Getting Together

The first time he sees Evan Buckley, Bobby knows he's doomed. Between the sky-blue eyes and pinkish birthmark with the gorgeous smile and golden-blond locks, he never stood a chance. But it's not the first time Bobby has experienced attraction at first sight, so he thinks he'll manage. Only for Evan, "call me Buck", to turn out to be one of the kindest people he's ever met. Yes, he's also reckless and cocky, but that quickly eases the better they all get to know him, the more he learns to trust them with himself.
So, yeah... Bobby has a bit of a problem because he's now officially crushing on his subordinate and doesn't know how to stop. To make matters worse, it has by now begun to affect work. Subtly, yes, but still affecting.

They've been called to a pool party that turned a bit unpleasant when the grill caught fire because none of the teens present knew how to use it properly. Not to mention that they're all way too drunk for it anyway. Chim and Hen are taking care of a few mild burns while Buck has just finished extinguishing the fire and leaves to put the equipment away again. He returns only moments later to step over to Bobby, who's trying to find out what happened exactly. Just before the blond reaches him through, a teen from a nearby group is shoved by his friends and knocks against Buck. The firefighter stumbles, losing his balance, and Bobby can only watch as the blond tips over and drops into the pool with a loud splash.

"Shit, Buck?!", he calls out and quickly moves closer as the blond resurfaces.

His curls are sticking to his face, darkened by the water. He's also coughing lightly.

"What the-"
"You okay?", Bobby asks and extends a hand to help his subordinate out of the pool.

Buck waves his hand away though, gets both palms onto the pool's edge and then heaves himself out of the water. Bobby is momentarily distracted by the way the water pours off the blond's body. His shirt clings to his abdominal muscles and pectorals, accentuating the swells and dips. Then, Buck straightens again and wipes his hair back with an annoyed frown.

"I'm drenched", he grumbles.

And I'm thirsty, Bobby thinks nonsensically and needs to shake himself out of staring at the hot man in front of him.

"I'll grab you a towel from the rig. You got some spare clothes?"
"There should be a pair of shorts, I think", Buck replies.

Bobby nods, pats his shoulder and quickly leaves to grab the towel and shorts. Luckily, he finds both rather quickly and can soon return. And just in time to watch Buck slip out of the suspenders and then drag his soaked LAFD shirt over his head. Shit, he isn't wearing an undershirt... Bobby's eyes trail along sun-kissed skin, trying and failing not to imagine what it would be like to trace the muscles with his tongue. He's so distracted, he completely misses the lowest beam of the canopy that covers half of the terrace. It smacks him against the forehead with a loud noise, and Bobby drops the towel and shorts to reach up. His vision blurs with the reactive tears and before he can blink them away, he already feels large hands pull his own away from his forehead.

"Ouch, you smacked into that well. It's even bleeding a bit. Shit, Hen!", Buck calls to the paramedic as he still keeps one hand on Bobby's cheek.

The captain meanwhile finally manages to blink the tears away successfully and tries to gently pull away. He barely manages to suppress a low groan. How embarrassing... He really doesn't need Buck to treat his basically self-inflicted wound. Before he can extract himself though, he feels Hen step up beside him. She eyes him critically and taps along his neck and head before sighing.

"Buckaroo, would you take him back to the engine and put a band-aid on the cut? Chim and I will wrap this up", she tells Buck, not even sparing Bobby a glance.

He'd be insulted if he weren't so happy that she doesn't seem to have noticed his distraction. Buck, though, frowns.

"But why-"
"He tends to forget drinking, you know that. Let him have some water, yeah?", Hen offers before disappearing again.

Bobby hears Buck sigh.

"Okay... C'mon, Cap."

The blond picks up the things Bobby dropped and then carefully leads the captain out of the garden and to the engine. There he forces Bobby to sit on the step while Buck retrieves their own little first-aid kit. Bobby feels his face flush as the blond leans closer to put the band-aid on the cut on his forehead. Of course, he could just close his eyes but then, he'd miss the perfect view of Buck's chest... God, the younger man is way too attractive for his and Bobby's good.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, he's done with the band-aid-application rather quickly and then moves to get out of his still soaking wet turnout pants. Bobby tries not to seem like he's looking, but by God, he is so looking. Buck is wearing briefs that are totally soaked as well, but he simply pulls on the shorts on top of them, likely to not be charged with public indecency. Bobby does mourn a little, but the headache slowly building behind his forehead is probably to blame for that. Besides, that little possessive voice at the back of his mind whispers, no one else should see Buck naked. Like ever.

Bobby shakes his head slightly. Bad thoughts. Only bad thoughts.

"Here. Hen said you should drink", Buck's voice distracts him.

He's holding out a water bottle with an adorably expectant look on his face. Bobby resigns himself to downing that water if only to make the younger man happy.

"Thanks."

He takes the bottle and takes a healthy sip. Huh, okay, maybe he really didn't drink enough today. He hadn't even realised how thirsty he is - for water anyway.

"Better?"
"I think so", Bobby smiles.

Buck grins back but there's still a certain nervousness to him that has the captain tilting his head at his subordinate. Buck shuffles for a moment before folding.

"Are you sure? You banged into that beam pretty hard. I mean, we all heard the >thunk<, you know."
"I really just forgot about it. Plus, it's unusually low.
"It is, isn't it?", Buck agrees vehemently and goes off on a tangent about some obscure regulations and laws on certain height requirements.

Bobby listens to it all with a fond smile as he sips his water until the bottle is empty. The team joins them soon after, and they all file back into the engine with Chim taking the wheel. Bobby puts up some fight but is overruled by the whole team. Since their shift is officially over now, he doesn't bother fighting it too much, but he does put his foot down when they try to steer him away from his office.

"People, I need to finish the paperwork. It's not much, and my head is feeling fine", he tells them sternly.

They look none-too-pleased but let it rest. Bobby waves after them before making his way up to the office to get that report out of the way before knocking off as well. The drive home is uneventful, and he's just contemplating what to have for dinner when his phone chimes. He frowns, wondering who it could be, but he needs to get home first to read whatever message reached him. As soon as he's pulled into his driveway, he unlocks his phone.

[Buck]: Don't buy or cook dinner. I'll come by at 7!

Bobby laughs softly. He can hear the blond in his head when he reads the message. He sends back a short okay and to let himself in since Bobby might never get up again once he's sat down. His head isn't hurting too badly anymore, but that might be because everything else now aches instead. A warm shower is going to help, he's sure.
He must have lost track of time at some point because just as he gets out of the shower, he hears Buck's voice from the hallway.

"Hey, Bobby! Where you at?"
"Bathroom! Just go ahead, I'll be out in a bit!", the Captain quickly calls back.

No need to risk the young man searching for him. Or worrying. Because that's definitely something the blond would do. He can hear the front door closing before footsteps wander down the hallway. Bobby quickly starts toweling off only to realise that he didn’t grab anything to change into. Shit. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he resigns himself to having to parade around the apartment in just this. Unfortunately, that means passing the kitchen as well because his bedroom is two doors further down.
He's almost past the doorway when Buck turns around. They both kind of freeze where they stand, staring at each other. Bobby slowly lifts a hand to wave awkwardly.

"Hi."
"Uh, h-hey!", Buck stammers back, eyes glued to-

Wait, what? Why is the younger man staring at his chest like that? Does he have something there? Confused, Bobby glances down his body but can't see anything out of order. Tilting his head, he looks back at the younger man.

"Buck? You okay?"

He watches those baby-blues blink rapidly as an adorable flush spreads across Buck's cheeks. Then, the blond practically whips his head up.

"Yeah!", he replies way too loudly for the situation, "I'm good. Are you good? Wait, no, stupid question! You hit your head, of course you're not all good. Probably. Uh, are you though? Good, I mean?"

Bobby relaxes slightly as he watches the other ramble nervously, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"You know, you have to stop for more than a second for me to answer, right?", he teases gently.

Buck blinks, flushes even darker and ducks his head.

"Right, yeah. Sorry."
"Don't apologise. And I'm good. Really. But you seem a little- off", Bobby hums.

The younger man denies it with another round of rambling but now, Bobby sees the way his eyes can't quite stay on his face, always slipping back to his chest, stomach and lower regions. He never noticed before that Buck seems to ogle him whenever he can. Or maybe Buck usually manages to hide it better; when they're surrounded by their friends and other people, when they're at work and need to be professional. And well, usually, Bobby doesn't walk around in nothing but a towel.

"Buck. Is there something on my chest that I can't see?", he smirks.

Immediately, the blond's eyes jump back to Bobby's face, obviously trying to not look like a kid caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

"I- Uh, no. No! Nothing there. I just- Uh, for- forget it!"

Now, Bobby has a choice. He can just go and get dressed or he can test how far Buck's little fascination goes. The moment the younger man says no, he'll stop. He can see how far they can go first.

"Forget what? The fact that you're almost drooling at the sight of my chest or the fact I made you speechless?"

Buck begins to flush adorably red as he tries to come up with something. Maybe an explanation or a denial, but he mostly just looks like a fish on dry land with how his mouth opens and closes without a sound coming out. Bobby watches it for a few moments, potentially reveling a little bit in how he managed to have confident flirt Evan Buckley speechless. Bit of a power trip, really. Eventually though, Bobby does want some kind of verbal reply and slowly steps closer. Buck steps back. They repeat that dance until the blond is pressed against the kitchen counter with his lower back, and Bobby can box him in, one arm on either side of Buck.

"So?", the captain prompts amusedly.
"I- Bobby, what are you doing?", the blond finally croaks, hands twitching nervously at his sides.
"Me? I'm asking you something. Why?"
"Because you never- There was never any- You never showed any signs of- of being interested before!", Buck presses out.

Bobby would have laughed if the younger man didn't sound so desperate. Did Buck really think that Bobby wasn't interested? He hadn't thought he'd been doing that good a job hiding it.

"And if I am? Interested, I mean. What would that change, Buck?", Bobby asks back gently.

Buck's eyes flit across his face, trying to find something. When he finds whatever he's searching for, he slumps slightly and hesitantly moves his hands to lie on Bobby's.

"Well, m-maybe then you- Uh, I mean, we could consider this, um, a- a date? Maybe?", the blond mumbles sheepishly.
"A date?", Bobby smiles.
"Y-yeah. I've been trying to, uh, to find out whether you'd ever agree to it for a- a while."

Bobby is intrigued by that, but he can investigate it later. Instead, he tilts his head slightly until he can look Buck into the eyes again even as the blond tries to evade his gaze.

"Then ask, Evan."

He sees the way Buck's eyes snap to his, and the blush on his cheeks darkens a shade deeper. Plump pink lips fall open in a silent little "o", and if he had less self control he'd be devouring the younger man now. But instead, he waits.

"Are you- Uh, wait! That- You serious?", Buck stammers with wide eyes.
"Yes. Ask, Evan."

He sees the other swallow sharply. Then, the blond nods once - twice. He takes a deep breath.

"W-would you like to have a date with me today?", Buck asks only with the slightest nervous waver in his voice.

Bobby adores him so much, and he's sure the smile spreading across his lips says just as much.

"I'd love that, Evan", he replies earnestly though.
"Really?!", the blond practically squeaks.

Bobby chuckles and presses a quick kiss to Buck's forehead.

"Yes. I've been wanting to go on a date with you for a while. I just wasn't sure whether you liked me like that."
"Oh", the young man breathes.
"Want to cook together?", Bobby smiles.

Buck blinks at him for a few moments before shaking his head slightly, as if to clear it. Then, he shakes it again.

"No, I'm cooking for you. You got hurt."
"And you got wet. You sure you didn't catch a cold?"
"In this weather? Please. Besides, my immune system is practically legendary", Buck huffs, squeezing Bobby's hands before gently pushing the older man backwards.

The captain goes willingly but refuses to let go of one of the blond's hands. Buck blinks at him in confusion, but Bobby just winks and pulls the hand to his lips to press a kiss to the back of it. Immediately, the fetching red is back, and Buck looks ready to melt.

"I'll get dressed then. What are you making though?", he asks interestedly.

Buck blinks a few times before a slight grin appears on his face.

"You'll figure it out once you see it, I'm sure."
"Oh, come on", Bobby groans with the slightest whine in his voice.

The grin on Buck's face widens.

"Nope!"

Bobby won't admit it, but he pouts at the blond before finally leaving to get dressed. Buck's laughter follows him and makes him smile anyway.