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The discussion had started randomly on a Monday evening.
The 118 were changing into their civilian clothes after a simple 24-hour shift, finally getting to return home for the following Tuesday and Wednesday off before coming back on Thursday morning to start their 48 hours on once more, a routine they had all become accustomed to.
Eddie wasn’t even too sure how they’d gotten onto the topic. Maybe it was when he’d noticed the dark circles under Buck’s eyes, or maybe he’d offhandedly mentioned Theo again, since his son was all Buck could really talk about at the moment. Eddie could easily understand why, considering how adorable the kid was.
“I could watch him,” the Hispanic man had said casually whilst putting his socks on, moving much slower than he normally would since he was carpooling with Buck anyway and would be staying over. Chris was currently away for the summer at some sort of science camp he’d been bragging about for the past God knows how many weeks.
Evan paused where he was using deodorant before putting his T-shirt on, throwing Eddie a wounded puppy look over his shoulder which quickly reminded the younger man of the golden retriever comments that were often thrown Buckley’s way.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that, Eds.” He sighed before pushing his arms through the armholes. “Besides, Theo is still adjusting to living with me, and I know it’s even worse since I’ve gone back to work. I don’t want to put too much on him—”
A small laugh left Eddie’s lips as he sat waiting for Buck, now completely changed himself.
“Come on, Buck, I’m basically around the kid 24/7 anyway, so I’d be the best person to watch him. You need a break.” He stood from the bench with a firm clap to the taller man’s shoulder. “Just think about it, yeah? I can take him on our next three days off and you can go relax with Maddie or May or someone.”
Buck bit his lip, pausing for a moment before he quickly piled his things into his bag and sighed, slipping on his shoes as he followed his best friend out to his truck.
“Fine, I’ll think about it.”
It had taken only three days for Buck to think about it.
Whilst they were on a not-so-serious call not far from the beach, the two chatted happily as they both put their equipment back on the rig, Buck bringing up the topic apprehensively.
“Hey, you know what you said about watching Theo?”
Eddie noticed the tone pretty much immediately and moved his whole body to face him, a small smile playing on his lips. Evan always had a habit of looking guilty whenever he asked for anything, no matter how small or big the task. The fact he was even asking in the first place made Eddie beam slightly with a sense of pride.
“Yes…” His voice trailed off slightly in reply, leaning into his best friend just slightly as a way to tease him.
“I can’t believe I’m asking this, but Chimney treated Maddie to a little spa day without the kids and she invited me to go with her.” Buck finally allowed his eyes to meet Eddie’s, the gentle look giving him a little more courage. “Could you watch him for me, please? I promise it’ll be just a few hours, three tops!”
Eddie rolled his eyes fondly, squeezing the tattooed right bicep.
“Of course I can, Buck. Please, for the love of God, stay away longer.”
Buck huffed in fake offence as he followed Eddie back towards where the team was standing, closing up the scene.
“You really wanna get away from me that bad, huh?” The curly-haired man tried keeping a straight face, but it was hard when Eddie turned his body back around and rolled his eyes, holding him by the shoulders so he would stop moving.
“Quite the opposite, but you need to learn to relax and not run yourself into the ground for your kids.”
And Evan Buckley tried to ignore the feeling of heat rising up his cheeks.
It was a Saturday when Eddie showed up at Buck’s doorstep once more, having only been away from the household for about seven hours since he’d had dinner there the night before. Chris wasn’t wrong to complain about his cooking, so why not get your best friend, who can cook, to make it instead?
Chris was coming back today, but Eddie had already informed him that he’d be at Buck’s watching Theo for a bit. The teenager was quick to jump at the opportunity to see the kid and was asking his friend’s mum— Stacey, Stephanie? Something with an S —to drop him straight here.
Now Eddie watched with a slightly fond expression as Buck pottered around the kitchen, explaining details which Eddie was already very much aware of.
“He may nap today because he didn’t sleep so well last night, and I know he hasn’t had one in ages but if he has a nightmare, there’s this certain dinosaur plushie in his room which will calm him down.”
Eddie was well aware of this and was more than likely the reason for it, having been with Buck the day he’d brought it and having given the dinosaur to Theo only a few days after during one of his bad dreams when he’d stayed over for the night.
“He can have sweets, but not too many! The sugar rush he gets is ridiculous, so none after 5pm or he won’t sleep.” Everyone at the 118 was well aware of this. Theo was Buck’s blood after all, and a no-sleep Buck was a cranky Buck.
“I’ve left some leftover food in the fridge. Just make sure to mush it up because it has broccoli in it and he won’t eat it if he can taste it. There’s also those yogurt pouches in the fridge if he wants dessert, but only the berry ones. He hates the banana ones.”
Eddie was also well aware of this, having witnessed the tantrum the first time Buck gave him broccoli and having eaten the banana pouches himself since the fridge was pretty much overrun with them because you couldn’t buy the berry ones separately.
Eddie couldn’t stop the chuckle from escaping as he sat at the kitchen island in front of a pacing Buck.
“Buck, I know. I know exactly what this kid likes and doesn’t like. I’ve basically been here every day to find out.”
Buck turned to face him with a huff, and Eddie ignored the pout on his lips because at least he’d stopped pacing.
“Would you just go? You’re gonna be late, and Maddie won’t be happy if you make her miss her massage.”
Buckley crossed his arms but slowly moved towards the front door, not forgetting to grab his keys from the hook by the door.
“Do you really want to get rid of me that bad?”
Eddie huffed a laugh as his fingers pinched at his best friend’s sides, ignoring the warmth which grew in his chest at the small squeak Buck let out— maybe he was coming down with something?
“Will you at least call me if he sets fire to anything?” He’d now reached his car and was opening the drivers door.
“Nope. I am a firefighter too you know, so I’ll deal with the flames and you can come home to a nice but slightly charred home.”
Buck rolled his eyes again and Eddie wanted to tease him that they could get stuck like that if he continued since he’d been doing it a lot lately, but he was already driving off with a wave.
Theo was sitting in the living room once Eddie floated back in, a messy colouring book with Pokémon on the pages sat in front of him. Eddie couldn’t help but compare how different he and Chris were, considering his menace of a child had been colouring inside the lines since he was young.
“Hey, have you had breakfast?”
Theo nodded without even looking up, completely unbothered as Eddie played with the curls sitting on his head, something he indulged in endlessly since Chris was now a teenager and groaned at any small bout of affection he was shown from either Buck or himself.
“Buck said if he didn’t make breakfast, I’d starve.”
Eddie couldn’t even stop the offended noise which escaped his lips.
Theo spoke as most kids do, in a mumble with a slight lisp which he may or may not grow out of. The name Buck was something he struggled with, which had caused Buck to panic originally, but Eddie swore the kid did it on purpose. He was no longer able to call Buck ‘Mr. Poop’ without him getting pouty, so instead he called him Uck, as though it were a yucky word.
“Are you still hungry?”
Eddie hung his head in front of Theo’s, which made the kid laugh and try to push him away, definitely getting green ink all over his face since Buck still hadn’t learnt his lesson the first time when a red pen exploded all over his new sofa.
“Yes, please!” The four-year-old yelled through his giggles, so Eddie stood once again, ruffling the brunette curls before moving towards the kitchen.
As often as Eddie was over here, the kitchen was not a place he lingered very long.
There were nights where he’d sit at the island, watching as Buck rambled on about whatever facts he’d learned recently as he cooked or baked, but that was all he’d ever really done.
Which was why this was the first time he actually got to look up close at the number of drawings, pictures and magnets plastered to the fridge.
There was no doubt that Buckley was incredibly sentimental. The side-by-side of his and Chris’ drawings of hearts was one Eddie remembered fondly. The whole house was filled with framed photos of everyone, whilst the fridge was claimed by a number of Chris’ art projects and the numerous magnets Buck had collected whilst travelling.
One stood out more among the rest though, and it was enough for Eddie to pause after he’d fetched the strawberry-flavoured yogurt pouch.
It was much more colourful than the rest. The background was coloured blue and green and had obviously bled through the page, considering the large strokes of marker. In the centre were four very disproportionate stick figures with different things to identify them, although Eddie still had no clue who they each represented.
He took the picture with him whilst he moved back to the living room, having removed the lid from the pouch so Theo could eat it properly but not giving it to him until he finally said the word thank you. They were attempting to work on his manners.
“Hey, did you draw this?”
He placed the picture on the table, and that seemed to catch Theo’s full attention.
“Yeah!”
He smiled brighter than the sun, a trait he definitely took from his father, as he pointed to the different figures, naming them with excitement.
“This is me.” He pointed to a smaller figure with brown circles which was obviously supposed to depict his unruly hair.
“That’s Chris.” This stick was only slightly taller and had the same circles but in black now.
“That’s Buck.” His name was said properly, which further proved Eddie’s point that he’d been doing so on purpose. The figure had the same circles but in a pale yellow that wasn’t very visible considering the background.
“That’s you.”
And now Eddie felt like crying as Theo pointed to a taller stick figure with black lines coming out of its head and a straight one in front of its eyes, something which Buck had lovingly named his slut strand.
“That’s amazing, Theo.”
His voice was soft as he couldn’t stop himself from running his fingers over the lines, the boy obviously having put a lot of effort into the art piece considering there were indents in the page where he must’ve pushed the markers down harshly.
“It was for the family tree.”
And that made Eddie pause.
“The what?”
Eddie’s eyes lifted to meet the kid’s, but it was as though he’d already given enough attention to the man kneeling beside him and was now back to colouring his page.
“My family tree. I did it at school.”
“You put us on your family tree?”
“Yeah.”
Theo threw him a look as though he’d asked the stupidest question he’d heard in his four years of living.
And Eddie had to look away for just a moment in hopes that he could pull himself back together before facing the kid again. Because this meant the boy was okay.
Maybe not in the sense that everything is fine— because Eddie knows better than anyone that it isn’t all perfect when your regular routine had been whipped away from you after something so tragic —but it was all okay in the sense that Theo was adjusting. He was building a new life here which was new and something he deemed safe.
And that safety included them.
He had no doubt that Buck had cried when Theo told him the exact same thing.
Eddie couldn’t stop himself from hugging the boy tight and telling him it was beautiful, even though it was definitely not a masterpiece, but he’d never tell him that.
Moving back to the fridge to stick it back up proudly with the Peru magnet, right front and centre where it belongs.
It wasn’t until about an hour later when he was washing the breakfast plates up, because as much as Buck trusted the dishwasher, Eddie wasn’t so keen, that he looked back at the picture again, now going through the words which Theo had said and which had caused such a sense of pride just a few moments before.
Theo.
Chris.
Buck.
Me.
Family.
His hands halted where he was scrubbing a plate with a soft sponge, his head almost whipping towards the picture now that he’d looked away just slightly.
Family?
Eddie was well aware of how codependent he and Buckley tended to act. He’d rolled his eyes and laughed when Hen joked that he’d baby-trapped Buck into their friendship with Christopher. But he’d never really given the comments a second thought.
Now, standing in front of a drawing which an innocent child who didn’t understand those jokes and had never even heard them had made, Eddie was finally second-guessing those comments.
There was always a risk that Buck would one day find someone else. It was very likely considering how gorgeous his best friend was, and it wasn’t as though he was short of options considering his sexuality. And as much as Buck said he wasn’t interested since his focus was now on the toddler who lived under his care, Eddie would ignore the way his heart twisted whenever they went out with Ravi and Buck’s eyes would linger on a good-looking man or woman.
It’s not like they didn’t talk about who they dated but it was just that neither of them really dated anymore. Eddie had decided to focus on Chris after the whole Kim situation and realising that dating women sent him through a mild panic attack whenever things grew to be a bit more serious.
It would honestly be much better if they dated each other. They were practically already there, just without the sexual side of it, and Eddie definitely wouldn’t say no—
Wait, what?
His thoughts were quickly interrupted by an overly excited Theo as the kid came running into the kitchen on his toes, already moving towards the oven door to open it but being intercepted by Eddie’s cold, wet, soapy hands.
“What do you think you’re doing, mister?”
Theo held up a Play-Doh monstrosity as though that answered his question, which made his eyebrows raise.
The kid stomped away with a huff escaping his lips.
I want Buck to stay a single dad.
And that’s pretty much how his day continued.
Just before lunchtime, whilst Eddie prepared sandwiches with his mind wandering once more, he tried to continue the train of thought he’d halted quite abruptly previously.
It wasn’t like Eddie had hated Buck’s ex-partners. The majority of them had been too meaningless for him to even get to know or remember, and Eddie was well aware there’d been quite a few one-night stands or weekend flings before and even after their friendship had started.
Now, hated was quite an extreme way of describing it but he’d definitely come close when it came to Taylor Kelly and Tommy Kinard.
Now, the news anchor wasn’t that bad. He’d definitely disliked her whilst they were dating but that was only because of the way she used him for gossip to get good stories! Definitely nothing to do with the fact that she was stealing Buck’s attention away. Eddie had already been told that the two were actually still good friends. Buck had messaged her when he finally came out and he’d asked her for advice about dating men— which Eddie was only mildly upset about, but he understood that she definitely had more experience in that department.
Tommy Kinard had been a whole new story.
Eddie would try to say that he knew something was off from the beginning but that would be complete BS because they did get along before the older man started dating his best friend. He would say it was because Tommy just didn’t treat him right. He brought the man who doesn’t like basketball, game tickets for God’s sake! Although that had been a bonus for Eddie considering he’d been the one who got to enjoy them, and if he’d mentioned them slyly in his “thank you but good riddance” text he’d sent Tommy just before blocking him, well, that was no one’s business but his own.
And he wasn’t jealous—
A loud thumping noise interrupted him this time, and when he turned around to see Theo standing on the kitchen counter with a bar stool lying flat on the floor, Eddie’s heart may have dropped out his ass.
Grabbing the child quicker than it had probably taken him to climb up there, Theo tried to protest but Eddie was quick to shut him down.
“Theo, don’t you dare climb up there. What if you had hurt yourself?”
And the reprimand honestly felt slightly ironic, considering how they’d met the kid in the first place.
It hadn’t even been five hours when Buck first called, and Eddie had honestly lost count of the amount of times he and Theo had butted heads after the kid would do something insane and pull him out from his own mind.
They’d been the moment when he’d tried defending himself… to himself about why he wanted Buck to come home to only him, when Theo attempted to cut at his own hair with the kitchen scissors. Eddie honestly had no clue how he’d managed to get ahold of them— Buck really needed to babyproof his house.
Now Eddie could understand truly why Buck always looked so exhausted because taking care of Theo Riley was a full-time job.
“Hey! Is everything going okay?”
It felt as though every weight had been lifted from his shoulders when Buck’s face popped up on his screen through FaceTime, his voice spoken in a slightly hushed tone and, judging by the angle, he was in some type of locker room attempting to hide any other occupants. He was doing a brilliant job of it since Eddie could see every little sun-kissed freckle which sat over his cheeks and nose.
“Yeah, everything’s perfect.”
Eddie’s voice trailed off, his eyes jumping between the screen and Theo who was sitting at the kitchen table building LEGO as though the child could do anything more traumatic in the few seconds he paid more attention to his father than him.
“Are you sure? Do you need me to come home?”
Evan’s voice sounded panicked and Eddie was quick to stare into those partially cut-off big blue eyes once more.
“No, Buck, don’t be silly. You need to relax.” Eddie also needed to relax after these few hours. God knows after days of being stuck with the gremlin. “Christopher will be here in a few hours, then I’ll have backup from the monster.”
Theo sat, completely unphased, by being described as such, as though the devil incarnate was well aware of its status.
Buck seemed to hesitate for a moment, so Eddie was quick to distract him.
“How’s the spa?”
This seemed to release a Buckley tangent as he raved about the snack they were provided, the extra amenities they were allowed to bring home and what he had also grabbed for Eddie as though it was a consolation prize for not bringing him along, and about the big, buff man that had given him the best deep-tissue massage of his life.
I could give him an even better one with a happy—
For once, it wasn’t Theo who had distracted him from his suddenly dirty train of thought as he heard the older Buckley call for her younger brother through the screen.
“I have to go. Call me if you need anything, okay?”
The phone was finally pulled away from his face, and Eddie had to be quick to end the call when his cheeks tinted pink at the sight of a shirtless Evan Buckley jokingly making kissy faces at the camera as though he was saying goodbye to his boyfriend.
Huh, that sounds nice—
“Theo, put the superglue down!”
Christopher finally arrived around 2pm, which marked the six-and-a-bit-hour mark of him being alone with Satan’s spawn, which did seem like a slightly extreme term considering he’d come partly from his precious Buck, who was nothing like his son— although Chimney and Ravi would tell you differently.
The teenager strolled in after Eddie helped put his bags in Buck’s room for the time being. His hands immediately reached into the fridge for a drink and a blueberry yogurt pouch, since apparently Chris was the only one allowed to eat Theo’s favourite flavours, as though he lived here. And he basically did if you considered the spare bed in the toddler’s room.
And as though his son had a sixth sense for these types of things, his gaze turned to his dad and he paused before even beginning to tell him how camp went.
“What’s wrong?”
His voice carried that monotone which most teenagers developed towards their parents, more than likely not even that concerned but just itching to know what had happened.
“Nothing,” Eddie said back, although his voice cracked on the last syllable which told a whole different story.
Chris seemed to watch him for a moment with suspicion before shrugging and moving towards the living room, where Theo had moved back to after completing his LEGO build which looked nothing like the picture on the box.
“Hypothetically, do you think Buck would ever want to live with someone?”
“There it is.” Christopher spoke in a tired tone and halted his movements, sitting on the bar stool in front of him instead. “What did you just say?”
“I mean, hypothetically, do you think two people can be related without actually being related?”
His words were slightly rushed, fidgeting with his slightly green pen-stained top.
Christopher’s face scrunched in confusion, as though he didn’t understand a word his father was spouting.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Eddie let out an exasperated sigh as though he wasn’t the issue in this conversation. He was.
“I mean, do you think of Buck as family?”
“Yes.”
The answer shocked Eddie. As much as he was well aware of just how blunt a teenager could be— he’d been preparing for one for the past fifteen years —the kid answered with no hesitation.
“Really?”
“Duh.”
“Huh.” He knew there was no more answer he would get than that, so he continued. “Do you think Buck likes—”
“Dad, are you asking if you should marry Buck?”
And as much as Eddie wanted to push that question down to the deepest depths of his mind, the idea sounded kinda nice almost. It was as though Christopher had finally summarised just about everything he’d been thinking about all day, normally before he was rudely interrupted by the chaos that was Theo. Although the teenager was definitely a few extra steps ahead of what he’d been initially thinking.
“I think I’m in love with Buck.”
The statement had finally been said aloud after a revelation he’d only recently made a few hours before. It was as though his lips had moved before he had much time to stop them, and Eddie Diaz couldn’t help but feel a little petrified considering how quickly his last revelation— his dead wife’s doppelgänger —had crashed and burned.
“Glad you finally realised.”
And that monotone voice was quick to haunt him.
Eddie could feel his eyes widen in shock as the teenager in front of him simply started on the yogurt he’d finally managed to crack open.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The older Diaz felt as though he should feel at least slightly offended, considering the shrug which was thrown back at him.
“Everyone knows, Dad. You’re like, the last person to realise. You both aren’t exactly subtle.”
And as much as Eddie wanted to feel confused by the everyone part, the both word was what stuck in his head.
Before he could prod Chris much further, he couldn’t help but feel concerned when his kid’s eyes shifted to something behind him and his face scrunched in obvious confusion.
“Where did Theo get a dog?”
It was surprising that Eddie’s neck didn’t snap with how quickly his head moved to turn an almost complete 180 to take the smallest look out the window, which looked onto Buck’s back garden.
And there Theo stood, stroking a Great Dane that was double the kid’s size and watching Eddie through the windows almost menacingly.
It was nearing seven by the time Buck got home, and if Eddie wasn’t too exhausted to move, he would’ve thrown himself on his knees and begged the taller man to never leave again.
After Chris had finally managed to convince his father that the four-year-old wasn’t doing it on purpose and that he actually acted very similarly with Buck, and the blonde was in serious cahoots with a doctor about putting the kid on ADHD medication, Theo had finished his time-out for stealing the neighbour’s dog— who had been very gracious about it when they realised it was just a child wanting to play with him.
He’d eaten his dinner not mushed up, since naughty boys had to eat their broccoli whole as punishment for giving Eddie grey hair, before being quickly sent to bed with no bedtime story. Although Eddie was well aware that Christopher more than likely conjured one up off his own creative mind since he wasn’t as cruel as his father.
Buck had wandered into the living room where Eddie lay on his sofa, half hanging off it in an attempt to stretch his aching muscles.
“Was he that bad?”
It was asked apprehensively and full of guilt, which made Eddie quickly sit back on the couch properly.
“No, I promise. I’m just being overdramatic.”
Eddie was in fact not being overdramatic, but he hated a sad Buck, so he could put his big boy pants on and leave the complaints in the back of his mind until he was alone with Hen in the ambulance in a few days, where they were both sworn to secrecy.
Evan seemed to relax slightly as he moved to Theo’s room to say goodnight to his (nightmare) child and Eddie’s own stubborn teenager before more than likely changing into comfy clothes.
It was not even twenty minutes later when Buckley re-emerged with two cans of beer in hand, passing one to Eddie who smiled in gratitude.
Now Buck was well aware that something was wrong, and it seemed to seep a lot deeper than ‘your child made me rethink my entire life choices’, so Buck was quick to mention it.
“What’s wrong?”
He’d relaxed into his seat at this point, feeling very glad he did so considering the next words Eddie had spouted.
“Buck, I’ve been needing to talk to someone all day about this, and of course I can come to you. We’re best friends, right?” The words started rushed, his sentence finished before Buckley even had a chance to take a sip of his beer.
“Of course. Anything you need to tell me, I’ll listen.”
“Okay, so it started with that cute family tree picture, right? I asked Theo about it and didn’t really think much else but then it kinda spiralled from that.”
Buck had to think for just one second before his face softened when he remembered the drawing currently pinned to his fridge, not that he had any time to annotate about it.
“Then that got me thinking, wow, Theo is so right. We are like a little family. We are with each other 24/7, we take care of each other’s kids, we go grocery shopping together, we go on dates—”
And this is where Buck stopped listening and all he heard was white noise ringing through his ears.
Now, Evan Buckley was not dumb, but he wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either.
He was well aware that he’d found Eddie Diaz attractive the day he’d walked in to work just to spot the man changing through their glass windows, and the song Whatta Man seemed to play in his mind like his own church bells after seeing God for the first time. He’d pushed it down, being a jealous twenty-something-year-old with zero questions about his sexuality because he’d always been comfortable enough in his own masculinity to call another guy hot or to check out their ass, and trust him when he says Eddie Diaz has a nice one.
Those church bells had briefly played again when they’d had their touching moment, after their one-sided hatred, outside the ambulance and that anger finally blew up along with the vehicle, but Buck had just thought, ‘Wow, I finally have a friend my age I can rely on.’
There’d been many moments over the seven years they’d known each other where Evan Buckley would take a moment to think, Wait a minute, before brushing it off again. But since he’d broken off his first queer relationship, he’d finally taken more than just a moment to think it through.
Maybe it had started from Tommy’s snide remarks about their friendship, or from Maddie’s very blunt questioning in Eddie’s-turned-his kitchen at the time, or maybe it had been from one of their near-death experiences, when Buck genuinely debated if he could honestly live in a world where his best friend wasn’t beside him.
But he had soon come to the realisation that yes, he was in love with Eddie Diaz.
And as much as he hid behind the argument of ‘Eddie’s straight’, listening to him ramble about the chaotic day he’d had as though he was speaking without thinking first, Buck was slowly realising that maybe that argument wasn’t so valid anymore.
“Are you confessing to me right now?” Buck asked with a hesitant tone, cutting Eddie off from his rambling.
Eddie did pause for just a second, that hesitation still sticking to him like the superglue Theo had attempted to use earlier, but he was quick to remember the ‘both’ word which Chris had used earlier.
“Maybe… Is that okay?”
Brown irises finally lifted to meet blue ones with a hesitant smile on his lips.
“You know I’ve been in love with you for years, right?”
The two were now leaning closer, as though their bodies instinctively magnetised towards one another.
“…No.”
Buck let out a little laugh at Eddie’s confused expression.
“You could’ve said something.”
Buckley rolled his eyes fondly, and Eddie so badly wished to make the joke of them staying like that, but he was interrupted by a gentle pair of lips meeting his own in one small kiss, his hands instinctively pulling at Buck’s lounge shirt neckline in an attempt to pull him back down again.
“I thought you knew,” Buck spoke softly, considering they were basically sitting on top of each other.
And as their lips met again in a much deeper kiss, one of Eddie’s hands winding around the back of his best friend’s, soon-to-be-boyfriend’s, neck whilst the other gently held his cheek, Evan’s own hands pulling at Eddie’s waist. Eddie tried not to think about how perfectly they sat there, which was very difficult not to.
With their eyes closed, Eddie couldn’t help but picture that abhorrent stick-figure drawing once again, and suddenly it felt like he understood it.
All day he’d been debating whether Theo had truly predicted something which had resulted in him spiralling and what may have ended in his downfall.
But he was obviously drawing something that he’d already believed to be true.