Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

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When Nick arrived at the arcade on Saturday, there was Charlie. Waiting for him. Nick's heart leaped at the sight of him.

Charlie came toward him, a smile spreading across his face. "You came."

"Yeah, of course I did!" Had Charlie imagined he might not show up? Nick hated to think that. He handed over the gift bag he was carrying. "Happy birthday."

"I said you didn't have to get me anything."

"And I ignored you."

They smiled at each other as if there was no one else in the crowded arcade, and Charlie reached for his hand, holding on briefly. "Come on."

"Am I the first one here?"

"No, you're actually the last. We're over there. Lane 17."

He pointed. Nick recognized Tao talking to a girl who looked really familiar for some reason, the one from Charlie's Instagram. "I feel like I know her from somewhere."

"That's Elle. She used to go to our school. She would have been in your year, but she moved to Higgs."

Nick remembered her now. He thought he'd had a class with her last year, but a transgender student had been so far removed from his experience that he really hadn't paid a lot of attention.

"That's Isaac," Charlie went on. Nick remembered him from the rugby game. "He doesn't say a lot, but he's really nice. And you know Tao. Sorry in advance if he says anything rude to you. That's just the way he is."

Given who Nick's friends were, he thought he probably wouldn't blame Tao for being rude to him. As long as that didn't bother Charlie, it wasn't going to bother Nick, either. "Okay." Tao and Elle both turned to look at them, Elle curious, Tao wary.

"Ready to meet them?"

"Yeah." Nick remembered standing at the rugby game wanting so much to be part of their group, for them to know how important Charlie was to him. He felt that still, even though he was nervous about it.

They walked over together. "Everyone, this is Nick."

"Hey."

Isaac returned Nick's "hey" and Elle said, "Oh, good. We're just choosing fun names for the board."

"Fun names?"

"Yeah, and for the record, Elle Smells was Tao's idea," Isaac told him.

They all laughed, clustering round the board, working on the fun names. Tao had separated himself, sitting apart, and Charlie went to talk to him.

Somewhat to Nick's embarrassment, the others started off with a series of gutter balls, and he was actually pretty good. But none of them seemed to care—they were having fun regardless, which was a relief.

He turned from a particularly good throw with his arms out in victory, seeing Charlie there with his arms out as well, and it was the most natural thing in the world to go in for a hug. They stopped just short, both of them realising where they were and what they were doing.

Charlie whispered "Sorry," which Nick thought they had dealt with. He made himself a promise to remind Charlie later that the word 'sorry' was absolutely banned from now on.

As the game went on, everyone settled in to their styles. Elle was pretty good once she got used to it, and her score crept up, Isaac and Charlie got more consistent—and Tao was just terrible. They ordered food, and Nick and Elle between them managed to go through the baskets of chips in record time. They were surprisingly good.