Authors Note: Hi all! Today, we'll be meeting a little more of the family pack, in some unsuspecting ways. Thank you for reading!
-Saturn
The day went by fast for Charlie. It was a nice exception to the long week that he had. All the new faces seemed friendly, if not polite. But something told him that they weren't used to strangers in their home. And Charlie didn't want to be seen as a nuisance. It almost made him want to convince the doctor to let him leave again. He didn't like not feeling wanted, especially when he was already wearing out his welcome.
He had a feeling that after their discussion on what happened that night, though, he wasn't going to be able to convince him easily. So, instead, he would just put on his best customer service face and try and win these people over with his charisma.
Max was the one that seemed to help calm him down. When he was at a loss of words, or he was just feeling a little too nervous, he would glance at Max. The man was always looking at him; always watching him. And he couldn't say that he didn't like it.
Some of the people were easy to warm up to him. Ed and his wife, Emily, were definitely the socialites of the group. The women were easier to get relaxed than the men. Although, Isabelle was rather standoffish to him.
Charlie was quick to cut out another piece of pie for anyone who wanted another. That's why he still had so much food still left to eat. He was so into his own customer service mindset that he put their needs over his own hunger.
Dr. Button noticed this immediately, and he smacked his hand away from the pie cutter as soon as he went for it.
"Eat," he commanded him. "Everyone can get their own piece if they want one."
At least it got a laugh out of everyone. Charlie just smiled and obliged.
"I don't think I've seen the doc this nuts before," Ed leaned over the table. Him and Emily were sitting right across from him. His golden eyes twinkled with mischief. "You must have really worried him."
Charlie just laughed and changed the subject. It had been a long time since anyone really parented him like that. Ryan was the closest thing to a father he had, and he was usually so busy cooking that there wasn't that much time to do much else. He didn't like bothering anyone with his silly problems anyway.
A part of him liked the care that the doctor showed. It reminded him of good times in a green backyard. Of laughter and fun and running around carelessly.
No, he couldn't think back to that. The past was not something he ever wanted on his mind. Because those good memories always changed to bad ones. He could never just enjoy the happy emotions that came, because they were poisoned with other memories that came soon after.
He looked around the room at all the happiness and laughter that was happening before him. Maybe, someday, he could be a part of something like this, rather than just watching it from afar.
Charlie looked at Max again. He had decided to sit a little ways down, away from the seat that he had taken. He felt a tinge of sadness at that, but decided to let it go. At least he could see him and admire him from afar. At least those eyes never left him. For some reason, that made him feel safe.
The conversation in the kitchen that they had probably didn't mean anything to him. For a second, Charlie thought that they had been flirting, but that was probably just his imagination. He still couldn't believe he winked at the red-head. Max's reaction to it was priceless.
Was this all some weird game they were playing? What about when he had pulled him into that little spot in one of the hallways? Did he mean anything by these things he did? Charlie wanted to believe that he was interested in him, but he was never one to keep his hopes up about anything.
It only took a second for those purple eyes to meet his again. That warm alien sunset gave him a comfort he didn't think he needed at the time. They looked worried for a second, like they saw something in Charlie's face that bothered him. But Charlie just smiled, nodded his head, and broke the eye contact. There was no need for anyone to be worried for his sake. He was just grateful to be here.
He wished he could hide his emotions better. Max had a way of bringing out what he was feeling no matter how hard he tried to hide it. It wasn't that he was trying to hide anything from the man, he just didn't want anyone to be worried about him. He would be fine no matter what happened. He had gotten through much worse.
"Oh no," Leah broke through his thoughts.
"What?" he asked. The brunette just shook her head and gave him an apologetic look.
"I hope you're okay with some kids," was all she said.
"I thought you said your sister was watching them all until 3?" Sam looked at his wife, then looked at the giant grandfather clock that was on the other side of the room. "It's already three?!"
Ed laughed at his friend's shock. No sooner had they warned him, Charlie heard the pitter-patter of little feet on the ground. Four kids ran in practically screaming.
"Aunty, Aunty, Aunty!" the oldest girl bounced up and down. She had to be around six years old. There was another girl around her age right next to her. The other two looked to be toddlers. "Mommy said that you were having lunch with a human!"
A human? This little girl was strange, but funny. Her long brown hair bounced with her as she looked at her aunt excitedly.
"We're all human, Ana," Leah gave off a nervous laugh. Sam put an arm around his pregnant wife. She looked stressed by what the girl had said.
Charlie understood what she was going through. There were plenty of parents that would get embarrassed by their kids saying strange things. They either said it because of a show that they watched or just because they heard someone else say it. Charlie was guessing the girl thought she was some alien or something.
"Are you talking about me?" Charlie smiled at the girl. She spun around to him with big blue eyes. They sparkled with wonder as she looked at him. Before anyone could stop her, she ran over to him.
"You're a human?!" she asked. She looked so adorable. It was as if she had never seen anything like Charlie before. Maybe this group of people weren't used to seeing people with green eyes and blond hair. It wasn't really common around these parts. Charlie got it from his mom. She was from somewhere else though. He couldn't quite remember where. It was a long time ago that he was told these things.
"Nope," he gave her a wink. "I'm an alien."
"An alien?" the other girl spoke. This one had an adorable little pixy cut. Her hair was slightly darker than her older siblings'.
"Yup," he nodded. He then leaned in to whisper to them. "That's why your aunt wanted to have lunch with me in private."
All the adults were now looking at them with amusement. Even Isabelle had a small grin growing on her face. It was a start.
"Are you a bad alien?" the pixy asked. Her brown eyes looked bigger than her sisters. She kept putting her pink shirt in her mouth as she talked. It was adorable.
"Of course not!" Charlie shook his head dramatically. "If I was bad, your mommy wouldn't let me see you. Your aunt either."
"You're not an alien, you're a human!" Ana stomped her foot and crossed her arms.
"Ana," Sam looked to her. "There's no need to be rude to a guest."
"But he's not an alien!" she argued.
"It's okay," Charlie told Sam. He was more amused by this than anything. He loved talking to children. There was always something interesting that they had to say. "How can you be so sure that I'm human, though?"
"Because you smell like one!" She said it so matter-of-factly that Charlie had to stifle a laugh.
"Is that supposed to be your way of saying I'm smelly?"
"No," she giggled at that. Her laugh was addicting. "You aren't smelly."
The girl with the pixy haircut was now over by him as well, sitting by his feet. The other two toddlers were with Sam and Leah. They seemed to be too young to want to run around all the time with the other two. It was obvious to see which ones were the couples. Those toddlers looked just like their parents. One was a boy while the other was a girl. Unlike their cousins, they had their father's sandy blond hair, and they both had warm brown eyes.
Leah shot him an apologetic look as she fed the youngest some of the food that they still had on the table. Charlie just shrugged at her. He had babysat as a job in high school, so handling kids was easy for him.
"You smell like pie!" the pixy girl said with a giggle.
"I do?" he asked her playfully. "Maybe it's because I have these," he handed them two plates of small slices of pie. The two of them gasped at the same time and grabbed their plate.
"What do you say girls?" Sam raised an eyebrow at them. His sandy blond hair was getting pulled by the toddler on his lap.
"Thank you!" the two girls said in unison.
"Sorry about them," Leah said to him. "My sister, Heather, has been teaching them about fantasy creatures."
"Oh, don't worry about it. Every kid has a vivid imagination."
"So, Charlie," Max's dad, Mr. Locke, leaned back into his seat. It seemed he finally ate enough. "What do you want to do other than this little restaurant?"
"Well, I've thought of a lot of different things when I was in high school," Charlie answered. "But, right now I was thinking of trying to start an animal shelter."
"An animal shelter?" he smiled. "So, you like animals?"
"Yeah, they've always been good friends of mine," he thought back to the wolf he met the week prior. It seemed like forever since he saw him. He thought he remembered seeing him the night before he came here, but he it was pretty hazy of a memory. He still couldn't believe that its fur was so soft. Wolves were supposed to have rough fur to help protect them from the many dangers that the forest had.
"Do you have any at the moment?" Tyler asked. He seemed really interested by Charlie's response. He must be an animal lover himself.
"No, sadly," he thought to the wolf again. As much as he seemed like a big puppy, he didn't think that he would like staying in his tiny apartment all day. It was better that the wild stay wild. "I wish I did, though."
"Cats or Dogs?" Ed asked.
"Both," Charlie answered. "But I like dogs the best."
"Good answer," Ed smirked at him. Then he looked at Max with a childish amusement written all over his face.
"You have to know a lot about rescuing animals, then?" Mrs. Locke asked. She had been quietly listening through most of the day.
"Well, you don't have to be a vet, if that's what you mean," Charlie laughed. He was happy to be finally talking about something he was comfortable with. He had put a lot of effort into learning about rescues. He knew more about it than he did about cooking, that was for sure. "But it's good to know the basics about their behavior and health. It's important for if the animal is wounded or was attacked by wolves for instance."
"How much do you know about wolves?" Mrs. Locke leaned in with interest. Her blue eyes seemed to stare into his soul.
So that's where Max got it.
"Well, I know what to do when you encounter one."
"Really? What is it?"
"It's really simple, but it doesn't work all the time. After all, a wild animal always has a bit of unpredictability," he explained. He seemed to have everyone's attention when he talked about this. He could only guess that they had to deal with wolves a lot around this area. "You just have to appear small and unthreatening. The wolves around here usually aren't hungry enough to try to eat humans, so the only reason they'll attack is if they feel threatened."
They all were staring at him this time. Some seemed shocked, others intrigued by his knowledge. Ed got another devilish smile on his face. Charlie had quickly learned that when he made that face it usually meant that he was going to say something weird just to try and tease someone.
"So, if you know that much about wolves," he started. "How much do you know about werewolves?"
"Werewolves?" he was surprised that they'd ask him about that. When he said animal rescue, he didn't exactly mean for the supernatural animals. If they existed. "Besides the fact that there's quite a lot of romance stories about them, I'm afraid I don't know that much."
He heard someone snort and turned to see Max holding his mouth to keep the water that he was drinking in. Charlie couldn't help but laugh at the red head. The laughter must have been contagious, because pretty soon everyone around the table was laughing.
"I'm a werewolf," Ana chimed in. It seemed that she was already bored by Leah's attempts to entertain her.
"Oh, Ana, won't you stop it already," Leah rolled her eyes.
"It's alright," Charlie chuckled a bit. He motioned the girl to come towards him again. She quickly ran over to him and sat by his feet, just like her pixy sister. "You're a werewolf?"
"Yup!" she nodded. Charlie always admired how confident children could be in just about anything they wanted to be confident in. "That's how I knew you were a human."
"Oh really?" he asked. He loved how brave and intelligent children could be in their own way. Seeing the world through innocent eyes was a blessing that only children could have. "Why don't you show me then?"
"I can't," she pouted. Charlie was expecting her to pull some dramatic scene from a movie or run around the room or something. This little girl was full of surprises.
"Why not?" he bent down to her and whispered, "Is it because I'm human?"
"Werewolves don't meet their wolves until they turn thirteen," she answered as if she had learnt it in a class or something.
"Ah," he played along. Her parents probably just told her this so that she wouldn't be running through the house trying to be a wolf. "Thirteen is a really important time for everybody." He was really curious what this girl was reading. It seemed like something he would want to read for fun. Now that he actually had extra time on his hands, he could catch up on all the reading he wanted.
"Even for humans?"
"Mhmm," he nodded. "I remember when I was thirteen."
"What did you have to go through?"
"When humans turn thirteen, their body changes too," he explained. "But it's in smaller ways. They get a little more emotional, and their body starts to grow a little more."
"Really?" Ana's eyes lit up. Her mouth started to go a mile a minute. "Did you yell at your parents? Or tear up the house?"
"Not exactly," Charlie said. Something told him that he shouldn't have brought it up. But the social butterfly in him just had to keep the conversation going. He was also really bad at lying, especially on the spot. So, there was no way he could just make up a tall tale either.
"Did your parents yell at you then? Or force you to your room?" she tilted her head like a little puppy. It was adorable.
"No," he chuckled. He could tell that it wasn't just Ana that was curious about his answer. He could feel everyone's eyes on him. To be honest, even though he was a social butterfly, he didn't quite like the spotlight as much as everyone seemed to think. He loved to talk, but not so much about himself.
He could have lied. He could have said that they would be reasonable and understanding like the parents he wished he had. But, along with the fact that he wasn't the best at lying, there was something about Ana looking at him with such interest that stopped him. He couldn't lie to someone so innocent.
"Well," he sighed. "When I was thirteen, I didn't really have parents."
The whole room went still. He could feel the pity from all of them. It made him want to turn back time. If he could choose between any super power, it would be the ability to move back in time at least once to erase this part from it and start the conversation all over again.
"Did they die?" Ana's eyes looked like they were teary almost. He immediately felt guilty for telling her something like this. It was too serious a topic for a child like her.
"Oh no," he gave her a big smile. "They're still alive. I just got emancipated."
"Emancipated?" she seemed to have trouble saying the word. Charlie learned that it was actually a good thing to introduce kids to big words at a young age. They were like sponges with every piece of information they got.
"Yup. It's where you go to court and become independent," the room was still quiet, and he was close to breaking from his false happiness he plastered onto his face. They all seemed so curious. But they remained quiet as he talked to the curious little girl.
"Woah!" Ana said. "What's it like?"
"Well, I still went to school and graduated," he bopped her small nose with his finger. "Education is the most important thing you can have."
Before Ana could berate him with more questions, Leah called her over to her. When she went to her aunt, the woman started to give her a lecture about asking too many questions.
"It's alright," he told her again. She seemed so worried about how he reacted towards the little girl. It was thoughtful, but not necessary. "It's not something I hide from people." That was the easiest lie he could give to people. Whenever it came to making others feel better, Charlie could easily say anything. He could never lie when it came to himself, though. He was just dying for the conversation to go back to normal. It was difficult avoiding eye contact with so many people. And he didn't dare look over in Max's direction.
"You got emancipated at thirteen?" Tyler asked. He seemed hesitant to ask, but his face showed that he was too curious to not bring it up.
Charlie wished he could go back to him hating him. It was better than him giving him that concerned look.
"Yeah," he pretended to brush it off. "I was the youngest in the state to ever be emancipated. I think it's in a newspaper somewhere, actually."
His heart was going to explode in his chest. Talking about this just brought back more memories that he couldn't bear to think about. He had spent too many nights during his childhood crying over them. He didn't want to keep that trend.
Fake it 'til you make it.
"What happened?" Isabelle asked. She just seemed curious, thankfully. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."
"No, not at all," he lied. His anxiety was driving him mad. But it couldn't be seen behind his smile and mannerisms. "They were just really addicted to meth, and I didn't want to be in the foster system."
They all seemed to want to ask more questions. Which only made him more anxious. He wanted to stop talking about it. But the way he talked always made him come off as open to sharing everything with everyone. He wished he could think of some way to escape this interrogation that he was being put through.
They stopped in their tracks. Charlie was going to ask them what was wrong when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"I think that's enough socializing for today," Max told him. "You should probably get back to the infirmary and get some rest." His hand sent a wave of calm through him that he had so desperately needed.
"Oh, I'm fine," he assured him. He didn't want to seem rude by being the first to leave. "It's not that late, and all I've been doing most of the day is sitting and talking."
Something about Max's face told him that he could see through his façade. For some reason, he felt like he could tell just how fast his heart was racing; just how terrified he felt. It was as if Charlie was naked and exposed in front of him. And he didn't know whether to be terrified of that or comforted.
"I'll walk you back," he said. His voice had no hint of being convinced otherwise. And Dr. Button had already left to get back to work a while ago. Even though Charlie was trying to show that he didn't want to go just yet, he was grateful for Max's pushy nature.
"I think it's time for us to go too," Leah stood up. "It's about time these kids take their nap."
"I'm sure you're going to need some rest too," Charlie smiled at her. She was definitely the nicest out of all of the women here. These people seem to all be a rather frank bunch. Charlie didn't quite mind the type most of the time, though. And they all seemed like they were kind-hearted people.
"After all of this food," she patted her stomach, "its definitely nap time, and not just for the kids."
They all laughed and said their goodbyes. Everyone walked out of the dining room and went in different directions. Charlie wasn't sure whether they all lived there or whether they had another house that they usually stayed at. He was curious as to how many people truly lived there.
They had walked a little ways to the infirmary when Max stopped him. He was so consumed in his own thoughts that he barely noticed until he felt a warm hand grab his shoulder once again. As much as he tried to think about something different, thoughts of his past were still dancing through his vision. He barely even knew where he was anymore. All he knew was that he needed to keep looking like there was nothing wrong. He hadn't broken down in a long time, and he needed to keep that record going. If he kept up his wall, he wouldn't have to explain.
"Charlie!" Max almost screamed at him. He snapped back to reality to see those purple eyes staring right into his. They looked worried, searching for answers. It seemed as if Charlie wasn't as good at trying to seem fine as he had hoped to be.
Please don't ask him anymore. He wouldn't be able to tell him no. He couldn't say no to that handsome face. It commanded his attention every time he looked its way.
"Sorry," Charlie mumbled, shaking his head. "I got a little lost in thought."
"You shouldn't have told them anything," Max said. He put a hand on his chin to keep his eyes from wandering.
"What do you mean?" his breathing was starting to get a little harder. He couldn't keep this up for much longer.
Max took his other hand and placed it on his heart. The touch felt good, even if it meant that he could feel his heart beat like a hummingbird's.
"You don't have to tell anyone something you don't want to," Max told him. Something about his touch seemed to calm him down a bit. "The fact that you could fake being okay with that while your heart is beating this fast is an amazing feat to say the least."
"It's more of a habit," he said. His voice was now sounding breathless. He instinctively tried to avoid the man's purple gaze again, but was met with hands on both sides of his cheeks.
There was a small second where their lips met, and all the memories that had invaded his mind simply disappeared. They were gentle and light. Max gave him just enough to pique his curiosity before he moved his arms to around his sides and hugged him. For such a muscular man, Charlie was always surprised by how gentle he was. Gentle wasn't something that he was used to.
"Please take care of yourself," Max's voice was begging. His tone seemed vulnerable and concerned. It was the first time that Charlie actually felt like he wasn't just being taken pity on. He hugged him back and buried his head in the man's chest. He had no fear of the consequences of someone seeing them at the moment. He just wanted to keep feeling this way. His heart rate was even going down, and his breathing was getting better.
He smelt like raw vanilla. It was calming to inhale it while he kept his face in the man's shirt.
"I'll try," He answered. It was the most truthful he could be.
"I'll make sure no one asks you about it again, okay?"
"Okay," it was Charlie's turn for his voice to fail him. There was something about being in his strong arms that made him want to collapse into him and tell him everything.
Max broke it off, much to his dismay. Just as easily as it came the first time, the memories started to flood his mind. The more they walked, the more lost Charlie seemed to get. There wasn't even that much of a distance between the dining room and the infirmary, but it seemed like it was taking ages. It wasn't until he clutched his heart that he realized his anxiety had driven him too far.
"Dr. Button!" he heard Max call. It seemed so far away.
"I'm okay," he tried to reassure him.
"No, you're not," Max said. He felt him pick him up bridal style. It felt nice being in his arms again. He rested his head on his chest and tried to focus on his breathing.
He didn't remember too much after that. There were some images of pictures along the hallway, but they moved rather quickly. Then he saw Dr. Button. He was trying to tell him something, but Charlie couldn't seem to really hear anything.
He felt a cold metal on his heart. Then he felt the cold prick of a needle.
And everything was calm after that.
But everything went dark.