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He was still holding out hope that Abby would come back when Eddie Diaz crashed into his life, shirtless and in the firehouse he’d worked so hard to call his home. But the defensiveness lasts only so long as the shift does, which ends with them working together to remove a live grenade from a man’s leg. Then Buck can’t imagine work without him. And soon enough, work bleeds into life outside the 118 and they’re making plans to find the best greasy spoon diner in LA.
They’re at a diner just east of Fairfax that’s supposed to have good celebrity spotting as it’s just blocks from the CBS lot. It’s a little more eccentric than he was expecting, if only for the nearly naked people on the menu, but that’s what he gets for suggesting a diner named “Swingers.”
While they’re waiting on their food to arrive, Buck notices Eddie fiddling with the paper wrapper of his straw. He cranes his neck, trying to get a better look, but just ends up with a different angle of Eddie’s hands.
“Whatcha making over there?”
Eddie blinks and holds up a paper ring, staring at it as though he’s surprised to see that that’s what he’d been making.
“You planning on proposing to me, Diaz?” Buck teases.
Eddie rolls his eyes. “Please. This ring is far too nice for you.”
“I can be nice!”
“Sure.”
“And to think I would’ve said yes.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. “Buck, will you marry me?”
Buck ignores the little flutter in his chest as he gasps and nods so violently he’s almost certain he’ll get whiplash. “Yes, yes! A thousand times yes!”
Eddie moves the put the ring on Buck’s finger and it immediately rips in half. They make eye contact and both of them have to try their absolute hardest to hold back their laughter.
“Ugh, I thought you knew my ring size!”
“Come on, it’s not my fault you have massive fingers!”
Buck cackles, not noticing the flush on Eddie’s face, and puts the destroyed ring into his pocket. They finish their breakfast without much fanfare, still laughing and joking as friends do, before going their separate ways.
After he gets back to the loft, he finds the ripped paper ring in his pocket. He moves to throw it away, it is trash after all. But then something twists in his gut. Guilt. Buck takes a breath, telling himself it’s ridiculous to have that much sentimental attachment to a fucking piece of paper and a ripped piece of trash at that. He looks at what used to be a paper ring and sighs.
He finds a small box in a cabinet and places the paper inside.
It’s so stupid. He knows it’s so stupid. But there’s something about it that Buck can’t stand living without.
***
Chim dares Eddie to buy the dumbest sounding drink on the menu while all of them are out one night. Buck has already reached the state of tipsy where he felt like he’s floating two inches off the ground but could come back to touch the earth if he wants to. He sways subconsciously to the music pulsing through the bar speakers as Eddie comes back with his drink. Anyone else would have latched onto the nearly radioactive color of whatever frozen monstrosity was in his hands, but Buck? All Buck can see was the paper wrapped straw between his friend’s fingers.
And he has an idea. The best idea, in fact.
“Eddie! Do the thing!” Buck shouts.
Eddie looks confused at first until he looks down at the paper wrapper. Then he shakes his head, wordlessly realizing what Buck is asking for. “I’m not gonna do the thing.”
“Please?” Buck says, dragging out the end of the word. He knows he’s pouting, but he can’t bring himself to care. He just wants Eddie to do the thing.
Eddie rolls his eyes and begins to make a paper ring. Buck’s nearly jumping up and down with anticipation, eyes fixated on Eddie’s hands as they sloppily fold the straw wrapper into a ring shape. And then he holds it up, trying to look annoyed but grinning.
“Hey Buck? You wanna get married?”
Buck hardly recognizes the noise that comes out of his mouth as he launches himself at an already laughing Eddie, who manages to keep both of them upright as he makes grabby hands for the ring.
“I thought you’d never ask!” He exclaims.
Buck doesn’t remember much from the rest of the night, except for a vaguely cryptic conversation with Maddie that he’s still not entirely sure of whether or not he just dreamt that it happened. But when he wakes up the next morning in his clothes from the night before, he finds the paper ring still in his pocket. So he pulls out the box and puts it with the others.
***
They’re eating some kind of fast food after a draining call. Everyone else is already in the bunks, leaving them alone with their burgers and fries and diet sodas in cups large enough to drown a small child. Normally, they’d be talking. Or Buck would be talking and Eddie would chime in every now and again with his own thoughts that would send them into a completely different topic. But tonight, the only noise is the occasional zoom of a car passing by the station.
Buck normally hates the quiet. Finds it suffocating, oppressive even. Too much like being a teenager stuck in his parents house, his sister miles away with a horrible husband. But this quiet is different. It’s comfortable and safe. Eddie sits on the other side of the table, fiddling with the paper wrapper of his straw. His eyes wander over to see Eddie’s hands moving in the familiar motion of making a paper ring.
Wordless, Eddie looks up and holds up the ring. He raises his eyebrows as though asking a question, if Buck would accept the ring. He’s too tired to make his usual big show, so he just nods. Eddie smiles and hands over the paper ring, their fingers just brushing against each other. He blames the flip flop of his heart on the lack of sleep and pure exhaustion from the last call. Besides, it’s a normal reaction to having a quiet intimate moment with anyone, right?
***
He’s at the mall of all places, looking for a last minute present for Maddie. Usually, he has all of his gifts planned out and organized well in advance. But between insanely exhausting shifts at work, he’s hardly had a moment to collect his thoughts without being around other people. After exhausting the frustratingly sparse options at Macy’s and Target and JC Penney, Buck finally caves and goes to an actual jewelry store.
He finds a nice enough necklace that doesn’t totally break the bank and pays for it. As he moves to walk out of the store, his eyes wander to a display case by the entrance to the mall. A display case full of men’s rings. Suddenly, he’s stopped walking towards the exit and just stands staring at an over lit glass box lined with black velvet.
“See anything you like?” A saleslady with wire frame glasses on a multicolored glass bead chain attached to it.
Buck finds himself unable to look away from a shining platinum band with some kind of black metal in the middle smack dab in the center of the case. Thinking about what kind of proposal he’d use it for. Thinking that it would looks really good on Eddie’s finger.
Oh.
That’s a new thought.
He looks up at the saleslady, who peers at him over her glasses like she knows the secrets of the world. He blinks and shakes his head.
“No. I already found what I’m looking for. Thanks.”
He all but sprints out of the jewelry store and drives back home to Eddie’s house. He’s still thinking about the ring as the three of them sit with their Thai take out, complete with giant styrofoam cups of Thai tea. There’s not a lot of places that still have styrofoam in Los Angeles, but Thai tea is one of those rare few foods that actually tastes better in the horrendously wasteful containers. Or at least, that’s how the good Thai tea is served for take out.
Eddie must sense that something’s going on with Buck, given that he’s usually talking about everything and nothing over dinner.
“Paper ring for your thoughts?” He asks, snapping Buck out of his head.
He blinks and focuses in on the paper ring in Eddie’s hand. It’s a little thicker than the ones he usually given the size of the straws that come with the Thai tea, but it’s still the same meticulously folded ring like the many hiding away in a small box in the loft.
Buck snorts. “Come on, man. You have to ask me properly.”
“I offer you a ring and this is what I get in return?”
“I’m just saying. You usually have a better speech than that.”
“Fine. You’re my best friend. I don’t hate you. Do you want get hitched?”
Buck clasps his hands over his heart and looks up to the sky as if holding back tears. “Eddie Diaz, you sure know how to make a guy swoon.”
Chris clears his throat, making his presence known. Both Buck and Eddie startle slightly as Buck puts the ring in his pocket, already making a mental note to dig out the box.
“Really? Right in front of my salad?” He asks.
Buck glances at Chris’s plate. “You’re not eating salad.”
Chris rolls his eyes. “You guys are so weird.”
Eddie grins. “Hey Buck. The teenager just called us weird!”
“Hate to break it to you, Superman, but someday you’ll be old and weird like us!” Buck says with a grin.
“Sure,” Chris snarks back, making both Buck and Eddie laugh.
And Buck realizes that there’s no place in the world he’d rather be. Just sitting with the Diaz boys, laughing and teasing each other over dinner. That as much as he still thinks of the house as Eddie’s place, he still feels far more at home than anywhere else he’s actually lived. In this little life that the three of them have together.
He goes back to the jewelry store the next day and buys the ring, not even thinking about the price tag or the look the saleslady gives him over her glasses when he lays down his credit card.
***
He hides the ring in the driver side glove compartment of his car. Anywhere else seems like it’d be found and trigger a zip file of questions he wasn’t ready to answer just yet. The box seems to taunt him every time he opens the glove compartment, so he tries not to think of it.
Until they’re in the parking lot of an In n Out and Buck’s talking about how he thinks Chris would like “How It’s Really Made” over burgers.
“Marry me,” Eddie says.
Buck holds back a laugh, fully expecting to see his best friend holding a paper ring and wearing a smirk. But then. Oh but then.
There’s no ring. Just Eddie with an achingly vulnerable expression on his face and his hands folded in his lap.
“What?”
“Marry me,” he repeats. I don’t want to pretend that this doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. I love you. You love our kid. And I’m pretty sure you love me too. Marry me.”
Buck feels tears welling up in his eyes. “You don’t have a ring,” he says, trying to joke but not able to.
Eddie huffs and bites back a smile as he grabs the forgotten paper wrapper from his straw and starts to make a paper ring. Buck has to remind himself to breathe as Eddie takes his time, thoughtfully and neatly turning trash into treasure.
He holds up the finished paper ring up between them and sees tears streaming down his face. “Buck, Evan. You’re my best friend. My partner. Mi alma, mi corazón. El gran amor de mi vida. Quieres casarte conmigo?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
The ring slides oh so gently onto his finger as they lean awkwardly over the center console for a soft, sweet, lingering kiss. A last first kiss.
And then he remembers that he’s had an engagement ring in the car this whole time and nearly snorts into his fiancé’s face. “You’re a jackass.”
Eddie pulls back. “What?”
He opens the driver side glove box and pulls out the box that had been taunting him for weeks. Eddie’s eyes widen as he opens the box to reveal the ring and takes a moment to compose himself.
“I wasn’t planning on doing this in the car.”
“Buck.”
“And you’ve kind of already said everything I wanted to.”
“Really?”
“And also said it in Spanish, which is unfair.”
“Are you serious?”
“Except that I also definitely love you. I’ve loved you for so long that I can’t even bring myself to care that we’re doing this in my car in an In n Out parking lot.”
“Oh my God.”
“Edmundo Diaz. Will you have my back forever?”
“No, you have to ask me properly.”
“I have a ring! I’ve had a ring. You had to make yours.”
“I need the words ‘will you marry me’ to come out of your mouth.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Gah, fine. I love you. You’re my second favorite person in the world after Chris. Will you marry me?”
“Of course, you idiot!”
And then they’re kissing again. It’s salty and wet from tears, more urgent and desperate than their first kiss. Their noses bump and it stops really becoming a kiss since they’re smiling too much, but it doesn’t matter. He slides the ring onto Eddie’s finger, feeling his smile grow impossibly wider.
“I’m gonna get you a real ring,” Eddie says. “I’m gonna get you a real ring that costs more than our rent that’s just as gorgeous as you are. You deserve far more than a shitty straw wrapper.”
“Baby, I’d marry you with this paper ring in a dumpster.”
“Gross.”
“No, romantic.”
“Stop talking and kiss me.”
So Buck goes in for their third kiss and his fiancé’s hands fly up to cup his face. His best friend is now his fiancé. He’s going to marry his best friend. And God, doesn’t that just make him the luckiest man in the world.
***
Eddie comes home, holding back a smile like he’s about to burst at the seams.
“Okay, I need you for like five seconds and then I’ll let you get back to making dinner,” he says.
Buck huffs and rolls his eyes. “This better be good,” he says, setting down his spatula on the counter before turning to see Eddie on one knee holding a black box.
“I know we’re already engaged, but I wasn’t able to give you a real ring last time. So, I’m gonna make this short and sweet. Evan Buckley, mi amor, will you marry me?”
He opens the ring box to reveal a black metal ring with a band of white stone running through the center. If he squints, Buck thinks that it almost looks like…
“Did you get me a ring that looks like paper?” he asks.
Eddie laughs and holds up his left hand. “I mean, I was going for matching the one you got me, but that’s not not what I thought when I saw it.”
“You’re lucky I love you,” Buck says, holding back a laugh.
“I really am.”
“Well, when you put it like that, I guess I’ll marry you.”
Eddie lets out a mock sigh of relief and stands up. “You had me for a second there.”
“As if I’d ever say no to you.”
Eddie pulls Buck in close for a kiss as he fumbles to place the ring on his finger. Buck laughs before turning back into kiss his fiancé again. He admires the ring for a moment before blinking. “Shit. I have to make dinner.”
“Go,” Eddie says with a smile. “Should I tell Chris to start washing up?”
“Nah, it’s gonna take a minute. Besides, he’s got that project due on Thursday and he’s apparently super in the zone,” Buck says. “It shouldn’t be too long though.”
“Got it. I love you.”
“Love you, too.” He starts walking back to the stove. “I still think we should elope.”
“And I think Athena would kill us if we do,” Eddie says. “And Maddie, and Hen, and Karen. Not to mention Abuela and Pepa and my sisters.”
“We can invite them to the party!”
“Cariño, the only reason that I can wait to call you my husband is that I like being your fiancé and I value my life.”
Buck huffs an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. I guess we can wait.”
“Stop being gross!” Chris shouts from the other room.
Eddie grins. “Yeah, Buck. Stop being gross.”
“Do you want to cook your own dinner tonight?” Buck says, unable to hold back a grin.
“Oh my God! I can still hear you!” Chris shouts again.
They turn to each other and laugh. All Buck can think is how lucky he is to get this for the rest of his life.