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Tuesday morning, Nick was bent over his maths homework all form, frowning at the page. Charlie glanced at it over his shoulder. "You know there's an easier way to do that, right?"

Nick frowned at him. "If I knew that, wouldn't I be doing it that way?"

Charlie smiled, taking the pen from him. "Here. Let me show you."

He demonstrated the problem and its solution, with Nick watching closely. "But, wait, how did you get from here to here?" He pointed.

"Like this." Charlie wrote out the shortcut so Nick could follow it.

Nick shook his head. "I don't think I ever learnt how to do it like that."

"It's not how they teach you. I just figured it out myself."

"It does look easier than the way I've been doing it. Hey. You want to come over after practise and show me how to do it this way? My mum would be happy to feed you if it means getting my maths homework done quicker."

Charlie nodded, trying to pretend he wasn't jumping up and down inside. "Okay."

At Nick's house later that day, they sat side-by-side, heads bent over the paper, while Charlie showed Nick all the various tricks and shortcuts he'd learnt over the years.

"God, this is so much easier! Why don't they teach you this way in school?" Nick asked, leaning his head back with a sigh of relief.

"I don't know. Maybe their job wouldn't look so hard if we all knew how to do things the easier way?"

"Well, you're brilliant, that's what I say. Absolutely brilliant."

"Shut up," Charlie said, blushing and looking away. Nick's brown eyes were fixed on him with an expression that made it very hard to breathe. In anyone who wasn't straight, that look would have been an invitation to a kiss.

Nick cleared his throat and got to his feet. "You want a cup of tea?"

"Okay."

Charlie stayed at the table, trying to calm his breathing, while Nick made their tea. He leaned over Charlie to put his cup down, resting one hand on Charlie's shoulder as he did so. His hand was so warm, Charlie could feel the touch through his shirt and T-shirt, and the warmth lingered even after Nick had hastily pulled his hand back.

That Friday, they took Nellie for a walk in the park to celebrate the end of the half-term. As they walked, Nick kept drifting toward Charlie, bumping his shoulder, apologising, moving away, and then slowly drifting again.

Eventually, Charlie asked, "Do you want to switch sides?"

"What?" Nick looked confused, like he wasn't even aware of what he'd been doing. "Oh. No. It must just be your magnetic personality."

He smiled at Charlie, that lopsided smile that only appeared occasionally. His brown eyes were warm, lit with humour. It was a devastatingly cute look. If Charlie hadn't known better, he would have sworn Nick Nelson was flirting with him.

His breath left his body entirely, and he nearly had to stop walking. Nick was still looking at him, and he was looking at Nick, and he was sure there was a ridiculous smile on his face.

Then the smile left Nick's face like it had never been there and he made a joke about his science test and Charlie might have thought he had imagined the whole thing—except that Nick kept drifting into him for the rest of the walk.

They spent Saturday afternoon going through all of Nick's videogames, finding that Charlie beat him easily at most of them.

Monday, Charlie went over to Nick's to watch a movie. They ended up watching The Transporter, which they'd both seen but not for a while. Nick knew about cars, so he was able to fill Charlie in on some of the details of the car stunts.

Nellie stretched out between them, her nose on Charlie's leg and her back feet on Nick's. "You know, she doesn't usually like my friends that much," Nick said. "'Course, usually they come over in a big group and they're very loud. You're not like that; you're much more gentle with her." His voice was soft, and when Charlie looked over at him, Nick's eyes were fixed on his face, wide and … tender. That was the only word for it.

Charlie's heart thudded against his ribcage. That was not a friendly look. That was not a straight boy's look.

Nellie stirred suddenly and the moment passed, but Charlie couldn't stop thinking about it.

Wednesday it rained, so they spent the afternoon in Nick's room, scrolling through their phones, showing each other old pictures they'd saved, updating their Instas. It was so nice and so comfortable, just hanging out together, not even talking sometimes. Isaac was like that—they could just hang in his room reading books—but Charlie didn't know anyone else he could just relax with like this. Crush or no crush, Nick was rapidly becoming one of the best friends Charlie had ever had.

When it came time to leave, Nick walked him to the door. "Is it silly if I say I had a really good day? Like, we didn't even do anything."

"I know. But, same." Charlie smiled. They were standing really close to each other in the hall—it was an effort to reach for the door instead of reaching for Nick. He really wondered how much Nick would protest if he did. The way he was standing there, so close, made Charlie think Nick might be about to hug him.

Instead, Nick took a sudden step back. "So, movie on Sunday? You can pick this time."

"Yeah. Sounds good. 'Night, Nick."

"'Night, Charlie." Nick's voice was soft, and it sent a shiver down Charlie's spine.

Sunday's movie was the old Tim Burton Batman, which Nick had never seen. They sat closer together on the couch today, with Nellie tucked between them. All through the movie, they kept reaching to pet her at the same time, their hands brushing. Nick withdrew his hand quickly the first couple of times, but after that, their hands would touch for longer before he took his away.

Charlie was glad he'd seen the movie before, because otherwise he wouldn't have had the faintest idea what it was about.

When the credits rolled, Nellie got sleepily off the couch. Nick's mum took her out for her nightly walk, and Nick and Charlie stayed on the couch, facing each other. Almost, but not quite, close enough to touch.

"You know what we need to do next," Nick said.

Charlie knew what he would suggest, but he had no idea what Nick was about to say. "What?"

"The MCU."

"The what?"

"The Marvel Cinematic Universe."

"Oh." Charlie was disappointed at first—he had hoped for so much more—until it occurred to him what Nick was suggesting. "Aren't there like thirty movies?"

Nick smiled. "About that. Plus a couple of TV shows."

"That's a lot of movies." And a tremendous amount of time spent together watching them.

"Well, if you'd rather not …" Nick sighed and started to sit up.

"No! No, it sounds … good," Charlie said hastily. Only when Nick's brown eyes warmed and that adorable lopsided smile appeared did he realise that Nick had been teasing him. Or flirting with him? It was so hard to tell.

Neither of them moved. They stayed there, just looking at each other, smiling at each other, until the door banged closed behind Nick's mum when she came back with Nellie.

Both of them immediately jumped up and went to pet Nellie.

Nick walked Charlie to the door. "See you in form tomorrow."

"Yeah." Charlie hesitated. He wanted … so many things. But what if he tried something and he'd been reading Nick's signals all wrong?

"Charlie." Nick's voice halted him halfway through the door, and he stopped to look back. Nick had his hands in his pockets, and he was frowning a little bit. At last he said, "I had a really good week. Um … thanks. For hanging out so much."

A smile spread across Charlie's face. "Me, too. I'll … I'll see you soon."

"Yeah."

And then Charlie left. Walking home, he kept thinking of the way Nick had looked at him, the brush of their hands as they reached for the dog. Could it be? Did Nick have a crush on him, too?

Much as Charlie tried to tell himself it wasn't possible, he couldn't quite seem to make himself believe it.