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Eddie collapses against Buck’s back.
Buck was on his hands and knees on Eddie’s bed just ten minutes ago, but somewhere in the course of their haven't-seen-you-all-week sex, his arms and legs gave out. Probably because Eddie was fucking him into the mattress so well he had no other choice.
Buck hums happily into Eddie’s pillow, giggling with an ‘oof’ as his boyfriend falls on top of him, completely (and comfortingly) smothering him for a second before he gets his arms underneath himself again. Eddie pants into Buck’s neck with a matching laugh, leaving little biting kisses by Buck’s nape.
“So…” Eddie starts. Buck turns his head to show him he’s listening. “That’s, uh– that’s why they call you a ‘tight end’, huh?”
“Hah, hah, hah,” Buck deadpans, face-planting into the pillow again with a smile, continuing to catch his breath. “Very funny. Very original, babe.”
“What? You’re telling me it’s just a coincidence that you’re a tight end with a tight… end? Seems like there’s a connection there. Might be the secret to your success. A gay prophecy.” Eddie kisses him on the apple of his cheek, right over a healed breakout; courtesy of his Accutane.
“I’ve played tight end since early high school, baby. Since before I knew I liked cocky Texas boys.”
Eddie snickers and kisses him again. “Cocky Texas boy, you mean.”
Buck only just stops himself from rolling his eyes, and, instead, pushes at Eddie’s hips so he pulls out before he rolls over. Buck, now on his back underneath his boyfriend, holds Eddie’s face in his hands, rubbing his cheeks. “Yes, Eds. Just one. Just you.”
Eddie leans down to kiss Buck’s lips in sweet pecks, quickly divulging into something more; it’s not every day that Charlotte volunteers to take Chris off their hands for a few hours specifically so they can bang it out.
(They were busy busy busy this week and hadn’t seen each other in at least eight days. And Eddie was acting like what Charlotte could only refer to as a ‘diva’. Buck was no better off; Connor and Kameron sat on a couch in the frat house while they called him co-dependent. Buck replied something about pots and kettles, but Connor really wasn’t paying attention as he received a message from Charlotte on Instagram.
@cheerprincesschar: Eddie is such a diva this week. Is Buck being all mopey and uptight too?
@conconconnor: Yeah lol he is 😂
@conconconnor: I think that’s why they call him a tight end
@cheerprincesschar: Good one LOL 🙌🏻
@cheerprincesschar: Honestly, for being a cheerleader, I know shockingly little about football positions. It wouldn’t surprise me.
@cheerprincesschar: Anyway just tell Buck to get his tight end over here
@cheerprincesschar: I can’t take this anymore 😫
Connor, of course, sent Buck on his way. Happy to be rid of going-through-Eddie-withdrawal Buck.)
After a shared shower, they head over to pick Chris up from Charlotte’s. He’s babbling gibberish and making grabby hands for his Papa as soon as he sees him.
“Hi, little man!” Eddie cheers, arms outstretched to receive his son.
Buck gives Charlotte a big hug after she passes Chris off. “Thank you, Char. You’re an angel.”
“Don’t forget it, Buckley,” she laughs, kissing each of her three boys on the cheeks before sending them home.
Buck ends up carrying Chris home, letting Chris’s uncoordinated, tiny hands pull on his curls and poke at his birthmark and scratch against his cheeks for fun. He’s lucky he’s the cutest 13-month-old in the world.
Eddie takes care of bedtime and storytime while Buck changes their sheets and tidies up. By the time Eddie is finally in his bed—and reading a Spanish romance novel Adri got him for his birthday—Buck has retreated to the washroom.
He’s not using the washroom, though. The door is wide open and there’s no water running. But Eddie knows what his boyfriend is doing anyway.
“You better not be picking at your face, sweetheart!” Eddie calls, dropping his book into his lap.
When there’s only silence in return, Eddie huffs.
“You know you’re just gonna make it worse. I know you know this, baby.”
Buck grumbles from where he stands in front of the mirror, picking at his acne just like Eddie suspected. Yes, he's on Accutane, but it’s definitely in the ‘getting worse before it gets better’ stage
“I’ve been so good about it recently! I promise!” Buck, with a great deal of hesitation, forces himself to put his hands in his shorts pockets and walk away. “It just gets all irritated when Chris touches it and it’s so hard not to just– ugh, I hate it.”
“Baby,” Eddie puts his book on the table and welcomes Buck to bed with both arms, just like he did for his other boy earlier. “I know, Ev. I’m sorry it’s so tough.”
Buck snuggles into him, wrapping his arms tightly around Eddie partly so that he can’t pick any more at his face.
“Do you think it’s gonna be like this forever?” Buck mumbles. And he knows it won’t. But it feels good to hear the confirmation from someone else too.
“Evan. It’s gonna get better. And you know I think you look absolutely stunning no matter what—no matter how red your skin gets or how many breakouts you have—but it’s gonna take longer if you keep touching it; you’re gonna scar.”
Buck sighs, burrowing his face into Eddie’s chest. “I know,” he says, all dejected and muffled.
Eddie rubs up and down his back as he shuts the bedside light off. “Hey, look at me.”
Buck slowly pulls his head out to catch Eddie’s gaze.
“One day, Chris is gonna come home from school and kiss his Daddy all over his pretty cheeks and you won’t even remember feeling like this, okay? It’s gonna be fine. My beautiful boy.”
As it turns out, Chris isn’t the only one who ends up doing that. Eventually, their daughter also joins the cheek-kissing roster, kissing Dada’s cheeks before she leaves for preschool every morning.
And, way before either of their kids could do it, Eddie started the trend. As soon as Buck’s skin had cleared up and he was feeling less self-conscious about it, Eddie made a habit of kissing both Buck’s cheeks right before every football game. To this day, Eddie leaves gentle kisses over fading acne scars, whispering ‘Go get ‘em, cowboy’ each time.
And then, Eddie gets to sit back and watch his boy kill it on the field. He loves his tight end so much.