Chapter Text
It’s a mild spring afternoon out on the pitch. Beams of sunlight break through the dim sky, chasing away the dreary storm clouds that had been threatening to dampen the ground all afternoon. Charlie tends to run cold, so he gladly welcomes the new warmth carried on the light breeze as he tugs his polo sleeves farther down into his palms. Today’s rugby practice was gruelling in preparation for their next match against St. John’s, and the sweat he worked up has since been sending chills down his spine. He doesn’t mind it too much, though; any spare moment he can steal with Nick is worth the discomfort.
Charlie helps his friend collect cones and sort jerseys in the sports storage room, which has become common practice whenever one of them is on team chore duty. The boys finish up with the tasks before plopping down to laze in a sunny patch in the middle of the end zone. At least, Charlie lies down; Nick starts climbing on the football goal with his seemingly endless energy supply. It’s pretty typical of them to assume these respective places while they wait on a ride from their parents.
“Wanna do some more tackling practice?” Nick calls down to Charlie from his perch atop the metal frame.
“Ugh, my legs are literally still jelly from the last ten tackles.” Charlie weakly lifts one and lets it limply drop back on the grass to demonstrate his point.
“Fair. How about just tossing ‘round a ball then?”
“My arms are dead too. Seriously Nick, how are you not completely worn out by now?”
“Nah, I am. Just need something to pass the time I guess.” His legs are dangling while he braids together loose threads on the football net.
Charlie groans in mock exasperation but can't refuse the small smile tugging at his mouth. “Okay, why don’t we do some cloud watching then.”
The suggestion makes his friend immediately perk up. “Ooh, I have an idea! We should race to find the coolest cloud. Winner gets treated to a milkshake?”
“Deal,” Charlie says as fondness swells in his chest. Friendly competitiveness quickly replaces it though, so he adds, “You’re totally going down, by the way.”
“Oi! We’ll see about that.”
The boys begin their hunt, laughter periodically ringing through the field as Nick points out cloud after cloud of increasingly absurd and vague shapes: a kite, a daisy, a jelly bean, a cotton ball, a puddle of melted ice cream. Charlie hasn’t shared any yet because he happens to value quality over quantity, thank you very much. His patience pays off when he spots what he knows will be the winning find a few minutes later.
“Nick, over there! That one looks like a dog,” he cheers, pride evident in his voice.
The blonde cranes his neck to inspect the area of sky in question. “Hm, I’m not seeing it,” he hums after seeming to contemplate it for a moment.
“That’s because you’re looking at it wrong.”
With a huff, Nick turns around and leans back until he’s hanging upside down on the post by his legs. A ray of light turns his hair golden as it falls away from his forehead. “Oh yeah, it really does. There’s no way I’m beating that one. Guess I owe you a milkshake date, then.”
The word choice and lopsided smirk make butterflies take flight in Charlie’s stomach. He picks himself off the ground and hesitantly walks over to stand in front of his crush-turned-best-friend. Crinkles in the corner of Nick’s eyes from squinting against the sun fade momentarily in the newfound shade, but come back tenfold as a wide smile breaks across his face. Having Nick beam at him is as intoxicating as ever, and Charlie decides now that he could spend hours counting every single freckle that dusts those rosy cheeks.
“Nick?” He’s had plenty of time to rest since running around earlier, but his voice still comes out slightly breathless.
“Yeah?”
All Charlie can do is dumbly stand there, words refusing to leave his mouth as he helplessly opens and closes it a few times.
“What? What’s up?” Nick gently prompts, with his familiar smile and searching honey eyes.
It’s not exactly a split-second decision; it’s something Charlie’s been fantasising about for months. But the sunshine, the birdsong, the world in fresh bloom—something about this moment makes him throw all caution to the wind. He’ll probably regret giving in to it later, but all he can think about right now is how much he wants.
Before he can second guess himself, Charlie leans forward and plants a chaste kiss on Nick’s mouth.
And while it’s true that he was expecting to feel regretful later, what he didn’t expect was for later to come so soon.
“Sor—!”
“Wh—?”
They start up at the same time but are cut off by a couple short horn beeps. Charlie whips his head around to find his dad pulling into the car park across the field, gravel rolling in his stomach like it is under the tires. Without sparing a heartbeat, he slings his bags over his shoulder and breaks out into a sprint through the grass.
“Sorry, gotta go!”
“Charlie? Charlie, wait!” Nick calls after him but he can’t bring himself to turn around.
He doesn’t bother stopping to put his stuff in the boot, opting to cram it at his feet as he throws himself into the passenger seat. “Hey Dad! Practice was great, let’s go.”
Julio furrows his brow and juts his chin as he peers past his son. “That’s great, Charlie. Is Nick okay?”
Charlie chances a quick glance out the window to find his friend a mess of flailing limbs tangled in the goal net. Yeah, maybe that wasn’t the best time to make a move. He rushes on to fill the increasingly uncomfortable silence.
“Oh? Um, yeah, he’s fine. Happens nearly every week. He always manages to get himself out though. Ha.” Charlie only hopes he’s not completely overcompensating with the pseudo flippancy as he worries the inside of his cheek.
“Hm.” His dad sounds a little sceptical but nods along nonetheless, not pressing the issue further as he puts the gear in drive. “Alright, well get your seatbelt on then. Your mum’s got some lasagne waiting at home.”
Charlie looks out the window one last time when they pull away from the school, just in time to see Nick finally remove himself from the droopy net. He jogs toward them for a few steps before defeatedly running a hand through his hair as he grows smaller in the rear view mirror.
Okay, so kissing his friend out of the blue like that definitely wasn’t Charlie’s brightest idea. That will have to be a problem for future-him to deal with, though.