NICKY HAD TO ADMIT, IT WAS NICE TO SPEND TIME WITH HARRY. He always wanted a younger sibling, and he liked to imagine that Harry was the younger brother he never had. After all, he did have that short stunt working for Norman Osborn, so he did know Harry before he wrangled him into therapy when he caught him snorting cocaine in the back closet of his father's office one day.

"You need to get laid," Harry said, plopping down onto the bench next to him, sunglasses perched on his nose and two medium sized cups of boba in his hands, "Like, yesterday. I mean, I just heard from Gwen who heard Flash who heard from Diana who accidentally overheard it from Rhett that you're still a virgin. We need to fix that."

Nicky took the drink from the boy while still staring at the same blade of grass by his right shoe. "Or we can talk about how you're failing English."

"I'm failing English because you're still a virgin and my body and mind are suffering because of it," Harry exclaimed, turning to face him, "Nicky, c'mon. I'm not even a virgin."

Nicky nearly snapped his neck as he whirled around to stare at him. "You're grounded, young man, you didn't even ask me for help or talk to me before you did?"

"How was I supposed to ask a virgin for help? You're the reason why I'm failing English!" Harry shouted, not caring that he would no doubt draw a lot of attention to himself, including paparazzi.

"Okay, one, you've been failing English for weeks now, you didn't hear about me being a virgin until, like, last night, I'm sure," he said, holding up a finger, "Two. Harry, I want you to stay safe, I've created virtually indestructible condoms. Seriously, the only thing that can break those is a flaming hot knife."

"Johnny can turn into a flame—" Harry started, but Nicky shushed him loudly.

"The point is I want you to stay safe and I can't believe you didn't even tell me. I mean, come on, Harry, was I gonna have to hear about it in the tabloids again?" he asked, sighing as he stared at the boy, shaking his head ever so slightly.

Harry's instantly sobered and Nicky wished he hadn't gone that far. He sometimes forgot how much he meant to the boy, which meant that some of the things he said about their relationship often sent the boy into a panic for fear that Nicky would stop liking him.

"I—You know you're—Nicky, I—" the boy stuttered, desperately searching for the right words, and Nicky shushed him, softer this time, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Harry, I know you never meant to, it's okay," he said, and Harry instantly went in for a hug, and Nicky wasn't so sure if he should be allowing this, but God knows the boy didn't get any hugs from his father.

"And how did you even make those condoms, you're a psychologist," the boy said, and Nicky inwardly cursed himself for slipping up again.

"Uh...um..." he stammered, eyes wide and heart racing, but, thankfully, Harry's attention was turned elsewhere. Thankfully being used incredibly loosely, as Nicky would soon discover once he turned his head.

"Flash, come in, you see what I see?" Harry asked, pulling out an old-school walkie talkie, looking away and pretending like his attention wasn't focused on an pretty looking man who was playing with his dog a short ways away.

"Oh, boy, I'm so glad I do," Flash Thompson replied, Nicky catching wind of his muffled voice, "I would dump Matty for him. Wait. Wait, Matt, babe, I'm kidding, come back, please."

Nicky snickered as Harry tried to get Flash's attention before sighing and dropping the walkie talkie. "Okay, that worked for all of two seconds. Anyways, Nicky, go!"

The older man yelped as Harry shoved him off the bench with the intention of him to move forward, but only succeeded in sending him sprawled on the ground.

Harry blinked, peering at him over the top of his sunglasses. "You're terrible at this, Nicky, come on."

The psychologist groaned and stood up, dusting off his jeans and pushing up the sleeves of his jacket, turning to frown at Harry. "While I appreciate whatever it is you're trying to do, I don't want to participate in it and find, like, no satisfaction in it."

Harry sighed long-sufferingly, and Nicky felt almost offended by how disappointed he sounded. "Nicky, I love you. And because I love you, I can't let you be a thirty-year-old virgin, I refuse to let you become that movie."

Nicky shook his head, groaning. "And I appreciate that, but I don't want to just hook up with some random guy at a park, Harry, I had standards. And preferences."

"You can find a really hot guy," Harry reasoned, "You still get to choose, and it's not as if you have to date him and fall in love or get married or whatever, just some no strings attached sex would be fine. While it'd be easier for you if you were at a club, I know you never go there, so we have to settle for the next best thing."

Nicky inwardly sighed; the thing about Harry's argument, was that it couldn't apply to him, he didn't want it to, the very idea of it made him uncomfortable. He didn't find strangers sexually attractive. Sure, they were pretty and he could ogle them all he wanted, but the idea of going to bed with them with only even really knowing their name, he didn't know how he could find anyone attractive without knowing them well enough.

But every time he'd tried to explain that to people, they either laughed at him or got angry, and he really didn't need to be laughed at by a teenager today.

"Okay, whatever," he sighed, throwing up his arms and turning towards the man who was playing with his dog still. He had to admit, it was pretty cute to watch, but it just made him want to be friends.

"I believe in you!" Harry called as Nicky made his way towards the man, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," he said, leaning forward slightly, giving the man his bright, puppy dog smile that Rhett always said won over everyone.

"Hey," the man said, and if Nicky learned anything in his time studying micro-facial expressions and body language, he had piqued his interest.

"I'm Nicky," he said, forcing himself not to show any indication of insecurity; he started it, he couldn't back out now.

"Brandon," the man replied, turning completely away from his dog to face Nicky, smiling and leaning forward, reaching out to shake his hand, "How are you doing?"

º º º

Nicky enjoyed talking with Brandon. He was a nice guy with nice core values and his dog was adorable, but Nicky wasn't all that inclined to sleep with him. Sure, he was pretty and his arms were nice, but he didn't find him sexually appealing, and he couldn't help but feel like he was letting Harry down in some way.

"You wanna go back to my place?" Brandon asked, and he asked it so innocently and so casually that if it weren't for the shift in his eyes and the tensing of his shoulders, Nicky would have just assumed it was because his dog was getting fussy.

"Um..." he said, because Brandon seemed nice enough, and maybe it was Harry getting into his head, but his voice soon caught when he saw the man frown.

"I mean, we don't have to if you're not cool with it, this is fine," he said, and Nicky wished that he could just say yes and be okay with it and find it in himself to just sleep with him, because he seemed nice.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just—" he began, but was cut off by Brandon.

"But why?" he asked, still as genuinely curious as ever.

"Why what?" Nicky asked, but he already knew the question, though it seemed that maybe Brandon would't be as difficult.

"Why don't you want to? I mean, to sleep with me," he asked, and it was his bluntness that had Nicky looking around for Harry or Flash or someone who he could pretend to know to get away from.

"I just...don't want to?" he tried, shifting uncomfortably.

Brandon tilted his head. "Wait. Are you one of those people that says that they're not, what, born to want sex? Because if you don't want to have sex with me that's fine, just say it, don't make up some weird biological excuse."

Nicky frowned. "It's not an excuse."

"C'mon, man, I'm not upset or anything, but you know that's not real right?" Brandon pressed, and Nicky just wanted to go home and hide or watch movies with Rhett or do anything except try and justify something about himself that he was still trying to understand.

Just as Brandon was about to say something else, there was a shout.

"Hey, Nick!"

Nicky nearly threw up at the slew of emotions that came through just by hearing the sound of that voice. He was relieved, on edge, and generally overwhelmed all at once because all he had to do was turn his head to find Sam Wilson jogging over to him with a bright smile.

It had been a while since he had seen the man, and he would never admit that, after two days of him not showing up, he was sure he would never see the man, or the clothes he had borrowed, ever again, which had saddened him to no end; he liked those clothes.

"Hey," Sam said, nodding towards Brandon, before turning his attention back towards Nicky, "How are you?"

Nicky scrambled for his tongue. "I-I'm good, how-how are you?"

"I'm doing alright," Sam said, still smiling and not moving from where he was right by his side, and it was then that Nicky realized what he was doing.

"I totally forgot again didn't I," he said, trying to stiffen his smile, hoping Sam would catch on and that Brandon would fall for it.

Sam nodded as well, still smiling. "Yeah, you did."

Nicky groaned, dropping his head into his hands and hoping he didn't start to laugh. "I'm really, really sorry."

"It's fine, I get it," Sam said, bracing his hand on the bench, glancing at Brandon for a brief second before looking back at him, "Do you still wanna go or should I just forget about it or...?"

"No, wait, I still—" he said, jumping to his feet, and it was then he realized just how close he was standing to Sam, but he forced himself not to move back.

"What's going on?" Brandon asked, glancing between the two of them, standing up and unhooking his dog's leash from the bench.

"Nothing you gotta worry about, just keep walking," Sam said, never taking his eyes of Nicky, and the younger man had never wanted a lie to be more real than in this very moment.

"Listen, man," Brandon began, because how was he to know who Sam was or why he was there. Unfortunately for him, Sam wasn't in the mood to try and talk things out.

"Listen, man," he parroted, turning to face him, "I'm sure you're a nice guy, you're nice to your dog, I can respect that, but I'm gonna need to ask you to just walk away. Okay?"

Brandon sighed and turned his attention towards Nicky, shaking his head minutely. "Like I said. If you just weren't interested, you didn't have to make up something. I would've understood. Didn't think you'd have to call your boyfriend to back you up." By that point, he was already jogging away, his dog trying to go back to Nicky but was inevitably tugged away.

Needless to say, this was a very bad day. Nicky Green, for all he told his patients to not care what others thought, needed to be liked by everyone. It was what drove him to apologize whenever he bumped into anyone despite them not caring, as well as saying he wished he did have a membership to OfficeMax when asked if he had one, only to later decline the offer to get one when it was posed only a few moments later. It was what compelled him to run after Brandon and explain the entire situation.

But he didn't, because Sam grabbed his arm and stopped him before he could.

He wrenched out of the grip immediately, not because he didn't want Sam to touch him, but because he desperately wanted him to.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, holding up his hands placatingly, and Nicky wished he had just put his foot down to Harry before the mess even started.

"I'm fine," he sighed, rubbing his temples, "Why'd you come over? I mean, I appreciate it, but..."

"Your friend Harry called Rhett who couldn't come over, so he called Steve who is currently working, so he called me," he explained, unable to keep from smiling as he did, "Took a while, but I figured you'd still need the help."

Nicky looked around, unable to find the teenager in sight. "Well, thank you for coming and I should probably call Harry and make sure he's okay."

"Last I heard he was trying to help his friend win back his boyfriend," Sam said, "Want me to walk you home?"

Nicky sighed, because what else was there to do but sigh. "Yeah. Please."

º º º

The walk back was nice. The two just talked about everyday things, Sam telling him about his work and even mentioning seeing his siblings again, but he closed off before Nicky could ask him to elaborate. It didn't matter much, though, because he also wasn't too inclined to explain much of why he had gone to visit his step-brother, and Sam didn't seem to mind him closing off either.

"What did that guy do that bothered you so much?" Sam finally asked as they neared his apartment, "And why'd he say you made something up, did Harry tell you I was coming?"

Nicky cleared his throat, shaking his head. "No, it's just...I don't-I don't want to talk about it, Rhett doesn't even know."

"That you're into—" Sam started, but he shook his head, snorting.

"What? No, he knows I like guys, that's not what I'm talking about," he sighed, "I just don't want to talk about it right now if that's okay with you."

"Fine by me, talk when you want," Sam said, and Nicky wished he hadn't pulled away when he first touched him.

He wished he hadn't pulled away, because now Sam was making a point not to stand too close to him, to be kind and respectful, but that wasn't what Nicky wanted. No, he wanted to be as close to him as possible, to talk to him, to just be next to him, because he was finally talking to him again, but he had ruined his chances.

Ruined them because he didn't want Sam to see just how much his simple touch had affected him. He had wanted so much for him not to see just how much he had wanted him to touch him that he made it so the man never would again.

But that was just how life went for Nicky Green, so he couldn't be all that surprised.

"Sorry I haven't dropped off your clothes yet," Sam said as they neared the entrance to the building, "I'll be back soon to give them back."

"Keep them," Nicky found himself saying, and he wished he hadn't, "I don't mind."

Sam opened and closed his mouth, as if wanting to disagree, but he must have seen something in Nicky's eyes to just agree. "Okay. Well, I'll see you around."

Then he was gone. He was all the way down the street before Nicky could even remember to invite him in, and that was when he realized he had truly ruined everything. Because now Sam had no reason to come back and see him, interact with him. And the man knew that.

He knew because he thought Nicky didn't want him around.

With a sigh, Nicky pressed his buzzer, because he was too distraught to pull out his keys. Rhett's voice answered a few moments later. "Hello?"

"Rhett," he sighed, "I fucked up."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Poor Nicky, it's just not his day. But don't worry, Sam'll be back.

Okay, so Brandon stands for those kinds of people who say they're not ignorant, but they actually are? Because he's not outright awful, but he's also not supportive in any way, but he's not disinterested enough to just be neutral, you know? So he's not really a bad guy, he's just an ignorant one, so he can be redeemed.

Also! That boy Flash was talking to, his name is Matthew Mitty and he's an OC that will be in my upcoming fic Moon Boy, but that won't be for a hot sec, but I figured I'd introduce him here, at least briefly.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!