Negotiate a Peace, Or Negotiate a....Romance? {Charles Lee x Female!Reader}

Chapter 7: A Confession

[Time skip to 2 months later]

(Y/n)'s POV

After some time, Lee and I managed to mend our friendship after the fiasco with Herc. He and Sam Seabury started hanging out with us more often, and the guys had become more comfortable with him. Charles was even seeming to grow on John, too — they had three classes together, so they saw each other a lot. I had gotten close to Charles, but for the past week or so he'd been acting kind of weird. I figured if he wanted to talk about it he would, so I didn't push the subject.

It was a chilly Saturday, so the boys and I were hanging out at Herc and Laf's dorm. We were bored, so John had let me straighten his hair and we were in a braiding chain. I was braiding John's hair, Laf was braiding mine, Alex was braiding Laf's, and Herc was braiding Alex's. I've known the guys since we were twelve, and I have no idea how I didn't know that they could braid hair. Laf kept pausing in between braiding my hair to tickle me, so John's braid wasn't the best, but we were really only doing it to have fun. Almost as soon as I finished braiding John's hair and capping it with a hair tie, somebody knocked on the door.

"I'll get it!" John headed to the door since he was the closest. He opened it and a smile appeared on his face. "Hey! Come on in," he said, stepping back to let whoever it was inside. To my pleasant surprise, Charles walked in. He greeted us, and then said something I never would've expected.

"I won't be here long, I promise I won't keep you guys from your fun," Charles laughed. "I was just wondering if I could speak to Hercules outside for a moment?" The guys looked just as confused as I was when he said that. Sure, Herc was probably the nicest to him besides me, but they didn't really spend time together just the two of them. At least, not that I knew of.

"Uh, sure," Herc said somewhat hesitantly, extracting himself from the braiding chain. We watched as he followed Charles out the door, closing it behind them. None of us said anything, but we were all thinking the same thing: what the heck is that about?

Herc's POV

I was much more than surprised when Lee asked to talk to me alone. I had thought he'd come over to hang out with all of us or at least to talk to (Y/n), since he was closest with her. Then again, he'd been acting a bit weird lately, so who knew what this was about. The second I closed the door, Lee whirled around to look at me.

"Okay, this might be a bit awkward, but I need you to keep something just between us," he started. I had no idea what he was getting at, and I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know. But I could tell he wouldn't let me go that easily.

"Even from (Y/n) and the guys?"

"Especially from (Y/n) and the guys," Lee emphasized. Now I was more certain than ever that I didn't want to know what he was going to say. I could keep a secret, sure, but from my best friends? Against my better judgement, I agreed to being sworn to secrecy.

"Continue," I said, nodding. I hoped with everything in me that I wouldn't regret saying that.

"I'm not sure how to broach this subject, so I'm just going to ask," the shorter man spoke. Considering he said he wasn't going to beat around the bush, Lee sure did take a long pause. "Is (Y/n) dating anyone?" he finally blurted out, and he suddenly became very interested in his shoes.

I probably shouldn't have, but I couldn't help but let out a laugh. Lee looked up at me mortified, which sent me further into a laughing fit. It took me a couple minutes to compose myself, mainly because every time I tried to, Lee's face would set off the laughter again. When I finally straightened and wiped away the tears that had formed in my eyes, his expression had changed from embarrassed to something bordering impatience.