Tommy / Interactions. - Tumblr Posts

🪐 — tommy hernandez / tags.

🪐 — steve harrington​ ;

bones feel too big for his skin, one hand reached out with the wallet, the other making patters between his pocket, his hair, his thigh. there’s no way to stand normally ​when he wants to throw up, when he cannot remember why he even thought this might have been a good idea in the first place. but @musecraft​ is still looking at him and waiting for words to fall.      ❛   you dropped this. ❜

       TO BE GRACED WITH HIS PRESENCE AGAIN  after long weeks spent avoiding each other is a little bit overwhelming. the anger  &  hurt  &  longing is all mixed up inside,  &  it wells up to the surface when steve approaches him. a his hand is extended out toward him, tommy’s wallet between his fingers. it’s not much of a peace offering. but for once, he’s sick of fighting, at least with steve. they were supposed to be on the same side, after all.  ❝ thanks, ❞  he mumbles, dark eyes stuck on his former best friend’s all-too-familiar face as his hand closes around the well-worn leather. ❝ you didn’t have to do that, dude. ❞

🪐 — NEIL JOSTEN.

@musecraft​  (   as tommy   )  says:  you look awful.

neil doesn’t need to look in any mirror to know that for a fact.   most of his scars might be easy to hide away under clothing,  but there is no mistaking the ones on his face a —  the pale lines left by the tip of a blade and a second degree burn scar on his cheekbone a little too obvious not to notice.  neil stifles the flare of anger rising in his chest,  but the look he settles tommy’s way is icy cold as he finishes strapping on his gear for practice.  they are the only ones still lingering in the locker room,  and that’s probably for the best.  tommy wasn’t there last spring,  doesn’t know the horrors neil and his foxes went through,  wasn’t there when they played against the ravens and won championships.  so yes,  neil is willing to give him time to adjust,  willing to wait and see if this turns into a problem or not,  before he does something about it.  as vice captain,  he is not going to use andrew’s vicious brand of assessing potential threats,  so he will have to think of something else.  if they get there.   ❛  and yet,  you’re the one staring.  stop worrying about my face and start worrying about scoring on andrew.  ❜   neil almost feels a twinge of sympathy at that,  knowing from experience how incredibly hard it is to steal points from the pint sized goalkeeper guarding their goal. 

         HE DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING BY IT  —  it’s just that tommy’s never really been good at controlling his mouth. it’s not intentional, but stuff just kinda tends to come out out. it’s rare that he thinks about it before he talks.  &  it’s just that he’d never really noticed the scars on neil’s face before, but catching a glimpse up close as they get changed into their practice clothes side by side, they’d been hard to miss. still, the harsh glare he gets thrown his way from neil is even more obvious; he’d definitely hit a nerve.  &  honestly, that wasn’t the intention. on his old exy team, they’d all cracked jokes at each other’s expense all the time. it was all in good fun; part of how they’d bonded. but this felt like tommy had touched on something that wasn’t a laughing matter. ❝ damn, dude, alright. sorry. ❞  his eyes drop to the floor, hands busying themselves with his laces. he’s not looking for a fight  —  not with the vice-captain, for sure. tommy wanted to fit in here. to feel like he was really part of this team.  &  he surely wouldn’t do that if he kept on pissing people off. so it’s probably best to just shut up, keep his head down for awhile, just focus on scoring like neil said.  but he’s no good at control,  &  the question falls right out of his mouth before he can even consider stopping it. ❝ so, how’d that happen, anyway ? ❞

🪐 — STEVE HARRINGTON​.

oceans of empty space; to know someone that well, have them feel like they’re another part of him, only seems to mean that the ability to read them doesn’t leave. he sees every flicker of emotion as it plays out, feels it punching deep in his stomach, an emptiness, an aching. it’s easier not to look tommy in the eyes, but that only leaves him staring down at the worn wallet, the way their fingers seem so close for a moment, like he could flex his and close the gap between them, like there’s a simple way to make this right.         ❛   it’d be a dick move if i made off with your wallet.   ❜        he lets go. pretends he doesn’t feel the way the space becomes more palpable, the opening up of a wound that’s still bleeding. it drops and he counts the specks of dirt on his shoes, kicks them into the ground as a way to keep moving, swallows back a sickness.          ❛   be careful, yeah? someone else might have.   ❜

        ANGER ALWAYS COMES EASIEST  to tommy, but something about steve makes it hard to hold onto his aggravation. what had transpired between them had been real shit,  &  it had hurt like it  —  but there was still so much more that lingered beneath that.  &  whenever steve was near it wasn’t anger that rose up in his chest, but something much more painful : regret.  ❝ yeah, they might. but  you wouldn’t. ❞  tommy chews his lip, fighting the instinct to fall back into his place at steve’s side. they’d been best friends for so long, two halves of one inseparable unit. they’d known each other better than anyone.  &  maybe they don’t know each other like that anymore, but tommy likes to think that he can still read steve. the way his eyes remain fixed on the ground, the way his shoes scuff in the dust  —  it’s obvious to anyone who really knew him that there’s something else steve wants to say.  &  maybe he’s wrong, but maybe  what they had  hasn’t been entirely pushed out to make room for nancy wheeler. ❝ hey man, you think you might wanna come over again sometime ?  no big deal, but maybe we could just hang out. like the old days. ❞

🪐 — STEVE HARRINGTON​  for  tommy !

fear clogs in his throat, heavy, leaving him breathless as the situation unfolds. there’s a certain unluckiness to the way they end up in these situations, a worry that has set up inside of his stomach and remains there in residency, never fading even when the world is meant to fall to safety. there’s something strange about @musecraft, something off that he cannot quite explain, except that it lingers, heavy in his stomach.        ❛   you doing okay, tommy?   ❜

      THERE’S SOMETHING ELSE IN HIS BRAIN,  but he can’t figure out what. all tommy knows is that he feels wrong, everything off, the world a little bit slanted. his head hurts,  &  there’s a ticking in his ears that he can’t figure out where it’s coming from, an unfamiliar chime played on a loop. &  then, all at once, steve’s voice cuts clean through everything else, tommy’s eyes going clear as they land on the familiar face. ❝ steve ? ❞  awareness of where he is returns slowly, tommy rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand as he tries to clear his thoughts. ❝ uh, honestly man, i don’t really know. ❞  he feels better now, but the strange sensation lingers, his breath still coming a little shallow into his lungs.  ❝ please tell me you have some kinda idea of what’s going on ? ❞