Instant squint. Discerning look. He can't fucking tell. You know what, he's not gonna risk getting punked out for falling for something, he's just gonna let that go unremarked upon for now.
For. Now.
Instead, he reaches over carefully to curl a hand around Lance's shoulder. He's never come across as a touchy guy, but then again he's never come across as a guy with a fucking son he'll never meet either. He keeps it brief, but for him and for Nate physical contact is a need they often don't know how to ask for. Might be better to give it, just in case.
It falls away again after a second to curl back around his cup. )
You're welcome. Thanks for sharing it.
( It's lightly returned, a casual and faintly bouncing response that might seem automatic, but he does actually mean it.
That was a lot of really personal stuff. He knows how difficult it is to put stuff like that out there. It also helps him, in a way. He worked himself just as hard back home as he's doing here, except the difference is he didn't have anybody. He'd work, and then he'd drink with the handful of other adults that ritualistically met at night under dying firelight, and he'd probably wind up taking some other sad person to his cabin to fuck so they could feel a little less alone for the night. They'd leave, and he'd wake up the next morning and just... do it all over again. Every day.
Something like this is a marked difference. It helps him keep these two lives distinct and separate, so he doesn't completely fade back into the mindset he'd been in back there. )
no subject
Instant squint. Discerning look. He can't fucking tell. You know what, he's not gonna risk getting punked out for falling for something, he's just gonna let that go unremarked upon for now.
For. Now.
Instead, he reaches over carefully to curl a hand around Lance's shoulder. He's never come across as a touchy guy, but then again he's never come across as a guy with a fucking son he'll never meet either. He keeps it brief, but for him and for Nate physical contact is a need they often don't know how to ask for. Might be better to give it, just in case.
It falls away again after a second to curl back around his cup. )
You're welcome. Thanks for sharing it.
( It's lightly returned, a casual and faintly bouncing response that might seem automatic, but he does actually mean it.
That was a lot of really personal stuff. He knows how difficult it is to put stuff like that out there. It also helps him, in a way. He worked himself just as hard back home as he's doing here, except the difference is he didn't have anybody. He'd work, and then he'd drink with the handful of other adults that ritualistically met at night under dying firelight, and he'd probably wind up taking some other sad person to his cabin to fuck so they could feel a little less alone for the night. They'd leave, and he'd wake up the next morning and just... do it all over again. Every day.
Something like this is a marked difference. It helps him keep these two lives distinct and separate, so he doesn't completely fade back into the mindset he'd been in back there. )