I hope I'm not stepping on your toes, @corporatebanana, but your pointy teeth monster theo has bewitched me body and soul. and also activated my weird magical bullshit trap card. So I wrote a ficlet about it.
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“I'm sorry to bother you,” Evan said with an earnestness that was going to be his downfall one day, “but I don't know who else to ask.”
“It's fine,” Tommy said, even though a year's worth of unanswered texts and ignored calls meant it wasn’t. But that was on Tommy, not Evan, who lost someone he had furiously and joyously loved. Tommy didn’t love like that. He spent the first half of his life unaware it was even possible to love the way Evan did. “What do you need?”
Evan picked at the cardboard sleeve on the coffee cup. Despite the fact it was hot and only going to get hotter, Evan had eschewed his usual over complicated frozen monstrosity in favor of just regular hot coffee. “I have a foster son,” Evan said only to them immediately laughed. “Holy shit, Tommy, you gotta control your eyebrows or I’m never getting through this.”
This turned out to be the last year and half of Evan's life, an insane recitation of insane events made impossibly even more insane by Evan's rehearsed tone, like this was a funny slice of life story he was sick of telling.
“And now Theo is living with you,” Tommy said, eyebrows wrestled back into submission.
“He, uh, doesn't have anywhere else to go,” Evan said, the picking turned into full on shredding. They were going to have to sweep up the mess before going so they wouldn't get banned; it was the only coffee shop that employed a barista who hated everyone but him particularly, which meant she made the best coffee in the entire city. “Kameron’s family kicked her out and Connor was an only child. His parents and aunt aren't able to take care of Theo.” And then, a little guilty: “He needs a lot of attention.”
The old hurt snapped into anger. “He just lost his parents. Of course he needs attention. Jesus Christ, Evan.”
Evan jerked back a little, blinking rapidly in the face of Tommy's misplaced anger. “Hey, I know that, I do.” Evan said it gently, as if in apology even though Tommy was being an asshole. “I just meant that Connor’s parents were older when they had him, and now they’re not able to care for Theo. That's all.”
“No, I’m sorry. That was my own bullshit. I didn't mean to put that on you.” He scrubbed a hand over his face so he didn't have to look at the complicated face Evan was making. “So what do you need me for? Pretty sure your sister or Diaz can give you better parenting advice than whatever I could come up with.”
“You'd be surprised,” Evan said dryly, and pushed his unlocked phone across the table.
The kid that stared up at him was cute, and now that he was looking for it, undeniably Evan's biological kid: same nose, same beaming smile, same—wait. He zoomed in on Theo's smile, trying not to feel exactly like what his father always claimed he was. “Is that...?”
“He gets it from his mom. That’s why her family kicked her out.” Evan’s brave little smile wobbled. “Theo is, uh, he’s like—”
“Like me.” He couldn’t look away from that pointy smile. “Yeah, I don’t think Diaz is gonna cut it for this one.”
The cardboard sleeve had been reduced to its base components. Tommy passed his sleeve before Evan could start in on his cuticles.
“I know we haven’t—that I haven’t—” Evan broke off, frustration pulling the corners of his mouth tight.
“Just say it,” Tommy said, gentle even as he felt the telltale warmth along his spine. Thank god he’d been smart enough to go with a high collar shirt and a hoodie; the only skin showing was his face and hands, which were normal. Safe.
“There aren’t many people like him. Even the social worker doesn’t have many resources.” Evan set the cardboard sleeve aside. “It’s already so hard to be a kid, but this is going to make it—”
“Even worse for him?” He kept his tone level, but Evan flinched as if he shouted.
Evan shook his head. “Kameron and Connor should be the ones helping him and loving him, but now he’s just got me, and I don’t know what I’m doing.” Evan’s jaw set with that earnest determination. Nothing in the world was as devastating as Evan’s sincerity. “He needs people in his corner, and you’re one of the best people I know.”
Tommy closed both sets of eyelids. There it was, just like how he knew it was coming. Evan wanted what he could do but never just wanted him. He couldn’t even be angry about it; it was his own fault for never bother to fucking learn.
“Tommy?” Evan touched the back if his hand.
His opened his eyes. Right now, hidden under the shirt and hoodie and his sturdy boots, he was all lit up, a warning to predators that, hurt or not, the smart move was not to fuck with him. He slid his hand away.
“Does he have any other traits outside of the teeth?” he asked.
Evan stared forlornly after his hand before giving himself a hard shake. “I thought maybe he had like super smell, but turned out it was only for cookies. So just the teeth right now.”
“He’ll probably develop a couple more as he gets older. Puberty is a real bitch. I had terrible growing pains and I was itchy all the time.” The worse part was the never ending deep burns as he grew new nerves and cells and—well, changing in the locker room got a lot more complicated after that.
Evan perked up a little. “Oh, is that when you got the—”
“Yup.” That came out too short and Eva deflated a little. It was hard to tell from just a picture, but he’d bet there were too many teeth for Theo’s small mouth. “You should get him something to chew on.”
“Like a dog toy?” Evan said in an extremely scathing tone.
“First of all, the kid is what, four? He’s going to want to bite anyway but he is definitely going to want to put those chompers to work. And I’m sure they’re bothering him. Chewing will help.” Theo was too young to be able to tell exactly what kind shit got mixed in with the usual genetic make up, but Tommy had a feeling. “Has he lost any teeth yet?”
Evan squinted suspiciously at him. “You mean his baby teeth? He’s like several years away before his adult teeth come in.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about baby teeth. There’s a good chance he’ll lose and regrow them throughout his life. You’re going to need a good dentist. I’ll ask around.”
“Regrow his teeth?” Evan said, ignoring the bit about the dentist, which was fine. Tommy had that part covered. “Like a shark?”
He smiled. “How does the kid handle bath time?”
Evan made the face of every aggrieved parent. “He loves it when he’s actually in the bath, but he hates getting in or out of it. Transitions are hard for him.”
“They’re hard for everyone.” One last look at the picture before he pushed the phone back across the table. “We’ll have to take him down to the beach and see how he does with the actual ocean.”
“You think he’s really like—but you don’t have the teeth,” Evan said. And then, “Wait, we?”
Tommy gave his best nonchalant shrug. “I know what it’s like growing up with an extra rung in your DNA. Like you said, the kid is gonna need people in his corner.”
Evan swallowed hard, clearly fighting his own Buckley DNA to keep from crying. “Thank you,” he said softly, and this time Tommy let Evan take his hand.
“Of course,” he said just as soft, even as his weird, monstrous DNA lit up in a futile effort to ward off danger.
we got Athena being handcuffed to a bed can you IMAGINE what Buck and Tommy could have gotten up to
Buck comes into work with a black eye and spends the whole episode refusing to explain what happened while everyone teases him and then at the very end Tommy comes to pick him up and he has an identical black eye
Tommy gets stuck out on Buck's balcony in his underwear because he was trying to do a sexy little surprise and didn't realize the sliding door locks automatically
Buck buys some edible body paint and Tommy has an bad reaction to it because it contains coconut oil and Buck didn't know he's allergic
they break a bed. multiple times. that's it that's the premise you can't tell me those two six foot something beefy muscley hunks didn't absolutely destroy multiple ikea bedframes over the course of six months!!!
hi hi this is so funny they found their shared hobby <3
#bucktommy#okay like just... it's never really discussed. they're just always bed shopping#have you guys still not bought a bed?'' someone asks when Buck is scrolling through beds on his phone#''yeah. we did. a couple.''#''how many rooms are you furnishing?''#''just the one''#another time he's watching something on his phone and it cuts to paid sponsorship and Buck just scuffs ''solid and sturdy joinery my ass''#just ALWAYS bed shopping#until finally there's mention of them taking a class together#it's woodworking#primarily so they don't have to but all the tools#because Tommy's already got car tools and they've both got all that gym equipment#can't get invested in another expensive and space taking hobby like that#but they CAN take a class and use the stuff to build their own custom bed
Made-up fic title = the right place at the right time
first of all i love that we have all decided it's time to revive magical bullshit tommy.
i mention this because this is a magical bullshit story idea.
starting when tommy was in middle school, he'd feel an urge. a compulsion. to be somewhere. and by the time he'd walked or biked there, something would be happening that he could help with.
the first time he'd put down his sandwich and wandered into the front yard just in time to see michelle, his five year old neighbour, trip on the sidewalk and scrape her knee. he'd walked her back into her house and found some bactine and a bandaid and by the time her mom had gotten back from the store michelle had forgotten she was upset or hurt and was telling tommy all about the adventures her barbies were going on.
looking back on it, whatever it is that's guiding tommy has the decency to only aim him at things he can handle at that age.
he has no idea why he's standing at the army recruitment centre, only that the compulsion stopped as soon as he walked in the door. there's no one there that needs help, and he's about to turn on his heel and walk away when a recruiter sees him and asks if he's there to sign up. the bruise on tommy's eye pulls as he shakes his head, but when he takes a step towards the door, the compulsion tugs at him again. it's the first time it's seen tommy as the one that needs help.
tommy heard gerrard call the evac, but the compulsion pulls at him until he has no choice but to walk further into the mall. he learned in the desert that the migraines were something he wanted to avoid if he could, and his air is good. he has time.
tommy wakes up in the hospital and blinks up at the ceiling. that's new.
he's going to thank howie and then keep ignoring him, but he takes a step away and the compulsion is stronger than ever. he's not sure why being friendly with howie is important, but he's got no reason not to trust the urge.
tommy's already starting up the water plane when his phone rings and howie's asking for help. he radios back to the hangar and lets them know, and his lieutenant stops reaming him out for taking something out on a joy ride. tommy figures this is what the compulsion was about, after the mall, and puts it out of his head. he's done what's needed to be done, and now he can move on.
lucy's brother comes to town on short notice and she begs him to take a few shifts. tommy has a pair of tickets to the lakers and he hasn't seen sal in a month and he's going to say no, and then — saying no isn't an option. tommy watches the rain come down over la and wonders what was just so goddamn important that he had to give up a laker ticket for it.
then howie calls.
tommy doesn't need the radar to fly that night. he's drawn across the ocean in an unerring line, although he risks a migraine to go a little off course every once in a while so no one can say that it was lucky or magical later. (he was in the army, the fear of being poked and prodded is completely valid.)
the weirdest part of that night is evan. tommy can feel the weight of his stare the entire flight out, and then when they're able to start evacuating people evan stays with him the entire time. tommy's not about to turn down the eyecandy, but.
howie and eddie keep calling him afterwards. he winds up moving up his pick up game so he can go with eddie, and howie and tommy watch the best and the worst movies of the last decade.
evan comes by for a tour. evan comes to the basketball game. tommy knows when he's not wanted, and he's going to leave eddie at the hospital and head home, but he drives a different way and ends up in front of an apartment building he doesn't recognize. he searches the address in his contacts and winces when evan's name comes up. well. guess he's doing that instead.
the kiss is not a compulsion. after dinner, leaving early is all tommy's idea. he's not about to rush the guy —coming out that first time, that has to be on evan's terms. otherwise it's going to eat at him for years. but tommy isn't sure he wants to go back in the closet. evan calls him again. there's a wedding at a hospital, the first night at evan's, the first time he gets to watch evan fall apart.
after that first visit to evan's, there is no compulsion driving tommy there. but he's there as often as he can be, and evan doesn't seem inclined to ask him to stop. if tommy's the one with a long or an early shift, evan comes over to his place.
the night evan tells him about abby, the compulsion shows up so quickly and strongly that tommy's fighting off a migraine between one breath and the next. he's got to get out of there.
breaking up with evan is... well, it's a mistake. tommy doesn't know how to take it back. even getting home in time to see his neighbour's shed go up in flames and wake them up before it gets to their house doesn't seem worth it.
tommy drifts through the next few months, handing over the reins to whatever it is that's been guiding him all these years. it already fucked up the best thing that has ever happened to him. going to a bar on the other side of town is weird, but tommy's never understood anything.
he thinks running into evan is the universe trying to apologize. the fight the next morning is — not a mistake, exactly. they haven't talked about any of this before. the leaving is the mistake. but tommy's always been a coward if there's not something making him show up.
he's wandering the city a few weeks later. if he was in a less metropolitan place, it would probably be called a ramble. he bumps into a woman coming out of an office building and because tommy's built like a brick shithouse (thanks, sal), she goes sprawling and her bags spill out on the pavement. he's helping her gather everything up when another woman comes rushing out the door with a security guard.
"dr. blake, we're going to have to check your bags before you can leave," the security guard says, and dr. blake tries to make a break for it. tommy grabs her by the arm and hands her off to the guard. he leaves as dr. blake is screaming about her right to her personal property not being searched, and tommy goes home to get some sleep.
evan calls him the next day and after they spend ten minutes trying to apologize over each other, evan asks if they can meet up for a coffee.
"Don't get in any aircraft today," Buck tells Tommy the second Tommy answers the phone.
Tommy chuckles and sighs. "Even if I wanted to, I can't. Not for another thirty-eight days."
Buck's hand tightens around his phone. He knows it's a punishment for Tommy, but he can't get past the lump of nausea in his chest about the idea of Tommy being in the air today. "I'm sorry."
"I knew what I was risking."
"Can I... Is it okay if I call to talk to you sometimes?" Buck bites his lower lip. His heart is starting to race.
On the other end of the line, Tommy is silent. After a few eternities, he asks, "Why?"
"Remember when I invited you to Maddie's wedding? I got your coffee order wrong and you were saying that we didn't know anything about each other." The words are practiced. He has thought about all of it for too many times. He just never did dare to call, not until today, when the image of a helicopter crashing – with Tommy inside, his final Mayday message dedicated to Evan – keeps haunting him. "I know a bit more about you now, and I wanna keep learning. And I want you to know me more. We don't... We don't have to date, if you don't want to, but... Tommy, you're one of the best people I know, and I don't want you out of my life, and I'm sorry for the stupid shit I said that day in Eddie's kitchen."
There. Like the release of a compression bandage. Buck breathes slowly, slowly.
Tommy hums. He takes a moment, and Buck resists speaking into the silence, resists filling it up. He always tried to fill it up, back when they were together, so Tommy helped him fill it up, with kisses and flirting and superficial chatter and a lot of sex.
But Buck does remember a little of what he's learned. Tommy likes having space for his thoughts to coalesce. He likes having personal space and time. He likes being responsible for fixing something by himself.
Eventually, Tommy says, "I'd like that."
Buck smiles. His shoulders relax. "Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry, and thank you."
"You're one of the best people I know too," Tommy says. "And I still owe you flying and muay Thai lessons."
"I'll take the muay Thai, no to the flying," Buck replies with a grin. That lump comes back into his chest and the grin dissolves. "Don't fly today, okay? Promise me you won't. Fake a stomach flu if you're called to."
"Evan."
"I have a bad feeling. I can't... I've already lost enough people that I love," Buck whispers, the memory of Bobby flashing in front of him. He should've felt something then. He didn't. He didn't even tell Bobby that he loved him. "Tommy, promise me. No flying."
Tommy exhales, a staticky whoosh over the line. "Okay. No flying, I promise."
"Thank you." Buck unclenches his jaw and smiles again. "Have a good shift, Tommy."
it really is annoying as hell how someone will talk about how poor people can't avoid ethically dubious products because of how being poor works and then someone with a two story house in the suburbs will take that to mean they can order harry potter books through a drone delivery from amazon and if you criticize that you're a bigot
wow okay for once??? I'm thinking kidfic which might be insane but!! hear me out: monster kidfic. turns out theo inherited some monster genes from kameron's side of the family and the only person that buck knows that has monster genes and maybe could help is tommy. idk I just think it would be juicy if tommy and theo bonded and buck (who we all know has no jealousy issues) was just like "why do they even need ME around."
I'm picturing a fraught conversation rife with misunderstandings that's Buck saying "you know I'm just fostering theo" which tommy reads as 'I'M fostering theo, not you. also this is just temporary anyway, you thought you could one day have a family? nice dream, loser.' and buck means 'maybe it would be better if YOU were fostering theo' and they just talk in circles around eachother until one of them says like "I wanted to build a family with you, jokes on me I guess" and the other is like, "no, EYE wanted to build a family."
the "sharp pointy teeth" are theo's literal sharp pointy teeth, and the teeth of buck's jealousy, and the teeth of them fighting tooth and nail to have a family together 🥺 you know?
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