“They’re not your babies,” Selene hissed from the bedroom as she rifled through her things for a sweatshirt that didn’t reek of dollar store goods and Nick Hudson. She emerged in a Kermit sweater that looked about a thousand years old and stepped over Nick to make her way to the screen doors in her living room. Shoving the doors open, she dropped down into her seat with a heavy exhale as thunder rolled in the distance.

“Why not?” Nick prompted, deciding to go full toddler and rolling all the way into the living room, gathering cat hair and dust as he went. He shuffled all the roaming kitties to his chest once he hit the chair Selene was sitting in, her feet digging into the small of his back.

Selene stared blandly at Nick as dove onto the floor to greet her cats, unimpressed with his behaviour but pardoning it on the fact that nobody else was there to witness it and suffer the second hand embarrassment. She kicked the door closed behind her after raking Nick’s legs into her condo and bent down to scoop Boconccini out of Nick’s reach before he could steal all of her cuddle buddies for the evening. 

Nick had Stromboli in one arm and Ravioli and Spaghetti in the other. He was busy purring along with the three cats, pausing only to shoot Selene a considering glance before returning to his enthusiastic smothering.

Selene furrowed her brows as Nick attached himself to her back, refusing to acknowledge that somehow they’d clumsily bumbled into a realm where Nick felt at home using her hair as a pillow to lay in. She made an effort to swat at his incessant nosing as they entered the elevator but gave up pretending that she was at all offended by his neediness by the time they got to the door of her condo.

Nick instantly forgot his fear, treats, and everything else the second Selene’s door swung open to reveal her feline entourage. Happy and mollified, he launched himself straight at the floor, gurgling like a toddler in a ball pit as he gathered as many furry friends into his arms as he could.

“Calm down,” she muttered, rolling her eyes again. “Maybe we should do something to keep our minds off the fact that we’re stuck in an elevator?” Kati offered.

Nick was willing to try anything that would help him forget that he was just one cut cable away from plunging to his death.

“Right.” Selene took the opportunity to escape from Nick’s claws the moment he left her side to favor his doughnuts and she had every intention of making off with her loot as she pushed open the door to her building when a clap of thunder rattled the windows. While she was personally undeterred by the noise, she immediately looked back to watch Nick’s reaction.

Nick didn’t hide the relief that overcame him at Selene’s invitation and he enthusiastically scampered forward, winding his arms around her middle and attaching himself like a particularly unwieldy backpack.

“Bullshit,” Selene declared before stealing a powdered doughnut from Nick’s stash and popping it into her mouth before he could protest. “You’d totally be with her and acting like a cool guy while regurgitating some tired old poetry about why storms were named after girls or whatever. What I don’t get is why does Grace get Cool Guy Nick? I mean, aside from the fact that she’s naive enough to buy it.”

Nick narrowed his eyes, pulling away with a frown. “If I managed to crawl out from under a desk long enough, I might be able to.” He hugged his doughnuts to his chest, shoulders hunching instantly at the lightning that flickered through  the windows. 

Selene gave Nick a half-hearted nudge as he glued himself to her side like an overgrown koala and had it been any later than 4AM, she might’ve ditched her arm entirely at the pitched noises reverberating into her shoulder and made a mad sprint for her building at the end of the block.

“Of course not,” Nick said, making a grab for the bag of doughnuts. He tore into it with eager desperation, popping two into his mouth all with one arm still looped with Selene’s. “As if I’d be with anyone during a storm,” he mumbled absently around a mouthful, reaching for another.

Selene shot Nick a look before slamming down another twenty as they made their way past the cash register. She didn’t have the nerve to spare the cashier another look, knowing already what to expect when she was towing a six-foot-something man-child out with her on one arm and an armful of kiddie snacks with the other.

Nick opened his mouth to retort that he was fully capable of weathering the storm for another block when a deafening clap of thunder rattled a strangled noise from his mouth instead of the clever words he had prepared. Plastering himself to Selene, he whined pitifully into her shoulder, which might’ve been funnier if he’d faking it.

Pulling her hood back up over her nest of hair, Selene glared down at Nick’s arm as it looped under hers but chose not to comment in fear that drawing attention to her displeasure would encourage him. Admitting enjoyment and deflecting seemed to do the same things with Nick only deflecting allowed her plausible grounds for denial later on.

Nick pretended to be unaffected by her remarks, grabbing a bag of powdered doughnuts and several bars of milk chocolate as he passed. “I only spy on clear nights, I’m not an amateur,” he sniffed, jostling her back. He added them to her pile of cartoonish treats, peering at her imploringly like a child with his parent at a candy store.

Selene glazed over the fact that Nick admitted to having her nudes in the first place in favor of trying to dislodge him from her shoulder before he merged with it, doubling her efforts when she could feel his breath against her neck and the flush of his cheeks against her pulse. 

Nick peeled himself off Selene like a sticker, beaming triumphantly as if he’d won something significant. “And look what you’re leaving with,” he said, threading his arm through hers because he liked to push her buttons and not at all because he could still hear the dull clap of thunder in the distance. “Friendship,” he gushed.

Selene wasn’t so naive to think that Nick would let up so easily and felt marginally proud of herself for catching Nick’s weight as he barreled into her like a fat kid into a cake. She groaned as if being the sole pillar keeping Nick from catastrophic ruin was an entirely unrewarding job and that some part of her didn’t revel in his vulnerability.

“I would never send your nudes to Gossip Girl,” Nick said automatically, and was a little horrified to find that it was true. He tucked his face in to hide his expression, flushing and irritated about it.

Selene’s face fell as Nick looked up at her, his big blue eyes glassy from terror and his cheeks puffed up and reddened by vigorous scrubbing. He looked like what she thought Spaghetti would look like if he was a person and she tucked her chin into her neck to make an ugly face that she hoped reflected her disgust at him and his comments. 

Nick shot Selene a horrified look. “That’s arguably worse,” he grumbled, sitting up slowly with a wary glare at the front of the store. He started to rise, only to latch onto Selene when another bright flash flickered through the windows. Fortunately, the storm seemed to be receding, when the only sound that followed was a distant growl.

Upon realizing that Nick wasn’t going to budge, Penelope dropped her act, deciding that getting a picture of him would just have to be a task for another day. Instead the brunette raised her hands up in surrender, a playful laugh her only response to her friend’s dramatics. “You’re no fun.”

Relieved to have weaseled his way out, Nick replaced the cap on his lens as he scowled at Penelope. “I’ve never even had a pet, what make you think I could raise two human babies?” He gestured wildly. “I’ve heard they leak.” As a self-identified neatfreak, dibbling creatures simply would not do.

“Okay, for the record,” she interjected, tone pointed and pitchy. “We ran out of Xanax for like a week after my parents divorced. I was completely sober.” And alone at graduation, but her protest died before she could delve into the more personal and revealing aspects of her personality. Selene, for all of her fanfare and drama, preferred the focus pinned on things like whether she meant to throw shade at Lindsay Lohan for nabbing her schtick or if she slept with all three Jonas brothers. 

“Thank you,” was Nick’s polite reply. He turned his head, peering up at Selene with his cheek pillowed on the top of her breast. “Don’t ever get fake tits, Ben. I like you soft.” He opened his mouth to continue but was interrupted by the buzz of refrigerators as the lights flickered on. He almost perked up, if it weren’t for the blinding flash that followed, as if pointedly reminding him to stay on the floor.

Lunging forward just as Nick stepped out of reach, Penelope’s pout once more reigned over her features. Though this time around it was halfhearted, a futile attempt at guilting Nicholas to play far. "If you really loved me…….“ She drawled, long lashes batting themselves in just the right way. "You’d let me take at least one picture. But I guess you don’t love me as much as I thought….” Dropping her head, the brunette let a small frown form on her lips. “It’s fine….I left for a few weeks and now I’m no longer your favorite. I get it. Just promise me this, if you have children some day. When they point to the pictures, please tell them my name. Tell them how I hope they shine.”

Nick looked baffled, shooting Penelope a bewildered look as he cradled his camera protectively to his chest. There was a reason his Instagram feed was filled with everyone but himself.

“Well it’s better than trying to break the very thing we are trying to get out of,” she snapped. “Good going,” Kati muttered, leaning against one of the walls of the elevator. “I’m starting to think you’re bad luck.”

“I’m starting to think so too,” Nick growled, glaring at the ceiling. “Maybe I’m cursed.”

“Duly noted,” Selene replied without heat, her fingers flexing around his as she succumbed to his burrowing and resigned to her fate as an extremely beautiful and expensive human blanket. Holding him felt like such a minor thing that she wondered at all if it was helping or if she was just touching him more than necessary. It hadn’t occurred to her until then that she couldn’t remember the last time she was afraid of anything.

Nick made a small noise, pressing his ear to Selene’s heartbeat as he listened to her extended abuse with the same sort of comfort people had for their yapping dogs. The little kind with shrill voices.