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Eddie regrets agreeing to a night out the moment he steps foot inside the club.
The music is stupidly loud, and he can feel the bass vibrating his chest in the exact way that he hates. The room is so dark that he can barely see the people surrounding him, with some of them occasionally being lit up in blue or pink or purple. Eddie is a least five years older than the majority of the people there, and he feels ridiculously out of place.
But Buck had asked him to come, so here he is.
He slips through the crowd and scans the unfamiliar faces, looking for Buck and Ravi, who had both arrived before him. Eventually he catches a glimpse of a tall head that can only belong to Buck, and some part of him relaxes now that his internal compass has found its true north. They’ve already claimed one of the sticky tables, and as soon as he gets there Eddie takes the beer Buck’s already gotten for him.
“You made it!” Ravi shouts over the music. “We thought you were gonna bail!”
That had been his plan, for all of thirty minutes. Buck would've just showed up at his house and dragged him out.
“I said I would come,” Eddie tells them. “And if Buck strikes out, I need to witness it.”
Buck rolls his eyes, but doesn’t comment on the teasing. “Come on, let’s drink.”
“Cheers!” Ravi exclaims, and Eddie almost groans as he raises his beer.
He glances at his watch after he takes a sip, trying to guess exactly how long he had to stay before he could quietly leave. Buck would have the attention of someone within ten minutes, but he’s not so sure about Ravi. Hopefully he can be home within the hour. When he looks back up, both Buck and Ravi are surveying the crowd, their eyes darting from person to person.
“What are you guys doing?” Eddie asks, already dreading the answer.
“Finding you a date,” Buck says happily.
And that’s exactly what he was dreading.
“It’ll make it easier if you tell me what your type is,” Ravi comments, and Eddie fights a grimace.
“I don’t know,” he replies. “Someone with similar interests, I guess?”
“I meant physical type.”
“Oh, uh,” he stutters out, “curly hair? Maybe?”
His gaze drifts to Buck, to the curls that have been perfectly tamed for the night. Eddie prefers them a little messier, like when they’re halfway through a shift and have had their helmets on a couple times, and there’s even been a few times recently where he’s almost run his hands through them. Buck’s still searching the crowd, and Eddie lets himself just look for a few seconds, something he doesn’t usually allow himself to do.
“Let me guess,” Ravi mutters next to him, “light brown hair, so light it almost looks blond sometimes. Blue eyes. And a personality like a golden retriever.”
When his brain finally registers what Ravi has just said, his head snaps to the side, eyes wide. Ravi is giving him a knowing, almost exasperated look, and when Eddie just stares at him, he rolls his eyes.
“How did you-”
“You’re not subtle.”
Eddie’s never been more thankful that the music is so loud, because it means Buck can’t hear their conversation, not that he’s even paying attention to anything except the crowd. For a moment, Eddie’s eyes flick back to Buck, and then they linger there, just drinking him all in.
Ravi lets out a scoff. Eddie elbows him in the side.
“Shut up,” he says through gritted teeth. “I don’t want him to know.”
“Why did you even agree to come tonight if you were just going to undress Buck with your eyes the whole time?”
“What was I supposed to say?!”
“Maybe you should’ve said, ‘Buck, I don’t need you to find me a date because I’m disgustingly in love with you’.”
“Because that would’ve gone so well.”
“What are you two muttering about?” Buck cuts in, and both of them immediately stop talking. Eddie goes to make an excuse, but then he sees the little smile on Buck’s face and it’s like his brain short circuits.
“Just guessing how long it will take until some girl comes over to talk to you,” Ravi lies flawlessly.
Buck lets out a chuckle. “We’re here for Eddie, not me. Speaking of, what about her?”
He gestures to a girl a few feet away from them, who bears a slight resemblance to Shannon. “No,” he says, his voice clipped.
“Why not?”
Eddie just gives him a flat look. “I’m not giving you reasons, Buck.”
“Fine,” he replies, and then he moves on. “What about her instead?”
“No.”
“Her?”
“No.”
“C’mon, Eddie, give me something!”
“I told you, I’m not interested in dating right now,” he says, and hopes Buck doesn’t ask for a reason. It’s not like he can say that it’s due to the fact that he’d be leading the girl on because he is, firstly, not straight, and secondly, in love with Buck.
Ravi leans forward, a scarily large grin on his face. “As fun as this is,” he starts, “there’s a girl over there who’s eyeing up Buck.”
They all turn to look at where Ravi is pointing, and sure enough, there’s a girl staring at Buck. She smiles when Buck looks at her, twirling her hair around her finger like they’re in a movie.
Eddie kind of wants to throw his drink on her.
“Oh, and would you look at that,” Ravi continues, his voice dripping with faux innocence. “I think that’s Tommy at the table next to hers!”
No.
There’s no way.
But sure enough, at the next table over, there’s Tommy Kinard, in the flesh. Eddie’s hand tightens around his beer bottle reflexively as he catches a glimpse of Tommy’s face in the low light, that stupid smirk igniting some form of anger within him. He forces himself to look away from Tommy, and he sees that Buck has gone pale, very pale.
“Buck,” Eddie says, already rounding the table, “are you okay?”
“Yeah, uh, yeah, I’m fine,” he replies a little breathlessly.
Ravi just leans in even closer. “Eddie, I’m sure Buck told you all about the time he saw Tommy while you were in Texas, right?”
“The what?!”
Buck’s eyes are wide and guilty when he turns to look at Eddie, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. He’s obviously been hiding something, and Eddie hates how much that hurts. Buck is perfectly entitled to his own life and he doesn’t have to tell Eddie anything, even if he usually does.
“Oh, look! There’s a girl over there who’s waving at me,” Ravi says, because he’s a traitor. “Bye guys!”
He’s gone before either of them can stop him, and suddenly, it’s just Buck and Eddie and the stupid thumping bass. Eddie ignores all thoughts of being in close enough proximity to Tommy to punch him in the face, instead focusing on whatever the hell Ravi was talking about before he made his escape.
“You saw Tommy while I was in Texas?” Eddie prompts, and Buck just sighs and looks down at the floor for a few seconds. When his head tilts back up and his face comes back into view, he’s got an almost nervous smile on his face, and he’s worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.
“So,” he says slowly, “I was really missing you, like a lot, and I convinced Ravi to go to a bar with me. We ended up running into Tommy, and then one thing led to another, and…”
“And you spoke to him and said you never wanted to see him again?”
“Uh, no. I, uh,” Buck pauses, looking down at the floor again and mumbling something under his breath.
Eddie leans in closer. “C’mon Buck, it can’t be that- ”
“I had sex with him!” Buck blurts out, his voice carrying just a little. Enough for Eddie to see Tommy’s head turn out of the corner of his eye while he’s processing Buck’s words.
“You had sex with him?” Eddie asks in disbelief. “You went home with him, and then you had sex with him? With Tommy?”
“Yeah, I did,” Buck says dejectedly. “I know it was a bad decision, but you were in Texas, and I was lonely- ”
“Wait, hold on,” Eddie interjects, “if I was in Texas, that means you were living in my house.”
“Uh, yeah?”
Eddie’s eyes go wide. “You had sex with Tommy in my house?!” Buck just gives him a tiny, embarrassed nod. “Oh my God, I need to get it, like, cleansed or something. Get Tommy’s presence out of there.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“He dumped you, Buck. That’s enough to get me to hate him.”
Buck just huffs out something close to a laugh as they both take a sip from their drinks. Unfortunately, at that moment, someone sidles up to their table, and it’s the person that they conveniently forgot about.
Tommy Kinard.
“Hey, Evan,” he says, leaning against the table. “It’s good to see you.”
“Hi, Tommy,” Buck replies, a little awkwardly. “Did you need something?”
Tommy just flashes him a smirk. “Just wanted to talk to you.”
“Well, I’m here with Eddie.” Buck emphasizes his name for reasons Eddie doesn’t understand, but it makes Tommy’s expression falter, so he finds that he doesn’t mind.
He doesn’t need you, Eddie thinks, he’s got me.
“Hey, Kinard,” he says in an almost sneer.
“Diaz. You here visiting?”
“No, I moved back.” He doesn’t offer any more details, because, frankly, Tommy doesn’t deserve to know them. If he’s honest, Eddie would quite like to grab Buck’s arm and drag them as far away from this stupid club as he can get them, but that might be a little too far.
Tommy just laughs, and the sound grates in Eddie’s nerves. “Of course you did. Do you get it now, Evan? He’s always been the competition.”
Buck cowers a little at Tommy’s words, shrinks down into himself like he only usually does when his parents are around, and Eddie just sees red. He steps in front of Buck, in between him and Tommy like he’s a bodyguard, and meets Tommy’s gaze with gritted teeth.
“Leave, Kinard,” he snarls. “We don’t want you here.”
“I think Evan does-”
“He doesn’t. Leave.” And, because Eddie learned how to be petty from his sisters, he adds one more thing. “You’re almost fifty, you shouldn’t be here anyway.”
Tommy seems to choke on air a little, which makes Eddie feel stupidly satisfied, but he doesn’t show it on his face. He just stares Tommy down until he grabs his drink and begins to walk away.
“You know where I’ll be, Evan,” he shouts over the music, “when you’re done waiting for the straight guy.”
Eddie doesn’t really know what that means, but he doesn't take his eyes off of Tommy until he’s lost in the crowd. After double checking that he’s not lurking somewhere, Eddie turns around to talk to Buck, only to find the space behind him completely empty. He glances around quickly, searching for the shape of Buck, one that is basically ingrained into his head, and finds him slipping out a side door into the night.
Eddie doesn’t even think before he begins to follow Buck, but he gets stuck in the crowd when the music switches to something that he thinks might be a popular song. As he pushes through people, he thinks more and more about what Tommy said, turning the words over in his head.
When you’re done waiting for the straight guy.
The obvious solution is that Buck has feelings for a straight guy. Who, though, is the real question. The only straight, single guy that both Buck and Tommy know is Ravi, and Eddie’s pretty sure that Buck does not have a thing for Ravi. He considers Chimney, but eventually concludes that more problems would've arisen earlier if that was the case. The guy’s married to Buck’s sister.
It takes an embarrassingly long time for his own name to come to mind.
No one knows he’s gay, save for Christopher, who he had told basically as soon as he figured it out months ago. He’s pretty sure Hen at least suspects he’s not straight, and Ravi now knows that he’s attracted to men, or at least that he’s in love with Buck. So maybe three people know that he’s gay. But Tommy has no idea, and Buck has even less of a clue.
If Tommy was talking about him, that would mean that Buck has some kind of romantic feelings for him. That would make the competition comment make more sense as well. But that just doesn’t add up. It can’t be true.
Unless it is.
Buck’s been single for about a year, and has made no mention of dates in that time. Eddie hadn’t really thought about it, not when he’d been distracted by the move to El Paso, and then Bobby died and it made sense why Buck wasn’t going on dates. But now, months later? It was odd that Buck hadn’t even been on one date, at least to Eddie’s knowledge.
So maybe, Buck is waiting for him. Pining from afar, just like Eddie is.
It’s then that Eddie finally gets to the side door and walks out into the alleyway. It’s somehow full of even more people, and Eddie makes his way through them until he gets to the front of the building and finds Buck leaning against the brick, eyes closed.
“Hey,” Eddie says quietly, and Buck’s eyes snap open immediately. “You okay?”
Buck scoffs quietly. “Am I okay? Eddie, you’re the one who just found out that your best friend is in,” he stops himself, and sighs. “Anyway, I would understand if you don’t want to be my friend anymore, that’s fine.”
He keeps rambling, his voice wavering, but Eddie’s not listening. All he can think about is that Buck just basically confirmed what Eddie thought was true without actually saying it. Buck’s in love with him.
Buck’s in love with him.
And he’s still talking, going on and on about how he gets it if Eddie’s weirded out by everything and never wants to see him again. Eddie tries twice to interrupt, but Buck won’t stop, so he switches to plan B.
He surges forward, takes Buck’s head in his hands, and kisses him before he can think twice.
And maybe it’s the beer he’s had (it’s not, he’s had half a bottle), but kissing Buck feels like fireworks. Just like in the movies.
Eddie swallows the little surprised noise Buck makes, and lets one hand tangle in the curls he’s been dreaming about touching. After a split second, Buck seems to realize what’s going on, and his hands end up on Eddie’s hips, heavy and big in ways that feel strange yet perfect, right as he starts to kiss back.
That’s when Eddie finally realizes why people like kissing so much.
He loses himself in it for a while, until there’s a shout from the alley behind them and they pull apart, suddenly aware that they’re in public. Although they are outside a club, so two people kissing isn't exactly out of the ordinary, but Eddie still feels a touch embarrassed. He doesn’t pull back too far, just enough that he can look into Buck’s eyes as they both breathe heavily. One hand stays in those curls that he loves so much and the other rests on Buck’s jaw, two fingers dipping low enough that Eddie can feel his racing heart under his fingertips.
“What just happened?” Buck whispers, and Eddie can’t stop the smile that blooms on his face.
“I kissed you,” he replies, confident and sure. “Because I’m in love with you.”
Buck’s breathing stutters for a second. “You’re in love with me?”
“I am.”
“And I’m in love with you.”
“I assumed so, based on the fact that you kissed me back.”
A wide grin appears on Buck’s face, his cheeks a little rosy, and then he leans in to kiss Eddie again. The fireworks return in full force, and it’s like sparks have scattered from his heart down his arms and legs, making his knees weak. Buck is, unsurprisingly, a very good kisser when he’s not in shock, and Eddie almost feels like he doesn’t have enough experience as his thoughts slow right down. He also thinks he should call up all of Buck’s exes and ask why they voluntarily gave this up, but he decides that’s probably not the best idea. Then Buck squeezes his hips tight enough to maybe leave bruises, and Eddie likes it. In fact, he likes it maybe a little too much.
Thinking seems trivial after that.
He’s not sure how much time passes after that, with both of them stealing oxygen between kisses and ignoring their surroundings. People pass by them, Eddie’s vaguely aware of that, but no one says anything or jostles them or does anything to bring them out of their perfect little bubble.
“Oh thank god.”
Until that.
They spring apart quickly, like they’re teenagers that have been caught by their parents.
“I couldn’t take anymore pining,” Ravi continues. “I mean, it would've been better for me if this happened a couple months ago, because then I would’ve won the bet, but I’ll take this.”
“What bet?” Eddie asks, his eyes narrowing at Ravi.
His smile fades immediately. “Nothing. You heard me wrong, there is no bet. Anyway, I’m leaving, see you at work.”
Ravi practically runs away, over to a girl who was seemingly waiting for him. Eddie just rolls his eyes and turns back to Buck, who is staring at him with a confused expression that is just adorable.
“Did Ravi already know about us being in love with each other?”
“He knows that I’m in love with you,” Eddie reveals. “Apparently, I’m not very subtle.”
“You were subtle enough to fool me,” Buck offers, pulling Eddie closer again. “Now, I think we were busy before he showed up.”
Eddie hums in agreement. “We were,” he says, “but if we keep kissing here we might end up with a public indecency charge, and Athena will never let us hear the end of it.”
“My place?”
“Definitely.”