Tommy trails him over and then drops down next to him, still close enough to be touching, watching him shed the crown and cape. "We were both fucked up. It was just ... nothing to me. Just a prison, at first. But after a while. Fuck, I missed the world, I missed David and Billy and our friends and ... TV and books and all that shit. But it started to just feel like us. In our space. Like a home, I guess. Just a screwed up one. When I got back, there was just people everywhere. Everything was too loud and too bright and ... there wasn't you. It was like I couldn't handle anything because half of me was missing." Which sounded sappy as hell. But it was true.

He barked a sudden, startled laugh. "I didn't really think about it," Tommy admitted. "I figured without the drugs or whatever they did, you'd have to uh ... want to do it on purpose, right?"

He looked up at the knock, sighing. "Yeah. Go, eat dinner. I'll be around when you're back? Unless they don't want me in the emperor's rooms without you."