[ Adrian wrinkles his nose. ] What's wrong with 'courtship'? That's a perfectly normal thing to call it.
[ He can't tell if Marc is being pedantic again or if the term itself is antiquated. Still, he can't disagree that he finds it hard to imagine Marc doing anything that could be called courting, even if he does seem to spend all of his time in his formal wear.
Then again, maybe he's just trying to be nice. ]
Then it's settled. Friend coffee. [ He pats Marc's hand before drawing his hands back to his mug. ] I know a place that's open late so you you needn't be up before the moon. I'll send a message when I know my shifts for next week.
[ Will Marc show up several hours late again? Adrian imagines that it's likely, but he has no shortage of reading to do and a coffee shop is a pleasant enough place to do it.
Anyway, it isn't a date. Neither of them need to have expectations.
It's just — Adrian's hands tighten around his mug again. ]
This is working. Friendship, I mean. I'm not in a hurry to make a mess of it.
[ Regardless of what his feelings might be, he's most certainly not ready to unpack them. There's very little that Adrian is truly afraid of, often to his peril, but the idea of raising the stakes of a friendship into romance, so that it has just that much further to fall when it falls apart — that is both novel and terrifying. ]
( it's punctuated by a flicker of his expression, like he wants to be offended by the insinuation that he won't be awake at regular people-and-business hours before shifting, quite quickly, into resignation at the fact that adrian's right. he might be awake in the early afternoon, but if he can stick to routine and if he can manage a semi-reasonable amount of sleep, then— no. it'll be evening.
still— ) I have an alarm clock, Adrian.
( —so why had he been late? don't ask that question. (will he be late? also yes. but it's nothing personal, okay.)
he considers that more-or-less his cue to leave, and he moves to stand, his coffee still almost entirely untouched. through habit, he make his way towards the window rather than the door, only pausing when adrian finishes speaking. he doesn't turn towards adrian, but he looks over his shoulder enough that he can catch the shape of him in his periphery.
reese had shared some of the conversation marlene had with her, but only after also sharing what she thought of marlene — rude, lacking in manners, unfair — but reese lacked context. lacked understanding. it was nice of her, but unfortunately none of it — none of marc — was quite that simple.
as marlene had said: marc saves people, but not himself and not the people closest to him. eventually, too, the horror outpaces the excitement, and there's no room in anyone's life for him once it gets to that. he doesn't disagree. he disagrees less with jean-paul's assertion, but jean-paul had always seen him most clearly. he won't stop. it's not for lack of want. he's tried, here and there over the years, and always ended up right back where he started.
so, adrian says this — friendship — is working, that he's in no hurry to ruin it, and all marc can think is that adrian hardly needs to be worried about what he'll do. marc tends to do a good enough job of that all by himself.
but unlike adrian, he doesn't differentiate between friendship and romance. he's just as skilled at ending both, it hardly matters what is what. )
[ Adrian huffs. He's not going to start calling it dating. That's so much worse. Marc can use whatever novel turns of phrase that he sees fit.
I have an alarm clock, Marc says, and Adrian is tempted to ask him what a man who allegedly doesn't sleep needs with an alarm clock, but he's caught up by the underlying meaning. The willingness to go out of his way for — for something as mundane as coffee, that he doesn't even have strong feelings about. (It's not for the coffee.)
Perhaps he should consider that a mundane act among friends, but he shakes his head, his gaze still downcast toward his lukewarm coffee. ] You're too sweet by far... And quite grumpy enough, even when you have slept.
[ It's lighthearted teasing, without any heat behind it. He finally lets go of the cup and stands up to see Marc to the... window. Adrian considers asking about the door, and decides against it almost immediately. There are some things one just has to accept about Marc Spector and one of them is, apparently, that he is a ridiculous man. ]
Do take care. [ He says, as Marc slips out into the night.
He won't, Adrian knows — but if Marc can assume that Adrian won't ruin this, Adrian can hope that it's a quiet night, just this once. Just for tonight. ]
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[ He can't tell if Marc is being pedantic again or if the term itself is antiquated. Still, he can't disagree that he finds it hard to imagine Marc doing anything that could be called courting, even if he does seem to spend all of his time in his formal wear.
Then again, maybe he's just trying to be nice. ]
Then it's settled. Friend coffee. [ He pats Marc's hand before drawing his hands back to his mug. ] I know a place that's open late so you you needn't be up before the moon. I'll send a message when I know my shifts for next week.
[ Will Marc show up several hours late again? Adrian imagines that it's likely, but he has no shortage of reading to do and a coffee shop is a pleasant enough place to do it.
Anyway, it isn't a date. Neither of them need to have expectations.
It's just — Adrian's hands tighten around his mug again. ]
This is working. Friendship, I mean. I'm not in a hurry to make a mess of it.
[ Regardless of what his feelings might be, he's most certainly not ready to unpack them. There's very little that Adrian is truly afraid of, often to his peril, but the idea of raising the stakes of a friendship into romance, so that it has just that much further to fall when it falls apart — that is both novel and terrifying. ]
no subject
( it's punctuated by a flicker of his expression, like he wants to be offended by the insinuation that he won't be awake at regular people-and-business hours before shifting, quite quickly, into resignation at the fact that adrian's right. he might be awake in the early afternoon, but if he can stick to routine and if he can manage a semi-reasonable amount of sleep, then— no. it'll be evening.
still— ) I have an alarm clock, Adrian.
( —so why had he been late? don't ask that question. (will he be late? also yes. but it's nothing personal, okay.)
he considers that more-or-less his cue to leave, and he moves to stand, his coffee still almost entirely untouched. through habit, he make his way towards the window rather than the door, only pausing when adrian finishes speaking. he doesn't turn towards adrian, but he looks over his shoulder enough that he can catch the shape of him in his periphery.
reese had shared some of the conversation marlene had with her, but only after also sharing what she thought of marlene — rude, lacking in manners, unfair — but reese lacked context. lacked understanding. it was nice of her, but unfortunately none of it — none of marc — was quite that simple.
as marlene had said: marc saves people, but not himself and not the people closest to him. eventually, too, the horror outpaces the excitement, and there's no room in anyone's life for him once it gets to that. he doesn't disagree. he disagrees less with jean-paul's assertion, but jean-paul had always seen him most clearly. he won't stop. it's not for lack of want. he's tried, here and there over the years, and always ended up right back where he started.
so, adrian says this — friendship — is working, that he's in no hurry to ruin it, and all marc can think is that adrian hardly needs to be worried about what he'll do. marc tends to do a good enough job of that all by himself.
but unlike adrian, he doesn't differentiate between friendship and romance. he's just as skilled at ending both, it hardly matters what is what. )
You won't. Thank you for the coffee.
no subject
I have an alarm clock, Marc says, and Adrian is tempted to ask him what a man who allegedly doesn't sleep needs with an alarm clock, but he's caught up by the underlying meaning. The willingness to go out of his way for — for something as mundane as coffee, that he doesn't even have strong feelings about. (It's not for the coffee.)
Perhaps he should consider that a mundane act among friends, but he shakes his head, his gaze still downcast toward his lukewarm coffee. ] You're too sweet by far... And quite grumpy enough, even when you have slept.
[ It's lighthearted teasing, without any heat behind it. He finally lets go of the cup and stands up to see Marc to the... window. Adrian considers asking about the door, and decides against it almost immediately. There are some things one just has to accept about Marc Spector and one of them is, apparently, that he is a ridiculous man. ]
Do take care. [ He says, as Marc slips out into the night.
He won't, Adrian knows — but if Marc can assume that Adrian won't ruin this, Adrian can hope that it's a quiet night, just this once. Just for tonight. ]