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“Shit, I’m late” And though it’s not that common for Nicky to be late to things, classes are important for him, mind you. It’s not that usual that he stays up the night to study and he hasn’t really, in fact, he’s spent the night playing Overwatch with Matt and Dan. He’s always liked them and having time to share with them is kind of fun, despite wanting to make comments they wouldn’t approve of. Anyway, it’s not like Aaron and Kevin approved of his comments, “Have you seen that one ugly ass giant blue book with yellow shit on the cover?”
Nicky moves around the room clumsily since he hasn’t spent more than two days in there and most of his things are still scattered around the entire place. Plus, Matt’s kind of a mess too.
“Nope” Matt says from his bed with a resigned smile, “Did you check in the closet? We got some books in there yesterday, right?”
“Nope, not there either” Nicky sighs, crossing his arms and thinking of where he saw it the last time. If things hadn’t been so fucking chaotic maybe it would’ve been easier but damn, he’s a fox, and his cousins are Andrew and Aaron Minyard, it’s not like his life’s suddenly gonna stop being a mess because he’s moved in with Matt, who despite being the nicest fox in the team is still a fox, “I’ll ask the guys, see ya”
He grabs his backpack and his phone before heading out. It’s too early to think and he should be worrying about homework and having skipped breakfast and not having exercised because after Baltimore no one’s ready to get in the court again for a couple of days. Whatever, there’s more urgent things to worry about, such as the really fucking expensive book he can’t afford to lose, plus he’s pretty sure if he were to walk into the amazing world of Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries without it he’d get killed. It’s supposed to be creative, for fuck’s sake, what’s the point on reading on creativity when not even the professor can come up with his own shit?
He knocks on the door and no one answers. He doesn’t even know why he bothers, he never answered when he lived there either. Thing is, he’s pretty sure if one on them figures out he still has a key he’ll get killed, but after 150 seconds counted in his head, knowing that he’s already late –his hair’s a mess, but he still thinks he looks great, 100/10 on that face, Nicholas Esteban- he just has to.
Making sure no one’s in there by trying to listen through the door, he uses his key and finds Kevin’s laptop and headphones on the couch, no grumpy Exy obsessed asshole anywhere near, so he assumes he won’t bother anyone as long as he doesn’t make any noise. Despite there no being any signs of life he knows Neil’s supposed to be resting and it’s definitely too early for him to be up willingly. Andrew should be in class. He’s got it all covered. Except the book isn’t in his old room, nor is it in the common area.
Of course Nicky knows it’s probably because he’s a mess, but later, he’ll realise even considering that, it’s impossible that his book somehow ended up in Andrew’s room. Well, he’s desperate and doesn’t have a time machine to really analyse anything and he’s motherfucking late, so late he’ll have to run to class. Ah, the perks of being an athlete.
So he tells himself nothing will happen if he just keeps looking quietly and if he doesn’t bother Josten, after all, the kid’s barely alive and though it breaks him to see him hurt, he’ll have to shut the fuck up and forget how much he wants to hug him because 1) Neil does not want a hug 2) He’s really fucking late.
It’s too quiet, in a way he’s not used to because fuck the universe if Nicky Hemmick’ll shut up, but he’s trying to be respectful of Neil’s rest and awful sleep schedule, so he opens the door very very slowly and lets himself in without closing the door because that can wake Neil up.
Except waking Neil up shouldn’t be one of his priorities because, oh, isn’t he fucking awake already. There’s a reason why it’s so quiet, and it probably has to do with the hand carefully covering Neil’s mouth and though the angle, thank fuck, doesn’t let him see his cousin he’s pretty sure his mouth’s quite busy.
He yelps and it happens way too quickly and too slow at the same time. Neil tenses visibly under Andrew when he opens his eyes at the sudden noise and Andrew sits up because the tiniest sign of something going wrong is enough to make him stop and look around for a possible threat.
It really is too quick and too slow at the same time, from Neil forgetting he’s supposed to cover his scars, and Andrew forgetting his shirt somewhere on the floor, to the hand around his throat.
“Fuck I thought it was Kevin” Neil sighs into the pillow. Nicky thinks he probably isn’t pinching the bridge of his nose solely because his hands are still pretty much useless and touching his face might feel like hell.
When he looks at Andrew, trying to focus on his words, he sees the bruise still there, a completely different colour, but still there. It’s sort of funny how he think he’s maybe about to get killed and all he can think of is how fucking weird is that those two having bruises and wounds seems to connect them even more than the possibility of holding hands in public.
“If you say anything I’ll make sure to do worse than leave a scar” Andrew says in a low and harsh voice. Nicky sort of wants to laugh, but he isn’t sure if it’s because of what he saw or if it’s because he’s really fucking scared. Andrew lets go of his neck when he nods, but he still has him pressed to the wall.
“I’m really late but also I really need my book I’m sorry I’m so so sorry” Nicky says, his eyes are closed and he thinks he’s heard Neil snort but if anything Neil’s probably frustrated and angry at his lack of common sense, “I’ll just leave and never talk to you again” Nicky continues nodding through his words even if he’s not even sure why anymore.
He is indeed very late to class.
Thank u for whatever u did tht made him forget his knives, Nicky texts Neil later.