just a bunch of honkus ponkus

#2 — tommy has routines. he loves his routines. and he would never admit it, but he does not love when his routines are interfered with. like this morning, when he pulls up to his favourite coffee shop (approximately fifteen minutes from the station, which gives his drink time to cool down just enough that he can chug it in the time it takes him to get changed) and some douchebag in a jeep has parked in his spot. of course, it's not really his spot, it's a public parking lot, but it's towards the back of the lot and far enough away that most people don't park there. grumbling to himself, he parks next to it, and barely even looks up when he nearly runs into someone on his way in the door, only catching a hurried "sorry!" as the guy runs off with two stacked trays full of drinks. he gets his coffee, treats himself to a muffin because why not, and when he gets back out to his truck, the jeep is gone. but it keeps happening. not every time he goes, but often enough that it's starting to get annoying. it takes a couple weeks before he finally runs into the jeep's driver; one morning, he pulls in right before the jeep does, and makes it to the spot first. the guy behind the wheel hops out cheerfully and waves. "oh, hey, that's funny, that's where i usually park!" he says, pointing at tommy's spot. "i know," tommy says, rolling his eyes. "it's where i usually park, too. you just get here first sometimes." but try as he might, now that he's met the guy, he can't be too annoyed. especially when evan buckley introduces himself with a warm smile and handshake and offers to buy tommy a coffee "to make up for stealing your spot".

#3 — it's not that buck misses living on the road. just, sometimes, he needs to get out of the city. he lived out of his jeep for a long time and sometimes it's nice to just get out and do that again, visit a state park or something and sleep with the stars outside his car windows. he has a spot about forty-five minutes out of the city that he likes to go to sometimes, tucked away on a cliff with a great view of the ocean, and he's never seen anybody else out there. he's got the back of the jeep open, looking out at the water and picking absently at the snacks he'd packed, when headlights come down the overgrown lane behind him. he freezes. it's not private property—he'd checked, just to be sure; it would be a bad look to be arrested for trespassing—but you never know who you're going to encounter out in the woods. the new vehicle stops behind the jeep, parks, then someone is coming around. buck tenses, but the guy who appears around the corner of the jeep just looks concerned. he asks if everything's okay and buck explains that he just likes to come out here sometimes, for the quiet. they introduce themselves and tommy tells him that his cousin lives across the street from the lane and noticed buck going in but not leaving, and asked tommy to basically do a wellness check since he's a first responder. then they start exchanging stories, buck mentions the 118, they realize they know the same people, and before they know it, they've been talking for an hour and tommy's phone starts ringing because his cousin has now seen two vehicles disappear to the cliff without returning and he's starting to get worried. tommy assures him he's fine, then tries to apologize to buck for intruding and says he'll leave him to it. buck just waggles a dessert container at him and asks him to stay.

#4 — tommy also has a jeep. they go to the same gym and tommy comes out one day to find a rubber duck sitting on his mirror. he's seen the other jeep around, but doesn't actually know who it belongs to. he puts the duck on his dashboard and the next time he's at the grocery store, he picks up a pack of little multicoloured ducks. the other jeep is there when he goes for his next workout and he returns the favour, putting a green one on the other jeep's mirror. four days later, the next time they're both in the lot at the same time, tommy comes out to find one sitting on his hood, this time with a little note that just has a smiley face drawn on it. this goes on for a while; after a month or two, tommy has ten little ducks in various colours and styles sitting in a row on his dashboard, and a little pile of notes with silly jokes written on them by the stranger clipped onto his sun visor. the other jeep has its own row of ducks. it may have gone on forever, with the gym just busy enough that he was never fully sure who it was, except the next duck the stranger leaves has a little firefighter helmet on, with "118" scribbled on the badge. tommy had just added an lafd bumper sticker to his jeep, so maybe that's why the stranger picked this particular duck, but how would they know tommy used to be at the 118?? he's still staring down at it, wondering if he should be concerned, when the tall guy with the birthmark he's noticed looking at him a few times walks up to him. "do you like him?" he says. "couldn't help getting it for you. he's so cute." tommy nods back. "yeah but—how did you know about the 118? i haven't worked there in years." buck just blinks back at him. "oh that—that's my house. i just thought it would be funny, yknow, giving you a little duck-me." tommy looks closer and, sure enough, the duck also has a little scribbled birthmark above his eye. now that he knows who evan is, they end up getting flirty, and soon enough, tommy has duck-buck on his dashboard and human-evan in his passenger seat.