Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Park

At home, surrounded by piles of paper filled with maths problems, Nick couldn't take it anymore. He needed at least some contact with his boyfriend. "I've had the worst day haha" No "haha" about it, really, but he didn't want to put his burdens on Charlie.

Before there was any chance of a response, his door opened, and Nick glared up at his brother. "Get out."

"I'm just ... checking to see how the GCSE revision's going." David closed the door, but with him on the wrong side of it. He knelt down next to Nick's piles of papers and started riffling through them.

"Can you get out? I'm trying to study."

His phone chimed, and quick as a wink, David picked it up. "Charlie? Who is Charlie?"

Nick desperately reached for it, but David was already standing up. "Give that back!"

"Is Charlie your girlfriend?"

"No. Stop it. Give me that back!"

"She's sending three love hearts. You might be in there."

"David!" He held out his hand for the phone.

"God. Fine." He held it out, then pulled it back.

"Seriously," Nick said. He knew how much his mum hated fighting, but he was about to tackle his brother if he didn't get his phone back right now.

David returned the phone like he was doing Nick a favour. "So boring." On his way out, David turned back. "Um ... if you do have a girlfriend, I want to know about it. She needs my approval."

He left, finally. Nick felt sickened by the whole thing. Why did David care? He was never interested in any other parts of Nick's life. And he certainly wouldn't 'approve' of Charlie, so there was no point in mentioning it to him at all.

Looking at his phone, Nick saw the three hearts, then Charlie's incoming message: "same tbh this coursework is sooo boring" "maybe i could sneak out and come round yours"

Nick panicked, just thinking about it. David would come down, snooping round the way he did, and then he would hear Charlie's name and put two and two together and—definitely not. "I don't think that's a good idea with my brother here" "But we could meet in the park??" Nellie needed to be walked, anyway, and surely he would think better after some time in the fresh air ... and with Charlie.

He hurried downstairs to grab Nellie's lead. "Taking the dog out!" he called, so his mum would know. "I'll be back in time for dinner." Then he ducked out, quickly, before his brother could come down and ask questions.

Charlie was already in the park when Nick got there, and he ran into Nick's arms. Holding the leash with one hand and the other arm wrapped around his boyfriend, Nick spun around, pressing his face into Charlie's shoulder before putting him down and just ... clinging. Out-and-out clinging. He could feel all the exhaustion and stress draining away, his energy returning, from this simple hug.

Neither of them showed any inclination to let go, not just at first. Maybe it had only been a couple of days, but it felt like forever.

They ran Nellie about a bit, petting her and throwing her ball, then Nick spread out the blanket when she started tiring and they lay down on it, facing each other, holding hands. Charlie's fingers were like ice, he noticed. "Your hands are so cold."

"I'm always cold."

"Well, in that case ..." Nick sat up and pulled off his jumper, handing it to Charlie.

"Thank you."

"There we go." He smiled, seeing Charlie's face appear inside the hood. Seeing Charlie in his clothes was one of his favourite things.

"I'm stealing this, just so you know."

"Oh, I know." Wearing Nick's clothes was one of Charlie's favourite things. So that worked out.

Nellie poked her nose in between them, and Charlie smiled down at her. "Do you want to go? Do you want to play? Come on. Come on!"

He picked up her ball and the two of them ran off. Content for the moment to sit and watch them, Nick got out his phone and started taking pictures. A sizeable portion of his camera roll was filled with pictures of Charlie now, almost as many as he had of Nellie, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

They came back to the blanket. Charlie was smiling, and he was so cute Nick couldn't take his eyes off him. "You okay?" Charlie asked.

Right now he was. Tomorrow ... well, he'd worry about tomorrow when he got there. "Yeah. Uh, just, um ... Just stressed about GCSEs. I'm definitely going to fail maths on Monday." He hadn't said that out loud to anyone else.

"Want me to help you revise? We can go through your notes together."

Nick leaned forward and kissed him, briefly at first, then reached out with one arm and pulled him closer. Charlie leaned back a bit, looking round them, and laughed, remembering the time they were in this same park and Nick hadn't been able to kiss him out in the open like this.

That seemed like a long time ago. He couldn't remember any longer why he had cared if anyone saw them. Cupping Charlie's face in his hands, Nick lay back, pulling his boyfriend with him, and kissed him some more.

It was getting dark when they finally managed to tear themselves away from each other. On the way home, Nick scrolled through the pictures of Charlie and Nellie, finding one that was so cute he couldn't help but post it. And underneath it, he wrote "I think Nellie loves him."

Which she did.