Falling (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Reaching

Tuesday morning, Nick was bent over his maths homework all form, frowning at the page. Charlie glanced at it 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 out the shortcut so Nick could follow it.

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

"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 if it means getting my maths homework done quicker."

Charlie nodded, trying to pretend he wasn't jumping up and down inside. "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 easier way?"

"Well, you're brilliant, that's what I say. Absolutely brilliant."

"Shut up," Charlie said, blushing and looking away. Nick's brown eyes were fixed on him with an expression that made it very hard to breathe. In anyone who wasn't straight, that look would have been an invitation to a kiss.

Nick cleared his throat and got to his feet. "You want a cup of tea?"

"Okay."

Charlie stayed at the table, trying to calm his breathing, while Nick made their tea. He leaned over Charlie to put his cup down, resting one hand on Charlie's shoulder as he did so. His hand was so warm, Charlie could feel the touch through his shirt and T-shirt, and the warmth lingered even after Nick had hastily pulled his hand back.

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.

Eventually, Charlie asked, "Do you want to switch sides?"

"What?" Nick looked confused, like he wasn't even aware of what he'd been doing. "Oh. No. It must just be your magnetic personality."

He smiled at Charlie, that lopsided smile that only appeared occasionally. His brown eyes were warm, lit with humour. It was a devastatingly cute look. If Charlie hadn't known better, he would have sworn Nick Nelson was flirting with him.

His breath left his body entirely, and he nearly had to stop walking. Nick was still looking at him, and he was looking at Nick, and he was sure there was a ridiculous smile on his face.

Then the smile left Nick's face like it had never been there and he made a joke about his science test and Charlie might have thought he had imagined the whole thing—except that Nick kept drifting into him for the rest of the walk.

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

Monday, Charlie went over to Nick's 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.