Thanks for all of the positive feedback, y'all. Unfortunately, the typos will still be probable. I try to proof read, but the way that my schedule is set up, I don't get to dedicate as much time and attention to that part. This particular chapter kept changing on me, but I think I finally got it settled. Initially, I only intended for the pre-Chenry to be a few chapters. This particular Charlotte and Henry are making me wait a little bit longer before they let this be great. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the read.
Give Your Heart a Break
Henry spent almost a year now getting used to this whole Charlotte-free environment/influence. He finally fully understood that line about absence making the heart grow fonder. He'd watched her do some pretty amazing things her first year of college, and she was almost done with it. She was going to be moving on to new things, or adding on to the things that she had already done. She spent most of her Man Cave money on finally getting her own actual lab set up, which would make it easier for her to work. She used connections that she met through Souldates to find donation inventions like things that weren't necessarily dangerous that had been obtained from captured villains' lairs by heroes she helped on her site. The dating aspect wasn't happening, but networking was so great that she had already began working on a second site (without Max's aid - FaceMask) and many promised that they would come to that one as well.
She had been tinkering with her Whiz Watch in her downtime, for fun - just to see if she could make it do other things. Schwoz was always excited to hear about her experiments with his work.
She received several academic awards and made several lists, in only the beginning of her higher educational career… and he and Jasper were working at Junk N Stuff. He was a sidekick, too… But… a sidekick, with no backup plan. Jasper at least was going to school in Swellview, for a totally pointless major that Henry could never remember.
Charlotte had a list of plans. If any of the half dozen goals she was simultaneously working on fell through, she would likely have a dozen more to move forward with, next. He didn't have one. What did he even dream of being when he was younger? Why does she have my hand?
Charlotte took Henry's hand and began to brush his fingernails with her extra nail brush while he was driving. "Excuse me…"
"Your fingernails are filthy. I tried to ignore it, but you're tapping your hand to the music and it was impossible."
"I am driving, Woman!"
"You weren't using this hand to do it, anyway!" She brushed his nails, then rubbed one of her oils on them. "Switch," she said, firmly, and he reflexively followed the command, reached over to give her the other hand, and drove with the clean one. "Why are your fingernails dirty, anyway? I remember you being pretty committed to upkeep."
"I had to do some chores before I left home, and I had to rush out, get on the plane and come over. I was gonna wash up before we went out tonight."
"So, you're overall dirty and not just fingernails?"
"I would have gotten cleaned up at your apartment, but the last time I showered at your place, you acted like the plague was in your bathroom.."
"You left behind a lot of dirt in my shower. I was just trying to be sure that it didn't settle into a ring. I use several oils in there. Dirt has to be dealt with immediately." She rubbed oil on the second hand, "All done." He switched his hands back to driving and casually reached over and took one of her hands with his, nearest her.
She squeezed his hand once, then let go to play around on her phone. "Omigosh! Uno Dos Cakes has signed a contract and they're gonna start making lip balms!"
"Will Diez Leches be a flavor?"
"It. Will!" They both began to do a celebratory dance in the rental car.
…
Henry showered when they reached the beach house that they rented Airbnb, while Charlotte selected the room she preferred and began to settle her things. "Hey, Char! You got a back washer?" She heard him call out from the bathroom and she went into her tote bag and opened the side zipper with her Henry's Extras sign attached to it. She went into the bathroom and put the back washer over the door of the shower. "Thanks! Lifesaver." She usually carried along spare things that she knew that Henry wouldn't remember until he needed them. She went into the bag again and left the extra floss on the sink. He'd have definitely forgotten to pack that, too.
After a while, Henry got out of the shower, grabbed his toothbrush, started brushing his teeth and called out, "Char?" She didn't come. He spit out the toothpaste, "Char!"
She appeared in the doorway and froze at the sight of him wrapped in a towel. "Wh- what, Hen?"
"Do you have any extra floss?" he wondered. She put her hand on her hip and gave him a look. He winced, "Did you already bring me some?" He glanced at the sink, picked it up and gratefully lifted it to her, "Thanks. And, sorry. Didn't mean to pull you in here…"
She looked him over and shrugged, "It was worth the trip." Her eyes widened. She hadn't meant to actually say that and now, Henry blushed and pulled his towel tighter around his waist. "Well, I'm leaving," she said and quickly did so. Meanwhile, Henry tried to control his pulse and finish getting ready. It was extremely difficult.
What did she mean by that? And… She definitely, probably was like… Checking me out. Her eyes did the whole once over. She glanced at the Henry jewels! Or, she was avoiding eye contact. Or, she accidentally glanced towards the jewels and that was what made her leave awkwardly…
Once he was dressed, he came out to ask her if it was his imagination, or if she had glanced him over, and more importantly - did she try to check out the jewels - but she was already engaged in a conversation with Jasper, who cheerfully yelled out, "SPRING BREAK!" When he saw Henry.
The only natural response was for Henry to yell, "SPRING BREAK!" Charlotte simply quietly sipped on her frozen drink. Henry sat right next to her, as close that he could, which seemed to make her uncomfortable, so he gave her a little more space, to which she relaxed a little, but only just. Jasper was going on and on about what kind of plans they had and what things he was excited about and how good it was to be with his two best buds for a week.
…
"Flow Phase Initiated," Charlotte said into the mirror. She had her afro in a puff at the top of her head, and was definitely going to hashtag herself fineapple. Flow Phase was afoot. She was going to just enjoy this week, like she didn't have a care or a responsibility in the world! She chuckled to herself at the thought. Yeah, right. She was going to wisely and responsibly let it flow. That might not make sense to anyone else but her, but as long as she believed it, she knew that she could achieve it.
Her contraceptive implant was current. Her testing was clean. She had prophylactic companions in her clutch. She wanted to flow around, but it would be a safe flow.
Going from 0-100 so quickly with Max, then in a shorter span of time than she expected, back to 0 had been a lesson learned for her - being serious about guys took a lot of time and energy that she could be focused on bettering herself, or at the very least enjoying herself.
Earlier, Henry casually told her that she always smells like a tropical sundae, and that it was sometimes hard not to try to bite her! She fumbled all over her words to say, "Well, that makes sense, because I use a banana yogurt shea butter hair parfait, almond oatmeal hydration cream, cocoa butter moisturizer, and usually a coconut and hibiscus oil mist refresher on my skin… pineapple mango lip gloss..." she nodded nervously, "So, you know, yeah. A tropical sundae worth of hair and skin products." He looked suspicious of her behavior. Like, he was wondering why she was acting so weird about this joke. "But, you can't bite people just because they smell good, Henry!" She snapped at him.
He laughed, "I know, that's why I haven't. I'm not an animal, Char. Jeesh."
Honestly, as she got ready for the club, she wondered how many guys and girls were gonna want to bite her. Charlotte had always been confident. She always felt pretty, knew she was likely to succeed, determined that she was smart, and believed her body was banging. Things that made her nervous were failures, frights, and sometimes fights. Nothing about her appearance or personality was ever internalized negativity, so her newfound feelings for Henry were weird, in that they made her doubt herself.
She didn't doubt herself in the Oh no, I'm not good enough for Henry. Oh, he's so cute and I'm just this wallflower. He's been with plenty of girls and I've been with one guy… No. She shushed her thoughts even in pointing out that wasn't the case. But, she felt like with Henry - there couldn't be a real future.
They might have fun and it might be the time of her life, but it would only be that, and she was positive that they both thought these things - from start to finish. Hen wanted them to happen. She could tell. He probably felt the mutual vibe from her, as well. It wasn't very often that someone still suggested that they date, (like people used to, or ask if they were dating) and each time, both were still inclined to laugh it off, because that was laughable.
Hen with his Chloes, Biancas, whatever that criminal girl's name wases. Hen with his eye candy. Hen with his girls who loved attention, the spotlight, appearances, romance… Her with her very high standards of meeting a handsome genius, preferably with money, because why not go big? One of the most attractive things about Max, in addition to the fact that she did think he was very handsome, wasn't even how smart or focused he was - it was his ambition. Whether he was conjuring up a prank, constructing a perfect date, or contriving a new invention, he would take a look at it and see if there was any area that he could make it better. She loved that drive. She adored that initiative. She envied him it, in several ways. She had her days when she shrugged her shoulders in response to his questions about her next steps, grabbed a snack, and laid on her circle couch. Then, he'd say that her "Henry was showing," and she'd be offended. She couldn't honestly say if it was that Max didn't know Henry (not even from all of her stories) well enough to make an attempt to insult him, if she was mad that he was right during those moments, or if she was mad that he was wrong and had the nerve, or if she was offended because she believed that Henry was too lax about life. Who doesn't have ONE backup plan?
And, that was why she knew that they could never be… whatever. They were too different. They had completely incompatible paths, and if she was going to involve herself on a serious level again, it wouldn't be any time soon and they had to impress her as much as or more than Max had. Way to set the bar high on your first try, Charls. She could hear Max say to her. But, she hadn't even been trying to get him. He honestly just kind of fell into her lap and for a moment, it felt right to have him there. She was even actually getting over his ruse over her website, and their online status still felt like an accomplishment - not because she needed or wanted a man in her life, but specifically because she didn't, yet there he still was. A good guy, a hero, an intellect, an inventor, and he was still super into her and waiting on her to make the next decision about them. It felt gratifying to have him on hold, even if she didn't ask for it and had told him many times to just move on, because the online thing was temporary. He'd made good points the night of the release, but she hadn't been open to hearing them, especially after she had spoken to Henry that night (between Max's stunt and his arrival at the hotel).
"It was because you're so powerful," Henry had told her when they were alone that night.
"What?"
"It was because you're so powerful that I said 'sucks for him,' when you told me about your crush. You're small, but you're a force, Char. I've seen you do some tremendous things with just an idea and some curiosity, but at that time, I wasn't advanced enough to wrap my head around you actually having feelings for someone. Directing those at some poor, I was presuming probably average guy, and then probably expecting him to be as good at anything as you were. I didn't mean like it was gonna suck for him because you liked him and there was something sucky about you. I meant… I knew he wasn't gonna measure up to whatever you had in mind. I didn't have to know who you were talking about, because I knew you, and I was right, after all. Your first boyfriend comes from a superhero family. He went to hero school! And, he's an inventor. You once had a crush on a sidekick who couldn't even tell a lie straight to keep his cover. You were selling yourself short and I'm kinda glad that I ruined it for myself. We might not have had this awesome friendship if we dated. I've never been a good boyfriend. We might have missed out on the years of genuine camaraderie that I feel. You being super hot and totally amazing now shouldn't harm that."
She wanted to pounce on him that night, but she knew that she was an emotional wreck and it would have been a terrible idea.
However, now a month had passed, she and Max were broken up, only "together" online, it was Spring Break, this top was glorifying her cleavage, and a hot young thing wanted to bite her. She wasn't going to push it, but if anything happened, she wasn't going to stop it… Knowing Hen, though - nothing was gonna happen, unless of course she chatted up some fine young gentleman and he became territorial, or if they played one of her jams and she showed off the fruits of her twerking lessons labor.
"Ugh, like how hot do you need to be before we leave?" Jasper complained outside of the bathroom.
"As hot as possible!" she replied.
"If you haven't gotten there, maybe just settle for however hot you are right now, in the moment, Charlotte." She heard Henry snicker at Jasper's advice. Whenever the door flew open Henry froze and Jasper barely even acknowledged how gorgeous she looked. Instead he said, "THANK YOU," and pushed past her to get inside of the bathroom.
She rolled her eyes at him as he passed and leaned against the wall, to check Hen out, again. "If he would have let me stay in there, woo boy - I'd have been steaming."
Henry's eyes had traced her several times and they still were, "You… You did good," he said, as calmly as he could manage. He cleared his throat, grabbed his phone and said, "Selfies?" She smiled and nodded. Henry wrapped himself around the back of her and she was still as he adjusted to get them both. Her heart was racing and he smelled amazing. He always smelled amazing, even before she noticed noticed him. He took several shots of them and posted almost immediately.
Just as quickly, Piper commented, " CharlsDarkly Did you and my STUPID brother finally make it official?"
Henry rolled his eyes, "I ought to tell her that we did," he muttered. Charlotte laughed. "Dare me?"
"Why on Earth would I dare you to do something that would affect my life, too?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "For comedy, Charlotte!"
"This is a situation where we don't share the same sense of humor."
"Right. Political boyfriend will see our fake relationship as a cheat to his fake relationship."
"Our relationship isn't fake, Henry. Our status has changed and we haven't been able to let everyone else know yet."
"That feels suspiciously like the relationship is still going though."
"I understand that mindset."
"Are you free to flow around this week?"
"I'm definitely interested in starting my flow phase!" She said.
Henry smiled, "I'm encouraging it fully."
"Okay. And?"
"And, you'd better be ready for the flow life."
"The flow life better be ready for me." She batted her eyes, pursed her lips and walked off.
Henry watched her hips twist. Did… those normally do this, or was that for my benefit? She smelled so tropically fruity, I could almost taste the paradise during selfies. All that tropical stuff was doing her so much justice, because she was so soft to the touch and her skin was smooth and luminous. He was soooooo curious. What did she like to do? What did she like done for her? What could he do to learn these things? She said she was down to flow this week… he didn't know if he was included in her options or not.
…
The three took various photos, and Jasper took some with Henry, then with Charlotte. "I'm not gonna beat a dead horse, but you two would be UNF, everything!" Jasper commented.
"Unf?" they repeated. "Do you need a glass of water?" Charlotte wondered, facetiously.
"I honestly think that he would watch us do things, if he had a chance…" Henry said as low as possible.
Jasper excitedly responded, "Are you two DOING THINGS?"
Henry smirked and looked at Charlotte, "I ought to tell him that we did," he said in a whisper.
"For comedy?" she said, rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not the kind of woman that guys experience as a joke, so I'm starting to think that you're saying these things to test the waters and see if I'm interested in you beyond our friendship."
He turned red and cleared his throat and fake coughed and cleared his throat again, as Jasper watched in anticipation. "Tell her how you feel, you coward!" Jasper urged.
Charlotte laughed and held out a hand, "Okay, Jasper. You're going a little bit overboard. As always, there is nothing going on between Henry and I." She looked at Henry, still holding her hand out towards Jasper, "You think encouraging him is funny, Hen?" She put her hand down and muttered, "For comedy."
"Oh, oh! Remember that time Jasper brought that crazy girl home and she thought he was in love with you and tried to kill you?"
"I remember the time that you almost got me killed by Jasper's ex, when you for some insane reason told her that Jasper loved me!"
"Because it was true and I didn't mean it like that. I refuse to take responsibility for that particular incident!" Henry defended, regretting the fact that he brought it up tonight. "But, whatever happened to her?"
Jasper shrugged his shoulders and made an idk sound.
…
At one of the night spots, Charlotte and Jasper were dancing together while Henry chatted up some girl. Surely, Charlotte noticed, but wasn't trying to make a thing out of it. However, Jasper was pretty excited about his best friend's seeming success. "I think that Hen is majorly hitting it off with that girl! Are you gonna be his wingman, or should I?"
She furrowed her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes, annoyed. "If they're hitting it off, why would he need a wingperson?"
"For the extra support!" Jasper answered, "Obviously."
She looked at Henry, leaned over in the woman's ear saying something and pointing his thumb towards them. In her mind, he was telling this person that he was here with friends, but they all agreed to have the most fun that they could, so he would leave here with her. Or worst, he was going to come introduce his possible one night grown up sleepover to her and Jasper. She wasn't here for this. "I'll let you handle it," she told Jasper. He gave her a knowing smile, to which, she frowned and told him, "I'm going get another shaved ice, on your tab." He just laughed, even though they both knew that she was serious.
She went to the counter and smiled at the bartender, "Hi! Cute under drinking age girl, back for another virgin maitai shaved ice." She waited and watched Henry talking to the lady who held his attention for the night. He looked like he was definitely gonna get lucky, if his cheer and excitement was any indication.
Char would be living her best life too, if she wasn't so eager to just have some time to not think about guys or school, or work, altogether. Between the finality of her and Max's romance, the work that she did on the site and the app, working for Captain Man and Kid Danger, her internship, her school load, and the guilt of further drifting from friends and family in the midst of it all; she wanted to drink. Kidding. But, things were always hectic.
That was why she promised herself to treat this trip like a normal person her age, despite knowing that she didn't have to be normal. Despite the fact that being normal was overrated and being exceptional was her new normal.
Henry suddenly didn't see Char with Jasper and excused himself from his present company to go find her. Jasper was on the dance floor, by himself, dancing like no one was watching. Plot twist: Everyone was watching.
Eventually, Henry's mystery girl made her way to Jasper, and began dancing along with him.
"Gimme a sip. I'm parched."
"I don't know where your lips have been!"
"On my face, my whole life, scout's honor."
She passed it along and he took a sip and nodded, then waved the bartender to get himself one. "Where's your friend?" She spotted the girl laughing with Jasper, "Oh, with the wingman. Good luck with that. Seemed to be going well."
"No, I was the wingman," Henry said. "For her, I guess. She said Jasper was cute and started asking me questions about him. I tried to make him sound really good, but now that she's over there, I hope he lives up to the greatness."
Charlotte nodded and looked at Jasper, who honestly probably had no idea right now that he wasn't the wingman and could have very possibly been making her think he was in love with Henry by talking him up. She decided to text her friend and give him his best shot. She also remembered something and cackled. Henry threw her a puzzled look. "Remember that time that Jasper convinced a girl that he was Kid Danger for a date?"
Henry laughed too, "He told me that she spent most of the night digging him into a bigger hole!"
"How big could it have been? It was only Jeff…"
Henry had began to drink, then snickered, then accidentally squirted shaved ice from his nose and also got a brain freeze. He held himself in pain and made a miserable sound that alarmed Charlotte so much, she dropped her drink and cupped his face, calling his name. He took some deep breaths, the brain freeze faded and now they were looking at each other, with her hands on his face and his maitai on his shirt. A song was playing in the background, basically about giving love a chance, and Henry laughed at himself, grabbed napkins from the bar to wipe his face and looked down at his shirt. "Jeff won this time," he joked. "I'm gonna go to the house and change."
"I'll come with. I'm pretty partied out. Guess we should tell Jas…" they turned to see Jasper, dipped almost into a backbend by the woman and being kissed on the dancefloor. "We… can send him a text."
Walking to the car, Charlotte said, "It's surprising to me that one wouldn't pretend to be Kid Danger after discovering he's your best friend. Like, that's when he should have taken advantage of it. All the girls LOVE Kid Danger."
"He's taken plenty advantage. I shouldn't have to remind you. And that particular night went so poorly, I mean - imagine if anybody but Jeff had attacked him. Also… ALL the girls don't love Kid Danger. So, jot that down."
"Enough of 'em. Don't play. I see every message you get on Souldates. I don't have a team, remember? I'M the staff."
"Ugh! I'd delete my account if it wasn't the best superhero hookup spot that has existed in our lifetime."
She furrowed her eyebrows, "What kind existed outside of our lifetime?"
"I should have just left it at has existed?"
"Sure should have."
"My bad."
"You're forgiven."
…
Charlotte got out of the shower and Henry was still on the couch and hadn't changed, but was shirtless. She had on a pair of boy shorts and a tank top, her hair in two French braids, to settle it for the night. She gasped, "Thought you were going back to the club?"
"Jasper responded to our text for us not to wait up. I'm not gonna go to the club alone. That's pathetic."
She exhaled a chuckle. "Have you talked to Ray?" She asked, sitting on the couch by him.
"Briefly."
"And? What's up with him? Is he making it okay without you?"
"Yeah, sure." They were silent a moment, then Henry wondered, "Earlier, in the bathroom, me in the towel - did you check me out?"
She corrected him, "I looked at you." Her face was hot and her cheeks and ears changed color.
"Oh. It looked like you looked at me pretty hard. Kinda like how I look at you, these days." He was shaking his leg nervously, thinking about things, debating with himself and trying to make a decision. "Wouldn't be the first stupid thing I've ever done," he said.
"What wouldn't be…?" Henry cut off her question by swiftly closing the space between them and collecting her into his arms for a kiss.
Charlotte climbed onto his lap and deepened the kiss, letting him pull her in closer and not resisting what she knew had been building up for a while. Henry paused, looked at her face, to try to see if she was sure about this. She got up off of his lap and his head dropped.
Nice going, Henry. Now, you've made it weird. Charlotte took his hand and he looked up and noticed she was wordlessly pulling him, so he wordlessly followed. Where was she taking him? Ugh. Is this one of those moments where she does something like walk me outside, then shut the door on me and lock me out? Because I think my key copy is on the table…
She walked him to her bedroom and paused, took a deep breath and asked, "We can do this without making a big deal out of us, right?"
Henry wasn't sure what she meant, but since it looked like he had to answer to be allowed into her room he nodded, "Sure, we can! We sure can! Both of those!"
She strummed her fingers on his chest and his skin was on fire. "I don't want to ruin our friendship and I don't want either of us doing anything stupid or crazy for the other, just because of a little Spring Break fling. If we can still be friends, not try to push something serious, and just have fun together, casually…"
"We can do whatever you like," he said, trying to shrug his shoulders casually. She wants casual, he was gonna show her some casual.
"I'd like you to…" she whispered something to him.
He repeated, loudly, "Show you what that hypermotility mouf do?" She rolled her eyes at his uncool eagerness but beckoned him with a finger as she turned to go into the room. Just because he was anxious didn't mean she was no longer interested.
