Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Comfortable

Tuesday morning, Nick was bent over his maths homework all form. Charlie glanced at the page over his shoulder. "You know there's an easier way to do that, right?"

Nick frowned at him. "If I knew that, wouldn't I be doing it that way?"

Charlie smiled, taking the pen from him. "Here. Let me show you."

He demonstrated the problem and its solution, with Nick watching closely. "But, wait, how did you get from here to here?" He pointed.

"Like this." Charlie wrote rapidly.

Nick shook his head. "I don't think I ever learnt how to do it that way."

"It's not how they teach you. I just figured it out myself."

"It does look easier than the way I've been doing it. Hey. You want to come over after practise and show me how to do it this way? My mum would be happy to feed you dinner if it means getting my maths homework done quicker."

Charlie nodded. "Okay."

At Nick's house later that day, they sat side-by-side, heads bent over the paper, while Charlie showed Nick all the various tricks and shortcuts he'd learnt over the years.

"God, this is so much easier! Why don't they teach you this way in school?" Nick asked, leaning his head back with a sigh of relief.

"I don't know. Maybe their job wouldn't look so hard if we all knew how to do things the easy way?"

"Well, you're a genius, that's what I say. Absolute genius."

"Shut up," Charlie said, looking away.

Nick found himself staring, studying Charlie's profile. He wasn't sure why. Clearing his throat, he got to his feet. "You want a cup of tea?"

"Okay."

Charlie stayed at the table while Nick made the tea. He leaned over Charlie to put his cup down, resting one hand on Charlie's shoulder as he did so. It felt so natural, the casual touch, but what if Charlie read something into it? He hastily took his hand away.

That Friday, they took Nellie for a walk in the park to celebrate the end of the half-term. As they walked, Nick kept drifting toward Charlie, bumping his shoulder, apologising, moving away, and then slowly drifting again. He wasn't sure why that was happening, except that he liked hearing Charlie talk and kept wanting to move closer.

"Do you want to switch sides?" Charlie asked after the third time it happened.

"What? Oh. No. It must just be your magnetic personality." He smiled at Charlie, and Charlie smiled back. He had a really beautiful smile, so open. His eyes were beautiful, too. Nick found it hard to look away.

He made a joke about the science test he'd taken earlier that day, trying to distract himself from looking at Charlie, but he kept drifting for the rest of the walk, kept sneaking glances at Charlie's face. They were friends, he told himself. It was okay to feel like you liked looking at your friends, wasn't it?

It must be. Yeah. And he did his best to put it out of his mind.

They spent Saturday afternoon going through all of Nick's video games, finding that Charlie beat him easily at most of them.

Monday, Charlie came over to watch a movie. They ended up watching The Transporter, which they'd both seen but not for a while. Nick knew about cars, so he was able to fill Charlie in on some of the details of the car stunts.

Nellie stretched out between them, her nose on Charlie's leg and her back feet on Nick's. "You know, she doesn't usually like my friends that much," Nick said. "'Course, usually they come over in a big group and they're very loud. You're not like that; you're much more gentle with her." He looked up at Charlie, thinking how nice this was, just the two of them and Nellie. He smiled a little, glad to have Charlie Spring in his life, thinking that if he was Nellie, he'd probably put his head in Charlie's lap, too, and just ... rest.