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By a stroke of luck, their entire shift was scheduled to be off on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even Buck, who usually volunteered to work at least one of those shifts to let someone be with their family, was being “forced” into taking the time.
Well, forced might have been too strong of a word. It was more like the combination of minor injury and Eddie threatening to duck tape Buck’s mouth shut if he so much as hinted at volunteering to cover. Wait, no, forced worked too.
Buck had already planned on spending the time off with his favorite people, but he didn’t exactly plan on spending most of the morning leading up to their two days off sitting in the ER with a fractured wrist. (Chim actually did predict it and won the pot, but he at least was “kind” enough to hand that money over to Buck after Maddie caught wind of him betting on Buck’s bad luck again.)
He was lucky that he’d only ended up with a fractured wrist, and not something worse. They had been attending a call at the Grove, helping an elf from Santa’s Grotto who had accidently been pushed over by an overzealous group of children and had gotten tangled up in the decorations with a broken ankle. Just as they finished cutting her free, a fight broke out between two fathers in line, and they managed to stumble over the barrier and into Buck, who had his back turned. To his embarrassment, he ended up losing his balance off the latter he was still on and hitting the floor wrong.
Insert fractured wrist here.
Four hours and one very annoyed nurse later, Buck was making his way out of the ER, a new cast adorning his arm for the foreseeable future. Bobby had been in the room when Buck had been given the option of what color the cast he wanted and had loudly overruled Buck’s wish for rainbow by insisting that he have either plain white or navy blue to match their uniforms. The nurse wasn’t exactly happy with the quick argument that had ensued, kicking Bobby (and Eddie, who had been sitting quietly supporting Buck) out of the room, but she also took Bobby’s side and went with navy.
It was only when they returned to the station that the subject of plans for Christmas Eve began. Athena had joined them by then, her own shift ending before they had returned from collecting Buck from the hospital.
As it turned out, they would all be busy the next day, at least for lunch.
Because of the time off, Bobby and Athena decided that they should go ahead and have everyone over for a Christmas Eve lunch, including all of their families. In fact, they had already decorated the house for the occasion, including getting Harry and May to hide little sprigs of mistletoe in some of the most random of places.
To ease the burden of having to cook for so many people, every family was to bring some sort of side dish, in a potluck style. Eddie was quick to volunteer his abuela’s tamales, especially since someone else had just been graced with the recipe.
The moment the words left his mouth, Chim let out a chuckle. “Your grandmother gave you the recipe? Did she forget you still burn water?”
Eddie rolled his eyes. “She gave it to Buck. I’m not allowed to see it.”
“Um, Eds?” The man in question turned to Buck, who raised his casted wrist. “I don’t think I’m going to do much cooking tonight. This might get in my way.”
The other man paled. He’d forgotten about Buck’s wrist. Chim had noticed the look on his face and had barely managed to smother the laughter that threatened to explode from him. Hen leveled a glare his way from over her latest textbook, a silent Keep out of this that was heard and understood by all.
“Shit,” Eddie swore under his breath. “Okay, new plan. I ask abuela?”
Buck rolled his eyes. “I can still cook something. Just gotta make it easy. I have a couple ideas.”
The two men exchanged a smirk before moving away from the kitchen, falling into a debate over what exactly they would bring the next day. Hen closed her textbook as soon as they were over by the couch. Ravi, who had been finishing up the dishes, moved to join the paramedics.
“Shouldn’t they be bringing two dishes? And their girlfriends? Why are they coming together?” The youngest man hadn’t been around them long enough to know that when it came to Grant-Nash parties, the “Buckley-Diaz” trio was the norm.
“They always come together, kid,” Chim said, managing to keep some of his trademark sarcasm out of his tone. “As for their girlfriends…”
“We know that Eddie broke up with Ana right after the blackout,” Hen said, nodding towards the older of the pair, now actively arguing over whether Buck was allowed to play video games with a cast.
“Which is why we had those stale muffins around. Apparently it took both of them four hours to clean Eddie’s kitchen,” Chim muttered, giving the gossip without being too brutal. It had been common knowledge to everyone that wasn’t Eddie or Buck (or Ravi apparently, but he was too nice to gossip normally) that the majority of the muffins made a quick exit to the dumpsters outside almost as soon as they appeared in the loft. They were now a banned baked good within the firehouse.
“As for Buck and Taylor, that’s more up in the air.” Hen shrugged. They didn’t actually know what was going on with that front. Was Buck still dating her?
“The last time I spoke to Maddie, before I came back,” Chim said, almost rushing through the sentence, not wanting to think of his girlfriend, who was currently getting treatment for PPD in a very highly rated retreat outside the city, “she said that she thought Buck and Taylor broke up. He stopped talking about her during their weekly calls.”
Ravi nodded. “Okay, but why are they only bringing one dish then? They’re still two people.”
Hen chuckled. “When it comes to those two, count them as one. There’s a reason they’re usually paired together. They are one of the best two man teams in the LAFD, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
“Also, Buck is the only one of the two that can actually cook. How Christopher survived before Buck walked into their lives, I will never know.”
“I heard that Chimney!” Eddie’s voice carried over from the couch. They didn’t turn around, but it was clear that both men were now listening into their conversation. “I can cook just fine. I just keep it simple.”
The muttered “and burned to death” from Buck was just loud enough for the others to hear. Eddie clearly did as well, as he grabbed a throw pillow and hit Buck upside the head for the comment.
Later that night, after Buck (and an ever willing-to-learn Christopher) had thrown together a simple meal of mac-n-cheese (with bacon bits for the Diazes), the two men were now settled on the couch, Coco still playing, but on low. Christopher had fallen asleep about a half hour into the film, but neither man felt like carrying him to his bed. Instead they let him sprawl between them, lightly snoring while they sat watching the flashing screen.
After they had gotten off at noon, Buck and Eddie had stopped by the supermarket and picked up everything they needed for what Buck had planned for their dish. They had another quiet argument of what exactly to make, but Buck won out this time. Since he was injured, he should be able to pick what they cooked.
He’d decided on a simple vegan sweet potato casserole side dish, one that Eddie wouldn’t completely hate, and it was something that Christopher had taken a liking to not long ago. The only issue was that Eddie would be doing a lot of the chopping for Buck, but at least it would be fun to use as a teaching moment for his son.
“You know,” Eddie said, breaking the calm silence that had settled between them.
“Hmm?” Buck looked away from the television, not stopping himself from brushing Christopher’s curls away from his eyes.
“You’ve been over here every day this week.” Eddie stopped before he actually said what was on his mind. But as always, the other man knew exactly what he was getting at.
“Taylor and I broke up a while ago and no, I didn’t tell anyone. It was perfectly amicable.” Eddie turned and looked at him, eyebrow raised.
“Fine, she was pissed, because I spend so much time here with you guys. I just pointed out that she spends more time working when she’s with me then not. Once we both burned out, we agreed that maybe a relationship wasn’t for us, but we could at least still be friends,” Buck looked anywhere but at him. Yes, he was sad that their relationship ended on such a note, but that was the way they were, full of fire and passion. Of course it would run its course.
Eddie took a breath before saying anything else. “So, we’re both single at Christmas.”
“And yes, I know exactly where May hid her bits of mistletoe. So avoid the downstairs bathroom and the left sliding door tomorrow.” He gestured towards his phone, charging on the side table. May had texted him while he was at the hospital, to get a laugh out of him. And of course, it had worked, because that girl had a dry whit about her, and totally used it to her advantage when she needed to.
The older man chuckled. “Good thing you have insider info.”
“I still don’t know where Harry hid his, so keep your eyes up.”
The silence came back, still easy and calm. After a few minutes, Buck shifted. “You know, Ravi was right. We’re always together.”
“Hen said the same thing a few weeks ago, right after Chim came back,” Eddie agreed. “And Cap usually just asks one of us if it involves both of us.”
“And Chim has a bet, which he will lose if I have any say about it.”
Buck barely kept his laughter back. “A bet? Didn’t he learn after the last time?”
Eddie chuckled. “He’ll never learn.”
They both paused for another moment, before Buck finally broke. “So, do you want to break it to them that we’re finally together, or should I?” He gave his partner a cheeky little grin, which was met with a blatant eye roll.
“I never actually agreed to go out with you, you know,” Eddie griped, his tone making it clear that he wasn’t actually serious.
Buck shook his head. “Yeah, sure, like you’re going to say no. We both know that.”
The sarcastic glare he received would have probably been annoying, if it wasn’t followed by one of the hottest and softest first kisses he’d ever received in his lifetime.
(And if they made a point to find one of the bits of mistletoe to kiss under the next day, that was their business. Especially when they both watched Athena and May clean house against the entirety of the 118.
Worth it. Every moment.)