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Let the record show that Buck isn’t even late .
If anything, he’s early. Sure, he puked into the bushes right outside the firehouse and it feels like someone is repeatedly whacking him over the head with an anvil, but he’s here.
He sucks in a deep breath, surfs the wave of nausea, and ascends the stairs to the loft.
Bobby is cooking something with eggs. He can smell it. He pauses halfway up the stairs and swallows. Braces himself. Doesn’t even retch. He soldiers on long enough to collapse onto the couch beside Hen, across from Chim.
The lights are so bright. Too bright. He closes his eyes and sucks in another shaky breath.
“Big night?” Hen asks.
“I do not feel good,” Buck confirms.
“You’ve had a lot of big nights lately,” Bobby says from much closer than he was when Buck closed his eyes. Buck thinks he might hear him drop something on the table in front of him. “You doing okay?”
Buck sniffs. The egg smell has, blessedly, stayed in the kitchen. It’s been replaced by the glorious scent of coffee.
“Mm,” Buck hums, eyes still closed. “Well, it’s Pride Month.”
There’s a beat of silence. Then another. And another.
“Sure,” Bobby agrees slowly.
Buck braves the lights long enough to open one eye. Everyone is just kind of…blinking at him. There’s also a fresh mug of coffee in front of him, which explains the scent. He leans forward and grabs it, taking a sip. He hums at the taste of it. He looks to Bobby to thank him for the coffee, but he’s still just kind of blinking at him. As is everyone else. He raises a brow.
Hen clears her throat. “I didn’t realize you were…”
“What?” Buck frowns.
“We thought you were straight,” Chimney admits.
“And that’s on us for assuming,” Hen adds.
“Right,” Chim agrees.
“I am. Usually,” Buck confirms, taking another sip. “But it’s Pride Month, so. You know,” he shrugs, letting his eyes fall closed again.
Another beat of silence. Buck doesn’t mind it, though. The silence feels nice on his head.
“I’m not sure we do know,” Hen says after a moment.
“It’s the gay month,” he supplies.
“Right,” Hen agrees slowly. “The month where people who are gay, or queer, or otherwise part of the LGBTQIA+ community celebrate that.”
Buck blinks his eyes open. Oh no. “Right,” he blinks.
“And those of us who aren’t… ” Chim adds, looking at Buck expectantly.
Buck blinks at him. Ohhhh no.
“ Support ,” Hen fills in when Buck doesn’t. “Right?”
Oh dear.
“Right,” Buck agrees. He mustn’t do a good job of it, because Hen narrows her eyes at him and asks:
“So, what did you get up to last night?”
Buck sniffs. Straightens. Feels, suddenly, like he’s under interrogation. “Just went out. Got some drinks,” he says. Which is true.
“Okay,” Hen nods. “At any particular bar?”
“Well it was a gay bar, obviously,” Buck sighs. It’s Pride Month. They’ve been through this.
“Obviously,” Chimney nods. “Hen, come on. Obviously.”
“And did you buy your own drinks?”
“No,” Buck shrugs. Feeling guilty, for some reason. “Some friends bought my drinks.”
“Some guy friends?” She asks, eyes narrowing in a way that Buck does not enjoy.
“Yeah,” Buck shrugs. “There were a bunch of guys there.”
“And what did you do with all of the guys at the gay bar, Buck?” Chimney grins.
“Talked, mostly.”
“They talked,” Hen shrugs, in a very aggressively faux-casual way.
“Chit chatted it up in the gay bar,” Chim nods. “Naturally.”
“And is that…all you did?” Hen prods.
Buck coughs. Opens his mouth to answer, when - -
“Morning,” Eddie grumbles, stumbling up the stairs.
Eddie, let the record show, is, unlike Buck, almost late. Buck looks at his watch and confirms Eddie is not late by one single minute.
“Morning,” Bobby returns, likely taking in Eddie’s flustered appearance and choosing not to mention that it’s 7:59.
If only Buck had been shown such mercy in the face of his interrogation.
“Coffee,” Eddie grunts, pointing towards the kitchen.
Hen looks between them and Buck feels caught. He avoids eye contact.
“Big night, Eddie?” She asks, and Buck, again, doesn’t love the tone.
“This one insisted on trying out a new bar,” Eddie groans, dragging himself towards the couch, coffee in hand. “And you would not believe how many people bought us drinks. I don’t think we bought a single drink.”
And he’s not wrong. There were so many drinks. And other substances. Mostly weed. There was so much weed.
“Wow,” Chimney grins, as Eddie plops down beside Buck. “Was there a special event on at this non-descript bar?”
“Uh, no,” Eddie sniffs, shifting uncomfortably beside him. “Just a - - just a regular time.”
“Well, it was Pride,” Buck reminds him.
“Buck,” Eddie sighs, eyes closing.
“What?” Buck asks. Why is everyone being so weird about Pride?? “We’re allowed to go to a gay bar during Pride!”
“Are we?” Eddie cringes.
“Y-yes?” Buck frowns. Yes. Yeah. He’s pretty sure. He turns to Hen. “Aren’t we?”
“Sure,” Hen shrugs. “Especially if someone at said establishment gave you those hickeys.”
Buck slaps a hand over his neck. Beside him, Eddie goes bright red.
Buck clears his throat. “I was not aware those were there,” he offers, eyes darting to Eddie. Eddie is pointedly looking at the floor. “And I have no further comment.”
“It’s none of our business, Buck,” Bobby notes, appearing again from the kitchen. “But you know we love and support you,” he adds, looking between him and Eddie. “And, uh. Anyone. Everyone. All people who also celebrate Pride. Or who maybe one day will. Or who don’t feel comfortable doing so! That’s okay, too.”
Buck winces.
Eddie groans.
“In my defence,” Eddie sighs. “I was very high, and Buck said that everyone’s gay in June.”
“I thought they were!” Buck insists. He’s finding out a lot of new information this morning and his head is not equipped for it.
“No,” a chorus of disbelieving voices sings out.
“Okay,” Buck concedes, hands up in surrender. “My bad.”
“And you…believed him?” Hen asks Eddie gently.
“Well, yeah,” Eddie shrugs. “It made sense. It was June and I wanted to kiss him.”
Buck sucks in a breath. This one doesn’t feel like suffering and nausea, it feels breathless and light.
Eddie wanted to kiss him.
Buck wanted to kiss him, too.
And they did. They kissed so much. Buck really, really liked kissing Eddie during Pride Month.
“And you didn’t want to kiss him in, say, May?” Chimney asks.
Eddie frowns. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Okay, well,” Hen notes carefully. “Today is the first of July.”
Eddie blinks over at Buck. Buck blinks back. He watches as Eddie’s eyes track his face and land on his lips. His eyes widen.
“Oh,” Eddie breathes.
Buck swallows.
Eddie stiffens, straightens. Clears his throat. “Buck?”
“Yeah?”
“Might I see you on the roof for a brief moment?”
“Um,” Buck blinks. “Yes?”
“Wonderful,” Eddie nods curtly, grabbing Buck’s arm and dragging him up. “My fine colleagues, please excuse us. We shall return shortly,” he adds, pulling Buck toward the roof.
“Is he okay?” Ravi frowns, blinking where he’s appeared at the top of the stairs. “Why is he talking like that?”
“I believe he’s in crisis,” Chimney notes. “And that’s presenting in extremely polite jargon.”
“But he’ll be okay,” Hen smiles. “I think they both will be.”
“What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall of a gay bar,” Chimney sighs.
9 hours earlier
“Happy Pride!!” Buck grins, pulling Eddie out of the rainbow chaos behind them and into the late-night air.
Eddie’s shoulder bumps into him as they walk, the sudden silence doing nothing to dampen their high.
“I love Pride!” Eddie agrees. “We should do Pride all of the time!”
“We SHOULD!” Buck gasps, stumbling into Eddie’s side. “You’re so smart, Eddie.”
Eddie shrugs. Grins.
“And you have a silver star!” Buck reminds him.
“Mm,” Eddie agrees. “Why have we never done Pride before?” He mumbles.
Buck frowns, stopping where they’ve landed outside of the gay club. There’s a few other people stumbling around, but otherwise it’s fairly quiet. “I don’t remember. Do you remember?”
“Mmmmm,” Eddie hums. “No. I think…I think I didn’t know I could.”
“Because you didn’t know the bar!” Buck gasps. “Now you do!”
“Yeah!” Eddie grins. “Hey. Hey,” Eddie frowns, suddenly serious. He grabs hold of Buck by the shoulders. “Do you think you’re supposed to be Pride to do Pride?”
Buck thinks about it. He thinks about it so hard. “The rainbow shots?” He asks. The PRIDE shots were so good and they were rainbow and there were five of them , and Buck drank them all.
“They were fun,” Eddie grins. He shakes his head, a frown replacing his grin. “No I - - didn’t you see the posters? With the - - all the kissing.”
“No,” Buck shakes his head. “Who was kissing?”
“ Boys ,” Eddie whispers far too loudly for it to actually be considered a whisper.
“ Ohhh ,” Buck nods. “Gay kissing! For Pride!”
“Yeah!” Eddie grins, delighted that Buck gets what he’s saying.
“You think we were supposed to kiss a boy?” Buck frowns. “Did we do it wrong?”
“I dunno,” Eddie frowns. “I hope not. They were nice.”
“They were so nice,” Buck agrees. “Bought us so many drinks.”
“ So many,” Eddie nods.
Okay, it’s okay, Buck can fix this. He can figure this out. They’ll do a good job at Pride and all the nice men with the free rainbow drinks will be so proud of them.
Buck can kiss a boy! He’d love to kiss a boy!
Oh!
“Eddie!” Buck gasps.
“Yeah?” Eddie asks, blinking his suddenly drooping eyes back open.
“You’re a boy!”
Eddie looks down at himself and back up to Buck. He nods.
“Yeah,” he agrees.
“And I’m a boy,” Buck adds.
Eddie blinks at Buck. “Yeah.”
“We could kiss boys, together,” he says, then frowns. “No, wait. Each other.” He squints. He focuses. He steps forward and squishes Eddie’s cheeks between his hands. “We could kiss each other. Boys.”
“For Pride,” Eddie nods, his squished cheeks barely moving in Buck’s grasp.
“Yes!” Buck grins. “‘Cause it’s June. So, everyone’s gay.”
“Okay!” Eddie grins.
Buck pulls him in and kisses the grin right off his face. He tastes like rainbows.
9 hours later
The rooftop door slams behind them as Eddie drops his grasp on Buck’s arm. He paces away from Buck, then back again. He’s wide-eyed and panicking and he’s pointing at Buck and Buck is in so much trouble. He’s in so much trouble.
“I want to kiss you,” Eddie accuses, his pointer finger directed at Buck like it’s a terrible thing.
“Okay,” Buck breathes.
“No! Not okay!” Eddie groans. “Not okay, Buck!”
“Right,” Buck nods. He’s really trying to keep up but his head is still pounding. “Right. Because…” He squints. He’ll get there. He will.
“Because it’s July,” Eddie sighs. “I’m supposed to be straight in July.”
Oh. Oh no. Eddie was almost late. Eddie was almost late and he missed the very enlightening conversation about how Pride month does not mean everyone is gay for the month of June. Whoops.
“Okay,” Buck winces. “So I may have spread some misinformation.”
Eddie looks at him, panicked.
“Do you think it was like a Cinderella situation?” Eddie blinks frantically. He’s pacing again, back and forwards in front of Buck. Buck is really trying not to puke and the movement is not helping.
“What?” Buck blinks.
“Like - - like maybe I’m Gay Cinderella? And we - - because we kissed at midnight? On the last night of Pride? It - - it turned me gay?” Eddie tries, eyes so wild Buck is almost frightened. “Like - - like with the magic pumpkin!”
“The magic pumpkin?” Buck frowns.
“I don’t know, Buck!” Eddie groans. “I haven’t had a reason to watch Cinderella lately!”
“Okay,” Buck nods, taking a deep breath against another wave of nausea. “I don’t think you need to worry about magic Pride pumpkins. Wasn’t that the one about the shoe?”
“I think you’re missing my point,” Eddie sighs.
And yeah, look — Buck is not following the magic pride pumpkin thought experiment, but he’s getting the general gist of the situation. Buck lets out a sigh of his own.
“Would it be so bad if you just wanted to kiss me?” Buck whispers.
Eddie lets out a breath. He stops pacing, right in front of Buck. A few steps forward and they’d be touching. He looks at Buck, and deflates — the panic makes way for something else, something vulnerable. He stands there, hands hanging at his sides, shrugs, and says: “You tell me.”
Buck can’t remember Eddie ever looking like he does right now. He’s splayed open and bleeding and handing Buck a knife. He’s trusting Buck with the knife. Buck takes the knife and throws it off the rooftop.
“You can kiss me whenever you want to,” Buck confesses. It feels like a confession. “I want you to kiss me whenever you want. I want - - I want to kiss you, too.”
Eddie blinks. “Why are you so calm about this?”
“I don’t know,” Buck shrugs. Honest. “It just kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? I hadn’t thought about it before, but when we kissed, it was like oh. Of course. Of course it’s you.”
“Of course it’s me?” Eddie whispers, voice cracking.
“Yeah,” Buck smiles. “Of course it’s you.”
Eddie takes three steps forward and kisses him. He kisses him in July. “Yeah,” Eddie nods. “Yeah. Of course it’s you.”