Luca sits in the circle of the study group, all clustered around three oddly sized tables shoved together, to go over the charms spell they just learned in class today.

Luca does like the tutoring session, it makes him feel good to help others even though he’s only good at duelling and, because of his timeline’s Wei, alchemy. It’s not too much pressure though because the group involves Mariana and her friends, plus joins with Rafael’s study group too sometimes so the expertise is passed around and there’s no one person leading it.

He knows it's also so that he can spend time with Mariana, because even if whatever ridiculous plan Nicholas has doesn't work, Luca still gets a friendship with his first mother.

Mariana looks so much like his ma from odd angles. Completely different personalities but Luca just couldn’t muster up the courage to approach her first. He isn’t scared of her, has never been afraid of his ma - even at the end there when he probably should have been, but it’s just…

Just that they hold themselves the same way and when Mariana gets annoyed, Luca can’t look her in the eye. It’s fine though, he’s just being ridiculous. The most Mariana does is um, actually someone a bit too loud but in between blinks, Luca sees the bloodied kitchen tiles of his childhood home.

Stavros sits next to Luca now after he noticed and Luca doesn’t know how to tell him that it’s fine, that it’s Luca’s brain working against him. At least Nicholas and Rafael are too distracted with the plan to notice how awkward Luca is.

The boys haven't actually let Luca in on the secret but it's not hard to pick up on.

It's almost impressive how smoothly the three work together, ducking just around corners when Mariana comes into view or passing around a conversation easily until it wraps right around and lands on the topic that makes Nicholas look most knowledgeable – or most pitiful if he wants Mariana to correct him and feel like she has responsibility over him learning it now.

Luca has sat in on several sessions where Stavros helps break down the characters of Mariana and her friends to an easy game of how do we make them move like this and it works, terrifyingly well.

Mariana is very certain of who she is and what she believes in. She will step in if she sees something unfair, to stop fights in hallways, to help the new students find rooms, to explain class to her friends.

Which is nice up until you realise she will correct you on everything that she disagrees with. She usually does it nicely but she won’t let it rest until you give in. Luca understands that people can have flaws and honestly this isn’t the worst.

(It’s nothing like Luca’s insatiable need to help, to be moving, to be doing something, reaching out to his old -new- contacts and with thirteen different backup plans because nothing ever goes well for him, just so desperately hoping-)

But Nicholas isn't Nicholas anymore when he interacts with Mariana. Instead he's more muted and polite, still laughs the same but thinks before he makes his jokes and it comes across slower, more controlled.

Luca watches while Rafael and Stavros feed Nicholas information and suddenly Nicholas is sitting like Stavros in that careless slouch instead of falling all over whoever is closest. He's calmly discussing transfiguration theory like Rafael, instead of how he usually fumbles over his words because his mind goes too fast and always ends with him having to pull out his wand to demonstrate instead.

Nicholas tilts his head wrong, sits strangely, stopped Loops practice early despite being so excited about being captain this year, uses Rafael’s full name, doesn’t bring medical textbooks to the table anymore after Mariana said he needed to concentrate on school work first, and hasn't slept in Stavros' bed since this whole game started.

It's almost impressive.

If it wasn't so horribly wrong to watch Nicholas act like a stranger.

Luca has seen Nicholas become a whole new person before, during the party Haochen took them to a while back, where Nicholas insisted on staying and keeping his mask on long after he started getting exhausted being the perfect heir. It kind of feels like Nicholas is seeing this as a job too.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

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It's the weekend of the surface trip and Nicholas is bouncing down the snow-covered ground alongside Luca and Rafael, Stavros lagging behind – probably because he's rolling his eyes so much at Nicholas' excitement.

"It won't work, two weeks is too little time," Stavros says again, using English out of the allspeak wards because of Luca.

"Oh ye of little faith," Nicholas scoffs. He pauses, nearly vibrating out of his skin as he stares up at the sign of Gaseum Apeun. "I'm going to get you a mother today, Luca," Nicholas declares and then ducks into the tea shop.

Nicholas spots Mariana at first glance, hard not to with the way she holds herself so confidently, and swans over – stealing a chair right under a RitCast, the boy dropping onto the ground with a cry, and dragging it a few more steps to place it right by Mariana.

Mariana raises an eyebrow and speaks in perfectly accented British English. "Can I help you?"

Her friend and the (potential) girlfriend also pause. As does most of the cafe, wanting to see what Nicholas does because he always makes a spectacle of himself. Rafael and Stavros linger near the wall behind and Luca just stays outside because he's very shy (and dying of second-hand embarrassment).

"Hey ladies, date going well?" Nicholas cheers. Mariana is using English, so he also uses it.

"Not bad," the girlfriend says, clearly the more confident of the two because she shoots Mariana's friend a smirk.

"Fantastic, you two are cute together," Nicholas admits and means it because they're so hesitantly touching fingers on the table like hand-holding in public is too much and that's adorable. (Nicholas says this like he doesn't sleep with Rafael every other night.) "You hear that, Mariana? Date is going great, how about you and me bounce?"

"I'm not going on a date with you, Nicholas," Mariana says but it sounds reactionary since she does dart a distracted glance towards her friend, unsure if she should make an excuse to leave.

"Not here you won't," Nicholas says readily enough. "Gaseum Apeun is so overdone. No, you need something worth your time."

Nicholas hooks a hand under Mariana's chair and drags her closer over the wooden floorboards with a smooth, controlled movement that he practiced with the help of an exasperated Rafael. Nicholas tilts his head so his hair flops and smirks at her.

"Our first date," Nicholas says over Mariana's protests. "Will be a night-time broom ride over the still waters of the lake, which will reflect the stars above, and I'll look you in the eyes and swear-"

Nicholas leans in, expression softening, voice dropping lower. "I swear, there's not a single star in this universe that shines brighter than you." He grins, wicked. "And not a damn one burns hotter either."

There are a lot of 'aww's going around. No one will ever know that Stavros hit Nicholas with that line last year and Nicholas stayed up overnight to bake him a four-tiered cake for Stavros’ birthday the next day.

Mariana rolls her eyes at that last part but she’s smiling. Her expression is still too fondly exasperated than just fond though so Nicholas needs to switch to being a bit needy since Mariana likes propping people up when they get shy or falter.

"That didn’t land right." Nicholas pulls away and hunches over, hand over his face and knocking his glasses askew. "Ugh, I’ve lost it!”

"What do you mean?" Stavros leans over on cue and pats Nicholas on the shoulder. "You're doing great, keep going!"

"I've lost the flow, I don't know what to do now!" Nicholas panics.

Mariana laughs. “Nicky.”

Nicholas peeks up at Mariana through his fingers. "Um. Hi."

"Hi," Mariana says and puts a hand over her mouth because she's about to break into a smile.

Nicholas quickly looks away. "I can't do it!"

"Why not?" Mariana asks. "You've had no problem so far."

Nicholas sits back and adjusts his glasses before crossing his arms, pouting. "I really tried today, I don't want to get rejected."

Mariana smoothes out her pants, looking down. "Ask me anyway."

Nicholas sits up, then slumps back down. "No, I'll try again tomorrow. This was a practice run. Doesn't count."

"Fine," Mariana tsks. "I'll do it." She turns to Nicholas, head high. "Hey, Nicky, go out with me."

The cafe explodes in noise from the students who know them or the ones just watching for a show, some cheering, others leaning over their tables to chatter with each other.

Nicholas squeaks out a, "Yes."

Mariana smiles, wide and bright and Nicholas leans toward her, giggling.

"So he'll see you tonight then," Stavros says and grabs Nicholas, dragging him up and out because if they leave him here Mariana might change her mind.

"Hi, Maria," Nicholas says with a dopey smile on his face.

"Hi, Nicky," Mariana says, fondly exasperated.

Stavros needs to sling Nicholas over a shoulder to weave between tables easier and Nicholas sets his elbows on Stavros's back, chin in his hands, staring after Mariana as he's carried out.

Mariana's friend paws at her arm, eyes wide. "You said yes! Literally last week, you said you never wanted to go out with him."

"I don't know," Mariana muses. "He's been different."

This kind of shy Nicholas is much cuter than the loud, arrogant version who swaggered in. It's also a bit adorable that he's so nervous, and it's nice to know she can affect him compared to Nicholas just laughing it all off with his friends like usual. It makes him far more real.