Work Text:
(One week earlier)
All Buck had wanted was a nice, long, warm nap. Buck had had a long, hard shift, what with the literal balls of fire falling out of the sky; they barely had 5 minutes of rest between calls. Buck felt like he had deserved, and had a right to, a nap. It wasn't too much to ask for, was it?
Being a firefighter, you don’t expect to have to call 9-1-1 to report your own house being on fire.
Buck, bone-tired, not having even a care in the world about his new, cosy, humble abode being absolutely desecrated by space debris, silently grabbed his phone from his pocket.
His phone rang only once before the person on the other end picked up. Sighing, Buck spoke into the microphone, “Hey, Eddie…”
_________
Living with Buck, Eddie found, was turning out to be both amazing and not much of a change.
Buck had always been a frequent visitor to his living room couch and had always commandeered his kitchen. So when Buck called him up late one night, not long after Eddie had returned home from their shift from Hell, asking if he could camp out in his living room for a while while he sorted everything out with his insurance company and found someplace else to live again, Eddie, naturally, said yes.
Eddie and Buck had briefly lived together when Eddie and Chris returned from Texas and Buck was renting his house; living together again felt the same, except Eddie didn't have to sleep on his extremely uncomfortable couch. He was used to finding Buck being in his kitchen, sharing late-night talks over drinks, or movie marathons with Chris, even before they started officially living together. It was nice. It was normal. And dare Eddie admit it? He loved living with Buck.
He loved eating Buck’s food. He always loved having someone home - loved the noise of people living in his house with him. Loved Buck just being around.
And don’t get him wrong, Eddie loved working with Hen. He always considered her a close friend of his - and to be fair, he was the only one out of the 118 who remembered her birthday, so he wouldn’t be wrong in saying that he and Hen were close -but Eddie had missed working with Buck.
Eddie missed their little good luck fist bump before every call. He missed being able to call him his partner. He missed teaming up with Buck on daring calls.
So Buck was very welcome in his house. He could stay for as long as he wanted.
This was all to say that living with Buck made Eddie happy.
What didn’t make Eddie happy, however, was the act of opening the door to one of the most unattractive sights one could possibly stomach midday in the middle of the week.
The day was supposed to be a normal, serene day, filled with lazing around the house and basking in each other’s company. Chris was at school, and for once, Eddie wasn’t behind on his household chores, so their plans for the day had dwindled down to a very short list.
Buck had been cooking their lunch in the kitchen, so Eddie had volunteered to answer the door - like the lovely, considerate friend / roommate he liked to think he was.
Only to have the threat of vomiting all over the person on the other side of the door become a very real, very serious threat.
“Tommy?” Eddie asked. “What are you doing here?”
Hadn’t Tommy gotten the message to get lost and lose his number after Eddie repeatedly ignored and ghosted him? Eddie didn’t want to play basketball with Tommy, he didn’t want to watch a game, and he most certainly did not want to hang out, thank you very much.
“Eddie?” And what was that about? Why was Tommy genuinely surprised to see Eddie at his own home? It wasn’t like he didn’t know that Eddie lived here; he had been invited to the birthday FaceTime call that Eddie made to his son when he was still in Texas, for Christ’s sake. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean ‘what am I doing here’? I live here. You know I live here.” Eddie crossed his arms, furrowing his brows, hoping to convey the least welcoming stance he could conjure.
“Oh. Sorry, man, I thought you were still in Texas.”
That only caused more confusion for Eddie. “How did you know I moved to Texas?”
“Because Evan told me?” Could he get more infuriating if he tried? What was up with that tone of his, acting like Eddie was the idiot here?
“Right…” Eddie grimaced, scratching at his eyebrow. Hearing Tommy call Buck ‘Evan’ was never going to not be annoying. “Well… I’m back now.”
Then a thought popped up in his head, unbidden and unwanted. “Why would he even tell you that anyway? When would he tell you that?”
Tommy, once again, looked surprised, “He didn’t tell you?” Tommy let out an awkward chuckle. “I thought he told you everything.”
Eddie sighed, already beyond frustrated. “You know what? I actually don’t care, I just finished a long shift and I’m tired. Buck isn’t here. It was nice seeing you.” And with that, Eddie shut the door with a flourish, stepping through his house back towards the kitchen. Tommy didn’t need to know that Eddie had a very nice, very quiet shift the day before. He didn’t need to know that Eddie was having a lovely day relaxing in his home and was not, in fact, tired, but rather excited about the rare opportunity that he was given of lazing around with Buck all day. Neither, Eddie decided, did Tommy need to know that Buck was actually inside.
Eddie was having a nice day; sue him for trying to preserve it.
Leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, Eddie watched Buck as he moved around the kitchen with a practiced ease, before opening his mouth. “Why was Tommy looking for you here?”
Buck yelped, stubbing his toe on a counter as he swiftly twirled around to face Eddie. When Buck finally opened his mouth to reply to Eddie, he sounded breathless. “What?”
Eddie stepped fully into the kitchen, moving around the table and up into Buck’s personal space, leaning against the counter at his back. “Why was Tommy looking for you here?”
Buck, for a second, looked like he wasn’t going to reply, his eyes bouncing around the kitchen, looking anywhere but at Eddie as he no doubt tried to find an excuse or to distract Eddie. It didn’t take long for Buck to crack. “ItwasallRavi’sfault.” Buck rushed out in one great breath.
Eddie had to blink, struggling to process Buck’s jumbled reply before it finally started computing in his brain. “What was Ravi’s fault?”
Buck sighed, knowing that there was no escape from this conversation and Eddie’s interrogation. “Ravi and I went out for drinks one time. I was going on and on about something, can't remember what, and I guessed he finally snapped. He saw Tommy at the bar that we were at and brought him over. We got to talking and… kind of hooked up?”
“Kind of?” Eddie voiced, unimpressed, tightening his crossed arms across his chest.
“OK, we hooked up. Are you happy?” Buck huffed.
“No. No, I’m not happy. Why the hell would that make me happy? Why the hell would you even do that?” Eddie could barely keep his anger down. Just the thought of them together ignited this painful, all-encompassing fury inside him, brewing and bubbling, begging to be let out.
“I don’t know,” Buck mumbled, ashamed. “I was just lonely, I guess. And I’m sorry, I really am, I should have told you about it the second it happened, and I never should have brought him back here.” Buck sighed, letting his shoulders slump. “I’m really sorry, Eds.”
Eddie reared his head back. “I’m sorry- you what? You took him where?”
“…here?” Buck asked uncertainly.
Eddie could feel the need to vomit start to creep back up again. He huffed out an angry breath before striding out of the kitchen towards his bedroom. Throwing words over his shoulder as he marched to his destination. “In our house? Really, Buck?”
Buck followed him into his bedroom. “Our house?” He heard him mumble to himself. “Wait- Eddie, what are you doing?”
Eddie grabbed his mattress, stripping it from its bedding. “Burning the bed.”
He could see Buck standing in the periphery of his vision, standing by the doorway, unsure of what he should do. Eddie could see his limbs twitching, making small, aborted movements in his direction. “Eddie… you do know that when I moved in, I used my own mattress, right? The mattress that is currently a pile of ash due to the whole my house burning down thing?”
Eddie paused, dropped his mattress. “Fine, the bed frame, then.”
“Also used my own bed frame. You brought this one to Texas.” Buck hummed back.
Eddie groaned in frustration. “Ugh, fine, but we’re buying a humidifier and one of those spiritual cleansing mist thingies.”
Buck chuckled, “Eddie, you don’t believe in spirits.”
Eddie huffed, pointing in the general direction of the front of the house, spitting his next words out. “Maybe not, but he makes me believe in demons.”
Giggling, Buck moved towards Eddie, standing in front of him, grabbing onto his forearms and looking into his eyes with a twinkle in his own. If Eddie hadn't been so pissed off, he would have been mesmirised by the sound that Buck had let escape. “Eds. Why are you so obsessed with the idea of me sleeping with Tommy? It was a one-time thing. I’m never gonna make that mistake again.”
Eddie rolled his eyes, avoiding Buck’s. “Because,” he shrugged.
Buck grinned a coy smile, trailing his palms up Eddie’s arms, only stopping one he was framing Eddie’s face. “Eddie.”
Unable to stop another eye roll, Eddie closed his eyes to escape how intensely Buck was looking at him. “Fine,” he groaned out. “I don’t like the idea of you sleeping with Tommy. Or anyone, for that matter.”
“Because...,” Eddie could hear the annoying lilt in Buck’s voice. The voice that said he knew that he was about to get what he wanted.
“You know why, you arsehole,” he grumbled out.
“Maybe,” Buck hummed. Eddie could tell that Buck was taking great amusement out of his suffering. “But I’ve waited long enough that I want to hear it.”
Eddie cracked his eyes open, only to be met with one of the most beautiful sights he would ever see: Buck grinning, almost glowing at him with his uncontainable joy. “Because I only want you to sleep with me.” Upon Buck’s own playful eye roll, Eddie took hold of Buck’s waist, preventing him from escaping. He tried to look deeply into Buck's eyes, trying to convey how serious he was. “Because I’m in love with you.”
Buck’s smile, impossibly, grew larger. “There we go, not so hard to admit now, was it?”
Eddie threw him an unimpressed look, “Yes, actually it wa-“
And suddenly, whatever Eddie was attempting to say previously didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was the man in his arms. The man who had giggled at the idea of him being so disgusted with the idea of him with someone else, he was prepared to burn his own mattress - the man who, currently, had his lips glued to his own, in a chaste, but soft kiss. It was glorious.
“Mmm,” Buck hummed, satisfied. “We should do that again sometime.”
Before Eddie could give, yet again, another eye roll (seriously, what was up with today that made him want to roll his eyes left, right, and centre?), his eyebrows furrowed in consternation. “Do you smell smoke?”
Buck’s eyes widened comically before he made a mad dash back to the kitchen, only to find that their previously forgotten lunch had practically gone up in smoke.
Whilst Buck occupied himself with the ruined food, taking it off the gas and removing any hazards, Eddie busied himself with opening the kitchen window, wafting a kitchen towel to try to get most of the smoke out before it reached the smoke alarm - they didn’t need the inevitable relentless teasing from having the fire department called to their house (again, in Buck's case).
“Now, who’s the one burning the kitchen down due to his bad cooking skills?” Eddie teased.
“Oh shut it, Diaz, you seduced me into forgetting about the food I was cooking, it’s not my fault.”
“Oh, really? You think I’m that charming? You’re too sweet.” Eddie grinned, satisfied by the rosy tint to Buck’s cheeks in reply.
“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.” Buck huffed, crossing his arms.
“Maybe.” Eddie kissed the pout off Buck’s frowning face; Eddie loved that he could do that now.
Eddie couldn’t care less about their lunch going up in flames, not now that he and Buck were finally partners in the sense that they were always building towards. Not now that Buck was finally his.
Eddie no longer had to witness Buck’s piss poor excuses of romantic partners come strolling in and out of his life as they pleased, and he no longer had to lie to everyone, including himself, about his feelings and what he really wanted.
Eddie could have his juice and drink it too.