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Buck’s soulmate marks are on his forearm, a burred black mark that takes up most of the space on his skin. When he was younger he hated them and wore long sleeved tops so no one could see. His parents never explained anything to him, of course they wouldn’t, they didn’t care about him at the best of times. But Maddie had told him when he was ten what they meant and he spent all of his nights after that looking at them.
Because if they stopped being so blurry, it meant that he’d met his soulmate and there was someone in his world that would be there for him and him first of all. God, he wanted that so badly, on the nights when he was lonely and crying in his room all alone, no one around, no one caring. But the marks stayed blurred.
When he left home, things were better, but his marks never changed. Then he decided to get a job in the LAFD and was assigned to house 118 and for the first time in his life he had a family, Bobby and Athena, Hen and Chim, people who cared about him and his life and his soulmate marks. Bobby’s marks were slashed through when he met him, a sign that he’d loved and lost. No one ever asked about the one he’d lost, but it was written all over his face. Chim’s marks were still blurred, Hen’s were a perfect rose over her back showing she’d met her soulmate already. They all looked at Buck’s, trying to make predictions about what the blurs would change into, but nothing ever changed.
He met Abby and thought this was it, but he should have known. The marks stayed the same, and then Abby left him as so many people did. Maybe he was destined to be alone after all? Maybe he wasn’t worthy of a soulmate.
Things got busy after that, a new firefighter starts, one that Buck hats at first and then becomes his best friend, Eddie Diaz. There is a massive earthquake, he and Eddie work so close together saving lots of people including a pretty girl called Ali and then he gets to meet Christopher and he guesses he forgets to look at his arm for a while.
So when he takes a long shower and actually takes a proper look, he ends up jumping around Abby’s flat naked and excited because his marks have suddenly changed. It’s not much, but there’s definition where there was just blur before, a line, a corner, a defined mark.
“What’s up, Buckaroo?” Hen asks when he bounds into work the next day.
“Look at my mark!” he cries out and shows her his arm and she grabs it and looks at it carefully.
“Your soulmate is here!” she cheers, so happy for him. “So, who is it? Who have you touched since it changed?”
And that’s the thing, because he doesn’t actually know. He hasn’t checked for so long that it could be anyone he’s been around over the last few weeks. Hen rolls her eyes and smiles at him. “Guess you’ll have to do an experiment then,” she suggests.
It must be Ali, that’s Buck’s first thought. He quite likes her, she’s pretty and interesting and kind and when she calls to ask him out on a date, he accepts. He takes a photo of his soul mark before he goes, so he can check it out afterwards. Their date is fine, even if he doesn’t feel the spark of fireworks he’s been expecting, maybe it will come with time? Going to work afterwards is an event, when Hen drills him on everything and he’s going to show her and compare his arm when the alarms sound and they’re out on a call to two old men, one of whom has been driven over.
Eddie knocks into his shoulder when they get there, working side by side and when Buck turns after speaking to the one who wasn’t run over and he’s collapsed, Eddie’s the first one there, helping him with CPR and then sliding an arm around him when they have no choice but to declare him gone as well.
“Are you ok?” Eddie asks, his knee against Buck’s in the truck and then their thighs pressed together on the sofa back at the firehouse.
“I will be,” Buck says quietly, squeezing Eddie’s arm. He’s so thankful Eddie’s around, he can’t verbalise it.
When Hen finally gets around to comparisons, his marks are so much clearer. “Well, it must be Ali,” she says. “She’s the only one you’ve touched again, right?”
“Or Eddie…” Buck says, his voice trailing off as he starts to think.
He likes Ali, but Eddie, Eddie is something different. Someone who sees him for him, someone who gives him attention and affection and asks for nothing in return, someone who has his back. He’s hot, Buck knows that, remembers the first day so well when they’d all walked in on Eddie getting changed. But he’s more than just attractive, he’s beautiful from the inside out. The way he is with Christopher, how hard he tries, how he knows he’s made mistakes but he owns them and learns from them.
Shit. Buck realises he doesn’t care about soulmarks. He’s fallen in love with Eddie.
It takes him a while to do anything about it. He explains to Ali, doesn’t look at his soulmarks again because he can’t bear looking at them, knowing he’s in love with Eddie now and not wanting that visual to remind him of someone else. And Eddie and he get closer and closer and he knows Eddie feels something for him too, if the way he always wants Buck around, the soft look in his brown eyes is anything to go by.
Eddie kisses him, one night at the Diaz house, once Christopher has gone to bed and they’re in the kitchen getting more beers. It’s a normal night and Eddie gets him against the cabinets and then leans in and brushes his lips over Buck’s and Buck grabs him and kisses him back, hard and deep. “I love you,” he whispers against Eddie’s lips when he gets the next chance. “I love you.”
“Took you long enough to catch up,” Eddie grins at him and Buck raises an eyebrow, confused beyond belief. Eddie sighs and rolls his sleeves up and his soulmark is stark and black and clear on his skin, a band of writing curling around his bicep. He takes Buck’s hand and places it on it, letting his fingers stroke the skin gently. “It started changing from the day I met you. Didn’t you know?”
There’s a new look in Eddie’s eyes, replacing the confidence from a few minutes ago, like he’s curling in on himself, like he’s suddenly doubting them. Buck pulls up his sleeve too, thinking of what he can say to explain his mess. And then he gasps, because his soul mark is clear. Words carved into his forearm, in cursive, words that make his heart catch in his throat as he looks up at Eddie.
“You’re my soulmate,” he whispers and then he has to kiss the look off Eddie’s face. “You’re my soulmate.”
It makes sense, now he’s thinking properly, falling into love with Eddie was destined and how could he not love him, he’s incredible and everything Buck wants in a life partner.
Eddie lifts his arm and brushes his lips over the soulmark. “You’re my soulmate,” he says softly and Buck just has to kiss him again, laughing into his mouth because he’s so happy he can’t stop.
“I wanted it so badly,” he admits, amongst kisses, “you’re everything to me, you and Christopher. I love you, soulmate.”
“Oh,” Eddie’s eyes are sparkling, so bright that Buck can’t look away, beautiful and wonderful and Buck’s to have now. “And I love you too, by the way, so very much.”
Their soulmarks match, and when they get married, their wedding band tattoos match as well.