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Chapter Text

Tao Xu could not believe Nick Nelson actually liked Marvel movies.

Over time, they smoothed over most of Tao’s initial judgments that Nick was straight and/or intent on using his popularity to hurt Charlie. Knowing now that such claims couldn’t be further from the truth, they actually got quite close, despite their personalities being very different. The fiery intent to protect Charlie that they shared was helpful in forging them together enough that they found some common ground. However, the one thing Nick Nelson couldn’t disprove about himself, and by extension, rugby lads as a whole, was that he did, in fact, love Marvel movies. Tao still hated this fact with the same passion that he did when he hated Nick.

Luckily, Nick found this hilarious rather than insulting.

“Alright,” he’d said with a broad smile, looking, for a moment, just like his rugby friends egging each other on to a schoolyard bet. “You can show me what you think a proper movie is meant to be, then.”

“Film,” Tao corrected, pretentiously elongating the vowel.

“Film,” Nick repeated, not at all intimidated by Tao’s pretentiousness. He had a feeling he was playing it up just to suggest Marvel movies are not only bad, but not really movies at all. “You can show me a proper film.”

This suggestion evolved into a double date between Tao and Elle and Nick and Charlie.

They began the night by filtering through the A24 website, searching for a film they were all interested in. Once they found one, Elle and Charlie bounded downstairs to plan the snacks. It made Charlie feel better to know exactly what to expect when it came to food, and quite frankly, Tao was not allowed anywhere near the microwave.

That left Tao and Nick alone while Tao found the film on a streaming platform. Tao sat to Nick’s left. He clicked play and immediately paused it on the opening shot. It’ll save a minute of loading time when Charlie and Elle get back, Tao argued. The film opened with a shot of a woman’s face, and it wasn’t an actor Nick was familiar with. Maybe he’d seen her face plastered on a news article somewhere. 

Both Tao and Nick nervously looked at each other, caught the other looking, and returned their gazes to the screen. Nick broke then, staring at his lap. The actress’s face was greyed out and largely covered by the play button, but neither of them could ignore the obvious truth.

“She’s…she’s quite pretty.” Nick stammered.

Now that Nick had acknowledged this, Tao found he couldn’t keep looking at her, fixing his gaze on a patch of the carpet between them instead.

“Yeah,” Tao said, pausing for a long moment before he broke with a snicker. “You know, sometimes I forget you’re bi because you’re so… like that with Charlie,” he joked.

Nick knew it was a joke, of course, but jokes tend to have a grain of truth to them. He let out a breath of air through his nose, the closest he'd get to laughing as he shrugged off the remark. “I like girls,” he remarked, a joking, smile-y defense. “...I just don't talk about it much with you guys because, well, you know,” he continued, growing quiet.

“Because everyone else is gay as a bucket of wigs and you don’t want to make them feel weird,” Tao finished for him, nodding.  “You don’t have to downplay that you like girls, too.”

“I know. I’m just used to it, kinda.”

“How so?”

“I mean, I never talked about my guy crushes with my rugby mates, did I?”

Tao’s expression flattened at the mention of them. He was silent. Nick continued.

“And Iike, even Char. Obviously they know we’re together. The ones I still like are fine with it, but I don’t go out of my way to tell them about us. Just would feel…wrong?”

“Will you be honest with me if I ask you something?” Tao asked, shaking off his distaste toward Nick's other friends to be serious with him.

"Sure."

“Are you worried some of our friends will tease you for acting too straight the same way you think your rugby friends will if you act too gay?”

Nick took a moment to contemplate it. “Yeah, I guess I am. Not because I think they mean it. I just…don’t want to have to keep defending I’m bi.”

Tao hummed, and suddenly it dawned on Nick that Tao might understand him more than just as an ally. 

“Your turn to be honest, Tao."

“Okay,” Tao said, with a questioning tone.

“Do you wish you had some straight friends?”

Tao shuddered. “Not with the way other guys are. Otherwise this conversation would’ve just been she’s proper fit, mate,” Tao said, imitating the jocks at Truham and shoving his shoulder into Nick’s. “And then they’d all stare at her chest and I’d be uncomfortable the whole time,” he finished as he watched Nick topple over.

Nick set himself back upright from Tao’s unexpected barrage. He glanced back at the greyed out actress on the TV.

“This was fine, though, right?”

“This was fine,” Tao agreed.

They were silent for a while. So long that Nick presumed the conversation was over. Finally, though, Tao spoke again, as if he was nervous to admit what he was about to say.

“Honestly, I did the same thing with Charlie and Elle for a while…the ‘deliberately not talking about girls' thing. There’s only so many gay guys at Truham and I didn’t want to impede on their safe space or something.”

Nick looked at Tao and tilted his head slightly in confusion, taking a moment. “God, I always forget Elle’s trans.”

Tao was visibly thrilled to get the chance to talk about his girlfriend. “She used to be just as gay as Charlie.”

“That didn’t weird you out at all, when you realized you liked her?”

“No,” Tao answered, not even taking a moment to think about it. “Never really thought about it until now.”

Nick contemplated that. “Must be weird, going from being gay to being straight.”

Tao shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

Nick took an awkward pause before returning the conversation back to its original topic.

“Just because you’re straight doesn’t mean you have to downplay anything either,” he confirmed.

Tao took a moment before he sighed–a long sigh. “Maybe I should find some decent straight guys, because I’m having a hard time believing you.”

“Around here, I might be the closest you get,” Nick retorted with a smirk. 

“Good enough for me.”

It was nice to finally have Tao’s approval.

Another beat passed before Elle and Charlie returned, laughing about something and carrying several large bowls of snacks into the room. Ready for the movie, the couples saddled up next to each other, Elle on Tao’s left and Charlie on Nick’s right. They all talked about the movie while it was running too much for Tao’s liking, as usual. The couples shared affection amongst themselves, for the most part. Occasionally, though, Tao and Nick exchanged glances, and neither needed to say out loud what those glances communicated.

Chapter Text

Nick didn’t get texts from Tao often, and when he did, they were mostly regarding Charlie, so Nick was caught off-guard when his phone buzzed with a text from his boyfriend’s friend while Charlie was round Nick’s house a week or so after their movie night. Charlie was downstairs making tea for them both, despite Nick’s insistence that he was the host and he should do so. Nick wasn’t one to push, so he lay on his bed waiting for Charlie and he decided to check what the message said while he did.

The message simply read: oh my GOD .

Nick shot back a question mark. Seconds later, Tao copy-pasted a link into the chat. Before Nick could click the link or read anything that popped up surrounding it, Tao supplied context.

SHE’s gonna be in a MARVEL film

this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me Nicholas

Nick’s eyes flicked upward to the link as he exhaled out of his nose, bemused by Tao’s dramatics as he replied.

Ohhhh yeah

That must be where I knew her from then

Instantly, he received a reply.

nicholas nelson

do you have autocaps on

Nick furrowed his eyebrows, typing back.

Erm

Yes?

Nick rolled his eyes at the reply he received.

you should be ashamed

Before Nick could retort, Charlie had returned clutching two cups of tea–one in each hand. So, instead of replying, he lightly flung the phone onto the duvet. He supposed Charlie had seen him do this, perhaps even watching as he rolled his eyes, because he chuckled tightly.

“What are you looking at?”

Nick shook his head, getting up to take his tea from Charlie. “Nothing important, Char,” he said, stopping suddenly with his face only an inch or two from his boyfriend’s, staring at his lips. “Especially not when you’re here.”

“Nick!”

“What? I’m serious!”

Charlie didn’t reply, just standing in Nick’s doorway and dopily smiling for a long moment before finally breaking the silence between them with a kiss.

Neither of them saw it, but from its place strewn across Nick’s bed, his phone lit up with another notification.

im being a third wheel again arent i?

When Nick wasn’t making out with Charlie, he found time to talk to Tao about the new Marvel movie. He knew the suggestion he was about to make was ridiculous, but at least now he and Tao were close enough that the argument it may produce was only in jest.

“We should go see the new Marvel… film… together.”

Tao’s eyes basically blew out of his head. He was silent for a few seconds, organizing his thoughts. “Firstly, do not call Marvel cinema. It is not cinema. It’s not even close and it never will be. Secondly, why would I do that?”

“Well, y’know, that actress is in it…”

“Are you suggesting I watch a piece of garbage just because said garbage contains a woman I find attractive? That sounds deplorable.”

“No, not at all,” Nick protested, even though he absolutely was making that suggestion. “I just thought–well, you talk a load of shite about movies I actually like, and I wonder…have you even seen them?”

“Well, no. It’s Marvel, so it is shit.”

“How can you call something you’ve never seen shit? That’s not an honest critique. That’s just saying what everyone else says is true.”

Tao looked enraged, whether or not he would admit it, and that’s when Nick knew he won the argument.

“Fine. We can go see the new Marvel film starring that attractive actress. But only so I can show you that it’s all meaningless, corporate violence and shit CGI.”

“That’s all I wanted.”

The trouble began when Charlie caught wind of the new Marvel movie a few weeks later after noticing its trailer pop up on his YouTube feed during yet another night at Nick’s.

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a new Marvel movie coming out.”

“Yeah, there always is, unfortunately for my debit card.”

“We could go see it when it comes out. It would make a cute date to the cinema,” Charlie said, though it came out like a question.

“No, I can’t, I already made plans with Tao to see it. I can’t exactly pull off going twice.”

Charlie sat up slightly from where he had been lying with his head on Nick’s chest. “Tao?”

“Yeah.”

“You convinced Tao to go watch a Marvel movie with you?”

“Yeah, is that a problem?”

Charlie’s gaze flicked back and forth across Nick’s face twice before he answered.

“No, of course not, I just…” Charlie’s breath audibly caught in his throat as he tried to come up with words to express his confusion.

“Charlie,” Nick said calmly, knowing where his boyfriend’s mind was going. “I only came up with the idea because I thought you wouldn’t want to go back to the cinema after the whole thing with Harry and his mates. I’m not trying to act like I don’t care about you.”

Charlie winced at the memory, unexpected to even him. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best, actually,” he admitted weakly. His head was back on Nick’s chest, and the words were mumbled into him. “Sorry if I act like I think you don’t care.”

“Hey,” Nick said, ruffling Charlie’s hair. “No saying the s-word, it’s fine. If it makes you feel better about it, though, I’ll watch it again with you when it comes out on streaming,” it was Nick’s turn to say something that wound up sounding like a question.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Charlie answered. 

He wasn’t particularly miffed by missing a chance for a cinema date. It wasn’t as if he was a massive Marvel buff. He only particularly liked it because it was cute to watch Nick get excited over it. If anything, he was glad Tao and Nick were getting on. Still, he couldn’t help but feel as though something was amiss. Why hadn’t Nick brought this new movie up himself? How in God’s name did he get Tao to go along with him before Charlie even found out about the movie’s existence?

There was something going on here. Something Charlie would never connect the dots to, if he could help it.

That didn’t stop him from thinking he had.

Chapter Text

It wasn't as if Charlie had a problem with Tao and Nick hanging out. That could never be the case. He was nothing but happy to know his boyfriend and his best friend were getting on, and it wasn't as if he thought Tao had any intentions with Nick other than that. After all, Tao was straight, as he'd had to state far too many times to count, thanks to the company he kept. The circumstances just seemed strange. How had Nick convinced Tao to see a Marvel movie?

Unless, of course, it wasn't true at all, and Tao’s name in the conversation was just some kind of placeholder for something more sinister.

It was a completely irrational thought, and Charlie could have nipped it in the bud by just texting Tao to verify that what Nick had said was happening had, in fact, been what happened when he went to the cinema. But then it would seem like he was making a problem out of nothing or that he didn't trust Nick, so he didn't.

If it meant anything, which it should’ve, Nick kept his promise. A couple of months after Nick and Tao’s alleged cinema hangout, the movie was released on streaming, so now Nick and Charlie were sitting on Charlie’s living room couch, watching it together–Nick for the second time and Charlie for the first. Given who had already seen it and who hadn’t, the difference in attention paid to it made no logical sense. Nick’s gaze was held to the TV, and Charlie’s to Nick.

Charlie tried to justify it to himself. Nick was a much bigger fan of Marvel than him. But his mind kept going back to Nick’s day at the cinema. It was ridiculous, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Tao? Voluntarily seeing a Marvel film?

Then it occurred to him.

What if Tao’s name was a poorly-thought out placeholder for something, no, someone, else?

Nick’s rugby friends? No, there would be no need to hide that. Charlie didn’t necessarily like most of them, but Nick had a right to have friends that Charlie wasn’t involved with, and they both knew that.

Trying to puzzle it together, Charlie studied his boyfriend’s face, the ghost of his smile. Then, momentarily, Nick glanced at him, and his expression flattened as it returned to the screen. Confused, Charlie turned his attention there as well.

A girl.

By that, he meant that there was a girl on the TV, but perhaps it was a clue.

Charlie didn’t watch Nick for much more of the movie, but he had enough sense to wait for the end of it before he got anything close to confrontational.

Nick paused the playback when the credits started playing, looking over to Charlie as he asked, “What’d you think?”

Charlie didn’t move his gaze from the now-stopped credits. “It was fine,” he answered.

“Char,” Nick breathed out, confused by his boyfriend’s lack of reply. “...Have you eaten?” he asked eventually, overzealously concerned that he may be a bit lethargic.

“Yeah,” Charlie answered in much the same tone. Only then did he look at Nick. “Can I ask you something?”

Nick hesitated before answering, unsure of just how serious Charlie’s question was. “...Sure.”

“Do you ever think you might…have a preference, gender-wise?”

“What?” Nick asked blankly.

“You know…romantically. Do you have more feelings for one gender in particular?”

Charlie’s face was giving Nick no indication of where this was coming from, nor where he was going with this point. A bit affronted, Nick stood from the couch. “Wh–I don’t–does it matter?”

“Well, I’d just like to know, that’s all.”

“I–I don’t know,” Nick answered, his bewildered state giving way to a slight stammer. “I wasn’t exactly going around thinking about this stuff when I came out; I wanted you, that’s what mattered.” He ended the statement with a small exhale, then a soft smile, trying to reassure Charlie–if that was even what he wanted.

Charlie’s expression didn’t change. Only then did Nick get even a hint of an idea of what Charlie was getting at. He crossed his arms over his chest as his expression soured. “What?” he started. “If I said I tended to like girls, would I be too straight for my own boyfriend?”

“Well, no–”

Nick didn’t let him finish. He didn’t think he had anything worthwhile to say on the issue, to be honest. “So I ask you again, why does it matter?”

“It doesn’t, but–”

“Then why are we having this conversation?!” Nick didn’t mean to shout, it just came out that way.

Under pressure, Charlie finally said the blunt truth. “If you’re seeing a girl in secret, can you please just be honest with me?”

Back to square one. “Why would I be cheating on you?”

“I don’t know,” Charlie answered, tears unexpectedly springing to his eyes. “I thought maybe I did something, or you realized being out is hard, or…” 

He trailed off, but there was no need to finish the thought, because Nick immediately softened. “Hang on, what did I do to give you that impression?”

“You said you saw a Marvel movie with Tao,” Charlie mumbled after a moment. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“How did you get from that to…this?”

“I thought maybe you were hiding something…and I thought that a secret girlfriend would be the only thing you’d hide from me.”

“What? Like I wouldn’t try to hide…” Nick trailed off, trying to think of something he would reasonably keep from Charlie. “...That I was going to the shops to find you a present?”

At the flaw in his logic, Charlie flushed red.

“You want the truth? I did actually see this movie with Tao, because I convinced him he couldn’t be a fair critic unless he saw it,” Nick said, taking his phone from his pocket and unlocking it before presenting it to Charlie. “You can look at all the texts where he called me an ass for it.”

Charlie didn’t take the phone, because Nick offering it was a gesture enough. He just answered, “Oh.”

“The worst part is, I watched this again and realized he was kind of right.”

Charlie didn’t laugh at the joke.

“Right, sorry…listen, have I done anything to make you think I might leave you for a girl? Because if I have, I’ll stop it.”

“Well, the way you were looking at that actress…”

“A celebrity crush doesn’t mean I love you any less, Charlie.”

At the confirmation Nick did, in fact, like a girl, regardless of how likely it was for him to even see said girl on the street, Charlie instinctively recoiled. Realizing the error immediately, he spoke before Nick could get a word in. 

“I’m sorry, I guess I’m just insecure.”

“Yeah,” Nick confirmed, but he managed to make Charlie feel less like complete shit by adding. “I won’t stop loving you for it, but if you can’t change that thought, I don’t know how this is gonna work.”

“I don’t really care if you like a guy celebrity as much,” Charlie admitted.

“I’m still bi, even if I’m in a gay relationship.” Nick knew Charlie knew this, but clearly it bore repeating. “That’s part of me you don’t like.”

“I’m not like this on purpose,” Charlie told him. “Erm…Ben, he cheated on me with a girl.”

“Yeah, because he’s a cunt, not because he’s bi.”

Finally, this provoked a laugh from Charlie, but it was only a chuckle, and he sobered fast. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t be projecting him onto you.”

“He was a dick to you, that’s gonna change how you view these things, I guess.”

“Doesn’t make it right, though.”

“What matters to me is that you’re sorry and that you want to change.

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure,” Nick affirmed, then there was a pause. “I’m gonna get some water,” he told Charlie, just as an excuse to leave the room and put some fresh air between them.”

A few months later, they were sprawled across Charlie’s bed, enjoying the pleasure of doing separate things while in each other’s company. Charlie was holding a textbook in his lap, studying for an exam, while Nick was on a study break checking his phone—taking a moment away so he didn’t start tearing pages from his notes and breaking pencils out of pure frustration.

“Darcy keeps sending me videos of Reneè Rapp,” he said absentmindedly.

“She’s not just sending them to Tara, Imogen, and Sahar?” Charlie asked as he flipped between pages.

“She’s sending them to everyone–says she’s spreading the gospel of the second coming of lesbian Jesus,” Nick answered, laughing at the absurdity of the sentence. “And, to be honest…is it weird if I say she’s fit?”

Charlie looked up from his book, a scandalized but amused expression on his face. “Maybe to me, but every girl we’re friends with would agree with you.”

Nick laughed.

“You do know she’s a lesbian, though, right?” Charlie asked with a smirk. “You haven’t got a chance!” he teased.

Nick set down his phone to grab a pillow and gently smack Charlie with it. As the textbook careened off the bed, he answered. “I don’t need a chance with her, I have you.”

Charlie rose from the bed to grab the book after teasing Nick an adequate amount for distracting him from his studies. Before he turned away from his boyfriend, he leaned in for a peck on the cheek and replied, “I know.”