Shared Spaces
This was never really following the cue of canon, though for the most part it is, so the end of the show and all of those things need not apply to where this story has been or is going, thanks!
Share-a-Lair 15
Henry and Max came in from their mission around 3 am, and even then, Charlotte rushed over to assess the damages, first hugging Max tightly and saying, “That one sounded rough,” then turning to Henry and wondering, “You okay? No injuries? Nothing I need to patch up?” She was still in Max’s arms when she was asking and Max was hunched over, with his face buried in her neck. Henry actually did have a few wounds, but working in the field with Max, they’d gotten closer and taking Charlotte away from him right now when he could tell from how he was holding her that Max needed her tonight, would weigh on his conscience.
“Nothing I can’t slap some liquid bandage on,” he said, smiling.
“Make sure you clean it properly, first!” Charlotte warned. Henry nodded and headed for the tower. “And, if Jasper is still awake, have him process those injuries in the system TONIGHT, before you forget what I have to check on in the morning.” He gave her two thumbs up as he walked backwards, trying to give her and Max their space and get out of dodge. “Also…”
“Char! I’m good. Okay? You two go love on each other, or whatever,” Henry said. He gave Max a salute, turned and disappeared through the double doors.
Charlotte scoffed, shook her head and complained, “It’s like he can do this stuff on his own now, or something!”
Max laughed a little, kissed her on the neck and told her, “He’s grown a lot.”
She sighed and nodded her head. It was weird how she felt - sort of how when parents described figuring out that their kids no longer needed them. But, that was some BS, because she’d always resented being the designated mom friend and she should be stoked that she didn’t have to, as much. But... “I have a couple of injuries, if it makes you feel better?” Max interrupted her thoughts.
“No, it doesn’t make me feel better!” She said, but rushed him back to his quarters so that she could tend to whatever needed it.
.
While Henry and Max trained on the course, Charlotte and Jasper set the after training routine - the guys would stretch and cool down and walk back to the lair from the grounds, and Jasper and Charlotte will have already prepared the post workout snack, lounging outfits and set the tone in the bathrooms for their cool showers. Technically, it had been a thing that Charlotte did for Max that he casually mentioned, in anticipation to Henry on the walk back to the house one day and Henry wished he had something like that, so Jasper adopted it, too.
Jasper was going through something on his own, though. Whenever he and Henry talked about Henry going along with Max as his right hand in his next endeavor, one thing was clear to Jasper - Henry didn’t want him to follow him there. Sure, Henry had said that it wouldn’t be the same without him and that he would miss him, but he also said that he felt like Jasper should take some time to think about his life outside of Henry for a while and maybe focus more on his own goals instead of taking care of Henry all of the time. It sounded hauntingly like one of those, “It’s not you, it’s me” type break ups, except that they weren’t actually together and everything that Henry said felt like projection, to Jasper.
His life outside of Henry happened in the time that he spent away from Henry. He definitely had more of a life outside of Henry than Charlotte had before she got enraptured with Max. So, for him, his life outside of Henry had not only been just fine, but had been thriving and truth be told, he believed that if he did follow Henry to Russia, or anywhere else, he would be the one out of ALL of them, who would be able to adapt and immerse himself into his surroundings, the culture, and community of wherever they went! So, he felt not only dejected by his best friend’s “for your own good” “breakup,” but insulted by the “reasons.” Still, that didn’t mean that he was going to up and leave because of it. They were still besties, after all and he still felt responsible for making sure Henry was taken care of.
After the post training routine, Jasper would generally ask, “Need anything else before I jet?” And Henry generally declined (sometimes, he asked Jasper if he could rub some pain cream on his back or something), but usually, Jasper left after training and went to work at the Man Cave. Sometimes, if Max was going to go to sleep or something, he chilled with Charlotte.
She presumed the whole thing between her two best friends would blow over rather quickly and that at the end of it, someone would have needed to keep things in tact for their combined futures. As it stood, she took that on. For instance, when looking to book rental venues for possible visits, she kept all of her needs AND Jasper’s in mind throughout her research. When she ordered the groceries and such for the lair, she still factored Jasper in, like he was going to be staying over every night, whether or not he was doing so, at the moment. Jasper would comment on a daily basis, “I’m still pissed at him,” and she would nod in understanding and still move in favor of Jasper always being around.
Her Charlotte/Jasper time hadn’t really changed much, except for those moments when he’d have been in the tower with her during a mission, but was instead in the Man Cave for Captain Man… who they knew was definitely going through a transition period where he openly resented Henry for backing out of his job, instead of being happy for him that he was excelling, and also openly resenting Charlotte for putting Henry up to this, because she was the one who encouraged him to reach higher.
.
She came into the living room to see Max and Henry playing video games and trash talking each other, looked around, wondering where Jasper was, because they were all off of work and that meant that they were gonna lounge around here. “Where’s Jasper?” she asked.
Max was very into beating Henry in the game, and Henry was never much of a listener, so she rolled her eyes and checked the house scanner. He wasn’t in the tower. She texted him. Where R U?
Didn’t wanna be a third wheel, so I left. Chillin’ with Piper.
That didn’t make sense. How was he gonna be a third wheel when there were four of them? Of course, Charlotte came later, but there couldn’t have been more than a two hour wait for her. “Henry, did something happen with Jasper?” she asked.
Max finally answered, “I think he’s in the kitchen.”
She held out her arms, “I’M in the kitchen. Jasper left! Neither of you noticed?” They paused and looked over at her.
Max said, “I’m sorry… noticed what, now? Your shirt? It’s awesome!”
“That Jasper left the lair!” She fussed.
Henry squinted, “No, I think he went to the bathroom or something.” He checked his phone, “Oh, nope. He definitely left. He left like 30 minutes ago.” He looked confused. “Why would he just leave?” He asked himself more than anyone else.
“I have no idea. I’m still not convinced that he isn’t in that kitchen,” Max said. Charlotte folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I’m convinced, now.” He and Henry looked at each other and Max wondered, “Should we continue playing, or are we both in trouble?”
“Guys… I know that a 3 person dynamic is complicated, especially when everybody doesn’t have the same level of comfort with each other, but… it’s not cool to make people feel left out. Being on the receiving end of that sucks, and you aren’t in trouble, but I’m really disappointed that Jasper left and neither of you even noticed, especially you, Henry.”
Max sighed with relief and whispered, “Yes! You’re more in trouble than me.”
Henry scoffed, “I’m not worried about being in trouble with Charlotte. There are absolutely zero ramifications for that for me, so… business as usual.”
Charlotte came into the room, fussing, “You know, Henry, it’s not about ramifications so much as it is that YOU should care about how you make your best friends feel.”
He stood up and commented, “Well, the only reason that Jasper has been feeling some kind of way is because YOU made him feel like I was being dishonest with him about Russia.”
“The reason that I made him feel that way was because YOU weren’t being honest about Russia.”
“Maybe YOU shouldn’t have said ANYTHING to him about Russia!”
“Well, maybe YOU should have just TOLD him about Russia in the first place!”
“Well, I didn’t think YOU would be having conversations that weren’t really your business in the first place with him. YOU could have checked with ME before mentioning it!”
They had been moving towards each other fussing until Max stepped in the middle of them, facing Henry and said, “YOU, chill out. Go cool off.” Max gave him a couple of light slaps across the face and cupped his neck. Henry took a deep breath and nodded, then snatched his phone and left. Max turned around to Charlotte and offered her open arms. She folded her own. She didn’t want a hug. She wanted to punch Henry in the face. “Here,” Max said, raised his sleeve and flexed his arm muscles. She stepped closer and unfolded her arms, debating on whether she was this easily swayed by him, and then decided ultimately to rub on those muscles, but she kept her frown in tact, just so he knew that he wasn’t winning at getting her to lay off of Henry.
“Is that better?” Max asked, swooning over the way she fawned over his muscles. She really still was adorable when angry, even though he was not allowed to say that.
“No,” she lied, rubbing his chest, now. He moved his pecs a little for her entertainment and she finally broke into a smile, but changed the subject, “He always does this. Whenever somebody new and likable comes along, he makes all this room for them and bumps someone else aside. It wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t about to leave for Russia. Like... I get that hero life is heavy and important, but like...” She bit her lip, “It makes the rest of us expendable...”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Easy to leave behind, when everything else is life or death.”
“No. It’s not easy to leave anybody behind. Hero life makes that harder.”
“I just feel like... if he can so easily let Jasper slip through his fingers, what about me, you know?”She stared at him.
He tilted his head, trying to determine what she meant by that and by the way she was looking at him. It took him a moment to reply. “Don’t. Don’t... project whatever Henry’s doing onto us. Don’t project stuff he does onto me.” He reached for her pinky with his and hooked it, “I would never not notice you slipping away from me and I certainly wouldn’t push you away. Promise.” She hooked her pinky around his too and they smiled. “They’ve been together their entire lives, side by side, doing almost everything together. Sometimes, you just... want a little bit of space from that.” Now, he was projecting, but only a little bit. “I think that they’ll be even better friends by the end of all of it. So, don’t worry about your friends, and certainly don’t worry about us.”
Henry came back into the room and looked at them for a moment. Charlotte was leaning against Max’s chest looking up at him and he was looking at her and they barely noticed Henry return. “You wanna play still, or...?”
Max glanced at him, then looked at Charlotte. “Go ahead,” she said with a sigh. Max excitedly smiled, kissed her on the cheek, which she pressed harder into, then spun on the balls of his feet to get back to the video game date he and Henry had.
“You comin’?” Henry asked. “You can show us how to do a 3 person dynamic properly.”
“It’s different with this because I’m closely connected to both of... You know what forget it. She came in the living room and sat down. Maybe Max was right. Maybe Henry and Jasper could use a little time to breathe. But, it just didn’t feel right. It felt like Jasper took a little bit of her breath too. Or maybe that was just her projecting again. She’d have to work on it. There was no reason to believe that Max would distance himself from her.
