"Eddie," Tommy says, and he sounds like he does at work. Firm. Calm. He's navigated helicopters through much worse than this. Raging storms and hurricanes. "Eddie, step away."
Eddie whips around, head snapping at him, eyes angry. Finger still pointed. Nostrils flaring. Buck is looking wide eyed. The tension in the air is palpable. Thick and heavy. "What are you doing here?" Eddie asks sharply and Tommy raises an eyebrow. Holds up the empty food containers. After the funeral, they'd all eaten at Hen's place. Buck had brought food for everyone. No one had really eaten anything. But it'd been nice, regardless. Or well, as nice as it gets when your captain dies and you have to do normal things after his funeral, such as eating and sleeping. Tommy had stayed behind to help Hen clean up. Had promised to drop off the food containers at Buck's.
So here he is. Backdoor wasn't shut and he walked in on Buck's face twisting into shame and grief and guilt and Eddie's raised voice.
Tommy puts the containers on the counter. Tries to meet Evan's eyes. It's charged in here. Tommy feels his stomach knot at the way Evan curls in on himself. Something isn't right. "Just came to bring these back," Tommy says, and then finally Evan looks back at him. "You okay?" Tommy asks.
Eddie scoffs, crossing his arms. “He’s fine. We're okay. Buck doesn't need you.” Buck shifts uncomfortably. “Eddie, come on…”
But Eddie ignores him, stepping closer to Tommy. “You’re not part of this team. You don’t know what we’ve been through.” It's a grief response, probably. Eddie is hot headed. Can be arrogant and mean. Buck's mentioned it jokingly before but it doesn't seem funny now. Nothing about it is fucking funny.
Tommy meets Eddie's gaze, unyielding. "I’m just here for Evan.”
Buck pushes past Eddie and towards Tommy and Tommy can see it in his tense shoulders, his set jaw. He's going to cry. And he definitely doesn't want Eddie to see right now. Whatever their argument was about, he needs to get out of here. "You wanted to catch that movie, right?" Evan says, voice brittle and sharp and he pointedly ignores Eddie. Tommy doesn't even blink. He touches the small of Evan's back. "Yeah," he says gently. "We're running late, come on."
Evan doesn't say anything on the drive. He stares down at his phone and bites his lip, and then out of the window and then back at his phone again. Fiddles with the seam of his jeans. Bounces his leg. At a red light stop, Tommy reaches over. Places his hand on Evan's thigh. Evan stills underneath his palm. Outside it's starting to rain. Drizzle, really. "My place okay?" Tommy asks and keeps his hand right there. Eyes on the road.
"Please." Buck's voice is rough, hoarse. Another beat. "I don't need you to save me, by the way. This isn't -- I was handling it fine."
Tommy glances at him. His chest clenches. "Hey, I know. That's not what--"
"He said I always make it about me." Buck blurts out, and he's angry and hurt. Grips Tommy's hand with his own, squeezes tightly. "Said I-- I don't know. Doesn't matter." His breath hitches. "I tried so hard to be okay, Tommy, I really did. And I - I know I'm a lot but I really thought I-" He lets out a wet huff. "I was there for everyone, I really tried to be. Like he said. To be what they needed but I was selfish, apparently and I-"
Tommy parks the car. They're here. He kills the engine and twists in his seat to look at Buck properly. The rain is picking up now, drumming against the windows.
"You're not selfish," he says firmly. "You're grieving and taking care of everyone. You're the least selfish person I know." Throat working, Buck shakes his head, looking down at their hands. His eyes are wet.
"Come on, let's head inside. Got some sweats you can borrow." Steal. Buck used to steal them. Sleep in them, sleep in Tommy's shirts. Buck seems to remember too because he manages a small, soft smile.
They get inside and Tommy flicks on the lights, door falling shut behind them. He's barely out of his shoes when Evan steps into his space, crashes into him. Tommy lets out an oomph sound and then folds his arms around him. He's put on muscle, has become so solid and filled out but he buries himself deep into Tommy's chest. Tommy thinks about watching Buck through the monitors and how badly he wanted to hold him then. How badly he wanted to catch his pain with his bare hands. "I got you," he whispers and presses his nose into the curls. "I got you, baby." The pet name slips out like that. Evan doesn't seem to notice, he's trembling and shaking, and Tommy can feel him crying more than he can hear him.
One time Ponyboy and Sodapop bought a "World's Best Uncle" shirt at a thrift store and thought it would be funny to wrap it up and give it to Darry and then tell him Ponyboy got someone pregnant.
Darry nearly had a heart attack and they both had to pick him up off the ground and tell him over and over again that it was just a prank so he'd calm down the hell down because bro was literally dry heaving.
This is one of my favorite clips of the two of them.
Senka's face... I can't help but smirk. She is a mix of focused and irritably resigned here. She knows she has to defer to him, and she KNOWS he's gonna fuck her over again.
Yet she begrudingly admires his cunning. A word I find myself using quite often when I discuss these two.
begrudging - adjective:
said, done, or given reluctantly: grudging
Which pretty much sums up their friendship after the events of Veilguard: grudging.
If NOLA reunion is our first look at the real Lestat, why didn’t he have the scars then? Continuity error or a retcon? Sam did mention in an interview that he wanted the scars for that scene, but Rolin told him that they’re mental scars, they’re all in his mind…
*coughs* 💅🏼 (not a jab against you!)
You know people still call me stupid for my thoughts on the scene. And that I was doing my doubting of the details for nefarious reasons.
So. Thanks for noticing (she says without ANY sarcasm) .
(Btw, I think IF the show will give us a statement on this it will be during the fifth book's arc, namely "The tale of the Body Thief", where the discussion on this canonically happens. So we might still have to wait for ... final developments here.)
i have a short story for class that's due at midnight it is 1pm and i haven't typed a single word hell i don't even have a fucking plan for it no ideas whatsoever and i'm not scrambling i simply stopped caring
have you read Yellow Chrysanthemums on ao3? your kid zenitsu story reminded me of how golden it is to have kanao and zenitsu interact and that fic really scratches that itch so i thought it might be of interest
I haven't read it, but I'll add it to my list! I think Kanao and Zenitsu are an underrated duo. They have similar upbringings and I think they would eventually bond over that, if they were both willing to bring it up.
