They drove in silence, which was fine with Tim. It wasn't that he wasn't used to comforting people when they were upset about something, God knew how many times he was forced to comfort Dawn after that stupid git Lee made her cry, but the fact that it was Gareth made it harder for him in a way.

He was used to Gareth being an arrogant and insensitive asshole, not as being an actual human being with real emotions and weaknesses.

At a red light he chanced a look over at him and he was vaguely surprised to see that the man was sleeping; his head tilted slightly upwards as his narrow chest rose and fell gently. His face seemed gentler when was it was completely relaxed and Tim felt that he was looking at a completely different person.

A person that was…less haunted really.

A blaring horn startled the man from his slumber and Tim quickly looked away and hit the gas as he realized that the light had been green for a while now.

"What was that?" Gareth mumbled, looking over his shoulder sleepily.

"Nothing, mate." Tim said.

"Are you almost there?" Gareth asked, cocking an eyebrow slightly. "I told you where to go right?"

"You told me." Gareth nodded slightly and he then sighed as he yawned and then slowly leaned back in his seat, his eyes half-closed as he tilted his head slightly upwards, the lights from the signs playing across his face.

A few minutes later and Tim had pulled over at the apartment building and he looked over at Gareth with a smile.

"Here we are!" he announced.

Gareth softly yawned and he stretched out his arms, making the joints pop before he then fumbled with the door handle before finally figuring out how to open it.

"Do you need any help there?" Tim snickered.

Gareth glared at him before he finally opened the door and he stumbled out of the car, leaning heavily on the door before Tim came around and shut it, wrapping an arm around Gareth's middle to help him get steady.

"What room number?" he asked. Gareth looked at him groggily as if he had asked him if he had two heads but he soon figured it out and he dug into his pocket and took out the key.

"This one." He answered simply before he realized that Tim had his arm around his middle.

"Fecking bender!" he muttered and tried to push him off, making himself fall to the ground with a soft cry of pain.

Tim rolled his eyes and shook his head as he once more helped Gareth onto his feet.

"I'm trying to help you walk, Gareth." He explained to him calmly. "Come on now."

Gareth mumbled darkly but he soon relented and allowed Tim to lead him into the building and up the stairs to his room.

"I'm not a bender…" he softly protested and Tim looked at him in confusion as he shook his head and started to unlock the door.

"No one said that you were, Gareth." He assured him.

"Good." Gareth nodded. "Because you'd be a fecking liar if you did!"

"Of course I would." Tim agreed, pushing the door open with one shoulder as he kept Gareth steady.

"I'm not a bender! I'm not!" Gareth repeated.

When he looked into his room, he was a bit surprise at how empty it was. With the way that Gareth often spoke about himself, Tim almost expected the man to have the latest of everything.

Gareth's home only held three rooms in it; the living room, which also had a small kitchen on one side, a bedroom, and the water closet.

The living room only held within it an old sagging couch that sat in front of an old television set that Tim realized only showed the programs in black and white and a small table rested next to the table with a simple lamp.

His walls were all bare except for one picture of a smiling older woman. Gareth stared at this picture and Tim felt him tense up as he fought back tears again.

"Is that your mum?" he asked. Gareth could only nod and Tim looked back at the picture.

"You look a lot like her." He noted. She looked to be a woman in her early fifties, smiling happily into the camera with soft blonde hair and eyes the same shade of blue as Gareth's. He had also been given her pronounced cheekbones and pale complexion.

"Me da' hated that." Gareth mumbled softly. Tim frowned slightly at this revelation and he cocked an eyebrow as he looked over at Gareth.

"Why?" Gareth shrugged.

"He used to say that I looked like a fecking bender with me feminine looks all the time." He explained. "But I'm not a bender!" he added darkly, narrowing his eyes as if daring Tim to say otherwise.

Tim wanted to ask Gareth why he was so afraid of being called a homosexual but he closed his mouth and merely led him towards his small hallway.

"Which door?"

"First one."

Tim stared in confusion at Gareth's bedroom. It was nothing but a mattress with a blanket that had been crocheted for him years past and a small closet. There was nothing else…not even a drawer or a full bed frame for the mattress itself.

"You…sleep in here?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. When Gareth nodded he shrugged and slowly helped ease him down onto the mattress.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Gareth nodded, rubbing the back of his head before pointing at the closet. "I have a spare blanket in there if you want it." He said.

"Thanks."

"G'night." Gareth yawned and with a flop he fell onto his back on the mattress, falling asleep before his body even made contact fully.

Tim smiled and he walked over to the sleeping man, taking the blanket and then covering him with it. He then paused and thought before he then untied Gareth's shoes and then took them off for him as well.

"Silly little bugger." He murmured as he then went to the closet to get himself a blanket.

He frowned when he looked inside and he looked over his shoulder at Gareth with one arched eyebrow.

All of his clothes were neatly lined up and in order inside, but that wasn't what had caught Tim off guard; it was the amount that had confused him.

Inside he found six different colored shirts, three suits with matching trousers, and a single pair of jeans and t-shirt. His shoes consisted of a pair of work shoes and a pair of sneakers.

That was it…all the clothes that Gareth had in the world were in this one closet, with one shoe box labeled 'boxers' and the other labeled 'socks'.

Tim frowned as he looked back at this and he vaguely wondered why he had such few possessions. Shaking his head he decided to drop it and he took down the neatly folded blanket Gareth had offered to him.

This one seemed to be much warmer than the one that Gareth himself was using, but Tim did not have to think about it too long before he figured that perhaps his mother had made it for him, and that was why he preferred to use that one.

He went back into the living room and with a soft yawn he took off his shoes before he then laid down on the couch, wincing a bit at how uncomfortable it felt against his back.

Tim stared up at the ceiling and as his own mind slowly started to drift off, he vaguely wondered why Gareth lived like this and for some reason the last thing his mind coherently brought up was Gareth's protests at being considered gay.