A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

come ruin or rapture - charlienick

Summary:

"Guys, you need to quiz me," Nick demands the second Tara picks up.

"Hello to you too, Nicholas," Sahar says mildly.

"I still can't believe you made flashcards," Darcy groans far more expressively. Nick slumps down in his seat and frowns. "For a date. Witnessing this is dreadful, old chap."

or, Nick is nervous to see Charlie at his sister's wedding; he calls his friends about it.
Notes:

For vancouver99.
hello and welcome! this is a little prequel supplemental piece for the events prior to the wedding — nick-stylez. this won't make much sense without reading the original story, but i can't stop you, live ur truth, etc

this is for my kezzy. happy birthday my dear sweet wife. without your kindness, the world (and my world) would be a much darker place. love u kenz <3

NO TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNINGS in this baby! hope u enjoy <3
(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:
"I shall have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love, love, love, above all. Love as there has never been in a play. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture."

— Tom Stoppard, "Shakespeare in Love"

🍃

Nick Nelson was never good at school.

He hardly even tried to be — never found a subject that interested him quite like athletics did.

He had to work very hard to pass his GCSEs — and even then didn't make very good marks. He knows he's not stupid, he's just not good at books-and-reading learning. Despite this, he does like to learn, and once he made it to uni, he was very happy to focus on the things that actually interested him — namely, continuing with rugby and primary education.

He's always found himself drawn to the idea of working with kids; he enjoyed babysitting in his early teens when his mum set him up with a family down the street. He liked getting to know them, helping them learn and do homework, giving them fake marks (always A*s of course), playing princesses and dragons with them.f He knew it wasn't exactly a cool thing for a 14 year-old to enjoy, but Nick was never really interested in looking 'cool' — he hardly knew (or, really, knows) what the term even meant. He still doesn't.

He doesn't care.

So, he knows working as a server while he tries to find a school that will hire him freshly out of uni isn't a sexy career choice. But it did lead him to Charlie Spring, so he can't complain too much.

God, if Darcy could hear him now.

Well, technically Darcy can hear him now.

He's on the phone with Darcy, Sahar and Tara. They were all squished into Nick's tiny one-bedroom taking care of Nick's beloved black lab, Lucy, when Nick called from the road, frenzied.

He's on his way to the wedding of Charlie Spring's sister, Tori, and has Sahar's words bouncing around in his head, mate, you're going mad for this one — be normal. He tried to be as normal as humanly possible at the rehearsal dinner and he still called the de Costa-Springs his own family. He almost exploded when he saw the look on Charlie's face when he said that to his grandparents—a cross between apprehensive and nauseous, an expression Nick picked apart in his head the entire drive home and most of the night last night. It's quite possible he'd gone too far with his date on that one.

Date. God, he's driving to a date with the most beautiful person he's ever seen.

Pinch him.

Also, slap him, because he's forcing Darcy and the girls to help him with his homework. At least the drive is a bit long. He's been on the road for 90 minutes and has 43 minutes left to go before he gets to the venue, according to the GPS. Just enough time to get to the pet names section he wrote up and studied but was too nervous to practise aloud.