Techie looked up from his desk, startled at first. When he saw it was Matt, the tension drained from his shoulders. He was the only other person who had the pass-code to his quarters, so Techie shouldn’t have been scared (but old habits die hard.) “S-Sure!” He gently put down the copper figure he’d been working on and stood up from the chair, straightening out his back with a pop.
Matt laughed watched the man jump at his words. The man really did seem to frighten all too easily, he should have known better than to pop in on him like this. He looked down at the wires that had been placed on the desk.
“ working on anything interesting?” He asked as they left the mans quarters.
Techie walked with him side by side through the corridors, their arms brushing. “Interesting? W-Well, I was making a wire friend for myself. Any loose w-wires I find and twist em up. You can m-make really cool stuff like that! One time I made a, uh, mini-me.”
Techie half expects Matt to only pretend to be listening, or not to care about what he’s saying. No, he reminds himself firmly. Matt is my friend. My only friend. He’s not like that.
Techie’s hand twitches. He wishes Matt wasn’t only his friend…
Matt couldn’t help but to laugh when he heard what techie was doing in his quarters. He found the mans hobby rather as he had said interesting. Not everyone would have the imagination or skill to want to turn scraps of wire into figures.
“ oh that is interesting, sounds like fun. You have to show me some of them some time. Especially that mini you one that sounds cute. Maybe you can make one of me sometime. What do you say?”
He bumped his side into techies playfully as they walked Into the cafe. He was silent while he went to grab his food which was never really what he wanted it never was with the Order. He waited for techie to get his food before finding them an empty table to sit at.
Techie nodded eagerly, pleased to be given permission to make a wire friend of Matt! The thought had crossed his mind before, but it had seemed creepy at the time. With Matt’s go ahead? He would do it.
Tray loaded up with food he’d not be able to stomach, Techie slips into the seat next to Matt and tries to ignore people’s stares. They look at him like he’s a side-show at a circus; a freak to be oogled. Doubly so when he’s with Mattie. Already there are rumors about them.
“I was th-thinking of selling some,” he whispers to Matt, snug against his side and food untouched. “Yours will b-be, um, free though. Obviously.”
Matt looked at techies tray full of food knowing he probably wouldn’t be eating much or if any of it. The man always seemed to do this whenever he went to the caf with matt which wasn’t too often. Matt didn’t care that he looked like he was eating like normal. The reason he invited techie to Luch was to make sure he at least ate something no matter how small that amount was.
His eyes wondered around the caf as he could feel the eyes on them. It wasn’t anything unusual as they always seemed to draw stares. They never were the most popular people on the ship but that didn’t matter. Matt didn’t need any one other than techie.
“ don’t worry about them. They don’t know anything about you. Just ignore them okay?” He knocked his foot against techies as he spoke.
He looked up from his lunch when techie spoke of selling the figures. He had not doubt that he could make some money selling them seeing how cute they looked. A smile spread on his face. If techie had wanted to charge him he would have happily paid the price. Still knowing he wasn’t made him happy.
“Thanks. I’ll see if I can drum up some business for you.”
When Matt glanced at his tray, Techie turned a bright pink. Oh. He’d forgotten all about eating… Matt was more important; always. He picks up a plastic spork and pushes the food around while he says, “I’ll try.”
Matt said to ignore them, so he’s got to try, at least! After a few moments of comfortable silence with his best friend, Techie was able to push their judgmental gazes from his mind.
When he spoke up once again, tucking some of his long red hair behind an ear, Techie smiled and said, “You d-don’t have to. Aren’t you on bad t-terms with your, um, coworkers as it is? If you start ‘p-peddling my wares’ they’ll be pissed, right?” Stars, he wanted Matt’s life to be perfect. But there was very little he could do to help.
TechieHux 