"Yogurt, Vin? You like that stuff?" Buck asked the Texan as they sat together in the break room and Buck opened a bag of BarBQ fried pork rinds for his snack. Vin had stuffed a big spoonful of creamy yogurt in his mouth and liked his lips.Vin shrugged. "It's ok. 'Specially this flavor. Strawberry, with the fruit on the bottom," he said with a wink to Chris, who had just entered the room, searching for another cup of coffee.
Buck wrinkled his nose. "That stuff leaves a sticky coating on your tongue," Buck opined, just before taking a big gulp of Dr. Pepper.
"So does Chris," Vin deadpanned, causing Buck to spray Dr. Pepper all over the breakroom, including getting a generous portion on Chris himself, as Buck roared with laughter.
Chris's face reddened, though if it was more from being soaked with Buck's soda or the fact that his prankish but usually very private lover had just made a joking reference to their sex life, he wasn't sure.
As Buck stopped laughing and coughing long enough to throw a shocked look at Vin, whose eyes twinkled with merriment.
"Jeez-zus Vin! You don't hardly say much but when you do." chuckled Buck.
"Yeah he's just full of surprises," Chris said, not sounding all too happy with the idea as he grabbed some paper towels to dry himself off. "Vin, what's with the yogurt? I thought we were going to lunch?"
"We are, Cowboy. This here's jist a snack. See?" Vin tilted the empty plastic cup to Chris to show how little it had been. "Not enough here to fill my belly."
Vin stood to throw out the empty yogurt cup, bending over to toss it in the undersink waste basket. Buck elbowed Larabee, whose glare showed he was still annoyed, but a grin was dying to bust out from behind the frown at this new playfulness between his oldest friend and his new love.
"Ya know Chris, Ezra was telling me - no good literary critic can judge a book until he's checked out the end," Buck said with a comic leer to towards Vin's well rounded butt.
Chris couldn't believe his ears. He was glad that his old friend Buck had been accepting of his relationship with Vin, but this was pushing it. Though now that he thought about it, it wasn't, not for Buck. Buck had said all that and more about some of the women that Chris used to date. Maybe making cracks about Vin's ass was a healthy thing? Might as well go with it. He wasn't going to be able to hold his frown much longer anyway. "So what else did Ezra tell you?"
Buck's grin grew even wider at Chris's acceptance of his joking remarks. As much as he wanted Chris to be happy, and therefore had accepted that meant with Vin, a part in the back of his mind had thought that Chris had changed, maybe he wasn't the same good-timin' man he'd used to know. Maybe they wouldn't be able to talk the way they used to, guy talk ya know! Now he could lay those fears to rest. That Chris could enjoy some good natured ribbing about his lover's ass, well hell, that's what guy talk was all about!
"Ol Ez says that true art conno-sewers don't ASSess a piece of art. until they seen the backside of it." Buck waggled his eyebrows with another leer at Vin's backside. That earned his a sharp elbow in the ribs from Chris. Hey fun is fun but there's a limit to how ogling of Vin's ass he was willing to put up with.
Vin finally got the lid back on the stubborn trash can damn orn'ry Rubbermaid! and stood up again, glancing behind him at the chuckling duo. "Ol' Ez never said no shit like that! Y'all lookin' at my ass?"
Vin grinned as he turned completely around, totally unoffended at Buck's brazen comments. In fact he might have been even more glad of them than Chris and for the same reason. Despite the love they shared, it would have been very difficult for Chris to have a meaningful relationship with someone if Buck was against it. So Vin gladly played along, knowing full well Buck couldn't really like looking at his scrawny ass. Could he?
"Come on Vin. Lunch remember? All this talk has got me hungry," Chris said with a leer of his own.
"Right behind ya, Pard."
"You mind if I'm right behind you Vin?" Buck asked.
"Well now Bucklin, Chris here done asked me to come for lunch. So I reckon we'll go by our lonesome this time. Maybe next time." All three got a chuckle as Vin followed Chris to his office.
"So where we goin, Cowboy?" Vin asked.
"My office."
"Uh yeah, I kin see that. I mean after, where we going fer lunch?"
"My office."
"But I thought ya said ya was hungry? Ooooh!"
+ + + + + + +
Ezra enjoyed his leftover salmon with orange sauce reduction that he had brought in for his lunch. Last night's dinner at Chez Rinald has been exquisite. He tried not to look at the baloney and cheese sandwich that Buck was chewing on across the break room table from him. "I'm surprised that Mr. Larabee and Mr. Tanner decided to have their repast in Chris's office when we have a perfectly acceptable break room right here."
Buck just shook his head. Hell, even JD wasn't that naive.
Just then, after what would be considered a long lunch hour, Vin and Chris reentered the break room, looking tired but content.
"Vin, you have something on the corner of your mouth. More yogurt? That's not very filling." Ezra commented.
Vin wiped his mouth with the back of one hand while the other hand rubbed his firm abdomen in a satisfied fashion. "Uh no, I definitely have a full belly," Vin said with a wink, while Larabee grew red in the face "Ol' Chris here decided to come fer lunch and I got second helpings."
Buck let out his loudest laugh that day. "All right Chris!"
Ezra looked confused. "What just happened here?"
End
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