Charlie and Nick: A Heartstopper FanFic

A Little While

By noon the next day, Nick had lulled himself into a state of denial and acceptance. He wore a happy face, never faltering in his support for Charlie.

“I'm going,” Charlie had informed Nick the day before when he walked out of the instrument shop. Since then, his decision hadn’t changed.

Today, Charlie and Nick joined Tara and Darcy at Jeff's house for a quick rehearsal. While the band tuned their instruments and tried to get Charlie onto the same page, Nick and Darcy waited patiently for their significant others to finish. Nick did his best to keep a smile on his face as he watched Charlie get acclimated.

When the band finished the first song, Tara was elated. “That was brilliant, guys.”

As quietly as possible, Darcy got up from the couch she shared with Nick slipped out the side door of the house. She wasn’t herself today with circles under her eyes and a quiet, restrained mood. Naturally sympathetic, Nick followed her outside to make sure she was alright.

Outside, in a small yard next to Jeff's house, Nick found Darcy with her back turned to him.

“Darcy?” he called to her.

Before she turned to face him, she was already wiping away her tears. She forced a chucked and sniffled. From her pocket, she produced a pack of cigarettes and offered it to Nick. “Want one?”

“No, thank you,” Nick replied, surprised that Darcy smoked cigarettes. In all of the years they had known each other, Nick had never even seen her vape. “I didn’t know you smoked.”

“Ugh!” Darcy groaned as she lit one and took a long drag. “Don’t vice-shame me Nicholas. I'm having a shit day.”

“I wasn’t,” he clarified defenselessly. “I just didn’t know that about you.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “It’s an occasional addiction. I only do it under extremely stressful circumstances.”

Although the answer was obvious, Nick felt he should ask anyway. “The tour?”

“You feel it, too. Right? This is a bad idea.”

“In what way?” Nick replied with optimism. “They won’t be gone for too long, and you know they’ll keep each other safe out there.”

“I know,” Darcy agreed as the tears continued to force their way out. “I just have a bad feeling. Like they’ll go and do their thing, and when they come back things will be different. After the tour, won’t life here with me seem rather boring?”

Nick pulled his friend in for a hug as his heart ached to hear her speak this way. “That won’t happen.”

“Tara,” Darcy sobbed as she lost control of her emotions.

“Tara is crazy about you. She proposed for bloody sake,” Nick assured her. “Besides. You’ve been together for ages, longer than me and Charlie. If Tara were ever to get bored with you, it would have already happened.”

“What if she's just never met anyone better?” she wondered as Nick released her from his embrace.

“I love you, Darcy, but you’re being pretty thick right now,” he laughed, hoping to elevate her mood.

Furrowing her brow, Darcy redirected the subject to Nick. “Are you really going to stand there and tell me you aren’t worried? Not one bit?”

“Yes,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I trust Charlie. He would never intentionally hurt me.”

“That's easy to say, but what happens when Charlie has a little too much to drink one night and meets someone. Even without alcohol, people make mistakes. Or they meet someone who fits better with them…”

“Where is all of this coming from? You’re engaged, you should be happy. I know Tara's leaving for a little while--"

“Almost three months,” Darcy interrupted, pointing the burning tip of the cigarette at him. “Charlie will be back in no time compared to that, so don’t act like I'll only have to wait for my person for ‘a little while.’” She took a drag and shook her head. “I didn’t mean to snap at you. I know you’re trying to help. I'm just scared, you know? Tara is a fucking goddess. She's gonna meet all of these beautiful, interesting, sophisticated women. How can I compete? I'm just a bartender who can’t even keep track of her own keys.”

“Listen,” Nick requested. “If you spend her last days here like this, you’ll only make her feel guilty. Do you want her to feel like shit the entire time she's away?”

“No.”

“Then trust and support her. I don’t think she’ll stray. But if she does, if that woman could truly make her happy, couldn’t you be able to accept it?”

“In theory,” Darcy replied pointedly. “But emotions don’t really encourage much logic, do they? I would want to be happy for her in that scenario, but we'll never know until it happens.”