rivers_bend

Title: The Taping of Tommy Joe
Characters: Tommy Ratliff, Adam Bouska, Jeff Parshley
Rating: PG
Words: 780
The Obvious: I do not know any of the people whose public personas are used here and neither believe nor mean to imply this actually happened. (and by public personas in the case of Adam and Jeff, I mean that they exist, and really seem to like Tommy on twitter. Sorry for basically turning you into fanboys, boys.)
A/N: So this happened, and spawned much drooling and many plot bunnies. This is the one I wrote down.
Summary: Someone had to put that duct tape around Tommy's wrists...



When Adam lowers his camera, ready for a quick break, Tommy shakes his hair out of his eyes and peels the tape halfway off his mouth. "I was thinking," he says.

In Adam's experience Tommy has some pretty good ideas, so he's more than prepared to listen. "Yes?" he says when Tommy just looks at him, fingers still on the tape like he's ready to put it back as soon as Adam says the word.

"Like, you know how people talked, with the first one..."

And talked and talked and threw money at the campaign. That's why they're here again right now. And what the hell, it's not usually so hard to get Tommy to spit his words out. "I want to hear your idea. You have great ideas."

"They liked how I had my hands up behind my head like that. They'd probably like it if, like, we taped my wrists together or something."

Adam isn't sure whether to laugh, swear, or just make gibbering noises, but all of those require actual air to move in or out of his lungs, and he's rather struck by the idea of Tommy with his mouth covered and his wrists bound, and, yeah. Breathing. Not so much. "Gnnugh," he manages, and nods vigorously.

"Cool!" Tommy says, and starts toward the table where Adam's left his equipment and the face paints and duct tape.

"What are we doing?" Jeff asks from the back of the room.

Tommy stops, hovering between the backdrop and the table.

"We're--" Adam turns to look at his partner, who's smiling at Tommy. "Gonna, with--" Adam holds his camera up in one hand and mimes wrapping tape around it with his other. He's not all that surprised when Jeff looks at him like he's pretty much crazy. Mumbling and flapping his hand in the direction of his camera isn't particularly clear.

"I thought it would look good if we taped my wrists up," Tommy clarifies for him.

"You are a genius," Jeff says. Tommy beams from behind his hand before pressing the tape back to his face.

Then he holds his wrists out in their direction. Adam tries to move, but he's frozen in place at the sight of Tommy getting his sub on. Jeff's much faster, and before Adam can even inhale, he's grabbed the tape off the table and is walking toward Tommy Joe.

"Mmmmm," Adam says, and oh. Was that out loud? Jeff throws a smirk over his shoulder, so he's guessing it is.

From where Adam's standing, Jeff is blocking most of the view of the proceedings, so Adam shuffles to the left until he can see Tommy, still holding his arms out, and Jeff's hands as he peels the tape off Tommy's mouth again.

"Should I cross them, or just have them like this?" Tommy asks, lining his arms up so his wrists are perfectly parallel. Adam should totally have an opinion on this subject, since he is the photographer and everything. He does have an opinion on this subject. But he's still having trouble getting his mouth to work.

"I think more like this?" Jeff says, and raises Tommy's arms a little so he can adjust the angle at which his wrists meet. "Okay?" he asks, and no one says anything until Adam realizes that Jeff was asking him, not Tommy.

"Great," he says. "Perfect."

Yay, words. Jeff and Tommy both beam at him, then Tommy's gaze goes back to Jeff's face as Jeff tears a strip off the roll of silver tape in his hand.

"Tell me if it's too tight," Jeff says. From the look on Tommy's face, that isn't likely. Adam tries not to think about what Tommy would look like wrapped in tape from neck to ankles. He's a professional. That's just inappropriate. But Jesus, Tommy's pretty.

Long before Adam's tired of watching his partner bind Tommy Joe's hands, Jeff's patting Tommy's shoulder while Tommy slightly awkwardly--though not as awkward as he could be, presses the tape back over his face again. Then Jeff's back at his shoulder, and the camera's heavy in his hand again and he remembers what they're doing here.

"You're right," Adam says, his mouth still dry, but air flowing in and out of his lungs without effort. "They're going to love this."

He can't see Tommy's lips, of course, but there's no mistaking the pleasure shining in his eyes.