If you’re still doing HiAUtus prompts, what about a scenario where Buck already knew Tommy was Abby’s ex coming into s7?
oh boy. almost 2k here. for the ask meme that i'm working on i promise! formatting is all over the place. don't worry about it!
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1) i think they're all having "thank god we're alive" drinks some night after the cruise ship rescue, including tommy. chimney reaches a drink threshold that has him hit his hand on the table and ask, "tommy, are we ever talking about your secret engagement?"
hen: ohhhhh we have to talk about it, it's been long enough, we almost died in a helicopter, in a hurricane, we have to talk about her tommy stares at them, then at buck and eddie, as he melts into a giant lake of sweat. "i don't… know what you mean…" buck and eddie, rolling up to the el chisme buffet: oh gosh what is this about, someone should tell us everything right away chimney: it was like the second thing i ever learned about you!!! and you didn't even tell me!!!! i had to hear it from this lady who shows up while i'm man behind. she comes looking for tommy, he left his phone at my place and he's been calling it all day, is he around? tommy, to buck and eddie: i need one of you go to drive to harbor, find a chopper, turn it on, and let me walk into the blades. fly it here. now. it's not that hard. turn the key and pull up. buck: can i????????????? eddie and hen and tommy: NO chimney: and i'm like, ooooohhhhhh yes ma'am, i'll GLADLY pass this on to TOMMY KINARD, who should i say it's from????? and then her diamond ring sparkles right in my eye— hen, a memory suddenly dawning on her: uhhhh wait chim before the grand finale what if we get some more cheese fries, go up and order some and then come back and we'll do the big reveal tommy: of my corpse, because i'm killing myself. i'll get the cheese fries, you guys get a body bag chimney: everyone shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!! she says, i'm abby clark, tommy's fiancee. and then she disappeared into the mist and tommy refused to speak about it ever…….. until now tommy: there's no until now, there's— buck: ….abby? my ex-girlfriend, abby? hen: no………………. uh…………… another abby………… it's a big los angeles metro area out there, there's tons of 911 dispatchers named abby clark out there…........... tommy stares at buck, then asks: himbo?
2) hahahaha so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tommy buries his face in his hands, EVERYONE goes up to order every appetizer on the menu, but buck stays behind so he can watch tommy have a nervous breakdown for several minutes. finally tommy sits up and stares at buck. "so." buck pulls out his phone and slides it across the table. the folder is just labeled ABBY (2018) and, yep. that's a whole relationship with his ex-fiancee happening on some other guy's phone. "shit, you bulked up," is all tommy can say. "anyway, yeah. that's… my ex. and your ex." "why'd you break it off?" buck asks. "i'm gay." "oh. did she know that?" "if she does, i didn't tell her. why'd she break up with you? i mean, assuming—" "uh, her mom died and she went to travel the world, then kinda ghosted me." "oh. wow." "yeah." then they sit in silence for a while, peeling the labels off their beer bottles, until everyone comes back with many hot foods. "… did things somehow get weirder while we were away?" chimney asks. "you were supposed to talk about this, figure it out!" eddie: you guys, this can't be the first time either of you- tommy: i'm gay and i broke up with her because i never loved her. um. thanks for the fries and the drinks. nice meeting you or catching up with you. i gotta go. bye he flees for his life, and buck watches him go. chimney and hen watch, too, then catch buck and eddie on The Life and Times of Tommy Kinard (as far as they know, which is clearly not at all)
3) tommy opens his door: it's eddie? "so before everyone blew up your spot over the whole………. got engaged to someone and never really loved them, which, well, i don't know, people just do things sometimes for good reasons or not-so-good reasons, or good reasons with good people at the wrong time, or good people you thought you were just starting to—" "are you eddie? sorry, i blacked out and died after i ran out, so. didn't quite catch your name." "yeah i'm eddie. you wanna hang out? chim said you're into muay thai and i just started taking classes at a gym near my place." "……….. yeah ok." because they're really manfully beating the shit out of each other, they manage to…………. share? their thoughts? honestly? also eddie's kid is cool and they all like watching sports, so. is this……….. a friend?
3b) this evan or buck guy, though. the one who like. actually- yeah. maybe. maybe he is. to be. avoided. like just until tommy gets a handle on the humiliation he's managed to bury for 5+ years, then maybe he can say more than hey what's up to the dewy-eyed himbo whose dick abby rebounded with before her mom died and she escaped from LA. it's fine. he's not avoiding the guy. he's just making sure to never be in the same room as him for more than six seconds. nothing weird about that. tommy's busy! he's got a busy life! places to be! hobbies to hobby!
4) unfortunately, eddie is only kind of tommy's new friend; he's evan's best friend. tommy figures that's how evan got his address and why he's standing in his driveway while tommy's tinkering in the garage. why did he leave the door open? this is what he gets for trying to embrace a "welcoming" aura in the neighborhood- some asshole shows up and expects to be welcomed. "hey, tommy. why are you being so fucking weird about having the same ex?" "hey, evan," tommy calls from under a car. "well, i'm being fucking weird about it because i'm gay and for about five minutes i thought maybe i wasn't that gay, like i could marry a woman and also be gay, it's not like i needed to act gay or do gay things, i could just—whatever, man. why are you here?" "because i want to be your friend and you don't like me? and you don't like me for reasons that have nothing to do with me? maybe i want to hang out with eddie and chris and you, because they think you're really cool. maybe it's stupid that you made up your mind to not like me over a woman who hasn't been in the same country as you for five years. do you save all the common sense for the helicopter?"
tommy sighs deeply and slides out from under the car. "that wasn't very nice of you, new friend." evan looks down at him, upside down and really annoyed. "wasn't very nice of you to avoid me." "… do you want a beer or something?" "i would. thank you. and then tell me about this car." "do you know anything about cars?" "guess you gotta find out."
5) eddie and tommy get along sooooooooo well. they're like, weirdly similar, buck thinks, like the gay side and straight side of the same bitchy coin. and it's sooooooo not fair that it's so EASY for eddie and tommy to get along and so not for him and tommy. no ok, like, buck and tommy DO get along. their conversation is so easy and buck loves leaning in close to listen to whatever tommy says, and the 118 invites tommy out to drag him back in with their tendrils, but tommy hangs out with eddie, too, and he starts inviting buck places, just the two of them. they do outdoorsy stuff that eddie has no interest in, tommy invites him out to movies because buck has never seen any but he wants to see them with tommy, they go to new restaurants all the time, sometimes they just hang out at the loft or at tommy's place (aggressively comparing tommy's porch to bulk's balcony). he and tommy don't have a list of things in common like he and eddie do, but they spend so much time together and talk and text all the time and buck just likes being near him and with him and prying him open like-
6) "hey hen, i took five quizzes about whether i'm bisexual and it says i am, but like, how can i know? like really know?" "good question. is there a 6'2" firefighter-pilot whose mouth can help you answer that?" "…………………………. what if he hates me, though. like we're friends now. what if he still hates me because of abby. …………. not that this is about tommy. it's about me. and not tommy. it could be about anyone." "talk to him. kiss him if it goes well. talk to him some more if it doesn't. try kissing him again. you two have been coming to our group hangouts and treating them like dates for more than a month now, so both of you might need to knock your heads together a few times to figure it out." "oh. okay. thanks hen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also i'm bisexual you can tell everyone if you want!!!!!!!!!!! is there a special place to get one of those flag pins and bumper stickers or can i get them anywhere?" "please ask tommy. that's a good question for tommy." "ok now you're making fun of me >:( " "absolutely. have fun!!!!"
7) buck comes to tommy's house and they stand across the kitchen from each other, and buck tries to piece together everything: the abby thing, the friendship thing, the chemistry thing, the wanting-to-kiss-his-mouth-and-dig-his-fingers-into-his-hair-so-fucking-badly thing. and buck opens his mouth and……… nothing comes out. until finally:
"i think……… i have a crush on you? i think……… i really like you? and i can't remember the last time i…….. liked someone this much? i feel all bubbly and excited to see you, and i don't care what we do as long as we do it together. lately i think the only thing that could make it amazing, so much more amazing, is if we were kissing, too. oh my god, see what i mean, like, who says that when they're normal about someone, who calls it kissing, what i mean-" buck pauses. "yeah that's exactly what i mean. sorry." "what are you sorry for?" tommy asks, having addressed none of his concerns. "………. that it's me," buck says. "that i'm….. your friend, but…. but i was abby's himbo first. and you were abby's fiance first. and maybe we've been…. maybe we're friends now but maybe we'll always be abby's exes first. maybe we can't be anything else." "but you just said we were friends," tommy replies. "so clearly we can be something else." "tommy," buck whines. "can you- about the other stuff, could you just- just tell me whether it's possible. please." "i think… the first thing you knew about me was the worst thing about me, and you still stomped over and demanded to be my friend. so i think…… if you saw that- if you saw me- and you still stuck around, and you're- you're here and you want to, uh, stick even more-?" "i wanna stick around so bad," buck says, suddenly all the way across the kitchen, right in tommy's face, so close they can feel each other breathing. but buck holds back, stares at his lips, whispers, "tommy, please."
and suddenly that's easy, too: standing in the moment, together, the past carefully packed up and out of their way.
