"YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE...IT MAKES ME SICK."

Nicky scoffed from where he was sitting on the couch, sprawled against Sam who was reading a book over his head, clearly uninterested in the conversation, or much else. He had swung by about an hour before, and after seeing that Nicky was actually out of his room—which usually only ever happened when he was working on patient files—silently motioned for the man to stand, before flopping onto the couch, letting Nicky lean against him while he read his book.

"Now you know how I feel whenever Steve's around," he mumbled, trying to read his scrawled notes and ignore Rhett who was, once again, taking pictures; he had taken a picture when Sam and Nicky had emerged from the room the day they had kissed, which had been quite some time ago, and still hadn't stopped.

"Nah, it's adorable," Rhett drawled, flopping onto another couch, "And I'm sending these all to Diana, payback for all those videos you took of me and Steve."

"Why does everyone keep talking about her?" Sam demanded, "It's like you didn't exist before she came into your lives, she's sixteen, I don't get the hype."

"You bought her a birthday present," Nicky pointed out, "And formally gave her permission to use the wings I made her, it sounds like you like her."

Sam rolled his eyes. "I also like Steve, but that doesn't mean he isn't a little shit—hey! Hey, I'm talking to you, man, get out of that room."

Nicky looked up from his work to see Steve peering out from Rhett's room, wearing a white tank top that showed off his arms. He looked more like a frightened puppy, his blue eyes pleading as he was forced to leave the room.

"What did you do?" Nicky demanded, looking over to Rhett, "Hey, Steve, you okay?"

The blond nodded, moving to the couch where Rhett was seated, lifting his legs before sitting down, letting them fall into his lap. He looked over at Nicky and Sam, a small smile playing on his lips as he tilted his head. Sam made shushing noises over towards him, but the man was the bane of Sam's existence, after all.

"I'm happy for you," he said, and it was so sweet and genuine that even Nicky was trying to hide his face, Sam groaning and complaining.

Steve laughed, leaning back in his seat. "It's true, I honestly am, you seem really happy."

There was an underlying understanding behind his words that let them know he was still aware they weren't always going to be happy, and they had to appreciate the sentiment with that.

Nicky shifted after a few moments of silence, trying to push himself up into a sitting position, but winding up jamming his elbow into Sam's side, the older man groaning and pushing him away, only for Nicky to jab his other elbow into his stomach, the two trying and failing to untangle their legs, Nicky yelping when Sam accidentally hit the back of his head, and Sam groaning when Nicky, once again, elbowed him, the two finally tumbling onto the floor in a pile, crawling away from each other, nursing their wounds.

"Please tell me you filmed that," Steve said, turning to look over at Rhett who had his phone out, grinning at him from behind the screen.

"Delete that shit," Sam called from the floor, raising his arm and pointing towards their general direction.

Nicky laughed along with the other two men, crawling over towards Sam and maneuvering into his lap, resting his head against his chest. That was something Sam hadn't been expecting from the younger man, though it made sense once he really thought about it; deprived of any affection from his parents, of course he would seek it out from other people who actually cared about him, and Sam had to admit that he didn't mind much.

"Hi," Nicky said, looking up at him and Sam smirked down at him, dropping his chin on his head, giving Steve and Rhett a silencing look, though the two blonds simply grinned at him.

Sam sighed, nudging Nicky. "Wanna go somewhere?"

Nicky hummed. "Depends, where are we going?"

Sam dropped his head onto his shoulder, shrugging. "I don't know, we could just walk around. And from what I saw, none of you ate, and I'm not in the mood for breakfast lunch again."

Steve made an indignant noise from his spot on the couch, which was, for the most part, ignored, Nicky asking, "Can we go to Black Tap? I want a milkshake."

The older man nodded, nudging Nicky until he stood, rising to his feet and stretching, picking up his book from the floor and setting it down on the coffee table. He followed Nicky towards the door, squeezing Steve's shoulder as he went, Rhett calling out after him for a kiss.

Sam paused, turning on his heel to face him. "I don't know what that little shit told you, but you can't hold any of that against me."

Rhett tilted his head, genuinely confused, glancing between Steve and Sam. "What did you say? What, Sam, come back, what did you say? What did I—Steve, what happened, what did he say?"

Sam ushered Nicky out the door, the younger man demanding to know what Sam had said, pestering him as they made their way down the flights of stairs and out onto the sidewalk, Sam just shaking his head and ignoring Nicky the entire time.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Sam said, grinning as Nicky made a sound of pure annoyance, complaining about how Sam honestly wasn't that much older than him, but using a voice whiny enough to practically discredit himself.

Sam laughed, throwing an arm around Nicky's shoulder as they made their way to the train station. "Don't think too much, princess."

º º º

Back in the far corner booth of Black Tap in SoHo, Nicky had to take a minute, remembering the last time they had been there, sharing a cookie shake and talking over their burgers, shielded by the dark of the restaurant and the loud music playing over the speakers.

"I can't believe you tried to steal my roommate from his boyfriend, Rhett has been in love with him since the 40's, who are you?" Nicky demanded, stuffing his mouth with fries, waving his arms, trying to get Sam to stop laughing, the older man lying across his side of the booth, laughing too hard.

"Steve told me all about this guy when they first got together, can you blame me, I didn't realize he was gonna be that good looking, have you seen his eyes?" Sam tried to reason, hiding his grin by taking a long sip of the milkshake.

Nicky made a sound of pure frustration. "Of course I have! I've known him for nine years, I found the exact hex code for his eyes, it took me years, but I did it, I know how good looking he is, I was the first person in this century to notice it."

Sam dropped his head onto the table, his entire body wracked with silent laughter, his hand hitting the wood loosely as he struggled to breathe, his stomach aching from just how much he was laughing.

"I don't appreciate you mocking me, this is serious," Nicky said, and Sam nearly believed him, raising his head only to find the man biting his tongue which was peeking through his lips, and his heart clenched at the sight of him.

Sam sighed at himself, ducking under the table and reappearing on Nicky's side, kissing him messily, the ice cream sticky on both their lips, but Nicky was grinning and Sam was reminded of how, in high school, he had always dreamed of kissing someone in the dark in the back of a restaurant or movie, or over a milkshake at a diner, and this was a mix of both that was just so much better than all the other times he had tried, because he was coming to find that he liked Nicky Green a lot more than he had let on.

"I've been getting such bad beard burn because of you," Nicky complained, not sounding all that upset, pushing Sam away after the man started kissing his neck, "Rhett's been complaining about it and now I understand."

Sam snorted, ducking back under the table and moving back into his seat, taking a bite of his still unfinished, now partially cold burger. "Just eat your food, princess, it's fine, don't care about me, I don't care."

Nicky scoffed, reaching out and locking their ankles together, and Sam smiled at him over their milkshake. Nicky opened his mouth to speak, but paused, instead just choosing to smile back, happy to just be with him here.

"Thanks, Sam," he whispered.

Sam grinned. "No problem, princess."

º º º

The two were walking in Central Park again with the intention of finding where they first bumped into each other. It was sickeningly sweet and all Sam's idea, but Nicky was fine to go along for the ride, albeit a blushing mess.

"I didn't think you'd be that guy," Nicky commented, burying his face in his hands after Sam smoothly picked up a fallen flower and held it up to him.

Sam laughed, shaking his head. "My dad always said that I should treat my partner like they were the most important person in the world. Because that's what they should be to me. He was a pastor, always had this thing with words, and was a really progressive guy for it."

Nicky tilted his head. "Really?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Right before he died, I had given my mom and him crap for believing in God and he just took me to the library and got me all these books on other religions. Told me that he wanted me to find out what I believed in, who I wanted to be. Didn't get mad at me or anything. I was a punk ass kid and he just helped me out some more. He died 'cause he tried to break up a gang fight."

Nicky placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Sam."

Sam sniffed, shaking his head. "Sorry, princess. Hey, look, pigeons."

Nicky knew when to let something drop, so he played along, turning to find a large group of pigeons hopping about on the grass.

Sam smirked at him, walking towards the group before crouching down. He made a chirping sound that surprised nearly all those around him, and even more so when a few pigeons made their way towards him, hopping up onto his outstretched arm.

"I think you're the princess, not me," Nicky said, eyes wide as he watched Sam stroke the back of one of the birds.

Sam glanced over at him and jerked his head towards the group. "You try."

Nicky scoffed, shaking his head. "No, thanks."

"Aw, c'mon, princess, go for it. Or are you the chicken?" Sam was giving him a challenging look, and Nicky was more than happy to turn the offer down. Of course, Sam had to raise the stakes. "If you catch one, I'll do whatever you want."

Nicky raised an eyebrow. "And if I don't?"

Sam grinned. "You gotta go back and sing that solo you should've gotten during junior year."

Nicky groaned, rolling his eyes and tilting his head back. "You're still hung up over that? Why-why do you still remember that?"

"I forgot until we went back there to watch the show, but, man, Jared Weisel couldn't sing, even the parents said it, he ruined that show, and the whole school had to listen to us do that one, you owe it to everyone." Sam motioned towards the birds with a flurry of his hand, and Nicky rolled his eyes.

"Prepare to be amazed," he said, starting to walk towards the birds with a short, but even pace, not even looking at them.

They didn't fly away instantly, in fact some didn't even move, just hopped a little, as if to test what he would do. He neared one of those birds, which started to walk away from him, but much slower than he had expected. Grinning, he started to pick up the pace, becoming parallel with the bird, and he reached down quickly and just nearly caught it before he flew away, up towards his face.

So, naturally, he had ducked, but he could safely cross touching a wild pigeon off his bucket list.

He turned to find Sam to see if that would have counted, but found that the man wasn't there. He frowned, at first just put off, since he had spent months perfecting his bird chasing craft, and Sam hadn't been there to witness the first time he had successfully touched a bird. But then he remembered that the man, while having been granted amnesty, was still somewhat considered to be a war criminal.

"Sam?" he called out, starting to panic, "Sam?"

Scanning the crowd quickly, his heart stopped when he finally caught sight of a man a ways away, crouched down and talking to a crying little girl who seemed to be more curly hair than actual girl. He nearly collapsed with relief, but the feeling was soon replaced with concern, as there was a crying little girl.

Jogging over, he slowed down when the girl whirled around to look at him. He gave her a reassuring smile—if there was one thing he could do, it was smile—and crouched down as well, making sure to give her space and room to breathe and, if she needed to, run away.

"She lost her mom, and she can't find her," Sam explained, "You lost her here, sweetheart?"

She nodded, sniffing and wiping at her eyes. She couldn't have been more than five, and Nicky had to wonder if the mother was okay herself. But regardless, they had to worry about the little girl now, and that was already scaring Nicky.

It wasn't that he didn't like kids, he actually loved kids, the idea of them being all terrible is a product of the mindset of those who simply hate the idea of kids. In reality, they're incredibly perceptive and are inherently kind, only changed by the product of the people raising them.

That's why Nicky was afraid of kids. Because the idea of screwing up and ruining a life forever horrified him beyond belief. As a product of terrible parenting, he was surprised he didn't end up worse, because he had seen worse kids from a product of parenting not as bad as he had experienced.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" Sam asked, because unlike Nicky, Sam was great with kids.

She sniffed. "Princess."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Princess?" She nodded, rubbing at her eyes. He gave her a kind smile. "Okay, princess. We're gonna just wait here until your mom shows up, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay." She had stopped crying, but was now frowning the kind of heavy frown only children could have.

Sam ran a hand over his mouth, glancing over at Nicky. "Do you like ice cream?"

She nodded warily, though clearly interested. "Uh-huh."

He smiled, motioning towards the ice cream parlor that was just in sight from where they were standing. "How about you wait here with Nicky, and I'll go get us some ice cream. What's your favorite flavor?"

She was eyeing Nicky with too much suspicion to reply, so Nicky proposed another idea. "How about you wait with Sam, and I'll go get the ice cream. You okay with that?"

She nodded quickly, though it was clear she felt really bad about not wanting to be with Nicky. For someone so young, the guilt was already set in. He tried not to think about it too much, or else he would just wind up angry.

"What's your favorite flavor?" he asked, and she mumbled something that sounded like, 'Oreo,' so he connected the dots and headed off.

As he was walking away, he heard Sam ask, "Wanna pet a pigeon?"

º º º

When Nicky came back, he found Sam and Princess chasing pigeons around the park, the little girl's laughter pealing through the already noisy atmosphere, filling it with something new and something pure.

"Ice cream!" Sam cheered, lifting her up and carrying her towards Nicky, Princess making hands towards him.

Before Nicky handed it over, Sam paused her. "What's the magic word?"

She frowned at him, confused, and he explained it to her. "Whenever you want something, you gotta say 'please,' okay? Sometimes you don't always get what you want, but if you want to try to get something, you say 'please.' Can you say it?"

"Please," she recited, reaching out towards the ice cream, and the two men smiled, watching as she took it from Nicky, happily starting to eat.

"What you get me?" Sam asked, setting her down, and Nicky held up two cones; plain chocolate and plain vanilla.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I feel like you're trying to say something."

Nicky choked, rushing to try and explain himself, but Sam just laughed and plucked the vanilla cone out of his hand, turning back towards Princess, explaining to her about saying 'thank you' and all these other basic rules. He explained to her that she didn't always have to share if she didn't want to, but that it would be nice to share whenever she could.

Nicky just watched the two of them, leaned against the bench where they were sitting, unable to think of anything, only capable of watching.

"Princess!"

All three of them turned to see a hysterical woman rushing towards them, tears freely flowing down her cheeks. Sam took a step back, letting the woman scoop up her daughter who hugged her tightly, offering her part of her ice cream so she would stop crying.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" Sam asked, "We found Princess right here, we were worried something might have happened to you."

The woman swallowed thickly, clearly still overwhelmed. "I'm fine, thank you for—I'm so sorry that you—"

"No need to thank us, it's okay," Nicky said, taking over, "Why don't you take a seat, just try to relax. You're okay, Princess is okay. It's gonna be okay."

She shook her head, but tried to give them a smile. "Thank you, but we need to go. But I need to just—" she looked towards her purse, but shook her head, "I'm sorry, I don't have any money—"

"You don't have to pay us," Sam said, shaking his head, "Trust me, this happened to my mama too, she raised three of us, it's alright."

The woman started to tear up again and rushed forward, trying to hug Sam as best she could, Princess still in her arms, though the girl was also hugging the man, thanking him for everything and offering to share her ice cream.

Sam just laughed and ruffled her hair, telling her to be good to her mom.

Nicky was surprised when he received a hug as well, but took it nonetheless. He smiled at Princess who grinned back at him, thanking him for the ice cream.

She waved at them from over her mother's shoulder as they walked away, and it was clear that Sam had grown incredibly attached to the little girl in the time that he had spent with her. Nicky squeezed his arm.

"She's gonna be okay," he whispered, moving to sit on the bench.

"Yeah," Sam agreed, sitting down next to them and bumping their shoulders, "But I gotta say, I'm glad I only have one princess in my life." He took a bite out of his ice cream, smirking as he mumbled, "Even if he lost our bet."

º º º

They were back in the loft and Sam had immediately gone to take a shower, stealing yet another pair of Nicky's clothes, though they were sweatpants and a sleep shirt, so nothing too major. Nicky still wondered if the man used the clothes he still had of his.

Rhett and Steve had just popped out to get takeout for dinner later that night, so Nicky was effectively alone, with no work that he was willing to do, and nothing to entertain him.

So he put on some music.

He had heard the song in the ice cream parlor, so he decided to listen to it in full, moving around to the quick, electronic beat, glad to just be alone in his room. He wasn't the best dancer, but he liked to do what he liked, jumping around and moving his arms, singing along with the chorus.

His back was turned towards his door as he danced, going through three new songs he had heard, barely pausing in between them to pick new ones, grinning as he got all his energy out through just flailing his arms wildly and jumping around.

Unbeknownst to him, Sam had come out of the bathroom and was simply leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, a small smile playing on his lips as he watched him.

"Oh God!" Nicky screamed, when he finally turned and found Sam standing there.

Sam laughed, falling into the room and shutting the door behind him, watching as Nicky whined, utterly mortified, dropping onto the bed, trying to smother himself with his pillow, burrowing under the covers.

Following him, Sam pulled him into a tight hug, kissing the back of his neck, Nicky refusing to look at him. Sam hummed softly, closing his eyes and nuzzling the back of his neck, and Nicky mumbled half-hearted insults that didn't make any sense to either of them, but they didn't really care.

"You're okay with this, right?" Sam asked, pausing and waiting to hear Nicky's response.

The younger man nodded. "I mean, I think we've been leading up to this for some time, and I always like having more headrests."

Sam laughed against his shoulder, shaking his head. "I honestly don't have anything to say to that."

Nicky sighed, turning so he was facing him, tucking his head under Sam's chin. "That's okay. Sometimes you don't have to say anything. That's okay sometimes."

º º º

"I feel like you're drawing us, but Rhett's also sitting next to me, so I can't be sure."

Steve smiled from where he was sitting at the dining table, facing the other three men who were sitting on the couches, Nicky with Sam's head in his lap and his own head leaned against Rhett's shoulder.

"How was your day?" Nicky asked his roommate, since it was clear the other blond, blue eyed man wasn't going to be making any conversation with him.

"It was alright," Rhett yawned, "I was practicing jumping between times and stuff, nothing big, I took a lot of breaks, but I was able to jump back far enough to buy that limited edition Target exclusive giant plush doll you had wanted, but missed out on."

Nicky gasped loud enough to wake Sam from his nap. "I love you."

"What's going on?" Sam asked, rubbing his face and looking up at the two men.

"I just won him back, pack your bags, you're leaving," Rhett said, nudging the back of his head, and Sam swiped at his hand, snorting.

Steve walked over towards them, lifting Sam's legs and sitting down, placing them onto his lap, and Nicky had to take a moment to look at the four of them, wondering how he had found himself tangled up in all these people, literally and metaphorically.

Before he could truly start thinking about it, the doorbell rang.

All four of them shifted, Nicky pushing his way past and walking towards it, ready to signal for all of them to hide if necessary.

The door opened to reveal a familiar pretty smile and a smug pair of sunglasses.

"Hey, Nicky."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Dun, dun, dun...

Can we tell I suck at naming chapters, what even is this chapter title, I can't, I'm sorry, but it's a play on Romantic Comedy, it's a Romantic Drama-Comedy I'm sorry I don't even know.

Here we go. After chapters of promising the RomCom, here it is. I even fit in the doorframe leaning, like, I did it, here is your toothrotting fluff, I had them kissing so much and cuddling and being super cute and I never write these, so appreciate what you got, yo.

I tried to throw in as many tropes as possible and I wish I had had more time to flesh it out, but also, I think that there's something poetic about the fact that I couldn't show everything, it's also the way it usually is in movies, so like...

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!