1 | Almost Happy ▷ Sam Wilson | ✓

18 - WORK DAY

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU CAN'T BE SEEN HERE."

Nicky was gripping on his backpack strap, gawking at Terran who was standing at the bottom of the steps with sunglasses and a leather jacket, looking everything like the mid-twenty-something he was, attracting a slight amount of attention, what with his large height and pretty face.

"I'm a citizen and a teacher, can't I come and visit the high school?" Terran asked, laughing as he pulled Nicky into a hug, the teenager immediately trying to jump out of his grip, looking around furiously, heart pounding.

"Hey," Terran shushed, keeping him in place, but giving him his space, stepping back and putting his hands in his pockets after being sure Nicky wouldn't run, "Listen, there's no need to freak out. We live in plain sight. It's not like I'm some kind of runaway, this is fine."

Nicky took a deep breath, dropping his head and squeezing his backpack straps. "I just—I don't want people asking questions why I'm getting picked up by some random blond guy on the street."

"But I'm not a random blond guy, I'm your friend," Terran said, and Nicky blushed, scuffing his shoe against the pavement, "But if you want me to leave, I can."

"No," he said quickly, snapping his head up, eyes wide, "No, no, it's okay. I-I want you to stay. Please."

Terran smiled and slung an arm around his shoulder, ruffling his hair, the two starting to walk. "Well, I'm glad you're letting me stay because we're gonna have a guy's night out."

"Yeah?" Nicky asked, moving so Terran's grip was less around his neck and more around his shoulder, "What're we gonna do?"

The man pulled two movie tickets out of his back pocket. "We're gonna watch an R-rated movie, then you're gonna come back to the complex and marathon all the chick flicks no one else will watch with me."

Nicky rolled his eyes. "Don't you have better things to do with your time? Like grading papers or dating?"

Terran shrugged, just look around at the bright world around them. "I'm a cool teacher and, though it's a Friday, there are no available men or women to take out for a passionate night of romance and possible lovemaking, so I've decided to get the next best thing."

"The underage disappointment you decided to take in?" Nicky snorted.

"Well, that's one way to look at him, but I like to think he's the little genius I'm choosing to exploit, but to each their own I guess," Terran hummed, still not looking at Nicky as he smiled and led him towards the movie theater.

Nicky just smiled and wrapped his arm around the man. Truth be told, he would follow him anywhere.

º º º

Nicky was awoken by the sound of his burner phone buzzing and Rhett shouting for him to wake up and answer it, the smell of bacon wafting through the crack under his closed door.

Groaning, Nicky stood up and rifled around, pulling the phone out of its hiding spot and pressing it against his ear. "It's me."

"I need your help," Hank McCoy said, but it wasn't rushed, so there was no reason to panic, "Did I wake you?"

Nicky coughed. "Yeah, you did. Hey, I'm gonna get myself some breakfast, jump onto the video call and we can get started, yeah?"

"Thanks, Nicky," Hank said, and, before the man hung up, added, "I've gotten some more people helping me search for him, by the way. You can trust them, they're good kids, and they want to help."