𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

iv. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

    

     THE plane ride was quiet because Charles mostly had his headphones on and was sleeping through half of it. When they arrived, Mike is ahead of Charles and then the Wheeler ran off towards El which made Charles roll his eyes at them, but then he smiled once he saw Will standing up, smiling at him.

Charles immediately brushed past Mike and El as they kissed and hugged. Will's arms immediately go around his neck as his arms go around his boyfriend's waist. Charles squeezed him in his arms as Will's brows furrow slightly together, hugging back tight anyway before he pulled back. For a split second, Charles almost kissed him. "Happy birthday." He merely says to him and all eyes turn towards him.

"Birthday?" Mike, El and Jonathan all say in sync so he looked at them. "You guys... seriously forgot?" He glanced between them all and Will just takes the present. "Don't worry about it." He smiles at Charles. "I'm fine as long as you're here." He says and Charles looks at him. That look in his eyes says otherwise but Charles just watched as Will tore off the wrapping paper to see it was watercolor paint. "Oh, they're so nice... thank you." Will looks up at him, smiling widely. "Y--Yeah, you mentioned you got into painting, so I couldn't resist." He smiles back and Will fights the urge to just leap over to Charles and kiss him right then and there, in front of everyone in the airport.

"Oh, and this is for you." He hands over the painting as Mike, El, Jonathan and Argyle were in their own conversation nearby. Charles carefully takes it, "oh... really? But it's your birthday." He says and Will just smiles. "Just take it, please. It's for you. You can look at it now or later." He says and Charles immediately opens it up. "Of course I wanna look at it now." He laughs and Will just couldn't stop smiling.

It was a sunset and a silhouette two people sitting together, it appears to be Will and Charles, Will has his head on Charles' shoulder and it makes him smile and blush. "I love it... thank you." He says to his boyfriend before he rolled it back up and put it away. Charles almost grabs his hand as they began to leave, following after Mike and El ahead of them.

Charles watched them in jealousy. Not because he liked Mike. But because Mike's arm is around El and El's arm is around him. And they get to be seen as okay because they're a boy and a girl. "I want today to be about me and you." El smiled at Mike who then kissed her.

Charles had been zoning out this whole time but he caught onto that. "You want your brother's birthday to be about you and Mike?" He asked, clearly in disgust and anger as they got outside and El glanced over her shoulder at him, her puppy dog eyes makes him feel guilty. For a split second. "Charles, come on. They haven't seen each other in months... we'll just have our own fun." Will tells him right away.

"Yeah. Somewhere else. I don't wanna hang out with them." Charles says right away, looking away and El glanced away, looking sad as Mike rubs her shoulder gently. Whispering something to her about not minding Charles. "Charles. It's my birthday." Will whispers and Charles looks at him as they sat way in the back of the van. "Yeah. I know that." He says and Will tilts his head forward a bit at him.

"So I wanna go have burritos and go to Rink-O-Mania with my friends." He says and Charles brings his hand up to his face, sighing deeply. "Will--" "Charles." Will says right away and Charles looks at him right away. How could he ever resist those soft hazel eyes? "Fine... but if Mike gets on my nerves... I'm on the first plane out of here." It's mostly a joke and Will clearly gets it as he rolls his eyes.

"And... we'll get a birthday cake for you." Charles smiled widely and Will nods, smiling as he brings his hand over Charles'. "I'm really glad you're here..." He says and Charles smiles back before leaning over, pecking Will gently on the lips. Will glanced to the front and saw the others being in their own world so he leans in again. This time, deepening their kiss as he clutched onto Charles' hand in his gently.

Charles puts his arm around his boyfriend, scooting closer as Will's hand raised to his chest. They pulled apart and giggled quietly as they blush and Will puts his forehead against Charles' shoulder. The van came to a stop and they arrived to El Rodeo where they all head inside to get some food. Just as expected, El and Mike were in their own world, which left Charles and Will to at least talk amongst themselves. Charles hopes he can distract Will with a conversation about a book from the lack of him eating but then Will glanced down.

"Why haven't you taken a bite? It's delicious." Will smiles widely and Charles chuckles. "Right, yeah." At this was when Mike was pulled out of his El daze and looked as Charles picked up the burrito. He took a bite and Will waited for his reaction and he just looked at him, smiling. "Yeah, it's good. Really good." He nodded and honestly, it's the first solid thing Charles has eaten in so long, he eats an occasional apple, or some raisins. But that's it.

Mike stared at the boy as Charles smiled and Will smiled back too, continuing to eat his burrito, turning his head away. Charles put down his burrito right away and drank a lot of his water. Maybe if he washed it down, he could feel less bad about eating it. "Mike?" El says so Mike goes back into his little El bubble.

And Charles goes back to pretending he's eating his food but rather just picking at it and taking small bites he then spits out into a napkin. Argyle and Jonathan are too tired and a bit too grumpy to care, Mike and El are too lovey-dovey to notice and Will is talking about school and such while Charles listened.

It wasn't until they left when Will noticed that only a quarter of the burrito was eaten. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick, alright?" Charles said to Jonathan who nods. "Yeah, we'll be waiting out front." He smiles faintly at Charles who just waved his hand slightly and walked away. Will watched him cautiously.

"Hey, I'm gonna be right there." Will also tells Jonathan whose brows furrow. "Okay..." He says before Will walked off, entering the bathroom shortly after Charles had. He carefully shut the door behind him, hoping it wasn't too loud and then he heard it. The gagging and vomitting. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Charles? What are you doing?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

authors note poor charles... anyways it's always been implied charles has an ed, i just never tackled the topic head on until now which i thought would be perfect considering the plot of season four and all.
+ i'm gonna be travelling today so i'm updating 5 hours earlier bc i'm leaving in 2 hours lol. but yeah!! here's an early update :)