he smiles as tommy talks. to be clear, he has a habit of smiling when everyone talks, because he learned long ago that talking isn’t as easy for everyone else as it is for raph and so it’s important to be as encouraging as possible, but with tommy he doesn’t even have to try. there’s an energy to tommy that raphael responds to really well, an energy he picked up when tommy first moved to new york and raph was the first person to approach him and kill him with kindness to guilt him into a friendship (and hey, it’s more or less worked, so he’ll be issuing no apologies for whether or not tommy actually wanted raph to approach him).
any remaining tension leaves his shoulders as he fixes tommy with a shake of his head and says, “no, no, you’re thinking of this all wrong. dying is the best way for an artist to really blow up. michael jackson and amy winehouse would be nobodies by now if they hadn’t known to play the long con and die at just the right time. getting murdered by eddie’s hands could be the best thing to happen to your career, trust me on this.”
with that being said, he’s still about to turn around and get a head start on trying to figure out this machine, but tommy distracts him by pushing a package forward. “this is pretty much the sketchiest package you could possibly push my way. like, if i were to gift someone a bomb, this would be the bag i would put it in. so opening this up is a total mark of trust on my part, i just want to put it out there.” when he finally deems it time to shut up and actually get to opening the present, his eyes light up. “yo, this is dope. i’ve been harassing various strangers on the internet forever about this record, who the fuck did you kill for it? did i have a reason to be concerned about the packaging after all?” he would be happy if this were it, but tommy’s got another thing waiting for him once raph digs deeper. “oh.” he looks through the jar, at the cookies he mentioned off-handedly were his favorite, at the entire ensemble that’s put together with deliberate thought. it feels nice, a little confirmation that raph’s not more invested in this friendship than raph after all, even if raph was the one to initiate it. “this is really nice. you’re, yeah, you’re really nice. thank you.”
he doesn’t linger on it for much longer, since tommy’s clearly looking for an out to not just stand there and be embarrassed, so he directs his attention to the coffee maker. “yeah, i don’t know, it’s supposed to make this really concentrated and professional-tasting coffee, but i couldn’t tell you the difference. coffee is just coffee to me, which is to say it’s all equally bad. but more power to you for being able to just, drink something bitter for fun. coffee drinkers weren’t hugged enough in their lifetime, it’s fine.” then, back to the machine: “either the silver or black button turns it on, i think. or maybe that’s the button that self destructs it, life is full of surprises.”
"oh, 's that so? are you sure that's not just you wanting to center yourself as the next courtney love of it all?" should it be reassuring to hear from raph that ed's doing murder against him would be fine? not at all. but they've never had a direct method of conversation; so what tommy hears is that raph cares about him and his career path, which he'll take as an agreement.
in the same vein, he laughs over raph’s next comment, burying the color blossoming across his cheeks in a scrub across his own shoulder as he fiddles (read: tries to look like he’s busy) with the appliance afore him, muttering, “i know, i know, but i don’t know where to buy wrapping paper in august and i don’t intend to learn just for you.”
he thinks that evens out the exchange of affection, here. like just a spot of playful bullying clears the fact that he knows raph’s favorite cookie from record, and then the other is just as swiftly abiding by the same apparently universal rules, which tommy can’t help but grin over. of course raphael brooks only took the signals he wanted to. of course. he has to find it endearing, though — after all, it is the only reason they’ve made it this far. “i’ve been schmoozing the folks at white noize for like, weeks. mostly for selfish reasons, but they let me come in early when they got a shipment in, so i’m pretty sure that’s the definition of trickle-down? packaging ended up being pretty okay from what i could tell.”
no you’re welcome, because the thank you was misplaced anyhow. his gifts were hardly enough to start a dent in what he owed raph. “hey, don’t blame me! i’m tryna’ retroactively fix that issue, but i’m the opposite of the gift: good packaging, questionable interior. besides, bitter stuff doesn’t give you that sticky back of the teeth feel...” tommy turns that grin to raph, pushing himself off the counter and finalizing, “go, sit. i’ll give you ample heads up if i start a fire, swear, then we’ll figure out from there if we need to come up with matching alibis. are we card gaming today or utilizing your good hulu?”