Work Text:
Song Pairing:
Let’s Fall in Love Some More, Al Bairre
🍂🌊🍂 Nick
“Sex Wax? Really, Nick?” Charlie laughs, holding up the canister of surf wax bars in the back of Nick’s Escalade, which is outfitted with all their beach gear. They’re standing in the sandy car park in front of Ocean Beach Dog Beach where they first met in San Diego on Nick’s birthday, about eight months ago.
It’s April 27th, and Nick has been obsessively checking the surf reports all week in the hopes that he could take Charlie surfing at sunset on his birthday. Waves in the evening are hit or miss, dawn usually being the best time of day to surf.
Unbeknownst to Charlie, their entire crew of mostly British SoCal transplants is currently orchestrating the surprise party they’re set to arrive at in a few hours. Nick grins at his boyfriend, bursting with the secret, but staying strong. He’s leaning a hip against the back of his SUV, door open over them.
“Yes, Charles. Sex Wax,” Nick says in a low voice, fixing him with intense eye contact and a suggestive eyebrow dance.
“You would choose such a brand.” Charlie breaks their eye contact, sounding flustered, which greatly pleases Nick.
“I would,” Nick agrees, his index finger tipping Charlie’s chin up for a light kiss, trying to stay on task because they’ve already been derailed by libido multiple times today.
Charlie is shifting uncomfortably in his new wetsuit, which – Nick admits – might have been overkill as a purchase, since it’s Charlie’s first time ever surfing. But, like, Charlie needs to be warm and comfortable.
And he might fall in love with surfing like Nick and want to come with him all the time.
And it might have been fun helping him, um, get into said wetsuit.
And Charlie might look smoking hot in it.
And Nick might be looking forward to helping him, um, get out of said wetsuit afterward.
[Narrator: Ahem. You have a surf lesson to give.]
Right.
So.
“Okay, so! Grab the green logo wax. It’s for when the water is cold,” Nick explains, as Charlie opens it, holding it up awkwardly. He chuckles at this, stealing another kiss. Charlie leans closer, pressing soft lips back, smiling into the kiss. It’s interrupted, though, by two cold, wet snouts as their pups sniff and nudge at them.
“Girls! Hang on!” Nick says to Nellie and Bailey – Charlie’s black lab. Despite their puppy meet-cute involving a tennis ball showdown on this very beach, they’re now inseparable. Charlie moves aside, letting both dogs hop out of the back. They both shake off and wiggle around their parking spot, thrilled to have arrived at their favourite place.
“Okay so I have to just do this to the board?” Charlie does a motion with the bar of wax.
“Yep! Except I already did yours…” Nick says, biting his tongue between his front teeth, trying to temper his excitement over Charlie’s birthday gift.
“You’re doing the thing.”
“Wot!” Nick says, poorly concealing his eagerness, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
“The thing where you have a present for me and you’re dying to give it. Out with it! What is it?”
“How did you know?”
“It’s my birthday, Nick. You haven’t given me anything yet. You distracted me with sex and food all day.” Oh. Yeah. That. Nick’s mind wanders to their earlier shower, and he involuntarily bites his bottom lip, staring into space. The steam billowing around them, the feeling of his knees pressed into the stone floor, Charlie’s noises… Fuck, that was hot.
[Narrator: Are you for real? Focus, please.]
Right.
So.
“So… you know that shaper at the surf shop in Encinitas?”
“Yep, he’s a babe.” Gasp.
“Excuse me, Charles?! Do I have to find a new surfboard guy?!” Nick teases.
“Nope. I’ll behave.” Charlie winks at him.
“Cheeky.” Nick steps up on the side of the car, pulling down his favourite yellow surfboard. He then reaches for Charlie’s birthday present. “ Anyway …he’s also an artist who can do almost anything on his custom boards. So…voila!”
“Oh my gosh…pawprints?!” Charlie is beaming, taking the longboard with mild difficulty given the board is heavy and over eight feet long.
“Those are Bailey’s pawprints,” Nick says, then dives into the story of how they made it, having her run across craft paper from his classroom with paint on her paws – the artist then painting them on the longboard, simple in black and white.
“What!? Did you do this, sweet girl?” Charlie reaches to pet his lab, and she nuzzles into his leg, sitting on his foot. They both laugh at her, scratching behind her ears. Nellie comes barreling into the three of them – boofing loudly – and Nick grabs a tennis ball out of the trunk, throwing it far across their mostly empty stretch of beach. They shut the car up and walk to a spot in the sand for Charlie’s lesson.
Nellie spits her tennis ball at Nick for another throw, then tears off after it again. Bailey likes to stay near Charlie in case she’s needed for comfort, even though she’s out of the vest now and free to just be a dog.
Nick lays both of their boards next to each other, telling Charlie to get on the board and lay on his stomach. Charlie props himself up on his forearms, waiting for Nick’s instruction.
“Okay! So, with surfing… ‘the less you do, the more you do’ is a great way to think of it.”
“Okayyyy…” Charlie says, staring at him blankly. Nick smirks at him, waiting for him to get the joke.
“So let me see you try a pop up.” Charlie does, and it’s actually pretty good.
“Mmm…Do less.”
“Do less?”
“Do less,” Nick repeats.
Realisation dawns on Charlie, who rolls his eyes and reaches over to toss sand at Nick playfully.
“Oh my god, Nick. Imogen warned me you’d do this!” Nick throws his head back, shaking with silent laughter.
“Great movie. A classic.”
“Sarah Marshall? Really!?”
“Like you didn’t watch it for the dick scene.” Nick stands over him with hands on his hips and a sceptical expression.
“Okay, fine. Guilty.” Charlie raises his hands up in surrender, laughing now.
“Ha! Or the dracula musical? True genius.” Nick does a chef’s kiss. Charlie rolls onto his back, staring back up at Nick, his curls splayed out on the longboard. He’s squinting into the sun as it lowers in the orange sky, behind Nick’s head. Nick fights the urge to climb on top of him and snog him to death.
“You’re so cute. I can’t focus.” Nick’s smile tugs up at one corner of his mouth as his face flushes.
“I noticed, Nicholas. This is supposed to be a lesson. Aren’t you a teacher?” Charlie stretches out languidly on the board, tucking his hands behind his head in a relaxed pose.
“Supposedly, yes.”
“Well? Teach me!”
Nick lies on his board in a paddling position, showing Charlie the placement of his arms. “So, your hands go underneath your shoulders on the deck of the board.”
Charlie rolls over and does the same, seeming to focus. “Okay, now lift your chest up and then jump up! And you want both your feet to land on the board…” Nick hops up into a crouched stance and Charlie easily copies him. “...about shoulder-width apart. And you want your feet to be in the centre of the board.”
Charlie does it a few times, smiling. “This is kinda fun.”
Nick grins and leans down to “adjust Charlie’s stance” each time.
“You can just say you want to grab my arse you know?”
“Okay I want to grab your arse,” Nick admits.
“I know.” They stand back up, dusting sand off their legs and smiling at each other. Nick can’t help but pull him into a big hug. He smells Charlie’s hair, kissing the top of his head, feeling so unbelievably lucky. Charlie wraps his arms around Nick's waist and they rock back and forth a bit like that, staring at the pink and orange horizon.
“We’ve accomplished nothing, Nick.”
“Shhh. Just a bit longer.” Charlie burrows his head into Nick’s chest in the special, sweet way he always does. Nick melts.
I love him so much.
[Narrator: I swear to god, Nick! You’re losing daylight.]
Right.
So.
They practise a few more times, then start to paddle out into the ocean.
“Holy hell, this is hard! I think I’ll quit and float on my board. I’m more of a float-in-the-sea kind of guy,” Charlie says, over the sound of the waves.
“Where is your can-do attitude?”
“Oh she left… long ago!” Charlie giggles, shrugging.
They practise a few duck dives and turtle rolls – though this spot is easy to paddle over most of the waves in. Bailey is watching them closely from shallow water, tail wagging. Nellie is an experienced surf dog at this point, so she swims out to them when Nick calls her, then helps her up on Charlie’s longboard.
Nick lets Charlie watch him ride a few waves, making sure to show off. He blows Charlie kisses and falls back in the water in the most dramatic way possible at the end of each wave – arms crossed over his chest, eyes closed, pretending to do a trust fall into the ocean. Charlie straddles his longboard – floating with Nellie lying on top – shaking his head at Nick, but clearly loving the show. Nick takes a picture of them, silhouettes lit up in front of a hot pink sky. His heart soars at the loves of his life in their absolute favourite place on earth.
Nick paddles back out to Charlie, and they sit on their boards waiting for a wave. They sneak smiling glances at each other, their hair wet and messy, droplets running down their faces. Eventually the perfect, beginner-sized wave rolls along, Nick helping Charlie turn around for it, watching him paddle way harder than Nick thought he could. He pops up and wobbles a bit, seeking balance.
“Lower, Charlie!” He manages to stand for a split second before he’s knocked off the board. His curly hair is flattened against his head as he pops back up out of the water, determined.
“Okay that was good, Charlie! You’ve just gotta keep your arms up like this instead…” Nick bends his elbows from where he’s straddling his yellow board, raising his shoulders to model the posture. “And I promise it’ll give you more control until the wave takes you!” Charlie tries a few more times, quickly collapsing back in the water, but he seems more and more set on catching a birthday wave.
Eventually, Nick and Nellie watch as Charlie pops up, grabbing the perfect wave, standing up fairly easily and moving fast, staying upright, riding his first real wave.
“YEAH CHARLIE!!!”
They both scream-cheer at each other his whole way to the shore.
Charlie emerges on the sand, and Nick can see Bailey jumping on him. Charlie kneels down to let her jump up, paws on his shoulders for a proper hug. Nick and Nellie take the next wave back to shore, and they all plop down in the sand exhausted as the sun meets the horizon.
“I fucking did that!” Charlie says, beaming with pride. He high-fives Nick, then lays his head on Nick’s shoulder. Nick instinctively lays his head on Charlie’s.
“That was amazing, Char! How do you feel?”
“Like I’m 30 years old.”
“Funny you say that… because you actually are.” Nick kisses Charlie’s head, and a good-natured groan escapes a sandy mop of curls.
“Yeah, yeah…I know.”
They snuggle up, wrapping towels around them, watching as San Diego does its thing – sending a hug to anyone present in the form of a brilliant sunset.
“Happy Birthday, Charlie of my life.”
🍂🌊🍂