day naptime - doing something sweet
College AU. Pre-hooking up. I'm sleepy. I want to write at least one more today.
***
doing something sweet (~700)
***
Erik notices Charles' disappearance almost the moment it happens. There's a part of him that tracks Charles all the time, now. He's not even aware of it, most days--it's an unconscious habit he's picked up sometime between that first drunken encounter and now. He tracks Charles to the keg and into the kitchen and then Charles gets a text and disappears.
Erik waits, pretending to listen to Janos, for ten long minutes. He waits pretending he's not waiting, and finally convinces himself that if he just absently stumbles upon Charles, he can pretend it was an accident, that it has nothing to do with Erik's weird obsession, that Erik totally isn't a stalker.
Charles isn't in the kitchen or the hall. Erik grabs an abandoned hoodie from the cardboard box by the door and heads outside. Charles is on the back porch despite the chill. He's sitting on the steps alone and holding his phone in his hands.
He's crying, which is the real surprise.
Erik approaches with caution. He's not good with people crying. Or, well, showing most emotions, really. Actually, he could probably leave "crying" off all together and say, without pause or doubt, that he's not good with people. Watching Charles sniffle is tearing him up inside, though. He just wants to fix whatever's wrong, which puts Charles on a very short list of people whom Erik puts above himself.
He doesn't want to think about that now, but standing in the cold and watching Charles' shoulders shake, his choices for what to think about are limited and they all suck.
"Hey," he says quietly. His previously concocted story about stumbling upon Charles accidentally disappears. "You okay?"
Charles glances over his shoulder. He wipes discreetly at his eyes and offers Erik a wry smile.
"I've had worse," he says, which isn't really an answer. "I'm sorry I disappeared. My sister texted and we got into it a bit."
Erik sits down next to him. They're close enough that he can feel the heat of Charles' body and see him shivering.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Erik asks.
"Not particularly." Charles is good at talking when he needs to as soon as Erik makes it clear he's willing to listen. He's good at making Erik talk, too. Erik wants to take Charles at his word, here, but he can't bring himself to leave Charles sitting outside on his own, even if there's a party inside the he theoretically should be a part of.
He can stay and not talk. That was alright, wasn't it? That can be a friend thing. Or he can stay and they can talk about something else. School or...something.
Charles is shivering. Of course he is--it's autumn and they're sitting outside in the middle of the night. Erik unzips his hoodie and starts to wiggle out of it, but Charles takes his hand, halting his progress.
"It's freezing," Charles says. "If you take off your coat than you'll be cold. We should just go back to the party."
He doesn't look like he wants to go back to the party. Erik is terrible at all of this.
But he could--no. That's just...excessively gross. The kind of gross PDA that makes him roll his eyes on buses. Charles isn't his boyfriend, they're not dating, they're not even hooking up. But they're not on a bus, they're sitting out back and no one else is here to see them and it's cold and Erik likes being close to Charles and--
He shakes off Charles' hand and pulls one arm out of his sweatshirt. It's overly large, and Erik is skinny enough that it hangs off of him anyway. Plus, it's from the left-behind bin. Who cares of it gets stretched out? He slides closer to Charles, close enough that they're pressed all the way together along their side, and wraps his now bare arm around Charles' waist. He holds out the end of the sweater.
"Don't laugh," he warns. "I know this is like...stupidly twee."
Charles grins up at him and slides his arm into the hoodie, pushing even closer to Erik and tugging the side of the sweatshirt around, cocooning them in.
"It's not twee," Charles says. "Twee is corny!sweet. This is just...sweet."
He gives Erik another smile--a smaller, more intimate one--and rests his head on Erik's shoulder. Erik swallows hard and then leans his head against Charles' and fists his hand in the fabric of Charles shirt, tightening their embrace and forgetting about all the reasons this is a bad idea.
*
the rest of the days:
1. Holding hands
2. Cuddling somewhere
3. Gaming/watching a movie
4. On a date
5. Kissing
6. Wearing each others’ clothes
7. Shopping
8. Hanging out with friends
9. Making out
10. Eating icecream
11. In a different clothing style
12. During their morning ritual(s)
13. Spooning
14. Doing something together
15. In formal wear
16. Dancing
17. Cooking/baking
18. In battle, side-by-side
19. Arguing
20. Making up afterwards
21. Getting married
22. On one of their birthdays
23. Doing something ridiculous
24. Doing something sweet
25. Doing something hot
***
doing something sweet (~700)
***
Erik notices Charles' disappearance almost the moment it happens. There's a part of him that tracks Charles all the time, now. He's not even aware of it, most days--it's an unconscious habit he's picked up sometime between that first drunken encounter and now. He tracks Charles to the keg and into the kitchen and then Charles gets a text and disappears.
Erik waits, pretending to listen to Janos, for ten long minutes. He waits pretending he's not waiting, and finally convinces himself that if he just absently stumbles upon Charles, he can pretend it was an accident, that it has nothing to do with Erik's weird obsession, that Erik totally isn't a stalker.
Charles isn't in the kitchen or the hall. Erik grabs an abandoned hoodie from the cardboard box by the door and heads outside. Charles is on the back porch despite the chill. He's sitting on the steps alone and holding his phone in his hands.
He's crying, which is the real surprise.
Erik approaches with caution. He's not good with people crying. Or, well, showing most emotions, really. Actually, he could probably leave "crying" off all together and say, without pause or doubt, that he's not good with people. Watching Charles sniffle is tearing him up inside, though. He just wants to fix whatever's wrong, which puts Charles on a very short list of people whom Erik puts above himself.
He doesn't want to think about that now, but standing in the cold and watching Charles' shoulders shake, his choices for what to think about are limited and they all suck.
"Hey," he says quietly. His previously concocted story about stumbling upon Charles accidentally disappears. "You okay?"
Charles glances over his shoulder. He wipes discreetly at his eyes and offers Erik a wry smile.
"I've had worse," he says, which isn't really an answer. "I'm sorry I disappeared. My sister texted and we got into it a bit."
Erik sits down next to him. They're close enough that he can feel the heat of Charles' body and see him shivering.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Erik asks.
"Not particularly." Charles is good at talking when he needs to as soon as Erik makes it clear he's willing to listen. He's good at making Erik talk, too. Erik wants to take Charles at his word, here, but he can't bring himself to leave Charles sitting outside on his own, even if there's a party inside the he theoretically should be a part of.
He can stay and not talk. That was alright, wasn't it? That can be a friend thing. Or he can stay and they can talk about something else. School or...something.
Charles is shivering. Of course he is--it's autumn and they're sitting outside in the middle of the night. Erik unzips his hoodie and starts to wiggle out of it, but Charles takes his hand, halting his progress.
"It's freezing," Charles says. "If you take off your coat than you'll be cold. We should just go back to the party."
He doesn't look like he wants to go back to the party. Erik is terrible at all of this.
But he could--no. That's just...excessively gross. The kind of gross PDA that makes him roll his eyes on buses. Charles isn't his boyfriend, they're not dating, they're not even hooking up. But they're not on a bus, they're sitting out back and no one else is here to see them and it's cold and Erik likes being close to Charles and--
He shakes off Charles' hand and pulls one arm out of his sweatshirt. It's overly large, and Erik is skinny enough that it hangs off of him anyway. Plus, it's from the left-behind bin. Who cares of it gets stretched out? He slides closer to Charles, close enough that they're pressed all the way together along their side, and wraps his now bare arm around Charles' waist. He holds out the end of the sweater.
"Don't laugh," he warns. "I know this is like...stupidly twee."
Charles grins up at him and slides his arm into the hoodie, pushing even closer to Erik and tugging the side of the sweatshirt around, cocooning them in.
"It's not twee," Charles says. "Twee is corny!sweet. This is just...sweet."
He gives Erik another smile--a smaller, more intimate one--and rests his head on Erik's shoulder. Erik swallows hard and then leans his head against Charles' and fists his hand in the fabric of Charles shirt, tightening their embrace and forgetting about all the reasons this is a bad idea.
*
the rest of the days:
1. Holding hands
2. Cuddling somewhere
3. Gaming/watching a movie
4. On a date
5. Kissing
6. Wearing each others’ clothes
7. Shopping
8. Hanging out with friends
9. Making out
10. Eating icecream
11. In a different clothing style
12. During their morning ritual(s)
13. Spooning
14. Doing something together
15. In formal wear
16. Dancing
17. Cooking/baking
18. In battle, side-by-side
19. Arguing
20. Making up afterwards
21. Getting married
22. On one of their birthdays
23. Doing something ridiculous
24. Doing something sweet
25. Doing something hot