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“Those two had better get here on time, this case is rather urgent!” Edwin says impatiently, glancing at the clock; it’s nearly 10am.
“They’ll be here don’t worry,” Charles assures.
He’s sitting on the floor, polishing his new cricket bat with a magic varnish that would hopefully prevent any future breakages like what happened in Esther’s basement.
At that moment, as if they had heard them talking, the front door opens and Niko enters, all but dragging Crystal behind her.
“Morning, guys!” Niko says cheerily.
“Morning,” Crystal mumbles in response, immediately heading for the tiny sofa and flopping down on it.
They’d been out the night prior with a few friends they’d made on a recent case. Crystal turned 18 a couple of weeks ago, and it had been a few months since Niko’s birthday, so they joined them on a night out at a supernatural gay club in Soho. Going by how she looks this morning, Charles and Edwin suppose Crystal had a little more to drink than Niko did.
“You two had fun last night then?” Charles smiles, repacking the bat in his backpack.
“Yes! It was so good!” Niko enthuses.
She begins rambling about their experiences at the club, particularly animated about the music and the dancing. Crystal nods along silently from where she’s slouched on the sofa.
Edwin listens intently to Niko’s retelling and once she’s finished, he opens his mouth to reply.
“That sounds wonderful, Niko. Would…would I possibly be able to come with you next time?” he asks, his hands fidgeting a little on the desk in front of him.
Crystal sits up slightly at that.
“Are you sure it’d be your thing?” she asks, her voice slightly gravelly.
“Well, I suppose I’ll never know unless I try.”
Niko flashes him a huge grin. She’s been trying to get him to try new things more often for months since she returned from the place she got stuck in after her ‘death’ and is overjoyed that he seems to be considering this.
“If it’s the queer aspect of it you’re interested in, there is a lot more to queer culture than clubbing. I didn’t expect it to be your thing,” Crystal says.
“I’d like to try,” Edwin replies, determined.
“Okay well, Jamie, Sammie and Liv are planning on going again next Friday so I’ll tell them we’ll have two more tagging along.”
Crystal pulls her phone out of the pocket of her shorts and texts them.
“Hold on, two more?” Edwin asks.
“Well, I’m presuming since we’re all going Charles is too,” Crystal replies, not looking up from her screen.
“Charles?” Edwin turns to him.
“Yeah, why not? It’ll be fun!”
“That’s settled then. Texting Jamie now.”
“Good, then let’s focus, shall we? We have a case to crack,” Edwin says, indicating to the stack of books sitting on the edge of the desk.
The Case of the Meddlesome Mask was complete within a few days, and the agency’s case board remained empty for the rest of the week, which gave the four of them time to plan the most important part of their night out – outfits.
When Friday came around, they split into pairs to get ready – Niko at the office with Edwin, and Crystal at her and Niko’s flat with Charles.
“Are you certain this outfit is necessary, Niko? What’s wrong with my usual clothing?”
“You look like a schoolboy! Not a cool club look.”
“Right.”
“And the outfit I picked out for you isn’t too different, don’t worry. I’m not putting you in a crop top and fishnets.”
Edwin feels himself blush at simply the concept.
“That is something, I suppose.”
Niko is already ready for the night, her outfit brightly coloured as usual, just a lot more sparkly: a yellow halter dress with a matching headband, a pink tote bag and bold pink and yellow glittery eyeshadow. She looks beautiful and eccentric, as always.
Niko reaches into her bag and takes out a shirt and a pair of trousers, both much duller in colour than her own outfit. She places them on the desk, and Edwin hovers his hand over them. He mutters an incantation in Aramaic and the clothes seem to flicker in and out of reality for a second before resettling.
“Yay. All ghostified!”
Niko turns around to face the window as Edwin begins to change.
“Let me know if you need any help!” she says.
“I think I can manage,” Edwin chuckles, removing his bow tie and detachable collar.
Once his shirt and undershirt are removed, he holds up the new shirt Niko picked out for him. It is a gorgeous dark blue, and looks a tiny bit smaller than his usual clothes.
“Are you sure this will fit, Niko?”
“Yeah! We measured you and everything! I’m guessing the shirt is a little tighter fitting than what you usually wear, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Ah.”
Edwin slips the shirt on. Niko is right, it is much tighter fitting than his school uniform. It’s different but…he thinks he’ll get used to it. He buttons it up, then moves onto the trousers. He sits down to take his boots off, then untucks the ends of his knickerbockers from his socks and removes them too.
The trousers Niko picked out are black and fitted, and Edwin once again worries they may be too small. However when he puts them on, they fit perfectly, even if they do feel a little strange to him.
Edwin tucks the shirt into the trousers, then clears his throat.
“You can turn around now, Niko.”
Niko turns around to look at him and smiles.
“They suit you so well!” she runs up to him and hugs him.
Edwin smiles back, looking down at his clothes.
“But…”
“What?”
“At the club most people would wear it a little more…casually?” she explains. She raises her hands to his neck. “Can I?”
Edwin nods.
Niko carefully undoes the top few buttons on Edwin’s shirt, enough that his collarbones are visible, along with a very subtle hint of hair at the top of his chest.
“There.”
“Are you sure, Niko? I feel a little…naked.”
“If you want them done up that’s fine! I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, but this looks really good.”
“Hmm…”
Edwin considers but ultimately decides to leave the buttons as Niko changed them.
Niko tilts her head a little, as though inspecting him.
“Maybe roll the sleeves up, too? I think that would really elevate the look,” she says, as though she’s on her own fashion TV show.
The shirt is nearly so tight it’s impossible, but Edwin does manage to roll the sleeves up just past his elbow. The outfit makes him feel a little less formal than usual, like he could let loose a little more; which, he supposed, was the whole point of the evening.
“Perfect!” Niko says, at the same moment her phone buzzes in her bag.
She pulls it out to check it, then frowns.
“No!” she groans.
“What is it?”
“Crystal’s just texted. Jamie, Sammie and Liv can’t make it anymore.”
“Oh.”
Edwin looks down at the floor, then reaches up as though to begin taking the outfit off, just as he was starting to really like it.
“No!” Niko shouts, stopping him. “No, we’re still going! It’ll just be the four of us instead of seven.”
Edwin sighs in relief.
“Ah, right.”
“You ready to go meet them outside the flat?”
“I think so.”
Edwin offers his arm to Niko, who interlinks her own, and they leave the office.
Charles and Crystal are already waiting for them outside the block of flats the girls live in.
Crystal is wearing a purple mesh top with a black bralette underneath, along with torn-looking black denim shorts and her heavy floral boots. She has her hair braided at the front and covered in purple glitter, her curls loose at the back. She and Niko look like the sun and the moon came alive as teenage girls.
Charles’s outfit is what distracts Edwin the most, simply because it is Charles. He’s replaced his red polo shirt with a vest in the same colour, not unlike the white one he wears beneath his typical clothes. With it, he wears similar black shorts to Crystal, only his are less torn and longer. Edwin can’t help staring at his legs for a while. His chain necklace glimmers on his collarbone, sitting directly on his skin rather than his shirt, and oh. He’s put more eyeliner on than usual. Rather than just a tiny amount on his bottom waterline, the black makeup goes all around his eyes and flicks out into a point at the corners. It makes the brown of his irises look even warmer, somehow.
Charles seems equally as taken aback by Edwin’s outfit. He wears his own clothes more casually sometimes, sure, but they are much looser fitting than the shirt he is wearing right now, and he never undoes quite so many of his buttons. Charles finds himself mesmerised by the way his biceps move beneath the fabric, and the way it clings to his chest to reveal he is much more muscular than expected beneath all those usual layers. Edwin looked…fit. Well, he always did, but now that was brought to the forefront in the best way. That doesn’t mean Charles is attracted to him. No, Edwin being fit is just a fact. Anyone can see that. Definitely.
Neither boy realises they’re properly staring at the other until Crystal clears her throat and breaks them out of their trance.
“Are you two just gonna keep ogling each other or are we gonna get moving?”
“Shh, Crystal, they’ve only seen each other in one outfit for thirty years, let them ogle,” Niko whisper-shouts, grinning as her eyes flick back and forth between the two.
“I’m not ogling,” Charles says, but the slight nervous laugh in his voice gives away the fact that yeah, he definitely was.
The four of them walk the short journey to the club and queue up to get in. Niko and Crystal join the queue for the living, where they show the bouncers their IDs and get let in, while Charles and Edwin join the queue for ghosts. Since if a person dies underage, their ghosts remain forever minors, there are exceptions to the age restrictions at this particular club. It’s not as if they’re going to be purchasing alcohol anyway; they physically cannot drink it. For ghosts, the club serves more as a social space than anything else.
Upon entering the club, both Charles and Edwin are taken aback by how full it is – the dance floor is packed, there is a crowd around the bar, and most of the small tables dotted around are taken by groups of people and beings in even more extravagant outfits than those Niko and Crystal are wearing. Edwin is a little overwhelmed, but he feels free.
“You guys good?” Crystal asks, her and Niko having finally reached the front of the entrance queue. She has to shout over the loud music.
“Yes, I think so,” Edwin replies.
“Niko and I are heading to dance, wanna come with?”
“I think I might find a place to sit down first!”
“Yeah, same,” Charles says.
“Suit yourself. We’ll be in the crowd,” Crystal manages to shout as Niko drags her into the mass of people.
Edwin and Charles manage to find two stools at the far end of the bar and sit down. The music isn’t quite as loud over here, so they can actually hear one another.
“What do you think?” Charles asks.
“It’s definitely different.”
“Good different or bad different?”
“Good, I think.”
Edwin turns around on his stool to take in the view of the place – so many people, most of them like him, celebrating it and having fun. He spotted a couple of men in one corner of the dance floor, pressed so close to each other they could be one. One leans in, and the other follows, and soon they’re fully making out right there, in front of everyone. And no one cares. A few people around them cheer, a few whistle, but no one shouts. No one gasps in horror. No one throws any punches or slurs at them. They’re just allowed to be.
Edwin smiles and tries not to cry a little. How times have changed.
Charles taps him on the shoulder. He can feel it much more than he normally can through the single thin shirt he’s wearing.
“There’s a bunch of music posters on the wall over there mate, do you mind if I go have a look?”
“Of course, Charles.”
“You gonna be alright here?”
Edwin nods. Charles grins, and heads over to where he was indicating.
Edwin watches him take in the dozens of posters plastering the wall, the way he gets excited when he sees one he recognises and clearly takes a mental note of others he finds intriguing and wants to check out.
Then suddenly his view is blocked.
A man enters his view and sits on the stool Charles just left.
“Hey handsome,” he says, smirking.
“Who are you?”
“Straight to the point, I like you. I’m Joey, saw you sitting here all on your own and thought you might want some company.”
“I’m quite alright, thank you,” Edwin says.
Something about Joey’s tone of voice and facial expressions reminds Edwin of a certain feline someone.
“You not even gonna tell me your name?”
“Edwin,” Edwin replies, pointedly not returning the sultry eye contact or flirty smile.
“Edwin…” Joey repeats. “Sounds like an old Victorian lord or something. That when you died? Victorian times?”
Seriously, who does this guy think he is? And what kind of flirting is that? Who goes up to someone and asks when they died as a way of chatting them up?
“Edwardian, actually,” Edwin corrects, annoyed.
“Well, okay then, Edwardian. You one of those repressed types then?”
He bites his lip strangely after he says it. Edwin wishes for a second that ghosts could throw up.
“Um…”
“You into music?” a voice asks from beside Charles, making him jump.
He had been too caught up in analysing the wall of posters before him, mostly full of names he’d never heard before, mostly rock and pop artists.
He turns to find a woman Charles presumes is in her forties or fifties standing next to him. She’s wearing a loose-fitting green tank top and baggy jeans, and her shaggy brown hair comes just past her shoulders.
“Uh, yeah,” Charles replies.
“What kind of genre?”
“I mean when I was alive I was mostly into ska but I loved rock too. Bowie, Queen, y’know?”
“Neat choices. Bowie was a legend. My wife and I saw him in Birmingham in ’95.”
“Really? I was meant to be going to see him on tour in March 1990 but…yeah. Wasn’t expecting I’d die three months before the concert.”
“I’m sorry, kid.”
“Nah, it’s all good. Now I’ve got…” Charles looks over the woman’s shoulder at where Edwin was still sitting at the bar.
Is that someone sitting next to him? Even from this distance, Charles can tell something’s wrong. Edwin is doing the rubbing-his-fists-together thing he always does when he’s tense or stressed.
“Sorry, I’ve got to…” Charles indicates towards the bar.
“All good. Have a good night!”
“You too!” Charles shouts, already halfway to Edwin.
“Hey,” he says to Edwin when he reaches him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder in a casual display of both affection and protection.
Edwin relaxes under his touch. He can always trust Charles to come and help.
“Who’s this?” he asks.
“I could ask you the same,” says the man, sitting uncomfortably close to Edwin. The stool wasn’t that close when Charles left it, that’s for sure.
“Charles,” Charles says, then gets an idea. “Edwin’s boyfriend.”
Edwin gasps a little in shock. He knows Charles is lying to get Joey out of the way, but even just hearing the phrase from Charles’s mouth makes his heart feel as though it skips a beat despite the fact it doesn’t beat at all.
“He never mentioned a boyfriend,” Joey says, still looking at Edwin in a way that made Charles kind of wish he had a weapon on him.
“Probably because him being clearly not interested should’ve been enough of a sign,” Charles argues protectively.
“He never said that, either.”
“Well, I’m not,” Edwin finally speaks up.
Joey raises his eyebrows as if saying ‘oh really?’. Seriously, what is wrong with this guy? Edwin hasn’t done a single thing that would indicate any kind of interest at all.
“Oi,” Charles says, louder and almost a threat. “You were making him uncomfortable, so why don’t you just move along and bother someone else?”
Joey opens his mouth to argue, but something in Charles’s face must convince him to give up because he gets up off the stool and walks away with a huff.
“Sorry about that, mate,” Charles apologises, releasing his hold on Edwin’s shoulder and reclaiming his seat.
“It’s alright. I’m glad you came; he was being rather…forward. And completely improper.”
“I could tell.”
“Can you believe he asked me if, because I died in 1916, I am ‘one of those repressed types’? And tried to make it sound dallying?”
“What the fuck?”
Charles looks over Edwin’s shoulder in the direction Joey walked off; he’s still standing there, a short distance away from them, watching.
“He’s still staring. Prick. Should’ve brought my bat with me,” Charles says.
“Charles,” Edwin chuckles. “I don’t need you to beat a man up for me.”
“Well I would. He’s a right creep.”
“Perhaps we don’t need to resort to violence just yet.”
“Maybe we should keep this up for a bit. Me pretending to be your boyfriend,” Charles suggests, draping his arm across Edwin’s shoulders again.
“Hmm, that might be a good idea.”
“Oh wait, unless you were actually trying to flirt with people. Just not that guy. If you were, that’s fine I can just keep an eye on him.”
“Charles, my plan for tonight did not include flirting, I assure you. I’m fine with you pretending. As long as you are.”
Edwin doesn’t want to make Charles feel like he has to do this, especially given the already slightly awkward nature of their relationship after Edwin’s confession in Hell.
“’Course, mate,” Charles replies decisively.
Well, they wouldn’t have to do anything especially physical, Edwin doesn’t expect. Just otherwise couple-like. And based on some of their clients’ attitudes towards them, many people assume they’re romantically together anyway, so this should work perfectly.
“Thank you.”
“Wanna go find the girls? Might help lose him if he can’t see us in the crowd,” Charles proposes.
Edwin nods, and the two of them stand up from their stools at the bar.
It takes a while, but eventually they find Niko and Crystal on the dance floor. They’re both sweating and Niko’s makeup has smudged, but they seem to be having a good time.
“Edwin!” Niko shouts excitedly upon seeing them. “Are you having fun?”
“Definitely!” Edwin replies.
He leaves out the part about the stalkerish creep trying to flirt with him. That’s irrelevant to his enjoyment of the club as a whole.
“Good. Come dance with us!”
Niko drags him forward, and all four of them begin dancing in a very small space on the floor.
Edwin doesn’t exactly know how to dance, not in the modern sense at least, but he soon learns that in this context, dancing is not exactly the art of movement that it usually is. It’s more just many people crowding together like sardines and just…moving; a lot of people much closer than others. Edwin wouldn’t be surprised if there were some inappropriate activities going on amongst some of the people there.
He enjoyed the experience for a while, laughing with the three most important people in his afterlife, jumping around to music Edwin would absolutely despise in any other context. The closeness was fun for a short while, until it all started getting too much.
One clearly very popular song came on and even more people flooded to the floor, the crowd packing in even tighter to fit everyone, writhing against each other more than dancing. It all started to feel too familiar, and Edwin began to panic that any second a bloodied hand would reach out of the mass of people to grab him by the ankle, by the leg, by the arm, by the waist, and drag him down into-
“Mate!” Charles says standing directly in front of him with his hands on his shoulders. “You alright?”
Edwin can feel himself beginning to hyperventilate and shakes his head. Charles points to the side, and Edwin follows his finger to a quiet corner of the room.
Charles leads him out of the crowd, never letting go of both of his hands until they’re fully out and can breathe.
“You good?” he asks, worried. “You seemed to disappear and then went all panicky.”
“Yes,” Edwin says, getting his breath back. “I’m fine, that just…brought back memories I’d rather forget.”
“Lust room?”
Edwin looks up at him in surprise. Sometimes he forgets Charles saw exactly what he went through in Hell. He nods.
“Too many people, too close together.”
“I get it. You’re alright now, though, yeah?” he checks, looking Edwin over for any sign of hurt or discomfort.
“Yes, Charles, I’m fine.”
“Good.”
And it is good. Edwin fully relaxes now he’s with Charles away from the dance floor, and he’s still having a good time overall. At least until he spots an annoyingly familiar face watching them from the bar.
“He’s back,” Edwin sighs.
Joey sits at the bar next to Niko and Crystal, who had left the crowd when Charles led Edwin out. Luckily, he doesn’t seem to be paying the girls any mind. Unluckily, he’s still staring at the boys, as though trying to figure them out, or catch them doing something.
“For fuck’s sake, can he not take a hint?” Charles groans.
“Apparently not.”
Charles wracks his mind for something to do, a way to get that fucker to leave Edwin alone, until an idea pops into his head.
“Kiss me,” he says, entirely seriously.
“What?” Edwin sputters.
“Kiss me.” Charles repeats. “If you want. I think he’s suspicious we’re not actually a couple so that should convince him to leave us alone. If you don’t want to, we can think of something else but that’s all I-”
“Are you sure?” Edwin cuts him off.
“Yeah, just do it.”
Slowly, Edwin steps closer to Charles, giving him the chance to back out if he isn’t comfortable – and also giving Edwin time to process that this is really happening. It’s not really how he’d imagined kissing Charles for the first time, but if this is the only chance he’s ever going to get to do it, he’ll take whatever Charles will give him.
Eventually, their lips meet, and the feeling is more than Edwin has ever dreamed of. He knows ghosts can properly feel one another, but the only time he’d ever kissed anyone was Monty, which felt like a barely-there pressure, so that was all he had to go on in his daydreams.
But this…oh, this is wonderful. He can feel the tiny details of Charles’s lips against his own – they’re slightly chapped, and one part on his lower lip is slightly rougher from where he always bites it. Charles’s hands wrap around Edwin’s waist to pull him closer and Edwin doesn’t want the moment to end.
As it appears, neither does Charles. He kisses back with equal enthusiasm, rocking them almost back and forth on their feet with the force of it. He’s never kissed another ghost before and now he has, he doesn’t think he wants to stop. The weight of another person against him, the incomparable experience of truly feeling another person’s lips against his own…it makes him feel alive, as though Edwin is breathing life back into his long-dead lungs.
Charles is the one who takes the kiss a step further, licking at Edwin’s lips as though begging for permission. Edwin opens his mouth gladly and eventually they’re properly making out in a dark corner of the club. Charles manoeuvres them until Edwin’s back is against the wall. It would have hurt if he was alive, but he’s not, so he doesn’t care.
One of Edwin’s hands moves up to cradle the back of Charles’s neck and mess with the bottom of his hair, while the other goes to Charles’s hips to pull him impossibly closer. As the kiss grows somehow more intense, the hand in his hair moves ever so slightly upwards until Edwin is lightly tugging on Charles’s curls, and he lets out a soft moan into Edwin’s mouth, which only spurs both of them on.
The two of them lose track of time entirely, too lost in one another to care to remember this was only supposed to be an act, or to notice when Joey finally gives up and leaves the club, or to spot Niko and Crystal walking over to them with shocked expressions on their faces.
They only break apart when Crystal snaps her fingers. Reality comes flooding back to them, and they realise what just happened. They all but jump apart, Edwin desperate to make himself look presentable once more. He reaches up to fix his bow tie, forgetting he isn’t even wearing one. Shit, one (very long) kiss and his brain seems to have stopped working altogether.
“Guys?” Niko says in shock, an awed grin plastered on her face.
“Fucking finally!” Crystal says.
“Is he gone?” Charles asks.
How is he stringing words together right now? Edwin thinks.
“Oh, thank fuck.” Charles continues when he can’t spot Joey anywhere. “We were faking it to get this creepy guy off Edwin’s ass- wait what do you mean, finally?”
“Nothing…” Crystal says, raising her hands in defense as if she never said anything at all.
“We’re ready to go now,” Niko explains, her grin having morphed into more of a smirk.
“Yes, I think we are, too,” Edwin manages, still slightly breathless from the…ahem, wall encounter.
The four of them head to the exit, Edwin walking ahead with Niko while Charles walks with Crystal. Charles and Edwin say nothing to each other.
“That was faking it?” Crystal hisses to him.
“Yeah. I mean the kiss was real, obviously. But the rest was fake.”
“Mhm, sure Charles,” she says, in a tone that says she really is not convinced, then speeds up a little to catch up with the other two.
“So, Edwin, would you wanna come again?”
“Not often, but yes, I think I would. Though I doubt I would join you two in the dancing. I do like just watching people.”
Charles doesn’t want to think about the strange feeling of happiness that floods over him at the thought of potentially pretending to be Edwin’s boyfriend again – not that he wishes for more creepy men to try and come onto Edwin, obviously. And he really doesn’t want to think about the feeling of Edwin’s body pressed against his own, the feeling of his hand in his hair gently tugging, the feeling of their mouths moving against one another. But as much as he didn’t want to, the memories and thoughts associated with them would not leave his mind, and he expected they wouldn’t for a very long time.
Maybe he needs to rethink the whole not being in love with Edwin back thing.