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Evan had a list and it was now attached to a clipboard. Apparently, Ikea sold those.
Because of their busy schedule and his love for planning, Evan had stayed up late last night to get the list done. They'd been renovating the house ever since Evan moved in a few months ago and were only now getting to the decorating part of it, which Evan was the most excited about. According to him, there were a lot of things they needed to get, and couldn't afford to forget to buy any of them because if they did, only Lord knew when they'd be able to come here again.
The store was mostly empty, which made sense as it had just been opened about five minutes ago. It had only been them and some grandmother, who would’ve continued to talk to Evan about her family tree for the next three hours if Tommy hadn’t pulled him away from the conversation.
It wasn't that Tommy was in a hurry. He knew how excited Evan had been for this trip but he'd also just gotten off a 24-hour shift and was exhausted. Evan, of course, had suggested that he go and take a nap first and they'd go to Ikea afterward, but Tommy had known that if he laid down, he wouldn't be able to get up for the rest of the day.
Sleep could wait. Evan looked very happy.
Tommy leaned against their shopping cart, ”So… What’s first on the list?”
Evan turned around and grinned at him, ”Well, I wasn’t planning on buying a clipboard but since I’ll be using it throughout our adventure through this whole store, there’s no way I’m not going to buy it. So let me add it to the list.”
Tommy watched him scribble it down and draw a line on the box right next to it.
”Clipboard, check!”
”Great,” Tommy chuckled and pressed a quick kiss on the side of his head as he passed him with the shopping cart. ”It’s been forever since I’ve been here, so I think you’re going to have to lead the way.”
That comment only made Evan’s grin widen and with his new clipboard at hand, he began to lead them down the labyrinth of hallways.
Their cart was mostly filled with all sorts of kitchen gadgets that Buck had told Tommy about pretty much every evening leading up to this trip. Ikea was an overstimulating hell-hole but at the same time, it was heaven on Earth for someone like him whose brain was always going. There was always something new to look at, always somewhere to be where he'd never been before.
”Baby, you look exhausted,” Buck mumbled to Tommy, who was still leaning against the shopping cart. ”We can just get all this stuff and come back another day.”
Tommy rubbed a hand down his face and judging from the stiffness of his jaw, he was stifling a yawn.
"It's fine, Evan," he said and rubbed at his eyes a little. "You know what? Why don't you stay in this section right here while I go use the bathroom, maybe splash some cold water on my face, and get a coffee? I'll feel a lot better after."
”If you’re sure,” Buck mumbled, shooting a worried look at his boyfriend.
”I’m sure,” Tommy assured him with that sweet smile of his and walked around the cart to place a hand on his upper back before leaning into a kiss. ”I’ll be right back. Stay right here, Ev.”
”I will.”
Buck took hold of the shopping cart as he watched Tommy go back the way they came. A few more people were surrounding him now or maybe they'd been surrounding him for a while but he just hadn't noticed with all the gadgets to look at and Tommy.
He really liked to look at Tommy.
The thought made him smile and he found himself being pulled toward two women, who were having some kind of conversation about new, lemon-printed duvet covers that Ikea was selling.
Their bedroom had pale yellow curtains now. At first, Buck hadn’t loved them but after Tommy had told him the story of his grandmother making them by hand when she’d been young to bring some happiness into their home, he’d refused to get rid of them even after Tommy had become okay with getting new ones.
A lemon-printed duvet cover would go really well with them.
He rushed past the two women and tried his best to ignore all the tableware he had to walk by to get to the bed textiles section. (He did grab the black serving bowls they loved to use for salad because he might or might not have broken several of them. Always by accident, of course.)
He looked around the section, scanning for anything yellow, and eventually, found it. The shelf they were on was almost empty, with only two duvet cover and pillowcase sets left.
They had more than two pillows on their bed, which meant that he just had to get both of the sets.
Right?
He heard the voices of the same two women growing near and grabbed the two sets, shoved them into his cart, and made a run for it.
The taste of black, bitter coffee was not what Tommy usually liked to have but today, it was what he needed. The cold water he’d splashed on his face had helped only a little but he could already feel the caffeine doing its thing. He just had to hope that it would give enough of a boost to survive this shopping trip.
He downed the rest of his coffee and threw the cup into a nearby trashcan. He’d gotten Evan a coffee as well and tried to carry it without splashing it all over the floor as he began to make his way back to where he’d left his boyfriend.
The whole section was now filled with a good amount of people but Evan was nowhere to be seen.
With a sigh, he pulled out his phone. He should’ve known this was going to happen.
Hey, baby. Where'd you wander off to?
Sorryyyy
Just tell me where you are, Evan.
where all the lamps are
Stay there. I’ll be right with you.
Buck pocketed his phone and rolled the cart off to the side to stay out of anyone’s way. He leaned against it the same way that Tommy had a while ago and glanced over at the next section. When people moved out of the way of the shelves all the products were laid out on, he noticed that on the bottom shelf, they had wicker baskets, the same exact kind he’d seen in a store much more expensive than this one.
He’d been talking to Tommy about the wicker baskets for weeks. Eventually, he'd agreed that they'd look good on the bottom shelf of their bookcase, where they would store all the random crap they wanted to hide from view but still needed in everyday life. Plus, they had a lot of yarn that was left behind by Tommy's grandmother and neither of them had the heart to get rid of them.
He walked down the hallway and eyed the wicker baskets, measuring them in his mind. He set three of them in his cart and noticed that on the left, there were similar baskets, just smaller, and he could use one to hold fruit on their kitchen table.
After picking the perfect, round wicker basket, he noticed that he’d actually somehow managed to skip the bathroom section and turned to go back there.
The drawer organizers he found, he knew, would be super useful for them. He looked them over several times, then looked down at the notes app, where he’d written down the dimensions of their bathroom drawers, not noticing the text messages that were popping up at the top of his screen.
”God damn it, Evan,” Tommy muttered to himself as he stood under the tens of lamps above him and almost knocked over yet another lamp when he turned around to get away from the shining lights.
He found Evan’s name on his contact list and called him, tired of trying to reach him via text.
”Hey, baby!” Said his voice on the other end of the line.
”Hi,” Tommy told him, sighing a little. ”I’m at the lighting section and I don’t see you anywhere.”
”Oh, I’m not there anymore.”
”Yeah, I sort of figured that out,” Tommy mumbled. ”Where are you then?”
”The bathroom section. I found drawer organizers!” He sounded excited.
Tommy couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, ”Alright, please, just stay-”
”Oh my God, Tommy, they have navy blue hand towels here!” Evan’s voice made his ears ring and Tommy moved the phone a little further away from his ear. ”We have got to get these! They’re going to go so well with the tile we picked out.”
”Mmh, are you still in the bathroom section?” Tommy asked, trying to find his way there.
”No, no, I think…” Evan paused for a moment. ”I think this is some other section. Oh! It says this is the textiles section!”
”Gotcha, I’ll be right there,” Tommy mumbled. ”Stay. There.”
”Yeah, yeah,” he heard Evan say. ”Bye!”
”Bye.”
He followed the signs that led him to the bathroom section and from there to the textiles section.
And Evan was nowhere to be seen.
”Drawer organizers, check. Toothbrush holders, check. Towels, check,” Buck mumbled, checking items off his list, constantly moving forward and the next time that he looked up, he was surrounded by hundreds of different kinds of rugs.
There was one that immediately caught his eye.
They’d been looking for a new rug for their living room for forever, never quite finding what they wanted or what matched their style in the best possible way. But this rug… It could be it.
It looked cozy, the way that their entire living room looked after the renovation and redecorating. With all the colorful stripes going right across it, it would bring a pop of color to the living room.
He wondered if they had pillowcases that would match at least some of the colors on the rug. Or they could just ask Tommy’s aunt to make them some. She was talented as hell.
He wrote down at the bottom of his list: Ask Tommy’s aunt about pillowcases.
And then, he made sure that the rug was the right size and placed it at the bottom of the cart.
Evan, love of my life, please stop moving around so that I can find you.
I’m not moving.
Then why can’t I find you? You told me you were in the textiles section.
Oh I was
And where are you now?
I found us a rug!!
So you’re by the rugs. Please, stay right there, okay?
Evan?
Evan, please.
Answer me.
That’s it, I’m drinking your coffee.
I’m in an elevator.
Why???
I think the rug might be too colorful for the living room but I’m not sure.
A really nice employee told me that I could take a look at it in one of the showrooms .
Which showroom? Please, when you get out of the elevator, do not move.
The bedroom one
I’ll be right here
In the bedroom showroom? Or by the elevator?
Evan?
I swear to God.
Tommy drank Evan's cup empty and left it on one of the shelves, knowing that it was wrong to do so but feeling far too exhausted to truly care. He hurried down the hallways, getting some strange looks from people, and finally found the elevator Evan was hopefully talking about. He didn't even know if there were more than one elevator in the store.
The elevator ride seemed to take forever and it didn't help that an old man was exiting it right in front of him. Tommy squeezed himself out of the elevator as soon as there was enough space between the old man and the wall.
He looked around once more and… Nothing. That meant Evan had to be in the bedroom showroom. Hopefully.
Buck was in love. Well, he had been for a while now but this was a different kind of love. He’d just finished checking out the rug in the showroom and decided that as long as Tommy liked it, it was going to be the rug for their living room.
”E- Excuse me?” He asked when an employee was about to walk past him.
”Yes?” She asked kindly.
Buck nodded toward the bed in one of the ’bedrooms,’ ”What is that?”
”Oh,” she said and smiled at him, ”That’s the Djungelskog.”
Buck nodded again, not taking his eyes off of the huge, stuffed bear, ”And- And you sell them here?”
”Oh, for sure,” she told him. ”You can find it in the kids’ section downstairs.”
”Mmh. Thank you,” Buck mumbled.
The Djungelskog was one of the greatest things he had ever seen. He went over to it when the employee continued her way down the hallway and touched it, almost gasping at its softness.
This was something he needed in his life.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Buck took it out.
I’m putting an AirTag on you, babe. Where the hell are you? I’m by the elevators now.
I’m in the bedroom section.
Downstairs? Did you take the elevator again?
No, I’m still upstairs
Alright. Can you swear to me that you’ll stay right there?
I’m tired, Ev.
I’ve got everything we need
I just need your opinion on a rug
and I need to get something from downstairs
Okay, so just come to the elevator.
I’ll be there in like five min
Great
Ooh, actually
can we go to the restarant first
restaurs
restaurant?
I’m hungry.
Okay, fine, I’ll meet you by the restaurant.
See you there. I love you!
Love you too.
It had been fifteen minutes and he couldn’t see Evan anywhere and Tommy was pretty sure he was going to fall asleep if he didn’t get to go home in the next five minutes or so. He got up again and took his phone out once more.
He didn’t bother with texting.
”Evan,” he said when he picked up. ”It has been fifteen minutes.”
”Well, I did say that I’d be by the elevator in five minutes.”
”Are you by the elevator?”
”No, I just got out of it.”
Tommy looked around again and frowned, ”I can’t see you.”
”Well, I’m on the first floor now.”
Tommy sighed, ”Why are you on the first floor? You said you’d meet me at the restaurant.”
"I also told you that I had to get something from downstairs," Evan said, sounding a little exasperated himself. "Remember?"
”Oh, I remember,” Tommy said. ”I just thought you’d come to meet me at the restaurant first because you’re hungry and then we would’ve gone together to get whatever it is that you need to get.”
”I can’t take the cart to the restaurant.”
”Okay,” Tommy mumbled. ”Christ. Okay, just stay right where you are, okay? I’m going to come downstairs. I don’t want you to move a single inch without me by your side, alright? Evan, are you listening to me?”
”I’m listening,” Evan said. ”Oh my God, I found it. You’re not going to believe how amazing this is, babe.”
Whatever it was, it had better be something worth all this hassle.
"That's great, sweetheart," he said. "Now tell me exactly where you are. You're not moving around, are you?"
”No, I’m right here.”
”What’s ’right here’?”
”In the kids’ section downstairs,” Evan said. ”By all the stuffies.”
”Okay…” Tommy mumbled, unsure what to think of that. ”Stay. Put. Or I swear to God, I’m never coming with you to Ikea ever again.”
”Liar.”
"Yeah, I know," he sighed with a small chuckle. "You know what? Let's stay on the phone until I find you. I don't trust you not to wander off again."
”Okay.”
And he made his way back to the elevator.
The Djungelskog looked even bigger when it was displayed on the shelf, its little (big) legs hanging off the side of it. Buck stared up at it in wonder as he listened to Tommy narrate where he was at the moment and how long it would take him to get to Buck.
”Okay, baby, I see you,” he said eventually. ”I’ll be right there.”
Buck put his phone back in his pocket and shot a small smile at Tommy, who was now walking toward him. There was a hint of frustration on his face but it melted away the moment that their eyes met.
”Christ, I thought we were going to keep playing this cat and mouse game all day long,” Tommy said with a sigh and placed his hand on Buck’s shoulder. He pressed a kiss on his forehead, ”Thought I’d never find you.”
”So dramatic,” Buck chuckled. ”I wasn’t that bad.”
Tommy shot him a look.
”Okay, so… Maybe I was a little distracted the whole time,” Buck said sheepishly. ”But there are so many cool things here and I’ve been waiting for this shopping trip for forever. I couldn’t help myself.”
He watched Tommy shake his head and let out a small laugh, ”So… You got everything?”
”And a little more,” Buck chuckled right back at him. He placed his hand on Tommy’s side and rubbed his skin through his shirt with his thumb, ”I’m sorry. It would’ve been nice to do all the shopping together and instead, well… I sort of took over the whole thing.”
”I think I can forgive you,” Tommy told him, that familiar glint in his eyes. ”Might need a couple of kisses to feel better about it though.”
”Mmh, I think that can be arranged,” Buck said, leaning closer to him, only to pull back immediately. ”After you tell me what you think of this rug.”
”The rug’s great, now-”
”Nuh-uh,” Buck said, pulling back when Tommy leaned in to press their lips together. He would never usually pass on an opportunity to kiss his boyfriend but he was still in ’clipboard Buck’ mode as his team called it. He had to focus.
And Tommy was always a big distraction. A wonderful, beautiful distraction.
Buck cleared his throat, ”So… Seriously, what do you think?”
”I think that it will look great on our living room floor,” Tommy said, now taking a proper look at it. ”You were looking for a pop of color, weren’t you?”
”Yes! Exactly,” Buck said, patting him on the shoulder. ”I know I picked you for a good reason.”
He saw Tommy roll his eyes at him but there was still a soft smile on his face, ”So… What did you find?”
”I already told you,” Buck said with a confused frown. ”Everything.”
”Not what I mean, Ev,” Tommy said. ”You told me that you had to get something from downstairs. What is it?”
”Oh yeah!” Buck perked up and turned to face the large, stuffed bears. ”That.”
Tommy followed his gaze and blinked, ”That?”
”That,” Buck said with a nod.
”What the hell is that?”
”It’s a Djungelskog,” Buck explained. ”It uh… It kind of reminds me of you.”
Tommy seemed to go through every possible human emotion in a matter of a split second.
”God,” he whispered and pressed a kiss right by Buck’s birthmark. ”I love you.”
”Love you too,” Buck said with a grin and leaned against the other man’s body. ”Does that mean I can get it?”
”No,” Tommy said immediately, making Buck pout. ”Only because we don’t have the room. You could get that smaller one though.”
Buck hadn’t even noticed the other sizes of the plushie, ”Oh my God. It’s even cuter.”
Tommy chuckled, ”You’re lucky you’re cute.”
”What’s that supposed to mean?”
”It means… I can’t say no to you,” Tommy replied with a shrug.
”But you could if I wasn’t cute,” Buck mumbled, reaching for the smaller version of the bear.
”You not being cute… Equals impossible,” Tommy told him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. ”Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
”Can we eat though? Or are you too tired?” Buck asked carefully.
”We can eat but not here,” Tommy said. ”I think I’ve had enough of this place.”
"But the meatballs, Tommy!" Buck told him, maybe a little too loudly for his own good as the people around them took careful glances at them. Buck lowered his voice, "The meatballs."
”Okay, fine,” Tommy said immediately, ”First we’ll pay for all this and then we’re going over to the restaurant so you can have your meatballs.”
Buck grinned as they began to walk toward the check-out, ”You really can’t say no to me, can you?”
”I said yes to you asking me to come with you to your sister’s wedding for our second date,” Tommy said. ”I’ve never been able to say no to you. I doubt I ever will.”
”Does that mean I can turn around and get the bigger version of the-”
Tommy wrapped his arms around him, lifting him slightly off the floor, which caused Buck to let out a surprised shriek.
”No, you can’t. I am saying no to that,” Tommy said as he set him down again. He brushed their noses together. ”You’ve already got something big to cuddle with at home.”
”That I do,” Buck breathed out and allowed himself to be distracted.
Tommy’s lips were soft on his, just like they always were. He took his hand into his and held on tight.
Tommy held on even tighter, ”Gonna have to get you a leash.”
”I’m sure they sell them here,” Buck couldn’t help but reply.
”Christ, Evan,” Tommy mumbled. ”Just go. Lead the way. And don’t let go.”
Buck glanced down at their hands, smiled, and then looked up at Tommy again. There was a similar, knowing smile on his lips too.
”I won’t,” he promised.