"Hey, do you want to just…go somewhere, together?" Is how it all starts. Charlie's sitting on the kitchen countertop as Nick is making them tea and it startles him so much that he freezes for a moment before he turns to the other. "Come again?"
"I mean, I know it sounds stupid-" Charlie looks down, picking at the threads of his jeans as Nick watches him earnestly. "-but I've always kind of had this fantasy that once I found the right person, that we could just…don't know, run off together. Be somewhere for a weekend or forever and pretend we never have to come back."
He's quiet for a minute more, before he scoffs and shakes his head, the whimsy note to his voice long gone as "Actually, no, forget about all that, it's really dumb."
"Well…" Nick starts and Charlie's head snaps up so fast that it sounds like a thunderclap as he continues, biting his lip. "...it's really not a good idea considering we have school tomorrow, but if you wanted to…"
"No, no, forget it love." Charlie puts on one of his patented "pretend I'm dumb so I don't look sad" smiles and flashes it in Nick's concerned face. "M' just having a moment."
Nick doesn't forget it so easily. Charlie just said that Nick is the one and he wants to just run away with him and disappear for a while? Nick's entire emotional complex is affected by just that one sentence alone, even with the implications attached to it.
He doesn't say anything more about it when Charlie's there, knowing that pushing it would be asking too much of the other boy, but it doesn't leave him. It jumps around his brain space, bouncing on every wall as it fills him with ideas. Non Nicholas Nelson ideas, mind you. So he does what Nick Nelson might be known for doing best other than rugby. He plans.
This will be interesting…if he can pull it off.
Charlie being shaken awake is how his Monday starts.
He's not expecting it, but then he groans, thinking it's Tori or worse, his mother. However, the following 'psst!' that follows the shaking motion that returns a minute later makes him squint, before he blearily opens his eyes and finds it's still rather dark outside. He's about to absolutely rip into Oliver (because why wouldn't it be Oliver?) for waking him at some ungodly hour before they're supposed to be awake, but Nick's face swims into his vision and his brow draw inwards, confused. "Nick?"
Nick, or whatever apparition from his dreams that has appeared as Nick, shushes him quietly again, before pulling the covers off of him. "Come on, before everyone notices. Get up."
Charlie allows himself to be dragged out of the blanket burrito he's made for himself, but he's still wildly unaware of exactly what the hell is going on. Nick putting his bedside lamp on and not the actual light perpetuates this and he can only stand there as Nick pulls his long unused duffel bag from its buried palace behind his shoes and starts chucking things into it. "Do you know where your good trainers are?"
"Uh…they might be downstairs, sometimes I leave them at the door, no wait, what is this?" Charlie's voice morphs into a panicked whisper, despite the automatic answer that came before it. Why is Nick acting so bloody strange? He thought he was the weird one in the relationship up to this point, but the way Nick looks to him right now is very different to the Nick Nelson that he knows (and has become acquainted with).
Nick frowns, seemingly not picking up on Charlie's concern. "Well that's no good then, we'll have to leave them. There's probably another pair of your sneakers here somewhere-" His voice becomes muffled and his hands dive into the closet momentarily again, before Charlie is shuffling over and grabs them, stopping him. "Nick, what the fuck."
It's only then that Nick seemingly registered that Charlie's a little spooked and winces, one of Charlie's many shirts in hand sliding from his gasp. "Sorry, just wanted to get you out the door and into the car as soon as possible, before either of our parents realise we're not going to be here for a while. Or school."
"Car? Not here for a while? School?" Charlie doesn't know if there is a confusion scale for humanity, but he's definitely blown it, whatever it is. Nick's vagueness is making absolutely no sense and given that there's a car thrown in there and neither of them have a license, Charlie's hitting peak worry now. "Nick, what are you talking about, love?"
"Don't worry about that now." Nick looks so calm, but it's really not helping. "Just get dressed, okay? I'll tell you everything later. I'll keep packing as I know where we're going, so trust me on this one, alright? I promise it's nothing bad."
Charlie knows better than to trust a person who /asks/ him to trust them. That's exactly how Ben and he got together, when he'd trusted him enough to open up to him. He's never had to ask Nick for trust, nor had Nick ever asked for it before from him. Hearing also that wherever he's kidnapping Charlie for (well, a minor taking another minor doesn't count as kidnapping really, does it?) is not a big deal doesn't sit well with him either.
Somehow though, his mind, filled with the dirt and debris of other problems, finds a way to filter the words to see Nick's genuine and not taking the piss. That this packing and secrecy is intentional and even though it's on shaky grounds, Charlie finds a little bit of the adrenaline Nick seems to be carrying rubbing off on him, as his heart starts to pound within the walls of his chest as he's stripping off his bedclothes.
(Either that or it's his anxiety trying to force a crippling panic attack on him. Who knows?)
It's only when he's just buttoning up the last button on his shirt that Nick throws the duffel bag towards the open window that Charlie hadn't noticed till now, the tube shaped canvas material sailing out and disappearing from sight, a faint smack sound floating up from where it had most likely hit the ground or worse, one of his father's garden planters.
While originally his face was in the process of contorting into abject horror, it's replaced by the underlining worry that had been plaguing him this whole time as Nick climbs down after it and beckons Charlie to follow. Looking down at what lay before him, the garden thankfully seems to be manageable enough to get through without much noise and despite the bag somehow not being damaged given it's around Nick's shoulder, Charlie's not sure if it's equally as reassuring that Nick is holding steady to catch him if he falls or that the gate is tied back so it makes no sound in the wind.
Just what the hell has he gotten himself into?!
Nick still doesn't tell him where they are going, despite promising to earlier. He also doesn't tell him just who the hell taught him how to drive a car, for they've somehow made it not only out of Herne Bay in one piece, but onto the motorway too. Without getting, well for lack of any better term he can come up with in the moment, nicked.
Taylor Swift's music is blaring from the radio station as they cruise down the stretch of road that lays miles ahead of him, the coastline just a jagged painted edge in Charlie's peripheral as it frames his boyfriend's tired face, his hair standing on end as he stares at him.
"Nick, seriously, you're scaring me. What is going on?" Charlie /hates/ admitting that Nick is scaring him. He doesn't want Nick to scare him, ever. Nick scaring him is like being afraid of clouds and that's just preposterous, even though he knows it can happen.
That doesn't matter though, as you would be scared to if someone, even if it's your actual, in real life boyfriend, suddenly shows up announced at 4 in the morning with no pre-warning. Even more so when he just up and takes you from your house. It seems that also dawns on Nick as well, for his voice breaks him from whatever trance he's lodged himself in once again since invading Charlie's room that morning and he speaks. "Oh my god, I just kidnapped you."
"Yes, thankyou, but for what reason?" Charlie doesn't mean to sound all snippy, but he's been waiting for answers for a hot minute and he's seriously considering that maybe this might all bee one weird early morning dream and he'll wake up in a moment to his mother bashing his head with a pillow. He's very surprised when Nick responds with: "Because you asked."
The answer makes his entire head swell with question marks, a million thoughts on the tip of his tongue just ready to come out. Nick obviously picks up on them as he navigates a lane change and starts talking again. "Well, okay, you didn't full out ask me to kidnap you. You said the other day on the weekend that you wanted to run away somewhere for a while. I know we didn't actually discuss it, but I figured that…you might still be up for it?"
Charlie stares agape at the other's face, answers suddenly making sense. He'd half forgotten the conversation, dismissing it entirely due to knowing that neither of them would be able to just disappear and go somewhere.
They had too many responsibilities, Nick had mock exams and prep as well as rugby practice to attend and be good at. Charlie himself had his end of year exams hot on his tail as well as helping Tao along with Issac to prepare Elle's sending off party for her graduation and with Tao, there was nothing less than perfection for Elle. ("So help me Spring, if I fuck this up, I'm just going to stab myself and die like the coward I will be.")
Yeah, there was a lot happening right now - so to suddenly be faced with the reality that they were hurling to somewhere unknown for an also unknown amount of time was rather startling and exciting all at once. As much as Charlie wanted to freak out (and trust him, he was on the verge) and beg to be realised from this car in fear for his life due to commitments that suddenly are thrown out, he finds himself asking instead: "Well…where /are/ we going?"
Nick's floating mask of panic under the surface of hope stutters away instantly and relief flows through, seemingly due to Charlie not suddenly proposing climbing out the window into oncoming traffic and he shyly smiles. "I…might have booked a stay in Margate."
"Margate?!" Scratch what he said earlier, Charlie is elated. Margate was almost 3 hours away, a little seaside haven that was not like the boring, bland Herne Bay and it's one beach that he and Nick had their first date on. It's a certified tourist mecca, with things to do both commercially and hidden away, with sights to see and plenty to keep them occupied.
Best of all, it would only be /them/ there. No parents, no responsibilities, nothing to tie them down till they were ready to come back. He's drawn back down to Earth as the notes of another Taylor Swift song, something more familiar this time, flow on.
Talk your talk and go viral, I just need this love spiral…
Yes, yes he does just need to let whatever Nick's giving to him happen. He never thought he would be able to open his heart again so easily, not after Ben and not with the aftermath and other things that have happened to him. He's always thought it was just easier to be closed off, as no one can really hurt you if you aren't pulled in. You always have to be out.
Looking at Nick as the sun filters blinding rays off his cheeks and hair, Charlie can see the way Nick shines in every which way of the word and it makes his heart stop for a moment before it's thudding away in his chest again, quieter than it was much earlier.
The sudden drop also makes him settle in the passenger seat and look out the window as the passing as buildings, farms and other landmarks flutter right by him, the radio and the motorway lulling him back to a light sleep like before when he was at rest.
Nick wakes him when they arrive at the inn they're staying in. (It's a very nice room for the price Charlie finds out he's paid from snooping, but he doesn't care either way.) They end up staying there in that room for a day or so before leaving to explore, the seaside air one of the best cure-alls for any sickness or stress. They also send messages and one photo of them nose to nose on the sand after a small debate, obviously so the police aren't called, before locking their phones away. Whatever will be, will be.
It's no surprise that after they finally come back after almost 2 weeks that both of them are heavily grounded, but it was worth it. They can't keep them away from each other anyway.
(Plus, the next time they run, because there was a next time, it's on a more permanent basis. Charlie Spring was fully graduated after all and his room was only a couple of boxes to pack. Apartment hunting in Leeds waits for no one, alright? It'll be fine.)