the only living boy in new york (open)

[cordillageddon]

Adam is finally out of his room. Not because he really wants to be social or anything, more just because he'd been starting to feel claustrophobic.

He's shivering in his thin nylon jacket, as he hasn't been able to loot find anything warmer, sitting on a bench and trying in vain to connect to the internet

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[tendencytostart]

When Adam comes back to the Inn, odds are he'll be greeted by probably the last person he wants to see: St. John hunkered down on one of the deck chairs out in the front of the building. But in a strange, miraculous occurrence, he seems oddly subdued, smoking not sullenly, just pre-occupied, absently flicking his lighter with his free hand. Maybe he'll even let Adam pass unmolested!

Look, he's had a weird couple days.

[cordillageddon]

Adam doesn't expect to be unmolested, though, which is why he eyes St. John with extreme wariness as he passes by.

[tendencytostart]

St. John smirks for just a second, since that's his visceral reaction to Adam, but gives a little nod. He's a damn good grudge holder, that boy, but he's not mad at Adam, because he doesn't...really care about him. He hadn't been lying before, he'd only given the guy a hard time because he was there and it was easy. There's no real malice involved. Everything he said was malicious, sure, but he wasn't trying to hurt Adam for any reason than to see if he could. To see where the balance was.

Either way, he's a little more sober tonight.

[cordillageddon]

Adam, unfortunately, is mad at him. Why wouldn't he be? True, St. John's taunting hadn't had any lasting effects...except to make him think of things from a perspective he didn't really want to...

...perhaps the effects were a little more lasting than he'd thought.

"Laryngitis?"

It seems the most reasonable explanation for why St. John isn't talking.

[tendencytostart]

He snorts, taking a long drag from his cigarette before stubbing it out. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Still surprisingly calm, voice still relatively free of mockery. Just truth.

[cordillageddon]

Adam sits down on a wall by the entrance. Even if it is cold outside, he's still just a little too claustrophobic to go inside.

"You think I haven't had enough of watching people get sick by now?"

[tendencytostart]

St. John coughs wryly and holds out the pack of cigarettes. ...yes, encourage cancer, now that the plague seems to have knocked out everyone it's going to. What, this is as close to a gesture of camraderie as he's capable of!

[cordillageddon]

Adam positively abhors smoking, and usually a gesture like that from anyone would prompt a lecture on how disgusting the habit is.

But what the fuck; it's the end of the world.

"Nah. Thanks."

[tendencytostart]

"No problem." He seems to subside into himself again for a minute, then: "I didn't know anyone who died. I mean, I haven't ever." Not that he's explaining himself from the other night, it just seems a prudent thing to tell someone when a pregnant woman's just removed her own head in front of you. ...somehow.

[cordillageddon]

St. John already knows Adam's family is dead, but this is news for Adam.

And it does explain a lot of their last conversation, whether St. John wants it to or not.

"I guess...we're going to have to get used to it," he murmurs. Like it's as easy done as it is said.

[tendencytostart]

"Some people can't." He's not one of those people, but he's aware it's a rare and not necessarily good quality to have.

[cordillageddon]

"I know." He's not even snippy about it when he says so.

He's never been sure how to feel about not being one of the jaded people. Not like the field agents he knows, who can gun people down and just shower it off afterwards--or worse, the suits from Division, the ones with the real authority, the ones who can stand right in the middle of the CTU floor and order the deaths of Adam's coworkers with little smirks on their faces.

"Most people I know, though..." He sounds uncertain.

[tendencytostart]

"Most people you know are dead." And it's somehow not meant to be horrible, for once, the way he says it. It's just true. Of course, how Adam takes this is up to him, but he should probably recognize better than anyone in Hell what it looks like when St. John is being malicious. This is not one of those times.

[cordillageddon]

He gets it, for the most part, which is why his glare is devoid of accompanying rude commentary. As long as St. John's not doing it intentionally, Adam puts up with worse from Chloe on a regular basis.

...except that she's dead now.

"Yeah," he mutters, then--

"Did you believe her? What she said?"

[tendencytostart]

"Which part?" He cocks his head, scuffing his sneakers aimlessly against the porch. "That something's coming? Yeah. I mean, can't you feel it?"

[cordillageddon]

"I'm not clairvoyant. Why would I think 'something's coming?' Hasn't it already?"

Things can't get worse. How could they get worse?