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[m_pinocchio]

Today doesn't feel any different than any other day. He gets up early, gets his coffee, and instead of drinking it in the kitchen he takes it outside to the Compound steps, sits down on them and listens to the Island come awake

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[out_of_realm]

"Well, I didn't bake," Tom called from inside the compound, balancing a plate in one hand, utensils and a cup of coffee for himself in the other, "But I did make breakfast."

He settled down beside Mike on the front stoop, passing over the plate carefully. On it were two eggs sunny side up, toast cut into triangles and a few rashers of bacon. It had been carefully arranged into a smiley face. One of the pieces of bacon had slid in transit, giving the face a kind of malevolent squint.

"I'm better at eggs than baking," he explained, yawning as he leaned over to kiss Mike on the cheek, settling close enough that their biceps were brushing. He looked tired and immensely proud of himself.

"Happy breakfast, birthday boy."

[m_pinocchio]

He looks down at the plate and back up at Tom and he's not immediately sure what to do. He could roll his eyes at the presentation. He could just eat it. He could give into the warm and faintly gooey feeling in his middle.

Instead he leans in, curls a hand around the back of Tom's neck and kisses him more fully, quick and just a little hard before he pulls back again, picks up a piece of bacon and crunches it.

"You remembered I like 'em burned," he says, feeling that gooey feeling threatening again.

[out_of_realm]

"Um, yeah," Tom said quickly, feeling a warm, happy flush at Pinocchio's reaction. He'd honestly expected to be laughed at, which would have been okay, too. "I totally remembered that."

He snagged a piece of toast, dipping it in his coffee before taking a bite. "Thirty-six, huh?" he said, glancing over at him with a slight smile. "What are we doing for the occasion, Pinocchio? A day long hike? A long run on the beac? An afternoon of looking into eachother's eyes? Or maybe just some more quality alone time with the twenty year old in our lives?"

[m_pinocchio]

He laughs quietly, his hand reaching down and settling against Tom's knee almost like it's an accident. "Any of the above," he says, and pauses for a few seconds, like he's trying to figure out how to phrase something.

"I talked to Eostre," he says finally. "A little while ago. I think... things are okay now."

And if he's going to get ridiculous about birthdays, it's really all he'd wanted for his.

[out_of_realm]

Tom went still, locking up under Mike's hand. A month hadn't quieted the guilt, hadn't made seeing her and the tension around her eyes any easier. It was hard to see her and not be able to help, harder to know that they'd been responsible for that look on her face. Now, he took a deep breath, glancing up at Mike with undisguised hope, worrying his bottom lip.

"Yeah?" he said, staring at him. "...um, how okay?"

[m_pinocchio]

He shrugs. "I don't think she's happy about it, still. But she's not mad anymore." He smiles, a little sadly, because he thinks that this won't ever quite stop being a point of pain now.

"I'll take anything. I just miss her."

[out_of_realm]

"Me too," Tom murmured, looking into his mug and frowning. Nothing was easy, sure, he knew that, but that didn't make the truth any easier to cope with. Maybe they wouldn't ever be back to those months between the time he'd kissed Eostre under the world tree and when Neil had changed the world up at the shooting range, but this was a step forward. A small one, maybe.

"Eat your breakfast," Tom murmured, kissing Mike's shoulder. "It's getting cold."

[m_pinocchio]

"Yes, mom." But it's said with less than the usual sarcasm. He feels... relieved. Still a little sad. Mostly just strange, as though several different streams of time are meeting here in this one place.

He pops another piece of bacon into his mouth and chews it moodily. "Think I just need to... I dunno. Stop and take a breath or something."

[out_of_realm]

"You look too pale," Tom whined, grinning a little. "Have you been eating all your vegetables?"

"You go off into the woods," he added slowly, after a pause, "I'm coming with you. That's the deal, Mike." He looked up at him steadily, stealing the smiley face's left ear. "No more disappearing. Especially not now."

[m_pinocchio]

"Oh, shut up," he says, rolling his eyes and pausing in raising his mug to his lips to jab an elbow into Tom's ribs. "I'm not going anywhere. I can breathe right here."

He takes a sip of his coffee and settles it on his knee again, reaching down to finish off the smile. "I'm too... tied into this place now," he says quietly. "Got too many things I need to take care of. I can't leave."

[out_of_realm]

"Yeah?" Tom said, grinning over at him, letting the worry slip off him. There were changes that even he was still getting used to. "Good. That's...really, really good, Mike."

He leaned into him a little, stealing warmth in the early morning sunlight. "Me too. I...yeah. Me too."

[m_pinocchio]

He sighs faintly, something that might have been exasperation any other time but right now just sounds... like a sigh, and slips an arm around Tom's middle, almost like he doesn't mean to.

"I feel like I'm growing up," he says suddenly. "Maybe it's fucking crazy to be feeling like that at thirty six, but I do. Been feeling like that for a while."

[out_of_realm]

"You were different a year ago when I got here," Tom said, closing his eyes and taking the comfort without batting an eye. "You're a family man, Pinocchio. Who would have thought?"

[m_pinocchio]

"I know," he says, looking at Tom headlong and thinking, for just a moment, of the first day and the beach and how strange that had felt, the terror and the relief in equal amounts.

He's not afraid of love anymore.

"I didn't mean to be." He smiles and kisses Tom's cheek.

[out_of_realm]

"You were the same in the important ways," Tom laughed, shaking his head. "Seeing you for the first time on the beach was more like seeing you in that warehouse for the first time. Only difference was you didn't actually mug me the second time."

[m_pinocchio]

"I wanted to kiss you," he says, grinning and starting to attack the eggs with his fingers. "Or hit you. There isn't a whole lotta difference sometimes."

The eggs are actually almost perfect, and he gives Tom an appraising look. "This is really good," he says. "Think I might have you do this more."