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“Will you tell me a secret?” Charlie asks, randomly out of the blue, eight months into his relationship with Nick. They’d met at a New Year’s party earlier on in the year, Charlie dressed as a pirate and Nick as Captain America. They’d both reached for the same bottle of rum in Tara’s kitchen, electricity buzzing beneath their skin as their fingers brushed.
Nick had stuttered an apology, eyes wide and sparkling, and Charlie was head over heels immediately. He doesn’t remember what he said, honestly—his brain was focused on the fact that the most gorgeous human he’d ever seen was in front of him—but whatever it was must have been witty, or maybe even flirty, because Nick had blushed the prettiest shade of pink and smiled at him all lopsided and next thing they both knew, they were the last two people at the party. They’d gone from random strangers to living in each other’s pockets immediately and Charlie had never felt a love like this—so pure, so sweet, so utterly domestic. He wasn’t sure if he believed in soulmates, but if he did, he was sure Nick was his.
Now, eight months later, he and Nick are lying on Nick’s bed, tangled together as one, Charlie’s head on Nick’s chest as Nick’s thumb rubs absentminded circles into his shoulder blades.
“Hmm, like what?” Nick hums, eyes closed, completely at peace.
“I don’t know,” Charlie shrugs. “I just want to know more about you.”
“You know me better than anyone else,” Nick tells him sincerely, popping one eye open to look at his boyfriend.
“Still,” Charlie insists, propping his chin on Nick’s chest to look at him. “There’s got to be something I don’t know.”
Charlie smiles softly as Nick opens both eyes, scrunching his face as he stares at his ceiling in thought.
“It doesn’t have to be like a big, dark secret, or whatever,” Charlie tells him after a beat. “Tell me something silly. Something inconsequential. Just something that most people don’t know about you.”
Charlie sees the moment Nick thinks about something, his entire face going pink.
“What is it?” He asks, interest piqued.
“I-” Nick hesitates. “It’s a bit ridiculous.”
Charlie raises an eyebrow.
“No, like, it’s absolutely shameful. I sort of hate myself for it sometimes but I can’t help it and–”
“Nick,” Charlie cuts him off, placing a hand on his jaw and stroking his cheek soothingly with his thumb. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’d love to know all the same. I really don’t want you to be uncomfortable, or ashamed, of anything with me. Whatever it is, you’ll still be my perfectly imperfect boyfriend as far as I’m concerned.”
Nick sighs, looking at Charlie briefly before returning his gaze to his ceiling. “I hate moisturizing.”
Charlie blinks, not expecting that to be Nick’s shameful secret. “What?”
“It–the act of moisturizing every body part is so tedious, especially my back. The lower part isn’t so bad, I guess, but my upper back is so annoying. Like my arms aren’t that flexible and I have to rub it in properly or it’ll be streaky and it’s all so irritating,” Nick rants, huffing angrily at the end. “So sometimes, I just don’t. Which is really bad, especially because I have dry skin but I truly cannot be arsed half the time.”
Charlie breathes a laugh, kissing his irate boyfriend gently. “Thank you for telling me.”
Nick quirks a small smile. “It does feel better to get it off my chest. Still love me now that you know my shameful secret?”
“Let me think,” Charlie strokes his own chin, laughing when Nick begins to tickle him in retaliation.
“Okay! Okay!” He concedes. “I still love you, an atrociously ridiculous amount actually.”
“I love you, too,” Nick grins, bringing Charlie into a kiss, followed by many others. “Now your turn.”
“Oh,” Charlie blinds, this time because he’s slightly dazed from the impromptu end to their make out session. “I still talk to Kitty—like she’s an actual person and not just a stuffed toy I got as a baby.”
“That is…the most adorable thing I have ever heard, oh my God.”
“Nick!”
“How are you the cutest fucking person ever?” Nick coos, squeezing Charlie’s face between his hands so he can smother him with kisses.
-
A few weeks later, they’re at Nick’s place again. Nick saunters out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist. There’s still droplets of water clinging to his skin as he opens his drawer to grab a pair of boxers.
Charlie sits on the bed, enjoying the view, the phone he was scrolling as he waited for Nick now discarded on the pillow next to him.
“Come here,” Charlie orders, sitting up properly and tapping the open space he’s made in the V of his legs.
Nick raises an eyebrow in question, even as he does as he’s told. Once his boyfriend is properly seated in front of him, the wide expanse of his back to Charlie, he reaches over to grab the moisturizer he’d previously placed on the nightstand when Nick was showering. He warms the Cetaphil in between his palms before he starts to massage it into Nick’s skin, starting at his shoulders and working his way down to the small of his back.
Nick cranes his neck as far as he can to face Charlie. “What are you–”
Charlie smiles, dimples poking out as he presses a gentle kiss to Nick’s shoulder blade. “You said you hated moisturizing, so I’m doing it for you.”
The words, so simple and sincere, bring tears to Nick’s eyes immediately. “Char,” Nick cuts himself off with a sniffle as he tries not to cry. Charlie breathes a laugh at his giant emotional rugby player, snaking his arms around Nick’s midriff.
“Oh, hush, you big baby,” He soothes, nuzzling into Nick’s jaw.
“I feel so loved,” Nick croaks.
Charlie kisses his cheek. “Good. Because you are. Infinitely.”
“You really don’t have to do this, though,” Nick protests, his voice wobbly and lips pouty, big brown eyes swimming. “I’m a grown man. I promise I can moisturize my own skin.”
“I know you can, you daft sod,” Charlie murmurs, lips tracing over Nick’s wet cheeks. “But I want to do this for you. You do so many sweet little things just to make my life a little bit easier. I want to do the same for you, always.”
Nick finally turns around completely, engulfing the man he absolutely adores in a crushing hug. “I’ll never know what I did to deserve you, to deserve to be loved like this, but I’m so fucking grateful.”
“You were you, baby, and that was all it was ever going to take,” Charlie tells him. “Now turn around and let me finish, and then we can cuddle after, yeah?”