Work Text:
It started with a stolen hoodie. Evan had “borrowed” one for a few weeks and finally returned it, freshly laundered, because Tommy had left another one at his place and Evan liked the new one better. When he puts the hoodie on a couple days later, he feels something crinkle in the pocket and reaches into it, puzzled.
There’s a piece of paper from the pad that Evan uses for grocery lists, and it says:
Don’t think I won’t steal this one again, but you can have it back for now. ♥️ Love you xx
He smiles and rubs his thumb over the heart before tucking the note into his wallet.
When he drops Evan’s gym bag off at the station a few days later, he gets a text message twenty minutes after that’s just a bunch of heart-eye emojis and a photo of the note he’d left in the pocket he keeps his electrolyte powder in.
I’m going to miss your face all day, please send me pictures of it. ♥️ I love you
Another photo follows of Evan’s beautiful, grinning face and a blurry, disgusted-looking Howie in the background.
So it becomes a Thing.
Evan drops off lunch at Harbor Station, and Tommy immediately pokes through everything for a note.
Tommy has to leave early for work, so he puts a cup of coffee on the nightstand with a note underneath.
Evan gropes his ass on his way out of the house, and Tommy finds a folded up piece of paper in his back pocket.
Tommy orders a drink for the cute guy with the curls at the end of the bar and scribbles a note on a napkin for the bartender to give to him with the drink. That one, admittedly, is one of his best moves. Evan doesn’t even touch the drink, he just marches over to Tommy and kisses him in front of the entire karaoke trivia crowd.
Evan finally moves into the house, and there’s a note in every drawer and cabinet by the time he’s moved in. Tommy collects the ones for him and has had to make a little wooden trinket box out of scrap wood to keep them in, but his favorites rotate in his wallet.
Tommy slips a note to Maddie to give to her brother before their wedding ceremony that says:
Do you like me? Check y/n ♥️
🔲 yes
🔲 no
She marches back to his hotel room right before Tommy is about to get in the car to go to the ceremony and presses a note to his chest.
“You guys are ridiculous,” she says, smiling and wiping away a tear that slips down her cheek. Tommy leans in and kisses her other cheek. “Oh, my god, I’m so happy for you two.”
He unfolds the note in the car and his heart catches for a moment before he starts laughing.
love
Do you like∧ me? Check y/n ♥️
🔲 yes
🔲 no
✔️ With all my heart and soul, yes, you dork.
He carries it in his breast pocket through the ceremony and the reception. After, he retrieves it from the jacket where it was dropped on the floor of their hotel room and runs his fingers over it.
“We should frame that one,” Evan says, hugging him from behind and rubbing his cheek against the back of his shoulder.
Tommy smiles and tips his head back to kiss his temple. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
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