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Buck loves nights like tonight. He’s dubbed them ‘extended 118 family get-togethers’ in his head (not that he has ever said that aloud, because someone would most definitely mock him for it), and they aren’t common. It’s due to an awful combination of circumstances that collide when a not inconsiderable amount of them are first responders and regularly take 24 hour shifts (or are doctors and regularly take 24 hour shifts).
To make an already short story shorter, Buck is very excited for tonight. It’s going to be a big group; it’s taking place at Athena and Bobby’s, so they and their kids will be there. Hen, Karen, and their kids will be there too, as well as Maddie, Chimney, and (Buck was ecstatic to hear) Jee-Yun. Albert, Michael, and David (due to David’s schedule being just as hectic as the 118’s, this would be Buck’s first time meeting him), even one or two of Athena’s coworkers.
“Alright, guys, we ready to go in?” Buck asks Eddie and Chris in a mock-serious tone. They had to park a little ways down the street because of the sheer volume of people in attendance, and so they’re all three standing by the car, about to walk over. Buck’s carrying the casserole they’re bringing (Athena had been quick with the potluck disclaimer), Eddie is carrying Chris’s bag of toys, and Chris is armed with his crutches.
Chris nods back with equal seriousness and Eddie just smiles fondly, a slight huff of a laugh escaping him.
“Right then, let’s go.”
When they get to the door, there isn’t even a chance for someone to knock before it’s swung open. May stands there, taking just a split moment to take the three of them in, before promptly turning to yell over her shoulder that the “Buckley-Diazes are here!” and turning back to face them once more. (Buck definitely doesn’t think too hard about how it felt to be lumped in with Eddie and Chris, definitely doesn’t wonder at the sound of their names hyphenated together) “Hey, guys, come on in! Buck, the food can go in the kitchen.”
As soon as May is finished speaking, she turns back to her phone, frowning and typing quickly. Huh. Buck might have to check in with her later- she’s starting to look a little distressed at her screen, now.
But at the moment, Buck is carrying the casserole dish to the kitchen, Eddie soon falling behind as people call out to him, and Chris having already disappeared into the knot of children. Bobby and Michael are in the kitchen when Buck arrives, along with a third man who he quickly assumes is David.
“Hey, Buck!” Bobby says, sparing him a glance as he continues slicing something. “Did Eddie bring something, too, or did you guys collaborate?”
“Please,” Eddie’s voice says. Just a split moment later, Buck can feel Eddie’s hand rest on his waist, leaning into his back to snatch one of the plastic cups stacked on the counter. “You know this one does all the cooking.”
“Yeah, Bobby, Eddie here is completely helpless in a kitchen,” Buck agrees, patting the hand on his waist fondly.
“Woah, hold up. I’m not completely helpless . I can make a peanut butter sandwich!”
“My bad, I forgot you were so skilled.”
Eddie scoffs and shoves Buck lightly. “Jerk. I’m gonna go find Maddie and become Jee-Yun’s favorite uncle just for that.”
He was already slipping away, so with urgency, Buck hands off the casserole to Michael and quickly says, “By the way, great to meet you, David, I’m Buck and I gotta go” before dashing after Eddie.
Buck actually doesn’t have the pleasure of having a conversation with David until after dinner. The adults (and May, who will forever be a child in Buck’s mind) settle down on the patio while the kids run around playing, and conversation drifts. He ends up in a little conversational circle with David, Michael, and Eddie, which is when the night takes a turn for the weird.
“So, how long have you two been together?” David asks, gesturing to Buck and Eddie vaguely.
It isn’t the first time a stranger has misread their relationship, but it is the first time it’s happened in front of their friends, which may be why Buck trips over himself a little in his rush to say “Oh, we’re not dating”. And oh God, either it came out much louder or everyone else was listening in, because suddenly, there’s a whole slew of eyes on him and Eddie.
“Oh, sorry,” David says quickly. Then, after a pause and a confused look sent Michael’s way, he elaborates, “Just, Michael had told me you two were dating.”
Well that’s a little weird. Buck doesn’t know Michael too well, but he’s talked to him a few times at group gatherings. Michael thought he and Eddie were a couple this whole time? He looks at the man in question quizzically.
“Well, that’s what May had told me,” Michael explains defensively. Buck and Eddie then turn their eyes to May, who looks a little like a deer in the headlights.
“Wait, but Mom said-”
Before the blame can even properly be placed on Athena, she interrupts. “Bobby told me himself that you two were dating.”
Finally, Buck and Eddie face Bobby questioningly.
“What do you mean, you aren’t dating?” Bobby asks, looking about as confused as everyone else. Nobody at the table is spared from this wildly confusing moment (except Jee-Yun, and suddenly Buck is very jealous that she is a baby and he is not).
“I mean we aren’t dating,” Buck says a little forcefully. He glances at Eddie (this honestly is getting too baffling for him, he needs a second person on his side).
“Yeah,” Eddie agrees. “We aren’t together.”
The point feels a little weak though, for the exact reason that is brought up.
“But you two are literally draped over each other,” Karen points out (good God, is there any adult present who doesn’t think Buck and Eddie are together? Buck’s waiting for Christopher to chime in and say they’re dating). But she does have a good point. Buck and Eddie are sitting practically on each other; there was a slight shortage of seats, so they had shared a small almost-bench. At the moment, Buck is hyper-aware of the weight of Eddie’s arm across his shoulders, the slight pressure of their thighs pressed together, and the way he hooked his foot around Eddie’s ankle.
“Because there weren’t enough chairs,” Eddie answers after perhaps a beat too long.
“And you two were very fast to volunteer for the bench,” Maddie shoots back. She’s making her you’re-an-idiot face that Buck is used to seeing exclusively while drunk or in a hospital bed.
“Because we’re best friends and comfortable around each other,” Buck says.
“Okay, but Eddie literally has you saved in his contacts as, and I’m quoting here, babe,” Chimney pipes up. He’s looking incredibly skeptical, like he’s half expecting this to be a joke. The rest of the group stares at Chimney, and so he ends up expanding upon his statement. “Well, once we were on a shift and Buck wasn’t and Eddie got a call. I had handed his phone to him so I saw the caller was saved as ‘babe’ and when Eddie answered, he called Buck by name.”
That explanation doesn’t seem to help everyone else, who is still trying to figure out what Buck means when he says the exceedingly clear words “we aren’t dating”, but it certainly helps jog Eddie’s memory.
“ Ohhh ,” Eddie says, lips quirking up into a smile. “Yeah, that was just the result of a joke we made. It doubles as functional, because if something ever happens to me and someone finds my phone, they’ll reach out to Buck first.”
Buck remembers the joke suddenly, something he had said to try to make Eddie feel better after a particularly bad shift. Something about being there for each other, even if it meant telling a doctor they were married. Honestly, this conversation isn’t looking too good for them.
“Okay, so we aren’t meant to question the fact that, out of everyone in your life, including your blood relatives , you would want Buck to be the first person to know if you got hurt?” May asks.
“Guys, we’re best friends ,” Eddie answers. “Obviously, I trust him.”
“To take care of your son? To make medical decisions for you?” Hen asks. “What about your sisters, or your aunt, or your freaking grandma, I don’t know?”
“Of course I trust Buck with that!” is Eddie’s indignant response. Buck actually preens, which he immediately regrets.
“There! What about that?” Chimney shouts, practically leaning across the table to point at the pair. “Buck always looks so fucking… I don’t know, giddy? He always gets so excited when Eddie compliments him!”
“I mean, how am I supposed to react to a compliment?” Buck says.
“I’m just saying , you never get that happy when someone else compliments you,” Chimney points out.
“He’s right,” Bobby adds, which definitely doesn’t help.
“Guys!” Buck protests.
“Buck is right, guys,” Albert says. A ‘thank you’ is on the brink of Buck’s tongue when he continues on to say, “We don’t need to rehash the compliment thing when I can instead attest to how often he spends the night at Eddie’s house.”
Buck is shocked into silence for a few moments, but it wears off eventually. “Et tu, Albert?” Albert just gives him a half-sheepish grin and shrugs.
“Yeah, not to mention them always showing up places together!” May adds on.
“Okay, we don’t always show up places together,” Eddie says, waving his hands a little for emphasis.
“You showed up together tonight,” May reminds them, and by extension the rest of the group.
“With a single dish. You don’t do that if you’re just carpooling.” Bobby finishes the statement with a very sage nod.
“Yeah, and what was that you said, Eddie?” David asks. “When Bobby asked if you brought a dish, too?”
“I believe his exact words were that Buck does all the cooking,” Michael answers. “And, if you need help remembering, Buck had said that Eddie was helpless in the kitchen. While they were pressed against each other.”
Now it’s David’s turn to nod sagely. “I hate to break it to you guys, but speaking as a gay man, that is incredibly gay. There’s really no way someone’s first impression hearing that should be anything non-romantic.”
“Okay, in our defense, so far everything you guys have said has either been a joke or circumstantial. We haven’t done anything inherently romantically charged,” Buck brings up as his next line of defense. It gets shot down quite literally immediately, which is fair. He knows it’s a weak defense.
“Buck, you actually took Eddie’s chin in your hand, tilted his head, and wiped sauce off his face during dinner,” Maddie says.
Buck panics for a moment, trying to think of a way to explain his way out of this particular accusation. “Someone had to do it!”
“Yeah, but why couldn’t he do it?”
Luckily (or perhaps unluckily), Hen interrupts before Buck or Eddie can flounder a response. “Not to mention the way you were looking at him while you did it!”
“What’s wrong with how I looked at him?” Buck asks.
“It’s more the way you two consistently look at each other,” Hen explains. “You guys stare at each other like… like the other one hung the moon. It’s the way you look at someone you’re in love with.”
Again, Buck considers himself lucky for only a split moment when the next distraction comes up in the shape of Chris rushing over. He stops at Buck’s side.
“Hey Dad? I mean, Buck? Where’d you put the iPad?” he asks quickly.
“Uh, it should be in the biggest pocket of your backpack, buddy.”
“Thanks!”
With that, Chris is off to claim his electronic. And Buck is forced to deal with the table. Alone. (Well, not quite alone. He still has Eddie.)
Chimney is an alarming shade of red, and as soon as Christopher is inside, he bursts out laughing. “Sorry, what was that about how you two totally aren’t in a relationship?”
“What, you’ve never called, like, a teacher ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’ before?” Buck asks defensively.
“Not while asking where they packed my stuff, no. You packed Chris’s toy bag?”
“Eddie was still in the shower!” Buck explains.
“Okay, how about you two explain this,” Athena cuts in. “That call a month ago. With the serial arsonist?”
“What about it?” Eddie asks.
“Why did you stand in front of Buck?”
Athena’s pointed question is met by a long, stretching silence, and so she continues. “The arsonist wasn’t much of a threat- there were maybe a half dozen cops present- but I saw the way you stood in front of Buck.”
“The guy had already damn near killed somebody that day,” Eddie answers forcefully.
“Okay, but-”
“Nope!” Buck interrupts. “I’m sorry, I can not do any more of this.” Then, call it force of habit, or perhaps the universe laughing in his face, Buck accidentally lets slip “Babe, I’m gonna go pee” as he stands up, hand resting on Eddie’s shoulder.
“Are you fucking kidding ?” Chimney nearly shouts. He’s actually slammed his hands down on the table, standing up at the same time. Buck wouldn’t say he looks angry, but he would say frustration is absolutely there.
Buck’s least favorite part about sitting there while all his friends and family (including his sister ) listed all the reasons they assumed he was dating Eddie was the fact that through it all, he was slowly realizing that he was actually in love with Eddie. Which, considering they came together, really sucked. He couldn’t exactly run away, avoid Eddie until their next shared shift. Sure, Buck can go home with Albert, but he’s pretty pissed at every adult (and May) present. Except for Eddie. Because of course he isn’t mad at Eddie. And he can’t let Christopher down by ditching them.
By the grace of God, Eddie manages to get Christopher ready to go pretty quickly- it actually is getting a little late, so Chris doesn’t give much of a fight- and Buck, Eddie, and Chris can leave the house while the fiasco is still dying down. Chris had made his rounds of friendly farewells, but Eddie and Buck’s goodbyes to everyone had been somewhat chilly.
However, the moment Buck is dreading comes sooner rather than later. Chris is woefully exhausted and goes to sleep in perhaps record time. Usually, that would be great- Buck loves hanging out with Chris, but him going to bed would also mean some adult time with Eddie (oh, shit, that sounded pretty bad in retrospect. Maybe Buck shouldn’t be so mad at their friends) -but tonight, not so much. It leaves just Buck, Eddie, and this wide, insurmountable mountain of awkwardness.
Eddie starts trying to defuse the conversation. “Okay, so tonight-”
“I think I love you,” Buck blurts out, words blurring together a little.
A long silence stretches out. Fuck , Buck is thinking. Shit, God, this was a mistake.
But then Eddie starts to smile, and starts to move closer to Buck. “God, we’re idiots.”
“Yeah,” Buck agrees. Eddie’s right in his space now, hand cupping Buck’s cheek. On second thought, Buck doesn’t mind that Christopher fell asleep so quickly.
And, well, Buck may be a bit quicker at forgiving everyone for their pushing than he thought he would be. And if anybody asks him, he will firmly state that their announcement that they were officially together was completely unrelated to the conversation they had at Athena’s house that night.