Work Text:
Buck’s had a rough shift. They’ve been on call after call after call, no time to relax in between. The calls themselves haven’t been bad, it’s mostly been people hurting themselves in stupid ways, much like Buck’s shift has gone.
He’s collected a few small scrapes on his bicep from pulling a kid out of a storm drain. On a call with a gas leak, a man’s cat bit down on his exposed arm hard enough to leave tiny puncture wounds, which had everyone asking if he was going to get rabies. On a call in an abandoned warehouse, he managed to cut open his leg on a metal beam, which prompted the question from everyone, “do you at least have your tetanus shot?”
Now, in the final minutes before they were free, Buck and Eddie were working together. They’d been mostly silent as they worked, not needing to verbally communicate, seeming to know what the other was going to do before they even did anything. Buck slipped out of the room they were working in and silently moved back in.
They weren’t on a call, so Buck walked in, distracted by something on his phone. Eddie had his back turned to Buck when he walked in. Buck decided to announce his presence right out of Eddie’s line of sight.
“Hey, Eds, do yo-” Buck was cut off when Eddie yelled and whirled around and punched Buck. “Ow!”
“Evan!” Eddie immediately stepped towards Buck, arms outstretched to cup Buck’s cheeks in his hands to look at his eye. “I’m so fucking sorry. You startled me, I didn’t expect you to be there.”
“It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have scared you, I just wanted to ask you about something,” Buck said, lifting an arm to poke at his eye, only to get his hand slapped away by Eddie. He pouted for a moment and figured that if Eddie wasn’t letting him touch it, it must look bad already. “How bad is it?”
“Not bad,” Eddie lied. Buck knew he was lying because of the way his voice pitched. He turned them both towards the door and pulled Buck through the firehouse, all the way to the kitchen where the rest of their team was sitting around the table, talking.
“Woah, Buck, how’d you manage that one?” Chimney asked, sucking in a breath through his teeth.
“Jesus, Buck, what’d you do this time?” Bobby asked, shaking his head in disappointment.
“What’re you up to now? Five injuries in one shift? That’s gotta be a new record,” Hen laughed. “But seriously, what the hell did you do?”
“He scared the shit out of me and I punched him in the face,” Eddie admitted. “I feel awful and I know that shit’s gotta hurt like a motherfucker.”
Buck shrugged, “I mean, it’s not the best feeling, but it’s very much not the worst thing I’ve felt, so honestly, I’m not mad about it. I kinda deserved it for scaring you.” Eddie had grabbed a bag and some ice from the freezer. He handed it to Buck to hold over his eye.
“At least let me drive you home,” Eddie said as they changed. Buck wordlessly agreed before saying that he was pretty tired.
“Eddie, please don’t feel bad. I mean, I’m pretty used to abuse like this, so it’s not the first time I’ve been punched in the face,” Buck tried to joke about it, only to get a horrified look from Eddie in return. Buck flushed dark red and stammered out another response, unable to get the words out and eventually, he gave up.
"Buck, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to punch you in the face, I feel so bad," Eddie frowned, turning towards Buck to see that he had his bag slung over his shoulder, just waiting for Eddie to be ready to leave.
"Eddie, I'm telling you that I'm not mad or upset with you, okay?" Buck smiled and stepped towards Eddie, wrapping his arms around the other man. "I know you didn't mean to; now come on, there's an ice pack at home with my name on it."