No pressure. I said long term, remember? Rome wasn't built in a day.
[ The implication being that he doesn't intend to go anywhere anytime soon. This is already more than he anticipated getting out of this conversation. ]
We can do a code word. [ A soft voice, a pointy elbow nudging his side: Nate? Where are you? ] You want me to ask you how the weather is?
( He's picking up on that implication. It's hitting him somewhere, probably a little too hard. Kind of glad there isn't an empathy bond to embarrass the hell out of him for it. )
That could work. Cloudy, stormy, sunny. Whatever the fuck snow would be.
What if you want to know about the actual weather? It's gonna be a who's on first what's on second thing, isn't it?
[ It's a passable system, something to tide them over. Nate has had his fair share of translations from gestures or subtle sentences, things that made the transition to speaking a much easier thing to practice. Eventually.
He remembers how long it took him. To expect faster progress of Ian would be a fool's errand. ]
Come up with a little shorthand dictionary for me, ok? The difference between annoyed but wanting company, and annoyed but not wanting company. Pissed off. Happy. Horny. Whatever.
Fuck, sorry, I didn't even notice I was doing it It seriously isn't a big deal, I swear. Just a weird one. I'm pretty sure you were trying to make this sincere gesture kind of thing and I couldn't really figure out how to Lock it in That's probably not a thing I couldn't figure out the right way to answer it. Not in a 'there's a wrong answer' way, just a I don't know, man, I couldn't figure out how to meet you there and I fucked up a little in the process and there was this whole
thing that wasn't really a thing, it was just me making it a thing and then trying to make it less of a thing It was just this weird stupid moment
I just meant it would have been awesome to have like a "low humidty over here Walt, back to you" so I could shut the fuck up
( And he is so, so tempted to throw out a 'regret it yet?' joke, or something else to distract from the mild embarrassment that follows showing off the insane way his brain works. Hard not to over-emphasize how innocuous he knows it actually was. )
[ Like, at all. There's a lot of convoluted logic twisting around in there, things that make Nate wonder how Ian's gotten this far and managed to stay as put-together as he seems to look, but then it shouldn't be all that shocking.
Nate was the same goddamn way, once. Still is at times. ]
I'll try and figure out a way to bring things to your attention sooner, but you gotta return the favor
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[ The implication being that he doesn't intend to go anywhere anytime soon. This is already more than he anticipated getting out of this conversation. ]
We can do a code word. [ A soft voice, a pointy elbow nudging his side: Nate? Where are you? ] You want me to ask you how the weather is?
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That could work.
Cloudy, stormy, sunny. Whatever the fuck snow would be.
What if you want to know about the actual weather? It's gonna be a who's on first what's on second thing, isn't it?
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[ It's a passable system, something to tide them over. Nate has had his fair share of translations from gestures or subtle sentences, things that made the transition to speaking a much easier thing to practice. Eventually.
He remembers how long it took him. To expect faster progress of Ian would be a fool's errand. ]
Come up with a little shorthand dictionary for me, ok? The difference between annoyed but wanting company, and annoyed but not wanting company. Pissed off. Happy. Horny. Whatever.
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[ Fuck. ]
I'm sorry
about that
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You don't have to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong
That was me being way too me, it's not a big deal
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Cmon, man. I pulled that exact shit on you and didn't think about it.
Tell me. Please
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It seriously isn't a big deal, I swear. Just a weird one. I'm pretty sure you were trying to make this sincere gesture kind of thing and I couldn't really figure out how to
Lock it in
That's probably not a thing
I couldn't figure out the right way to answer it. Not in a 'there's a wrong answer' way, just a
I don't know, man, I couldn't figure out how to meet you there and I fucked up a little in the process and there was this whole
thing that wasn't really a thing, it was just me making it a thing and then trying to make it less of a thing
It was just this weird stupid
moment
I just meant it would have been awesome to have like a "low humidty over here Walt, back to you" so I could shut the fuck up
( And he is so, so tempted to throw out a 'regret it yet?' joke, or something else to distract from the mild embarrassment that follows showing off the insane way his brain works. Hard not to over-emphasize how innocuous he knows it actually was. )
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[ Like, at all. There's a lot of convoluted logic twisting around in there, things that make Nate wonder how Ian's gotten this far and managed to stay as put-together as he seems to look, but then it shouldn't be all that shocking.
Nate was the same goddamn way, once. Still is at times. ]
I'll try and figure out a way to bring things to your attention sooner, but you gotta return the favor
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Okay
I can do that
I look forward to living with you in a hole in the ground proactively talking about our problems
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