In every one of us. || Nick + Charlie

8- I love you

Nick had decided that if he was going to get through this for Charlie, he'd just have to act as if nothing happened until he couldn't anymore. He couldn't universe swap while being a whole mess, he'd never get anything done, and then the universe would crumble right before his eyes. He tried to tell himself that it was just the one Charlie, that all the other ones he'd visited were okay, that his Charlie was okay..but he was still Charlie, he looked so much like his, it was all too real, why did it have to be him?

"All right, Nick?" He felt someone pat his back.
"Uh, I guess," he turned around, putting his hands in his pockets, it was David.
"You guess?" Nick just shrugged in response, he didn't have to know shit.
"Okay..ya been up to anything interesting since I've been gone? You finally get a girlfriend?"
"I don't know"
"Just messing around with a girl or two then?" He nudged him, Nick felt a bit disgusted..
"I won a couple rugby matches," he tried to switch topics.
"Ah, that's something, that's good"
"Yeah."
"Well..tell me when you finally do get with someone, I want to be the first to know"
"Mhm."

David left the room, leaving Nick alone with Nellie, he wasn't complaining, he really needed some Nellie cuddles right about now.

"Did David give you a hard time?" His Mum walked into the kitchen, mug in hand.
"I don't know, I guess he just doesn't really know what to talk to me about..he's a bit like Dad, isn't he?"
"I..I suppose he is a bit like him.."
"He kept trying to see if I had a girlfriend, but I don't think I really care about that Mum"
"And that's okay, you don't have to, the right person will come around without you having to put much thought into it," she smiled at him, which should've been comforting, but it just wasn't.

The right person will come around.

"Yeah. Maybe.."

-

Kissing Charlie was a normal thing, and he enjoyed this activity..if you could even call it that, in his universe quite a lot, but something just didn't feel right, he didn't feel like he usually felt, he didn't feel anything.

He pulled away, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"Are you alright?"
"I..I don't know"
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Can we just..play video games for a bit?"
"Okay"

~

"You're well good at this, it took me most of the day to defeat her," Nick groaned.
"Really? I think you're just lacking strategy, there's an order to it, and you should definitely stock up on food before going into the fight, it gives you that extra bit of life you need to just barely make it"
"Huh..I guess I'll look into that the next time I play then"
"Let me know if it works for you"
"Oh you'll be the first to know, I'll sent you various text messages in all caps about it"
"I'm looking forward to it," Charlie smiled.

He had this strange feeling, like he had to say something but he'd much rather beat around the bush.

"Charlie?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever..do you ever feel like you're just doing something because everybody else is? Because you're scared people will look at you differently, like some broken mess..-sorry, that was-"
"I do"
"Yea?" Charlie nodded, setting down the controller, Deltarune music playing softly in the background.
"And I just think, what if I'm overthinking it? What if I'm just being stupid? I should be happy, but it's like something's in the way of that, I don't know if I can confront my problem without hurting and losing anyone. I want things to stay the way they are but..I can't just not say anything"
"Maybe we should just..think about it for a bit longer before doing anything about it? That way we know for certain what's going on," what was happening with Charlie?
"But what if I know and I'm just scared to confront it?"
"Then maybe it's about time to confront it, I think that's what life is, doing a bunch of things that are difficult just to see what comes of it, the bad comes before the good I suppose.."