Work Text:
Nick: Char.
Charlie's phone buzzes in his blazer pocket. He's glad that he remembered to turn off the ringer before heading into lab this time. He learned his lesson during the first session of the year when Mozart's Turkish March blasted from his knapsack alerting him that his dad would be home late for dinner that night. The instructor confiscated the phone immediately to make an example out of him to the other students. Absolutely humiliating.
His phone buzzes again.
Nick: ?
Charlie ignores the alerts as best he can. He doesn't want the instructor catching him again.
Buzz.
Nick: ???
Charlie knows that there is only person besides Tao who texts this incessantly. And since Tao is currently beside him pipetting acid into a beaker to turn the liquid inside yellow, it could only be Charlie's boyfriend.
Waiting until the instructor turns around to help the laddish boys across the room adjust their burette, Charlie leans behind Tao to check his phone.
Charlie: what's up love?
Immediately three dots appear to show that Nick is typing.
Nick: MY PUMP DIED
Nick: PLEASE HELP
Nick: WHAT DO I DO
Charlie's stomach lurches. It's been one week since his boyfriend got his first insulin pump. It has revolutionized his diabetes management, making it so much easier to be a 17 year old kid because the device does the math and delivers insulin for him. No more injections, no more memorizing dosage ratios. A godsend in particular for Nick, who on a good day can be best described as scatterbrained.
However, Nick has a hard enough time remembering to charge his phone. Now, his life depends on remembering to charge his pump.
Which he clearly did not do.
Charlie: be right there
"Cover for me," Charlie whispers to Tao.
"Charlie. I need help with this! You know I can't do molarity calculations!" his lab partner whispers back sharply.
"I will literally be back in less than 5 minutes. Please? Just say I'm in the loo!"
Without waiting for a response Charlie plunges a hand into his knapsack and retrieves a small zippered pouch with pink hearts printed all over.
He quickly sneaks out of the lab, and once he shuts the door softly behind him he sprints out the building to the language block.
His urgency catches up to him when he busts open the door to Nick's Spanish classroom minutes later. Every head turns to look at the out of breath boy, causing him to turn redder than the bag he's holding.
"I, uh, sorry…" Charlie stutters in an attempt to explain the disruption.
He connects eyes with Nick, who luckily is seated close to the door. Charlie beelines to his boyfriend, places the pouch on his desk, and disappears as quickly as he entered. Nick barely has time to register what just happened.
Charlie races back to lab and is informed that the instructor hadn't even noticed his absence, thanks to the halfwits who apparently broke their burette.
Buzz.
Nick: Char. Why do you have a micro-USB charger with you? The plug doesn't even fit with your phone.
Charlie once again dips behind his tall lab partner, thankful that his best friend puts up with his antics.
Charlie: because i love you enough to expect that you might need a spare? <3
Nick: My hero <3