Chapter Text
Eddie spends the entire flight looking out of the plane window, a content smile on his lips.
His lips that touched Buck’s lips and that will touch them again and again.
Things didn’t exactly go like Eddie had planned, but he quite liked the ending anyway.
Figuring out he was queer had been hard, telling so to his parents during a video call because he couldn’t wait was even harder, but after that it was all smooth sailing. Realizing he was in love with Buck, coming out to Christopher, then Buck and the team were the easiest part. Now, in his now useless plan, the next stop was to fly out to El Paso, stay for one day to talk to Christopher in person after months of therapy sessions on Zoom, make sure his kid was okay with him confessing his feelings to Buck and then come up with how to do it once they were back in Los Angeles.
Someone taps his shoulder to get his attention, “Excuse me?” the young man next to him says when he turns to him. He must be around eighteen or younger.
“Yeah?” Eddie asks, taking out his headphone.
“Sorry to disturb you, but I wanted to congratulate you and your boyfriend. You two are really cute together.” The young man says with a smile.
Of course he saw him and Buck at the gate, who knows how many people stopped to watch them. Eddie was too busy memorizing the taste of Buck’s lips and the details of his face so he had something to think about while he was away.
“Oh, yeah, he’s not my boyfriend, we are just friends, but thank you.” He says with a shy smile, his cheeks burning for how hard he is blushing.
The guy gives him a confused smile, “I don’t go around kissing my friends like that, but if you say so.” He shrugs, “Still very cute, though.” he adds.
“Thank you again.” He replies with a chuckle.
Maybe the guy is right, Buck is his boyfriend but until he isn’t back in the same state as Buck where they can discuss things face to face, he won’t jump to conclusions. What if Buck changes his mind? What if it was the heat of the moment in which Buck was simply scared to lose someone? What if Buck thinks more about what happened in the next 48 hours and realizes the mistake he has made? So yeah, for now they are friends.
The flight goes well and as soon as they land he takes his phone off of plane mode. As soon as it connects it starts pinging with notifications. There are texts in the 118 group chat, his parents, both his sisters, Maddie, May, Christopher and even Linda and Josh. He has half idea what they are about. He ignores them and finds his text chain with Buck.
To Buck: Just landed
Next he opens Christopher’s text.
From Mijo: I can’t believe you two. So much for waiting for me 🙄
He laughs and looks up to see if anyone is paying attention to him, but everyone is eagerly standing waiting for the doors to open and flee the plane. There’s a photo attached to the text. It’s Buck and him kissing. Eddie was a bit naive to believe no one would have caught that moment on camera to post online.
To Mijo: Sorry, bud, it wasn't planned. Buck caught me off guard. I just landed, we will talk as soon as I get home.
He types quickly and Christopher reacts to it with a thumb up.
The doors of the plane open and everyone rushes to get off like if they don’t in five minutes they will get stuck in there. The flight attendants are whispering and giggling to each other as he walks past them to exit and he leaves with a mumbled “Thank you.” His cheeks are on fire.
He is waiting for his bag when his phone pings again a few times in quick succession.
From Buck: Perfect ☺️
From Buck: Send a photo when you are with Christopher, please, I miss you both
From Buck: Have you seen on Twitter? It looks like we went viral, oops 🤭
He chuckles and his cheeks are starting to ache from the constant smiling. He lifts his eyes to check if his bag is coming but the belt isn’t moving yet. He presses the call button instead of typing.
“Hey.” Buck’s voice is happy and Eddie knows he is smiling even without seeing him.
“Hey.” He replies, “To answer your texts, I will send you a photo, we miss you too.” He starts and Buck makes a content noise on the other end, “And I saw, Christopher sent me a screenshot of a tweet.”
Buck uhms, “And-And do you like,” he starts and he sounds nervous, “do you regret it?” He asks at the end.
What a dumb question, “No, Buck, I kissed you back and told you I love you. I don’t regret a single thing.” he reassures and he can hear Buck sighing in relief. “But,” he starts again and Buck makes a strangled noise like he was about to talk to, “I don’t want to have an important conversation over the phone. Can we please be Buck and Eddie, two friends that shared a hell of a kiss for one more day until I’m back with you?” He asks all in one breath.
He waits for Buck to end the call and text him not to call ever again or something similar, but there’s only silence for a minute broken by the sound of the belt starting to move and the first bags arriving.
“Two hell of kisses.” Buck’s voice almost startles him when he speaks again. Low and warm.
“What?” Eddie asks dumbly.
“We shared two kisses, Eds.” Buck says and Eddie can imagine the smirk on his lips so clearly when he closes his eyes.
“Oh, yeah, you’re right.” Can we kiss more when I come back? Buck chuckles and it makes him chuckle too.
“Okay, my dear friend Eddie, I’ll leave you to your trip.” Buck says after a minute.
“My bag just arrived, my dear friend Buck.” He says laughing again, “Talk to you later?”
“Of course.” Buck says before making kissing noises and ending the call.
Eddie stares at the black screen for a minute and breaths in. His mind is rushing a hundred miles an hour and his heart's beating so fast that if he didn’t know it’s impossible he’d think it is about to burst out of his chest. In just 48 hours he’ll be back in LA with his son and he has a very dear friend waiting to become more. His own happily ever after.
He chuckles at his own thoughts and lifts his eyes, pocketing his phone. He spots his bag slowly making his way towards him on the belt and makes his way to the front to collect it. The beg shouldn’t even have been there, but once he had boarded last there was no space left in the overhead and it had been put in the airplane hold.
His father is picking him up, so when he walks out of the door he searches for him in the crowd of waving people waiting for their loved ones. He doubts his dad will be waving him warmly or hugging him. Instead the first person he lays his eyes on is Christopher. His son, his beautiful boy he missed so much for the past few months, is there to pick him from the airport even though things are just starting to really heal between them.
“Christopher!” He calls out and oh boy he smiles, genuinely smiles when he meets Eddie’s eyes.
Did the plane crash and he is in heaven right now? After the mess he caused his son is smiling at him again. His bag hits the floor and in seconds he’s in front of his son, taking him in his arms.
“Hi, Dad.” Christopher greets and Eddie only sees the hint of roll eyes.
Breathing in, the foreign smell of his shampoo, feeling his arms around him hugging him back. The complete opposite of when Eddie hugged before letting him go to Texas. “I missed you so much.” He says between tears.
“Missed you, too.” Christopher mumbles against his chest.
They hug for a few minutes until Ramon clears his throat next to them. “We should go, your mom was making lunch.” He says picking Eddie’s bag from the floor.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Eddie says smiling down to Christopher to avoid looking at the complete indifference of his father. He is here for his son and nobody else. They will spend tomorrow just the two of them and they will go back to their real home the next day. For once in his life Eddie doesn’t particularly care what his parents think of him.
He offers to drive, but Ramon just waves him to the passenger seat. “Can I sit in the back with you, Mijo?” he asks instead he’d rather be in the back to chat with him and not having to twist to see him.
Christopher simply shrugs as he gets in the car. That’s a good enough answer for Eddie, he closes the passenger seat’s door and rounds the car for the other back seat door and gets him. Ramon doesn’t comment.
He takes his phone out and opens his texts, he scrolls past his mom’s and sisters’, he will see them soon enough anyway, and opens the firehouse group chat. Everyone shared their congratulations and happiness for them. Buck hasn’t replied so he exits without writing anything too. He opens his chat with Chimney instead.
To Chim: So I’m moving to Texas, am I?
From Chim: It got you your man, didn’t it? Appreciate the little push
He reacts to it with a heart, he will thank him properly after talking to Buck. Thinking of Buck he opens the camera and turns to his son who's looking out of the window.
“Hey, Chris.” He waits for him to look at him before asking, “Can we take a selfie? Buck asked for one.”
Christopher shrugs, “Okay.”
Eddie leans in the middle seat so they are both in the frame and snaps the selfie. Buck replies almost instantly with a string of hearts. “About Buck,” he starts still staring down at the text.
“I talked to him.” Christopher cuts him off. “While you were on the plane.” He explains.
“Oh, okay. Good. That’s good.” He says surprised. He should have expected this, Christopher never cut Buck off completely, he wasn’t angry at Buck and of course he would have talked to him exactly like he sent Eddie a screenshot of the tweet. “And?” He asks, wanting for his son to elaborate.
“You said tomorrow is gonna be just the two of us, right?” Christopher asks instead. Eddie’s plan is to take him to the lake, camp there for the day so they can talk alone, he nods. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow then.” The thirteenth year old says with a serious nod, “Alone.” He adds briefly looking up to his Abuelo in the front seat.
“Whatever you want.”
That day is nice, Sophia and Adriana come over so there isn’t much time for Helena and Ramon to focus on him, and after dinner they are leaving to stay at Sophia’s place so Christopher can have a sleepover with his cousin and Eddie can have one with his sisters. And damn he really missed them.
The next day he packs some camping equipment - courtesy of Adriana - and he leaves the house at dawn with a sleepy Christopher.
They spend the day at the lake. They talk and talk, finally face to face after months on zoom calls. They cry, Christopher yells at him but lets him hug him to comfort him, they laugh, hour by hour by the lake shore they slowly heal and get closer again. Their therapist will be very proud of them for doing this.
They also talk a lot about Buck. The man texts them both every now and then with silly stories of his shift - and something else Christopher won’t share with Eddie - and they send him selfies in return. The whole situation between Eddie and Buck is new and scary for both the Diaz boys, but by the time they are leaving to go finishing packing they both come to the conclusion that no matter what happens Buck will never leave their lives. Buck confirms it with a You two are stuck with me text.
It’s while Christopher is packing that Helena and Ramon corner Eddie to talk. They are not shy about their disappointment in his behavior, their worry about Christopher and the whole Buck situation. His mom more than once hints that they should be moving back to El Paso so they could help Eddie with Chris and he could look for a nice woman to be Christopher’s mom. It’s crystal clear she is trying to fight, to make Eddie scream so Christopher would get scared and change his mind about leaving. And Eddie listens, tells her not to raise her voice; what she doesn’t understand is that the Eddie that would scream back is gone. The Eddie that would be crushed about disappointing his parents is gone.
“Christopher and I will go back to Los Angeles, I’ll ask Buck to be my boyfriend and if you can’t accept it, then we don’t have anything else to say to each other.” He says getting up and leaving his parents in the living room to go help Christopher with his bag.
~
They are at the airport soon after breakfast, Sophia and Adriana driving instead of Ramon. Which gives Eddie a clear message.
After many hugs, demands of coming back soon with Buck and Christopher’s luggage checked in, they settle at the gate to wait for priority boarding. Christopher listening to music on his phone while playing with his Switch. It doesn’t matter how many times Christopher talks to him it feels surreal that he is really going home with Eddie. He may be the best son in the whole universe. Eddie’s phone pings with a notification.
From Buck: Can’t wait to see you in 2 hours :)
The speaker announces they are starting the boarding.
To Buck: Me neither :) We are boarding right now!
From Buck: Perfect!!! See you soon!
The flight is nice, when Christopher isn’t playing he is telling Eddie more about his time in Texas and complaining about his Grandma’s rules that are far worse than Eddie’s and he is very glad Eddie isn’t like that. Take that Mom, Eddie thinks satisfied.
The plane lands at LAX right on time. The nerves start hitting him while they are waiting for Christopher's luggage. What if Buck changed his mind in the last two hours? What if the first thing he says to Eddie is that he doesn’t love him and they are better as friends? Not even Buck’s Saw you landed, I’m here, you’ll find me easily ;) doesn’t stop him from spiraling just a little.
And he does find him easily. Eddie takes a sharp inhale when he finds Buck is standing a bit in the back holding two papers "Love of my life" framed by hearts in one hand and "Coolest guy" in the other.
Christopher scoffs next to him, “You two are gonna be so annoying, I’m regretting this already.” and if it wasn’t that Christopher is shaking his head good naturally with a smile Eddie would have believed him.
He looks back over to Buck and this time their eyes meet and Buck’s face breaks in the most beautiful smile Eddie has ever witnessed. Buck waves his little signs a little to make sure they notice them and Eddie laughs.
“Hi, Christopher!” Buck says breaking eye contact with Eddie.
“Hey, Buck.” The teenager says letting the man wrap him in a hug.
“I missed so much, buddy.”
“Missed you, too.”
There’s a warm feeling spreading in Eddie’s chest and all the silly worries he had five minutes ago are all gone. He is in love with Buck and Buck loves him back and loves Christopher just as strongly as Eddie does and it’s all perfect.
“Hi.” He says to get Buck’s attention.
Buck’s head snap in his direction like having Christopher back in his arms made him forget Eddie was there too, which is fair, “Hi, Eddie.” He says breaking the hug with Christopher and moving so he is right in front of Eddie, “Did you like my signs?” he asks smirking.
“I can’t believe you actually did it.” Eddie says and Buck smiles proudly at himself “I love it.” and then without second thoughts he takes one step forward, lifts his chin and kisses Buck. Because he waited enough and he can. And Buck kisses him back, sighing against his lips.
“Merry me.” Buck says when they move back.
“Seriously, Buck?!” Christopher intervenes before Eddie can even properly understand that Buck just proposed to him.
“Oh yeah, you are right, buddy.” Buck stumbles to say, passing his signs to the teenager and patting his pockets before taking out something Eddie can’t make out but can guess what it is. Buck gives his lips a peck before sinking down on one knee.
If Eddie could look away from the man in front of him and the little dark blue velvet box he is holding in his hand, he would notice people turning to look at them. They will go viral again, won’t they? He couldn’t care less, let the world see how much they love each other.
“Eddie,” Buck starts locking his eyes in Eddie’s and Eddie gets lost in the blue. “You are the best friend I've never had and I know you wanted to talk about us, but honestly, Eddie, we lost so much time already and you, you and Christopher are the best thing that have ever happened to me, I don’t need to talk to know that you are it for me. I will never love anyone else as much as I love you.” His hands are shaking a little and Eddie finds he is shaking as well, “Eddie, my dearest friend, my partner, love of my life,” the last one makes him chuckle and he is getting to the main event so he takes a deep breath and smiles taking one of Eddie’s hands in his free one, “Will you marry me?” He opens the box reviling the ring.
Eddie knew what was coming, it was obvious, it still makes me gasp. The ring is beautiful; two lines of rose gold framing a line of a material that Eddie doesn’t recognize but it’s blueish and greenish combined some purple and pink almost like some kind of shell and it shines under the neon lights of the airport. He yanks Buck up on his feet, he needs to kiss him like his life depends on it and Buck seems to read his mind because he is already leaning in too.
Something hits the back of Eddie’s leg, breaking the moment. When Eddie turns to see what hit him he sees Christopher balancing on one crutch while the other is still half up from when he used it to hit his dad. “Dad, you gotta answer.” he says rolling his eyes.
Right, Buck and all the people in the Arrival area of LAX are waiting for him to say something.
He looks back at Buck who has an eyebrow raised in question accompanied by a smirk. There isn't a single trace of doubt in Eddie’s mind.
“Yes.” He says, taking Buck’s face between his hands, “Yes, I’ll marry you.” He repeats so the massage is clear to everyone.
Buck leaves out a wet chuckles, cheers erupt around them as Buck moves back to take the ring out and slide it on Eddie’s ring finger.
And now that all the formalities have been done, Eddie can finally take Buck by the back of his neck and kiss him like he wants. Buck’s arms wrap around his waist and hold him close.
Eddie makes a surprised noise into the kiss when Buck lifts him off the floor easily and spins them in place once. That is definitely making it on twitter.
“Okay, I believe you gave people enough of a show.” Christopher comments and it makes them stop kissing so they can look at him “Can we go home now?”
“Let’s go home.” Eddie says intertwining his left hand with Buck's.
It’s only later that evening, while cuddling on the couch after Christopher went to bed - and a heated make out session - that they take out their phones to check their texts. And there are so many, mostly congratulations from their sisters, friends, Abuela and Tia Pepa, all of them having saw the news from viral social media posts saving them from doing any sort of announcement. The conversation that almost makes them wake up Christopher for how loud it makes them laugh it’s the one in the 118 group chat.
From Hen: I can’t believe that you fell for Chimney’s plan
From Chimney: look who’s talking or did you forget who set you up with your beautiful and smart wife???
From Hen: How can I forget when you keep bragging about it on this day???
From Chimney: 🙂↕️
From Chimney: to be honest I didn’t expect for my plan to work this well
From Chimney: anyway you are welcome, guys!!! try not ending up in the hospital for the wedding
Eddie lifts his head from Buck’s chest to see his smile and it hits him right there that they kissed more than once, Buck proposed to him and he said yes, he will get to see Buck like this and have him in his arms for the rest of their lives, “Holy shit, we are engaged.” He says in awe and disbelief.
Buck laughs again and leans in to kisses his forehead, “Yes, we are getting married.” he confirms easily with a smile, “Unless you are having second thoughts.” he adds shifting on the couch like to move away and Eddie can't have that.
He lifts himself on his elbow and kisses him on the mouth, “Absolutely not,” he says and Buck visibly sighs in relief, “It's just I've never though I'd get this again.” After Shannon, marrying again was something Eddie has never imagined, he couldn't think of anyone that would have been willing to get married to him, “and then you brought a plane ticket just to stop me form leaving, you proposed to me the moment I landed back in the same State as you, you love me.” he says his hand caressing Buck's face.
“I love you very much.” It makes Eddie's heart skip a beat every time he hears him say it and it has been quiet a few times since him and Christopher came back in the morning, “I would have proposed through facetime, but Christopher said it wasn't cool.” he admits making him sitting up so they are more comfortable.
“Christopher knew you wanted to propose to me?”
“Of course,” Buck snorts like it's the most obvious thing, “I needed to ask for his blessing and let him know that whatever was gonna happen between us I would stayed in his life.” he explains.
Right when Eddie thought he couldn't love him more. It's overwhelming how much love he feels for this man and since he can do something about it he leans in and kisses him again. “I love you so much, fiance.” he says between kisses all over his face.
Buck brings him closer and kisses the tip of his nose in return, “I love you so much too, fiance.”
(They get married six months later only because they couldn’t find a closer date to the small location Eddie fell in love with. Bobby officiates, Maddie and Abuela walk them down the aisle, Hen is Buck’s best woman and Christopher is Eddie’s. Their parents don’t show up even though their sisters begged them to invite them and it’s okay because the people they need and matter are there. Christopher gives a speech that makes everyone cry balanced out by Chimney's speech where he brags about getting them at the airport. They dance, cry and laugh and everything is perfect and now they have forever to be together.)