When Buck woke up, he did so gradually, slowly gaining awareness of the mattress and the frankly unholy amount of pillows under him, of the warmth settled right next to him, of the gentle stroke of a thumb over his lower arm.

Sighing, he moved, stretched like a cat in a sunbeam, and turned over onto his side, rolling right into the source of that pleasant warmth.

He didn't even open his eyes. Instead, he blindly found his way to his destination, burying his nose in the space right under a very nice jaw. He felt the vibration of the resulting chuckle right against his skin.

"Good morning," Tommy mumbled. "Sleep well?"

Buck nodded, but it ended up being more of a nuzzle. "The best."

A large hand found its way into the curls at the back of Buck's head and began gently scratching at his scalp, twirling a curl around a finger, the usual.

Buck finally found the will to move his face away from Tommy's throat and actually open his eyes. The light of the room was dim, the dark curtains keeping most of the sunlight out.

It started like this: Evan Buckley fell in love. He got his heart broken. His sister got kidnapped. His best friend left. He got another chance with his love and broke his heart in return. Bobby died. His family fell apart only to him.

Was this how it was going to end?

I thought I'd try another angle with the "Buck leaves the 118"-thing. There are some similarities between this one and my other fic I wrote on that trope, It's not giving up, it's surrender, but it's following a bit of a different thing.

Unfinding that family, for example. This is 118 critical. Follows after the intervention.

Word count: 17,695 - canon divergence, hurt/comfort, unfind that family, buck leaves the 118

[read on ao3]

Excerpt:

Left reeling from Chimney’s casual announcement that he had simply ripped Buck’s transfer request, Buck could do nothing but stand at the counter, grip it tightly, and stare ahead. He tried to breathe, inhaling for four, holding for seven, exhaling for eight seconds at a time. Again. Again. His last breath left him with a shudder.

A hand landed on his shoulder, familiar at this point. When Ravi had started giving Buck pats on the back, Buck hadn’t been able to place his touch. These days, Ravi was the only one offering physical reassurance to Buck, so it was easy to know who was near.

Buck looked up, feeling, despite himself, a tightness in his throat. He blinked against the blurry film taking over his eyes. Ravi looked at him not with pity but with understanding in his dark eyes.

“That wasn’t your old request, was it?” he asked.

Words leaving him, Buck nodded. He’d rescinded his first request before it could even be processed. But in these past months, Buck hadn’t felt like that had been the right choice. He’d tried, he’d truly tried, but how could he think that when his boss, his captain, would not stop making comments that hurt too much to be jokes? He even felt the need to put Buck down when he praised others, when Buck wasn’t even part of the conversation or the situation. He didn’t want to continue like that. And then, the thing with Hen. He was still reeling from her accusing them of not checking in with her. As if Buck hadn’t done that from the beginning, as if he hadn’t been blocked out by everyone. As if Hen would have actually appreciated him asking, as if it was him she wanted to ask her.

But if he voiced that, Eddie would probably call him selfish again, and Buck did not want to make Hen’s illness about himself. He just thought she’d been unfair. On the other hand, perhaps she got to be unfair more than anyone else right now.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Last night, Buck had filled out the paperwork with a heavy heart, sending apologies up to Bobby. They didn’t need him. And Buck needed Bobby, but Bobby was gone, and Buck couldn’t keep dealing with this anymore. So, he’d dutifully filled the paperwork out, dotted his t’s and crossed his i’s or whatever. He hadn’t been able to sleep, nerves making his stomach cramp. He’d imagined Chim would be mad at him, and the rest, too. Still, he’d proceeded, coming into the firehouse early so he could put his request right on top of the stack of papers on the captain’s desk. He’d walked out feeling sick with nerves still, but there had been a lightness to his shoulders. Only now, it had all been for nothing. Chimney hadn’t even read it, or he’d have mentioned something about the date.

Buck couldn’t- he couldn’t quite wrap his head around this. He’d been dreading Chimney’s reaction to his request. In the best scenarios he’d pictured, Chim would call him to the office to rip him a new one. In the worst ones, Chim did that in front of all the others. But he never reacted well. Buck wouldn’t have dreamed he would just ignore it all.

After getting kidnapped, Buck gets rescued by a familiar helicopter pilot. He takes it as an opportunity. It might just not be so easy.

- bucktommy take on the upcoming Buck whump arc

Got another thing. Did not plan to write this, but now that we have the news that Buck is getting some good whump, I needed to make it about Bucktommy for a moment.

Got angst. A lot. Actually not focusing much on the actual kidnapping bit.

Word count: 8,221 - post-Episode s09e12, angst, hurt/comfort, getting back together

[read on ao3]

Excerpt:

It was getting harder for Buck to tell the difference between awake and dreaming, because either way, he saw Bobby. Sometimes, he would just stand around and stare at the wall. Sometimes, he was sitting right next to Buck, just as dusty and sweaty as he was, but with a nosebleed and sunken in eyes.

He spoke sometimes.

“You’re gonna be okay, Buck.” Buck wasn’t so sure about that.

“They’re gonna need you.” Buck also wasn’t sure about that one.

“I love you, kid.” That, Buck was sure of. He tried saying it back. He loved Bobby, too. I love you, too, I love you, too, I love you, too. But nothing came out. He was never able to say it. His throat was dry. He was so thirsty. He didn’t know when the last time was he’d had water.

He couldn’t keep his head straight. It kept lolling down. His eyes had trouble focusing, too. He knew, in the back of his head, that he’d been dosed with something. But his thoughts were soft and fleeting, like fog and water. His eyes burned.

In the beginning, counting his blinks had told him whether he was awake or not. But he wasn’t able to put a string of numbers together either way, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d blinked. He was aching all over, but it had turned into a distant throb. Perhaps he wasn’t even in pain. Perhaps that was just his imagination. He didn’t know where he was.

After Bobby came others. His dad, asking him to tell him about Bobby. His sister, reaching out a hand with her pinky extended that he couldn’t accept. His niece asking him to bake cookies with her. His nephew with his round, round face, staring at him. His friends, calling his name. Tommy, looking at him with smiles and frowns and glazed eyes, and every time, he turned his back and walked out. They were all asking Buck to do something, to come to them, to follow them, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get his legs under him.

He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He didn’t even know what he was here for. He was tired. He wanted to sleep, but he wasn’t even sure if he wasn’t asleep right now.

“Just stay with us, kid,” Bobby said on the other side of the room. His voice was more muffled, this time, and Buck thought he felt a deep, indescribable pain in his leg. He flexed his foot. He could still move it.

There was silence after that. The pain in Buck’s leg disappeared, fading out of his perception and into the background. There was a good chance his leg was actually hurting, but he couldn’t truly feel it.

He wanted to go home. He wanted to hide out in his house. He wanted his sister, and he wanted his- he wanted his parents. Like when he was a child and got hurt and they took care of him. He wanted the gentle pressure of someone’s hand on his forehead when they checked his temperature. He was alone, and he wanted to have someone with him.

“I’ll be right over here if you need anything.” That was Tommy. He’d just fluffed Buck’s pillow, and brought him painkillers and an icepack, and Buck tried to find him. His eyesight was blurry.

“I love you.” Maddie. He could almost feel her hug him. She’d said something about needing to say these things to the people they loved. Buck tried to reach for her, to hug her back, but his hands wouldn’t move.

Hiii, thank you for the prompt <3 I do like soulmate aus, but I love them when choice is involved, so I'm trying to go for something like that.

1 - Immediate thought is that it would probably kill Tommy if he got the ability, so let's do it. I'm also going to add ghosts: Tommy gets visited by the ghost of Bobby one night - maybe he had a bad day at work, or there was a significant day he would have shared with Buck normally. He's lonely and sad, and maybe drank a bit too much and fell asleep outside. Bobby appears to him and tells him that he has to act. He explains that only few people have red strings or find their red string partner, and Bobby won't let "them" throw it away. When Tommy waked up, he sees the red string leading from his pinky finger to elsewhere. He can see parts where it looks like the string snapped and was re-braided and marked by soot and fire, and it looks frayed at the edges.

Hiii, thanks for the prompt :) Sorry for taking so long to answer. This is a fun concept. Just Tommy always having someone handy from doing favors in the past. It could honestly be so funny if the show did something like this, they could bring in actors for cameos and stuff. Gotta do everything ourselves here.

This is an AU where Bobby never died and instead retired, and Buck and Tommy got back together after the lab. Because I want happiness for a change.

1 - It's pretty tame, when the 118 realize just how many contacts Tommy really has, and how many favors he has to cash in on. They're planning a bbq together to celebrate Chimney becoming captain, and since Bobby is still recovering and Buck is in the middle of pursuing the Lieutenant's exam, so they decided to get catering. Only the caterer falls through the a couple days beforehand, so now, Hen and Buck are scrambling to find a replacement. In comes Tommy who mentions that one time, he helped out a private chef who also owns a catering business. He calls him up and asks him for help, and the guy squeezes them in easily.

Tommy shook his head, blushing even more. “Doesn’t hurt,” he murmured, burying his mouth in the rim of his coffee cup. “Opposite.”

“It feels good?” It was clear that Buck would have to keep this conversation going, Tommy shying away from it like never before.

“Bit too good,” he finally confessed. “I come real easy.”

“Y-yeah?” Buck asked, having to stop himself from asking, You promise?

I bring you porn which I somehow managed to finish in-between writing for my Sentinel Buck AU. Have fun or something, I mostly wrote this for me lol.

Maybe one of you remembers the "super sensitive tommy porn" I mentioned on a wip game before. This is that one.

Word count: 10,197 - PWP, dom/dub undertones, sensitive tommy, multiple orgasms, ass play, top!buck, bottom!tommy

[read on ao3]

Excerpt:

Tommy didn’t bottom.

It wasn’t like it was a big deal. Buck knew that sometimes, people just weren’t into it. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it, because he loved it so much, and he wanted to give Tommy the same feeling back.

But as far as Buck knew, Tommy didn’t bottom. He hadn’t the whole time that they’d been together. And Buck had never questioned it, never thought to bring it up, because he enjoyed it so much, so he’d always been eager to get fucked. But this was their second go, and he started wondering if he hadn’t considered Tommy enough. He’d never even asked him whether he wanted to switch it up. Buck would be lying if he said he didn’t want to see what Tommy looked like when he took a dick, but he’d be okay with it if Tommy didn’t want it.

They’d promised each other open communication, and so, Buck asked, one morning while they were sitting at the counter in Tommy’s kitchen, starting their shared days off.

“Hey, Tommy?” Buck asked.

“Hm?” Tommy hummed in reply, his hands wrapped around his coffee cup.

“Can I ask you something?”

Tommy was gracious enough not to tease Buck by saying he’d technically already done that, replying, “Sure,” instead.

“You don’t bottom.”

Buck watched Tommy’s eyebrows slowly climb up his forehead. His eyes landed on Buck. “That isn’t a question,” he pointed out, and Buck felt his ears heat up.

“No, I know, wait,” Buck said, trying to order his thoughts. “Do you not want to bottom? Because that’s totally fine, I know there’s guys out there who don’t like it, but I never asked you about it.”

And then, Tommy did something that Buck didn’t expect. He blushed. And looked down at his hands shyly. Buck was stunned, waiting in silence for Tommy to look back up.

“It’s not that I don’t like it,” Tommy started. “I- I get really sensitive.”

“Oh,” Buck said. “Does it hurt? I’m sorry-”

Tommy shook his head, blushing even more. “Doesn’t hurt,” he murmured, burying his mouth in the rim of his coffee cup. “Opposite.”

“It feels good?” It was clear that Buck would have to keep this conversation going, Tommy shying away from it like never before.

“Bit too good,” he finally confessed. “I come real easy.”

In the wake of another bust during his apartment hunt, Buck winds up at the place he feels safest - with Tommy. A shared night ends in a shared morning, setting Buck on a path of realization and growth. He has to examine where his place is and whether he can continue existing in the exceedingly suffocating environment of the firehouse that was once his home.

Choices must be made, and perhaps, it is for the best if Buck does like everyone says and is actually selfish.

First chapter of my Buck-centric post-S8 fic where Buck leaves the 118. 118-crew critical!

Word count: 14,271 - canon divergence, hurt/comfort, explicit sexual content, communication, getting back together

[read on ao3]

Excerpt:

Another house. Another miss.

Buck wasn’t exactly surprised. He’d been looking for a home for so long he didn’t even know what it would feel like once he had found it.

He hadn’t felt at home when he’d lived with his parents. They had made sure of that. He hadn’t felt at home traveling around, which is why he left every place he reached sooner or later. He hadn’t felt at home in that apartment with his roommates. He’d loved Abby, but her place hadn’t been his home. It had been hers, and he’d just kept it for her. The loft had been the longest for him, and he’d chosen that because of Ali. He’d stayed there for years, but in the end, he had stagnated there. And then, Eddie’s old-new place. Despite their friendship and the fact he’d never be a guest there, it had felt like anything but home.

Except.

Except there had been that one night. That night he’d pushed Tommy into that bare mattress on the floor, and felt the familiar shape of him pressed close against him, and held and touched and kissed him. The night that Tommy called him Evan again, and held him tight, and made him feel calm and settled for the first time since- well, since he’d watched him turn his back and close the door behind him.

He didn’t plan it. He didn’t want to do it, he would tell himself, but he knew that wasn’t the whole truth. He wanted nothing more. But he also had his sister’s voice in his head, telling him about the bad reasons to get back together with someone, telling him about learning to be alone. But he didn’t want to be alone, he’d done that so much already. And getting back together – he was getting ahead of himself.

He just wanted to feel safe.

So, it wasn’t a surprise when he turned off the Jeep and found himself staring down the street of Tommy’s neighborhood. It was nighttime. Buck should leave. But he was so tired, and lonely, and unseen, and it seemed like the only person who was willing to look at him was Tommy. Bobby had seen him, and Bobby was dead, and Buck needed someone who understood.

Tommy did. Buck had told Tommy what Bobby meant to him.

He climbed out of the Jeep. Locked it. Walked up the little path to Tommy’s front door. He had seen dim lights through the windows, wondering if Tommy had already noticed his Jeep outside. If he would be hiding, pretending that no-one was home. His garage door was closed, and his truck was probably inside since Buck couldn’t see it. But Tommy was home, he had to be.

Buck knocked before he could stop himself, before he could force himself to leave. He held his breath as he waited. Every thought in his head screaming at him to turn around and get back to the car got silenced when he heard shuffling on the other side of the door, and it opened a second later, revealing Tommy in his typical loungewear, hair soft and curly, and eyes widening in surprise.

“Evan,” he said. “What are you- are you okay?”

Buck felt like was hanging on by a thread. He shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t- I shouldn’t have showed up, I- I’m gonna leave, I’m sorry-”

But before he could actually do that, a big, warm hand closed around his wrist. The grip was gentle – Buck could break out of it if he really wanted to. But he didn’t. He halted before he could actually truly get moving, and he followed the tether, closing the distance between him and Tommy.

Tommy’s arms came up around him. And Buck sagged forward, feeling boneless and lost, and for the first time, as he took in the warmth of Tommy’s body and the familiar scent of his bodywash, Buck felt a little less alone. A little less like a ghost.

Tommy had asked him whether he was okay. His ex-boyfriend with whom he’d last exchanged a couple of words at the funeral of his might-as-well-be-father – he was the first one who asked Buck how he was doing. In that way of his, the way that showed he didn’t ask because it was polite but because he genuinely wanted to know.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Buck confessed quietly into the space between Tommy’s collarbone and jaw.

“What?” Tommy’s hand tightened on the back of his neck from where he had been sliding it up and down. “What do you mean? Did something happen, what about your house? Or your sister?”

Maybe as part of a marketing strategy, the producers decide to bring regular (non influencers) people to the show. Maybe Buck joins post-Abby breakup or something and meets Tommy there ( I know Tommy's little old for Love Island but I'm choosing to ignore that).

They slowly get closer and fall in love and unbeknownst to them become the most talked about ship online.

PS : I loved your writing in the Red string of Fate AU!

Hello, friend! Thanks for the prompt, and I'm glad you liked the first one :) I'll be honest here, I had to look up Love Island because I never watched it, I hope I got the gist.

1 - As you suggested, this is early s2 Buck. It's at the point he has actively accepted that Abby isn't coming back, but he also doesn't feel like crashing on anyone's couch after moving out of her place. He wants to find love, and genuine connection, and the couple of dates he goes on from dating apps don't work out. The people he meets through work are interested in the firefighter, not anything else. And then, he finds out about the casting call for a bunch of super normal, every-day people for Love Island and decides, "Why the hell not?" He applies, and the producers like him because of his easy-going nature, his looks, his job, and also his past. He seems like an interesting candidate, so he gets casted.

2 - The place is gorgeous. Buck's been traveling for so long, and he missed it deeply and remembers why he loves it. And he also likes the people he meets. There's a bunch of them, some beautiful women and hot guys that Buck just has to ask about their gym routine. They're a mixed group of sexualities which Buck has no problem with, he's an ally after all, so there's a couple of same-sex-couples as well as straight ones. As they get to know each other, Buck meets another man from LA who is even a firefighter, too, Tommy Kinard who has huge arms and a kind smile. They hit it off, and Buck thinks that he at least already found a new friend here. And hey, Tommy was even at the 118 and knows Hen and Chim, so maybe there's a chance their new friendship can last beyond the show! He ends up coupling up with a girl he meets who seems very interested in his career, and he hopes this will work out better for him. He's not that interested in their every move being filmed, but hey, they'll be fine.

3- Things soon take a different direction for him, though. Sara, his partner, is cool and lovely and all that, but Buck finds himself in Tommy's presence more often than not. It's like he's seeking him out specifically, like a magnet is pulling him his way. Buck doesn't like the guy Tommy is with once he finds out Tommy is gay, and he feels awful about it. Why was he fine with Charlie when he thought he and Tommy were a friendly couple, but now that he know they're trying for love, Buck cannot stand to see them together? He doesn't understand himself, but he quickly realizes that all he wants is to spend time with Tommy. He likes him, likes his voice, likes the way he says Evan. So why is he being so weird about it?

4 - The producers are eating it up. They already know that this is going to be gold for them, and they decide to drive it up in editing, showing Buck's jealous glances whenever he sees Charlie and Tommy together, and even Tommy's longing glances in Buck's direction that Buck never notices. Buck and Sara try to make it work, but they soon realize that there's no real romantic chemistry between them. Sara thinks she already knows where it's going, but at this point, she's just watching it because it's funny. Buck seeks Tommy out whenever he can, and Tommy is always happy to see him, even if Charlie isn't. Tommy and Buck might not have many shared interests, Buck finds, but they fit together anyway. They can talk about their interests and the other will listen no matter how long it takes. They show vulnerability to each other - Tommy tells Buck of his family, and the army, and Buck tells Tommy of his parents and his sister, and then Tommy speaks about Abby, and then Buck talks about Abby and they have a fight. It's the dramatic thing that everyone was waiting for, the viewers are foaming at the mouth, and Buck's and Tommy's couples are at no risk of being voted out because everyone wants to see the two of them reconcile.

5 - Buck and Tommy are kind of forced to reconcile by the show, but they don't really notice that. They do talk things out, and Buck finally has his "aha-moment" as Tommy tells him about his experience hiding his sexuality and coming out. Things he describes remind Buck of himself even though he isn't actively hiding anything. Once they reconcile, they get back to their partners, and Buck wants nothing more than to hold Tommy's hand the way Charlie is. He and Tommy share some more quiet moments and talks and longing glances, until they are faced with the final decision to either stay with their partners or recouple. And Sara knows what Buck wants to do and asks him not to because she wants to win, but it goes in one ear, out the other. Buck wants to finish this thing with Tommy, and he wants to return to LA with Tommy, so that's what he tries. For a bit, he worries that Tommy won't want him and he read it wrong and Tommy just likes him as a friend, but those worries disappear when Tommy kisses him for the world to see.

Bonus 6 - Like Buck wanted, they return to LA together as boyfriends. They win the whole thing, obviously, being the fan-favorites with their dramatic change at the very end and their so-perfect-it-could-be-scripted fight. Buck gets a new apartment for himself, but he and Tommy spend most of their time together. One night, they get drunk and watch back their season, finally getting to see both sides of it. And then, they find out about viewer reaction and that #Tevan honest to God trended on the night they finally got together. Tommy has to stop Buck from going down a social media rabbit hole by thoroughly distracting him. Buck doesn't complain.