A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

The Art of Love - Chescr

Summary:

Newbie bi Nick enrolls in an art-history course when he is recovering from a rugby injury. An excursion to a Tom of Finland exhibition ensures that he meets Charlie - and Tao.
Getting together isn't always easy but they are our boys so they will also find each other in this universe.
Notes:

For MP84.
This fic is for you, MP, because you are an amazing and lovely person and a fantastic Finlandic friend.

We all know about your love for Tom of Finland and I was lucky to be on the receiving end of all kinds of Tom of Finland goodies.
So this is the Heartstopper x Tom of Finland fic, you didn't know you actually needed, but let's be honest, what else could I write about when writing something for you.

Enjoy!

Many thanks for your help to the wonderful Pocketfamily and hsfan79 who really made this fic come to life.
(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:
Blinking at the bright sunlight that reflected on the stainless steel, gleaming façade of the museum, Nick stepped out of the bus. His knee twitched as he took the last step down to the pavement. He squinted both from the pain and to be able to discern his surroundings. He was relieved he promptly recognised the whirlwind that was his art teacher, gesturing and flailing to the other course participants, who had already gathered at the entrance.

Nick swung his tote bag – the one with his rugby team logo – over his shoulder and reluctantly walked to the group to join them, fidgeting with his fingers and rubbing his neck to ease his slightly panicking brain. Darcy, his teacher, waved him over, loudly; totally in line with the way they had introduced themselves three weeks ago: art enthusiast extraordinaire.

Although everybody had been kind and welcoming since he started, within the first half hour of the first lesson, he was made aware that all of the other participants had been in this course for a long time and had a solid connection to art, either as a creator, a teacher, or a long time observer. Despite their chaotic charisma, Darcy had taken the time to make Nick known to the curriculum and up to speed, but he felt he was merely improvising at best.

Just as he had started to get a wee bit familiar with the jargon, at the end of the second lesson, Darcy had announced that they had arranged a visit to a museum but that they would keep the location and exhibition a secret as long as possible. They hadn't been willing to give anything away, but they had said it was important to queer history, and the artist explored the boundaries of what art could be.

His heart had skipped a beat and a warm glow had filled his chest with eager anticipation. He couldn't wait to learn more about the side of himself which he had discovered recently, although the truth was Nick still felt way out of his depth. He'd enrolled in the course on the spur of the moment, in a desperate attempt to get out of the house. The paralysing spirals he'd experienced after the major injury that forced him out of playing professional rugby had been unrelenting. Whilst he was still rehabilitating, the idea to pursue a career in education seemed impossible to proceed, and the feeling of being useless and sidelined at 30 were overwhelming. His mum had sent him a list with courses the local library hosted. Nick hadn't given it much thought; he'd always liked art but never had the time to enjoy it, in addition, he was totally incapable of creating it in any form so an art history course seemed nice enough.

The last year had been a rollercoaster, not only because of the impairment and its consequences, but definitely also because of his journey of self-revelation. The oceans of time he'd been stuck housebound had allowed him to watch and re-watch a lot of movies; some of them over and over again and that had stirred things that he couldn't precisely identify at first, but had come to the fore at full force when he had been watching Pirates of the Caribbean with Sai, one of his old teammates.