It was lucky that Eddy wasnt drinking when Gabriel replied as he spluttered into another surprised laugh. He knew Gabriel wasnt a prude, he<i>knew </i>what the boy did for a living, but Gabriel held himself with so much poise that it was still delightfully scandalous whenever something lewd fell from his smiling lips. No matter how many times Eddy was exposed to it, he still found it hilarious.<br/><br/>He snickered and shook his head, so very glad to have Gabriel for a friend.<br/><br/>"Yeah, yeah, is this your way of telling me to leave?" He asked with a raised brow and a knowing smile. He had noticed that text message and even though there really was no reaction, Eddy could feel a change in Gabriel's serenity, a subtle charge of anticipation and eagerness. Of course that had been Paul, no one else could have such an effect. Only he could ever sharpen the haziness in Gabriel's eyes.<br/><br/>It was amazing really, what they did to each other. In Eddy's viewpoint, Gabriel was somewhat incoporeal, like loose pigments of color floating in water, clustered close enough to make a vague, wispy shape of a person. With Paul's influence, Gabriel became solidified, more defined, more real, more alive.<br/><br/>As for Paul it was nearly the exact opposite. Eddy had never known a man more in control of himself, so rigid and polished that he made full suits of armor look loose limbed and sloppy. For a long while Eddy thought he was a robot, but after every visit with Gabriel, something would soften ever so slightly. Paul wouldnt relax, exactly, but it became easier to believe that he was made of flesh and blood instead of cold, unfeeling metal. He was more malleable, more flexible after Gabriel. Once or twice, Eddy even caught a ghost of a smile.<br/><br/>They balanced each other out. Humanizing each other in a strange symbiotic relationship that Eddy was slightly envious of. They seemed made for each other.