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Charlie was warm.
He cracked his eyes open and blinked the sleep away. In front of him, backlit by the early morning sun, was Nick. His golden hair was fanned out on the hotel’s pillows. Charlie realised Nick’s arm was resting on his waste, caging him in. He watched Nick’s sleeping face, his eyelashes splayed out across his freckled cheeks. His expression was peaceful, a serenity that Charlie had never seen this close up before.
Pretty.
Charlie was so goddamn lucky to have Nick as a boyfriend.
He remembered kissing in the dark, whispering stories to each other until they could no longer open their eyes, giggles pressed into each other’s chests. Charlie couldn’t wait to have that every night.
God, he was sappy.
Charlie watched a crinkle form between Nick’s eyebrows. A fluttering of long eyelashes followed by slow blinks. Nick looked back at Charlie and a smile stretched across his sleepy face. Charlie couldn’t help but giggle back. They’d slept together, in a bed, all night long.
“Hi,” Nick croaked out, wiping sleep from his eyes with the back of his hand. The other was still pressed into Charlie’s waist, a gentle touch.
“Hi,” Charlie said, breathless at the sight of Nick’s smile.
Nick hummed and closed his eyes again, pulling Charlie towards him by his waist, his fingers skirting along his back. He was strong and persistent. Charlie was powerless to stop him.
“Nick! I have to go brush my teeth.”
They were nose to nose, centimeters apart, and Nick’s smile widened. “No,” he said, flexing his arm muscles.
“You’re so annoying,” Charlie whined, settling into the space beside Nick, chest to chest and breaths brushing cheeks.
“You’re my boyfriend.” Nick opened his eyes and Charlie could barely see the expression on his face as their faces were a breath apart. He pushed forward enough to catch Charlie’s lips in a kiss.
There was something about the hazy morning; the bed, Nick, sleep still clinging to his mind, that made Charlie feel like his chest was full of fireflies. He gave in.
They kissed again and again, Nick’s sleep-warm fingers catching at the hem of Charlie’s shirt, brushing against a sliver of bare skin above his shorts. It made Charlie shiver into the touch, goosebumps forming across his arms and the back of his neck. Nick smirked into the kiss in an infuriating way that made Charlie kiss him harder.
Charlie rolled on top of Nick, resting on the other boy’s thighs. He revelled in the widening of Nick’s eyes as he leaned down to press another kiss to his lips. His skin burned where Nick was holding onto his waist. He loved how into kissing Nick was, how they had started to pour their passion for each other into every press of lips and tongues.
Nick broke the kiss with a giggle. “I think I like Morning Charlie.”
Charlie pressed Nick against the bed with a smirk on his lips. “Yeah?”
“I appreciate his enthusiasm.”
Just before their mouths could meet again, there was a loud knock at the door. Charlie squawked and scrambled off of Nick’s thighs and back under the covers.
“I hope you two aren’t naked in there,” Tao said from behind the door, his disdain evident. “Waking up was trauma enough this morning.”
“Shut up!” Charlie shouted, muffled by the duvet.
“You can come in,” Nick said, putting his arm around Charlie’s shoulders.
The door unlocked with a click and Tao groaned before heading to his side of the room. Isaac cooed at them from the doorway, much to Charlie’s dismay.
Tao moved in a flurry of movement between the bathroom and the bags sitting beside his side of the bed. “We have to start packing right now, or Mr Farook might actually throw hands.”
Charlie looked up at Nick, catching him looking back with that soft expression he had started giving him recently. It made Charlie’s heart do somersaults in his chest as he watched Nick’s eyes trail across his face and land at his mouth. He remembered all the things they said last night, about wanting and waiting and respect. Charlie smiled at Nick and watched any tension leach away from his face.
Tao gave an exaggerated throat clear from the middle of the room, his hands on his hips. He really did look like such a dad sometimes. Isaac gave a snort of laughter as he tucked book after book inside his own suitcase.
Charlie looked back to Nick, absorbing his warmth where their sides were pressed together under the duvet. He didn’t want to leave him, not knowing when they would get to share a bed again. Charlie’s hands found their way to Nick’s jumper, twisting into the fabric above the other boy’s chest. He leaned up and pressed the briefest peck to Nick’s cheek before slipping away and out of the bed.
Nick huffed and squinted at him as Charlie headed to the bathroom. He refrained from telling Nick that his expression reminded him of Nellie when she doesn’t get enough belly rubs.
“You can sleep on the coach,” Charlie called back to him.
“Can I sleep on you?” Nick asked.
“Gross,” Tao muttered under his breath as he shoved an obnoxious shirt into his backpack.
“Yeah,” Charlie answered, catching a glimpse of Nick’s brilliant smile before ducking into the bathroom. The bruise on his neck was fading, a small shadow below his jaw where it had been. When Charlie pressed a finger to it he could still feel Nick’s lips against his skin. Like glitter and flowers and their first kiss all over again.
He wanted to go back to the start of the trip and do it all over again, absorbing the sights of Paris and the feeling of Nick closer to him than ever before. Maybe they didn’t get to kiss in front of the Mona Lisa, but he wouldn’t change a thing.
He wondered what it would be like, to be in school and have everyone know about the two of them, but he didn’t really care, as long as he had Nick.