Music sounds better with you

Congratulations to the happy couple

The whole rest of the day ends up being a total write-off because Nick doesn't manage to get out of Charlie's bed until after 6pm. By the time they've walked (at a snail's pace) back to Nick's house, it's dark outside, and he spends the rest of the evening on the sofa with his head in Charlie's lap, eating a bagel and groaning every time Charlie moves even a little bit.

"Nick, please," Charlie begs after the fourth time Nick's pressed down heavily on his leg with his head. "My leg is going numb."

"Why is my pillow answering me back?" Nick moans. "The ones upstairs don't do this."
"Go upstairs then," Manrika says, tickling the bottom of his foot. Nick shrieks and nearly takes them all off the sofa in his bid to get away. "Jesus Christ. I've never seen you this hungover before. It's fucking annoying."

"You are all so mean to me," Nick simpers, sitting up and crossing his arms and legs like a child in reception. "I expected it from you, Rika, but Charlie? You're meant to love me unconditionally."
"I do love you unconditionally, but you have a heavy head."

"Christ," Manrika mutters. "I'm getting another wine." She holds her empty glass right next to Nick's nose. "Fancy a glass of Pinot, Nicholas?"
Nick goes green. "No, thank you."
"Charlie, want anything?"
"Just a Pepsi Max will be fine, thanks."
"Gotcha." She disappears out of the room and Nick flings himself into Charlie's embrace again.
"Love me."
"I do love you," Charlie laughs. "Jesus, I can't believe how hungover you are."

"Me neither," Nick complains. "I'm sorry I ruined a day of your fresher's week by being a clingy bastard."

Charlie waves him off. "It's totally fine. In fact, it's worked out alright because the LGBT society is throwing a Single's Night Social, so Polly and Kate are going along to that." He takes Nick's chin between his fingers. "I, on the other hand, am not single, so I thought I'd spend the evening with my clingy bastard other half."

"How charitable you are," Nick drawls. His grip around Charlie's middle tightens, then he leans into Charlie's ear to whisper, "Can you keep a secret?"
Charlie nods.
"I think Manrika and Harry are secretly shagging."
Charlie's mouth drops open delightedly. "Really?"
Nick nods. "Yep. I don't know how to ask her about it, but I saw Harry going into her room in just his boxers the other night when I got up to go for a wee."
"Ooh." Charlie waggles his eyebrows. "I feel a double date coming on."

"Who with?" Manrika returns with her drinks in hand, passing the can of pop over to Charlie, who isn't doing a very good job of schooling his face. Similarly, Nick also looks a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. "What the fuck is wrong with you two?"
"Um," Nick says stupidly. "We were talking about some friends from home, that's all."
Manrika's eyes narrow. "Why don't I believe you?"
Nick laughs nervously. "Why wouldn't you believe me?"
Her eyes narrow even further. "Nicholas Nelson, you're being fucking weird. You look like you've seen a ghost and Charlie looks like he wants to cry."
Charlie gasps. "No, I don't."
"Manrika Varma," Nick says, sitting up from Charlie's lap and dropping an arm around her shoulders. "My best friend, my sweet darling. You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Within seconds, her eyes go from slits to wide and fretful. "Nick, what..."
"Are you seeing anyone?" Nick muses. "Maybe someone who lives under this roof too? Maybe?"
"You're a bastard," Manrika says hotly. "How the fuck did you find out?"
"Through the power of sight," Nick says, then presses a kiss to her temple. "Okay, I saw him sneaking into your room one night in his boxers, that's all. That and the fact that I've spent a year watching you two flirt like mad..."
"It's not just sex," Manrika interrupts. "Like, I really like him. I always have. I think we're on the way to something."

"That's so great," Charlie chimes in. "Can confirm being in a relationship is pretty awesome."

Manrika rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I don't think we'll be anything like you two or anything. I just..." She trails off. "Just felt a bit weird to try and announce it to the house, you know? I don't want it to disrupt the dynamic or anything."
"Have you not told anyone?" Nick asks. "Not even Claire or Holly?"

Manrika shakes her head. "Not yet. We've not, like, labelled it so I didn't want it to be a thing before it was a thing, you know?"

"Hello!" Harry's voice suddenly rings through the house, then they hear the click of the front door closing. A few moments later, he appears in the doorway wearing his McDonald's uniform. One look at Manrika looking forlorn in Nick's arms and he frowns, and he's over there in two seconds. "Babe, um, I mean, you okay, Manrika?"
Manrika snorts. "That's the most formal I've ever heard you say my name."
"Alright, sorry." Harry's already gone bright pink in the face. "Are you alright though?"
"I'm fine," Manrika says, then she pulls out of Nick's hold and stands up. "You can kiss me hello if you want. These two fuckers already know."
"What?" Harry yelps.

He groans, but he does pull Manrika in for a cuddle and he kisses the top of her head. "Right, okay. How did you find out?"
"I saw you," Nick says for the third time, "sneaking into her room the other night while I went for a piss."
Harry groans again. "Fuck's sake."
"It can be our little secret if you don't want to tell the rest of the house yet," Charlie pipes up. "We were really good at keeping our relationship a secret at the start so we can do it again."
Nick squeezes his knee. "No, we weren't, babe. We were just young and thought we were."
"Alright, well, " Charlie bristles. "More to the point, we'd keep it a secret for these two."
"It's not even that we're not telling people," Manrika says. "It's just we've, like, not long started doing... whatever this is."
Harry makes an affronted sort of a noise. "Yeah, but we're together, right?"
Manrika glances up at him. "Are we?" she asks after a pause. Charlie kind of wants the ground to swallow him up.
"Rika, you've met my parents," Harry says incredulously. "We've gone exclusive, I sleep in your bed most nights, we've looked at holidays together, we... we took STI tests!"

"Jesus," Nick mutters under his breath.
Manrika is bright red when she says, "Yeah, but you've not, like, asked me to be your girlfriend or anything."
"I didn't think I needed to," Harry huffs. He steps to one side and puts both his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Sure," she says, going for a nonchalant tone but she's grinning like an idiot as Harry leans down and kisses her. She wraps her arms around his neck and shuffles closer, and they both seem so happy that Charlie can't help but coo.
"Well," Nick says aloud. "That went different to how I expected."
Charlie grabs his hand. "Come on," he coaxes, dragging him to his feet. "Let's leave them to it."

They head upstairs and close the door to Nick's room, though they both end up pressed against the door as they listen to Manrika and Harry traipse up the stairs just a few minutes later, giggling and making wet noises that sound like very brazen snogs.

"Congratulations to the happy couple," Charlie says happily. Once they hear their door click closed, he winds his arms around Nick's middle and tugs him over to the bed. "Are you okay, my darling?"
"My head still hurts," Nick says pitifully. "But it's nothing a cuddle and a movie in bed won't fix."
Charlie swings his legs off the bed and grabs Nick's laptop from his desk. "We can do that. What film do you fancy?"
Nick at least has the decency to look sheepish as he says, "Would you judge me if I said Notting Hill ?"
"Yes," Charlie deadpans, but he opens up Netflix anyway.

Before setting the film to play, they strip down so they're in nothing but t-shirts and boxers, then snuggle together under the duvet as the film plays. Every now and then, Charlie wonders if he should be concerned at how many lines Nick can reel off the top of his head, but honestly, he's too cosy and comfy to call him out on it.

"First those two downstairs, now this. They've really got me rooting for straight people today," Charlie giggles. "Good for them."
Nick rolls his eyes. "You root for everyone, you hopeless romantic, you."

Charlie rolls onto his side and rests his hands on Nick's chest. "Look, I just know a thing or two about being in love. I want everyone to be in love like I am."

Raising his eyebrows, Nick shuffles forward and pulls Charlie in, both hands on the small of Charlie's back. "It's quite nice, isn't it? I enjoy it."
"Shut up," Charlie says, headbutting him lightly. "You're so annoying when you're hungover."
Nick kisses the top of Charlie's head and snuggles them closer, pulling Charlie's smaller body half on top of his. "Yet, you don't seem to be complaining about all the cuddling I need from you."

"It's an occupational hazard," Charlie hums. "You wanna make out or are you too fragile?"
"I'm sure I can manage," Nick tuts, then rolls them over and presses their lips together with a smile.