heartstopper oneshots!

lottery tickets

hi friends! this idea was a request from @Anoukxyz ! thank you so much for your patience, i recently got a new job and am packing to move back to school so i have been very busy! i hope you enjoy this short story. 

quick disclaimer: i don't really know how lottery tickets work in the UK as i am from the US, so i apologize if any of the rules or logistics don't make sense!

Nick and Charlie pulled up to the grocery store, Nick driving with Charlie playing music from the passenger seat. They were going shopping for some movie night snacks, a frequent activity for them. 

Each boy picked out a few treats, from mini cupcakes to their favorite crisps, and walked to the front of the store to get in line to check out. While they were waiting for their turn, Nick noticed the display of lottery tickets by the register. 

"Imagine if I got one of those and won a million pounds?" he joked to Charlie as they held their snacks. 

"You should buy one!" Charlie said excitedly, "you are 18 now after all," he smirked. 

"You're such a bad influence, Char," Nick said, shaking his head. "And you've influenced me. Here," he said, grabbing two different tickets, "I'll get us each one, since it was your idea. And if you win, I'll cash it for you." 

"Nick, no! Don't spend money on me!" Charlie said, nudging his boyfriend. 

"First of all, it's my turn to buy the movie night snacks, so I already am, and second, you can't un-influence me," said Nick as he placed the snacks and tickets onto the counter. 

"Fine," Charlie smiled, putting his snacks on the counter as well. 

After the cashier asked Nick for his ID, he paid for the groceries and tickets.

"Here, have this one," said Nick, handing Charlie one of the tickets, "it's sparkly."

Charlie smiled and rolled his eyes at Nick, and the two walked back out to Nick's car and began to drive home. 

A few minutes into the drive, Nick piped up, "Char?"

"Yeah?" replied Charlie, turning the music down. 

"I really can't wait to see if we won. Can you scratch them?"

Charlie giggled, "You are so, so impatient, Nicholas." He grabbed a spare coin from the center console and began to scratch off Nick's ticket. 

After he scratched off the last part and found that there was no winner, he was about to let Nick know that his card was a loser, when he realized he could give Nick a second chance. 

"Mine's got nothing," he lied, making sure that Nick was focused on the road and not observing him swapping the tickets. 

"Aww," Nick replied. After a moment, he spoke again, giddily, "are you gonna try mine?"

"Yes, Nicholas!" Charlie laughed, "you are literally incapable of waiting for anything."

"It's my first official lottery ticket!" Nick giggled as Charlie began to scratch off the numbers on what was supposed to be his own ticket. Five pounds, ten pounds, twenty pounds, fifty pounds!

"Holy shit, Nick, you won fifty pounds!" Charlie smiled, feeling glad that he had switched the tickets. He would've felt so guilty if he had won that much on a ticket that Nick bought for him. 

"You're joking, Charles," Nick said, glancing over at his boyfriend. 

"I'd never joke about free money!"

"We can go cash it tomorrow, and I'll use it to pay for the next date night!"

"Nick!" Charlie smiled, gently shoving Nick's shoulder, "it's your money! Plus, we have a strict turn-taking policy for this!"

"We established that before I was rich," Nick smirked as they pulled up to his house. 

-

The next morning, the two walked into the grocery store again, Nick holding his, or rather, what was originally Charlie's, winning ticket in his hand. 

Nick made small talk with the cashier for the few moments that it took her to cash his ticket and wished her a nice day as she handed him his winnings. Success, Charlie thought to himself as he and Nick began to leave the store. But, all of a sudden, Nick stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around and walked back up to the counter. 

"Sorry," he said to the cashier, "could I just look at that ticket one more time?"

Uh oh.

"Thank you," he said with a grin as the cashier showed him the ticket. "Just double checking," said Nick awkwardly with a nod as he walked away from the counter. 

He grabbed onto Charlie's hand and walked them out of the store quickly, stopping outside the door. 

"Charlie Spring," he said with a knowing grin, "correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure your ticket was the sparkly one. Mine was plain."

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Charlie replied, pretending to be confident. 

"Oh yeah?" Nick said, taking a step closer. "You definitely didn't switch our tickets while I was driving? So that I would win instead of you?"

"What! That's crazy. Why would the sparkly one be mine? I don't even like sparkles."

Nick raised and eyebrow. "I specifically gave you that one. Because you love sparkles."

Charlie looked down, trying to keep from smiling and blushing. 

"Charlieeeeeee!" Nick fake-whined, wrapping his boyfriend in a silly hug. "That was supposed to be your ticket!"

"It was your first time ever buying one for yourself!" Charlie replied, "I wanted it to be special. 

Nick sighed, ruffling the curls on top of Charlie's head. "You're too sweet for your own good." 

Charlie shrugged, "sorry."

"Hey! No s-word," smiled Nick as he placed a kiss on Charlie's cheek. "It's okay, I'm just gonna spend it all on our next date like I said."

"Why don't you understand how taking turns works, Nicholas?"

"I do! But this was supposed to be your money, and it was supposed to be your turn, but then you decided to be all sneaky, so now I am deciding that the rules don't exist anymore."

"Now you're the bad influence!" smiled Charlie as they walked hand in hand back to the car.

💕

i hope you liked this little story! let me know what you think in the comments! x sophie