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“Unkie Chachi!”
Fleur jumped out of the car and wriggled past Phe’s legs making a beeline for him.
“Baby Fleur! How are you doing? Are you excited to spend the weekend with us?” Charlie swung her up into his arms.
Fleur smushed his cheeks together and nodded excitedly before her brow furrowed. “Me no baby, Unkie Chachi.” She said seriously. “Where Unka Nick?” Fleur looked all around.
“He’s still at school, sweetie. He’ll be home soon.” Charlie hoisted her more securely onto one hip and hugged Phe with the other arm. “Good trip down?” he asked, releasing her and reaching for one of the bags in the boot.
“Good enough. Fleur has been so excited for this weekend with you. Sorry to tell you she napped most of the way here. She might have a bit of trouble going to sleep later.
“Nah, Daisy will wear her out soon enough. I’m sure we’ll be fine. Tea?”
Nick walked in the door just as the kettle boiled, and was promptly pounced upon by both dog and niece, dropping instantly to the floor to cuddle both of them before scooping Fleur up over his head to her great delight. “Fleur! How are you little bee? Has Daisy been sharing her toys? What are you doing up there upside down?”
“Unka Nick!” Fleur giggled. “Down, down.”
“Down? You want down?” Fleur nodded. “Ok, little bee, As you wish” Nick flipped her down and over, halting her with head near the floor before swinging her feet through his arms. Giggling Fleur tried to stand up, quickly grabbing Nick’s legs for support as the blood rushed away from her head making her dizzy.
Charlie smiled indulgently as he took a third mug down from the cupboard to add to the two already on the bench. He reached for the biscuit tin before pausing and shooting a questioning glance at Phe, tilting his head in Fleurs direction. She shrugged. “Up to you. The Uncles are on duty tonight.”
Charlie transferred a few biscuits to a saucer, limiting the number that both Fleur could eat, and the number that she could feed to Daisy. Last time Fleur had visited the pup had quickly determined that little humans were a soft touch for snacks and had made the most of it.
“Do you know where David is taking you?” Nick asked after Fleur and Daisy had settled from the excitement of seeing each other again. The adults sat in the conservatory watching Daisy and Fleur play with a ball in the garden.
“No, just that I am to meet him at Ashford International about half five and he will have packed anything special that we need.”
Nick glanced at the clock. “Well, we better get her car seat out of your car so you can get on the road. We were thinking about going to the beach tomorrow if the weather holds. “
Phe ran through the list of things that had changed since Fleur last spent the night with Nick and Charlie while they wrestled the car seat out of Phe’s car and into Nick’s, and she handed him the toddler carry pack for good measure. Fleur gave her mother a kiss and a hug before going happily into her Uncle's arms and waving from the doorway.
“What do you want to do now, Baby Fleur?” Charlie asked, looking down at her. “Uncle Nick is going to make dinner so it’s you and me time.”
“Drumm!” Fleur shrieked.
Charlie winced at the shrill sound so close to his ear, then nodded. “Drumming it is.” He looked over at Nick “I’ll never get tired of telling you ‘ I told you so’ . Uncle Charlie picks the best gifts.”
“Is that why her drum set still lives at our house then?” Nick asked pointedly, as he followed them inside.
Charlie waved a hand behind him in a ‘whatever’ gesture. “Clearly that’s just because her drum tutor is here. And we have the space.”
“Now we do.” Nick muttered under his breath, suppressing a chuckle. “You believe whatever makes you happy, Char.” He conceded with a smile. “What do you want for dinner?”
“Chips” Fleur piped up.
“Chips, eh? I think we can manage some chips. Should that be with Fish Fingers or Chicken Nuggets?”
“Nuggies! an sorss.”
“Nuggies and Sauce, for my little bee. And for my big bee?” He grinned at Charlie who rolled his eyes.
“Nuggies and Sauce is fine, but can we add some vege as well.”
The steady drumming from Charlie in his office, interspersed by bashes and crashes from Fleur kept Nick company as he put together Fleurs requested dinner. Daisy sat in her basket in a corner of the adjacent dining room, happy to stay away from the unpredictable noise, and near the food smells, hoping to score a chicken nugget for herself.
Dinner was relatively uneventful and soon Nick was tucking Fleur into bed as Charlie mopped up the bathroom after her bath. David and Phe assured them that grand sea monster battles were not a requirement of bathtime, but Fleur disagreed and Nick and Charlie were happy to indulge, both being firmly of the opinion that indulgence was part of the Uncle job description.
Nick was reading the bilingual French/English version of The Rainbow Fish to Fleur when Charlie looked in on them, Daisy curled up at the foot of her bed. Nick glanced up and smiled at Charlie leaning in the doorway before returning to the story.
Half an hour later he came down the stairs, himself leaning in the doorway of Charlie’s office. “Daisy is conked out too. Should we leave her in with Fleur overnight?”
“Probably not, but she’s fine for now, we’ll have to let her out later anyway.” Charlie swivelled away from his desk, where he had been catching up on some cataloguing for his bibliography. He was nearly finished with the active part of his PhD, and was preparing for the big writing push that came at the end. The office had been designated his, as Nick liked to do most of his prep at school and leave it there.
Charlie opened his arms in invitation and Nick walked straight into them. “How’s the cataloguing going?”
“Well enough. I probably need to make another trip to Cirencester in the next few weeks. Only an overnighter though. I need to check a couple of things and take some better photos. It should be the last trip I need to make.” Charlie leant his head onto Nick’s chest, as Nick’s arms came around him.
They paused for a moment like that, before Charlie rose and they headed for the kitchen. “So, the beach tomorrow?” Charlie confirmed.
“Yeah, but probably not Our beach though, it’s too stony. We need one where we can make sandcastles.”
“Of course. Sandcastles are important.”
—--
Nick woke suddenly as cold air washed over him. He rolled over and looked down at Fleur indignant on the floor, surmising she had tried to scramble up onto the bed but pulled the duvet down on herself instead. He reached down and pulled her, and the duvet, up onto the bed for a cuddle. “Good morning, Little bee.”
“Unkie Chachi say come.” Fleur grabbed his shoulder and tried to tug him up. “Bekfas.” Nick allowed her to pull him out of bed, then rolled her up in the duvet and deposited her back in the middle, she wriggled her way free as he grabbed his dressing gown from the hook on the back of the door, and ducked into the ensuite, before sitting back down on the bed for her to climb onto his back for the trip down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Charlie had the table already set with bread and the toaster, eggs cooking on the stove, and a cluster of teapot, two mugs, milk, and a plastic Bluey cup centred on the table. He pulled himself out of a cupboard with egg cups in his hands leaning over to press a brief good morning kiss on Nick as he and Fleur passed into the dining room where they busied themselves making toast and cutting it into soldiers, chattering all the while. If what she said only made sense to Fleur, Nick and Charlie did their best to play along.
Dishes done, drippy egg yolk cleaned off a toddler, adults properly dressed, a bag of food assembled, and packed with some brand new beach toys into the car later, they were on the way to the beach.
“So…. How many times do you think we are going to be taken for her parents today?” Charlie asked as he lifted the bag of snacks out of the boot. “Or you at least.”
“I dunno, but probably more than we’ll get the homophobic side-eye.” Nick clipped Daisy to her lead and started unbuckling Fleur, waking her from her impromptu car nap in the process.
Charlie snorted. “And probably both from the same people.”
Nick chortled. “The combination of ‘ your daughter looks so much like you’ with ‘Oh, won’t somebody think of the children’ really discombobulates some peoples brains.” He lifted Fleur out of her car seat, cuddling her close while she woke up. “Wake up Little Bee, we’re at the beach.”
Fleur’s eyes opened and she looked around, her countenance brightening as she registered the change in scenery. “La Plage?”
“Mmm Hmmm.” Charlie swung the toddler carry pack onto his back, dropping to his knees for Nick to drop Fleur into it and do up the safety harness, then headed down the path towards the sound ocean. Nick loaded his arms with buckets, spades, and towels, locked the car and followed with Daisy sniffing at everything on the way.
For all the times they had been to the beach together Nick and Charlie had never been with Fleur, and it was Daisy’s first time ever. Daisy yapped at the tide, trying to scare it away. Fleur rejoiced in stomping on the bucket sandcastles her Uncles made and trying to bury each of them in turn. Both puppy and child enjoyed digging a moat around a pile of sand. If the moat quickly drained the water Fleur ferried back and forth, she didn’t seem to mind. They ate the packed sandwiches, Nick and Fleur worked their way through the snacks. Nick slathered them all in suncream, ignoring Charlie’s habitual protest that he didn’t burn. After a few hours when the water bottles were running dry and Fleur was starting to show signs of needing a nap they opted for ice creams from the kiosk before heading home. Unsurprisingly Fleur fell asleep almost as soon as they left the car park.
Charlie leant back in his seat and closed his eyes. “Not many side-eyes today, Maybe the world is getting less homophobic.”
“We can but hope.” Nick said optimistically. He drove in silent contemplation for a few minutes, then sighed. “Did I tell you about the kid in my Year 9 French class?”
“No?”
“I get a feeling he might be another Ben Hope.”
“Closeted? Or homophobic?” Charlie asked.
“Both.” Nick sighed again. “I taught his brother a couple of years ago. The parents gave off some pretty conservative vibes at Parent Interviews. They tried to get him out of my class and into Juliette’s instead, but the timetabling didn’t work.”
“Is that the one Headmaster Barnes warned you about? That Nathan had trouble with?”
“The kid was fine, but yeah the parents made trouble for Nathan, or tried to.” Nick lapsed into silence. “I’m trying to figure out how to help him. The brother is straight, or at least doesn’t trigger the collective rainbow staff’s gaydar.”
Charlie snorted in amusement.
“Hey! You may scoff but between Nathan, Youssef, Singh and me, we have the student body pretty well covered.” Nick protested, All four of them had had students linger after class with a whispered confession or query, usually with the teacher that best matched their subject interests, none of them had been surprised by the identity of any of the students that had come forth. If they sometimes discussed their suspicions among themselves, well that was just proactive pastoral care.
Nick was approached more than the others, he chalked it up to a combination of being the youngest, and a recent old boy of the school. Some of the kids who had been in the junior years when he was a student were still at the school when he started teaching and remembered him. Between his role as rugby captain and Charlie’s as head boy they were prominent among the student body but their relationship had been just a part of school life. Any students who had been old enough to remember the antagonism of the early days, the post-outing bullying of Charlie days, and the Harry-and-Ben-being-dicks days, were gone by the time he returned and only the folklore remained.
“Anyway the situation with the older brother sucked, but at least it wasn’t tearing him up inside. Nick continued. “and since he, the older one, wants to do Engineering, Youssef’s the one of us who deals with him most. I just hope that if I’m right about the younger brother, and he’s not cis-het, the older one doesn't act like David did.”
“What can you do though? Other than living your best bi life, and being there if he wants to talk, I mean.” Charlie reached for Nick’s hand, stroking a thumb across his knuckles in comfort.
“Not a lot really, not until he’s ready.” Nick sighed. “Hopefully he’ll be OK once he leaves home and gets away from his parents' direct influence, but that’s still four years away, and a lot of damage can happen in the meantime. And not just to himself.” The allusion to how much hurt Ben had caused sat heavy in the air.
They travelled in companionable silence for most of the journey home before being disturbed by a notification arriving to both their phones simultaneously .
“Michael has bought a new pizza oven. Tori is asking if we want to meet them for dinner and try it out. She sent a picture.” Charlie holds the phone up for Nick to see a picture of a fire engine red circular table top pizza oven.
“Where? If they are open to coming to ours, then sure, sounds fun. It would probably be a bit much for Fleur to go out tonight though.” Charlie nodded and tapped a response into his phone.
“Tori says and I quote ‘Happy to create a mess at your place. See you about 5.’ Charlie had barely finished reading the message when another came through. ‘ I told Olly you would pick him up’.
“Flip Olly a message to be ready so Fleur stays asleep until we get home.” Nick responded to the new instructions with good grace. “Phe said she’s waking as soon as the car stops now.”
Olly was sitting on the front step as they pulled up in front of Charlie’s parents house and leapt into the car quickly and quietly, doing a mini celebration dance in his seat as Nick pulled away from the curb and Fleur remained asleep. Daisy threatened to make some noise in her excitement at seeing him, but was quickly subdued when Olly started giving her chin and ear skritches, lolling on her back on the seat between Olly and Fleur.
Michael and Tori pull into the driveway minutes after they get home and Olly and Charlie swiftly summoned outside to help carry in the prized pizza oven, along with a large bowl of dough, a pot with a lid tightly held down and a couple of supermarket bags of toppings. Once inside Michael starts assigning each of them tasks pertaining to pizza topping preparation.
“These pizza’s are going to be so good.” Michael proclaimed from his place by the stove. “You know why? Because we are making them from scratch.” He beckoned Charlie over and took the chopping board covered in diced basil from him, tipping it into the pot before dramatically wafting the aroma towards him.
Tori rolled her eyes at his antics, her lips curling up slightly at the edges, and checked the temperature on the pizza oven, before tipping out the bowl of dough on the bench and dividing it up into balls. Tori raised an eyebrow at Fleur calculatingly, then pulled a small wodge of dough away and placed it in her direction. Fleur perked up and wriggled out of Nick’s arms, suddenly no longer needing her usual wake up cuddle when there was dough to play with.
“How’s the job situation Michael?” Nick asked as he came over to sniff the sauce. The previous month Michael had announced his retirement from competitive speed skating. After a decade, juggling part time jobs and grants from sports bodies with his training regime was wearing thin.
“Not too bad. Sport UK has asked me to be a school ambassador for a year. It’s fairly standard for them to offer it to the higher profile people in the small sports, but it means I get a year's grace to figure out life without training. I’ll be travelling around a lot though. I still don’t know what I’ll do at the end of it.”
“Is coaching an option? Or do you want to get out completely?” Charlie chipped in.
“Not really. Not if I want to stay around here, or have a stable income.” Michael responded. “Team GB does have the big enough but not too big status that I could potentially make a living as an official, not to mention the proximity to the continent, but…I’m not sure if I want to pursue it.”
He stirs the sauce again and uses a teaspoon to scoop some up and holds it in front of Nick’s face. “I think it’s ready.” Nick takes the spoon into his mouth, then nods.
The first pizza they overcooked, the second was a bit soggy in the middle. Eventually they managed to get the timing more or less right. Olly experimented with how many toppings he can pile on a pizza base, whereas the elder siblings opt for more traditional combinations. Fleur has squished her small wodge of dough into something inedible and is quite happy with the sauce and cheese pizza she gets given in its place.
Olly and Michael have moved on to trying to make dessert pizza by the time Nick and Charlie returned downstairs after putting Fleur to bed, Daisy curled up at her feet again. The smell of burnt marshmallows filling the dining room from an overcooked attempt by Olly at a S’more pizza. They both declined the offer of a slice and opted for a cup of tea and a marshmallow instead.
“I’m not sure being a chef is in your future, Olly.” Charlie teased him, prodding at the charred offering in the centre of the table.
“Probably not. But I’m not sure that you’re the authority on how appetising food is. ” Olly fired back with the cheekiness that only a younger brother could. A younger brother who was very secure in his place in his siblings' affections. “I’ve actually been thinking about Psychology.”
Nick perked up “Following in your favourite brother’s footsteps?”
Olly laughed at him. “Not quite. I’m actually thinking more along the lines of becoming a therapist.” He turned back to Charlie. ”It helped you, and I know I’ve had an easier time of it than you and Tori did because Mum got help.”
“Us eldest siblings are always the Guinea Pigs.” Tori put in with an air of martyrdom. Olly rolled his eyes at her.
“As your brother, I say, I can see you doing that.” Nick said “As your teacher, I say, your last essay wasn’t up to standard. You’ll need to pull finger to get into a good programme.”
“Oi, No Teacher Nick allowed at family events.” Olly responded grinning, throwing a marshmallow in Nick’s direction. Nick batted it away, before throwing one back.
Charlie watched as Nick and Olly tried to have a marshmallow fight but soon ran out of ammunition. “That’s really, seriously, what you’re thinking of doing?” He asked quietly.
“Well, Yeah.” Olly looked at him. “When we were doing the careers talk thing in Assembly one of the pieces of advice was to think about the change you wanted to make or what you wanted to achieve, not just what you wanted to do, because the doing can get repetitive and unfulfilling quickly, but the making a change part doesn’t.”
“I know I didn’t really understand what was happening at the time, but I remember enough to see the difference it made in you. For you.” Olly shrugged. “And I probably have a perspective that could help the families.” He looks at Charlie with a twinkle in his eye “Maybe I’ll specialise in helping little brothers understand what’s going on.”
“You did just fine without really knowing what was happening.” Charlie said, getting up to give his little brother a hug. “Really. It meant you treated me normally, and there were precious few who managed that. If that’s what you want to do, then I’m happy you’ve figured it out.”
“Actually, I wonder….” Olly began. “Do you think Geoff would talk to me about it? It might help me figure out for sure if it’s for me, since it’s not really the sort of thing where I could do work experience.” Charlie wasn’t seeing Geoff regularly anymore, but still had the occasional appointment when the situation warranted.
“Probably, if we asked.” Charlie replied. “I could bring it up at my session next week.”
Nick cocked his head at Charlie questioningly. He hadn’t known Charlie had a session coming up. “It’s just a check-in before I start the write-upin earnest.” Charlie placated, “It’s known to be a stressful time so I thought I’d be proactive and make some plans.” Nick smiled gently with a faint nod of his head, his eyes proud. Charlie had been mostly well for so long, but both of them were always aware of the possibility for relapse.
“Right! Let’s clean this up then bring out the games. Who’s up for some Cards Against Humanity? Olly’s old enough to join in now.” Michael changed the subject.
“No, What about Killer Bunnies? You don’t want to kill some bunnies?” Nick cut in, standing to clear the table.
“Game of Things” cut in Tori.
“First to the table once everything is clean gets to choose.” Charlie challenged signalling a frantic grabbing of all things off the table.
—----------
One of the perks of having Olly stay over regularly was that he knew his way around and made himself at home so he never needed to be looked after as a guest. Nick and Charlie came downstairs to find him and Fleur eating cornflakes and watching Bluey together.
“New favourite show?” Charlie asked.
“I just followed the cartoon on the cup.” Olly responded, indicating the plastic cup on the coffee table in front of Fleur. “It’s not bad though. Quite watchable. There’s tea in the pot.”
Charlie poured a mug for himself and handed one to Nick, who had dropped down on the sofa behind Fleur and was listening to her explain the episode to him. “Any idea what we should do today?”
Nick nodded his thanks at the cup of tea. “This is good. I like Bluey.”
Charlie nodded. “Toast?”
“Please. Nutella?” Nick asked hopefully.
“Me too!” added Olly.
“A round of Nutella toasts coming up. Anyone want Banana on them?” Nick nodded, Olly screwed up his nose.
“Nana pees.” Fleur piped up.
“Nana for Baby Fleur. Did you want it on Nutella toast, or just banana?”
“Jus’ nana.” Fleur turned back to where the new episode of Bluey was starting, and danced along with the characters to the opening credits. Nick and Olly looked at each other and started dancing in their chairs too before collapsing into giggles. Fleur looked back at them from her perch on the floor with a disgruntled face. “Shhhh”. Nick and Olly looked at each other mildy chastened, before silently giggling some more.
Watching Bluey led to a game of Keepy Uppy, with balloons dug out of the back of the cupboard leftover from Nick’s birthday, then Fleur made mud pies in a sunny corner while Nick and Charlie gardened around her. Olly, for all his protestations the night before, seemed to have taken Nick’s advice to heart and was doing his homework at the garden table, occasionally asking for help.
David and Phe arrived shortly after Nick made a round of sandwiches for lunch, eating them at the table in the garden. They hadn’t heard them arrive over the music playing out of a window, a playlist of Olly’s quickly curated to avoid anything not appropriate for little ears, and walked around the corner of the house to Fleur’s delight.
“Fleur. Fleur?” David called.
“Papa?” Her head shot up. “Papa!” She ran as fast as her legs could take her to David, he braced for impact and swung her up into the air and around before settling her in his arms for a hug. She started rapidly telling him about her weekend falling back and forth between English, French, and baby babbling.
“Good weekend then?” Phe asked with a grin.
“It was a lovely weekend. Tea?” Nick responded.
“I’ll get it.” Olly hopped up and went inside, grabbing the teapot off the table and nodding at David and Phe on the way.
David handed Fleur to Phe for a cuddle and came over to greet Nick and Charlie. “Help me out. I’m getting the beach, Bluey, and pizza?”
“Pretty accurate. Add in some drumming and today's mud cakes and that’s more or less the weekend. You might want to bath her before you drive home.” Charlie said with a grin.
David looked down at his front, now dusty from a muddy child. “You don’t say.”
Fleur was dragging Phe over to the corner where she had been playing all morning. Olly stuck his head out the kitchen window “Hey! Do you guys want biscuits or something more substantial? I could make some more sandwiches. Did you guys eat yet?”
“We ate. Don’t worry about us.” David responded.
“How was Bruges?” Nick asked as they sat back down at the table.
“You knew!” Charlie gasped. “I thought we didn’t know where they were going.”
“One of us had to, for emergencies, and you and Phe have been bosom pals since you met. The risk of spoiling the surprise was too great.” Nick tried placatingly.
“And I only told him once I got to Ashford. Phe probably had left here by then.” David defended himself with a grin. Charlie turned back to Nick with an accusatory glare, trying hard not to break out into giggles. Nick was only saved when Olly returned with the teapot in one hand and a couple of mugs in the other, breaking Charlie's attention and drawing Phe and Fleur to the table.
A couple of hours later they were bidding the three Nelsons, and Olly, goodbye. David having offered Olly a lift home.
“Bye bye Unkie Chachi.” Fleur threw her arms around Charlies neck and snuggled in.
“Bye bye, Baby Fleur.” Charlie returned the cuddle before she launched herself at Nick. Phe and David shared a glance. David nodded.
“Uh Charlie?” Phe started.
“Hmm?” Charlie looked briefly at Phe before watching Nick get a snuggly cuddle and starting to strap Fleur into her seat.
“You may like to come up with a new nickname.” Charlie looked again at Phe, before furrowing his eyebrows.
“A new nickname? Other than Baby Fleur…” He trailed off as he processed what she was intimating. “Really?”
“Really. You’ve got until May” Phe grinned and leaned in to give Charlie a farewell hug. “I’ll let you tell Nick once we’re gone. Payback for not telling you where we were earlier.” she whispered into his ear with a smirk.
Charlie stifled a laugh. “Thanks. And Congratulations. It’s fantastic news. Really.”
Phe and Fleur waved as David backed out of the driveway.
“You know how you were thinking of applying to be an A-level marker this year?” Charlie said as they waved back.
“Yeah?” Nick responded, confused at the sudden change of subject.
“I reckon you should leave it another year.”
“Er, OK?”
“Yeah, you wouldn't want to be distracted this summer when the new baby is born.” Charlie said as deadpan as he could muster watching out of the corner of his eye as Nick’s face dropped open in shock.
“What?”