(one shot) and they were roommates

prologue (tf is up with these guys)

Tam dragged his ex-roomate up the stairs, feeling very bizarre indeed. The police had dropped him off at his door. The police. He had bandages all over, wrapped up like a half-finished mummy. Bandages. He refused to talk, something Tam had never seen him do before. What the fuck happened here?

Slowly, painstakingly, they reached the top. Tam wrestled the lock open with one hand and stepped inside. Jack looked around, bewildered, but followed him there. This is your house, man. What's wrong with you?

Tam leaned on the counter, scratching his head. At the very least, Jack needed to eat, sleep, and crash while Tam figured stuff out. He dug out the last three pieces of garlic bread he'd been saving in the freezer since Jack moved out just a couple weeks ago.

They were his favorite food, so if this didn't get him to eat, nothing would. He glanced over at him again, frozen on the couch and wrapped up into a little ball. Tam shook his head.

Thirty minutes later, he pulled them out of the oven and set them in front of Jack on a plate. Jack stared, and stared a little more, then looked up at him.

"I-" He cleared his throat. "I can have these?"

"Yeah," said Tam. He tried not to let anything show on his face, but for Jack this was weird behavior. Nonetheless, he scarfed them each down as if he'd been starving the whole day.

Tam sat, already having eaten, and set his jaw. Whatever was up with Jack, he needed help, and Tam was gonna have to be the one to do it.

He got up and searched through the old boxes in what used to be Jack's room (now his) and pulled out the clothes he'd left behind. There was a pair of comfortable pajama pants, which he had many of, and an old t-shirt that featured a cat with big round void eyes and the caption "I'm not on drugs, you are." They were clean, as Tam had washed them and intended to send them to his roommate's new place ASAP. He had not.

When he came back to the living room, Jack was gone.

He searched all the rooms in his apartment, heart racing. When he came to the guest room (his old room, stripped bare) a wave of relief washed over him, followed by shock and then panic.