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Because Seth had rolled up the sleeve to his oversized sweater almost to his bicep. Not only did Nick not expect to see a muscular forearm with thick veins running along the hard curl of his bicep, he most certainly didn’t understand thebruisingon Seth’s arm.

Some of it looked old, mottled green and a sickly yellow.

But some of it lookednew,the skin red and purple.

Seth quickly pulled down the sleeve of his sweater. “Hey,” he said, averting his eyes. “Gibby and Jazz get off okay?”

“What happened to your arm?” Nick demanded. “Did I dothat with the book? I’m so sorry. Crap, Seth, that looks like it hurts—”

“It’s fine,” Seth said, smiling, though it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “It’s fine. I just bumped my arm a little while ago. You didn’t hurt me at all.”

“Bumped your arm,” Nick repeated dubiously.

Seth nodded. “Oh, yeah. You know how I am. Clumsy me. Tripped over my own feet and fell into my closet door. It’s not a big deal. Barely even feel it.”

Now, Nick knew he wasn’t the smartest person in the world. His strengths lay in such places like idea boards and fanfiction and taking care of his dad because no one else would. But he was the son of a cop. He had a bullshit detector ingrained in his head. “Some of that looked newer than the rest.”

Seth’s smile faded a little. “I bumped into a lot of things.”

Nick nodded slowly. It wasn’t—heknewSeth’s aunt and uncle. They were good people. Kind and caring and thought the world of Seth. He didn’t think they were the type to hurt anyone, much less Seth. Or so he assumed. “You can tell me anything. You know that, right?”

Seth looked away. “I know, Nicky. I tell you everything I can.”

“That.”

“What?”

“What you just said. You tell me everythingyou can.What does that mean?”

Seth sighed. “Look. I’m working through some stuff right now. It’s not bad. I promise. Once I figure it out, you’ll be the first one I come to, okay?”

That didn’t sit well with Nick. “Is someone hurting you?” he asked, hands curling into fists at his sides. “Because I swear to god, if someone is hurting you, you better tell me who it is so I can knock them into next week. If it’s your secret girlfriend and/or boyfriend, that’s not cool. Like, at all. You don’t need to—”

Seth choked out a laugh. “I’m not being abused. I don’t have a secretanyone.”

Nick stared at him suspiciously. “You promise.”

“Yeah. I promise.”

“But there is something happening.”

“Something is always happening, Nick. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you scream like you did when the cricket jumped at your face.”

“Shut up,” Nick muttered. “It was attacking me. I did what I had to in order to defend myself.”

“At least Jazz was here to spread it all over your pillow.”

Nick groaned. “I’m going to have to do laundry because of her. I hate doing laundry.”

“Later, though, huh? I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve been able to hang out, just the two of us. Wanna read comic books and be stupid for a little while?”

Nick grinned at him. “That sounds awesome. We should go way back and read the Onslaught arc again. That’s one of my favorites.”

Seth looked relieved for reasons Nick didn’t understand. “Sure, Nicky. Sounds good.”

It wouldn’t be until much later that Nick would realize how neatly Seth had deflected him.

“It’s been a while since Seth was over,” Dad said that night when it was just the two of them. Cap had said he needed to get home to the missus, and Seth was going to have dinner with his aunt and uncle. He’d looked like he was going to say something else while standing on Nick’s porch, but then he’d shaken his head, smiled, and said he’d text Nick later. Nick watched him walk down the sidewalk until he couldn’t see him anymore. “Everything all right?”