Chapter Text
The moment the door closes behind his son, dad, and grandma-in-law, Buck is at a loss.
Sure, he had said he'd tell the team about his time in the SEALs, but where does he even start? How much can he say with everything that's classified? Can he even bring himself to talk about some of the things he did or the worst days of his life?
“It's not necessarily a pretty story,” he warns.
“Sending Chris away kinda confirmed what we suspected, Buckaroo,” Hen says. “But if you're uncomfortable about it, you don't have to tell us.”
“I do. I didn't say anything before because I didn't want your opinion of me to change. But I don't think it will. I just don't know where to start. Because a lot of it at the beginning doesn't seem…important?”
Chimney raises a skeptical brow. “How is joining the SEALs not important?”
“Well, joining the SEALs wasn't- It wasn't a dream or anything. The Navy recruiter I met said I'd do well, and I just…went into training. And I had wanted to quit, but Hound found me before I could and talked to me. It was a sign, I guess, and I figured I could help people that way, you know? Protect them, help lower casualties. I could make a difference. But the job never sang to me. So…unimportant.”
Then, he looks at his husband with a grin. “Not until I met this one at least. That made the decision the best one I ever made.”
He can hear Chimney fake-gag before someone ribs him, the Asian letting out an oof.
“I think you mean not until we became friends,” his love corrects, planting a kiss on his forehead that makes Buck melt into a little puddle. “You didn't exactly like me.”
“I think it's the other way around.”
“I didn't know what to do with you, but I didn't hate you. You definitely glared at me several times.”
“I did not!”
“I'm sure you did.”
Buck turns his head to gape at his sister, who had spoken up. “But I didn't! I swear!”
“Knowing you, you did. Because you do that to people you don't like, and ‘Mr.Perfection just came in and made my team like him way faster than I did! That's so unfair!’ And I'd say that made you jealous enough to be unpleasant. I have the evidence if you need it.”
Buck pouts. So, okay, he might have been jealous. And, yeah, that sounds like something he would have-
Wait.
“Y-you kept them?”
Maddie gives him a sad look, which looks even sadder with her red-rimmed eyes. “Each and every one.”
Oh.
He had assumed, of course, what with Doug being able to track him - and therefore Maddie - down, but to hear it from her. To hear that she kept every single one…
“I genuinely want to see those,” his partner admits, alarming Buck and snapping his attention back to the matter at hand.
“No! Please don't, Madds!”
“I wanna see them too,” Hen agrees, a teasing grin on her face. “I bet Buck's reaction was golden.”
Buck whines. “You're ganging up on me when I’m down.”
“Are you down?”
“Yes,” he insists, petulant, dropping his head on his soulmate's shoulder, drawing a chuckle out of his other half.
“I guess we should tell them how we met before you're too hurt about it, cariño,” his beloved suggests, planting a kiss on his head, soothing the faux hurt he's experiencing.
Hen nods. “Please. Because Eddie mentioned it before rebar head became rebar head, but now I really want to know how you got from not liking each other to-” She waves in their direction. “-this?”
Chimney nods by her side, looking way too eager for the story, while Maddie just gives him a patient look.
Well, here goes nothing then.