Chapter Text
Nick dreads having to call in a parent. They very rarely want to believe their little loves are anything less than perfect and often go straight to being outraged. They seem to forget that the children need to make those mistakes to learn, and that’s ok. But the parents are usually so defensive they miss the learning element and fixate on the perceived criticism of their baby, and he ends up feeling like the bad guy. He hates being the bad guy.
With Kitty Holden, Nick is even more reluctant to call her parents in. He has a real soft spot for the little reprobate. He’s only been teaching her for five weeks; they haven’t even made it to the first half term break yet. But she’s industrious and tenacious and is frankly stifled by societal norms. Nevertheless, school rules are school rules and she has absolutely bulldozed through them this time, even if the whole situation has really tickled Nick.
He’s asked the school office to contact her parents and request they stop by at pick up time today so he can at least make a show of restating behaviour expectations. He hopes they take it well.
The end of the school day rolls around and the children are dismissed by his TA to the playground for collection. Nick waits for Kitty’s parent to show up, pacing his classroom, straightening up tiny chairs and picking up a multitude of discarded pen lids. His nerves are beginning to churn in his gut. He really does hate conflict.
A soft wrap of knuckles against the half open door breaks his reverie and he looks up to see two sets of deep blue eyes and two mops of curly black hair poking around the door, one head significantly taller than the other. Oh, God, Kitty’s dad is beautiful. That hadn’t appeared as a factor in his pre-meeting anxiety spiral.
He gives himself an internal talking to. He cannot be perving on his pupils’ parents. He’s always been resolute in gently rejecting the phone numbers pressed into his hands by the school’s single mums. Or snuck into Tupperware containers of baked goods that appeared on his desk with alarming regularity. But this guy was absolutely gorgeous, and exactly his type… No! You cannot shit where you eat Nicholas, no matter how pretty his eyes are.
“Mr. Holden?” Nick offers his hand in greeting. “Thanks for popping in. Sorry to disrupt your afternoon plans.”
The curly haired man smiles and goes to speak as he takes Nick’s hand, but Kitty skips and bounces back and forward in between them, laughing.
“This isn’t my daddy, Mr. Nelson! This is my Charlie!”
Nick’s confusion is evidently written on his face, because the man shaking his hand giggles. It’s a delightful sound.
“Mr. Nelson, I am indeed Kitty’s Charlie, not her daddy.” Kitty’s Charlie smiles broadly, revealing a pair of utterly adorable dimples. Shit, Nick is in trouble. “I’m her uncle. Michael and Tori, my sister, are away at a speed skating competition in Copenhagen, so I’m Kitty sitting this week. I got a message from the receptionist that you needed to chat?”
Not a parent… does that mean Nick can relax his self-imposed moral code?
“Yes, thank you so much for coming in. Kitty, why don’t you go and get your book and snuggle up in the reading nook while I speak with your Charlie.” And maybe ask if he wants to be my Charlie.
“Is this about the Pee Pounds Mr. Nelson?” Kitty looks up at him, wide-eyed.
“Yes poppet. I said I’d need to speak to your grown-ups, didn’t I?” Nick’s tone is gentle. She’s not a bad child at all. Just a little more entrepreneurial and creative than her peers.
Kitty nods sanguinely and skips off to flop on a beanbag with a picture book.
Nick gestures to a chair next to his desk and Charlie sits down at a right angle to him. It gives Nick a moment to take in the soft-knitted oversized jumper Charlie is drowning in; the tight, ripped black jeans highlighting lean but muscular thighs; and–jackpot–blue, green and white striped converse. He’s fidgety; clearly nervous. Nick moves some papers on his desk and puts some pencils into his stationery pot, just to draw attention to the progress pride flag sticking out of the vessel. He hopes Charlie notices.
“I’m sorry if Kitty has been a handful,” Charlie begins, wringing his hands in his lap. “She’s an amazing kid. She just thinks quite differently sometimes. I always say to Tori that she’ll end up Prime Minister or in prison.” Charlie giggles and then stops abruptly.
“Shit, sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Bugger, now I’ve sworn in front of her teacher. God, I’m a disastrous temporary guardian.”
Nick is smiling broadly. He’s charmed already. “It’s ok, honestly. Let me start by saying I adore Kitty. She is so smart and enthusiastic and I love having her in my class. I just needed to flag that we discovered a little black market operation going on that we sadly had to put a stop to.”
“Oh no.” Charlie drops his face into his hands.
“It would appear that Miss Kitty has set up a private members club racket. She managed to convince the boys in our class that the girls bathroom was some kind of mystical venue and not exactly the same as the boys bathroom. She was charging the boys £1 to use the girls toilets, and had recruited a team of bouncers from her friendship group. They stood outside on a rota to keep an eye out for teachers.”
“Oh my goodness. Kitty! I’m so sorry, Mr. Nelson.” Charlie looks mortified.
Nick drops his voice to a murmur and leans towards Charlie, conspiratorially.
“She’s a seven year old mastermind. Honestly. She had kids lining up to pay to use the girls bathroom and she had kids lining up to work for her operation. And we were oblivious. She was only caught because she did a cartwheel in the playground at first break this morning and 46 pound coins rolled all over the tarmac. She didn’t trust anyone to handle her profits, apparently.”
Charlie can’t help but giggle at this and shakes his head affectionately in the direction of his niece.
“So, how much trouble is she in? Do I need to get Tori to come home? Because I really don’t want to make that phone call.” He gives a little shudder and Nick wants to reassure him immediately.
“No! I mean, I don’t think so–we’ve handled it. This is just us reiterating acceptable behaviour to her parents. We can’t return the money to the children who paid as most of them didn’t want to own up to being daft enough to pay to use the loo. Especially the ones Kitty told me actually paid to do so more than once. She keeps pretty impressive books for a Year Two pupil, it would appear.”
Charlie laughs loudly at this and slaps his hand over his mouth. Gosh, he is utterly adorable.
“So we’ve decided we’re going to donate half of the proceeds to the school’s chosen charity for the year and the other half is going towards snacks for the end of half term film afternoon next week. Kitty is going to spend the rest of this week's lunchtimes in charge of the buddy bench making sure no one gets left out of playtime as her reparation.”
Nick pauses, then decides he can be a little more relaxed with Kitty’s lovely Charlie. “And I’m going to see what other business endeavours she has up her sleeve so I can get my investment in early. She’s a smart cookie. Seriously though, she has absolutely promised me that she’ll check before she starts any more schemes.”
“Gosh, thank you for being so nice about all this, Mr. Nelson. She’s a force of nature. She will get told off by her mum and dad I’m sure, but I think my sister is actually going to be pretty proud of her, too. We’ll all work on getting her to channel her evil genius ways in a more altruistic fashion, I promise. Thank you for not expelling her.” Charlie leans forward and puts his hand on Nick’s forearm. Nick gasps at the contact and has to try to cover it up quickly.
“Ha! Expelling wasn’t even considered. And please, call me Nick. Like I said, I think she’s awesome. We just need to steer her energy a little!” He pats Charlie’s hand gently and smiles at the other man. He’s sure he sees Charlie’s gaze flick over Nick’s frame, lingering on his right bicep for a moment. If Nick chooses that second to flex his muscle, well that’s his business. Charlie bites his lip in response and Nick wishes they were leaning up against a bar where he could make a proper move, not sitting in his classroom.
“Charlie?” Kitty’s sweet little voice interrupts their mutual admiration. She’s left her beanbag and is standing at the front row of pupil desks.
“Yes, Kitty-Kat?”
“I am sorry about the Pee Pounds. We’re going to use all my profits to buy some food for the food bank and some snacks for our class party. I promise, I’m actually sorry. Do you think Mum and Dad will be disappointed in me?”
“I think if you’ve said you're sorry and you do a super job for Mr. Nelson on buddy bench duty, then it’s all ok, Kitty.”
“I will Charlie. I know now that, just because I see an opportunity, it doesn’t mean I should take it, right Mr. Nelson?”
Nick bites his cheek, trying not to laugh at hearing his own words repeated back to him by his earnest pupil.
Kitty is looking at them both in turn and Nick can almost hear her cogs whirring. He has a fleeting thought that he should probably be afraid.
“Mr. Nelson, does that apply to grown ups too? What if a grown up sees an opportunity. Should they take it?”
“Well that depends on the circumstances, Kitty. Usually grown-ups are able to make a judgement call. It’s something you learn as you grow older.”
“Is it ok to help a grown-up to see an opportunity?” Kitty continues.
Nick feels grateful when Charlie interjects.“Kitty-Kat, what are you talking about?”
“Well, you two keep looking at each other. And Mr. Nelson has a flag like Dad has. Look, it’s on his desk. Maybe he likes boys and girls, or just boys, or likes anyone like Dad? And you don’t have a boyfriend Charlie, and Mr. Nelson is really kind and very nice, so maybe that’s an opportunity for you?”
She takes Charlie’s hand and looks between the two of them, proudly.
Nick feels the blush creeping across his face. He’s embarrassed but lets out a little involuntary laugh at the awkward absurdity of the situation. Charlie has his hands over his face again.
“Well, Kitty,” he says slowly, eventually, drawing his hands down to hold himself around the waist. “Yes, Mr. Nelson does seem very kind and nice, but I’m not sure it’s appropriate for you to be talking about whether your teacher has a boyfriend or a girlfriend right now… and anyway, I may not be Mr. Nelson’s type. So maybe we should go home now as the ground doesn’t seem to want to open up and swallow me, no matter how much I pray.”
Nick wants to shout that Charlie is VERY MUCH his type.
“Sorry Charlie. Sorry Mr. Nelson. I just think you’re both nice, and nice people should be happy.”
“That’s very kind of you, Kitty.” Nick can see the little girl feels chastened. She was trying to do him a favour. “Your Charlie seems very nice and kind too.” He offers Charlie a shy, lopsided smile and runs his hand over the back of his neck.
“Maybe, Mr. Nelson… Nick,” Charlie says cautiously. “I should give you my number in case Miss Kitty gets herself into any more trouble in the next 48 hours? Or in case you need me for anything else…”
Nick grins and hands over his unlocked phone for Charlie. “That sounds like a great idea Charlie, thank you. I’m sure I’ll need you for something just as soon as you’re not responsible for one of my students. Friday at 6:30pm, perhaps?”
Charlie dials himself from Nick’s phone and hands it back.
“Friday at 6:30pm. I’ll be free.”
——-
Kitty stands between the two beaming men and takes a slurp of the diet lemonade that she has magicked up from nowhere. Tiny Niece Magic is a thing, it would seem.