The mug only had a few sips of coffee in it, the essay was finished, and Adam was working on Maths, when he heard someone knock on his front door. A quick look at his watch told Adam that it was nearing midnight. Ronan never visited that late; Gansey never visited that early.

He opened the door, feeling tired and upset over not getting enough sleep. “What?“

The boy behind his door smiled sheepishly, holding up his hands to show he did not mean anything bad.

“Sorry, Parrish. This a bad time?“

Adam was conflicted between telling Prokopenko to leave and to invite him inside. Some company would be nice … however, it was late and he was tired, and still had homework.

“It’s late.“ Adam said, shaking his head, sighing when Prokopenko smiled and nudged his way into the little apartment, making his way to the living area right away, tossing his backpack onto the floor, tossing himself onto Adam’s bed.

Adam just stared, took a deep breath, locked the door and then went back to his homework. He still had problems to solve, and then there was the Latin. There was no time, at least not that night, to deal with the boy sprawled out on his bed. He had to finish homework, had to eat dinner, which he so conveniently had forgotten to do, had to shower and had to get some sleep; only to wake up at 6 am and to go to school.

“Are you going to keep ignoring me?“

Adam did not even turn to look at Prokopenko, who had thrown off his hoodie and socks before curling himself around the only pillow on Adam’s bed to look at Adam.

“I have homework.“ Adam said coldly. He was tired, so tired, he could barely keep his eyes open. Arguing with Prokopenko would be a waste of energy.

Prokopenko huffed, rolling his eyes, “So?“

“Not all of us can pay their way into any school they want.“

He did not realise how harsh he had been until he realised Prokopenko was hissing and getting off of his bed. Adam expected him to get upset or to leave, but Prokopenko simply came to stand next to him, looking over his homework. Adam kind of froze, not wanting to move to look at the other, but he did not also continue doing his homework.

“I’ll do your Maths homework.“ Prokopenko offered after a few minutes, holding out his hand so that he could take Adam’s notebook. “You can do whatever you have left and then we can get something to eat.“

For a second, Adam wondered if he was the only one who had forgotten to eat dinner. He knew that while Prokopenko and the rest of his friends had everything in abundance, they sometimes skipped meals in favour of illegal substances. Kavinsky looked almost more see-through than Noah, and Prokopenko was made out of angles and harsh lines as well, bones showing through his skin. Overuse of drugs, underuse of food; Adam did not know. Maybe whoever had designed Prokopenko had decided to make him hurt anyone who fell into him.

„…Fine.“ He pulled his Latin notebook closer and started working on translation while Prokopenko solved Mathematic problems much quicker than Adam would have thought he was capable of. Adam supposed Prokopenko had come over sober. Which was a good thing, of course. Adam had seen Prokopenko high and drunk, and no matter how vivid Prokopenko was when he was under the influence, Adam prefered the more down-to-earth real boy.

 Not even fifteen minutes later they had both finished and Prokopenko tugged his backpack closer, zipping it open. “I know you work late and all,“ He said, pulling out a big plastic bottle of juice, two plastic boxes filled with food, and a carton of pop-tarts. “So I got you some food, all healthy and shit, like you like it.“

Prokopenko shoved the boxes of food towards Adam and Adam opened the lid of one, nearly groaning of hunger when the smell of chicken and sweet and sour sauce hit his nose.

“You eat chicken, right?“ Prokopenko asked, a bit unsure, scratching the back of his head a bit nervously. “I mean, we’ve gotten takeout from that place before, but you’ve never ordered chicken so I didn’t know if you’d eat it or-“

Adam smiled to him, as widely as he could with how tired he was. “I do. Thank you.“

Prokopenko’s smile was brighter than the lights in the entire apartment, and he nodded, helping Adam up and leading him to the kitchenette so that they could warm some of the food up and eat it. Adam sat down to eat as soon as the microwave dinged, but Prokopenko took his time putting away the pop-tarts and pouring the two of them a glass of juice each. He slid one of the glasses towards Adam who took the glass with a quiet ’thank you’ and continued eating. Prokopenko did not eat, just drank his juice.

“So,“ Adam started, picking through the last of his dinner. “Was there a reason you came over? An actual reason, I mean.“

Prokopenko visited the garage most often, always asking Adam to tinker with his car, having him change the tires or the oil, fixing a few scratches here and there. They met in a few classes at school, both of them staying with their friends between classes, but passing nods and smiles with one another when nobody saw. A couple of times, not often enough as either of them wanted, Prokopenko took Adam to eat, showing him the best takeout and fast food places around town. And a couple times, on rare, secret evenings, Prokopenko snuck away from his friends and came to visit, leaving behind all his harshness that Adam despised. Sure, Prokopenko was loud and rude, used more substances Adam could name, and everything about him screamed bad boy, but he was also funny, eager to please, listened to Adam and did his best to be good.

“Nah,“ Prokopenko said, settling himself onto Adam’s lap. Adam wrapped an arm around his waist like it was an instinct. “Just missed you.“

Adam blushed, eating the last piece of chicken in his box. “You see me daily,“ He pointed out, which was true. They did see each other daily in school, even sat next to each other in a few AP lessons they both took.

“Not like this,” Prokopenko leaned in for a kiss, huffing when Adam turned his head away. “No?”

“No,” Adam was not a stranger to kisses from him, not a stranger to wanting and asking, but now that his stomach was full of food, his need to sleep caught up with him. “I need to sleep. You should go home. I don’t know what you came here for. I’m tired and gross and I need to sleep.”

Prokopenko whined, trying to get at least one kiss out of him, not stopping until Adam put a hand over his face and shoved him away.

“I said no, Ilya!”

Prokopenko kept pouting for a while, settling closer to nuzzle Adam’s neck instead. “You haven’t kissed me in a week. Do you not like me any more?”

Adam groaned, shaking his head, squeezing Prokopenko’s waist with the arm he had around him. “I’m just busy and tired. If you want-“ He could not believe he was offering this, “-you can spend the night.”

Prokopenko perked up at that, smiling as he looked at Adam. “Yeah! I’ll go change and get the bed warm while you shower.” He got off of Adam’s lap and went towards the bed, giving Adam the chance to finally shower.

 By the time Adam actually made it to bed, he was half asleep and warm, yawning when he climbed under the covers and snuggled close to the warm body in his bed. Prokopenko smiled, letting Adam spoon him from behind and took one of Adam’s hands, kissing it before using it to pull Adam’s arm around him.

“Adam?” He asked, pulling the duvet closer and tangling his legs with Adam’s.

“Hm?”

“Good night.”