Work Text:
Evan: Bobby told us to bring some sort of vegetables
Tommy read over the text message for the third time, increasingly confused the more times he read it.
He was on shift today, and so was Evan. It was a Wednesday.
They had gone to Bobby and Athena’s for dinner last weekend. It was a nice, relaxing evening, and somewhat entertaining from the stories that were shared. He also met Athena’s daughter, May. She was a nice girl.
Tommy didn’t remember anything about them planning another dinner. Maybe they did, maybe Tommy didn’t hear Evan and Bobby talk about it.
Maybe Evan and Bobby just planned this today, during their shift.
Or maybe the text wasn’t supposed to go to him in the first place. It wasn’t the first, and would be far from the last, time Evan sent him a text that was supposed to go to someone else.
Maybe the 118 was doing another grocery run and Bobby told Evan and Eddie to go pick out vegetables.
That’s probably what it was.
He texted Evan back.
Tommy: Ok 👍
In hindsight, looking back on it, Tommy should have realized what time of year it was - mid-November. Maybe then it would have occurred to him the text was for some sort of Thanksgiving dinner.
He was never really one to keep track of what time of the years it was, however.
The next weekend, Tommy and Evan were at the grocery store , about to check out when Evan remembered - the vegetables!
“We forgot the vegetables!” he said as he stopped their shopping cart in the middle of the aisle, Tommy ran into him from behind.
“What do you mean, we got vegetables already?” he asked as he looked down in the cart. Carrots, potatoes, corn, onions, peppers, it was all there.
“No,” Buck said. “Didn’t you get my text on Wednesday? Bobby said we had to make some sort of vegetables for the Firehouse Thanksgiving?”
“Firehouse Thanksgiving?” Tommy asked. It wasn’t the first time he had heard of the concept. They had them at Harbor, but it was usually only the people on shift that day making a Turkey with some other sides. When Bobby first got to the 118 and Tommy was still there, it was similar, although Bobby spent a lot of time cooking the turkey.
But the way Evan was talking about it now, sort of told Tommy that these days it was more than just Bobby cooking a delicious turkey and ham.
Evan blinked up at him. “Did I not tell you about it?” he asked. Tommy shook his head ‘no.’ “Oh, well, on Tuesday we’re having a big dinner at Bobby and Athena’s new place. Everyone’s invited, and I mean everyone.” Evan said as he grabbed the cart and started heading back in the direction they came from, to the racks of vegetables at the back of the supermarket.
“Okay,” Tommy said as he followed Evan.
“I already know you’re not on shift. So you’ll be there right?” Evan asked.
“Wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
“Okay so now, vegetables,” Evan said as he stopped in the produce section. Tommy stopped next to him.
“So what kind of vegetables should we be bringing?” he asked.
🥕 🦃 🌽 🦃 🥕
They ended up buying an assortment of vegetables, and Tommy helped his boyfriend make a nice glazed vegetable dish. It looked good, really good. Good enough that Evan had also glared at him and kicked him out of the kitchen when he tried to take a forkful earlier.
As Tommy drove up and parked on the street outside of Bobby’s house, he was surprised by the amount of vehicles there were.
“So when you said that everyone would be here,” Tommy started. “How many people did you mean exactly?”
“Oh well,” Buck hummed. “There’s Bobby and Athena, obviously. And Athena’s kids. Eddie’s going to be there too. Then Chimney, Maddie and Jee are coming, obviously. So are Hen, Karen, and their kids. Oh, then Johnson is coming with his three kids, and Morgan is bringing his wife, and…” Tommy sort of lost track of how many people were coming when Evan listed the third name he hadn’t heard of before. But he got the picture, there would be a lot of people here tonight. So much for him thinking he would know most of the people here.
“Shall we go in then?” he asked as he parked his truck.
“Yeah,” Evan said, smiling. He got out of the truck and reached in the back for the serving platter of vegetables as Tommy got out and rounded the truck. Tommy followed behind Even as he walked up to the front door.
“Oh, you two made it!” Chimney said as he opened the door to them. Jee following behind the man. “We were wondering when you two were going to show up. Bobby’s over in the kitchen, you can take that over to him,” Chimney said as he looked at the dish in Evan’s hands.
As Buck took the vegetables to the kitchen, Jee grabbed hold of Tommy’s pant leg, dragging the man behind her to show something she had made out of legos in the living room with a group of other kids. Chimney followed behind both of them.
The rest of the evening ended up being really nice, in Tommy’s mind. Shortly after they arrived, Eddie and a couple other people came in, then they all sat down at a long table set up in the backyard.
“This was nice,” Tommy said later that night as they were walking back to his truck. Buck carried a container of leftovers in his arms. It was a lot of food, it would probably last them until the actual Thanksgiving came around.
“Yeah?” he said, looking over at Tommy.
“Yeah,” Tommy said, smiling and leaning over to press a kiss to Buck’s forehead.