They're sitting in the living room watching television when the power surge hits, and everything flickers before finally turning off, leaving them in pitch black. "Tha' you, Annie?" Tom calls out, starting to stand up, his voice almost low out of want not to wake the baby. He feels his way to the window when he gets no answer, and assumes she's sleeping. Outside, it's just as dark as it is within and he gives a small smile. "'S the whole block, 's alrigh'."
Hal doesn't answer from his place on the couch where he sits, temporarily frozen by the sudden darkness. The sudden memories of the kind of dark, the places it lived and the person he had been within it. He doesnt move, and doesn't respond to his name when Tom calls it out, remains silent until the footsteps draw near and he feels the couch move, the words short and almost reflexive. "Don't touch me."
"...I won'." Tom tells him, and the words came out almost hurt despite the fact that he knew Hal probably hadn't meant any personal offense. He sits down instead, leaving space between them and staring out into the black. There's another brief silence before he hears Hal take in a breath to speak, and he opens his mouth before he gets the chance. "Ya know wha' this reminds me of?"
"...what?" the question is quiet, an almost cold kind of distracted, and it only urges Tom on.
"In the woods wif me dad, it use'ta get dark li' this. When all the lights go' put ou' an' all..." He starts talking, and Hal just listens, closing his eyes as he continues the story and just focuses on his words. It's surprisingly easy to let Tom's voice, his story, chase away the old memories, just for the moment.
Hal reaches out, after a few minutes, groping in the dark for Tom as the story ends, his hand finally resting on his leg. "Alrigh'?" Tom asks, and he doesn't have an answer for him immediately, but he moves closer to him, until he's resting his head somewhere on Tom's shoulder.
"...yes," he answers, finally, and Tom rests an arm around him loosely, and curls ever so slightly in towards him. Neither of them speaks for almost a minute, and then it's Hal, his voice quiet. "Tell me something else."
Tom obliges, and Hal just listens against him until they both fall asleep. Annie smiles when she finds them there, in the morning, and drapes a blanket over them, wishing a photograph could capture more than half the scene before her.