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“Te amo, baby,” Eddie smiles over the phone, ending his call with Buck, who is, unfortunately, a whole kilometre away at the frat house and not in Eddie’s arms.
“I love you too, Eds,” Buck smiles back, Eddie can’t see it but he can hear it in his voice, “mmmwah, and give the birthday boy a kiss from me.”
“I will, don’t worry, see you later.”
Chris’ birthday falls in the middle of the week this year. It’s not incredibly convenient since Eddie has class and Buck has practice but the school daycare can look after Chris in the morning. Eddie drops him off and he’s so grateful Chris is finally old enough to be eligible for supervision from the childcare program. It’s been a real lifesaver these past few months. Not needing to always have Buck or Pepa or Abuela watch Chris while Eddie has work or class. Not needing to bring Chris to his lectures for the times he can’t get anyone to look after him (Eddie does like to think it makes the TA’s day though, getting to boop Chris’ nose when they go on break and hearing him giggle).
Buck and Eddie made plans to go to the museum after Eddie’s class is done. Neither of them really has enough time or energy in the middle of the week to put together a big gathering and invite loads of people over. But on the weekend, Buck and Eddie’s family and friends are gonna come over and have a real first birthday party for him. Today, though, they at least wanted to do something special for Chris on his actual birthday. And Chris got a new book about dinosaurs last week which he’s been absolutely loving, so visiting the big dinos at the museum seems like the perfect thing to do.
Buck is vibrating out of his skin at practice with how excited he is. He was doing quite the Wikipedia deep dive last night trying to learn dinosaur facts to tell Eddie and Chris at the museum. He’s fully prepared to buy whatever Chris wants at the overpriced museum gift shop, despite the amount of dinosaur-related items already crowding up Eddie’s dorm.
He’s performing excellently, of course, acing the drills and scoring a touchdown in the scrimmage they play, but he’s also sharing his dinosaur facts with his teammates between every pass. And if Buck weren’t still an amazing football player, the team might not let him get away with it. But he is. Really good. So as long as it doesn’t affect the quality of the play, they let Buck ramble on about Chris like they always do.
“Can you believe he’s one year old already? I mean that’s crazy, I feel like he was 7 months yesterday!” Buck exclaims once in the locker room.
“I’m happy for you, dude, say happy birthday to your son for me,” one of the new guys next to Buck says.
“Oh, he’s not my son, he’s my boyfriend’s son, he’s Eddie’s son.”
One of the guys who’s been on the team since the start, and knows Eddie pretty well, interjects “I mean, yeah, technically, like, legally he’s Eddie’s son, but he’s yours too, Buckley, you love him like he’s your own, you never let us forget that.”
“I guess, but–”
“He calls you ‘dada’, Buck, you’re his dad, he’s your son.”
And Buck can’t really refute that. Because he’s making a point. Buck is even listed as Chris’ second dad with the childcare centre, just as authorized to pick up Chris and Eddie is. Which is actually what he’s doing as soon as he finishes changing.
Buck stops by and picks up Chris, who must already sense that it’s his birthday because he’s being bossier than usual, knowing somewhere in his little baby brain that today is a special day and Dada can’t say no to him. So Chris cries on the way home and Buck swears he’s just doing it to get an extra bite of Buck’s post-practice treat that Eddie’s abuela makes for him. Of course, Buck shares his cookie with Chris, rolling his eyes when Chris stops crying as soon as he starts eating it and then smiles like an evil genius whose plan just worked perfectly.
Buck gets back to Eddie’s place and lets himself in. Eddie’s not gonna be back for about another hour, giving Buck and Chris a chance to take a midday nap.
He tucks Chris into his crib and gives him a couple kisses on his chubby cheeks. “Happy birthday, mijo,” he whispers, “Dada loves you.”
When Eddie comes home, he wakes his boyfriend up first. It’s always hard for Eddie to wake Buck up because he’s such a heavy sleeper and so damn cute that Eddie just wants to admire him instead.
Alas, they have plans, so Eddie has to wake his sleeping beauty up.
“Ev,” he says, sitting on the side of his bed, “Evan, babe, wake up,” he jostles Buck’s shoulder a bit which wakes him from his slumber.
“Hey,” Buck mumbles sleepily, slowly opening his eyes and pursing his lips in a silent request for kisses. And who is Eddie to deny him?
Eddie gives Buck one (1) big kiss before pulling his boyfriend to sit with him.
Conveniently, Chris is waking up from his nap as well, babbling for his Papa to come hold him.
“Papapa,” Chris whines, “up! up!”
And who is Eddie to deny his other boy anything either?
Eddie plays with Chris while Buck gets them ready for the museum, packing diapers and toys and snacks and wipes and earmuffs in a bag. Then they pile into Eddie’s pickup truck and make their way to the museum.
Buck can’t remember the last time he went to a museum. It wasn’t something he did with his parents growing up. He thinks maybe Maddie might have taken him once or twice. But honestly, he thinks the last time he went to a museum was probably on his middle school grad trip to Philly. He was an annoying preteen betting his friends they wouldn’t touch the exhibits and then double daring them to do it. He thinks this excursion will be tamer, probably just as enjoyable, but in a different way.
Eddie’s got Chris all snug in a baby carrier strapped to his chest. He reaches down to hold Buck’s hand as soon as he’s paid for their tickets. Buck smiles. Eddie’s hands are warm and soft in his grasp. Eddie’s not usually one for any type of PDA, but he knows how much Buck loves holding his hand in public, so he indulges him.
“Where to first, little man?” Eddie asks, ruffling Chris’ fine hair with his free hand. Chris giggles but of course can’t really comprehend the question, so Dada answers for him.
“Let’s go see the animals first and then the dinos after,” he suggests, “we have to go up one floor and then to the left,” Buck says, taking charge of navigation classic clipboard buck as he studies the map.
They make their way to the biodiversity exhibit and Chris’ eyes widen immediately. He’s never seen so many animals in the same place before, not even at the zoo. The walls and display cases are packed with taxidermized animals from all over the globe. There are big animals from Africa and small animals from South America and all shapes in between. Eddie noticed that Buck’s eyes go a little wider too. He should have expected that his child-at-heart boyfriend would love the museum almost as much as his son does.
“Look, mijo, a polar bear!” Buck points out, steering them over to the plaque in front of the Arctic scene. Chris puts his little hands up on the glass and admires all the different animals. There are a couple big polar bears, but there are also seals and fish and one chunky walrus in the middle. Chris seems to like the polar bears the most, though. He has a couple teddy bears in his collection of stuffies at home, notably a polar bear named Mr. Pober.
“Pober,” Chris smiles.
“Yes, that’s right! Just like Mr. Pober,” Eddie gives Chris a kiss on the head. They move on shortly after Chris spots a jaguar and wants to go visit that instead.
They make their way through the exhibit, Buck teaching Chris (and Eddie, for that matter) about the different animals they stop to admire.
It all comes screeching to a halt when they pass the section with all the big deep-sea fish and Chris starts crying. Buck takes Chris out of the carrier on Eddie’s chest and holds him tight in his arms, rocking him and burping him as they exit the area, trying their best to avoid making a scene from Chris’ loud wailing.
“I know, sweetie, the fishies were very scary, I know, it’s okay,” Buck whispers, rubbing Chris’ back.
Eddie gets out a bottle from the backpack Buck is wearing, handing it to his boyfriend who soon holds it for Chris to latch onto. Chris calms down as soon as he starts sucking from the nipple of the bottle, tears drying on his face.
“Think he needs a snack or is it dino time?” Buck asks, looking over to Eddie.
“I think it’s dino time, just let him finish off that bottle first,” Eddie gives Buck a kiss on the cheek as they listen to Chris drink. He tries to hold the bottle by himself but his coordination and grip strength just isn’t there yet. Of course, Dada is more than happy to hold it for him.
For their trip through the dinosaur exhibit, Buck takes Chris this time, swapping the chest carrier and the backpack with Eddie. He reaches down to find Eddie’s hand and smiles to himself when Eddie intertwines their fingers together.
The first skeleton they come upon is an Allosaurus. Not as big as a T-Rex but a theropod all the same, Chris’ favourite type of dinosaur.
Chris’ face lights up so much you would never be able to tell he was sobbing just 15 minutes ago. He babbles happily and reaches out toward the dinosaur. He’s so incredibly cute Eddie has to bite his lip to stop from audibly “awwwwing” in front of everyone.
“What’s this one, mijo?” Buck asks, pointing at the big replica in front of them.
Chris just giggles but after a few moments, he says one of the two dinosaur names in his limited vocabulary.
“Tee-tee wecks.”
And if Chris says it’s a T-Rex then it’s a T-Rex, sorry Allosaurus.
“Look at our little paleontologist here,” Buck smiles, bright blue eyes so full of love as he turns to his boyfriend. “Did you know that theropod means beast-footed? They’re all bipedal dinosaurs – two-legged like birds who are their closest living relative.”
“I did not know that, baby, how did you know that?” Eddie laughs.
“Maybe Christopher gets his paleontology talents from me, who knows.”
The next dinosaur they stop to admire is a sauropod (the long-necked ones whose name means lizard-footed, Buck soon informs them). Chris is so baffled by how tall it is. Buck and Eddie are too, frankly. It’s amazing to think about such a gigantic animal roaming the earth for millions and millions of years.
“In addition to allowing the sauropods to occupy an ecological niche not taken by the short dinosaurs who couldn’t reach the leaves on tall trees, their longs necks could have also been a way to regulate their body temperature, giving their skin more surface area, like how an elephant has big ears,” and that first part especially sounds like Buck pulled it straight from an article. Eddie sure didn’t know exactly what an ecological niche meant, but he could kinda figure it out.
“That’s very interesting, Ev.”
“Thank you, baby.” Buck beams.
Chris just keeps looking up and down and up and down the skeleton’s long neck, fully in awe of the dinosaur.
“What’s this one called?” Eddie asks. Buck leaves it up to Chris to answer, knowing this is his one other known dinosaur name.
Chris doesn’t have an answer at first, babbling “ah, ap, apa,” over and over.
“Mijo, who’s that?” Buck points to Eddie. That’s an easy one.
“Papa,” Chris mumbles.
“And what’s that?” he points back to the dinosaur.
It takes a second but Chris catches on, “Apapasowus.”
“Yes! Exactly, Chris! You’re so smart, honey!”
Okay, so the pronunciation wasn’t all there but it’s definitely close enough.
Eddie reaches his palm out and tries to get a high-five from his son. He gets a slap on the hand which, again, is close enough.
“Did you teach him that?” Eddie asks, ogling his boyfriend just like Chris did to the Apatosaurus.
Buck just smiles and shrugs and leads them to the next dinosaur.
They eventually make their way to the quintessential dinosaur bone sandbox. A sandbox filled with casts of fossils and brushes for visitors to reveal them. When it’s free to use, Eddie takes Chris and sits him in his lap, picking up a brush to swipe away at the sand.
“Ooh, do you think there’s something under there?” Buck asks Chris, getting a brush of his own to help.
Chris tries to climb into the sandbox and Eddie has to grab him by the hips to stop him. “No, mijo, only dinos in the sandbox.”
And Chris doesn’t seem to like that idea very much. He picks up a couple tiny handfuls of sand, and for a second Eddie thinks he’s trying to help uncover the bones, but then he chucks the sand at Dada and starts making a mess.
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Eddie laughs, standing up and holding Chris on his hip as he does so.
Buck’s still brushing the sand off his shirt by the time he joins Eddie and Chris on their way to the food hall.
While Eddie finds them a table, Buck takes Chris and their backpack to the single-stalled family washroom. First, he holds Chris’s hands for him and rubs them together with soap under the water. Chris isn’t crazy about the feeling of water on his hands but soon enough his Dada is drying them off for him. Buck lays down one of Chris’s blankies on the changing table and then employs his expert diaper-changing skills. A year ago today Buck truly didn’t have the faintest clue of how to change a diaper and he didn’t think he would need to know how for a long time. But he’s a quick learner. And he’d change a hundred diapers every day if it meant a lifetime with his favourite boys.
Chris cries a little during it but before long he’s clean and dry and back in his cute birthday boy outfit, complete with his favourite dinosaur socks.
Buck packs up and slings the bag over his shoulder as he exits the washroom. He holds Chris to his chest and looks around for his boyfriend in the busy room.
Eddie spots him and waves his hand for Buck to come over and join him. He can’t help but think about how cute Buck looks with Chris, exiting the family bathroom, cradling him to his pec and letting Chris pull on his shirt collar. He really is Chris’ dad. It’s a wonder Buck ever doubts it.
When Buck finds the table, Eddie has already unpacked Chris’ snacks. He’s got applesauce and a sandwich cut into the shape of dinosaurs, courtesy of the dinosaur sandwich cutter Eddie got off Amazon and is now a vital part of Chris’ snack times.
Chris laughs and gives Papa a hard time while he’s trying to feed Chris the applesauce, but Eddie is nothing if not patient with his son. Buck scarfs down his own sandwich and helps feed Chris his too.
While Eddie eats his sandwich, Buck takes a couple toys out of his backpack and gives Chris his choice. There’s a fluffy colourful caterpillar with different fabric textures, there’s a ring of soft plastic rainbow keys, and there’s a stuffed dinosaur with a bell inside. Maybe Chris chooses it because they just saw the real things, or maybe it’s just his favourite, but he grabs the dinosaur almost immediately and shakes it and plays with it like he’s never seen anything better.
Chris drops it on the floor a couple times and almost starts to whimper but Buck is quick to pick it up each time, returning it to Chris’ grabby hands.
Eddie gives Buck a couple kisses once he’s done his sandwich, again a gesture that makes Buck’s heart light up. Eddie’s kisses are wonderful and it’s honestly a crime to withhold them in public, so he’s very happy Eddie takes mercy on him. Or maybe Eddie just can’t resist himself.
The gift shop is the last stop on their museum expedition. Chris leads Buck and Eddie right to the back of the shop where all the plushies are, of course, and after touching almost every dinosaur on the shelves, including the ones Eddie holds him up to reach, Chris selects a stegosaurus. It’s bigger than he is but incredibly soft and cute and Buck did say he’d buy Chris whatever he wants. The price tag hurts Buck’s wallet, though the way Chris will barely let go of it to allow the cashier to scan it is adorable enough that Buck thinks it's 100% worth it.
While he’s checking out, Eddie comes up behind him and can't contain his smile as he shows his boyfriend what he found. It’s a matching set of two unisex shirts and one baby onesie that all say “Rawr means ‘I love you’ in dinosaur” with a variety of dinos decorating them. It’s so freaking cute.
“Okay, that’s cute as hell, babe,” Buck laughs, the bouncing of his chest making Chris laugh too.
“I know, right, I’m gonna get it, an extra birthday gift for our little superman,” he smiles.
As soon as they get home, they all change into their new dinosaur attire. Buck so badly wants to get a photo of them together with Chris in a birthday hat but Chris disagrees.
“There! Perfect! He loves it!” Buck exclaims when he finally gets the hat situated on Chris’ head.
“He hates it, Ev, look at him,” Eddie chuckles, them both watching as Chris bats the cone-shaped hat off of his head.
“Fine, fine,” Buck grumbles, though there's not even a drop of anger in his voice. How could he be angry when Chris is so adorable.
They take photos together on Eddie’s phone and have Chris’s favourite meal, Pepa’s tortilla soup. Chris is so happy all through dinner and all through dessert (some cupcakes Buck had made and….. creatively decorated the day before) and all through bathtime and storytime and bedtime. He sleeps so soundly with his favourite blanky and his new stegosaurus and it warms the fuck out of Buck and Eddie’s hearts.
Buck and Eddie crawl into bed together, scrolling on their phones and making to-do lists for tomorrow before finding their way into each other's arms. Eddie is cuddled up against Buck’s bare chest and he delights Buck with kisses all over his pecs, making Buck laugh at how ticklish it feels. They can't fall asleep like this, if they fall asleep cuddling they either need to be spooning or it needs to be Buck on Eddie’s chest, but they stay in this position while they talk before bed.
“Chris had so much fun today,” Eddie says, “I had so much fun today.”
“It was a great day, baby, thanks for taking us to the museum,” Buck rubs up and down Eddie’s back.
“Anything for my dino-loving boys,” Eddie replies, calmly exhaling and closing his eyes against Buck’s chest.
“Does it feel any different? Knowing your son is one year old? You officially have a one-year-old now.” Buck muses.
“Well, you do too, cariño, it's not just me,” Eddie laughs.
“Yeah,” Buck thinks back to what his teammate told him in the locker room earlier. He really is Chris’ other dad, there's no other way to look at it. “Yeah, I guess I do,” an unstoppable grin finds its way onto Buck’s face.
They talk and kiss gently until it really is time to sleep, shifting so Eddie is on his back and Buck is cradled against his chest. Eddie plays with his boyfriend’s hair as they get sleepier and sleepier. Buck’s smile is still there. He can't wipe it off his face no matter how hard he tries.
And he could definitely get used to that.