#nephilimeq fanfic

[nephilimeq]

Come Fly With Me

Prompt: Surprise

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/161852191

Tommy let out a sigh as he stepped through the front door of his house, having just gotten off the shift from hell. Normally he loved being in the air—but after the stunts he’d had to pull that day, his entire body felt like one big bruise, and he had no desire to do anything for at least twenty-four hours.

“Hey, babe, is that you?”

Evan.

“I’ve, uh, I’ve got some great news! Like, you won’t believe how awesome it is, I can’t wait to tell you about it,” he called out to him, and Tommy just blankly stared into space, absently kicking the door shut behind him as he let his duffle bag hit the floor with a dull thud. His boyfriend’s enthusiasm was sweet, but the airman found that he couldn’t return the energy and simply grunted back at him as loudly as he could, dropping all of his things just inside the door, kicking his shoes off and leaving them lying haphazardly in the entry way as he made his way towards the living room…

…and then he collapsed face first onto the couch in a tired heap.

He lay there for a while, debating whether or not he should simply fall asleep right then and there, every part of him saying that he should—but his mind scolded him, telling him that his back would hate him for it, and he knew that it was right.

Though that didn’t change the fact that he was far too comfortable…and then he heard footsteps coming from the archway into the living room and absently lifted a hand and waved it, saying in a muffled voice, “Hey, sorry, tired,” and he heard his boyfriend chuckle and say, “Yeah, I can see that. Sorry, babe.”

He then felt a warm hand on his lower back, and he hummed in the back of his throat.

“Mmm, feels nice…” He relished in the touch, and then blearily asked in an attempt to try and engage in conversation, “Wha’s your news?”

“Nothing, never mind. It can wait until later,” and Evan’s light touched turned into a firm, massaging stroke, and Tommy moaned, his mind blue screening and all he could focus on was the way his boyfriend was giving him a much needed massage, eventually bringing in his other hand and removing every inch of the stress of the day from his body. He didn’t know how long it lasted—but it was long enough that his stomach softly grumbled, and Evan chuckled.

“Want me to heat up some leftovers?” he suggested, and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, would you? I’m just so tired…though the massage seriously helped,” he replied, slowly rising up onto his elbows and casted a look at his boyfriend over his shoulder. “But seriously, before you go get the food, what was your good news? You sounded really excited…”

Evan shook his head.

“It can wait.”

He thought about pushing—but then decided that if Evan said it could wait, then it could wait. He was starving.

Less than twenty minutes later, his boyfriend had brought them both plates from the kitchen laden down with his leftover pasta casserole, and Tommy managed to find enough energy to sit up straight and enjoy every single bite of it, letting out a contented sigh as he popped the top button of his jeans after putting his plate down on the coffee table in front of them, and then propping his feet up on the edge and giving the younger man a loving glance.

Smiling, he said, “I think I might go up another pant size because of you,” and patted his stomach, thinking about the ring that he’d ordered and how he couldn’t wait to get it onto his finger in the next few weeks.

Hopefully.

Evan gave him a half-hearted smile…and then he said, “Hey, uh…I wasn’t going to ask, but about a week ago you took a phone call, and you said you were switching shifts with Lucy this past week—but I heard a man answer the phone when you made the call. I-I don’t want to sound insecure or-or suspicious, but I was just wondering if—if you…”

Tommy felt his breath catch. Shit. That was the phone call he’d received about the ring being ready, and since he’d ended up switching shifts anyway and working exactly when he said he would be working, he didn’t think anything of it—but now his boyfriend had questions and he needed to answer them without tipping him off about the truth…and said, “Yeah, okay, it wasn’t Lucy who called, but I did end up switching shifts with her, so I didn’t lie about that. So, let’s just say…it’s a surprise and I want you to trust me.”

He gave his boyfriend a look.

“Yeah, okay. I can do that…especially since I have a surprise for you, too,” Evan said, giving him a sly look.

“Yeah? What kind of surprise?”

At that, Evan moved his own plate to the side and grabbed at the airman’s hand and gently squeezed it and said, “I, uh…I’ve been looking around at some places, trying to find some information about helicopters and stuff like that…and, uh…well, I found this.”

He pulled out a piece of paper that he’d folded up into his front pocket and handed it to him.

Tommy arched an eyebrow and looked down at the paper, squinting slightly because he didn’t have his glasses—and then Evan said, “Oh, wait, here,” and reached over and grabbed his glasses from the end table on his side, and he smiled as he slipped them on in order to read the paper…

…and then just about swallowed his tongue.

Right there in black and white ink was the words explaining that all he had to do was sign on the dotted line and he would have full ownership of his own personal helicopter and it would be kept at an airfield only half an hour from his house. The payment plan was easy and—to put it in simple terms—was the best fucking goddamn deal he had ever seen for such a high-end machine. Tommy stared at it, baffled, trying to wrap his mind around it.

“Evan, how…how did you…? The-the down payment alone…”

“I saved up for it. I’ve had some money set aside for something like this for a while now,” he softly admitted, giving him a shy smile. “I’ve been texting with Sal, too, and he mentioned that you’ve been looking for a helicopter for a long while, and this…well, it just so happens that I know someone in the business and used a few of my old connections to find something that you would like, and asked Sal to confirm it…so…you like it?”

Without hesitation, he leaned in and pressed a hard kiss to his lips, one hand wrapped around the back of Evan’s head, and as he pulled back he said, “I have never been so in love with you than I am in this moment,” and Evan chuckled.

“Really? Well, if I knew that finding you a helicopter would earn me this, then I would have done it sooner…”

They shared a smile.

And then Evan added, “You wanna take it up?”

--

Tommy still couldn’t believe it as he steered the chopper through the air with his boyfriend in the copilot’s seat, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Evan had somehow managed to find him the best deal he had ever seen on such a high-end machine.

The feel of the rotors thumping above his head reminded him of Evan’s heartbeat.

“God, this is so cool!” his boyfriend exclaimed over the headset, and the airman grinned and replied, “Hey, I told you when we met that I would show you a good time!”

It was the next morning after Evan had told him the news about the helicopter, and he was almost giddy with euphoria as he turned them over the dunes and headed back towards the airfield. They had been up in the air for almost an hour, but the bird had been taken up with a full tank, and now it was time to take her back in. There was a familiar sense of freedom as he banked low and wide, purposely angling out over the water, and he wondered if Evan could feel it, too.

Just as he thought about him, Evan suddenly said, “Hey, maybe we could use this for a date night sometime. What do you think?” and Tommy said, “Yeah, sounds like a plan,” already knowing exactly when and where it would be, the thought of a ring being involved making him grin like an idiot.

He was grateful for the size of the headset as it blocked some of his face from him, keeping his boyfriend from figuring out anything too quickly.

It had been next to impossible to make his plans to propose to him when Evan was so focused on him—mind you, he loved the attention, but it was like trying to hide a brand new chew toy from a dog that was constantly following you around all the time. He knew the metaphor was a bit rough, and he didn’t like comparing his boyfriend to a dog, but when they were together, Evan was surprisingly—persistently—almost always in his personal place.

Again, not that he was complaining.

Actually, he kind of loved it.

“You really have an amazing job, babe,” Evan said, taking him out of his head, and he replied, “Evan, we have the same job,” and shot him a sideways glance, and his boyfriend shook his head and said, “No, not really. I mean, we both fight fires, but you…you’re up in here in the sky almost every day seeing things that most people will never see. You have the chance to do things that a lot of people only dream about, you know? It’s really…it’s really somethin’ else,” he finished, sounding genuinely amazed, and Tommy smiled.

He couldn’t wait to marry him.

He finally brought the chopper back to the airfield, landing it with all the skill of someone who had done it over a thousand times before (he had), and as they made their way back to the main gate, he grabbed at his boyfriend’s elbow and tugged him into a corner and then planted a heavy kiss on him, pinning him to the wall as he used his mouth and body to tell him how grateful he was for the amazing, insightful gift.

“Mmf, what…what was that for?” Evan said, pulling back slightly, and Tommy smirked and rubbed his thumb against the base of the younger man’s neck and retorted, “That was for being the most amazing boyfriend ever. I still can’t believe you did this for me, Evan…”

His cheeks pinked and he ducked his eyes.

“Yeah, well, I guess I thought that you deserved it, you know? After everything you’ve done for me and for all the lives you’ve saved over the years, it just seemed like you should have something like this,” he said with an earnestness that made the airman’s breath catch in his throat.

He then used his thumb to tilt Evan’s head back up and levelled his eyes on his.

“You…god, I love you so much,” was all he could think to say…

…but apparently it was enough as his boyfriend’s eyes lit up and he gave him that smile of his that made his heart skip a beat every time he saw it—and Tommy couldn’t help himself and leaned back in and kissed him a second time, this time allowing his thigh to slip between his legs and his hands to wander down to his ass, hoisting him up slightly, using the wall behind them as leverage, thrilled when Evan let out a needy moan and ground down slightly against his leg.

He then panted out against his lips, “Won’t we…won’t we get caught?” and Tommy smirked and said as he pushed his thigh tighter against him, “We’re the only ones here, right now, so no. Wanna fool around?” and he grinned.

God, he loved him.

...he couldn't wait to marry him.

[nephilimeq]

Stuck in the Middle With You

Prompt: Clingy Boyfriend

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/160733068

Buck was annoyed.

No, scratch that—he was pissed.

It had been over seventy-two hours—and he still hadn’t seen his boyfriend. Hell, he had been forced to go back to his apartment because there was no point in going over to Tommy’s house because he wouldn't even be there for another forty-eight hours. Somehow—he had no idea how—the end of Bucks forty-eight had overlapped with the beginning of Tommy’s seventy-two, and the only thing he wanted to do was pull his hair out by the roots and scream into the void.

…But he couldn’t, so instead he was doing the next best thing: drinking with Eddie and complaining about his life.

“Dude, you’ll be fine,” his friend reassured him as he sat next to him at the bar at a quarter past eight. “it’s not like you guys haven’t gone five days without seeing each other since you two started dating…”

Buck didn’t look up at him, casting his eyes down towards his glass.

“Seriously?!”

He let out a whine as he stretched out almost flat against the bar and reluctantly admitted, “Yeah, we’ve kinda been attached at the hip—”

“Or other body parts,” Eddie muttered before taking a swig of his beer and Buck glared at him and said, “Hey! No interrupting!” and threw a rogue peanut shell at him, and then added, “I mean, we still text, call, and video chat, but…god, it’s just not the same, you know?” and then took a long drag of his own beer, thinking about the fact that Tommy would reprimand him for choosing such a generic brand instead of going for one of the nicer craft beers with a better flavor.

But he didn’t want a better flavor, he wanted to drown his sorrows and didn’t need something like flavor getting in the way of that. Besides, he wouldn’t have appreciated the taste anyway, far too focused on trying to numb the longing feeling in his chest that felt as though it was turning into a cavernous hole.

Eddie gave him a look and said, “Look, if you miss him so much, then why don’t you swing by the 217?” and Buck shot him a look.

“Because, they’re on standby for the fires and their schedule is all over the place! And-and I don’t wanna just, you know, show up like the clingiest boyfriend in the world! I’m not some, some…tween girl who’s obsessed, you know?”

“You’re not? Coulda fooled me,” his friend drawled as he turned and leaned with his back to the bar and Buck found himself glaring at him all over again, getting slightly annoyed at his friend’s attitude, and threw another peanut at him, thrilled when it hit his chin and then fell into the front pocket of his flannel, and he muttered into the crook of his folded arm, “Ha, three points,” knowing that if Tommy had been there he would have appreciated him making the basketball joke.

Eddie merely shot him an arched eyebrow.

“You’re acting like Christopher, right now, you do know that, right?” he said as he fished out the peanut and popped it into his mouth.

Buck scoffed and slowly sat up, saying, “If you’re telling me that I have the emotional maturity of a fourteen-year-old, you are way off on that mark. According to Dr. Jensen, I have the emotional maturity of a twenty-five year old.”

“Buck, you’re thirty-four.”

“Yeah, I’m still catching up. So?”

Eddie merely shook his head and took another sip from his beer while Buck cast a glance around the bar, noting that it was still a light crowd. Of course, it was the middle of the week, and eight o’clock on a Wednesday evening wasn’t exactly the hip time for people to be out drinking. God, he was pathetic.

--

“Oh, god, just call him!” Sal said, sounding thoroughly annoyed—but Tommy shook his head and said, “I can’t! He’s out with Eddie and I don’t want to bother him while he’s having a good time off shift, you know?”

“If he’s anything like you, he doesn’t know how to have a good time,” muttered Lucy from behind her cards on the other side of the table, her feet propped up on the edge. “I take that bet and raise you two skittles,” she then said, arching an eyebrow at him, and Tommy knew immediately that she was bluffing and said, “I call.”

She smirked.

“Read ‘em and weep, Kinard.”

She laid down her cards with all the confidence of someone twenty years her senior—and Tommy nodded and said, “Nice hand, Donato. Full house…which would be great if I didn’t have a straight flush,” and he laid down his hand with a smirk, and she let out a huff and dropped her legs and said, “God, I hate your poker face. You’re inscrutable.”

“It’s a gift,” he said, pulling the pile of candy towards him, popping a lemon skittle into his mouth…and found his eyes drifting towards his phone, where he had left it on the table, wondering if he should give Evan a call. He hadn’t been able to spend any time with him for two days already, and now he was stuck with another three days without him. God, he had never gone more than three days without him, and now he was going to be away from him for a total of five fucking days.

His hand twitched—and then Sal said, “For fuck’s sake, just call him!”

“Language Deluca!” shouted their captain, but he simply rolled his eyes and moved over to him, shoving his shoulder up against his.

“Look, have the two of you been apart for very long before? Anything longer than two or three days?” he asked…and Tommy reluctantly admitted, “Uh…no. We’ve never spent more than three days apart since we got back together,” and his friend let out a long sigh that lasted so long it almost seemed as though he was deflating.

He then said, “Mierda…you two are grade-a clingers, aren’t you?”

…and Tommy snorted and started to laugh and through his laughter he managed to say, “Okay, yeah, I guess we are. When we’re at home we do almost everything together,” he admitted, giving Sal a sideways glance. “I think we’re both kinda touch starved and we both need a lot of reassurance after what happened to us all those months ago. I think we’re also both a little bit afraid on some sort of subconscious level that the other person is gonna just up and leave …”

His friend turned so they were both facing the same way and said, “You two are good together. So, why don’t you text him?”

--

“…Because if I text him, then he’ll know that I can’t go more than a couple days at a time without him!” Buck explained as he stood on the other side of the pool table, moving the stick between his hands in an agitated manner. “I don’t want him to think that I’m desperate! Don’t you get that?”

Eddie glanced up at him as he lined up his shot and muttered under his breath, “I get that you’re both grade-a clingers…”

Buck shot him a look.

“You don’t get it,” he said, shaking his head and walking over to where Eddie was lining up his shot. “If I reach out first then that means I’m the clingier one! And I am not the clingier one! You’ve never seen how Tommy follows me around the apartment when he comes over…or how-how whenever I go to his place, he is constantly calling out to check in on where I am just in case so he can find me if he wants to share something with me because he thinks texting across the house is-is too…impersonal!”

At that, Eddie took his shot, missing it, and then straightened and said, “Je-sus, Buck. I’m thinking you two might be a little codependent,” and at that Buck arched an eyebrow at him as he bent over to line up his own shot and said, “Oh, big word for you. Therapy working?”

His friend shrugged.

“Eh, yeah. I guess. Still feels too much like confession to me,” he said with a pointed look, “But I think it’s working. Still—you and Tommy have a weird relationship.”

“No, we don’t,” Buck stressed, taking his own shot and sinking it without even glancing back down at the table. “We have a healthy relationship. I think the two of us are just trying to make up for lost time, you know? Those few months without him were hell for me, and for him, and now we just…I think maybe we’re just scared that one of us might come up with another reason to walk away from it and so we don’t like being away from each other for too long…”

Letting out a sigh, he went to line up his next shot…and then Eddie said, “So you’re not texting him because…?”

--

“Because if I text him, then he’ll know that I can’t go more than a few days without him,” Tommy said to Sal as they got the injured hiker into the medevac chopper. “And if he knows that, then he’ll know that I’m the clingier one, and I’m not! Do you know that Evan tries to text me across the house? I’ve told him to just let me know where he is and I can come to him, but no. He insists on being allowed to text me across the house, which is just…weird.”

From below them, the woman on the gurney lifted up a feeble hand and said, “You know, you and your husband should just sit down and talk about how to communicate when you’re feeling insecure, because that’s what I’m picking up on here,” and he quickly corrected her.

“He’s my boyfriend, not my husband.”

Sal then interjected, “But you want him to be your husband, don’t you?” and Tommy ducked his eyes and moved back to the pilot’s seat, pulling on his headset.

“I’m not talking about this with you, Sal.”

His friend shot him a look and said, “Uh, you kinda are. So just text him, already! You miss him because you love him, that’s not a bad thing,” he said as Tommy lifted the chopper into the air, heading for the hospital. “Love can make you do stupid things—like break up with someone when they ask you to move in with them,” he jabbed at him, and the airman groaned and repeated, “I am not talking with you about this! Evan and I…we can figure it out. We got back together, didn’t we?”

At that, his friend chuckled and said, “Yeah, sure, like you were the one who figured it out. Isn’t the only reason why you two got back together because Howie pulled some underhanded shit with his wife and kid in order to get you and your boy into the same room again?”

Tommy sighed.

Okay, so yeah, it had been because of Howie and Maddie that he and Evan had gotten back together…but it was because of them talking things out that they had finally decided that it was worth it.

Still, as he angled the chopper towards the direction of the hospital he thought about what Sal had been trying to say to him the entire shift—and he hated to admit it, but the man was right. He missed Evan because he was in love with him, and that wasn’t a bad thing. Hell, it was practically expected at this point in their relationship.

Tommy continued to think on it as they dropped off the injured hiker…

…and then as they landed back at the 217, he reluctantly said to Sal over the headset, “Okay, maybe you’re right.”

His friend shot him a far too smug look, and the airman was already regretting his words, especially when the other man said as they sauntered back to the main hangar, “Oh, I want that put onto a t-shirt! ‘Tommy Kinard says that Sal Deluca was right!’ This is a pretty damn good feeling! So…you’re gonna text him, right?” he prodded, and Tommy nodded and reached for his phone, feeling a small sense of relief as he saw the picture of his boyfriend smiling on his lock screen.

He smiled down at it and then swiped his phone open…where Evan was the background, and he continued to smile.

Sal playfully shoved at his shoulder with his own, saying, “Someone’s in lo-ove,” and Tommy shoved him right back, pleased when the other man stumbled.

Hesitantly, he brought up their texts and then stared at them for a moment or two, trying to get up the courage to message him first, noting that their last conversation had been about the shopping list for the cookies that Tommy had baked for the 118.

He stop midstride and stared at it…and then began to type…

--

“He’s bubbling me!” Buck said, staring at his phone in shock. He had finally caved and reached for his phone to text his boyfriend, only to see those little bubbles telling him that Tommy was texting him first.

“Yipee,” Eddie said dryly from the corner of the pool table, looking at it with a curious expression, as if expecting it to rearrange the balls for him so that he would have a better shot.

Buck ignored him and continued to stare at his screen, waiting for the message to show up—and then grinned when the words that popped up said, Hey, thinking about you. Sorry we have to spend so many days apart, babe, and he couldn’t help but feel lucky to have someone in his life who understood just how hard it was for him to be apart from the people he loved for long amounts of time, and he immediately texted back, Thinking about you, too. Miss you, along with a kissy face emoji.

Feeling reassured, he slid his phone back into his pocket and turned his attention back to the game and teased, “You gonna take your shot or what, Diaz?” and Eddie gave him a bitch-face and leaned against his pool stick and said, “Gimme a minute! Your last shot fucked me up…”

Buck rolled his eyes.

“Oh my god, you’re so dramatic! Just take the shot!”

“Well, looks like someone’s in a better mood,” his friend muttered as he bent over and took the shot, letting out another curse when the ball bounced off a bumper and went wide, setting it up perfectly for Buck’s next shot, and he grinned and set it…and in three moves he had finished the game.

Eddie pretended to be annoyed with him, but he was smiling as he said, “So, think you can manage a few more days without him?” and Buck shrugged and said, “I guess so, yeah. I just…I sleep better with him next to me, you know?” and his friend tilted his head and remarked, “Yeah, I guess I can understand that. I remember it was hard for a while after I was deployed to sleep without Shannon next to me, so I get it,” and patted his shoulder.

Buck nodded and turned back to the pool table.

“Wanna go again?”

Eddie smirked.

“Bring it on, lover boy.”

Buck scoffed and said, “Oh, c’mon, I’m not that whipped, am I?” and Eddie lifted an eyebrow and said, “Yeah, you kinda are, but that’s okay. By the way,” he said as he moved around to the other side of the table, “Are you even living at your apartment anymore? Why don’t you just move into his place?” and his heart skipped a beat.

Yeah, okay, he’d thought about it, but it was too soon, and he knew it—he had jumped the gun last time, he wasn’t going to do that again.

“Uh, I still have my lease,” he finally replied, avoiding eye contact, focusing on re-racking the balls for their next game. He didn’t have to look up to know that his friend was giving him a side eye…but Eddie said nothing, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Just three more days.

--

It was three days of torture and the shift from hell, and Tommy couldn’t quite believe that he had managed to survive. Letting out a sigh of relief, he dropped his bag as soon as he stepped inside his front door and kicked his shoes off and tossed his jacket to the side, uncaring of where anything landed…

…and then the next thing he knew, he had his arms full of his boyfriend, who immediately buried his head in his neck.

“God, I missed you,” Evan said, his voice slightly muffled from where it was pressed into his collarbone, and the airman chuckled and wrapped his arms tightly around him and said softly, “I missed you, too, babe,” and pressed a kiss to his damp curls, which told him that Evan had just gotten out of the shower. He took a deep breath, smelling his own soap on his skin, a blend of cedarwood and spearmint, and then nuzzled his nose into his hair, letting out a sigh.

Evan practically melted into him, and the feeling of his body pressed up against his was the best thing he had felt in a long time, having been spending far too much time dealing with Lucy and Sal on either side of him, their presence welcome, but not the same as the man he loved.

“As much as I love this, babe, can we move to the couch? I am beat,” Tommy muttered, and his boyfriend nodded.

Not quite letting go of each other, they made their way to the living room and then promptly crashed onto the couch, Buck laying out flat with Tommy on top of him—

—and god was that nice.

With all of his previous ‘relationships’ he had always been the big spoon because of his height and broad build…but with Evan he was able to relax into another broad chest without having to worry that he was going to crush him.

They lay there for a long while, not saying a single thing, Evan’s fingers carding through his hair, the sensation soft and lulling him into an almost sleep…but then through the haze of exhaustion, he heard him ask, “Am I…am I too clingy for you?” and Tommy snorted and said, “Nope, not at all. Actually, Sal and I talked today, and he says that I’m the clingy one of the two of us,” and he felt a chuckle run through his boyfriend’s chest as he said, “Funny enough, Eddie said the same thing about me…”

He grinned and rubbed his hand over Evan’s side, enjoying every single second of being able to touch him, and softly added, “Well, it seems to be working for us, so I say we keep on doing it.”

Buck chuckled a second time.

“I like that idea.”

He then tucked a finger under the airman’s chin and lifted his head just enough to press a kiss to his lips and Tommy moaned into the kiss and then said as they both pulled back from it, “I’ve never been happier to have a clingy boyfriend,” and Evan gave him a look.

“Damn straight.”

“Damn…gay, actually,” he teased, and was thrilled when his boyfriend groaned and rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, god, I forgot how bad your jokes are.”

“Excuse you, but I am hilarious,” Tommy retorted, lifting himself up slightly to rest his hands on Evan’s chest and prop his chin on top of his clasped hands. “You just don’t appreciate my brand of humor, Evan.”

They shared a look, both of them trying to stare down the other—and then they both broke into giggles, both of them sounding almost manic with the way their giggles dissolved into breathless gulps of laughter, neither of them able to contain themselves. Tommy knew that part of the reason why he was acting so ridiculous was because he always acted punch drunk when he was this tired, and he knew that Evan was just naturally that amused at him.

Eventually it subsided and they rested quietly against each other once more…

…and then Evan said, “I like it when you’re clingy,” and Tommy whispered back, “I like when you’re clingy, too…”

A warm silence fell, and as they lay there the stray thought entered the airman’s mind that Evan always felt like home to him, and that he spent more time at his place than back at his own apartment. Even though it felt too soon, he wanted him to move in…but not yet. It could wait a bit longer, he mused as his felt his boyfriend’s fingers tracing along his spine.

Yeah.

It could wait a bit longer.

[nephilimeq]

Fuck Me Like You Love Me

Prompt: Love Confessions

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/161438689

Buck gasped as his boyfriend pounded into him from above, one hand splayed over his hip while the other was propped next to his head on the bed, and he did his best to not spill like a teenager as he nailed his prostate over and over again while his sunburned back was rubbed up against the sheets with every thrust. Tommy’s thick cock speared him open in the same way that it did every time they fucked, and he fucking loved it—the thickness of it was always overwhelming in the best way, making him roll his eyes into the back of his head.

He felt like he was practically in his throat he was so long and thick, and Buck moaned out, “Fuck…daddy…!”

Tommy smirked down at him.

“Yeah, sweet boy? You doing okay?”

He nodded, pushing up into his thrusts as best he could, curling his hand over his neck and dragging him down to him, forcing him to drop to his elbows above him, their chests and stomachs flush against each other as Tommy continued to rut into him over and over again.

Buck hooked his long legs around his waist and managed to lock his ankles so they rested in the small of his back, and he panted and managed to say, “I want you to kiss me,” and his boyfriend smiled, slowed in his thrusting and said, “Oh, I can do that,” and then pressed his mouth to his, slipping his tongue between his lips, and Buck moaned into the kiss—and gasped as the position change had shifted his boyfriend’s monster cock so that it was pushing up directly onto his prostate with every slow, sensuous grind of his hips, while his cock was sandwiched tightly between their bodies.

He gasped into the kiss, open mouthed, but Tommy didn’t relent and simply kept on going.

Feeling overwhelmed, Buck slid his hands from his neck all the way down his back to grab at his ass, digging his fingers into the meaty flesh, groping it the way he always wanted to.

Tommy moaned into his mouth and breathed out, “Fuck, baby, just like that…keep pulling me in,” and so he grabbed at him a little bit harder, pleased when his boyfriend’s breath hitched and he began to grind into him harder and more deliberately than before, the stretch and pull of his cock earning him a hot lick of heat up his spine at the sensation.

God, he loved him.

Without thinking, he said, “Fuck, I love you so much,” and his boyfriend didn’t even pause at his words, but merely nipped at his lower lip with sharp teeth as he continued to stroke his prostate and said, “Oh, god, I love you, too…”

Buck never got tired of hearing those words from him…

…but it was especially great when they were having sex.

He curled his legs around him even tighter than before, digging his fingers into the curls at the back of the airman’s head, gasping against the skin of his cheek and said, “Da…daddy, I need, I need—” and found he couldn’t find the words to finish his sentence, the coherence being fucked out of him with every stroke of Tommy’s thick cock inside of him, turning him drunk from the way it stretched him out and filled him so perfectly.

“You need what, baby?” the older man said, sounding far too cogent. “Whaddaya need, Evan? Jus’ tell me…”

God, fuck what had he been saying?

“I need, I need more…need mo—” Tommy’s hips shifted slightly—and he went from seeing stars to having an out of body experience, and his eyes rolled up in his head and his jaw dropped open and a sound emerged from him that he’d never heard before in his life.

But his boyfriend seemed to know exactly what he needed as he then dug his teeth into the underside of his jaw and said, “You need me to fuck you like I love you, don’t you, baby boy?” and he had barely enough brainpower to nod—and then Tommy was fucking into him harder than before at the new angle he had found, somehow reaching even deeper inside of him, stretching him beyond what he thought he could take, feeling the slickness of the lube and precome slipping between their bodies, and he simply clung on for dear life as he prayed he wouldn’t die from what seemed to be the best dicking down of his life.

“There you go, Evan,” his boyfriend breathed into his neck. “Look at you taking me so well, like you were fucking made for me. I knew the first time I got my cock inside you that no one would ever compare, that you had ruined me for anyone else…you fit me so well, sweet boy,” he added, moving one hand down to briefly slap his ass, sending a shock up his spine and making his balls tingle and tighten.

Fucking, shit. He was close.

He clenched his legs even tighter over Tommy’s hips, feeling even through the soft layer of fat the ridge of his hipbone digging into the inside of Buck’s thighs, the feeling anchoring him in his unmoored and untethered state.

The airman gasped above him, and then said, “Please tell me you’re close, because I’m about to come,” and Buck nodded.

“Oh, good,” he panted into his neck—and then Buck felt his testicles tighten and he knew that he was on the edge. There was a heat digging into his gut and he knew that it would only take a couple more thrusts—

“Ah, fuck!”

He burst sooner than he expected to, spilling hot and wet between them, his cock now oversensitive as his boyfriend continued to push into him, but he didn’t care, holding onto his neck and whispering into his ear, “Keep going, please…fuck me until you come in me, daddy,” and his boyfriend nodded and then hitched his hips closer to him and thrusted into him one last time, spilling hot inside of him, the warmth in his hole feeling exactly like the warmth in his heart.

They remained locked together for a while after, neither of them saying a word, both of them still catching their breath…and then the airman slowly pulled out, leaving him feeling empty, and said, “God, I love you so fucking much,” and Buck couldn’t help but quip, “Yeah, I can feel that…”

…and then they were giggling, both of them still strung out from their amazing tumble between the sheets.

Tommy then slowly helped him lower his legs back down to the bed and then brushed his lips over the inside of Buck’s bent knee and said, “Gotta clean you up. Stay here.”

“I don’t think I could move even if I wanted to,” he drawled, stretching out, and shifting slightly as he felt some of his boyfriend’s come slipping out from between his thighs, not wanting any of it to leave him just yet, feeling the urge to roll over and grab one of his plugs to keep it in…but he knew that Tommy wouldn’t want that, so instead laid there and luxuriated in the feeling of being well fucked, something that he’d never known he had wanted until he’d met him.

Buck absently rubbed at his damp stomach as he waited and thought about what his boyfriend had said to him in the middle of some of the best sex of his life, the words still echoing in his head: you need me to fuck you like I love you, baby boy?

He definitely felt like he’d been lovingly fucked, even if on the outside it might have looked like he had just been ruthlessly pounded into.

But for him, it had been love.

“Sorry I took so long,” Tommy’s voice broke through the silence. “Had to grab a few more things. We made a proper mess, now, didn’t we?” he added with a smirk as he slunk back over him on the bed and immediately dragged a damp washcloth between his thighs, cleaning up the mess he had made.

“Yeah, we really did,” Buck breathed out.

He laid there as his boyfriend cleaned him the rest of the way, wiping down his stomach with a separate damp washcloth, and then handed over a bag of chocolate covered blueberries, and he snacked on them one at a time, enjoying their post-fuck routine, enjoying the view of his naked boyfriend sipping from the large thermos of flavored ice water, the two of them passing the water and the blueberries between them, the silence warm and filled with unspoken affection as Tommy continued to reach down and run his fingers over Buck’s leg, the one with the scar, gently massaging around his knee in an absentminded fashion, the gesture intimate.

Still thinking about his words from before, Buck asked, “When you said…when you said that you would fuck me like you loved me, how-how did you know that’s what I wanted? I mean, I didn’t even know that’s what I wanted,” he reluctantly admitted.

Tommy gave him a slow, warm smile.

“Because every time we’re together, you always beg me to fuck you harder after I tell you I love you,” he said, arching an eyebrow at him, his smile turning into a smirk, and Buck blinked.

“Wait, what? I…I do?”

His boyfriend nodded, still massaging the muscles in his leg as he explained, “Yep, every time. It doesn’t matter what position we’re in, how many times you’ve come, or even if you’re completely overstimulated, you always beg me for more.” He squeezed his thigh. “I love it…”

“I love you.”

Tommy’s eyes crinkled and his nose scrunched.

“I love you, too…”

Buck basked in his words, still amazed at the fact that the hottest man he had ever known was regularly fucking him into the mattress and telling him that he loved him. It was almost too good to be true, he mused as he moved to roll to his side…

…and then he was suddenly viscerally reminded of the faint sunburn on his back and hissed—and Tommy then picked up a bottle of aloe gel that he had brought with him and said, “Yep, figured you forgot about that, you little masochist. Roll over, I’ll take care of it,” and Buck preened as he did as his boyfriend asked, moving to his stomach and laying out so that he could be pampered with more love and attention.

“You’re the best boyfriend ever,” he said in a muffled voice, his face pushed into the crook of his arm, and the airman chuckled as he began to rub the cool gel onto his back and replied, “Damn right, I am,” lightly smacking the younger man’s ass. “Now, stay put and let me finish taking care of you…”

Buck grinned.

God, he loved him.

[nephilimeq]

Slow Dancing

Prompt: Slow Dancing

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/161981419

Buck was sore as he rinsed the last dish in the sink before he put it into the dishwasher, his muscles protesting after the yoga he had put them through earlier in the day. Tommy had dragged him to the class, and while it hadn’t been horrible, it hadn’t exactly been something that he wanted to do…and he had no desire to do it again.

As he scrubbed, he heard some music on in the background and he smiled, knowing that meant that Tommy was sitting in his chair with his glasses on, reading.

He quickly finished washing the dishes and moved to the doorway…

…and he practically melted at seeing exactly what he had been expecting: Tommy sitting cross-legged in his favorite old leather chair with one ankle crossed over his knee, wearing his favorite worn out gray sweatpants, a dark blue t-shirt that was fraying at the edges, feet bare, and a pair of his reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, hair damp and curling over his forehead, as he had taken a shower immediately after they had eaten dinner.

The only light on in the living room was just over his boyfriend’s shoulder, casting him in a warm glow that showed off the beautiful planes of his cheekbones.

As the music continued to play, something ambient and soft filled the room with a warmth that Buck couldn’t quite put a name to.

And then he had an impulsive thought.

“Hey, babe,” he said, trying to gently catch his boyfriend’s attention, and he lifted his eyes to him, and said, “Hmm?” and the soft hum of his voice took him off guard, making his chest tighten and his heart swell with affection—and he suddenly had the image in his mind of the two of them as parents, a child curled up in Tommy’s arms instead of a book.

He hesitated and licked his lips, and then said, “Wanna dance?”

Tommy’s brow shot up towards his hairline and he chuckled and said, “What? Evan, I’m pretty sure we’re both still sore from earlier today, so maybe we don’t do something strenuous,” but Buck shook his head and explained, “No, nothing fancy, just…just something soft and slow. C’mere,” he said, reaching down and drawing his boyfriend’s hand in his, pulling him up to his feet, forcing him to put down his book. “I just wanna hold you, that’s all…”

At that, Tommy gave him a look and his expression softened as he followed the gentle tugging of his hand, and with his other hand he reached out and pressed a button and randomly picked a song that was simply called Slow Dancing and then moved his boyfriend to the center of the living room.

Right as he was about to pull him into his arms, however, Tommy stopped him and said with a wry grin, “Let’s move a couple things out of the way first…”

Buck grinned right back at him.

Between the two of them they quickly moved the coffee table and a few other items so they wouldn’t run into or trip over anything—and then the next thing he knew his boyfriend was sweeping him into his arms, wrapping one large hand around his lower back, pulling him into him, the other one grasping his left hand and holding it firmly in his, and they began to sway to the music…and he let out a soft sigh and sunk deeper into his embrace, feeling a rush of comfort at being held in such a way.

A few seconds passed…and then Tommy said, “This was a nice idea,” and moved a bit closer to him, pressing his forehead to his, and the intimacy of it made his hear skip a beat. He had never felt so safe before, so loved—and then it felt like invisible strings had been cut as he slumped against his boyfriend’s chest, resting his head on his shoulder as he murmured into his ear, “God, I love you…”

He heard his boyfriend’s breath catch.

“I love you, too, babe…”

The song continued to play, and he heard the lyrics, I don’t need anything fancy, I just need me and you slow dancing, hell’s bending keeping me captive, heaven’s here, it’s right where you’re standing, slow dancing, and he smiled.

Unexpectedly, the slow sway of the song sped up slightly and Tommy pushed him out into several twirls (which was slightly awkward as they were the same height), but then he pulled him back into his arms, where Buck landed with a soft grunt and he chuckled and said, “You tryin’ to sweep me off my feet, Kinard?” and his boyfriend smirked and nodded, saying with a shit-eating grin, “Oh, definitely, Buckley…and I’m pretty sure it’s working if that blush is anything to go by…”

He could feel his cheeks were warm and snorted and tried to duck his eyes, but then there were fingers under his chin, tilting his head back up and then there were lips on his.

—and that was when he realized that he would never get used to it—being wanted, that was. It still baffled him sometimes that Tommy was his boyfriend, that he was living with him, and that the only future he could see anymore had him in it—and shit.

Buck suddenly knew that he wanted to marry him.

It was either going to be Tommy or no one…

…and that terrified him.

Fuck.

He did his best to hide his reaction by leaning closer into his boyfriend’s arms, sliding his right hand further up the airman’s burly shoulder, softly squeezing it as he nestled his nose back just under his jawline, letting out a soft breath of air, feeling the older man shiver as he did.

They stayed that way for a while, swaying some more to the music as it continued to play on a loop, and Buck took the time to think about how he would go about asking Tommy to marry him—or if he could even do it. He hadn’t even been able to ask him on a date while they were dating without feeling nervous, so how the hell was he supposed to ask him the biggest question of his life? No, he couldn’t do it; at least, not yet. Maybe once he got used to the idea, he could do it, but until then…it could wait.

“We should do this more often,” Tommy murmured, the sound rumbling through his chest and Buck nodded.

“Yeah, we should.”

After a few seconds he felt warm lips pressing to his ear as the man whispered, “This is what you missed at your sister’s wedding, isn’t it?” and Buck stiffened for a second at hearing the word ‘wedding’—but then it registered what Tommy had actually said, and he nodded and whispered back, “Yeah. I kinda really wanted to dance with you, but we didn’t get the chance…”

“Well, we have the chance, now,” he said.

Maybe it was just in his head, but Buck swore that there was another layer of meaning to his words…but decided not to read anything into it, knowing that if he pushed anything then it might break the moment that they were having, and he didn’t want to do that.

He wanted to stay in that moment forever.

More lyrics seeped through, and it made his heart ache a little bit more when he heard, all I can imagine is being in your arms, the words hitting hard with painfully accurate precision.

The song looped through to play a second time, and he waited for Tommy to stop dancing…but he didn’t. Instead, he continued to lead the two of them slowly across the living room floor, both of them barefoot and in their softest clothes, the room barely lit, bodies warm against each other as they barely swayed, and Buck couldn’t help but feel like he was the luckiest man alive at that very moment. He had never been happier…

…and then he heard Tommy whisper, “This is perfect.”

Yeah, it really was.

[nephilimeq]

I Think This is How Love Goes

Prompt: Love Notes

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/160930972

Buck was still riding the high of the stargazing date that his boyfriend had taken him on several nights before, and he was certain that he’d bored the entire 118 crew by talking about it non-stop—even going far enough that Bobby had snapped at him, saying, “Okay! We get it, Buck. You have an amazing boyfriend. Just…dial it back a bit, alright?” and he had started keeping his thoughts to himself.

He had just come off shift—but instead of going to Tommy’s place (soon to be their place) he had reluctantly come home to his apartment.

His quiet, mostly empty apartment.

As he shuffled through the front door, he didn’t bother to put his shoes away properly, kicking them off to the side, dreading to see what he had to eat. Tommy had forced him to stock up on some food, saying that even if he wasn’t really living there anymore, he needed to make sure that he was eating well, and he couldn’t slack off just because he knew that they were going to be moving in together—though Buck argued that there wasn’t really a point in keeping food there as it would most likely go bad.

He let out a sigh as he moved to open the fridge…

…and then was confused when he saw a bright pink sticky note on the milk.

“What’s this?” he muttered to himself as he reached down and pulled it off—and then he recognized his boyfriend’s handwriting as he read, you just bought this, it’s still good for three weeks ;), and Buck smiled.

He then remembered that he had pancake mix and that he could use the milk for that and even finish off his eggs.

With that in mind, he reached for his eggs…and found another sticky note: you have eight eggs left, you need more :) Buck smiled and pulled the note off and grabbed the eggs, slowly folding the sticky note and putting it with the other one in his pocket.

He made the pancakes, had breakfast, and then went to start packing a few more things to take over to Tommy’s place—their place, he mentally corrected himself, feeling a surge of excitement at the thought, still not quite believing that a few days ago his boyfriend had stood across from him in his apartment and asked him to move in with him, erasing over the bad memory that had come before. Buck knew that it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would definitely be worth it.

As he moved a few books to the side, he noticed a flash of pink on one of them.

Curious, he pulled out the book to see another sticky note, this time with the words, I have a copy of this if you don’t want to have pack it :), and Buck laughed and shook his head, wondering when Tommy could have put it there…but then decided that it didn’t matter.

God, his boyfriend was cute.

--

The next one he found was when he was cleaning one of the station’s engines, of all places, and was baffled when he was in the front cab on the driver’s side and found a pink sticky note down near the footwell that said, still cleaning? good ;) stay safe, and Buck shook his head.

While it was adorable, how the hell had he gotten it in there without anyone from the 118 noticing?

Still, it was cute.

Smiling, he folded it up and slipped it into his front pocket and went to finish cleaning—and then Bobby called out, “Hey, Buck! You about finished there?” and he shouted back over his shoulder, “Yeah, almost! Just gotta finish up the cab,” and his captain nodded.

“When you’re done with that, come on up here. Wanna show you a new recipe.”

Buck immediately lit up at his words, and finished as quickly as he could, and was not disappointed when he went up to the loft and Bobby had a spread of ingredients already out and ready to be put into a new dish. He paid close attention as his captain gave him instructions, remembering as best he could so that he could try it out on his own once he and Tommy had officially moved in together…and at that thought, he did his best to hide his grin, as he hadn’t told anyone yet that his boyfriend had asked him to move in.

“Well, you certainly seem to be in a good mood,” Bobby said as he added some chile powder to a small bowl, and Buck shrugged and replied, “Yeah, well…I’m having a good day. Aren’t I allowed to be in a good mood when I’m having a good day?”

Bobby chuckled and nodded.

“Yeah, you are, just…it just seems like more than that. Like, something new is going on in your life. Wait,” he added with a wary glance. “This isn’t still about that stargazing date that Tommy took you on, is it? Because as much as I’m happy that you’re happy, kid, if I hear about that one more time—”

“No, no. It’s not about that,” Buck interjected. “It’s just…well, I haven’t mentioned it to anyone yet, but Tommy…he-he asked me to move in with him. And I said yes.”

There was a moment of silence…

…and then he let out a sigh of relief when Bobby grinned and clapped him hard on the back and said, “Congratulations, kid! It’s about time!” and he nodded and focused on slicing the potatoes in front of him. Bobby then commented, “You’ve been practically living over at his place already for the past month or so, glad to see you two are finally taking the next step together. He’s a good fit for you, and I’m sorry I ever thought otherwise.”

Wait, what?

Feeling slightly affronted, he paused mid slice and said, “Wait…since when did you not think Tommy was a good fit for me?”

His captain stopped stirring the sauce he was making…and then let out a long sigh and said in a reluctant tone, “Back when you two first broke up. I knew you hadn’t done the breaking up, so I was sort of…a bit upset with him for a while. Okay, maybe I was also angry at him,” Bobby admitted, putting down the bowl onto the counter and leveling his eyes at the younger firefighter. “He broke your heart, Buck, how could I not be angry? I’d never seen you happier with anyone than you were with him, and then he dumped you and…yeah. I was angry at him.”

Buck nodded and replied, “Okay, yeah, I get that, but…still. Tommy’s not a bad guy, you know that, right?” and his captain threw back his head and laughed.

“Ha! Yes, I do know that, now. I was just...feeling protective of you, I guess. I don’t like people that make you that depressed, kid,” he said, reaching out and lightly rubbing at his shoulder in a reassuring manner, and he leaned into the touch.

Yeah, okay. That made sense.

He finished slicing the potatoes and then turned to the fridge to get a bottle of water…and balked when he saw another pink sticky note.

Wondering how the hell his boyfriend was doing it, he picked up the water bottle and then looked at the note left on it, which read, keep drinking water, baby. love you ;), and he felt a mixed bag of emotions. Like, he loved the fact that his boyfriend was leaving him notes everywhere…but how was he leaving notes everywhere?? How had he gotten access to parts of the 118 that Buck knew he hadn’t stepped foot in in months?

“Uh, Cap…has Tommy been around the station recently?” he asked, and the man replied, “Nope, not since he dropped off those cookies he baked…hmm, been a while since we’ve had those. Think he would make them again sometime?” and Buck let out a sound from the back of his throat and continued to stare at the note.

Still, just like with all the other ones, he folded it up and slipped it into his pocket.

--

“Here, lemme help you with that,” Chim said as Buck dropped off the muffins that he had made back at his apartment in an attempt to get rid of some of the last of his baking supplies before moving over to Tommy’s place.

“Thanks again for taking these,” Buck said, walking into his sister and brother-in-law’s home. “I just needed to finish baking some of my stuff, you know? No depression baking this time,” he joked, looking around for his favorite niece…and then within seconds he was tackled by a blurred figure in a fairy costume.

“Unca Buck! Look!”

Reaching down, he swung her up into his arms and said, “Whaddaya want me look at, Jee?” and she extended one hand and he saw a clear plastic jar with a lid on it…and bright pink folded up paper inside. “Well, now, what’s this?” he asked, curious—and then was taken off guard when his niece grinned and said, “Unca Tommy left it for me! He said is for you, too!” she added with a giggle, and Buck’s heart skipped a beat.

He then tugged the jar from her hand and managed to pop the lid off…

…and his breath left him when he recognized his boyfriend’s handwriting on the first piece of paper he pulled out.

It read, to Evan, I love you and hope you don’t forget that Jee can have as many of her toys at our place as she wants :) , and all he wanted to do at that moment was to leave and find his boyfriend at the 217 and pull him into the tightest hug that he could muster…but then he wondered how Tommy could have even pulled it off.

Curious, he bounced Jee on his hip and followed Chimney into the kitchen, where Maddie was sitting at the counter with her laptop, and said, “Hey, has Tommy been over here without me?” and they both nodded, acting as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Yeah, he took a look at our car when it was making that noise,” Maddie said, barely looking up from her computer, sipping at her tea.

Chimney added, “And thank god for that! The mechanic was going to charge us nearly eight hundred dollars for something Tommy was able to fix for less than fifty, and he wouldn’t even let us pay him, so we had to give him food in exchange. Have I told you how glad I am that you two are finally moving in together, by the way? It’ll be nice to have one person to go to in order to get our cars looked at without worrying that my entire savings will be drained,” he said as he went ahead and took a bite from one of the blueberry muffins Buck had made.

“Mmm! Good!”

Buck nodded and smiled halfheartedly, barely noticing the way Jee had pulled out a magic marker out of nowhere and was coloring over one of his tattoos.

“Yeah, did he, uh…leave something here with Jee the last time he was here? Like this?” he said, waving the clear plastic jar with sticky notes in it, and Maddie nodded and said, “Oh, yeah, he did! He said it was full of little notes she could read and share with other people when they were having bad days…but she wouldn’t share it with us. Jee insisted that it was only for her and you…”

Buck did his best to blink away the moisture that gathered at the corner of his eyes at realizing all that his boyfriend had done.

--

“So, how exactly did you get those sticky notes into the engine and the station refrigerator?” he asked his boyfriend later that night while they lay naked in bed, and Tommy chuckled and pressed a kiss to his forehead and said, “Oh, I’ll never tell…”

Buck thought about pushing it…

…but then decided that it didn’t matter.

God, he loved him.

[nephilimeq]

A Child in Your Arms

Prompt: Baby Fever

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/162109054

Tommy hovered above the building in his LAFD chopper, helping to put out the massive fire that had erupted over the apartment complex. The 118 was on the ground while the 217 had been called in to help deal with the fire from above, as well as rescue anyone who had made their way to the roof.

“Kinard, how are we looking?” said his captain over the headset and he replied, “Looks like we’re clear! No stragglers up top and the smoke is clearing. Looks like the 118 has gotten the rest of it contained!” and he couldn’t help a little bit of pride come through in his tone, and his captain picked up on it, because she said, “Yeah, yeah, we get Kinard. You’re proud of your boyfriend,” and he laughed and shook his head, especially when Sal shot him a look from the co-pilot’s seat.

“You do know your boyfriend isn’t the entire 118, right, Tommy?” Sal said over the headset, and he gave him a look.

“Yes, I am aware of that, DeLuca. Now, let’s get this bird back on a level surface and help them with the last of the ground rescue,” he said back to him, bringing the chopper back down to the ground.

As they landed, however, a call came over the general radio signal, Captain Nash saying, “Hey, looks like we’ve got an baby coming out with Buckley and Diaz! Be prepared with an infant ventilator just in case of any heavy smoke inhalation!” and Tommy’s heart clenched.

God, not a kid.

He practically leaped from the pilot’s seat as he made his way over to where he saw a familiar six-foot-two frame come into view, towering over the rest of his teammates.

…And curled up in his arms, wrapped in a blanket, was a baby that looked to be just barely over a year old.

Tommy ripped off his helmet and made his way over to him, as they were rarely ever on calls together, and at the same time Hen and Howie pushed past him to check on the little one—but just as all three of them got close to Evan, he lifted his helmet and smiled and said, “Don’t worry, she’s good. She was on a lower floor, no smoke inhalation, just a happy little girl who I think probably wants to see her mom pretty soon…”

Howie then said, “Yeah, her mom was just put into an ambulance, was asking about her little girl. Apparently her name’s—”

“Anabelle. Yeah, I saw her name on the wall of her nursery,” Evan interrupted, still smiling, but now turning his head to the child in his arms. “She was wide awake and quite happy to be picked up. Weren’t you, little one?” he said, pitching his voice up, and Tommy felt his stomach swoop.

“Aw, look at you! You’re a natural, Buck,” Hen said. “But we still have to take a look at her…”

Begrudgingly, he handed her over…and Annabelle immediately started fussing, tossing her head and letting out small sounds of discomfort.

Howie then said, “Here, let me hold her,” but she continued to fuss and move in such a way that they couldn’t get a reading, and then Tommy watched as Evan said, “I think she wants me to hold her,” and pulled her back into his arms, where she immediately settled.

“Oh, so that’s how it is,” Howie said, looking annoyed, and Tommy chuckled and shook his head and said, “You know, Evan…kids love him,” and his friend snorted and quipped, “Probably because he’s still a kid at heart,” and then moved forward and gently helped Hen in administering a few checks on Annabelle, taking her vitals and checking her respiration, which were all good and clear, and as they finished Howie said, “She’s all good. Little bit of a miracle considering that fire…”

Tommy absently nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from the little girl in his boyfriend’s arms.

Evan cooed at her and held her perfectly between the curve of his bicep and forearm…and the airman’s heart was suddenly in his throat.

Hen and Howie walked away, while Tommy moved forward and said, “Hen’s right, you know. You’re a natural,” and his boyfriend shrugged and repeated Tommy’s words, “Kids have always liked me, what can I say?” and then looked up at him, his blue eyes looking brighter through the soot on his face.

“You wanna hold her?”

What?

“What?”

Evan chuckled and adjusted Anabelle in his arms and said, “C’mon, just hold her for a second, it’s not that scary,” and Tommy shot him a look, eyes wide, about to tell him that he was not someone who should be holding a baby—but at seeing the earnestness in his boyfriend’s eyes, he nodded and took her into his arms, noting just how small she was, looking even smaller in his arms than in his boyfriend’s, and he was terrified, fully prepared for her to start fussing, just like she had done with Howie and Hen…and then was taken off guard when she merely gurgled and reached a hand up towards his face.

Unsure of what to do, as he had spent very little time with infants, the airman lifted his other hand and offered his fingers to Anabelle—which she immediately grabbed—and somehow it felt that she had grabbed his heart at the same time.

Oh, boy.

As he stood there, holding her, Athena approached them from the side and said, “Well, look at you two. You’re both naturals,” and Tommy flushed and ducked his head, pretending to be more focused on the baby in his arms than the appraising look she was giving him. She then added, “We put in a call to CPS, but it seems they’re a bit backed up and won’t be able to come out for a few more hours…and since she seems to have taken a shine to the two of you…”

Tommy felt his entire body stiffen up at her implication—but before he could say anything, Evan said, “I’m at the end of my shift, and I’d have to swing by Maddie’s for a few things, but I’m sure I could keep an eye on her,” and he suddenly wanted to press a kiss to boyfriend’s lips right then and there.

Athena gave him a once over and then nodded.

“Sounds good. Are you okay with this, firefighter-pilot Kinard?” she asked, and he felt like a deer caught in headlights…

…and was proud of himself when he managed to say, “Yeah, it’s fine. I’m done with my shift in an hour or so and can go home and help him out until CPS can swing by,” and the sergeant nodded and for some reason he felt her stamp of approval was worth more than he realized.

She then turned and walked away, and Tommy looked at his boyfriend and gently handed Anabelle back to her.

“So, I’ll see you at home?”

Buck grinned.

“See you at home…”

--

By the time Tommy made it home, he was more worn out than he had been expecting. After the apartment fire, there had been a precarious rescue that he’d had to use a considerable amount of energy for, and he was feeling the ache of it all the way down to his bones.

“Evan! I’m home!” he wearily called out, dropping his bag at the base of the stairs…

…and then he froze when he walked into his living room.

Laying on the couch, softly snoring with a baby on his chest, was his boyfriend looking like something right out of his secret domestic daydreams that he never thought would be able to come true. His heat clenched at the sight in the same way that it did back when he had first seen the two of them at the fire. He had never thought it was possible for him to be a father—hell, he was almost afraid to be one after having gone through hell with his own father—but now everything had changed.

He had someone he loved and trusted that he knew he was going to have a future with, as well as a firefighting family behind him that would be there for both of them, no matter what. Hell, he or Evan could probably commit murder, and they would still find a way to help them.

And now he wanted children with him so badly that he found himself wishing once more that he could get him pregnant.

Shaking his head, he muttered to himself, “That’s not happening,” and moved to grab the wedding ring quilt from the back of the couch and draped it over both of them, thinking about how soon he would be calling his boyfriend his fiancé.

Evan shifted.

“Tom…Tommy?”

 The airman smiled.

“Yeah, I just got home, baby. Don't worry about it, go back to sleep,” he said, gently tucking the blanket around them, wrapping them up in a way that he hoped to do with Evan and their own child someday. Anabelle shifted slightly against his boyfriend’s chest, reaching out one small hand to grasp at the collar of his shirt and he felt an emotion that he couldn’t quite put a name to just yet, and quickly blinked away tears and left the room as quietly as he had entered, heading upstairs to shower.

By the time he had showered and changed, he could hear that they were both awake and headed back downstairs to join them, and Tommy smiled when he saw Evan bouncing her on his knee, saying in that same soft voice from before, “And we’re riding the horsey! Up and down, up…! …And down!”

She gurgled like before, stretching a hand out to him.

Once more the urge to put a baby into him hit the airman with the force of a punch to the stomach, and he shoved it down.

Instead, he said, “Well, look who’s awake,” and grinned when Evan locked eyes with him and turned Anabelle around in his arms, settling her in his lap, and said, “And look who’s home! Anabelle, this is Tommy, you met him at the fire…want Tommy to hold you?”

…his heart skipped a beat when she smiled and reached out her tiny little arms towards him, making grabbing motions with her hands.

“Oh, I think she wants you to have a turn,” his boyfriend remarked with a raised eyebrow, and Tommy slowly walked forward and then carefully lifted her into his arms, still baffled that she wanted his attention. He usually scared kids because of how big and scary he looked—but Anabelle seemed perfectly content being held by him, patting her hand on his chest as she looked up at him with large blue eyes that he swore were the same shade as Evan’s.

She blinked and he swallowed down the odd sensation that had risen in the back of his throat.

“She’s…she’s pretty amazing,” he finally said, and Evan nodded.

“Yeah, she is. Also, I fed her a couple hours ago, but she probably needs to eat again. I, uh, I got some stuff from Maddie’s,” he said as he stood up and moved towards the kitchen, “And she gave me a few options for her to try. You, uh…you wanna feed her this time?” he asked, and Tommy hesitated…but then nodded.

He waited with Anabelle in his arms as Evan pulled out the bottle of formula and then gently warmed it, putting a bit of it on his wrist to check the temperature before handing it over to him…and then he found himself with a little girl curled up against his chest with two hands wrapped around the bottle as he held onto the end of it, marveling at how she looked up at him so trustingly. As she ate, he noted the onesie that she was in.

“Is this one of Jee’s old onesies?” he asked, recognizing it from photos, and Evan nodded.

“Yeah, Maddie gave me a few, just in case she spit up or something. It looks cute on her, right?”

Tommy nodded.

He finished giving her the bottle, Evan rambling on about something as he got out a few more things for her (just in case, he said), and then suddenly his boyfriend’s cell phone rang, and he picked it up…and then less than two minutes later he paused and looked over at Tommy and said, “Uh, it’s…it’s Athena. Katie, Anabelle’s mom, is doing good and will be able to go back home tomorrow. So, instead of CPS, she’s asking us if we can keep her for the night? She’s already cleared it with them and with Katie, too, so…are you okay with that?”

If you had asked him that very morning if he was ready to take care of a baby overnight, he would have said no…

…but now with her soft warm body resting trustingly against his shoulder, he found himself nodding.

“Yeah, we can do that.”

Evan suddenly gave him a smile so wide, he swore it would split his face, and then he said to Athena over the phone, “Yeah, we-we can do that. Maddie gave me all the stuff, so we can take care of her for the night. Uh, give us the address and we’ll make sure to drop her off tomorrow at her mom’s…”

Tommy found himself smiling at hearing the eagerness in his boyfriend’s voice and bounced Anabelle against him slightly, pleased when he heard her burp, and then said, “We’ll take good care of you, sweetie. Promise.”

And then the rest of the evening went by surprisingly quickly.

The airman was taken aback at how many things Maddie had given them, including a crib that Evan put together in their room in just a matter of minutes with an ease that spoke of experience, and he thought that he must have done it before with Jee whenever she had stayed with him at his old apartment.

The two of them then worked together to make sure that she was changed and clean and then put her to bed, the two of them tired themselves, having no more energy for anything else then wrapping their arms around each other as they slipped under the covers and fell asleep, both of them with one ear out for Anabelle. It helped that they were both used to short bursts of sleep from their years of firefighting, so when she stirred about four hours later, Tommy barely even thought about it as he got up and patted her back until she resettled, knowing that she was most likely restless because she was sleeping in a new place.

The next morning was surprisingly easy, considering that they had an extra mouth to feed, one that had decided that mashed peas were not breakfast food—not that Tommy disagreed with her.

“I think we’re gonna have to forego the peas and just go for the yogurt,” he said, staring in amusement at his boyfriend who had green mashed into shirt.

“Yeah, I think so, too,” Evan said, wiping his cheek where a bit of mashed pea had gotten mushed into his stubble. “You take care of the yogurt while I go and get a clean shirt and shave,” he said, standing and handing him the spoon he had been using while Tommy chucked and shook his head.

He then looked down at Anabelle and said, “Okay, little one. Let’s try this instead…”

Eventually she was eating yogurt of the spoon like it was the best thing she had ever tasted, and the sight of her excited at every bite had him grinning like an idiot, and he knew that if his friends could see him now, they would probably be shaking their heads at the tableau of him feeding her in her high chair—another item that Maddie had donated the night before, the woman had thought of everything.

By the time she had finished eating, it was obvious that she needed another onesie, and Tommy very gently removed her and changed her…and by the time he was done, Evan had emerged from upstairs showered and clean.

“Got a call from Athena, Katie is home and eagerly waiting for her daughter. Shall we go?” Evan said with an excited inflection.

Tommy nodded, feeling an odd reluctance to take her back, but knowing she needed to go home.

“Yeah, let’s get her home.”

They eventually got her into the car seat that Evan had installed in his car just for moving Anabelle safely, and then Tommy found he couldn’t keep his eyes off her as they drove over to where Katie was staying, at her sister’s condo until their apartment could be cleared and they could go back. He stretched his arm back, uncaring of the strain in his shoulder as she held onto his finger, savoring the closeness.

Eventually they pulled up the driveway and Evan gave him a look and said, “You ready to give her back?” and he nodded.

“It’s hard, but yeah. I mean, we only took care of her for one night, but…”

His voice trailed off and his boyfriend nodded and said, “Yeah, I know. Kids are like that—they just sneak into your chest and make a space in your heart and before you know it, you’re ready to kill anyone that might hurt them. It’s kind of amazing how fast it happens. I remember the first second I met Jee, I knew that I’d step in front of a bullet for that kid. Don’t worry, Tommy…great thing about it is that there’s always room for more love.”

He nodded, swallowed hard, and they unloaded and went to the front door and knocked, handing her off to her excited mother, who swept her up into her arms and said, “Oh, Anabelle Lee! My sweet girl, I missed you! Were you a good girl for them?”

Tommy smiled and said, “She was perfect.”

Katie gave them both a look and said, “Thank you so much for taking care of her…and if you ever want to babysit again, I might just ask the two of you. She doesn’t like practically anyone except for me and my sister,” she added with a laugh, bouncing her daughter on her hip. “I do hope she didn’t put you out too much.”

“Not at all,” Evan said with a wide grin, waving his fingers at the little girl. “She was an angel. And…and we’d love to babysit. Right, Tommy?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, anytime.”

They parted with an exchange of numbers, and by the time they got home he started to feel the weight of the last eighteen hours finally hit him and he let out a long sigh and shook his head as they walked through the front door, the high chair still standing on the other side of the island in the kitchen. He stared at it for a long moment…and then said, “I’d like to have kids someday,” and heard Evan’s footsteps come to a sudden stop behind him, and then added, “With you…”

Hesitantly, his boyfriend replied, “…Really? I mean, you really mean that?”

Tommy turned and gave him a long look and then stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his waist and pulled him in and nodded and repeated, “I wanna have kids with you. I mean…you’ve always been a natural, and even though it’s harder for me—well, I think it’s worth the effort.”

Evan gave him a slow smile, the kind that made the corner of his eyes crinkle in the way that he loved.

“I think so, too…”

They briefly brushed their lips together—and Tommy suddenly knew exactly when he was going to ask his boyfriend to marry him, and he grinned.

Just one step closer.

[nephilimeq]

Someday

Prompt: Babysitting

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/161651215

Tommy scrambled to get the house ready, wondering how the hell it had happened that he and Buck were hosting all of the 118’s kids that weekend.

He picked up the wedding ring quilt from the back of the couch, not wanting to risk anything happening to it, and folded it and decided to put it up in their room for the time being.

In less than an hour they would have Jee, Denny, Mara, Nia, and Christopher all there at the house because Howie, Maddie, Hen, Karen, and Eddie were all going to be gone for the next two days because of a medical conference and spa weekend in Palm Springs. Technically, three of them didn’t even have to go, but apparently there was a spa there that they had all been dying to try, and everything had lined up perfectly, so the team had asked Tommy and Evan if they could watch the kids.

Of course they could, why wouldn’t they? It’s not like they had any other plans that weekend.

…but now he was panicking.

His mind raced as he wondered how they were all going to be comfortable.

Chris would be sharing Tommy’s old office with Denny, while the girls would be put up in the guest room with their own bathroom, of course—but what about feeding them all? Sure, Evan was an amazing cook and regularly cooked more than they needed (they usually had leftovers for days), but they were dealing with kids and kids didn’t like the same things that adults like, so what the hell were they going to do about that? And what about keeping them entertained? And what about—

“Tommy, I can hear your brain short-circuiting from over here,” his boyfriend said, gently interrupting his racing thoughts. “Whatever you’re worrying about, stop. We’ll figure it out together. We’ve got this,” he added as he stepped towards him and rubbed his shoulders.

“Do we?” the airman quipped, gripping the forgotten quilt tightly in his hand.

Soft fingers gently pried his own fingers loose and Evan gave him a look.

“We do. It’s just for two nights and then we can give them back to their parents. I’m cooking up a large batch of my homemade macaroni and cheese, a special recipe that even the kids will love, and they can all eat it, I checked with their parents,” he said as he walked them up to their bedroom. “They also all like Disney and it turns out that the girls are all adrenaline junkies, so I’ve picked out a couple of kid safe action movies for them to watch. There’s lots of extra popcorn for the movies and I picked up two twelve packs of soda on the way home,” he said as he placed the quilt over the end of their bed.

Tommy finally nodded and let out a sigh, feeling some of the tension leave him, running a hand through the back of his hair as he said, “Yeah, okay. We’ve got this…oh, but what about showers and baths? How, how is that gonna work?”

Evan tilted his head.

“You know what, I dunno. But we’ll talk to them when they get here, and we’ll figure it out. I have a shower chair that Chris can use when it’s his turn, so don’t worry about that,” he added, patting his arm as he walked past him back into the hallway, and he stared after his boyfriend for a moment, appreciating his preparedness.

After a moment he followed after him, saying, “Okay, so we have some movies. But what about the rest of the time? We can’t just sit them in front a screen!” he argued, feeling the panic rise in the back of his throat once more—

—but yet again, his boyfriend had an answer.

“They all like soccer,” Evan said, opening the front hall closet and pulling out one of the soccer balls that he owned, “And we have a back yard. They’ll be fine, Tommy.”

Okay, yeah, sure. They’d be fine.

--

“Thanks, Uncle Tommy!” Mara called out as she sipped at the lemonade he’d given her, and he smiled and tried not to react to her calling him Uncle Tommy, simply waving at her from the back door as she went out and sat on the blanket on the grass next to Denny, Nia, and Christopher, the soccer ball just off to the side, while Jee sat on Evan’s lap coloring in some of his tattoos with a water-based marker.

She had tried the soccer ball for a little bit but had gotten tired, so Evan had grabbed the markers and told her to go to town on his arms.

Tommy stared at them for a moment, and then back at the rest of the kids, marveling at the fact that things had been going so well.

Maddie and Chimney had showed up first, of course, giving the two of them all of the instructions—and then Evan had cut his sister off with a friendly glare and had said, “Believe it or not, I do know her routine, you guys,” and then had summarily pushed them back out the door.

About fifteen minutes after them, Hen and Karen had arrived with their three kids, and their brood had all piled into the living room and quickly set up their various electronics to charge. Hen had rolled her eyes and said, “Just make sure they get up and move around at some point,” while Karen had been a bit more serious and had pulled Tommy to the side and practically begged him to make sure they spent as little time on their phones as possible, and he had reassured her that he would.

Another twenty minutes later Eddie and Christopher showed up, the teen looking annoyed at not being allowed to be left alone for a weekend, and Tommy could understand his frustration, which was why he was putting almost no pressure on him to do anything.

In fact, he had made a deal with Evan for over the next two days they would let Christopher have as much autonomy as possible.

“Dude, Iron Man would totally beat Green Lantern!” Tommy heard one of the kids say, and he swiveled his head and grinned when he heard Christopher reply, “Are you kidding me, Denny? Stark would…would not even…stand a chance! The ring is…all powerful!”

“Nano tech, dude! He would remove the ring and win!”

A friendly argument ensued, during which Evan looked up at Tommy and asked, “Who’s your favorite superhero?”

“Not really a superhero person, to be honest. I like the complex characters. Like Daredevil,” he admitted, and his boyfriend shook his head and said, “Why am I not surprised? I’m, uh…I’m a fan of of Hawkeye, myself. He keeps up with all those superheroes all on his own merit, you know? Can’t help but admire that.”

He smiled…

…and then he heard one of the kids shout a bit too loud for it just be a friendly argument or horseplay, and without even thinking about it, Tommy turned towards them and raised his voice and said, “Hey, what’s going on over there?” and they suddenly went silent…and then Mara called out, “Nothing! Never mind!” and he resettled against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest, keeping a wary eye on them, hoping that it was genuinely nothing.

The sound of Evan chuckling reached his ears, and he looked down to see him smiling up at him, and asked, “What?”

“Nothing, just…you went all ‘dad’ voice there. You’re, uh…you’re kinda good at this…”

He flushed and ducked his head, suddenly feeling self-conscious—he then muttered, “Not really, just…you know. Observant,” but Evan continued to smile up at him, uncaring of the way Jee had moved from his left forearm to his right forearm, using a bright pink on one of his tattoos.

--

“Food is ready!”

The sound of four sets of feet stampeding down the hall, followed by a more sedate pace of another pair of feet, told him that they were on their way, and he grabbed the paper plates, Evan having told him that it was easier to deal with disposables when dealing with kids.

They came barreling around the corner and Tommy barely dodged, lifting the pan of cheesy goodness high above their heads.

“Whoa! This is a no running zone! I catch you running, you forfeit your dinner to me!” he said, and they all immediately stopped running and he grinned. It was a technique that his Nona had used with him when he was a kid and had visited her house during special occasions—it had always worked on him, and he was pleased to see that it still worked on the younger generations. He then ushered them towards the table and asked, “Did everyone wash their hands?” and was met with a chorus of ‘yes’.

“Good. Dinner is served,” he said, placing the food in front of them, catching a glimpse of Evan over his shoulder bringing over the drinks from the fridge, each one of them getting a water and a soda, so that they had the option, saying that it was better for them to be allowed to choose which they wanted.

“This looks good,” said Christopher, and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause Evan made it,” he replied, reaching down and ruffling the teen’s hair, smiling as he pulled away from the affectionate gesture. Ah, teenagers.

His boyfriend then sat down at the end of the table with his own plate and the airman joined him, watching as Evan helped Jee with her own food—and then was taken off guard when Nia spoke up from her place on the other side of Mara, saying, “How come you’re the only one who calls Uncle Buck ‘Evan’?” as she stretched to grab the salt, and he gave her a look.

Tommy hesitated…but then honestly answered, “Well, that’s actually a funny story. Do you guys wanna hear it?”

And just like that, every eye at the table was on the firefighter pilot and he grinned.

Chuckling, he explained, “When I first met him, it was when the Captain was lost on the cruise at sea. They needed help to fly into the hurricane, so your dad,” he pointed at Jee, “And your dad,” he pointed at Christopher, “Came to me for my help, along with this guy, right here.” He jabbed his thumb at his boyfriend. “And when he introduced himself he told me his name was Evan Buckley, and so I just called him Evan and he never corrected me. I actually thought he was pulling my leg,” he confessed in a loud whisper, leaning in. “But then I found out later that he liked me and didn’t correct me because he liked me…”

At that, the girls giggled while the boys rolled their eyes and Tommy found himself staring fondly at his boyfriend, who looked embarrassed by the story, even though he found it utterly endearing and wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

“That’s romantic,” Nia said as she stirred her mac and cheese, and Maya agreed.

“It really is.”

Tommy nudged Evan’s shoulder with his own and gave him a look, and said, “Yeah, well, I like the romantic movies. I thought it was sweet,” and went back to eating dinner. The rest of the meal went by with relative ease, the kids being mostly good, with only a small argument here and there over who had eaten more.

By the time dessert rolled around, everyone was sprawled out through the living room, and Tommy smiled as Evan stood in front of the kids and said, “Okay, here are your options. We have MotoCrossed—a classic, How to Train Your Dragon—all three films, Where the Wild Things Are, and—of course—the Goonies. So…what’ll it be?” he asked, looking eager to watch absolutely any of them, and Tommy grinned, knowing that Evan had only seen most of those movies in the past two years because he hadn’t had the chance before.

Denny suddenly spoke up, saying, “How about we put it to a vote?” and all the other kids nodded, except for Jee who was focused on coloring a page of her coloring book.

The four older kids exchanged a look and then nodded, and Tommy watched with a fond smile as they figured it out among themselves, with How to Train Your Dragon winning out in a unanimous vote.

Eventually they all settled, and Tommy and Evan brought them popcorn to eat while they watched, and eventually around the middle of the second movie each one of them started to drift off, eyelids heavy with exhaustion, Jee curled up in the crook of the airman’s arm, one of her small hands gripping tightly to his henley, wrinkling the fabric, already completely asleep.

“I’m gonna go get the beds ready,” Evan whispered into his ear, and he nodded.

Tommy watched as he walked away, marveling at how easiy his boyfriend took to a parenting role, every part of it coming naturally to him, and Tommy knew that if he was physically capable of it, he would get his boyfriend pregnant in a heartbeat. God, he wanted to have kids with him so badly, and it honestly took him off guard how deep that ache went, all the way down to his bones, and he had the feeling that it would show up later in their bedroom in an interesting way.

Within the next half an hour they had managed to get everyone to bed, including Jee, even though she had been clinging to him like a limpet.

“God, she adores you, doesn’t she?” Evan said softly as Tommy pried her off and left her in bed.

He shook his head and joined him in the doorway, glancing back at the three girls, who were all fast asleep, looking perfectly content, and then whispered into his boyfriend’s ear, “She adores you, too, I was just the most recent target for the night. C’mon, let’s go clean up.”

They headed back downstairs and finished cleaning up and then collapsed on the couch.

“Night one, done.”

Tommy looked at Evan and smirked and said, “You sound tired, Evan. You sure you can make it another day?”

His boyfriend smiled back at him and quipped, “You bet your ass I can, old man. What about you? I mean, between the two of us, you’re the one that I would worry about,” he added with a sly grin, and the airman tilted his head and regarded him for a moment, debating how he should respond…

…and then said, “I think can handle it.”

They exchanged a soft look.

Tommy was taken off guard when Evan suddenly remarked, “You ever think about, you know…having kids?” and he hesitated a moment before answering—but then said, “Yeah, I guess I have. I’ve always thought that if I did have kids, then I would do it better than my dad did, at least…”

Evan curled up closer to him, nudging his shoulder up to his…and murmured just below a whisper, “I think you’d make a great dad,” and he felt his breath catch in his throat at his words, but didn’t know how to respond, and so said nothing, instead wrapping his arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders and pulled him in closer. They sat there for a long time, basking in the silence that came from a well enjoyed day, and to Tommy the silence felt fuller knowing that there were five very happy and content kids upstairs. He traced his fingers over Evan’s tattoos, which still had faint shades of pinks and greens from where Jee had colored them in, and he smiled, amused at the sight.

They stayed that way for a while, taking in the moment—

—which was abruptly interrupted by a small voice on the stairs behind them saying, “Can I have a drink of water?”

Jee.

They exchanged a look.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” he suggested, and Evan snorted.

“Yeah, right.”

--

A day and a half later, they watched as the last of the kids were picked up by Hen and Karen, all three of them laughing and practically bouncing on their toes as they made their way to the car, while Hen and Karen thanked them for the weekend.

“Seriously, you have no idea how badly we needed this,” Hen said, and Karen nodded.

“We needed this,” she emphasized.

Tommy chuckled and said, “Hey, no need to explain. Your kids were great, and we had a good time,” and Evan said from his side, “We had a great time! Your kids are awesome,” and both women shook their heads and exchanged an amused glance.

“Yeah, they’re always good for strangers. Trust me, the instant we get home all hell will be unleashed,” Karen explained with a wry glance. “But still, we’re glad that they were good for you. How’d they do with Christopher and Jee?” she asked, looking genuinely curious, and Tommy grinned and answered, “They were great with them. In fact, I’m pretty sure that your kids are now trying to plan a movie night sometime in the next week. Be prepared.”

“Oh, great. Just what we need,” drawled Hen, casting a look back at her kids who were chatting away at a mile a minute as they strapped themselves into their seats.

Evan gave each of his friends a look.

“Hey, I think it’s great. Kids need friends like that…”

They nodded and then headed for their car, Hen saying over her shoulder, “Thanks again, guys,” and Tommy quickly shouted back, “Anytime!” just in time, and then they were pulling out o the driveway and he found that he was feeling rather bereft.

He let out a sigh and the two of them turned and headed back inside…and then Evan said from where he was in the kitchen, already cleaning up the remnants of their large breakfast, “You miss them already, don’t you?” and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, I kinda do.”

He then walked over to the island, rested his hand on the edge, and softly admitted, “I think we should be dads someday,” and was thrilled when Evan gave him a slow, sweet smile in response, stopping in the middle of putting away dishes to move around the island and slip his arms around the airman’s waist, and then press a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. Tommy stared at his boyfriend for a second and then said, “So…you’re okay with that idea?”

Evan grinned.

“Like I said last night, I think you’ll be a great dad. And we could be great dads together…”

Tommy smiled.

Time to buy a goddamn ring.

[nephilimeq]

A Sense of Belonging

Prompt: Sharing A Blanket

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03:

Tommy tugged his boyfriend closer to him as they made their way down to the beach, trailing behind the rest of the 118, whispering into his ear, “You really think they don’t mind that I’m coming along?” and Evan snorted and gave him a look.

“Tommy, you may be a member of the 217 now, but you are my boyfriend, so of course you’re invited.”

He then dragged him down to the beach, two blankets on his other arm, while the airman tried to wrap his mind around the fact that he had been invited to the 118’s barbecue bash on a private stretch of beach that had been offered up by one of the higher ups. It was apparently the anniversary of the day the 118 was first created, and they did it every year, and this year Evan wanted him to come along with him, as he hadn’t been able to last year as Tommy had been on call.

As they joined everyone on the beach, Bobby called out, “Hey! We have two rules! Remember them?”

Tommy grinned as Buck groaned, and then he watched with amusement as everyone reluctantly drawled out, “Don’t do anything to make us call 911…and you’re the only one who touches the grill,” and he laughed and shook his head.

“Oh my gosh, does he make you say this every year?”

“Yes,” Evan whined, moving them towards a clear spot over in the sand that was untouched, laying down one of the blankets, and Tommy smiled and joined him on top of it, noticing everyone else migrating a bit closer towards a circle that was being formed around what looked to be a pile of firewood that would soon be a beach bonfire, and he lit up at seeing it, feeling a twinge of excitement at the idea that they would be there long enough to enjoy a beach bonfire, something he had rarely experienced, all of his other experiences being ones in the army.

He nudged his boyfriend’s shoulder with his own and said low and quiet, “This looks like it’s gonna be fun,” and Evan shook his head and relied, “Let’s just say that I brought you here for a reason and hope you don’t mind being a buffer for when Chimney gets really drunk…”

“He gets that bad?” he asked, arching an eyebrow, surprised, and he nodded.

“Oh, yeah. It’s like beach bonfires unleash some part of him that usually never sees that light of day, so…prepare yourself,” he warned, and Tommy nodded.

“Noted.”

As they sat next to each other, he wondered if he should have brought the ring along with him. They had never talked about it before, but he thought Evan might not mind being proposed to in front of the people that he thought of as his family.

—and then his thoughts were cut off as Eddie shouted, “Tommy! You made it! Good, now there’s someone else who can critique Bobby’s grilling method with me,” and the airman laughed and stood up as the man approached, and they gripped each other’s hands and pulled, dropping a hand on the other’s shoulder, and he commented, “Not up to Texas grilling standards, I take it?” and Eddie shook his head, looking genuinely disappointed.

“Not even close,” he complained. “But maybe you can convince him to add more moisture to the steaks…”

Tommy shrugged, and then Evan was back up on his feet saying, “Hey, did you bring Chris with you?” and Eddie nodded and pointed over a ways.

“Yeah, he and the rest of the kids are spending some time together. I think they’re planning on another hostile takeover of your place,” he said with a wry grin and Tommy chuckled and replied, “I’m not complaining. It was great having all of them last time,” and Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, ‘cause they’re always good for the cool uncles but never for the parents!”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

The three of them laughed, and then Tommy found himself following Evan and Eddie over to the rest of the 118, who were all mostly gathered around the bonfire area with various drinks and snacks in their hands, and as the two of them started to mingle, he wondered what would happen once he and Evan were engaged. As boyfriends they didn’t have much say in the other person’s career choices—despite them already living together—and so once they officially tied the knot, would their priorities change?

Even as Tommy joked with Hen about some of their most recent rescues, his thoughts went to the fact that he knew he would never want to give up his job, he loved it too much…and he had the distinct feeling that Evan felt the same way about being a firefighter, so how would having a family work?

“Hey, what’s on your mind?”

Howie.

“Uh…nothing, just…thinking about Evan,” he honestly replied, grateful when his friend handed him a craft beer, which he took gratefully. “Things are really good right now, you know? I’m just…I’m just reminding myself not to take any of it for granted…”

Howie grinned and tapped his beer against his own and said, “I know what you mean. Every day I wake up and I feel damn lucky to have Maddie and Jee in my life. Have things been perfect? Hell, no! But…they’re definitely worth it,” he finished with a smile as he took a long sip from the gold tinted glass bottle, and Tommy regarded him for a moment, wondering if he should ask him about how he should propose to Evan—but then he remembered that the man couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, and so decided against it.

Instead he turned the conversation to a lighter topic as he kept an eye on his boyfriend who was moving his way towards the grill with a look in his eye that had him internally chuckling.

Oh, he was going to try and do something to the steaks, he just knew it.

But instead of doing anything, Tommy merely watched with an amused grin, enjoying the company of the 118 and the way they made him feel like he belonged, something that he had been craving for far too long—and soon (he hoped), it would be even more permanent than before.

The celebrating lasted long enough that the sun started to go down and the bonfire was lit up, and Evan had eventually migrated his way back to Tommy, drink in hand, cheeks lightly flushed, leaning into him and grabbing at his waist like they were teenagers, and the airman practically melted into every touch that his boyfriend gave him, feeling like he was somehow being able to experience something that he had been deprived of growing up.

There they stood in the fading light, lit only by the bonfire, cold drinks in hand, the wind drawing Evan’s dirty blonde hair into fluffy peaks, his eyes glowing. Somewhere in the background he could hear some music playing, something with a bouncy steel guitar, muted because it was far away.

All he could think of was the warm press of Evan’s body against his, the way his fingers slipped perfectly between his own, his head occasionally nuzzling into his shoulder, the sound of the kids screaming and laughing in the background as Howie—who was a little bit buzzed—was showing them how to play with the sparklers that he had somehow purloined from somewhere that he would bet good money wasn’t strictly legal…

…but it didn’t matter.

The sound of the waves was underneath it all as they ate the amazing food and enjoyed the wonderful company.

At some point a few people started dancing to the music in the background and he laughed when Maddie dragged her buzzed husband to a spot just beyond the bonfire and they began to twirl around. Tommy noticed the way Hen and Karen had been drinking nothing but juice and soda all night, keeping an eye on the kids, along with Bobby and Athena.

The wind picked up slightly and he felt Evan shiver next to him.

“Hey, let’s get back to the blankets,” he softly suggested against his ear, and the younger man nodded and let the airman lead him to where they had left the blankets.

As they sat down, Tommy stared at the way other members of the 118 began to dance as well, along with a couple of the kids, everyone feeling good on a typically warm California night. Evan still shivered, so he grabbed the second blanket and pulled it over both of their legs, smiling when Evan said, “Thanks,” and he pressed a kiss to his temple.

“Of course, babe,” he murmured, still soaking in the ambience of family and community, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that everyone around them would help him if he asked, and it was so intense that he had to close his eyes and swallow in an attempt to keep the tears from falling. He had never felt so safe and loved, and it was just…surreal. He had never thought that he would have this and that anyone would ever even care, let along claim to choose to love him.

He burrowed a bit more under the blanket, tugging Evan’s legs over his, watching as Eddie twirled Maddie, Howie sitting and watching with a fond smile.

He then softly whispered, “You have such an amazing family, Evan,” and his boyfriend looked up at him, blinked twice, and then said with a slow, toothy grin, “They’re our family, Tommy. You know that, right?” and he nodded.

“Yeah, I guess so…it’s just…I don’t think it’s really sunk in just yet, you know?”

They then fell into a comfortable silence, watching as everyone continued to celebrate…

…and then Evan nudged himself closer, practically in his lap, the two of them tangled up under the blanket that sprawled over their legs, and said into his neck, “Thank you for coming with me, babe. It wouldn’t have been the same without you, you know?” and he swallowed, feeling a rush of emotion, glad that he hadn’t brought the ring with him because he would have done something stupid and proposed to him right then and there, not caring who would see.

But now he knew that there wasn’t going to be anymore waiting.

Within a week, his boyfriend would be his fiancé.

[nephilimeq]

Oh, Darling, Please Be Mine

Prompt: Proposal

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/162762577

Tommy felt his heart hammering in his chest as he led Evan up to the edge of the clearing, where it was easiest to see the ocean from, praying that he didn’t pass out before he asked him the question that he knew would change his life…

…but he also knew that he didn’t just want to dive right into it. He had a plan.

Once they were finally up there, he turned and said, “You know you’re the first person I’ve ever shared this place with?” and his boyfriend nodded and quipped, “Yeah, you, uh…you kinda mentioned that before,” and the airman flushed, feeling his stomach flip at the adorable smile on the younger man’s face, a part of him still terrified that he was making the wrong decision. God, what if Evan said no? Even worse, what if he laughed at him? What if—

No. He cut off the line of thought before it could get worse and took a deep breath.

“Yeah, well…this has always been where I’ve felt the safest, you know?” Tommy started to explain, wanting Evan to truly understand why that place was important to him. “When…when things got bad at home, I always knew I could come here and no one would find me. Here is where I learned to accept…well…me. All of me.”

At that, Evan’s brow unfurrowed and he knew he was getting through to him and let out a sigh of relief and pulled him closer, moving them to a spot where they could sit, echoing their positions from before.

His boyfriend pressed up into him, thigh to thigh, shoulder to shoulder, and Tommy felt himself settle.

“When I realized I liked boys, it was here. When…when I realized I never wanted to be my father, it was here. I learned how to make paper cranes here, too,” he added with an embarrassed nod of his head, and his boyfriend’s eyes lit up and he unintentionally interrupted, “You can make paper cranes?” but stopped when Tommy shot him a look, for which he was grateful, and he grasped at his hand with his own. “I also learned that most relationships take a hell of a lot of work and some people…like my parents…don’t know how to put in the work…”

His voice trailed off and he felt the mood shift slightly and felt bad for doing that, not wanting to make his boyfriend feel bad for him and swiftly tried to change the conversation back to a lighter note by saying, “But I’d like to think I’ve figured out a thing or two,” and ran his thumb over the ridges of his knuckles.

“I think you’ve been doing pretty good,” Evan said, shooting him a puppy-eyed look with those perfectly blue eyes of his.

Tommy’s stomach flipped. Again.

The ring in his pocket felt like a lead weight.

He couldn’t decide if the weight was one of promise or one of dread—he loved Evan with all his heart, but there was still some insidious voice in the back of his mind that was telling him that he would ruin everything by asking him to marry him. God, he loved the idea of hearing Mr. Kinard, or maybe even Mr. Buckley-Kinard coming from his lips…but his fear of him saying no somehow weighed more than the prospect of him saying yes, and it was holding him back.

He bit at the inside of his cheek and then turned his eyes to the horizon, taking in the view, and instead of saying what he wanted to, instead said, “It was also here where I decided to go into the army. I used to stare out at this view and all I could think of was being in the air, getting away from it all, you know?”

Evan nodded.

“So…this place was for you what my little hunting shack was for me?” he remarked, and Tommy hummed in the back of his throat and replied, “Yeah, I guess it was. I spent hours here pretending to fly off to places across the ocean. I used to make up countries that didn’t exist. I, uh…I always liked the idea of finding an island filled with dinosaurs,” he softly admitted, hoping that he wasn’t embarrassing himself…

…and was taken aback when his boyfriend said, “Oh, you mean like those Dinotopia books?”

He arched an eyebrow.

“You don’t know Die Hard or Love Actually, but you know one of the most obscure books series from the early nineties?” he asked, incredulous, unable to keep from lightly chuckling at the anachronism, shaking his head as Evan shrugged with a sheepish grin on his face, still trying to understand aspects of the young man in front of him, wondering if he would ever learn everything about him.

He hoped that he didn’t. Tommy hoped that he would go through the rest of his life constantly learning about new things about Evan that he didn’t know. All he wanted to do was keep unraveling the mystery of the man in front of him and living the rest of his life with him no matter what happened, even if it meant that he had to stop flying—and fuck, if that wasn’t the most terrifying thing he had ever thought of; that he would give up flying if it meant that he could keep Evan Buckley in his life.

Tommy’s nerves finally settled.

He went to open his mouth to take the jump, but then Evan said, “I do know things, you know. You don’t always have to sound so surprised,” and the airman gave him a look and said, “I’m not surprised…”

His boyfriend gave him a look.

“…okay, maybe I’m a little surprised, but I like that. I like being surprised by you…”

With trembling fingers he reached towards his pocket and unzipped it as quickly as he could and then pulled out the ring box, noting Evan’s blue eyes widening.

“…and I want to keep on being surprised by you for the rest of my life. For the rest of our lives,” he amended, feeling an odd calmness settle over him as he opened the ring box to show him what he’d picked out for him. “So, if you don’t mind—Evan Buckley—will you do me the honor of turning our lives into something even more? Because I can no longer see a future without you in it, and I don’t want to wait any longer. When I think of home, I don’t think of a house with a cracking front driveway, an uneven foundation, and a leaky side roof anymore...I think of you. You are my home.”

He searched his face, noticing a faint sheen of moisture in the corners of his eyes.

“Evan. Will you marry me?”

He swore everything went silent, even the birds in the trees, the only sound the waves down below them, faint and pulsing in time with his heartbeat as he waited with bated breath, somehow not scared by the silence that he hadn’t been expecting, but instead completely ready for whatever his boyfriend might say…

…and then his heart caught in his throat when Evan looked up at him and said in a tremulous tone, “Oh, god, yes…Tommy, yes,” and then leaned in and wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss that caught him off guard with its softness and sweetness, and he could feel faint tear tracks press to his cheeks, tears that weren’t his, and Tommy leaned into the kiss, pouring all of his love into it, using his free hand to grasp at the younger man’s waist.

Eventually they pulled back and Evan wiped the back of his hand across his eyes and said, “That is literally the most perfect ring I’ve ever seen,” and Tommy smiled.

“It took me a while to get it made. You almost nearly found out about it, actually,” he admitted, and blue eyes locked back onto his.

“Really? When?”

“Remember that yoga class I dragged you to?” Evan nodded. “Yeah, well, I didn’t realize that the woman I ordered the ring from was also a yoga instructor,” he said with a comedic tilt of his head, and was thrilled when his boyfriend coughed out a wet laugh and shook his head and said, “No! Wait, that’s why you were acting so weird around her?”

Tommy nodded and said as he pulled out the ring from the ring box, “Yeah, nearly blew the whole thing up right then and there—and then there was me convincing you to come here,” he reluctantly confessed. “I knew I was gonna propose right after the 118 bash at the beach, before the week was out…and then you gave me the perfect opportunity with this picnic. That’s kind of why I was being so weirdly controlling at the beginning of the trip. And why I took so many photos,” he added as he slipped the ring onto the third finger of Evan’s left hand.

Evan laughed again and said, “Kinda glad you did…oh my god, this is real, isn’t it?”

He lifted his hand and stared at the ring.

“Mhmm. It is.”

“You…me…we’re-we’re…we’re engaged.” Tommy watched as it sunk in. “We’re…oh, god, we’re engaged!” Evan exclaimed, leaning back in and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, his entire face lit up with the biggest smile the airman had ever seen. “I’m gonna be Mr. Buckley-Kinard…”

“So you do want to hyphenate? I was kind of hoping you would…”

Evan nodded so violently he was afraid his head would fall right off.

“Oh, yeah. I mean, I love your last name, but I want everyone to know about both of us, and this way if we have…if we have kids,” he hesitantly added with a duck of his eyes, “They can have both of our names.”

Tommy nodded right back at him and softly agreed, “Yeah, I’d like that. And besides, once we’re both captains, we can go by our own names so people won’t get confused,” he said with a wry grin in as much of a serious tone he could muster considering just how overwhelmingly overjoyed he felt in that moment—so much so that he was certain that he was about to start yelling at the top of his lungs to anyone who would listen that he had gotten Evan Buckley to agree to marry him.

His boyfriend’s expression was adorable as his nose scrunched up and he said, “Once we’re both captains? Wow, uh…sounds like-like you have some pretty big plans for us,” and Tommy gave him a soft smile and said, “I hope you don’t mind. I’ve been thinking a lot about our future lately, and it just made sense that we both might want that one day…”

“Not gonna lie, it’s occurred to me. Just…I don’t want it to happen too soon, you know? I kinda hope Bobby sticks around for a while longer.”

Tommy felt his heart melt a little at the admission.

“Yeah, I get that,” he said, reaching out and brushing a stray curl from his forehead, loving how long his boyfriend’s hair was getting…and then was taken aback when Evan said, “Hey, so I’ve got an engagement ring, but what about you? I wanna show the world that you’re about to be mine, too,” and the airman didn’t know what to say—but then took a second and suggested, “How about I show you the website and you can design one for me, too?” and Evan lit up.

“Oh, I like that idea. You’d let me do that? Because I know you’re kinda weird about that kind of thing. You know, jewelry,” he said, tugging lightly at Tommy’s shirt. “I mean, you wear necklaces from time to time, but because you work with your hands so much in your off time, I wouldn’t want to pick something that would get in the way…”

Tommy shrugged.

“Then we pick it out together.”

Evan’s eyes crinkled at the corners.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He leaned back in and recaptured his boyfriend’s—no, his fiancé’s lips with his own, and lingered, soaking in the moment at finally realizing that his boyfriend was now his fiancé and that as soon as he possibly could, his last name would be attached to his and they would be married. And he would have a husband.

Fuck, he never thought that it would happen.

Unbidden, he felt a few of his own tears finally sneak out, and Evan pulled back from the kiss just enough to breathe out, “Hey, are you okay?” and Tommy nodded and said, “Yeah, just…you said yes. You-you…you’re gonna marry me. You’re gonna be my husband. We’re…we’re gonna be married," the words finally sinking in, the realization of what had just happened somehow hitting him with all the weight of a firehose to the chest.

The younger firefighter grinned wide and said, “Yeah, we’re gonna be married! I can’t wait ‘til I get to call you husband…”

All of the air left his lungs at once.

He nodded.

“Yeah. Husband,” he said breathlessly, reaching out and lightly tracing his fingers along Evan’s jawline, darting his eyes between his lips and baby blues—no, sky blues, he mentally corrected. Eyes as blue as the sky that he had escaped to at the age of eighteen, skies that he was willing to let go of for the rest of his life if it meant waking up to seeing them right next to him every morning until he could no longer open his own eyes.

Evan then said, “So…we gonna head home, now? Tell everyone the good news?”

Tommy shook his head and softly replied, “Not just yet. I want this to be just us for a little while longer. Is that okay?” he asked, nervous, but his fiancé nodded and skated his thumb over the back of his hand and said, “Yeah, it is. We can keep it to ourselves a bit longer. Just us.”

They stayed like that for a while, sitting and staring, and the airman found himself constantly running his fingers over the ring on Evan’s finger, still baffled by the fact that he had said yes.

Unexpectedly, Evan broke the silence with, “So…when you were asking me about my favorite season earlier, were you trying to figure out when you wanted us to get married?” and he shyly nodded and ducked his eyes. His fiancé chuckled and said, “You know what, I don’t care when we get married, just that we do. Now…how long do you want to keep this between us? Because the moment we tell Chimney, everyone will know,” and Tommy rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Ugh, I know, but I also know that you want to tell your sister as soon as possible, and once she knows, then Howie knows, and…yeah.”

They shared a look.

…and then Tommy said, “How’s this. We keep it to ourselves for the next few days. You’ll have to keep the ring off during work hours, anyway, so it shouldn’t be too hard to hide,” he added with a head tilt. “When you’re ready, we tell them. Not a moment before.”

He rubbed his finger over the ring one more time.

“Only when you’re ready…”

It felt soft and sweet when Evan leaned in and kissed him, none of the manic energy and passion from before, but somehow with even more love than before and he sank into it, enjoying the way it made his brain go quiet, and by the time they both pulled back he was feeling lightheaded in the best way possible and so took a moment to catch his breath by resting his forehead against Evan’s, wondering if they stayed like that long enough that his birthmark would be etched onto his skin, as well.

Evan then said, “I like that idea. Not sure how long I can keep it a secret, though, to be honest,” and Tommy snorted and shook his head and said, “Yeah, why am I not surprised? Don’t worry about it, Evan. Just do it when it feels right.”

His fiancé arched an eyebrow at him.

“I, uh—I kinda wanna call Maddie right now,” he admitted, and the airman threw his head back and barked out a laugh and said, “I think ten minutes isn’t quite enough time. Give it a few hours, at least?” and they broke into giggles together and ended up on their sides in the grass, staring at each other as they tried to come down from their laughter.

Evan calmed down first and said, “Yeah, I can…I can do that.”

They laid there for a little while longer, Tommy basking in the hope and love that he felt…and then the young fireman said, “God, I can’t wait to be married to you…”

…and Tommy smiled.

He couldn’t wait, either.

[nephilimeq]

Like A Kid Again

Prompt: Banter

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/162682855

Buck followed after his boyfriend, trying to figure out what had gotten into him.

With his fingers tightly gripping his, he practically dragged him further up the hill, looking as though he was going to be taking them all the way up to the crest, and Buck shook his head and attempted to pull out of his grip, saying, “Hey, I said we could have a picnic and I already did all the hiking up here, I’m not doing more of that,” and was thrilled when he escaped from his grip and moved out of reach, skipping backwards, grinning as Tommy reached out to grab at his waist, but missing by a mile.

“Ha! Nice try!” he teased, being careful of his footing, making sure that he didn’t slip on the slick grass at the same time he dodged his boyfriend’s attempts to recapture him—and then was suddenly taken aback when Tommy caught up to him and managed to get his fingers around the back of his shirt, pulling him towards him.

“Got you,” he muttered, sounding far too smug.

Buck twisted and managed to get out his grasp a second time and tried to run off a second time.

“Gotta catch me!” he shouted over his shoulder, smiling wide when he saw Tommy trying to catch up to him, for once his long legs coming in handy as he ran from him, not quite going full speed, but going just fast enough to make him work for it.

--

Tommy did his best to catch his breath as he tried to catch up to Evan, his boyfriend suddenly in a mood, and he prayed that the gazelle-legged idiot didn’t ruin his plans. The ring was in his pocket, zipped up tightly, but as it bounced against his side as he jogged after his boyfriend, he felt a flutter of nerves.

He loved Evan, that much was certain…but was it too soon?

Was it too soon to ask him to spend the rest of his life with him and wake up every morning next to the same person without ever letting him have the chance to experience anything else outside of his first queer relationship?

Wait, no. He shook his head as he picked up his speed, trying to catch up to his boyfriend, reminding himself that he was doing Evan a disservice by thinking that just because he was his first relationship with a guy that he didn’t know what he was getting himself into—hell, that had been one of the things they’d talked about when they got back together, about how he had made assumptions and made decisions for the two of them instead of talking it over with him.

Tommy’s hand caught the edge of his boyfriend’s shirt a second time, and he did his best to shove the thought to the side—

—but then Evan slipped away again, saying, “You gotta do better than that!” and he narrowed his eyes and refocused on trying to catch the thirty-four year old man who had suddenly turned into a child playing a game of tag or keep-away.

The item in question being kept? His heart.

As hokey as it was, there was something freeing in the way he chased after him over the wide expanse of grass, both of them being careful to avoid the edges where there were trees, knowing that there was a dangerous drop-off on the other side, and Tommy smirked as he realized how he could catch him and yelled, “Don’t go over the edge! I don’t have a helicopter to catch you, and our cell service is spotty, at best!” and Evan almost immediately slowed down.

…and Tommy lunged forward, thrilled when he got both of his hands around his waist.

--

“Got you,” the airman whispered into Buck’s ear, and he shivered, but at the same time tried to pull out of his grip. When he found he couldn’t, he did his best to wriggle against him in an attempt to distract him, but Tommy merely said, “Nice try, but even your perfect ass isn’t gonna distract me…”

He moved one hand and reached down and lightly slapped it.

Buck grunted.

“Ugh, babe…don’t start something you can’t finish,” he lowly said, and his boyfriend chuckled and breathed into his ear, “Who says I can’t finish?” and Buck rolled his eyes and swiftly turned around and gave him a look, no longer trying to get away from him, and said as he levelled his eyes at him, “We are in a public space, I don’t care that we are isolated in the middle of nature, I am not letting you dick me down here in the grass,” and was thrilled when that earned him a full body laugh, Tommy’s eyes crinkling up, his nose scrunching in the process, one of his favorite things to see on him.

While laughing, Tommy managed to gasp out, “Dick…dick you down? You…you thought that was…was the right…right phrase to use?” and Buck nodded, not budging one bit, moving his hand around his hip to pull him close.

“Oh, I’m sorry, what would you have me use? Laying me low? Having grassy congress? Logging my—?”

“Don’t finish that sentence. I beg of you,” he softly pleaded, his eyes wide, and Buck snorted and shook his head and got closer to him and said, “Okay, but only because you asked so nicely,” feeling the way his boyfriend’s fingers slipped into his back pocket and gently groped him.

“By the way, what’s gotten into you?” he asked the airman, curious as to his mood. “First you take over my picnic, and, you know, I was chill with that. It’s a good spot, nice and romantic, don’t think I could’ve picked a better place. Second, you start taking pictures of the food…and then third, you decided to drag me further up the hill to the very edge of what I think is reasonable. So…let me ask my question again: what’s gotten into you?”

Tommy’s expression turned soft.

“I dunno. Just…follow me, will you?”

He slowly unwound himself from him and instead gently held his head and gave him a beckoning look with his eyes, and Buck felt a flutter in his chest and he nodded, following his boyfriend up the hill, closer to the edge, putting his trust in him…

[nephilimeq]

Work it Out on Your Knees

Prompt: Working Out Together

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/162455176

Buck stared at his boyfriend’s ass in the mirror as he went down into a squat with the weight bar across his shoulders, taking note of his…form. Yeah, that’s what he was doing, he told himself as he absentmindedly curled up a lighter fifteen-pound weight, barely remembering to check on his own form in the mirror.

He glanced to make sure he was keeping his elbow tucked into his waist…

…and then found his eyes going right back to where they were before, as if there was a magnet that drew his eyes over and over again to the godlike perfection that was his boyfriend’s buttocks, because…damn.

“You’re staring, again.”

He wrenched his eyes away and pouted, saying, “Hey, it’s your own damn fault for looking so good, you know,” and Tommy snorted as he finished his set and then stood back up—and then Buck watched as he turned towards him in the mirror and gave him a look, arching one of those eyebrows of his. “What, am I wrong?”

His boyfriend let out a sigh and rolled his eyes and muttered, “Just finish your set and quit ogling me, alright?”

Buck flushed slightly, still amazed that even after all the time they had been together, he still got flustered whenever he flirted with his boyfriend, the airman always taking him off guard with those looks of his, all of the heavy glances and from under those obscenely long lashes that had him wondering just how often he had gotten away with things just by batting those pretty steel blue eyes of his and quirking the corner of his mouth.

He refocused on his bicep curls, doing his best to not let his eyes stray…

--

…and Tommy once more felt his boyfriend’s eyes on him, and he shook his head and went back to his workout, while he, too, kept on casting discreet glances in his boyfriend’s direction.

He knew that Evan liked to watch him workout and that he especially focused on him when he did his squats, and he honestly found it flattering that even after they had been sleeping together for over a year, that the young fireman still got fired up whenever Tommy dropped down to work on his glutes. He internally chuckled at the thought that even if he stopped working out completely, he had the feeling that Evan would still want to have sex with him, something he couldn’t quite wrap his head around.

But that was just one of the many reasons why he was going to be asking him to marry him. Even as he started working on the leg press, his mind wandered up to the extra bedroom where he was hiding the ring and going over the idea that he’d been mulling over in his head for quite some time.

He grunted as he hit the hard point of his workout, starting to feel it in the backs of his quads—

—and then he looked up just in time to see Evan lay down on the bench and begin his chest press with the twenty-five pound weights.

His head pointed towards him, legs away from him…but all Tommy could focus on was the way the angle allowed him to see the perfect outline of his dick in his shorts where they rucked up between his thighs and showed that he was wearing a jockstrap. His legs almost gave out at the sight, but the airman managed to keep himself steady and instead pressed through ten more leg presses, letting out a long slow exhale at the end of the last one.

“Your arm routine has gotten pretty good,” he said lightly as he put the weight back down and then readjusted the bench for when Evan used it tomorrow, his legs being so long that Tommy was forced to put the seat all the way on the last setting.

“Yeah,” Evan panted out. “I’ve been trying to build more practical muscles instead of vanity muscles, you know?”

He nodded and walked over to him, wiping off his sweat with a towel…

--

Buck smiled when his boyfriend’s face came into view above him as he continued with his chest press, preening a little at the fact that Tommy had noticed that he had changed his arm routine and had ever complimented him on it.

As he pressed up, he couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that because of his position on the weight bench—and where Tommy was standing—all he had to do was crunch up a little and his boyfriend’s dick would be right at eye level. He (of course) came up with several dirty thoughts that he couldn’t get rid of and debated whether or not he really needed to finish his workout for the day. He was certain that Tommy wouldn’t mind.

…but just as he was about to move to do something, the airman walked away, saying, “Next arm day, I’ll have you show me some of your routine,” and he pouted at missing his chance to blow his boyfriend in the gym.

It was one of the only rules that he hadn’t been able to make Tommy break.

No sex in the gym.

The airman claimed it was because of sanitary reasons, as well as, “Eddie comes over here and trains with me, too, and I’m not gonna explain to him why I’m constantly wiping down all of the mats and various surfaces, Evan,” was something that he had said to him more than once. Still. Buck was certain that with the right motivation (along with the promise that there would be nothing for him to clean up), that he could convince him to finally break his rule.

Deciding it would be more suspicious if he stopped in the middle of his set, he said as he continued to lift the weights, “Yeah, I’d love to show you, babe. Not that you need it, of course,” he added with a grin. “You’ve got the best damn shoulders of anyone I’ve ever met…”

His boyfriend’s warm chuckle met his ears, which made him smile even wider than before.

“That’s very sweet of you, Evan.”

--

Tommy knew that Evan was trying to do something sneaky, as he had seen that glint in his eye as he’d looked up at him from the weight bench, and he had the rising suspicion that he was going to try and convince him to have sex in the home gym, again, something that he was adamantly against…

…though not for the reasons he had told him.

He had said it had to do with sanitary reasons…but the truth was that the airman knew if he and Evan had sex in the gym, then every time he came out there, he would end up popping a boner and be completely unable to concentrate on getting any working out done, and he would be forced to start going to the local gym instead of working out at home, which he didn’t want to have to do. He loved his boyfriend, dearly, for many reasons—and one of those reasons just so happened to be the fact that he was hot as sin and looked better on his knees than anyone he’d ever known.

Not that Evan needed to know that of course.

He tossed his damp towel over his shoulder and said, “Hey, I’m thinking about finally starting to look for a hot tub for that set up in the back. It seems like it would be good for post workout cool downs, and I thought maybe you’d like to help? Do a little research?”

He could practically hear Evan’s brain kickstart online, and he smirked to himself at the deviousness of his plan.

One, it would get his boyfriend excited enough to fall down a researching rabbit hole, which put Tommy off the hook of doing the research himself (which he was dreading), and two—it meant that Evan would be so distracted that he would abandon his pursuit of having sex in the gym.

“Oh, we’re finally doing that? You mentioned it a few months ago, but didn’t bring it up again, so I thought you’d changed your mind…”

“Nope. Just been distracted,” he said with a smile, finally turning back around as he had gotten himself back under control. Evan was just about done with his set and he was covered in a light sheen of sweat, and his curls were running wild, that one curl always escaping and teasing at the edge of his birthmark, as if beckoning Tommy to lean down and kiss it…and he found that he couldn’t stop himself and quickly spanned the distance between them and leaned down and pressed a light kiss to the pink splotch that he loved so much.

Evan grinned up at him, smiling as he said, “I love it when you do that, you know?” and the airman felt his cheeks warm.

He then pulled back and pretended to be unaffected by his words, saying, “You’re a softie, Evan.”

“Damn right, I am!” he unexpectedly exclaimed, rising to his feet as he slapped his hands to his muscular thighs. “Now, how about we do something to show how much we appreciate each other?” he added with a sly grin, practically stalking towards him, and Tommy took a step back.

“Evan…”

--

Buck rolled his eyes at the tone in his boyfriend’s voice and let out a dramatic sigh and rolled his head on his neck as he said, “Oh, c’mon! Give in already! Look, what if I promised that I wouldn’t make a mess?” he pleaded, still moving towards Tommy, even as he continued to back up. “I’ll just get on my knees and swallow it all down and won’t even pull myself out…I’ll come in my shorts like a good boy, daddy,” he added, pulling out his most lethal weapon.

The airman’s eyes darkened at his words, and he stopped moving, letting Buck close the distance between them.

“Did you just…?”

He nodded.

“I did…Daddy.”

The young fireman felt a thrill rush through him when Tommy pinned him with a stern glare, his entire body language shifting as he commanded, “Go to the mat, get on your knees, hands behind your back,” and he nodded a second time, a bounce in his step as he did exactly as his boyfriend commanded him, thrilled that he’d been able to make him snap.

He felt something hot rush down his spine and settle between his legs as Tommy walked over, wiping his hands off on his towel, giving him a dark look from under his lashes…and then felt his mouth fill with saliva when he suddenly reached down and grabbed him by the hair at the back of his head, sinking his fingers tightly into his curls, and then pushed his face up to his obscenely short workout shorts, and he panted and deeply inhaled the scent of musk and sweat…

…but did nothing more, as he hadn’t asked him to. He knew the rules, even if they weren’t in the bedroom.

“Use you mouth to pull me out,” the older man said in a tone that made his entire body shiver, and Buck nodded and did as he asked, running his lips up to the top of his shorts, using his teeth to grasp at the edge of it and tug it downwards…and then let out a needy whine when he saw his boyfriend was wearing a jockstrap.

God, did he have about a million fantasies about eating him out while he wore one—but this wasn’t the time.

Instead, he continued to do as he asked and used lips, teeth, and tongue to drag the strap down just far enough and was thrilled when his cock popped out and smacked against his nose and cheek.

Buck wanted nothing more than to swallow him down…but instead he waited, knowing that Tommy—Daddy, that was—hadn’t asked him to do that yet; he had only asked him to get him out, and so he waited like the good boy he was…

--

Tommy stared down at his boy on his knees and felt a surge of lust fill him at the sight of him kneeling and waiting for instructions as the airman rubbed his half-chubbed up cock against his face, being so good at not doing anything that he hadn’t asked him to.

He tightened his grip on his hair and softly growled out a command.

“Suck.”

He smirked at how quickly Evan nodded and did as he asked, moving his plush, perfect cock-sucking lips up and over the tip of him, pulling him into his mouth with expert ease—and Tommy let out a long sigh at feeling himself nestled in the sweet wet heat of his boy’s mouth. He reached down with his other hand and traced his fingertips over the edge of Evan’s stretched out lips and let out a pleased grunt when he took him down just a little bit further.

Smiling, he said, “Look at you, taking me so well. You better do as you promised, baby boy, and not spill a drop—or I won’t let you come for a week,” he softly threatened, thrilled when Evan doubled his efforts, as if the mere thought of it got him hard.

Tommy briefly closed his eyes, losing himself in the feel of Evan’s thick tongue on the underside of his cock, holding onto his hair tightly.

Evan hummed in the back of his throat, the sensation making him harden even further and he praised him some more.

“Oh, perfect, you know exactly what gets me there nice and quick, don’t you, Evan?” and loosened his grip slightly, just enough to let him pull back if he wanted to so he could answer him—but his boyfriend merely nodded and kept on sucking him down, and the airman could tell that he was aiming for a deepthroat.

Tommy was not easy to deepthroat, and he’d never actually met anyone before who could do it…except for Evan.

He panted as he felt his boy take him even deeper than before, hands still clenched tightly behind his back, exactly as he’d told him to, the fact that he hadn’t moved them once suddenly the most attractive thing he had ever seen him do, and his arousal began to take over as he pushed into his mouth a bit more roughly than before, going a bit faster, staring at down at Evan and marveling at how his eyelashes fluttered at the rough, almost brutal treatment he was giving him.

“Fucking shit, I’m almost there, sweet boy. Get ready,” he warned him. “Not a single drop, remember?”

Evan nodded as best he could with his mouth and throat filled with the older man’s cock.

“Good. Now, you know what to do…”

…and without Tommy having to say another word, he watched as his boyfriend practically shoved his face all the way down until his plush and abused pink lips were pressed up against the base of the airman’s groin, the first third of his cock now nestled down his throat and it only took him a few seconds and he was blowing his load, thighs trembling with the effort it took to remain standing while Buck blinked up at him with those pretty blue eyes of his, tears forming in the corners.

It lasted a few more seconds, and then he slowly slid out of him, his fingers still entangled in his curls, and panted out, “You…are…such a good boy, Evan,” and he smiled up at him and swallowed hard an then said in a wrecked voice, “Anything for you, daddy…”

Tommy noticed not a single drop had been spilled and he smiled.

“And you didn’t spill a drop. Even better.”

He thumbed gently at his lower lip…and then added with a smirk, “Now finish your sets. I’m gonna go get a shower,” and then turned and hiked his jockstrap and shorts back over his hips, chuckling to himself when he heard him curse, but then slowly make his way back to his feet and move to do as the airman had asked.

He briefly stopped by the guest room and retrieved the ring, deciding to move it to the zippered compartment of his turnout jacket, the one he rarely used.

It was almost time.

[nephilimeq]

Liminal Hour

Prompt: Pillow Talk

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/162361291

It had been a thirteen hour drive home, and the only thing on Buck’s mind was sleep.

Despite having an amazing time at Big Sur a second time, his boyfriend being the sweetest most amazing boyfriend ever, there was still an ache in his bones as the two of them walked through the front door, both of them bypassing the kitchen to go straight upstairs to their bed.

It was an almost physical weight that bore him down to the sheets as he collapsed on top of them, grumbling when Tommy said, “Hey, change clothes, don’t want any of that on the sheets,” and he reluctantly rolled over and blearily stripped off his shirt, tossing it towards the general direction of the hamper, and then reached down and shoved off his jeans in stages, not wanting to move more than he had to, and he could hear the older man chuckling at the sight.

“Don’t laugh,” he said in a breathless voice, having used up what little energy he had left to kick his jeans off to the side.

At the thought of taking off his socks, Buck let out a low groan…

…and then he felt a light tugging down near his feet and looked down to see Tommy gently pulling off his socks for him, the man already stripped down to nothing but his boxers. The airman smiled up at him and said, “Got enough energy for a shower?” and he reluctantly nodded.

Using his considerable strength, Tommy managed to get them both into the large master bathroom and set up the shower without turning on a single light, for which Buck was grateful. Once the water had reached an acceptable level of warmth, they slipped under it together, leaning on each other as they cleaned off the last remnants of the dust and dirt of the highway, having had the windows down the entire drive home, both of them feeling the grime of the day.

Buck let out a soft sigh as his boyfriend’s hand scrubbed gently across the backs of his shoulders and then nuzzled his nose under his jaw and deeply inhaled.

Cedar and spearmint.

He then melted further into him when he felt one of his hands curve gently around his lower back, holding him up, and breathed out, “Love you,” into his skin, and felt Tommy nod and a soft sound rumble through his chest as he replied, “Love you, too.”

They finished showering in the dark together, not rushing it, taking their time to shampoo and condition, as well as clean every single nook and cranny, neither of them having any arousal, both of them far too tired and worn out after their trip to even think about sex. Hell, Tommy had pounded him so good the night before, Buck could still feel the faint sting of it, and he savored it, shivering only slightly when his boyfriend’s fingers ghosted over his hole as he finished washing him off.

They stayed under the water for a long time, and Buck savored the intimacy of it.

Standing in the dark under the water of the showerhead, slowly—almost lazily—cleaning each other, doing their best to stay awake. It was like nothing he had ever experienced before, and he basked in the way Tommy was curled around him in the same way he curled around him. Like yin and yang.

Eventually, however, the water started to cool and they turned it off and then stepped out of the shower and dried each other off with the thick, luxurious vintage towels that Tommy had bought about a month before that Buck loved.

Once he was dry, he padded softly into their bedroom and pulled out some clean, loose boxers and one of Tommy’s t-shirts and put them on.

He handed Tommy the same.

Right before slipping under the covers, however, he stood there blinking tiredly in the unlit bedroom as Tommy softly murmured against his cheek, “Hold on, lemme turn on the fan,” and then moved over and turned on the fan, the soft sound of it a white noise that Buck knew would lull him to an easy, welcoming sleep, as well as the faint breeze that now oscillated through the room and made him feel as though he were already in a dream. He then felt his boyfriend’s warmth back at his side and then he was gently leading them both to the bed, where they slowly peeled back the comforter and top sheet and then curled up under just the top sheet, the comforter bunched up at the end of the bed, barely covering their feet.

Buck almost immediately drifted off when his boyfriend started gently carding his fingers through his damp curls, the sensation lulling him to an easy sleep…and so was surprised when Tommy said in a low voice, “So, did you have a good time?”

He looked up at him, scrunched his nose, and furrowed his brow.

“…what?”

“Did you have a good time?” he softly repeated, and Buck stared up at him…and then nodded.

“Yeah…yeah, I had a great time, Tommy,” he finally answered, curling up a bit more against him, savoring the soft heat from his body even as the fan blew a cool breeze over the exposed skin of his arms, and he reveled in the contrasts. “It was somethin’ else, you know?”

His boyfriend nodded and pressed his lips to Buck’s forehead and murmured, “Good, I’m glad. I like doing things like that with you,” and at his words Buck swore that he could feel that last little bit of armor that he had around his heart—the part of him that was always saying ‘but what if’—go silent. It had never gone silent before.

“I like doin’ things like tha’ with you, too,” he slurred out, struggling to stay awake, wanting to stay in the moment for as long as he could.

He could feel Tommy smile and smiled himself when the older man said, “I never thought I would have this, you know,” and he didn’t have to say anything else for the younger firefighter to understand. He knew exactly what he meant because he felt the same way. If someone had told him only a few years ago that he would eventually be wrapped up in the arms of a man that he loved and living with him and it would be the best relationship of his entire life, he would have called them crazy…

…but at that moment he had never felt safer or more loved as Tommy’s hand absently stroked circles along the curve of his spine while Buck nestled into his chest and traced his thumb over the perfectly sculpted arch of his bicep.

Taking in a deep breath, he managed to say, “I didn’t either. You know, I…I kinda love you so much it scares me,” he softly admitted.

He felt Tommy look down at him.

“It scares you?”

Buck nodded.

“I’ve never…I’ve never let anyone ge’ this far into my chest, you know? So-so close to my…my heart,” he confessed, burying his head even deeper under his jaw, unable to look up at him as he spoke, feeling vulnerable, as if every inch of him was a raw nerve and one wrong look would flay him alive.

There was an expectant silence that fell between them, the hum of the fan the only sound in the room…and then Tommy said, “You’re the first for me, too, Evan,” and gently squeezed him tighter, and he melted into the touch and let out a shuddering sigh, realizing that he had taken a risk—and instead of his feelings being disregarded as unimportant, Tommy had not only validated them, but had admitted that he felt the same way.

It felt as though they had just reached a new threshold in their relationship and Buck felt like his emotional scars were finally…fading.

They would never completely go away, he knew, but he also knew that what had just happened had healed something deeper inside of him.

His eyelids felt heavy, and he clung onto consciousness for a little while longer, just long enough to say, “I’ll never love anyone more than you, Tommy,” and then found himself yawning, his entire body tightening…and then relaxing into the firm body curled around his, one firm thigh tucked between his own.

…and then just as he finally drifted off to sleep, he could have sworn he heard his boyfriend say…

“I’m gonna marry you one day…”

…but then he was out.

[nephilimeq]

Cleaning House

Prompt: Cleaning/Chores

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/160802041

“We have to clean, Evan,” Tommy reminded him as they finished putting away the dishes, and his boyfriend rolled his eyes and said, “We don’t have to clean. I mean, c’mon, babe,” he pushed up behind him and slid his hands around his hips, playfully tugging at his belt loops. “We’ve finally got a few days together after five days apart, and you don’t wanna…you know…?”

He gave him a lecherous grin and the airman laughed and shook his head.

“Nope! We need to clean, babe,” he said, pushing past him, untangling himself from the firm grip on his jeans.

Evan glared at him, the effect less than intimidating with his curls brushing down over his furrowed brow, making him look more like a pouting five-year-old who hadn’t gotten his way—which, to be fair, was exactly how he was acting at the moment.

Undeterred, Tommy added, “Look, you already cleaned up most of my place during the three days I was gone—”

“It only took me a day,” he interrupted, and he shot him a chastising look and continued, “—which means we just have to change out a few things in the garage that I know you didn’t touch, but I know need to be cleaned up, and then we’re going over to your place to detoxify it. Have you even stepped foot in there in the last month?” he joked, trying to keep things lighthearted…but then noticed his boyfriend had fallen silent.

“…Evan?”

He gave him a look, shoving his hands into his pockets, and then reluctantly admitted, “Okay, maybe…twice? I went to pick up some clothes a couple weeks ago, and I cleaned out my fridge a few days ago. But…yeah. I guess…I guess I’ve been spending a lot of time here, instead…”

His heart skipped a beat at the admission, and he had to hold back the impulse to simply ask him to move in with him.

Instead, he said, “Well, that means your place has probably gotten more than a little bit dusty, so…yeah. We need to clean. Let’s start with here, okay?” and then gently nudged him towards the garage, not surprised in the least when Evan let out an annoyed groan, but sill moved forwards, letting Tommy push him into the space that he had declared the airman’s ‘sanctum sanctorum’, which he found amusing to no end, as he merely thought of his work as something mildly meditative—though, the way Evan described it, he claimed that he could scream bloody murder and Tommy wouldn’t hear it if he was elbow deep in an engine.

He smiled as Evan pouted and pretended to be annoyed as they cleaned up the garage…but from the corner of his eye, he noticed the way his boyfriends fingers lingered on a few of the items, like his wrench and socket set, as well as the handle of his car lift.

Tommy said nothing about it, noting how easily the two of them moved around each other as they cleaned and just how quickly they finished.

“Well, now, that wasn’t so bad, now, was it?” Tommy drawled, slipping up behind him where he stood in front of the workbench, brushing his lips across his temple and Evan hummed in the back of his throat and said, “Yeah, guess not—but now we have to go to my place,” and he shot him a look.

The airman grinned.

“Looking forward to it.”

--

“Jesus, it has been a while since you’ve cleaned, hasn’t it?” Tommy couldn’t help but say as they stepped into Evan’s apartment, his eyes immediately going to the faint layer of dust he could see covering the coffee table, even from where they were at the door.

Evan rolled his eyes and said, “Look, I’ve been busy, okay?” and shoved past him and headed for the kitchen, where he kept his cleaning supplies.

The airman merely nodded and followed behind him, making a quick mental note of everything that needed to be cleaned and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to also clean the bathroom. He couldn’t see it, but he had a hunch that it was woefully neglected…and he wondered, once again, whether or not he should ask Evan to move in with him. It weighed on his conscience, and Tommy couldn’t help but muse that if they did move in together, then it would probably be better if he was the one who asked.

…but still. Something else gave him pause.

He didn’t know what it was, but it lingered at the back of his mind as he began to help Evan clean, starting with the kitchen.

“Uh…what is this?” he tentatively asked, opening the freezer and pointing at an odd mass inside of a plastic bag that didn’t come close to resembling anything edible—and Evan turned and nodded and said from his place on the other side of the island, “Oh, yeah, that’s, uh…that’s a leftover experimental brisket from like…eleven months ago?”

“Eleven months shouldn’t do this do a frozen brisket.”

Evan shot him a look.

“Yeah, but that was an experimental brisket, so…yeah,” he said with a duck of his head, looking genuinely embarrassed, and Tommy chuckled and dug it out of the freezer, having to pry it out with sheer force, as it had started to fuse itself to the inside.

By the time he had dug it out, Evan had finished cleaning the island and had moved onto part of the living room, going for one of his bookshelves, and Tommy glanced over at him as they cleaned, noticing how his boyfriend moved through his own apartment as if he was just visiting, an obvious detachment to nearly everything in it. He didn’t seem to pay much attention to the way he moved objects to dust underneath them, or scrub at a random stain.

They talked about their plans for a possible beach date at some point over the next few weeks, wanting to do it when they both had two consecutive days off so that they could wear themselves out the first day and relax the second day, giving them plenty of time to each go home to their separate places to clean up after…

…and then it hit him.

“Move in with me.”

Evan stopped mid-swipe of the top of his television and slowly turned towards him.

“What?”

The airman didn’t hesitate as he repeated, “Move in with me. This is ridiculous, trying to arrange things so that you can come back to your place when you’re practically never here anymore, Evan! I want you in my life. Permanently. You have…what? Like, a month and a half left on your lease?” Evan nodded. “Great, so move in with me. You don’t have much, and we can start moving things over a bit at a time so it won’t overwhelm us, and we can find places for everything in my house. Our house. Our home…I want you to live with me…”

He was proud of making it all the way through it, feeling a bit out of breath, and he stared at his boyfriend, wondering if he had just put him on the spot, because he had never seen that expression on his face before, and Tommy couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“…Evan?”

“You…are asking me to move in with you in the same place I asked you to move in with me?” he finally said with a tone that he couldn’t place…and he hesitantly replied, “…Yes?”

The silence stretched between them, and he was starting to feel as if he’d made a massive mistake—but then Evan broke into the widest grin and Tommy had to brace himself, dropping the cleaning supplies in his hand as his boyfriend suddenly lunged at him and wrapped him up into an extra strong hug, his arms around his neck, saying, “God, yes! Yes, Tommy! Fuck, I’ve been wanting to say something, but I asked last time, so I thought I should wait, but then…just…god, yes!”

As if a cord had been snapped, the airman collapsed into his boyfriend’s embrace, saying, “Oh, thank god. I was so afraid I’d read that wrong,” and Evan shook his head.

“Nope. Not at all.”

They shared a quick kiss, their noses mashed together at an uncomfortable angle, and then as they pulled back Tommy added, “We still have to finish cleaning your place, though. We’re not leaving it like this,” and Evan groaned and dropped his forehead to his shoulder and muttered, “Ugh, do we have to?” and he snorted and nodded.

“Unfortunately, yes. And since your freezer looked like that, I dread to see what state your bathroom is in.”

At that, Evan shot his head up and pushed back from him using his hands on the airman’s chest and said, “Hey, it’s not that bad!” Tommy lifted an eyebrow. “…okay, maybe it’s been a while, but at least there’s nothing growing in there! And the toilet is clean, I guarantee it!” he added, pulling away completely and pointing at him. “I’m not a complete animal, you know! It won’t be that bad, I swear,” he finally said as he moved to the bathroom and opened the door, peeking behind it…

…and then he shut it quickly.

“Uh…could we, maybe…do that last?”

Tommy gave his boyfriend a look…and then snorted and nodded, saying, “Yeah, we can do that last. Wanna help me change the sheets on your bed, first?” he suggested, smiling when Evan’s face lit up, looking like he’d won the lottery.

“Hell yes. Maybe we can…you know…” He stepped forward once more and tugged on one of belt loops as he wiggled an eyebrow at him. “…make them dirty some more before we clean them?”

Tommy smirked.

—and he dislodged Evan’s hand, bent over to grab at his waist, and then swept Evan over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and said, “What the hell, why not,” and carried a laughing Evan up the stairs to his loft bedroom, tossing him on top of the mussed up covers with as much force he could muster, making the bedframe squeak in protest, as well as his boyfriend, and his smirk turned into a feral grin as he then crawled over him on all fours, darting down to place a thoroughly deep kiss on that perfect plush mouth of his.

“Mmmh, can’t…can’t believe I…convinced you to…do this,” Evan said between kisses and Tommy smiled against his lips and said, “Let’s just say that you inspired me,” and went right back to kissing the air out of his lungs, his body finally getting on board.

Tommy slid his hands under his boyfriend’s shirt, yanked it off him, and then went for the button on his jeans…which was precisely when his knee slipped on something and he collapsed on top of him, both of them having the air forced out of their lungs…

…and then they both started laughing.

“Maybe…maybe we should just…get back to cleaning,” Evan said breathlessly between bouts of giggles, and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, maybe we should.”

They lay there for a moment, both of them trying to catch their breath—and the older man was taken off guard when Evan said, “I’m so excited to move in with you,” and he turned his head and smiled at him from where he had his head perched on his boyfriend’s chest.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Another minute passed and then they reluctantly parted, and Tommy looked down into the sheets to see what his knee had slipped on…and arched an eyebrow when he pulled out a half-used tube of lube, and gave his boyfriend a look as he said, “It really has been a while since you’ve cleaned,” and Evan had the sense of mind to look embarrassed as he reached out and snatched the bottle from his hands without once looking the airman in the eye.

“Okay, so it’s been a while. C’mon, let’s finish cleaning,” he said, and Tommy grinned.

God, he couldn’t wait until they were living together.

[nephilimeq]

You're All of My Stars

Prompt: Stargazing

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3:

“Hey, have you seen the bag I brought over? The blue one?” Evan shouted from the other room, and Tommy glanced around the living room—and then spotted it next to the couch and shouted back, “Yeah, it’s in here, babe! Next to the couch closest to the front door!”

He then diverted his attention back to his phone where he was texting Sal, trying to finish making the arrangements.

After they had finished cleaning, Evan had decided to at least pack most of his clothes, which had involved him filling up several old gym bags with t-shirts, jeans, underwear, and socks…and it also meant that the airman now had random bags sitting near the front door from where he had dumped all the bags, taking them up one at a time and fitting his clothes in with the pilot’s. Just the thought of their clothes hanging next to each other made him smile…

…but he had other plans.

On the drive back to his house, Evan had mentioned in passing that he had some camping gear that he would have to store in the garage, and the thought of camping had the two of them talking about how long it had been since either of them had seen the stars.

And now Tommy was making arrangements to take out a chopper to a spot outside the city so that Evan could see the stars.

From his periphery, he saw his boyfriend dart past him to grab at his bag.

“Oh, good, think I left my uniform shirts in this one,” he said, picking it up and unzipping it to check. “Bobby would kill me if I lost any of these…”

His voice trailed off as he kept on talking to himself as he left the room, heading back up the stairs to their room—their room. God, it felt amazing to think of that just in his head, he couldn’t wait until he was officially moved in, and it would be their home.

Tommy made his way to the kitchen, reading the text that Sal had just sent him, which read, Got it cleared with Cap. You can take out the second unit tonight so long as you get it back before 1200 hours. Didn’t realize you were such a sucker for a pretty face, Kinard, and he rolled his eyes and texted back, Only for Evan. He misses the stars, and this is something that I can give him, you know? and smiled when his friend sent back a heart emoji along with, It’s sweet. You’re a good boyfriend.

He didn’t realize he was grinning at his phone until Evan walked into the kitchen with a shirt in his hand and said, “What’s got you grinning like that? Usually I’m the only one that can put that smile on your face,” and Tommy did his best to control his expression.

“Oh, nothing. Just Sal said something nice…”

Evan scoffed.

“Something nice? Him? That’d be a first!” he said as he opened the fridge and pulled out a light beer, twisting the cap off and taking a long, drawn out sip. “I mean, I know he’s your friend and all, but he’s always been a bit…well, mean to me.”

Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, that’s Sal for you. He keeps everyone at arm’s length until he’s figured out whether or not he can trust you, and then he’s suddenly the most annoying friend you could ever hope for,” he explained, gesturing with one hand, prompting Evan to grab him a beer as well. “It took him forever to trust me, but now there’s no one who I trust more to have my back when I’m up in the air.” His boyfriend gave him a look, and he quickly said, “Oh, c’mon, don’t give me that look. Like you don’t trust Eddie just a little bit more than me because of how long you two have worked together?”

Evan paused mid-sip…and then conceded, “Okay, maybe, but still…I’d like to think I trust you just as much, now. Maybe even more than him,” he added with a soft look, and Tommy smiled and reached out to him, sliding his free hand around his waist and pulling him in.

“Yeah, okay…I get what you mean.”

He gave him a peck on the corner of his mouth…which Evan immediately tried to turn into something much hotter and heavier, dropping the shirt in his other hand to the ground—but then Tommy’s phone pinged, and he quickly pulled back to check it, much to his boyfriend’s irritation.

Flight plan cleared, too.

Oh, good.

“Hey, what’s got your attention?” Evan said, pouting at him as he put his beer on the island counter, squeezing at Tommy’s shoulder with both hands, trying to get his attention back to him, and he hastily pulled his eyes away as he shoved his phone back into his pocket and said, “Nothing. I promise.”

Evan’s eyes narrowed.

“But you stopped in the middle of kissing to check your phone—which is something that you never do, sooo…what is it?” he prodded, and the airman found himself torn between wanting to keep it a surprise and wanting to tell him all about it…and then caved and said, “So you know how we were talking about how long it’s been since either one of us have gone camping or seen the stars?” Evan nodded. “Yeah, well…I got a flight plan and permission to use a chopper, and I’m taking you out tonight so we can do just that…”

His boyfriend’s eyes widened…and then he said, “Are you serious?” and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, I am. Sal just sent me a text saying that the flight plan was cleared, so…nine o’clock? You and me and some clear skies and stars?”

Evan vigorously nodded and swept him back up into his arms, nudging his nose against his ear as he complimented him, “God, you’re like the perfect boyfriend…and you’ve set the standard way too high,” he added, pulling back and giving him an arched look. “I mean…how am I gonna top this?”

Tommy shook his head.

“Hey, it’s not about topping anything—no, don’t make a dirty joke, Evan,” he quickly interjected before he could say anything, and his boyfriend merely gave him a salacious grin as he said, “Hey, you said it, not me,” and the airman shook his head and said, “It’s about me wanting to show you how much I love you and making some memories with you. Is that alright?”

His grin spread even wider, and he nodded and said, “Yes, it is. And I’m super excited.”

“Good. Now, don’t forget to wear something warm. We’re going to be at a higher altitude, and it gets cold up there, babe,” he reminded him, and then leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead…and then added as he moved to the kitchen, “See if you can dig out a sweater from one of your bags,” and ducked as Evan reached down and playfully chucked one of his retrieved shirts from the bag at his feet—but he ducked and instead caught it with one hand and laughed.

“Nice try, Evan!”

He heard him laugh.

--

“Fucking shit, it’s cold,” Evan complained over the headset as Tommy expertly maneuvered the chopper over the hills to the landing site, and he hummed in the back of his throat and said, “That’s why I told you to wear a sweater.”

“I am wearing a sweater,” his boyfriend griped. “It’s still cold!”

He chuckled and banked to the left, keeping his eye on the altimeter and the coordinates and saw that they were barely a minute out and grinned. He couldn’t wait to go stargazing with his boyfriend, and for once he felt like he had planned the perfect date.

As they landed, Tommy didn’t hesitate to reach for the extra jacket he was wearing over his own sweater (having correctly assumed that Evan wouldn’t dress warmly enough) and handed it to him and said, “Here, this’ll keep you warm, babe,” noting even in the dim light of the front of the chopper that Evan was smiling at him fondly as he pulled it over his sweater. He avoided looking back at him as they exited the helicopter, grabbing at the blanket that he had shoved behind his seat as they got out.

Meeting Evan on the other side, he said, “Hey, follow me,” and gently tugged at his hand and started to lead him to the best place to stargaze…

…but then his boyfriend balked and said, “How do you even know where we’re going? It’s so dark out!”

Tommy chuckled and said, “I’ve seen it in daylight a few times. Saved a couple of hikers from up here, before. Now, c’mon,” and he tugged at his hand a second time, laughing when Evan said from behind him, “Hey, that doesn’t exactly sell me on this place, you know,” and he hastily reassured him.

“We have a chopper, they didn’t.”

His boyfriend fell silent—but scooted a bit closer to him, practically hugging him from behind as they approached the ridge where the airman knew that they would have the best view of the night sky without any of the ambient light coming from the surrounding city.

Less than a minute later, Tommy stopped and said, “We’re here.”

Letting go of Evan’s hand (albeit reluctantly), he shook out the blanket he had been carrying over his arm and laid it out on the ground and then reached once more for his hand.

“C’mere,” he muttered, tugging him closer, and within a few seconds they were sitting on the blanket looking up at the stretch of stars above them.

Tommy held onto Evan’s hand on the blanket—and then his boyfriend’s voice came out of the dark and said, “God, I forgot how nice it is to do this with someone,” and he chuckled and replied, “And we’ve barely even started. Come on, let’s lay back,” and managed to convince him to lay back onto the blanket, where Evan proceeded to snuggle up into him, plastering himself to his side, his head resting on top of his shoulder…and Tommy sighed at the feeling of comfort that washed over him.

“That’s the north star,” Evan pointed out, lifting his hand. “Did you know that in a few million years, it won’t be the north star anymore because the earth doesn’t rotate perfectly, but has what scientists call a ‘planetary wobble’?”

Tommy grinned.

“No, I did not know that.”

He pulled him a bit closer, and then said, “So, how about you tell me what else you know about constellations?” and he could feel Evan smile…but then felt it fall, when he said, “…Why do I have the feeling you might know more than me?”

Hearing the insecurity in his tone, Tommy said, “Yeah, okay, so the army drilled some things into me about navigation by the stars in case the dash lights go out. So, I know more than a few things about celestial navigation and haven’t ever been confused by what’s a planet or what’s a star, but…that’s just technical stuff. I wanna know what you know about the stars,” he clarified. “I wanna know about the stories behind them. Tell me about Orion. Or Cassiopeia. Or Canus Major and Minor…”

He let his voice drift—and then smiled when Evan said, “Do you know that with Orion, he’s based off an ancient hunter in Greek mythology? And that no one can remember what animal it is that he’s supposed to be holding above him as his kill?”

Tommy shook his head.

“The Sumerians thought it was Gilgamesh fighting a bull, but in Greek mythology some people say it’s a lion’s pelt, others think it was a bear. All that’s left are the symbolic stars, letting everyone imagine something else,” he told him, and the airman noticed the way he nuzzled more closely to him and the warmth of his body and savored every second of it. “Then you have the story of Cancer, who in Greek mythology attacked Hercules during the second of his twelve labors. The large crab was sent by Hera, Zeus’ wife, to try and stop Hercules from winning his battle against the Hydra, but instead Hercules killed him with his club…”

Evan then began to ramble on about the Aquarius constellation, and Tommy smiled as he listened to him go on and on, getting more excited as the minutes passed, and he nodded and made noises of agreement, occasionally asking a clarifying question, anything to keep hearing his voice in his ear as they stared at the stars.

As he rambled, the airman wondered if his boyfriend had ever had anyone let him talk like this before.

Personally, he loved the sound of his voice and could listen to him talk for hours…

…but he had heard several people tell him to stop, including his own friends, like Eddie and Chim. He had even seen Hen roll her eyes when Evan had once gone on a tangent about the history of soda and how it was produced, and even Bobby had seemed annoyed, too.

Honestly, Tommy didn’t understand it. Evan loved learning things, and it was one of the things he loved most about him, especially when he went on his rambles.

“…and so Cassiopeia’s constellation is supposedly sometimes upside down because it’s a punishment for her vanity for when she claimed that she and her daughter, Andromeda, were more beautiful than the Nereids—the sea nymphs, even though it’s really because it’s a circumpolar constellation that rotates around the north star,” Evan said, and Tommy nodded and pulled him closer to him. “The only reason why Cassiopeia died was because King Cepheus asked an oracle what he could do to save his kingdom—which was being besieged my monsters along the coast because of Cassiopeia’s boastful claim—and the oracle said he had to kill Andromeda, so he tried to…but then she was saved by Perseus…”

“Hey, I know that name. Perseus…he was the one that killed Medusa, right?”

Even in the dark, he could see his boyfriend’s face light up.

“Yeah, yeah, he is! How did you know…?”

Tommy shrugged and softly admitted, “Eh, I’ve read a few books here and there. Went on a kick a few years back to catch up on the books I should have read in college, like the Aeneid and the Odyssey. Learned a few things along the way…”

Evan then rolled over so that he was practically plastered to the front of the airman’s chest and said, “God, it’s so hot when you talk smart. Did you know that Perseus was supposedly one of—”

“Hercules’ ancestors? And the origin of the ancient race of the Persians?” he gently interrupted him, grinning wide when he realized that his boyfriend was starting to harden against his thigh. “God, me talking about this kind of stuff really does get you going, doesn’t it?” Tommy teased, reaching down and tracing his fingers over his hip, pleased to see the effect he was having on him, even able to see it in the shadows that crossed over his face.

Evan hummed against him and then pressed his lips to the base of his neck and muttered against his skin, “It’s so fucking hot when you know stuff,” and he chuckled and said, “Now you know how I feel when you start talking about things you’re passionate about…though, I don’t get horny so much as fall in love with you a little bit more…”

He pulled back from his neck and then rolled back over to his side and pointed up at the constellation.

“Did you know that the Cassiopeia constellation contains the Heart Nebula and is also located in the Perseus spiral arm of the Milky Way? And east of the Heart Nebula is the Soul Nebula? They’re known as the perfect pair,” he said, laying his head heavily on his chest. “Kinda like us…”

Tommy smiled.

“Exactly like us.”

He then leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of his curls and softly added, “I love how much you love these kinds of things…and I love that you want to share them with me,” and he felt Evan melt a little bit more against him, one of his legs thrown over top of his, and he felt a warmth fill his chest that had nothing to do with the heat coming off his boyfriend. Even though they were still moving things into his place a little at a time, Tommy already knew that he didn’t want to ever let go of him again.

He wanted to marry him.

…and at that thought, a plan formed in his mind.

He held onto Evan a little bit tighter.

[nephilimeq]

Nobody Knows Me Like You

Prompt: Valentine's Day

@bucktommyfluffebruary

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/161567005

“Okay, this is getting ridiculous,” Howie muttered as Tommy swept past him to put his phone in front of Maddie, showing her the blender he’d found, saying, “So this is what I was thinking about, but I’m still not sure if Evan will like it,” feeling a flicker of apprehension as he tried to figure out what to buy for his boyfriend for Valentine’s Day.

Oddly enough, it was their first one. They had been together for six months and then had broken up for a few months—during which had been over Christmas and Valentine’s—which meant that they were celebrating together for the first time, and he had never been more nervous in his life. He had to find Evan something perfect. It needed to say that he knew him, loved him, and wanted to show him that he was planning on keeping him in his life for as long as he could…

…but without buying him a ring.

At least, not yet.

“It’s…nice,” Maddie said, sipping at her tea, and Tommy groaned and dropped his head to the counter with his arms out in front of him, holding onto his phone rather pathetically.

“Ugh, I’m gonna end up not getting anything for him at this rate,” he muttered. “Valentine’s day is in four days, and I still don’t have anything for him! Flowers and chocolate are too cliche. Jewelry is too much, a stuffed animal is too childish,” he began to list. “Clothes are too impersonal, a mixed tape or cd is too juvenile, fixing his car is something I would do anyway, and something handmade from me is like a 911 call just waiting to happen.”

At that, Howie laughed and interjected, “God, you’re pathetic! Look, you wanna know what to get him? I’ll tell you, but you’ll owe me…”

Tommy looked at his friend and simply let out a long sigh.

“You know what, I don’t care what I have to owe you, just help me…please.”

He knew he looked and sounded pathetic, but the airman no longer cared about saving face—all he cared about was getting Evan something that would make him happy. And if that meant owing one of his best friends an unknown favor, then so be it.

Howie then gave him an unnerving grin and said, “You’re gonna love this…”

--

Buck was scrambling. It was only three days before his first time celebrating Valentine’s Day with his boyfriend and he was terrified he was about to fuck it all up.

“I’m telling you, Eddie, I don’t know what to do!” he whined, and his friend rolled his eyes and said, “It’s just Valentine’s, man! It’s a commercialized holiday! I mean, sure, I’m a romantic at heart, but I’m also a pragmatist, and so is Tommy. He won’t take it personally if you don’t get him the ‘perfect’ gift, you know.”

He stared at his friend, trying to figure out why Eddie was being so blasé about the entire thing.

Buck was at his wit’s end trying to figure out what to get Tommy.

Helping Eddie with the hose, he explained, “Look, you need to understand that the two of us are celebrating our first Valentine’s Day together, despite us already living together, so it feels really different, you know? Instead of the low stakes of a first Valentine’s like most couples get to have, it’s more than that because we’ve been through so much already and we’re living together!” He tugged the last bit of the hose with a bit more force than necessary to emphasize his point. “Do you get that?”

“Okay, yeah, I kinda see your side of this,” his friend conceded…but then he added, “But at the same time, is there even a real reason to worry all that much? I mean, because you’ve been through so much together, you know you love each other, and so anything you can think of will surely be enough…”

Ugh. He hated it when Eddie made a good point.

He rolled his eyes and followed him into the rig, the warehouse fire put out behind them—and then had to deal with Chim and Hen attempting to give him advice on the way back, and he regretted ever opening his mouth.

“If you wanna get him something special, you could always go for some new cleaning supplies for his car,” Hen suggested, and Buck glared at her and replied, “It’s Valentine’s Day, not a random Saturday afternoon, Hen. That’s really the best you can come up with?”, which earned him a hard glare and Chimney suggesting, “What about a gift certificate to one of his favorite restaurants?”, which wasn’t a bad idea, per se, but it also felt a bit cheap considering he could probably cook him a better meal at home.

Deciding not to incur the ire of another friend, however, he said, “Eh, maybe,” and decided to drop it.

--

Tommy stared at the wall of chocolate in front of him, wondering what Evan would like the most, feeling a rush of insecurity as he tried to decide between four different types of dark chocolate, feeling like a cheapskate because he genuinely couldn’t think of anything else.

Howie had told him what to get Evan—and he’d bought it—but it still didn’t feel like enough.

Actually, he wondered if his friend was pulling his leg because what he’d bought him had been far too simple and easy (though not something he would have thought of on his own), and so there the airman stood in the middle of the aisle of some fancy chocolatier shop in downtown L.A. that he had heard about through Sal’s wife, Maria. He had complained enough to Sal, that he had apparently complained to his wife, and she had called him earlier that day while on shift and told him about the place.

He stared down at the 72% dark chocolate bars, the aisle split up by percentages, and debated which flavor Evan would like the best.

The ones with chile and lime definitely seemed like something he would like…but then there was the blood orange, the blackberry medley, and the chicory, too…

…and Tommy finally snapped and got one of each, wincing as he thought of how much it was going to cost him. Four chocolate bars from this place was the equivalent of almost three quarters of a tank of gas and seemed wasteful—but he knew that Evan would at least appreciate the gesture, if nothing else.

“This better be worth it,” he muttered under his breath as he made his way to the register.

A minute later he was done, and he let out a sigh of relief as he got back into his truck and then headed back home. It was odd to go out and do things without his boyfriend now that they lived together, and he felt a faint tugging in his chest at the thought that he now had someone to come home to—though not at the moment, as Evan was still on shift and wouldn’t be home for a couple of hours, which gave him just enough time to wrap the chocolate bars and hide them away.

The second he walked through the front door, however, his phone rang.

“Hello?” he said, tucking the phone between his cheek and shoulder as he locked the door behind him, and a voice said, “Hey, Tommy. Have you already bought Buck his Valentine’s Day present?”

Eddie.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, he answered, “Yes, I have. Now, why are you really calling me?” as he shuffled the items around in his hands so he could talk to him without dropping anything, already moving towards the closet where he kept the gift wrapping, and his friend replied, “Your boyfriend is panicking. Doesn’t know what to get you, so he’s been asking all of us for ideas, and I think he’s still sorta…you know…freaking out in the way that only Buck can freak out…”

Of course, he was, he thought to himself, feeling a flicker of concern over his boyfriend’s state of mind, wishing he wouldn’t worry so much. Tommy honestly didn’t want anything, he just wanted to spend the day with Evan and enjoy the fact that they had each other.

“Of course, he is. What else would he be doing?” he said, putting a pink and red bag onto the counter and pulling out a random pile of white tissue paper, automatically wrapping as he continued to talk on the phone.

Eddie chuckled.

“Yeah, you know Buck—but at the same time, it’s kinda cute seeing him all worked up about what to get you. So, I’m biting the bullet and asking: what do you want?” he pressed, and Tommy could hear in his tone that he was being serious and was trying to do his friend a solid…and he felt rather useless as he admitted, “I just want to spend the day with him. Wrap him up in my arms and forget the world for a while, you know?”

There was a long pause, and he was suddenly afraid he had said too much.

…but then Eddie said, “Yeah, I get that, but still: what do you want?”

--

“Okay, you’re sure this is the right thing to get him?” Buck asked, shooting a glance at Eddie over his shoulder as they stood in front of the array of flowers in the flower shop, and his friend let out an exasperated sigh and rolled his head on his shoulders.

“For the hundredth time, yes! Now, will you just pick one so we can go? Also, why am I here for this?” he said as he reached out and looked closely at one of the tags on a bundle of roses, shaking his head.

Buck gave his friend a look.

“You’re here for this because you said you’d help me with Tommy’s gift. Now—roses or carnations?”

Eddie shook his head and said, “Neither. Both are overrated and Tommy would want something…different,” and Buck felt his irritation rise even further than before, the urge to turn around and punch him rising with every passing moment. “I mean, think about his favorite color—he goes for blue a lot, you know? So maybe something like…these,” he said, reaching for some blue flowers that shimmered enticingly, and Buck read the label, which said delphinium elatum.

“Blue? Really? But…it’s Valentine’s Day. I kinda feel like I should go for something pink or red, or even white, you know?” he hedged, still glancing over at the roses—and then was taken off guard when his friend suddenly bit out, “God, why are you so dense? He likes blue flowers because they remind him of your eyes! Fuck!”

Wait…what?

He felt an odd sensation on the back of his neck as he put things together, and he said, “Hold on, have you…Eddie, have you been talking with Tommy?” and his friend nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, I have, and can I just say that he has the patience of a saint putting up with you? I mean, my god! You have two days before Valentine’s Day and you’re freaking out over-over-over flowers, Buck!” he exclaimed, spreading his arms wide and causing a scene in the middle of the flower shop. “Do you have any idea how in love with you Tommy is? That man would be happy if you just showed up! I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so ridiculously in love as you two! You don’t need to do anything except show up!” he repeated, looking borderline pissed.

Buck shrunk in on himself slightly, once more feeling like the insecure eighteen-year-old who had run way from home, feeling equal parts chastened and grateful. While it hadn’t been the best way to say it, he could hear what Eddie was trying to tell him: that Tommy didn’t care what he got him because he loved him more than anything else.

“I think I’ll get the delphiniums,” he finally said with a grin, clapping Eddie on the shoulder.

“Oh, thank god. Can we go, now?”

Buck laughed and nodded and added, “Yeah, we can go. And thanks for putting up with me,” and Eddie snorted and shook his head and quipped, “Yeah, well, someone has to.”

--

It was Valentine’s Day and Tommy was putting the finishing touches on the present that he’d purchased, feeling a frisson of nerves at the thought of Evan not liking it—even though Howie had told him probably about a hundred times that his boyfriend would love it.

He stared at the ribbon that he’d tied around it, remembering the ribbon he’d put on the oven before he had surprised Evan with it.

“You’ve got this,” he muttered to himself in a pathetic attempt at a pep-talk. “You’ve got this…”

He moved over to the mirror and checked himself over, making sure he looked presentable as he listened to his boyfriend in the bathroom finishing getting ready. They were going out to dinner and so he had put on his black suit with a white button up underneath, not bothering with the tie. Evan had told him the last time that he had worn a suit that it had been the hottest thing he had ever seen, so he was indulging him and making sure that the evening would be a memorable one.

He had made reservations at a small place that he knew Evan had been wanting to try for a while.

…and just as he thought about possibly changing his jacket, Evan emerged from the bathroom fully dressed in his own charcoal suit with a deep red shirt that made his eyes pop, curls looking fresh, and he let out a low whistle and said, “Look at you, babe…damn. I can see that look in your eyes, don’t even think about changing! Those pants are awesome for your ass and that suit jacket makes you look good enough to eat…”

Tommy chuckled and turned and reached out to his boyfriend, pulling him in.

“Good to know. Speaking of eating, you ready to go?”

Evan nodded, his blue eyes sparkling, and the airman knew that it didn’t matter what he gave him, he was happy enough to have him in his life. Evan could give him the worst present in the world, and it wouldn’t have mattered—because he had him.

Smiling, he said, “Good, let’s go,” and quickly ushered him down the stairs and through the front door, present tucked inside his jacket.

His boyfriend had already greeted him with flowers when he’d come home, blue delphiniums that were the exact same shade as his eyes, and it was easily already the most romantic present that he’d ever been given, and he had told him that—and continued to tell him that as he drove them to the restaurant.

“Seriously, Evan. Those flowers are the most beautiful things I’ve ever received,” he repeated one last time as they dropped off the truck with the valet, and Evan rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, you’ve said that, like, ten times now.”

“So?”

He rolled his eyes a second time and drawled, “Sooo…can we please move past it? I just wanna have a romantic dinner with my boyfriend and talk about something stupid for the next couple of hours,” he said as he tugged at his hand, pulling him into the restaurant, and Tommy smiled indulgently at him and nodded and said, “Okay, sure. That sounds good to me,” and let him lead him into the restaurant, loving it when Evan took charge and said, “Two for Kinard,” and he felt his stomach flip at the thought of him having his last name one day.

Someday soon, he hoped.

--

Buck grinned as he made his way to their table, holding his boyfriend’s hand the entire way, feeling a giddiness about being out on Valentine’s Day with him. They had celebrated a few holidays as a couple, but Valentine’s Day was different from the rest—and they both knew it.

Actually, it was the first time he had ever been in a relationship during the holiday, and it made him feel an excitement he’d never felt before.

“And here’s your table,” the waiter said, and he nodded his thanks, and they sat down across from each other, a candle on the table.

Buck admired his boyfriend as he sat across from him, barely keeping himself in check. Tommy looked damn good every other day of the week, good enough that both men and women regularly hit on him…but right now?

Goddamn, he was barely keeping himself in check.

Tommy looked like pure sin sitting there in a pristine white button up that had the first few buttons undone, exposing the long column of his throat, and as he glanced down at the menu, Buck was completely distracted by the way the angle of the older man’s collar emphasized the sharp jut of his jawline and the exquisite cut of his cheekbones, his steel blue eyes glowing in the candlelight that lit the table between them, his black suit coat a stark contrast to his shirt.

Fuck, he wanted to jump him right then and there.

Marshalling what little control he had, he said, “So, uh…the appetizers look good, don’t they?” even though he hadn’t even glanced at the menu, the weight of it heavy in his hands as he kept on drinking in the sight of the man in front of him.

“Evan, you haven’t even looked at the menu,” Tommy said without even glancing up at him, and he nervously laughed.

“Yeah, yeah…good point.”

He looked down at the tiny font and pretended to scan it for a moment…but then looked back up and leaned in and whispered, “You look so damn good right now, I can barely concentrate, so is it alright if you just order for us?” and smiled when Tommy snorted and shook his head and said, “Oh, you are adorable…but, no,” and finally looked up at him. “If you let me order, I will purposely get you something you don’t like just to teach you a lesson, but I don’t want to do that because it’s Valentine’s Day, so please—please—just look at the damn menu.”

Buck slowly smiled and nodded and then actually took a good long look at the menu, his eyes alighting quickly on two things that he knew he would enjoy without having to deal with any unexpected surprises, and by the time the waitress came back to them, they both put in their meal orders, along with their drinks, and then he settled back in his chair and began to trace a finger around the edge of his water glass as he admired his boyfriend one more time.

“You really do look gorgeous tonight,” he said, thrilled when he saw a faint pink tinge in the other man’s cheeks.

“And you seem determined to make me make a fool of myself tonight. What about you, Mister Buckley?” he retorted, giving him an appreciative look over the edge of his water glass. “You are cutting a fine figure in that gray suit of yours…”

“It’s charcoal.”

Tommy arched an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, my bad.”

They shared a look…and then both broke out into giggles, and as they did, Buck felt Tommy’s real present burning a hole in his pocket and decided that he couldn’t wait until the end of the meal and quickly pulled it out and slid the slim box across the table and said, “I can’t wait until later. Here. This is for you.”

--

Tommy stared at the slim black box Evan had just pushed towards him, beautifully tied with a deep red ribbon into a slightly asymmetrical bow that felt delightfully ‘Evan’.

Curious enough to not ask him why he wanted to exchange gifts right at that moment, he simply nodded, and pulled the box towards him, gently tugging on one of the ribbons before lifting the lid…and then let out a soft gasp at the sight that greeted him.

Resting in a deep red velvet that matched the ribbon was a beautiful watch that he immediately recognized.

“Is that…Evan. How on earth did you…? How…?” was all he was able to get out as he gently removed it from its velvet cushion and brought it closer to the light of the candle so that he could admire the craftsmanship of it—as well as confirm that it was what he thought it was. “This…this is a Bell & Ross BR-03. This…is…it’s a work of art! How did you even afford this?” he found himself asking, hating that that was the first question he could think of, wincing at how it sounded.

But before he could correct himself, Evan was grinning and saying, “I, uh, I found a widow in the area who was selling her husband’s watches—he used to be a pilot—and saw she had one that looked exactly like one of the ones you showed me a couple months ago that you were saving up for, so I…I haggled with her a bit and I got it. You…you really like it?”

He shot him a look.

“Evan, I love it. It’s perfect,” the airman declared as he slid up both the sleeve of his coat and his shirt to put the watch on immediately.

He kept on glancing down at it and then back up at Evan, trying to understand how he had gotten so damn lucky to have a boyfriend like him. The watch was literally the most perfect thing that anyone had ever gotten him—everything down to even the material of the wrist band was exactly what he wanted.

“Yeah, well…I hoped you’d like it,” his boyfriend added with a bashful smile. Fuck, he was perfect.

…and now Tommy couldn’t help but feel that his own gift paled in comparison (even though Howie had told him several times over already that it was perfect).

Still, he managed to marshal his courage and pulled out a similar box from his own suit jacket and cautiously slid it across the table, his heart pounding in his chest as he watched Evan carefully untie the pink ribbon he had used…

…and his heart stopped when he lifted the lid.

“Tommy…”

The silence stretched. Oh, god. Was that good? Or bad?

“You got me a behind-the-scenes tour of Aquarium of the Pacific?!” he practically shouted, and he watched as his boyfriend nearly stood from his chair—but then suddenly remember that they were in a public place and stayed sitting, his gaze glued to the tickets in his hand, eyes wide as he pulled out the folded piece of paper underneath it that explained what all he would be seeing and when it was taking place (in exactly one month).

He quickly scanned it and then said excitedly, “Oh my god, this isn’t just a tour, this-this-this is a full private showing with their head trainer and their head researcher that works with the National Wildlife Foundation! Oh my god, Tommy…” He lifted his eyes back to his, and for a brief moment he swore he could see twelve-year-old Evan Buckley sitting in front of him. “…this is literally the best gift that anyone has ever given me in my life. Ever,” he repeated emphatically, reaching across the table with his free hand to grab at his own, their fingers tightening almost painfully. “How...how did…how did you know?? I’ve, I’ve never told anyone…wait. You talked to Chimney, didn’t you?” he accused, and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, I talked to Howie. And apparently I now owe him one. Or two. Honestly, I don’t know what I owe him at this point,” he said, shaking his head and reaching for his water with his free hand. “But apparently it was the right call…”

They exchanged a look.

And then his boyfriend said, “This is gonna be hard to top. What are we gonna do next year?”

Get married, he thought to himself…but out loud he said just as Evan took a sip of his water, “Hole up in a hotel for two days and fuck each other silly, of course,” grinning when the younger firefighter coughed and nearly choked on his water, thrilled that he’d managed to garner such a reaction.

“That…that’s not a bad idea.”

Tommy shrugged and said, “Yeah, I occasionally have good ones from time to time, it’s been known to happen,” and right as he said that, their food arrived and they shared a quick grin and began to eat, tangling their feet together under the table as they did so, and the airman relished the intimacy and closeness, feeling like he had finally found the person who knew him inside and out, in every sense of the word, and made the mental note to start looking for rings.

God, he couldn’t wait to be married to that man.

--

Buck noticed his boyfriend giving him a dopey smile and asked, “What’s that smile for?” and he just shook his head.

“Nothing. Just…thinking about how much I love you.”

He suspected that wasn’t the entire truth…but he was okay with not knowing what he was really thinking. Hell, this was probably the most perfect night that he had ever experienced in his life, and he didn’t want to ruin it by pushing anything too hard. Besides, Tommy would tell him if something was really on his mind.

They finished dinner fairly quickly—and then Buck was thrilled when Tommy ordered them both dessert in fluent French, something that sounded decadent and sinfully good.

“Fuck, it’s hot when you pull out the French,” he said, unable to help himself, curling his ankle around the back of his, and his boyfriend gave him a look.

“Hot, huh? Want me to start using it in the bedroom? I can start calling you mon petit garçon,” he said as he smirked at him, and Buck felt his stomach flip and he knew that his eyes had dilated, and he tried his best to glare at him.

“Don’t…don’t do that. Not here.”

Tommy chuckled, the sound low, warm, and promising, and he felt it as if his boyfriend had just run his stubbled jaw along the inside of his thighs, the tone of his voice having the same effect on him, even from a distance, and he shifted in his chair to try and hide the effect that it was having on him. As he moved, however, his boyfriend shot him a knowing look, and Buck knew that he knew the effect he was having on him.

Smug bastard, he thought to himself.

Still reeling from the present Tommy had given him, he said one last time, “Seriously, this gift, it’s really…it’s really the most amazing thing anyone has ever gotten me,” and reached out for his hand across the table, feeling a sense of relief when his boyfriend squeezed his fingers and gave him a soft smile.

“I’m really glad you like it, Ev.”

He looked like he was about to say something else—but then dessert arrived, and Buck stared at the chocolate concoction that was placed on the table between them with two spoons and he marveled at it for a moment before saying, “Okay, now this…this looks like the best thing I’ve never had. What is this?”

“It’s called gâteau royal,” Tommy explained as he dug his spoon into it. “It’s made from almond meringue, praline feuilletine, and the top layer is dark chocolate mousse. It’s also sometimes called a Trianon because it has three layers…”

Buck took a bit and moaned at the rich flavor that exploded across his tongue.

Tommy shot him a look, one eyebrow raised.

“Evan…save those sounds for later.”

He smirked.

Yeah, this was the best Valentine’s Day ever.

[nephilimeq]

Coastal

Prompt: Beach Date

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/161382943

Buck was doing his best to contain his excitement at being able to spend the next forty-eight hours with his boyfriend at the beach…

…but he had the distinct impression that he was not concealing it, as Tommy suddenly snapped, “Evan, I have the towels! And the sunscreen. And the snacks, drinks, cooler, umbrella, and everything else you told me was on the list for the past four hours!”

Yeah, so he might’ve been pushing a little bit.

“Sorry, babe. Just…we get a beach weekend! And instead of having to share some generic tourist beach, you got permission to take us to a beach with private access! I mean, c’mon,” he pleaded with him, stepping towards him and gently grabbing at his hand. “Lemme be a little bit excited about this?”

His boyfriend regarded him with a soft look…and then slowly smiled and said, “Okay. You can be a little bit excited. Just…pull it back a bit?”

Buck smiled back at him.

“Yeah, I can do that.” He squeezed his fingers between his own. “So, I’m done with packing the clothes and camping gear, and I’ve put it all in the truck. Do you have your stuff in the truck?” and Tommy nodded, and he felt some of the tension leave him knowing that things were where they were supposed to be. He had been looking forward to their beach trip for the longest time—and that longing had been exacerbated by the double date they had gone on just the previous weekend with Bobby and Athena.

It was now their official weekend off with no interruptions for the next three days, and Buck found every inch of his body practically vibrating with excitement at being able to be alone with boyfriend for several days with a guarantee that they would not be interrupted.

No wifi, no signals, just their radios and a backup satellite phone.

God, he couldn’t wait.

--

Tommy helped Evan haul their gear out of the truck and to their hidden campsite that Sal had given him permission to use. His boyfriend was nearly bouncing on his toes as he effortlessly lifted the fifty-pound cooler from the truck and hoisted it over his shoulder, and the airman took a moment to appreciate the bulging of his bicep as he did so, Evan’s mouth still running a mile a minute about some sort of fish that he had discovered was native to the area where they would be swimming.

He trailed behind him and smiled when Evan suddenly said, “I see our camping spot, babe! Looks great!”

He still wasn’t sure how their plans for a beach date had turned into a two-day camping trip, but it had, so there they were setting up their supplies practically right on the beach, the sound of the waves softly brushing over the sand reaching his ears as he crested the dune.

God, he owed Sal big time for this.

The wind had picked up a bit, and so he made the mental note to tie down the tent a bit tighter.

Of the two of them, Evan had probably been camping far more recently than he had—but Tommy was a bit more seasoned at setting up camp, so after a heated discussion Evan had finally conceded and let his boyfriend handle the actual setting up of the camp.

“It’s really beautiful here,” he said as he walked over to his boyfriend, who was looking over the beach with wide eyes. “Might have to come here more than once, you know?”

“Yeah, definitely. This is gonna be a great couple of days, babe.”

He then leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of Tommy’s lips and then moved to open up the cooler that he had carted down, already pulling out a couple of tonic waters for the two of them. Neither of them cared for straight water, but they had decided that they didn’t want to get drunk and not remember part of their date slash trip, so instead had split the difference and had packed tonic water, ginger ale, and a few juices for each of them.

There was also a lot of good food, as well as a few things that could easily be cooked on a camping stove, and he was trusting his boyfriend to not mess those up. They were there to make good memories after all.

--

Buck marveled at the campsite, keeping an eye on Tommy as he set up their tent, taking a moment to admire his muscles flexing in his short sleeve shirt and four-inch inseam shorts that he wore whenever he was outside, glad that they were completely alone. He didn’t want anyone else seeing the gorgeous view of his boyfriend.

“Looking good, babe!” he called out from where he stood a bit further off to the side, sipping at his tonic water.

Did he wish he had a lime or two and some sort of alcohol to mix with it? Yeah, sure—but he knew why he and Tommy had decided to not have alcohol for the next two days, and he honestly understood it.

They had been living together for only two weeks, but it felt as if he had always lived there. A new flow had been formed between them and it was now practically second nature to wake up next to him every morning, reach over him to turn off his vintage alarm clock, and then wrap an arm around his chest and say into his neck, “Time to get up,” and for Tommy to nod, press a kiss to his forehead, and then slip out of bed as if it was nothing to him, not even needing to blink himself awake, something that Buck honestly admired about him. It took him hitting snooze at least four times before he could even attempt to drag himself out from under the warmth of the covers.

They were eating meals together, working out together—occasionally showering together, when time permitted—and spent their free time either with each other or with either their friends from the 118 or the 217. Buck had gotten to know Sal better, and found that the man was actually funnier than he realized.

Lucy, on the other hand, had been a bit trickier to befriend (considering their previous history), but even now after just a few weeks, they were getting along like nothing had happened.

“Evan! Need your help, please!” Tommy called out, breaking him from his thoughts.

Shaking his head, he walked back over to him, depositing his drink back into the cooler along the way, and then helped him brace part of the tent as his boyfriend leaned over and hammered one of the stakes into the ground, and Buck took advantage of the angle to leer at the delicious curve of his boyfriend’s ass and thighs.

“Mmm, this is a nice view, babe,” he couldn’t help but comment.

Tommy snorted.

“Ogling my ass again?”

Buck nodded.

“Every time I can.”

He then was about to reach out to slap it nice and hard—but Tommy said firmly, “Don’t. Move. I’m not done,” and he stayed exactly where he’d been asked to, feeling a rush run through him at the tone of his voice, the sound of it immediately reminding him of nights in their bed where the older man would pin him down with a hand on his wrists and a fire in his eyes.

--

Tommy smirked as he noticed the way Evan reacted to his voice and chuckled as he bent over to hammer in the next stake.

He purposely popped his hip on one side, knowing full well that his boyfriend’s eyes were glued to his ass, and he reveled in the attention. He had been feeling a little bit insecure recently, and so it felt good when he knew that his boyfriend couldn’t keep his eyes—or hands—off him.

And just as he suspected, a moment later there was a pair of hands on his hips and Evan said, “Fuck, you look so good in these shorts,” and rubbed his thumbs along the side seams.

He shot a look at him over his shoulder.

“Wore them just for you, babe,” he said with a wink through his sunglasses. “Now, are you gonna keep helping or are you gonna keep groping my ass?” and without missing a beat, his boyfriend said, “Why can’t I do both?” and he laughed and straightened up and said, “After we’re done setting up, I give you full permission to have your way with any part of my body that you want…but until then, you and I are finishing up with this first.” He lowered his sunglasses and gave him a look. “Understood?”

“Ugh, fine!” he whined, pulling his hands away and rolling his eyes, and Tommy just shook his head and slowly stood up and moved to the next corner of the tent and had Evan help him as they repeated the process three more times.

By the time they were done, he was feeling parched—but before he could ask, Evan was already at his side with a drink in hand.

“Here, babe.”

“Thanks.”

They stood there admiring their hard work, sipping at their drinks, enjoying the feel of the wind and the sound of the waves…and then the next thing he knew his boyfriend had tackled him around the waist, thrown him bodily over his shoulder, and was jogging towards the water—and he coughed as he bounced on his shoulder and slapped at Evan’s ass as he said, “Evan! What…what are…what are you doing?” and in response he was thrown into the water with his boyfriend’s arms still wrapped around him.

He was disoriented for a moment and then came up, spluttering, and ran his hands over his face and pushed his hair off it and said, “Evan…what are you doing?”, laughing as he did so, and stared at the wet mess that was his boyfriend, who emerged from the water in front of him grinning like a madman, eyes sparkling through his soaked, blonde curls.

--

“Drowning you, of course. This was my plan,” Buck said as he moved towards his smoking hot boyfriend in the low surf, doing his best to wipe his hair off his face. “Convince you to come to a private beach and then kill you and hide your body out in the ocean. It’s the perfect crime…”

He was thrilled when Tommy threw his head back and laughed with his full body, every inch of him practically on display with the way the water made his clothes cling to his body.

“I think you need to think that plan through a little bit more, Ev,” he drawled, still blinking water from his eyelashes.

Buck barely heard him, completely focused on the way his gray t-shirt was completely sheer, showing off the broad planes of his shoulders and chest…and as he tugged at his shirt, it still continued to show his thick, wide stomach that the young firefighter loved, and worshipped as often as he could in the bedroom…as well as various other locations. And now the only thought in his mind was seeing if he could convince his boyfriend to skip cooking their dinner and instead go straight to the tent to christen their sleeping bag.

…and then his brain short-circuited the rest of the way as Tommy said, “Ugh, hate the feel of wet clothes,” and then swept the shirt off him in one smooth movement, revealing him in all his glory naked from the waist up—and as he emerged from the shallow water, it was like pure porn for his brain.

Dripping wet wearing only his short red shorts with his hair slicked back from his face, he looked like the beginning of every SeanCody wet dream he’d ever had.

Fuck.

He suddenly noticed his cock making itself known, beginning to harden in his own shorts, and he couldn’t help but say, “Oh, can we…can we fuck in the tent, now?”, not caring how needy he sounded, even as he slowly followed after his boyfriend like a dog following its master, eyes glued to his boyfriend’s entire body.

“Evan, you’re staring.”

“Fuck yeah, I’m staring. I have a hot ass boyfriend and right now all I wanna do is have him fuck me face first into our new sleeping bag,” he said bluntly, pleased when Tommy coughed and said, “Jesus, babe! We just got here…!”

Buck shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

Tommy laughed and shook his head, bending over slightly at the waist, making the fat bulge over the top of his shorts and he wanted to bite into it, and then his boyfriend said through his laughter, “How about we get some food and dry off and spend some time together first…and then I’ll fuck you so hard you forget your own name, alright?” and at that, Buck lit up, realizing that his boyfriend did wanna have sex, just not right at that moment.

Oh, thank god.

--

Tommy was amused at how eager his boyfriend was to have sex just from seeing him shirtless in the ocean—but at the same time wasn’t too surprised. If there was one thing that his boyfriend was good at, it was making him feel wanted and desired.

As he pulled out the food that they were about to grill up on their camp stove, he thought of how different it felt with Evan than it had with his previous boyfriends.

The airman was used to being objectified from both before and after he had come out as gay…but it had gotten worse after he’d come out.

With women, he mused as Evan took over the cooking, sitting next to him on a shared log, he had easily fallen into the role of being the man in the relationship and had been fine with them talking about how strong and manly he was, even if he’d felt nothing towards them in return—but with men it was like he had an almost god-like status and whenever he had stepped foot into a gay establishment of any kind (didn’t seem to matter what it was), he had always been mobbed and had men of every kind wanting to call him daddy and automatically assume from his looks that he was a stone cold top…

…but the truth was he liked being soft and enjoyed bottoming as much as he topped. And Evan was the first man he had ever been with who hadn’t assumed a thing and it was like he could finally breathe for the first time in a relationship.

“Hey, you still want yours pink in the middle?” the man in question asked, and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, like always.”

Evan shot him a bright smile and said, “Just wanted to make sure. Didn’t want to assume,” and then leaned over just far enough to press a kiss to his cheek, and the airman grinned, marveling at the fact that his boyfriend never assumed anything and always asked.

That was how it had been their first time together, actually.

Tommy still remembered the shock he felt when their’ making out had been getting hot and heavy, both of them having removed their shirts and jeans, lying on the bed in just their underwear, hands sliding everywhere, and then Evan had gripped his hip as he gently pulled back, panting, and then had asked him in a strung out voice, “How you wanna do this? Me first? You first? Maybe just get each other off just like this?” and he hadn’t known how to react.

Evan had then pulled back, obviously concerned because of how his boyfriend had frozen underneath him, and had said, “Hey, you okay? Did-did I do…do something wrong?” and Tommy had finally unfrozen and had hastily replied, “No, Evan, I’m fine. I’m just…you’d be okay with…either one?”

“Well, yeah,” he’d said, chuckling. “I don’t know your preferences, and I’m still learning mine, so…err on the side of caution, right?”

…and Tommy had known in that moment that he was with someone who actually cared about him, and everything had changed in an instant.

A nudge at his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see Evan smiling at him, a faint furrow in his brow.

“Hey, what’s got you all serious? We’re at the beach, you know. This is vacation,” he said, nudging him a second time, and the airman let out a low laugh and said, “It’s two days off, not a vacation…and I was thinking about our first time together,” he answered honestly, smirking when he saw his boyfriend’s cheeks go pink as he ducked his eyes, looking back at the food he was cooking. “You were so amazing…”

“Yeah, well, so were you,” Evan said back, looking shyly proud of himself.

--

He flushed under the heat of his boyfriend’s eyes and the burgers cooking in front of him. Yeah, he remembered their first time. He had been so nervous that his hands had been shaking, and he had been amazed that he was able to have someone as beautiful as Tommy Kinard in his bed…

…and now he had him every day for as long as he would have him.

Even as he kept his eyes focused on the food, he could feel his boyfriend’s gaze on him, and he smirked.

“You, uh…you’re staring,” he said, and Tommy said, “Yeah, I am. You have a problem with that?” and he shook his head, still smiling down at the food, looking forward to later when he would be able to wrap his legs around that wonderfully thick waist of his and let himself be fucked right into the mattress—the images of it were already making his cock stir a second time, and he tried to discreetly shift his position, not wanting to let his boyfriend know that he was already horny.

But then he felt breath on his neck and his heart skipped a beat when Tommy said into his ear, “I see you’re already getting excited. Good. That’ll make it easier for me to get you off quick before I fuck you into your second orgasm…”

Buck swallowed.

Hard.

“Uh…yeah. Yeah, sure, that sounds…that sounds great,” he said a little too breathlessly for his own liking.

Tommy chuckled and moved to go retrieve them a couple more drinks (thank god he had stocked up so many extras for them in the cooler) and Buck did his best to not stare at him as he moved past him, his thigh at the level of his head, holding back the urge to simply pull it towards him and sink his teeth into the muscle just under his buttocks.

God, it had only been a couple of days since they’d had sex, and he was feeling the effects of not having it—and the prospect of sex in a tent on the beach was probably (okay, definitely) one of his fantasies and he was finally going to be able to fulfill it. He finished cooking up the burgers as fast as he could, grateful when Tommy came back with the buns and extras that he’d packed, and they soon got to eating, the two of them settling into that comfortable rhythm that they had developed over the past couple of weeks.

They kept the conversation light, steering away from the more heated subjects…up until they were finishing, and then his boyfriend leaned in and whispered, “Get your cute ass into that tent right now,” and Buck practically leapt to his feet.

“Yes, sir,” he said with a mock salute—and then a hand slapped hard on his ass.

“That’s daddy, to you, kid.”

Fuck.

So it was like that tonight, huh?

He grinned.