Work Text:
Tango woke up to the sound of the door opening. As much as he had tried in the past the automatic door was just a touch too loud for his liking yet he had never managed to make it work quieter. The clock on his bedside table read 7:43 and he found himself surprised. He hadn't managed to sleep this late in years, he was usually up way before then. Pulling the blankets down and sitting up in bed, Tango sighed as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
The morning light shone through the crack in his curtains and he was contemplating whether he wanted to have a shower now or later when his doorbell went off. That was unusual, unless Jimmy forgotten something, he usually didn't get guests at nearly 8 in the morning and most of his friends were night owls. He quickly changed out of his pajamas before heading down stairs.
When he got down stairs he glance around the room. The couch was all made up, the only evidence that Jimmy had been there was the folded linen that Tango had given him the night before, minus his borrowed clothes he was happy to see. He was sure the hero's outfit was probably destroyed with what he had seen the night before. He did notice a piece of paper on top of the pile that sat on the coffee table and walked over to it.
Thank you for your help last night.
P.s. stop being so nice to random strangers!
P.p.s. Also don't invite them into your house!!!
Jimmy
The note made him laugh, a smile stuck on his face, as he tucked it into his pocket. Sure, Jimmy was probably correct in thinking he shouldn't have done what he did but he didn't regret it one bit. In fact he would probably do it again if given the chance, especially if it was for a golden winged hero.
The bell rang again breaking him out of his thoughts. Whoever was on the other side seemed impatient, so Tango waited for them to ring again before he opened the door. He liked to make impatient people wait a bit longer. It was all in good fun.
"Finally," Skizz's voice rang through the opening door, his voice exasperated but smile firmly in place, "I was beginning to think you had died in there, Top."
"My Skizzle man! What are you doing here so early?" Tango smiled brightly and pulled his friend into a hug, squeezing him before letting go.
"I had some stuff to give you at lunch remember?" Skizz said as he dumped a bag onto the floor beside him, he punched Tango in the shoulder lightly before making his way through the house. "Thought I would bring it early so we could hang out a bit more. Didn't realise you'd still be asleep."
Tango nodded along as he yawned and made his way to the kitchen to make breakfast. He hummed to himself as he got out two cups, making coffees for the both of them, and handed one to Skizz. As Tango took a sip of his own he saw a mischievous look cross Skizz's face.
"So," Skizz said lightly, stirring sugar into his own coffee, "since when did you have a boyfriend?"
Tango knew what Skizz was doing but it still made the coffee go the wrong way as he inhaled sharply then began coughing. The bastard just smiled at him as he hacked up a lung and Tango sent him a glare before he felt like he could talk again.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Tango said defensively. Of course he knew exactly what Skizz was talking about but he didn't want to acknowledge him. Skizz on the other hand had other plans though.
"Oh, so the pretty blonde guy that left your house like he was trying to sneak out without waking you up isn't your boyfriend?" And damn Skizz for saying it in a way that Tango couldn't help but blush at the implications of such a thing.
"No." Even if Tango's face was bright red he wasn't going along with what Skizz was saying.
"Aww. Did you have a one night stand and the guy left before you could get his number?" Skizz laughed at how red Tango was going and Tango couldn't think of something to say so he turned away from his annoying friend and began cooking breakfast with Skizz laughing in the background.
"I'm just joking," the sound of cooking eggs didn't drown Skizz out like Tango had hoped it would. "Is he one of your strays? He seemed a little spooked that I was here."
Skizz was quiet for a moment and the only sound was from Tango cooking, Skizz was obviously waiting for Tango to speak and he didn't have to wait long before Tango couldn't take the silence anymore. "No, he's not a stray, I just helped him out by letting him stay over."
"Of course you did, buddy," Skizz laughed, "he seemed nice though. Practically had hearts in his eyes as he sang your praise, you know?"
Tango could feel his face heat up again and quickly dumped a plate of food in front of Skizz to hopefully get him to shut up about his nightly visitor.
Dang it, now he was blushing because of his own thoughts. He tried his best to glare at Skizz as the man ate his food with gusto and easily ignore the glare sent his way.
"You know," Skizz said, "I think it would be good for you to be in a relationship, might get you out of your house more, instead of when you need to work or get groceries."
"I get out of the house plenty." Tango shrugged.
"When was the last time that you left the house and didn't go to work?" Skizz sighed as he rubbed between his eyes.
Tango thought for a minute, almost coming up blank before their last outing popped into his head. "There was that day we all went for coffee with Impulse and Etho."
"Top," Skizz grabbed him on the shoulder, giving it a squeeze, "that was two months ago."
"What? No it wasn't." It couldn't have been two months since then right? He knew he got caught up in work sometimes but surely not that badly. Though, then again, at the moment work was going smoothly and the minor bugs in the system weren't too bad. Okay, maybe it had been two months.
"Yeah, buddy, it was." Skizz pulled Tango into a hug and they swayed from side to side.
"I need to get out of the house." Tango whined. Most of the time he really didn't enjoy leaving the house, especially on his own. It wasn't any kind of anxiety from being outside. It was just that people were noisy and pushed each other, and some of them could be cruel. With his friends no one seemed to look at him twice but whenever he was by himself it always seemed as though they would sneer at him at any opportunity. He could be wrong, of course, but a lot of the time he really doubted he was.
"Yeah, you do," Skizz stood up and pulled Tango out the door as he continued, "How about we go out and see what the city's up to these days. It changes so often that I can never keep up with it so I doubt you have any idea what's happening around the place."
"I have until 3, then I have to get to work." Tango reminded his friend as the door shut behind him.
"Yeah, I know Top," Skizz smiled and they both continued down the street. The day was bright and sunny as they went from building to building, they looked at all the new ones that seem to have sprung up over night. Tango hardly complained as they looked around the city. It was nice to get out of his house, he had to admit, and he was glad Skizz pushed him to.
Later, when Skizz had left at the front door of his house and the teasing had finally died down a bit, Tango pulled out the note again. He smiled as he reread the note. He was about to fold it in half when something caught his eyes. On the back there was another note that he had initially missed but this one was crossed out. Tango could clearly tell that Jimmy had tried, barely, to hide whatever was written but he hadn't done a very good job of it.
Thank you for saving my life I owe you everything
You're an amazing person and I'd be really happy if we could be friends
From Jimmy
There was a string of number after that was scribbled over but Tango could clearly make them out. He grabbed his phone and bit his lip as he input the numbers into it and saved the number in his contacts. There was so much he wanted to ask but would Jimmy even respond? Was this his real number? Why would he even think of giving it to Tango?
His lip was raw as he debated what to do, and before he could regret his decision he texted the number with a simple:
Hi, it's Tango, I hope you're alright.
It wasn't much but he didn't want to give too much to an unknown number. His heart was racing as he put his phone face down on the bench and walked away. It was already on silent, because he never liked being interrupted and his friends knew how to bypass that anyway, so he wouldn't be tempted to check his phone every few seconds.
Thinking about it, it was probably a stupid idea to send that text but he couldn't take it back now and if worst comes to worst he could just say he got the wrong number or something. Say he was trying to text someone else.
The image of Jimmy's smiling face would not leave him as he decided to clean up his house a bit. The bag of Redstone components that Skizz had given him was the first thing he clean, putting them in their rightful places. An hour went by without him realising and when he checked his phone for the time without thinking he saw that he had a reply. Just the little pop up of the avians name sent his heart beating faster and he smiled as he tentatively opened the text.
I guess I didn't cover that up well. It's Jimmy btw.
It was simple but it did confirm that it was in fact the person it said it was. Tango let out a giddy little laugh as he walked over to his couch and sat down.
Now, what was he going to say back?