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“I just don’t understand!”
Buck speed-walked ahead of Chim, obviously trying to avoid the conversation. “There’s nothing to understand!”
The two of them finally made it to the kitchen for the dinner that they so desperately needed after that last call, but Chim felt that this was a more pressing matter. And by the looks on their teammates' faces, they had overheard them talking as they were walking up the steps and were just as invested. Curious looks painted all of their faces as Buck sat down and started shoveling food in his mouth. An avoidance technique, Chim figured.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Hen said, sounding amused, “what’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on!” Buck groaned. He then turned his fork and jabbed it in Chim’s direction. “He’s just being nosy.”
They were all sitting around the table as usual - Bobby at the head, Chim and Hen on one side and Buck and Eddie the other. Ravi typically floated back and forth between seats, but today had chosen to sit on the same side as Hen and Chim.
Eddie raised an eyebrow at Buck, who very pointedly would not meet his best friend’s eyes.
“As we were leaving that last call, some lady tried giving Buck her phone number! But get this - he said no!” Chim explained, gesturing wildly as he did so.
Buck leveled him with an annoyed glare. “Random hook-ups aren’t my scene anymore. You guys know that.”
Chim waved him off. “She seemed like she genuinely wanted to get to know you! And you’re single, so I don’t know why you didn’t take her up on it. I mean, really thinking about it, I haven’t seen you take interest in anyone in, like, a month. It’s almost like you’re…”
His eyes got wide as he trailed off in shock of his realization, but Hen beat him to the punch. Stupid best friend telepathy.
“You’re dating someone!” Hen exclaimed. “Buckaroo, why didn’t you tell us? This is exciting stuff!”
“It’s new, okay?” Buck sighed in resignation. “We’re still figuring things out.”
Chim scoffed. They’re a team! They tell each other things like this! Buck had never been shy before, so it was weird for Chim to see the man look so bashful. That’s when he noticed that Eddie had stayed suspiciously silent throughout the revelation, usually never one to pass up an opportunity for teasing Buck.
“You!” Chim narrowed his eyes and jabbed an accusatory finger at Eddie. The man in question froze like a deer in headlights, looking far more panicked than Chim expected. “You know who Buck is dating, don’t you?! Have you met them? Do we know them?”
For some reason, Eddie deflated with what looked like relief. Buck, although still outwardly annoyed with Chim for the interrogation, failed to hide a small smile. Chim figured it was because of the pronouns he had used. Ever since Buck had come out to the team as bisexual, they all had switched from “she” to “they” when discussing his love life. It seemed to validate Buck a lot, so he was happy to do it.
Eddie huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I know who Buck is dating.”
Buck elbowed him, but continued eating without a word. Chim slapped one of his hands on the table in mock outrage.
“How come Eddie gets to know, but we don’t?” He whined.
Eddie and Buck shared a quick look with each other while he waited for a response from them. After whatever kind of weird mind-reading conversation they had, Eddie turned back to Chim with a smirk.
“Because he loves me more than you guys.”
“Blasphemy!” Chim yelled, standing up as he did so, his chair squeaking at the sudden movement.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Bobby said, and Chim sat back down sheepishly. He had sort of forgotten that their captain was there. “Eat your food before the next call.”
So Chim started shoveling fork-fulls of food into his mouth, all the while glaring at Buck and Eddie, who seemed very smug over on their side of the table.
God dammit, mark his words, he was going to figure out who Buck was dating.
“This is impossible!” Chim groaned. “He’s so much better at keeping this a secret than I thought he would be.”
It had only been three days since the 118 had discovered that Buck had a mystery partner. Everyone else seemed to have let the matter go, but not Chimney. No, not him. It was eating him alive. He wasn’t good at keeping secrets, sure, but not knowing them could drive him insane sometimes.
Hen sighed for what seemed like the millionth time since their shift had started, and they were only thirty minutes in. She held a coffee cup in one hand and braced herself against the counter with the other. She was also looking at Chim like he was stupid.
“Can’t you just let it go? He’ll tell us when he’s ready.”
Chim shook his head. “Nuh-uh! He’s keeping it all a secret on purpose now because he knows it’s killing me inside!”
Ravi wrinkled his nose. “I think you’re being a little dramatic.”
“Shut it, probie.”
“I’m not a-”
“Not a probie anymore, I know, I know.” Chimney said, rolling his eyes. “I’m being serious! He’s hanging it over my head! He- he’s baiting me!”
Neither Hen nor Ravi responded, simply giving him blank stares. Okay, maybe he sounded a little crazy but…it was Buck’s fault! Curse the Buckley siblings for always keeping him on his toes.
He ran a hand over his face with a sigh. “Look, yesterday Buck casually dropped in conversation that he was going to see his partner later after the shift. So I decided that after work, I would discreetly follow him back to wherever he went-”
“Chim!”
“Isn’t that like, considered stalking?” Ravi wondered aloud.
Chim shushed him before continuing. “Anyway, he led me in circles for an hour. In the end, he ended up just going to Eddie’s house! He knew I was following him and totally did it on purpose.”
Hen took a sip of her coffee, closing her eyes with an expression of pure resignation. “How do you know that for sure? Maybe his plans changed, and he wanted to go on a drive before heading over to Eddie’s. His date was probably canceled or something.”
“Well,” Chimney said, rubbing the back of his neck, “after he parked his car in Eddie’s driveway, he sorta flipped me off.”
“You didn’t at least keep some distance while stalking our friend?!”
Ravi nodded sagely. “It’s good that you’re a firefighter, Chim. I think you would make a bad police detective.”
Chimney, as the grown, married adult with children that he was, stuck his tongue out at the kid. Hen snickered and high-fived him, the traitor. Buck and Eddie, who had been restocking the ambulance, took that moment to walk over and join the conversation.
Buck grinned. “Are we talking about Chimney’s wild-goose-chase yesterday?”
“See!”
Hen just shook her head and walked away, clearly done with entertaining their nonsense. Ravi’s eyes darted between the three of them a few times before he also left, muttering something about how he was just going to just mind his own business from now on.
Chim whipped his attention back to Buck and Eddie, the former smirking at him. Narrowing his eyes, Chimney went to say something when-
He saw a…hickey?
He had to blink a couple times, but there it was. Just barely peeking out above the collar of his shirt was a purple bruise on Buck’s neck. Chim let his jaw drop, his brain going into overdrive.
“B-but…you were at Eddie’s house all night! When did you get that hickey?!”
Buck’s smirk slipped from his face as his hand quickly shot to his neck to cover the mark. Obviously, he had not been planning on Chimney seeing that little bit of evidence.
Suddenly, it dawned on him. His eyes widened as he looked back and forth between Buck and Eddie. “Holy shit. It’s Eddie. You’re dating Eddie.”
Buck opened his mouth to speak, probably to try to deny it, but no words came out. He just gaped like a fish, finally giving up and looking over to Eddie for help. Eddie sighed, but then he took a step forward and placed a hand on Chimney’s shoulder. The two of them made intense eye contact, which made Chim sweat a little because good god Eddie can be intimidating when he wants.
But the intimidating glare was gone as soon as it came, replaced by a smug little grin on the man’s face. Chimney watched him suspiciously.
Eddie leaned in a little bit closer to whisper in his ear. “Nobody will ever believe you.”
With that, he patted Chim on the shoulder as if they had just had a normal bro-talk, then took Buck by the hand and dragged him away. Chimney couldn’t help but stand there, frozen in shock.
“It’s Eddie?!”