Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

French

They were sent off to explore Montmartre on their own for the day. Nick and Charlie and their whole friend group—including James, who wasn't missing a moment with Isaac if he could help it, or so it seemed to Nick—headed off together.

Nick was distracted for a moment by Imogen, who was looking brightly up at Ben as she said something, and Ben, who looked down his nose at her, said something that caused her to deflate completely, and walked off, leaving her to catch up. She caught Nick's eye and gave him a small, uncomfortable smile before she followed Ben.

Soon he was embroiled in the discussion of what they were going to do, and in what order. He held out for ice cream, because ice cream was always an important part of any day, in his book. But with everyone talking at once, there was no chance that they were going to figure anything out. So he stopped walking to look back at the others. "What's the plan?"

Elle, naturally, wanted to go to the museum. Darcy, equally naturally, wanted nothing to do with museums.

"But Renoir painted there," Elle said, as if somehow that would convince Darcy.

"Yeah. it's a really important place in art history." Tao frowned at them all.

"Why don't you two go together, then?" Sahar suggested.

Charlie added, "We can meet you in a couple of hours."

Nick tried not to smile at how obvious they were being, and how oblivious to it Elle and Tao seemed.

No sooner had the two of them walked off than the whole group came together. "You knew exactly what you were doing," Nick whispered to Sahar.

There were lots of giggles, and the group of them went off shopping. Nick hunted for a postcard to send to his mum, which felt a bit silly, really, since he'd be home before it got there.

Charlie and Tara both ran out of steam after an hour or so. They went to sit on the steps, while Nick queued up with the others to get ice cream. He ordered two chocolate cones for him and Charlie—in French, of course, since this was Paris.

"Um ... since when could you speak French like an actual French person?" Sahar demanded.

"Oh, my dad's French."

"Since when?" Darcy asked.

"Since ... his birth?"

They all dissolved into laughter, and Nick frowned at them. It had never been a big deal before. But then, he wasn't sure any of his other friends had ever known his dad was French. It made him sad to think what a long time it had been since his dad had really been part of his family.

He accepted his two cones and carried them over to find Charlie. The others found different parts of the steps to sit on, so it was just the two of them. He offered Charlie his cone, and Charlie stared at it like it might bite him. "Oh. Uh ... I'm still full from breakfast."

"Charlie, you didn't eat that much breakfast."

"Yeah, I did."

Nick wasn't sure what to do, since he was sitting here holding out the ice cream and Charlie was refusing to take it. He supposed he could eat both, but that felt so silly.

Charlie took the cone at last, gingerly, to Nick's relief. "Chocolate? Not bubblegum?"

"Well, you're a good influence on me."

Taking an experimental lick of the cone, Charlie seemed to discover he was hungry after all. "It's not bad."

Nick had to laugh—he had chocolate ice cream all over his nose. He reached out with his thumb to wipe it off, and they sat there together, eating their ice cream, looking out over Paris.

Once they were back to walking and shopping and exploring, Elle and Tao caught up with them. Elle joined the girls while Tao came over to where Nick and Charlie and Isaac and James were standing.

"How did it go?" Charlie asked him.

"Fine. We're totally back to normal."

"And?" Isaac waited for more.

"And ... that's it."

Nick glanced over his shoulder and saw Imogen and Ben again—Imogen talking, and Ben shutting her down. She saw him looking at her and gave him a little wave. He waved back. Then Ben reached for her, pulling her close, as if to show Nick, and Imogen tore herself free and came over to Nick and the others.

"Hey, guys! Um ... do you guys mind if I hang with you for a bit? Ben's being so boring."

"Of course not." Nick hoped the others wouldn't mind, but if he could give Imogen some space from Ben even for a little, he wanted to.

The others all joined in, making her feel welcome. They all agreed to go to Sacre Coeur together.

Nick stuck close to her side, and Elle fell in step on her other side, while Imogen poured out her troubles with Ben.

"He barely listens to anything I say—it's like he doesn't even want to hang out with me anymore now that we're dating. All he cares about is having a girlfriend. And now he just ignores me all the time. I'm not even sure he likes me that much," she added, as though the thought had just occurred to her.

"Do you even like him?" Elle asked. "He sounds horrible."

Nick was glad she had said it, so he didn't have to, but Imogen definitely wasn't. She quieted down for a long moment. Then she brightened—nothing could keep Imogen's spirits down for long—and turned to Elle. "What about you? Do you have anything going on with anyone?" Elle laughed, but didn't reply, and Imogen went on, "I thought maybe you and Tao—"

"No," Elle said, a little too firmly, in Nick's opinion. "Not going to happen. We're fine just being friends."

Imogen gave her a disbelieving look. "Okay. Maybe I haven't had the best track record of relationships, but I think being honest is better than living with regret." She looked at both of them and moved off, leaving them behind to consider what she'd said.

Nick didn't know about Elle, but he thought maybe he could stand to be a bit more like Imogen, a bit less afraid to put himself out there no matter what anyone else thought.