revivalproject | [Open] These Broken Pieces Of Life

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[Open] These Broken Pieces Of Life

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, Open
WHERE: Young Avengers HQ, The Diner, The Greenhouse, The Beach Cave Hot Springs
WHAT: Returning to Temba, Broken Down Home, Farming, Failing To Hide Emotional Pain.
WHEN: August 1st through 15th
WARNINGS: N/A

I. Another Ruined Home | Young Avengers HQ

Freedom. Sunlight. A sandwich made of greens and beautiful vegetables from the greenhouse. A meal that was doing nothing to make what was before him any better. Home, for the last several years... Broken.

"Fucking hell," he grumbled around his mouthful of baconroom wrap. "Because when it fucking rains..."

It fucking poured. The roof was busted open, the door fallen off, and he could already see through the opening that their shared living room space was fucked. And now Tommy had no choice but to hope that things would be fixable. That he could bring out the things that mattered until such time he could have his home and his life back.

"Fat chance that, with my luck."

II. Moving In Day | The Diner

It's only temporary, Tommy tells himself as he pushes into the Diner and puts the heavy box in his arms on the table. He's so tired after all of the work of cleaning the HQ out. Fuck, he just hadn't wanted to deal with that today.

"Tea," he decides, moving to the counter to fish out the kettle so he could fill it with water. Once he's got the thing full and his hand near it to start heating it, he looks to the door in the corner that he never really used. One of the two sets of stairs that led up into the apartment that was once Eli's. A space that hadn't been used in years.

"Home sweet home I guess. But damn, how am I supposed to get a new bed up the stairs? They're narrow!"

III. Whistle While You Work | The Greenhouse

Stressed? Frustrated by the turn of events? Need to feel accomplished in life? Have you ever considered Farming(tm)?!

Tommy groans at the voice running stupid infomercials in his head as he enters the greenhouse, grabs a basket with pruning sheers and gloves from the door, and looks around. The green, the smell of plants, the familiarity of this place... It's strangely soothing to Tommy. Like coming home. Perhaps it was, given no one had put as many years of care and attention into this place as he had.

And this? This was the place he remembers. Tommy immediately moves to the first area where he should have been harvesting already and sets into it. And he pauses only when he hears motion.

"Someone there?" he calls out, looking around. Strange. Not many people came here like he did.

IV. The Calm Is A Lie | Beach Caves Hot Spring

He didn't come here often. There was always the risk he'd turn the wrong way and end up in the crystal rich parts of the minds. Super charging his powers right now was not something Tommy was particularly keen on. It would only make all of this decidedly worse.

Caution was the watch word as he moved through the caves, hand on a wall, until he could hear the water and feel the heat. The springs. A place to soak sore muscles, and he'd been sore as hell since they'd headed underground. No amount of sauna could have helped with it. Now Tommy didn't hesitate for even a second to strip out of his clothes and slip into the almost too hot water.

"Fuck," he mumbled once he was settled into it. It felt so good. So freeing. So nice.

"Fuck," he repeated as he felt a sting in his eyes. It's just from the heat of the water. It's from how hot it is, turning his skin a little pinker. That's it. He's not crying. He's not crying.

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The box in place on the counter, Hargrove goes to take one of the seats there to lean against it. Fingers drum on the top, antsy without cigarettes to take some of the edge off.

"I don't. I was using it to carve the walls while down there." He sighs, putting more of his weight into his lean. The counter supports him, and that's all that matters right now. "Fuck yeah. I was starting to go stir crazy down there. Ready to leave even if the stupid aliens tried to bar me from leaving."

The blue eyes give Tommy a once over. "What're you doing here? Figured you'd be back wherever you were living before this shit happened."

"Oh. The names were your doing then? Those were great," he says with a nod. Recognized some of them too. "Tea?"

He's got enough water for two.

"Okay, that's a great question. If this is their planet, are we the aliens here instead? Do we still get to call them aliens? The questions, man. But..."

He sighs. Fuck, he's not in a good mental place. His free hand comes up to run through his hair.

"My place sorta... imploded."

Tea? Billy Hargrove didn't think of himself as a tea guy. Beer, water, those were his go-tos. But he wasn't willing to find out if Wesker was in the bar (or if the bar was still standing for that matter), and he was tired of the water from the bunker. "Tea's fine. Never really had it. Yeah, trying to keep myself busy by marking some sort of way down there. Used streets from home when I ran out of names."

More finger tapping and his leg starts to bounce too. "I'm still fucking calling them aliens. And I don't like them." But he's grateful to them, too. He gets to live on borrowed time with this.

Billy looks up at Tommy, a glimpse of worry there on his face. "You're shitting me, right? Imploded? Fuck, that's..." What was it? Shitty? The worst? "...That sucks, Tommy." But he sounds sympathetic. The hotel at least was still standing, even if Billy doesn't plan on going back there to live.

"That's fine. If you don't like it, I'm super not going to be offended. And I brought the sugar back up, so at least we've got that."

He'll have to check on his hives on the roof later. See if the bees have produced enough honey for one last batch before he let them make their winter reserves.

"You don't have to like them," Tommy says, because it's really no skin off his nose. Provided people hated the Atroma and aren't punching Ga Re, he's fine. And making tea. Fine and making tea. There is literally nothing wrong.

"Okay, I'm exaggerating, but not by much. It's going to take a while for B and I to repair it, so we're just... gonna live apart for a bit, work on it while we can."

He nods over to one of the heavy boxes on a table, as if to say 'and thus, my shit'.

"Been living there since just about after we got here. So it's pretty shit. At least you've got some stability with the hotel. Been out to see your cabin yet? Is it okay?"

Billy makes a nonchalant noise in regards to the tea topic of the conversation. And another to the one about the aliens. He's really just watching Tommy, fidgeting on the counter and the stool as he does so. Waiting for the tea.

Something seems off. He hasn't been around Tommy all that long, but there's something... Not Right. He just doesn't know what it is.

So he listens and watches.

Billy nods to the blanket, and gestures to the broken tape deck on his hip. All of his own stuff. "I'm not going back to the hotel, fuck that. And the beach cabin is standing, but it's not really livable yet. So I'm going to hunt for spots that aren't the hotel until I find something. Once other places get fixed up, I'll ask about getting the beach place fixed."

His foot bounces faster. "So you staying here or something while you get your superhero spot revamped?"

The tape deck. Tommy looks at it, tilting his head. Then pours two cups of hot water and puts the tea leaves in to steep.

"I've got some ideas for where you can stay. If they're still intact. The Towers tend to stand strong, Noctipus lives there with Muscle Man, so that might work a bit. And since it's in the south easier to move when you're ready."

And he looks at the tape deck again.

"Anyone fix that yet?"

It's still broken, cracked and sort of holding together despite the roughness it had been through. Kind of like Max herself. When the leaves are placed in the cup, Billy pulls one to him to just hold. The warm feels nice, but he's still focusing on Tommy.

"Rather not be there," because even though there wasn't a reason outright for the distrust, Billy couldn't see himself living so close to a man like Gladio. It wasn't like he had the best track record with older men anyways.

"That didn't answer the question, Speedy, and I asked it first. You staying here while your place with your brother gets fixed up?" He's not moving away from this question. And he's going to ignore the one about Max's Walkman until he's given a satisfactory answer.

Alright. Tommy isn't going to ask why. Not like he hadn't abandoned the place himself a long time ago. But now Billy's pushing and Tommy sighs.

"Yeah, Curls. That was the intention. There's space above here. The guy that originally converted this place into the Diner, Eli Vanto, he lived up there. It might take some sprucing up but..."

But. Damn. That's an answer isn't it.

"You wanna see the place? I mean, I don't have as much of a problem with crashing in the hotel again, if you want it."

Billy blinks, sitting up but keeps his arms on the counter. "You take it. You were here first and I don't want that bullshit about you being a superhero or a good guy or whatever the fuck you're going to say to try and justify me taking the room."

There's no room for argument in his tone because he's not going to be taking something from Tommy when the guy's already done a lot for him in the first place.

"Consider it my sponsor's quarters or whatever." There's a smirk. "I wouldn't mind seeing it though."

"I wasn't going to argue with you," Tommy says, waving it off. "I'm still days upon days away from the mental balance to debate you. But, after your tea, no reason you can't come up. Hell, most everyone barely knows the place exists, so if I disappear for a week or something, someone might as well know where to look."

Seems like a good plan to him.

"Walkman?"

He smirks, then chuckles at the remark about mental balance for debate. "I've had enough heavy talk from the bunker, so I don't want to debate anything either." And that was something he wasn't ready to talk about with people outside of the Hawkins group just yet.

The tea leaves get fished out and he uses his finger to swirl the mixture around for a long moment.

"Something something about people knowing where others are to keep a tab on them." Fingers dance as he thinks about the talk with Harrington before the volcano blew. Isolation might not be a great thing.

He turns his attention back to the subject. "My stepsister's. It was the item that came with her when she was brought here, and it was left behind when they sent her home. Part of the truce between me, Harrington, and Eddie, was that I got to keep it."

Billy takes a breath, gripping the cup with both hands tight. "But I fucked up and broke it."

"Yeah. And when you find a place, you know I'm keeping tabs, right? Mister 'I don't know how to use a cellphone'. Can't blame you, 80s boy."

Though he is leaning up over the counter to get a better look.

"Is it just the crack, or is it not playing?"

"Just what I figured my sponsor would threaten me with." Still wasn't entirely clear on what a cellphone was, but Billy figures it has something to do with the device. He flips Tommy off at the '80s boy' remark, blue eyes flashing dark for a moment.

Then he pulls up the device for the other to look at. Only look at. He doesn't want it to accidentally break more. "Not sure. Robin wound the tape back up and I put it in the deck to keep it from getting messed up. Didn't want to make it worse by trying to play it. It's Max's tape, and the only one I have of it."

Didn't know how the replicator or anything worked. "Eddie was supposed to let me borrow a tape, and I could've used that to test the tape player, but that'd be a dick move I guess, if it messed up his tape."

"Normally I prefer to threaten people with a good time, but this will have to do."

Still, he considers the thing with a tilt of his head. Then he's gone and back at the counter, a noise behind Billy from Tommy's box explaining where he'd been to.

"I can look it over if you want," he says, putting down a small box that he opened to reveal a wide collection of tools. "Spent a while here doing electronics stuff. I just like it. Learned a bit from Stark and another guy about it all. The plastic will be the easy bit of course."

Billy laughs at the remark, but it doesn’t last long as they talk about the tape player. It clicks open and he carefully fishes the tape out and puts it in his pocket for safe keeping.

Then Tommy is gone and back, quick like a blink. A box of tools is with him. Billy looks at Tommy, then the tools again. The 'something is wrong' feeling persists, but the blond takes the bait for the conversation.

"Sure. As long as it gets fixed because…" A pause. "…I trust you." Which said a lot. This was his stepsister‘s beloved tape player, and all Billy had of hers.

"Just don’t make it worse than I did. And you gotta show me that area upstairs. You already got a blanket up there?"

So many things are wrong. So many years of trauma, and the loneliness that came from it. But Tommy's working through his tools to decide what he'll need.

"Thanks man," he says, his voice soft. He gets how that is important. He was just as protective of the one thing he had of Vision here. The painting was absolutely by his box. It's too precious to have left behind.

For now he carefully takes his tools to work to get the cover off. There's where he'll start.

"I mean, you're going to be able to see where the crack was. I'll have to heat it back together, because I don't want adhesives if I can use that instead. And yeah, of course I'll show you it. But no, there isn't anything up there yet. I haven't... I don't even remember if there is a bed. Going to have to clean it."

So many things wrong and Billy doesn't know how to ask about them. Doesn't know what he'd do if Tommy dug for answers in return to keep them on even footing. But he remembers the beach before the whole ordeal with the volcano. How Tommy had shared with him to try and establish some trust. Then remembers Robin being open with him about what happened in Hawkins.

He drags a hand over his face.

"As long as it works. It was hers. It's all I have of hers and it's..." His words hitch, like his brain is trying to cut him off from what he wants to say. But Billy looks away, expression hardening. "It's been what's keeping me going lately. And I fucked it up because I fucked up during the evacuation."

"I know," Tommy says. "I only have one thing left of my dad here. Well, my sorta dad. Not... Not Frank. And it's the most precious thing I have."

So yeah, he intends to be protective of it. That said, he has a lot to think about to respond to Billy. With the cover off he runs his finger carefully along the crack. The plastic grows tacky and he presses the pieces together. Holds them close so they can fuse together.

"Tell me that you're not the sort to conflate damage to it with having made a mistake," Tommy says. "I mean, yeah, I'd do that too. But sometimes things are coincidences and not karma. Sometimes. There is still karma."

"I punched Harrington." Blunt, but it gets the point across. He takes a breath. "We had a truce, including Eddie. That we...wouldn't fight and I punched him."

He grips his tea mug and finally takes a sip. The taste is bitter, like medicine, but he swallows and just holds the cup. "I don't know anything about karma, or if the shit was a coincidence or anything. I hit Harrington, and Eddie socked me back for it. Took me completely off guard." Which explained his nose at least.

The tea gets swirled around and he takes another bitter drink. "I can help clean that place upstairs."

Tommy sees the look at the bitterness and a pot of sugar appears on the counter. A quiet invitation.

"First, did he deserve it? Second, we talked about repercussions and consequences so yeah, getting punched back follows there. But breaking your shit isn't fair. Especially mementos."

With the cover done he starts on the electronics. One second the thing is intact, the next it's open and in in sections and Tommy is carefully slowed down to normal speeds as he's soldiering a wire in place.

"You like cleaning that much?"

"Felt like him and Harrington were trying to hide things from me like I was stupid. Temper finally...just boiled over about the whole thing. Eddie didn't break my shit though. The punch caught me off guard and I fell."

Blue eyes look over the sugar before adding a spoonful of it and stirring the ingredients together. When he takes the sip this time, it's not nearly as bad. Billy might even say he likes it.

A shrug. "Something to do. Unless you'd rather do it by yourself?" And he moves like he's going to get up and leave, to see if Tommy would fall for that bait.

Hide things from him? For what? Well, it's not his business. The appreciation of the tea, clearly improved, makes him chuckle. Once that's done he nods along with what he's been told. That makes sense.

HE finishes the soldering, and in a blink things are closed up again.

"Want I should replicate a tape to test this out with? I could do that. And I hate cleaning so damn much. Like, insanely. I won't turn it down."

Maybe one day he'll tell Tommy and get a good laugh out of it. But he's not in that kind of headspace right now, so no further information comes from it. All Billy does is sip tea and watch Tommy work.

One moment the tape deck is apart, the next it's back together. He blinks in surprise, straightening up. It looks fixed. His hand goes to his pocket, about to take the tape out, when Tommy suggests replicating a tape to use as a test first. "Yeah. That'd be better, in case you— it's still fucked up."

Billy thinks that's a good recovery.

"Might be better cleaning if someone's with you." Tommy told him he couldn't be better all by himself. Even if he wasn't living here or anything, he could help. Maybe learning to help others would make it easier to help the other Hawkins' people.

They can both get a laugh out of it on that day. But that's just what it's going to be. And fuck if Tommy doesn't know he'd hate if someone pushed him too.

"Yeah, it was just some broken connections inside, but I'm not risking something precious. So I guess I have to figure out what is old enough to be on a cassette? Like, no offense to you and the others, that's literally before my time. Any suggestions?"

Because clearly Billy's being gifted the tape as well.

As for the other thing, he looks... almost mystified by the offer.

"You think? I admit I've never done that. My... folks made me do the cleaning on my own. And then my powers came in so it was just easier to do it alone and get it done 'quickly' for everyone else."

Billy didn't like it when people pushed his buttons, but he had deserved it. Egging Harrington on about an event before he chose to be better. But that's neither here nor there at the moment. Right now there's a tape deck and tea.

"Are you asking me for music recommendations? Scorpions, all the way. Maybe some Metallica or RATT if those are options. Rock music from the 80s."

He takes a long sip of the beverage, watching Tommy from over the rim like he hasn't given an offer of cleaning up living quarters like a friend. Because they're not friends. Totally not friends. Billy's not Tommy's friend sitting here drinking tea and offering to help clean his room.

"I had to keep my... neat. Not military spotless, but dad had to be able to get from the door to me with nothing in the way when he wanted. Yes I will fucking help you clean your room. Jesus, Shepherd, I'm not offering you a date or anything, stop looking at me like that."

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