A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

the book of love - charlienick Part 2

Notes:

thank you to my besties trees (hype girl extrodinaire), lina (my best little beta this side of the mississippi) and theo (brit-pick-butt-head). i hope you like this!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text
Nick and Charlie have made plans for Charlie to come over to Nick's flat, and Charlie cannot stop smiling over it.

Nick is clearly very, very excited. He likes to cook, so he's going to make dinner for the two of them, and he's asked Charlie what his favorite foods are, what his favorite wines are, what his favorite music for background noise is. Most excitedly though, Charlie is going to meet Sage. Charlie has always wanted a pet, but has not yet found the ability to manage time well enough to be responsible for another living thing. However, this does not mean that Charlie isn't keen on pets in general.

He's thrilled he'll get to meet her, that Nick likes him enough to introduce him to her. But more than that, he's excited to see Nick. In his flat. Alone—aside from Sage who can be kept in another room.

He talked to Geoff about it at length, about the way Nick is breaking down all his defences after 'one bloody date', as he worded it. Geoff nodded through Charlie's anxious rambling about how Nick might turn out to be just like Ben, then when he managed to tire himself out, Geoff asked the question: what makes Nick different than Ben?

And Charlie was off like a racehorse at that, listing things from his affection for Sage and his kids at school, to the way he talks to his mum multiple times per week just to check in, to the way he outwardly told the waiter that Charlie was his date. Charlie was okay with Ben not being out, but the way he had to hide it for almost a year was exhausting and unsustainable. When Ben eventually broke up with him, Charlie should've felt grief.

He didn't. He felt pure relief.

But with Nick, if he were to stop texting or break off whatever tenuous thing they have, he'd be a little heartbroken. When he expressed this to Geoff, Geoff had smiled and said, do you think he would do that? Charlie frowned, thinking it over, and then eventually decided, from what I know of him, I don't think so.

It's a comforting thought.

Charlie's phone buzzes in his hand and smiles giddily when he sees it's a text from Nick:

Mr. Nelson [19:04]: When you come over can we watch The Road to uldarodo?

Me [19:05]: the fuck did you just try to say?

Mr. Nelson [19:08]: Alderado. Auto correct doesn't know what I want to say

Me [19:10]: and she is not alone

Mr. Nelson [19:12]: ELDORADO I finally got it close enough that she knew

Me [19:13]: g-d you're cute but you're bloody thick sometimes

Mr. Nelson [19:20]: You like it

Me [19:20]: never said i didn't
Me [19:23]: why do you want to watch that particular movie? isn't it for kids? and from like 1995? i've never seen it ghsakfj

Mr. Nelson [19:24]: YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THE ROAD TO EL DORADO?
Mr. Nelson [19:28]: I just looked it up, it's two words. I'm a fool
Mr. Nelson [19:30]: Also it was 2000. Get your facts straight, Spring

Charlie googles it himself and shakes his head with a huff through his nose at this sweet, weird guy. Well, hopefully not so little, Charlie thinks, then chastises himself for it. Charlie, you have no idea what he wants from you. Be a little more fastidious, for the love of God.

Me [19:33]: should i have seen it?

Mr. Nelson [19:35]: You have no idea

Charlie considers it. He turns the idea of it around in his mind like a stone. It doesn't catch on anything sharp when he does. While worrying himself over the risky text he's considering sending, he gets another message from Nick.