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Eddie could honestly say he hadn't thought of it from this particular angle before.
He hadn't really thought about it from any angle other than the one he'd been viewing and thinking of it from since the very beginning, and really that wasn't so crazy because who looks at the thing that Eddie was looking at and decides "right, I'm going to completely change how the entire world thinks of this"?
Who does that with a CD?
"A pigeon-friendly disco ball?" Hen repeated with a flat voice.
Jemima, the nine-year-old perpetrator, nodded. "Exactly."
Ravi, from where he was currently trying to untangle a bird from a piece of string that was tying the CD to the bird feeder, said, "Aren't disco balls already pigeon-friendly?"
The bird was squawking and beating its wings ferociously, which wasn't making Ravi's life any easier. His hands were already covered by thick gloves but his face really could have done with some kind of plastic visor, like the ones people had in the pandemic.
Eddie winced as a peck landed close to Ravi's bare skin.
"Actually, not really if you think about it," Buck piped up. "They could pick the tiny glass shards off the disco ball."
Eddie wrinkled his nose. "How rich are you to be buying a glass disco ball?"
Buck pulled a face. "That's standard disco ball material."
"Plastic is standard disco ball material," Eddie argued.
The bird's left leg came loose and it tried to fly off but Ravi had a firm grasp on it and the string was still tangled around the bird's right leg anyway.
"Just because you had a deprived childhood," Buck joked. Or, at least, Eddie hoped he was joking.
"So did you!" Eddie pointed out.
Buck bumped their shoulders together. "Well, yeah, but mine was a wealthy, deprived childhood. I was the emotionally deprived child."
Hen sighed. "We can hear about your childhood trauma later, Buck."
"Don't worry," Eddie said, mostly teasing. "I always want to hear about your childhood trauma."
Buck grinned. "Thank you, Eddie. It's nice to know that I'm appreciated by some people."
Ravi managed to untangle the last of the string and he let the bird go. It soared into the air and disappeared behind the house and into the horizon.
Jemima's mother let out a breath of relief. "I'm so sorry that you had to come. Jem won't do it again. She's learned her lesson."
Eddie smiled. "Don't worry, ma'am. This is one of the nicer parts of the job."
"Easy for you to say," Ravi grumbled. "I think I have marks from its beak. It was vicious!"
Hen chuckled, surreptitiously shooting Ravi a glare. "What my colleague means to say is that it was no problem at all, ma'am. You have a nice day now."
"And no more pigeon discos," Chimney added as an aside to Jemima. Jemima nodded, clasping her hands behind her back and swaying back and forth, the very picture of innocence.
Eddie had a feeling she was going to get right back to making bird-themed parties as soon as she left her mother's sight.
They left the house and climbed into the fire engine with Chimney in the front, driving. Eddie bumped his leg against Buck's and Buck let his rest against Eddie's. It was something they always did, just as a subtle reminder that they were both okay, even after the easiest of calls.
"Do Buck and Eddie always do that on calls?" Harry asked as he settled into his seat and the fire engine roared to life.
Eddie frowned. "Do what?"
"Flirt," Harry said with a clear expression of exasperation and disgust.
Beside Eddie, Buck started choking on his own spit. Eddie glowered at Harry and thumped Buck on the back until he stopped coughing.
"We don't flirt!" Buck protested, clearing his throat a few times.
"Then what was that?" Harry demanded.
Hen grinned. "That's what they call 'not flirting'."
"Seriously, guys, we know you're dating but it's a bit much," Harry said.
Eddie got the distinct impression that, if he could have, Buck would have started choking again. Weirdly, Buck's face was currently turning an impressive shade of rose.
"We're not dating," Eddie said, tilting his head to the side.
"Ha!" Ravi said, the sound bursting out of him as if he couldn't hold it in. After a beat of silence, he muttered a sheepish, "Sorry."
Harry looked flabbergasted. "Sorry, what?"
Eddie gestured between him and Buck. "Us. Not dating."
Harry's jaw dropped. "Then what the hell are you doing?"
Hen snorted. "Believe me, I've been asking that for a while."
Eddie was deeply confused. "Being friends?"
The engine fell silent until they pulled up into the station and Buck practically sprinted out of the engine and into the locker rooms. Eddie watched him go with a furrow in his brow.
"That was weird, right?" he asked.
"Not my problem." Ravi held up his hands and walked out.
Harry did the same, which left Hen and Eddie sitting on opposing seats with Hen wearing an expression of pure seriousness.
She leaned across the space between them and placed her hands on Eddie's knees.
"Eddie," she said.
Eddie raised both eyebrows. "Hen?"
"I need you to know that I don't think you're stupid because I'm about to make it sound like you are," Hen stated. "You do know that I don't think you're stupid?"
Eddie felt like he was about to be handed an ancient scroll by some legendary witch. "Yeah. Yeah, I know."
"You," Hen said, breathing in deeply, "are dating Buck."
Eddie burst out laughing. "What?"
Hen glared at him. "I'm not joking."
Eddie's chuckles took a second to peter off. "Sorry, it's just… It's just that I think I would remember him asking me out, or vice versa."
Hen seemed as though she was staring right into his soul. "No one asked anyone out. You're common-law married! You shared a house! You share a son! You go out together and bicker like an old married couple and flirt twenty four seven and it's honestly kind of gross in a beautiful love-is-love type of way."
Eddie scoffed. "Friends do that."
Hen closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. "Eddie, you're in love with Buck."
What?
No.
No way.
Sure, they did those things (minus the flirting) and, sure, they were a bit unusual and, sure, Buck was the first one Eddie turned to for everything but Eddie wasn't… Eddie had never even considered… He couldn't…
Oh.
Oh.
"Oh," Eddie said.
Hen leaned back in her seat, triumphant.
Eddie blinked, steadying himself. "Why did no one tell me?"
"We thought you'd get there on your own," Hen explained. "And then, when you didn't, we thought maybe you had and just didn't want to do anything about it."
"Of course I want to do something about it!" Eddie said. "It's Buck!"
Hen nodded towards the locker room. "Maybe you should go tell him that."
"Does…" Eddie hesitated. "Does he know?"
"About himself? Probably," Hen said. "About you? No clue."
Eddie nodded. He was just going to have to change that. "Thanks, Hen."
Hen nodded. "Godspeed, Edmundo."
Eddie jumped out of the engine and headed straight for the locker room.
Buck was in there, pacing back and forth with a face that was brighter than any shade of red Eddie had ever seen on another human being.
Eddie gently pushed open the door. "Hey."
Buck glanced up. Even the tips of his ears were dusted with pink. "Oh, uh, hi."
"I'm sorry," Eddie said first of all because he'd been kind of an idiot for the past nine years. "I didn't know."
Buck looked crestfallen, his mouth twitching downwards and his fists clenching as he looked away. "Yeah. I guess I hid it okay."
Eddie paused. "You hid it? Buck, I was talking about me."
Buck met his eyes, wide and puzzled. "You?"
"Yeah," Eddie said, chuckling. "I feel kind of stupid now but I didn't realise. I never looked at it from that perspective."
"What… What perspective?" Buck asked, stepping closer.
Eddie sucked in a breath. "The perspective where I'm in love with you."
"Oh," Buck said. "Oh."
Eddie grinned. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Thank you for telling me?" Buck offered. "I mean it's well established that I'm in love with you, obviously."
Eddie cleared his throat, feeling a twinge of embarrassment. "It was, uh, not to me."
"Oh," Buck said. "Well, I am. I love you."
"Good," Eddie said. "You wanna… do something about that?"
Buck smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to."
Eddie reached out and linked their hands together, the weight of Buck's hand comforting in his own.
He didn't know how on Earth he'd never thought of this before.