Chapter Ten: It's Me and You

Erik stepped out into the dark garden and looked for Charles. There was no sign of him, but the small summer-house next to the pool had its light turned on, which gave Erik Idea of where to begin looking. He found Charles by the pool, sitting on the sunlounger again, wrapped in a blanket. He'd already managed to get through one bottle of beer, from the way it was laying on its side on the floor, and there was another in his hand. Erik walked without knowing what he was going to say when he arrived at his destination, and the seconds were passing fast.

Erik stood next to Charles in silence. There didn't seem to be anything left to be said today, and Erik didn't want to break the silence with something as stupid as 'hello.' Eventually Charles looked up at him, and Erik could see with the artificial light reflected in his blue eyes, that he was trying not to cry. This was the second time Erik had seen Charles trying to fight tears when it came to Shaw. Surely if you were in a relationship, you shouldn't even be contemplating continuing with your partner knowing he was constantly cheating on you? Not that Erik was the expert in relationships, his lifestyle had never really allowed for it. At least, not since he'd met Shaw.

"You already knew Shaw was cheating on you, didn't you?" Erik asked as he sat down on the same sunlounger he had been sat on, on the day of the barbecue.

"Go away Erik," Charles replied not looking up at him. "You can think what you want. I don't care."

"Yes you do," Erik argued. "Or you wouldn't be upset."

"I'm not upset," replied taking a swig of his drink, finishing that bottle too. He gripped it tightly in his hand as if unable to let it go.

"You are the worst liar I know," Erik said with a smile. He didn't want to argue with Charles. This wasn't why he had come looking for him.

"You must know a lot of liars."

Charles' face was bitter. It was not the first time that Erik had started considering that maybe Charles was not as much as a victim in this as everyone was making out. Was he even upset over Shaw? Or just the circumstances that he was in? He was clearly relying upon Shaw to help him live his life, so what kind of bargain was this?

"You know what I do for a living, don't you…" Erik replied lightly.

"Yeah, fantastic, let's talk about your career. What are you doing with Sebastian anyway? You could do better than this," Charles snapped. He narrowed his eyes as he spoke, clutching the bottle tightly to his chest.

Erik raised an eyebrow. What made Charles think he was going to answer that question if he wouldn't return the courtesy? All of this was driving him crazy.

"Same question to you."

Charles scowled at him knowing that he'd walked into that one. He looked away and finally surrendered his empty bottle for a new one, and continued drinking with a vengeance. Erik wondered if he took one of Charles' beers, if he would get away with it, or that might be the last straw before Charles finally flipped.

"I thought I told you to go away," Charles said lying down and staring up at the sky.

"I'm not going away Charles."

Erik was determined that he would sit here all night if he needed to. There seemed to be two ways of getting information out of Charles, riling him up into letting something slip, or by showing his concern. Their day together in London had revealed more than the whole week here.

"Why not? I heard what you said to Sebastian… whiny kids are not your thing." Charles' face was almost pained, but at least they had got to the bottom of why Charles had been trying to avoid Erik.

Erik sighed. Finally, no he had some idea of what he'd done to annoy Charles. Every time they were together, they seemed to get along well. Then Charles would retreat and avoid him. It suddenly made sense, if Charles was under the impression that Erik was only speaking to him because Shaw had ordered him to.

"I don't think you are a whiny kid Charles. If Shaw had known how much I wanted to spend time with you, he'd never of let me near you."

Charles stared at him in reply then looked away and back up to the sky. The blush across his cheeks was growing as he felt Erik's gaze upon his face. Eventually Erik tested his luck and reached forward to take a beer, only to find that his reaching forward made Charles shrink away from him. God, this was going to take a long time. Charles was shaping up to be the biggest challenge of his life.

"I know Shaw's rules. I'm not going to touch you," Erik promised.

Erik hadn't been expecting Charles reaction to his promise to be so extreme. He sat stunned as Charles jumped to his feet, threw his beer into the pool and stared down at Erik as if he was torn between kissing and killing him. Most likely it would be the latter.

"I hate you!" Charles shouted at him before walking away. He got halfway across the lawn before he turned back and stalked towards Erik once more. "What gives you the right to judge me? You steal money from people! I am earning mine!"

Erik didn't know what to say to that. He was surprised to find that Charles had blow up, since he'd been busy taking a lot of crap from everyone lately, and hunching his shoulders like a champ. To be honest, Erik had been getting used to Charles being a pushover, and now didn't know how to react to this new angry Charles who looked ready to bottle him. But the way the tension between them seemed to be pulling Charles back towards him left Erik feeling for the first time rather intimidated.

"I'm not judging you Charles… and what do you mean, earning your money?"

"Yes you are! And I shouldn't have said that, it's none of your business," Charles shouted still staring murderously at Erik.

"Fine. I am. I don't think you should be with Shaw. I don't care what you think he is doing for you... He's a selfish bastard, and he doesn't care about you, no matter what he says."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Charles almost screamed, his hands flying to his hair and gripping hold as if he was ready to tear it out. "You can't save me…"

Erik stood up too, and for once Charles didn't run away.

"Do you need saving?"

God did Charles hate Erik. Didn't he know? That Charles had been dreaming of him ever since they'd met? How dare he turn up now and fuck everything up? Why hadn't he been here last summer… before Charles had said yes to Shaw? He could feel himself heading towards telling Erik the whole truth, telling him everything that he had been keeping a secret from the world, but he was too scared. What if Erik just abandoned him too? He had no reason to stay around after his business with Hank ended. What if he was just amusing himself at Charles' expense?

"You can't help me Erik, It's too late," Charles replied finally, before walking back to the house.

Erik continued to sit in the dark, head in his hands. He didn't know why he'd goaded Charles into that argument. Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut?

A/N: Thank you very much readers! We will be switching to Charles' side of the story in the next chapter, so some secrets will finally be revealed :D Please review!