What It All Comes Down To

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, OTA
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Coming Down From It All (Post House of Billy)
WHEN: The first week post event [Forward Dated]
WARNINGS: CW: Referenced sexual encounter in thread with Kyle, Referenced child abuse in thread with Kyle.


A. Keeping The Diners Supplied The Diner
"Delivery of fresh produce."

Tommy's tired. Perhaps that's why he's coming in later than normal with supplies for this meal shift. Perhaps that's why he looks frazzled and his hair is limp and he's not racing in with all speed. Clearly it's not the heavy crate loaded down with all sorts of foods from the green house, because that's never slowed him down before. But sleep after something like what they'd gone through was... Well, unlikely.

"The cyanana harvest is starting, so I'm thinking about trying to figure out how to make some sorta pudding out of it. That's a thing, right? Banana pudding or something."

He'd been enough out of it on entering that he didn't even know who it was he was talking to. Like hell he'd thought about how the kitchen help rotation was working now. Nor did he care. He was too tired from all his dreams to care.


B. Healing Power of Horticulture The Greenhouse
If there was one place that Tommy often found peace, it was the greenhouse. Today Tommy was trying his best to work there without getting too complicated with other people. For this he'd done the best thing he could do: working the mint wing. The advantage that came that the specific wing was sealed off from the rest of the greenhouse to keep it from spreading too much. Tommy moved slowly through it with a woven rush basket, humming quietly under his breath some German pop music he remembered from back home. While he moved he clipped little sprigs of mint to pass on to Glownies as a treat.

The advantage of the sealed area was that when the doors opened, Tommy knew someone was there. He could hear it. He turned to look at the door and frowned.

"Can I help you? I thought I was soloing the mint today."


C. The Solitary Island Closed to Aeon
It took a while for him to find her, but Tommy had wanted to have an excuse to get away, but he didn't want to be put into a position where his stupid brain could interrupt him. There had been someone interested after all, and so he'd raced through the city until he found her.

"Aeon," he said, offering a hand up for a high five. "You doing anything? Because if not, island time."


D. Wild Card
[Feel free to hit me up on Discord or Plurk to discuss places Tommy could get cornered. Or just have someone come to his actual home. Other options are to find him lazing by the fountain, on top of a tall building, or hiding out with the glownies which he normally does not visit.]

Comments

A: bruising that produce

[kyley_b]

To be fair to Tommy, Kyle was not exactly working with his usual cheerful exuberance. He'd been head-down and quiet all day, nervously awaiting the moment Tommy might appear.

"Yeah, banana pudding is totally a thing."

He came around to help with the crate, determined to act totally normal.

[doubled_speed]

Oops. Kyle. Literally there were two people who he didn't want to run into right now. And here was person number one on that short list.

"Kyle," Tommy said, his voice cracking a little at seeing the other guy.

[kyley_b]

Fuck. Kyle really thought that he was going to be okay, but that voice. He knew that tone, and it broke his heart.

"Hey, dude." Same greeting as usual, but he dropped his eyes to the produce and went to take the crate.

CW: Referenced Sexual Encounter. Wow, already a CW.

[doubled_speed]

Loved. He'd been loved there. He'd been happy. And Kyle had been a part of that. The same greeting as before.

And it HURTS.

"I, uh, don't know how to make banana pudding. I should ask someone."

CW: Referenced Sexual Encounter

[kyley_b]

Kyle kept his eyes on the produce, carefully unpacking it, trying to be normal. He was just going to be normal, goddammit, he wasn't going to cause a scene.

"I hate bananas," he said, realising that Tommy quite possibly knew that already.

"Uh. But I'm sure you could figure it out, you're good with--" Phallic objects? Jesus.

"Uhm."

So much for totally normal.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy knew. Fuck of course he knew. And he winced at the implication. Because something in him knew how Kyle was going to fill that in.

"Wow," he said, ratcheting the snark up about ten full levels because it's the only defense he has right now against having loved Kyle. Which he didn't like having FORCED on him. "Good to know my blowjob skills are that good. Or was it the hand job. Admit it, you liked the vibrations."

Nope, got to make this worse. Foot not far enough in mouth.

"Told you that you thought I was hot."

[kyley_b]

Kyle's face suffused with bright red colour and he slammed a basket of not-carrots onto the counter. An unpleasant mixture of embarrassment, heartache and anger churned in his stomach.

"Okay, sure, just... stand there and act like you weren't enjoying yourself just as much," he hissed.

"So that's really how it's gonna be, now?"

[doubled_speed]

Well, at least they're on equal footing now. Embarrassed, hurting, and angry for it. Tommy knows that all, and it's making it tired.

"OF course I fucking enjoyed it!" Tommy snapped, his hand slamming against the counter next to the bin of produce. And he winces when he feels it give just a little. His fault, like so much shit. "How the fuck else is it supposed to be!?"

[kyley_b]

It hurt so badly to see Tommy glaring at him. The impulse to pull him into his arms and stroke his back was intense. Kyle opened his mouth, intending to snap back with something equally biting.

Instead, Kyle found himself nearly shrieking, "Then why are you being mean to me?!"

[doubled_speed]

There were so many answers. Because he was angry and hurting. Because looking at Kyle would be like looking at a David from before they were dating.

"Because my heart hurts when I see you," he answers. "Because my brother's spell made us love each other, and even if you were interested in me, I could NEVER live up to that me, I could never be good enough for what my fucking head tells me you deserve."

[kyley_b]

Kyle exhaled and turned, gripping the edge of the counter as his body leaned against it. He stared at his feet for a moment, desperately trying to regain some semblance of calm.

"Okay," he said softly. "Yeah. Okay. Let's just... We both remember what happened, obviously."

He forced himself to look up. His cheeks were still hot.

"Great, you've seen my dick."

[doubled_speed]

They both remember, clearly. Tommy looks away, his own face scarlet. With his complexion it shows up pretty vividly. Can't even begin to look at Kyle.

"Yeah. Same here but other way around. Which literally puts you in a group with only one other dude. Unless you wanna count Billy and Teddy and I'm pretty sure he's, you know, cut, and I'm not."

So sorta weird there. Wait... Oh god, that was awkward, now that Tommy thought about it.

"Okay, magic is a mess because the whole junk thing."

[kyley_b]

Kyle's face is flaming but when he speaks he aims for at least SOME humour. "Well. I guess... Kinda nice to be in an exclusive club." He tries a smile.

"So. Uhm. We... oughtta talk. Not about our dicks."

[doubled_speed]

Kyle, please, don't make him talk. This is so bullshit. So instead he moves to where the produce is to start chopping it.

"Talk about what? About how my brother, the god, got fucking tortured or something to make a mistake he swore he'd never do? That he made me some sorta fucking genius or something and now I don't have that."

[kyley_b]

"I mean... yeah. You can't possibly be okay, dude. Either of you."

Tommy knows this tone - he's been on the recieving end of Kyle's concern before.

[doubled_speed]

Okay? What? Of COURSE he's okay.

"I'm fucking FINE," he insists, voice snapping. He's FINE. And the concern hurts. He isn't Kyle's to care about. To be concerned over. "He's not okay, and I'm taking care of him, a lot. But I'm fine."

[kyley_b]

Kyle moves before he can tell himself not to, reaching for Tommy out of what feels like deeply ingrained instinct.

"Dude..."

[doubled_speed]

He could dodge, but it's just as deeply ingrained into Tommy to accept his hugs and if that isn't fucked up, he doesn't know what is.

"I said I'm fine."

He doesn't know that it means whatever the fuck it means, and is a bad sign.

[kyley_b]

Kyle folds him into an embrace that feels as natural as breathing. "Yeah, okay. You're fine. You're fine, because your brother needs you to be."

Slowly, he runs his hands up and down Tommy's back.

"But you can be not fine. If you need to be, you can be not fine with me."

[doubled_speed]

All he wants is to melt into the comfort and familiarity because they were together. He wanted to be wrapped up in the warmth of those arms, the confidence of an older boyfriend, someone who keeps track of him and has faith in him.

And instead he pulls out of those arms, hand pressing against Kyle's chest to keep him back.

"I'm not Thomas Maximoff," he reminds the other. "I'm not yours to fix."

[kyley_b]

Kyle lets himself be pushed back, expression hurt.

"I didn't." He stops and wraps his skinny arms around himself.

"I'm not trying to fix you. I wouldn't do that.

"And, okay, maybe I'm not... him. But I'm still your friend. And like it or not, I do know you, Tommy."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy wants to kiss that hurt away. All of this might have actually become the weirdest day of his life. Because he doesn’t like it.

“You get that this is weird as balls, right? Like, one minute here you can’t have more than a ten minute conversation with me without claiming ‘Jersey made you mad’ or some shit, and now you’re hugging me.”

[kyley_b]

Kyle frowns deeply at the produce, like maybe it's offended him. "Yeah, it's weird as balls," he agrees. "But you know what else is weird, Tommy? Waking up on a fucking alien planet where you're supposed to do... something. And you don't know what, or how, or if you'll ever go home again. THAT'S just as weird."

He sighs. "Look. We can either pretend this never happened or we can just address it like adults."

[doubled_speed]

Waking up on an alien planet isn’t that weird for Tommy. Nor is something like what his brother did. So Kyle was double wrong.

“And where exactly in the adult handbook do they cover ‘magic made an idiot into a prodigy genius some shit’ or ‘made someone effectively goy an actual man of faith’ or how about the rest. Explain what the rules are here, because I’m thinking pretend that I didn’t just live a life a million times better than my own.”

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks up, eyes wide.

"Dude. You're not a goy idiot. Not at all."