Incredibly enough, the other people working in the same research group didn't pay him more attention than a distracted welcome. With Matthew they were the only psychologists, the rest worked on complete different fields with completely different aims and projects.

The no-longer Noface felt relieved and, in a strange way, comfortable. Knowing no one really knew who he was, and that Matthew and him had total control over their research work, really relaxed him.

In an almost routine manner, days passed into weeks, and he found himself really liking Matthew's company. The Canadian too, it seemed, liked him enough to spend time even outside working hours. The auto-proclaimed nameless character was dragged into bars and pubs by the other- who was more like a party person while he really wasn't, even before the evo catastrophe- and both quickly gathered a lot of anecdotes and fun times.

"Ya'know, I know there's somethin' strange in you" muttered Matthew one night, holding his fourth beer of the night.

"Mm? How so?" the no-longer Noface replied, not bothered at all at the accusation.

He knew the Canadian was pretty observant and got somehow emotional when alcohol was involved, so the statement didn't really surprise him.

"Everything-" the other struggled to find the right words "- for starters, ya'never told me the real reason why you're in tha other side of the world doing something ya could probably do in Europe-"

And, seeing that his Romani friend was looking at him with something similar to a smile, Matthew fought with himself for a few more seconds, before giving away what had been eating him for some time.

"-and ya'know, you never speak of whatever ya'been doing in the last six years-"

The Romani sighed and passed a hand through his dark hair. Both were a little more than tipsy.

"- wha'I'mma trying to say is, it's your secret ta'tell, but…"

The Canadian made an awkward gesture with his hands, and the no-longer Noface knew the other practically told him "I don't care what shit you've been through, you can trust me"

"I don't know, man", the other replied, after a long, sequestered silence. "I've been thinking about the cabbages, man, but I don't think they're the best way to tackle our problem."

He eyed him like he had suddenly contracted a very obvious skin condition, or something just as improbable and unpleasant to the eyes. 'Are you ok, dude?'

"Define okay," the other huffed in a complete out-of-character way, "If it's not the cabbages, I can't think of a better way to do away with Rick."

'Rick?' he repeated, confused and annoyed, 'And who the hell is Rick? The fuck you're talking about, man?'

'Dude, don't shit with me. Rick, Rookie Rick? No? Camilla's vet…?'

He blinked. 'What on the world are you talking about?'

'Matthew. You know how this thing with Camilla fucked me up, what with that arsehole vet saying she's a cow too old to provide quality dairy products, saying she oughta be put down? Well, that vet is going down, dude, and I can't believe you forgot all about our master plan.'

He was starting to forego annoyance, and the fact that he didn't catch on to what on Earth was going on, just for some good old laughs. 'Remind me of our plan…?'

'Choke him with a cabbage,' the other said, with perfect stoicism.

It started with a smile on both faces, which quickly escalated into a long and loud laugh which almost got them threw out of the bar.

"I'll keep in mind what you said" the Romani told the other after some minutes of comfortable silence, his voice back to normal.

The Canadian patted the hell out of his back in an overly friendly manner.

"Got it, ya'll talk when you're ready, just remember-" he drank the rest of the beer "-better tell me than Camilla, man"

"And don't keep all that sass inside, someday tha' cheek's gonna explode in your face"

.

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I started writing this chapter this morning, for a few minutes I left the Word document open and my sis decided to have some fun... the scene of the cabbage and the cow is all her doing ;)

YellowAngela and Guest, you are my favorite people in this fandom/site :)