fandomtownies | Fandom Fire Station, Friday

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Fandom Fire Station, Friday

There were signs scattered around the lobby of the fire station today. Small ones, hung about four to six inches up from the floor, the counter, the top of the display case. . . .

They all read "Probie for President".

"President of what?" Travis asked.

There was no answer forthcoming.

[I LIVE! Maybe! I'mma do my best to anyway. This post brought to you by Travis's absolutely ridiculous plotline for Station 19 season six.]

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"Dogs have presidents?" Stark asked when he came in.

"She is a good dog." Probie was, in Stark's very unbiased opinion, the Best Dog on the island. Maybe because she was the one he could pet most often.

Neither Travis nor his narrative were going to debate the finer points of Stark's clearly utterly unbiased opinion.

"She is. But that doesn't mean I want her in charge," Travis said. "Though . . . I guess she couldn't be worse than some people who get elected."

"I don't know about elections," Stark said. "I've never lived anywhere that had them. But I think Probie would would be a better leader than most I've seen." Probie was infinitely less likely to be cruel, for one thing.

"Did she decide this herself?" Please don't tell him it was raccoons.

"Oh. And hello. You're not busy, are you? I just wanted to come and see you."

"I have no idea," Travis said sadly. Then brightened. "I'm not busy at all! Sorry I've been, uh. A little scarce. Since the trip."

It wasn't because he regretted the trip or anything. He'd just spent awhile processing it and then reporting it in excruciating detail to Vic over the phone.

"It's fine," Stark said, though he would have probably started to be concerned if he'd gone too much longer without a Travis sighting. "You're alright though? Nothing's wrong, is it?"

Ok, maybe he was a little concerned but he was pretty much always concerned about something.

"I'm fine. Just . . . not used to being that social anymore, I guess."

He'd spent a lot of time just hanging out alone since he moved here.

"We did stay busy," Stark said with a small nod. "And then I had the wedding. But as long as you're alright. You would tell me if something were wrong, wouldn't you?"

Ok, maybe a little more than a little concerned. But he was Stark. This was to expected.

"I did miss seeing you, after seeing so much of you on the trip," he admitted.

"Absolutely!" Travis promised.

Because, you know, he had a great history of actually doing that. He definitely didn't self-sabotage many of his previous relationships by just not saying anything when he got uncomfortable, or anything.

"You worry too much," he said fondly, reaching for Stark's hand. "I just . . . needed a minute, you know?"

That went well with Stark's personal history of people not telling him things until it was too late. What could go wrong?

"I try not to worry," he said, taking Travis's hand and squeezing gently. "Sometimes I can't help it. But...you can always have time. Or space. If you need it."

They definitely weren't ultimately doomed. For sure.

"Thank you," Travis said. "But hey, we should do something soon. Even if it's just . . . a movie at home or something." A beat. "Which I guess would be at your place, since this place isn't, like, the coziest. . . ."

They could be content for a while. That was good, too.

"I'd like that. Doing something, even just a movie. And you're always welcome there. You and Probie, if you like." Not in the 'I'll give you a key' sense but definitely in the 'if you ask to come over there's no good reason I'd say no' sense.

"And if you wouldn't mind doing two things, Steven had asked about having dinner. With him, and Watts. If we wanted."

"Another double date, huh?" Travis said with a chuckle. "Sure, let's dinner party. Those definitely don't have a habit of going terribly."

Travis, Stark was going to take that joke way too seriously. What were you doing?

Yep. Stark was going to do that right on cue.

"...why would it go terribly? We don't have to, if you don't want to! I just said I'd ask."

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Stark had offered to come with Steven, which Steven had been very appreciative of. Not for the first time he wondered what he and Marc had done to have earned such a good friend.

But Steven had lunch with Llewellyn so he'd told Stark to go on ahead to the fire station and Steven would meet him and Travis there. Thus it was sometime in the early afternoon that Steven stopped by.

"Hello?"

"Steven!" Travis greeted with a smile. "Hey, how's it going?"

"Travis!" Steven said. Travis's friendly demeanor did help his nerves somewhat, though not entirely. "Everything all right? Stark about?"

"Yeah, he's around," Travis said, spinning in his chair a little to look. "Probably coaching Probie on her campaign speech."

Or, you know, petting and appreciating the puppy. One of those.

Edited 2022-10-21 17:49 (UTC)

Steven had to double check he could place the name. "That's... the dog, yeah?"

"That's my dog, yeah," Travis confirmed. "It's, uh, kind of a firefighter joke. New firefighters are probationary members, so we call them 'probies', and when I adopted her I was the only firefighter around so calling her that just seemed to fit. . . ."

"I see," Steven said. "And she speaks?"

It was Fandom, Steven ruled nothing out.

". . . No. Not that I know of."

Oh god. Was Probie gossiping about him behind his back?!

Was Probie good friends with the squirrels?

"Well good that she and Stark get along, whatever they're doing," Steven said. "That's nice. People getting along. Understanding each other. And pets doing that as well."

Steven was really nailing trying to appear like he wasn't nervous. Expert level subterfuge, clearly.

". . . True," Travis said. He tilted his head. "Everything okay with you and Marc?"

Because that was almost Stark-level of dithering there.

Stark didn't dither. Stark babbled, thank you very much.

He may, in fact, have been babbling at Probie for the past several minutes before he realized that Travis was talking to someone and decided he ought to investigate.

"Oh. Steven, hello! You came."

Not that Stark had doubted (well, maybe a little bit).

"Stark, hello!" Steven said. The doubt was all right. Steven doubted himself as well. It was a lot easier not to do things. "Er - Travis was just asking about me and Marc, actually. How we're doing."

Which wasn't the exact segue Steven needed but it wasn't a bad one.