"I love you."

Blues's throat tightens. He pulls his scarf over his face. The room's too small. It's ridiculous because they're outside and yet Blues can feel the walls tugging in around him. He can't quite speak and he definitely can't look Rock in the face, not when he's scoping for the exits and looking for the first way out of here. What were they talking about before? The political methods of Uzbekistan? No. That's not it at all but fuck if Blues knew now.

Rock bites his lip and averts his eyes, fingers tightening around his ice cream boat. "Did I… Did I say something wrong?"

Blues looks over at him, though the panic in his eyes isn't visible from behind his thick shades. He releases his scarf and it falls back down. Yes. No. Yes? No?

No. Yes, say no. "N-No."

"You're messing with your scarf."

"No."

"Blues, I—"

"No, no no no no no."

The syllable is the only thing he can force out of his mouth and Rock is biting his lip again, brows knit and blue eyes bright with tears— shit. Fuck. Blues is making the situation worse.

Rock swallows. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have… Said anything."

How could something like this go so wrong? They had just gone for ice cream— well, Rock had, Blues can't taste— and it was supposed to be a quiet night and now Blues is thinking about teleporting away without so much as even a glance back.

Rock speaks again, "Do you want me to leave?"

Yes. No? No? Yes? No. Say no. Rock's voice is cracking and Blues nearly pulls his scarf up over his eyes and screams but instead suffices for settling it on the bridge of his nose and shaking his head back and forth so hard he can feel his joints strain.

Rock looks down at his ice cream. It's melting in his hand but he can't quite finish it. "…I'm sorry… I didn't think…"

God fuck now Rock's really crying. And blaming himself. That old nasty part of Blues, the bitter voice in the back of his head that he thought he'd managed to silence around Rock, hisses "good" and urges Blues to leave before things escalated. But instead he reaches forward and—

and pokes Rock in the cheek.

"…Hey. Eat."

Rock gently pushes Blues's hand away from his face, then glances down at the melting sundae. He takes a bite, then shrugs. "I'm… not really hungry."

Hungry. Blues starts laughing, probably a bit too crazily, because Rock jumps and gives Blues a very hurt look. Blues stops laughing and recoils. "I uh— androids. Being hungry. I uh…"

Rock's pain seems to melt into anger, because he shoves the ice cream into Blues's hands. "Whatever." Then he stands up and storms off.

Blues doesn't stop him.

Though ingesting food causes him great pain, and he can't even taste it, he eats the rest of Rock's sundae alone.

"…I love you too."