“I shouldn’t have said anything to start with. I was being petty,” he admits easily, to Will. Will, who he knows won’t reject him for it. “It was stupid. It made him look good and me look bad.”

But Will’s hands are warm and his face is beautiful and kind and Malcolm’s eyes find it again. “Tell me about Becoming. You mentioned your Becoming before and suggested I could be having one. I think I get the concept contextually, but… how does it work?”