Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nick sauntered into the living room.

“Hey love, what do you fancy for-“.

He stopped dead, mouth hanging open.

“Wha-what are you doing Char?”

Charlie looked at him and fluttered his eyelashes innocently.

“Waiting for my nails to dry”. He stretched his hands out so that Nick could see the royal blue colour now adorning his finger nails.

“You painted your nails?”, Nick’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Charlie smirked. He thought they might have this affect on Nick alright.

“You like?”, he asked coyly.

Nick nodded. He had lost his power of speech.

“Were you going to ask what I wanted to have for dinner? I’m craving pasta. I’ll have a look at what sauces we have. Not really in the mood to make one from scratch”.

Charlie stood and brushed past Nick on his way to the kitchen, shoulders touching. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Nick turned and hoisted Charlie over his shoulder.

“Nick!! They’re not dry!! Put me down”, Charlie giggled.

“Will do. Once we get to the bedroom”.

“I thought you were thinking about dinner!”.

“Not hungry anymore. For food anyway!”

It seems Charlie painting his nails had activated caveman mode in Nick.

Charlie decided to make painting his nails a regular thing.

Chapter Text

Charlie was chopping vegetables in the kitchen on a cold and dark Saturday evening when Nick came into the kitchen.

“Hi honey”, Charlie said cheerfully.

“Hi”, Nick had his hands behind his back. He was looking at the ground and shifting from foot to foot.

“Everything ok?” Charlie kept busy knowing that sometimes when Nick needed to talk he preferred little to no eye contact at first.

“Yeah”.

Charlie knew he wanted to say more so he waited.

“I did a thing”.

“Ok. What thing?”

Nick held his hands in front of him, facing down so that Charlie could see.

His nails were painted a glittery pale blue.

“I know you paint your nails regularly and I’ve been thinking about it for the last few weeks. And I wanted to try it and see how it felt. You always go for black or other darker colours but I wanted something a bit brighter”.

“It’s a lovely colour. How does it feel?”

Nick finally looked Charlie in the eye. He was smiling softly.

“Really good. I feel like it’s added something I didn’t know I was missing. I don’t know. That probably sounds silly”.

“Not at all honey. It’s great that you’re exploring parts of yourself like this. I’m so happy for you”.

Nick reached over and pulled Charlie into a kiss.

“Thank you. For always accepting me”.

“I love you. All of you. Even the parts you haven’t discovered yet!”

“I love you too. I’ll probably take it off tomorrow night. I’m not sure if I’m ready to have painted nails in school yet”.

“I understand. It can just be a weekend thing for now”.

“Yeah. I’m already thinking of a lovely purple I saw when I bought this. Might try that next week”.

“Gorgeous”.

They stayed in an embrace for another while.

Three days later Charlie came home from work and handed Nick a gift.

The exact purple shade of polish he had admired.

“How did you know?”

“You’re an open book to me Nick Nelson Spring. And one I love rereading”.