#trinaverse

hi gonzo. this takes place directly prior to the one i posted earlier:

Maddie blinks a few times. "There's coincidence, and then there's fate," she says. "Imagine if they had to get rescued off that thing. I guess the coast guard flew a helicopter into a hurricane to find them."

"Helicopter pilots are a special kind of crazy," Buck says. He should know—he's kissed Lucy. 

"Anyway, are you going to tell me why you've been so hard to get ahold of for the last few months?"

Buck sighs, and picks a watery tomato out of his sandwich. "You remember Natalia?"

"Yeah," Maddie says. "I thought you two broke up?"

"We did, yeah, but we stayed friends. She's been, uh, introducing me to her people, and we've been having fun, you know?"

"Okay."

"And, well, a couple months ago she took me to a drag show at a gay bar."

"Oh! Was it fun?"

Buck smiles wistfully. "Oh, it was incredible," he says. "And then, after it was over, I started dancing with some people. Some guys, actually. And then I saw him."

Maddie pauses, falafel halfway to her mouth. "Saw… who?"

"The most beautiful man on earth," Buck groans. He reaches his hand into his pocket, feels for the earring he's been carrying around like a talisman ever since that day. "He was tall, and wide, and he was wearing a v-neck, and he had—hair, I dunno, and—and a jaw, and a cleft! And earrings! And he was looking at me, and I was looking at him, and then we danced, and we made out, and then we hooked up in the bathroom, and I pulled his earring out of his ear with my tongue, and he really liked—"

"Oh my god," Maddie says, flinging her falafel onto the floor as she covers her ears. "Sorry, pause, what? Are you—I didn't know you liked men?"

"I didn't, either," Buck says. He pulls the earring out of his pocket. "Until him."

thank you! is he still there? is he hanging over the edge? can you tell him "meow meow" from me? here you go, from the Fun AU No Title Yet:

"He wouldn't give me his number. He wouldn't even give me his name! And, and the only thing I have left, the only proof I have that he even existed, is this earring!"

"Well, and all your friends saw you with him," Maddie helpfully says. 

"Yeah, that too." Buck drops his fork in the sink, lets it clatter around, and then fishes it back out of the drain before the garbage disposal can get it. "I don't know what to do!"

"You're like the prince in Cinderella," Maddie muses. "But instead of a glass slipper you have a—is that a scorpion?"

Buck holds the earring up so she can inspect it. "Yeah. Maybe he's an entomologist?"

"He might be a Scorpio," Maddie says. "Too bad you don't have pierced ears, you could wander around WeHo trying to find a match."

Buck stares at the earring.

"That… wasn't a real suggestion, Buck," Maddie says, a note of worry in her voice. "Don't pierce your ears just to find some guy who—he might've been a tourist? You never know—oh my god."

"I'm going to get my ears pierced," Buck says. He pulls out his phone. "Wait a second. How long do ear holes take to heal? Will I need to take PTO for this?"

"Oh god," Maddie says faintly. 

There's a tattoo and piercing place half a mile away. We take piercing walk-ins, the website banner says. A whole page of the site is dedicated to healing and aftercare FAQs. He feels good about this. "Maddie, wanna go for a walk with me?"

thank you leashy!

An hour later he and Maddie step back out into the California sunshine, two holes freshly poked into Buck's earlobes, a pair of dainty titanium studs filling them. His piercer had told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't allowed to wear the scorpion hoop for six weeks minimum, and to sanitize the hell out of it first. 

"Have you seen these before? Do you know where he could've gotten them?" Buck had asked, desperate hope taking over, but the piercer just shook his head. Nothing like that here. Maybe they were custom.

"So," Maddie says. "This has been a great distraction from all the wedding planning I still have to do, and I hate to cut this short, but I have to go interview a nanny candidate."

His ears hurt. He lifts a finger to poke at the studs and Maddie swats his hand away. "I didn't realize you were looking for a nanny again."

"We weren't. It's kind of a favor for an old friend of Chimney's," Maddie says. "Her name's Trina. I guess she just moved back from being out of state for a while. She seemed cool on the phone."

"Well, let me know how it goes," Buck says, squeezing his fingers together to keep from bringing them back up to his ears. 

"I can't deal with the girlies on Bumble," Natalia says. "I need a weirdo. How do people meet women?"

Buck shrugs. "I usually meet them on calls. And, well, you know how that usually turns out."

He's glad they're friends now. They really wouldn't have worked out long term. Natalia's right: she does need a weirdo. But that weirdo definitely isn't him. 

"Right," Jay says, giving Buck a once-over. "You're the hunky firefighter. Are we cruising for you tonight, too? What are you into?"

"Oh, I–I dunno," Buck says. "A woman? I think?"

"You think?" asks Garrett.

"He's theoretically bisexual," Natalia says. They'd talked about this, on the phone, when she'd invited him out to this specific club. "Right?"

"I mean, I've checked out a few guys' asses! Who hasn't?"

"Straight men, mostly," Garrett says. "But that's okay. We can work with theoretically bisexual. Bi-curious?"

Buck thinks about it. "I'll try anything once."

(@ambernotember)

howdy! some connective tissue for trinaverse:

Two drinks later Buck's received a breakneck education on bisexual terminology, cruising etiquette, and a preliminary how-to for picking up men. He's also learning a lot of new things about himself and the asses he likes to look at.

additionally, the start of a new scene for geology au, and you get to see how i'm organizing it:

Layer 3: Intrusive Basalt Rocks

He gets to campus early, sprinting on his bike, narrowly missing mowing down a dozen co-eds loitering around on the quad. "Move," he hisses, and they do, and he locks up his bike and saunters into the building, a man on a mission.

He's not early enough, it turns out.

"Hey! Buck!" Eddie calls from where he's standing and laughing with the object of Buck's quest. "You know Tommy?"

"Yes, I know Tommy," Buck seethes. 

Tommy, to his credit, just raises an eyebrow. "Oh, is Evan your roommate?" 

"Yeah, and he's the best babysitter on earth," Eddie says. Buck wants to strangle him. "Good chatting with you, man. Hey, if you come by the gym on Thursday you should come to pick-up basketball with me."

"I'll check my schedule," Tommy says, and it's a natural enough conversation ender that Buck doesn't feel too terrible cutting in like a shark.

good morning char! i think this is going to be the opening scene:

The Lyft drops him off at the tail end of a long line of cars. "Busy tonight," his driver says. "I can maybe get closer?"

"No, it's fine," Buck tells her. "Thanks for the intel on Barbenheimer."

"Barbie's the shot, Oppenheimer's the chaser," she says. "Don't let anyone tell you differently."

The sidewalk is bumping but it's easy enough to find Natalia when she's wearing a giant tiara that says "BIRTHDAY HAG" in black rhinestones and is standing with a pair of people who look like the most opposite of opposites Buck's ever seen. One's taller than Buck, wearing green eye makeup and lipstick and not much on their body; the other's short and wide and has a shirt with a pot of honey on it.

"Buck!" she calls, waving him over. "Meet Jay and Garrett."

"I'm bear hunting," Garrett says, when Buck asks about his shirt. 

Buck frowns. "We're in LA?"

"Oh my god," Jay says, doubling over. 

"Hey," Buck says when he's close enough. "My friends saw you looking at me."

"I wasn't being subtle about it," the guy says and fuck his voice is soft and warm and a little bit sexy. "Glad you came over."

"My friends call me Buck," Buck says.

"Cute," the guy says. He spreads a broad hand across Buck's hipbone, grooving in time to the rhythm. 

"What, uh, what's your name?"

The guy shakes his head. "We're not doing that," he says.

"Oh, okay," Buck says. "What can I call you instead?"

"Don't think that's really necessary," the guy says, quietly, his breath tickling Buck's ear.

Buck gets a great idea. "What if I called you daddy?"

"So I'm not a twink," Buck says, and across the table Garrett and Jay and Natalia laugh and laugh. "Does that make me a bear?"

"You need to pack on at least fifty pounds in order to even think about being called a bear," Garret says. "No, you're more like an otter."

"An otter," Buck says. He nods sagely. It seems like it makes sense. He's… long. "What else is there?"

Jay casts their eyes around the club. There's a big man getting up from his own seat a few tables away, dark-haired and handsome even in the dim light. "That guy's a daddy."

"Ooh," Garrett says.

"What makes him a daddy?" asks Buck. When the man moves toward the bar his shirt ripples. Maybe this drink is going to Buck's head. 

"I dunno, just look at him. It's a certain je ne sais quoi," Jay says. "Oh, fuck, he's looking at us."

"He's looking at Buck," Natalia hisses, whacking Buck's arm several times with her coaster. 

Sure enough the guy's staring right at him. From this angle Buck can see his well-defined jaw, his cleft chin, the tiniest glint of silver in his stubble. 

"Holy shit, Buck, if you don't go answer the call of the wild—"

The guy jerks his chin, gesturing unmistakably toward the bathrooms.