someday you'll have my head on a sliver plate

[dharmaavocado]

 

“Evan,” Tommy said, and Buck jumped; he hadn’t seen Tommy coming. “People are heading back to the 118 for the wake. Do you need a ride?”

Over Tommy’s shoulder, he saw Chimney leaning into Maddie’s side, one hand on her belly and the other touching the ends of her hair; Hen with Karen, Karen’s palm curved around the back of Hen’s skull; Eddie with his phone out and turned away as he talked to Chris; and Ravi with his parents, his mother straightening his tie as his father drew Ravi to him, pressing a kiss to his forehead, the same as he probably did when Ravi skinned his knee as a kid. And then there was him.

“I don’t want to go,” Buck said, wincing at how it came out, childish and petulant. He pulled off a glove and dragged a hand down his face. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just tired.”

“You don’t have to,” Tommy said with a shrug that was trying so hard to be casual. It was worse than the fake mouth static.

“I do,” he said. Eddie had turned their way, eyebrows jumping up at how close he and Tommy were standing. “Don’t I?”

In which there is love and then there is devotion.

[read on ao3]