NICKY WAS A SIMPLE MAN. He was a simple man with simple wants and needs. He prided himself on taking things slow and not letting himself get too easily riled up, as it gave him no satisfaction at the end of it, and senseless anger was never something he found favorable.

But if this damn mariachi band didn't shut up in the next thirty seconds, blood would be shed.

With all the anger of the patient who had been recommended to him from anger management counseling two months prior, he ripped out his headphones and turned his music on as loud as he could, ready to deal with all the damage his ears would have to endure if only to have a more isolated sound control his mood.

By the time he reached his stop, he was somewhat calm and able to laugh at the whole experience, ready to regale the tale to everyone he ran into, already planning out the script in his mind. Making people laugh was something he strived to do as much as he could; it was easier to see smiles than tears.

Speaking of smiles, he had never seen larger smiles than that of high school students just released from their eight-hour day of education. Of course, the education students received at Midtown Tech was better than most, but these were still teenagers and it was still school.

"Nicky!"

He grinned at the sound of two voices calling his name, looking up to see two blonds racing down to meet him, one much faster than the other who called out for him to slow down. He stood at the bottom of the steps, grinning when they stopped in front of him, breathless and smiling, adjusting their backpack straps.

Harry Osborn and Diana Smith, the youngest of his patients and possibly the most interesting he had ever dealt with. Both dealing with severe depression, one had been addicted to a variety of drugs, some of which he hadn't even heard of before meeting him, while the other had no parents to speak of, only a godfamily with a slew of problems of their own. He wasn't a miracle worker by any means, but the two were doing alright as of late, which was all he could really hope for.

"How was school, kids?" he asked, moving them out of direct traffic, leaning against one of the handrails on the stairs.

"Amazing," they both gushed, turning to grin at each other, Diana needing to lean back to look him in the eye.

"What happened?" he asked, smiling, trying not to fall back into his default work mode; it wasn't much different than his usual demeanor, but it often rendered him unable to appreciate fun stories as much as he usually did.

"Johnny visited during lunch," Diana explained, and it all made sense.

Johnny Storm, teenage member of the Fantastic Four, one of Nicky's benefactors and business partners, was Harry's newfound boyfriend for half a year, if he counted it right. While it had taken him a while to hear about it from the source, having to hear about it through a tabloid at the supermarket, it was clear that the boy had helped ease the weight off Harry's shoulders, which was a win in Nicky's book.

"He kissed me in front of the entire school, then made me a rose out of fire, it was kind of the best thing," Harry said, cheeks pink as he explained the story, Diana grinning and clinging onto his arm, rocking back and forth.

"Well, fun," Nicky said, nodding towards them, "Listen, I'd love to chat more, but I'm just heading back from my break and figured I'd drop by to see how you're doing, I actually have a patient to see soon. Stay out of trouble, will you?"

The two agreed easily, almost desperate to follow his directions and just get through one day without much trouble. Their lives were much more calm as of late, but that didn't stop them from being on edge, worrying about the next break. As their psychologist, Nicky knew very well how they felt about their current situations.

Focusing on the task at hand, he hurried down the sidewalk, making his way down to the nearest station, hopping onto the next train to Brooklyn. He only had had enough time to visit and the talk had given him a break from worrying over his next patient. They were moving away soon, a big step, and he wanted them to have enough time to get everything about before they never saw each other again.

He forced himself to remember that theirs was a patient-caretaker relationship and them leaving affected nothing except his bank account which wouldn't take too much of a hit with their absence. Still, the idea of someone leaving had his palms sweating and his stomach churning.

He didn't like it when people leave. He should be used to it by now, but the idea of it still made him want to break. Everyone always left.

His thoughts were interrupted by his phone buzzing. He tugged his phone out of his pocket, raising an eyebrow at the caller ID.

After a strange series of events involving Diana and Queen's favorite neighborhood hero, Spider-Man, he had wound up meeting and getting to know Tony Stark, a man who really needed no introduction, convincing him to start coming to sessions to try and deal with the baggage the man had carried for so many years.

"Hey, Tony," he greeted, pressing the phone against his ear, "What's going on?"

"Nicholas, I need you and your three PhD's to help me," Tony said, "Wait, how are you getting signal, aren't you in the subway?"

Nicky blinked. "I don't even want to know how you know where I am. And, Tony, you have no idea what I was capable of when I was a teenager, getting good signal underground is child's play."

A weapons and tech designer for hero groups like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Nicky had been fiddling around with new ways to upgrade himself since he was young, long before he had been able to make a profit from it. All that time meant he had made more than his fair share of things that made even the smallest of problems practically non-existent.

"So what do you need?" he asked, pulling back to the task at hand, "My three PhD's are here to help."

"I'm choosing cereal and I've never seen half of these brands, do I get the one that has the sheep on it or the one that has the old Avengers gang on it. I want to get the Avengers one, but I think it's in poor taste, you know?"

Nicky rolled his eyes, rocking back slightly on his heels as he held onto the strap keeping him from flying off. "Toss a few random ones in along with the sheep and the Avengers ones so it looks like you were just throwing in things without thinking. And since when do you go grocery shopping with the mere mortals?"

He could hear Tony rolling his eyes on the other end. "Ha ha. Thanks for the input, Nick, I'll talk to you later. Have fun, don't die."

Nicky let out an exasperated sigh as he grinned, pocketing his phone and sighing, looking around as he neared his stop. Tony always told him not to die, it was like his own way of saying "stay safe," a staple for the end of all of Nicky's conversations.

Stay safe. As if he could control it. But it was like a mother trying to remind her child to be careful. She couldn't always be there to take care of them, but it was a slight comfort that, maybe, she had said something that would have helped.

Stay safe. Don't die. Don't leave. The simple wants of a simple man.

º º º

"Honey, I'm home!"

Nicky grinned as he stepped into the room. He was emotionally exhausted, but not entirely upset and, if anything, he just wanted to see his roommate and watch a bad romcom and throw popcorn at the screen.

"How was your day?" Rhett called out, peering up from where he was sprawled out on the couch, grading papers.

A man Nicky had met nine years prior, Rhett Reiser was a Brooklyn elementary school teacher and his best friend. Their relationship was one that, to any other person, could be seen as almost romantic, if not for the purely platonic feelings linking them together, as well as the super soldier that was currently taking up residence on part of Rhett's bed.

"Where's Steve?" Nicky asked, thoughts flashing back towards the blond super soldier that Rhett had befriended and awkwardly seduced over the past few months.

The blond groaned loudly, covering his face with the papers he was grading. "I didn't know it before, but my boyfriend is the living manifestation of pure spite."

Nicky raised his eyebrows, dropping his bag on the dining table as he walked across the loft, coming to lean against the back of the couch. "Go on..."

Rhett tugged the papers away from his face, frowning up at him. "I think Tony made a joke about how he couldn't go three days without seeing me, so he's just gone. He's just been at his apartment and work, that's it. I know he's okay because he texts me every night and morning, but it's only two texts and I haven't seen him once."

Nicky reached down to pat his shoulder. "You'll be fine."

The man let out a shout. "What kind of psychologist are you? You're supposed to empathize with me and tell me that it's okay that I miss my boyfriend."

Nicky cocked an eyebrow, grabbing his bag before walking back and sitting down on one of the other seats. "It's okay that you miss your boyfriend. Do you feel better now?"

Rhett pouted, settling back down to grading. "Not really."

After a moment, he asked, "How was your day?"

Nicky shrugged, pulling out his patient files. "Was alright, nothing new, if you really think about it."

"Was it good, bad?" the teacher pressed, shifting on the couch, turning to give him a halfhearted smile that never failed to make the younger man grin at the sight of it, his heart fluttering ever so slightly, even after all these years.

"It was alright," he hummed, "Nothing too bad, nothing too good. Was alright."

"Well, I hope it's better tomorrow," Rhett hummed before turning around again, his back to the couch and away from Nicky.

The man smiled ruefully as he went to his patient files. That was the thing, it didn't matter if it was better the next day. Even if the best things happened, it didn't necessarily mean he would feel any different. Of course, he might, but it wasn't a guarantee.

For Nicky, every day was an alright day. Because that's how he always felt. Of course, there were the good days, and the bad, but everything always starts out alright. Because he's a simple man with a simple way of doing things.

It was an alright day for a simple man, and that was good enough.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I'm sorry this chapter was kind of nothing, I'm starting it out the way I imagine romantic comedies to start out, introducing the main character in his everyday setting, having him interact with all of his day to day friends before getting to the love interest, but next chapter will have Sam, so that'll be interesting.

Also, Nicky's character is interesting because whereas like Diana was depressed and when it got bad, it was an all consuming thing, he's kind of learned to work through it and deal with it. Sure, when it gets really bad he just wants to stay in his room and not move and he does have all the awful thoughts, but he's gotten used to working through it because he has goals and a job. It'll be interesting to write him, I'm excited.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!