[Nightlight]

[seeagreatergood]

So things got awkward and Auggie moved his stuff back out of the Stark household into Milliways.

And he's been totally fine with it. Honestly. It's been kind of a relief not to have to keep such a close eye on himself the last three or four days. Milliways is kind of anxiety-inducing, but less anxiety inducing than living in a house with those two young men.

Of course, he misses the easy camaraderie. But it's not like this is the first time he valued safety over friendship.

Comments

[seeagreatergood]

He blows out a breath.

"Thanks."

Exactly what he wanted to hear.

He's going to try not to second-guess it.

[if_inconvenient]

He squirms into a different position on the couch, folding his arms across Tony's lap and resting his head on them, which temporarily dislodges Tony's hand from his hair but gives him a much better view of Auggie.

"Are we all right, then?" he asks softly.

[seeagreatergood]

"You tell me. I'm the one groveling."

[if_inconvenient]

"In that case, yes. Yes we are."

[seeagreatergood]

"Okay." He half-smiles in their direction. "Good."

He sips his drink. "And for the record, I do take you seriously. If I didn't I wouldn't fight with you."

[if_inconvenient]

The soft huff of laughter—

[toblameforit]

—is shared equally between the two of them.

[seeagreatergood]

"What?"

[toblameforit]

"Lots of people fight with Sherry without taking him seriously."

[if_inconvenient]

"You are not, however, one of them."

[seeagreatergood]

He snorts. "Thank God."

[if_inconvenient]

"I would not like you nearly so much if you were."

[seeagreatergood]

"Thanks for that."

[if_inconvenient]

He laughs. "For what?"

[seeagreatergood]

"Not considering me an idiot."

[if_inconvenient]

"I do like to see the world as it is," he says with a shrug.

[toblameforit]

At which point, thoughtfully, Tony interrupts.

"Okay, so you know what we want from you. What do you want from us?"

[seeagreatergood]

Auggie blinks.

"--I haven't given it a lot of thought."

Or has actively avoided thinking about it, sometimes.

[toblameforit]

"Well, think about it now," he suggests. "We've got time."

[seeagreatergood]

"Huh."

He sits back in his chair, tapping his finger on his drink.






"Do you take me seriously?"

[toblameforit]

Puzzled: "...In what sense?"

[seeagreatergood]

"Any sense. But mainly do you take my concerns about a relationship with you seriously." He shrugs. "I don't think you take my concerns about your security seriously because to you they look like me not taking you seriously. And yeah, maybe I deserve that one. But if you don't take me seriously when I worry that I'm manipulating you or exploiting you, then there's no way to move forward."

[toblameforit]

"I think," Tony says, "if we're gonna talk about that part, I wanna be doing it in somebody's room."

[seeagreatergood]

"I . . ."

Deep breaths. Keeping them comfortable. Right.

"Okay."

[toblameforit]

"I mean not somebody's bedroom, just someplace with a door that locks. We can use my rooms; there's like a living room part with a couch and everything."