A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

On The Ground - One_Small_Writer

ummary:

Nick gets hurt during a rugby match, and Charlie, who was sitting on the bench, rushes to his boyfriend's side.
Notes:

The amount of research I had to do on rugby to write this was ridiculous, and to be honest, I still don't understand how it works, so I'm sorry if any of the rugby depicted in this story isn't accurate. I'm an Aussie Rules Football girl (And, tbh, I don't really care about that either!)
Also, this was lightly inspired by my best friend's first football game of the season, where she dislocated her knee. Was not a fun day.
Anyway, enjoy these dorks in love!
Note - I wrote this pre tv show, but have added the tv show tag to attract other readers in the future :)
(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:
On the rugby team, Charlie typically took the position of bench warmer.

And don't get him wrong, he certainly didn't mind. He liked sitting on the bench. Actually playing during the matches still scared him, he hated running, and whenever he did end up getting the ball, usually only because Nick took pity on him and wanted to include him, he'd panic too much to actually do anything with it and threw it straight back. Not to mention the players on the opposing teams that picked on him because of his size, barreling into him and sending him flying seemingly at any given opportunity, which did nothing but leaves Charlie with bruises and sends Nick into a tailspin, because it wasn't like he was ever doing anything properly anyway.

It was easier, and safer, if he just sat on the bench.

He also liked sitting on the bench because that way he could watch Nick play without having to worry about everything else on the pitch, could watch him uninterrupted. Charlie loved watching Nick play rugby. He was always so happy when he was doing what he loved, and Charlie revealed in the looks Nick threw his way when he did something he wanted Charlie to see, when he scored a try or made a successful tackle, his sunshine smile that screamed "Look what I just did!", lighting up his entire face. Charlie couldn't see that as well when he was on the pitch, but he had the perfect view from where he sat.

It was another game against whom they at Truham called their rivals, another boys school in the next town over. These games were always particularly rough, the pent-up aggression the two schools had for each other bubbling to the surface each time they met causing harsher tackles, more penalty kicks, and higher risks of injury.

These games made Charlie particularly nervous. The one time he did play against this team, only because he was subbed in when one of their team got a head knock and wasn't allowed back on, he was knocked around like a pinball, thrown to the ground more times than he could think, and had since sworn off ever playing them again unless it was a true emergency.

Nick also wasn't the biggest fan of playing against this particular team. It always got too violent for his liking, and he somehow always found himself becoming aggressive as well, which wasn't his style of playing and something he didn't like doing. He liked the aggression that came with rugby, but he liked it when it was somewhat friendly goodhearted aggression. Not the kind of aggressiveness this team brought out. This type was malicious. Actual aggression. It wasn't as fun when it was like that.

(And after that game that Charlie had played, after watching him get thrown around like that, the aggression he felt only grew stronger. No one hurts his Charlie like that).

The second half was just getting started, and Truham was up by ten points. The halftime break had gone far too quickly for Nick and Charlie's liking, a mud-covered Nick holding Charlie as close to him as possible for the fifteen minutes as Mrs. Singh gave them feedback and fed them new plays to try and repress some of his anger.

The other team was playing dirty, and everyone who knew the game could tell. And even if Truham were winning, Nick wasn't having any of it. When he brought it up with Mrs. Singh he was quickly shut down, none of them wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble, which only made him angrier, so the second they had finished talking, Nick grabbed Charlie in a hug. Charlie always managed to calm him down, no matter how angry he happened to be.