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It had been 21:43 when Eddie had taken his phone out of his pocket, and a moment ago the display had changed to 21:51. Which means that he has been chickening out for eight minutes. He needs to either call Buck or put his phone down.
He does neither.
It's just that he'd thought he'd cope better with not seeing Buck for a while. Sure, the last time they'd been apart for more than a few days Eddie had joined an underground fighting ring. Not a classic reaction to being unable to talk to your best friend, but there had been a lot of other stuff going on too. He hadn't started punching people just because he'd missed Buck. But it may have been, as Frank had put it, "a significant contributing factor".
Eddie hasn't seen Buck in six days and he doesn't want to hit anyone this time, he just wants to stay in bed and cry. Frank had said that was progress, and then given a short but meaningful speech about vulnerability requiring more bravery than aggression. Eddie knows he's right, but oh man does it suck.
It doesn't help that Buck is the complete opposite of miserable right now. He'd been apply to that Disaster Preparedness course for years, and finally being accepted had resulted in him bouncing around the firehouse like a kid on Christmas Eve. Except Buck could maintain that level of enthusiasm way longer than any six year old. It had been weeks of "It's a really big deal, Chim!" and "Hen, I get a certificate at the end, a CERTIFICATE!" and Eddie had grinned back happily every time, right up until he'd realised Buck spending four weeks in Seattle had meant he wasn't going to see Buck for four weeks.
He was pretty sure he'd looked like that Shocked Pikachu image people always send to the LAFD Twitter account when it tweets that there is yet another crash on Sierra Highway.
And it's not like Eddie hasn't talked to Buck since he dropped him at the airport. Buck had videocalled him as soon as he'd arrived at his short-term rental ("Look at that view, Eddie!" / "It's raining, Buck." / "Yeah, but when it's not raining, it'll be amazing" / "It's Seattle, it's not going to stop raining. But yeah, it's nice."), and Eddie and Christopher had called him after his first day ("I won the icebreaker conversation!" / "How did you win something that's not a competition?" / "I got to put 'victim was hit by a meteorite' as my Most Unusual Natural Disaster Related Call."), and they'd talked at least once a day after that ("Do you think Jee has forgotten me?"/ "After three days? Almost certainly. Huh, I can actually hear you pouting, that's impressive.") but it's not the same as working together, and spending time with Chris together, and bumping their shoulders together, and... just being together.
Usually he would have called Buck once his classes had finished for the day, but Buck had messaged him at breakfast to say that his phone would be off for a few hours while he and his classmates got dinner to celebrate the end of their first week. He'd also sent Eddie a photo of his coffee ("From The Original Starbucks which is actually the second Starbucks!") and one of a very fuzzy dog he had petted ("So soft!").
And Eddie misses him. Misses him enough that he's been practicing with Frank what he wants to say. So now that dinner is probably over, he is going to call Buck. And be brave.
Any minute now. Aaaany minute.
Just six minutes later, he does actually hit the call button. Buck picks up after only two rings.
"Eddie! Hey!"
"Hey! Hey, Buck. Hey. Um... are you still with your classmates? I don't want to interrupt anything."
"Uh... no. No, it's great timing. Amazing timing. I'm just getting out of my rideshare, actually." He sounds giddy. Dinner must have gone well. That's good, Buck deserves more nice people in his life.
"Great. Um... OK." Be brave, Eddie, he thinks to himself. Be... smooth. "I was thinking, if you don't already have plans next weekend, how about I head up to Seattle? Chris was invited to some kind of gaming marathon at Janie's house, so I could fly out Friday after I drop him to school, and come back on Sunday, and you could um... uh... show me that dog you saw." Oh God. You were meant to ask him out!
Buck is quiet for what feels like five years but is probably about three seconds. "You want to come see me?"
"Um. Yeah."
"You want to spend an hour fighting traffic to get to the airport, and then five hours trapped on a plane next to some business executive who keeps elbowing you in the ribs, and know you'll have to do it all again in the opposite direction, just so that you can spend 48 hours with me?"
"That's weirdly specific, but... yeah. I..." Be brave, Eddie. "I miss you. A lot."
Buck laughs. Laughs. "Yeah, about that."
And Eddie hears a key in his front door.
"Me too."