Work Text:
Sticky Situations
Maple Syrup
The crew of Station 51 had been out working on a structure fire for nearly four hours. It was almost 1900 by the time Stoker backed the LaFrance into her safe spot in the bay. Mike wasn’t looking forward to getting out of the engine either. It was the engineer’s day to cook and all he really felt like doing was crawling into his bunk. But he knew everyone was just as tired and hungry as he was, so he forced himself out of the cab and headed straight for the kitchen to see what he could make that would be simple to cook and quick to fix.
Johnny and Roy hadn’t even gotten back from Rampart yet where they brought their last victim of that horrible fire. It was a five year old girl that Johnny had found unconscious under a bed in an upstairs corner bedroom. She had been there for such a long time, but the guys and the doctors at Rampart seemed optimistic about her recovery. Even so, Johnny would need some TLC and it was frustrating that Mike couldn’t show any affection.
Of course any kind of fraternization was taboo for the two lovers in front of the other guys. He and Johnny had discussed telling the others, but Johnny hadn’t even dared tell Roy yet. Mike had his suspicions that Roy knew about the two of them. He had caught Roy watching them on several occasions when they weren’t quite as careful as they should be. It was difficult for both Mike and Johnny to pretend they weren’t all that close.
In any case, Mike still had to get food on the table for the six very hungry, very exhausted men of Station 51’s ‘A’ shift. Stoker opened the cabinets over the fridge and was struck with an idea, literally. The box of pancake mix fell off the shelf and hit him in the head!!
“Oww! Damn, that hurt!” squawked Mike as he rubbed the top of his head. “Hey, pancakes! That’s a great idea. I’m pretty sure we’ve got breakfast sausages too,” thought Mike as he opened the freezer door to check. “Well, alright!” exclaimed Mike out loud just as Cap walked into the kitchen. Cap started to laugh and said, “Geez, Mike. I thought Gage was out here for a sec.”
“Nope, jus’ me Cap. I was just really happy to find a quick, easy supper for us all,” explained Mike. He then set about turning the electric griddle on and then Mike dumped the whole box of sausages into a cast iron frying pan on a low heat. By the time Johnny and Roy got back from the hospital, the food was just about ready. Johnny went right over to Mike to see if he could help at all, plus Johnny just really wanted to be near to Mike. Johnny was still upset over the little girl and Mike could see the sadness in his eyes.
“How’s she doin’?” questioned Mike quietly.
“Brackett thinks she’s goin’ be just fine, Mike. It’s just real hard, ya know? She’s so little and when I first found her under the bed, I thought she was dead. But she’s a real trooper.”
“I’m so glad to hear that, Johnny.”
“Yeah, me too! Hey whatcha makin’? Smells great, Mike.”
“Pancakes and sausages, oh and I made toast and coffee too.”
“Wow, great idea, especially with how late it is, cuz man am I starved. How did you think of this one?”
“Well, let’s just say the idea kinda hit me all of a sudden,” Mike said with a grin.
“Can I help ya with anything?”
“Actually, Johnny, if you wouldn’t mind, could you set the table and get the condiments out? I’ve just gotta run to the latrine and then everything should be ready to eat,” said Mike.
“Oh sure, go on. I’ll get everything on the table,” answered Johnny as he headed for the cabinets to get everything needed to eat. By the time Mike came back into the kitchen, the table was set and Johnny was dishing up the food on platters. Mike grabbed them and placed them on the table and then called everyone to supper.
As everyone walked into the room, they all commented on how good the food smelled and how hungry they were. Chet even thanked Mike for getting it ready so quickly and the others agreed. As a thank you to the cook, they let Mike have the maple syrup first and it was a brand new bottle. It still had the protective shield under the cap so Mike unscrewed the top off of the bottle and set about peeling the insert off. It was firmly adhered to the opening and Mike had to use quite a bit of force. As he pulled on the shield, it suddenly let go and everyone around the table heard a sloshing sound and then a very loud ARRGH! coming from their usually quiet engineer.
As all eyes turned towards Stoker, there were snickers and chortles and snorts coming from all around the table. Even Johnny couldn’t help himself after seeing his lover sitting there with maple syrup dripping from the top of his head, down his face and oozing from his chin all over his neck and front of his blue uniform shirt. Mike was literally covered in syrup and extremely sticky and uncomfortable. He immediately jumped up from the table and headed for the latrine but had to slow down as he went along. The syrup had dripped down his pants all the way into his shoes which made him ‘splat’ with every step taken. Johnny chased after him and gave him a chaste little peck on the cheek before Mike jumped in the shower and told him that he would lay out another set of clothes on Mike’s bunk. Johnny went back out to begin eating. Before he sat down though, he took Mike’s plate and put it into the oven which he turned on low to keep Mike’s supper warm.
Pickle Juice
After supper the guys were sitting around watching TV and Mike wanted a snack. So he had his head stuck in the refrigerator looking for something to munch on. His beautiful butt was sticking up in the air. Fair game to Johnny Gage’s way of thinking. So he walked past Mike in the fridge and gave his lover’s bottom a little pat. Mike wasn’t expecting that and ended up jumping, which set off a chain reaction of events. First, Mike whacked his head on the underside of the shelf in the fridge. That caused him to yelp in pain and to begin rubbing his sore head. Unfortunately, he did not extract his head first. This action shook the shelving even more and knocked over the jar of bread and butter pickles. The last person to eat a pickle hadn’t screwed the cover on tightly and Mike ended up with his neck being a cold, sticky mess!
“Arrrrrrgh! I don’t believe this! Not again!! My neck is so sticky and look at my uniform, ugh,”yelled Mike.
Johnny was walking back over across the room from getting himself a cup of coffee and saw it all happen to Stoker. The rest heard Mike’s head make contact with the shelving and each one turned away for fear their laughter would get carried away. When Mike finally extricated himself from the fridge, he had green pickle juice running all down inside of his uniform and his white undershirt was soaked as well. He stood there for a second and then he heard snickering. When he looked over at the table, five pair of eyes sat watching him barely controlling themselves. As soon as they took in Mike’s disheveled appearance they could no longer contain themselves and began laughing in earnest.
Poor Mike had pickle juice running from his neck right down the front of his blue uniform shirt and it was obvious that his undershirt was soaked under his light blue dress shirt. His hair was matted and stuck down on his head, making it seem really mousy and he stunk like a pickle factory. Now that he was erect, gravity was taking over and the juice was running down his arms to his fingers as well. As he stood there with a sour look on his face, his four shift mates and his Captain, were practically rolling on the floor. Mike couldn’t help but join in the merriment, especially after seeing the tears running down Johnny’s face. Oh how he loved that man and no matter the situation, he always looked great.
For Johnny’s part, he thought that Mike couldn’t possibly look any cuter than he did at that moment. He was standing there with pickle juice dripping down his arms to the floor, splotches of greenish juice around his neck and the t-shirt underneath. His hair was so matted down with juice it looked like it might take a chisel to get it all out. Johnny would have loved to jump in the shower with Mike at that moment and help to wash him clean, but of course that was impossible.
Captain Stanley interrupted everyone’s reverie by telling Mike to go and quickly take another shower and change his clothes, again. Mike gave an “Aye aye, Cap.” and rushed off to take care of business before they got toned out. Roy went over to the fridge and cleaned up the mess for Stoker and the station settled back down. Johnny went into the dorm room and laid out Mike’s clothes for him again and then yelled to him as he passed the shower stall to let him know. Mike was known for his quickness in the shower, as were they all. He was completely finished in three minutes. He wrapped a towel around his waist and ran to his bunk to get dressed. Johnny lurked just outside the dorm room until Mike was decent and then he pounced. Mike nearly jumped out of his skin when Johnny came up behind him, but regained his composure immediately. They stood there smiling at each other, cerulean locked with sable, and then each of them looked past the other. They heard voices coming from the dayroom so they chanced a kiss. It was a bit brusque but the point was made and they both dissolved into giggles. The two walked back out to the dayroom to continue the shift.
Grape Jam
Mike was still hungry, since his last venture into the fridge proved fruitless. He went back over to the kitchen area and grabbed the bread, peanut butter, and a knife. Then he got the grape jam out of the fridge and set it all up on the counter. He spread one piece of bread with peanut butter and then picked up the jar of jam. Just as he was twisting it open, Chet called over to him to look at the TV. It seemed that the structure fire had ended up on the eleven o’clock news and the crew was looking at the footage. Chet was yelling over to Mike.
“Hey, Mike. Put that down and c’mere. We made the news, babe.” Chet exclaimed.
“I’ll be right over, Chet. Wanna finish makin’ my sandwich.”
Mike wasn’t looking at the jar, he was too busy talking to Chet so he really didn’t notice how much jam there actually was in the jar. He gave the cover a really hard yank, and grape jam spewed out of the jar and all over Mike. He stood there stunned for a few seconds trying to register what had just happened. The only sounds in the room were the TV and the unmistakable plops of the jam hitting the floor. As Stoker looked down at himself and saw the jam oozing down the front of his ‘fresh’ uniform and his arms, he groaned inwardly. He was stickier now than he had been with the maple syrup or the pickle juice. He turned pleading eyes to his friends, but all he received back were snickering and guffaws and finally out and out belly laughs!
“Hey Mike, at least now you’re color coordinated, purple and blue go very nicely together!” retorted Marco.
This brought another round of laughs from everyone except Stoker. Johnny wasn’t really laughing AT Mike, but just at the ridiculous situation Mike found himself in. He, in fact, ran to the latrine area and started the water for Mike to take another shower and get cleaned up. Johnny stayed in the vicinity of the shower waiting for Mike to come along. All the guys stayed in the dayroom continuing to watch the rest of the news so Johnny used that to his advantage. He grabbed Mike as he walked in covered in sticky grape jam and planted a healthy kiss on his lips.
“Man, Stoker, you sure taste good! Nice and sweet and sticky. Just the way I love you!” whispered Johnny.
Mike gave him a little peck and then ran into the shower to clean up before the tones went off.
-
Molasses
Everybody calmed down after that and they all went to bed right after the news broadcast. Johnny couldn’t help but giggle into his pillow every time he thought of Mike dripping with some sticky concoction. He continued to think of Mike covered in something sticky and sweet and Johnny licking it all off of his body. Johnny decided he better stop thinking like that or else he was going to have a lot to explain if they got toned out anytime soon.
Fortunately it was one of those rare nights where the entire station was able to sleep right through the night. Everyone got up refreshed and ready to face another 24 hours at the station. They had to pull a double shift but then would be rewarded with four days off in a row. As the men slowly got up and meandered towards the latrine, Mike was already dressed and in the kitchen. He had decided to make his mother’s recipe for “Boston” Baked Beans. The temperature had certainly dropped in the past few days and left a crispness in the air. This made perfect sense considering it was early October. He needed to get the beans into the bean pot and the oven as soon as possible since it would take all day to cook them.
Mike preheated the oven to 300° and got out all of the ingredients. He got out the big pot and filled it up with water and poured the small pea beans into it to parboil for a couple of hours before adding all of the other ingredients. He had everything that he needed: salt pork, onions (chopped). dried mustard, and an entire cup of molasses. Mike had also called the bakery down the road from the stationhouse and requested an order of pastries of various kinds. The boxes had just arrived and Mike had put them down on the counter next to his ingredients. He took down a large platter and set about transferring the pastries from the cardboard boxes to the platter.
Chet came running over at this time and started yelling about the muffins and doughnuts. He was in such a hurry to get to the food, he didn’t look at where everything was situated on the countertop. Mike accidentally knocked a fork onto the floor. He bent down to retrieve it and Chet grabbed the platter at the exact same time. Chet accidentally bumped the measuring cup holding the molasses. The cup was knocked over and the molasses slowly oozed out all over the counter and straight over the edge onto Mike’s neck and head. As he began to stand up gravity took over and the molasses headed straight down his pants! Mike looked and felt horrible. Johnny was right behind Roy and when Roy stopped short, Johnny collided with him. Mike was once again covered in a thick sticky substance. All Mike could think was that he was very glad that he had stopped at the dry cleaners on the way to work and picked up all of his uniforms. Otherwise, he would have been running around in his underwear by now! Roy moved aside as Johnny pushed him and got a close-up view of ‘His Sticky Highness’. For Chet’s part in this, he did apologize that he knocked over the measuring cup and he really was sorry. In fact Chet was the only one of the crew that didn’t snicker or laugh at how ridiculous Mikey looked.
Honey
While Mike was in the shower, yet again, Johnny went to the kitchen counter. He picked up Mike’s mother’s bean recipe and mixed all the ingredients together and slid the bean pot into its place in the oven. Mike was slightly disappointed when he came out of the shower stall and Johnny wasn’t there. When Mike got back out to the kitchen, he was pleasantly surprised to find his beans already in the oven. He looked around the dayroom and Johnny was peering over a ‘Wheels N’ Gears’ magazine and Mike knew it was he that had taken care of the beans. He walked over to where Johnny sat on the couch, flopped himself down way on the other side of it and thanked him for doing that. Johnny said it was no big deal.
“I just followed your Mom’s recipe, Mikey,” Johnny said with a shrug.
“Well, thanks anyway, Johnny. That was a big help to me and I really appreciate it,” Mike answered with a look that told Johnny he would be showing his appreciation in a lot more friendlier way once they were alone.
Mike was noticing throughout the day that he wasn’t feeling one hundred percent. He’d had a tickle in his throat since the day before but just ignored it. Now it wasn’t just a tickle, his throat was practically on fire and he was having trouble swallowing. His glands were sore to the touch and swollen as well. Mike was also starting to sneeze and cough. This did not go unnoticed by all of the crew in general and John Gage specifically. Johnny went to Mike and told him he was concerned about Mike’s health and wanted to examine him. Mike protested and said that he was fine. Johnny continued to watch Mike deteriorate throughout the day. Luckily the station was having a very slow day so Mike was able to rest.
Mike’s mom swore by hot tea with honey for a sore throat so he decided to try that. He told Johnny what he was going to do and Johnny offered to make it for him. He told Mike to stay in his bunk and Johnny would bring the tea to him. Mike was very grateful to have such a considerate boyfriend. Johnny heated the water in the teakettle and got the honey out. He had just poured the hot water into the cup and started to open the honey when the squad was toned out. Johnny called over to Marco and asked him to tell Mike what happened and that Mike’s tea was in the kitchen. Of course Mike heard the call and he came out to get his own tea.
Unfortunately, Mike was unaware that Johnny had loosened the cover on the honey bottle. He absently grabbed the squeeze bottle of honey and the cover flew off. Mike ended up with his entire right hand and arm up to his elbow in sticky, gooey honey. Chet and Marco came into the kitchen at that moment and saw the exasperated look on Stoker’s face, plus the honey plopping from his arm all over the floor and they couldn’t help but laugh. At least this time, Mike only needed to wash up and didn’t have to take an entire shower.
Johnny
The ‘Sticky Shift from Hell’ finally ended and no one was happier than Mike Stoker. He was meeting up with Johnny at his place. They arrived in the parking lot together and went up to the apartment. Johnny let them in and Mike grabbed Johnny around the waist and spun him around so they were face to face. Their lips met in a very deep, sensual kiss involving lips, tongues, and teeth. Johnny pulled away first and said, “Let’s get to the bedroom, Stoker. I plan on getting you a sticky mess!”
“Oh yeah, Gage. Sounds like a great plan,” Mike said with a huge grin. It was the first time in the last 48 hours that he was actually looking forward to getting into a sticky situation!