Blood Offering (Lucas POV)

A/N: This is Lucas' POV on the time when Nick was in the hospital.

As always, enjoy!

Lucas' friends whistled as he walked away from Nick. His eyes met Jeff and he glared at him. He was hoping that his authority was coming across, Jeff had no place punching him. He was the team captain and that meant something, they were a team and whatever went on between them should not have been brought onto the field. He didn't necessarily have a problem with Jeff before recently. He was a little loud and much too confident in his own skills but he was a good player and used to respect the hierarchy of the team. It wasn't until he had started to get closer to Nick that he had started to really notice Jeff. He started to notice the way he interacted with everybody and then the way he interacted with Nick. He tried to not mention it, it wasn't his place, but Jeff was a ticking bomb, he was possessive and controlling in subtle ways that unnerved him and the fight had just confirmed what he had suspected and made the injuries on Nick's wrists all the more worrying.

He shook his head. He would have to keep an eye on it and see how it developed, he thought of there midterm and how he could use it to get Nick alone.

"Smooth lover boy. Real smooth" Lucas glared at Ollie willing him to say something else.

"Did Nick seem off to you? Like more off then this morning? He said he was fine but I don't think he was. I think Sterling did something" He took the seat beside Ollie, rolling his shoulders as he sat. He had locked it after punching Jeff in the stomach earlier and then had been given laps as punishment for it.

"Dude just let it go, we get it you like him but he's just a piece of ass, go get laid and forget about him" Cooper took another sip of his soda as he looked at his friend. Lucas glared.

"It's getting weird now. He wants to date Sterling for some reason, who knows why, but thats what he wants. Your coming across as really petty. Plus he's like two years younger then you and clearly has major issues. Remember when he first got here? He was literally like a scared doe. You don't need that drama for some ass, no matter how tight that ass is. It's not worth the hassle" Lucas glared at them. Nick wasn't just some piece of ass. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a player, he usually got what he wanted and left and he certainly wasn't above using whatever to get what he wanted, and he'd be lying if he said that before they started working together he had checked him out a few times and had thought that maybe if he threw some compliments Nick's way and ran into him a few times in his jersey that he'd get a chance to do the same with him but that had changed. He cared about him now, and he didn't want to see him hurt and he knew Jeff was doing something.

He was still glaring at the other boy from over his friends shoulders. This was all his fault. He had done something to hurt the younger boy and Lucas wanted to find out what. It wasn't like he had to, Nick wasn't his problem, but he saw them as friends and didn't want to see him hurt. He did like Nick a lot, he'd jump at the chance to date him, but they were friends too and if Nick didn't like him like that then that was fine, he still wanted to be friends.

Chandler craned his neck to look at what he was looking at and he sighed loudly.

"Seriously bro? If your not careful he's gonna get a restraining order and don't think Ollie didn't tell us about the candy thing you do or those flowers you sent. You never work this hard for a guy. Is he really worth it?" His friends laughed and he played it off, maintaining his too-cool-to-care-I-can-do-what-I-want facade.

"He's my friend, that's it. The kisses thing is just some fun and the flowers were to congratulate him on their sectionals win. He got me my favourite candy when we won our play-offs. I was just returning the favour"

"Yeah sure, I'm totally convinced he wrote a sappy message like you did, or that he saved the gift" Lucas couldn't hide his embarrassment at that. He had kept the candy, it was sweet and it reminded him of the younger boy so he didn't just want to eat it and throw it out.

"I bet he doesn't keep all the notes you send each other in class either, unlike you who has them all shoved in your sock drawer" He glared at Ollie, his anger flaring. His roommate was going too far and he was starting to really get annoyed.

Before he had a chance to say anything else some more of their friends arrived and the three dropped it, knowing that the captain would only punish them for letting the others in on his secrets.

They spoke about the fight and the upcoming games but Lucas was mostly focused on Nick. One of his friends, he was pretty sure his name was Terry, was pulling him towards the kitchen. The others left soon after and since Lucas knew Nick probably wouldn't be returning he excused himself and left, heading to his dorm to finish up some homework.

He hadn't realised he had drifted off until he woke to talking.

"Huh?" He looked blearily at Ollie who was at the door speaking to someone who sounded like Chandler.

His suspicion was confirmed when the latter boy entered the room.

"Oh we woke you? Sorry" Chandler looked at him sheepishly.

"It's fine. I probably should get up and shower anyway. What time is it anyway?" They glanced at each other before looking back to him and he raised his eyebrow. Something was going on, he knew it.

"About 12. Look don't get annoyed at us for not telling you but you might've been right about that whole Nick thing" His interest was peaked and he sat up. Chandler continued.

"Apparently something happened and someone called an ambulance and I was talking to Brian and he said Lee said that he heard some freshman say it was one of the Warblers and then Adam said he saw Jeff get out of the back of the ambulance and get into his car from his window and now everybody's saying it was Nick and that something happened. I sent Hunter a text to ask but he hasn't text back yet, since he's in the Warblers and there all on the same corridor I would guess he knows"

"But if Jeff did something he wouldn't have been allowed into the ambulance with him? Plus Nick's kind of crazy, who knows what happened" Lucas glared at Ollie

"He's not crazy and how the hell would you even know? Because of those rumours? Have you ever even actually spoken to him?" Ollie shook his head.

"Nah didn't think so. I'm going to go find out what's going on" Ollie and Chandler looked at each other again.

"Maybe that's not the best idea Lucas. After today I can't imagine the rest of the Warblers haven't been told about what an 'awful jealous psycho' you are who attacked Sterling because he got with a guy you wanted to date. Add to that you turning up unannounced when somethings obviously going on and demanding answers to questions you have no right to ask? That's not gonna go down well and you heard what Coach said, anymore fights and you might lose your captaincy." Lucas could understand where they were coming from, were the shoe on the other foot he'd probably be a little freaked out but Nick had been so off and Jeff wasn't normal and he just wanted to know that he was okay, and the Nick hadn't lied to him earlier.

"I'm not going to do anything, I'm just going to ask them if he's okay. He has barely any friends outside of the Warblers, it'll be nice for him to know that he has someone else he can talk to" He was pushing past them while he spoke and they trailed behind him looking around nervously.

He pushed his way past the crowd that had gathered in the stairwell and made his way to where the Warblers were. Two teachers stood at the door but once they recognised him they let him through, most of the staff recognised that they just had to look at some students a certain way and they'd be fired, certainly if that student was the football captain, so to them, to nearly everyone, he was untouchable.

"Is Nick okay?" The Warblers had gathered in the Common room and they looked at him, he got mixed reactions but most had some form of annoyance on their faces.

"What's it to you? Come to rub it in Jeff's face that you thought something was wrong?" Lucas shook his head at Hunters words.

"No. I'm just a good friend and I want to know what the hell that psychopath did to land Nick in the hospital" Sebastian snorted.

"Jeff didn't do anything. Unlike you he understands Nick and recognized he was having a panic attack."

"You really need to back off Lucas, if you knew Nick at all then you would know he doesn't like all of the attention your giving him. Especially now that he has a boyfriend" He decided to play it cool, it wouldn't do well to make any more enemies in the Warblers, and they had the answers he wanted. He put on his best bored expression and looked at David.

"First of all, me and Nick are friends. If he was uncomfortable with the attention he would tell me. Second, I don't care that Sterling sunk his claws into him beyond not wanting to see Nick get hurt. And finally, I have just as much of a right to be worried as any of you do. And why did he have a panic attack?" Lucas was sure that Jeff had done something to cause the panic attack.

"We were actually just talking about that" it was that guy from earlier. Trevor? He was getting a lot of glares from the rest of the guys but Lucas was glad that he was getting somewhere. He figured out of all of the Warblers this guy seemed the most open to him, and he was the one who led Nick away earlier at dinner so Lucas figured they must be pretty close.

"And?" He was trying not to get impatient, it would only cause unneeded tension.

"Most of us agree that it was you" Hunter sneered at him and he cursed that the boy was such a good defender or he'd be off the team. Some of the others nodded their agreement, and a few looked around nervously, namely the curly haired short kid. Lucas wasn't sure what his name was but he made a note that he might be another avenue if the Toby thing didn't work out. He turned to the other boy, from earlier, who was perched on a couch looking around the room.

"What about you? What do you think? You left with him at dinner didn't you?" The boy looked around sheepishly before speaking.

"Well we did hear you all talking about him before he took off. He seemed a bit better before then, although he still couldn't keep the bread down before that"

"Why the hell wouldn't you tell us that Trent? Do you not think that's kind of an important piece of information?" So his name was Trent, he would have to remember that for the future. He smiled smugly, he shouldn't because Nick was still sick and that's what really mattered but it was them who had done it, not him.

"Well yeah, but I still don't think we should be talking about this, Nick's at the hospital for gods sake, we can have this conversation tomorrow when we know he's better" The boys mostly looked down in shame and Lucas couldn't blame them, had he known that Terrence was going to school them like that he would have asked him from the start.

"Look Lucas et al, maybe you should leave? Hunter will let you know once we hear from Nick or Jeff" He heard Ollie tsk behind him at the insult but he brushed it off, not that it was about him, but they had bigger things to deal with. He would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about Nick but he was also slightly worried about the Warblers as a whole. The school had a peculiar balance of power between the two groups, both having slight advantages of the other, but lately it had seemed as if that power struggle had been tipped in slight favour of the singers and it was frustrating him to no end. Football was top of the social hierarchy and the other boys would do well to remember that.

"I think I'll stay right here until I hear from him myself" He reached into his pocket and groaned, his phone was on his nightstand charging.

"I'm going to grab my phone but I'll be right back" He turned and stormed from the room, he felt disrespected and irritated. He felt like everybody was forgetting who was top of the food chain here. He passed the teachers from earlier, who seemed to have dispersed the students who had been crowded around gossiping. He was glad, Nick didn't need to be a spectacle like he had before.

He felt his anger subside as he thought of the younger boy and he couldn't help the wave of guilt that washed over him when he remembered when Nick had first arrived. He thought back to what Ollie had said earlier about Nick begin crazy and of the rumours that had spread when he had arrived. Dalton may have had a zero tolerance bullying policy but that didn't stop the rumour mill.

He felt guilty over contributing to them when he had, he hadn't thought much of it at the time, Nick was small and weedy. He was a geek and a total mess, of course everyone had thought there was something wrong with him, the boy could barely hold a conversation.

Lucas had never queried what had happened to make Nick come to Dalton, it wasn't his place, but he did wonder. He figured it must have been pretty bad by Nick's reactions to things and Lucas knew about the scars, everybody knew about them. They were impossible to miss. He was surprised at how much they had healed over time, he recalled back to Nick's fist day, the harsh red lines covering his hands, wrists and neck. The ones along his jaw and the particularly bad one above his eye. He had thought, like everyone else, that he had gotten gay bashed, but then the rumours started. The rumours of how much worse it was under his clothes. Of the things that had been carved into his skin and Lucas couldn't imagine a world where such a horrible offence against someone, especially someone from the Duval family, wouldn't be splashed all over newspapers. So he had assumed it wasn't true. He had assumed that it was just another rumour like all the others. There had been plenty, some that sounded like they might be true, like that his dad had wanted to get rid of him, and some that were just ridiculous like that he had been tortured by some of his fathers associates. But then he had caught a glimpse of what looked like writing and Nicks collar bone and he hadn't been able to get the rumors out of his head since.

Ollie and Chandler caught up with him then, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Dude Mr. Grant said not to leave our floor again or he'd report us to Coach" Chandler was nervous, as always.

"Look you two stay here but I'm going to find out whats going on" He pushed his door open and was about to leave again when Ollie grabbed his arm.

"Hunter said he would text. Theres no point in going over there now, nothings going to happen and Nick's not even there. Get some sleep and talk to him tomorrow." He felt helpless but agreed. He knew it seemed crazy but he felt a need to protect Nick, mostly from Jeff, since he felt like he was the only person who saw him for the loose cannon that he was, but he also felt close to Nick. He had helped him with Physics and they had struck up a bond. He had seen beyond the rumours and liked what he saw.

When you went to boarding school all your life your friends became your family and Nick was no different.

By the time he had showered and changed he had a text confirming that Nick had been given the all clear and would be returning to Dalton soon. He felt relieved at the news and decided tomorrow would be as good as any to study for their midterm, he knew he should probably let Nick rest but getting him away from Jeff, and away from the watchful eye of the other warblers, was the only way he was going to get any honest answers from the boy.