Work Text:
It was cold. Really. Cold.
Why did the complex he escaped from have to be in Canada out of all things? It had been days since Henry escaped, but he was yet to find a way back home.
The wind only seemed to pick up with every step he took, and the snowfall wasn’t helping either. It was increasingly coming down harder every second he didn’t find shelter, threatening to become a frigid blizzard. Henry violently shivered as he slowly made his way to the nearby-yet-far tavern (Was it even a tavern? It could be anything, he couldn’t tell from the blinding snow). Hopefully he could snag a couple drinks and snacks (if they even had any) before hopping onto the back of another truck or vehicle. He could care less whether or not he was eventually caught by the driver, anything was better than walking to the next nearest building. Because good God, Canada was really fucking cold—
A car zoomed past, making Henry tense up and freeze like a deer in headlights. Ever since he escaped The Wall, his paranoia has been through the roof. Though he was definitely presumed dead, he couldn’t push down the feeling that they were still looking for him, and he still felt uncomfortably close to the complex despite having travelled for days. The convict shakily sighed, continuing to walk with nothing but his thoughts.
After a painfully cold and long walk, he finally arrived at the tavern and was greeted with warmth and a strong smell of alcohol. The ex-thief settled down on a chair near a television, hoping that it was either the news channel or a channel that had the date on it. He paused for a second, how long has he been gone?
Just thinking about it made his head hurt, thinking about the people he’s worried made it hurt even more. And oh God, Charles was probably worried—no, more like freaking out—because he’s suddenly up and disappeared—
“..US Agent’s death has been confirmed after a week’s disappearance.
“A couple days ago, Agent Henry Stickmin suddenly disappeared…"
He shot his eyes towards the tv in disbelief, tuning whatever the reporter was saying. His name and face was being broadcasted on the damn news. He silently groaned into his hands. How is he going to get home? His chances of being rescued just dropped to zero now that they think he’s dead. Henry started to regret how he broke out, maybe he should’ve thought of a better escape plan instead of just brute forcing his way out.
Great, just great. Now everyone thinks I’m dead— shit. That means Charles thinks I’m dead.
Charles thinks I’m dead. And I didn’t even get to tell him—
He felt sick.
He just wanted to go home.
“...snowstorm...” Henry sighed, not paying too much attention to the TV. For the past couple of days, he found himself stuck at the tavern while a snowstorm hit. He felt restless everyday he couldn’t leave. While it had reasonably calmed down today, he didn’t want to risk walking and getting caught in the storm if it decided to hit again. He’d rather be stuck here with a bunch of drunkards than freeze to death outside.
“Now the Toppat Orbital Station allows the Clan to easily raid any place on Earth…"
Just then, he heard a big crash outside, followed by a couple gunshots. Curiosity got the best of the man, and he reluctantly left his seat to investigate the noise. What if it was the Wall? Even if they didn’t know he was here, he could out himself by accident—
“Get back—” A distant voice called out to three Toppats who were guarding a safe, shortly being beamed up by a green light just as Henry stepped outside. “—here.. ugh.”
He noticed a figure with headphones run right over the spot where the Toppats just were a second ago, sighing in defeat, “..stupid Toppats.”
Wait, those red headphones..!
Their eyes met, and Henry’s eyes widened. Charles blinked in disbelief, “H-Henry?”
"Hi." Henry brought his hands up to sign, but he was barely able to get a small wave in before he was promptly tackled with a hug.
“Oh my God, HENRY!” he nearly lost his balance as Charles crashed right into him, pushing him back into the tavern, “I— they said you died!”
The pilot pulled away to allow his friend to sign while also holding back a sob, “Some prison complex arrested me for my past crimes.”
“That’s why you were in there?! We pardoned you.. like two years ago! Maybe it’s been even longer!”
“I know.. They didn’t care. They almost killed me when I was trying to escape.”
Charles winced, “Sheesh. I’ll make sure the general knows about this,” he beamed again, “but you’re alive! Oh my God, you’re alive.”
Henry couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah, I am.”
“The orbital station can be seen..”
The two snapped their attention to the TV, Charles sighing loudly as he took a seat, Henry following.
“The Toppats, ugh.. they’ve been causing a lot of problems for me ever since they got that station into space.” He looked back at the tv that was displaying a photo of said station, “They’ve been annoyingly powerful and we’ve been barely able to do anything about it.”
Henry frowned, he wasn’t expecting that to happen with the remaining Toppats, especially considering the fact that they arrested Reginald and his Right Hand Man. Then again, there were still a bunch of them left even after they captured the airship.
“Hey, y’know what?” Charles placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and slightly leaned in, “Now that you’re here, I bet we could take them down for good, it worked out pretty well last time!” the excitement faltered, “It’s starting to..
"get personal.”
Henry shivered, he’s never seen his crush best friend this serious before, but the expression disappeared in a blink. Suddenly, he was extremely aware of how close his face was to his friend’s.
Charles cleared his throat, also making this realisation as he backed away, “So, uh.. what do you say?” his eyes darted across the room as he waited for an answer.
“Why the hell not?” Henry shrugged, he had been itching for an exciting mission for a while, even before his sudden arrest. Missions with Charles were always fun, no matter how dangerous they were. Well, just being around him was fun, but that’s a story for another time, because how the hell were they even going to get into space?
“Alright! We should probably head back to base first, and let the General know you’re alive—” Right. That was going to be a fun explanation. “—then I can show you a way we can get into space.”
Holy shit, he was in space. Charles was definitely trying to talk to him right now, but he was in space. Everything looked so much clearer and so beautiful. He should’ve brought a camera, this would be perfect to hang up somewhere. Maybe he could ask Charles to fly him back up here after this mission, it would be so cool—
“Earth to Henry? Hellooo?”
Henry coughed before forcing a response out, “..sorry.”
Charles stifled a laugh, already knowing why he didn’t get an answer right away, “Don’t worry about it! I had the exact same reaction to this when we first tested this prototype out.”
The Orbital Station slowly became larger as they approached it, and wow was it a lot larger than Henry expected it to be. They halted to a stop, just far enough away to remain undetected from the Toppat’s radar. Now the question was how they were going to get onto the station— actually, more like how they were even going to complete this mission in general.
How the hell am I going to sneak onto this station in the first place?
Henry’s thoughts were quickly interrupted with quiet giggling, making his stomach do flips, “Sorry! I just can’t help but think that this is exactly like the first time we did a mission together.”
..Cute.
He pushed his thoughts away before he got too distracted. He had a mission to do.
“Okay.. Let’s figure out how to get you in there.”
They both thought for a while. There was a choice to beam Henry on board, but there was no way of knowing where he’d end up on the ship. It could end badly, especially if he was beamed into a room full of Toppats without a way to defend himself. Quite frankly, the two didn’t want to take the risk, and Henry’s gut feeling was screaming at him to not do that either. So beaming aboard was off the table.
“Any other ideas?” He looked towards Charles, who was still thinking.
“Oh!” The pilot gestured to a space suit, “Put that on, and climb into the ball of trash down there.”
Henry stopped just as he was about to pull the space suit off the wall, “..what.”
“I swear it’s a good idea, trust me.”
Reluctantly, he obliged and climbed into the ball of trash that the ship was hanging on to. He couldn’t smell it, but he still wanted to puke. At least the spacesuit ensured that he wasn’t actually touching any of the trash, only God knows what was even in here. Henry let out a grunt as the trash hit the side of the station, grabbing onto the small hatch in front of him. Charles’ idea.. surprisingly worked.
“Told you it was a good idea.” Smug bastard. He shot a look back at the spaceship Charles was driving, knowing full well that his expression wouldn’t be seen.
“..shut up.”
A laugh, “Well, I’ll stick back here for now. Don’t want our ride back home getting destroyed.”
Henry turned his attention back to the hatch in front of him. He tried pushing it in, but it stayed firmly shut. While he could attempt to kick it in, there was more of a chance of him pushing away from the station and floating off into space, which would be less than ideal.
“There’s a button on your helmet, it should produce a hot knife.” He clicked the button, startled as a scorching hot knife flew out of it. Before he could react, it flew into the distance, just out of reach. “You should be able to cut through and climb into the station.”
He nervously giggled, “U-Uh.. about that..”
His earpiece received radio silence for a minute before he heard Charles sigh.
“..you dropped it, didn’t you?”
“..maybe.”
To be fair, how was he even supposed to catch the thing? It probably would’ve burned his suit if he even tried to do so.
“It’s fine.. I’m sure there’s something else we could use to help you get in.”
Back to thinking. There weren't a lot of other options. Actually, there just weren’t any options. The space suit didn’t have much equipment on it either. Unless Charles had another idea, Henry was kind of just stuck on that hatch. Shit.
“You know what? Forget it, we need some bold action here.” A shadow started to get larger and larger.
Oh no.
Panic spread across Henry’s face. He knew all too well what Charles was about to do, “Charles, no— don’t— please DON’T—"
“WARNING! CRITICAL DAMAGE TO CORE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.”
An alarm loudly blared as Henry opened his eyes. Cracks filled his vision, as well as a blinking red light. His head was still spinning, but nothing good was going to happen if he stayed on the floor. Slowly, he took off his helmet and suit, wincing at the pain that suddenly shot through his entire body with every movement he made. As if on cue, Charles fell down right in front of him as he finished pulling the entire suit off. His signature red headphones were in rough shape, the microphone barely hanging on by a wire.
“Charles?” He received no response, panic bubbling up in him.
His friend coughed, before groggily looking up at him, “I’ve… always wanted to do that.”
Henry sighed in relief, helping him up, “That was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”
Charles only grinned back, “It— ow— works though, right?”
“..I’m not answering that.”
“WARNING! CRITICAL DAMAGE TO CORE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.”
The two frowned, “We should probably get going before this station explodes.”
They darted towards the door that was seconds away from slamming down and shutting them from the hallway. A jammed door greeted the duo on the other side, forcing them to stop in their tracks. Charles immediately ran over to the keypad, attempting to open the door, but to no avail. The door seemed to have not only malfunctioned, but it had landed in a crooked way, likely due to Charles crashing into the station. There was a gap, but unfortunately it wasn’t big enough for either of the two to crawl underneath.
“Any luck with the pad?”
Charles shook his head, “It’s completely jammed, and this is our only way through.”
Henry slightly pushed Charles to the side, fiddling with the keypad. The latter stepped away, looking around the hallway for anything to help them escape, knowing that the station could explode any moment without warning. He crouched down, trying to see if there was anything near the floor. His eyes landed on the vents, and it easily opened. Though it seemed pretty tight, they both could crawl through to the other side.
The ex-thief felt a tug on his sweater, “Hen, these vents will probably lead us somewhere on the other side.”
He hesitated for a moment, not being a huge fan of small and tight spaces.
“..Okay, but you’re going first.” Charles nodded, climbing into the vent.
Henry took a deep breath, before crouching down and following behind his friend. The second the cover closed, they were shrouded in darkness. He shivered, more than uncomfortable. Nonetheless, he dragged himself along, knowing that this was probably the only way out.
Charles seemed to sense his discomfort, beginning to softly sing. Henry softly smiled, quietly humming along.
“Crawling in the vents, these—” A loud explosion interrupted the two, “oh boy, we’re running out of time.”
A light blinded them for a split second, before they saw frantic footsteps running down a hallway. Toppats were running down the hallway, presumably towards a way off the station. Charles and Henry quickly followed after, slightly lagging behind to avoid being seen and causing unnecessary conflict. A row of escape pods greeted them.
The only free pod was the cracked one, and the last one on the end of the room was blocked by debris. The other two escape pods had Toppats in them, and conflict was the last thing Henry wanted to do, still feeling a little weak from the crash. He rushed over to the escape pod, pressing the button.
Once, twice, thrice..
“Stupid—" He slammed the button, finally getting the door open, “Finally!”
They sighed in relief, “That was.. intense.”
“I’m stealing your job of being a pilot after this.”
“Hey! Crashing the ship was a one–time thing,” Charles paused for a second, “..but I could teach you if you really wanted to.”
Henry only smiled, “Sounds nice.”
Just tell him already, God dammit!
“Charles—"
“Henry—"
Before either of them could say another word, he felt rough hands grab and shove him out of the pod. Henry grunted, dazedly trying to stand up while ignoring how his soreness returned. In a split second, he felt another pair of hands shove him back into the pod. There was loud thumping, before he saw the door of the escape pod abruptly close. Finally regaining his bearings, he realised Charles was no longer in the escape pod with him, but outside of it fighting a Toppat.
The pilot crashed into the door, holding the Toppat away, “Don’t worry about me, ow— I’ll find another way out!” Henry scrambled his way to the computer inside the escape pod to re–open the door, but it was too late.
NononoNO—
“Charles?! Charles, tell me you’re still there.”
He heard his earpiece come to life, hearing loud blaring alarms and heavy breathing.
“I’m.. I’m here. I got him. Ow, that really roughed me up.”
“Thank God.. can you still get into the other escape pod?”
There was a beat of silence.
He’d never heard Charles’ voice so soft and defeated before, “All of the escape pods have already left, Hen.”
His heart dropped, “There still has to be one more! Charles, the one behind all the debris—"
“Henry.” He stopped, “It’s okay.”
“No! Charles, please. I know you can escape—”
“I love you.”
His earpiece connection was cut off as the station went out in a big fiery explosion.
“CHARLES!” Henry beat the glass, screaming until his lungs gave out, “PLEASE! NO!”
Tears clouded his vision as he fell to his knees, uncontrollable sobs slipping out his mouth. He frantically pressed his earpiece, desperate to hear Charles’ voice again. He wasn’t gone. He can’t be. Even if it seemed impossible, the man always found a way to bounce back.
“Please—” he choked out another sob, "—you have to be okay.”
I didn’t get to tell you yet.
Yet he received nothing but radio silence on his earpiece.
Everything else after the explosion was a blur. Henry didn’t even realise when the pod had landed on Earth, being escorted by a familiar looking soldier to a helicopter. The ride back to base was far too quiet for his own liking, aside from the medic helping him out with his injuries. There was no banter, no joking, not a single word came out of his mouth the entire time. He felt the other soldiers’ eyes on him, but he could care less.
Because Charles was gone.
And it was all his fault. Of course it was his fault. Everything that ever happened in this god–forsaken timeline was his damn fault—
“Oi, Stickmin. Did you even hear anything I said?”
Henry looked up, making eye contact with a very impatient looking Rupert, “What is it?” his hands shook as he signed.
A sigh, “The General wants a word with you, are you coming or what?”
He scrambled to stand up, nodding in the process. The former enemies trudged across the military base, not exchanging a single word to one another.
Galeforce looked up as the two walked into the tent, “Ah, Price and Henry. Good to see you both.”
“Sir, the Toppat Station has been destroyed.”
“Excellent news!” the General nodded at Price, dismissing him. He glanced at Henry, furrowing his eyebrow at the recruit’s depressed expression, “What’s wrong, son? And where’s Charlie?”
He held back a sob.
The next day, a small funeral was held for their fallen pilot. After that, life continued on as usual for everybody else. Loss and grief was normal in the military, after all. Henry lingered at the grave, though. They had built the stone on a cliffside, where the sunset was beautiful to watch. Signature red headphones were set on top of it, one of the many spares that was found.
He shakily raised his hand to salute, only to immediately drop it back down to wipe tears away. The ex-thief’s entire body shook as sobs spilled out, his knees buckling as he fell to the ground. Nails dug into his sweater as he desperately tried to control himself.
Charles’ last words echoed in his mind, “I love you.”
“I–I love you too, Charles.”
And for the first time in a long time, Henry was alone.