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The next thing she knew, he was blinking up at the ceiling as darkness slowly faded away from the corners of her vision. Henry, wait, no, Ellie, or was it Henry? HenryandEllie sat up and rubbed the fog out of her no his no vision and looked around. The alarm from before was still blaring, and Ellie whipped her head around to see that Henry wasn't sitting beside her. But no, wait. Henry was the one looking around. So, where was Ellie? No, she didn't need to look for Ellie, she was Ellie, he needed to find Henry. No, that was still wrong. Wait, were Ellie and Henry gone? No, that was silly, they were sitting right there.
"Hey, uh, guys? Do you copy? Guys?"
That was Charles. Charles would know what was going on. The green and purple headsets were both lying abandoned on the ground. (Maybe Ellie and Henry were both missing? Taking off headsets was the biggest no-no in the rulebook, so something must have happened to them. But only Charles, Henry, and Ellie knew about the rulebook, so who— Stop thinking about that. Yeah. Stop thinking was probably good. Henry's purple headset was picked up, and a thick, groggy voice grated out a short "Charles?"
"Henry?" Charles squawked back.
"Yes. No. Yes? Maybe?" A palm heel was pressed roughly to an eye in an attempt to physically shove down a headache. "I don't know."
Charles was silent, which wasn't great for the mounting panic, but then he cleared his throat and spoke. "Okay. Can you see Ellie? I'm only picking up one heat signature right now."
"No, I am Ellie. Wait, no— I don't —"
"Okay. Hey, don't worry. It's going to be alright."
"No, it's not! Henry fell and I caught him, but now I can't find Ellie and—" Breathing hitched, and hands went up to clench at hair, but the hair was so short. Why was it so short? No, it's supposed to be short. Not this short! And it's long on top! Why is it so long? It hasn't been long since middle school. Wait, had it ever been this long? No, surely not. Mom wouldn't have allowed—
"Hey, hey, come on, breathe with me," Charles's voice interrupted. The headset was clutched tightly to an ear again. It didn't fit anymore and not a thought was spared for why it didn't fit. They took a few deep, even breaths under Charles's instruction. "Do you think you could walk to the window so I can see you?"
Standing up was a dizzy endeavor. Everything was so small and the ground was so far away. But Charles was waiting so… they (was it they? He and she were both right in one part of the brain, but didn't sit right in the other. They seemed to be acceptable for both sides for now) stumbled to the nearby window clutching the top to keep themselves upright. Charles had his helicopter hovering right outside, and their heart felt fit to burst at the sight of it.
"Oh, okay, um. Wow," Charles stuttered over the headset and they couldn't help but grin. "Do you think you could jump on?" They narrowed their eyes at the helicopter, which seemed so much smaller than normal. "Okay, yeah, I don't think that's going to work. Meet me on the roof? You only have to go up two more flights."
They nodded, and there was a series of beeps through the headset that they instantly recognized as the Morse Henry and Charles had come up with to mean thumbs up. They shook their head and reached down to grab Ellie's green headset and made their way up the stairs, which wasn't easy because apparently these stairs were made for the tiniest people imaginable and they still weren't quite balanced and wound up tumbling ass over elbows more than once. They were convinced this was somehow Ellie or Henry's fault, but couldn't decide on who to blame other than definitely not themself.
It was no surprise, really, that when they finally made it to the roof, Charles was already waiting for them. The surprising thing was that they were looking down on him. By a lot. Charles was only about chest height and staring up at them, gobsmacked. Parts of their brain absolutely lit up at this particular angle and definitely at the way Charles was having a hard time keeping his eyes on their face, but there was a pressing need for safety and comfort right now that needed to be met, so they plopped right down on their ass in front of him and tipped forward into the warm, familiar cradle of Charles's tits. (They briefly marveled over the fact that they could still bury their face in them, despite their face being almost twice as big as it should be. Charles's rack truly was a wonder of the modern world.)
Charles laughed awkwardly, but he still reached up a hand and started gingerly petting their hair and, oh, that was nice. Could he maybe just do that forever? Sure, they'd been panicked over not knowing where Ellie and Henry were before and they still were, but they also knew as intrinsically as breathing that both of them were safe. They also knew that Henry and Ellie both would have burned them at the stake for giving up the position they were in.
Charles, however, didn't intrinsically know that Henry and Ellie would be completely supportive of this impromptu cuddle session, and he cleared his throat. "So, uh, hi? Can we maybe talk?"
They scowled into Charles's chest, nose wrinkling in distaste at the thought of opening their mouth. But Charles was maybe a little right, so they sat back just enough to sign. "You talk."
Charles visibly wracked his brain for the second word, so they instead reached forward and tapped it out on his chest. T-A-L-K. "Oh! Right. Okay, yeah, I can talk. Hmm." He looked them over and lifted his hands towards their face before hesitating. "Can I, uh, touch you?" They nodded and were immediately rewarded with a smile and calloused hands cupping their jaw and tilting their head this way and that. Their eyes fluttered shut and they literally bit their tongue to keep from panting. "Okay, so I think I might know where Henry and Ellie are. But I'm gonna need you to answer some questions for me. Can you do that?"
They lifted an eyebrow and thought for a moment before nodding.
"Okay, where does Ellie keep her secret cookie stash?"
"She loosened the floorboards under the couch and installed a safe," they said immediately. Then they gave Charles a betrayed look. "You knew Ellie had a secret cookie stash and you didn't tell me?"
"That's why it's a secret cookie stash," Charles laughed. "Okay, what actually happened to all the fireworks Ellie snuck on base the other week?"
"You convinced Henry to steal them from her so the General wouldn't find them." They scowled. "Galeforce wouldn't have found them, they were his very well. And Henry is a bastard."
Charles laughed again. "Blame me for that one. It's not Henry's fault he's so easy to bribe with sweets." They grumbled a little, but that was quickly silenced when Charles pressed a relieved kiss to their forehead. Their eyes bugged out of their skull and they gaped up at him. Sure, Charles was a very physically affectionate kind of guy, but kissing of any kind wasn't exactly an every day occurrence. More one he saved for high-emotion moments, which maybe this was. He grinned and scratched the back of his neck self-consciously. "Sorry. I'm, uh, I'm just really glad you two are okay, you know?"
They blinked for a moment. "Wait. I'm‐ We're—" They paused and thought. "Yeah, actually, that makes sense."
"Not sure how this makes sense, but I'm just going with it for now," Charles admitted, helping them get to their feet. Now that they weren't on the verge of a meltdown, they were able to… appreciate just how fucking tiny Charles was next to them. Fortunately, either their grin wasn't as lecherous as it felt, or Charles just didn't notice because he just plowed onwards. "Okay, we still need to get that flash drive, though. Are you good to continue, or do you want to wait up here?"
"I already have it," they said, reaching into their pocket to retrieve it. And really, they should have put the pieces together earlier. They were wearing Henry's jacket and Ellie's gloves and one of each of their shoes. It couldn't have been more obvious that they were some silly-looking mismatch than if it had been stamped across their forehead.
"Oh, that's a relief," Charles said. "I didn't really know how we were going to sneak back in there, to be honest. This wasn't our most covert mission to date."
They cringed a bit, thinking about tripped wires and mistyped codes and a fire that went off too early. "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Charles dismissed. "Let's just go home, okay? Though, you might have to sit in the hold instead of the cockpit this time."
They nodded and clambered in. Like Charles predicted, they did fit, but it wasn't comfortable squeezed in among the rows of seats too small for them and the mysterious boxes they weren't allowed to dig through. They frowned and settled in for a long, lonely flight with only their thoughts for—
"Check, check, this is Charles. Special Cargo, can you check in?"
They laughed brightly, and cupped one half of each headset to their ears. "Check, check, this is Cargo."
"Special Cargo," Charles corrected, and their cheeks ached with the force of the resulting grin.
"Check, check, this is Special Cargo. How are things looking?"
"It looks like we're clear to head home. I'm not sure what you did in there, but whatever it was, it's got them running all over. Pretty sure I could fly directly into the building and they wouldn't notice." They hummed in acknowledgement, but said nothing. "Are you okay?"
"Mhm. Fine." They heaved a deep sigh. "Tired."
"That's fine. It's probably better if you rest, anyway. I'm sure turning into a giant person like that takes up a lot of energy." They hummed again in response, and just like that Charles was off. He started chatting about anything that came to mind, like what exactly his report to General Galeforce was going to look like, or what he had planned for them all that weekend, and even the repairs and upgrades he had lined up for his copter. It was just chatter to fill the silence, nothing really important or that required them to respond. It was its own kind of white noise, and they had almost drifted off when Charles said something that got their attention.
"Wait, what was that?"
"Hm? What? Ellry?" Charles laughed. "That's what I've been calling you. I can't believe you didn't notice."
"Where did you come up with it?"
"Oh, it's just Ellie and Henry's names kind of mushed together. See, watch." He then started chanting their names over and over, getting faster every time until the sounds blended into a single word. "Is that okay?"
They thought about it. Ellry. Not quite Henry, not quite Ellie, but a bit of them both to make something new. They smiled and wrapped their arms around themselves in a tight hug before tapping the mic on their headsets. "Check, check, this is Ellry."
Charles giggled at them. "Nice to meet cha, Ellry."
Ellry beamed back, even though they knew he couldn't see it. "It's nice to be met."