A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

Half A Slice - KatyaMorrigan

Summary:

Charlie struggles with eating in front of people, and it can be especially difficult when he is around his friends. Fortunately, with Nick there as well, he knows he has support. Maybe he can enjoy the time with Elle, Tao and Aled anyway.
NOTE: There is implicit discussion of Charlie's eating disorder in this story, so if you may be triggered by content discussing struggles with eating, proceed with caution.
Notes:

Day 16 of my NaNoWriMo writing challenge this year - one oneshot a day, every day for the whole of November. I'm following the SOFTober 2020 prompts by @wafflesandkruge on Instagram to give me some fluffy starting points for the coming month of fics.
The prompt for today was "sharing".
I hope you enjoy!
(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:
"When are we stopping for food?" Elle asked, leaning against Tao's chair. "I'm getting hungry."

"I mean, I'm hungry too," Nick said, looking at the others.

"Um, I'm still fine," Charlie said with a smile. "But if you want, we can put in the pizza order now so they'll be here in a bit."

"That's a good plan." Tao stretched out his legs and nudged Aled, who smacked his foot away.

Charlie got up to find the pizza menus, leaving everyone else still around the Monopoly board. It had been Nick's idea to have a day of board games as opposed to online ones for a change, and Charlie had been happy to organise it at his house. The Spring family had an impressive range of offline games of every variety – cards, trivia, board games, and even a poker set.

The friends had started the day with a league table of Top Trumps, going from dogs to dinosaurs to Disney characters and a dozen other sets, knocking people out each round until there was only one undisputed winner. Charlie, of course, had won because he knew the cards so well, and his win hadn't gone uncontested. There had been a short wrestling match on the living room rug between him and Tao, but it had ended pretty quickly and Charlie had been crowned Ultimate Top Trump Player Of The Millenia (Nick's words).

Monopoly was going as well and taking as long as you would expect – Elle had amassed most of the properties, including the coveted train stations, and was steadily rinsing the boys of their money. Tao was taking this poorly, and Aled was attempting to barter his three properties for better paying ones every round to no avail. Nick and Charlie had decided to team up, but were therefore only playing with one piece, and it had prompted more arguments between them than they had expected. Granted, they were perfectly amicable arguments of no real substance, but given how well they got on at literally any other time, it was strange to be at odds with each other all of a sudden. Charlie's playing strategy was careful spending and taking the time to build up money before buying big. Nick's attitude was to buy everything at every opportunity and worry only when their money ran out.

But now they were taking a short break for food. Nick pushed the board to the side of the room and stuffed his and Charlie's money into his pocket. He trusted his and Charlie's friends with his life – but not with Monopoly money.

"You really think we'd steal it?" Aled asked, raising a blond eyebrow and grinning.

"I absolutely would," Tao chipped in. Nick laughed.

"Yep, that's why I'm taking care of the earnings."

"Can I pick what we watch over lunch?" Elle asked, already spread out across the sofa with her legs hanging over the arm. "Do you know what Charlie's Netflix password is?"

"Hang on, I can put it in. Budge up." Nick lifted up Elle's legs so he could sit on the sofa and took the remote from her. He opened Netflix and handed it back to her. "Go crazy. I'll go check on Charlie."