Voicemail (IC Contact Post) OLD - at capcha

[abrightboy]

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[abrightboy]

"You're a better liar than I am," Malcolm tells him, huffing a breath at the floor. "I didn't know." He looks up at Neal's face. "I didn't know you liked me like that."

[conning]

Neal laughs, but it's a choked sound. "Lying is what I do."

He lets go of Malcolm's hand, but it's only to take his face in gentle hands and tilt the other man's head up toward him. His throat is too tight for the words, almost. "Hey, you."

[abrightboy]

It feels like his heart stops. He watches Neal’s face a moment.

“…Do you remember everything?” he asks cautiously.

[conning]

Neal shakes his head. “Not everything. Not yet. But more. Enough.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm slides his arms around Neal’s neck and holds on to him like a life preserver.

“Do you want to get a coffee or go home?” he asks, muffled into the crook of his neck.

[conning]

“I want to get a coffee and go home,” he says against Malcolm’s hair, tone amused and strained.

It’s coffee! And they came all this way!

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiles softly against his neck, then lets go of him, stepping back to gesture towards the counter. He can grab the coffee.

Malcolm will stay here and fidget.

[conning]

Neal gets himself something that, for him, is on the unusually sweet side--an americano adulterated with a shot of full-sugar flavoring. (Hazelnut.)

Malcolm he gets a turtle mocha, offering it when he returns. "As promised."

The words are soft. He's watching Malcolm's face, practically drinking him in.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm takes it, looking at it, then he looks up at Neal, his expression teetering on a knife’s edge between relief and apprehension. This feels normal. Right. Will it stay that way? Will Neal remember more? Or forget again?

“Thank you,” he says softly. After a second, he offers his hand. Coffee and home, right?

[bossyboiler]

"I do like you Malcolm, most of the time but every now and then you can be a real annoyance." Kate claps her hands together and then unclasps them. "I'm telling you because I do trust you not to blab and I need to tell you what happened next. I'm fairly certain that I fed my Entity because now I know something that most people don't."

[conning]

Neal takes Malcolm's hand and leans in to kiss him firmly.

When he draws back, he pulls Malcolm toward the door, wanting to get away from all these people and back where they can't be as easily listened to before he says anything else.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm's eyes are on Neal while they walk; hopefully Neal watches where they're going.

"...I missed you," he finally says.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm's eyebrows go up.

"What's the thing you know?"

[conning]

Neal is only sort of watching where they're going. Enough to keep them from running into anyone. Enough to avoid tripping, and to catch Malcolm when the other man does.

He tugs Malcolm gently out of the primary traffic on the street so he can kiss him without causing a back-up. Neal lets go of Malcolm's hand, but it's only so he can touch Malcolm's face. His other hand is still holding his too-hot-to-drink coffee.

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shakes his head.

"It's not your fault. I just. Didn't know if you'd come back. Like this, I mean. I didn't know if you'd still like me like this if we had to start again."

[conning]

"I would," Neal says, perfectly confident in the assertion. Not only because of the infatuation he felt while trying to remember who Malcolm was.

"You're..." He looks for the words, strokes his fingertips against Malcolm's temple. "For you, I have saved poems under my skin."

The words clearly aren't his, but they're more true than anything he can think to say.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks up at him, eyes a little watery.

"...Really?"

It seems like too much to hope for. That he could be with a man like Neal? That it could happen more than once? That they belong together?

[bossyboiler]

"I can't tell you. That would be a betrayal of trust." But oh how it feels good to know something that others don't. Kate smiles because the secret feels good to hold onto, to lord over. She knows something that only two other people know. She then frowns upon the realizing that it feels good. Even now, she's feeding the Eye. "Shit."

[abrightboy]

He sees the smile. He understands the significance.

He sees her realize it.

“You brought me here to feed on me.”

It’s not a question.

[bossyboiler]

"What?" She shakes her head. "No. Goddamnit. I did not. I came here to talk." But now she's not sure. She doubts herself. Maybe she had on a subconscious level. Maybe she had without even realizing it. "I wouldn't do that."

[abrightboy]

“Then why tell me you learned something interesting if you weren’t going to tell me what it was?” Malcolm challenges.

[conning]

"I liked you the day we met." He kisses Malcolm lightly. "Both times."

[bossyboiler]

"I don't know" she replies. It is the sad truth. She had needed someone to talk to but what if she had been manipulated into this? "Okay. Okay. I'm going to tell you but you have to swear to me on whatever you hold most dear that you won't tell Winter or anyone else what I'm about to tell you. Swear it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm’s breath catches as the kiss breaks.

“I love you,” he offers back, just above a whisper. Quiet, but not uncertain. The truth.

[abrightboy]

“I promise,” he tells her gravely.