Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Written for auction prompt - CharlieKingsley

Word Count - 344

Warning - Some sexual content in this one

It's Nothing Until It's Something

They didn't start whatever they had on purpose.

At first, it was a comfort. They'd both survived another battle, they'd lived to tell the tale. It was about feeling, about being alive. It wasn't supposed to be about feelings.

Except… it carried on.

After the war, after the battles were done and peace reigned again.

Charlie returned to Romania, and Kingsley had a Ministry to fix.

They didn't have time for a relationship, for romance, for life outside of the lives they chosen for themselves.

And yet, Charlie came home. He visited with his parents, his siblings, and then… then he went to Kingsley, where the sex was just a little bit desperate and a little bit frantic.

They clutched at each other in the moments that they could snatch, because there was nothing else for them to do.

They had conversations with their eyes, because to say things out loud would be admitting that they'd fallen into the trap of something neither of them could afford.

And then.

And then one day, Charlie has finished his rounds at the reserve, and he's about to return to his lonely little hut for a solitary meal.

But his hut is occupied.

"I'm done. I'm done pretending that this isn't something."

And Charlie doesn't have the words to tell Kingsley how grateful he is that the older man had the balls to say something he's wanted to say for months.

So he kisses him, and he kisses him, and he pushes him back until they are both on the bed, and the love making is a little bit desperate and a little bit frantic, until it's not. Until it's slow and steady and it hurts just a little bit when their eyes meet.

"I love you. And I'm not willing to let this go," Kingsley murmurs in the after, when the sweat is cooling on their bodies and they're wrapped around each other.

And all Charlie can say is "good."

Until Kingsley is asleep. And then Charlie can whisper, "I love you too," against his skin.