Falling right into you
@bucktommyfluffebruary - Day 16 prompt: AU: Didn’t know they were dating
Notes: pre-relationship, getting to know each other, accidentally dating they’re just too oblivious to see it, minor injury | rated: G | words: 3.5k
All of my love to @leashybebes for listening to me yap about it and giving me the motivation to get on with it! Also shout out to @livelaughlou and @bybobbysbeard for saving me with their Die Hard knowledge when I made the frankly insane choice to include in this fic a film I’ve never seen 🫶🏻
[Read on Ao3]
———
It had been a long day. None of their calls had been anything too serious but it had been relentless. Every time Tommy had laid his head down on a bunk pillow he had been interrupted by the alarm. He felt heavy, right down to his bones. He had made it home, but between the sleep deprived grittiness of his vision and the way his hands felt like they were made of lead, manoeuvring his key into the lock was proving difficult. He stepped back and cursed, squeezed his eyes shut, trying to clear some of the fog building up in his brain.
As he opened them again the door clicked open, it took him a moment to register that someone was stood in the doorway. Someone was inside his house.
“Hey, long shift?”
Evan, Evan Buckley, his brain supplied. 118, Howie’s friend, he’s staying here because frat houses are not conducive to sleeping well enough to be an effective first responder. Tommy lets out a sigh, he could have used being alone tonight.
“Something like that.”
Evan steps back from the doorway and Tommy comes into the house, it smells great, Evan is always cooking something and, as Tommy has discovered, he’s pretty good at it. His stomach rumbles. He looks over at the pot on the stove, bubbling with a rich red sauce, thinks about the reheated leftovers he had set aside for dinner, if he even gets that far. A shower was the first priority. The ones at Harbour were fine for a quick rinse, but he longed for the quiet solitude of his own bathroom to truly wash away the day’s grime.
When Tommy re-emerges he feels a bit more human and a bit less grumpy about his decision to share his home with a practical stranger. He goes to the kitchen, it appears empty until Evan pops up from behind the kitchen island, making Tommy jump.
“Oh, sorry!” He is holding two plates, uses one to gesture towards the pot on the side. “Do you want some? I’ve made way too much for just me.” Tommy can’t deny that it looks and smells incredible, he thinks about declining but cooking is not his forte and he could do with some good food right now.
“Yeah, if you’re sure that’s okay?”
Buck grins, it lights up his whole face, makes his bright blue eyes sparkle.
“Of course, I’ll bring it over.”
They sit down at the table together, while they’re eating Evan tells him about the last shift he had, getting used to the routine and workings of the firehouse. Tommy nods along, it’s all familiar to him. He offers little pieces of advice as they go.
Once they’ve finished eating Tommy clears away the plates, he’s loading the dishwasher as Evan comes alongside him and starts running the tap into the sink to wash up. They clean up in companionable quiet. With all the jobs done Tommy heads towards the stairs, he turns to Evan and gives him a quick half wave.
“Goodnight, thanks for dinner.”
“No problem, glad you liked it.”
He gives Evan a parting smile and goes up to his room, settling quickly under the covers. He can hear the light sounds of Evan padding around the living room. He doesn’t mind it, the house feels more comfortable somehow, less empty. Maybe having a housemate isn’t such a bad thing after all.
——
Spring has started to show itself and Tommy has decided that today was the day to throw himself into a full house clean. With Evan’s help it had taken half the time it usually did. Finishing up in the kitchen, Tommy is on his knees bent around inside the corner cupboard wiping out the last of the dust.
“You doing okay in there?”
“Yeah.” His voice comes out muffled. He shuffles out, his hair is sticking up everywhere. Buck offers his hand and helps Tommy up. He leans over and drops the cloth he had been using in the sink. He wipes the back of his hand across his forehead. “Now I know how a TV dinner feels.”
The reference goes straight over Buck’s head, confusion spreading over his face.
“Oh come on, it’s Die Hard.”
“I’ve never seen it. It’s a Christmas film right?”
“A- a Christmas film?” The incredulous tone of Tommy’s voice makes Buck feel immediately like he’s got something fairly wrong.
“Does it not happen on Christmas Day?”
“Well yeah.” Tommy is gathering up the cleaning supplies from the counters, putting them back in their respective cupboards.
“But it’s not a Christmas film. It’s just a film that happens to occur at Christmas.”
Buck scrunches his brow.
“Riiight.”
“Okay, okay, come here.” Tommy takes Buck by the elbow and leads him into the living room. He goes to the DVD lined bookshelf and starts skimming through the titles.
“Sit down” he calls over his shoulder. “We’re watching it right now.”
Buck smiles to himself, it’s been a few weeks, but he finally feels like he’s starting to crack into Tommy’s shell.
“Yes sir.” He makes a mock salute and flops down onto the small couch.
Tommy rolls his eyes good naturedly, sits down next to him and starts the movie.
He can tell it’s coming, but the shot that kills the first hostage still makes Buck flinch. His leg bumps against Tommy’s but he is too involved in the movie to really notice. Tommy notices though, the soft press of Evan’s sweatpants and the warmth radiating from him is hard to ignore. He takes a deep breath and tries to concentrate on the TV.
It isn’t until the scene moves on that Buck realises his thigh is still touching Tommy’s. His gaze flickers down to where they’re pressed together, is it weird to stay like this? Should he move? The couch is small, not really designed to hold to grown men with any additional room and Tommy hasn’t made any indication that he wants Buck to move. He decides that it’s probably been too long anyway, doing it now would be more awkward than not, right?
——-
By the time Hans Gruber is falling backwards out of a shattered glass window Buck feels like he’s been on a rollercoaster.
The credits start up and he looks over at Tommy,
“Definitely not a Christmas film.”
Tommy stares at him for a second before bursting out laughing.
——-
The next day Tommy gets home from his shift and dumps his bag down by the island, comes into the kitchen to see what Evan was making for dinner. It had become a routine of theirs, not that Tommy minded. Evan was far better in the kitchen department than he was. He was starting to find that he enjoyed having someone to come home to.
He goes to the fridge, it had been hot that day and he was in desperate need of a cold drink.
“I’m sure that cooking without a shirt on is probably a hazard of some kind.”
Evan is fiddling with the scale settings, carefully measuring out ingredients before mixing them together in a saucepan.
“Oh yeah,” he looks down at himself quickly, as if he had forgotten about his bare torso. “I-I can go and get one if it bothers you?”
Tommy waves a hand around the open fridge door.
“No it’s fine, as long as you don’t burn yourself.”
“I have no intention of doing so.”
Tommy chuckles,
“You of all people should know that nobody intends to burn anything.”
Buck laughs,
“That’s true.” He wavers for a moment, stirring the contents of the saucepan, like he can’t decide if he wants to say something.
Tommy watches him carefully.
“Hey did you know that Bruce Willis wasn’t the first choice to play John McClane?”
“No, I didn’t.” Buck face lights up with the knowledge that he’s giving Tommy something new.
“Yeah, he was like sixth in line, they offered it to bunch of people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Harrison Ford before they gave it to him. Apparently because he was in a show called Moonlighting at the time which was more like a drama comedy thing? They weren’t super sure he’d be a good fit for all the action.”
“Hard to imagine anyone else doing it now.”
Tommy watches Evan, he’s bouncing on the balls of his feet, radiating energy. “Wait, how did you know? I thought you said you’d never watched it before?”
“I hadn’t.” Evan grins and slips past him to get to the fridge. He tries not to think about the bare heat of Evan’s bicep as it brushes past his own. “I was listening to this podcast at work today.” He comes back past, waving the stick of celery he had retrieved as he talks. “While we were restocking the engine, it was really interesting - apparently McClane wasn’t meant to fall so far in the elevator scene, he was supposed to stop at the first vent but when they short the stunt man slipped and fell further than he was meant to.”
Tommy isn’t paying as much attention to Evan’s words as he should be. He is watching the muscles in Evan’s back move as he chops the vegetables on the counter in front of him. The up and down of his shoulder, the flex across his shoulder blade when he has to press down through something harder. Selfishly imagining what it would feel like to feel those muscles shift under his hands, to press a kiss to the juncture of Evan’s neck while he’s cooking, rambling about a film he had no interest in before yesterday. A film that he went and researched because he thought Tommy would like the extra information. He squeezes his eyes shut, scrubs a hand over his cheek. He needs to get a hold of himself. Evan is straight. He’s has never talked about anything other than women as far as Tommy can remember and even if he wasn’t, it’s not like he would be interested in Tommy anyway.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed Evan turn to face him, the stream of consciousness coming to an abrupt halt. He realises that he hasn’t listened to a word Evan had said in the last few minutes.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to zone out I just-“ he not sure how to finish the sentence. ‘Sorry I wasn’t listening, I was too busy thinking about biting your traps’ didn’t feel at all appropriate.
“It’s okay.” Evan’s voice is smaller now, his shoulders have dropped, something unreadable on his face. “I talk to much, I don’t blame you for not-”
Tommy takes a step forward, he see the hurt in Evan’s eyes, cast down to the floor.
“It’s not that.” Before he knows what he’s doing he’s reached forward and wrapped his hand around Evan’s wrist. “I was just somewhere else, which is on me, not you. I want to hear about it.”
Evan chews on his lip, fingers curling up in his palm, up towards Tommy’s hand.
“Really?”
“I promise.”
Evan looks up and meets Tommy’s reassuring gaze. He swallows, can feel something in the air like crackling static. He can feel Tommy’s hand curled around his arm, drawing him in. He feels himself being pulled into to Tommy’s space, he just wants to be closer and closer -
He’s so lost in the moment that the alarm going off on his phone makes him jump clean out of his skin. He fumbles with it on the side, the noise finally stopping. He looks back but the moment is gone, Tommy quickly lets go of his arm and mumbles something about going to set the table. Buck watches him leave the room. He looks down at his arm, the residual heat still clinging there. Tommy is a good looking guy, sure. Buck can appreciate an objectively attractive man, but he’s never considered it any further than that. He furrows his brow and runs his fingers along the inside of his arm. That hadn’t felt very objective.
——-
Buck is stood in the grocery store staring at the vegetables section. He glances down at the list. ‘potatoes’ is scrawled there in Tommy’s slanted handwriting. Buck sighs, Tommy had done the meal planning this week because Buck’s shifts had been long and exhausting, which was sweet of him. Normally it’s Buck’s job, one of the things they had agreed on when he moved in. Recently things had become a little looser, Tommy had started picking up the jobs than Buck was too exhausted to get to and in return Buck had done the cleaning allotted to Tommy this week. They were beginning to cross over more, it is starting to feel like living with a friend rather than emergency bunking with Chimney’s old colleague.
He fidgets, can still feel the ghost of Tommy’s fingers curling around his wrist, can still feel the desire to hold his in return. He remembers the charge in the air, the sudden, overwhelming desire to close the space between them to lean in and-
He is jarred out of his thoughts by someone clearing their throat next to him. He looks across and realises that he has been holding up everyone else who needs to get theirs.
“Sorry.” He mumbles and shuffles out of the way. He’s probably overthinking it, considers that he might be the only person who thinks this much about type and variety of potatoes. He pulls out his phone anyway, flicks open Tommy’s contact. He’s hitting the call button before he can talk himself out of it. It rings and rings.
He closes his eyes and considers what kind of insane voice mail he is about to leave for the poor unsuspecting guy who kindly lets Buck live in his house when Tommy picks up.
“Hey Evan, everything okay?” He sounds out of breath.
“Oh uhm, yeah everything’s fine I was just-” Buck pauses, Tommy is still breathing heavily on the other side of the phone.
“Are you okay? I’m not interrupting anything?” He hears Tommy shift around.
“No, I was just working out, trying to squeeze something in before we get called out again.”
“Oh, okay.” Buck’s mind is suddenly so far away, images of Tommy working out, muscles pumping, sweat running down the thick column of his neck, damping his collarbones, rivulets making their way between his pecs and-
Not for the first time that day, Buck is pulled out of his thoughts by someone clearing their throat.
“Evan? You still there?”
“Oh! Yeah, sorry. I was just calling because-” He swallows nervously, suddenly afraid that Tommy can somehow read his thoughts. He glances back at the potatoes, wonders how he ended up here.
“I am just at the grocery store,”
“You’re doing the shopping?”
“Yeah, I had some time and nobody really wants to go shopping on their way home from work so I just thought it would be easier if I did it. I just wanted to check what kind of potatoes you needed.”
“Oh, uhm, thanks.” There is something unreadable in his voice, panic flutters through Buck’s chest, but before he can spiral out too far Tommy’s voice comes back into his ear.
“I appreciate it, you’re right, nobody does want to go shopping on their way home.”
Buck can’t help but smile.
“And as for the potatoes, I can’t say that I know specifically, usually I just grab whatever is closest.”
“What do you need them for?”
“I was just going to make wedges.”
“Okay, so probably like a Russet then?”
“If that’s what you think is best.”
“Yeah it’s got a good skin and it’s more starchy so the inside will be fluffier and-” He stops himself, hears Tommy chuckle.
“I’ve never known anyone to know so much about everything.”
“Well it’s important Thomas.” He hears the pout in his own voice. Tommy laughs again.
“It sounds like it is, I’m sure I’ll hear all about it when I get home.”
“You sure will.” The sound of the station alarm cuts through the call.
“Oh shoot, gotta go.”
“Yeah of course, be safe.” It slips out of Buck’s mouth so easily.
“I will, see you later.”
——-
A few day later Buck is lounging on the couch in a pair of boxers and slightly too long jumper, the only things he could be bothered to put on after his post shift shower, when he hears the handle of the front door.
He tenses. Tommy is on shift until 7pm so it shouldn’t be him and he isn’t expecting anyone else. The door rattles slightly, like the person on the other side is having trouble getting in. He can hear two different voices outside. His heart starts to pound in his chest. He glances around for his phone, curses when he realises that it’s upstairs on charge. Instead grabs the nearest thing to hand and raises it in front of him. He takes a deep breath and plants his feet ready for whatever is coming through the door.
Finally the handle swoops down and the door opens.
There’s a moment of silence.
“You planning to hit me with that?”
Buck lets out a huge breath and drops his arms.
“Tommy! What the hell, you are definitely not meant to be home yet!”
There’s a laugh from beside the front door,
“Wow Kinard, Hell of a home security system you have here.”
Buck looks at his chosen defensive object, a stainless steel water bottle as it turns out, maybe not his best choice.
“Hey now Luce, be nice to him, he was ready to defend my home.” He looks at Buck with a sparkle in his eye, he tilts his head as he takes in Buck’s chosen outfit. Lips quirked up in a smile. Buck suddenly feels self conscious, he tugs on the hem of the jumper.
“I wasn’t expecting you home yet.”
“It’s fine, I should have called. I wasn’t really expecting to be home yet either but-” He gestures up towards his head and Buck registers the thick white bandage covering a large portion of Tommy’s forehead, curving down around his temple. Buck all but drops the water bottle and rushes over. How could he not have seen that immediately?
“God, are you okay?” Without thinking he takes Tommy’s face in his hands, looks more closely at the bandages, counts the tiny cuts that are scattered across his cheek.
Tommy protests the attention a little, but makes no move to get out of Buck’s grip.
“I’m fine, Evan.” Buck furrows his brow and keeps cataloging Tommy’s injuries. A cut above his eyebrow catches Buck attention and he gently swipes back a loose curl to get a closer look at it.
“Evan.” Tommy’s voice is soft now, gentle. Buck realises that they’re only inches apart, he can feel Tommy’s warm breath ghosting across his cheek.
“Okay so I only have one question.” They both startle as if they’ve forgotten they aren’t alone.
“Why did I have to bring you back when you apparently have a perfectly good boyfriend at home? Does he not drive?”
Buck takes half a step back, his hand slips a little, but doesn’t break contact with Tommy.
“I- I can drive.” Tommy holds his breath, waits for the denial. It shouldn’t hurt so much he thinks, to hear it out loud. He squeezes his eyes shut.
He had let himself hope, ever since Evan had spent a whole 2 hour movie squashed into his side. Since they had started having dinner together, spending the time they weren’t on shifts closer and closer. He shouldn’t have let himself believe there might be a chance, waits for Evan to deny Lucy’s assumption of their relationship.
But he doesn’t.
“Right well, whatever is going on here-” he can hear the teasing in her tone, “I have to get back to work.” There’s a clatter of keys and the door clicks shut behind her. Tommy feels frozen in place, Evan’s hand is still cupped around his jaw. Tommy opens his eyes and Evan is just as close as he was when he closed them. There’s something in his eyes, bright and hopeful.
“You didn’t tell her you aren’t my boyfriend.”
“Well,” Evan’s tongue darts out nervously, “what if I wanted to be?”
“You want to be my boyfriend?”
Evan’s eyes soften impossibly at the hint of disbelief in Tommy’s voice.
“I do.”
“I want to be yours too.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.”
Buck inches closer, tilts his head up. It seems so obvious now, as their lips meet. Tommy’s hand is brushing up his arm, coming to rest at the juncture of his neck. The kiss is soft and gentle, makes Buck feel like he’s unraveling in the best way. So clear what the feeling was when he was obsessing over the places where their bodies touched on the couch. When he was working to make Tommy laugh, going after new information just to be able to give him something. Calling in the middle of Tommy’s shift just to make sure he was getting the right potatoes. Buck smiles against Tommy’s lips, they part minutely.
“Something funny?” Tommy’s voice is barely a whisper.
“We really have just been accidentally dating haven’t we?”
Tommy huffs out a laugh, Buck feels it where his hands have found themselves against Tommy’s back.
“Mmm, I do think that’s what has happened.”
Buck drops his head, slides into the crook of Tommy’s shoulder.
“I’ve never accidentally dated anyone before.”
“Well I’m more than happy to be your first.”
