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Eddie couldn’t help but think that maybe this was all a little bit much. He might have understood a quiet one-on-one conversation about it all (well, maybe ‘understood’ was the wrong word seeing as he didn’t really have any idea what was going on right now), or even just the team bluntly telling them what was on their minds, but this? This much spectacle was the very definition of going overboard.

They didn’t need an intervention.

He sensed that things were off the moment he stepped into the fire station. He and Buck had arrived together as usual and entered the station to an eerie silence. Aside from Buck’s ramblings about his latest fleeting fascination (tardigrades), it seemed like nobody else in the station was even daring to breathe. As they walked through the bay, their co-workers cleaning the trucks or sorting through their gear briefly looked up at them, but then immediately back down, suddenly very immersed in whatever chores they were doing. And similarly, Bobby, Hen, and Chimney were nowhere to be seen, not one of them heading over to greet Eddie and Buck.

Buck sensed something was off too. After a moment or two, his tardigrade tirade died off as he looked bewilderedly around the station.

“Is it just me,” he said conspiratorially, leaning over to Eddie, “or is it q-word here today?”

Eddie gave him a flat look at ‘q-word’ but nonetheless nodded his agreement. “Yeah. Something’s off.”

They changed into their uniforms wordlessly, which wasn’t like them, but Eddie supposed everyone else’s silence was rubbing off on them. When they were finished, they headed upstairs together, in search of the rest of their friends.

And they certainly found them – Bobby was sat at the head of the dining table, Chimney to his left and Hen to his right. In front of them was a laptop which displayed Athena and Maddie’s faces too. They were all wearing matching impassive expressions, watching Buck and Eddie approach like hawks staring down their prey. Eddie couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in his stomach, muddling with his utter confusion – he was wracking his brains for something he and Buck had done wrong recently that might explain why everyone seemed so annoyed at them, but was coming up blank.

Then his eyes caught on the hastily painted banner above their heads which read ‘INTERVENTION’ in thick black letters. Eddie felt the tension that had gathered in his shoulders relax slightly and he saw Buck deflate a little too in his periphery; at least he could guess now that whatever was coming wasn’t going to be anything serious like the two of them losing their jobs.

“Morning, guys,” Buck said, not trying to hide his confusion. “What’s all this?”

“You boys take a seat,” Bobby instructed. Eddie exchanged a quick look with Buck, then a shrug, and they sat down opposite each other beside Hen and Chim respectively.

Maddie spoke up, voice tinny through the laptop’s speakers. “As you might have guessed from the giant banner above your heads, this is an intervention.”

“I had a hunch,” Eddie deadpanned. “What for?”

“You two,” Bobby said. “We’ve all been thinking for a while now that there’s something going on between the two of you and–”

“And frankly we’ve all had enough,” Chimney interrupted. Bobby sighed and gave him a look – Eddie guessed that Chimney wasn’t sticking to whatever script they’d prepared beforehand – but Chimney was unperturbed. “All the glances between each other, the inside jokes, the unnecessary touching…”

“It’s too much,” Hen agreed sagely. “We can’t take it anymore.”

“You guys are mad because… Eddie and I are close friends?” Buck said slowly.

“What, do you want us to go back to what it was like on my first shift here when Buck couldn’t wait to make a show of how much he hated me?” Eddie asked, flashing Buck a teasing smirk.

Buck grinned and gently kicked his shin under the table. Eddie laughed and tried to kick him back, but Buck had swung his legs around to the side, out of Eddie’s reach.

“Aw, it must suck being so short that you can’t reach me,” Buck teased.

“You’re literally only two inches taller than me,” Eddie returned, smiling despite himself, sinking down in his chair a little to lightly prod Buck’s leg with the tip of his boot.

“And don’t you forget it,” Buck said with a self-satisfied smirk.

There were poorly hidden groans and sighs from the others and Eddie abruptly remembered that it wasn’t just him and Buck sat at the table. He cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the intervention and their friends’ expectant faces.

“FYI,” Bobby said, his face remaining impassive even while his voice betrayed his amusement, “this kind of thing is exactly what the intervention is about.”

“I don’t get it,” Buck said, “you don’t like us being close?”

Eddie couldn’t wrap his head around it either. What was their problem? They were all friends here, sure, but everyone had someone they were closer to than all the others. Buck and Eddie had been practically inseparable from Eddie’s second shift and everyone at the table knew that, so why were they all suddenly so desperate to change things? To change them?

“No,” Hen said patiently, “we don’t have a problem with you being close.”

“We just have a problem with you being this close and not doing anything about it,” Chimney finished for her.

“What do you mean?” Eddie asked.

“We have all thought for a long while now that there might be something more between the two of you,” Maddie explained. “More than you’re willing to admit.”

Eddie looked to Buck and was met with the same bewildered expression that he knew he was wearing himself.

“We’ve all seen the way you act around each other,” Bobby said carefully. “And the way you look at each other, the way you talk to each other, the way you depend on each other. It’s the same way Athena and I do all those things.”

“And me and Maddie,” added Chim.

“And me and Karen,” Hen supplied.

Eddie could feel the cogs whirring in his brain as he started to pick up on what they were saying. They were trying to compare his and Buck’s relationship to each of their own; they were trying to say that he and Buck acted like partners. Not partners like they were on the field either, but romantic partners. They thought that what he and Buck had was romantic.

The moment he met Buck’s eyes, the two of them burst out laughing. Buck kept trying to form words but his laughter kept any of them from making it past his lips. Eddie meanwhile wiped away a few stray tears. Suddenly he was very grateful for this intervention – he hadn’t laughed so hard in months.

“Okay,” Buck said once his laughter had mostly died down. He stood up and applauded their friends, all of whom were still betraying as little emotion as possible. “Nice one. Good joke. You really had me thinking it was something serious for a minute.”

“That’s too funny,” Eddie said as Buck sat back down. “Could you imagine if we were like that?”

“It’s ridiculous,” Buck chuckled.

“So stupid,” Eddie agreed.

“The only stupid things around here are you two,” Hen muttered unsubtly.

It was only then that Eddie looked back at his friends again. All of them were still watching with those stony, hard expressions on their faces, exasperation starting to creep in which said they had probably been expecting this sort of reaction. Which meant maybe they were serious and this wasn’t actually some big elaborate practical joke they’d got the whole station in on. Maybe they really did think there was something more between him and Buck, something that wasn’t just two best friends.

“You’re not joking?” Eddie asked, feeling his smile slip away.

“No, we’re not,” Bobby said. “We think you two really need to sort through your feelings towards each other.”

“We were going to wait for you to figure it out for yourselves,” Maddie said, “but it’s been years now. We thought it might be helpful to give you a push in the right direction.”

“Come on,” Buck said incredulously, “you can’t really mean all this. Eddie and I are best friends, that’s all we’ve ever been. What, just because we don’t mind hugging each other sometimes that’s got to mean it’s not totally platonic?”

“It’s not just hugging,” Chimney said, raising an eyebrow. “I came up here last week to find you–” He pointed at Eddie. “–leaning on you–” He pointed at Buck. “–all cuddled together, sound asleep.”

Eddie waved a dismissive hand as Buck scoffed. “I hadn’t slept much that night, the neighbours were having some kind of party. I could have fallen asleep literally anywhere.”

“Buck was running his fingers through your hair,” Chimney argued, “and I saw him kiss your forehead, like, three times.”

“It soothed him,” Buck said, sounding affronted. “And none of you guys were going to do it.”

“Yeah, because none of us are in love with him,” Chimney mumbled before Bobby held out a hand to finally shut him up.

“That’s enough, Chimney, you’ve said your piece,” Bobby said evenly. “And we agreed not to use that word.”

“Good,” Eddie cut in, “there’s no need to use it anyway. Buck and I aren’t in love with each other. Are we, Buck?”

“No, Eddie, we’re not,” Buck agreed.

“You say that,” Hen began, “but you two can’t go more than a few minutes without talking to each other. And if you do somehow manage that, it’s only because you’re talking about each other instead. Or about Christopher.”

“In our defence,” said Buck, raising a hand, “Christopher is really cool.”

“We know,” Hen said. “We all know and love Christopher. But even if we’d never met him it would feel like we had. You both showed me the same photos from your trip to the aquarium two weeks ago barely ten minutes apart from each other. You both told me the same story about how Buck nearly fell in the turtle tank, you both told me about how Chris ended up with four new stuffed animals because neither of you can say no to him, and you both told me it had been a super fun little family outing.”

Eddie shrugged. “It was.”

Hen pursed her lips and then turned to face Chimney. “Chim, we’re best friends, right?”

“Always,” Chimney said.

“But if you and I went out to the aquarium together with Denny and Jee-Yun, would either of us call it a ‘family outing’?”

Chimney smiled smugly as if they’d finally caught Eddie and Buck in some devilish trap. “No, Hen, I don’t think we would.”

“Chris is my son,” Eddie said, crossing his arms over his chest. This whole thing, no matter how funny it had started out, was beginning to get on his nerves a little. What was it that made them think they could meddle in their lives like this? “And Buck is family too. Even if he wasn’t my best friend, he would still be important to me because of how important he’s become to Christopher. He’s a part of our family, yeah, but that doesn’t have to equal love.”

The intervention group exchanged looks, finally beginning to let go of their closed-off expressions. Bobby and Maddie looked largely unsurprised, so Eddie assumed they hadn’t been completely sold on the intervention idea. Hen looked irritated, Chimney looked disbelieving, and Athena – she had been so silent that Eddie had forgotten she was even there on the laptop screen – looked utterly furious.

“I did not know it was possible for two full-grown adult men to be so oblivious,” she began, eyes flashing with stunned, incredulous frustration. Eddie didn’t know where it was all coming from, but that didn’t make him any happier to be on the receiving end. “I have watched you two pine after each other since the moment you met. I have watched you save each other’s lives time and time again and weep when you thought you couldn’t. I’ve seen you fight for one another harder than you would ever fight for anyone else, and you expect me to tell you that’s not love? Then you’re even more foolish than you seem. Every time one of you nearly loses the other, you start to lose yourselves too, so for the love of God, admit what you really mean to each other before your time runs out.”

With that, her side of the laptop screen went blank as she disconnected the call, leaving only Maddie on display.

For a moment, there was a tense silence as the dust settled after Athena’s little rant. Eddie met Buck’s eyes but couldn’t read his expression. Everyone else had managed to put back on their masks of insufferable neutrality. Eddie was just about to break the silence, but before he could say anything the station alarm rang and put an end to the whole affair, saving him the trouble. They said hurried goodbyes to Maddie before hopping downstairs and into the truck, the intervention forgotten in an instant.

The rest of the shift passed without incident. They marched to and from emergencies, focusing on the work and getting their jobs done, and back at the station they unwound a little and relaxed. Nobody brought up the intervention (but also nobody bothered to take down the banner) and nobody mentioned anything about Eddie and Buck being madly in love with each other.

Except now it was all Eddie could think about.

For the rest of the shift, Eddie kept catching himself looking at Buck. The annoying thing was that he didn’t think he was looking at him any more than normal, the intervention had just made him paranoid and overly aware of himself. Because if this was how often he looked at Buck, how often he scanned a crowd for him, how often he automatically turned to glance at him, then he was looking at Buck a lot more than he’d ever realised. He hated it, how aware he was of himself and how he was constantly searching for Buck if they weren’t side by side. It felt like he was being clingy, even though he knew this was how they operated every single day. It would have bothered him a lot more though if he hadn’t felt Buck’s eyes on him just as much.

He was also struck by how well they worked together. It wasn’t new information – they’d been partners for more than two years, if they hadn’t clicked into place with each other by now then there would have been a big problem. But Eddie never had to ask to know that Buck was right behind him, watching his back; he never had to check to make sure they were in sync, working on the same problem together, matching each other and keeping up; he never had to question whether Buck would catch him if he fell.

During their downtime at the station, it played on Eddie’s mind. They were an unstoppable force out on the field, working side by side, knowing and anticipating each other, but now he thought about it they were much the same when they weren’t on calls. Like whenever Buck ordered him coffee without having to ask or double-check how he liked it; like how Eddie could sense when Buck felt down, no matter how hard Buck tried to deny it, and always knew exactly what would cheer him up; like how they stuck to their weekly routine like glue, not needing to ask whether plans were going ahead and instead just showing up for each other.

Just like that night.

Tuesday nights had recently become star-gazing night for Eddie and Buck at Christopher’s repeated requests. Chris had been obsessed with space recently, reading up on every star and planet and constellation, talking about astronauts and meteor showers and spaceships, debating the existence of aliens with Buck until he got too tired to carry on while Eddie watched in endearment. He couldn’t help it – whenever Buck and Chris got swept up in something they both adored, it was all Eddie could do not to let his heart melt right out of his chest.

(He wondered briefly if that was something the others would have considered to be love, but dismissed the thought as soon as it came, not eager to slip down that rabbit hole which would inevitably leave him questioning every interaction he and Buck had ever had.)

So that night, they left Buck’s jeep in the car park at the fire station and instead the two of them clambered into Eddie’s truck. Eddie was still feeling too aware of himself, too aware of Buck, too aware of how the others might have seen this whole thing – to him, it had always seemed like a normal part of their routine, just a guy having his best friend over for the night. There was easy banter flowing back and forth between them, just like normal, natural as a heartbeat.

But for some reason when Buck said, “I still can’t believe they think we’re in love,” and Eddie answered with, “I know, they’re crazy,” it felt a little too much like he was telling a lie.

Eddie had ignored it. He had pushed all those thoughts to the back of his mind and forced himself to focus on star-gazing night. Together, he and Buck had collected Christopher from Carla’s house and thanked her for taking care of him that afternoon. Then the three of them had hit the store, picking up plenty of snacks for the evening ahead, Eddie buying more than he’d intended to because he couldn’t resist two pairs of puppy dog eyes. Soon enough, Eddie found himself curled on a picnic blanket with Christopher, couch cushions piled around them for comfort, stroking his fingers through Christopher’s curls as they both stared up at the cloudless early evening sky.

“It’s nearly a full moon,” Chris was saying. He had been trying to explain how the moon went through phases, but Eddie (although he had tried to wrap his head around it all) had lost track pretty quickly and resolved to just listening his son be smarter than him, watching Christopher’s face light up every time he told his father a fact he hadn’t known before.

Eddie chuckled quietly. “Buck will tell you that means weird things are going to start happening. People acting strangely.”

“That’s only in movies,” Chris said wisely. “The moon doesn’t really change people when it’s full.”

“What’s that I heard about full moons?” Buck asked as he appeared through the back door, shoving it open with his shoulder since his hands were full with more blankets and an ungodly amount of snacks. Eddie started to get up to help him, but Buck shook his head and he sank back down. “You know they make people act strangely, right?”

“No, they don’t,” Chris said, laughing brightly as Buck lowered himself down onto the picnic blanket, boxing Christopher in comfortably between him and Eddie. Eddie only felt a little put out when Christopher rolled a little to lean on Buck instead of him; the sight of them both smiling was enough to squander any negativity.

“Sure they do,” Buck insisted. “Athena once told me about this guy she saw on a full moon who was eating other p–”

“Buck,” Eddie interrupted, trying his best to keep his amusement off his face and stay serious. “Nothing that’ll give him nightmares,” he added in an undertone.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” he promised Chris, who just giggled.

Eddie rolled his eyes fondly at the pair of them and then laid back on the blanket properly again, his head tilted to the side so he was watching his boys more than looking at the ever-darkening sky. It never ceased to amaze him how much Buck cared for Chris, how they fit into each other’s lives like a key to a lock, how they reflected each other so clearly. He watched their matching expressions of excitement and passion as they bounced space facts off each other, talking a mile a minute and always keeping up with each other. Throughout the years Eddie had found that a lot of people got tired of putting the effort in with Christopher, but Buck never did. Buck never tired of the Diaz family, just the way that the Diaz family could never get tired of Buck.

Still, Christopher knew an unholy amount about space and it didn’t take long for him to completely throw Buck off as well. Eddie had stopped fully understanding any of their facts hours ago, but once Chris got into the physics of supernovas and black holes and a bunch of other fancy words Eddie couldn’t remember, Buck cast a lost expression to Eddie and he had to stifle a laugh.

It was the moments like these that he loved the most. Out here in the quiet of his own backyard with his son and Buck, listening to Christopher talk with that unimaginably bright smile of his permanently etched onto his face, looking at Buck’s soft smile, feeling himself light up as they just existed and enjoyed being with each other.

He caught himself looking at Buck again. Maybe it was everything that had happened that day, or maybe there was some truth in the whole full moon thing after all, because Eddie did what he never had before and he actually allowed himself to look. Not just a fleeting glance, but a real, long, unapologetic look.

Buck meant the world to him. He hadn’t expected that to be the first thought in his head, but it was true. Along with Christopher, Buck was a symbol of everything he held dear. And right that moment with his head propped in his hand, a soft smile gracing his lips, his deep blue eyes alight with interest as he listened to Chris talk, bathed in the silver glow of the moon as it loomed above them, he took Eddie’s breath away. It was no wonder Buck meant so much to Eddie – he was a dream come true.

Eddie didn’t know how long he was looking, and he didn’t care either. All he knew was that he looked at Buck until Christopher wore himself out and fell asleep with his head on Eddie’s chest, his legs kicked over Buck’s. He looked until Buck stretched and yawned and cast one last glance to the glittering sky above them. He looked until Buck looked back, and then he kept on looking.

There had been a smile on Buck’s face, but it slowly flickered and disappeared when he clocked the intensity of Eddie’s gaze. It turned into something else, something quieter, something unnameable. For some indeterminable amount of time that felt like hours but was likely just seconds, they held each other’s gaze, unwavering and strong.

Eddie didn’t know how he’d never looked at Buck like this before.

The silence stretched on too long and all of a sudden Eddie felt the need to break it. He didn’t stop to think for even a moment before he said, “Our little boy is going to be working for JPL one day.”

Buck’s face twitched again, something hesitant but bright shining in his eyes. Eddie was confused for just a moment until Buck repeated back to him, “Our little boy?”

Eddie thought back. He thought about how easily those words had come out of his mouth and how undeniably true they were too. When he had told the team earlier that Buck was part of his family, he hadn’t really meant this, but now it was a truth so glaring and whole that he couldn’t have even tried to deny it if he wanted to. Christopher was their little boy. He didn’t know when Buck had become Christopher’s dad too, but he knew in his heart that it had happened and that Chris was their son.

He said none of that. He just nodded, soundless.

Buck’s face did something complicated that Eddie was too tired to untangle, then he settled with a small smile. Wordlessly, the two of them sat up, carefully lying Chris down on the blanket, and started clearing up. Before long, Buck was once again laden with blankets and now empty bowls of snacks, and he headed back into the house as Eddie scooped sleeping Christopher into his arms and carried him back inside too.

Eddie didn’t have to check where Buck was, just like they were on a call together. He knew that after he was done putting Chris to bed, Buck would be waiting for him on the couch, ready to hand him a beer and talk about their day as a movie played quietly in the background. He was proven right – when he left Christopher’s room, he found Buck waiting for him, just as he had predicted.

“Thanks,” Eddie said quietly as he took the bottle Buck offered to him. He didn’t drink any, though, just sat it down on the coffee table next to Buck’s which he noticed was also untouched.

There was that same old silence before Buck said again in a low, rough voice, “You called him our little boy.”

It was weirdly easy for Eddie to answer him this time. The words were spilling out of his mouth before he knew how to stop them.

“You’re his dad too,” he said, the emotion in his voice surprising even him. “He looks up to you, he loves you, and you love him like I do.” He paused, breathed out a gentle laugh. “Hell, he’s even yours if I die. I meant what I said earlier at the station – you’re family, Buck. Our family, mine and Christopher’s. So yeah, he’s our son.”

There was silence yet again. Eddie had had enough silence for one day.

“Maybe we should listen to them,” Buck said quietly.

Eddie felt his heart rate pick up instantly but forced himself to keep a straight face. Whatever was happening here, he didn’t want to ruin it. “What do you mean?”

He half expected Buck to turn away at that, to backtrack and give up, but Buck held eye contact. Eddie felt himself get lost in those shining, bright, blue eyes. He could drown in them and die happy.

“I mean…” Buck began slowly. “I’ve never really thought about you as anything more than my best friend. I never thought I had a reason to because you’re the best friend I’ve ever had and I guess I thought that all best friendships were meant to feel like ours does. But everyone else says they can see something and I… I think I’m starting to see it too. Plus, we already have a son together.” He laughed, but it came out more strangled and nervous than actually light. The tiny smile that had been on his face fell away. “No, never mind. It’s silly. Just forget I said anything.”

But the thing was, Eddie knew he would never be able to forget a word Buck said. He knew that if he could, he would memorise everything Buck ever said to him, every mumble in his sleep, every shout or laugh or cry, and every word too quiet to actually be spoken. He wanted to know Buck inside and out forever and that meant committing him to memory in every way.

So he couldn’t just forget Buck had said anything.

“Do you want to try?” Eddie suggested instead, pushing the words out before he could second-guess himself – or worse, before Buck could second-guess himself. It felt like the two of them were perched on a cliff and Eddie had taken a step closer to the edge. Buck could either pull him back or push him down alone, but it was a risk he had to take. Now that he had started to realise what he had with Buck, he couldn’t just let it slip away because they were frightened of what it might mean. Buck was right – maybe they needed to listen to their friends.

“You mean try being more than just best friends?” Buck asked, looking up from under his furrowed brow, his narrowed eyes scanning Eddie’s face.

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Being more.”

The cloud over Buck’s expression lifted, morphing instead into wide open vulnerability. His blue eyes were bright, still roaming over Eddie’s face like he’d find something there. His gentle expression said a thousand words that Eddie would have loved to hear, but just seeing them written out in Buck’s soft half-smile and daintily flushed cheeks was more than enough. There was a small crease between his brows, and Eddie wanted nothing more than to reach his hand up and smooth it away.

Eventually, Buck said, “I think maybe we should.”

“I can’t do this if it’s just a ‘maybe’, Buck,” Eddie returned, surprising himself with how quick it was. “If we’re trying this then we need to be all in.”

The last of Buck’s softness was erased by the look of resolve and sheer determination that overtook him instead. All the worry and doubt ebbed away and his voice was louder and stronger when he spoke again to say, “It’s you, Eds. Of course I’m all in.”

And that was it. There was no world-shifting declaration, no fanfare and spectacle, no blazing heat or passion. Just acceptance and admittance. It didn’t feel to Eddie as if anything had changed at all between him and Buck – they were the same thing they’d always been to each other, only now it had a different name. Now, Buck was Eddie’s partner in and out of work. Now, when Eddie leaned on Buck to cuddle on the couch as the movie played, they wouldn’t have to pretend it was just because they were that close. Now, when Eddie looked at Buck, he could see everything he’d been blind to before.

And what a beautiful thing it was.

*

The only thing that was different to normal when Eddie woke up the next morning was where he woke up and who he woke up with. Namely, he woke up on the couch instead of his bed, and he was curled around Buck rather than by himself. Buck, who was already awake, holding Eddie close to him, watching him stir slowly with an adorable grin on his face.

“Good morning,” Buck said, chipper.

“Good morning,” Eddie croaked, voice clunky with sleep, closing his eyes again and laying his head down on Buck’s shoulder.

Buck chuckled and Eddie felt it reverberate all throughout his body. He smiled to himself, pleased that he could make Buck smile and laugh like that, pleased that Buck could do the same for him.

“You can’t go back to sleep, Eddie,” Buck told him gently. Still, carding his fingers through Eddie’s hair the way he was doing was definitely counterproductive if he didn’t want Eddie to doze off again. Eddie hummed and just snuggled in closer. “We’re both still wearing clothes our clothes from last night and we promised Chris we’d spend the day with him. Besides, it’s nearly nine.”

“Nine isn’t that late,” Eddie protested even as he sat himself up and rubbed at his tired eyes. Buck laughed again, briefly laid a gentle hand on Eddie’s back, then stood up and left the room.

“I’ll put breakfast on while you get Christopher up,” he said, stretching his arms above his head.

Eddie marvelled again at how in sync they were. By the time he had woken Christopher and the two of them were heading into the kitchen together, Buck was already sorting out an array of different breakfast foods – there were bowls and cereal already laid out, along with a few stacks of toast, and he was just making a start on fresh pancakes. Eddie was sure he wasn’t imagining it when he saw Buck’s smile grow just a little wider than normal when he saw Chris – maybe, just like Eddie, he was remembering that Chris was his son too.

Eddie had to physically stop himself from marching right over to Buck, wrapping his arms around him, and kissing him like he meant it. He was desperate for it, practically aching with that desire, but they hadn’t actually kissed at all yet and he wanted their first one to be special. Besides, they had agreed not to tell Christopher just yet and he figured that it would be a pretty extreme way for him to find out.

So instead he was content to listen to Christopher tell the two of them about the awesome dream he’d had (which involved cowboys and spaceships, and did sound pretty epic in Eddie’s opinion) and marvel at the perfect little family he’d finally managed to build himself.

As soon as Christopher had left the room to go and get dressed and ready for the day, Eddie crossed the space between him and Buck and pulled him close. He tucked his face in the crook of Buck’s neck, held him tight around the waist, breathed in everything he was and counted himself lucky that this was happening. He felt Buck’s arms close around him too, boxing him in, protective and unthinkably strong. His face was pressed into Eddie’s hair, so close that Eddie could feel each breath he took. Neither of them said a word – the moment felt like glass and any sound too loud would make it shatter.

Just as they had promised him the night before, Buck and Eddie spent the day with Christopher. They took him to the planetarium because he’d been begging to go there for weeks now and they finally had the opportunity. It was fascinating and Christopher was having the time of his life, but Eddie was largely distracted by the giddy feeling he got from the way Buck knotted their fingers together every time Chris wasn’t looking (which was a lot of the time because he was so enthralled by each exhibit) and the private smiles they shared with each other. And went he wasn’t so distracted by that, he was practically going insane with love as he watched Buck and Chris discuss each and every little fact like they planned on writing in-depth essays about every single one.

None of it really felt new, which Eddie thought should have struck him as strange, but it didn’t – it just felt comfortable and familiar and right. They had always made up this little family unit, and all the talk last night had done was solidify it. It was like they had simply confirmed Buck’s position as a partner and a father rather than it coming out of left-field and forcing them to step into some chasmic unknown. Every new step felt sure, like Eddie had trodden this path a hundred times and it always led right back to Buck.

When they’d finally made their way through the planetarium (which the brochure claimed would only take an hour, but that failed to account for the fact that it was Buck and Christopher visiting, so it had actually ended up closer to three hours) and been in the giftshop (where Eddie may have accidentally bought both his son and his partner a new stuffed toy each), Eddie’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and read the notification, seeing it was a text from his Abuela asking if he would come over that afternoon. Of course, the other two jumped at the chance to see Isabel, and within minutes they were piled back into Eddie’s truck and on their way.

Eddie’s Abuela was waiting for them on her veranda when they arrived, a gleeful smile on her face when she saw that all three of them were there. She had already laid out snacks and drinks on the little table on the veranda which they were quick to take advantage of after they’d said hello. It didn’t take long for Christopher to convince Buck to come and play with him in the front yard, so Eddie and Isabel sat together to watch them.

“It was so nice of Buck to come along with you,” his Abuela said, a fond smile on her face. “He’s a wonderful boy.”

That was the truest thing Eddie had ever heard. He watched Christopher tilt his head back as he laughed at something Buck had said and felt his heart lift with adoration. “He really is. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

“Eddito,” Isabel said. He glanced at her, quickly noting the knowing smile on her face. He tried and failed to suppress a smile of his own. “Did something happen?”

For a moment, Eddie considered playing dumb. Acting like he had no idea what she was talking about, just so that he and Buck could keep this fragile little thing between them to themselves for a while. But his smile broke through in full force and he knew that whatever lie he told would be immediately disregarded, so he had no choice but to come clean.

“Last night Buck and I decided to try something out,” he told her. Explaining it was infinitely more difficult than simply experiencing it – the words didn’t come nearly as easily as just being with Buck did. “We thought a lot about what we mean to each other, what Buck means to Christopher. And we decided that we’re better off as something more than just best friends.”

“He’s your boyfriend?” his Abuela prompted, a kind, encouraging smile on her face.

Eddie broke out into another grin as he watched Buck race around the grass with Christopher riding on his back, Chris laughing as Buck made aeroplane noises. “Yeah. He’s my boyfriend. I love him, Abuela – is it weird that I know that so soon?”

She reached across and took one of Eddie’s hands in both of hers, stroking her thumb across his knuckles. He looked up to see her watching with the softest, most motherly, most nurturing and loving expression he could have ever imagined. His eyes welled with tears, but he pushed them back.

“Eddito, it’s not soon. You’ve been in love with him for years and years, it’s only now that you’re finally seeing it for what it is.”

“I don’t know how it took me so long,” Eddie admitted.

His Abuela just shrugged and patted his shoulder gently. “Sometimes the things that are best hidden are the those that are in plain sight.”

Her words echoed around Eddie’s head for the rest of the day. As he watched Chris and Buck play, as he eventually joined in himself, as Buck drove the three of them home when a chill crept into the air, as he watched Christopher and Buck prepare for baking night (another new part of their routine, which Eddie had been banned from before he’d even had a chance to take part on account of the fact that he was a hazard in the kitchen and his boys knew that all too well). He thought about how it was plain to see that Chris adored Buck, saw him as a father figure, that they had an irreplicable bond with each other – maybe that meant Christopher would be happy to officially have Buck as part of the family.

Eddie knew he should have talked to Buck about it first, that this wasn’t a decision he should have made alone, but he knew in his heart that it was the right thing to do. His relationship with Buck wasn’t going away anytime soon and if anyone deserved to know the truth it was their son.

“Hey buddy,” he said as Christopher started mixing the brownie batter he and Buck were preparing, “Buck and I have something we need to talk to you about.”

Buck startled, nearly dropped the spoon he was holding, and whirled around to face Eddie, shock and apprehension mingled on his face. “We do?” he asked, eyes wide.

Eddie nodded. This was for the best, he was sure of it, but he needed Buck to trust him on it. “Yeah. We do.”

After a moment, all Buck’s tension bled out of him and he beamed at Eddie, who reached across to quickly squeeze his hand before turning back to Christopher.

“What is it?” Chris asked, looking up from the bowl.

Eddie looked to Buck, raising an eyebrow expectantly; it felt like Buck should be the one to tell him. Buck looked a little surprised, but cleared his throat and crouched down just a little bit to be eye-level with Chris.

“Well, Chris… you know your dad and I love each other, right?”

On another occasion, Eddie might have laughed at how cliché those words sounded, but right then it was all he could do not to melt into a puddle right there – those words meant a lot more now than they would have just twenty-four hours ago.

Christopher nodded. “You always say it’s because you’re best friends.”

“And we are,” Buck agreed. “But we’ve also realised that we’re a bit more than best friends too. We’ve decided that we want to be boyfriends.”

Chris was silent for a moment and immediately Eddie began to panic. Maybe he had been wrong, maybe this was too soon to tell him, maybe it was the wrong way to do it, maybe Christopher wouldn’t want him and Buck to date, maybe this whole thing was a huge mistake and he should just–

“Oh,” Chris said, almost sounding disappointed. “Is that all?”

Eddie’s panic was replaced with bewilderment. He glanced at Buck, who was looking up at him, just as confused. “What do you mean, buddy?” Eddie asked.

Chris shrugged, already getting back to his baking. “It’s not like it’s a surprise. You guys have been in love with each other forever.”

Again, Eddie and Buck looked at each other with incredulous expressions. Apparently there wasn’t a single person they knew who hadn’t realised they were in love before the two of them did. Eddie didn’t know if that made him want to laugh or cry, so he did neither, just shook his head to clear his mind and face the subject at hand.

“We just want you to know that this doesn’t have to change anything, Christopher,” he said, although Chris didn’t seem to be paying much attention anymore as he poured the batter into the baking tin. “We don’t need to move fast. You don’t need to start calling Buck ‘dad’ if you don’t want to or anything like that. We’ll go as slow as you want to. I know this is all very new and–”

“But Buck is my dad,” Christopher interrupted. Eddie heard Buck give a tiny gasp and out of the corner of his eye saw him immediately wipe away tears. “I’ve been saying that ever since the tsunami.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows at Buck, silently asking ‘did you know about that?!’, but the only response he got was an emotional sniffle and a clueless shrug.

“Chris, have you been telling people you have two dads for nearly a year and a half?” Eddie asked. It wasn’t a sentence he had expected to be saying that day.

“I guess,” Christopher said. “I tell people that I have a dad and a Buck, and that my Buck is my other dad.”

It seemed that neither Eddie nor Buck quite knew what to say after that, but while there may not have been words that meant enough, there were certainly actions. Buck swept Christopher into a hug so tight that Eddie worried one or both of them would suffocate, holding Christopher like he never wanted to let go. Eddie watched them, heart beating so fast he thought it might fly out of his chest, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Chris had considered Buck his father for over a year. He had known Buck meant a lot to Chris, but hearing it directly from Chris himself hit a lot harder.

He let them have their moment, but eventually he had to say, “So you’re alright with this, Christopher?”

“Of course,” Chris said like it should have been obvious, rolling his eyes. “You were already dating anyway, now you’ve just figured it out.”

“You’re too clever for your own good, kid,” Buck said, voice thick with emotion. He pressed a firm kiss to the top of Christopher’s head, then mumbled something which Eddie couldn’t hear because it was muffled by Christopher’s hair.

When Chris giggled and said, “I love you too, Buck,” Eddie had to sit down. If either one of them did one more cute thing, he was going to collapse.

*

Eddie had been having a good dream for the first time in as long as he could remember. The specifics were hazy and a little bit off in the way dreams always were, but he knew that he was with Buck, Chris, his Abuela and Pepa, and the rest of the 118. He didn’t know where they all were or what they were doing, but he did know that he felt safe, surrounded by the people he loved, and for the first time since he’d joined the army, nobody in his dream met a sticky end.

The end the dream itself met though wasn’t exactly that pleasant.

Eddie jolted awake at the noise of his bedroom curtains being dragged open and early morning sunlight bursting through the window, lighting the whole room and warming Eddie’s legs where they’d slipped out from under the duvet. He sat up, groaned, and immediately laid back down. He was surprised when his head hit something solid – namely Buck’s chest – but quickly relaxed, sleep already threatening to reclaim him.

“What’s going on?” he mumbled into the thin fabric of Buck’s shirt. “It’s too early. Why did you open the curtains?”

“I didn’t,” Buck said. Just like the morning before, he sunk his fingers into Eddie’s hair, softly running them through. Eddie gave a contented sigh and leaned into the touch.

“Who did?” Eddie yawned.

“Me,” came Christopher’s voice from the foot of the bed. Eddie sat up, blinked his eyes open blearily and watched Christopher hoist himself up onto their bed to sit down, grinning at them. “We have a lot to do today. Carla’s already on her way.”

“What’s happening today, Chris?” Eddie asked, casting a quick look to Buck as if to ask whether he’d forgotten anything important, but Buck looked just as confused.

Chris rolled his eyes. “You two are getting married. Duh.”

Parenting prepared you for a lot of situations and Eddie was fairly confident that most of the time he would know instinctively the right thing to say. This was one of those rare occasions that he was completely lost for words.

Buck on the other hand snickered and said, “I don’t remember proposing to you, Eddie. Or being proposed to by you, for that matter.”

“Obviously,” Eddie hissed, finding his voice. “I only agreed to date you two days ago.”

“I already told you,” Christopher said impatiently, “you’ve been in love with each other forever! You’ve been dating for years but you’re trying to do more dating. Dating each other isn’t the next step – getting married to each other is. Besides, we’re already a family and everyone knows you two won’t ever break up so you might as well just do it.”

Eddie shook his head, looking to Buck as he so often did. He expected to be met with the same half-bemused, half-exasperated, but completely loving expression that was on his face, but it quickly fell away and gave way to abject horror when he saw that Buck actually looked like he was considering it.

“Oh my god,” he said disbelievingly. “You don’t actually want to do this, do you?”

Buck shrugged, that easy early-morning smile still on his face. If he hadn’t looked so adorable with his hair all curly and rumpled, lines on his face from sleeping at an awkward angle, fresh and happy, Eddie might have been a little more annoyed at him for considering a wedding planned by their son at the very last minute when they’d been a couple for less than two days. As it was, he couldn’t look at Buck without feeling a little woozy (in the best way possible).

“I’m in love with you,” Buck said simply like that settled the matter.

“I’m in love with you too,” Eddie said, almost automatically.

After that, he had been planning to say something along the lines of, “but this whole thing is still so new, we have all the time in the world to figure out who we are with each other, grow as people, take everything one step at a time – I love you now and I always will, so marriage can wait. I’m not going anywhere.”

What actually came out of his mouth was, “Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”

Before Eddie had even completely registered what he’d said, Christopher was cheering, Buck was holding him like he never wanted to let go, and there were butterflies in his stomach. He felt lighter than air, giddy in a way he couldn’t compare to anything he’d ever felt before, excited and scared and in love. The whole thing felt rushed and a little ridiculous and definitely too soon, but Eddie was surprised to find it didn’t bother him in the slightest – it suddenly felt like he couldn’t have waited another second if he tried.

Because Chris was right. They’d been together for years, they just hadn’t noticed it. It didn’t make sense to date when they were already dating. Marriage was just their next big step, and Eddie was more than ready to take it.

Christopher seemed to have everything planned out already, down to every last detail. As Eddie tried to keep himself awake (he’d never been a morning person and surprising him awake at seven a.m. seemed downright unfair), Chris explained that Carla was on her way with suits for all three of them that Christopher had already chosen himself and that their job for the day was making sure everything else was ready. That meant finalising a guest list and inviting everyone (Eddie prayed that everyone was available at such short notice on a random Thursday, knowing the odds were most definitely stacked against them), decorating the Diaz house because the party would be taking place there afterwards, having a cake and snacks prepared, getting the rings, doing the ‘getting married’ part, and all the while trying not to have a panic attack. Easier said than done, Eddie thought.

This was the best, most stupid idea he’d ever heard. He couldn’t wait.

“How have you already got all this planned out, Chris?” Eddie asked, swinging himself out of bed and stretching.

Chris just grinned mischievously, reminding Eddie eerily of Buck for a split second, and said, “I have my ways. But you two need to get ready so you can go and order the cake.”

Without another word, Christopher shuffled off the bed and headed out of Eddie and Buck’s bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Eddie let out a long sigh and chuckled fondly – he was sure he’d never work out how he’d been lucky enough to have a son like Christopher.

They decided to get a head start on inviting people, knowing the sooner people were told the more likely they’d be able to attend. Buck wasted no time in dialling Bobby’s number and putting the phone on speaker as he and Eddie got dressed.

“Hey Buck,” Bobby said when he picked up the phone. “It’s very early, is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Buck said, hopping around awkwardly on one leg as he tried to drag his jeans on. Eddie briefly considered helping him but decided that watching him struggle was a lot funnier. “More than okay actually. There was something I needed to ask you.”

“Alright,” Bobby replied, sounding sceptical. “Go ahead.”

“Eddie and I are getting married,” he said without preamble. “Can you and Athena make it to the courthouse for about two o’clock?”

There was a pause for slightly too long on the other end and Eddie could practically hear the gears in Bobby’s mind turning as he worked through what Buck had said. Eddie understood; it was rather a lot to take in given the fact that the last anyone from the 118 had heard about their relationship was a quick text on the group chat on Tuesday night, saying they’d decided to give dating a go. Going from that to marriage in such a short time had to be more than a little confusing for anyone who wasn’t them.

“I’m sorry, what?” Bobby returned eventually. “Did you just say you’re getting married?”

Faintly, Eddie heard Athena’s voice in the background asking her husband, “Who’s getting married?”

“Buck and Eddie,” Bobby told her.

Her voice much louder this time, Athena ordered, “Put it on speakerphone,” and the next moment her voice was loud and clear, addressing Eddie and Buck without a greeting, simply demanding, “You two explain yourselves right now.”

“It’s a long story,” Buck said.

“It can’t be that long,” Athena stated incredulously, “you’ve been dating less than forty-eight hours!”

Eddie snorted, then explained, “It’s Christopher. He woke us up ten minutes ago and told us we were getting married today. He already had preparations underway and everything. We’re about to go and order the cake.”

Saying it out loud was odd, the words feeling alien on his tongue. Because he was marrying Buck. The man who, two days ago, had been his best friend; the man who had only just become his boyfriend officially; the man who he hadn’t even kissed yet. And yet the idea of marrying him felt so right, even if everything else about the situation was admittedly very weird.

“You didn’t have to say yes,” Bobby said carefully. Eddie could see the even, quietly concerned look he was giving Athena in his mind’s eye. “I know both of you would do anything for Chris, but this is quite a big step. You’re allowed to take things slow.”

At that, Eddie looked to Buck and it felt like walking on air. He was weightless with love but grounded by Buck’s eyes meeting his own. Maybe it was the way Buck addled his mind, clouded it with adoration, but right then he couldn’t imagine waiting a moment longer. The wedding couldn’t come soon enough. Hell, they should have done this years ago. It didn’t feel like a wrong step, it just felt like the next one.

“Yeah,” Buck said slowly, the soft smile on his face sending Eddie’s heart rate through the roof and teasing his own smile out too. “We could take things slow.”

Eddie moved forward, settling his hands on Buck’s chest as Buck’s came to rest on his waist.

“But I don’t think we want to,” Eddie finished for him, so low that he wasn’t completely sure that Bobby and Athena were even able to hear him. It didn’t matter anyway – Buck had heard him and the way his face lit up with pure delight was all the acknowledgement Eddie needed, enough to knock his breath right out of him.

“In that case,” Athena said (and Eddie was almost certain he hadn’t imagined the emotional waver in her voice), “we will be right there with you.”

“We’re proud of you,” Bobby added, “and we love you.”

“We love you too,” Buck replied. “We’ll see you later.”

Buck didn’t move to hang up the phone, just let Bobby do it. Eddie hoped, maybe a little conceitedly, that it was so that Buck didn’t have to let go of him – when Buck pulled him closer so that they were simply holding each other in a warm embrace, he breathed a silent laugh as his suspicion was proven right. For a while, they just held one another, not needing to say anything; there was enough love written out plainly in the lack of space between them to replace a lifetime of words.

Eventually though, they remembered they had a wedding to plan. They separated from each other to make calls to everyone else they wanted at the wedding. Eddie wasn’t privy to Buck’s conversation with Maddie, but even off speakerphone he could hear her shrill screams of excitement (right along with Buck’s). He could pinpoint the moment that Chimney joined the conversation because Buck jokingly said, “Who said you’re invited to the wedding?”

Eddie called Hen and they had a very brief conversation in which Eddie invited her to the wedding and Hen’s only response was, “I called it!”

He didn’t realise it until he dialled his Abuela’s number, but Eddie was shaking. Whether with joy, nerves, fear, excitement, dread, or all of the above, he didn’t know. There was a veritable plethora of emotions waging war inside his brain, some good, some bad, some a violent mixture of both which he’d never put a name to. He had never felt anything like this and he didn’t think he ever would again, but there was not one single emotion that he wanted to be rid of. All of them balanced out to create this wonderful feeling that he was quick to label love.

“Hola, Eddito,” said his Abuela when she picked up the phone. Eddie could hear the smile in her voice. “You’re not usually awake this early.”

“Good morning, Abuela,” he returned with his own little smile. “Something happened, I need to ask you something very important. Are you free later today?”

“I am,” she said. “What do you need?”

Eddie took a deep breath and said, “Buck and I are getting married. It’s Christopher’s idea. We’re going to the courthouse at about two o’clock and I really want to have you there with me.”

“Oh, Eddito,” she said breathlessly. He could already hear her getting choked up. “I am so proud of you! Both of you. Of course, of course I will be there, mi amor. I will always be there for my boys. All three of you.”

Eddie thought that if he spoke too much he would burst into tears, and he already knew he would be crying a lot later that day, so he didn’t want to overdo it so soon. Instead, he bit his lip, scrunched his eyes tight to force any tears back, and gave a tight ‘mhmm’ to his Abuela. She gave a watery laugh in response, probably knowing exactly what he was doing, and promised that she would be at the courthouse with him, ready whenever he was.

He wasn’t religious, but he believed his Abuela was a godsend.

Soon enough, everyone was invited and accounted for, so Eddie headed out to the kitchen where Buck was preparing breakfast. Christopher was sitting at the table, pouring over a huge folder with pages spread all over the table. Carla had arrived too, and she greeted Eddie with one of her trademark tight hugs, rocking the two of them back and forth a bit, giggling to herself as she did so.

“Good morning, Eddie,” she said, still holding him. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t think I could answer that question if I tried,” he replied, earning a laugh from Carla. He looked over her shoulder to see three suit bags hung over the back of one of the chairs. “Thanks for bringing those.”

Carla waved a dismissive hand. “It was no trouble. I’m glad to be rid of them. They’ve been gathering dust in my closet for months now.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “Months? Wait, were you in on this?”

“Christopher asked for my help,” she said simply. “I can’t refuse his cute face.”

Eddie walked over to where his son was still looking through all the different papers with the air of a tired secretary. He picked up a sheet at random, laying a gentle hand on Christopher’s shoulder as he did so, and saw that it was a drawing of himself, Chris, and Buck all holding hands with each other, wearing suave suits, stood beneath a big white arch covered in pink flowers. Stuck around it were magazine clippings of top hats, cakes, rings, wedding cars, venues, bouquets, anything and everything that was even slightly wedding-related. A quick glance at the rest of the papers on the table, many of which were similar to the one Eddie was already holding, told him that this whole thing had been going on a lot longer than he had realised.

“What actually is all this?” Buck asked as he came over to the table, moving a few sheets out of the way so he could place a plate of waffles in front of Christopher.

“Carla and I made a wedding planning folder,” Chris explained, not looking up from the picture of a chocolate fountain he was colouring in. “For you two. That way we would be ready when today came.”

“It passed the time while you two were getting yourselves together,” Carla chuckled.

Part of Eddie wanted to be annoyed about the whole thing, but he couldn’t be. Not when his son and Carla had poured so much free time, so much love and care into making sure today would be totally perfect. Buck beat him to the first hug with Carla, but Eddie took his turn the moment Buck let go, teary-eyed but smiling.

“Thanks for helping him,” Eddie whispered to her. “And us.”

He could hear Carla’s smile when she said, “Always, Eddie. You guys all deserve to be happy. That’s what I’m here for.”

When they separated, Eddie took the seat beside Christopher as Carla went to help Buck finish up with the rest of breakfast.

“How long have you been doing this, Christopher?” he asked, picking up another picture. This one had Chris, Eddie, Abuela, and Pepa all stood together – Christopher had drawn Abuela and Pepa in the most garish, outlandish dresses Eddie could have ever imagined, and he highly doubted either of them would show up actually wearing anything like it, but he couldn’t keep the emotional smile off his face.

“For a while,” Chris admitted. “About five months now. It’s not completely finished because I thought you would take longer to figure out you love Buck.”

Eddie chuckled, ruffling Christopher’s hair. “Well, even if it’s not finished it still looks like you’ve got a lot already done. You must have been busy.”

Chris nodded enthusiastically. “We had to buy so many glue sticks to get all the photos stuck down.”

“I bet,” Eddie laughed. He looked across the table again, at all Christopher’s love for him and Buck and the rest of their family laid out for anyone to see, and then he looked to Christopher. Christopher, his son, the centre of his universe, the light of his life, the beautiful boy he’d raised, the unstoppable force who was his reason to wake up every morning. Christopher, who had so readily accepted this huge change, pushed for it even, been ready for it before even Eddie had. Christopher, who he would do anything for, who he loved beyond belief.

When Chris looked up at him, his eyes shining, a bright smile on his face, Eddie let the first of many tears that day fall.

“Come here,” he whispered. Chris didn’t need to be told twice – the moment Eddie opened his arms, he fell into them, hugging Eddie with all his might. Eddie held him, strong and safe, his face buried in Christopher’s hair as a few stray tears leaked out. He pressed kiss after loving kiss to the top of Christopher’s head, not wanting to ever let him go. “I love you so much, Christopher. I love you more than anything.”

“I love you too, dad,” Chris replied. One of his little hands came up to cradle Eddie’s cheek despite the awkward angle, and all it did was make Eddie cry a little harder.

“We’re going to make today perfect, yeah?” Eddie said. “Not just for me and Buck, but for you too. Because this wouldn’t have happened without you. The three of us, we’re going to make this the best day ever.”

“You promise?” Christopher asked hopefully.

Usually, Eddie was sceptical about making promises, but not this time. Not when he knew this was a promise he could easily keep.

“I promise,” he said resolutely. “I love you, buddy.”

“I love you.”

Time was ticking faster than Eddie had realised – it was nearly nine o’clock and according to Christopher’s timetable that meant it was time for them to leave and start getting things ready. Chris delegated the tasks; Eddie and Buck were to go and order the cake from a specific bakery (with a picture drawn by Chris to give the bakers for a reference of what they wanted) while Christopher and Carla would hit the shopping centre to grab food and drink and a ton of decorations. They were out the door by ten past nine with strict instructions from Chris to be back by half ten so they could help with decorating the house.

They took Eddie’s truck but Buck drove since he was the one who actually knew whereabouts they were headed. Christopher had told them to go to a ‘cupcakery’ but Eddie was utterly clueless as to what that actually meant or where it was.

“You know,” he said as they sat in a particularly large traffic jam, “if we’d known this was going to happen you and Chris could have made the cake yourselves last night.”

Buck gave a light chuckle and reached over to hold Eddie’s hand. Eddie rubbed his thumb over Buck’s knuckles, absently fiddling with his fingers, thinking about how very soon there would be a ring on Buck’s other hand and Eddie would have been the one to put it there. The grin that thought brought out of him was so wide it almost hurt.

“I would have,” Buck said, looking to Eddie, a gentle smile on his face. “Really. If I’d known I was marrying you I would have made the cake with Christopher. I don’t know how good it would have ended up but–”

“It would have been perfect,” Eddie interrupted. Buck raised an eyebrow, but Eddie just shrugged. “Not professional quality, sure, but if it was made by my two favourite people then I can’t imagine ever tasting a cake quite as good.”

Buck rolled his eyes but Eddie could see the affection behind it. “When did you become the sappy, sentimental one?”

“I’ll always be sentimental when it comes to you,” Eddie said, kissing Buck’s hand. His tone was joking and Buck laughed before lightly batting his hand away so he could drive, but Eddie meant those words more than he’d ever admit. When it came to the little family they’d built, he wanted to love and cherish each and every moment like it was their last.

They arrived at the cupcakery (which was exactly what it sounded like, a bakery specifically for cupcakes) and Eddie handed the cashier the picture that Chris had drawn. He hadn’t thought to look at it on the way, so he supposed now it was just going to be a surprise. The cashier gave them a time to pick it up and Eddie was ready to be on his way, but Buck – as he so often did with people he met for more than two minutes – had managed to get into conversation with the cashier, so it looked like they would be there for a little longer.

“So how long have the two of you been together?” she asked, smiling as she glanced between the two of them.

“Two years,” Eddie said.

At the exact same time, Buck said, “Two days.”

They shared an amused look with each other while the cashier stammered for a response, probably not wanting to offend them by seeming confused (though Eddie understood her confusion completely).

“Two days officially,” Eddie conceded.

“Two years emotionally,” Buck agreed.

“Right,” the cashier said, sounding thoroughly baffled, but she had painted on a smile as if she knew exactly what they were talking about. “Well, as I said, your cake will be ready to collect at three o’clock and you can pay for it then. Good luck with the wedding, and congratulations!”

Chris and Carla had already arrived back with all the food and decorations when Eddie and Buck got home. They had made a start on dressing the place up, which apparently included a photobooth similar to the one there had been at May’s graduation party and, for some reason, a ball pit. However, no streamers or banners or fairy lights had been put up because both Carla and Christopher were far too short to reach the ceilings, so setting those up was left entirely to Eddie and Buck.

It was fun, gathering the family together, playing music, laughing and joking as they made the Diaz residence look ready for a party. As the thought crossed his mind, Eddie wondered if it would stay ‘the Diaz residence’ for much longer. Would he still be a Diaz after today? Or would he be Mr Eddie Buckley? He supposed they could hyphenate, but that posed a whole new question of whether it would be Buckley-Diaz or Diaz-Buckley, and suddenly Eddie felt a little like he was losing all control because this was definitely the sort of thing they should have decided before they got married on a random Thursday afternoon and–

“We should be the Buckley-Diaz family,” Buck said, interrupting Eddie’s thoughts almost like he could read them himself.

Eddie blinked up at him, but Buck was focused on stretching up so he could hang some balloons. His tongue was poking out of his mouth in concentration and it was adorable enough to make Eddie forget his momentary panic. All of a sudden the whole decision of what his name would be seemed much more trivial. Still, he smirked and replied, “Why does your name get to go first?”

“Because it’s alphabetical,” Buck explained. Then he looked down at Eddie with that bright, mischievous grin of his. “And because I’m awesome.”

Rolling his eyes, Eddie lightly hit his arm and said, “You’re a dork.”

“An awesome dork.”

“An awesome dork is still a dork.”

“An awesome dork is still awesome,” Buck shot back, that grin still on his face. Eddie just shook his head and tried to walk away, but suddenly Buck’s arms were around his waist, holding him close. Eddie was a big, strong guy, but he was almost useless struggling against Buck, who was laughing in his ear as Eddie wriggled in his arms.

Eddie’s insistence of, “Let me go!” wasn’t nearly as effective as it might have been because of the fact that Buck’s laughter was infectious and Eddie suddenly couldn’t stop laughing either. Eventually, breathless with laughter, he gave up his squirming and let Buck hold him, sliding his hands over Buck’s arms which were still wrapped firmly around his waist.

“This is all very cute,” came a voice from somewhere behind them, and Buck turned both him and Eddie to face Carla, who wore an amused smirk, “but Christopher says we’ve got to get to the courthouse soon, so you two need to get your suits on. Chop, chop!”

From then on, most things were a blur. Eddie wasn’t entirely sure how he’d got from his living room to his bedroom, how he’d changed from casual clothes to his suit, how he’d got from his house to the courthouse. He didn’t know when he had begun his restless pacing, when Buck had slotted their hands together and intertwined their fingers, when they had filled out all the paperwork that meant they were officially married.

All he knew was that somehow they’d made it here, along with everyone else. Eddie wasn’t sure they were meant to have so many people crowded into the room, but they made it work. Buck linked his arm through Bobby’s, who led him up to the front of the room with a proud smile on his face and a tear in his eye. Eddie followed close behind, Christopher leading the way in his dapper little suit, and kissed his son on the forehead before coming to a halt at the front of the room, right beside Buck. As Bobby, Athena, Christopher, Carla, his Abuela, Pepa, Maddie, Hen and Chimney watched on, Eddie took Buck’s hand between them and squeezed it tightly.

The notary nodded to each of them, cleared his throat, and then said, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join these two men in matrimony. Edmundo Diaz, do you take this man to be your husband, to live together in matrimony, to love him, to honour him, to comfort him, and to keep him in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?”

It was all so real. For a beat, Eddie almost forgot he was meant to say anything. He was so focused on looking into Buck’s bright, blue, teary eyes, losing himself in the idea that this was real, this was happening, he was the luckiest man on Earth because he was marrying Evan Buckley. A quick squeeze of the hand from Buck was enough to prompt him to say breathlessly, “I do.”

Buck beamed and Eddie felt himself start to cry, wiping messily at his face with a tissue Chris had handed him just before they’d started. “You’re going to need it,” Christopher had said, and Eddie had known better than to argue with that.

He looked up at Buck and was unsurprised to see him crying softly too. Eddie knew what marriage meant to Buck – he’d wanted it his whole life, the idea of being joined to someone forever, being a family, creating the life he’d never had growing up. He knew how lucky he was that Buck had chosen him of all people to marry and stay with forever. So gently, he reached up and used the pad of his thumb to wipe away Buck’s tears. Buck gave a weak little laugh, reaching up to hold Eddie’s hand by his face for just a moment. Even though the room was filled to bursting with people, all Eddie was aware of was the two of them, joined together.

The notary broke the moment, turning to Buck and repeating what he’d said to Eddie. Buck was quick to choke out, “I do,” saying it almost before the notary had even finished talking.

“Repeat after me,” the notary said before saying their vows bit by bit. Eddie was glad when his were done, if only so that he could stop talking and just cry in peace.

But Buck saying his vows was the most incredible thing Eddie had ever had the pleasure of hearing. His tissue had gone limp with overuse before Buck had even got past, “I, Evan Buckley, take you, Edmundo Diaz, to be my husband.”

Christopher came forward then, two rings clutched tightly in his little hands. He handed one to Eddie, a deliriously happy smile on his face as he did so, and then Eddie slid the ring onto Buck’s finger just as he had imagined himself doing earlier.

“I give you this ring,” he said, trembling, “as a token and pledge of our constant faith and abiding love.”

He watched as Buck twisted it on his finger, his expression of wonder and love and disbelief and pure joy almost too much for Eddie to handle. As Buck said the same, sliding the other ring onto Eddie’s finger, he clutched Buck’s hand for dear life, feeling the two metal bands knock together. The feeling of wearing a wedding ring again after so long was strange, but the fact that it was to signify his marriage to Buck felt so perfect that it outweighed any weirdness by a mile.

“By virtue of the authority vested in me,” the notary declared, “by the laws of the State of California, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may kiss the groom.”

And yes, Eddie knew this was a serious, heartfelt, emotional occasion. He knew from the elated smile on Buck’s face that he was excited to have heard the word ‘husband’ and that he definitely wanted to follow through with the other bit. But he couldn’t help it – he started laughing.

“What is it?” Buck asked, clearly confused but the half-smile on his face said that he was ready to laugh along with Eddie too.

“Nothing,” Eddie said, “just that I was thinking the other day that I wanted our first kiss to be special. And now… well, it definitely is that.”

Buck laughed, happy and loud, but it was quickly muffled when he leaned down just a little to finally capture Eddie’s lips in their kiss. Eddie had never felt anything like it – it was as if he could feel every inch of his body, especially where Buck was pressed against him from chest to toe, but at the same time he could only feel Buck’s lips on his. It was everything, like fireworks and thunderstorms and silence and laughter and dying and coming alive. His mind stopped working, one thought playing on a loop in his head: Evan.

They finally pulled apart, breathless and giddy, drunk on their love for each other. Eddie could hear their family cheering behind them, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as the thumping of his own heart. The whole moment felt perfect and he knew that deciding to get married that day had been the best decision he’d ever made.

“Mr and Mr Buckley-Diaz,” said Bobby, the first to come over to congratulate them. Buck pulled him in for the tightest hug Eddie thought he’d ever seen anyone give or receive. “Congratulations, boys.”

“Thanks, Bobby,” they said together, smiling to one another.

There were hugs all round – Athena was all over them, fixing Eddie’s collar, smoothing Buck’s hair, telling them how proud and happy for them she was; Maddie was in floods of tears, and to Eddie’s surprise she hugged him for even longer than she hugged Buck, whispering to him, “Thank you for making my brother so happy,” which made him want to cry all over again; Hen and Chimney gave ecstatic hugs, clapping them on the back, promising to wait a few days before they started their teasing; Eddie’s Abuela and Tía Pepa fussed over him and Buck, kissing them on the cheek, telling Buck how overjoyed they were to welcome him to the family; Carla pulled both of them in together for what might have been the best hug Eddie had ever had.

And last but by no means least, Christopher joined his two dads. In perfect sync, Buck and Eddie crouched down to his height and enveloped him in their arms. Eddie buried his face in Christopher’s hair and tried not to cry again while Buck kept incoherently mumbling about how much he loved the two of them.

Quietly, Christopher said, “I’m glad you’re completely a part of our family now, Buck,” and Eddie lost the battle with his tears. Chris handed him another tissue.

“Me too, buddy,” Buck replied, kissing Christopher’s forehead. “Me too.”

“Do I get to make my name different too?” Christopher asked when the three of them eventually separated (though they didn’t go far, Eddie refusing to let his son and his husband out of his grasp, one hand on each of their shoulders).

“Only if you want to,” Eddie assured him. “We know how sudden this is, so if you want to wait – or even if you never want to do it at all – then that’s okay. We’ll go with whatever you want. And if you do want to, then we’re in exactly the right place to do it.”

Christopher beamed. “I’ve been introducing myself as Christopher Buckley-Diaz for like a year. I want it to be official.”

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Eddie and Buck exchanged a look with each other that essentially meant, “I can’t believe he’s really been doing that, I love our child so much”. Eddie couldn’t help but lament about how it proved they were all meant to be together, their own perfectly imperfect family. They stayed at the courthouse just long enough to officially get Christopher’s name changed too, and when Chris found out that he was officially another Mr Buckley-Diaz, his smile was bright enough to blind.

With everyone sent on their way to the Buckley-Diaz residence for the party, Eddie, Buck, and Chris took a quick pit stop to pick up the cake. It was the same cashier as before and she grinned when she saw them in their suits, congratulating them as she handed over the cake. It was in a white cardboard box, so Eddie still had no idea what Christopher’s design had been, but he and Buck thanked the lady and climbed back into the truck, heading home as fast as they could.

They were the first to arrive back, so Eddie quickly checked around the house to make sure everything was in order (and to take a minute to breathe because getting married was very stressful and a lot of hard work). He shrugged off his suit jacket and tucked it away in his wardrobe before rolling the sleeves of his shirt up past his elbows, loosening his tie, and undoing the top button. He didn’t look nearly as suave and formal as before, but he was comfortable at the very least.

It was there in the bedroom, stood before the open wardrobe that Buck found him. He had also taken off his jacket, but other than that he looked just as handsome and put together as he had at the courthouse. Eddie might have felt embarrassed about how quickly he’d abandoned the formal look, but Buck did a doubletake when he saw him, so maybe the slightly dishevelled look was working better for him than he’d assumed.

Buck quietly shut the bedroom door behind him and sat down on the bed, a smile playing about his lips.

“Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hey,” Eddie returned, breaking out into yet another smile. His jaw was definitely going to be aching by the end of the day.

He sat down on the bed beside Buck, their sides pressed together all the way down. He took Buck’s hand in his, fingers wandering over Buck’s wedding ring, marvelling at the way it looked as if it had always been there. Buck’s fingers closed around his and Eddie gripped back tightly.

“I love you,” he said. He hadn’t meant to say it, hadn’t planned on saying anything at all. But there were no truer words in existence and Eddie wanted to tell Buck how he felt for the rest of his life. “I love you so much, Evan. I honestly don’t know how I could ever explain how grateful I am to have you in my life. In my family. I’m so lucky that I get to be the one to tell you that. I get to be the one to say how much I love you and–”

“And to have it said right back,” Buck finished for him. Eddie nodded mutely, reaching out a hand to trace a finger over Buck’s birthmark. “I love you too, Eddie. God, I do. I love you. I love you, and I love being your husband, and I love our family.” Then he laughed, a quiet, incredulous little thing. “We got married, Eds.”

Eddie couldn’t help but laugh too. “Yeah. Yeah, we did, we got married. You’re my husband,” he said, not quite believing he got to say those words.

“You’re my husband,” Buck echoed, looking just as amazed as Eddie felt.

One hadn’t been enough, so Eddie slipped his hand round to the back of Buck’s neck and pulled him in for a second kiss. It wasn’t the explosion their first one had been, new and exciting and unpractised, but if anything it was even better. It was slower, gentler, familiar and grounding, and Eddie was sure he could lose himself in this sensation. It didn’t feel like their second ever kiss; it felt like their thousandth.

When they came apart, Eddie rested his forehead against Buck’s and whispered another, “I love you,” into the tiny gap between them. Buck repeated it, then peppered Eddie’s face with featherlight kisses, saying it over and over again until a knock at the front door forced them apart.

Guests trickled in steadily, bringing with them gifts and congratulations. Eddie stocked the presents in their bedroom because a gift table was the one thing they’d forgotten to set up in their preparations for the party, and each time he got back it seemed like there were even more people in the house. Eventually the place was packed (Eddie and Buck flitting about to talk to everyone; Albert sat in the ball pit with Chris, Jee, Denny, and Harry; Maddie, May, Karen, and Carla chatting in the corner; Chimney in deep conversation with Josh; Athena talking to Pepa and Abuela; and Bobby, Michael and David being the first to use the mini photobooth they’d set up) and Eddie only felt a tiny bit overwhelmed. Mostly he just felt giddy with love, for Buck, for their family, for everyone in the house.

When they had a minute, Christopher dragged Eddie and Buck into the kitchen where their wedding cake was still waiting in its box.

“I designed it,” Chris reminded them proudly. “I hope you like it.”

Together, Eddie and Buck lifted the lid and Eddie let out an involuntary gasp of surprise.

It wasn’t one cake, but a load of cupcakes in varying flavours arranged together in what would have been a boring old rectangle if not for the icing. The whole thing was smoothed over with red icing, hiding all the gaps between the cupcakes. It was decorated with white, silver, and black fondant strips and two cupcakes at the bottom were iced black to act as wheels. It was a picture-perfect fire engine and along the side where it would normally say ‘Los Angeles Fire Dept’ it instead read ‘JUST MARRIED!’

It was utterly perfect.

“It’s really cool because instead of cutting the cake you just pull a single cupcake out,” Christopher explained.

“That is cool,” Eddie agreed, trying not to let his voice get ragged with suppressed emotion. (He didn’t remember the last time he’d been this much of a wreck over something, but he supposed he was allowed to be a little extra sensitive on his wedding day.) “But it’s also cool because it was your idea. This is incredible, Christopher, thank you so much.”

“Not just for the cake,” Buck added, though he didn’t take his eyes off it, still looking at it as if trying to commit every tiny detail to memory, “for everything today. You’ve made it all so special, Chris. You’ve done so well!”

Christopher beamed with pride and said, “Thanks, Buck. Can we take the cake out and show everyone now?”

“Of course,” Eddie said, lifting the box and carrying it out to the living room where most of the guests were gathered, clearing a bit of space on the coffee table and setting it down. There were ‘oooh’s and ‘ahhh’s as everyone saw the cake for the first time, and people were quick to congratulate Christopher on doing such a good job. Buck took a photo of the cake before people started digging in, which ended up being a very good idea because it was unrecognisably eaten within minutes.

Just as he finished eating his own bit of the cake, Eddie felt someone come and stand beside him, their shoulder nudging his. He looked up to see Bobby stood there, watching him with a small, fond smile.

“It’s a great party, Eddie,” he said, clapping him on the back. “I think you made a lot of good decisions today.”

“Thanks, Cap,” he returned. “But to be honest, I didn’t actually get to make most of the decisions. I don’t really know how I ended up here. I’m happy though.”

Bobby followed his line of sight to where Buck was dancing with Christopher, Jee-Yun babbling away in his arms. How could Eddie be anything but overjoyed when he got to see things like that every day for the rest of his life?

“How are you otherwise?” Bobby asked. Eddie gave him a questioning look, and he elaborated, “A lot has happened today and there wasn’t exactly much time to prepare. I thought you might be a little tired, maybe a bit overwhelmed.”

Eddie nodded. “I am. But it’s all because of good things. I married Buck today, Bobby – that’s already so much to take in. But it’s been one of the best days of my life. That overshadows everything else I’m feeling right now.”

Except the burning love right in the middle of his heart and soul. Nothing could overshadow that.

Bobby hummed, still watching Buck with that affectionate smile on his lips. “He’s an amazing young man. He’s changed so much in the time I’ve known him, most of all since he met you. When he first came to the 118 he was unruly, he didn’t take things seriously, he was… a handful. But I’ve watched him grow into this kind, caring, strong man and I’m so proud of him for that. I know I’m not supposed to have favourites, but…”

“But it’s him,” Eddie said knowingly. He couldn’t blame him – Buck was his favourite as well.

“I never told you that,” Bobby said with a smirk. “He’s been through a lot, but somehow he’s still smiling. I don’t want to see him hurt again.”

Eddie wondered if this was the version of a stern talking to from a father figure he was getting. Because he knew that Buck viewed Bobby as a dad, and hadn’t Bobby just said Buck was his favourite? But he also thought that by now Bobby should know Eddie would never hurt Buck, would never let anyone bring him down, would fight to keep him alive if it meant giving up everything else. He couldn’t help but be a little deflated that Bobby felt like he had to doublecheck that Eddie would be good to Buck.

“Bobby,” he said, fighting to keep him voice level. “I would never hurt him. I’d rather–”

Bobby silenced him with a chuckle and a pat on the back. “I know you won’t, Eddie. I trust you to do everything you can to keep him safe and happy. I trust you to love him.”

If Eddie breathed a sigh of relief, Bobby was kind enough not to mention it. Eddie pulled himself back together, forced back the tears in his eyes for the millionth time that day, and gave Bobby a quick nod. “I will.”

Before either of them could say another word, they were interrupted as Buck had managed to weave his way through the crowd alone and now slipped his hand into Eddie’s. He leaned in and gave Eddie a quick kiss on the temple.

“You know what I just realised?” Buck said quietly.

“What?” Eddie asked, interlocking their fingers.

“You and I haven’t had our first dance yet,” he returned, a sly grin on his face as he made a grab for Eddie’s other hand and started dragging him out onto their makeshift dancefloor (which was really just a small patch of carpet that nobody was currently occupying).

Eddie groaned and rolled his eyes sarcastically, pretending to try and yank his hands out of Buck’s grip, delighting in the laughter it teased from Buck. “You know I don’t dance.”

“You have to,” Buck countered, pulling Eddie close and sliding his arms around his waist, hands firmly planted on Eddie’s back. Eddie softened and relaxed into his grip, slipping his arms around Buck’s neck. “You said in our vows ‘I promise to dance with Buck whenever he asks me to’.”

Eddie laughed and tipped his head forward to rest of Buck’s shoulder. “That wasn’t in the vows.”

“I’m pretty sure it was.”

Eddie could feel Buck’s smile against his neck as they held each other, swaying on the spot. There was a song playing in the background, soft and slow, one Eddie didn’t recognise by name but knew the tune of. He knew he could probably ask Buck and be given the title of the song, who sung it, when it was released, and other song recommendations if Eddie liked this one, and he let himself smile at the idea of it but didn’t ask. Right then, all he wanted to do was hold Buck, dance with him, exist with him, love him. Distantly, he could feel the eyes of their guests on them and heard shuffling as some of them joined the dancefloor too, but he didn’t pay it any mind. Again, the only thought he was capable of processing at that moment was one simple word: Evan.

At some point, the music shifted and picked up to something much more upbeat and exciting. Eddie felt a tug at his sleeve and looked down to see Christopher, red icing all around his mouth, smiling and asking to dance with him. And who was Eddie to say no? Buck didn’t seem annoyed to relinquish his dance partner to their son (especially because Christopher promised it was Buck’s turn to dance with him afterwards). Eddie picked Chris up, spun him around, embarrassed him with some of his best Dad Dance Moves. He held his hands, moved them together in sync, laughed with him until his sides hurt. The whole day felt like it was as much for Christopher as it was for Eddie and Buck (maybe even more so) and Eddie wouldn’t have changed a single moment of it.

When Christopher decided to move on to dancing with Buck, Eddie danced his way out of the crowd to sit down for a moment. He was sure someone would drag him back out later (probably a slightly tipsy Chimney), but for now he just wanted to sit and watch his friends have fun, celebrating together.

He found Hen and Karen sat at the edge of the room and sat down to join them. Karen immediately reached over and gave him a tight hug, congratulating him even though she already had done about fifteen times. Eddie watched as Hen smiled lovingly at her wife, knowing he got that same lovesick look on his face every time he looked at Buck.

“You know,” Karen said, “I wouldn’t have had you down as the type to marry so quickly.”

Up until that morning, neither would Eddie. He shrugged and said, “Well, when the time is right you know it.”

She nodded and he saw her reach for Hen’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze. Karen’s eyes drifted upward and she nodded in the direction of the dancefloor – Eddie followed her line of sight and saw Christopher dancing with Maddie and Jee. “He’s going to make a great big brother someday,” she said, smiling gently. “Have you and Buck ever talked about having more kids?”

“I think it’s a little early for that,” Eddie chuckled.

Hen raised an eyebrow. “So you’ll get married after forty-eight hours, but having kids is where you draw the line?”

He pointed a finger at her. “Yes, exactly.”

“I didn’t mean immediately anyway,” Karen said. “Just in general. Do you think that one day you’ll want to expand your family even more?”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” Eddie replied truthfully. “Christopher has always been my whole world. If all I had was him then I would have everything I needed in my life. And the way things went with Shannon and then with Ana… I didn’t have that urge to build a family with them. But Buck…”

The three of them watched as Buck hoisted Christopher up to sit on his shoulders, both of them laughing wildly, Buck keeping his hands firmly on Christopher’s legs so he wouldn’t fall off. Eddie felt himself smile, his heart racing, the butterflies in his stomach having a party of their own.

“Buck’s always wanted a family,” he continued. “I know he wants kids, definitely plural. And look at him – he’s already an amazing father. I can see us making a life together in a way I never could with anyone else. And yeah… that includes having more kids.”

“Well,” Karen said, sharing a look with Hen that Eddie couldn’t read, “you know there’s lots of different ways to start a family. When the time comes, if you two decide to go with fostering or adoption, then I know that we would be more than ready to help you guys navigate the process. We’ve done it all, we can do our best to prepare you or give you someone to talk to.”

“Whatever you need,” Hen confirmed with a resolute nod, reaching over to grip Eddie’s hand. “We’ll be here.”

Eddie marvelled at how wonderful his friends were, how ready to support him and Buck they’d been at such short notice. When he had first joined the 118, he hadn’t expected much apart from a new job, but he’d accidentally stumbled across the love of his life and friends so close they might as well have been family. It had taken a lot to get to this point, not all of it good, but Eddie thought he might just have been the luckiest man on Earth as he thanked Hen and Karen, the two women then heading over to the dancefloor.

Later, when many bedtimes were long overdue, when all the cupcakes had been eaten, and when the balloons started to deflate and sag, the wedding guests started heading home. Eddie and Buck manned the door, giving out hugs and kisses like free sweets, smiles fighting through their fatigue. Bobby and Athena were the last to leave, Bobby giving Buck a long hug as Athena laid a hand on Eddie’s face, swiping his hair out of his eyes before giving him a motherly smile and a kiss on the cheek. When the door shut behind them, leaving Eddie and Buck alone in the dark hallway, Eddie took a long breath and pulled Buck to him, resting his head on his shoulder.

“Today was amazing,” he mumbled into the fabric of Buck’s shirt. Buck’s hand drifted up to Eddie’s head, carding his fingers through his hair.

“It was perfect,” Buck agreed. “I love you, Mr Buckley-Diaz.”

Eddie could hear the smile in his voice and felt his own when he replied, “I love you too, Mr Buckley-Diaz.”

Buck squeezed him tighter. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing that.”

“Me neither,” Eddie agreed, humming contentedly. He took a quick glance at his watch and saw it was nearing one in the morning, but despite his exhausted body’s protests, he was not ready to go to bed. “I don’t want to go to sleep yet.”

“What do you say we go get our son and watch a movie instead?” Buck suggested. He gasped then whispered excitedly in Eddie’s ear, “We could build a fort!”

So they did. Buck and Eddie build a fort out of couch cushions around Chris (who miraculously was still awake and didn’t seem at all tired – Eddie blamed all the icing on that cake, packed with sugar) as he flicked through a load of movies on the TV until he found one they could watch together. Not long later, the three Buckley-Diazes were snuggled under blankets together, huddled together amongst very uncomfortable couch cushions, watching Finding Nemo and slowly drifting off to sleep.

The last thing Eddie thought before he finally let himself doze off was that he was beyond grateful that their friends had hosted that stupid intervention.

*

It hadn’t taken long for Eddie to bring up the idea of him and Buck having more kids. It had taken even less time for Buck to agree and fully commit to making that idea a reality. He had done more than enough research about all of their options and quickly decided that adoption was the best way forward.

So there they were, eight months after getting married, clutching each other’s hands for dear life as they waited in an office at the adoption centre to meet their daughter for the first time.

Because of the different rules the centre had in place, Eddie and Buck hadn’t met her yet. They hadn’t even seen a photo because their decision wasn’t supposed to be swayed by how the child looked. They knew a few things about her: her name, her age, that she was apparently very inquisitive and already had a wild imagination, and that sadly neither of her parents were alive and she had no other immediate family, which was why she was up for adoption.

Eddie wasn’t bothered that they didn’t know what she looked like because once he’d heard about her he was certain they wouldn’t have wanted any other child. The first thing that had caught him was that her name was Isabel – the exact same as his Abuela. It was a coincidence that he could have happily written off, but then they’d been told her birthday and it was the same date that he and Buck had got married. And sure, Eddie didn’t believe in signs from the universe, but something like that was too much to simply ignore.

(Buck had teased him mercilessly after Eddie had explained what he thought. He’d heard little but, “I thought you said, ‘the universe does not scream’?” for about a month afterwards.)

As they waited, he watched Buck’s leg bounce anxiously up and down. He stroked his thumb over Buck’s knuckles, lingering for a moment over the gold wedding ring on his finger, smiling gently.

“You’re nervous,” he said. Buck hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Eddie just held his hand tighter. “So am I.”

A moment later, the office door opened and Eddie met Buck’s eye. There were a thousand emotions in those beautiful blue eyes – worry and fear, definitely, but also that ever-present flame of hope and excitement and joy as they finally took the next step on their journey. Buck gave him a smile and Eddie returned it, and that was all the reassurance they needed to look behind them and see their daughter for the first time.

Eddie’s breath lodged in his throat. The little girl in the social worker’s arms was definitely their daughter.

Isabel looked uncannily like Buck, so much so that for a few moments Eddie just looked between the two of them, totally stunned. She had gorgeous dark blonde curls tied into a tiny ponytail, blue eyes that shone even brighter than Buck’s, a smile that was as infectious as it was curious and sweet, and a birthmark similar to Buck’s (a dark pink splotch underneath her right eye, edging up a little to the bridge of her nose). Heart beating fast, an irremovable smile on his face, Eddie waved at Isabel and she giggled back, her tiny little hand flapping back and forth in what Eddie guessed was meant to be a wave in return.

He turned to Buck, about to say something, anything, but the words died in his throat when he saw Buck’s expression. His eyes were shining with tears, his mouth quirked up into an incredulous half-smile, and he looked like his legs would give out if he tried to walk.

Gently, Eddie nudged him forward to Isabel, who was still in the arms of the social worker. Isabel didn’t hesitate before reaching out to Buck, her podgy little hands grabbing at his shirt. He lifted her into his arms and Eddie nearly collapsed at the sight of this tiny little human being held so carefully and lovingly by his giant of a husband.

“Hey, little one,” Buck cooed, eventually finding his voice. Isabel reached up and laid her hand on Buck’s birthmark. He chuckled brightly and Eddie watched him gently trace a finger over’s Isabel’s own birthmark. “We match!”

Isabel was yet to stop smiling. One hand still fisted in Buck’s shirt, she reached out for Eddie too. He came willingly, stroking a hand over her soft curls, letting her hold his thumb in her tiny little fingers. He couldn’t get over how similar she looked to Buck, from everything right down to the way she smiled.

Without letting go of Isabel, he tipped his head to kiss Buck on the cheek, then softly wiped away one of the tears that had slipped down Buck’s face.

“She looks so much like you,” Eddie said quietly, melting into Buck’s side, hand still firmly held in Isabel’s. “And if you’re Buck, then I suppose that makes her Doe.”

At that, Buck’s entire face lit up and he met Eddie’s eye for the first time since the little girl had entered the room. Buck tried to kiss him, but he was smiling too much for it to really be considered a kiss and the two of them just ended up laughing. Their daughter was quick to join in – her little giggles reminded Eddie achingly of when Chris had been a baby, when he’d heard those noises over video chat rather than in person. It was different hearing it face to face and for a bittersweet moment he let himself regret all the times he’d missed Christopher’s laughter when he was still that young.

“Hi, Doe,” Buck said softly, rocking the little girl from side to side. She smiled brightly and grabbed for his face again, making him laugh. “You like that nickname? You like being Doe?”

She babbled in return, which Eddie and Buck took as a yes.

Eddie tickled her tummy, swelling with love as she giggled and squirmed. “Your big brother Christopher is waiting at home,” he told her. “He’s super excited to meet you. He’s going to love you so much.”

He had tried to bend the rules and get special permission for Christopher to come with them to collect Doe, but the social worker had apologetically said that it had to just be the new parents who came. Still, Eddie knew that Chris was at home right then being babysat by Maddie, who had insisted she be the first person to meet the new arrival other than them, and the two of them were probably waiting by the door, vibrating with excitement, and that idea alone was almost as good as bringing Chris along.

Once all the paperwork had been finalised and Eddie, Buck, and Doe were free to leave, they climbed into Eddie’s truck and started on their way home. Eddie drove, Buck in the backseat with Doe, fawning over her the entire time and giving Eddie continuous ecstatic updates like, “She smiled at me, Eddie, this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Arriving home was a blur. Eddie had Doe cradled in his arms as Buck carried her luggage into the house, then before they had even shut the door behind them Christopher and Maddie were upon them, both starry-eyed when they saw little Doe gazing down at them, that bright wonder in her eyes.

“Buck,” Maddie breathed tearily, “she looks so much like you!”

Buck grinned as he set Doe’s bags down in the hallway, shutting the front door. “I know. I could hardly believe it when we saw her.”

While Buck was preoccupied with being somewhat violently hugged by Maddie, Eddie crouched down to be eye-level with Christopher, Doe still clutched safely in his arms. The smile that slowly made its way to Christopher’s face was brighter than the sun. Chris smiled most of the time, but this was the kind of smile that Eddie had always thought was special – it was gradual, tentative, almost like Christopher couldn’t really believe something was making him so happy. But then it practically burst out of him, giddy and overjoyed and powerful. Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off his son as that smile appeared and found it even harder to look away when the smile simply refused to leave. As Christopher reached out to run a hand through Doe’s curls, just as Eddie had himself, Eddie had to remind himself to breathe.

The first words out of Christopher’s mouth were, “I love her,” and Eddie wanted to sob.

Doe reached out and grabbed Christopher’s glasses which just made his adorable smile even wider. He held her hand and gently moved it away from his face, then took a few steps closer and wrapped his arms as far around Eddie and Doe as he could, hugging them like his life depended on it. Eddie pressed a kiss to the top of Christopher’s head, then gave one to Doe as well.

There had been nights before that day where Eddie had lay awake in bed, tossing and turning, feeling like an awful human being because part of him worried that he wouldn’t love his kids equally. After all, Christopher was his own flesh and blood – what if he didn’t love his daughter as much because she wasn’t? Irrationally, he had worried that there wouldn’t be enough room in his heart for both of them, and he had silently hated himself for that. But now as he handed Doe to Maddie and she followed Christopher into the living room (he was insisting that he had to show Doe all the best toys they had) he knew that wouldn’t be a problem. His heart was filled with love for Christopher, and none of that diminished – his heart simply got bigger to make just as much space for Doe.

Eddie felt Buck’s arms slip around his waist and his chin hook over his shoulder. He leaned his head back to rest against Buck, cherishing this perfect moment they had just to themselves with the rest of their beautiful little family in the next room. The angle was a little awkward, but Eddie tilted his head to catch Buck in a sweet, gentle kiss, and rest their foreheads together.

“I love you,” he said softly. “And I love them.”

“I love us,” Buck said, nuzzling his face into Eddie’s neck.

They stayed there for just a few moments, holding each other up, taking a breather. But the wonderous sound of Chris and Doe’s laughter combined had them falling back down to reality and they grinned at each other, Eddie slipping his hand into Buck’s and holding on tight.

“Are you ready?” Buck said.

“Ready for what?” Eddie asked.

The glint in Buck’s eye was happy and playful and everything Eddie loved.

“Ready to go and be a family,” Buck told him.

Eddie smiled and went up on tiptoes to press a swift kiss to Buck’s cheek.

“I’m more than ready. Let’s go.”