I sketched these two once before just for giggles, but then my brain started connecting the dots and I decided to go ahead and make them know each other canonically before the setting of their own separate stories.
Mostly because the dynamics between the two are just too tempting, plus I figured personality wise Nikolai and Andy share quite a few traits that I could play with later on when it comes to Ed's development as a character, as one would remind him of the other.

Niko was probably the only if not one of the very few persons in Ed's past he did consider a good friend, who he then proceeded to lose by being the manipulative and lying piece of shit he is. Instead of learning his lesson and trying to change, what this manages is to make him less willing to care for others.

This argument between the two also gave me an excuse to make Niko get a call on his phone from Ed the day before he falls off the face of the Earth, which he purposefully ignores, only to beat himself over that fact later on when he realizes his friend disappeared out of the blue (and could potentially be dead), and that maybe he could've done something about it.


I might have been listening to Celldweller's "Louder than words" because 99% of the lyrics of that song fit this scene perfectly.