Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Hearts

After a great deal of negotiation with Tao, it had been determined that the original friend group would maintain their cinema nights with serious movies carefully chosen by Tao—and Nick invited along as often as Charlie could manage to talk Tao into it. But the extended group, including Tara and Darcy, would now have separate movie nights as well.

Nick volunteered to host the first one. He and his mum had the space, and his mum was very curious to meet all his new friends. As well, they all wanted to meet Nellie.

One by one the others arrived. Snacks were set up on the table across the room. Tao and Elle took one end of the couch, sitting side by side, Isaac the other. Tara and Darcy curled up in the chair together, and Nick and Charlie sat on the floor under a blanket, with Nellie tucked up next to Charlie. Nick loved that his dog loved his boyfriend so much, and it was obvious that Charlie loved it, too. He snuggled up on Charlie's other side, his head on Charlie's shoulder, and sighed happily.

"Look at you two," Elle said, looking down at them from the sofa. "I don't know how you kept yourselves a secret for so long."

Isaac looked up from his book. "I don't, either. It was obvious from the start."

"It really was," Darcy agreed.

"It was in the eyes, don't you think?"

The two of them nodded.

Charlie turned his head to frown up at Isaac. "How did you know?"

"You stopped talking about him all the time. Oh, and I saw the two of you walking in the hallway one day, and Nick was looking at you like Mr. Darcy at Elizabeth Bennet."

"If you mean like he'd been hit by the sparkle fairy, same at the rugby match," Darcy said.

Isaac chuckled. "At Charlie's birthday, Nick might as well have had hearts for eyes."

Nick blushed furiously and buried his head under the blanket while the others laughed.

Tao frowned. "I didn't notice."

Over the blanket, he saw Isaac and Darcy exchange grins. Nick had learnt already that Isaac saw everything, even though he always had his nose in a book, and Darcy loved to get people together. But even he could see the sparks between Tao and Elle. The only ones who couldn't, it seemed, were them.

"It's true," Elle agreed, seeming unaware of everyone else's reaction to Tao's comment. "Nick should never play poker."

"Or he should. With us," Isaac suggested.

Charlie reached down and pulled Nick out from under the blanket. "I think you're embarrassing him."

Nick chuckled, although he was pretty sure he was still blushing. "No, it's probably fair. I've never been able to lie to my mum—she catches me every time. Says it's written all over my face."

"Good to know."

"So what are we watching?" Tara asked.

"Oh, that was a difficult choice," Elle said.

"Wait, we're not watching The Avengers?" Nick asked. "I was told that's Tao's favorite movie."

Tao made a face at him, and Charlie laughed. Nick knew he was glad that Nick and Tao were on reasonably good terms with each other now. Having a mutual enemy in Harry and a mutual affection for Charlie had helped a great deal.

"It's Anna and the Apocalypse," Charlie said.

"Never heard of it."

Tao held out the remote. "Is everyone ready?"

"Everyone have enough food? Need something to drink?" Nick asked. He turned to Charlie. "Anything I can get you?"

"No, I'm good."

Everyone else seemed to be good as well, so Nick got up to dim the lights before tucking himself back in next to Charlie and Tao began the movie.

Almost immediately, the characters burst into song, and Nick frowned. "Wait, is this a musical? I was promised that being LGBTQ did not require watching musicals."

"Ignore him," Charlie told the others. "His favorite movie is Mamma Mia."

"It is not." He turned to Charlie and frowned teasingly. "This is the secret gay agenda, isn't it?"

Charlie laughed. From the chair, Darcy called out, "For heaven's sake, Nick, rule number one is that we don't talk about the secret gay agenda!"

"I must have misplaced my rule book."

"Shhh!" Tao said to all of them.

Nick and Darcy both giggled, and Charlie pulled Nick back down into the warmth of the blanket.

About halfway through the movie's tone started getting darker, and one character was bitten by a zombie at a crucial moment. Nick was so startled he sat up and cried out, and Charlie burst into laughter. "Sorry, everyone, I forgot to tell you Nick's a big wimp when it comes to horror movies."

"You managed to find a movie that was both a musical and a horror movie?" Nick grumbled.

"Uh-huh."

"You'll pay for this."

Charlie's eyes were dancing the way Nick loved, and under the blanket Nick reached for his hand, holding on tightly. At the next scare, he hid his face in Charlie's shoulder and pulled the blanket over his head, tugging it down just enough to see the screen out of one eye.

The others all found this highly entertaining—with the exception of Tara, whose head was hidden in Darcy's shoulder—and so Nick played up his reaction to the scares a bit, seeing how much Charlie was enjoying it.

It was so amazing to be here, the two of them, loved and accepted by their friends. Nick had never had friends like this before, and he owed these now to Charlie and all the changes he had brought into Nick's life.

Everyone offered to stay and clean up after, but Nick's mum told them not to worry about it, that she had it under control. Nick walked everyone to the door. The drawback to having them all here was that he didn't get to kiss Charlie good-night, but he held on to Charlie's hand as long as he could before he had to close the door behind him. He stood there against the door, smiling to himself, for a few moments before his mum came out.

"You had a good night, then, Nicky?"

"Really good."

"Your friends seem lovely." She hesitated, then added, "I'm happy you've found your place."

"Me, too, Mum. Me, too."

And he went upstairs to text Charlie good-night, knowing that tonight was only the first of so many they were going to have together.