Archive of Our Own

“Hey Buck, you forget something this morning?”

Buck stopped in his tracks at Chimney’s question. He looked down at his uniform then patted his pockets but found nothing out of place.

“Uh, no …?”

Chimney was standing at the kitchen island smirking while Hen sipped her coffee and tilted her head sympathetically.

“You don’t have Eddie with you,” she said.

“Oh,” Buck waved the question off and headed towards the coffee pot. “We took separate cars this morning. I’m going straight to Maddie and Chim’s after work to watch the kids.”

A joyous smile broke out on Chimney’s face at the reminder and he wrapped his arms around Buck’s frame. “And we love you for that oh brother-in-law of mine!”

“Love me after I’ve had my coffee please,” Buck requested, squirming out of his grasp.

“So it’s been awhile since you went out?” Hen guessed from Chimney’s reaction.

“We haven’t had a date night since Nash was born. I’m dying for a conversation with my wife that’s not about diapers or Bluey. Well maybe just diapers, Bluey’s great. Oh we filled the fridge with all the gross snacks you like for the night.”

Buck raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the description of his food. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Chim said proudly. “Eddie should thank me too for getting you out of his house for the night for once.”

“It’s our house,” Buck corrected then faltered and back tracked. “You know, for now.”

It was true, Buck and Eddie had both been living in Eddie’s house for the past three months, but in his defense, Eddie had insisted he not move out right away after he came back from Texas.

“Look Eddie, I know you think you owe me for the whole sublet thing but this is your house and you don’t need me in your limited amount of space, you know,” Buck had said while standing in the living room filled with both their things the day after Eddie got back from El Paso.

“What if I want you in my space?” Eddie had countered, his face serious. “We got a lot of catching up to do, and you’re over here all the time anyway.”

“Coming over for dinner and hanging out isn’t the same as living here,” Buck said.

“I know. It doesn’t have to be permanent but just stay for a little while. I … I hate the thought of you being alone right now.”

Buck had swallowed heavily at this, Bobby’s death loomed over both their heads, painting the joy of Eddie’s return with a grief-stricken brush. But in the end Buck couldn’t disagree: he didn’t want to be alone right now either.

“Okay, I’ll stay. But just for a little while.”

Buck had thought he was going to stay for a couple of weeks at most, but they had been living together for three months now with no end in sight and no limit to how much they could entangle themselves in each other’s lives. Buck cooked on their nights off, Eddie did both their laundry, they drove into work together most days, Buck hadn’t looked at a single house listing and neither of them were complaining about any of it. If Buck had it his way, he might not ever leave.

“I feel bad that I didn’t drive him in,” Buck admitted to Chimney and Hen, “He’s been dealing with some stuff the past few days.”

“What kind of stuff?” Hen asked. Before Buck could answer a voice boomed through the station.

“REPRESENTATIVE!”

“That kind of stuff,” Buck said with a wince.

They all turned as Eddie stomped up the stairs, phone pressed hard against his ear. He made a beeline for the kitchen and threw his phone on the counter while growling at the back of his throat.

“Your call is important to us, please stay on the line,” a tinny female voice said from the speaker, presumably not for the first time.

Eddie pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes.

“She’s been saying that since I got up,” Eddie sighed in frustration through his fingers.

“It’s almost like your call’s not important to her at all,” Chimney said. Eddie dropped his hands and glared at him. Buck handed him a cup of coffee to try and help.

“Thanks,” Eddie muttered as he took it.

“Who have you been trying to call for …” Hen looked at the call time on Eddie’s phone in shock “… two hours?”

“Our insurance company,” Eddie said. “Christopher had physiotherapy the other day and the claim wouldn’t go through. They didn’t know why, said I’d have to call.”

“Did you get a new physio?” Chim asked.

Eddie shook his head. “Same one we’ve always gone to. Never had a problem until now.”

“Chim, is there any kind of priority number for Captains we could try?” Buck asked.

Chim scoffed. “I wish. As far as our insurance is concerned I’m a lowly peasant just like the rest of you.”

“Nice,” Hen said. “Why is …”

“Thank you for holding,” a human voice suddenly said from Eddie’s phone. “My name is Jessica, how may I help you?”

“Jessica hi! I’m here!” Eddie shouted, scrambling to pick up his phone and take it off speaker. “Hi. Yes. I had an issue with a claim going through for my son the other day.”

As he spoke Eddie wandered off towards the couches for privacy, though the rest of the team followed with their eyes.

“Is everything okay?” Hen said, turning to Buck with no doubt that he would know the whole story. “I don’t remember Christopher needing physiotherapy much before.”

“He hasn’t had to go in a few years. Eddie learned all the exercises he needed when he was a kid and was doing them with him every week at home. At least while he was here in LA. Eddie’s parents on the other hand,” Buck said with unconcealed vitriol, “told Chris that he was plenty strong and didn’t need to do them. He could focus on chess or some crap instead of walking on his own. Now he gets exhausted super fast on his crutches and he’s in pain too. He has to use to his wheelchair at school sometimes.”

“Oh geez,” Chim said. “And he’s only just going back to physio now?”

“Eddie tried doing his old exercises with him when he got back but they haven’t been helping. The physiotherapist said his muscles atrophied too much in Texas and his bones may have shifted in some places cause he grew like half a foot while he was out there. They gotta come up with a whole new workout regiment, it’s going to be two or three sessions a week for the foreseeable future.”

Chim whistled through his teeth. “That’s not gonna be cheap.”

“No,” Buck said, his shoulders tense with anger. “And if the physio doesn’t help he might need surgery.”

“Also not cheap,” Chimney said.

“Thus, the call with the insurance company,” Buck said.

“Poor Christopher,” Hen said, shaking her head sympathetically.

“Poor Eddie,” Chimney said, “he might have to pay for it all out of pocket.”

“I’m sure he’ll get it sorted it out,” Buck said hopefully but his face fell when he looked across the room and saw Eddie hang up the phone, throw it on the table and drop his head into his hands.

“Oh no,” Buck muttered, putting down his coffee and rushing across the loft. “Eddie, what happened?”

“I fucked up,” Eddie said miserably, eyes closed, head still in his hands.

“Well what did they say, maybe … maybe we can unfuck it,” Buck said, gesturing towards Chim and Hen to help him out as they followed behind him.

“Sure, or fix it even,” Chimney said, making a face at Buck’s word choice.

Eddie lifted his head.

“There’s nothing to fix, it wasn’t a mistake. The department changed our health insurance plan a few years ago, it no longer covers ‘non-emergency care for pre-existing conditions for dependents’,” Eddie said, his tone icy as he quoted what the agent had told him. “They won’t cover Chris’s physio, or his surgery if he needs it.”

“What? When did they change our plan?” Hen asked. “They have to tell us about that.”

“Yeah, I didn’t hear about this,” Buck agreed.

“Oh your plan didn’t change,” Eddie said, his tone angry and self-deprecating. “Current employees all got to keep the good one, you’re grand-fathered in, the shitty plan is only for new hires. And guess who quit their job to move to Texas after he fucked up his life then came back?”

“No, that’s crazy, you’re not a new hire! You’re old, you’re really old,” Buck said, then looked at Chim, “Right?”

“Technically, no. He didn’t transfer Buck, he quit. Got an ROE and everything. I had to put his paperwork through as a new hire when he came back,” Chimney said with an apologetic shrug.

“Well maybe you can change it, say he was on leave or a sabbatical or something,” Buck suggested. “Eddie needs the good plan.”

“I don’t think insurance companies play that way but I can try,” Chimney said, then offered Eddie an assuring nod. “I’ll call HR right now.”

“Thanks Chim, I appreciate it,” Eddie said but didn’t sound hopeful. While Chimney retreated to his office, Buck sat down on the couch next to Eddie and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I can’t believe I fucked up his life again,” Eddie muttered, his words tinged with a self-hatred that hurt Buck’s soul.

“Hey, this isn’t your fault,” Buck said. “It’s … it’s our union’s fault for agreeing to all this. We … we really gotta read those notices that they send out more closely. Vote on more stuff.”

Eddie huffed out a laugh and offered Buck a half-amused smile which made Buck’s chest loosen up and his shoulders relax.

“What will you do about Christopher, if Chim can’t get it changed?” Hen asked.

Eddie shrugged. “He needs that physio. I’ll figure something out. I could do Uber again on my days off.”

“You’d be exhausted,” Buck said, instantly upset.

“I don’t have a lot of options, I lost a ton of money moving across the country, twice. Also my fault. Christopher’s not paying for my mistakes, not again.”

“So you’re going to literally pay for them?” Buck asked.

“Yes. Out of pocket if I have to,” Eddie said, determined to fix this his own way. Next to him, Buck squared his shoulders, equally determined to help him.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

A few hours later, Buck was facing a different problem; his niblings were too cute.

“Maddie I’m sorry you’re not going to have any kids left when you get back,” Buck said as he squished his lips against Robert’s fat baby cheeks. “I’m gonna eat them both up.”

Robert squealed in delight as Buck gnawed on him jokingly and Maddie rolled her eyes.

“Please don’t, we got your gross snacks in the fridge to stop your cannibalism,” she said as she fixed her jewelry.

“Why does everyone keep calling my snacks gross?”

“They’re kale and they jiggle,” Chim answered as he came into the living room, dressed in a nice button up for their date, “It’s gross.”

Buck shrugged. He couldn’t argue with that. “Hey, did you hear back from HR about Eddie?”

Chim’s face dropped and Buck knew the answer before he spoke. “Yeah, they said insurance won’t budge. He’s a new hire and he gets the new plan and that’s that.”

“Dammit,” Buck said. “It’s gonna cost him a fortune.”

“What’s going on with Eddie?” Maddie asked.

“His insurance plan changed and it won’t cover Christopher’s CP expenses anymore,” Buck said.

“Oh god, that’s terrible,” Maddie said, then turned to Chimney urgently, “Your plan didn’t change did it? Should we move the kids under my insurance at dispatch?”

“My plan is the same, relax, the kids are safe, unless Buck eats them,” he assured her, rubbing her shoulders to calm her down.

“My hero,” she said.

“You can just choose whose plan the kids are under?” Buck asked.

“Well yeah, that’s the nice thing about having different jobs, one of us usually gets better perks on something than the other,” Maddie said, “We’re always saving money somewhere.”

“Now that we’re married we are anyway,” Chimney said.

“Oof, yeah, we shouldn’t have waited so long. We saved so much on our taxes this year, that accountant guy was right,” Maddie said.

“Really,” Buck muttered, his eyes drifting away in thought.

“Okay we have to get going to make our reservation,” Maddie said, pulling on her coat. “Jee’s been fed, Robert has milk in the fridge and our phones will be on if you need anything.”

“I got this, go have fun,” Buck told her, shooing them both out of the door.

“Thanks Buck-a-roo, we appreciate it. Don’t eat our children!” Chimney called out.

“No guarantees,” Buck said from the doorway. As they got in their car he waved good-bye, then waved again with Robert’s tiny arm and almost made Maddie cry.

Once they were gone he settled in on the couch. Jee was already in bed and Robert seemed content to lay on his chest, so Buck pulled out his phone and started googling.

Marriage benefits California.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Eddie wasn’t great at math. He wasn’t terrible at it, but it wasn’t one of his strengths. He barely used numbers in his life after all, unless you counted memorizing the ignition point of a few dozen different chemicals for his job. That knowledge wasn’t helping him work out a budget to go with his new medical expenses though. To be fair, the budgeting program he had open on his computer wasn’t really helping with that either.

“What do I do with a pie chart?” he muttered, staring at the multi-colored circle and trying to parse its secrets. God he hated technology. He was having better luck with the notepad next to him that he scratched up with numbers. At least he knew what all that meant.

Just as he opened yet another help window he heard the front door open and could practically feel the hum of energy that meant Buck was home.

“Eddie! Hey Eddie!” Buck said, bounding into the room so fast you would think Eddie was trying to run away instead of sitting at the dining room table on his laptop.

“One second, I’m just working on something,” he said, not looking up as he scrolled through the help page.

He felt more than saw when Buck rounded the table and looked over his shoulder to see what he was working on.

“Is this a budgeting program? You’re not gonna need that,” he said with a smug smile then closed Eddie’s laptop triumphantly.

Eddie sat up straight and glared at his best friend. “I was using that.”

“But you don’t need it, I figured out how to solve your insurance problem.”

Eddie stayed in his seat but put one hand on his hip. “Oh you did?”

“Yes!”

“And am I going to like this solution?” Eddie asked, eyebrows raised with an air of skepticism.

Buck faltered. “Well you … you just have to keep an open mind! And hear me out.”

“I swear to god if the words Only Fans come out of your mouth …”

“What? No! I mean … you’d be great at it, we can talk about it if you want, but no, that wasn’t my idea.”

Eddie breathed a sigh of relief. “Fine, my mind’s open, what’s your idea?”

“We get married!” Buck said, fingers splayed out in excitement at his own words.

Eddie’s eyes went wide. He blinked several times. His jaw opened and shut.

“… to each other?” he asked after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah,” Buck said.

Eddie made a considerate humming noise, nodded, then turned around and re-opened his computer. “And my mind’s closed again. Good talk.”

“Eddie,” Buck whined, “at least consider it.”

He turned back around. “Okay, how would us … getting married … help me exactly?”

“Because I still have the good insurance plan. So if we get married Chris can be my dependent, then we can put him under my plan and his physio will get paid for again.”

Eddie pulled back a little like he was actually struck by how good an idea that was. Buck could see him putting the pieces in place, watched as his brows knit together in thought, and saw him lean forward, on the precipice of agreeing until …

“No! We can’t just get married!” Eddie said, standing up abruptly and pacing the kitchen.

“Why not?” Buck asked, hands on hips like Eddie was being the unreasonable one.

“For a million reasons Buck!”

“Give me one.”

“It’s fraud!” Eddie said, hands held out like it should be obvious.

“No!” Buck pointed his finger back. “No, it’s only fraud if we lie. If we actually go to the courthouse and get the paperwork done then we’re just legally married. We’re fine. I think.”

“Oh you think, well I’m sure there wouldn’t be an insurance investigation against us then,” Eddie said, obviously sarcastically.

“Who’s going to investigate two firefighters over a few thousand in physio bills? Besides, HR has it on file that we’ve been living together ever since you got back from Texas. On paper it would look totally legit,” Buck said.

Eddie paused his pacing, once again shook by Buck’s reasoning.

“That’s true,” he said, thinking it over, then he shook his head again. “No, we can’t. Getting married, that’s like … a permanent thing.”

“So is Chris’s CP. He’s always going to have high medical bills, you’ll be drowning in debt if he’s not on a good insurance plan.”

“I’m very aware of that, but what about us, if … if one of us meets someone? Come on Buck, I know you. You want to get married for real someday.”

“Maybe someday but, we’ll just get a divorce you know, if it comes to that. I think we’d both make it pretty amicable. Hell if we never consummate the marriage we could probably just get an annulment,” Buck said with an awkward laugh and immediately regretted it as he saw Eddie turn away and his face go red. Okay, no more talking about consummating, he agreed with himself, and moved on. “Come on Eddie, I’d be a great husband.”

“I know that, that’s not the issue,” Eddie promised him without hesitation.

“Well then what’s the problem? It’s a good plan. It would work.”

But Eddie shook his head again. “No, I can’t let you do that for me. You already sublet this place for me so I could move I’m not … I’m not taking this from you too. It’s too much.”

Buck shrugged. “Who says I’m not going to get anything out of it?”

Eddie stilled, almost like he was scared his argument would fall apart. “What would you get out of it?”

“Tax breaks. Chim and Maddie told me they saved $17,000 a year on their taxes once they got married. So, we get married, you get to save a ton on Chris’s medical bills, I get to claim some tax breaks, we both save a bunch of money and nobody gets hurt.”

Eddie’s jaw was slack again. “$17,000?”

“Yeah, that’s what they said.”

“Jesus,” Eddie muttered, then turned away, eyes on the ceiling as he thought everything over. Buck gave him a second, watching yet again as he considered the ramifications of what Buck was offering. After a few moments of silence Eddie turned to face him full on, legs square and stance sturdy as he took a deep breath.

“There’s one thing you haven’t considered,” Eddie said, looking at Buck like he was the one who was about to say they couldn’t do this, “We’d have to tell the team we got married.”

Buck faltered for the first time and started shaking his head, almost against his will. “Why … no … why ..why would we do that? It could just be our secret, we’ll … we’ll just go to the courthouse. We don’t have to tell anyone. It’s not their business.”

Eddie shook his head because Buck was wrong.

“In order to get our insurance changed we have to file our paperwork with HR, and all of our HR paperwork has to go through our captain,” Eddie said, eyes wide like he was sure Buck would see the problem with this.

Buck groaned. He immediately saw the problem with this.

“And our captain is Chimney, who can’t keep a secret to save his life.”

Eddie nodded in agreement, “So if we do this then Chim will have to know, then Hen will know, then Karen, then Athena, then Harry, then May, then Ravi, and of course Maddie will know before any of them, so whether we tell them or not, the team finds out.”

Buck took a deep breath and physically shook his body to tamp down the panic that wanted to run through him at the thought of Maddie finding out he had married Eddie. God the teasing would be non-stop.

“That’s fine,” he said eventually, his jaw tight against the words he was forcing out.

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “Is it?”

“Yes,” Buck said more definitively. “Yes they’ll make fun of us but we’ll explain to them why we’re doing it. They’ll understand, they’ll get it. In a pinch they’ll help us sell it to HR if they have to.”

“And you’re prepared to be made fun of, a lot?”

“I don’t know if you’ve been to the 118, but I already get made fun of, a lot. At least this time it would be for a good reason. Something I’m proud of.”

Eddie’s face softened. “Being married to me?”

“Yeah,” Buck said, no hesitation.

Eddie ducked his head at this and bit his lip, his face flushing red again. He shook his head, almost in disbelief, but when he looked up he smiled.

“Well then I guess I could also handle being made fun of … for being married to you.”

A huge smile broke out across Buck’s face.

“Seriously?”

“Yes. God help me, but yes, I’ll marry you,” Eddie said and Buck felt like his heart might explode with joy. “For insurance reasons.”

“Yeah, right, for insurance reasons, of course,” Buck said, but couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

He was marrying Eddie, for insurance reasons, and if it felt like one of the best days of his life, well that was his business.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

They spent the rest of the night researching the quickest, most legally binding way to get married in Los Angeles, Eddie’s medical bills were piling up at this point after all, they needed to do this fast. It turned out that every Friday there was a budget option at the courthouse where you get married at the license counter instead of waiting to book the entire chapel, which meant the whole ordeal would cost them about $125 for a marriage certificate and twenty minutes of their time. It felt a little surreal, but they filled out the online form and booked the appointment for Friday, which was four days away. Now they just had to tell all their friends.

As luck would have it they were all scheduled to have dinner at Chimney and Maddie’s the next night. It was their second wedding anniversary and that would normally be something a couple celebrated alone, but the two still felt bad that their wedding reception had been cake in a hospital room so invited everyone over for supper.

After Jee and Nash were tucked into bed, Buck, Eddie, Chimney, Maddie, Hen and Karen sat around the dining room table, enjoying wine and dessert.

“You know I think I like this better than a big reception,” Hen said, holding her wine up contently and leaning into Karen’s shoulder. “Just a beautiful night with the people that really matter.”

Chimney and Maddie nodded in agreement.

“You’re right,” Maddie said, “we should have followed our gut and just had the ceremony here like we had planned. Small, intimate.”

“And that way you don’t lose a fortune on your venue deposit if you get a deadly disease the day before your wedding,” Chimney added.

The group chuckled lightly followed by a lull in the conversation. Buck and Eddie made brief eye contact and nodded. It was time.

“On that topic, uh, since we’re all here,” Eddie said, clearing his throat awkwardly and gripping the stem of his wine too tightly, “Buck and I have something to tell you all. We … well … uh …”

“We’re getting married!” Buck said, cutting Eddie off.

Every jaw at the table dropped. Maddie choked on her wine.

“For insurance purposes!” Eddie said, putting up a hand to hold back the tide of questions they were about to be hit with. He turned to Buck and glared. “I told you we had to open with the insurance.”

Buck shrugged apologetically. “I got excited.”

“You’re … getting married?” Maddie repeated slowly.

“For insurance purposes,” Eddie said again.

“Remember I was telling you how Eddie’s plan doesn’t cover Chris’s expenses anymore?” Buck said, looking at Maddie now, “Well my plan does, so we’re going to get married and put Chris under my insurance. Eddie saves money on Chris’s medical bills, I claim a bunch of tax breaks. It’s not a big deal.”

“So you two, Buck and Eddie, Eddie and Buck, are getting married, like legally married … but just to save money?” Hen asked incredulously, her finger waving between the two of them. “That’s … that’s the only reason?”

“Yeah,” Buck said, shrugging like it was no big deal.

“When are you doing this?” Chimney asked, still blinking in shock.

“Friday,” Eddie answered.

“Friday!?” Maddie practically shouted.

“We have an appointment at the courthouse. Look, you don’t have to plan anything, or come, we’re not having a party or a reception, we’re just signing some papers. We just wanted to tell you guys cause, well, we have to tell Chim cause he has to file our HR paperwork, so ...”

“So you might as well tell all of us,” Hen said, finishing Buck’s thought.

“Okay. Do we … congratulate you guys on getting married?” Karen asked, struggling with the situation.

Eddie twisted his mouth, unsure. “Um, sure, I guess. You …”

“You can congratulate us on saving a bunch of money,” Buck said with a too loud laugh ringing with manic tension and slapping Eddie hard on the back. “Right, man?”

“Yeah, right,” Eddie said but his brow was furrowed in a way that said he was having second thoughts.

“Buck, can I talk to you in the other room?” Maddie asked, tilting her head to the doorway. Her tone was sweet but her gaze was so intense that Buck was scared to be alone with her.

“We’re all talking right here,” he said.

“The other room, now!” she said, leaving no room for argument as she stood up from the table.

“If she kills me, I’m sorry I never got to marry you,” Buck whispered to Eddie as he got up.

“Can I have your life insurance if she does?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then we’re good,” Eddie said, waving him off from the table.

Buck had barely rounded the corner into the living room before Maddie stepped into his space.

“Are you crazy? You can’t marry Eddie.”

Buck huffed. “Why not?”

“Because you’re in love with him,” she said like it was obvious.

“Most people would say that’s a great reason to marry somebody,” Buck said smugly then backtracked when he saw the anger on her face. “But it’s not like that. Eddie is my best friend, but I’m not in love with him. I love him the same way I love Hen, or Chim, or maybe even Ravi. I’m just his friend, doing him a favor.”

Maddie sighed, her eyes sad. “This is a huge favor Buck.”

“Well, I’m a very good friend. And you know, people say you should marry your best friend. You say that you did all the time.”

“Yes, Chim is my best friend and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you just lost Bobby and I think you might be latching on here. I think you’re doing this because you’re scared to be alone again. Marriage is a huge deal, you have to do it for the right reasons.”

Buck listened to what she had to say, then shrugged.

“There’s no wrong reason to marry Eddie.”

Maddie exhaled and her shoulders sagged. “I’m not going to talk you out of this.”

“No. I promised Eddie I’d help him out. I can’t let him down.”

“I know, I just don’t want to see you get hurt.” She waved her arms in surrender, not able to fight against the current that always pulled Buck to Eddie. “But I do want to see you happy. Can I come to the ceremony then? Might be my only chance to see my little brother get hitched.”

“Yeah, of course,” he said, his voice suddenly tight with emotion. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted his sister there. “We’re allowed to have two witnesses. You can bring Chim.”

“We’ll be there,” she promised.

Buck pulled her into a hug. “Thanks.”

“Of course. But we can’t tell Jee. If she finds out she missed another chance to be a flower girl she’ll never get over it.”

“Deal,” he said with a smile.

They walked back out to the dining room to find Chim, Hen and Karen huddled around Eddie as he scribbled furiously on a notepad.

“Hey, you’re alive,” Eddie said with a grin as Buck sat back down next to him.

“Yeah, she was merciful. What are you doing?”

“Tax tips,” Hen said.

Eddie angled the paper so Buck could see it.

“Everyone had different ones so I’m writing them all down. The most important one is to make you head of household, then you’re going to save the most money.”

Buck smiled. “You don’t have to do that.”

“You’re helping me, I’m helping you.”

“Sounds great,” Buck said, then leaned back happily in his chair. “Evan Buckley, Head of the Diaz Household. I like the sound of that.”

“Oh no, his non-existent power’s already gone to his head,” Chim said.

Buck leaned over and pushed his shoulder against Eddie’s. “Does this mean I get to decide what we watch on TV?”

“Only on Tuesdays.”

“You play basketball Tuesdays, you’re never home.”

Eddie grinned. “Exactly.”

“Fine,” Buck said and fell back in his chair indignantly.

Chimney sat down next to Maddie and leaned towards her to whisper, “Not even married and he’s already whipped. Should we worry?”

Maddie looked over at her brother and saw the twinkle of laughter hidden behind his put upon huff, the ease with which he joked with Eddie, the joy that had been making him glow all night.

“No, we shouldn’t.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

The next step was to tell Chris, which was non-negotiable for Eddie.

“I promised him no more lies after Texas, I can’t …” Eddie hadn’t even been able to formulate how much it would destroy him if he broke Chris’s trust again.

“Hey, I get it, of course. We’ll tell him when he’s back from school,” Buck said.

“Okay,” Eddie nodded but was still pacing nervously. “Except, I don’t want him to feel bad about the physio bills. Like it’s his fault or something, cause it’s not.”

“I get that. What if we told him we’re just getting married to save money on taxes? I mean, that part’s true, he doesn’t know about the insurance change, right?”

“No, I haven’t told him. I’m worried he’d stop going to physio.”

“I think he would too and he needs those sessions,” Buck said and could see that the prospect of telling Chris a half-truth was weighing on Eddie. “Look, I know you want to be honest, and there are some things you have to tell your kids, but complete financial transparency isn’t one of them. I mean, does he even understand what insurance is?”

“In theory, maybe?” Eddie shrugged, looking visibly more relieved at Buck’s words. “But I’ve never told him what any of it costs.”

“And that’s okay. Kids don’t need to know that stuff. Kids just need to be kids, you know.”

Eddie breathed out a laugh and nodded, reassured. “Yeah. Thanks Buck.”

So they told Chris after dinner and it went … fine?

“You’re getting married, for money?” Chris said in disbelief after a long stumbling monologue from Eddie about tax breaks.

“Pretty much. Yeah,” Eddie said, Buck sitting next to him and nodding emphatically in agreement.

“That’s not very romantic,” Chris said, sounding almost disappointed in them.

Buck laughed in agreement. “No, it’s not. It’s not that kind of marriage. We’re not having a ceremony or anything. We’ll just be married on paper.”

“But we still wanted you to know,” Eddie said with extreme emphasis.

Chris squinted his eyes. “So, what’s going to change?”

Eddie and Buck both faltered and looked at each other. What was going to change? They already lived together. Buck was already helping to raise Christopher. Eddie already put Buck in his will. They already shared their lives with each other in almost every possible sense.

“Uh, nothing I guess,” Eddie said slowly with some realization.

“Yeah, uh, not a whole lot,” Buck agreed.

Chris took a moment to absorb this then nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Eddie repeated, needing to make sure he meant it.

“Nothing’s going to change except you save a bunch of money. It’d be weird to be mad about that,” Chris said.

“Well, great,” Eddie said, happy but waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then Chris looked up at him innocently and shrugged. “Will you save enough for a trip to Disneyland?”

Eddie and Buck both laughed, the tension broken.

“There it is,” Buck said.

“We’ll see,” Eddie added. “No promises.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Shortly after telling Chris about their impending nuptials they had to leave for a night shift and braced themselves for the first round of roasting from their friends. Thankfully Hen and Chim were silent about the whole marriage thing since it was technically still a secret, and hadn’t actually happened yet. It was a short shift, painfully uneventful, except for when Buck came downstairs to find Eddie rifling through his turnouts.

“What are you doing?” Buck asked, startling Eddie into shoving Buck’s uniform back in its cubby hole.

“Nothing, just uh … making sure everything’s here, that you need,” Eddie said nervously.

Buck quirked up an eyebrow. “Where else would it be?”

“Knowing you, anywhere,” Eddie said cryptically. Buck opened his mouth in confusion and Eddie took the opportunity to literally run away. “I gotta go make dinner.”

“It’s my turn!”

“Not anymore!” Eddie called out before he disappeared up the steps.

Buck let him go then shook out his turnouts. Nothing seemed out of place and he shook his head. He had no idea what Eddie was up to. He found out the next day.

Eddie left around noon to go play basketball, making a dramatic display of leaving Buck “the head of the Diaz household” with the TV remote before he left.

He came home a few hours later, looking distinctly put together and not like a man who had played basketball in the LA sun.

“Oh shit, they didn’t let you play?” Buck guessed, noticing the lack of sweat on him immediately.

“No, I didn’t go,” Eddie said, laughing lightly before he shuffled closer nervously. “I had to run an errand. Um … here. I got you this.”

Eddie held out a small box, making Buck’s lips turn up in intrigue.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Easy way to find out,” Eddie said, wiggling the box closer to tempt Buck to open it.

“Okay, okay.” Buck took the box from Eddie’s outstretched fingers and opened it. There was a gold ring inside. A wedding ring.

“Oh,” he said. He hadn’t expected that. “Wow. I … thank you, Eddie it’s … wait no. The whole point of this was to save money. Do you know what gold costs right now?”

Eddie laughed and shook his head fondly. “It’s not gold, Buck.”

Buck looked down at the ring again, the shine was a little off. He touched it and felt it collapse under his fingers.

“It’s silicone,” Eddie continued, “I got one for me too. A matching one. I figured we needed something for the ceremony and we can wear these at work.”

The ceremony. Right. Eddie had bought them matching rings because they were getting married in 48 hours. They were going to have a wedding ceremony. They were going to be husbands. The thought made Buck feel like he was going to cry from joy and have a panic attack simultaneously.

“That’s smart,” he said instead. “They’re nice, classy.”

He took it out of the box and slipped it on his ring finger, surprised when it went on smooth and secure.

“Oh wow, it fits great. Did you … measure my finger in my sleep?”

“No!” Eddie said, incredulously like that would be weird. “I checked what size of glove you wear in your turnouts and did the math from there.”

Buck smiled, touched at his thoughtfulness and relieved to have that mystery solved. “So that’s what you were doing. You could have just asked.”

Eddie raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Do you know your ring size?”

“No,” Buck realized, “but I have a measuring tape.”

“I don’t want to know what you’ve used that tape for if you don’t know your ring size.”

“Hey!” Buck protested, then thought about it. “Fair.”

He took the ring off and put it back in the box, admiring it for a moment and what it meant.

“Thank you for this. I’m not sure how I feel about being lied to though. Chris gets the truth about everything and I get told you’re playing basketball when you’re not.”

“I didn’t lie,” Eddie said emphatically. “At least not on purpose. I thought I’d have time to do both.”

Buck smiled, believing him. “What held you back?”

“I couldn’t find one that looked like you. I wanted it to be right.”

Buck exhaled and felt his heart lurch at the sincerity in Eddie’s voice.

Suddenly Buck wanted to kiss him.

What the fuck?

He pushed that desire down and smiled shakily. “Well you nailed it. I love it. I can’t wait to put it on!”

“Friday,” Eddie said, like he also couldn’t wait. The day they were going to get married. For insurance purposes.

“Friday.”

~|~|~|~|~

Friday.

Their wedding appointment wasn’t until 1pm which gave them all morning to nervously pace around the house looking for chores to do to fill the time. Eddie went for a run. Buck dug up the tomato plants in the backyard that were refusing to grow properly and replaced them with basil. Chris went to school and wished them a happy wedding day.

Around noon they both retreated to get changed out of their sweaty clothes. It was only then Buck realized they hadn’t actually discussed what they were going to wear, just what they wouldn’t.

“Too bad our Miami Vice suits got ruined. That would have been quite a courthouse look,” Buck had said the night before as they drank beers on the couch.

“It’s for the best. I’d hate to get divorced because we couldn’t agree which one of us was Crockett.”

Buck sat up straighter and held out his beer like he was making a proclamation. “Well, as Head of the Diaz Household, I officially declare myself as Crockett.”

Eddie pursed his lips and tilted his head in disagreement. “If only the Diaz household was in Miami, that might actually work.”

“I’m starting to think this Head of Household thing doesn’t hold any actual power?” Buck huffed.

“You’re only just starting to realize that? Remind me to communicate more clearly once we’re married,” Eddie said.

Buck brought this beer to his lips to hide the wide grin that broke out across his face at the thought.

Now they were scheduled to leave for the courthouse in a few minutes and Buck was hesitating on his outfit. He knew what he wanted to wear but didn’t want to go overboard – it wasn’t a real wedding after all, he reminded himself. Whatever, the outfit was clean and pressed, he’d put it on and if he saw he was overdressed compared to Eddie he’d change.

They both ended up walking into the hallway at the same time, looked each other up and down, paused, then broke into laughter.

“Okay, so we both had the same idea,” Eddie said shaking his head in disbelief.

“I guess,” Buck agreed. It did seem unlikely. They had both chosen to wear the same suits they wore to play poker a few years ago. Buck couldn’t explain it, it had just felt right.

“Well, we both look equally good at the very least.”

“Equally?” Buck said affronted as he fixed the cuffs of his suit jacket. “I look amazing.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow and held out his arms, showing off the tapered cut of his blazer around his waist. “And I don’t?”

He looked better than amazing. He looked sexy as hell.

Dammit, Buck wasn’t allowed to think that.

“No, you do, yeah. You look great,” Buck said, his voice suddenly too quiet and sincere. It made Eddie stop in his tracks and smile, soft and warm.

“You too,” Eddie said, then shook his head as though forcing himself to break eye contact and moved to get his car keys. “We better get going. Let’s hope we have as much luck at the courthouse as we did at the poker table.”

“You hoping to get lucky on your wedding day, Eddie?” Buck asked to his utter horror. Jesus, he had to stop flirting with his fiancé, it was inappropriate.

“Already feeling pretty lucky,” Eddie said easily, unphased by Buck’s poor attempt at humor. “I’m marrying Evan Buckley today.”

Before Buck could reply Eddie walked out the door, twirling his keys as he headed towards his car.

Buck stayed rooted to his spot for a moment, almost unable to process what Eddie had just said.

“Holy shit,” he muttered to himself, realizing for the first time that this was really happening. “I’m marrying Eddie Diaz today.”

For insurance reasons.

“Right,” he said to himself, then shrugged. “I’ll take it.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Maddie and Chim were waiting for them on the courthouse steps when they arrived.

“Didn’t think you’d be earlier than us for our own wedding,” Buck said, checking his watch to make sure they weren’t late.

“We didn’t want to risk missing it,” Maddie said sweetly.

“Especially since I promised I’d livestream it for Hen and Karen,” Chimney added, shaking his phone with excitement. “No one’s gonna believe this otherwise.”

“How thoughtful,” Eddie said. He tilted his head towards the door. “Should we do this?”

“We should, yeah!” Buck agreed enthusiastically. As Eddie walked ahead of him, Maddie took Buck’s hand and squeezed it. He felt himself relax, but wished her eyes didn’t look sad.

As they entered the room a ceremony was already taking place, but judging by the dozen or so people waiting in the chairs with varying looks of nervousness and disinterest, that seemed par for the course. At the far end of the room stood a judge at a podium, marrying a man and woman who looked to be in their mid-twenties. They saw an administration counter to their right, thankfully far enough away from the judge that they wouldn’t interrupt the current ceremony by talking.

“Hi, we’re 1 o’clock. Evan Buckley and Eddie Diaz. To get married,” Buck said to the woman behind the counter. “To each other. We’re marrying each other.”

“Good for you sweetheart,” the woman said, only slightly sarcastic as she thumbed through her pile of forms.

Buck ducked his eyes and looked over at Eddie who was smiling fondly beside him and somehow didn’t go running for the door.

“Okay, I’ve got your license,” the woman said, placing their contract on the counter. “Do you have rings?”

“Uh yeah, yes, got ‘em,” Eddie said, stuttering uncharacteristically as he patted his pocket to check for the rings.

“All right,” the woman said and checked off a box on their form. “Take this up to the judge when it’s your turn, she’ll do the ceremony, you’ll all sign it, bring it back to me to file it, then you’re married.”

“Wow, just like that,” Buck marveled.

“Just like that,” she said, holding the paper out. Buck made no move to take it despite standing in the center of the counter, so Eddie reached over him and grabbed it.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling more sincerely now. Buck glared, was she flirting with his fiancé on their wedding day??? As if reading his thoughts, Eddie rolled his eyes and grabbed Buck’s wrist to haul him away. He continued to glare as he was directed towards the viewing chairs closer to the judge.

Maddie and Chim had already taken two seats a few rows from the front for the best view. Buck and Eddie sat further back, not wanting to interrupt the ceremony going on.

As soon as they sat down, Buck’s knee started to vibrate.

“Nervous?” Eddie asked in a whisper.

Buck sighed and nodded. “Little bit. It’s my first time.”

“Don’t worry, I’m old hat at this, I’ll take care of you,” Eddie said, his voice low, almost husky. Buck’s knee shook harder and his heart started to pound.

Eddie laughed a little, then took a steadying breath and pushed their shoulders together, urging Buck to look at him.

“Hey, seriously, are you good? Cause we’re only doing this if you really want to. We can walk out right now,” Eddie said. His voice was serious with just a touch of concern and Buck had no doubt that Eddie meant it, they could just forget the whole thing and he wouldn’t be mad. But he also looked completely grounded, solid. Certain. Buck’s brow furrowed in amazement.

“You’re … you’re really willing to marry me,” Buck said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah Buck, any day,” Eddie said.

Buck exhaled like he’d been punched. He had always thought he would get married someday, always knew he would find someone he wanted to spend his life with, but deep down he had always known that no one would ever really want to marry him back.

He was wrong.

Eddie had no fear in tying their lives together, no hesitation. He may not be in love with Buck but he believed in him. Trusted him. Was willing to spend his life with him. It was sad to say, but it was more than Buck had ever dreamed for. And he wasn’t about to let it slip away.

“I’m gonna marry you. Today,” he said.

Not for insurance purposes, he didn’t say.

Eddie nodded and smiled. “Good, cause I’m gonna marry you.”

For insurance purposes? Buck wanted to ask, but didn’t. It didn’t matter why. He’d take Eddie any way he could get him.

“Buckley-Diaz?” a voice called out. They looked up and saw the judge alone at the podium, ready to start.

“Here,” Eddie said, standing up. “That’s us.”

“Oh my god,” Buck said, still sitting, “should we change our names?”

“Get up,” Eddie said through gritted teeth.

“Right, yeah,” Buck said. It was not the time to get distracted. They walked up the aisle side by side, right past Maddie, who was smiling with her head tilted affectionately, and Chimney, who gave them an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“Hello judge,” Eddie said when they reached the front and handed her their forms.

“Your honor,” Buck added, inclining his head respectfully.

“It’s nice to meet you boys,” she said, smiling sincerely.

She looked over their paperwork for a moment then nodded, “All right, we’re doing the standard ceremony. Vows and rings. Preferred names are Eddie and Buck?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’m Buck,” Buck said helpfully. The judge smiled again. She was a lot nicer than the counter-lady.

“Great. I’m guessing those are your witnesses?”

They followed her gaze to where Chimney was half-standing in his chair, grinning wildly and phone held up high recording them. Maddie covered her eyes in embarrassment.

“Unfortunately,” Buck said, “please ignore him.”

“I’ve seen worse,” the judge assured him. “All right, I’m ready to get started if you are.”

Buck and Eddie both took a deep breath, looked at each other and nodded.

“We’re ready,” Eddie said.

The judge cleared her throat and then started speaking again, louder and more formal than she had been moments before.

“We’re here today to witness the union of Buck and Eddie …”

Buck would be ashamed to admit it later, but he blacked out a little after that first line, his brain unable to process that Eddie Diaz, beautiful, perfect Eddie Diaz, was about to be his husband. He was eventually brought back to reality by a touch on his fingers and he looked down to see Eddie was holding his hand. Buck shuddered and looked up to meet Eddie’s eye, who smiled at him encouragingly.

It took him a moment to realize that Eddie was trying to hand him his ring. Oh shit were they already at the rings?

“Uh thanks, thank you,” Buck said, opening his hand so Eddie could hand him one of the rings.

When they both had their rings, Eddie gave his hand a supportive squeeze, then nodded at the judge to continue.

“Eddie, do you take Buck to be your spouse?” the judge asked. “To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do you part?”

Buck was sure that this would be the breaking point. That this would be too much for Eddie, too much to lie about to save a little money. But Eddie was looking in Buck’s eyes the entire time the judge spoke, his gaze firm, certain. And he was smiling.

“I do,” Eddie said, his smile widening even further.

“Buck,” the judge said. He looked at her but then turned right back to Eddie, not willing to let him out of his sight. “Do you take Eddie to be your spouse? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do you part?”

“Of course,” Buck said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and then shook his head when Eddie’s smile changed from fond to amused. “I mean, I do. I do. Yes.”

“You may place the rings on each other’s fingers,” she said.

Buck’s fingers shook but he got the ring on Eddie’s hand. Eddie had to hold him still with one hand while he slid the ring on Buck with his other hand. Buck couldn’t tear his eyes away from it for a moment, their hands intertwined, matching wedding rings on their fingers. It took Eddie dipping his head into Buck’s line of sight to get him to move his eyes up to see Eddie was still smiling.

“I told you I’d take care of you,” Eddie whispered like it was a promise. Buck’s knees went weak and his fingers curled against his will, so now they were holding hands instead of resting their fingers together.

“By the virtue of the authority vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce you married,” the judge said.

Buck finally smiled. And breathed. They were married. Behind them he could hear Maddie clapping and a whoop of celebration from Chimney. He didn’t turn around. He was too busy looking at Eddie.

“You may now kiss your spouse.”

Buck stopped smiling. Oh shit. Oh shit they hadn’t talked about this. Eddie was straight and they weren’t really … did they have to kiss? Was that part of it, legally? Could they protest? Maybe have a good long hug? Was that binding?

Before he could ask any of these questions Eddie’s hands were on his cheeks, holding Buck’s head in place while Eddie leaned in towards him. Buck couldn’t breathe, Holy shit. Eddie was going to kiss him.

Except he wasn’t.

At the last second Eddie ducked his head to the side and planted a long, wet kiss on Buck’s cheek, hidden by his hands enough to look like it was on Buck’s lips to anyone watching. It was a safe kiss, carefree in its own way, enthusiastic. Eddie even made the “muah” sound as he pulled away. It was a brilliant compromise for their situation, for friends getting married for insurance purposes. But Buck couldn’t help but be disappointed, his heart dropping down into his stomach that it wasn’t more.

But then he looked at Eddie. He was glowing, smiling. Loose and carefree in a way Buck hadn’t seen since he answered the door in his underwear and a button up with Risky Business playing in the background all those months ago. It wasn’t the kind of look someone had when they were saving a few thousand dollars. It was more than that, it was pure joy, and it was aimed straight at Buck.

It was also infectious. Buck smiled with him and felt warmth start to bubble in his chest, followed by a peel of laughter he hadn’t expected. Eddie joined in with him and they were both laughing, alone in their own world for a moment.

“Congratulations,” the judge said to them.

“He’s my husband,” Buck said to her in disbelief, pointing at Eddie.

“Not until you sign this paperwork,” she said and motioned them towards a small table to finalize their forms.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

“So, do you lovebirds want me to make an announcement to the rest of the shift or do you want to tell them yourselves?” Chimney asked at their celebratory lunch later that afternoon.

Buck and Eddie both choked on their drinks.

“We … we weren’t going to tell anyone else,” Buck said, pounding on his chest to clear his airway. Eddie nodded in agreement.

“We only told all of you because you can’t keep a secret,” Eddie added.

“And I don’t disagree with your logic, but when Brenda from HR pops in for one of her visits it’s going to look kind of weird if no one else knows you’re married,” Chimney said. Buck and Eddie groaned. They’d forgotten about Brenda.

She was the Human Resources rep for their station. Once or twice a month she would come by the firehouse to do some kind of HR presentation, or coordinate grief counselors after disasters, or just pick up paperwork. Typical HR stuff, which wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t also work part time gossiping about everyone’s business.

“Dammit, she’s going to have a field day when she sees that paperwork,” Eddie said.

“Remember when she came in and shouted at Lucas that she was sorry about his divorce?” Buck said, then turned to Maddie who looked confused. “None of us even knew about it.”

“Ah, so she’ll definitely rat you out,” Maddie said.

“In a heartbeat,” Chim agreed.

“Then I guess we’ll have to tell everyone,” Buck said slowly, looking at Eddie for his reaction. Eddie chomped on a fry and waved a hand.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Eddie said, completely relaxed. He noticed Buck’s surprised expression and shrugged, “I never really thought we were going to keep it a secret anyway.”

“I did! I’m good at secrets,” Buck said. Eddie laughed.

“You blurted it out to our friends in like, seconds.”

“They don’t count,” Buck said.

“Ouch,” Chimney said indignantly, then turned serious. “All right, if you’re sure I’ll announce it next shift. But I’ll leave out the part about the insurance fraud.”

Eddie smiled sarcastically. “Thanks for that.”

“Do you think people will believe we actually got married to each other?” Buck asked, suddenly worried.

Maddie and Chim both laughed in his face. “Yeah I wouldn’t worry about it.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Forty-eight hours later the entirety of A-shift was crowded into the engine bay, listening intently while Chim made his announcements. Buck and Eddie sat next to each other on the bottom step of the stairs doing their best not to look nervous as they waited for their turn.

“Okay, so Lucas is on laundry, Julie and Ravi, you’re doing roll-outs. Marcus, you’re man behind today, do NOT take a nap while we’re out on calls, I’ll know,” Chim said, staring Marcus down before he turned back to the list on his clipboard. His eyes widened happily. “Oh, here’s a fun one. This weekend our very own Buck and Eddie got married. It turns out no one else will take either one of them. So congratulations to them, and let’s all give them a round of applause!”

Buck plastered on a smile and braced himself for a chorus of confused and shocked sounds from their teammates, but instead the room was filled with instant and raucous cheers and applause. Buck looked at Eddie who also looked surprised, but shrugged and smiled in thanks to everyone while holding up their wedding rings with pride.

When the clapping died down a voice piped up from behind them.

“You mean again?” Ravi said, looking at them both with a confused furrow in his brow.

“What?” Buck said.

“You guys got married again?” Ravi elaborated.

Buck and Eddie both blinked.

“We were never married before,” Eddie said plainly.

“Yeah, right. Quit joking,” Ravi said, unamused. “You had just gotten divorced when I started working here.”

“Nooooo,” Buck told him.

“Yessssssssss,” Ravi said. He looked at Chim to back him up but their captain shook his head, agreeing with Buck and Eddie.

“Who told you we were married?” Eddie asked.

“You had like, joint custody of Christopher! You were weird when you dated other people. You always talked about how you used to live together!”

“That was for quarantine,” Eddie said. “We were never married.”

“Of course you were!” Ravi looked like he was going to explode. “Why am I being gaslit right now?”

“You’re gaslighting us!” Buck yelled, loud enough to make Chim step forward.

“Okay we’re all just going to cool it and agree that Buck and Eddie were never married before this weekend, like sane people,” Chim said, looking pointedly at Ravi who looked like he wanted to protest further. “Also, since Eddie’s in the ambulance now they can both stay on the same shift, but I’ve got zero PDA tolerance. If anyone sees them being gross you have permission to report them immediately.”

“Wouldn’t that be like every time they look at each other with that super intense look they do?” Lucas from Engine B said jokingly. Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Or when they’re grunting together in the gym?” Someone else shouted.

“Can I report how slow they get dressed in front of each other in the change room? Diaz keeps his shirt off forever!” Another voice chimed in.

Buck and Eddie listened to all this in slack-jawed confusion. They had been prepared for people to not believe they had really gotten married, but they hadn’t been ready for everyone to have no problem believing it at all.

“Hey leave them alone,” Julie Rosen said, quieting the crowd down. “They’ve been weird about each other for years and we’ve put up with it, they can keep being weird now that they’re married.”

“Uh, thanks Julie,” Eddie said, head still spinning.

“Just be lucky most of you have never hung out with them outside of work,” she added loudly for the group to hear. “I was at their table at a poker date they were on, I swear Diaz was going to jump Buckley’s bones right in front of everyone.”

“I what?” Eddie said in shock, which was thankfully drowned out by everyone laughing at Julie’s story.

Chim chuckled along with the rest of them then clapped his hands. “All right that’s the end of the announcements and harassment section of the day. Get to work.”

As everyone stood up to start their chores several people stopped and patted them on the shoulder in congratulations, but pretty soon it was just Buck and Eddie alone on the steps, staring into the distance deep in thought about what had just happened. Eddie spun his wedding ring around on his finger.

“Are we weird about each other?” he asked quietly, meeting Buck’s eye in a way that everyone else in the building would describe as insanely intense.

“No, they’re all just exaggerating, you know, giving us a hard time. We’re super normal,” Buck lied.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Despite their earth-shattering announcement, the day passed quietly for the most part. It was so quiet that Buck and Eddie were just starting a game of ping-pong when a blond woman in workout gear came in through the front door and waved them down.

“Hi there,” she said, skin flushed and breathing heavily.

“Uh hi,” Buck said as they approached her. “Can we help you?”

“Yeah, maybe. I went out for a run and I didn’t realize how hot it was today. I’m feeling a little light-headed. Can I just sit in your air conditioning for a few minutes?” she asked.

“Of course, come have a seat,” Eddie said, guiding her to a bench close to where the air conditioner vented. Buck cleared some equipment off the chair and Eddie took the woman’s wrist, switching into medic mode. “Buck, can you grab some water?”

“Yeah, be right back,” Buck said before he raced up the stairs to the kitchen.

“Thank you so much,” the woman said, dropping onto the bench with relief.

“And who do we have here?”

Eddie looked up to see Chimney step out of the ambulance eyeing their guest.

“I’m Gina,” she said, waving shyly. “An idiot who went running without water and is hoping she doesn’t have sun stroke.”

Eddie laughed and continued to feel her pulse. “Definitely not at stroke levels, but you are a little over-heated, and probably dehydrated. This is my Captain, by the way, and I’m Eddie.”

“Nice to meet you. Sorry to be interrupting your work,” she said.

“Ah, we’re public servants, this is literally our job,” Chimney replied then looked at Eddie. “She should probably drink some water.”

“Buck’s getting it,” Eddie said. As if on queue Buck came racing back down the stairs, arms loaded up with …Jesus, way too many water bottles.

“I got the water,” he said happily.

“Were you planning on drowning her with it?” Chimney asked.

Buck looked down at his arms, starting to realize that he had gone overboard.

“Uh … no.”

Eddie shook his head fondly, grabbed a single bottle from him and handed it to Gina.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Do you need any for the road?” Buck asked, shoving his arms forward like she somehow could have missed all the water he was holding.

“I think I’ll be good with one,” she said apologetically.

Buck nodded in understanding then cringed a little and looked down at the icy bottles in his arms. “My chest is getting cold.”

“Go put them back!” Eddie half-shouted, laughing through his exasperation.

“Yeah good idea,” Buck said and disappeared up the stairs again.

Chim put his hands on his hips, shook his head and looked at Eddie. “You married him?”

Eddie laughed. “It’s why I’m so hydrated.”

“Oh, are you two …?” Gina let her question trail off and pointed between Eddie and the stairs where Buck had just disappeared.

“Yeah, just recently,” Eddie said, a huge smile appearing on his face as he held up his wedding ring.

“Congratulations,” she said. “It must be fun, working with your husband.”

“Yeah, it’s nice,” Eddie said. “Especially with this job. It’s dangerous sometimes but he’s got my back, you know.”

Gina nodded. “That is nice.”

What wasn’t nice was that Buck had snuck back down the stairs, this time with a single water bottle, which he quietly tilted over and poured down Eddie’s back.

“Jesus Christ!” Eddie shouted, standing up in shock. He turned on Buck and glared but Buck just shrugged sheepishly.

“It’s hot out today, Eddie, you gotta stay cool,” he said. Eddie glared.

“Give me the water bottle Buck,” he said, hand outstretched.

“No.” Buck pulled the bottle in tight and backed away.

“Just give it to me,” Eddie said, stepping closer.

“I can’t,” Buck said, still backing up. He knew if Eddie got the water bottle he was going to pour it over Buck’s head as revenge so did the only thing he could – he started drinking it.

“Give me that bottle,” Eddie said, rushing closer but Buck was already running away, head tilted back as he tried to down the entire bottle.

And of course he started choking.

“Jesus,” Eddie muttered when Buck started coughing and sputtering. He shook his head in exasperation even as he put a hand on Buck’s shoulder to keep him steady. “Just breathe.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry,” Buck said through hacking coughs.

“You’re gonna be later when we get home,” Eddie promised, “After you’re done actively dying.”

“I deserve that,” Buck said, throat finally cleared, smiling sheepishly as Eddie looked him over, his vengeance forgotten.

Across the room, Gina tilted her head to the side in awe, having watched the entire exchange.

“They’re cute together,” she said.

Chimney resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Yeah, they’re idiots in love. Emphasis on the idiots.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Five days after the wedding, their marriage faced its first real test.

“I’m sorry.”

“About what?” Eddie asked as he laid out pills and water on the coffee table.

“We were supposed to run a bunch of errands today,” Buck said, blanket wrapped tightly around himself as he laid shivering on the couch.

Eddie laughed and shook his head. “I somehow managed to do all my chores just fine before you moved in here. I think we’ll survive.”

“But you’ve never had to do all that and take care of me when I’m sick,” Buck said pitifully.

“You have the flu, not a terminal illness. I’m going to bring you water and soup while you watch documentaries and sleep. It won’t be particularly taxing,” Eddie told him.

“Still, I feel bad,” Buck said, feeling guilty for making Eddie take care of him and for how much he liked Eddie taking care of him.

“You know I agreed to this,” Eddie reminded him. “In sickness and in health, it’s like one of the top three wedding vows.”

Buck shrugged beneath his blanket. “Yeah but I didn’t think we’d be invoking it less than a week into our marriage.”

“Life moves at you fast. But you better keep moving slow. Stay on this couch and rest. No getting up and doing any chores while I’m gone,” Eddie said. “I mean it.”

“Tyrant,” Buck muttered.

“Buck, you can start my history project if you’re bored,” Christopher offered as he came into the living room.

“I just said he has to rest.”

Christopher shrugged. “You told him not to move. He can work on it from the couch.”

Eddie glared when he saw Buck considering the loophole. “No, don’t even think about it. You, get in the car or we’ll be late for school. You, stay on this couch.”

“I’m probably not even all that sick,” Buck said weakly.

Eddie looked skeptical, took a step closer and laid the back of his hand on Buck’s forehead to check his temperature. Buck closed his eyes and hoped his shivering hid the fact that the touch of Eddie’s fingers on his skin made him shudder.

Stop liking this, he told himself, to no avail.

“You’re still warm. We’ll talk after your fever breaks,” Eddie said. He removed his hand and Buck had to restrain himself from following after it.

“I’m getting groceries after I drop off Chris,” Eddie continued, “text me if there’s anything you want that’s not on the list.”

“Uh … I … I will,” Buck said, still frazzled by Eddie’s gentle touch.

“All right, let’s go,” Eddie said to Chris, ushering him out the door.

“Bye Buck, feel better,” Chris said.

“Thanks buddy, have a good day at school.”

“I won’t,” Chris called back.

“Not with that attitude you won’t. Later Buck,” Eddie said and then they were gone out the door.

Buck fell back on the couch cushions, pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes and told himself to stop having inappropriate feelings for his husband.

It didn’t work.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Two hours later Buck heard Eddie’s truck pulling into the driveway and pushed himself to his feet, bored of sitting on the couch.

He reached the front door in time to see Eddie latching the screen door open, something he often did when he brought in groceries.

“Hey, how you feeling?” Eddie asked when he saw him.

“Little better I think,” Buck said, following him outside. “I can probably help with the groceries.”

“No. I told you, no chores. Get your ass back on that couch,” Eddie said firmly then headed back towards his truck.

“I run into burning buildings every week Eddie, I can carry some groceries while I’m sick,” Buck insisted.

“Not if I say you can’t.”

Buck moved to grab a grocery bag but Eddie blocked him and slapped his hand away.

“Eddie, give me one bag!”

“I’ll give you one minute to get back on that couch.”

“Or what?”

“This.”

That was the only warning Buck got before Eddie bent over, wrapped his arms around Buck’s thighs and hoisted Buck up onto his shoulder.

“Eddie!” Buck yelled in shock, suddenly finding himself almost face to face with Eddie’s ass, which … wasn’t so bad really, all things considered. But his pride still protested. “Eddie put me down.”

“I plan on it,” Eddie said, moving with purpose back into the house. His hands were still on the back of Buck’s legs, his fingers sliding up an inch or two past the hem of Buck’s shorts as he held him, strong and tight, and oh god Buck couldn’t think of that, instead he’d think about … Eddie’s ass in front of his face? Dammit this was hell.

His hell was thankfully short lived as Eddie carried him straight into the living room and dropped him back onto the couch.

“Oof,” Buck said as he landed, trying to look annoyed instead of aroused and pleased to be manhandled by his husband. “Rude.”

“I can be ruder. Now are you gonna stay on that couch or do I have to tie you down?”

Buck’s mind bluescreened at the mental image of Eddie’s threat, overwhelmed with all the ways Eddie could tie him down, gladly. Happily. Suddenly his mouth was dry as his blood rapidly flowed down south and away from his brain. He cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly in an attempt to cover his crotch.

“I uh … I’ll stay here, you win. No … no ropes necessary,” he said, nodding awkwardly and making direct eye contact so Eddie’s gaze wouldn’t move further down Buck’s body and see the way his dick was betraying him. Why the hell was he wearing these grey sweatpants – they didn’t hide anything!

“Good,” Eddie said, smiling triumphantly before he went back outside.

When he was gone Buck pulled the nearest throw pillow over his crotch to hide his shame but then growled in frustration because that just looked weird and obvious. He heard Eddie coming back so threw the pillow away, grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around himself, hiding his arousal in a cocoon of fabric.

As Eddie walked past, his perfectly toned arms filled with grocery bags, he smirked at Buck’s bundled up position.

“Now that’s what I like to see,” he said. “Since you’re being good you can decide what we have for lunch.”

Buck took in a shuddering breath, absolutely not needing Eddie to tell him he was a good boy right now, it was really not helping with his problem. He was also in no state to answer questions. What was the least sexy food he could ask for?

“Tomato soup,” he said. It burned your mouth and it looked like blood. Nothing sexy about that.

“All right, and I’ll throw in a grill cheese,” Eddie offered happily. Oh no, Eddie always made the cheese extra stringy, like ropes, that he could tie Buck down with. Fuck.

“Uh, am I gonna get tossed around again if I go shower?”

Eddie considered it.

“I’ll allow it. Lunch’ll be ready in 30 or so,” he said then disappeared into the kitchen.

“I definitely won’t need that long,” Buck muttered to himself. He got up and made a beeline for the shower so Eddie wouldn’t see him fully hard in his revealing fucking sweat pants.

As he stood under the spray of water he breathed a sigh of relief, took care of his immediate problem and then admitted to himself for the first time that he had a way bigger one.

He was in love with his husband.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Buck woke up the next day feeling physically better. Mentally was a different story. Mentally he was a mess. He was wracked with desire for Eddie, and weighed down with guilt for feeling that desire, but despite all that, he was also the happiest he had ever been in his life.

Being Eddie’s husband, living with Eddie and Christopher, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was over the moon most days, almost unable to believe that this was his reality. Like yesterday they had taken Chris to physio, then the three of them had gone out for ice cream and then went to the mall to browse through video games, and it felt like being a real family. Not just because he and Eddie were legally married but because of the way they all worked together, cared for each other; Buck drove because he knew Eddie secretly didn’t like it, Eddie bought them snacks and knew Buck’s ice cream order without asking, and Christopher grabbed the new Mortal Kombat game because he remembered that Buck had wanted to try it. It was all just easy and beautiful to Buck, and maybe he was crazy, but he thought it might be really good for Eddie too.

Because the thing was, Eddie hadn’t stopped smiling since the day they got married. He was in a good mood literally all the time, laughing and at ease in a way that Buck had only seen on a handful of occasions before, but now it was all the time, non-stop, happy Eddie, looking at him fondly, smiling with his whole face, relaxed and content.

And that was also kind of a problem for Buck because if he had thought Eddie was attractive before, he had to admit, Eddie was beautiful when he was happy. Jaw-droppingly, breathtakingly, gorgeous. Some days Buck would just get lost staring at him and have to physically shake himself out of it before he got caught swooning for his husband. It was a kind of hell of his own making that he never wanted to escape from.

Eddie was even more beautiful when they were back at work a few days later and his smiling face appeared over the edge of a burning building.

“God forbid we just take the stairs,” he muttered as he grasped Buck’s hand and pulled him onto the roof.

“This is more fun,” Buck said, gasping for breath partially from exertion and partially from the feeling of Eddie pulling him up and then checking him over as he undid his harness.

The call had come halfway into their shift – a structure fire on the 25th floor of a 30-story building. Before they could even unroll their hoses dispatch let them know about a woman on the 27th floor who had fallen while trying to evacuate and might have broken her leg. The fire was intense enough that the elevators were shut down, so rather than carry the woman down 27 flights of burning stairs they had deemed it safer to evacuate her to the roof with a rope rescue and fly her out to safety.

It was straight forward enough for Buck and Eddie, but admittedly overwhelming for the woman with the broken leg who had been trapped in a fire.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” the woman muttered over and over, her eyes clenched shut and her arms still wrapped tightly around Buck’s waist.

“Hey Paige,” Buck said, patting her shoulder comfortingly. “We’re on the roof, you’re okay. This is my partner, Eddie, he’s a paramedic he’s going to look you over.”

Paige opened one eye experimentally and shuddered in relief when she saw solid ground and a second firefighter.

“Oh thank god,” she muttered.

Eddie restrained a laugh and unclipped the last buckle on her harness.

“Let’s sit you down and I’ll look at that leg while we wait for our ride.”

“Don’t think we’ll have to wait long,” Buck said and motioned towards a yellow speck approaching on the horizon. A speck that looked worryingly familiar the closer it got.

“Hey Cap,” Buck said, clicking on his radio, “do uh … do we know who’s flying us out by any chance?”

“It’s Air Rescue, Buck, not Uber,” Chim answered, “you don’t get to cancel on your driver, even if you used to sleep with him.”

“That’s a weird thing to say,” Paige muttered from the ground. This time Eddie didn’t restrain his laugh.

A few minutes later the air rescue helicopter landed next to them on the roof with an all too familiar pilot inside.

“Heard you boys needed a ride,” Tommy said, as he jumped out of the cockpit and started to pull a gurney out of the passenger section of the plane.

“Yeah, thanks,” Buck offered as he came over to help, wearing a tight smile to cover up the fact that he felt sick to his stomach.

“Hey man,” Eddie said, nodding in greeting as Tommy knelt down on Paige’s other side. “Okay Paige, we’re going to move you on to the gurney and then take you to the hospital, okay?”

“In a helicopter?” she said, voice pitching up high. “Oh god. This is how Kobe died.”

“No, no, you’re going to be fine. This is Tommy, I’ve flown with him a dozen times. He’s rock solid,” Eddie assured her, but she already had her eyes clenched tight and head tilted back in misery.

“Thanks for trying,” Tommy muttered appreciatively. “Let’s get her up.”

The three of them picked her up and wheeled her over to the helicopter but as they pushed her inside her breathing got more intense in what was clearly a panic attack.

“Give me a minute,” Eddie said to Buck and Tommy before climbing into the back of the helicopter with their patient. “Hey Paige, I need you to think about Jell-O for me, okay?”

While Eddie worked on calming Paige down, Tommy strode over to stand next to Buck outside the helicopter doors.

“So, I hear congratulations are in order,” he said, smiling widely.

Buck whipped around. “Wha … what do you mean?”

Tommy quirked up an eyebrow. “You and Diaz. You got married?”

“You … you heard about that?” Buck said. His breathing picked up and his heart started racing so fast he was probably going to need Eddie to calm him down too after he was done with Paige.

Tommy just laughed. “We work with dozens of the same people, yeah Buck, I heard about it.”

“Oh … uh …” Buck didn’t really know what to say. Everyone close to them knew why they had actually gotten married, but he couldn’t exactly tell his ex-boyfriend that they were just committing insurance fraud.

“Well like I said, congratulations,” Tommy said again, and Buck’s breathing started to calm down because he … he sounded like he meant it.

“You … you aren’t mad?”

“I ended things Buck, I’d be a jerk if I was mad you moved on. If anything I guess I feel a little smug. I kind of called this a long time ago,” Tommy said.

Buck mentally cringed – he had never told Eddie about Tommy revealing that he had broken up with him because he saw Eddie as the competition.

“Right, well, good job on calling it,” Buck said, shuffling awkwardly on the spot. “Cause we are definitely in love and definitely married. Happily. Legally married. That’s us.”

“We’re good to go here,” Eddie said, appearing suddenly in the door of the helicopter to save Buck from himself.

“Oh thank god,” Buck muttered.

“Sounds good,” Tommy said, shaking his head with shocking fondness at Buck’s behavior. “You coming with us?”

Buck was very tempted to go and be a buffer between any information that Eddie and Tommy may share, but that choice was taken away from him when his radio clicked to life.

“Buck, once the patient’s secured get back down here. We need you on the hose to help knock down this fire,” Chimney’s voice echoed across the roof.

“Guess I’m staying here,” Buck said.

“All right, have fun,” Tommy said before he climbed into the cockpit.

Eddie was still in the back, but waited to close the door until Buck met his eyes.

“Be safe,” Eddie told him.

“You too,” Buck said, “and uh hurry back. No need to stick around at the hospital or anything.”

Eddie’s brow furrowed in confusion cause that was a weird thing to say, but he just nodded in agreement. “Sure, no problem.”

Then his fake husband that he was secretly in love with and his ex-boyfriend who knew that he was in love with his fake husband took off in a helicopter together. Leaving Buck alone on a roof.

He briefly considered walking downstairs and straight into the fire below him. It would be easier than dealing with this.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

It only took about five minutes to get to the hospital, which was a relief to Paige who was having minimal success at turning herself into Jell-O.

“Twenty-five year old female,” Eddie said to the doctors waiting for them on the roof, “minor smoke inhalation, probably a broken leg, and a bit of panic attack on the way in, but I think she’s going to be fine now that she’s on solid ground.”

“Feeling much better!” Paige said in agreement as she was wheeled out.

“We got it from here, thanks,” the doctor said and disappeared with Paige behind the hospital doors.

Eddie let them go then turned around to see Tommy exiting the cockpit.

“Nice flying,” Eddie said.

Tommy scoffed. “You expected anything less?”

Eddie was surprised when he smiled, but honestly, it was good to see Tommy again. He had ghosted him for breaking Buck’s heart, and didn’t feel bad about it, Eddie knew where his loyalties lied, but after he heard how Tommy had helped save Chim’s life at the lab, well, he couldn’t rightly stay mad at the guy.

“Never. How you been?” Eddie asked.

“Can’t complain. Nothing too exciting to report. Not like you Mr. Married.”

Eddie’s smile widened the way it did every time he remembered he was married to Buck.

“Yeah, I guess that would be big news.”

“Big. Not shocking, but big. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. It’s uh … it’s been nice.”

“I bet. And hey, if you’re not too busy being happily married, maybe we could even be friends again.”

“Damn. I’m sorry man I …”

“Hey, I get why you ghosted me,” Tommy cut him off, not needing his apology. “You were always going to take Buck’s side in the break-up. But, since he’s married now I’m guessing he’s over me and thought we could hang out again. I may have purchased the next UFC pay-per-view and have no one to watch it with.”

Eddie’s eyes widened with interest.

“That actually sounds really great. Let me check with Buck before I say yes for sure though. Make sure he won’t freak out.”

“I get it, don’t need you showing up with another sprained ankle.”

Eddie cringed at the memory. “Yeah.”

“It’d be good to catch up. You can tell me about Texas. And hey, if you need any advice about coming out super late in life, I’m kind of an expert,” Tommy said with a self-deprecating flourish. “Not that you seem to need any advice since you’ve been gay for five whole minutes and already have a husband.”

Eddie swayed a little and his mind blue-screened.

“Gay?”

“Oh sorry. What label are you using? Bi? Queer? Mensexual?”

“I’m … I’m not …” Eddie faltered, unsure what he wanted to say or what he was trying to say. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he had to lie about their relationship and not just admit they got married for insurance reasons, but he suddenly felt unmoored from reality and wasn’t sure what the truth was. More than that he felt like an absolute idiot because he had been married to Buck for over a week and somehow had never once considered that people would assume he was gay because of it.

While Eddie spiraled, Tommy waited, patiently, clearly seeing that he was struggling with what he wanted to say.

“I’m … I’m not into men,” he said eventually, “…it’s just Buck.”

Eddie swayed again mentally because that had kind of felt like telling the truth. He shook his head and laughed at himself nervously.

“That probably sounds so stupid,” he muttered.

Tommy pursed his lips and shook his head. “For anyone else, maybe. For you two, that actually makes perfect sense.”

Eddie sighed in relief.

“You’re Bucksexual, got it,” Tommy added.

Eddie laughed. “Sure, let’s go with that. But UFC and catching up, that sounds good.”

“Great, text me when you confirm with Buck that he won’t resort to violence over it. I’ll buy food you bring beers,” Tommy said.

“Love that plan. Your beers are trash,” Eddie said.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. “They aren’t, and you better bring me beer I like if you’re watching my pay-per-view.”

“We’ll see,” Eddie said without commitment. “But yeah, I’ll text you.”

“Great, I gotta get back to harbour,” Tommy said, heading back towards the cockpit.

“All right, I got some paperwork here. Safe flying.”

“Thanks,” Tommy said. “And it’s good to have you back, even if it is married to my ex-boyfriend.”

Eddie laughed.

“You’re a shockingly secure guy, you know that?” Eddie said, shaking his head in awe.

Tommy smiled at the compliment. “Yeah, I do. Later.”

“Later.”

Eddie turned and took the stairs slowly down from the roof of the hospital, head spinning and emotions in turmoil the whole way as he thought about his new label.

Eddie Diaz, Bucksexual.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

“So what did you two talk about?” Buck asked frantically the second they got home that night.

“Who?” Eddie said, not breaking stride towards the kitchen to look for a snack.

“You and Tommy.”

“Oh, not much, UFC, Texas,” he said then laughed lightly to himself before he raised an amused eyebrow, “he offered me advice on coming out as gay late in life.”

Buck laughed, equal parts nervous and genuinely amused. “Wow. I mean, it’s nice of him I guess, but … what did you say?”

Eddie grabbed a banana off the counter and shrugged. “I told him that I wasn’t gay.”

“You told him???”

“Not about the insurance stuff, I just said that I wasn’t actually attracted to men.”

Buck waved his hands like that was worse.

“And he didn’t have a bunch of questions about how that worked with us being married?” Buck asked.

“No, it’s fine. I said I wasn’t gay I was only … ugh …” Eddie hesitated and shook his head, embarrassed by what he was about to admit. “ … I said I was only attracted to you.”

Buck swallowed. “Oh.”

“He called me Bucksexual.”

Buck laughed in delighted surprise at the term and at the blush that bloomed on Eddie’s cheeks as he told him.

“I’m honored,” he said and it wasn’t a lie or a joke. He had a tingle all the way down through his toes just from hearing the word come out of Eddie’s mouth.

“You should be. It just … it felt less like lying, you know.”

“I get that and it’s good to know that’s what you told him, if we run into him again or something.”

“About that. Let me ask you something, but don’t answer me right away and say it’s fine,” Eddie said holding out a hand like he was trying to slow Buck down before he even started. “Take a minute and think about it and be honest, okay?”

“Okay,” Buck said, steeling himself for something deep and personal.

“Would it bother you if I started hanging out with Tommy again?”

“Oh.” That was not where Buck thought this was going. “Did he ask you…?”

“Yeah, there’s a UFC fight this weekend, a Pay-Per-View, no Vegas or anything. He asked if I wanted to come over and watch it.”

“Right.” Buck thought about it, pictured Eddie and Tommy sitting on a couch without him, drinking beers, bonding, laughing. He braced himself for the sick feeling of jealousy that had taken him over the last time they were friends, but was surprised when he felt nothing. There was no emotion attached to the thought except a vague idea that it would be nice for Eddie.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Buck said, his voice calm. “Have fun.”

Eddie looked skeptical. “You’re sure?”

Buck thought about it again, because Eddie had every right to question him after the basketball incident. His gaze flicked down, landing on their matching wedding rings, and Buck found that it wasn’t like last time at all. No tendrils of jealousy or envy tightened around him. He had absolutely no concern that Eddie would ever choose Tommy over him. If anything he maybe felt a little relieved that Eddie would have someone who actually liked to watch UFC and basketball with again.

“Huh,” Buck muttered, surprised with himself. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so secure before, so settled. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

Eddie smiled, recognizing that Buck meant it and maybe was even a little proud of him.

“Great. It’s not until Sunday but I’ll let Tommy know.”

“Sounds good,” Buck said then lifted up one shoulder in thought. “You’ll need something to wear. Should we start designing you a Bucksexual Pride Flag?”

Eddie scoffed at the teasing. “Might be a bit niche.”

“Pride month is just around the corner,” Buck continued, smirking. “I’m thinking blue and maroon. Maybe some orange.”

“You don’t get to pick the colors for my Bucksexual flag.”

“Uh, I’m Buck!” he said.

“I’m Bucksexual! It’s my flag. No orange,” Eddie said. It didn’t feel right.

“Fine, what about yellow? Like my turnouts.”

Eddie considered it. “Yeah, I like that. And put three little dots in the corner for your birthmark.”

Buck’s smile turned from teasing to touched. He looked away to hide his blush.

“All right I’m finding some markers,” he said, then rushed out of the kitchen.

Eddie let him go, happy to leave him to his project and a little excited to see what he came up with for his flag.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

“Get me a beer. I’m done!”

Buck leaned his head out of the kitchen at the proclamation and watched Eddie close the door and take off his shoes with an air of finality. They were 24 hours into their three day break and Eddie looked like he was ready to not leave the house again until their next shift.

“How was dropping off Chris?” Buck asked, though he could guess the answer.

“Worse than a pileup on the 405. And I mean being in one, not just responding to one,” Eddie said, breezing past him into the kitchen to get his promised beer. “People really do lose their minds during the Santa Ana’s. It’s worse than a full moon.”

Buck nodded in agreement, intensely familiar with how the powerful winds affected the people of LA. He could hear the whistle of them outside during the brief lull in their conversation.

“You don’t have to go out again?” Buck asked.

“No, thank god. I did drop off, Eli’s mom is going to bring them back. I’m done for the night,” Eddie said, taking a swig of his beer. “No more assholes cutting me off in a school zone, no one to honk at me for stopping at a red light. No guys on e-bikes swerving into my lane. I’m done, let’s watch a movie.”

Buck laughed at the recap of Eddie’s night and happily followed him into the living room, spirits high despite Eddie’s frustrated mood. After all, Buck couldn’t think of anything better than spending the night alone with his husband.

“At least we’re not working for a few days. I don’t want to imagine the kind of accidents B-shift is getting called to tonight.”

Eddie nodded in agreement as he moved to the couch.

Just as he sat down the whistle of the wind picked up outside, followed by a long cracking sound and a very, very close crash of glass, metal and wood colliding together that echoed through the house.

Buck flinched at the sudden noise but Eddie just stared straight ahead, stone-faced.

“Buck, do me a favor,” he said, beer loosely grasped in one hand. “Go look out the window and tell me if a tree just landed on my car.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buck said, bracing himself to give Eddie bad news. He looked out the window, squinting in the darkness, then sighed in relief. “We’re good. A tree fell but it didn’t land on your car.”

“Thank god,” Eddie muttered, relaxing back into the couch again.

“It landed on some blue Kia. I don’t recognize it. And …” Buck squinted harder. “… there’s someone in it.”

Before Buck even finished his sentence he was running for the door, Eddie just a few steps behind him, instantly shifting into first responder mode. When they got outside they took a moment to assess the situation. The Kia was parked directly across the street from their house and had a huge tree branch laid out across the roof of the car. The impact seemed to have blown out the windows but there was no other damage. It was hard to see with the leaves draped over everything but there was clearly movement inside of someone freaking out.

“Buck call it in, I’ll check on the driver,” Eddie said as he made a beeline for the front door.

Buck nodded and pulled out his phone as he walked around to the other side of the car to check for more passengers.

“LAFD,” Eddie said as he approached the driver’s door. He pushed the leaves away and saw a blond woman in the driver’s seat, her phone flashlight in one hand while she pushed on the crumbled dashboard with the other.

“Ma’am, it’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here. My name’s Eddie, what’s your …” the woman lifted her head and Eddie pulled back in surprise. “Gina?”

Gina smiled sheepishly even as her shoulders drooped in relief to see him. “Hi Eddie.”

“Hi,” he said tentatively as he looked her over. She was definitely the woman who had stopped by the station with heat stroke earlier in the week and boy did he have some questions about why she was outside his house, but unfortunately they had to wait. “Um, are you hurt?”

“More shaken than anything I think. And covered in glass,” she said, “and my ankle’s kind of stuck.”

Eddie leaned his head in the window and saw her foot was pinned between the gas pedal and the middle column. He pulled at the car door but it didn’t budge.

“All right, we’ll need the jaws to pop this open. Buck!”

“Right here!” Buck said, head appearing in the blown out passenger window with a phone pressed to his ear.

“Tell them the patient’s stable, minor injuries, but we’ll need the jaws to get her out.”

“No problem,” Buck said then repeated Eddie’s assessment through the phone and hung up. “They’re close by so it’ll only be about ten minutes, don’t you worry … Gina?”

Gina smiled sheepishly again. “Hey Buck.”

“Um, hi,” he said and shot a questioning look at Eddie.

Eddie raised his eyebrows and shook his head cause he had no answers for him. “Gina was just about to tell us what she was doing sitting outside of our house.”

She sighed in defeat. “Yeah, I guess I can do that.”

Before she could say anything else Buck noticed an open file folder in the passenger seat of her car.

“Um, can you also explain why you have a folder full of pictures of us?”

“What?” Eddie snapped, leaning further into the car. Buck held up a handful of the photos for him to see – the two of them at work, the two of them outside the house, them and Chris getting ice cream a few days ago. There were photos of pretty much any time they went out together in the past week.

“Okay, that looks really bad,” Gina admitted.

“Uh huh,” Eddie agreed. “Buck, call dispatch back and tell them we need a police unit too.”

“No, no, no, you don’t need to do that,” Gina said, hand stretched out to Buck imploringly from where she was trapped in her chair.

“We really do,” Buck said, thoroughly freaked out.

“No, you don’t understand. I’m not a creep or anything,” she promised but Eddie and Buck just looked at her skeptically. “Yes, I have been following you around, but I’m not a stalker or anything. I’m … I’m an insurance investigator.”

Eddie’s heart almost stopped. Buck went pale. Oh god why couldn’t she have been a stalker?

“What?” Eddie asked dumbly.

“I’m an insurance investigator,” she repeated apologetically. “Your insurance company sent me to look into your marriage.”

“Our … marriage?” Buck said, still in shock and maybe a little sick to his stomach.

“Yeah, when someone makes a large insurance claim immediately after getting married it can trigger an investigation into whether the marriage was legitimate.”

Eddie’s fingers tightened around the door.

“You don’t say,” he muttered through gritted teeth, glaring at Buck across the open car.

For his part Buck averted his eyes, as he vividly recalled convincing Eddie to marry him by assuring him no one would ever bother to investigate their marriage. Oh they were so fucked.

Buck looked down at the photos still in his hand. “So, you’ve been watching us all week?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry I lied to you, it’s kind of the job.”

“And you never had heat stroke?” he said, frowning and betrayed.

She shook her head. “No. That was just an excuse to get into the station and talk to you together. Assess your marriage. I really do feel bad that I’ve been watching you for so long because the truth is I could have wrapped up this investigation after that first day but I called my boss and told him I needed more time to look into you guys.”

“Oh,” Buck said, understanding but still processing. Across from him Eddie closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the metal frame of the car.

Again, they were so fucked.

Gina took a deep breath before she continued, desperate to explain herself. “It’s just almost everyone I investigate are either con-artists, or liars, or someone being taken advantage of and it … it was so nice to finally watch a couple that were actually in love.”

Both of their heads shot up.

“What?”

“I had kind of been losing faith in humanity, but following you around all week, it’s been like a vacation, one I really needed,” she said, staring out the window as she continued, lost in her own thoughts. “You guys are just, you are glowing whenever you’re around each other. You’re just so in love. If I’m honest I’m a little bit jealous, but I’m also really happy for you. You have a beautiful family, and a wonderful relationship. I feel good just watching you together. I’ve never investigated anybody like you guys. What you two have is really special.”

Eddie swallowed heavily and tried to make his face do something normal.

“Um, thanks,” he said eventually.

“Yeah,” Buck added lamely.

“Oh you’re both so nice,” Gina said, clutching at her chest as though in physical pain. “And I’ve totally freaked you out, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Eddie said tightly, hopeful that Gina would think he was freaked out by her stalking them and not the fact that she thought they were a real couple. It’s not like her entire job was to assess whether people were in love or not and then said they were the most in love people she’d ever seen. He definitely wasn’t freaking out about that.

“Yeah, you were doing your job,” Buck said, smiling assuredly as he tried not to vomit. So much for Eddie not finding out he was in love with him.

The sound of a siren cut through the Santa Ana winds around them followed by the red and blue lights of an engine.

“Looks like help’s here,” Eddie said.

They both stepped away to wave down the firefighters from the 136 then moved back to let them do their job, watching in stunned silence until Gina was freed from her car and moved on to a stretcher.

She waved at them as she was pushed into the ambulance.

“Bye Buck! Bye Eddie! Thanks for not calling the cops! I promise you won’t see me again!” she called out as the ambulance doors shut.

They didn’t wave back.

As the ambulance pulled away Captain Mehta walked up next to them.

“What was that all about?” he asked.

Eddie shrugged one shoulder. “You know the Santa Ana’s, they make people say crazy things.”

“The craziest things,” Buck added. Like that we’re in love.

“Sure,” Mehta nodded, unconvinced. “Well we’re all set here. You boys take care of yourself. And congratulations on the wedding! Happy for you guys.”

They both closed their eyes.

“Thanks.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|

The rest of the night was … awkward. After the lights and sirens of the engine and ambulance took off they agreed to watch the movie they had been about to start before the tree fell and ended up sitting on opposite ends of the couch, staring straight ahead, avoiding eye contact and absolutely not paying attention to the movie. They were both too busy thinking about the Pandora’s box of love accusations that Gina had opened with her insurance investigation.

It was pure relief when Chris got home. They refused to let him retreat to his room and instead made him sit on the couch between them and tell them about his night, in great detail, for over an hour. When he finally insisted he had to go to bed, Buck and Eddie did the same.

Things were better the next day, if only because they had separate plans. Buck ate a quick breakfast, went to the gym and then took off to have lunch at Maddie’s house, as far away from last night’s love accusations as possible.

Once Eddie was alone he started to clean the house to kill time before he went to Tommy’s to watch the UFC fight that night.

He tried not to think about what Gina had said about them, but his mind wouldn’t drop the matter and her words just kept repeating in his head, until all Eddie could do was shake his head in disbelief.

“The most in love people she’s ever seen,” he mumbled as he swept up nothing off the floor. “Ridiculous.”

He put the broom away and moved to cleaning out the drawers in the coffee table. He paused at the single sheet of paper he found inside with a precisely drawn picture of a blue, maroon and yellow flag with the words Bucksexual Pride Flag emblazoned on the bottom. Buck hadn’t told him he finished it, but Eddie smiled when he saw the three dots in the corner representing Buck’s birthmark like he requested. He felt his chest go warm looking at it and carefully set the picture aside, planning to pin it up in his locker at work.

He was surprised to find something underneath the picture, shoved way at the back, but quickly recognized the familiar brown folder from the night before, the one filled with Gina’s pictures of them. Buck had grabbed it out of her car so no one at the 136 would find it and ask questions. Eddie pulled it out, intending to find a better spot to hide it, but couldn’t resist flicking it open first. He was met with dozens of photos spread out loosely in the folder, all of him and Buck.

Almost against his will his feet took him over to the dining room table where he sat down and started laying the photos out in rows, smiling at each one. He could almost understand why Gina had thought they might be in love. They really did spend a lot of time together, and okay, yeah, they were smiling and happy in each picture. And they really did … touch a lot?

“Huh,” Eddie said as he looked over the photos in front of him. Gina hadn’t mentioned it, but they were touching in almost all of them. Which would seem normal for two people who were really married but for two best friends it was … huh.

The photos showed a range of touches, from small to big. There was him carrying Buck back into the house when he was sick last week. Then the two of them sitting pressed together, shoulder to knee, on the bumper of the engine even though there was a ton of space on either side of them. Them getting ice cream with Chris and … had Eddie really wiped soft serve off Buck’s cheek with his thumb??? The photo evidence in front of him said he did.

Okay, from the outside that did look shockingly intimate. Actually, a lot of these did. He thought back to each of the moments in front of him, about how they had happened, and realized he was the one who had initiated physical contact every time. He was the one who really liked touching Buck and was doing it as frequently as possible.

“That’s fine. That’s normal,” Eddie muttered and tried to make himself gather the photos up and put them away, but he couldn’t stop looking at them. Because even if Eddie was initiating, Buck clearly didn’t mind Eddie touching him because he was beaming in every photo, glowing and beautiful. But so was Eddie. He looked at himself in a dozen candid moments from the past week and didn’t think he’d ever looked so content, so happy.

Which made sense; no one made him happier than Buck.

He sucked in a breath at the realization. At the memory of how excited he had been to marry Buck, how at ease he had been since they had become husbands, how he kind of maybe got a thrill every time he touched Buck and maybe he wanted to touch him more. And in other places. Maybe even ki …

“O-kay! Putting these away,” he said, like that could stop his train of thought, but the thoughts kept barreling along the tracks, ignoring his attempt to hit the brakes.

What if he kissed Buck?

Looking at the photos he had touched his best friend in every other way possible, and he had smiled through it all. Maybe Buck would like it if he kissed him. Maybe Eddie would too.

“What?” he said aloud and laughed nervously. That was crazy. That was … that was Gina talking! She had inceptioned his mind with these crazy ideas about him and Buck, but she was wrong. They were best friends. They were platonic. They were married for insurance reasons. But they were married. And husbands should probably kiss each other …?

“Nope. No. Absolutely not.”

Eddie swept all of the photos back into the folder, shoved it in a drawer in his bedroom and grabbed his car keys. It was too early to go to Tommy’s but he didn’t care. He had to get away from his own thoughts before he did something stupid, like try to kiss his husband.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Buck pulled into Maddie’s driveway and breathed a sigh of relief. Last night had been hell, with Gina basically outing him as being in love with Eddie, and everything being super awkward between them since. He had barely gotten any sleep, certain that things between them would be ruined now, both their friendship and their marriage. He was so scared to face Eddie about the whole thing that he had barely said a word to him before taking off for the day. And that was rude! And he felt bad about it. Ugh. Thank god he could at least spend the next few hours hanging out with his sister and not have to think about Eddie for awhile.

“I heard you and Eddie had a crazy night,” Maddie said as soon as he walked through the door.

Buck stumbled and tripped at her words. “What … what do you mean?”

She looked up from the vegetables she was cutting and shrugged like it was obvious. “Didn’t a tree fall on a car outside your house? Josh said he took the call from you.”

“Oh, yeah,” Buck said, shoulders relaxing. The tree had been the least of his problems last night. “It interrupted our movie but it wasn’t a big deal. The driver was fine. We just kept her calm until the engine showed up.”

“Still,” Maddie said, “a crash outside your house on your day off. It’s like trouble follows you around.”

“The crash wasn’t even the craziest part,” Buck said, taking a seat at the kitchen island across from her.

“What was?”

“The woman inside the car had a file folder full of pictures of Eddie and I,” he said.

Maddie put down her knife and gave him her full attention. “She what?”

“Yeah, she admitted she’d been following us around all week, taking pictures of us,” Buck said, smiling even as Maddie looked more concerned and distraught. Okay, he could admit, it was fun to rile up his sister sometimes. “She even showed up at the station a few days ago and pretended to have heat stroke so she could talk to us.”

“Oh my god. That’s full-on stalker behavior!” Maddie looked mortified. “Please tell me you called the police!”

“No, that uh, that wasn’t necessary,” Buck said. “We let her go.”

“Buck! Are you kidding me? She could be dangerous. You know better than that. Eddie knows better than that. He was okay with this?”

“Yes, it’s fine. We talked to her and she wasn’t a stalker okay,” he said, putting his hands up to calm her down. “She was an insurance investigator. She was investigating us.”

Maddie straightened up. “An insurance investigator?”

“Yep.”

“Investigating your marriage?”

“Uh huh.”

“That might be worse,” she said.

“Yeah, I mean, if she’d been a stalker I could take her no problem, but an insurance company. Can’t fight that,” he said.

“No,” Maddie agreed, her eyes distant as she took everything in for a moment. “So, what happens now? Does Eddie have to pay back all that physiotherapy money? Is he going to jail? Are you going to jail?”

“No one is going to jail,” he said, firmly and confidently enough that he could tell she believed him. “Everything’s fine. And no, Eddie doesn’t have to pay anything back.”

Maddie looked relieved but confused. “Well that’s good. How’d you two pull that off?”

“We uh … we passed,” Buck said, shrugging nonchalantly though his eyes suddenly became fixated on the countertop.

“You passed … the investigation?” Maddie asked.

“Yeah, she uh … she believed we were really married. You know, she followed us around all week, and she … she bought it. We’re good.”

Maddie nodded stiffly and sucked in her lips. “Oh. She believed you and Eddie were really married. Good. Great even. That’s so normal and great.”

“It’s kind of funny actually,” Buck began, his voice pitching up and becoming more manic. “She didn’t just believe Eddie and I were married, she said we were the most in love people she’d ever seen. Isn’t that crazy? And she … she decides if people are in love or not for a living, so you’d think she’d know better. She actually asked her boss if she could investigate us longer because watching us felt like a vacation to her. Because she thought me and Eddie were so in love. Isn’t that funny?”

Buck’s rant ended with a forced laugh and a cracked voice that made Maddie frown in sympathy.

“It doesn’t sound like you think it’s very funny.”

“No, it is,” Buck insisted even though he had the start of tears in his eyes and a white knuckle grip on the edge of the kitchen island. Maddie reached across and forced her fingers under his palm so she could hold his hand then waited until he looked up and met her eye.

“Buck, you’re in love with him,” she said like she was telling someone the plot of a movie they’d already seen.

She expected resistance but Buck just sighed from deep in his soul and smiled sadly.

“Of course I’m in love with him. It’s Eddie.”

Maddie’s eyes went wide. “You have to tell him!”

“I have to not!”

“Why not? You two are already married!” she said.

“Platonically, for the insurance.”

“You live together!”

“I’m moving out.”

Maddie raised an eyebrow. “Have you looked at a lot of places?”

“I’m gonna start soon.”

“Sure.”

“Maddie, seriously, I cannot tell him and neither can you.”

She rolled her eyes at the implication. “I would never tell him, but you should.”

“I can’t. What Eddie and I have now, it’s so good and it’s so important to me. I … I can’t betray that. I can’t lose that,” Buck said with the desperation of a drowning man grasping on to the edge of a life preserver.

“Do you really think there’s a world where you would ever lose Eddie?”

“Not fully, no, but telling him I’m in love with him, that … that would change things. It would have to. And probably not for the better. It might not ever be the same again.”

“Have you ever considered the possibility that he might feel the same way?”

Buck laughed sadly. “He’s straight, Maddie.”

“Right, yeah,” she agreed without agreeing.

“Look, I know he cares about me, I know I’m important to him. And that’s enough for me. He’s not in love with me, so there’s no point in telling him that I’m in love with him. And that’s just the way it is.”

“Okay,” Maddie said, nodding and pushing back off the island as though in defeat, but then shrugged in consideration. “Tell me one thing though, this insurance investigator that was watching you two …”

“What about her?”

“Did she think that you were just in love with Eddie, or did she say that you were both in love with each other?”

Buck’s jaw twitched and he looked away, scared of the hope that flared in his heart at the question.

Maddie nodded knowingly, taking the answer from Buck’s silence.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

“Hey, you’re early.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Eddie nodded apologetically. “I had to get out of the house. I got beers though.”

“Well that makes it okay then.” Tommy took the two six-packs out of Eddie’s hands and ushered him inside. “Gives us time catch up before the fight starts.”

“Yeah, great, that’s great,” Eddie mumbled, hands in his back pockets as he followed Tommy towards the kitchen.

Tommy looked him up and down with an appraising eye, easily catching the tense set of Eddie’s shoulders.

“You look like you need one of these,” Tommy said, holding out one of the beers to Eddie who didn’t hesitate to grab it.

“I do, thanks,” Eddie said, popping the top and downing half the beer in one go.

“You either really need to talk about something or really need to not talk about something.”

Eddie nodded.

“Talk, I need to talk. I just …pffphhhff,” Eddie huffed out a sigh instead of finishing his sentence because, where the hell was he gonna start? Was he really here to get sexuality advice from his husband’s ex-boyfriend? How did he get here?

Tommy cracked open his own beer and leaned against the kitchen counter.

“Like I said, you’re early, you got lots of time to get it out.”

“Okay, it’s like this,” Eddie said, wiping his lips and squaring his shoulders before he looked up to meet Tommy’s eye. “Buck and I aren’t actually together.”

Tommy’s brow furrowed. “You’re not married?”

“No, we are, we’re just not a couple or anything.”

“I …?” Tommy shrugged, lost and even more confused.

“My insurance got all messed up when I moved to Texas and Chris has a ton of medical bills so Buck he … he offered to marry me so I could put Chris under his insurance. He was just doing me a favor. A huge favor. But we had to pretend it was real so HR wouldn’t think it was suspicious, so everyone except just like Chim and Hen think we’re a real couple but we’re … we’re just friends who are married.”

“Oh. Okay,” Tommy said, leaning back in thought to mull everything over after Eddie was done. “It’s crazy but it also makes sense. Certainly explains why the hell it happened so fast.”

“Yeah. Sorry we lied to you, I didn’t want to it’s just ….”

“It’s fine,” Tommy waved him off. “You were lying to everyone, for a pretty good reason. Is this what you were all worked up about? Telling me? You’re trying to not go bankrupt for your kid, I get it, we’re good.”

“Thanks man, I’m glad you’re not mad.”

“Nah. If anything I feel like an idiot for offering you advice on coming out.”

Eddie laughed nervously and looked at the floor.

“Yeah about that …”

Tommy pulled back like he was bracing himself for impact. “What about that?”

“The thing is, the problem I’m having, it wasn’t that I felt bad about lying to you. I mean, I didn’t love it, but the real issue … the thing is … I think that I maybe am developing feelings … for Buck.”

Tommy released the longest sigh in human existence and shoved his palms into his eyes.

“Eddie this is the opposite of a problem.”

“It’s not Tommy look …”

“You have feelings for your husband who is absolutely in love with you, there’s no problem here.”

“There is,” Eddie insisted hard enough that Tommy backed down and motioned for him to explain. “I don’t know what these feelings are. We agreed to the marriage thing platonically, and it was platonic to me, we were just friends. But now we live together and we’re married and it’s great, and there was this insurance investigator who told us that we were so in love with each other it changed her life, and everyone is so happy for us for getting married and I just … I’m starting to have these thoughts about Buck, like a lot, and they’re … they’re not platonic, but I don’t know if these feelings if … if they’re real or if it’s just from everyone insisting they are. Or if they’re just friendship, gratitude for him helping me. Or maybe I just love being married, I don’t know. But I can’t do anything until I know for sure, I can’t upend our lives unless I know for sure that this is real. Buck deserves better than that.”

“Okay, so the issue is that you don’t know if you’re actually gay or Bucksexual or anything in between?”

Eddie shrugged. “Basically, yeah.”

“All right,” Tommy took a deep breath and met Eddie’s gaze. “I am going to give you exactly two pieces of advice about your feelings for my ex-boyfriend, and then we’re going to watch the fight and not talk about this for the rest of the night.”

Eddie nodded enthusiastically. “I love that. Great plan. Agreed.”

“Okay. Basically all you can do when these feelings for Buck start to happen is you gotta let yourself feel them. Don’t try to explain them away or push them down or ignore them. You gotta experience them and what they’re telling you to do. What they’re telling you that you want. It’s the only way you’re going to know for sure. You gotta be honest with yourself.”

It was Eddie’s turn to fill the kitchen with a huge sigh. “Knowing what I want is not something I’m good at. Neither is being honest with myself.”

“Well you’re going to have to learn fast or you’re fucked. Like you said, if you just do what everyone else is telling you that’s not fair to Buck.”

“Yeah. You’re right. I gotta figure this out and … and commit to what I’m actually feeling. That’s good advice. You’re good at this,” Eddie said, tipping his beer towards Tommy in recognition of his expertise.

“Thanks.”

“So what’s the second piece of advice?” Eddie asked.

“It’s more of an observation,” Tommy said with a half-hearted shrug and thoughtful tilt of his head. “It’s just, I’ve never met anyone who thought they might be queer and then ended up being fully straight.”

Eddie put his hands on his hips, leaned back against the kitchen island behind him and blew out his cheeks.

“Yeah. Good point.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

By the time Buck got back from Maddie’s house Eddie had already left for Tommy’s and he hated that he breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing he wasn’t there. Buck wasn’t sure how long he could run away from his feelings for Eddie, but it looked like it was going to be at least one more night.

Thankfully he had distractions to help him. He made supper for him and Chris then after they ate they turned on the PS5 and spent several hours trying to unlock every fatality in Mortal Kombat. It was exhausting and super fun, but eventually Chris had to go to bed, it being a school night and all.

Buck took their dishes into the kitchen and had just started to fill up the sink when he heard Eddie’s truck pull into the driveway. He took a deep breath and told himself to be normal.

As Eddie came into the house he was surprised to find it so quiet, with no sign of life in the living room or dining room. He moved into the kitchen and found Buck loading dishes into the sink.

“Hey. Chris in bed already?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah, just a few minutes ago,” Buck said.

Eddie shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know how you do it. He’s probably actually asleep too and not just secretly talking to his friends like he does with me.”

Buck laughed. “The secret is to tucker him out. He gets tired if you beat him at Mortal Kombat all night.”

“I’ll write that down.”

“It won’t do you any good. You suck at Mortal Kombat,” Buck said.

Eddie snorted in disagreement. “I’m great at Mortal Kombat. As long as I play Liu Kang.”

“You just do the bicycle kick over and over.”

“Winning’s winning,” Eddie reminded him.

“That’s a hollow victory,” Buck countered, smirking as they bantered. He saw the sink was full and turned off the water. “How was Tommy’s?”

“Good. The fight was … uh I don’t really remember. But it was fun.”

“Yeah it sounds like a laugh riot,” Buck said dryly. Eddie laughed, yeah, he wasn’t selling it.

“We spent a lot of the night catching up,” Eddie said his voice quiet as he remembered exactly what they had talked about and why and how Eddie still wasn’t any closer to figuring out the feelings for Buck that he was starting to feel.

“That’s a kind of fun.”

Eddie nodded then noticed all the dishes in the kitchen. “Here, let me do the dishes, you cooked.”

“Nah. Grab a cloth, you can dry,” Buck said.

“Sure. And thanks for feeding Chris, I appreciate it.”

“It’s no problem. I’d do anything for that kid,” Buck said with that casual devotion he always displayed for Eddie’s son and made Eddie feel a certain kind of way.

Then Buck rolled up his sleeves in preparation to plunge his hands into the sink and suddenly Eddie felt a totally different certain kind of way. He had seen Buck’s forearms a million times before but there was something about seeing just a third of those rippling muscles on display that made Eddie’s heart stutter and his breath hitch. He had the urge to move forward, to crowd into Buck’s space, to touch the display of flesh, but he forced his feet to stay still.

Then he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to do that. He had to let himself feel his feelings, follow his desires to understand if they were real, platonic or romantic. And he had to do it now.

“I have to test something,” he said abruptly, swallowing dryly as he suddenly felt lightheaded.

Buck stood still, one confused eyebrow raised. “What? What do you have to test?”

“I just …” Eddie faltered and blinked because he couldn’t tell him. At all. “I just need to test something. It’s important and … and I need your help.”

“Um, okay,” Buck said, eyes open and heart ready, always eager to help with anything. “What do I have to do? Hold a flashlight or something?”

“No,” Eddie shook his head and brought his hands up nervously. “Just stand there.”

“That’s easy.”

“And … and I have to touch you.”

That wasn’t easy. It was Buck’s turn to swallow dryly. “Uh, okay, yeah. Yeah that’s fine. You, you touch me all the time.”

“Yeah, all the time,” Eddie agreed, his blown out eyes meeting Buck’s panicked ones.

“And you’re gonna touch me now.”

“Yeah. As a test.”

“As a test.”

“So just … don’t move.”

“Okay,” Buck said quietly and tried to calm his breathing down because Eddie was moving closer like he was a planet being drawn into Buck’s orbit. Buck could only watch as the tips of Eddie’s fingers slowly grazed the skin of Buck’s forearm, testing the feel of Buck’s skin with the lightest pressure at first that turned into a soft grip and Eddie’s thumb rubbing over the inside of his wrist.

Eddie gasped when their skin touched, conscious of his need to touch Buck for the first time and immediately overwhelmed by the sensation. But he also needed more, immediately. His left hand was holding Buck’s arm and his right hand came up almost against his will, drawn in by Buck’s body. Buck was wearing a tight blue shirt, the soft material exposing every muscled ridge in Buck’s ribcage and Eddie’s fingers had to know what it felt like. His hand slid around Buck’s side, excruciatingly slow, feeling the softness of the cotton, the press of his skin and muscles, letting each finger slide in between the divots of Buck’s ribs, fitting in perfectly like he always belonged there.

Eddie was panting now but Buck couldn’t breathe, couldn’t dare move in case it scared Eddie away. Standing still had drawn Eddie in, had given him this much, this tantalizing, unsatisfying, maddening, incredible touch of his skin on Buck’s and he was terrified to lose it. He could only watch as Eddie continued to explore his body, his mouth agape in awe and his eyes dazed as his hands kept moving.

The light touch wasn’t enough though, Eddie wanted more and let his fingers flex into Buck’s flesh, spreading his whole hand around Buck’s ribs, tightening around Buck’s wrist, holding on, wanting, more, mine, more … oh.

Eddie stopped breathing.

Oh.

His mind was a haze but it was also so, so clear. He brought his eyes up and met Buck’s gaze and saw so much there. So much love and trust and … hope.

Oh.

Buck had already known. This test was just for Eddie.

Silence hung in the air for a long moment and neither of them moved, eyes locked, faces inches away from each other.

“Did … did you find your answer?” Buck asked eventually, tentatively, breath hitching as he asked.

Eddie nodded, his eyes never leaving Buck’s. “Yeah.”

Then he kissed him.

Their lips met and Buck shuddered in overwhelming relief, finally breathing and then moving, his hands wrapping around Eddie’s waist, pulling him in. Eddie did the same, clawing around Buck’s ribs, drawing him in as tight as possible because he wanted this. He wanted Buck, in every way imaginable and didn’t understand how he had ever doubted it.

They had to breathe eventually and pulled back only slightly, bodies still flush, mouths still gasping for air.

“So what … what exactly was this a test for?” Buck asked.

Eddie breathed out a laugh and tilted his head. “Uh … Bucksexuality. I passed. Like, really easily.”

Buck’s face lit up. “So, Gina was right?”

“Yeah. Yeah she was really on to something. I think maybe I am the luckiest guy in the world.”

Buck shook his head, still smiling widely. “Not luckier than me.”

Eddie lifted an eyebrow in challenge. “Fight ya for it.”

Then they were kissing again, battling, at a war with how much they wanted each other. Eddie tried to push Buck back against the counter but Buck wouldn’t be contained and flipped them around until Eddie was up against the fridge with Buck’s body flush against him, his hands were roaming freely now, fingers sliding up beneath the hem of Eddie’s shirt as Eddie’s mouth moved to Buck’s neck, sucking, tasting. It was heaven. It was really happening. Buck was kissing Eddie. His husband.

“Oh shit,” Buck muttered then pulled away so abruptly Eddie almost fell down.

“Wha … what’s wrong?” Eddie asked, disoriented by Buck’s sudden distance.

“We can’t do this,” Buck said.

“Why?”

“Because we’re married.”

Eddie blinked and looked confused. “We’re allowed to make out if we’re married.”

“No, well, yes,” Buck shook his head, frustrated, “We can make out, but if we have sex we can’t get an annulment. We’ll have consummated the marriage.”

Eddie took a step back. “You want an annulment?”

“Kind of,” Buck said.

Eddie’s face fell in devastation and Buck rushed forward, eyes panicked and apologetic.

“No, not like that, shit, sorry. I … I want this. Eddie I want this so much. Like ridiculously a lot. But if we’re doing this, and, and I think we are, I … I want to be able to marry you again. In front of everyone we love. In front of the whole world.”

Eddie’s eyes softened, he took Buck’s hands and nodded.

“I want to marry you too, Buck, properly. But I’m not going to put us on hold just so we can get an annulment. We’ve been waiting way too long for that. When the time comes we’ll just get divorced,” Eddie said.

Buck lifted an eyebrow.

“Ravi would explode.”

Eddie smiled, “Even better.”

“Okay, we’ll get divorced and blow up Ravi,” Buck agreed.

“Good. Because right now I’ve got a lot to learn about Bucksexuality,” Eddie said.

Buck smiled and crowded into his space once more, “Luckily, your husband is an expert on the subject and an excellent teacher.”

“I was counting on that,” Eddie said, his own smile lifting up flirtatiously.

“I could go get a clipboard!” Buck said, his eyes widening with delight at the thought.

Eddie laughed. “I knew there was a reason we made you Head of the Diaz Household.”

“It’s so I can take care of you. Forever.”

They kissed again, this time longer, slower, relishing in the feeling of each other and realizing they didn’t have to rush. They had all the time in the world.

They were already married after all, but not just for insurance purposes anymore.

The end.