Work Text:
1.
Maddie has always loved her baby brother. Since the day he was born. And everything that happened after that day, their whole childhoods, it only made her love him more. Evan was her favorite person in the world. They understood each other in a way nobody else could.
For the longest time, Evan was the only other person she knew with magic. Her mom had told her once, before Evan was born, about her mother—Maddie’s grandmother—who used to talk about being able to do magic, but it had just been a bedtime story. And then one day, at eleven years old, Maddie had made the bangs she cut herself reattach themselves, and she learned it was real.
She figured it out, and when Evan fell off a wall and bounced on the concrete rather than getting hurt, she was able to help him.
Her brother was her favorite person in the world, for a long time. That didn’t mean she wanted to spend time with his friends, though. Evan’s friends were annoying—loud and smelly and, more often than she’d like, assholes.
A lot has changed since they were kids, though.
Not everything—Buck is still one of her favorite people, and they are both still the only people who understand each other’s relationship to magic—but, still, a lot.
Her little brother has grown up, and it turns out his friends now are pretty cool. She should know, she’d married one of them. Tonight, though, Howie is at home with Jee-Yun, and Maddie is at Eddie’s house.
They do this pretty regularly, honestly, whenever shifts at all of their jobs line up to where she, Karen and Eddie can get together, while Chimney, Hen and Buck take the kids.
They’re in Eddie’s house tonight, sitting on the floor around the coffee table and laughing so hard Maddie can feel tears running down her cheeks. Between the three of them, they’re two bottles of wine in and showing no sign of slowing down.
Karen is talking about the new guy in work—extremely intelligent and highly educated, with almost no common sense, while Eddie reaches for the bottle opener to pop the cork on the third bottle of wine.
Maddie sees it happen, sees Karen’s arm fly out to articulate a point right as the cork pops free, her hand hitting the bottle and sending it careening over the edge of the coffee table. Maddie flashes her eyes towards it, catching it in midair and lifting it back onto the table.
She usually doesn’t use her magic around people who aren’t family, but it’s instinct, to stop the bottle from hitting the ground. Bottles falling, dishes hitting perfect tiled floors, chipped wine glasses and crushed ornaments—Maddie has come a long way since moving to LA, but there are still some lingering instincts she has to fight.
As soon as she realizes what she’s done, she freezes. Karen is no longer talking, and Eddie is just staring at her.
“What was that?” Karen asks.
“It was magic.” To Maddie’s surprise, Eddie is the one who answers. It makes sense, she supposes. Buck must have told him at some point. They don’t usually tell friends, but Eddie isn’t just a friend to Buck.
Maddie shrugs. “Yeah. Basically.”
Karen frowns. “Magic’s not real. Right? That’s… You’re kidding, right?”
Maddie bites her lip. It’s always a hard sell, but the cat’s out of the bag now. “It’s real,” she says. “We just don’t… advertise it openly. Some people take advantage.” Maddie knows that better than anyone.
“It’s best kept a secret,” Eddie agrees. “Wow. I didn’t know there were others in L.A.”
Maddie frowns. “Others?”
Eddie winces, then snaps his fingers and the candle on the coffee table lights itself. Maddie gasps. “You—?”
Eddie nods. “I’ve never actually known anyone outside of my family who had access to magic.”
Maddie opens her mouth, then snaps it shut. Karen takes the wine bottle and pours them all another generous glass. “So it’s a total secret?” She asks. “I can’t tell anyone?”
Maddie frowns. “I don’t want to make you lie to Hen,” she says. “I mean, Howie knows.”
“Buck doesn’t.” Eddie looks worried. “Though, I guess he does? About you?” His eyes are wide with concern.
About her. So he hasn’t told Eddie about himself. They’re so close, and neither of them have any idea about each other.
“Yeah, he’s always known.”
Eddie nods, frowns at the table. “Could you… I mean, you can talk to Hen, Karen. I’m cool with her knowing, but… I don’t think I want Buck to know about me. Not yet, anyway. Could you maybe…?”
“I won’t tell Buck,” Karen assures him, resting a hand on his arm. “And if it comes up in conversation to where I tell Hen, then I’ll let her know it’s a closed circle.”
Maddie nods. “If that’s what you want. But, Eddie, you know Buck grew up with my magic. He’s not—this is normal to him. He won’t react badly.”
Eddie shrugs. “I know. It’s just… a lot.”
And Maddie gets that, she really does. She remembers the day she told Howie about her magic, how afraid she’d been of his reaction. How deeply she trusted him, but still had that niggling fear that he wouldn’t believe her, or worse…
“I won’t tell him. I promise. I’ll leave Chim out of it, too—he’s been keeping my secret, but something like this… I won’t put that pressure on him. It’ll be just us, right?”
Eddie sniffs, lifts his wine glass, and takes a sip. “Thanks, Maddie. It’s cool to have someone else who knows what it’s like, at least. I mean, I have so many questions! I’m assuming your parents weren’t magic, right? What was it like, being the only one in your family?”
Maddie takes a large gulp of her own wine. If Buck hasn’t told Eddie yet, it’s not her place. She thinks of the years before Buck showed his magic, and she plasters on a smile. “It was confusing as hell, honestly, but Buck believed me right from the start. And my grandma had some magic, I think, but she passed when I was really young—”
It is good to have someone outside of her family to talk about this stuff with, she figures. It sounds like Magic was more commonplace in Eddie’s family—she wonders if Christopher has manifested, too—it’s something she's always wondered about, since having Jee. Maybe Eddie will have some advice on how to handle that change better than her own parents had.
And once she figures out a way to get Eddie and Buck to both come clean to each other, it’ll be even better.
2.
She invites Buck over for dinner the following day. Just to see him. To say hi. To talk.
Okay, she invites him over to subtly pry for information. Specifically, so she can figure out how he and Eddie can have been as close as they have been for this many years without either of them realizing the other has magic.
It’s fascinating to her.
“So, what actually happened at wine night that you’ve been acting weird about?” Chim asks her, leaning against the countertop, eating the rest of the now-brown apple slices Jee-Yun had abandoned from her lunch.
Maddie shrugs. “Well, the subject of… magic… may have come up?”
Chim drops the apple slice he’d gotten halfway to his mouth. “Karen knows?” he asks. “So, I can…?”
“I don’t know if she’s telling Hen—she said she would if it came up naturally.”
“Hen absolutely already knows. This is such a relief, I mean it’s not the most difficult secret to keep. It doesn’t really come up a lot, but damn. Everyone knows now?”
“Everyone knows magic exists,” Maddie confirms. “But I didn’t tell them Buck has it—that’s his own secret, not ours.”
Chim nods, grinning. “So that’s what news you’re breaking to him today? That there’s a chance they’ll ask him about you?”
Maddie nods, just as Buck knocks at the door, then just lets himself in. “Maddie?” he calls.
“Uncle Buck!” Jee runs out of the living room, where she’d been playing with her doll’s house. She takes a running leap into his arms, and Maddie can see that Buck adds some height to her jump with a curl of magic, making sure she lands safely.
“I’ll keep her entertained while you two talk?” Chim suggests.
“Thanks, honey.” Maddie kisses the corner of his mouth and goes to greet Buck.
“Hey, there!” Buck tickles Jee-Yun with one hand, while she squirms and squeals in his other arm. “Hi, Mads.” Buck gives Maddie a one-armed hug, and she leans up to kiss him on the cheek.
Buck maneuvers Jee to his shoulders, where she clings with arms around his neck, probably tight enough to choke him, but he doesn’t complain as he carries her to the dinner table.
“Want some wine?” Maddie asks, once they’ve finished eating and Chimney has disappeared to put Jee to bed.
Buck raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t get enough last night? I swear, Eddie was still drunk when I dropped Chris off this morning.” He laughs.
“Oh, I’m not having any.” Maddie makes a face. “We absolutely drank too much, but it’s here if you want it.”
“I’m good.” Buck shakes his head. “Want a hand clearing up?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, flicking his hand at the dishes on the table and sending them flying towards the sink. Maddie ducks with a yelp of surprise, but the dishes simply float over her head and scrape themselves off into the disposal.
“Hey now, have a little faith in me!” Buck protests.
“Try that on someone who didn’t end up with half of thanksgiving dinner in her hair in 2004.” Maddie raises an eyebrow, and sees Buck gasp in outrage.
“You know that was an accident! I had a cold, and I sneezed!”
“I had to dump my favorite sweater because the gravy stains wouldn’t come out.”
“I bought you a new one!”
Maddie smiles. She remembers that sweater. The original had been a beautiful, soft cream cable knit. The replacement Buck had bought her was about as high quality as a thirteen year old’s pocket money would allow—an impulsive thirteen year old at that. It was from the goodwill—a sign Buck had actually gone out of his way to buy it himself, rather than being forced to by their parents—a little oversized, misshapen and lumpy, but still comfortable.
She’d loved that sweater even more than the original, bringing it with her to Boston and only parting with it when it was no longer wearable.
She watches Buck now, proud of the man he’s become.
“So I accidentally used magic in front of Karen and Eddie last night,” she says, and the dish Buck had been floating out of the sink falls back in with a thud.
“What? You—?” Buck looks aghast. “How did—what…?”
So Maddie explains what happened. She skirts around the reason for those instincts, the memories of what would have happened if she’d let the bottle fall before coming to LA, but she can see the understanding in Buck’s eyes all the same.
“So they… know. About magic.”
“I didn’t tell them it was in the family,” she assures them. “But they know it’s real, and that I have it.”
“If Karen knows, then so does Hen, right?”
“Yeah. Probably. I was surprised Eddie didn’t already know, honestly.”
She pauses, waiting for his reaction. Buck stops what he’s doing and turns to lean against the countertop, looking down at the smooth surface. “You were? Eddie is… The most skeptical person I know, Mads. He doesn’t believe in curses, or superstitions, or—”
“None of those are real magic,” Maddie points out, and Buck turns his head to give her a flat-eyed glare.
“Not the point. I just… I don’t think I would be able to handle it, you know? If I told him, and he reacted negatively.” Buck frowns, and Maddie can practically see the cogs turning in his head. She hopes he doesn’t ask. She knows he will.
“How did he take it?” Buck asks.
Maddie bites her lip. She doesn’t want to lie to him, but she won’t tell Eddie’s secret, either. “He had a lot of questions,” she settles on. “But he believed my answers. He’d be understanding, if you do decide to tell him.”
“It’s different.” Buck sniffs. “You’re… his friend.”
“And you aren’t?” she asks.
Buck flushes. “Well. I mean… It’s different, with me and Eddie.”
Maddie knows that. She just wonders if Buck knows that, the true extent of it. “You know, when I told Howie, he was shocked. He believed right away, no questions asked, but he was… I don’t want to say scared, but it was a lot to process for him, you know? But we made it through, and look where we are now.” Maddie puts a hand on Buck’s arm, then pulls him into a hug, tucking him into her as much as she can despite their height difference.
“Me and Eddie aren’t…” Buck tries to protest. Maddie just hums. She’ll let him keep believing that, for now. It wasn’t all that many years ago when she had been insisting the same about herself and Howie, after all. Looking at her life now, she knows it was worth everything it’s taken to get to this point.
She won't begrudge Buck taking a little more time to get to his own happy ending.
3.
“It’s just… tough, you know?” Eddie says, gesturing with his coffee cup. Maddie has seen a lot more of him since that wine night three weeks ago. She enjoys spending time with him, loves having someone else who understands the burden of magic the way she does, but every time they talk, she has to censor herself, to avoid revealing the secret Buck doesn’t want him to know.
She’s beginning to understand how Chimney felt, any time she’d asked him to keep a secret.
“It is,” she agrees.
“I mean, for me, at least, my whole family had it, right? I guess I was lucky that way, knowing that my family understood it—probably the only part of me they understand, honestly. It was tough, though. Especially when my sisters manifested. I felt so responsible for helping them get the hang of it, right?”
Maddie remembers that feeling so clearly, but she can’t let him know she relates. She sips her coffee.
“I mean, being an older sibling is hard enough at baseline, right?”
Eddie huffs a laugh. “You’re telling me. Still, you know, seeing them come into their magic helped, when Chris started last year.”
“Chris has magic, too?”
Eddie nods. “Yeah. I thought he might avoid it, since Shannon...”
“She didn’t?”
“Nah. My parents hated it. Had a whole plan to set me up with a nice magical girl once I finished college, but, well… Along came Chris. You know?”
Maddie sits up. That’s something she can talk to him about, and can fully open up about without feeling guilty. Something she can’t tell Buck about. “How did she take it, when you told her?” she asks.
Eddie looks… almost guilty. “I didn’t. Not until…” He makes a face. “You have to understand, I was trying to get away from it, even then. I hated it. Hated all the rules my parents enforced—what I should and shouldn’t use magic for, the training, the accepted careers where I could use my magic without making it obvious. I wanted nothing to do with it. So I just… stopped.”
“You stopped?” Maddie asks. She can’t imagine it. As much as her parents were disgusted by it, as much as Doug had turned it into something ugly, Maddie’s magic is part of her. She can’t fathom just… not using it.
“Pretty much, yeah. For years. I didn’t talk about it, didn’t use it, and then she left. Mom and dad wanted to take Chris away, said he had to be raised around magic if I wanted him to be powerful, but I didn’t want that for him, so I brought him here.”
“Wow.”
“I use it more now. I want Chris to have a healthy balance, you know? I want to show him it’s a tool he can use, but it’s not the most important thing about him.”
“I hope I can do that for Jee-Yun, too.”
“Do you think she’ll have it?” Eddie asks.
Maddie chews her cheek. “I don’t know,” she replies, honestly. “There are some other magical people in our family, so there’s a chance, but as far as we know Howie’s family is pretty solidly non-magical. So, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
“When did you tell him?” Eddie asks.
Maddie releases a slow breath. “It’s not how I would have wanted to,” she admits. “But it was… you know. The day Doug…” The memory is painful. So painful she can’t bring herself to say it, but Eddie had been there. She knows he knows.
“Right. Fuck.”
“Yeah. Doug used to… he made me use it, for things that benefited him. Made me feel I was selfish, a terrible person if I refused. And, you know…” She blinks back tears at the memories of that time. How she’d walked around like a zombie most of the time, thoughts fuzzy, head spinning, barely able to stand some days. “You know how draining it can be, to use it for big things. Right?” Maddie looks at Eddie and sees him nod. “Yeah. He found out pretty early in our relationship and used it to… Well. If I’d had the choice, I probably wouldn’t have told Howie so soon, but, well.”
“These things happen.”
“Right. But Howie is… He’s amazing, honestly.” Maddie sniffs one last time, choosing to focus on happier thoughts. “He accepted it right away—asked about a million questions, but he never once doubted me.” She smiles, remembering the excited look on his face, the way he’d ask her to fetch a cup of water from the other room and laugh in delight when it would come floating over.
“That seems about right for Chim,” Eddie laughs.
Maddie laughs, still a little wet around the eyes, but it’s behind her now. Things are so much better than she could have ever imagined back then.
“I think my parents were mostly worried that most people would be like Doug,” Eddie muses.
“I get that fear,” Maddie agrees. “If Jee does inherit this, I don’t know how I’ll handle it once she starts dating.” She laughs.
“I do think there are more Chimneys in the world, though. I want Chris to be able to trust people. I just…”
“It’s a difficult chain to break.” Maddie gets it. “There’s something special about it, though. About sharing that with someone you love, and not being afraid to be yourself with them.” She purses her lips, and she can see Eddie’s cheeks pinken at her words.
“I’d like to have that,” he admits. “Someday.”
She doesn’t press the subject any further, not for now, but she lets the thought sit in the air for a while.
“Besides,” Maddie sits back, shooting a cheeky smile at Eddie. “You can have a lot of fun with it, when your partner knows about it. If you get what I mean.”
Eddie laughs. “Really?”
She nods, eyes wide. “Howie loves it.”
Eddie shakes his head, covering his face with a hand. “I’m not actually sure I want to know about this.”
“I won’t say any more.” Because, she knows, if she does open up this line of conversion any further, she’ll have to think about when Eddie might choose to use that information—and if her suspicions are correct, that’s not something she wants to think about.
4
Maddie sends out a curl of magic, lighting the candle on the coffee table. She’s too comfortable to get up and turn on a light, tucked into Howie’s side with the TV playing on low. Jee-Yun is in bed, the house is as clean as she cares to get it when they’re not expecting guests, and she’s that pleasant kind of sleepy that turns the world to a soft hazy glow.
Howie’s fingers curl through her hair, tracing patterns against her scalp, and she nestles closer to him.
They’re about to head into a Hell Week, as they refer to them in their house—those weeks when their shifts never quite line up, and the only times they see each other at home is when one gets home late at night or heads out early in the morning, while the other is fast asleep. Sure, they can visit each other at work, and hear each other’s voices on calls, but it’s always difficult to go even a few days without this, without curling up together at the end of the day, sitting together in silence because they’ve already told each other everything that needs to be said.
As much as Maddie hates those weeks, she loves nights like tonight, when it’s just them, nothing urgent to do. Howie turns his head and starts nuzzling the side of her face, hand drifting from her hair down to her shoulder, to the collar of her shirt, and Maddie’s breath hitches. Maybe she’s not all that sleepy, actually. She turns to meet his eyes, licking her lips. She leans in, captures his lips with her own, and—
There’s a knock on the door.
She sighs.
“Ignore it?” Howie suggests. She’s tempted to, but then there’s another knock.
“If Jee wakes up…” She makes a face, and Howie sighs.
“Yeah, you’re right.” He sits up, moving her into an upright position as he does so. “Make it quick, though. I’ll be waiting.” He winks, gesturing towards their bedroom.
“Deal,” Maddie promises, standing up and heading towards the front door.
She isn’t surprised to see it’s Buck standing there, but the expression he’s wearing on his face is much more concerning. He walks past ehr into the house, wringing his hands. He paces across the floor, shaking his head.
“Hello to you, too,” Maddie prompts.
“Christopher has magic,” Buck blurts out, standing still for the first time and staring at her with big, worried eyes.
Maddie’s eyes go wide. “O-oh. He does?” She tries to sound surprised, but she doesn’t think it’s successful—thankfully, Buck’s too wrapped up in his own head to register that.
“I was just… I was at Eddie’s, and I knocked on his door to say good night, and it just… it opened, and he was there with a book floating in the air in front of him. He… the book fell, and I pretended I hadn’t seen anything, but… Mads, what do I do, here?”
Maddie chews on her lip. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… Look, I get he was cool with you having magic. But, Maddie, he was so drunk that night, and he hasn’t even mentioned it to me since. Besides, it’s one thing to learn your friend’s sister can do something, it’s totally different when it’s your kid. But I have to tell him about Chris, right?”
Maddie frowns, then points towards the dining table. “Okay, sit down, all this pacing is making me dizzy.” By the time he’s sitting, Maddie has had time to think about what she wants to say.
“Well, first of all, I think by now Eddie considers me a friend, not just the sister of one.” She raises an eyebrow at him, and Buck makes a face, like he finds that weird, but he at least manages a mumbled apology.
“And besides, how do you know he doesn’t already know about Chris?” she asks.
Buck shakes his head. “No, he… If he knows about Chris, then he wouldn’t have been surprised when you showed him your magic, right?”
And, well. That’s a great point, actually. “Well, maybe not.”
“And, I mean…” Buck’s face is screwed up tight, like it used to get when he was a kid and he wanted to tell her something but couldn’t quite find the words. “I love Chris, and knowing he’s… Maddie, he’s all alone in this. Maybe Eddie knows, maybe he doesn’t, but he… He doesn’t have magic. He’ll try his best, but he won’t know what it’s like, and I—”
Maddie sits next to her baby brother and puts a hand on his shoulder. “You do,” she finishes his sentence for him.
“Yeah. I’ve… I’ve always wanted a kid, you know? I wanted to pass this gift on, and to show my own kid it’s something amazing, like you did for me. Like mom and dad didn’t. And I know Chris isn’t mine, but…”
“I think it’s great that you want to do that for him,” Maddie says. Internally, she cheers. If this is going where she thinks it’s going, then Buck will actually talk to Eddie about magic. He’ll tell him the truth, and it’ll all be out in the open, and she won’t have to lie to them both anymore. What a relief that will be.
Buck takes a deep, shaking breath. “I’m scared, Maddie.”
“I know,” she says. She gets it, she really does. “But you—the way you feel right now, it’s because you care. You care so much, and I know… I know Eddie cares too. You can talk to him about this.”
Buck nods. “I can, huh?”
Maddie nods again. “Go talk to him. Let me know how it goes.”
Buck stands up, taking a step towards the door, then he turns back. “I think… I need to figure out the words first, I think. Make sure the time is right, you know? But, I… I think I will. Tell him. Sometime soon, I mean.”
Maddie releases a slow breath. It’s something, at least. “That’s great, Buck.”
She doesn’t want to kick him out, not if he’s still off balance, but her mind drifts to Howie, waiting for her in bed. “Are you going to be okay?” she asks.
Buck nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I will be. I’d better, uh. I’d better go. I have to be up early for my shift in the morning.”
“Of course.” Maddie walks him to the door, even though she knows he could see himself out. He pulls her into a hug, so tight it squeezes her lungs, but it’s a nice kind of ache. She squeezes him back and waves him out to his car, before locking up and turning back to the bedroom.
“Now, where were we?” she asks, ducking through the door.
Howie is sitting up in bed, still fully dressed in the loungewear he’d been wearing all day around the house. He grins when he sees her, holding a hand out for her to take. “Buck?” he asks.
Maddie nods. “God, I can’t wait to be able to fill you in on what’s going on there,” she laughs.
“You could tell me now?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know this yet. It’s big.”
“You can’t just say that and not spill the beans!” he protests. She slides into bed next to him, kneeling up to kiss him.
“You want to keep talking about Buck?” she asks.
“Actually, no. You’re right. Less of the talking,” he agrees, pulling her down on top of him.
5:
The house is buzzing with laughter, voices and music. Maddie has been run off her feet all morning, getting things ready for Jee-Yun's birthday party.
Entertaining ten other kids under the age of five from Jee’s gymnastics class, and their parents is no easy feat, but between her, Chimney, and an excellent Moana party princess, they'd made it work. Jee's friends are all gone now, leaving just their family and close friends around the house.
Maddie takes herself out of the center of attention as soon as she spies an opening, ducking into the kitchen and pouring herself a glass of wine, breathing slowly in the blissful bubble of quiet she summons up around her.
She winces when the door opens, then relaxes as she sees it's just Howie and Eddie. They're saying something to her, and she lets the bubble drop to hear them.
“Sorry. I was… what were you saying?”
“Just wanted to check in.” Chim leans next to her, taking one of her hands. “All good?”
“Yeah. Just… Overwhelming,” she admits.
“You’re amazing. Anything you need?”
Maddie holds up the glass of wine. “Just this. I'll be back out soon.”
She leans over and kisses him once. “How are you holding up?”
Chim shrugs. “I'm good. Gonna head back out to Bobby, if you're good in here?”
Maddie nods, pushing him gently towards the door. She crosses over to the window, looking out to where everyone is gathered in the garden. Eddie comes to stand next to her.
“Great party,” Eddie says. The kids loved it.” He nods out the window. “Even the big ones.”
Maddie laughs, looking out at where Buck is running around, chasing after Jee-Yun.
“Have you…?”
“Spoken to him?” Eddie makes a face. “Not yet. At least, not about… this.” he gestures, making sparks fly from his fingertips.
Maddie doesn’t say anything. With Buck, she knows to poke and prod, to keep asking questions until he puts the pieces together and figures out what he needs. She doesn’t know Eddie well enough to know whether that would work for him, though. She stays quiet, letting him ruminate.
“I don’t know. I tried to tell him. I planned to. Invited him over, had a whole… speech in my head, and then I just… couldn’t. He was looking at me like… like he already knew, or like he was trying to figure it out, and I just clammed up.”
Maddie sips her wine, then pours another glass and slides it over to him. Eddie smiles down at it, then looks back out the window. Maddie follows his eye and sees Buck again, this time with Jee-Yun thrown over his shoulder, head thrown back in a laugh. Howie runs after them both, arms outstretched as he tries to catch them. Maddie’s heart swells with love, and when she glances back at Eddie, she sees that feeling reflected in his face.
“I was gonna say I don’t know why it’s so difficult,” Eddie says in a soft voice. “But I do know. I know exactly why.”
Maddie rests a hand on his back.
“I know, if I tell him about the magic, it’ll be fine. It’s not like he doesn’t know it exists, he’d… embrace it. I know he would.”
“You’re right,” Maddie assures him. “I think he’d really appreciate being trusted with it.”
Eddie nods. “He would. He’d ask questions, he’d be excited, he’d light up like a fucking puppy, and I’d… I wouldn’t be able to keep the rest in anymore.”
“The rest?” Maddie prompts.
“The fact I’m in love with him. I don’t think I could be so open with my magic, have him… see that about me, and not tell him how I feel.”
Maddie finishes her wine. “Would that be the worst thing?” she asks.
Eddie makes a strangled sort of sound. “C’mon, Maddie. He’s… Look at him.” Outside the window, Buck has somehow wound up on the ground, a hand on his chest as he crows with laughter. Jee-Yun is running around him while Chris sits to the side, cheering her on. He’s practically crying with laughter, whatever game it is they’re playing. “Look at how he is with Chris, it’s—I can’t spoil that.”
“I get wanting to protect your kid. But, if you could be happy… really happy, Eddie? You’ve got to at least try. You’re setting an example for him, right? Even if that means dating my baby brother.”
Eddie laughs, head thrown back. “Touché. Maybe.”
“Think about it, at least?” Maddie crosses her fingers behind her back, praying this works. She imagines a day when she can talk to her brother, speak to her friends, and not have to navigate these secrets, not having to watch them both pine uselessly for each other. It’s a beautiful concept.
Buck is hauling himself to his feet, swinging his legs up under himself. Jee-Yun runs after him, and then—
Maddie barely sees it coming. It’s so fast. One of Christopher’s crutches, leaning against the side of his chair, tips over, landing right in front of Jee-Yun. She’s going to trip over it, her foot already raised. She’s going to fall, sprawl on the ground, and she’s going to cry—the sugar and excitement of the day will combine with the adrenaline of the fall, and there’ll be no coming back. But before she can do anything, the crutch is flying out of her way, shooting halfway across the garden, and Jee-Yun just keeps running.
Eddie stares out the window, frozen. “Was that you?” he asks.
Maddie barely had time to recognise the situation, let alone act on it. “No,” she admits. “Maybe Christopher…?”
Eddie’s shaking his head. “Chris hasn’t moved. Look.”
Maddie looks, and it’s pretty damning. Buck is staring at the crutch, his hand still pointing towards it. Then he drops the hand, eyes snapping to the window. The crutch falls to the ground. He flinches when he sees Maddie and Eddie standing there, and she can’t hear him but she sees his mouth shape the word fuck.
+1
Eddie doesn't say anything to her. He walks to the patio door, in a daze.
“Buck, did you just do magic?” Christopher asks as Eddie opens the door.
Chimney ducks past Eddie, coming back inside. He stands next to Maddie, and she feels an arm slip around her waist.
“What's happening?” He asks, a soft whisper into her ear.
“Buck just used magic,” she says.
“Okay…?” She can hear the question in his voice, the confusion as to why that would be a problem.
“He used magic, and Eddie saw.”
Outside, Eddie is approaching Buck like he's a wild animal, liable to flee at any sudden movement.
“Eddie didn't know Buck has magic?” Chim asks.
“Exactly.”
“But he knows about you.”
“He does.”
“And he also has magic. Why wouldn't Buck tell him—?”
“Buck doesn't know that, either.”
Maddie watches as Eddie holds a hand out, calling the discarded crutch to him. Buck stares, open-mouthed. Eddie's back is to her, but Buck's expression… he looks somewhere between devastated and elated.
“He didn't know that,” Chim corrects. Which is a fair point, Maddie reasons. “I think he knows now.”
Maddie feels a tug on her shirt, and looks down to see Jee-Yun there.
“Everything okay, sweetheart?” Maddie ducks down to her level.
“Can I have a snack?” Jee asks. Maddie exhales a laugh. Trust her daughter to cut through the tension. Maddie nods, pointing over to the table full of treats from the party.
“It's your birthday, honey. Have anything you like!”
Jee grins, running to the table and perusing it's contents. When Maddie stands back up, she sees Buck and Eddie standing in much the same spots in the yard.
Christopher, though, has retrieved his crutches using his own magic and started making his way inside.
“—never said anything?”
Maddie catches the end of Buck's question as Chris opens the door.
“I was… I was scared, Buck.”
Chris closes the door, shooting a pointed glance at where Maddie and Chimney are both blatantly watching.
“They're probably about to start kissing,” he rolls his eyes. “I love them, but I don't need to see that.” He heads into the other room, where Maddie knows Denny is playing a video game.
Buck and Eddie are still talking, and Maddie almost wishes she can hear what they’re saying.
She could reach out with a tendril of magic and open the window, just a crack, but she thinks that this conversation is probably one they want to have by themselves, without eavesdroppers.
Eddie reaches out and links his fingers with Buck’s, and Maddie sees tears spring to her brother’s eyes. He smiles, pulls Eddie closer—
Maddie turns away, dragging Chimney with her. She's sure she'll hear recounts of this moment from both of them soon enough. She can let them have this for themselves.
Jee-Yun approaches with a sticky-wrappered candy bar, asking for help opening it, and Maddie takes it while Howie scoops Jee up into his arms, tickling her tummy and making her squeal with delight.
Maddie uses a tendril of magic to wipe the smeared chocolate from Jee's fingers, though she knows it's only a temporary measure—she’ll need a full bath once their guests have all left.
There's a click from behind her, the patio door opening again, and she turns to see Buck and Eddie walking in, hand in hand. They're both pink-cheeked, red-eyed and beaming from ear to ear.
“Everything settled?” She asks.
They nod in unison. “We, uh… we might head out soon,” Buck says, an awkward hand on the back of his neck.
“Of course.” Maddie holds her arms out, hugging them both.
“Hey, if Chris wants to sleep over, he's welcome!” Chimney calls out to them, making both Buck and Eddie splitter in response.
“We don't—”
“That's not—”
Christopher pops his head back out of the door at the sound of his name. “Can I stay at Denny’s?” He asks.
“Our place not cool enough for you?” Chimney asks, a hand over his heart. “I'm wounded, Diaz. Wounded.”
Eddie sighs, covering his face. “I'll ask Karen,” he finally allows.
Like it's the most natural thing in the world, Eddie pulls Buck close and presses a kiss to his cheek.
Buck ducks his head, biting his lips in an effort not to grin too wide.
Maddie hugs him again as soon as Eddie is out of sight.
“Did you know?” Buck asks.
“For way longer than I wanted to,” Maddie admits. “I'm glad it's finally out in the open. You look happy.”
“I really am.”
One by one, the guests leave. Buck and Eddie, hand in hand. Bobby and Athena, then Hen and Karen with Mara, Denny and Chris trailing behind. The door closes behind the final stragglers, and Maddie collapses into the sofa, head cushioned on Howie’s shoulder. Jee lays across both of their laps, out like a light in minutes after the chaos of the day.
“Anything you need?” Howie asks.
She links her fingers with his, her other hand tangled in Jee-Yun’s hair.
“Just this,” she tells him. “Just this.”