[26] - [Video]

[sharpememory]

[Barron: hit by the honesty bomb. He's sitting on his bed, writing in his diary journal.]

So, guys. I basically disappeared off the barge. [He pauses to scribble something out in the journal.] Which isn't that abnormal, but it was weird. I spent a while at home not remembering being here at all. My brother turned out to be a total asshole who was willing to turn us over to the Feds, so he got taken out by my other brother. Who then got all into my business and made the hot high school girl I was really into break up with me.

[Barron sighs, making a face.] It's not like I'm that much older than her, but whatever. It's a little ridiculous. I mean, even my Mom is getting together with a guy. Who's totally the head of a mob family, but what are you gonna do? [Barron shrugs.] It's not like the connections would do us any harm.

[He stops scribbling in his journal.] Then I was back here, remembering being here from before and the new stuff that I'd done at home. I guess I asked the Admiral if I could go home the right amount of times or something. [A pause.] It was better than being here, even with all the drama going down.

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[sharpememory]

[Barron continues coughing, until he finally manages to clear his throat. He looks at Prefect again, will this to be a terrible dream. Then at his own, very gloveless hands. Barron quickly slides his hands under the blanket, out of sight.]

I think there was a flood. [Barron said, looking from Prefect to the bottles of alcohol on the floor.] There was almost certainly a flood.

[Barron pauses for a second, before continuing. The embarrassment is not letting up.] Yes. A flood.

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But why--

[Oh god, no, It's all coming back! The pool, the shots, the pestering Barron to make out with him!]

Oh-- Oh my goodness, Comrade. I think-- I feel as though I took advantage of you last night...

[It was a flood, it was definitely a flood, and now... Prefect is pressing his hands over his face, because this may actually be the worst thing he's ever done.]

[sharpememory]

Prefect, calm down. [Barron said, as much he his benefit as for Prefect's.] Because of the flood, I was pretty on board for that.

[He pauses. This doesn't make the current situation any less embarrassing or awkward. Barron glances around the room, counting bottles.] I think we drunk a bit. And by a bit I mean a lot.

[He sighs.] Can I have my gloves back, please?

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But I'm your warden, Comrade! [Prefect is not calming down, he drops his hands, and stares desolately at Barron.] No matter how on board you were, this was an abuse of my power, and-- God, what kind of flood was that?

[He starts to peel off the gloves without thinking. He has very vague memories of Barron tugging them over his hands, his own fingers unusually bare...

...Oh god, why was Prefect remembering having Barron's fingers IN HIS MOUTH last night? That must have just been a surreal dream, surely...]

[sharpememory]

It had to be a romance flood. An inmate and warden romance flood. I'm sure it'll be all over the journals. [Barron said, nodding furiously.] That's gotta be it.

[He doesn't mention how much innuendo is loaded into Prefect peeling off his gloves like that. He watches for a little while, before glancing away. Inmate and warden. Right.]

Maybe we should drink less when we drink together as well. I don't think it helped.

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[Prefect's nodding, and there, Barron's gloves are now off. He quickly holds them out, offering them to his inmate.] Yes. I think that's it, Comrade. We've had that happen before, haven't we?

[He's still holding out the gloves when Barron mentions drinking, and Prefect has another, vivid memory, of his mouth being full of gin, and open, and pressed against Barron's mouth, and...

And now he's going to just redirect his gaze down to the blanket covering his legs, because no. No, he is not going to remember the rest of that.]

I think... that may be wise, Comrade. Not that we would normally do this when we were drunk...

[sharpememory]

[Barron slinks one hand out from under the blankets to take his gloves, before quickly putting them on. Under the covers, of course.] Yeah. It's just the Admiral in our minds.

[He feels better once the gloves are on. Control, it's slowly coming back. Now if he could only find his shirt...] No, we wouldn't. That's why it was a flood. [Barron was still keeping up that mantra.]

Are you missing anything? I can't see my shirt.

[buywithme]

[Prefect brings a hand up to his throat, just to check if--

...Oh.]

Uh, actually I think this is your shirt, so... maybe mine is missing...

[How many of Barron's clothes was he wearing? He starts unbuttoning it.] Once... uh, once we're finished here, I think we should talk about what happened while you were at home...

[sharpememory]

Oh, right. [Barron had thought that it looked familiar.] You can, uh, keep it for now.

[They really didn't need more nudity in this room than there already was.] I might just get another.

[Time to retreat to his wardrobe and pull on a shirt.] I guess we should talk about that as well. The home thing.

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Ah, yes, good idea, Comrade. [Prefect coughed, and quickly started re-buttoning his shirt up.] This fits quite well actually. We're probably about the same size...

[There's an awkward pause, and once Barron's shirt is fully buttoned up, he slips out of Barrons bed, and takes a seat in a less incriminating part of the room.] So... everything you said when you got back, about Phillip, and working for the Government? Was that true? What happened, Comrade?

[sharpememory]

[At the mention of them sharing a shirt size, Barron looks at Prefect nervously. He vaugely remembers something about that coming up last night.]

[Barron moves to pick up a bottle from the floor. He looks at the bottom and drinks what's left before replying to Prefect.] It's true enough, I guess. Cassel hooked me up with working for the Feds. Philip's dead.

[Time to pick up another bottle from the floor, although this one is tragically empty.]

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[Prefect doesn't remember many of the shenanigans of last night. Mainly he remembers being mashed right up against Barron, and making out in a bed for very long periods of time. In retrospect, it seems like the kind of thing that would get boring after a while. Maybe that's why they swapped clothes?]

You said... He turned you over to the feds, and Cassel killed him? [That is... quite a thing, for Cassel.] What kind of work were you doing with the Feds?

[sharpememory]

Yeah, that's what I think happened. Cassel didn't deny it or anything. [Barron shrugs, not looking that surprised.] I guess it is what it is. I shouldn't be surprised, it's not like Philip and me didn't prepare him for it.

[Barron picks up another empty bottle from the floor.] I was training to be part of their worker division.

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I'm sorry about your brother. [Prefect spots another not quite empty bottle on the floor, and rolls it towards himself with one of his feet.] How do you feel about all of it? That is... a lot of quite intense changes in a relatively short period of time.

[Bottle attained! He unscrews it slowly.] What did that involve? I mean, was it something you wanted to be doing, Comrade?

[sharpememory]

I don't know how I feel. It was bad enough at the time, let alone with the ducking back to the barge and then back home. [Barron tosses the empty bottles he's holding onto his bed.]

The Feds thing was a pretty sweet deal, but it was never gonna last. [Barron sits down on his bed next to the bottles, looking decidedly gloomy.]

[buywithme]

Would you mind talking me through it, Comrade? [Prefect has a lot of questions, but he kind of doesn't want to direct Barron to parts of this that will upset him, there have to be things that are eating at his inmate, and he's kind of hoping they'll come out without too much prodding...]

Why don't you think it could have lasted, Comrade? I mean, if you were enjoying it, why couldn't you have stuck with it? [Prefect takes a swig of the gin, and offers the last mouthful to Barron. Like a good warden.]

[sharpememory]

I was just being trained, so it was a lot of basic stuff. Following people, things like that. [Barron looks a bit amused. Just a little.] You know, nothing I haven't done before.

[Barron takes the bottle and finishes it up. Ah, good warden-inmate dynamics. But since he doesn't want to answer Prefect's second question, he changes the topic.] Hey. I'm pretty sure that was just an indirect kiss we just did.

[Cue big old smile. How awkward is this morning, Prefect? Apparently even more awkward than it was a few seconds ago!]

[buywithme]

It sounds as if you were naturally good at it, so why couldn't it have--

[Then Barron makes everything worse, and Prefect just sort of stares at him in conflicted dismay for a moment. Because indirect kissing takes his mind to kissing, which takes his mind to making out, which no longer takes his mind to a flood where everything he did was the fault of a nice commodore who was relatively different to him. And now he's blushing. Way to go, Barron, way to go.]

Well... [cough.] ...I guess, we're probably at the point where we shouldn't be worrying so much about what we do indirectly. [by that logic, they've been indirectly kissing regularly for months, HAD THAT BEEN A FORM OF GATEWAY KISSING, WHICH LED TO THEIR FLOOD INDUCED MAKING OUT?]

[sharpememory]

[Barron almost feels bad about how embarrassed Prefect is looking. Almost. If not for the fact that he finds Prefect blushing kind of endearing. But then Prefect mentions the non-indirect business. And then it's Barron who's looking embarrassed, at anywhere but Prefect's face.]

Well, I suppose not. But they were floods. They don't really count. [The bottles on the bed don't seem to agree with that, but Barron decides that now is the perfect time to ignore them.]

[buywithme]

And this counts? [He frowns, now peering at Barron, because if they have been indirectly kissing on and off for months, then they might need to set up some ground rules for it.] Because, Comrade, as your warden, I am concerned that any kind of kissing could be detrimental to your rehabilitation.

[He frowns, and glances morosely towards the pile of bottles. No kissing. That's right. No kissing allowed, at all, ever.] Apart from maybe, like, platonic kissing, but we don't do that anyway. [Maybe they could start? No!] Are you sure the drinking thing counts?

[sharpememory]

[Barron laughs, running his hands through his admittedly rather messy hair.] Detrimental to my rehabilitation? Prefect, we're probably the most functional warden and inmate here. We're doing awesome. You don't have to worry about setbacks.

[Barron considers the platonic kissing. It's not really his thing.] Yeah, I can't see the platonic kissing working out. And the drinking thing probably doesn't count. I was just joking.

[The truth! Gasp.]

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[Okay, the laughing puts him at ease. Prefect smiles a little ruefully, as Barron runs his hands through his hair.] I know, Comrade, I know things are going well between us. I just really don't want to mess it up, because... it's about your future, you know? It's important.

No, I don't even really like non-platonic kissing, most of the time, so I don't know how this keeps happening. [It's kind of slimy and gross. Which is clearly why the floods are to blame.]

Uh, anyway, I think we should go back to talking about what you did while you were at home...

[sharpememory]

It is important. Going home really put that in focus. [More or less. As soon as Barron had gotten on the barge, he'd been quite distracted from everything that had happened.]

It's the Admiral, man. The Admiral does it because he's into it. It's the only logical conclusion. [Barron looks to the ceiling.] We kissed! Admiral, are you happy?

[The ceiling doesn't reply, so Barron looks back to Prefect.] Home, yeah. I guess we should talk about that.

[buywithme]

Yeah, I guess it must have done. [Prefect paused, very briefly, before deciding to set aside talk of their kissing, and go straight to talking about Barron's home.] All right, Comrade... If you could control the world, and everything in it, what would you want things to be like back at home right now? What would everyone else be doing, and what would you be doing?

[sharpememory]

[Having picked up the last of the bottles on the floor, Barron decided that it was high time to find some new ones. This conversation had gotten really serious really fast.]

Well, that's not gonna happen. So I don't know how much good talking about it would do. [Barron paused, for drama.] I suppose that it's the kind of thing I might talk about after a drink though.