#aberlay

i don't think it's as clean cut as either how francis frames it in canon or the common fandom interpretation that francis intentionally gets charles drunk to lower his inhibitions enough that he'll sleep with him and is therefore unilaterally at fault. it's something where they're both taking advantage of each other in different ways. francis is willing to provide alcohol to an alcoholic and sleep with someone who's drunk enough that they (claim to) have forgotten by the next morning. and charles, despite this, is willing to repeatedly drink alone with francis and nothing's off between them, which we could extrapolate means he probably does remember their encounters and uses alcohol as a convenient reason to deny his sexuality and/or keep sleeping with francis without having to have a proper conversation (stringing him along, as francis says).

It was done half to spite him and show off, half to see the way Francis’ face lit up when one gloomy afternoon, the rain hitting the windowpanes as Francis sulkily sat perched on the edge of the windowsill, Charles sat down, rolled his sleeves up, and began playing.

I also think Francis tried to play that song on his own later on, missing Charles terribly even after everything, but his damaged hands simply couldn’t manage it, and he never had much determination to try, anyway.