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Buck’s lips touch Eddie’s for all but one second before he realizes what he’s doing and pulls back with wide eyes. Eddie’s mouth hangs open slightly in shock as he stands there frozen and Buck thinks: This is it. I’ve ruined the most important relationship in my life.
So, naturally, he bolts.
He rushes past Eddie and through the living room until he reaches the front door and throws it open before slamming it shut behind him, stepping out onto the dimly lit street. It’s then that he remembers Eddie drove him here and his goddamn phone is still inside, so he can’t call an Uber.
Oh, has he mentioned that it’s pouring?
His loft is too far away to walk there, but he takes off in that direction anyway, the rain already soaking through his clothes, because he just needs to get away. He can’t go back in there and face the inevitable pity on Eddie’s face as he rejects him. Or worse; maybe Eddie will be pissed at him for complicating their friendship. Oh God, what if he tells Buck they should stop hanging out until he gets his feelings under control? Or forever, even?
Buck is going to throw up.
He didn’t even mean to kiss Eddie. God knows he’s thought about it more often than he’d care to admit but he had gotten so good at resisting the urge. Until today, that is.
Buck had been rambling about something, as he so often does, but then stopped himself because he knows it can get annoying for other people sometimes. Except then Eddie frowned at him with a confused smile and nudged his shoulder and said: “Come on, I wanna hear the rest.”
And Buck just…look, he’s only human, okay? It’s not his fault. And Eddie’s face was right there, so he grabbed it between his hands and kissed him. Except it was such a short kiss that Buck can’t even remember the feeling of Eddie’s lips against his, so he basically ruined their friendship for nothing. That’s just great.
Buck’s not sure if the wetness on his face is just the rain or if he’s crying.
“Buck!”
Eddie’s voice makes Buck stop in his tracks and his breath catches in his throat. He turns around and sees Eddie running towards him and he’s getting closer and closer and Buck just really cannot face this right now, so he turns back around and starts sprinting.
“Buck!” Eddie yells again, this time sounding exasperated. Buck speeds up.
“What the— Buck!”
Why is Eddie making this so difficult?
Buck is panting heavily by now but he’s not intending to stop until he shakes Eddie off. Except then he fucking slips.
He stumbles forward and manages to catch his footing and stay upright but it gives Eddie enough time to catch up to him. Buck is about to start running again when Eddie grabs him by the back of his sweater and pulls him backwards like he’s a misbehaving kitten.
“Fucking hell, Buck!” Eddie pants, putting his free hand on his hips as he takes a few seconds to catch his breath. “With how you were running, you’d think I was trying to murder you!”
Buck ducks his head sheepishly.
“Are you gonna let go of my shirt?” he asks hesitantly and even though he can’t turn around, he knows Eddie is raising his eyebrows at him when he says: “Are you gonna run away from me again?”
“No,” Buck mumbles reluctantly, resisting the urge to pout and cross his arms in front of his chest like a petulant child.
Slowly, like he’s not quite sure he actually trusts Buck’s answer, Eddie lets go of him before circling around him so they’re face to face. Somehow, the rain makes Eddie’s hair look even better than usual, which Buck thinks really isn’t fair.
“Why did you run away like that, Buck?” Eddie asks with a small shake of his head, looking irritated. Buck throws his hands in the air in frustration.
“Because I didn’t wanna deal with you rejecting me, okay?” he says. “Or telling me I messed up our friendship or—”
“Buck, why do you think I’d reject you?”
Now it’s Buck’s turn to freeze. He blinks.
“What?”
With a sigh, Eddie takes a step towards him and puts his hands on Buck’s arms, making Buck inhale sharply. Eddie’s brown eyes bore into his even as his expression softens.
“I’m not going to reject you, Buck,” Eddie says gently, no trace of irritation left in his voice.
“But…,” Buck starts, his brain struggling to process what’s happening. “You didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t give me a lot of time!” Eddie accuses, but he huffs a laugh as he says it. “Besides, you caught me off guard. It took a moment for my brain to catch up.”
Yeah. Buck knows what that’s like.
“So… does that mean you, uh…,” Buck says hesitantly. “I mean, do you wanna…kiss? Again?”
He can’t help but grimace slightly at his own words. He can’t believe he used to be smooth. Look what Eddie Diaz has done to him!.
Thankfully, the man in question doesn’t seem bothered by Buck’s lack of game. In fact, he looks endeared. A fond smile spreads across his lips as he moves his hands from Buck’s arms to his face and pulls him in, closing the distance between them.
And this time Buck can feel the softness of Eddie’s lips and hear the content sigh he breathes into Buck’s mouth, and he can taste the beer they were drinking earlier on Eddie’s tongue.
He’s not sure how long they just stand there, kissing in the rain like they’re in a romance movie, but eventually they slowly pull back, resting their foreheads against each other with matching smiles.
“Wanna continue this inside?” Eddie asks and Buck huffs a laugh as he nods because yes, even though the rain is romantic, it’s also getting really fucking cold.
So Eddie takes Buck’s hand in his, which Buck is pretty sure makes his heart literally skip a beat, and they make their way back to Eddie’s house. Buck feels giddy with joy over the memory of what just happened and Eddie’s hand in his and the thought of going inside and getting to keep kissing him in the warmth of his — their — home.
The giddiness lessens significantly when they reach the closed front door and Eddie’s smile slowly fades from his face.
“You, uh…,” he says awkwardly, grimacing slightly. “You didn’t happen to grab your keys when you ran, did you?”
Buck drops Eddie’s hand to pat his jeans pockets. Unfortunately, they’re very much empty.
“Fuck,” Buck says matter-of-factly and Eddie huffs a humorless laugh.
“Fuck,” he agrees.
Christopher is at a sleepover, so it’s not like they can ring the doorbell, and they can’t call someone with a spare key because first of all, their phones are also inside, and second of all Buck is the person with the spare key.
“Uh…what do we do?” Buck asks hesitantly and Eddie shakes his head as he stares at the door helplessly.
“I don’t know.”
For a few seconds they both just stand there in silence until suddenly, Eddie perks up.
“I think I left the bathroom window open!” he exclaims hopefully, brushing past Buck to make his way around the house to said bathroom. Buck follows him, and luckily, Eddie is right: the window is open.
It’s also a lot higher up than a ground floor window has any business being, in Buck’s opinion.
“And, uh…how do we get in?” Buck asks, glancing at Eddie doubtfully.
“I guess I’ll give you a boost?” Eddie suggests, though he doesn’t seem very confident in the idea. But it’s not like they have any other options available.
“Alright,” Buck says with a shrug as Eddie bends his knees slightly and positions his hands so Buck can put his foot on them. Before Buck does just that, though, he hesitates for a moment, looking down at Eddie a bit skeptically, who raises a confused eyebrow at him in response.
“You know I’m pretty heavy, right?” he asks, which earns him an eyeroll.
“I can handle it, Buck,” he says.
“Maybe I should give you a boost?” Buck suggests.
“You’re taller than me,” Eddie insists impatiently. “You’re more likely to actually reach the window.”
Buck supposes that’s true. So, albeit still hesitantly, he steps in front of Eddie and carefully puts his foot onto his hands, feeling a little bad about the dirt that’s probably on them. Maybe he should’ve taken off his shoes.
With a grunt, Eddie lifts Buck up a little, allowing his fingers to touch the edge of the window.
“A little higher,” Buck says, straining to grab the edge with his whole hand but not quite managing.
“You got it?” Eddie asks, doing as Buck says.
“Yeah, I think,” Buck responds, finally able to grab onto the edge. He puts the foot Eddie isn’t holding against the wall to steady himself and get some traction. “I’m gonna try to pull myself up.”
He does just that and is about to try to swing his leg up when his left hand slips and then he’s falling backwards with a yelp. His fall is softened by Eddie, who releases a small “oof” when he hits the ground.
“Shit, are you okay?” Buck asks, quickly scrambling off him.
“I’m fine,” Eddie waves him off, already getting up again. “You?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Buck responds, accepting the hand Eddie’s offering him to help him stand up.
“Let’s try again,” Eddie says, wearing a determined expression. Buck hesitates for a moment before once again remembering they don’t really have another choice.
He’s still standing on Eddie’s hands a few minutes later, trying to pull himself up, when the quietness on the street is disrupted by the sound of police sirens. They both ignore it, assuming they’re just passing through, when all of a sudden the sirens stop and there’s the sound of a car door falling shut, followed by a male voice yelling: “LAPD, put your hands up!”
Buck freezes, his head snapping towards the officer. At least he’s not pointing a gun at them; he only has his hand on his holster. There’s a female officer a few steps behind the guy, but with the dark and the rain, Buck can’t make out either of their faces.
“Uhhh…,” he says, looking at his hands that he definitely can’t put up right now, much like Eddie. “Can Eddie put me down first?”
“Buck?”
At the sound of Athena’s voice, Buck breathes a sigh of relief and hears Eddie do the same.
“What on Earth are you two doing?” she demands, stepping closer to them while Eddie slowly lowers Buck to the ground.
“We, uh…locked ourselves out,” Buck admits sheepishly and Athena raises an eyebrow at him.
“And you didn’t think two men trying to climb into a window in the dark might look suspicious to your neighbors?” she asks, and…okay, they actually didn’t really think about that.
“You are aware there’s such a thing as locksmiths, right?” she continues.
“We left our phones inside,” Eddie chimes in, sounding equally as chastised as Buck. Athena’s got a way of making you feel like a little kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Athena sighs heavily before relaying something through the radio that Buck doesn’t quite understand and turning to walk back to the car, gesturing for Buck and Eddie to follow her.
Buck feels a little bit like a wet stray dog that got picked up off the side of the street as he climbs into the back of the car, Eddie right behind him. God, it’s nice to be out of the rain. It stopped feeling very romantic quite a while ago.
“Are you arresting us?” Buck asks and Athena turns to look at him from the driver’s seat, eyebrows raised.
“You didn’t commit a crime,” she says before turning back around and taking her phone out of her pocket. “I’m going to call you a damn locksmith.”
—
It’s going to be at least half an hour until the locksmith gets here. It’s a bit awkward sitting in the car with Athena, her partner, who Buck doesn’t think he’s met before, and the guy Buck was making out with not that long ago and was hoping to be making out with right now.
“How did you even manage to lock yourselves out?” Athena breaks the silence after a while, turning to look at them again. “Don’t you both have a key?”
Buck shoots Eddie a panicked glance, who’s looking back at him the same way. Should they tell the truth? They didn’t discuss this. Maybe Eddie doesn’t want to make this thing between them public yet?
“We just…forgot,” Buck says, huffing an awkward laugh. Athena looks at him dubiously.
“And why were you even outside in this rain? With no jackets, mind you,” she continues and…Buck doesn’t have a good answer to that, so he looks to Eddie again, begging him with his eyes to think of something, but Eddie seems just as lost as he is.
For a few seconds they just stare at each other but then the panicked look in Eddie’s eyes morphs into a questioning one. Buck knows what he’s asking, and a small smile appears on his lips, the tension leaving his body. He gives Eddie a small nod before turning back to Athena.
“I kissed Eddie and freaked out and ran,” Buck explains. “And then he ran after me and we kissed again, but, uh…neither of us took our phones or keys with us.”
A look of surprise appears on Athena’s face.
“So you two finally figured it out?” she asks and Buck and Eddie shoot each other an amused glance.
“Yeah, I guess we did,” Eddie says fondly, his tone making warmth spread through Buck’s chest.
“Well, thank God I won’t have to listen to Bobby complain about you two anymore,” Athena says, startling a laugh out of Buck.
“Bobby complains about us?” he asks.
“That man has had to watch you two dance around each other for seven years,” Athena responds pointedly. “Of course he complains about you.”
Buck supposes that’s fair enough.
The locksmith arrives about twenty-five minutes later, and Buck has never been this happy to step into the Diaz house (even though he’s very happy every time he does).
They thank Athena and tell her goodbye and then they’re finally alone together again. They look at each other for a moment before a grin spreads across both their faces and they lean forward, meeting in the middle.
“I’m cold,” Buck says in between kisses and Eddie hums against his lips before pulling back.
“Wanna shower together?” he asks with a glint in his eyes and Buck’s pretty sure his brain short-circuits.
“Yes!” he says, a little loudly, which elicits a laugh from Eddie, who takes Buck’s cold hand in his and leads him towards the bathroom.
Afterwards, when they’re lying in bed together with Buck’s head on Eddie’s chest while the other man plays with his damp hair, Eddie says: “We would make terrible burglars.”
Buck snorts
“Oh, definitely.”
Predictably, they’re teased relentlessly on their next shift; but the cake reading ‘congrats partners in crime’ tastes pretty damn delicious.