The house belongs to a mundane, judging by the lack of obvious magic inside. It’s a cute little curbside two-storey house and no one turns to look when Nicholas bangs on the windows and screams.

The perimeter is warded, or the house itself is charmed, or something, Nicholas doesn't know. He can't leave the building, not through a door or window or even breaking a wall down by swinging progressively heavier furniture at it for three hours.

They might not even be in Chile anymore since he can’t see the floating island through the windows, and he doesn’t know how long he was unconscious. The man could have moved him pretty far.

The man is another Lambros, just from his colouring and that unfairly beautiful face despite how ragged he looks. His hair is longer though, a short beard too, the limp, and healed over scars peeking out from a dark-coloured jumper and jacket combo that’s probably not expensive enough for Stavros to look twice at.

Nicholas knows Stavros has an older brother who ‘disappeared’ but he wouldn’t be this old, would he? The man must be a part of the family though, he looks so much like Stavros.

"I am Stavros," Lambros explains, sitting across the room at the dining table because Nicholas screams at him when he gets too close.

Nicholas is curled up on the furthest end of the couch, knees tucked up and shoulders hunched. "Fuck you."

"I'm an older Stavros," Lambros continues with all the force of an obnoxious Stavros trying to force an argument he knows he's going to win only out of sheer stubbornness. "You're dead, and I’m going to stop that from happening again."

"Adam's dead because you’re a psycho," Nicholas snaps back.

"Let me start from the beginning," Lambros dismisses. "Okay, so High Mage Haochen Xia started killing the other high mages and soon moved on to the heritage-“

Nicholas’ brain stutters to a halt. “Sorry, what?”

“-we fought, because of course we had to. You got a bit of a reputation for clever spellwork.” Lambros pauses and takes a deep breath. “Until you faced Xia himself. Luca was taken into hiding in the mundane population like other heirs, because Xia was using heritage children’s blood to gain access to family magics and grimoires to grow stronger.”

Nicholas laughs, incredulous, still caught on that first part. “High mage or no, Xia would be torn apart if he tried.”

“Luca was a teenager when someone identified him on the street since he’s the spitting image of you,” Lambros continues. “Luca escaped the attack by breaking the block on his magic but lost his adoptive mothers. He was taken to the island to learn but Xia came back for him and-“

“Wait, wait,” Nicholas splutters, unfolding his legs to lean forward. “Luca is…?”

“Your son,” Lambros says with an amused huff. “He was the final defence for the Ayads. It was just your family holding out along with a few others…and mine, I guess. Um, Aeneas killed himself when he was caught by Xia so the power went to me but I was...I was stuck somewhere else.”

Nicholas folds over with his elbows on his knees, hands over his mouth, eyes wide. “I have a son?”

“Okay, I know you’re focusing on the easy part because you’re panicking right now,” Lambros says gently. “But you can compartmentalise after I tell you the story.”

“How old is Luca?”

“Nicholas-”

“Does he have glasses too?”

“Nicky.”

After a late lunch, Nicholas smashes the plate over Lambros' head and dives for his sleeve when the man is still stumbling. Nothing. There's no apprentice wand, nothing holstered.

"What did you do to my wand?!" Nicholas cries in outrage.

Lambros crash-tackles him to the floor and Nicholas spits out curses as he struggles but honestly, his Stavros can take Nicholas any day so fighting one who's larger, heavier and now with guerrilla warfare training wasn't the best idea.

It’s not even a fight really because Lambros holds Nicholas down until he’s calm again and then releases him so Nicholas can slink off, upset and unable to do anything about it.

He doesn’t actually want to believe Lambros is Stavros but Nicholas has been kidnapped before, being the Ayad heir. He has tracking spells inked into his skin, and ritual diagrams etched into his ribs to send out distress alarms or to whisk him away out of most wards and drop him right into his home in Egypt.

The only people who know are Nicholas’ parents and of course he told his three best friends everything. So how is it that by the time Nicholas woke up here, the ink had already been disabled? That he can’t feel magic pulsing in his chest anymore? Either Lambros is a great curse breaker or he knows exactly how to unravel the spells.

Lambros makes Nicholas pancakes with smiley faces for dinner and Nicholas eats slowly. Then he drinks half the bottle of syrup and vibrates in his seat while Lambros cleans up because this is as close to self-medicating as he can get.

"Does Luca like playing Loops?" Nicholas asks, eyes wide and leaning forward, now sitting across from Lambros at the table as the man tries to continue the explanation in more detail. "What class does he like best?"

"I'm-" Lambros cuts himself off, looking exhausted. He already looked tired and ragged at the start but wherever he goes when he’s not in the house is really starting to drain him. "Okay, I love Luca too but listen when I'm explaining how Xia can steal souls and absorb the magical cores inside."

"Why do I care about a war? I'm already dead by then," Nicholas scoffs. And apparently Adam is dead too and Rafael is tortured and Stavros is- "Now how cute is Luca? Because my baby boy must be very cute."

Lambros takes a deep breath and just lets it be. "Luca is very cute – he does that thing you do when you tilt your head and your hair flops over."

Nicholas coos, reaching out to the air like he's squishing someone's face.

"So Xia takes over the high mage council when Luca is a year-eleven -"

"Does he win?" Nicholas demands.

"What – does Xia win-?"

"No, does Luca win the duelling tournament you mentioned?"

"Nicholas," Lambros groans. "Nicky please, please can you focus right now? This is important. You need to listen. I can tell you everything about Luca later, okay? Right now we need to focus."

"Okay," Nicholas sighs theatrically and then side-eyes Lambros. "Fine. I just…you know, as his honorary uncle I thought you'd be a little more inclined-"

"I'm trying to stop you from dying!" Lambros snaps. "You are going to live until you're fucking three hundred, Nicholas! You're going to have all the cute babies you want and Xia is going to be dead and not hunting your son so focus!"

Nicholas purses his lips and looks away, bored.

Lambros grits his teeth. "Yes, Luca wins. He manages to defeat all the people Xia planted to try and kill him – which is why you need to listen."

Nicholas sits up straight. "Well, why didn't you lead with that?"

"Vlakas,” Lambros hisses, resorting to Greek. “Nicholas, I'm really going to hit you this time.”

“Go for it,” Nichola spits out. “Just – just do it! Hit me then. Why are you being so nice like that changes the fact you murdered my friend?! Why are we playing house if the entire future for mages is apparently fucked anyway no matter what you tell me? You think we can fight a high mage-?”

Lambros jerks forward and Nicholas rears back but his chair sticks long enough for Lambros to grab fistfuls of his shirt and drag him forward over the table. Nicholas ducks his head, grabbing Lambros’ wrists, but freezes when he feels a kiss to his forehead.

“I know,” Lambros murmurs. “I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to see what happened to Adam but I didn’t know you were so close by.”

Nicholas feels Lambros curl over him and squeezes his eyes shut but they still sting.

“It’s a lot. Everything, it’s…” Lambros trails off. “I’m dealing with it, but if something happens to me, I need you to know so you can avoid certain things.”

“Can we talk about something else for now?” Nicholas rasps. “Literally – fucking – anything else except for how miserable everything is?”

Nicholas is hiding under the bed, breathing heavily and about to throw a tantrum because it's been days since he was kidnapped and Lambros looks so similar, acts so familiar that it would be so easy to just pretend.

Nicholas could fight back. Really fight back, not this...this half-hearted rejection. He could play up the soft Nicky angle, get in close, grab any one of the numerous knives in the kitchen and just gut the man. Turn into Rito and break a few ribs.

Nicholas could, but that's Stavros' face and his smiles. And Nicholas has always been so weak to the people he loves.

Lambros is lying on the carpet of the bedroom, on his stomach like Nicholas, peering under the bed with his head pillowed on his arms. He looks just as tired as usual but happier, like he always is when he spends time with Nicholas. Even when they’re arguing, Lambros starts looking like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders.

"Luca looks just like you, you know,” Lambros says. “He also plays Loops as a striker."

"It doesn't help," Nicholas chokes out, eyes burning as they turn shiny with tears. "However many stories you have - it doesn't make me forget Adam is dead. That you killed him."

"Adam is the one who sets up your death,” Lambros finally admits. “He was trying to kill me but – it was spite and he’s a pathetic fucking-“ He cuts himself off with a grimace.

Nicholas rears back in shock. “What? Why would he do that? What did you do?”

“He got in contact with one of Xia’s disciples and told them about the ambush we set up,” Lambros explains. “My team was expecting six, they came as three dozen. Your team…you faced Xia himself.”

“What did you do?”

“Does it matter when I didn’t hurt you or Raffy?” Lambros asks softly. "Come on, Nicky, don't cry. I hate it when you cry. Please be angry again."

Nicholas sniffles, curling up tighter. "I want to leave. You told me the story, now I want to leave."

"Soon," Lambros reassures, stretching out a hand. "Soon, okay?"

"You liar," Nicholas mumbles, staring at the hand and wanting. "Ross uses that voice when he lies to me."

Lambros says nothing.

"Are you ever letting me go?" Nicholas demands.

"I'm…debating hiding you away somewhere safe," Lambros answers honestly, letting his hand drop to the carpet still halfway between them. "But then, you know, I'd have to bring Raffy along too and that's taking some planning. He’s a lot less trusting than you and I know he’ll put up a real fight."

Nicholas starts crying. He's getting sick of crying and Lambros is looking at him so softly, with so much love.

Nicholas crawls out from under the bed and into Lambros’ arms and doesn’t think about Adam. Lambros’ hands shake but they hold him so tightly.

"What are we doing?" Stavros hisses as Rafael drags him towards the quiet courtyard near the forest and then into Thoth’s makeshift kennel. They practically took every shortcut down here, including the mirror one that Stavros hates going through because everyone comes out damp. "Is something wrong with Thoth?"

"I put a tracking spell on Nicholas, after the first kidnapping attempt," Rafael says, dropping Stavros' arm to cross his own. "I - because the other more common spells aren't working."

Stavros looks around the converted classroom, searching for a ritual diagram or a half-baked spell Rafael cobbled together. Uncommon usually means Rafael read it in a weird book and shit is about to get wild. "So you'll cast it in here?"

"I don't know if I should," Rafael mutters. "It's…a bad one."

"Illegal?" Stavros scoffs dismissively. He’s the one who gets Rafael books from the Lambros family library - Stavros knows illegal. "Show me the spell, I'll do it." He starts putting his hair up into a ponytail with a band he has on his wrist, expecting this to get messy.

"It is illegal but that's not the problem," Rafael explains. "It's strong enough to get around most warding but it was made to hunt down run-away brides way back when…and it's going to hurt Nicholas."

"Do it," Stavros says immediately because no one else is doing anything worthwhile.

Nicholas' parents are losing their minds at their son being snatched away and the magpol are back to investigate – only a few days after they left the forest and being just as useless. Some of the heritage have had polite conversations with Stavros, trying to get more gossip, and he knows Rafael has been getting poked at by his study group too.

Rafael only frowns.

"Hurt how?" Stavros gives in. "Like when he stubbed his toe once and complained for the next three days?"

"More like when he fell off the rings playing Loops, broke his shoulder blade and he passed out, so you had to catch him mid-air and then ran him to the hospital wing in a panic."

Stavros still remembers Nicholas screaming. "That's…fine."

Rafael raises an eyebrow.

Stavros tries again, with more hollow confidence. "That's fine. Nicholas is a big boy, he can take it. Do the spell, find him in a couple of minutes, stop the tracking, and go get him. Easy."

"The counter curse needs to be applied to the person," Rafael explains. "So it's going to hurt until we get to him. And it's illegal so we can't exactly just leave it to the magpol to go, it would have to be us, and we don't know how to port – which we would have to do because Transverse travel is logged. And what if there are strong enough wards to keep us out regardless?"

Stavros sighs. "Okay, that's plan K."

"We're already on plan J," Rafael reminds him.

"Let’s just pretend it isn’t all going to shit, okay?"

Rafael slumps, looking a bit limp now that they don’t have a plan again.

Stavros takes a deep breath and lurches forward, wrapping around the beanpole and squeezing. “Nicky knows how to make people love him,” he says confidently, shaking Rafael around because if the boy is annoyed, at least he’s not looking lost. “What’s reverse Stockholm Syndrome again?”

“Lima,” Rafael deadpans, just flopping as he’s harassed, but then he really thinks about it. “Do you…think he’s that good?”

“I think if he’s trying, he’ll be back any moment now!”

Nicholas is sprawled over Lambros' chest as they watch TV. "What if...okay, what if you come home with me? And I tell my parents about the high mage?"

"You know, I think that ship sailed when I kidnapped you," Lambros admits.

"Why did you kidnap me then?"

"I..."

"Don't have impulse control?"

"Okay listen-"