kate & tim
"Excuse you," Tim said, only having to half feign the affront in his voice at her accusation that he couldn't keep a secret. He could keep plenty of secrets if he wanted to. That was the virtue of having terrible communication skills. You just didn't talk to people about important stuff, so secrets never were in danger of being divulged. "I could keep a secret if I really wanted or needed to. I'm sure if I hadn't felt immensely bad about putting them all in danger, none of my friends would have any idea I go up like a Roman Candle the second I get emotionally overwhelmed by anything. And god knows it took years for them to find out about what happened to my brother. And Jon was my best friend for like five of those."
Granted, he wasn't really bothered by this at all. Not really. Okay, maybe a little. But at the end of things, sometimes it was just fun to bicker over pointless stuff. Especially when the other topic of discussion was far from pointless.
"I blame being stuck at the Institute," Tim said, chuckling a bit as he took another sip of his drink. "You start seeing outdated gender expectations in everything the longer you're immersed in that sort of environment. It just becomes natural to assume ill-intentions. But if you don't think it was intentional, I'll trust it."