A/N: I started this one shot way back before season 2 started to air. I'd read an interview where Nicole confirmed the Nacy rumors, and almost immediately started writing this. I'm hoping it's clear that I'm not bashing Nacy or Nick. I think Nacy is cute, and I adore Nick. But I'm a Kacy shipper. Now with that in mind, Enjoy!

Different

By angellwings

Joe, Stella, and Kevin stood staring at each other in the hallway of a New York recording studio. Everything was very awkward. The awkward even for them kind of awkward. Nick and Macy had been bickering for weeks. The couple had fought before, but their fights had never been like Stella and Joe's. Nick and Macy were not the types to yell at each other. Usually, their arguments would start with biting sarcastic comments, and then they would heatedly snap at each other, and finally the room would be enveloped in a painfully uncomfortable silence. So uncomfortable that usually Joe, Stella, and Kevin would feel forced to leave the room to let the two glare and fume at one another in peace.

But the fights they'd been having over the last few weeks were very different. Sure, they started off like all their other fights, but at the end there was no uncomfortable silence. Instead they started to yell. Not both of them at the same time, but just in general. One fight Macy would yell, and maybe the next fight Nick would raise his voice. This was something the two of them had never done. It worried the other three members of the group.

Something was different, and not a good different.

Another fight began when Macy was late to meet them for lunch. Macy was currently living and working in New York City as a publicist for the New York Knicks. Macy had some last minute things to take care of at the office and had been running late. Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal. Sure, Nick would have grumbled about it, but ultimately he would have let it go.

He didn't let it go.

Instead he pulled at it and pulled at it until Macy just couldn't take it. She'd started to yell at him when Nick pulled her into one of the empty studios. There was a thick windowless door in between the booth and the hallway that kept all the sound inside the room. You couldn't see in nor could you overhear anything.

Which is how Kevin, Stella, and Joe had ended up in the hallway awkwardly staring at one another.

Stella finally spoke up, "There are only two reasons why Nick would pull Macy into a soundproof recording booth. One, is that he just really wanted to make out and doesn't want us hear that sort of thing and the other, slightly more likely reason, is that—"

"They're screaming at each other," Joe finished for her.

"Exactly," Stella said sadly.

"I don't get it," Kevin sighed. "What's been up with them lately? They've never been like this in all the years that they've dated. What's changed?"

Joe and Stella shrugged, but Kevin noticed a split second pause in Stella's shrug. Joe did as well and he and Kevin shared a curious look.

"Stells?" Joe asked. "What do you know?"

She sighed and shook her head, "Nothing, really. Macy won't tell me anything, and what I have gotten her to tell me makes no sense. She mumbles, and then stops talking all together. All I've gotten is a few words."

"What words?" Kevin asked worriedly. He didn't like that Macy couldn't talk to Stella about what was going on. Macy told Stella everything. He was also beginning to wonder why Nick wasn't even attempting to talk to any of them. Sure, Nick had never really been much of a talker or advice seeker, but when it really mattered he would usually tell at least one of them.

"Something about rules, and frustration, and…"

Stella paused as if she didn't want to say the last word, but Joe put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Betrayal."

Joe's brow furrowed, "Betrayal? Oh, Stella, you don't think that one of them is…"

She sighed, "Cheating? No, I don't. Neither one of them are the cheating kind, but…well, stranger things have happened."

Kevin shook his head, "No, not them. They're both too loyal for that. They wouldn't."

"Okay," Stella said with a nod. "Then what else could all those words mean?"

"Maybe, it just means that one of them is attracted to someone else," Joe suggested.

Stella quirked an eyebrow at him, "And you don't call that cheating?"

"It takes a lot of self control to resist acting on an attraction sometimes," He said honestly. Stella glared at suspiciously. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not the problem. We're talking about Nick and Macy, here."

"Maybe we're thinking about this too much," Kevin told them. "Maybe they're just…growing apart."

"Why would they be at each other's throats over that?" Stella asked.

"Because, trust me, growing apart is never easy, and it's never wanted," Kevin answered in a serious tone that was rarely heard from him. "It's possible they're taking all of that out on each other. Maybe they're both frustrated with themselves and just can't handle it."

Joe gave his brother a confused look and wondered just who Kevin had grown apart from. He had to be speaking from experience judging by his tone. Joe caught Stella giving Kevin a knowing look. Stella knew. Stella knew where Kevin's views of growing apart from someone came from. Joe tried to think back over the years and pin point a person Kevin was no longer close to. Anya? No, that wasn't really growing. That was a sudden painful rip.

The door beside of them was wrenched open and Macy stomped back down the hallway toward the elevator. Nick stood frozen in the doorway glaring after her. Kevin, Joe, and Stella exchanged looks. Kevin nodded to them, turned around, and then quickly followed after Macy.

Kevin just narrowly made it into the elevator with her. Macy huffed and pressed the lobby button violently.

"What are you doing, Kevin?" Macy asked.

"Hopefully comforting a friend," Kevin answered simply.

"Instead of your brother?" Macy asked warily.

Kevin sighed. "Yes, Macy, instead of my brother."

"Why?"

"Why not? Nick's my brother, true, but I know that he can be a stubborn idiot. And I wasn't about to let you run off alone. You were so upset that you—"

"I'm not going to cry, Kev."

"Cry? No, I was afraid you might explode all over some innocent bystander."

Macy let out a strangled laugh before groaning angrily. "I don't get it."

Kevin's brow furrowed, "What?"

"I'm not going to cry."

"You said that."

"No, Kevin, I'm not crying over this," Macy told him. "Don't girls usually cry when they break up with someone?"

Kevin's eyes widened, "Break up? You and Nick…you broke up?"

Macy scoffed, "Officially. Yes. But it feels like we've been broken up for weeks. Do you know how long it's been since I actually got a chance to talk to him?"

Kevin didn't think he was actually supposed to answer.

"Three weeks. We got into a fight over the phone."

There was silence as Kevin tried to figure out what he was supposed to say. He opened his mouth to speak but Macy continued over him.

"That's not the point. My point was…I should be crying. I just broke up with my boyfriend. My boyfriend that I've been seeing for years. That should upset me, right?"

"It will hit you later," Kevin told her. "Right now you're too angry to be upset."

"I don't really understand what went wrong to begin with," Macy admitted. "It's just that recently he's felt more like a friend I'm losing touch with than a boyfriend I'm having problems with, you know?"

Again, Kevin opened his mouth but did not have time to speak.

"And he doesn't seem to see it! Every time I try to talk to him about it he dodges it by starting some random argument! And then I feel terrible because I think that maybe I'm the only one who's feeling things have suddenly turned…platonic. I'm afraid that maybe I'm the one that's drifting away from him, and that all of this is my fault."

"Macy," Kevin said with a sigh. "It's not your fault. People grow up, things change. I think Nick's problem is that he doesn't want to admit his feelings have changed. He starts the arguments so that he can avoid talking about it."

Macy ran a hand through her hair as the elevator doors opened. She paused.

"I don't know where I was planning on going."

"I don't think you were planning to go anywhere. I think you just wanted to go."

"I don't—what do I do now?" Macy asked as she swallowed thickly. "Oh God, Kevin, everything's different. I—I…what do I do?"

Here it comes, Kevin thought. The reality of what just happened was hitting Macy. His heart broke as he watched here eyes water and bottom lip begin to tremble. He grabbed her hand and led her out of the elevator and into a small maintenance closet. He turned on the light and shut the door behind them. As soon as the door was closed he wrapped the girl in a hug so tight that she had no choice but to let go of her tears.

Kevin said nothing while she cried. He just listened to her as she mumbled through her sobs, and held onto her as she shuttered. He heard her breathing even out and she reluctantly pulled away from him.

"You don't hate me do you?"

Kevin's brow furrowed. "What?"

"Now that Nick and I aren't together…do you hate me?"

"Macy," Kevin said as his eyes softened. "I could never hate you. None of us could."

"But aren't you supposed to? You hate all of Nick's other ex-girlfriends."

He chuckled warmly. "You're not like his other ex-girlfriends."

"I'm not?"

"No," He told her. He couldn't believe she didn't realize this. "We were all friends with you before you and Nick started dating and we'll keep being friends long after."

She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him hopefully. "Promise?"

He nodded. "Pinky-promise."

He held out a pinky to her expectantly. She smiled softly and linked her pinky with his.

"I promise, Mace," Kevin told her. "I'll be here for however long you need me."