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To say that his son had ambitions would be simplistic. Christopher had more than ambitions. He had Plans.
Eddie hadn’t expected to see a flier posted on his refrigerator door when he got home from a 24-that-became-a-36 hour shift. He had just wanted to quickly heat up whatever Carla had kindly left for him (he had given up trying to ask her not to bother, she was going to do it anyway) but that flier was just hanging there.
After warming up his dinner-turned-breakfast, he finally decided to just grab the thing. He’d figured it was for Christopher’s school, but he had no idea what it could be about.
“‘Greetings parents,’” he read aloud in a sarcastic voice. Chris was at school and Buck was at his loft, so no one was around to make fun of his overly dramatic and sarcastic reading. “‘We invite you to join our students as they attempt to set a school record in honor of Lego ’s 90th anniversary! By popular choice, the students will be attempting to build a castle in the gymnasium, large enough for a class, chosen at random, would be able to spend a class period within. We would love to host our parents during this attempt. Please join us on Wednesday, August 10th at 10AM for a fun and full day to start the school year off with a bang. We hope to see you there!’”
A Lego castle? Christopher was probably already planning on how his class could win to study inside. He still absolutely loved Legos and was constantly trying to build larger things with every attempt. Buck had taken to attempting to sneak some packs into the house for Chris to build together. It was a win all around.
Quickly he checked the calendar, which had pretty much everyone’s schedules. Hmm, Buck and I are both off on Wednesday…
Just as he started debating if he should just send Buck a picture of the flier or call him, the front door opened and the man of this thoughts made his way inside, making a poor attempt at being quiet. When his keys clattered against the others already in the dish by the door, he audibly winced with a muttered swear.
“I’m in the kitchen, Buck. Stop sneaking around, you’re crap at it.”
Buck quickly joined him, already beelining for the Hildy coffee machine that Eddie pretended he didn’t need to survive. “Sorry for barging in,” he quickly said. “One of the apartments below me is getting renovated and I couldn’t get any sleep-”
“Buck.” Eddie was quick to interrupt. “You’re allowed to come over and crash. I’m not going to kick you out for needed sleep. Hell, you need it more than me after this last shift.”
The other man rolled his eyes and sipped his coffee. “What’s that? From the school?” He gestured to the flier, trying to subtly read it upside down, which of course wasn’t about to work out for him. Eddie spun it around so he didn’t have to completely strain his eyes. “A Lego castle? Wait, are we off Wednesday?” Buck was already moving towards the calendar, sounding completely energized, unlike the exhaustion that seemed to be overtaking him only minutes earlier.
Eddie reached over and yanked the man back. “Yes, we are off. And yes, we are going to go.”
Buck’s face lit up. “He’s going to have so much fun. Do we need to RSVP? Do we need to buy more Legos for the school? I have some coupons…” He quickly went back to the flier to see if he could find out the answers to all of his questions.
Eddie leaned back against the counter, silently eating through his portion of Carla’s amazing cooking (and yes, he noticed that she had made double because of course she knew them that well) while watching Buck order what will probably be an obscene amount of Legos in his living room by the time Wednesday rolled around.
Christopher was almost too excited to sleep on Tuesday night, leading to him being up and moving long before he really needed to get up. Luckily, Buck had crashed out on the couch and was absolutely happy to wake up earlier than any of them should actually be awake.
After dropping off Chris for his orientation that morning, the two firefighters were roped into helping get set up, which they were both happy to do. They spent the two hours before the first class of kids arrived at the gym opening and sorting Lego boxes to make it at least a bit easier for the students.
If there was also an army of random minifigures slowly making a domino line up and down the pulled out benches of the stands, well, all the parents were in on it.
Slowly, students started pouring in and went straight for the boxes of Legos waiting patiently for them. Kids that had their parents helping out made it a point to at least give hugs before accepting their boxes and getting to work. Chris had quietly added two firefighter minifigs he’d found at home before taking his own box to the lines of figures, making it a point to have them right next to each other.
The younger students were working on the base, working diligently to build it up. The older students had areas to the side to build some of the higher tiers. Once those were completed, the adults moved them on top of the slowly growing Lego castle.
Thanks to the diligent work of the kids (with some help from the parents, of course, because otherwise the task would never have been completed), by the end of the day the last part of the castle was carefully set on top by Buck and Eddie with Christopher and his friends cheering on from the ground from below. After they heard the click, the kids sitting all around the gym exploded into cheers.
Before they climbed down, one of the teachers passed up a flag that some of the more art-focused students designed while their classmates were busy stacking away. Buck passed it to Eddie who easily stuck it on top.
The two quickly made their way back down and right over to Chris, who was standing next to the minifig line with one of his megawatt grins. Just as they got close, he tapped the closest with his crutch, toppling all of the minifigures one by one. At the other end lay the two firefighter minifigs landing right on the edge.
“Think he’s trying to tell us something?” Buck muttered.
Eddie shook his head. “Him and everyone else. Let’s grab him and head home.”
It was a good day.