None the Worse ✓

44) 'Rehabilitation Is Overrated' And Other Conclusions That Nobody Comes...

44) 'Rehabilitation Is Overrated' And Other Conclusions That Nobody Comes To Unless They've Been To Prison And Waltzed Out The Door With A Knife In Their Hands And Stabbed The First Person They Walked Into, Or They're In Love

Everybody reacted differently to bad news. Some cried and screamed and slammed with doors while others, like Benjamin, locked themselves in their room, played loud music over a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and pretended like everything was fine. Martin got aggressive, both verbally and physically, and Pi and Messiah fell under the stay-home-and-ignore-all-incoming-messages category. Heston... Was Heston ever upset?

Benjamin wasn't sure what he expected from Thijmen, but it wasn't this.

He was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself, kicking dirty underwear around, grabbing onto his hair, and generally just acting very un-Thijmen-like.

"Why did they tell you?" he asked suddenly.

Benjamin could only frown at him. Why? Eleanor I knew, Benjamin II knew and Benjamin III knew. The only one who didn't know was the person in question. So, perhaps, a more appropriate question would be why they didn't tell Thijmen.

"This is so fucking stupid," he grumbled, before muttering angry demon words. Benjamin almost felt tempted to ask him what they meant, but something told him that would only result in more angry demon words with no translation. Better to save that for later.

Not that they would get later.

"Thijmen," he said.

"What?" he snapped.

"N-nothing."

Maybe it was better to leave him alone. He didn't seem to be in the mood to talk and Benjamin didn't even know what to say, so this being-in-the-same-room situation wasn't beneficial to either of them. He got up and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Thijmen asked.

"I-I don't know."

"Then why are you leaving?"

"Because... I need to... pee."

This was a bad idea and Benjamin knew it, but he went through with it anyway because bad things were easier than good things. Also, he did need to pee.

Even after contemplating the porcelain god, Benjamin didn't leave the bathroom. He gave Thijmen time to cool down. He gave himself time to warm up. Angry people, regardless of reaction, were still pretty scary. Okay.

Okay.

Thijmen hadn't known. That was good. That was a good reaction, all things considered. He cared. That warmed Benjamin up.

He cared.

Benjamin cracked the door open. The hallway was deserted, and so he rolled outside, like a ninja. Thijmen hadn't gone to the kitchen, which meant he was still in his room. Benjamin rolled to it and screamed when the door opened and whacked his face. He, thus, rolled to the side and crashed against the wall, and his ninja days were over.

Not that it was a very promising career anyway.

"Sorry."

"It's okay," he said, rubbing his shoulder.

Thijmen offered a hand to pull him up and said, "You should probably stop rolling across the floor and crashing into things."

"You're probably right."

Thijmen shifted from one foot to the other, almost awkwardly, eyes on the floor, before he murmured, "Wanna sleep in my room tonight?"

"Oh, okay. You can sleep in my room, but it might be a little hot because the window—"