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Eddie has been driving for about three and a half hours. His ribs are starting to hurt more than before. They have a little less than ten hours left for their drive. They both agreed to switch every four hours, but Eddie can tell Buck is hurting and very obviously tired, and so is he.
Buck keeps falling in and out of sleep. He doesn’t notice when Eddie changes the GPS to go to the nearest hotel. He doesn’t notice when Eddie gets off the highway. He doesn’t notice when Eddie pulls up at a Holiday Inn.
What he does wake up to is Eddie wincing while unbuckling his own seatbelt.
“You okay?” Buck mumbles.
“Yeah, come on bud.” Eddie leans over and unbuckles Buck’s seatbelt as well.
Buck’s eyebrows contort. He tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes while trying to take in his surroundings. “Why are we at a hotel?”
“Because you’re tired and injured and so am I. We need a break from driving and uncomfortable car seats.”
Buck leans his head against the headrest, holds the side of his ribs, then opens his door.
Eddie wholeheartedly expected him to argue, saying something about how this would only prolong their trip back. He guesses that Buck is too tired to argue because so is he.
They go to the trunk of the car, pull out their duffle bags, then walk to the hotel entrance. In the lobby there’s a couple in front of them, a man and a woman.
“Hello, what type of room would you like? We have two rooms with a singular king bed, and we have one with double queens.” The woman at the front desk asks. She’s an older woman. Her blonde hair stops at her shoulders. She wears glasses and a lot of silver jewelry.
“A king please, just for one night.” The man responds.
Eddie watches and listens to the whole interaction. Buck looks dead on his feet. Eddie’s mind goes back to earlier that day. How he thought Buck was gone. Him trying to think of how he and Chris would live without him. They can’t.
Ahead of them the receptionist gives the man two keys with a smile on her face. After thanking the woman, they walk towards the elevator. Eddie gets out of his own head and walks forward, Buck barely following behind him.
He finally sees the name tag, Laurie. The lady's—Laurie’s smile falls almost immediately. She looks between them a couple of times before she speaks, her smile appears again, only this time it looks forced.
“Double queen is the only availability we have left. How long will you be staying?” Laurie states.
Now Eddie knows that he’s tired, but he’s definitely cognitive. The receptionist definitely told the other couple that there were two single kings and one double queen, so there should be one single king still available.
Not that they were going to get a single king but still. Why would she say there’s only one room? And why did her entire demeanor change when he and Buck walked towards the front desk?
“Oh…I thought I heard you tell the other couple that there were two single kings unoccupied.” Eddie questions, as he hands her his card. They were going to get the double queen anyways but now he wants to know why they can’t get the king.
Laurie tilts her head slightly, “You must have misheard me, sir. All we have is the double queens.” She says, taking his card for a couple of seconds before giving it back. She grabs two keycards, holding them out for Eddie to take them.
“No, I don’t think I did.” He counters.
“Eddie, we don’t need a king.” Buck says from beside him. Eddie didn't even know that Buck was actively listening to the conversation.
“But why would she lie—”
“It’s just…we don’t have any other rooms.” She interrupts.
“I heard you say—” Eddie asks.
“Ma’am well take the double, no need to argue.”
“Buck, we’re not arguing, we’re conversing. I want to know why she won’t let us have the king.”
“Sir, I have nothing personal against you two. It’s just…I don’t believe in that way of living, and I don’t want anything like that happening in my place of work.”
“What? What are you even talking ab—” Eddie starts to respond.
Buck cuts him off, “Sure, ma’am.” He takes the keycards, puts them in his duffle bag pocket, then takes Eddie’s hand in his other hand.
Eddie doesn’t talk again until both of them are in the elevator.
“I wasn’t done talking, Buck.” He expresses. “I just don’t understand the point of lying when I clearly heard her.”
“She’s homophobic, Eddie. There wasn’t really any point in trying to debate with her. She thinks that we're together—like together together and doesn't like the idea of two men sleeping in the same bed.”
“That’s so stupid. None of that affects her.”
“Yeah, if only everyone thought that way.” Buck says as the elevator door opens. He walks out, Eddie follows.
When they get into the room, there are two queens, obviously. Buck goes to the one closest to the window, and Eddie drops his duffle bag by the one closest to the door. Buck makes his way to the restroom while Eddie changes in the bedroom.
He looks at the two beds—the two separated beds, and he feels appalled. That woman shouldn’t have a say in their sleeping habits. It’s none of her business and it doesn’t impact her life, so it shouldn’t matter.
She shouldn’t be able to separate a couple—not that they are a couple—just because she feels a certain way about them. It’s definitely illegal to refuse service based on sexual orientation, but she didn’t refuse service. She just…altered it, took away their options, so Eddie’s unsure if he can report her or not.
After Eddie changes into his Basketball shorts, forgoing the shirt because he runs hot, He thinks about pushing the beds together, just to piss on the lady. Instead, he makes the decision to walk over to the bed closest to the window—Buck’s bed and lies down on the right side. He pulls out his phone and informs their family that they’re taking a break from driving and will be back on the road in the morning.
Eddie’s so tired that he’s already starting to drift off when Buck comes out of the bathroom. He watches as Buck pauses in the doorway when he spots him. Buck’s wearing a washed-out T-shirt and some sweatpants.
“You know, if you wanted the window bed you could’ve just said so.” Buck walks to the bed closer to the door.”
“Come here.”
Buck’s face twists, but he goes anyway.
“Get in the bed.” Eddie says when Buck is closer.
“Well, I was about to, but you told me to come over here. I’m starting to get mixed signals Eddie.”
“Not that bed…this one.”
“Why? Did you see bed bugs or something?”
“Yes.” Eddie says it too quickly. “Bed bugs—a lot of them. But I checked this bed and didn’t see any so…”
“That’s weird. Why wouldn’t they be over here too?” Buck says as he slides into the left side of the bed.
“Yeah, I don’t know. That is weird…” He turns around to face Buck.
“I would say we should ask for another room but she's dead set on there not being one. Linda’s gonna be so mad.”
Eddie's eyebrow raises, “Who is Linda?"
“The lady at the front desk? Don’t tell me you forgot about her already.” Buck shuffles, getting comfortable.
Actually, Eddie hasn’t stopped thinking about her. Not like that, of course, but about what she said. What she implied. She thought—thinks he and Buck are a couple. She thinks that he’s gay—or has some type of attraction to men. Does Eddie look gay? Those guys at the diner also insinuated that Buck and Eddie weren’t straight. Saying things like ‘your kind,’ and ‘princess.’
“Her name was Laurie, Buck.”
“Oh, well whatever her name is, she's gonna be mad when she realizes that we slept together anyway.”
Eddie’s heart rate picks up as soon as Buck says, ‘slept together,’ even though he didn't mean it that way. But he’s right, he wishes he could see the look on Laurie’s face.
“Yeah…”
“You okay? I can sleep on the floor if you’re uncomfortable sharing with me.”
“No! No.” Eddie clears his throat, “I’m not uncomfortable. I—uh, I actually like this better. You’re close. I can see you.” He places his hand on Buck's shoulder, it slides up to his neck, right on his pulse point. “I can feel you. You’re here.” Eddie’s voice shakes a bit.
Buck rests his hand on top of Eddie’s where it is on his neck, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere Eddie.”
“You can’t—Buck…”
“I know. I won’t—I’ll try my hardest.”
“Try harder.” Eddie says stern, but calm as his head falls to Buck’s shoulder.
“I will.” He whispers into his hair.
They stay like that, holding each other until they drift off to sleep.
The next morning, Eddie wakes up before Buck. Eddie’s on his back and Buck is half on top of him. His leg is thrown over one of Eddie’s and his head and hand on his chest. Eddie has one of his hands on Buck’s waist, and the other one is in his curls at the nape of his neck.
He stays like that for a while, not wanting to disturb Buck even though his ribs are hurting. It’s fine though because he likes how comfortable Buck looks on top of him. Eddie’s hand subconsciously moves on Buck’s scalp while he feels Buck’s breath on his chest, it’s grounding.
About a minute later there are some knocks coming from their door. Eddie ignores it, hoping that they’ll just leave, so they don’t disrupt Buck’s beauty sleep. Eddie looks down at him. He really is beautiful, how didn’t Eddie realize this earlier? Or maybe he did, and just…pushed the thought away. Sounds like something he’d do.
The knocks come back a second later, louder this time, and more frantic. They’re accompanied by a voice too, a familiar one. Laurie.
“Excuse me?” Three knocks. “You forgot to tell me how long you’ll be staying.” Another three knocks. “I need that information for my logs.”
Buck does end up waking up from all the noise. He looks up at Eddie, then looks down, noticing that his body is blanketing Eddie’s. Buck slides off him back to his side of the bed.
“Sorry,” He whispers, eyes falling back closed.
“You were fine where you were.” Eddie turns to him.
Three more knocks, “Hellooo?”
“Ughhh.” Eddie rolls his eyes and gets up making his way to the door. On the way he ruffles his own hair, hoping to give the ‘sex hair’ look. He bites his bottom lip a bit trying to make it seem like Buck did it.
He doesn’t know where the idea came from or why he went through with it. Or why he kind of wishes it was true.
He opens the door with a tired look on his face. “Yes?”
“My apologies for waking you up but I didn’t get the duration for your stay?” Eddie watches as her face looks over his, staring at certain parts of him longer than the others.
“We’re leaving today.” Eddie scoots over a bit, purposefully leaving a space so she can see into the room. She takes the bait.
He watches as her eyes widen and fill with hatred. Eddie follows her eye path where they land on Buck. He’s already fallen back asleep.
“Right, um…” She trails off.
“Need anything else?” He turns back to her.
She looks at the unused bed, Buck, then back at Eddie, and she looks offended. She looks offended. Eddie should be offended—no, Buck should be offended. She’s the one who can’t handle a version of love because it isn’t a man and a woman.
Not that he and Buck are in love.
The nerve this woman has. As if they’ve done something wrong. She looks like they killed her cat or something.
The lady clears her throat. “That bed looks unused.”
“It is.”
“Well, I want to know why.”
“Is that a policy? You must know when a bed is unused and why it’s unused?”
“No, it’s not a policy but I would like to know.”
“You sure you can handle that? You might have a heart attack.” Eddie whispers. He shouldn’t even give her the time of day.
“I didn’t hear that.” She nags.
“Well, if you must know, I wanted to be close to my partner. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to have my mouth on him, every single part of his body. You ever felt that way, Laurie?”
“Uh…”
“I wanted to sleep with him and I’m not only talking about literal sleep. I wanted to have sex with him. God, I wanted—”
“Okay!” Laurie puts both her hands up, telling him to stop. She looks him up and down then makes a disgusted face at him before she just walks away.
Eddie smiles to himself as he shuts the door. He turns around to see Buck sitting up against the pillows in the bed. His eyes wide.
“Morning.” Eddie says as he walks back over and slips back under the covers.
“Yeah, good morning.” Buck clears his throat. “Apparently we had a great night.”
Eddie freezes beside him, “You heard that?”
“I did.”
“I thought you were asleep.”
“I was trying to go back, it wasn't working.”
“So, you heard everything?”
Buck nods slowly, “I heard everything. I also got to see the look on Laurie’s face when you told her that you broke my back.”
“I did not say that.” Eddie gives him a look.
Buck shrugs, “You basically did.”
“I basically did not.”
“Is that good grammar?”
“You want to talk about grammar right now?”
“We can if—”
“Buck, I don’t want to talk about good grammar right now.”
“I actually think that is correct grammar. Nice Eddie.”
“Buck.”
“What? Wanna talk about you putting your mouth on me instead?” Buck smirks.
Eddie rolls his eyes, “I just wanted to piss her off. She can’t control us. Or where we sleep. Or what we do with each other. So, I showed her she couldn’t.”
Buck licks his lips. It draws Eddie’s attention there for a moment. “So, that was only to piss her off? No other reason?”
“What other reason is there?”
Buck pauses for a moment, “You want me.” He affirms.
Eddie just looks at him for a second. “I want you?”
“I think so, and I hope I didn’t get this wrong because…I want you too.”
Eddie thinks his heart stops.
“Do you want me, Eddie?”
“Yes.” Eddie blurts out before he can stop himself.
Buck smiles and pulls Eddie closer to him. Their lips barely inches away from one another’s. “Can I kiss you?”
“Yes.” Eddie whispers, seemingly unable to say any other word.
When their lips collide it’s gentle slow. Quite the opposite of what Eddie had in his head, thinking back to what he had told that woman a couple of minutes earlier. Buck’s hands on Eddie’s waist and Eddie’s on Buck’s neck.
They kiss sweet and slow for a little while longer, no homophobic receptionists to interrupt them. Eddie traumatized her, but who cares? They pause to take a breather for about two seconds before going in for more.
This kiss is more eager, more exploratory. There’s more movement, hands are moving and mapping each other out. Buck pulls away first, causing Eddie to whine in disapproval. A noise that he’s never heard come out of his own mouth before.
Buck chuckles, “I know, but I really want to get home, I know you do too, and we have a long way to go.”
Eddie looks at him for a second, “Yeah, you’re right.” He concludes.
They get up from the bed, not bothering to change out of their sleep attire. It doesn’t take them long to leave the room. The cleaners have it easy with this room. They only have to change the sheets on one bed.
When they get to the lobby area, holding hands of course, Laurie is no longer at the front. There’s a man there now. He gives them a smile and says, “Have a great rest of your day.”
Eddie likes him—Alan is what his nametag says. They should have him at the desk and Linda doing something where she doesn’t have to interact with people. Eddie is definitely giving her a bad rating.
They get to the car, putting their bags back in. Before Eddie has the chance to, Buck gets in the driver’s seat.
“Buck.” He says next to the driver’s seat door. “I still had thirty minutes left to drive.”
“It’s fine Eddie, it’s basically my turn already.”
“Buck—”
“Just get in the car, baby.”
Eddie feels a little faint. He almost falls over entirely. He clears his throat and walks over to the passenger side. When he gets in he can see the smug look Buck on his face. Eddie definitely didn’t hide his reaction all that well.
“Don’t say anything. Just drive.” Eddie puts on his seatbelt.
Buck nods, puts on his own seatbelt and changes gear. All with a smile on his face.
Buck’s been driving for about ten minutes when the guilt finally takes over Eddie fully. “Buck, I feel like I should tell you this because I kind of coerced you into bed with me.”
“What?” Buck spares a quick glance. “No you didn’t.”
“You don’t even know what I did yet.”
“Still. You didn’t coerce me.”
“There weren’t any bed bugs. I told you that because I wanted you to sleep with me. So, I could have you close.”
“Eddie…I know.”
“What? You know what?” Eddie looks at him even though Buck can’t really look back.
“That there weren’t any bed bugs.”
“What? How?”
“Eddie…” He lets out a laugh. “You didn’t even touch the other bed. Let alone inspect it for bed bugs. It looked the exact same as when we first walked in.”
“So why’d you get in bed with me?”
“Maybe I wanted you close too.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, oh.”
“So I could’ve just asked.”
“Yeah, but I like the coercion better.”
Eddie rolls his eyes and clears his throat. “So…does this mean we’re dating now?”
Buck looks over for a fraction of a second, then back at the road. “Do you want it to mean that?”
“Do you?”
“I asked you first.”
“Yeah… Yeah I want it to mean that.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? It’s that easy?”
“Did you want me to make an agreement form or something?” He looks over for another quick second, long enough to see Eddie roll his eyes again. “Yes, it’s that easy.”
“‘Kay.” Eddie smiles to himself.