Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Living in Centerville never did get easier. It was right on the border of both Northside Riverdale and Greendale, two of the richest cities in all of Rockland Country, New York. Centerville was the complete opposite. It was poor, old, and littered with drug dealers. For right now? It was all that Charles had.

His mom had offered to get him an apartment, but only on the pretense that Chic, Charles' boyfriend, didn’t live there with him. It wasn’t that Alice was exactly against Charles having a boyfriend, it was just the fact that she was against anything in her life looking ‘less than perfect’.

Each of her kids, Charles, Polly, and Betty all had to be perfect. A narrative that she had pushed since each of them could remember. Maybe it came from her growing up on the Southside and never being able to be perfect no matter how hard she tried, maybe it came from marrying Hal Cooper who always had been perfect, or maybe it came from her devout Christian values.
What caused it didn’t matter. Not to her kids, at least. Especially not to Charles. His relationship with his mom had always been strained. He had always been taught to be perfect, yet it wasn’t until he was almost 18 that he found out Hal wasn’t even his real father. It wasn’t Alice that told him either. It came up when he had his records switched from a pediatrician to a real doctor. Ever since then, the lies, the manipulations, and everything else had become apparent to Charles.

He was still in contact with his mom. That wouldn’t change. But there was no way in hell that he would ever agree to take an apartment from her. He knew she’d somehow find a way to throw it back in his face. The Chic thing was just the icing on the cake.

So for now, a beat up room in a rundown hostel was all he had. It could’ve been worse. No one had ever been murdered in his room, that he knew of, and it didn’t always smell like weed. In his mind? That was a win-win.

Those were the only good things about it, really. It was one room. A room that was about the size of a kids bedroom. The bed didn’t have a frame. It just laid in the middle of the floor. There was one window, which was covered by a black curtain. A camera stood in the far corner of the room, courtesy of Chic and his work on Fantasy Fulfilment. No kitchen. That was communal. Most days the men just opted for take out to avoid having to use it. The bathroom was shared by everyone on that floor as well. It was hard enough to actually ever find time to use it, and when you did? The odds of a couple arguing or having weird sex were extremely high.

The floor creaked as Charles walked the stairs to his room on the second floor. He was already tired from work and he knew he was going to get a migraine from the couple yelling down the hall. He ran a hand over his face as he stepped towards the door. He reached in his pocket then grabbed the key out of his pocket before knocking twice on the door, a symbol to Chic that Charles was home. This symbol was something Charles had picked up the 3rd time he walked in on the middle of Chic with a client. The image of his boyfriend with another man was not something he needed burned into his brain. Ever. Even if it was the way Chic helped earn money for the both of them.

The walls were thin and Chic's ‘come in’ sounded like he was right next to Charles. He pushed the door open and threw his bag down on the only table in the room, took his jacket off, then loosened his tie. Getting home, even in this messy, small hostel room, felt amazing. He loved his job, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t take a toll on him, and it did.

Chic sat up from where he was laying on the bed. “Long day?” He asked as he set his phone down then stood up.

“We still haven’t found the girl. At this point if we do find her, she’s not going to be alive. Not anymore.” He said.

Recently, Charles had joined the Rockland County FBI branch. It was a rule not to talk about cases with anyone outside of the office, but letting your boyfriend be a sex worker, and letting both of you take hard drugs, was also, most likely, against the rules.

“I’m sorry.” Chic said, a slight frown on his face. He had never understood why it took a toll on Charles. Empathy and Sympathy was a concept that was foreign to Chic, unless it came to Charles. So he didn’t feel bad for the girl, her parents, or her boyfriend, but he did feel bad for his boyfriend for having to deal with it and looking so upset.

Chic went over to Charles and pulled him into a small kiss, his hand cupping Charles cheek. It wasn’t hot or passionate, it was slow and sweet, the usual way Chic showed his love.

Charles kissed him back, his hand running through Chic's messy dirty blonde hair before pulling away.

“I’m gonna shower. Than probably grab food.” Charles said, a smile now breaking through once Chic was in his arms.

“Mm. Only if you let me join you in the shower. And we Doordash something.” Chic said, already tugging his jacket off.

Charles laughed, setting his phone down on the table near his bag as he took his belt off. “Fine. Deal. Whatever. Your so demanding.”

Chic smirked. “I don’t remember you complaining about that last night in bed.” he teased, a coy smile on his face.

A blush spread across Charles cheeks before he playfully pushed Chic. “Shut up. Your so annoying.” Although the tone in his voice and the smile on his face made it impossible to take his words seriously.

“Your telling me that like its not basically my job. Being annoying is my whole existence, babe.” Chic said as he grabbed a used towel from off the ground. He tossed one to Charles than picked another one up for himself.

“Thanks.” Charles said as he caught the towel. He grabbed the key to the room then went and opened the door for Chic. “After you.” He said

Chic walked through the door, rolling his eyes at the supposed sapiness Charles was giving. “Your only being nice so I don’t have to be demanding tonight.”

Charles rolled his eyes. “A. Not true. And B. If you think anything besides eating, watching weird Youtube videos on your computer, and sleeping is happening? Than your crazy.”

Chic laughed. “Yeah. That’s what you say every night. Guess i’m just that irresistible.” He tossed his fake long hair over his shoulder than started down the hall.

Charles was about to join him when his phone rang with an unknown number. Worried it was something for work, or something about one of his siblings, he answered the phone and put it up to his ear.

“Hi it’s Charles.” he greeted, even though the other person on the line most likely knew that already.

“Charles…? Its… its me. Charity.”

Chapter Text

Charles's ears started ringing, his stomach dropped and his heart started beating faster then it ever had before. He hadn’t heard that name in years. But that didn’t mean he had forgotten who it was.
He knew exactly who the girl was that he'd texted him.
While he was still living with Alice and Hal, Alice had practically begged Charles to get a girlfriend. He had never really had a steady one, the most he had done was gone to dances with girls and then normally never talked to them again. People were starting to ask Alice questions. “He’s such a handsome guy. What do you think the problem is?” “Is he ever going to find someone?” “Is he that bad with girls?” Or the one that always made his stomach drop whenever he heard it, “Is he gay?”
As soon as stuff like that started getting thrown around, Alice had told him it was time to find someone. He had just graduated high school and his plan was to still live at home, so he didn’t really have any other choice other than to do what she said.
It was easy enough. Girls found him attractive. He knew how to be a gentleman and how to really treat women. So it wasn’t like it was hard for him to find one. In fact within the first week of his first semester is when he met Charity. She was sitting across from him in History. He had missed a day due to having to take care of Betty when she was sick, and had asked Charity for the notes he had missed.
As soon as he heard who was on the other end of the line, so many thoughts rushed through his head. Maybe she was mad about how they left things and wanted to fix it. That would be weird though since it had been almost 7 years. Maybe she wanted to get back together and was trying to reach out. Which would also be weird since last time his mom had talked to him about Charity (under the guise of trying to get them back together) she had mentioned that Charity had a new boyfriend.
"Oh. Hey Charity.” He said, though his voice sounded a lot more certain than he actually felt. His fingers were tapping against the counter, nervously. A habit he had had since he was younger. That wasn't the wrong way to start off the conversation.. was it? How do you start off a conversation with someone you haven't talked to for years?
He had been so happy since he had gotten with Chic, and since he had moved. He had hoped to be able to leave his past behind, but of course, the past never truly seems to stay hidden.
"No, nothings wrong. I just have something... really, really serious to talk to you about." She replied. Trying to make it sound like she wasn't kidding, but also trying to do it in a way that wouldn't scare him or make him more nervous or on edge than he already was.
"What is it? I-if you wanna get back together... I'm sorry.. but the answers no. I’m with… someone else.”
Charity seemed to hesitate for a moment. It’s not like she was surprised he was with someone else. It just caught her off guard slightly. "It's nothing like that, Charles. You might wanna be sitting down for this one."
He shook his head, feeling like if he even took a step to move toward a chair right now, his legs would give out.
"Just tell me." He pleaded, wanting to get whatever she was about to say over with.
There was a long pause on the phone, as if she was thinking about taking back her decision, even though it was way too late for something like that.
The silence was then broken by the sound of her clearing her throat. "You have a daughter, Charles."
Charles's stomach dropped and he felt like he was going to throw up. His hands were shaking so badly, he almost dropped the phone he was holding.

"I-... what?" Was all he managed to get out of his mouth. Every word seemed to leave his brain, so did every logical thought, and he wasn't even sure what he just heard was correct.

"You have a daughter, Charles. She's 5 years old. I hoped and hoped she would never ask about you, but she finally has, and I didn't want to lie to her. It's better to tell her that her dad never wanted to be there for her, and is a screw up, so that hopefully she won’t want to have a relationship with you or see you.”

The room started spinning, and he leaned back against the counter, almost sure his legs would give out if he didn’t.

“W-what do you mean I haven’t wanted to be there for her? I-I didn’t even know.. you never even told me.. h-how was I supposed to have been there?”

Even though he knew it was probably a stupid question to ask, he decided to anyway. “Are you sure that she’s even mine?”

Charity’s tone seemed to change quickly, mad that Charles would even think such a thing, let alone accuse her of it and even through the phone he could tell she wasn’t happy about what he had just said. “What do you mean ‘is it mine?’” She snapped.

“Of course it is!” She continued. “What do you think I am? Some kind of slut who goes around sleeping with any guy she can get her hands on?! You are definitely the only guy I slept with. You were my boyfriend. The dates line up perfectly. Not to mention, she looks just like you. Shes definitely yours, Charles.”

His heart broke. Not only had he just found out that he had a daughter, but he also felt horrible that he hadn't been there for the first part of her life. He hadn’t been there when she was born. Hadn’t been there when she had taken her first steps. Hadn’t been there for the first day of school. The shock mixed with grief was making his stomach churn and his palms sweat.

He had always wanted kids. That wasn’t the issue. Him and Chic had talked several times about a different life where they could raise a family. One that would never happen but was always nice to think about when they were drunk, or after sex, or couldn’t sleep. A dream and fantasy that now seemed to be catching up to him way too quickly.

"I'm sorry. I know that was a stupid question. That was just… a lot to take in." he was quiet for the next few seconds. Trying to figure out something to say. Trying to figure out if there even was anything he could say to make this situation better. He doubted it.

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner? I-I could have helped. I would've helped. From day one I would've been there… you said you didn't want her to have a relationship with a father who was never there for her, but how could I have been, if you never even attempted to reach out and tell me?"

There was a long pause from Charity's side of the phone. What Charles had said did have some truth to it, but she had already gone through every scenario on how this was gonna go, and already had an idea on how to respond to this. That was something about Charity that Charles had always liked. Her control.

"You never attempted to reach out to me either, Charles. I know things didn't go well between us, but you never once even tried to check in on me or anything like that. Maybe if you would've, you might've found out sooner. But, you basically fell off the face of the earth after we broke up. You stopped going to class. I heard someone say you transferred schools. I heard another person say you had died. It wasn’t until I reached out to Polly and she told me that you had transferred schools and were already moving out of your house. You didn’t tell me that. You didn’t tell me that you graduated. Or that you joined the FBI academy. You didn’t even tell me you got a boyfriend. I found all of this out from your sisters. They had figured you told me. You didn’t try either, Charles. It is partly my fault for not telling you sooner, but you're just as much to blame as I am."

He was about to say something, trying to counteract what she had just said, but she interrupted him before he could.

"Look, I didn't even think we'd make it this far. I figured you'd either hate me, or just refuse to see her. Probably hang up the phone and block me… but… since you haven't… why don't we meet up for lunch or something and talk the rest of this through? I'll be at Pop’s next Tuesday at 12 p.m. If you don't come, I'll assume I got my answer and you don't want to be a part of her life. If you do come, maybe we'll be able to figure all this out. I'll see you then." Charity said. She didn’t even give him time to answer before hanging up the phone. The ultimatum was set.

Charles moved the phone from his ear and turned it off before setting it down on the table. He leaned forward against the counter, using his hands to support him. He took a few deep breaths, not sure whether to cry, or to scream, throw up, or celebrate after what he had just heard. Or maybe all at once. All at once seemed to be the most probable at this point.

He didn't think it could get any worse, until a voice he recognized all too well came from behind him.

"Hey, babe. Who was that on the phone?" It was Chic. Fuck. Of course Chic would coem and check on him. Charles turned around as quick as lightning, as he came face to face with his boyfriend. He couldn't answer. His mouth wasn't able to form the words to be able to do so. His heart was racing so fast he could feel it in his ears. His fingers dug into the table to hard his knuckles turned white.

Only one thing kept playing in his head. How long had Chic been standing there and how much of that conversation had he heard?

Chapter Text

~ 7 Years Ago~

Charles sat in one of the quiet corners of the Student Center at Riverdale Community College. He had always been smart but due to that he had never really learned how to properly study, and that seemed to be coming back to bite him now that he was in college and couldn’t bullshit his way through everything.

The dates on the paper just stressed him out. Having to memorize all of that felt nearly impossible. Why should he even have to care on what exact day George Washington became president? Or what exact day a war he had never heard about started in some middle eastern country?

He had always struggled the most with history. With math and science there was a reason and explanation behind why he was doing the work. Behind why it was the way that it was. Plus it was more likely to be something he used in his everyday life. History just felt like a bunch of useless dates he’d forget as soon as the test was over anyways.

The music in his headphones started to distract him from reading and he reached down to grab his phone out of his pocket. That’s when he saw a familiar face approaching him. The girl he had asked for the notes in History class earlier that day. Charity.

She was pretty. He did have to admit that. Her eyes were a dark blue. Her hair was naturally blonde, but only the roots of it were showing. The rest had been dyed a light pink color. She had light freckles spreading from her cheeks, over her nose. She was tan, but not unnaturally so, and the gold earrings she wore only helped at bringing out her complexion. Overall she would’ve been a great catch.

“Hey. Studying all alone?” She asked, letting her backpack slide off her shoulder and onto the floor in front of her. She then took the seat across from Charles and leaned forward onto her elbows, her hands clasped together.

“If you can even call it studying.” he retorted, pulling one of his headphones out of his ears. Normally he would’ve been upset about being interrupted in the middle of something, but he needed the break. Plus he had had a hard time making close friends since he graduated. Most of his high school friends had left Riverdale, something so many people couldn’t wait to do. His other friends either got busy with girlfriends, work, or just turned out to be horrible people he wouldn’t want to be friends with anyway. So the attention and the ease of talking to her felt nice.

Charity laughed a little, leaning back into the chair. “What would you call it then?” She asked

Charles rolled his eyes. Not at her. Or at the question she asked. But at how of a job he had done at actually trying to learn this material. “More like stressing and debating my entire existence.” He said with a huff, setting his pencil down and copying Charitys move by leaning back into the chair.

The room was quiet. Most students had gone home, or were also quietly studying or scrolling on their phones.

“That seems a little dramatic.” Charity retorted with a laugh before looking down at Charles notes and what he was reading. “Do you need help? I’m usually pretty good at this sort of thing.” She said.

The man looked down at his paper then back up at her, their eyes meeting for a few seconds before he laughed. “If you don’t have anything else to do than sure.” He said.

Charity shook her head and smiled. “No. I don’t really have anything better to do.” She teased before sitting up so she could see better.

Charles matched her motion again, siting up and resting his forearms against his legs.

“I already see your first problem. Your trying to read every single sentence. Most of this is unnecessary. Not even the professors read it.” she grabbed his pencil from him and circled the summary and footnotes on the bottom of each page.

“Thats what your gonna want to pay attention too. Your brain will remember a lot more by reading simple, concise sentences, than it will if you try to read the whole entire thing.” Charity said, matter of factly, as if this was something she had been doing her whole life.

Charles slowly nodded, looking at what she circled on the bottom of the page. “Your not worried your going to miss something thats gonna be on the test?” he asked

Charity laughed. “I’ve been doing this since I started college and it hasn’t failed me yet. If it does, the professor is probably an asshole and takes pleasure in tormenting their students and making sure all of them fail the class. Probably gives them some sense of power.”

They both laughed. It was true. Most of the professors were good, but there always had to be the one that was absolutely horrible. Thankfully, Charles hadn’t run into that problem yet.

With the new study method obtained, Charles closed the book. He could finish it later. For now though, he was tired of trying to read that and both his eyes and his brain were starting to hurt.

He shoved the book back into his backpack, along with his notebook and pencil, then zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder at the same time he stood up.

“Thanks for your help. I’ll probably talk to you if it doesn’t go well. That way the blame is on you and not on me.” He joked, offering a hand to help her up out of the chair.

Charity took his hand, even if she didn’t necessarily need the help up. “You can’t blame it on me at this point. I did what I could.” She laughed, also grabbing her backpack up off the floor.

Charles laughed softly, starting the walk out of the building. Charity followed him, and before long the two were walking shoulder to shoulder, close enough that their hands and arms brushed a few times.

“Did you drive? Or do you want me to walk you back to your place? I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting you walk alone in the dark.”

Despite having just met her, Charles already felt a connection to her. Plus, doing the right thing had been ingrained in him since he was little. There would probably be a few moments of awkward silence between him and Charity, but he knew if Betty or Polly were in the same situation, he’d want someone safe to walk them home. Even if the odds of anything happening were super low.

Charity smiled a little at the offer. “I drove. But, thanks for offering. Maybe we can hang out some other time?” She offered, leaving it up to Charles to decide if he actually wanted to or not.

He nodded, probably too quickly. “Yeah! Yeah. For sure. Definitely.” he rambled before taking a slight moment to compose himself. He didn’t even know why he was so nervous. Even though this girl was pretty, he didn’t feel any immediate attraction to her that would cause him to be scared. It also wasn’t like she seemed mean or like she would judge him in anyway, but for some reason his heart was still racing.

Maybe he just so badly wanted this to work out. Maybe he could finally have his first official girlfriend. First official date. Then Alice would be happy. Then his problem would be solved. He had told himself for so long that as soon as met the right girl, or kissed her, or slept with her for the first time, he would finally feel an attraction and want for her, and not for…well. He didn’t even want to say it out loud. He couldn’t. He needed this to work out.

Charity smiled, lightly bumping her shoulder into Charles. “We can grab ice cream after class tomorrow? How does that sound?”

Charles bumped her shoulder back lightly before moving away. “Sounds perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow.”