Chapter Text
Edwin is pacing in his room, pressing his fists into each other. Mind racing.
Half an hour ago Niko and him had come home from dinner with his parents, which makes it about six hours since Charles had been here. Charles Rowland, criquet legend of St Hilarions. Edwin still can't entirely believe that Charles would give him the time of day.
And now Edwins room is filled with his scent.
Could he dare to call him? It's not like they were friends, if you were specific.
Edwin could always talk to Niko about this. His best friend who has just witnessed the debacle that had been dinner with the Payne's. Would a strained relationship to someones parents even make sense to Charles?
Edwin picks up his phone again, where Charles' number is still open.
Before he can stop himself, Edwin had pressed the call button. He holds his breath.
"Cheers, who's calling?"
"Charles?"
It stays quiet on the other line, other than some muffled voices and bustling. Edwin wonders what Charles is up to now.
"If you could please reply, I do not have all day."
"Edwin?" Charles replies finally. "How'd you get this number, mate?"
Edwin sucks his breath in hard. "I called myself from your phone when you were in the shower."
"Aces!" Charles sounds so genuinely happy about it that Edwins heart beat goes up. "You do know I would have given it to you if you'd asked, don't you?"
How was Edwin to know that. He didn't snoop the way he would have loved to, but the number of missed calls and unread SMS just again spoke of Charles' popularity. Edwin was just some bullied kid from the year above him.
"Either way, do you have a tick?"
"Always for you," Charles says, as if he didn't know that hearing this would turn Edwins legs to jelly.
"So, I've just gotten home from dinner with my family."
"Brills, hope you've had a good time," Charles says, and Edwin smiles to himself.
"Well, not entirely."
"What's wrong?" Edwin can hear from Charles' voice and the uptick of noise around him that Charles is changing locations at that moment. But his voice is focussed and serious.
"My father got me a job."
"Arsehole," Charles says, even though he doesn't seem get the problem this poses.
"Charles, I will be working for the father of one of my..." Edwin lowers his voice. This might be a mistake. Maybe he shouldn't remind Charles of his social standing back at school. "My bullies."
"Oh."
"Yes, oh."
This definitely was a mistake.
"What an arsehole!" Charles says, and this time he means it. A boulder falls off Edwins chest. He sits down on his bed. Wishing Charles was still there with him. But Charles had to go home, and Edwin and Niko had to go to dinner.
"Does your father know about the bullying?"
"Yes. It's one of his greatest disappointments."
"Charming chap, is he?"
Edwin chuckles quietly.
"He did do me a favour. I asked him to look for a job I can do while studying which also connects to my field."
"You think the son's also working there?"
"I don't know, but it would not surprise me." Children of laywers tend to follow their parents footsteps.
The noises around Charles go quieter. Edwin wishes he could see where he was.
"Then I'll come over and threaten that git against even trying anything!"
Edwin closes his eyes against the onstorm of affection he feels for Charles. Reminded of all the games he had watched just to see Charles on the field. Long before they first spoke to each other. Criquet, lacrosse, football. Charles did everything. And he always stood out, with his technique, his dark hair and eyes. His confidence and bright smiles. Cutting jawline, and the glittering little ring in his ear. Edwin still can't entirely believe he had now tasted that ring, and knows the sounds Charles makes when it's being played with.
"That is very kind, Charles, but I do not think that it would be wise."
"Yeah, you're probably right. But I will give him problems if he tries anything!"
Edwin sends his thoughts out to God, unsure how to deal with the amount of feelings Charles wakes in him.
"Alright, mate. Don't take this the wrong way, but I have a bit of a case going that is heating up right now. Call you back in a tick, right?"
Edwin nods, a knot in his throat after hearing Charles using one of his own phrases. His thick accent bleeding into even that.
"Right, and tell me more about that case of yours then too!"
They hang up.
Edwin falls back on his bed, and pushes a pillow over his face to muffle his quiet yell. Maybe taking this job wouldn't be so bad. At least not when Charles was just one phone call away. And working at a laywers would be good for his career prospects. He knew that. That was why he hesitated even more to call Charles in the first place. Even after spending over a day of wonderful time together. After all the sweet words Charles had layed on him.
Charles wasn't mad that Edwin had taken his number, and he would even call back! His phone buzzes by his side.
Edwin quickly sits up to look at his phone.
"u free? ;3"
Thomas. Edwin sighs.
"Not for you. E" He replies.
"3:"
Niko had been the one to explain to Edwin that those stupid emojicons with a three in them were to represent cats. Thomas even spelled the :D one as :l3. Garish, in Edwins opinion, but it's not like Thomas ever truly cared about that.
To get his mind off of things, Edwin exits his room to find Niko.
His room mate is in the bathroom, and going from the sounds and scent, she is taking a bath. Niko loves to take a bath. She even made Edwin appreciate the joys of soaking oneself in hot scented water. He knocks at the door.
"Come in!"
Edwin enters. The air smells like roses and rosemary. A favourite of both of them. The air is steaming, and there are candles decorating the space, lighting the room in their warm light. Niko has her hair in a slick bun, which Edwin assumes to have oils or a mask in them. Nikos face is covered in a thick pink creme, which Edwin recognizes as the face mask both of them prefer. She is the picture of relaxation. A manga lays on the bathtub caddy, alongside her favourite fudge and the berry smoothie he introduced her to. He quickly closes the door behind him not to let out too much steam.
"How are you doing, Edwin? You seemed pretty mad about the job thing."
Edwin rubs over his face. He knows that Niko needs the bath to calm herself down after spending too much time with his parents. They didn't hold back with their racism, even though they were over the moon that Edwin had found himself a girlfriend. He pushes down the images of his parents meeting his Indian, scholarship student, male lover Charles. That would not go over well. Even just his accent, though fully british, would be enough for his parents to show him their coldest shoulder.
"I suppose I am. The job itself is good, and so is my father for getting me into it. But I don't think the people there will be very polite."
"That sucks!"
"Thank you for accompanying me, Niko. You did not have to do that!"
"Don't worry about it, Edwin. Your parents aren't the first racists I've met, and this at least makes your life a bit easier."
She sounds cheery. She looks it, too. Edwin isn't entirely sure how he deserves to have her as his best friend. And he wonders if he would be as happy as her and Charles as well, if he had parents who didn't shy away from his imperfections. Not that Edwin had ever met either of their parents, but Niko sometimes read him from her moms and dads letters. He had to assume that Charles' parents were the same. Loving, supportive, doing their best to help him through life. If someone tried to sacrifice Charles to a demon, his parents would probably manage to raise the actual hell to protect him. Just like Nikos parents. Who sent her halfway across the world to help her. Because they believe in her.
"Even still. When that becomes too much you just need to say it."
"I really enjoyed meeting Charles this weekend. He is very nice."
Edwin smiles at his knees. "He really is."
"Do you want him to be your boyfriend?"
"I think we are about to become friends," Edwin sidesteps the question. He never had a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend, but that might be owed to his entire desinterest in girls as romantic or sexual prospects.
"That's cool!"
Edwin nods again. Other than Niko he never really had friends. And having Charles as a friend would be wonderful. Maybe the best thing to ever happen to him.
"But you did have sex, right?" Niko asks. Her eyes have been closed the entire time, but now she cracks one open.
Edwin is sure he is blushing.
"We did, yes."
"I think he wants to be your boyfriend."
"Don't be ridiculous, Niko!"
"How do you even know each other?"
"Charles goes to the school I went to as well. We met at my finishers party."
"That's british for graduation, right?"
"Yes. He was invited by his friends, and we got talking."
Niko smiles to herself. "That's cute!"
If it was anyone else, Edwin would tell them to shut up, but Niko was different. She had been the one helping him out of the proverbial closet, with her kindness, and her love for bl manga.
"He is very kind."
Niko smiles knowingly.
Then Edwins phone buzzes again.
"Excuse me, Niko. Charles is calling."
"Greet him from me!" Niko calls after Edwin as he closes the bathroom door behind him.
"Charles?"
"Cheers, Edwin, mate," Charles greets back. "My case was a bust. Didn't get my wallet back!" Charles sounds different. Cheerful as ever, but there is a quality to his voice that raises concern in Edwin.
"What is wrong with your voice?"
"Nothing!" Charles assures him. His voice souds.. thicker than usual, though that is not for his accent. "So, tell me. What will that new job of yours entail?"
Edwin sighs, and leans against the hallway wall. "I will do assistance work for the lawyers. But never mind that now, what case were you working on? Are you hurt?"
Charles chuckles on the other end of the line.
"I'm aces, mate. But I didn't manage my case. Found my wallet, but didn't get it back."
"You lost your wallet?"
"Even before we met on the night to saturday. Didn't even notice myself until today, though."
"So your case was to find it?"
"First it wasn't a case. I thought I'd just have to ask in the club for it and hope it was in the lost and found," Charles recites. He sounds cheerful still. Which is a miracle to Edwin. If anything like that had happened to him he would be super annoyed and angry. "Turns out the bartender from friday/saturday remembered me, and my walllet. He said that the girl I snogged that night used it to pay for stuff over the last days."
Edwin could have done without the reminder of the girl. She was so pretty. Long, curly hair, bleached half-way through. As outgoing and fun as Charles. A far better match than himself. And it reminds him of the many girls from their school he had seen Charles kiss over the years. Pretty girls.
"I knew she was up to no good."
Charles laughs at this. "I should ask you first about the people I'm meeting, shouldn't I?"
Edwin tuts.
"Anyways, it turns out she stole my wallet."
"Did you convince her to give it back?"
"Turned out she has a boyfriend who was very happy for a fight."
Edwin gasps. "Are you alright, Charles?"
Charles chuckles.
"No worries, mate. Nothing I can't take. I'm just a bit worried for Crystal, if I'm honest."
"Crystal?"
"The girl who stole my wallet," Charles explains. "Didn't love how happy that guy was to fight me."
"Crystal?" Edwin can't get over that pretentious name.
"She's american, in case that explains anything. Either way, I'm not sure you get to judge, Edwin, do you."
"There is a big difference between a name with roots deep in history, like my own, and the kind of new-age-nonsense americans are on about. Calling a child Crystal, I mean, please?"
Charles laughs at that. The noises around him pick up again.
"What would that new job even entail?"
Edwin sighs. "Research, mostly."
"But that's brills, isn't it? Right up you alley."
Where did Charles source his optimism. Edwin couldn't imagine the amount of positivity one would need to be surrounded by to become Charles.
"I suppose so."
"I mean it, Edwin," Charles pushes on. "You're dead genius! Your stupid bully won't have anything to compete with you. And, again. If he tries, I will beat him down. I did take several years with boxing, didn't I? Unless it's Peter from your year I'm clear."
"I'll come back to that should it come to it. But, no, it's not Peter."
"If you don't me asking, what did this guy do to you?"
Edwin takes a deep breath. Charles has a way about him that makes Edwin want to pour his heart out to him. It might be dangerous. But Charles was such a bright spot of sunlight in a world of darkness.
"He bound me to a table, Gagged me, and then him and his friends did a fake ritual to sacrifice me to a demon. There was fire, salt, and other horrific things involved."
Charles is quiet for a split second. It feels like an eternity.
"That is f*cked up, mate. That's horrible!"
Edwin laughs at this. He didn't mean to, but it is so very incredulous.
"Good thing nothing of that kind is real. But they did try their luck several times over the years."
Edwin remembers the taste of rope. The harsh drag of the binds on his wrists and ankles. The burn of wax, the glow of the light, too close to his face. The humiliation, festering more deeply than all the rest of it, hurting more as well. Returning, when the spirits were too high, or too low. When he did too well on an exam that Simon didn't do well on. Simon. The boy he felt too close to, even without talking to him. The harbringer of Edwins anguish. The king of his bullies.
"That's f*cked up. I do think they deserve a visit from me, now," Charles sounds outraged. It seems Charles hadn't known about any of this. Edwin sighs.
"You showed them up often enough in your various tournaments, I think," he relents.
Charles is quiet for another moment.
"Well, I did do my very best."
Edwin smiles. Imagines a world in which Charles showed them up just for Edwins sake. To shame them for the pain they caused him. It's a fantasy he might have to revisit later, when he is alone in his bed.
The noises around Charles hint to his taking the tube. Maybe another bus, since taking that without a ticket was more easy.
"When's your job starting then?"
"On wednesday," Edwin says with yet another sigh. His mother would take him shopping for appropriate suits tomorrow. "Just enough time to get my outfits in order, and read up on their law firm."
"Is that even enough time?"
"Of course it is!"
Charles chuckles lightly. The noises around him change again.
"I'm not questioning your giant brain, mate!"
Edwin takes a deep breath. His doorbell rings. Edwin gets up, knowing that Niko would still be in the bathtub. So Edwin gets up, and goes to open the door.
"You're such a flatterer."
"Just saying it how it is, mate!"
Edwin is still grinning, and blushing when he opens the door.
The man on the other side is only somewhat older than him. Light eyes, and a muscular midriff Edwin would give his right hand to be able to ignore.
"Thomas!"
Edwin takes the phone off his ear. He can hear Charles asking his what's going on. But before Edwin wants to answer Charles, he wants to get Thomas out of the way.
"Hi, babycakes," Thomas says seductively. Edwin hates it. He hates even more how much it affects him. "Thought you were in a bit of a sour mood. So I thought I'd bring my special talents to love you up, Edwin."
"I don't need 'loving up'!"
Thomas looks him up and down. Edwin feels like he is getting undressed, just by these eyes.
"Then I'll just cheer you up, love. I'll be your knight in shining armor, whatever way you want me in."
Edwin sighs again. He lifts the phone to his ear again.
"Excuse me, Charles. I have to take care of this."
"Sure, mate. Have a good time with your friend." Charles sounds so happy and cheerful. Just like Niko, when she tries to set Edwin up with any attractive guy around them. Before Edwin can accurately react to it, Charles has hung up the phone.
"Alright, Thomas, how can I help you?"
Thomas is still standing in the door. With the stilised cat head wearing a crown on his free chest.
Edwin isn't sure he has ever met anyone more sexually liberated than Thomas King. The man who often wore skirts, or even cat tails.
"Aw, baby, I told you. I'm here to take care of you!"
Edwin rolls his eyes, even though his less sophisticated part reminds him of the way Thomas has been taking care of him before. The heat, the pleasure of laying together. It was the way Thomas was forward to him, that Edwin even learned to understand his desire for Charles.
"I truly do not need to be taken care of by you!"
Thomas smiles his smug smile. "So where's your little boytoy then?" He makes a show of looking around.
Edwin regrets ever mentioning Charles to Thomas.
"He was here today, but, you know, Charles has a family and places to be!"
Thomas laughs. "Good thing we don't have either, then."
Edwin rolls his eyes so strongly he can basically hear it. But he doesn't close the door behind him when he turns around.
Thomas follows him. Naturally.
And Edwin can't help himself. Being close to Thomas excites him. He has such a natural eroticism about him, Edwin would have to be fridgid not to react to him.
Thomas lets himself fall backwards on Edwins bed. Just where Charles had been lying hours earlier.
"Are you gonna join me, or what?"
Edwin rolls his eyes again. "I have no intentions of doing that."
Thomas grins his slow grin. His leg is propped up, just enough so Edwin can see his boxers from under the skirt Thomas is wearing. His muscular stomach has been on display even before that. It doesn't stop Edwin from getting excited at the view.
"Aw, Edwin, don't play coy now! We both know that I can show you a good time!"
"I will not pretend that we didn't have fun together, but -" Edwin thinks of the way Thomas had treated him in earlier meetings. How Edwin had learned what to do to show Charles a good time that way. It suddenly feels dishonest towards Charles, who had obviously had very little experiences with men, where Edwin had been with Thomas a good few times. Edwin had learned a lot about his own body through Thomas' guidance. And yet. "Today is not a good time, I'm afraid."
He sits down besides Thomas. Feeling hot in his casual clothes.
"Not a good time, huh?" Thomas teases. His hand slides up behind Edwin. He hates how erotic this feels. Somehow his own utter disregard toward any romantic connection with Thomas makes this even more exciting. Just like the memory of Charles on these exact sheets mere hours earlier. Edwin swallows.
Thomas leans in closer. He smells earthy, and a little like his cats. Edwin can see the yellow spots in his light eyes, and the plump swell of his lips.
"Let me just make you feel better, sweet boy," Thomas whispers when Edwin can basically taste his breath. There is so little space between them, and yet. Thomas hasn't actually touched Edwin. His breath has sped up, it wouldn't take a lot. Barely a move. But Thomas always does it this way. Gives himself to Edwin, and makes Edwin close the distance. "You know you can trust me."
"I do not know that at all," Edwin says in his normal voice. Thomas flinches a little, but he must have felt Edwins lips trace his own. Must have felt his fingers connecting with Edwins hip. So they kiss.
Thomas' hands cup his face as he leans over Edwin. He can feel both of them get turned on. Hot lips and the slow drag of their tongues. Edwin traces his hand over Thomas' chest, over the valleys formed by muscles. Thomas moans into his mouth.
"Blow me," Edwin tells him, and Thomas grins into their kiss. Then he dives back in, prolonging the kiss.
"You've come so far, sweetums," Thomas whispers. And then Edwin pushes him down. Thomas laughs at that. He opens Edwins fly, and then pushes his trousers down a bit more. Edwin thinks of Charles. Of his taste, his scent. The coarse hair around him. The weight on his tongue. The heat in his belly narrows.
"Someone's excited," Thomas comments, and then he licks up the drop of precum that have seeped out.
And then he quickly goes on to swallow Edwin down. He takes him in deep into his tight heat, until Edwin feels himself hit the back of his throat. Thomas is about to pull off, but Edwin takes hold of his hair, and pushes him back down. Just once, just a little. The chuckles that follow vibrate through him, heightening the pleasure. Edwin pulls his hand away, but Thomas reaches up and secures it in its place. So Edwin repeats the motion, and moans at the feeling. He should let Charles take the lead again if there was a next time. Let himself be opened up by him, like they did the first time. The memory blends into his current situation, and he can feel himself harden again, and pushing deeper into Thomas' mouth, chasing the wet heat and pleasure.
They do that again and again, while Edwins mind is filled with pictures of another man, and climbs higher and higher on his pleasure.
He comes with a strangled moan. and groans deeply when Thomas swallows around him. Swallows his sperm.
Edwin laughs to himself, and then pulls Thomas up for another kiss.
"Thank you," he says between one kiss and the next.
"My pleasure," Thomas whispers back. "Anything else?"
"Thank you, but that should be all. Need a water?"
Thomas shakes his head and laughs a little. "You are unbelievable. No, I'll take a smoke, instead."
Edwin pulls up his trousers, and brings Thomas to the door.
His feelings in utter disarray.
They hug goodbye.
Edwin changes his sheets, already missing Charles' scent on them, and takes a shower.
Him and Niko drink a tea together.
He only looks back at his phone when he goes to bed.
"gn <3 C"
Edwin stares at this for a long time before he lands on something to reply to this. His heart is beating quickly, and he can feel his own cheeks heat up.
"<3 E"
