[ he at least has the good grace to look sheepish and apologetic at once, and yeah — maybe they do need the promise. and more than that, maybe he's incredibly, stupidly lucky that junpei gets it; does he wish he didn't, because it'd mean he wouldn't do the same? well, yes, of course. but he can't help but be grateful nonetheless, that junpei speaks of this not with anger but understanding... and a little wryness and a pointed look, well, he's definitely owed as much. ]

Think she might. [ truthfully, jinx seems more like a sweets person to him, but that's not really the point here.

the point, it turns out, is junpei saying it's you and me and holding out his pinky for another promise and charles — fucking hell, charles loves him so much his heart might just burst, so much it actually hurts more than the bloody arrow wound, and once the promise is made and their hands are simply holding onto each other again, he looks at them instead of at junpei because he knows that if he doesn't distract himself, somehow, he's going to go and discard every good reason he's thought of to not speak of his feelings at all and pour them all out, reach into his chest and drop his spectral heart into junpei's hands.

he exhales, once, very carefully. okay, he can — he can do this. he can be normal about this, can't he? and talking about ghost healing, yeah, that's a nice distraction. ]

Oh, uh, not too long? It started healing the second the iron was out, but I need to, you know, have a good and proper rest for it to work. So it's been pretty slow until now, but I reckon a few hours and I'll be able to move round without it hurting.