headcanoning that whenever Evan and Tommy start bickering over something stupid (like leaving the cap off the toothpaste, or someone leaving socks in the middle of the floor), Tommy just pulls out fake mouth static. The first time he does it, it catches Evan so off guard that he starts laughing, and any time after that, when he does, it always breaks up the tension.
After a particularly rough fight (Evan got hurt at work, unecessarily in Tommy's opinion), Evan pulls it out on Tommy. And as much as Tommy wants to keep driving his point home, he knows Evan is actually hearing him. Maybe he even pulls it out a few weeks later in reverse when he gets hurt during a fire and ends up with minor burns.
But somewhere in the mix of it all, fake mouth static becomes 'I love you'. To the point that when Tommy says it to him for the first time, he just mimics fake mouth static at Evan one morning over coffee. Evan is barely half-awake, still letting the caffeine wake his grouchy soul, and doesn't really make out what Tommy is doing. The ADD in his brain doesn't process it for couple of hours until he's fully awake. At that point, they're at Bobby's for a party. Evan is hanging out with Chim and Hen, and they're telling May about the flight into the hurricane while Bobby, Eddie, and Tommy are over by the grill having a very serious discussion about proper searing. Chim gets to the part about fake mouth static, and it suddenly dawns on Evan.
And of course, he can't just wait then. He walks out on the conversation, over to Tommy, and drags him inside, backs him up against a counter.
"What did you say this morning," he asks, fingers curled into Tommy's belt loops to keep him close. "Over coffee?"
Tommy leans into him, whispers fake mouth static into his ear.
"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that," Evan replies, and he leans back so he can see Tommy's face.
And then Tommy's eyes are on his lips, not necessarily because he wants to kiss him, but because he's nervous. And then he looks up at Evan, manages to find the confidence to look him in the eyes, and tells him directly.
"I said I love you."
And of course it makes Evan blush, because he feels the same way, but its the first time they've said it, and he's never really been in love with someone the way he is with Tommy. So he just wraps his arms around Tommy's waist and pulls him closer, says, "I *fake mouth static* you too," before kissing him.
And then of course, post-kiss, when they're hugging it out, nuzzling each other, Evan actually says it, love included. But any time after that, when it's just the two of them having a moment, needing to connect in the chaos, etc., it's always fake mouth static.
