"Can you help..?" Ricky asked softly over the cigarette in his mouth. Angelo leaned forward a bit, his hair curtaining whatever it was he was drawing. Probably Chris, who was running laps around the track, Mike a short distance in front of him. 

"I can, yeah.. But I think I'm going to need something of his. It'd work sort of how Ryan-Ashley's pendant is with Josh." Angelo explained gently. 

Ricky frowned a little. "I don't know where his body is, and neither does he.. How am I going to find anything that belongs to him?" He asked. 

Angelo looked up, sending Ricky a sympathetic look. "I wish I made the rules. It can be literally anything.. Blood, old photos, whatever.. I'm going to guess you could probably find a photo of him in the library somewhere, but if not, I.. I could try something of yours? I don't know if it would work, but he seems to have a strong enough bond with you emotionally to the point that I would assume something of yours would prove just as useful as something of his." He stated optimistically, and Ricky nodded a little. 

Any amount of hope was enough. 

"I'll check the library," He said, standing up and cracking his knuckles. "What of mine would be best, do you figure?" He asked, "If I can't find shit at the library, I mean," He murmured. 

Angelo smiled a little. "Anything that Nikki's spirit makes contact with on a frequent basis. Like if he tries to hold your hand regularly, a bracelet would work.. Do you get where I'm coming from?" He asked. 

Ricky resisted the urge to just wordlessly take his lip rings out and say a simple 'these will work, then'  He quite liked his piercings, though, so a bracelet would have to suffice. 

"Gotcha. Thanks a million, Ange," Ricky chirped before hopping off down the bleachers. Chris was getting his ass kicked at that point- Mike was quite literally leaving him in the dust. After all, werewolves were fast.. 

. . .

"How 'bout we try this?" Ricky asked, taking his key necklace off. Nikki didn't make much contact with it, but it was the closest thing aside from his lip rings, which, he had no intentions of taking out.

Angelo nodded a little. "We'll try." He said, gently taking the necklace from Ricky, looking to Nikki's nearly invisible form. As the days went by, Nikki seemed to fade, and that worried Ricky quite a lot. 

"Put your hand over this," Angelo said, extending his own hand, Ricky's necklace placed in his palm. Nikki took a breath, placing a hand over the key. 

"I hate to ask," Angelo sighed, "But I think this would be a bit stronger with your blood, Ricky," He said. "I could get a knife, or-"

Ricky waved a hand, biting his wrist harshly. Angelo winced. Sometimes he forgot that gargoyles such as Ricky don't have that resist factor that humans do. While a normal human's mind would typically force them to stop from, say, biting their own finger off, Ricky's mind wouldn't have that restraint. He could rip someone's throat out with his teeth if he really wanted to. 

That didn't make it any easier for Angelo to watch him puncture his own wrist with his fucking teeth, however. He held his wrist over the key, his blood stopping on top of Nikki's hand rather than going straight through, indicating that the spirit was at least somewhat solid at the time.

Ricky bit his lip.

. . .

"Did.. it work..?" Angelo asked, pinching the bridge of his nose and ignoring the blood dripping from it, as well as from his eyes. He sure as hell hoped he had done something, because blood in his eyes wasn't a pleasant feeling- or sight.

"You need to sit down," Ricky stressed, hardly acknowledging the question as he ushered Angelo to the couch. 

"I'm fine," Angelo said softly, wincing a bit and shutting his eyes. Vertigo was rarely a side effect of anything he had done, so as irritating as it was, he took it as a good sign. "I asked you whether it worked or not." He murmured. 

Ricky looked to Nikki, who looked completely dumbfounded. He looked different, somehow, and it took Ricky a few moments before he realized that Nikki didn't look ghostly at all. His skin was less pale and more tanned, and he had a shadow for once. The only thing that hadn't seemed to change were his wide eyes. 

Nikki took a deep breath. "Are you God?" He asked, "If you're God, I swear, I'll start going to church or whatever-" he rambled. He couldn't help it, because whatever Angelo did worked more than anyone had expected. It seemed so impossible that Nikki almost wondered if he was hallucinating or imagining it all. 

Luckily that wasn't the case. 

"I don't believe in God," Angelo chuckled before promptly slumping to the side, unconscious. 

"Look at this shit," Nikki gushed, curling and uncurling his fingers before sticking his hands out in front of him. "He's- fucking hell, he's a miracle worker or some shit," He babbled, rushing over to double check that Angelo was alright. 

Ricky was quiet for a moment before throwing his arms around Nikki, who was completely solid- and warm. Human. Alive.

"Chris is gonna kick my ass when he gets back, if Angelo isn't awake by then-" Ricky mumbled, pressing his face to Nikki's chest. "You smell nice.. Like.. Like wild strawberries, almost.. Like the woods. Not in a bad way," Ricky mumbled. 

Nikki hugged Ricky tightly. "I remember now. How I died, I mean. Not.. Not that it really matters, cause I'm not uh.. now.. y'know, but I remember." He said. 

Ricky relaxed a bit. It was nice to hear that Nikki acknowledged that he was alive again, somehow. But he couldn't help but be curious. "How did you die, anyway? If you don't mind my asking.." He said. 

Nikki just smiled a little. "It doesn't matter."

A/N: this is the end, my friends! i hope you liked this story. of course i'm going to leave you guessing on how nikki died.. i did give you a hint! if anyone thinks they have an idea, please do comment it! i'd be more than happy to see what you all think, though it will forever be a secret. 

anyway, i hope to get a new fic up by either tonight or tomorrow evening (worst case scenario, sometime this week by friday)- here are your (very vague) options:

i. a poly fic with a lot of ryan (three words: alien, curiosity, alone)

ii. an angeless fic set in NYC (three words: disability, college, subway)

iii. a sitkolson fic (three words: psychological, insanity, illness)

xxh