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Edwin tells Charles he loves him in Hell, but when Charles quickly responds with his own breathless 'I love you', Edwin assumes his friend meant it platonically, so he gives up halfway through his confession, leaving out the crucial 'I'm in love with you' part. Dejected, he decides to keep his feelings a secret.
Meanwhile, Charles has been in love with his best mate for years, so when they unexpectedly exchange 'I love yous' on the staircase of Hell, Charles happily assumes that they've just started dating and are just going at a really slow pace.
Needless to say, they're not really on the same page.
---
OR: because of a misunderstanding during the confession in Hell, Charles thinks they're dating now, while Edwin believes his love will stay unrequited forever
Sparkles dance in Charles’ eyes as he looks at Edwin shrouded in a rosy fog, and for a short second, he can swear that he feels his undead heart beat out a rhythm that he already recognizes.
Oh.
OR: a love potion au where the boys tirelessly try to lift the spell from Charles
(Making fanart of my own fanfic? More likely than you think)
Chapters: 8/8
Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland
Characters: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Charles Rowland (DCU), Crystal Palace (DCU)
Additional Tags: Love Potion/Spell, Love Confessions, Idiots in Love, Magic, Not Actually Unrequited Love, First Kiss, Getting Together, Canon Compliant, Light Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Feelings Realization, Post-Canon, Mutual Pining, POV Charles Rowland (DCU), Happy Ending, BAMF Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Pining Charles Rowland (DCU), Sexual Tension, Kidnapping
for @carebeardean for our dbda anniversary gift exchange! hope you like it <3
and a corresponding little 1.5k ficlet below
(mature rating warning)
“Do you reckon I’d look good in a skirt?”
Edwin pauses his reading, or more accurately freezes, too overwhelmed by dozens of images of Charles in different types of that garment flashing through his mind, effectively blocking the text in front of his eyes.
“Pardon?”
“It’s just–” Charles wrings his hands but takes a brave step towards Edwin where he sits on the couch anyway. “There was a couple in the park today. I don’t think you saw them, but they were tucked away between the trees, talking, and the– and the bloke’s hand was just casually resting on the bird’s upper thigh under her mini skirt and–”
“In public?” Edwin lets out an affronted scoff. “How utterly indecent this generation is.”
“Love, it’s not like we’re that much better,” Charles says and comes up the rest of the way to stand in front of Edwin.
“We do not–” shutting his mouth, Edwin thinks about it more and is forced to change his approach. “We are not visible to most of the population, making our chances of scandalizing someone that much smaller than the couple you mentioned.”
“Right." Charles chuckles, but his face is closed off and he’s not really looking at Edwin, eyes firmly planted on their carpet, posture not as relaxed as it was before. With a little sigh through his nose, he makes to move away, apparently deciding to swallow his disappointment at the fact that the conversation is already over. Edwin lurches to stop Charles and it just so happens that Charles’ legs are at his eye-level, so it’s only natural that Edwin’s hands grab him by the back of his thighs to keep him in place.
The feel of his boyfriend's legs, as well as the sight of Edwin's hands leaving dents in where they’re anchored are arresting enough that Edwin would be happy to just stay dreamily gazing upon it forever, if not for the little squeak ringing above him.
Lured in, Edwin follows the noise to Charles’ mouth, where the boy's lower lips is trapped between his teeth. Focusing on his goal of reassuring Charles, Edwin decides not to look at it too much lest he loses his train of thoughts completely. Their eyes meet and Charles stares at him with two pools of molten heat and suddenly Edwin doesn’t think that that’s much better for the state of his brain. But he pauses his newly-blooming images of kissing up the length of Charles' body with a thought of later.
“I am positive that you would look ravishing in any skirt of your choosing.”
Just as Edwin's hoped for, Charles’ breath hitches. Without even really thinking about it, Edwin’s grip on Charles’ legs tightens, as if wanting to capture the intoxicating feeling that sound gives him.
He’s familiar with this particular area of Charles, having left marks on those thighs many times before, but he still finds himself reverently kneading the muscles and marveling at the part where their give softens.
“Am I to presume,” Edwin thinks back to what prompted Charles to even ask his question in the first place. “That you would prefer skirts of the… shorter variety?”
“Yeah,” Thick like honey, Charles’ agreement rumbles out of him in a low voice. So beautifully strong and boyish just like the rest of him. Imagining all of it nicely wrapped in a flimsy little girly garment sends a thrill down Edwin’s spine. “Ones that’d come up to– um, right about where your hands are.”
“My. That is awfully short indeed.” Not being able to resist the temptation, Edwin moves his hands just a little bit higher and watches a shiver run through Charles’ body. "It would barely cover you up. Would you be wearing anything underneath?”
There’s an infinitesimal jolt to Charles’ hips. Edwin wouldn’t even notice it if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s tantalizingly close to that particular body part. Charles must see something in Edwin’s face that gives away that he’s noticed the movement, because he lets out a half-bitten whine, his eyes fluttering but refusing to close and break their eye contact.
“I don’t– I don’t know. Maybe.”
Edwin can tell that he has the boy close to squirming so he lightens his caresses to a hopefully maddening tease. A suggestion of a touch. What's the fun in giving in right away?
“I would have to wait and see for myself?” Edwin suggests.
“Probably not really wait, but yeah. I’d want you to–” Charles’ hands land on Edwin’s shoulders for support, the twitching of his hips evidently harder to control now that he starts pressing into Edwin’s hands. “To touch me.”
Somewhere on the couch lies Edwin’s book, completely forgotten, but he doesn’t even care about trying not to damage it as he pulls Charles forward so that he’s forced to plant his knees on both sides of Edwin. Now, Charles is essentially straddling him, but not quite, still not sitting down on Edwin’s lap, because that’d make it impossible for Edwin to keep up the steady movement of his hands up and down Charles' thighs after all. Plus, it’s not like Edwin minds the distance between them, having Charles hovering above him is a beautiful view.
“I suppose it is a unique advantage to have you clothed and yet… so accessible to touch as well.” Abandoning all decorum, Edwin starts stroking his hands up and down Charles’ trousers-clad legs. If he could see Charles, if he was bare, Edwin’s sure he’d be able to observe goosebumps rising on Charles’ skin.
“Yeah and if–” Charles kneads his hands where they’re clutching onto Edwin’s shoulders, seemingly steeling himself for what he’s about to say next. “If I did this–” he carefully drops himself on Edwin’s lap, clearly making a deliberate show out of it. Presses every possible inch of his body right into Edwin and slides down, causing sparks to shoot up Edwin’s core. Once Charles is fully seated on Edwin, he gives a tentative roll of his hips that snaps Edwin’s attention down, right where Charles wants it. “You could fuck me with the skirt still on.”
Although he was the one who started it, Edwin can’t take the teasing anymore, so he dives forward to catch Charles’ lips and devour him with a kiss.
It’s a perfect expression of just how much both of them like the idea of Charles in a skirt. Charles spells his love and trust with his tongue, not giving Edwin a chance to do anything but hold on and let himself be pressed into the backrest of the couch. Electricity zaps through the air, both of them forgetting about technique and finesse and both of them adoring it. Because why focus on anything else than Charles moaning right into Edwin’s mouth and tugging at his blazer like he wants to rip it off?
The sharp cut of Charles’ jawline, his big and capable hands, the way the short hair at the back of his neck feels under Edwin’s fingers - it all represents everything that the world tried to convince Edwin he shouldn’t want. But it all makes the picture of the gorgeous boy writhing in his lap while sucking on Edwin’s bottom lip and Edwin would rather die again than ever be denied this.
He loves the way Charles is always gentle with him, but manhandles him when they both get too riled up. Loves his long and lithe limbs wrapped around him, reminding him of how tall Charles is. Loves the fresh yet slightly musky scent of Charles that Edwin swears still lingers on the boy’s skin.
But there’s also no other word than ‘love’ to describe the feeling when Charles lets Edwin hoist him up on their desk or how bright Charles smiles when Edwin buys him flowers or how soft and breathy his whines turn when Edwin does something particularly right during kissing.
“I thought you wouldn’t be into skirts and you know, girly things?” It’s not really a question, but Charles’ tone ends it as such.
“I am not,” Edwin says and caresses the side of Charles’ darling face, so open and vulnerable under Edwin’s palm. “It is the thought of you in something like that which I find myself so enamored by. Everything about you could never be anything less than lovely and completely devastating to my heart.”
It gets him a frantic kiss that Edwin plans to lose himself in, before Charles leans away again.
“You don’t think it’d be weird? That it’d look– off on me?”
Edwin almost laughs at the notion.
“What a preposterous thought. Of course you will look endlessly beautiful in a skirt, my beloved.” A low groan rips itself from Charles’ throat and his shining eyes have never looked this pleading, this desperate. Edwin suspects he knows what they’re asking for. “My pretty girl.”
Chapters: 1/11
Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland
Characters: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Charles Rowland (DCU), Crystal Palace (DCU)
Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Angst, Angst and Romance, Angst and Feels, BAMF Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Character Study, Post-Canon, Getting Together, First Kiss, Mutual Pining, Protective Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Feelings Realization, POV Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Niko Sasaki haunts the narrative, Dark Magic, Corruption, Self-Sacrifice, Horror Elements, Self-Harm, it wasn't written to be a depiction of sh, but there is self-injury in this, Dark!Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Blood and Violence, but imo not a lot as I'm not really a fan of gore, Angst with a Happy Ending, check out notes for more details
Summary:
Haunted by the grief of losing Niko and desperate to find meaning in everything that happened to him, Edwin’s drawn back to Port Townsend. Back to the idea that the suffering of a ghost like him, someone tempered in hellfire, can be forged into immense magical power. And he’d only use it to protect rather than ruin.
But magic like this always demands its price. Resisting the pull of his new power proves difficult, and sometimes Charles feels like the only thing keeping Edwin tethered to his old self. Yet Charles isn’t without his own battles to fight and truths to face.
As Edwin tries to protect his friends while safeguarding his secret, Charles fights to save Edwin from himself. Soon, the question becomes not whether Edwin is willing to pay the cost, but whether there will be anything left of him when the debt comes due.
OR: Edwin’s corruption arc vs Charles’ feeling realization arc, FIGHT
(thank you to @deadbangdetectives for organizing!! and to @ur-localkiwi for her amazing art for this fic!!)
Rating: T (but will change to E later) | Chapters: 1/3 |Words: 2.6k
Charles is a musician at the peak of his career, and Edwin tells himself he's content with watching him from afar and never contacting him again. Until Charles reveals something he probably shouldn't have about one of his songs during an interview. Despite his resolve, it's not something Edwin's hopeful heart could ignore.
No, he needs to talk to Charles and confront all the ghosts of their past.
The salty breeze and relaxing sound of waves calmly meeting the shore would surely put him in a near meditative state if it wasn’t for something nagging in the back of his brain, an image of someone that should be with him, someone very dear to him…
“Edwin…” His mouth says faster than his brain can conjure a full thought of it. The name is unearthed from the deep recess of Charles' soul, where it lies engraved in the foundation of who he is. It’s instinctive, to say it. He reckons he must do it quite often, for it to come from a place deeper than his conscious thought. But if he’s right, then where’s–
“Edwin?!”
---
OR: Charles gets a taste of his destined afterlife. Will its tranquility be enough to make him forget about what he's left behind?
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland
Characters: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Charles Rowland (DCU), Niko Sasaki, Crystal Palace (DCU)
Additional Tags: Magical Accidents, Animal Transformation, Mutual Pining, First Kiss, Getting Together, Fluff, Shapeshifting, pom charles, Canon Compliant
Summary:
When a case unexpectedly goes south and Charles gets himself cursed, Edwin has to try to find a way to bring his friend back… while not letting himself become too distracted by how cute Charles’ new form is.
Or: what happens when Charles accidentally turns himself into a pomeranian
