Title: Grab A Bite?
Author: an-alternate-world
Rating: G
Characters/Pairing: Evan Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Word Count: 1,000
Summary: "You wanna grab a bite after we drop him?" Buck might be exhausted after the shift but he still acquiesces to the option of breakfast before he returns home.
Warnings/Spoilers: Very loose spoilers for 3x13 (i.e. where the line came from) but that's about it really. This is just fluffy sweetness.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with 911, Fox, or anything else related to that particular universe.
Buck stifles a yawn and rubs a hand across his face. Twenty-four-hour shifts are always killer and he's sure that if he listens hard enough, he can hear his pillow calling his name. It's a lilting whisper across the breeze, tickling his ear, and lulling his eyelids towards the point of closing.
Luckily for him, he's not the one driving.
"You wanna grab a bite after we drop him?"
He blinks awake again, eyes snapping to the left, and it's not such a bad view to drag his gaze over Eddie's profile as hazel eyes focus on the road ahead to Abuela's. "You don't want to sleep?"
"Well... Yes," Eddie agrees with a nod, glancing towards Buck for a brief flash and with a grin curling the edge of his lips, "but I wanted to try that place Hen recommended last week and I could stay awake for breakfast and coffee. Can you?"
No, Buck wants to protest because the call of the mattress reverberates through his skull, but he acquiesces to Eddie's suggestion because they both know if they don't eat before sleeping after a long shift, then they wake up irritable and frustrated by food options in a fridge that are never satisfying.
He reclines into the chair, eyes wandering lazily over the road as Eddie drives, and he must doze off for a handful of minutes because then Eddie's nudging him and he frowns at the visage of Abuela's house.
"Welcome back to the Land of Awake," Eddie teases, prodding his shoulder until Buck smacks at the hand and climbs from the car, waving an errant middle finger in Eddie's general direction. "My son's going to learn from you and then I'm going to break your finger."
Buck smiles as innocently as he can, fluttering his eyelashes, and Eddie looks tempted to flash his middle finger but their attention both gets pulled away by the shout of "Dad!"
With a tight grip in Abuela's hand, Chris eases slowly down the three steps to the path in front of Abuela's house. He starts tottering along it with a huge grin on his face as Buck and Eddie approach. Buck drops to one knee when Chris is close enough, lifting the kid into a cuddle while Eddie collects his son's backpack from Abuela's outstretched hand.
"I missed you," Chris whispers as Buck nuzzles a kiss to his temple and rubs a hand across his back, shooting a pleading look at Eddie who rolls his eyes and mouths 'No'. It's not the first time he's tried to get Chris out of school. It won't be the last. He'll wear Eddie down eventually.
"Missed you too, champ," Buck says, shifting Chris on his hip to carry him to the waiting truck while Eddie chats with his grandmother. "And you know what? After school, we can go to the park and feed the ducks and then work on your homework and watch a movie after dinner."
"Now I'm not gonna listen in class because I'm gonna think about that," Chris pouts and Buck laughs, popping the door of the truck and wriggling Chris inside.
"You are going to listen in class and ace everything because you're the smartest kid in your year," Buck says as he crosses the straps over Chris' shoulders and Eddie slings the bag onto the seat beside him. Chris tugs at one of his curls and beams at Buck.
They take turns quizzing Chris on the way to school about what he learned yesterday, and last week, and what he thinks he'll learn this week, and then Chris shares a joke about a goldfish that makes Eddie snort and Buck laughs and trades Chris' joke with one of his own that makes Chris dissolve into giggles. Buck still wants to crawl into his bed to sleep but this isn't such a bad way to start - or end - his morning either. Chris brings a sort of joy with his laughs and his jokes and his sass that buoys Buck's mood better than anything else he's ever found.
When they arrive at the school, Eddie helps Chris out of the car while Buck collects the backpack. They each kneel to give Chris a hug and a kiss, despite his weak giggly protests, before he starts the journey towards the building. Chris always looks so excited to learn and it reminds Buck of himself when he was a kid - thrilled at the possibility of cramming more knowledge in his head, to hide in the library and consume every book he could find. Eddie's often grumbled that he doesn't know where Chris gets his interest in school from, so Buck decided to take credit for that long ago.
Eddie's fingers brush his elbow, drawing him back to the present, drawing him back to the truck, and Buck can see the tiredness in the hazel eyes and in the curve of his lips. They proceed to breakfast as planned, and the place Hen recommended is just as good as she suggested, even though the coffee barely provides a zap to his depleted energy levels.
By the time Buck finally gets home and peels apart the buttons on his shirt and sheds his jeans to the basket, his eyes itch with fatigue and his bones feels heavy and his muscles ache. Crawling beneath the blankets is like crawling onto a field of feathers and he's so relieved to be almost able to sleep he could cry.
His head presses into the pillow and he manages a sleepy smile when an arm curls around his waist, and a nose tucks near the nape of his neck, and lips brush against his shoulder.
"Sleep now?" he mumbles and there's a contented hum, the arm tightening further as knees nudge into the crook of his to anchor their bodies together.
"Sleep now," Eddie murmurs, like a calming command or a perfect promise, and then...peaceful nothingness sweeps through him and drags him away to rest.
~FIN~