Luca watches with a laser focus as Haochen leans back from checking Nicholas. Luca’s dad is fully healed but still unconscious, laid on the bed. His shirt still has blood on it.

“Nicholas is fine,” Haochen repeats, having been getting progressively more exasperated each time he’s had to say it.

“Why is he still knocked out then?” Luca demands, half hunched over the other side of the bed. His wand is in hand, no longer pretending. He’s in full fight-or-flight mode.

“He was trying to use magic without a focus and exhausted himself,” Haochen explains. “I can wake him up now but he’ll have quite the headache. It’s best that he sleeps it off.”

Luca clenches his jaw. He’s had magical exhaustion before and he knows rest is the best thing for it but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to accept. Wei just attacked Nicholas, Luca doesn’t know how to help his dad, and Luca can’t protect Nicholas if Haochen decides they’ve served their purpose. His first instinct is to fight but he knows it’d be better to run.

“I do apologise for Wei,” Haochen says soothingly, voice soft but eyes sharp. “He was disorientated after stepping out of the grimoire and lashed out. I’m not going to excuse his behaviour but I want to reassure you that this won’t happen again.”

“But?” Luca snaps.

“But,” Haochen sighs, lifting a long-fingered hand to push his hair back over his shoulder like a waterfall. He looks down at Luca’s wand, ready and waiting in a clenched fist. “You’ve planted your feet now, haven’t you? Not that you were hiding it particularly well before. So tell me, Luca, are we enemies?”

Luca pauses, leaning forward even further over the bed to try and cover Nicholas. He’s certain he can get a few good shots in and then he just needs to run. Haochen won’t follow if Luca can get Nicholas back to the floating island. If things get desperate, Luca thinks he has enough blackmail on Selwood to make the principal step in.

“That depends on you,” Luca ends up saying because he knows Haochen has all the power here. Asking Luca is a mockery.

“I would like us to continue as we have,” Haochen announces plainly. “Nicholas is still useful to me, and you represent the…less wealthy as a supposed branch family member so I find you to be useful as well. However, if you would like to leave, I won’t stop you.”

“We can just leave?” Luca asks sceptically.

“You can leave,” Haochen corrects. “I have a different deal with the Ayads.”

It takes Luca a moment to remember what Vinaya told him. In return for saving Nicholas from Christos, Haochen demanded occasional access to Nicholas. That’s hardly a fair deal considering the Ayads didn’t agree and Haochen was never asked to save anyone, but Luca is surprised Haochen is even bothering to pretend like it’s an equal fight.

“Of course, this is a business negotiation,” Haochen continues carelessly. “If you’d prefer, whenever Nicholas accompanies me when I require a more domestic persona, you can be allowed to attend to protect him. In return, I will ignore your utter lack of surprise at Wei’s presence and your incredibly suspicious actions. What do you think?”

“This isn’t a real negotiation,” Luca argues. He presses his thumb into his wand hard enough it’s starting to go numb and Haochen looks down at him like he’s watching from spectator seats.

“It is. You just have nothing to bring to the table to bargain with.” Haochen gestures a large sleeve towards Luca. “Unless you’d like to discuss how your magic was so compatible that Wei was able to achieve a corporeal form without any outside influence?”

Luca says nothing.

“I’m glad we’re in agreement,” Haochen states and he’s already turning to leave, not oblivious to Luca’s wand twitching upwards at Haochen’s undefended back, but the high mage simply doesn’t care. “When Nicholas wakes up you can leave at any time. If he’s asleep too long, come and get me.”

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Nicholas wakes up in his bed at Haochen's with Luca reading on a nearby chair, only for Luca to then glare at Nicholas over the top of his book.

"He started it," Nicholas tries.

Luca stands sharply. "Get dressed, we are going straight back to school."

After they get back to the citadel taking the Transverse, Luca storms off down the brick path back to the school.

“Sorry!” Nicholas calls after him, feeling a bit bad. “I really am!”

Luca stops. He turns back, and after a moment his eyes soften. “I just…need to talk to Christos about something.”

“Are you mad at me?” Nicholas asks quietly.

“I’m…I had a talk with Xia at the end, I have a lot to think about,” Luca admits. “Go straight to the nurses if you start feeling bad again, okay?”

“Okay,” Nicholas says and watches Luca walk away, very aware of how Luca neatly side-stepped his question.

Nicholas goes to the dorms but Rafael and Stavros aren't inside and he has no idea where the lens is right now. Hiding in the dark, cosy closet until someone comes to hug him sounds great right about now but no, Nicholas is stronger than that. They have tracking spells on him anyway; it shouldn’t take them too long to find him no matter where he goes.

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So instead, he dramatically mopes around in a nice sunny spot outside where he can enjoy the fresh air. People are less worried when they find him outside compared to when he hides under beds – not that Nicholas can change how safe small places make him feel.

Nicholas ends up lounging in a fork of a tree’s thick branches, the magical wood not quite flexible enough to shake him out and so it's settled down into an angry sway after giving up. Nicholas reads from the book propped up in his lap -one about the history of the Crane Sect he ‘borrowed’ from Haochen- while snacking on the open bag of cookies in his pocket because he treats himself well even while moping.

While maintaining an eavesdropping charm just to entertain himself, he overhears Mariana and her friends pass by to have a picnic out by the lake like so many other students do when it’s warm out, just over the hill a fair distance away.

"-first date though," a female voice says nervously. "Or is it a date? Can you, like, come too and make it a more friend thing?"

"She asked you to Gaseum Apeun, it's definitely a date, everyone goes there for it," Mariana replies.

Gaseum Apeun is a café in Gyeongju, Korea, which the island passes over pretty often and is a renowned dating spot for lovesick teenagers because it’s a cute place that serves sickeningly sweet treats.

"But if you're not comfortable of course I'll come,” Mariana continues. “I can duck out halfway if it's going well too."

"We can set up secret signals!" the friend cheers.

Awwww cute, she’s so happy to get a girlfriend, says one part of Nicholas' mind.

The other half is already planning how he's going to crash the friend's half date and steal Mariana away.

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Nicholas is bouncing in the tree, waving his arms around wildly as Rafael and Stavros walk over. "I know where we're going on the next surface trip!"

"I think this should be an obvious no but let me struggle with it a bit more," Rafael muses, coming to a stop and crossing his arms.

"No, you have to come! Luca is upset at me and I need to make him happy again," Nicholas complains.

Stavros rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I heard what you did from Luca. You never back down from a challenge, do you?"

"Not one that I can win," Nicholas smirks. "You're also going to have to help with the plan, by the way. I have two weeks before I need to make Mariana say yes to dating me and it'll go faster if you two play along and seduce her friends."

"You're very optimistic that this won't crash and burn horrifically," Rafael muses.

"But I really need her to date me, so it'll work," Nicholas insists. "You know how I get – it's all procrastination until I have to hand that essay in and then perfect across the board, easy."

"Gods," Stavros sighs. "You're lucky I love you."

Nicholas cheers and slides down the tree trunk, so he can run over and hug Stavros and Rafael.

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Rafael comes to a stop in front of the library table. "Connor, do you mind showing me where you got that herbology book about the carnivorous species? For the life of me, I can't find that section in here."

Connor glances towards Mariana and then he raises an eyebrow at where Nicholas is standing innocently by Rafael’s side.

"You go," Mariana offers. "I can take Ayad any day."

"Out on a date?" Nicholas chimes in with a wink.

Rafael elbows him and then walks off with Connor, the Famure’s otter familiar getting snatched up by Nicholas before it can follow the two. Rafael glances back when the privacy ward goes up, just in time to see Nicholas' expression bloom into something beautiful as he talks happily with Mariana, petting the otter in his lap.

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Mariana raises an eyebrow when she sees the Ayad cousin, Luca, get hustled along in the corridor before Nicholas shoves him for the final step and the older boy almost tumbles straight into Mariana and her friends.

Mariana offers up a kind smile when Luca looks at her with wide eyes. Nicholas mentioned that since Luca transferred in late, he’s been having trouble making friends. The poor cousin has definitely been getting dragged around by Nicholas and his friends, and if Mariana looks back now, she remembers seeing peeks of quiet moments where Luca writes letters in the common room with a worried expression.

"Um," Luca begins. "So, I – well Nicholas actually, he overheard-"

"Luca is fantastic at duelling!" Nicholas chirps, eye wide and hopeful. "He can help with the tests coming up, you know Mr Gilgal starts everyone out early."

Mariana's friends start nudging her because it's free real estate.

Mariana shushes them. "Nicholas, are you really selling out your cousin to get on my good side?"

"You know, my friends just call me Nicky. You can call me anytime."

Mariana is not the only one who rolls her eyes.

"Oh come on, not even a smile?" Nicholas complains. "Fine, whatever. Luca was going to tutor me and Raffy anyway so you might as well join in."

Mariana hesitates and looks at Luca. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yep," Luca says quietly, peering down at her, and if Mariana's black eyes also look that deep and dark it's no wonder people stare.

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Stavros is leaning against the wall at the corner of the hallway leading to Ms Connell’s room, a fond smile on his face.

"-did that 'call me anytime' one-liner," Nicholas is saying.

"I love that one," Stavros laughs. "Especially when I'm not expecting it, it's hilarious."

"Not a single one even smiled," Nicholas whines. "I mean Luca did but he's perfect. All her friends are boring though, wish you were there."

"Babe, I'm here now," Stavros says solemnly, reaching out to Nicholas' shoulder.

"Babe," Nicholas gasps.

"Babe."

"Babe-" A door snicks open and Nicholas startles.

Stavros gets shoved around the corner and he peeks back out to see Nicholas walking down the hallway at a casual pace. Mariana steps out of Ms Connell’s office after seeing the Head of InCore and shuts the door behind her, Stavros ducking back right she looks up.

"Oh, do you have detention?" Mariana says, humour in her voice.

"I’ve been good lately," Nicholas chuckles. "No, just wandering around."

Stavros scoffs quietly and hastily waves off a gaggle of Pull who side-eye him when they pass like he’s the weird one.

"And the other three?" comes Mariana's voice, barely heard over the Pulls.

"They've got other stuff recently," Nicholas admits quietly. "I suppose it's fair, I've been -you know- disappearing a lot."

Stavros rolls his eyes at that subtle reference to being kidnapped. Shit, is this how easy Nicholas plays Stavros? That's embarrassing. And it’s ridiculous because Nicholas has actually been disappearing so much to woo Mariana.

"I'd think they'd be around more than ever now," Mariana huffs. There's a bit of shuffling. "Anyway…did you want to head to the library together?"

Nicholas makes a cute happy noise and Stavros knows for a fact it's because Luca makes the same sound when he gets hugged, and Nicholas just melts at it, so he's hoping it works on Mariana too.

Apparently, it does because Mariana giggles softly. "Come on, let's go study!"

"Well, I never said anything about studying," Nicholas protests jokingly.

They walk off but Stavros lingers. He knows it’s only taking so much time because they’re planning specifically to make Nicholas look more mature and settled compared to the teenage boy he really is, but what happens when Nicholas does score a date?

Does Stavros get him back after or is Nicholas just like this for life now? They started years too early in faking a relationship so, what, this works and Nicholas is gone? He’s off being a family man and never mind all that talk about Stavros being his soulmate?

It takes Stavros a while to fix his expression into something far more neutral before he leaves too.