#aringofsalt

he keeps the fire marshal position for a bit while he thinks, because even with the settlement (because he can't ask for his job back if he can't do it, and why not take the money, he's barely been a firefighter for two years, it's not like he has a pension to fall back on) he's never been good at sitting on his hands and he's never left a job without having a lead on another one. if he quits now, he'll just sit around like elle woods at the beginning of that movie.

god, he misses ali. would she be interested in dating him again if she knew he wasn't a firefighter any more? — no, probably not.

at least the stairs at the loft aren't an issue.

buck keeps finding himself at loose ends the second the clock hits five, and so he gets another tattoo, because he doesn't have to worry about healing times and work and what might happen to a fresh one on a scene. it's big, and colourful, because one good thing about a nine to five is that he knows when he's getting off work and then he actually does leave.

there's a help wanted sign in the window and he stares at it the entire time the line work is being done. he finally bites the bullet and asks what kind of help they're looking for at the shop. turns out it's someone for the front desk; phones and appointments and accounting, but his artist says the owner's not against anyone getting trained to be an artist at the same time. payment can also be made in the form of piercings or tattoos if that's something they're interested in.

buck asks what the owner needs for the application.

the interview takes place while he's getting the colours done — as alexis said, she knows where he's going to be for a few hours and it's not interfering with her schedule either. he's pretty sure he wins a few points because he doesn't wince. (he doesn't mention that after being crushed by a ladder truck, nothing really hurts that bad anymore. mostly because it's a downer of a story.)

alexis hires him. it's an eclectic group — alexis and dani do most of the tattooing, frank does the piercings, and then gil bounces between both. the reason they're looking for help is that buck's old tattoo artist decided to move back to portland and open a shop there. buck's never been to portland; maybe he should make another list of places he wants to road trip to over the next few years.

it's less than two months before buck is asking alexis how he can become an artist. he's great at following flash designs and the colour theory comes easy, but he's not the most confident when it comes to free handing or designing his own tattoos.

dani keeps telling him that all he needs to do is practice, that art skills can be perfected with enough time, but every time buck has to erase and restart a line he worries that no one is going to want to come and see him. when he's not practicing or going to art classes, he's at the shop and working the front desk. he takes the middle of the week off instead of the weekend, because that's when the 118 and maddie tend to be off as well.

bobby and athena keep having him over for dinner, and the guilty looks slowly disappear. buck still wishes that bobby hadn't tried to keep him sidelined, but it had ended up not mattering in the grand scheme of the universe. and bobby still wants to spend time with him even though he's not on the team anymore, which is — it means he still sees buck as part of his family.

there's a guy that pops in some of his art classes and buck kind of wants to ask him how he draws everything so well, but he doesn't want to intrude. the classes are pretty solitary, all things considered, and buck isn't sure enough in his own skills to risk getting caught slacking by the teacher. the shop celebrates his first tattoo on a real person by taking buck out and closing down a club.

a year and a half after he's been tattooing full time, lucy donato walks into the shop and asks for him by name. she heard about him from taylor kelly, and she said that buck would be able to hook lucy up, that he knew firefighters and could help her get some ink.

buck hasn't seen taylor since they hooked up late last year, but he's kind of thrilled that she remembered he's tattooing now.

lucy's brought a friend for 'support', although she spends the whole appointment goading tommy into getting his own tattoo and buck spends the entire appointment trying to figure out where he knows the guy from. he's familiar but not in a way that buck can place him immediately; he's probably not someone buck rescued but — "did you take an art class at the college last year?" buck finally asks, when he's finished the line work and getting ready to wrap up.

tommy snaps his fingers and grins. "yeah, you did that great landscape—" lucy stares at the both of them and gestures broadly. "uh, firefighters?" she asks, rolling her eyes. "probably worked a few scenes together."

"not your speed?" tommy asks, glancing around the shop.

buck shrugs. if they don't recognize him as the guy who got caught in the ladder truck explosion, he's not eager to relive it. "the lifestyle didn't agree with me," he says lightly. "better hours here."

"you're working on a saturday," tommy reminds him, a little judgmentally.

"i have tuesdays and wednesdays off."

lucy comes back two weeks later to get the colour done, and she convinces tommy to get a flash design. well, they get as far as putting the template on his arm before tommy waffles, and buck leaves it alone as he finishes up with lucy. he's not about to tattoo a guy who doesn't actually want any ink. tommy spends the rest of the appointment running his finger over the lines of it on his arm, but he leaves with lucy without making an appointment.

buck's not sure why he's disappointed.

tommy shows up again a few weeks later and asks to talk to buck, says he's still thinking of getting something but he's not sure what he wants and can he look at the flash and maybe some of buck's work? maybe he just hasn't found the right one. buck doesn't have any appointments that afternoon so he takes his time, walking tommy through all the available flash and talking about he created the ones in his portfolio, and asking tommy what he thinks he might want and sketching some designs out.

it's a lot of work for a job that might not materialise, but buck doesn't want to ask tommy to leave. dani makes a few rude gestures when she leaves for the night, but luckily they're behind tommy's back so he doesn't see. buck startles and looks around when she flips the front light off, realizing that they're the only two left in the building. tommy flushes and excuses himself and buck scrambles to wave it off, asking tommy if he wants to grab a bite so they can keep talking. buck shoves a sketchbook and some markers in his bag and they lock up, walking down the block to the pub on the corner.

they keep talking through the angels game, and buck keeps sketching once he's housed a burger, gesturing wildly as he talks about composition and combining two images and the coverups he's done before. he grabs tommy's arm and doodles his way up his arm, talking about the best way to do a sleeve and merge pre-existing tattoos into a coherent design.

by the time he's stopped talking tommy's forearm is covered in a riot of colour, a helicopter nestled among trees and leaves and fire and flowers, and buck snatches his hand away. "sorry, they're — they'll wash off in a day or two, i like to use something that won't wipe away immediately when i'm transferring and — you should have stopped me."

"i didn't want to," tommy says, and buck's stomach flip-flops and he's got butterflies and he just stares at tommy, because who is this guy??

tommy takes a deep breath and rubs his thumb over one of the flowers. "what are you doing on tuesday?" he asks, staring steadily at buck. buck would think he wasn't at all nervous if he didn't see tommy's fingers shaking, just a little. "can i take you to dinner?"

"you already took me to dinner," buck says, gesturing at the billfold. tommy had told him the minute they sat down that dinner was on him.

"i took up your entire day and you didn't even make any money off me."

"that's not why i kept talking to you." buck's blood is fizzing in his veins. "yeah, you can take me to dinner on tuesday. but please don't wait that long to call me."

"i won't. do you need a ride home?"

buck's jeep is in the back parking lot at the shop but he's never been one to shy away from an opportunity that gets dropped in his lap. "depends. is the ride to your place?"