Chapter Text
Nick wakes up in an expansive all-white room and blinks up at the ceiling several times trying to adjust to the brightly lit room. Once he feels he has caught his bearings he sits up and looks around the never-ending room.
“Nicholas,” comes from an unknown source.
Nick has never been a religious man but he has no other explanation, “God?”
“What?” The voice replies, “Ahh, hold on.”
Nick raises an eyebrow then suddenly a person in an all-white jumpsuit with a blond mullet sticking out of a white cap appears in front of him.
“Still getting used to this whole thing,” the person mutters while dusting off their arms then readjusting their cap.
“Umm…” Nick says, mouth agape, “Am I dreaming?”
“Yes and no,” the person says, tilting their hand left to right. Nick stares at the person in front of him blankly, unsure what is happening. “Oh, you’re new here? How exciting!”
“New where exactly?” Nick asks, squinting.
“Ahh, well,” they start.
“And who are you?” Nick asks.
“I’m your guardian gayngel!” they announce with flourish, “And my name is Darcy, but pretend I told you that first.”
Nick stares ahead at Darcy, “Did you say guardian-”
“Gayngel,” Darcy states with a nod.
Nick feels like his heart is trying to escape out of his chest. This has to be some type of weird fever dream brought onto him by that dumb Buzzfeed quiz. What does some quiz that was created before Nick was a glint in his mother’s eye know anyway?
“Right, sure,” Nick laughs, the denial staining his lips, “Gayngel. Okay.”
“Oh,” Darcy says, pressing their lips together momentarily, “you’re new-new here.”
“Where?” Nick repeats, starting to feel frustrated.
“Anyway!” Darcy jumps and turns around, “You should probably follow me, Nicholas.”
Right. Nick hastily scrambles to his feet catching up to Darcy. “If you won’t tell me where I am, can you tell me what I’m doing here?”
“Oh, yes,” Darcy states, stopping in their tracks and turning to face Nick. “You’re having a gay crisis and you asked for help, and well- here I am!”
Nick’s breath hitches.
“Let’s keep on,” Darcy adds with a sympathetic smile, before turning around and continuing their trek. “I have something to show you.”
Nick trails after Darcy and asks, “If you’re my guardian gayngel, can I ask you something?”:
“Yes,” Darcy answers, “but first, I would like you to meet someone.” Right before Nick’s eyes, is an all-white door—that definitely wasn’t there two seconds ago—appears and Darcy holds it open for Nick as he steps through.
The room is warmly lit and full of comfy-looking furniture that reminds him of something he would see at his grandmother’s house. The walls around him are lined with bookshelves so tall that Nick can’t see the top. A man in white dungarees and white long-sleeved undershirt sits behind a dark brown wooden desk, also covered in more books.
“Good evening, Isaac, we got a new one,” Darcy says as they shut the door behind them. “Go ahead, Nick, you can ask now.”
Nick really has no idea what is going on but if he’s hallucinating, he hopes he doesn’t say anything out loud.
Nick takes a deep breath, “What does 62% even mean? How could I have had a crush on girls in the past but now I think I like a boy?” Nick continues rambling not even knowing what he’s asking anymore but Isaac nods along to every word with rapt attention. “What do I do?”
Isaac looks at Darcy with a single nod then walks away, fading into the vast darkness.
Nick’s eyes widen in panic as he looks at Darcy, waving his hands around in question.
“Don’t worry,” Darcy gently says, “Isaac is our librarian and has answers to questions no one has asked before.”
“Darcy, what do I do?” Nick cries, “He’s the best friend I’ve ever had and-”
“Here you go,” Isaac reappears handing Nick a book with a pink, purple, and blue ombre cover with big letters stating Everything You Need to Know About Bisexuality.
“Read this,” Darcy smiles, “That armchair in the corner under the lamp is the cosiest seat in this room, and I’ll even bring you my favourite blanket.”
Nick hardly registers what they say, too busy running his fingers over the matte book cover. Darcy gently guides him to the chair, and Isaac places a hot cup of tea on the end table next to him as Nick becomes completely absorbed in the book.
🍃🍃🍃
“Oh, not this again,” Charlie huffs as he stands up, “Tara!”
“Hello to you too, Charlie,” Tara starts as she twinkles in, “How was your day, Tara? Oh, mine was good, thanks for asking Charlie, how was yours?”
Charlie rolls his eyes, “I’m not exactly new here, Tara.”
“And yet you asked for help,” Tara states before softening, “Tell me what happened.”
“You know what happened,” Charlie whispers, looking down and dragging his foot across the floor in front of the other. “I fell for a straight boy.”
“But?” Tara presses.
“Tori said she doesn’t think he’s straight,” Charlie replies. “We’re supposed to hang out next week during the Easter holidays, and I don’t know what to do.”
“What are you afraid of happening?” Tara asks.
“I don’t know… What if he figures out that I like him and then he never talks to me again?” Charlie sighs.
“Well, as your guardian gayngel, I can tell you that is not going to happen,”
“But how do you know?” Charlie whines but stops when Tara fixes him a glare. “Right.”
“Let’s go talk to Isaac?” Tara asks.
Charlie nods and follows behind Tara. No matter how many times he’s been here—wherever here is—he can never seem to find the library door on his own. One time he ran into the door face first when he decided to lead Tara to the library on a particularly bad day. He never did that again.
“You go ahead,” Tara quietly says as she holds the door open for Charlie who walks right up to Isaac’s desk.
“Okay he’s all settled with the soft blanket,” a gayngel with a blond mullet says as they walk behind the circulation desk, grabbing a chair and kicking their feet onto the desk.
“Darcy,” Issac chides and pushes Darcy’s feet off his desk, then turns to Charlie.
Charlie knows the drill and doesn’t wait for Isaac to go on his usual spiel, “I fell for a straight boy… again,” Charlie sighs.
“Did he tell you he is straight?” Isaac asks.
“Well, no… but he’s not gay either.” Charlie answers.
“You know bisexuality exists right? And pansexuality and asexuality?”
“Well, yes…” Charlie sheepishly replies.
“This one, tonight.” Isaac states, holding a book out in front of him. Charlie takes the book and glances at the familiar shiny pale-yellow cover.
“Straight, Gay, and Everything in Between? I’ve read this one before,” Charlie sighs.
“And this,” Isaac states, handing Charlie another book titled So You Fell for a Straight Boy… Again.
“Thanks, Isaac,” Charlie sincerely replies as he walks to the reading area to his favourite two-seater, across from the armchair that the newbies usually sit in.
Charlie plops down and puts one of the throw pillows on his lap, resting his head and cracking open one of the books. He’s not even halfway through the introduction page when he feels like he’s being watched and looks up. Across from him is Nick Nelson—the boy haunting his every gay thought—staring right at him.
“Oh, hi,” Charlie says with an awkward half-wave. “How’s your book?”
“Uhm,” Nick gulps, “I think it might be me?”
“Thank you for telling me,” Charlie smiles. “Do you wanna talk about it, or the book? I’ve been here a lot and have read nearly every book, but not that one. Or we can just sit here- never mind.” Charlie ducks his head and tries to focus on the book, when next to him the seat shifts.
“We can read it together,” Nick says, sitting back on the small sofa, “I haven’t got very far into it yet anyway.”
🍃🍃🍃
“Get your feet off my desk, Darcy,” Isaac states, grabbing a stack of books to reshelve and walking away.
“Yes, Mum,” Darcy sarcastically replies, standing up from the chair to check on Nick, only to find him sitting with the curly-haired boy that came in with another gayangel not too long ago, their heads presses together and quietly laughing with each other.
Darcy turns to the other gayangel, her beauty taking their breath away, “Hi.”
“Hi,” she repeats, “I’m Tara.”
Even her voice is beautiful. “Darcy,” they reply, then quickly remembers what they were going to ask. “Should we do something about them?”
“Nah,” Tara waves off. “When they wake up, they’ll only remember what they read in the books as a thought they can’t shake. They won’t have any recollection of seeing each other here when they’re conscious.”
“That’s right,” Darcy nods.
“You’re new here?” Tara asks, turning her full attention to Darcy.
“He’s my first solo assignment,” Darcy answers, “I just got moved to the third floor this morning.”
“I’m on the third floor,” Tara grins. “You should come by my desk sometime. You know, in case you have any more questions.”
“They’ll probably be while, if you want to show me your desk now?” Darcy flirts.
“Yeah,” Tara smiles, “let’s do that.”
“Let’s do that,” Darcy repeats, holding onto Tara’s outstretched hand as they twinkle out of the library.