Chapter Text
Nick was staring and he knew it. His boyfriend knew it too and was giving him a funny look, trying to figure out why the heck Nick was eyeing that one man so intensely.
It wasn’t that the man was Nicks type, even though he was good looking, no, it was something else. The man on the other side of the bar was wearing a leather jacket and something about seeing the material stretch across his shoulders, move with his body and the way the low light reflected on it gave Nick a weird feeling in his stomach.
“Are you into man-buns now?” Charlie had inched closer and whispered directly into Nicks ear, making the little hairs on his skin stand up and feeling all tingly. They were at a point in their relationship where checking out other attractive people wasn’t the cause for jealousness or drama. Some people were hot and that didn’t change just because you were in a committed relationship. “It’s not the hair,” Nick quietly answered and Charlie tilted his head a bit and was staring at the blonde man so obviously that Nick knocked their knees together underneath the table. “You’re staring!”
Charlie just gave him a sly grin. “You started it! Let me see … is it the tattoo?”
The blonde man with the man-bun had a large moth (or was is a butterfly?) tattooed on his neck. Nick could only imagine the pain of getting that done. He took a sip of his beer and leaned back in his seat, watching as his boyfriend kept watching the other dude.
“The skinny jeans? He’s got some great legs,” Charlie guessed and nodded approvingly.
“Has he?” Nick asked and turned to look at the man who happened to look in their direction right this second. Oops. Nothing like getting caught checking out another man together with your boyfriend.
The guy actually started coming over to their booth now and Nick could feel Charlie stiffen beside him. He also saw Otis watching them carefully from a few tables away, always ready to step in.
“Hey.”
The man had a warm voice and an accent hiding under his tongue that Nick couldn’t pinpoint.
“I saw you were checking out one of my friends and she started feeling a bit uncomfortable, so …”
Nicks face went bright red which probably wasn’t as visible in the low light of the bar but he could feel his cheeks growing hotter each moment. “No! I wasn’t … I mean …” he stuttered and Charlie was trying to stifle a laugh and being no help at all.
“I wasn’t checking her out, I was looking at you!”
Well, that wasn’t how he had planned to handle this situation but there he was. Charlie was now choking on his laugh and started coughing while the blonde guy rubbed his neck and avoided eye-contact with Nick.
“I’m flattered, I guess,” he started, “but I’m not interested, mate.”
Charlie was in a downright coughing fit, Nicks face was burning from embarrassment and the other man looked like he wanted to leave.
“Right, sorry!” His voice was kind of high-pitched as he talked and the blonde guy wandered off as quickly as possible. Nick tried to recover from this encounter by downing his drink in one go and Charlie had started having a hiccup. “That was (hiccup) so funny! (hiccup)” he exclaimed and well, Nick loved being the reason for his boyfriends joy, wasn’t he?
Charlie made a point of mentioning the story to all of their friends over the next week and somehow they forgot to talk about the reason why Nick had been so captivated by the man to begin with.
-
He was looking for his sweater, the yellow one, the one that brought him confidence and composure and luck. The one his boyfriend liked to steal just like all his other clothes! He had rummaged through his side of the closet first and was now busy going through Charlies side. Why where there so many clothes on the ground? Charlie was the one to hang up all his stuff neatly and he was the one who tossed them on the floor, that was the silent agreement of their relationship.
Something yellow caught Nicks eye and he picked up an item of clothing that yep, it sure as hell was pretty darn yellow but it was some kind of cape? He was just about to let it drop back down but then he saw what had been hiding underneath. A crumpled jacket that Charlie hadn’t worn in ages. The material was dark and soft, no real leather, he knew that, but it caused a shiver to run down his spine nonetheless.
The thought of Charlie wearing this? Possibly with nothing underneath it? Black curls falling everywhere, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, plum lips slightly opened up, pale skin in a stark contrast to the black jacket …
“Nick?”
Charlie stood in the door frame, bouncing on his toes. He had been kind of nervous all day like he always was before driving to his home town to visit their families. They would stay with Nicks mum and the house was some kind of safe space for both of them but the upcoming meeting with his parents always made Charlie a bit anxious, even at twenty-six.
“I’m just looking for my lucky jumper,” Nick answered and quickly closed the doors of the closet before giving his boyfriend a reassuring smile. A smile that turned into a frown real fast. “I guess I found it?”
Charlie at least had the decency to look a tiny bit guilty as he was standing there, wearing the exact sweater Nick had been searching for a whole thirty minutes. “You are a dirty little thief!”
Like that had been his cue, Charlie stood up tall, cleared his throat and gestured around with his hand wildly as he said: “Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing. 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands but he that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.”
“I have no idea what you’ve just said but I know this is because you’re spending too much time with Isaac.”
“It’s from Othello, mind you.”
“Doesn’t make you any less of a filcher.”
-
Charlie wasn’t stupid. He knew damn well that something was up so obviously the first thing he did when they came back to London was looking through his drawer. There was the scarf that turned out to be more like a blanket or poncho and beneath it … oh.
He hadn’t worn this jacket in a while. But he remembered how each time that he did, Nick had looked at him like he wanted to eat him up. And Charlie could be a nice boyfriend and surprise Nick by wearing the jacket this evening but he would much rather be a little naughty.
Having grown confidence has done a lot of good – for himself and for his relationship. Setting clear boundaries? Being able to talk about exes without it feeling weird? Spending time apart because being a couple did not mean being attached at the hip? (Though he did like it when their hips were attached.) Checking out hot people together? Rejecting invitations to charity events or whatever without feeling guilty? Hell yeah, that was what self-growth looked like!
That didn’t mean Charlie never felt insecure. One thing he still struggled with was taking chances he knew he only got because he was in a relationship with Nick. Like the opportunity to spend a day at a really cool recording studio and watching a song coming to life? Of course that had happened only because Charlies boyfriend was kind of a big deal in the world of rugby. But Tao had said that he would be stupid not to do it and – wait! Didn’t he want to come up with a plan to tease Nick instead of getting lost in his head again?
That evening, Nick was sitting on the sofa, intrigued by the game of the big TV screen in front of him. Charlie didn’t understand how someone could get into those simulation games where one could drive a train or deliver mail (yes, that was a thing) but apparently his boyfriend was one of those people. Which was fine, everyone found joy in different things! Charlie was about to leave, he wanted to meet up with Darcy who had invited him and Miles (a guy Charlie had met at campus about two years ago and who had become a friend since then) for dinner while Tara was away for the week to be in charge of kids dancing ballet at a summer camp.
He went over to the sofa and Nick paused his game to share a kiss (maybe it were three because one was never enough). Charlie had thought about simply wearing the jacket now but that had seemed too easy.
“Have fun, Char!” Nick called over his shoulder and like always, Charlie forgot to close the door quietly and just let it fall shut which created a thud that was probably audible on the whole floor of the building.
-
The first step of ‘operation leather jacket’ went like this:
Nick scrolled through his Instagram feed as if there was anything actually exciting. Well, those two weird guys called Siegfried and Joy were funny but he could only watch so many videos before – wait! Charlie had just posted a story on his private IG account that the public didn’t know about and Nick was ready to see his boyfriend and their friends pulling faces at the camera. He was right, they did just that but what caught Nicks attention was the jacket Charlie was wearing. The damn leather jacket. Did he already wear it when he had left? No, he would have remembered that.
There was one picture of Charlie pushing his hair back with one hand, the collar of the jacket propped up which made him kind of look like John Travolta in Grease and Nick felt arousal grow inside his gut. Was it wrong to picture his boyfriend dancing to “you know that I ain’t bragging, she’s a real pussy wagon” and enjoying that thought?
He sent a fire emoji as a response to the story and debated whether to write something flirty or not but no, this was Charlies time with friends and he would probably wear the jacket when he got back any way so there was enough time for shenanigans then.
But when Charlie eventually came home, he was just wearing a normal sweater, no leather jacket in sight. Should Nick ask him about it? Would that sound desperate? Not that he had never kneeled in front of Charlie, begging and sounding quite desperate doing so. But he had never asked him to wear a specific piece of clothing besides his rugby jersey for a game which felt like something entirely different.
-
It wasn’t the last time this happened.
Like when Charlie went out with Tao to go to the cinema and sent Nick a picture of them walking and pulling faces, Tao throwing up a piece sign and even though the photo was blurry, Nick could see that Charlie was wearing the leather jacket. He wasn’t even in town that evening, he was in another city along with his team mates and they had a game the next day which Charlie wouldn’t be able to attend because his master classes were too important to skip.
Or when some paparazzi took a picture of Charlie a week later after another important game, questioning if their relationship was going downhill because Charlie hadn’t been there to cheer Nick on. Which was a stupid question because the picture of Charlie had been taken on campus ground, Charlie was even looking at some papers while walking so it was obvious that he was busy studying. But that jacket …
The thing was, even though Charlie seemed to wear that thing all the time, Nick had never actually seen him in it in the past weeks. Only on pictures, some grainy, some (like the paparazzi one) in best quality and he felt bad for looking at it too much because the picture had clearly been taken without Charlies consent but he just looked so good.
Nick had asked him once, something along the lines of “huh, thought you were wearing a jacket?” after Charlie came back to the apartment without said jacket when Nick knew for a fact that he had been wearing it a few hours ago. Social media made it easy to look after people and Charlie had been sharing a suspicious amount of photos on his story lately.
“Must have forgotten it at Taos and Elles,” was all his boyfriend had answered and sounded so nonchalant while doing so that Nick felt weird for even asking.
The next time he had some alone time and a computer at hand, Nick tried to do some research on why he was so obsessed with Charlie wearing the leather jacket. Typing ‘why do I like it when my boyfriend wears leather’ lead to different results:
1. An article on what turned out to be a website about fetishes and was rather explicit (he closed that one quickly)
2.. Ads for leather pants which he was not into (he had tried picturing Charlie wearing one but that didn’t spark the same heat inside him)
3. So many people asking a variation of his question in online forums and getting the expected unhelpful answers (he clicked through half of them before he had enough)
After staring at the screen for several minutes, he re-opened the article on the fetish website. It was insightful to put it nicely. A bit more than Nick had asked for but at least far more helpful than any of the online forums he had found. The most relieving thing to read was the fact that liking leather was so common in so many people that there was no need to worry about not being normal or anything like that. He just liked thinking about his boyfriend wearing a certain fabric, nothing wrong with that! And it wasn’t like he couldn’t enjoy sex without leather being involved.
Sex with Charlie was great. It was fun, clumsy and relaxing or hot, steamy and wild or soft, gentle and deep and always always loving. But Charlie wearing nothing but the black leather jacket while being pressed up against a wall, curls hanging around messily, lips parted, breath heavy, eyes closed, adams’ apple bopping up and down with his face scrunched up in pure lust? That thought made Nicks jeans feel incredibly tight and uncomfortable.
-
Teasing his boyfriend was all fun and games but Charlie started to get annoyed at not seeing Nicks reaction whenever those carefully posted photos of him wearing the jacket popped up on his phone. He needed to take this a step further. For all he knew, Nick could just smile fondly at those pictures and not think twice about his outfit! Even though he had asked about the jacket once and Charlie had suppressed his grin like a champ.
But tonight he would take it up a notch, he would find out if Nick really cared about him wearing this piece of clothing.
They were about to leave the apartment to drive to Sai, a close friend of Nick who was celebrating his birthday. Nick was already putting on his shoes and called for him because Charlie was taking unusually long to get ready. “Charlie?”
Nick went to peek into their shared bedroom where Charlie stood and held up two hangers – on one hung the leather jacket, on the other a beige blazer that looked casual enough for a party like this. “I can’t choose which one to wear,” Charlie said and even put on a little pout.
Nick blinked at him in disbelief because Charlie almost never asked him for such things as fashion advice. Then he eyed the two options carefully and Charlie watched with amusement how his boyfriend peered at the leather jacket a little longer. “Uhm,” he cleared his throat and Charlie chose to not be helpful at all by saying “Wait, I’ll put each of it on and you can tell me which one looks better!” The look on Nicks face was heavenly.
He quickly threw over the blazer which made him look studious and preppy like the boy next door in a movie. Then he changed into the leather jacket which … okay, he probably didn’t look like the cool, mysterious dude that rode a motorbike and smoked cigarettes (luckily because smoking was gross and unhealthy) but he felt like he did and maybe that made a difference.
The difference on Nicks face was pretty obvious. He couldn’t pry his eyes off of Charlies body, his tongue darted out to wet his lips and Charlie almost wanted to tell him to come over and kiss him and take him into the bedroom - but no, his mission to drive his boyfriend crazy wasn’t over yet!
“The jacket … looks nice,” Nicks voice was a bit higher than usual and inside, Charlie was giggling and also melting because having Nick look at him like that made him weak in the knees.
“I think I like the blazer better.” He shrugged out of the jacket and threw it back into the closet carelessly.
The party was as big and loud as Charlie had expected but he felt secure knowing Nick was there with him and he also saw Christians girlfriend Rebekka who was nice and always down to get out of the crowd for a second. Charlie had learned to leave parties on his own whenever he felt like he had enough. His social battery simply didn’t last as long as Nicks, especially at big gatherings, and that was completely fine. Sometimes Nick went home with him, not because he felt like he had to but because he wanted to (another thing Charlie had learned) and sometimes Nick kissed him goodbye and stayed while Charlie went home to a comfortably quiet flat.
At one time he was standing on the balcony with Christians girlfriend, chatting about video essays they’ve seen on YouTube (“Tiffanys video about the RV family life was brilliant!” - “I am so far behind on her videos because I’ve been watching verilybitchie non-stop, do you know her?”) when Nick came up behind him, slung his arms around him and rested his head upon his shoulder.
Leaning back into him, Charlie smiled as Nick pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “I see, you’re having a good time,” he said and nodded at Rebekka who took a sip of her drink. That was his cue! Charlie faked a little shiver and replied, “Yep, I just wished I would have chosen the leather jacket.” He could feel Nick stiffen up behind him. This was working almost too well. “It’s a bit chilly, you know,” he said which was only half-true because the balcony was shielded from the wind that had picked up.
“Do you want my jacket?” Nick offered and only had to clear his throat twice. Charlie leaned back against him a little more, pressed his back aka his butt against Nicks front aka his crotch and shook his head. “Thanks though,” he said and turned his head to give Nick a kiss before talking to Rebekka again who had looked up the YouTuber he had recommended her on her phone. This was fun.
-
Nicks leg was bouncing up and down while he sat next to Tao, his eyes fixed on the small stage in front of him. Charlie had a small gig tonight with his newly formed band in which he played piano and sometimes sang as the second voice. They were in some kind of hipster bar that only served non-alcoholic drinks which Nick had been a bit sceptical about but they turned out to taste amazing. The stage was still empty and Tao had tried to get him to stop being so fidgety but Nick always was like this whenever Charlies band played somewhere. He wasn’t nervous for them, he knew their music was good but still, he couldn’t keep his leg from moving.
“Would you stop, the whole booth is shaking,” Tao hissed. “Shall I remind you of the time you tore apart a freaking banknote because you were so nervous before Elles graduation?” Nick replied and was gifted with a deadly stare.
Then the band went on stage and Nick nearly choked on the virgin cocktail he had just taken a sip of because Charlie wasn’t wearing his usual black button-down. Okay, he was wearing it but most importantly he wore the leather jacket on top of it and with the curls that hadn’t seen a scissor in quite a while and his hands covered in several silver rings (“It fits the image of the band, you know.”), Nick wanted to sprint up to him, grab him and take him home right now.
Seeing Charlie in the jacket was bad enough (or hot enough) as it was but seeing him wearing the jacket while making music which always made that dreamy, passionate look appear on his face? That was almost unbearable.
Avery, the singer of the band, always put on a great show. But Nick had no eyes for them as they sang “burning like embers, falling, tender, longing for the days of no surrender” or as they got everyone in the bar to raise their glasses with “I’ll never get to heaven ‘cause I don’t know how, let’s raise a glass or two”. He only looked at Charlie, who leaned over the piano, entranced in the music and how his hands moved over the keys so smoothly. The smile on his face as the crowd cheered them on and how his lips almost touched the microphone as he joined in for the chorus (“To all the things I’ve lost on you, tell me are they lost on you?”). The way the light reflected from the shiny material of his jacket and how he wiped his curls out of his face after the song ended. How his eyes scanned the room and landed on Nick and his grin grew so wide it covered his whole face.
If Nick wasn’t already sure he loved him, he would’ve known now.
-
“You were so good!” He hugged his boyfriend, lifted him off the ground for a second and Charlie laughed and blushed as if he didn’t know his band was freaking awesome. Nick had been home a little earlier because Charlie had still packed up the instruments with the band.
“Would you let me just change out of my jacket before you attack me?” the younger man asked and was about to take off the leather jacket as Nick stopped him by grabbing his collar. He wanted to kiss him like this, wearing this, just once. Charlie gave him a questioning look but something inside his eyes told Nick that he wasn’t as unknowing as he seemed.
“Keep it on?” he asked and his voice was louder than intended, his face probably went red right this second and he almost let go of the younger man and shrug it off but instead he added “please?”
For a split second Charlie thought about saying no. ‘Operation leather jacket’ still had two more very cool bullet points that took him a while to come up with! But no one in the history of humankind could deny Nick Nelson something when he looked like this.
“Sure”, he answered and to his surprise his own voice sounded hoarse. Well, he had been singing on a stage but that probably wasn’t – his thoughts came to a stop when Nicks mouth met his.
The kiss was eager, like something had been unlocked and Charlie felt his back hit the wall as Nick put him up against it. It made Charlie think about something Isaac had told him about his studies. In Germany there had been a movement in literature called Sturm und Drang which translated to storm and urge. He really did spend too much time with Isaac when facts like this came to his mind at a time like this. Nick regained his full attentions by pushing his body up against him, one leg nestling between Charlies legs, pressing against the growing hard-on in his pants.
“Let’s storm to the bedroom,” Charlie whispered as Nicks lips moved down his neck and his boyfriend didn’t question his choice of words. The urge was too strong.