PART 3. OF. DAD!CHARLES X TOPPAT!HENRY!
PREVIOUSLY: Charles remembers a time when Henry caught him by surprise and expressed missing him, which is very 🤮 piss-nasty-o. After some dinner hijinks, Charles makes Rupert swear to take care of Cameron, should anything... happen😈.
Like before, if you want better context, check out part 1 and part 2, which you can follow the links to find, and for a fluffier version of this, and added visuals(you CAN'T top a story with visuals), check out @bambidoodles who has her own AU for Charles being a father. Did I mention she has the art to back the story? Because she does and it's amazing!!
A little off the plot, I'll admit, SO LET'S JUMP BACK IN!!!!
We begin with Charles as he sits in a cell in the Orbital Station, bored, tired, and in withdrawal as he has not had his medicine.
His attention leaves the floor as someone walks toward him and kneels down, lifting up his head with a hand under his jaw. Charles looks reluctantly, but cutsene/movie pov he's mentally panicking even though he can't exactly move, because he's exhausted.
Surprise, it's Henry, who's happy to see Charles is awake. He brushes a thumb along Charles's cheek and reveals they have the sapphire now, and the General is critically injured, so he asks Charles will be getting to spend some time together.
Charles is not enthused, not even Henry smiles and tilts his head, expressing that Charles is his and no one's really brave, or stupid, enough to stop him. With all the smugness in the world, he leans toward Charles, the pilot mentally shouting at Henry to stop and take him home, take him back so he can be with Cameron again.
That's when Charles wakes up with a start, shaking and covered in sweat, because DREAM SEQUENCES, and he takes a moment to calm down and remind himself he's home and not on the Orbital Station.
After a moment, he leaves his bed and carefully goes to Cameron's room to check on them.
They're fine, just sleeping in their bed under their weighted blanket because they get bad dreams as well. Charles takes a breath and goes back to his room so he can try to get some more shut eye.
We jumped in time a little bit, specifically to where it is Cameron's last day of school in the morning, and that means an entire summer of Cameron needing to be under surveillance just in case something happens😈.
He goes back to sleep, but is awoken a few hours later because of his pet fifteen year old- I mean, child. Cameron knocks on the door first, thankfully, before racing in and exclaiming that it's the last day of school and they need to get the hell up so Cameron can get to school and then get the hell out.
Charles groans that Cameron should not be this excited for the last day of school because they're most excited about leaving rather than seeing their teachers one last time.
They ARE excited about that, but they like the idea of telling everyone to get fucked and see them next year more.
Charles sits up and lightly scolds Cameron for their language, but Cameron is more than glad that their dad's up and leaves to prepare breakfast so they can go.
He chuckles and indeed gets up dressed, awaken by Cameron's energy alone.
Well, they actually made eggs and toast and coffee for Charles. Cameron made a hot cocoa bomb for themselves; Charles does tell them it's not healthy to have chocolate for breakfast just because it's their last day of school, but Cameron justifies it by explaining that hot cocoa is basically warm chocolate milk and the protein from the eggs they made will balance out all the sugar. Speaking of sugar, Charles should not be talking because he may drink his coffee black, but that gives him no excuse to put in FIFTEEN sugars so he could drink it.
Charles lets Cameron have the win and eats breakfast, stifling a laugh because they’re having eggs, toast with quite a bit of cinnamon sugar on it, and a hot cocoa bomb, so the sugar hangover is going to hit them HARD.
He's right about this because CUT TO CAMERON'S SCHOOL!
Our titular teenager has a belly ache for reasons unknown to man(it can't be the sugar with a side of sugar and eggs they had, surely) and Charles teasingly asks if they’re sick enough to need to stay home from the last day of school.
Foolish Charles, Cameron is not skipping the opportunity to laugh in the face of their teachers, though they will admittedly look forward to Charles picking them up early.
Charles also looks forward to it as he often feels like he doesn't see them often, with work and their book club. Cameron assures him that they see him plenty and the military is a tough job, so they get it.
Charles, however, isn't fully comforted as he remembers his nightmare and is more afraid of losing Cameron than anything else, even getting captured and brought back to the Orbital Station. With that in mind, he holds out a pinky and promises to spend more time with Cameron, because he loves them. Cameron asks if they can still see their frineds and Charles admits that they always can, but they'll need to keep him in the loop of where they're all going and doing, even asking them to keep on their phone's location so he knows where they're at.
Is this him being a toxic parent? No. Is he being a helicopter parent? No. He's worried he's going to lose his kid, but at the same time doesn't want to keep them from having summer fun as they're only 15, so this is a perfectly acceptable middle ground and compromise for both situations, something Charles expresses to Cameron when they ask.
With that answer and explanation, Cameron agrees and shows Charles that they have indeed turned on their phone's Location, so he knows where they are now, and promises that if their friends do anything funny, they'll call him or their uncles, maybe even Aunt Victoria, and get out of there as soon as they can.
Charles thanks them and the two hug before Cameron leaves for their last day of school.
To show he loves them, and to embarrass them a little bit for that comment about his coffee, Charles beeps his horn and shouts after Cameron, wishing them a happy last day and telling them he loves them and has their after-school snack for them when they get out.
It does the job and Charles waves as he tells Cameron he'll pick them up after school.
While they go inside, Charles leaves and gets a text from an unknown number and pales at the sight of it:
It's a picture of him and Cameron outside of the school hugging, both smiling and being a little family. Another picture shows them with Galeforce as he scolds Charles for being soft on his kid and Cameron for having an Ice-cream mustache and beard. Charles is laughing at them as he hands them a napkin to clean off with. A third shows the two doing some grocery shopping and Cameron holding more than they can really carry because they wanted to help out.
There's an actual message with them all, too:
'Cute kid. They're just like you!'
For those who aren't in the loop, I headcanon that Charles was found as a baby and adopted by a pair of government pilots, who became his parents, before they died when he was a kid. When they died, he was adopted by Galeforce and lived with him until he became of age and moved into his own place, because adulthood. Present day, Charles has followed in his parents’ footsteps and adopted Cameron, who he found one day on a mission and adopted.
Back on track, Charles is terrified and appalled at this and trembles at the fact that Henry has eyes and ears, which is not a comforting thought to have along with the knowledge that he can be anywhere aa any time.
It affects him to the point where he stops near a forest preserve and sits on bench to calm himself down.
For those wondering, yes, this is a timeline where Charles escaped the Orbital Station and made it back home. Henry is impressed, but he wants his pet- I mean, friend back, so here we are now. Only problem is that when Charles escaped, he landed near the Wall and was found by his friend Matteo, who brought him in, got him healthy enough to take home, and then actually got him home where he healed fully.
Back on track once more, after a while of sitting still, Charles gets a call from Victoria, who asks when he'll be at the base because people start asking questions, like if he's a spy for the Toppats.
Charles answers that he'll be there as soon as he can, but stipulates that he'll leave at noon to pick up Cameron, because it's their last day.
Speaking of Cameron, we cut to see what their last day of school is: students are done with their finals and now are just hanging out.
Cameron sits with their friends as they either play a game on their phone, text Calvin or Konrad or even Rupert to see if there's more they can say about the Toppat Clan, for... reasons, which include a few articles they've been reading online about a few members that were arrested and then broken out of jail by the Clan leader.
One of their friends gets they're attention and asks if they've heard about the most recent heist, the one that failed because Henry was shot at, something that was caught on camera in the form of a picture
They had because their dad told them first.
The group exclaims that Charles is a cool and scary dad sometimes, but one of the unhinged people, a girl, walks up to the group and asks if they’ve seen pictures of the Toppat Clan’s leader, showing them all pictures and even one she has as a wallpaper.
They’re all mostly disgusted, but the girl justifies that Henry just needed money and no one was going to help him. Cameron admits he could’ve just applied for and gotten a job, but the crazy girl ignores them as they’re prone to spouting nonsense.
While everyone was a heated debate, Cameron pulls up a picture of Henry mid-heist before something catches their eye:
It’s Henry, who’s dressed in mostly plain clothes, but the only thing that’s remained in his top hat.
The two stare at each other, Cameron very, VERY unnerved, even as Henry tips his hat to them, like taking it off to say, ‘Hello.’
Why does no one else notice? Well, it’s a busy day, no one’s paying attention.
The cherry on top? Hery pulls out his phone, types on it and then looks up at Cameron, who has just received a text message:
‘Hello, Cameron. It’s nice to meet you. I’m a friend of your father’s, but he doesn’t like talking about me. If you’re interested in learning more about the Clan, you always have my number.’
The group notice that Cameron’s gone silent and gets their attention long enough to ask if something’s wrong, because they look like they’ve seen a ghost.
Cameron is distracted long enough for Henry to walk away, which they see as he meanders down the sidewalk.
Cameron, shaking and unable to talk, panics and sends a text to Charles, Victoria, Rupert, and the twins a text that says they saw Henry and Henry saw them. Oh, yeah. AND HE WAS AT THEIR SCHOOL.
Yeah, cut to Charles sprinting into the school and main office where Cameron is waiting. Bit of a time jump happens because they’ve been given a tissue box and some water, which is half empty, and they have their backpack with them.
The two hug, Charles signs Cameron out, and the two leave, Cameron looking around for Henry, just in case. When he asks what happened, Cameron reveals that Henry texted them and knows their name and said he and Charles know each other.
Charles asks for Cameron’s phone, which they give, and blocks and deletes the number, very scared and very angry.
Henry can screw with him all he likes, but the moment he screws with his kid, ALL BETS ARE OFF.
They arrive at the base, and are greeted by Galeforce, but they’ve arrived at the same time as The Wall guys arrive, i.e. Dmitri, Griggory, Matteo, and some guards. Cameron's intimidated by them, but while Dmitri and Griggory eye them warily, the guards fill on ignore them and Matteo leaves them all to get Charles and introduce himself to Caneron. He assures he means no harm, he isn't going to hurt them, and even goes as far to say that it's nice to meet them.
It calms Cameron, but Galeforce calls the group over for the meeting, though he actually greets Cameron as well and has the Bukowski twins look after them, just until the meeting is over.
Cameron's glad to see their uncles again, but asks Charles if it's okay the three are alone.
He's confident, because the twins can hold their own, but if he leaves the meeting and everything's on fire, they'll all be in trouble.
The three agree and leave, the twins saying they'll show Cameron how the flares work, as a joke, of course.
Charles watched them go and Galeforce checks in on him, seeing if he's okay after having to pull Cameron out of school.
He takes a breath and admits that he was absolutely terrified while he was in space. Not only did he did he not have his medicine, but he was alone with nearly no one to talk to. He also was in a place where he had to be careful to try and not piss anyone off because they could always send him into the vacuum of space, if they really wanted to. To top it off, he was at Henry's mercy, and he was lucky to escape at all.
That fear, that isolation, that helplessness, he wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy. And the one person he wants going through that least of all is Cameron, because they have no part in any of this.
Galeforce hopes he can persuade Henry of that, but that won't be easy as he's spotted Cameron and now probably knows Charles cares about them.
Charles has a look of pure fear on his face, but hides it with a smile as he tells Galeforce he'll meet him inside.
Despite the uneasy, the General goes inside to prepare the meeting.
With his back turned, Charles finds that number that Henry used to texted him and sends his own message.
'It's about time. Nice to hear from you again.'
