A/N: I'm back with chapter 2. Thank you sooo much to those of you who have taken time to read, favourite and TrustMe93 - thank you for the kind review. I will try my best to answer your questions. The song lyrics in italics here are from the Sam Smith track which has given this fic it's title as well. Flashbacks in the story are in italics. Hope you like it :)


TOO GOOD AT GOODBYES

So I'm never gonna get too close to you

Even when I mean the most to you

In case you go and leave me in the dirt

The Secret Gets Out

Charlotte swirls the green tea bag around in her steaming mug as she looks out the windows. It was easy to fall asleep after a few hours of driving but then she found herself awake at 4 am so she got up, unpacked, sorted out her schedule, and checked her news feed. She was meeting her internship advisor for a quick breakfast/orientation chat at the café across the street in an hour and a half.

Operating on autopilot since she left Swellview the day before has been a pretty good strategy to not allow herself to ruminate. But now it's only 7 and she's already dressed and ready to go start the day in a new city far away from everything she knows. Her parents are probably sitting down to breakfast together right now. Jasper will still be dead to the world. That boy could sleep through an earthquake! Piper will be getting ready for school without yelling at anyone now she's got her own car. And Henry…He hadn't even come to see her off. Or messaged her to check how she was since she left. Not that she could blame him. She hadn't really given him that (or any) option anyway.

How did they end up here? It was a far cry from their innocent 6 year old oath in the playground to be BFFs for life. But then again, the pledge didn't have a disclaimer section that covered super hero powers either so…

She finds herself going back to that evening almost two months ago. After yet another harrowing adventure otherwise known as a day in the life of Captain Man and his trusty sidekick Kid Danger.

Flashback

Charlotte breathes a sigh of relief while saying a silent prayer of thanks that he's safe before she turns away from the console towards the noises near the tube where Captain Man and Kid Danger have just returned from a rescue operation.

She walks over to join Schwoz and Jasper who are already assessing their injuries and mission. Captain Man has a few bloody scratches and is winded but otherwise fine. Turning towards Kid Danger aka Henry, she gasps. He's bleeding from the side of his head and looking a bit more than winded. He winks and gives her the thumbs up, because he knows that she will still want to check him over.

"Don't even try it! Henry sit down", she commands, helping Jasper ease him gently towards the sofa grabbing the well-stocked first aid kit from the nearby shelf with her free hand. Henry protests weakly telling them he's fine blah blah blah but Charlotte ignores it.

It's not like she hasn't noticed the way he tries not to wince in pain when he raises his arm.

Thank God for those first aid classes. She had begun taking them three years ago when their missions had gotten more dangerous and full on. She was even an instructor herself now. Figures. She probably wouldn't be now looking forward to enrolling in pre-med at Stanford if she hadn't started working with her best friend at Junk 'N' Stuff and if she had never found out about his secret life. Full circle, she guessed.

Ray emerges from his room a few minutes later looking much better. After checking on Henry he and Schwoz start arguing about which Swellview restaurant has the best fried chicken wings and Jasper suggests they go get some. They promise to bring some back for Henry and Charlotte who's finally satisfied Henry isn't going to die tonight.

Henry shuffles off to the bathroom to get cleaned up and she logs in the mission report for the day.

Her phone rings just as Henry walks back in.

"Jasper what happened to chicken wings? Um…I dunno. Yeah he's here. Sure. Hang on".

She pushes the phone towards Henry.

"J what's up? Yeah I'm good. Charlotte is just fussing over nothing as-ouch! She just hit me on my bruised side! Uh huh…Sure..Yeah, I heard her talking about it at school on Monday. I don't know. It's been a shitty week and I just got beat up pretty good so-Well…I'll ask her. If she wants to sure but no promises. Yeah man, no worries. Okay cool. Later."

He hands her back the phone and waits while she grabs their jackets from the rack.

"Jasper wants us to go with him to Kate's party tonight and…Don't do the face please! I didn't say we'd go for sure Char", her back is turned but he knows she's already giving him the 'Charlotte look'.

She joins him in the lift and he winks at her in a conspiratorial way.

"But I did say I'd ask you. Or was it beg? Hard to know with Jasper's stages of desperation. Ow! What's with this new level of violence tonight?"

Charlotte shakes her head as they walk towards the main door with Henry following her while rubbing his sore arm.

"You deserved that. Don't bag on Jasper. Good on him for going for it. And you know, Kate's pretty cool", she counters over her shoulder.

Henry laughs and jogs over to join her.

"Okay fine. That probably was a little harsh. Sooo does that mean you will come along and we can support 'The Bucket Man Quest for Love'? Char…this is the last bastion of our youth right here! We can't not carpe diem it!"

Charlotte rolls her eyes exasperatedly and grins back. Still she says nothing as they walk towards his car.

"Come on…I know you are secretly impressed I know some fancy words. And that I can actually read! You just don't want my head to swell," he pokes her in the ribs in that annoying way that only Henry can get away with.

Charlotte pushes him away but she's laughing now.

"I didn't think it could get any bigger actually", she quips back.

"We had plans to hang out tonight already remember? This is just the first part of it" he presses.

Henry has been extra busy lately with saving things, people, and trying to get good enough grades to graduate. And she has kind of been avoiding him a lot more lately because of these weird things called feelings and thoughts about him.

So despite her inner voice telling her to make something up, she doesn't. This is Henry Hart. Of course she says yes.


The party is in full swing when they arrive. They had to stop by their houses to change, then eat chili burgers and some of the friend chicken wings first. Henry also had to spend half an hour giving Jasper crap about the fact that for the first time in the history of the universe he didn't want extra fries. In fact, he had been quite impatient to get to Kate's.

When they arrive Jasper disappears to find her, promising to meet them both back at the entrance in about an hour. Charlotte and Henry chat with other classmates for a bit before splitting up to see other friends. Charlotte wanders into the kitchen where she sees some of the girls that she sits with during AP biology talking.

"Hey Char!" one of them waves her over. They are mixing drinks and passing them out. She declines a cup and reaches for a can of iced tea instead. Charlotte doesn't get the point of being the typical drunk teenager at a party. She wasn't really a party person either and she knows the only reason she's here is because of her best friends.

Out of the corner of her eye she watches Henry talking excitedly about something to Tara Larson as she plays with her long blonde hair. He's waving his arms around as he describes whatever it is to her. Tara's looking at him with interest. Not because she cares particularly about the latest Justice League movie but because she gets to flirt with Henry.

Charlotte has been best friends with him since age 5. The odd pair - the goofball and the smart girl. With Jasper they made an awesome trio. Somehow. Some way. Suddenly, after all these years of thinking he was just Henry, she became aware of how other females reacted to him. Sure, he was still the same untidy, annoying, funny, couldn't sleep when the doors and windows were open, and slightly afraid of purple food dork.

But he had also turned into this 'Hot Guy" as other girls would sigh when they walked past them in the school halls. It just got worse the past year when she started seeing him in that light. Sort of like a light bulb moment. In the hey-this-guy-is-not-that-unattractive-and-he-is-kinda-nice-in-that-way. Which was sucky already. But then, instead of just getting it out of her system and putting it down to the 'flu that was going around, or the fact she and Henry worked in a high stress, dangerous and adrenaline pumped area, she knows that the way she feels about him isn't strictly platonic anymore.

He's dated other girls. Been into lots of girls. The wrong kinds, she thinks in a not really petty way to herself. I mean come on, train wreck experiences are supposed to help you grow or something. At least that's what Henry says in response to the girls he's dated. She is always there to pick up the pieces. Good 'ol Charlotte.

Being the intelligent, strong young woman she prides herself on being, Charlotte reasons that it's illogical given their history and the strong foundations on which they've built their friendship upon. To get over the whole situation, she's even tried seeing other guys. Dean was nice. Okay, correction. As Piper put it "Dean is Grade A hot!" And that was fine. For the five minutes they were together before she realised it wasn't going to work. Then, the brief online thing with "Jackson from two towns over" as Henry had called him teasing her about it. Jackson was a cool guy and they bonded over their love of coffee, the environment, and art. Henry said it wouldn't last because his topknot and beads were both longer than her hair and it would be an issue later on.

They'd had a bit of an argument over that. It seemed like Henry was always egging her on about the guys who actually showed interest in her. She couldn't help being pissed off at him. Which was stupid because she couldn't blame him for not knowing that the whole point of the exercise was to get over this thing she had for him.

She had joined the Debate and Track teams to widen her interests (she loved running, it looked great on her college applications, and "you do like to argue", Jasper would say) and to make other friends. Which was great. The regional debate championship trophy and her track medals were proof of that and one of the debate girls was also going to Stanford to study international relations so she had made some other friends.

Even so, she was always more settled in the Man Cave running logs and tech support and sneaking candy with Schwoz, hanging out with Jasper and Henry to do movie marathons, cookouts at their favourite camping spot, and allowing Henry to climb into her window and vice versa at odd hours when they both needed to. She always came back to him. When she thought about it, it was both sad and nice at the same time.

Tara's tinkly laughter floats over towards her despite the super loud Chainsmokers track that's booming from the speakers. She tries not to watch her touching Henry's arm. He's wearing the grey and navy blue plaid shirt she bought him a year ago while on a family holiday in Chicago... Jesus! She needs to stop this shit. It's unhealthy. It had been hard enough trying to remain solely focused on keeping her perfect GPA for Stanford and just going along with their (already) awesome friendship. There must be a rule somewhere that says it's not allowed right?!

"Hey Brig? What's in those?" she turns to one of the girls serving drinks.

"Happiness!" her friend replies with a giggle as she offers one to Charlotte.

She eyes the cup for half a second before grabbing it.

"Well…Here's to happiness" Charlotte toasts herself as she takes a large gulp.

Almost an hour later….

"Woohoo! Goooo Charlotte!" Henry hears the loud voices coming from the dining room area and moving away from his basketball team mates he's talking with, he spots Charlotte dancing on the table to some Beyoncé track. There's a bunch of kids gathered around watching her dance and they're cheering her on. He stands there for a moment looking up at her nailing those moves and singing along. Laughing, he reaches up for her hand. She beams down at him stretching her arms to him.

"Henreeeeeee! Come up here! Nowwww!" she yells in a slurred voice. Henry shakes his head and gently tries to pull her towards him. The audience cheer him on, encouraging him to join her on the 'stage'.

"Henreee! Queen Bey and Princess Charlotte demand your presence on this stage!", she singsongs as she dances away from him playfully.

"Nah I'm good. Come on pretty princess, let's get you down", he replies finally successfully getting her to sit down and then he effortlessly picks her up bridal style, as the others boo and call him a party pooper. Charlotte throws her head back and blows them a theatrical kiss as they leave the room.

"Thanks! You guys have been great! I'll be here all night!" she shouts over Henry's shoulder as they all cheer and laugh again.

He carries her all the way outside to the back yard where there's an outdoor swing seat. Settling her down carefully he studies her closely before going to grab some water from a nearby table. He gets her to drink some before she slumps down in one corner of the swing. He sits down too and then looks over at her.

"Char…? You okay?"

She giggles and moves towards him.

"I'm freaking great. Grrreat!" she says.

Charlotte looks up at him.

"Henry James Hart…You're the best hero. And you're my hero. For reals", she drawls.

Henry grins at her.

"Well thank you my lady. And just so you know, you Charlotte sound like the most sincere drunk person in the world. For reals".

They both crack up and then Henry nudges her gently.

"I thought you and drinking didn't mix…"

She shrugs against his shoulder.

"Eh, just felt like it. You said to carpe diem the day right?"

Silence.

She knows he isn't buying it. He seems to be thinking about something.

Taking another drink of water she can feel him staring at her despite her current state.

"What?"

"Char…"

She raises her hand and tries to sit up straighter.

"I'm fine Henry. More than fine"

"Char talk to me".

"I'm just…I've just got some stuff to deal with and it's fine. No biggie".

She makes to get up as casually as one who's drunk can be but he grabs her arm, gently pulling her back down. She turns to him.

His eyes are trained on hers and it's making her nervous and tongue tied.

"Charlotte. Whatever it is, you can tell me. We're a team. If something is bothering you then do-"

"Aarrgggh! Henry stop! You can't help me with this. Drop it okay?" she cuts him off impatiently.

His brow furrows.

"Since when? What happened to always having each other's back?"

"Not this time. Some things…you just can't."

"Come on Charlotte. It's me! What's going on?"

Charlotte looks up at him. She can tell he's annoyed too because his mouth twists and their faces are so close to each other she can feel his breath on her cheek. His smell. Those dark brown eyes waiting for answers.

So she thinks fuck it and then for once in her freakin' all planned out, logical life she doesn't think.

And then Charlotte Eleanor Bolton kisses Henry.

It's quick and soft. And she pulls back slightly trying not to look at his stunned face when suddenly. Slowly. He pulls her towards him and kisses her back. Hesitantly at first and then harder. Charlotte responds and he deepens the kiss as she throws caution to the wind and puts her hands in his hair pulling him even closer. His arms are on her waist and everything feels so good and bad at the same time because they're best friends but whatever and then, as soon as she starts, she stops.

"Oh my God Henry! Shit! I…I'm sorry!" Charlotte practically jumps off the swing causing Henry to lose his balance and fall out. He gets up as fast as he can, trying not to feel a twinge of pain from the day's earlier battle.

"Don't be!..Uh Charlotte? What?…I mean.." he gestures to himself and then back at her.

She stops pacing and face palms groaning loudly.

"I just…Henry..." she takes a deep breath.

Head first Bolton, she thinks.

"I can't talk to you about it because 'it' involves you Henry. It's…about you", she finally says.

The world doesn't end.

Henry opens his mouth and then closes it again in surprise. He runs a hand nervously through his now really messed up hair. Caused by her and that kiss. Oh my God!

He can see she's not done talking so he waits.

"I don't..I don't expect anything from you. You don't even have to say anything but I just want you to know that this is my shit and I'll do what I have to so don't..Well, I hope you won't get all weird and whatever. Just let me be me and you be you and I'm sorry. I'm drunk but yeah..I..This shouldn't have happened so…" her words are tumbling out and then her voice trails off.

She wraps her arms around herself and looks at him. He's still looking at her in that odd way. She wants to die right now but in a weird way has also never felt more alive. It was that kiss though. That's what did it. Damn you Henry Hart! You're a good kisser too. Focus Bolton!

He finally speaks. Clearing his throat, he moves closer and grabs her hand forcing her to look at him.

"Char?..I..I didn't know you felt this way. I'm sorry…I don't..I..I Iove you Char. I'll always care about you. And you and I are gonna be a team forever but this..You know you and I can't be this way and it's better for everyone because if you only knew how much I-"

She can't bear to stand here and listen to any more so she puts her hand up cutting off his speech. She gets it; she's the smart, loyal, dependable sidekick to his hero. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"Henry? It's fine. Please. Just..Let's drop it? And yeah. I'm so sorry. I need to go".

"Wait Char. Just let me fin-"

"There you are! Henry Hart you're a hard guy to keep track of."

Tara's flirty voice carries over as she saunters down to where they're standing.

Henry doesn't even notice her. He's still staring at Charlotte. Who wants nothing more than for him to stop and to be on her way.

Tara notices the tension and checks herself.

"Oookay…Am I interrupting something?"

"Yes!"

"No!"

They both answer at the same time. Charlotte frowns slightly at Henry who practically shouted at Tara.

Whatever. Get out of here Bolton.

"It's okay Tara. He's all yours", she replies abruptly.

Henry's eyes never leave her as she turns to walk away.

"Charlotte!"

Half turning she attempts a weak smile.

"All good Hen. Like you said, it's better for everyone this way right?"

It's not until she's sitting in an Uber wiping away her non tears that she thinks what the hell have I done?!

She had avoided him for the rest of the weekend by not answering his calls or messages and when they did finally meet up at the Man Cave, it had been awkward but manageable. For all public purposes they were 'fine'. Thankfully Jasper and Piper hadn't clued in. For a while. Fast forward to a week later and Tara Larson gleefully told her that she and Henry were hanging out now (teen speak for friends with benefits Charlotte glumly translated) and "thanks to you Char! You're awesome!" It was both relieving and heartbreaking at the same time. Charlotte wasn't even that surprised this had happened. Henry had a type and she knew it was never going to be her. At least now he was occupied so he wouldn't worry about her and how she was dealing with whatever.

The worst thing is they never really had a chance again to talk things through – what with Kid Danger missions, her tutoring commitments, both of them doing a great job of avoiding each other apart from work, and the fact that she wished she'd never agreed to go to that damn party! Or opened her mouth.

So when the previously rejected internship from Stanford people sent an email to ask if she'd reconsider, it took her all of five seconds to say yes. It was for the best. Clearly Henry was upset with her for messing with the status quo and she was unsure if they could ever really go back.

End of Flashback


PING!

The message notification from her laptop jolts her into real time and grabbing the mug she goes to check who's calling her at this time of the morning.

"Pips!" she smiles when she sees her friend's face.

"Hey yourself. Just checking in. I know you texted me late last night but I just wanted to make sure you're not living in some goth or worse, a hipster hide out. Now show me the room!"

Charlotte giggles and picks up the laptop showing her the full extent of the room.

"See? No hipsters in sight Pips. But there is a café across the street who had a sign up saying that they are going to start doing those avocado latte things that we were making fun of on Buzzfeed that one time-"

"Charlotte if you drink even one drop of those things I will unfriend you tout suite!" Piper yells at her screen.

Charlotte is laughing too hard to respond. She settles down on her bed and props her machine up in front of her.

Piper is brushing her long hair and looking at her intently.

"What?" Charlotte takes sip of her now cold tea. Yuck.

"Hmm. Nothing." Resumes brushing. Then she puts her brush down and looks at her screen intently.

"Soooo how are you really doing? Like really? "

"Good. It's only the first day Pips. And it hasn't even started! Haha. I was up at like 4 and then got all disoriented. I'm good though", Charlotte hopes she sounds convincing.

Piper raises an eyebrow. For a split second Charlotte thinks how much she looks like her older brother.

"Okay well…He wanted to be there yesterday Char. He was just-"

"It's okay Piper. You don't need to explain anything," Charlotte struggles to keep the emotion out of her voice.

Piper shrugs and then nods quickly.

"Okay. Sorry Char".

"It's cool. So, how's it going? You haven't killed everyone in the Man Cave already have you?"

Piper rolls her eyes.

"I think Schwoz is missing you the most because you're the least dumb person there with gadgets. But..ugh! Those guys play super boring music! And there's way too much testosterone. So unhealthy! Honestly, I don't know how you could stand it for so long alone!"

Charlotte smiles sadly, trying not to think why she endured it for so long and loved it.

"I know right?" she finally answers.

Nope. It was much better this way. For everyone.


A/N: Done! Hope it wasn't too shabby. It got a bit long in the end - sorry! Thank you for reading this and feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you thought. Next chapter up soon.