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“Come on, We’re nearly there.” Nick pulled Charlie by the hand. “I have a spot in mind.”
“Slow down a bit, I can’t see where to put my feet.” Charlie protested, stumbling over the undergrowth. “We want to get there in one piece.”
Nick slowed and turned to wrap Charlie in his arms. “Why do you always have to speak sense?”
“One of us has to,” Charlie grinned. “And we don’t want to waste the summer with one of us laid up with a sprained ankle.” He pecked a kiss to Nick’s nose. “We have time now. We don’t need to rush.”
“I know. I just want to cram in as much as I can with you before Uni starts.” Nick pulled Charlie’s body close, pulling his head back so he could look at his boyfriend's face.
“I know. Me too, but walking with you isn’t wasting time,” Charlie said. “Now if you pull me along so fast that I fall over and injure myself then I have to spend time at A&E while you are in the waiting room and not with me, –” Charlie wriggled out of Nick’s embrace and pulled his hand to get him to follow, then turned to look over his shoulder as he walked, “that would be wasted time.”
They exited the copse into a clearing at the crown of the hill, Nick sped up and stood in the middle spinning around on the spot looking up at the darkening sky before dropping to his knees and starting to pull things out of his backpack.
“Pick a spot to spread that out.”
Charlie caught the tarpaulin Nick tossed in his direction, then surveyed the site. “East is that way?”
Nick looked up to see which direction Charlie was indicating. “I think so, yeah. Wait a minute. I have a compass in here somewhere.”
He rustled in the bottom of the pack before starting to open all the smaller pockets on the front of the bag, eventually giving out a triumphant cry and tossing a small plastic disc to Charlie.
Within minutes they had the tarpaulin down and were set up with a picnic blanket, sleeping bags, another tarpaulin to protect them from the dew and a bag of snacks and drinks next to them, including two thermos of tea.
Nick was fiddling with the sleeping bag zippers, his tongue poked out in concentration.
“Nick?”
“Hmmm.”
“What are you doing?”
“Making them a double.” Nick looked up, his hands stilling. “Mum and Papa bought these for me and David years ago, before Papa moved to France. It was a big deal for me because it was my first grown up sleeping bag, like full size, and I remember they could be zipped together because David made a big deal about not wanting to share with me. We’ve never used them zipped together for two, but I know that they can be. And I want them to be. Cuddling you in separate sleeping bags just won’t be the same.”
Charlie's face softened at Nick's story and the earnestness in his face. “You’re going to keep me warm?”
“Always.” Nick replied. “Even on mid-summer when it’s not likely to get that cold.” A sly grin crossed his face, “And there are things we can do zipped together that just won’t work in separate sleeping bags.”
“There is, is there?” Charlie teased.
Nick looked up from the zipper. “You don’t want to?”
“Oh, I do want to.” Charlie assured him. “I just hadn’t realised that was your motivation behind the sleeping bags. Just….they’ve been washed right? David has been washed away?”
“More than once.” Nick said. “I made sure of it.”
“It’s nice being here, just us.” Charlie said. He was draped across Nick’s chest, his lower body between Nick’s legs, and Nick’s arms wrapped around him. Charlie was listening to Nick’s heartbeat under his cheek and tracing patterns on his chest. “I feel like we haven't had that much time just us the last few weeks.”
The Paris Squad had been busy. With half of them leaving for University, or travel in Darcy’s case, they had been hanging out as a group a lot. Nick and Charlie had spent a lot of time together, but most of it was together in company, or together asleep.
Nick’s arms tightened around Charlie in response.
“Have you set the alarm in case we fall asleep?” Charlie asked. The plan was to stay up all night and watch the sunrise together at 4.42AM, but Charlie was realistic. Snuggled up together in murmured conversation there was a very high likelihood that one or the other, most likely both, would doze off and they would miss the very thing they had climbed the hill for.
“Yeah. For four twenty. Do you think that will be early enough?” Nick replied.
“I dunno, Civil Twilight was from about two fifty.”
“Maybe we set a bunch of alarms, just in case we keep napping.” Nick said. “If we are awake it won’t take much to turn them off, but if we fall asleep it might be good.”
“Okay” Charlie reached over for his phone, setting the times, then dropped it back to the blanket. “It’s just gone midnight by the way.”
‘It’s the 21st?” Nick nudged Charlie off him and scrabbled around in the bottom of the pack again. “This is for you. Just hold it close for now. Look at it properly in the daylight.”
Charlie took the small package wrapped in yellow tissue paper. “Why give it to me now?”
“Because I want you to have it while the sun rises, but…uh…there are little pieces. If you open it in the dark they might get lost.’ Nick explained. “I…uh…didn’t quite think that part through.”
‘Keep it close for now?” Charlie confirmed.
“Yeah. just —” Nick took the package and snuck it under Charlies’ shirt, positioning it between his nipples, and slightly to the left before pulling Charlie back down so it was sandwiched between them. ‘Is that okay? You’re comfortable?”
“Perfectly.”
Nick tipped the cold tea from the cup and refreshed it from the thermos.
“Now that we can see, can I open this?” Charlie held up the small tissue paper package, in the light he could see it was yellow with a blue ribbon and was now looking a bit worse for wear having spent nearly five hours squashed between them. Nick had repositioned it every time they had moved places. Charlie was now thoroughly intrigued.
“Yeah, but first can I explain a bit?”
Charlie took the tea Nick handed him and sat back, the package on his lap.
“Do you remember what you wrote on my school shirt?”
“Yeah?” Charlie remembered. He didn’t know what it had to do with anything, but he remembered.
“I didn’t know what it meant. I was going to ask, but it slipped my mind, then there was Harry’s party and… well. I didn’t know what it meant but when Isaac saw what you had written he chuckled, so I knew he did.” Nick turned his mug in his hands. “After our fight I really really wanted to know, but I couldn’t ask you so I asked Isaac. He wouldn’t tell me, but he leant me a book telling me to read it.”
“You finally read Hitchhikers?” Charlie asked. Charlie had suggested it ages ago, thinking it was something Nick would like but he hadn’t been able to find the time.
“I did. All those apparently blank messages coming through to my phone kept interrupting my reading.” Nick exhaled. Charlie reached over to squeeze his hand. “Anyway I finally understood what you meant. Then it was the school fair, and we sorted everything out, but… anyway you can open that now. Just be careful, there are little pieces that might fall out.”
Charlie looked at Nick then carefully placed his half drunk mug on the grass to the side before pulling off the ribbon. He moved his legs so his feet were together, but knees were apart and used one hand to shake out the sleeping bag over them to create a flat-bottomed shallow basin, then peeled at the tape before unfolding the tissue paper revealing…stones?
“Stones?” He looked up at Nick.
“Spread them out a bit.”
Charlie brushed at the tiny pebbles and found two chunky leather cords each with a leather pouch bag attached. He pulled them clear then poked at the tiny pebbles, each not much bigger than a hole punch tab. Some of them had letters on them.
Charlie looked back up at Nick, clocking the apprehension in his face, then went back to pushing the pebbles around, finding that some of the pebbles had markings on both sides, but all of them had letters on at least one. He sorted them into piles ending up with four that were backed with tiny hearts and thirty eight with a letter on one side, those he sorted into vowels and consonants.
He glanced back up at Nick before trying to spell things out.
O/♡ V/♡ E/♡ L/♡
A A A E E E I I I O O U
C C C F G H H K L L L L N N N N N P R R R S S S S S
Charlie pointed behind Nick at the plastic container that had contained their breakfast sandwiches, Nick passed it across and Charlie moved four tiles onto it
LOVE
A A A E E E I I I O O U
C C C F G H H K L L L L N N N N N P R R R S S S S S
He looked up at Nick, then back at the remaining tiles. Lots of N’s.
NELSON
A A A E E I I I O U
C C C F G H H K L L L N N N P R R R S S S S
NICK
A A A E E I I O U
C C F GH H L L L N N P R R R S S S S
CHARLIE
A A E I O U
C F G H L L L N N P R R S S SS
Charlie looked up at Nick again, returning his smile before contemplating the remaining letters, shuffling them about, trying to figure out what words he could make with the remaining letters. Nick reached over to pick out S and H O L A S from the pile, adding them to the lunchbox lid, returning the K and I to the pile.
NICHOLAS and CHARLES not NICK and CHARLIE
A E I U I C F G L N N P R R S S K
Charlie sucked in a breath and rapidly moved the remaining letters.
SPRING
LUKE
FRANCIS
Charlie moved the words around.
NICHOLAS LUKE NELSON
CHARLES FRANCIS SPRING
LOVE
“There’s forty two,” Nick said softly. “And the little pendant bags lock shut. I…I thought we could take half of them each, twenty one pieces each so when we are together it means we have forty-two, the meaning of –”
“Life, The Universe, and Everything.” Charlie finished.
Nick nodded. “When we are together everything feels right with the world. Char. It’s like you wrote on my shirt.”
Charlie smiled at him, then opened his mouth to speak, Nick smiled back and said at the same time
“You’re my Forty-Two.”
