i have says to word at you

A few weeks later, he's looking for a birthday present for Ravi and so he pulls up Ravi's contact to look at his notes (Buck has notes for most of his contacts to remind him of their likes and dislikes and whatever other trivia he finds fascinating about them) and he'd noted that Ravi is into Dungeons & Dragons.

He goes back to the game store, on a mission this time, and peruses the aisles until Tommy is done with his current customer.

Tommy looks up when Buck approaches the counter. "Hi."

Buck gets distracted by the way Tommy's eye crinkle when he smiles that he nearly forgets to say it back. He clears his throat. "Uh, hi."

Tommy's smile softens then, which only accentuates the smile lines around his mouth. "Something I can help you find?"

"Uh yeah—yes. I'm looking, for a friend—"

Tommy's eyebrows shoot up.

Buck shakes his head and laughs. "I have a friend—I need to get them a birthday gift. He likes DnD?" He swears he knows how to have a conversation, but something about Tommy has thrown him off-kilter. Tommy at least doesn't seem put off by Buck's social ineptitude, or if he is he doesn't show it.

Tommy slowly nods. "Well, dice is always a safe bet." He gestures at the glass case that sits under the counter, full of dice of all shapes and sizes and colors. 

Buck steps closer to look and wow—Tommy's eyes are really blue this close up. He quickly looks away, before he's caught or does something insane like tell Tommy his eyes are pretty or ask if there are any dice in his shade of blue. "Oh, wow. I don't even know where to start."

Tommy patiently explains the different dice to Buck. "We do custom orders as well, with enough notice, if that's something you're interested in." He shows Buck an album with pictures of some of the custom orders they've done.

"So, you made these?"

"Yeah," Tommy says, obviously proud of his work which he should be. 

"No way, that's so cool. I wouldn't even know what to get—hey, do you have any with flames?"

"Yeah, we've got a few." 

He looks back up at Tommy and apparently loses any ability he ever had to be cool when he says, "do you have sex dice?"

Tommy's eyebrows raise and his lips part.

"Not for my friend, for me—" Buck says, like that's somehow better.

Tommy blinks. "Sex dice?"

"Yeah, you know, the ones that say stuff like suck—"

Tommy snorts. "I know what they are—”

Buck flushes. "Oh."

"And no, we don't." Tommy's smile is amused. "It's not that kind of game shop."

He ducks his head and laughs. "Right. Well"—he points to a fire engine red set with flames—"I'll just take those then."

Tommy rings him up and tells Buck he'll see him next time and Buck leaves with Ravi's present secured and at least some of his dignity intact.

Over the next couple months, Buck finds more excuses to visit Tommy's store: more birthdays, buying games for the firehouse, his jeep needs work again.

In between helping other customers, Tommy entertains Buck's questions and info dumps. Buck talks about firefighting and Tommy talks about his love of games.

Buck makes Tommy laugh and it feels even better than he imagined. 

One day in June, Buck goes to see Tommy without any pretense at all. It's quiet in the store—though he knows better than to say so—it's just him and Tommy, from the looks of it.

He walks to the counter and greets Tommy, who pushes a blank piece of paper and a pen towards him. 

"So, about those dice you asked for. If you tell me what you want, I can make them for you."

Buck's brow furrows as he tries to remember when he'd—oh. He'd forgotten and he wishes Tommy had too, though he supposes it was probably a pretty memorable experience. There's nothing teasing about Tommy's tone, only sincerity, and even if Buck never ends up using them, he doesn't want to turn down Tommy's offer. He taps the pen against the blank paper, suddenly forgetting any sex he's ever had or wanted to have. "I don't know—what do you think?"

Tommy raises an eyebrow. "You want me to tell you what should be on your sex dice?"

"I've never had them before, I don't know. Here"—he pulls his phone from his pocket and sets it on the counter—"I'll just look it up." Only, when he types sex into the search engine, his last search pops up. "Oh, um—"

"You know," Tommy says, voice low and deceptively casual, "if you want to know about sex with another man, I'm a lot more reliable than Google."

Buck's whole body flushes and he wishes for the earth to open up and swallow him, but he's not that lucky. "Oh, you…you're—"

Tommy chuckles. "Yes, Evan, I'm gay."

Buck nods. "That's good—uh, good to know."

Tommy hums. "Tell you what"—he grabs a business card from the holder atop the counter—"when you know what you want, send me the list." He hands Buck the card, a number scribbled on it in black ink.

"This is your personal number?"

"Yeah, in case I'm not the one here when you call. I don't think Lucy would appreciate it." Tommy's gaze sweeps over Buck, appraising him. "I mean, you're definitely her type, but I think she'd at least want you to buy her dinner first."

Buck tilts his head. "And what about you—"

The bell above the shop's door jingles as two customers walk in. 

A small smile curves one corner of Tommy's lips. "Let me know when you figure it out." 

"O-okay."

"I'll see you around, Evan." He raps his knuckles on the counter, then walks around it to greet the other customers.

Buck doesn't figure it out that day or the next.

The rest of June passes without another visit to the store; without calling or texting Tommy.

Buck stops in the store the first week of July. Tommy's at the counter ringing up a customer, but he looks up when Buck walks through the door. They exchange polite smiles and waves.

It's only been a month since Buck's seen him, so of course he hasn't changed.

But Buck has.

At least, he feels like he has.

He walks up to the counter. Tries to discreetly wipe his sweaty palms on his jeans.

Tommy eyes him, almost wearily if Buck's not reading into things. "I never heard from you."

Buck rubs the back of his neck. "Ah, yeah"—he'd rehearsed this moment, but he still stutters when he says"—I, uh, found this kit online to make dice? It took a few tries, but I think I actually did a pretty good job." He pulls the dice from his hoodie pocket and sets them on the counter.

Tommy doesn't bother looking. His lips flatten into a straight line. "Ah. I guess you're all set then—you've got everything you need?" 

Buck can't make his tongue work, can't shape his mouth around the right words—isn't even sure what the right words are now, this isn't at all what he'd rehearsed. 

Tommy walks away from the counter, towards the back room before Buck can even ask what just happened. 

A minute later, a blonde woman walks out of the back room. "Anything you need help with?"

Buck's brow furrows. "I guess not. You must be Lucy?"

"Guilty. And you must be Evan."

"Oh, uh yeah—most people call me Buck."

Lucy raises an eyebrow. "Most people, huh?" She cuts a glance at the back room. When Buck picks the dice up, she notices. "What ya got there?"

"Oh, uh, just some dice I made—"

"No kidding."

"For Tommy."

Lucy gives him a pitying look. "Do you want me to give them to him?"

Buck sighs. "Might as well. I don't have any use for them." He sets them back down and without overthinking it, grabs a business card, writes his phone number on the back of it, and slides it under the dice. "Thanks, Lucy. It was nice meeting you."

"You too, Buck."

When the bell over the door stops jingling, Lucy yells, "you can come out now, you big coward."

Tommy slinks out of the back room. "I can fire you, you know."

Lucy sticks her tongue out. "Your life would suck without me, Kinard."

He purses his lips. "What did you and Evan talk about?"

"Evan? Oh, you mean your lover boy?" She grins. "He left you a present."

Tommy rolls his eyes, but he accepts the proffered dice anyway. It's not what he expected. "Oh." He turns one of the six-sided die over and over, one word etched into each side. "Am I crazy or does this say will you go out with me?"

Lucy snatches the die and looks it over. "Oh, Tommy. It's obviously go out with me you will." 

Tommy pinches the bridge of his nose. "I hate you."

"Oh, c'mon, that was a great impression."

"That—I don't even know what that was."

Lucy laughs. "Oh, he also left this." She hands Tommy the business card. "So…"

"So, what?"

"Will you go out with him?"

It's been a while since Buck's been on a first date. It's been even longer since he'd felt as nervous as he had about a date. He'd been worried he wouldn't know how to be on a date with a man, but he really hadn't needed to worry, this was Tommy after all.

Talking to Tommy is still easy, comfortable; they still make each other laugh. 

Only now, they let their gazes and touches linger. Now, Buck understands what he wanted from the moment he saw Tommy.

After they've finished their dinner, and Buck's looking at the dessert menu, Tommy tells him that he has something for him.

Buck blushes. "Oh, I didn't get you anything—"

Tommy smiles, lips pursed together like he's trying not to laugh. "I didn't expect you to, Evan." Then he sets a small, wooden box on the table between them. 

Buck picks it up and opens it. Inside the velvet lined box are several light blue dice. "Did you make these for me?"

"I did."

Each side has a word or phrase and Buck turns them over to take a look. "Oh." He looks up and meets Tommy's eye. "I think maybe we should skip dessert."

Tommy smirks. "You're adorable, but I've been dreaming of this chocolate cake for a week."

"Hmm. Well, I"—Buck takes two dice out of the box and sets them on the table—"have been dreaming of that for months."

Tommy looks at the dice, throat bobbing as he swallows. "I suppose we could get it to go."

Buck grins. 

Tommy shakes his head. "I knew you'd be trouble."

"Good trouble, I hope?"

-Rules

You must be 18 years or older to participate.

Minimum Requirements: One fanwork of at least 1k words or one piece of art not on lined paper based on your recipient's requested character(s) or relationship. This must be a new, stand-alone piece created for this challenge.

Your recipient can make requests or offer prompts, but these are optional. However, gifts MUST NOT include anything listed in the recipient's DNW (Do Not Want) list.

This is an anonymous exchange, so please keep your giftee a secret until reveals!

WORKS CREATED BY GEN AI ARE NOT ALLOWED AND DO NOT COUNT AS FULFILLING YOUR ASSIGNMENT.