Chapter Text
Today's mission had been a tiring one, for Henry at least. He was just glad he didn't get too roughed up and that it was all over with. Ever since he got enlisted after taking down the Toppat clan alongside who he would consider his go-to-man and best bro, Charles, things started turning around for the ex-thief. He mostly had Charles to thank for that, also. Had he not believed in Henry as much as he did and proved to the General that he would make the perfect teammate, who knows where he would've been at this very moment? Hell if either of them knew. There was never a dull moment from Charles. He always seemed to have a happy-go-lucky attitude, even during the most anguishing situations. Henry couldn't help but wonder how he always did it, anybody else would've been bitter and hardened if they went through the life Charles has lived, especially considering how long he's been in the military.
Today, however, Charles had been a little bit more peppy than usual; he knew something that Henry didn't. Charles always had a smile on his face that stared straight ahead at the open blue sky, but from what Henry could see across the cockpit, there was more behind it. He looked like he could barely hold his excitement in, it kinda freaked Henry out, but he dismissed it as he continued to stare blankly at the small window in front of him. Before Henry could continue to ponder any further, his earpiece went off, and he took the call; it was from the General.
"Glad to see you two made it back in one piece. What would I do without you boys?" The General said. Henry grinned and let out a huff in response, he turned away from the window to take a proper seat down and continued to listen,
"I 'spose Charlie hasn't filled you in yet, unless he couldn't hold it in, but I've decided to give you two some time off. Charlie threw the suggestion after I told him there weren't going to be that many missions that the rest of my men couldn't handle. Besides, you two deserve to hang out outside of missions, enjoy your week off, Henry!"
Once the General hung up, Henry's eyes widened, and he turned to Charles, signaling for his confirmation. Could this really be? He thought. Charles must've overheard the conversation because he began to chuckle, kicking his feet a bit, and turned to Henry with a big smile after a few seconds of silence.
"SURPRISE!!!"
Charles yelled with a bubbly tone, pulling out little jazz hands before putting his hands back on the steering and jerking the chopper back upright, startling the both of them with the sudden movement. "Woah there..!" Charles immediately blurted out as he readjusted.
Henry smiled again, holding his hand up to his face to prevent himself from laughing as hard as he wanted. He looked back at Charles, now only giving Henry passing glances every few moments to prevent another potential crash. God would it have sucked to get blown up after hearing some of the most exciting news in a while. Charles continued, stumbling over his words,
"I figured we've done so much together, but I.."
Charles sighed, catching his breath on account of how much air he lost from yelling and nearly scaring the daylights out of both himself and Henry,
"We've been doing stuff together for so long, but we... We haven't actually stopped to hang out one-on-one, so I wanted to take the opportunity to get closer! If you didn't mind that is.."
Henry didn't know what to say if he could anything in the first place. Nobody ever really wanted to hang around Henry to this extent. The times people did were mostly out of obligation or because they wanted to get something out of him. Charles seemed to be the only person who didn't seem to have any weird ulterior motive that Henry was so used to seeing in everyone. For the first time, he could really say that he had a best friend with no strings attached. He gave Charles a wider smile and a big thumbs up to gesture his approval; Charles smiled back and responded to the gesture.
"Great! Once we get to the base we'll be dropped off at a subway station that'll take us to the city. We can get settled from there and start our week!"
'Subway'? Henry thought. He wondered where they'd be going that would need them to take a subway station. He really couldn't wrap his head around taking public transit like a civilian again without a lurking authority figure on his back. They couldn't just take his helicopter? Maybe it would be a waste of government resources since they're technically off-duty now. All these bombarding thoughts were raising more questions than answers for Henry. But he trusts that Charles has a really special week planned, being the ideas guy of the duo and whatnot, so he's willing to go with the flow. The chopper landed sooner than Henry had expected, everything suddenly seemed to be moving so fast. Guess Charles truly was antsy, he thought. Two knocks on the chopper's giant slide door rang once Charles began to step out of the cockpit. Henry glanced over and reached to open the door. There stood the General with Rupert behind him, a little less stone-faced than usual, but still armed to the teeth as he kept his ground. The General stroked his beard a bit as he talked.
"You two enjoy yourselves, now. You both deserve a little break after helping us out so much. I'll let Rupert here take over."
"Thanks General, we'll be making the most out of it!" The General's golden pilot chirped, stepping closer to stand beside Henry.
The General stepped aside and allowed Rupert to take over. "You guys can follow me," He directed, slinging his gun to his backside, "there's some stuff you guys are gonna need to bring before we go ahead 'n send you off".
The two boys stepped fully out of the helicopter as Charles waved goodbye to the General and began to follow Rupert alongside Henry.
The walk started off with awkward silence, Charles smiling at Henry behind him and Henry nervously smiling back, scratching the back of his head. Rupert didn't bother looking behind to look at either of them. Safe to say he was never the happiest around Henry, and Henry felt the same resentment, no questions about that. They had a bit of history, seeing each other more than once on opposite sides of the law and all. Needless to say, they both got on each other's nerves, especially since now they've been having to work together. Charles, however, had just as much history with Rupert, being the first to welcome him into the government with open arms. Charles always had a way with people, he was a bit awkward, sure, but he knew how to warm people up and make them feel seen. It's hard not to like a guy with the attitude he possessed, its no wonder such opposing personalities would both be drawn to him. If you were a friend of Charles, there was always an outwardly positive reason behind it. But despite this, Rupert's lack of trust for Henry never seemed to drop even after all this time. It really went to show no matter what Henry did, he was still seen as a threat somehow. Finally, Rupert gave up his petty tensions for the time being and decided to pry into his close friend instead, ignoring Henry completely.
"So... Ya finally talked the General into letting you catch a break?" Rupert remarked towards Charles without turning around to look at him.
"Ahh, well you know... I knew he was going to eventually, he wouldn't stop talking about how much I was overworking myself for months. No need to pout, you'll get your time." Charles teased as he patted Rupert's shoulder in front of him.
Rupert finally looked behind him with a sly grin,
"At least I won't be on my knees beggin' to take out the bloke I just met on my little vacation when it's my turn to ask!"
he snorted a laugh and Charles punched his shoulder, a little harder than the both of them expected.
"Haha, Easy there, poundcake!" Rupert retorted in response to the punch. Charles' face turned red and got defensive, but still laughing alongside him.
"I wasn't begging! I was... just asking.. A lot! Don't get any ideas! The General knows Henry and I go wayyyy back!" Charles's attempt to defend himself was horrible, and Rupert was not buying it,
"Yea, yea, sure thing. But you're not slick you know." His accent drawled from him, locking eyes with his best friend.
He wanted to piss off Charles so badly. Charles knew how much of a jokester he could be beneath those cold and rough layers, but it was hard to blame Rupert. He knew how to push the pilot's buttons. Plus, it would be the last time he'd get to for a whole week! Charles just scoffed and pushed his headphones closer together to block out Rupert's annoying snickering.
Henry was observing their interaction the whole time, watching the two soldiers in front of him laugh it out and take jabs at each other like brothers. As petty as it was, Henry was happy to know that Charles was willing to stand up for him, regardless if he and Rupert had been friends for far longer. His lingering thought of what Charles saw in Henry came back again, leaving him with too many rushing thoughts to even focus on their conversation anymore. Before he knew it, they stopped by a concrete brick building with a sliding garage door. Rupert did the honors of pulling up the door, revealing a hall of lockers, duffel bags, and other various belongings from various different soldiers. Natural light was creeping over the whole room in blocks, though it was at an angle, given how the sun was starting its journey to the horizon. The sky was still blue, but there was a slight dust of yellow and red threatening the day's end.
"Grab what you two need for the trip, but don't take too long; we're still 'sposed to get you two to the station on time." Rupert's smile died down and his stern tone came back. He pointed towards the lockers.
"Thanks again!" Charles said lowly, but still in a cheerful manner. He rested his hand on Henry's shoulder and leaned over to look up at him and meet his eyes, Henry almost forgetting they were on this trip together,
"I know it's been a while since you enlisted and all, but you remember where your locker is, right?" Henry nodded. Charles patted and walked away past him to get to his own locker. "Sounds good! Lemme know if you need anything! I'll meet you up at the front!"
And with that, Henry raced to remember which one exactly was his. He knew the general area, but which one was actually his? Boy, he didn't know if he could tell you that much. He walked to the far right of the lockers, going towards the complete opposite direction Charles went and eyeing down each individual locker to determine which one contained his belongings. He eventually glanced at one with a magnet stuck on it. It was a badge that he stole from a guard he accidentally killed back at the Wall. He didn't really like having such a reminder of his kill count, but regardless, it was a good way to scope out which locker was his among the numerous rows. He opened the lock, and a bunch of his stuff flooded out; he admittedly wasn't the most organized. Out came the cell phone he stole, a few changes of clothes, his wallet, extra thing of body spray, and his random arsenal of knick-knacks that have gotten him out of trouble, notably when he had to deal with the Toppats. He really couldn't believe all of that happened a year ago already. Before he could get too lost in thought, though, he took a duffel bag and shoved what he could in there, with his goal being to empty out the locker with whatever. He didn't have many belongings to begin with, so packing light was the least of his worries. As he was about to wrap up, he heard a long echoing pound of metal followed by a booming voice.
"OI! HURRY UP NOW, WOULDYA!?"
Henry jumped, growing frustrated the second he realized just who it was. That lousy Brit couldn't seem to get out of his case even as a co-worker, eh? He zipped up what he had left of the duffel bag and slammed his locker shut. He walked out to meet Charles who was awkwardly smiling, scratching the back of his neck as Rupert stood behind him, looking at Henry with a shared expression of annoyance. Charles noticed this growing tension and tried to ease it before things escalated.
"Heyy, haha.. We're taking that Jeep, right? ...To the subway station?"
Rupert didn't take his glance off of Henry as he spoke, "Yea, c'mon."
They all walked to the sleek green military jeep, Charles and Henry took the back seat, Henry sitting beside Charles while Charles sat directly behind Rupert. Rupert revved the jeep to life and upon leaving the base, the three of them saw open desert and mountains that stretched for miles.
~*~
The sun was starting to set, and Rupert cursed at himself a bit over this, speaking through gritted teeth.
"Damn.. If we left a while ago, I wouldn't be so lost right now... Can't see a thing with these headlights."
Charles rebutted, "Come on, we still got a little bit until the train arrives, it's not like it'd be in a rush to reach all the way out here."
"Eh, who knows, maybe we already missed it."
Charles frowned a bit at Rupert's pessimism; the lack of windows and the loud buzzing of the engine certainly didn't help Charles' ability to speak up, discouraging him from fighting with the brick wall that was their driver. He decided to slump back in his seat, puffing up his cheeks in a pouty fashion. Henry noticed this and took a look at his face, patting his shoulder the same way Charles always does whenever he was down. This reminded Charles of who he was doing this for in the first place, and he looked back at Henry and started to mellow out a bit. He tried to speak again over the loud engine, leaning his face closely towards Henry's so his voice could be caught by Henry's ears.
"Man, been a minute since the stars have seemed so far away like this, huh, Henry?" Charles said, pointing up at the darkening sky. Henry never gave a gesture, but he swore he could see a glimmer in the pilot's eyes as he admired the milky view. Charles knew he was listening despite the lack of confirmation, so he continued,
"Hate to admit it, but maybe the Toppats were onto something trying to build a rocket. Imagine sleeping among the stars, waking up to that every day... Well... wouldn't really be day anymore after that, huh? Their sleep schedule would probably get so thrown off!"
He laughed to himself: the thought of the Toppats missing heists because they were all too sleepy was too silly to him. Henry smiled in response. It was funny that Charles still remembered the Toppats even after so many missions, guess it was because that first airship mission was the hallmark of their blooming friendship. It was good that the mood began to lighten up a bit; Rupert must've read the room since he laughed back at Charles.
"Eh, those guys wouldn't know how to appreciate those stars if they hit 'em in the face! I still don't see why we couldn't take their blueprints. Not like they were gonna use 'em anyway."
Charles laughed some more, "Maybe so guys like you wouldn't go rogue and fly away!"
The conversation turning light-hearted again relieved Henry a bit. He was still bitter towards Rupert for nearly giving him a heart attack back at the lockers, but if Rupert was willing to put that aside, no reason why Henry couldn't either. For Charles' sake at least.
"Oi! There's your stop." Rupert's face perked up a bit as he drove closer to a railway with a singular stop. The stop was awkwardly on its lonesome, complete with a lamppost, a clock, and a black overhead with a bar of blue text scrolling constantly. They proceeded to park by the small block of concrete, and Rupert dimmed the headlights, leaving the engine running.
Charles and Henry stepped out of the Jeep, making sure they both had all their belongings together. Charles and Rupert gave some final remarks to hit the road with. The exchanges were brief, and Henry barely focused on what was being said, preferring to stare off into the distance instead. When Rupert stepped out, Charles gave Rupert an arm-wrestle handshake that turned into a hug that was a little too tight for Rupert's liking. He could've sworn Charles cracked a few kinks in his back with that one. Rupert's free hand repeatedly slapped at the pilot's back, trying to free himself from the warming hug before he either lost his breath or got his back broken... or both. He kept groaning in protest until Charles finally let go of the soldier while he laughed. They gave each other a few more punches to the shoulder and friendly banter before Rupert got back in the driver's seat.
"Don't miss us too much, Rupert!" Charles lightly waved, and Rupert scoffed.
"Yeah right, like I've got anything to miss! I'll finally have a day go by without worryin' about you trying ta crash into something!" He gave a bigger smile, finally revealing his teeth, before quickly changing his mood to something calmer, "But seriously, mate, take it easy, both you and Henry. Try and get a call in, yeah?" He began facing forward just past the steering wheel.
To Henry's surprise, he finally got acknowledged by his real name and not some back-handed nickname relating to his criminal history. Rupert was finally starting to humanize him, and Henry wasn't sure what to think about it. Was it Charles' positivity rubbing off on him? Maybe Henry's harmless demeanor around others? Whatever it was, it was enough to warm Henry up and give Rupert a wave goodbye also.
"Will do, take care!" Charles chirped. With a final nod, Rupert finally turned back on the headlights and drove off into the desert. Then it was the two boys alone again, both turning around to face the railroad across from them. They both looked down as the singular lamp dimmed over them. Charles looked to Henry, who was still looking down.
"This ride is prolly gonna be a good..." He trailed off as he thought, "What, a good 4 hours? Make sure to get yourself comfy. We probably won't get to my place until 11."
When it dawned on him, instant regret in Charles' face stared back at Henry. Henry raised an eyebrow at the sudden mood swing, and the pilot gave himself a light facepalm. Henry finally connected the dots: So that's where they were going, Henry thought. He guessed it made sense, where else would they really need to go into the city anyway? Wasn't much to do at that sorta hour unless it happened to be clubbing or partying, something neither of them showed much interest in. With that in mind, he began to picture what a person like Charles had that was considered "home". For all he was aware, the guy basically lived in his chopper; that thing was his camping trailer. It really opened his eyes to the kind of life Charles must've had outside of the government. It seemed like his only passion was his job and not much else.
"Ughh, silly me, I wasn't supposed to give that away, I wanted it to be a surprise!" Charles sighed but still gave a smile, "Well, you've had enough surprises for one day, huh?"
It impressed Henry just how well the man could take any situation, even if it didn't happen to be in his favor. Henry gave a light laugh in response as he looked up at the LED text that rolled above them, indicating the upcoming train. Charles looked up also, then quickly looked to his left to see faint lights up ahead. He tapped Henry's shoulder as he pointed.
"Hey look! That must be the train!"
The two boys gave another glance at themselves to make sure they had everything intact. Charles zipped up his parka and stood up tall. Henry looked at him and lightly copied him.
"See, Henry? I knew we were gonna make it on time. Rupert's always in such a rush!" Henry couldn't agree more.
As the train came to a stop and the doors hissed open, they both made their way inside, an empty seat conveniently across from Henry's vision among the crowded metro. He took the seat and gave a sigh before he realized that there was no spot for Charles to sit.
Charles noticed this and gave Henry a smile, "No worries, I don't mind standing!"
Charles reached for a hanging strap in front of him with one arm while the other relaxed, still clinging to his things. Henry felt bad, giving Charles a guilty look, but Charles shot back with a smile that never failed to reassure him.
Henry wasn't a fan of tight, crowded spaces; he didn't really have a reason to anymore since he was a free man, but he still couldn't shake his paranoia. As the train began treading along, Henry stared straight at the windowed door and traveled into his own mind again. He began thinking of his experiences imprisoned at the Wall and how much the conditions were similar to this subway. He felt cold and tight, with uncomfortable seating, might he add. His head began to hurt a bit.
He was supposed to be having a nice time, but why was he so anxious all of a sudden? Was it some weird PTSD or something?
Whatever it was, he didn't like it, and he needed to shake these thoughts off. Bad.
He took a couple of deep breaths and gave himself some space to imagine the fun he was about to have with Charles which put him back in a collected mood. He wishes he could tell Charles just how much this all meant to him, but he was never great with words. It always seemed like his throat felt tighter at the mere idea of getting a proper sentence out. He was lucky that Charles was very understanding and knew just what Henry was thinking. Henry couldn't be more grateful for that, even if he's never outright said it to him. He knew Charles understood him, and that was all he needed.
Growing smitten with his new flooding thoughts, a flickering of the subway lights snapped him out a bit. He looked around awkwardly at the numerous faces in both directions. He looked mostly to his right since Charles's body wasn't cutting off his field of vision in that direction. He looked at the side profiles of various strangers. Some people were asleep, with their kids, on their phones, or staring off into space, much like what Henry was doing. Amongst this sea of people, his gaze became stuck on one particular person:
A girl with an oversized sweater dress and a scarf so big that it covered the lower half of her face. She was standing rather stiff, unbothered by the wobbles of the train, looking straight past the window with a tired yet determined gaze in her eyes and gripping onto a hanging strap, much like what Charles was doing. The biggest thing that stood out to Henry, however, was her flashy red hair. It brushed just above her shoulders and it made her stick out like a sore thumb. Only perpetuated further by her dull-colored coat and dark, sleazy pants. Upon staring a little more, Henry tried making out the finer details of her face that were exposed. Though she was a little far, he still attempted anyhow by some cryptic push of motivation. Something told him she looked familiar somehow.. His eyes widened, he took several double-takes at her, adjusting his eyes to the bright false light of the train...
~*~