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Eddie opens his freezer and grins in relief when he sees the bag of frozen peas sitting there. Unfortunately, the grin moves the muscles in his face and Eddie sucks in a sharp, pained breath as he’s reminded why he needs the peas in the first place.
He grabs the bag out of the freezer, wraps it in a tea towel, and hops up to sit on the kitchen counter. Leaning back to rest his head against the cabinets, Eddie closes his eyes and brings the peas up to gingerly press them against his tender face. At least Chris is out with friends for the afternoon so he won’t be a witness to Eddie’s injured pride.
He knew he should have said no to that stupid invitation, but he’d allowed himself to be guilted into it by the pleading tone of the email. This is what he gets for trying to get involved with PTA extracurricular activities. Who thought parental participation was a good idea again? Oh right, Buck – and he already had plans today, so Eddie couldn’t even drag him along.
Well, at least Buck wasn’t there to see Eddie make a complete fool of himself. Small mercies.
Eddie fully intends on spending the rest of the afternoon until Chris gets home sulking and feeling sorry for himself in private, but those plans are immediately thrown out the window when he hears the sound of his front door opening and Buck announcing himself as he enters the house.
“Hey!” Buck calls.
Eddie spares himself a moment to briefly entertain the idea of fleeing out the back, but knows it would ultimately be pointless. His truck is in the driveway so Buck knows he’s home, and they’re on shift together in two days and there’s no way his bruises will be gone by then, no matter how much he ices them.
“In the kitchen,” Eddie answers resignedly.
“Sorry I didn’t text you,” Buck says, his voice coming closer, “but I was in the area and figured that maybe we could– Eddie, what the hell?!”
Eddie removes the bag of frozen peas from his face just in time to see Buck dart across the kitchen towards him. Buck’s brows are creased with worry and his eyes are slightly frantic as his gaze bounces around Eddie’s face. His arms reach out and hover awkwardly a few inches away from Eddie’s body, like Buck wants to touch but isn’t sure if he’s allowed.
“What happened?” Buck demands. “Did you fall? Did you get in a fight? Oh shit, did someone mug you?”
The intensity of Buck’s distress makes Eddie feel even more embarrassed. He can’t believe he got himself into this stupid situation. “No one attacked me,” he says, holding his hands up in an attempt to calm Buck down. “I got hit in the face with a softball.”
“You –” The panic seems to drain out of Buck in an instant. “You what? How?”
“It’s so dumb,” Eddie grumbles to himself. He goes to cover his eyes and then winces as he remembers the bruises.
Buck makes a small, helpless noise – like seeing Eddie hurting is physically painful to him – and takes the bag right out of Eddie’s hands. He steps into Eddie’s space, standing between Eddie’s open legs as he brings the peas up and gently holds them against Eddie’s eye. Eddie swallows thickly, suddenly feeling hot all over despite the bag of frozen vegetables slowly numbing his face.
“Did you at least go to the hospital and make sure nothing was broken?” Buck asks quietly.
Eddie rolls his eyes, even as it makes him grimace. “I’m an EMT, Buck, I think I can tell for myself if my eye socket is broken or not.”
Still not looking entirely convinced, Buck squints at him. “Since when do you play softball?”
He sighs. “I don’t. It’s a team made up of parents from Chris’s school and —”
“Oh.”
Buck rocks back on his heels like he wants to step away, and Eddie’s heart lurches at the abrupt drop in Buck’s mood. He’s not sure what he said to cause it, but clearly it must have been something. Is Buck mad that Eddie played softball without him?
“I understand why you didn’t invite me,” Buck says, forcing a smile that looks painful. “If it’s just a thing for parents.”
And, oh, Eddie gets it now. He’s suddenly overcome with fondness as he realizes the full meaning behind Buck’s jealousy.
“I mean —” Buck laughs awkwardly, actually taking a step back this time, setting the frozen peas down beside Eddie on the counter. “Obviously it’s fine if you do stuff without me, I’m not saying that we have to always — it’s totally cool — I’ll just —”
Instinct has Eddie hooking his calves around the back of Buck’s legs, pulling him in close between Eddie’s open thighs. Buck’s jaw immediately snaps shut and his eyes flick back to Eddie’s face, wide and confused.
“Buck,” Eddie says gently. “It was very last-minute. They needed someone to fill in today or they’d forfeit a game for not having enough players, and I knew you had plans with Maddie already.”
“Oh.” There’s an embarrassed flush creeping up Buck’s neck. “But, I mean… it was a thing for parents. I wouldn’t have belonged there anyway.”
He tries to retreat again, and Eddie has to squeeze his legs around Buck to keep him in place. And then Eddie decides to be brave. He already has to wait for his face to heal; he might as well do the same with his heart if this doesn’t work out the way he hopes.
“Of course you would have belonged there,” Eddie says, ducking his head down to force Buck to make eye contact. “I put you in my will for a reason. You’re already Chris’s other parent; you have been for years. And besides —” He chuckles —“everyone on the team was asking where my other half was.”
Buck stares at him, his expression carefully neutral. “Eddie, what are you saying?”
Eddie offers him a tentative smile. “I’m saying that most of the parents already think you’re my romantic partner, and I’d really like for them to be right.”
It’s a beautiful thing, watching the way Buck’s eyes light up and his cheeks turn a delicate pink. His morose, self-deprecating demeanour disappears in an instant, replaced with something quietly delighted.
“Oh,” Buck says again, biting his lip around a grin.
“Yeah, oh,” Eddie teases. “Now do you wanna do something about that, or –?”
Buck surges forward to press their mouths together. The feeling of Buck’s lips on his sends a pleasant zing up and down Eddie’s spine, and Eddie wastes no time in wrapping an arm around Buck’s frankly obscene shoulders to haul him in closer. Eddie’s got a couple inches on Buck since he’s sitting on the counter, but Buck must like the feeling of kissing someone taller than him for once, as he makes a quiet little hungry noise that Eddie quickly swallows.
This isn’t how Eddie thought his day was going to go, but he’s certainly not complaining.
Buck’s hands slide up Eddie’s neck to cradle his face, which is fucking amazing, there’s nowhere Eddie would rather be than held safely between Buck’s calloused palms – until Buck accidentally gets a little too close to the bruises blooming over Eddie’s cheekbone, and Eddie can’t help the tiny hiss of pain that slips out of him.
Buck yanks his hands away like he’s been burned.
“Ow,” Eddie says belatedly, his eye socket throbbing in time with his heartbeat.
“Sorry,” Buck rasps. Again, Buck tries to back away; this time Eddie wraps his legs more daringly around Buck’s waist.
“Stop trying to run away,” Eddie murmurs, gripping Buck’s massive biceps for good measure. “You’re gonna give a guy a complex.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Buck says, but he’s swaying back into Eddie’s space.
“Mmm, you won’t.” Eddie kisses him again, just a sweet, chaste little thing. “But we’ll probably have to put a pin in full on making out for a few days until my face heals.”
Buck tentatively cups the injured side of Eddie’s face with his hand, and strokes his thumb gently over the edge of the bruises. Eddie manfully resists the urge to lean into his touch, not wanting to scare Buck away again, even if a little bit of pain would be an easy price to pay if Buck would keep touching him.
“This is why you shouldn’t do things without me,” Buck says, a hint of humour in his tone. “One game of softball and you nearly broke your pretty face.”
Eddie can’t help the way he flushes at being called pretty, and hopes the bruising on his face will hide it. From the way Buck smirks at him, he’s not successful.
“Just come with me next time,” Eddie says.
Buck’s brilliant smile could rival the sun, but he protests a little, because sometimes he’s a brat like that. “I played football in high school, not softball,” he says. “I’d probably end up with an injury worse than a black eye.”
Actually, knowing Buck’s luck, that could very well happen. Eddie slides off the counter, his belly going all warm and giddy when Buck immediately widens his stance to accommodate him. Wrapping his arms around Buck’s torso, Eddie presses closer.
“That’s okay,” Eddie says easily. “You can drink sangria on the sidelines with the rest of the spouses who only come to watch.”
This time, it’s Buck’s turn to blush.