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As a kid, Nick used to wear a lot of patterned clothes. The patterns felt like showing part of his personality to the world; he was a boy who liked pretty things. He liked colourful polka dots and flowers, cute animals and characters. His favourite pair of socks had little dog faces that reminded him of Nellie.
Nick was happy with his clothes and didn’t think much about them. But one day, he had to take a shower at school after rugby practice. Usually he would head for home with his dirty training kit on, but Sarah was going to pick him up to go straight to his aunt’s, so he had to change into clean clothes. After the shower, when Nick was in the locker room putting on his patterned dog socks, Harry made fun of him for wearing “those stupid socks”. Nick still remembers the next words that came out of his teammate's mouth: “How will you ever get a girl if you wear little kids’ clothes?” Everyone laughed at him and Nick had to contain his tears to prevent more mocking. That’s when he stopped wearing his cute socks at school and reserved them for home.
Sadly, his home stopped being his patterned oasis one weekend when his brother, David, was back home from uni. It was really hard to find boys’ clothes with patterns that weren’t cars or dinosaurs, but Nick had found a polo t-shirt covered with daisies –his favourite flowers, in fact– and that, obviously, became his dearest one. That shirt was what he was wearing when his mum offered to take her boys out for dinner to their favourite pizza place.
“You are going out of the house wearing that?” David asked Nick, his deprecating look showing his disapprovement of the outfit. “Isn’t that a girls’ shirt?”
Sarah scolded David and left him without pizza. However, that day something changed for Nick; he realised that there were things that he couldn’t do as a boy. So, when he outgrew his patterned clothes, he started wearing plain boyish colours.
Everything changed again with the appearance of one Charlie Spring in his life. As Sarah noted, Nick was much more himself around him. That’s why he decided to wear a flowery shirt that barely fitted him for Harry’s birthday. He had invited Charlie to the party and wanted to show his true colours to him. That worked really well for Nick, because that was the night he kissed Charlie for the first time. And they’ve been together since.
Still, it took Nick some time and some of Charlie’s encouragement to wear his favourite patterned clothes again. For a long time, the most daring t-shirt he wore was a light blue and pink striped one. But one rainy day, Charlie got to Nick’s house wet from head to toe. In the need of dry clothes, Nick pointed out to him the drawer where he kept the clothes that didn’t fit him anymore. When Charlie opened the drawer, he found all of Nick’s patterned treasures.
“Nick! What’s all this?” Charlie asked, with an amused look on his face. Nick was embarrassed that his secret stash had been found. Charlie immediately sensed Nick’s discomfort and, to put Nick at ease, he added, “I love all of these things. Why don’t you wear them anymore?” Nick told him they were worn-out or didn’t fit him anymore.
Of course, his boyfriend saw this as a half-truth. “I know you’re holding something back. I won’t pressure you, but please remember I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
Nick felt a rush of affection for his amazing boyfriend. Once Charlie had changed into Nick’s old polka dot t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants that were too big on him, he laid in the bed next to Nick and pulled him onto his chest. In that cocoon, with Charlie caressing his hair, Nick shared the true reasons why he had stopped wearing his favourite clothes. He told him about Harry and David as well as all the hints he had found in his life that a boy wasn’t supposed to wear certain clothes or colours.
On Nick’s next birthday, as a surprise present, Charlie took him to a thrift store to choose some new clothes. They both tried out a lot of clothes and had fun choosing outfits for the other that they knew they would never wear. In the end, Nick left the store with only three new items for his wardrobe: a blue t-shirt with a subtle leaf pattern, and two button up shirts, one black with white polka dots and another one light blue with flowers. The latter reminded Nick of the one he had worn the day of his first kiss with Charlie.
That was how, with the help and support of his amazing boyfriend, Nick Nelson went back to showing his true self through his outfits. Sarah got excited when she realised her Nick was back and took him shopping too. Nick ended up with a multicoloured eclectic wardrobe that made him truly happy.
When Christmas came, Nick received from Charlie two similar messily wrapped packages. One had six pairs of socks, with fun patterns like palm trees, flowers, dogs and Avengers logos. The last pair was more formal, blue with subtle polka dots.
“You can wear them with your school uniform”, Charlie clarified and Nick just melted at his boyfriend’s thoughtfulness.
When Nick went to open the second one, he realised it felt really similar to the first one. “Char, please tell me these aren’t socks too”, Nick said jokingly.
Charlie looked down embarrassed. “It was a silly idea. I can get you something else”, Charlie said as he tried (and failed) to take the gift back from Nick’s hands.
“No way!” Nick replied, rushing to open his gift. Of course, he found more socks, but these were all Christmas themed, one for each day until New Year. There were Christmas trees, colourful lights, little dogs with Santa hats, candy canes, snowflakes, reindeers and snowmen. For any other person, socks could be the worst Christmas present, but for Nick this was the perfect gift. They weren’t just socks; they were a reassurance that he could be himself, that it was okay to be a boy who liked boys (and girls), and who liked to wear cute patterned clothes.
Nick hugged Charlie and whispered in his ear, “Thank you! I love them and I love you”.
“Good, because I bought matching ones for me, but in different colours”, Charlie laughed, clearly relieved that Nick had liked his present.
That day, Nick and Charlie started their first Christmas tradition. And this Christmas is no different than those others and completely different at the same time. They have their cute matching socks, as always, but it’s the first Christmas in their own home. They even have a fireplace!
As he sits next to Charlie cozied up on their couch, in front of the recently lit fire with mugs of hot chocolate in their hands, and Daisy, their puppy, curled at their feet, Nick reflects on how far they’ve come. They have evidence of their journey hanging on the walls, pictures of the years together that show how much they’ve grown alongside each other to be the best versions of themselves they could be. Nick is proud to see his true colours all over that wall, next to the person that helped him show them to the world.