Something Like Normality

“Are you sure about this?” Mitch asked, towing Nikola out of the rain and towards the coffee bar.

“No,” Nikola replied, brushing rain-soaked hair out of his face. “But I have to go back to class sooner or later.”

“And you thought an eight am maths lecture was the way to start?” Mitch asked. The weather couldn’t decide if it wanted to rain or snow and had settled for thoroughly unpleasant instead.

Nikola shrugged, “Gawain said that routine would help.”

Mitch sighed, but with Gawain back in Faerie Nikola could resume going to classes or someone could skip class to stay with him. At least Gawain had healed him and done everything he could to boost Nikola’s immune system before he left. Nikola’s control over the impressions was shaky enough without adding a high fever to the mix.

“Do you want a drink?” Mitch asked. The barista had started making his coffee as soon as he walked in the door.

“Hot chocolate.”

“Marshmallows?”

Nikola shook his head.

“Just tell me if you want to leave ok?” Mitch said, paying for their drinks. Nikola nodded and wrapped his hands around the cup, passing Mitch the chocolate fish that had come with it.

“Your loss,” Mitch said. Vampire fangs weren’t really designed for chocolate fish, they weren’t designed for a lot of things, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him.

Nikola shrugged. “It got you to smile, you’ve looked so worried over the last few weeks.”

“Sorry.”

Nikola rolled his eyes. “You don’t need to apologise to me. Amelie on the other hand…”

“Ugh, tomorrow is supposed to be date night,” Mitch said.

“You could try,” Nikola said. “Fluffball will be with me. Maybe I’ll be so exhausted by my classes that I’ll just sleep through the whole thing.”

“Nikola…” Mitch sighed, “let’s just see how today goes first.”

“Sure,” Nikola said, his voice already noticeably less chipper than it had been a minute ago and his expression falling as they approached the lecture theatre and campus became more crowded.

“Mitch? Can… can we sit near the door?”

“Sure.” They sat at the end of the front row, Nikola drumming his fingers on the desk while Mitch held his other hand.

“I was beginning to think that we wouldn’t see you again,” their lecturer said.

“Sorry,” Nikola shrunk into his seat.

“It can’t be helped,” she said reassuringly. “Mitchell explained things to me.”

Nikola nodded and she moved towards the centre of the room.

“What have you been telling everyone?” Nikola asked.

“You know…”

“Mitch.”

“Stress, nervous breakdown, that kind of thing.”

Nikola laughed, “Close enough I suppose. It’ll match up with the medical certificates Gawain gave me anyway.” Gawain actually did have a degree in medicine, several of them, some of which had actually been earned in the last half century. Enough to ensure that Nikola could resit any tests he had missed and get compassionate consideration on his final grade.

The lecture was better and worse than Mitch had expected. Nikola didn’t have any trouble with the equations despite weeks of missed classes but whenever he wasn’t writing he drummed his pencil on the table. Mitch watched out of the corner of his eye as Nikola grew paler and paler, his breathing shallower and his hand cold and clammy.

He lasted half an hour before bolting for the door. Mitch packed their books and silently followed him out, leaning against the bathroom wall while Nikola finished throwing up.

“Thirty minutes isn’t too bad,” Mitch said while Nikola splashed water on his face. He’d expected worse.

“Physics is larger,” Nikola shuddered. “And there will be more people on campus then.”

“Skip it,” Mitch said. “Amelie doesn’t have anything then.”

“Today she doesn’t,” Nikola replied, “she does tomorrow.”

“We’re not worrying about tomorrow now,” Mitch reminded him. “You have Hebrew and Sanskrit this afternoon don’t you?”

“Just Sanskrit,” Nikola said, drying his face on a hand towel. “The classes are smaller.”

“And longer,” Mitch reminded him. He didn’t want to dissuade Nikola but he didn’t want him pushing himself either. “It’s at two, right? I don’t have anything then.” Nikola smiled at him. “Let’s go home,” Mitch said. “Even with Rana gone I’m not taking you back into the Netherworld.” He’d just have to get his blood after physics.

For once Nikola didn’t argue and he curled up for a nap as soon as they got home. Mitch grabbed his books and sat on the bed next to him to study.

#

“That smells good,” Amelie said, closing the door behind her.

“Nikola put it on when we got home from Sanskrit,” Mitch replied. “He left me a page of instructions too.” He waved it, silently hoping that Amelie would take over though it wasn’t anything more than a list of cooking times and temperatures. Nikola hadn’t even trusted him to slice the carrots.

“How was it?” Amelie asked, bending over the couch to pull up the blanket Nikola was snuggled under.

“It could have been worse,” Mitch said. “He managed an hour and the only thing he really had trouble with was the pronunciation.” Nikola had been able to keep up with everything else at home, Mitch suspected that he’d already read the entire textbook, but there was no one for him to practice speaking with.

Amelie sighed, “I know Gawain said that he’d be fine if we took things slow but I can’t help wondering if he would have been better off at home.”

“He wanted to stay,” Mitch said, ignoring the guilty voice in the back of his mind that insisted that Nikola had stayed for him. Nikola might enjoy his language classes but he was indifferent to university at best.

“Perhaps we could convince him to drop out,” Amelie said. “I can’t babysit him the way you did, his lectures clash with my labs.”

“He’ll get better,” Mitch said. “He just needs time. This late in the semester I don’t think he can drop out without failing all of his papers.”

“I doubt that’s why he stayed,” Amelie said, getting up to put the vegetables on.

“Yeah, well… it’s up to him I guess,” Mitch said weakly. Talking to Nikola about it was difficult though that hadn’t stopped Gawain from trying before he left. It hadn’t got him very far. Nikola hated that he always had to have people looking after him almost as much as he hated being told that it was for his own good.

“I guess,” Amelie agreed. “I assume date night is off?”

“We’ll come up with something,” Mitch said.

“You’d better start by coming up with a way of convincing Nikola to sleep in his own bed.”

“I’ll put Fluffball on the pillow,” Mitch said.

“Now I just need a way to get you to stay in mine,” she smiled at him and Mitch looked away hastily. Amelie didn’t have nightmares if left alone for the night but he knew that she was jealous.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Mitch said.