How to be a (functioning) human being.

Mine

Henry sat on his bed, relieved the pain was finished. The doctor was currently mapping out the blueprint for his arm. "I heard you made a bet. It was about how long it would take for you to need repairs, Да?" He hummed, messing with his sling quietly.

The doctor chuckled, shaking her head. "Lose the bet, please." He nodded, knowing she could easily justify another 30 minutes of torture. She smiled at his slightly panicked nodding, going back to her blueprints. He softly got off the bed, looking towards her. "Yes, you can go." He nodded, running outside

He had gotten used to the layout of the camp (after dealing with the airship, this seemed like a piece of cake.), so it was easy to find Charlie. Who was giving his helicopter a paint job. He remembered the pilot telling him about the mission, in which his helicopter had gotten badly scratched up, quietly sniggering as he remembered the others dramatic flailing (or, as he called it, acting.) to re-enact his story.

"Oh! Hey Henry, how're you doing? How's your arm? Did the doctor do anything cool?" Charlie turned around, bouncing up. "Do you need anything?" He shook his head, taking out Charlie's note (which was nearly as thin as a layer of tissue, but was folded carefully.) note and hoping he'd understand. "Oh... hm... Wait! Do you wanna hang out?"

Henry quickly nodded, holding himself close. "Okay! Uh... Wanna go get some paint? I'm running out." He looked in the bucket carefully, it was pretty empty. Henry hummed, before Charlie grabbed his hand and ran to the storage.

The thief flushed, dragged along by the pilot. He suddenly stopped, looking over at Henry "You okay? Do you want me to stop holding your hand?" A concerned expression came across the man's face, it looked strange on him. Henry felt a wave of anxiety wash over him, but he simply shook his head. The wave of anxiety lifted off him as the other grinned and nodded, continuing forwards to their destination.

----

Rupert was subconsciously monitoring the ex-Toppat leader at the base, he couldn't help it. Henry was acting strange, not the strange he noticed during the infiltration, but the other was staying close to Charles at all times, which would be normal if the thief wouldn't leave suddenly with a half-assed excuse and a certain look in his eyes that made Rupert uneasy

That's why he cornered a certain Chaos Control Center worker, Lau. "What do you want Rupert?" They clearly had already gotten used to the antics around the camp, and had been Rupert's go-to for things he'd get in trouble for, but a worker from the CCC would be able to without anyone blinking an eye. "I need to know why Henry's acting so weird.'

"Jesus Christ the man's died twice this year leave him alone." Rupert sighed, a hint of annoyance in it. "Have you seen him near Charles? He's acting... Strange, obsessive. He just blanks out and stares at him. It's worrying me." Lau nodded, tapping their foot "Y'know, as an average CCC worker, I'd be fired." Rupert faltered. "But since I'm pretty much his babysitter, I can help."

It was always good to have a high ranking CCC member to cover for you.

----

Henry walked slowly, taking in all the details he'd never see about the pilot from afar. Like his freckles (if he could, the thief would count them) that softly littered his arms and face, or how his eyes turned a light shade of honey in the sunshine, the warm rays reminded him of the pilot, just as bright and warm as he was to the thief.

He also shoved another pilot a packet of cigarettes in exchange for chocolate, so he probably didn't smoke. These small things meant nothing in the long run, but to him any new information only made him want the pilot more, For Charlie to be his and no one else's. He'd always try and stop the thoughts from forming into more than a small voice telling him how much he wanted the pilot. But every little thing he learnt only made the thoughts grow, from a want to a need, he'd like to call the others smile his one moment, the next wanting every little thing that made the pilot... him.

He apparently stopped walking without realising, Charlie looked over confused before the thief quickly pointed in a way to signal bathrooms (hoping the pilot would understand) and headed the opposite of said bathrooms, even though neither noticed.

Henry burst into (what pretty much was, at this point) his room, his clouded mind only screamed about its wants, not thinking how there were consequences this time. It wanted the pilot so much but the front only yelled at it to stop, it was like a battle that ended in millions dead but no one on a winning side. It only devolved into a chorus of wants, and it was too loud for the thief to cope with, it was too overwhelming and it was too much of everything horrible he was able to think of (not much in his current state).

Then it devolved into his muted yellings of stop, stop yelling at him to stop being loud, shut up he was trying to think of something other than this, be quiet he had to go back to Charlie, did he even have permission to call him Charlie? He didnt know, was he being too possessive was Charlie only being nic- HE DIDNT KNOW, he was yelling at his brain to stop asking questions, he'd have its answers never and he wasn't going to deal with it he didn't want to deal with it STOP ASKING HIM QUESTIONS BRAIN.

He only started calming down after 30 minutes, feeling the empty feeling again, the one where he was only tired, and didn't understand his own emotions (as if he understood them normally.). Alas, he had to get up and go back to Charlie. He sighed as he did so, stalking out of the tent with a dead look in his eyes. Hopefully the pilot would cheer him up.

Hopefully.

----

Charles had been spending his day with Henry, fixing up his helicopter and chatting to the mute thief. Although the general had popped in to tell him that he was expecting him at his office, 5 pm sharp. That was where he was actually heading, looking around the camp, it was pretty boring, but he'd gotten used to it by now. Looking at the general's tent, he slightly froze up, yeah he may be his grandson but he's still terrified.

'Come in, Charlie.' He heard the general, following his order "What would you like to discuss, sir?" Right to the chase, Charles barely remembered to say hi from living with his aunt so long. "Well, we need to discuss plans. Next week we will send out you and Henry to scout out around the wall, we have gotten permission from their government to shut it down, and we are counting on you." Well, that was an info dump, the general ignored the lack of formalities and instead showed him a map. "Here is a map from 1963, it may not be the best, but I believe it will be of use if anything goes sideways." The pilot nodded, holding up the map to the light "It looks like the ones the owner would have, like, it has all the floors and stuff, how'd you get this?"

The general didnt answer his question, pointing to the door. "Please tell Henry about this, if he's not with the doctor. The woman's insane sometimes... " Charles sighed, nodding and ignoring the last part as he left. At least he knew where his mumbling habit came from.

While the general got up, thinking of the boy's question. He wouldn't say anything though, it was a while ago. Then his thoughts trailed to how close Charlie and Henry had gotten, it was depressing to watch when the thief was only seen as a weapon to the government. But he wasn't in any position to stop it.

Stickmin was a criminal, and would be treated as one as far as the higher-ups cared.