Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Ah, see that would make sense! But if we're a closed book does this mean we'll be hugging often?" Taking Daren's bowl, Tim stood and grabbed his own as the knocking started. "I'll go rinse these out." and walked to the kitchen, hearing Daren walk to the door before opening it. He wondered who it was, the voice was quiet.

Leaving the bowls in the sink he walked out, freezing in spot.

Iroh.

Had... no one told him Daren was back? Tim certainly hadn't.

"I...roh." Tim greeted, forcing his legs to move and smile. "What a pleasant surprise." Tim could practically smell the fear off of Daren.

The look on the officer's face made Tim try and shrink away, memories trying to fight through to the surface, but the red-head's main concern was Daren, looking over at his pale friend. Iroh wanted him to leave? Look at Daren! He couldn't be left alone!

"I don't think--"

"Sorry, Tim."

Tim looked up at the man in shock, biting his lip and nodding, rubbing the man's arm and giving it a squeeze. "I'll be back tomorrow, all right?" And he walked past Iroh, giving him a second long glare that told the man what would happen if he harmed Daren before leaving. The man considered staying outside and listening, but knew that both Daren and Iroh would work around this so clicked the elevator button, staying as long as possible in case he had to go break up a fight.

Tim stepped out of the elevator, looking around as though expecting to see Iroh. He had waited last night for ten minutes, but nothing. He thought he heard a door slam but after that was silence, so leaving was the only thing he could do. He had a drink or two with Andy, even taking a third because he was so worried. Andy did watch his drinking and once Tim's words became slurred he sent him to bed.

With a small headache pounding away the office worker walked down the hall to Daren's room. Taking one more glance around he rang the doorbell, not that he expected an answer, and when there was none he reached above the doorframe to get the spare key, unlocking and entering the place.

"Daren?" he called, shutting the door behind him and locking it, setting the spare key down. There was no sign of a fight and nothing was thrown. Continuing down the hall he checked around, Tim's own bedroom untouched along with the second bathroom. There was a towel missing from the linen closet. Someone probably showered, Iroh or Daren? Daren's car was in the parking garage, so maybe Iroh.

"Oh." He saw the man curled up in the bed, but he couldn't see his face, he was curled into the blankets. Was he asleep? To the clear wall was Daren's clothes, and Tim frowned, walking in and setting the bag down, taking the laundry and putting it in the hamper before continuing to the nightstand.

"Here," he whispered, not wanting to wake the man, "This should help you feel better. I know Iroh likes you, but I'm paranoid." he set the a**l cream down, "It's supposed to relieve the pain. It helped me a lot with Andrew before he grew worse." And water and some pain pills along with a Gatorade and a tupperware of food with a plastic fork taped to the lid.

Tim sat on the bed, looking at the bundled mass, reaching and gently rubbing his shoulder. Were there bruises underneath the blankets? With Andrew, just looking at another man sent him off the edge and Tim would suffer a night of pain as repentance. He wouldn't look, though. That was Daren's privacy. "I told you Iroh liked you, Daren." he sighed, squeezing the air out of the empty bag and folding it. "I like you, I have Jason but..." he sighed again, glancing back at the sleeping mass, shrugging. "I have to go see him in twenty minutes but here I am. I guess I should go, you are sleeping. You have a habit of sleeping like a log." Tim chuckled, standing up, "Eat your food, it's your favorite." and looked down, smiling, wondering why he himself was so stupid. "Get well soon." he murmured, bending down and kissing the top of the man's head.

At the movement the red-head moved away quickly, cleaning his mouth as though that would show obvious signs of kissing Daren's head. "Morning!" he greeted with a smile, "And I did but you were passed out so I snuck in. I was hoping to stay silent but I guess folding the bag woke you up. Sorry about that." And chuckled, setting the bag aside. "I brought you some things, since you might be bedridden, and it looks like I'm right. Gay man's intuition." he pointed out. "Need me to fetch you anything before I go to work?"

"I don't understand how you like it rough." Tim said, though Tim himself had baggage to explain why he liked it much more gentle and consensual. "I can take all my gifts back if you want." and stuck his tongue out like a child before smiling and shrugging. "We're friends, it's the least I could do. You'd do the same for me, I think." and smiled, thinking of when he told Daren that Jason was free, but he hadn't told him at all except...

Holy hell...

His face grew somewhat warm, nodding. "Just wanted to make sure you were okay first! But I will be heading out or I'll be late. You get rest you haven't had sex that rough in a while!" he called, grabbing the spare key and exiting, closing and locking the door before the key went back on the door frame.

How embarrassing, Tim thought. Daren had been awake while he confessed! Had he? Maybe he'd just woken up to hear Tim say he should be with Jason. Oh well, what's done is done and he wouldn't know, but driving off he couldn't help but worry before reaching his boyfriend's place, forcing himself to relax.

"What happens outside of this relationship does not affect it. This is a completely different environment."

It was the same mantra he told himself when he was abused, not wanting it to disrupt his work. Now he didn't want his crush on Daren to disrupt his time with Jason.

And Halloween came, Tim of course, being forced to partake in Andy's party before leaving. Tim was wearing a plain white dress s**t over a t-shirt and was carrying a small bag of markers. He made face, chatting and talking and explaining his costume, It recieved a lot of people wanting to sign, shirt quickly covered before he went to get the entire package of the cheap shirts. He did relax a bit, knowing some of the faces but when he took a swig of beer he paused, forcing himself to swallow before abandoning it. Nope. He had to see Daren tonight. s**t everyone else was drinking alcohol too, no doubt it was on his clothes. Maybe Daren could take the excuse of 'they were all drinking so it stuck to me.' Of course it would be on his breath.

Thinking for a few moments he decided to find his bottle of juice and downed the entire thing, hoping that could quell the taste of alcohol and if not well then maybe he could get by saying he wasn't aware the punch had alcohol. After waiting an hour for any side effects to make themselves known he finally left, waving bye before driving off to Daren's.

Ugh, he reeked of alcohol. Did he have spare clothes somewhere? He normally kept a bag in case he went to Jas--there it was. Timothy considered changing in the car but decided he was not that okay with the public yet so waited until he got into the parking garage, changing quickly in his seat before stepping out and heading upstairs. Ah, this shirt was blank, oh well. Daren could be the first to sign it, his second one was getting sort of crowded anyway.

And without bothering to knock he pulled the key off the doorframe and let himself in. "Daren?" he called, stretching and remembering he left a bag of candy in the car. "Crap, hang on." and left again, going aaaall he way back downstairs, grabbing the bag and going aaaall the way back up. "Okay I'm here for real."

"I forgot the candy, but looking at the candy bowl you're slowly devouring I'd say it hasn't been looking good for you." Tim had expected this, when on the elevator parents stopped their kids from getting off on this floor. He'd expected it but not even one family gave him the benefit of the doubt. "Mind if I have some?" he sat down beside his friend, taking a bite of popcorn before taking a small M&M's package.

"Your autograph idea was great, by the way, but they were all drinking so that costume smelled like alcohol. I changed into clean clothes in the car after I parked. Andy really overdoes it sometimes. I hope I don't find someone sleeping in my bed again." and ate a bit more popcorn. "How's your evening been?"