LMFAOOOOO THE EMOJI US SIDEWAYS AGAINNNNNNNN
PLEASSSEEEEEEEE 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Nikola’s P.O.V

When I first met Hagen’s friends, I had liked them… somewhat.

They were friendly, clearly fond of Hagen, and not at all interested in him romantically, which made them satisfactory to me. Now, as the deranged trio continue to scream and bang for attention like an aggravated shrewdness of apes, I found that already-faint fondest withering into smithereens.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Hagen hisses as all the tension I’d worked out of him returns with newfound force.

“Hagen,” I try, but he’s already pushing at my chest with only the word ‘fuck’ on his tongue. I sigh, letting him slip free while I slump onto the other side of the couch and look up at my panicking mate.

Despite the situation, he looked perfectly debauched. His hair was a ragged mess, his clothing, askew, and his neck, a treasure trail of all my affections. His lips were swollen in a way that made my mind dazed, but that’s where the tempting sight ended because now, his eyes were blown wide with the type of panic that made my chest uncomfortably tight.

I hated seeing my mate distressed for any reason, but I didn’t know how to fix it. All the solutions that came to mind were destined to upset him.

If I used my magic to send his friends back to wherever they’d spawned from with some altered memories, Hagen would likely be agitated and pull away from me, and that could not happen with the plans I had for him this week.

If I used my magic to takeusaway so that we could remain in the fictitious world we’d been living in for the past few days, it would only postpone the inevitable, and Hagen would likely grow angry for some reason.

The fact of the matter was, Hagen’s friends were here to see him, and so long as I was here, they would see me as well and thus, questions he hadn’t found the answers to yet would arise.

“Hagen!” one of the hooligans, Ruben, shouts. “Mi know yuh in there and I cya do dis all day long!”

More banging. More reasons to exterminate.

“Shit!” Hagen grates out as he looks frantically between me and the assaulted door. “Shit! Ugh- GIVE ME A MINUTE!”

The noise comes to an abrupt stop, allowing silence to greet me for only a minute before- “I knew he was in there!”

That was likely Jaspar, as his was the only voice I wasn’t closely familiar with.

“I told you!” Max replies, the smugness practically breaking through the door.

With a little time bought for himself, Hagen lets out a short breath before he looks at me as though to ask for help.

“We can leave,” I offer, despite knowing what the answer would be. “I can take us anywhere else.”

Hagen shakes his head quickly, “No, we can’t. I can’t do that to them. They wouldn’t come unless they were really worried.”

On another day, I might just find it sweet that Hagen’s companions worried about him when they didn’t hear from him for a few days, but today… I couldn’t quite figure out how to feel an emotion that didn’t share some resemblance with annoyance.

I say we smite them! –Neo growls, more enthused for violence than usual with the unwelcomed distraction.Then the problem will be solved.

And what will you do about the problem that would follow after? –I ask in return –Hagen’s ire?

That’s simple. You let me take over, I’ll coax Zyair out, and then… –he laughs, not bothering to finish his sentence, not for lack of words, but the clear intent behind what was implied.

I grunt as I struggle to contain my jealousy, because sadly, that would work for Zyair and Neo. Neo could use the bond and the easy fondness he and Zyair seemed to have for one another, while the fondness I knew Hagen was developing for me wasn’t yet enough. But now wasn’t the time to mope about that, not with the two humans and a vampire waiting just beyond the threshold.

(A/N – cause I know most people might’ve forgotten, Hagen mentioned before that Jaspar is a vampire)

“Okay, okay,” Hagen says, reclaiming my attention as I watch him dart all over the apartment. “There’s no reason to panic. It’s all going to be okay,” he says as he lifts up his pair of slippers from the floor, and then a charger too.

I frown, “It will,” unlikely, “but what are you doing?”

“I-” Hagen looks down at the items in his hands. “What the fuck….” he quickly returns the items to their rightful homes.

“Hagen.”

“I was trying to clean up, but-” he stops, looking around with the quick realisation that there was nothing to clean up, so he was just… moving. “Whatever, fuck it! I’m going to let them in, and you-” Hagen falters then, finally coming to a stop as his eyes find mine and my heart stills.

Never before had I been so scared for him to speak because I knew he could only want one thing. For me to hide.

His friends were here, the ones who thought he was a heterosexual male with absolutely no interest in men. I was here now, and that would make them ask questions that Hagen likely wouldn’t be able to answer. So, I would have to hide. To contain my presence in some small corner of the apartment so he could interact with his friends without the pressure of my company.

A week ago, I would not have doubted that that was exactly what Hagen would want and likely would’ve offered it before he could, so he knew I understood that he needed time. But now, I found with alarmingly-sudden certainty that I didn’t want to hide myself away, not even for Hagen.

I try to prepare myself for it, reminding myself that I knew I’d have to deal with this when I agreed to move in with him, but then, my mate asks for the one thing I was already going to do.

“Be nice?” Hagen asks carefully. “Please?”

My chest deflates in relief, and I feel my heart jump within it before it starts pumping at double its usual speed. I breathe in slowly before I nod, replying, “Of course.”

Hagen’s lips stretch a little into a nervous smile, “Okay. Thanks.”

“Dude!” Jasper yells from outside in an interruption that makes Neo’s ‘smite them’ proposition, that much more appealing.

“I’m fucking coming!” Hagen screams back as he takes one last scan around the apartment.

I stand, readying myself to greet our guests. It would take effort, but I would be nice. As much as I was annoyed, I still wanted Hagen’s friends to like me. Friendship approval went a long way in relationships, at least, that’s what Dad always said.

I straighten my clothing while Hagen rushes to the door with no care or, more likely, no notice of the state of his own clothing. The bottom of his shirt was still slightly hiked up, his sweats dipped where I had begun working them down, and his collar-

“Hagen,” I call, bringing him to a stop just before the door.

Twisting around quickly, Hagen blinks at me, “Yeah?”

My lips part, but nothing finds its way out. The right thing to do would be to tell him about the marks or conceal them myself, because there was no way his friends would miss the red bruises on his neck, even as they began to heal.

I could hide them with barely a thought, but every fibre of my being rebelled against the idea. That left warning him so he could at least be prepared for his friends’ reactions and questions, but I didn’t want that either.

Hagen was mine- they and everyone else would find that out one way or another. Wasn’t it better to just get it over with?

I close my mouth, slipping my hands into my pocket as I shake my head, “Nothing.”

Hagen frowns just a little before he shrugs, dismissing the strange moment to open the door.

He’ll kill you for that later –Neo warns, even though he was very much in approval of my actions.

I feel my lips tug a little higher as my blood warms –I like it when he’s rough with me.

When the door swings open, Jasper, Ruben and Max are standing before the doorframe in what looked like preplanned positions, with expressions of disappointment and rage that all coalesce to make one overwhelming portrait of ‘clear intent to kill’.

Ruben, the one who’d known Hagen the longest, had his sharp green eyes narrowed on Hagen with his arms crossed over his chest, creating the perfect image of a pack enforcer, while Jaspar, Hagen’s first supernatural friend in the city, had placed his hands on his hips and perfected the look of a scolding mother. Finally, Max, the one whoallegedlywas attracted to me, had murder in his eyes and was already rushing forward to execute my mate.

“You fucking prick!” he shouts, pushing Hagen’s chest so they can all crowd into the apartment. “Where the fuck have you been?! I’ve called you every day!”

“Same here!” Jasper pipes up, his eyes almost flashing red. “I searched that stupid campus every day for your stupid ass untilRubentold me you’re taking time off. Why did Ruben have to tell me?!”

“Forget dat,” Ruben says, ignoring the other two. “What mekRubenneva hear from yuh inna nearly a week?!”

The questions keep flooding in as they all surround Hagen for an attack that surprisingly hadn’t triggered my protective instincts yet. I’d always thought I would eviscerate anyone who put a hand on my mate, but Max had, and he was surprisingly still drawing breath.

“I’m sorry!” Hagen injects the second the others are forced to breathe and he gets a chance to reply. “I’m sorry, okay! I’ve been busy and cooped up inside, and I sort of just forgot about everything else which I know sounds terrible, but-”

“Busy with what?!” Max cuts in, his eyes almost bulging to the point that I could quite easily imagine his hair rising and catching fire as a testament to his anger.

Hagen glances back at me and for the first time, the trio tear their gaze away from him to look at me. They all startle at once, clearly not having noticed my presence until this very moment. They stare at me with widening eyes before they each look at Hagen, and then back at me, Hagen, and then me again.

For a long moment, there’s nothing but silence in the small apartment as the friends appear to attempt to comprehend my presence.

“Hello,” I offer from my place. It didn’t feel quite right moving into their space or shaking their hands, so I hoped this was enough.

When none of them replies or deigns to move a muscle, I raise a hand to wave politely. That was what people did when they greeted, so perhaps that was the missing piece.

It wasn’t.

“Uhh,” Jasper drawls as he steps a little closer to Hagen to whisper, “Who is that?”

Of Hagen’s friends, Jasper was the only one I had never met formally. I shouldn’t have even known of his existence, but I did because when Hagen first returned home from university, Jasper was the name I heard as being his ‘connection to the supernatural world’ when he was away from home.

Back then, I’d been committed to giving Hagen the space he’d wanted, so I had only allowed myself to watch the man for a week and no longer. At first, I worried why a vampire would surround himself with college students, but the week revealed that he was quite young by vampirical standards and hadn’t experienced university life while he was human, or much of any sort of youth, and so he was filling in the holes.

My week of observations proved that Jasper Keir did very little aside from sleep, feed and party. He was slightly dull, but he was harmless for the most part, and that was enough to cull my worries.

“Jasper, Nikola. Nikola, Jasper,” Hagen introduces quickly.

I nod and add another polite wave, “It’s nice to meet you, Jasper.”

While I’d been sure to keep my pretences in place, Jasper was entirely incapable of hiding the fact that he already knew my name with the way his eyes widened before his head almost snapped off his neck as he quickly turned to look at Max.

“Nikola, as in…?” he starts in what seemed to be meant as a whisper but was anything but. ”Nikola?”

“HAHA! HA!” Max laughs awkwardly while he fixes his features into a stiff smile and glances between Hagen and me. “Don’t be rude, you beast!” Lifting a hand, he smacks the back of Jasper’s head so hard the vampire is forced to fall into a squat while he rubs the sore spot. Max grins at me, seeming completely unaware of the way his cheeks were flooded with warmth, “Ignore him.”

I wanted to nod in return since that was my most trusted response to social situations, but nodding suggested affirmations, and if I agreed to ignore Jasper, that might offend him, and I didn’t want to offend Hagen’s friend on our first meeting.

I end up standing perfectly still, leaving the matter up to interpretation before I dare to look at Hagen.

I expect to find him glaring at me, but instead, his fiery rage is aimed directly at Max and his heated cheeks.

Was this the jealousy I had missed before?

If so, I wondered how it was possible for me to be so clueless when Hagen looked ready to maul Max if given a chance.

It was a more attractive prospect than I knew it should’ve been.

“So,” Max tries with still-flaming cheeks, “Nik- great seeing you again.”

“Is it?” Hagen inserts before I can reply, his fingers balled into fists at his sides.

He looked so angry, and also incredibly adorable since he was still in his sleeping attire that was slightly too big for him. I rather liked the image of my pup getting ready to defend me.

Max raises a challenging brow as he eyes Hagen, “Should it not be?”

“Ah! A!” Ruben suddenly sounds, clicking his tongue to get everyone’s attention. He glances at me with a charming smile, “Nikola, nice tuh see yuh, but gi wi a minute while wi deal wid dis one.” He turns back to Hagen and the warmth in his eyes immediately turns to ice. “Weh ave yuh bin?”

“Here,” he supplies while scratching at the back of his head as if he were facing his father, Julian, rather than his best friend after Josey. “I swear. I’ve just been home. I should’ve checked my phone-”

“Yeah!” Ruben exclaims. “Wi thought sup’m happen tuh yuh. Dat yuh dead!”

Hagen shrinks slightly under his friend’s heavy gaze and the thickness of his accent. I’d met Ruben twice now, and both times, I’d heard some dialect from him, but never like this. It seemed that when he was angry, his accent grew thicker.

“I’m sorry,” Hagen almost whines as he drops his head. “I’ve just been trying to figure shit out since I left school, and Nik has been-” he stops himself short as he seems to remember that his friends did not know about us. “Nik has been staying here… with me.”

The trio look at me again, eyes blown once more. I try another wave. It is unsuccessful again.

“Staying with you?” Jasper asks as he tentatively stands upright. He looks between me and Max, seeing something I fail to.

“Yeah,” Hagen replies quietly while his fingers drop to his neck to scratch at it. It was a nervous habit of his- a quirk he always had, but today, it was his downfall.

Following the action like moths to a flame, each of his friend’s eyes flicks down to Hagen’s neck. It’s meant to be a glimpse, and it is, until they all comprehend what lies there. All at once, they still as their eyes return to the darkened marks littered across Hagen’s long neck.

Jasper and Ruben choke a little while Max’s jaw tries to touch the floor.

Pride quickly intercepts my feelings as I take in their expressions and the understanding that quickly claims them. I knew none of them were interested in Hagen, but it was still good to see that they- thatsomeoneknew- that Hagen was taken, that he was mine.

“Oh,” Ruben breathes, eyes glued to the spot.

“What?” Hagen asks, looking down in a failed attempt to see what was the cause of their horror. “What?!”

“Dude,” Jasper breathes out before his lips suddenly stretch into a wry smile, “who is she?”

She.

She?!

My shortlived pride contorts into the one thing I didn’t often let myself reach the point of- anger. It was the hardest of my emotions to control, so I avoided it, and in truth, very little truly angered me when I cared so little about the beings in this realm. Butthis– this assumption that there was someone else responsible for my mate’s pleasure-thathad pure fury flooding my veins.

“She?” Hagen asks, still clueless about the situation. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Jaspar flicks a finger towards one of my bites as he lets out a bark of laughter, “Yeah. The cannibal chick you’re fucking. The one youreallyhave been spending all your time with.”

That makes Hagen pause as his entire body becomes ramrod stiff. For a moment, he is completely frozen, unable to move or breathe, before his hands suddenly clamp over his neck and his heart beats loud enough for the humans to hear.

They’d seen what I’d done. They’d seen, and they thought it was someone else.

Hagen doesn’t look at me. He keeps his gaze purposefully aimed at his friends, purposefully avoiding my rage, or maybe this is his attempt at keeping them from putting the dots together themselves.

Either way, he doesn’t look at me, and that says more than I wanted to hear.

I knew Hagen was not ready to wear my mark, and I knew we had a lot of work to do before he was, but the fact that others still thought Hagen could possibly be with anyone else other than me, tempted my sanity to take a departure.

Claim him.-Neo growls as he scratches at the surface to take control –Tell them it was us!

It would be so easy. It would only take a handful of words and they would know. Hagen would be upset, that was almost guaranteed, but for the first time, I found it hard to muster up the strength to care if he was.

“I-I-I’m not with any girl,” Hagen stammers out as he pulls his shirt collar up to his chin. “I told you guys before, there’s no chick!”

So this wasn’t the first time Hagen had denied our relationship to his friends. I swallow hard, struggling to maintain my composure.

“Then where dem marks come from?” Ruben asks with a gesture at Hagen’s poorly hidden neck.

Hagen’s mouth opens and closes uselessly, and my chest tightens around my heart in a brutal grip.

Just say it’s me or at least stop looking so ashamed.

“It’s no girl,” Jasper coos sarcastically as he loops an arm around Hagen’s neck and rubs his head with his knuckles. “He’s clearly been mauled by a mosquito. Right, Hagen?”

“Fuck off!” Hagen replies while he tries to escape from his friend. He risks a glance my way, one that exposes the worry there- worry that only grows when his eyes find mine. The colour slips from his face, and I can almost feel the way new panic claims him, but that hardly mattered when I saw how small I was to him when others were in the room. “Nik-”

“I’ll give you four space,” I say before he can utter another word. I knew that nothing he’d say was anything I’d want to hear, and my dark magic was already seeping out with the singular focus of tearing Hagen apart untl he was on his knees for me. “Your friends came to see you, and I’m sure you all have a lot to catch up on,” I continue as I move towards the kitchen. “I’ll get some water, and then I’ll make myself scarce.”

“Wait, Nikola-” Hagen starts, and I pause despite myself.

I wasn’t an optimist by nature, far from it, but the hope in my heart keeps me standing still as I look at Hagen and wait for what he might say.

Hagen’s lips part, his eyes focused on me and only me, before they shift to his friends, and whatever he was about to say is quelled by his fears. “We’ll be quiet,” he mumbles instead, stepping back as his fingers cling to the end of his shirt. “We won’t make much noise.”

“That’s a promise,” Jasper confirms as he tugs Hagen towards the couch.

Ruben’s eyes find mine as he follows after the pair, and he smiles a little, adding a wave that I can’t find the heart to return. Instead, I force myself to walk away, to remain calm while I focus on my real task. I didn’t need any water, but I needed an excuse to pass the wall with our rules. I pluck the paper free since it was clear Hagen had no intentions of admitting what was really going on between us.

A spiteful part of me wanted to leave the paper where it was for someone to find. But then what would that do? I didn’t want to force Hagen to claim me any more than I would ever want to force him to love me. I just wanted him to want me too.

I wanted Hagen to want me enough to claim me, to want me enough that it wasn’t even a thought to him. Even if it was a quarter of how much I wanted him, it would be enough. It would be more than enough.

But he didn’t, and only Goddess knew if he ever would.

I slip the paper into my void as I enter the kitchen, my mind a horrible, welling mess of noise and pain that I barely manage to work through.

“Is it okay if I get some water, too?”

I turn, finding Max a few paces behind me with a kind smile on his lips. I’d forgotten about him with the interaction that had just passed, but he was here with me, instead of with his friends.

I frown but nod. I knew Hagen was looking at us- I could feel his eyes on me through the open kitchen- but I ignore it and him while I grab a glass for myself and one for Max as well.

“Thanks,” he says as I hand it to him. I nod stiffly.

I wasn’t in the mood for interactions, let alone interactions that required me to use social cues to determine what mood I was supposed to present to Max.

He’d never done anything to me, and from our last conversation, I remembered finding him more favourable than Ruben because of the educational interests we shared. But last time I’d spoken to him, Hagen had gotten surprisingly jealous and I was supposed to be avoiding a repeat of that.

I still with my hand on the fridge door.

Last time, I’d spoken to Max, Hagen had reacted… possessively. My mind moves quickly- too quickly. Perhaps I could orchestrate a repeat?

The proposition barely takes shape in my head before I push the thought away. For as nice a prospect as it seemed, I was rather annoyed with Hagen at the moment and didn’t have the strength to try and incite a reaction from him. Besides, it wouldn’t have worked anyway. I did not know how to ‘flirt’, or even how to pretend to be interested in anyone who didn’t have three black holes for a stomach and a name that rhymed with pagan.

With a stifled sigh, I open the fridge and take hold of the filtered jug of water waiting inside before I turn to face the human behind me.

Max eyes me quietly, not with any of the attraction Hagen claimed he held for me, or anything malicious I could find, but something else; something disturbingly close to pity.

I frown, “What?”

He frowns too, looking slightly confused before he whispers, “I’m sorry.”

I tilt my head. This was getting confusing.

“For what?”

He gestures subtly to the three in the living room, “I know how hard it is being a secret.”

My confusion turns into a troubling mix of anger and sadness that turns my grip on the jug into a cruel one.

“I am not a secret,” I bite out as the plastic strains. More pity fills Max’s bright eyes and my frown deepens, “I’m not.”

I was here, in Hagen’s home, living with him and free to be as close to him as I could. I was not a secret.

Secrets were…. My mind fails to form a clear definition, even more so when I recall the fact that just moments ago, Hagen’s friends were still grilling him about the girl in his life, because they couldn’t picture a single reality where Hagen might be with the man, even when I’d been right in front of them.

I was right here. I’d always been here, and yet, they-hedidn’t see me.

I feel my shoulders slump, and something like a heavy stone drags my heart down before I shift my gaze to the jug in my hand.

I didn’t like contending with unfavourable feelings and new realisations, least of all in front of people I didn’t know. I wanted to leave, water excuse forgotten, but then Max was here and still staring at me as if I might break.

“Look, I’m not trying to make you upset. I just thought-” he pauses, seeming to gather his thoughts before he continues. “I put the pieces together, okay? The hickeys, Hagen’s freakout the other day, and I thought, I might… say something? But I’m not really good at comforting people.”

I glance at him, spotting what appeared to be earnestness in his eyes, along with discomfort.

At my silence, he continues, “Hagen’s not… he’s pretty shit with new things. He runs before he tries it, so don’t take it personally if he didn’t answer the door with a pride flag in hand.”

Despite myself, I find my lips twitching slightly at the mental image of Hagen opening the door with such a thing a few minutes earlier. He’d have fainted before he even made it to the threshold.

Max smiles at the appearance of something other than anger on my face and holds his glass out. “Okay, my job seems done, so why don’t you give me some of the water that neither of us really needs, and then hang out with us instead of hiding in Hagen’s room?”

I shake my head, “That would not be wise.”

“Why? I promise I won’t say anything,” he says with a deep frown that said he was deeply offended at such an idea.

“I do not want to stay where I will have to pretend to be something I’m not,” I explain. “And I do not like talking to people, especially loud ones like you four.”

I don’t bother lying about it. Max hadn’t been particularly gentle with his attempt at comforting me, so it seemed unwise to pretend he wasn’t capable of higher thought.

Max chokes on a laugh before his lips twist to the side with a sour expression, “Okay, fair. But one thing you got wrong there- I am not loud.” I raise a brow, and he raises one back, “What? If you have something to say, say it with your chest?”

I frown, not quite understanding how you said something with your chest.

“Max!” Hagen suddenly calls from the living room. “Are you lost?”

“Do I look lost?” Max shoots back without a moment’s hesitation. Hagen glares at him, his body tense all over, but Max only smiles brightly in return. “I’m just talking to Nikola, getting to know him.”

If Hagen had magic, I didn’t doubt that Max would be burnt to a crisp by now.

“I thought you were getting water,” Jasper adds with a slight pout. “How long does it take to get water?!”

“Longer than it takes for you to cum, Quickfire!” Max shoots back over his shoulder before he looks back at me with a grin. “Okay, so maybe I do shout.”

“Whatever,” I hear Jasper grumble before he returns to whatever conversation they’d been having before.

I glance at them, spotting Jasper and Ruben talking while Hagen keeps looking at us with a glare that rivalled Persephone’s wrath herself.

I could feel it burning through our bond, his jealousy, and I could see the discomfort in his eyes, but I wouldn’t fix this for him. If Hagen didn’t want Max and me talking, he could stand up right now and put a stop to it. But he hadn’t because that would ruin the pretence of ‘friends’ he had the others convinced of.

Besides, when I was tired of talking to Max, I’d stop talking to him. For now, I wasn’t.

So, I shift my gaze back to Max who holds his glass out once more, “Water, please?”

I oblige, filling his glass with water before I do the same to mine, and return the jug to the fridge. When I turn, I find Max surprisingly still close by. He’s at the threshold of the kitchen, seeming to fight with himself between going to his friends or staying.

“What?” I ask when he just wavers there. I was running out of patience, even with how not-annoying I discovered he was in comparison to his counterparts.

“Okay, tell me to fuck off and I will, but like I said, I know what it’s like to be a secret, and I guess feel bad watching someone go be one, so call this charity work or whatever,” he pauses his jet-speed ramble to breathe before he narrows his brown eyes on me with utter seriousness. “I propose, you stick with us,but-”he stretches when I open my mouth to dismiss him, “you stick at the kitchen counter with me? We can sit on the stools and I’ll talk to them from afar if they remember we exist. That keeps you away from the noise, and I’ll keep you company so you don’t have to be banished away. How does that sound?”

It sounded quite awful. Max seemed considerably talkative, and I wasn’t in the mood to talk. Added to that, the fact that if he intended to talk to the others, that would still leave me amid all the noise. Not to mention, I did not care if I was banished away.

Except, I did. I did not want to, didn’t like to know it was true, but I did.

There was a small part of me that ached horribly since Hagen had failed to explain who he really was with, and though Neo tried to console that space, the pain there only grew worse and worse.

My magic was already teetering, flaring at my fingertips with the explosive need to dosomething, and that feeling would likely only grow worse if I was sequestered in Hagen’s bedroom which was really just around the corner in his apartment.

Whether I wanted to or not, I’d hear everything the trio said anyway- curiosity wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I promise this isn’t a ploy to hit on you,” Max says, crossing a finger over his chest. “I know you’re with Hagen and it’s pretty clear he’ll take me out if I even try something. This is just me trying to look out for my own.”

I wasn’t entirely sure how I classified as ‘one of his own’ to Max, but I believed that his intentions were good. Even while Hagen was jealous, it was easy to see that it was misplaced. Max was, in his own way, trying to be nice because he thought I was hurt.

“Look, Nikola, Hagen’s my friend,” Max states as he watches my indecision waver, “but I’m going to share something I learned a long time ago- just because someone is treating you like a secret, doesn’t mean that you have to act like one. If you don’t want to be his dirty little secret, then don’t let him treat you like one.”

That alights something within me, something new that had been solemn until now.

I was used to being what I needed to be for Hagen, fitting the moulds that would make him the most comfortable because I was well aware of how uncomfortable I’d made him for so long. But now, I was the one who was uncomfortable and it was hard to push myself into an even smaller box for him.

I wasn’t going to go out there and out him before he was ready- I would never do that, but I didn’t have to go hide in his room either.

Max must sense the way his words settle within me because his grin turns positively joyful. Clearly he was pleased with himself. “Damn, I should be a salesman. That’s a yes from you, right?”

I don’t bother looking at Hagen for guidance. It didn’t really matter now what he wanted or what would make him happy or mad. I knew what I wanted, and that was all that mattered right now.

“It is a yes,” I admit, “but only if you promise to talk less.”

Max throws his head back with a laugh, one that’s as loud as it is true, “Oh, we’redefinitelygoing to get along.”

———-

Personally, I’m in love with Max

Thoughts????

Thoughts on the friends grilling Hagen???

Thoughts on no-one putting the dots together but Max???

Thoughts on Max and Nikola’s convo???

I personally thought when I wrote the last chapter that they would all put the dots together, but when I was writing, it just didn’t feel right. And I think the fact that even with Nikola right there, that they just assumed that it could onlyyy be a girl, really goes to show the perception Hagen has of himself, and his friends do too.

To me, it makes sense that only Max got it, since he got that text from Hagen basically being like back the fuck off. Which clearly he hasn’t, but in a different way.

Which leads me to the next chapter!!😆

I can not fucking wait until Max and Hagen face-off cause I feel like Max wants to protect Nikola a bit and Hagen just wants to have his cake and eat it too.

AHH I can’t wait!!!

This was meant to be a double update, but my graduation is tomorrow, and I have to get ready for that and then I’ve got Patreon Extras, so I’m hoping this will keep you guys fed in the mean time.

Make sure to comment any and all thoughts!!!

Until next time,
Byeeeeeee Humanssssssss