Sleeping last night was a pain and a half. Tommy was running on two hours of sleep, tons of caffeine, and more tension than he knows how to deal with. Billy had been late getting home the night before after the power outage, and once Tommy was back in his own bed he had found himself getting up every hour or so to check that the lights still worked. Which, of course, they were on and functional.
All in all it made for a very, very cranky Tommy. One that was having a hard time keeping his wig properly on. It just didn’t want to stay today, almost like the magic of Bobby pins and, well, magic, was fading. What it also meant was that Tommy was in a bad mood to start with and not able to cool down in the pool lest something were to go wrong.
That meant that he was treated to a sight that made him want to snarl.
Watching Billy flirt with Karen Wheeler was driving Tommy up the wall. Because that was undoubtedly what it was. If there was one thing Billy knew, it was what his boyfriend looked like flirting. The little biting of his gum instead of his lip, the way he looked up and down Karen, the brightness in his eyes.
Envy curled in Tommy’s stomach because how dare a woman her age ever expect something of his boyfriend. How dare she ever…
Tommy lifts himself from his lounger and just walks away. He can’t stand to look at it. Not for anything in the world. Not when the day before had been so wrong.
“Hey, Tommy,” a girl called nearby. He pauses, catches sight of Carol in her bikini that was about as risky as 1985 seemed to put out. “You leaving? You didn’t even swim.”
“Carol,” he greeted with a brief nod. “I think the heat is getting to me today.”
“I haven’t seen you around the diner recently. Everything okay?”
“Fine,” he says. “I just need to cool off. Have a nice swim.”
If he was lucky she wouldn’t notice that he hadn’t even begun to address her real comment there, or the implication there. Of course it can’t be left at that. Because Tommy only makes it a few feet before Carol’s at his side, walking with him.
“If you need to cool off then we should get you something to help with it. Like a milkshake.”
We. Fucking we. Something told Tommy he wasn’t going to get away from her easily this time. Not without liberal applications of ‘humanly impossible’ amounts of speed. So it seemed like he was going to have to deal with it as it was.
“I don’t get employee discounts on them anymore, so-“
“Then it’s my treat. Meet me outside once you’ve showered and changed.”
She says it with such bright expectation that it’s honestly hard to say no. And it’s not like Billy won’t be at work for another two hours.
“Alright,” he says after a minute. “But don’t leave me waiting. I’ve got errands to run this evening.”
Carol nodded and they parted ways outside of the locker room doors.
- - - - -
Getting rid of Carol took a bit over two hours, which was a headache and a half because it meant Tommy had to work to find Billy again. Which wasn’t as hard as it could have been of course. It seemed like Billy’s night life was tapering off as summer built up steam. Chalk it up to saving up for getting out of town he supposed. Made the most sense actually. What time Billy did spend out of the house on Cherry Lane was spent in the company of others.
It was here that Billy ended up, at least in the hours his father wasn’t working. Something that Tommy took advantage of when he didn’t want to run all over town to find Billy. Sometimes it didn’t pan out of course, and then Tommy had to put on as much speed as he thought he could safely get away with to find the Camaro, because Billy was never far from his baby.
This time of day there weren’t really many people around in the neighborhood, and moving at the frame of speed that he was, well… Yeah, today he was picking up a level of creepiness that he knew was absolutely just wrong. Some days, though, he just needed to see Billy up close.
It was probably wrong that Tommy knew that it was easier to vibrate through the kitchen door and into the house than it was to get in through the front. It was probably wrong that he knew every board that creaked or groaned, and how to avoid them. It was definitely wrong that he knew about the lock on the outside of Billy’s door and just where Neil Hargrove slept at night.
What was absolutely wrong with no question about it was slipping into Billy’s bedroom while Billy was in it, caught in the space between seconds. There was Billy now, in front of a mirror, smiling to himself. That wide smile, full of mischief, that told Tommy all he wanted to know about Billy’s conversation with Karen Wheeler at the pool. It was the sort of smile that Billy got on cold nights when he slipped into Tommy’s room, his shirt half off before the door was even closed. The sort of smile that Tommy gave him right back when their bodies crashed together and they chased…
Billy smiled into the mirror and he was teasing at a curl, trying to get something to lay just right. Tommy longed to reach out, to touch his golden hair. To curl his fingers into it and press his lips to Billy’s throat and promise that he doesn’t need this. That Tommy would always be there for him no matter what. That what Neil had stolen from him in California would be his, so soon, sooner than he could ever imagine. That Tommy was right there.
Instead he reaches past Billy for the bottle of cologne. He lifts it carefully, opens the cap. A brief dab of it to each wrist so he can smell Billy against his skin later. Then the bottle was put back with care before Tommy left again. He didn’t need to see Billy getting ready for a hookup. Watching it would only break his heart.
As he left he wondered if Billy could feel the ghost of a touch against his cheek, or the kiss of the breeze Tommy left in his wake.
- - - - -
Tommy had seen a hell of a lot of things before in his life. All sorts of villains and weapons and types of attacks.
What Tommy has never seen before is the targeted attack of a rat launched against a speeding car. There was no way an animal should have the reaction speed, or in this case the jumping ability, to manage what it did. Yet as Tommy ran through the woods trailing after Billy, he saw the impossible.
Saw a pack of rats he wasn’t expecting lingering in the trees. Saw one tense and move and jump precisely. Saw it strike Billy’s windshield. Saw the Camaro swerve.
He drops back, and after a moment of thought, climbs a tree. If the rats were behaving this weirdly, then he didn’t want to see just what they would do to someone standing in their midst.
From there everything happens… Not quickly. No, none of it is quickly, not for Tommy. Because he realizes what is happening before it starts to happen. Realizes what tonight is.
Maybe you shouldn’t forgive me, he thinks to himself as he sits there, high in the tree, watching Billy circle the Camaro and curse to himself.
I will never forgive myself for this, Tommy thinks as he sees something dark and slimy and vine-like snake out of the factory and grip Billy by his ankles.
Never, he realizes as Billy shouts, grips the vertical supports of the handrails, fights back against the undeniable pull of fate.
And I wouldn’t ever deserve it anyway, he tells himself as Billy stumbles out a few minutes later, his attention not on anything in particular. He seems so lost.
Eventually Billy starts moving again. Gets into his car with a degree of shaken fear and confusion that Tommy knows will haunt his boyfriend for so long to come.
You’re a horrible man, Tommy Shepherd. Just like everyone always said.
For a moment he almost pulls at the braided string bracelet at his wrist.
Except even your brother couldn’t love you now.
He spends the rest of the night up the tree, sobbing.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
Saturday, June 29th, 1985
Date: 2023-10-01 03:16 am (UTC)All in all it made for a very, very cranky Tommy. One that was having a hard time keeping his wig properly on. It just didn’t want to stay today, almost like the magic of Bobby pins and, well, magic, was fading. What it also meant was that Tommy was in a bad mood to start with and not able to cool down in the pool lest something were to go wrong.
That meant that he was treated to a sight that made him want to snarl.
Watching Billy flirt with Karen Wheeler was driving Tommy up the wall. Because that was undoubtedly what it was. If there was one thing Billy knew, it was what his boyfriend looked like flirting. The little biting of his gum instead of his lip, the way he looked up and down Karen, the brightness in his eyes.
Envy curled in Tommy’s stomach because how dare a woman her age ever expect something of his boyfriend. How dare she ever…
Tommy lifts himself from his lounger and just walks away. He can’t stand to look at it. Not for anything in the world. Not when the day before had been so wrong.
“Hey, Tommy,” a girl called nearby. He pauses, catches sight of Carol in her bikini that was about as risky as 1985 seemed to put out. “You leaving? You didn’t even swim.”
“Carol,” he greeted with a brief nod. “I think the heat is getting to me today.”
“I haven’t seen you around the diner recently. Everything okay?”
“Fine,” he says. “I just need to cool off. Have a nice swim.”
If he was lucky she wouldn’t notice that he hadn’t even begun to address her real comment there, or the implication there. Of course it can’t be left at that. Because Tommy only makes it a few feet before Carol’s at his side, walking with him.
“If you need to cool off then we should get you something to help with it. Like a milkshake.”
We. Fucking we. Something told Tommy he wasn’t going to get away from her easily this time. Not without liberal applications of ‘humanly impossible’ amounts of speed. So it seemed like he was going to have to deal with it as it was.
“I don’t get employee discounts on them anymore, so-“
“Then it’s my treat. Meet me outside once you’ve showered and changed.”
She says it with such bright expectation that it’s honestly hard to say no. And it’s not like Billy won’t be at work for another two hours.
“Alright,” he says after a minute. “But don’t leave me waiting. I’ve got errands to run this evening.”
Carol nodded and they parted ways outside of the locker room doors.
Getting rid of Carol took a bit over two hours, which was a headache and a half because it meant Tommy had to work to find Billy again. Which wasn’t as hard as it could have been of course. It seemed like Billy’s night life was tapering off as summer built up steam. Chalk it up to saving up for getting out of town he supposed. Made the most sense actually. What time Billy did spend out of the house on Cherry Lane was spent in the company of others.
It was here that Billy ended up, at least in the hours his father wasn’t working. Something that Tommy took advantage of when he didn’t want to run all over town to find Billy. Sometimes it didn’t pan out of course, and then Tommy had to put on as much speed as he thought he could safely get away with to find the Camaro, because Billy was never far from his baby.
This time of day there weren’t really many people around in the neighborhood, and moving at the frame of speed that he was, well… Yeah, today he was picking up a level of creepiness that he knew was absolutely just wrong. Some days, though, he just needed to see Billy up close.
It was probably wrong that Tommy knew that it was easier to vibrate through the kitchen door and into the house than it was to get in through the front. It was probably wrong that he knew every board that creaked or groaned, and how to avoid them. It was definitely wrong that he knew about the lock on the outside of Billy’s door and just where Neil Hargrove slept at night.
What was absolutely wrong with no question about it was slipping into Billy’s bedroom while Billy was in it, caught in the space between seconds. There was Billy now, in front of a mirror, smiling to himself. That wide smile, full of mischief, that told Tommy all he wanted to know about Billy’s conversation with Karen Wheeler at the pool. It was the sort of smile that Billy got on cold nights when he slipped into Tommy’s room, his shirt half off before the door was even closed. The sort of smile that Tommy gave him right back when their bodies crashed together and they chased…
Billy smiled into the mirror and he was teasing at a curl, trying to get something to lay just right. Tommy longed to reach out, to touch his golden hair. To curl his fingers into it and press his lips to Billy’s throat and promise that he doesn’t need this. That Tommy would always be there for him no matter what. That what Neil had stolen from him in California would be his, so soon, sooner than he could ever imagine. That Tommy was right there.
Instead he reaches past Billy for the bottle of cologne. He lifts it carefully, opens the cap. A brief dab of it to each wrist so he can smell Billy against his skin later. Then the bottle was put back with care before Tommy left again. He didn’t need to see Billy getting ready for a hookup. Watching it would only break his heart.
As he left he wondered if Billy could feel the ghost of a touch against his cheek, or the kiss of the breeze Tommy left in his wake.
Tommy had seen a hell of a lot of things before in his life. All sorts of villains and weapons and types of attacks.
What Tommy has never seen before is the targeted attack of a rat launched against a speeding car. There was no way an animal should have the reaction speed, or in this case the jumping ability, to manage what it did. Yet as Tommy ran through the woods trailing after Billy, he saw the impossible.
Saw a pack of rats he wasn’t expecting lingering in the trees. Saw one tense and move and jump precisely. Saw it strike Billy’s windshield. Saw the Camaro swerve.
He drops back, and after a moment of thought, climbs a tree. If the rats were behaving this weirdly, then he didn’t want to see just what they would do to someone standing in their midst.
From there everything happens… Not quickly. No, none of it is quickly, not for Tommy. Because he realizes what is happening before it starts to happen. Realizes what tonight is.
Maybe you shouldn’t forgive me, he thinks to himself as he sits there, high in the tree, watching Billy circle the Camaro and curse to himself.
I will never forgive myself for this, Tommy thinks as he sees something dark and slimy and vine-like snake out of the factory and grip Billy by his ankles.
Never, he realizes as Billy shouts, grips the vertical supports of the handrails, fights back against the undeniable pull of fate.
And I wouldn’t ever deserve it anyway, he tells himself as Billy stumbles out a few minutes later, his attention not on anything in particular. He seems so lost.
Eventually Billy starts moving again. Gets into his car with a degree of shaken fear and confusion that Tommy knows will haunt his boyfriend for so long to come.
You’re a horrible man, Tommy Shepherd. Just like everyone always said.
For a moment he almost pulls at the braided string bracelet at his wrist.
Except even your brother couldn’t love you now.
He spends the rest of the night up the tree, sobbing.