Work Text:
“Remind me again why we’re going to this?” Chimney quietly asks Maddie, popping a gum into his mouth after he’s locked the doors to their van. A few cars down the parking lot, Buck and Eddie are hopping out of Eddie’s truck and— wait — Did Buck drive Eddie’s truck? He shakes the thought away and tries to focus. “We’re karaoke people, not line dancing people! I don’t dance, Maddie! Especially not in a line!”
“We’re doing this for Eddie, Howie,” Maddie says, patting him on the shoulder. “Buck said he seemed really excited! And he could use a fun night out before Christopher comes back next weekend. We could all use one.”
“But do we have to be there? Do we have to be there?” She narrows her eyes at him and he adds, “Do we have to be there ?” She swats at his arm and he takes a step away from her.
“Stressing different words won’t get you out of this! Come on! It’ll be fun! Everyone’s gonna be there and we haven’t had a night out in a while.”
He mutters under his breath and decides to drop it. Maddie’s right: everyone’s going to be there. Kids are being babysat, they’re not working tomorrow, this should be fun. He’s not sure about the line dancing part but they’ll be with friends and there’s going to be drinks… he’ll make Buck pay for one (or many) of his drinks. One might ask: Why Buck?
The simple answer would be: Why not Buck?
-
It’s an hour later and everyone is there, chatting away and catching up on everyone’s lives (as if they don’t spend almost every waking moment together at work and outside of work). Chimney’s already two beers down and his walls are cracking; there’s been a question on the tip of his tongue since the beginning of summer and he’s bit it back since— he can’t do it anymore; he needs to ask it or he’s going to vibrate out of his body.
No. He can do it. He’s been good so far. If no one’s mentioned the elephant in the room it’s because it’s not a big deal, right? He doesn’t have to—
“Okay. I have to ask.” Screw it. He has to.
He places his hands flat on the table, giving himself some form of stability. They're all looking at him, waiting, and he twirls his finger towards Eddie’s face. “It’s been three months. What is this? Why is this? What’s with the moustache, man? It’s unsettling. At first I thought you were copying Gerrard, now he's gone and I don’t know anymore. Please, for the love of all of us and all of our children, shave it off.”
Eddie snorts, smiles, and passes his thumb and index over his moustache, smoothing it down. “I just felt like a little change, you know?” He points his beer at Buck and then at Ravi as he speaks. “Frank says that it’s because this is something I can control… unlike other things happening in my life.” He throws back the last sip of his drink and puts the glass down. “And I spoke with Adriana the other day? She said she was like that with her hair when she was younger— and it makes sense, you know? I couldn’t control getting Chris home, I couldn’t control having Gerrard as boss. But this? This I can control.”
“I like it,” Buck says before Chimney can answer, and Chimney can’t help but arch his eyebrow at him. From his right, Maddie nudges him with her elbow and he rolls his eyes. Because of course Buck likes it. Eddie could probably go bald or shave his eyebrows and Buck would still look at him with hearts in his eyes.
“Next round’s on me,” Chimney says instead, not trusting himself to not make other comments. On his other side, Hen gets up as well, following him to the bar. “You’re seeing it, right? I’m not crazy?”
“Chim—”
“No, I’m serious! I know we gossip about them but come one! Ever since Buck and Tommy broke up those two have been even more…”
“Them?”
“Yes! They’ve been more them ! More nauseating ! Eddie has his hand on the small of Buck’s back for crying out loud!”
“D’you think they got together and they didn’t tell us?”
He looks over his shoulder: Buck’s head is thrown back in laughter at something Karen said and Eddie seems to only have eyes for him. “No… right? We would know? Right?”
She arches an eyebrow at him, “Would we? We— Oh hello um, two pitchers of beer and nine shots of tequila.”
“Tequila? Are you trying to get us hungover tomorrow?” Because who doesn’t want to do shots on a Thursday evening? He catches Ravi’s eye and waves him over — they absolutely need another set of hands.
“Tequila gets Eddie chatty, if we want info, we need tequila,” Hen explains, and Chimney gets his phone out to pay for the drinks. “Buck called it off with Tommy, what, two months ago? They have been carpooling a lot these days… But they used to do that a lot…” They both sneak a look at their table and Hen snaps her fingers. “I think Buck moved into the Diaz house.”
Chimney gasps, a hand on his heart. “Oh! Scandalous! They’re not married and there’s only one bedroom!”
“What's up, guys?” Ravi asks as he approaches them. The’s grinning brightly at them and Chimney can’t help but wonder what Ravi thinks of this whole situation. Ravi’s not part of the ‘Buddie Pool’ and he’s not around them as much as he used to, alternating between A and B shifts (or A+ as he calls them). He might not even realize that something’s up .
“We need help with this,” Chimney replies, gesturing to the tray of shots and lemons. Upon seeing it all, Ravi seems to gag and he quickly puts a fist over his mouth. “Bad memories with tequila, kid?”
“You have no idea,” Ravi supplies, but he takes the tray nonetheless. “Someone else can have mine.”
“Oh, give it to Eddie,” Hen says and Chimney can’t help but smile fondly at her. God. His best friend is so evil. He loves her.
They head back to the table quietly and the shots are distributed between all of them, sans Ravi and Bobby. At the end of the table, to Maddie’s right, Josh squirms on his seat. “I have an early shift tomorrow, I don’t know if I should?”
“Josh, come on. It’s one shot!”
Josh turns to Buck and points an accusing finger at him. “You say that now, Buckley, but then it’s a second shot and then it’s a long island iced tea, and then I regret my choices that led me here and you will regret my choices because I will try to seduce you!”
“So… just a regular Thursday then?” Buck says with a grin and Athena pats Josh on the shoulder.
They all have their shots in hand, lemons, and salt, and muscle memory has them raising their glasses. “What are we toasting to?” Buck asks, looking around the table.
“Our youth?” Maddie suggests.
“Our youth ?" He snorts, "We’re—” as he takes a breath to start his next sentence but he can’t quite start it that Athena interrupts him.
“Choose your next words wisely, Buckley.”
“To our youth!” He quickly says, and they lick the salt off their hands, take the shots, and bite into the lemons. Karen and Hen both reach for their waters immediately after, and Eddie has already downed the shot Ravi didn’t take.
“Who wants to go dance?” Eddie asks, slamming the empty shot glass down and clapping his hands once as he gets up. His cheeks are already bright red from the alcohol and his hair is falling into his eyes. The table looks around and no one says anything. “Come on! It’ll be fun! I’ll teach y'all! It’s quiet today, too!” He’s right: the dance floor is pretty empty for a Thursday 10PM.
“Says the Texan that knows how to line dance!” Hen complains. Next to her, Karen gets up. “I’m in!” Hen looks at her wife with a surprised expression and watches as Eddie takes Karen’s hand to lead her to the dance floor, Athena and Bobby joining them as well, Josh following close behind.
The rest of the table stays put and it only takes a couple of minutes before all of their jaws are on the floor. “Did you know that Cap knew how to dance like this?!” Buck says, turning on his stool to face the table again. “Holy shit! He’s actually good! And Athena?! Damn.”
“I kinda wanna try too, now,” Maddie says with a smile, wiggling her shoulders with excitement, and Chimney shakes his head. “Howie! Please?”
“Maybe in two beers?” His wife pouts and he does his best to resist. A few seconds pass and she turns her attention to her brother, who immediately straightens up. Buck looks over his shoulder and then back at Maddie, pointing at himself, mouthing a silent ‘ me? ’.
“Please? We’ll let you babysit Jee next weekend?”
Buck narrows his eyes at her and Chimney has to stifle a laugh. “That’s low, even for you. Using my niece to bribe me?”
“Is it working?”
He sighs and gets up, patting down his jeans and shoving his cap backwards on his head. He hasn't seen Buck dressed like this in a long time. Jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap? Not usually his style. He looks good, Chimney notes. “Yeah. It’s working. Come on.”
Maddie all but squeals with joy and Chimney gives her a quick kiss as he watches her go to the dance floor with Buck. Their friends cheer for them and they all try to fall into pace with the song that’s already playing.
As he watches, Chimney moves down to sit next to Hen so they can watch their friends together. “Eddie looks happy, doesn’t he?” Hen says and Chimney nods. “Haven’t seen him smile like this since…” She doesn’t say it but he knows.
“Same.”
"I'm glad Chris is coming back soon."
They keep watching them for a bit. Ravi ends up joining them too and Chimney is thiiiiis close to going as well. But no, he’s fine with where he is. He likes watching Maddie clapping along to the beat, laughing as she trips on her own feet and bumps into Josh, who stumbles onto Buck, who keeps them both up. Bobby and Athena are a bit apart from the chaotic ones, tucked into the corner. They seem to be enjoying themselves as well. It’s no karaoke night but Chimney’s kind of glad he’s here.
There’s one problem, though, and Hen seems to sense it too.
“Why are they all so good at this? Eddie I get… but Buck? Karen? Did they take a class without telling us? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Buck dance since we’ve known him! Bobby might’ve learned in Minnesota?”
“I have,” Chimney says, and he pours himself a glass of beer. “I’ve seen Buck dance.” Hen looks at him with question marks in her eyes and he laughs. “With Jee-Yun. They watch The Wiggles together, very age appropriate for Buck.” And Hen laughs , leaning so far back on her stool that Chimney’s a bit scared that she might fall off. “I have videos, actually. One time, when he was babysitting, they had a whole routine and did a performance for me and Maddie.”
“Oh, Chim, you need to send it to me.”
“Already on it,” He says, his beer abandoned and his phone in his hand.
-
“You two should try! It’s really fun.” Karen says about two songs later as she comes back to the table with Maddie and Josh, cheeks flushed and a little bit out of breath. “It’s actually really easy once you get into it. And it's great cardio!”
“Someone has to stay with Chim,” Hen says, patting his shoulder, and he shoves her hand off, leaning into Maddie’s side instead.
“I don’t need to be babysat!”
“That’s what you say but—” She stops mid sentence and nods towards the dance floor. “Now what fresh hell is this?” She already has her phone by the time Chimney looks.
On the dance floor, they spot Buck, Eddie, and Ravi, next to each other, grinning as they move, but compared to Bobby and Athena, their way of dancing is… different. Chimney’s trying to think of an appropriate word but for now, different is what he’s going with. One second Eddie has a hand on Buck’s shoulder as he guides him into a turn, then there’s a hand on Ravi’s waist and the next beat there’s one Buck's lower back, nudging him to the left, and all three of them are rolling their hips at each other, hands on their chests and stomachs, like they’re smoothing down their shirts and it’s all a bit… intense. The four at the table look at each there and back at the pair. They’re good and people are hyping them up but Chimney did not expect so many hip rolls in line dancing. Behind them, Bobby and Athena are dancing the way most people would expect and Chimney notices how they’re also pointing at the trio sharing a laugh of their own, shaking their head a bit, but they’re smiling. As he looks around, he notices that other people seem to be into it like his friends— is this a trend, maybe?
The song ends and Ravi takes a bow and dips out, heading straight for the bar. Okay, so maybe the bit is over now that Ravi is back. They weren’t like this earlier and— nope, Eddie is now doing a body roll in front of Buck and Buck has a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. And hey ! When did Buck’s hat end up on Eddie’s head?!
“Maddie, come on! This is almost too much!”
“What? They’ve always been touchy,” Maddie says, like what they’re witnessing is normal . Sharing beds during quarantine was normal . Carpooling to get to work is normal , even though they don’t live in the same area and it’s a detour to pick the other up. This? This is not normal. They all look at her and she sighs. “Okay fine, it’s getting kind of weird! Even for them.”
When the song ends, the pair finally come back to the table, all eyes are on them and they don’t even notice. They barely have time to open their mouths when one of the employees is next to them with two shots on a platter. “This is from the girls over there,” she says, pointing to the corner.
“Oh? Thank you!” Buck gives Eddie a glass and takes the other. They clink their glasses together and raise them at the girls with bright grins.
“Are you going to go talk to them?” Hen asks, and they all know the answer to that question.
No. The answer is No. Right?
Buck looks at Eddie and shrugs a little bit. “Maybe? I don’t know? Should we?”
“Maybe? I don’t know?” Eddie parrots, and Chimney has to physically hold himself on his stool so he doesn’t jump over the table to bash their heads together. “Maybe? To say thank you? I guess?”
“We could?”
“Ok you both need to stop speaking in questions,” He finally snaps. “Those two girls bought you drinks, they’re cute, you’re single…” The pair exchange a glance and Chimney narrows his eyes. “You are single, right?” Come on, boys… come on…
“We should go say thank you,” Buck quickly says and Eddie nods, elbowing Buck’s side to get him to move.
“Okay team,” Chimney says, turning to face the table once the pair have left. He takes his wallet out and slams a few twenties on the table. “I’m doubling my bet.” Karen all but chokes on her sip, Hen patting her back, waving Athena and Bobby over as she does.
“ Doubling ?! Chim, if you’re talking about the bet… it’s a lot of money.”
“I know, and I'm calling it. This ends tonight. I can’t stand it anymore. It’s been too long.”
“What’s going on?” Bobby asks, looking at all of them, concern clear on his face. “Is Karen okay?” Karen gives him a thumbs up but his brow furrows.
“Howie wants to double his bet,” Maddie supplies and Athena’s eyes go wide.
“Chimney, that’s a lot of money. What’s bringing this on?”
“I’m calling for this bet to end. Tonight.”
“You can’t just call for it to end, though!” Karen says, her voice a little bit raspy from the coughing. “I get that tonight is a lot but this has been going on for years, we can’t just call it. If they’re not together, none of us win, and we spook them!”
“Wait, what?”
They turn and find Ravi back at the table, a fresh pitcher of beer for them, question marks in his eyes, and a confused smile on his lips. “Are Buck and Eddie not exes? Are they getting back together, like, again? I thought they had this on and off thing going on. Friends with benefits or something. Or like divorced with benefits considering they're raising a kid together.”
“Oh, honey,” Josh says, and he pats Ravi’s back gently. “No. They’re not exes. We all think they have it bad for each other, though. You want in on the bet?”
“You want me to bet on whether or not my friends will get together?”
They all nod and Hen adds, “Also when they’ll get together. There’s layers to this.”
“When, how, who…” Karen takes out her phone and Chim watches as she opens up the private webpage she built for their bet.
“Who?” Ravi asks, his eyebrows tightly knit together at this point. Chimney can’t blame him there, there’s so much to catch up on.
“Who makes the first move,” Hen supplies, and Ravi nods along. “Layers,” she says in a whisper. “A whole lot of troubling and anxiety enducing layers.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Too long, Ravi. Too long,” Athena says at the same time as Chimney replies with: “Since Eddie’s second week in the 118.”
“And you’re okay with this?” He looks to Maddie and then to Bobby.
“I just want what’s best for my brother. It’s only a matter of time!” Maddie says, raising her hands innocently. “And hey, if I can make a bit of money on the side…”
“And I would like to have a do over for our honeymoon trip,” Athena adds. “On land, this time.” Next to her, Bobby laughs and kisses her temple. “This bet was started outside the firehouse and it’s not discussed at work so… I’m not interfering,” Bobby adds.
“So… Okay…” Ravi takes his wallet out. “I’m in. I’m betting they’ve been together…” He pauses and he seems to be counting in his head with how his fingers are moving on an invisible calculator. “Six weeks, three days. But that they’ve been pining since they met but just thought they were closer than regular best friends… And Eddie confesses at his house.”
“See!” Chimney exclaims, “He thinks they’re already together too! They’re clearly together, right?! We all saw how they were dancing!”
“Oh that?” Ravi laughs and takes a big sip of his beer. “We’re just messing around, man. Some of us come here every other week and we like to let loose.” He points to the dance floor and sure enough, there are a few people dancing just like how Ravi, Buck, and Eddie had been earlier. “How much is in the betting pool? How much do I need to put?” Karen shows him her phone and Chimney has to hold back a laugh from how high his eyebrows are going. “Damn, guys. Do you re-bet every time everyone’s dates pass?” The table nods collectively and Ravi hums, taking out a few more bills from his wallet. “Who’s the banker?”
“This isn’t Monopoly, Ravi,” Karen says, and she takes the money. “We thank you for participating and may the Buddie Gods be in your favour. We’ll add you to the group chat.”
They go back to a different subject but it doesn’t last for very long that Maddie is patting Chimney on the shoulder and pointing back at the dance floor again. “So about them being together?”
Chimney turns on his seat so fast that he fears he might get whiplash at his point. Surely enough, they’re in the middle of the crowd with the two girls from earlier. “Well I’ll be damned.”
Except.
No.
Wait.
One second, Buck is with the girl in blue, then Eddie is with the girl in blue, then the girl in blue is dancing with the girl in black and oh . “That’s… unexpected.” The girl in blue has her hand on the back of the other’s neck in a way that Eddie has his hand on Bucks and… huh?
They switch partners again, once, then twice, and they’re back with their original partner. Hands are on hips and it somehow gets worse (In Chimney’s opinion). Maybe it’s because they’ve had more drinks but he swears that Buck is leaning back more into Eddie, and he swears that he can see Eddie’s hand on Buck’s stomach, making Buck’s white t-shirt ride up a bit, and— He really needs to stop watching his friends, it’s getting too weird. A shiver goes through his spine and he shakes it off before chugging his beer, earning himself questioning looks from Maddie and Hen, who are both flanking him.
-
One by one, they all start to leave.
First Josh, then Bobby and Athena, followed by Hen and Karen. The remaining five are at the table but Buck and Eddie seem to be texting.
“Are you guys texting each other? If so, that’s a new level of co-dependency,” Maddie says and Chimney couldn’t agree more. "You're right next to eachother."
“No, we’re texting the girls from earlier,” Eddie answers and… what? That’s not… Huh? Chimney really needs to stop with the beers. This whole evening has thrown him for a loop and he’s not sure what the reality of things is anymore.
“Yeah we got their numbers,” Buck adds.
“As in… both of you got both their numbers?” Ravi asks, and more questions form in Chimney’s head.
“Yeah,” they answer together, like it makes sense and Chimney wants to flip the fucking table. He leans on his hand, frowning so much he's worried his face might not recover from the lines he's creating.
“What do you mean you both got their numbers?! How does that even work?!”
“We’re gonna go out again,” Buck says, matter-of-factly. “To dance. Together.”
“All four of you?” Buck nods. “Like on a date? All four of you? Poly-style, or? What?” At this point he can’t even come up with the proper words to form a sentence.
“I— what? No. They’re dating eachother. We just had a lot of fun and we’ve been looking for more people to go dancing with.”
“What?! You’ve been line dancing before?!” Chimney’s mind is about to blow. First Eddie gets a moustache and next Buck willingly goes line dancing.
“I mean… yeah?” Next to Buck, Eddie is laughing into his beer. “Did you not see me out there?” He points behind him with his thumb. “I’ve been line dancing with Eddie for like three years now.”
“This guy,” Eddie starts, and he throws an arm around Buck’s shoulder, his other hand on the free shoulder to give him a squeeze. “ This guy… I told him once that I liked line dancing and I kinda missed it cause I used to go back home with my sisters and this guy finds this place and brings me here as a surprise.”
“Isn’t Buck so amazing?” Maddie says with a grin, and Chimney knows that tone; he knows that she’s taunting them, but it goes above their heads.
“He really is,” Eddie replies, and he’s looking at Buck with the same heart-eyes that Buck had earlier and Chimney kinda sorta wants to throw up. “Best friend a guy could have.” And Buck has the audacity to blush . “We bumped into Ravi what? Last year? So now he joins us from time to time, too! It’s been really fun.”
“Yeah,” Ravi chimes in, and he takes his phone out, placing it on the table, “We’re actually quite popular on TikTok.”
One look at the video has Maddie choking on her sip of water and Chimney brings the phone closer to the both of them. The video that Ravi pulled up shows all three of them dancing exactly how they were dancing earlier— except his has a couple thousand comments and even more likes and favourites. He starts scrolling and it’s more of the same. Sometimes it’s just Buck and Eddie, sometimes Ravi is there, sometimes it’s other people. He feels like his mind is just exploding at this point.
“You guys do know what this looks like, right?” He asks, looking up from the video and at them. They can’t be that oblivious.
Who’s he kidding, of course they can.
“It looks Iike guys having fun, comfortable in their masculinity,” Eddie replies with a nod, his arms crossed over his chest and Christ Chimney really needs to stop drinking because why the fuck is he thinking about how good Eddie’s arms are looking in that t-shirt? First Buck, now Eddie? No more beers.
“I’m out,” Chimney deadpans, and he chugs his water. “The room is spinning and up is down and I— I need to go.” Maddie is looking at him with worry in her eyes but the other three somehow look pleased with themselves. Chimney feels like he’s being played. Screw ending the bet today, he needs air.
“Next time you come here, can I come?” Maddie asks as she gets up to go hug her brother. “I really had fun tonight! And I think Josh really liked it too.”
“Of course you can come,” Buck replies, and he kisses the top of her head. “I’ll let you know.”
It takes them a solid ten minutes to finally step outside and as soon as the cool air hits him, Chimney sighs the biggest sigh of his life. “Your brother is a menace.”
—
Back inside, the trio is still at the table, newly filled glasses of beer raised in celebration. Ravi is on one side of the table, Buck and Eddie on the other.
“Okay Ravi, what did you learn?” Buck asks, leaning forwards a little bit.
Ravi grins . “You were right. There is a betting pool and there’s a lot of money riding on you two.”
“How much is a lot?” Eddie asks.
“The new Hildy Coffee machine type of a lot,” Ravi replies, and Eddie recoils at that. “I was finally asked to join in. So whenever you’re ready, you can come out to them and we’ll split that sweet sweet pot.”
It might be a bit childish, but they high-five each other at that and chug a bit of their drinks. If their friends want to mess with them, they can mess with them too. “I think we should wait a bit longer,” Buck says, and both Eddie and Ravi look at him with question marks in their eyes.
“Why wait? The money’s there for the taking.” Because why would they wait and risk them finding out?
“What if…”
“Uh-oh,” Eddie says, and he leans in just a bit more, “I know that smile. He has something evil in mind."
“What if… we’ve been keeping another secret?” Ravi leans in closer over the table as well and next to him, Eddie gasps, catching onto what Buck’s saying. “What if… We’ve been engaged for the entirety of our relationship? That we’ve been fiancés the whole time, boyfriends for barely five minutes? And you bet on that?”
Ravi’s quiet for the first couple of seconds, processing, and he frowns. “Wouldn’t that be too dishonest, though?”
“Would it?” Eddie says, an eyebrow raised, and he grins.
“No… No!” Ravi sits straight and his hands go into his hair. “What?!”
“Oh yeah. It’s quite the miracle no one has caught on, too, including you.” Buck adds, and he places his left hand on the table, atop of Eddie’s. “We got little matching ring tattoos six weeks three days ago on our ring fingers.”
“You guys never told me that,” Ravi whines, his arms up now. “I’ve known about you two since the week one, too!”
Buck shrugs and leans into his fiancé, smiling when Eddie’s arm goes around his shoulder. “Y ou might've caught us making out but we wanted to keep some mystery."
"So." Eddie looks to Buck, and then to Ravi, "How about we wait a few more weeks? If someone brings up the tattoos in the groupchat, Ravi you could bet that we're engaged. If no one brings it up, you take a subtle picture of our hands and you bring it up. Deal?"
“Oh this is going to make us filthy rich,” Ravi says.
—