Internally, Sixclaw was revelling in the obvious pain on Cyrin's face. Arthur kept a tight lid on that.
"Oh, buddy… I'm so sorry." He reached across the table and touched Cyrin's arm, gently. "Anything I can do for your family? I assume your parents are taking it pretty hard, huh?"
Cyrin pulls away from the touch, shaking his head, “No, it’s fine. Papa’s doing great besides the fact he want’s to kill someone. Mama’s. . . Making it.”
Arthur retracted his hand and sighed.
"Well, if there's anything I can do, lemme know." Cyrin was not going to open up to him, and that's all there was to it.
"Down to business. When do you want to move in?" He'd had every intention of eating before they talked apartments, but Cyrin seemed intent on being frosty.
Cyrin thinks for a moment, thrown off by the change in subject. “Oh. . . Uh, whenever I guess.” He shrugs.
Arthur shook his head. "I need a date. It's got to work for you. My calendar is open, so whenever you're able is what we'll go with." His voice gentled a bit. "I know you're busy grieving, and with a funeral and everything else, so as I said before, no pressure. You brought it up, though." He'd texted Cyrin to check on him, and the dancer had brought up the apartment as if he was looking to move in soon.
"Food?"
Cyrin sighs, “I’ll move whenever. I’m not quite in a rush yet, but it’s getting close.” He hums, nodding, “Sure. . . I’m starving.” He laughs softly, “I was dancing all day, and barely ate breakfast.”
Arthur shook his head. "Cyrin, I need a date. You've got to make a decision. If now isn't the time to make that, then don't make it, but you can't just say, 'oh whenever' and call it good."
He slid a menu across the table to Cyrin. "Get whatever you want, I'm buying." He smiled, his eyebrows quirking. "Dancing all day, huh? Probably good stress relief, right?"
Cyrin sighs, thinking for a moment, “I don’t know. . . Next week?” He shrugs, “I’m terrible at planning things, I go better when someone tells me stuff and I put it on my calendar. I’m too indecisive to plan stuff.” He grins.
“Yeah, it is, it’s very calming and usually, I forget what’s around me and I just. . . Well, I just dance. That probably sounds stupid.”
"Sure, but you don't trust me, so I'm not making this decision for you." Arthur said quietly. "I get being terrible at planning. I guess get back to me when you have a date."
He smiled a little at Cyrin's description. "No, not in the least bit. That's what it's like for me out in the woods. Calming, the world goes away, and I can just… be."
Cyrin rubs his face, “I never said I don’t trust you Arthur. If you leave it up to me, I’ll never pick a date and I’ll never move in, trust me on that.”
He hums, “Maybe I’ll get out there someday, I don’t leave town very often.”
"You did say it though, the other day. I was hoping we'd be past that, but you're not trusting me even now." Arthur kept his voice quiet, gentle. He wasn't angry.
He thought for a moment. "Tonight, then. If you're telling me to pick a date for you. You move in tonight."
Cyrin shrugs, “One, that was the other day, and two, okay. That works.” He tears apart another breadstick, “Trust can build even when you’re away from the person to whom t is directed, plus, you haven’t tried to kill me yet. . .” He trails off, humming forty, “So, that’s a plus. . . I think.”
Arthur just looked at him for a long moment, before calling over a waiter and ordering his food.
"Know what you want?"
Cyrin nods, “Just spaghetti with meatballs.” He leans foreword, taking another breadstick, tearing into it, looking back at Arthur, his face blank.
(I forgot he said that- and if you EVERY wanna get on his good side, speghetti’s the way to go)
As blank as his brain.
It struck Arthur then that he'd gone for a good looking guy, without ever bothering to check if anyone was home upstairs. Oh, please tell me I've invested in someone with some brains…
It certainly didn't seem like it so far.
The waiter nodded, and headed off. Arthur smiled at Cyrin.
"I've done my best not to kill you, so there's that. I guess that is good." His smile faltered, just a bit. "SO…. I'm confused. Do you trust me?"
Cyrin keeps his face blank, watching Arthur for a moment, what he, Cyrin himself, had said made him think about something, but now was not the time to think about it, because of he did, he feared he an do something stupid. He blinks and grins, "Sorry, I spaced out. I do that sometimes. Loose focus and just stare with a bank face."
Cyrin listens to Arthur, a small crease forming on his brow as the Other man spoke, but he doesn't say anything about the killing joke anymore and instead he debates on Arthur's question for a moment, "Honestly, as of about sixty seconds ago, I don't know." He shrugs, "I really don't know." He hums thoughtfully.
Cyrin certainly did do it a lot. He'd spent a lot of his time with Arthur looking blank, not having articulate responses, and humming, and Arthur was beginning to wonder about his mental capacity.
He sighed and shook his head. "So what the heck was all that about 'you can learn to trust someone even when they're not around'? I'm trying to-……. You know what, never mind…." His voice faded, and his face fell, just winding up looking discouragedly at the tabletop.
Cyrin sighs, "That was before I got myself thinking about something stupid." He keeps thinking watching Arthur, " Look, I've got to trust you to have come to luch. I've got to trust you to move into and apartment that is literally right below yours. I trust as I would any other friend that I just met about a week ago. Maybe more than that." He shrugs, "And look, most of my friends don't even know my sister's dead. The only reason some of them know is because they watch the news."
Arthur nodded slowly, somewhat assuaged. Though his brow furrowed towards the end.
"Why don't your friends know? Can't they tell something's up? Don't they check on you?"
Now, he knew people were awful, but this persona he'd put on would be appalled that no one was showing care for Cyrin.
"I don't understand that." he said quietly. "If you care about someone, you check on their wellbeing, ask what's going on in their life… that's why I checked on you. You were so down, I knew something was up…" His face mixed concern and sympathy.
"Well. I'm here for you if you need it…"
Cyrin clears his throat, “Yes, they do call, when they can, but we’re all busy and spread out. Like I said, most of them found out from the news, but that’s because I’m not a very open person. I don’t always share everything. And then it would be everything they talk about. Her being dead. Yes, we care about about each other, but there are so,e things we don’t share. We share them when we’re ready.”
He hums, “The only reason I told you is because. . . Well, I guess I wanted you to know.” He shrugs slightly.
Arthur listened, his face showing more sympathy.
"Well… thank you. For telling me. I'll try not to let it be all we talk about, but if you need to talk about it more… I'm here."
Their food showed up just then, and Arthur dug in. Cyrin's relationships with his friends sounded… really cold, and Arthur wasn't sure how that boded for what he was trying to do.
Cyrin nods, “Well, we do tell each other things, but it’s when we’re ready. Of course I want their support, but I also want to feel emotionally stable before I do so.” He shrugs, “I was going to tell them when I could, when I had the time to deal with all of them. “ He laughs softly, taking a bite of food, “God, that makes me sound bad.”
He smiles at Arthur, “Thanks.”
Arthur shook his head quickly. "It doesn't make you sound bad, just sounds like you don't have energy at the moment, which is completely fair."
He returned the smile. "Of course, Cyrin." He chewed thoughtfully for a moment.
"So… not to push you… but you can share before you're emotionally stable. That's the point of a solid friendship, is to help each other when we're at our lowest point. Not just when we've got things under control." He shrugged, not trying to pressure Cyrin. "Just putting that out there."
Cyrin sighs, “I know. . .” He murmurs, “But it’s difficult. Even if they’re my friends and they’ve been with me through everything.” He keeps eating his food, smiling slightly.
Arthur nodded slowly. "I guess I don't know how relate to that very well. I know how I think friendships should go, but… I don't really have any friends of my own, so I guess I don't know."