Heart Attack (a HeartStopper story)

Charlie and Nick. The orange envelope.

Song recommendation for the chapter: love you for a long time. - Maggie Roger's.

Nick costume is a reference to a really really great fan fic called "Maddie may I?" <3 all the love to their illustrator and writer. I actually thought that it was canon for the longest time just because i followed them for so long and I thought it was Alice work.

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"I look like an idiot..."

"NOT TRUE! YOU LOOK AWESOME!" shouted Charlie.

Charlie, Tara, Darcy, Elle and Tao waited for Nick to come out of the bathroom in his costume. They had decided to get ready for Four Fangs, Matias' famous Halloween party, at Nick and Charlie's apartment. The three couples had had the plan to dress up together for years, and when it was all over the plan had dissipated. Now Nick had insisted that this was the year. They were all back and feeling better than ever. The idea really excited the group, and bouncing ideas around, and partly because Nick's birthday was fresh in everyone's mind, they decided that Nick's idea would be the best.

And now he was the only one who didn't want to go out in his costume.

Each had chosen a superhero or villain pair that they felt made sense with their dynamic. Darcy and Tara, without question, had chosen Poison Ivy, who would be Tara, and Harely Queen, who would be Darcy. Both had been so grand on their costume that when they saw Tao it almost generated a fight. Tara had fake plants everywhere, and Darcy had never worn so much makeup in her life. Tao was Batman and Elle was Cat women...partly because Tao was committed to his use of black and partly because Elle had a black vinyl body suit she was eager to break out. Nick and Charlie had had to do some digging, but Nick was able to find one of his favorite comics as a kid and use it as a reference. So many years later they both found it extremely cute that it had been one of their favorite comics...now they understood why.

They had chosen Wiccan and Hulkling, for obvious reasons, and Charlie had spent way too much time making his cape and painting everything...ALL of Nick's body green.

"Come out at once we're in a hurry" Tara scolded him, with a quiet anxiety that everyone understood except Darcy.

Today was the big day.

Everyone had done what they could to collaborate on the big surprise. Everything was ready...but that only made everyone's nerves worse. Tara moved through the day as if in a trance. Happy, very happy... but immensely anxious and nervous. Charlie held her hand behind Darcy's, giving her a comforting smile. Tara just nodded AND sighed.

"Are you sure I look good?" Nick stepped out sheepishly. Although the costume was amazing, and Charlie thought he looked even sexier than usual, it was really funny to see him all green.

"YOUR SHOWER IS GOING TO BE GREEN FOREVER" Darcy and Tao's laughter filled the room, as Nick teased them with hugging and painting them. Charlie didn't know what they were laughing at, he looked beautiful...his body, green or not, was still perfect.

"I... love it." Charlie leaned in as he saw Nick smile at him, to steal a quick kiss on his lips. "I don't want to take your paint off."

"You're going to end up green yourself." Elle teased them, and even with the paint it was obvious how flushed Nick was.

If the girls were trying to put effort into their party decorations, Matias seemed to take it as a personal challenge to make it even bigger than usual. He, Karina and friends of his spent the afternoon decorating. He had been doing Halloween parties all his life, but this big and official event had been going on for four years, ever since he met Charlie and with him Tara and Darcy. Because it was so popular it was big business for the center, and the evening served as a cultural gathering of many things. It was the first time Nick would attend one, knowing it was a space Charlie and Matias had shared together for years. It was the first time Charlie and Matias weren't "together," the first time those parties would include an event as important as the one Tara had planned, the first time Ben would go to the party as Matias' non-date but date anyway....