Work Text:
There’s a beat where Eddie and Buck both stare at each other, on either side of the doorway of Maddie and Chimney’s flat, with Buck having opened the door approximately ten seconds ago.
"You brought..." Buck trails off as it becomes apparent exactly how much Eddie has brought.
"White wine for Maddie, and beer for us, and then I got fancy cordial as well in case we weren't drinking?” Eddie lifts one clanking bag, and then the one in his other hand. “Then snacks, and dessert, both store-bought and contributed by abuela, and flowers. Which mean friendship, new beginnings, and hopeful future." Eddie gestures with his chin to each symbolic flower in the bouquet also in his left hand, mainly because his right hand is full of everything else.
Buck's lips are twisting weirdly.
"Is it not enough?" Eddie says. "Oh, god, is she allergic to flowers? Where's your trash chute, I can-"
And then Buck bursts into laughter.
"Well, alright then." Eddie tries not to frown as Buck literally doubles over on himself laughing. "I don't think that's very nice reaction to your very nervous boyfriend."
"Eds," Buck says, finally straightening and wiping tears from the corner of his eye. "What is all this? Why are you nervous? It's just game night."
"It is not just 'game night,'" Eddie refutes, the plastic carrier bags lifting with his hands as he tries to do air quotes with the limited finger mobility he has left. "It's the first time I'm meeting your sister officially."
“You’ve met Maddie before. Like, a thousand times before.”
“Not as someone you’re dating,” Eddie hisses. “I have to impress her.”
Buck looks somewhere between laughing and crying, and the result is shining blue eyes and a sucked-in bottom lip. It is, despite everything, very endearing. “That’s very sweet, Eddie,” he says. “But just be yourself, okay? She likes you, already, for all the reasons I like you.”
Eddie steps closer, his foot slipping in between Buck’s instep, and he looks up through his eyelashes. “Hopefully not for all the reasons you like me.”
Buck swallows. “Um. Well, yeah. Let’s – um. Okay. Game night. That’s – that’s happening now.”
Eddie grins and angles his chin up for a quick kiss that Buck happily delivers. “Okay, okay. Consider me less nervous. Please take all this from me before my fingers fall off.”
“Eddie!” Maddie appears from behind Buck as if she’s been waiting there the whole time, and quickly darts in to hug him. “Wow, you brought a lot of stuff.”
“Leftovers from the holidays,” blurts out Eddie, like he’s not carrying it all in the K-Mart branded bags he purchased them from. Buck snorts and poorly covers it up with a cough, because he is a traitor.
“Right,” Maddie says, with a twinkle in her eye. “And the flowers?”
“Someone left them on the sidewalk,” says Eddie, like he’s convincing absolutely anyone.
The label reads, For Maddie.
Maddie makes a knowing hum. “Well, thank god you rescued them. You know, I have a vase that these would go in.”
Eddie bobs his head, presses his lips together tight. “Sounds a good idea.”
“Great. And, Buck, could you take the bottles from Eddie? There’s room in the fridge for the beer and wine and dessert,” she peeks inside the clattering plastic bag, widens her eyes and hides a smile. “And the champagne too.”
“Leftovers,” says Eddie again, weakly.
She lets out a bright laugh, almost the exact same pitch as Buck’s when he’s delighted at something, and darts in to quickly press a kiss against his cheek. “Thanks for coming,” she says, plucking the flowers from his grasp and wandering towards the kitchen.
Buck obediently takes one of the heavier bags from Eddie’s hand, and leans in to kiss Eddie on the lips again, a little dirtier this time. He pulls back with a smack and fond look that Eddie almost catches on fire from. “See?” He says, quiet and just for them. “She likes you.”
Eddie rolls his eyes rather than do anything else that might embarrass him further, and kicks the door shut behind him. “Whatever. I need a beer.”
“Yessir,” Buck says with a cheeky salute, before darting off to help his sister in the kitchen. Eddie dumps the remaining bags on the kitchen island and then beats a hasty retreat to the couch, where Chimney seems to be organising a pile of board games and card decks.
“What are we playing?” Eddie asks, taking the beer Buck hands him without looking back at him. His ears are still hot and he needs to avoid eye contact if he has any chance at keeping his cool.
“What are we playing first,” Chimney corrects. He holds out a box that says Risk on it, and a box that says Clue. “The trick is to choose an order so the competitiveness builds, rather than they end up wrestling from the start.”
Eddie raises his eyebrows. “I know Buck’s competitive, but surely he wouldn’t wrestle his sister.”
Chimney looks at him with something like pity in his eyes. “Oh, I didn’t say it would be Buck starting it. If we play a game without Maddie trying to noogie Buck, it’s a success.”
“Really?” Eddie can’t help his doubt. “I can’t imagine it. She’s so small.”
“But deadly,” Chimney hisses. He turns back to the boards, and then puts them both down. “We should start with a quiz game. They both suck at pop culture. Maybe that’ll calm them down.”
“We’re starting with Twister,” says Maddie as she leans over the back of the couch and yanks the Trivial Pursuit box from Chimney’s grasp. “Before I have too much wine. I put on trousers specifically for the occasion.”
“Yes!” Buck crows, wandering over and sitting on the arm rest so he can lean an arm around Eddie’s shoulders. Eddie only slightly leans into him, because he’s easy like that. “I’ll set the timer for the warm-up.” He slams his beer down on the counter and starts fiddling with his phone’s clock.
“I’ll set out the mat,” declares Maddie, jumping to her feet and pushing the coffee table aside to do so.
Chimney lets out a sigh but gets up anyway. “Fine,” he says. “But I want a good, clean game, you two hear me? No hair pulling or pinching this time.”
“Yeah, yeah,” says Maddie, shaking out the mat and letting it flutter to the ground. As soon as it lands flat, she starts rotating her torso from her hips, and then reaching her arms up high.
“Okay, time for stretching officially starts now,” Buck announces, placing his phone down on the table where, sure enough, a ten-minute timer has started counting down.
"We need to warm up?" Eddie says, as if this might all be a joke, as if he's not the only one still sat on the couch rather than stretching out their hamstring.
"You don't need to," says Buck, before he bends over straight legs to press his palms flat against the ground and Eddie chokes on air just a little bit. "But you'll definitely lose if you don't."
Eddie, by the way, is going to lose anyway. His body is built for lifting military-size backpacks or firefighter equipment or eleven-year-old sons. He remembers Ana once tried to show him a yoga position, and he fell over flat on his ass. There was a particular move Buck thought the two of them could pull in bed and Eddie’s spasming lateral rotator muscles proved they absolutely couldn’t. The point is that Eddie Diaz does not stretch.
Chimney gives him a long-suffering look, which is only slightly ruined by the fact he's doing squats at the same time. "Just go with it. If you fall within the first five turns, you'll never hear the end of it."
"I told you your calves were too tight for that blue dot reach," Buck says in a sing-song voice.
Chimney rolls his eyes in Eddie’s direction like, see?
Eddie takes a long swig of his beer.
(Ten minutes later, he’s forced to concede that yes, perhaps he should have warmed up.)
Maddie ends up winning the game of Twister, with a, frankly, inspired reach for a red dot that leaves even Eddie impressed. She leaps up in victory and starts doing some kind of elbow-chicken-wing-style dance that Buck looks actually offended by. Eddie looks at Chimney for some kind of help, or at least guidance.
“They’re both as bad as each other,” Chimney explains, even as Buck in the background starts protesting about underhanded moves and cheating socks. “I really hope you know what you’re getting into.”
“You could have warned me,” Eddie protests.
“Where would the fun in that be?” Chimney waggles his eyebrows. “Now, Buckleys, what’s next? Chinese Checkers or-”
“Winner chooses,” declares Maddie, and she leans over Chimney to press a kiss against his cheek as she pulls the Monopoly box from his hand.
“Of course she does,” sighs Chimney, but Eddie catches the hearts in his eyes regardless.
Except apparently the Buckley family never played Monopoly the usual way – which is already complicated enough in Eddie’s humble opinion – but instead added all their own rules, which they don’t bother to explain to any guests until it’s time to punish them.
“Duh,” says Buck, rather impatiently. “You forfeit a property if your tenants all move out.”
“And how am I supposed to know if my tenants move out?” Eddie asks, reasonably, through gritted teeth.
“You roll an extra dice if you roll snake eyes on your original roll,” Buck explains, and Eddie knows from the tone of his voice he thinks he’s being very patient, and quite frankly, Eddie resents that tone of voice. “If you get an even number, your tenants move out. If you get odd, they don’t. You rolled a two. Therefore…”
“My tenants move out,” Eddie finishes, staring at the board.
“But you can choose which property to give up,” says Buck magnanimously.
Eddie narrows his eyes. “You sure this isn’t selective hazing?”
“I wish it was,” Chimney says. “Just don’t get caught out by accidentally picking up a Chance card when you should pick up a Community card.”
“I did warn you,” says Maddie, with absolutely no sympathy in her voice. Eddie can’t help but notice she has the most property cards on her side of the table.
“What happens if you accidentally pick up the wrong – whatever card?”
Chimney looks at him with past trauma in his eyes. “You have to play the rest of the game hopping on one foot.”
Eddie looks at the board with new respect – or perhaps fear. “Right.”
It’s Buck’s turn next anyway – he rolls a four and lands on Connecticut Avenue, which for some reason, makes him fist pump the air excitedly and Maddie groan. Without explanation, the two of them immediately lean close to start discussing some new rule development intensely.
“Thanks for helping me keep up with the rules,” Eddie says to Chimney, only half-joking as he takes advantage of the distraction.
Chimney shrugs with a softer smile than Eddie was expecting. “What are in-laws for?”
Eddie hides his own smile with a sip of his beer bottle. He leans over to shuck his shoulder into Chimney’s. In-laws. He likes the sound of it.
“Besides,” Chimney says, jerking a thumb over to where Maddie and Buck are now whispering between themselves about some kind of train station sale. “It’s nice to have someone to commiserate with about certain... shared Buckley quirks.”
“What’s that about commiserating, babe?” Maddie says without looking up from her card.
“You must have misheard, I said celebrate with,” Chimney replies, fast as anything.
“That’s what I heard too,” says Eddie innocently.
Both Buckleys look up with matching expressions of suspicion. It would be threatening, Eddie’s sure, if it also wasn’t cute as hell.
“Oh no,” stage-whispers Eddie. “They’re teaming up.”
“It’s their final form,” Chimney hisses back. “Like Voltron.”
“What’s Voltron?” Buck and Maddie ask in unison, and that’s it, that’s all she wrote: Chimney and Eddie fucking lose it, cackling and leaning against each other in their hysterics.
“I don’t like this,” says Buck, but he’s lying, because when Eddie wipes the tears from his eyes, he sees the stupidly fond twitch at each of his lip corners. “You two are trouble together.”
“Too late,” says Eddie, still snickering a little bit. “We’re in laws.”
And when Chimney holds out his fist, Eddie knocks his own against it in solidarity.
It is absolutely worth the matching eye rolls.