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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"Caution is the better part of valor," Tommy counters as he moves to get the mattress into position to grab.

"Shouldn't be, but damn, wish I could shove it back in through the window."

"Or just don't be a little bitch." Probably the wrong choice of words, treating this like it's locker room talk. But he helps with the positioning of the item.

"Yeah, we'd probably need your brother for that shit. Magical shit, right? Floating things up and shoving it back through like that? This'll do though. You got me to help you out." He moves to get to the back to help the pushing, especially whenever they get to the stairs. "Lead the way then, Shepherd."

What an asshole the guy is being. Tommy's not a little bitch, and he grimaces at the man's words.

"I do have you," he agrees as he starts getting them toward the door. "And you're being really helpful. Thanks."

Billy misses the grimace, and helps with carrying and steering the mattress where Tommy wants it. Yeah, his word choice is not great, it's another thing to work on. So many things to work on.

"I am a helpful man, when people want me to be helpful," though Billy usually ends up pissing off the people looking for help. One day maybe he won't do that sort of thing. "Maybe if we had rope or some shit we could've hauled it back up through the window, since we had sticks and stuff. Could've braced it up that way while the other tugs it back in."

"Are you sure?" Tommy asks as he helps push the thing toward the door. "Or are you helpful when it appeals to you. No judging by the way. Just curious."

Because he thinks the difference is an important one, whether Billy knows it or not.

"Not sure that would have worked because, like, I can't hover? Getting thing braced for even a second would be hard against a wall. On vertical surfaces I have to keep moving, period."

Billy thinks about the answer to give Tommy. Was he sure that he was helpful? Maybe he wanted to be, to people who didn't seem to treat him like less. And the way Tommy asks the question doesn't feel like it's a psychological probing of some sort. "Both," is what he finally says.

He thinks a little bit again as they get the mattress through the door with some difficulty. "You helped fix up the tape player after I broke it. You didn't have to do that. And I didn't have to help you out with a new place to live. Figured this would be like... we're equal or something."

There's a light, scoffing laugh. "Not saying you could've rushed it up the wall. Use the rope to wrap around the mattress and then haul it up that way, using the sticks to brace and move it. But we're halfway this way, so no point now."

Cool. Tommy nods his understanding of the answer. Sometimes both is really the only option.

"Honestly, I repaired the tape player as much for me as for you. I've been trying to learn this stuff. Legit learn it. BUt I sort of... let it all go to the wayside. There was this guy here, he... tricked me. To use me. So he could kill Stark. I put the practice to the wayside in my guilt."

Billy gave him back a reason to get in practice with something he had been interested in.

"Man, that sounds like a physics problem. Pass. Brute force all the way."

"So you were learning to be the repair center from RadioShack?" They did that kind of stuff, right? He remembers getting his tape player from there years ago, before Neil married Susan. But he is intrigued that there was a guy here that was worse than Hargrove himself. For now, he keeps that part to himself.

He shifts his shoulders and keeps pushing. "Well I'm glad I gave you a reason to get back into repairing shit. In case I break it again or something."

As they approach the stairs, he pats the mattress. "So we're gonna brute force this bitch upstairs then?"

"RadioShack?" Tommy asks. Listen, he's younger than that thing man. "Listen, the thing is I just wanted to learn how to be constructive. ANd it was important to me, but it was in the past until today."

BUt yeah, they need to get this up there.

"How about you guide. I can put force into this."

"The electronics store? Who the hell hasn't heard of that store? I got my tape deck at home from the one on University Ave. back in San Diego. Sold all sorts of electronic equipment. I think that's where Max got the Walkman in the first place. Maybe."

If she did, she didn't use it much when they moved from San Diego to Hawkins.

"No, you lead. You don't have to fucking do everything, Shepherd. I'm already down here and I've got muscles that can be used. Now guide this shit and I'll push."

"Never heard of it," Tommy says with a shrug. Because it didn't exist anymore in his time.

"Dude," he says with a laugh, "it's okay. It's my space. I can do more work."

Billy has no idea that RadioShack went out in the States. Sometimes it’s easy to forget he lives in the past for a lot of these people here.

The blond frowns but doesn’t move. "We’re already setup for me down here to push and you to guide. I don’t fucking mind pushing, it’s just a damn mattress. Then you can keep it from knocking stuff with it. Now just guide and I’ll push."

And he starts pushing, not waiting for an answer from Tommy because he just wants this shit done damn it.

"Fine!" he says with a roll of his eyes as he moves to guide the mattress. "You're more stubborn than I am sometimes, man."

Billy should remember he volunteered for this though.

"Damn right. No need to make more work when we're already in good spots to get this stupid fucking thing up the stairs." And Tommy guides while Billy pushes. He's been working out, so it's not as difficult as it could be at least. And he's fully healed, which is helpful, because he's got the strength to lift and push the mattress up.

"If I didn't think I couldn't push a stupid fucking mattress, I wouldn't have offered to fucking do it, Shepherd."

"Oh, I think you can. I'm sure you make many mattresses hit many walls with your big strength," Tommy says as he takes some of the weight himself, lifting the mattress up. Come on ma, they've got this.

A bark of laughter comes from him as they finagle the mattress up the stairs. "You got that right, Shepherd. All the ladies fucking love. me."

Or, most of them. At least Karen had a good eye for a looker when she saw one. And all of her friends. Even if that had ended up being the beginning of his downfall.

As they heave and push the mattress up, Billy looks upwards and realizes what he has a view of. Quickly he looks away, and at least knows he'll be cover up anything on his face with just the exertion of pushing the mattress.

They make the top of the stairs quickly and Tommy stabilizes and pulls to get it up over that last little angle.

"I'm sure they do. And both the ladies and the men love me, but I try not to brag."

Billy gives it a little shove to help get it over the last bump, then climbs up the stairs. He's sweating just a little bit, but flexes his arms like he just finished a workout.

He's quiet, but his eyes do drift over Tommy very quickly and then avert again. "Yeah, forgot you were like that. What do they call it, batting for two teams? Both teams?" Something like that.

"There's a number of terms you can use for it. But I tend to stick to just human presentations of genders and sexes, so I never felt like 'pansexual' fit. But labels aren't normally my thing."

Still, since Billy is asking, he's probably curious about other people's terms. So he guides the mattress back toward the bed.

"Bisexual."

Terms? He didn’t know he was asking about terms. Just if Tommy batted for both teams. He supposes 'bisexual' is shorter to say. But the guy mentioned another term Billy hadn’t heard of. Pansexual?

Sounds fake and weird.

He helps push the mattress. And Tommy is just so… comfortable with playing for other teams. No looking over his shoulder to make sure he’s safe, no batting around it. Billy can’t help but wonder (and also feel the green curl of jealousy) how it felt to be so comfortable with something like that. Him and Harrington.

Billy helps get the mattress into position. "Want to get this on now or see if the bed needs any more dusting?"

Not fake, not weird. Just something to get used to and adjust to the difference in reality being what it was from what it was perceived to be.

"On now," he says as he moves the thing closer to the bed so he can tip it into position. "Would make this place feel more finished."

Terms like that weren't allowed in the Hargrove household, so they sounded fake and weird to him only because of how strange they seemed to be. To Billy it seemed like there was 'straight', 'lesbian', 'gay', and 'bats for both'. Either way it just... makes the jealousy curl again, making itself known somewhere behind his lungs or something.

Billy helps move the mattress and to also tip it. It flops down onto the bed with a bouncy thud, fluffing up dust in the process. The blond coughs, scowling as he waves it out of his face. "Think that's it for now? Or do you want me around to play Holly homemaker a little longer?"

See, there are so many jokes he could make there. If it was someone else. But not for Billy. No, he won't do it this year. This is just going to be a whole thing, holding back. Having to bite his lip.

"Nah man. I can do the rest. Thank you, for all of this shit. If you ever need a place to crash around people, I'll get a couch in here."

Billy doesn't notice any of those things with Tommy - none of his facial expressions if he's showing them, or how he bites his lip to keep from saying things. He notices nothing of this because he's looking around to make sure everything is fine. Yeah, he's not the one living here, but someone is. And that someone is...

...well shit. That someone is his friend.

"I'll come around only if you need that couch shoved out the window, small fry," he grins and claps Tommy on the shoulder before heading back to the stairs. "Cuddle up to any dust bunnies we left behind tonight."

"Sure man, whatever you say," he laughs. "I'll see you when I see you, Curls. And when you need something, you be sure to tell me, okay?"

Because friends help each other.

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[Open] These Broken Pieces Of Life

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