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

[doubled_speed]

Tugged down, huh? Yeah, that works. Tommy offers a wide grin. There i was.

"You're creative, but I guess I knew that. Now watch and be amazed."

And with that he starts to walk confidently backwards. Ain't nothing going to stop him now.

[kyley_b]

Kyle watches, smiling. He figures if Tommy does trip, he's so fast he'll catch himself. He's literally never seen him fall over if a bad guy wasn't involved.

[doubled_speed]

Well in Tommy's defense, he doesn't trip. Sure, he has a half second of kinda sorta stumble, but it's a half-second and that's SO much time to recover from him.

That said, he just keeps going, and will until Kyle tells him to stop.

[kyley_b]

"Okay, okay! You're gonna hit the door!" Kyle says, giggling. He walks over to pull his hat off of Tommy's head.

"Alright, you win. Looks like we'll be recreating Hebrew school."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy stops the second the first okay is said. He is grinning too, offering Kyle a wink.

"I promise to try and be a good student."

[kyley_b]

Standing close, it's so very tempting to kiss him. Kyle actually feels his body lean in to do so, but he stops himself.

"You better be."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy sees the leaning, and he moves closer too, ready to meet Kyle in a kiss. He takes longer to catch himself, to notice it's being kept away. He just holds his breath.

OKay, one, two, three breaths. He's okay.

"I've got a reason to want to get an A."

[kyley_b]

"Oh yeah?"

If anyone were to enter the diner, they'd definitely think they were interrupting something.

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah. I don't want to disappoint my brother by having horrible spelling or something," Tommy shrugged.

[kyley_b]

Kyle smiles softly. "I won't let that happen. Brothers are important."

[doubled_speed]

"They are. Hey, you really have a Canadian brother, yeah?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle nods. "Yup. Sir Ike Moisha Broflovski. And my folks are still Sheila and Gerald, and they'd still probably like you."

[doubled_speed]

"God, that name is horrible," Tommy groaned. "How does he deal with a name like that? And no, they wouldn't like me. I'm a curse-laden asshole."

But he liked them. Or had liked them. he doesn't remember. Did it even count?

[kyley_b]

Kyle laughs. "It gets worse - his birth name was Peter Gintz."

His face softens. "Dude. Don't tell me what my folks would and wouldn't like, okay? That's not cool."

[doubled_speed]

"Ew," Tommy grumbles, shaking his head. "Fuck, Shepherd is awesome by contrast."

At least he's got that.

"They seemed nice," Tommy answered. "Like Wanda did. I'm not someone that people take home. At least I'm not now."

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks at Tommy evenly.

"I'd take you home."

[doubled_speed]

Take him home. To parents. God, that's a bad idea.

"Okay, we're walking now, away from here, to a place we can talk, and we can lay out just why that's a terrible idea."

[kyley_b]

"Right. Okay, sure." He finishes putting containers where they ought to be and then turns to Tommy.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy hesitates before offering his hand out. "Come on, I know a place."

[kyley_b]

Kyle takes his hand with an easy familiarity that feels bizarre. He grins a little shyly. "You'll have to carry me if you wanna go fast, hero. I'm not special, anymore."

[doubled_speed]

"You're still special," Tommy says reflexively. Which was stupid. But he said it anyway as he swept Kyle up into his arms. "You been to the hot springs yet?"

[kyley_b]

"Nope." Kyle is both taller and older, but it still feels so normal to be carried this way, because as the Human Kite he'd done it hundreds of times. Kyle can't quite stop the pang in his heart that causes.

He was special, there. To Tommy, and to everyone else.

He closes his eyes and hangs on tight.

[doubled_speed]

Hey, Tommy's DEFINITELY older than he was, so it's not as weird as it was before. He did offer a wink to Kyle and moved. He knew that Kyle would know what it felt like, knew how to handle it. No warnings needed.

Tommy was off like the speed of thought, careful to keep to speeds that wouldn't hurt his passenger. Soon the world around them was darker, given the whole caves thing. And then his speed picked up a bit, in spite of himself. Stupid energy crystals feeding into him. But then he was stopping, as the air was warmer, more humid, and filled with the sound of trickling water.

"Onenativehotspring," he declared as he put Kyle down, vibrating with energy now. His eyes were glowing with the residual power in the air that his body seemed to absorb, his hair giving off its own faint glow. He looked, well, he looked keyed up.

"Sorry," the word rushed out, and he closed his eyes to try and slow it. "Energy here. Like power rods. Super charge me."

[kyley_b]

Without thinking, once he was on his feet Kyle gently cupped Tommy's face with his hands.

"It's okay," he said softly. "You're okay, you don't have to apologise." He let go as soon as he realised he was touching Tommy, looking around. He'd never been to the hot spring, and the warmth and humidity of even just the air is foreign but comforting somehow.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy leans into the touch, it's a remembered action after all. Stupid muscle memory. But then it's gone and it's easier and he walks to the water, still vibrating, the air around him just a bit warmer from his motion, the look of him blurring a bit.

"Ittakestime to burn off," he explained. "Don'tcomehereoften because ofthat."