
"I'm not fucking telling you, Charles."
"I can find you, Henry! I have my ways!"
"I'll go farther."
"I'll keep following! Do you not think about how it feels to just have you up and disappear for no reason all the time!?"
"Yes, Charles!" Henry snapped, harsher than he'd intended, "I do all of this on purpose specifically to spite you!"
Charles was quiet on the other end. Henry's heart was in his throat.
"Why do you keep doing this!?"
"Because I can't just stay put when the panic sets in! You would understand this if you ever listened to me tell you about it!"
"Come home! Right now!"
"No!"
"Then I'm coming after you!"
"How can you not see that your constant motherhenning just makes me want to run more!?"
"I can't just not worry, Henry! What if you died out there!? You have so many enemies! How would I ever know!? How could I ever come and find you!?"
Henry sucked in a breath of air.
"Charles..." he said as calmly as he could muster, "I'll be home in three days."
"Henry, that's ridiculous! Stop acting so childish!"
"Four."
"Henry, stop that!"
"Five."
"Henry-!"
"Six."
"You can't just-!"
"Seven."
"What the fuck is wrong with you!?"
Something in Henry snapped as he shouted into the phone, "If you called just to talk down to me, then this conversation is over! Keep going, and I'll turn my phone off for good measure!"
Charles' voice broke, like he was about to cry, "Y-you can't do that!"
"I can, and I will. Do you want to call occasionally to check up on me, or do you want to sweat for a week?"
"You're being intentionally cruel!"
"I'm going to hang up."
"Don't!"
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."
There was a long silence on the other end...
And then Charles hung up first.
Henry's mouth went dry, and he uneasily pocketed his phone.
Ohh, that fucker! Henry seethed, a hand over his face, I'll stay away for a week and a half! No, two weeks! No, three! Four! A month! Two months-!
Henry's heart was on fire. He knew Charles had hung up the phone so that he wouldn't hear him cry. He was being unfair. He knew that. He couldn't help his own panic, but Charles couldn't help his worry. If he had more patience, he would have responded differently, but he was wound up and burnt out and just really needed to let go of this tension.
He had an idea. Charles had given him a new outlet for his frustration, but he needed a private area to do it. He ran for the bathrooms, still trying to stamp down his anger.
Except...these bathrooms weren't the ones he was used to, where there were just a handful of lockable rooms. Instead, the bathrooms needed to be unlocked with the key from the cashier.
And...there were two of them.
One of them was male, and one of them was female.
Henry didn't hear his own cry of anguish.
Henry blinked to clear his blurry vision as he reached for another snack, hungry and thirsty from his breakdown. Instead, his hand automatically moved over, to the packs of cigarettes on display.
He held the box in both shaking hands, mind fragmented as he spiraled.
Weed was objectively safer than tobacco, and it was one reason Charles didn't mind much when Henry smoked, but cigarettes were much more legal and thus much easier to find in most states. It was one of those things he would reach for when not much else could make him feel okay. If you were suffering, cold from the long winter, greasy from days with no soap, stomach aching from hunger, and someone offered a cigarette? It was hard to turn it down.
But Charles hated cigarettes. He grew up around a father who always smoked, always smelled strongly like tobacco, a father who would later die of a heart attack at the age of 51. Charles once said that cigarettes were a total deal breaker. He would never date someone who smoked cigarettes.
Henry would return in three days, at best. If he came home with a renewed smoking habit, Charles might leave him.
The thought didn't make him put the cigarettes down.
He had no idea how long he stood there, failing to make a choice, before he heard a voice to his right.
"Um...excuse me, sir?"
He felt a rock of dread drop into the pit of his stomach the way it always did when a stranger called him "sir", but when he turned to the woman who had spoken, he couldn't even muster the energy to get upset. She had matted, greasy dark brown hair, and dark circles under her eyes. She also looked pale and sickly, her sweater hanging off her skinny shoulders like she'd dropped a ton of weight.
Henry's heart hurt with compassion, "Uh...i-it's just mx, actually."
"Oh." her pale face turned the slightest shade of pink, "I'm so sorry, dear."
Henry smiled, sighing in relief as the dread lifted, "s'okay. Common mistake."
His gaze went back to the cigarettes, and the woman chewed on her lip.
"Honey...is something wrong?"
Henry's slight tremor worsened.
The woman watched him for a minute before looking at the cigarettes, "Something tells me you're a drifter, like me. Hm? Not much waiting on you back home?"
Henry's grip tightened on the cigarettes. He sat in silence with her, half expecting her to just walk off when he didn't respond, but she didn't. She stayed right by him, like her soul had reached out to help him climb out of the darkness.
Finally, he took a deep breath;
"I have someone waiting for me."
He hoped it as much as he knew it. Charles already felt so far away. He wanted to believe he could always go home to him, let him hold him and tell him that everything was okay.
Before the woman could respond, Henry breathed out, just above a whisper;
"But he hates cigarettes."
The woman nodded in understanding, placing a very gentle hand over the cigarette pack, "Then you don't need it."
Henry met her eye, managing a dry swallow.
"Do you think he's worth it?"
Henry nodded, "Yes."
As she steadily pushed it, he finally found the strength to put it back on its little shelf, trying hard not to cry from the steady acceptance.
God, he'd give anything for a blunt right now, even if he had to roll it himself. He, uh, wasn't very good at rolling them. Hell, he'd take edibles, even if they would make him laugh until he couldn't breathe at something that was, at best, only mildly amusing.
Henry shook his arms out, trying to push out the gloom, "I don't suppose they have alcohol outside liquor stores in this state...?"
The woman gave him a wane smile, "Ah, I'm afraid I can't help you there, dear. Are you headed somewhere? I can drive you aways, if you like."
"What? No, no! I'm just a stranger to you! I could never ask that of you!"
"Come on. I know you're not dangerous." she replied easily, "You're a government pal, aren't you?"
Henry stared at her, "How did you-!?"
"I saw you on the news." she replied, "By one of their highest ranks. I don't remember his name...Charles, maybe?"
Henry couldn't suppress a smile.
"Um..." he looked back around at the snacks, "Sure, but I have to use the bathroom first."
"No problem, sweetie." the woman's eyes lifted just a bit as she headed off, "I'll be in the blue minivan outside. Take your time."
She left to look through the energy drinks in the refrigerator units, and he built up his courage to ask the cashier for the key.
"Uh, excuse me, c-can I...?"
"Needa key fer de bathroom?" the burly man asked without looking up from his newspaper.
Henry waited for him to look up, then nodded timidly.
The cashier leaned on the counter with his elbows, "Which one?"
Henry felt his soul shatter before realizing he hadn't assumed.
"Wait..." he said softly, "Why are you...asking?"
"Yer like that, uhh..." the man snapped his fingers, "That 'enry Stickmin guy, right? I 'eard you say youz was transgenda. Youz was onna those nonbinary guys or whateva, right?"
Henry felt his heart lift like it was floating on air.
"Um..." Henry tried not to bounce in place, "Can I have...th-the female key...?"
The man tossed the key over, "There ya go. Sorry we don' gotta genda-neutral bathroom. I ain't in charge o' dis buildin'."
"Um, th-thank you, s-sir!"
"Don' mention it. After all," the man winked, "Us trans folk gotta stick up fer one anotha, right?"
Henry jerkily nodded, still reeling, "Thank you. Seriously, I mean it."
"'s no problem, bud."
It wasn't until Henry was in the bathroom and had the door locked when he realized he felt at least a little jealous that he could never pass as well as that gruff old man.
Henry sighed long and slow as he came back down to a state of calm, wet tissue paper crinkled in his fist as he weakly trembled, his knees on the tiled bathroom floor. He spent a long time catching his breath and listening for sounds outside before tossing the tissue into the toilet and then using it for its intended purpose. With a clear head and an empty bladder, he washed his hands and then returned the key, feeling truly relaxed for the first time in almost a week.
He didn't like it, but he couldn't help but think of Charles while he was getting his energy out alone. One consequence of his demisexuality was that not only was Charles the biggest thing that got him off, he was the only thing that could get him off. Even other kinks he had were still directly tied back into him. Maybe unfair...he was trying NOT to think of Charles right now...but hey, it's not like he had any control over that.
He also didn't forget to grab something to eat and make another stop at a water fountain before searching the parking lot for the blue minivan, which he quickly spotted, and then made his way over.
He saw the woman smiling at him as he climbed into the passenger seat, and he offered a smile in return.
"Are you hungry?" she waved a gift card in the air, "I can get two for the price of one at Windy's."
Henry shrugged, "I could eat. Oh, by the way, I don't think I caught your name...?"
"Oh, right! My name is Penelope."
Henry felt his eyes widen in shock, then just as instantly, he fell back against his seat in disappointment. If she was the Penelope he knew, there's no way she wouldn't have recognized each other by now.
"Something wrong, sweetie?"
"Uhh, no, it's just..." he shook his head, "It's nothing. I just...I once had an aunt named Penelope."
"Oh."
Henry glared out the window as Penelope started her van and then pulled out of the parking lot.
Charles hadn't called again. It was beginning to worry Henry, quite a lot actually. Was Charles that upset with him? Was this a passive-aggressive punishment for snapping at him? Was he spiraling, trying to busy himself with other things until he lost track of the time?
"Here you go, honey."
Henry smiled as he accepted the fast food bag, which smelled like bacon and ground beef, "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Penelope set two sodas in the drink holders between the seats, "This one is yours. I'll take the pickles on your sandwich if you don't like those."
Henry laughed, "Don't worry. I'm always taking Charles' pickles for him. He says they taste like sewer water."
"How does he know what sewer water tastes like?"
"He says he can guess based on the smell."
"Hm. Fair."
Henry pulled the wrapped burger from the bag to unwrap it, taking a juicy bite of beef and cheese, lettuce and onions, ketchup and mustard, and of course, those tangy, crunchy pickles.
It must have tasted better due to his gnawing hunger, but fuck, it really hit the spot.
Penelope snacked on her fries as she pulled out of the drive thru and looked for an on ramp for the highway, "So, where ya headed right now?"
"Right now?" Henry let go of his burger with one hand to take a sip of his soda, "Just heading west. I like to move off the grid when I feel cooped up. You?"
Penelope parked on the shoulder to eat her burger. She was silent in contemplation for awhile, until a soft smile spread across her face.
"I'm running away to live with my girlfriend."
Henry froze mid-sip.
She laughed a little to herself, "That's the first time I've said it aloud. It feels so exciting, almost too good to be true, but it is! It's finally happening!"
"Oh!" Henry set his soda down, "Congratulations!"
"Yes, it feels wonderful." Penelope's eyes sparkled beneath her sickly pallor, "I've never met her in real life before. We've only chatted on video calls. She's so pretty. I can't wait to finally hug her."
Henry gave her a gentle smile, "I hope all goes well, then."
"Me too." her eyes scanned the road, "She lives in Utah, so lucky you, we're headed in the same direction! Let's drive for a bit, m'kay?"
Henry sat back as she headed onto the road, finally doubting the wisdom of essentially letting her kidnap him even though he had a gun and bear spray on top of his universe powers and years of criminal experience as well as, now, his military training.
Eh. It's not like he had to be home anytime soon.
Henry was extremely relieved to be moving through Illinois way too south to get anywhere near Chicago. It's not that he expected his father to just materialize out of thin air, but that's essentially what he had done in that hospital all that time ago because Henry forgot to update his emergency contacts for that stupid fucking hospital-!
Anyway, he and Penelope largely sat in silence during the drive, occasionally pointing out interesting landmarks and asking surface-level questions about the other. The further they got from the eastern US, the more relaxed Henry felt, until he was nodding off against the window, catching snippets of sleep between long stretches of road.
By the time Penelope had stopped in Missouri, it was almost 3 o'clock in the morning. She was struggling to keep her eyes open, yawning into the back of her hand.
Henry checked his phone again. Still no calls from Charles.
That was when the battery died. Fuck. Did he forget to charge it?
"Oh!" Henry smacked his forehead, "Jesus Christ! Why didn't I think of that!?"
He frantically scanned the parking lot. It was raining, but some distance away, there was a phone booth.
"Shit!"
Penelope blinked up at him, "Something wrong, honey?"
"Penelope, I'm so sorry, but..." Henry frantically searched through his wallet, "I don't have any change. Can I borrow a quarter for the payphone?"
Penelope plucked a quarter from the glove compartment, "Here."
Henry grasped it too hard as he jumped out into the rain and sprinted to the phone booth, closing the glass door behind him and then fumbling with the receiver.
He hesitated, not recalling the right number. As soon as he did, he was typing with clammy fingers.
It rang twice before she answered.
"Hello?"
"Ellie!"
"Henry!?" Ellie stumbled over something on the other end, "Jesus, Hen! I didn't expect it to be you!"
"Listen, Ells; My phone is dead, and I'm worried because Charles hasn't called in all this time. Can you check up on him and make sure he's okay?"
There was a long pause on the other end. Henry took a breath in and held it, waiting for her to respond.
"Okay. Get to a place where you can charge your phone. I'll talk to Charles. Can you call back in say, twenty minutes?"
"Okay. Thanks, Ellie. I owe you one."
"Just don't die out there and we'll call it even."
She hung up, and Henry walked back out into the rain, cold and miserable.
He didn't even make it back to the car before he caved in, falling to the ground, hugging himself as his teeth chattered, gripping fistfuls of his hoodie until his fingers were numb.
He barely registered the warm coat being placed over his shoulders, but he did come back to awareness when was wrapped up in a loose hug.
"It's okay, sweetheart." Penelope said to him, "Everything will be okay."
Somehow, he believed it.
It was nearly thirty minutes later when Henry finally got back to the payphone, dialing with shaking hands, still wearing Penelope's coat over his shoulders.
There was a lot of back and forth, but Ellie assured him that Charles was fine. Well, at least he was now. Apparently, he had tried to call back multiple times, but they hadn't gone through for some reason. Henry didn't think he'd had bad reception, but he supposed he didn't bother to check.
He felt awful. Charles had thought he was upset with him and was refusing to answer on purpose, or even that he had turned his phone off like he'd threatened.
All of Henry's free bird panic dissolved in that moment, replaced with a brand new kind of panic.
By the time he hung up, he felt numb and lost.
He was unfamiliar with this feeling. It wasn't something he normally felt, not in a long time, and certainly not anytime before he'd met Charles. The world didn't feel freeing and exciting anymore...it felt scary and lonely.
He was...homesick.
"I-I need to get home..."
Henry stumbled back out to where Penelope was still waiting in her car, wiping his drenched hair from his clammy forehead.
"Penelope, wake up!"
She jumped, "Huh? What? What's wrong?"
"Do you have a phone charger?"
Penelope offered it to him, and he snatched it up. Luckily, it was the right one for his phone.
"I'll start my car so it'll charge." Penelope did just that, the engine revving as she turned the key, "Did something happen?"
"I need to get home!" Henry gasped, his chest tight, "I need to get home right now! I need to get-!"
Charles promised he would always be there, if Henry called for him. He'd even vowed to fly to him himself if need be.
Wait.
"Fucking duh!" Henry pulled one more quarter from Penelope's glove compartment and left one of his own dollar bills to pay her back, "Charles flies a fucking helicopter! I'll just tell him where I am, and he'll be here in a few hours!"
Penelope had already fallen asleep against the wheel again, thankfully with the vehicle in park, and Henry hurried back out to the phone booth, dialing the number he knew by heart.
It didn't even make it to the second ring.
"Henry? Is that you?"
He sounded like he'd been crying, his voice just bleeding with hope. Henry wanted to directly leap through the phone to hug him.
"Yeah. It's me." Henry took a breath, trying not to cry himself, "I'm at a rest stop near a highway between Columbia Missouri and Kansas City. There's enough room for you to land your helicopter in the grass."
Charles took a shaking gasp, "H-Henry...?"
"I want you to come get me." Henry bit back a sob, "Charles, I'm sorry. I was too harsh before. I just want to see you again. Please, come and get me."
Charles was quiet for awhile, sniffling as he tried to get himself under control. Finally, the sniffles died down, and his voice sharpened with resolve.
"I'm on my way."
Then he hung up.
When Henry made it back to the car, he felt a little lighter, but still raw and aching. He shivered, definitely not missing this aspect of being on the run.
He felt like total shit. He needed an outlet for his pent-up caged panic, but Charles had a point; This clearly wasn't the best one. He knew he needed to get out sometimes, but just running off until the panic subsided? Well, it worked, but it also put him far from home.
When was the last time he had a place he could truly call home?
Henry pulled Penelope's jacket tighter around himself, still feeling cold, wishing he could have a warm shower right now, maybe one where Charles lathered the shampoo in his hair with his rough, callused hands. He often wrapped his arms around his shoulders from behind just to enjoy holding him there, nuzzling into his ear with a soft hum.
Fuck. The homesickness was consuming him now. He began to sob into the neck of his hoodie, bowing down until his forehead hit the dashboard. He wanted Charles here with him. He wanted Charles to be with him right now so badly. Even knowing he was on the way didn't alleviate the ache.
He was alone and far from home.
He was homesick.
But no. He wasn't alone, was he? He had a friend from the gas station, one who convinced him not to smoke. One who offered a ride to a total stranger.
He was reduced to exhausted sniffles by the time Penelope woke up, gasping and cracking her back.
"Ugh...I better get to a hotel..." she lightly touched his shoulder, "Are you alright?"
He nodded, "F-fine. Just homesick."
Penelope smiled as she looked away, "I'll park, and then we can figure this out."
She pulled up to a hotel parking lot and then took the keys out of the ignition, "Your phone should be a little charged by now. Here."
He switched it on. Fully on.
Five missed call messages came through. They made Henry's heart hurt.
He turned location services back on, tempted to call again just to hear Charles' voice.
Instead, he pocketed his phone to move around to Penelope's side, after letting her jacket fall back into the passenger seat. By now, the rain had stopped.
"This is my stop." he told her, "I called Charles, and he's coming to pick me up."
"What, in his helicopter?"
"Yeah. The guy can fly it wicked fast. It's really impressive."
Penelope smiled at him, "I'm glad to hear it. This is where we part ways, then."
Henry put a hand on her arm, "Yeah, it is. Hey, thank you. For everything."
"Of course." Penelope replied, "Oh, before you go...I don't think I ever got your name...?"
Henry huffed, matching her smile, "It's Henry."
Her eyes widened, then they filled with tears.
She pulled him into a hug, and he fiercely reciprocated. She was so short, her face was buried in his soft chest. Her hair smelled like hair oils, and a little bit of dirt.
She was still crying when she pulled away, "You know, Henry...you remind me of my nephew. Be well, won't you?"
Before he had a chance to unpack what she had just said, she was already retreating into the hotel.
Henry couldn't decide if she was actually his aunt or not. She certainly didn't look like her, though he conceded that maybe years of poverty and illness had made her lose a bunch of weight and put those heavy dark circles under her eyes and matted her hair until it looked like a nest.
At the end of the day, he honestly couldn't tell, and he didn't want to assume, but regardless, he was grateful to her for arriving in his hour of need.
"You know where to find me." he said to the empty parking lot, and then he headed back towards the highway on foot.
Henry heard the helicopter long before he saw it. The whacking against his eardrums was unmistakable.
He immediately jumped up to search the sky, which was bright with the colors of dawn, and there it was; The green military helicopter, white government star emblazoned on the side, flying along the highway as Charles no doubt searched all of it, looking for him.
Henry jumped up and waved his arms in the air, "Charles! I can see you!"
The helicopter sharply veered downward, and Henry leapt to the side as it roughly landed, kicking the wet grass up around him and making his eyes shut tight from the wind nearly knocking him off his feet.
He couldn't get to him fast enough. As soon as that helicopter door opened, Henry was in a dead-on sprint towards the person coming out.
"Henry!"
"Charles!"
Their arms wrapped around each other, as far and as tight as they could, and Henry was lifted slightly off his feet by Charles' arms squeezing tight around his ribcage.
"Charles..." Henry buried his face in Charles' jacket collar, "Charles."
"Henry." Charles kissed his cheek, "I'm so sorry I worried over you so much. If you decide to run again, I won't stop you."
Henry's heart felt lighter than air, even beyond the still-throbbing ache, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, and I'm sorry I didn't notice I had no signal."
"It's okay. It's okay." Charles' ran his fingers through his hair, roughly holding him close to kiss his neck, moving up behind his ear, "I missed you. So, just to clarify...you didn't ignore my calls on purpose?"
"No, Charles." Henry began to tremble, relying on him to hold him up, "Never. I shouldn't have even threatened you with that. I would have stopped taking your calls for a bit, but I wasn't going to keep doing that, and I didn't turn my phone off."
Charles gasped, squashing his face against Henry's shoulder, "Promise?"
"Yeah. I'm really sorry." Henry tried not to cry again, but it was so hard, "I'm so sorry, Charles. I don't want to run anymore. I just want to be with you."
Charles kept holding him, taking a huge breath of air and then letting it out in a long sigh.
"Why do you run?"
Henry's grip on him tightened.
"And I promise I will listen this time."
Henry let out a shuddering breath, "Let's get back in the helicopter, and then I'll tell you."
Charles sat himself in the pilot seat with Henry in the copilot seat, as usual. Henry fit like a glove, like he was always meant to be there. He cherished the feeling of it, collapsing back into its comfortable familiarity, exhaustion settling into his bones like concrete.
Charles yawned from his place in the pilot seat, "What made you change your mind about going home?"
Henry looked up at Charles with pleading eyes. He rescinded his previous thought; There was one place he would rather be than in his rightful copilot seat.
He pushed himself up to climb over Charles' chair, and Charles automatically cranked his seat back to give him room to settle in his lap, hugging him tight, breathing in all those familiar smells, feeling warm and safe.
As he breathed out, he said softly, "Ellie told me how horrible you felt when you thought you'd driven me away. I realized I couldn't keep running. It's not worth losing you."
That was what had made him turn down those cigarettes, wasn't it? Penelope just had to remind him of how much he had to lose. He'd run off to be alone in his relationship with Charles before, but he didn't usually go quite so far. They didn't usually fight about it, though Charles was clearly displeased with it from the beginning.
Surely being gone for a couple days every third month or so wasn't that big a deal...was it?
"So...why do you always run?" Charles asked again.
Henry thought about it, "Because I spent so long on the run that true panic usually meant I was close to getting caught. You don't live that life as long as me without learning how to disappear."
Charles was quiet for a bit, scratching at a seam on his jeans as a stim while he brooded over that answer.
"Well..." Charles put a hand on one of the shiftable sticks, "Are you still feeling antsy?"
Henry thought about that, resting his forehead on the side of Charles' face, "A little, but I would rather have you."
There was another long moment of silence before Charles started up the chopper again and lifted it into the air, and Henry settled in for the long flight, looking forward to being home, though he was disappointed that his adventure ultimately had to end early.
Henry cracked his eyes open just in time to see the helicopter fly right over Penelope's hotel, heading further west.
"Wait, Charles, why..." he looked at the pilot incredulously, "That's not where home is!"
"We're not going home!"
Charles shot him a beaming smile, followed by a wink, and Henry's heart soared like a rocket ship.
"If you really need more time to get it out of your system, and I'm always worried about your safety, then the obvious solution is to bring me with you! Not all the time of course, I'll bet we can coordinate something better, but until then, I hope you're ready to see The Keeper of the Plains!"
"CHARLES!" Henry gave him a crushing squeeze, "Oh my fucking god, you are literally the BEST!"
"Thank you! Urk! Maybe don't squeeze me so hard though!"
"Sorry!" Henry jumped back into the copilot seat, suddenly rejuvenated, "Oh my fucking god! I'm so fucking excited!"
"Mhm!" Charles pat Henry's head, "We'll be clear for the next few hours! Hopefully, I can get some sleep once we land!"
Henry gazed out the windshield in absolute awe.
He no longer felt homesick, because home was wherever he could be with his family.
Henry smiled at Charles, whose eyes were firmly on the ground below.
They could go to the ends of the earth together, and he knew this elation wouldn't fade.
He was home.