"You're going to do everything I told you to, end of discussion."

Dew rolls his eyes. "Yeah? And what if I don't?"

Rowan takes the meat off the stove, turning the appliance off. He sets the pan on a trivet, then turns around and walks towards Dew. Oh shit, here we go.

Dew is sitting at the elevated part of the counter, with his arms folded and his head resting on them. There is a shorter portion of the counter in front of him, and Rowan walks over to it, resting his hands on the surface and leaning forward. He's taller than Dew, since Dew's head is down. Even if the empath were sitting straight, though, he'd still have to look up at the man.

"Do you understand your life is in danger?"

"And what makes you think I value my life?" Dew replies, raising an eyebrow. "You do realize I've tried to kill myself, right?"

Dew doesn't even understand how his life is being threatened here. He thought it was just Rowan and his soulmate? Where does Dew fit into all of this? How do these torture people even know Rowan has a soulmate? Wait, no, honestly if you just look up phoenixes you will get a lot information. Some of it Dew's pretty sure isn't true, but there are many credible sources that talk about soulmates.

"I value your life." Rowan states.

Dew freezes.

It's honestly such a small thing. Why does Dew feel breathless? He can't help the way his heart starts to race. He's not used to people saying stuff like that to him. Honestly, he's typically just a major inconvenience to everybody. He half expected Rowan to fucking agree.

Dew's eyes snap to Rowan's, who is staring at him expectantly.

"I still don't see what's in it for me," Dew replies, and his voice sounds a bit choked off. He's having a hard time functioning. Dew, you need to calm down. So what if he values your life? You value his as well. You basically value everyone's life but your own. It's not a big deal!

"What do you want?" Rowan replies, finally understanding that they're going to need to come to a compromise. Honestly, Dew doesn't even have to think. He knows what he wants from Rowan almost immediately.

"No more going out at night." Dew decides, crossing his arms and staring defiantly into Rowan's eyes. Rowan, who does not seem thrilled at all by that idea.

"What?"

"No more leaving me alone in this big ass condo with nothing to do while you go get STDs. You heard me."

Rowan scrunches his face up. "I don't have STDs."

"You probably do," Dew replies, raising an eyebrow and taking joy from how troubled Rowan seems. Dew's absolutely not being serious—actually, he's pretty sure that he read somewhere that since phoenixes cause disease, they themselves can't get sick. "You have sex like every other day."

"It's a habit."

"What about your soulmate? How do they feel about that?" Dew inquires, sitting up in his seat and resting his elbow vertical on the counter, then placing his head in his open palm. He and Rowan are really close like this, only a few inches separating them.

"I don't think they like it."

Dew hums, raising an eyebrow. Well, then it's settled. If his soulmate doesn't like him sleeping around, why the hell does he even do it? "How long have you known your soulmate?"

Rowan examines Dew's face, then answers, "about a month."

Dew frowns. Wow, that's not long. This person has to be around Dew's age as well, since Rowan appears to be in his mid to early twenties. Dew can't help but to wonder if maybe he went to school with them? Probably not—no, definitely not. He grew up about 500 miles west of here. Maybe they came into Bandy's? Sorry, but he really wants Rowan to tell him who it is! He probably doesn't already know this person, but he'd really like to have more information about Rowan.

"Alright, no more going out. Me and your soulmate say so."

Rowan maintains eye contact with Dew a bit longer, then finally concedes, "fine, but you're doing everything I told you to. No more questioning me."

Dew rolls his eyes, but Rowan just quirks an eyebrow.

"Deal." Dew finally decides. Rowan gives him a swift nod, then turns around and continues making their nachos. Suddenly, Dew can't even contain his excitement.

"Okay! Well since you have no plans tonight," Dew begins, watching as Rowan takes a seat diagonal from him, placing a plate of nachos in front of both of them. Dew immediately starts eating. In between bites, he continues;

"We could watch a movie. Or play a board game. Do you have board games?"

"No."

Dew should have expected that. "Whatever. We can watch a movie."

"Okay. Which one?"

Dew shrugs, and a few minutes later he finishes up. He notices that Rowan has been going through his cabinets, and it becomes clear why once Dew starts doing their dishes and Rowan pulls out a bag of popcorn. He walks over to his microwave and puts it in there, pressing some buttons before the device bursts into life.

Dew smiles, then walks to the linen closet by his bedroom, gathering several blankets before going back to the living room, getting everything set up for the two of them. Then, he turns the TV on. He flops down in the middle of all of it, and goes to a streaming service. He immediately begins flipping through the different movies it provides.

A few minutes later Rowan appears with a bowl of popcorn. Dew moves over, since the Captain's right there, and Rowan takes a seat beside him on the two seater couch. There is another couch in the room, and Dew momentarily wonders why Rowan chose the seat right beside him. However, he just chalks it up to the fact that Dew's the one with all the blankets. Also, they're sharing the popcorn. Though... Rowan could just have put it in two bowls.

Dew drapes a blanket over the both of them, and Rowan glances at him. After the both of them are successfully covered and Dew is satisfied, Rowan places the popcorn between them.

A few minutes later, Dew finds an action movie that came out fairly recently. He asks Rowan's opinion on this, and he seems indifferent, so Dew starts it.

It's about thirty minutes into the movie, when the popcorn has been completely finished and since set on the floor, that Dew is hit by a wave of exhaustion. Rowan has reclined himself against the armrest, facing Dew, head resting on a pillow, with one of his legs behind Dew's head rest and the other on the floor. It hits Dew, then, that he really didn't get any sleep last night and he didn't have a nap today to make up for it. It's going on 9:30, and suddenly Dew can't keep his eyes open.

It's sad, because he actually did want to watch the rest of the movie, but he genuinely is struggling to maintain his consciousness. In fact, he only does so for a few more minutes before he slowly starts to tip sideways.

He recognizes vaguely that if he's going to sleep, he shouldn't be leaning this way. He should be situating himself against his armrest, not pressing his hand on Rowan's hip and lowering himself so he's laying his head on Rowan's upper abdomen. He burrows himself in between Rowan's legs, curling up in several blankets, before he finally loses consciousness.