"Aren't you supposed to be resting? Not hovering around me and staring like some sort of creeper?" Santana asks as Charlie shifts and follows her around. Perhaps entering a new stage of their relationship was a mistake. Whatever their relationship was, she wasn't quite sure herself. With a sigh, she puts the package that she'd been wrapping up down and turns to look at him. "Do your bandages need to be changed again?"
"No." Charlie says after a moment and tilts his head again.
"Well, you need to stop being weird. It's making me uncomfortable," Santana informs her, it was like he was studying her.
"Sorry," Charlie said but moved in closer.
"Charlie!" Santana says after a moment finally putting what she was doing down and turning to face him. She could hear snickering from where Antonio was busy working on his masterpiece but she ignored it for now. "What are you doing?"
"I think I was wrong. That doesn't happen very often and I'm unsure of how to proceed," Charlie admits.
"Well go be wrong out of my personal space," Santana responds flatly before pausing and deciding to clarify. "Nothing is about to blow up or catch on fire, right? More importantly I'm not about to blow up or start burning?"
"No, of course not—probably not. I'm not sure however. I don't actually enjoy being wrong," Charlie mused before pulling away and moving towards Antonio.
"You really need to stop adding the word probably in front of things, it makes me nervous," Santana reminds him. "The correct answer to 'will my son accidentally blow off his arm' is not probably not. It's no. Just no. You shouldn't add a qualifier, especially not probably."
"Understood," Charlie says after a moment as he parks himself in front of Antonio who was coloring and studies him. It takes a moment but Antonio eventually stops and studies Mr. Charlie back.
"What are you doing?" Antonio asks after a moment.
"If he's bothering you, tell him to go away," Santana offers to her son. It was the best advice she could give him at this point.
"I'm thinking," Charlie answers honestly.
"About?" Antonio presses suddenly becoming eager. "Are you thinking about making new magic?"
Charlie shook his head, he'd spent most of last night working on that. "I'm thinking about your mother," he admits after a moment.
Santana turns to stare at him panic setting in. She wasn't ready to share whatever their odd relationship was with their son. She didn't think that Antonio would have a problem with it, if anything he wanted it more than anything. But they weren't serious, at least she didn't think they were serious. It's not like they were having sex. "Charlie—"
"Why?" Antonio presses immediately leaning forward, a confused look on his face. "Is this about mom kissing you?"
"No, of course not." Charlie shook his head, slightly scandalized by the question. "I think your mother has magic, or at the very least the pathways aren't as blocked as I believed them to be. At the very least her body isn't producing magic like it's supposed to, and I'm unsure why." Charlie explains. "That's not true, it is producing magic but it seems like her ability to see through illusion is taking up whatever she's producing."
"What does that mean?" Antonio asks.
"It means that your mother might be a powerful magician in her own right, but there's something wrong and I can't figure it out," Charlie explains. "You on the other hand have—"
"Charlie," Santana interrupts, she could already see where this was going and she didn't want Antonio to think there was something wrong with him because Sebastian was his father. She didn't want to poison that well. She narrows her eyes slightly when Charlie turns to look at her. He didn't mean anything by it, that she understood.
If Charlie understood where the hostility was coming from he didn't seem to acknowledge it, as he turned back to Antonio. "I won't know what your potential is until your body is ready to handle magic. I imagine you'll be powerful even with the—"
"Charlie." Santana repeats again, ignoring the look her son shoots her.
Charlie shakes his head, "As I was saying, whatever happened to your mother, doesn't seem to be affecting you from what I can tell. It's there, I can feel it, faintly, but I can sense that you have magic."
"Can you fix it?" Antonio asks. "So, my mom can do magic too?"
"No. I can't." Charlie admits a frown on his face as he leaned forward stretching. "I imagine that I know someone that could, or at least point me in the right direction but—that's all up to your mother."
Antonio immediately turns on his mother, he hadn't expected that an excited grin on his face as he got up to run to his mom. "We could learn magic together. Wouldn't that be cool?"
"Cool, isn't the word I'd use for it," Santana frowns slightly. Did she even want to be a magician? She enjoyed her life right now? It wasn't as if there were hundreds of jobs for Magicians. "If I were to become a magician who would take care of Charlie?"
Antonio blinked and turned to look at Charlie for a moment, before nodding his head. "You're right, you need to be his assistant or he'll blow up the store or something."
"I'm sitting right here," Charlie reminds them.
Santana rolled her eyes, she was really just Charlie's over glorified babysitter, at least that's what it felt like most days. "You can't miss whatever you haven't experienced or had."
"No, but that doesn't mean you should be content with what you have either. Always move forward, always strive to be better than you were the day before," Charlie points out before standing up. "I'd have to find her first. She may have cursed me."
Santana groaned at Charlie who was rubbing his bandaged hands against the counter probably to scratch an itch. "Charlie, didn't we have a conversation about inviting people who hate you into this establishment."
"Tina doesn't hate me. She hates Brittany, and apparently, it's my fault for introducing them. Like I can bar Brittany from my shop. She's probably fine, I think she's married to Artie—who hates me," Charlie mused before waving his hands. "It was hardly my fault. When I say stay back, it's implied that you should stay as far away as possible."
"I thought you said that Magician's didn't do curses," Antonio points out.
"They don't the magic for a curse is different than the magic that I use, that being said Tina isn't a magician. She's a witch. Not like a mundane witch, but an actual witch. Potions and brews, you know that kind of thing. She can do magic that I can't." Charlie admits crinkling his nose. Dealing with a witch was always going to be tricky. Bargains needed to be made, pacts were done. He would need to inform others that he was dealing with a witch. It was all very complicated.
Santana narrowed her eyes slightly, "Charlie, I can see how beaten up your hands are. You don't need to put your life on the line for me every single time you want to do something magical. I don't have magic. Or at least it's not working properly. If this is dangerous I want you to forget about it. Just like Antonio's going to forget that witches exist."
"But—" Antonio begins he wanted to meet the witch.
"I wasn't going to bring him. Witches always want the first-born son or something for their potions, they can't manipulate magic like we can. They can only drain it from other sources," Charlie admits. "My aunt Cassandra might know someone reputable, but she really doesn't like me."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing, she doesn't like that my mother married my father. It's this huge thing," Charlie shook his head. "Not everyone hates me because of something I did."
"So, you never caused something to explode on a fancy rug or something?"
"Oh, I did set fire to all her clothes once—" Charlie begins. "But I was five and it was an accident."
Santana groans, and grabs the bottles of dwarven ale for Russell, and shakes her head. "Knew it." She mumbles under her breath before wrapping them up. "I'm going to make a run in about an hour so now is a good time as any to change your bandages."
Antonio crinkled his nose, "Do I have to see my dad?" he asks.
"Yes. He wants to show you where he works. Don't worry you'll also see Russell and he probably will do some magic tricks for you. So, go get ready Antonio, wear something nice alright?" Antonio grumbles and immediately heads upstairs to get changed. It takes a moment before Santana turns to Charlie. "Is there anything you need me to tell your father?"
"No, if he needs something he'll show up uninvited like always. If he starts to pressure you about kids, tell him you'll cut him off from the ale. Don't worry about the bandages, I'm off to see my mother anyway. She needs to fix my hands so I can start doing research once more." Charlie says leaning in to press his lips against Santana's, before pulling away quickly. "Sorry—I'm supposed to ask for permission."
Santana snorts and pulls him towards her, kissing him gently. "I'm serious Charlie no more death defying stunts that get you injured."
"I'll try," Charlie promises before pulling away when he hears Antonio returning. He clears his throat and heads toward the door before staring at it. "Santana?"
Santana rolls her eyes, and moves to open the door for him. "Please tell your mom to hurry on getting your arms fixed."
"That's the plan."
