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Buck has done plenty of stupid things in his life.
This may not even crack the top 3.
Buck is having a bad morning to say the least.
- He missed his alarm
- Eddie took an alarming 20 minutes in the shower leaving Buck with barely lukewarm water
- He couldn’t carpool with Eddie because he was making them late and Chris needed to be dropped off to school
- He couldn’t seem to find a single shirt to wear
This led him to opening Eddie’s shirt drawer to find something. Eddie’s clothes are always too small, but he knows for a fact there’s at least a sweatshirt or two in here that are his.
Then his morning took a turn. Placed carefully under two piles of t-shirts in the corner of the drawer.
A black velvet box.
Buck stares it down for a solid 3 minutes. He should’ve been out of the house by now, in the car and on his way to work, but he is frozen.
On one hand, it could be anything. On the other hand, Buck needed to just confirm what it is, just in case his suspicions were correct.
So, he picks it up gently as ever and cautiously, opening it to reveal a thin silver band.
A wedding ring.
Eddie is going to propose.
His breath catches in his throat as Buck’s legs basically give out he falls back onto the bed. He should be jumping with joy. This is everything he’s ever wanted. Buck knew the first time Eddie kissed him under the warm kitchen lighting, with the buzz of the refrigerator, that this was it.
Eddie is it for him.
And as great as it is to know Eddie feels the same way… Buck feels angry.
Buck also happens to have an almost identical black velvet box stashed away under the too-wobbly floorboard in the living room. A thin silver band he wants to put on Eddie’s ring finger.
He needs to be the one to propose.
Eddie was the one who kissed him first and then managed to say “I love you” first within the next 30 seconds. Eddie was also the first to ask Buck to fully move in.
So yeah, Buck needs to do this before Eddie. He’s fully capable of making the first move. He has always been the romantic one in relationships. The one who jumps in headfirst from cooking a candlelit dinner to planning an elaborate hot air balloon date.
He grabs the box. Carefully places it next to the one he’s bought under the floorboard and shows up to work 15 minutes late.
-
Buck has a plan to propose. Well, he has the concept of a plan. The essence of a plan.
Okay, he doesn’t really have a plan.
It’s driving him insane.
Eddie is just so special, and he needs this to be so perfect. Buck needs this proposal to be a visual manifestation of how much he is in love with Eddie.
Somehow, as friends, Buck was better at grand gestures; now his grand gestures include driving Eddie around and agreeing to buy the beer Eddie prefers. He can’t do a dinner proposal or candlelit walkway to a bunch of flowers; he needs to make up for all his failures in the relationship.
So, he’s waiting until the idea comes to him. He bought the ring a solid three weeks ago when they responded to a call at a jewellery store, and Eddie was very clearly eyeing up engagement rings. Buck now understands Eddie must’ve had the same thought process. He’s also scrolled the deep depths of Pinterest, watched a whole host of proposal videos on YouTube and read a solid three articles on the best way to propose.
An idea will come soon, and Eddie can’t beat him to it this time.
-
Three days later, still at a loss for ideas, Buck walks into their bedroom and finds a giant pile of clothes on the ground, and all the dressers are empty, with Eddie combing his hands through his hair aggressively.
Buck takes in the scene, staying quiet. Eddie has also dumped out the contents of their nightstands and checked the whole bed as the pillows are haphazardly thrown around the floor.
“Buck!” he jumps at the sight, out of breath and now shoving everything back into the drawers. “I thought you went grocery shopping?”
“Hi, I did.” Buck pauses: he can physically feel the time he has to make a good plan slipping away from him. “What are you doing?”
“Just reorganising.” Eddie lies.
It’s not even a good lie. “None of those shirts are folded,” he gestures to the dresser which is now overflowing with the shirts Eddie is throwing in there.
Eddie looks so lost, and he’s frowning, and Buck feels evil because he sort of caused this.
It’s for the better, Buck reminds himself. He will propose soon anyways.
“C’mon let me show how Marie Condo says we should fold our clothes.” Buck sits down on the very small patch of floor that is still visible and begins folding.
“Sorry for the mess.” Eddie sighs, gesturing around him.
“It’s okay, we had way too many clothes anyway, we need a little declutter.”
“You have too many clothes.” He corrects, throwing a very worn t-shirt Buck’s way, one from when he first moved to LA. “This is like two sizes too small; it won’t even fit you.”
They manage to donate 2 large bags to Goodwill, and the two of them stay ringless. A win if Buck would say so.
-
Buck has severely miscalculated how much Eddie loves him.
A lost ring clearly is not enough to stop Eddie from proposing.
“I got us a table at that fancy French restaurant you’ve been meaning to go to,” Eddie mentions offhandedly at the end of a 24-hour shift. “7 pm Tonight.”
“The one at the Grove?” Shit. That restaurant is fancy with a capital F. “How did you get a booking? The waitlist is like 4 months long.”
“I have a way with words”, Eddie answers like it’s the simplest thing in the world, closing his locker. “The lady on the phone was very easy to persuade.”
Sure, the restaurant is 2 Michelin stars, fancier than a typical BuckandEddie date, but that doesn’t have to mean Eddie is proposing or anything. “I didn’t forget a special occasion or anything?” Buck asks, just to fully clarify.
“Nope, just wanted to take you somewhere nice.” And with that, Eddie gives a tight-lipped smile as he pats Buck’s shoulder and leaves the locker room. “Meet me in the car.”
Yeah, he’s proposing. Ring or not. Buck really wants to go to this restaurant, but he needs to prioritise his proposal to Eddie first. He needs to put his acting skills from when he used to pretend to be sick to miss school 20 years ago back into use.
STEP ONE: Laying the foundations
“Man, that shift was brutal I think I can nap for at least 10 hours after that.” Is the first thing Buck mentions as they walk into the house.
Eddie raises an eyebrow, rightfully so because the shift was actually very tame, a small kitchen fire, a baby stuck in a car and two medical calls where the most he had to do was get the gurney out. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Buck yawns, overdramatically, “Maybe I caught something, I just feel so tired.”
“Alright, cmon then, let’s get you to bed so you can heal up before tonight.” Eddie slowly pushes Buck through the hallway and into the bed, “I’ll get you some medicine.”
Shit. Buck quickly grabs Eddie’s wrist, “No, no, just- just cuddle with me?”
Eddie rolls his eyes fondly, “Of course.”
STEP TWO: Establishing the sickness
Honestly, Buck even forgets he was on a whole mission because he was genuinely out like a light the second Eddie wrapped his arms around him.
When he wakes, he hears the kitchen tap running and knows he really needs to solidify his sickness. Buck runs into the bathroom, grabs the thermometer out of the drawer and runs it under hot water. Then, just to really seal the deal, he uses the hairdryer on his face until he feels warm to the touch.
“Eddie.” Fake cough, “Eddie- I think I’m sick.” Buck complains, walking into the kitchen, rubbing his head as he shows the thermometer to Eddie, 100 degrees flashing on the device.
“Oh god.” Eddie frowns, his hand immediately going to feel Buck’s forehead like Buck suspected, “yeah you’re burning up pretty bad bud.”
“I took some of that Advil in the bathroom cabinet.”
“Good, that’s good.” Eddie nods, grabbing a glass of water, “drink some of this, maybe we can flush it out of your system before it gets too bad.”
STEP THREE: Finalise
Buck has spent the last hour on the couch, slowly shivering and coughing every time he feels Eddie’s eyes on him. “How did you get so sick so fast?” Eddie questions, sitting down on the couch and motioning for Buck to lay his head on Eddie’s lap.
Buck shrugs, now performing a fake sneeze, “M’sorry.” He’s not sorry at all, “I know you wanted to go on a date tonight.”
“Yeah.” Eddie’s hands find Buck’s curls, slowly soothing them, “It’s okay though, we can always go another time, when you’re better.”
“I love you.”
Eddie places a soft kiss on Buck’s birthmark, “I love you too.”
-
Following Buck’s fake sickness and scientifically impressive speedy recovery, he is on edge…all the time.
He has yet to have magically come up with the world’s most romantic proposal, so far, he’s got a notes app filled with drafts for the speech he is going to give while on one knee, so that’s some progress.
It happens when Buck least expects it. He’s driving them home from after a shift and Eddie seems more antsy than normal, “shit I think I left my phone in the firehouse.” He complains, throwing his head back for dramatic effect as he groans.
“Oh.” Buck looks around the centre console where Eddie normally keeps his phone and it is indeed missing. “I’ll turn around, we’re not too far.”
Eddie jumps out of the car the second Buck pulls up to the firehouse, “can you help me find it?”
Weird. “Do you want me to call it or something?”
“No, just- come in and help me look around- it’ll be faster.” And then Eddie…runs in.
“Okay.” Buck puts the car into park and gets out. Eddie is nowhere to be seen, the firehouse is also empty, B-shift must be out on call.
And that’s when he sees it.
A trail of fucking flower petals making a path that leads to Eddie. It’s beautiful and Buck thinks his heart has grown three times in size just seeing it.
But he freezes, wide-eyed, his hands trembling, there’s nothing to hold on to. Eddie is still several feet away.
“I thought it would only be right to ask you in the place it first started—” Eddie’s voice projects through the firehouse, “8 years ago, I was assigned as your partner.”
“Eddie—”
“I think neither of us fully knew ourselves. I mean it you took a minute to warm up to me- but hell did you warm up to me.” He smiles, and it’s so inviting, “no one has ever been so kind to me, not like you, the way you love, with your whole heart—”
This is the stupidest thing Buck has ever done.
Number on the list. Big bold letters, He’s never going to top this level of stupidity.
He bolts.
Dashes out of the firehouse, not into the car but just out into the street. Technically, Eddie hadn’t proposed yet. Technically, there’s still time.
Buck thinks he hears a faint, exasperated “Buck!” from Eddie, but he’s run too far to know if that’s just his hallucination.
It takes him over an hour to run home. LA is not a very walkable city, and his phone was still in the car, so he couldn’t even get an Uber.
Buck walks into their house, sweaty and probably bright red from both exhaustion and embarrassment.
Eddie rises from his seat on the couch but stays silent.
“Look Eddie I can explain,” Buck starts.
“Do you just not want to marry me?” He cuts Buck off, and he sounds so hurt, his voice wavering. “B-because I thought we were it for each other.”
“We are!”
“Stop faking being sick or running away from it. I can take it.”
“Wait, you knew I was faking being sick?”
“I have a kid, do you know how many times Chris has pulled that exact sequence of events to get out of school?” He sighs, rubbing his forehead. “I didn’t get why you were doing it but clearly there must’ve been a reason, and today you have made it abundantly clear, you don’t want to marry me, but you didn’t have the guts just to tell me—”
Buck needs to fix this; he let this all get to his head, and now he’s done the worst thing: make Eddie upset. “Check under the squishy floorboard.”
“What?”
“Check under the squishy floorboard. The one that always makes noise when you walk over it.” He repeats.
Eddie looks confused, like Buck has a concussion, but still, he complies, walking over to the side of the living room and pushing the loose piece of plank and kneeling to pick up one of the ring boxes. “Wait, you stole the ring from my shirt drawer?” He sounds exasperated, “I spent so long looking for it, what the fuck man?”
“There are two rings,” Buck adds.
Eddie picks the other box up and inspects it closely, “This isn’t the one I bought you.”
“I bought it. Three weeks ago.” He goes over and grabs the box from Eddie, toying with it in his hands, “I have been trying to put into words how- how much I love you.” Eddie’s eyes finally meet Buck’s and they’re all puffy and red – fuck, Buck is the worst boyfriend in the world, “I have this fear that one day you’ll realise how boring I am and that I’m not worth all the baggage—”
“Buck I would never—”
“Let me finish. I just – I’ve been lacking, okay? Ever since we got together, I haven’t been giving you these romantic grand gestures or being the one to initiate huge relationship milestones; I’ve been passive. And recently, I have been the worst person in the world, avoiding you.”
“You don’t need to make grand gestures for me to know how much you love me,” Eddie responds, his voice deep and sincere as he walks closer to Buck.
“I wanted to do something special for our proposal, but I couldn’t- I couldn’t put it into one big gesture because none of it seemed enough for you. With every beat of my heart, I love you more and more, but I don’t know how to show it.”
Buck sighs before speaking again, “when we were just friends, I had accepted that I was just meant to be alone – every relationship was just another scar. I failed them all by saying the wrong thing or jumping in too fast but Eddie, you showed me a love I didn’t know someone was capable of having for me.” Buck gives a weak smile, “we have seen the best and worst of each other, survived death, grief, 800 miles between us before we even got together, we’re indestructible but still, the way you love me, I’m not sure I always deserve it.”
“You deserve it.” Eddie reaches over to hold Buck’s hand, and that’s when Buck realises how badly he is shaking.
“I don’t need a fancy proposal, I just want you” His voice is low, barely above a whisper. “I have felt exactly how you are feeling. It took me a long time to accept that I deserve this life. The life I have built with you, the love you give me and Chris. I didn’t think someone could care for me like that, but you do. As mad as I am that you ran away from my perfect proposal at the firehouse and made me completely lose my very planned-out speech,” Eddie chuckles, “I love you for it.” Slowly, Eddie pops open the ring box in his hand and turns it to face Buck. “And you deserve every bit of that love.”
Buck nods, following suit by opening the ring box in his hand and turning it towards Eddie. An air of understanding between them.
“Yes,” they both say at the same time.