Chapter Text
“What is going on here?”
Buck’s head snapped up and Eddie whipped around. They’d been so focused on each other that neither had heard the key in the lock or the door opening.
Tommy shut the door behind him, and dropped his bag off to the side. “Guys? I could hear you on the porch.”
“H-Hey, Tommy,” Buck said, feeling his shoulders sag in relief. Now that Tommy was here, they could get this all sorted out. “Welcome back,” he said, heading over to give Tommy a hug and kiss.
“Yeah, welcome back,” Eddie echoed. His arms were still crossed, and Tommy looked between the two of them.
“Not the greatest welcome a guy has had after a week away fighting a fire,” he commented. He kissed the side of Buck’s head. “What happened?”
“He’s mad at me,” Buck said, as Eddie said, “It’s nothing, we’re fine.”
Tommy raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I can tell how fine you are.” He glanced at Buck. “He didn’t like the offer?”
“What offer?” Eddie asked.
“Uh, about your lease,” Buck said. “That’s why I came over, I was talking to Tommy last night and this morning. And, uh,” he glanced over at Tommy.
“Just spit it out, Buck,” Eddie said, sighing. “It can’t be worse than everything you’ve already done.”
“Mmm, I don’t like the sound of that,” Tommy said. “Your tone or what happened with Evan while I was gone. Should we sit down?”
“I’m Freddy,” Buck said, avoiding Tommy’s eyes. Tommy definitely wasn’t going to like everything he had done, and the longer it took to get to that conversation, the better.
“You’re–you are my appointment?” Eddie asked. “Damn it, Buck!” He would probably have smacked the couch in frustration if Tommy hadn’t laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“No, like, I’m your appointment because I want to take on your lease,” Buck said. He gave a half shrug, not wanting to tip Tommy off to how much Eddie’s earlier words had hurt. “Not to make it all about me or anything. I just didn’t think you’d want to see me, so I made up a name.”
“You’re–wait, I don’t understand,” Eddie said. He looked at Tommy, who squeezed his shoulder.
“Freddy Fakeman, at your service,” Buck said, and Tommy let out a startled laugh.
“You dug deep for that one, Evan,” he said, shaking his head and grinning.
But Eddie just stared at him, frowning. “Buck, you have a lease. Why would you make an appointment?” he asked.
“I don’t have a lease, actually. I talked to my landlord this morning. So I wanna take over yours,” Buck said. “I talked with Tommy, and we agreed that it was something we could do, I could do to make this easier for you.”
Eddie sagged against Tommy. “Fuck,” he said softly, rubbing at his forehead. Tommy wrapped his arms around him and kissed his temple.
“Uh, is-is that a no?” Buck asked, another wave of hurt settling into his chest.
“No, it’s not no,” Eddie said. He squeezed Tommy’s hands and pushed forward to wrap his arms around Buck. “It’s a yes, and a thank you.”
Buck hugged him tightly, relieved. “I know you belong with Chris,” he said softly. “I really do want to help you, even though I’m going to miss you.”
Eddie pulled back just enough to kiss him gently, stroking his cheek. He turned to look at Tommy. “I fucked up,” he admitted.
“You two seem to be on the same page now, so how about we get me back up to speed?” Tommy suggested.
Buck and Eddie glanced at each other and reluctantly nodded.
As they settled themselves into their favorite spaces on the couch, Tommy tried not to sigh at the guilty looks both of his boyfriends wore. He’d picked up enough talking to Evan and texting with Eddie to know that they’d been struggling with the impending separation, which he’d expected. But now he had a feeling that they’d both left out a lot of the story. He’d been hoping to have a night of snuggling and sex before they sat down to work it out, but that was clearly not in the cards tonight. He should have known better once he realized Evan knew that Eddie had put down a deposit on a house.
And yet he had still underestimated how much the two of them had spiraled without him there.
“Okay,” he said slowly. “So Evan, you deliberately sabotaged Eddie’s potential subletters. Several of them.”
“The, uh, first one wasn’t intentional?” Evan offered. “I really was trying to be helpful. But they left, then I kept saying stupid things and more left, and, yeah.”
“And so you brought out Meth Lab Jim,” Tommy said, and Evan shrugged sheepishly. “And told the 118 that Eddie was leaving. All of which made you mad, Eddie–”
“Rightfully so,” Evan cut in. “I was a jerk, and I’m sorry.”
“Noted,” Tommy said, carding his fingers through Evan’s curls, and looking at Eddie. “But you lashed out at Evan and deliberately set out to hurt him, twice.”
Eddie nodded, his shoulders hunched forward. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Buck.”
“I get it,” Evan said. “I went too far.”
Tommy tugged lightly at his hair. “Sweetheart, there’s never any good excuse for someone who loves you to hurt you,” he reminded him.
Evan shrugged, uncomfortably.
“Tommy’s right,” Eddie said. “That was on me, not you. I should have done better.”
“And one of these days, you’ll remember that before you get mad, and not after,” Tommy said, reaching across Evan to rub Eddie’s knee.
Eddie sighed. “Hopefully. I feel like shit about it.”
“We’ll fix that, sweetheart,” Tommy promised and Eddie nodded.
He looked back over at Evan. “And in addition to all of that, you adopted a dog without talking about it first. I’m guessing you were going to move Blaze into my house, right? Since your lease forbids pets?”
“Maybe,” Evan said, flushing. “But Tommy, if you’d seen his face! He was so sad, and I really,” he trailed off. “I really needed someone who loved me right then.”
Tommy didn’t miss the distress that flashed on Eddie’s face. “You are always loved, sweetheart,” he reassured him. “No matter where we are or how else we’re feeling.”
“I didn’t want you to feel like I didn’t love you,” Eddie said, his face starting to turn red. “I love you, Buck. Even when I’m pissed off and scared and taking it out on you.”
“Yeah, I-I know,” Evan said, pulling Eddie closer. “I just forgot for a little, I guess.”
With Eddie smushed up tight on Evan’s other side, Tommy shifted and reached out so his arm curled around both men. “So what I’m hearing is that you both broke some of the biggest rules we set together. Is that right?”
They both nodded, the guilt back on their faces.
“All right. We’re going to take care of this,” Tommy said. “I want you both to go stand in your corners while I go think on this, because just spanking isn’t going to cut it this time. You each had chances to not only talk to each other, but to me.” He raised his eyebrows at them. “Evan, we talked this morning, and you said Eddie was stressed about finding a subletter.”
“He was,” Evan said weakly.
“And you contributed to it,” Tommy said. “And Eddie, we talked and texted after your showings. You didn’t say anything about being frustrated with Evan.”
“You didn’t need more stress,” Eddie said, but he avoided eye contact.
“We agreed that you would talk to me when you felt your anger building up,” Tommy said. “You know that talking about it diffuses it, but you let it keep growing until it boiled over.” Eddie didn’t answer, so he let it go for the moment. “All right. Corners.”
“We could do it tomorrow,” Evan offered. “You just got home, you’ve got to be exhausted.”
Tommy snorted. “Nice try,” he said. “I napped on the way back.”
Eddie shifted away, but Evan sighed and tucked his head into Tommy’s shoulder for a few extra moments, soaking up the affection.
“Okay,” he said, and stood up next to Eddie, who had waited for him. They headed off to their respective corners, and Tommy went into their bedroom to think and plan.
Tommy didn’t like to leave them alone in the corner for too long; he said they were both too good at spiraling and upsetting themselves more than warranted. So Eddie knew it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes that he’d been standing there, staring at the yellow paint that didn’t even have shadows to distract him.
Not that he wanted to be distracted, he knew he was there to think. But fuck, he had deliberately hurt Buck. His best friend, his partner, his love. He physically hurt thinking about that. He’d gone right on to a bad faith offensive tonight, earlier he’d accused him of eavesdropping to avoid feeling guilt for being overheard. He hadn’t meant it, it was just something to reassure potential subletters that he wasn’t going to be coming back and reclaiming his lease. No one was supposed to hear it but them.
But that wasn’t an excuse. Buck had heard him, he had been hurt, and Eddie had driven the knife deeper. What kind of person did that? A small, petty, mean one who always defaulted to anger and made his partner feel unloved. Were Buck and Tommy going to be better off without him? Was Christopher--?
His hands squeezed together behind his back, gripping almost hard enough to hurt.
“Hands down, Eddie,” Tommy said gently, cupping his hand around the back of Eddie’s neck.
He tried to nod, and let his hands fall. Tommy was always trying to get him out of parade rest. He let Buck fidget and shift as much as he needed, and encouraged Eddie to let himself be present and not fall back into old habits. It was hard.
“Thank you,” Tommy said, and kissed his temple. Eddie tightly shut his eyes, the comfort almost too much to bear.
He heard Tommy step back a bit.
“All right, here’s how this is going to go,” he said. “We’ve all talked a lot about what to do when we’re feeling vulnerable, and you both did basically the opposite at every opportunity. Since this isn’t the first or even second time we’ve found ourselves here, it’s time to raise the consequences. Obviously, you’re each getting spanked. Evan, you’re going to do lines while Eddie, you get your mouth washed out. And then, guys, we have got to talk about this because we need to be all on the same page when we go long distance. Do you both understand?”
Eddie nodded and Buck must have, too, because Tommy said, “Good.” He could hear Tommy moving the coffee table out of their way and getting the couch set.
“All right, Eddie. Come over here.”
Eddie was always first, they realized pretty quickly that sending Buck back to the corner to wait after being spanked was a recipe for a meltdown. But even knowing it was coming, he wanted to drag his feet and stare at the boring corner as long as he could.
But that was not how Diaz men handled punishment, so he kept his back straight and moved to stand in front of Tommy.
“Look at me, sweetheart,” Tommy said, and Eddie obediently looked up. “Good job,” he praised, and Eddie tried not to twitch. He very much did not feel he was good anything at the moment, and he knew what was coming.
Tommy wrapped his arms around Eddie, and pulled him close for a hug. He insisted on starting every punishment with one, saying it was to get Eddie in the right mindset. He was loved, he wasn’t a fuck up, he was worth it, blah blah. He knew Buck needed to hear it and feel it, but that didn’t mean he did, too.
But damn if it didn’t feel good. Tommy didn’t let go until he felt Eddie return it, and even then he waited a good 20 seconds before he did.
“Thank you,” Tommy said, squeezing his hands. He sat down on the couch while Eddie unbuckled his jeans and pushed them down his thighs.
Eddie laid himself over Tommy’s knees, stomach swirling as always. He hated feeling this vulnerable, but Tommy was gentle as he pulled down Eddie’s briefs and settled him more securely in place, and it was hard to be tense under his hand.
“All right, Eddie,” Tommy said. “You know why we’re here, so let’s get started.”
Eddie barely had time to nod before the first smack landed, hard and heavy. The next one landed the next moment on the same spot, and Eddie couldn’t stop his shocked inhale. As gentle as Tommy was before and after, his hand was solid as a log and he didn’t shy away from making his point firmly during.
You could never predict how Tommy was going to spank, from top to bottom, or random, but this was Eddie’s least favorite. At least half a dozen spanks in one place, leaving it burning, then moving to a completely different spot for more, never the same number. He couldn’t count on anything but how much it was going to hurt, and he couldn’t focus on anything else.
Tommy hadn’t even hesitated yet, every smack landing sure and strong and steady, and it already felt like he’d covered every bit of Eddie’s ass, even though that couldn’t possibly be true. He grit his teeth, trying not to shift or kick, prickles of pain everywhere making it difficult.
But when Tommy started landing swats where he’d already covered the undercurve of his ass, letting the spots overlap, and then starting in on his thighs, Eddie stuttered out a whimper.
“You’re doing so well, Eddie,” Tommy murmured, and Eddie felt his eyes go hot. “Just a little longer here, then we’ll finish with the paddle.”
Fuck. Eddie blinked hard, clearing away the tears for now. The sharp pain of Tommy’s hand on his thighs almost masked the ache of his ass, but the paddle would make both that much stronger. He couldn’t think on it too much, though, it was impossible not to stay present under Tommy’s hand.
Finally he slowed and Eddie exhaled shakily.
“Last bit, baby,” Tommy said, rubbing the cool wood against Eddie’s burning ass. “Fifteen more, you got this.”
With no other warning, the paddle cracked down and Eddie cried out. Five came fast with heavy thuds. The next five were just as strong, but slower. He could feel every smack and throb echo through his body between swats, his eyes going hot again.
“I know you’re better than how you acted this week,” Tommy said, snapping down on Eddie’s undercurve and breaking his composure.
He sobbed once, as the next smack landed, and the floodgates opened as Tommy landed the last three on the center of his ass. Eddie collapsed limply over Tommy’s lap as Tommy set the paddle down and started rubbing his back. He let himself cry, knowing that Tommy would give him all the time he needed, and felt some of the guilt and anger at himself ebb away under Tommy’s comforting hand and soft words.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” Tommy said, as he started to push himself up. “Step out of those, you don’t need them.”
Eddie kicked his jeans off, his briefs sliding to the floor, and let Tommy sweep him into a hug on his lap. His breathing was still a little shuddery as he curled tightly around his boyfriend, and Tommy gently stroked his arm as he settled.
His head ached when he pulled away, ready to go back to the corner. Crying always did a number on him, and Tommy was ready with a glass of water and Tylenol.
“Ready, baby?” Tommy asked, and Eddie nodded. He used Tommy’s shoulder as leverage to push himself to standing, and headed back for his corner. Buck had waited long enough for his turn.