[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1126198822020841482/1127347751890460672/Tommyand-Levi.png[/img][/center]
[color=808080]
[hr]
Levi still had an arm on him, he would give him that. The attempt to ignore his childhood friend was lost when he heard the [i]Hmph[/i] and the man began to take his eyes off the woman who wanted him to win her a bear. [i]Smurfy?[/i] What type of nickname was that and while his eyes were coming off her, they quickly locked with one of his officers. The man’s grin told him everything and that caused his eyes to dart back to Levi. The man was standing there. 

His eyes followed Levi the whole way till he was looking down at his friend. There was no response to the question. That might have spoken louder than words. Tommy did believe that he wouldn’t ever see Levi again or get into contact with him. All those attempts in university really drove a nail through his heart. He already lost two brothers in his eyes and when he lost Levi, it hurt more than he would let anyone ever know. Would he let him know? He truly didn’t know if he could allow himself to open up to him again. He hasn’t opened up to anyone in years, even Nixie. 

Anger shot through his thought process when Levi said that he could say the same for him. [i]I’ve been back in town for about a decade,[/i] the thought sounded unpleasant but he held his tongue while staring at Levi. Attempting to process the situation and not allowing his negative feelings to get in the way of the reunion of friends and brothers. 

How was he supposed to welcome his friend? He didn’t realize he had so much pent up emotions and his expression began to soften the longer he stared at Levi. All those good memories flooding back in. Every time they sat in the police station chairs together after getting caught cow tipping or when Misses Crooks called on them because they were sinning in her eyes and wanted them off her ‘property’ even though it was public land. 

Not noticing the little girl waiting in line excitedly, Levi began to speak, and Tommy found himself emerging into the ice water once again. This time he didn’t freeze. The man shot up and began to pull himself out of the dunk tank. [i]You asshole, you should have been better to him!!![/i] Hurdling the wall's tank and landing on his feet. Water splashed everywhere against the concrete. Maybe the water did the man some good. 

“[color=66946b]Tony git into the ice tank! Aah’ll be back en forty-five to an hour![/color]” The man waved over one of his officers while beginning to follow Levi into the crowd. Internally cursing himself out for being such an ass. He needed to not worry about Nixie. He needed to not let his walls stand so high that he cannot even see his friend eye to eye. 

[i]Batman? Where are all these names coming from today,[/i] ran through his mind as well. That was when he stopped for a few seconds as he heard Tony shout, “[color=ffffff]See you later Smurfy!![/color]” And he rolled his eyes and shook his head before budging into the crowd after the other man. 

It took about a minute or two for the man to catch up to Levi in the sense of arms length away. “[color=66946b]Hey jackass![/color]” The man did not hesitate to grab his friend's shoulder, quite hard at that, and yank him backwards. This was purposefully to get Levi to spin around right into a hug and that hug was tight. His arms wrapped around the other man as he gave him what is known as a bear hug and somewhat dug his chin into the upper part of his shoulder blade, “[color=66946b]Aah missed ya too,[/color]”

Levi's body tensed as he was grabbed and forcefully spun around in his seat, his hands immediately curling up into fists as he prepared to duck and swing a right hook into whoever was looking for a fight. Levi was no stranger to fights, although it had been awhile, but his gut instinct was always fight - never flight. Instead of an adversary, Levi was met face to face with Thomas who was completely drenched in water. Before he was able to pull away Thomas pulled him into a tight hug. [color=EA7A55]“Jesus, dude.”[/color] Levi returned the hug and wrapped his arms around Thomas, submitting to his clothes soaking in the water dripping off of Tommy. [color=EA7A55]“You were this close to a knockout.”[/color] He joked, patting his friends back a few times, his body finally relaxing. Now this was the kind of welcome he had been looking forward to! 

Tommy couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face as he lightly laughed at the man’s comment about possibly being knocked out. “[color=66946b]Aah reckon aah can take a punch from a city boy,[/color]” His tone was playful since he knew he could take plenty of punches. Coming back from university after his father passed so he could raise Junior and Roy —- Roy threw tons of punches till he was able to leave the house. Tommy never punched back. The only time Tommy was punching anyone was in the ring when he was training, boxing, or when he was on the job and had to defend himself. There were a few wild stories of pulling people over, going into a bar call, or so on where Tommy had to fight to restrain. 

Pulling away, Levi looked down to check his golden star sticker, [color=EA7A55]"Careful, I don’t want you ruining my trophy. Jeeze.”[/color] He patted it lovingly, making sure it wasn’t losing its stick after the water encounter. He laughed and then looked back to Tommy, eyeing the man’s arms. [color=EA7A55]“You been going to the gym, haven’t you?”[/color] He reached out to squeeze Tommy’s bicep teasingly, [color=EA7A55]“I don’t remember the last time I was spun around like that!”[/color]

As the man began to pull away, Tommy allowed his grip to loosen while he glanced down at the loving pat to the star. He could not help the thought of how there were probably four hundred and ninety something stars just like that one left in the prize bucket yet he decided to keep that to himself. 
Glancing down at Levi’s hand when he felt the man grab his bicep, he shook his head in more of a joking way than anything. “[color=66946b]Aah’ve bin’ hittin’ the gym since junior year of high scole ‘n majorly since the po-leese academy. Aah’ve always looked weaker than what aah’m,[/color]” That was something that he was too familiar with hearing while growing up. Everyone always commented about how he was too skinny. Too lean. Teasing if he could pick things up boys his age could. His muscles didn’t show like others did. They did now but he was lean just like his mother’s side of the family. Maybe a reason his father was so rough on him unlike Junior and Roy who had the muscles that popped when flexed out or toned down. Show muscles. 

‘[color=66946b]Aah felt lak an ass so aah had to do somethin’[/color]” Tommy tried to offer a warm smile that showed a little bit of awkwardness and a bit of shameful hint.

[color=EA7A55]"Well, you are an ass, I’ll give you that.”[/color] Levi smirked, clearly playing with his friend as per usual. In truth, he had never thought that Tommy was an ass - it was quite the opposite. Tommy was typically the nicest guy he knew, usually to the man's own detriment. [i]Too[/i] nice. 

[color=EA7A55]“So you’re the big bad Sheriff now, huh?”[/color] Levi’s eyes glanced behind Tommy to take a look at the dunk tank surrounded with police. [color=EA7A55]“Ladies love a man in uniform. You got a girlfriend?”[/color] He laughed, looking back to his friend. He had known that Tommy was Sheriff for some time now, courtesy of his mother the town gossip. He had even shot Tommy a call when he found out but the call went unreturned. Levi had just chalked it up to Thomas being too busy at the time, but eventually the time between communication got longer and longer as Levi became more involved with his job at a five star restaurant. Not only that, but his ex-girlfriend in California had taken up a lot of his time as well. Admittedly, Levi had missed his own fair share of calls and texts. 

Tommy shrugged his shoulders at the question, “[color=66946b]They have bin’ reappointin’ me meh fo-wah about a decade, aah must not be that bad,[/color]” The man’s tone was becoming warmer by the second. He was enjoying the interaction he was having with his friend. He missed it. He really did miss it. Levi would never know how much it hurt when he couldn’t get ahold of him anymore. 

“[color=66946b]Even en an uniform, aah’ve never bin’ great with the ladies…[/color]” Was what came out of his mouth and it was humble. It sounded fine. It wasn’t giving any major clues. 

[color=EA7A55]“How’s Nix?”[/color] He questioned, knowing that Tommy would know better than anyone. [color=EA7A55]“I saw her briefly this morning, but, uh…”[/color] He leaned back against the picnic table, wishing he had another beer in his hand at this moment. [color=EA7A55]“I guess she was busy.”[/color] He shrugged, [color=EA7A55]“Bringing you breakfast I heard, actually.”[/color] 

His face seemed to lose all of that warmth and welcoming energy when he was asked about a girl friend. His chest twisted at the thought and his eyes naturally fell away from Levi’s face. How was he supposed to answer that? He hasn’t had a girlfriend since his last one dumped him in college with the comment of [i]my friends knew you were gay,[/i] because he wouldn’t do anything intimate with her. He felt awkward about this. Couldn’t he open up to Levi without being judged? No… he would be judged and teased for it. 

Now he was thinking of Nixie. She wasn’t even his girlfriend. [i]Stop thinking you idiot…[/i] began to repetitively go through his mind. His cheeks began to have a slight shade of pink where the cheek bones were under his eyes.  

Levi was bringing up the fact that Nixie brought him breakfast. That was a usual thing. She was always nagging on him for not eating properly or at all. God… was it that weird? Now he felt like it was weird. He would tell her to stop doing that if everyone was getting the sense that they could be a thing. Tommy’s mind began to race. He began to panic. It was getting difficult to breath with all these thoughts in his head and Levi standing in front of him asking harmless questions. They were harmless. Don’t think about them. 

Patting Levi’s shoulder with a forced smile, “[color=66946b]Aah really do not want to talk about this with ya, Levi, aah’ll catch ya later. Aah need to go eat somethin’,[/color]” Tommy practically rushed away from Levi before disappearing into the crowd. [i]You’re so awkwardly stupid… You could have just stopped talking,[/i] as he continued to push through the crowd and move away from Levi. Since the man was back, he was going to have to get something else for Nixie’s birthday. Preparing himself to be a third wheel or completely excluded within the next week. This made him sick. It made him want to go home and drink. Maybe he should go home. No one would notice if he disappeared from the festival. It wasn’t like that many people actually cared about him.

Levi frowned as Tommy quickly made an exit, refusing to talk about Phoenix. The reunion had felt good, but it was so brief that it left Levi wishing he hadn’t opened his stupid mouth. Stunned and confused, Levi stayed in place and watched Thomas walk off. What was he supposed to do with that sort of shut down? [color=EA7A55][i]’That was weird…’[/i][/color] Levi thought, wondering what had made Thomas so uncomfortable. Did something happen between him and Phoenix this morning or something? His friend had always been a bit awkward, but that felt different. Once again he was reminded that he needed to go find a beer. 

Tommy knew that exit was awkward and he was totally regretting opening his mouth. If Levi didn’t ask about him having a girlfriend and bringing up Nixie it would have been fine. Reminding him of the lie that he always tells himself. There is no time for a girlfriend between protecting the town, coaching the kids, and other activities. Drinking. Depression. Multi-hour long showers. Crying. Binge-watching home VHS tapes of him and his mother. His father before the man lost his wife and became an alcoholic. 

That was when a dark wave of emotion hit him and he stopped in the crowd while people passed by. It was a lonely feeling. A dreadful feeling. Did he just ruin something? Was Levi going to be suspicious? What if Nixie and Levi get back together and he might have said too  much… Would Levi tell him to go away? This stung. That thought stung so much. No. Levi would never do that. Trying to push those emotions down. Way down so he wouldn’t think about them. 

The man walked to the grocery store down the street after that and ordered a five dollar meal that the deli had. Making his way back to his truck that was on the outskirts of the festival. Tommy locked himself in it and began to try to focus on his meal. “[color=66946b]Aah'm 'unna have to reckon about gettin' nixie somethin' else fo-wah her birthday,[/color]” There was no way he could give the items and letter that he wanted to give to her now. That letter took him about six months. Pounds of paper and multiple pen packs later and he felt like he had the best outcome he was going to get with that. Maybe burning it in the fireplace tonight would be a better idea. What would he get her then? Would he still give her the items that were bought and had handcrafted for her? That’s too much… Maybe he will just keep those and hide them somewhere that no one else would find them. 

Placing his forehead on the steering wheel the man mindlessly stirred the plastic container of mashed potatoes as he thought about what he was going to do now. The overwhelming urge to go home and drink was the only thing that flooded his mind. Alcohol was being substituted for anxiety and depression medication. It was a vicious cycle at this point and he would always remind himself that he could never tell Nixie that he drank. She probably was suspicious but he knew that she probably didn’t know how bad it was. He just needed to cut his losses but why did he not years ago? 

The man continued to mindlessly stir the potatoes before he realized that he had been in his truck, stirring potatoes for about fifteen to twenty minutes —- [b]DING DING DING!!! [/b] Those were the bells indicating that it was 3 PM and he had been in his vehicle for quite some time — and he decided that he would eat. Beginning to try to force something into his system. He felt like an idiot at this point. He felt like if he confessed his feelings, he would lose both of his friends. Taking a deep breath as he took another bite of mashed potatoes. “[color=66946b]Ya have bin' doin' this fo-wah roughly two decades, give or take, just keep doin' it 'n ya won't lose either…[/color]” Tommy didn’t want to lose either of them in the long run. They were his best friends and pretty much his lifelines throughout high school and most of his childhood. 
[hr]
[b]Location[/b] Sitting in his truck, outskirts of festival  
[b]Time[/b] 3 PM  
[b]Mood[/b] Depressed and attempting to eat 
[b]Collab[/b] [@The Muse]
[/color]