Our Mad Lib Love Story
Bored at the station between calls, Chimney has Buck complete a mad lib story. The rest of the team joins in, creating the reddest silly, passionate swim story of the hour that the firehouse has ever slapped.
…
…
I got the mad lib fills from people on the Buddie discord, my facebook, and my family. So the final mad lib came organically, not because I chose it that way.
...
...
As soon as Buck crested the stairs into the loft of the station, intent on grabbing one of the blueberry scones Bobby had brought in that morning, Chimney whistled at him. Buck's head snapped in the direction of the couches and Chimney waved him over.
"What's up?" Buck asked.
Eddie was laying out on one of the couches, a cool cloth over his aching eyes – his helmet had come off at a previous call and the blast of smoke to his face had his eyes red, irritated, and watering – while Chimney had taken up command of the other couch, a magazine in his hand.
"There's a mad lib in this mag and I wanna see what you get. Wanna play?" Chimney asked, nonchalant.
For a moment, Buck grinned, then frowned and waved toward Eddie. "Why me?"
Without removing the cloth from his eyes, Eddie said, gravely, "I told him no."
Acceptable. Buck took a seat in the armchair facing Chimney and motioned for him to start.
Chimney looked down at his magazine. "Alright, then I need an adjective."
Humming, Buck glanced around for inspiration. An adjective was a word that described a noun… The couches were light brown. He could say 'brown.' No, that was boring. The trucks were red. 'Red'? No, stop with the colors. Big. Tall. Shiny? He just wanted something that didn't sound silly.
"Silly?" he said, though it was more of a question than a statement.
With a nod, Chimney wrote it down in the magazine. "Next…Gimme a season."
Well, it was currently springtime, so, "Spring."
"Boring," Eddie said from his spot on the couch, even as he flipped the cool cloth over so the side warmed by his eyes was no longer facing down. Buck almost flipped him off, but realized Eddie wouldn't see it anyway and stopped.
"Verb, Buck."
Verbs, Buck could do. Verbs were action. "Run."
Chimney pressed his lips together as he wrote. "Change that to ran to fit the sentence," he said under his breath. "Another verb."
Another verb. Stand. No. Hike. Hm, no. Swim? Buck swallowed and said, thinly, "Swim."
"Swam it is," Chimney altered without looking up from his page. His eyes moved across the page, probably reading what the silly story said so far, and gave a short huff of laughter, shaking his head. "Okay. A length of time."
From his place on the couch, Eddie piped up, "An hour."
An hour was how long he'd been told to lie down with the cloth on his face. "Hey, it's my madlib," Buck protested, before turning back to Chimney with, "An hour."
Chimney rolled his eyes. "Of course."
At that point, Bobby came upstairs and headed for the kitchen, reminding Buck about the scones. "Hey, Cap?" he called out, leaning on the arm of the chair to be even a smidge closer. "Can you toss me a scone? Please?" he asked in his best 'I'm so innocent and you love me' tone.
Now Bobby rolled his eyes, but that didn't stop him from making a pitstop by the basket of scones to grab one for Buck.
"Hey," Chimney said, snapping his fingers. "Pay attention. A noun."
Buck smiled, accepting the scone from Bobby, who then walked back to the kitchen. "Mm, scones."
Chimney grumbled. "Just for that, I'm putting scones."
"What?! Chimney!" Buck protested.
"And there's an interjection. Moving on." He jotted it down. "Superlative."
Pouting into his scone, Buck muttered, "You suck, Chim."
Chimney raised an eyebrow. "You want to put 'Most Sucky' as your superlative?"
Buck ducked behind his scone and took a quiet bite. After he'd chewed and swallowed, and thrown his eyes all around the station trying to think of a superlative – what was this, a yearbook? – Buck managed, "Uhhhh….red….est?" He cleared his throat. "Reddest."
That earned a guffaw of laughter from Chimney. "The reddest?"
"Yeah, the reddest," Buck defended, squaring his shoulders and staring Chimney down.
With another shake of his head, Chimney dutifully wrote it down. "If you say so, Butch." When he was done, "A place."
The first thought in Buck's mind was 'firehouse,' but that would earn him another 'boring' from Eddie, and it showed no creativity. He had to pick somewhere not here. The beach? His apartment? Eddie's home?
Eyes softening at just the thought of Eddie's living room, with Chris and Eddie beside him on the couch, had Buck's choice made. "Home."
The tone of his voice actually had Eddie peeking out from under the cloth briefly. His eyes were still red, but not as irritated looking as they had been just after the call. Buck gave him a smile, which Eddie returned, and then Eddie laid back down.
"Noun."
"Stress," Hen offered as she entered the loft with a huff. She crossed her arms even as she came to sit beside Chimney on the couch. "As in, having a kid home sick with the cold while you work a twenty-four with stupid calls is stressful."
"Well, now we're doing something else stupid," Chimney offered playfully, waving the magazine around. "Madlibs."
That earned a smiled from Hen. "Ooo, I love madlibs."
She reached for the magazine but Chimney kept it firmly out of reach, shaking his head. "Uh-uh, this is Buck's madlib."
Hen rolled her eyes but smiled softly, relaxing back into the couch cushions to observe.
"Another noun, man," Chimney prompted.
Buck spoke around his last bite of scone. "Another? Why do people keep taking my words?" He swallowed. "Uhhh…" Eyes darting around again, he eventually settled on Eddie. Hen talking about kids had Buck thinking about how Eddie was a— "Dad."
Hen snorted, but before Buck could ask what that was about, or Chimney could ask for any more nouns or verbs, the alarm sounded. They all jumped up—save Eddie, who was man behind due to his eyes—and raced for the truck, the magazine left behind on the cushions.
…
…
An hour later, they were back in the station after a call about a 'vicious dog attack' that ended up with Buck viciously covered in slobber and dog hair from a very affable mutt who had escaped his yard and approached a nearby family.
After changing out of their gear, they all made their way back up to the loft for water or coffee or a scone. Or all three. Buck balanced the scone on both cups on his way back to the armchair, careful not to spill a single drop. By the time he had settled in, Chimney already had the magazine open to the madlib page again.
"Another noun, Buck."
Buck blinked, forgetting for a moment what the heck Chimney was talking about. "Um. Alarm."
They all glanced up as if the alarm would suddenly sound again, but three seconds later, it had not.
"Aaaand, another noun."
Buck screwed his face up. So many nouns. "Dog," he said, wiping his face of slobber even though he'd already cleaned up as soon as they got back.
Eddie, no longer confined to the couch, came up from down below. He passed behind Buck's chair, briefly touching his shoulders, before taking a seat on his same couch, just sitting up now. "Still doing madlibs?" he asked.
"I can't wait to hear what kind of story we get with alarm, dog, and dad," Hen said with a small laugh.
Chimney let out a long breath, grinning slyly. "Oh, you have no idea." Glancing up at Buck, he asked, "Adverb?"
"Passionately," Buck answered almost instantly.
Chimney rolled his eyes again. "Of course you would say that, you sex magnet." But he wrote it down.
Buck grinned, sharing the look with an only mildly flustered Eddie. They'd shared their first kiss only a week ago, and it had definitely been passionate. Though Buck loved the quick 'good morning' or 'goodbye' kisses they shared, he really loved showing Eddie how passionate he could be, how much he was really, really into him.
"Noun," Chimney prompted, sounding almost bored now.
"Hm." Buck put his chin in his hands, thinking. Something not in the firehouse. Not in the firehouse. Well, at Eddie's, there was a giant tiger plush in Christopher's room that Buck had won for him at the zoo last month. It was so big it had taken over his entire desk. "Tiger."
Chimney burst out into giggles, and everyone's eyes snapped to him. He giggled, and giggled, and waved his hands around as if to tell them all it was nothing. "Oh my god," he managed at length, amidst deep, shuddering breaths. "Oh my god, this is gonna be fantastic." Another breath and he asked, still wheezy, "Verb."
Frowning, Eddie offered, "Smack," with just a little bitterness at how Chimney was laughing at Buck. He wasn't really, Buck knew. It was whatever strange story they were making. But he loved that Eddie wanted to defend him anyway.
"Another verb," Chimney managed, unphased by Eddie's temper.
"Cuddle," Hen threw out. Buck wasn't even mad.
"Last verb, this one with -ing."
"Smiling," Bobby offered, appearing from somewhere. When they all glanced at him, he shrugged. "You're all smiling."
Valid. Buck nodded to let Chimney know he accepted the offered word.
"Okay, two final nouns."
Humming, Buck looked around. There was a book on the coffee table. "Book." Aaaaaannnndddddd fuck it, "Firehouse."
"Pfft," Chimney let out, writing it down. "And, lastly. Name a person."
There was a glint in Chimney's eye, like he already knew what Buck was gonna say. And maybe he did, but screw him. Sitting up tall, Buck said, proudly, "Eddie."
"Isn't that sweet," Hen cooed, teasingly. Eddie flipped her off, but he was smiling too.
Chimney filled that in more than once before declaring the mad lib complete. Then he just…sat there, staring at everyone in turn.
"Well?" Buck asked. "Are you gonna read it?"
Again that sly glint. "You sure you want me to?"
Hen smacked him on the shoulder hard enough to make him jump and cry out in dismay. "Just read it, Chim."
Grumbling under his breath, Chimney readjusted himself on the couch and cleared his throat, like he was preparing to give a great speech. Then he read.
…
…
It was a SILLY, SPRING afternoon when you RAN by me and said, "Hey."
My eyes SWAM as my heartbeat fluttered. In that instant, I knew EDDIE and I would love each other for AN HOUR. "Hey," I said back.
Then you looked deep into my SCONES and replied, "WHAT, you are the REDDEST guy I have ever seen."
We sat in the HOME and stared at each other for hours. We talked about STRESS and other important details of our lives. You loved DAD and ALARMS almost as much as I loved DOGS. As your hand PASSIONATELY touched my TIGER, sparks flew.
I SLAP the way you CUDDLE me. We spent our time SMILING in the beginning. From then on, we were never far apart. We have been together ever since!
I am such a lucky BOOK to have EDDIE in my FIREHOUSE!
…
…
fin