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"Well... you took the fall for me... Andrew found me... and everything else they considered a screw up was out of our control." But he shook his head, brushing away the thoughts. "Let's go to bed." he downed his lemonade, not wanting it to go to waste before placing the cup in the sink. "We'll have an intense cuddle session before bed." and chuckled, leaving to go change into pajamas.

Tim considered putting on a shirt. He knew Daren wasn't one for physical activities, but seeing the tanned....

Scars.

he eyed them as the man changed, back to him before sleepily falling in to bed. Tim looked at his own t-shirt before ignoring it, climbing into the otherside.

Act normal, don't mention it.... the pang of telling Daren he knew about...

He wasn't going to let that happen again. He was going to keep Daren's trust this time.

"You sound tired." he murmured, pressing against the man's side carefully, not wanting to trigger him. "You gonna sleep well?" and chuckled.

"You're fine.' he said with a soft laugh, "I said intense cuddle session, yes? Cuddle away. We have all night." and held the man gently, letting him take initiative tonight.

"I love you too." he said softly, feeling the other press so close he might as well have tried becoming Tim's second skin. Timothy didn't mind, clinging back, knowing he needed it and waited until Daren's breath slowed before falling asleep himself.

4am he woke up, eyes wide and body buzzing with energy. No, not energy, he looked at his hands, his body was covered in filth. Getting out of Daren's grasp he went to shower, scrubbing hard at his skin, his face, scalp, even the bottoms of his feet. His reflection was the same after he got out of the shower, red, small scratches where he'd run the cloth too close. His teeth were next, the bristles scraping hard over the bone, over the gum. Floss, blood, spit and rinse, brush once more, more blood. Spit and rinse. Go and change, he was careful with this part, not wanting to wake Daren up again. Khakis, a decent polo, and close the door behind him.

The filth was overwhelming.

Taking a breath he gathered his supplies and quietly set to work in the living room where they had all been last night. Dusting, wiping, cleaning, checking for stains, polishing, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming. He had to make sure all of it was clean, cleaning the floors everywhere in the end, avoiding the small hallway where the bedrooms were. He didn't want Daren to smell the cleaning product.

The kitchen was next. Just a drop of bleach, drop of dawn, water, clean and scrub it clean. Change the kitty litter, the kitty water and food, check the fridge for any expire foods.

It didn't take that long to clean, by 7am he was done so he walked back to the bedroom, looking at the sleeping man and cuddling him again, dozing off.

It was when the other woke up a few hours later did the red-head wake up. "Hmm?" he looked up and chuckled, rolling onto his back. "Good morning sleepy head."

Tim gave a small happy sigh, at least, it was happy until Daren sat up and frowned down at him. "Just a bit." he mumbled, not wanting to fight, letting Daren to inspect the house as he sat up. Where were his shoes?

Tim looked around, starting to stand but he was quickly shoved back onto the bed, body quickly screaming to panic, flinching as his shirt was lifted. He didn't want to fight.

"I'm sorry. I can't... I'm sorry." Don't argue back, just apologize.

Well you haven't gotten mad at Daren for his scars. his mind argued He shouldn't be so hypocritical.

"We'll work on it. You were, asleep, so I didn't. I'll try harder next time."

If he cared maybe he wouldn't scold you for it. Just limit it to certain areas. We were nice enough not to do the hallway.

Tim had to close his eyes to remove the thoughts, looking at Daren and returning the small smile with his own weaker one. "Sausage sounds good for breakfast, if we have any. If not eggs sound good, no?" he asked, taking the hand and carefully standing.

Following him out he continued to ignore the whispers in his head, the little sparks of, of something he wasn't sure of.

"Nothing big. Sausage and eggs is fine with me I'm not completely hungry."

"Deal." he smiled and began to quietly work on cooking the eggs and sausage. They weren't hard to cook. He made the eggs scrambled and was making sure he wasn't burning the sausage, turning and rolling it frequently to prevent the burning. And soon the cooked breakfast Tim had made was on two separate plates.