6 Works in Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne & Crystal Palace Bonding
Listing Works
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heavy words are so lightly thrown by boysforbugs
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV), The Dead Boy Detectives (DC Comics)
27 May 2025
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Summary
"I don't know if you have noticed but we are the Dead Boy Detectives, not a couple's counseling office." Edwin interrupts, words dripping with annoyance. Charles gives him a soft squeeze— a wordless scold towards his lack of bedside manner, but Edwin doesn't even spare a glance as he tries to subtly shrug the other boy's hand away, folding his hands atop the desk in front of him.
Charles tries his best to keep his face neutral, something in his stomach twisting at the brush off. He should be used it now, considering it's been four months.
Four months.
Four months since their return from Port Townsend. Four months since the Devlin House, and Esther, and David the Demon, and—
Hell.
It's been four months since Edwin looked Charles straight in the eyes and confessed that he loved him in a way Charles had never entertained; he had never even thought it was possible. Four months since Charles looked right back at his best mate—his favorite person in the world—and promised that this wouldn't change a thing between them.
Which it didn't!
At least, it didn't for Charles.
But Edwin..
Well, it just seems like Edwin wasn't exactly on the same page.
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Summary
"I can feel the way everyone is staring at me," Crystal said only a little louder, a blush high on her cheeks.
"Perhaps it is your outfit," Edwin smirked. Crystal's reaction was immediate, elbowing him hard in the stomach, but there was a smile forming on her face that Edwin took pride in.
"Dick. . . But hey, at least I won't look fucking insane talking to a demon only I can see this time."
Edwin hummed, "Well, the night is young."
Crystal groaned, grabbing his wrist, "God, please don't tempt fate."
Edwin withdrew his wrist from her grip, instead placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Rest assured, should any demons appear, I have an exorcism ritual on hand."
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When Crystal's parents ask her to attend one of their art installation events, she becomes incredibly stressed and anxious at the idea of running into people from her old life, and she'd really rather not have to attend the event alone. Niko is visiting her mom, though, and Charles is too busy with a project in his magic bag. Luckily, though unexpected, Edwin offers to accompany her. The outcome isn't exactly what either of them anticipated.
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Summary
In the aftermath of Port Townsend, Charles realized he had a lot to think about, and absolutely no idea where to start. Luckily, he did have some really quite excellent friends, who were an awful lot better at this sort of thing than he himself was. Particularly Niko, as it turns out.
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Before Edwin had been strapped to Esther’s torture table and very rudely used as a magical battery, he had been under the impression that the use of iron was the only way to inflict pain upon ghosts in the mortal realm.
However, because he was Edwin Payne and the universe seemed intent on making him pay for his ridiculously on-the-nose surname for all of eternity, those rules apparently did not apply to him.
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Summary
After Port Townsend, Edwin has something he thinks Crystal should know. Crystal is trying very hard to become a better, more emotionally intelligent person. Fortunately, the bar for emotional intelligence is pretty low.
Series
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Summary
It’s not the resurfaced gut punch of a memory, not the premature cancellation of her mother’s call, and not the wretched guilt, the shame, that inevitably grows from Crystal’s neglect to answer it in time, that startles her into working order again, no.
The world seems to delight in Crystal’s absolute and utter misery. She knows this to be true, because out from the mirror hung on her still-open wardrobe door pops Edwin Payne, the slight crookedness of his collar the only sign that he isn’t a statue masquerading as a teenaged ghost. The only sign that he is somehow, amidst all of his composure, even slightly fallible.
“Right then,” he remarks, the brightness of his voice laden with an undertone of fond frustration as he brushes dirt that does not exist from the lapels of his coat. Crystal resists the sudden urge to throttle him. Then, she resists the urge to correct the fold of his shirt collar, still offset from the mirror jump.
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a character study in which everything boils over, crystal is deeply conflicted about most things, wrong about another few, birthdays are celebrated, and her friends are troublingly good at prying her open and never once flinching at whatever they manage to dig up.