Chapter Text
Tommy hopped out of his car with a chirp, grabbing Sunkist’s leash as she hopped out of the car behind him. He looked up at the building in front of him, his new house.
His father had bought it for him, after Tommy had expressed his concerns about his prior roommates being very toxic. Tommy had picked the house out himself, especially since it was very affordable, and had a nice garden space for Sunkist to run around in.
The house came fully furnished, so Tommy only really needed to bring his personal belongings to move in. Everything was stored in the backseat and trunk of his car, but he wouldn’t be doing unpacking just yet.
The first order of business was making sure he had somewhere to sleep, as it was already sundown. Tommy walked up the driveway, pausing to pet the stone goose statue on the porch, and unlocked the door with the keys he had been provided.
The house itself had been recently cleaned by the previous owners, so it wasn’t coated in dust or anything, but it was a little anticlimactic to open the door to a small living room with a couple couches and empty bookshelves against the wall.
There was another room on the left of the living room, and from the opening it appeared to be a dining room. Beyond that, Tommy could see a little into the kitchen.
There was a tiled staircase on the other side of the living room, presumably leading up into the bedrooms. Tommy decided to go up there first, after taking off Sunkist’s harness to let her roam around the new house.
There was a little hallway in the upstairs portion, with several rooms spaced along it. Tommy walked to the room positioned at the end of the hallway, the door wide open, so Tommy could see the bedroom he remembered from the house tour.
Tommy stepped inside the room and looked it over. There was a huge bed laid against the wall, the head of it touching the wall. There was a closet across the wall opposite the door, and next to the closet was a little bathroom with a wall-length mirror and separate room past that for the shower and toilet.
The best part of this room, in Tommy’s opinion, was the view from the window. The house was situated on a hill, and a little ways away from other houses, so Tommy got lovely morning light from the sun, and he could watch a beautiful sunrise if he was up that early.
Tommy placed his drawstring bag down on one of the dressers in the room. It only contained the things he would need for the first night here, before he really needed to unpack everything from his car.
Tommy opened the curtains and stared off into the horizon, smiling as he watched the sky turn pretty colors as the sun set.
——-
Tommy returned to the house with Sunkist, and flopped down on the couch, covering his head with his arms. It had only been a few days since he had moved into the house, but that day was the day he had went back to work.
What was his work? He stocked shelves at a grocery store.
It was really the only position in the store that allowed him to have Sunkist with him at all times, as she was his emotional support dog. Sometimes Sunkist even helped him out when stocking shelves.
But today, a nosy customer had gotten in his face about Sunkist, and it was extremely stressful in the moment. Now, Tommy felt completely drained of energy.
He could have been doing better things than working a minimum-wage job, but apparently big companies don’t respect thirty-seven year olds with bright ideas over sixty-something year olds with outdated notions of what people not like them require emotionally.
Tommy felt Sunkist’s nose touch his shoulder, and shifted his head to look at her. She nudged him with her nose until he was sitting up, and then leapt onto his lap. They sat like that for a bit, with Tommy hugging Sunkist, and Sunkist sitting there.
Sunkist was glancing around the room, which Tommy couldn’t see because of his face being buried in her fur. Her eyes were following something, but she didn’t growl or anything. Just sat there.
After a little bit, Tommy let go of Sunkist and she jumped off the couch. Tommy ended up not making much for dinner that night, and later, exhausted from his day, just ended up flopping down on his bed, not bothering to crawl under the sheets or anything.
Once he was asleep, Sunkist quietly jumped off the bed. She had been watching a particular corner of the room for a little while, and finally approached the mysterious figure standing there.
He had been there the prior night, and the night before that, never moving from the corner, and just watching Tommy. She looked intently at the man. Of course, she didn’t miss the slight transparency of his outline, so he must be a ghost.
The ghost in question appeared to be in his late twenties. One thing of note was that he was slightly shorter than Tommy. And that he also was missing part of his right arm.
Sunkist didn’t know if this was just a ghost thing or not, but there were these large iridescent blue lines racing up the ghost’s right arm, the only opaque part of the arm. They were very angular, racing along, tracing the veins all along it, until it was obscured from view. The markings even covered the ghost’s neck, albeit faintly.
The ghost gazed down at Sunkist, bending down and placing his hand out tentatively. Sunkist gently nudged his hand with her muzzle, and he definitely felt real, albeit a little cold.
Sunkist moved to the side as the ghost stepped forward, tentatively making his way to the bed, Tommy still asleep on top of it. Sunkist growled lightly, as a warning to the ghost, as the ghost gently grabbed the blankets on top of the bed.
He gradually worked the blankets out from under Tommy, very gently as to not wake him up, and then gently placed those blankets on Tommy with a dramatic flourish that the ghost must have done hundreds of times in life. This ghost must have had a child or something in life.
Tommy unconsciously curled up a little bit more underneath the blankets, and the ghost stepped back, turning to look at Sunkist. Sunkist wagged her tail and trotted up to the ghost. She gave a little nod, and leaped back up onto the bed, settling down next to Tommy.
The ghost went to sit back down in the corner again, the nervous look on his face replaced by a content smile.
——-
Though Tommy didn’t know it, the ghost helped him out a little bit every night, but he only stayed in the bedroom.
If Tommy had misplaced something getting ready for work in the morning, it would usually reappear on a dresser among the other items placed there. Occasionally he wouldn’t make the bed each morning like he usually would, but the bed would be made when he entered the bedroom later that day.
Tommy didn’t notice these little things, but the ghost didn’t mind. He just wanted to help where he can, even if he never left the bedroom.
One day, however, Tommy decided to clean up the bedroom a little bit, finding a place to put all the little trinkets of his that he hadn’t put out yet. Sunkist was laying down on the bed, watching Tommy and the ghost, who was inspecting each object without touching it.
Tommy soon grew bored of his task, so he turned on some music from his phone. He was common for him, he had a particular song in his head, one that usually ended up with him singing the song on repeat until he had his fill of it and moved on to the next.
This particular song was very catchy, so Tommy had been playing it on loop for the past fifteen minutes or so, singing along most of the time. This particular time, he had been singing along so intently that he hadn’t noticed another voice singing with him.
Tommy paused to catch his breath after the lead up to the first refrain, and was surprised to hear another voice keep singing the song.
The voice kept singing the refrain, hitting the notes surprisingly well. Tommy bopped his head as the voice kept singing along. Eventually the song ended, and Tommy managed to catch it just in time before it looped again.
Tommy looked around the room, confused as to where the voice had come from. Sunkist however, was looking at a spot directly to Tommy’s right, right next to the window, but there was no one there.
“Hello?” Tommy asked, not knowing where to look. “My-my name’s Tommy! What’s your name?”
There wasn’t a reply for a couple seconds, but a shaky voice responded. “Gordon. Gordon Freeman.”
“Well, Mr. Freeman, it’s nice to meet you!” Tommy smiled, somehow happening to look directly where Gordon was at the moment.
Gordon smiled back and looked over at Sunkist, who was wagging her tail happily.