Her soft hands clasping his own sent a warmth permeating through his body. He looked up to her and placed his spare hand over hers. Pausing for a moment, Charles gave the best smile he could muster in that moment though it wasn’t much.

“You haven’t been sent to…” He paused with a swallow, his eyes never moving from hers. “That doesn’t compare. I just don’t want to be in a situation where if we do continue to talk and I end up courting you once you’ve finished your schooling, or anything else, and whatever this is… is thrown away because my job requires me to… deal with people when the Ministry feels they need to be dealt with.”

Inhibition, Charlie, it was a thing.
And it was a thing apparently his alcohol had, actually, stopped.

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