Celebration: Housewarming Party With The 118 At Tommy's House Proposal: A Little Silly One But They Take

celebration: housewarming party with the 118 at tommy's house proposal: a little silly one but they take it seriously

“I guess what I’m saying is,” Tommy says, even as he dutifully carries a bowl overloaded with tortilla chips and another bowl equally overloaded with seven layer dip, “I don’t understand why we’re having a house-warming party if I’ve lived here for ten years.” He sets his cargo down on the table, then leans one hand on it and turns to face his boyfriend.

“Right, but I haven’t,” Evan says, trailing into the living room with two huge platters of his own (a big bowl of potato chips, and a homemade French onion dip that Tommy had snuck a taste of and nearly went cross eyed, it was that good). He gently places them down, then nudges Tommy’s bowls around a quarter of an inch at a time until their placement is to his liking.

God, Tommy loves him a lot. 

He’s lucky Evan loves him a lot, too, because he steals a tortilla chip out of the bowl and takes a healthy scoop out of the seven layer dip, and the barely concealed scowl on Evan’s face suggests he’d be getting his hand slapped and his ass kicked out of the house until the guests arrive, if only he didn’t love Tommy so much.

“Oh, my God,” Tommy moans around his mouthful. “Baby, did you make guacamole from scratch?” Evan’s expression smooths out into something more smug, more pleased, and this time he only flinches slightly when Tommy goes back in for seconds. 

“Marry me,” Tommy jokingly garbles around another huge bite of chip and dip, not really thinking much of it until Evan’s breath hitches.

Tommy forcibly swallows before he is necessarily ready to, the tortilla chip scratching his throat all the way down, but before he can ask Evan…anything, the doorbell rings. 

That quiet little expression of want that Evan had been wearing disappears when he swears and bolts back into the kitchen. “Can you get that?” he shouts. “I need to grab the plates and utensils!”

“Yeah,” Tommy says, and has to clear his throat when his voice cracks over the words. “Yeah, I’ve got it.”

When he opens the door, he’s got pretty much the entire A shift of the 118 crammed onto his porch. Right at the front is Jee-Yun, who breaks away from her mother’s hold just to slam into Tommy’s midsection. “Uncle Tommy!” she shouts, then holds her arms straight up at him. “Pick me up.”

Tommy makes a show of it, grunting and groaning, pretending that Jee weighs seven times more than she does. When he’s finally got her set on his hip, he pants and wipes the back of his hand over his brow, trying and failing not to smile at the sound of her bright little giggles. 

“Oh, I see how it is,” Chim drawls from the doorway, clapping Tommy on the shoulder as he steps inside. “You save a guy’s life and all he cares about is your kid.” He winks and elbows Tommy, not unkindly.

“Hey, Howie,” Tommy says, just as warmly. “Hi, Maddie,” he says as Evan’s sister steps over the threshold. He’s always a little nervous around Maddie, even though she’s never been anything but kind and supportive of her and Evan, but he can’t help it when he knows how much Evan values her opinion. 

She gives him a smile and a tilt of the head like she knows, before stepping into his other side and giving him a hug just as warm as her daughter’s. “Hi, Tommy,” she says, and reaches up to gently pat him on the cheek twice before stepping away. Once her mom leaves, Jee just wants to be put down, so Tommy obliges, and about ten seconds later hears her shout for her Uncle Buck. 

Hen and Karen are the next in, giving him a bottle of wine and a set of glasses to go with it. Neither of them are particularly affectionate as they walk in, bar Karen squeezing him lightly on the forearm, but he knows from experience that once they get into their cups, that will change. 

Ravi’s next with two six packs of craft beer that he presses into Tommy’s arms before beelining to the snack table. Tommy laughs under his breath and sets the beer on the ground when he realizes that Bobby and Athena are the last to wander inside, Bobby somehow carrying two casserole dishes and Athena holding one, along with a large bottle of champagne.

“Here, let me help,” he says, darting forward to relieve at least one of them of their burden, but he gets two sets of raised eyebrows for his efforts. 

“We’re guests,” Bobby says, unbothered, as he walks inside. “Let us help.”

Athena purses her lips at him, but as she follows her husband, she lightly bumps into Tommy on the way. “You’re family now, you know,” she reminds him, and her expression softens when Tommy fights down a nervous grimace. “We’re not that scary." She eyes him a little bit, smiling, and deigns to hand the enormous bottle of champagne over to Tommy. “Better get that on ice.”

Tommy nods and shuts the door behind them, but hangs back in the foyer while he watches the 118 gather together and greet each other with hugs and cheek kisses, and twists his hands around the dark glass of the champagne bottle. Evan - halfway into a conversation with his sister - suddenly breaks away and steps quickly towards Tommy. He bends down and picks up the beer that Ravi had shoved into Tommy’s hands, then leans in and kisses Tommy on the mouth, warm and soft and lingering. 

“Come on,” he whispers as he pulls away. “Everybody wants to see our house.”

Tommy will admit that he’s had his reservations ever since Evan moved in and brought up having a housewarming party, but as he steps into the living room and the family Evan’s cultivated for himself makes room to fold Tommy in, he finally understands why Evan wanted this.

He spends the next hour talking to Maddie and Karen about some godawful procedural show that they all watch as a guilty pleasure, and he’s in the middle of listening to Karen and Maddie debate about who Dr. Townsend should end up with - his RN Kathryn or Dr. Alcott - and trying to formulate a way to bring up how he thinks Townsend should end up with Dr. Kingston, the very male cardiologist, when a familiar pair of arms wind their way around Tommy’s waist.

“I can’t believe you guys watch that show,” Evan says as he hooks his chin over Tommy’s shoulder and scrunches his nose. The arms around him squeeze lightly before Evan says, “But he should end up with the heart surgeon guy.”

Maddie and Karen both make faces like it had never crossed their mind but it actually makes sense to them, and Tommy leans his head back so that his lips brush over Evan’s ear when he says, “God, I love you.”

Evan buries a smile into the meat of Tommy’s shoulder and starts to slightly sway them together, listening as Maddie and Karen excitedly discuss the possibilities of Dr. Townsend and Dr. Kingston.

“Don’t think I forgot what you said earlier,” Evan whispers, just loud enough for Tommy to hear, “when you were eating the seven layer dip.”

Tommy covers Evan’s hands with his own. “Wasn’t expecting you to,” he murmurs, and begins rubbing circles on the back of Evan’s hands. 

“You know we’re gonna have to talk about that later, right?”

Tommy hums, and just keeps swaying, “Later,” he whispers. “Right now, we’ve got family over, don’t we?”

Evan draws a breath, and the arms around Tommy tighten.