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Here’s where it went wrong, or at least where Eddie remembers it going wrong. Maybe it started before that event in particular. Maybe it started the moment Buck told him about being in a date with Tommy, or the moment where Eddie said, ‘this doesn’t change a thing between us’ instead of ‘if I’d known you were bisexual maybe I would’ve made a move sooner’.
Okay… maybe not that.
Maybe things went wrong the moment he didn’t kiss Buck… or at least confess his love to Buck that day in the hospital after he told him about his will. Hell, maybe it all started when they met. When he couldn’t stop thinking about Buck’s stupid smile while he was saying, ‘or you could… you could have mine’, as if having each other’s backs was the most romantic thing you could say to him.
Now that Eddie is thinking about it… really, really thinking about it… maybe the problem was that he was born. Maybe, just maybe… there was something wrong in the universe, maybe the day he was born was cursed.
Because only a curse would explain why they were saving Taylor fucking Kelly again.
The day started pretty normal. He took a shower. Woke up Chris. Drove Chris to school after breakfast and then to work. He was talking to Chimney about when their next barbecue would be since it had been a while with everyone available.
And then Buck sit next to Eddie’s chair. As usual.
What was not usual were Buck’s next words.
“Oh! Maybe Tommy could go, you know to… to finally introduce him to everyone. Officially, I mean?”
Eddie tried very hard to not let his emotions show, as usual, but Buck… well, there was a reason they were the duo that they were. “… Or not.”
“No! No… I think, if that is what you want, then… it’s your call”, he said. Because… well what else could he say? Right?
He didn’t recognize Buck’s face. For a moment it seemed like he was… disappointed. Which was probably something he imagined anyways so he didn’t pay much attention to it.
And then they were on a call. A multiple car crash accident.
It was a huge thing they even had to call whatever division Tommy was on. And of course, he had to be on duty. Because, again, cursed day of birth and all.
Being cursed meant he had to watch Buck waving at Tommy that was watching back and nodding. He was fucking nodding. Buck was all excited waving and Tommy was… nodding at him? What kind of douchebag does that?
Being cursed meant he had to save Taylor Kelly and made sure she was secure because the van she was in was involved in the accident. Thankfully… or maybe not, depends on who you ask anyway, Taylor was fine. Just… bitchy, as usual.
“Seriously, why the hell no one drives good enough in this city?”, Taylor was saying to… no one really. Just throwing her hate to the air. As if the air wasn’t contaminated enough.
Since they basically finished by the time they got to Taylor, Tommy’s helicopter was flying away, with Buck watching it carefully.
“Don’t worry Buck, he’ll be fine, he knows what he’s doing”, Bobby said to Buck when he noticed he hadn’t moved in a while.
But that’s the thing about Buck, isn’t it? He will always worry. And it didn't matter if some dude just nodded at him as if they were coworkers and nothing else.
Eddie sighed at his best friend face. And then jumped a little, maybe, when the least expected person went to his side and asked, “Who is that guy anyway?”
He looked back at Taylor and rolled his eyes. “What do you care, again?”
Ravi, poor sweet stupid Ravi, was walking by and replied, “Oh! Tommy Kinard, pilot, Buck’s… boyfriend, I think”, and left as if he didn’t give the enemy some confidential information she definitely didn’t need.
“Well… that’s something”, she kept talking. For a strange reason Eddie didn’t get. Being silent usually meant you don’t want to talk, he thought that was someone everyone knew, so why on Earth did Taylor kept talking to him when he didn't want anything to do with him. “I always thought if he came out it was going to be just to announce he was in love with you.”
And isn’t that just everything Eddie needed to hear from… this person.
“Shut up, Taylor.”
---
Eddie hated Taylor Kelly. All of her.
The way she talked. The way she worked. The fact that she went behind Buck, his best friend, Buck’s back and posted a story not caring that she could put in danger their family.
But most of all, Eddie hated the fact that Taylor Kelly was one of Buck’s exes. And like every Buck ex… there just had to be something wrong with her for not see Buck the way Eddie sees Buck. For not appreciating him the way he does.
Sadly, the call was not the last day he saw her.
Again, he had to be cursed or something. Not that he believed in any of it, but... it was weird.
For some reason, he saw Taylor again. At a grocery shop. There were hundreds of them, and they had to be at the exact same? He wasn't uperstitious but maybe he needed una limpia… just to be sure.
“Seriously, Edmundo, we haven’t seen each other in almost two years and now two times in a week? Are you following me or something?”
“You know, just because we happened to run into each other, doesn’t mean you have to talk to me”, he said as he was trying to find some expiration date in what he was buying.
“I’m just curious…”, she grabbed the peanut butter from his hand and pointed out the expiration date. What a show-off. “I kept thinking about the fact that Buck is in a new relationship, with a man, that is not you and then had to questioned myself to see if maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe you two weren’t in love like I thought you were…”, she said as he put the peanut butter in his car and went to the next aisle. “But the thing is, Edmundo… I’m never wrong.”
“And you don’t have a job where you could put your superpower to use or something?” he said, answering without really answering because well… she did not actually ask anything.
“About that…”
————
Taylor’s plan was simple enough to understand from a technical perspective. Fake dating. Holding hands and being all cute to each other when in front of someone in particular. Buck, in this case. When Eddie asked her what she was getting out of the deal, she just shrugged and said “Buck was waving at him and he just nodded like he meant nothing, it was some shitty behavior if you ask me”. She kept talking about how Buck was in love with him and whatever feelings he had towards Tommy (said with a disgusted expression on her face, which he appreciated), if he even had any, would completely disappear the moment he realized he was jealous of Eddie’s new girlfriend. Because, according to her, Buck never really felt any real threat from Eddie’s past girlfriends, but he did know Taylor better than anyone else, and he knew just how far she would go if she wanted something. And if she wanted a partner? Well, everyone knew Buck’s timeline with her.
Obviously, Eddie wouldn’t take her to the 118’s next barbecue, no matter how much he was going to try to avoid looking in Buck and Tommy’s direction, because it would be out of nowhere and he was certain pretty much everyone would see right through his shit. He did tell her about it though and she came up with a simple plan.
Texting.
So, here he was. At Chimney and Maddie’s house texting Taylor freaking Kelly.
He was, indeed, laughing a little while looking at his phone. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was about her but for some reason he never really liked her. He always thought (ever since he realized he was in love with his best friend, actually) maybe it was because she was Buck’s ex and his subconscious hated everyone who would come close to Buck in that way because, his subconscious apparently knew he was gay, it just didn’t send the memo to his conscious. But now thinking about it? Maybe Taylor is just a despicable person and Eddie doesn’t like horrible people. It’s not like it’s wrong to not like someone.
Eddie didn’t know exactly how much time he was smiling at his screen or muted the noise around him because next thing he knew, when he looked up to find Buck (as usual, because he really couldn’t not look at him and his beautiful self), he found him looking back at him with a strange expression on his face, and he wasn’t the only one. He had no idea when he became a celebrity or whatever.
“What?”, he asked, not hiding his confusion.
“Who are you talking to?”, Buck asked with a frown.
“What… what do you mean?”
“He means all your friends are actually talking to each other to their faces and you’re looking at your phone, texting with someone who’s not in the room, which is pretty rare, and now that we call you on it, you’re blushing.” Karen answered, trying not to laugh.
And it’s not like he was blushing in the way Buck makes him blush sometimes when it’s late, they’re in a shift and they’re the only two awake so they talk about their feelings and make plans about Christopher’s future and Eddie can’t help but imagine the way he would propose to Buck the minute he knows for sure Buck feel the same way or at least somewhat interested in him. You know, the nice kind of blushing, this was more of a oh God Buck is looking at me and he hasn’t stopped staring in a while and wow his eyes are so blue, kind of thing. Embarrassing really.
There was also the fact that he made a bet with Taylor that something like this would happen and now he had to pay her fifty bucks. Because he might’ve run and enlisted when Sharon got pregnant, but he did pay off his bets. It was an honor thing. Kind of like when el taquero asks you how many tacos you ate, and you can lie but you don’t because it would be the wrong thing to do.
“It’s… no one”, and it’s not like he lied. Taylor was no one to him.
Buck stared even harder at him if that was even possible. Hen laughed. “Yeah, right. Just tell us already, you know we won’t leave you alone if you don’t.”
“Fine! It’s… Taylor.”, oh God why did he say that?
“Taylor who?”, Buck asked. And only then, Eddie realized that he didn’t actually think about how Buck will react about him “dating” Taylor. Like… she was his ex-girlfriend. A pretty serious one, the one he spent most time with. They moved in together, for God’s sake. And Buck was… he had a good heart and that meant that a lot of things could hurt him so maybe knowing he was “dating” Taylor would be one of those things. Not because of his feelings for Eddie (if he even had them) but because you’re not supposed to date your best friend’s ex, everyone knows that. And maybe… maybe Buck would feel betrayed by Eddie and start to distance himself from him and he wouldn’t survive that.
“Oh! Taylor Kelly? You guys reconnected after the crash?”, Ravi asked while Eddie was having his little self-crisis talk.
“Well…”
“But you hate Taylor, you always have”, Buck said.
“I think hate is a strong…”
“I think it’s great!”, Maddie suddenly said. What?
“What?”, Buck replied, looking as troubled.
“Enemies to lovers is one of my tropes”, she answered like it was nothing. Tropes? “The tension, the arguments… the angry s…”
“Okay!”, Buck interrupted her. “Have you s-… how did you even started to talk to her? I can’t picture you starting that conversation.”
And maybe it was Buck’s first reaction that made him go with the plan they’ve discussed earlier that day. Maybe it was Maddie’s reaction to it, like she knew he was lying but for some reason gave him an opportunity to make it more believable. Or maybe he just wanted some chaos. He did love the dramatics of novelas after all.
“We ran into each other at the grocery store after that rescue a couple of weeks ago, started talking, she sent me a text and we’ve been talking ever since.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, after all.
Buck looked as if he was calculating something. Taylor did say to him that Buck would completely fall for their story if he said Taylor was the one that started the talking, it made more sense and Buck would think Taylor was in chasing mode or whatever she called it. Eddie called it bullshit, but here they were.
They heard something breaking in the kitchen and then Mara yelling “not me!”, so Hen and Athena went inside to check on the kids and the moment passed, everyone went back to their previous conversations and Eddie to his phone. He thought he could feel Buck’s gaze on him.
———
Two weeks later he kept texting back and forth with Taylor. She usually did it when she knew he would be on a shift and sent memes to help him laugh because he couldn’t act good enough or so she kept saying.
There wasn’t much of a change though, Buck was still with Tommy and Eddie was starting to think Taylor just wanted to make him more miserable by giving him hope and making him text her. Until…
“Oh! Before I forgot, Maddie wanted me to invite you guys to our home next Saturday”, Chimney said in the locker room where everyone was ready to head to their respective homes. “And she kept telling me I shouldn’t forget to tell you to invite Taylor, Eddie.”
Buck almost fell off the bench. “What? Why”
“I don’t know, something about Eddie not feeling like a fourth wheel of something?”
“Why would he? I’ll be right there.”
Hen looked at him with that same expression she did back when Eddie said he didn’t like to date because it felt as if he had to perform.
“Tommy won’t go?”, she asked.
“What does that have to do with anything?”, for some reason, the way Buck was speaking reminded him of the first day they met. Back when Buck talked in the most annoying way at him. He tried really hard to not find it endearing.
Chimney looked at him and rolled his eyes. “You’ll be with Tommy as a couple, Hen will bring Karen, Maddie will be with me, and we all know Athena and Bobby will try to sneak out to kiss like teenagers or something. Which means, Eddie will be left alone.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen… right, Eddie?”
——
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into bringing you here”, he said when he parked in front of Maddie and Chimney’s house.
“As if you’re not dying to see if Buck is really in love with you or not. Spoiler alert: he is,” he pointedly avoided her comment.
“Just remember, stay close but not too close because… well, let’s just say I might be allergic to your perfume, who the hell uses that?”
———
Since the moment they stepped into the house, he could feel everyone looking at him. Some were less annoyed than the others, obviously. And some made him feel suspicious.
“Taylor Kelly! Welcome to our place”, Maddie said as she hugged both of them.
Taylor looked back at him with confusion in her eyes. What the hell was happening?
“And hey, don’t be shy to share PDA around us, ok?”, she continued. “I’m pretty sure my brother wouldn’t mind since your thing-y was a long a time ago and he just wants his best friend to be happy anyways.”
There was a glint in her eyes, kind of like… she knew?
“Did you tell her?”, Taylor asked him with an obvious fake smile directed at him when they were left alone. She looked crazy, and he was the bad actor?
“No, I did n- what are you doing?”, he asked as she hold his hand. “I hate this so much”, it was his turn to fake smiled at her, and when he tried to crush her hand, he realized she could do the same. Where was that strength coming from? Maybe he needed to go to the gym more.
“And you think I like-?”
“Hey, guys!”, Tommy got close to where they were standing. “I don’t think we’ve met before, hi, I’m Tommy Kinard”.
“Your parents really made the city wrote Tommy in your birth certificate?”, Taylor asked incredulously.
“Well…”
“Since when were you interested in Eddie, Taylor? It’s kind of odd”, Buck interrupted.
“Well, what’s not to like? He’s a great single father, army veteran, has strong morals… honestly, I’m surprised no one else has claimed him yet.”
“I just think… I don’t recall either of you actually getting along a couple of years ago. Hell, if I remember correctly, you used to barely stand each other.”
“People change, Buck. We’re kind of those enemies to lovers’ books you like to read so much about.”
“What…?”, Tommy asked. Buck forgot for a moment he was with him.
———
The entire night was hell, at least in Eddie’s book. He had to stay shoulder to shoulder with Taylor and even when he tried to grab a snack, Maddie was at his side out of nowhere with Taylor behind her. Honestly, what the fuck was Maddie doing? Did everyone saw through him and his act?
The red-headed demon on his left side tried to seem cozy with him so she touched his hair constantly. Turns out, she only wanted to cause him pain because goddamn that woman knew how to. He had no idea how the hell Buck dated her to be honest. Specially when she kept trying to open his skull and arm with her own nails apparently. This woman needed to be locked up immediately.
Apparently, his torment so far wasn’t even the top of the iceberg because Taylor fucking Kelly decided that maybe she should try something to send him to a psychiatrist or to his early grave. She fucking kissed him.
———
Okay maybe it wasn’t exactly a kiss-kiss, but their lips almost touched, and he felt nothing but nausea. And maybe he wasn’t the only one, seeing as Buck’s glass was currently in the floor and he said something about the bathroom.
Eddie wanted to go after him, and for a split second he thought he shouldn’t. It wasn’t his place, Tommy should. But then he remembered they were best friends, he didn’t actually care enough about Tommy, and he was in love with Buck so… that had to be enough.
He ran after him and grabbed his shoulder just before he went into the bathroom. It would be very awkward if Buck ended up really wanting to go and it was just a coincidence. But he did know Buck inside and out, and right now? Right now, he was making that face he does when something goes not according to plan, when he wants to change the reality he’s in, definitely not the one he makes when he wants to pee. And yes, he knew what face Buck did when he wanted to pee, whatever.
“I’m just…”, Buck tried to speak.
“What are you doing?”, he asked.
He just needed Buck to say it. Please fucking say it.
———
“What are you doing? Since when do you even like Taylor?”, Buck fired back.
“I’ve told you already-”, he tried.
“No, you didn’t! You didn’t tell me you two talked at that rescue. You didn’t tell me you saw her at the grocery store. You didn’t speak to me first when she texted you and even today, she’s the one doing all the talking while you just stand there looking at here. What the fuck is going on?”, he yelled at him.
Oh.
So maybe Buck wasn’t actually jealous because he loved Eddie the same way Eddie loves him. Maybe he’s just disappointed in a ‘can’t-believe-my-best-friend-doesn’t-trust-me’ kind of way.
“And now you’re kissing her? After all this years of family gatherings, the first person you bring over is Taylor freaking Kelly and you kiss her in front of me?”
Or maybe he is jealous?
“What does that have to…”
“Seriously Eddie, I cannot believe you fucking did that. We’re supposed to be in this together. We were supposed to…”
“You’re the one that asked if you should bring Tommy first, Buckley!”, he interrupted. Buck just stared at him just like he stared back when he called him exhausting. “I don’t know what you want me to say, you just keep bringing him up everywhere and I’m supposed to be the ninth wheel or something? Why can’t I just bring someone over to be my company? Why do I have to be the only to not have anyone anymore…”
“You have me!”, he went back to yell again. “You will always have me and you wanna talk about Tommy? You are the one that said nothing would change between us! You were the one…!”
“What was I supposed to say, huh? You said you couldn’t stop thinking about him in the first place!”
“As if you don’t know how my brain works!”
“You say that as if you don’t know how mine does either!”
For some reason, they started to get closer as the fight keep escalating, and now they were both in each other's space, it’s as if they were breathing for each other with the way their breathes were.
If you ask either of them which one made the first move, they wouldn’t know, but the last thing they knew, both felt as if they were reaching a point none could go back from, they could feel something breaking. Before their friendship could go to a cold spot again, one neither would survive this time, their lips touched.
Finally.
And it was like drinking water after a long run. They felt it in their veins.
It was like the sun and rainbow after a storm. The hope they both needed.
And it was like when you wake up right next to the person you love and can’t believe it’s yours.
It’s what they’ve always been searching for.
———
The rest of the night went pretty amazing after they came back holding hands, blushing and giggling, Maddie told them that everyone could hear them arguing and Tommy decided to leave. Taylor, on the other hand, stayed just enough to say to Eddie “now you owe me an invitation to the wedding, Diaz. I did tell you I’m always right”, just before leaving the Han’s house.
Almost two months later, they finally got married and Buck insisted they should invite Taylor because even though neither of them wanted to admit, Taylor did help them. Kind of. Which is why they were both in front of her at the reception and Eddie was asked (very nicely and persuasively) to say something nice to her.
Just as he was about to, his very drunk sister Adriana almost tripped and fell at Taylor’s back.
“Chingadamadre, tacones de mierda”, she said. After living in Mexico for so long, she spoke better spanish than any of the Diaz’, and she always guilt tripped him into learning more.
“Oh? Hi, I’m Taylor, don’t worry, heels are kind of hard to manage when you’re drunk”, she said while looking at her with curiosity and… something else?
No.
Adriana looked at her without letting go of Taylor’s hands that so nicely helped her to not fall. “Soy Adriana”, and then she sighed.
She fucking sighed.
In front of Taylor?
“Adri, you’re speaking spanish”, Buck pointed out trying not to laugh.
“Shut up Evan, I’m trying to woo her.”
Just as Eddie reached for her before she could fall into Taylor’s devil ways, Buck grabbed him and made him walk his way to Christopher. “You’re not going to meddle in that, honey.”
Eddie snorted.
Of course he would.