botheredbuck

[botheredbuck]

We lost track of time,,

You can support me!! (Ko-fi)

[botheredbuck]

they thought they’d be safe in the bunk room🫢

[botheredbuck]

hey sorry it's just that i don't think i'm very good at being a person. thanks for letting me try with you, anyway.

[botheredbuck]

this AU has been floating around in my head for months where Buck is a dog groomer, and Tommy has a service dog that needs a hair cut

* * *

The sign says closed, but Tommy pushes past into the darkened front office. There's light coming from the back, illuminating the front reception area just enough that Tommy has no trouble seeing. There's some music playing as well, a song Tommy doesn't know well but could hum along to the memory.

There's a tug from his arm, and Tommy scratches at Charlie's ears before bending down to unclip her leash. She isn't on duty right now, but still, she sits at his side, waiting for permission to go.

"Go on," Tommy says with a smile, and Charlie goes off into another room. Tommy follows at a slower pace. This is the third time that Evan has allowed them to come in after hours, and Tommy appreciates how much calmer everything is.

When he gets into the grooming room, Evan is sitting on the ground with Charlie between his legs, giving his dog a lot of well deserved attention. Charlie is on her back, paws in the air, tail wagging enthusiastically as she takes in Evan's attention. Briefly, Tommy entertains his desire of wishing Evan would give him all of his attention as well, but Tommy pushes those feelings aside. Charlie adores Evan, and Tommy doesn't want to take that relationship away from her.

"-the most beautiful girl in the whole world," Evan is gushing, his hands in Charlie's thick fur. He looks up when Tommy comes in, and his smile is just as bright for Tommy as it is for Charlie.

"And how is her owner?" Evan asks and Tommy feels like he has to catch his breath under Evan's attention. "Not the most beautiful girl in the whole wolrd, but I'm okay," Tommy lightly teases and he's rewarded with Evan laughing slightly, the sound warming Tommy up. He looks away, noticing the bandanas hanging up on the other side of the wall. They're all tye-dyed by volunteers for when Evan does free grooming for local shelters to help adopt out some dogs. Evan does a few himself and gives them out to his clients.

He wonders what color Charlie is coming home with.

"Thanks again for the after hours," Tommy says. It's Charlie's fourth appointment with Evan total and her second one after hours, the accomodation more for Tommy then Evan. Tommy tries to make it up to Evan by leaving a large tip that he knows goes straight to the volunteer work anyways.

"It's not a problem," Evan says and he gets up on the floor to the tub. Charlie follows and hops in without further instruction and Evan pets her down on the side, complimenting her again. The rest of the appointment goes with Tommy sitting at the shair while Evan gives Charlie what he calls the "princess treatment" and Tommy smiles at the commentary. Evan takes a few photos for his page and promises to send them to Tommy as well.

All the while they chat about their days, more Evan then Tommy, but it puts Tommy at ease and he appreciates just how easy it is to be around Evan.

Soon - too soon, it's over and Tommy is grabbing Charlie's leash and admiring the beautiul green bandana that Evan had set aside just for Charlie, and he's ready to say leave-

"Hey so, I was thinking," Evan says as he finishes up Charlie's paperwork. "There's this new hiking trail that I've been on a few times, and I think that ah- that Charlie would like it," Evan ducks his head before looking back at Tommy with his bright blue eyes. "And well, you too."

"I like hiking," Tommy says and internally he winces.

Smooth Kinard, real smooth.

But Evan's smile grows and Tommy can't help but return it.

[botheredbuck]

😶‍🌫️

wanted to sketch something w the short free time I got. hee hee.

[botheredbuck]

Santa's Reindeer will be well taken care of tonight 😉🦌🎅🏼🎄

[botheredbuck]

The way tommy says "lights out, evan" is just sooooo long term couple coded. like hi yes I am the boyfriend of a man who has gone on one two many late-night substack binges and woken up grumpy the next day so I am gonna make sure he goes to sleep on time if I can help it. It's exactly how my husband and I talk to each other when the other is making dubious late-night hobby decisions, I'm so here for it.

[botheredbuck]

prompt from anon ↪ How about,,,, Tommy pinning Buck to a wall while he's also carrying him 🤭🫣

[botheredbuck]

[botheredbuck]

tommy in the cuck chair watching buck moan out, “captain deluca,” while sal rails him into the mattress. send post.

[botheredbuck]

i’m working on a play about 65-year-old lesbians, and my dramaturg is an older gay man who has been helping me with historical context and research, and also just in general giving me advice based on his own personal experiences.

fav thing he told me so far, said with a lot of love: “dyke drama was specific. it was always so specific. it was precise and narrowed and pointed. and also so dumb.”

[botheredbuck]

it's really important to me that buck calls tommy in a moment of serious subdrop and tommy comes over in the middle of the night to take care of him

[botheredbuck]

[botheredbuck]

intimacy🤍

[botheredbuck]

BUCKTOMMY + "Coffee" by Chappell Roan for @buckhastwohands

commissions are open 🧡

[botheredbuck]

Taylor Swift performs ''Long Live x New Year's Day x The Manuscript'' mashup tonight as the second surprise song on piano at The Eras Tour for the LAST show in Vancouver, Night 3! 🎹 (December 8, 2024)

[botheredbuck]

Animal shifting AU anyone? (A setting in which animal shifting is possible, not the most common trait though, possibly witchy setting? No idea, it‘s 3:38am).

Evan is a dog shifter. He‘s done it ever since he was a little kid. It’s a comfort thing, really: when his parents are mad at him, disappointed in him, he shifts. When he’s done something stupid, he shifts. When Maddie starts dating Doug and he can see something is wrong but no one is listening to him and he doesn’t know how to deal with the emotions, he shifts. It’s only for a couple minutes at a time, but as he gets older, he does it more often. It’s his escape. His school grades get worse because instead of attending class and preparing for tests, he shifts and chases squirrels through the community park.

And then Maddie keeps dating Doug, moves in with him, leaving Evan alone with his parents and their disappointment and Evan can’t, he can’t stand it.

So he leaves.

It’s easier to travel when he’s shifted, less human needs to tend to, less questions asked. And it makes him feel free, four strong legs, scruffy fur. He roams all over the East coast. He finds a farm in Montana and spends a summer hearding sheep. The farmer is smitten enough with him to build him a proper dog house and give him a personalised collar and calls him Buck. He doesn’t shift back for the whole summer.

He makes his way south, riding shotgun with his head stuck out the window of a large truck, tongue lolling in the wind, and at night makes sure the lady driving the truck is save from unwanted advances, growling at anyone who nears the truck’s cabin. And he doesn’t shift back for the rest of the year.

He loses himself in his dog shape, becoming one of the tales of people who shifted too long, who forgot who they were before.

He’s Buck, now, a big straggly dog roaming around a small touristy town in South America, living off scrabs and the goodwill of the American bartender running a joint near a beach.

When the dog rescue picks him up months later he doesn’t really know what is going on at first, being put in a transport box and then a plane and then a kennel. Everyone is speaking English around him again, not the languages he heard in the South. And for the first time in months, years? Buck feels the need to communicate, the distant wish to change, turn back, advocate for himself, but it’s a fleeting thought he can’t grasp, doesn’t really know what to shift into. So he spends weeks in a pet shelter instead, lying on the tiled floor with his head on his paws, looking at the people walking past because he’s too big, too old, not a puppy, not instagramy enough.

———

It’s Tommy’s therapist’s suggestion he go volunteer at the pet shelter.

It’s been months now since he turned his life upside down in a desperate bid for authenticity, in an uphill battle that he had to fight for fear of where not facing himself would lead him to (the bottom of a bottle, the angry isolation of the types like Gerrard, the violent loneliness of a man stuck with a family he hated of the types like his father). It’s his therapist’s suggestion to practice being kind to himself by being kind, caring for, pets who don’t have anyone in their lives. It’s a suggestion he dismisses as stupid at first but which’s implications has him lie awake at night and stare at the ceiling with his eyes burning and his chest tight.

So he signs up as a dog walker, volunteering on his days off and… it’s surprisingly nice, ok? The dogs don’t need him to talk, to explain himself, they’re just happy someone is there to spend time with them. And Tommy is a big guy, he can handle the dogs the old ladies and school kids don’t dare go near, doesn’t mind being handed the louder dogs or the ugly ones, develops enough confidence to start help training the more aggressive ones too in a bid to resocialise them, give them a second chance in a world where humans failed them.

He doesn’t even really notice Buck at first. The dog is big, but not loud like the others, seems almost catatonic at times the way he just lies in his kennel, watching people drift by. The first time Tommy opens the door to his kennel, he doesn’t even move, just stares up at him through big, blue eyes. Tommy sits with him for two hours that day until his own butt goes numb on the hard floor, getting him used to his voice and the careful touch of his fingers in his fur, scratching his ears. When Tommy comes back for him two days later, there’s almost a disbelief in the way Buck stares at him, like he expects Tommy to close the kennel door again, move to the one next to him. He nuzzles Tommy’s hand carefully for the first time that day. It breaks Tommy’s heart a little and for the first time he considers adopting one of the dogs, not just walking them, spending time with them at the shelter.

It takes a couple of weeks of deliberation, of planning (how long could a dog be by himself? What to do with him when Tommy has a 24h, would it be ok to take him along to Harbor?) , but then the day comes Tommy clips a brand new collar around Buck’s neck and a leash to it, scoops up Buck’s ratty blanket and the few toys accumulated in his kennel over the months, and takes him home. Buck seems confused at first, carefully nosing around his new surroundings and then curling up in the big dog bed in Tommy’s living room where he dropped the blanket and toys that carry Buck’s familiar scent from the shelter, staring at Tommy with big eyes like he’s waiting for Tommy to grab the leash again and take him back.

It’s about four weeks later: Tommy doesn’t regret adopting Buck even a minute. It’s nice to have someone in the house with him, Buck blossoms the first time Tommy takes him out on a hike, and it only takes two shifts for Buck to become the Harbor Hangar Mascot (Lucy already says she’ll make an employee of the month sign with Buck’s picture). Buck has become more lively, more touchy too, following Tommy closely, curling up on his legs on the couch in the evenings, coming over for treats or pets when Tommy is working on things around the house.

And then one morning Tommy wakes up early to go for a run before his shift starts. He puts on his workout clothes, grabs the leash to get Buck to come along, enters the living room…

There’s a large, handsome guy sprawled out on Tommy’s couch, stark naked.

“What the fuck?!” Tommy exclaims, dropping the leash. His shout and the clatter of the leash, startle the guy awake, long limbs flailing uncoordinatedly as he yelps, looks just as confused out of big blue eyes that for a flash seems so familiar, and then he rolls off the couch, big furry paws hitting the hardwood floor, slinking away quickly into the laundry room.

Tommy stares. “What. The fuck?”