"Yeah," Nikolas said softly, then looked up at the open space upstairs where a line of doors were—bedrooms with attached bathrooms. The house had originally been remodeled to hold multiple residents, a place of safety for those that felt unsafe. Nikolas owned it now, and he and Tess were the only residents. He rubbed the back of his neck before dropping his hand and gaze with a sigh. "I need some damn coffee," he muttered, then pushed off of the railing and headed into the kitchen, which was open to the living room they were currently in.
Markus blinked, eyes following Nikolas before his feet hesitantly did as well. “Ain’t you not s’posed to drink coffee with a tongue piercing?” He asked, the image of the metal in Nikolas’s mouth flashing to mind and drawing a light blush to his cheeks.
Nikolas ignored Markus, making a beeline for the already brewed and hot coffee. Pure black, just how he liked it. It poured some into a mug for himself, then stared Markus dead in the eye with a deadpan face as he downed half of the mug in one go, Adams Apple bobbing with each swallow. It took a few seconds after he finished before his face screwed up and he set the mug down. "Damn that's hot." He shook his head and licked his lips to get the last drops of the liquid, head tilting slightly as he did so.
Markus released a long sigh, dragging his hand down the front of his face. “Because it’s straight from the pot, ya doofus. Didn’t even give it time to cool.” Just to prove a point, even. He removed his eyes from Nikolas’s Adam’s apple, where they had previously found themselves stuck, to look at his face. “Though, gotta applaud your ability to chug that much coffee in one go.”
"Years of immunity," Nikolas stated matter-of-factly, choosing to ignore how Markus called him a doofus. Things were still slightly strange between them, but that was to be expected. Of course, they were both ignoring the fact that had been previously revealed to them after gym. That was also to be expected. So Nikolas decided to be the good host as he turned to Markus. "Make yourself at home, however long you plan on staying. I'm gonna head up for a bit to dye my hair again."
Markus furrowed his brows, a small wrinkle appearing between them, at Nikolas’s words. Hesitantly, he nodded, crossing his arms over his chest slightly awkwardly. “Uh…thanks. Anythin’ I shouldn’t touch, places I shouldn’t go?” It was habit, making sure. There were always things he shouldn’t do, things that pissed off the people taking him in and made them decide to make his life miserable. And while Nikolas wasn’t a foster, Markus had already pushed his luck enough.
Nikolas waved his hand dismissively. "Place is open to anyone at any time, so no. You're free to do whatever." With that, he offered a two-finger salute to Markus and went upstairs, taking them two at a time. His bedroom was at the end of the line of doors, and he was going to use his attached bathroom to dye his hair so he didn't make a mess in any of the other rooms. He was slightly worried Markus might try to get back at Nikolas while he was gone, but he shook his head and told himself to trust Markus.
An hour or so later, Markus and Tess were sitting in the kitchen downstairs, the former at the small table and the latter on the counter. They had been arguing about music, and had at some point ended up on food. “Gumbo. There’s nothin’ better anywhere. When I was stuck in a foster home in New Orleans, it was damn near impossible to keep from eating it every damn day.”
Tessa shook her head adamantly, visibly judging Markus for his choice. "Buffalo wings are best. Nice mix of spice and chicken, and it's just–" She held up her hands, all fingers pressed together on each hand, and kissed her fingertips, "Mmmm. So good. Gumbo can go suck it."
Meanwhile, Nikolas was drying off his freshly dyed hair, the silver stark against the short black roots. He usually did that to give his hair the time to grow the roots out some more for his favored look, making it less necessary to redye frequently. He threw on a pair of black sweatpants and a sweatshirt that was a dark blue at the bottom and faded into black at the top, hand-painted stars and constellations sprinkled all over it.
“Buffalo wings are good, I’ll give ya that, but they ain’t nowhere near as good some good ol’ fashioned gumbo.” Markus said, shaking his head adamantly. He was slouching far down in his chair, like he always did at school, but he looked much more relaxed here. He was half grinning, one side of his mouth turned up while the other tried and failed to pull his mouth into a disappointed look. Then his eyes lit up. “Beignets are a fuckin’ godly one too, ‘specially when thinkin’ just desserts. Reigning best.”
Tessa sighed like a mother attempting to lecture her child and said child failing to understand what she was trying to say. Her mouth opened to argue with him once again, but the familiar thumping of footsteps distracted her. She looked over at the staircase just in time to see Nikolas reach the bottom, head shaking to ruffle his hair a bit—he had brushed it, but he always preferred it messy over neat—the silver strands falling into his similarly colored eyes.
Markus tilted his head back to look at the doorway instead of turning, brown eyes blinking a few times. They looked lighter now, somehow, the kitchen light adding a sort of glow to the dark brown. “Howdy there. Your hair looks more like I’m used to it lookin’.” He commented, that wrinkle reappearing between his brows as he studied Nikolas’s hair for maybe a few moments too long.
"I didn't have the time to redye it for a while," Nikolas said as he walked into the kitchen, lingering behind Markus for a bit and flicking his eyes down to briefly study the glow the sun cast in those brown eyes. "Too much shit happening at once," he finally finished, looking away to raise an unimpressed brow at Tessa, who was still sitting on the counter and failing to hide the smirk behind her knee.
There was that blush again, sparked by the attention he had noticed Nikolas paying to his eyes. It was a funny thing, for someone to even stop to look at them. And yet Nikolas just had, possibly ruining Markus on accident in the process. “Hm. Makes sense. The black looks..nice, y’know. That your natural?”
Tessa had to cover her mouth to keep her silent laughter from being seen by Markus. Nikolas did see it and glared at her, then unconsciously ran his fingers through his hair some before answering Markus. "Yeah, it's my natural hair color." He glanced over at Markus and tilted his head, blinking in slight confusion at him commenting on the natural color.
Markus was none the wiser to Tessa’s laughter, even if he maybe should have been. He gestured around his own head for reference to Nikolas’s, even though he himself didn’t have much hair left on his scalp. “It’s…it looks good. Both, but the black suits ya just a bit more, funny enough. Uh-yeah.” He shook his head slightly, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment as he shrugged.
Nikolas studied Markus for a few silent moments, his eyes darting around the boy's face, before he blinked and shrugged, striding past him to grab something to snack on. He didn't know what to think of Markus's attentions. One moment of the day, they were at each other's throats. Now, Markus seemed to be paying attention to Nikolas more than usual. It was confusing, to say the least.
He went over to the fridge and examined it, tongue caught between his teeth as he thought about what he wanted to eat. He was likely just going to grab ice cream, but he was still sorting through his racing thoughts, so this gave him a chance to do just that.
Markus sat right again as Nikolas strode past, picking up his phone from where it had been laying on the table. It buzzed a handful of times, a sound like a bird chirping, before he could even open it. "Lord Almighty, Lily, what the hell." He muttered, flipping it open to read her texts. She was the only number on his phone other than his boss, who didn't even know how to use a phone it seemed.
Tessa rose a brow, dropping her knee so both of her legs were dangling off of the side of the counter. "Lily? D'ya have a girlfriend, Markie Poo?" she cooed with a smirk, using her old teasing nickname for him. She had a slight twinge of panic that Markus would truly have a girlfriend and not want to be with Nikolas—and thus crushing her dreams—but from the way her ex foster brother had reacted to the simplest of things her other ex foster brother had done, she figured her dreams were safe.
"Huh? Nah, Lily and I're just friends. And don' call me that, Tessa Bear." Markus stuck his tongue out at her without looking up, completely unaware of the fact that 'just friends', while definitely meaning just friends in his case, was very often something people who liked each other said. Besides, Tessa was right. He may or may not have developed a slight crush on Nikolas, mainly the things he did that flustered Markus horribly.
Nikolas snickered at their exchange, grabbing an unopened tub of strawberry icecream and shutting the freezer door. Tessa, without needing to look, grabbed a spoon and handed it to him as he walked by, his hand already out and ready to take the utensil from her. He smiled softly to himself and hummed a song he and Tess had written together, moving to lean against a wall near Markus without really thinking much about it. Tessa, meanwhile, was contemplating the meaning behind 'just friends' with how Markus had said it. No darkened cheeks, no trying to avoid the subject. Markus and Nikolas dreams are safe. Ew, that sounds gross. No dreams. No dreams.
"Hey, Tess?" Markus finally did look up from his phone then, brow furrowed in a slightly exasperated frown. "This is a coyote, right?" He tossed her the phone, knowing full well she would catch it. The pictures that Lily had sent him were indeed of a coyote, mangy and missing patches of fur, with a visibly injured leg. Laying on someone's couch.
Tessa indeed caught it without a problem, frowning slightly as she looked at the phone. "Yes, this is a coyote." She rose a brow at Markus. "I might be a city gal, but aren't those things supposed to stay outside of people's homes?" Nikolas looked up and tilted his head in question, and she turned the phone so he could see as well. "It's injured," he commented.
"It is. Tha's part o' why she picked it up." Markus sighed, dragging a hand down his face as he shook his head. "This is the third time. It's leg looks broken, so she's gonna need t' give it a splint for sure, once she figures out where the break is." Now, he was sort of muttering to himself, going over the veterinary training he had gone through a couple years ago for volunteer work. "They are s'posed to stay out of your house. But I've never known Lily to turn down an injured animal."
"Don't blame her," Nikolas said with a shrug, "I took in the local parasite." Tessa scoffed and set Markus' phone down so she could jump off the counter and attack Nikolas. He simply rose an unimpressed brow and flicked her nose when she came close, causing her to pause and blink in slight confusion. "Did you just…?"
"Yes."
She blinked again, then shook her head and looked to Markus. "I'd tell her to be careful. It might be injured, but it's still feral. In fact, they're usually more aggressive when hurt. They're more vulnerable, so they want to protect themselves even more." She said 'they', but Nikolas knew she was mostly talking out of experience.
Markus raised an eyebrow as he watched the two interact, smiling softly. They really did act like siblings, like they hadn't been thrown together by circumstance but had been born and raised together. He felt a slight pang in his chest, the longing that showed it's ugly self on occasion. Family must be nice. Found or otherwise.
"I always do, but if anyone could get an injured wild animal t' let her help it, it's Lily. I once watched her stick her in a seven foot alligator's mouth to find a rotten tooth." He shook his head, snorting. "Somethin' about her. They love it."
"I can imagine," Tessa said, grabbing Markus' phone and handing it back to him, "Sounds like a great girl. I'd love to meet her sometime." Nikolas rolled his eyes with a sigh, closing the tub of ice cream and pushing off of the wall to put the tub back into the freezer. "Tess, are you planning on transferring to our school or just skip it altogether? I know how much you hate it, so this is the only time I'm going to bring it up." He silently looked to Markus with a slight pleading in his eyes. He wouldn't pester Tess, but maybe Markus could get away with it.
Markus met Nikolas's gaze, flicking an eyebrow up for just a moment as his fingers tapped a response. Then he looked to Tessa, grinning slightly. "You're thinkin' of transferrin'? Ya absolutely should. Imagine the shit we could get up too." He waggled his eyebrows playfully, huffing a laugh. Even with Nikolas's request for him to bug her, he really did hope she would decide to go to their high school. It would be nice to get to see her.
Tessa huffed and crossed her arms as she leaned against the counter, crossing one foot over the opposite ankle. "Stop making that face. You know I can't say no to that face." She really, really hated school and its restricted confines, but imagining her and Markus getting into trouble had a smiling unbiddenly coming to her lips. She bit down to suppress it, keeping her stern look as she shook her head no.
“Pretty please? C’mon doll, it could be so much fun.” Just for the heck of it, he layered on his accent, the drawl adding a certain sweetness to his words. “Think about it for me? We could get up t’ so much shit.”
