Chapter Text
"I love you."
There were many ways Henry would have responded. Wide eyes, a nervous giggle, saying the same words back, an apology of being unable to have the same feelings, narrowed eyes, a frown. Anything. A confirmation to either keep or destroy his love.
Instead, the reply Charles received was a loud thud, the view changing from Henry’s face to showing mostly darkness, before the call hung up. Henry never picked up his calls from that day onwards. Days later he would be informed that Henry had perished in an attempt to escape from The Wall.
Out of all the reactions Charles expected, he never thought this scenario would be possible. It felt as though the universe gave him another middle finger in his life again. This time, he wouldn’t know if Henry did love him back or not.
But that was just one unlucky incident. His life seemed to be snowballing downhill after that.
First, the General nearly died and his helicopter got damaged in a mission involving the Toppats. Fortunately, the General recovered well but still, he was not going to forgive them any of that. Second, the Toppats’ rocket had been successfully launched. It’s almost impossible to catch any of them. Then his leg had somehow been broken so he was off duty for more than a month but he was able to get to work after that.
To top it all off, he had flowers growing around his neck! Though that might have happened a few months before all this, the flowers ensured Charles couldn’t get a break after finding out it was a disease known as Hanauso. Hardly known even in the country it originated from. It wasn’t well researched enough either. The few things he knew of it was that with every lie said by a specific loved one grows a flower and the worse the lies, the more or bigger the flowers wrap around one’s neck until they die from slow suffocation.
There is no cure nor effective treatment. Not many had survived either.
Charles had a few loved ones. Most of them are dead. Including the one who stole his heart. So he looked down at the suspect.
Familiar yet unfamiliar eyes glared back at him. Gripping the scarf that blocked most of the smells of the flowers, he asked. Funny enough, it felt like silence grasped around his throat before an answer was given.
Charles felt flowers curl around his neck.