Luca stuffs the foldable mirror into his pocket and jogs down the road from the Ayad Manor, looks both ways before hustling across the street, ducking past the empty park and into the trees at the back where he's promptly crash tackled to the ground by a red fox.

"Hearth!" Luca cries happily, hands slipping from shaggy fur when older Stavros changes back and they go rolling around laughing.

"I – this is so – what fucking luck, Luca!" Stavros laughs, bouncing back up and doing a little happy circle. "What luck!"

"Well I did ask where you went when I met The Beast." Luca just stays lying on the grass, a dopey smile on his face. "This-" Luca holds up his hands. "This is incredible." His hands fall back down and he sighs contently.

"How is it?" Stavros asks excitedly, flopping down cross-legged. "Here, I mean."

Luca grins wide, can't even stop himself as he sits up. "It's great, I – they're so nice and Nicholas – dad is…everything. He's - there's nothing I don't like."

"Don't worry, you'll find something."

"No, but even when he whines it's so cute. I-I don't know what's wrong with me. I look at him and I just get so happy."

"I was like that too once," Stavros sighs exaggeratedly. "You're in the honeymoon phase, Luca. Just wait until he starts really pissing you off."

Luca puts his hands on his cheeks, hunching forward. "Is this what having a dad is like?"

"I can guarantee you that's a no."

"If anyone hurts Nicholas I'll kill everyone," Luca says seriously.

"Okay, wow, you…yep, alright." Stavros puts his hands on Luca's shoulders and pushes him back up. "Slow down, kiddo, give it a few days."

"What's wrong with me?" Luca whispers.

"You just got out of something really stressful and with not many people backing you up,” Stavros explains, eyes knowing. “Nicholas is soft and loving and…all he wants is you to just be with him. You overreached love and went straight into obsession. It's okay, you only need to reel it back in, he’s not going anywhere."

"This is like when you broke the ley line and I couldn’t find you, but Nicholas isn't even hurt, I don't understand."

"Take some deep breaths," Stavros says calmly, practised because he also tends to go straight off the rails. "Won't take long before you realise Nicky is a little brat."

"He's perfectly fine," Luca argues automatically because how dare anyone say bad things about his dad. He only now notices Stavros’ blond curls are in a bun with a wand stuck through it and Luca knows Stavros’ focus is a ring, he shouldn’t have a wand. "I mean, well, you did kill his friend. In front of him."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"I was-" Stavros pauses and leans back. "Okay, I just fell out of the ley line and escaped the magpol that came to check the discrepancy, and then it…happened."

"It happened," Luca echoes. "Did the kidnapping just happen too?"

"I've kidnapped Nicholas tons of times," Stavros scoffs. "Both with him willing and unwilling, for a variety of reasons. One time I stuffed him in my luggage to take him home from school with me. It's never been a problem before."

Luca scrubs a hand down his face. "I want to be upset with you but I kind of get it. Is that bad?"

"I admit I was a little bit too early with it." Stavros slumps forward, elbows on his thighs. "And sorry for losing your dad to Xia."

Luca gasps, slapping Stavros on the arm a few times. "Xia dropped Nicholas off and his reason for the whole thing was because he needed a heritage heir to show off to the people he's recruiting. And he's just going to keep doing it as long as it gets him good publicity."

This isn’t coming out of left field either. Xia has always had an interest in heritage and their magic. Most of his reign of terror was caused by him slaughtering families and taking the souls of the heirs so he could get access to their Family Magics.

Even if Xia was genuinely after good publicity to get the public on his side, he now has one of the oldest bloodlines in history in the form of Nicholas. Xia has been hunting down Luca for years now to get his magic, but in this timeline Xia already has the heir. There’s no way this can end well.

Stavros throws his arms out. "Another situation in which kidnapping Nicholas works! Go back to the house and lure him out, I'll hit him from behind."

"He's gone back to the citadel, I forgot to tell you on the mirror," Luca admits. "Which is actually great, while we find and destroy all the parts Xia used for his soul sweeper and then kill the high mage - again."

"The what sweeper?"

Luca grimaces. "Oh, right. I'm actually nineteen. You’ve…been gone for a while from my perspective."

Stavros looks Luca up and down. "You didn't grow much. Wait, you didn't come through the broken ley line too?"

"No, I died later," Luca admits. "Anyway, that's not important, we need to kill Xia and I know how to do it."

Stavros blinks rapidly for a moment. "Alright, no. Let's backtrack for a moment."

----------------------------------------

Nicholas wakes up the next day in Rafael’s dorm room bed, aching all over and knows it's only going to get worse tomorrow. He pats around with a limp arm and shoves the bed curtains on his left open, cutting out the silencing charm to chatter.

"-looked like Nicholas. Almost jumped him from behind when he was walking back to the Transverse gate with Nicholas' parents," Stavros is saying, from his own bed so directly downward from where Nicholas is lying.

Nicholas struggles up and the bed creaks, making the two go silent. "Oh, sorry, was this a private conversation?" Nicholas scoffs as he sits up against the headboard with a lot of struggle.

The curtains on the right side are pulled open and Stavros sits on the bed with a smirk. "Good morning, superstar. Keep playing like that and you'll get scouted."

"Never again," Nicholas sighs and then grins. "So now you've met my son. Isn't he the greatest?"

"Son?" Rafael asks slowly, still sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Oh, yeah, from like lo~ong in the future. His name is Luca, and did I tell you how incredible he is?" Nicholas smirks. "The mum is Mariana, by the way. Childhood sweethearts getting married, can you believe it?”

“You kissed once when you were thirteen,” Stavros scoffs.

"Luca is terrifyingly similar to you," Rafael admits. "What incredibly strong genetics."

"By the way," Stavros begins, leaning in. "Are we going to talk about what's happened to you or are you going to keep ignoring us like you did the entire night during the after-game party?"

"That depends, have you locked the door?"

"Yes, and you don’t have a focus so you can't unlock it either."

Nicholas rolls his eyes. He actually has his great uncle's apprentice wand, a good enough fit for Nicholas, but it still doesn't feel right and fighting one-on-two is going to be a nightmare. "Wow, I love how caring and supportive you both are, what great friends."

Stavros and Rafael pull out their wands and direct them at Nicholas threateningly because they know he's stalling.