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[abrightboy]

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[conning]

"That's terrible," Neal says softly. All of it, but the idea of Malcolm's mother giving him animals just to see if he hurt them and then taking that companionship away when her litmus test was finished in particular.

[abrightboy]

“She doesn’t like my parakeet either,” he says with a shrug. That’s just how Mother is. He looks at Neal. “Honestly there’s nothing not to like about a parakeet.”

[conning]

Neal's lips pinch into a little frown and he looks down at George, who's come back to lean against his leg. Not rubbing against him, really, just leaning there like a little weirdo. He smiles, reaching down to pet him as a pang of something guilty he doesn't want to think about tugs at him.

"Have you always liked birds?"

[abrightboy]

“I didn’t know I did,” he admits. “When I lived in DC, my therapist suggested a support animal, to keep me company. I think she had, like, a dog or cat in mind. Maybe a guinea pig. But I saw her when I went to the pet store. I liked the noise she made,” he says, smiling faintly at the memory.

[conning]

Neal smiles in response, a bit of the Odyssey springing to mind. “Come hither, as thou farest, renowned Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans,” Neal murmurs, repeating the first line of the Sirens’ song. He pauses.

“Did you get her to have someone to come home to?”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm blinks at him because he hadn’t thought of that, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t so.

“…I …guess? I mean. I guess that’s how it turned out, at least. I’ve had to live alone for a long time. I scream in my sleep.”

[conning]

Neal blinks in surprise. He can't remember Malcolm mentioning that before. "That's... like, on a regular basis?"

[abrightboy]

"Yeah. I have night terrors almost every night." Thankfully, the Barge is constructed so it doesn't bother his neighbours. Only Raylan has seen it. He doesn't usually bring it up, but he's not really about actively hiding things anymore either. He left that behind with his FBI badge. "Like. Inconsolable parasomnias."

[conning]

He mentally translates the Latin, adding it to “night terrors” and wincing at the mental result.

“Can’t… can’t the Admiral stop them?”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks at him blankly and raises his eyebrows.

"...What do you mean?"

[conning]

He shrugs, bending to pick George up. "Can't that be your deal? He cures them?"

[abrightboy]

"I mean... I guess? But... wouldn't that be a waste of a wish?" Who would that help besides Malcolm?

[conning]

Neal frowns. "Is there another way to cure them?"

[abrightboy]

"Cure them? No, of course not," Malcolm tells him. "I mean, the intensity waxes and wanes but they'll always be there."

[conning]

"So how is that a waste of a wish?" He's confused, Malcolm.

[abrightboy]

"It would only help me. How is it not a waste of a wish when you can use it to help lots of people? He can grant basically anything. In the entire universe," Malcolm points out.

[conning]

His brows knit a little. “Like a new life? A changed one? A world that’s completely different, good and fair?”

Neal gestures at nothing in particular, no judgment in his tone. “You haven’t asked for any of that. And you don’t seem to think it’s even a good idea every time. And you can get more than one deal with more than one graduate, can’t you? Why not choose something that makes your life better in a way no one else can?”

[abrightboy]

"Maybe if I graduate two or three people first, and use those wishes for something... good that I think of. Then we'll see. I can't just... throw it away on something nobody else will even notice," Malcolm points out.

[conning]

Neal stares in mild confusion. "Why can't you take care of yourself first?"

[abrightboy]

“Because that’s not what I did this for. The doing this… that is the self care,” Malcolm explains.

[conning]

"Yeah, but..." He trails off, still confused. "People come here to ask for things that they can't get any other way. Just because that's not why you came, why can't it be a perk?"

[abrightboy]

"Because it's selfish," Malcolm tells him. And maybe he deserves what he gets, Neal. You haven't considered that, have you? "I haven't earned that yet."

[conning]

"So?" Selfish smelfish. You are a strange creature Malcolm, and it fascinates him. "What do you have to do to earn it?"

[abrightboy]

“More and better,” Malcolm tells him. “You have no idea how many lives have been taken on my watch.”

[conning]

"That's not a quantifiable--" He stops himself. It doesn't matter. Malcolm is like Peter, a little bit. There are certain things he probably can't argue around. "Just because they died it doesn't mean it's your fault."