15 Works by NotACactusCow
Listing Works
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The Noise in the Garden by NotACactusCow for Lessthanthreehs
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
14 May 2026
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Summary
In the Garden, purity is everything.
Desire is called Noise. Doubt is infection. Obedience is survival.
Nicholas has spent his life trying to be good — to silence every stray thought, to follow every rule, to trust that if he empties himself enough, he will be made worthy. But when his growing closeness with Charles begins to stir feelings he cannot name, the Garden takes notice.
What begins as whispers turns into discipline. What feels like repentance becomes punishment, disguised as love.
As loyalties fracture and faith grows thin, Nicholas must decide whether purity is worth the cost — and how much of himself he is willing to sacrifice to protect someone the Garden has already condemned.
TLDR
In a rigid religious commune obsessed with purity, a young man’s forbidden feelings lead to trouble— and the unraveling of everything he thought was holy.
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Ghosted... Again. by NotACactusCow for HappySappyHippo
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
27 Apr 2026
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Thirty two-year-old Charlie Spring has just lost his mother. Their relationship was messy, but the grief still hits him and his siblings hard. Their father takes it worst of all and moves to Spain to be near family, leaving the house to Charlie.
Fresh out of a toxic relationship, Charlie refuses to move back into the childhood home that shaped so many of his issues. Instead, he decides to rent it out.
Nick Nelson, newly divorced and raising his five-year-old son Julian alone, returns to his hometown for support and takes a teaching job at his old primary school. He rents a house for himself and Julian—only to discover his new landlord is Charlie, the boy he once secretly crushed on.
Now Charlie has to decide if he can forgive Nick for ghosting him years ago, and Nick must finally explain what really happened.
And meanwhile…who is Julian talking to in his room when no one else is there?
TL;DR:
Charlie rents out his late mother’s house, only to lease it to Nick, the childhood crush who once ghosted him. As they navigate their unresolved past, Nick’s young son begins talking to someone unseen. -
82 Days: Tear You Apart by NotACactusCow
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
26 Apr 2026
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Nick knew he had developed a bit of an unexpected little crush on his new friend Charlie, but after a moment on the dance floor leaves him feeling completely unsteady, he can’t pretend there's anything casual or innocent about it anymore.
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Nick Nelson is a single father to a sweet, sensitive 8 year boy named Noah. During their Summer holiday, Nick decides that Noah needs a change of scenery after a rough school year and books them a vacation home near the beach.
Charlie Spring is also a single father to a feisty little 9 year old girl named Ruby. Charlie and Ruby have been planning their Summer getaway to the beach for months and they're excited for a month of beaches and bonding.
It certainly would be unfortunate if some crazy mix up happened with the rental reservations...
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Charlie is a talented journalist struggling to be taken seriously in a workplace that consistently takes him for granted, while Nick, charming and guarded, carries the quiet weight of responsibilities he never asked for. When a high-profile assignment arises, resentment sparks and tempers flare, forcing them into close proximity neither is prepared for.
Outside of work, Charlie finds himself drawn into late-night gaming sessions with a soft hearted stranger who offers easy laughter and unexpected comfort, while Nick begins discovering new sides himself thanks to his sharp-witted, kind gaming companion. As professional frustrations mount and personal lives press in from all sides, unspoken tensions and blurred boundaries begin to surface. Set between office politics, digital escapes, and moments of vulnerability, this is a slow-burn story about misjudgment, longing, and the complicated ways people learn to see one another.
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Nine days: Nicky, It's Cold Outside ❄️ by NotACactusCow
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
23 Dec 2025
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Summary
New Year Countdown Collection
Prompt: “Oh, look, it’s snowing!”
"Uh oh… the snow isn’t stopping…”This story follows Charlie Spring on a night that doesn’t go at all as planned. While babysitting his eight-year-old brother, Oliver, Charlie is expecting cartoons and calm—until the boy he's been tutoring (who is also his very inconvenient crush), Nick Nelson, shows up needing last-minute help for a test.
What starts as a quick study session turns into an unexpected sleepover when the light snowfall outside becomes a full blizzard. With their parents stuck in town and the roads closed, Oliver is ecstatic, Charlie is flustered, and Nick seems strangely unbothered about being snowed in.
As the night unfolds—blanket forts, hot chocolate, shared jokes, and quiet, lingering moments—Charlie realizes the tension humming between them isn’t just in his head. The snow keeps falling, things keep spiraling, and the line between friendship and something more grows thinner in the warm glow of a winter storm.
TL;DR
Charlie ends up snowed in with Nick while babysitting Oliver, and finds out his friend isn't as straight as he thought he was...Series
- Part 24 of HS a03 countdown 2026
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Ginger Rogers' Heels and Felix's Wheels by NotACactusCow for niccknelsson
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
22 Dec 2025
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In their final year of art school, Felix—an anxious, wheelchair-using non-binary student—gets roped into starring in a musical short film directed by their friend Tao. Their confident, glamorous friends jump into the project with excitement, but Felix panics: they can’t dance, they don’t think they’re romantic lead material, and they hate being the center of attention.
Then Felix meets Teagan, the charming, slightly shy actress playing their love interest. Between lavender lattes, awkward flirting, and duet rehearsals taught by Tara, Felix slowly discovers they’re capable of far more than they believed. As the film comes together, so does something tender and unexpected between them—proving the musical disaster Felix feared might actually be the best thing to happen to them.
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A Softer Place To Land by NotACactusCow
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
03 Nov 2025
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When Nick stumbles upon a badly injured, dangerously thin, and barely conscious man named Charlie wandering the roadside in the middle of the night, he doesn’t hesitate to help. But as he brings Charlie to safety, questions begin to surface. Where did Charlie come from? What has he been through? And as Nick opens his home to him, can Charlie learn to trust again—and begin to rebuild a life he thought was beyond saving?
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Nick and Charlie are best friends, neighbors, and secretly pining for each other. Prom night brings out some jealousy and bad dates night finally push them to confess their feelings...
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Better Than Revenge by NotACactusCow
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
18 Aug 2025
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Charlie thinks his boyfriend may be cheating on him. So, with encouragement from his best friend, Isaac, he decides to do a little investigating... I wonder who the other man could be...
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8 year old Charlie Spring is assigned a French pen pal through his foreign languages class. He and his pen pal, Nick Fournier, create a special bond and they just... Keep writing, long after Charlie leaves that class.
Years later, Charlie meets a very attractive jock named Nick Nelson in uni, and the two do not get along...
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What happens when best friends Nick and Charlie have a falling out at a young age?
Can golden boy Nick Nelson and bad boy Charlie Spring ever actually form some kind of bond again?
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Where This May Take Us by NotACactusCow
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
01 May 2025
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Nick owns a Summer home in the South of France. This year, he is renting to a group of friends, which includes the most beautiful man he's ever seen. The problem is, that man's boyfriend is also there... And Nick isn't exactly impressed with him.
Charlie is so excited that his boyfriend of four years has actually agreed to join him and his friends on their Summer holiday. It is a great opportunity for them all to finally bond. And when they get there, and the owner of the home they're renting is the most gorgeous man Charlie has ever seen.. well, that's fine. He can ignore that. Especially since he's clearly straight... Wait... He isn't? Fuck.
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Charlie's future is set. He's going to go to Harvard, become a doctor like his father, marry a beautiful woman, have 2.5 kids... The usual. However, when his parents decide to drag their family to some resort out in the middle of nowhere in the Catskills the summer before he leaves for college, and he meets a handsome, cocky playboy dance instructor... Well, he might learn a few things about himself and what he really wants for his future...
(Loosely based on the movie, Dirty Dancing, but without the creepy 15/30 year old age gap and much more gay.)
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It Was Always Us, Wasn't It? by NotACactusCow
Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
20 Feb 2025
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When Charlie moves next door to Nick at age 8, the two boys bond right away and become inseparable. They grow up and navigate adolescence side by side, including first girlfriends... They unknowingly help each other discover some big things about themselves, but when Nick has to move away before they have the chance to open up about these new feelings to one another, neither sees the point in saying anything that could make things weird during their last days together, so they don't.
Years later, they're reunited at university...