Music sounds better with you

So easy on my heart

This is part 3 to music sounds better with you

Chapter 1: in the beginning

Charlie gets a very warm welcome to Leeds.

And please make sure you're changing your bedsheets at least every other week."
Charlie doesn't think he's ever changed his bedsheets that regularly in his life, but he nods anyway.

"Yes, Mum."
"And don't forget to brush your teeth twice a day!"
"Mum, I'm eighteen years old," Charlie whines. "I've been cleaning my own teeth twice a day for a very long time."
"I'm just saying... "
" Mum ."

"Shall we make moves?" Charlie's dad interrupts loudly, resting a firm hand on his wife's shoulder. "We've got a long old drive ahead of us."
Jane Spring sighs heavily, but she nods. "Yes, I think that's wise." She turns back to Charlie. "Please try not to spend every waking moment with Nick."

Heat prickles up the back of Charlie's neck. He was waiting for her final dig about picking this university, picking somewhere so far away from home just to follow his boyfriend, even though in actuality the Maths course here is very good and he's lucky to be on it. He sighs again.
"I promise. I'm not even seeing him today because he's moving into his own house."
Jane purses her lips. "Mhm."

It's tense and it's awkward for a few seconds, then suddenly Charlie's being pulled into a stiff hug that he tentatively returns. His mum lets him go fairly quickly before she steps back and then starts rummaging in her bag for the car keys. Meanwhile, Charlie's dad steps in and pulls him into a hug that feels a lot more sincere.
"Call me if you need anything, yeah?" he whispers into Charlie's ear, the use of the word me not going unnoticed. "And have fun, will you? That's what university is for."
Charlie finally smiles. "Thanks, Dad."
"Come on, Julio, the traffic will be a nightmare if we don't leave soon," Jane calls. Charlie sighs and steps out of his dad's embrace.

He looks around the car park and sure enough, there are plenty of other parents bidding their kids goodbye. With one final squeeze to his shoulder, his dad bids him another goodbye and disappears towards the car.
Thank fuck for that.
He watches their car back out of its space and he raises his hand in a wave he's not even sure that they see, then suddenly the car is gone and he's finally, finally alone.
Well, not completely alone.

Strong, familiar arms suddenly wrap themselves around Charlie's shoulders and he sighs happily, sinking back into his boyfriend's hold.
"Do you think they bought the idea that we're not seeing each other today?"
"Probably not," Charlie admits, then he turns in Nick's hold and wraps his arms around his neck. "Thank you for coming to meet me."
"Obviously I was coming to meet you," Nick scoffs. "How am I meant to exist in Leeds, now the city we both live in, without coming to see you at my earliest opportunity?"
"That's pretty gay," Charlie tells him, then grins as Nick tuts and then bends down to give him a quick kiss.
"Do you wanna see my room?"
Nick nods. "Sure. Then do you want to come over to mine? Your flatmates aren't moving in until tomorrow, right?"
"Right," Charlie nods. "One of the weird quirks of opting for a quiet flat, I guess."

Nick laces their fingers together and lets Charlie guide him towards the tower block he'll now be calling home for the next ten months. His flat is on the top floor of the block, because instead of going for one of the traditional flats where you're living as a group of six or eight, he'd opted for a smaller flat of four, designed for those with anxiety around living in larger groups.
His biggest worry was having a kitchen full of people watching him eat all the time, so this felt like something of a happy medium, at least while he settled in.

Even if his flat ended up being three other people who didn't like socialising, he still had Nick and his friends, so the idea didn't feel too isolating. Nick had been nothing but supportive, helping him weigh up the pros and cons on a big piece of paper with an array of colourful pens on Sarah's dining table at the start of the summer.
The biggest thing for Charlie was the kitchen; he didn't want to feel he couldn't go in and cook his meals while his other housemates were pre-drinking or taking up all the space, or if he had disrespectful housemates that would eat his food without asking. Nick had assured him that if anything like that happened, he wasn't afraid to get involved, but Charlie didn't want to open either of them up to any confrontation or the opportunity to have shitty, maybe even homophobic comments thrown their way.

Maybe he was catastrophising already, but he knew he wanted to take any risk of drama out of it, and wanted the move to Leeds to be as smooth as possible.
So he'd opted for the more expensive but less daunting accommodation, and so far, so good.

The third year representative who had sorted his keys and showed him and his parents to his flat had informed him that his other three flatmates weren't due to arrive until the following day, but he did let him know that they were two girls, one from Sheffield and one from Leicester, and an international student from China. Upon hearing that, Charlie had texted Nick immediately and his boyfriend was on the next bus to campus before he knew it.

Nick's living with the same group as last year in a large six-bedroom house about fifteen minutes from campus. He's been up in Leeds for about three days getting moved in and sorted, catching up with his housemates who he hasn't seen all summer. They've been texting non-stop and FaceTiming in the evenings, but nothing quite compares to finally being here in Leeds, their hands tangled together and with nothing but time to spend with each other.