Avinash woke to the distinct, prickling sensation of being watched.

It was a deeply unsettling feeling under any circumstance, but exponentially worse when your only roommate had arrived the previous night via a second-story window, heavily armed and painting the carpet red. According to Avi's amateur medical assessment three hours ago, the man was supposed to be completely comatose.

Slowly, cautiously, Avi cracked open one eye.

And shrieked. "JESUS CHRIST!"

Nicholas didn't even flinch. He was sitting fully upright on the edge of the mattress, looking mildly annoyed by the general concept of existence. It was a remarkable display of stoicism, given that his face currently resembled a multi-colored car crash.

"Good morning," Nicholas said, sounding entirely unamused.

Avi practically thrown himself backward off his desk chair, scrambling for purchase. "YOU'RE ALIVE."

Nicholas's brow furrowed. "Disappointing?"

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

The room fell into a bewildered, breathless silence.

Avi broke it by throwing an accusing finger at the bed. "I saw you flatline. In my dream. You died."

Nicholas made a face. "My apologies for ruining the happy ending."

Avi shot to his feet so fast the chair legs shrieked against the floorboards. Before the giant could track his movement, Avi crossed the room and hovered directly over him.

"What are you doing-" Nicholas started.

Avi completely ignored him, his hands moving automatically. He grabbed Nicholas by the shoulder, leaning down to inspect the neat tightness of the gauze around his ribs, the symmetry of the stitches along his temple, and the clean edge of his side compression.

Nicholas instinctively tried to lean back out of the sudden proximity, but the movement aggravated his torso. A sharp, violent wince shattered his mask of indifference.

For one agonizing second, they froze. They were far too close. Avi became acutely, painfully aware that he was essentially looming in a dangerous man's lap, his fingers digging into a shoulder that felt like solid granite.

Nicholas raised a slow, pointed eyebrow.

Avi let go as if he'd just touched a live wire, backing away so quickly his heel caught on his own backpack. He barely stayed upright. "You redid those," Avi accused, chest heaving. "The wraps."

Nicholas looked down at his torso. "They were uneven. It was bothering me."

"You were legally dead to the world."

"I got better."

Avi stared at him, entirely incredulous. "You were actively bleeding out."

"Clearly."

"You came through my window."

Nicholas paused, conceding a microscopic nod. "That part is admittedly less encouraged by the agency."

Avi opened his mouth. Closed it. Then rubbed his temples. "What is wrong with you?"

"Several things, actually."

Avi's gaze hardened. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Explain."

Nicholas sighed. He ran a hand through his hair.

"I work security."

A beat.

"Security." Avi echoed.

"Yes."

Avi narrowed his eyes. The answer was delivered flawlessly, but it lacked spontaneity. As if he had giving out the exact sort of automated, gray-man response to everybody ever asked.

"What kind of security?" Avi pushed.

Nicholas held his gaze, his dark eyes totally unreadable. "The legal kind."

"That is the least reassuring thing I have ever heard."

"It wasn't designed to comfort you."

Avi decided, right then and there, that he despised him. Just a fraction more than he had five minutes ago. But as he watched, a tiny flicker of genuine agony crossed Nicholas's features before being locked away behind iron discipline. The giant was hurting. He was just violently refusing to acknowledge it.

"I got tangled in something yesterday," Nicholas said, his voice dropping into a low, commanding register. "Something dangerous."

"No kidding."

"I'm telling you this because you deserve an explanation. And because you helped me."

Avi blinked, caught off guard. The gratitude sounded incredibly heavy in Nicholas's throat, like a foreign language he'd never been taught to speak.

"In return," Nicholas continued, "I am giving you a choice. If this..." He gestured vaguely to his broken face, the bandages, and the blood-stained room. "...the weapon, the liabilities, whatever narrative your head is spinning right now-if it bothers you, you can leave."

Avi stared. "What?"

"I'm entirely serious. I'll cover your half of the remaining lease until you find a suitable alternative."

Avi blinked again, his brain struggling to pivot. "What?"

Nicholas looked profoundly unimpressed by his vocabulary. "You clearly possess a dangerous lack of situational awareness, Avinash. It worries me."

Avi froze, his voice rising a dangerous octave. "...Excuse me?"

"You brought an armed, bleeding predator into your private living space."

Avinash scoffed. "Predator is fitting. Ironic you realise."

Nicholas sighed. "Which means if you die I won't give a flying fuck."

"You were unconscious!" Avinash countered.

"Am I unconscious right now?"

Avi opened his mouth, but his throat had gone completely dry.

Nicholas tilted his head, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. "Did you at least check if the firearm was still where you hid it?"

A sudden, freezing wave of dread dropped straight into Avi's stomach. Slowly, his neck rotating like a rusty hinge, he turned toward the desk. He reached out and yanked the top drawer open.

Empty. The wood was bare.

Avi stared into the empty drawer, his heart hammering against his ribs. He slowly looked back at the bed. The realization of what Nicholas could have done while he was asleep flashed across his face in vivid, terrifying color.

Nicholas just raised an eyebrow, delivering the killing blow. "Exactly."

Avi swallowed hard. "You...but you were...asleep."

"You didn't know if I would wake up."

"I literally stitched your torso together! Your blood is permanently bonding with my carpet fiber. I saved your life!"

"And you had no guarantee I wouldn't wake up and eliminate the only witness," Nicholas countered cleanly. "Do you see my point now?"

Avi hated-absolutely, deeply hated-that the logic was flawless.

Nicholas studied him for a long, quiet interval, a strange, calculating curiosity flickering behind his eyes. "Most civilized people would have dialed emergency services."

Avi looked away, crossing his arms tightly. "Most people are dramatic."

"Most people are sensible."

"We have different definitions of the word."

The silence stretched, thick and unyielding. Finally, Nicholas seemed finished terrorizing his landlord. He pushed himself off the mattress and onto his feet. He did it slowly, his jaw locked tight, every centimeter of movement clearly costing him a steep price in physical agony.

Avi noticed the slight tremor in his hands. Nicholas noticed him noticing. Neither of them said a damn word about it.

The giant made his slow, measured way toward the bedroom door, his large hand wrapping around the brass knob. He paused, his back still turned.

"Whatever option you choose," Nicholas said, "choose it quickly."

Avi didn't answer. It wasn't as if packing up and running was a real option for him anyway. If disappearing into thin air actually solved his problems, he would have vanished from this city six months ago.

"One more thing," Nicholas added, his hand resting on the frame. "Next time you feel the need to trespass into my bedroom, don't waste your time picking the lock."

Every single muscle in Avi's body locked up instantly. His breath hitched.

Nicholas turned the handle, throwing a cool glance over his shoulder. "There's a spare key under the hallway carpet. Save yourself the trouble."

Avi felt his actual soul evaporate from his body.

Nicholas stepped out, and the door clicked shut behind him with a soft, definitive snap. Avi stood entirely frozen in the center of the quiet room for three long seconds. Then, he slowly buried his face in both hands, letting out a muffled, exhausted groan.

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

+++

Avinash spent the next four hours doing what he did best: overthinking.

Thinking had always come easily to him. It happened in crowded lecture halls, on rattling city buses, while brushing his teeth, and while masterfully pretending to listen to people he disliked. His brain ran on a relentless, high-speed loop that rarely paused long enough for him to notice the background noise of the world.

Sitting entirely motionless in the exact same desk chair for four consecutive hours, however, was a brand-new milestone.

The apartment slowly shifted its geometry around him. Sunlight crept lazily across the scuffed floorboards, shadows stretched into distorted claws, and the agonizing afternoon dragged its feet into evening.

At some point, a sleek black vehicle with tinted windows pulled into the gravel parking area below the building. Avi only noticed because there was literally nothing else to look at.

Three men stepped out. They were sharply dressed, carried themselves with a rigid, geometric purpose, and were definitively not university students. One of them casually adjusted his jacket and glanced directly up at the second-floor glass.

Avi let the curtain drop instantly. A few minutes later, the sedan smoothly pulled away. Whether Nicholas had left with them or retreated back upstairs, Avi couldn't tell. He leaned back in his chair and let out a long, slow sigh.

His background checks had been entirely accurate. Security. The man really did work in the industry. Avi just hadn't expected the giant to actually offer a straight answer, let alone hand him a clean, fully funded escape route out of the lease.

As if leaving was that simple. Avi scoffed to the empty room, resuming his intense scrutiny of the drywall.

Another two hours vanished into the dark. By the time his stomach started violently growling, the apartment had grown pitch black.

Avi migrated to the kitchen, flicking the overhead switch. The fluorescent tube buzzed and flickered to life with all the enthusiasm of a dying star. He pulled open the upper cabinet to inspect his sad, stagnant inventory: three boxes of generic pasta, a bag of white rice, four cans of black beans and borderline embarrassing surplus of instant ramen

He had purchased the entire haul the day he moved in, filled with the naive, glowing fantasy of becoming a responsible adult who cooked balanced meals and maintained healthy life routines.

That fantasy had survived for approximately forty-eight hours. Since then, Avi had effectively survived on greasy takeout boxes. It was a system that worked flawlessly-right up until Nicholas started using their shared apartment as a trauma center.

Beyond the kitchen threshold, the hallway sat in total darkness, save for a razor-thin line of warm light glowing beneath Nicholas's closed bedroom door.

Avi paused, a ramen packet in each hand. So he didn't leave with the suits.

For a fraction of a second, Avi actually considered knocking to verify the man hadn't quietly bled out on the mattress. Nicholas had put on a brilliant performance of being an invincible brick wall earlier, but Avi wasn't stupid. Nobody scales a vertical brick wall while half-dead and walks it off by lunchtime.

Then again, why should he care? The guy had a loaded firearm and a black-car delivery service. Avi had enough existential problems of his own without adopting a giant, terrifying stray.

Instant noodles were entirely less complicated.

He filled a small steel pot with tap water, set it on the stove, and waited. As the water began to simmer, Avi stared down at the two packets of ramen in his hands. He blinked in mild confusion, unsure why he had pulled out a double portion.

Whatever, he thought. I'm starving.

The first brick of noodles splashed into the boiling water, quickly followed by the second. As the familiar, salty steam drifted upward, a tight knot in Avi's chest loosened just a fraction.

Cooking had always been Shane's department. Avi's responsibilities within their friendship had generally begun and ended with eating the food, or occasionally washing the dishes if a sufficient amount of guilt was deployed. The memory stung, sharp and fresh, tasting exactly as bitter as it had months ago.

The noodles softened, the artificial broth thickened, and the kitchen began to smell warm, comfortable, and aggressively normal.

The sharp click of a bedroom door shattered the peace.

Avi looked up instantly. Warm light spilled into the dark corridor as Nicholas stepped out into the open. For a fraction of a syllable, a heavy wince broke through the man's stony expression.

Then, Nicholas's dark eyes locked onto Avi.

The vulnerability vanished instantly. Nicholas's spine locked into a perfect line, his shoulders squared, and he instantly transformed back into an immovable object.

Avi rolled his eyes so hard it physically hurt. The "I am a perfectly functional stone wall" routine was getting incredibly repetitive.

Nicholas approached the kitchen threshold, stopping just outside the light. He didn't say a word. He just stood there, watching. Avi could practically feel the intense, analytical stare burning a hole into the back of his skull, but he refused to grant him the satisfaction of looking up.

The act went on for a full minute before it got irritating. Avi let out a sharp, irritated breath. He spun around, aggressively thrusting the bowl of noodles forward.

"Noodles?" He asked through tightly gritted teeth.

Nicholas raised a slow, highly amused eyebrow. Then, he gave a casual, fluid shrug. "If you insist."

Nicholas smoothly reached out, took the warm bowl from Avi's hands, turned on his heel, and walked straight back down the dark hallway.

Avi stood frozen in the center of the kitchen, his mouth literally hanging open as the shadows completely swallowed the giant. A second later, the definitive, heavy snap of Nicholas's bedroom door echoed through the apartment.

Avi stared at the empty doorway for five silent seconds.

"...That absolute motherfucker!!" he hissed to the empty kitchen.

Behind the safety of the closed door, Nicholas took a slow, perfectly quiet bite of the stolen noodles.

And he smiled.