This is a scene I almost put into the book, but since it would have changed the direction of the story, I took it out. So, it's a non-canon extra now. 

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Luca was not expecting the phone call. He was working from home, and he and Enzo had just finished lunch. The house was quiet without Harper there, but they were all getting used to it.

Harper had already been going to school for two months, and the little boy absolutely loved it. Enzo... still wasn't too happy about the arrangement, but he was a little more comfortable with it since Harper's friends, Sam and Collin, were in the same class.

Luca thought everything was going great... until the phone call, that is.

"Hello, is this Mr. Armoni?" came the voice on the other end of the line.

"Yes, this is he," Luca answered. He looked at Enzo, who just raised his eyebrows at him before turning away to take the dishes into the kitchen.

"Hi, this is Principal Johnson. I was just calling about your student, Harper."

"Harper?" Luca echoed, feeling confused. "What about Harper? Is he alright?"

From the corner of his eye, Luca saw Enzo turn to him sharply before heading straight to him. Luca went ahead and put the phone on speaker so that Enzo could hear, too.

"Yes, Harper is fine. But there was a little incident at recess today. Do you have time this afternoon to come into the office to pick Harper up?"

Enzo pushed his face closer to the phone. "An incident? What incident? What happened? Is he hurt?" he cut in, his voice sharp.

"Ah and is this..." there was a rustle of papers. "Mr.... Enzo?"

"Yes, I'm Harper's brother," Enzo confirmed. Luca hadn't seen his eyes look so intense in a long time. "What happened?"

"Oh, well, I was hoping to explain in person, but..."

"What. Happened?" Enzo repeated, shoulders tense. Luca placed his hand on Enzo's back to steady him, feeling nervous himself.

The principal sighed. "Harper got into a bit of a fight with another student," came the shocking answer. "Both kids are alright, but Harper has a cut on his lip, and the other student has a black eye."

Luca's mouth dropped open. "He punched a kid?" he clarified, in complete disbelief.

There's no way, he thought, dumbfounded. Harper's an absolute angel! He doesn't hit people. He doesn't even like to watch movies where someone gets hurt.

Luca was startled as Enzo pushed away from him, grimly heading towards the door. Luca reached out to grab his arm on impulse, and Enzo just stopped and glared at him. Luca immediately dropped his hand.

"Yes," the principal confirmed. "Another student witnessed the whole thing, so she's here, too. She has already explained what she saw, but neither Harper nor the other student are talking. We thought they might speak up if their guardians were present."

Luca barely heard him, as he was so focused on Enzo. He'd never seen a look like that on Enzo's face before, not even when the borrower was tiny and terrified as he tried to protect Harper.

"We'll be right there," Luca managed to get out. The principal thanked him and hung up, leaving Luca and Enzo standing there in a near silent house.

"Ok," Luca began, holding his hands out to Enzo. Enzo just stared at the door. "It's ok, Enz. Harper's ok. The principal said he's fine. It's just a busted lip."

Enzo stared at Luca for a heartbeat. Luca watched him nervously, unsure what he would do, but Enzo just spun around and wrenched open the front door, grabbing the car keys and walking out.

Luca stared at the door in shock before hurrying after him. "Enz, wait!" he called, finally catching up in the driveway. The sky was overcast, mirroring the dark look on Enzo's face. "I'll drive."

He reached for the car keys, but Enzo jerked away from him, whirling around. Luca stepped back in shock. The borrower's eyes were flashing. Luca had never seen Enzo so angry.

"I said over and over again that I didn't want Harper in school," Enzo barely got out through clenched teeth. "But you kept promising me that he'd be fine. Now, look what happened!"

He put his hand to his head, and Luca was dismayed to see that his fingers were shaking. "I never should have let you two talk me into it," Enzo whispered.

Luca reached for his hand again, hesitantly this time. With how worked up Enzo was, Luca wasn't sure how the borrower would react to his touch.

"I'll drive," Luca repeated, keeping his voice quiet. "I'll get you there quickly. I promise."

Enzo finally nodded and relinquished the keys, letting Luca guide him to the car and open the door for him. Luca sighed before heading around towards the driver's seat.

This wasn't going well at all.

***

Once they arrived, Enzo was out of the car before Luca even turned it off, heading towards the school. Luca hurried after him, fumbling with the seat belt a bit in his rush.

"Enz, we have to check in," he reminded the borrower breathlessly once he caught up.

Enzo nodded wordlessly, lips tight and eyes anxious. After checking in at the front desk, the secretary pointed them towards the principal's office. Despite Enzo's much shorter legs, Luca was practically running to keep up with his quick stride.

Enzo walked straight into the principal's office, not even bothering to knock. Several pairs of eyes immediately turned to Luca and Enzo in the doorway.

Luca recognized the principal and Harper's teacher. Harper's friend Sam was there, too, and she gave Luca little wave. Luca waved back, looking her up and down. She seemed fine, unlike the two boys who were also present.

Harper sat in one chair, slouching and staring at the floor with furrowed brows. The other boy, who Luca assumed had been in the fight, kept a bag of ice pressed to his face, covering one eye. The boy's mother stood nearby, one hand on his shoulder protectively.

Enzo immediately dropped into a crouch in front of Harper, taking his little brother's face in his hands and turning it this way and that to appraise his injuries.

Luca took the moment to study Harper as well. The boy was hunched in his seat with his little arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his busted lip. Luca had never seen him look more like Enzo than in that moment.

"Ah, welcome, Mr. Armoni and Mr. Enzo," the principal finally broke the tense silence. "Thank you for coming on such short notice." Luca nodded back.

Enzo finally looked up from where he had been fussing over Harper.

"Who did this to him? What happened?" he asked sharply.

"I..." the teacher was the first to speak. She looked taken aback, probably stunned by Enzo's intensity. The borrower hadn't raised his voice, but his tone carried a heavy weight to it.

"He called me small," Harper finally piped up, glaring at the boy sitting across from him. "And then he pushed me so that I would fall down."

He held up his tiny hands, which were scraped up. Anyone could see those wounds would only have occurred if he had tried to catch himself on cement.

Enzo's eyes were murderous, and the other kid looked down, staying silent as he kept the ice pack over his eye. Despite the tense mood, Luca tried not to laugh. He'd gotten into a few scrapes as a kid, too. It didn't seem like this one was particularly serious. 

The teacher turned to look at the other kid. "Joey?" she asked. "Is that true?"

He squirmed a little.

"Yeah, it's true!" Samantha said, chiming in. "I already told you guys! I saw the whole thing, remember?"

The other boy just shrugged.

"Why did you push him?" the teacher asked gently.

Joey squirmed in his seat a bit more, finally looking up to frown at Harper. "I don't like him!" he burst out. "He's small and weak, but everyone still likes him!"

Not so weak that he couldn't give you a shiner, Luca thought, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Just like Enzo, it seemed like little Harper was a bit stronger than the average human.

"Joey!" the boy's mother gasped. "So, you're the one who started this?"

He hung his head but nodded.

The teacher turned to Harper next. "And what did you do, Harper?" she asked.

"I got up and hit him," Harper said, face still dark. "Before he could hit me first."

Luca tried not to face palm. Given how sweet Harper was, Luca never thought he'd have to teach the boy how to act in confrontations like this. But maybe he should have, as Harper's reaction was definitely not the right way to handle things. 

The principal seemed to have had enough at this point, so after informing both boys that their recess privileges were suspended for the rest of the week and warning them not to fight anymore, he let them both go home early.

Harper was very quiet during the car ride home. Enzo was even quieter, but Luca could tell he was fuming. He reached out as he drove to place his hand on Enzo's knee.

At least Enzo wasn't too angry to shake him off. Luca counted that as a good sign.

"Harps?" Luca called. "You ok back there?"

For a brief moment, Luca thought he wasn't going to get a response, but then Harper burst out with an "I don't know why I got in trouble! He's the one who started it!"

Luca smiled a bit. "You don't know why you got in trouble?" he repeated.

"No!" came the resolute answer.

Luca tried not to laugh. "Well, bud, it's because you punched someone," he explained.

Harper put his little nose in the air. "Enzo says it's important to know how to defend yourself!"

"That's true, and it's especially true when you're a borrower, sure," Luca said gently. "But humans don't like it when you resort to violence."

Harper was silent for a moment. "Then what was I supposed to do?" he wondered aloud.

"Get up and get the teacher," Luca said. "If you're in a fight, your priority is to get away. If you can't get away, then you fight back." He looked at Harper in the rearview mirror, trying to get the boy to make eye contact with him. "Did you have a chance to safely get away from Joey?"

Harper turned to look out the window, eyebrows still lowered. "...yes."

"So, why didn't you?"

"I was mad. And... scared," Harper said hesitantly. "I didn't want him to hit me."

Luca, who was never mad at Harper to begin with, felt his heart soften. Of course that whole situation was scary for a little guy like Harper. He had been taught his whole life that humans were dangerous, and when confronted with a human who was in his face and pushing him down... his borrower instincts must have kicked in.

"I get it, bud. I'm sorry you were in that situation without us," Luca sympathized. "I don't think you'll have any more problems with Joey, but do you have a plan for what you'll do if something like that happens again?"

Harper just sighed. "Tell the teacher, I guess."

Luca smiled at his defeated tone. He had no clue that Harper had it in him to fight back, but the little boy had been raised by Enzo, after all. Luca really shouldn't have underestimated him.

"Something like that won't happen again," Enzo suddenly spoke up from the passenger seat. Both Luca and Harper looked at him in surprise. "Because you're not going back to school."

Harper immediately started protesting, and Enzo looked at him sharply in the rearview mirror. Harper shut his mouth and looked down, kicking the back of Luca's seat.

Luca just sighed, looking at his two unhappy borrowers. How am I going to fix this? he thought.

Once home, Luca ushered both brothers inside. Enzo got Harper cleaned up while Luca got the boy a snack. Despite being upset with Enzo for suddenly banning him from school, Harper was still clingy and followed his big brother around the house. Luca figured that he was still a little scared by the whole situation.

Luca joined them in the bathroom after he was done in the kitchen, standing in the doorway and watching as Enzo carefully washed and bandaged Harper's scraped little hands.

"Look, bud, I know today was tough, so how about we watch a movie together, hmm?" Luca offered, knowing that doing so would cheer up at least one of his boys.

I'll just take the rest of the day off, he thought, looking at the borrowers. They need me more now, anyway. 

Harper perked up slightly and nodded, so Luca got everyone settled on the couch. Harper immediately snuggled up to Enzo. Though still silent, Enzo responded automatically, putting his arm around his little brother and holding him close.

Luca gingerly sat next to Enzo, wondering if the older borrower was still mad at him. Enzo thought he was at fault for insisting that school was safe for Harper, after all. So, he was pleasantly surprised when Enzo leaned against him, still not making eye contact.

Luca just dropped a kiss on his grumpy boyfriend's head. It would take some time to do damage control, but he figured he could smooth things over with both of them. Eventually. Probably.

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A/N: I almost went in this direction with the story because it shows that our sweetheart Harper is more like Enzo than anyone originally thought. Like Enzo, Harper won't hesitate to cut a b****, and I just thought that was funny. It really gives insight into Harper's character.

Ultimately, I decided against this scene because 1. there was no way in heck that Enzo would ever let Harper go to public school. 2. It was kind of a dead end. I really couldn't see Enzo letting Harper go back to school after such an event. 3. I didn't want Enzo to feel like Luca had failed him. After all, Luca has spent the entire book reassuring Enzo that he would keep him and Harper safe.

The next encore chapter is the last of the prepared extras, so stay tuned!