Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[Black screen transitions into landscape shots of a large, wooded property. Above the trees, a purple dragon flies and spreads its wings. An off-screen voice starts talking.]

Man #1: I think the work we do here is very important. We’re preparing the next generation, aren’t we? It’s something that matters

[A different voice joins in, clearly holding back a laugh.] Man #2: Preparing the next generation of troublemakers, that is.

[Cue the title screen, written in a purple, swirly font. It then transitions into a young man sitting in front of the camera, smiling. He has messy brown hair - there’s a twig stuck through it - and is wearing a dark red coat. One of the sleeves appears to have had a big chunk singed off.] [The scene takes place in a wooden shed, a mess of shelves and tools behind the man.]

Cameraman: So, tell us your name and what you do here at the Academy.

Man #1: Hello! [He waves and when he talks, we can see he was one of the people speaking during the introduction sequence.] My name is Charles Leclerc and I teach Dragon Care here at the Academy. I also co-coach the racing team, which is, well - I don’t want this to get into the kids’ heads, but they’re very good. We beat the hell out of the Indy team last month. [Pause. There’s a crashing sound behind the camera and he laughs, despite trying his best not to.] 

Man #2: I’m okay, calamar. Thanks for asking. [Charles’ gaze visibly softens as he looks somewhere beyond the lens.]

Charles: You know you’re not supposed to speak before I’m finished, right? The producers let you stay because you were helping me with Leo. [He turns to the cameraman.]  Bryan, can he join me for this part? I think I’d feel a bit less awkward if I was doing it with him.

Bryan: Will that get him to stop distracting you?

Charles: Maybe.

[The screen cuts to black and the next shot is outside the shed in daylight.]

[Charles looks at the man beside him - soft brown hair, bright blue eyes and a charming smirk - and smiles.] [“Hey -” he starts but the camera cuts quickly to a different take.]

Charles: Go on. Are you going to introduce yourself?

Man #2: [Waves.] Hi there. I’m Pierre Gasly, professor of Aerodynamics and co-coach of the racing team. Like Charles said - our kids are great. [It’s very subtle, but Charles blushes at the words ‘our kids’.] [He turns to Charles and whispers.] What are we supposed to be doing right now?

Charles: [Stage-whispering.] The Academy tour.

Pierre: Oh! [He smiles and turns back to the camera. There’s a hint of a blush matching Charles’ that dusts his cheeks.] Yes, the tour.

“This is making me look silly.”

“You are silly, Pear,” Charles answers and hunkers down into his pile of blankets. The heater in his room isn’t enough to ward off the winter outside, so the warmth is comforting. Pierre lets out a resigned huff in response to Charles’ words, but under the dim light of the TV, Charles can see the soft smile on his face. “And it’s only been five minutes. Bryan and the team were really nice, I’m sure they didn’t actually make you look bad on purpose.” 

In fact, Bryan himself had been the one to give Charles a special drive so he and Pierre could have a first watch of their chapter of Academy’s documentary series before it went up online. The dragon riding team, as it’s one of the school’s main draws, gets to be the introductory episode.

“Let us know what you think,” he had said with a grin when he gave Charles the USB. “And, you know, uh - well… Nothing. Doesn’t matter.” 

Charles won’t pretend and say Bryan’s nonchalance hadn’t bothered him. Was there something in the recordings? Something in the edit that would incriminate him having feelings for his best friend? He has spent over 20 years successfully covering up that secret, he would be very grateful if the doc team didn’t mess it up for him now. So far though, it’s looking generally promising. All the cameras have shown is him blushing a little too much.

“Cha -” Pierre’s voice and a loud whooshing sound bring Charles right back into reality.

“What was that?” Charles asks, worried that one of the dragons might have escaped the barn. It almost never happens - he’s very careful about checking and rechecking the locks every night - but they’ve hired a new helper recently and Charles has been trying to delegate more responsibilities to him, despite how preoccupied it might make him. Franco is an absolute sweetheart but he does have his head in the clouds sometimes and Gabriel, his more experienced assistant, is off visiting his family in Brazil.

Pierre, ever the gentleman, goes up to the window to check. “It’s just Kimi doing his rounds.” For as long as Charles has worked at the Academy, the grumpy groundskeeper has done a midnight patrol on his golden dragon, Ajax. “Time must’ve slipped away from us, I didn’t even notice it was so late.”

“Are you going to abandon me now? We have to watch this.”

Pierre rolls his eyes. “We don’t have to watch this right now, the school’s premiere event is literally tomorrow. We’re just watching it right now because the producer is into you and gave you a sneak peek.”

Pierre’s words feel almost mocking, but Charles remains impassive. “And what about it?” He says, despite not really believing Bryan is into him. He was just being nice. “Am I not cute enough to be liked?”

“You’re the cutest, Cha,” Pierre answers, voice inching deeper, and Charles has to hold himself back not to gasp. He’s just messing around - it’s always been this way between the two of them, ever since they were tweens and Pierre learnt that he was actually attractive and he could actually flirt with anyone that crossed his path. 

“C’mon.” Charles taps the side of the couch that had been left empty by Pierre. He hopes burrowing even further under the blankets will help hide the redness of his cheeks. “Let’s keep watching and then you can go to bed.”

[Location change: The next scene takes place inside a massive barn, almost as messy as the shed from the introductory sequence but much better lit from the skylights and large reinforced windows that give off a light purple sparkle, probably enchanted by a magic user. Behind the subjects, there is a long row of pens where dragons are either dozing off or playing with their toys.]

Charles: So these are the stables - the first part of them, at least. [An establishing shot of the outside shows there are at least two identical buildings.] This is where Pierre and I spend a good chunk of our time. 

Bryan: Not the classroom or your rooms?

Pierre: There’s a blackboard for me in the office. [The camera points to the middle of the barn, where a tall structure holds a makeshift office with glass walls.] And I can always use the company, so I usually hang out here if I’m not teaching a class. Grading is more fun with someone to talk to.

Charles: You just want to pet the baby dragons on your breaks, admit it.

Pierre: [Sticks out his tongue at Charles before he continues talking.] That too. Our rooms are mostly for sleeping - there’s always something to be done around the school, always more strategies to be planned for the team.

[The camera spins for a few establishing shots of the place, showing the dragons interacting with each other - with their roommates or with dragons in other pens through the glass barriers. Charles is seen walking off-screen, and when he comes back he’s holding a large bag of treats - dried pieces of meat and fruits.]

Charles: Shall we meet the most important people here? [A loud “hey!” can be heard in the background coming from Pierre, but the camera moves on and follows Charles towards the pens.]

[The shot transitions into a montage meeting the different dragons, as their name and a few defining characteristics pop up on a graphic on screen. Standouts include Horsey, a silvery grey dragon that looks perpetually grumpy; Numa, a jumpy soft brown dragon that gets overexcited about the treats; and Roscoe, a dark purple dragon that merely rests when Charles approaches, happy to receive food.]

Charles: And then the actual stars of the show. [He opens the last pen to reveal two dragons: a tall baby blue one and a shorter but much longer red one. Both have the potential to be intimidating judging by the burns and scratches on the walls, but squander it easily when they start whimpering for treats.] These are our boys.  

Pierre: Leo and Simba - they were our race dragons when we were younger.

Charles: Now they mostly enjoy laying in the sun and chasing the tiny ones. [Leo makes a soft noise, almost a purr, as Charles pets under his chin.] Maybe a little too much. [He looks beyond the camera towards Bryan.] He’s why we had to delay the filming at first, sorry. He was having a little too much fun outside and didn’t want to go in, we had a bit of a fire incident.

Pierre: [Shrugs.] It happens.

Bryan: Do you guys want to give us a flight demonstration for the next scene?

“Why are they keeping so many off-camera conversations?”

“...realism?” Charles shrugs. “I have no idea.”

“I just worry that…” Pierre shakes his head. “Nothing, it’s fine,” he says, which gets him a hard poke under his ribs.

“Anything to hide?” Charles asks but receives no answer. Pierre only leans forward to press play, so Charles has to pretend his lack of reaction isn’t affecting him.

[Charles climbs on Leo first, soaring off into the sky as the camera follows them. There’s even a camera attached to Leo’s saddle, giving the viewer better coverage and better transmitting the feeling of speed. It’s interspersed with shots of Pierre, looking up lovingly.]

Bryan: Do you two do this often?

Pierre: We go out riding as much as we can. [He scratches the back of his head, a little embarrassed.] Charles is…don’t ever tell him I said this because it will get into his head even if I’ve said this to his face before, but he was one of the best in our team when we were in school. Leo adores him, he always has - they make a good team themselves.

Bryan: Records say you two were the best duo in races.

Pierre: I like to think so. [Pause. A sad smile appears on his face.] I love seeing him happy like this. Anyway - [He shakes his head and turns to Simba.] Shall we go and fly for a bit, boy?

[Simba lets out a puff of excited smoke out of his nostrils, clogging the camera lens. He wags his tail, but unfortunately the weight of it flopping on the ground makes the camera’s tripod wobble and the camera actually falls to the ground.]

Pierre: Aw, shit. Sorry!

[The recording moves to Simba’s collar cam, showing him and Leo flying side by side. When Simba does a flip, Charles’ smiling face can be seen.]

Charles: [Yelling over the wind, words not entirely clear. Subtitles appear on screen.] Should we do a trick? 

[Pierre’s response is presumably affirmative because Simba grabs onto Leo’s tail and the fly like that for a while, attached to each other, until Leo starts spinning around to gain momentum and ricochets Simba off into the distance - a legal but controversial move in dragon racing.]

“We pulled that off pretty well,” Charles says, feigning nonchalance at the conversation between Bryan and Pierre that the team had kept in - mostly because if he ignores it, then he won’t have to think about what it implies. Pierre was just being sweet, the way he always has been.

Charles has gotten his hopes up before - like when they were in school and he thought Pierre would kiss him after they won the Inter-School Cup, or when they they were in university and they almost kissed at a party, drunk off their asses on elfish wine, only for Pierre to show up with a girlfriend no more than three days after. He should have learnt that hoping Pierre would ever love him back is futile but his traitorous heart still likes to betray him sometimes, making him think maybe Pierre wants them to be something more than best friends.

Regardless, Charles is mostly satisfied with the way things are. Pierre is his favorite person in the world, the one that has been by his side through all the bad and through all the good as well - if this is all their relationship will ever be, then he’s happy with that. Anything to keep Pierre in his life, just across the hall and close enough to reach.

“We still have the magic,” Pierre answers with a chuckle. The silence that follows is strange, expectant. “Do you ever wonder what might have happened if we had gone pro?”

“Sometimes,” Charles answers honestly. The offers he had gotten after university were good, one of them was even what you could consider amazing, but there were a lot of factors to consider: the money he would’ve had to spend if anything had gone wrong, the stress on having Leo travel so much, the thought of leaving his family alone just as his papa’s illness was getting worse. It had been a painful and difficult decision, but it had been a necessary one at that moment - Arthur was too young and his maman and Lorenzo were doing their best, but they needed him. “I don’t regret it though -” He adds, and it’s true that he really doesn’t. Charles had always loved animals - dogs and cats and birds but most importantly, dragons. His love for taking care of them and his affinity for working with kids had made the teaching position an easy choice and he enjoys the life he leads. “I’m happy with where I ended up.”

“Me too,” Pierre says. He gives him the same sad smile he had given Bryan in the recording and Charles’ heart hurts.

Pierre’s path with racing had been different: he had accepted one of those wonderful offers, a prestigious position for the Toro Rosso team in Italy, with hopes of advancing in their structure. They’d made him move countries even - Charles had helped him pack and said goodbye to him at the airport, crying himself to sleep afterwards - before cruelly rejecting him and kicking him out of their rookie program before he’d even ran a weekend. When he came back, he’d slowly found his footing beside Charles once again - and Charles himself is immensely grateful to have his dearest friend by his side, but he knows it’s difficult sometimes. They’ve both made their choices in life.

“I’m glad you haven’t gotten tired of me yet, calamar,” Pierre whispers, small and tentative. The look in his eyes is dark, black almost eclipsing the baby blue. Charles is pretty sure he’s imagining it, but it feels like Pierre inches ever closer to him and the air in the room turns electric. It could be a mishap of George’s magic from the next tower over (it has most definitely happened before), but deep down Charles knows the atmosphere is coming from the two of them.

Honesty seeps out of his mouth in the next phrase. “I don’t think I could ever get tired of you,” he says with a smile. Charles’ hands are locked together under the fuzzy blue blanket he’s using, but Pierre dives in, grabs a hold of one and intertwines their fingers.

“Charles, I -” he starts, voice wobbling, and a bout of cold hard fear shoots up Charles’ spine before they’re interrupted, again, by Kimi’s flying through the trees outside.

“Yes?” Charles asks only after Kimi has long flown past and he has managed to take a deep breath he didn’t even know he had been holding. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, nothing. It’s…nothing. I was just thinking.” Pierre shakes his head and lets go of Charles’ hand, the heat around them simmering down to the wintry cold. “Should we keep watching? The next scene is probably the one with the kids, we don’t have much left of the episode. It’s late, Cha,” he says and yawns, but it looks a little too forced. Pierre used to fake being tired to get out of doing things in class a lot when they were younger - Charles knows what his faking looks like, especially because he himself used to do it with him. 

“Okay…” Charles agrees hesitantly. Pressing play, he watches as the scene transitions into a graphic explaining the rules of dragon racing and he settles down to listen to the comforting off-camera voice - Pierre’s, of course.

The rulebook is easy to recall for Charles: teams of four riders to each side, essentially racing in smaller teams of two that can interact and plan moves with each other and try to stop duos from the other team from advancing. If there are any magic users in either team, then they must be warned magic is entirely forbidden. First team to get all four riders across the finish line after a set number of laps of the obstacle-filled track wins. It’s easy to get lost in it as the screen melts back into black and the scene changes to a shot of the Academy’s grounds, waiting to introduce their team’s riders.

[Four teenagers, two girls and two boys, appear on screen, laughing and clearly amused at the fact that they’re being filmed.]

Girl #1: Hello! We are the - [She tries to be serious for the shot, but one of the boys pokes her shoulder from behind and she breaks character, laughing and jokingly threatening to hit him.]

Pierre: [Off-screen.] Can you settle down? Please? We’ll start proper training after we finish this. 

Team, in unison: Yes, Pierre.

Boy #1: Hi, we are the dragon riding t - [Girl #1 slaps him in the back in retribution and all hell breaks loose, the four of them running after each other.]

Charles: [Off-screen, said fondly.] They can’t even last five minutes without causing chaos…

[The screen jumps instead into a montage showing the riders names and stats, similar to the one that had been used for the dragons. Maya and Dino, the ones that had been playfighting on screen, are the eldest and the lead duo. Aurelia and Rafael, the other two, are the newbies and are noticeably more chill.]

[The proper recording comes back into a shot of the four riders in their race uniforms, standing next to their dragons in a green field, with the tall race obstacle structures standing around them. Their dragons are smaller than Leo and Simba, presumably younger, but perfectly well-behaved.]

Pierre: Okay, so I want you guys to run drills of the Hamilton strategy, then… [Pierre’s voice is muffled as the camera turns to focus on Charles.]

Charles: We alternate who runs training and who focuses more on actual race day, just to keep it even between us. [Smiles softly.] I think Pierre is better at this though - he’s better at making the kids listen to him even if they don’t want to.

Pierre: [Yelling.] And keep it clean! No funny business until you get this right! [The camera turns to catch Dino clearly doing a flip, and then focuses back on Charles wincing before he chuckles.]

Charles: Well, most of the time.

[There’s a montage of the team practicing: running drills around the obstacles, flying laps around the field and even doing physical training on the ground as their dragons rest. Through it all, it’s very clear the four of them get along well. Off-screen, Charles and Pierre explain a bit more about their specific every day schedules and how operations at the school are run.]

[The last scene of the episode is at the shed where they had filmed the intro. Their outfits have changed, indicating it’s a different day.]

Bryan: I believe we have all we need for the first episode, we just need you to give us a closer.

Charles: [A little disappointed.] Really? I thought we’d have more time.

Bryan: We’ll probably ask you guys to cameo in the other departments’ segments, and we’ll film some more during the race next weekend. You’re not getting rid of us yet.

Pierre: [Smiles, albeit tentatively.] What do you need us to say for the final scene?

Bryan: Anything you want.

Pierre: Okay…we hope everyone at home enjoyed our rambling and seeing how our sport works and how the dragons live inside our school. Having this job is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done, and I’m really thankful for the team for helping us share it with the world.

Charles: [Looking at Pierre - a little dumbfounded, a little in love.] Yes, exactly…exactly what Pierre said. We hope you enjoy the rest of the doc and that you consider supporting our race team and donating to the school’s dragon welfare initiatives. [Waves to the camera.] See you next episode!

The screen turns to black and the only light in the room comes from Charles’ bedside table lamp. It only serves to give the room a sleepier mood, and if Charles was a little more careless he would’ve invited Pierre for a sleepover. Preferably in Charles’ own bed. Cuddling. Or…

Pierre’s voice interrupts his thoughts. “I really should go,” he says. Charles can recognize a twinge of sadness in his tone. 

“Go,” Charles concedes unwillingly, even if he’s also starting to feel the effects of the late hour and he knows he will be grumpy tomorrow if he doesn’t get at least his 8 hours of sleep. “Have a good night, Pear,” he says and tries for a smile. “I love you.”

Pierre drops a kiss on his temple before he stands up, sending butterflies flying in Charles’ stomach. “I love you too. Rest well, calamar. I’ll see you tomorrow - we said we’d get ready together before the event?”

“Of course.” Charles does smile, properly this time. “You promised to let me pick your tie!” Pierre laughs softly and sweetly before closing the door to head to his room… and suddenly Charles is alone again, Pierre’s perfume still hanging in the air. 

Chapter Text

There’s a strange veil around the room when Charles wakes up. He’s sure this couldn’t even be George’s magic this time - even when it’s out of control, his magic is much more… measured. No, this feels like it’s coming from inside Charles.

He had never been the most prodigious magic user, if he could even be called a magic user at all. As the firstborn, Lorenzo had been the one to inherit most of their mother’s magical abilities. Even Arthur had gotten more of that practical magic, but the spark inside Charles has always been much more unpredictable, emotion-driven, generally less useful for everyday life. His real talent has always been flying. The magic he does have is much more finicky and not always accessible, mostly showing itself in bursts during waves of strong emotion…like right now, apparently, with the restlessness inside him. The room is bathed in a golden glow, similar to the one that had been around him and Pierre the previous night, with clusters of light sparkling and spinning around the room like little fairies. Well, much nicer than real fairies at least - these aren’t mischievous like damn Fernando who guards the lake in the grounds’ forest. Charles feels the adrenaline threatening to spark out of his hands - he can only hope he can go the whole day without it exploding.

Breakfast is served in the dining hall, empty of kids since they’d all gone home for winter break a few days prior. The staff will be headed back to their families for Christmas soon as well, but they’ve all agreed to hang back for a few more days to attend the premiere event. Pierre is late in the morning, as he always is, probably still dozing off since he doesn’t respond when Charles knocks on his door, so Charles still goes downstairs to have some actual food without him. Perhaps proper nutrition will help avoid a magical outburst, he thinks, and is immediately rewarded when the air of electricity dampens the furthers he gets from his quarters. Score.

Teachers’ meals are usually served in a smaller separate room, but since the kids are gone they get to spread their legs on the bigger tables and buffet offerings. “Charles! Over here!” George calls him over to a table. He and Alex are sitting together, Franco across from them as he enthusiastically recounts a story, hand-talking and all.

“And Gabi said he wishes he could be here tonight to watch me embarrass myself in the doc. Then he texted me a picture of his niece and she’s so cute -” Charles hears as he sits down. Franco doesn’t even stop his story, only gives him a wave and continues talking, so Charles happily takes a cup of tea from Alex and simply listens.

“Where’s your other half?” George asks eventually, teasing. Charles and Pierre had met George while in university, after being stuck in a deathly boring history class together, and he had been quick to figure out Charles’ feelings for his best friend, if only to tease him about it for the next decade. Fair enough though, because as soon as Charles had met Alex, George’s childhood friend that attended university in their native Britain for botany, he’d had a chance to tease his friend back. The only problem was that George’s feelings were requited and he and Alex had eventually gotten together, so then Charles was back to square one.

When George had been offered the position of deputy headmaster under the great Lewis Hamilton and Alex had transferred into the Academy’s sciences department, Charles had been ecstatic to be able to work alongside more of his friends, but he also knew there was a trade-off: it came at the expense of moments like this.

“Still sleeping, I think. We were up late yesterday, watching -” Charles starts to answer after Franco finishes a particularly loud part of his story, but midway through his sentence he remembers he wasn’t supposed to say anything, because he very much wasn’t supposed to have an extra copy of the doc. “A movie.”

George raises his eyebrows incredulously. “Oooookay.” There’s a second of tense silence when they analyze each other’s expressions before George opens his mouth again, a smug smile hiding behind his words. “And what might you have been doing as that movie played?”

Charles, knowing how to take an exit to avoid answering George’s teasing questions, instead turns to still-yapping Franco. “What were you saying about Gabi’s niece, Fran? Can I see the pictures?”

He manages to ward off George by changing the subject long enough for Pierre to actually arrive at the dining hall, 20 minutes before it’s supposed to close until lunch. As soon as Pierre walks in though, the sparkles around the room are back in full force, bright enough for the rest of the room to notice and manifesting in a more corporeal form, floating around their table like bubbles. 

“George, love? Is this you?” Alex asks, smiling as he pops one of the golden clusters. Most of the other teachers in the hall are doing the same, playing with the harmless clusters of magic, or examining them closer. There are multiple magic users that could be causing it - but only one of them is hunched up in his chair and blushing profusely. Charles wishes he could straight up run away, but that would be even more of a giveaway.

“Not me,” George answers, raising his hands up to prove his innocence. Instead, he alternates looking at Charles and Pierre quickly. 

Pierre himself quickly grabs a cup of coffee from the trays and occupies the seat beside Charles, immediately catching on to the situation. “What happened, Cha? Your magic isn’t usually this strong.” Instead of popping at his touch like they had done with Alex, the clusters settle over Pierre’s hair, making him look like he’s glowing.

“You don’t know if it’s mine,” Charles tries to excuse himself, but it only makes Pierre laugh.

“I may not have much magic myself -” Neither of his parents were magic users at all, so he had no one to get it from. Most of Pierre’s contact with it as a child had been through dragons themselves, extremely common in his hometown in northern France. “But I know what yours looks like.” He grasps one of the sparkles and throws it Charles’ way as proof. “Are you really okay?”

It’s you, Charles thinks, but he knows he can’t admit to anything. “It’s probably just nerves around the premiere. Did you know there’ll be press here? I’m surprised, I just thought they just made the whole thing up as an excuse to get us to dress up,” he says, even though he knows Pierre attended the same informative meeting about the event he did, and there must be something strange in his tone because it’s like a switch was flipped as Pierre’s expression changes.

“Cha, I -” Pierre’s eyes grow darker as his voice trails off. Whatever amusement was there is gone now, sensing something in Charles’ face, and the look in his eyes reminds Charles of last night - I’m glad you haven’t gotten tired of me yet, calamar. His next words are barely above a whisper. “Can we talk? Later?”

“Sure,” Charles answers, trying to be nonchalant, but it comes out shrill and forced. “Whenever you -” His fake indifference is exposed mid-sentence by, goddamit, the magic.

One of the golden clusters that hadn’t been touched, floating above them, explodes over the table. Pierre’s eyes fly open in surprise.

“I should go,” Charles says and jumps up. He wants to avoid any further consequences, like the time he had magically shattered a window as he had his first kiss. “Bye guys!” He squeaks, hoping it will sound less unnatural. Pierre’s eyes are still wide, and now George, Alex and Franco have all turned to look at him with a similar expression.

He speeds out of the room, leaving them in his wake as the magic leaves right with him.

The barn has always been his favorite place of refuge.

He gets lost in the menial chores - cleaning the pens, feeding the babies, organizing his supplies. Since there are no students, there are thankfully no field reports to grade. He could start on the strategy for the race after classes restart…but that feels like a bit much, and he should also discuss that with Pierre, which is exactly what he wants to avoid.

It’s just that…

Charles knows he needs to calm down. Working, flying, will help him with that - or at least help him get his mind away from things. What happened last night was just the two of them being normal, nothing out of the ordinary except his heart getting his hopes up once again. Pierre loves him and Charles loves Pierre - maybe not in the same way, but it’s real all the same. Charles’ magic is usually good at not reacting in moments like this, but he guesses he’ll just have to learn to be better.

“Hi boys,” Charles says when gets to the last pen, the one that holds Leo and Simba.

The sparkles around him had disappeared when he left the dining hall, but a few of them return in front of Simba’s eyes for him to play with. If Charles had had any doubts about the magic being about Pierre specifically, those are gone now. The blue dragon appears to be delighted, so he nuzzles into Charles’ side sweetly.

“You’re so cute,” Charles says absent-mindedly as he pets Simba’s head. Leo, his wonderful brilliant Leo, huffs a puff of smoke when he hears him complimenting the other dragon and Charles can only laugh. “You too, buddy,” he adds as he grabs the buckets with the dragons’ lunch, chunks of beef and a stupid amount of carrots since Leo loves them - the real reason he had come into their enclosure. “I’ll take you out for a ride later.”

Pierre’s voice makes Charles jump. “Can I come?”

“Pear -” Charles chokes out, breathing rapidly. He knows he must be horribly flushed. “You should warn a guy before doing that.”

“I texted you, but you always put your phone on silent here to avoid waking up any dragons and I figured this is where you were when you didn’t answer. Then I tried calling out when I opened the door, but you were too far away.” He shrugs and smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I brought you lunch.”

“Is it time -”

“It’s almost 2pm,” Pierre answers, fondly exasperated. He holds up a brown paper bag and wiggles it tantalizingly - it smells heavenly. “I - We were waiting for you in the hall.”

“Oh, like I waited for you this morning?” Charles teases, gaining some of his confidence back. 

“You’re the one that kept me up.” It’s an innocent enough sentence, but then Pierre blushes at the hidden innuendo so Charles blushes redder too. 

It’s silly. He’s being silly.

“Thanks for the food,” Charles says finally. “You can leave it up on my desk, I’ll eat when I finish up around here.”

The disappointment in Pierre’s eyes is difficult to swallow - he was expecting him to tell him to stay like he always does so they could go on that ride later, Charles is sure of it - but it’s necessary. They’ll see each other again later, Charles just wants to avoid any possible incidents for as long as possible.

Still, Charles allows himself one thing. He spins around quickly, dropping the food bucket which the dragons are ecstatic about, and runs up to hug Pierre. He wraps his arms around him tightly, tucking his face into his neck. Pierre’s breathing stops for a second, but when it comes back he settles into the hug. Charles’ heart warms at the touch.

There’s no telling how long they stay like that - could be minutes, could be hours, if it were up to Charles it could be years. They only separate when both Leo and Simba start nudging their respective owners, desperate for attention.

Pierre laughs and pets his dragon’s head after he lets go. “I’ll leave you to it,” he says finally, approaching the door. “Don’t forget you promised to help me with my tie, calamar.”

“I could never,” Charles answers, hoping Pierre is somehow getting some of what he’s feeling - I love you, I’m sorry, I’ve loved you all my life and now it’s splayed on camera, I hope you loved me too. Many times he wished to have inherited his maman’s telepathy.

He waits for Pierre to actually close the barn’s gate before letting out a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding. 

After he heads up to his office and actually eats the food Pierre had brought - a delicious plate of his favorite pasta, the sight of which makes Charles’ heart squeeze - he lets a few of the dragons out for sunlight and saddles up Leo for a flight.

The feeling of being in the air, the wind hitting his face, the sun in his eyes, Leo’s euphoria at the speed he can feel through the air - Charles loves this. He loves the way he can let go and just fly, it feels as easy as breathing. Even if he doesn’t regret his life decisions, he is sometimes jealous that his students still get to do this in a competitive sense. The competition of races itself was also something he adored, and the working side by side with Pierre - a well-oiled machine between the two of them, knowing each other by heart. Maybe that’s what had unsettled his magic so much about last night, the way they had felt out of step with each other.

Around the Academy grounds for a few laps he goes before landing back down, slow and steady. “Good job, buddy,” Charles says, giving Leo a treat he had stored in his coat. “Thanks for that.”

By the time he returns to his quarters, night has already fallen and Charles knows he should start getting ready. When he checks his forgotten phone, he even has a goofy text from Alex (a selfie of him and George already in their suits, goofing off) and one from Lewis in the staff group chat, reminding everyone of the night’s timetable. Charles approaches Pierre’s room with extreme caution, hopingprayingwishing his magic won’t go haywire, and slowly knocks on the door.

The door swings open immediately, as if Pierre had been expecting him. He has a crazed look in his eyes and his hair is sticking up in all directions, but he’s wearing his formal trousers and he’s…shirtless. Because of course he is, just when Charles had gotten himself in control. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Charles answers, a little shyly. “I still need to shower -” Dragon poop smell is dangerous. “- but I can help you out in like 15 minutes?”

“Sure, thanks Cha,” he says, smiling. He doesn’t move though, not making any attempts to close the door on Charles’ face, so there’s a moment of pregnant silence before Charles actually gathers the courage to turn around and go into his actual bathroom.

The hottest shower known to man is waiting for him there and the heat is at least successful in clearing his mind - he has gotten used to Leo having fire incidents next to him, so the temperature of the water is simply relaxing. Charles thanks his past self for picking his outfit ahead of time and leaving it in a garment bag he can easily grab: a cream suit, a white shirt, a soft grey tie. Arthur had actually brought it for him from Monaco when he visited a few weekends ago. 

He gets dressed and tries to tame his hair as much as he can before going back to Pierre’s. “Hello again.”

Thankfully Pierre had decided to put on a shirt before opening the door and shoving a handful of ties in Charles’ chest. “These are my options, I’m at your mercy,” he says, which only makes Charles let out a little chuckle. “And we’re probably going to be late.”

“You wouldn’t be yourself if you weren’t late.”

Pierre rolls his eyes. “Ha, ha.”

“There aren’t that many ties to sort through anyway,” Charles says, taking the fabric in his hands, and only then does he actually take a proper look at Pierre in his navy suit that brings out the bright blue in his eyes. “You look…nice.”

Pierre takes a second to respond. “You too,” he answers, looking at Charles up and down. If things were any different, Charles would think he was checking him out.

Charles sits on Pierre’s bed and sorts through the ties, picking out a lighter blue one easily. “This one will go with your eyes,” he says without thinking about the implications, and it makes his heart skip a beat when he sees Pierre’s cheeks go pink.

“You think?” He holds it up to his face next to the mirror, narrowing his eyes - probably to see better, seeing as he has prescription glasses he staunchly refuses to use.

(Charles refuses to admit he does the same thing.)

“Why are you so worried? Is it the cameras or are you planning on bringing someone up here tonight?”

It’s a joke, it’s supposed to be a joke to camouflage the fact that Pierre fucking someone next door to him is the biggest nightmare Charles could ever have, but it doesn’t land like one. Pierre doesn’t smile, his frown only deepens. “Cha, this morning I told you I wanted to talk to you about something. I -” he stutters because Charles jumps up and grabs the tie from his hand.

“Wait, let me do it for you,” Charles interrupts. “Then we can talk.”

All through their school years, whenever they had to go to a gala for the team or for their school dance, Charles was there to do Pierre’s tie. He’s pretty sure that’s why he never learnt how to do it himself in the first place: Charles was always there, looking for an excuse to be close to him. Right now though, it’s more of a deflection - Pierre had looked serious this morning and he looks even more serious now, his lips pressed into a thin line. Fear bubbles in Charles’ stomach, thinking about what he could possibly want to talk about: probably something in the doc based on the timing, but Charles had thought - thought being the operative word there - that he had concealed his feelings well enough not to be spotted.

His fingers wobble as he goes through the knot, tightening around Pierre’s neck. All Charles wants to do is burrow his head in it, but he holds back the instinct. The tie takes longer than it should since he messes up a few times, but when he’s done and adjusts it one last time, Pierre is looking at him with the most intense look in his eyes. Charles doesn’t step away - he should and he knows it - but Pierre’s gaze is keeping it frozen in place.

Pierre’s hand moves up and grabs Charles’ hand, the one that had still been holding on to the tie, to lace their fingers together. Just like it had last night, Charles’ heart soars at Pierre’s touch.

“I have something to say to you,” he says, so softly that Charles thinks he wouldn’t have heard if he wasn’t so close. “Or, uh - something to ask you.”

“You can tell me anything, Pear,” Charles answers, trying to brace himself for whatever is coming. A squeeze to his hand makes Charles almost let out a sob, his heart speeding up faster than he has ever gone on Leo. The atmosphere around them has turned almost ominous, so silent you could hear a pin drop. The only sound in the room is their labored breaths, still so close together because neither of them are moving. Charles is scared of what will happen if he lets go. 

“When we were watching the doc, I…noticed - something in the film.” He punctuates each word as if he was unsure of every sound. With every second that passes, Charles feels the air being drained out of the room more and more.  “The way you were looking at me, I just - And I talked to George and he said…something that I just thought that…that you, well…”  Pierre huffs and squeezes his eyes closed. They’re still so close to each other though, that Charles can see every little eyelash and feel how his breath quickens. If he moved just an inch, he could…

“You’re scaring me, calamar,” Charles says, as gently as he can.

“I want to…” He shakes his head. “I need to know if you have feelings for me,” he says simply.

Immediately after, something explodes on the floor below them. The noise is impossibly loud, as if one of the Academy's large stained glass windows had been blown open by a bomb  shattering in the ground.

“We should go and check that out,” Charles says quickly, clipped. He then speeds out of the room, ignoring how he sees Pierre’s face falling and how he feels like he’s going to faint any second. 

It’s a wonder how he even makes it downstairs at all, but when he does he finds exactly what he expected: two shattered windows, the pieces of colored glass strewn all over the floor. He could blame it on someone else, but deep down Charles knows what happened…his magic had acted up once again, only second after hearing Pierre’s words because it’s over. 

There’s no coming back from Pierre interrogating him about his feelings just as Charles was thinking of leaning in and kissing him. Everything they’ve built - it’s changed and flipped on its head beyond repair. The pressure was all on Charles, so his magic had decided to give him an out, even if there was still a tiny shred of hope thinking that maybe this was just Pierre clumsily leading up to confessing his own feelings, despite the fact that starting with that question sent a clear message. Pierre was just going to let him down easy.

Faster than he can figure out what to do with the glass, a few staff members appear down the hallway, Alex among them. “Mate, are you okay? You look pale,” his friend says, putting an arm around Charles’ shoulders. The distressed look on his face only serves to make Charles more upset.

“Do we know what happened here?” Isack, Pierre’s TA, asks, worry obvious in his features, and Charles knows for a fact that Isack is a sweetheart, but he would much rather eat dirt than admit what truly had been going on in front of him right now.

“I don’t know, I was upstairs and ran down when I heard the noise. Maybe it was a magic user in the event hall?” It was me me me, his conscience squeaks. 

Alex doesn’t look like he’s believing him, but he says nothing. It takes Charles a second for Charles to figure out why that is - right outside the now window-less hole, there’s a tell-tale golden cluster of sparkles.

“You go ahead. Go to the event hall and help the doc people finish setting up. I’ll fix this up,” Lewis, who’d also been with the group, says. With a flick of his wrist, the window pieces are flying back together.

 Charles lets himself be carried away by Alex, falling out of step for just a second for him to ask “Are you actually okay?”

“Pierre just -” Charles sighs. “I’ll fix it after the premiere,” he says, even if he knows it won’t be as easy as a flick of the wrist and even if he’s not quite sure what it is that he’ll have to fix.

After the premiere is over and Charles has smiled at the right people and taken the right photos, he’ll face Pierre, confess and tell him they can just be friends. Hopefully that will be enough for a start.

Pierre is late to the actual premiere, because of course he is. Remarkably though, George is also MIA. Pierre hadn’t run after Charles like he had hoped he would, and Alex actually catches Charles as he stares at the door, waiting for him to finally walk in after half the guests are already in here and the waiters have done a round with glasses of champagne.

“Waiting for someone?” his friend asks, a smile on his lips that can only feel mocking, even if that isn’t the intention.

“Something like that.” Charles tries for his best smile. “Hi.”

“What happened?” Alex calls a waiter’s attention and grabs a glass for each of them. Charles takes his and downs it in one go. “Shit, mate.”

A sad laugh is all Charles can manage. “Pierre asked me if I had feelings for him.” Alex chokes on air, eyes impossibly wide. “And I immediately shattered the windows and ran away.” The words fall from his lips quickly, both unable and unwilling to stop them - it would be useless anyway, since Alex had seen the tell-tale glow.

“Oh, Charles,” he says, voice growing softer around the edges. “What exactly happened up there?”

“I helped him with his tie, then he took my hand and just asked me outright because -” He shouldn’t be admitting to this, but fuck it. “Bryan gave me a copy of the doc and we watched it - I was probably so obvious about my feelings and Pierre just wanted to let me down easy. He was very nervous, but I just - Lex, I couldn’t handle him rejecting me like that, so my magic just… reacted.”

“And then I found you.”

“And then you found me.” Charles’ eyes flinch away from the look of pity in Alex’s. “We came here and Pierre still hasn’t shown up. Should I go look for him? Am I being crazy? Will he just avoid me forever?”

“He’s not going to avoid you forever,” Alex answers carefully. “And George is with him. He went to find him like half an hour ago and hasn’t been back since, so I assume they’re talking about…this.”

Charles wants to cry. “Have I ruined everything?”

“Mate.” Alex puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes tightly - the touch is a comfort at least. “I don’t think you could ever ruin things with Pierre. He worships you.”

“Don’t be cruel.”

“Jesus, I can’t believe this is happening right now,” Alex mutters to himself before raising his voice for Charles. “You two should talk. Like actually, genuinely have an actual talk. No running away. I think you’ll find things aren’t as bleak as you think they are.”

Maybe he’s right, Charles thinks, but both truths are fighting inside of him like they’ve done for so long. “It’s just that -”

“They’re coming down,” Alex interrupts. While Charles was distracted, he had been checking his phone. “You should go outside with Pierre. To the gardens, ideally, just so we’re safe.”

“But -”

But nothing, it seems, since that’s the exact moment both George and Pierre chose to walk into the hall. “Go,” Alex encourages him. “Take him to the gardens so you don’t break anything -” Charles’ magic shatters a glass in protest. Alex only laughs, but Charles can feel Pierre’s eyes on him so his expression remains firm. “Like that.”

“Can you cover for us if Lewis asks anything?” He nods profusely and that does get a smile out of Charles. “You’re a good friend, Alex.”

His goofy grin fills up half his face. “Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate that.”

Walking slowly, beckoned by Alex’s encouraging nods, Charles heads to the door. 

“Hi,” he says, trying his best to look his best friend in the eye. Pierre’s smile is soft and forgiving - Charles wonders how he could have ever thought anything different.

“Hi.” It’s a repeat of what had happened when Charles first opened the door to Pierre’s room - a sort of impasse.  “We should talk.”

“Here?”

“Outside. Alex said he can cover for us, so we have an hour at least.” Pierre turns to look at George, probably looking for reassurance, but then he looks back at Charles and nods.

They walk out to the gardens in silence, a respectable distance apart because Charles knows that if they’re too close, his magic is going to blow up again. Pierre leads them out into the main courtyard, not too far from the actual building, and sits down near the central fountain. The air is cold and the stone of the bench they sit down on is even colder, but the adrenaline in Charles’ system, plus the presence of Pierre so close is keeping him warm enough.

“Okay.” Charles starts, but his tongue gets tied up in itself and he doesn’t know how to keep going.

“Okay,” Pierre echoes, but then they look at each other and a giggle bursts out of them in unison.

No matter how nervous this situation is making him, the fact that Pierre is always someone he can laugh with is a comfort. Charles has always thought home was with people you could laugh with, and Pierre has been making him laugh for most of their lives.

“I shattered the window downstairs,” Charles blurts out suddenly. “That’s what it was - window.”

“Your magic?”

“Yes, Pear,” Charles says, thinking it a bit obvious, but Pierre’s real expression is hard to read. “You asking me something like that so suddenly just made it - act.”

“I’m sorry,” he says and he sounds so sincere that Charles’ heart hurts. “I shouldn’t have sprung that up on you, especially since I knew the answer -” It feels like a stab to the chest, a confirmation that all Pierre was doing was setting him up for rejection.

“I appreciate -” you being kind about this, Charles wants to say because he wants to be kind and gracious about this, but he’s interrupted.

“I know you don’t love me the way I love you,” Pierre says, and just like that the tides of Charles’ entire life have changed. For the second time today, his world has been flipped on its head. “And I don’t blame you for that - no, Cha, I could never put that on you. I wanted to ask because, well - the doc did give me a little hope that you returned my feelings. It doesn’t matter what I thought though, all that matters is that you’re okay and comfortable and for that I’m sorry.” Charles’ throat is closing upupup. The sparkles around them are back, falling over Pierre’s head like soft snow. 

“Since when?” Charles manages to choke out as soon as he gets enough air. 

Pierre’s expression, previously just scared, turns into genuine confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Since when do you have feelings for me?”

He lets out a self-pitying laugh and Charles is torn between hurting for him and letting his heart soar. He has dreamed of this for so long and never thought these would be the circumstances in which it would happen - if it were up to Charles, he would lean in to kiss Pierre right now and never let him go. “It’s been a long time,” Pierre answers and there’s a series of flashes that go through Charles’ head - from when they were still kids to that almost kiss in university to all the sweet afternoons spent at the stables to earlier today, when Pierre was close enough to actually kiss and Charles was stupid enough to run away. Fear has ruined too much for him, but not today.

“Do you remember -” Pierre’s voice brings him out of his thoughts. “- the night we graduated from university?” Charles…doesn’t. He remembers the beginning of it, but past a point it becomes a blur of wine and screaming and jumping to the music of some forgotten French club. “Maybe you don’t, huh,” he adds with a smile, almost teasing.

“I was very drunk.”

“I was the one to drag you home and put you to bed that night, and - something changed, I think. It was like I took off the blindfold to see something that had been there long before I noticed.” His voice is small, words blending into each other. Charles takes his hand - just like Pierre had done earlier and the night before - and the words suddenly stop.  

“I love you too.”

“Cha -”

“Pierre,” he interrupts. He lets a smile bloom on his face and sees how Pierre’s face turns back slowly to something closer to hope. “I didn’t run because I was scared to say no, I ran away because I thought you were going to reject me.” Pierre almost flinches back but Charles holds on. “I’ve been holding out hope for you to love me for a bit longer than that, Pear.”

“But- I-” He opens and closes his mouth, stuttering, and Charles can only think he looks like a particularly adorable fish. Or maybe like Simba, whenever he wants treats but is desperately trying not to blow fire for them. 

“I think I was already in love with you before I learnt what love was,” Charles says honestly. “We both had a similar experience with the doc, I think - I thought my feelings were too obvious. Maybe I had stared at you for too long, or maybe I had imagined the tension in the room.” The magic around them glows even stronger - instead of the evening dark, everything around them looks golden. The sparkles fall from above like snowflakes, lighting up the handful of winter flowers. 

“I was going to confess - earlier today.”

Charles wants to laugh at himself and at the ridiculousness of the situation. “So if I had just stayed…” He lets his voice trail off as Pierre nods and inches closer to him. He puts a hand over Charles’ cheek, ever so delicately.

“Can I kiss you?” Pierre whispers and Charles doesn’t answer with words when actually leaning in is so much better. He tastes sweet, so so sweet, and it feels like he's soaring through the air on Leo’s back - light and wild and free. Even when Charles hears a loud crashing sound - probably a flower pot or a bench breaking because of his magic, since his heart is going a million miles an hour and his magic knows that - he doesn’t let go. Not even a proper explosion could make him let go, not when Pierre has a hand threading though his hair and the other holding onto his waist tightly, their lips only a hair’s width apart.

Charles can’t help the smile that spreads on his face. “Did you actually think you had to ask permission to kiss me after I confessed my love for you?” 

“I was trying to be respectful, you asshole,” Pierre says but he’s laughing, and when he pokes him under the ribs then Charles is laughing too. “I’m going to throw you off Leo the next time we go flying.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Charles shoots back.

When the laughter dies down though, there’s a moment of silence when they’re looking into each other’s eyes and it’s not awkward like it’s been the whole day - it’s softer, lighter, comfortable the way it’s always been between the two of them. “Do you think Alex will hate us if we skip the rest of the premiere?”

The reminder that there is still a world outside of this garden hits Charles like a ton of bricks. He sighs deeply and Pierre giggles, pulling him even closer into a hug. If he just stays like this, holding onto Pierre with his head tucked into his neck, Charles thinks no one could ever get into their bubbles. “Probably, but I don’t know if I care.”

“Calamar.” Pierre squeezes the side of his waist. “We should go back in a bit.”

“Alex won’t hate us for real,” Charles complains. He knows he’s pouting, though he’s not expecting Pierre to kiss the pout off his lips.

“No matter how much I want to keep kissing you,” he says, “if we go back now, we can save face and then we’ll have the whole night to ourselves to talk.” They have far too many things to talk about. “And to kiss some more.”

“I hate when you’re smarter than me.”

Pierre kisses the top of his head, chuckling. “I’m always smarter than you, I thought you knew that.”

“You’re the worst.”

“I thought you were in love with me?”

“You’ve been scared the whole day and now you’re this bold?” Charles presses. He’s utterly delighted when it makes Pierre blush. 

“You were scared too,” Pierre shoots back, even through the slight embarrassment. He points to his side, where there’s in fact a broken pot, and then it’s Charles’ turn to blush. “We’re both silly,” Pierre concludes though, honey dripping from his words.

Charles can’t quite form the word to say, so he crashes their lips together and holds on. Somewhere behind them, he can hear the sounds of the projection in the event hall starting - that can wait. They’ll go back in there eventually, to avoid murder via Alex. Right now though, all that matters is this moment.