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"Yeah," Charlie says, facing the camera and trying to smile whilst they record yet another segment which may or may not make it onto the DVD release they'll apparently be getting to coincide with the start of season two (which, right now, seems a long way off), "the dynamics on set, in front of the screen, get informed a lot by the stuff that goes on off-screen." And, sure, maybe he's not thinking about anyone in particular but... yeah, he probably is.
See, when they started out, the show was only lightly sketched. Sutter had a vision, a really cool vision; but it was just a pencil sketch. And there are all these guys, these personalities, and there's a set full of designers and writers and technicians, all having to work out what they can do, how they can make it work. That's how it comes together, hundreds of people working long hours, trying to make this thing come together, be the thing it needs to be.
It all works out, somehow, with a little adjustment. This show they're making. And a lot of it has to do with the way they all treat each other on set. Everyone gets on pretty well, it's not a lie or a truism when they say that in interviews. For all that they rib each other with cruel jokes and backhanded compliments, they do get along - they like each other, even. Plus, one of the perks with a show like this is that, along with the long hours, there are the long stretches of downtime. The big ensemble cast means they everyone ends up spending time waiting for this or that scene to wrap so they can do their bit. It's times like that they get to really bond: sat around on the lot in deck chairs, not really wanting to do yet another reread of this week's script. And, yeah, no-one really gets how Theo and Tommy became the double-act from hell, but, honestly, it was like that: through hours spent waiting around, flicking balls of paper at each other, laughing at each other's stupid hair. Everyone notices, it's hard not to. It becomes a regular joke, a regular performance, Theo and Tommy feigning ignorance at the fact that they're making a scene.
"Stop pulling each other's pigtails, we've got a scene to shoot," Kim'll say, getting up from his own chair when a runner comes to fetch them. There's nothing malicious in his voice, just with the barest hint of exasperation buried under a thick layer of amusement.
Katey'll catch sight of them as she heads to lunch, shake her head and say, "seriously, what's with those two?" only to have Maggie say that she thinks it's cute and Ron crack a joke about how she would, since she doesn't have to shoot with them all the damn time.
Sutter embraces it - because he's Sutter and he's insane and he either wants to keep everyone happy or drive them all utterly insane (possibly both) - and suddenly Theo and Tommy have more scenes together. They're just little bits and pieces of scenes, mostly, a few quick exchanges spread over the episodes, but this was definitely not what Sutter had had down for Juice and Chibs on paper, in his early drafts. More than that, he lets them thwart the blocking he'd planned out before rehearsal, just so they can trade insults between takes and Tommy can rub Theo's head or whatever the hell it is he's doing this time, his hands constantly there, snaking out into Theo's personal space, in- and out-of-shot.
Honestly, it's not as though Theo has personal space with Tommy around and Theo gives almost as good as he gets. A lot of the guys are real physical, Tommy more than most: he stands right up next to people, even if he barely knows them, slings an arm over their shoulders - it's who he is. But, really, this is different, with Theo, even if no-one quite knows how to explain how - maybe because the way they touch is more deliberate somehow, as well as more careless or maybe it's because of the way they both react to each other, so natural. It's clear to everyone, pretty much, that there's something bigger and more explosive at play here, the way their relationship blooms so quickly into something more intense than the regular camaraderie born of bonding over night shoots and long sessions applying transfer tattoos.
Sure, there are jokes about that, too. Boone saying they should just blow each other already and get it over with. But mostly that's expected and normal, too, in a way that doesn't quite fit with the overwhelming ridiculousness that is this thing between the two of them. Maybe they only ended up so close because they're both so loud, so keen to impress and make an impact, all swagger and just the perfect pair of annoying assholes - but it's not just some weird buddy thing, just like it's not just something which can be encapsulated in a quick gay joke.
This thing between the two of them, it's more real than any of that superficial shit. It makes them both so weirdly happy, unexpectedly and irrepressibly so. Like when Tommy comes into make-up hours after Theo (the head tattoos and their attendant daily shave will be his death by sleep-deprivation), and Tommy's all energy because, yeah, that asshole got some sleep last night, and Theo says just what he thinks, resentment and all. And there's a moment there when you'd think Theo genuinely hated Tommy, only then he gets up and hugs Tommy real hard, close, smiling more than seemed possible just minutes before when he was brooding over the early start and the long day's shoot ahead.
In moments like that, all eyes are on them, drawn to the scene they're making, all these people who don't know what to make of it, and neither of them seems to give a shit because they're too busy being wrapped up in each other's presence, like they're the only two people in the room.
Every so often, Tommy'll pull away from the hug and see someone staring and he'll say something like, "hey, you should've seen us last night. This guy is seriously insane. He's like an animal. Fucking hell," and he'll put his hand on the back of Theo's neck as he speaks. Theo is always halfway between indignation and embarrassment then, generally pushes for both, denying it or making a crack about how Tommy started it last night, and how, seriously, some of the shit Tommy does should be illegal - hell, some of it probably is.
By this point, everyone else is normally back to doing what they're doing - partly because this is something no-one else is quite in on, partly because, by now, everyone's so used to the pair of them acting out like this that it doesn't pull their attention too long anymore. Sometimes someone'll make a joke, like "yeah, yeah, we all know you two are fucking like a pair of teenage degenerates every time our backs are turned", all eye-rolling and sarcastic.
The crazy thing is that no-one seems to really believe that any of it could be true. They talk about Tommy and Theo fucking like it's so hard to credit (in spite of the unending gay jokes and the way Tommy and Theo behave around each other) and, hey, maybe that shouldn't be surprising - Theo knows he wouldn't credit it either, if he didn't know it was pretty much all true.
It wasn't something he'd expected: having some kind of insane, out-of-control crush on Tommy, as though he was seventeen again (and, man, seventeen was a long time ago for him now). More than that, though, he hadn't thought that Tommy'd feel it too: this thing, whatever it was that was going on between them, and had been driving Theo quietly insane from day one - and, okay, maybe they call it 'chemistry' for a reason.
They'd been really drunk the first time they'd actually done anything about it, almost a month into filming, and it had stemmed from this weird drunken "I fucking love you, man" conversation. They'd said all that stuff that's normally bullshit, like how glad they both were to be working together; only it was more real and less generic than any of that shit normally is, and there were a whole of hands on each other's shoulders, snaking around backs and across stomachs, a lot of voices pitched too high with enthusiasm, as if to prove the truth of their words.
And maybe nothing would have come of it, the touching and the compliments, except that, part-way through this massive love-in, it hit Theo just how ridiculous and overblown all the stupid compliments they were exchanging actually were and he couldn't hold himself back from saying: "holy shit man, this is insane. We should just fuck and get over it already," which was a joke, totally a self-deprecating fucking joke, totally his way of admitting that the conversation had got way out of hand.
And Tommy was probably joking, too, when he said he could do with a good fuck right about now. They'd laughed it off then and talked a while longer. Only, when they got around to heading home, stumbling out of the bar to catch a cab, it all got kind of handsy, more so than usual - and, damn, wearing dress pants hadn't been a good idea, seriously, they show everything - and Tommy noticed, probably because Theo was being so weird about it, and then he laughed, he fucking laughed at Theo's erection and then he kissed him, like it was nothing, pressing right up against him.
And, yeah, the night ended with messy handjobs and more alcohol and a second taxi ride for Theo (because staying over at Tommy's would have been a step too far into weird territory just then).
The second time something happened, there was no alcohol involved and it seemed alarmingly premeditated on Tommy's part. Honestly (and Theo is not proud of this or entirely sure how it happened) Tommy just swaggered right over to him one day when they were both finished early. Swaggered over and said, cool as anything and not even that quietly (and sure, Theo couldn't see anyone nearby but that didn't mean that there wasn't actually anyone there) "so, I was thinking, what I really want right now is for you to suck my enormous Scottish cock." As though, hey, that's no big deal and people just say shit like that everyday, in the middle of a lot, just next to a load of cast trailers.
And, yeah, "Seriously? You really expect me to just-" Theo sputtered, more surprised than anything, and Tommy raised an eyebrow in response, all cocksure (which, yeah, of course he is) and "look, I don't just do this all the time, y'know, I'm not like some guy who goes around sucking other guy's cocks like it's no big deal, y'know, I-"
"So what you're saying is, you're not very good at it?" Tommy cut across, smiling like an arrogant asshole and just-
"No, that's not what I said. I just want to know I'm going to get some reciprocation here, that's all. Y'know, a bit of common courtesy" which, okay, wasn't actually what Theo had originally been thinking but is, now that he does think about it, actually how he wants this to go down.
Tommy assented with a nod and the words "yeah, okay".
And it turned out to be a pretty excellent thing that they were still on set and so close to their trailers because the trip back to one of their places would probably have been awkward as hell and just- yeah, it was definitely a good thing.
Sucking Tommy's cock wasn't actually some kind of horrifying, scarring experience or whatever, which, okay, probably means Theo likes the guy a lot because the couple of times he'd given head before it had always been-- well, he remembered it being more unpleasant than this anyway. Yeah, whatever, he was still pretty outraged when Tommy just sorta slumped, brainless, muscle-tension all gone, afterwards - because they agreed on reciprocation and that was not a thing which looked likely to happen with Tommy in that kind of state.
And, yeah, in the end, Theo had to settle for a sloppy handjob and a promise of repayment in kind soon but Tommy was pretty emphatic about his need to just sit for a minute and pull himself together and, the way Tommy put it, it boiled down to a question of whether Theo rather have an orgasm now and a promise of more later or...? and, yeah, not the kind of offer you ever refuse (not that any offer Tommy makes is one worth refusing). And it's not like Theo doesn't get his reciprocation eventually and it's not like it isn't mind-blowingly, fantastically worth it.
From there it kinda became a thing, not a regular standing-date kind of a thing, just this weird, impulsive thing where nothing was off-limits and they liked each other enough to just hang out and see what happened - and a lot of shit happened.
One of the big surprises of it all is that they're just so comfortable around each other, too comfortable; even when Theo's buzzing with anticipation that maybe he'll get to corner Tommy and take him back to his trailer once they've wrapped filming for the day - because he's got a lot of half-formed plans for what'll happen then, always does. It's still all sort of easy and natural and, hey, look, no strings. And it carries them through to the end of the season, smiling and laughing, touching too much both in front of and behind the cameras, in public and when no-one else is watching.
When they wrap season one, knowing they're coming back for a second season next year, they don't have any plans about the future, about where things between them might go, except there's still that little spark in Tommy's eye when Theo looks at him and he knows this isn't something they can confine to history or something that he'd want to, if they could. He's going to miss this, the show, everything, until they get back to it next year, and he's going to miss the excuse to spend long hours just basking in that weird electric buzz that he and Tommy have got going on. It's not all bad though: Sutter's making Theo main cast next year and he's already basically letting the pair of them bulldoze their way into making their characters as much secret boyfriends as they are for real. It's a super sweet job and, hey, maybe he'll get to enjoy all of this a while longer, even if he has to wait for a while first.
The wrap party for the season is dying down when Theo and Tommy finally leave. No-one notices that they leave together - or Theo doesn't think anyone notices, though he isn't really sure that he cares if they do, anyway.
He probably ought to feel sad about the fact that this is the last time, for a while, but Tommy's hands on his skin blur over the thoughts in his head and the champagne is doing a good job of that, too. None of it really feels all that different from usual, honestly, except that they're a deal less sober than usual and a little clumsier for it. And they fuck, actually fuck, which is pretty rare for them, but maybe Theo's getting sentimental, wanting it, the ache and the intensity of it, like he needs this reminder of how he won't have this again for a while.
They lie there, afterwards, on Theo's bed, not speaking, breathing wrecked and uneven, until Tommy says "so, are you still going to be in LA, now we're done?" and, when he says it, Theo starts laughing, laughs until he doesn't think he can breathe at all.
When he finally catches his breath again, Theo says, "yeah, I am," unable to hold back a smile, wide and open-mouthed.
"Guess we can save round two for another time then," Tommy says, looking over at him. And suddenly Theo isn't sure he's going to miss working the long hours quite so much anymore.
"Guess we can."
At the first script reading for season two, no-one is surprised that, when Theo and Tommy first see each other, they literally run into each other's arms, each yelling the other's name.
"Oh god," Maggie says, even though she's smiling, "the terrible two-some are back together again."
"Actually, I saw quite a lot of him over the break," Theo says, grinning and still wrapped in Tommy's arms.
Somewhere a little way behind him, Ryan mumbles something about how "of course you did" which makes them all turn and grin at him. And, really, Theo thinks, Ryan probably was always that tall but it still surprises him every time he sees Ryan up close just how much of a giant the guy is for real.
He and Ryan get into a conversation about how they've both been upped to main cast now and isn't that awesome and Tommy just stands there the whole time with his hand on the small of Theo's back like it's nothing - which it is, sort of, but it's also a really, really nice little nothing.
When Charlie shows up and Ryan moves off towards him, Theo turns to Tommy and their eyes meet, they both smile, and Theo gives Tommy's shoulder a quick squeeze before they join in with everyone else, greeting Charlie. They're not touching anymore but they're still standing close enough together that they might as well be and, when Sutter arrives and they all take their seats at the table, they sit next to each other, legs pressed together at the knee, swapping smiles just about every time anyone says anything at all.
Sutter gives an opening speech, where he talks about how great it is to have everyone back and how it's so cool that they've all got so close. He quips that "maybe some of us have got a little too close" and his eyes fix on Theo and Tommy for a minute, almost in accusation, and Theo feels a little nervous for a second, but then Sutter's moving on, making a joke about the lack of privacy on set.
Everyone's smiling because, hey, it's the first day back and, yeah, it's going to be another great year. And Theo's just thinking that, just thinking that it doesn't get much better than this, when he feels Tommy's hand on his thigh, and he looks down at the table as his smile broadens, not daring to meet Tommy's eye, because there's obvious and then there's obvious and he doesn't want this to escalate right now which it just might if he let their eyes meet, and, yeah, it really doesn't get much better than this.