Work Text:
Work started at the same time as school today, so Eddie was focused on getting Christopher ready before Carla showed up. While Chris showered and changed, Eddie checked his homework and made him breakfast. When Carla showed up, he gave Christopher his breakfast sandwich, happily handing him over to Carla with a quick “bye, mijo.”
With that, he finally went to his room to start getting himself ready.
The sound of the front door opening surprised him, and Eddie nearly scrambled to close his bedroom door – the last thing his son’s home healthcare aid needed to see was a naked Eddie – before he recognized the footsteps as Buck’s.
“Hey, Edds! I grabbed some coffee and donuts, figured we could carpool.” Buck’s voice became louder as he got closer to Eddie’s room.
Buck stopped in the doorway, clearly surprised by Eddie’s lack of dress.
This was the best part of their recent change in relationship. As friends, they already lacked quite a bit of boundaries. But, as Buck’s boyfriend, Eddie liked to tease, and as Eddie’s boyfriend, Buck allowed himself to look.
Eddie smirked at Buck’s expression while he wrapped a towel around his waist. “I was just getting in the shower. I’m down to carpool. For, y’know,” Eddie squinted as he mocked, “the environment.”
Buck groaned before sitting the contents of his hands on the dresser and plopping himself onto the bed. “The sticker’s gonna come in today.”
Buck always made fun of Eddie for completing his vehicle registration on the 1st of the month, but when it came Buck’s turn, he always ate his words. Buck always forgot to do his registration until the last few days of the month, rendering his car illegal while he waited for the sticker to arrive.
“Sure it will, Buck.”
Eddie shut the door as he walked into the bathroom. He bent to turn on the water and… what the fuck was that?
Eddie opened the door to find Buck still lounging on Eddie’s bed, seemingly playing something on his phone.
“Uh, what’s that blue thing in my shower?”
Buck’s eyes lit up and his shoulders perked. “It’s a Tub Shroom!”
Eddie stared at Buck blankly. “A what?”
“A Tub Shroom, it catches all the hair so you don’t have to clear your pipes so often.”
“I never clear my pipes,” Eddie pointed out with a confused shrug.
“Yeah,” Buck looked down, chuckling, before looking back up. “Because I do, Edds. Like, once a month. What did you think was making the water drain faster every few weeks?”
Eddie thought about that for a moment, and, oh. “I don’t… I just kinda thought it was a… self… fixing… thing. That, uh, houses do. I don’t know.”
“Riiight,” Buck smiled, clearly amused by Eddie’s ignorance.
“I know, I know, I’m a horrible homeowner. Where would I be without you. I’m gonna to take my shower now, how the hell do you use that thing?”
“Just leave it in there while you shower, and when you’re done, pull it out and get rid of the hair. Simple.”
It was not simple. Okay, well, it was simple, it just wasn’t fun. It was really fucking gross, actually.
“What the hell, man?” Eddie said with a scrunched up face, holding a ball of slimy hair in his hand as he opened the door.
Buck didn’t respond, instead staring at Eddie’s chest, his eyes trailing down, probably tracing a drop of water.
“Earth to Buck.”
Buck shook his head suddenly, blinking his eyes a few times and looking up at Eddie’s face. “Huh? What?”
“Keep it in your pants, we have work.” Buck awkwardly shifted, pulling a pillow up over his lap and trying to focus. “This,” Eddie said, bringing Buck’s attention to the hair, “is fucking nasty.”
Buck snorted and rolled his eyes. “That’s one shower. Imagine pulling a month's worth of that out of the drain with a plastic stick. Then imagine doing it again, for Christopher’s bathroom.”
Eddie scrunched up his face, eyeing the hair like it’d personally offended him. Which it had, thank you. “I see why you wanted the Tub Shrooms.”
“Thanks, by the way,” Eddie gently said when they were in the truck.
“For what?”
“Snaking my drains? I had no idea you’d been doing that.”
“Course, Edds.” Buck smiled, his hand moving to pat Eddie’s knee. “Can’t believe you never noticed, though.”
“I didn’t really see the change. The first few months in the house it was irritating, but soon after I had that plumber come by, it stopped being an issue.”
“Yeah, ‘cause that’s when I started doing it.”
Wait, what? Eddie’s mouth parted and his eyes unfocused on the road for a moment. “Really? You’ve been doing this for years?” Eddie shot an incredulous look to his boyfriend, who just shrugged and acted like it was nothing.
“Yeah. It took me about three showers there before I got sick of it.” Eddie knew that tone. That’s the tone that means Buck was consciously downplaying a situation to make it seem like he did less work.
“Got sick of it?” Eddie side eyed him for a moment before moving one hand to Buck’s forearm. “You saw that something needed fixing, and you fixed it.”
Eddie saw Buck’s shrug out of the corner of his eye and heard his soft, “yeah.”
“You know I love you, right?” Eddie looked over to see Buck blushing with a wide smile on his face.
“Yeah, you’ve mentioned it.”
Eddie’s hand was playing with Buck’s at the table when something occurred to him.
“We should come to work together every day.”
“As much as I love the idea,” Buck started, “I feel like that’s not very efficient.”
Buck’s place was out of the way. The distance wasn't too far, but definitely not worth it for either of them if there wasn’t an underlying reason. The current reason being that Buck’s sticker was going to expire that night, so he wouldn’t be able to drive home after his shift the next day.
“Why not?” Eddie asked anyway, just to see what Buck would say.
“Our places are too far from each other.” Buck looked at their hands on the table with a slight shrug.
“So let’s make them not.”
Buck looked up at Eddie with a confused squint.
“Move in with me.” He knows they haven’t been together very long – a month, maybe – but this doesn’t feel too soon. Not for them.
Buck’s eyes relaxed in realization before his eyebrows bunched together. “I have like, ten months on my lease, Eddie.”
“Break it.”
Buck’s eyes lit up, his hand becoming more pliable to Eddie’s. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, dumbass,” Eddie grinned, laughing at Buck’s dubious reaction. “Move in with us.”
Buck’s smile widened and his hand shifted, linking his fingers with Eddie. “Okay.”
It’s ridiculous that it took a rubber shower gadget and Buck’s procrastination for Eddie to think about this, but everything with Buck is ridiculous, and Eddie loves him for that. Loves them for that.