Work Text:
Nick loves his job. He really does.
He loves teaching kids. He loves going to work every day knowing he is making some sort of difference in so many of their lives.
He also loves teaching because of Charlie. When he first thought about becoming a primary school teacher, his main inspiration was Charlie. Or, more specifically, Charlie’s time in school being completely changed by the actions of one teacher. Charlie often said he didn’t like to imagine what school would’ve been like without Mr. Ajayi, since Mr. Ajayi had practically been Charlie’s only comfort at school for a long time.
Nick hoped he was that same comfort for his students.
He looked forward to every new school year. A new school year meant 20-something new smiling 6 year olds, all looking up to him ready to spend the year with him learning and playing and calling him Mr. Nelson.
So yeah, Nick loves his job. For the most part.
“Charlieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” Nick groaned while falling face first onto their couch and Charlie’s lap.
“Niiiickkkkkkkk” Charlie replied, moving his hand from his phone to run his fingers through Nick’s hair.
“It happened. Again.” Nick said.
“What happened again?”
“One of my students' mums hit on me. Again.”
Charlie chuckled softly. “Isn’t that the second time this week? Someone’s popular.”
“Yes. And the tenth time this year. It’s only the first month of school!” Nick rolled over to look up at Charlie. “I can never show my face ever again.”
“Oh wow. Poor little baby. Your life must be so hard… getting hit on all the time at work because you are just that attractive. How will your ego ever recover from this?” Charlie laughed, used to Nick’s almost weekly stories of different parents hitting on him.
Nick groaned, covering his face with his hands. “Hey! It’s not funny. It’s really embarrassing. And since none of them know I’m in a committed relationship of 8 years, it’s hard to find ways to say no without being mean. I don’t want to hurt anyone's feelings… especially not my students parents! What if they send in a complaint and get me fired?”
“I don’t think you can get fired for not wanting to go on a date with someone.” Charlie gently plucked Nick’s hands off his face, intertwining their hands together. “Love, have you reconsidered just finding a way to subtly make it clear you are dating someone? Like putting a photo up or something?”
“I just don’t know what I’d do. It just feels so late at this point… I should’ve just made it clear I was dating someone from the beginning. I just feel like I’ve waited too long to say something so now it’ll be weird if I suddenly do.” Nick looked down at their conjoined hands. “This would be so much easier if we were married and I could just show people my ring whenever they asked.”
“And who’s fault is it that we aren’t married?” Charlie asked.
“Uh, excuse me? Why would that be my fault? You do realize this is a two way street here, right?” He laughed, poking Charlie's dimples as he laughed.
“I was not aware of that, no.” Charlie leaned down, gently kissing Nick.
Charlie smiled at him and Nick smiled back. He loved Charlie so much. He loved the life they had built together. And he really did love his job - he just needed to figure out a way to tell the line-up of single mums that he really, really was not interested.
-
As the school year went by, the constant asking out became less frequent, but it never completely went away. It seemed like some moms would get the hint after the first ask and give up, while others were incredibly persistent.
It continued to be an inside joke between almost everyone Nick knew. Charlie found it hilarious and by extension, all of their friends found it funny as well. Much to his dismay, Darcy began calling Nick a “MILF Magnet”. Even the coworkers he knew well enough to tell about Charlie found it hilarious. Some were even lucky enough to witness one of the many ask-outs in action.
Nick understood why everyone found it funny, but their laughter really didn’t help him to find a solution to the problem.
When he first began teaching, he held off on telling anyone that he was in a relationship in fear of someone having a problem with him having a boyfriend. He didn’t want to tell the wrong parent and have them try to get him fired. But now that he knows his boss well - and also knows that she has a wife - he no longer is scared of that. Instead, he just feels awkward. It’s been so long of mum after mum asking him out and he’s never mentioned being in a relationship. If he mentions it now, he’s worried it’ll seem weird and doesn’t want anyone to think he was leading them on or lying.
So instead, he just suffers. And tries to make things as least awkward as he can after he has to turn down yet another student's mum.
Unfortunately for Nick, it was now March. Which meant one of his least favorite days when it came to school: Mother’s Day.
Every year, their primary school made the Friday before Mother’s Day a celebration where the kids made crafts, played games, and did other fun activities relating to Mother’s Day. Best of all, the students brought their mothers to school
Subsequently, it had become the most uncomfortable day of the year for Nick. He could handle one or two mothers at once… but an entire class full of them? He dreaded it.
As he stood in the parking lot, bracing himself for the uncomfortable day ahead, his phone buzzed. Charlie had texted him. ‘miss u already hope ur day at work isn’t too stressful. xxxxxxxxxxx (extra kisses since you forgot to give me mine this morning)’. Nick had been stalling getting to work that morning and by the time he left, he was in such a rush he forgot to give Charlie his usual goodbye kiss.
‘Sorry love. I’ll make it up later. Promise. Love you xxxxxxxx.’ He replied, then pocketed his phone as he started walking towards the school building (and what felt like his death).
As he was setting up last-minute decorations and mentally preparing himself for the day to come, he heard the door to his classroom open. He cursed softly under his breath, expecting to turn around and see a mum who had “accidentally” come an hour early.
Instead, he just saw the smirking face of his favorite and closest co-worker, Dina. On one of his first days of work, she mentioned casually in conversation that she was bisexual. At this point, he hadn’t told any of his co-workers yet about him or about Charlie, so this was the first time he had felt comfortable enough to tell someone. They had been best friends at work ever since.
“Sooo…” she said, dragging out the word for dramatic effect. “I was thinking-”
“That’s dangerous.” Nick interrupted.
“Excuse me? Rude.” She continued. “Anyways. I was thinking. We should bet on how many times you’ll get asked out today. My guess is 6.”
“Yeah I’m not doing that.”
“Why not?” Dina pouted, crossing her arms defensively over her chest. “I think it’ll be fun. Plus, I’m still jealous that all the hot single MILFs only hit on you. It just doesn’t seem right. You’re taken! Me on the other hand…”
“First, stop calling our students' parents MILFs. Second, you’re insufferable.”
She opened her mouth to reply when his classroom door opened for the second time that morning, making both Nick and Dina turn to look. In the doorway stood one of his students' mums. Dread immediately pooled in Nick’s stomach. There was only one reason she would be barging into his classroom an hour before they were supposed to be there and without her student.
“Er… Good morning. I’m Mr. Nelson.” He mentally face palmed himself, knowing there was no need to introduce himself. “Do you need something? I’m afraid you are a bit early. School does not start for another hour.”
“I do need something actually,” she looked a mix of nerves and confidence. “A date. With you. As long as it isn’t off limits for you to date a parent…”
Dina immediately burst into laughter, which she poorly attempted to cover up by coughing. Nick just stood there, face bright red. This was going to be a long day.
-
It was almost lunch time and Nick was just standing in the corner of the room, watching all of the chaos of the arts-and-crafts making go down. That was the one perk to this day: Nick really didn’t have to do anything but direct the different activities and supervise. For the most part, the parents would handle their respective students. The day was more about the mothers interacting with their child, so Nick didn’t have to do much.
Nick was also considering himself somewhat lucky because he had only been hit on twice so far, which was much less than Dina’s guess of six times. It still wasn’t zero, and this small number is likely only because he had already turned down anyone that would be interested, but he still was counting it as a win.
He was lost in thought when he heard a small, timid knock on his classroom door. He was wracking his brain trying to think of who could be at the door. He thought all of his students and their parents had arrived already. And Dina never knocked - she just let herself in.
He moved closer to the door and through the classroom window he saw his boyfriend, holding something while anxiously shifting from foot to foot. He smiled, not even caring about the possible complications of Charlie visiting him at work for the first time on Mother’s Day of all days.
Nick opened the door. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Charlie Smiled.
Nick smiled back.
“Are you… um. Hi. What are you doing here? You’ve never visited me at work before.” He stayed in the doorway to talk to Charlie to avoid having too much attention drawn to their conversation, but he could already hear the room quiet down as some of the mothers tried to not-so-discreetly listen in on their conversation.
“I know this might not be the best time. Or day. I kind of forgot about the mother’s day thing until I got here and saw the signs.” Charlie laughed as he fiddled with the bag in his hands. “But… you were in such a rush this morning leaving the house. You forgot your lunch.” He handed the bag to Nick. “I saw it as I was leaving… and the school was on the way… so I thought I’d bring it. Can’t have the big rugby lad forget to eat lunch.”
“Love…” He stopped, blushing, remembering his audience. “Thank you so much.” He quickly squeezed Charlie's hand. “I’ll savor my lunch even more than usual knowing it was brought to me by the hands of the Charlie Spring.”
“You’re a dork.” Charlie laughed. “Anyways…” Charlie shifted, unsure of what was appropriate in his current situation of standing in the doorway of Nick’s classroom filled with his students and his students' parents. “I’ll see you at home later?”
“Yeah. I’ll pick up takeout on the way home.”
They smiled at each other for a second. Both still very aware of their audience.
After a beat, Charlie squeezed Nick’s shoulder. “Okay. Bye now.” He let the door close as he walked away.
Nick stared at the door for a few seconds. Then he had an idea.
He opened the door and sprinted a few steps after Charlie. “Wait!”
Charlie paused, turning around.
“I just…” Nick looked around. “This feels inappropriate to do in the classroom.”
Nick gently grabbed Charlie’s face, bringing him in for a short kiss. Charlie pulled back, smiling. “Nick… you do realize they can all still see us right? Your classroom has massive windows. I think there are about 10 mums that look like they want me dead right now.”
“Oh wow. The windows. I tooootally forgot about those. Whoops!” They both laughed.
He definitely didn’t forget about the windows.
After that day, Nick wasn’t hit on again for the rest of the year. And by the time the next year came around, he had a ring on his finger to show off in case any of the new mums got any ideas.