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[abrightboy]

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[ployboy]

They have tea now?

No, Tim automatically corrects, Malcolm has tea. Can't just help himself to everything in a kitchen.

He migrates easily to the dining area after his eyes do a quick sweep of the apartment: nothing's obviously out of place and, with company, face value will have to be good enough. He nods, but what he says is, "What kind is it?"

[abrightboy]

“Chamomile,” Malcolm tells him. Supermarket store brand teabags, to be precise. Not exactly what he’s used to; too bad he doesn’t have access to his enormous personal wealth from home. He tilts the box and reads it. “Lemon ginger chamomile,” he clarifies.

[ployboy]

He flashes a sheepish sort of expression and nods again, and tells himself he at least now knows what's a harmless olive branch to extend. Next time that box starts running low, y'know. Tim can keep the pantry stocked. Ish.

"Yeah, sounds good."

What are the odds the bags are maliciously tampered with.

He eyes the... box, for a second longer. Just because. Then he's about to ask if this is a bother, but that's a silly thing to ask after accepting a generous offer. He's incapable of normalcy, and Tim leans back against the counter and asks, "You know those Dogtown Boulders?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks over curiously as he takes down another mug.

“You mean the abandoned settlement?” he confirms. He shrugs a shoulder. “Passingly. What about them?”

[ployboy]

The joys of being a full inch taller.

Tim hopes Malcolm wasn't expecting anything, like, insightful. Tim just doesn't want the silence to settle. He's opportunistic like that. "Yeah, we were sent exploring the first week we got here," he explains. His tone's light enough, like he isn't retelling the first of many faults of the damn ADI. Nah-- he's interested in a quick, painless alibi. "Wish I could see what goes down there after dark."

A careless comment, after the-- sealskins fiasco.

"It might poke a hole in the whole 'haunted woods' theory we're being fed here."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm half turns, watching him for a moment.

"Are you saying you want to sneak out to see? We'd have to have a contingency of somewhere to stay after curfew," he advises.

[ployboy]

The 'we' is freakin' unexpected, and Tim blinks at the casual inclusion. He'll rightfully ignore it, smooth out his expression.

"I know some guys who are staying outside of company housing so that's not a problem."

Says the one who scuttles back to the apartment with his tail between his legs. Tim spares the guy a small and apologetic sort of look for his own inconsistencies. "I do wanna get a look," he admits. "Maybe not sometime soon. But speaking of contingencies, how would you feel about pulling a fire alarm? Just the experience of it? I tried to bribe a guard out front-- they're not impressed by seven bucks."

[abrightboy]

“That depends,” Malcolm says reasonably. “What do you think we can learn by doing that?”

[ployboy]

He's getting some lukewarm sort of crawling in his gut. This feels an awful lot like getting questioned by a teacher. Jeez.

Tim's brows shoot up, almost in defiance. He's sorry a second later, and he does shift his weight to rock back on his heels. "For one, we'll see how ADI handles that particular crossroads of security and secrecy. I understand self-reliance in perimeter guarding, and there doesn't seem to be any outsourcing for medical either. But if the threat's to the structure itself?"

He sounds like a pyromaniac. Tim puffs up his cheeks. Like a... chipmunk. And he clarifies, slowly, "Imagined though it may be."

Don't mind him, he's sleep deprived.

[abrightboy]

“Do you think we’ll learn something of great enough value that it’ll be worth getting kicked out? Do your friends like it where they live outside?” Malcolm asks curiously.

[ployboy]

Just because he can: "I heard no complaints."

Ask him about the worth of staying in assigned housing if they don't get the courtesy of even a fake attempt at safety.

Tim shrugs and peers patiently at Malcolm. That's a no from him, and Tim's not in the mood to barf up his intentions. Chances are, someone'll slip before he even tries his hand at that particular test. He thinks about taking a seat but that would be? rude? waiting for the tea and antagonizing Malcolm. After a beat, he trudges on, light and not at all hoping to be taken seriously. "C'mon, you really never wanted to pull a fire alarm just because?"

...

"Not even for seven bucks?"

[abrightboy]

It’s not a ‘no’ from him; it’s an invitation to convince him, but Tim’s argument isn’t compelling.

Malcolm watches him a moment. Watches him weigh something and then watches his whole demeanour change.

“I’m not the partner in crime you’re looking for.” A statement of fact, not something he’s asking or suggesting. He’s reading it off Tim’s face. “You were testing me. I didn’t pass. I’m in a different category now.” He tilts his head towards the dining chairs at the faintest fidget from Tim. “You can sit, if you want.”

He pours hot water on the teabags, then looks at Tim again.

“I’m not against testing boundaries, but it has to be worth it. My friend Gil is staying in the complex. I can’t risk eviction without a damn good reason.”

[ployboy]

Tim waves away the offer to sit despite the tiredness.

He has no idea why.

He wants to save face, here, dispute the fact that he has a damn good reason for what he does, and for when. "For the record," he tries, disarming, "I wasn't actually going to ask you to pull a fire alarm for seven dollars."

Something, something-- delinquency. Yikes.

Tim bites down an easy yawn, eyes that tea like it's the only liquid he's seen all day.

Thinks, Arroyo would love to take Tim's room in B1, and would make an infinitely better roommate. No question.

"Gil Arroyo?" Like it's a surprise. "I met him. He's nice."

[abrightboy]

“I wouldn’t judge you if you did ask me to pull the fire alarm for seven dollars; I just want you to understand why I might not do it.”

He set a mug in front of one of the chairs, then took his own and sat opposite it.

“Gil is nice. He raised me. He saved me. If you ever need someone you can trust to turn to, you can turn to him.”

[ployboy]

Well now he feels like a jerk for standing while Malcolm's taken a seat. So... Tim, gracefully, slinks into that chair.

Blessed be.

He nods. And strongly doubts his own inclination to turn to... well, anybody. There's no time to get all tangled up in things like that. "You two are close," he says. A parody of captain obvious himself. "I don't know if that's a good or bad thing to have around here, someone you know like that. Not gonna lie: I'm kinda jealous."

[abrightboy]

"It's always a good thing to have a connection to other people. It keeps us sane," Malcolm tells him. "What did you do before you got here?"

[ployboy]

No argument there, and Tim makes that obvious in his understanding. He risks a drink of that tea-- it's not something Alfred would've stocked and brewed but it's good.

Will it help with sleep?

Hey, at least Tim didn't see any strange pills crushed in his mug.

"I was working as head of... a company." The reply's more measured than Tim had figured it'd be. He frowns at that minutely. This would be a disaster of an interview; small mercies that roommates aren't keen on distributing footage of fumbles. "Recently I was preoccupied with expanding a charity. We made it all the way to Moscow. I did a lot of public speaking, figurehead kind of stuff, mostly."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grins at him.

"That's a lot of responsibility to go from to systems testing via pulling a fire alarm and running," he teases.

[ployboy]

"Can lock in a crook nollie flip off a twelve-stair too," Tim chirps. His eyes brighten with the bluff--

can't remember the last time he even stepped on a board. But if it helps whatever image he's painted for Malcolm... Tim returns the grin, relaxes into the chair. Finally. "Don't underestimate me."

No bite, no heat, no latent expectations.

"Mind if I ask something personal?"

[abrightboy]

He doesn't underestimate Tim, but he also knows a breezy lie when he sees it on someone's face. It just tilts his lips upwards a hint at it.

He makes a sweeping gesture with his hand.

"Please do."

[ployboy]

Tim's already confident he can get under Meredith's skin (excuse the expression), not that he would ever really want to. But what would it take to get this guy to lose of all that patience?

Tim drinks the tea, and feel better for it. He looks at Malcolm's hands, instead of the man himself, for a moment. "Those meds you have. Obviously you have them because they help you, but what will you do when they run out? Just refill at the ADI clinic?" He pauses, then adds, "Mr. Arroyo was worried about you."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm's right hand comes to grip the cup, so the tremor isn't as evident.

"Lieutenant Arroyo is always worried about me. But they said I could refill at the clinic. Do you think that's a bad idea?"

[ployboy]

Well that confirms something Tim had sent to the back burner, and the visceral reaction is that damn frown of his again.

Cops?

That answers questions that he didn't have.

"I don't know," he says. It sounds like a confession. "I was just wondering. It doesn't sound like something I get an opinion in. I've never--"

Taken medication? Needed medication? What's that going to gain them? He shrugs. "I wouldn't know what to do."

[abrightboy]

“I’m heavily dependent,” Malcolm admits freely. “I don’t have a choice. It’s refill where I can or go through intense and debilitating withdrawal.”

[ployboy]

Yeah, man, he had figured that one out.

(Don't be a dick.)

"There's a... Walgreens around here," he tries. It's down Main. But really. He's serious. (Honest.) Tim has (deserves) no say. And wild theories aren't worth the heavy risk of someone else's reality. "I don't know," he says again. Sounds like a kid. "I sound like a jerk, but I hope it works out."

Everything.

The dependency on ADI.

The fact that his sleep was not so atrocious, until he shared walls with a man who wakes up screaming (Don't be a dick. Jeez!) and a woman with two splinted hands.