Chapter Text
Nicky comes up the counter with an awkward and exhausted step as he lets out a defeated sigh. “Check please.” He requests to the waiter who happily hands him his due receipt.
The man takes one glance at the digits and his soul instantly retired from his body. Holy son of god! There was a reason why Nicky always favored letters over numbers.
He feels his blood pressure raising and he catches himself with a help of his hand on the counter to support his weight. He takes a calculated breath in and widens his eyes with a blink to keep himself focused.
Perhaps he saw the amount wrong.
He squints his eyes at the receipt once more. Nope. Nope. I saw it right the first time. Dammit.
“Nickyyy!” Booker maneuvers his way through the table with the widest grin slapped across his scruffy face as he grips on Nicky’s shoulder. “Thanks for the meal, old pal.”
Nicky forces a smile on his lips as he turns over his shoulder to respond silently with a nod. He sees, tailing behind Booker, the the rest of the merry lot with Nile coming right after and Joe at the very end, seemingly tidying the table of their mess a bit.
“Thank you, Nicky.” Nile smiles as she passes and flashes a polite smile at him before making her way out. Booker chuckles and gives Nicky’s shoulder a tight squeeze before he himself heads out, following after her.
“Yeah, no. Anytime.” Nicky seethes. He watches them go before Andy and Quynh catches his eyes. At that point both women were practically writing death threats to each other with their eyes. Andy hurriedly stride over and made her way out in silence. Quynh seemed more relaxed, controlled. She pats Nicky’s back as she passes but remained verbally silent.
Nicky watches her out. He couldn’t help but wonder if he made things worse with Andy and Quynh. He knew deep down how much they meant to each other. And yet he also knew just how much they have destroyed one another.
Nicky shakes his head to snap himself back to his payment. He sighs and pulls out his wallet from his pockets and begrudgingly reveals his credit card when━
Joe comes up from behind him and places his card over the receipt and slides it towards the waiter. “You can put it all under this card.”
Nicky frowns at the gesture and turns to challenge the professor only to find himself inches away from him. Inches away from his body. From his nose. His lips.
Nicky holds his breath, forgetting his words.
The waiter didn’t wait another second as he scuttled away to run the card. Joe smiles and loosens up a bit as he gazes into Nicky’s eyes relaxingly.
“You know.” Joe tilts his head. “Believe me when I say this. I’ve seen many grand items in my line of work. Art so elegant, so glamorous, so breath-taking... So expensive in beauty and grace. Yet.” Joe pauses. He’s eyes twitches as they peer deeper into Nicky’s blue ones. Searching. For something within. Someone.
“No craft can compare to the perfection of your eyes. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s like..” Joe’s hand reaches for Nicky’s chin. “Like they’ve got a soul of their own.”
Nicky evade Joe’s touch with a slight flinch as he sharply turns his head away. Joe rubs his empty fingers together in the air as he steps back, receiving the silent language. Nicky clears his throat as he glances at the waiter finishing the meal’s payment.
“Why did you do that?” He asks as he eyes the waiter. “I was supposed to pay. You said it yourself earlier.”
Joe looks up at him and chuckles. “I can’t lie and say no reason can’t I?”
Nicky tilts his head at him, his eyes piercing with annoyance yet also a gleam of amusement at the flirt he receives.
The waiter returns and hands Joe his card and receipt back. Joe retrieves it and smiles at Nicky as he places his items back in his wallet. “I wanted you to owe me one. If you had payed today, then that would give you no reason to see me again.”
Joe puts his wallet and hands in his pockets as he gazes into Nicky. God he always seem to find his eyes back to this man. He couldn’t help it. His eyes were trained for art. Honed after degrees and countless late nights simply for beauty.
And there was nothing more beautiful than the handsome man before him.
Nicky once again was lost for words. And it shocks him as well. He was supposed to know words. And yet there he stands. A linguist. A man of words. Speechless.
Joe smiles and he nods his head towards the exit in an invitation to leave as he turned and made his way out. Nicky follows after a moment and they both emerge to a cool and dark temperate eve.
“You’ve never even gone around? Not once?!”
The two join the commotion at the end of the stairs. Booker seemed to be worked up on something. He scoffs as he walked a bit in circles. He then glances at Andy with a disappointed shake of his head.
“Alright. Since Andy has failed to be your tour guide-” He sighs. “Everyone after me. I’m going to show you folks something that’ll blow your mind.”
Joe chuckles at Booker’s slight lack of energy as he spoke. Nicky glances ever so subtly at him. There was an eerie comfort in the man’s voice, he noticed. The soft rumble of his laughter. It seemed like a hum a mother would sing to her child at night. Soothing. Full of solace.
Home.
As Booker turned and makes his way down the beach, the team moves. Nile following enthusiastically after him, eager for the view and experience. Joe and Nicky follows after, though it seems that Nicky forces himself to slower his pace as to give distance between himself and the art professor.
And in the rear were Andy and Quynh. When Nile and the boys reached the sandy shores of the Greek beach, Quynh reaches out and catches Andy’s arm.
Andy quickly looked back at her with a pair of cold eyes.
Quynh immediately releases her hold as if she had touched fire. She stepped back.
“What?” Andy demands.
“What?” Quynh mocks back. “I should be the one asking that, Andy. What the fuck was that?”
“What?”
“Earlier. The double date? Are you serious?”
Andy blinks at her for a moment before giving her an answer. “Hey you said it not me.” She shrugs and turns to head down.
“Andy!”
She sighed at the scolding call of her name. She was so tired of it. And yet she acknowledges it and even responded to it with a glance at Quynh.
“We agreed.” Quynh seethes as she closes the distance between them. “We agreed never to do anything with each other.”
“And?” Andy replies dryly.
“And? I- Then why are y-”
“Why are you still here Quynh?” Andy shoots her shot. Wounding. Merciless. Fatal. “You’re not a prisoner in my house. You are welcome to leave anytime and YET!” She glares angrily into Quynh, breathing down on her at this point by how close they stood there, facing each other with all their hate and just as much love for each other.
“Yet I stay.” Quynh manages to gasp out calmly.
“Why?” Andy demands, a crack in her voice. In her iced eyes. And her closed heart. “Why?” She nearly begged.
Quynh shakes her head. “I don’t know.”
Andy stands still. Frozen. In memory and pain. I don’t know. Those were always the words. Every time. “What do you know, Quynh?”
Andy didn’t allow Quynh to speak as she break free from the trance that they were caught in. The cycle of their relationship. Of love. Of heartbreak.
Andy leaves for the shore with her agony and pain. And all her unspoken love that she was too lost to put into words.
And Quynh stays on the pavement with all her guilt and remorse. With all her flaming passion for the one women who slips her grasp every time. A flaming passion that only knew how to burn and destroy.