Falling (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Comfortable

Saturday afternoon Charlie came over to Nick's. More privacy there, and Nick's mum liked Charlie a bit better than Charlie's parents seemed to like Nick. They were like that—it had taken them a while to warm up to Tao, too—and they worried about him because of what had happened last year, so Charlie hoped he had convinced Nick not to take it personally, but it was admittedly more comfortable at Nick's.

They went up to Nick's room, settling on the bed while Nick grabbed the TV remote and clicked it on. "Movie?"

"Sure. What do you want to watch?"

"Well, if we're going to keep doing this, we're going to need to work on your cinematic education." Nick looked very serious about this.

Charlie groaned. "Oh, no. You're going to make me watch The Avengers, aren't you?"

"What? No. No, of course not."

"Well, that's a relief."

Nick frowned at him. "What are you thinking? You can't just start with The Avengers. You have to build up to it. We're watching Iron Man."

"Great. That's so much better."

"Oh? And what do you watch?" Nick's eyes widened in mock horror. "Oh, God, it's musicals, isn't it? That's a thing, right? Wait—does this mean I have to watch musicals now?"

Charlie shook his head, smiling. "Don't be stereotypist. And I hate to break it to you, but you already watch musicals."

"I do not!"

"You told me you and your mum have seen Mamma Mia three times just this year."

"That's not a musical! That's ... ABBA."

"Right. A musical. There's a stage play and everything."

Nick nudged Charlie with his shoulder, smiling. "Huh. Maybe I've been gay all along, then."

Charlie's heart leaped with hope. Maybe Nick had figured something out since they'd last seen each other. "Have you—?"

But Nick shook his head and sighed. "No. Yes. I don't know. No change."

"That's okay." Charlie took his hand. "Really, it is."

They were quiet for a moment before Nick went back to the original subject. "So if you don't watch musicals, then what do you watch? Serious important movies that win Oscars?"

"No, that's my friend Tao. He organises these cinema nights where we watch all these depressing movies."

"Sounds like fun."

"Surprisingly, it is." Charlie felt a bit guilty about how long it had been since they had a proper movie night. They were overdue. He would text Tao later and set one up, he promised himself.

But in the meantime ... Charlie reached for the remote. "All right, let's watch this guy fly around in a metal suit."

"You know, you're going to love this movie, and then I'm going to get to say I told you so," Nick said to him.

"Uh-huh." Charlie doubted it. But the important part was being here with Nick, and it really didn't matter what they watched beyond that.

As the opening title sequence flashed onto the screen, Nick reached for Charlie's hand. They watched together—or, rather, Charlie watched the movie, and Nick, who had seen it several times, kept glancing at Charlie in order to watch Charlie watch the movie. He seemed to think he was sneaky about it, too, which Charlie found adorable.

Charlie sat up next to Nick for a while, maintaining a certain amount of space between them. But the heat that Nick, always naturally warm, gave off was so temptingly close that Charlie couldn't help melting into him. He scooted closer and rested his head against Nick's arm.

After a moment, Nick let go of Charlie's hand and lifted his arm, Charlie tucked his head against Nick's shoulder, and Nick put his arm round him. "There. That's nicer," he said. "That couldn't have been comfortable."

Charlie snuggled in a bit more. "It wasn't too bad. You have comfy arms."

"I have comfy arms?" Nick repeated, mocking him just a little. "You're ridiculous."

"Shut up!"

Nick chuckled, wrapping the other arm around Charlie and resting his head against Charlie's, and they sat that way for a long while.

He tried to focus on the movie, he really did. But Nick's heartbeat, steady and strong, was against his ear, Nick's arms were round him, and Charlie was so comfortable he didn't even realise he was falling asleep until he was jolted awake by an explosion on the screen.

"You okay there?" Nick asked.

"What? Oh, fine." He didn't want to admit he had slept through part of Nick's movie. Maybe a lot of it? It was hard to tell.

Nick shifted so he could look Charlie in the face. "Did you fall asleep?"

Charlie ducked his head, blushing. "I told you you have comfy arms."

"Hm. Well, if you're not going to watch the movie, I can think of more interesting things to do than sleep." Nick's voice had dropped, the final words little more than a whisper as he shifted so both their heads were lying on his pillow, his mouth so very close.

Charlie's hands came up to grasp the front of Nick's jumper. "Can you?"

"Yeah." And Nick kissed him, and the world fell away.

Another explosion startled them both, and they turned to look at the screen, both blinking as their eyes opened to the light. Then they looked back at each other and kissed again, neither interested in the movie any longer.

Eventually, Charlie had to breathe for a moment, and he noticed over Nick's shoulder that the credits were rolling. "Nick."

"Hm?"

"The movie's over."

Nick turned and looked. "Huh." Looking down at Charlie, who lay warm and safe in the circle of his arms, he asked, "Did you like it?"

Charlie pretended to consider and said archly, "What I saw of it."

"If you hadn't fallen asleep ..."

"If you hadn't distracted me ..."

"Oh, that was just me, was it?" Nick asked teasingly. "Seems to me you were there the whole time."

"Shut up." Charlie pulled him down for another kiss. Across the room, Charlie's phone chimed, and he pulled away from Nick, reluctantly. "Time to go."

"If you have to." Nick got up and walked him downstairs. "You're going to your grandma's again tomorrow?"

"Yes, and you're finishing your homework."

Nick rolled his eyes. "You're worse than my teachers, I swear."

"See you Monday?"

"See you Monday. Text me when you get home?"

Charlie grinned at him. He secretly loved that Nick always worried about him getting home safely, ridiculous though it was. "Yes, Mum."

"Oi!" Nick frowned at him.

Finally Charlie turned to go, walking home in a daze, with memories of Nick's kisses to savour until the next time.