#tangotak

(Img 1) theyre actually room-mates in the au because im a sucker for that lol. After etho had recovered from the injuries that erm. Made pause and Beef think he was dead, he stayed in a room provided by the foundation for a few weeks while he sorted himself out a little. That... wasn't working completely, he was kind of a mess since his memory was all fucked up and his entire support system had fallen from underneath him. Tango, who knew etho a little from some work they'd done together in the past, and who took over for ethos duties quite a bit while he was getting back on his feet, offered him a place in his apartment so etho would have a stable place to stay and not have the foundation on his back about finding a home all the time.

Etho only intended for it to be a short arrangement, he didnt know tango that well and he doesnt know all of what tango knows about him because he can't remember the past few months of his life. It just became easy, is all, because tango spends a lot of time away from home while on work trips, and needs someone to mind the house. So it became a little more permanent, and they settled into a routine with each other.

God knows they both have horrible self care when it comes to sleep schedules and overworking and forgetting to eat, so they tend to be able to keep each other accountable when they're both home.

Etho sleeps on tangos couch still, but its one of those ones that pulls out into a bed, so its really fine.

I don't know how long it takes Joel to figure out that these guys live together but its gotta be a slightly comically long time

(img 2) The Citadel is Tango's ship that he maintains, and while it's not technically his, he's worked for the company long enough and is such a good pilot/mechanic that he's kind of got that guarantee that he'll be the one flying and in charge of maintaining it on jobs

which also means he can get away with some modifications that he wouldn't otherwise be able to, given he's trusted. some of them are straight up illegal, some of them are simply in breach of contracts that state he's meant to get approval before making modifications

He doesn't intend to tell Etho about these at first (because duh step 1 to not getting caught is not telling anyone), but when he gives Etho a proper tour of the ship, Etho notices. Instead of telling tango off or accusing him of sabotaging the foundation, however, Etho's just mostly curious about the modifications themselves. I would consider this the stage at which their friendship really starts to blossom, where tangos been more vulnerable with etho as well.

(Img 3) closer to immediately pre-canon theyre very comfortable around each other :] its not just tangos apartment anymore, its their apartment, and its ethos home too.

Doesnt stop them from always making jokes about tango coming back from a trip to find the place upside down (etho probably has played a few pranks on him before where he'll shift around some of tangos carefully organised chaos and time how long it takes him to realise when he gets back)