Coming Home [Completed]

Ch. 29: the 1

Charlie and Theo had debated whether or not to go public with their renewed relationship and even whether to tell their closest friends. They had returned from New York the day after New Years' and spent the balance of the winter break inseparable from each other. They hardly left the confines of each of their bedrooms for that entire week. In that time, they also had almost no communication with their friends, so none were really aware of any change in their statuses.

Theo in particular fretted about their relationship potentially becoming public, worried about Lucas's reaction and also that of some of his friends, who'd had to witness his months-long agony throughout his tumultuous initial tryst with Charlie and its aftermath once things went south between them. His friends, particularly Nolan, were very protective.

Charlie on the other hand was happy either way, knowing that the truth would come out eventually if they lasted, but also cognizant of potential judgments.

They still hadn't made a firm decision either way the morning of the first day back to school after the break. They'd woken up in each other's arms in Charlie's bed, having become unable to separate even for slumber. Theo's parents and Charlie's mom had reluctantly come to accept this situation. None of the parents had directly commented on their reunion, so it was hard for either boy to tell what any of them thought about the matter.

No mention about the topic, which had been the topic of frequent conversation for the past week, occurred while they showered and got ready for school. Charlie drove them to school, occupying his assigned parking spot in the senior lot. He paused for a moment after parking, wondering whether or not Theo would want to go in ahead of him by a few moments to maintain their secrecy.

After a few moments, Theo looked up from his phone screen and asked if Charlie was ready to head in. While Charlie had been in deep consternation, Theo had been idly scrolling through his phone, unaware of his boyfriend's thoughts.

As they began walking towards the school building, Charlie felt fingertips tentatively brush against his own, but initially discounted it as unintentional. Then, as they reached the courtyard in front of the main entrance, Theo clasped their hands together. Charlie looked in his boyfriend's direction with shock. Theo met his eyes and gave his boyfriend a reassuring smile before they passed through the doorway into the building.

The two walked to their lockers in the senior wing when they passed Lucas. Charlie could feel Theo physically tense up as the boy gripped his hand tightly upon seeing his boyfriend's ex. When Lucas spotted them, Charlie saw his eyes momentarily drop to their connected hands; however, there was no look of animosity or rage on his face. Lucas simply looked back up at the two, smiled at them, and then continued about his day, leaving the couple to continue about theirs.

They hung out by Theo's locker until they had to be in homeroom. Out of the corner of his eye, Theo saw Nolan and Jude approach and cringed when he saw the smug look on Jude's face and the unreadable expression on Nolan's.

"I knew it!" Jude loudly proclaimed once the duo reached the couple. "You two lovebirds still had the hots for each other."

"Well, it hardly took a genius to figure that one out, Sherlock," Theo responded, dryly.

"You got so mad when you found out Charlie was dating Lucas!" Jude proclaimed, gleefully, which earned him a swift elbow to the gut from Nolan. Charlie gave a blushing Theo a side-eyed smirk at the comment.

"All that really matters is if you're happy," Nolan said, trying to quickly and gracefully move past Jude's shenanigans. "I'm really glad you guys found your way back to each other."

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A few weeks later, Pine Wood's hockey team found themselves in the league championship game against none other than Saint Sebastian's. As Charlie prepared for the game in the locker room, with his boyfriend of over two months now at his side doing the same, he couldn't help but think about where he'd been just two years prior.

He supposed he hadn't realized it at the time, but he was rarely happy in those days. It wasn't often he was explicitly sad, but he just felt like his life and emotions were in neutral, in retrospect. Now, he could definitively say that he was happy, maybe for the first time in his adolescence. A big part of that was Theo, of course, but he'd had to do a lot of work on himself to get there.

He didn't know what the future held for Theo and him or even just himself, but he'd come to realize over these past few months that Theo deserved the time to figure himself out to. In a sense, Charlie had been lucky to have been put through this turbulent ringer of emotions at such a relatively young age; he now had his whole life in front of him to live fully and openly as his authentic self. He couldn't deny that opportunity to Theo.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts when he heard Theo asking to borrow some stick tape and realized he hadn't been as prone to introspective reveries as he had been in the past. He concluded then that it must be because he was too busy actually living life now and that made him smile inside.

The game itself was nothing dramatic. Since their initial rough patch on the ice, Theo and Charlie had been able to return to their once-indomitable chemistry, so much so that Charlie moved up to right wing, with Theo at center, for Pine Wood's power play line. Theo tallied four goals and two assists, both to Charlie, in the game, while Charlie tallied three goals and three assists, two of which were to Theo. Pine Wood won the game 10-2.

Charlie was defending for the final minute of the game. Their coach had sent him out once Saint Sebastian's pulled their goalie to make it six skaters on five. Charlie blocked a few shots during that last minute. He was scrambling around, more fuelled by pride than any necessity since the game was already well in hand, wanting to keep the final margin as disparate as possible. He took pride in denying Scott any goals that night.

When the final buzzer sounded, the players on the Pine Wood bench rushed over to their teammates on the ice for a celebratory dog pile. Charlie was heading to join them when he was derailed from his trajectory by a force on his right side. Initially thinking the worst and tensing for combat, Charlie relaxed once he'd realized it was Theo enveloping him in a hug. Charlie removed his helmet and pulled Theo's face upwards to kiss the boy, there in the stadium in front of a few hundred people, something unimaginable to him not too long ago, and he finally felt at home, with himself and with Theo.

The kiss was brief as both boys still wanted to take part in the dog pile, which somehow had ended up with Jude at the bottom, jokingly crying out for help. The medal ceremony felt extra sweet after that when all of his former teammates were compelled to shake his hand, a hand attached to a wrist with a rainbow-colored bracelet. Theo was named the playoff tournament's most valuable player and given his own trophy, while also getting to raise the team's first place trophy. He'd display the former proudly in his Parisian dorm room next school year and the latter would be on display in Pine Wood's half-filled trophy case at school.