Archive of Our Own

Three months after following Howie’s request to borrow an LAFD helicopter to fly out over international water to search for a cruise ship that might or might not be missing, Tommy sprained his wrist during a three-alarm fire. The sprain was bad enough that he was not only grounded from flying but also strongly advised to take some time off instead of insisting on light duty.

Every other time, Tommy would have argued about taking time off, and he knew his captain, Hayden Stack, was expecting an argument from him when Tommy came back from the hospital to Harbor to pick up his car. But at every other point in time in the past, Tommy hadn’t had a boyfriend who was about to leave on his annual summer holiday.

Evan was on shift himself when Tommy was injured, so Tommy wasn’t surprised that the scuttlebutt of the LAFD had carried the information to him before Tommy was even done in radiology for the X-ray to check if the bone was broken. When Tommy came back to the waiting room after taking the X-rays, he had two missed calls and a text from Evan asking if he was okay and to please call back.

“I’m fine, Evan,” Tommy said as soon as his call was answered.

Evan huffed. “From what I heard, you fell down a flight of stairs.”

“That’s a little dramatic,” Tommy said and rolled his eyes. “I fell down the last three steps of a set of stairs.” He might have also been hit in the back by the part of the ceiling that had come down unexpectedly and caused that fall, but Evan only needed to learn about that when he saw the bruises on his back—or more importantly, when he wasn’t stuck on shift anymore and left to worry without a chance to see for himself that everything was okay. “Banged up my left wrist pretty badly because I landed on that arm. I’m just out of radiology, but I’d be very surprised if there is as much as a hairline fracture.”

“What hospital are you at?”

Tommy chuckled. “You’re on shift for another eight hours.”

“It’s slow for us,” Evan said. “Bobby would let me go for an hour.”

“I’d rather you take that hour to rest and get some sleep so we can have breakfast in the morning,” Tommy said. “I can pick you up after your shift ends.”

“Can you drive?” Evan asked skeptically.

“I’ll take an Uber, and you can drive your own car.”

Evan sighed. “You’re really okay?”

“I am,” Tommy promised. “I’ll be sore for a while, but that’s all. And of course, I’ll have to argue with Cap about letting me do light duty instead of benching me completely. That would be harder if it were my right arm.”

Evan hummed, and after a long moment of silence, he said, “Or you could come with me, after all?”

Tommy ran his tongue over his lips. It was Evan’s second-to-last shift before the annual two weeks he apparently took off every summer. Howie and Eddie both had claimed Evan was reliving his years of travelling in that time, but they didn’t actually know where Evan was going. And Evan had only grinned and told Tommy he’d have to come with him to find out. Tommy had tried to take the time off, but it had been too short notice when he had learned about this holiday just three weeks ago.

“I’ll ask the doctor about travelling,” Tommy said.

“A sprained wrist should be no hindrance to taking a flight and letting me drive you around,” Evan said skeptically, and maybe even a little bit suspiciously.

Tommy ducked his head. “I’ll text you as soon as I know more.”

“It’s not just the wrist, is it?”

In the background, Tommy heard the siren of the 118 go off and grinned wryly about that timely escape. “I’m fine, I promise. I’ll text you. I’d love to come with you if I’m allowed to fly.”

Evan huffed. “I have to go.”

“I hear,” Tommy agreed. “Be safe.”

“I’ll do my best,” Evan promised, and then the call ended.

Half an hour after the call, Tommy was assured by his doctor that he wouldn’t be very comfortable on a plane or even a prolonged car ride, but he was free to travel as much as he wanted. So, Tommy texted Evan that he would be happy to accompany him on his holiday and returned to Harbor, where his captain accepted the paperwork from the hospital with a worried frown.

“Three weeks,” Hayden said and looked up from the paperwork. “That’s a bad sprain.”

They were sitting in the kitchen area of their station, with everyone else not that far away, so they could all eavesdrop. Tommy didn’t mind. The crew here at Harbor was good, and he knew they were all worried.

Tommy sighed and dragged the fingers of his right hand through his hair. “It was a bad fall. I think I’m pretty lucky I got away with just a couple of bruises and a sprained wrist.”

Hayden nodded. “I know this is probably futile, but is there any chance I can convince you to actually take some time off? At least a week?”

Tommy grinned. “I thought about taking the whole time off and not asking for light duty at all.”

Hayden stared at him, flabbergasted, his mouth hanging open.

Tarek chuckled. “Doesn’t your boyfriend go on vacation in a couple of days?”

Tommy grinned and shrugged, which he regretted immediately. “Evan has another shift in two days, then the day after he leaves. I still don’t know where he is headed, but he asked me to come with him again when we talked earlier.”

Hayden huffed out a laugh. “If I didn’t know you very well, Tommy, I’d wonder if you’d gotten hurt on purpose.”

“He is smitten,” Tarek agreed. “It’s been months now, and still all the chatter we get from Tommy in the helicopter is about Evan. You did complain quite a lot that you wouldn’t be able to go with him.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Sure, I made that ceiling fall on me somehow.”

Hayden sighed. “I’m sorry that the evacuation order came too late.”

“That’s the job, Cap,” Tommy said. “We can be careful all we want, we’re still running into burning buildings.”

“You’re cleared to travel?” Tarek asked. He was one of the two paramedics who belonged to Tommy’s helicopter crew, and Tommy knew he wouldn’t get out of here without letting Tarek take a look at his back and on the report from the hospital.

Tommy rolled his eyes good-naturally. “Yes.”

***

Buck had learned to appreciate the time with his sister, so he made a point of spending at least one evening every week with her and her family. He had needed the lesson of Maddie just vanishing out of his life twice before he had understood the importance of every moment he got with her, and he wouldn’t forget it again now. So, he had left Tommy’s place after they had shared breakfast at a diner and then spent a lazy day at Tommy’s house, even though he had wanted nothing more than to stay with his boyfriend to make sure he wouldn’t aggravate his injuries.

“Howie mentioned Tommy got hurt,” Maddie said after she had ordered Buck to cut the onions. “Is he okay?”

“He’ll be okay,” Buck said, and tried not to let on how he felt over Tommy not telling all about his injuries right away when he had called Tommy the previous night. “His back will be one big bruise for a while, and his left wrist is out of commission. But on the bright side, he’ll come with me on my vacation after all.”

Maddie hummed. “Really?”

Buck grinned. “We even managed to get him on the same flights as me, by some miracle.”

“That seems pretty fast, don’t you think?” Maddie asked softly.

Buck shrugged. “If you know, you know, right?”

That’s what he had told her when Maddie had been skeptical about Buck having Tommy as his date to her wedding. At that point, Tommy had already gotten a belated invitation to the wedding after he had helped them out when they had gone to save Bobby and Athena, so technically Buck hadn’t brought Tommy. But Buck had still thought it was only fair to warn Maddie that he wouldn’t be there without a date, after all. She had been surprised, but otherwise really great about it.

Maddie sighed. “You’re always making such a mystery out of your summer vacation. And now you’re taking a guy with you who you’ve barely known for three months?”

“It’s a little more than three months. And I don’t make any mystery out of my vacation!”

Maddie chuckled. “Yes, you do. You never tell us where you’re going. And never talk about it when you come back.”

“I’m going to New York and then to Ottawa to visit friends I met in the years I was travelling,” Buck said with a deep sigh. Somehow, they ended up having this exact same conversation every year.

Maddie laughed. “You could, for once, tell me the truth, you know? You never went to Ottawa. And you never ever mention any friends outside of this little lie you tell me every year. You could just admit that you miss your time as a lonely nomad and want to get a little bit of it back.”

Buck rolled his eyes and wondered if maybe next year he should tell her an elaborate lie, something so outrageous no one would ever believe it. Except that might just backfire, and then she would believe him suddenly.

“You’ll have to swear Tommy into silence if you take him with you,” Maddie said. “Otherwise, Chimney will get all your secrets out of him.”

“Tommy won’t share my secrets,” Buck said confidently.

“You’re so sure of him, hm?” Maddie asked, amused.

“Yes.” Buck nodded. There was no doubt in him about Tommy, and sometimes that was scary. But most of the time, he was enjoying that he had finally found his person after he had been waiting for it for so long. “You were sure of Chimney right from the beginning, weren’t you?”

Maddie huffed, and when Buck turned to her for a moment, he saw her rolling her eyes. “That’s hardly the same.”

“I think it’s very much the same,” Buck said, smiling mostly to himself. “You’ll see. And I won’t even ask you to apologize for doubting me.”

Madde laughed and threw a piece of the potatoes at him she was peeling and cutting. “I mean, he clearly has to have some pretty great qualities, considering he is the only one you’re tolerating calling you Evan.”

“I like that he calls me Evan,” Buck said and, deliberately childishly, stuck his tongue out in her direction.

Buck knew no one else really understood that because he had worked hard on being Buck for everyone here in LA. A couple of years ago, he told his parents ‘people who know me call me Buck’, but that had been a little bit of a lie; he just really didn’t want them to call him Evan anymore. He had become Buck here in LA, and he was happy with that. But he wasn’t only Buck, something that somehow no one in LA could see.

No one except Tommy. And that was exactly the reason why Buck was burning to take Tommy with him on his vacation. Buck wanted to show Tommy this part of this life that no one here knew existed because they somehow never listened when he tried to talk about it, just as Maddie had done this evening again.

***

Three days after his accident, Tommy was in New York for the first time in his life. He knew this wasn’t their only destination because Evan had made sure five times that Tommy had packed his passport, but he still hadn’t told Tommy all the details about their vacation. The flight had been as uncomfortable as the doctor had warned him, but Tommy barely took notice of that because he was much too excited to spend the next two weeks with Evan.

“Where are we going?” Tommy asked when they sat in an Uber just half an hour after they had dropped their luggage at their hotel.

Evan grinned excitedly. “I’m going to introduce you to a friend. I’m going to introduce you to a number of friends before we return home.”

Tommy raised his brows. “Now I’m even more curious. You never talked about friends in New York.”

Evan blushed and ducked his head. “Habit.”

“Habit?” Tommy asked, confused.

“You know how everyone at the 118 believes I didn’t have a life before I came to LA?” Evan shrugged and bit his lip, turning his head to stare out the front of the car. “There is a good reason I didn’t tell them about these friends at the beginning. And then I somehow missed the right moment, and everyone has this picture now about what I did in the years between leaving my parents’ home and joining the LAFD.”

Tommy nodded. He had noticed that pattern very early on, but so far, they had never talked about it. They hadn’t been dating that long yet, and Tommy was careful about breaching topics that might have the potential of being explosive or painful. He didn’t know if he could prod that topic even now, so he just reached over and took Evan’s hand.

“I’m really glad you’re here and can meet them,” Evan said. “They’re good friends, even though I only see them once a year most of the time. It’s going to be Kip and Kyle first, and their partners. But we’re going to fly to Ottawa in three days with Kip and his boyfriend, and the rest will all be there.”

“So, Canada is the reason I need my passport,” Tommy said with a smile. “You never mentioned Canada either.”

Evan laughed. “I never was in Canada in those years I was travelling. Canada was only added a couple of years ago. You’ll see. I don’t want to spoil the surprise yet.”

“I’m really glad I could come with you after all,” Tommy said.

He had seen Evan giddy and excited before. Right at the beginning, during their first couple of dates, about practically everything they did. About the preparations for his sister’s wedding. His excitement now was different, though, and it was contagious.

The drive didn’t take long. When Tommy got out of the Uber, he stared at the entrance of the bar they had stopped in front of and shook his head with a grin. “The Kingfisher, really?”

“I thought you’ve never been to New York before!” Evan complained.

“That’s true,” Tommy said. “But this place has become very well known in the queer community over the past couple of years. There are people who’ll tell you that if you’re part of the community and visiting New York, you’ll have to come here.”

Evan laughed. “I didn’t know that! I mean, I know it’s become more popular with crowds from outside of town, but Kyle’s been working here for many years. He is working tonight, but he is the manager now, so he’ll have some time for us. And Kip is here, and he isn’t working anymore.”

Tommy turned slowly to Evan. “Your friend Kyle is the manager of the Kingfisher? Do you know who owns this place?”

“Eric and Scott, sure.” Evan grinned in such a way that Tommy was sure he knew exactly what Tommy had really been asking.

Tommy wasn’t a big fan of hockey, but he had always been following the sport enough to know what was going on, who ended up in the playoffs, and who won the Stanley Cup. He had even been to a couple of games from time to time. Until the New York Admirals had won the Stanley Cup in 2017, and the game had been running in the background of one of Howie’s game nights. Tommy remembered even seven years later exactly how overwhelming that night had turned out for him, and he might have been following the Admirals’ games much more closely since.

“You’re going to introduce me to Scott Hunter,” Tommy murmured wide-eyed.

Evan grinned. “That’s the plan.”

Tommy inhaled deeply. “I need a moment.”

“I didn’t know you were that much of a hockey fan,” Evan said, amused.

“I’m usually not,” Tommy said. “But I’m a Scott Hunter fan. Mostly because … I mean, I had already been out to a few people. Not everyone, but enough that I … felt pretty comfortable about coming out to others, too. Howie had a game night for that game in 2017. We weren’t really paying much attention, but it was running in the background. I came out to everyone there that night who didn’t already know because of Scott.”

“Oh.” Evan’s smile turned unbelievably soft, and he stepped right in front of Tommy, cupping one of his cheeks with a hand. “It’s a good memory?”

“Yes,” Tommy whispered and swallowed. “Sometimes it feels a little stupid because I couldn’t have told you a single name of a hockey player before that night. And the worst part is that night probably wouldn’t have changed anything if we hadn’t been watching the game. But we did, and it changed a lot for me. It gave me confidence I hadn’t had before to just be myself.”

“Now I’m a little sorry I’m springing this on you without a warning,” Evan whispered. “You need a moment? There is a great café not that far away.”

“You’re here to meet your friends, I’m just tagging along,” Tommy protested weakly.

Evan shook his head. “No. I’m here to introduce you to my friends. To finally build a bridge between my life in LA and the life I lived before, the friends I made before and since, outside of LA. Because you’re the first person ever I really want to introduce to everyone here.” His smile turned mischievous. “And maybe to tease Kyle a little bit with you.”

Tommy lowered his gaze. “Tease Kyle?”

“He tried so hard to seduce me when we met,” Evan said, laughing. “We were both working as baristas here in New York at the time, in a pretty fucked up place that we both wanted to move on from as soon as we could. Kyle was the only decent person there, and we became friends while hunting together for different jobs. And I told him I was flattered, but that I wasn’t attracted to guys. He laughed at me because he didn’t believe me, but he dropped the seduction game.”

Tommy grinned. “Is he very disappointed now?”

Evan shook his head, still laughing. “I don’t think he has any room for that; he is too much in love with Eric. But he does keep reminding me that he told me so ten years ago every other time we’ve been texting since I called him that night you first kissed me.”

“You mentioned you called a friend because you were a little freaked out,” Tommy said softly.

Evan had been full of nerves during their first date. They had only just ordered when Evan had started talking about never having been on a date with a man before. Tommy still thought it was adorable how he had stumbled through explaining about calling a friend to talk through the chaos of emotions Tommy had inadvertently left him with after kissing him and asking him out on a date.

Evan nodded. “Yes. And Kyle is the reason that I didn’t freak out completely during that first date when Eddie showed up. I’d have probably needed to track you down and beg you for a second chance because I do tend to put my foot in my mouth when I’m nervous and completely out of my depth.”

Tommy leaned in and kissed Evan. “Then let’s go so you can introduce me to your friend. I promise I’ll try not to freak out too much about meeting Scott Hunter.”

Evan grinned and grabbed Tommy’s uninjured hand, but he was still careful when he pulled him in the direction of the Kingfisher. It wasn’t that late yet, but the bar was already pretty busy. Evan led Tommy through the room to a table with three men whom Tommy all recognized from pictures he had seen over the years—Scott Hunter with his husband Kip Grady and his former teammate Eric Bennett.

“Evan!” Kip called out as soon as he saw them, loud enough that they could hear it over the music, even with the distance still between them. He pushed a laughing Scott out of the booth and then hurried over to greet Evan with an enthusiastic hug.

Evan laughed and didn’t let go of Tommy’s hand while returning the hug. “You look great. And you need to tell me all about your new job!”

Kip shook his head. “Tomorrow, maybe. Tonight is all about you.” He turned his grin to Tommy. “And your boyfriend!”

Tommy grinned hesitantly. “Hi. I’m Tommy.”

“Oh, I know!” Kip let go of Evan, and before Tommy knew what was happening, he was hugged by Kip. “Evan has not shut up about you since your first date.”

Tommy winced a little from the hug, and Kip took a step back and frowned at him. 

“Sorry, Evan mentioned you got hurt. I forgot.”

“It’s great to meet you,” Tommy said, chuckling. “Don’t worry about the back.”

“Evan!”

Evan laughed as he was embraced in a hug a second time from a man Tommy had seen behind the bar when they had made their way over here. So, he assumed this was Kyle. When he stepped back from Evan, he turned to Tommy and gave him a slow once-over. Then he met Tommy’s gaze with a wide grin.

“So, you’re the guy who managed to do without even trying what I failed to do ten years ago despite trying very hard.”

“Kyle!” Evan laughed and slapped his shoulder, shoving his friend away a little.

Tommy just laughed. “I guess Evan just knows what he truly wants.”

Kyle’s grin grew even wider. “I like you. It’s great to finally meet you. And I hear it’s not a good idea to hug you because your back looks like a battlefield. Firefighters and hockey players seem to be pretty much the same when it comes to dealing with injuries.”

“It’s not so bad,” Tommy said at the same time as Evan protested, “I never said that!”

Kyle gave him a look. “No, but you showed it over and over again. I remember how you complained about wanting to go back to work a week after you got your leg crushed! Makes me really glad I only met Eric when he was already nearly retired.”

“Speaking of,” Evan said. “Let’s finish the introduction, yeah?”

And that was how Tommy was introduced to Scott Hunter and Eric Bennett and found himself drinking with them and engaging with them in a surprisingly easy conversation. He manages to push down all anxiety about meeting someone he had considered himself a fan of for the better part of a decade now so he wouldn’t embarrass himself or Evan. It was very difficult, though.

Sometime later, Tommy found himself sitting alone with Scott and Eric because Kip had dragged Evan to the dance floor. Tommy would love to dance with Evan, but his back wouldn’t let him do that for a while. He’d need to take Evan dancing when they were back home. He forced himself not to watch Buck and Kip dance, otherwise he might just ignore the pain in his back, no matter how much he would regret it later on.

Scott grinned at him. “You’re a fan, right?”

“So obvious?” Tommy asked.

Eric laughed. “You’re doing good.”

“Evan didn’t know, and he didn’t warn me until we stood right in front of the bar,” Tommy said. “We haven’t been together long yet. It’s just not come up. I’m not that much of a hockey fan. But I’m a huge fan of the work you’ve done over the past seven years. It makes a difference.”

Tommy didn’t know why, but Scott blushed. “Really? Even though you aren’t that much of a hockey fan?”

Tommy nodded and told Scott and Eric about the night they had won the Stanley Cup in a little more detail than he had with Evan earlier. Then he added, “But even if I hadn’t watched that game, if the reaction of everyone else in the room hadn’t given me the courage to finally come out to all of them, it would’ve still made a difference. Every person who is as visible as you are and who comes out is one more roadblock to making our whole community invisible again. And there are too many people out there trying to do that.”

“We got a lot of those people in the NHL,” Eric said darkly. “I’m glad I’m out of there. Which is still strange to say after they were my whole life for twenty years.”

“It’s getting better. It’s work, and it’s baby steps, but I do see a change,” Scott said. “There have been more players who are standing up to demand that kind of change. I think that’s what is really starting to make a difference.”

Tommy nodded. He knew Scott had founded an organization of hockey players—active and retired—, coaches, and other people working for any of the NHL teams that gave them a voice that was louder than anyone individually could be. They spoke up as a group, when barely anyone had dared to do that before, like a couple of years back, when the first accusations against Dallas Kent had become public.

Scott continued, “It’s good to hear from people like you, though, Tommy. Good to hear I really have been able to make a difference. Even though that’s not why I called Kip down to the ice that day.”

Tommy grinned and took a drink of his beer. “No, I can’t see how you’d have thought about anything else but celebrating your victory with the person you loved in that moment, as everyone else on your team did.”

“Best moment of my life,” Scott said, then paused. “Second best. Best one is my wedding. So, Tommy. Tell me how you met Evan. Because every time I asked Kip, he’d just dissolve into laughter.”

Tommy took a quick sip of his beer and waited until both Scott and Eric were taking a drink as well before he said, “Evan and I stole a helicopter together to save his captain from a sinking cruise ship. We got medals for it a couple of weeks later.”

He got the desired outcome of both Eric and Scott choking on their drinks. He laughed, and when they had calmed down, he indulged their questions for some more details about that whole thing.

***

Kip laughed when Buck pulled him much more closely to dance with him than most people would consider appropriate for platonic friends. Buck had never cared for other people’s opinions in that, and thankfully, neither Kip nor Kyle had ever found fault in it either.

“You’ll make your man jealous!” Kip said.

“Oh, and yours won’t be jealous?” Buck asked with raised brows.

Kip grinned. “Nah, Scott has known you for seven years. He knows how you are. And he knows I’m never going to even look at someone else. You don’t have that history with Tommy yet.”

“He’ll just have to take me dancing once we’re home again and he isn’t recovering from having a building drop on his back,” Buck muttered darkly.

Kip shook his head. “That’s an exaggeration, right?”

Buck shrugged. “Part of the ceiling did drop down on him, so not really. And then he didn’t even tell me, just claimed he had hurt his wrist!”

“So, Kyle was right earlier. Firefighters and hockey players are the exact same kind of crazy. And you still dragged him onto a plane.”

“I really wanted to introduce him to all of you,” Buck said and tried to ignore the heat he felt in his face. “And Tommy is cleared for travel.”

“You mean you want to show him off!” Kyle said as he wrapped an arm around each of their waists.

Buck grinned. “Maybe a little.”

“You know, I’m going to kidnap him for a coffee or something so I can tell him everything about how you stupidly kept flirting with men everywhere and still insisted you were hetero! Or how you kept arguing with me about which guy was the hottest at any given place we were at, and still claimed you weren’t attracted to men.” Kyle said. “For ten whole years! And now I learn all it would’ve taken would’ve been to just kiss you.”

“You did kiss me once,” Buck said with raised brows. “Didn’t change my opinion at all.”

Kyle glared at him.

Kip laughed. “You think he’ll see us dancing like this and not understand what kind of stubborn guy he chose as a boyfriend?”

Buck lowered his gaze. “Maybe Tommy and I will just leave town tomorrow very early. We could drive up to Ottawa instead of flying with you and Scott.”

Kyle grinned. “We all know that’s an empty threat. You love us too much to leave so soon. And anyway, Eric and I will be in LA in October. I’ll just track down your Tommy then.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Buck asked. “It has to be against the rules to harass your customers on the dance floor.”

“No one is being harassed,” Kyle laughed. “And I’m the manager. I make the rules around this place, so I assure you I’m moving very much inside the rules.”

“Don’t the owners make the rules?” Buck asked.

Kyle grinned and winked at Buck. “Eric knows exactly who makes the rules.”

“I really missed you,” Buck said.

“You could come by more often,” Kip said.

Buck shook his head with a fond smile. “Not with my schedule. Any of you could come visit me sometimes, though. Kyle and Eric coming to LA is the first time any of you are showing up in my part of the country. Or it doesn’t have to be LA. San Diego isn’t that far away from me.”

“Scott is going to retire after the next season,” Kip said. “The Admirals already know it, too. I’ll make sure we’ll come visit so often you’ll beg us to stay away once his schedule isn’t that tightly planned out anymore for most of the year.”

Buck grinned. “I’m never going to beg you to stay away.”

“Is that a challenge?” Kip asked.

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Your parents will never forgive you if you convince Scott to move all the way to LA.”

Kip made a face. “Evan’s the only one crazy enough to move somewhere where winter doesn’t exist!”

“I’m very happy to barely ever see snow anymore!” Buck protested.

Kyle and Kip exchanged a look. Then Kip said, “Maybe you should reconsider that visit to LA. What if this is contagious and you and Eric come back detesting snow?”

“Never going to happen!” Kyle promised.

Buck just laughed.

***

The days they spent in New York went by too fast. They went to the Museum of Natural History, where they got an exclusive tour from Kip, who had just gotten a promotion, though Tommy couldn’t quite follow what his actual job was. Later, Scott and Eric took them on a tour through town, showing them all the places they were convinced they had to have seen if they never had a chance to come back to New York. Tommy was pretty sure half the places he saw over those days couldn’t be found in any tourist guide, but that honestly made it all the better.

Then, Tommy was sitting beside Evan on a plane again—with Scott and Kip sitting in the row right before them, and Evan helplessly shrugging over their tickets being upgraded to first class by Scott. Apparently, this was something that had happened before, and an argument Evan didn’t bother to have anymore. Because it wasn’t the first time Evan had come to New York to visit Kyle and Kip, and then fly to Ottaway with Kip and Scott in the Game Changer Hockey Camp organized by the Irina Foundation in Ottawa and Montreal.

“You’re friends with Ilya Rozanov,” Tommy murmured, shaking his head.

Scott laughed and turned around to look at him. “That’s the fifth time you’ve said that.”

“I think I need to repeat it a couple more times,” Tommy said. He looked at Evan, who was quietly chuckling and watching him with a fond smile. “How did you become friends with Ilya Rozanov of all people?”

“I stayed in Boston for a while,” Evan said. "That was 2013. So, actually, before I met Kyle, even. I was doing construction work at the time. Boss asked for guys who’d want to earn extra money working a special contract. Ilya was remodeling part of his apartment. Knocking down a couple of drywalls, putting up some new drywalls. Some remodeling in the bathroom. We got extra pay for overtime so we could be done in six days, and we got extra extra pay for keeping our mouths shut about anything we might see while in his home. I didn’t hesitate to take any job that got me some extra cash.””

Tommy nodded.

“Ilya was there the whole time. I had no idea who he was, but the other guys did, of course. They were star-struck; I wasn’t. Ilya liked that. So, when he asked questions about what we were doing, he asked me. Then we just started talking while I worked. I know he has a reputation of being a huge asshole, but he really isn’t.”

“It pains me to admit it,” Scott said, “but Evan is right. Rozy presents to be an asshole, but what hides beneath is really great.”

“And he clocked all the queer players,” Kip said. “Like, seriously. Everyone who’s come out since Scott in the Eastern Conference had Rozanov somehow meddling and in strange ways supporting them. And then, of course, he asked all of them to help in the hockey camps.”

Evan laughed. “Shane and Ilya try to do at their camps what the NHL is so reluctant to really commit to, no matter how often they say the politically correct things about diversity in the league.”

“Yeah,” Scott agreed. “And they’re doing really well with that.”

“Anyway,” Evan said, "at the end of those six days of Ilya watching us all like a hawk because he didn’t trust the guys from the construction crew not to take something or find something they weren’t supposed to, we had exchanged numbers. I moved on from Boston after that job, but Ilya and I stayed in contact. Met up sometimes when we happened to be in the same town. And then, when I settled down in LA, I started visiting Kyle and the rest of his gang in New York and then would visit Ilya in Ottawa.””

Scott turned around again and watched Evan intently. “Did you know why he had moved to Ottawa right away?”

Evan grinned. “I’m not going to spill Ilya’s secrets.”

Kip laughed. “All those secrets are already spilled! It’s especially no secret anymore that he moved to Ottawa so he and Shane could spend more time with each other.”

“That’s what you think,” Evan said.

Kip opened his mouth, but Scott grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back into his seat. Tommy didn’t hear what Scott said to his husband, but it did cut Kip’s questions about Ilya Rozanov short. Tommy couldn’t care less about the secrets of one of the best hockey players of the time, so he wouldn’t ask.

Then, Tommy had a thought. “Does Bobby know you know any hockey players at all?”

Evan sighed. “No. And I’m not sure how to tell him.” He waved a hand. “They’ve all made up their mind about what my years travelling were like. Even Maddie thinks our parents somehow gave me money during that time, and I was just lazing around when she knows I practically don’t talk to them if she doesn’t force me.”

Tommy sighed and wrapped his arm around Evan’s shoulders. “Sometimes people put us in boxes, and then they have a very difficult time letting us out of that again.”

“Yeah.” Evan shrugged and leaned his head against Tommy’s shoulder. “And the other thing is, why should I tell anyone? If I wanted to, and I’d think they’d ever listen, I could talk about my friends Scott and Ilya and Kyle and Kip and Shane without ever mentioning hockey. Everything else would just be bragging. I don’t do that with people who matter to me.”

Tommy kissed Evan’s hair and met Scott’s gaze, who had turned around to send a grateful smile to Evan.

***

“Evan does not get on skates,” Ilya said as he stood beside Tommy on the second day of the hockey camp in Ottawa and they watched Evan help the children put on their hockey gear. “Is rule.”

Tommy chuckled. “Sounds like a story.”

One thing meeting Scott and Eric in New York had done was to prepare Tommy to meet a lot of the big names of hockey here in Ottawa. He wasn’t intimidated or quite so star-struck by them anymore. Following hockey, even just the little he had done, it had been impossible to escape the uproar when Ilya and Shane had been outed, and Tommy wasn’t ashamed to admit that he had been following Ottawa’s games ever since, too. Tommy suspected that at one point, he’d probably freak out a little about all of this, when no one would be able to see.

“Is disaster on skates,” Ilya said gruffly. “I have never seen anything worse. It’s an accident waiting to happen. We don’t need accidents at camp.”

Tommy laughed. He had noticed that Evan hadn’t been on the ice the previous day, but he had been very busy keeping track of all the children and their belongings off the ice. There was a lot of gear flying around the camp, and in the excitement of the children, things got mixed up fast, which led to fights that somehow Evan always knew how to break up before they got bad.

“So, Evan is not allowed on ice. But he is great with the children. He is only allowed to help off the ice.” Ilya watched Tommy. “Your help yesterday was good, too.”

“Not much else I’m good at right now than paperwork.” Tommy shrugged. While the hockey players had all been busy making sure the children would go home tired and happy, Tommy had been introduced to David and Yuna Hollander, who were clearly the ones in charge of making sure every i was dotted and every t was crossed. Tommy had been happy to help them and to get to know them in the process. “I was happy I could help at all.”

“There is a second camp next week in Montreal,” Ilya said.

Tommy nodded. “I know. I think the plan is we’re coming with you, right?”

Ilya nodded slowly. “You have to go home before the camp is over, yes?”

“We’re flying home next Thursday.”

“Shane and I have a cottage, it’s a two-hour drive from here,” Ilya said. “It’s isolated. I can call the service that cleans the cottage and have them stock the fridge. Have them prepare one of the guestrooms. Evan knows the place. He has visited us before. You can go there and have real holiday with Evan instead of holiday full of work.”

Tommy stared at him, lost for words.

Ilya huffed. “You can go on Friday, when this camp is over. Come back here to fly home on Thursday. Or Wednesday evening and stay in hotel if it’s very early flight.”

Tommy still didn’t know what to say, and Ilya rolled his eyes.

“I’m going to tell Evan later, but I need your help to convince him. He is good friend. But it’s not easy to show him because he never wants to accept gifts. Always arguing.” Ilya waved his hands and rolled his eyes again. “There is a lake and a fire pit. Very romantic.”

Tommy grinned. “You have to know.”

Ilya laughed. “I do! Is very romantic, very good to be alone with the person you love. Only bad thing are the wolf birds.”

“Wolf birds?” Tommy asked, laughing.

Ilya tapped his arm, where Tommy knew he wore the tattoo of a loon on his skin hidden under his hockey gear. “Very scary birds. But they stay away, so don’t worry. So, you will help me convince Evan?”

“He came here to help with the camp, though,” Tommy said.

Ilya shrugged. “Plans change. Evan is good at changing plans. You’re special. So have a little romantic holiday with him. Shane and I are busy with second camp. So cottage is empty anyway.”

“It sounds great,” Tommy agreed. “Though I’m not sure if I’m all that special.”

Ilya lowered his gaze at him. “Evan comes here every year. Always helps with the camps. He came here for Shane and my wedding. He always says people in LA are his family. But he never brings anyone. I know he doesn’t tell them about us.”

“Family can be very complicated.”

Ilya’s gaze turned dark. “I know. I wish he had found better family. He brought you here. So you are special. Maybe you’re the first step to better family for Evan. Shane was my first step to that, too.”

Tommy turned his head to look at Evan again, who was helping Troy Barrett and Ryan Price usher the children on the ice. He loved being here, even though he had never expected to be here. He enjoyed meeting all these people Evan called his friends, especially knowing how special it was to be introduced to them. But he wouldn’t mind having Evan all to himself for a couple of days. That was what he had expected and what he had been looking forward to when he had followed Evan onto the plane in LA, after all.

“I’ll help you,” Tommy said. “Thank you for the offer. It sounds amazing.”

***

“You aren’t subtle,” Buck said and rolled his eyes as he watched Tommy follow Wyatt Hayes to the dart board. Troy, Harris, and Hayden were already engaged in a friendly competition, and Wyatt had convinced Tommy to join them.

“It’s great that you brought your boyfriend,” Ilya said with a shrug. “But you’re glued to his side.”

Shane shook his head with a grin. “It’s not as bad as Ilya claims. It’s good to see you so happy. And it’s even better to finally meet someone from your life in LA.”

“My sister thinks I’m rushing things with Tommy,” Buck murmured. But she also thought he had lied about going to New York and Ottawa to meet friends, so maybe he shouldn’t worry so much about her opinion.

“Not everyone has to take the long road of seven years of secret hookups before they are ready to commit to a relationship,” Shane said.

Buck laughed, still relieved that Ilya and Shane were able to joke about that now. He had seen Ilya in some very dark places in the years he had known him during that phase, and he knew from stories that Shane hadn’t fared much better. Seeing them slowly grow into a much better place over the past three years since they had been outed had been great.

“The older you are, the less time you have to lock things down,” Ilya said with a grin. “You’re just following Hunter’s example. He was old when he met Kip one January, then pulled him to center ice to declare his big love to the whole world in June.”

Buck kicked Ilya under the table and laughed. “If I’m old, you’re old, too! We’re the same age, Ilya!”

Ilya sighed. “I know. Getting old sucks. But Shane and I met when we were young. Is different. No time left to waste when you’re old.”

“Is that why you’ve banned me from the camp next week, so I don’t waste time with Tommy?” Buck asked, amused.

He was very much looking forward to those six days he’d have alone with Tommy, especially as the cottage was the perfect place to just relax. Buck knew that either Shane or Ilya had convinced Tommy first that they should go to the cottage instead of going to Montreal, but Buck hadn’t needed as much convincing as they had clearly expected. He would still miss his friends, though, because he only got to spend so little time with them already.

The changed plans for the rest of Tommy and his vacation were also the reason they were at this bar now with everyone who was helping out with the camp. Usually, this kind of gathering was reserved for the evening after the last day of camp, but Ilya had insisted on doing it this evening instead, so Tommy and Buck could join the rest. There was a little less alcohol served than usual because no one wanted to suffer from a hangover while they had to look after the kids at camp, but that didn’t make the evening any less fun.

Ilya frowned. “I know you don’t have much vacation time. You spent most of it every year here with us.”

“All of it, to be honest,” Buck agreed. 

There were the two weeks he spent every year to help out with the camp, though more often than not, it didn’t quite fit with the two weeks of the camp like this year. And then, every free time he could manage by working overtime, he used to either spend a couple of days with Ilya and Shane at their cottage if the times lined up right or to spend that time either in New York or in Ottawa. He hadn’t been anywhere else on a vacation since he had settled down in LA.

“You deserve some time alone at a romantic getaway with the man who has swept you off your feet,” Shane said. “So, Ilya and I decided you’d get that time. We love your help at the camps, but we want you to have this for yourself. We know how busy your life in LA is.”

“Busy time leaves little time for romance,” Ilya said with a frown. “Even if you are in same town. We know. I thought there would be much more time just for us after moving to same town and same team. I don’t know why it’s not like that.”

Shane grinned. “We do have more time. You’re just greedy and still think it’s not enough.”

Ilya lowered his gaze at him. “Do you think it’s enough?”

Shane chuckled and stole a short kiss from Ilya. “No such thing as enough or too much time with you.”

Buck just grinned and took a sip of beer to leave them a moment to themselves.

“The cleaning service went to the cottage today,” Shane said, turning back to Buck. “And they stocked up everything you might need. Take your usual guestroom and don’t worry about anything. The cleaning crew will come back next Thursday, so you don’t need to clean anything either.”

“I don’t know how to thank you for this."

Ilya huffed. “”It’s gift. Say ‘thank you, Shane and Ilya’ and enjoy your time with Tommy.”

Buck grinned. “Thank you, Shane and Ilya.”

Shane laughed and shook his head. “You can always bring other people along from LA, too, you know? It’s not restricted to romantic partners.”

“I didn’t bring romantic partners in the past, either,” Buck said.

“True.” Ilya frowned. “You weren’t happy anymore for long time. It’s good to see you’re happier again. It’s even better to get to know the reason for it in person.”

Buck shook his head. “I’m happy in LA.”

Ilya sent him a look. “You say all the right words, but I know your tone. And I hear what you don’t say.”

Buck rolled his eyes. The past two years, when he had been here and during every other phone call, Ilya had kept telling Buck that Ottawa had a fire department, too, that they could always use good firefighters. Buck had ignored every single one of those comments, though he knew exactly what Ilya was aiming for.

“My sister is in LA. My niece is in LA.” Buck gestured to Tommy. “Now, my boyfriend is in LA.”

Ilya nodded. “Yes. All good reasons to stay. But not good reasons to be unhappy.”

“I’m not unhappy!” Buck protested.

“I thought I was happy in Montreal,” Shane said with a sad smile. “I’d have fought anyone who claimed otherwise until those last couple of games after we got outed. Then I left, got a new team, and suddenly I noticed so many things that had been fucked up all along in Montreal that I … had learned to ignore.”

Buck frowned.

“When Kyle and Eric are in LA, will you introduce them to anyone?” Ilya asked.

Buck opened his mouth, the dismissal already on his tongue. Then he closed his mouth again, his teeth clicking together loudly. There was no reason why he shouldn’t introduce Kyle and Eric to his friends in LA. So far, he had always been able to claim none of them would’ve been able to accompany him anyway, with each of them having so many responsibilities back home. But with Kyle and Eric right there in LA, there really was no explanation other than that he didn’t feel he wanted to introduce them to his friends from the 118. Or even just his sister, who didn’t believe he had made any friends during his years travelling through the country.

Buck rubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe I just want to leave those two parts of my life separate.”

Ilya raised his brows and then pointedly looked over to the dartboard where Tommy was by now engrossed in the impromptu tournament they had started. Buck probably wouldn’t get his boyfriend back any time soon unless he joined the dart tournament.

“Tommy’s different,” Buck murmured.

“How is he different?” Ilya asked. “How is he different than Natalia? Or Taylor? Or…”

“I don’t know,” Buck interrupted. “He just is, okay?”

“I’m glad he is,” Ilya said. “I’m glad you’re happier again. I’m glad you brought Tommy with you so we could make sure he really is good for you. But I wish you’d try to be really happy again, not just a little bit happier.”

“And you think moving to Ottawa to become a firefighter here would do that?” Buck rolled his eyes.

Shane chuckled. “That’s just Ilya being selfish because he wants to see more of you.”

Ilya pouted and huffed.

“But maybe some change in your life could be good for you,” Shane continued. “Hiding a part of yourself sucks. And you’re doing that. Even if it’s not as much of a devastating secret as Ilya and I had for so long.”

Buck shook his head. “That’s not…”

“If it’s not true, why doesn’t anyone in LA know where you go every summer?” Ilya asked. “If they don’t believe you, show pictures of the camp. There are lots of pictures of you. We have whole gallery for every camp on website and on Instagram of foundation.”

Buck glared at Ilya, mostly because he had no argument to contradict his friend, but he wasn’t about to admit that.

Shane shrugged. “Just some food for thought, Evan.”

Buck made a face, but thankfully, his friends dropped that topic. But at least Ilya had given him an idea about how he could convince Maddie that he hadn’t lied to her at all. That was probably a better idea than the one he’d had the last time he had talked to her about coming up with an outrageous lie just for the sake of it.

***

As Ilya and Shane had promised, the fridge and pantry at the cottage were fully stocked when Tommy and Evan arrived on Friday evening. Ilya hadn’t been right about Evan’s reluctance to accept the offer, though maybe that was because Tommy had started right away by telling Evan that he would very much appreciate a couple of days alone with him. Evan’s reaction to that had been a soft smile and a deep sigh before he had turned to Ilya and Shane to thank them for their offer.

“This is not what I expected when Ilya called it a cottage,” Tommy said.

They had left Ottawa right after the last day of the camp had ended, their bags already in the rental car. Evan hadn’t needed any directions to drive them safely to Shane and Ilya’s cottage, and they had arrived late in the evening. Now they sat on the patio while the sun was slowly vanishing behind the horizon, with a fire already burning in the firepit. Tommy hadn’t even seen all of the house yet, and nothing of the area around it, but he still felt a little overwhelmed by it all. 

Evan laughed. “I know, right? Shane named it a cottage. Ilya sometimes calls it a mansion when he wants to tease Shane.”

“Have you been here often?” Tommy asked.

“Once a year or so, they invite me over. Not always easy to get time off when they have time, though. Their schedule when the season is going is insane. It will be easier once they retire, but neither of them thinks about that yet.”

“Thank you for inviting me to come along,” Tommy said quietly. “It was great to meet your friends. And to see this side of you.”

It still felt like being let in on a secret, but so far Tommy had been so distracted by the people they had been spending the past week with that he hadn’t really taken time to work through what it had to mean that Evan had brought him here. It had been a niggling thought at the back of his mind, but now that they were alone, the question about why Evan had invited him suddenly felt like a huge weight.

Evan blushed. But then he suddenly moved and climbed into Tommy’s lap and kissed him with unexpected heat and urgency. “I’ve always been convinced that once I meet my person, I’d just know,” Evan whispered against Tommy’s lips. “And people tried to tell me otherwise. I was once told you don’t find love, that you have to make it. And maybe I took that to heart too much.”

Tommy hummed and grabbed Evan’s waist.

“But I think now that both are true,” Evan continued. He grabbed Tommy’s shoulders and leaned back a little to look at him. “I know making any relationship last takes work and effort from everyone involved. But it’s also about meeting the right person. Because putting in all that work is only worth it with the right person, isn’t it? And I was right when I thought I’d know when it happened. I had just been so convinced that I was wrong over time that I didn’t understand what I recognized that night when we flew out to rescue Bobby and Athena. That I didn’t understand why I was so jealous of Eddie spending that much time with you. Until you kissed me and asked me out for a date, and everything suddenly made all the sense.”

“Evan…” Tommy murmured.

“I have no doubt that you’re my person. And I want to share all of me with you. Even the things I don’t share with my family in LA.” Evan bit his lip. “I hate that you got hurt, but at the same time, I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“I’m very happy to be here with you, too. We’ll make sure that we can take time off together next year for the camps,” Tommy said. “Without anyone getting injured.”

A wide smile bloomed over Evan’s face. “Already making plans for next year?”

“And beyond,” Tommy said softly. “I do feel the same about you being my person. I knew it would be stupidly easy to fall in love with you on our first date. I think I’m already halfway there now.”

“Yeah, me too,” Evan whispered. “Ilya asked last night what was different about you. And I’ve been thinking about it. I still can’t put it into words. I just know you are. I feel like I’ve been waiting for you all this time.”

Tommy put a hand in Evan’s neck and pulled him into a kiss. He was stupidly close to blurting out an even bolder confession than he had already done, and the best way to prevent that was to stop talking altogether for a moment. Evan had found the perfect words to describe how Tommy felt about meeting him, about getting to know him, about opening up to him. There were things Tommy had kept very close to his chest for a long time, never daring to share all of himself with anyone. Some of those things he had learned to hide because it had been necessary to stay in the closet, and he hadn’t unlearned to hide them yet. Maybe with Evan he would finally be able to unlearn that.

“I’m not sure I can thank Ilya and Shane enough for letting us stay here for the next couple of days,” Tommy said, leaning their foreheads together. “I loved meeting your friends, don’t get me wrong. And we’re going to plan for at least one double-date when Eric and Kyle are in LA in a couple of months. And I’m also already looking forward to seeing all of them again next year, and to be more of a help at the camps than I could be this year.”

Evan chuckled.

“But when you invited me to come with you on your vacation, I was expecting two weeks completely alone with you,” Tommy continued. “Without anyone meddling or teasing or asking for information they really have no business to know.”

“Yeah, I don’t think either of my friend groups could provide that as long as they’re around,” Evan said, laughing.

“Clearly you attract a certain kind of personality as friends,” Tommy agreed. “I mean, Ilya Rozanov, really? I’m still stunned about that. Though, I guess you’re both people who are trying to build networks. So I probably shouldn’t be so surprised.”

“I’d call Ilya my best friend aside from Eddie.”

Tommy smiled. “I can see that.”

“I’m glad to have you to myself for a while, too,” Evan confessed. “I know Ilya probably expected me to protest a lot.”

Tommy laughed. “He did! Said you don’t know how to accept gifts.”

Evan made a face. “That’s a long-time argument with him. But I’m not the problem. He usually doesn’t know how to give appropriate gifts!”

“Okay.” Tommy grinned and thought that the truth probably was somewhere in the middle between those two statements.

“I had been thinking about asking to use the cottage for the weekend,” Evan said. “Coming here today. Driving to Montreal Monday morning. We’d have to have left pretty early to be at the camp at nine when it would officially start, but I think that would’ve been manageable. So, that was clearly a case of great minds thinking alike. Ilya’s idea might just have been a little better than my own, but don’t tell him that!”

“I won’t,” Tommy promised with another laugh.

Evan’s grin grew mischievous, and he pulled on Tommy’s shirt so he could push his hands beneath it. “Do you know what the best thing about this place is?”

“It’s a very romantic setting.”

“Yeah, that, too.” Evan bit his lip. “But most of all, there is absolute privacy here. No one to disturb us, no one to see us, even out here in the open by the fire pit.”

“Did you have any concrete plans about that for the weekend you had been planning?”

“Many, many plans,” Evan murmured and left a trail of kisses along Tommy’s jaw. “All of them include much fewer clothes than either of us is wearing at the moment.”

Tommy laughed and grabbed the hem of his shirt to pull it over his head. He had no problem changing that post haste.

***

Buck stretched his whole body with a deep sigh and then rolled to the side until he could rest his head on Tommy’s chest. They were lying on a blanket near the dock, enjoying the warm afternoon sun after they had spent a little too long in the lake. The water was surprisingly cold for the temperature they got during the day, and Buck forgot about that every time he came here.

That the water was on the colder side hadn’t hindered them from making out in the lake, though. At first, it had been a little difficult to convince Tommy to go for a swim at all because he had complained about not packing swimming trunks. Buck had been looking forward to going skinny dipping with Tommy, but it had taken him most of Saturday to convince Tommy that it was a good idea. Since then, they had taken a swim at least once each day, and it hadn’t been the first time they had ended up making out in the water.

“I can’t believe we’re going back home tomorrow already,” Buck murmured.

Tommy hummed and carded his fingers lazily through Buck’s hair. “Time always flies by when you enjoy it, huh?”

“I don’t want to share you with others again.”

Tommy chuckled, and Buck felt him place a kiss on the top of his head.

“We should go away for a couple of days to have time just for ourselves regularly,” Buck said. “When we have four days off in a row, and you aren’t on call for any of those days. We don’t even need to go far. There have to be a ton of little romantic places around LA, right?”

“That sounds nice,” Tommy agreed. “Maybe some place where we can rent a cabin that’s at least half as isolated as this place.”

Buck nodded and trailed his fingers over Tommy’s chest.

“Did Shane get this place so Ilya and he had a safe place before they were outed?” Tommy asked.

“No. His parents have a cottage here. It’s the nearest property to this one. That’s why he bought this spot of land and had his own dream house built on it.” Buck grinned. “But Shane did buy a whole building in Montreal, so he and Ilya had a secret place for hookups. He only rented out the ground unit to some business and let the condos languish empty for years so they wouldn’t be caught.”

Tommy laughed softly. “Okay. I can see that. I mean, I don’t know him well, but that seems to be a very Shane thing to do.”

“Ilya complained for years about not even knowing Shane’s real bed,” Buck murmured. “Of course, he’d always call him Jane and never once slipped up with the pronouns. Even though I knew exactly who Jane was, and Ilya knew that.”

“Sounds very complicated,” Tommy murmured.

Buck sighed. “Yeah. Did you ever have a secret relationship before you came out?”

Tommy stayed silent.

“I’m sorry,” Buck whispered.

Tommy sighed. “No, don’t be sorry. I had a couple, yes. They didn’t last long for obvious reasons.”

“Shane and Ilya hid for years,” Buck said. “There are the four years everyone knows about, of course, between Scott coming out and them being outed. But it had been going on for years before that. I’m pretty sure I’ve never known Ilya when he wasn’t in love with Shane.”

“I can’t imagine going through that,” Tommy said. “The men I dated weren’t out either. And none of them wanted to come out any more than I did at the time. The secrecy was … soul-crushing, honestly. Not that I was able to admit that.”

“I know Ilya suffered a lot through those years.” Buck sighed. “Shane probably, too, but I didn’t know him. Sometimes I think about how long they thought they didn’t have any other options, and I feel so sad for them.”

“But they made it through,” Tommy said. “And now they’ve been happily married for three years and have been building a really great team in Ottawa.”

Buck said. “Yeah, true. When they got the Stanley Cup together last year, I think Ilya will always call that one of the best moments of his life. And they nearly repeated it this year, too. I think that was kind of his dream since the first time he saw Shane. But you didn’t hear that from me!”

“Do you have any such big dreams for the happiest moments of your life?” Tommy asked, sounding amused.

Buck huffed. “I’m too old to start a career as a top athlete in anything! Not sure I’d have the discipline for that anyway.”

“I think you have plenty of discipline,” Tommy said.

Buck lifted his head so he could rest his chin on Tommy’s chest and looked at him. “I think my dreams are very simple. Building a life with the person I love. Who’ll take all of me, no matter how ridiculous I am. Have a comfortable and warm home with them. Maybe a dog eventually. Or cats. I wouldn’t mind cats either if you’re more of a cat person. You seemed a little out of depth with Anya and Chiron.”

Tommy grinned. “I’m definitely more of a cat person. Cats would be easier to manage with our schedule, too.”

“Do you have any big dreams?” Buck asked.

Tommy shook his head. “My dreams align pretty well with yours. Maybe add a place like this to a home in the city.” He gestured at the cottage with a huff. “Not exactly like this. I don’t need a big ass mansion. But a cabin at a lake with lots of privacy. Just a place to have a romantic getaway whenever we want.”

Buck grinned. “You got a taste for skinny dipping now, don’t you?”

“That’s why we’ll need privacy at this hypothetical cabin at a lake we might get in the future,” Tommy nodded. “But it really doesn’t matter how it looks or where it will be.”

“As long as it’s a life we build together,” Buck whispered.

Tommy smiled softly. “Yeah, exactly.”