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I think he knows when we get all alone, I'll make myself at home, and he'll want me to stay.
I think he knows he better lock it down, or I won't stick around, ‘cause good ones never wait.
“I’m going to chew my own leg off.” Chimney whispered, and Hen turned to him with a cringe on her face. Her eyes dropped down to Chimney’s legs, splayed out in front of him as he wiggled further into the leather couch.
“Please don’t,” Hen said with disgust laced through her words. She sat back down on the couch, holding a bowl of popcorn she’d just made. Buck stole a few pieces with a smile. “I do not want to clean that up.”
“At least it would give us something to do.” Eddie murmured, crossing his arms as Buck threw pieces of popcorn at him from across the coffee table. He caught some of them in his fist and chewed, passing a nod of thanks to Buck.
“C’mon, guys, we’re firefighters. We should appreciate the downtime. Why don’t we play a game?” Buck suggested, shrugging his shoulders. They’d been sore lately… he couldn’t imagine why...
Chimney sat up a bit, clearly intrigued, and Eddie held up his hand for more popcorn. This time, when Buck tried to grab some, Hen hit him and gave him a look. Ravi sauntered into the room, his hair thrown around his face, his expression tired and grim.
“I can’t sleep.” He announced, dropping onto the couch beside Eddie. He looked up at Hen with doe eyes and she sighed, throwing him some popcorn. Eddie looked at the two of them like they were traitors. Probably because they were. Buck gave Ravi a glare, and swore to himself right then and there that he was never giving him the window seat anymore.
“Well good timing, we’re playing a game.” Hen begrudgingly threw Eddie and Buck more popcorn like they were birds, and they looked up at her with matching grins.
“What game?” Ravi asked, throwing his feet up on the coffee table just as Chimney answered. “Who knows Buck best.”
“Wait, what?” Eddie and Buck’s voices swirled together as their words fell into the room at the same time. They both looked over at each other with excited faces and Ravi mumbled something, dropping his face into his hands with a groan.
“That’s not fair.” Ravi said, lifting his face from between his fingers. "Eddie's gonna win.”
“Uhh, I think you’re forgetting who met him first.” Chimney rolled his eyes in Eddie’s direction. “Hen and I knew him for a whole extra year.”
“You’re going down.” Eddie whispered, sitting up and putting his elbows on his knees, leaning forward.
A few minutes later (without Buck’s consent) they all gathered around him, whiteboards in hand. They were supposed to be used to keep track of supplies, but Chimney had robbed the Captain’s office. Buck was sitting at the head of the circle, scrolling through the question sheet he’d pulled up on his phone.
“Alright, this is how it’s going to go. I’m gonna ask a question, we’ll all write our answers down on our whiteboards, and then turn them around. Those who are correct get a point and whoever has the most points by the end of the 15 questions gets a prize.” Buck smiled, and watched everyone ready themselves with their markers.
“What’s the prize?” Ravi asked, but Buck just ignored him and read out the first question.
“First question: Am I a light sleeper, or a heavy sleeper?”
Everyone began scribbling down their answers immediately, and without letting anyone else see, Buck wrote “light.” He figured it was a good one to start with, since they’d all seen him asleep. Boards turned around and everyone got a point.
“Alright, second question, a little harder. What sport did I play in middle school?”
Hen grumbled from the corner. “How is that a little harder?” but she wrote down something anyway. Buck wrote his answer and then glanced up to see Eddie watching him with a smirk. They had a whole conversation before the others glanced up.
“Ok, everyone ready?”
Nods flitted around the room, and Buck turned his board.
Football.
Hen was the only one wrong on that one. She rolled her eyes and sighed a big harumph, before she shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth and stared at Buck with a newfound determination. The next couple questions were pretty normal, Ravi missed one, Chimney missed one, but Eddie got every single one, leading the score by 2 points, with Chimney just behind.
“C’mon, Buckley, give us a hard one.” Chimney complained, throwing a glance at Eddie, who just smiled, confidence falling off him in waves. It made Buck’s body warm, but he ignored that.
“Fine, Han. How about this one: what is my biggest pet peeve?”
Hen snapped, picking up her marker and writing quickly. Eddie sat frozen for a long moment, staring down at his board without writing, and Chimney glanced over at him. “What? You don’t know, Diaz?”
Eddie bit down on his bottom lip, looking like he was really thinking, and then he cocked his head, staring at Buck with a glare so intense it could have burnt him. “Nope… not confused.” Then he wrote something, and Buck turned around his board.
The group broke into uproar. Ravi threw his board down, Hen almost spilled her popcorn, Chimney threw his dry-erase marker cap at Buck’s head, but through it all, Eddie just sat there with his leg propped up on his knee. Chimney’s eyes swiveled to stare at Eddie’s answer and he stood, pointing at it screaming.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!”
Buck just laughed, letting his head fall forward, his curls dipping onto his face ever so slightly. Eddie was still holding up his board with his answer written in quick cursive.
People saying “good boy” during sex.
“EDDIE-”
“Shh, Chimney, calm down. This is the last question, it’s for the gold.” Eddie ushered for Chimney to sit back down.
“THERE IS NO GOLD. YOU’RE WINNING BY LIKE 100 POINTS.” Ravi cried, throwing up his hands before he fell dramatically back in his chair.
“Second to last question,” Buck whispered, and everyone leaned forward. “What was my nickname in football?” He’d only ever told a handful of people, but all of them wrote something. Most of them were guesses, but Eddie and Chimney got it. Buck figured Maddie had squealed at some point.
“Harlot?” Ravi asked, frowning and looking at Buck with an extra helping of pity. “That’s… mean.”
Buck shrugged, slipping his phone into his pocket. “It was middle school.”
“You had your reputation even then?” Hen murmured, looking worried, but Buck just shook his head.
“Nah, everyone made it up. After a bit, I just stopped arguing that I was a virgin. Went on to prove them right, I guess.” He said it as nonchalantly as one would read the weather in the morning, but he caught Eddie’s eyes and noticed he had a sad glow on his face. “Anyway, last question, this is for the prize.”
“Which you still haven’t told us-”
“Ahem.” Buck started, cutting off Ravi in the middle of his sentence, and everyone leaned forward. “Socks on during sex, or off?”
Hen recoiled, Chimney gagged, and Ravi hit himself with his board in surprise. But Buck just sat there, as serious as he could be, and they all began writing. After a very dramatic countdown, Buck whispered, “one”, and they all turned around.
Three yes’s from Hen, Chimney, and Ravi and one no from Eddie. Well, two no’s, because Buck also had one. The group exploded into noise again, and Eddie just sat there, pleased with himself. Buck stood and gathered up everyone’s whiteboards, and had just sat back down to wash them off when Chimney leaned forward.
“Wait, Eddie, how do you know that one?”
Eddie froze, and Buck froze, and the room was silent as everyone connected the dots. Screaming ensued, and Buck just chuckled lightly to himself as everyone yelled questions at him. Eddie looked as smooth as a criminal, his smirk still on his face, and then he winked at Buck.
Ravi turned like he was remembering something, and his eyes pierced into Eddie. “...is that how you knew the “good boy” thing?”
Eddie just smiled, scrunched up his nose, and then he whispered, “I don’t fuck and tell.”
Buck thought he might go deaf from the response that got.
Got that, oh, I mean, wanna see what's under that attitude. Like, I want you, bless my soul, and I ain't gotta tell him.
I think he knows.
I think he knows.