Philip & Felix, Wednesday afternoon

[om_ghost]

Philip geeks out over spy gear of a bygone day! Then he broaches a serious subject with Felix while shopping: he'll be graduating soon and Felix will no longer have his very patient, very steady roommate. To his credit, Felix doesn't completely freak out.

The little vintage store in Salem Center had been a goal of Felix's for some time. With the very small allowance he had, Felix could barely keep up with buying thrift store clothes as he kept growing out of them. Gift cards and hand-me-downs from some of his terribly fashionable friends had helped, though, and Felix finally had saved up enough of his extra money to feel confident in a splurge. Then, in an almost frightening imitation of Shinobi's enthusiastic strong-arm tactics, he had informed Philip that they were going shopping.

Felix went in his "disguise," of course, as he always did when leaving campus. He had a pair of 70's-style blue-tinted sunglasses that concealed the color of his eyes, and lightweight gloves with the fingertips snipped off that covered the leafy markings on his hands. Since he had no idea what treasures he might find, he had decided, with difficulty, against any further accessories. Leaving the school without a scarf or hat was rather nerve-wracking, but he did his best to keep it swallowed down.

Once arrived at the store, he kept close to Philip until they found the clothing section, and finally Felix felt secure enough to look on his own. A selection of vintage men's hats had captured his imagination, and he was gingerly trying a few on, checking his appearance in a somewhat age-speckled mirror. Quickly, Felix was thoroughly distracted and forgot to be nervous at all.

To his credit, Philip really hadn't argued all that hard against going, just enough to make Felix feel like he'd worked for it. He was pretty pleased at how much more assertive his roommate had become over the last year and a half or so, especially considering the discussion they were going to have to have.

If it happened while Felix was turning into more of a peacock, there was nothing wrong with that. Besides, the little shop had far more interesting items than just clothing and Philip was doing his own looking around.

"Philip?" A few minutes after he'd begun browsing, Felix found his roommate again, looking thoughtful. "Which do you think is more me? Vintage military?" He set a dark blue cadet cap on his red curls, and paused for a moment to let Philip look.

"Or gangster?" Felix removed the first and settled a black brimmed hat with a white band and somewhat dilapidated rooster feather on his head. For effect, he added, unable to completely conceal a smile, "You dirty rat."

"If I say option two, will you promise never to say that again?" Philip teased. Felix and tough guy, these were two things that just.... no. Really, really no. He was looking through a table of little odds and ends himself, vintage items that were mostly decoration, very little purpose, or so most of them seemed.

Felix looked very pleased with the response, and turned around to place the un-selected hat back on the tree from which it had come. He took the black hat off to carry instead of wear, since he hadn't properly purchased it yet, and it might be rather dusty. "Oh, Philip. You're not a rat. You never would double-cross your people. So I'll never have a need to say that."

"I appreciate it. Anything else look interesting?" Philip asked as he kept poking around. One thing actually had caught his eye, an ashtray of all things. Useless for that purpose, of course, but something about the shape of it nagged at him. Old, battered and tarnished but he had a vague recollection of seeing something like that, just perfectly polished.

"Only everything, but I don't think I want to buy used shoes. I'll have a little extra after the hat, so I'll poke around the men's clothes..." Felix trailed off and paused as Philip gravitated toward some household items, and cocked his head curiously. "What are you looking at?"

"There's something in the rim here..." Philip muttered as he felt around the edges. If it was what he thought it was, it wouldn't be easy to open in the first place, but age was making it stick besides. Worst case, he thought, he'd break it and have to buy it anyway. A few more seconds of wrestling and the ashtray halves finally popped apart. "Well, look at that."

Felix got a little closer to Philip, peeking over his arm at what had happened. It really did look like he'd broken the dented ashtray, until he saw some sort of gear exposed in the bottom. "What in the world?"

"It's used for coding and decoding messages and is pretty old," Philip said with a grin. "Not the most sophisticated thing out there, but it's a great piece of history. There were dozens of different ways to hide stuff like this in the most innocuous looking places."

A secret! That, Felix understood. "Do you think they know what it is?" he asked, dropping his voice to a near-whisper. "They must, why else would they be selling it?"

"No idea?" Philip asked as he fit the two halves back together carefully. "It's pretty worn out and it felt like it hadn't been opened for a long time. I'll just take it up there like this and see what they say."

"It doesn't smell, does it?" Felix wanted to make sure. "I wouldn't like having it hanging around in our room if it does."

"Metal," Philip said with a tap of his fingernail against the surface. It made a sharper sound than the dull thud of plastic. "It doesn't tend to cling, and I can figure out how to clean it besides if I'm careful. I don't think the mechanism works all that well right now, and I'd like to try to restore it."

Our room. Hrm. Well, there was an opening. "Ah, Felix," he said slowly. "Speaking of 'our room'."

Felix's smile brightened considerably. "You think we need an antique lamp for greater scholarly ambiance, too? I completely agree. They're right over here," he indicated, making a 'come along' motion with one hand as he started across the shop.

"No, actually I needed to talk to you about what's going to happen after June," Philip said. He glanced around the shop, they were the only ones there besides the counter-person, that was probably as good an opportunity as he was going to get.

"June?" Felix echoed, seeming not to put any stock in Philip's carefully-crafted words. He continued to make his way to the section of living room accessories, which was just out of sight of the shop's only employee. Behind his blithe half-smile, however, a nervous flutter had taken hold in Felix's chest. Whatever Philip was trying to say, Felix wasn't sure he wanted to hear it.

"June," Philip repeated. "I'm going to be graduating and I wanted to talk to you about it."

Felix glanced back at his roommate -- still his roommate -- even as he paused to look over a lamp featuring a ceramic shepherd boy that he would never in a million years consider allowing into his room. "Congratulations."

"Felix," Philip didn't raise his voice, it just sharpened a little, the 'pay attention' tone. "I'm not going to be a student anymore after June. I'm not leaving the school, but I won't be living with the students anymore."

Felix started tapping the brim of the gangster hat against his thigh, one arm folded over the other. Now he was studiously not looking at Philip. "You're moving to the second floor? With Betsy and the other assistants?"

"More than likely," Philip said with a nod. "I'll be working on the school security, helping out with training more officially, that kind of thing. I didn't want to tell you at the last minute."

That fluttery feeling was becoming a much more unsettled beast in his chest. Felix fought against it, trying to shove it away. Philip made a good roommate for him for a lot of reasons, and one of them was because the older boy didn't get too emotional about their relationship. It wasn't that he didn't care about Felix, but he didn't bond. To use Philip's own terms, Felix was an asset -- not a part of his team. That had worked for them.

Now, if Felix got upset about his leaving, even if he only got angry, he ran the risk of forging something he couldn't withdraw. He didn't want that sick-sticky feeling, when he knew he could reach out and take over the mind of someone close to him, when it came to Philip. Even if he could control it, even if he never did, it was bad enough when he knew he could. Maybe if he pretended hard enough not to care, he really wouldn't.

"Will we adjust our plan to accommodate?" Felix asked, as briskly as he possibly could, so Philip could see that he was all business about this arrangement.

Maybe it was better in other circumstances, but Felix's poker face was terrible right now. Then again, Philip knew that this was going to bother him. "Of course we will," he said. "And I'll be making more encompassing plans to the school as a whole besides.

"You know," he said. "You're doing pretty well with this. I'm really glad you are."

He was not doing well, not at all, but Felix did not really want Philip to think otherwise. With his shoulders square, he wandered around another table, not really seeing what he was looking at. "Of course, you would have to leave at some point."

But what was Felix to do, then? Would he be able to stay with someone else? Would anyone else understand, as Philip did, not to touch him, not to question the locked bathroom door, not to startle him on his right side? Would anyone else manage his sleepwalking and sleep-talking like Philip did? Before Philip, Felix couldn't have imagined anyone having patience with him at all. Now he couldn't imagine anyone else.

"They're not going to put you with someone who's a problem, you know," Philip said as he watched Felix. The boy had his back up like a wet cat, he wasn't fooling anybody. He let a bit of a smile creep out, just at the corners of his mouth. "And, from what I've seen, I think you'll manage fine no matter what happens. Things are quite a bit different now."

"I just don't relish the idea of training a new roommate," Felix answered. "I had you just the way I wanted you." He spared a quick glance at Philip, his expression much too solemn for the levity of his words. "There are some people who find me sort of unusual, you know."

"I'm glad to know I'm trainable," Philip said dryly. "You make me sound like a puppy. Although anyone that's throwing around unusual like it's a bad thing really needs to take a harder look around where we are."

Felix was silent for a moment, before answering, "You are a little bit like a puppy. I mean, you get excited about ashtrays."

Finally, some of the seriousness faded, not quite into a smile, but nearly. He couldn't let himself really care, not really, but Philip wasn't going to get gooey, so neither would Felix. "You know what I mean. You never acted like I was weird."

"Because you aren't. Weird isn't any kind of useful descriptor," Philip said firmly. "You're unusual, yes, and you do have any number of atypical habits. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. They're just more on the outside than they are in other people."

By the faint purse of his mouth, it seemed Felix wasn't sure how to take that. Probably, Philip meant it in the best possible way. He usually did. "You might need to explain that to whomever they put with me next."

"Talk to the professors," Philip suggested. "They aren't inflexible, Curtis never got a roommate, right? And if you do want me to talk to someone, I will, but I'm not going to do that without your permission. Your issues are private and I'm not just running over that."

"Hmph." Felix preferred to ignore that he even had issues. He hadn't the first clue what Curtis' were. "The professor thinks that social integration is good for me. I'm sure he'd say the same for you. Aren't you going to be bored with just Arthur and Brian for company?"

"You're assuming I'll have time to sleep," Philip said with a sigh. "I'm guessing that the lessons I'm giving now will be a lot more official, plus doing a lot of security work."

Felix's next question came out embarrassingly softly, as he turned his head and pretended to look at another lamp. "Will you keep showing me how to get away?"

"Even if it wasn't going to be my job," Philip said firmly.

"Okay," Felix finally said. "I suppose it's all right." Philip didn't need his permission, and he knew that, but he didn't want Philip to fret about it, either.

"Thank you," Philip said anyway. It might have not been necessary, but Felix had turned oddly little-brother-ish. Or so Philip assumed, not having any himself. "I didn't want to just spring this on you at the end."

Felix glanced over his shoulder, and then nodded. He rarely said thank you for anything, but this was close. Maybe as close as he could get to acknowledging his gratitude for Philip's consideration.