If we shadows have offended

He spots Ellie, watching them with some complicated look on his face and he smiles, kissing Guy's cheek. He is, sometimes, still a bit shy. But the club is dense even for a Tuesday, and dark, and Neil doesn't feel so shy about anything when it comes to Guy Burgess any longer. "Interactive, was it? I suppose I ought to go make a bit of a spectacle."

"Please do," Guy says and looks over to Ellie, who seems uncertain how to look. He offers the boy a suggestive smile and winks at him, and Ellie smiles back.

His hand has settled lightly in the small of Neil's back and he gives him a little push. "Go on, lovely."

Neil laughs, finishes off his drink, and goes to join the other boy. Ellie still seems a bit baffled about the whole thing, even as Neil leans into to his ear and whispers that they're having some fun for Guy's expense. It's his birthday, after all. They ought to give him a bit of fun.

He doesn't take Ellie into the crush of the dance floor, though he sways with him a moment. When he kisses him, it's terribly forward and a bit lewd, perfectly aware that Guy is watching them from the bar--and possibly a fair number of other people as well.

They haven't spoken much since that night, though Neil's made the effort to check in when he can, and when Guy will make the effort to let him know that he's alive right back. Phones are, for neither of them, a forte. Often, Neil forgets that he even has his. But it's good for convenience, and so that he has a line to Guy on the chance that his friend wishes to reach out in the midst of all he's going through.

Neil thinks they're friends. He'd like that, at least. As he's told Guy, he doesn't have many, and he's lost quite a few.

But for the most part, he gives Guy his space. He remembers the trauma of his arrival, of adapting to Darrow, and in some ways, Neil thinks that learning his future might be for Guy what arriving in Darrow was for Neil. Twice over, now, since the arrival is itself a trauma. So he goes to work, he completes and sends off his application to college, and he does not think of the photographs hidden in his desk, sent to him by Guy. Now, knowing he's a spy, they make sense. He still doesn't know what to do with them, though.

He still doesn't know what to do about a lot of things.

The repetition of his life makes him a predictable creature. Neil's a little sad for that. Sometimes, he does think of their night out at the club; it was nice, until it went sour, just because it was something he didn't do very much of. He misses being rebellious and free.

Which is, maybe, how he ends up standing at the end of the block, looking at the lines that go into the clubs, trying to steel himself up.