invisible string

would it be enough if i could never give you peace?

"hello, old friend!" charles shouted opening erik's front door "how are we feeling?" he ran to the room.

"stop playing the good doctor, charles."

"i'm your best doctor, currently, so no." his smile faded a bit "seriously, how are you?"

"like i have a cold, i don't know."

"do you want me to make you some soup?"

"that's nice of you, but i don't have soup or the ingredients to make one."

"i know." said charles, lifting a grocery store bag filled with cans "what would you do without me?"

"stay a day longer in bed, most likely."

"you would die, that's what you would do."

"no i wouldn't."

"yes, you would!" charles chucked a box at him "take two of those and drink water, i'll go heat this up."

he looked at charles, his cuffed jeans, button ups and knitted sweaters, his hair was a little long and his shoes were beaten up, he didn't care much for his appearance, and erik knew that was the small embarrassment that came with all of charles' money. erik, in the other hand, had the opposite: clean, crisp clothes, two well kept pairs of shoes and three well-fitting jackets, he wouldn't take any shit about not having money. charles never said anything about it but other people did, other kids at school from the time erik didn't have clean shoes or fitting jackets, girls that did not go out with him because he wasn't able to pay for a dinner or a movie, boys that wouldn't come over because erik didn't have a game console.

"ta-da!" charles interrupted erik's thoughts, balancing a plate of soup in one hand "it's chicken noodles! gut, ja?" joked him, making a poor attempt at german

"sehr gut, vielen danke charles."

"i don't know what that means." he smiled

"just thank you." erik took the soup, taking a sip of it, immediately feeling better "thank you."

"you're welcome." a second of silence "can i sit with you? we can watch something on my laptop."

"sure." erik's voice didn't seem sure though, and he didn't know why.

charles jumped on the bed, making himself comfortable besides erik, their shoulders were touching and charles, sitting with his legs crossed, had his knee on erik's thigh, his skin prickling at the touch.

erik looked at the screen, charles typed "kingsman" on his library. they watched it all, it was charles' favorite comic book movie, he was obsessed with mathew vaughn, and erik just wished he could pay attention to it. not that it mattered, they'd watched it a thousand times and erik knew the thing word by word, but this time his concentration was elsewhere. in fact, it was nowhere to be precise, his thoughts were struggling to stand on their feet and were instead, dancing with a hundred little steps.

when the movie was over, charles grinned and closed the laptop abruptly.

"don't you just love it? it's so exaggerated, and exciting, and entertaining, and probably other words starting with 'e' that i can't think of right now?"

"sure." erik shrugged, his shoulder brushing onto charles, he felt what seemed to be butterflies, but he couldn't be sure.

"are you always this apathetic towards cinematic masterpieces or is it the sickness talking?"

"it's the sickness." he smiled, lying. he wasn't as big on movies as charles, he liked james bond and classics like the godfather, but that was about it.

"that's more like it. now, it is getting a bit late for me, i have to make dinner for raven and i."

"what time is it?"

"like, seven?"

"it's not that late." erik muttered

"do you want me to stay?"

"i just mean that raven's not a baby."

"do you want me to stay, erik?"

"and i'm too tired to get up and make dinner, or tea."

"so you do want me to stay?"

"besides we can have some drinks, alcohol will kill the germs."

"no, that's not how it works and it's tuesday."

"didn't say that we should pass out drunk."

"i'll be staying and you won't be having a drop of alcohol."

"killjoy."

"i'm staying, aren't i?" he got up and went to the kitchen "i'm gonna make you some more soup and tea." he shouted "if i see you touch the jäggermeister that i know you have beside your bed, i will kill you. you really should slow down, i don't want you with an alcohol problem before the age of 18."

erik moved his hand away from the nightstand, rolling his eyes. charles only had to ask and erik would be ready to do it. as if on cue, he entered the room.

"there you go, here's you dish sir." he chuckled "i'll be bringing your beverage shortly."

as charles gave him the plate, he looked at his hands, the fingertips red from the heat, the lightly freckled fingers, and in a moment as mundane as that, he realized that it were butterflies in his stomach, that he felt jealous of moira, that he didn't want charles to go because there was a bigger feeling involved.

"shit." he whispered

"something wrong?"

"yes. no! hot. the plate! the plate's hot."

"so am i." charles laughed, erik tried to as well.