— ᴇᴛʜᴀɴ , @dauntfvl —
he has the audacity to bump into ethan and snarl, ❝ watch where ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ going. ❞
it’s been a few weeks since their fight & approximately three days after the qudditch incident. to say that nikolai’s over it ( over him ) is an understatement. he’s pissed - rightfully so; the bastard he now calls his ex tried to break him---twice. ethan had succeeded the first time, of course he had, but nikolai knew ethan liked playing games & he’d be damned if he granted ethan the sᴀᴛɪsғᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ of seeing him feel.
so he shut himself down, paced the corridors with no conscious memories of what they ᴡᴇʀᴇ.
but ethan, the son of a bitch, is always one step ahead. the quidditch incident confirmed it. to this day, they’ve yet to identify who was responsible for charming a bludger to go after ravenclaw’s seeker. but nikolai knew. he knew immediately. ( he remembers looking down and catching ethan’s steady gaze just as the bludger ᴡʜɪᴢᴢᴇᴅ past his head & he remembers wishing, in that exact moment, for it to knock him out so he didn’t have to remember them. )
he hasn’t told anyone about the culprit - not the professors, not his teammates, and certainly not dustin. reacting meant ʟᴏsɪɴɢ.
and for these last three days, he thought he’d won. thought he’d finally pulled ahead. but then rumors began circulating about ethan dating misa & he fucking lost it.
the restraint he had carefully molded to ᴘᴇʀғᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ over these weeks was suddenly shattered. he was furious ( is furious ) - first at misa for betraying him, but then at ethan after concluding that misa’s nothing more than a pawn used in his ᴄʜᴇᴄᴋᴍᴀᴛᴇ. still, it’s this one move that puts nikolai in a predicament: should he react, or should he defend?
he chooses to react.
which is precisely why he rams his shoulder into ethan’s as he passes & hisses watch where you’re going. and it is also precisely why he pauses mid-step, turns his head ever so slightly to look over his shoulder, and says, ❝ it’s embarrassing to see you this ᴅᴇsᴘᴇʀᴀᴛᴇ. ❞ game on.
