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There were a lot of things in his life that just didn’t go Buck’s way. Take for instance his childhood relationship with his parents. It wasn’t horrible by any means, they provided all the material things he needed and they didn’t abuse him, but their involvement in his life had been extremely lacking. Still was really.
Recently, there was a lot of stuff. His boyfriend had dumped him last fall, leading to the downfall of a lot of things. Then his best friend moved halfway across the country to Texas, then Bobby died, which had just about ruined him, then his best friend came back, and decided to stay only after they got into a huge fight. (And Buck had kind of sort of gotten kicked out of his house.)
But there were also things that did go Buck’s way.
Like finally getting his Jeep back after some major repairs. Sure, the rental pickup truck was great for moving from the loft to Eddie’s, but he loved the Jeep. Also, Maddie gave birth to his new nephew, and even though naming the boy after Bobby had caused some feelings within Buck, the baby was a great baby (in all the ways you could measure what a great baby meant).
And most recently, getting back together with Tommy.
(And moving into Tommy’s place after leaving Eddie’s.)
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“So what did you get up this weekend, Buck?” Hen asked, as she walked up to him in the kitchen at the start of shift.
“Mmm… Me?” he asked. His head popped up to look at her with wide eyes.
“Yeah, you,” she said. “Anyone else named Buck here?”
“Oh… uh,” he stumbled over his words. He had spent almost the entire weekend in Tommy’s bed, and in his kitchen, and a little bit in Tommy’s bathroom. “I just… hung out at home mostly,” he said.
“Just hung out at home?” Hen asked. “Since when do you spend most of your time at home? You’re always finding some event in the city to go to.”
And that most certainly was true. He was always finding new things to do or events and fairs that were going on. He hated spending entire days at home and not leaving the house.
He supposed he could tell her that it was Tommy he was spending time with, she most certainly would catch onto what he meant by spending most of the weekend at home. But he stopped himself.
Every other time he spoke about reaching out to Tommy or hoping to get back together with the man, the others had been… quick to tell him to temper his expectations. Either that or tell him he just needed to move on.
Now that they actually had been seeing each other again, he wanted to keep it a secret. Not that he thought it would jinx them to tell anyone, he fully intended on keeping Tommy his for as long as possible, but he just wanted this new thing with Tommy to be their little special thing for just a bit longer.
“It’s just… moving into the new place and all, I needed some time to unpack everything,” Buck said, and he surely hoped that by saying that no one asked to come over, because his stuff was most definitely not unpacked.
Hen seemed to accept that answer, and didn’t push him on it.
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Chimney popped his head around the doorway of the supply closet one morning as Buck was doing some reorganizing.
“Hey Buck~” Chimney started. “Can I ask you a question?”
Buck put down the box he was holding. “You just asked me a question,” he said.
“Okay, you got me there,” Chimney said, rolling his eyes. “Can I ask you for a favor?”
“You’re the Captain,” Buck said. “You don’t really need to ask me for a favor, just tell me what to do.”
Chimney grabbed the box of paper towels before Buck could. “A personal favor,” Chimney said.
“Just tell me what you need Chim,” Buck said.
“Would you be able to babysit Jee and Robbie Saturday night?” Chimney asked, the words rushing out of his mouth. “And before you say no, I’ll make it up to you big time. Whatever you want, an extra shift off, choice of K Days for the next month. No chores for the next month, you name it. Our babysitter just told us she was heading out of town this morning and we bought these tickets for the concert months ago! This will be our first night out since Robbie was born!”
Buck would have loved to say yes. He loved to spend time with the kids, but he held himself back. If his only plans for Saturday were hanging out at Tommy’s or his place, he would have said yes in a heartbeat. Tommy would surely understand.
Only their plans for Saturday night weren’t just staying at home. Tommy knew a guy who was able to get them some tickets to some big movie premier. Some remake of a movie from the 80’s, Buck didn’t know exactly what the name of it was or what it was about.
Buck wasn’t one who cared much for movies, nearly everyone knew that, but Tommy did. And with everything that went wrong with their relationship in the past, Buck didn’t want to blow off anything that he knew Tommy liked.
“Sorry man, I already have plans on Saturday,” Buck told Chimney. “But maybe you can ask Hen if Mara could babysit for a couple hours, she’s in middle school now right?”
“You mean the girl who nearly set our oven off three times while she was living with us?” Chimney asked.
“It’s been over a year,” Buck said. “I’m sure she knows how to use it now. You could also just order pizza for them?”
“Even so, I don’t want to leave a twelve year old with a rambunctious four year old and a three month old,” Chimney said, hanging his head.
Buck held back a wince at the man’s plight. “I’m sorry man,” Buck said. “But really, I can’t.”
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“Hey Buck,” Eddie started as he walked up to him in the locker room at the start of their next shift.
“What’s up?” Buck asked as he finished getting changed into his uniform.
“So I found some stuff of yours at my place that you must have left when you moved out,” Eddie said. “A bookcase and one of those end table things for the living room. I take it you will want those back, right?” Eddie asked.
Buck’s eyes widened in recognition. Truthfully, when he moved into Tommy’s place, he put most of his furniture into storage. Tommy had a full household of furniture, most of it better than Buck’s, so it wasn’t like Buck had much use for it. What was in storage or forgotten at Eddie’s house, Buck wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
“Oh, yeah?” Buck asked. “Um… yeah, getting them back would be nice. But it’s no rush man.”
“I could just drop it off at your place,” Eddie said. “You live near North Central Hospital right? I’ll be going over there to drop Chris off for a sleepover tomorrow anyway. Could also check out this new place of yours?”
If it wasn’t for the fact that Eddie had already seen his new place, because he was living with Tommy. Though it had probably been about a year since Eddie had been to Tommy’s house. But the point was all the same. He still hadn’t even told anyone he was dating Tommy again, let alone living with the man now.
“You know what? Really Eddie, you don’t have to worry about bringing it over,” Buck tried to say again. “I have to drive by your place to get to mine anyway. I can pick it up right after we get off tomorrow morning. And anyway, it will fit in my Jeep better than your prius.”
He didn’t miss the wince Eddie had at that. Eddie still had the prius, hated it, and was looking to get another truck to replace it, with very little luck.
“Now that you mention it, yeah,” Eddie said. “I still want to see this new place of yours though.”
“Oh yeah,” Buck nodded, forcing a smile on his face. “We’ll have to find a time.”
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“Why don’t you come over for dinner tomorrow?” Athena had asked Buck when they ran into each other at a scene. “”We can catch up. May will be there too before heading back for her last semester.”
“Oh, tomorrow?” Buck asked. “Um… I-”
“You’re telling me you have plans on a Wednesday night?” Athena asked.
Well… he and Tommy did have plans to go down to San Diego. They had finally had the same day off in two weeks and wanted to do something meaningful with it. He doubted that they would be getting back in time for dinner.
“Actually,” Buck started. “I’m heading down to San Diego with a friend tomorrow.”
“A friend?” Athena asked. “Do I know them?”
“Um…” Buck said. “Y- yeah… you do.”
He saw Athena lift an eyebrow at that answer, and right as she went to answer, he heard Chimney yell.
“Hey Buck! We’re heading back!” Chimney called to him as the captain climbed into the ladder truck.
“Oh, sorry ‘thena. I got to go. I’ll text you to schedule some other time!” he said as he started jogging to the truck.
“Hey, Buck. Wait!" She tried to call out to the man. Then shook her head when she realized it was no use.
But she had to wonder. Who was so important that Buck would rather spend time with them than her?
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Of course it would be Ravi’s luck that he would be the first person to run into Buck and Tommy and they were out on a date.
And the thing was, it wasn’t really a ‘date’ to begin with, nor was it obvious to Ravi that Buck and Tommy were together when he saw them.
It was a Saturday afternoon, Buck and Tommy were at the grocery store when Tommy had stepped away to grab something from another aisle. Ravi first saw Buck looking over the stand of tomatoes.
“Hey, Buck,” Ravi greeted him as he walked by.
“Oh, hey Ravi,” Buck said. "What's up?”
“Not much,” Ravi said. “Just getting some food for the week.”
“Yeah, same,” Buck said as he picked out three tomatoes. “You’re scheduled to work Tuesday and Friday this week, right?” Buck asked.
“Yeah,” Ravi said. “See you Tuesday.”
As Ravi stepped away from the produce, he turned down the next aisle, seeing Tommy looking at the shelves of spices.
Tommy had grabbed two jars of nutmeg and paprika and turned to his right, making eye contact with Ravi as he did so. “Oh, hey Ravi,” Tommy said.
“H- hey, Tommy,” Ravi said, slightly caught off guard. He wouldn’t have been if it was only Tommy he saw here today. But to see the man less than two minutes after he was just talking to Buck in the other aisle.
Tommy moved to walk past him, most likely turning down the aisle Ravi had just come from, the aisle where Buck still was. And, to help a friend out, well both of these guys, Ravi felt the need to stop him.
“Um… say, do you know where the onion powder is?” he asked quickly.
“Onion powder?” Tommy asked.
Ravi nodded. “It’s just, I’ve been looking for it for weeks now, but whenever I come here I can’t find it on this shelf.” That was a complete lie. Ravi had a jar of it at his house that had been sitting unopened in his pantry for about a month now. He could also see it clear as day on the top of the shelf.
“Oh well,” Tommy turned back to the shelf of spices and quickly scanned them, almost immediately spotting the onion powder on the top. “It’s right here,” Tommy said as he picked a jar of it up and handed it to Ravi.
“Oh, there you are!” Ravi heard Buck’s voice say from behind him. Shit. He had been hoping to keep these two separated. But Buck was already looking past Ravi, had been since he first rounded the corner to the aisle.
“I got the ones you wanted,” Tommy said, which had Ravi spin right back around, because Tommy was holding out the spice bottles out to Buck.
“Great!” Buck explained as he pushed his shopping cart down to Tommy.
“Wait,” Ravi said, interrupting them. “You two came here together?”
“Yeah?” Tommy said, in the way saying ‘of course, isn’t it obvious?’
“Are you dating- since when?” Ravi asked, confused and caught off guard and a whole host of other emotions his mind was running too fast to be able to process.
“Um…” Buck lightly huffed as he rubbed the bottom of his nose in embarrassment. “Since… about two months ago?”
“Two months?” Ravi asked. “You’ve been hiding it this whole time?”
“It’s not like I’ve been trying to hide it,” Buck said, slightly defensive.
“You’ve just forgotten to say it whenever anyone asked you what your plans were,” Ravi said.
Buck… didn’t know what to say for that. “Sorry?” he said, more like a question than a statement. “I didn’t mean to! Really! And you can tell the others if you want. In fact, it will probably be better if you tell the others,” Buck mumbled at the end.
Tommy chuckled from where he stood a couple feet down the aisle now. “Come on Evan,” he said. “You’ve told them you were dating me once before, you can do it again.”