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“I hope you’ve bought all your gifts already,” Ravi says with a smile as he puts another stack of presents under the Christmas tree at the firehouse.
Buck is giddy with excitement, feeling a grin slowly spreading on his face, entirely out of his control. He hasn’t told anyone yet except Maddie because she helped him pick the — No, he can’t even think about it, about the tiny dark blue, velvet-covered box with a shiny red ribbon that he’s safely stashed away where nobody can find it. If he starts thinking about this now, he’ll never get through this shift.
“Hm, something tells me you actually got all your Christmas shopping out of the way already this year,” Hen says, moving one step closer to him.
Buck can only let out a small chuckle and look down to the stack of presents they’ve gotten through donations like the last year. And same as last year, he’s standing here with Hen and Bobby, and the sense of déjà-vu he gets is ridiculously fitting.
“It’s not a portable generator, I hope,” Bobby teases softly.
Eddie’s on the other side of the firehouse, talking to Chimney as they sort through the contents of a really large box with gifts they received from a local company, and Ravi has gone to them as well. No one else is there to overhear them.
“You know, Eddie might actually like that, though,” Hen remarks.
“Yeah, but he already has one,” Buck replies, licking his lips as he looks back up to Bobby and Hen, both looking at him expectantly.
He licks his lips again.
“I…um. I got him something special.” He swallows, still seeing both Bobby’s and Hen’s eyes fixed on him, gentle smiles on their faces.
Buck lets out a soft laugh, more bashful than he’d intended, feeling his cheeks heat a little as that giddy excitement in his chest seems to push all air out for a moment.
“You remember how you told us about the Christmas gift you got for Athena your first year together?” Buck asks, seeing Bobby’s eyes and smile widen, while Hen’s brows rise high above the frame of her glasses.
Buck tries to shrug nonchalantly, but a slightly choked giggle betrays him. “Yeah. So…this year, it seemed like the perfect gift.”
Automatically, his gaze drifts to where Eddie is still talking to Chimney while Ravi carries another stack of presents over to the tree. Even from the distance, he is a little stunned at how gorgeous Eddie looks. How he fills out his uniform with well-defined muscles. The long and slender fingers wrapped loosely around his upper arm as he’s got both crossed in front of his chest. The tiny crease between his brows as he listens to Chimney ramble about something. The line of his jaw and the profile of his lips and—
“Wow,” Hen’s soft but drawn out sound comes only a second or two later and tears him from his reverie.
When Buck finds Bobby’s gaze, he sees his eyes, still wide, and for a moment, it doesn’t look like he’s going to say anything. Buck falters.
“You— You guys don’t think it’s too soon, do you?”
“No, no. Not at all,” Bobby quickly replies, and that calms Buck’s nerves a little. Then again, the reply came a little too quickly.
What if it is too soon? They’ve only been together for eight months and thirteen, no, fourteen days. Although it was a Wednesday, and today is Thursday, and he wants to propose on Saturday evening, but that hardly makes a difference. And, blissfully, amazingly and spectacularly happy as those eight and a half months have been, maybe he’s rushing into things here, doing too much, too soon and ultimately—
“Buck, relax,” Bobby says, obviously having guessed his inner turmoil, as he lays a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s not too soon. When you know, you know, right?”
“Yeah, Buck, don’t worry,” Hen adds with gentle encouragement, and Buck feels a deep breath filling his lungs easily again.
He definitely does know. He didn’t know about Taylor last year — or rather, he was pretty damn sure that proposing was not something he could picture himself doing then, nor later. Which he had realized if he’d been completely honest with himself. But Eddie? Eddie is the one for him, as ridiculously romantic and clichéd as that sounds even in his own head. It is nothing but the truth, though.
“Okay,” he says at last, the smile returning to his lips. “Thanks guys.”
“You’re welcome, Buck,” Hen replies with such affection in her tone that Buck almost feels like tearing up, wanting to hug her. But then, she adds, “So when are you going to pop the question?”
“Christmas Eve, actually. Christopher is gonna spend it with Eddie’s abuela.”
“Oh. Convenient,” Bobby replies and nods.
“Yeah, um. Eddie actually already planned this,” Buck replies, feeling his cheeks heat up just a little. “It’s…you know. Our first Christmas together as a couple.”
“So you wanted one evening all to yourselves,” Hen concludes.
Buck nods, trying to banish the images of them actually lighting up the fireplace, putting the coffee table away and— No, he’s not going to think about that now!
“Yeah,” he just says instead, clearing his throat and forcing the corners of his mouth to stay down.
“Uh, can somebody help me?” Ravi calls out from where he’s carrying a huge stack of presents, and Buck decides that is his cue before he gets too lost in thoughts he should probably not be having in front of Hen and Bobby.
“Okay, I’m gonna…” He trails off as he motions towards Ravi and then, getting more encouraging smiles and nods from the other two, jogs off to help his teammate.
What he doesn’t see is how Hen leans in closer to Bobby, and he also doesn’t hear when she says, in barely more than a whisper, “Should we’ve told him?”
“No. Absolutely not,” Bobby replies, a brief, snorted chuckle escaping him. “Let them figure it out by themselves.”
The next two days are torture. Slow, painful torture, because whenever Buck is not busy with saving lives, or freeing cats tangled up in Christmas trees, or dealing with a guy who had actually fallen — with an, in this instance, kind of believable story — on a Christmas arrangement and… well, there were cone-shaped candles involved, and the very unfortunate premise of naked Zumba — he wasn’t going to ask. Whenever Buck has not been busy with all of that, he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Christmas Eve.
He’s rehearsed his little speech in his mind over and over again so many times that he can’t remember what he even wanted to say at all, because there are just too many versions of it, all jumbled in his head now. He doesn’t want to write it down and recite it, because then it may feel inauthentic (and also, he’s really bad at memorising text unless there’s a tune to go with it, and he’s definitely not singing a proposal!). But he also doesn’t want to improvise the whole thing on the spot, because he’ll be way too nervous about it to make any sense, so he’s found himself in quite a pickle. He still has no solution to it by the time they head home from their half-day shift on Christmas Eve.
They’ll have a full twenty-four hours to celebrate this year, while B-shift at least gets the evening off on Christmas day, so that’s definitely a plus this year, compared to many others before. In the morning, they’ll head to Isabel’s and do presents with Christopher before they’ll enjoy an amazing home-cooked meal, and Eddie can show off the simple but pretty engagement ring Buck got him to his abuela and Pepa and— That is, if he says yes. If not, then…Oh God, what if he really says no? What if Eddie doesn’t break up with him because of it but says it’s still too early? Or says he doesn’t want to get married at all but just live together as boyfriends, because marriage kind of is a bit of an outdated and heteronormative concept and— That doesn’t sound like Eddie at all, and he definitely wouldn’t word it like that but—
“You okay?” Eddie asks, looking at Buck with raised eyebrows, and Buck realizes he’s been standing in the living room with a bag of takeout in one hand, staring into space like an idiot.
He quickly clears his throat. “Yeah. Fine. I was just…um, thinking if we should eat at the table or the couch?”
Eddie gives him a smile, his gaze fixed on Buck’s face for a moment and something soft in his brown eyes that lets Buck melt a little. God, he’s just so damn beautiful, isn’t he?
“You want to light a fire? Sit in front of the Christmas tree?” Eddie suggests, and dammit, Buck should have done that, shouldn’t he? He should have set the right romantic mood for what he’s planned.
“Sure,” he just says, probably a little too casual in his tone. Dammit. “I mean, that’s a great idea. It’ll be like a picnic. Which is kinda romantic.”
Eddie’s smile turns a little brighter, and a soft chuckle comes over his lips before he steps closer to Buck. Raising one hand, he gently caresses Buck’s cheek before he leans in and brushes a sweet but short kiss to his lips. “I’ll get the plates and the wine. You light the fire, okay?”
“Okay,” Buck says, feeling his knees turn to goo a little.
When Eddie goes into the kitchen, the very first thing Buck quickly does, however — and he’s mentally congratulating himself for having his wits together like that — is grab the ring box from inside the flower pot on top of the antique cabinet in the living room. He shoves it behind the couch cushions and then pushes the coffee table back a little towards the dining room so they can actually sit on the floor and lean against the couch. That way, Buck will be able to easily reach for the present once they’ve eaten. And God, he’s actually doing this, isn’t he?
Nervous as he is about it, the giddiness he’s felt over the past few days is the predominant feeling in him now, so much so, that he burns his fingers a little as he lights the kindling, wincing as he stands back up and sucks on his thumb.
“Oh no,” Eddie says quickly just as he has set down the plates on the coffee table. “Let me see.” Very gently, he inspects Buck’s thumb, and Buck suspects that Eddie knows the burn isn’t bad at all; he’ll hardly feel it in a few minutes. Nevertheless, Eddie lifts Buck’s hand to his face and then gently blows a puff of air onto it, cooling it nicely where the air connects with the moisture of Buck’s saliva.
“That’s not the kind of blowing I had in mind with my Christmas wish, but I guess it’ll do,” Buck says with a sudden burst of cockiness that he wouldn’t have expected from himself.
Eddie’s lips spread into a grin as he lets out a laugh, shaking his head a little. “Well, you might still get that later,” he says, his gaze locked with Buck’s as he brings his lips to his thumb and kisses it gently. Then, he lets go of his hand and turns around to pour them some wine. “Let’s eat first, though.”
They picked some specials from a really good and rather pricey Chinese restaurant on their way back. The food, once laden onto their plates, smells and looks delicious — well worthy as a dinner on Christmas Eve. They sit on the rug in front of the couch, the glow of the tree lights next to them and feeling the warmth of the small fire on their toes and, for a while, Buck simply enjoys the moment without fretting and wondering about what he’s planned for after. The wine is delicious, too, rich but smooth, and goes perfectly with their meal, and they chat about this and that, laugh about some of their calls, and wonder what Christopher is going to say to the science set they got him.
It feels so familiar — something they’ve done a million times even long before they were a couple — and yet, there’s always something new to it as well. A new thing they discover the other liking or finding amusing, a new experience to make together, and Buck can’t get enough of it, can’t wait to find out what’s next, tomorrow, in a year, or twenty.
He sits leant against Eddie’s shoulder, one hand at the small of Eddie’s back as his other holds his wine glass, and for a moment, he just closes his eyes, lets out a soft, dreamy sigh and imagines.
“What are you thinking?” Eddie asks softly, his lips close to Buck’s temple, almost touching.
“I was just wondering…” Buck stops, his heart suddenly beating in his chest with such vigor that he almost expects Eddie to have heard it. Maybe he can improvise this whole thing after all. He leans back a little, sets the winglass down an arm’s length away from him, and turns to look at Eddie.
“I was wondering what our next Christmases might look like. Not just in a year or two, but…” He takes a deep breath and takes Eddie’s hand, feeling an excited smile spread on his lips as he locks his gaze with Eddie’s and sees his brows going up slightly. “In ten, twenty years. Or fifty. Because…I always want it to be like this, Eddie,” he says, his voice stronger than he would have thought, so sure of this now.
As he blindly reaches behind the pillow on the couch, he continues. “I love you so much, Eds, and it may be soon, but I—”
The moment he brings forth the little velvet-covered box with its pretty red ribbon on top, Eddie lets out a gasp. Just that it’s not really a gasp. It’s a quick, deep intake of breath before a sound comes over his lips that Buck has not expected. Eddie is laughing.
“Oh my God. You…you can’t be serious!”
And okay, that also isn’t what Buck expected to hear, he thinks, with a sudden twist in his stomach. But Eddie doesn’t sound like he’s laughing at him; his eyes are bright and shiny, his cheeks glowing, and before Buck can even utter more than a confused ‘err… what?’ Eddie pushes himself up and rushes to the small cabinet under the window.
“I don’t believe this,” he laughs, giggles even in a way that would sound entirely adorable and infectious if Buck wasn’t still so utterly confused.
And then, Eddie turns around, and as he rushes back to Buck, back on the rug and on his knees, his hands are holding a small box, red velvet, with a golden bow on top.
That can’t be…
“No?” Buck starts.
But Eddie is still chuckling, shaking his head and, turning the box towards Buck, opens it.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Buck is shocked, utterly shocked, but also so incredibly, disbelievingly amused that he can’t help but laugh out as well.
“I’ve had this whole speech prepared,” Eddie says, his voice nearly hiccuping with barely-contained laughter.
“You did?” Buck asks, but then he looks at the ring more closely, and he nearly bursts out laughing because—
“Oh my God, they’re almost the same,” he says as he opens his own box and puts it next to the other. Both rings are a combination of silver and black — titanium in the one he bought, and he expects Eddie’s to be as well. The one Eddie got him is a flat band with a brushed silver surface, framed by rounded edges, polished black. Buck’s has sharper edges of two thin bands of polished titanium, two slightly wider bands of black, and in the middle a brushed titanium band as well. When — after tentatively reaching for the ring meant for him and Eddie nodding his encouragement — Buck reads the engraving, he positively loses it.
“What?” Eddie asks with a breathy laugh, infected by Buck’s. But Buck just waves his hand in the direction of the other ring and keeps shaking his head in surprised disbelief.
“I’ll always have your ba—” Eddie reads and stops, another snort of laughter escaping him. “We got the same engraving? Are you— Wait, did Bobby tell you about this?”
“Bobby? What?”
“You actually planned this without knowing I was gonna propose?” Eddie elaborates, not clearing anything up at all.
“Yeah…I did. What’s Bobby got to do with anything?”
Eddie lets out another soft chuckle. “Well, I asked for his opinion. Actually took him to pick the rings.”
“When was that?” Buck needs to know, instantly replaying the conversation they’ve had two days ago.
“Uh, about two weeks ago.”
All Buck can do is stare at Eddie, mouth wide in disbelief before he laughs again. “Oh my God. He fully let me run into this. I told him and Hen the other day that I was planning to propose and got you a ring.”
“Oh God! Hen actually knew as well. She overheard Bobby and me talking.”
“No!”
“Yes,” Eddie chuckles. “This is insane.”
“Yeah.” Buck is still grinning, but slowly, very slowly, the hilarity of it all wears off, and instead he’s met with the realization — punched in the gut with it in the most pleasant of ways — that they actually both wanted to ask the other to marry him. And neither of them have replied yet, although that part has become a little redundant now.
“Yes,” Buck says nevertheless, his tone firm for the half-second the word took to leave his lips. Then something swells in his chest and stumbles, and he feels moisture in his eyes that isn’t only from all the laughter. “I’ll marry you.”
“That’s good, because…” Eddie replies, his own voice a little hoarse as he slides closer, one hand reaching for the back of Buck’s neck and gently cradling his fingers through his short hair. “I’ll marry you too.”
And then, their lips meet, and Buck feels the breath hitch in his throat, and the kiss gets a little messy although it’s soft, slow, and laced with hilarity and emotion.
“I love you so much, Eds,” Buck gets out thickly as he pulls Eddie in a tight embrace, feeling his arms wrap around his back.
“I love you too, Buck. Always.”
A soft chuckle escapes Buck, and he sniffs as he slowly draws back from the hug, just one hand still on Eddie’s shoulder.
“Best Christmas ever.”
Eddie smiles and nods in agreement. Finally, though, he looks down at the two boxes, and Buck realizes that neither of them have actually put their rings on yet. He hopes they fit, he thinks as he watches Eddie carefully slide the ring on his finger. And yes, it does, not too tight and not too loose either, and Buck puts on his own and finds that it fits just as perfectly.
Holding out his hand he looks at the elegant and simple band around his finger. It still feels a little odd, a little unfamiliar, but he knows, in a few days he’s gonna feel naked without it when he has to take it off for work.
Eddie leans against his side now, mirroring their earlier position just with one arm wrapped a little more tightly around Buck’s waist.
“I still can’t believe we both had the same idea,” Buck says.
“I can,” Eddie replies, and when Buck leans away a little to look at him, mildly surprised, Eddie gives a subtle shrug. “I mean, I didn’t see this coming, but in hindsight…Proves how perfect we are for each other and that— That’s the most amazing thing. I never thought I’d have something like this. Something that just feels right , every day, and every day even a bit more.”
Buck wants to ask if that is the speech Eddie has prepared, but he doesn’t dare interrupt him. He can only listen and remember to breathe, because nobody’s ever said something so beautiful to him.
“I don’t want to live a single day without you, Evan. I want us to raise Christopher together, to grow old together and—” Eddie breathes out a soft little laugh, his own eyes shining with moisture now. “There was something else, but…I’m a little too overwhelmed to remember.”
Buck shakes his head, feeling a tear fall from his lashes, though he’s still smiling. He doesn’t think he’ll stop anytime soon. “You don’t need to say more, Eddie. You already said everything I needed to hear and more, and Jesus, who’d have thought we can both be so sappy?”
Eddie smiles and let’s his forehead slowly fall against Buck’s as he places his left hand on top of Buck’s, the metal of their rings softly clanking against each other.
“I knew you could. I mean. You’re always a bit sappy.”
“I’m not,” Buck huffs out, his mock-indignation barely having any momentum with how moved and happy he feels.
“You’re the right amount of sappy, and the right amount of ridiculous, and…just perfect.”
“Okay. That was sappy,” Buck chuckles, but Eddie just shrugs again.
Then, the smile on his face runs into a close-lipped grin, his gaze going from Buck’s eyes down to his mouth, and a second later, Eddie’s thumb gently brushes against his bottom lip.
“Hmm, you were saying something about another Christmas wish of yours?” Eddie says softly just before his lips touch Buck’s cheek, then his jaw, feather-light and warm, and sending tingles down Buck’s spine.
“Yeah,” he breathes in response, raking his fingers through Eddie’s hair as he leans back, slowly sliding down and pulling Eddie with him onto the floor.
“Actually, I have a few of those.”