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Tommy had seen Buck's doe-eyed school boy crush from a mile away. He wasn't exactly subtle when he'd come for the tour of the station.
“Hey!” Tommy had said. “Buck, right? How's it going?”
Buck's shy smile had poked through his cool facade. “Y-yeah,” he’d said, stuttering and stumbling over his words. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and his shoulders bunched up to his ears. “B-but you can – you can call me Evan.”
Tommy humoured him. He called him Evan as he followed Tommy around the station and through the hangar and out to the helicopter bay. It was impossible for him to not notice Buck’s wide eyes and equally wide smile, like he was trying so hard to impress Tommy but could help being impressed by Tommy. He looked like he was about two seconds away from asking Tommy to paint a football number on his cheek and go to homecoming with him.
He knew Buck was a good guy and a good firefighter – he'd seen him in action and heard stories from Eddie. A lot of stories, if he thought about it. Eddie had a way of bringing Buck or Christopher into every conversation. It made sense then why Buck’s whole demeanour soured when Eddie arrived for their Vegas trip. Buck had a school boy crush on Tommy, no questions there. The blushing alone was proof of that. But Buck was clearly in love with Eddie. (Eddie was in love with Buck too – he just hadn't realized it yet.)
It made sense when he saw Buck’s wistful gaze tracking them out the door when he picked Eddie up for their karaoke night. It made sense when Buck showed up to the basketball game that Eddie swore he’d never show up to and had more eyes for Eddie than the ball. It even made sense when he froze in place after knocking Eddie to the ground instead of following his first responder training. Buck was in love with Eddie, and Buck was jealous of Tommy taking up Eddie's time.
He went over to Buck's apartment to clear the air – to tell Buck he wasn't interested in Eddie as anything more than a friend.
“Trying to get your attention has been kind of exhausting.”
That didn't make sense. “My attention?” Tommy clarified.
Maybe Buck didn't know he was in love with Eddie either. Shit.
Tommy gave Buck a quick once over (not that he hadn’t already been looking), and made a split second decision. Buck was cute. Buck was currently into Tommy. Buck was probably new to dating men and, as evidenced by Eddie’s sprained ankle, had all the grace of a baby deer. Maybe Buck needed to explore his sexuality before he would be able to acknowledge his feelings for Eddie. Besides, Eddie was still with Marisol. So it wasn’t like Tommy would be getting in between Buck and Eddie.
This couldn’t last. If they dated, it wouldn’t be able to last once Buck and Eddie realized their feelings for each other. No, it wouldn’t last. But it would certainly be fun while it did.
Tommy cut off Buck’s adorable rambling and kissed him.
He could enjoy this while he had it.