Archive of Our Own

Yes, Eddie Diaz was a man who loved his daily routine - it kept him grounded and made him feel secure. So, what happens when a man who uses the same shampoo everyday wakes up one morning to find a completely different bottle of shampoo in his bathroom? Naturally, he ends up in the confession booth at a Catholic Church having a full blown sexuality crisis.

Ok, now let’s go back a few days and explain.

4 DAYS EARLIER

Eddie was woken by the blinding morning light of the Los Angeles sky, piercing through his curtains and beating his alarm to the punch. It was a beautiful late-August morning, the sound of birdsong filled the air as the residents of L.A. slowly began to wake up and filter out to start their engines. Eddie takes a moment to lie in his bed, sheets tossed to one side, white vest and grey shorts clinging to his body. He soaks up the peaceful sound of the natural world around him before it’s lost to the noise of his neighbours.

He hears heavy, thudding footsteps from outside his bedroom door and turns his head in that direction, smiling to himself. Listening out for Buck’s heavy footed movements across the Diaz house had become a regular staple of Eddie’s morning routine these days, ever since he moved back from Texas and Buck… just never moved out and took up permanent residence on his couch. Eddie thinks he could probably trace Buck’s exact path through the house just by the sounds of his footsteps - down to the creaky floorboard he knows Buck likes to avoid stepping on. 

Eventually, Eddie hears the buzz of his alarm and that’s his cue to hop up out of bed and make his way to the kitchen. When he gets there, he sees Buck’s broad shoulders hunched over the kitchen counter top - already getting started on pancakes. Oversized grey t shirt hanging off Buck’s shoulders, curls ruffled and out of place, a pair of baggy grey sweatpants running down his legs. He looks so.. carefree, Eddie thinks quietly to himself.

“Cereal’s on the kitchen table” Buck called back from over his shoulder, without looking.

Eddie directs his head towards the table, and sure enough there sits a white ceramic bowl, slightly chipped, filled to the brim with Cheerios. Eddie’s stomach flutters, slightly. Probably just hungry, he lies to himself silently. 

“Thanks, Buck” Eddie mumbles, rubbing his eyes as he sits down and grabs the spoon laid down next to the bowl. 

“Don’t mention it, I’ll drive today if you want?” Buck says, eyes still trained on the pancakes. Chris’s favorite, Eddie thinks to himself. 

“You sure?” Eddie mumbled through mouthfuls of cereal.

“Yeah, I don’t mind!” Buck said cheerfully, flipping the pancakes extravagantly. Show off.

“Cool, I’m gonna start getting ready, you mind checking in on Chris for me? Make sure he’s not overslept again?” Eddie said, shovelling down the last of his breakfast.

“Way ahead of you, what do you think the pancakes are for? The smell alone will have the kid floating out here like a real life Disney character” Buck said, throwing his head back over his shoulder and giving Eddie a knowing wink. 

Eddie rolls his eyes but nevertheless flashes a smile at Buck before moving towards the sink, before his hand is swatted away by a stray spatula. 

“Leave the dishes for me” Buck said sternly, waving the spatula in Eddie’s face dramatically.

“Don’t have to tell me twice” Eddie said, throwing both hands up in mock surrender, before side stepping Buck and making his way back to his room. 25 push ups, 25 sit ups, shave, shower, dressed. Just like usual.

Eddie goes through the motions of his morning work out, trying to keep his mind focused. He eventually moves to the bathroom to work through the next stages of his internal morning checklist, shaving over the sink, slowly undressing and hanging up his towel before pulling the shower curtain back.

Huh. That’s weird.

Eddie looks down, back up, blinks twice and then looks down again. His shampoo is gone. Where he was expecting to see a dark brown bottle filled with sandalwood scented shampoo, he instead sees a bottle filled to the brim with a bright pink colored liquid. He furrows his brow in confusion, and immediately puts his clothes back on.

“Buck?” Eddie calls, as he walks back towards the kitchen. 

“Morning, Dad” a sleepy Chris grumbled from the kitchen table, speaking between bites of pancakes. Eddie waves in response, still too focused on the shampoo to really talk about anything else right now. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” Buck replied, as he stood over the sink, scrubbing the dishes. 

“My shampoo” Eddie said flatly

“What about it?” Buck queried, still scrubbing the dishes.

“It’s gone” Eddie said, from the middle of the kitchen. 

“That’s weird, I only replaced it last night” Buck said casually, still scrubbing away at the dishes. 

“What do you mean, replaced it?” Eddie asked slowly, eyes narrowing.

“You were running low so I picked up some new shampoo last night on my way home. Yeah, I went to that fancy new place a couple blocks away. You kept glancing at it from the window every time we drove past it” Buck said, before finally turning around to face Eddie.

“Why does your face look like that?” Buck said, cocking his head in confusion. 

Eddie’s eyes narrowed further. 

“That’s not my shampoo” Eddie said, extending his arm outward and pointing back towards the bathroom. What isn’t Buck getting here? That’s not my shampoo.

Buck laughed for a brief moment, before his smile began to falter as he studied Eddie’s expression closely. 

“Dude, it’s just shampoo, it all works the same” Buck said casually. “Plus, the stuff you use is super harsh on the scalp, you could benefit from being a little more gentle on yourself, give it a try Eddie” Buck said, shrugging his shoulders. 

“But… my shampoo…” Eddie said meekly, lowering his arm slowly.

“Eddie, there’s a queue forming for the bathroom here, we don’t have time to argue about shampoo. I promise nothing bad is going to happen, would you just go and shower? It’s raspberry and grapefruit scented, you might like it” Buck said, rolling his eyes and turning his back on Eddie to once more scrub away at the dishes.

“You’re so weird, Dad” Chris grumbles, earning a small chuckle from Buck. 

Eddie huffs and rolls his eyes before sulking back to the bathroom. He pulls the shower curtain back one more and glares at the shampoo bottle in front of him. The label is covered in a garish floral print, the shape of the bottle much sleeker and slimmer than the sturdy and reliable bottle he’s used to seeing. Eddie isn’t sure what he’s feeling right now, but staring down at the bright pink shampoo he knows he feels… something. He takes a deep breath and steels himself before turning the water on. 

So, here’s the thing, Buck was technically right. Nothing bad happened, Eddie washed and styled his hair as normal, gelled and combed neatly into place and… nobody died. Eddie did, however, feel completely different and he’s not sure why. It’s like he’s wearing somebody else’s skin, this is not the Eddie Diaz he is used to. Eddie Diaz doesn’t smell like raspberries and grapefruit. He dwells on it throughout the entire car journey, waving Chris off as he watches him walk up to the school entrance. He dwells on it when he returns to the passenger seat, Buck driving them both to the station. There’s an old school classic rock song blaring through the car radio, Buck was singing along loudly and out of tune and all Eddie could do was sit and pout in silence. 

“Are you seriously still mad at me?” Buck said, as they both walked up to the loft area of the firehouse.

“Why are you mad at Buck?” Hen quizzed, almost immediately, as she walked right up to the pair of them. 

“I’m not ‘mad’ at Buck” Eddie huffed, rolling his eyes.

“He’s mad because I threw out his old shampoo and apparently didn’t buy the ‘correct’ one” Buck said, jumping on to the couch and stretching his whole body across it, arms behind his head as he shot a pointed look in Eddie’s direction. 

“I’m not mad, Buck. It’s just.. that’s not the shampoo I normally use” Eddie said, trying his best not to sound mad about it. 

“I don’t get it, what’s the big deal? It’s just shampoo” Hen said.

“Exactly!” Buck said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. 

“Yeah, but.. I always use the same shampoo. Every day. It was just a surprise, that’s all” Eddie said, walking up to Buck and pushing his legs out of the way to make room to sit. Buck complies and then immediately drops his legs over Eddie’s knees once he’s sat down.

Chimney walks past at that, eyebrows raised as he listens to the conversation unfold between the three of them.

“Y’know, when we first got together, Maddie made me change my shampoo too” Chimney said, casually, as he goes to take a seat next to Hen.

Eddie looks up to catch an exchange of glances between Chimney and Hen, only brief but noticeable nonetheless. Eddie has no idea what that is about, and he decides he doesn’t want to know. 

“Us Buckleys have a taste for the finer things in life, what can I say. We like to live in comfort” Buck said, legs still pinning Eddie down onto the couch. 

“To be fair, I definitely made Karen switch to a different brand of fabric softener when we first moved in together. The old stuff she used to use just made everything so scratchy” Hen said, once again exchanging a knowing glance with Chimney. 

Eddie narrows his eyes as he watches the two of them… he feels like they’re both trying to make a point here, he’s just not sure what. 

“Well, I liked my old shampoo” Eddie muttered under his breath. 

“I told you, this stuff is gentler on the scalp” Buck said, adjusting his legs slightly to playfully kick at Eddie. He laughs and pushes Buck’s feet away, once again looking up to catch another exchange of glances between Chimney and Hen. Okay, they’re definitely having some kind of telepathic conversation right now.

The rest of the day passed by without any major damage, the 118 were only called out to a few minor emergencies and were mostly on clean up duty. The hours started to drag as the shift stretched out, Tia Pepa had agreed to pick Chris up from school and take him back home, so Buck and Eddie were able to drive straight home from the station once they were finally off the clock. 

Eddie unlocked the front door and went straight to the bathroom, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His hair was still firmly gelled in place, not a single strand loose, rigid and structured just the way he’s used to. He stares at his reflection a little while longer, before his eyes flick back towards where the shampoo bottle is located. It really was gentler on the scalp, he thought to himself. 

Eddie isn’t sure why a bottle of shampoo, of all things, seemed to bother him so much, but there was a little tiny muffled voice in the back of his mind trying to communicate with him - he just wasn’t sure what that voice was trying to say. He decides that he doesn’t want to have that conversation with himself today, so instead he finishes up in the bathroom before going to join Buck on the living room couch. 

Once again, Eddie found himself pinned down on the couch by Buck’s legs, as they both sat in comfortable silence watching a nature documentary on the television. Buck was completely engrossed, eyes transfixed on the screen. Eddie, however, kept stealing glances at Buck. He found his eyes wandering towards Buck’s hair, where he noticed that his curls were still ruffled, hair sticking up in every which way. He didn’t seem bothered by it, in fact he seemed at peace with it. Subconsciously, Eddie found himself reaching up to scratch at his own hair as he kept glancing at Buck from the corner of his eye. 

Stupid raspberry and grapefruit shampoo, he thinks to himself.