Chapter Text
For the past week, Nick had been acting strange. He had regularly been zoning out with a wide smile on his face, and more than once, Nick had hung up the phone abruptly when Charlie walked in the room. Last night Nick said he was going to the store because they were low on toothpaste, even though Charlie knew there was an unopened tube under the sink in the bathroom.
In any other circumstance, he would have been concerned with Nick’s behaviour, but today was Charlie’s birthday - his 30th, to be exact. Charlie figured that Nick was throwing him a surprise party, although considering he was hiding it rather poorly, Charlie wasn’t sure it would still count as a surprise.
While entering his thirties was already a big deal, Charlie realised that this birthday marked another special occasion. Since he and Nick had started going out right around his 15th birthday, it meant that Charlie had now spent half of his life with the love of his life. Few people could claim that, and even fewer when they were barely in their thirties. There were many times over the years that Charlie felt like he was holding his breath, waiting for someone or something to break them up. He knew it was rare, meeting your soulmate at fourteen was basically impossible, and that everyone wanted to believe their relationship was the exception. Yet with each step forward in their relationship - surviving a year of long distance, moving in together, engagement - Charlie believed the impossible a little bit more. He couldn’t explain why this particular milestone felt so big - they were married already, after all, and had been for years - but it gave Charlie an added sense of certainty nonetheless.
When Charlie pulled into the driveway of their home that evening after work, he was surprised to only see Nick’s car out front. Charlie wondered if the party was happening at one of his friends' homes, or if Nick had made everyone park blocks away to save the surprise until the very last moment. Pulling down the sun visor and flipping open the mirror, Charlie messed with his curls and then took a deep breath, practising a few surprised faces before settling on the best one and heading into the house.
As Charlie opened the front door, he noticed the lights were dimmed, but there was no sign of Nick in the sitting room. “Nick, I’m home!” he called out.
“I’m in here!” Charlie followed the sound of Nick’s voice into their dining room. Despite Charlie’s suspicions, he was still surprised by what he saw. The first thing Charlie noticed was Nick, dressed in a deep navy suit, holding a small bundle of flowers, beaming at Charlie. Looking to Nick’s right, Charlie saw their dining table had been transformed, set for two and covered in a tablecloth with their nicest dishes, and a few candles in the centre.
Stepping forward, Nick held out the flowers, and as Charlie took them, he admired the bright blue petals and yellow centre, recognizing them as forget-me-nots, which they had at their wedding and had since become one of Charlie’s favourites. “Happy birthday, love.” Nick leaned in and kissed Charlie, his lips soft and tender, and Charlie melted into him, throwing his arms around Nick’s neck as he deepened the kiss.
“Thank you,” Charlie said as they pulled apart, holding the flowers up. “Want to grab the vase for these?”
“One step ahead of you,” Nick said as he took the flowers and moved toward the table, where a vase was already waiting with water. After tucking the flowers in carefully, Nick turned around, and Charlie took a moment to look him up and down.
“You look incredible.” Charlie enjoyed that a simple compliment could make his husband blush, even after all these years.
“I had to pull out all the stops for this special occasion.”
“You really did! With the table too, it looks great.”
Nick pulled out one of the chairs and motioned for Charlie to take a seat. While it would probably be considered more formal to sit directly across from each other, Charlie loved that Nick still sat on the other side of the same corner, where they could see one another and hold hands simultaneously.
As they served themselves some food, Charlie recognized it was takeout from his favourite restaurant, and Charlie was a bit relieved. While Nick was an excellent baker, Charlie had proved to be the superior chef between them, yet another way they seemed to complement each other.
After Nick asked Charlie about his birthday so far, Charlie recounted his day at work. He was listening to Nick’s story about one of his students when a concerning thought popped into Charlie’s head. While he tried to brush it aside and stay focused on Nick, Charlie’s face must have given him away because Nick stopped mid-sentence, placing his hand gently on top of his.
“Charlie?”
Blinking a few times, Charlie finally focused on Nick, who was staring at him with concern. “Oh, sorry, I just got distracted.”
The concern in Nick’s eyes didn’t go away at Charlie’s weak explanation. “Is something wrong?”
“Not wrong, necessarily, I just thought you were throwing me a surprise party.” Seeing a flash of sadness in Nick’s eyes, Charlie hurried to explain. “I prefer this, the romantic dinner at home, just us two. But I’m just wondering if there’s no surprise party… why have you been acting so weird?”
“Weird how?”
“The phone calls, the fake errands… seems a bit much for a surprise dinner at home. If I didn’t know you better, I would be worried.” Charlie tried to laugh it off, but it came out sounding hollow.
“Guess I am not as sneaky as I thought I was.” Nick squeezed Charlie’s hand, and any sadness was replaced by something Charlie couldn’t quite place. “I have been working on a present that took some coordination. That’s what the calls and errands were for.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” Charlie let out a sigh of relief, feeling the tension leave his shoulders immediately. “So, what is this surprise present then?”
Chuckling, Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, thin box wrapped in a bow and handed it over. “Here.”
Gently tugging at one end of the bow, Charlie unwrapped the box slowly before opening the lid. The gift was wrapped in tissue paper, and all Charlie could see was a small ribbon and a small sliver of - what the hell?
“It’s a… Christmas ornament?” Charlie’s eyebrows drew together, and he frowned in confusion, staring at Nick, who just sat there silently, a smile on his face. As Charlie began to remove the ornament from the tissue paper, he confirmed it was, in fact, a Christmas ornament. Holding it in his palm, Charlie angled it toward the candlelight so he could see it better. There were two men in Santa hats, who were clearly supposed to be Charlie and Nick, surrounded by a pile of presents. It was actually impressive the way it captured Charlie’s curls and blue eyes, and Nick’s face even had the smallest freckles on it. He was so busy studying the details of his and Nick’s faces, that it took Charlie a moment to notice that in between them was another much smaller face wearing a matching hat.
“What…” Charlie trailed off as he slowly started to piece things together. “Nick is this…” His throat suddenly felt dry, and Charlie could feel tears forming in his eyes. As he met Nick’s gaze, Charlie saw that his husband was also holding back tears as he nodded.
“Tori got the call from the doctor last Thursday.”
“Really?” Charlie whispered, and as he watched a tear escape Nick’s eyes.
“Really. We’re going to have a baby.” Setting the ornament down, Charlie jumped up and threw his arms around Nick, and the two of them clung to each other for a minute, both of their tears flowing freely.
Wiping his eyes, Charlie returned to his seat, grasping Nick’s hand. “Wait, you’ve known for over a week and didn’t tell me?”
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, believe me. Tori was dying to tell you too, but I begged her to let me wait until today. I’m just lucky she happened to call me first, and it was only because she knew you were still at work and needed to tell someone.”
“So all the secret phone calls, and fake errands…”
“Me desperately trying to find someone who would do a rush custom job on a Christmas ornament in April, which is apparently a tall order. I ended up finding a generic one that sort of looked like us and Elle actually painted over it.”
“Elle knew too? Who else found out before me?”
“No one, I swear! Well, I was at the petrol station when Tori called, so I told the clerk because they looked worried I was having a mental breakdown while crying in line at the register. But other than that, no one else.”
The mental image made Charlie chuckle. “And we are absolutely sure? It’s not too early?
“Yep, she’s about seven weeks along now, Tori took an at-home test first and then went in to have the doctor confirm. She is definitely pregnant.”
“Seven weeks, so that would put her due date around…” Charlie trailed off as he tried to do the maths, which normally came easy to Charlie, but at this moment, he was finding it difficult.
“December 2nd.” Eyes sparkling, Nick's grin widened. “So even if she delivers late, it looks like we will have a baby by Christmas.”
“A baby. Our baby.” Charlie still found it hard to believe this was real, not a vivid dream. The doctor had warned them not to get their hopes up for the first round of insemination. While the chances were still good, given Tori was under thirty-five and in good health, and Nick’s own fertility testing had come back with positive results, it still wasn’t a guarantee. It had been a difficult task, but Charlie had done everything he could to distract himself for the past several weeks to avoid thinking about it.
They ate the rest of their dinner in silence, holding hands and exchanging smiles. Once they were done eating, they moved to the sofa and cuddled up together. Nick’s arm was around Charlie’s shoulder, and he absentmindedly reached up to play with one of Charlie’s curls.
“I hope this surprise gift makes up for the lack of a party.” Nick teased.
“Are you kidding? This is the best birthday of my life.”
“Good. I thought about a party, but since it’s your last birthday with just the two of us, I wanted to spend it with you alone.”
“I’m glad. This was perfect.” Charlie turned his head into Nick’s chest, feeling his face rise and fall with each breath.
“This birthday is just chock full of milestones for you, isn’t it? A new decade and last birthday as not a dad…”
Charlie peered up at Nick, smiling. “It also means we have officially been together for half of my life.”
“Wow.” Nick was beaming once more. “So my next birthday will mean half of my life, right? Since we met when I was sixteen?”
“Technically, you were sixteen and a half, so I think your thirty-third birthday is more accurate.”
“Still a proper little maths nerd, I see.”
Charlie playfully swatted at Nick’s chest. “Hey, don’t mock me! I’m just trying to make sure we don’t celebrate prematurely!”
“I appreciate you looking out for us.” With a smirk, Nick placed his hand over Charlie’s, pressing it close to his chest. “By then, we will be parents. I’ll be a dad .”
Leaning over, Charlie kissed the back of Nick’s hand before settling back on his chest. “Who knows what our lives will look like by then.”