Chapter Text
When Nicky arrives at the museum the morning after he helps a thief steal from the museum, it takes him at least two hours to convince himself that no, nobody knows what he’d done last night. Nobody seems to know that anything had happened at all.
Which isn’t to say he regrets it - he doesn’t - but he doesn’t exactly want to get arrested, either.
He has one close call, when Quýnh appears in the doorway of his office and says, “Don’t tell me you fell asleep here last night.”
“No, why?” he asks, his heart rate speeding up.
“Because you do that a lot.”
“I do not!”
“You do.”
“Do not. Anyway, I’m here to make sure you don’t forget to eat.”
He glances at the clock. One pm. “Is it that time already?”
“Yup. Come on.”
He stands up and follows her out of the room. Quýnh launches into a retelling of the last meeting she’d been in as they walk, but Nicky’s only half listening. So maybe sleeping in his office has unfortunate side effects, namely: he’s exhausted.
They walk past the gallery, and Nicky can’t help glancing inside. The statue Joe had stolen last night - the one he’d helped Joe steal - is still in its case, and Nicky has to admit that there’s nothing amiss. If he didn’t know what had happened, he wouldn’t suspect a thing.
Then he catches sight of the figure standing in front of the case and freezes.
“Nico?” Quýnh asks, stopping. “Everything okay?”
Nicky blinks. “I just… forgot something. Go on without me, I’ll meet you in a moment.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll only be a minute.”
Quýnh looks like she’s about to protest, but changes her mind and walks away. Nicky waits for her to leave before entering the gallery.
It’s definitely him. Standing in front of the case containing the replica statue.
Nicky taps him on the shoulder. “What are you doing here?” he whispers.
Joe turns around and grins at him. “Public access?”
“You know what I mean. Shouldn’t you be far away from here or something?”
Joe shrugs. “It’ll be a little while before anyone notices.”
“It seems like an unnecessary risk to me.”
“Well, how else was I supposed to find you?”
Nicky blinks at him. “What?”
“It’s your lunch break, right?”
“Yes, but…” He glances back at the gallery door. “I was going to…”
“That’s okay. Here, let me…”
Joe reaches into his jacket and pulls out a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbles something on the paper, folds it up, and hands it to Nicky.
“If you want to talk, meet me after you’re done. If you don’t, I won’t bother you again. Okay?”
Nicky nods.
“Think about it.”
Joe walks away, and Nicky stands there for a moment, slightly taken aback.
Well, that happened.
“What was that about?” Quýnh asks when he catches up to her.
“Nothing,” he says.
Nicky, against his better judgement, shows up at the address Joe had given him. Not for any particular reason. Just curiosity.
That’s what he tells himself, anyway. He lingers on the threshold for a moment before stepping inside.
It’s a small cafe tucked between a bookshop and a pharmacy. Joe is sitting by the window, looking out at the street. His expression breaks into a smile as Nicky approaches, and if Nicky’s heart stutters a little at the sight… well. That’s his business.
(Joe has a really, really nice smile.)
“You came after all,” Joe says.
“I was curious,” Nicky says truthfully, dropping into the chair across from him. “Do you do this every time someone catches you? Because that seems like a bad habit.”
“Well, you’re the only one who’s ever actually caught me, so…”
“Is that a compliment?”
Joe shrugs. “Up to you.”
Nicky smiles. “Isn’t this… ill advised? I’ve seen you in daylight now, I could still go to the police.”
Joe tilts his head. “True. But I don’t think you will.”
“And you don’t think it’s a bad idea to trust someone you just met?”
“I trusted you to help me get out and not get the police, you trusted me enough to let me walk you home…” Joe shrugs again. “So we’re even on the ‘bad ideas’ front.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Nicky mutters. “Why did you want to talk?”
Joe leans back. “You said you wanted to help. I was wondering if you wanted to help again.”
“You… what?”
“It was nice. Working with someone else. I haven’t done that in a while.”
“You do this alone?”
“No, I have friends, I just… don’t usually have someone with me when I’m actually…”
“Stealing?”
Joe laughs. “Yeah, okay, that’s fair. We’ll be laying low for a little while, and you wouldn’t have to do anything right away, just… think about it.”
“And if I say no?”
“I walk away and you never have to see me again.”
Nicky can’t believe he’s actually considering this. The intelligent thing to do would be to walk away now, before he gets himself into trouble. And maybe go to the police like he should have in the first place, but he won’t do that.
“We’re meeting again in a couple weeks, okay? So if you do decide you want to help, come meet me at seven.”
“Where?”
For the second time that day, Joe scribbles down an address on a piece of paper and slides it across the table to Nicky. “Think about it.”
Nicky doesn’t let himself think about it for two weeks.
Which is why, at six thirty, he’s pacing his apartment, trying to figure out when his life got to this point.
He shouldn’t go. He should get out while he still can. This is a very, very bad decision.
The problem is, he already knows exactly what he’s going to do.
He arrives at three minutes to seven, according to his watch. The place Joe had told him to meet is a fairly normal-looking house, and Nicky wonders why Joe had asked him to meet here , of all places.
“Nicky!” Joe calls. “You showed up!” He’s jogging along the pavement towards him, smiling. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Neither was I,” Nicky says honestly.
“Come on then, it’s cold out here.”
Joe walks past him and towards the house, and Nicky follows, suddenly slightly nervous. Joe knocks - once, then pauses, then twice.
“Open up,” he calls, “it’s me.”
The door is opened by a young woman with braids, who smiles widely when she sees Joe. “You’re on time, for once.”
“I’ll have you know I take punctuality very seriously,” Joe answers. “Nile, this is Nicky.”
Nile offers her hand. “Hey. I’m Nile. It’s good to meet you.”
Nicky shakes it. “Nice to meet you too.”
“Alright, alright, it’s cold out here,” Joe interrupts. “Did Booker actually show up on time?”
“Nope,” Nile says, stepping aside to let them in.
The house is warm, and Nicky can hear laughter from the other room.
“Is Joe here?” a familiar voice calls.
No, it can’t be.
And then Quýnh appears in the doorway, and does a double take at the sight of him. “Nico?”
“Quýnh?” he asks, just as confused.
Joe looks between them. “Wait, you know each other?”
“Yeah, we…”
“Work together,” Quýnh finishes. “So you did fall asleep in your office the other night.”
“I didn’t mean to!”
Joe starts laughing, and Quýnh shoots him a look.
“Well, out of all the people Joe could have found,” Quýnh says, “I’m glad it was you. Now, come on, you should meet Andy.”
He lets her take him by the arm and lead him into the living room, still struggling to process the fact that Quynh - his coworker Quynh - is somehow part of all of this.
“Joe’s here?” asks the woman sitting on the couch - Andy, presumably.
“Yep. This is Nico,” Quýnh says.
“Nicoló di Genova. Nicky,” Nicky says.
Andy looks him up and down. “You’re the one who caught Joe?” There’s no judgement in her voice.
“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Joe asks, entering the room.
“Absolutely not,” Nile says.
Andy looks at him for a little while longer before getting up and crossing the room to stand in front of him. She offers her hand. “Andromache. Nice to meet you.”
Nicky shakes it, and can’t help feeling like he’s passed some kind of test.
He’s saved from having to say anything else by another knock on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Quýnh says.
Joe glances at the clock. “Would you look at that? Booker’s only five minutes late.”
Booker turns out to be a fairly tall man with blonde hair and a beard, who takes one look at Nicky and mutters something in French to Joe. Joe elbows him in the side.
"Sébastien le Livre,” Booker says.
“The forger?” Nicky asks.
Booker glances at Joe, who looks slightly guilty. “How did you know that?”
“Just… something Joe said. I put two and two together.”
“In future, Yusuf,” Andy says drily, “please avoid telling people you just met information about how we work, please.”
“It was an accident?” Joe tries.
“Right,” Andy says, before looking at Nicky. “This is your last chance to back out.”
He considers for a moment, but there's no point. He'd made his decision the second he approached Joe in the gallery that morning. “I want to stay,” Nicky says.
Joe smiles.