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“Do you think we should get cinnamon rolls?” Buck asks.
Buck and Eddie are in the grocery store, slowly working their way through the isles and the checklist. More specifically, Buck’s checklist. Despite the energy, he's not holding a clipboard, but the fond feeling in Eddie's chest is close enough.
“We run chronically late in the mornings, Buck,” Eddie reminds him, fond smile on his face. “When would we possibly have the time for cinnamon rolls?”
“Not for the morning,” Buck responds, wagging his finger. “For a little after school treat.”
“After school treat?” Eddie asks, crinkling his eyebrows. “Buck, it's breakfast food.”
“We eat cinnamon rolls for dinner when I make breakfast casserole,” Buck argues, looking at the shelves and inspecting the cans of cinnamon rolls. “You don’t complain then.”
“Yeah, well that’s Breakfast for supper,” Eddie waves him off. “It’s supposed to be subversive.”
“Subversive?” Buck scoffs, and Eddie's lips twitch with a smile.
“Evan?” A voice comes from behind Eddie, and Eddie feels a wave of annoyance roll over him. Buck locks eyes with someone over Eddie's shoulder, and Eddie slowly turns to see Tommy.
Buck shuffles a bit on his feet. “O-oh, Hey Tommy.”
Ugh. Eddie hates this guy. Okay, Hate is a strong word, but Eddie feels a deep loathing towards this man. Especially near buck, for some reason.
“Wow, It’s crazy that we ran into each other,” Tommy chuckles, and Eddie feels his eye twitch.
It certainly is crazy, considering that he lives an hour in the wrong direction. What a crazy coincidence, that Tommy would go an hour out of his way, on Sunday, the day buck prefers to do grocery shopping. What a coincidence.
Tommy made fun of the fact that buck liked to go grocery shopping on Sundays, when they were dating. Buck has set up his life in a certain way; he has routines, and Tommy used to ‘poke fun’. Eddie doesn’t understand that, because if Buck was his boyfriend, he’d appreciate everything Buck does to be productive.
Not that buck is his boyfriend.
“Sure. How have you been?” Buck asks, slightly strained.
Tommy rubs the back of his neck. “Good, Good. You?”
“I’m good,” Buck responds curtly.
“Can I…” Tommy spares a glance at Eddie, and Eddie feels some emotion flash-over hot in his chest. How dare he. “Can I speak to you?” He asks Buck.
“Well you are, aren’t you?” Buck says, annoyance lacing through his voice. Eddie fights the urge to grin at that tone towards tommy fucking kinnard.
“No, I mean-” He glances back at Eddie, and Eddie sassily raises one eyebrow. Some part of him, some ugly part of him, enjoys seeing Tommy squirm like this. Good, let him squirm, Eddie thinks. He treated Buck like crap, he should feel uncomfortable around Eddie. “-Whatever.” Tommy finishes lamely. “Look…”
“Can you not?” Buck says, and Eddie is instantly considering ways to get them out of this situation. Buck is starting to look uncomfortable, and Eddie can’t have that.
“No, Evan, you need to hear this. And I need to say this.” Tommy says, taking a step forward towards Buck, and Eddie finds himself taking a step forward also. Buck catches the movement, and Eddie knows he does because the corners of Buck’s mouth twitch up.
“It’s Buck,” Eddie says, breaking eye contact with Buck to look towards Tommy. “Anyone who knows him, knows that he prefers Buck.” I know him better than you ever will.
Tommy flashes Eddie another loaded look, this time looking like he’s going to punch Eddie. Eddie almost wishes he could try, and his palms start to itch for a good fight, the way they always did right before he spent a night in a fenced-off ring. It’s heady, feeling this way, and Eddie knows he probably shouldn’t indulge, but Eddie doesn’t want to stop.
“Look,” Tommy turns back to Buck. “I over-reacted, the last time we talked, and you know- I know we both said some things the last time we saw each other, but I can forgive you, and if you could forgive me, I know- I know we could make a great life together.”
Buck stills, and Eddie can feel the anger radiating off of him like heat off a grill on a blistering summer day. “Forgive me? You forgive me?”
“Buck-” Eddie says, ready to step in and maybe stop Buck from throwing a punch. Tommy turns on him once more.
“Can you fucking butt out, man?” Tommy barks, Rounding on Eddie and bearing his canines.
Eddie opens his mouth to rebuttal- Probably to threaten him, honestly- But buck beats him to it. “No!” He snaps, and both Eddie and Tommy turn to him. “Why would he need to butt out anyways?” Buck fumes. “He’s your competition, right?”
“What?” Eddie finds himself asking, But now that buck is on a roll he’s not stopping.
“I may have hurt your feelings when I said that I felt nothing after sleeping with you, but I don't want or need your forgiveness, Tommy,” Buck Seethes. “And I have a great life that I've already built. With Eddie, and without you.”
Tommy’s face twists in anger and jealousy. He takes one step backwards, then another one. “Okay.” He mutters. “Okay.” And then he turns briskly and leaves.
Eddie takes a breath, looking at the sticky floor of the grocery store. What a loaded and weird conversation.
He chose me, Eddie thinks, and he fights a smile from slipping onto his face. He’s winning a competition he didn’t even know he was in the running for (with Tommy Kinnard, of all people), and it feels good. I’ve built a life with Eddie, Buck just said. Eddie finds Buck's face, and a thrill runs down his spine as he sees that Buck is already looking at him.
They both look at each other, blank faced and wide-eyed as the absurdity of the situation blankets over them. Buck’s mouth twitches upward, and Eddie finds himself breaking out into a grin. Buck follows him, grinning and laughing like a little kid.
Eddie leans up against their shopping cart. “What’s next on the list?” He grins.
-x-
“Okay, there’s one thing I don’t get,” Eddie says, throwing a hand over the back of the couch.
“What’s that?” Buck yells. He’d gone into the kitchen to get them both another beer, even though they were both pretty wasted and probably didn’t need another.
Eddie waits until Buck comes to sit beside him again, popping the tabs off of their respective drinks. “It’s something you said to Tommy Kinard."
Buck groans, throwing one elbow over his face. “Don’t bring him up.”
“You said I was competition,” Eddie throws out there, with a little laugh and a shrug, Buck stiffens, and Eddie shifts on the couch to see his face. “Whats that about?”
Buck shuffles on the couch uncomfortably, rolling his beer in between his palms. “Um…” he shuffles again, sitting forwards. “When you left for Texas, we had a…” Buck looks up at the ceiling, blushing a little. “One last hurrah, I guess.”
Eddie raises an eyebrow. “...one last hurrah?” he repeats, some humor in his voice.
“We slept together,” Buck spits out. Eddie gives him a look, one that says, really buck? “Whatever, man,” Buck responds. “I was drunk, we ran into each other and I was lonely, it was one night. I gave in, and brought him back- back here.”
“Right,” Eddie nods. “And that makes me competition… how?”
“I’m getting there,” Buck huffs. “The next morning, he said that we could try being a couple again because ‘the competition’- you- was out of town.” Buck finally meets Eddie’s eyes. “I told him that you are straight, and that I didn't have feelings for him just because I slept with him, and that-” Buck stops short, stopping himself from saying something. Eddie waits, but Buck seems like he’s done.
“Wow,” Eddie responds. “So you were just throwing his words back in his face today.”
Buck pauses again, squirming on his space on the couch. “Yep,” he sqeaks. “I mean, it’s not like you’re in the running for ‘romantic partner’. Tommy isn’t either, not anymore, but even if he was it wouldn’t be a real choice for me because y-you’re not-”
“Into men?” Eddie cuts him off.
Buck practically melts in relief. “Yes,” he says. “He was just being- I don’t know, jealous, I guess.”
“But what if I was into you?” Eddie asks, something dangerous lurking in the shadows of his mind. Careful, he thinks, but his pulse is thrumming with too much hope to listen. “Would I be in the running then?” he teases, voice low and flirty.
Buck blushes, quiet for a moment. “But you’re not though,” he says, nervous. Eddie tries not to think about how smug he feels about making Buck nervous. “You’re not into me.”
“How do you know that?” Eddie asks, and Buck shakes his head back and forth.
“Eddie,” Buck warns. “Don’t joke like that. I can’t- I can't take that.”
Eddie feels his heart turn to mush. “Baby,” Eddie stresses. “I’m not joking.” Eddie sets his beer down on the coffee table in front of them. He scoots a little closer to buck, who is opening and closing his mouth rapidly.
“You don’t mean that,” Buck denies, leaning away from Eddie a little when Eddie leans into his space. Cute, Eddie thinks.
“Yes, I do,” Eddie tells him, plucking Buck’s beer from him and setting it next to his own. “Can’t you see? Anybody would want you, me included.” It’s easy to say these things right now, when the alcohol’s got him brave. Hell, he’s still high from the comparison Buck made earlier that day.
I made a life, He’d said. With Eddie.
“I want you,” Eddie says. “Come on, Buck, you can’t have been this oblivious.”
“I-” Buck opens his mouth again, gaping at Eddie in surprise. “You can’t be serious.”
“What if I am?” Eddie challenges, watching Buck’s blush climb higher, and higher, and higher. “Can you just consider for one second that it’s true?”
Buck opens his mouth, closing it, then opening it again, like a fish, gaping at Eddie. Eddie hesitates, for just a single second, before he crosses a line that can’t be uncrossed.
“I mean, why don’t you consider that I want to build a real life with you, hmm?” Eddie hums, ducking his head and leaning closer to Buck. “We’ll get wedding rings and everything.”
“Eddie,” Buck groans, something like longing lurking in his voice.
“What do you want, Buck?” Eddie teases, and Buck's birthmark is quickly approaching red rather than its normal pink. “Come on, baby, use your words.”
“I want…” Buck pauses, licking his lips. “I want that, but right now, I kind of just want you to kiss me.”
“Thank god,” Eddie groans, before grabbing the back of Buck’s neck and pressing their faces together.
Immediately, Buck’s hands fly up to Eddie’s shirt, grabbing possessively and pulling, like he’s afraid Eddie is going to pull away from him. Eddie’s not much better, one of his hands still on Buck’s neck and one on his opposite shoulder. They kiss fast, desperately, like they are drowning, gasping for air. Both of them are drunk, and a little sloppy, and Eddie can’t find it in himself to care.
Buck breaks away, but doesn’t move far, his nose still pressing into Eddie's face, speaking directly into his mouth. “Let’s go to bed,” Buck begs, and all of the blood in Eddie's veins lights on fire. “Please, Eddie, come on…”
They cling to each other as they walk, barely separating, sometimes stopping to kiss messily against the walls of their home. Eddie giggles as his back hits another wall, clumsy and too hard. He’s going to bruise. He doesn’t care.
In the morning, they’re going to start their new life. In the morning, Eddie will pettily block Tommy’s number on Buck’s phone. In the morning, they’ll be late, like always- but this time, it will be because they can’t stop kissing long enough to get out of bed.
Tonight, all of that flies out of Eddie’s head as they crumple up the sheets.