1 | Almost Happy ▷ Sam Wilson | ✓

1 - ALRIGHT DAY

NICKY WAS A SIMPLE MAN. He was a simple man with simple wants and needs. He prided himself on taking things slow and not letting himself get too easily riled up, as it gave him no satisfaction at the end of it, and senseless anger was never something he found favorable.

But if this damn mariachi band didn't shut up in the next thirty seconds, blood would be shed.

With all the anger of the patient who had been recommended to him from anger management counseling two months prior, he ripped out his headphones and turned his music on as loud as he could, ready to deal with all the damage his ears would have to endure if only to have a more isolated sound control his mood.

By the time he reached his stop, he was somewhat calm and able to laugh at the whole experience, ready to regale the tale to everyone he ran into, already planning out the script in his mind. Making people laugh was something he strived to do as much as he could; it was easier to see smiles than tears.

Speaking of smiles, he had never seen larger smiles than that of high school students just released from their eight-hour day of education. Of course, the education students received at Midtown Tech was better than most, but these were still teenagers and it was still school.

"Nicky!"

He grinned at the sound of two voices calling his name, looking up to see two blonds racing down to meet him, one much faster than the other who called out for him to slow down. He stood at the bottom of the steps, grinning when they stopped in front of him, breathless and smiling, adjusting their backpack straps.

Harry Osborn and Diana Smith, the youngest of his patients and possibly the most interesting he had ever dealt with. Both dealing with severe depression, one had been addicted to a variety of drugs, some of which he hadn't even heard of before meeting him, while the other had no parents to speak of, only a godfamily with a slew of problems of their own. He wasn't a miracle worker by any means, but the two were doing alright as of late, which was all he could really hope for.

"How was school, kids?" he asked, moving them out of direct traffic, leaning against one of the handrails on the stairs.

"Amazing," they both gushed, turning to grin at each other, Diana needing to lean back to look him in the eye.

"What happened?" he asked, smiling, trying not to fall back into his default work mode; it wasn't much different than his usual demeanor, but it often rendered him unable to appreciate fun stories as much as he usually did.

"Johnny visited during lunch," Diana explained, and it all made sense.

Johnny Storm, teenage member of the Fantastic Four, one of Nicky's benefactors and business partners, was Harry's newfound boyfriend for half a year, if he counted it right. While it had taken him a while to hear about it from the source, having to hear about it through a tabloid at the supermarket, it was clear that the boy had helped ease the weight off Harry's shoulders, which was a win in Nicky's book.

"He kissed me in front of the entire school, then made me a rose out of fire, it was kind of the best thing," Harry said, cheeks pink as he explained the story, Diana grinning and clinging onto his arm, rocking back and forth.

"Well, fun," Nicky said, nodding towards them, "Listen, I'd love to chat more, but I'm just heading back from my break and figured I'd drop by to see how you're doing, I actually have a patient to see soon. Stay out of trouble, will you?"

The two agreed easily, almost desperate to follow his directions and just get through one day without much trouble. Their lives were much more calm as of late, but that didn't stop them from being on edge, worrying about the next break. As their psychologist, Nicky knew very well how they felt about their current situations.