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The door to Bobby Nash’s office is not actually always open, figuratively speaking sure, but to physically leave it open was a fire hazard.
And yet, that didn’t stop one Evan Buckley from pushing the door stop under Bobby’s door with the toe of his boot after his debrief with Bobby.
“What are you doing?” Bobby plainly asked, moving to shuffle Buck’s paperwork into the correct tray and raising an eyebrow at him.
“Eddie’s up next, so I figured I’d prop the door open for him” Buck said, flashing one of his signature reassuring smiles like Bobby was someone on a call.
As the words sunk in, Bobby decided he really needed to sit down and just hold his head in his hands for a long time.
Instead, he suppressed the amused smile that threatened at the edges of his mouth and instead tilted his head.
“You’re… holding the door open for him?”
“That’s right, yeah!” Buck beamed and Bobby inwardly sighed with all the exasperation he had been feeling since 2018. He kept it together even as Buck said:
“Oh! Here he comes now! Hey man!” He greeted as Eddie’s footsteps padded down the hall, and he appeared in the doorframe.
He smiled at Buck, who still held his palm pressed firmly to door, smiled over at Bobby, back at Buck and then slipped under Buck’s outstretched arm.
“Hi Eddie” Bobby greeted, nodding at him as he approached Bobby’s desk.
“Hey Cap, are you voluntarily propping your door open, or was that Buck’s idea?” He grinned over his shoulder at Buck who still lingered in the doorway. Buck bristled and stared down at the floor, then back at Bobby and Eddie.
“Buck thought it would be nice to hold it open for you” Bobby said, eyeing Eddie hopefully as he continued to grin at his best friend across the room like Bobby wasn’t even there.
Eddie raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Did he now, c’mon Buck you know that’s a fire hazard”
“Oh” Buck said, immediately reaching for the door stop and pushing it to the corner of the room. “Sorry, I’ll….” He trailed off, eyes set on Eddie.
“Thanks Buck” Bobby intervened before the two engaged in one of their famous staring matches. “That’ll be all, don’t worry about it”
“Right, right” he nodded. “Uh, see you both later”
“Bye Buck” Bobby waved.
“Buck?” Eddie called after him.
“Yeah?” Buck caught himself and the door before it could close in his face.
“Thanks” he said and smiled fondly.
Buck ducked his head and smiled warmly back. “Anytime man”
Bobby pressed his lips together, tapping his fingers against his chin as he waited for Buck to close the door. Then he waited until Eddie looked back at him, only when the door closed and Buck’s footsteps resided.
“So, hit me with it” Eddie smiled.
Bobby wished someone would hit him with something right now, maybe he could hit Buck and Eddie against eachother?
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Bobby fell back onto the sofa with an explosive sigh, throwing his legs out before him and crossing them at the ankles. He rose his arms up to his eyes and shook his head, a pen still in his grip.
“You okay cap?” Chimney asked from across the loft, glancing at Hen from where they were both sat reading at the dining table.
He lowers his arms momentarily to give them a look before moving his arms back into place and squeezing his eyes shut.
Hen and Chim shared a look and immediately both jumped up and scrambled to sit opposite him, books abandoned.
“What's up?” Hen pressed, looking concerned whilst Chim eagerly leaned forward.
Bobby dropped his arms and sighed up at the ceiling, he rest his hands on his stomach and glanced over at the oldest members of his team. They raised almost matching eyebrows at him and he almost hung his head in shame.
“Guess”
Hen opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by loud joint giggling from below them in the bay. Where Buck and Eddie were on wash down duty, together .
Bobby’s head hit the back of the sofa with a thump and he groaned.
“Oh what, Buck and Eddie?” Chim asked and Hen shushed him, scooting them both over to sit on the seat next to Bobby, balancing on the shared cushion.
“What have they done now?” Chim whispered as Hen glared at him.
“That’s just the thing, I don’t think it’s what they’ve done. It’s what I’ve done that’s the problem”
Hen and Chim scooted closer, Bobby raised an eyebrow at them.
“Promise you won’t tell?”
They both nodded.
“I’ll do my best Cap” Chim promised, hand crossed over his chest, Hen scoffed at him.
Bobby sighed (again).
“I think…I think I’m the reason Buck and Eddie are…well, Buck&Eddie”
“Oh?” Hen questioned.
“When Chief Simpson said I could take my pick to fill the space in the 118 at the academy, I saw Eddie and thought…oh! There’s a guy who’s smart, capable, focused and predictable. He’d make the perfect balance to Buck’s random energy that almost got him fired several times” he begun. “I looked at you two and thought yeah, Buck’s got really great potential but he needs someone to quite literally hold his hand through the fire, to be the person he turns to when things get complicated at a call. Hell, to just be the person to go to when they need someone else at the end of the rope”
Hen and Chim nodded in understanding.
“So I chose Eddie to specifically be Buck’s partner…and now they’re, here ”
“Meaning?” Chimney asked with a scrunch of his brow.
“I noticed things with them were different . Longing glances, jealousy over each other’s partners, lingering questions, keys to each other’s houses…the way they’d react when the other got too close to death. Hell even with the lawsuit Eddie was affected the most. The Chris of it all…I just!” He threw his hands up and shook his head, starling Hen and Chimney. “I didn’t discourage any of it. I thought maybe they’d be good for each other but…”
“But they keep tiptoeing around each other instead of letting you putting that plan in place?” Hen said
“Exactly. And I hate to take god’s name in vain but god I can’t take it anymore”
Chim sighed. “You try living in a house with the biggest ' Buddie' conspirator. Maddie might as well have a corkboard for the theories she has on this”
“Oh thank god I’m not alone” Bobby said.
“I think it’s safe to say we’re all in agreement on this cap” Hen nodded “but I think they have to get there themselves, despite you literally being the original puppeteer here”
Bobby sighed, shook his head and added: “And what you’re telling me Buck finally figures out he’s bi and it’s through Tommy Kinnard?”
Hen stifled a laugh.
“Oh god and the whole jealous over Eddie spending too much time with him thing? Don’t even get me started” Chim said, head hitting the back of the sofa like Bobby’s had.
Hen shook her head.
“Like I say, they need to figure it out for themselves. But i have no idea what more the universe can throw at them before they get their heads screwed on straight”
“Maybe we should make a plan” Chimney said, glancing at Bobby who continued to blink helplessly at the ceiling. “Push them in situations that they’re both dumb enough to stumble into and see what happens”
Hen nodded vigorously, “that might just work”
They lowered their heads to start brainstorming and didn’t notice that at some point in the beginning of the conversation, Buck and Eddie had climbed up the stairs and now found themselves crouched behind an open kitchen cupboard. Eavesdropping.
Eddie’s hand had slapped so fast over Buck’s mouth when he almost gasped, that he was surprised the others couldn’t hear it ring across the loft. Buck glared at Eddie, who raised a finger to his lips.
They had heard everything.
“Bobby literally hired you for me?” Buck whispered, a strange emotion curling open in his chest as Eddie shrugged.
“Sounds that way”
“And what, they think we’re not smart enough to figure this” he gestured between them “out”
“It did take us a long time sweetheart” Eddie whispered and Buck smiled at him.
“But still, now they’re plotting to bring us together? I thought we were gonna tell them?”
Eddie smirked a little evilly and it did something to Buck’s gut. “We were but…since they’re plotting against us instead of just talking to us about it…how about we be a bit insufferable about it?”
Buck tilted his head in interest.
“What, we beat them at their own game?”
Eddie nodded, Buck lent forward to kiss them but then footsteps sounded on the floor sounded and:
“Uh guys? What are you doing on the floor?” Ravi asked, tilting his head at them.
Buck and Eddie glanced at each other, wide eyed. Eddie grabbed a pot and yelled loudly: “found it!” And jumped to his feet.
Confused, Buck stood up next to him.
“Thanks for helping me cook Buck, hey Ravi!”
“Uh, hey?” Ravi said, glancing at the three still sat on the sofa who watched Buck and Eddie with matching suspicious expressions.
Eddie grinned at them and waved, Buck suppressed a laugh.
He turned to Buck and winked and said: “so nice of you to help me find Bobby’s favourite pot Buck, thank you so much”
Buck side glanced over Eddie’s shoulder at the other three who watched them closely.
Buck beamed at Eddie.
“Anything I can do to help Eddie!” Then he turned to the group. “What pasta shape would you prefer us to cook, Cap?”
Bobby looked like he wanted to punch something.
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Chimney
As far as Chimney was concerned, that basketball fiasco played out very differently to how Buck ended up remembering it.
He remembers staring at Maddie with wide eyes when Maddie recounted what Buck had said to her after the whole fiasco, when Buck had sobered their make shift wedding slightly by him and Tommy coming in with matching soot to on their face.
“That can’t be right” he had said “I was there”
She had rolled her eyes. “This isn’t the first time he’s misplaced his jealousy and it won’t be the last…”
Then she had told him about when they were at school and how Buck had ended up dating a girl who was best friends with another girl Buck was friends with. In actuality, the girl he dated had a boyfriend Buck was also good friends with and Maddie wondered if Buck had completely overlooked that aspect of it in reflection of the situation with Buck and Tommy.
But Chimney was no fool, sure he might be the last to get the joke sometimes, didn’t understand half the stuff Ravi came out with and completely believes in curses, fate and destiny, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that Tommy simply was a pawn in the big chess game that was Buck and Eddie’s relationship, a knight that Eddie pushed forward and Buck took.
He remembered the dark look on Buck’s face as Tommy and Eddie passed the ball to each other. Buck pushing Eddie to the floor. Even him speaking with Chim after, fuming and slightly dazed.
Buck was jealous of Eddie Diaz apparently. But Chim thought nope, you’re in love with him.
So when Bobby revealed his years long dilemma and secret matchmaking tactics, Chim felt relived that the two sane people on his team recognised what was now an indisputable fact.
But when Chim walked into the showers, reeling from the call he’d just had, he’d forgotten all about the conversation with Bobby and Hen. Until that was, he found Buck and Eddie grooming each other.
“Woah- what the fuck?” Chimney exclaimed as Eddie stood in front of the mirror with Buck behind him, arms looped around his shoulders. Both shirtless with towels slung low around their hips.
“Oh hey man!” Buck said
“Hey Chim!” Eddie chorused.
“Are you…helping each other shave?!”
“Yeah!” Eddie said with a grin “I was so precise with it when I had my moustache so I’m better at it than Buck, but he disagrees”
Buck angled Eddie’s face, thumbs brushing the bolts in his jaw.
Chimney stared and shook his head.
Remembering what Hen said about pushing them together he said: “so um, do you think that’s normal uh… best friend shit?”
Buck shrugged “it’s normal for us”
“Fine. Whatever” Chimney sighed, exhausted and with too little energy to dig. “I hate you both” he muttered and walked into a shower stall down the hall. The sound of him pulling the curtain and turning on the shower harsh.
Buck watched him leave and slowly pressed his chin into Eddie’s shoulder, arms encircling his waist. Eddie raised an eyebrow as Buck pressed a kiss to his shoulder.
“You think he bought it?” Buck said
Eddie giggled.
“From the look on his face I think we pissed him off even more”
Buck grinned “serves him right”
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Hen
Unlike all of her co-workers, Henrietta Wilson was observant. She made a mental note as soon as Buck asked Bobby who Eddie was all those years ago, she had a funny feeling it would come back and bite them in the ass.
Which was ironic really, as she stared down at the victim of a dog bite, the red of his blood soaking through of the ass of his jeans.
“I think I accidentally manifested this” she said to Eddie as he passed her the gauze she had requested.
“What?” He said, furrowing his eyebrows so they looked like mini versions of his moustache, which she missed if she was being honest.
“Nothing” she sighed, slapping her glove against her wrist. “Alright Sir, we’re going to patch you up and let the hospital treat you properly. My partner Chimney is going to give you something to prevent infection. Chim?”
“On it” he said, filling a needle with a golden liquid. “You might want to look away for this, Sir”
“A dog just bit me on the ass! ” He exclaimed. “You think I’m worried about a needle?”
As Chim offered to ride in the back with the patient, Eddie and Hen hopped out the back and closed the doors behind them.
“Did you say something about manifestation earlier?”
“Yeah” she said and rose an eyebrow “why? Don’t take you as someone who believes in that sort of thing”
He shrugged and tilted his head “I don’t know, sometimes I think I manifested Buck”
Hen paused on her way to the drivers cab. “What?”
“I don’t know; I just feel like sometimes he was made for me” he shrugged and pushed a hand through his hair “he’s pretty perfect you know? Like my missing piece”
Hen felt her mouth drop open.
“Anyway! I’m gonna go ride with him so he’s not stuck alone in there with Ravi and Bobby, see you at the hospital!”
Hen watched him go, shook her head and got into the cabin.
When they got to the hospital, surprise surprise Eddie and Buck were already there, giggling in the waiting room.
Hen let Chimney fill the staff in as her eyes and unfortunately her ears settled on the pair.
“- I’m not sure Eddie, if it was your ass I’d definitely bite it. I mean you don’t do all those squats for nothing”
Eddie beamed at him, Buck’s eyes sparkled.
“Really? I was just thinking the same thing, but about you ”
Hen exhaled steadily and marched over to Chimney.
“We need to put Bobby out of his misery”
“What? You want to kill Bobby?!” Chimney exclaimed, face aghast. Hen sighed and rolled her eyes.
“No! We need to do something about Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum over there, before Bobby overhears or sees this bullshit and collapses as a result.” She shook her head gravelly “what are you thinking?”
“Okay. We lock them in the bunk room?”
“Nah too predictable. Rooftop?”
“Too many health and safety risks. What about a good old fashioned intervention?”
“I like how you think Chim”
Chimney winked at her and Hen laughed.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Ravi
Ravi sometimes took shifts with the A team at the 118, depending on the shifts he sometimes still worked at the academy. As the new class of candidates passed, he picked up a few more shifts at the 118 than usual, excited to spend more time with the people he’d been so close with during his probation.
That excitement very much fizzled out when he saw Buck and Eddie hiding behind a freaking cupboard and Hen and Chim crowding around Bobby like he’d just suffered some sort of loss.
Had he…missed something?
So when he stepped up to the loft to find Buck and Eddie cooking a few weeks later, he wasn’t prepared to be more weirded out than he already was. But god, was he wrong.
Buck was making some sort of sauce, rambling away to Eddie about some documentary he’d seen and stirring chopped herbs into the red steaming mixture in front of him.
Eddie stared at Buck with stars in his eyes, resting his chin on one hand as he lent over the counter. Smitten.
Ravi raised an eyebrow and absentmindedly reached for a book on the counter, without looking at what it said as he held it in front of him and took a seat. He carefully watched the scene play out over the top of the book.
He watched as Buck dipped a spoon into the mixture, he then blew on it softly and offered it out to Eddie. Who instead of taking the spoon and accepting it, let Buck feed him the mixture with a hum. Their eye contact unwavering.
And huh.
Ravi feels like he shouldn’t be watching this.
As if reading his mind, Buck’s eyes shifted to his as he took the spoon back and smirked at him. Ravi ducked his head, caught.
“Firefighting 101: a guide on how to contain the blaze” Buck read from the spine of the book with a twist of his head “huh, I thought you were several years in now Ravi?”
“I-“
“I also think it’s impressive you’re reading that book upside down” Eddie grinned.
Ravi opened his mouth to say something, but their heads all whipped around as Hen dashed across the loft from where her and Chim were apparently stealthily hidden on the sofas. With Chim at her heels, and both their eyes wide, she grabbed Ravi’s hand, ripped the book out of his hand and pulled him across the loft and down the stairs with Chim following behind.
Stumbling down the stairs, Ravi didn’t really have time to complain as they dragged him in the direction of Bobby’s office.
“See you then!” Buck chirped cheerfully after them.
“Don’t wait up for us!” Eddie chorused.
The door slammed behind Chim, nearly barrelling him into Ravi, and cutting across the ramblings of Buck and Eddie as the trio continued down the corridor.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Bobby
Bobby stared at the corkboard on the wall with his list of ways to finally get Buck and Eddie a) alone, b) emotionally open, and willing and c) able to confess.
On a call seemed pretty unlikely since they basically had done that a hundred times already. Eddie restarted Buck’s heart for gods sake.
Pushing them into a room seemed pointless because they were literally firefighters.
Being upfront and comforting them about it left margin to the very slight chance that they might deny it and that would ruin Bobby’s perfect team dynamic forever.
Bobby groaned and let his head slowly hit his table, thudding it a couple more times for good measure as he groaned.
“Academy’s finest? Well Firefighter Diaz, you might be exactly what my team needs” he could hear himself say, practically grinning with excitement at his grand master plan.
Raising his head, he slowly pulled his hands into prayer:
“Dear Lord, I ask you as your humble servant t-“
And then the door almost caved in as Hen, Ravi and Chimney came crashing through it. Chim plastering back to it so it slammed shut, Ravi nearly stumbled to the ground until Hen swung him around in her grip on his arm, nearly catapulting herself onto Bobby’s display of Knick knacks.
“CAP!” Chim exclaimed as Hen and Ravi seemed to almost wrestle in the middle of the room. “We can’t take it anymore!”
Bobby looked up at heaven and sighed, maybe one day god would grant him peace.
“There has to be something you can do!” Hen rallied, staring at him with pleading eyes, magnified slightly by her thick black glasses.
“Me!” Bobby shrieked. “You both said you would try and push them towards each other”
Chim shook his head “it’s impossible! I don’t know what more any of us in this room can do to-“
“Wait a minute” Hen said as Ravi watched the conversation ping pong with wide eyes. “Any of us…in this room”
She stared at Bobby.
Bobby stared back, eyes widening in realisation.
“It’s stupid”
“Stupid but it might just work!”
“Hello is someone going to fill the stupid people in?” Ravi said, gesturing to him and chimney.
“Hey!” Chimney complained.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Buck and Eddie left their shift that very same day shoulders brushing and laughing at Eddie’s retelling of a Chris anecdote from his drama filled middle school life.
“Hold on a sec” Buck said, pausing in his stride and grabbing Eddie’s bicep to stop him, “where is everyone?”
Eddie swung his head around the large open space rapidly, eyes filtered over the bay, the loft, the changing area. Huh.
“Huh” he said aloud. “I don’t…”
Eddie was cut off by the sound of sirens, several police cars swarmed in front of their exit, blue lights flashing as they blocked their path. Athena jumped out of one of the cars, megaphone in hand.
“Alright! Come out with you hands up!”
Buck, startled, looked at Eddie who had grabbed him and hauled him back.
They looked over their shoulders and around to see who she could be talking about.
“I mean you two, idiots!” She exclaimed
Buck pulled Eddie out in front of the police cars before Eddie could protest, both of them raising their hands in the air.
“We haven’t done anything Athena we sw-“
He was cut off as most of the 118 got out of the other police cars, even Maddie was there, Josh in tow.
“Maddie?!” Buck exclaimed, staring at her.
“It’s for your own good Evan, please listen to her!”
Josh and Chimney at her side nodded solemnly.
“This feels like a waste of resources” Eddie mumbled as Buck glared at him.
Athena handed the megaphone to her husband and Bobby cleared his throat.
“This is an intervention! You two need to figure out your feelings for each other before I-“
“Oh for gods sake” Eddie grabbed Buck, dipped him at the waist whilst securing his head and kissed him. Buck made a muffled noise of surprise, but quickly got with the programme, his arms wound around Eddie’s waist and he tilted his head to get a better angle.
Eddie pulled away and Buck made a noise of complaint.
“Are you happy now?!” He stated as Buck continued to grapple for his cheek.
“Hush. Later. We owe them the truth” he manoeuvred them back so they were both stood upright again.
“Woah” Buck said flushed and awed, eyes unfocused.
“Yeah we’re happy! Although not sure if I wanted to see- what do you mean the truth?” Chimney questioned.
“We over heard Bobby explain his mastermind plan to Hen and Chim and were being unbearable about it in retaliation” Eddie explained
“Yeah, we’ve been dating for two months” Buck said and glanced at his sister “ummm, I promise I was going to tell you first Maddie!”
Maddie was the first to burst out with numerous questions, followed in seconds by everyone else squabbling over each other.
Athena glanced worriedly as Bobby burst out in laughter, doubling over onto his knees.
“I was right! I created this! I’m the mastermind!”
“Okay Honey…” she said, rubbing at his back.
As money started being thrusted at each other and they continued to screech and argue over each other, Buck glanced at Eddie.
“So um…are you gonna dip me like that again?”
Eddie smirked and rolled his eyes. He leant in close.
“I have a better idea. Whilst the bay is blocked off, do you think they’ll notice if we sneak into one of the engines?” He rose his eyebrows.
Buck fake gasped: “Diaz, you scoundrel!”
Eddie laughed and bit his lip, waggling his eyebrows.
"You love it, Buckley" he teased, and beginning to walk back into the firehouse. Buck blinked, then ran after him.
“Uh guys!” Ravi tried to yell over the crowd, “they’re…oh never mind”