Nikolai checked his phone for the third time in the last five minutes. The dark interior of the comfortable car made the brightness of the screen all the more glaring, causing his eyes to itch. Alexei kept glancing at him through the rearview mirror, confused as to why they had been parked at the entrance to the school for the last half-hour. Nastya told him not to wait up for her when she slipped out before last period unnoticed, saying that she had to do some “research” at the city archives before they shut, but he hesitated for some unfathomable reason.

He could feel his heartbeat, fast and thumping through his chest, anxiety or anticipation flowing freely through his veins. He should tell Alexei to drive him home. What was he waiting for? He raised his head to give the order, stalled and instead unlocked his phone again, checking the time.

The rear door to the SUV opened, and somebody clumsily clambered inside, smooth leather squeaking under the invader’s attempts to gain purchase. Nikolai flinched violently towards the other door as Alexei pulled out a gun on reflex and aimed it at the idiot audacious enough to intrude on Volkhvov’s territory in broad daylight. Round glasses reflecting the phone screen in the dark, Ian stared straight into the barrel of the gun, backpack snug in his lap and seatbelt halfway to being fastened.

“Well, that is unnecessary, don’t you think?” he said matter-of-factly, as if being at gunpoint by an intimidating six-foot-tall Russian was a casual Tuesday brunch. Nikolai stared in disbelief as Alexei tightened his grip and looked to him for instructions. Feeling completely caught out, he floundered at first, just staring at this strange creature that used the armed guard’s momentary hesitation to calmly click his seatbelt into place. Seeing Alexei take the safety off, he immediately shook his head and signalled him to back off. The driver gave Ian a scathing look, which he personally saw causing grown army men to whimper in fear back in Russia, and turned back to the wheel.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Nikolai managed to say, voice shaking from the adrenaline.

Ian turned to him, eyebrow lifted. “You were waiting for me, right? Sorry I’m late. I had to redo one of the set pieces because Brittney apparently has colourblindness that she forgot to tell anyone about.”

Feeling as if the world was going mad around him, he asked.

“Who is Brittney?”

He immediately felt like an idiot. Was that important just now? Alexei was giving him the concerned, yet alert, look through the rear-view mirror that, if left unattended, would result in violence. The weird boy next to him was chattering about this Brittney, his mind hopping from one thought to the next with seemingly no connection, causing Nikolai’s head to hurt.

Having had enough of this bedlam, he cut Ian off with a raise of his palm.

“Enough. Get out.”

The chatter stopped as the boy’s unsettling dark eyes settled on him.

“Are you sure?”

That calm voice, so juxtaposed to the rambling brook of nonsense earlier, made his skin crawl. How did this short, scrawny nerd make him cower like a cornered animal by simply looking at him? Like he could see right through Nikolai’s immaculate facade, straight into his innermost core. It was utterly disarming and profoundly invasive.

Nikolai had never backed down from a fight, and so he met that unreadable gaze head-on. He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself. This might be a good opportunity to figure this freak out. Keep your enemies close, as they say.

He cleared his throat and nodded to Alexei to head out of the school parking lot. Obeying instantly, the driver pulled the SUV out onto the main street as Nikolai leaned back and pulled out a tablet. A slow smirk spread across his face; he flipped through the folder full of documents, feeling the familiar sense of control tingling through his fingers. This Ian had no idea what he had just walked into.

“I suppose I could give you a ride to your house.” He began, “And we could get to know each other better. After all, we are all in this together, aren’t we?”

A non-committal mumble reached him as he found the file he was searching for. 

“Quite an interesting group of people, your friends. I wonder how the star quarterback, local pariah and the theatre kid became friends with someone like you?”

“Define someone like me?” Ian asked calmly. Nikolai was searching for a hint of anger or irritation in that voice but was coming up with nothing. Alright, it was time to press harder.

“Oh, well. A boy genius from an upper-middle-class Greek-American family. Your father, Nikolas, Classical Antiquities Conservator consulting for museums in Baltimore. Older sister, Eleni, Junior Paralegal at Aldridge and Fairfax LLP. Older brother, Nikos, is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University, majoring in Classics of all things. Or more likely, trying to impress the local sorority girls with his basic knowledge of Socrates. Two younger siblings, Lucas and Chara, are still in school. Mother, Theodora, a homemaker. Quite a resume for the Thessalas family, I must say.”

“You forgot ‘The Amphora Attic’”

Nikolai’s head spun back to this derailer of conversations, as the little arrogant shit was comfortably looking out the window, short legs not even reaching the floor of the car, dangling excitedly.

“What?”

“My mom’s Etsy shop. I helped her set it up, but clearly the outreach hasn’t gotten there yet. Maybe we should invest in some ads.”

“You…” Nikolai gawped. “Are you not even a little concerned about the amount of information I have on you?”

He shrugged. “Not really. I’ve got nothing to hide.”

This infuriating runt. “I beg to differ. For example, I can’t seem to figure out when you started stalking me. Was it since yesterday? Or California?”

He felt Alexei stiffen in the front seat.

Ian slowly turned to look at him. The silence lasted for but a few moments, and Nikolai already knew that he was losing control of this conversation. He was pulling every trick he knew to unsettle and provoke his opponent into an emotional response. All but one, but he wasn’t going to resort to it again today. This kid was either an expertly trained professional, or there was something very wrong with him. Terrified, he considered that it might be both.

“I assure you, I have met you today for the first time,” Ian finally said, carefully choosing his words.

“Oh, really? Then that wasn’t you bumping into me earlier today, stopping me from going after Dylan?”

Silence. Got him.

“No, it was.”

“Fantastical timing, then.” Nikolai leaned over, lowering his voice menacingly. “Fantastical, that is, unless you have been watching my every move all day. No other explanation, really.”

Ian levelled him with a loaded stare. Suddenly, his confession from the shed popped into Nikolai’s mind as he groaned at the insinuation.

“You can’t really be serious about this whole ‘seeing the future’ thing?!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s ridiculous!”

“I mean…” Ian was playing with the strap of his backpack. “Haven’t you noticed that the entire group is distinctly odd? Why can’t prescience be a thing?”

“Not the entire group,” Nikolai answered automatically, suddenly feeling that the conversation had abruptly swerved away from the road he outlined.

“Well, there’s Dylan, obviously, with the whole…” he gestured wildly in the air, mimicking the horrifying events of the shed in the most casual fashion. “...thing. Adam and Jesse’s are a little more subtle, but definitely there. And of course, Nastya and you. Every single one of us has a weird, supernatural thing about us. Why is it so hard to believe that I do too?”

Nikolai frowned. He had genuinely considered that possibility as the insurmountable amount of evidence pointed to it. Dozens of small moments during today, when his heightened sense of awareness tingled as Ian did something seemingly mundane, but with a timing so perfect, it appeared rehearsed. All of them seemingly had a plausible explanation grounded in reality. Nikolai stared back into those dark pools, so still and serene. Like a deep watery abyss.

“Alright, fine. Assuming you are right, then you must have foreseen what would happen in the shed today? What would happen between Dylan and Spencer? But instead of intervening and helping, you whipped out your phone and took a video. What a great friend you are.”

Ian broke the eye contact first. Nikolai took it as a small victory, considering. The boy hugged his backpack to his chest and leaned his head back, looking tired.

“It had to happen the way it did. If I let you go after Dylan, Adam wouldn’t have seen Marty bullying him, and Dylan would have kept lying about it until the end of time. They would have been stuck in a loop. As it is, finding out about Jesse and Dylan on the same day is what finally pushed Adam over the edge to the headspace he needed to be in for everything to come together. And the shed…” he paused, sighing. “... well. I thought that having physical evidence would help call Dylan out on his denial and just get things rolling right away. Otherwise, there would have been beating around the bush and a lot of cajoling before we got to the same point as right now. You see?”

Nikolai saw, alright. Saw a cold, calculating mind, weighing variables, finding the most optimal solution. 

“To what end?” He asked, voice glacial and on the verge of rage. He felt Alexei’s breath even out, a defence mechanism of his, making him part of the background to not incur the infamous Volkhvov’s wrath.

Ian had no such fears. He turned towards him, eyes soft and sad, full of unspoken volumes.

“I… can’t tell you. Not yet.”

“I can make you, you know?”

Nikolai leaned closer, his resolve firm and disgust at using his influence pushed deep into the bottom of his soul. He would do what was necessary. He felt the usual pull at his vocal cords, the vibration putting intent into his words.

Ian’s raised eyebrows made him pause momentarily. He glanced quickly to the driver's seat and then back at Nikolai.

“Are you sure you want to do that here?” Nikolai flinched, completely forgetting about Alexei. “Also, sorry to disappoint, but that isn’t going to work on me. Or on any of us, really, but you already tried, haven’t you? Hold that thought…”

Nikolai, in his stupor, only just noticed that the car had stopped. Ian unclipped his seatbelt and hopped out of the SUV in front of a neat suburban house with a lovely white painted patio covered in potted plants. As he walked briskly to his house, Nikolai stared after him, hands gripping the leather so hard he heard it rip.