2011

Tommy held out his cup for a refill of the coffee when the waitress moved past him. He was long past when he should have cut off coffee for the day since it was dark as hell, but he needed to stay awake long enough to get back to his hotel room. The waitress stopped long enough to fill him up and then pat his shoulder before she headed back for the place where she was working on what looked like classwork. He watched her for a moment before he turned back to the book he was reading while waiting for his meal to arrive.

The place wasn't normal for him, but he had been unwilling to eat the food that was available from room service at the hotel. It wasn't that it was bad; it just wasn't what he wanted. Living out of the hotel even while his apartment was being taken care of for the damage done by burst pipes from the unit above was something he didn't know how to do anymore. Moving into a house wasn't going to change things, but maybe it would. At least then, it would just be his fuck ups that pushed him out of his place.

"What's with the face?"

Tommy looked up to see Hen sitting down in front of him.

"Your place is across town."

"Yeah, it is. I saw you with your bags earlier when you left work. Then I heard you on the phone yesterday, and it kind of came together a little while ago. You ordered?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Hen settled into the booth more, and she took the cup of coffee from him and frowned at it before she added in his normal amount of cream and sugar. She sipped it and then handed it back.

"You are coming home with me. Karen dropped me off, so there is no getting away from it. We have a good guest room."

"Why?" Tommy asked.

Hen just looked at him with that look that he was well used to. She sighed and relaxed a little. "I never wanted to say something because it's your choice, but I know Tommy and I get it. I fully get it. I heard you compare your father to Gerrard to Sal one day. Speaking of Sal, why not him?"

"He's got a newborn at home, and he and Gina would gladly open the place up to me; I'm not interested in being around for that right now. I'm...not handling things well."

"No, I can understand that. Chim's forgiven you, and while you were never outright mean to me, I saw the look on your face before Gerrard opened his mouth. I know that you submitted paperwork."

"We tried to do it with Howie, but nothing ever caught. I am not sure if leadership changed or being a woman and a lesbian was enough to make people take notice."

"Whatever it is, I'm glad of it. I'm glad he's gone. I wish he was fired but moving him elsewhere was always going to be an option. I know how the world works. So, Kinard, you are going to get your food. I'm going to steal some of it. And then you are going to drive me to the hotel, we are going to cancel the rest of your stay there, and you are going to sleep in my guestroom and get to know Denny."

"And I'm going to look at houses," Tommy said. Voicing it for the first time.

"Hmm, that will be all Karen there. I'm not the best at it. Well, no. I just don't like doing it."

Tommy laughed, feeling a lot lighter. He looked to see the waitress coming at him with his food, and he was glad when she brought a second plate as well. She handed Hen silverware as well.

Hen laughed, and she took the glass of water when it was offered up when the waitress came back.

"Anything else?" The waitress asked.

"No, we are good," Hen said.

Tommy tucked into his food because he was hungry as hell, and lunch had been so long ago. He was glad that he didn't work tomorrow. He once slept in at Hen's and then got to know Karen a little better.

It was going to work out, and he was going to find a place with the help of his friends.

2018

Tommy heard the knock, and despite not hearing it on his door in close to two years, he knew that when he opened it, he would find Hen outside. He didn't even bother to put on a shirt. He looked down to make sure he had pants on. Despite her being interested in only women, he wasn't answering the door in just his underwear.

He opened the door and looked at the pair that were standing there. Hen looked fondly at the man, but the man was looking at his phone like he was trying not to do something like run away. Tommy understood that impulse when it came to Hen and certain things.

"Hen," Tommy said.

"Tommy, I'm here to call in that marker."

Tommy stepped back, and he waved for Hen to come inside. She knocked her shoulder against the man's, and he looked up from his phone. Tommy watched the man nearly stumble as he looked at Tommy. Tommy felt like he probably should have put a shirt on, and he would go and find one as soon as his guests were inside.

"Tommy Kinard," Tommy said as he offered up his hand.

"Um, Evan Buckley," the man said.

Evan offered his hand and shook, his palm sweaty. Tommy let go of his hand and waved for him to come inside as well. Hen was already in the middle of the living room, looking around.

"You are going to stay here," Hen said.

"What? Hen. He...No, I..." Evan snapped his mouth shut when Hen glared at him.

"I'll be right back; make yourselves at home, and then we can talk about this." Tommy chuckled as Evan made a noise as Tommy headed away. Evan, it seemed, wasn't straight, or at least he liked to look at men. Tommy wasn't going to even touch that thought. He doubted that Hen was matchmaking.

Tommy found the shirt he had laid on the bed and put it on before grabbing a pair of socks and putting them on.

When Tommy returned to the living room, he found Evan seated on the loveseat and Hen looking at his bookshelf.

"Why don't we move to the kitchen?" Tommy asked.

Evan shot up like he had been burned but followed Tommy to the kitchen. Hen came in on his heels.

"Buck here left his girlfriend's palace after finally agreeing that she is ghosting him."

Tommy had so many questions.

"She's on an overseas trip," Evan said.

"Ah, so she ghosted you and didn't tell much at all. Now you want out of there?"

"I let her building manager handle things. Her bills come out automatically, and if she wants to stop them, she can do that from wherever she is. I just haven't found a place I like yet, and things are getting dicey with me staying on couches."

"Well, as I am sure that Hen told you, before I bought the house, I lived with her and Karen when water pipes burst in my apartment."

"Yeah, she said that. Then she kidnapped me. She said that we were going for breakfast, and my only option was to tuck and roll out of the car wheel it was moving to escape."

"And even you aren't enough of a dumbass to do that unless someone had really kidnapped you."

"Agreed." Evan had a smile on his face as he looked at her. Then he turned to Tommy. "I can pay rent. That's not the issue. I've just...I've never had a place of my own, not really, so I want to make sure it's the right place."

"He's being picky, but the good kind of picky. He won't end up in a bathtub without a vital organ."

Evan rolled his eyes but he looked at Hen with fondness.

"So, I assume that you work with Hen?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, I'm still in my probationary period, so I was hoping to wait until after that to get a place since it'll look better on my application, but I hope someplace will find me."

"Well, I didn't stay with Hen all that long, about a month, but if you need longer, I don't mind."

Evan's mouth dropped open, and he looked like he really wasn't expecting that. "What?"

"I told you that Tommy was good people," Hen said.

"Yeah, but that's...it's months until then, Hen."

"I've got enough space, and I assume you work on Hen's shift, so we will work the same time and have the same time off. Well, outside of when I'm on call."

"You are a firefighter as well?"

Tommy looked at Hen. She shrugged. She hadn't told him.

"I assume, given your time in and everything, Evan, you replaced me at the 118. I went to the 217. I am a helicopter pilot."

"Not just helicopter unless you let the rest of that lapse."

"I didn't. I just mostly fly helicopters."

"That's cool. You'll have to take me up sometime. You have to get a certain number of hours, and sometimes it's not enough with what you fly in the day-to-day, right?"

"Yup. I'm actually going to be going up later today. I might just take you along if you want. You have much to move?"

"No. My stuff can fit in the Jeep. I can have it packed up in a few minutes from Hen's and then be here in an hour or two if she lets me escape her clutches."

"Okay, My mortgage is mine to pay, but I'll get you half of the bills, and you buy your own food. If you want an actual contract of some kind, I can work up one of those with a friend."

Evan shook his head. He looked worried. Hen didn't. So Tommy assumed that it had something to do with Evan being Evan. Tommy would learn from him and figure out how to interact with him.

"Hen told you I'm gay, right?" Tommy asked.

Hen hissed and looked at him.

"That's fine! I'm an ally, I promise. I'm not..." Evan trailed off without ever saying who he wasn't, but that was okay. He looked flushed. Like he was worried about upsetting Tommy.

"That's good. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't find out in the worst way."

2024

Tommy hadn't really thought about Evan Buckley much since the man had found a loft apartment to live in with his then-girlfriend. He had moved out a week and a half before the bombing, and Tommy had offered to let him move back in. Evan had, and then when the dust settled from all of that, the whole of the 118 had been a little changed. Tommy still wasn't sure about most of it, given that Evan had only kept in contact via texting since he had moved out again.

Evan kept in contact more than Howie and Hen did, but it still wasn't a lot, and Tommy didn't think about him much beyond that. That was until the flight to the cruise ship.

Tommy wasn't sure what Evan acting like he was when it came to his best friend. Tommy knew that it wasn't Evan's normal way of being. Tommy looked at his phone, where Eddie was complaining about how Evan was acting. Too nosy about things that didn't concern him. Tommy felt like that was a little bit oblivious on Eddie's side because, from what Evan said, Eddie was his best friend, and Eddie had been ditching him for two weeks. Tommy had tried to get Eddie to invite Evan to the trivia night, and when Eddie showed up alone, Tommy felt like maybe he should have asked himself.

Which was how he was standing there at the side of the court as Eddie pulled up in his truck. Evan had asked to be picked up, and Tommy had done it. Evan had been quiet the entire ride, and Tommy let him have that silence because he remembered what Evan was like when he was thinking about things. He had seen it a lot when Evan's leg had been twisted up in a cast, and he had been unsure if he was getting back to work.

It had been then that Tommy had fallen in love, but he had said nothing because Evan was straight, and Tommy's feelings were not Evan's to manage. So Tommy had pushed him out of his mind, only thinking about him when he had to.

"How did you get him to come?" Eddie asked as he pointed to where Evan was.

"I asked him. He said he doesn't like to play that much, but he's good to be here for moral support and to sub on if someone is injured."

Eddie looked skeptical but went over to give his friend a hard time.

Tommy knew that Evan had issues with being sidelined, and at least being asked to be there while they did things was enough to settle his brain that he wasn't being replaced. Even if that pout on his face was enough, Tommy wanted to kiss it away.

The game was fun, and when he was on the court, he was allowed to keep his thoughts off Evan.

Except after the one time he was subbed off, he had sat by him, and when he had headed back out onto the court, he realized that Evan wasn't watching anyone but him. He didn't know what to make of that. He didn't know how to deal with it.

The game ended, and Eddie headed home while Tommy and Evan lingered on the court. Evan was good at shooting, and it was evident that he liked that aspect, just not the actual playing of the game.

"Wanna play HORSE?" Tommy asked.

Evan snorted, and he looked at Tommy with that look that made it hard to resist leaning in and kissing him. Tommy stepped up to take the ball from him, but Evan's eyes darted down to his lips and then back up to his eyes.

"Evan?" Tommy asked.

Evan was the first to move, leaning in to kiss Tommy. Tommy didn't let him back off; he buried his fingers in the short hairs at the back of Evan's neck and kept him right there, kissing him harder but keeping his tongue to himself.

Tommy waited for Evan to pull away first.

"I'm going to assume that something has changed since you lived with me?"

Evan snorted and leaned into Tommy, putting his head on Tommy's shoulder. Tommy wrapped his arms around him because he learned that Evan did better with being touched like this when he was emotional.

"After I moved out, I missed you so much. I thought it was just missing living with someone, so I didn't look at it, but recently, with you hanging out with Eddie and when I've asked to do something, and you have other plans, I've been pissed off. It took me until I was watching your play that I realized that I've been an idiot."

"About what?"

"I'm bisexual or pansexual. I am not sure there. I just never connected what I felt for you years ago and checking out hot guy's asses as something that was out of the ordinary."

"I'm sweaty and probably smell."

Evan laughed, but he didn't pull away from Tommy. He just leaned into him more, putting his arms around him.

"What I mean is that we can go back to mine and talk after I get out of the shower. Or I can head home and get in the shower, leave the door unlocked for you, and you can get food."

"That sounds good. We can talk and figure things out."

Tommy did like the sound of that, but he was going to have to come clean and say that he was coming into this with more feelings than Evan. He didn't think that Evan was going to have issues with that. It wasn't like Evan was that kind of person, and given all of Evan's issues, it was probably going to work out in Tommy's favor.

"How about that pasta dish we tried for two months to perfect and never could?"

"Hmm, sure, but I've talked the secret ingredient out for them."

Evan looked like Tommy had told him the best news in the world. "Good. You can show it to me. I'll get burgers for us. We can do that as a date. Then I can make it at the station."

This was so insane but in the end, Tommy finally got to have his guy, and that was all that mattered to him. He could deal with Evan at full force as he ran through whatever was going on in his head. He had waited, and he could wait for longer.

The End