Chapter Text
Nick’s POV
I stand excitedly bouncing on the balls of my feet waiting at the train station for Charlie to arrive. It has been about 3 weeks since I last saw him, and we facetime nearly every night and I texted him about 2 minutes ago, but I still miss him so much. Him being in London, at university, somehow feels so much further away than him being at home in Kent. Even though London is technically closer to Leeds than Kent is, my thoughts are spiralling about it and how much I’ve missed him, even though that’s silly of me, when suddenly my thoughts are interrupted and I see Charlie’s train pull in. I get even more excited than I previously had been moments before. I run as close as I physically can get without touching the train and I rush up and down past the carriages, looking for which one Charlie is on, and then I slow to a stop as I spot him looking slightly impatient at the people in front of him not moving. As he eventually gets moving, I follow him on the platform as he walks through the carriage and I stand by the door, pull him into the biggest hug I can muster before his front foot even has a chance to hit the floor off the train.
“I missed you so much!” I exclaim into his head as I hug him. He wraps his arms tightly around me, hopping off the train as he does.
“Hi sweetheart I missed you too, but maybe we should move out of the way because the people behind me are getting pretty angry.” Charlie teasingly says. I pull his chin up and pull him into a kiss before linking hands and pulling him away from the train doors and through the train station. We emerged out the other side of the train station and I pulled him in for a proper kiss and welcome.
“I missed you so so much.”
“Nick sweetheart, you saw me a couple weeks ago.”
“This week’s just been a lot.”
Charlie takes my hand and starts walking in the general direction of where my university accommodation is.
“Come on, tell me about it. Talk to me.”
“When we get back, I just want a cup of tea and Charlie snuggles.”
“Okay Love, come on.”
We walk back to my flat hand in hand. When we get there I unlock the door and yell for my roommates to see if they’re around the flat.
“Rory! Emmy! Ty!” I listen for a response but there’s silence throughout the rooms. Charlie looks at me confused, and I realise I forgot to tell him about the roommate situation.
“Who’s Rory?” He asks, perplexed.
“I completely forgot to say, but they got added to our flat a little while ago. You’ll probably meet them later and they may talk about why they moved. I just don’t want to say too much,it’s more their thing to share.”
“Oh okay! Well I’ll be happy to meet them. You want a cup of tea, did you say?”
“Yeah, do you want one too?”
“I’ll make it, I'm assuming you haven’t moved your tea stuff?”
“Nope it’s all where it was last time you were here.”
I watch as Charlie starts to make a drink and I wrap my arms around his waist and refuse to move.
“Nick sweetheart, I need to get the milk.”
“Okay go on then we can walk together.”
I feel Charlie about to step forward with his left foot so I prepare to step forward with the same one and we slowly but surely walk to the fridge to retrieve the milk and then back to the counter to finish the drinks. Charlie picks the drinks up.
“Are we going to your room to talk?” He asks, and I nod yes, while burying my head into his neck. I stay clung to him as we make our way to my room, but I don’t worry about walking into anything, I could walk this flat in my sleep.
We get into my room and Charlie walks over to the desk placing the drinks carefully and then comes over to the bed, prying me off him so he can put his backpack down which I had crushed between my chest and his back. He glances at me and looks at my outfit, and instantly instructs me to get changed into something comfy. He changes the hoodie he had on and replaces it with one of mine that he steals out of my wardrobe. He then sits on the bed waiting for me to be ready and when I am, I barrel into him giving him another hug. He pulls us down to the bed while maintaining the hug and wraps us up in the start of what is a blanket burrito.
“Okay, so. What’s going on sweetheart?” He gently prompts.
“I’ve just been on work placement this week and it’s a lot. I don’t feel like I’m cut out for being a teacher if I can’t cope with a weeks long work placement.”
“Nick darling,” I feel my face flush at the nickname that he only uses for times that he really needs to get his point across “You are the person that is most suited to be a teacher, you are the most caring, the kindest, the best person that is so deserving of educating kids. Just because you got overwhelmed this week does not mean that you are not cut out to be a teacher. I promise you. It’s okay for things to feel hard and too much, but never doubt that you’re capable. You will be the best teacher.” I feel myself welling up at his talk because inside I know he’s right. “Are you at placement again tomorrow?” He asks..
“Yeah” I nod then it hits me with a panic, “YOU’RE GOING TO BE HERE ALL DAY ON YOUR OWN YOU CAME TO SEE ME AND I’M LEAVING YOU ALL DAY.”
“Nick, Nick, NICK!” Charlie interrupts my spiral, “It’s okay, I told Emmy that I was coming a day early and she said we can go and get lunch together. Plus, I’ve got some uni work to do anyway. Please don’t worry, I already factored in the fact that you wouldn’t be here, it’s okay. All I was going to say is, do you want me to walk you there and I can grab a coffee on my way back to the flat? And then at the end of the day I can come and pick you up and we can walk back together.” My heart instantly melts and feels at ease hearing this. Of course my wonderful boyfriend thinks of everything even when he does things as a surprise. Actually, especially when he does things as a surprise, because and how he can stop nearly every preventable spiral before it properly begins in every possible scenario. I bury my head even further into his neck and we just lie there for a few minutes until I hear a voice.
“Nick! Emmy! Ty!” I hear Rory’s voice through the flat.
“Hi Rors I’ll be out in a little bit.” I yell back, turning my head away from Charlie so as to not deafen him.
“That’s Rory, they've just got home, did you wanna go say hi?”
“Sure!” He nods to me. We stand up and I wrap my arms around Charlie’s waist and we awkwardly walk into the living area where Rory is making a cup of coffee. I stand at the threshold between kitchen and the living room with arms still wrapped around Charlie’s waist, Rory leans against the kitchen side looking at us cup in hand.
“You must be Charlie.” They say looking between me, Charlie and my arms around him, and Charlie nods.
“Rory this is my boyfriend Charlie, Charlie this is my new flatmate Rory.” I can feel the stupid grin on my face as I introduce Charlie and I know Rory can see it but they don’t say anything and they hide their laugh behind their cup but I can see it.
“Hi Rory!” Charlie holds his hand out to shake their hand and they hold their arms out to ask permission for a hug. Charlie looks uncomfortable for a split second before pushing forward on my arms so I loosen my grip on him and he pulls Rory in for a brief hug.
“So Charlie boy, Mr. Nelson over here has told us a lot about you in the time I’ve known him. I think I’ve learned more about you than I’ve learned about him, so please tell me about your wonderful boyfriend here, and then I will spill some secrets I’m sure he doesn’t want you to know about nights out.”
Rory takes Charlie by the hand and leads him over to the settee and as he starts to be pulled away he grabs my hand and leads me with them, I loosen myself from his hand briefly and I sign “drink” at him to which he nods and says,.
“Tea please love you.” as he’s being pulled to the living area. I smile because he gets on so well with Emmy and Ty and it looks like he’s going to get on pretty well with Rory too, not that I had any doubts. I go and grab our empty mugs from my bedroom and then I return to the kitchen and make two teas, watching their interaction as I do. I hear Charlie talking about when we met and how I thought I was straight but how clearly I wasn’t and just retelling our story and how I can come across as a massive lads lad but am a real softie at heart. My heart swells hearing Charlie talk about me like that. I talk about him like he hung the moon and the stars and everything else but I never realised he talked about me the same. I feel the smile creeping onto my face as I walk back into the living area with my hands full of tea. I place the teas on the table on coasters and then without saying anything Charlie stands up so I can sit down and then he sits on my lap, as he’s listening to Rory telling the story of the last time we’d been out drinking which I’d not told him because it was really embarrassing. I wrap my arm around his waist and he places his hand over the top of mine.
I get engrossed in the conversation, shouting and laughing whenever Rory brings out videos of me very drunkenly babbling about Charlie and how much I love him and how much I want to marry him. I hide my face in Charlie’s shoulder and Charlie kisses me on the head saying it was cute. The conversation flows nicely and the next thing I know, Emmy is walking through the door closely followed by Ty.
“Oh hi you two, wait is it that late already? It’s like 8?” I say
“Yep 8pm, Nick haven’t you been going to bed at like 10 because of placement?” Emmy adds.
“Yeah I have and we haven’t eaten yet.” I look at Charlie, “What’re you fancying?”
“You.” I look at him and roll my eyes.
“Food, Charles what food do you want?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Why don’t we try that new kebab place down the road? It’s open 24 hours.” Ty suggests
“Bring it back here? Or it’s warm enough we could go and sit in the park like a group of 14 year olds.” Rory adds.
We could get kebabs, go to Spar, and get a couple bottles each and then sit in the park and get drunk, just like a bunch of 14 year olds. Except we’re 19 and 20 and have responsibilities.” Emmy suggests with a smile.
“I’m up for that, although I cannot get drunk because I really don’t think they’d appreciate me turning up to placement with a bunch of 6 year olds whilst hanging, and to be honest I don’t think I want that, they’re loud and I’d be miserable.”
“You’re telling me you’re not going to get bladdered tonight and turn up hanging? Spoilsport.” I glare at Rory “No Rory I’m not. I will have a little bit not enough to get me drunk and then I will be the chaperone making sure everyone gets home safe. You’re welcome.” I retort back teasingly.
So we do that. I go back to my room and grab my shoes, wallet, and phone and Charlie grabs his phone and shoes and when he goes to pick his wallet up I instruct him to put it back down.
“My treat.” I take his hand and we walk back to the common area. We wait for Rory who is doing god only knows what and then we all leave to go to the Spar and the kebab shop. Charlie gets a Vodka lemon and lime can and I get a bottle of Budweiser, Rory gets a Kopparberg, Emmy a Strawberry Daquiri and Ty a Budweiser too. After everybody leaves the Spar all of us in either comfy clothes or practically pajamas, we head to the new kebab shop. We place our orders and hang around waiting for them, the shop is pretty quiet for a Thursday night. When our orders are done we head to the park and we find a semi quiet area which isn’t exactly easy to do, as uni students will go anywhere for anything. I sit down and gently pull Charlie to my lap as we eat and drink and talk, some of us getting drunker than others. A couple of hours later I check the time and notice that it is already 10, so I make the executive decision that we should head back home. Rory, Ty and Emmy were pretty out of it because they’d been drinking a hell of a lot more than me and Charlie, but that makes sense since we spent most of the time just talking and cuddling and happily existing in each other's presence. I grab Rory and Ty and pull them up which is a lot easier said than done whilst they’re both practically a dead weight at this point and Charlie grabs Emmy and pulls her up.
We head back to the flat, friends in tow and we get the three of them to bed and then Charlie starts to tidy the flat a little whilst I have a quick shower and get changed. When I come back into the main area Charlie is wiping the sides over, I wrap my arms around his waist, kiss the top of his head and say “This feels so domestic and I love that, I love you, I love us.” He kisses me back and suggests I go to bed because I have to be up in the morning to which I respond “Without you? I don’t think so.”
“So what do you do when I’m not here?”
“Well you’re not here so that’s different.”
He shakes his head at me as he places the cleaning cloth back by the sink and heads to the bathroom to shower, brush his teeth and get changed. I stand outside the door the whole time waiting for him to come back,
“You’re like a lost puppy” he states with a giggle as he leaves the bathroom to me wrapping my arms around him again.
“You wouldn’t have me any other way.” I pout.
“You’re right, but come on, you have to get to sleep so you can get to placement tomorrow.” I nuzzle my head into his shoulder, “Carry me?”
“No Nicholas come on.” He starts walking forward towards my bed being weighed down slightly by me hanging off his neck. When he manages to get to the bed he just falls to the side so both me and him fall to my bed. We get in and I snuggle in in front of him and I close my eyes after I set my alarm, slowly drifting off to sleep, I feel the warmth of Charlie seep into me.
“I love you.”I say to him.
“I love you too.”
“I’m really grateful you’re here.”
“I know Love, I’m really grateful I’m here too.”
“I don’t think I could have gone another day with you.”
“That’s a bit dramatic sweetheart.” He says as he kisses the top of my head.
“But it’s true”
“You’re a goof. But it's acceptable because you’re all mine. Goodnight Nick.”
“Goodnight Char.”