once a year tommy goes to this little cafe outside of LA and sits at the same table and orders the same meal. he's done it since he got back from the army. no one knows about it except for the owner of the cafe, steve, who's been there since day one. he didn't always go alone. when he was young he would go with his mom. it was a yearly tradition when they'd go back-to-school shopping. they went right before he was shipped off to afghanistan too, just because they'd miss their usual date. when tommy was away, his mom died of a sudden heart attack. he didn't even find out about it for a few weeks.
he didn't go for a couple of years after that. the anniversary of their annual cafe date was somehow worse than the anniversary of her death. but one year, something inside him screamed for him to go back. go have that meal that they loved so much. sit at that table. do it for her. maybe you'll even feel her there? so he goes. and steve remembers him. how could he ever forget tommy? he'd watched that kid grow up!
the first year he went back was hard. he barely ate the food, felt indescribably lonely, and once he got back to his car he sobbed for nearly half an hour before he could even drive away.
then he came back the next year, and the next, and the next. he kept coming back, always alone. even when he had people in his life, he'd come alone.
then one year steve looked over at the table, knowing tommy should be arriving soon, and saw two men sitting there. he went over to tell them they'd have to move- the table was reserved, but halfway over he stopped. it was tommy... with someone this time. the other guy was looking around, then leaning in close to tommy. it looked like he was asking questions. he reached over the table and took tommy's hand and squeezed it and tommy... smiled. he smiled a real smile that reached his eyes. steve hadn't seen that smile since the last time he came with his mom.
so steve walks over to the table to say hello, like always. to ask him about his life and what he's been up to this last year. he'd always say "not much, really. nothing new." but this time he kept his smile, motioned toward the man across from him and introduced him as, "My boyfriend, Evan Buckley, or Buck. Evan, this is Steve."
and this boy, Buck, he stands and shakes steve's hand, asks to pull up another chair, says, "i heard you knew tommy's mom?"
steve nods. "i did." because while tommy only came once a year, his mom came more often. it was her little safe haven away from home.
"i've heard a lot about her from tommy," this buck said, a bright smile on his face. "but i'd like to know more. what was she like?"
so steve sat, and talked and talked, and the boys listened- Buck listened.
tommy never came to the cafe alone again.
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today’s mantra: i will be kind to my body regardless of the frustration i feel towards it
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i need the four people on this website who have both watched mash and star trek enterprise to understand the vision that i just had, and it's that colonel flagg is a temporal agent like daniels from enterprise. both of them were clearly in the bottom 10% at temporal agent school, maybe even roommates, which is why the temporal cold war is such a mess that only gets progressively worse every time daniels touches it, and the mash 4077 can't get un-stuck from the korean war for 11 goddamn years. they are very bad at their jobs. this is also why ***gestures to colonel flagg's whole deal that is clearly not endorsed by the CIA*** and why daniels tried to convince captain archer that he was a trustworthy person from the future because "you like your scrambled eggs soft."
this is the deepest cut i think i could make but i have made it.
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