Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

i. 

It all started from when Eddie had broken up with Ana.

And to be completely honest, deep down, Buck was really happy that it finally happened. He had never truly liked Ana—he always thought it was sort of awkward for Christopher to have his former teacher date his dad, but it also might be because he might have a tiny, tiny crush on his best friend.

Okay…so what if he did? Eddie would never reciprocate feelings for a guy. Let alone for Buck.

So, he pushed those feelings down a long time ago. He doesn’t want to ruin the already great relationship they have; a sort-of co-parenting of Christopher that reminds Buck that he does have a family. If he were to suddenly admit that he might be in love with his best friend, all of that would surely come crashing down.

Well, that’s what he thought before Eddie invited him to stay for dinner after a Saturday shift. He was already going to the Diaz’s house because Christopher had asked for help on one of his 5th grade assignments, so he thought he might as well stay.

“You good with tacos for dinner Buck?” Eddie asks from the kitchen.

He was sitting at their dinner table with Christopher, who had many printed-out pictures of colorful animals spread out. His assignment was to create a poster board of his assigned ecosystem. Christopher was given the ocean ecosystem, which was really broad, but they were working with it.

“Yeah, sounds good. Thanks Eds.” He replied as he started to glue on a picture of a squid onto the left side of the board. He then let Christopher write in large red bubble letters, “Giant Squid.” It wasn’t perfect, but it’s not like Buck could do any better.

When the food arrives, Chris and him decide to take a break from the project and eat their tacos. In the middle of their eating, Christopher says, “My stomach hurts. I’m going to use the bathroom.” He then gets up and makes his way down the hall.

That’s when Eddie puts down his food and looks up at him.

“Hey Buck?” Eddie says, somewhat staring at him.

Buck glances across the table back at him, food still in mouth. He tries to finish chewing his food. “Yeah?” he replies.

“Remember how I broke up with Ana?” Eddie asks, looking down again at his half-eaten food.

And how could Buck ever forget the breakup? When he heard the news, he had to fight every muscle in his face from smiling too much. It’s not his fault that his heart swelled when he heard it come out of Eddie’s mouth, it’s just that he might like—why is he lying—loves his best friend. He’s so desperately in love with him that it’s starting to make Buck implode a little on the inside.  A small thought in his head was telling him to kiss him right then and there and tell Eddie how he felt, but he shot that idea down immediately.

Instead, he just put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder and gave it a light pat while giving Eddie some comforting words. They then went their separate ways later that night, leaving Buck to wonder what would’ve happened if he had confessed.

Buck is then brought back to the present, as Eddie is still looking at him, waiting for an answer.

“Uh… yeah, I do remember. Last month, right?” He recalls. He remembers that Eddie told him the night they broke up. Buck remembers their conversation vividly.  That means it’s been twenty-four days since then, but it’s not like Buck is counting or anything.

“Is everything alright?” Buck adds, eyeing his best friend a little suspiciously.

Eddie kind of chuckles a little—almost like he’s nervous.

What would he be nervous about?

Eddie then turns his head to the side slightly. “Depends on what you define 'alright' as.” He says as he starts to scratch the back of his head, which Buck uses to confirm that Eddie is definitely nervous about something.

Which makes Buck become a little worried, as Eddie is not the type of person to be really nervous about something. Let alone asking Buck a question.

“What do you mean by that?” Buck asks while looking at him with a hint of worry in his blue eyes.

“So… Christopher has a parent-teacher conference that I have to go to on Monday. And the thing is, Ana is one of the vice-principals at the school, and I really don’t want to see her. She’s definitely going to be there. And if she sees me, she’ll probably pull me aside to have a very awkward conversation and I really don’t want that.” Eddie replies, looking back up at Buck and giving him a nervous smile.

The smile makes Buck’s heart want to explode. But the only thing he can do is act like it doesn’t.

“Okay, so… what do you want me to do about it?” He asks, trying his best to put a confused look on his face.

And it seems to have worked, as Eddie moves a little in his chair before looking at Buck straight in the eye.

“I was gonna ask… if you wanted to go to the conference.” Eddie says.

Why is that even a question? Of course Buck would go. Christopher is basically his son, why wouldn’t he? As much as he doesn’t like to admit it, Buck loves both of the Diaz boys with his all of his heart. Maybe even a tad bit more.

“Eddie, of course I’ll go, Chris is basically my-“

“-with me. As like… I don’t know, pretend to be my husband or-or partner or something.” Eddie cuts him off while struggling to get the words out of his mouth.

Oh.

When the words hit his ears, Buck freezes. He might be completely frozen on the outside, but he’s pretty sure his heart quite literally exploded.

Did he hear that right? Husband? Did Eddie just ask Buck to be his husband?

Okay well, pretend husband, but it still makes him blush a deep shade of pink. He can feel the blush coming from his neck up to his temples.

He gets why Eddie is so nervous asking him this question; it’s almost like Eddie is asking him out—which Buck has only ever dreamed of happening.

But it’s not happening, and he has to pull himself together before he somehow manages to confess his feelings accidentally. He knows that Eddie doesn’t like him like that. He’s just asking a favor—a favor from his best friend.

It still doesn’t explain why Eddie was so clearly anxious about asking Buck.

Ignoring it however, Buck replies with: “Your husband?  To a parent-teacher conference?” He can’t help but let out a small laugh when repeating it. He can’t believe that it's even happening.

Eddie shifts uncomfortably in response to his chuckle, which makes Buck feel terrible. He never intended for Eddie to be embarrassed.

“Eds.” Buck says, trying to get Eddie’s attention back towards him, “You’re asking—” He pauses to give Eddie a playful smile, “—You want me to pretend to be your husband so you can avoid your crazy ex who happens to want to get back with you? Did I get that right?”

“You know what, never-mind. Forget it.  I knew it was a bad idea.” Eddie says, quickly backtracking.

“Eddie.” This time, Buck says it with a more sincere tone. “I’ll help protect you from Ana. I’ve got you covered man. That’s what best friends are for.”

And even though Buck wants to be more than best friends—hell, he wants to marry Eddie for real, this might be the best he can get. And it’s what he’ll work with. He doesn’t care about the butterflies that fly in his stomach whenever he’s around Eddie. He doesn’t care about the voices in his head that tell him that he is in love with Eddie. He doesn’t care that whenever they are close, he starts to itch for Eddie’s touch. He truly does not care.

He will not ruin the friendship that he has. He just can’t. It’s unfair for Eddie—and for Christopher. Buck can’t imagine what Christopher would say when his father would tell him why Buck doesn’t come around to the Diaz house anymore.

“Thanks, Buck. I really do owe you one.” Eddie says after a moment.

“Don’t worry man, I’ve got your back.” Buck says, giving Eddie a reassuring nod.

***

Buck would be lying if he said he was okay. Because, deep down, Buck was extremely nervous.

But he had to be strong for Eddie. Eddie would for sure panic if they encountered Ana.

So when Monday night finally rolls around, Buck drives over to Eddie’s house with a mask of confidence. When Eddie gets into his passenger seat, he can’t help but notice how attracted he is to Eddie.

Eddie, whose job forces him to be in shape, has a great body. His brown hair and eyes also build up a face that Buck just wants to caress all the time. And although Eddie is wearing a plain black t-shirt and grey jeans, (the most basic outfit of all time?), he still looks handsome.

But what Buck loves about Eddie is how much love he brings to everyone he knows. Eddie brings love to everyone—the people he saves, his friends, his family, his son, and sometimes, Buck. He’s never met someone who, despite all of the things that have happened over the years, manages to bring so much care and love.

“Thanks Buck, for doing this.” Eddie says as he fastens his seatbelt. “I uh—brought these.” Eddie quietly extends his arm out and opens his hand to where Buck can see two shiny rings.

If they were actually married and wore these rings, Buck would’ve been convinced that they were real. They looked as if Eddie had gotten it from an actual jeweler and not from some random store.

As much as Buck wanted to pretend that this was all real, he decided to just take the ring and not make a big deal about it.

“Thanks.” He said, before sliding it onto this ring finger. Somehow, it fit perfectly. It slid right on without any difficulties; Eddie’s was the same way.

Buck then powered on the car and started driving. He followed the GPS directions to the school’s address that Eddie had texted him yesterday.

The closer they get to the school, the more that Buck can tell that Eddie is nervous. Buck notices throughout the drive that Eddie would start to fidget with his hands in a certain pattern. He would interlock his hands and then move his pointer fingers up and down.  He would also look out the window, trying to avoid returning Buck’s somewhat hearty gaze. Buck could see him doing it in the corner of his eye. 

When they enter the school’s parking lot, Buck sees that Eddie is sweating his hands off.

He parks the car in one of the few empty lots left. After that, they both get out of the car and start to make their way to the school.

In truth, Buck is just as anxious about this fake “marriage” as Eddie is. However, he thinks he’s doing a good job at concealing it.

If you had told the him from two weeks ago that he would be would be holding Eddie’s hand in public, he would have probably punched you because you were out of your mind.

But then again, here he was, about to stick his hand out for Eddie. Buck stops and turns around to face Eddie. When Eddie also stops, Buck takes the chance to hold out his hand to the man—almost like an invitation to join him.

Instead of taking his hand though, Eddie just looks at him as if he were a lunatic. Looking closer though, Buck could see a tiny shade of pink forming on the man’s face.

“What?” Buck questioned, raising his eyebrow. He hints a dash of playfulness through a smile that only left Eddie blushing even more.

“If we’re husbands or partners, we gotta hold hands,” Buck adds, still waiting for Eddie. By then, Eddie seems to get a hold of himself and takes Buck’s hand. “You’re right.” Eddie says as they walk towards the school, almost completely in sync with each other.

The entrance of elementary school has a front office where all of the parents have to sign in. Buck assumed that usually the person who would sign everyone in would be a secretary or some sort of assistant, but when they get to the front of the line, Eddie and him come face to face with the one person who they had hoped to avoid tonight.

Ana.

—And she quickly gives Eddie a smile, almost as if she was preparing for this.

“Mr. Diaz? Hi!” Ana says in a tone that Buck did not like. It was almost flirty. Actually, it was definitely flirty. “I know you’re here for Christopher.” She adds as she checks something off on her sign-in sheet.

“Yeah, we are.” Eddie replies, monotonously. Buck can feel the sweat in Eddie’s hands though, which honestly, gross, but he gives Eddie a reassuring squeeze to make sure that he knows that Buck is there for him.

When Ana picks her head up from her sheet, she gives Eddie a certain look.

“Edmundo… I was kind of hoping that we could have a—talk.”

There was no one behind them in line, (of course there weren’t), and their conference with Ms. Hernandez didn’t actually start for another 15 minutes, so they were definitely going to have to talk to Ana. Eddie turned to him, giving him a look before moving his head back to Ana.

“Uh… sure, I guess.” Eddie replies. Hearing this, Ana gets up from her seat at the sign-in table and walks around it towards Eddie.

And out of all things that Ana could’ve done in that moment that would have made Buck even more agitated that he already was, Ana decided to do the worst.

She walks up to Eddie and crashes her lips straight onto Eddie’s, and it makes Buck want to burn.

Eddie, who freezes because he wasn’t expecting it, steps back and breaks the kiss just as quickly as it occurs. Ana’s face breaks into a face of disappointment, but she immediately gathers herself.

“Listen, Edmundo, I know we didn’t end things on the best note, but I really thought that we could have had a future together. I know you wanted it too.” A single tear comes streaming down Ana’s left eye. Buck can tell she's trying her best to be sincere. “I’ve been thinking about you everyday since we broke up, and I love you so much that I can’t get you out of my head. So, with all of my heart, I wanted to ask if we could have a redo—a second chance.” Ana was now fully staring at Eddie with her sad brown eyes, tears ruining the makeup that Buck assumes she probably put a lot of effort into.

Uhm, hello??  Buck is right there, holding Eddie’s hand. Is she blind?

“Ana,” Buck cuts into Ana's sob story, trying to catch her attention without showing his irritation.

God knows how much Buck wants to cuss this woman out and send her on her way, but he knows that he can’t do that since they’re in public and he doesn’t want to make a scene.

“I’m sorry for how things…turned out for you, but—“ Buck pauses and stares directly into Ana’s annoying, guilt-tripping eyes while making sure to pick up Eddie’s hand and show it to Ana. “—Eddie and I… are married.”

If only Buck could’ve taken a picture of the look on Ana’s face. He probably would’ve printed it out and framed it up somewhere.

“Wait, what?” Ana questions, clearly confused. “Edmundo, we broke up only a month ago, how did you already get…married?” She gives a hostile side-eye to Buck, “especially…to him.”

And that’s when Buck’s patience broke.

“You know what Ana? This conversation is done.” Buck announces sternly. He’s probably being too harsh on Ana.

But then again, Buck is burning with jealousy, so he couldn’t care less.

“I cannot believe you had the nerve to come over here, kiss my husband, and then think you can just walk away with a boyfriend,” Buck scoffs.

When Buck looks back over at Eddie, he’s surprised to see that Eddie is staring at him. And this stare was different from all of the looks he’s seen from Eddie before—this stare was with…love?

It’s the way Buck stares at Eddie when he’s not looking, the stare when Eddie gives him a plate of food or when he saves someone from a fire. It’s the stare that Buck gives him when they’re watching a show with Christopher. When they’re a family of three. His family of three.

He knows it because it’s the look he gives Eddie all of the time.

And if Buck didn’t die from jealousy, he would definitely die from the love eyes that Eddie was giving him right now.

“Come on, hon.” Eddie says, which makes Buck’s heart swell just a little, “We have to go to the conference.” Eddie put his arm over Buck’s shoulder and starts to move him down the hall away from Ana, who was still frozen from the (slight) outburst that Buck had.

As they walk down the hallway, Eddie's arm is still draped over Buck's neck. Eddie gives his shoulder a light-hearted squeeze. When he takes his arm off, Buck is a little disappointed. At this point, Buck will take any contact with the man.

“Well, that was some quite good acting you had there, Buckley,” Eddie says, giving him a light pat on the back.

“What can I say? She was hitting on my husband,” Buck replies, winking at Eddie.

Still holding hands, they make their way down the hallway towards Ms. Hernandez’s classroom for the first conference. After that whole ordeal with Ana, it really makes Buck think,

I wonder what it’s like

to be loved by you,

Eddie.

Chapter Text

ii.

To Eddie, it was just yesterday when Christopher was five, sitting on the floor of their living room assembling a, mind you, very expensive Lego set of Avenger’s Tower. Buck says that he spoils the kid too much, but he begs to differ. Christopher is the best son he could ever ask for. He most definitely deserves all of the love that he gets—especially from him and Buck.

So, seeing his now twelve-year-old son move across the stage of Riverchase Elementary’s auditorium stage almost brings tears to his eyes.

“And the recipients for Principal’s Award this year are,” Mr. Farrell, the principal, announces before pausing, “Christopher Diaz, Michelle Jones, and Patrick Brewer!”

Eddie immediately starts to yell and cheer for Christopher as he gets up from his seat and moves to receive his award along with Michelle and Patrick. The families of the other two recipients start to express their pride by cheering too. Other parents clap for the winners, but the only other person to be cheering for his son is none other than Christopher’s honorary dad.

Buck.

And if Eddie was being completely honest, Buck is Christopher’s father in every way but blood. Buck is the one picking up Christopher from school. Buck is the one comforting Christopher with things that Eddie can’t help with. Buck is the one who saved Christopher during the tsunami. Buck loves Christopher as if he were his own. How can Buck not be Christopher’s father? Ever since they met each other in the 118, his best friend stepped into and filled a very big hole in Christopher’s life. After Shannon had passed, Eddie for sure thought he would never find someone to help him with raising Christopher. But Buck had been there for every step of the way, and Eddie couldn’t ever repay him back for all the things he’s done for them. If god forsaken something ever were to happen to him, the person he would trust the most to take care and raise Christopher, is Buck. The one that gains guardianship over Christopher in his will is Buck.

Not his parents, not his sisters, and definitely not any of his ex-girlfriends.

“I need to get a picture of this!” Buck exclaims in excitement as he rushes out of seat and quickly makes his way to the front. There, he snaps a picture of Christopher’s bright smile as he holds up his award standing next to Mr. Farrell and Ms. Hernandez.

And that’s when Eddie feels a lump in his chest. It doesn’t hurt though—it’s more like—more like a swelling sense of…pride? He’s not sure where it came from. It’s the adrenaline, right? Seeing his son win the award and Buck sharing the same excitement with him made him swell in pride, right? It’s Christopher’s smile that makes him so overjoyed—so much so that his heart got dangerously close to melting, right?

“And that’s it for the Riverchase 5th Grade Graduation. Thank you parents, friends, and families for coming tonight and supporting these kids as they begin a new chapter in their lives. Have a good night, all.” Mr. Farrell says through the microphone before stepping off the stage to talk to some parents.

That’s Eddie’s cue to go find his golden kid. He gets up from his seat toward the back and tries to navigate his way through the seemingly endless stream of people making their way out of the auditorium. Once Eddie manages to swerve through the crowd, he makes it to the front, where he can see Christopher still beaming at his award.

“Chris!” Eddie calls out, which causes Chris to look up in his direction. He gets over to Chris in record time and scoops him up in a massive bear hug.

“I’m so proud of you, bud!” Eddie exclaims, unable to hide his pride for his son.

“Thanks, Dad!” Christopher exclaims back, “I can’t believe I got it!”

“Well, I can. You’re amazing.” Eddie says lovingly, pulling away from the hug, but still holding Chris by the shoulders. “Your Dad and I are so proud of you.”

Eddie muscles tense after he realizes what he has said. It slipped out of his mouth. There’s still so many people in auditorium, so he’s hoping that no one heard it over the countless other conversations happening in the room. He said it so quickly that he didn’t even process it at first.

Did he just say that? It’s not a false statement by any means—he was just thinking about how Buck is co-parenting Christopher with him. The thing is, he said “Your Dad and I,” which suggests that he and Buck are—are together.

That can’t be right. Buck is his best friend. He loves Buck but—but not like that, right? He has Buck, but he doesn’t  have Buck. He’s not in love with his best friend. Definitely.

Sure, he might’ve sometimes stared at Buck for a little too long while he wasn’t looking or wished that Buck would hug him for a tiny bit longer—but that doesn’t mean he has a crush on his best friend. Pfft…you’re crazy. Eddie just cherishes their friendship a lot. He definitely doesn’t secretly wish that Buck would move in with them. He definitely doesn’t wake up in the morning and look at the other side of the bed, expecting to see Buck sleeping next to him.

Eddie repeats,

He is not in love with Evan Buckley.

“I know. He was telling me when he was taking my picture.” Christopher says, looking up at him.

Speaking of Buck, where was he? The last time Eddie saw him was when he taking the picture. After that, he just disappeared. He tried to look around for Buck, which Christopher seemed to take notice.

“He went out there somewhere” Chris says as he points towards the auditorium exit, reading Eddie’s mind. “A bunch of Moms were talking to him after he took my picture.”

A bunch of Moms? Talking to Buck?

“I’m going to talk to my friends, Dad,” Chris says, turning around in the direction of his friends, who were talking on the other side of the stage.

“Thanks, bud,” Eddie replies, still amazed on how observant Christopher was, “I’ll go find him, then we’ll meet you back by the entrance, alright?”

“Okay, go find him.” Christopher responds, as he gives Eddie a soft smile before going over. Eddie’s never seen that smile from his son before. It was a different type of smile—it was almost like Chris wanted to say something but decided against it at the last second.

Eddie is still perplexed by the prospect of Buck getting hoarded by a bunch of Moms, so instead of replying to his son, he just gives him an understanding nod. Eddie then turns towards the direction of the exit to find the best friend he is definitely not in love with.

By now, the auditorium had lost most of its population, so getting to the exit was a lot easier than the stage. When he makes it to the door, he looks outside to see a parking lot still full of people. There are many clusters of people; most of them families congratulating their kid and taking pictures. That’s when he spots Buck, who is surrounded by a couple of woman.

And they look like they’re flirting with him. He can tell because Buck is in the middle, trying to contain a flush that Eddie could probably see from space. Buck is probably trying to be polite and respectfully shoot down the suggestions before they get too out-of-hand.

Seeing this from afar, Eddie can feel another feeling appear in his chest, but this time, it’s not pride.

Wait. Is he—jealous?

No. It can’t be. He’s not in love with Buck. He’s not jealous that three women are flirting with his husb-best friend.

Eddie decides that he needs to help Buck, so   he scales down the steps in record time and quickly walks over to where Buck is. He hasn’t noticed him yet, but Eddie is close enough to hear their conversation. Buck is turned away from him, but he still tries to hide. He stands behind a family, eavesdropping on Buck and the moms.

“—and what do you work as, Mr. Buckley?” One of the moms, who he now recognizes as Patrick’s mom Pam, says flirtatiously.

“I’m a firefighter.” Buck answers charmingly. He gives her a kind smile—nothing indicating that he is interested in her. Despite this, Daniella’s mom Laura, the other mom, decides to push it further.

“Oh, a firefighter? That explains why you look so good…” she says, while giving Buck a suggestive look and dragging her nail up and down Buck’s bicep.

“Uhm—thanks, ha-ha-“ Buck replies, awkwardly. He takes a tiny step back away from the three moms, who still haven’t gotten the hint.

The third mom—who Eddie thinks is Logan’s mom Lana, takes a bold step forward. “Who are you here for, Mr. Buckley? I don’t remember a Buckley kid being called,” She says, batting her eyelashes at Buck. “And if you don’t have anything, I wouldn’t mind if you came over later for our celebration party…”

Eddie should probably interfere and help his best friend escape, but the tiny part of him that wants to hear what Buck has to say is holding him back.

“Oh, my husband and I came for our son, Christopher. And thank you, but we’ll probably go out for our own celebratory dinner.”

Buck says it so casually that it makes Eddie freeze for a second.

Did Buck just call him his husband? And that Christopher is their son? He’s not delusional, right?

Eddie’s heart can’t take this. Okay, sure.

He might be in love with Buck. Just a tiny, tiny, bit.

He’s known all long—he’s just never wanted to admit it. But hearing that come out of Buck’s mouth only confirms it. As if the way his heart fluttered when he heard Buck say “husband” is any indicator of it.

But Buck was doing that show. He is just too nice to just straight up reject them, so he says a lie to blatantly get the message across that he’s not into any of them.

It’s exactly what they did last time at the parent-teacher conference to get Eddie away from Ana.

Sure, it was his idea to begin with, but he thought it was just a one-and done type of thing. He thought that after doing it, he and Buck would let it stay in the past, never to be brought up again. He never expected that he and Buck were going to keep using it to get out of other awkward situations. Although it was slightly embarrassing, Eddie couldn’t lie and say that the lie didn’t work—because it did. It worked absolute wonders in getting the message of him moving on across to Ana, who was still somewhat in a state of denial. In that department, you could technically say that it has a one-hundred percent success-rate.

But’s that not the problem. The thing that has Eddie’s mind racing is the fact that Buck called Eddie his husband so nonchalantly. They didn’t even plan or talk about it beforehand. Buck just said it as if it was actually true and it wasn’t just a last-minute improvised performance.

Maybe one day, all of it—Buck moving in with them, he and Buck getting married for real, all three of them becoming a true family unit—could become true. That’s a big maybe though. Buck would need to requite that love to Eddie if any of that were to happen.

And if Buck truly did love him like that, wouldn’t he had said something by now? He knows Buck—he wears his heart on his sleeve ninety percent of the time.

Which all but confirms that Buck does not in fact return those feelings.

Eddie has got to somehow drop these feelings before he makes their friendship awkward. He can’t imagine what he would do if he lost Buck. He doesn’t want to lose his best friend—Christopher’s second dad.

When he hears one of the moms respond, Eddie blinks his way back into the present.

“Husband? Who?” Patrick’s mom, Pam, asks skeptically.

But for now, Eddie can play pretend. He gets out of his hiding spot and closes the gap between him and Buck. He walks to the right of Buck and wraps his left arm to where his hand is placed on Buck’s waist.

Buck, being initially surprised to see him, quickly adjusts and wraps his right arm around Eddie’s back, leaving his hand on Eddie’s right shoulder.

“Speak of the devil,” Buck says, flashing the moms a charming smile, “This is my husband, Eddie.”

The faces of the three moms drop instantly. It was almost simultaneous too. The disappointment between the three of them is immense, Eddie can tell. The moms probably thought that one of them could take Buck home later that night.

“Hey, it’s so nice to meet y’all.” Eddie says, matching Buck’s smile. “I’m assuming you’ve already met my Buckley?”

“He was just telling us about himself…” Laura says, with a trace of uneasiness in her voice. “But we didn’t know he was a taken man!”

The lie seems to have worked yet again, just like last time at the parent-teacher conference. The three (presumably) single moms standing of him and Buck had looks on their faces that confirmed that they were completely thrown off. Eddie’s hoping that he made the situation awkward enough so he and Buck could escape. After all, they were flirting with a—fake—married man. If Eddie had ever found out that he had been flirting with someone who was married and his only choices were to face the embarrassment or throw himself off a cliff, he would probably choose the latter.

But he gets why there were so keen on catching Buck’s eye. At the end of day, Eddie is a single parent too, even if Buck is basically a co-parent. Buck is a tall, fit, handsome, and seemingly single man who has light blue eyes that would make anyone fall head over heels for him. He also has the personality of golden-retriever—everyone he meets has no choice but to love him. There is not a single soul on the planet that would hate Buck. When Buck gives away some of his love, he receives the love back, two-fold.

And as much as Eddie hates to admit it, that’s what he loves about Buck—it’s why he’s in love with Buck. 

When Shannon left, Eddie started to wonder who he would spend the rest of his life with, who would help raise Christopher. Before the divorce, he was 100% that it was her. What he hadn’t expected though, was that the person he actually wanted to spend the rest of his life with, was non-other than Buck.

Every time Buck comes close to Eddie, Eddie can feel the air he’s breathing start to hitch in his lungs. His heart would then start to beat out of his chest, while his skin starts to crave Buck’s soft touch—even if it came in the form of a hand to the shoulder or a light hug. Even a light pat on the back from Buck is enough to make Eddie’s heart flutter a little.

So, Eddie fully expects his heart to start working overtime if he continues to hold his hand in the dangerous spot known as Buck’s left hip. His heart might as well flatline if he hears Buck calls Eddie his husband again.

“I’ve been a taken man for three years.” Buck says while giving them a wink. He also squeezes Eddie’s shoulder while still giving Pam, Laura, and Lana a respectful smile.

Welp, there goes Eddie.

Eddie can feel the familiar blush suddenly take over his face—it’s a light shade of pink, and no matter what he does, it never disappears when Eddie needs it to. Instead, it just lingers for even longer, which makes the fact that he is hopelessly swooning even more obvious to literally everyone besides Buck.

“We should probably go find Chris, Eddie,” Buck says, locking eyes with him, “we still need to go to that celebratory dinner, after all.”

Oh yeah. With how much pining Eddie has secretly done in the past five minutes, he had completely forgotten about that.

As a reward, Christopher had wanted to go get a burger. Buck knew a good place down the street from the school, so they planned to head there once the graduation ceremony  ended.

“We probably should,” he barely manages to say. “He did say that he was looking forward to his cheeseburger.”

Using that as their queue, the Eddie and Buck quickly said their goodbyes to the moms and left their vicinity. Looking back behind him as they walked, Eddie could see that they were now huddled together like a bunch of teenagers, probably gossiping about Eddie and Buck. He wouldn’t be surprised if a rumor went around in the PTA group that Eddie was hiding a secret husband.

They walk towards the school, where Eddie can spot Christopher waiting outside the exit, talking with the same friends from earlier. On the way over, Buck play-punches Buck in the arm.

“Someone’s been working on their game lately.” He says, teasing Buck.

“You know it!” Buck responds, putting up finger guns and shooting them at Eddie.

“But seriously, how did you manage to get all three of them to be into you. You looked like you were getting preyed on over there.” Eddie says, while having a small laugh.

“One could say that people find me very attractive.” Buck replies, smirking at Eddie.

That one’s for sure. But Eddie won’t admit that, at least, not to Buck’s face.

“One could say that you were fumbling the bag.” Eddie counters, teasing Buck once again, “I saw how red you got from over here—you were practically a tomato.”

“Oh shut up, man.” Buck says while elbowing Eddie in the ribs. “If you were in that situation, you’d be redder than me.”

“Never.” Eddie replies, his mouth growing into a small smile.

Eddie’s lying—he’d be redder than hell.

When Buck and him reach Christopher, he gives his two dads a big hug. As promised, they then go to dinner at the cheeseburger place down the road.

The moment that the food comes, both Christopher and Buck hawk down their meals as if they had never eaten before. Eddie can’t help but smile as he watches—his two favorite people in the world couldn’t be any less different.

Buck pauses and takes a moment from devouring his food to look up at Eddie. They make eye-contact, and instead of breaking it, Buck matches his smile. Buck then takes his phone from his pocket and starts to swipe around for a few seconds before putting it down on the table after he seems satisfied.

That’s when Eddie’s phone gets a notification—a text message from Buck. When Eddie opens it, he is met with picture that will definitely be framed and hung somewhere in Diaz house. It’s a solo shot of Christopher with his award, beaming so brightly that Eddie’s sure that it could classify as a mini-sun.

When he closes the image and puts his phone in his pocket, he looks back up to witness Buck and Christopher still scarfing down their burgers. Seeing this, Eddie can’t help but feel perfectly content.

He’s with his family.

Chapter Text

iii.

The day of February 14th does not ring a very good bell in Buck’s head.

It’s the day of romance, the day where you celebrate your partner by going to a fancy dinner or an extravagant night out.  And you would think that for Valentine’s Day, Buck would go all out. You wouldn’t be wrong, that’s what he’s done in previous years—he would take all of his heart and pour it out to whoever he was dating at the time. First Abby, then Ali, and then Taylor.

But not this year.

The thing is, Buck is very, very single right now. And he has been for a while; he broke up with Taylor a while back when she had published that goddamn story without him knowing. He likes to say that he’s single and not ready to mingle. He just isn’t ready to go back into the dating pool.

And it probably doesn’t help that he is head over heels for his best friend. Secretly, of course.

So, this year, he had planned to do nothing for Valentine’s Day. It was for the best anyway—he does not have a good track record when it comes to February 14th. He remembers when he almost choked to death in front of Abby, who ended up saving him that night.

Point is, he was ready to just relax in his loft and maybe catch up on some of his favorite shows. He just wanted to do something that wasn’t remotely romantic. Unlike his friends, who had gone off to do something romantic with their partners, Buck was going be alone for Valentine’s Day. Hen had taken Karen to a fancy steakhouse, Bobby was cooking up a nice homemade dinner for Athena, and Chimney was taking Maddie to go-karting.

He wasn’t jealous about it—okay, maybe he was a little bit jealous.

It’s just—Buck’s never had a relationship before where things don’t go south after a few months of dating. Every time, Buck’s heart would be left on the floor, broken.

Is that why he’s scared to commit to anything concrete right now? Yeah. He’s had plenty of girls ask him out over the last few months. They would come up to him at the bar, when he was on call, hell, a girl asked him out in the middle of a Kroger’s sugar aisle.

He turned them all down, obviously. He’s just not ready to date again. And the reason why might have to do with the fact that he has a burning unrequited love for his best friend. And he knows that it’s probably not healthy have a crush on someone he knows doesn’t love him back, but Buck’s just going to ignore that.

He wasn’t going on any dates this Valentine’s Day, or so he thought.

When he was finishing up his shift at the fire station yesterday, Eddie had been with him in the locker room, talking about plans for the day of romance.

“You doing anything for Valentine’s Day?” Eddie asks, putting on his shirt.

“Not this year,” Buck replies, “You know how my love life has been going lately.”

Eddie closes his locker and gathers his belongings as he turns his attention to Buck. “That sucks man.” Eddie says.

“Yeah, it does,” Buck says while getting up from the bench to walk out with Eddie.

“Well, if you’re not taking anyone out, I wanted to ask if you wanted to do something,” Eddie asks casually, no discomfort noticeable in his tone.

Honestly, it’ll probably be good for Buck to get out of the loft. Instead of moping around his apartment, he can spend time with his best friend.

“Sure, what are you thinking?” Buck asks. He’s been thinking about what they could do when they do hangout. He saw the go-karting place that Maddie and Chimney went to on his Instagram feed the other day, so maybe they could do that?

“There’s this new Italian restaurant that Christopher keeps talking about. He said he saw it on TikTok, and apparently, there’s like a really special cake that they make. I had promised him to get it for having good grades last semester, so I was thinking maybe we could go there and have dinner, and then bring back the cake for Chris. And then maybe you can stay over and we can watch a movie or something—“ 

Wait, that was—did Eddie just ask him out?

“Hold on, did I get that right?” Buck asks, a little stunned. “You want to go to a restaurant with me, one-on-one? Like, a date?  Wait, are you asking me out, Diaz?” Buck teases, giving Eddie a mean smile.

Buck knows he probably didn’t mean it like that, but he wants to tease his partner. On the other hand, there’s a tiny part of him that’s hoping Eddie did just ask him out for real. Buck shoves that part of himself down instantly though.

“Wha—no! I just meant—like, you know, going to dinner as—as friends. Like we normally do—“ Eddie says, scrambling to try and explain. A embarrassed blush starts to lightly appear on his face.

“I was kidding, I know what you meant,” Buck replies to Eddie, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I’d be down to go.”

“O-okay, I’ll pick you up at six?” Eddie asks, still hesitantly

“Yeah, sounds good,” Buck replies, returning a smile to Eddie. “See you then.”

***

Buck shouldn’t be nervous about this. He really shouldn’t.

It’s just a dinner with his best friend, it’s nothing special. Just because it’s on Valentine’s Day does not make it romantic.

It’s a normal dinner.

But Buck is struggling on deciding what to wear. Eddie didn’t really give him a dress code last night, so he has nothing to base his outfit on.

Buck doesn’t even usually care about what he’s wearing. Most of the time, he wears things that are comfortable and allow him to move freely. However, Eddie didn’t specify how fancy or non-fancy this restaurant was. All he mentioned was that it was Italian and that it had some well-known cake that Christopher wanted to try.

He doesn’t want to pull up in a suit if the place turns out to be casual, but he also doesn’t want to come looking underdressed. So, he compromises and goes in the middle with a navy polo and dark grey chinos that he bought a long time ago but never bothered to wear.

Buck is in the middle of putting on his shoes when he hears a knock on the door. After he puts on his shoes, he goes over to answer it, and other side stands Eddie. He’s on the other side wearing the casual sweater that Buck always sees him in.

“Hey,” Eddie greets, “Ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Buck replies with an easy smile.

***

After a long sing-along session in the car, they finally arrive at the restaurant. Buck learns that it’s called Giovanni’s , and it is packed with people. There were at least six couples waiting outside for a table.

“Eddie, this place is crazy. Are you sure we’re going to get seated?” Buck asks with a slight worry in his voice.

“Don’t worry, I got us a reservation,” Eddie replies assuringly, “We should be fine.”

When they get inside, the hostess asks for a name.

“We have a reservation for two, the name should be Diaz-Buckley,” Eddie says politely.

“Alright,” the hostess says while grabbing two menus from behind her, “Right this way.”

Buck thanks his past self for deciding to go in the middle, because the restaurant is the definition of semi-casual. It’s not overly fancy, but it definitely isn’t a family-owned restaurant either.

He and Eddie decide to order a bottle of red wine when their waitress, Sam, comes to the table.

“Eddie—this place is…pretty nice,” Buck says, looking through the menu. They don’t have a particularly large menu compared to other restaurants, but Buck is hoping that just means that each dish on the menu is really good.

“Yeah, and popular too. Did you see that line outside? Has to be at least an hour and half for a table,” Eddie adds before taking a sip from his wine glass, “Good thing I got that reservation, or else Christopher would be waiting for that cake past midnight.”

“Hey, they have lasagna here, do you think it would be better than Cap’s?” Buck asks, looking up at Eddie.

“Nah, I bet it’s good, but nothing beats the famous Bobby Nash six-cheese lasagna,” Eddie replies.

“You’re probably right,” Buck says, still eyeing Eddie.

Buck knows it’s not a date, but he can’t help but feel like it is one. The restaurant’s lighting is dim, which makes the mood feel more… romantic?  The candle on their table is certainly adding to that atmosphere. There are also like twenty other real couples surrounding their table, all on dates for Valentine’s Day. Buck’s pretty sure they’re the one there that is not a couple, but to an outside person’s eye, they look like a one too.

Sam eventually comes back, asking for their orders.

“What can I get for the two of you?” she asks.

“For appetizers, can we have an order of the bone marrow and the bruschetta?” Eddie orders politely, “and for me, can I have the fettuccine alfredo please?”

“Would you like to add chicken or shrimp to that?” Sam asks.

“Chicken, please.”

“And for you, sir?” Sam asks, looking at Buck.

“I’ll have the shrimp risotto, thank you,” Buck replies, handing his menu to Sam.

“I’ll put these orders in for you.” Sam says before leaving to tend to other tables.

After a good twenty minutes, Sam comes back to their table, food in hand.

“It looks delicious,” Buck compliments.

“Yeah, I think Christopher suggested well,” Eddie adds.

Buck sort of wishes Christopher could’ve come, but seeing how busy the place was, it would’ve been hard to get a table for three. Luckily, that’s why they would bring the cake he wanted back home so he could try.

They enjoy their dinner while having a free-flowing conversation that somehow went from about Christopher to Buck rambling on about some exoplanets he fell into a rabbit hole about. And while he knows Eddie doesn’t necessarily like the topics he yaps about, he is still extremely grateful for the fact that his best friend listens to him with his full attention. It just feels nice having some release of the things he just randomly picks up. That’s maybe why he’s so comfortable around Eddie. Just being in his presence makes Buck’s tense shoulders drop, as he knows that Eddie genuinely (or at least he hopes,) likes being around him.

He takes and loves Buck for all of who he is—even the parts that aren’t so good.

And if Eddie were to ever find out about Buck’s feelings, he would learn that Buck’s full heart belongs to him.

After finishing the main course, Eddie looks up at Buck, guiltily. Buck tries to find why he looked at him like that in his brown eyes, but he can’t seem to find an answer there. Instead, he receives an answer in the form of two silver rings—the wedding rings that they used last time to scare off Ana. That’s when Buck realizes that Eddie is holding his hand out.

“I know I probably should’ve told you earlier, but the cake Christopher wanted—“ Eddie says, embarrassment scattered across his face, “it’s kind of a couple’s exclusive.”

So that’s why Eddie brought him here. He was suspicious on why Eddie would bring him here—it was too fancy to be just  “a dinner.”

But Buck gets it now. Eddie brought him here to get the cake for Christopher. It was not Eddie asking him out.

He doesn’t mind, he would do anything for Christopher.

“It’s fine, Eddie,” Buck replies, trying to mask the little bit of surprise in his voice with a laugh, “We’ve done it before, so it’s not like it’s the weirdest thing you’ve asked me to do.”

He takes the ring from Eddie and slips it on to his ring finger.

Buck still doesn’t quite understand how the ring perfectly slides on and off of his hand. He doubts that he shares the same ring size of Shannon, and Eddie’s never told him where he got them. The thought gets casted to the back burner of Buck’s mind when Sam comes back to their table to collect the empty dishes.

“And were you two interested in dessert? On the menu we have tiramisu, Italian mousse, and a vanilla sundae,” Sam smiles, waiting for their answer.

“Oh, my husband and I were hoping we could get two orders of the truffle cake special,” Eddie replies casually, as if he’s said it a million times before.

Sam looks between them with an ounce of suspicion. She conceals the look and gives them another smile when she spots the two wedding rings on both men’s hand that coincidently were not there beforehand.

“Ah, I’ll get those in for you,” Sam says with a polite smile before walking away. When she’s out of sight, Buck turns back to his partner.

“Wouldn’t have boyfriends been, y’know… easier?” He asks, giving Eddie a teasing smile.

“I wanted it to be more believable—plus, husbands just sounds better. It’s more…sophisticated, I guess?” Eddie responds.

When the cake comes, Buck thoroughly enjoys it. He’s never tried truffle cake—the fancy name alone kind of scares him, but it’s actually really good. The chocolate flavors are something Buck can really get behind.

“Man, Christopher is going to love this,” he remarks.

“For sure,” Eddie agrees, “He’s going to be beaming when you give it to him.”

Eddie asks Sam for the check once they are done, and she returns with it. Buck has his wallet out in an instant.

“No, Buck, I’ve got this,” Eddie insists, shooing Buck away with his hand.

“Eds, I can get it. You can pay me back next time,” Buck pushes, but it doesn’t seem to be effective.

“Absolutely not,” Eddie says, practically shoving his card and the check into Sam’s hands, “please pay with my card, thank you.”

“Fine, but I’m paying next time,” Buck says, defeated.

Sam returns with the check, so she places it down on their table.

“I hope you guys have a lovely rest of your Valentine’s Day,” Sam says, smiling.

“You too, thank you,” Eddie says before she walks away. He leaves a decent tip. “Wanna get back to Chris?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Buck replies, standing up and pushing in his seat.

They exit the restaurant, and Buck can’t help but still feel that he just went on a fake-date with his best friend. His heart was not going to survive if they kept doing stuff like this.

“What movie do you think Chris wants to watch when we get home?” Eddie asks, as they get into the car.

“I don’t know, maybe something like Inside Out or The Incredibles?” Buck replies, fastening his seatbelt in the passenger seat.

***

When they do get back to the house, Buck gives Christopher the infamous truffle cake.

“Thank you Dad, thank you Buck,” Christopher says, wrapping his arms around both of them in an engulfing hug, “It looked really good when I saw it on TikTok.”

“You’re welcome, bud. We hope you like it,” Buck replies, an affectionate smile slowly forming on his face. God, the things he would do to make his kid happy.

Christopher goes on to devour the cake—you can see the remains on the corners of his mouth after he finishes. He also chooses to watch Inside Out after much deliberation with Buck.

They end up cuddled up on the couch, with him snuggled somewhere in the middle. Both Eddie and Buck are smiling like proud parents.

Christopher ends up falling asleep in between his two dads, happy that he got his cake and that his plan had worked.

Chapter Text

iv.

Being a firefighter, Eddie sometimes forgets to breathe.

Not literally—well, that’s only partially true. There’s been calls that make him want to fall on a bed—or anything, and never wake up. But that’s besides the point. The point is, he and the 118 are usually so busy responding to calls and saving lives that they rarely have time to go out as friends; as a family.

He’s pretty sure that that last time they went out was last month, after a really brutal call where there was huge fire in a collapsing apartment building. There were luckily no fatal casualties, but it was close. To relax after a tough day, they had gone to the bar entirely focused on having a good time. Most of them got close to being drunk. Some of them, like Buck, went ridiculously past that mark. Eddie vividly remembers choking on his drink when Buck started to karaoke a terribly drunken rendition of “I Want It That Way.” What he doesn’t recall though, is joining Buck in the karaoke. He doesn’t trust Chimney on that one.

So, when Hen proposed the idea of the 118 going out to the bar after shift, Eddie had been all for it. He thought they really needed a good night out to follow up on a really slow month. Seeing the other’s answers in group chat confirmed to Eddie that the rest seemed to have the same idea. So, after a short discussion, they had all agreed to meet at the bar on Friday night.

No one had seemed to question that Eddie had answered for both he and Buck. By this point, they were accustomed to how close the two of them were. The 118 was very well aware of the fact that Buck spent more of his free time at Diaz house than at his own loft. And after all, Eddie can’t deny that. Buck’s been over for dinner more time than Eddie can count. Buck’s practically a resident if he’s being honest.

Knowing this, it’s not a surprise that Buck is over when Eddie had responded to the text. Buck and him were on the couch watching Love Island, (Buck’s choice), while eating their pizza dinner. Christopher went off to hide in his room to presumably FaceTime with his friends, so he and Buck were alone in the living room. Even though there was plenty of space, they still somehow ended up shoulder-to-shoulder on the main couch. Any closer, and they would have been in each other’s laps. Deep down, Eddie secretly wanted that.

Half-way through the episode, Eddie hears a familiar notification ringtone come from his phone. He could hear Buck’s phone go off too, but he was too focused on the drama happening on the TV to notice. Eddie pulls out his phone to see the groupchat having many messages. When he taps on one of them, he sees the conversation that is happening.

The 118 family

Hen: link

Hen: The bar is hosting a challenge tomorrow and I think it’s like a couple’s challenge or something. I figured you’d want to sign up with Maddie, Chimney. It has a cash prize of 100 bucks

Chimney: 100?

Bobby: I’ll sign Thena and I up.

Chimney: okay we’re signed up too

Hen: ooo now it’s a competition, I bet Cap wins it

Chimney:  wait

Chimney: maddie is now threatening to break up with me if we don’t win

Bobby: Well, I hate to break it to you Chimney, but we’re winning

Chimney: we’ll see about that one cap

Hen: We don’t even know what the challenge is guys

Chimney: doesn’t matter

Chimney: maddie and I are for sure winning it

Bobby: Willing to bet money on it?

Chimney: u know it

Hen: How about we just bet 50 and give it to the person who wins

Chimney: deal

Bobby: Sure.

If Eddie had still been dating Ana, he would’ve probably signed them up for the challenge. But they broke up a couple months ago, so he can’t really do it.

That’s until a thought pops out from the back of his mind.

He looks over to Buck, whose eyes are still glued to the TV. He could go with Buck, but the thing is, they aren’t a couple. Buck and Eddie are a lot of things, but a couple is not one of them.

Eddie sometimes overhears their colleagues talk behind their backs about it, usually saying things like God, they’re so clueless and We should just lock them in the storage closet and let them figure it out. Although he would never admit it, Eddie does sometimes wish that they would actually shove Buck and him into a storage closet. He would be happy to be in such close proximity of his best friend. One thing Eddie is ready to admit though, is that he is definitely and hopelessly in love with his best friend. It took a while for him to even say it in his head, but after Christopher’s graduation, he just knew. Seeing Buck get swarmed by single moms made Eddie’s skin burn in a certain way they’d never done before.

“Buck,” Eddie says softly, taking the remote and pausing the episode. He looks over to Buck, who turns to him immediately after the TV screen freezes. A complaint is on the edge of his lips, but it gets tucked away before it slips out.

“What’s up?” Buck replies, a sense of slight concern in his voice. “Why did you pause it? It was in the middle of the recoupling!” Buck whines.

Eddie just rolls his eyes in response. “Hen just sent a link in the group chat about a challenge the bar is hosting tomorrow. I wanted to ask if you wanted to do it with me. The prize is a hundred dollars cash.” Eddie informs, “Check your phone.”

Buck takes his phone out and taps on one of the dozen notifications he missed. He then scrolls up to where Hen sent the link and taps on it. That’s when he’s met with a large poster on the bar’s home screen.

COUPLE’S CHALLENGE

How well do you know your partner?

Find out by signing up here and join the challenge at:

The Owl Bar

4928 New Nova Dr.

Los Angeles, CA

Cash prize of 100 dollars to the winning couple!

When Buck looks back up at Eddie, his eyebrows are scrunched and his mouth is ajar.

“Eddie, this is... a couple’s challenge?” Buck questions, slowly. “Why would we sign up?”

As much as Eddie wants to be risky and say Because I’m in love you Buck and I was kind of hoping we could be a couple, he instead goes for the safe explanation.

“Well one, Chimney, Hen, and Cap made a bet on who would win and I want to surprise them by winning, and two, I want that hundred dollars.”

It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation—even if it’s only a half-truth.

“That makes sense, but don’t we have to be—“ Buck hesitates, a small blush forming on his face, “—y'know, a…couple?”

“We can just act like we’re together,” Eddie says casually, like it’s not a big deal. The ache he's getting is telling him otherwise. “I mean, we’re practically husbands anyway, just without the—romance.”

Eddie is not sure how didn’t say that without spontaneously combusting from the inside, but he got through it.

“Uh—sure,” Buck replies, sort of wincing on his answer before composing himself. “We did fend off Ana and those moms, after all.”

With each passing day, Eddie’s secret feelings for Buck start to build up more and more. Eddie’s starting to get to the point to where he’s scared that he might accidentally say it at any moment. Pretending to be married to Buck is definitely not helping it, but at the same time, it definitely is.

“Yeah, we can just pretend to be husbands again.” Eddie adds, “Then we win the challenge, beat Chimney and Cap, and boom: a hundred bucks that we can split.”

“You gonna pull out the rings again?” Buck teases with a small laugh.

“Yup.” Eddie replies, popping the “p.”

“You know Eddie,” Buck says while bumping their legs together jokingly, “If we lose, we’re getting a divorce.”

***

When Friday does rolls around, Eddie and Buck carpool to the bar together after leaving Carla to babysit Christopher. In the car, Eddie had given Buck the same silver ring they had used to avoid Ana. When Buck slides the ring on his finger, it fits perfectly—which is not coincidence, as Eddie has secretly measured Buck’s size when he was sleeping a long time ago.

Is he crazy for buying a proposal ring before he even knows that Buck is interested in him? Yes, he for sure is. Does he regret it? No. Not a single bit. Is he in love with Buck? Absolutely. Eddie for sure has the hots for Buck. Will he ask Buck out? Absolutely not. Buck does not reciprocate those feelings, so why would he?

When they enter through the bar doors, they spot that everybody is already there and seated at a table. They make their way over and take the last two seats left at the table.

“I’ll get the first round,” Hen offers once Buck and him and are seated.

Eddie’s not sure what the challenge is yet, but he wants to stay somewhat sober during the challenge. That’s why he orders a water for now. On the other hand, Buck orders a tequila sunrise because, well, he’s Buck.

The others put in their orders while in the debating about what the challenge is going to be.

“We’re going to find out very soon,” Bobby says, smirking at his wife, Athena. “It starts in five minutes.”

“Well, no matter what it is—“ Chimney shoots back while placing his arm around Maddie, “—my fiancé and I are going to win.” He gives the rest of the table a cocky grin.

“You two,” Hen says, pointing at Bobby and Athena while rolling her eyes at Chimney, “Please humble him. I’ve got fifty dollars riding on this.”

“We all do, Hen,” Bobby replies, before turning to point at Buck and Eddie, “Except those two.”

Eddie had seen the conversation in the groupchat, but he and Buck had decided beforehand that they would place their bet right before the challenge started.

“Yeah, you two gotta bet too,” Chimney pushes, continuing with confidence, “Clearly, there’s only one real option to bet for.”

“Fine,” Eddie replies, mimicking Chimney's cockiness,  “I bet that both of you lose to another couple.”

The way both Chimney’s cocky grin and Bobby’s smirk drop, Eddie wishes he could’ve froze the moment and taken a picture.

“A bold choice, Diaz,” Hen says, somewhat surprised at his bet.

“How dare you?!” Chimney gasps in fake disbelief like a drama queen; hands to the chest and all.

“You heard him,” Buck adds while giving a smirk of his own, “In fact, I think I’m gonna bet the same exact thing.”

“Oh wow! This is getting interesting.” Hen announces, before pointing at both Bobby’s and Chimney’s teams. “We’ve got those two teams betting on themselves, me betting on Bobby and Athena, and you two betting on neither of them. Is that right?”

“Sounds like it.” Athena responds, obviously confident that she and Bobby were going to win. “Just don’t start crying when we come to collect our winnings next shift.”

“You mean, our winnings?” Maddie confidently says, taking after her fiancé’s cocky claims.

At that moment, a brunette haired man taps on the microphone placed on the small stage where usually a musician would perform.

“Hey—hello. The name’s Matthew, and I’ll be the host of the couple’s challenge—if you signed up for it. If you haven’t signed up but want to, this is your last chance. Come find me and we’ll get you going. But for now, we’re going to individually text each person to come into a designated room and answer some questions before we get started. You’ll answer the questions right before your couple goes up, so there isn’t any cheating. If you haven’t caught on now by the way—the game is called How Well You Know Your Partner. Anyways, good luck to all the seven couples competing.” The brunette man, Matthew, says before exiting the stage and talking to one of the bar workers.

Eddie wants to point out that betting on a different couple besides Chimney's and Bobby's was statistically better—a five and seven chance in fact—but he decides against it.

None of them at the table receive a text, which means that a different couple is up first. Eddie can see in the corner of his eye a blonde woman and her partner stand up and split up into two different rooms.

After a few minutes, both of them come out on to the stage and sit down in the two chairs placed on the right side of the stage. Matthew is standing on the left side of the stage, with a microphone in hand.

“Welcome folks, you’re the first couple of tonight. Can you tell me your names?” Matthew asks, placing the microphone in front of their faces. The couple leans in to where they can respond clearly.

“The name’s Kyle,” the black-haired guy says, “And this is my girlfriend Emma.”

“And how long have you been together?” Matthew questions further.

“Around two months.” Emma answers.

“So still pretty new huh? Okay, so here’s how we’re going to do this. I’m going to ask one of you a question, and you’re going to have answer it to the best of your ability. Then we’ll switch to the other person. We’ll go back and forth. Understand?” Matthew asks.

Both Kyle and Emma nod.

“Okay, good. Well Kyle, let’s start with you. I’ve got a few questions for you about Emily that she answered on a notecard in the room over there,” Matthew points to the side of the stage, “If you get the answer right, you get a point. If you don’t, you don't get a point,” Matthew turns towards to everyone in the bar, “Also, if you get a question wrong, and you're at a zero, you lose a point and go into the negatives.”

“Negatives? Dang.” Hen says.

“Alright Kyle, first question,” Matthew announces, pulling out notecards from his pocket, “This should be an easy one—what is Emma’s birthday?”

Kyle, who Eddie can’t lie, looks as dumb as a rock, stops to contemplate his answer. His face folds and his face starts to turn a shade of pink. Seeing this, Emma gives a shocked side-eye over to her boyfriend.

“Seriously Kyle, you don’t know this?!” Emma questions, irritation slightly bleeding into her voice.

“Oh man. He’s for sure getting dumped after this,” Chimney says, leaning back into his chair.

“Uhhh… March… 2nd?” Kyle says unconfidently.

“Unfortunately Kyle, that is not correct. It says here that her birthday is April 4th,” Matthew says, mild disappointment evident in his voice.

Eddie sees that Emma is sitting in her chair, not uttering a word. She doesn’t even give a look to Kyle, who is giving her desperate eyes. She’s having none of it though—her blue eyes darkened like she wanted to kill her boyfriend right then and there. And honestly, Eddie couldn’t blame her.

“Okay… moving on. Emma, what is Kyle’s favorite sports team?” Matthew asks through the microphone.

“The 49ers,” Emma responds immediately, annoyance still in her voice.

“That’s correct. One point for Kyle and Emma,” Matthew announces while marking something on his scorecard, “You are now at 0 points.”

Eddie and the rest of team continued to watch Kyle struggle with the questions while Emma quickly answers them correctly. Overall, their couple received a total of two points, as Kyle only got one question right while Emma got all 5 of hers correct. By the end of their turn, Emma had already left Kyle on stage—figuratively and literally.

“We’re done,” Emma announces, loud enough for the whole bar to hear, before turning her head away from Kyle in disgust and walking off stage. She quickly leaves the bar while Kyle slowly makes his way off the stage, clearly sulking.

Her statement could be taken two ways—and in both of them, Kyle loses.

“Ouch. That must hurt,” Chimney says, a look of sympathy on his face.

“He deserved it though, after that disaster of a turn,” Hen says.

“Definitely,” Athena agrees. Her husband nods as long with her. “Hopefully Chimney doesn’t do as bad as that.”

“Seriously? That guy got one question right,” Chimney says in response, “I’m sure I can get at least three—minimum.”

“Only three?” Maddie questions, turning her head to look at her fiancé.

“Oh my god,” Chimney says while rolling his eyes, “You never know what questions they might ask. Who knows? What if one of the questions is like, ‘What would your partner do if they were a slug?’”

“I doubt the questions would be as abstract as that,” Bobby says.

“Can a slug do anything besides… you know, slug?” Buck asks genuinely.

Eddie looks over to his partner—fake husband—and gives him a soft smile. 

“I don’t think so, honestly,” Eddie replies, “All I know is that they move really slow.”

“Would you still love me if I was a slug?” Maddie asks, jokingly.

“Isn’t it supposed to be a worm?” Chimney asks in response, “Also, I’m not answering that.”

That gets a laugh from the rest of the table. That’s when Matthew taps the microphone again, indicating that it’s time for the next couple to go up. This couple does a significantly better job than Kyle and Emma, getting a score of 7. After they are done, a two phones ping at their table.

It’s Bobby’s and Athena’s, who both pull out their phones simultaneously.

“Well, here we go,” Bobby says to the table, with all of them besides Chimney wishing them good luck in return. Bobby plants a small kiss on Athena’s lips before they part to their respective question rooms.

After a minutes pass, both Bobby and Athena step up to the stage to take a seat.

“We are now on the third couple of the night, please tell me your names and how long you guys have been together,” Matthew says.

“My name is Bobby, and this is my wife Athena. We’ve been married for three years,” Bobby answers.

“Three years? Well, we’re going to put that to the test. The first question is for Athena—what is Bobby’s favorite color?” Matthew asks.

“Favorite color? Navy,” Athena answers.

“That is correct! One point on the board for you guys,” Matthew announces, writing it on his scorecard.

“Okay. Next question is for Bobby—what is Athena’s favorite movie?

“Oh, it’s without a doubt What's Love Got To Do With It,” Bobby replies confidently.

“That is correct! Up to two points now.” Matthew says.

And their turn keeps going well, as they currently have a total of 7 points with one question left. Both Bobby and Athena answered one question wrong. But they were decently hard questions, so unlike Emma and Kyle, they had just sweetly smiled at each other and moved on to the next question.

“And for the last question, it’s for Bobby. Bobby, if you get this answer correct, you will be catapulted into the lead,” Matthew says.

Bobby and Athena both nod, ready for the question.

“Bobby, your question is: what day of the week did you and Athena first meet?

“Day of the week? If I recall… I think it was a Tuesday. I remember we met while on a call,” Bobby replies.

“That is… correct! You are officially in the lead, congratulations Bobby and Athena! Thank you for participating tonight,” Matthew announces.

Eddie, Buck, and Hen loudly cheer for them while Chimney’s shoulders start to drop a little. Bobby and Athena then walk off stage and back to their table, where Hen congratulates them even more.

“You guys did so good! Chimney and Maddie is going to have a hard time following up that,” Hen says, looking at Chimney. He just scoffs in return.

“Eight total points. You guys did really good. There’s a good chance at winning after that performance,” Buck says proudly. At the same time, Buck taps Eddie’s thigh and gives him a cheeky smile.

They still don’t know that he and Buck are in the competition too.

“Thank you, but there’s still four more couples to go. While I doubt it, Chimney and Maddie could surprise us,” Bobby says while giving the couple a smile that has a subtle amount of cockiness in it.

They get more rounds in as two more couples go before Chimney and Maddie, which makes Buck and Eddie the last couple to go up.

Bobby and Athena’s still haven’t been surpassed, with the first of the two couples getting a 6 and the second getting a 7. When Chimney and Maddie get their texts, they stand up and share a quick kiss.

“Watch us win the whole damn thing,” Chimney says cockily, “It’s going to be a perfect score.”

“You wish,” Buck says, struggling to try to hide his smile.

They then say their goodbyes and part ways, heading to their designated rooms. When they finish answering questions, they head out and take their seats on the stage.

“The sixth couple, could you please tell me your names and how long you’ve been together,” Matthew says, as usual.

“My coworkers call me Chimney, and this is my fiancé, Maddie,” Chimney replies, as he puts an arm around Maddie.

Maddie leans into the microphone.

“And we’ve been together for around three years,” Maddie says, finishing off her fiancé’s answer.

“Chimney? That’s quite an interesting name. Anyways, let’s get straight into the questions. Maddie, how did you meet Chimney?”

“We met through my brother, Buck. Chimney was making fun of me for never seeing Mission Impossible,” Maddie answers, giving a fond smile to Chimney. You can tell there was a lot of love there.

“Okay but to be fair, it was insane. Like, who hasn’t seen Mission Impossible?” Chimney teases, giving Maddie heart eyes in the process.

“Me,” Maddie says, returning the love eyes.

"Correct! Now for the second question: Chimney, what is the name of Maddie's hometown?" 

“Huh… I know it’s in Pennsylvania…” Chimney mutters, turning his head over to Maddie. He answers after a moment. “It was called Lebanon, right?”

“Unfortunately Chimney, that is incorrect. Your score stays at one,” Matthew says, disappointingly.

“Chimney!” Maddie says, sounding mildly annoyed. She lightly slaps his shoulder.

“Oh. my. god,” Buck barely chokes out because he’s dying of laughter. He almost chokes on his drink. Meanwhile, Hen forms a giant smile on her face before also starting to laugh really hard.

Eddie's chest might collapse after that.

Even Bobby is laughing, joining in the fun. The only one not laughing is Athena, but she definitely has a smirk on her face.

“It’s Hershey, you know, the place where the Hershey bar was created?” Maddie says, still annoyed.

“Oh yeah…” Chimney replies. The once cocky grin that Chimney had is now nowhere to be found. After that answer, Eddie for sure thought that Bobby was going to win their bet.

However, despite Chimney’s early mistake, they ended up going on a hot streak for the rest of the questions. In the end, to the surprise of many, (including Eddie), they had answered every single other question correctly and managed to land in first place.

“What the actual hell,” Hen had exclaimed when Maddie had answered the last question correctly.

“And with that, Chimney and Maddie slide into first place with a score of nine! Congratulations!” Matthew announces.

Chimney and Maddie give their thanks to him and walk back to their table, where Eddie and rest of them are still in shock about their score.

“Well, how would you like that for a comeback?” Chimney says, his cocky grin making it’s own comeback.

“Honestly, I thought y’all were screwed after you messed up your first question,” Eddie says before taking a sip of his water.

“That was ironic as hell though, Chim,” Buck says, still somewhat laughing, “All that talk about getting a perfect score dusted when you said ‘Lebanon.’”

“You’re not even taking part of the competition, so hush up Buckaroo,” Chimney replies, giving Buck a smirk.

Ping. 

Ping.

As if on cue, Eddie hears the familiar ringtone come from his right pocket. He can also tell that Buck gets a text too.

“Oh my fucking god,” Hen says, her jaw dropping like it went through the wooden floor.

“You too are-“ Chimney mutters, completely confused. “You're competing? What the hell? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“They’re going to win,” Maddie quietly says to Hen at the same time, who just nods in agreement—like it was obvious.

Bobby is definitely shocked. His mouth is slightly ajar, and his eyes are open like a window on a breezy day. He wasn’t surprised about Buck and Eddie, but more by the fact that they were competing after not mentioning anything about it for the whole night. Even Athena is a little surprised, but she quickly hid it behind a soft smile.

“Since when?! How long have we not known about this?" Hen questions, demanding answers.

And as badly as Eddie wants to say that he and Buck are a couple, at the end of the day, they are just faking it. So, instead of letting his intrusive thoughts win, he just gives his friends a shoulder shrug and a cheeky smile. Buck sticks his tongue out and then forms a soft smile on his lips. He then turns to Eddie and gives Eddie a pair of very obvious heart-eyes. He moves closer, putting a hand on Eddie's bicep.

And Eddie can’t take it anymore—he and Buck are holding each other. Their bodies so close, they could probably share heat between them. If the room around them started burning, Eddie probably wouldn’t notice. The only thing he cared about was the fact that their eyes were locked together.

God, he wants to kiss Buck so bad right now.

And it’s like he answered Eddie’s prayer—Buck leans forward and places a chaste kiss on Eddie’s lips.

Eddie can't keep his eyes from shooting upward in shock.

It's the hottest thing that’s happened to Eddie in a long time. It’s not the first kiss he dreamed of with Buck—it wasn’t a hot make-out session at the firehouse or a long, passionate kiss at the Diaz house—but it still set Eddie’s heart ablaze in so many ways. 

The kiss doesn’t last for more than a second—they were in public after all. So, when their lips part, they give each other very fond smiles before heading to their answering rooms, leaving their friends in a state of shock.

“What the hell? Did that actually happen—or am I delusional? Is the alcohol kicking in?” Hen asks, shaking her head as she watches the apparent new lovers walk to their rooms.

“You’re not. We all witnessed it,” Maddie replies, her mouth shaped into a proud smile.

“If they win, I’m going ballistic,” Chimney says, a look of confusion on his face.

All Bobby and Athena can do is sit back in their chairs and watch the two of them like proud parents.

***

On Eddie’s phone, he gets a text from a new number asking to meet in the room to the right of the stage. Meanwhile, Buck had gotten the room on the left. After ignoring their friend’s comments and demands to explain, they had made their way over to the rooms.

“We’ve got this, Eddie,” Buck says, taking his hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“Let’s do this,” he replied, giving his partner a confident smile.

When Eddie makes it into the room, there is a table where five notecards with questions are spread out across the surface. Eddie’s assuming that is where Matthew reads the questions off from. He also sees a pencil, which he takes before looking at the questions.

The questions on the notecards are:

     1. Who was your celebrity crush growing up?

To be fair, Eddie had many names come to mind. But, he writes down the biggest one.

     Jennifer Aniston

     2. What place do you want to travel to, but haven’t yet?

Eddie doesn’t travel much, being a firefighter and all. But he has seen this place pop up in his Instagram feed. He would honestly love to go with Buck and Christopher, if they had the time.

     Costa Rica

     3. What was your first job?

The answer is quite simple.

     Army Medic

     4. What is your favorite food?

This is a hard one—Eddie eats mostly anything. But if he had to choose a favorite,

     Barbacoa tacos

     5. If you were placed into a room with every person you have ever known, dead or alive, who would you run to first?

The last question is for the sure the hardest one—well, not really. This person has been Eddie’s number one priority for a majority of his life. Eddie can think of a few second places, such as Buck, Shannon, his family or his friends. But really, the answer is obvious.

     My son, Christopher

Eddie lightly puts the pencil down on the table and gathers the notecards. He gives them to the bar worker and exits the room. Buck seems to have finished at the same time. He flashes Eddie a smile as they walk on stage.

Eddie has to admit, he did kind of get butterflies upon seeing the very fond smile from his partner.

He turns to look back at their table, where he can see Athena giving him a nod and a keen smirk, almost like she was saying I’m proud of you.

As Buck and him take a sit on stage, Matthew speaks into the mic.

“And with that folks, we have the last couple competing tonight. Can I ask you for your names, gentlemen?” Matthew says, giving Buck and him the floor.

“Uhm, hi. I’m Buck, and this is my husband Eddie,” Buck says first, a little hesitation apparent in his voice.

“—And we’ve been partners for around three and a half years now,” Eddie finishes.

When Eddie looks back over to their friends, he’s met with five stares. Hen and Chimney share a look of disbelief; Bobby has a face of surprise, as if Buck and Eddie competing as a couple wasn’t already a shock; Athena’s mouth is slightly hanging open, and Maddie is giving them a stare that is just screaming Finally, you idiots!

“Alright, you probably know the rules by now, I hope?” Matthew jokes. “I would also like to mention, in order to win the one-hundred dollars, you must at least get nine points. That means your maximum room for error is one question. If you do get more than one wrong, you will not be able to win any money. With that in mind, are you ready?”

Both of them give nod indicating yes, so Matthew starts to read off the questions.

“Alrighty then, the first question is for Buck. Buck, who was Eddie’s celebrity crush growing up?” Matthew asks while looking between the two of them.

Buck turns to him and raises his eyebrows. “Celebrity crush? Other than me?” He says, giving Eddie a cheeky smile. Eddie can’t help but roll his eyes in response. “It was definitely Jennifer Aniston.”

“That is correct! One point is on the board.”

“On to the next question. Eddie, what is Buck’s favorite movie or TV show of all time?”

Eddie knew the answer just based purely on the fact that Christopher and Buck would always get into a debate about which Star Wars movie was the best one. Eddie could probably recite both of their arguments word-for-word due to how often they argue about it. Because of this, his answer is immediate.

“Easy, it’s Return of the Jedi,” He looks over to Buck, who gives him a nod.

“Return of the Jedi is correct! I must say Eddie, you answered that very quickly,” Matthew remarks.

“Well, it’s probably because we watch it so often,” Eddie says, looking over at Buck. “He’s obsessed.”

“M’not!” Buck exclaims, a little drunkenly. He did have three drinks to be fair, so he’s been tipsy this whole time. Eddie just hopes that it won't cost them.

“The next question is for you, Buck. What is Eddie’s favorite food?”

Eddie had assumed that the questions would go from one to five, but he had been wrong.

“That one is easy—“ Buck says instantly, “—it’s tacos. Barbacoa ones specifically.”

God, Buck knows him so well. Eddie was kind of scared that he would get it wrong, but he came through.

“That answer is correct, Buck. Your score is now up to three,” Matthew announces,

“Question four is for Eddie. Eddie, what is Buck’s job, and what is his favorite thing about it?”

Eddie would like to point out that Matthew asked two questions, but it’s not like it affects his answer. If anything, it makes Eddie more comfortable. He was already going to say it anyway.

“We’re both firefighters, and I think the thing he loves most about it is the fact that he wants to save people—“ Eddie says before pausing to glance at his husband/partner/whatever they are, “—because he has such a big heart.” Eddie gives him a fond smile and maybe a little bit of heart eyes, but no one sees that, right?

Buck turns a slight shade of pink before looking down.

“For you,” Buck whispers, his voice barely audible. Eddie’s pretty sure his heart skips a beat. From afar, you wouldn’t be able to see Buck’s mouth open, let alone hear him. He’s the only one that heard Buck, and it makes him want to just stand up and attack Buck with a kiss.

“That answer was basically word-for-word to what your husband wrote down, Eddie,” Matthew announces, definitely impressed.

With each passing day, Eddie’s becoming more and more comfortable with Buck getting referred to with intimate titles; his best friend, his partner, his husband. Maybe a little too comfortable—Eddie definitely recalls letting my husband slip out whenever he was talking to single PTA parents that were obviously hitting on him. After title-dropping Buck, he would make his very sleek escape, leaving each victim in an awkward position. It works every time.

Honestly, Eddie secretly loves when people assume he’s with Buck. It feeds into a far-too deep fantasy with Buck that Eddie doesn’t want to admit he thinks about, well—all the time. A fantasy about a life where Buck, he, and Christopher live a long and joyful life. A life where they cry about sending Christopher off to college; a life where they witness Chris walking down the wedding aisle; a life where they grow old together.

And frankly, his life isn’t that different from the one he started to dream of three years ago. So, he’ll take what he has.

“We’re husbands, after all,” Eddie says in response.

In the corner of his eye, he can rest of his friends giving them proud smiles, almost like they’re saying They finally figured it out and Maybe they weren’t clueless after all.

Oh God, Eddie would kill to see their faces when he and Buck tell them that they were faking it.

They fly through four more questions, and they get all them correct instantly because, well, they are best friends after all. For Buck, the questions were: What was Eddie’s first job?  and Where is a place that Eddie wants to travel, but hasn’t before?  Buck immediately got the first question—most people that know him learn that he was an army medic, but Buck took a little bit longer on the second. After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, he had locked in the answer of Costa Rica. He explained that he remembered Eddie sending him a few Instagram reels about it and the topic popping up occasionally at dinner, which Eddie can’t deny. It only goes to show how Buck listened and cared about everything he says, and vice-versa.

Eddie’s questions to answer about Buck would have been challenging if he hadn’t been paying attention. His questions were: “What was the name of the drink that Buck ordered tonight?” and “What is Buck’s favorite song to karaoke to?”

Eddie knew the answers immediately—Buck had three tequila sunrises, and his favorite song to karaoke to was I Want It That Way. Even if his rendition was terrible. (Eddie would listen to Buck anyway.)

After answering the questions, their total score was boosted up to eight. They have two questions left, and they have to get at least one of them correct to tie and two of them to win the whole thing.

“Honestly, this might be one of the hardest questions tonight. Alright, Buck, if Eddie was placed into a room full of people he loves, dead and alive, who would he go up to first?”

Buck stops to think for a second before looking up with a face that showed that he was confident in his answer. “The person Eddie would go up to, without a doubt,” Buck answers, “would be our son, Christopher.”

Our son. Not his son, not Eddie’s son, our son.

The look he’s giving Buck right now aren’t heart eyes, right?

“Correct! And with that, your score goes up to nine, which means you technically tie with Chimney and Maddie for first place. Eddie, if you get this next question correct, you guys win tonight’s challenge,” Matthew says, “Alright Eddie, to win a hundred bucks, what moment did Buck know he was in love with you?

Eddie could hear Hen and Chimney’s “oooh” from the stage. And honestly, Eddie was a little blind sided by the question—and the fact that Buck had even answered the question in the first place.

“Wow, uhm, okay,” Eddie mutters with surprise in his voice.

He had to think about his answer. How was he supposed to know? He’s known Buck for three years, and it could literally be any moment in that time span. He was just going to take a wild guess.

And a bold answer he did go with. If he was the one answering the question about when he first fell in love with Buck, he would’ve written down “After we removed a bomb from a guy's leg.” Even though he didn’t necessarily know it at the time, he fell in love with Buck when he said "Yeah. Or, you know, you could... you could have mine."

Now that he really thinks about it, were they were really talking about having each other's back? Or was that Eddie shamelessly flirting with Buck when he didn't even realize it?

“I’m going to go with—“ Eddie answers slowly, looking at Buck, “After we removed a bomb from a guy's leg.”

Matthew’s eyes open in shock. “Wow. Eddie, that is uhm—correct. You guys have won the game with a perfect score.”

Hen, Bobby, Athena, and Maddie start to cheer for them loudly in the back, all of them sounding like they were close to getting drunk. Meanwhile, Chimney gave them a fake-hurt stare before eventually joining in with the rest. Other people in the bar were clapping for them, since they had won.

And if he was being true to himself, Eddie never really cared about the money; he really just wanted an excuse to introduce Buck as his husband and to play a small prank on their friends. Speaking of his friends, Buck and him had started to head back over to them once they had collected their winnings. On the way, Buck takes Eddie’s hand and interlocks them, just like they had once done in the parking lot.

“Congratulations, husbands,” Hen says, playfully.

“Okay, but you two have some real explaining to do,” Chimney says, eyeing them with a suspicious look.

“For sure. For example, when did all of this—“ Bobby pauses, pointing at both them, “—happen?”

“I need another drink after seeing our score get beat like that,” Chimney says.

“Rounds on us then,” Eddie announces.

"Also, Eddie and I... were faking that whole thing," Buck adds. The rest of team just looks at them in disbelief. Eddie's not sure if they believe them.

"That kiss you two had was not fake though?" Hen questions, clearly not believing a word Buck just said. Eddie thinks it's ironic—they think they were lying about lying, even though they were telling the truth.

Eddie can't help but let the flush take over his face. When he looks over at Buck, he sees that Buck has the same shade of pink surrounding his face.

"Anything for hundred dollars, I guess?" Buck replies, an unconfident smile appearing on his face.

Eddie is not sure how none of them pointed out the fact that Buck and him did not in fact have to kiss to join the challenge, but he's sort of relieved.

They get out of conversation somehow, and if any of them bring it up after this, he can just blame all of this on them being drunk. (He isn't, but that's a problem for future Eddie.)

All seven of them continue to drink into the night, having one of the best nights they’ve had in a long time. Going into tonight, Eddie knew one for thing for sure: that his heart belonged entirely to Buck. Leaving the bar, Eddie knew two things:

He was desperately in love with Buck, and Buck might be desperately in love with him.

***

(Click here if you want to read an alternate ending of this chapter, I felt like it was needed but at the same time not)

Chapter Text

v.

"Eddie's in the hospital, Buck. He—" Bobby says, before getting cut off by the sounds of Buck's sudden movements through the phone.

When he received the call from Bobby, Buck immediately grabbed the wedding rings from Eddie's dresser, scooped Christopher off the Diaz couch, and loaded them both into his jeep.

He was off-duty today, but Eddie was still on a twenty four hour-shift. Due to this, he volunteered to hang out with Christopher while they waited for Eddie to come back home.

Buck took Chris to the zoo to go visit the new panda exhibit that he had promised they would go see when it had opened.

“We’ll be there as fast as we can,” Buck says into his phone quickly, climbing into the driver’s seat and starting the engine. Christopher is in the backseat, but he can still read the worry written all over Buck’s space.

“Buck,” Bobby reassures Buck through the call. “He’ll be fine.”

“I know Cap, it’s just—Eddie’s hurt, and he needs Chris there,” Buck replies, “He needs his son.”

There’s a temporary moment of silence in the jeep as he awaits Bobby’s reply. It’s not an awkward silence—just, it feels like Bobby is wording what to say very carefully. Buck doesn’t know whether or not to worry about it. His worry meter is already on overdrive, so he’s not sure if he can handle Bobby acknowledging his non-platonic feelings for the person in the hospital right now. 

Buck’s not the person they should be paying attention to.

“He needs you too, Buck,” Bobby says, ironically. 

Buck’s shoulders tense a little bit when the words registers in his head. He should’ve expected it, but that doesn’t mean he was ready for the truth to be spoken. He knows it’s true—he and Eddie have been codependent on each other for years. They were practically attached at the hip, if you asked Hen or Chimney. Ever since they removed the live bomb from a guy’s thigh close to three years ago, he and Eddie have been partners.

And maybe in the future, they could be something more. Buck can feel it in his veins. There’s a certain feeling that spreads throughout Buck like a rampant wildfire whenever he’s around Eddie. And over the last few months, he hasn’t put it out. If anything, he's only let it grow.

He’s pretty sure that Eddie feels the wildfire too.

There were moments—moments where Eddie grew incredibly fond and soft in the face, usually whenever Buck was over at the Diaz house, hanging out with his two favorite people. He would glance at Buck with a certain heart look in his eyes, one that Buck hasn’t seen Eddie give since Shannon. It didn’t matter what Buck was doing; Buck could be doing laundry for them or cooking Bobby’s lasagna or even simply watching a show on their couch, one arm slung around Christopher as he burrowed into Buck’s side.

Buck’s not stupid. He might have been oblivious before, but after that night at the bar where they had won the couple’s challenge, Buck just knew.

He’s been waiting for the right moment to tell Eddie, one that would be perfect and would be like the romantic comedies he secretly used to watch when he was younger. A moment like the movies.

“Buck, is Dad going to be okay?” Christopher asks from the backseat, bringing Buck back from his thoughts. Hearing his son’s voice allows his shoulders to relax a little bit.

“I hope so bud. Bobby said he fell from the ladder and landed pretty awkwardly,” Buck replies, attempting to keep his composure.

It’s not the worst thing to ever happen to Eddie—hell, he got shot by a sniper, but nevertheless, Buck will always be worried. If the roles were reversed and Buck was on the hospital bed, it would be the exact same. Eddie would probably be even more worried to be honest—they’ve all seen mother hen Eddie before.

“When we get there, we have to give him the biggest hug,” Christopher says, a smile forming on his face. Buck's not sure if he and Eddie are ready to cross into the threshold of raising a teenager. Chris is getting close though; he's only a year away before his age ends with "teen."

Thinking about Chris distracts Buck, just a tiny bit. Buck can feel the worry starting to slowly wash out of his body and get replaced with comfort. God, how did Eddie and he end up with Christopher? He’s too perfect for them—too perfect for anyone.

Chris' sunshine smile is contagious, as Buck can feel a small one starting to shape on his own lips.

“We do, bud. He’ll love it.” 

***

When they get to the hospital, Buck and Chris find Bobby, Hen, and Chimney still waiting for news on Eddie. Apparently, he’s still in surgery.

Being back at the hospital brings back unwanted memories; Maddie getting kidnapped, Buck getting crushed by a firetruck, Eddie getting shot...

But his only concern right now is Eddie's condition.

“Any news?” Buck asks, looking between the three of them with worry written over all over his face. If an outsider were to look at him right now, they would probably assume he's the spouse.

“Nurses said that he’ll wake up soon,” Bobby replies, and Buck can feel the wave of relief spread throughout his body. The weight in his chest is starting to diminish, piece by piece.

Buck leads himself and Christopher to sit down on one of the blue double chairs that the hospital has in its waiting room; the one that the 118 have seen too many times. Christopher slowly rests his head on to Buck’s chest while burrowing into his side, like they were at home watching a movie. Buck slides an arm around his son and starts to rub circles on his back. He then dips his head and presses a small kiss to his brown curls, who have a mirroring resemblance to Eddie's. When he looks back up, Hen is gives him a look that says You’re such a dad. Buck just gives her a knowing smile back. He’s the greatest kid in the world.

They stay like that for thirty minutes, everyone waiting for news on Eddie. The news comes in the form of a nurse, who walks through the doubles doors with a clipboard.

“Family of Eddie Diaz?” The nurse asks. All five of them instantly stand up. “I can take immediate family back to see him, the rest of you are going to have to wait.”

Technically, the only person that’s immediate to Eddie that’s standing is this room is Christopher. The thing is, he’s under eighteen.

“Uh—“ Hen says, looking around before landing her eyes on Buck and Christopher.

Buck’s gut is telling him it’s not going to work. But then again, he has to try. It’s why he put on the wedding ring when no one was looking.

Before he can back out of it, before he can regret it, the words flow out of his mouth.

“I’m his husband.”

The nurse looks to Buck, and then down towards Buck’s right hand. There, she sees the ring that Buck has worn in secret more times than he’s willing to admit.

She gives Buck a suspicious look before looking down at her clipboard. She scans it before finding something and looking up at Buck and Christopher. 

“I see that. I’m assuming that’s your son, Christopher?” she asks.

Buck gives a nod.

“Follow me then.”

They follow the nurse through the double doors and downs series of hospital hallways.

On the way, the nurse turns her head at Buck. She has a kind smile, one that shows assurance to the families of patients she probably sees day in and day out. 

“I didn’t see any marriage license on my records, but I saw that you were Christopher’s and Eddie’s emergency contact,” The nurse says.

“We uh, just got married. We didn’t have time to file the paperwork,” Buck lies. It should’ve been harder, but it slid out of Buck as if it was normal. As if it was real.

“Ah—okay. That makes sense,” the nurse replies, satisfied with Buck’s answer.

When they reach Eddie’s room, Buck’s heart starts to flare. He’s glad Eddie’s okay—Buck can see through the window that he’s sleeping peacefully in the hospital bed.

“He suffered a comminuted fracture in his right fibula, so they had to use titanium rods and a couple of screws to stabilize the bone,” the nurse says, giving Buck a pitiful look.

Buck knows exactly how it feels; he has the titanium rods too. Although it's been a couple of years, he still sometimes feels the weight on the injured leg to be much. It's gotten a lot better, but Buck can't lie and say that he doesn't think about it. Although he doesn't have nightmares anymore, it still scares him to think about what would've happened if the injury prevented from ever walking again. So, he knows how it will feel for Eddie to be scared that he’ll never be the same again; that he might never recover.

“He got lucky—the injury he got from that severe of a fall could be a lot worse. If I were a betting woman, I’d bet that he makes a full recovery. It’ll be a long road to recovery though.”

And Buck will be there for every step of the way. Eddie’s family of three will be there.

The nurse opens the door to Eddie’s room, giving them both a kind look. She then walks away, going to tend to other patients.

He's in the blue hospital gown that reminds Buck too much of the days of when he was in the hospital. His brunette hair is a little messed up, but other than that, Eddie looks the same. There's a heart monitor to the right of the bed, beeping steadily as he recovers.

Seeing Eddie like this breaks Buck's heart, but at the same time, it also builds it up to a height that Buck can't even comprehend. On one hand, he’s relieved that Eddie is okay, alive, and breathing. On the other hand, it breaks his heart that the love of his life is injured and in pain—the things Buck would do in order to take away even an ounce of pain away from Eddie.

Eddie’s still asleep—and based on the anesthesia that the doctors gave him—he will be for a while. Buck just hopes that he’s at peace, wherever his consciousness may be. Buck pulls over a chair for both him and Christopher, and scoots it as close to the cot as possible.

In one arm, he holds Christopher, and in the other—the one with the wedding ring—he takes Eddie’s hand. He doesn't even think about it.

Buck can feel tears starting to glisten at the edge of his eye. Whether or not they are tears of relief or sadness, Buck’s not really sure. Maybe a mix of both? He closes his eyes, trying to hold them back. He looks down towards the floor, still holding Eddie’s hand.

“Eds…” Buck starts, slow and quiet tears running down the sides of his face now. “You’re not allowed to get injured. You hear me? I-I’m never letting you go on a shift without me ever again.”

With each passing day, Buck's love for Eddie just keeps stacking. Even in the mundane moments like packing their lunch for the week, storing boxes at the firehouse, or washing the dishes, Buck feels an overwhelming feeling; one that he's sure he will never experience with another person. It doesn't matter how bad his day is, seeing both Christopher and Eddie always brightens it, even if it's just a tiny amount.

To Buck, Eddie and Christopher are the lights in his life.

One day, those same feelings will break down Buck's carefully built levee and come flooding out, unable to stop.

That one day, is...well, now.

All of the bottled up emotions start to pour out of Buck—worry, fear, and… love. The love that he's repressed for years. It’s warm and beautiful like a sunset, and Buck never wants to let it go.

“God, Eddie, Chris can’t lose you—I can’t lose you. I can’t imagine a world where we aren’t partners. I can’t imagine a world where you aren’t in it.” He says, his voice cracking every few words due to the lump in his throat.

He shouldn’t be this emotional; it’s not like Eddie’s dead. But at the same time, thinking about it only makes Buck think more about how precious life is. In their line of work, who knows how long they might have.

And it’s that thought—that fear— that makes the words slide out of his mouth with no resistance.

“I love you, Eddie. I love you so goddamn much.”

It’s barely a whisper, but the silence in the room after he says it makes it feel like he messed up. Buck’s heartbeat might’ve been the loudest thing in the room when the words came out of his mouth.

He doesn’t even care that Christopher is there, if anything, it comforts him that someone would be able to hear and understand how much he loves Eddie. Chris would not only understand it, but also replicate and maybe even surpass it. There is only one person that loves Eddie just as much as Buck did—and that one person Chris.

“I-I know this is like the worst place for a love confession—you’re literally sleeping on a deathbed for God's sake—but I love you so goddamn much that if you asked me to marry you right now, I would instantly say yes. No hesitation. I know that we aren’t even dating, but-“

He’s interrupted by a gentle squeeze to his right hand, the one that’s holding Eddie's hand—

Wait, what?

He looks up at where the squeeze came from. There, he’s met with the shine of Eddie’s brown eyes. They have a certain look in them, one that Buck has seen before. It’s the look Eddie gives when he’s with Christopher. It’s the look Eddie gives when he watches Buck and Chris laughing over some new video they saw on the internet. It's the look that Eddie gives when Buck is spouting and rambling on and on about some new fact he learned from the rabbit hole he recently went on.

It’s the same eyes that Buck saw at the couple’s challenge two months ago.

Eddie’s love gaze also comes with a very fond smile, one that makes Buck's heart stop.

Buck’s face is in a deep blush, partly because he’s embarrassed about his confession, but also partly because of the realization of—well, Eddie.

Eddie woke up to Buck spilling his feelings, his heart, and his soul. 

There’s a part of him that wants to retreat, take back what he confessed, and somehow push down his feelings. But the want for Eddie far outweighs the fear he has right now.

His best friend’s face suddenly forms a soft smirk, one full of surprise, affection, and love, all at the same time. It sends a shiver throughout Buck’s veins.

“You mean it?” Eddie practically croaks out, the shock blocking some of his voice.

Buck’s not sure about a lot of things, but he’s definitely sure that he wants Eddie. He wants to continue the family of three that they have slowly crafted over the past three years. He wants to wake up in the morning next to Eddie, one arm wrapped wrong him. He wants to cook breakfast for his family and hold them at their lows and celebrate them when at their highs.

He wants to actually mean it when he introduces Eddie as his husband, and Christopher as his son.

“Of course I do, Eddie. I always have and I always will,” Buck replies, the love seeping into his words.

Eddie’s smile turns confident, and Buck thinks that it looks so good on him.

“Well then—“ Eddie says quietly, his voice still heavy with drowsiness. He gives Buck a smile that makes his heart want to explode, “Buck, will you marry me?”

It takes a moment for Buck's mind to catch up to the realization of Eddie's words, but he gets there.

“You already know the answer,” Buck replies with a small grin, his eyes glossy and close to pouring tears again.

This time, they are definitely tears of joy. That's for sure.

“You’re right—I do.” Eddie says, smiling back at Buck fondly.

It’s Eddie that pulls Buck closer to him, cupping his hands around Buck’s face. Their lips meet in a sweep of harmony, and at that moment, Buck has never been happier. It’s the softest kiss that Buck’s ever had; it makes Buck want to melt into Eddie even more. It’s full of passion, but it’s also made of sweet cotton candy that Buck would eat forever.

Buck never wants the moment to end. If he could just bottle up the perfect moment and store it to where he could watch it again and again, he would.

But for now, he’ll just have to live in the moment.

When they separate, all Buck can do is return the heart eyes that Eddie is giving him.

Off to the side, Christopher jokingly coughs.

“Are you guys always going to be like this when Buck moves in?” Chris teases. He has a grin that stretches from ear to ear on his face.

“Probably,” Buck says, flashing an affectionate smile towards Christopher.

Christopher fake groans in disgust, and Eddie and him can’t help but share a laugh.

“Oh, and for the record—I love you too, future husband.” Eddie says, a smirk on his face.

Buck just kisses him in response.

Chapter Text

+ i.

There’s a certain feeling that flows through Eddie’s bloodstream—one that is reserved for only the joyous of moments. Moments that he knows will never be forgotten—moments that last a lifetime.

And these memories, no matter how old or new they are—will never fail to put a smile on his face.  It’s like they make up who he is; every part of his being is woven and tied with a piece of memory that will be cherished forever.

It used to be where those moments were very rare for him. The only one he can truly remember before they moved to Los Angeles was Christopher’s birth. And if he’s being honest, that might have been the brightest moment of his life. He literally gained the sun that day.

But after he and Chris moved to LA, it seemed like the moments were appearing to be more common. There are three reasons why: one, is the found family he has in the 118.

The other two? Well, they’re Buck and Chris.

It’s obvious—every moment with the both of them feels like they are worth a lifetime. Every moment that they act like a family, Eddie has that feeling that rushes through his bones.

They could be packing lunch for the next day or simply eating dinner, and Eddie would store that moment and cherish it forever.

He knew it, and everyone else knew it; every piece of him was either woven with Buck, Chris, or both.

And he’s sure Buck is the same way—he still remembers the way his husband was balling his eyes out as he walked down the aisle, arm hooked around his sister’s as they made their way to celebrate one of the brightest moments of their lives.

So, that’s how Eddie knows that this moment is going down with the others. That feeling is back, spreading throughout his veins and body.

He walks back into their living room with a large yellow envelope that has “Evan Diaz" written in large black letters on its outside. His husband is already on their blue couch, trying to do the daily crossword.

“Hey there,” he greets as he gives Buck a quick kiss, which makes Buck look up fondly. He sets the crossword aside. “Look what we got in the mail.”

He hands the envelope to Buck, who reads the name on the mail before his eyebrows shoot up like bullets.

“W-wait— i-it’s here? Did it get approved?” Buck stammers, joy encasing his voice. If his husband’s smile before was big, the one on his face now completely overtakes it.

“Well, why don’t you and Chris find out?” He replies, the joy becoming contagious.

“Chris! Come here!” Buck calls down the hall to Christopher’s room.

There’s a couple of footsteps and sounds of crutches before Chris emerges in the living room, a curious look on his face.

“Yes, Buck?” He asks, making eye contact with Buck.

“We got something in the mail…” Buck starts. Eddie can see that his husband’s eyes are starting to become glassy. Or is that his own? “You wanna open it?”

“Yeah!” Chris exclaims before making his way onto Buck’s lap, snuggling into his side like always. Buck automatically wraps his arms around his son, and it’s a sight that Eddie’s eyes will never become sore of. The way Chris’ head fits perfectly into crook of Buck’s neck makes Eddie’s heart melt.

He walks around the table and sits in the chair next to Buck before scooting it as close to him as possible—their shoulders fully pressed against each other.

His husband starts to open the large envelope, full tears running down his face now. Chris seems to have inherited their happiness, as he’s grinning as if he’s the sun. Eddie wraps his left arm around his two favorite people, pulling them in closer together.

This is what he always wanted—always dreamed of. And now that he has it, he never wants to let go.

Buck pulls out two thick pieces of papers.

One of them is a wedding license that has both of their names on it.

The other is an adoption certificate that recognizes Buck as Christopher’s official dad.

Buck is full on sobbing now, just like he was at their wedding. Eddie wraps his right arm around them and squeezes with love, so much love. He’s pretty sure some tears are forming in his eyes too.

“I-I’m so h-happy,” Buck croaks in between his cries of joy, “I l-love you guys s-so much.”

Eddie’s heart melts at the words.

“We love you too, Dad,” Chris assures, with the same grin on his face.

His heart is for sure disintegrated now.

Buck just cries even more, and Eddie can’t blame him. His husband removes his right arm from squeezing Christopher too hard and instead wraps it around Eddie, further cementing the family hug.

“Yeah, we do,” he adds before kissing Buck’s cheek. He then lets his head fall in the space between Buck’s neck, just like Christopher. 

They stay like that for a long time, cuddling together as their family becomes official. They've been a family for years, but having it inked down on paper gives Eddie a feeling that he can't even describe. Almost like it's a confirmation saying Yes, this is real. Eddie will never let this moment be forgotten, just like all of the other memories.

Eddie looks down at the wedding ring on his finger, and it reminds of him of the fact that earlier this year, the only way he would ever be cuddling like this was if Buck and he were pretending to be husbands.

But now, he doesn’t have to wonder anymore. He doesn’t have to wonder what it’s like to find true love—to be loved, because he has these two. The greatest two people in the world, if you asked him.

And that’s all he’ll ever need.