Word Count: 3,769
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with 911, Fox, or anything else related to that particular universe.
Warnings: There is some explicit sexual content in this chapter.
Buck suggested it late one evening, right before Chris was meant to go to bed, and Chris had promptly woken up again and started rattling off ideas with Buck.
Although Eddie was frustrated at how quickly his son could be stirred to wakefulness and excitement which would make waking up in the morning awful, he couldn't begrudge the animated conversation taking place between Chris and Buck as they brainstormed different items to put inside a time capsule to bury in the backyard. His fingers drifted through the tangles of Chris' hair, his best attempt at keeping Chris settled before he got so amped up he couldn't sleep, and watched as the abstract idea blossomed into a full-fledged project.
For a week, Chris kept disappearing into his room to draw or write letters to himself to put in the capsule. Eddie would lean against the doorframe from time to time, checking that his son was okay, and Chris would shoo him away and insist he was doing "very important stuff". He'd snapped a photo one time when Chris was so immersed he hadn't even noticed Eddie watching him, sending it to Buck to show that even if he wasn't there at the house, Chris was fully committed to the idea.
what r u going 2 put in it?
It was a good question, and one that had been bothering him since the whole idea had started. Eddie didn't have many possessions that mattered enough to bury in the ground and unearth in a decade or two to laugh over. He'd drifted around the house, wondering about this photo or that book before dismissing most of the ideas as stupid.
i dont know
It was Buck who'd suggested finding a shirt that Chris didn't wear often, might not even notice was missing, to use for the project. Intrigued, Eddie had gone through Chris' drawers when he was at school and dug to the back, finding a faded blue shirt that probably would barely fit him now anyway. He tucked it into a bag and took it with him to his shift, his concentration split between the warrants he had to execute, the cases he had to intervene in, the plans he had to make, the interviews he had to conduct, and the promise of escaping to Buck's apartment after the shift to work on whatever idea Buck had. He wouldn't say he was distracted while he worked – he was more than capable of hyper-focusing when it was required of him – but knowing he got to see Buck after everything was done? It made the long shifts easier to handle.
"I still know you're different," Walker muttered as he brushed past Eddie at the end of the shift, something glinting in his eyes as he observed Eddie.
"Am I?" he retorted, smirking when Walker growled and fell into step with him on the walk out.
"You know I just worry about you." Walker bumped their shoulders together. "I just want to know you're okay."
And, really, Eddie was touched by the concern and the care and he probably needed to do better by his friend that he hadn't hung out with outside of work in months because so much of his life had been taken over by Buck, and Chris, and Buck and Chris.
"I'm okay." He offered a smile that he hoped was genuine and reassuring, because he really did feel okay. He was going to see Buck and there'd almost certainly be laughter, and teasing, and kisses that made his toes curl. It was impossible to stay in a funk around the other man. "Honestly, Si. I'm really, really good."
Walker still looked like he was examining him too closely, placing every expression of Eddie's under a microscope, and for once Eddie almost cursed their training. They were all versed in analysing suspects, reading faces and intonations to determine when situations were about to turn dire. Right now, that training was almost certainly biting him in the ass. He needed to escape.
"See you next shift," he said with the calmest nod that he could, climbing into his truck to drive away from HQ.
Like every time he knew he was going to see Buck, his stomach fluttered with exhilaration and nerves. It seemed as though the closer he got, the more Fate allowed them to trade emotional connections or some sort of physical touch through the bond tying them together. He'd discovered during the week that if he let himself sink into the couch and try to clear his mind of the stresses of the day, that he could somehow almost float to the point of hearing the buzz of the bar patrons, and the clink of bottles, and see shadowy patches of rainbow lights across his walls which definitely weren't there. He'd blinked hard, sitting up straighter, and the sounds and sights had vanished – but he knew it hadn't just been his imagination. He knew he'd managed to feel parts of Buck's psyche at the edge of his awareness.
It was why, perhaps, Buck knew the exact moment to open his apartment door right before Eddie's hand lowered to knock against the timber and how Buck knew that after some shifts he needed a hug and other shifts he could press a kiss to Eddie's lips.
"Hey." He nuzzled into Buck's arms, brushing a kiss to the hinge of his jaw and inhaling the safety and security that surrounded him.
"Hi. Did you bring a shirt?"
He nodded, trading a chaste kiss as Buck led him into his apartment and towards the large kitchen island. It was covered with newspaper with at least a dozen markers spread across the countertop, along with plastic containers of different coloured paints. His eyebrow rose as he took it in and then turned to Buck expectantly.
"I thought we could decorate the shirt. Write messages on it. Paint shapes or put our handprints on it. Stuff like that. When he unearths the capsule, he'll see how small he once was and how much we both care about him."
Eddie blinked, his heart swelling again around how much love and affection he had for Buck, how easily this man had accepted Chris into his life and made him feel like he could do anything. His throat knotted with some of the emotions that ballooned inside him and all he could do was nod at the idea and lift his bag to the counter to dig out the shirt.
Buck placed a piece of cardboard between the shirt to avoid any pen or paint leaking through to the other side and then they took turns scribing messages on the fabric, not using too much space in preference for adding the paints. Buck's tended to consist of a lot of SUPERSTAR and CHAMPION and KING OF THE UNIVERSE while Eddie found it comforting to simply write I love you and Te quiero in random places in different colours. Then Buck took off his own shirt and Eddie forgot what he'd been writing.
"What?" Buck said, eyebrows rising to attempt an innocent sort of expression on his face. "I don't want my clothes getting covered in paint."
Eddie's throat tightened for entirely different reasons when Buck stripped out of his jeans, standing beside him in merely tight blue boxer-briefs. The pale pink Marks shimmered under his kitchen lights, the contrast with the black tattoo lines making Eddie want to reach out and touch something else entirely. It was utterly indecent of Buck to look like that while they worked on a project for his son.
"You should take off yours too, unless you don't care about paint on your clothes or in your truck," Buck pointed out and Eddie wondered if this had been Buck's plan all along. There was a mischievous glittering in Buck's eyes as Eddie unbuttoned his shirt and then removed his black pants, folding both and setting them on top of his bag by the door. "And now we can paint the shirt," Buck said with a shrug, like he wasn't practically nude and it wasn't doing all sorts of things to Eddie's head to stand beside him wearing so little.
Buck started with placing his hand in the yellow paint and putting a print on the left side of the shirt followed by dipping his index finger in the red to draw a heart that started to turn faintly orange. Eddie touched his fingers to the green, the cool sensation of the paint at odds with how hot his skin felt as he dragged the fingers across the tummy section which reminded him of when Carla had dressed Chris as Wolverine for Halloween. Buck began on a yellow sunflower and Eddie added some stems, using the pale colour of the shirt for clouds as he outlined a rough sky above.
It was more fun than the drawing classes, Buck pointing out places he could add another stripe of colour or Eddie making a suggestion about a simple shape they could draw. The basic colours Buck had supplied gradually morphed on the shirt until there was purple and some pink, which allowed them to create a rainbow on one of the sleeves.
"We'll have to wait til it dries if we want to do the other side," Buck said when it was clear they'd covered the front of the shirt in a lot of paint. Eddie wasn't even sure how long it would take for the paint to dry.
"I should've brought another shirt of mine and you could've decorated it."
Buck hummed, fingers dipping into the red paint and then looking at Eddie. "Why do that when I could just decorate you?"
His eyes grew wide. "No."
Buck grinned. "No?"
Eddie inched away as Buck advanced on him, a laugh spilling from his lips when Buck caught his arm anyway and smeared red over his elbow. "You're serious?"
Buck shrugged. "Why not?"
Eddie darted around him, hand pressing into the blue paint and then planting it against Buck's chest. Buck was already reaching for the yellow, drawing lines across Eddie's shoulders.
"Am I meant to be a warrior?" he teased as Buck started adding jagged lines of green across his pecs.
"Sent forth into battle. My hero!" Buck mocked, holding a hand to his forehead like a swooning damsel as Eddie laughed and smeared some of the red down Buck's arm. It covered some of the Marks but he didn't pay much attention because he was already grabbing at Buck's waist with one red and one yellow hand and gradually covering his torso in paint.
There was a stripe of green across his abs and Buck was approaching him with some sort of purple concoction when he dragged Buck in for a kiss. He felt the sticky, cool mess of the paint splatter against the back of his neck and into his hair when Buck leaned into him, returning the kiss with just as much vigour. He was able to think for several seconds, shifting Buck until his back hit the counter and some of the paint on their stomachs mingled with how tightly they were pressed together, tongues dipping and tasting, teeth nipping at lower lips, and then Buck's hand grazed the Mark and his brain shorted.
"Not fair," he complained against Buck's lips once he could remember how to put words into something resembling coherency.
"So I shouldn't do this?" Buck murmured, his other set of fingers toying with the elastic around Eddie's hips which made his breathing stutter.
Any attempt to lean back from Buck to catch his breath was thwarted by Buck's mouth at his neck, destroying any resolve he might've had. "Was this- W-Was this the plan all along?"
"No," Buck admitted, his hand slid beneath the elastic, still slightly slick with cool paint as it curved around Eddie's cock. He moaned, his grip against Buck's arm and waist faltering as he pressed into it before he could try to halt his hips. "But once you were basically naked beside me? How was I meant to keep my hands off you?"
He pushed the remaining bit of fabric off Buck's hips, lifting him onto the nearest counter, any sort of coherency gone when Buck shoved at his underwear and drew their bodies together again with his legs cinching around Eddie's waist. "You're a mess," he mumbled when he could feel the smears of paint between them, tracing Buck's bottom lip with his tongue. Buck whimpered and arched, making small thrusting motions with his hips in search of friction.
"I'm your mess," Buck corrected, his eyes dark with unmistakable desire when they met Eddie's. Eddie, who could only marvel at how incredible this man really was, trailed his hands from Buck's waist over his thighs, fingers spreading beneath Buck's knee which made him jerk and hiss. "Now who's not playing fair?"
He smirked, stroking where he knew the Mark was with more deliberate pressure, watching Buck's eyes roll in his head as gasped whines escaped his ruby lips. Hands clenched into his hair, against the back of his shoulder, and their hips rolled together in increasingly erratic motions as they traded breathless attempts at kisses, using the touching of the Marks more than anything else to stoke the flames in their blood, to push each other to the brink.
It was when Buck's head tipped backwards and Eddie scratched his nail against the Mark behind his knee that Buck finally came, a desperate groan as his body quivered in Eddie's hold. Heat splashed between them, making the mess of all the paint worse, and Eddie licked and nipped at Buck's exposed neck as he enjoyed the sight of Buck falling apart against him.
"F-Fuck, Eddie," Buck muttered, sagging into Eddie's hold even as Eddie kept rocking his hips slowly for the friction but without the pace required for him to orgasm. "Fuck, that was- Y-You didn't even h-have to t-touch me."
If Eddie didn't feel like all the blood had pooled south and he had nothing left in his brain to construct a sentence, he might've worked out some proud way to sass a reply. As it was, Buck seemed to realise he was still hard and one hand secured around his aching cock, the other rubbing at the Mark. His knees nearly buckled at the sensations that slammed into him and he almost certainly forgot how to breathe when Buck found some sort of persistent rhythm of pulling one hand away from his cock while the other dug into his Mark, and then the pressure against the Mark decreased as the grip on his cock increased. It was too much and even if he'd wanted to last longer, even if he'd wanted to try to hold off, using the Mark like that made it impossible.
He clung to Buck's skin as he came between them, shuddering gasps against the sweaty, multicoloured neck. Buck kept jerking his hand, like he was wringing every last drop from Eddie's system, and he was spent and oversensitive by the time Buck stopped. He thought his knees might've locked into that position to keep him upright, although Buck's legs around his waist probably helped to hold him up too.
"So… We should probably shower," Buck said, his tone laced with a thoughtful innocence that Eddie didn't buy for a second but couldn't articulate because he still felt like his brain had lost the ability to form words and it certainly didn't know how to construct sentences. "And then my counters and floor will probably need cleaning."
"Your fault." His words were muffled against Buck's neck, which was almost certainly staining his face with paint, but the intention behind his words was still clear.
"Babe, I am not the least bit disappointed by that. Are you?"
And Eddie… He really couldn't argue so he simply kissed Buck with every remaining bit of energy he had left and lifted him off the counter so they could shower.
With the overlap of shifts, they'd planned to bury the capsule in a couple of days when Buck could stay overnight and they could 'camp' outside while doing it. Eddie had a twenty-four hour shift the next day so Buck had been over that afternoon, helping Chris shove memories and mementos inside the plastic tube.
Eddie had already seen one of Chris' Ninja Turtles and several pieces of Lego disappear inside, along with several photos of the three of them that Buck must have printed. There'd been a woven bracelet with their favourite colours, something Buck had taught Chris how to make on one of the days that he'd picked Chris up from school – the dusky pink, navy blue and red overlapping with only a couple of minor errors. Eddie had glimpsed what looked to be the numbers from Buck's shirt on the Colour Run, and then a series of folded letters that Chris had told them they needed to write which gave their predictions or hopes for the future. Chris and Buck had refused to share the content of their letters but Eddie's had been simple: I hope to be this happy for the rest of my life.
Now that Buck had left for his shift and Chris was in bed, Eddie was staring at the ceiling and sipping his beer and wondering if he could bring himself to bury some of the ghosts of the past and precious, though terrible, sketches from his present. He kept drifting to thoughts about how he or Chris would feel if the capsule was unearthed in ten years' time and these sorts of items were revealed. He couldn't tell if it would inflict more pain across his scarred heart or, perhaps, it was the sort of cathartic release that perhaps he needed.
His phone buzzed and he bit his lip at the message across the screen: do it.
It should unnerve him that Buck was able to feel his emotions and send him a message in the middle of a shift to spur him into action.
He peeled himself off the couch and padded into his bedroom, ruffling through some drawers until he found the box tucked at the back of his shirts. It hurt to find it again, hurt to prise open the lid of the box and examine the platinum ring that was engraved with the date of his wedding to Shannon more than a decade ago. A solitary tear trailed down his cheek as he closed the drawer and then moved to the closet where he'd hidden the sketchbook. He found a couple of sketches of Buck's tattoos and arms which weren't as awful as the others and tore out the pages, folding them into small pieces to stow inside the capsule too.
He jotted down the salsa recipe that Chris had liked the most and included that, his heart aching a little less as he pressed each item into the capsule and then resumed his place on the couch. The beer did little to dull the pain but when his phone buzzed again and he looked at the message, the edge of his lips twitched into the faintest of smiles and some of the sick churning in his gut lessened.
love u
It had been a quiet shift where Eddie had already hit the gym twice, showed Tandy some other moves to escape particular holds that Buck had recommended teaching, and then they'd all bent over a series of maps to determine escape routes in a take-down next shift. One of Anders' CIs had provided intel that a leader of a Mexican drug cartel was due there within the next week to negotiate a new supply route, so the LAPD had undercover squads sitting on the house and drones circling the area to track traffic.
"We need to have this blocked off," Nicholls said, tapping at one of the cross-streets. If their target or any goons escaped through the back, there was a complicated series of alleys that would all spill towards two locations. "If we have a team at these two locations and breach from the front, we'll either take them out or catch everyone who escapes like rats from a sinking ship."
"The city wants Martinez alive," Walker reminded, placing small X marks on the page where Nicholls had identified.
"Why? For a showy trial? For an escape attempt? He's not worth the effort."
Walker rolled his eyes and Eddie was halfway to reminding him they had their orders to follow when Athena came charging into the situation room.
"Active shooting downtown," she announced, and Tandy swept the maps into a pile to discard to another table. Eddie met Walker's eyes and everyone straightened as she swiped at a screen to patch the call through. "Go."
"Reports of a...a hostage situation," a voice on the other end of the line said. Eddie frowned, faintly recognising the voice but struggling to place it when it was small and quiet and sad. "A few managed to escape to raise the alarm but they, uh… They reported shots fired. We don't know if there are any casualties. We've dispatched all available patrol units but they've requested SWAT backup due to the ongoing hostage situation."
Eddie's gaze swept from Walker to Nicholls to Tandy, feeling his stomach twist into knots. Walking into these sorts of calls always had so many variables and most of them were bad.
Athena nodded, her hand already moving back to the screen to end the call. "Thanks, Maddie."
He blinked, hand catching at Athena's to stop her tapping the screen. "Maddie?"
"H-Hi, Eddie." Her voice was different to when he'd met her at Athena's party but he recognised her voice now. He'd heard it in the background of some of Buck's calls, but he wasn't sure he'd ever heard her sound so broken. "Please be safe."
He met Athena's eyes, something glittering in their depths that he didn't like. His heart was beating slowly, almost unnaturally slowly. "I will."
Athena finally ended the call, looking at each of them in an excruciatingly long thirty seconds of silence while they digested the news, mentally started rallying equipment to collect.
"We know what these calls are like," she said slowly, looking at each of them. "We know how they end. Let's try to do better than the norm."
"Where's the location?" Tandy said and her gaze flicked to him before settling on Eddie.
"A bar called Everaces."
The single word made him think the floor might've fallen from beneath his feet.
~TBC~