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Charlie was trying something new.
Which Pim supported! Obviously, he supported whatever Charlie wanted to do with himself. That might just be the problem, actually.
Charlie had been wearing crop tops, cropped hoodies to be more exact. Which, to be fair, it was summer, and Smiling Friends didn't have a dress code, so as long as he was willing to take Allan's criticism (which was always about the practicality of crop tops as a whole rather than of Charlie specifically wearing one) there was no reason for him not to.
It's just, for Pim, trying to focus on anything while Charlie's right across the table, scrolling his phone, round belly with a happy trail leading downwards, was harder than Christmas with his family.
Nonetheless, he had to persist, because it'd be just plain rude to tell Charlie what he could and couldn't wear just because Pim couldn't control his eyes.
"Hey, Pim. Job," Charlie snapped his fingers in front of the shorter's wide eyes, who's face flushes as realizes immediately where he's looking.
"Ah! Right! Yes!" Pim shakes his face as he finds himself back in reality, smiling excitedly, "To adventure!"
Their client is a young woman, Shanon, who's just been broken up, which is a great distraction, until she asks them to collect her tv set from her ex boyfriend and he's definitely 100% a demon. And not willing to part with his new TV set.
So, here they are, running for their lives, and Pim's not looking. He's not. He's literally about to get murdered by a demon.
He watches Charlie start tumbling down just a brief second before he does so himself.
It's hardly more than two seconds of descent before he's being helped up by Charlie, face to face with a tempting landing strip of hair leading him to Charlie's belly button. But the creature behind them screeches, and Charlie picks him up, holding him at his side like he weighs nothing.
Pim crawls to Charlie's shoulder, gripping onto the hood. The demon lashes out at them, narrowly missing Pim's nerve.
"Charlie!" He shouts, panicking.
"I know!" Charlie responds automatically, "I think we can cut through that building up ahead and get back to Shanon's,"
"Why are we leading him back to her place?!" Pim screams.
"Do you have a better plan?!" Charlie scoffs.
"I don't know, we could... distract him? You're good at distracting!"
"Where'd you get that idea?"
Stupid.
Pim's saved by the demon lurching for them again, forcing Charlie to duck, and then quickly double his efforts in running.
"Come on!" Pim cries.
They run through a set of spinning doors, and Pim's suddenly at Charlie's side, eyeline with his tummy once more. Dammit.
"Charlie, I'm scared!" He blurts.
"Dude. Me too!" Charlie shouts, which, Pim will conceed, perhaps fear would be the obvious emotion in this scenario.
"Up the escalator, quick!" Pim shouts, pointing to guide his partner up, and then they're back to running, barely buying an inch of space between them and the demon.
"We're gonna have to jump," Charlie says suddenly.
"Wha-what?!"
Charlie points directly ahead of them, a large window their only way out.
"I-I can't do that!"
Charlie bites an annoyed lip and then wraps an arm around Pim's shoulder and pulls him close.
"Hold on." He says, and it feels like a movie.
Which is assisted completely by the slow motion feeling as they leap out, glass shards raining down around them, Pim hardly feels the pain as some dig into his skin.
Then, he feels the earth-shattering pain of his ankles, well, shattering.
He screams, and Charlie barely takes a second to process and then pick Pim up once again, this time in a bridal carry.
"Charlie!" He cries helplessly.
"I've got you, man," Charlie reassures, sprinting across the street, and narrowly avoiding the semi-truck that is now splattering demon blood across both of their faces and the cutesy little house behind them.
Shanon exits the home, and squeals, a broad smile overtaking her cheeks.
"Oh, thank you!" She squeals, "I didn't know how badly I wanted him dead!"
"Oh... yeah..." Charlie said nervously, "No problem. Hey, uh, can you just... go down to Smiling Friends HQ on your own? We have uh... a situation."
She nods, twinkling away in her bright green heels as Charlie turns to their car.
There's a rustling of curtains, and Pim turns just barely to see the passive grin on his coworker's face.
"How you healing up, man?"
"I'm fine," Pim smiles, and then gestures to Charlie's stomach, "How are you holding up?"
"I can walk, so," Charlie shrugged, "Never wearing one of those stupid cropped hoodies on the job again though. Full suit of armor, I promise you."
Pim laughs lightly, which hurts, but he ignores it, "You gonna save 'em for fancy bars?"
Charlie snorts, "Fancy bars? I work at Smiling Friends, what do you think I can afford?"
"Fair point," Pim nods, "So what? You're gonna throw 'em out?"
"Nah," Charlie shakes his head, "I'll just save 'em for a special someone,"
And he winks.
And Pim knows he's screwed.
He feels his face heat up, and he can tell in Charlie's expression it's visible, "Don't think I didn't notice you oogling me all week," he teases, "Your big eyes betray you,"
"Shut up!" Pim whines petulantly, covering his face with his hands, which he promptly regrets as pain shoots up his arms.
"It was flattering," Charlie reassures, which doesn't help the most, but it's a little nice.
"Stop!"
"I'm just saying, if you wanna see what's underneath it, you better get to feeling better."
Pim's face could not be redder. But even then, when he gets an expected three to six more weeks of healing, he makes sure to pray for the low end of the spectrum.