A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

Throw Me in the Deep End - bishyreadytocry

Summary:

In which Nick struggles to settle in at uni, goes a bit weird, and makes Charlie panic...
Notes:

Okay, so this one is a little bit different. I got stuck on some hints I've dropped in previous instalments of Nick really struggling in his first few months at uni. In the last one I mentioned that they talk it all out at Christmas and things get much better for them both after that. This is... the before. So, sozzy?

CW for mentions of Charlie's ED & OCD and they both get a bit panicky but it's nothing too heavy.

Anyway! This is set very early in the uni boys universe so you know they're gonna be okay! Better than okay! So good! All the exclamation marks to prove my point!!!

Huuuuuge thank you to ghostfern for betaing. Appreciate you very much <3

Have at, angst lovers. This is all your fault.
(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:
15.15, Nick ❤️🐶🖕🏼

Hey baby

You got time for a video call tonight?

Had a shit day and missing your silly face xx

15.53, Charlie ❤️🐱🖕🏼

oh bug, i'm sorry

i miss you too, so so so much

i'm going to that book talk i told you about tonight but we could squeeze a quick ten mins in before 5pm if you're free at all between then and now?

Oh

I thought you weren't going to that anymore

Callum's driving us all to big Tesco soon so will probably miss you

Tomorrow I guess?

i was always still going!

i know you couldn't make it back in time but me and isaac still wanted to go

tomorrow sounds great for a call though <3

Okay <3

Charlie stares down at his phone, wanting to say something else but not quite knowing what. Things have been strange lately. Nick has been strange. It's been nearly two months since he left for uni and he's seemed down for most of that. Nick had started off excited, buzzing from class to rugby to the pub and back again. He had made some friends, called Charlie every day – usually more than once – and generally seemed to be fitting in well. It was only at the start of November that something seemed to change.

Charlie suspects that Nick had taken on too much. Between his Sunday afternoon shifts in a local café to make some extra money, getting used to the way uni works, rugby training three times a week and socialising, Nick really didn't have time for much else. Much else seemingly being Charlie.

That's not really fair, and Charlie knows it. Nick is doing his best. It's just... less than it used to be. Charlie has only made it to Leeds once and Nick hasn't been home at all. Charlie misses him so much that he physically hurts with it and Nick... well. Nick doesn't appear to be hurting with it in the same way.

Charlie is trying to fill the Nick shaped hole that's left in Kent with new things of his own. He also got a weekend job, trying to put enough money away for future trips up North. With Nick, Elle, Tara and Darcy all moving away, Charlie has also put an effort into making new friends. Tao and Isaac are brilliant, of course, but Charlie has gone from a whole support system back to only having his two best friends with him every day and he knows he needs more than that. His new form desk mate, Josh, might not be as fun to sit beside as Nick but he has at least become a friend over the last couple of months. So much so that they've started hanging out outside of school.