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‘’And you’re sure you can take him for the day?’’ Buck asks for the tenth time, hovering on the doorstep of Eddie’s house, Theo’s backpack hanging from his pointer finger like it weights nothing – because it probably doesn’t.
His hair is wet and Eddie can see traces of product not properly washed out because Theo probably woke up way earlier than Buck anticipated and he had to cut his routine short. Now, he’s half wet half haphazardly dressed and seems like he’s in a desperate need of a huge cup of coffee.
Eddie snorts pushing a go to cup of freshly brewed coffee into Buck’s hand then takes the backpack on his pinky finger.
‘’Yes Buck, we’ll be fine,’’ he assures him fondly.
Buck takes a sip from the cup and Eddie can see the moment it warms him up as his shoulders drop a little. ‘’But, he’s … you know,’’ he points at Theo who is running around the coffee table making race car noises and is far more energetic than a child needs to be at 6:30 in the morning.
Eddie hangs the backpack on the coat hanger by the door and tries to lock eyes with Buck who is still tracing Theo’s every move like he could stop him from breaking anything by just willing him with his mind. He snaps out of it when Eddie puts his hand on his shoulder.
‘’Hey, it’ll be fine. I had plenty of experience.’’
Buck snorts and rolls his eyes. ‘’Yeah, like Chris was ever like this.’’
‘’Not talking about Chris bud,’’ Eddie teases and Buck scoffs.
‘’Oh fu… dge off. What about your hand?’’ Buck points at the cast on Eddie’s left wrist. He made a stupid mistake the other day on the call, slipped and landed straight on it. He insisted on coming to work every single day even though he couldn’t actually do anything on calls but Chim made him take the leave.
‘’It’s barely a fracture Buck, Chim is exaggerating,’’ he dismisses it and Buck lifts his eyebrows.
‘’We all heard the snap when you fell Eddie.’’
Now it’s Eddie’s time to roll his eyes. He strides towards Buck and pushes him out the door. ‘’Come on, off you go. And wash your hair before the shift starts or it’ll bother you the entire day.’’
Buck automatically reaches for his hair and grimaces when it catches on something sticky. ‘’Ugh, I can’t even… Fine. But call me if something happens.’’
‘’Sure,’’ Eddie smirks.
‘’Eddie.’’
Eddie sighs. ‘’I will call if something happens but nothing will happen because he likes me,’’ he finishes smirk not leaving his face watching Buck walk towards the car fondly rolling his eyes again.
‘’That makes both of us,’’ he mumbles but Eddie doesn’t quite catch it.
‘’What was that?’’ He asks. Buck blushes.
‘’Um, nothing. I said I need to go if I want to take that shower before the shift.’’
‘’Sure you do bud. Go, we’ll be fine.’’
Eddie waves with his free hand from the door when Theo slams into his legs from behind.
‘’Ooof! Hey there bud, having fun?’’
Theo is now peeking through his legs and smiling so wide that his Buck dimples are showing. Eddie immediately grins in response.
‘’Yeeeeees,’’ Theo shrieks.
‘’Wanna make waffles for breakfast with me?’’
‘’Waffles!’’ He starts jumping up and down while Eddie manoeuvres them inside.
_
Several hours and two batter incidents later they’re on the couch, Theo sitting on Eddie’s thigh carefully cradling his cast and scribbling over it. There is a faint sound of a marine documentary in the background, the only thing Theo wanted to watch until he didn’t but wouldn’t let Eddie turn it off either.
But for the past ten minutes he’s been uncharacteristically quiet.
Eddie watched him carefully, thinking that he’d probably maxed out on his energy for the day and it was probably a nap time. But Theo’s grip on his cast was still steady and he’s fully focused on Eddie’s armband tattoo above the cast.
‘’Everything okay?’’
‘’What does it say?’’ Theo asks in a small voice finally moving his tiny fingers over the tattoo like he’s reading it word by word, letter by letter.
Eddie softens. ‘’It’s in Spanish. It says ‘Fortalecer la mente y suprar el cuerpo’.’’
Theo turns his head around to look at Eddie, eyes huge like saucers and gasps.
‘’Wow,’’ he whispers then turns to the tattoo again and traces it with his finger. ‘’What does it mean?’’
‘’It’s like a commitment to personal growth and the power of your mind,’’ Eddie starts but Theo scrunches his eyebrows in confusion. ‘’It means that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it,’’ he tries simplifying.
‘’Buck has the same shape but on the other hand,’’ Theo says touching his forearm where Buck’s tattoo would be. ‘’They are matching. Did you do them together?’’
‘’No buddy, we did them long before we met,’’ Eddie ruffles Theo’s hair and the boy smiles as his little fingers are still touching the tattoo like the words were some kind of a secret code.
‘’Hm,’’ Theo cocks his head on one side like he’s thinking something. ‘’He has two lines and you have words,’’ he says more to himself and Eddie watches in real time as something clicks in Theo’s head but he doesn’t have the time to react because only a second later Theo is off his thigh and rummaging through his backpack – throwing crayons and colouring books around like he’s looking for something specific.
‘’Everything okay bud?’’
‘’Look, look!’’ Theo triumphally lifts a notebook in air almost knocking Eddie right on the nose. Eddie catches it with his uninjured hand.
‘’Okay, what are we looking at here?’’
Theo rolls his eyes in such a Buck manner that he really hates the fact that he’s down one hand right now and isn’t able to take a video of it. Theo yanks the notebook open and shows Eddie the lines in notebook.
‘’See, Buck’s tattoo. And, yours are words,’’ he points at something Buck wrote inside the lines, an approximation of a cursive when he probably tried to teach it to Theo. ‘’They are a matching set!’’
Theo spins around himself all smiles and giggles like he just found out the secrets of the universe. Eddie smiles.
‘’You know what, it does seem that way.’’
‘’And, and,’’ Theo starts climbing on the couch next to Eddie out of breath from laughing. ‘’When you hold hands, they fit together.’’
Eddie turns to look at him confused.
‘’Different hands. See,’’ Theo gently nudges his right hand next to Eddie’s left and goes with his finger over his arm where Buck’s tattoo would be.
‘’Huh,’’ Eddie just manages to say. ‘’You don’t say. You are very clever mi cielito,’’ Eddie softens and kisses Theo’s curly head. Theo stops fidgeting the moment Eddie said something in Spanish, his eyes again comically wide.
Hm, Eddie guesses it’s not only Buck who reacts that way when he’s speaking in another language. It’s in the Buckley genes.
‘’What does that mean? It sounds nice,’’ Theo whispers like if he says it louder it might break a spell or something.
‘’It means little sky or sweetheart.’’
‘’Wow,’’ Theo whispers again then looks at his hand then back at Eddie’s tattoo and Eddie can already see the idea forming.
‘’Would you like matching tattoos with me and Buck?’’ Eddie matches Theo’s whispers like they’re sharing a secret or doing something they’re usually not allowed to do. Theo lights up.
‘’Can I? Buck told me I’m not allowed to draw on my face again.’’
Eddie snorts and Theo covers his mouth while giggling, his little cheeks blushing.
‘’Well, we wouldn’t be drawing on your pretty little face. Maybe on your arm? Hm?’’
Eddie reaches for a black marker and opens the cap with his teeth, spitting it out in the air. Theo giggles and offers his right hand.
‘’Can I… Can I have the lines like Buck but inside them the sky thing?’’
And Eddie wants to melt on the spot. Theo is resting his little hand on Eddie’s cast and is patiently waiting for him to respond. He swallows a lump in his throat trying not to burst into tears.
‘’Yeah, I think we can do that.’’
He carefully draws two parallel lines around Theo’s arm then puts his best cursive skills to test with scribbling the phrase. At the end they are both satisfied. Theo yawns and shifts his little body so that he’s lying completely on Eddie’s chest using him as a pillow. His right hand is underneath his chin with the ‘tattoo’ still visible right next to Eddie’s where he’s cradling him not to fall over.
Eddie snaps his eyes over to the mantel and sees the time, Buck should be here any minute. It was just a regular 8-hour shift today.
Eddie looks back at Theo, his mouth slightly open and drooling, his eyes moving under the eyelids like he’s dreaming of something exciting while every once in a while he’ll jerk his leg like he was running even in his dreams.
He kisses the top of his head and the boy nuzzles closer into his chest. Eddie continues drawing circles across his back and soon after he hears the soft click of the door unlocking and Buck sneaking around. Eddie lifts his head to peek over the headrest and Buck is there looking down at them with fond smile on his face.
‘’You survived?’’
‘’I got him a tattoo,’’ Eddie smirks. Buck goes all pale.
‘’What?’’
‘’A marker tattoo Buck, who do you think I am?’’ Eddie chuckles when Buck blushes.
‘’Hey there, first time father. I’m sleep deprived.’’
Buck circles the couch and sits on the edge of the coffee table in front of Eddie and Theo reaching with his right hand towards Theo’s head then realizes the drawing, Eddie’s tattoo right next to it and then his own in that position. Eddie smiles.
‘’He asked if we planned our tattoos together, because apparently if we hold hands they look like someone wrote between the lines in a notebook,’’ Eddie explains.
Buck lifts his eyes from the overlapping tattoos on their arms and locks their eyes.
‘’Huh, I never thought of that. So, he wanted both of them combined on his own?’’
‘’Yeah, wanted to have both his Buck and Eddie there,’’ Eddie drops another kiss on top of boy’s head.
‘’Mi cielito,’’ Buck reads and softens.
‘’It means…’’ Eddie starts but Buck shakes his head with a smile on his face.
‘’I know what it means Eddie.’’
‘’You do?’’
‘’What, you think I’d never catch a phrase or two for the past nine years? I don’t know much but I know enough,’’ Buck smiles leaning over and kissing Theo on his forehead, his hand lands next to Eddie’s on the boy’s back. Eddie carefully moves it over Buck’s.
‘’I was thinking about doing another one, after my wrist heals.’’
‘’Yeah? What did you have in mind?’’ Buck asks eyes jumping all over Eddie’s face.
‘’Te amo de aqui a la luna,’’ he almost whispers. Buck’s breath hitches and starts blinking. ‘’Theo says he loves when I speak Spanish and it fits you know. For Theo, Christopher and … you.’’ (I love you to the moon and back)
Buck almost completely abandons breathing; his hand is still sprawled on Theo’s back and Eddie’s over his.
‘’Me?’’ He asks quietly feeling Eddie’s fingers going over his knuckles in soothing motion.
‘’Would that be a problem?’’ Eddie asks calmly but Buck can see his heart hammering in his throat.
‘’No. Eddie, God. No. That’s,’’ Buck is rambling and there might be a tear or two escaping him but he’s smiling and there they are, his Buck dimples, and Eddie is mesmerized. He opens his mouth to say something but Theo stirs, rubs his eyes then sees Buck and immediately lunges at him.
‘’Buck!’’
‘’Hey buddy, you had great time with your Eddie today?’’ Buck cradles him on his chest and sits next to Eddie on the couch. Eddie puts his hand on the small of Buck’s back when Theo gets out of Buck’s grasp, wriggles his hand in front of his face to show off his tattoo.
‘’Wow, you’re a big boy now, huh? Now all three of us are matching!’’ Buck drops a kiss over Theo’s ‘tattoo’ as the boy goes on a spin about everything they did that day. Buck just leans into Eddie’s touch and lets this calm moment of domesticity wash over him.