[MythicDusk]

This is the part
You gotta say
All that you're feeling, feeling

Gustavo thought the music was rather fitting, really. They did run a kind of unliscenced therapy office, after all. Adamant liked to call it a 'gossip circle', but Gustavo saw the light that came to the man's eyes when it came to a subject he could help with.

He turned his eyes to the other man, his brow furrowed and his bottom lip pinched between his forefinger and thumb as he read the electronic device that he stored his books on. Gustavo knew the name, he just refused to speak it. Not out of any certain reprihension for the company, but just because he didn't like the name. With such a slim and wonderfully advanced device, the name simply didn't suit it. He just reffered to it as Adamant's E-reader.

He watched as Adamant carefully swiped a finger across the touchscreen, flipping the page. He was engrossed. That meant Gustavo could have a little fun. He leant over, placing one hand carefully on the table and breathing into Adamant's ear, he grinned. "A good book, I take it?"

Adamant yelped as he jumped to the side, his body instinctivley scrambling to a stand, his eyes wild and panicked as he finally focused on his friend, wearing one of those fur coats and leather pants, but thankfully not a pair of sunglasses. He sniffed slightly, trying to regain his composure as he fixed his glasses and set his e-reader down. "Yes, it actually was, thank you."

Gustavo huffed at the sound of Adamant's voice. "Oh come now Ad. It was a joke." He grinned again as Adamant rolled his eyes. "I have the feeling we'll be having someone soon anyway. I would rather get your attention now than you come back to reality a half hour into the meeting."

Adamant snorted. "I dont do that."
Gustavo gave him a level look. Adamant wilted under it.
"I don't do it much." He mumbled.

[zapdragon555]

Cody really couldn't believe he'd made it this far. To even think of coming to a place like this made Cody's confidence and sense of self-worth shrivel to a husk in his chest. Surely it wasn't so hard to just... figure things out on his own, right? But Ava had given him the flyer for this place, said it looked kind of fun, that they'd probably understand and give great advice.

Naturally, Cody would usually ask Ava about this, but she didn't have much experience either. Especially not in the... well. The particular situation that Cody was in.

As he passed into the lobby of the condominium, the young man shivered under the change from chilly autumn air to warm AC. He slipped a hairtie off his wrist and pulled back shaggy blonde hair into a loose ponytail, chewing at his lower lip as anxiety coiled gently in his throat.

Top floor, huh...? After an awkward interaction with the woman at the desk saying where he was going (and a small roll of her eyes when he gave the name, which perplexed him and worried him all the more), Cody slipped into the elevator, hands unable to find a comfortable place on his own body. Eventually he settled on shoving them both into the front pocket of the faded, ratty old blue hoody he wore, and tried to silence his beehive of a mind.

That is, until the elevator dinged, and he stepped out into the landing of the penthouse entrance. He stared at the door, on which hung a rather strange sign with a name he did not recognize. He adjusted his fogged glasses, squinting, and took them off to wipe them on his sleeve. Gus...tavo? Was this the right place...? The Adamant name was right, at least. Maybe Ava had gotten it wrong at first... Before Cody could tell himself otherwise, he took a deep, slow breath, and raised his hand to ring the buzzer.

[MythicDusk]

Adamant nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the elevator and then the knock. Gustavo grinned and glanced to him. "Told you." He hummed, waling to the door and pulling it open with a flourish.

"Hello! I'm Gustavo and we are here to help you with your relationship woes. Unless you're here from Derek. Derek can fuck off."

Adamant pinched the bridge of his nose, heaving a sigh before he looked up to the man at the door. "Please ignore him, he thinks everyone is from one of his ex boyfriends trying to get him back."

"Thats because he does want me back, my dear Adamant."

He threw himself back down on his chair, putting his feet on the desk and motioning to himself.

"After all, who doesn't want a piece of this?"

Adamant dragged his fingers down his face, looking to the newcomer with a mixture of an apology and a beg for help.

[zapdragon555]

Cody visibly recoiled--not from disgust or anything of the sort, but purely of being startled by Gustavo's very sudden flourish of an entrance. The squeak he'd made was thankfully mostly lost under Gustavo's introduction--the other voice in the room, however, drew Cody's attention to peer around Gustavo's body to the inside of the place. At least this was the right building. He'd gotten that much right.

As the two bickered back and forth about things that Cody's anxious space of a brain was a bit too preoccupied to focus on, he thought about faking getting a phone call and having to answer it and leave, but... he'd made it this far. He had! He should see it through, and besides, it would be rude to just up and leave. "U-uhm," he stammered out, freeing his voice after a moment, reaching up to adjust the glasses on his face that had jostled slightly. Once Gustavo was out of his direct line of sight and sitting in a chair, Cody ventured to walk a bit more inside, looking tiny in his baggy blue hoodie. "Hi there, I'm... M-my name's Cody, ah, Winborne, and... yeah, I'm... I'm here for... advice?" he finished awkwardly, his face already turning red from admitting it.

The thought again to leave all of this alone, to just go back to his job at the campus library and forget all about this, was tempting. But... he was here. And his heart ached to think about having to silence his own heart any more than he'd already been trying to. Ava wouldn't approve of that at all, not one bit. Cody eyed an empty chair that he was probably meant to sit in, and slowly made his way over, knuckles white where he wrung his fingers near his midriff. "I-it's nice to meet both of you, sorry if I'm... intruding on anything. Ah, if it's any consolation though, I don't know any Dereks," he added, offering something of a tiny, humorous smile.

[MythicDusk]

Adamant opened his mouth to speak, to offer comforts and welcomes, but Gustavo got there before him.

"Good! It gladdens my heart that you're not here on behalf of a fuckhead. Unless, you, yourself are a fuckhead. We don't take kindly to fuckheads."

Adamant ran his hands down his face again, heaving a sigh. "I'm sorry Mr. Winborne. My associate is a hypocritical idiot and doesn't seem to understand that having framed pictures of himself is the biggest part of being a, as he puts it, fuckhead."

Gustavo huffed, his brow pulling into a frown. "It's not being a fuckhead, it's art."

"Its tasteless."

"You're a fool."

"You're a disaster."

"I know, and I'm rocking it." Gustavo looked decidedly smug as adamant simply groaned in response, resisting the urge to just lay his head on the table.

[zapdragon555]

Cody sat down as Gustavo continued to ramble, looking a little pale in his smile. Was he a fuckhead? Cody wasn't sure. It sounded about as true as anything, at that point--Cody was just trying to keep up. The other man--softer voice, calmer words--was a bit easier to focus his attention on. The 'Mr. Winborne' made him pause, made him smile awkwardly and shake his head with a shrug. "I-I don't think it's, um... b-being a... 'fuckhead,' or anything, like... there's a school of thought that self portraits might be one of the most acute explorations of self in art, especially from multiple, ah... angles." Granted the 'angles' were probably meant to be more about medium, theme, and abstraction, but physical angles were fine, too. Instagram furnishings.

Cody eyed one of the pictures, and blinked with a startled flush to see Gustavo almost naked in one of them. He quickly looked away with a nervous cough. "Um," he finally said, wringing his hands so hard they turned white. "I... I don't know if I'm in the right place. I... I'm here for... advice? I guess? Y-yeah, that's... what it said on the website, at least..." He looked like he was trying to sink into his hoodie, his chin was tucked so close to his chest, staring hard at his hands. The sharp white of his skin against the black sharpie he'd inked onto his hands during a particularly slow point working the library front desk was oddly calming to him. "Like... relationship advice." Vague. Vague was safe, probably. He knew it wouldn't get him anywhere for long, though.

[MythicDusk]

Adamant perked up slightly as Cody began to talk, Gustavo was preoccupied with admiring the picture that Cody had spotted.

"You know, I wanted to be full nude." Gustavo began, until Adamant stomped on his foot under the table and forced him back to the situation at hand.

"Again, I am so sorry for my associates behaviour. Please, tell us more about the issue, if you feel comfortable." Adamant's smile was soft, gentle, understanding. His own heart was in his throat, but Gustavo had began this entire thing to help him with his anxiety issues.

Gustavo was more than pleased to announce he was simply throwing Adamant into the deep end when this venture began.