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Tao and Charlie were leaving school for the afternoon, finalising plans for the party on Saturday, when a ball came sailing through the air at their heads. Being unfortunately used to such things, both of them managed to dodge it, and it bounced behind them and disappeared.

To Charlie's disappointment, he recognised all Nick's rugby friends laughing, and, of course, Harry Greene standing there looking pleased with himself.

He was surprised to see Tao march up to Harry, shoving him with his shoulder. "Watch out, dicknozzle."

"You all right, mate?" Harry demanded.

Nick got to his feet behind them. "Harry, don't start."

"What? Are you best friends with these weird little year 10s now?"

Charlie cast Nick an agonised glance. He didn't want Nick jeopardising his friendships for him.

"Just stop picking on people for no reason," Nick said.

Harry looked from Nick to Tao and Charlie and back. "Aw. Are you gay for them?"

All the boys laughed, and Nick hung his head in embarrassment while Charlie froze, terrified to do anything that might cause Nick to be outed when he wasn't ready.

"Classic Harry," Tao snapped. "Resorting to homophobia when you can't think of a good comeback."

Charlie's eyes met Nick's, and then Nick looked away. His shoulders were hunched and he was nervously fixing his hair. Charlie was worried that if Tao kept on at Harry, Nick would feel like he needed to step in, and then all his friends would turn on him.

"Mate, are you in a mood today?" Harry was asking.

"Are you?" Tao countered. "Serious question. Life must be really hard when your only personality trait is rich bell-end."

The other boys all laughed again. Harry was left at a loss for words, and Nick looked like he wished he could sink into the ground.

Tao grabbed Charlie's arm and they walked away. "You shouldn't have done that," Charlie said to him.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you're trying to help but you're making things worse."

"I'm literally just sticking up for you. We have to show Harry that he can't just walk all over us."

"It's more complicated than that," Charlie said. He wished he could tell Tao what was really going on, what was at stake, but he couldn't. Tao had made it clear he wouldn't understand, not where Nick was concerned. "It's not them versus us."

"Because of Nick?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sure he can look after himself."

"I really don't want him to be dragged into this."

Tao frowned. "Oh, well, we can't possibly hurt your new best friend Nick Nelson."

Charlie looked over his shoulder to find Nick's eyes on him. He wanted to apologise for Tao, but that fell into the category of things he knew Nick would say weren't his fault.

He went over to Nick's the next afternoon. Both of them had books to read and reports to write, so it was a heavy study day. They were sitting on the floor of Nick's room, side by side, leaning against his bed with their books.

"Nick."

"Hm?" Nick looked up from his book.

"About Tao." Even knowing what Nick would say, Charlie still wanted to apologise.

"Oh." Nick sighed. "I'm sorry about Harry."

"You aren't responsible for Harry."

"I kind of am."

"Then I'm kind of responsible for Tao."

Nick smiled. "I guess we both have challenging friends. No sorrys needed?"

"No sorrys." Charlie smiled back.

They kept reading for a while, but Charlie couldn't concentrate. He was really cold today for some reason. Eventually he found himself huddled against Nick's side, trying to steal some of his warmth.

"Hey. You okay?" Nick asked.

"I'm fine."

"You are not. You look like you're freezing."

"It is pretty chilly in here."

"Hang on." Nick sat up, pulling off his jumper, and handed it to Charlie.

"But now you'll be cold."

"No. I don't get cold that much."

Charlie believed him. Nick was like a furnace. He pulled Nick's jumper on over his head. It was toasty warm, and it smelled like Nick.

Looking over at him, Nick smiled that half-smile that never failed to make Charlie's heart leap. "Better?"

"Yeah. You don't mind?"

"Not at all. You look sort of cute in my jumper."

Charlie blushed and ducked his head. Often the look Nick was giving him right now led to kissing, but a looming due date for the book reports had made them agree there would be none of that today. Charlie went back to his book, but he couldn't concentrate. Now that he was warm, he was also incredibly sleepy.

Without thinking, he lay down and rested his head on Nick's lap.

"Charlie. Are you all right?"

He half-turned his head so he could look up at Nick. "Yeah. Just so tired for some reason. Do you mind?"

"No. Here." Nick reached up and tugged his comforter off his bed, pulling it up over Charlie. "There."

Charlie snuggled in, pulling his arms against his chest. Closing his eyes, he felt a light touch in his hair as Nick slowly threaded his fingers through it in a gentle caress, again and again. As a rule, Charlie didn't like having his hair messed with, but this was Nick, and it felt so tender, so caring, that Charlie fell asleep feeling warm and safe.

He woke up to Nick's voice calling his name and Nick's hand gently on his shoulder. "Hey. Your phone alarm is going off. Time for you to go home."

Sitting up, Charlie blinked sleepily. "You must be so uncomfortable. I'm sorry. Did your legs fall asleep?"

Nick smiled and shook his head. "No, it's fine. But you still look so tired—are you okay to go home? Do you want me to walk you?"

"Oh, no. You don't have to."

"I know I don't have to. But I'm offering, if you want me to."

It was on the tip of Charlie's tongue to say no again, but he did want Nick to walk home with him. "If you don't mind."

"Of course."

They were halfway to his house when Charlie realised he was still wearing Nick's jumper. He didn't want to take it off. Wearing it felt like a reminder that he and Nick were together. Sometimes, home by himself, it was hard to believe they were real, and he had to scroll back through their text threads to be sure.

They stopped a few houses before Charlie's, and Nick reached for his hand. "You're really okay? I've never seen you fall asleep that hard in the middle of the afternoon."

"No, I'm fine. Just sometimes the week catches up to me." He didn't think he'd eaten much the last few days, either, although he didn't mention that. He found it was easier if he just never mentioned food to anyone. Squeezing Nick's hand, he said, "Really, I'm okay."

"All right." Nick leaned forward and kissed him. "Good-night."

"Good-night." Charlie went into his house and shut the door.

Almost immediately his phone pinged with a text from Nick. "Don't think I didn't notice."

"?"

"You're still wearing my jumper."

"oh. do you want it back?" Charlie held his breath. He wanted to keep Nick's jumper, to be able to feel like Nick was hugging him anytime he needed it.

"Not right now."

"good. i like it."

Nick sent him a heart-eyes emoji, and Charlie smiled. That night, he wore Nick's jumper to sleep in, and, enveloped in Nick's scent, it was the best night's sleep he'd had in a long time.