Blake stared at Nick, his shock clear as day in his expression, and Nick immediately regretted blurting out his plan. He had assumed Blake would be on board with letting everyone back at home know that they were sort of together now, but maybe he wasn't at all. On second thought: Nick had a feeling some of Blake's friends from high school didn't like him very much. He wouldn't have liked himself much either if he were them.

"I, uh, I thought taking a picture and posting it would be a good explanation for why I left the football chat. They won't have questions after that. They won't even want to be friends with me either," Nick stammered through an explanation. "But it's okay if you don't want to do it."

Blake's eyes spread wide open and then he started laughing. "Hell no, are you kidding? Of course I'm up for any plan that causes this much chaos. It's I just that I can't follow your thought process at all. You go quiet and stare off in the distance with a frown and then come with a brand new wild idea. You keep surprising me left and right." Blake reached up and gently touched Nick's cheek. "But keep doing it. I enjoy it."

Nick could only smile sheepishly. "Okay, I will. I was thinking that maybe you didn't want to do it because your friends from high school would see it and yell at you?"

"Well..." Blake paused to think about it, and then he visibly cringed. "Shit, Karen will yell. I should probably make some phone calls beforehand." He ran a hand through his hair. "What about your parents? I understand you don't give a crap about your ex-friends because nobody should, but what about them? You're not out yet at home, are you?"

Nick wasn't out at home.

There hadn't exactly been a chance to be out, considering he didn't even know he was bi before the exchange.Nick didn't think his parents would care. They didn't with Sem. Mom had even tried to pull Nick aside and have 'the talk' about how they would accept anyone Nick came home with when Sem came out. Still, they wouldn't be happy if Nick announced his partner to the world without telling them about having a partner first.

"Yeah, you're right," Nick said. "I need to tell my parents something first before posting a gay picture everywhere."

"And let's not forget Sem either," Blake added.

Oh God, Blake was right. There was Sem, too. Nick grimaced at even the thought of Sem's rage if he had to find out through Instagram with everyone else. It wasn't that he would care that Nick and Blake had a relationship, but he would get pissed if neither Blake nor Nick bothered to tell him.

"Good point, I'll send Sem a text too," Nick said.

"So, a break to make all the necessary calls first?" Blake chuckled and shook his head. "This is insane. Here I was, thinking I'd already, like, seen and done it all when I came out. You're just going hit them all out of left field and I'm living for it."

"I wasn't planning on doing that or anything," Nick weakly defended himself, which only made Blake laugh harder.

"I know, that makes this even better," Blake said. He leaned in to press a kiss to Nick's lips. "Let's go do this."

Blake threw on a pair of pyjamas and went into the living room, while Nick stayed in Blake's bedroom. Nick heard Blake's voice in the living room, but Nick didn't feel like calling anyone. Despite Blake saying he was going to drop a bomb, Nick didn't want to make it a bigger deal than it was. After a brief thought, Nick decided he'd bring Blake home to his parents the same way he'd done with Emma and everyone would have to accept it. And they would.

Nick sent his parents a simple text saying that he'd bring home someone for dinner after the exchange semester ended and he flew back. He'd send the picture to his parents in another text later.

To Sem, Nick sent a brief: "hi, I did kiss Blake now" and left it with that. If Sem wanted to know more, he'd call.

Despite Nick's usual overthinking tendencies on how to phrase things or do things, he was done within five minutes with the texts. Sending the future photo to his parents would be more nerve-wrecking, but telling them he was going to bring someone home wasn't the hard part yet. And Sem was just Sem.

Blake, on the other hand, seemed to need more time. A lot more time. Nick got dressed and played games on his phone while half-expecting Sem or one of his parents to call him, but neither seemed to be near their phone right now. There were no responses yet. Nick had finished at least twenty past Wordles before Blake finally burst into the bedroom, a wide smile on his face.

"Okay, so, I called Lara and she's coming over in like twenty minutes to take our picture. Was flattered to do it, actually!"

Nick felt a flush creep up to his cheeks. "She what?"

"No worries, she knew there was something going on between us for ages now. Sorry babe, we weren't subtle." Blake waved his hand, gesturing at Nick to not worry about it. "The point is: if we're doing this, it's go big or go home. It needs to be an awesome picture and we're going to look better as a couple than literally everyone else on Instagram. I insist. So, we're going to need Lara for this."

"I—" Nick opened and closed his mouth, but there wasn't really a reason to protest. The plan was already set in motion, and if Blake wanted a professional-looking picture, Lara was absolutely their best bet.

"Alright," Nick replied.

Lara was at the door before the twenty minutes she said it would take had passed. She wore a bright smile matching Blake's, and she didn't come alone. Nick suddenly found himself making breakfast for three extra people since Carson and Mia had also decided to tag along. Neither Carson nor Mia seemed surprised at the developments between Nick and Blake either, and they didn't even comment. They were more interested in practicing for the tournament at the Ace of Spades, and seemed to mostly want to be around for breakfast and games.

Lara and Blake, however, took this way too seriously.

Nick pulled a face as Lara opened her bag and took out a bunch of hair products for men. "Is this really necessary?" he asked.

"Yes!" Lara, Blake, Mia, and even Carson called out in chorus.

"The first couple photo is extremely important, okay?" Lara said. "It sets the tone for the rest of the profile. How else are the right followers going to find you?"

"We're not doing this to gain followers," Nick reminded her.

Lara blinked. "Oh, right, you're not interested in followers," she said, as if she also had to remind herself they really weren't looking for marketing." Then she smiled. "Still, if you're here to impress then it needs to look good."

"Just go with it, babe," Blake told Nick with a wink."Don't worry so much."

"Yeah 'babe', you're getting off easy," Carson added. "For our first couple picture we spend an entire day getting ready, and that's not counting the spa day beforehand."

Lara jokingly glared at Carson. "Oh shush! You enjoyed that day too."

Nick couldn't imagine how anyone would enjoy someone spending half a day tugging, pulling, and spraying shit on their hair. But after Lara was finished and he looked into the mirror, Nick had to admit whatever Lara did looked good.

Nick poked at his hair. It felt strange and stiff, but it still looked nice. "How did you make it do that swirly thing?" he asked, turning his head left and right to check his hair out from different angles.

Lara giggled. "That's the secret of the master. Anyway, it's finally picture time! My favourite time! Let's step onto the balcony."

"Good call, the light is great there," Blake said.

Judging from the way Blake was smiling and very obviously enjoying this, he was way more in his element than Nick was with the primping and the picture-taking. Oddly enough, that made Nick relax a little more. If Blake was having a great time, then this extra effort was worth it. At least, it was, until they were actually standing on the balcony together with Lara pointing a very expensive-looking camera at them.

Nick looked from Blake to the camera and back and cleared his throat. "Uh, what are we supposed to do now exactly?"

Lara's face disappeared behind her camera. "It's okay, choose a pose that feels natural for you," she encouraged Nick.

"Nothing about this feels natural to me, so that's not really helpful," Nick murmured so only Blake could hear it.

With a chuckle, Blake took Nick's hand. "What would you have done if it was us alone, and me taking the picture as a selfie with my phone?"

"I'd..." Nick paused. He actually had no clue what he would have done. He would've picked something in the moment and it would've felt right. It didn't work if he thought about it because then it would take ages to come to a conclusion, and it would probably be the wrong conclusion.

Nick looked into Blake's eyes, leaving their fingers entwined. He took in the sparkle in Blake's eyes, the soft sunlight illuminating the left side of his face, the wind playing with his hair. Would it be too cheesy if he replied: 'I would have stared at you all day?'

Just as Nick forgot for a second there was a big-ass lens currently aimed at him and got lost in the moment, Lara suddenly called out, "Excellent! I've got enough shots now."