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[He's tempted to just to just ignore it. Let it be.

But that makes him curious so he considers calling him back.

First though, he'll give it a minute.]

[airshow]

[ And while Piper waits, James paces his apartment. Checks to make sure all the windows are locked again. Of course they are. Just like they were five minutes ago.

At least he answered. That's something. Maybe that's enough and he should just let it go? ]

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[Okay. He sighs and calls James back.]

[airshow]

[ sound casual sound casual sound casual ]

It's not an emergency, don't worry.

[airshow]

... not that you'd actually worry. Since it's me. Obviously.

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Okay, then what is it?

[Thaaat was pretty suspicious sounding.]

[airshow]

Do I need a reason to call you at two in the morning?

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I'd like you to have one.

[airshow]

[ He's quiet for a moment, while he debates what to say. "I'm having a really crappy several nights" is too much and "I just wanted to check up on you" is too something else... so he decides on a roundabout question, instead. ]

You weren't at the thing on Saturday, were you?

[ He assumes he doesn't have to specify which thing. ]

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No.

[That's enough context that it possibly gives away more than James wanted it to. But he leaves it at that for the moment to see where James goes with this.]

[airshow]

Good. It sucked.

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Are you alright?

[Does he just James to answer that truthfully? Well, no.]

[airshow]

[ He's not going to, no, but he is going to whine. But man, Piper asking if he's all right is kinda... no one ever does that. Feels weird. ]

Pretty sure I got my nose broken again. I should start one of those tallies. "37 days since someone punched me in the face." It does this quiet little whistling thing when I try to sleep now. Driving me nuts.

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Not entirely what I meant, but you could try being less punchable.

[airshow]

You could be a little sympathetic. I didn't even do anything!

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You could give me more than non-answers.

[airshow]

Ugh.

Uuuuuuugh.

[ The unmistakable sound of a man rolling over in bed and groaning into his pillow for several drawn-out seconds. ]

... I got Scarecrow-gassed and it hasn't totally worked its way out of my system yet, so hey! I'm all twitchy and paranoid and even worse at sleeping than normal, and did you know that guy's a dick? That guy's a total dick.

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Weren't people offering to help with that?

[He sounds more genuinely concerned than annoying. See, it's not that he's mad that James called him but on the other hand, please don't be a stubborn idiot that doesn't take care of himself, James.]

[airshow]

Yeah, no thanks. The whole magic healing thing gives me the willies. Who knows what else they can do? I don't want anybody... y'know, poking around in my head or whatever.

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Pfft, like there'd be much to find in there.

[This is so awkward because he if he gets too nice and comforting that'll make things weird.]

Is there anything I can do for you?

[airshow]

[ Super weird. On the other hand, James did call just to have someone to talk to. ]

No. Maybe. No. I don't know.

[ He sighs, frustrated with everything, but especially himself. ]

Okay. I'm gonna tell you something really stupid. And it's gonna sound crazy, because it is crazy, and that's why I have to tell you.

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[Oh boy. Time to mentally prepare for whatever fits James' definition of sounding crazy.]

Alright, go for it.

[airshow]

So sometimes I wake up and I forget we're not still doing the friendship bracelet thing, you and me. And I oughta be glad when I realize it's over, but mostly it just kinda freaks me out. Puts me all on edge for a while and I don't know why. I mean, you know I hate being alone anyway, but it's like it got way worse after... y'know. Everything.

So what is that, you think? PTSD or something? Just regular garden variety nuts? Because it's like, kicked up to eleven right now, and if you hang up on me I'm gonna start dialing random numbers just to hear people yell at me for waking them up, I swear, Piper.

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Well, when you spend weeks stuck with someone like that...I don't think that kind of reaction is surprising. I mean, it's not like I haven't had...issues with it, either.

[Where's the line between that making James feel better and making him feel guilty?]

And I could...come over, if you want.

[airshow]

[ He's too surprised to feel guilty or better, really. And here he'd never talked about it because he figured he was some kind of crazy person and Piper got off totally fine. ]

You have? You do? ... You wanna?