A/N: Hi there! First of all, I would like to give a (very late and) huge 'Thank You!' to everyone who read, liked or reviewed my last story, Distraction. I really, really appreciate it! This is the second part of the series. It consists of two chapters and focuses on Henry's perspective. Hope you'll enjoy!

It starts with-

Well-

He's pretty sure that it starts with a perfume, which isn't strange at all, seeing as how much Charlotte loves perfumes.

Some might even say that she's slightly obsesses with them.

And Henry, is definitely one of those people.

In all the years that he's known Charlotte, Henry has seen her collect multiple bottles of perfume. She used to line them up on the different shelves and tables within her room, up until the point that her mom bought her a huge wooden box to put them in. The perfumes were really diverse in fragrance: from chestnut, strawberries and daisies, to cherry blossoms and sugar roses. It was almost as if she owned every fragrance known to man.

And out of all of them, Henry had a favorite.

It's one that she's been wearing for a very long time. It's subtle and sweet and it reminds him of spring and flowers, of blue skies and her smile.

He's pretty sure that she's gone through multiple bottles of that one perfume throughout the years. His most vivid recollections and his most treasured memories of her (which are a lot by the way), are always accompanied by that fragrance, to the point that in his head, the scent has become tantamount to Charlotte. Sometimes when he smells it, he would find himself turning and looking around, trying to find her, thinking that it's her, only to be disappointed when it turns out to be someone else. That scent to him means Charlotte, and only Charlotte.

And he loves it.

So much so, that he would do anything to get a better whiff of it.

Which is exactly why today's incident, while embarrassing, isn't really that surprising.

To him at least.

It had been a day of virtually no crime and business had also been slow in Junk 'N stuff. And after sitting on the couch all day, banging a hammer (Yes, an actual hammer) on the table because he was 'sooo bored', Ray had stood up and loudly announced that they would be spending the day catching up on the new season of 'The Walking Orange', an idea that everyone else had readily agreed with. Because honestly, they had been bored too.

They just didn't find it necessary to showcase that by banging a hammer (seriously, why?) on the table.

After the announcement, Jasper had run upstairs to close Junk 'N Stuff as Charlotte and Henry set the table up with sodas, popcorn, pizza and (of course) worms for Schwoz.

And now, they find themselves settled on the couch, with Schwoz and Ray each on one end (Ray didn't want to hear Schwoz munching on those worms), and Charlotte squeezed in the middle between Jasper and Henry. And the Man Cave is filled with the noises coming from the TV, intermediate yelling (both out of fear and annoyance) and the sound of people munching on food.

Henry has an arm on the back of the couch behind Charlotte. At one point that arm drops down around her shoulders and he finds himself unconsciously tucking her closer to him. By around the fifth episode, he finds himself slumping down and resting his head on her shoulder.

Charlotte doesn't seem to mind.

He doesn't know when he's become conscious of it, but suddenly he's overly aware of the fact that she's wearing that perfume.

His favorite one.

It's such a heady smell, and he really, really likes it and his brain tells him that if he were to turn around and put his face closer to her neck, he would be able to smell it much, much better.

So what does he do?

He of course listens to his stupid brain.

Because it's always helped him in making the best decisions in life, right?

And he doesn't even...consciously think about it. He just…does. His head turns -seemingly without his own input- into her hair, and then he starts moving closer and closer, until his nose bumps into her neck. With his eyes closed, he drags his nose up the column of her throat until it bumps against her earlobe. He then moves back down until he's finally nuzzling her neck, letting out a content groan as he does.

He can smell the perfume so well here.

But he can also smell her.

That smell that seems to be coming just from her skin and which is so infinitely Charlotte. The scent that is basically the essence of the whole thing, the whole person.

It's enticing. It's heavenly.

It almost leaves him in a daze.

He's pretty sure he is in a daze and he can't get enough of it.

And then, he opens his eyes.

And he sees her neck.

Notices the position he's in.

And that-

That brings him back to the reality of things.

To this situation, with a tense Charlotte, his face against her neck and a cutting silence, safe for the sounds coming from the TV.

No munching.

What.

The heck.

Is wrong with me?

Is all that he can think.

Because seriously. What the heck?!

A side glance brings Ray and Jasper into his line of vision, both of whom are looking at him, mouths slightly agape, soda and popcorn respectively poised midway towards their mouths.

Obviously they're also thinking the same thing.

What the heck?!

And that's all it takes for his face to flush because

This is so weird!

And he just…doesn't…know…how to proceed? How to act? What to do?!

He stays in that position for a moment, eyes wide as he tries to think of different ways through which he can try to make this any less awkward of a situation than it currently is.

When he comes up with nothing, his brain tells him that, first and foremost, maybe he should move away from her neck and, you know, not stay there as if he's some kind of weirdo.

So he does just that, thinking that this time, his brain might be on to something.

He moves away slowly, his movements halted, as if that's going to make things any better.

As if that's going to undo what he just did.

When he finally pulls away, he decides to act normal. As if that would make them all think that nothing happened. So he just… turns around and continues watching…whichever episode that they're on.

However, the problem is that, even though he's not looking at them, he can feel everyone looking at him.

And it gets to him. It really does. He wants to know, to see what they're thinking.

As if that would make him feel better or less of an idiot.

So he first chances a glance at Schwoz.

Henry finds him looking at him. And grinning.

Suggestively.

He decides to ignore it even though he can feel his face warm up even more.

He then turns to the other side and finds Ray and Jasper still watching him.

Ray's grinning smugly. His gaze tells Henry that he's never going to let him live this down.

Jasper's eyebrows are almost touching his hairline as he smiles at him in amused disbelief. He pops some popcorn into his mouth, chewing slowly, smirking as he keeps looking at Henry like he's the punchline of some really terrible joke.

Heck.

Henry decides right then and there, that doesn't even want to look at Charlotte.

But then, Ray decides to speak up.

Cause, of course.

What else could you expect?

"What uh, what was that about, Kid?" comes the serious question, asked with a smile.

Henry turns to look at him.

Can they stop looking at me like that?

"What was what?" he answers casually.

Or well, he tries to sound casual.

His voice comes out as a squeak.

"You just sniffed Charlotte's neck," Jasper points out.

"So you are dating!" Schwoz yells out gleefully.

"What?! No!" Henry yells, and gosh can he please stop blushing?! "She just- I just-," he lets out a sigh, glances over at Charlotte before continuing. "She smells good, that's all. I-I like that perfume."

And yeah, that's a good answer, he thinks. No need to say anything about her own scent, and how heady that makes him feel and how, when he dreams of her-

"Uh, thanks," Charlotte mumbles.

He's about to retort, when Schwoz pipes up. "Ya know, my sister's perfume also smells good."

"Your sister smells like hay," Ray snaps immediately, unapologetically.

And immediately the two adults in the room start arguing, throwing popcorn and worms at each other while the teenagers remain unbothered.

Henry almost lets out a sigh of relief at the fact that the moment has passed. But then he turns to get a slice of pizza and catches Jasper looking at him, with an expression that seems to say: 'Really dude?'.

Henry immediately turns back to the TV, trying to focus only on the TV show and not on any judgey facial expressions or the scent that's lingering next to him, seemingly embracing him in its sweet fragrance.

Well, he thinks, at least there's about zero percent chance of this ever happening again.

Or so he hopes.

There's something that Henry finds totally adorable about Charlotte's short stature.

Not something, but a multitude of things.

He likes watching her when she's trying to reach for things that are up on a higher shelve. Likes hearing the little huffs of frustration every time her fingers only manage to graze whatever she's trying to get to, even if she's already standing on the tip of her toes. He likes it when her expression twists from annoyance, to determination. Or how she shoots him or Jasper an annoyed look when either of them casually saunters over and casually asks her if she needs any help (The question: "You alright there, Char?", is a surefire way of getting a glare from her during those moments). Or her minuscule pout when they're easily able to reach whatever it is that she couldn't reach.

She's probably mentally cursing at them because they get even taller each year, while her own growth seems to be minimal at best.

It's so cute.

But what he loves the most about Charlotte being shorter than him, is the fact that he can stand behind her and rest his head on top of hers.

Which is something that he tends to do a lot.

Sometimes, it's simply to annoy her. Oftentimes it's because…well, he likes it. Plain and simple.

It becomes their thing.

Or his thing.

The thing he does when he walks into the Man Cave and finds her sitting at her station.

The thing he does when they're standing in the middle of the room and she's debriefing or updating them.

It basically becomes second nature to him.

And that's the problem: It's second nature.

So he doesn't consciously think about it.

Which is why it's not odd that it brings him (and Charlotte) into another embarrassing situation.

It's during a usual day at school.

They've just finished in Miss Shapen's class, and while Charlotte and Jasper could leave, Henry had to stay behind because Miss Shapen had to ask him for another weird favor (babysit her cats).

When he's finally able to weasel himself out of it (he had to promise to actually babysit the cats, that is), he quickly walks towards the lockers and tries to find his two best-friends so they can walk to the cafeteria together.

He finds Jasper first, loudly arguing with Sydney and Oliver about some new skinny jeans.

He decides to avoid that.

Because the last time that he got in-between one of their arguments, he got hit with an avocado in...a very sensitive area.

So he scans around for his other best-friend.

He finds Charlotte by her locker, talking to some of the other people from LIMP. By now, he knows all of them by name, so he walks over to the group, smiling as Kris, Thomas, T.J. and Maria shoot him a smile and a wave before turning back to whatever they're discussing.

Charlotte's back is towards him and-

He-

He just doesn't think.

He walks up behind her, looking at the top of her head, snakes both arms around her waist and pulls her back flush against him, tucking her underneath his chin.

And then, with a small, satisfied smile, he props his head above hers, taking a moment to relish in the feeling of her being so close to him.

And then he looks up.

And he finds that the conversation has died down.

And four set of eyes are looking directly at him.

Or, you know, at them.

Him and Charlotte.

Charlotte who's hands have paused in the air, mid gesticulation.

Charlotte who's tensed up and isn't saying anything.

His totally platonic, best-friend Charlotte.

Four set of eyes keep shifting between his hands -which are still wrapped tightly around Charlotte's waist- his face, Charlotte's face, and then the cycle is repeated again.

And suddenly,

Suddenly, he's all too aware of how this looks.

Especially since he's done it so casually.

And his arms are around her waist today instead of around her shoulder or at his sides as they usually are. And

Wow.

Wow.

This must look very intimate.

Fudging hell.

He can feel himself starting to blush and tries to will it away. But it's obviously a losing battle, especially when Kris, speaks up.

"Are you-," she asks, all the while glancing between them, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you guys dating?" she finally asks when her brief examination didn't yield any results.

Henry feels like a tomato right now.

And because he's embarrassed, he can't even seem to find his tongue to, you know, explain? How this is entirely platonic? No matter what his dopey smile and facial expression from before might have said.

Not that his facial expression would have said anything of course. Cause, you know, he's just happy to see his best-friend. Who, yes, he had seen in class less than 10 minutes ago. But whom he missed. So he had wanted to hug her. In a totally platonic way. Just because he's happy to see her. Not because he has feelings for her or anything.

Cause no.

He doesn't.

So, yeah.

He stays silent and Charlotte doesn't say anything either.

And Kris and Maria raise an eyebrow, shooting each other a look before looking back at them.

And when they look back, their expressions are really…

Knowing.

And really smug.

As if the owners of those eyes think they knew something.

And they are smug about figuring something out.

Which is stupid.

Because there's nothing to know. And there's definitely nothing to figure out.

And because he's suddenly gotten uncomfortable, and because Charlotte hasn't said anything yet, he decides to start making use of his speech abilities again (which had been momentarily rendered useless) to answer the question, and stop this smugness.

"Uhm…no," he answers, ever so eloquently.

A lazy smirk materializes on Kris' face. She glances between them again, and Henry suddenly realizes that he's still attached to his best friends' waist.

He almost, almost jumps away from her. But how telling would that be?

Not that of course anything should be telling. Because, again: there's nothing to tell, nothing to know and nothing to figure out.

This is just a friend, hugging another friend, in a way that some people might deem intimate, but which is totally, totally platonic.

Platonic.

He can't stress that word enough.

They're friends. He's allowed to hug his friends. And he doesn't have to explain a simple hug to anyone. Nor does he have to act as if he did something wrong or scandalous.

So he pulls away in deliberate slowness and then stands awkwardly, with both arms at his sides, looking down at the floor.

Like a guilty person.

Still willing his ever-present blush to go away.

He looks at Charlotte, only to find her in the same pose: hands at her sides, looking down at her shoes. When he looks up at the rest of the group, he catches the look that Thomas sends T.J..

It's knowing.

What is it that these people think they know?

He feels the dire need to defend his and Charlotte's friendship.

He's also wants his face to stop resembling a lobster.

But then Maria shrugs and says that she'll be heading to the cafeteria and the rest agree. Next thing he knows, him and Char are murmuring their 'goodbye's' and 'see ya's' and within a few seconds, they're left alone.

There's a beat of silence before Henry decides to speak up.

"So," he chuckles nervously as he scratches behind his neck. "That was…weird."

"Yeah," Charlotte mumbles, without taking her eyes away from her shoes.

It's silent for another moment before he speaks up again, "It was just-, I wasn't-, I just- I think we should-"

"Let's get Jasp and head to the cafeteria," Charlotte interrupts.

"Yeah- uh, Yeah. That's-…Yeah."

They awkwardly make their way over to Jasper, who takes the opportunity to get out of the argument that he's still embroiled in. When gets to them, he looks at them in confusion.

"What's wrong with you two? And why are you blushing?" He asks, eyes roaming over Henry's face. "Did you two kiss or something?"

"Shut up," both his best friends answer immediately. Both of them speedily walk towards the cafeteria doors, not once looking at the other.

Ah. Young love, Jasper thinks and then he happily runs after them, yelling for them to wait up.

Her smile is beautiful.

It's always blinding, warm, inviting and full of affection.

He loves seeing her eyes light up and her nose scrunch up when she's smiling.

It makes him breathless and makes his heart warm up.

Actually, his whole being warms up when he sees her smile.

He likes seeing it on her, not only because it makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but also because that's a surefire way for him to know whether she's happy.

Because honestly, sometimes he gets a little concerned about her.

She does really well in school, is a member of multiple extracurricular clubs, partakes in community service and has her gig in Man Cave.

And that's a lot.

Especially considering the fact that Ray, Jasper, Schwoz and him aren't always the easiest people to deal with.

Plus they work during odd hours. No one can account for a cyber-crime at 3 AM on a Tuesday, not even someone as organized as Charlotte.

She puts a lot of pressure on herself to perform well in everything that she does. And although he knows that she can do anything that she sets her mind on to do, he also wants to make sure that she's never so stressed, to the point that she doesn't feel happy or feels like she can't enjoy herself.

Because to him, Charlotte deserves a world of happiness.

So he tries to make sure that she's happy, tries to make her smile as much as he can. He compliments her (because she deserves it), buys snacks and those expensive but qualitatively superior hair bonnets for her.

And every time he sees her smile, it melts away all of those worries, and he feels at peace with the knowledge that she's happy and that the universe is giving her the happiness that she deserves.

One day, Ray had randomly gone from being a man-child to an overprotective-adult and then reverting back so fast, that it almost gave everyone within the Man Cave whiplash.

In true Ray fashion, he had come out of his room and abruptly (and loudly) declared that Charlotte and Jasper will start partaking in intense training sessions in order to survive in the case that their cover was blown and they got kidnapped by a villain (again).

And even through his passive aggressive remarks and jokes, everyone could see that he was really concerned about their safety.

Both Charlotte and Jasper had agreed almost immediately, because, well, their cover being blown has happened before. More than once actually. Heck, Gwen still knows who they are and she can expose them to literally anyone at any given moment. So they obviously supported the idea of being able to protect themselves if the situation were to ever arise again, which it probably will. Plus, Charlotte had really liked combat training during that whole Bysh thing.

So a training schedule was created, which included multiple activities, ranging from cardio and hand-to-hand combat, to target practice and that ridiculous (or ridiculously awesome) laser tag exercise game that he and Ray oftentimes do.

They started it that same week. And out of all the things that Henry had expected to come out of the training (new sparring partners, hilarious moments, his best friends being purely and deliriously exhausted like he and Ray used to feel), being completely and wholly enthralled by Charlotte when she's training, was not one of them.

But that's what happened.

Especially during hand to hand combat.

There's something especially wonderful about seeing Charlotte fighting.

In general, she has a way of moving, a way of walking, that is very fluid, very beautiful and very enticing.

Henry doesn't understand how that's a thing that someone would pay attention to, but he knows that he does, so it must be a thing.

The motion of her arms, the little sway of her hips, the…uhm…movement of her-

Uh, yeah.

He can't be the only one that finds such simple movements mesmerizing. He just can't.

It's so soft and enthralling.

But when she's fighting, it's entirely different.

Her movements are calculated and powerful.

There's something great about seeing her successfully take down someone that's basically three times her size. He always, always, finds himself turning away from the TV, the computer screens, his phone or a conversation to watch her fight.

Her quick footwork, her deliberate and powerful movements, the way her loose fitted tops flit around her, exposing a sliver of her stomach to his gaze, and how those leggings hug her lower body so well.

It's all very distracting.

And he finds out just how distracting it can be on the day that he has to fight against her.

He's been sitting in the chair in front of the monitors for the last half an hour, watching her and Ray fight. He himself had just finished his usual cardio training and was taking a well-deserved break. He's just about to start with the second part of his regimen, when Ray calls him over and suggests that he fight against Charlotte because his hyper motility might be a great thing for her to go up against.

Henry easily assents, and he walks over to the mats and faces her.

He's smiling and thinking about how cute she looks in her clothes when Ray tells them to get into a fighting position. He bents his knees, holds his arms in front of himself and looks at her.

And it's the look in her eyes when she stares back that gets him.

All of his breath leaves his body in a whoosh.

He can't think, his brain's gone dumb.

His mouth feels dry as he looks into her eyes. He can't look away, but he's not sure that he wants to either.

Her look is calculating, determined. Pure fire is reigning within the depths of them.

Her lips tilt up on one side in a smirk that he really shouldn't find that attractive, but which he can't help but fall into.

He feels like a prey, ensnared in the gaze of a predator, without any choice but to wait for it to pounce upon him.

He really can't say that he hates it.

Just the though-

Is it hot in here or is it just-

Ray only has to say "go" one time and almost immediately, Charlotte moves.

But he's still standing there.

Thinking about the stray curls that have fallen out of her messy bun and which are now lying against her forehead. And about how good she looks in those clothes and that look and those lips and how they would feel upon his.

And suddenly she's against him, pushing against his shoulder and his feet are not under him anymore, having been swept away by one of her own. And in what feels like only a few seconds, he finds himself lying on his back on the floor, looking up at the ceiling, experiencing a bout of vertigo.

Hyper-motility apparently doesn't work when someone's distracted.

Huh.

After a moment, Charlotte appears in his line of vision.

And that smirk.

That smirk is still on her face and he almost groans.

Because

Wow.

Uhm.

That look is breathtaking.

And those moves were also breathtaking.

His heart is thumping like crazy and he feels things and he can't-

He doesn't-

How do you deal with these kind of thoughts and feelings?!

Thankfully, Ray comes to his rescue, telling Charlotte how well she did and holding out a hand for Henry to take.

"You okay, Kid?" he asks when Henry is back on his feet, steadying him as he sways a bit.

Henry can only nod.

"You know, if you don't pay attention, you're always going to end up on your back," Ray says teasingly.

"Who says I don't like being on my back?"

It comes out before he can stop himself.

And no.

No.

He doesn't have to think about the connotations of that sentence. About what he meant to say when he strung those words together. Because he already knows. He knows exactly what he meant with that sentence.

And he has a lot of questions about himself now.

(Does he want someone else to take control? Is it a powerful women (or one particular woman) thing? Does he have a concussion? What is impulse control and how do you get one of those?)

He's now faced with two different types of facial expressions.

Ray's 'eyebrows basically hitting the ceiling, eyes wide and smiling incredulously' look. And Charlotte's wide eyed 'what?' look.

And he screwed himself over by saying what he had just said. Because it creates, uhm, mental images. Which makes his eyes widen as they flit through his head.

Yups, he wants someone to be in control. That's the fair conclusion.

And then Ray

Ray who seems to know him so well to the extent that it seems as if he can read his mind (or because he's just that type of person), starts laughing.

Really loudly.

And Charlotte looks from Henry to Ray, asking what the joke was.

Ray takes one look at her and then turns back to Henry and doubles over laughing while Henry walks away, murmuring something about water as he tries to avoid answering Charlotte.

He gets away from her, but that night, she follows him into his dreams.

A dream where she takes control and kisses him.

She has an impeccable sense of style.

In all honesty, he doesn't think that she could look bad in anything. She has a way of knowing what to wear and how to combine and she's so unapologetic about the things that she wears and what her style is.

And gosh she looks good in her clothes.

From her sneakers and Doc Martens, her skinny and wide-legged jeans, her colorful blouses, her T-shirts, hoodies and jean jackets.

They are all so her and she looks amazing each and every time he sees her.

But her clothing, like so many aspects of her can be enthralling and distracting.

But it's not her clothes that distracts him when he walks into school that morning.

He walks in as he always does: Coolly. He greets some people by the door and smiles as he sees some others. He's feeling half-tired but also satisfied because last night they stopped some heinous crime from taking place in Swellview again.

Sure, he had to wake up at 3 in the morning. Sure, he had to sneak out through his window and fell out of the three. And sure, he had ended up smelling like fish because the villains had obviously decided to have a fight in a warehouse at the Swellview docks where thousands of fish hung around on hooks.

Fun.

But he's satisfied.

And he has a big to-go tumbler of coffee to help him get through the day, so he'll be fine.

He walks directly towards his locker, eyes glued onto his screen as he watches the morning news (most of which he already knows: villains that Captain Man and Kid Danger had stopped the previous night and the Vice Mayor Willard's next budget cuts which will be rolling out soon).

He glances up when he nears his locker, already expecting to find Char there waiting for him (always an early bird). He sees her, starts to smile tiredly, ready to murmur a good morning, when he finally notices what she's wearing.

That's about all the distraction that he needed for him to forget how to walk. One foot suddenly hooks into the other, and he stumbles forward towards the lockers, only managing to catch himself at the last moment before he smashes his face into them.

He doesn't even have time to consider how clumsy that looked. He straightens up, walks towards her and points at her attire, "Is that my hoodie?" he blurts out.

He doesn't even need an answer. He knows that it's his. It's in his colors. Red and blue. And it looks big on her.

It also looks really good on her.

"Good morning to you too, Hen. How are you? Are you doing alright?" Charlotte says playfully with a smile and an eye-roll.

"Yeah, yeah. Good morning," he answers back with a shooing motion. "Is that my hoodie?" he asks again.

"Yeah. You, uhm- you left it at my house that day that we had our study sesh. And today I saw it and it went so good with the jeans and the boots and- You don't mind do you?" she finishes shyly, biting her lips and looking up at him through her eyelashes.

His brain short-circuits when she looks at him like that. It's enough to render him speechless and he can only nod at her.

"Yeah," he finally says after a few seconds more, voice sounding hoarse. He clears his throat as he takes her in.

The black boots and skinny jeans really do go well with the red of the hoodie. Her skin looks amazing in the color (but truthfully, when does her skin ever not look great? It's always beautiful).

Her hair is down today, framing her face and partially covering her big earrings.

She looks stunning.

As a whole, but most importantly, in his hoodie.

"You can keep it if you want," he adds, voice coming out just above a whisper.

She looks up, and he doesn't know what she sees on his face, but she stares back at him, biting her lip-gloss stained lips as she does.

He's looking at her probably in the way a particularly hungry animal might look at its prey (Oh how the tables have turned). He's drinking her in, trying to imprint the memory of her in his hoodie onto his brain so it can last forever.

"You don't mind?"

He wants to tell her that no, how could he mind when she looks better than him in it? How could he mind when all he can think about at the moment is how good she would look in any one of his other clothes.

He decides to just nod.

Her answer is a big, shining smile, and it feels as if he's an iceberg melting in its heat.

"Thanks, Hen."

Jasper arrives at that moment and comes to stand next to him. He shoots one look at Charlotte's hoodie and the same question is asked again. Charlotte laughs, telling him to ask Henry because she has to go talk to a teacher about one of her club activities.

As she walks away, Henry watches her. He takes in how the clothes fit, how she practically glides through the hallway, her hips swaying slightly. He jumps when a hand slaps him on the shoulder.

"You've got it bad, Hen." Jasper says.

He can't even find it within himself to deny it.

The look that Jasper shoots him tells him that he also knows that.

Charlotte's laugh is, in one word, mesmerizing.

He loves the melodic sound of it. How it bubbles out of her and tinkles within the confines of a room.

How it resonates within him.

How it could start with an adorable giggle, before developing into a full out laugh, boiling over and making her gasp for breath.

He likes how she tries to hold on to the person nearest to her when she's laughing too much and can't hold herself upright anymore.

How sometimes she actually does fall onto the floor laughing, all the while holding her stomach.

How she tries to rear her laughter back when it's been going on for a long time, hiccuping and gasping when it finally dies down, and wiping away her tears of joy when she's letting out the residual giggles.

It's a beautiful sound.

And he tries as much as possible to hear it.

Not that it's difficult these days, considering all mishaps and crazy antics taking place within the Man Cave.

But he likes it even more when he's the cause of her laugh.

So he cracks the stupidest jokes or does something entirely stupid sometimes, simply to hear it.

And how she looks at him afterwards, after having laughed her butt off, all twinkling eyes and shining smile.

That's his favorite expression in the world.

He really loves seeing her happy.

At one point, him staring becomes a thing. And by now he knows that anything that relates to Charlotte that he can call a thing, is going to cause him some embarrassment or it'll make him feel some type of way.

But even as he tells himself that, he finds himself looking at her more and more.

Right now, for instance.

He's supposed to be listening to Ray's story about that one time he went to Hawaii. But he's looking at her, trying to catalogue every movement, every smile, every facial expression and basking into the sound of laugh. He watches as she talks to Jasper and smiles at how she swats Schwoz's hands away from her quesadillas.

So cute.

"Uh, Kid?"

Henry's eyes fly towards Ray, who he finds is, again, smirking.

How shocking.

"My eyes are up here," Ray says playfully.

Henry looks down in embarrassment, before looking back up at him again. "So we were at you losing your trunks in the ocean, and…?"

"No. We were at 'so cute'," Ray says, adding the quotation marks with his fingers.

Henry blanches.

I said that out loud?!

Ray shoots him a look, before deciding to grant him some reprieve for once and resumes with his story. But every time that his eyes stray back to Charlotte and then move back to Ray again, he finds Ray smiling, quietly judging him.

He chooses to ignore it.

Like he does with every other facial expression which is directed at him nowadays.

Her hands are small, dainty.

'Cute' is the word that he would use (but he'll never tell her that).

There are a lot of moments in which he takes one of her hands in his, turning it around, laying it against one of his own to compare the size and marveling at the contrast of their skin against one another.

He finds a great deal fascination in it.

He also just likes feeling her hands in his.

It usually dissolves in him bringing her hand in both of his in order to play with her fingers. And then, he'll grasp it in one of his, interlinking their fingers together, before focusing to whatever is happening around him.

Charlotte doesn't seem to mind when he does that.

And neither she nor Henry see the look that Jasper sends them when he catches them in the act, smiling and shaking his head at the two idiots that are his best friends.

She asks him one day whether she can have one of his bubbles because she wants to see how she looks in the Kid Danger uniform now that they're older.

Henry doesn't find anything wrong with that.

And also, he can't seem to say no to her when she looks at him all enthusiastic and whatnot.

Ray doesn't care.

Jasper also wants to see.

And Schwoz is too focused on his fajitas to care.

So Henry gives Charlotte the tube and she takes a gum out, pops it into her mouth, chews than blows a bubble.

After the blinding light is gone, they all stare as she looks down and starts jumping up and down, squealing and clapping her hands when she sees herself in the costume.

Then she turns to look at him and shoots him a brilliant smile. "How do I look?" she asks, before twirling around.

Henry opens his mouth to answer, only to close it back in order to swallow.

He tries to answer again, he really does. But it's like his brain is against that idea.

And his mouth is now opening and closing like a fish, each attempt at speech failing miserably each time he opens his mouth.

Because how can he even answer that question?

All that he can focused on is how bad-ass she looks.

How the masks and silver make-up makes her eyes pop.

And does the upper part of his uniform stick to him like that?

Is it really that tight?

He doesn't think so.

Does it have to define every muscle and every curve and-

He feels flustered.

His gaze flits over her before he looks back and meets her expectant gaze.

He's been quiet for way longer than is deemed appropriate when asked a question.

Just say it looks nice you idiot.

He opens his mouth, "Uuuuuuuhhh," is all comes out.

His brain hates him.

His brain fudging hates him.

Ray, who's on the couch behind Charlotte, lets his head fall onto the table as he starts laughing noiselessly, hand periodically slapping on the table and sniffling as he tries not to make any noise.

Jasper is slumped onto his back on the couch, also laughing quietly, holding onto his stomach, hand in front of his mouth in order to hold in the sounds.

Schwoz is staring at a fajita.

Henry -for some reason- decides that the best thing to do is to run away. He jumps off of the chair, looking at his watch. "Hey, would you look at that? I have a- a- An appointment!" he yells out, laughing maniacally afterwards.

I'm losing it. Definitely losing it.

He stalks backwards towards the tube.

"Where are you going, Kid? You didn't tell me that you have an appointment," Ray says as he stands up and walks (stumbles) away from the couch.

Henry knows, knows that Ray is doing this on purpose.

"Hen, you need to take the-" Charlotte starts to say, pointing at the tube of gumballs.

Henry for once, doesn't care about the gum.

"No, I-", he stumbles over his words, trying not to look suspicious or stupid. By the look on Ray's face, he can tell that he's failing miserably.

"I-, I have something urgent that I have to do."

"What do you have to do that's so urgent?" Jasper asks. Henry can't see him because he's still slumped on the couch, apparently not having enough strength to sit up because he's been laughing so much.

"I-"

"You have a colonoscopy too?" Schwoz asks, not once taking his eyes off of the third (?) fajita that he's making.

"I- What? No!"

Henry just wants to leave.

Schwoz groans. "I have one because-"

"Schwoz, dude, I don't- I'm just-" Henry motions to the tubes, as if that will explain everything that his unfinished sentence didn't. He backs away quickly towards his tube. Ray gets to the control panel and pushes a button.

Henry knows that he can't use the tubes now. He makes a b-line to the elevator, pushes (punches) the 'up' button and waits impatiently for it to come down.

Schwoz continues out of nowhere. "It's no shame. I mean it's-"

Is he doing this on purpose?

"Schwoz!" Henry yells again. "Dude, it's not a-" he presses the button repeatedly and violently. When he realizes that he's acting suspicious, he turns around, eyes flying between the occupants of the Man Cave as he laughs uncomfortably, almost evilly.

"I hate this elevator," he says, grinning uncomfortably.

Finally the door opens. He walks in quickly, punches the button repeatedly again, stops and looks outside to see every one of them looking like he's crazy person.

Well, Ray is actually bent over the console, laughing. He's really enjoying this.

Henry shoots a calm smile (which probably looks pretty crazed) before resuming to press the button as he looks at them. "I'm just gonna-" he points up, again, as if that explains everything.

And then finally, the doors close.

When the elevator flies up, he lets himself be squashed down onto the floor by the momentum, groaning loudly.

He doesn't know what just happened, only that he just made himself look like an idiot.

He won't live this down.

Ray won't let him live it down.

Jasper won't let him live this down.

Charlotte probably thinks he's an idiot.

He groans loudly again, banging his head on the floor in helpless frustration.

Why did I say 'uuuuuuuhhh'?! Who even does that?!

Sometimes, his life really resembles that of those characters in Charlotte's favorite bad TV shows.

He really needs to take control of his life.

She's smart.

Like, really smart. And creative. And adamant about learning something new whenever she can.

It's one of those things that he's always admired about his best-friend.

She always works hard to get good grades and tries as much as possible to motivate Jasper and him to do the same. She's helped them study since they were little kids, always coming up with new and interesting ideas to make learning fun for them (such as using actual organs when they're studying for their biology test), in order to 'achieve an optimum level of information retention' (her words, not his).

She does so much outside of the usual high school curricular. She's a member of different clubs at Swellview High, she creates gizmos at the side, and designs clothes and costumes during her pastime.

He likes seeing her at work.

Likes her little frown when she's thinking, how she twirls her pen around as she listens to an explanation, how she bites her lip or huffs when she's trying to figure something out, and how her eyes light up when she finally does.

He also likes how intense her stare is when she's listening to a lecture, how self-assured she is when she answers a question in class and how excited she gets when one of her creations work in the way that she had hoped that it would.

But what he really loves the most, is watching Charlotte when she's participating in the annual Swellview High School debate. Or any debate at that.

Debate club has been a huge part of Charlotte's life for the last few years, and thus, it was also an important aspect of both his and Jasper's lives. When she had debates either at school or somewhere else, they would always try to go and support her (even though sometimes Henry finds himself running out of the room because his watch starts beeping). A lot of the time they're accompanied by her mom, sitting and smiling proudly as she watches her daughter. Sometimes Schwoz and Ray join them, and other times, it's just the two of them.

It doesn't matter how many of them came to support her, Charlotte always seems happy when she sees any one of them.

His heart always skips a beat when she smiles over at them whenever she spots them within the crowd.

If that was all it took to see her smile like that, he would go to a thousand debates in a heartbeat.

Not that he needs convincing to do that.

Because he doesn't.

He likes being there.

Because Charlotte during a debates is just

Amazing.

He finds it captivating when she's speaking up on stage. She looks poised, voice clear, self-assured, eyes unwavering as she looks at the audience and her competitors. And finally, looking bad-ass in her pantsuits or her pencil skirts and colorful blouses.

There's something about her being so classy, well-versed, convincing, in-control (there it is again), with so much emotion in her voice and all-around powerful that is just so

So,

"Gosh, her confidence is so sexy," a guy behind them whispers as Charlotte finishes her bit.

Jasper snickers.

One of the guy's friends immediately shushes him, adding a "Jeez, Marco. A bit of self-control would be nice, you dolt" for good measure.

"Look at her, dudes! The emotion, the passion, the power. I can't help it if- "

There's a 'whack', followed by an 'ow' and more whispering before Marco drawls out a whiny "fine" and everything quiets down.

And although Henry feels protective and is just about ready to turn around and also whack the guy on the head for saying something like that about his best-friend, he can't lie and say that that's not the exact word that he would've used.

Because

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is.

Sexy, that is.

So he decides not to turn around and hit a random guy for speaking the truth, and instead keeps his eyes on her. And he's one of the first to jump up and clap when she is given the prize for best speaker and he cheers so loudly when she receives her 'overall best debater' trophy that she shoots him a smile, her eyes damp with emotion.

He loves seeing her out there, succeeding in anything that she does, being persistent and dedicated.

He can't help but be in awe of her.

And he's sure that's never going to change.

Her hair is, in one word, amazing.

He loves looking at it, likes playing with the ones at the nape of her neck and likes watching her as she twirls a strand around one of her fingers in class.

He loves it when it's in an up-do, when it's down, in braids, or in Bantu knots. In any style really, because just as with her clothing, he doesn't think that Charlotte could look bad in any hairstyle.

But what he loves the most about her hair is the fact that some of the deepest and chillest conversations that they've ever had, took place when he'd been helping her style it.

It usually happens during a weekend when crime is low and he's allowed to leave Junk N' Stuff early. He would go over to her house, talk to her mom (who, just like her daughter, is amazing), before moving towards Charlotte's' room. There, he would situate himself on her bed and she would sit on the floor in between his legs.

From then on, they would rant about anything that has been bothering them and just talk about anything and everything as he helps her twist her hair. He parts and twists tiny sections of it while she talks, his fingers moving with an expertise and nimbleness of someone who's been doing it for years (which is true because both he and Jasper have been doing this for years).

Those moments to him are an explosion of feelings and stimuli. From the texture of her hair between his fingers, to the smell of the hair products, her head against his thigh when she lays it down so he can reach the sides better, and the soft melodic lull of her voice as she talks to him.

It's comfortable. And it usually gives him a feeling of peace. A feeling which he's rarely granted with considering how chaotic his life can be.

So each and every one of those occasions become some of the moments that he knows that he'll appreciate and treasure for the rest of his life.

He has a thing for her lips.

There, he admits it.

He has a thing…for her lips.

And how could he not when he's daily presented with them. How could he not take notice of how plump they are, or how sexy it looks when one of the corners tilt up into a smirks or how they shine when she wears one of those glosses

Gosh.

There's no way in hell that he wouldn't take notice. He could stare at them all day when she's talking, his mind short circuits when she shyly bites the lower portion of them or when she licks them.

He's so glad that he has a good amount control over himself, otherwise he doesn't know (he knows) what he would've done because of those lips.

And then one week, his brain basically mocks him, saying: "self-control? Who is she?".

It's a Saturday, and he's sitting in the chair in front of the big screens, throwing a ball up as high as he can and catching it.

Obviously, he's bored.

Jasper is watching re-runs of old dog judge episodes on the couch, but Henry can see his eyes fluttering close every couple of minutes.

He doesn't even bother asking who's helping the clients out in Junk N' Stuff.

The elevator suddenly dings and he looks up, ready to grunt out a greeting to Charlotte when she walks in.

He opens his mouth to speak but within a second, all the words die on his lips.

Again.

He stares.

At her lips.

She's wearing a bold red lipstick.

And it's shiny.

And it attracts his gaze like a magnet.

He vaguely recalls that she told him that her older cousin had send her a box full of make-up. And he, in pure Henry fashion, had just said "oh, cool", to which she had rolled her eyes and continued the conversation with Jasper, who had been more enthusiastic about it.

Really, it's his own fault. He really should've seen this coming.

He doesn't know how a color could make such a difference though.

It's just a color.

Some tint on the lips, that happens to be glossy and attracting his eyes to the bow-like shape of them and has him thinking about whether it would transfer if he were to-

He mentally curses.

It takes everything within him to stop himself from standing up, walking over there and kissing her senseless.

He's really considering it.

Considering putting an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him.

And about leaning down and biting her lower lip, teasing her before he moves in closer and closer and then-

He groans.

Fuuudge.

In an effort to calm himself, he closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. He feels, dazed, confused, his heart is thumping like crazy. He's having all types of reactions to this.

And he really needs to get himself under control.

When he opens his eyes again after deeming himself sane enough to do so, he finds her looking directly at him.

There's a look in her eyes that he can't identify. It's dark and…something.

They stare at each other for what seems like ages. Everything falls away and the only thing- the only one- he can see, is her. The air between them is wracked with so much tension that he swears he can hear the electricity crackle. And when her teeth catch her lower lip, biting it in a way that he's been fantasizing about just then, he's pretty sure that he's spontaneously combust. He's just about snapped. And he's so ready to follow those instincts that are telling him to kiss her senseless.

And then Ray walks in.

"Get a room you two!" he yells out playfully as he heads over to the auto-snacks machine.

Or it sounded playful. The look he sends Henry though, makes him think that Ray knows exactly what he's been thinking about, and exactly how much this whole incident is affecting him.

Henry looks away from him only to catch the gaze of Jasper sitting casually on the couch, lazily eating from a bowl of popcorn, wide-awake and giving him the same look.

He turns back to the computer.

He tries to concentrate.

And he's also considering breaking into her house one of these days, finding that lipstick and destroying it.

For his own sanity.

But that's stupid.

Because she would probably just buy a new one.

And even though it costs him his sanity, he really, really loves that color on her.

Another thing that he likes about her is how expressive her eyes are.

When she's mad, it's like you can see the fire within them, even when she narrows them. People quiver under that stare, and he can't blame them.

When she's excited, they twinkle brightly, and hey dance in merriment and are brimming with joy when she's happy.

And when she's proud, they turn tender and warm. He feels as if looking at her when she's proud is going to make his heart burst. It makes him feel shy, almost embarrassed for some reason.

When she's sad, they dampen and become dull. And that's the expression that he hates the most. He hates it when she's sad. Not because she's not allowed to be and definitely not because it makes him uncomfortable or something equally as inane.

No, if she were to start crying in front of him right now, he would be right there for her. He would make sure that she's okay, would be her shoulder to cry on and her listening ear.

The thing is though, he can't stand the idea of her ever being in pain, either physically or emotionally. He just… doesn't like the idea of her suffering. Fear is also one of those emotions that he would never like to see in her eyes for the same reason.

But because his job tends to be dangerous, he sometimes gets to see both of those emotions swimming in her eyes, all in one go.

When he's hurt and he comes back delirious and in bad shape, hers is the face that he remembers when he wakes up again after having blacked out. The fear in her eyes, the tears welling up, the trembling lips and the soft whisper of "please be okay".

It makes him determined to train harder, because he never ever wants to be the one to put that expression on her face again.

She sometimes runs her hand through his hair unconsciously.

When he's sitting next to her in the Man Cave, when he's lying down on his own couch in his room or in his living room when they're studying. At one point, her hand is bound to fall onto his head and she would weave her fingers through his hair, tugging the strands and caressing his head.

Sometimes she does this when he's had a particularly stressful and exhausting day, and it always manages to make him feel mellow and calm.

He loves it.

So much so that when Jasper sends him a picture that he'd taken of them once when Charlotte had been doing just that, he prints it out and only stops himself at the last moment from framing it and putting it up in his room.

She might find that weird.

He likes being around her.

He especially likes taking any chance he can get to touch her.

He barely ever goes a day without making some type of physical contact with her; brushing his shoulder against hers, hugging her, laying his head atop of hers (but he avoids doing that at school now), and grabbing her hand.

He drops kisses on her head or on her forehead and loves standing closer to her than is strictly necessary.

It's his way of satisfying his growing need to be close to her and also a way of showing affection.

It's around this time that he starts to notice the thought that's been festering in his head for (what he's pretty sure has been) a while, but which he had ignored all of this time.

The thought of wanting her there with him forever.

It's a scary thought because he knows what it implies. And he knows that he's known for a long, long time already.

But he's still not ready to admit it yet. Not even to himself.

One Christmas morning, Charlotte comes over to the Hart house for the annual holiday get together. She's also there to give the family their presents and to steal some of Henry's trademark (not really) red velvet cookies with white chocolate chip and sprinkles inside.

When she walks in, Henry turns and greets her, yelling over the noise of Christmas music, his mom's electric mixer and Piper yelling at their dad that the lights around the banister are white and not multicolored like they're supposed to be.

She looks beautiful.

As is the case each year during their holiday party, their clothes are coordinated with one another, her green dress and black heels complimenting his green shirt and black pants. It also compliments her brown skin wonderfully.

He sees her put the presents on the table and then immediately walk over to the box of Christmas decor that's situated next to the Christmas tree.

For years now, she's a been the one who's been in charge of decorating the Hart's Christmas tree. This is probably because she found it barbaric how they would just put two same colored balls next to one another before she came along. And most importantly, because she knows that his family tends to be (wonderfully) chaotic sometimes, and that they would always leave the act of decorating the tree up until the very last minute.

As in, right before they had to eat their holiday feast.

So, she's taken over that task.

Henry's pretty sure that it's not (only) because of his family's chaotic tendencies that the tree stays bare up until Christmas day. It probably also has to do with the fact that his mom knows that Charlotte likes hanging up the decorations and has grown attached to that tradition. Plus, his mom is also a sucker for seeing people smile.

In no time, Charlotte has everything set up on the floor and starts decorating the three. Jasper walks in soon after, and the noise basically multiplies by ten when him and Piper start arguing with one another (okay, Piper starts arguing with him).

When the last batch of cookies are in the oven (Henry having made some for Charlotte's mom who'll be coming back from a business trip tomorrow), Henry walks over to the tree and sits down in order to help Charlotte decorate. Together they hang up the red and gold balls in the final bare sections of the tree. When it's done, they put on the star, the light garlands, spray and throw some magic snow in and around the tree and then finally turn the light on.

It looks wonderful.

Magical even.

This is what he loves the most about the holidays. The warm feeling that he gets from the soft music playing in the background, the lights of the tree, the smell of cookies, ham, cinnamon and pine, and the feeling of family. He would give anything to feel like this throughout the whole year.

The inhabitants of the room 'oeh' and 'aah' at the tree for a moment, before resuming with their tasks. Charlotte decides to go and get a cookie, and in the time that she's gone, he manages to change the positions of one of the balls. It doesn't even surprise him when she immediately notices it when she gets back.

"Why are there two gold balls next to one another?" she says as she pops the rest of her cookie into her mouth.

Henry grins as he turns to look at her. She's smiling too, and also glaring playfully at him as she chews.

"This isn't the 1950's, Char," he quips. "It's perfectly okay for two same colored balls to be next to one another."

He squats down to look at the two balls which are situated smack dab in the middle of the last row, nodding at his handiwork. He chuckles when he hears the huff of frustration that Charlotte lets out before sitting down herself and reaching over him to switch the position of the ball.

Henry in consequence, gets a whiff of her perfume. It's a different one, definitely new. It smells earthy and woodsy, like wood, pine and spice. He inhales surreptitiously in order to get a better smell of it.

He's pretty sure that he's found his second favorite scent on her.

Charlotte sighs and sends him a small smile. "It's gold, than red than gold than red! You know this because I tell you that- "

She's interrupted by a spray of magic snow that covers one of her arms.

She looks at him and then down at her arm, moves her gaze to the bottle in his hand and then she shoots him an incredulous look.

"Did you just-"

He starts laughing before she can finish her sentence. The look on her face is just so hilarious. He's laughing so hard that he doesn't notice the look on her face.

"Someone had to stop your tirade about old-fashioned- oomph!"

This time he's the one who's interrupted by a handful of fake snow which is thrown right into his face.

He splutters.

Then looks at her.

A beat goes by and then-

They both jump up seemingly at the same time, him with a can and Charlotte with a bucket of magic snow. He sprays at her, following her along the room when she runs away.

He thinks he's just about to get her when

"What the butt?!"

He ends up spraying Piper.

She sputters and glares.

"Piper, it's not-"

Piper turns to Charlotte, who's already holding out the plastic container to her, smiling evilly at Henry.

"Wait! Piper!" Henry yells, running for cover near the banister when Piper throws her little snowball.

It fall right into their dad's coffee mug.

There's a moment of silence.

And then they all double over laughing.

"Oh, that's how it's going to be, huh?" his dad says, and he walks towards the box, taking out another can.

"Fake snow fight!" Jasper yells at the top of his lungs, and he runs towards the box too, followed closely by Kris Hart.

It ends up being that kind of chaotic nonsense that his family usually deals with.

Spraying, throwing and laughing as they run around the living room and the kitchen.

It gets even more hilarious when Ray and Schwoz (who later introduces himself as a rented Elf to the Hart family) walk through the door and Ray immediately receives a spray of fake snow in the face, midway through his greeting, courtesy of Jasper, who can't stop laughing after that.

When the fight's over, multiple cans and a bucket of snow have been used up. The room is full of it and Piper is yelling about how she can't beat Jenna Tetrazzini's family picture now, and then she starts laughing loudly.

Henry looks down, grinning at Charlotte who is also still laughing at the mess and chaos which they've created. Her hair is full of little white bits, just as his probably also is. She's holding onto him as she laughs, tears sporadically rolling down her cheeks.

He's so focused on the sound of her laugh, the pure happiness on her face and the twinkling eyes full of merriment, that he doesn't notice his mom taking a picture of them.

Or how she shows his dad and the both of them smile at one another.

Or how Piper rolls her eyes, and hides a tiny smile by eating one of the cookies.

Or how Jasper takes out his phone, also taking a picture, raising both his eyebrows at Ray, who shoots the same look back.

Or how Schwoz is eating a lot of the cookies.

All he's focused on at that moment, is her.

But two days later, his mother presents him with one of the best presents that he's ever received.

It's the picture of him and Charlotte, which his mom had developed and framed for him. It depicts them standing next to each other, laughing and surrounded by a mess of fake snow. Charlotte has one arm laced through one of his as she tries to keep herself upright. Henry's looking down at her, slightly turned as he tucks a curl behind one of her ears. And the lights of the Christmas three are twinkling brightly behind them.

He can feel everything that he had felt at that moment as he looks at the picture, can smell the cookies, feel the warmth and smell her perfume.

He can also feel the emotions that he had felt during that moment well up inside of him again.

If back then he didn't know or didn't want to admit that he had feelings for her, now it would be difficult to not acknowledge his those feelings, especially in the face of such an obvious piece of evidence.

He likes her.

Like-likes her.

Romantically.

And he's okay with it.

More than okay actually.

He just…doesn't know what to do with this revelation though.

Tbc.

A/N: And that's the end of chapter one. Thanks for reading!