Don't Wave No Goodbye

Darcy doesn’t tell Nick her revelation, and he doesn’t ask. When she tells him that her and Harry are over, he hugs her wordlessly and doesn’t ask if she’s okay, or remind her that it was just casual sex so she shouldn’t be upset over it ending which she's thankful for. The rest of her friends, those that were aware of the situation or at least had suspicions around it, seem to learn very quickly what has happened and do their best to keep from mentioning Harry whenever they can.

Suddenly, the Radio One Christmas party is upon them and Nick’s not taking any of Darcy’s excuses when she tries to tell him she can’t go. He storms into her flat only twenty minutes after she’d originally text him saying she wouldn’t be there, looking overly flustered and positively beside himself.

“Are you kidding me? Bollocks you’re not coming! You’re coming!” Nick yells at her, waving his phone around while Darcy cringes and tries to hide beneath the blanket she’s tucked under on the couch.

“Nick,” Darcy starts slowly, looking up at him with pleading eyes. “I don’t want to go. I don’t feel up to it and if I go, I’m just going to spend the entire night feeling awful. Don’t make me go.”

“No, no, and no. Don’t try and make this into something it isn’t, this is about Harry,” he answers, eyeing her up and when she tries to resist, he raises a stern eyebrow at her.

Darcy sighs, shoulders slumping forward. “Okay, yes, is that what you want to hear? That I don’t want to go because I’m terrified to see him there, unhappy because of me? Or worse, happy and completely okay? I can’t… I just can’t, Nick.”

Nick actually looks sympathetic at this, taking a seat beside Darcy on the couch and looking at her closely before emitting a soft sigh. “I get that, Darce, I do. I may not know exactly what's going on between the two of you but I know it would be all too easy to just stay here, hide away, and deal with it some other time but that’s not going to help anything. The problem will still be there tomorrow and you’ll still be feeling miserable.”

“But at least I won’t have to see him or talk to him or be in the same room as him,” Darcy points out, huffing when Nick rolls his eyes at this.

“Okay, forget that Harry could be there for a moment. Tonight’s about having fun, celebrating your hard work, being with your friends! Are you really going to give all that up because of him? Don’t be like this. If you come tonight, I can guarantee you’ll have a brilliant time and you’ll be thanking me for dragging your sorry ass out, yeah?”

Darcy gives him a disbelieving look before shaking her head slightly. “I’m sorry, Nick. I’m a horrible person and I just want to sit and simmer in my own awful-ness for a bit.”

“Darcy, that’s -” Nick stops himself before he says the word childish but Darcy hears it regardless. He sighs again, scrubbing a hand down his face before trying again. “I need you there, okay? If not for yourself, please do this for me. I’m freaking out and my hands are all tingling and I can’t stop shaking, I’m acting like a preteen girl about to go on her first date. I hate this and I don’t know if I can go tonight and tell that stupid stuck up prick of that dumb boy band that I have feelings for him if I don’t have my best girl with me!”

“Nick…”

“No,” Nick says quickly, leaning forward and pointing a finger at her. “No. You promised Aimee you’d look after me, promised her! This comes under that and I am not above calling her to tell her that you’ve broken a promise!”

Darcy makes a face but can’t fight off the smile that spreads across her face. “That’s a horrible guilt trip, and if I didn’t love you so much I’d hate you. But okay, okay, I’ll go but only for you. Once you get your man, I’m free to leave, deal?”

Nick grins, nodding eagerly. “Deal. Now up, up, up! You need to shower, you kind of smell like dying,” Nick says, crinkling his nose while Darcy gasps in offense. “You know it’s true! Go, we need to be there in just over an hour!”

Grumbling, Darcy heads off to her bathroom while Nick stretches out on the couch, grinning in success. Twenty minutes later, Darcy’s dressed and messing about with her hair while Nick lounges on her bed, flicking through a magazine without much interest.

“You know, there’s a very good chance he won’t even be there,” Nick mentions offhandedly, eyeing Darcy through her mirror as she puts down her curling iron slowly.

“I know,” Darcy says with a sigh. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Tonight’s about you and Louis, that’s my objective here.”

“What happens if it flops?”

Darcy turns around to give Nick a stern look. “No talking like that, okay? Louis would be an idiot to pass up the once in a life time opportunity to be in an actual relationship with the Nick Grimshaw.”

“That, or an incredibly smart man,” Nick offers helplessly, rolling onto his side quickly to avoid being hit with a bottle of hairspray. “Oi! That would’ve hurt!”

“Man up, Grimshaw,” Darcy answers with an eye roll. “And we’ve both meet Louis, and I don’t think he’s either.”

“All I’m saying is that if after all this pushing and shoving from you, I tell Louis how I feel and he doesn’t go for it, I’m going to be pissed that you lost me the finest ass I’ve pulled,” Nick tells her in an attempt to come across as serious but Darcy can tell easily that this is all just to hide how nervous he is for tonight.

“Must you always be so crude, Nicholas? Don’t worry; I’m positive tonight is going to be wonderful. It’s Christmas, it sort of has to be, right?”