"You DO like me!" "I don't think 'like' is the right word." "You tolerate me." "Maybe." one on one

"I guess so…" Lin was quiet for a moment. "I never really considered it before, I dunno."

"Have you ever had chocolate ice cream?"

Lin shook his head a bit. "No. Only the… uh… vanilla kind."

"Why not? Chocolate is the second best flavor."

He shrugged a bit. "Never really thought to get it, I guess."

"We'll have to fix that in the near future."

"Sure. Ice cream's not too expensive. I think getting a job takes priority, though."

"I know. I know. We'll start looking tomorrow."

Lin nodded a bit and yawned. "What do you want to do?"

"Take a nap. I'm tired."

"I mean for your job, Orion. We've only really been talking about me."

"Oh! Ha. Um. Librarian. Or maybe an editor."

Lin nodded again. "Yeah, you would probably be good at that… how do you get those jobs, though?"

"You just apply. Like any other job. Sometimes it's useful to have experience."

"I guess. I don't think they would count childhood trauma as experience, though."

She blinked, tipping her head. "Was that a joke?"

"Ah…" Lin considered for a second. "I suppose it was, yeah. What of it?"

Orion grinned. "It was funny. Nice job."

Lin smiled softly, leaning back again. "Mm. Thanks. Do you know what time it is?" He asked.

"One fifteen. Why?"

"Mm… I'm tired." He yawned a bit and sighed. "But one fifteen isn't really a reasonable time to sleep, is it?"

"If you're ambitious enough, it is."

"I guess so, but we already don't sleep well enough at night. Sleeping in the middle of the day probably isn't good."

"Eh. I guess. I sleep all the time anyway. Like a cat."

Lin shrugged a bit. "I'm not great at sleeping. I guess it doesn't matter much though, does it?"

"Sleep matters. A lot. You'd die if you didn't get enough."

"Yeah, yeah. Nothing much matters at this point." He shrugged again and looked out the window. "We have nothing to lose. No one would really miss me if I was gone anyway, so I've got nothing to worry about."

"I'd miss you if you left," Orion said softly. "I know you weren't talking about me. But still."

"I suppose. I'm sure you'd get over it, though. My family probably assumes I'm dead anyway."

"Lin, I'm trying to be all sappy here."