Aftershocks

      ”Well thanks man, I appreciate it!” Niall said as he began to check through his phone. Josh just nodded and began to look very nervous very quickly. Niall didn’t notice though of course, but that’s nothing new. Josh fixed his beanie and his glasses. He cleared his throat awkwardly and he backed away.
 
      ”Well..uh…no problem. Well, I’ll see ya around, take care.” He said as he walked away. Now Niall knew he was either really shy or he was really just a weird guy. It didn’t really matter though, he had his phone back, he had a few messages from a certain someone, and a few missed calls from another particular person. Niall suddenly got nervous at the prospect that that guy might have cone through his phone and seen the stuff he had on it. That would be terrible, there were things on there that Niall didn’t want anyone to see. Primarily his text messages and recent phone calls.
 
      ”Well...that’s that.” Niall said as he slid his phone into his pocket and sighed with a smile. Niall began to walk off towards the white guardrail that blocked off the teir of concrete they were on with some water. From there he could see the large crater that was made by Miss Machina, as he called her. It crossed his mind that he was the one who originally did that…but his energy…it…fixed the damages he did. This only confused him though. Ragnarox consumed the soul and essence of all living things around it. Why did it all suddenly return to normal after it was used? It was a sick and twisted fate for it to heal over…just to be destroyed again.
 
      ”Do you ever wonder what it would be like…to just be human?” Niall asked Brandon as he leaned against the tall standing guardrail. He watched as the sun set just off to his left, as he looked to the crater dead ahead. His mind was racing, this much was given. How on Earth did he go from wanting to be a human to being a ‘monster’ with this kind of power. His heart sunk. My life it the computer version of Pinocchio that turns into Alice in wonderland…the only thing we’re missing is Maleficent and seven tiny men…but Sean was enough attitude and shortness for seven people. Niall mentally scoffed. For a minute he actually though of his life as a Disney movie…it didn’t get past the first ten minutes before becoming impossible.
 
      ”I wanted to be a damn Soldier ya’know?” Niall said. He looked over at Brandon with a contemplative face. He looked from Brandon with a small smirk and he looked back to the crater. I wanted to go to war and defend the country…then I wanted to be a doctor…and then a soldier again.” He said. He was slightly perturbed that he was suddenly just spilling out this pointless information. But it was a little part about him Brandon didn’t know. He smiled…and when he did it looked like it was…bittersweet almost. ”I would always play war with the other kids from the orphanage. I never won though. Being in a Catholic orphanage didn’t help matters either…the second I answered the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” They said it was the Devil…that growing up to kill people was bad….then they said it wasn’t my fault…it was my dad’s…” Niall scoffed a little, still the bittersweet smile of memory lane drawn on him.
 
      ”My dad was in the IRA. Mom died in the whole complications of birth. Something about traumatic hemophilia or something like that. Dad didn’t want me, so he left to join the IRA and I was left in the hospital and never got claimed….don’t even know my last name…” He said trying not to cry over it. It kinda felt good though…which is why he wore a genuine smile the entire time. When he was a machine he wanted to cry, he felt like crying…but he could never let it out…he didn’t have a body to do so. ”I spent years looking him up in the orphanage even called and sent letters.…only got one letter from him…my dad…” Niall said as he shook his head, indicating the end result was not good. He clutched his phone in his hand and smiled even wider as he drug an arm across his eyes.
 
      ”Anyway...I read the letter when I saw Zell…and I thought he was a relative…I legit thought it was a mirror…He heard me out and we ended up actually becoming decent friends...until he found out I was an orphan...then he ditched me for a couple days...thought he didn't like me any more...I was wrong. He was clever enough to fool his parents, and took on my life for a little while…and then eventually tricked his mom and dad into keeping us both....hard to believe a good guy like him ended up....never mind... anyways, I wasn’t too old…but then Zell’s dad came to me and asked me if I wanted to save Zell’s life. After all he did for me…I was ready to do anything for him.  ..Papa Atterrius hooked me up to a machine…and befor Iknew it I was inside a computer…but when I tried to come out…he had unhooked my body. I was an artificial intelligence. He saved my body and turned it into a “Mobile platform” where I could sneak into when Zell let me so I could be…almost human again….Then Papa Atterrius died…I was put into the A.V.A.T.A.R….the think on Zell’s wrist…and I was in his head the entire time…The rest is history…” Niall said. He looked over to Brandon and Niall felt guilty…probably looked it to. ”You asked me when we first met…to tell you about myself…That’s it.” Niall said. He left out a few details, but that wasn’t too important. He sniffed and shook his head. Then he looked over to Brandon, praying this wasn’t going to be the last time he saw him. ”Just thought…you deserved to know.” He added in. Now all he could do…was hope for the best…and anticipate the worst.

Brandon would watch the stranger back away, still as awkward as he made his escape. ”Yeah…bye.” Brandon said perhaps a little confused, but thinking about it only hurt his head more. He would watch the male walk away until he was no longer in sight, and that meant that the two were alone, and perhaps he could stop worrying about if he was secretly evil. With that small bit done Niall would walk, and Brandon would follow obediently only a few steps behind him; that being until they reached the white guardrails where the damage of the fight earlier began. The Irish male would lean against one of the taller rails and pose a rather tough question to answer, and one that he was unsure if he could answer. He would mull over that question for a moment, thinking over what he could actually say but nothing came to mind, and that for some reason made him angry.

He didn’t really have the chance to answer, as more came out from the blonde. About wanting to be a soldier, a profession that he never found that appealing but then again killing people was something that he never liked the idea of. Brandon leaned against one of the rails, resting his elbows on them as his mind ran over it, his life’s relationship with death and how so much made it up. He remembered each of his sibling’s funerals, how each one would cry his eyes dry, and how his mother stood there as dead as the one in the coffin. Aaron had also almost died, if not for his master, the one that had taught him everything that he had ever known, but even she was dead now. Everyone he ended up truly caring about left him, or ended up dying.

His mind now found itself multi tasking, both taking in everything that Niall said, as well as mulling over so many things. About how his mother had stopped playing the grand piano that now sat in the corner of the living room, how Aaron used to smile even if it was always followed with his trademark sarcasm, and how everything was right. What snapped him from his thought process was…Niall crying. He wanted to do something, but something within him told him there was nothing that he could do. Still, he continued to talk and more of the story would spill out until it seemed than most if not everything was laid before him, and he was…speechless really. In the end it seemed that he got what he asked for, and a bit more than that; Brandon was unsure what to really feel.

”What it would like to be just human?” That was what he could say when his voice finally game to life, and it sounded slightly broken. He unfurled his arms from their crossed position, and let fingers wrap around the guardrail as the cold metal would chill his flesh slightly. ” I can’t answer that one. Sounds like a drag really, but it’s like that for anyone isn’t it?” His voice sounds uncharacteristically cynical, sentence ending with a scoff as fingers’ dug into the metal of the guard rail, metal bending under the superior strength like nothing. ”Though while we’re confessing I guess the thing can be mutual.” Brandon added his tone not really changing as one hand pulled up and a small amount of the railing came in clenched fingers.

”It’s hard to adapt really, when you’re surrounded by so many talented people and so much is expected of you. When you make the slightest misstep or when you can’t meet their expectations, you’re treated as less than nothing. Not that I could blame my siblings, since in a family where magical talent is expected, when you have none; you tend to be the black sheep. I wanted more than anything to prove that I wasn’t the failure among the Hale family, but that….did not go as well as one would expect. It was probably the second time that the Hale family mansion was blown up within the last twenty years, and I think I only made it worst for myself. That was until I met the person who was supposed to teach me magic, and all of its various mysteries.” He chuckled lightly, if not bitterly.

”She was a celebrity among the magical community but even she could do nothing, and I guess that’s fate or something. Still she tried and eventually I found something that I could do, if nothing else and that was how I got into Golem making, even though that wasn’t what anyone would call real magic. Still, with all of that done I thought my life would get better. Well until….” He swallowed hard. ”My siblings started killing each other, or trying to at least. Most of them succeeded, but then again it was all for one thing, and in the end it was my brother Aaron that had to take control over the mess that was my family. In the end I had to bury four of them, all of them I had grown up with and in the end even if they mistreated me, they were still my brothers and I couldn’t hate them.” Brandon ran fingers through his head, feeling a headache coming on.

”Time passed as it always does, people came and went. That was when I found out that another person that I cared about was killed, the one that had tried so hard to teach me…was murdered in her own house by some petty thug. It was preposterous but it happened. I think my mom took it the hardest of us all, she never even came from her room for a straight month afterwards and it was…horrible.”

"I could go on but I don’t really consider anything worth mentioning up until I met you. You are perhaps the best thing that’s happened to me, granted the birth of your child is rather important too but then again I wasn't even there for that.” He was mostly releasing verbal diarrhea at this point and that last part he did not think about. ”Oh yeah, I didn't really mention that did I? I have a kid, one that I don’t really get to see due to some kind of bogus custody BS but that’s how life is.” Hopefully Niall didn't freak out on him. He once told an ex of his about having a son and that was why he was an ex, though they were also a slut, but that’s not important.

So Brandon finally came out and said it, luckily Niall took it much better than expected and that made Brandon relax somewhat. Perhaps the Hale should have told Niall sooner, but then again it seemed like there was little time for that. Instead of worrying about why he did not tell him sooner, Brandon would have to just be happy that he took it so well, even if there was some initial shock. ”Yeah…I do.” He said with a weak chuckle, now noticing the small amount of metal clutched between fingers, and letting it fall to the ground with barely any sound. All was going well, and he had to get the down emotions back up to a higher point, somewhere much more positive. He wanted to smile, if only to show Niall that he wasn’t all down now, and to perhaps also raise the Irish male’s mood some.

He heard Niall’s stomach growl, and that reminded his body that it was also hungry, and his gut did the same; with a rather loud grumbling noise. At that point he could not help but smile, his teeth flashing in his rather trademark goofy grin. ”Yeah, something to eat sounds great.” Brandon managed pushing off from the guardrail, his eyes looking over the damage that was caused with their brawl with Miss Mecha, and it reminded him that…he was helpless. ”You have any idea where?” He ventured to ask rolling his shoulders, and popping his neck rather loudly as he felt…phantom sensations crawling across his back.

It seemed that either his body did not like the idea of having his wings bound like they were, or his wings were trying to break through the magical seal placed on them.It was an itch mostly, and something that Brandon could ignore if he put his mind elsewhere, and for now that would have to be Niall. Brandon knew that he would have to introduce Niall to the one that was unlucky enough to have his child, but that was another time. For now they would get something to eat, and maybe have some small talk that was oh so fun. Maybe they could act more like a couple, instead of fighting mecha women and angsting.

"Doesn't matter." Niall replied, he tried to smile back, and if Brandon weren't smiling he wouldn't have been able to pull it off. It really didn't matter to Niall, he never really had a means of tasting food like a human. But he did have to wonder something. Why was his stomach growling? Wasn't he supposed to not need food anymore? The more he thought about it...he could HURT so me food supplies. He actually began to wonder how he wasn't fatter than holy hell.

      "I'm actually rather open as far as food goes...just nothing that I'd pet please." Niall said with a slight smile. By that he meant no dogs, cats or ferrets. He would eventually need to talk to Brandon, but first it might be best to get the food first. Niall looked back over the crater and smiled. He actually felt like there was something more to this.

Brandon would have sighed, if he had not partially been expecting it. His mind ran over what he would possibly even want to eat, and that was when his stomach made it obvious that anything would do, as long as it was filling. The smile that greeted his own raised the mood somewhat, and that was good. ”Really? I do know a good sandwich place around here somewhere.” Brandon scratched his chin for a moment, thinking about where exactly this place was and his mind for a moment could not seem to find where that was. That was when it came to him like a holy light, with angelic chorus and all.

”Yeah, its somewhere around here actually. Like a block or two.” After popping his knuckles loudly, and feeling that pang of hunger course through his gut, Brandon realized that he was far hungrier than before. ”So yeah, let’s go and eat or whatever.” With that rather inarticulate sentence thrown out in the air, Brandon would motion for Niall to follow, and he was sure that was what would happen. They would take his truck, so that it did not feel unloved, and Brandon knew how to project feelings onto something as innate as a goddamn truck; especially he was just as good with them as he was with golems.

It took around two minutes, and they were there, in front of a quaint looking Italian shop thing. It was perhaps one of the only places that The Hale would actually choose to eat out at, and the breadsticks were amazing, or so Brandon would swear by. It was a nice place, and the people knew Brandon by appearance, or maybe they just recognized that he was a walking ATM when it came to tips. ’Well here’s the place.” Brandon noted stepping from his truck and waiting for the irish male to follow suit.[/color]

"Sweet, let's eat!" Niall said trailing after him with a spring in his step. He had been confused to say the least the entire time he was with Brandon. Niall had a choice....he could be miserable and feel like a failure because he didn't beat that robo lady. But he could also be happy because she didn't destroy Chicago...and probably even more importantly, Brandon was still alive. So what if he didn't beat her up, or even win the battle. He pretty much won the war, he got everything he wanted. So why be miserable?

     He sat in the car, laughing at Brandon as he noticed that he was treating his truck like it were a golem. Speaking of golems, he hadn't seen his favorite little guy in a while, he'd need to do that soon. Niall turned on the radio and just listened for any old song to pop up. It made him smile when the song Bad Company. He loved that song, considering he seemed to keep so much of it. Brandon the obvious exclusion to the rule. They were only there for a couple minutes, not even able to finish the song before they were there. Niall smiled at the place, it was a nice little place they had going, or so it looked like from the outside. Niall hopped out of the truck and closed the door as he walked around. He followed Brandon closely, almost shy to be seen in a crowd of people.

     "It looks really nice...how old is this place do ya think?" Niall asked as he seemed to take in the area all around. There were a lot of people here tonight too, or maybe Niall was just so estranged to the area that it seemed crowded. In the end they were seated and each given menu. He saw way too much to choose from. Maybe he'd just wait for Brandon to order and then steal his idea. He sighed and placed the menu down, staring t it with wide eyes and almost threateningly. He itched his neck and sighed as he closed the menu and looked at Brandon, his comically annoyed face forming into an instant smile with his eyes shut tight, like he was embarrassed that he just acted that weird. "So what's up?" Niall asked drawing it out only to put emphasis on his awkward feelings on being seen like that.

’I dunno actually, like ten years or something like that.” He knew that his mother was a good friend with the owner and that his master was an equally good friend. As soon as the key had been turned, the engine and song playing at the time both cut off, as the sound would progress to its silence. With a slight push of the tips of his fingers, the door would slam shut and resound loudly in the street, which caused Brandon to jerk lightly. ”I do remember the time that it opened though, and I was like eleven or twelve, so I guess that’s about how old it is.” One of the waitresses would eye the two males walking into the establishment, and like a hawk her eyes would follow them as they took a seat, and with great timing came the menus.

She would smile a smile that under all the kindness was begging for decent tips, and Brandon could not blame her really. If the owner were as much of a blabber mouth as Brandon remembered, the staff would know a certain loose wallet when they saw it. Brandon took his menu and began scanning over it with those murky brown eyes of his, perhaps finding something that he had not tried before, and hopefully trying it. That was until his gaze scanned over to Niall, who was within his own right comically trying to figure out what he wanted. He couldn’t help but smile widely, though it was hidden behind the menu that he had propped up over most of his face, with only eyes peeking over it mischievously.

”Still can’t think of what I want.” Brandon raised an eyebrow. ”Though this sub thingie looks good, no this one does too.” Brandon then found himself drawn into what sort of sub he would want, and that was an arduous task within itself, and one that he would find difficult to perform it seemed. He would be stuck within this state of intense thinking for half of a minute, before letting it pass and finally deciding upon something. ”But this pasta looks good too, yeah that would be fine.” Brandon said with certain finality, looking back up to Niall with a wide and toothy grin. The waitress lady would approach the two with pen and pad in hand, waiting for something.

”Yeah, I’ll have the angel hair pasta with the meat sauce and root bear. Oh do you have breadsticks, I was wondering where they were but…erm could we have some?” He looked to Niall waiting for what he would want, and with that done the woman would take their orders, and food would then be in the process of being prepared.

Well…Niall’s plan meant absolutely nothing since Brandon messed it all up by being conflicted, so Niall tried to find something that sounded interesting.
 
      ”U-uh I-I’ll have…ehm…Vermic-verma-verrrrma…uhhh ahem….I’ll just have the Gemelli and the…other word….” He began tripping over the name of the spaghetti, squinting to try and read it as he pulled it away the menu squinting to try and read it.  He eventually just positioned the menu slowly away and when he realized he wasn’t getting it, he turned it and pointed it to the waitress, seriously embarrassed. It was supposed to be a type of spaghetti with a heavy cheese sauce of some kind. Niall was beating himself up a little, leave it to him to live inside the head of an Omni-lingual and not know how to pronounce anything. She ended up having to remind him that he needed a drink, so he stuck with good old mountain dew. He got over it quickly once he chuckled about it a little and shaking his head.
 
     ”Hey, come here a sec.”Niall said, motion for  Brandon to lean over the table a little. Once he did Niall moved up and actually bit onto a lock of Brandon’s hair. He sat back down with his tongue out and he started scraping it off with a napkin. ”Ewhhh,,jusat hope they don’t use YOUR hair.” Niall said. It suddenly occurred to him that not only was he and Brandon both through Hell the past forty eight hours…and he knew that throughout the entire thing he still had smudges of dirt from the blast.
 
     ”I seriously should have gotten a shower or gone swimming or something. Completely forgot about hygiene in the process of being knocked out and almost dead again.” Niall said with a smile. He almost felt inadequate for the setting he was in. Maybe it was just nerves. This might actually be the first time they get to eat something before someone shows up to kill Niall or try to dominate the city. Perhaps Niall would also be safe from Brandon’s family as well. His nuclear family was great mind you; his extended family was the ones that made Niall feel awkward. Although, Niall did manage to pick up one thing from the extended Hales, it was still a bit too much for him right now. Hopefully he’d be able to chase after that eventually, but for now he was just happy to be around Brandon.

With his order complete, Brandon would now get to watch Niall flounder over an attempt at pronouncing some kind of Italian pasta, and he could only grin wider at the spectacle. When the cute display was done, she would take their menus, and waltz away. Moving his gaze from following the harbinger of dinner back to Niall, Brandon raised an eyebrow when Niall motioned that he scoot a bit closer. Considering that he had a hard time saying no to Niall anyway, Brandon scooted closer and before he knew it, part of his hair went into Niall’s mouth. There was the pulling of hair, as some would come out, though not enough to be considered noticeable and Brandon felt through his hair to be sure, even if he couldn’t help but smirk.

Even if his boyfriend had just taken a bite out of his hair, that meant nothing really. The joke was perhaps in better taste, but he was never expecting someone to actually bite his hair. ’I hope not. I would look pretty weird bald” He noted not able to really keep himself from chuckling at this point, as the slightly clumsy fingers would smooth down his blonde hair. That was when hygiene was brought up and Brandon felt his heart sink exponentially. ”Oh god I haven’t bathed in over a day.” Brandon muttered probably loud enough for Niall to hear him, and the slight nervousness was obvious. In that moment he became hyper aware of everything, from the grime around his face that was perhaps nearly invisible, to the perspiration forming around certain areas.

If anything, now he was the one being all nervous and jittery. Brandon Hale if anything was always clean, hygienic and that was perhaps why people talked to him, considering that layers of grim could eclipse the most wonderful of personalities; so here he was perhaps facing a potential existential crisis, but Niall’s smiling face made it somewhat better.

Brandon unconsciously ran a finger over his face, and felt what was like a small amount of dirt clinging to his cheek. ”You’re not the only one.” He said with a smirk, suddenly feeling any bit of dirt on his body. Niall said something about being right back, and soon enough he was gone, leaving Brandon to wait. The blonde was likely going to clean himself up, and that was something that had not quite occurred to Brandon at the moment. With that moment alone, he ran his right thumb over his tongue for a moment, and rubbed it vigorously against that dirt spot he felt on his cheek until he could feel the grime come off in small, strange looking bits that would fall to the floor invisibly.

Overall now his cheek felt stickier than before, as if a dog had run its tongue over it. That left the Hale perhaps more annoyed than before, and he was sure the flesh around that area was a little red from all the rubbing that went on. In the end he would just rest his head on his palm, and wait for Niall to return from whatever it was he was doing. Some were making glances towards him, but then again they had likely seen the small episode of hair eating, and that was always perfect for drawing attention. Not that he paid much attention to them, when he was mostly waiting for Niall to return from his odyssey elsewhere.

This restless waiting lasted for around three minutes at the most, and then Niall returned to him, looking about like some kind of guard dog. ’You..fell in?” Okay, he had to admit that was funny. Brandon ran his fingers through Niall’s hair, perhaps adding something to the messy look, but no harm done. Not long after he came back, there was drinks and that made his stomach remind him that it required sacrifice, and that he would sate its endless hunger. Brandon’s first matter was to grab his drink, and take a sip from it, dark brown eyes scanning over the table, and body demanding food.

”Well…nothing really.” It only took him a second to continue. ”Wait that makes me sound dumb.” Brandon muttered to himself, sipping gingerly on the root beer placed before him. That led to him nervously twisting on his ring, the simple metal cold against the skin.”Food I guess.” He said finally with an overly exaggerated toothy grin, as his stomach gurgled excitedly, and loud enough to be heard.

Brandon took another sip of the caramel colored drink, keeping his attention on the Irish male across from him. That was when he mentioned Aaron’s eye, and Brandon nearly choked on his own drink, as a few drop sputtered from his mouth after a fit of coughing. A rather small smile formed after the wiped away the fluid that had dribbled past his lips, though if anything his expression showed mild surprise. ”So you noticed that? Don’t bring it up around Aaron though, if anything that might be the only thing he’s vain about.” He took another sip from his drink, this time hoping that he would not spontaneously choke on it.

”I can't really speak for the lazy eye, it was kinda like that since he was young and I think got worst when he hit puberty or something, I dunno. That and he’s legally blind in that eye, depth perception is shot or something like that, but he gets along fine.” Brandon added taking another draught from his cup of root beer, resting elbows on the table as he made sure to listen to Niall as he spoke on more. Something about Irish stuff, and something else that mostly lost Brandon at some point, but he could not help but smirk widely. His energy was infectious, and that was doubly obvious when it came to him. Part of that enthusiasm was dampened when Niall mentioned his death, and how down that put Brandon, but then again it was the past; he had to learn that much.

Finally he asked about his son, and that was something that was slightly unexpected, but more expected than the whole thing about his twin’s eye. ”Well his name is Travis, not my choice but didn’t really have much say in that department either.” He added, not really glum or even angry, but the tone was rather even. ”Soooo….why do you like Skittles so much? I mean I’ve seen a few people that have enjoyed them, but they seem more like a drug for you.” he raised his left brow coyly, letting it be known that he was mostly teasing. Not the best of questions, but it was one, and something that would work as good filler.

    Aaron was legally blind? That's sort of sad, but then again it's just good to know that he gets along fine. Though it's sort of curious as to why Aaron hasn't made up a little trinket of some kind to fix it. Magic an fix anything right? Maybe Niall was just being childish, as he often was towards magic. It was an absolute answer to every question. Even if the question didn't make sense or the situation was unexplainable...magic was the answer and explanation. Niall began to wonder if it had anything to do with being a dwarf. He continued to listen to Brandon answer the barrage of questions.

     Travis was a good name, though Niall assumed Brandon didn't like it. It was his opinion though, not like it actually mattered when it came to the child. Especially since the custody thing means Brandon only has him one a year. It made Niall sort of sad, he kinda wanted to see the little thing. But the thought of meeting the child fled faster than it came, and he was still listening to Brandon as he took another sip from his drink. It was sort of interesting to see how...stoically Brandon was talking about it. It was so even, almost like he just accepted that it was what it was. Niall heard the drawn out word "so..." and he smirked. It was only fair that he get his, although the question was curious, and almost making Niall nervous. There were plenty of things that would make him scared. Anything about Zell was scary or him being a part of Zell, also the hole dying thing was a possibility. True he could always just find a humorous way around it....but Brandon answered his....so he wanted to answer Brandon's.

      "Soooo….why do you like Skittles so much? I mean I’ve seen a few people that have enjoyed them, but they seem more like a drug for you.” Brandon would make the statement and Niall was immediately thrown back. It was a pretty good question, since Niall was a hyped up sugar-speed demon on crack with skittles. Niall let out a breathy laugh and he leaned back and relaxed a little. He tried to think of a way to word the response.

       "They way it was explained to me..." Niall began he leaned forward as if her were a professional, giving a heart to heart about something very intelligent. "Skittles do something to the neurons and- then he lost me after that." Niall said waving his hand around a little as if he were clearing the air. He smiled a little bit and sighed. "I'm so blonde...eh...basically when I was turned into a computer...that was the only thing that Zell could eat that would stimulate his brain enough for me to actually taste something...as if it were me eating them. It just kinda stuck." Niall smiled as he replied.

Could Aaron have done something to fix his eyesight with magic or something like that? He could have, but why he did not was unknown to Brandon, though he never really asked his twin about that, seeing as how he was more enigmatic when it came to that small flaw that he tried to hide well. Their mother did make him a pair of glasses that lessens the effects of his blindness, but then again he didn’t really wear them outside of the mansion, so that meant he worked with half assed vision anyway, and still he was someone that Brandon did not want to mess with. As for the kid, sure he didn’t like not seeing the little guy; he knew there was no point in trying to get custody from his ex, seeing as how the damn legal system would always look favorably upon the damn mother.

So he gave up on that venture as quick as it entered his mind, and let it return to the situation at hand. His stomach still grumbled for sustenance, but was shortly quieted by his intake of the sugary drink that was set down before him. Luckily he got some kind of answer to his question, though it was not something that he expected. It seemed to harken back to when he was an AI or something with that Zell dude, and that it was the only thing that he could taste within that time, so it probably stuck more than anything. It explained the blonde’s obsession with the multicolored candy more than anything, and got his own mind wondering over that concept of a person becoming an AI. Perhaps it was similar to the scenario in Portal with the smart talking GlaDos or something like that, considering that there was something about turning people into AI somewhere in there.

He could tell that was not one of the possible painful triggers that the Irish male had, so that meant he had done something right. ”Wow.” Brandon said genuinely interested, considering that he had little knowledge when it came to science, so anything that concerned it made the male wide eyed. ’Well that’s something new about skittles.” Brandon noted leaning back with a small chuckles, crossing arms over his chest as he blew a small strand of hair out of his face. That was when the waitress returned with their food, steam rising off of it in small ringlets as well as a basket of breadsticks that Brandon had asked for, which made his expression only happier. It seemed that his stomach was also equally happy when the food was placed down and that made the whole thing complete it seemed.

”Well then.” He mused looking at the food now before them, only adding to his hunger, and causing a small amount of saliva to well up within his mouth. He jabbed at it lightly with the fork supplied to him, twirling it around the paste until it formed an amorphous shell around the fork and he pulled it from the rest, before plopping it into his mouth and chewing. It was somewhat messy, and a small amount of pasta sauce would so evily cling to his chin, but his stomach thanked him for it; so mission accomplished.