Work Text:
1.
It didn’t hit Buck like a speeding truck; more a slow car coming to halt and bumping you slightly, enough to make you fall over but not get that hurt; a graze maybe. Maddie mentioned it a few times; subtly dropping it through conversations about his relationships.
‘Any other guys than Tommy? I didn’t like him that much anyway’
‘What do you wish your boyfriend was like? Another firefighter?’
‘How’s Eddie and Chris? You slept over the other night, didn’t you? You’re always together’
After all the little questions and hints that Maddie would drop, Buck knocked at her door. She opened it to see him standing there.
“Buck, you didn’t say you were coming” she said as he stepped passed her and dropped onto the sofa. “What happened?"
“You knew I had feelings for Eddie?” he blurted, looking her in the eyes.
“Well…”
“When?”
Maddie takes a seat next to him, putting a hand on his arm.
“You’ve always been mesmerised by him. Ever since you first met the guy. I even mentioned it but all you replied with was ‘that’s cute’”
“I remember that.” he huffs, sinking back into the cushions
“When did you realise?”
“Today. I was dropping Theo off at day care”
“You drove here right after?”
“Yeah”
“So, how do you feel about it? Now that you know.” She places a hand on Bucks’ arm, rubbing soothing circles with her thumb
“Not sure. I mean, I understand now. All the times people thought we were together, because it made sense if we were”
“What do you want to do about it?”
“Tell him”
“Then do that”
“Should I?”
“It’s your decision”
He sighs, running a hand through his misshapen curls. “…I will”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.” he sits upright now, more certain. “I want to tell Eddie”
“Good.”
Buck pulls her into a small hug and she squeezes him reassuringly.
“Alright, I gotta head to work” Buck huffs, kissing the top of Maddie’s head.
“Good luck”
---
For Eddie, it does in fact hit him like a truck. A whole tsunami crashing down onto him; how ironic.
The shift was okay, calm. A few calls here and there but nothing too major. It was hour 36 out of their 48-hours. Eddie’s making dinner with Buck; smiling and laughing.
“Hey, how’s Theo been with preschool?” Eddie asks as he slices the tomatoes.
Buck gets out the bread. He nods, “He’s been good. First day was a lot but other than that, he’s doing well. How’s Chris?”
“Good. He’s been good”
“We should do a dinner thing. Buckley-Diaz dinner. What do you think? We could do it tomorrow night”
“Yeah, seems good”
“Great”
Buck lets out a small giggle, a smile appearing on his face. Eddie admires that smile. The way it curls up at the corners and the way his eyes crinkle up enough to give him crows feet. It’s so beautiful, he is, everything about him.
Wait. No. Nonononononono.
No. absolutely not. Theres no way.
“Uhh, Eddie?”
Eddie blinks out of his thoughts and whips his head around to Buck.
“you, okay? you went quiet on me there”
“I-I-You-“
“Eddie?”
“I- gotta call someone!”
Eddie leaves buck in the kitchen and heads straight to the bunks. He whips out his phone and immediately dials her number.
“Hey Eddie, everything okay?” she asks
“Maddie? Maddie, Maddie I need help Maddie”
“Woah, what’s up?”
“Buck”
“Is he okay? Did he get hurt on call?”
“No! He’s good. I’m not”
“You got hurt?”
“No! I just- I think I-“ he lowers his voice like everyone else on shift can hear him, “-have feelings for him”
The line goes silent, just the sound of the two breathing being audible.
Maddie starts slowly, if saying the wrong thing could make Eddie break; it probably could. “…How do you feel?”
“Like I’m losing my mind” he huffs, “I have no idea how long. We were making lunch together and I just…it hit me.”
“What do you want to do about it?”
“What?”
“Well, you have feelings for him, what do you want to do about it? Burry your feelings, drop hints until he gets it, or be direct”
“I-Uhh-”
“You don’t have to figure it out today; give yourself time”
“No, I…I want to tell him. I want to tell him soon. I don’t know when, but soon”
“Mhm, are you doing anything with him soon?”
“Dinner tomorrow. Should I do it then? Is that to soon?” he leaves the bunk closing the door behind him. he watches as Ravi walks past into the bathroom.
“It’s your decision, Eddie”
“I will”
“Good luck”
“Thanks. bye”
“bye”
As Maddie hangs up, he shoves his phone into his pocket and takes a large breath. God, how’s he going to survive this? He steps back into the kitchen as the toast pops out from the toaster. He grabs the butter out of the fridge and sets it on the counter. He takes the butter knife as Buck places the toasted bread in front of him.
“So, is everything good? What was that call about?” Buck mumbles; making sure the rest of the group don’t hear him as they sit down at the table.
“Yeah, I- sorry.”
“Don’t be, you’re okay.”
“…Thanks”
“Of course,”
As they sit down to eat, Eddie’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He takes it out.
Maddie: did you want to come over after work and talk about it?
Maddie: whatever’s fine
Eddie: yes please
Maddie: great. Text me when you’ll be on your way
Eddie: thank you
Maddie: no problem :)
---
The rest of the shift went by and finished. Eddie was in the locker room when Buck stepped in.
“Hey” he greeted, making Eddie jump
“Oh, hi”
“Are you okay?” Buck asks, making Eddie turn to him.
God. Those eyes. Those bright blues staring at him. His eyebrows are upturn in worry, but he still looks ethereal from where he’s standing.
“Yeah, I’m good”
“Eddie, I need to tell you something”
“Okay, what’s up?”
“We’re having dinner tonight with Chris and Theo”
“We are”
“What if we do a dinner alone?”
“Dinner? Just the two of us? I mean, yeah. We could do it sometime next week”
“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. I mean as a-”
“Hey guys” Ravi interrupts, Chim walking in beside him. Buck looks to them, then back to Eddie.
“You were saying?” Eddie questions
“I, uhhh-“
Eddie looks to the clock hung high on the wall. He’s meant to be seeing Maddie soon. “I gotta go see Maddie, see you tonight”
He leaves and Buck now stands with Ravi and Chim.
“Why’s he seeing you sister?” Chimney asks
“Why’s he seeing you wife?” Buck asks
2.
Eddie makes it to Maddie’s and she opens the door, letting him step inside.
“What do I do Maddie?” he asks, pacing the length of her kitchen.
She grabs his by his shoulders, squeezing them once before leading him to the chair in the front room.
“Take a minute.”
“It doesn’t make any sense”
She sits down on the coffee table in front of him. After a bit, she speaks up.
“Doesn’t it?”
“What?”
“Eddie, how about I recap the entirety of you guys’ friendship?”
“I-okay”
“Buck starts off trying to get your attention and then you guys get really close. You trust him with your son after the tsunami. You made him Chirs’ legal guardian if anything happens to you after knowing him for a year.
“He told you about that?”
“Yeah, it didn’t surprise me honestly. He basically becomes a co-parent to Chris during covid. Do you remember what happened when you got shot?”
“Not really”
“Buck risked being shot to pull you away from the open and into the ladder truck and he stayed by your side and took care of Chris the entire time you were in the hospital. When Buck got struck by lightning, you were there for him the whole time”
“3 minutes, 17 seconds”
“Yes, and the time in hospital. When Buck donated, you supported him. Then Tommy came along”
“Fucking Tommy”
“Exactly, I didn’t really like him. But he was extremely jealous.”
“Yeah, Buck said he got jealous because of how close I was with Tommy”
“Not what I meant. Tommy was jealous of you and Buck.”
“Wait what?”
“Yep, called you competition. Then you move to El Paso, Buck moves into your house while you’re not there. Tommy mentions it when they hook-up and he gets really pissed.”
“They hooked up?”
“Yeah, then you guys come back. Then the road trip, that was a lot. Buck said everything that happened. Theo comes back into his life; you’ve been helping him with everything because you know what it’s like to be a father; a good one. Finally, when you get stabbed. Your aunt, Chris, and Buck stay close to you at all times.”
“Mhm, that’s…a lot”
“It is”
“I want to tell him”
“Then do”
“But what if he doesn’t feel the same?”
“Did you not listen to anything I just said?”
“I did! But what if it’s just him being friendly”
“I’m sorry, if Ravi got punched in the face and Buck called it ‘sexy’” he snickered when she said it, “You know what? That would never happen anyway.”
“What if he was just joking?”
“Buck tells jokes, but he doesn’t lie”
“That is a lie”
“…Okay, yeah, but that’s beside the point.”
She grabs his shoulders again, squeezing to ground him. “Tell him”
“I will”
The door opens and chimney walks in with bags; he went grocery shopping.
“Eddie, your still here?”
“I was just about to leave” he says, standing up from the chair. He goes to leave but before he does, he turn back. “Thank you, Maddie”
“Of course, good luck”
He leaves and Chim turns to her. “Good luck with what?”
“A secret”
“Don’t tell me, you know how I am”
“I know how you are”
---
Dinner is nice. Chris sits calmly with Buck and Eddie as they all let out small giggles listening to Theo’s loud and enthusiastic retelling of his day at preschool.
“And then Lea ate all the yogurt!” Theo exclaimed over a mouthful of peas.
“All of it?” Eddie grins
“All of it!”
“Okay, okay, don’t talk with your mouth full” Buck says, tapping Theo on the shoulder.
“Okay Buck”
Eddie looks to Theo, then to Buck. He can see the likeness; blond curls covering their foreheads, baby blue gazes, the scrunching of their noses when they laugh. It’s nice, to see the two of them so smiley. He moves his gaze to Buck, and his smile softens, his face loosens at the sight of the man. He’s just so…gorgeous.
Even though he sees him every day- he literally saw him this morning before b-shift came along- something about him right now, sitting at Eddie’s dining room table, it’s so amazing and Eddie feels so God damn lucky to have Buck there.
He glances to Chris, who’s trying, and failing, to bite back the large grin that’s spreading across his mouth. Eddie raises a brow at him. Chris juts his chin subtly to Buck before wriggling his eyebrows. Eddie chokes on the forkful of peas and the Buckleys turn to him.
“You okay?” Buck asks, placing a tentative hand on the man’s shoulder. Eddie scrapes his chair across the floor and stands, letting Buck’s hand fall to the table.
“Uhh, bathroom, excuse me”
---
The only thing Eddie can hear is the soft hum of the refrigerator, the sloshing of the water where the two of them are washing dishes, and Buck’s calm breaths syncing up with his own.
“Are you good?” Buck asks after a while.
“I mean, yeah, why?”
“Well, you’ve been weird since yesterday. We were making dinner then you just…it looked like something turned in your mind, something became clear.”
“I don’t know”
“You don’t know?”
“I’m okay”
“Okay”
“Okay”
They fall back into a comfortable silence over the kitchen sink. Eddie washes, Buck dries. When Eddie gives the last one to Buck, their fingers brush. It sends an electric shock up Eddie’s arm, down his spine before it blooms across his chest. Is he really that into buck? He thinks.
Yes, yes, he is.
“I need to tell you something” he blurts, turning to Buck when he puts down the plate.
Buck mirrors him, turning so they’re facing each other. They just stare for a minute before Buck speaks up, gesturing out with his hand. “Go on”
“Uhh, dinner was nice”
“It was”
“It was nice to be with Chris and Theo”
“Yeah, it was”
“What you said this morning, about dinner alone. I’d like that”
“Oh, Eddie, like I said, I don’t think you understood”
“I might not of, but I wanted to ask to go to dinner as well”
“Like I said, I don’t think you under-“
“Buck, I want to do dinner”
“Eddie-“
“Theo’s asleep” Chris says, stepping into the kitchen
Eddie steps back from Buck and turns to his son.
“Oh, uhh, okay” Buck stammers
“You guys should sleep over” Chris grins
“Well, I don’t know if your dad’ll be okay with-“
“Sleep over” Eddie declares, not breaking eye contact with his son.
“Really?”
“Yeah, you’re always allowed, you know that”
“…Okay”
Buck heads to the bathroom and Chris lets out a snicker. “You should tell him”
“I was about to when you interrupted”
“Just do it or I’ll tell him”
-
The two end up in Eddie’s room.
“You can sleep in here, Buck, I don’t mind”
“But I normally sleep on the sofa, I don’t want to take up any space”
Eddie tosses him a pair of joggers as he gets into bed. He picks up the book on his nightstand.
3.
When Buck gets into Eddie’s bed along side him, he knows Eddie’s not actually reading. After a hard call or a long day, he’ll pick up a book and pretend to read it; to get his mind off something. He’ll just stare at the page, letting the lines blur together and mix up until someone gets him out of it or his hands ache from holding the book up; which takes a while.
Buck takes the book slowly from eddies hands and places it on the side. Eddie looks to him.
“What was that for?”
“Because you’re not reading”
“Says who?”
“Me. You good?”
“Yeah, just…thinking”
“About?”
Eddie huffs as he turns on his side to face buck. Buck mirrors him, laying down.
“…Us”
“Us?”
“We’re close. You know that anything I do, it’s not to ruin our friendship, right?”
“Eddie, what’s up?”
“Like I said, thinking”
“Eddie, don’t lie to me”
“Buck, I’m okay”
“Good, just making sure”
“I know”
The gaze at each other for another minute, just listening to their breaths syncing up.
“You look tired” Buck whispered, letting a small laugh escape his lips
“Thanks”
“Maybe you should sleep”
“Mhm, good idea”
“Night Eddie”
“Goodnight Buck”
---
Eddie stirs, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as the light shines through the curtains in the morning. He feels a weight on top of him, but it’s warm, like a blanket encircling him. He looks to his chest and- “oh shit.”
The blanket is Buck. Buck’s face is squished into the crook of Eddie’s neck, his arms clinging onto Eddie’s shoulders. Eddie wishes he could stay like this forever, but he needs to get Christopher to school, and Buck needs to get Theo to preschool.
“Buck,” he whispers, nudging him awake.
“Mhm, no” he grumbles
“Buck, we gotta get the kids to school”
“I-“
Buck grunts, turning over and taking Eddie with him so now he’s the blanket. He moves his arms down to eddies waist and squeezes him tightly. “Five more minutes” he mumbles in the crook of Eddie’s neck, his breath tickling Eddie. He then feels lips press against his neck.
Wait.
It must’ve been a mistake, just Buck talking. It happens again, then a third time.
Is it still a mistake?
“Buck…come on, get up”
Bucks’ eyes shoot open, his arms instinctively tighten– somehow- on Eddie’s waist, pulling their chests flush.
“Eddie, I-I’m sorry-I didn’t- Fuck-”
Eddie moves his hand slowly down to Buck’s forehead, brushing the messy blond curls out of his eyes. Buck’s mouth closes, then opens to speak, then closes again.
There’s a knock at Eddie’s door and he jumps, almost falling out the bed before Buck catches him, pulling them flush again.
Buck is gonna be the death of him.
“Dad! We have to get to school!” Chris shouts from the other side of the door, “And Maddie’s here!”
“Why’s my sister here?” Buck asks
“I don’t- uhh-“
“Dad! Come on!”
“I- be right out bud!”
Eddie pushes himself up and off of Buck. he gets out of bed and throws a pair of jeans to the man.
“Just wear these, it’ll be fine”
“Oh, thanks”
Eddie changes quickly, throwing on jeans and an old henley. He opens the door and Maddie is standing there.
“Hey, sorry for stopping by. I’m just checking on you and I wanted to ask-“
“Maddie-“
“-did you tell Buck?”
“Tell me what?” he calls, stepping up behind Eddie.
Maddie’s eyes widen. “Oh. Okay, uhh-“
“We gotta get the kids to school” Eddie huffs
---
That’s how Buck, Eddie, Maddie, and the two kids end up in Eddie’s car, driving the two kids to school.
They get to the front of Chris’ school and Chris opens the door. Maddie hands him his crutches and he heads into school.
“Have a nice day bud!” Eddie calls
“Bye dad!”
Eddie pulls out and makes the drive to Theo’s preschool. Theo turns to Maddie.
“Bye Maddie!” Theo squeals, hugging her
“Bye honey”
Buck gets out the car. He opens the back door and unbuckles the seatbelt, pulling Theo out. He sets his down on his feet, but Theo reaches his hand up to Eddie’s car door, trying to pull on the handle.
“Everything alright bud?” Buck asks, stepping up on the other side of the small child and pulling his hand away.
“I want Eddie to hold my hand on the way in.”
Eddie looks to the kid from the open window, then up to Buck, then to Maddie.
“Is it alright if we leave you in here a sec to get Theo into school?” he asks
“Yep, do what you gotta do” she smiles, nodding to Buck and Theo
“Thanks”
Eddie gets outs the car and Theo immediately grabs his hand, squeezing it. His smile softens. He feels his heart warm at the feeling of the small hand in his. He misses this- not because him and Chris aren’t close- because Chris hasn’t been this little in a while.
“Let’s go to school!” Theo exclaims
“Yep, school time Theo”
As they get to the outside of preschool, a mum walks up to the three.
“Hi buck, how are you?” she smiles
“Veronica! Hi, I’m great, how are you?”
“I’m doing good. How’s little Theo?” she asks, crouching down to get to his eye level.
“I’m good Lea’s mum!”
“That’s amazing sweetie.”
“Hi Theo!” Lea giggles from Veronica’s side.
“Hi!” Theo exclaims
“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are. I haven’t seen you at drop off before” Veronica says, standing straight and turning to Eddie. She places a hand on his upper arm, squeezing his bicep.
“Oh, hi, I’m Eddie”
“Eddie” she repeats, fliting her eyes up and down him. “You look nice, Eddie”
Oh, wait…is she?
“Yeah, I’m with Buck”
She stares at him blankly for a minute, before looking to Buck, then back to him. “Ah, I see”
“Mhm, yeah”
“Sorry, I didn’t realise”
“You’re good.”
“We gotta get back to Maddie” Buck interrupts, sounding annoyed, “We’re getting breakfast”
“Oh, have fun” she says, nodding tightly
“Alright, Theo, were gonna pick you up later, okay?”
“Okay Buck! Bye!” he calls before walking in with Lea.
Buck grabs Eddie’s arm and drags him back to the car. He opens the driver’s side for Eddie before crossing the front and getting in the passenger seat and slamming his door shut.
“What’s up with you?” Eddie asks as he drives off, “You were fine when we started drop off”
“Veronica” Buck grunts
“What about Veronica?”
“She was checking you out”
“I know”
“She thought you were cute. Flirting with you”
“I know”
“She was probably going to ask out”
“I know”
“Sorry, who is veronica?” Maddie interrupts from the back seat.
“A mum” Buck mumbles, “Who thinks Eddie’s hot”
“I…okay”
4.
After breakfast, they drive back to Eddie’s house and Buck heads for the bathroom. Maddie stands in the kitchen across from Eddie.
“So, you didn’t tell him?” she asks
“No”
“Then why on earth was he in your room when you two just woke up?”
“Well, Theo fell asleep, so they stayed the night. I said Buck could sleep in bed with me, so we-“
“I don’t need details about you and my brother having-“
Eddie short circuits, “Woah, no. We-We haven’t- No- We just fell asleep. Chris woke us up and he was just laying on top of me”
“Ah, okay”
Buck comes back from the bathroom, stepping in and pausing on Maddie and Eddie.
“Everything okay?” he asks
“Yes, I’m just heading off to work” Maddie says, grabbing her car keys from the counter, “You two have fun at dinner tonight” she leaves and Buck turns to Eddie.
“You told her about dinner?”
“Uh, yeah, I mentioned it to her. I’m thinking that Italian place?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s good.”
“Great”
“Uhh, I’ll see you tonight then”
“Mhm, see you buck”
---
Dinners nice. Buck ordered the beef lasagna and Eddie ordered the carbonara. They just talked for a while, laughing over sips of wine until a voice pipped up.
“Evan.”
The two turned to look who was standing in front of their table. Tommy. Fucking Tommy, Eddie thinks.
“Mhm, I have to say I’m not surprised. I knew there was no competition, you’d always win, have fun on your date, Diaz” he said before walking off
The two men turn back to each other slowly.
“’The competition?’” Eddie repeats, taking a sip of his water.
“Uhh- it’s a long story”
“Go on, I love listening”
“Well, its not really a public sort of talk, so…”
“Mhm”
“But what he said about the date, was that weird for you, or…”
“No. was it weird for you-“
“No, of course not”
“Okay, great”
“Yeah, great”
5.
It’s the start of their shift. Eddie and Buck are talking while making lunch for the team. They’re debriefing what Tommy said last night. Even though the though of him makes Eddie want to take a fork to the throat, but he needs to understand what Tommy meant because Maddie didn’t explain it when she mentioned it. ‘Competition’.
“So, when you were in Texas. I sorta…hooked up with Tommy” Buck explained.
All Eddie could reply with was a stern, “Mhm”
“Yeah. Then the morning after he said he wanted to try again”
“He said that? I hope you said no”
“Well, not at first. He said he wanted to because the ‘competitions’ out of the way”
“He was talking about me?”
“Yep. He said that you were competition and that I was in love with you because I was living in your house”
“I’m a renter”
“Exactly! And you’re straight, which he didn’t believe. And then I said…something”
“What did you say?”
“It was bad”
“I think you hooking up was the worst part of this story”
“Okay, wow. I said that I don’t have to want to sleep with everyone I have feelings for, and I don’t have to have feeling for everyone I sleep with”
Eddie stops cutting the cheese. He places the knife on the counter and just stands there.
“Uhh, Eddie?”
Eddie walks off, heading to the bunks and buck follows.
“Hey- what’re you- Eddie-“
“Buck. I need to tell you something”
“I-okay-“
“Please.”
“Okay, go on”
“I…I really care about you, alright? And what you just told me, about you hooking up with tommy, oh my God. I mean, I don’t understand. How can he be a dick to you. The thing that I don’t get is how did he actually break up with you. If it was me, I’d want to be your boyfriend forever, I definitely want to.”
“…What?”
“Buck, I-“
The alarm rings, loud and piercing. Eddie can hear Chimney yell for them to get going.
Buck goes to speak, “Uhh, I think we gotta-“
“Oh my god!”
Eddie grabbed his face- careful enough not to hurt him- and pressed his lips up against Buck’s messily. Buck didn’t even have time to react before Eddie separated and ran out of the bunks and down the stairs, getting into the ladder truck.
+1
After the kiss- well, it wasn’t really a kiss, buck didn’t even have time to process what was happening to kiss back- Eddie avoided him for the rest of the shift. Buck kept on trying to corner him, get them to talk but Eddie was avoiding him. Towards the ¾ mark of the 48 hours, Buck cornered him in the kitchen. Eddie was reading- the type of reading where he isn’t.
“Eddie. We gotta talk about it” Buck whispers when Ravi, Hen, and Chim walk in.
They’re all gonna hate me for this. I don’t believe in it anyway but whatever. “You know what? This shift has been kinda quiet”
The other’s eyes widen.
Hen stammers, “What the-“
The alarm rings and Chim gives Eddie a stern look.
“you’re awful” Chim huffs as Eddie jogs down the stairs.
---
The shift comes to a close. It was very long-winded. Boring calls after boring calls for the rest of it. Cats stuck in trees, people arguing over small things.
While Eddie puts on his regular clothes at the end of shift, he hears the door click shut behind him. He doesn’t pay much mind to it, but when he turns to the bench, Buck’s standing at the door.
Eddies eyes widen as he shuts the locker door. “Buck”
“Eddie”
“That door locks?”
“Yeah, the only way I know is because when I said the q-word the first time, Chim and Hen locked me in here with the fire suppression system on”
Eddie huffed a laugh out, sitting on the bench and fitting his trainers on.
“Mhm, so, are you just not going to say anything about it?” Buck questions, unmoving from the door.
“About what?”
“Everything”
Eddie paused for a minute. He opened his mouth to speak, a strangled noise coming out instead of words, then closed it again.
“You don’t wanna say it?” Buck asks
“Nothing to say Buckley”
“Really? For starters, you said that word. Which makes no sense because you don’t believe in stuff like that, so I don’t know why. Was it to avoid me? Because I think you’re avoiding me”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about”
“Is it because you kissed me?”
Eddie hesitates, “Uhh, no-“
“You hesitated”
“Buck-“
“Why’d you hesitate? You didn’t hesitate when you kissed me”
Eddie paused. When he finally looks to Buck, he looks sad. His eyebrows are upturned and he has a slight frown curving his lips downwards.
“Buck” he whispers, voice barely audible
“Why’d you kiss me, Eddie?” his voice is soft, almost breaking
Eddie pats the bench, signalling Buck to sit next to him. For once since buck came into the room, he moves, complying and sitting down on the bench, their shoulders bumping. “Sorry” he mumbles, contracting into himself.
“Buck, no”
“No?”
“You can’t say sorry, okay? I’m sorry. I’ve been avoiding you and I said the stupid word”
“It’s not stupid, it’s a curse”
“Mhm, I’m also sorry that I kissed you”
“Because you didn’t mean it?”
“I meant it.”
“Did you want to? Kiss me?”
“Yes”
Just ‘yes’. No hesitation, no thinking about it, no worry about the response, how he felt when he kissed Buck.
“Then why are you sorry? I mean… I wanted it too”
“Because it wasn’t how I planned our first kiss to be. It was messy and it wasn’t even really a kiss. I though you didn’t want to because you didn’t kiss me back”
“Well, you didn’t give me much time to react.”
They let out a small laugh between each other, before Buck’s small smile turned to a smirk.
“What?” Eddie chuckled
“You said that ‘wasn’t how you planned it’. You planned our first kiss?”
“I-“
“Wait, how long has it been since you realised?”
“We were making lunch and I called Maddie”
“How long have you been planning our first kiss?”
“I thought about when I was in El Paso”
Buck grins, “You’re stupid”
“I am”
“What would it have been like? Our first kiss”
“Well, we’d be standing.”
Buck took Eddie’s hands and stood them up.
“What else?” Buck asked
“I’d put my arms around your neck, crossing my arms to pull you closer to me”
Buck moves Eddie’s hands to his neck, crossing them over so their bodies are closer.
Eddie continues, “You’d put your hands on my waist. When I saw you kiss someone- as much as it annoyed me, I never knew why- you always placed your hands on their waist.”
Buck places his hands low on Eddie’s waist, thumbs circling on his hips.
“Mhm, then I’d initiate it. I’d be the one to kiss you first. I’d want you to feel chosen; I want you to realise how special you are to me”
“Then do it” Buck murmurs, “Kiss me”
Eddie does, lips slotting together like a puzzle piece, completing the picture. Buck kisses back instantly, melting into it. Eddie crosses his arms tighter, pulling Buck into him even more. They only break apart to breathe, faces still closes, barely any space between them.
“Mhm, that was way better than the first kiss” Buck smiles
“See? I plan well”
“You do”
They close the gap again. This one is nothing like the two before. The first was rushed and hurried, just lips smushed together. The second was soft, gentle, like a flower starting to bloom. This one is different. It’s certain and stronger, they both want this. Buck grips Eddie’s waist as he walks him backwards, hitting the door of Eddie’s locker.
“You know” Ravi calls from outside the locker room, “The door locks but the room’s still transparent!”
The two separate and Eddie can only laugh.
“Happy for you two but the rest of us need to leave” Chim says, voice stern but with no real malice
Eddie moves out of Bucks’ hands and Buck presses his forehead against his locker door, huffing exasperatingly. Eddie unlocks the door.
“Uhh, sorry guys” he chuckles, avoiding eye contact
“Just gotta fill out the love contract” Hen grins, the three of them stepping past Eddie to their own lockers.
“I’ll get those for you guys next shift” Chim agrees, “For now, do all the couple things you want. And don’t make out in the firehouse”
“Yes Cap” Buck smirks
“Sorry Cap” Eddie nods, looking to Buck with a small smile curving on his lips.
Chim’s right, they can fill out the forms next shift. But for now, they can just be themselves.