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[abrightboy]

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[conning]

"Sure." He takes a deep drink of coffee, looking at Malcolm. "You're very. Phlegmatic about..."

A vague gesture. "Personal things."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shrugs, getting a couple eggs out of the fridge and setting them on the counter. “You know, most of the emotional and psychological problems that happen around sex and sexuality come out of making a normal biological need into something taboo and mysterious. We don’t talk about it.”

[conning]

Neal stares at him a little, not affronted or confused or weirded out, just… surprised. “I can’t argue with that.”

Humanity’s taboos all arise from a refusal to expose a thing to light, really. Making it secret or private or embarrassing in some way. Shame is a hell of a motivator, and doesn’t Neal know it.

A pause, while he waits to see what Malcolm does with the eggs. “Do you have someone back home?”

Neal has a guess.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm cracks them into a frying pan, glancing over.

“What do you mean? Like. A relationship?”

[conning]

He shrugs. “A relationship, a friend with benefits. I know some people consider the Barge a kind of interdimensional Vegas in terms of its impact on things back home.”

He doesn’t think Malcolm is one of them, but still.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm glances at him again, then pushes at the eggs with his spatula.

“I’m not seeing anyone.”

A big surprise, he’s sure.

[conning]

He takes his coffee to the kitchenette table and sits down, fiddling with his mug. “Is there anyone you’d like to see?”

[abrightboy]

“I don’t know,” he says, scrambling the eggs as they start to solidify. “I sort of… kissed a colleague of mine not long before I got here, but… I don’t think she really… likes me like that. Maybe that’s for the best. Maybe I’m not really in a place for that anyway,” he reasons.

[conning]

“Norton asked me when this flood started—we were talking and it came up— the question of if either of us wanted a family.”

He doesn’t elaborate on that, maybe just giving himself and excuse for this line of questioning. “Why wouldn’t you be? In a place for that? At least for kisses.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks confused. Isn’t it obvious?

“I’m a mess. Who needs that?”

[conning]

Neal opens his mouth, closes it. Pauses. Tries again. "Malcolm. You've spoken to other human beings. You make a whole study of human nature. Who isn't a mess?"

[abrightboy]

“There are messes and there are messes that will always be a burden on anyone they’re with,” Malcolm tells him. “I have a lot of problems.”