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Eddie throws himself down on the couch, beer in hand, and props his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. Usually he’d scold Buck for doing that, but he’s feeling a little miserable tonight, so he allows himself just this one thing.
It’s Buckley-Diaz movie night— or, at least, it’s supposed to be. But for the first time ever, Buck’s skipping out on it for a date with his weird death doula girlfriend, Natalie or whatever her name is. Christopher was super bummed when Eddie told him Buck wouldn’t be coming, and proceeded to shut himself in his room to read. And he doesn’t really blame him, either, because he’s not too happy about it himself.
Look, it’s not like Buck isn’t allowed to have plans and a life outside of Eddie and Christopher— he isn’t saying that. But their movie nights have been a cherished tradition for the many years they’ve known each other, and never once have they willingly missed out on one. So, it just… stings; knowing Buck might be moving on and finding something on his own, away from the little family-unit they’ve built.
Which is weird to think, right? Because Eddie has a girlfriend, too, who he goes on dates with and texts often enough, who he enjoys spending time with. But in the end, Eddie always prefers a night in with his boys over a date in some restaurant with Marisol. When did Buck and Christopher even become his boys, anyway?
The point is, Eddie is oddly upset that Buck is away spending time with his girlfriend rather than with him and his son; and he doesn’t really know what to do with that. But he doesn’t get the chance to think any further on it, because the lock to the front door is clicking and then it’s swinging open, bringing a smiling Buck with it.
“Hey, Eds. I brought snacks, and there’s pizza on the way.” Buck announces, toeing his shoes off and slipping into the kitchen to, presumably, put something away. Eddie just blinks, once, twice, confused. Then Buck is filling his vision again and tossing a plastic bag onto the coffee table, beside Eddie’s feet. “Where’s Chris?”
Eddie comes back to himself and furrows his brows, then gestures with his chin towards the hallway. “His room, if you wanna go say hi.” Buck just grins at him then stalks away to his son’s bedroom, knocking lightly on the door before opening it.
Eddie can clearly hear Christopher's gleeful shout of “Buck!” and then there’s shuffling until the two of them have joined him in the living room. Chris’ face is lit up with joy as he excitedly bounds towards him, flopping onto the couch in the middle. “Buck’s here!”
“He sure is, buddy.” Looking up at his best friend, Eddie realises that he’s not dressed in typical date attire. No, Buck’s in a pair of old black jeans and an orange sweatshirt that he’s pretty sure he stole from Eddie’s closet a few months ago, and his hair is untamed and curly. “Thought you had a date?”
Buck smiles sheepishly as he moves around the couch to settle down on Christopher’s other side, leaning forward to rummage through the plastic bag on the table. “I lied, I was meeting up to break up with her.”
Eddie’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline in surprise. “Oh? I thought you really liked her.”
The blond just shrugs, nonchalant, and pulls out a packet of Reese's Pieces, which elicits a chant of approval from his son. He then leans back, handing the packet to Chris, before stretching his arms over the back of the couch. His fingertips just graze Eddie’s shoulder blade, and he has to suppress the urge to shiver.
“She was nice and all, but once she’d heard enough about my near-death experiences, all her interest seemed to dwindle.” Buck supplies, grabbing the remote from the floor— must’ve fallen when Eddie tossed it carelessly earlier. “Plus, it just never felt right. I know you don’t believe in the whole universe and soulmates thing, but I do; and she was not that for me.”
“Well, if all she wanted to talk to you about was your death, then she definitely wasn’t right for you.”
Buck huffs out a laugh and nudges Eddie with his finger, beaming over at him. The sight is enough to make Eddie smile too, all warm and gooey. “Yeah, well, I’d much rather spend my time with you guys instead of going on shi— uh, crappy dates.”
Christopher snorts at Buck’s poor attempt at hiding a curse word and shovels a handful of Reese’s into his mouth. “I can handle swear words, you know. I’m not nine anymore!”
Eddie groans, feeling himself relax into the cushions. “Do not remind me how old you’re getting, I’m not ready for that crisis yet.”
“Me either. You’re getting way too big.”
Chris whines and puts on the whole ‘god, you guys are so embarrassing’ dramatics, which has both of them laughing at his antics. It’s not long before they decide on a movie to watch — Star Wars, because Buck and Chris hate Eddie, apparently — and spend the night cracking jokes and eating junk food until Chris passes out.
They put him to bed together and then kick back with a beer each, just talking quietly about nothing and everything. It’s nice, it’s home.
Eddie doesn’t really feel miserable anymore.
It’s only two nights later, when Eddie is sorting through the tupperware of leftovers in his fridge, that Christopher decides to completely uproot his entire life, basically. No, he’s not being dramatic.
Buck is out of town for the next few days with Maddie to visit his parents. With the upcoming wedding — that Buck has been very involved in the planning of, because this kind of thing is right up his alley — they decided there’s no better time than the present to continue trying to mend their relationship. Which, unfortunately, meant that Eddie and Chris were going to have to survive off of his own cooking for the time being, and that’s never ideal. But then Buck dropped off multiple tins of home cooked meals— enough to keep them fed for more than a week— and then ran away to Pennsylvania.
Chris was thrilled, but Eddie couldn’t help being a little flustered. Buck, while packing for a trip to visit his parents, had found the time to cook them enough food to keep them going while he was gone. It’s not even his responsibility, but the prospect has Eddie’s head swimming anyway. But he’s not going to address that, because that’s way too much thinking for a Sunday evening.
He’s just finishing up organising what goes where when the click-clack of crutches enters the kitchen, and Christopher is reaching for a glass from the cupboard. Eddie snags a beer from the door and closes the fridge, watching his son fill his glass with tap water, then snickers at the way he grimaces at the taste.
“Not as good as Buck’s fancy mineral water, huh?” Eddie teases, leaning back against the counter with one arm crossed over his chest, the other holding the bottle. Chris rolls his eyes — something that Eddie decidedly did not teach him, which means it’s Buck’s fault, as usual — and sets the glass down.
He then leans against the fridge, crossing his own arms while eyeing Eddie with an indecipherable look. He seems to find what he was looking for, though, because then he’s saying something that Eddie certainly didn’t expect to hear, especially from his own son. Apparently, that’s the worst time for him to raise the bottle to his lips and take a drink.
“Speaking of Buck, you should stop dating Marisol.”
Eddie lets out a strangled noise of surprise, choking on the swig of beer he'd just taken. "What— I'm sorry, what does that have to do with Buck?"
Christopher sends him the look, the one where he has his eyebrows raised and lips pulled into a tight line, like he's exasperated, while also not believing a word his dad is saying. "He's single now, and we both know you'd be happier dating each other. It just makes sense.”
“Jesus Christ.” Eddie puts his beer down on the island, fearing that if he doesn’t that he might drop it with how he’s shaking. Why does it feel like he’s been caught, like a deer in headlights? “What makes you say that?” He asks, because apparently he’s a masochist.
Once again sending him an unimpressed glance, Chris grabs his glass again to take a drink. When he’s done, he shrugs. “You’re happiest when Buck’s here, he makes our dinners and sometimes sleeps in your bed—” Eddie did not know Chris knew about that, and now he can’t stop thinking about the non-platonic implications of sharing a bed with Buck, “—you hang out almost every night, he’s basically my second dad, and you obviously love each other. So you guys should date.”
Eddie doesn’t even know what to say to that because, well— Christopher is right.
Buck and Eddie have been best friends for five years now. They’ve stuck with each other through their darkest times; when they were each at their worst. They’ve talked each other down from panic attacks and held one another through nightmares, even started sleeping in the same bed to help prevent them. They spend almost all of their free time together, and when they’re apart, they wish they weren’t. Buck makes their breakfasts, packs their lunches, cooks them dinner. He drives Christopher to and from school and PT when Eddie can’t, he tucks Chris in and helps him with his homework, and even joined him at a parent-teacher meeting once. And Eddie loves having Buck around, loves seeing the traces of him in their home— hearing his sleepy voice in the mornings, seeing his clothes in the laundry basket, smelling that herbal tea he likes in the kitchen. And—
“Holy shit.”
Eddie is in love with Buck.
“Holy shit.”
Christopher puts the glass in the sink and then takes his leave, mumbling something about the swear jar. But Eddie doesn’t really register it because Chris is right: he needs to break up with Marisol.
Eddie texts Marisol asking to meet up the next day, and tries not to feel like a dick when she realises why. She seems to understand, though, and even jokes that she had a suspicion there was something going on between him and Buck when they’d come over to help around her house. That only makes him feel worse because how the hell did even his girlfriend know before him?
He’s been in love with Buck for years, he’s sure, and had no clue until yesterday. How could he have missed it?
He then drops by their usual grocery store to pick up a few things because, while Buck did leave them with meals to eat, they’re running low on snack-ish foods at home, and he’s in the area anyway so he might as well. Eddie slips from aisle to aisle, trying to remember where they keep the coffee-flavoured cookies he enjoys from time-to-time. Buck is usually the one who does most of the shopping so, unlike him, he doesn’t have the whole place memorised.
Just as he’s about to give up, his phone starts ringing and he already knows it’s Buck, because a year ago Buck changed all of Eddie’s ringtones to be personalised, and he never bothered changing it back. Plus, hearing “Whatta man” every time Buck calls him never fails to make him smile. No harm, no foul, right?
“Hey, Buck.”
“Eds, hey!” Buck half-yells over the phone, and Eddie can tell it’s because he’s on speaker. “I’m stuck in traffic and bored out of my mind, so I thought I’d bother you.” Eddie can hear the smile in his voice— can practically picture it, too; Buck’s eyes squinting and crinkled at the corners, eyebrows raised and a lop-sided grin pulling at his lips. It’s so vivid and so beautiful in Eddie’s mind that he can’t believe it took him so long to realise how in love he is with this man.
But that conversation can wait until they are in the same room, and not on a phone call across states.
Eddie chuckles and presses the phone between his shoulder and ear, using both hands to push the cart. “Well, you have perfect timing. I’m looking for snacks and cannot remember for the life of me where those coffee cookies are kept.”
“Oh, aisle seven, I’m pretty sure.” Buck replies, without missing a beat, because of course he remembers the exact aisle number. It’s the simple things, he thinks, that tell him his feelings are likely not unrequited. “Those crackers Chris likes are also there, too.”
Already pushing into aisle seven, Eddie can’t stop himself from smiling. God, he loves him so much it almost hurts. “The animal shaped ones?”
“Yes!
It’s then that Eddie spots a twelve-pack of gluten-free chocolate muffins— the kind that Buck used to absolutely devour back when he was temporarily living with Eddie after the shooting— and grins. He lets go of the trolley to kneel down and examine the packaging, just to make sure they’re the right ones.
“I found those chocolate muffins you used to love. Want me to grab ‘em for you?” He asks, because he loves Buck, and Buck deserves to eat as many disgustingly sweet muffins as he pleases.
Eddie hears the honk of a car horn over the phone. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Oh please, you cooked Chris and I two weeks’ worth of meals just before you left. You deserve some muffins as compensation.” Eddie counters with a laugh, tossing two packs in the cart just to be spiteful. He hears Buck laugh too, airy and bright, and it makes his heart squeeze a little. “We’re going to spoil you rotten when you get home.”
The use of ‘home’ isn’t lost on him; it’s something he’s found both he and Buck use to address Eddie’s house, even though it’s been months since Buck actually lived there full-time. The last time was after the lightning strike, when Eddie couldn’t bear to keep him out of his sight for too long, especially after the nightmares didn’t stop when he was no longer comatose. But, officially living together or not, Buck has always been welcome in the Diaz house — not as a guest but as a member of the family.
And ever since that live-changing revelation from last night, all Eddie wants to do is make it official, permanently.
“Spoil me how?” Buck asks. His tone is teasing, but Eddie can hear the genuine curiosity peeking through.
“I might let you pick the movies we watch after Chris has gone to bed for the next two weeks.” Eddie reveals, still not having moved from his spot in aisle seven. “Or I could woo you with another night at the casino, or wherever you’d like. Your pick, really.”
Seemingly taken aback by his words, Buck chokes on a laugh. “You’re going to woo me, Diaz?”
Eddie leans against the shelving, taking his phone into his hand as a carefree smile takes over his face. He’s flirting with Buck. He’s flirting with Buck, and it doesn’t feel wrong or scary— it just feels right. Like it’s the easiest thing in the word, and maybe it is. Because loving Buck is as easy as breathing.
“Oh, I’m going to woo the hell out of you, Buckley. You have no idea what’s coming.”
Buck snorts, and Eddie can picture him wiggling his eyebrows suggestively when he next speaks. “Oh, I think I might know what’s coming—”
“Excuse me, I’m sorry young man, but could you stop flirting with your wife and let me pass, please?”
Eddie’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but he moves out of the elderly man’s way anyway, pulling his trolley back from the shelves and out of the aisle. He perches his phone on his shoulder again, pressing his ear to it while he makes his way to the refrigerated aisle. “You hear that, Buck? You’re my wife now.”
“Wow, we’re married and I don’t even get a ring? What kind of husband are you?”
“Oh, I can fix that.” Eddie mumbles under his breath, then frowns when he can hear the ignition of Buck’s jeep shutting off.
There’s some shuffling and the sound of keys jingling before he’s suddenly no longer on speaker, his best friend’s voice so close in his ear it makes him shudder. “Sorry, I’ve made it back to the house and we’re supposed to have ‘family dinner’ when I get in, so I gotta go.” He can hear the unspoken quotation marks around ‘family dinner,’ making him sigh. It saddens him that Buck’s relationship with his parents is so shaky.
“Alright. Call me later, yeah? Chris’ll want to hear from you.”
“Of course.” The car door opening and slamming closed is loud in his ears, but Eddie can’t focus on anything but Buck’s almost giddy voice. “Oh, and I’ll be holding you to your promise of woo’ing me, Eds. I expect the whole nine-yards.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” Eddie responds, almost on auto-pilot. Because Eddie was flirting with Buck before, and now Buck is flirting back, and Eddie knows exactly where he’s going when he leaves the store. “Enjoy dinner.”
“You too.”
When Buck arrives back in LA, Eddie immediately starts freaking out. He has a plan on what’s going to happen when Buck gets home: he’ll order take-out, they’ll watch a movie with Christopher, then right when Chris is about to go to bed, Eddie will confess. (The only reason he’s doing it before and not after Chris is in bed is because the kid is highly invested in their love-story, apparently, and will ‘die’ if he doesn’t witness the whole thing firsthand).
But then Buck is walking through the door with ungelled hair, freckled cheeks and wearing an LAFD Hoodie with ‘DIAZ’ printed on it in bold yellow lettering on the back, and Eddie’s whole plan falls apart. They eat Buck’s reheated mac’n’cheese, instead of take-out, while watching another Star Wars movie that Eddie is barely paying attention to — half because he doesn’t like Star Wars, and half because he can’t really focus on anything except the line of heat that is Buck pressed against his side on the couch.
Chris would usually start to get drowsy about two-thirds into the movie, but he’s wide awake, anticipating Eddie making a move. It should be embarrassing, really, that what makes him fuck it all up is something so small; miniscule, even.
All it takes is for Buck to reach across Eddie, leaning into his space, to wipe crumbs off of Christopher’s lap, for Eddie to suddenly blurt it out.
“God, please marry me.”
His jaw snaps shut with a sickening crack and silence falls over the room. The only noise is coming from the TV, the clash of lightsabers filling the quiet. Eddie doesn’t dare turn to look at Buck, too afraid of what he might find. He’s fairly sure Buck loves him too, just based off of everything about their intertwined lives, but that doesn’t mean he wants to get married — they haven’t even been on a proper date yet!
“Say it again.”
“What?”
Suddenly Buck is turning in his place on the couch until he’s facing Eddie, back against the armrest and eyes boring into the side of his head. He sets the muffin he’d previously been eating down on the coffee table. “Look at me, and ask me again.”
Eddie closes his eyes, takes a deep breath in, holds it for five seconds, and breathes out. Finally, he angles his head to face him and meet his gaze. Instead of finding distaste, fear or anger, Eddie finds nothing but pure, unadulterated joy written all over Buck’s face. The sight alone is enough to make the stress melt out of him.
“I said,” He starts, also turning to face Buck, pressing his knees into his best friend’s thighs. “Please marry me.”
Buck’s face breaks out into a grin, wide and toothy. “Really?”
Eddie lets out a breathy laugh and looks over at Christopher, who is already scrambling with his crutches to run to the bedroom. Buck raises an eyebrow in confusion, but Eddie just shakes his head as if to say ‘just wait a moment.’ Then Chris is stumbling back in the room with his hands closed around something, which he then drops into his dad’s hands.
“This isn’t how I intended on doing this at all, but it doesn’t really matter.” Eddie says, hands clasping around the object gently. “I’m in love with you. Like, stupidly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with you. And I don’t even know when it started, maybe it was after the tsunami, or maybe it was when you introduced me to Carla, or maybe it was the day you said I could have your back any day. And I don’t know how it took me so long to figure it out, and why Chris had to be the one to knock some sense into me, but now that I know I can’t wait any longer. You’re it for me, Evan. You always have been. You’re my partner, my best friend, Christopher’s second father, and the greatest guy I’ve ever met. So yeah, this is definitely insane to ask of you but, frankly? I don’t care. I just really needed to see you at an altar, like, yesterday.”
Eddie then unfolds his fingers, revealing the black band that’s encased in it. There’s an engraving in silver on the inside that isn’t really intelligible in the dim light of the living room, but they both know what it says, anyway. You could have my back any day.
“So, Evan Buckley, will you please marry me?”
Before either of them even realise it, there are tears gathering in Buck’s eyes and he’s frantically nodding, grasping at the front of Eddie’s shirt with a kind of desperation he hasn’t ever seen from him. Their lips crash together in a sweet and savoury kiss — the taste of chocolate and salty tears mixing together — that has Eddie pushing forward to cup Buck’s jaw with his free hand.
Eddie is grinning and so is Buck and the kiss is more teeth than anything else, but he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“When you said you were gonna woo me, I was not expecting to get engaged, to be honest.” Buck mumbles against his lips, hand now resting against his chest rather than fisted in the fabric of his shirt. Eddie can’t help but laugh and kiss him again, because he can just do that now.
Foreheads now leaning against one another, Eddie pulls Buck’s left hand into his lap and leans down to kiss his ring finger, then slips the band on. Perfect fit. “Only we would get engaged without even dating first.”
“We’ve always been unconventional, baby.”
At that, Christopher finally breaks the moment by jumping in between them, wrapping his arms around each of their necks for a hug. “Finally! Now I don’t have to explain your weird relationship to my friends anymore.” That has all three of them laughing, curling into a cosy group hug.
When Chris finally heads off to bed and leaves Eddie alone with Buck — his fiance, holy shit — they kiss and cuddle and giggle like high schoolers, and Eddie has never felt more free. He’s at home with the love of his life and his son safe and sound in the next room over, and he’s going to get married.
“We need to get you a ring, too.” Buck whispers, voice vibrating against Eddie’s neck from where he lays. “I want everyone to know you’re mine.”
Eddie snorts, tangling his fingers in his fiance’s curls. “Didn’t know you were the possessive type.”
“Only with you.”
An, oh, that stirs something in his gut that feels a little too much like arousal. But there’s a kid in the house and the walls aren't as thick as he’d like them to be, so he shuts the lid on that for now. They stay in that position for a while, limbs tangled together, exchanging lazy kisses in the dark because the TV shut off on its own a while ago.
Suddenly, Buck’s head shoots up and he looks mildly afraid, alarming Eddie for a moment.
“Oh my god, I never said it back.”
“Said what back?” Eddie raises an eyebrow, straining to look down at Buck’s face. The man shifts on his chest, moving to sit up a little, supporting his weight with his arms on either side of him.
“I love you.” He says, quietly. “I’m stupidly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with you too, Eddie Diaz. I realised it after the tsunami, but I think it started before then. Honestly, I’d say I’ve been falling in love with you every day since the day we met. And meeting Christopher just sealed the deal. You’re it for me, too. I want to spend the rest of my life waking up next to you, making your coffee and kissing you with morning breath. I want the lows and the highs, the daydreams and the nightmares; I want all of it. So, yes, I’ll marry you. I don’t care if it’s in a church or Bobby’s backyard or, hell, at the station — as long as I get to say ‘I do,’ then it’s perfect.”
And suddenly Eddie understands why Buck was crying earlier during his own confession, because his eyes sting and his face aches from how much he’s smiling, but he’s never been happier in his life. “Dios, I’m marrying a poet.”
That startles a laugh out of Buck, who leans down to kiss him softly, their lips melding together like they were made for each other.
Maybe Eddie does believe in soulmates, after all.