Buck looked at the man who had joined them for drinks. He wasn't sure exactly who he was other than the name of Tommy. He and Tommy had talked on and off all night since somehow they had been pushed together in the middle of the circular booth that the 118 had commandeered as soon as they had made it into the bar. Buck still wasn't sure what had happened to cause the man to sit with them. Eddie was at the bar getting more drinks to be delivered to the table when they were done. The servers did not take orders; they just dropped things off. Everything had to be ordered at the bar.

The bar had a few machines for ordering food from the place next door, which they could get as to-go food. It worked well, but Buck was still stuck on the guy beside him.

Looking at Tommy made Buck's heart flutter. He wasn't sure why Tommy's smile when he talked to him was something that made him feel like that.

"Evan," Tommy whispered, his head a little closer to Buck's than it needed to be, even with the bar's noise.

"Yeah?"

"You are bouncing your leg. It's not bothering me, but I wanted to let you know."

"Oh, I do that when I'm nervous."

"What are you nervous about?"

Buck wanted to say, "You," but he didn't. He just swallowed and looked at Eddie, who was coming back to the table.

"They don't have that one drink you like, Buck, so I got you something else."

Hen and Chim both started to laugh.

"What?" Buck asked. How could they know what Eddie got him?

"There is an entire drink menu with suggestive names," Tommy said.

"What did you order for me, Edmundoi?" Buck asked.

That set Eddie laughing a little more, and he shook his head before mimicking, zipping his lips shut.

Buck huffed and looked at Tommy, who was grinning. That flutter came back in Buck's heart, and he wondered if he needed to get checked out. It was kind of stupid that he was letting this man make him feel like this.

The last time that Buck felt like this was...

"I need to use the bathroom," Buck said.

"You could have said that before I sat down again," Hen said. She got out of the booth, letting Eddie get out again, and then Buck escaped.

The bathroom was just a two-stall thing. The rest of the bathrooms were single-stall ones for the people who didn't want to use a mass bathroom. This was just for men, and Buck didn't think about going to one where no one could follow him until he was done splashing water on his face and Tommy was coming in the door.

"Are you okay?" Tommy asked. He shut the door and locked it, sealing Buck's fate of being trapped in there with him.

"I think the alcohol is getting to me."

"You ate seven tacos and a mess of chips before coming here with them. I heard Hen talking about it."

"There were no big tacos. I'm not that much of a pig."

"No, but that's enough that you can't be that drunk off a single cocktail here unless you have never drunk before in your life."

"I'm nervous," Buck said.

"Yeah? You never did say what about."

Tommy walked toward him, and Buck tried not to step back to show that it was Tommy he was nervous about. Tommy stopped just inches from Buck, and he had a grin on his lips.

"I guess it's me that makes you nervous, Evan."

Buck barely got his head back up from the nod when he was being kissed.

Buck had never wanted a kiss from anyone like this in his life. He felt Tommy's fingers holding his chin up, and Buck didn't want to be passive. He pressed back into the kiss because up until Tommy was kissing him, he hadn't let himself touch the thought that the last time that he felt like this was when he was flirting with Natlaia at the beginning.

"Was that okay?"

"More than," Buck said.

"Good. My radar is sometimes faulty, and I had a hard time reading you."

"I..." Buck inhaled and exhaled, looking into Tommy's eyes. "I've never kissed a guy before."

"No?" "I didn't realize I would ever want to before you were kissing me."

"Well, then I understand why my radar was acting like you were waffling back and forth." Tommy cupped Buck's face, and his thumb ran over his bottom lip, tracing where he had just been kissing.

Buck wanted to pull that digit in, but this was not the time or the place for that.

"How about dinner on Sunday? We are both off shift, right?"

"Yes, I'm free," Buck said.

Tommy smiled, and he leaned, his thumb moving out of the way so that Tommy could kiss him again.

Buck's heart fluttered again; this time, he took it for what it was. Attraction and the anticipation of what was to come.

"You have my heart all aflutter," Buck said.

"What about the rest of you?"

"I think I do have butterflies in my stomach. My hands want to touch."

"Then touch."

The banging on the door made Buck jerk back, but Tommy did as well, so Buck didn't feel too bad about that.

"Drinks are here," Hen yelled.

Buck thought about going back out there. He knew they would know what Buck had been doing there because he always looked well kissed, even by just a few of them.

"There is no hiding that," Tommy said as he brushed Buck's lips again.

"No, I know. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course, I would never have followed you back here if I cared."

"Then I don't care either. Hen's going to be over the moon."

"Yeah?"

"There are times she laments being the only one in our group who is not straight. There are others at the station, but they aren't tight like us."

"Hmm, then she will be happy. I'm sure she clocked me years ago, but I never came out at the 118."

Buck didn't even try to hide his shock. "You were at the 118?"

"You didn't know that? They didn't say how they met me?"

"No. Just called you an old friend who works at Harbor. I'm going to give them hell."

Buck opened the door, passing by Tommy on his way, and marched over to the table where Hen and Eddie were waiting to sit down until they got back.

"You okay there, Buckaroo?" Hen asked, her gaze darting down to his lips.

"You two are in so much trouble. Eddie and I tried for about half an hour to figure out how you met Tommy."

"Oh, you didn't...I guess that we don't talk about him much," Chim said.

"No, you don't."

"Who is?" Eddie asked.

"Remember the plane that dropped the water on you and that kid? The cul-de-sac fire?" Chim asked.

"That was me flying that. I moved from the 118 to Harbor to fly again. I assume that one of you two replaced me."

"Buck. We went through like five people to replace Sal before settling on another probie when Buck was nearly done with his time. Well, not nearly, just like halfway because no one fit with all of us but especially with Bucik."

"Hard to please?"

"More like hard to keep up with," Eddie said.

Buck stuck his tongue out at Eddie.

"Get in the damned booth, you two," Hen said.

Buck got in and scooted around to where he was sitting and where Tommy had been. Then Tommy got in, and he pressed himself along Buck's side.

"Oh," Chim said, and he looked at Hen.

"I feel like I missed something." Eddie did look confused.

The words were right there, but Buck wasn't able to say them.

"What drink did you get him?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, uh, deep throat."

That set off Hen laughing so hard she nearly missed sitting down on the seat.

Chim started to laugh as well.

"And me?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, just a tequila sunrise."

"Well, since I'm the one that likes deep-throating, how about I take that one," Tommy said.

"I don't know. I might like it," Buck said. He reached out and picked up the drink, striking at Tommy as he sipped.

"Oh shit," Hen said, but she at least calmed down on laughing a little bit.

"Do we even exist?" Chim asked.

"Nope," Eddie said.

Buck kept his gaze locked with Tommy as he kept on drinking the drink.

Tommy's gaze turned hungry. When Buck was about halfway done with the drink, he set it down and leaned in close.

"By the way, my prostate and I are very good friends. Also, I have really liked it when some of my past lovers have pegged me."

Tommy choked on the water he was drinking. Eddie reached out and slapped Tommy on his back.

"We do not want to know what you said, Buck," Hen said.

Tommy waited for Buck to be sipping his drink again before he leaned his, his ears actually brushing at Buck's ear. "I think I can't wait to see you fluttering around my cock."

Buck didn't choke on his drink, but he stopped drinking and gave Tommy a challenging look. "When?"

"Tonight?"

"Yours or mine?"

"Hmm, how about mine?"

Buck nodded his head.

"Please, just leave," Hen said.

"Okay," Tommy said, never taking his eyes off Buck.

Buck nodded, and he finished off the drink before plucking out money to give to Eddie for the drinks since it was opened on his tab.

The night was getting a lot better.

The End