Mason jolted out of bed after reading the time. His executive dysfunction combined with being stoned the prior night caused him to fall asleep much later and miss his alarm by an hour, and as such, he was woken up by Tristan's knocking. He threw himself off of the bed, hastily put a shirt on, slammed open the door and jumped in surprise at Domino standing right in front of the doorway.

"Ah, shit!" Mason exclaimed before promptly cupping his hands over his mouth.

Tristan shouted from outside the apartment. "Everything okay in there?"

"Yeah man, just give me a sec!"

"Sorry Mason," Domino began. "I wanted to tell you he was here but I also didn't want to go into your room without permission."

Mason facepalmed. 

"It's fine," he whisper-shouted.  "Just get in there and don't come out until I say."

"You don't have to be so urgent, dude! I was gonna do that anyway," Domino replied as he headed into Mason's room and shut the door. Mason was endeared by Domino's expanding informal vocabulary but nonetheless stayed focused and rushed to open the door. 

"Hey man, sorry for the delay," Mason began. "I slept past my alarm."

"I'll say," Tristan playfully scoffed as he walked towards the chair across from the couch and sat down. "I was out there for like five minutes."

"Sorry, let me just grab some food real quick."

"Uh-huh."

As Mason began to get out the ingredients for the usual dish he's been having, Tristan lit up. "Hey nice! You're doing the thing I recommended. Do you like it?"

"Uh, yeah!" Mason replied, looking up intermittently. "I couldn't really do the cranberries due to..." A stab of tension hit Mason as he was about to explain his eating habits. "Well, I don't like cranberries, so yeah. The rest is good though!"

Tristan peered over Mason's shoulder from the living room. "You don't like cranberries but you're adding extra raisins?" He chuckled. "I don't get you, dude."

Mason pulled a spoon out of the silverware drawer and approached the couch. "Sorry I like raisins, I guess? Blame my mom for giving me a box of them every day. It's like, nostalgic and ingrained into my eating habits at this point." 

As he sat down, he noticed the tone in his voice and promptly added in "Raisins are also healthy. Sorry."

Tristan nodded solemnly. "It's all good. I meant it as a... Playful jab. My bad." He began, readjusting in his seat. "I don't smell you from across the room today. Who got you to actually shower?"

Mason scratched his head. "Uh nobody. It was just... Convenient at the time since I was also cleaning my clothes."

Tristan was smiling at this point, a rare sight for Mason. "Really? That's awesome dude! I'm proud of you!"

Mason nodded out of formality, reasonably irked by Tristan's remark in a way he couldn't identify. Still, he was happy for unrelated reasons. "Yeah, same."

Tristan tapped on the table. "Hey dude. Eye contact, remember?"

Mason turned his head further away so as to obscure Tristan from his peripheral vision.

Tristan sighed. "Fine, we'll work on that some other time."

Mason shakily inhaled. "I just... I don't feel like it's a problem, that's all." He stammered, his tone becoming irregular and exaggerated. "You can read me pretty well without seeing my face, and you know how I am with eye contact."

"Well, it's a respect thing," Tristan began. "And you should be lucky you're talking to me and not my mom right now because she would force you to look at her so she could slap you in the face for not making eye contact."

Mason shrunk at the mention of Tristan's mom and his breathing grew heavy. In that moment, it felt like he was 16 again, being micromanaged at every level and anticipating an impending punishment for something he wasn't even aware he did. He began to tear up, trying his hardest not to shrivel into a sobbing mess. "She's not... Around, is she?"

"Uhh... No, she's still in El Paso. Sorry for bringing her up."

Mason sniffled, took three deep breaths, followed by a fourth for balance, and rubbed the tears from his eyes. "It's alright. I just... Remember when she'd do that. It was stressful."

"How do you think I felt? I lived with her my whole life until she moved. She means well, though. I promise."

Mason took another bite from his food in an attempt to ground himself further, although his voice was still shaky. "Do you still... Talk to her?"

Tristan stared at Mason's food. Not much had been eaten. "Yeah... sometimes."

The two sat in the living room in silence. There was an argument happening outside that distracted them; something petty or overblown, as per usual of his neighbors.

"So, who was that you were talking to?" Tristan asked.

Mason immediately felt hot. "Uhh... A new roommate? You know how rent is around here."

Tristan nodded. "Ah. Yeah, tell me about it. I'd be moving somewhere cheaper if I didn't have help from-"

Mason tensed up.

"...But yeah, agreed."

Mason nodded in reply.

"Did I just... Make you go non-verbal again?"

Mason nodded again, taking another bite.

"...Sorry. Do you want me to stay here until you get better?"

Mason shrugged.

"Would you... prefer I left?"

Mason shrugged, before nodding after a moment of hesitation.

"Alright then," Tristan replied, getting out of the chair and approaching the door. "See you... later. I guess."

     As Tristan closed the door behind him, Mason continued to sit in silence some more, disappointed in himself and feeling guilty that he cut the hangout short. Domino opened the bedroom door, walked to the couch and sat next to him.

"Are you okay?" They asked in worry. "I heard everything. Sorry, force of habit."

Mason didn't respond.

"I... I didn't realize he was like that. He doesn't even seem to like it either. I-"

Domino was interrupted by Mason leaning on their shoulder. Domino responded by nearly licking the top of his head, before realizing that a hug might be better in this context and wrapping their arms around him instead, taking care not to accidentally crush him like last time. "I'm here if you need to talk. It's only fair I help you in return."

Mason dug his face into where their shoulder met their neck and began sobbing uncontrollably, hugging them back tightly. Domino hugged him a bit more strongly in response, just for a moment.

"I, uh... Usually look out the window when I'm sad." Domino began. "The things that go on outside used to be a good distraction."

Mason rubbed his eyes and unraveled his arms from Domino, still leaning on them but with his head turned to face the half-closed blinds. He saw what he presumed to be the two people arguing from before, although they seemed to have settled their differences and were sitting on the porch together.

Mason spoke quietly. "Could you please put on some music for me?"

Domino nodded. "The usual one?"

Mason shook his head. "A different one, actually. I can type it out."

"I was about to say, I can't really read or write. I can grab the laptop and that other thing though."

Mason nodded. "The speaker. That would be awesome. Thank you so much."

Domino got up and pranced to Mason's room, grabbed the laptop and speaker out of his backpack, and hurried back to place them on the table. Mason connected the speaker via bluetooth and navigated to Piedras Y Ansiedad by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Mason was sitting up at this point, but his leg was still right next to Domino's. "I use this one to calm down. Usually only from meltdowns, but sometimes I listen to it on the way home from work."

Domino nodded. "It sounds weird, but also really cool! Tristan used to listen to stuff like this!"

"Uh... Can we not talk about Tristan right now?"

Domino's ears somewhat moved downward. "Right! Sorry."

There was a brief silence before Mason spoke up again. "Sorry for snapping at you earlier."

"It's okay! I understand."

"You might wanna sleep in my room on nights before he comes over. If you want."

Domino's ears perked up and they squinted. "Okay!"

     The two sat together for the rest of the song. Mason leaned against Domino again and Domino reciprocated by leaning their head against his. The warmth of Domino's fur invoked the same feeling that Mason remembered from the previous day; a kind of comfort he wasn't fully aware he needed. He felt for the first time since he moved out like someone was there who cared about him, saw his needs and did their best to meet them without judgement. He couldn't really open up fully though, and so he choked back another wave of tears as the song ended.

"The part in the middle makes my brain feel weird. It's fun!" Domino said.

Mason sat up and stretched. "That's my least favorite part honestly, but it's nice," he replied, getting off the couch and grabbing his laptop and speaker. He turned to Domino before heading into his room to put them away. "Thanks, by the way."

Domino closed their eyes. "Like I said, it's only fair."

Mason smiled. "That's fair, I guess. I'll be right back out."

"Okay!"