love truth but pardon error

Eric had never imagined himself living in a city. Truthfully he’d never imagined himself living on land at all, but the crowded streets of New York often felt like as far from the open seas as he could get. Staten Island was a compromise he found himself strangely happy with, however, and he was probably one of the few people on the ferry every morning who was actually thrilled to be there. Having his best friend there too certainly helped…and Fredrick too, he supposed, silently chuckling to himself at his own joke. Max had been around for longer and was definitely cuter, it was only fair. The sheep dog loyally returned to his owner’s side and Eric scratched behind his ears as he looked back up at his second-best-friend, “ Hmm, you make a good point. ” Glancing down at both slices of pizza, he weighed up his options before holding the veggie slice out towards Fredrick, “ I think giving you food poisoning would really take away from my kind and noble gesture. ” He turned towards the fridge in search of a soda. “ Soooo, ” he spoke up, head still in the fridge, “ Whatcha working on ?? Remember, small words for the smaller brain over here. ”

.

Privately, they were relieved that Eric had offered the veggie slice, though they supposed they would have accepted whichever option was presented. Beggars can’t be choosers, so the saying goes. “Well. I promise to return the gesture by bringing you to the hospital if necessary,” he promised, pulling the still-suspicious slice closer and sniffing it nervously. If it were poisoned, it didn’t smell like it, to be fair. “Oh. I’m procrastinating,” he admitted casually, hoping Eric wouldn’t remark on it. Knowing Eric was likely to remark on it. “I need lecture notes for tomorrow on--” Small words, though they objected to the idea that Eric’s brain was small. Brains were all the same size, roughly. But even metaphorically, Eric was brighter than he gave himself credit for. Humbleness was one of his many virtues. “On a famous guy’s book. It’s a seminal--important--piece of work but it’s very of its time.” A beat, then they added. “Which is code for ‘racist’ in academia.” He took a bite of pizza. If it were poison, it did not taste it. “And you? What were you up to this evening?”

“ I brought dinner !! ” Eric called out as he swung open the front door, Max already barreling past him in search of the apartment’s other inhabitant. Dinner was perhaps a generous term for the two slices of display cabinet pizza he had grabbed from the place on the corner as they were closing, but Eric was ever the optimist. It was late, well past midnight by now according to the clock blinking at him from the microwave, though there was no doubt that Fredrick was still up straining his eyes over some paper or a book far past Eric’s comprehension level. Sure enough, he soon heard a series of loud happy barks, confirming that Max had found his target. “ Okay, pizza slice roulette; you wanna take the risk on the meat supreme or are you more into the veggie one where I truly can’t tell what the topping actually are. ”

( @fredrickbarot​ )

If you’d asked Fredrick, mere moments ago, to tell you what time it was, he would’ve guessed incorrectly. Not horribly incorrectly; he knew it was after 8pm, as the sun was down. He might’ve said 9. 10, if he was feeling particularly brutally honest. He knew he had a tendency to lose track of time when he was procrastinating. Still, Eric’s return came as some surprise to him. Or, more accurately, Max’s, as it was the dog bursting into his room that drew him out of his book. A book which was not in the plan for tomorrow’s lecture, partially because he had not written these plans. “Hey,” he cooed at the dog, gently cupping his face to give him the scratch he was so eager for. “Welcome home.” Then, he dragged himself to his feet, aware of the sudden hunger that came over him, and made his way to the kitchen. “Hm, all things being equal, veggies seem like the safer bet, but since you’re the breadwinner tonight, I feel like you should get first pick.”