He has to facilitate a shift in priorities, and that priority is to get away. The kid doesn't want to give him a doing but Nick doesn't care, he just wants him to go away and stop being his goddamned creepy sick stone-faced self. He wriggles, desperate, uncontained, tiny wiry back arching - they say he's built all wrong for this, he's too many angles and he's meant to grow up wrong, can't he see - but they're wrong, he's Nick and he's always been Nick. He grew up cut from steel with square corners and sharp edges, and he won't be shown by this silent little fuck.

He keeps swinging, squirming, throwing every raw ounce of kin - of kaen - of kinetic energy into getting away from the stupid knob. Let him go let him go let him go.