Time never forgets

I really wanted to post a Halloween fic but I haven't had the time to finish it, hopefully this little fluff piece will do.

Charlie Smith was the last person Matteusz had expected to see at a Halloween party, let alone in full costume, but there he was. He hadn’t mentioned he was coming but April was his friend.

Charlie was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, looking vaguely self conscious. Matteusz guessed his costume was why: a thin looking black cape tied over his shoulders over a white button up shirt, with a trickle of fake blood down his chin. Even his usually dorky hair was swooped into some kind of quiff.

Matteusz had always found Charlie incredibly cute (he had unironically worn an argyle sweater vest last week) but there was something about the homemade costume that added to it.

Charlie was holding a cup of the punch, which gave Matteusz the perfect excuse to talk to him.

“I would not drink that if I was you.”

Charlie looked up. “Oh. Hi. Why not?”

“Too sweet. April put Ram and Tanya in charge of making it and they just mixed a bunch of Fanta flavours with a red bull.”

Charlie looked down at his cup. “Oh. Now I’m curious.” He took a sip and winced, putting his cup on the side. “Bad idea.”

“I tried to warn you.” Matteusz smiled. “So April roped you into helping too?”

“She’s hard to say no to when it comes to these kinds of things,” Charlie replied. “She takes Halloween very seriously.”

“I have noticed.”

“How did she get you?” Charlie asked.

“I told her I knew ghost stories and now I’m in charge of telling them later.”

“Oh, so you have the nun story.”

“And more,” Matteusz said, “you’ll have to wait and see.”

Even under the green light of the party, Charlies looked a little flustered.

He was new to Coal Hill, joining a month into sixth form and he always seemed a little out of place there. Matteusz found his awkward social skills a little too endearing. Charlie was strangely contradictory: sometimes he seemed like he was about to flee the conversation as soon as Matteusz spoke to him, other times he seemed almost flirtatious. And he had mentioned he was more into boys than girls when Matteusz had asked if he was dating April.

“Nice costume. You are a vampire?”

Charlie scrunched up the cape and frowned. “Not my idea. April insisted I dress up. A bunch of year sevens made fun of me when I came in and I haven’t emotionally recovered.”

Matteusz grinned: it always surprised him when Charlie was funny.

“It’s cool,” he said. “I like your nails.”

He had noticed them when he had put his cup down. He had painted them dark blue with little silver bats that reflected the flashes of sickly green light.

“April’s idea too. She wanted me to do hers so I had to practice.” Charlie looked down at his hands. “I think I’ll keep it.”

“You should,” Matteusz said. “They look great.”

Charlie smiled a little. “Thanks. What are you dressed as?”

“A possessed person,” Matteusz answered. “They could look like anyone.” (Technically April has given him a pair of devil horns to wear, but he had long abandoned them. He had spent too long on his hair to ruin it.)

“Creative.”

Charlie still had that cute smile on his face. And Matteusz only had so many chances to hang out with him outside of class.

“I know where Ram put the extra bottles, if you wanted something you could actually drink.”

2020: the year from hell

NO, YOU’RE NOT ALONE.

I was nothing. I was weak. Even the players didn’t respect me. One day I felt her burnt into my skin. Some sort of accident when she travelled here. But she was trapped in me, on my skin, and suddenly I had dragon blood running through my veins. I was bigger, stronger. And then her mate came looking. I knew he’d never do anything to risk her harm.

Class Appreciation Day  - Charlie should give up on small talks with Miss Quill

You will help these amazing humans here, and these amazing humans will help you.