Chapter Text
Charles sat quietly on the beach, half hidden in the shadow from the tall rock, engrossed in a book he had just started reading. He finally felt at peace, no more exams, no more early mornings, no more rushing out the door and faking smiles, forcing conversations with terribly annoying people from his classes. He was finally done with school. He could
now spend all his days in the sun, on the beach with his brothers and helping his dad around the garage, also working on his own car. He smiled a bit to himself and then as he was just about to flip a page he heard a loud shriek and laughter, a mixture of different voices loudlytalking, nearing him. He sighed and began to pull out his headphones. The group of people reached a few meters away from him, he spared them a glance and then put his music on. He really thought there would be no people in this exact spot.
He managed just two more pages before he couldn’t even pretend not to pay attention to them. Seriously, how loud could those people be? He lifted his gaze looking at the group again, sneakily observing them. Three boys and a girl. They were passing a football between them, covered in sweat, cans of beer and a few towels thrown near them. Charles rolled his eyes and began to get up. There goes his perfect afternoon, ruined by the overly loud people. He got up and began putting his own things away when something hit his leg and he lost his balance for a second, blushing a bit from embarrassment. He quickly turned around and saw a boy, one of the boys from the annoyingly loud friend group, standing in front of him, a sly smile on his face. The boy was saying something that Charles couldn’t hear through the music playing from his headphones. Turning it down and pulling them away, he stared at the guy. His chest and stomach, his chest and abs to be correct were fully covered in sand. Charles gulped stupidly and tugged at his shirt.
“I was just saying that I'm sorry!” The boy says, staring at him with bright blue eyes, the little smile still there. Charles didn’t reply for a moment, busy staring at his eyes and the guy tightened his lips, reaching down to grab the ball. “Again.. I’m sorry” Just as he turned around again, Charles finally found his words.
“It’s alright, don’t worry!” It wasn’t alright but he was not about to be rude. He watched as the guy turned back around and smiled brightly, giving him a thumbs up. It was awkward to say the least so Charles just quickly grabbed his bag and began walking away, putting his music on again.
He walked for a bit before texting his little brother. He didn’t feel like going home just yet and also his mother had wanted some things from the store. He didn’t want to do the task alone and have to carry all the things himself.
C: Do you want to go to the shop with me?
The answer came quickly.
A: busy rn, later?
C: Sure
Charles sighed annoyed. He could go by himself but would’ve preferred the company. He finished the walk to his family’s apartment and dropped his bag in the hallway, putting on some sneakers instead of the previous flip flops before he walked out again.
Once outside again he rushed the 5-minute walk to his dad’s garage and waved to the guy that also worked there.
“Charles, good to see you, kid!” The man patted him on the back and got back to whatever he was previously doing.
“Good to see you too!” Charles said politely and then spotted his dad and went over to him.
“Charlie, that’s a surprise I thought you were at the beach.” His dad said to him loudly.
“Yeah I was, I thought I would come by. I still need to change the rotors and the wheel bearing. Actually I don't know where to start but that seems important” His dad smiled widely at him.
“Yes, yes. We’ll do just that. Alright come, I’ll help you! I wasn’t really doing anything anyways.” Charles smiled gratefully at him, he obviously couldn’t do it on his own. His dad was the only reason he allowed himself to buy such an old car. Fixing it was the perfect summer task. It was drivable as it was but Charles wanted to make it truly his own. “I don’t think it’ll take too long, it’s quite simple, come come.”
“Let’s get to work then” Charles grinned.
They started by lifting the car up. Taking off all the pins, loosening up the nuts, then the caliper had to come off the rotor. His dad guided him through all of it.
“Ok Charlie, now the brake lines”
“I know, i know” Charles moved a bit, cleaning his hands off his shirt. Maybe he should’ve worn something else, not a white shirt.
They moved on with all the other bits of work and it ended up taking a little while longer than anticipated.He wasn’t experienced in fixing quite literally anything and he wasn’t the most coordinated but he was starting to get the hang of it. Charles did really find pleasure in working on the car but he had all different sorts of stains on his hands, legs, tshirt and shorts, which oddly enough was really bothering him. Some of the parts were a little rusted and hard to take off but when a few hours later he was done with three of the wheels he felt over the moon happy. High-fiving his dad he jumped a bit.
“Good job, Charlie. Proud of you, son” His dad tapped him on the back and then they went to grab some more bolts.
“You asshole, I see why you never picked up!” Charles turned around and saw his younger brother standing, his face a little red and holding a comically large water bottle, covered in sweat.
“You said you were busy!” Charles rolled his eyes as his brother dropped down to inspect the work on the wheels. “You don’t even know what you’re looking at, stop pretending, Arthur! You’re so annoying!” He kicked his brother lightly on the shin. Arthur turned around and quickly slapped him on the thigh, before getting up. Charles smacked him on the arm.
“Oh is that it?” Arthur laughed loudly and threw an arm around Charles’ neck, bringing him almost all the way down, laughing loudly. Charles turned around to push him. Arthur gasped at him, pretending to be hurt all over.
“Okay! Enough, boys, before you break something!” Their dad jokingly shouted at them. “Away you go, i’ll finish the last wheel. Your mom wanted some bread from the store. Go do that, instead” He ruffled Charles’ hair and smiled at them.
They waved their goodbyes and got out of the garage space.
“What were you doing all day?” Charles asked his brother, taking his water bottle and drinking from it.
“I was at the gym. Arm day b-b-babyy” Arthur shouted loudly and Charles had to lower his head, embarrassed, there were a few too many people around them. His brother was excruciatingly annoying. “I hit a new pr today, see these!” He cocked one eyebrow up as he flexed his biceps and then triceps.
“Yeah? Really? I couldn’t tell. I can’t see anything.” Charles joked and sped up before his brother could smack him again.
“Asshole!” Arthur caught up to him and grabbed his bottle back. “You should come with me sometime, it’ll do you good, you stick.” Charles rolled his eyes. No way was he paying money to sweat with a bunch of strangers around him in a small closed off space, it was his literal nightmare.
“No way in hell, I like myself just fine.” He said as his brother let out a stupid sound. “See not all of us need to go throw around heavy stuff to be confident, some of us are normal!”
“Since when are you confident? Did I miss that?” Arthur faked confusion.
“Oh shut up!”
“How’s the car coming along?” Arthur asked.
“It’s good, a lot of work still, we’ve only done parts of the interior and the rotors.” as he was saying that he once again took notice of how dirty he was, now outside in the bright it looked even worse, he should’ve washed his hands at least.
“Yeah? Work faster, I want to drive it!”
“No way! You’re not touching her! You don’t even have a license, know your place!” Charles joked. Arthur hit him on the arm lightly. “And stop hitting me, I'm not your gym equipment.”
“I don’t hit the gym equipment, you moron!”
“Whatever, you’re annoying!” Charles paused for a second trying to rub off the dirt from his hands. “Did you talk to mom? Are we going on the boat tomorrow?”
“I think we are, but it’ll be later in the day, she has clients in the morning, also Lorenzo is not coming with us.”
“Oh.” Charles frowned a bit, he pretty much never saw his older brother nowadays. He had moved away for university and now he had finally come back home to visit them. Charles was hoping to spend some time with him, as he really missed him. This wasn’t fair. “Why?”
“I think he’s doing something with Carla? I’m not sure.” Arthur shrugged. Carla was Lorenzo’s girlfriend, they had met a few shorts months ago and they were already inseparable. MIght as well get engaged soon. She had come along to meet the family. Charles knew she was a perfectly lovely girl and he was truly happy for his brother but it did annoy him that he couldn’t spend more time with him. “But she promised to make those gorgeous protein muffins she made a few days ago again so let them be!” Arthur said excitedly.
“Tur, nobody but you liked them, they were hard as rocks, please be normal.” They laughed at the miserable face Charles made.
A few moments later they were in front of the store. Charles pulled the door and they went inside. Grabbing the actual things they had to and then Charles picked up a big tub of ice cream and some chips, holding them tightly seeing as they forgot to grab a basket. As they waited in line, Charles was just about to say something when Arthur raised one arm and waved at someone.
“Ay! Max! Hi!” Charles turned to see who his brother was calling at, expecting it to be a classmate of his but to his surprise… It was the same boy from the beach! Now no more covered in sand, a light sunburn on his face and shoulders, visible beneath the tank top he was wearing. Charles didn’t care for the gym but he could acknowledge that the beach guy, apparently named Max, had really nice shoulders. He blushed a bit at the thought and looked down at his feet.
“Arthur, mate! Good to see you.” They tapped each other on the backs and Charles really wanted to disappear. He wondered if he should greet Max as well, but decided against it, he probably didn’t remember his face or anything. He just kept staring at his feet, holding onto the tub of ice cream and was once again overly aware of how dirty he was. Fuck this day. He could hear them talk about something gym related but he was too busy with the buzzing in his head. It was good they weren’t paying attention to him. He then felt a hand on his shoulders and mentally cursed. There he goes.
“That’s my brother Charles.” Okay. Alright! Arthur was introducing him. Okay. He lifted his head and looked at Max who had already extended his hand. Charles tried to do the same , effectively dropping the bag of chips and he felt like crying. How was he so goddamn awkward all the time? For a moment he didn’t move, just waited for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. But then Max was kneeling down and picking the stupid package up and giving it to Charles, a kind, overly pretty smile on his face.
“Here you go. I’m Max!” Charles grabbed it and tried to smile normally. God, at least Max seemed to not remember the accident from earlier.
“Charles.” He cringed at himself again but still smiled. Max let out a breathy laugh. He was so fucking pretty, Charles couldn’t help but notice. His dark blond hair was messy, a little damp, he was just a bit taller but much broader than Charles himself. His eyes were still as blue as they were some hours ago, yeah no shit, he scoffed at himself. He was sure he didn’t have a type or anything, he had had a few crushes on different guys before but never anything real. But Max might just be his type.
“Can I get your number?” At that Charles perked up, was it really happening? He was just about to speak again.
“Yeah sure i was gonna ask you the same, i’ve always needed a gym partner” Arthur was laughing next to him and taking Max’s phone. Charles frowned without meaning to. He shouldn’t have expected anything different. Stupid, stupid him. “There.” He watched as Max took his phone back and typed something, then giggling…giggling! and showing it to Arthur.
“See i even added the little flexing emoji” The two of them laughed and Charles tried to force a sound out of his mouth as well but it didn’t really work so instead he looked down again. “Okay i’ll text you to confirm but let’s say tomorrow at ten?” Suddenly Charles wished he also went to the gym.
“Yeah perfect” Arthur tapped Max on the arm. “See you then, Mad Max” Charles watched as his brother jokingly winked and Max laughed and held his stomach with one hand, waving with the other. Oh, so they even had nicknames for each other? How did they even know each other? Charles was sure they weren’t friends seeing as he already knew all of Arthur’s friends and they were all absurdly ugly and annoying, he surely would've noticed Max. Whatever, he was just being stupid, Max didn’t even remember him from literally a few hours ago, he needed to calm down.
They paid for their stuff and began to walk out. Charles just couldn’t help himself.
“So who was that?” he asked and Arthur looked at him, a confused expression plastered on his face.
“Max? He did just introduce himself, why are you stupid?” Charles wanted to hit him.
“Yeah I got that, you dick. I meant how do you know him?” Arthur abruptly stopped only after a few steps and grinned.
“Whyy are you asking?” His brother was smirking. Charles sighed annoyed. “You have a crush or something?” Arthur laughed loudly but Charles was so taken aback that he almost stumbled whilst standing still. A lady in front of the store looked at them. He felt his face heat up. When will he start acting normally.
“N-no! No! Fuck you, why are you always so fucking weird, i should’ve never told you, you.. you” He started to ramble and glared at his brother.
“Calm down!” Arthur lifted his hands defensively, no longer smiling. “Sorry, i was just teasing, don’t get so…” he paused for a moment. “I met Max yesterday at the gym, he was spotting me, we talked. He’s not from here, he’s visiting with some friends from university. One of his friends, Alex, has family here. That’s all I know.” Charles nodded. “Oh and he has a really impressive bench, bruised my ego a bit. Hence why I named him ‘Mad Max’.” His brother chuckled.
“Oh really, maybe i should go thank him for that, you do need to lower the ego.” Charles joked and they started walking again when Max and the girl from the beach passed them. He was about to just turn his head back again and speed up, Arthur was already some steps ahead of him, when his arm brushed against what he knew was Max.
“Sorry again by the way!” Max winked at him and then threw his arm around the girl’s shoulders and kept on walking. Charles wanted to scream.