Chapter Text
Serenity.
That is the only way to describe the feeling of waking up next to his wonderful boyfriend Nick Nelson. However that serenity was interrupted by the much bigger elephant in the room, that this would be the last time he would be able to wake up and feel like this; for a couple of months anyway. Since today was the day. The day where Nick leaves to go to uni and start a new chapter of his life leaving Charlie behind.
Charlie had woken up 5 minutes before he knew the alarm would go off. So, he tried to take everything in.
His scent.
The sound of him breathing .
The feeling of Nick’s arms around him like he is a teddy bear.
Every last detail, before it is gone.
The opening notes to Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles interrupt his thinking. Nick stays asleep as his alarm continues to play.
“Nick, wake up and turn off your stupid alarm.”
“It’s not stupid.” Nick mumbles hugging Charlie tighter. “Little darling, it's been a long, cold, lonely winter.” He sings quietly as he wakes up a bit more.
“Isn’t this a bit cheesy to have as your morning alarm?” Charlie teases.
“I thought you liked The Beatles.”
“I do but not at 7 in the morning.”
“It’s better than that atrocious beeping that you have as yours.” Nick teases back resulting in Charlie trying to squirm away.
“It’s practical,” Charlie argues.
“It’s annoying,” Nick groans.
“Mine annoying? What about all those bloody ‘do do dos’. That is annoy-” Charlies mocking was cut off by Nick's hand on his mouth. Reminding him of that time Nick called him a nerd back in year 10, crazy how time flies.
“I love you” Nick removes his hand to peck his boyfriend's lips.
“I love you too.”
– – –
“How do you have this much stuff?” Charlie complains huffing down the stairs carrying the last of Nick’s boxes to the car. “It’s fine for you, you have those strong rugby arms by mine are twigs” Charlie says, giving one of his boxes to Nick to put into the car.
“Not again with the ‘strong rugby arms’” Nick rolls his eyes closing the boot.
“I’m just telling the truth” Charlie rests his head on Nick, almost ready to cry. But he stops. No not yet. Not until he has left. I can’t make him feel guilty about moving forward. Charlie thinks to himself.
Almost as if Nick can hear Charlie's thoughts he turns to him. “Everything will be okay. I will call you everyday. I’m still going to be there for you whenever. I don’t care if it is two in the morning if you need something you can call and I will pick up. This is just a new chapter. And next year you will be at uni with me and we will never have to be separated again.”
Charlie wants to yell all about what if you’re too busy for me or what if you find someone else better than me or what if next year Leeds doesn’t want me, what then. Instead he hugs his boyfriend. “Yeah, ok”
– – –
After an excruciating car full of silence and hand holding they finally made it to the train station where they would have to part ways. They got the ticket and headed to the platform and waited for the train. The whole time no one said a word, it would be too sad if someone did. Charlie just layed on Nick’s shoulder soaking up every last moment. Unfortunately the train eventually had to come.
“Well I guess this is it.” Nick sighs hugging Charlie
“Don’t say that.” Charlie said, tightening his grip on Nick. “Wait I got you something” Charlie took off his backpack and got out a picture frame. It was the same picture Nick got him for his 15th birthday. That felt like a million years ago and yesterday all at the same time. “For your dorm.” Charlie said, handing Nick the frame.
“This is…” Nick sighed not believing that Charlie kept onto this stupid present all this time “But this is yours I can’t take my gift back.”
“I’m just letting you borrow it. It’s to mark my territory.” Charlie suggested.
“Better than peeing everywhere I suppose.” Nick laughed, bringing Charlie in for a kiss. “I have to go, I'm going to be late.” Nick said, breaking away. Once he said goodbye to his mum he brought Charlie in for one last hug.
“I’m going to miss you so much.” Nick said, squeezing Charlie tight.
“Me too.” The two of them say like that for a couple of seconds before Charlie whispers into his ear. “Don’t do that cheesy looking back thing they do in romcoms it’s stupid and sad.”
“Ok, I won’t.” Nick promised. They broke away leaning in for one more kiss before Nick had to go.
“I love you so much.” And then like that he left.
Without looking back.
///
“Do we have to go to the bowling alley tonight?” Charlie groaned on the phone with Tao. Today was one of his harder days. He had a fight first thing in the morning with his mum about something stupid. The fight made him uneasy and he didn’t want to eat. However, Tori made him. He tried to facetime Nick but he didn’t pick up which made him feel even worse. He knew he was going to have bad days but when he used to have bad days he would just go over to Nick’s house and talk, cuddle, watch a stupid marvel movie which they’d almost never finish due to them always abandoning it to make out instead. But, now Nick is gone, and not even answering his phone. Probably doing homework, or out being with his new friends, out with a girl or a guy, or having sex with a- Luckily his phone rang to inturrupt his spiraling. It was Tao checking to see if he was getting ready for tonight.
“Yes, it will be like old times.” Tao responded.
“But I’m not feeling very peopley tonight.” Charlie pleaded.
“I guarantee you it will be worth it, 1,000 push ups.” Tao said, quoting one of his and Charlie’s new obsessions.
“This is life, not an episode of Brooklyn 99 Tao.” After some more excruciating references Tao convinced Charlie to come.
– – –
A honk sounds from outside Charlie's calling card that Tao and Aled are here to pick him up. “I’ll be back before 11.” Charlie called out to his parents watching TV in the living room.
“12 is fine, or if you just want to sleep at one of your friends' houses afterwards that’s fine as well. Just text us.” Charlie’s parents responded surprisingly. They are never this flexible. It is 11 or nothing, 11:30 at most with some serious negotiation. But, Charlie leaves trying not to question it. His mom is probably just feeling bad because of this morning and wants to be nice.
“Ayyyee we got the whole trio together, how great is that?” Tao said energetically as Charlie hopped in the back.
“Yeah I’m excited.” Charlie tried to sound natural but he couldn’t help but still be phased by his parents.
“What happened? You seem weirder than normal.” Aled asked while Tao tried to back out of the driveway.
“It’s just my parents.” Charlie sighed trying to move on.
“Uh oh, what happened now?” Tao said knowing it can’t be good.
“Nothing actually. They said I could stay out until 12 or even stay with one of you guys tonight if I wanted”
“What a crime should I call 999?” Tao asked sarcastically.
“You guys know them. This is so out of the ordinary. It’s just weird that’s all. Not that I’m complaining.” Charlie decided that he would just let it go and at least try to have a good time tonight.
– – –
After a car ride full of atrocious rap songs Tao made them listen to, they got to their destination. The bowling alley was bright and loud and everything Charlie was not feeling at the moment. Nonetheless they proceeded to their reserved lane. Charlie couldn’t resist checking his phone one more time to see if he had a missed call from Nick. With zero messages he put his phone down just to realize his friends were trying to talk to him.
“Earth to Charlie?” Tao waved his hand in front of Charlie’s face trying to get his attention.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” Charlie said regaining consciousness.
“What name did you want on the board?” Aled asked, smiling kindly.
“Anything is fine. You guys set up, I’ll get us some chips.” Charlie suggested planning to go and try Nick one last time before giving up.
“Actually I already got some.” Said a familiar voice from behind. Turning around he saw Nick in the flesh not through a phone screen.
“Nick! What are you doing here?” Charlie yelled running into Nick, nearly knocking him over.
“I wanted to surprise you,” Nick said, placing the remaining chips on a table. “Good surprise?”
“Yes, the best surprise!” Charlie pulled Nick in for a much needed kiss.
“I don’t know if you seem too happy about it, I could just go.” Nick joked, barely breaking away.
“Don’t you dare!” Charlie said, pulling Nick in for another crushing kiss.
///
It was 7 in the evening when Nick finally got back to his dorm after an exhausting day. He woke up in a grumpy mood after pulling an all-nighter to study for the two tests he had that day, which even after staying up all night he is pretty sure he flunked. Not just that he got a not-so-great grade back on a pretty big assignment. All in all, university was not going great. But, there is always tomorrow. For now he planned to collapse and watch with some crappy food, watching some crappy TV with his flatmate.
“So, Noah, I was thinking that we could do Chinese for dinner. I know we had it only a couple days ago but they have this new chicken which I heard is really weird but super good.” Nick rambled, throwing his keys onto the entry table and dropping his bag on the floor before entering the shared living space.
“Chinese sounds great!” Nick looks up to see not his flatmate Noah but his boyfriend sitting on a chair that he and Noah found on Facebook Marketplace for a good price.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Nick said, running into Charlie and lifting him off the ground.
“Noah let me in but if you don’t want me here I can go.” Charlie laughed squeezing Nick tight.
“Don’t you dare” Nick said, finally putting Charlie down so he can kiss him properly. They made their way to the couch where they continued to soak up every bit of each other that they missed over weeks of not seeing one another. Their makeout session was interrupted by Nick’s phone interrupting with a text from Noah.
Staying at Stacy’s flat tonight thought I’d give you two lovebirds some space ;)
“Noah’s staying with his girlfriend tonight” Nick smirked.
“Oh so that means we have the place to ourselves.” Charlie pointed out.
“Did you plan this?” Instead of answering Charlie just kissed him and in Nick’s mind that was better than words anyway.
– – –
“So, I need to tell you something.” Charlie confessed while they ate crappy Chinese food and watched crappy TV just as Nick wanted. “And you can’t be mad.” with that line Nick paused the TV.
“Wait, did you cheat on me?” Nick turned to Charlie.
“No! No! I would never! I just…” Charlie sighed, barely able to get the words out “I didn’t get into Leeds. I’m so sorry, I know it was the plan and I failed. I’m so sor-”
“Charlie no do not beat yourself up over this. You didn’t get in and that’s ok. We will figure this out. And you certainly did not fail. I’m sure you got into some amazing universities and you will do great. Everything will be ok. Sure we won’t be sharing a bed close together but we will figure it out.” Nick held Charlie as he wept.
“I don’t deserve you.” Charlie smiled.
“Well where did you get into?” Nick said, trying to lift Charlie’s spirits.
“Well I think I want to go to York, they have a great English Lit program since I think I might want to be a teacher. Be the Mr. Ajayi of the English world, makes a difference in a kid's life.” Charlie confessed, whipping off his tears.
“I think that is perfect.”
///
“Well this is weird huh?” Charlie asked in the exact same position as the previous year but instead of dropping Nick off he is the one being dropped off.
“When have we done anything that is not weird though.” Nick says pulling him in for a quick kiss since his parents were looking directly at them.
“You make a good point.” Charlie laughed, pulling Nick into a hug. “I am going to miss you so much.” Charlie sighed.
“Me too. I have something for you.” Nick said, turning to get something out of his backpack. “It’s to mark my territory.” Nick laughed, handing Charlie the photo that he let him barrow last year.
“God, I love you so much.” Charlie said kissing Nick, in that moment he couldn’t care less if his parents were watching.
“I love you too”
“I’m going to be late and I still have to say goodbye to my parents.” Charlie sighed, wishing that he didn’t have to go. Instead of crying he just pulled his boyfriend in for one last hug.
“When you leave don’t do that looking back thing they do in romcoms it’s stupid and sad.” Nick quoted from what Charlie said a year ago in the exact same position.
“I won't,” Charlie laughed, pulling away to say goodbye to his parents. After the last hugs, Charlie got on the train.
Without looking back.