Work Text:
[ 1. ]
Charlie's body hurts. More than hurts, actually, every movement feels like someone is twisting a knife in his back. That alongside being caked with mud is not a good feeling.
Even breathing too hard makes him uncomfortable. His head spins every time he stands up, too.
He wonders why. Maybe it's the lack of sleep, or it's the fact he dies so much, he doesn't know.
Charlie just feels weak now. On Quesadilla Island, he didn't feel like this. It was such a sudden change he feels sick.
He doesn't know when he got here, but he's at his team's base. The secret one. He's sat on the ground, in front of where the cows are. When did he get here?
The last thing he remembers was going to Foolish's castle that he made for the egg that they were going to get.. He placed lava, didn't he? Before that he talked to Mariana.
Then it went blank. Maybe the island closed, and he fainted. He hated that, his vision just went black when his time would be up.
It's almost horrifying.
(It was fuzzy after he saw Mariana that day. He doesn't know why.)
Standing up, - ow - he looked around the base. It still looked the same, except for little changes, like someone in their team had reorganized the chests. Foolish probably did that.
He needs to find someone. Where is Jaiden? Baghera? Foolish? Cellbit? Carre? Phil?
Charlie taps on his watch, and he checks to see who is awake. He hopes one of his teammates are on, he needs to know when he got here.
Etoiles
Tubbo
Pactw
Bagi
TinaKitten
ElQuackity
Slimecicle
He feels his heart stop when he sees the next name.
BadBoyHalo
No. No. None of his teammates are on, so he can't distract himself by talking to one of them.
Bad is awake, none of his teammates are on, so if Bad were to attack he could do it with ease and he could spawncamp him- spawn camping is banned, isn't it? -
Charlie needs to calm down. What was that technique Wilbur had told him before on Quesadilla? Something three-
- Three objects.. there's some chests over there, there's cows in front of him, what else?
No, no, he can't do anything, Bad is going to find him and keep killing him over and over and over and hurt him-
His watch beeps, signaling a message, but he can't check it because it might be Bad, what if his location is on!? Then Bad would find their secret base and his team would get mad at him and they would leave and hurt him too and help Bad-
Charlie can't breathe any more. Nothing is going into his lungs.
Someone grabs his hands - NONONONO STOP, WHAT IF IT'S BAD NO NO NO NONONON- and his head snaps up.
The person has oh-so familiar light pink hair, who has- Baghera. When did she get here? She wasn't there a moment ago..
Baghera mumbles, “Charlie?”
He manages to choke out a ‘hi’. It's so hard to not just go limp and beg to not be hurt. ( NONONONO- BAD IS GOING TO FIND HIM- NO- PLEASE NO- I DON'T WANNA DIE-)
Baghera lets go of one of his hands, her thumb tapping his wrist. "Charlie, pouvez-vous m'entendre? [can you hear me?]"
He faintly knows those words, he'd be able to know what they say if he was stable enough to even look down at his communicator. She seems to notice, because then she says "Sorry. Can you hear me?"
A nod.
"OK c'est bon.. [Ok, that's good]. Can you feel my tapping?"
(It's a steady rhythm, she's kind of tapping in sync of a heartbeat.)
Charlie swallows hard, nodding.
She hums, "Can you speak?"
"I-Its ha'd- hard." Charlie gasps out.
"Breathe when I do this." Baghera says, faintly mumbling 'I think this is how I calm someone down.' under her breath.
He tries his best to focus on the tapping, but the thought of Bad knowing where he is fills him with panic.
"Charlie, shhh.. It's okay.” She soothes, “Ooo! Want to try some French?"
"I-I can b-bar’ey- barely speak English, B-Bag'era." He mumbles, gritting his teeth.
She smiles, "Try some French then! Chérie [Sweetheart], how about we try saying that?"
"Che.. How- Cherie?"
"The e is pronounced, er, é. Like this, Ch é rie.” There's an emphasis on the e.
"E- É.. Chérie?"
“Yes!” Baghera nods, “How about we try.. Uh.. Moi [Me]!”
“Mo- How d-do I, I'm so-sorry- Moi?”
Baghera nods, still tapping his wrist. “Yea, I'm proud of you! Other people wouldn't try this hard..”
That makes Charlie smile a bit. His hands feel shaky still.
(His breathing isn't as fast. The feeling of impending doom is fainter.)
Baghera hums, “Do you think later we should do karaoke? I have a song in mind..”
Charlie lights up, “K-Karaok- Karaoke!”
.. Karaoke might ruin his voice. Fuck it. (Distinctly, he can see a crow sit down on one of the steps, watching the duo.)
-
[ 2. ]
Charlie was sorting through the chests, looking for some water. He didn't have his bottle on him, so that wasn't good. He was also about to die from dehydration, so it's even worse .
It might be his fault. He shouldn't have been running around without water, honestly.
His legs buckle underneath him, his head almost hitting the chest's edge. Fortunately, it doesn't.
However, unfortunately, his vision goes dark and there are footsteps. For a second, he almost thinks he died from dehydration (again), but then there's liquid going down his throat.
"Angel Rubius, Charlie!" Phil says, papa!
His vision slowly comes back, and Charlie can hardly see Phil's worried expression as he leans over him. He's leaned against the chest now, he can feel the wood against his back.
He has to blink a few times to get rid of the black, fuzzy edges around what he sees.
"Hi Phil.." Charlie manages to say, almost choking on his words as Phil pours more water down his throat.
Phil sighs, a crow landing on his shoulder. “Charlie, you scared the shit out of me..”
“Sorry.” The slime says. Phil gives him a sympathetic look, and ruffles his hair.
Charlie pauses, leaning into Phils hand. The crow hybrid chuckles, “How long has it been since you drank something?”
A pause. How long has it been ? “Maybe six hours..?”
“ WHAT? Charlie-” Phil panics, “Do I need to start setting alarms-”
“We don't have alarms in Purgatory, Phil..”
“-For you to drink water!?”
Charlie sighs, waving Phil off. “No, I just.. Didn't have any water on me. Forgot my bottle here.”
The other grumbles, “You,” he points to Charlie, “Are going to give me grey hairs.”
Charlie laughs, “You already have some! I see th-”
He gets lightly whacked in the head by Phils hand. Angel Rubius, he is aggressive. (He needs to remind himself it's lighthearted- that Phil did it, and Phil wouldn't hurt him.)
“You and the others, I swear.”
“It's not our fault you're old.” The slime hybrid grins, swiftly stealing a water bottle from Phils backpack.
“ Hey! ” Phil gasped, glaring at Charlie. He didn't make any move to get back the water bottle, though.
Charlie popped off the cork by flicking it, immediately downing it. “Papa Phil, do you have any more water?”
Phil handed him another. Charlie takes it with no hesitation.
“Thank you,” Charlie mumbled, “Genuinely.”
“.. Of course. You're my teammate.”
( And family.)
(Wait, where did that thought come from?)
-
[ 3. ]
Charlie was currently bleeding. His hand had a gash in it. Guess he shouldn't try to kill skeletons anymore.
He would try to pull out the arrow, though from past experiences, he knows that only makes it worse.
He runs over to their base, heading down the stairs quickly, and almost faceplants right onto the ground.
He would've if two arms hadn't caught him. He's lifted up into a standing position, wincing as he feels blood trickle down his hand.
Charlie looks at the person, Cellbit. He'd recongize that fucking white streak anywhere.
“Charlie,” Cellbit speaks up, “Come with me.”
He nods, following Cellbit over to one of the chests. Cellbit reaches in, pulling out some bandages. Charlie's actually surprised they had any.
“.. Cellbit. It's a small injury, we should use those for the worse.”
Cellbit frowns, “You're bleeding. An arrow is lodged in your hand.”
“I know. But we should–”
Cellbit cuts him off by grabbing his hand, “This might hurt a bit.”
Charlie nods, biting his tongue as the arrow is pulled out. (He wants to scream so badly.)
“Shit, I don't have any clean water..” Cellbit mutters, slowly wrapping the bandages around Charlie's wound.
“So uh.. How's the weather?”
Cellbits paused his movements, before just sighing and wrapping more bandages around Charlie's hand.
Eventually, Cellbit rips off the last bit, “I would've cleaned it, but the only water we have is for drinking..”
“It's okay. Team Bolas.”
Cellbit laughs, “Bolas!”
Cellbits laugh is comforting, the slime notices.
A crow lands on Cellbits head, and the hybrid jumps. “Oh.”
Charlie smiles, “Have you also been noticing crows recently?”
“.. Yeah. Back on the other island,” Cellbits voice goes dark at the mention of Quesadilla, “I hardly saw any, but.. Now they're everywhere.”
A hum, “They follow us.”
“.. Oh shit, they do.” Cellbit pauses, tapping his chin.
It's silent for a bit. Almost comforting. The little bit of him yells that the quiet isn't safe, but one of his teammates being close is oddly.. Distracting.
He doesn't fucking know when he got so soft for his friends. It's ridiculous, honestly.
-
[ 4. ]
The slime hybrid thinks his friends know when he's upset. Or, just in general, not doing okay. He's being genuine, because when Foolish drops all of the blocks he was carrying to run over and comfort Charlie as he's vomiting, it's normal . Foolish doesn't make any weird comments or try to make the situation funny.
It would be unnerving if he wasn't used to it.
Charlie doesn't really have enough time to think before he vomits up another chunk. (He hates throwing up. It's uncomfortable.)
Foolish rubs his back, sighing. It's actually pretty calming. (If he ignores how Foolish accidentally sometimes touches his scars and immediately apologizes, there's nothing wrong with the totem touching him.)
Charlie opens his mouth to speak, before heaving. Nothing comes out, well, stomach acid does. No food or anything like that though.
He's very glad he doesn't have his glasses on right now.
Eventually, Charlie dry heaves and nothing comes out. He wants to cry so badly, but he can’t, because if Foolish sees him cry; he’ll do what Baghera did. (Comfort him. He wants to be comforted.)
Foolish wipes Charlie's mouth with a tissue after he's sure the other is done vomiting.
“What the hell did you eat?” Foolish asks, not taking his hand off of Charlie's back for even a second.
“.. D-Dough.”
(A crow's caw is barely heard.)
Foolish's eyes widen, “You really need to stop eating that.”
Charlie slowly nods, going to wipe his eyes.
“HEYHEY-” Foolish interrupts, grabbing his wrists, “You have vomit on your hands, don't touch your face.. I'm dumb, and I even know that!”
The slime grumbles, but he knows Foolish is right. He needs to stop being right. It's annoying.
Foolish stands up, why'd he take his hand off? , and grabs a water bucket. “I stole this from Phil.” He smirks, pouring some water on Charlie's hands.
The slime jumps, looking at Foolish, “Is that.. ocean water?”
A nod.
Angel Rubius..
-
[ 5. ]
Charlie can't sleep. There's too many thoughts of things that could happen - what if someone finds their base? What if there's a disaster? - interrupting him whenever he lays down.
He would go outside, but no one is allowed outside when there's no timer. He also prefers not to be poisoned.
A crow flies past him, and he sighs.
The others were asleep, all of them in the corner, it had become a.. Habit to sleep near each other.
Charlie slowly crawls out of the cuddle pile, careful to not wake any of his teammates up. He walks over to the stairs, doubting if he should go up.
It'd be grounding enough. There's too many downsides though, plus, if Phil found out; he'd get in trouble.
He needs to be on guard at all times. He doesn't know how the others rest without a care in the world. Especially when they sleep in after people can freely roam.
There's a shuffling noise, and Jaiden is suddenly next to him. She's looking at him, her pupils being larger than usual.
It reminds him of when Phil would look at Chayanne or Tallulah. (Wilbur, sometimes, too.)
“Jaiden?” He asks, the sleepiness basically dripping in his tone.
Jaiden only blinks, grabbing Charlie's hand. “Bed.”
“Oh- Oh, okay. I don't know if I'll fall asleep though-” He nods, he knows about instincts. He remembers being told about those. Surprisingly, he's never had instincts before, despite being a hybrid. (He ignores that feeling in his chest whenever he talks to his teammates, or how he wants to constantly hold one of their hands, or how his slime metaphorically screams at him whenever one of them is hurt.)
Jaiden drags Charlie back over to the pile, one of her wings wrapping around his back. Oh, she must have taken them out.
It upsets him how Jaiden has to hide her wings, since they'd become a target to attack possibly. He would murder whoever hurts Jaidens wings, or, Jaiden in general.
He smiles, squeezing Jaidens hand. She brings them both down, pulling him into the pile.
Charlie almost falls onto Carre. Almost. He doesn't, though. That'd be bad.
He sits down, eyes widening as he's pressed against Phils side. Jaiden snuggles up to his side, wrapping her arms around him.
He laughs, immediately regretting it when Baghera shifts. Jaiden chirps, looking down at her. He doesn't know if he will actually fall asleep, but being around people he trusts is calming.
(He's surrounded by his family. )
-
[ +1. ]
Charlie was on a mining trip with Carre. Carre hadn't been too happy about it, but agreed nonetheless.
Carre called out from the other side of the mine, “Diamonds!”
Charlie smiled, and he immediately ran over to where Carre was.
Carre dug his pickaxe into the diamonds, and just as he did that, the disaster roll came up.
The other stopped mining, though Charlie lit up. “Gas, gas, gas!” He mumbled.
He almost screams in joy as it lands on Toxic Gas.
Charlie pulls his gas mask over his head, almost surprised as the gasses start right after the roll.
Something isn’t right. He looks over at Carre, who is holding his hands over his mouth and nose.
Where's his gas mask?
“Carre,” his voice is muffled through the mask, “Where's your gas mask!?”
Carre shrugs.
Fuck.
The hybrid opens up his inventory, searching for an extra. He always keeps one on him, so where is it?
There it is. “Hold your breath,” Charlie says, forcing the gas mask over Carres head.
He's relieved when Carre breathes. He didn't die. He's alive – breathing.
(Why is he so concerned about dying? They'll respawn.)