suspended like spirits;

Harper stared at the kid. Why did this dumbass talk this much? No one asked him to. “Okay,” Harper said, “We won’t fight. I don’t have time for this. So, I’ve decided you’re going to be too busy.” After Harper said that, he walked right up to Charlie and pressed his hands against Charlie’s chest. Without much hesitation, Harper activated his abilities, letting the thin layer of sweat come out and then in a flash, he let the heat build up before a small explosion came undone. Small enough to be unnoticed, but strong enough to send Charlie backwards. “Dumbass,” Harper muttered.

With Charlie’s hand on Harper’s chest, Harper looked down at it and then back over to the other boy. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down. “Take your fucking hand off me,” Harper started as he slowly opened his eyes. His brows knitted in anger as he looked at Charlie and said “Take your god damned hand off me or I swear to whatever god you believe in, I will blow you to bits.” Harper never made a threat that he couldn’t follow through with and this was definitely one that he meant. “I’ll blow you up so hard that you’ll wish that S.H.O.T. was the one you were dealing with, dumbass.”

Someone was talking to him. Harper couldn’t remember if this was someone significant or not. He decided it wasn’t anyone significant. “I wouldn’t have to shove you if you weren’t in the way, dumbass,” Harper said. He didn’t think he shoved that guy that hard, but Harper was strong enough to admit that he wasn’t someone wouldn’t have hurt someone by accidental shoving. This guy was irritating. “Look, you shit-head, you’re in the way. I said move. You didn’t move,” Harper said and the poked a finger at Charlie’s chest, “And that’s what happens to dumbasses. Now, move. I have lunch to get to.”

it was ridiculously unfair how good looking charlie was.  in fact, if anh was being honest, she swore he had a different look to him.  not that she was complaining.  she really enjoyed that pout he had.

“of course, i like you!” anh said, surprised that he would ever think otherwise.  she shook her head at him, nuzzling a little closer to him as she did.  “you’re my hero,” anh reminded him, “i’m always going to like you.”  probably even more than just like.  anh wasn’t sure.  what she did know was that despite how little her dating streak was, she knew that she really enjoyed spending time with charlie.  even if it wasn’t overly planned or on big holidays.  she wanted to know so much about it.  he would tell her things, but anh always felt like she hadn’t gotten the full picture of who charlie really was.

“hm?” anh said as she stepped away from charlie.  her smiled widen as she took the flowers from him.  immediately, she leaned into smell them.  flowers were always so heavenly.  “i appreciate the cheesy and the corny,” anh said, “thank you, charlie.”  anh decided that she was probably going to spend the entire day smiling at him.  even if it was cliched.

“honestly,” she said, “as long as it’s with you, i’m ready for anything.”

“Yeah, I know.  I’m still getting used to that fact,” Charlie replied to Anh.  The word awkward had always been the best adjective to describe him;  he spent years being called the awkward kid in almost every grade he was in, including when he was going for his PhD.  So, it was hard to believe that Anh liked him.  Even if he was her hero.  His tugged into a smile before he said, “I guess, I’m going to have to keep being your personal hero, huh?”

Most of what Charlie considered romance, he based off movies and songs.  However, with his first serious relationship, he knew that he just wanted to see her smile.  That was something that could easily make his day.  Even better was hearing her say his name with that pep.  Man, Anh was just perfect.

“Well, then if you’re okay with the cheese corn, you’re gonna love what I’ve got planned today,” Charlie grinned as he pushed off from the hood of his car.  He reached into his pocket to unlocked the borrowed car.  He headed over to the passenger side and said, “Right this way, Anh.”  He opened the door for her as he grinned, “Your chariot awaits you.”

Genny was one of those people who knew their angles and the perfect moments for cameras to capture, so more often than not, she appeared radiantly and sometimes, she sparkled. “I’m just being honest.” She smiled as she reached over to take his phone. She looked down at the photo with a grin. “I’m glowing in this photo. You’re really good at taking them…” Of course, she was cheating a little since her powers helped her out sometimes, but she wasn’t going to state the obvious to him. “Maybe your problem is your face, Charlie.” She teased before she took a photo of him. “I’m not taking it out on you… I’m just busy trying to wrap my head around the chemical formulas. Oh!” She slid the phone to him. “This one is nice. Go for it. Anh likes you for being you so I guess she’s into all your weirdness.” 

redefinedfuture‌:

Dean wanted to say something but it was rude. His eyes scanned around for a moment as his frustration came to his face. Ignoring Charlie was probably the best bet at the moment. He turned his attention to Parker and tried to clear up the situation, “No, Billie’s not hurt or injured. It’s definitely not li–,” Dean paused. Truthfully, Dean didn’t understand that reference very well - he was from the future, so there were plenty of pop culture references now that Dean couldn’t grasp. However, he stopped the moment that Charlie started to sing. Dean stared at him - first of all, he didn’t know Charlie could sing that well but secondly, why was Charlie even singing to begin with? Doing this with Charlie was starting to turn out to be a bad idea. He stared as Charlie finished and then threatened Parker again. Dean looked at Charlie, “Stop threatening him like that. We’re asking him to do it, not charging him. Going out with Billie isn’t a punishment, Charlie.” Dean turned back back to Parker and apologized for Charlie, “If I knew he was going to turn into a radio, I would have done this without him. I swear.” @gucrdiano​

Parker could keep his cool in difficult situations, but he only just had the guts to do anything with a girl and this was the first time he had ever really wanted to try to date someone. Considering his luck, he would crush on a dying person. Wherever his sister was, he bet that she was laughing her butt off at the circumstances. Parker frowned more when he heard Charlie start singing. “Stop, stop it. I don’t want to make a musical out of a serious situation. We’re talking about a life here.” He looked over at Dean. “I want to ask her out, but what if she doesn’t like me like that? I mean we had donuts, but what if I missed all the signs and donuts mean something else? And. I. Missed. It.” Parker furrowed his brows and slumped into his seat. “I’m not ready to do anything like that. Dean, you’re the cool one, what do I do? What if she wants to do more things? Or worse… what if I’m just a fling thing?” 

@lunarcrescens​

Grace stared in horror, “Um…Excuse you, don’t jinx that upon your sister.” She then shook her head in disappointment and muttered, “Fine, I’ll make sure she doesn’t become fried oinkers.” It was better to say it out into the universe for good measures, especially when anything could happen at this point.

Tilting her head to the side, a light hearted smile crept onto her lips after hearing Charlie’s response. “It seems like we’ve all found our place in the past.” she mused, before taking a glance at the City. However, she had to the be the devil’s advocate - or more so the devil’s grand daughter. “And yet, we are costing ours and everyone else’s future.” She then looked back at Charlie with a grimace and asked, “Do you think we’ll ever go back?”

“My sister works with some powerful magic guy now.  She’ll be fine,” Charlie shrugged.  Though, he wasn’t sure if anyone would actually turn Genny into a pig for bacon.  He nodded and then said, “Oh, but I would kill for some pork belly at KBBQ one of these days.  That sounds delicious.”

redefinedfuture‌:

It was impressive how awkward Charlie was. Dean thought that he was awkward, but as he stood there listening to Charlie half-threaten/half-drink his slushie, he couldn’t help but be at a loss for words. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed his mouth as he shook his head. “Why did you switch to Span–,” Dean shook his head and then looked over to Charlie, “You know what, never mind. Just …no more Spanish from you.” Dean turned his attention to Parker and apologized, “He’s weird. Sorry. We wanted to talk to you about Billie.” After he said that, he realized how strange that was and then he waved his hands in the air, “We’re not saying don’t date her. That’s not–please be her Valentine. She’s awesome and you’re awesome. It would be awesome if you were like a thing.” Dean sighed because now, it seemed even worse than before, “I just want Billie to be happy too.” Then he turned to Charlie, “I told you we should have planned this out first.” @gucrdiano

Parker could understand Spanish, but not because he studied it. He guessed that it had something to do with his newfound powers. Her raised his brows, worried by Charlie’s slushie addiction and Dean’s new arrival. He didn’t often hang out with them both at once, but now that they were here, he felt nervous, and with all at the gesturing happening, things seemed serious.”Isn’t it too cold for that? I thought your sister is the one who can control her heat…” He said quietly before Dean started to talk. “Wait, why does it sound like you’re begging, Dean? Is there something wrong with Billie? She isn’t dying, right? I mean that won’t stop me from liking her, but if she’s dying, what if it’s like A Walk to Remember?” He then paused. “I watched it with my sister! It’s how we hung out sometimes, but anyways, that’s not the point. Is she okay?” 

@lunarcrescens

Genny looked up from her books, stared at him for a moment, and then she looked back down at what she was reading. “None of them. I think you’re lame and boring…” She closed her book. “Take like 20 of those and then delete 30 of them before you pick the one you want.” She smirked at her brother. “Or you could take off your shirt, cheese at the camera, and send it over to your girlfriend. It’ll probably get her all excited… Oh! Or you could take a picture of your fat!” The younger twin started to laugh before she got out of her seat. “Anyways, just pick something already. I need to get some flowers for Grace and learn how to cook this recipe…” In the future, she had plenty of money to use, but here, since they were disconnected from most people, she only had what she earned from her part time job. 

“Rude,” Charlie said as he flipped the camera and took a photo of Genny.  He made sure to let the flash go off, just to prove how awful it is when people are being rude.  He smiled, “I’m going to just not take them anymore.  You’ve hurt my fragile ego.”  Dramatically, he placed a hand on his chest and feigned a look of frustration.  He kept the look of frustration but broke out in a smile, “Don’t take out you inability to master a simple recipe out on me, Genny.  It’s not my fault you decided to go with a brand new recipe to go along with your flowers.”  Charlie leaned back in his seat, sliding out a little bit as he pouted.  “First Valentine’s day date,” Charlie said absentmindedly as blinked through it.  Then looked at Genny, “On a scale of 1 to 1999, how corny am I allowed to go?”

anh stood in front of her mirror.  her eyes scanned her reflection, pinpointing and picking on every possible flaw that she had.  at the moment, she felt like that was everything.  the girl closed her eyes, hoping the feeling of inadequance would leave her even for just a few seconds.  it didn’t last long.  the notification her phone burst her silence.

he was already here.

anh grabbed her jacket and slid into it as she hurried around.  she threw her phone into her purse, then slung it on over her shoulder as she dashed out of her room.  "mom,“ anh said as she ran past her mom’s room.  she stopped and collected herself as she opened the door, "i’m going out.  i’ll be back home later.  i’ll text you.”  anh kept it very short so her mother couldn’t get into one of her very long warning lectures.  anh ended it by quickly saying her final good-byes in vietnamese as she ran down the hall to the door.  before she reached the door, she stepped into her shoes.  as her hand went on the door knob, she sighed and took a breath to calm herself down.

anh almost cried when she saw him.  from happiness, of course.  her eyes watered as she saw him and the flowers - anh had never been good at keeping her emotions at bay.  she ran over to him - tripped over to him, to be exact - and jumped into a hug.  "sorry,“ she muttered, "i know, i look dumb right now but i’m just happy right now.”

She caught him by surprise.  Then again, it seemed like that was a constant occurrence now.

“Hey,” Charlie muttered softly as he relaxed his arms around her.  He kissed the top of her head and then rest his chin on it.  “You don’t look dumb, Anh,” he reassured her, “I never think you look dumb.  In fact, I think I’m pretty lucky that you actually like me this much.”  In truth, Charlie was surprised that someone could like him, even a little.  He found his person and he wasn’t going to let her go.  Nothing was going to ruin this.  He was going to make sure of that.

“Oh, shoot,” he said as he lifted an arm and reached for the flowers.  He held them out to give to her as he reassured her, “It’s a corny, cheesy Valentine’s day gift but I promise, the rest of today won’t be as cliched.  Well, okay a little bit, but I’ll try to make it as painless as possible.”  He let out a soft laugh at himself - it didn’t sound as believable as he intended it to.

“So, all that’s left now is one question,” Charlie said as he looked down at Anh with the most serious expression he could muster.  “Are you ready to go on a Valentine’s day excursion that will blow you away?”  He ended up laughing, “I’m kidding, but I do want you to have fun.”

Charlie sent the arrival text to Anh a few seconds ago.  He leaned on the hood of the car he had rented with flowers settled down beside him.  At the moment, he tried to think of something to say to her to set the tone, but he had never been good at coming up with things that didn’t sound cheesy, especially when it came to Anh.  He reached into his pocket and fiddled around with an old receipt;  he folded it and unfolded it, creasing it as he tried to calm himself down.  It was his first year with an actual Valentine.  A really cute, adorable Valentine that made his heart beat a million times faster;  a Valentine that made him want to become the hero that she thought he was.

Grace stared wide eyed as Charlie flopped onto the snow. “Damn.” she mumbled. She didn’t expect for him to do what she’d literally suggested, but at least that confirms that he had travelled to a hot planet far away. On the topic of his sister, the demigod’s gaze softened as she remained silent. “Promise.” It was bold of her to say such a thing, especially when  circumstances have the tendency to get out of her hand. However, she was determined to keep Genny free from harm and the same goes for the rest of the time travelling kiddos and their families. 

“Except Sawyer.” muttered Grace with furrowed brows. “Or at least she almost did.” Tilting her head to the side, she pressed her lips into a thin line and pondered on a response to Charlie’s inquiry. “No…But my best bet would be Sawyer. Why? Do you want to head back?”

Ever since he started interning with Amber, Charlie let go of whatever wall he had built up over time.  It was easier to just do and be without worrying about the circumstances that he had;  it was also more fun.  “Okay,” he shrugged, “That’s fine.  As long as she doesn’t get turned into a pig and eaten as bacon, we’re good.”

“That’s fair. I mean, I spent an entire summer a few years back with a strange desire for soup, even on days when it was over 90 outside. Made no sense but I ate the soup.” She shook her head but it blended into a head tilt as the teenager continued to speak. He seemed protective, though, over what, she couldn’t tell. “I promise you, you won’t sound like you’re making shit up. I could tell you some stories. Trust me.” The things she had done with her magic as a child? Straight out of a damn storybook, sometimes.