Raise Hell & Turn It Up

His brow furrowed a little when they got onto the conversation of things they liked. “Not really. I’ll try to think on it, though, and get back to you.” He replied, offering an awkward half smile back.

“You build robots? That’s pretty extreme for a hobby.I’d count crappy movies as a hobby, I guess. I don’t know why putting yourself through shit like that would be fun though.”

Alan raised an eyebrow at Theo. “Dancing? You dance, too? You don’t really look the type.” He added, snorting in amusement at the way Theo was counting them out on his fingers.

They fell into silence for a little while, Theo staring up at the sky and Alan glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. This was nice, actually. Sure it had started off awkward, but it seemed to be going alright now. He’d even started to relax, just a little.

Theo asked him about hobbies and he shrugged. Now it was his turn to look up, lost in thought. “You know what. I don’t know. I used to do music. I can’t remember why I stopped, though. I’m sure there was a reason.”

Not only had he completely clammed up, he could feel the awkward tension between them as if it were something palpable, and Theo wasn’t saying anything. Not that he had to, of course, but it would have helped.

After several moments Theo finally spoke, causing Alan to jump. A wave of relief made him sigh as he nodded. “Yeah. We can do that.”

Could they? On second thought, the vivid image of Andras swooping down on them made Alan shudder. “That is if..you’re not worried about potentially meeting my demon, that is.”

“I uh..” He spoke, talking slowly as if trying to make an excuse as the sentence was working its way out of his mouth, but seemed to come up with nothing. “It’s uh. It’s fine, I don’t need help. Everything is..cool.”

For a moment his voice lost that usual monotone, almost cracking as he felt his face go bright red. Okay. How do you quietly say that you’re not in a lot of pain and you’d like to stay out and maybe spend time with someone without it coming off as weird? He didn’t know. It wasn’t as if he’d tried to make a friend before.

“No, I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.” Alan responded, trying to sound as casual as possible. “Just a scratch, you know.” 

He pulled himself up and shrugged dismissively. “It’s probably just because I’m out doing things. Which means I should probably head in. I guess.”