Jan 4th - Four Times Sean Van Vleet Left Tom Conrad (And One Time He Stayed)

[mayqueen517]

hardtospark - Jan 4th!

Title: Four Times Sean Van Vleet Left Tom Conrad (And One Time He Stayed)
Pairing: Sean Van Vleet/Tom Conrad
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,322
Disclaimer: OWN NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. HONEST. Written in 35 minutes or so, mistakes are my own!
Author's Note: Follows To Find. Also fits in with the LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY OMG AMAZING companion piece that fictionalfaerie wrote for today's prompt as well! (Found)
Summary: Four Times Sean Van Vleet Left Tom Conrad (And One Time He Stayed).

Prompt: This picture.





Sean can't say he's learned a whole lot from passing through doors into different worlds or realities or universes. He's never sure what to call them, only that he's looking for home. He's learned that the worlds that don't hurt aren't the ones for him, the ones that feel too good to be true, the ones that require little to no struggle, and he finds that he likes that.

He carries the keys with him while in Chicago, thinking about bumping into Tom, into the person he'd just left and it makes him smile. It makes him comforted, that in all the worlds or realities or universes he's gone to, there's always been Tom there.

====
First

The first time he'd stepped through a door, through the door that didn't need a key, was into heat and sand and sunlight bright enough to hurt his eyes. Nobody had noticed him, nobody had thought to notice him, and as he walked, looking around at the sights with eyes unable to take it all in, he remembers seeing someone drawing.

Thinking back on it, Sean remembers watching him draw a portrait, easy and calm, like he'd done it a thousand times before, pencil skating over the paper, finger following the line.

"You're staring," he had said, and Sean remembers laughing softly, feeling every bit his sixteen years; too young and too old by so many standards.

"You're good," Sean had said, smiling as the guy turned, returning his smile crookedly, motioning him over to sit. That had been the first time he'd met Tom.

He remembers leaving that Tom too. He remembers feeling it in the middle of the night, two years later, with Tom snoring beside of him. He wonders, sometimes, if that Tom ever missed him, if he'd even known that Sean had gone.

===
Second

The second time had been lush forest and he'd nearly drowned. It was, to be fair, after that he realized maybe he should start carrying things with him.

He'd woken up to Tom frantically pounding on his back, making him cough and vomit and Sean remembered feeling mildly amused that here he was, again, meeting Tom first.

"Hi," Sean had croaked out, older than the first time he went through a door. The Tom in front of him was younger, he thought, but he still looked the same. His hands had smears of paint over them and Sean remembers grinning at the fear on his face.

"Thank fuck, I thought you were dead," Tom said, and it had followed that Tom offered clothes and a warm place to stay that had ended up being a warm place to live. Sean thinks about it, about the paint that stained everything, the canvases stashed everywhere, sometimes covered in dust, sometimes covered in a cloth. He had felt comfortable with Tom, with that Tom. He wondered, sometimes, if he was comfortable with Tom because it was Tom or because he already knew Tom.

He didn't dwell on it, and he remembers pressing his lips to Tom's before he left, tasting the rain and the forest and Tom's dinner on his lips before he pulled back.

"Thank you. For everything," Sean had murmured softly, pulling back to step through a door, musing to himself about the last three years spent with Tom, spent in the forest watching him paint.

==
Third

It became a trend, Sean remembers, stepping through a door to unseen eyes but meeting Tom first; always Tom. Sometimes alone, sometimes with someone else, and he remembers some of the keys staying, cool and heavy in his pocket. He had started off with a ring, huge and filled with all sorts of keys to all sorts of doors.

He remembers Tom ignoring them sometimes, and Tom asking endlessly about them.

Sean remembers wanting to stay in one reality (or world, or universe) after a fight. He remembers Tom needling him, he remembers arguing and he remembers Tom backing down. His gut had tightened, and Sean remembers thinking, I want him to fight with me, before he left.

=
Fourth

Sean had hated going through doors, going through one after the other, feeling keys disappear, feeling keys grow hot. He remembers kissing Tom, all versions of Tom it had seemed like. He remembers kissing Tom with military short hair and a sad smile. He remembers kissing Tom with long hair and a ridiculous mustache that Sean had secretly liked. He kissed Tom under the stars, beside the ocean, in the grass, and for no reason at all.

When he had helped Tom pick up his supplies, he remembers feeling amused, but tired. Later, when Tom had kissed him softly, smoothly, he remembers feeling sad that this wasn't the world for him. The key hadn't grown hot in his pocket, and he remembers falling into bed with Tom.

They'd always fallen together, Sean thinks, smiling over stretching out in bed, touching to touch, kissing and laughing. He remembers watching Tom, too quiet and too different from the other versions Sean had met to be comfortable. He remembers wanting to leave, but not wanting to leave Tom, wanting him to come with him. He wondered, idly sometimes, if the other versions of Tom (those he had met, and those he hadn't met yet) missed him.

He wondered if they knew he had even left.

=
And one time he stayed...

Sean gets settled in Chicago, taking in the sound of traffic rushing by and the shitty apartment that gives him an amazing view of the building beside of him. He sometimes yells across the way to the woman who lives in the building beside of him, her blonde hair sometimes swinging around as she laughs.

He gets comfortable, going to bars, making friends, and it's only when Tom walks into a bar where Sean's at that Sean can't stop the grin that breaks over his face. He hides his grin in his beer, relishing the taste and when a hand touches his shoulder, he makes a conscious effort to not jump, to not turn around and kiss this Tom. This Tom who feels right, who is right, Sean thinks, is smiling carefully at him.

"Hey, you're. I know you, don't I?" he asks and Sean feels his stomach twist, his mouth staying stretched in a grin that's probably a little creepy.

"I. Didn't we bump into each other the other day?" Sean asks, feigning incredulity, like it's a one-in-a-million chance to have bumped into Tom (Sean wonders what his last name is here), to remember him.

"I..Yeah, yeah, man," Tom says, face breaking into a brighter smile and Sean doesn't stop the urge as he motions to the stool beside of him, grinning.

"Dude, awesome. I'm Sean. Sean Van Vleet," he says, offering his hand and when Tom takes it, Sean watches Tom look down at their hands and then to Sean's face. Tom nods, sitting down beside of Sean carefully and it's stupid, it's cliche, but Sean can't hear or see anything else.

"Tom Conrad," he says, pushing his hair back from his face as he orders a beer. Sean takes a sip of his own, feeling a spreading sense of contentment. Tom Conrad, he thinks, testing it out as he looks at the camera slung over Tom's shoulder. He nods to himself, finishing his beer and ordering another easily.

Sean thinks about the keys hanging up in his apartment at home and the lack of keys in his pocket and he smiles at Tom, falling into conversation. Sean thinks of all the doors he's walked through to get here and when Tom smiles at him, Sean thinks of the door he'd last stepped through, the key that matched, and he thinks that the keys maybe know more than he does.

Sean's pretty okay with that.