"It might be time to put Spatzi to bed," Edie suggested after an exquisite meal of home-made matzo soup. Erik came out of the kitchen from washing up to see that the smaller man had collapsed against the arm of the couch. He grinned and went around to the front of the couch to stroke Charles' thick brown hair back, watching his favorite part of the man blinking awake where his blue eyes slowly lit up with consciousness.
"Ready for bed, Schlafmütze?" he teased, leaning forward to kiss Charles' cheek. He couldn't resist nuzzling in there a moment before pulling back. When he did he noticed that his mother was watching him starry-eyed and he blushed hard.
"What time is it?" Charles whispered, slipping an arm forward over Erik's shoulder sleepily.
"Seven," Erik chuckled. Charles' eyes focused more and he sat up resolutely. He couldn't help but flag slightly under his brow-beating exhaustion, his eyes drooping to half-mast despite his best efforts towards seeming aware.
"No, m'body will get off focus'd. I have't stay up til'least ten," he said, sounding half drunk. What did off focused even mean? In any case, the man's head wobbled on his neck so Erik decided it was not necessary to listen to him. He took the arm still around his shoulders and used it to drag Charles to his feet and keep him there when the man's legs wavered underneath him.
Edie, ever avid for mothering, jumped forward to get the bedroom door for him and ran inside to turn down the freshly-made bed.
"I hope he'll be okay with these cotton sheets...I can wash the flannel ones tomorrow..."
"He'll be fine, Mama," Erik chuckled, easing Charles fully onto the bed. He started to unbutton Charles' dress shirt and then realized his mother was still there. "Some privacy, Mama? When did you become such a pervert?"
"If you didn't bring home such attractive young men I wouldn't have to ogle them," she argued, smacking his shoulder before leaving him to his boyfriendly duties.
He knew Charles would be upset in the morning that he hadn't forced him awake enough to brush his teeth, but that was just too bad.
"Whas going on?" Charles murmured, struggling to raise a hand to where Erik was continuing through his buttons. "'Re we having sex?"
Erik laughed and shook his head. "I really hope you remember saying that in the morning, because it's going to be hilarious."
When he was done with the buttons he undid the cuffs and then knelt on the bed for leverage enough to ease off Charles' shirt. After that it was on to pants and socks, and he blushed to find that he could not actually reveal those long legs without laying a caress down them. Charles sighed underneath him, groping a hand around for him and yanking him forward by his shirt for a half-awake kiss which quickly turned into a completely-asleep kiss.
Erik sighed with half frustration and half amusement and pulled back, looking over Charles sleep-slack face and letting amusement take over an extra ten or fifteen percent. Then he untangled Charles' hand from its grip on the front of his shirt and pulled the thick down blankets up to Charles' chin.
"Get some rest, liebling," he sighed, laying a chaste kiss on the sleeping man's cheek and heading back to the living room to chastise his perverted mother.
Erik looked at all the dishes he had washed dripping on the drying rack and shifted his weight from foot to foot. Then he frowned and grabbed a hand towel and started drying all the dishes slowly and carefully, feeling immediately better now that he had a plan of action.
Until his mother poked her head in and said, "Put that down, Erik, and get ready! The girls will be here any minute!"
Erik knew this very well since it was the sole reason he had been hiding in the kitchen for the last fifteen minutes. When his mother had told him she had plans for them today, he had figured she meant a tourist trip up to the castle or maybe a frigid boat ride or something. He had not thought she meant inviting over all her synagogue friends and showing off her son and his boyfriend, whom Edie had already introduced to Irena as her Schwiegersohn.
It had been a late morning getting started, which Erik was surprised but not upset with. He liked the lazy start of the day after so many early mornings and long hours getting the cafe to the point where he could leave it alone for nearly a month. So when ten o'clock rolled around and he was still drinking hot chocolate with his mother on the couch, he was happy.
Although he would have been happier if Charles were around to share it with.
"Maybe you're going to be bad and not let your mother feed you, but I bet Spatzi will let me give him breakfast. Should we wake him?"
Erik had frowned. On the one hand he very much wanted Charles up and around and bubbly, but on the other hand he very much hated waking Charles up. It always felt so cruel... Really, it was amazing that Charles was still asleep. Maybe at his own house he liked to sleep in but as a guest he was up at the crack of dawn to help do everything from making breakfast to sweeping the floors.
He eyed the hot tea, the fresh bread Uwe from the bakery had brought up, and the konfiture already laid out and unable to be put off any further.
"Okay," he had sighed regretfully and dragged his feet to the door.
The bedroom had heavy drapes and was still dark as dusk, and Charles was stretched out like a pole, cuddled under the heavy blankets with just a tuft of brown hair peeking out from the top. Erik winced miserably and flipped on the light against his will.
Protected by his quilted barrier, Charles stretched even further and grumbled but otherwise didn't stir. Gritting his teeth, Erik sat on the edge of the bed and eased the blankets down to Charles' shoulder, gazing sympathetically as Charles turned and whined and groaned in the light, looking like a drugged mole dragged out to day.
"What'r you doing? Why?" he complained, turning into his pillow.
Erik pet his hair apologetically and leaned down to breathe in the sleepy scent of the man.
"Come on, Helligkeit, time to greet the day. Come eat breakfast."
Charles jerked awake beneath him.
"Breakfast? What time is it?" he hissed.
Erik chuckled and backed up because the man was going to flip when he heard. "It's about ten."
Charles made a choked noise and lunged out of the bed but got caught by his legs, toppling to the floor where he caught himself on his forearms, his feet still tangled up in the sheets. Erik yelped and jumped forward, pulling the man back onto the bed by his arms, but Charles didn't stay still long enough to drop him there, kicking his legs free while Erik was still pulling him up and pushing out of the bed using Erik as leverage.
"Why am I naked?" he gasped, lunging around randomly trying to remember where he'd put his luggage.
"You're not naked," Erik laughed, collapsing back on the bed to watch Charles frantically try to get dressed.
"I should take a shower," Charles muttered. Erik pouted. That meant he would be getting dressed in the bathroom and not in front of his boyfriend and Erik disapproved of that.
"You look fine," he tried to persuade.
"Is everything okay? I heard noises," Edie claimed, throwing open the door, and getting an immediate and full view of his half-naked boyfriend.
In the present, Erik shook his head and continued to dry the dishes, trying to figure out who had been more shocked: Edie or Charles. Charles had undoubtedly blushed out all his embarrassment in the shower, but Edie hadn't had that luxury and had walked around the apartment in a dazed manner all morning, alternating between smiling awkwardly and fanning herself.
The doorbell broke him out of his reverie, and as Edie opened the door he was immediately bombarded with the loud clucking of the brood storming the entrance. Slowing his task even further, he wished there was a better spot than the kitchen to hide in.
He listened in as Edie led the group in to the living room where he knew Charles was seated helping with the tea. He could tell the ladies of the synagogue had gotten to him when he heard their shrill cries of adoration. Grinning and imagining the drama going on in the other room, he wondered if Charles would have any cheeks left over for him after all their pinching.
Putting the dish he was on back in the rack he slipped out of the kitchen silently. With any luck they'd all be too distracted with Charles to pay him too much mind.
Irena was in the bedroom lying down, which was a blessing because Edie's friends took over every bit of furniture available. They squeezed Charles in four across on the three-person couch, and the others were grudgingly seated on the chairs Edie had laid out, complaining that the couch-girls were hogging all the cuteness.
They were all talking at once, the ones on the couch telling Charles how adorable he was and the ones off it telling the same thing to Edie.
"He's so handsome! These American types are always so like movie stars!"
"He should be on television, he really should! Oh, Edie, this is a good son-in-law."
One skinny woman sitting nearly in Charles' lap was stroking his hair back and marveling at its sweet curl, saying to him, "You have to meet my grand-daughter Clara—you two would make a beautiful couple. Oh my goodness!"
Erik growled and put an end to that right away. "You just go ahead and leave Clara at home—he's taken."
That brought everyone's attention to him and the women he knew from childhood jumped up to tell him how much he'd grown and the women he hadn't known jumped up to tell him how much more handsome he looked in real life than in the pictures.
When they had gotten their fill they shoved him down onto the couch next to Charles and pushed the two of them together so they could gauge how much of an attractive couple they made. Apparently it was pretty fair because they all starting clucking and clapping, and then one of them wailed, "It's such a pity there won't be any babies!" and they all took up the lamentation: "A pity! Yes, an absolute pity!"
"What are they saying?" Charles questioned through his clenched smile.
"They're saying that we're the sexiest goddamn couple they've ever seen in their lives and I need to find a way to impregnate you as soon as possible," Erik replied without breaking his own grin.
Charles stared at him for a shocked second and then slapped him hard on the leg. "You jerk—I believed you!"
"The translation wasn't really far off," Erik defended, holding the man's hand back from further attack. The women cooed in unison at their adorable fighting and Erik had to struggle not to roll his eyes. This was not cute. This was attempted murder.
"He's feisty," one of the women said. Erik didn't know who she was, but he agreed with her whole-heartedly.
For as much as some of the women remembered him he didn't recognize any of them. He supposed it had been a very long time ago, and Erik hadn't interacted much with the old women besides begging treats off them.
"My Agathe will love him," another woman said. Erik didn't remember her face, but he knew from her name that it was her son, Jack, that he used to sneak cigarettes with in the synagogue bathroom until their mothers caught and thrashed them. He hoped that Agathe wasn't as much of a trouble-maker as Jack was. Then he realized he didn't have to hope any of that because Agathe was never going to love Charles because Agathe was never going to fucking get within ten feet of Charles.
"The lot of you, leave your daughters where they are: he's mine," Erik growled again, hoping it would sink in this time when he gripped Charles demonstratively around the shoulders. He could tell by their cheerful gazes that it had not sunk in, so he continued. "Charles is in no way interested in your daughters unless they're actually your sons and even then—he has me. He doesn't need your hand-outs."
"Erik—behave," his mother laughed. "You too, girls. You're not taking my son-in-law from me."
"We'll have your son, then," Frau Weiβ cackled, reaching over to pinch Erik's cheek. He pulled away, sliding behind Charles' back for protection.
"Keep these perverts away from me," he demanded of his boyfriend.
"If you'll excuse me I think now's a good time to call Raven," Charles sing-songed, standing up.
"You just called her yesterday!" Erik complaining, seeing the women scrunch in closer to him like a pack of ravenous wolves.
"She didn't answer. I'm going to try again while it's early."
Edie didn't know why Charles was leaving but she recognized that he was doing so—she didn't try to stop him but she did force him to pause while she pressed some teacakes into his hand, explaining with a demonstrative prod to his ribs that he needed to eat more.
Erik wasn't quite distracted by the synagogue wolves enough to miss the way Charles' jaw tightened, and he was immensely confused by the fact that Charles hid the treats in the plant-holder before going into the bedroom rather than eat them. He was too distracted though to give it the clinical thought it deserved, as Frau Schwartz started showing him pictures of her daughter Lola and daring Erik to have the audacity to say that she and Charles wouldn't have beautiful babies.
He did dare, in spades and when he'd dared himself into exhaustion she dared him to say that he and Lola wouldn't have beautiful babies and he was too tired to argue further.