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When Buck wakes up he’s immediately comforted by the smell of Eddie’s musky shampoo– this terrible 3-in-one that Buck refuses to recognize as real hair product– but it smells like home. His head is neatly tucked under Buck’s chin, messy hairs tickling his nose as he breathes in the scent. Eddie’s arm is haphazardly thrown across Buck’s torso, and the other man’s right leg is tangled between both of his. He wishes he could take a photo, but that would mean moving, and he absolutely refuses to give this up.
He doesn’t think he’s ever woken up like this before. Not with another person, of course he’s woken up with other people before, but he’s never felt this complete before– this full of love.
Buck shifts down just enough so he can see Eddie’s face better without waking him up. He wants to catalog every detail. He’s looked at Eddie before, realistically he’s never not looking at Eddie, but this is the first time he feels like he’s allowed. He can look at Eddie, and stare at the freckle right below his eye, and try his best to count the long lashes that bless Eddie’s sleep slacked face.
He can even touch Eddie if he wants now. The thought fills Buck with so much heat, he thinks he could melt the polar ice caps. So Buck does. He softly presses his lips to the freckle beneath Eddie’s eye, the tip of his nose, the curve of his jaw. When he pulls away, he uses his hand to cup Eddie’s face and slowly drag his thumb back and forth along his cheekbone.
Eddie stirs slightly, but doesn’t wake up just yet, so Buck continues. He wonders if Eddie is always this heavy of a sleeper, or perhaps– if he’s lucky– Buck just makes him feel safe. The thing is, Buck has slept over at Eddie’s before, and he’s accidentally woken up Eddie in the middle of the night when he can’t seem to get himself to sleep. Not with anything ridiculously loud either, so he thinks– with the facts backing him up– that yes, he makes Eddie feel safe. He thinks he’s gonna do it forever.
As he slowly lets go of Eddie’s jaw, Buck starts to lightly trace his fingers across his face. Across his eyebrow, down the slope of his slightly curved nose, all the way down to his perfectly parted lips. When Eddie starts to stir some more, Buck takes the opportunity to press one more kiss to Eddie’s freckle and then leans back to watch him wake up.
Even before Eddie opens his eyes, he’s smiling. Eddie wakes up in Buck’s arms and he’s smiling. He wonders if Eddie can smell him too, if just the feeling of being wrapped up in Buck was enough to bring that smile to his face. Eddie takes a deep breath before he opens his eyes and points that smile directly at Buck.
It’s everything. Because Eddie is smiling, and Buck is smiling, and they’re both wrapped up in each other with no thought of ever letting go.
“Hi,” Eddie says, already sounding breathless, voice hoarse from a good night's sleep.
“Hey,” Buck responds, voice slightly less gritty, but just as out of breath.
“Missed you.” Buck’s not sure what Eddie means, he hasn’t even thought about leaving this bed. “M’ right here, Eds.”
Eddie grips his hand tighter on Buck's waist. “Didn’t dream about you, waste of sleep,” he jokes.
And that’s– listen, Buck has had partners before. He’s had partners that can whisper sweet nothings, he’s had partners that can rasp out the filthiest things you could imagine, he’s even had partners that didn’t speak the same damn language as him, but Buck has never had a partner like Eddie. A partner who says things that take Bucks breath away so effortlessly. Eddie says these important things, these completely romantic, heart stopping things, like he’s reading off a grocery list, like he doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Like it’s easy.
Buck leans towards Eddie, passing his mouth to whisper into his ear, pulling him somehow even closer. With his lips brushing against Eddie’s earlobe as he speaks, he says, “That’s because you already have me.” Eddie shivers.
Eddie trails his hand from around Buck’s waist to the back of his neck and squeezes before moving higher and taking hold of his curls. He pulls lightly, and Buck moves his head back with the movement of Eddie’s grip.
Face to face, Eddie’s deep caramel eyes are molten, his lips are parted, and he’s breathing heavily. “Yeah, I do,” he smiles softly before diving forward and finally pressing his lips to Bucks.
It’s not a slow kiss, but it’s not urgent either. It’s passionate, and desperate, it’s the kind of kiss that makes you forget that breathing isn’t optional.
Eddie’s hand is still holding Buck’s curls, and as he deepens the kiss he pulls the hair tighter, causing Buck to let out a breathy moan into Eddie’s mouth. Eddie swallows the sound with ease, and Buck unravels.
Buck desperately nips at Eddie’s bottom lip as he lifts his hand up the back of Eddie’s shirt. He practically paws at it, infinitely annoyed it’s even on Eddie in the first place. He pulls back slightly, noses still touching, completely out of breath. “Get that thing off.”
“You’re gonna have to get off me for a second if you expect my clothes to go anywhere, baby.” Buck quickly tears himself off of Eddie and sits impatiently next to him. Eddie is laughing to himself as he slips off his shirt and tosses it haphazardly across the room. “Well, don’t make me do it all alone,” he finishes with a meaningful gaze up and down Buck’s body.
Buck’s shirt is off his body in record time. “You’re literally never doing anything alone ever again, I hope you know what you signed up for when you confessed your undying love last night.”
“Did I say undying? I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that,” Eddie says, finishing with a slow, languid kiss to Buck’s lips.
Buck pulls back with a furrow in his brow despite his partner’s groan in protest. “God, close enough. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk more. You tell me I’m in charge of your kid if you die, I get two sentences,” he continues, his hands wildly gesticulating, “but you tell me you’re in love with me and suddenly you’re goddamn Shakespeare.”
Eddie grabs onto Buck’s hands and sighs. “To be fair, I’m pretty sure I was in love with you then, too. I just had like… a lot of repression to work through. I thought the less I said, the safer I would be.” He lets go of Buck’s hands and Buck moves to straddle his lap.
Eddie’s hands immediately move to the bare skin of his waist, and Buck is kind of over talking at this point. He knows they need to go back to this at some point, but Eddie is shirtless, and he’s never been known to make smart choices.
He leans forward, resting his forehead on Eddie’s. “And do you?” Buck says, hot breath blowing against Eddie’s face as he talks, “feel safe now?”
“Yeah, Buck, I feel safe now.”