The rest of the week went surprisingly well, as Robert had an excuse of homework to not be involved in the epic of taking Nikolai from one evaluation to another and then buying him school-appropriate clothing and better fitting shoes. Rob even accepted (almost) the fact that he had to share the room with the kid, and their occasional chats about random tech from his scrap pile were fun. Still, he couldn’t control his anger when his mom announced on the Sixthday morning:

“Robert, wherever you are spending today, take Nick with you.”

“What?!” He lowered his spoon and the porridge dripped down from it to his jelly toast. “Why the- He can stay at home with you! He is fine staying at home, why do I have to babysit?!”

Nikolai didn’t seem to care that he was being discussed. He was still adjusting to the food in the Hoffmans household, and was currently bent over his bowl trying to sip the porridge from the edge while using the spoon as a ladle. In the previous three days, he also struggled with the concept of cutting things into pieces, having to bite and chew on things harder than bread, and got violently sick from turkey cutlets. (After that episode, their mom had to trade away their supply of frozen poultry for generic protein and they’ve been eating it fried and baked since. Yeah, Robert hated that (especially because mom couldn’t eat it), but at least he didn’t have to listen to Nikolai crying in the night because of a stomach ache.)

His mother wasn’t impressed. She glared at him, her mouth a thin line.

“Because you are the one who refuses to spend this day with your family, exploiting my softness.”

“I don’t- You said I’m old enough to decide for myself!”

“And because you are friends.” She cut him off sternly. As Robert opened his mouth to object, she added a bit louder: “He thinks of you as a friend.”

She just assumed that, of course. Nikolai continued being silent with anyone but Rob, and when he talked, it was mostly about coding or following rules or space travel. Yesterday, for a change, he talked about the tests he had to do at school under the supervision of Professor Kamelka. Apparently, he loved all the little problems he had to solve. It was the first time Robert met someone who loved tests.

“I can’t take him with me, I’ll be a laughing stock!” 

“Well, maybe, you should find better friends then.” His mother pursed her lips. 

Nikolai put down his empty bowl and carefully placed the spoon in it. Golda turned to him with a gentle smile. “Good job, Nick. Can you wash after yourself?”

Nikolai nodded and slid down from the chair, took the bowl with the spoon and carefully carried it to the sink. Then, he pulled up the chair and climbed it, his knees on the seat, so as to reach the tap better. There was a pause as his fingers hovered over the handle; when he finally opened the tap and the water streamed down, he let out a little giggle. Finally, he started washing the bowl.

“He will be starting at school on Firstday.” His mother finally spoke, a bit quieter. Her glare was heavy but she spoke slowly, as if explaining something obvious to a child. “It would be good if he’ve met a couple more kids before then. Made some more friends.”

“Nobody would want to be his friend.” Robert grumbled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He is weird, mom! Nobody likes weird kids. And until he talks to the others, there’s no chance-”

“Well, it will be your task to encourage him to talk to the others then. If you want to leave the house today, you have to take him with you.” She narrowed her eyes and raised her eyebrows, and Robert knew there was nothing he could say to change her mind.

He also knew there was nothing he could do to ‘encourage’ Nikolai to talk to people. Any time he tried to talk about something serious, the kid just smiled and stared nowhere, either going completely silent or returning to the previous, more fun topic. 

So, Robert didn’t have much patience, when just a few blocks from their house, Nikolai suddenly stopped and complained: “I’m tired.”

“Dude, seriously?!” Robert turned around to look at him. “We barely got anywhere!”

“It’s hard to walk.” Nikolai continued in the same tone. “My legs are heavy.”

“Well, I am sorry, Mister I-Am-From-Space, no public transport in this part of the city. And also, I don’t have money to pay for it. So it’s time to get your shit together and stop whining.”

But as he said all of that, Robert couldn’t help but notice that the kid looked genuinely worse than before they left the house. He was flushed, and his thin light hair was sticking to his forehead. He was stooping and turning his feet in quite a pitiful posture.

Instead of getting his shit together, Nikolai mumbled: “You shouldn’t say such words.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“My mom took you all over the town in the past few days, how come you’ve been fine then?” Robert put his hands on the hips, pouting. Maybe, if they stood here and talked for a bit, the kid would rest and get over it.

“She was holding my hand.” Nikolai said and looked up with such hopefulness, he managed to keep eye contact for several beats longer than usual.

Robert’s eye twitched. He turned towards where they were going, then back to this weirdo. No way he would not be laughed at about something like this. But there didn’t seem to be any other option. With a heavy sigh and a wince, Rob extended his hand. Nikolai beamed and took it without hesitation.

They managed to climb the hill without stopping even once, but despite his earlier burst of energy, Nikolai was heaving and gasping and even redder in the face than what seemed possible. Robert looked up and spotted his gang near an old concrete block next to the shrub. They noticed him too, so he immediately let go of Nick’s hand and waved at them.

“Yo! Sorry, I’m late!”

Ehud and Tzarif greeted him casually, but the rest of the gang stared over his shoulder. Robert sighed and looked back too. Nikolai was now folded forward, breathing heavily, eyes squeezed shut.

“Is this that kid from the orbital train?” Pep whispered loudly.

“Is he gonna throw up?” Gatien asked with a mix of amusement and disgust.

Robert rolled his eyes. “Come on over here, Nick! You can sit down and rest!”

But Nikolai didn’t. Instead he squatted down and pressed his forehead to his knees, his hands trembling as he hugged himself. Reluctantly, Robert walked back towards him. Whatever this was about, he would be in so much trouble if it was something actually serious and he ignored it.

“Come on, just a few more steps…”

“This is not how you shorten my name.” Nikolai whispered, his voice strained.

Robert blinked. Seriously? This was his problem? “My mom’s been calling you that from the very start. You are fine with that!”

“I am not.” The boy whispered and hugged himself a bit tighter.

The other guys also came over. Great, now their first impression would be of Nick being weird in the head.

“Then you should tell her about it.” Robert grumbled and looked at Gatien with a shrug. He tried to communicate with just a facial expression that this was unexpected.

“I told you.” Nikolai finally breathed out, barely audible.

A nasty pinch of guilt stabbed at Rob’s stomach. “Well, how was I supposed to know it’s such an important issue and I should inform everyone?! And why does it even matter?! Nick is a totally normal name, like I am Rob, and Natan is Nate, and Hershel is Harry, and Moishe is Mike-”

“And I am Teddy.” Tzarif offered.

“I hate it when others call me Ed.” Ehud added, unhelpfully.

“Not my name.” Nikolai whispered. Then he raised his voice. “Not my name!” And finally started yelling. “NOT MY NAME NOT MY NAME NOT MY NAME-”

This attracted everyone’s attention. The older kids, today gathered around the ruin of the broadcasting tower, laughed and started discussing it amongst themselves, pointing. Several others got up and tried to see better what was going on. The girls were giggling somewhere behind them. This was a disaster.

“Just shut up!” Rob snapped and tried to pull Nikolai to his feet by the elbow, but the kid didn’t budge.

“NOT MY NAME-”

“Dude, is he, like, totally brain-fucked?” Gatien cackled and stepped back, his eyes horrified despite the smile.

“How old is he?” Pep grimaced and covered his ears.

“My cousin is five, usually you can distract her with an interface game.” Ace commented, but didn’t volunteer his interface.

“Stop yelling!” Robert yelled.

“NOT MY NAME!”

“Fucking fine! Not Nick, Kolya! Satisfied?!”

Nikolai immediately shut up. He looked up from his curled position, and Robert could see he was crying this whole time, his eyes red, his nose running. He looked so miserable, so pitiful, he might as well have been attacked by bullies. Worst of all, Rob did feel like a bully for shouting at him.

“Yes.” Nikolai croaked. With a loud sniffle he got back to his feet, trembling like a live wire but looking steadier than before.

Without thinking too hard about it, Robert took his hand and led him towards the concrete block his gang occupied earlier. He was aware of the others still staring at them. He could feel his face burn in embarrassment.

Half an hour later, everyone settled down. They sat Nikolai in the shade of the block, and Pep shared a piece of apple with him, which he was nibbling on since. Ace, Tzarif and Pep started a cooperative game on their interfaces around him, and Ehud sat right by his side to watch. Robert and Gatien climbed the concrete block, where they were now sorting through their homework project for the engineering workshop. It wasn’t anything challenging, but they were trying to make it look good this time; which was hard to achieve when all you had on hand was pulled out of the trash.

Robert started soldering a cable to the processor output (he found a working battery at home earlier in the week), while Gatien tried to attach a tiny manipulator hand to the hull of their bot with insulating tape.

“So, is he staying for good?” Gatien finally asked a few minutes later. When Robert looked up, he saw his friend was eyeing the gang below them. Ehud kept yelling at Ace and Pep about their poor gaming skills, having no filter on expletives, and Nikolai was staring at him with a mix of shock and fascination, sucking on the apple slice like a baby.

“Fuck if I know. From what I understand, nobody’s looking for him at Minu, so maybe he’s not even from there.”

“Yeesh. Was there no free spot at the Care Home?”

Robert pursed his lips and tried to focus on soldering. He didn’t want to tell Gatien about what his mom said the other day. Plus, part of him maybe still wanted this whole arrangement to not work out, and he felt a bit like an asshole about it. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”