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It was coming to the end of the school year, Nick had already finished his GCSEs a few weeks back and Charlie only had a few more days of mock exams left before the pair were finished for the summer. Nick wanted to surprise Charlie with something, they wouldn’t have long before Nick’s annual family holiday to Menorca which Charlie couldn’t unfortunately join them on as the tickets had already been booked long before Nick had come out to his mum. Instead, he chose something they could spend a few days doing together, A LEGO set.
Nick and Sarah made the journey to the nearest Lego Store which was an hour's drive away for them to pick out a set. He knew he wanted it to be one of the bigger sets so they could spend a good amount of time building it together, but also one that wasn't too expensive as after all, Nick had only just finished his GCSEs and didn’t have a job, and only had a small amount of cash left that wasn’t put away for Menorca.
After Spending about half an hour wandering around the store, Nick found the perfect set, a balance between price and pieces. The Lego Creator Expert ‘Tower Bridge’ set. The pair talked about taking a weekend visit to London a lot but unfortunately wouldn’t be able to just yet, certainly not this summer, so this seemed like the next best thing.
Nick went and paid for the set, wished the store assistant a good day, and then he and Sarah left.
“Shall we grab something to eat on the way home Nicky?” Sarah asked
“Yeah please Mum, I’m starving” Nick replied as his stomach rumbled
“What do you fancy?”
“What about McDonald's? I really fancy a Chocolate Milkshake”
“McDonald's it is then”
They stopped off and grabbed food before resuming the journey home which thankfully didn’t take too long and Nick was home long before Charlie even noticed him and Sarah had been out.
He took the set into his room and hid it under his bed for now before sending Charlie a text asking how the exam went.
The rest of the week flew by with Charlie getting through the last of his exams and finally finishing for the summer. His mum let him go over to Nick’s after the exam but since the pair announced their relationship, she was a bit hesitant to let Charlie stay the night so he’d take what he could. Once Charlie rang the doorbell, the sounds of Nellie barking from the living room could be heard, followed by Nick’s booming footsteps towards the door.
“Hi,” Charlie said softly, as Nick opened the door.
“Hi,” Nick replied, a smile beaming on his face “Get in quick before Nellie wants to go on another walk.”
Charlie looked down to see Nellie sitting in her usual spot, between Nick’s legs waiting for him to get down and say hello to her too.
He come in, took his bag and blazer off, and got down on his knees to give Nellie a stroke on her head before getting back up and following Nick into the living room.
“Wait here, I’ve got something for us to do” Nick exclaimed before winking at Charlie and leaving the room.
Charlie and Nellie glanced at the doorway and then each other, both just as confused as the other hearing Nick sprinting up the stairs, rummaging around in his room then sprinting back down the stairs with a rather large box.
“Look what I got for us to build!” Nick exclaimed with another big smile on his face.
“Nick, you didn’t have to! I’d’ve happily spent the next few weeks in either mine or yours just chilling on the couch watching films or something”
“I know, but I thought since we can’t actually go to London, we could do this instead. It would hopefully only take a few days and then we can spend the rest of the time watching films or maybe even going to the beach”
“Let’s get cracking then”
They went over to the dining room table and opened the box, pouring the 14 bags and 3 instruction booklets out. Opening them all and sorting them by colour was a task they underestimated how long it would take to do.
After a few hours, and the return of Sarah from work, they got started on piecing the structure together, placing each part of the 4295 piece set into the correct place but time was ticking on and if they wanted the Lego to keep being built, then Charlie had to be home soon as to not face the wrath of Jane Spring.
Sarah drove Charlie home, both him and Nick were sat in the back seat, whist Nellie sat up front. The two were flirting and play fighting on the back seat all up to Charlie's house. He gave Nick a kiss and said goodbye to them all as he walked back up to his front door.
“You boys had a good day then?” Sarah asked Nick, fully knowing the answer
“Yeah, we only got halfway through the first instruction booklet after spending ages sorting all the pieces out. He’ll be back over tomorrow so we can do more” Nick replied.
“Okay Nicky, just remember to keep the noise down as I’m working from home tomorrow. We’ll order a takeaway or something for tea. I’ll leave the menus in the kitchen so you boys can look and decide what you want”
The next day quickly arrived and Charlie was once again on Nick’s doorstep. This time, however, Sarah answered.
“Good to see you Charlie, how are you dear?” Sarah asked.
“I’m good Sarah, how are you?” Charlie asked in return.
“I’m good too dear, just got lots of work to do. Head on into the dining room. Nick is showering at the moment, he’ll be down soon. I’ll let him know you’re here when I head up there”
Charlie headed over to the construction zone to see Nellie sitting under the table waiting for the pair of them to start again as they kept giving her treats to keep her distracted the day prior.
He decided to take this opportunity to mess with Nick by moving some of the pieces they would need today to see what he’d do. He took some of the tan pieces that would be used in building one of the bridge towers and hid them in his jacket pocket.
After about 5 minutes, Nick came down wearing some grey joggers and his Orange Adidas shirt, the one he work for his and Charlie’s first official date to Herne Beach, Charlie couldn’t help but stare as he walked in, his hair still wet from the shower.
“Hi,” Charlie said, still staring at Nick.
“Hi,” Nick replied with a slight giggle in his voice “Are we going to do this every time we see each other?”
“Yes, of course,” Charlie returned, beginning to giggle too.
“Why are we like this?”
The pair burst into laughter with Nellie getting out from her spot to see what all the commotion was about. Nick bent down to give her some love and attention before the pair took their seats at the table to finish what they started.
It was a few hours into building when Nick went to grab the next piece he needed for his portion of the tower, then a look of visible confusion struck his face.
“What, where is it?” Nick mumbled to himself “I swear all the pieces were here yesterday”
Charlie tried to contain his giggles but the ever-growing confused look on Nick’s face made it harder and harder. He burst into a fit of laughter prompting Nick to glance over with a semi-stern look
“What did you do?” Nick asked with a smile forming on his face.
“Nothing” Charlie replied with a hint of teasing in his voice.
“Do I have to come over there and tickle you?”
“Do your worst”
With that, Nick got up and grabbed Charlie, picking him up and carrying him through to the living room and gently throwing him onto the couch. The pair were giggling away which got Nellie all excited and she come bounding into the living room too, jumping up onto the couch and on top of Charlie in the process.
“See, even Nellie is on my side. Now tell us where the pieces are!!” Nick playfully demanded.
Nellie jumped down and went back into the dining room where Charlie had put his jacket. She picked it up before trotting back to the boys and depositing it into Nick’s lap.
“Aha! Caught red handed Char” Nick exclaimed, reaching into the jacket pocket and pulling out the missing pieces.
At that moment, Sarah descended the stairs “Have you boys decided what you want to eat yet?”
Nick glanced over at Charlie whose face had dropped from his natural smile to a more forced one.
“We’ve been snacking all day, we’re not too hungry. Just get us a large fish and chips to share” Nick said back. He knew it was a bit of a white lie but he’d rather see Charlie happy than him suffering.
“Okay, I’ll be back in about 30 mins, now behave while I’m out. Oh, and I’ve got my book club tomorrow so would you be able to move the Lego into here and build on the coffee table?”
“Yeah that’s fine Mum, we’ll clear the table while you’re out”
Nick and Charlie headed back into the dining room to grab what they’d built, move it into the living room then had to find a way to move each organized pile without messing them up. They opted to use some small plates and carefully transfer each pile onto one, before transferring them onto the coffee table.
Nick also pulled out two lap trays so they could eat in the living room, hoping this would encourage Charlie to eat a bit more.
Sarah soon arrived home with the food, gave the boys theirs, and left them to it. She could sense they just wanted some alone time to unwind from their day of building.
They both sat on the couch, turned on the TV, and switched over to Disney+. It was Nick's turn to choose the film and of course, he chose a Marvel film. He’d been slowly getting Charlie to watch them all with him. Up next for them was Guardians of The Galaxy
The pair slowly ate their food, with Nick passing the occasional worrying glance over at Charlie unbeknownst to him. He didn’t like to see Charlie this way, but he couldn’t really do anything.
After they finished, Jane came and picked Charlie up; she didn’t want him out too late as they were going to see Charlie’s grandparents early in the morning, but he was coming over again on Monday.
Nick struggled to sleep that night, he couldn’t help but keep worrying about Charlie and his struggles with eating. He pulled out his laptop and just began to spiral into research. He wanted to help, he just didn’t know how.
“What do we do, Nell?” Nick asked, tears forming in his eyes. He knew she couldn’t answer but her presence just calmed him all the same. He put the laptop down and tried to sleep.
Monday couldn’t come quick enough, hopefully, they’d have the build finished by today. They only had the final instruction booklet to get through. Sarah was out for work today so it was just the two of them in. Julio was picking Charlie up at around 5 pm so they had until then to get it finished.
They spent the morning focused on getting it done, finishing off the final details of the towers and the bridge. The last parts to do were starting to get pretty repetitive, having to make the same parts over and over, but with the two of them doing it together, it went by pretty quickly.
Final details were almost done, all that was left to do was make the mini vehicle models that sit on the bridge. This only took the pair a few minutes, and once complete the two boys celebrated.
Nick came around to the side of the table Charlie was sitting on and gently pushed him down to the floor before climbing on top of him to kiss his face.
“Get off” Charlie grunted, trying and failing to get Nick off him.
“Never, you’re mine” Nick huffed playfully in return.
After a bit more struggling, Charlie managed to somehow overturn Nick but in his efforts to get on top of him they knocked into the coffee table, sending the newly built structure over the other side of it.
Time also began to slow down for them as they watched the bridge come crashing down, falling through the air and heading toward the laminate flooring.
The Lego set crashed into the floor, sending pieces everywhere. Both Nick and Charlie froze with shocked expressions on their faces.
“Char, it’s okay we can rebuild it, it’s not too ba–” Nick spluttered out, still at a loss for words over what just happened but right as he spoke Charlie burst into a fit of laughter.
“I guess it’s Tower Bridge, not London Bridge that’s falling down” Charlie managed to say in between fits of laughter prompting Nick to burst into laughter too.