Buffets and Birthdays

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, Billy Hargrove, Otherwise Open
WHERE: Various Buffets, Station Hydroponics, various in closed starter
WHAT: Tommy eating his fill (and yours), Growing Things because of course, and showing Hargrove a good time (no they aren't dating what are you talking about)
WHEN: Throughout March, March 29th in closed
WARNINGS: None

I. Eating Your Fill

The advantage of places like this was that Tommy could always get as much as he wanted to eat without having to rely in protein paste to fill things out. And, well... There was always buffets. And man wasn't Tommy enjoying them now, getting himself steadily onto 'must pay double' or 'do not serve' lists. Which was fine with him.

One day might find him in an all you can eat salad bar, piling on all the alien vegetables and making notes on his comm device about what things he might want to get seeds or seedlings for. Another is a place specializing in a wealth of soups, where he's again taking notes (this time on flavor combinations for cooking). Or, if you're really lucky, you'll find him on a day where he's got three different mounds of noodle dishes in front of him, happily chomping his way through them while just sitting back and watching the alien species around him.

No matter which buffet you find him at, one thing is sure. The staff is giving Tommy a disapproving look of some variety or other, he's got a stack of dirty plates near him, and he's at his table alone. Maybe go up and talk to him. He'd be happy for a companion.

II. Growing Pains

Of course to keep himself fed and to stock up the greenhouses of the ships requires something important: some form of trading capital. And where else was Tommy going to find it than through the work he'd been throwing himself at for years? Sure, he could work as an extreme speed courier on a lot of planets they have ended up on, but the space station clearly doesn't need that. With the various types of transportation it's clear that he'd not be the best price per pound for transport, and it wouldn't learn him as much. Which is probably why anyone coming to take up Station Operations on the offer to do some work in hydroponics in exchange for seeds and cuttings will find Tommy there, at most hours of the day.

Today he's humming softly to himself as he goes through and carefully clips small handfuls of greens from some salad vegetable, meant for someone's dinner, or perhaps to prune things back for better growth. But he still smiles in seeing another He Row and waves them over.

"Hey, you here to be my new assistant? They said that there was someone new coming in to work today. I'm happy for a familiar face."

III. It's Not A Date, It's A Birthdatey | Closed to Billy Hargrove

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a bro is to make sure they have a good day. No, more than that. A great birthday. And it's something Tommy had started planning the moment they set foot on the station. Sure, he was fitting it all around his work, but he was meticulously planning something out.

And now here Tommy was, showing up at the hammock where he's more than once seen Billy sleeping near he water on the ship.

"Hey, Sunshine," he says, smiling as he nudges the hammock. "Get on your damn feet. We're going on an adventure."

Comments

[doubled_speed]

Huh, Tommy hadn't expected Soldier to tell Billy that much. But he nods when Billy asks.

"I want to know how to throw a punch, a real punch. Without, you know, killing the person I'm hitting. I want to be able to fight too."

To do more than carry people out or destroy non-living things.

[wearingthestars]

"Heh," Billy nods, having more of the opposite problem himself. Not that he wanted to be able to kill a person with a punch, but he had definitely started from a place of being very non threatening without magic to back him up.

"He's probably good for that. He's gotta use a lot of restraint too. I'm glad you guys are working together."

[doubled_speed]

Hey, Tommy was completely non-threatening without his powers too. So there's always that point for him.

"Yeah, like me getting to know your mentor more," Tommy says with a smirk.

[wearingthestars]

"He's not my-...mentor." But Billy pauses, cause he's not actually sure what his title is. They're dating. But if the shoe were on the other foot he's not sure Soldier would introduce him as his boyfriend or anything. It just doesn't seem like a term that's in his vocabulary.

"I mean...I guess he is, but he's more than that."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy is going to just help preserve his mind and his awareness of his brother by just focusing on the whole 'mentor' thing. Please, Billy, please let him have that. Things are already weird enough when he sometimes wonders if his time here has counted as being unfaithful to David when they weren't an item really, and it's weird when he remembers that his brother is, in his own day and age, married to one of the hottest guys they both know.

So yeah, he's just... He's trying not to think about the Soldier thing other than trusting that the guy has his brother's back.

And is part of the reason why Tommy saw his brother less, and it's not that Tommy's scared at this point to be too close to his twin lest Billy too disappear.

"Mentor," Tommy repeats, voice strong, "who had me standing around for a long time just forming a fist. Geez. Hard task master that."

[wearingthestars]

Billy bites back any further explanation at that strong repeat, lips pressing together and nodding.

"He's can be. But he definitely knows what he's doing. I couldn't beat him or anything without magic, but I do a lot better than I did before."

[doubled_speed]

Dude, he loves you, Billy. But love lives are complicated here. And you're his kid brother right now. And Soldier is... not a kid. Geez, he's got so many mixed feelings and he doesn't want those to make Billy uncomfortable, so he just... it will be easier not to touch on more intimate implications too much. And since they're talking training, it's 'mentor' right now.

"I don't think I could beat him without running away," Tommy admits. "Or fucking up his arm with my vibrations. And that would just be wrong."

[wearingthestars]

"Maybe once he's taught you a bit you and I can try and spar together. No powers," he offers with a smirk, thinking he might actually have an edge on Tommy, at least for a bit. Once Tommy caught up in training he'd probably be stronger.

[doubled_speed]

"No," Tommy says, and he sounds... scared. What if it goes wrong? What if he hurts his brother? There's such fear there in his eyes. "I can't. You... No."

[wearingthestars]

What? Billy makes a confused expression.

"I'm tougher than look. You don't need to worry. And without powers we can't hurt each other too bad-"

[doubled_speed]

"You can prevent yourself from using yours," Tommy says, "when you have your powers under control. But mine? It's too easy to make a mistake."

[wearingthestars]

"You're gonna have to practice with Soldier." And he best not make too big a mistake with him. Billy'll be quite upset if anything happens to him. "He knows how to restrain himself, I'm sure he can teach you too."

[doubled_speed]

"He can handle me at low speeds," Tommy points out. "He can... I won't..."

Tommy shakes his head, and his leg is now vibrating under the table. And that is passing into the table itself. Fuck he hasn't been this anxious in a while.

"I want to restrain myself. But what if I mess up? I could literally kill you if I use too much speed."

[wearingthestars]

"You've done that exactly once, as far as I know," Billy counters softly, and he nudges Tommy's foot with his own under the table to try and calm him.

"You've held back from hurting people who have done the worst to you, I trust you-"

And of the two of them, Billy's the only one of them that's hurt the other...

[doubled_speed]

There is blood on his hands, Billy. And he can't just... He can't be the one that hurts his brother. He won't have Billy wearing scars left by him. Doesn't know that he could handle the guilt of doing that by accident. It would be bad enough if Billy felt any guilt over the electrical burn on his arm because he hadn't been in control. But Tommy... Fuck, he knows what he can do if he goes out of control.

"I only 'held back' because Kate literally tackled me, Billy," Tommy points out. He knows exactly who he was back then. How easily he could have fallen on the other side of the line they walk.

[wearingthestars]

"And every time since then?" Yeah, Tommy might've hurt people then, but he didn't. And he hasn't. Billy's the one who has had his powers go off multiple times without meaning too, both here and in the real world.

"We don't have to, I just don't want you to be scared of hurting me. And...you know, maybe if you really do think your powers are going to spontaneously go off...be careful around my-...Soldier."

[doubled_speed]

Yes, Billy. Yes. He's tried so hard to not be what that place wanted to make him. The way he'd lashed out afterward, the willingness to kill Kree and Skrull alike, it had made him sick in retrospect. When he realized those were really lives he'd taken, that a Skrull wouldn't recover from what he'd done to them.

Amazingly enough, he does have a conscience.

"It's about my speed, Billy, and he's way better equipped than you are to handle it," he points out. Soldier wasn't really under threat from Tommy. But Billy could be, accidentally.

[wearingthestars]

Billy sighs, and...he gets it, he tries to shrug it off like it's not a big deal.

"Yeah, sure. You're just scared of losing, I get it," he teases.

[doubled_speed]

The thing was, so much of Tommy was characterized by loss. Which means getting defensive in the form of dismissive.

"Like I could even lose to him."

[wearingthestars]

"Losing to me," Billy corrects, gesturing between the two of them.

[doubled_speed]

"I don't care if I lose to you," Tommy admits, and finds he means it. He really does. "I just don't want to hurt you."

And that's the only real barrier to agreement.