#tmhcr

It's the 23rd of December and Gale Cleven is a stressed out yuppie heading home from New York to spend Christmas with his ex-wife and two kids. However, fate seems to have other plans for him as a freak snowstorm hits Chicago and all flights are cancelled, leaving him stranded with the world's most annoying traveling companion - an obnoxious loud-mouth by the name of John Egan

(Planes, Trains and Automobiles AU, 80s Christmas Cheese)

Introducing Bucky Egan, 80s man's man and professional nuisance....

“Take your pick.” “Oh, no. I really-” Gale started but John cut him off. “Sorry, pal, but I ain't taking no for an answer, I owe you for that cab and I got plenty more where these came from. That’s my business see, I’m a salesman!” Gale didn’t move. “Alright, since you’re being all cute about it, I’ll pick for ya,” he said, plucking a card that read Ricky Henderson from his hand and holding it out to Gale who took it only to avoid seeming rude. “So you’re a… baseball card salesman?” He asked, peering at the card in his hand. “John Egan, purveyor of rare baseball merchandise, at your service,” John said, holding his hand out for Gale to shake. Gale swallowed a sudden glut of saliva when he saw how small his own hand looked in the other man’s grip. “Most of my friends just call me Bucky, so you can go right ahead and do that too cus I can tell we're gonna get on like a house on fire."

To celebrate have this lil moodboard of highly strung Yuppie Gale Cleven in the late 80s. A man who is about the have simultaneously the best and worst two days of his life.

“Come on! We’re gonna be late,” Gale called from outside. His words were muffled around the car keys he was holding in his teeth, both hands occupied with a wriggling five year old. “We’re coming, just putting on her coat!” John shouted from the hall before adding. “I’d like it to be remembered that I’m not the one who chose the coat with all the damn buttons.” A few seconds later Gale was strapping Max into the car and Terry came bounding out, her forest green winter coat looked perfect with its neat row of shiny black buttons. John followed her out, fumbling with the door lock as he nearly slipped on the icy ground, cursing under his breath when he dropped his keys in his hurry to get out. “Language!” Gale shouted, his head sticking out the car window and John shook his head. “They couldn’t hear me!” He said, giving the door a last pull and skidding over to the car. “You’re the only one with freaky sonar hearing like a bat.”

Gale woke up the next morning relaxed and blissfully warm, a comforting weight draped over his shoulder. He dozed for a while in the dreamy half-light of a frosty dawn and curled closer into himself, snuggling against the solid mass that had settled behind him. After a little while he felt a soft lapping at his ear, the sounds of sleepy kisses sending shivers down his spine. He sighed involuntarily as he let himself be kissed. There was a soft tongue in the shell of his ear and a strong arm around his waist, long fingers entwined with his own.

He was so caught up in his sleepy pleasure that he didn’t think anything of it until he adjusted himself, squirming backwards and feeling an unmistakable hardness press into his ass. The hardness responded, rutting into him as Gale heard a soft groan. Gale’s eyes shot open, fixing on the ugly wallpaper of their motel room in Kansas. “Uh, John?” He asked, still not moving, his entire body tingly and strange and his cheeks starting to burn. “What?” John asked, his voice was rough with sleep and his breath was hot on the back of Gale’s neck. That was when Gale realised he was also painfully hard. “Why are you kissing my ear?”

Ch 2/4, 15,242 words. Ch 3 and 4 coming on the 18th and 25th!

“So you’re a… baseball card salesman?” He asked, peering at the card in his hand.  “John Egan, purveyor of rare baseball merchandise, at your service,” John said, holding his hand out for Gale to shake. Gale swallowed  a sudden glut of saliva when he saw how small his own hand looked in the other man’s grip. “Most of my friends just call me Bucky, so you can go right ahead and do that too cus I can tell we're gonna get on like a house on fire. What is it that you do, pal?”  “I work in engineering,” he said. John raised his eyebrows, letting out a low whistle and shaking his hand with gusto.  “We I’ll be, didn’t realise I was talking to a bon-a-fide egghead over here. Engineering, isn’t that something. You must be real smart, huh?" Gale didn’t have a chance to reply before the tannoy sounded. “We are sorry to announce that the 7pm flight to Chicago is delayed indefinitely, we will make another announcement when more information is available.” It was all Gale could do to stop himself from groaning in time with everyone else in the room. John, on the other hand, seemed unperturbed.  “Well, isn’t that just a classic?” He asked, shaking his hand and rolling his eyes, tapping a Lucky out of the box and into his hand, “but I guess there’s nothing for it, it’s always a risk flying this time of year and this way we got plenty of time to get to know each other. What was your name again?”  “I didn’t give it to you,” Gale replied, raking his hair back off his hair where the pomade was failing to hold it in place. 

“Well,” John said, slowly, “I guess this is it, huh?” “Don’t say it like that,” Gale said, pulling out another business card, writing his home address on the back and handing it over just like he’d done only a few minutes earlier. “This is just the beginning. What I said to Rosie goes for you too, you know that right? I’d still be freezing to death back in St Louis if it weren’t for you. ” “If that taxi dispatcher didn’t kill you first.” John said, looking fondly down at the card. “Thanks Buck. This journey could have been a real stinker if I didn’t have you to keep me company. I’ve never been much good on my own, doesn’t agree with me.”

“It’s weird,” Gale said, his eyes on the tracks, “I almost can’t believe we’re actually gonna make it.” “You can say that again,” John agreed, “It’s been some trip, huh?” “I’ll certainly never forget it,” Gale said, shaking his head and laughing. “I have no idea how I’m gonna explain it all to my family, I’m no good at that sort of thing, telling stories, making them funny. I always mess it up somehow, put all the punchlines in the wrong places. I need you to come along and do it for me.”

Innumerable thanks to @swifty-fox and @blixabargelds for thinking of little old me, have some xmas au (even though it isnt even december yet.....)

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“You stole my cab,” Gale said quietly, he didn’t really mean to do it but he was experiencing levels of irritation hereto unknown to science and it kinda just slipped out. It was too quiet and the guy just squinted at him.

“Come again?”

“I said, you stole my cab. My cab from New York, I hailed it but then your case tripped me up. When I got back up you were already gone.”

The stranger, John, gaped at him for a second before his grin was back on his features. “Did I now? Damn, that’s just the worst. I really am sorry about that, it's my bad but I swear it was a total accident. I’m a lot of things but I’ve never been a thief a day in my life,” he paused then, shaking his head in a way that made him look genuinely regretful before fixing Gake with twinkling blue eyes, the exact same colour as his faded levi’s. "Really man, I had no idea that was your cab. I never would have taken it if I’d known. What can I do to make it up to you?”

“That isn’t necessary,” Gale said, waving his hands in front of him to indicate that it really, really wasnt. John was well past listening.

“Come on, I gotta do something. I'm sorry, I really am. How about I buy you a hotdog and a beer?”

“No thanks.”

“Just a hotdog then?”

“You really don't have to ”

“A coffee?”

“No need.”

“Life savers?”

“No.”

“A magazine?”

"I said no."

"Some gum?"

“Really,” Gale said, perhaps a little too forcefully. “I don't need anything,” but John was not so easily put off.

“Oh, I know. You like baseball?” Bucky asked, not waiting for Gale’s answer (which would have been a resounding no) before rummaging in his backpack and pulling out a handful of baseball cards in film wrappers, fanning them out to show Gale a bunch of names that meant absolutely nothing to him. “Take your pick.”

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