Carlos paused for a second, a little startled. “Uh… you didn’t put dust in your terminal on purpose so I could fix it for you, did you?” he asked, putting on a teasing smirk as he glanced at Hancock.
He was making a joke, but at the same time a really small part of him wondered if that’s why it took Hancock so long to get someone to look at the thing – because nobody with experience with terminals were in the ‘leeching’ part of the relationship. Not until Carlos showed up, that was.
“Heh, of course not.” He snorted, giving a little roll of his eyes. It hadn’t been his intention to make the other think he considered him a leech, in fact, there were very few people in town the ghoul did see that way, but he could tell by the sound of Carlos’ voice he’d said something that didn’t sit right with the other man. “Hey, y’know I ain’t callin’ folks leeches, right? I couldn’t give a shit if anyone I support actually worked, I just know a lotta folks ain’t happy if they don’t have somethin’ to do or don’t feel like they’re contributing, that’s all I meant.”
“Oh, I know,” Carlos said. “I know, you don’t do that to
people. And yeah, I… I certainly know how they would feel.” At the end of the
day, Carlos supposed he was just glad that there was something he could do for
Hancock and he didn’t have to feel guilty for accepting the guy’s help. Too
much. He still couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to figure out how he
could actually give back to Hancock.
The Perfect Scientist 