Work Text:
It happens when Gordon collapses for the third time, blood dripping from his arm horrifically, and Tommy can’t stop it, he can’t and he doesn’t know why he can’t, he should be able to do this.
“No, no, come on.” He tries to pull Gordon back up, to keep going, but Gordon’s near dead weight at this point, and Tommy hates that phrase right now, hates it so so much. “Please, you can’t die.” He whispers, and Gordon’s head shifts towards him, eyes hazy from blood loss, and his hand comes up, patting clumsily at Tommy’s face. Tommy grabs a hold of it. “Please....” he mumbles again, pressing their foreheads together. “Don’t die, okay, you can’t...”
Gordon mumbles something to him, but his lips barely move, he barely breathes out the words, and Tommy shakes, terrified for him, forcing himself to drag Gordon up to sitting, shaking hands holding him up even as Gordon’s head lolls dangerously to the side, unable to hold it’s own weight, and Tommy’s still shaking so badly.
“Please.” Tommy whispers again, propping him up against the wall, cupping his face and holding it up. Gordon’s eyes land on him, blinking slowly, and Tommy, in near desperation, drags him just a bit closer and kisses him soundly.
It’s not good, and it’s messy, but Tommy doesn’t care, leaning him back against the wall before pulling away. “Don’t you die on, Gordon Freeman, you are not allowed.” He mutters, almost angry at the world, and Gordon hums, smiling up at him, and Tommy stands, slides into the next room to go looking for a med kit.
Unseen by him, G-Man leans into the plan of existence, reverses time just a bit, just enough to keep Gordon going for a little while longer, slows his blood flow a little bit more. Hopefully Tommy wouldn’t notice. G-Man could do nothing more, however, disappearing again as Tommy slid back into the hallway, bumping into the wall, a dirty med kit clutched desperately in his hands.
The party is great. Tommy’s having fun, mostly because everyone’s alive-well, except Benrey, but Benrey’s hanging out as a skeleton outside, and Tommy still hasn’t fully forgiven him for the whole ‘getting Gordon’s arm cut off’ thing-and they’re all out of Black Mesa and safe.
Gordon, of course, is busy marveling as his new prosthetic, courtesy of Tommy’s father, getting used to working with it on, handling things carefully and over gently to avoid crushing them like Dr. Coomer might have. He seems to be doing okay, but Tommy is terrified for him, to be completely honest. He was terrified for all of them, but Gordon? Gordon would have died.
Tommy wasn’t blind to his father’s meddling, and he’s just happy that G-Man kept the promise that Tommy had made on one of the nights, having snuck away from the group to talk to his father, and made G-Man promise that Gordon was going to make it out. Tommy hadn’t told G-Man why, exactly, he wanted his father to promise to that, but G-Man seemed to know anyways.
It wasn’t like G-Man could not have seen Tommy kiss Gordon.
Speaking of Gordon.
He set the cup down next to Tommy, filled nearly to the brim with bubbly orange, and Tommy grins. Despite the fact that he named his dog after it, he really doesn’t like Sunkist all that much, but that doesn’t stop him from appreciating the gesture, as Gordon plopped into the seat next to him with his own cup of what Tommy assumes is either Dr. Pepper or Root Beer. He wouldn’t know without a taste, but he has his Sunkist. And he has his dog at his feet. Which is nice.
Gordon doesn’t say anything at first, holding his soda cup gingerly in his hands, and Tommy lets the silence sit for the time being. There’s no harm in it, after all, and it’s not really silent, with the games pinging in the background, and Bubby and Coomer’s air hockey battle, which seems to be very intense, and Tommy would be worried if not for the fact that G-Man is standing watch over them.
“Hey Tommy?” Tommy draws his attention away from the air hockey battle, to look towards Gordon again, head tilted a bit as he did. He made a soft noise, but didn’t quite feel the need to speak yet. Gordon didn’t seem to have finished his thought, after all, what with him staring down into his cup nervously, holding it oh so carefully in his metal hand, swirling the contents slowly.
Gordon stayed silent for a moment more, and Tommy took another drink from his soda cup, eyes darting back to the air hockey match as Gordon sorted out his thoughts.
“I remember kissing you.” Tommy froze. “Why do I remember kissing you?” Gordon looked up at him, and Tommy chewed nervously on his nip, staring down into the orange soda for a moment.
“I... I got scared, I think.” Tommy said softly. “Thought it was gonna be my last chance... But.” Tommy laughed softly. “I did make dad promise me you wouldn’t die.”
Gordon blinked at him, before laughing softly, setting his cup down onto the table. Tommy raised an eyebrow, as Gordon stood, moving around the table.
“I just wanted to be sure it wasn’t a... I dunno, delirious hallucination.” Gordon said softly, before grabbing Tommy’s tie and dragging him up a bit to kiss him.
Objectively? Much better than the first.