A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

The Rugby Rainbow Alliance - PhoenixSpring (Part 1)

Summary:

Nick and Charlie are best friends.
Everyone knows that Nick and Charlie are inseparable. Everyone knows they're meant to be together. Everyone except the aforementioned boys.

Enter The Paris Squad and a handful of Rugby Lads to intervene.

Set in Nick's Y12 and Charlie's Y11 in a universe where Charlie never went to Harry Greene's 16th party and they never kissed.
Notes:

Only real TW are for brief mentions of canon plot; i.e. Charlie's ED.
There's also mention of a kiss that maybe wasn't consensual (not between Nick and Charlie, or between Ben and Charlie. More of a misunderstanding, but it's there.)
Chapter 1: He's looking for you...

Summary:

It's Tara's 17th birthday and all the gang, plus the rugby lads, are together to celebrate.

Nick can't find Charlie though, and Charlie can't find Nick.
Notes:

This was meant to be a silly one shot, but here we are. It's 3 chapter story.

Thank you to Gamma for naming this fic and being her usual magical beta self as always! Thank you for Erin for helping me.

Enjoy
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text
Nick Nelson had known Charlie Spring for a little over eighteen months, and he liked to think they had been friends almost as long.

He didn't quite know when Charlie went from being a friend, to a really good friend, to his best friend, but he supposed that it happened sometime between Charlie joining the rugby team in the February of Nick's Year 11, and the end of the Easter holidays only a few weeks later, during which they had seen each other most days and Nick had never once felt bored or overwhelmed or uncomfortable.

Nick wasn't sure exactly when he developed a crush on his best friend, but he knew he started doubting his sexuality before Harry Greene's sixteenth birthday party, and he knew the reason for his late night internet searches was almost entirely down to a certain dark haired boy's curls and dimples and the way his laugh caused Nick's belly to flutter and twirl as butterflies took flight.

He remembered that it was before Harry's sixteenth, because during that party he had watched as two of his now closest friends shared a kiss on the dancefloor as confetti fell from the ceiling, and the DJ bathed them in a kaleidoscope of beautiful rainbow light.

He remembered this, because as he watched Tara and Darcy kissing, owning their sexuality in front of hundreds of teenagers, he had wished with everything he had that Charlie had been there at the party with him, witnessing this moment of pure joy, and that, just maybe, they could have shared their own moment like that under rainbow illumination.

OK, maybe not quite so publicly, not for a first kiss anyway. But maybe they could have found somewhere quiet to disappear off to, just the two of them, and maybe in that moment Nick would have been brave enough to tell Charlie how he felt.

But Charlie hadn't been at Harry's party, a last minute change thanks to a poorly Oliver Spring and a slightly over cautious Jane Spring. Instead of spending the party with his best friend, Imogen had cornered a downcast Nick, and had proceeded to dance and giggle and talk at him all night long, until finally he couldn't take it any longer and had tried to leave, and in response Imogen had thrown her arms around him, and kissed him.

It had barely been a peck, and Nick had immediately pulled away and told her that he was sorry, but he didn't like her like that. But people had seen and by Monday morning it seemed most of Truham knew that 'Nick Nelson and Imogen Heaney were dating'.