Work Text:
Charlie fidgeted in his seat and looked around the room while Sarah sat calmly beside him, playing Candy Crush on her tablet. The sterile walls and harsh fluorescent lighting of the dental clinic reminded him of his time in the inpatient hospital and made him vaguely uneasy. But he was there to support his lovely, wonderful boyfriend while he got his wisdom teeth removed. It was a common and easy procedure, but he couldn’t help his anxious mind from fretting about Nick being under anesthesia. Charlie hoped Nick wouldn’t suffer too much afterwards, but he would do anything he could to ease his pain and make him feel better.
After an indeterminate time, a dental assistant finally came through the door with an obviously groggy Nick following behind. While Sarah discussed aftercare with the assistant, Charlie went straight to Nick. He was wobbly on his feet and his eyes were wide and glassy. He had cotton stuffed on both sides of his mouth and his jaw was hanging halfway open.
“Hi, love. How are you doing?” Charlie asked in a soft voice while running his hands up and down Nick’s ‘strong rugby arms’ in a soothing motion.
“Charrrrrlieeeeeee! I missed youuuuu. Where were you all year?” Nick replied, or at least that’s what Charlie thought he said with his mouth full of cotton.
“I’ve been sitting here waiting for you.” Charlie answered.
“For a whole year?! Wowwww, you must be in love with me to do that.” Nick rambled, listing slightly from side to side.
Charlie steadied him, fearing he would fall over. “Well, yes, I am in love with you, but it’s only been two hours,” he said with what he hoped was a soft, reassuring smile.
Nick stared at him blankly for several seconds, then tipped his head to the side like the golden retriever that he was. “You’ve only been in love with me for two hours?” he asked with his nose scrunched up in confusion.
“What? No….you know what, let’s talk about that later, OK sweetheart?” Charlie said in a soothing voice, like how you would talk to a stray cat you were trying not to scare off. At that point, Sarah had finished up and came over to her boys. She spoke brightly to Nick, saying “Nicky, baby, how are you doing? Would you like to go home?” Nick turned to look from Charlie to his mum a little too quickly, which caused him to lean to the left alarmingly. Charlie nudged him until he was upright once again.
Nick smiled at his mum, as much as he could with his mouth stuffed, and said “Mummmmm, hiiiiii” with a goofy look on his face. “You’re so nice all the time. I love you more than rugby!”
Sarah and Charlie shared a look, both attempting to school their faces and trying not to laugh. By silent agreement, they each took an elbow and started guiding Nick out of the clinic and into the sunny, late spring day.
Nick squinted and tried to cover his eyes at the sudden change in brightness, but then smiled into the sky with a cheerful “Hello sun, how do you do? My name is Nickodus….Nissolas…..no, Nicholas!”
Charlie felt safe rolling his eyes with a fond smile since Nick wasn’t paying any attention to him. Once they crossed the car park and Sarah had unlocked the doors, they tried to steer Nick into the back seat so Charlie could sit with him. He resisted their efforts and unexpectedly tried to open the driver’s door.
“Mum, no.” he mumbled. “I have to practice driving so I can beat Charlieeeee at Mario Kart. I want to try Rainbow Road again!”
Charlie heard Sarah mutter “Oh dear” under her breath and couldn’t agree more. The two of them had a difficult time diverting Nick to the back door, considering how much bigger and stronger Nick was than either of them. Finally, all three were in their proper seats and buckled in. As they started driving, Nick looked out the side window at the scenery passing by with the most adorable look of wonder on his face. Charlie’s heart felt warm and fuzzy. He loved this giant goofball boy so very much.
Nick’s head laid back on the seat rest and Charlie thought he had probably fallen asleep, when he heard Nick quietly singing Elton John's 'Rocketman' to himself. When he got to the chorus, he started waving his arms around like a conductor and increased the volume significantly. Charlie saw Sarah startle and jump from the sudden outburst. As Nick was winding down from his impromptu concert and put his arms down, Charlie reached over and took his hand with a light squeeze. This caused Nick’s head to swivel away from the window towards him. Nick’s expression wobbled, before turning dopey and sweet.
“Char, Char, I love youuuu. You're so pretty and smart and funny and the best kisser, especially when you use your tongue to do that special thing I like!” Charlie quickly tried to divert him from that line of thought since Sarah was in the car, “Nick…..”
But Nick carried on as if he hadn’t spoken. “I want to kiss you all the time, like right now! My favorite time to kiss you is when we get to wake up together. You look so soft and sweet, and I don’t even care if you have morning breath because you are so perfect.” Charlie was slightly alarmed that Nick started tearing up before continuing, “Why are you so perfect? What did I ever do to deserve you? I bet I helped an old lady across the street and rescued a kitten from a tree, but I don’t think that would be enough to get you. You’re so pretty…..Want to know a secret, Char? I’m going to marry you and have babies with you, and we’ll have five dogs, all different sizes and colors!”
Charlie was rendered speechless by Nick’s heartfelt speech and saw Sarah’s shoulders shaking with laughter silently from the driver’s seat out of the corner of his eye. He blinked dazedly at Nick, who was alternating between grinning his cotton-stuffed, drooling smile and blinking his eyes sleepily. He did not want to have to drag his very tall and very heavy boyfriend up the stairs, so Charlie tapped Nick’s hand until his boyfriend’s swimmy eyes met his again. He tried to keep the conversation going, as he could see they were getting close to the Nelson house.
“Hello, sweetheart. You are doing so well. You’re a rock star, my love.”
“You know who is a star, Char? Ha ha, that rhymed! Patrick is a star!”
“What? Who is Patrick?”
“He lives next door to a pineapple. Don’t you remember?”
“Do you mean……SpongeBob?”
“Duh! I would like to live in a pineapple someday. If I got hungry, I could just snack on my house!”
“That would certainly be a time saver.”
“A gingerbread house would probably be better. Less sticky, you know?”
Charlie was shaking his head at this bizarre conversation and trying hard not to laugh. Thankfully, Sarah pulled up to the house just then and turned off the car. While Charlie unbuckled Nick and himself, Sarah jumped out and unlocked the front door before returning to help Nick climb out of the car.
“Hey!” said Nick in amazement, “this looks like my house!”
“Yes, Nicky, isn’t that wonderful?” Sarah answered in a soothing, sing-song voice as she and Charlie ushered Nick gingerly up the steps. The second Charlie pushed the door open to let them all in, Nellie burst out in a barrage of happy boofs and borks, nearly knocking the trio down the steps in her enthusiasm.
“Nellllllieeeee, my sweet, sweet girl!” Nick crooned, trying to sit down in the middle of the doorway to pet her.
“Uh uh, big guy” Charlie quickly said, pulling him gently forward. “You can snuggle with her once we get you to your bed.”
The three very slowly and laboriously made it up the steps after what felt like an hour to Charlie. Sarah suggested that Nick use the loo before heading to bed for a nap, so they guided him into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. They heard liquid splashing, the toilet flushing and then a gasp of surprise.
“MUM!!! My tongue is missing! Where did my tongue go?! I need my tongue to kiss Charlie! He’ll be so sad if I don’t have a tongue.” Nick sounded rather pitiful at this point. Charlie and Sarah just stared at each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes.
“Uh….I guess I’ll take this one?” Sarah finally said quietly. “How about you get his bed ready for him, huh?”
Charlie went into Nick’s room and got the bed turned down and the curtains closed. Nick’s fairy lights cast a warm glow in the room. Nellie was sitting on the floor by the bed, looking at him like he could explain what was going on with his boy. Charlie shrugged at her and heard a muffled “let’s pull your joggers up so you don’t trip” and “your tongue will be back when you wake up, I promise!” before the door opened.
Between the two of them, they got Nick under his covers and he immediately started making grabby hands at Charlie. After taking off his Converse, Charlie crawled in with him, and Nick immediately wrapped around him like a baby koala. Sarah offered to bring Charlie a cuppa and a snack, as Charlie adjusted Nick’s head to snuggle into his chest.
Charlie thought Nick had drifted off when he heard a sleepy “Would you still love me if I was a worm?” followed by light snoring. Charlie smiled contentedly, carding his hand gently through Nick’s soft hair. He was relieved that Nick seemed to be okay and couldn’t wait to give him shit about this when he was feeling better.