A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

somewhere else, just like magic - thetomkatwholived P1

Summary:

Charlie focused on the man Michael was talking to, immediately drawing in a sharp breath. Tori looked up in surprise, but Charlie couldn't pull his eyes from Michael's conversation partner.

He was tall, almost the same height as Michael, but much broader with strong shoulders and arms that strained at the fabric that encased them. His hair was somewhere between blonde and red, artfully flopping on his head. And he had a special smile, the kind of smile that made Charlie wonder if every other smile in the world has just been trying to recreate this softness and beauty. This man was lovely; no other word felt right.

Or, Charlie's life falls apart so he escapes to a small town up north. And he may just find a better life up there than the one he had in the big city.
Notes:

Obviously, the plan was to post this before Christmas, but this time of year is super busy for me at work (I'm Santa). So here's a Hallmark Christmas fic posted after Christmas. This fic was also supposed to be a oneshot but, as you can see, is four times that. The words kept coming, and they were good so I kept them.

The largest of thank yous to Lily for lovingly bullying me into writing a Hallmark Nick and Charlie fic and to Daira for being the best cheerleader and making the fic art completely unasked because they're just so wonderful.

Since this fic is in the vein of Hallmark movies, we're leaning into the cheese. This is (hopefully) more cohesive and realistic than most Hallmark movies, but it's still heavy on the cheese.

Title from Christmas Tree Farm by some random lady.
(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text
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Charlie hadn't planned to spend the weeks leading up to Christmas in the small village his older sister had settled in with her partner. Ideally, he would have stayed in London with his boyfriend as he slowly made his way up in his career by taking on all the hours people didn't want to work this time of year. Christmas had never been a big deal to him anyway.

Except he had walked into work the last Monday of November only to head right back home with a box of his things. And instead of arriving home to an empty flat where he could wallow in peace, he'd walked in and heard exaggerated moaning. Turns out Ben hadn't had to work that day and was instead planning to spend the day banging the rude bartender from the club they frequented. Now it made sense why Ben insisted they continue to go there even though Charlie's drinks were never right and it had such a tacky vibe.

As Charlie rode the Tube to Tao and Elle's, all of his worldly possessions stuffed into two moderately sized suitcases, he wondered how his life had gone so wrong. He was meant to be a full-fledged editor by now, maybe planning his wedding to his grammar school sweetheart. And yeah, maybe said sweetheart hadn't actually publicly admitted to dating him until they'd been together for seven years, but that was beside the point. And sure, he hated the way the publishing house he'd landed at only seemed to care about profit over substance, but what did that matter if he got to do his dream job?

Tao and Elle had immediately offered to take him in when he called while packing all of his belongings and sobbing, promising he could stay as long as he needed. But their flat was barely big enough for the two of them, and Charlie felt guilty for taking up any of that space. Still, he appreciated having a place to land after the day from hell.

"Charlie, we love you more than we love having a bit more space," Elle reassured him on his third night there while all three drank tea as Charlie had his nightly bitchfest and cry.

They'd both given him the time and space to be upset, Elle always ready with words of encouragement, while Tao found more and more creative ways to insult those who had wronged his best friend. He'd called Ben a swirly-haired mannequin-person the night before, and Charlie had laughed for the first time in days.