Work Text:
He doesn’t know why he does it exactly. Is it because he just moved in with his boyfriend four hours away from home? Is it because he no longer has his mother hovering over him? Is it because he no longer has to look like a role model (albeit a “very disappointing” one) to Oliver, his little brother who now has to put up with their collective parent’s grumbling?
Truth is, he doesn’t know why he had the urge to suddenly go down the street to that honestly terrifying tattoo parlour that all of Nick’s new university friends recommended, but the burning on the side of his neck that is covered by a bandage is there now. He doesn’t exactly want to spend thousands of pounds ridding himself of it when it was a 50 pound purchase.
That and it’s kind of permanent, so yeah.
Somehow, Nick doesn’t see it. Just how, Charlie’s not sure. He doesn’t see it when he comes home from class, when they order dinner or when they take their showers. It’s only when they’re curled up on the couch, sleepy eyes staring at the TV when Nick spots the tiniest bit of black lettering spilling out of Charlie’s long sleeve collar that he makes a rather confused noise. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?” Charlie’s immediately on alert, but he tries not to show it. Usually, he’s shit at keeping his emotions hidden, but with the help of therapy and a lot of acting, he manages to only look slightly more awake than before. “You okay?”
Nick’s silent, but his eyebrows are drawn, but his hand suddenly feels it’s way up Charlie’s arm, fingers gently dipping into his collarbone and making Charlie wince a little as the fabric is removed to reveal two typewriter words set in perfectly black ink: Kiss Here
Charlie watches nervously as Nick’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, then wind down in confusion, then shock, then something else takes over, his face coming in closer and closer till his nose is almost equal with the dip in Charlie’s upper chest. “Oh my god.”
“You don’t like it?” Charlie always assumes the worst, so it wouldn’t be the first time he would have said that to Nick. He’s always assumed the worst, he doesn’t know how many times he’s said that phase over their relationship. It’s the frontrunner for the most popular Charlie and Nick quotes, followed by ‘Why are we like this?’ and ‘Fuck right off!’ respectively.
Of course, it’s slightly more warranted at the moment given Nick has barely said a word and is still staring at the words imprinted on his skin. Honestly, he really doesn’t like this. It makes him uncomfortable, Nick has to know that. Maybe it was a bad idea after all.
A little bit upset now, Charlie aims to just get up and murmur something about going to bed, but suddenly Nick is pinning him down on their way too small for lovemaking sofa and taking the breath from his lips that originally was going to be spent crying in bed with. Charlie can feel his tailbone grinding into the wood slats that the cushions barely cover as Nick forces him down, down, down - the same direction his mouth is going in as well.
Nick takes great care in leaving lovebites as he moves too, but somehow, kisses around the tattoo without leaving a mark (The last thing he needs is for it to get infected and he guesses, somehow, Nick knows that. He seems to know a lot about Charlie, a lot more than he even knows about himself) and just moves on down Charlie’s chest, wet trails sweeping his belly button and hip bones as his shirt practically removes itself.
It’s at this point that somehow, Nick remembers they’re on the sofa and while he and Nick have wrestled before, Charlie’s never been suddenly pulled up to where there is just air between him and the ground before and he’s faltering, drawn out of the fantasy for a moment before he’s smashed shoulders first into their bed and it’s back to regular programming.
[A lot later when they’re literally snuggled up together, Charlie finds the audacity to shyly ask him if he liked it. Nick, ever the drama queen, just rolls his eyes and smacks him with a pillow, telling him to fuck right off. Their laughter echoes through the student halls.]