Work Text:
In Eddie’s defense, he was a little tipsy. Maybe even a bit more than he realised. He’d been one of the first up on the mechanical bull when the suggestion went out and afterwards, as he’d sat with the rotating group of new firefighter friends, it had been too easy to keep drinking the beers that seemed to just keep coming. It wasn’t until he slid off his stool and did an slightly ungainly stumble that he realised he maybe should have stopped a few beers back.
It was late now though, most of them had cleared out or were making moves to leave and, just for a change, some blonde woman had come up to hit on Buck. Eddie’s choices, as he saw them, were to stake a claim on his best friend that he wasn’t sure he had a right to, make a move on Buck himself, which was almost guaranteed to go badly, glare at the woman until she maybe got the hint, or just leave Buck to his night. If anyone asked, it was an easy choice but even as he stood by his stool, fixing his hat, he was tempted to just stay - she was the one invading their celebration after all - but then Buck was ducking his head, that stupidly endearing hat catching the light, and Eddie got the hint.
“Night, Buck,” he mumbled, waving in his general direction, but Buck was already smiling at the blonde woman sidling up beside him, vaguely throwing back a good night in return.
Of course some woman would come up to hit on Buck. Why wouldn’t she? Buck was a catch on a normal day and he’d been here tonight with his confidence sky high and an obnoxiously sparkly hat on his hat, all while possessing thick thighs that could hang on for eight seconds of mechanical bucking. Who wouldn’t want him?
The hotel wasn’t far from the bar - the shorter firefighter said he had chosen it for them for that reason - but it seemed like it was further away than Eddie remembered. Or maybe that was his fuzzy brain. He was going the right way, right? Eddie paused in his meander to look around, turning to search for a landmark he might remember, and almost collided with someone in front of him.
“Careful there, Eddie,” came a laughing voice, strong hands steadying him and he turned back to find Roxie looking at him with some concern around her grin. “You okay?”
“Mm, looking for the hotel?” he asked, although it wasn’t actually a question.
Besides, he was now focusing on the important task of straightening his hat again so that it sat just right. He wasn’t generally a hat person but he was enjoying this one. The hats had been Buck's idea originally and truth be told, he hadn't been that into it but, as per usual, Eddie found himself going along with Buck's scheming and ended up having fun after all.
“Right over here, you’re going in the right direction. Let me walk you,” Roxie said easily, sliding her hand around his arm to keep him steady. “So, where’s Buck? I thought you two did everything together. Shouldn’t he be stumbling down the road with you?”
“Still at the bar,” Eddie admitted. “There was a woman who, well, you know.”
Eddie really hoped he didn’t sound as bitter to Roxie as he did to himself. The cold air was sobering him up a bit and he was well aware of how ridiculous he was being. Buck was an adult, he could do what or who he wanted. Eddie didn’t own him, didn’t have any say in who Buck chose to sleep with. Eddie knew all this very well, but now Roxie was frowning up at him, which wasn’t a good sign that he was coming across normal.
“Oh, you two aren’t a couple? Or…”
“No, we’re, um-“ Eddie began, sighed, shrugged. “No we’re not.”
‘Just friends’ didn’t seem enough. ‘Best friends’ seemed a bit too 13-year-old girl. ‘Family’ invited questions he wasn’t in the mood to answer. He was his… his Buck but no one understood that unless they knew them. Roxie seemed to get it enough though, nodding as she gently steered him into the hotel lobby.
“Yeah I’ve been there,” she said with a sad smile. “I’m sorry.”
Eddie wasn’t sure if he was tired after the games or just become a lightweight in his older age, but either way he could only shrug again.
“It’s… fine, whatever.”
“You should get up to your room and have some water,” Roxie said, pressing the elevator button for him and giving his arm a pat. “Text me when you two get home okay. It was really great meeting you.”
“You too,” he said, finding a smile for her. He really had enjoyed meeting her and she seemed like someone he could actually be friends with. “Wait, I don’t have your number.”
Eddie began patting down his pockets for his phone, finding it jammed into his back pocket and Roxie cocked her head at him, grinning.
“You insisted we be Facebook friends after I got off the bull and then I said how about we text and gave you my number,” she told him, leaning in to hold the elevator door for him.
“Oh, right.”
Eddie totally remembered doing that. Lightweight it was, apparently. He never used to be like that.
Roxie just laughed, waving as she turned to leave.
“Night, Eddie.”
“Night, Roxie.”
Once Eddie finally made it up to his room without getting lost, he shrugged off his jacket, emptied his pockets and kicked his shoes off. He grabbed a bottle of water from the minibar, drinking half as he stumbled into the bathroom. After a quick shower and teeth brushing, Eddie was already feeling a bit more normal and he wandered back into the room in his towel, still drinking his water, and flopped onto the bed with his phone.
He meant to text Chris but when Eddie opened the app, he saw the photo he’d sent Chris, of Eddie and Buck grinning at the camera, each with a hand clutching the trophy between them, and then he was tapping back to go into his texts with Buck. He’d sent Buck the same photo, having had it taken on his phone. Buck had felt the need to respond with a string of happy emojis, not that dissimilar to Chris’s reaction.
Eddie wasn’t sure what possessed him to open the photo, zooming in on Buck’s proud grin, one curl fallen loose on his forehead, his hand clasped tightly around one handle of the trophy as if someone might try and take it off him, and Eddie could only smile. His best friend might be weirdly competitive and downright infuriating at times but god, he loved him. And why wouldn’t he? Buck was easy to love, a fact that Buck's questionable exes didn’t seem to realise. None of them had deserved someone as warm and brave and smart and funny as Buck was, and that random blonde woman at the bar didn’t either. He wasn’t even sure why Buck had stayed, he said himself not long ago he wasn’t interested in that. A wave of irritation hit Eddie again and he closed the photo, tapping the message box and pausing for a second.
You deserve better than her, he typed. It was true and Buck deserved to be told it but Eddie still wrinkled his nose and held his finger down to delete it.
Remember we have an early flight, get back to your room! He typed slowly, heavily relying on spell check but, after making a face, Eddie deleted that too. No one liked a nagging best friend when you apparently wanted to get laid.
Eddie reached for his water again and took a slow, long drink before setting the empty bottle on the beside table and lifting his phone back up again. Fuck it. It wasn’t like he was going to actually send it.
I don’t want you to sleep with her, he typed. It was unreasonable and not remotely his business and he honestly wasn’t sure how Buck would take it. But whatever, he was just venting so he could get to sleep. Eddie sighed to himself again, feeling pathetic and lifted his thumb to again delete the message.
Instead, he watched, as if in slow motion, as his thumb slipped over the send button and he could only stare at his phone in horror as his message happily popped up, sent directly to Buck’s phone. He barely had time to be impressed at how coherent the message had been, considering his state, before the stabbing panic started up.
“Fuck fuck fuck,” he whispered, swiping madly as if to get rid of it. “Undo, undo!”
Whether by magic or maybe his phone heard him - more specifically than usual anyway - or maybe his thumb just hit the right thing but now there was a big beautiful Undo Send option available to him. Slamming it with his thumb, albeit carefully, he watched in relief as the unintended message disappeared from their chat before Buck could see it. The incriminating alert about an unsent message was there now but he was sure he could easily explain that away if Buck questioned it. After all, it's not like Buck hadn't sent the odd pocket text.
Eddie let out a deep breath, double checked it was gone, threw his phone on the bed, scrambled to pick it up to triple check, set his alarm and then carefully locked his phone before plugging it back in to charge. That done, he collapsed back on the mattress.
Between the games and now this, Eddie felt like he’d had more than enough adrenaline to last him at least a few days. Hen's party would be a nice change of pace, he was sure.