A/N: Hello there! This is the second and final chapter of this series. Again, hope you'll enjoy!

If Henry had thought that admitting and accepting his feelings for her was going to make things better, he had been sorely mistaken.

It's as if the amount of times that he finds himself staring at Charlotte, doubles after he's admitted his feelings to himself.

He finds himself unconsciously looking at her, as if he has no control over his body. He can't go a day without wanting to look at her, and wanting to be close to her. He memorizes everything that she does, every minuscule movement and every tiny smile, how her hair bounces when she walks and how she chews her food. He dreams of her at night and daydreams about her during the day whether he's walking around in the hallways, sitting in class or flying with Ray in the Mancopter. And he wants to talk about her all the time (although that's something that he still has control over).

And he doesn't want to stop. He likes the warm feeling that he gets every time that he looks and thinks of her. And honestly, he figures that if he keeps looking, maybe he'll get a look, a longing stare, any type of sign from her that can tell him whether she feels the same way.

Up until now, the results are inconclusive. The thing that's definite, is that his best friend is really distracting.

During this period of time, conversations with him in the Man Cave usually tend to go as follows:

"Kid?"

"Yeah?"

"You're staring again," comes the matter-a-fact answer.

Or

"Henry?"

"Huh?"

"You're pouring soda on the table again."

And so on and so on.

Then one week, playing ping-pong with Jasper turns into him getting hit right in the middle of the forehead with a ball, simply because he was too focused on Charlotte when she walked in from the storage room.

Henry groans and falls down onto his knees, holding his hands against his now aching forehead.

That's when he finally realizes that this staring thing has become a way bigger problem than he had anticipated. Definitely worse than before.

Schwoz has the audacity to point and laugh at him.

Schwoz also ends up crying out in pain because he gets shot in the face by multiple laser beams.

Henry doesn't feel sorry about that.

He likes listening to Char speak, likes the sound of her voice.

He likes it whenever he hears it in the school halls, in the Man Cave when he gets back from a mission, when they're in his living room studying, or when she calls him on the phone.

He likes it when it's bright and it bounces off of the walls within his living room, and when it's serious when she's debriefing them before a mission.

Or how confident it sounds when she speaks during debates, how high pitched it becomes when she's excited and starts squealing.

Or how it hitches when she's surprised.

Like so many things about Charlotte, her voice makes him happy.

He and Jasper are playing that game where one of them throws popcorn at the other and they try to see who can catch the most popcorn in their mouths, when Charlotte steps out of the elevator. He knows it's her because both Ray and Schwoz are in the Man Cave with them already.

Lately he's been feeling euphoric every time he even remotely thinks about her. So even though he knows that staring's the main reason why he ends up embarrassing himself in front of her and multiple other people, he still tries to get a glimpse of her at any given moment throughout the day. Just so he can feel the rush of emotions that looking at her brings.

This time he feels…a lot of things.

She's wearing a blue crop top that compliments her skin beautifully. He also likes that the top presents him with that tiny sliver of skin at her stomach.

But the most important and the most aggravating part of her outfit are those shorts.

Because they're bearing a lot of leg.

He gives her a once over, dragging his eyes from her sandal-clad feet, to her legs (Gosh, her legs go on for days), and over her waist, her torso, pauses at her lips before finally moving up.

when his eyes finally meet hers, he thinks that this is going to be the that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from following through with his urge to kiss her.

It's especially hard when she's looking at him like that: lips slightly parted and gaze dark and molten.

His body feels hot all over, and he's sure that he can hear the rush of blood inside his head.

It's Jasper that brakes the spell.

"Uh Henry, the popcorn."

Henry can't tell him how thankful he is for that. He manages to look away, feeling a bit dazed and it takes a few seconds before he resumes with what they've been doing.

When Charlotte walks past them a few seconds later, he gets a whiff of that perfume and it makes him stop for a moment to take in the smell.

He groans.

She's trying to drive him crazy.

He glares at Jasper and tries to hush him discretely when he chuckles.

It doesn't help, he starts snickering even more.

Henry walks into his living room one afternoon and finds himself facing a really heartwarming moment.

Charlotte's sitting on the couch, Jasper on the floor in front of her, and she putting curlers in his hair. She laughs as Piper says something funny and swats Jasper's hand away when he tries to figure out how many curlers she's already put into his hair .

She looks over at the entryway, shoots him a small smile before looking back at the strand of hair that she's currently rolling while also arguing with Jasper about which color the crop top that he's going to buy should be.

It's a cute sight. So cute, that he decides to take a picture of the moment before he walks over to them in order to help Jasper choose a crop top (It would take days otherwise).

And from then on, whenever he looks at the picture, he can't help but smile. And it makes him wonder whether he could have a moment like this with her in the future, where he will walk into their house and find her braiding their kids' hair.

Jasper was right.

He's really got it bad.

Her hugs are perfect.

He loves it when she hugs him when she's happy or when she's proud of him, when she's excited or sad.

He also loves how she seems to always know when he needs one.

One day he's exhausted and feels desolate after a mission. He's so tired having had to put himself through a lot of antics to get out of class in order to help Ray combat a large scale crime. He then had to run back to take an exam and then sneak out in order to fight crime again. It becomes one of those days when he feels as if he's reached the breaking point when it comes to balancing his actual life and his superhero life. And he feels helpless and unsure.

Charlotte seems to see it on his face the moment he steps out of the tubes. She looks concerned, and she stands up and walks towards him. She stands in front of him, not saying a word, one hand reaching out and taking hold of his wrist and she strokes her thumb over his forearm. Her eyes dart between his. He tries to smile in order to reassure her, and he just knows that he's failing miserably. He's thinking too much about, what to do, not disappointing Ray and having moments in his life in the future that will not be interrupted by a beeping sound. And those thoughts are brimming over, pouring out of his head and showing onto his face. He feels pretty close to crying, can feel the tears gathering, ready to fall.

After staring at him for a long moment, Charlotte gives a resolute nods. He doesn't know whether it's to him or to himself. But then she moves forward and her arms encircle his waist and he thinks that it must've been him. She leans her head against his chest, with her ear against his heart, and he hugs her back, closing his eyes when he rests his head atop of hers.

He doesn't know how long they stand there like that, holding each other. But when Ray makes a gagging noise behind them, he thinks that it must've been long enough. He looks over at his boss and friend, and he can see the concern on Ray's face, even as he tries to make light of the situation. Charlotte pulls away a bit, but her arms stay around him. She turns and looks at Ray, motioning for him to come over and join them.

Ray crosses his arms. "Uh, no," he says seriously. "I don't want to be part of your cutesy little hugging fest."

Jasper however, has no problem with the 'cutesy hugging fest', and Henry and Charlotte both laugh when he bounces over, taking the both of them into a big bear hug.

Jasper is also definitely a good hugger.

Schwoz joins them not soon after, taking a place at the other side of Henry and Charlotte, smiling contently when he hugs them. Then they all turn to look expectantly at Ray.

He sits there, glaring at them, and then he sighs and stands up, grumbling as he walks over to them.

The group opens up a bit so he can join them, and Henry sees him smile when they envelop him in their group hug. He catches Ray's eyes and smirks, and Ray just rolls his eyes before he smiles at him. The look he gives him almost seem like he's telling Henry "I'm proud of you" and Henry almost chokes on the lump in his throat. He smiles back and nods before laying his head back against Charlotte's. And so five people find themselves standing in the middle of the Man-cave, hugging each-other, humming in content, and laughing when they realize how ridiculous this must look. Then Ray yells "get back to work, you weirdos!" (but everyone can see him smiling fondly) and they start pulling apart.

And Charlotte looks up at him and smiles that bright shiny smile that tells him that everything is going to be okay.

And suddenly it feels as if everything is alright in the world.

He thinks that by now, he's gotten used to how beautiful she is and how pretty she looks. Enough so that his staring has gone down to a minimum, now being only a few (longing) gazes per day.

His feelings on the other hand have intensified.

Sometimes he feels at peace with the thought of…having a crush (loving) her. At other times, his emotions are all-consuming and he finds himself wishing that she was next to him. He starts smiling in the middle of fights simply because his thoughts drifted towards her and finds himself looking even more at the pictures that he has of them. There's no erratic thumping of his heart or sweaty palms anymore, but now there's the feeling of warmth that spreads through him, the inescapable need to hold her close and never let go, and the conviction to make sure that she's always.

More and more, he tries to compliment her to see her smile, brushes his hand against hers, takes her hand in his, stands closer to her than strictly necessary. Anything to fulfill those needs.

Aside from that, he's now more in control of himself when it comes to the whole staring thing.

Or so he tells himself.

But it's a fudging LIE.

Because when he walks through the school doors on Monday morning, his breath hitches. He's absolutely forgotten about the phone in his hands and his interest in whatever Mary and Trent had been talking about on the morning news.

She looks breathtaking.

Red lips, white shirt, jeans that are hugging her perfectly, her Doc Martens and a leather jacket. Her hair is down, curls framing her face so beautifully and all he can do is stare.

She turns around to talk to Jasper, and his eyes drop down.

He wants to be respectful, he really does. She's his best friend and he shouldn't be staring at- This is disrespectful towards her and yes, her butt looks perfect and

He doesn't realize that Oliver is lying on the floor (Why is Oliver lying on the floor?). Henry's feet collide with Oliver's body, he hears a groan, and then suddenly he's falling.

He swears that it all happens in slow motion.

He falls down with a thump, his phone is sent flying to the other end of the hall.

He's sure as heck glad that he's not wearing his glasses today.

His legs are partially on top of Oliver's body, so he rolls over until he's on his back, taking his feet away from the groaning person on the floor. A few beats after that, Charlotte and Jasper appear in his line of vision, looking down at him, one concerned and one vaguely concerned but grinning.

"You okay, Hen?" Charlotte asks. And all he can do is nod. Because

She looks so good.

Sydney runs towards Oliver, yelling at him about being on the floor and being dramatic.

Henry (and probably everyone else) ignores it. The two of them having arguments has become such a normal part of their lives.

Jasper holds out a hand for him, which he gratefully takes.

"How can you not notice a entire person on the ground?" Charlotte asks exasperatedly when he's up on his feet again. She frets around a bit, trying to see whether he's hurt.

"Yeah, Hen. How?" his other best friend asks. And with the way that he's grinning, Henry really, really feels like zapping him at the moment.

"I wasn't," he runs a hand through his hair, feeling his ears starting to tint red, "I- Well why was there a person lying on the floor anyways! Shouldn't we be asking ourselves that?" he yells out, feeling flustered.

"So you just didn't see anything?" Charlotte asks dubiously.

"Oh, he saw something alright," Jasper murmurs.

Sadly both of them hear him.

Both of Charlotte's eyebrows fly up as she looks first at Jasper, and then at Henry.

He doesn't know what to do, but he doesn't have to.

The bell rings.

"Hey, would you look at that! The bell! Well got to go! Nice talk guys!" he yells out, and immediately hurries away to class.

He's pretty sure now that life hates him.

One day, someone actually brings it up.

That someone is of course, Ray.

And of course he brings it up during a most inopportune moment, which is during their bi-weekly laser tag training day.

"So," Ray says as he slides from one end of the Man Cave to another in order to avoid the painful lasers being shot at them. "Charlotte, huh?"

Jasper chuckles even as he keeps controlling the rotating ball which is currently shooting said lasers towards them.

Henry would have glared at him if he wasn't so focused on the lasers himself. He ducks and rolls away from a beam that's shot his way. "What about Charlotte?"

He sees Ray shoot him an unimpressed look as the both of them run in different directions.

"Oh, you know," Ray drawls annoyingly. Teasingly. "You like heeer."

Again, annoying. He's being totally annoying.

Which is exactly why Henry laughs when a beam manages to hit Ray in the chest.

"Ow! I'm okay!"

Henry runs and ducks, then swats away a few lasers with the metal disc on his hand. It's quiet for a moment and Henry's glad that they've decided to drop the subject.

"So?" Ray asks.

Never mind.

Henry groans, "I don't-"

"Lies!" Ray yells, standing still and glaring at him. At least three lasers hit him at that moment and he turns to glare at Jasper, who only shrugs and continues as if nothing happened.

"You keep making googly eyes at her," Ray continues after a beat. "Always staring at her, not listening to me!".

"Hugging her all the time," Jasper adds.

"She smiles and it's like you lose all your brain cells."

"She exists and you lose all your brain cells."

"Always looking at her like," Ray clasps his hands together and puts them in front of his chest, leaning to the side and fluttering his eyelashes as he speaks in a high-pitched voice,"Oh, Charlotte, I want to kiss you," and he starts making smooching sounds. A few lasers hit him not long after.

"Which was probably what you were thinking about that day that she was wearing that lipstick," Jasper finishes, still uncaring about Ray's yelps of pain.

Schwoz walks in at that exact moment. "What are you talking about? You need lipstick, because I have lipstick if you need it." He sleepily drawls out, scratching his pajama clad butt as he goes to the snack machine.

"No, we don't-Why do you-" Ray splutters in between dodging, running and swatting.

"Because-"

"I don't care! I- None of us care and none of us need lipstick, Schwoz!" Ray yells in annoyance.

"At the moment," Jasper adds. "None of us need lipstick at the moment."

Ray sighs, "Okay, none of us need lipstick at the moment. Happy?"

Jasper's answer is a row of beams shot in Ray's direction.

A lot of them hit him.

"Ouch! Gah! No Schwoz, we were talking about Henry's little crush on Charlotte and how he stared at her that time when she was wearing lipstick."

"Oh."

Schwoz barely seems to care, too engrossed in his plate of nachos.

Ray rolls his eyes before turning to Henry. "You need to do something about it."

Henry stops, and when Jasper shoot a ton of lasers his way he dodges them all with his hyper motility.

"Okay stop!" he yells.

Jasper's hands immediately leave the console and he leans against it. Ray takes the opportunity to walk towards him and the both of them look at Henry.

"Look, one: I don't have a crush on Char. She's my friend. Best friend. That's all. And two: Even if I did-"

"Which you do," Jasper says.

"If I did," Henry continues, "I wouldn't do anything about it because she probably doesn't like me back. Again if."

"Why do you think she doesn't like you back?" Jasper asks. By the way that they're all staring at him (well, Schwoz is staring at his nachos. What is with him and food?), Henry can tell that no one believes that he doesn't like her. He wonders -not for the first time- why he tries so hard to hide his feelings from himself and his friends.

He sighs, "Why would she? Char is…" he tries to find the correct word, "Amazing. In every single way," he finally says, that being the best description that he could come up with..

"Okay, that's true but…what does that have to do with her not liking you?" Ray says, confused, and serious.

"I just," Henry sighs again. He doesn't actually want to talk about this, but these are his friends. And honestly, not talking about it and hoping that his feelings will go away (and he knows that that sure as heck won't happen), doesn't help with anything.

"She's great-"

"Yeah we got that part."

"And I'm…not. "

Henry stares at his feet as the silence envelops them.

"But…you are though?" Jasper says, and he sounds so serious that Henry looks up at him. "I mean, you continuously save people-"

"That's my job."

"And you're there for her all the time. You're there for us all the time. You're dependable, a good friend, nice to people. And she's told you all of that before."

Henry shrugs.

"You always try to make her smile, you buy her those really expensive hair products just because," Jasper continues.

"Those are material stuff. I shouldn't only be able to give her material stuff," Henry mutters in frustration.

"Maybe you can take her to space on my new space shuttle." Schwoz says.

Even though they all admire Schwoz's intelligence, Henry sometimes wonders about the inner workings of his brain and how it works on things that are not related to science.

"Again. Not material stuff."

"Are you ignoring the bits about being a good friend and being there for her on purpose?" Jasper asks at the same time that Ray says, "You compliment her all the time. You don't even compliment me that much, and I'm great."

Another shrug.

There's another moment of silence before Jasper speaks up again, "What about you do you think that she won't or doesn't like?"

Henry shrugs, doesn't say anything and then, deciding that it's better to get everything out, starts up again, "I'm not as smart-"

"That's such bull-crap, Hen. You are smart," Jasper says, sounding slightly annoyed. "And even if you're not as smart as Charlotte, do I have to remind that most of us aren't according to Miss Shapen."

Henry shakes his head. "I once juggled two girls. I couldn't even choose between them. What if she thinks that it's going to be like that when it comes to her too? That one day, I'll like someone else and…"

He doesn't even bother finishing the sentence.

"You were young. You made mistakes, you learned. You're not acting like a fu-,uhm, that type of person anymore. All you need to do is show her that your feelings are genuine," Jasper finishes.

Ray nods at his side.

"And if that doesn't work and she still thinks that you're a terrible person, you can always use the shuttle," Schwoz adds happily.

"Schwoz!" Ray yells, and then, for good measure, zaps him with the his watch.

Henry chuckles. "Okay, we'll see. I don't know. I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me back."

"Oh shut up, kid. She stares at you as much as you stare at her. Or, well, maybe not as much as you but she does stare at you a lot. You're both gung-ho-"

No one says that," Jasper mutters.

"-about each other."

"Yeah, sure" Henry says, but immediately shuts up when the alarm for the tubes starts beeping. Within a second, Charlotte is there with them.

"Hi!" she greets. And then she takes note of how they're standing around, not doing anything. "What's going on?"

"Oh," Schwoz answers, waving his hands around uncaringingly. "We were just talking about Henry's -"

Never before in his life, had Henry been this happy to have his hyper-motility.

He quickly shoots a round of lasers from his watch towards Schwoz face. Ray does the same thing at the exact same time.

And because Schwoz was trying to lick cheese from one of his nachos, the beams end up hitting his tongue. He falls over on the floor, covering his mouth and yelling in pain. He takes the plate of nachos down with him and it falls on his head, cheese and nachos sliding down his head and face.

Ray and Jasper start laughing, falling down and rolling around, holding their stomachs.

Charlotte stares at them for a moment, before looking at Henry. "We don't get paid enough for this."

"No. No, we don't," he answers."

Thankfully though, a crisis had been avoided.

During the days after that incident, Henry tries to think about how he's going to talk to Charlotte about, well, this.

The feelings.

He can't come up with anything, because all he can think about is rejection and everything becoming awkward between them after that and losing one of his best friends and that drives him crazy.

He finds himself thinking about it at the most inopportune moments though, like in the man-van when they're going to fight crime.

Which makes him sulky and (according to Ray) pouty, even when they meet up with a villain.

Or in this case, villains.

They're surrounded by The Toddler, Dr. Minyak, Jeff (why?), Drill finger and more than a handful of goons.

And Henry Couldn't. Care. Less.

He busts into the warehouse with Captain Man, doesn't say anything heroic, doesn't even try to rhyme or finish Ray's sentences, and he looks apathetically at the villains as they start talking. It stays like that throughout the usual banter and the villains' monologue about defeating Captain Man and Kid Danger. However, it's not long before someone gets annoyed and clearly exasperated with his detached attitude.

"Okay, what's wrong with him?" Dr. Minyak asks as he motions at him. "He's pouting."

He says the word like it's a disease.

"Women problems," Ray, well, Captain Man says casually, as if he's talking to a friend and not a villain.

"Ah! Well, not everyone can be as good with women as some of us," Dr. Minyak says, posing with grandeur, obviously referring to himself.

Henry rolls his eyes. "Doesn't Nurse Cohort have a crush on Captain Man?"

He's met with silence. '

What follows then can only be defined as... some type of breakdown.

Dr. Minyak's face suddenly turns red, bloats up in anger and he sputters some incoherent things to no one in particular. Then after a bit, he just stops, takes a deep breath and then finally exhales.

Slowly.

"No, she doesn't," he says in a strained voice after all of that is over.

"But didn't she tell you-" Ray starts to say, only to jump away when Dr. Minyak shoots him with his freeze ray.

The Toddler cackles as Captain Man almost falls into the toxic diaper trap that he's set up.

Dr. Minyak turns to him, looking serious, all evidence of frustration gone. "What exactly is the problem?"

"Nothing," Henry mutters. "Can we please just get to the fighting part of this? Don't you guys have some kind of elaborate plan that you want to tell us about?"

"Yeah..." The Toddler answers. "But it's not fun when you're not into it."

Dr. Minyak, Drill finger and the goons nod.

Jeff takes the momentary distraction to run and attack Captain Man from the back, screeching out a battle cry. Ray raises a fist and hits him right in the face. He falls down with a grunt and Henry zaps him unconscious before he can get up.

"So?" Drill finger asks as if nothing happened.

"Dudes, let's just fight so I can-"

The Toddler stomps his foot down. "No! We want to hear it."

Henry rolls his eyes and is about to snap back, but-

"Captain Man, Kid Danger. The hour of defeat is upon-"

"Put a sock in it, Time Jerker! Kid Danger was just about to tell us about his women problems," Dr. Minyak says.

"Women problems? I know all about women."

When he receives only blank stares in return, Time Jerker shrugs. "Okay, nothing about women. But we can help. I mean, it's not fun when someone isn't into the fight, you know?"

The villains nod again.

Captain Man and Kid Danger only stare.

"So, what's the deal?" Time Jerker adds.

"He thinks that the girl doesn't like him back," Ray says as he casually leans against a crate in the warehouse.

What the heck is this?

"Isn't he super popular? He has good teeth," Drill-finger queries as he looks from Kid Danger to Captain Man.

Dr. Minyak hums. "Maybe his alter-ego is a loser."

"I'm not-"

"Maybe he has a terrible personality," Time Jerker says thoughtfully.

"No, he has a great personality," Ray retorts easily.

The villains glance at one another and let out thoughtful hums.

Seriously, what the heck is this?

"Have you tried giving her gems?" a goon asks. The others look up in interest, as if that's the best idea that they've heard before.

"Where would I even find gems?"

"At the Swellview Museum of Stools and Jewels, of course," the goon answers easily.

"You mean steal them." It's not even a question. Henry just-

"Yeah! It's easy."

"I'm a hero, I can't steal-"

"We can help you," Time Jerker says, gleefully clasping his hands together. "We know this girl, uhm, Heather? She can-"

"She's in jail," Ray interrupts.

"Oh, bummer."

"We'll break her out," The Toddler says casually.

Henry looks on incredulously. "I don't want jewels, though?"

"But they're not for you. They're for the girl, you idiot," Dr. Minyak says. He turns to look at Captain Man. "Is he usually this dense? No wonder the girl doesn't like him."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, he's not always the smartest grape in the bunch," Ray answers with a teasing smirk in Henry's direction. "When it comes to girls that is."

Henry glares. "Shut up, dude. I hope you age terribly."

His quip only gets him a hearty chuckle from Ray.

"Girls like jewels, so you can't go wrong," a goon says.

"And guys, Larry. Guys like jewels too," another one adds.

Larry nods, "Yeah, sorry. I mean girls and guys alike like jewels."

"She wouldn't want something that's stolen," Henry says.

Why is he even having this conversation?

"Then don't tell her that they're stolen," comes the simple reply from all the villains, who are now looking at him like he's an idiot.

He can feel a headache coming on, and lets out a sigh, "Look, I-" he sighs again. "I promise that I'll handle it and the next time you'll see me, I'll be really into fighting all of you, okay?"

A moment of silence. An unspoken conversation takes place between the villains and goons, an then they all nod, "Okay."

"Okay, well then." He rapidly picks up his stun gun and shoots them all in the chest. Ray immediately runs over and takes the freeze ray from Dr. Minyak and freezes them in place.

"Well, that didn't work out as we had planned," Drill finger says as he squirms, trying to get out of the ice surrounding him.

"Yeah, well. I'm pretty happy that you guys tried to help me, if that helps," Henry mutters.

"That doesn't help at all!" Dr. Minyak yells indignantly.

Henry shrugs and smiles at Ray. At least he's in a better mood now.

Huh.

She does stare.

He doesn't know why, but he knows that she tends to stare at him too.

It happens during specific moments.

When he's working out, he turns around and finds her looking at him. When he's talking he sometimes catches her staring at his lips before quickly moving her eyes back to his (the first time he thought that there was sauce on his chin or something).

And suddenly he feels hopeful.

Maybe Jasper and Ray weren't wrong. Maybe he does have a chance.

He sometimes relishes in it. In the fact that she at least finds him physically attractive.

For instance, after the day that he managed to make her speechless simply by wearing his glasses, he had made sure that he was in her line of vision a lot, just to see her reaction, even if it meant going out of his way to do so because they didn't have the same classes.

And sometimes he would smirk at her, letting her know that he knows that she's staring. But even when he's acting cool, he can feel his heart in his throat. He feels excited because she might be interested, but at the same time he feels scared because what if she finds more flaws then good qualities when she looks at him.

That thought is always the first and foremost in his mind, and it always manages to convince him that she's definitely not interested and that he shouldn't even try to broach the subject of his feelings with her.

And he follows through with that thought.

That is, until something interesting happens, which becomes the tipping point of everything because he keeps thinking back to it and wanting that and more.

He's in his room reading a comic book because this is the one night during a weekend when, for over two hours, his watch hasn't beeped.

He's about to get some snacks downstairs when he hears a thump behind him. He turns around to find Charlotte standing near his window, a white bag with the 'yotally toghurt' logo in her hands. He's about to greet her, but then he sees how she's looking at him.

And that's when he realizes that he's only wearing sweatpants...and nothing else.

He wants to get a shirt, but the way she's looking at him, all dark eyes and…hungry.

That manages to keep him on the spot, unmoving.

He relishes in the way her eyes trace his shoulders, his arms, pausing at his pecs, mouth slightly agape, before moving lower.

Is she seriously going to-

And then her eyes fly up when she apparently realizes what she's doing. She yells a 'sorry!', followed by a long, stuttered out explanation that ends with her telling him that she's brought him something from yotally toghurt.

And all he can do is stare at her. And not for the first time, he thinks about walking over, pulling her close and kissing her.

Impulse control, impulse control, impulse control.

He looks down, closes his eyes, trying to think about anything but her in order to calm down.

His parents making out, that terrible Captain Man and Kid Danger cartoon that they watched, Jasper in Miss Shapen's booby blouse,

Ah, that one does it.

He looks back up at her. "Thanks. I'll just put on a shirt first," he says. "If that's okay with you, of course?" he adds teasingly.

Her eyes widen and-

Is she actually thinking about it?

Not that he would mind.

If it's shirtless Henry that Charlotte wants, it's shirtless Henry that Charlotte will get.

Especially if it means that she would keep looking at him like he's something- someone, that she wants.

But for his own sake, he decides to turn around and put a shirt on.

He doesn't know why she gasps when he turns around. But just in case it's about his back or something (he's heard people say that that's a thing that they like), he takes his sweet time putting on his shirt, hoping that she's enjoying the show.

She's beautiful.

Gorgeous.

From her skin, to her hair. Her eyes that hold so much fire.

Her lips. Her legs.

Her cute facial expressions, her radiant smile, her beautiful laugh.

Her tiny stature and small hands.

Her bouncing curls.

She's gorgeous, breathtaking, mesmerizing.

The more time he spends within her presence, the more he feels as if he's being suffocated by his feelings for her. He can't get much air into his lungs, no matter how much his heart keeps thump, thump, thumping.

It makes him feel dazed, but at the same time he feels laser sharp, super focused.

On her.

On everything that she does, every movement that she makes, every little touch and every linger and softening of her eyes.

And it's not only the physical things that attract him.

No.

It's Charlotte as a whole.

Don't get him wrong, he appreciates the physical parts too.

Everything, inside and out, is magnetizing, distracting, enticing.

Everything about her is beautiful. She's an angel, she's pure magic.

But it's the little things that count.

Like her intelligence and compassion and how her personality draws you in like a moth to the flame.

How she's there for him no matter what.

How she would take time out of her day to help anyone who is in need of some assistance.

The sound of her voice.

How she sometimes randomly brings everyone in the Man Cave things that they like.

Her wit.

Her love for bad TV shows.

How she cries during romantic movies or during nature documentaries when animals die or get separated from their families.

How happy she gets when Schwoz decides to teach her something new and they end up creating gadgets together.

Her determination.

Her skills as a tech, both outside and inside the Man Cave.

How she geeks out when she's talking about one of her clubs.

How determined she is about everything that she does.

Her passion for the things that she does. Her love for her family.

Her affection towards him and Jasper.

Her sass.

How she gives him advice, and supports him when he wants to change, to be a better person.

How she will speak up and speak her mind but always takes people's point of view into consideration.

How she turns all shy when he compliments her.

Her perfect hugs.

How she's such a good and supportive friend to Piper.

Her perfect teeth.

How she kisses his forehead when she's proud of him or when she can see that he's tired.

How her laugh is able to light up his day.

And how she just makes him happy.

These are the things that sometimes makes him smile when he's not even around her.

These are the things that make his heart skip a beat.

And these are the things that makes him crave her even more.

And yeah, he's admitted to himself that he loves her. That he's in love with her.

But he still feels somewhat…undeserving.

Because she seems too good for him (Something that Jasper had repeatedly told him not to say).

But he also wants to take a chance.

Because lately-

Lately he's been thinking that there's a tiny chance that she might like him back.

Because he's realized that she's been wearing that perfume more than usual.

Her eyes are always searching, tender and soft around him. Almost longing, an emotion that he himself is well-acquainted with.

And in all honesty, he doesn't even know how he had resisted doing anything about these feelings for so long.

It's a miracle that he's made it this far with only (only?) a few missteps here and there.

But he feels as if the tiny amount of control that he has, is crumbling down, along with his insecurities (stupid insecurities according to Ray and Jasper).

And he feels that soon enough, he's gonna take a chance.

Charlotte kissing him is just-

Mind-blowing.

In all honesty, he's the one who initiates it.

He knew he wouldn't last long with that whole 'control' thing. So of course he doesn't even try to stop himself when he thinks about kissing her.

They're sitting on his couch.

Charlotte is telling him about Kris and Maria and their antics in LIMP today.

His arm is laying across her shoulders and she's so close. They're practically pressed against one another.

She's wearing that perfume again and her hair also has a particularly sweet smell today.

It's, of course, mesmerizing.

To smell that scent, see her lips move, listen to her voice as she speaks.

He stares at her, taking her in.

She's so beautiful.

And gosh.

He's itching to kiss her.

The thought of doing just that, of pulling her onto his lap and kissing her, makes his whole mouth dry.

And in an effort to cure that, he licks his lips and oh.

Oh.

The way Charlotte stutters, comes to a stop and just stares at his lips is just so-

He lets out a groan and her eyes shoot back to his. Dark and longing and

Maybe he doesn't only have a tiny chance.

His heart is thumping so loudly that he bets that she can also hear it.

Her own breathing has clearly picked up as well and all he wants, all he wants to do is-

"Char?"

His own voice sounds like gravel to his ears. The way she's looking at him is affecting him to the point of intoxication.

"Hmm?" is her simple answer, her eyes dart to his mouth and back again.

She licks her lips.

And this time, he's the one who looks down to follow the movement. And he keeps staring, for what seems like an eternity, as he debates whether he should ask her. The idea, the thought alone, makes him-

He bites his lip, trying to hold in another groan.

She squirms under his gaze, looking expectant and hopeful. And that's all it takes for him to take a chance, for him to ask

"Can I kiss you?"

Her assent is immediate. And he feels as if the words are barely out of her mouth before he descends, desperate to close the gap.

He can't even bring himself to care about the fact that he looks desperate because he's been waiting and hoping and dreaming about this for a while.

He starts off slow, not wanting to scare her.

But his mind tells him that this is good, and all he's wanted and he wants her closer. Her hands are on his chest, almost like she's feeling him up and he deepens the kiss.

She immediately responds in like.

He groans, arms going around her waist, pulling her closer and he can't help but bite her lower lip, loving the tiny mewl that she lets out.

And his mind keeps reeling at the fact that he's kissing Charlotte.

His best friend Charlotte.

The person he's been thinking and dreaming and fantasizing about. The person that he had wanted to have this close for a very long time, and that thought makes him kiss her even more intensely.

By the time they pull away from one another, he moves towards her neck, nuzzling her there, taking in her fragrance and kissing her.

Her hands fall onto his arms, caressing them, and he smiles against her neck.

"You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that," he murmurs, and he gives her neck another kiss.

Although he could stay there forever, he pulls back in order to look at her. He takes one of the curls framing her face and tucks it behind her ear. Then he brings up his hands to cup her face, leans in again and gives her a chaste kiss on the lips.

He's done trying to resist her. And she seems happy with that fact.

She shudders under his hands and he smiles into the kiss before breaking away, keeping his hands on her face, feeling happy simply for being able to touch her like this.

"Not as long as me, that's for sure," Charlotte says, and that smile is so bright that he finds himself answering her in like before smirking when something hits him.

"Yeah, I noticed," He says casually, looking her in the eyes, biting his lips when her expression turns into mortification.

So cute.

"I mean you couldn't stop looking at my lips," he says, trying to sound casual and matter-a-fact, trying not to smile, " Actually, you couldn't stop looking at me. Don't think I haven't noticed."

She gasps, horrified, "What? No! I-"

He chuckles again, because she honestly has nothing to be mortified about. He was definitely worse. He sniffed her for goodness sakes. He's thought about things, even when Ray was standing right next to him. He got flipped over onto his back simply because of a look and a smirk. He liked being held down by her.

"Char, I had it worse then you," he says, recalling the day that Jasper had to pinch him so he would stop staring.

He caresses her cheek with his thumb.

She's so beautiful.

His eyes drop towards her lips, his thumb follows. He runs it back and forth against her bottom lip, staring, already feeling the need, the craving to kiss her again.

"It didn't even matter what you were doing," he tells her, because it's the truth. "Talking, smiling, doing homework. And every time you wore those really short shorts."

And why would he say that.

It brings back that day into his head. Brings back the dreams and –

He closes his eyes, willing the image and the intense feeling away.

It doesn't really help.

When he opens his eyes, she's staring at him, eyes dark but still with a playful smile on her face.

"I bet I could guess how you were feeling," she says while patting him on his shoulder, "Kind of the same as when I saw you shirtless, probably."

Ah, that day.

He smirks. "Yeah, you liked that, huh?"

She swats him on the arm. "Oh, shut up."

And because he can, because he wants to tease, he goes for playful and alluring.

"Or what, Char?" he asks.

And the way she whispers 'Cheese and rice', the way she looks at him, gosh.

She's going to be the death of him.

"Or-" she says, voice wavering slightly.

"Uhuh?" He leans in closer.

"Or you won't get any more kisses."

But by the way she's looking at him right now, which actually still can't be worse than how he's looking at her, he can tell that she herself doesn't believe it. So he sticks to playful. He's so close to her now. Can smell that scent that is so Charlotte, can see the dark brown specks in her eyes, can feel her breath fanning against his face.

"Really," He states. It's not a question because he doesn't believe her, just like he wouldn't even have believed himself if he had said it.

She nods vigorously. "Yes!"

"I don't think you can hold it up," He says, and he stops moving forward, their lips almost touching as he speaks.

"Of course I can," she says in an indignant yet self-assured tone. And he almost laughs because that's one of the things he admires about her: her self-confidence.

"You'll be craving my kisses, Char. Do you really want to go through that when we've only just started kissing?"

"You're not that good, Henry."

But oh, he knows he's good. Knows it because she had made those noises back then when he kissed. Sounds that he'll be dreaming about.

He knows it as well as he knows that she's a damn good kisser. Because he was definitely affected when they had kissed.

He wonders how sensitive her neck will be. Maybe he should try and find out.

"Oh, I am. I'm pretty sure I'm...really good with my mouth,"

He feels like he's playing with fire by saying that. Not because of her reaction to those words, but his as well. It's like he want to make himself think and then dream about these things.

Charlotte rolls her eyes again, "You have such a huge ego."

"Because I know I'm good."

"You're not."

"Are you sure about that?"

And before she can answer, he moves towards her neck and latches on that spot between her neck and shoulder and sucks.

And gosh, he like the taste of her skin too.

When her hands move to his head, grabbing his hair and pulling at the strands he lets out a tiny groan, which becomes louder when she arches her back and her neck to give him better access.

He could really get addicted to this.

He already is.

He sucks harder and she moans so loudly that he pulls away, lest his parents hear them.

She looks dazed for a moment, but the minute her eyes find his and she sees his smirk, she looks embarrassed.

"So?" he asks her smugly. "Are you still sure?"

"That wasn't fair."

"I had to prove you wrong."

"Yeah, well, it was kind of worth it."

Gosh, she's really going to be the death of him.

"It was, wasn't it?" he murmurs.

"Yeah."

"Well, good. Cause I'm about to do that again."

"Yeah, okay," comes the breathy reply.

And he's happy.

Because he already couldn't wait to kiss her again. He's become addicted.

Not only to kissing her but also to having her so near and being his and him being hers and

"I love you, Charlotte," He whispers, looking into her eyes as he says so, hoping that she sees the sincerity of those words.

Because he really does love her and he doesn't want her to doubt it for a minute.

She looks surprised for a second, and then she gets that look, all tender eyes, and soft smile. And he gulps.

"I love you too, Henry," She says softly, looking him directly in the eyes.

His heart swells, he feels close to crying and laughing and he wants to hug her.

His grin almost splits his face in half.

And then she leans forward and kisses him, sucking on his bottom lip in a manner that makes his head spin. Then she moves down towards his neck, and sucks, in the same way that he did to her before.

When he groans, she moans back. His head falls onto the backrest for a moment, his eyes close.

Then, because his brain tells him closer and more, he grabs her, pulling her onto his lap like he had wanted to, and when she's situated there, she continues. He really wishes that they could keep doing this forever.

Cause gosh, having the girl of your dreams feels good.

And when she pushes him back on the bed, holding his hands down as she kisses him, he feels all types of feelings and he can barely breathe.

He really does like powerful women.

Afterwards, they talk.

About his insecurities (She had reacted just as Jasper did), her insecurities, their feelings, their future. He asks her whether she will be his girlfriend.

She giggles and says, " Yes, of course".

It seems like the weirdest question considering they had spent about half an hour kissing on his bed just before.

They talk about embarrassing pre-relationship incidents and everything that comes to mind, until she has to go. He walks her home, holding her hand all the way there.

The next day, he wakes up feeling exhilarated.

When he picks her up from her house and takes her hand in his (her mom shot them a look that said "Well, about damn time"), it's as if everything falls into place.

And when they step out of the elevator and walk into the Man Cave, their fingers intertwined with one another, three pairs of eyes look over and three little smiles appear.

"Finally!" Ray yells, grinning as he looks between them.

And as he and Charlotte turn to look at each other, blushing and grinning at the same time, he thinks the same thing.

Yeah, Finally.

The end.

A/N: And that's the end. Thank you so much for reading!

PS: Charlotte being in control was based on Henry's dream in I Dream of Danger.