The dogs sat happily wagging their tails, enjoying being talked to.
Jace woke up several hours later groaning at the throbbing headache he had and rubbed his eyes, he sat up slowly feeling incredibly ill to his stomach and got up making his way to the kitchen for some water.
"Good evening," Charlie said. He was sitting at the table, taking a stab at (literally unfortunately before his poor fingers) fixing up some of the blankets that got wrecked in Jace's tirsde as well as mending a few of his shirts. "How are you feeling?" He put the sewing down and poured him a glass of water. "I've made a light soup if you think you can eat something."
Yuni slept peacefully, waking up hours later. He felt awful, having a massive headache and a pain in his chest.
Jace bit his tongue from saying something sarcastic about how ‘good’ of an evening it was and instead thanked Charlie for the water and sipped at it lightly looking around his previously destroyed kitchen “I don’t need you to take care of me” he said, a little harshly “I can fix things myself when I break them” he said quietly and sat at the table
"I know you're capable," he said, standing up and getting the soup and bread for Jace without asking. "Probably more capable than I. But, I want to help," he said gently. He sat back at the table again, working on the stitches. "Ah fuck," he said after he stabbed himself for the hundredth time.
Jace took the items off him and expertly stitched it in a matter of seconds “There…” he said plainly and put it back on the table before looking at the soup and bread miserably. He didn’t want to eat at all but knew that Charlie would want to be placated so pulled off a tiny bit of bread and ate it by itself “I’m fine, you can go” he said quietly
((Somehow Charlie has ended up as such a himbo lol I didn't mean that, but I I kinda like it))
Well, that was impressive. Charlie looked at his fingers and sighed before saying, "I can make myself useful if you keep me around." He figured telling Jace that he was worried, that he knew Jace wasn't okay was not the right angle to approach this.
((Lmao, why not, himbos are awesome))
Jace looked at him suspiciously “I’m not dumb you know….I know what you’re doing” he said accusingly. He sighed and pushed the soup and the bread away, his appetite nonexistent. “I just…I don’t understand” he said sadly “He knows how hard it was for me to open myself up and….and then he just leaves” he said, his lip quivering fighting back tears.
((Heck yeah))
"I know you're not stupid," Charlie agreed. "I'm just worried."
And definitely concerned that Jace was going to do something stupid with his life.
Charlie stood up headed to Jace's side. He put a reassuring hand on his shoulder before sighing. "I can't tell you because he has to tell you himself, but he didn't mean for this to happen... He's not always been the best at thinking things through, but I can tell you that breaking your heart was never on his mind. Yuni is stupid in love with you, despite how it looks right now."
'I swear I'm just gonna tell him,' Charlie thought. Rules be damned. This is driving me crazy.
"But seriously, I can be useful. I can cook, clean, I'm accustomed to hard work, and I love animals," Charlie added. "I'd like to stick around for awhile." He didn't add sewing. That was a work in progress.
Jace wiped at his eyes “Whatever…it doesn’t matter” he said quietly not wanting to think about Yuni anymore. “I won’t do anything stupid, you don’t need to babysit me” he said quietly though having someone here to have as company sounded really nice if he was being honest with himself.
"Then prevent me from doing something stupid," Charlie said, showing him his hands. "If you don't feel like eating, let me make you some tea, okay?"
Yuni headed to the mirror early to keep an eye on Jace. Truly, he hadn't slept much. Just enough to get back to functioning before he checked on him again. "Please be okay," he said, gripping his hair like a comfort blanket.
Jace shook his head gently “I don’t want anything” he said softly. Well that was a lie, he wanted one thing, one thing he knew he couldn’t have, at least, according to Charlie, not at this time. He stood deciding he would go back to bed, everything hurt less surrounded by pillows. He closed the door to his room and curled up in his bed letting silent tears run down his cheeks, not wanting to alert Charlie to his cries.
The instant relief that Yuni felt from seeing Jace alive was filled with an undercurrent of sadness. He felt so bad that Jace was crying alone. He wanted nothing more than to reach into the mirror and hug the man he loved.
Charlie was really bad at giving people space; given that when anyone is sad or lonely back at the caravan, there is usually at least one other person who is willing to hug/snuggle them. He wanted to snuggle Jace like the worried dog he was, but he didn't want to be rude. He didn't want to invade his space. He paced anxiously in the hall for a minute, before saying, "Pardon the intrusion, I'm coming in."
And soon enough, Jace had the dog man curled around him like Yuni used to do. He pulled Jace to his chest and stroked his hair soothingly. "No one should be sad alone. Let me be here for you."
((Himbo to the rescue ))
((Woo! Haha))
Jace could hear the pacing outside his room as he cried and quickly wiped his eyes as Charlie entered his room. As soon as he was pulled into Charlie’s arms he couldn’t help but start to sob brokenly clutching onto the other man for dear life. Jace didn’t often show emotion and walled off anything that could cause him pain but he had let Yuni in and now was hurting.
"It's alright, I'm here for you," Charlie soothed, giving him a reassuring squeeze. "As long as you like and as often as you need." He stroked Jace's hair, gently humming as he did so. He wasn't going to win any awards for it, but he could at least carry a tune without a basket. So Jace's ears wouldn't totally be ruined after this. He lightly dabbed at Jace's face with a handkerchief when his tears started to run down his face, but other than that, he held onto him and let him feel.
Jace was comforted by the touch but couldn’t stop himself from sobbing to even thank Charlie for being there for him. He sobbed for quite some time before he drifted off to sleep in Charlie’s arms.
Charlie stayed with him throughout the night, and was still holding him close when th sun rose. As it happened, he and Yuni both had the clingy trait, and snuggling was serious business. He had his face buried into Jace's neck, snoring softly. At some point, the dogs joined them on the bed as well.
Jace woke slowly and for a moment thought maybe the day before was a terrible dream and Yuni was in his arms but when he looked down he realised it was Charlie and his heart twisted in his chest violently. He unwound himself from Charlie before getting up and started his chores around the farm trying to distract his mind
Charlie awoke in a panic, realizing that Jace wasn't with him anymore. Where was he? Shit, he fell asleep. He bolted out of bed, looking for Jace. He wasn't in the little house, so he ran outside, looking anxiously for the farmer. He sighed in relief when he saw Jace feeding the animals.
"I'm sorry," Charlie said, coming up behind Jace with the chicken feed, "I didn't mean to oversleep. Just kick me next time, and I'll get to work," he laughed. He spread the feed down, watching happily as the round little birds came and pecked at the offering.
Jace shook his head quietly “It’s all good, I can do this with my eyes closed” he smiled lightly before going back to doing his farm work silently. He didn’t want to speak much today, he was caught in his own thoughts again.
Charlie nodded. "Still, I said I'd make myself useful." He grinned happily as a chicken let him pet it. "I'll be making some breakfast then. I'll give you a call when it's done. Got any requests?" He offered.
((Should we skip ahead a little? Unless you have any other ideas, I was going to skip to where Yuni starts feeling unwell))