Work Text:
Christopher had to do something. He had to get out of Texas. He never should have come in the first place, but he was just so mad at his dad that he wanted to do something that would hurt him too. And then, he was just too stubborn to admit that he was wrong.
And now his grandma is talking about taking the next steps to keeping Christopher in Texas, permanently. So, he has to do something.
“I love my son, but he just doesn’t have a stable enough support for Christopher in LA. Christopher needs two parents around at all times, he has more needs than a normal 14 year old.” He definitely wasn’t supposed to hear that, but his grandma isn’t the quietest person in the world.
Chris will just have to prove to his grandparents that he has everything that he needs in LA, and if that means a little scheming on his part, well, then that’s just what will have to be done.
Chris grabs his phone from his desk, his dad’s old desk, and sends out a text to his Dad.
Chris:
I’m ready to come home.
Can you come to thanksgiving?
You and Buck?
…
Eddie was sleeping on the couch at the firehouse, his head in Buck’s lap, when he got the message.
He woke up to Buck gently shaking his shoulder, “Eds, check your phone.”
Eddie blinked a couple of times, looking around to see where he was at, panicking and sitting up and the fact that he’d fell asleep on Buck like that, in public.
He hears chuckling, and grabs a throw pillow and hits Buck in the chest with it. “Why’d you let me fall asleep like that?”
“I was comfortable.” Buck shrugs, and motions to the coffee table in front of them where Eddie’s phone was buzzing. “Check your phone.”
Eddie yawns and reaches forward, grabbing his phone and unlocking it.
Chris:
I’m ready to come home.
Can you come to thanksgiving?
You and Buck?
Eddie drops his phone and turns to look back at Buck.
“Everything okay?” Bucks face scrunches with worry.
“It’s Chris, he wants to come home.”
“Eddie, that’s fantastic!” Buck says, his face lighting up just as quick as he’d turned worried. “Okay, let me look up flights and we can go as soon as we get off work today.”
“Um, he says he wants us to come to Thanksgiving at my parents house.” Eddie says, turning his phone and showing it to Buck.
Buck pulls his own phone out of his pocket and starts typing away on it. “Okay, we both get off at noon on Wednesday, and then don’t come in until 7am Saturday, we could make it work.”
Eddie looks at Buck’s phone where he has their schedule for the rest of the week pulled up. “We'll have to pass on Bobby’s dinner, but he’ll save us a plate and it’ll be worth it.”
Eddie looks up at Buck and smiles, “Chris is coming home.”
“Chris is coming home,” Buck repeats back, mirroring Eddie’s smile.
…
Dad:
Our plane should land at 9pm on Wednesday.
We’re staying at the Hilton
Chris:
Okay
Can’t wait to see you
Come over first thing Thursday morning
Dad:
Okay
Love you Mijo
Chris:
Love you too dad
Buck too, tell him.
Chris locks his phone and looks down at his notebook.
Convincing Grandma I’m fine in LA
Get Buck and dad to come to Texas for Thanksgiving- Have Buck and dad help me with things, showing gma I’m being taken care of perfectly fine in LA, despite my ‘extra needs’ (more so Buck, to prove I have two parents)
- Act like a family (don’t really have to act) in front of gma and gpa.
- Convince dad and Buck to love each other (wouldn’t take much convincing. I’m not blind)
- Leave with dad and Buck whether she likes it or not
- Ask for a new gaming set for Christmas (I deserve it after all this scheming)
Chris marks off step one of his plan and logs on to fortnight, his weekly game with Denny starting soon.
“Chris! I heard you’re moving back soon! We gotta have another sleepover, I got this new science kit that I’ve been waiting to try.”
“Yeah sure, my dads are picking me up over Thanksgiving. I should be back by Saturday. But maybe next weekend?”
“Dads? Buck and Eddie finally got together?”
“Not yet, but it’s part of my plan to get my grandma to leave me alone.”
Denny chuckled, “my mom was convinced that it would happen when your dad grew that mustache.”
“It was a very gay mustache,” Chris laughs.
“Wait, can we say that? It feels homophobic.”
“It’s not homophobic if it’s true. After he shaved it, he called to tell me that he was gay.”
…
“Should we tell Chris,” Buck asks as they get settled into their seats on the plane. Luckily Buck had the foresight to book the exit row so that they wouldn’t be cramped up. “You know, about us?”
Buck reached over and linked their fingers together, smiling up at Eddie. That’s something Eddie’s noticed since they became an ‘us.’ Eddie is taller when they are sitting down, so Buck is often leaning on his shoulder when they watch a movie or are just sitting on the couch. Whereas when they are standing, Buck is taller and Eddie loves nothing more than wrapping his arms around Buck’s waist from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder to watch whatever it is that he's doing.
“I want to,” Eddie says, resting his head against Buck’s. “But maybe we should wait until we are firmly back in Los Angeles. I wouldn’t want to give my mother any more ammunition.”
Eddie sighs, bounding their interlocked hands between his thighs and Buck’s. “You know how my parents are. God forbid their precious grandson grow up in a queer household.”
“I hate to break it to them, Eds. But Chris has been in a queer household since he was born, and he’s turned out just fine so far.”
Eddie gives him a look. “Just because you weren’t out, doesn’t mean you haven’t been gay this whole time.”
“That’s true.” Eddie hums, “but could try explaining that to my parents until you are blue in the face, they just won’t get it.”
“Yeah, I know.” Buck sighs, turning his head slightly and kissing Eddie’s cheek. “We’ll wait until we’re home.”
“I mean, we’re going to have to,” Eddie chuckles, “half of your stuff is already in my house.”
“I still can’t believe you asked me to move in with you before you asked me on a date.”
“Hey, I had to do something to cheer you up. You were chugging those beers like it was air.”
“Kissing me was sufficient enough, especially since you didn’t have any pants on. That cheered me up real quick.” Buck smirked and Eddie had to look elsewhere since they were about to be stuck in the air for a couple of hours.
“Then me asking you to move in was just me proving how serious I was.”
“Baby, you proved how serious you were when I did that thing with my tongue and you asked me to marry you.” Buck says, his voice dropped, right in Eddie's ear so no one else could hear them.
“Buck-“ Eddie said, slightly adjusting himself in the seat, causing Buck to chuckle.
“Don’t worry, when I propose to you, it’ll be a lot better than that.” Buck smiles and kisses Eddie lightly.
“We have to tell everyone we’re together before you start planning a proposal, Buckley.”
“I wanted to tell them the second it happened,” Buck shrugs. “Maddie just had to steal my thunder by announcing her pregnancy.”
“You’re still pouting about that?” Eddie asks.
“Nah, but now we have to figure out when to tell everyone, since we were going to do it at Thanksgiving.”
“I don’t see why it needs to be a big thing, we can just tell them during our next shift.” Eddie shrugs.
“Well, I can almost guarantee there’s a betting pool somewhere, and betting is prohibited on LAFD property.”
…
Christopher wakes up on Thursday morning to his grandma already making noises in the kitchen. Today is the day.
He gets out of his bed and walks straight to his desk, grabbing his notebook to make sure his plan is perfectly laid out.
Convincing Grandma I’m fine in LA
Get Buck and dad to come to Texas for Thanksgiving- Have Buck and dad help me with things, showing gma I’m being taken care of perfectly fine in LA, despite my ‘extra needs’ (more so Buck, to prove I have two parents)***
- Act like a family (don’t really have to act) in front of gma and gpa.
- Convince dad and Buck to love each other (wouldn’t take much convincing. I’m not blind)
- Leave with dad and Buck whether she likes it or not
- Ask for a new gaming set for Christmas (I deserve it after all this scheming)
*** Things I may need help with ***
- Buck or dad helping me pack
- Buck or dad fixing my plate
- Relationship advice? (No, never mind)
- Buck or dad helping me find something
- I’m sure I’ll think of something else
“Christopher, are you awake?” There’s a knock at his door not even a second before it opens up and his grandma is standing there. Luckily he had enough time to close his notebook before she barged in. “Oh good.”
“Good morning,” Chris rumbles out.
“You need to start getting ready for the day. Your dad and,” she grimaces, “Buck are here.”
Chris grins and gets up from his chair, walking past his grandma to get through the door.
“Christopher, your crutches.” She calls after him and Chris rolls his eyes. He doesn’t need them to walk short distances, like around the house. But, who’s going to tell that to her and have her actually listen.
“Dad! Buck!” Chris is so excited to see them, that he doesn’t even realize they’re sitting basically on top of each other on the couch or wearing matching outfits.
“Christopher!” Dad is the first one to get off the couch, walking over and enveloping his in a hug. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too dad,” Chris says honestly. “Thank you for coming.”
Chris hears a sniffle behind them and turns to look at Buck, tears in his eyes and his face blotchy. “Don’t look at me like that, you know I cry at all of those reunion videos, it’s worse in person.”
Chris lets go of his dad and walks over to Buck, hugging him as well. “I missed you too, Buck.”
Chris hears the clearing of a throat behind him and his grandmas is standing there with her hands on her hips, “Christopher, you were told to get ready.”
Chris smirks internally and figures this will be a good enough place to start his plan, “Buck, can you help me pick out an outfit? I want to match too.”
Buck looks between Chris and Eddie, his eyes widening just a fraction before he nods.
“Uh, yeah. Sure kiddo.” Chris smiles and starts walking back towards his room, Buck following behind him.
“Uh Chris, not that I don’t mind helping, but you’re 14, do you really need help picking out an outfit?”
“It’s my last day in Texas, I want to make an impression.” Chris lies. “Plus, one of my cousins has gotten into photography lately, and I want to look good in the pictures.”
Buck stares at Chris, and for a second he thinks his cover is blown, but Buck just shrugs and turns towards Chris’ closet.
“Can I stay at the hotel with yall tonight?” Chris asks, sitting on the edge of his bed. “What time are we leaving tomorrow?”
“There’s only two beds, so if you don’t mind sharing with your dad, I don’t see why you couldn’t stay at the hotel. It would make leaving tomorrow easier, our return flight is 9am.”
“Eww gross, I’m not sharing with dad. He snores.”
Buck nods and Chris notices the tops of his ears turning pink. Pathetic, both of them. They don’t even realize that they are in love with each other. That changes this weekend, even if it’s the last thing Chris ever does.
He will get his dad and Buck together.
“Alright, here ya go kid.” Buck says, handing Christ a pair of khakis, a black t-shirt and then an orange, red, and brown flannel.
“Thanks Buck.”
“No problem, I’m going to go check on your dad.”
Chris nods and watches Buck walk out of his room.
The plan is going perfectly.
…
“So, Eddie, you brought Buck with you?” His mom asks, sitting on the couch beside him.
“Uh, yeah. Chris wanted him here too.”
“You don’t think it’s weird how much time those two spend together?” His mom asks and Eddie can feel his blood start to boil.
“No?”
“Aren’t you worried that he’s going to?” She makes suggestive eyebrows at Eddie.
“I don’t know what you’re insinuating, but if you think for one second that I’m going to sit here and let you talk about Buck in anyway like that, we’ll leave now. Thanksgiving dinner be damned.”
“I’m just saying, Christopher is an impressionable young man right now, and hanging around with his type might-“
“Turn my son gay?” Eddie asks, standing up. “I can not believe this right now!”
“I just don’t think Buck is a good influence on him!”
“Well neither are you!” Eddie is all but yelling at his mother now. “Do you say garbage like this in front of him?”
“He needs to know right from wrong, Edmundo.”
“And being gay is wrong?”
“Well it’s not right!”
“Right,” Eddie says, taking a deep breath before speaking again. “Please pack up the rest of Christopher’s things and ship them to my house, we’re leaving now.”
“We are?” Buck asks, appearing behind Eddie’s mother.
“We’re not wanted here, and if I can’t spend Thanksgiving with my family without my mother telling me who I love is wrong, then I don’t want to be here at all. Grab Chris for me? If we leave now we can make it back in time for Bobby’s dinner.”
Buck looks between Eddie and his mom before nodding and turning back towards Christopher’s room.
“You’re not saying what I think you are saying?” Helena grabs at her chest, clutching her invisible pearls.
“I’m Gay, mom.” Eddie sighs. “And I’m so in love with that man in there, my son's other father. So no, I’m not worried about them spending too much time together, because if anything, Buck has been an amazing influence on him. And if you can’t accept that, then I don’t think we have anything else to talk about.”
Eddie turns and storms out of the house, trusting Buck to get himself and Christopher out the door. He takes his phone out of his pocket and logs on to the airline app, going through the necessary steps to changing their flight before ordering an Uber.
A car pulls into the driveway beside him, and Eddie knows it’s not his uber or his Abuela, so it could only be one of two people.
“Eddie!” Sofia squeals, jumping out of the drivers seat and running over to Eddie. He barely has time to react before she’s throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing him tightly. “Why are you out here? Why are you here? What’s going on?”
“Sof, can’t breath.” Eddie says, tapping his sister on the back lightly.
“Sorry!”
“It’s all good. And to answer your question, Buck and I came to pick up Christopher.”
“Buck?” Adriana asks, appearing from the passenger seat of the car. “Like your platonic situationship, Buck?”
“Situationship?”
“You know, you’re not in a relationship, but you’re not not in a relationship,” Sofia explains.
“Oh, uh, we’re not in a situationship.” Eddie says, scratching his neck and turning towards the front door, wondering what’s taking Buck and Chris so long.
“Just a relationship then?” Adriana asks, “Please say yes!”
Eddie doesn’t say anything but his face must give him away, because his sister starts squealing.
“Oh my gosh! I can’t wait to hear everything!” Adriana exclaims and then wraps her arms around Eddie’s, turning them to walk back toward the door, just as Buck and Christopher are walking out the door.
“Why does Chris have his bag?” Sofia asks. “Are you not staying?”
“What? Eddie you just got here!” Adriana complains.
“And mom made it very clear that neither I nor Buck would be a welcome guest at her table, so I’m taking my son and I’m leaving.”
His sisters didn't say more after that, the uber he ordered pulling up at the curb. “I love you both, maybe you can come to LA for Christmas.”
He pulls them both into a hug and sighs.”Tell Abuela I’ll call her once we land in California.”
Eddie walks to the uber and opens the door, holding it open for both Buck and Christopher before climbing in himself.
“So, do I get to know why we’re not staying for food?” Chris asks once they pull away from the house.
“Your grandma just said some things that made it apparent that she wouldn’t welcome us to her table.” Eddie said, putting his arm on the back of the seat and pulling his son into a hug. “But that’s okay, we’ll make it back home in plenty enough time to sit at a table that will.”
…
Something is fishy. Yeah, Buck and his dad normally sit close together all the time, but then is just a little too close. Something is definitely going on.
First, when they got back to the hotel to grab their bags, housekeeping clearly hadn’t been by the room yet and only one of the beds looked slept in.
Then, in the Uber, his dad sat in the middle and was very close to Buck, almost like a magnet was pulling them together. And then, they were holding hands on the plane when they thought Chris was asleep.
Okay, Chris knows exactly what’s going on, but he doesn’t know how his plan worked already. Because if Dad and Buck were together already, they would tell him, right?
Chris will get to the bottom of this, just as soon as he eats some of Bobby’s mac and cheese.
…
“Buck, Eddie? What are you doing here?” Athena asks, opening the door and hugging both of them. “Shouldn’t you be in Texas?”
“Uh, no.” Eddie says, looking around her shoulder to the nosy eyes that had turned toward them. “Got everything I need right here, there’s nothing in Texas for me.”
Chris steps forward. “Oh my! Haven’t you shot up like a weed?”
Athena then pulls Chris into a hug before letting all three of them in the house.
Eddie reaches for Buck’s hand as they walk through the rental apartment, everyone’s eyes turning towards them immediately, especially a wide-eyed Chris.
“Uh, hope you have room for three more.” Buck chuckles, dragging Eddie over to the spare space on the floor by the coffee table, Maddie, Hen and Karen currently occupying the couch.
“We’ll always have room,” Bobby says, peeking in from the kitchen.
“So Buck, what’d you do to get kicked out of Texas?” Hen jokes as he and Eddie take a seat on the floor.
“Nevermind that,” Chimney cuts in. “Did no one notice the hand holding?”
All of their friends exchange glances and then turn to look at chimney, “they’re dating Chim.”
It’s Maddie that speaks up and Buck’s head snaps towards her.
“How’d you know that?”
“Oh please, Tommy broke up with you and you didn’t start stress baking like you always do.” Karen asks. “I was looking forward to a chocolate chip pumpkin loaf and when it never came, we all started talking.”
“Yeah, we realized that Eddie was happy and down one mustache around the same time you should have been wallowing in self pity, even if that man doesn’t deserve an ounce of that from you, it wasn’t hard to put together.” Hen adds.
“And then, when Chim and I told everyone about the baby, I heard you mutter something about ‘stealing your thunder’ under your breath.” Maddie finished off.
“Only thing we couldn’t figure out is why you were hiding it,” Athena joins the conversion.
“We weren’t hiding, we just wanted to tell Chris first.” Eddie says, looking across the coffee table toward his son. “Surprise?”
“Hey, I put it together hours ago. Only one of the hotel beds was slept in, and I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Wait, so everyone knew, but me?” Chim asks, looking around to all of the grinning faces around him. “How did I not notice this?”
Everyone laughs at Chim and then Bobby calls them to come and make plates. Buck goes to stand up, but Eddie pushes his shoulder down lightly, “I got it, you sit.”
Buck smiles at Eddie and nods, grabbing his hand and kissing his knuckles before he walks away.
Eddie remembers that he promised to call his grandma when the landed so he steps back from the line and grabs his phone, dialing his number.
“Edmundo, what happened? I thought you were staying for dinner?”
“Uh, mom said some things about Buck and I. And I didn’t like it, so we left.”
“What did she say? How could anyone dislike my Buck?”
Eddie rolls his eyes. Buck met the woman one time seven years ago and she’d adopted him.
“She said that it was wrong to be gay and that we were setting a good example for Christopher.”
“Oh, Edmundo. Don’t listen to that woman, she doesn’t know what she is talking about.” His abuela’s warm voice instantly soothes him and Eddie smiles. “I love you, no matter what, you know that right?”
“Yeah Abuela, I know.”
“Good. Give Buck and Chris my love.” She hangs up the phone and Eddie steps back in line to fix his plates.
Looking around at the laughter coming from the living room, Eddie knows he made the right choice, all those years ago, moving himself and Christopher to Los Angeles for a fresh start.
Who knows where they would be if he hadn’t.