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After coming out as bisexual on Instagram Nick was steadily given a small collection of pink, purple and blue gifts. Charlie brought him a pin for his school bag, Elle a new notebook, and his mum brought him new swimming shorts when he’d asked about getting new ones after his growth spurt. He couldn’t help but give her a long hug when he saw the colours on the one’s she’d ordered for him. Then came Tara and Darcy.
“So Nick-oh-lassss,” Darcy said on one of their final days of school. Since coming back from France the Paris Squad had grown a lot closer. Nick had expected Darcy’s demeanor to shift after being kicked out by their mum. But Darcy seemed more comfortable now they lived somewhere they felt safe and accepted. “This wall of yours, kinda gay.”
Nick turned to look at the wall above his bed. He’d added a few pictures from prom and Paris. Other than the one from a rugby match in year 10 every single one featured Charlie in one way or another. Charlie blushed from where he was tucked under Nick’s arm.
“I wanted to put up this picture Tori gave me of Charlie when he dressed up as a cat for Halloween when they were kids-”
“Not happening,” Charlie cut him off, making Tara and Darcy both laugh as Nick pouted.
“We should make it more bi,” Darcy said, adding jazz hands.
Nick looked up at the space, mentally trying to picture what Darcy might have in mind and coming up blank.
“Like a picture of Zoe Deschanel or Aubrey Plaza?”
“Leave it to me my freckled friend. Your favourite lesbians have this handled,” Darcy said, linking arms with Tara and leading her from the room.
“Are you still staying for dinner?” Nick called out as they left the room.
“Darcy, what exactly are you thinking? Because I know that look,” Tara chuckled as Darcy sat themselves down in Nick’s living room, both of them waving at Sarah as she came in from walking Nellie.
Darcy pulled out their phone, showing Tara a curated Amazon wish list they’d made purely for Nick. Tara scrolled through selecting some items that she thought would be nice to buy in celebration of Nick and deleting some that featured too many realistic dicks and vagina’s.
“But that would look so good proudly displayed above Nick’s bed,” Darcy pouted.
“We are not putting something like that where our Queen Sarah Nelson might see it,” Tara said as she handed Darcy back their phone. “But I’m fine with the rest.”
Darcy grinned, chuckling to themselves as they tapped away on their phone, their face turning serious as they assessed each option.
The very next day, thanks to the wonderful workers and the magic of Amazon prime a small Jiffy bag landed on the Nelson’s welcome mat.
Nick and Charlie had been too distracted to hear the envelope being posted through the letterbox. They had been given an hour alone while Sarah went out with Nellie for a visit to the vet.
Any time they were granted an empty house there was only ever going to be one thing they ended up doing. Usually it started with Nick shooting Charlie a smile filled with mischief, often making Charlie blush. Charlie’s blush usually led to Nick reaching over to poke at his dimples or kiss his warm cheek. One would lead the other to Nick’s bed and their lips would become occupied with the other’s until they heard the loud signal of the door opening which inevitably made them spring apart and take a moment to right the bed and their clothes.
This day was no different. Nick had just rolled Charlie onto his back, his lips working with Charlie’s in a lazy heated kiss. Since coming to an agreement in Paris on neither being ready to go any further their make out sessions always left them both breathless and usually with one of them having a hickey to try and hide for the next couple of days.
When the door loudly closed on that day Nick had just started daring to kiss further down Charlie’s neck, gently pushing the collar of Charlie’s shirt to the side so his lips could graze against Charlie’s collarbone. Charlie let in a sharp inhale nodding when he sensed Nick was about to ask if this was okay. The exact moment Nick was about to ask if he could mark Charlie there they heard the familiar sound of the door opening and closing.
“Shit,” Charlie gasped, as Nick left out a frustrated growl.
“Nicky you’ve got mail!” Sarah called up the stairs to her son.
Nick looked down at Charlie, glad neither had gotten too carried away with the hickey’s that day. “We’ll pick this up later.” The way Nick whispered those words made Charlie’s heart skip a beat. And if he was being frank with himself, his dick also did a quick twitch.
A few minutes later the boys walked downstairs, fingers brushing together as they sat close together on the sofa.
“Darcy brought you something already?” Charlie chuckled, as he watched Nick tear open the Jiffy bag.
“It’s very light Nick, what is it?” Sarah asked. Nick reached in pulling out a small piece of fabric no bigger than his palm the colours of the bisexual pride flag. “Is it a patch for your bag or jacket?”
“It’s a little thin and…stiff for a patch.” Charlie observed, picking the rectangle up from Nick’s palm. “I was expecting something more…obnoxious.”
“I know just where to put it.” Nick grinned, heading straight up to this room to place the flag in the perfect empty spot in his photo collage, before he got distracted (probably by Charlie) and forgot or somehow lost the small flag under his sofa or within his room.
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“So how does it look?” Darcy asked as their greeting. The Paris squad all met a few days later for movie night in the Nelson's living room. “Can I see it? We should all go see mine and Tara’s gift and bask in the joint pride.”
“Show them before Tao gets here and insists there’s no time before the movie.” Charlie said, leading the way to Nick’s room.
“Where is it?” Darcy started looking around like Nick might have set up some kind of scavenger hunt.
“Right here,” Nick poked the flag with his finger. “It was the perfect size.”
“What the actual fucking bollocks on log is that?” Darcy marched over to Nicks wall, their nose almost touching with how closely they inspected the flag.
“Why’d you get such a small one?” Tara asked, gracefully plopping herself onto Nick’s bean bag chair.
“I didn’t!” Darcy insisted, throwing their hands up. “There’s got to have been some kind of mix up. You should’ve informed me of this Nicholas.”
Darcy started tapping away on their phone. Nick and Charlie shared a look both shrugging as Darcy began mumbling under their breath as they found the order on their amazon account.
“Look,” Darcy showed Tara, Nick and Charlie the listing.
“Oh my god Darcy,” Tara giggled, swiping through the example pictures.
“I’ve seen this happen to people on TikTok. They order a chair and practically get dollhouse furniture.” Charlie said, looking over Tara’s shoulder. It was true the picture’s did not show how small the flag would be. But on closer inspection the listing had the sizing further down.
“I can’t believe you still put it up. I’ll return it, get a proper one.” Darcy sighed defeated.
“No way I love it.” Nick beamed, standing back admiring the wall like he had done multiple times since he’d proudly blue tacked it to his wall. “It’s perfect Darcy.”
“You fucking with me Nelson?” Darcy asked, although they could already tell Nick was being sincere.
“I’m not fucking with you. It’s my first bi flag and I’m going to display it with pride,” Nick said with a nod that meant the matter was settled in his mind.
Nick, Darcy and Charlie turned around as they heard Tara sniffling behind them.
“What? Can’t a lesbian cry over her partner giving the guy she shared her first kiss with an amazon scam?” Tara chuckled, wiping away her tears as they all met in a group hug.