rivers_bend

Title: One is Silver and the Other's Gold
Pairing: Adam/Tommy
Words: 1,100
Rating: Teen
A/N: This is a timestamp for All That Glitters, in which Adam and Tommy both happen to be in Sunnydale during their senior year of high school, which coincides with Buffy S3. (for day 7 of mmom
Summary: When Tommy meets Adam he thinks he's finally made a best friend. That's just the start, though.



"How'd it go, sweetie?" comes a sleepy voice from the kitchen when Tommy quietly shuts the front door. His mother has been having trouble sleeping and keeps prowling around at all hours making cups of warm milk.

"It was good," he says softly. No need to wake his dad, too.

As she comes through the hall in the dark in her white slippers and robe, she looks like a ghost for a minute, and Tommy gets a little thrill of fear down his spine before she resolves into just his mom. "That's good, hon. Get some sleep." She takes her mug and shuffles back to her bedroom. Tommy's just as glad, because he isn't ready to talk about tonight yet.

He's also not ready for bed. He angled to get his sister's room when she left for college, but she protested and their parents took her side, so he's still stuck with the one right next to his parents'. Usually he'd shower in the morning, even if he's all sweaty after a gig, but the bathroom is on the other side of his bedroom and the linen closet, giving him at least fourteen feet of extra privacy. He feels like he needs some privacy right now.

His mom, he knows, was asking how the gig was. And he didn't lie. It was good. They played a couple of new songs and didn't fuck them up even though Devon bailed on practice three times last week to hang out with a girl so they hadn't played them as much as they should have, and the crowd was good, and Oz didn't break any strings, and Tommy didn't trip on any cables. But the good, good--the great--came after. And that's the part he doesn't want to share with his mother.

Tommy doesn't really have any enemies. Even when they think he's strange, people pretty much like him. Moving to Sunnydale wasn't all sunshine and roses or anything, but he found his band, and no one is trying to steal his lunch money or anything. But he hasn't really made any friends. Hasn't found anyone he felt like he could talk to forever about anything the way he had back in Burbank. Then tonight Willow dragged this new guy over, and Adam shook his hand, and looked at him and smiled, and Tommy suddenly felt like, yeah. And that was before Adam came to the park with them after and they talked for ages.

Adam's easy. Adam's complicated. Adam makes Tommy feel too big for his skin, makes him feel like there isn't enough time in the world to get all the words out he wants to, makes him want to listen forever and never speak again. Adam's also really fucking hot. Which Tommy feels awkward about, but apparently not awkward enough to stop him sitting with his legs in Adam's lap, his hand curled around Adam's forearm, scooting closer and closer across the picnic table until his butt was snugged right up against Adam's thigh, close enough he just had to tilt his head a little to rest his cheek on Adam's shoulder when one of the others was talking.

Usually when Tommy's all worked up after a show he calls Dee back in LA and hopes she'll maybe talk to him all low and sweet about how much she misses him, and his fingers and his lips, let him tell her about his night. He hasn't seen her since June--she had to cancel her last two visits--but she's a good girl, a good friend, and she'd be happy to hear him happy, happy that he's finding people he clicks with. But he wants her to know about Adam even less than he wants his mom to know. The guys and Willow even seem like too many people. Something about Adam-- Tommy wants to keep him for himself. At least until he's figured him out.

The shower is Tommy's favorite place to think, but tonight it doesn't really help.

When Adam calls the next day and asks if Tommy wants to maybe get together some time before school starts and hang out, he's hardly got the invitation out before Tommy's saying, "What are you doing now? I could come over or--"

"Yeah," Adam says. "Sure. That'd be great." He sounds like he means it.

Tommy's never felt as comfortable around anyone as he does around Adam, which doesn't really explain the nervous buzz in his stomach every time Adam opens the door to him and smiles. Or asks him to play something else on the guitar. Or scoots closer to him when they're watching a movie. It never feels close enough, though, and Tommy finds himself pushing and shoving Adam playfully when they're choosing DVDs, stealing Adam's drink and taking sips, going for popcorn when Adam's hand is in the bowl.

He's jerking off every night, after spending all day half (or mostly) hard, but the day he asks Adam to do his makeup, he actually has to jerk off in Adam's bathroom--the light is better in there and the mirror's bigger and he nearly bites his tongue off rushing to explain to Adam that he just wants to look at his face a little and he'll be right back--and that's when he admits to himself this is more than excitement about having a new friend. That he'd asked for the makeover because he was desperate to feel Adam's fingers on his face more than because he wanted eyeshadow tips.

Admitting it to himself is one thing, though. Adam doesn't ever push him back, or steal his drinks, and he always waits his turn at the popcorn bowl. Tommy's not ready to admit it to Adam yet. He's too happy to have a real best friend again. And that, he can admit. He's pretty sure Adam kinda glows when he says it. Tommy files that away for later.

He has some more thinking to do first. And maybe a conversation to have with his girlfriend. But glowing's good. Tommy can probably work with glowing.

"How was your day?" Tommy's mom asks when he comes home with smoky eyes and blood-black lips. She's given up commenting on his eyeliner, so she only gives him an extra look.

"It was great," Tommy says. "Totally great."