30 day fluff challenge: day 6
"prom-posal"
“You sure this is gonna work,” Tommy asks as he eyes Bobby skeptically.
His former boss smiles with just a little bit of a twinkle in his eyes. “No,” he laughs. “But we’re trained to handle fire if it doesn’t.”
Tommy just shakes his head, glancing back at the project in front of them. “Well here goes nothing.”
. . .
It’s not supposed to be a big thing when Tommy first starts planning. He’d talked to Maddie about it all before-hand, wanted to ensure that someone in Evan’s family was aware of his intentions. He really didn’t want to apply the pressure on Maddie or himself of ‘asking permission’. It was antiquated, and he knew that Evan didn’t really want that. He wanted Maddie’s approval, absolutely, but he wasn’t interested in Tommy calling his parents or even Bobby and Athena. “it makes me feel like people are claiming ownership of me, and the only person I want to own me is you”. He may have stated that naked in bed, but the intention behind the words still rang true.
But then, even after he’d talked to Maddie, he still didn’t know what to do. He wanted it to be simple, but he wanted it to move Evan. There was something about the look he got on his face whenever something happened he didn’t expect—like the first time they’d kissed—that Tommy got drunk on. So that required finesse.
He thought about doing something in the helicopter first, but that lasted about five seconds. He remembered Evan’s story about the guy who had almost killed his fiancée during the proposal. Plus, skywriting wouldn’t be as fun if he couldn’t be able to do both. Then he’d contemplated something simple at home, but doing that didn’t feel like it would work either. He thought about calling Eddie for ideas, but sometimes he felt like they asked too much of him in their relationship. Not in a bad way, but in a way where maybe Eddie didn’t get any breathing room because he got lucky enough to have to hear everything in their relationship from both sides.
So then he’d called Chimney. And that had been a failed endeavor, given that his proposal to Tatiana hadn’t gone anywhere, and that his proposal to Maddie had really ended in her proposing to him after she found the ring.
After that he felt a bit rudderless. The internet wasn’t providing him any solid ideas, he’d tapped out his friends—even everyone at work who was married—and he’d been pretty set on doing it by their anniversary, which was limiting him on time.
So he called Bobby. It was entirely on a whim, but Bobby helped him come up with a few ideas, and by the time he’d made the dinner reservation for the night of, they had a set plan.
. . .
“It’s sweet that you consider the disaster date our anniversary, but honestly we kinda stole my sister’s thunder,” Evan tells him as Tommy slides his card into the cheque envelope at Miceli’s.
Tommy nods. “And if your sister and Chimney had a clue that we classify as our real anniversary, they might actually kill us,” Tommy says with a smirk on his face. He passes the envelope off to their waiter and then picks up his glass and takes another sip from it.
“So you wanna go see a movie,” Evan teases. “I hear they have 18 screens.”
Tummy chuckles.
“Nineteen now, last I heard,” he retorts. The waiter returns and passes him the envelope. He retrieves his card from it and signs off on the receipt before tucking it back in his wallet. “But no. We have other plans.”
Evan furrows his brow at him, confused. Before he can question further though, his phone buzzes in his pocket. When he pulls it out, Bobby’s name is on the screen.
“Take it,” Tommy tells him, finishing off the last of his beer.
Evan nods and answers the call.
“Hey Bobby what’s up?”
“Hey kid,” he replies. “Look have this thing I’m working on for Athena in the back yard. It’s a pop-up gazebo type, and it’s gotta be done by tomorrow. Michael was supposed to help, but his flight got delayed-..”
“And you need help,”Evan finishes for him. Tommy gives him a curious glance.
“Yeah,” Bobby drawls. “If you could, I’d owe you.”
“It’s fine,” Tommy whispers. “Say yes.”
Evan furrows his brow deeper at Tommy. He covers the speaker of the phone and pulls it away from his head a little bit.
“What about your plans?”
Tommy shakes his head. “We have two days off, Evan. Plenty of time.”
Evan sighs, but then nods, bringing the phone back to his ear.
“We’ll be right over,” he tells Bobby. He ends the call a moment later, and Tommy has stood, is holding their leftovers in a bag in one hand, offering Evan his other.
The drive over to Bobby’s is quiet, but comfortably so. Evan is a little miffed that their plans have changed, but secretly, he enjoys getting to spend time with Tommy and other people in his life. They get plenty of time with Maddie, Chimney, and even Eddie and Hen, but he doesn’t feel like they spend nearly as much time together with Bobby.
They arrive some twenty minutes later, and it’s all Tommy can do to keep Evan from dragging him into the house. He’s not sure where everyone else is parked, but Evan doesn’t seem suspicious, regardless. Still, Evan tugs him along, up to the door, and then into the house when Bobby opens up for them.
“It’s in the back yard,” Bobby says, leading them through the living room and kitchen towards the back.
“You need us to help bring anything out,” Evan asks. Bobby just shakes his head, gestures towards the door.
“Come on out.”
He heads out into the back yard, Evan pulling Tommy along closely behind. As they reach the door though, Tommy stops him, just short of door.
“Wait a minute,” he murmurs, tugging Evan back towards him.
Evan narrows his eyes at him, but then smiles and steps forward, looking an arm around Tommy’s neck.
“I love you,” Tommy tells him before kissing the corner of his mouth. “Happy anniversary.”
Evan smiles back at him, unable to stop the grin that pulls across his face. “Happy anniversary babe.”
When Evan turns to the door, Tommy inhales a deep breath. All or nothing, he thinks, lifting a free hand to keep the door open as Evan passes through it, and then they’re both standing on the back patio.
“What’s…” Evan voice trails off as his eyes fall first on his sister, and then Chimney and Jee-Yun. His eyes trail over the backyard, seeing their friends and family, and then back to Tommy, his mouth open with questions still stuck inside his mouth.
“I love you,” Tommy states again, an adoring smile pulling on his face. “I’ve been in love with you since the day you climbed up in my helicopter and asked if you could sit next to me. There was a time when I’d written off the concepts of a family in any form, getting to find the kind of love we’ve managed to cultivate. I mean it every time I say that loving you is easy. You have given me so much in such a short time that sometimes I have to remind myself this isn’t a dream.”
He lifts his free hand to Evan’s cheek, wipes at the tears freely flowing down his face, and then rests a finger against his lips, keeping him from speaking.
“I’m not finished,” he states with a small chuckle. “I heard this song the other day with this line ‘a love that makes a man have second thoughts’. You make me have all the second thoughts because I never want to leave when I’m with you. So, I was wondering if you could answer a quick, particular question for me.”
He gestures across the backyard with their linked hands, and Evan looks away from him towards where he’s pointed to. A chainlink fence has been set up with a line of wood mounted on it. Each end of it has either Eddie and Chimney nearby, holding a set of pliers with rubber gloves. As Tommy nods towards them, they each connect their end of the wiring to a battery briefly as Bobby stands off to the side, prepared with an extinguisher. As the circuit completes, the wire lights up, quickly burning the message into the wood. As soon as the fire ignites, Eddie and Chimney both release the circuit and Bobby is blasting it with the extinguisher. Once the CO2 has dispersed, the message is still there, burned into the wood, and clear in the evening twilight.
Evan lets out a laugh, mostly out of surprise, as he glances back at Tommy, adoration in his eyes.
“You came up with all this?” He asks.
Tommy shrugs, a sheepish smile on his own face. “I had some help. A certain fire captain.”
Evan is still smiling at him, uncaring of the tear that races its way down his cheek as Tommy reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box. As he flips it open, a black tungsten ring with a rose gold inlay is revealed. Evan gulps at the sight of it, and the way it reminds him of fire. He looks back up at Tommy as his hands come up to his boyfriend- fiancé’s neck, leaning flush against him.
“Yes, Tommy. A million times, yes,” he laughs before capturing his lips in a hungry kiss.
Their friends are clapping and cheering, but Evan barely hears any of it past the sound of his and Tommy’s breathing as the other man��s hand loops around his waist, holding him tight. When they finally part, it’s only because Evan needs oxygen. His gaze falls to the ring again, and Tommy watches him as he stares at it.
“Would you like to put it on,” he asks nervously. “I won’t judge you if you don’t.”
Evan looks back up at him like he’s insane.
“Yes I want to wear it,” he replies. “Let the whole damn world know you’re stuck with me now.”
Tommy laughs at him but puts enough space between them that he can step back and remove the ring from the box. Both his own hands and Evan’s are shaking as he slides it onto his finger. It slots easily into place—Tommy had made sure he had proper measurements—and Tommy curls his hand around Evan’s fingers once it’s on, lifts his hand to his lips and kisses them.
Evan’s eyes go wide again as Tommy lowers his hand and he raises an eyebrow.
“What?”
“We could do a summer wedding,” Evan states with a gasp. “Or early fall. Yeah, do it as the leaves change, out at Griffith. Coordinate colors to the leaves changing.”
“Hey, can we wait twelve hours before we have to contend with wedding and Clipboard Buck,” Chimney comments from across the yard. Evan throws a glare at him, which only earns him laughter in return from his friends.
Tommy nuzzles his jaw before kissing it.
“We can do whatever you want baby,” he tells him. “And I for one, can’t wait to see you in all your glory.”
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