Chapter Text
Buck’s first mistake is trusting Chimney with such important information. It wasn’t his real intention, but he still did. It had been two months since he had broken up with Tommy and one month since Eddie had come out - to him first, the rest of the firehouse second, Buck proudly points it out every chance he gets - and well, Buck really needed to tell Maddie his new discovery so he walked inside the Buckley-Han household and blurred out I’m in love with Eddie thinking Chimney wasn’t there. Anyway the man promised not to tell anything to Eddie and Buck has to give him credit he was doing a good job without being too suspicious.
His second mistake was believing Chimney’s text.
From Chim: Eddie is moving back to El Paso, he is already at the airport, his plane leaves in 2 hours!
Thinking back it was so clear that it was a big lie, but Buck was a man in love that thought he was losing the man he loved forever. Every rational thought left his head.
That’s how Buck ends up at LAX rushing through the crowd to the ticket office after trying to spot Eddie in the crowd with no success meaning he will have to go through security to find him.
“What’s the cheapest flight you have that leaves now you can get me?” He asks a little breathless, passing his ID to the poor young woman that is surely not paid enough to deal with his shit right now.
She stares at him like he has grown another head before she composes herself and start typing on her computer, “The closest and cheapest thing I have is Las Vegas in-”
He doesn't even let her finish which he will regret being rude to her later and nods “That will do, I just need it to go through security.” He says like she cares.
She blinks at him twice before shrugging and going back to typing again, “It’s 68 dollars for the flight plus 20 for the extra Fast Track.” She informs.
He passes her his credit card and types his code without looking, his eyes scanning the screens to see the number of the gate for El Paso where Eddie must be waiting right now.
“Here’s your ticket, sir.” She says slipping the ticket under the plastic divider.
“Thank you.” He says before sprinting away toward the security priority line.
She is probably gonna think he is going crazy and she may be right. He just spent eighty eight dollars on a plane ticket he may never use if things go well. If Eddie rejects him then he may use a trip to Vegas, but he is positive that the ticket will be wasted.
He keeps an eye on the time as he waits in line, even the Fast Track line is filled with people that actually need to go faster.
“Do you want to go before me, son?” The lady in front of him asks looking up to him, she chuckles at his surprised face, “You have nothing on you, it will take you a second.”
He thinks about it, he really doesn’t want to slow down this nice lady, but the want of leaving this line and run to Eddie’s gate is stronger so he nods, “That’s really kind, ma’am, thank you.” He says as he moves in front of her, his belongings already in hand to put them in the little lid to go under the scan.
She smiles up to him, “I hope you get where you have to go in time.” She says sincerely, squeezing his forearm.
He smiles back and before he can thank her properly again, the guard is calling for him to pass under the scan. After security all he has to do is find the gate for El Paso, 16. No bus needed, he just has to run through the Terminal as fast as he can. He has less than thirty minutes before Eddie’s plane is supposed to leave.
He tries his best not to dump on people and to apologize if he does, it only happens twice because they got in the way to late to avoid them, but all considering his run is going smoothly.
“Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight AXP66 to El Paso. We are now inviting those passengers with small children, and any passenger requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time at gate number 16. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately 5 minutes time. Thank you.” a female voice announces from the loud speakers of the Terminal.
Buck doesn’t have much time left and people seem to know because running is getting difficult as the gates are busier the more he goes around the Terminal and he can only walk fast to avoid tripping into people camping around.
“Fourteen, fifteen,” he counts looking up to big signs with the numbers, and then his gaze moves down to the people lining up at the next gate and his eyes find him so easily.
Eddie is sitting in one of the chairs, Buck knows that he always wait for most of the people to board before getting up, “The plane doesn’t leave until we are all in, there’s no need to stand that long in line.” he had said during a discussion at the firehouse’s table.
He stops a few steps away from where the other man is, hands on his knees to take a breath after all the running, “Eddie!” He calls out and watches as Eddie looks around searching for the source of the sound.
His eyes wide when they land on Buck.
“Buck?” Eddie says getting up from his chair and walking the distance to stop in front of him, “What the hell are you doing here?” He asks looking around like there may be an answer behind Buck.
“Don’t move back to El Paso.” Buck starts and he needs to say everything without getting interrupted or he will chicken out so when he notices Eddie is about to say something he lifts a hand to stop him and starts talking again, “I love you. I’m in love with you, and I’ve been for a very long time but I only recently realized and I can’t let you leave without telling you how important you are to me. You are the best person I ever met, and you make me so happy, Eddie, every time we hang out I’m myself, I don’t have to play a part and hide my flaws because you don’t care about them. And listen I don’t care if you don’t love me back but please, please, stay here in Los Angeles. We can convince Christopher to come back too and everything will go back to normal.” He is breathless, he can’t read Eddie’s face, his heart is racing in his chest and he is pretty sure many people are looking at them, "Don't leave me.” he adds in a whisper.
Eddie smiles and Buck can’t help but smile back, small and shy. “I don’t know who told you, but I’m not moving back to El Paso.” he says chuckling.
“No?” Buck asks to make sure and Eddie shakes his head.
“I’m going to take Christopher.” Eddie explains with a big smile. Buck is gonna kill Chimney with his bare hands. Before he can ask why he didn’t tell him, Eddie is stopping him like he did minutes earlier, “He wanted to be here for when I was gonna tell you that I’m in love with you so he could cheer me up in case you rejected me.” He says with an easy smile taking a step closer. “And if I have anything to say about it, I’ll never leave you.” He adds taking another step closer, until they are chest to chest, Eddie has to lift his chin just a bit to look him in the eyes. It’s an open invitation.
And Buck has been a strong man so far keeping his hands to himself, but everyone has a breaking point and Eddie’s rosy cheek, his breath meeting his between them, their hearts beating against each other's chests where they touch are definitely Buck’s breaking point.
His hands grip Eddie’s soft sides; Eddie’s hands end up on Buck’s chest gripping his shirt and then Buck is kissing Eddie and Eddie is kissing him back. Their lips molding together like they are meant to move against each other. And maybe they are, Buck thinks they are because no kiss felt as good as this one and the reason is that everything is better with Eddie. The thought hits him like a train, this is the last first kiss of his life, with the love of his life and it’s happening in the middle of a very busy airport where people are watching.
People around them are clapping, someone is whistling, someone shouts some homophobic stuff and someone else shouts him to shut the fuck up, but all Buck’s mind can really focus is Eddie in his arms, their lips and soft sighs leaving Eddie’s lips from time to time like he can’t quite believe this is happening either.
Someone next to them clears their throat.
When Buck gathers the strength to break the kiss and open his eyes, there’s a flight attendant looking extremely embarrassed and sorry, “I’m so very sorry to interrupt this very lovely moment, but we have to complete boarding.”
Eddie opens his eyes too and he looks so love drunk that Buck would really love to just kiss him again, but when he looks behind the flight attendant he can see the line - even if shorter than when he got there - is still very much there, people stopping to see their little scene. And well, Eddie has to go too.
“Yeah, sorry, he will be right there.” He says after he sees Eddie isn’t paying any attention to her besides nodding in acknowledgment.
She gives them a quick nod and walks back to do her job.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” He asks, voice low this time so that Eddie is the only one that can hear him.
“Because you would have wanted to come with me.” Eddie explains, which true, Buck would have taken the opportunity to be supportive and visit El Paso. “But I needed a day alone to organize how I was gonna confess my feelings once I got back, but I don’t need to do that anymore, you beat me to it.” He jokes, one of his hands smothering the shirt he was holding. Buck ducks his head with a smile, an apology on the tip of his tongue, “Don’t you dare apologizing for beating me at a love confession.” Eddie warns him, making him laugh because of course he knew what Buck was thinking.
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
Buck should let Eddie go, the plane is waiting for him, but now that he has him in his arms he can’t let go. And one of Eddie’s is still fisting his shirt. He places a hand on top of Eddie’s and it instantly opens, flattening on his chest.
“Christopher and I come back the day after tomorrow, if I text you the time will you pick us up?” Eddie asks, his voice soft as his eyes travel all over Buck’s face like he is afraid of forgetting it.
What a dumb question, he thinks, “Of course I will, I’ll be standing there with a ‘Love of my life and son’ sign waiting for you.” He says smiling big and squeezing Eddie’s hand.
Eddie throws his head back in a laugh, “Please, don’t.” He is trying to be serious but Buck knows he would love that. He does have paper and markers at the loft; he will start working on his sign when he gets home.
“Now go, before they leave without you.” He says, reluctantly letting go and Eddie takes a step back too nodding.
“I’ll text you as soon as I land.” He says passing his ID and ticket to the flight attendant without looking.
“Perfect.”
He looks around, people have gone back to minding their business, they aren’t interesting anymore.
“Just one more minute, please, we are not late yet.” He hears Eddie says and when he looks back to him, he is walking towards him again, the flight attendant shaking her head slightly but smiling.
“You really brought a plane ticket to stop me from leaving? Who even told you I was moving?” He asks once he is back in Buck’s space.
“Well yes, I had to get through security without the risk of getting arrested so I got myself a ticket.” He confesses taking the ticket out of his back pocket as proof. Eddie chuckles. “And Chimney texted me this morning, he was convincing.” He says shrugging.
Eddie kisses him again with no warning. Soft and slow, the right amount of tongue, because they may be causing a scene but they won’t go that far.
“I love you, Buck.” He says after breaking the kiss.
“I love you, too, Eddie.” Oh it’s so easy to say and so liberating to say it out loud, he can’t wait to repeat it every day, more than once a day.
Eddie pinches his side and walks back again. Turning every few times to wave at him, the flight attendant is laughing at him but let them wave at each other one last time before closing the door.
And now Buck is alone in the middle of Terminal 1 at LAX with a useless plane ticket in his back pocket because he will now go home and wait for the love of his life and his son to come back to him.
He skips his way towards the exit, receiving more than one annoyed look from the guards and from the ticket desk when he goes to let them know not to call for him when they will board for his flight that he won’t make it.
He sits in his Jeep and takes out his phone.
To Chim: I’m gonna kill you.
From Chim: So when are you two gonna get married?
It was the bastard, affectionative, plan all along. Two can play this game.
To Chim: soon ;)
He puts his phone away and drives home. He has a sign to work on.