Chapter Text
“Nick! I’m going!” Alicia shouted as she made her way to the kitchen where her brother was having a cup of coffee, she took his cup and took a sip then gave it back “already? You just woke up!” she nodded “I know! And I’m already late!” she groaned “need a ride?” she shook her head “Troy’s driving me, he wanted to check out the college’s biology program, see if they can squeeze him in for next year, you sure you don’t want to reapply? We can always have a students loan”
The boy scoffed, sipping his coffee “yeah… cause all banks are so eager to give money to a recovering addict who already had a chance but decided to be a dropout” she rolled her eyes “it’s too early for your sarcasm” she placed a kiss on his cheek “be good-”, “I know the drill, text you every hour, don’t get into troubles, and fix whatever shit that needs to be fixed or done, you’ll be back at 4, and I better be home at 4 too” she nodded and looked at him suspiciously this was too perfect.
She gave him one last look then rushed to 4D, knocking on the door so hard that the entire building was shaking, at least it was in Nick’s head, Troy opened the door quickly, all ready to go “you’re two minutes late” he said unimpressed, she rolled her eyes “now I get why Nick was obsessed with numbers out of the sudden” he smiled proudly of the statement “come on, I have an appointment, don’t wanna be late” then he dragged her out of the apartment before she could even greet Jake, cause if those two meet it pretty much means they’d talk forever.
Next Jake walked into 4C, all dressed up and in a rush “morning to you too” Nick shouted at him, it wasn't uncommon for the Ottos to just walk in or vice versa, they bonded after the mental institution, the other jumped as if it’s the first time he notices someone else was sitting there “Nick!” He said startled, halfway making coffee “you’re the coffee thief now?” He joked, Jake poured himself a cup of coffee, taking a sip before he would even consider answering “the coffee shop on my to work is pretty full by the time I reach it which would make me late from my morning meetings! And I’m coming home way too late, can’t find any grocery shops open, and Troy’s… I still think he needs more time before he could hit the road by himself, our place is almost empty!” He said quickly, finishing half of his coffee already.
“What do you need? I’ll go shopping for us today, I can pick you up few things if you want” Nick suggested “really?” He nodded “yeah, helps keep my mind off things” Jake placed the cup in the sink then almost hugged the younger one but stopped once he saw him close his eyes “sorry, you’re a lifesaver!” Nick gave him a weak smile “it’s okay, we’ll get there one day” Jake nodded “if it’s worth anything, I think you’re doing great” nick nodded and gave him another smile, this time more genuine “okay so I’ll email you the groceries list and PayPal the amount, you’re going someplace on my drive? I can give you a ride” the shaggy-haired shook his head negatively “it’s a few blocks away east, I could use the walk” Jake nodded “okay, take care, be good!” He pointed a finger at him “jeez mom! I will” Nick groaned “don’t make me send you to the corner!” Jake shouted on his way out, both laughed.
The ride wasn’t fun for either Troy or Alicia, it was a constant battle of picking songs, Troy wanting rock and metal music while Alicia wanted pop and techno, but they managed to get there on time “okay, you have a meeting at the dean’s office? I can take you there before I head to my lectures, I get off at 3;20 you can wait in the library or the cafeteria” she said as both of them walked in the direction of the dean’s office, Troy being extremely mesmerized by everything “can I get your library card? I want to borrow few books, I’ve already returned the old ones and I have no reading material” she nodded and reached into her bag, she pulled out her library id then gave it to him “if you lose it I’ll sacrifice you, Vikings style!”
Alicia helped Troy get into the dean’s waiting room, once he was all settled, she left for her classes, it took half an hour before the assistant called his name, he walked into the dean’s office, the woman greeted him with a smile and offered him a seat, he was nervous and it showed “hello Mr Otto” she greeted “Troy” he corrected, leaving the woman confused “Mr Otto’s my dad… I’m just Troy” she squinted her eyes slightly, humming “well, Troy, I’m Mrs Jensen and I’m the dean, your application says here you want to study biology! Tell me more about that”
Troy took a second before answering “uh… yeah, figuring out how living creatures do the simplest tasks’s always been a fascination of mine, and I’m very curious, about the reasons why everything works the way it does” she wrote something down in her notebook, it was as if he was at the therapist’s clinic, only this was a new therapist and it made him slightly nervous “was it your favourite subject at school?” Troy blinked at her “I… didn’t exactly go to school… homeschooled, well, not really, my dad pulled me out of school when I was 10 and I took my GED a couple of months ago” the woman wrote more, he definitely wasn’t feeling any comfortable.
“Why do you want to attend this college?” Troy sighed, repeating what Alicia taught him “this is a great college with an amazing program and plenty of accomplishments and-“, “Troy, right?” He nodded “can I be honest with you here ?” He nodded again “look, you’re a wild card, it says here that you’ve never had a proper education, that you recently left a mental institution, you have behavioural issues and violent tendencies, no work experience and no I'm assuming no life experience, and let alone the fact that your name is linked to hate speeches, things aren’t looking good for you, so I need you to tell me, why on earth would I take a chance on you?”
Troy frowned, this wasn’t part of what he rehearsed with Alicia and Nick, he didn’t like that “Troy?” The woman asked, he sucked in a breath “because I’m trying to evolve, just like what the university is all about, evolving, developing, betterment, my past isn’t very brilliant I get it… my family life’s a wreck, the things I’ve been taught aren’t correct and I still have many years of therapy to be whole… there are many things that I don’t know, like, I don’t know how to make friends, I don’t know how to be calm when the elevator malfunction, but there’s one thing I’m certain of… I love biology, I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember! Doing experiments, pretending to be a scientist, that made me happy growing up the way I did, I know- I know I’m not perfect and I have plenty of issues but I really really wanna learn, and I know I’m not worthy but I guess… for once I wanna be selfish and ignorant and waste your time for a chance to do something that means the world to me”
Troy looked down at his hands nervously, and the woman’s quietness wasn’t helping, usually, he’d appreciate a woman who scraps in her notebook the way he does but this scared him “we’ll need all of your emergency contacts, and you’ll need to attend few seminars on hate speech and racism, and you can go to school next year on probation if anything goes wrong-“, “it won’t! I’ll be on my best behaviour” he interrupted, his eyes filled with hope, the woman smiled and offered him a hand to shake “welcome aboard Troy Otto” he grinned and shook her hand, mumbling thank-yous over and over, he left the office with one thought on his mind! Wait until he tells nick about it!
He went to the library, found himself a bunch of books to read and borrow, he found himself a table alone way at the back and started reading quietly, headphones blasting various metal music, Alicia wasn’t going to finish her classes until at least three more hours, he put on his glasses and disappeared into his very own world.
Nick washed the dishes then he went to the streets, Alicia made sure he has a busy schedule, he wasn’t cleared to have a job yet so with Alicia and Troy at college, and Jake at work, he was pretty bored and lonely which wasn’t a good combination to a recovering drugs addict, he went to the groceries store first, he took a cart and started putting the things on his list and Jake’s, picking few things for himself and Troy, he then went to the cashier, Martha was on call, he liked Martha, Martin, her brother was too uptight and he never spoke to him unless to tell him about his days in Vietnam “Martha! Looking good as always” he told the sixty years old woman, she giggled “oh Nick! You’re such a flatter!” He smiled and placed the items on the table.
She scanned them “if only you’d let me set you up with my niece Callie, she’s gorgeous, funny, and she’s a doctor!” He Laughed “c'mon Martha, you know I’m with Troy” she placed the items in bags “which one’s Troy again?” He smiled “blond curls, blue puppy eyes, usually wearing sweaters too big even if he’s literally a giant” she thought for a moment “oh that Troy! I was going to ask him out” he laughed “do I have to keep an eye on my man?” She smiled “you know I’m still in the game” he grinned “alright, May the best one wins” they shook hands on it “it’s a total of 160.56” he nodded and gave her the money then left.
Later he had to pick Alicia’s suit from the dry cleaning, and then he returned to their apartment, fixing the shower that’s Alicia’s been whining about the last month but he was too busy hanging around Troy to do any fixing, so he guessed Alicia can stop whining about it every morning, then he was going to repaint that one wall that’s been bugging him, he had to catch up with the book he’s reading with Troy, Troy had mentioned that he stayed up one night and finished the whole thing out of curiosity while Nick read barely half of it.
Alicia called Troy on his cell once she was done, they agreed to meet at the parking lot, he picked up the books he wanted to borrow and walked to the receptionist, who smiled and asked for his ID, he gave Alicia’s, the man read the name then looked at Troy, then at the ID “Alicia Clark, huh?” Troy gulped, he nodded “funny, I remember seeing Alicia yesterday, she wasn’t a 6ft man with blond hair, so unless you had a gender reassignment surgery and recovered in the past twelve hours then who the hell are you and how did you get this?” Troy looked at him nervously, this is stressful, he’s been stressing a little too much today, making him wonder if he’s capable of actually going to college “I’m Troy… a friend of Alicia, she told me it’s okay to use her ID for books, I didn’t steal it” he replied, his voice cracking with each word.
The man laughed at how nervous he was, he gave him back the ID “you’re the reason why a psychiatric student ends up getting too many books about biology and astrology and many other books that don’t belong, we’re cool” Troy looked a little disoriented but he grabbed the ID and the books and fled the scene with a smile before he would change his mind, he rushed to where he parked his jeep, Alicia was already standing there, leaning against the hood, she smiled at the pale man who’s walking as if he just saw a ghost “you’re okay?” he nodded and they both got into the car.
“Troy! What happened?” she asked after they were settled in inside “nothing” he mumbled, she rolled her eyes “sometimes I feel like I’m hanging out with a taller clone of Nick” he frowned “is that a bad thing?” she shrugged “not necessarily, but you’re picking annoying shit like… not telling me what’s wrong” he huffed “the librarian guy, he accused me of stealing your ID then he was all weird” she raised a brow “Brad? He’s just messing with you, he didn’t mean anything with it, people sometimes just find IDs laying around and they turn them in, he didn’t mean to accuse you of anything” she tried to explain, he nodded “I know, it’s just me”
She sighed and reached for his hand, he gave her a slight smile “can I ask you something? Promise you’d be honest? I don’t need Nick’s reasonable arguments and Jake’s overwhelming support” the blond one said, Alicia, turned to look at him, shoving her phone into her bag “of course” he took a breath “do you think I can do this? College I mean… do you think I’m cut out for it? Because that was one simple situation and it threw me off guard like this! What if I screw up?” she sighed “Troy, I cried the whole way back home on my first day, and one time, I freaked out on Brad because I couldn’t find a book, it’s not easy, but it’s not as difficult as you might think, you are a smart guy, you actually enjoy learning, and you just need to accept that sometimes shit will happen and it will throw you off and you just need to collect yourself and move on”
He nodded “Nick’s a smart guy, he couldn’t move on” Alicia rolled her eyes “No, Nick was a smart guy who did stupid shit, he dropped out of college because it was interfering with his using, and he regrets not finishing it every day! Could’ve been a pharmacist, but his head was in the wrong place, and he’s suffering the consequences daily” Troy thought about it for a moment, Nick never spoke to him about college, besides few funny stories now and then, he guessed it didn’t affect him but maybe he guessed wrong.
By the time they arrived back home, Nick was shirtless, wearing an apron and making cookies, they exchanged a look “stop mentally judging me” he warned with a spatula in hand “no one is judging you” Alicia said with an eye roll “and I’m expected to believe that? You two have secret ways of communication that are beyond my understanding and this proves it!” they exchanged another look, Troy just moved to where the cookies were and picked one, but Nick screamed at him to stop and the blond immediately put it back, looking at him with frightened “those are shaped like flowers Troy, do they look decorated like flowers to you?” he shook his head and mumbled a sorry.
“Nick! You’re being a jerk” Alicia said and picked one and ate it just to annoy him “I’m a kept man now Alicia, a househusband, I want to make the perfect food for the fam” he walked to Troy and placed a kiss on his cheek “how’s your day hunny?” Troy couldn’t help but laugh “I think Nicky’s gone mad” he told Alicia “you think? I don’t think I’ve seen my brother this obsessed with cookies since he was eight!” Troy smiled “why did you make cookies anyway?” Nick narrowed his eyes at them both, pointing his spatula threateningly “well, I finished what’s on my to-do list faster than I expected, and I guessed, with your interview, you’d need cookies to celebrate if things go well and comfort if it goes all shitty” he explained.
“You finished everything?” Nick nodded “I did the groceries shopping, picked your suit, did the laundry, fixed the shower, repainted the fucked up wall, fixed the cabinet in Troy’s house, dusted, read the book and now I’m cooking, decorating cookies” he told Alicia “you still haven’t answered yet” he turned to Troy, who scratched the back of his head “I got in”, “that’s great! Why aren’t you happy?” he asked with a little frown “he’s having a moment of doubt”, “Alicia!” the blond whined.
Nick turned to look at him with a frown “what? Why are you doubting it? We’ve been working so hard for this! You were so excited yesterday! What happened?” Troy opened his mouth but Alicia beat him to it “he was spooked by the librarian and now he’s all not sure” he whined again, reminding himself not to confide in her ever again “is that true?” the taller one huffed “it’s not like that! I haven’t been in a school since I was around 10! I’ll be mean girled!” now Alicia was the one who gave her sibling a look “we watched mean girls last Friday, he thinks he’s Cady in that scenario” she giggled “and what does that make us?” he shrugged “we’re probably Janis and Damian”
Troy groaned, sometimes he hated hanging out with the Clarks, for example when they team up against him like this “we’ll talk about it tonight, but for now we celebrate, just let me decorate those cookies first” Nick rubbed his arm a little “wait you’re serious about the cookies?” Alicia said shocked “fucking dead serious Alicia, that frosting ain’t gonna put itself, just order a pizza for dinner, I’ll be over in a minute” the woman rolled her eyes “if only you cooked dinner instead” she mumbled “I heard that, and my cookies are amazing!”, “no they aren’t” she shouted as she walked away “Troy” he gave his boyfriend puppy eyes, to gain any kind of support “they are amazing baby” the younger one smiled goofily “do I get a hug for saying that?”
Nick laughed and opened his arms for the taller one, embracing him in a hug, it didn’t last long but Troy appreciated it anyways, things were better with Nick, he feels slightly more comfortable with being touched as long as it’s not sudden, Troy still remembers last month when he hugged Alicia for the very first time in two years, the woman lost it and cried the whole time, they had a good system, he’s okay to touch any of them but if they wanted a hug or a kiss they needed to ask first, and he was more comfortable around Troy when it comes to physical affection, Jake was the one he still had to work around.
Nick finished his cookies decoration by the time the pizza arrived, so he paid in cash and cookies, the delivery person was so confused about why Nick was giving him a paper box with five too well-decorated cookies but ended up thanking him anyways, Troy took the goods and hanged out with the two on the couch, they speared two slices and few cookies for Jake, he’ll be late and too lazy to get food.
they were watching Grey’s anatomy when Jake walked in on them, looking more stressed than usual “you guys are okay? Did you hear the news?” he said, they all looked at him clueless, he rolled his eyes and took the remote controller, changing the channel, he gained a whine from the three but they all went silent once they saw it.