AN: The next of my fic's being ported over from Ao3 (under the same penname) so if you've seen it over there, it's the same fic just here!

At no point did I really know where this was going other than just wanting a CatDad!Buck fic because I'm a sucker for it. The mental image of Buck sneaking in a kitten to the firehouse had me giggling for five minutes before I decided to get this out of my head. I also wanted to take a stab at established Buddie being domestic and what better way to accomplish that than with a cute kitten?


The Adventures of Smokey, the FireCat

By comparison, the call they had at the end of the shift was far more exciting than the one that kicked off the day—the first call had all the firey excitement with a twelve-car pileup where the 118 was called in to help clean up. The last call of the day took them to an older, run-down strip mall that had more vacant store fronts than actual businesses where someone had called about a dumpster fire, literally. Preliminarily (or at least according to Athena and the consulted grainy security footage), someone tossed a cigarette but into the dumpster as they walked by and within minutes the fire had consumed the contents.

The irony of being called to a dumpster fire wasn't lost on him, and Buck made it known to anyone who would listen that this was by far one of his favorite calls based on that fact alone.

However, that wasn't what made this call more exciting—at least for Buck. No, what made this last call superior than this morning's was the tiny ball of fur that had scaled the pants of his turnout gear, jumping to his arm and snaking around until it was perched on his shoulder. At first he'd froze at the foreign sensation of something crawling up his body, then he let out a (manly, Chim!) scream when the thing rubbed its furry head against his neck.

Hen, who was beside herself at the display, was cooing at the animal on his shoulder while Chim was fumbling for his phone. Eddie, his sweet, loving Eddie, was absolutely no help as he opted to lean against the side of the fire truck with an amused smirk.

"Uh, guys…?" Buck asked, body refusing to move as a pur sounded in his hear. "Is—Is that a cat?!"

"Uh huh," Hen nodded, "And what a little cutie it is!"

"A little matted," Chim added, phone pointed straight at Buck.

"A little mangy," Eddie tossed in.

"Probably feral," Bobby said as he slowly approached his crew. "And full of rabies and fleas."

Buck raised an eyebrow and turned his head slightly, catching the dark fur of the kitten before it head butted his neck and let out the most pitiful meow he'd ever heard. Gingerly he reached up and pulled the cat down into his arms, taking in the mottled dark fur, a beautiful mix of blacks and browns. It was clearly a tortoise shell cat, with a split face—half the darker black and half the lighter shades of brown.

The kitten stared up at him with wide, yellowed eyes and let out another meow, this one packing a bit more oomph. He took in her appearance and frowned at the matted hair, stuck down in some areas while little bits of debris and sticks poked out of the fur in others. There was a small cut above the kitten's left eye, the red, puffy skin a stark contrast from the dark black fur on that half of its face.

Instantly he felt a tug at his heart for the poor creature, turning his signature puppy eyes towards his boyfriend. Eddie, knowing full well what Buck was about to do had already disappeared into the truck with a loud "No."

"But, look at her Eds! She needs love and attention," He reasoned to the empty space, ignoring the snickering from Hen and Chim.

"Buck, you can't bring that back to the house." Bobby said firmly, one finger pointing accusingly at the cat as if it had personally offended him.

"I know you're anti-department dog, but cats too?" Buck asked, holding the cat up closer to his face to let it snuggle back against his chest. The kitten approved, if the content pur was anything to go by.

"Cats, dogs, lizards, any animal at all," came Bobby's reply as he headed towards the door of the truck. "The 118 is strictly a pet-free zone on my watch."

"Then why is Buck still employed?" Chim asked innocently, hopping into the truck before Buck could retaliate.

Hen gave him a sympathetic shrug, "As cute as that little guy is, I have to agree with Bobby. You have no idea what diseases it's carrying. Best to just let it go before you're attached."

Too late, he thought as he snuggled the animal one last time. Hen was heading back to the truck, leaving Buck alone to deal with the kitten who seemed to understand what was going on. A sad, meow squeaked out of the tiny body, and instantly Buck's heart broke.

Before he could really comprehend what he was doing, Buck was crouching beside the waterlogged dumpster, talking to a cat as if it could reply back.

"Look, I'm going to get you out of here but you have to help me out a little. I'm gonna hide you in this big pocket here, and you're gonna be nice and quiet until I can get you hidden in my Jeep, okay? Then we'll go visit an animal doc and get you all fixed up, alright?"

Buck slipped the kitten into the pocket of his turnout gear, "I'm officially a crazy person—talking to a cat about how I'm sneaking it back into the firehouse."

Standing, Buck gave a reassuring pat to the pocket and quickly hopped into the truck and into the seat beside Eddie. He gave the man the saddest look he could muster and ignored the rest of the crew as they tried to argue that leaving the kitten behind was for the best.

-.-.-.-.-

Hiding the cat in his Jeep turned out to be disturbingly easy. Not a single member of the 118's A-Crew bothered to question why Buck had disappeared out to his Jeep for the last five minutes of their shift. Once he had the kitten situated he quickly stripped out of his gear and made his way into the locker room to grab a towel and his shower bag so he could freshen up before heading to the 24-hour vet office by his apartment.

What he hadn't counted on was Eddie leaning against his Jeep, arms crossed as he stared accusingly at Buck when the younger man walked out of the firehouse.

"You know, you really didn't put up as much of a fight as I figured you would when Bobby told you no to the cat."

Buck shrugged, fighting with his entire being to keep his face neutral while simultaneously praying to any God that the cat stayed quiet. "Realistically what am I going to do with a cat? It's not like I'm home all that often to play with it."

Eddie raised an eyebrow, "You're going to tell me with a straight face that you didn't want that cat."

Buck nodded, eyes flicking behind his boyfriend to catch sight of the cat in question popping its head up in the driver's window. He bit his lip and barely suppressed the eye twitch as the cat hopped into the dash, swinging lazily at the steering wheel.

"Yeah, uh—I just, I'm not a cat person?"

"You asking or telling?"

"Telling?" Buck tried again, eyes following the cat as it hopped down into the seats and out of view. Eddie seemed to pick up on the distraction and immediately turned, peering into the Jeep. Buck used that opportunity to twist his mouth into a scowl, before he let out a sigh.

He'd been had. He was bracing himself for the lecture, the incredulous looks, and adamant 'no we can't get a cat, Buck' that was inevitably going to come from Eddie now that he'd seen the cat.

Why couldn't the cat read his mind and stay down?

"What's got you spooked?" Eddie asked instead, turning to see a defeated Buck slouching his shoulders.

"Uh—"

Before Buck could try a plausible excuse the loudest meow he'd ever heard pierced the air. The recognition on Eddie's face was instant, the disbelief morphing into annoyance, morphing into amusement?

"Did you smuggle that fucking cat back here?" his boyfriend asked in disbelief.

"No?" Buck tried, though it was clearly useless as the cat's head popped back up into the window again.

"Really?"

"I couldn't leave her!" Buck exclaimed, finally tired of trying to play it off. His arms were flailing slightly as he made his argument, "She needs a vet and I live by a vet, ergo I take her to the vet!"

Eddie sighed, long and suffering as he pinched his nose. "I always wondered where Chris got his negotiating skills from, and by your use of 'ergo' I think I have my answer."

That caused Buck to pause the string of arguments in his head, "Wait, what?"

"Any time Chris really, really wants something he drops in these essay quality words like it can intimidate me into backing down," Eddie explained to the visibly confused man in front of him.

"Yea, well it works so…" Buck said smugly. He and Chris had the track record to prove it.

"Aren't you supposed to be convincing me to keep that thing? I'm not likely to back down if you're being mean."

Buck laughed at that, "Honestly I figured I'd get it a clean bill of health and see how long it took Bobby to realize the cat was the station pet."

Apparently that peaked Eddie's interest, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Buck said with a nod. "I figure I can get Hen in on it, and the B-Crew has been begging for a station mascot for longer than I've been here. Plus can you imagine Chim thinking he's gone crazy when cat hair keeps showing up on his uniform?"

The more Buck talked, the bigger the grin on his face grew and suddenly Eddie knew they had a problem. That wasn't the sweet 'I've got a plan' grin his boyfriend sported—no that was the 'I've tapped into my evil genius and this is going to be epic' grin, which generally ended up with someone soaking wet and someone smelling like pickles.

God bless the B-Crew, they walked in on so many strange interactions and always took it in stride.

Rather than confronting his boyfriend, Eddie opted to plant a quick kiss on his cheek and turn to his own vehicle. "If that thing gives me scabies I'm withholding morning blow jobs for a month."

"Given you'd have scabies, I think I'd be okay with that."


While it was a given that Buck had a tendency to go headfirst into things without thinking about the potential consequences, this marked the first time (outside of the lawsuit fiasco) where his quick decision was coming to bite him in the ass almost immediately.

The consequences started when the vet tech asked him what the kitten's name was, to which he said he didn't know since he'd rescued her. The judgmental look in the tiny, young kid's face was enough to send him into a panic like it was him who'd put the cat in the situation rather than him being the savior in the scenario. Two minutes of brain buffering and a bit of stammering later Buck had completed the intake form and dubbed the kitten Smokey, the FireCat—Smokey for short.

He was proud of himself for all of sixty seconds when the young tech scoffed and muttered something about firefighters being completely unoriginal and whisked away his cat as if the statement wasn't offensive to the older man.

Four-hundred dollars, one flea collar, and a set of stitches later Buck was leaving with Smokey with strict instructions from the vet (a much nicer, older lady who thought his name was hilarious, thank you very much) to shower the kitten with love, affection, and de-wormer. He also set an appointment for the cat to come back and get spayed and got to know more than he ever wanted to know about how quickly a female cat can get pregnant.

He made a pitstop at the pet shop that was in the strip mall where his favorite Thai place was, letting Smokey curl up in his arm while he pushed a cart around the store to stock up on food and essentials. He paused by the cat trees and let Smokey feel them out, opting to buy one that only had a couple of tiers but had little hooks where he could hang feathers and yarn for her to play with.

Buck had googled pet carriers while waiting for the vet to finish her exam of Smokey and decided to pick up a carrier that looked more like a duffle bag than a carrier. He figured she'd like being able to see out of all sides, and it would be infinitely easier to smuggle the cat in while he was on shift. He opted to get the black one to match his duffle bag, and then made a b-line for the treat aisle.

He held each bag treats up and shook them enticingly for Smokey to pick out the one she wanted, which ended up being useless because the cat was clearly over the shopping experience and insisted on curling up in the shopping cart where Buck had placed a small pet bed.

"At least you like your bed," he laughed to himself as he tossed a couple of random treat bags into the cart and made his way to the checkouts.

After dropping another significant portion of his paycheck at the pet store Buck finally settled into his Jeep with the intention of going home, getting the bare minimum set up for the cat and falling face first into his bed.

As it turns out being a cat dad was a lot like being a dad to a human child because the second he got inside his loft and had the bags on the floor, Smokey promptly vanished. At first he panicked, calling her name and making clicking noises with his tongue to try and entice her to reappear. Then he settled for bargaining with the kitten, shaking the treat bags and eventually opening a can of tuna—none of which made any difference.

"It's been ten minutes and I've already lost my kid," he muttered to himself as he dejectedly placed the plate of tuna on the counter. When the words registered in his ears he sighed and shook his head, "I'm losing it."

And to a certain extent he was. Buck was running on virtually no sleep, existing solely on the caffeinated fumes of the coffee he sniffed as the last alarm rang earlier. If it weren't for the fact that he was on shift in the morning while Eddie was taking Chris to his dentist appointment he'd have been snuggled up on Eddie's shitty couch, dozing off to the sounds of Minecraft.

Playing Minecraft had originally been a thing that he and Chris had started, way back after the tsunami. In the beginning it was just a way for them to replicate real life things in the game (the two of them had created a near shot-for-shot match of the 118 on the original server they started), then they started messing around with all the achievements and suddenly it was an all-out game of war between the two to see who could get all the achievements faster.

After the fourth time Chris pushed him into lava in an attempt to sabotage Buck's progress, Eddie had intervened and demanded they all play on a server with the collective goal being achievement collection. Thus began the weekly Minecraft nights where they would play for a couple hours and knock out a few achievements while simultaneously bullying one another in the way only family can accomplish.

It was one of the many highlights Buck had over at Casa de Diaz and he was really missing it tonight. Even if it usually ended up with the Diaz boys teaming up to lure a Creeper behind him while he was mining for diamonds.

Or blowing up his immaculate farms.

A soft meow startled him from his pity party and before he knew it Smokey was scaling his pants much like earlier in the afternoon so that she could take her perch on his shoulder. She gave his neck a little nuzzle as a way of apologizing to him (or at least that's how he chose to interpret her tactile display) that had him forgetting all about his melancholy from moments before.

"What do you say we send a quick pic to Auntie Hen?" He asked the kitten, knowing full well that the animal wouldn't responds. He decided then, as he pulled out his phone, that he was most likely going to be that cat dad who talked to his cat as if they could verbally hold a conversation with him despite his best intentions to be anything but that. The station already had enough ammo to make fun of him with, they really didn't need anymore.

Giving his best innocent grin at the camera, Buck snapped a photo where Smokey was mid meow. The juxtaposition of him leaning against the counter (looking the picture of innocence, no matter what you say Hen!) with a cat perched on his shoulder like a parrot was enough to make him laugh as he penned a quick tagline to go with the photo.

Smokey the FireCat says only YOU can prevent forest fires

He didn't have to wait long for Hen's response, it turned out. The second he sat his phone on the counter to try and entice the small kitten to eat some dinner, the familiar FaceTime tune sounded. Swiping to accept the call, Buck never had the chance to greet the woman before she was assaulting him with a line of questions.

"Did you go back and get that cat? Seriously? Are you adopting it? Did you even bother taking it to the vet—"

"Move your big head, I want to see the cat!" Karen's voice sounded from beside Hen, breaking her from her string of questions and causing Buck to chuckle.

"Big head?!"

"I said what I said," Karen replied before the image on his phone went grainy. A few seconds later the picture cleared up and he was looking at Karen cooing into the phone instead of the incredulous medic from moments ago. "She's precious, Buck! She's a she, right?"

Buck nodded, "Yep—got her all checked out by the vet after I left the station. A few stiches for her head and de-wormer tablets for the next few weeks and a round of antibiotics. Once she's fully off the antibiotics phase two of my plan will begin."

"Phase two?" Hen's voice carried over the call. There was a rustling and a few choice words before the picture turned slightly to let him see both Hen and Karen on their couch.

"Henrietta," Buck began, flashing his mischievous smile (the one Eddie swore wasn't a turn on, despite ample evidence proving the exact opposite). "I'm calling to petition you for your help in getting us a station pet, and to drive my soon-to-be-brother-in-law crazy."

"Evan," Hen remarked with narrowed eyes, "You know full well I won't betray my partner like that. No matter how much entertainment I'd get out of it."

"If she won't I will," Karen cut in. "For the price of snuggling that little princess."

Over the phone Karen began to chatter at the kitten who was staring at the screen with an adorable head tilt. Buck smiled at the interaction, his heart melting just slightly. If this was the reaction from a grown adult, he could only imagine how mushy he was going to feel once Chris got to meet her.

"I think we've got a deal Karen," Buck said, glancing back to the kitten on his shoulder. "Pleasure doing business with you. Let's meet up for coffee in a couple of days, my treat?"

Karen tossed him a wink while Hen was rolling her eyes, "Count me in. I've been itching for a clandestine operation ever since I solved the treasure hunt."

"Excuse me? You solved it?" Hen turned towards her wife, a look of disbelief on her face.

"I said what I said," Karen reiterated with a smug smirk before punching the 'end call' button.


Two weeks later Smokey had finished her last round of antibiotics and was nearly ready to start her reign of terror at the firehouse. The plan he and Karen had hatched was simple – he'd smuggle her in when there was a couple of floaters from the B shift working to cover a lapse in coverage. Those floaters would ensure the cat didn't escape or get discovered by Bobby (or Chim, as Buck was very adamant about) and then at some point Karen would show up and smuggle the kitten back out of the fire house.

Keeping his cat a secret from Chim and Bobby was particularly hard, but Maddie swore she wouldn't spill the beans, mostly because she was staying as far away from Buck's insane idea as she could. Bobby, on the other hand, was like a hawk and used his superpowers as a dad to always know what was going in his firehouse, so when Buck began coming in covered in cat hair he'd gotten suspicious.

Eddie was pretty sure no one bought the story that Buck was volunteering at an animal shelter, but Buck was adamant that they did buy it. Maddie and Eddie had hatched a bet on the over/under of the number of people that actually believed it and Buck was mildly affronted that neither believed more than five people believed his tale.

("Buck, I love you but you are a terrible liar," Maddie explained gently, Eddie echoing her with a 'mmhhmm' while he took a swig of his beer.

"You've got this cute little eye twitch," Eddie added. "I can tell immediately when you're being less than truthful."

Buck raised an eyebrow at that, "An eye twitch?"

"He means you look gassy when you lie," Maddie said with a shrug.

Buck's indignant shout was cut off by Eddie snorting his drink.)

In an effort to get Smokey used to traveling, Buck took her on regular car rides in her carrier, usually ending up at Eddie's in time for dinner (or breakfast, depending on how their schedules lined up). The first time he'd introduced the cat to Christopher, Smokey had immediately head butted the kid in the leg and demanded to be petted.

Thus began the chaotic friendship that was a ten-year old and a (probably) six-month-old kitten. Where there was one, the other was bound to be around. Buck was sure there wasn't a single minute those two spent apart whenever he brought the cat over, or when Eddie brought Chris to the loft.

Smokey, as it turned out, was incredibly intelligent and much like Chris liked to scheme to make Buck's life as difficult as possible. She would regularly steal his socks, run off with his shoelaces (to the point where he had to lock his shoes in the closet each night because she would pull every shoelace out of his shoes and then string them around the loft), loved to climb his clothes like a squirrel, and was obsessed with sleeping on his head.

Smokey was also really good at distracting him while Chris snuck off to steal another cookie or swipe his phone to change his wallpaper to some silly selfie featuring the feline and his favorite Diaz. The kitten acted like a guard dog when it came to her favorite human, one time alerting Eddie that Chris had fell outside in the back yard while Eddie was inside swapping laundry from the washer to the dryer and was having trouble getting back up onto his crutches. Chris had been unharmed for the most part, just frustrated with himself to the point where he was more upset than anything. In the end he was able to get himself back into a standing position before letting his dad help him back inside to clean up his scrapes.

That night Eddie had conceded that having a pet around was probably a good thing, because while it was a minor incident, Eddie felt better knowing that Smokey was capable of alerting him if something was wrong.

("I know that makes me sound like an insane person," Eddie admitted as he burrowed his head into Buck's chest, fighting the sleep long enough to pepper the other man's chest with kisses.

Buck was smiling down at the older man, "It doesn't. That cat is stupid smart—she managed to open my fridge last night and drag out the left-over salmon from my lunch. Instead of trying that TikTok rice bowl I ended up eating cheap ramen from my cupboard that probably expired before the pandemic."

"At least she has good taste," Eddie replied sleepily, humming slightly as Buck's fingers carded through his hair.)

As much as Buck had anticipated the cat causing a ruckus at the station and as much as he was looking forward to seeing Chimney at his wits end every time more cat hair appeared on his uniform, nothing prepared him for how well Smokey understood the assignment.

Karen had bought a tag for the kitten's collar to let them keep track of her in case she managed to wonder from the station. It also had a chirping feature for them to locate her that would also go off any time the tracker became too dislodged. For whatever reason Smokey habitually managed to dislodge the tracker and leave it somewhere near Chimney's locker.

Chimney had nearly gone insane in his search for the chirping noise, completely baffled when there was no discernable pattern for when it would show up and for when it would disappear (usually when Buck finally got the tracker reattached to the kitten's collar or when Karen swooped in to take her home). The slow spiral into insanity was a source of entertainment for the Buckley-Diaz family, so much so that Chris had managed to replicate the sound of the collar as a text tone and had set Buck's phone to chirp anytime he had an incoming text.

Seeing Chim wince and glare around the station every time he got a text was nearly poetic. He'd bought Chris a few hundred 'V-Bucks' for Fortnite as a thank you, much to Eddies chagrin.

Bobby was even more suspicious after the chirping began and Buck was counting down the days until the fire captain discovered the station mascot.

In the end, Bobby finding out about the cat couldn't have gone better if Buck had planned it himself.


It was a (quiet) Sunday evening, just a couple hours before the end of their shift when Smokey made her grand appearance to the rest of the team. Karen and Denny had swung by under the guise of brining Hen a textbook she'd forgotten, leaving Smokey to hide in Buck's Jeep while Eddie stealthily snuck her into the station. Denny, who was thrilled about being included in the clandestine operation, had started asking Bobby a dozen questions about the butter chicken and naan that he and Ravi were working on.

Karen had ended up asking Chimney if he had any new pictures of Jee, prompting an impromptu slideshow of the last hundred or so photos that Chimney had captured from that weekend. Sensing that her family was up to no good, Hen took her book and settled into the couch, content to ignore the world around her in favor of learning about the hippocampus.

There was a commotion by the stairs, and when she looked up Hen was met with the sight of Buck stumbling up the last few stairs, face bright red while Eddie laughed heartily. Raising her eyebrows into a perfect arch, Hen's eyes grew wide when she read the words that Eddie had mouthed.

'The cat shit in his Jeep'

"It's really not funny," Buck was grumbling, which only set Eddie off more.

Bobby glanced over his shoulder, pausing his stirring long enough to sigh, "Do I want to know?"

"If you don't, I do." Chimney pipped in, looking up from his phone.

"Eddie just has a juvenile sense of humor," Buck grouched, arms crossed while his boyfriend cackled.

"Our kid is twelve—my entire humor is made up of fart jokes and butts right now."

Buck turned and mimicked his boyfriend word for word, but before the situation got to out of hand Bobby was dishing out job assignments to the two men.

"Buck," he said while turning back to the pan of chicken. "Set the table. Eddie, quiz Hen."

"Copy that," Eddie smarted, offering a half-hearted salute to his captain.

He'd only just sat on the coffee table, hand extended for the book in Hen's hands, when a familiar chirping sounded in the loft. Immediately Chimney was shouting, lamenting the sound as he pushed back from the table.

"I swear to—" he cut himself off, barely remembering there was a kid in his presence. "I'm going to find that sound and—"

Whatever he was going to do was lost in the commotion because Smokey chose that exact moment to make her grand appearance, much to Eddie's pleasure and Buck's horror.

They watched as the kitten sprinted across the loft, tracker completely falling off and bouncing to a stop at Chimney's feet. Without hesitating she sprung from the floor, scaling up the back of Bobby's uniform pants, working her way up until she sat perched on his shoulder just like she did to Eddie and Buck.

The captain stood stiff, "Buckley," he said slowly, tone a clear warning.

"Uh, y-yeah, Cap?" Buck answered, eyes wide.

They watched as the man slowly turned towards them while Ravi smartly backed away, hands held up to show that he had nothing to do with this new development.

"Is there a cat on my shoulder?"

"Well, uh—is that a hypothetical question?"

"Buck."

"Definitely looks like a cat," Ravi offered not breaking his gaze with the cat. Smokey blinked at him, tail swishing across Bobby's back before she leapt from his shoulder and sauntered over to Chimney. She wasted no time in rubbing against the man's legs, winding in and out while letting out a meow.

"How long," Bobby asked, pinching his nose and not bothering to ask if that cat was the same one that Buck had found a few weeks ago. It was his patented 'I'm not mad, I'm disappointed' dad look that long ago stopped fazing his crew.

"A month," Eddie answered with a proud grin.

"A month?!" Chimney demanded. "A—you two had this—this thing for a MONTH and didn't tell me?"

"What fun would that have been?" Buck asked, finally breaking his stupor when he realized that Bobby wasn't going to yell.

"I could have been cuddling with this beauty, that's where the fun is."

"I don't know, watching you slowly lose your mind when that tracker got dislodged was pretty entertaining. I think it's a fair trade off," Eddie said with a shrug while bending over to rub his fingers together and click his tongue to attract the attention of Smokey.

Smokey ignored in in favor of moving on to Ravi, whom she promptly scaled like she'd done to Bobby earlier. Ravi had opted to gather her into the crook of his arm, settling in to pet her while she observed the loft from a more secure height. The affronted look Eddie had sported was enough for Bobby to crack a grin, "She's cute but the next time I see her in my station—or find out she's been in my station—" he added hastily when he clocked the glance Buck sent Eddie, "You'll be on shining duty for a month. Got it?"

"Yes," Buck said with an enthusiastic nod. "Totally worth it."

"Chris is gonna be so mad he missed this," Denny whispered to Karen, who slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the laugh.


That evening when Buck and Eddie arrived home Chris was waiting for them to arrive, their Minecraft server already up and ready for a quiet night of gaming and pigging out on the junk food that the delivery driver dropped off a few minutes before their arrival. The moment they were in the door Smokey was chattering to get out, and as soon as Chris had undone the zipper she was winding her way through his legs and crutches before making a break for the kitchen where her food bowl was.

"I already put her dinner out," Chris explained proudly.

"I didn't even have to remind him," Carla said with a smile as she gave the two men a quick hug. "I've got to dash, apparently my husband misread the time for our dinner reservations and it's at seven and not seven-thirty."

There was a fond eyeroll as they bid her goodbye, Chris waving enthusiastically as she backed out and headed home.

"So," Chris said once the door had closed again. "Denny told me a funny story a little while ago when we were playing Fortnite."

"Oh really?" Eddie questioned, arms crossing.

"Mmhmm," Chris confirmed, not at all deterred by his dads posturing. "Turns out you decided to let the cat out of the bag and didn't invite me."

Buck was chuckling at that, but quickly sobered up when Chris turned his patented Diaz Glare™ on him. It was incredible how eerily similar that look was to his father, and no matter how many times Buck saw it, it still threw him for a loop.

"Woah, listen—I didn't exactly plan for it to happen today." Buck said in his defense, bringing his hands up as if to placate the younger boy.

"Oh I know, because you weren't supposed to move into phase three until next week."

Eddie, who had relaxed his arms the moment he realized that he wasn't going to be the target of this inquisition, had slipped and arm around Buck and settled his hand in the other man's back pocket while his kid played bad cop.

"Smokey decided to work on her own schedule," Buck replied adamantly. "I can't control that."

"Sounds like a bad pet owner to me," Chris said accusingly, eyebrows arched while he leveled the most unimpressed look he could muster.

Distantly the sounds of someone dying in Minecraft met their ears, stopping Buck's sputting in its tracks. "Is—am I dying in Minecraft already?!"

"I dunno, did you leave me out of the great reveal?" Chris asked rhetorically while turning to head back to the living room, crutches clacking loudly on the floor.

Eddie latched onto Buck to keep him from chasing after the kid, helpless laughter spilling from his lips while he buried his head into the other man's shoulder. Buck was shoving at him, trying valiantly to make it into the living room in time to save his character, but Eddie only held on tighter.

"Eds—"

Eddie cut him off with a swift kiss.

"Hmph," Buck turned his head.

"My guy—" kiss

"Edd—" kiss

"Save him!" kiss

The final death sound rattled through the room and Eddie was pretty sure that Chris had turned the volume up out of spite, leaving Buck to sag against him, shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

"Goddamn you Diazes," he muttered into Eddie's chest. "You're terrible for my health."

"Love you too," Eddie replied cheekily, stealing another kiss before heading into the living room before his kid got any bright ideas and killed off his player next.