Work Text:
Ryan always considered himself to be a very simple man.
He was a very simple man who liked to rely on his routines:
On the days that he was off, these consisted of:
- Watering Sam’s plants
- Checking the mail box
- Say ‘Hi’ to Mr. Carter next door as he walked in from getting the mail
- Calling his mom (she always had something to talk to him about)
- Calling Sam if she was working and seeing if she needed him to bring anything over to her
On the days that he was scheduled to work, he did many of the above routines, plus ones at the station including:
- Ensuring all of the end of shift tasks were completed before the shift before them left
- Taking role call as people came in
- Talk to his dad before the morning briefing in case there was anything he need to be aware about that he wasn’t yet
- Having a cup of hot chocolate with Taylor (even in the summer, it was just something they did)
- Talking to Harris about any potential happenings in the Fantasy Football league the station had going on
Blue Bennings was seriously starting to mess up some of these routines however.
Somehow, despite being the most junior member in the entire city, he was always the first of their shift to arrive. Which would be fine, Ryan didn’t have a problem with people getting there early, but Blue was trying to get involved in just about everything Ryan did in the morning, even the things Ryan was trying very hard to make a point of not including the younger man.
Blue was always helping C-shift with the last of their tasks when Ryan came in. Blue was seemingly always in their father’s office when Ryan needed to speak to the man. Blue was always hanging around in the kitchen when Ryan and Taylor were pouring their hot chocolate. And now Blue was trying to get into their Fantasy Football league.
It wasn’t that Ryan didn’t like Blue. Because despite their rocky start, Blue had started to grow on Ryan in a good way. He was as good of a firefighter someone with less than six months of experience could be, he was always asking what he could do to help around the station, and he never complained about anything.
But despite all of this, Ryan couldn’t help but feel that Blue was disrupting some of his long held routines. Routines that usually when disrupted, normally called for a very bad day.
When Ryan walked into the station that morning, he immediately spotted Blue restocking the ambulance with Coleman from C-shift.
“Oh, hey Ryan!” Blue called out to him when he spotted Ryan walking through the engine bay. Just as Blue was turning to face him though, his hand hit a box sitting by the backdoor of the ambulance, sending it and a ton of medical supplies crashing to the floor.
“Oh, shit!” Blue yelled out.
“Yeah, shit is right,” Coleman said as he jumped down and started picking some of it up. “You’re lucky these are sealed still, this shit’s expensive.”
“Yeah, as much as Blue was always offering to help people with random tasks around here, he sure was a lot clumsier with the random chores than actual firefighting.
And hour later, as everyone for A-shift arrived and began starting their tasks for the morning, Ryan had finally gotten everything he needed to get done to start the shift, and he walked into the kitchen to find Taylor… and Blue.
“Hey,” Taylor smiled at him as she slid a mug across the counter towards him. “This is some peppermint hot chocolate I got for Christmas.”
“Thanks,” Ryan nodded at her as he took a sip of the drink. It was good, like it always was.
“Do y’all always do this?” Blue asked, looking between the two of them.
“Yeah,” Taylor said, giving Blue a smile. “Do you want to join us next time, I can make a third?”
Ryan frowned at hearing her say that, though neither of them were looking at him to see his expression.
“Could you?” Blue asked, an excited shine in his eyes.
Taylor gave him a gentle smile. “Of course I can,” she said. Then Blue was called out of the kitchen to help with moving some hoses downstairs, and Ryan could feel like he could breathe again.
Taylor lifted an eyebrow and Ryan a smirk as she looked at him. “Do you have something against Blue joining us for hot chocolate?” she asked.
“What? No,” Ryan said, clearing his face. “What are you talking about?”
“Really?” she asked. “Because whenever he walks in on us, you’re silent and stony looking until he leaves the kitchen.”
Ryan huffed and crossed his arms, defensively. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
As Taylor put her now empty mug in the sink and moved to leave the kitchen, she turned and gave Ryan one final look. “Whatever you say,” she said. “But I’m going to make him a third cup next time.”
“Okay,” Ryan nodded. “That’s fine.”
It was definitely not fine, but there was no way he’d be able to say that to anyone.
Ryan supposed this was some sort of payback for not having Blue around to annoy him like all little brothers do his entire life so far.