⋆⁺₊⋆ of countless stars

Evan's been dodging all his calls and texts since the funeral and he has no idea where the hell Evan lives anymore. Tommy drove by his house the other day and Eddie's truck was in the driveway and Evan's Jeep wasn't, and Tommy decided then and there he going anywhere near that with a twenty-foot pole. But after seeing Evan again, he sucks it up and cashes in a reverse-favor with Howie and gets Evan's new address.

Tommy shows up unannounced on purpose so Evan has no choice but to let him in. Evan stands with his arms wrapped half-around himself while Tommy looks around at all the...nothing, the empty space. His apartment is bare bones, devoid of any character. Tommy feels like he's walked into some sort of funhouse at the county fair.

"Uh, where's all your furniture?" He says and Evan says it's in storage, he's not planning on staying very long, Ravi finagled him a month-to-month lease, isn't that great, and Tommy frowns and squints and asks, "oh, yeah, where else have you been looking?" and it's obvious Buck hasn't actually been looking for a new place very hard at all.

"I know it doesn't look like much," Evan tries, "but I promise I've got beer in the fridge—"

"You know it's okay if you're not okay," Tommy says, and wears-his-heart-on-his-sleeve-and-literally-all-of-his-other-feelings-too Evan Buckley blinks and his face does this crazy thing, it goes completely flat, and Tommy realize that he'd thought it was grief taking over when Evan had collapsed in the army tunnel outside the lab but he'd been wrong. He'd had no idea. "You don't have to lie or pretend with me, Evan."

Evan's hand freezes around the handle of the fridge door. "I'm not pretending," he says, and he half-laughs and it's ugly. "Bobby's gone and I'm—I'm dealing with it."

"By getting rid of all your things?"

"They're in a storage unit down the street—"

"—and what about still being buddy-buddy with Eddie at work when he what, kicked you out after a few months?"

"I offered to move—"

"That stove looks like you've never even turned a burner on—"

"You don't know anything, Tommy!" Evan finally snaps. Thank God. Tommy's heart pounds. "So stop! Stop acting like you do."

Tommy steps around the counter, feels like he's approaching a feral animal and like he's just as scared. "I do get it."

He gets close enough to see a muscle in Evan's jaw jump. "How?"

"Because I saw you on the monitor in the army tent." Evan shakes his head. "I saw what losing Bobby did to you."

Evan stares down at the floor, the scuffed, grout-dirty tile, his chest heaving. He keeps shaking his head. "I didn't realize...I didn't know that you could—that anyone saw me."

"Someone did see you," Tommy says and lifts his hand, wraps his fingers around the knob of Evan's wrist and against his pulse underneath, blood thrumming. All of him shaking. "I saw you, Evan. And I know that it hurt like hell."

Tommy barely tugs before Evan is collapsing into him.