@sassandsnapshots sent: "When I was little, I was fascinated by stars. I thought they were magic." From Andrew
It was rare that Tony saw Andrew Thomas for longer than a weekend when the man was stateside. But he'd recently taken a job at the FBI, and Tony found himself seeing Andie's twin a lot more often.
They'd had their fun together on Andrew's previous visits, but Tony hadn't let himself put emotion into it. Andy was a SEAL. Chances of him not coming home were higher than most other sailors. Tony hadn't been ready to risk it all like that, to catch feelings for Andy only to lose him before he could find out what those feelings meant.
Now, they were both at the FBI. They were both home a lot more often. And they both ended up sitting on Tony's balcony while Andie slept on the couch after burning herself out at work all week. Tonight, they were watching the stars, a plate of smores between them.
Tony looked up, thinking about the stars, the stories his nonna told him when he was little. He'd grown up on stories of the stars, of the gods in the heavens and how they used the stars to guide the fishermen home. He'd used the stars to remind him of her after her death, when his night sky started to change with each boarding school. He'd sent all his wishes up to the stars when he was scared and alone. The stars were a comfort to him.
Not unlike the man sitting next to him.
He reached for a smore, using it as a distraction from speaking. He almost brought up his own love for the stars but stopped, glancing inside where he could see Andie curled up on the couch, an old Ohio State sweatshirt swallowing her up.
"Why'd you join the FBI?" He asked instead. "I know you and Andie are close, so staying near her makes sense. Why the FBI, specifically? You could be NSA. You could work in the Pentagon. Why are you at Quantico? Was it me?"
He didn't know how he'd react if Andy had joined the FBI to be near him. No one had ever done something like that for him. Wendy had left him because she didn't want to give up her career, choosing it over staying with him. He had never been enough of a priority for someone that they'd choose to do whatever it took to be close to him.
"Am I part of the reason you're back?"
He wanted Andy to say yes- almost needed it. Tony desperately needed to belong to someone, to have someone who belonged to him. With Andy, he already knew everyone important to him, already liked them all. And Andy knew Tony's flaws and faults. If he still wanted to be near him despite-because- of that, well, Tony would be a fool to turn that away.
