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The party for Jee-Yun’s first birthday was going to be small, purposefully so. Not only was Maddie and Chimney’s apartment far too cramped for the typical get-togethers the 118 liked to throw, but Buck had been adamant in his desire to not make Chimney feel awkward and unwanted at his own daughter’s birthday. They may not have been friends at the moment, but he didn’t want to go out of his way to hurt the man, or see him be hurt. That ultimately meant that the short guest list consisted of her uncles and cousin, as well as Hen, Karen and Denny. And Ravi.
Buck arrived early with Eddie and Chris to help decorate. Chimney was still on shift, and so it wasn’t as awkward as it would have been otherwise. And it would have been awkward. Eddie was still glaring at the man whenever they crossed paths at shift-change. He tried to be sneaky about it, doing it only behind his husband’s back, but Buck had spent the last three and a half years of his life keeping track of where the man was and what he was doing, so he wasn’t very successful. And while Chris may not have come out swinging at Maddie’s welcome home party, he had still scowled every time Chimney entered his line of sight or brought attention to himself.
(He looked so much like his father when he did it, it was uncanny. And it was adorable, even more so with the knowledge that it was on Buck’s behalf.)
“You know this isn’t needed, right? She won’t remember it,” Maddie pointed out as she watched Buck stick a giant banner to the wall. There were already streamers hanging from the ceiling and balloons floating above the end tables in her living room.
“She might not, but I will,” he retorted. “And it would be nice if someone were to help.”
That last part was directed at the couch, where Eddie and Chris had absconded with his niece the moment they walked through the door.
“Hear that, princess?” Eddie said, not looking away from the one-year-old. “Your Uncle Buck wants help.”
“I’m serious, Eds. Maddie is too short, and I can’t get this straight by myself.” And then, because he wasn’t dumb and immediately thought of the joke himself, “Don’t say it, that’s low hanging fruit.”
“You’re a fruit,” Eddie said, and Maddie tried to pretend the snort she let out was a cough. He handed Jee to Chris, helping to get her settled in his lap, and Buck scrambled to get his phone out for pictures of it as his husband finally got up to help. “Okay, where do you need me?”
“With me, always,” Buck said, sneaking a kiss. ”But also the other end of the banner there.”
“As you wish, mi sol.”
“Chris, are they this sappy at home?” Maddie asked.
“Yes,” he immediately answered, and Buck blew a raspberry at them both.
Under his gentle guidance, the three of them managed to get the last of the decorations up in no time. More streamers, more balloons, all of them either lavender or firetruck red, because Buck had helped pick them out with his sister. After that, he and Maddie worked together to cook enough food for everyone while Eddie fed Jee-Yun and Chris was left on the couch to watch cartoons. There was a minor hiccup when Chimney came home and froze in the doorway under Chris’ glare, which resolved itself when the Wilsons walked in immediately after and the boy was distracted by Denny.
“I’m going to go put my bag away,” Chimney said, edging around the Diazes, kissing Maddie on the cheek on the way to the bedroom.
“Now imagine if ma and pops were here,” Buck told Hen when she and her wife joined them in the kitchen, Karen immediately veering off to try and steal Jee from Eddie.
“Suddenly I’m understanding why you didn’t invite them.”
“I was worried it might look like I was disinviting them, but they understood,” Buck said. They both watched as Eddie and Karen squabbled over Jee, the latter eventually grabbing a handful of his husband’s hair and pulling until he gave in. “Your wife doesn’t play fair.”
“I know,” Hen said, smiling adoringly at her as she smugly cuddled the birthday girl. “Don’t get between her and a baby. Or between her and first place in any game. We don’t play Twister at the house anymore.”
“Just as long as no one tries to invoke the judgment of Solomon on my daughter,” Maddie told them. “When is Albert and Ravi getting here?”
“Albert and Ravi?” Hen asked. “Ravi’s coming? That boy tries to avoid group outings with us like the plague, claiming we’re weird and dramatic.”
“Because you are,” Eddie said. He was pouting over his loss, and Buck needed to kiss it away. “Weird and dramatic, I mean.”
“You’re the one who menaced them with an ax during the shovel talk, babe,” he pointed out.
“You did what!?” Hen guffawed.
“Shovel talk?” Maddie asked.
“Oh shit, you two don’t know!” Buck realized. “Okay, Hen, you cannot tell Cap yet until they tell him.”
“My lips are sealed,” she promised.
“Eddie and I found them in the supply closet at the station a couple weeks ago,” he explained.
“And then he gave them both the shovel talk, because he couldn’t decide which one he needed to give it to,” Eddie added.
“While you menaced them with an ax?” Maddie asked, for clarity’s sake.
“While he menaced them with an ax,” Buck confirmed, nodding.
“Wait, was the shovel talk on Valentine’s day?” Hen asked. “Because that would explain why Bobby walked by me complaining to himself about a station full of children and not wanting to know.”
“So those two figured their shit out much faster than the two of you did,” Maddie said, and then rolled her eyes when her brother stuck his tongue out at her.
“We helped,” he argued. “We had to go through the awkward ‘how did you know’ conversation twice.”
“It was easier the second time, with Albert,” Eddie said.
The door opened then, as the topics of conversation finally arrived. Albert bounded right in, bee-lining for Jee just as everyone else had, while Ravi was more hesitant to enter. Chimney, hearing his brother’s voice, finally stopped hiding in the bedroom, apparently deciding there were enough numbers to avoid being deathglared by Diazes.
Realizing how cramped the kitchen suddenly was, and that the food was ready, Buck herded everyone out with the same commanding air as when he wielded a clipboard, causing the firefighters to grumble in discontent. It took some coaxing from Hen before Karen was willing to relinquish Jee-Yun so she could be put into her highchair. Any potential bloodshed over who got to sit next to her was prevented by having it placed between Maddie and Chimney.
Dinner was loud and lively, with five different conversations happening and Buck trying to be involved in all of them. It was entirely different from the last time he’d been in the apartment for a dinner party. The last time had involved his parents, and conversation was filled with passive-aggressive barbs that eventually devolved into full-blown shouting. This time, unless something drastic happened, Eddie hopefully wouldn’t be guiding him out to break down in Bobby’s arms again.
“Has he met the parents yet?” Buck asked Ravi, nodding at Albert. “I mean, as the boyfriend, not as the coworker.”
“Not yet, I’m kinda nervous,” he admitted. “They liked him at my ceremony, but…”
“It’s different, I get that.”
“How did it go when you met his?” He gestured at Eddie, on Buck’s other side.
“Oh, horribly,” Buck cheerfully said. “There was yelling, there was stomping. And then Helena sent me the recipe for her meatballs, so everything was fine in the end.”
“And when he met yours?”
“Probie-” he grinned when the younger man groaned. “Sorry. Ravi, don’t insult your parents by comparing them to mine.”
“What? Sorry, no, not the Buckleys, I meant when you introduced him to Cap and his wife as your boyfriend,” Ravi said, and then squawked when Buck pulled him in for a bone crushing hug.
Later, when Buck helped Maddie bring out the cakes, they sang happy birthday to a joyfully babbling Jee-Yun, whose slice ended up more smashed than eaten. And then, they put the second cake in front of a very confused Albert.
“But it’s not my birthday?” he said.
“Nope,” Chimney agreed, whipping off the covering to reveal the writing on the cake.
“Happy Not-Dead Day,” Albert read out loud, laughing.
“Happy one year anniversary of not being dead,” Buck said, grinning at him. ”Probie.”