IF SOMEONE WERE TO ASK, NICKY WOULD EASILY SAY THAT HE LOVED BEING BUSY. He loved working, no matter if it was for either of his jobs or just doing something for fun, he loved being active non-stop. Of course, there was some discrepancy on what he thought was being active; even just paying attention while watching mindless videos was active, because he was at least staying awake and being functional.

It was half of the reason why he didn't have a secretary; he was fine doing all the work himself, as strange as it was to say, considering how much work he had to do and how little time he had to actually do it, and focus on all the side projects he had.

That was why him lying down in his bed, staring at the ceiling and eating ice cream, was not sitting well with him.

"Honey, I'm home!"

He groaned when he heard Rhett's tell tale greeting, letting him know that he had been lying in bed for close to five hours, being completely unproductive. He sat up and peeled himself out of bed, carrying the only slightly melted ice cream—he kept their loft nearly freezing at all times—out into the main room.

"You okay?" Rhett asked, tilting his head, catching sight of the tub of ice cream, "That's more of my schtick."

Nicky nodded silently, making his way to the kitchen. "Yeah, I'm good. Just tired."

It was the day after his interaction with Sam in Central Park and Nicky still had yet to tell Rhett about it, a feat he would have prided himself upon if he didn't feel so guilty for keeping something from him. He wasn't sure how to tell the man just yet, and the interaction had practically consumed him, which wasn't something he wanted Rhett to know.

"You should rest, you work too much," Rhett said, still frowning at his roommate who was just staring at his reflection in the refrigerator door.

"I didn't get any work done today," he whispered, and Rhett raised his eyebrows in surprise, unsure whether to be delighted that he was taking some kind of a break, or worried about the man's sudden shift in demeanor.

He decided not to ask at all, instead choosing to just set his things down onto the couch and get to work, hoping that Nicky would tell him eventually.

Unbeknownst to him, Nicky was planning on never telling him, deciding that he just wouldn't care about the interaction. If something were to come out of it, then Rhett would find out when it became relevant to him, but until it did, he just wouldn't care; if he talked about it, it would become a big deal, and he didn't want to get his hopes up for nothing; he wouldn't be able to take it.

"Steve is coming over for dinner," Rhett said, "Are you okay with that?"

Nicky turned from where he was staring at the fridge to look at him, confused and almost hurt. "Steve's the best, why-why wouldn't you be okay with that?"

Rhett shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, this is our place and I thought maybe you were upset that he's been around so much. He doesn't want you upset at him, either, said he'd stay away if you wanted to just keep this our space."

There had been seldom few times when Nicky felt as though he had ruined his entire life. This was one of them. He could do nothing but stare in shock and disbelief as he desperately hoped for Rhett to burst out laughing and tell him that he was joking, that he knew that Nicky loved having Steve around, that he knew he would never want to get between him and the person who made him so happy.

Yet Rhett didn't so much as breathe.

"I love having Steve here and so do you, I don't want him to leave," Nicky finally said, wishing he would have to; since when did Rhett need to hear Nicky say how he was feeling?

Rhett must have picked up on the hurt in his voice, if his sympathetic expression was any indication. "I just wanted to know. You asked me if I was going to leave if I started dating Steve, I just want you to know that you're always first for me. No matter what."

There had been many times when Nicky felt like breaking down and crying, and this was one of those times. He bit his lip and sighed as he held out his arms, Rhett aw'ing softly and walking towards him, pulling him into a tight hug, rubbing his back as he buried his face in his button up and took deep breaths, trying not to cry.

"You've had a really rough few months, huh?" Rhett commented against his shoulder and Nicky nodded. He really, really had.

"I'm gonna go visit Phin at the prison this weekend," Nicky sighed, clearing his throat, "Mom's upset I didn't go during Christmas."

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "We were fighting off the guy that's been hunting me for nine years on Christmas, how 'bout you tell your mom that you'll go visit him when she starts calling to ask how you're doing instead of screaming down your throat."

Nicky winced at the mention of his mother and their less than civil interactions since he had left home and never went back. He wasn't welcome there anyways, what with his step-father being no better than his late father. Now with his step-brother in jail, there was even less of a reason to come home for the holidays.

"You really wanna go visit a guy that worked with Adrian Toomes? The illegal weapons dealer who nearly killed Peter? A fifteen-year-old kid?" Rhett asked, raising an eyebrow.

Nicky sighed. "Phin was always easy to manipulate. He's super smart, but he wants to please everyone, he's honestly harmless. He was in boy scouts, everyone thought he was cute. Like a chipmunk."

Rhett blinked. "He built the guy wings and a way to get into an airplane to steal from Tony Stark, your patient."

The psychologist groaned, moving past his roommate and towards the dining table. "Look, all I'm saying is I feel pretty bad for him. I mean, we weren't best friends and I hate his dad, but he probably didn't want to hurt anyone."

Rhett simply nodded, shrugging. "You want me to come with you?"

Nicky shook his head. "No. No, I gotta ask him some questions anyways." He ignored the confused look shot his way, turning around and pretending to be focused on something on the table, hoping that Rhett would drop it.

Of course, he did, because Rhett knew all there was he needed to know about Nicky. And, for the most part, that was true. Of course, there was something he hid, something that Rhett need not know about. But that is for another time.

º º º

"Hey, Nick, how're you doing?"

Nicky spun around in his chair to find Steve partway into his room, smiling apologetically with that apple pie smile that had Nicky ready to commit treason for if he so much as hinted about asking.

"I'm good, how're you, Steve?" he asked, and he used The Voice. The voice he used whenever he wanted someone to truly tell him what was wrong, the kind that had everyone in his class senior year coming to him to cry because he always knew what to say and how to listen, even if they didn't like it at first.

The blond smiled and tilted his head. "I've been doing better. Nightmares are...who am I kidding, they're just as bad as they always are. But I'm getting through it. Anyways, that's not why I barged in here."

"You didn't barge in," Nicky said hurriedly, watching as the man closed the door and moved to sit on the foot of his bed, "Trust me, I know what barging in is. If anything, all you didn't do was knock."

Steve just gave him an apologetic smile and Nicky wondered if it would be possible to steal him away from Rhett without completely ruining their friendship. "So, I heard about what happened yesterday."

Nicky blinked, hoping that Steve wasn't good at catching a lie. "A lot of things happened yesterday, I'm a pretty busy guy."

The blond motioned towards his monitors which were just booting up. "I can see that. And Sam told me about running into you. Literally."

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that," he said, not even bothering to try and lie effectively, "Well, what do you need to tell me, Nate, about?"

Steve laughed softly, shaking his head. "He wanted me to apologize to you for getting your name wrong. He did remember it when he told me, but he realized he called you the wrong thing. A complete accident, he feels bad about it. He would have come here himself, but he doesn't know your address."

Nicky tried not to show just how pleased he was to hear that. But from the way Steve was smiling at him, he figured that he was blushing a light pink and had a goofy smile on his face. He couldn't help it, that news put him at ease.

"Can I ask why you've been so hung up on him?" Steve ventured, glancing towards the closed door, "I'll admit, I've asked Rhett, but he doesn't know much either. Though, he said you two went to high school together."

Nicky nodded, not really wanting to dwell too much on his question. "Yeah, we did. We were in the same class, though he was two years older than me."

Steve smiled. "I think he said it was three."

Nicky choked, practically falling out of his seat as he shouted. "He remembers me?"

The super soldier laughed, nodding. "He said you were the smart kid who got accelerated two grades, everyone remembered you. Said you were real sweet and had a nice voice."

The younger man pressed his palms up against his eyes, taking deep breaths. "Steve. If you're shitting with me, I will kill you, you can't just pull this on me, man, don't."

Steve threw his head back and laughed, falling backwards onto Nicky's bed, and the psychologist had half a mind to beat him with the swivel chair he was sitting on. "Are you kidding me, man, did Rhett put you up to this? What kind of sick joke are you trying to pull—"

"I'm not joking, Nick, he does remember you," Steve said, sitting up and grinning, "Vaguely. He doesn't know that you're the one he's talking about, but he remembered a Nicky after remembering your name. So we're kind of there."

Nicky sighed and slumped in his chair, groaning. "God, are you kidding me? So he remembers me, but he doesn't know that it was me."

Steve grinned. "Pretty much."

Nicky scoffed and grabbed something from his desk, throwing it in his general direction, missing by three feet. "Get out of my room, you little shit, I never liked you, I don't know why we keep you around."

The blond laughed and stood to leave. "Don't stress yourself out over this, Nick, you're gonna be fine."

Nicky just whined and the older man laughed, walking towards the door and opening it. Just as he was about to leave, Nicky called out, "Steve?"

"Yeah?" the man asked, pausing in the doorway.

The young man peered past his fingers to look at him, feeling smaller than usual. "I really like having you around."

Steve smiled. He moved, as if he was about to say something, but then thought better, instead just closing the door behind him, leaving Nicky alone in the comfort of his own thoughts and the dull hum of his computer fans.

With a sigh, he stood and flopped onto his bed, mind racing. So Sam remembered him. That was good. Of course, now it begged the question: why did he care? He groaned and turned to bury his face in his sheets, hoping that he could just suffocate himself and not have to deal with that problem.

"Food's here!" Rhett called out.

Suffocation could wait. Just for a little bit.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Wow, why did I think that would be a funny ending. Just reminded me of those dramatic things that leads do in those romcoms (I've literally never seen a romcom, I'm playing on tropes that might not even exist, I'm the worst)

Just for some clarification, Nicky is related to Phineas Mason, the guy who helped out Adrian Toomes who was in Spider-Man: Homecoming. That wasn't a major factor in Lonely Hearts, so it doesn't really matter, but if you have any knowledge of Homecoming, there will be spoilers when Nicky goes to talk to his step-brother.

That's really all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!