Chapter Text
Chapter: “The Confession (aka: About Time)”
It started like most of their nights — quiet, low lighting, Christopher already asleep upstairs, and Buck on Eddie’s couch like he belonged there.
Because he did.
He always had.
Eddie handed Buck a beer, sat down next to him, and stared straight ahead at the TV screen, which was playing something neither of them were really watching.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
Then—
“I can’t keep doing this,” Eddie said suddenly, voice low but firm.
Buck blinked, heart stuttering. “Doing what?”
“This. Us. Pretending like I don’t—” He stopped, exhaled hard, stared at his hands. “Pretending like I don’t feel something for you. Like it’s not killing me every time you smile at someone else.”
Buck turned toward him slowly, words caught somewhere in his throat.
Eddie kept going, voice softer now. “I don’t know when it happened, or how it got this deep, but I love you, Buck. I’ve been in love with you for a while now, and I just— I couldn’t not say it anymore.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Until Buck set his beer down on the table with a soft thunk and whispered, “Thank God.”
Eddie looked up, eyes wide. “What?”
“I’ve been in love with you for so long, Eds. I just… I didn’t think you felt the same.”
“I thought you didn’t,” Eddie said, a breathless laugh escaping.
And then Buck leaned forward and kissed him — slow, careful, reverent. Like something he’d wanted to do for years but had been too scared to break.
Eddie kissed him back like it was oxygen.
When they pulled away, foreheads pressed together, Buck whispered, “So… what now?”
Eddie chuckled. “Now? We pretend we’re just friends so no one at the firehouse finds out.”
Buck grinned. “We’re terrible at subtlety.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
They kissed again, and Buck thought — maybe secrecy isn’t so bad, as long as I get to have this.
to be continued..