Work Text:
Nick never knew what it was like to have your time free until he decided to get an after school job. Sure, yeah, when David used to complain about having one, he thought he was just being a big man baby like he normally was. David had always been overdramatic as a teen and worse by the time he left for uni, so Nick figured that with his Mum struggling a bit that it would be easy to get some extra money to help her and himself.
God, how wrong he was.
It wasn’t like he didn’t like his job. The cafe that took him on for those couple of hours wasn’t that busy normally on weekdays and by the time he got there at 3:30 in the afternoon, it was mostly quiet until closing time at 5:30 in the evening. Weekends and holidays, however? Different story. Some days you couldn’t even get a word in edgeways and when you could, it was brief and not worth using anyway.
It had been one of those days, at the start of the summer holidays, when the beach became popular and tourists came flooding into the area, that he first saw him. A boy, standing at the back of the line of people out the door. Dark-haired and quiet, keeping to himself.
Something about him caught Nick’s eye and he doesn’t know why, but he found himself rather distracted by him as he mans the till and has all other eyes in the room on him as he talks and fills orders and tries to be the best server he can be. Nick doesn’t usually see customers that look like they might cry at the top of their hat, so he chalks the strange feeling in his chest up to that and keeps himself in check as the boy nears closer and closer to the counter till he’s finally standing in front of him.
Nick just puts on one of his winning smiles and looks at him like everyone else. “Hiya, what will it be today?”
“...Skinny flat white, two sugars, full fat milk please.” The boy’s voice is rather quiet and Nick almost misses what he asks for, but then he orders a pastry along with it and Nick manages to input both with the register, their fingers touching when he hands over a bank note, making him bite his lip before he shakes himself and hands the change back over before he can get more into that. “Alright, that’s all good. Just need your name for the cup, please.”
“Charlie.” The boy looks up through his beanie, blue eyes so dark and heartbroken it makes Nick hurt just looking into them. “It’s- Charlie. Yeah.”
“Nice to meet you, Charlie. I’m Nick. That’ll be ready in two ticks.” Nick tries to smile at him again, hoping it might somehow brighten his day, but this so called “Charlie” is already looking back down at his phone and walking to the pick up counter, where a similar looking girl to him is waiting with what looks like a clear tumbler full of some weird drink. Huh.
Nick just tries to get back to what he’s doing. He can’t let something as silly as someone being sad bother him. He would have been fired by now if he interacted with everyone sad on a deeper level. It sucks to say that, but it’s true.
He pretends those eyes haven’t affected him in some way he’s still not sure about, however.
“Charlie” (or so he said that was his name) seems to come into the cafe only on Mondays.
It’s not like he doesn’t come in on other days (he’s seen him with what seems to be a few friends at his sides or that girl from before with him), but Monday seems to be the best bet for Nick to see him up close as Mondays are when he approaches the counter instead of straying behind or waiting outside on the footpath and letting others order for him.
It’s actually gotten to the point where it’s so frequent they see eachother that Nick knows what he’s going to order before he does, already brimming with a paper bag with one of that day’s specials within its thin walls and that ever infamous skinny flat white with two. He hopes that “Charlie” doesn’t find that too creepy, but it seems that he’s into it as he always has a small smile when approaching him these days.
It drops as soon as he crosses the threshold of the front door and goes back outside, but Nick’s grateful for it nonetheless, even if he’s still quite lost as to exactly why. He of course tried to Google it when he was staying up on his laptop at home, but that led to some results that he’d rather not talk about. Mostly to do with being, well, gay.
Now, it wasn’t that Nick was discounting that route entirely. He was still a teenager and despise having feelings for a lot of girls growing up, he heard that could change as you got older. He still felt the same though, so he really didn’t think that could be it. Plus, if he ever brought anything up like that around people like David, he’d never hear the end of it. So it’s really just better to keep all this stuff to himself, even if it might be driving him insane.
(It’s also led to a small freakout where he’s messed up his room pretty bad as well, but he’s trying not to let his Mum in on his reasons for that. She doesn’t need to worry over him.)
Anyway, that didn’t matter in the long run. He got plenty of smiles during work, so maybe “Charlie” was just one of the more nicer ones he saw. Or so he pretends for now.
Pretending however can only get you so far and nearly a month after their first encounter and in the turmoil of that morning’s argument with David (fucking arsehole) who’d come home for the weekend from university as well as the downpour that accompanied him to work (a sure-fire sign that school was around the corner), Nick’s at the end of his rope and wants to scream when something in one of the booths catches his eye. Usually, he would have been swamped by now as the holidays were coming to an end and it was starting to get windier and colder, but it seems the rain had driven away everyone but those brave or desperate enough to be in it.
This meant that other than a couple of takeaways, the cafe was abnormally empty, bar this one customer who Nick doesn’t even have to see the front of to recognise, the large mop of curly black hair peeking over the cab seat giving him away.
It’s “Charlie” and he looks very upset, which makes Nick’s headache suddenly drop down to settle in his chest, a place he never thought headaches could even go to. “Charlie” wasn’t exactly the happiest person Nick ever met, but he certainly shouldn’t be curled up in the corner of a booth in a raincoat with a face that was more wet than just from a little rain.
He’s nursing a cup of something in his gloved hands that’s not his usual, a pastry half eaten on the plate beside him as he just sits there, eyes a thousand miles away. Nick wonders where he’s gone and if he should even try to bring him back, when he stops himself. He shouldn’t be getting involved in other people’s problems. Not while he’s on the clock.
He only makes it about 15 minutes before he /has/ to do something about it though, a little too worried about his customer’s mental state (as well as his loneliness) and moves to the table in what looks like hopeful confidence. “Hi Charlie, didn’t expect to see you in today.”
“Charlie” startles, but manages to catch himself before he can spill his roder all over his coat, distant eyes from before disappearing and anxiety taking over. “Oh. Hi. Um-”
“Nick. My name is Nick, yeah?” Nick reminds him softly and rather gently, as he can’t blame him for not remembering his name. When you are in a job like his, so the others that trained him up warned him, people tend to forget your name on a minute-by-minute basis, so it’s handy to pretend it doesn’t bristle you. “I just wanted to come and check on you. You alright?”
“Fine, yeah. Thanks.” “Charlie” can’t meet him in the eye when he says that, so Nick gets the feeling he’s not a very good liar and manages to maneuver himself to sit down across from the other boy, itchy fingers on his cleaning cloth tingling. “Are you sure? You don’t seem yourself today. If that’s overstepping though, I don’t want to do that.”
“Charlie” just looks at him pathetically before sniffling. Yep. Okay, definitely something wrong here. “Charlie” is too handsome to be crying. Wait, where did that come from?
As the shock of his internal monologue and it’s weird responses settled over him, Nick almost missed the barely uttered sentence of “I had a fight with my Mum.” coming from Charlie’s mouth and only managed to catch it out of sheer coincidence. “A fight with your Mum, aye? That sucks. I had a fight with my brother this morning, so I kind of get that frustration. Families are just all wankers deep down, honestly.”
Apparently, that made “Charlie” laugh a little and it made Nick’s heart sing to see an almost smile back on the other’s cheeks. Looking down, Nick’s attention (which was very limited thanks to a diagnosis of ADHD when he was younger) is once again taken by “Charlie’s” current meal and he frowns when he realizes he hasn’t seen that particular pastry before, making a noise in the back of his throat. “Huh, the owner must have brought something new out over the weekend while I was preparing for school.”
“Oh, really?” Charlie blinks, looking down at the plate as well. “I only got it because it was in the window. It’s really good. I think it’s some sort of…scroll, jammy dodger like thing? You can try it if you want. I mean, you work here so you’ll probably try it, you don’t have to try mine, that sounds really weird and awful and so-”
“Charlie.” Nick chuckles as the poor boy tries to correct and justify himself. “It’s alright, I don’t mind trying it actually. If you okay with me taking your afternoon tea, that is.”
“Please.” “Charlie” physically moves the plate towards him with a few fingers, his smile from earlier becoming squeamish and shy as he observes Nick carefully pick the aforementioned dessert up and pops it in his mouth, eyes becoming bright. “Wow, now that is sweet as, oh my god, it’s got to have like a full cup of sugar in there.”
“I know right?” “Charlie” laughs with him and it’s a much nicer sound than seeing him sad, Nick can definitely say that for certain. “It almost numbed my tongue the first time I tried it.”
“Oh dear, can’t have that happening can we?” Nick grinned, pleased he managed to get the other boy laughing so much. It seems “Charlie” feels the same as while his laughter fades out, his smile doesn’t. “Thankyou.”
“Only doing my job, plus you have a smile to kill for.” The words come out of Nick’s mouth faster than his brain can catch up to stop them and both he and “Charlie” just stare at eachother for a good long moment before Nick mumbles embarrassingly about needing to get back to work and rather sadly, walks away from “Charlie” despite wanting to go straight back to go out the back for a moment.
When he returns, the plate is still there, but “Charlie” is not. His cup is also gone, meaning he just up and left. Nick wants to kick the shit out of himself, but resigns in the hope that “Charlie” maybe just had to duck off and would be back soon enough as he cleans the table. Sadly, that hope wanes over time as suddenly Nick notices that “Charlie:” doesn't come in for the rest of the holidays. God, he really must have done something wrong then. He’s gone and scared what could have honestly been his favourite customer off for good.
He doesn’t care that the leaves are changing, that the breeze is picking up, how Nellie looks after rolling in piles of dirt and downtrodden leaves. He cares right now if “Charlie” is okay and safe and not haiting him and sadly, he doesn’t get an answer to the point where the questions he has about the boy he met during the holidays for those few brief moments follow him right into school and to his new homeroom as he waits for the class to start at 9:00 am.
Doodling in his textbook at his desk does barely anything to ease the tension he’s feeling, that is until he’s looking up and his breath leaves him in a rush so violent that if the winter weather had arrived a few months ahead of time, he would have given himself a smokescreen.
Thankfully, blessedly, he needs nothing like that now because he’s either dreaming or extraordinarily lucky because there is “Charlie”, in the flesh, staring back at him and dressed in a Truham uniform and- Jesus Christ, how has he never seen “Charlie’ here before?!
Trying his damnest not to suddenly beam and become a lighthouse, blinding the entire classroom’s eyes, Nick keeps his composure as Charlie sits beside him, the same look of awe in his eyes as they stare at eachother. Charlie is the first to break.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
It’s not the first hi they’ve ever had, but he doesn’t even know yet that it’s definitely not going to be the last.