Heartstopper Inktober 2K24

6 - Trek (Childhood!AU)

Nick knows exactly where Charlie is. Tori might, possibly, but then again, she may not. Not everybody has a homing beacon for Charles Spring embedded in their chest like he does and he's already sure of his theory once he gets there.

Getting off his bike, he stuffs his hands in his pockets before stepping through the open fence of a backlot that was on the outskirts of town, a giant English Oak towering over the brown dirt and patches of dried up grass that had given up trying to spread long ago. There are, as he expected, also fresh footprints, pointing a familiar way.

It's a trek to get there, given how little it's changed, but how big they are now form when they first discovered this place when they were only little kids, but Nick manages to get through the brush to the base of the oak, rotten wooden planks disappearing up into a tiny wooden house hanging precariously within its branches.

The light's on. Guess someone's home.

Sighing with more than just relief, he quietly clambers the makeshift steps till he manages to get balance on a thick enough tree limb, legs swaying before he knocks on the closed door that a breeze could take down.

There's a sniffle, before a voice murmurs "Come in."

He doesn't know exactly how they manage, but Charlie's squeezed himself in there and Nick does the same, the walls filled with splinters that dig in his back as they look at each other, one worried and the other tear stained.

"Wanna talk about it?" Nick asks and for a moment, he thinks Charlie will refuse him, but then the latter whips an arm aggressively over his eyes. "It's stupid. I'm stupid."

"Nope, absolutely not." Nick postures. "No "s" words, remember?"

"That's only for sorry." At least Charlie's smiling a little.

"Nope, stupid counts as well." Nick sticks his chin out defiantly, or at least as defiantly as a 15 year old can as he looks over at the 14 year old in front of him. "Tori was really worried bout' you, she said that you ran away."

Charlie snorts, eyes pointed down to the ground that could collapse under them. "Something like that." He picks at his shoelaces for a moment. "I told Mum."

"Told your Mum what?"

"You know what." Charlie snorts and Nick swallows when he realises what he means. Oh. Oh, he /does/ know what. "Oh, Charlie."

"She took it exactly as I expected at least, so I tuned out most of the bad parts." Charlie rolled his eyes, a faraway look in them as if he wanted to be anyone but here. "Then she started talking about all my friends and Elle and Isaac and blaming them for me being gay and I just didn't want to listen anymore. So I destroyed the kitchen and left."

Wait, what? "You destroyed the kitchen?" Nick repeated.

"She had everything out for dinner." Was all Charlie had to say with a frown before Nick snorted. Oh yeah, there would be hell to pay when Charlie got home. That is if he was allowed or go home at all. "Wanna stay over tonight? I'm sure Mum won't say no. She loves having you over."

"Are you sure?" Suddenly, Charlie's voice is small and he's looking at Nick like he's cursed. "I don't want to make things worse than I already have by coming out."

"Hey, you came out to me, Tao and Elle when you were 12." Nick grinned. "Pretty sure life's gotten a lot better, unlike your crush on that, like, history guy."

"Nick, Jack Maddox is a god among men." Charlie dramatically clutched his chest like he had a string of pearls attached. "How dare Tao and now you of all people insult him in front of me."

Here I thought both me and Tao were the loves of your life." Nick pouted. "I can see we were wrong. Wait till he hears the news, he'll be devastated."

"Ha-ha." Charlie rolled his eye again, but with a smile this time. "I should probably call Tori."

"You should. You can call her while I figure out how to get us home on my bike." Nick smirked before he held this hand toward him. "After you."

"My knight in a blue hoodie." Charlie joked, but took his hand anyway and stepped out, trying not to crash to the ground as Nick did the same, following him back out to where the street lights flickered ominously in the darkness.

(Of course, Nick knew that piggybacking Charlie while pedalling a bike wasn't exactly the least dangerous thing he could be doing at 7:00 at night, but it worked nonetheless. Plus, Charlie's face tilted in the wind as the world went by was kind of a hard thing to pass up looking at.)