Who Else But Thandi??
What is normal in school is something different at home. They’ve spent years joined at the hip, certainly, but there’s a difference between sleeping together as kids in the Ravenclaw common room and sleeping together as almost-not-quite adults in the privacy of their shared bedroom.
Charlie can’t believe his mother still lets them sleep together. Granted, nothing risque is going to happen, they’re nowhere near ready (at least as far as he’s concerned, would he ever be?). Curled up in a double bed together, her snug in his arms as he buries his face into her–what more could he ask for?
She’s so used to him being here, with her, and he’s hesitant to admit that he’s going to try to give her space in seventh year. She needs it, probably. Certainly. She’s always encouraged him to separate when he could, and she always welcomes him back with open arms. But would it be okay? Some days she gets hit with a melancholy that makes him cling harder.
Charlie takes a deep breath, enjoying her warmth, her smell, her everything. She uses the same soap he does, but he can smell the shea butter lotion she loves, the pomegranate hair conditioner that she leaves in overnight. And then there’s just the smell of her skin.
He wonders for a moment if she ever gets this way about him. Probably not. He knows he’s weird. She’s just the best. He got lucky to end up hanging onto her tightly, for her to mesh so well with his personality. After all, who else would ever let someone hold them for the entirety of their grade school education???
Who else would let him talk circles around this relationship, who else would know what to do when he broke down crying, who else would know what to do when a flash of fear followed him to bed? And who else is so sweet, so patient, so soft? Studious and determined and selfless and…
He sighs into her. Charlie can’t help but… but… have. Feelings… for her.
What’s the harm in expressing it more, anyway? He kisses her neck gently. Again. Once more. Heaven.