Chapter Text
“You know he’s just trying to get in your pants, right? Med students are smart enough to figure that out, yeah?” Through the wires, circuits and drywall, Miles’ voice was a little muffled. Julian could only see his legs sticking out of the access shaft.
“He is not!” Julian protested. “That would be a phenomenal amount of time and effort – not to mention money on pizza – spent just to gain the sexual favors of a student. He could go to any campus tonight and get in someone’s pants in exchange for the price of a textbook or a meal that is not prepared in a microwave. He did not need to spend weeks and weeks coming to a pizza shop.”
“Well it looks like it was a smart investment on his part, with the way you’re going.” Miles had told Julian he was trying to correct some of the obscene electrical fire hazards the apartments had collected over the years and years of remodeling. Julian had opted to spend some rare free time keeping Miles company during his work, though he thought it wasn’t so much ‘working’ as just that Miles felt unsettled unless he was tinkering with something .
“Miles, you’re not being fair. It’s coffee. We are having coffee. Is it a crime to want somethingother than pizza?”
“Try asking Mr. Sisko that.” He grunted and there was a brief shuffling sound before Miles’ hand popped out of the access shaft. “Hand me that screwdriver, would you?”
Julian fished through the toolbox sitting on the bench beside him. “I’m not asking Mr. Sisko, I’m asking you! Red or yellow screwdriver?”
“Yellow. “ Julian dropped it into Miles’ hand and watched his hand zip back into the hole. “And I’m just saying it looks fishy. Ah, there we go. Okay, hang on, I’m coming out.” Miles shuffled out of the hole in the wall and along the floor until he was clear to stand up. He dusted his hands on his shirt, and turned to face Julian – and his toolbox. “Think about this,” he said, gesturing at Julian with his screwdriver before dropping it back in the box and then starting to empty the contents of his pockets. “Think about Nerys and that Dukat fellow. Greased-back well-dressed smug-lookin’ older bastard comes in on a regular basis just to entertain the company of one attractive young shop employee. Possibly doesn’t even like pizza. Sound about right?”
Julian frowned. “Except Dukat is a creepy bastard, and Garak isn’t.”
“No, he is. You’re just making excuses.” Miles closed his toolbox, and turned back around to snap the cover for the access shaft back in place. “And the only difference between you and Nerys is that Nerys has the sense to hit her creepy Cardassia Heights Bastard. You sound like you’re going on a date with yours. Somehow you’re the naïve young girl in this story andshe’s the one trying to chop balls off.”
“I could do that!”
Miles looked over his his shoulder and smiled. “I’m sure it would be adorable. And completely ineffective.”
Julian tried not to outright pout, but it was becoming difficult. “It doesn’t matter, because I don’t need to hit him. Or chop any balls off. Garak isn’t a predator, he just likes talking to me.”
Miles shook his head and collected his tool box “Come on, we’re going behind the panel on the fifth floor next. Can the fair maiden handle some stairs?”
“Call me a girl again, and I’m going to push you down a flight of them.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Julian followed Miles as they climbed the stair case. “I’m supposed to push Garak down a flight of stairs now?”
“It’s not exactly subtle,” Miles replied, his voice echoing over the stairs, “but I wager it’d get your message across.”
“No, it would get your message across. I like talking to him. I didn’t agree to coffee because I have some sort of perverse love of being bored or creeped out.”
“Or ravished to death?” Had anyone but a smiling, joking Miles O’Brien said that, Julian would have hit them with the spatula Nerys had given him.
“Not interested in that either,” Julian said. And then, smirking, he added, “I’d actually like to live through it.”
Miles grimaced as he set his toolbox on the floor. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. Help me move this panel, will ya?”
The panel wasn’t difficult to move so much as awkward. Once it was unscrewed, Julian worked his fingers under the left corner of the panel covering the crawlspace while Miles pulled at the right side. It came off in one big pop, sending both of them stumbling backwards a few steps. Julian peered over the edge of the panel and looked into the hole. “Awfully dusty in there.”
Miles shook his head. “And probably full of connections that have been rigged to barely function and overheat at a moment’s notice.” He nudged his tool box with his toe. “Man the box again?”
“Sure. Don’t get eaten alive by the mice. I’m not sure I’ve studied the cure for the plague yet.”
They were silent for a minute or two while Miles squeezed his way into the crawlspace and got comfortable. A few grunts and and echoing metallic ‘bongs’ echoed out of the hole in the wall and Julian called inside, “Are you okay?”
“Just hit my head. The light’s no good in here. Nothing to worry about, I’ve got it.”
Julian nodded, though Miles couldn’t see him. “Okay. Well. Take your time.”
Julian flinched at how ridiculous he sounded and there was a pause before Miles answered, “Er… yeah. I plan to.”
Another minute passed with Julian staring into the plastic handle of the yellow screwdriver before Miles spoke up again. “Are you angry that I said he was creepy?”
“No.”
“Yes, you are. You’re mad that I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“I am not.”
“Julian, you’re not even half the liar he is.”
“You’re not going to make anything better by piling on more insults!”
Miles laughed and the sound bounced through most of the building leaving Julian with the distinct feeling of even the walls mocking his judgment. “Don’t take it so hard, I’m just being honest. You want to have coffee with someone, you do it.”
“You could have said that at the start.”
“That wouldn’t have been any fun. When is this ill-fated date of yours?”
“It’s not a date. And I already told you: I’m going this evening after his shop closes.”
“Well, I should be home by then. You should call if you need something.”
Julian smiles. “What, like a someone to save the delicate maiden Julian from the Creepy Bastard Tailor of Ex-Cardassia Heights?”
“You never know.” Julian could almost hear the shrug – and the smile - in Miles’ voice. “Hand me the screwdriver, would you?”
“Red or yellow?”