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The next morning at breakfast, the entire trip's worth of kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Tara while she opened her gifts. Charlie and Nick hadn't gotten her anything, not having known about her birthday before they came on the trip, but Darcy had gone all out. She'd brought a crown and had a shirt made with her face printed all over it, which Tara openly admitted she hated, and Darcy agreed that she'd known she would.

After breakfast, Mr. Ajayi came to stand next to Charlie while he was waiting for Nick. "Everything okay today, Charlie?"

"Yeah. Fine."

"Really? You had me worried yesterday."

"I know. That won't happen again."

"Charlie." Mr. Ajayi looked at him. "You know you can talk to me if you need to, right?"

He nodded. "I do. Thank you, Mr. Ajayi."

"Mm-hm."

Nick came toward him just then, and Charlie went with him, but he could feel his teacher's concerned look following him. He was grateful to have Mr. Ajayi looking out for him, even if he couldn't quite bring himself to talk to him.

It was another day of exploring and freedom, just seeing Paris and hanging out together. Nick and Charlie sent another photo to Nick's mum of the two of them at the Arc de Triomphe, and then the whole group went into a bookstore.

Charlie was looking at a book, and heard a click. He turned to see Nick's phone pointed at him. "Can you stop taking selfies of me?"

"Absolutely not."

"Stop it! Please. I'm going to put this in front of my face."

"Fine. For now," Nick told him, putting his phone away.

They nearly lost Isaac, who didn't want to leave, even though his pile of books reached above his head. Eventually they convinced him to pay for his purchases and move on to the next place, laughing at his attempts to read while walking with two huge bags full of books in his hands.

As Nick and Charlie walked together behind the others down a street with rainbow umbrellas suspended above their heads, they passed a gay couple who happily had their arms round each other, just walking that way like it was normal.

Well, it should be normal, Charlie thought. Apparently Nick thought so, too, because he turned to Charlie and smiled and held out his hand, and they walked the streets of Paris holding hands, just the way Charlie had dreamed they would, and it was … perfect.

Back at the hotel, everyone started getting ready for Tara's party. Tao fussed with his hair in the bathroom for what felt like an hour. Charlie, freezing as usual, picked up Nick's green jumper. "You mind if I borrow this?"

Nick smiled like he had expected the question. "No. Go ahead."

Charlie pulled on the jumper, feeling Nick's warmth envelop him. This one was his favourite of all Nick's jumpers, he thought.

Tao had moved from checking his hair to fussing with the shirts he had brought. Eventually, Isaac picked up his book and headed for the door. "You coming?"

"Yeah. We've got, like, five minutes before Tara arrives," Tao said, as if he wasn't half the reason they hadn't left yet.

Much as Charlie liked Tara and wanted to go celebrate her, this was their last night in Paris … he kind of wished he could just stay here with Nick, instead, and skip the party. And, really, there was no reason they had to be there on time anyway. They could just as easily be late. "You go ahead," he told them. "We'll meet you there."

"All right."

Tao stopped on his way out and said quietly in Charlie's ear, "If you wanted some privacy with Nick, you could just say so."

Charlie had to laugh. Tao had been in a relationship for all of thirty hours, and now suddenly he got it. If he and Elle had been a couple of days sooner, Charlie and Nick might have been able to share a bed this whole week.

The two of them left, and Charlie walked over to Nick, gesturing at the green jumper. "You sure you're okay with me borrowing this?"

"As long as you don't steal it, like the last three you 'borrowed'. I actually quite like that one."

"I didn't steal them! I just … forgot to give them back." Forgot so he could wear them to bed and be surrounded by Nick's familiar smell all night. What was so wrong about that?

"You forgot to give them back?" Nick echoed, laughing.

Charlie went to the mirror to check his own hair, which had gotten mussed when the pulled the jumper over his head. As he stood there, focusing on getting the curls to lie just right, Nick came up behind him, bringing his hands round to Charlie's face and tugging the corners of his mouth up into a smile with the tips of his fingers. "Excuse me!"

Nick laughed and wrapped his arms round Charlie, resting his head on his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked.

"I'm just … recharging." He kissed the back of Charlie's neck lightly.

Charlie loved that, the idea that being close to him was a recharge for Nick. It was true—he could feel it in the way Nick was always looking for his hand to hold or pulling him in for a hug. He met Nick's eyes in the mirror, wanting to hold him, and kiss him, and never let go. "We could … just stay here for a bit."

"Mm?"

"Yeah." Charlie turned round, looking up into Nick's beautiful face.

"Why's that?"

Running his hands over Nick's broad shoulders, Charlie said, "We haven't kissed in, like, two days."

Nick rested their foreheads together. Then, softly, his mouth found Charlie's. His hands grasped Charlie's jumper, holding him as they kissed. Then he pulled away. "Right. Come on. We're going to be late."

He was such a tease sometimes. The first chance they'd had to kiss uninterrupted in days, and he cut it off himself, just to be annoying. Charlie couldn't help but laugh. "I hate you."

"No, you like me."

"Hmm …" Pretending to think about it, Charlie shook his head. "I really don't."

Laughing, Nick followed him out into the hallway.