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Icarus got up from the table. He walked across the room, dumping his cold coffee down the drain and pouring himself another cup. He took his time fussing over the beverage, adding sugar and a bit of milk, stirring longer than necessary. He leaned against the counter sipping at the hot drink, wanting to avoid these question altogether. "I think you know," he said finally, staring into his cup. "You've already said his name. I won't."

"Tobin..." the man began and then he stopped, reconsidering his answer. What was he supposed to say? Lies, the truth - there was nothing he could grasp at that wouldn't hurt if he couldn't get the boy to drop the topic soon. "It was a long time ago," he said finally, stirring his coffee again. "When he worked at the shop, I believe he was living on the streets. I'm sorry, I'm afraid I never paid him much mind."

He looked up for a moment, studying the boy, his mind trailing into the neglected persona's territory. How could he still give a damn? All these years... why hadn't he moved on? He should have. As much as it had hurt to think about, it was an inevitability he had come to terms with some time ago. It was selfish to hope that he might be waiting for him and stupid to put any hope in ever having anything between them again. Even now, with Tobin thrown into the same ugly mess as he was... he was still better off without him.

He looked away finally, pushing those thoughts back where they belonged. You aren't him any more. This doesn't concern you, he reminded himself as he stared hard out the window, his hand trembling slightly with how tightly he gripped his coffee mug. In the end, none of it will matter anyway. He'll see that soon enough.

"If you're up for it, we could stop by your house tonight." He said after awhile. "You'll be needing some proper clothes."

Icarus turned back to towards the boy, smiling though the expression was more one of relief to him than anything else and it did not reach his eyes. "You don't need to ask my permission," he replied, giving it anyway with a tip of his head. "There are worse burdens in life than having to look after someone. Don't think that I dislike opening my home to you just because I was asked to do it."

The apartment was too quiet. It was part of the reason why Icarus never wanted to stay here long. He couldn't stand it. Perhaps silence would have been better just now though. Hearing Tobin cry was not a happier alternative. He tried to tune it out, trading the kitchen for the cool dim of what could be called a living room if it wasn't so small. He dropped heavily onto the couch, slipping his already loosened tie from around his neck and tossing it aside, then working lazily at the buttons on his shirt.

He should have found a better place to take Tobin, someone better to look after him. So far, this situation really wasn’t turning out so good for either of them and he could only blame so much on Tithe. Shedding the shirt, he felt some relief, but not much - his body was starting to heat up again. It wasn't too bad yet, probably something along the lines of what a high fever should have felt like but that was the thing about these glitches. Sometimes they got worse before they went away and lately, sometimes seemed to happen a lot more than not. If he was lucky, a cold shower would stop it before it got bad. If not, it would get worse by the day. Icarus could only hope he wouldn't be starting fires and scorching everything he touched again any time soon.

He sighed, getting up and heading reluctantly down the hall. It wasn't just the stress of dealing with Tobin that was setting off another glitch. This was stressful - and painful in it's own right - but losing him, hunting for him... that had been worse and he'd been on the move almost constantly the moment he realized Tobin hadn't simply left of his own accord. Now that he was finally slowing down again, of course the toll was going to catch up.

He reached the end of the hall where the mournful sounds Tobin was making were so much louder, even if the boy was trying to be quiet. The sudden pain that lanced through his right shoulder and the mangled flesh that marked where his arm had once been was his first warning. Icarus gasped and fell against the wall, clutching at the empty socket as if to staunch off pain but he had bigger problems than that. Color faded and intensified in front of his eyes, a static sort of sound buzzing at his ears. Icarus blanched, struggling to hold the third persona back. He’d never had to fight for control with this one before - he never wanted it - but there was no arguing with him. Icarus had to wonder if he was even capable of arguing but it was a dim thought. Already the other was tearing away his last threads of control.

Theo blinked, standing for the first time in a long time in the hallway of the apartment he had bought so long ago. He drew a breath, steadying himself as he pushed away from the wall and let go of his shoulder. The pain was still there but he had been carrying that too long to really notice it. He wore it like a second skin now. He went to the door, moving almost silently, but there was no sound from the next room anymore. He flinched at the quiet, the twisted parts of his mind pushing sounds better suited for hellish nightmares through the static that always seemed to fill his ears. His breathing quickened, the no-color-too-much-color dance his sight liked to play picking up it’s pace as well. His skin prickled as the nerves went haywire, his senses overloading, crashing, raw. There was a reason he had split himself, a reason he didn’t want control - but that didn’t matter right now.

He pushed the door open, slowly so it wouldn’t make any noise and walked inside, laying down beside the boy his world had once revolved around. He reached out, tucking Tobin’s hair behind his ear and out of his face, his hand lingering on the boy’s face when he found it wet with tears, though the contact made his nerves crawl and scream. There was none of Icarus’ hesitation in his actions, nor any of Tithe’s violence - he was neither of those things, and both.

Tomorrow, he would have to give up control again but tonight was his. He curled up around Tobin, wrapping his arm around him and entwining his legs with his, tucking his head into the hollow of the boy’s neck to drown out the hellish sounds only he could hear with the steady thrum of the boy’s heartbeat. Laying like that, breathing in his former lover’s scent, even though it was different than he remembered, it was almost possible to pretend that nothing had happened, that everything he had become - everything he was and was not, was just a nightmare and everything was and would be okay. The feeling wouldn’t last forever but he clung to it while he could.

Theo started, his eyes snapping open. His gaze was unfocused at first but that changed quickly, his pupils thinning to slits as his eyes tuned back in to the real world. He jerked away from the boy's touch, releasing him as he scrambled back - falling off the bed in the process. He didn't seem to notice, grunting as he hit the floor but offering no other reaction. He just kept backing away. Once his back was pressed against the wall, he sat there, every muscle in his body rigid and shivering. There was a screeching in his ears, something loud and angry and ugly. He shook his head, clawing at his ears to try and make it stop, distressed, strangled noises creeping up his throat but nothing seemed to work. The static sound that had fallen to the back of his hearing grew a bit louder as his personas pushed at his control and he let them take it, his lips parting in a soundless scream as his muscles slackened and Tithe took over.

"Ugh, you stupid son of a b***h," Tithe ground out as he struggled to calm his body down. His heart hurt with how fast Theo had got it pumping and his breathing wasn't all that far from hyperventilation. "Well, now you've met the whole gang," He growled once he felt slightly less like he was about to keel over. "You can thank Icarus for letting him out."

Tithe ignored the him for a minute, getting up and watching the way his hand shook. "That's going to get annoying." He muttered to himself, wincing as he reached up and touched one of the scratches on his neck. "Hope you got it out of your system, bud, because that's the last ******** time you get to drive."

He smirked at Tobin then, processing what all he had missed out on. "Aww, you thought you were all cuddled up with Icarus?" He laughed. It would have been interesting to tell the boy just who he had been dealing with a moment ago but he got the feeling that if he did, Icarus would be cracking down and trying to keep control from then on. Tithe had his own agenda to meet - he didn't need Icarus on his back. He could draw a line and trail the edge.

"You'll have to start listening more carefully to Icarus if you want to learn anything from him. He doesn't like to lie but he chooses his words carefully. What he doesn't say is just as important as what does and he'll gloss over the big things by making them sound unimportant. And I said he doesn't like to, not that he doesn't lie." Tithe said curtly, stalking across the room. "He told you there are three of us, not two. So no, that wasn't Icarus. Icarus isn't batshit crazy."

He stopped in front of Tobin, leaning into his space and reaching around him to scratch Senna behind the ears. He could have reached the cat just as easily outside of Tobin's personal space but it wasn't the cat he was interested in messing with. "Now why would you be feeling me up?" he murmured, his face close to Tobin's. He grinned, chuckling quietly at the look on Tobin's face. "I'm always hot. Firebreather, remember? I'd say I'm not sick but that would be lying. White-coats ******** up my design - heating up like this is just a glitch. This is nothing. When s**t starts catching fire around me - that's when you should worry."

Tithe snickered, letting the boy put distance between them. "Relax. I don't care one way or the other. Don't waste your breath explaining s**t to any of us. We're all the same person, just different versions - different emotional capacities, different instincts, different hard-wiring but we're all still aware of what the another did or said or thought - it's all the same brain." He smirked again. "So I know what you did while you were sleeping but again - I also know you were sleeping."

He sat down next to Senna, scratching the creature more thoroughly now that he was actually paying attention to the creature. "He's too easy to mess with," he purred to the cat at Tobin's expense.

"Whatever food you can find was picked up specifically with you in mind. I'm not allowed to eat and Icarus always eats out - so before yesterday there really wasn't anything in this house except the occasional container of peanut butter. I can't imagine he'd have a problem with you getting into what was already meant for you to begin with," he added, not looking up from the cat but talking to Tobin all the same. "And no. I'm not feverish, just burning too hot. A fever for me means getting cold. This isn't anything new, not that it's anything good."