[ that's just the thing, though — charles doesn't think, even for one second, that junpei should be feeling better already. feeling better, or even good... no, that's not really it, is it? if anything, facing your trauma head-on is terrifying, exhausting, like every part of you that's spent so long jumbled up has been dragged out, sharp edges catching on everything inside you, so that the wounds you thought had healed are all bleeding again —

yeah, "feeling better" is not really it, at all.

so when junpei mushes his face in his chest, charles hums softly, wraps his arm around him tighter, holds him against him like he, too, would be just fine if this was them for the foreseeable future.

the question makes him chuckle, though. ]

No, they don't come like that. I had to spend weeks testing the enchantment, to get it just right. And it's not just bats — I gave Shaw magic bullets for Christmas, you know?