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The chime of the doorbell inside Nick's house was followed by the bark of a dog, and then Nick opening the door. He smiled when he saw Charlie. "Hey."

"Hey." Charlie took his hat off.

"Uh … This is Nellie." Nick indicated the dog at his side.

Charlie bent to pet her. She was just as soft and fluffy as she looked. "Hey, Nellie. You're so adorable."

When he stood up, Nick's eyes went straight to his hair, just as he had thought they might. "You got a haircut."

Oh, God, it was obvious. It was too short. "Um … Is it—is it bad?"

Nick reached out and fluffed Charlie's bangs. "No. No, you look— It looks great."

Well, that was a relief. Although Charlie hadn't been aware that straight boys played with other boys' hair. Or stared into people's eyes. God, he really had it bad, didn't he, if he was already imagining things and he hadn't even gone into the house yet.

The dog whined and Nick looked away. "Okay, you'd better come in or Nellie will think we're going for a walk."

"Okay."

He went inside, hung up his coat, and was introduced to Nick's mum, who offered snacks and a cup of tea. Nick checked with Charlie about the snacks, which Charlie declined, and they had tea, but then took sodas up to Nick's room, followed up the stairs by Nick's mum's reminder not to spill the sodas on the carpet.

"All right," Nick said, "I believe I'm meant to be beating you at MarioKart."

"You can try." Charlie grinned at him as Nick set the game up on his console. They perched on the end of Nick's bed for the game, which Charlie won easily.

Nick looked at him, raising his eyebrows. "Okay. I can see I need to up my game."

"Considerably," Charlie told him.

But it was the same every time. Nick handled losing fairly well. Charlie briefly considered letting him win one but decided it would be too obvious.

"Seriously, now. One more game. I think I've worked out your weaknesses."

Charlie laughed and shook his head. "If you say so." He picked up his controller. Nick kept up for a while, but slowly Charlie pulled ahead.

"Come on, come on—I'm in the lead. Can you just let me—"

"You're not going to win."

"Can you let me win one time?"

"I'm not letting you win."

"You've already won, like, five or six games."

"Yeah, and I'm going easy on you." It wasn't really bragging if it was true.

"No … No!"

"Yes!" Charlie laughed as he zoomed to victory one more time.

"How are you so good at this?"

"You get to be good at real sports, I get to be good at fake ones."

"No, you're just good at everything."

"No, I'm not."

"You are," Nick insisted. "You're a proper little nerd."

"I'm not." He was, but he was hardly going to admit that to Nick.

"Let's see: You're good at video games; literally all school subjects, but especially maths; playing the drums; befriending dogs; and you are good at sports. Like, you run so fast—"

Charlie was blushing at the litany. He was good at those things, but he wasn't at all used to anyone really noticing or caring. "Shut up!" He put a hand over Nick's mouth, knocking him over backward onto the bed.

"You know it's true," Nick said, his voice muffled by Charlie's hand. "Get off me. Get off!" But he was laughing as he said it.

Letting go, Charlie straightened. He happened to look out the window and saw a fall of white flakes outside. "Oh, my God."

"What?"

"It's snowing."

Nick turned to look as well, then he looked at Charlie. Both of them smiled and got up, hurrying downstairs to go out into the fresh snow.

Looking Charlie over, Nick frowned. "You'll be so cold. You want to borrow a jumper?"

Charlie protested, Nick insisted, and Charlie ended up in a warm, soft, bright blue jumper over his shirt and under his coat. It was like being hugged by Nick, he thought—probably as close as he was ever going to get to it.

Then they ran outside into Nick's back yard, calling for Nellie to come with them. He had a big yard, plenty of space to twirl around and taste the snow, and to throw snowballs at one another—Nick, unsurprisingly, was quite good at that, packing the snow into tight balls and catching Charlie just where he was aiming. By contrast, Charlie's snowballs were bigger, more loosely packed, and had a tendency to disintegrate before they struck. He was reduced to simply flinging handfuls of snow at Nick and hoping they landed. Nick retaliated by dumping a whole lot of snow on the back of Charlie's neck while he was bent over collecting more and then retreating behind a tree.

Nellie ran in between them, bounding through the snow happily, and they bent to pet her at the same time, smiling at each other over her soft ears.

When they stood up, Nick said, "Hold on." He reached out, his fingers trailing through Charlie's bangs. "You've got snow in your hair."

Charlie could believe that. He couldn't entirely believe that Nick Nelson was playing with his hair. Again.

"Doesn't that ever get in your eyes?" Nick asked.

"Sometimes." Sometimes Charlie used his bangs just for that reason, to hide what he was thinking. Probably he should do that right now, since what he was thinking was how cute Nick was and how much he wished he wasn't straight. Instead of saying any of that, since he wasn't an idiot, he said, "Let's make snow angels."

"Snow angels? I haven't done that in years."

Charlie threw himself on his back in the snow.

"Hold on!" Nick got his phone out and started filming and taking pictures as Charlie made the angel's wings and skirt.

"Come on, you, too."

"All right." So Nick lay down as well. Nellie came to lie between them, and somehow they just didn't get up again, lying there in the snow, feeling the cool flakes falling on them, and just … talking. About being little and playing in the snow, and favourite sledding hills, and anything that came to mind. Nick took a lot of pictures of the three of them lying there.

Charlie never wanted to leave, but eventually their pants started getting wet from the snow, and Nellie got up and went to the door, a clear indication she was ready to go in.

Nick's mum offered hot cocoa, but Charlie declined. It was starting to get late, and he had to go home.

"Well, thanks," he said to Nick as they stood in the doorway.

"Yeah. You, too. See you Monday?"

"Yeah." Charlie grinned. "If you survive the shame of losing to me at MarioKart."

Nick grinned back. "I'm going to figure out your secret. Next time, I'm winning."

"Good luck with that."

Charlie smiled all the way home. It had been such a good day. Nick wasn't just cute, or kind, or brave—he was also someone you could just talk to, someone you could hang out with and laugh with. Unquestionably, Charlie's crush had deepened considerably today. But even more than that, he had learned that Nick could be a real friend. And somehow that was even better.