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Nicky glanced back at Nathaniel as he spoke and Nathaniel bristled in warning.
Nicky only took his eyes off Andrew for a second, but that was long enough for Andrew to lunge at him.
He caught Nicky's jersey in one hand and threw him hard up against the wall. Nicky grunted at the impact but made no move to shove Andrew off when Andrew leaned up against him.
Nathaniel looked from Nicky to Aaron, trying to figure out his ques, but Aaron appeared unmoved and unsurprised by the sudden violence. Nathaniel decided he was probably equipped to handle it and looked back at Andrew and waited to see how this played out.
"Hey, Nicky," Andrew said in stage-whisper German. "Don't touch him, you understand?"
"You know I'd never hurt him.” Because he wouldn’t get away with it if he tried. “If he says yes—"
"I said no." It did very little to endear Nathaniel to the man, but it was good to know where his moral lines were.
"Jesus, you're greedy," Nicky said. "You already have Kevin. Why does it—"
He went silent, but it took Nathaniel a moment to realize why.
Andrew had a short knife pressed to Nicky's jersey.
Please tell me he isn’t carrying that on the court, Neil whined. Like they didn’t know that Andrew did. Nathaniel just hadn’t expected him to pull it on his cousin. Maybe he should have.
"Shh, Nicky, shh," Andrew said, like he was soothing a troubled child. "Why the long face? It's going to be okay."
Nathaniel was almost certain they’d never, in all their time in shady spaces, met a man who smiled as bright as Andrew did while letting threats flow from his lips like water.
Apathy, anger, madness, boredom. Those were what he usually saw.
But Andrew was grinning like he didn't have a knife point where it'd slip perfectly between Nicky's ribs, and it wasn't because he was joking.
Only the well and truly deranged smiled when they acted.
If Nicky so much as breathed wrong right now, Andrew would cut his lungs to ribbons, any and all consequences be damned.
He better not, Neil grumbled.
Yes, yes. You can you’re fucking exy, Abram snapped. Your complaints are loud, go wait somewhere else.
You think he’d grieve with all those meds pumped into him? James wondered lazily.
Fuck off, Nathaniel snapped. They were being too fucking loud when there was a knife at play.
Glancing over at Aaron Nathaniel saw that he was tense but quiet as he stared at Andrew's knife. Not intervening.
I think he’d be different sober, James offered. Tragic really.
Nathaniel gave Aaron another second.
He wouldn’t, Abram decided.
Fuck off! Nathaniel repeated as he pushed off the wall, decidedly done with waiting on Aaron’s cowardly ass.
He didn't know what would finally set Andrew off and he didn't want to find out.
"Hey," Nathaniel called out, looking back at Andrew. "That's enough. I can fight my own battles.”
"Quiet," Nicky said in English, barely louder than a breath of air. "Quiet. It's fine."
"Hey," Nathaniel repeated, ignoring him. He was smart enough not to do something stupid like questioning Andrew's sanity or calling his bluff
would end with Nicky in the hospital. “Tell me why?”
Andrew looked over at Nathaniel, smile sharp as his tongue ran over his teeth. “The voices in my head told me to, don’t you know?”
Nathaniel was fairly certain he was trying to make a joke, but he was in the middle of a lot of people making noise in his head, so he decided to take the deadpan for what it could be. “Oh yeah?" He tried his best to sound interested."All of them?”
Andrew’s eyes flashed, moving away from their typical apathy and sparking with something that looked a lot more like interest. “No. Just most of them.”
“So what are the other ones saying?” Nathaniel asked.
Andrew looked back at Nicky. His eyes flickering between the older man’s face and the place where he’d dug his knife in.
Then he looked back to Nathaniel, stepping back from Nicky. “Interesting.” He didn't answer the question.
Nathaniel shuddered. The last thing he needed was for Andrew to think they were interesting.
Andrew tucked his knife away as he spun towards the door. He threw Nathaniel one last smirk with a tilt of his head. "Kevin's waiting."
Aaron squeezed Nicky's shoulder as he followed his twin. Nicky looked shaken as he stared after the twins, but when he realized Nathaniel was still watching him, he rallied with the fakest smile Nathaniel could imagine.
"On second thought, you're not my type after all. Word of advice, Andrew likes to play up his crazy, don’t play into it.”
Nathaniel eyed him. “One of mine is telling me to punch you in the face.” Stephan had not liked the implication that they were crazy. He gestured to the door with his head. “Go on.”
After Nicky retreated to the court, Nathaniel took a moment to breathe before he let Neil take control again.
“Don’t push him,” Nathaniel warned. The words feeling clunky coming from lips that were no longer his own.
“I’ll be careful,” Neil muttered, readjusting his gear.
Nathaniel was pretty sure Neil was unaware of just how close to a bloody mess they’d come because he proceeded to play like Nathaniel had never warned him.