Word Count: 6,343
Warnings/Spoilers: None in particular for this chapter.
September was right around the corner, more than four months after Eddie got shot, when he finally got cleared by the doctor and his physiotherapist to take a recertification test. Given Buck threw a clot after his recertification, he felt as though his nerves and anxieties and additional fussing for any unexplained aches and pains were warranted. All things considered, Eddie handled Buck's agitation well and kept reassuring him that he wasn't feeling sore and he kept his doctors in the loop about everything.
Buck could remember completing his recertification with his heart in his mouth because he didn't have anything other than being a firefighter. Sure, he had Maddie and his sister was great but there was nothing else Buck could imagine doing with his life and he had felt so thoroughly lost. After the clot, and then the tsunami, Buck had collapsed in on himself because he had nothing to keep himself going, no one to make sure he got out of bed every day to shower and eat.
In contrast, Eddie had plenty to keep him going. Eddie had a whole legion of family members who called and FaceTimed frequently. Isabel and Pepa pinched Buck's cheek as a greeting every time and insisted Eddie eat more of their food, Helena asked him how Buck was doing with genuine maternal care, and Adriana and Sophia called for updates on Eddie, or Chris, or Buck's relationship status with Eddie. Buck wasn't used to the big, overly involved family thing – and he could tell Eddie was waiting for him to get uncomfortable with it – but Eddie's family extended Buck's lack of it and it gave him something beyond the firehouse that he hadn't had a year ago. All of that still didn't take into account how Eddie obviously had Christopher too, and Buck had been helping with Chris so much he almost felt like a co-parent. He'd never breathe a word of that thought to Eddie because he still felt like Shannon was a sore subject, but sometimes he looked at Chris and thought of him as his kid not just the kid.
So even though Buck knew Eddie had plenty to keep him going, Buck still knew Eddie was anxious he wouldn't pass and so he'd remain out of a job, twiddling his thumbs and bored out of his mind after Chris had returned to school last week and Buck was on-shift. Buck was confident and hopeful he'd be fine, but Eddie returning to the 118 was likely to make life infinitely more complicated for both of them and he hadn't said anything about that to Eddie either.
Bobby had warned him almost a month ago that whenever Eddie returned, there would be forms to fill in and an understanding would be required that Bobby would never, under any circumstances, pair them up for dangerous rescues. Buck understood it logically but if Bobby ordered Eddie into something dangerous and Buck was restricted from going after him as back-up, he thought he'd probably lose his mind. He could easily imagine Eddie disappearing into some godawful, ridiculous situation and Buck ignoring Bobby yelling at him in favour of charging after Eddie, his partner in so many ways beyond just the firehouse. He always was the more reckless of the two, after all.
But Buck had smiled and nodded and told Cap he understood and returned to cataloguing the items on the truck because it gave him a way to pass the time in between the blare of the alarms and missing Eddie.
He also knew Eddie was anxious because he was actually talking more about his messier feelings. It was usually late at night, long after Chris had gone to bed – sometimes long after they had gone to bed – before Eddie's walls would lower just enough to let Buck peer into the troubles that still plagued his mind. It was a relief that Eddie was talking and it was clear that the he was trusting Frank with memories from Afghanistan, or Shannon, or his worries about Christopher, or Buck. His words still sounded strained, like they were choked in a raw throat that was studded with knives, but Buck always listened patiently and held Eddie close because simmering below the surface was a whole ocean of pain that Eddie had very carefully concealed and hidden away for a very long time.
Sometimes, on very rare occasions when Eddie asked, Buck reciprocated the sharing with some of his own feelings about the tsunami. Somehow getting past the one-year anniversary had made it easier to start talking about, like he'd survived twelve months without Fate inflicting a near-death experience on him aga-
"Hey, Eddie's recertification is soon, right?" Chim said, bounding up to him with a cookie in his hand and breaking Buck's thoughts.
Buck glanced up, wondering if it was a cookie batch that they should be more wary of after that time they'd all been dosed with LSD. "Yeah, a couple of weeks," he said absently, more intent on avoiding bystanders in his quest to topple Hen's high score.
"So we're gonna throw him a party, yeah? Like we did for you? Should we organise a pair of cakes just in case he fails?"
Buck rolled his eyes and paused the game, casting a frustrated look at Chimney who looked…awfully exuberant, really. His eyes flicked to the cookie again.
"Have you ever known Eddie to fail at anything he set his mind too?"
"Well… No," Chim agreed, nibbling at the edge of the cookie with a thoughtful look on his face. "But can you imagine how awkward it would be if he failed and we'd thrown him a celebration?"
"Who's failing?" Hen wandered over, a mug of tea in her hands and making an amused noise at Buck's rather miserable score so far. He still had a long way to go. She shouldn't dismiss him so quickly.
"No one. Just brainstorming for Eddie's party."
"Eddie's having a party?"
"Oh my God," Buck muttered, tossing the controller onto the table and fixing Bobby with a glare. "Don't you start."
"I don't even know what you're talking about," Bobby said with a contrite looking shrug, but there was a small dimple in his cheek from his barely suppressed grin.
"I do! They're worried Eddie's gonna fail the recertification!" Hen announced, her eyes bright and sparkly behind her mug.
"I am not!" Buck protested, waving his hands at all of them. "Don't you dare think I expect him to fail!"
"Aww, look at being a good, defensive little boyfriend!" Chim said, jutting out his lower lip and tilting his head like he was trying to give some adorable sort of pout.
"I- I'm not- You- Argh!"
Their combined laughter followed him long after he had fled downstairs and disappeared into the bunkroom in some sort of misguided attempt to hide from them until the next call.
"Buck?"
He set Christopher's glasses on the bedside table and curled his arm around the curly head, propping the book between them. "Yeah, buddy?"
"Are you and my Dad gonna get married?"
Buck nearly dropped the book. He almost certainly would've poked his eye out if he'd been rubbing at them. "What?"
"You heard me." Christopher tilted his head to fix his big doe eyes on Buck and not for the first time, Buck realised he was entirely and hopelessly coiled around this kid's finger. All of his fingers, perhaps. Like a marionette puppet. Dangling helplessly because Christopher had his heart and soul and had just stolen what was left of his sanity.
"Uh…" His throat felt like he'd swallowed sand and it was almost as dry as a desert. He couldn't decide whether he needed to swallow or cough and so he sort of did both, which make it sound like he was a cat hacking up a furball. And yet Christopher just waited patiently for him, stare never wavering. "That… That's not something your Dad and I have really talked about, kiddo."
"Why?"
"Err…" Truthfully, Buck wasn't entirely sure if Eddie even wanted to get remarried after Shannon but it also felt incredibly early in their relationship to even contemplate having that sort of a conversation. "Well, I… Marriage is a…a really big deal for some people and your Dad and I… We're still just getting used to being together and living together."
"Yeah, but you two really love each other," Christopher pointed out and Buck was starting to doubt they were going to get to the book tonight. "You just didn't realise you loved until a lot later, so you've actually loved each other for longer than you think."
Buck really didn't want to break this kid's bubble that relationships were more complicated.
"Besides, you've known each other for ages."
And he also couldn't tell Chris that time wasn't the best determiner of a relationship.
When Buck tried to explain a simplified version of the complexities of being together, Christopher simply pouted.
"Well, I think it'd be cool if you got married," Christopher said, wriggling a little until he was more comfortably situated in Buck's arms.
"Yeah? Why's that?"
"Because then I could call you my other Dad and I could tell all the kids at school that I have three parents," Christopher said with a small shrug, like it was utterly obvious and not at all splintering Buck's brain into teeny tiny pieces at actually being called Chris' father. Maybe that was how Bobby had felt with May and Harry. He'd ask but he thought Bobby would probably rest his chin in his hands and look at Buck like he'd just hung the moon while demanding an explanation. "Are you gonna read now or not?"
He gaped like a dying fish for at least a minute before he started reading, and he read long after Christopher's soft weight of sleep had settled against him because it was a good distraction from all the thoughts that kept pinging around his brain and pressing against his determination to concentrate.
"I think he's asleep." Eddie's soft voice cut through Buck's murmured words and when he looked up, cheeks filling with fire, Eddie's smile was small and fond. "I was starting to think he was really struggling to go down."
Buck shook his head, pressing a kiss to Chris' head and untangling the boy's limbs from his own so he could lay his head on the pillows and tuck the blankets around him. Reading to Chris had become one of the highlights of his day, or night. Being trusted to lull someone to sleep… It filled him with a sense of awe and a warm fuzziness in his chest he couldn't envisage getting from any other relatively mundane action.
"He's my little angel," Buck whispered as he turned off the light and followed Eddie into the shadowed corridor. The light was dim but he still thought he caught the way Eddie's lips twitched into a small smile when he heard the possessiveness that Buck had started to use when it came to Christopher.
"It helps when he loves you so much."
"Not as much as I love him."
"Oh?" Eddie turned, fingers smoothing across Buck's chest and collarbones through his shirt. "Should I be jealous?"
"Of how much I love your kid?" Buck's laughter was hushed as he watched the sparkle of light from the family room glitter in Eddie's eyes. "Absolutely."
Eddie pressed into his space, kissing him until his back hit the wall and Buck could only grasp at Eddie's waist to hold him close and continue kissing him until he was breathless, because his other favourite thing about the evenings was tumbling into bed with Eddie and trying to minimise how much noise they made.
It wasn't as though Eddie had been a stranger to the firehouse since he'd been injured and put out of commission but it was still strange to see him standing by the main shed doors, hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall when Buck clocked off his shift like a picture of absolute perfection.
"Hi?" he said, arching an eyebrow at the small smile playing on Eddie's lips.
"Hey yourself," Eddie greeted, then nodded at Chim and Hen who had appeared behind Buck like an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Although even without looking at them, Buck knew they were both grinning so really, they were probably both devils.
"To what do we owe the pleasure of seeing Buck turn the colour of the firetruck?" Chim said and Buck nearly elbowed him in the stomach sharp enough that he'd have landed on the floor.
"We-ll…" Eddie pursed his lips, looking entirely too kissable in Buck's opinion given his ruffled hair and the tight, dark wash jeans and loose collared shirt he was wearing. Only two buttons were actually fastened, meaning they all had a good glimpse of Eddie's tank top beneath it. And Buck knew exactly what lay beneath that thin layer of fabric. "I had some news that I didn't want to simply text you."
"You passed?" Hen shrieked and Eddie couldn't even get the confirmation out, or smile any wider, before she'd launched herself past Buck to throw her arms around Eddie's shoulders.
"Hey, man! That's great! Congrats!" Chim said, awkwardly moving closer to hug Eddie when Eddie flailed a hand under Hen's enthusiasm to encourage him closer.
Buck was still blinking at them when Bobby appeared and joined the impromptu group hug, which was rapidly making Eddie uncomfortable if his pleading eyes over Chim's hair was anything to go by. Buck almost pitied him. Almost.
"I thought your recertification was in a few days?" he said eventually, and the way Eddie's eyes shifted away from him for a fraction of a second betrayed that he'd been lying about that particular detail for weeks.
The trio holding onto him all started to loosen their grip. Hen's hands slipped to Eddie's cheeks and then she was planting a noisy kiss on his forehead that left behind traces of her dark lipstick on his skin. Eddie pushed her away with a small chuckle, rubbing his hand against his head and smudging the colour.
"I… I knew you'd all start making a big deal out of it and I was petrified of failing," Eddie explained, his eyes darting between each of them and the floor. He could barely even look at Buck and Buck couldn't decide if he was more stung by the lie – small though it was – or that Eddie somehow seemed to think Buck wasn't 100% supportive of his recertification attempt.
"We never had any doubt, did we?" Chim said with a delighted grin as he rubbed his hands together.
Buck shot him a withering look. "You were planning two cakes."
"Don't take it personally. We organised two cakes for you, too," Chim shrugged, and Buck…really didn't know what to do with that response. It had been a year and he still didn't know how to respond.
"Wait, you were organising cakes?"
"Well, you were meant to know by this weekend so that we could all end up at Bobby's to surprise you but now it's not going to be a surprise because you ruined it," Hen complained, punching Eddie lightly in his arm. "Act surprised for the kids and Athena though, okay? They've been looking forward to it."
"What's up with you?" Eddie asked once they were in bed, the foot of space between him and Eddie practically an ocean that threatened to drown him all over again. All afternoon and evening, Eddie had been aloof and distant. It hadn't helped that Christopher had almost seemed sullen when Eddie had informed his son that he'd be returning to work soon.
"Nothing." Everything. He couldn't help but feel somewhat gutted at the lying that had been occurring around him and Christopher lately. If Eddie could cover up this, what else was he hiding? What if Eddie had been having a pain in his arm? What if he threw a clot at the party at Bobby and Athena's? What if he crumpled into a pool of blood in the middle of the kitchen while they made dinner?
It threw every bit of progress he thought Eddie had been making – that they had been making – into question. And it scared him.
"Buck…"
He rolled onto his side, facing the wall and knowing he was acting like a petulant child but he didn't care. If he'd still had his own apartment, Buck could imagine spending the night there because he didn't know how to look at Eddie tonight. He didn't know how to act normal. He didn't know how to talk to him.
"Buck, please… Please, just talk to me?"
And what made it worse, if anything could make it worse, was that Eddie hadn't even been injured on the job. He didn't have all those fears of the truck turning a corner too sharply and rolling. He didn't have to worry about exploding fire hydrants or errant hoses. Eddie had been shot off-duty and somehow that meant he wasn't fazed about returning to the job. A job where they couldn't be partnered together anymore. A job where one of them could get hurt while performing a rescue. A job where his anxiety could shred him if Eddie was in danger.
He shook his head, rolling out of bed and leaving the room because he couldn't stand to listen to Eddie right now either.
He collapsed onto the couch, threading his hands into his hair and tried to focus on keeping his breathing slow and regular even as his heartbeat skipped and his lungs stuttered. He couldn't comprehend why Eddie hadn't just told him the truth about the recertification date. He couldn't comprehend how many other lies he might have been naïve to see. He couldn't understand what their relationship was if Eddie didn't trust him. He couldn't-
"Buck?"
He released a trembling breath and raised his head, the faint glow from various electronics catching on Christopher's glasses as he stared at Buck on the couch.
"H-Hey, champ."
"Buck, what's wrong?" Chris murmured, shuffling the last few steps until he could climb onto the couch and then pushed his way past Buck's hunched form to fold into his lap. "Are you scared about Daddy too?"
It was instinct or habit, more than anything else, that saw him wrap his arms around Chris' body and hold the kid against his chest as he leaned back against the couch. "Scared?"
"I'm scared he's gonna get hurt again," Chris admitted, his hand patting unsteadily against Buck's forearm as he leaned his head against Buck's shoulder. "You'll protect him though, right?"
He couldn't tell Chris about the paperwork and agreements he'd have to set up with Bobby and Eddie at the start of their first shift. He couldn't. But that didn't mean he wouldn't be watching Eddie like a hawk every time they approached a call to look out for him running into danger. "Of course, bud."
Chris nodded, fingers curling and uncurling against his arm for several quiet moments. And Buck, perhaps due to necessity, found that the effort required to stay calm for Chris helped subdue the anxiety attack that thrummed beneath his sternum.
"I love you, Buck," Chris said quietly, his voice slurred with sleep and Buck kissed the top of his hair and ran fingers through the soft curls.
"I love you too, baby," he said, knowing there wasn't anything in the world he wouldn't do to keep Christopher safe.
He knew when Chris fell asleep but he sat there a while longer, rocking the kid in his arms and using Chris' weight to anchor him to the present, to avoid dissolving into the anxiety that had been bubbling inside him all afternoon. When it seemed enough time had passed, he carefully stood and carried Chris back to bed.
He still didn't know how to face Eddie but when he approached the bedroom, he could hear the barely stifled sniffs and quivering half-breaths. He closed his eyes and bowed his head and wondered if he should bash his head against the wall for making Eddie cry. Because Eddie very rarely cried.
"You lied," he said, teeth curving against his bottom lip as he fidgeted with the cord of his sweatpants. "I know it's only minor and I understand your fear of failing but…you lied. And… And I don't like being lied to because it makes me wonder what else you lied about."
"Buck…" Eddie's voice cracked in the middle and Buck shut his eyes, feeling the way they pricked with heat and pain.
"And I know it's irrational. I know that, Eddie. I just…don't like being lied to? Maddie lied for years about Doug and then Abby said she was leaving for a short time and she never came back and-" He inhaled and exhaled, rubbed a hand over his face, inhaled and exhaled again. "I guess I'd hoped you trusted me with…anything or everything so something like this… It seems so small and yet you didn't tell me and it hurts."
"I'm sorry," Eddie whispered and Buck knew that this was something he'd get over within a couple of days, that he didn't even really need an apology because Eddie shouldn't feel guilty when he'd done something like pass the recertification test to return to work. And Buck had made him feel miserable when they should be celebrating. Buck slid onto the bed, searching until he could wrap his arms around Eddie's quaking body. "I'm s-sorry, Evan. I never-"
"I know." He kissed the side of Eddie's head, skimming his nose at Eddie's ear and inhaling the lingering cologne on his neck. "I'm not…mad at you? Not really. I'm just- I'm scared of you getting hurt, or that you didn't trust me with something that mattered to you. I guess… I mean, I did my recert and then collapsed because of the clot. And I can't go through that with you, you know?"
"You won't because I'd actually tell someone if my arm felt weird," Eddie pointed out, his voice still choked, and Buck scrunched his fingers against Eddie's ribcage in a vague tickle.
"Asshole," he muttered, though it was laced with an undeniable affection that Eddie leaned into, fingers curving over Buck's forearms to hold onto the embrace.
"I do trust you," Eddie said, tilting his head and finding random spots on Buck's face to place butterfly kisses even in the dark. "I trust you with everything, Evan. More than anyone I've ever met."
"But this?"
"This was… I didn't want to jinx it? My Abuela has made me superstitious about speaking things into existence," Eddie explained and Buck sighed, releasing some of the tension in his muscles. He knew all about Isabel's superstitions after she'd woken them up not long after Eddie had suggested he move in to let them know that it was an exciting next stage in their relationship.
They hadn't told anyone they were moving in together. Not even Christopher.
"Please tell me there's nothing else you've been trying not to jinx?"
"Telling you would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?" Buck huffed and Eddie snorted a small laugh. "Will you tell me about the two cakes?"
"And ruin the surprise that not even Chim is telling me about?" He shook his head, freeing one hand to tip Eddie's chin and catch his lips in a slow kiss. "How about I show you how happy I am that you're coming back to work?"
Eddie hummed, tugging Buck over him and peeling the t-shirt from his torso. "That sounds like an agreeable alternative," Eddie mused, the smile in his voice obvious.
The celebration party might now be mismatched by a few days, but that didn't mean they couldn't find their own way to celebrate.
Buck felt oddly like he was escorting a date to prom with the way his elbow was crooked through Eddie's, but maybe it felt odd because in his other hand he held Christopher's as his favourite kid used one crutch and Buck's hand to get to Bobby and Athena's plum-coloured door. They didn't even knock before it opened and Hen was squealing, drawing them into a hug like she hadn't just seen them a few hours ago at the park with Karen and Denny, and then Maddie was swooping in to hug him and Bobby was spinning Christopher into a hug and for a moment, it was thoroughly overwhelming.
"You okay?" Maddie said, cupping his cheek and drawing his eyes away from where Eddie was smiling at something Chim was telling him.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "I'm great," he promised and she smiled, brown eyes sparkling with a warmth he feared she would never get back after she'd escaped Doug and then had to flee for her life.
It wasn't until they were all sitting down for dinner almost an hour later that Buck realised Eddie kept getting pulled away from him to talk to other people but it wasn't as though he could be bitter about it. This party was about Eddie, after all, and Buck wasn't about to complain as he observed Eddie from across whatever room they would find themselves sharing, seeing the calm set of Eddie's shoulders and the small twitches of the edge of his lips when he was fighting a smile. From time to time, Buck got distracted by Christopher grabbing at his hand and pulling him away to show him something Denny or Harry needed him for and he wasn't about to complain about that either as he trailed after his kid.
But when they were finally sitting down to eat, when Bobby had spread the table in a ridiculous amount of delicious-looking and smelling food, he felt the way Eddie's thigh pressed against his, the little knock of their knees, the way Eddie's arm wrapped around his back and fingers tickled against his upper arm, and wondered when he'd gotten so damn lucky as to have Eddie so confidently displaying affection to their entire extended fire family.
"You know there are going to be like, a million forms for you to fill in now?" Chim said as he eyed the way Eddie's fingers fiddled with the sleeve of Buck's shirt. Maddie elbowed Chim in the stomach but Chim looked entirely unabashed by his comment.
"Are relationships meant to have that much paperwork when it's still so early?" Buck retorted, waving his speared roast potato in the air towards Chim.
"Early? It's been months," Chim pointed out and Buck shrugged, glancing at Eddie with a look that felt almost as dopey and serene as he felt when Eddie was nearby. Chris told them it made him feel sick, but the kid usually said it through giggles so Buck hadn't been offended by it yet.
"I don't mind relationships that involve paperwork," Eddie said quietly, meeting his eyes with something flickering behind his expression that made Buck's breathing hitch because…well. Buck really needed to not start leaping through relationship milestones, even though they'd already done a whole lot in a really haphazard sort of order.
"You will mind if it means making sure both your asses get home to your son," Bobby said, his voice slicing through the moment that Buck had been thoroughly enjoying and utterly questioning because Eddie's eyes turned from his and they both gazed at Bobby in undisguised surprise.
"Did Uncle Bobby say a bad word?" Chris said through giggles from Eddie's right.
"Uh…" Buck was delighted to see Bobby's cheeks were flushed when he finally tore his gaze away from Eddie's, though whether it was because he'd been busted saying 'ass' or called 'Uncle Bobby', Buck wasn't sure. "More of a comment on the safety of your father and Buck, kiddo."
"They already take care of each other," Christopher said sagely, eyes wide behind his glasses as he looked from Bobby, to Buck, to Eddie. "They're superheroes."
"Aww," Hen and Maddie echoed and Buck nearly flung a brussel sprout at their heads, except Athena was staring at him from across the table – with a small upturn in her lips that made the sergeant's glare a little less threatening than it could have been – so he refrained. And maybe stuck out his tongue at his sister, who stuck out hers in retaliation.
"What's it like, Eddie? Having two children?" Karen asked with such gentle kindness that Buck missed the insult for a second because he got stuck trying to work out how Eddie had a second child he didn't know about and internally panicking, and then realised others at the table were laughing.
"It makes family dinners interesting when I have to put on twice the number of chicken nuggets," Eddie replied easily, increasing the laughter even as Buck pouted and Eddie nudged his leg under the table and flashed him a grin that made Buck's heart flutter.
Bobby lured him into a particularly disinteresting conversation about chore assignments for the next few shifts and Eddie was distracted by Chris but even with the buzz of everyone around them, Buck was always acutely aware of the comforting weight of Eddie's leg against his and wondered how he was ever meant to keep his hands off Eddie at the station. Maybe all the forms were necessary. Maybe they needed to rethink how they were going to work together, beyond mere partner re-assignments.
Athena began clearing dishes and Maddie, Chim and Buck pitched in to help. Karen and Hen carried plates to the kitchen while Maddie and Chim scraped leftovers into bins and Buck didn't even realise he knew Athena and Bobby's kitchen so well until he was moving around Athena to stack some dishes in the dishwasher and others by the side of the sink to wash by hand. Within no time, they were done and Hen was shooing him out of the kitchen so she and Chim could sort out the cake, which filled Buck with an uneasy trepidation as he grabbed two fresh beers and wandered outside where he found Eddie and Christopher squished onto a chair chatting with Bobby, Michael and Karen.
"Hey," he said, squeezing onto the arm beside Eddie and passing him the beer. Eddie's fingers brushed against his as he took the bottle and Buck curled his fingers through Eddie's, tuning in to Michael explaining something about a Science project that he and Bobby had devised for Harry.
"But then we realised it was probably a hazard and it probably wouldn't be a good look if the son of a sergeant and stepson of a fire captain needed to call 911," Michael was explaining while Karen covered her mouth to stifle the laughter that seeped out of her.
"I still think it was a perfectly reasonable idea," Bobby said with a shrug and a mischievous grin. "Maybe I'll convince Christopher to do it when he's older."
"I do not condone my son getting involved in dangerous Science projects," Eddie said firmly, even as Christopher cheered under his arm. "Buck, back me up here?"
Buck blinked, nearly swallowing his mouthful of beer down the wrong tube. "You want my input on a parenting decision?"
"You're raising this kid just as much as I am," Eddie pointed out and Buck was…very much speechless at that thought. When he glanced from Eddie to Bobby or Michael or Karen for assistance, he noticed they were all studiously looking away and trying to politely give him a chance to process a response. Bastards.
"Dangerous Science projects sounds like a bad idea," he concurred when he had eventually recovered, feeling as though he'd won a victory when Eddie beamed at him even though Chris pouted. "Then again, I'm pretty sure my cooking is dangerous and Chris has made it this far so maybe we should let him blow a few things up."
Eddie's smile slipped and Karen burst into fresh laughter. "You were meant to help," Eddie hissed, but his eyes were creased at the edges around the grin he was fighting.
"Sorry?" He fluttered his eyelashes at Eddie and Michael snorted into his glass of wine.
Eddie opened his mouth to say something else but they were interrupted by Maddie calling Eddie's name.
"Cake!" she announced, gesturing at Hen and Chim who were carrying the rectangular slab of white icing that was decorated with a dozen sparkling candles past the sliding door and towards the emptied table.
"Oh God," Eddie muttered as Chris perked up at the promise of sugar, squirming away from Eddie's arm and grasping Maddie's outstretched hand.
"What are you so afraid of?" Bobby said, biting at his bottom lip which just made Buck's uncertainty increase that this was about to be an absolute disaster.
Eddie fixed their captain with a glare and pulled Buck to his feet. Hen and Chim set the cake on the table and everyone clustered around to have a look at it, everyone dissolving into fits of cackles and laughter that made Buck eye them warily.
Eddie inched closer and then muttered something in Spanish that was too low for Buck to even guess at, and Buck peered over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of the cake. A cake that held an image of him, for heaven's sake, giving a cheesy thumbs up from the cab of the firetruck. Emblazoned above the photo were the words JUST REMEMBER and beneath the photo were the words FIREHOSE BEFORE FIREBROS.
There was no way they knew Buck's former dating profile name because if they had, they would never have made the joke that was surely meant to refer to Eddie remaining focused on the job rather than on Buck.
But the fact Chim and Hen didn't know about his dating profile name actually meant it was even funnier than they had intended it to be because it completely inverted their joke.
And his hysterical laughter, barely suppressed by forcing his mouth against the back of Eddie's shoulder to stop the sound passing his lips, only made them all frown in confusion.
"What did we do?" Hen asked, her eyes searching every adult in the area for an explanation.
"I think we broke him," Chim admitted as Maddie rolled her eyes at him.
"He might've been broken a while ago," Hen said.
"Dad, what part of Buck is broken?" Chris said, tugging on Eddie's sleeve as Buck continued to shake with his laughter, silent tears rolling down his cheeks as he fought the ache of amusement from flying free.
"Nothing is broken, mijo," Eddie said, ruffling his hands through Christopher's hair even as his other squeezed Buck's hand. "Buck just has a terrible sense of humour."
Which just made Buck laugh harder, honestly.
"So…" Eddie began once they'd gotten Christopher tucked into bed, a soft smile on his sleeping face as he hopefully dreamed about kittens and puppies and rainbows. "What was the joke with the cake that I didn't get?"
Buck shook his head, popping the button on his jeans to start getting changed for bed. "I'm not talking about that part of Buck 1.0."
"Oh?" Eddie leaned against the door frame with his arms folded over his chest, eyebrow raising. "And here I thought I knew everything about you."
"You know a lot." Buck shimmied out of his jeans and met Eddie's look with one of his own. "But a guy's gotta have some secrets, right?"
Eddie's eyes traced down his body and Buck would never pretend like it didn't fill his skin with heat. "Does he?"
Slowly, determinedly, Buck began unbuttoning his shirt from the bottom and gradually worked his way up. "Keeps life interesting."
"'Interesting'," Eddie parroted, taking half a step towards him when Buck's shirt was barely dangling from his shoulders. "You're not James Bond and needing to be some international man of mystery, Buckley."
"And here I thought you liked role-playing, Diaz," Buck taunted, failing to hide his smirk when he saw the way Eddie's eyes widened and darkened, the way he licked his lips as he approached Buck.
"That…" Eddie said quietly, his hand settling on Buck's waist and tugging him closer. He tilted his head to press a kiss to Buck's neck that left Buck shuddering and reaching for the hem of Eddie's shirt. "That is an entirely different sort of conversation to be having than a discussion about the parts of you I still don't know."
Buck tugged Eddie's shirt over his head, trailing fingertips over Eddie's shoulders and down his back as Eddie continued to pay attention to his neck and collarbone with tickling brushes of his lips against electrified flesh. "You know all the important parts and the parts that matter and the worthwhile parts."
Eddie paused, eyes flicking up to meet Buck's. "I want all the parts, Evan," he said with a gentle sort of seriousness that made Buck's chest tighten for a moment at the thought of everything he still kept hidden away. "You've seen my hurt and my broken and my angry and my scared parts. You don't have to be afraid to show me yours."
And Buck knew, logically, that Eddie was right. Even so, standing almost naked with Eddie's bare chest against his was not the time or the place he wanted to start unearthing all the messy and dirty fragments of his past. Eddie knew enough, for now.
"How about I show you something else of mine?" he said with what he hoped was a wicked grin as he lightly slapped Eddie's ass, making Eddie jump a little and puff a small breath of laughter over Buck's skin.
"I've already seen that though," Eddie mused, eyes glittering with mirth as Buck rolled his eyes and finally kissed him properly because it just wasn't fair how Eddie had an answer to everything and it was about time they talked a whole lot less.
~TBC~
