“Hi,” Monty ducked his head, looking shy now, even as he smiled up through his lashes. Okay, maybe Charles was weak for a pretty face. That was the only excuse he had for ducking down and pecking Monty on the lips the way he did. Monty didn’t seem to mind, given the way he chased Charles’ lips after for a second and third kiss.

“Hi yourself,” Charles chuckled, before a very pointed throat coughed behind them. Charles straightened up, and he threw a sheepish grin over his shoulder. At least Niko looked pleased. She almost looked like she was glittering, and Charles thought he should check with Edwin later if that was a side effect of the Dandelion Sprites. In the meantime, both Crystal and Edwin were glaring, so he decided not to push his luck this time. He just took Monty by the hand and brought him over to their makeshift office setup. He pulled out the seat for Monty, and pulled the step stool out from behind the ironing board so he could sit and hold Monty’s hand at the same time. That didn’t do anything to ease the frown on Edwin’s face, but then again, Charles knew Edwin was slow to warm to new things, and Charles has been sitting at the corner of their desk since they first got a desk in ’95.

Monty rubbed a thumb over the crow ring still on Charles’ index finger, before finally turning his attention to the others. “Niko said you might need my help for a case?”

If nothing else, Edwin could act professional when it came to cases. “Yes. We’ve taken on a case of two local students. Niko goes to the private school, so we thought you might be able to provide us with insight on the public school.”

Monty seemed to freeze in his chair at that. His eyes shifted, and he couldn’t seem to look at anyone directly. The moment stretched out too long, when Monty finally replied, “Uhhh, actually I’m uh, home-schooled.” Edwin’s frown turned down, upset mixing with confusion, as his pencil hovered above his notepad. “Like, there was the accident and the coma, and umm. Well really I’ve just been kind of caged up at home even longer than that.” Charles found himself frowning at the wording. Something about it rubbed him the wrong way, but at the moment, Monty seemed distressed, so he interlocked their fingers and gave Monty’s hands a squeeze. He was here. “Umm, so yeah. Sorry I can’t help much with your case. Sorry to waste your time.” Poor kid looked absolutely miserable.

Charles gave his hand another squeeze and spoke up before either Edwin or Crystal could say anything to the contrary. “Hey, you’re not wasting our time. We should have had Niko ask on the phone before we dragged you all the way out here. It’s not your fault.”

Monty finally looked back up at him, and admitted, “Mostly I just wanted to see you.” That brought another smile to Charles’ face. See? He was a happy guy.

“I wanted to see you too.” Charles ignored the sound Crystal made while rolling her eyes. He could only assume the squeaking noise was Niko. Charles wasn’t sure he wanted to know what expression Edwin was making. Like Monty had said, this could just be about them for now. And well, since their interview with Monty was being cut sort anyway…

Charles frowned thoughtfully at Monty’s face, as if considering something. The smile fell off Monty’s face as he asked, “What? What is it?”

Charles leaned in close, “You got something riiiiiiight here.” With that he swooped in to press another kiss right to the tip of Monty’s nose. He squawked in response and pulled back, but he was smiling, so Charles probably hadn’t fucked everything up with his little joke. Honestly, Charles liked being affectionate like this. Edwin was his favourite person in the whole world, but he wasn’t one for much on the way of even platonic affection, so it was nice to have someone he could just kiss and hold as much as he pleased.

Another cough behind him reluctantly brought his attention back to the present. Edwin raised a brow that spoke volumes. “Well, given that Monty is unable to answer any questions about the murder of Brad and Hunter, I daresay it’s time we move on with our investigation. We will just need to come up with an excuse to do interviews at the school itself. Thank you for your time, Monty. I’m sure we will see you around.”

"Bye Monty. C’mon, I’ll see you out,” Niko offered, leading them out. Charles held on, and went downstairs with them. He would trust Crystal and Edwin to sort out the details.

Once they were outside, Charles asked Niko if she could stay back with them for a minute, so Charles could say a proper goodbye. Now it was Monty’s turn to raise a pointed eyebrow at Charles, but it just made him laugh. Monty had nothing on Edwin when it came to bitchy expressions. “Someone’s gotta keep track of these things so you don’t end up looking like a loon.” He pulled Monty in by the waist and held him close. He couldn’t really feel it, but he could pretend.

“You think?” another girl there asked. Something about the way she raised an eyebrow told Edwin that it was meant as an insult. Maybe that was just how Americans spoke though.

“Yeah! He’s super clever, and he’s read all kinds of books.” Edwin was glad that Charles didn’t include his fear of spiders in his explanation. Even if they were all afraid of spiders like Charles said, he didn’t think it would win him any points to be presented by his fears first.

“He reads books, does he? Well, I can’t say that doesn’t make him smart, given how difficult most people at camp find reading.” Again, the words weren’t mean per se, but something about the way Alfred said them made Edwin fret. Maybe this was a bad idea, and he and Charles should just go. If it was like Charles said, then Athena would claim him any day now and he could do introductions then. Before Edwin could tug Charles away, Alfred turned his gaze to Edwin. “So, what kinds of books are you reading then? Magic Treehouse?”

Edwin didn’t know what Magic Treehouse was, but it sounded a lot better than this conversation at the moment. Still, Charles had done him the favour of introducing him to his potential siblings. The least he could do was try to take part in the conversation. “I most recently finished The Odyssey, although I hope to one day read it in the original Greek to tell the differences.” That seemed to surprise the older kids, in much the same way as he’d used to impress his aunts and uncles with what he’d learned at school, or taught himself. So he carried on, encouraged, “I like mysteries best, so I’m working my way through the Sherlock Holmes books. Of course, I’d also like to learn more languages, so I suppose I should start reading more books on French or Italian.”

The girl who’d questioned Charles before seemed genuinely interested now when she asked, “What about dead languages?”

Edwin thought about that for a moment before he replied, “Ancient Greek would make the most sense here. Does camp teach other dead languages?”

“Of course they do!” she replied enthusiastically, and started steering them all where Charles had shown him the library the day before. “You might catch some heat if you want to learn Latin, but it’s super handy, especially if you still want to learn French and Italian. Ohh! And you should also learn some Ancient Aramaic.” She carried on like that.

Alfred smiled down at him and said, “That’s Leah for you. You’ll get on great. She loves languages. The older, the better. Welcome to camp. Edwin, was it?” Edwin nodded, soaking in the attention. “So, what other books do you like?”