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Buck rifled through the bedside drawer frantically, hunching his back, squinting his eyes in an effort to see into the pitch black void of the open drawer he was rifling through, trying to find his godamned portable charger that had seemingly decided to randomly disappear from his sight. Chris had been asking for one lately, but Eddie had drawn the line at Buck buying yet another thing for the kid. He had relented at the idea of Buck giving him his old one, but he needed to find the bloody thing if he wanted to give it to the boy.
Buck’s hand nudged something rectangular, so, grasping the object with hope and pulling it out of the drawer to inspect it, he wasn’t expecting to freeze once he had set eyes on the object.
It was a jewelry box, and it could just be any other ordinary jewelry box, but it was a very distinctly familiar, specific-looking jewelry box.
Gulping, Buck creaked open the lid and peeked inside.
Oh, shit.
Nestled comfortably inside was a ring. An engagement ring.
Buck breathed in sharply, his heart jackrabitting in his chest and his ears filling with a static noise.
Oh. Holy. Shit.
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t blink. He could barely twitch a muscle, his whole body frozen to the spot.
“Evan?” Came Tommy’s call from the hallway. And suddenly Buck had too much energy, too much vigour in his movements. He tried to fling the box back into the crevice of the drawer that he had originally found it in, only for him to throw it with too much force, making it bounce back out of the drawer and onto the ground, landing softly by a discarded hoodie that he had chucked onto the floor not too long ago.
“Shit!” Buck hissed, calling out a quick. “Y-yeah?” and half turning to face Tommy’s form that was standing in the doorway, blocking his escape. He could feel the muscles in his face twitch oddly, and if the worried look on Tommy’s face said anything, he had obviously noticed.
“You ok?” Tommy asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Buck tried to chuckle. The sound coming out more like a wheeze.
“I don’t know,” Tommy spoke slowly, unsurely. “It's just that you’re looking at my drawer weirdly. Did you see a spider in there and freak out or something?”
“W-what? No,” Buck chuckled, reaching blindly behind him to pick something, anything out of the drawer to try and explain his odd behaviour away. He pulled out a cardboard box, barely allowing himself time to pause to think of something to say when his eyes landed on what he had pulled out, shaking it in Tommy’s direction for good measure. “I err, I thought that I read that the condoms were out of date, but I think I just read the date wrong.”
Tommy continued to eye him weirdly. “Yeah, I bought them like a week ago; they should be fine.”
“Good, good,” Buck nodded. “Gives us another couple of years to use them.”
Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. FUCK!
Why the fuck did he say that? Why would he insinuate that they would be together for another few years to come when they had only been dating for a few months? Sure, he found a ring, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
Tommy hummed noncommittally as he fully entered the room, rounding his bed and fluffing up his pillows, thankfully unaware of the grimace currently etched onto Buck’s face.
Tommy finally looked at him, looking slightly unsure and a bit hesitant. “Hey Buck, do you think we could talk about something?”
“Er,” Buck froze, stammering out. “I’m so sorry, Tommy, I was just about to leave. I’m like super tired, and I have to get up really early tomorrow morning - it's going to be a really busy day tomorrow. Could we postpone for later?”
“Er, ok,” Tommy nodded. “Well, I’ll see you later then?”
“Yeah, for sure,” Buck nodded his head furtively, bending down to pick up his hoodie, slyly grabbing the ring box, keeping it hidden in his bundle of clothes as he stood up. Buck’s mind was internally screaming at him, but he plastered on a fake, sweet smile, muttering, “Well, bye.” Before practically running out of Tommy’s place, flinging himself into the driver’s side of his car and shakily turning his jeep on with a quick flick of his wrist, connecting his Bluetooth before hurriedly driving away.
Eddie answered the call after only three rings, his groggy, tired voice coming in through the Bluetooth. “Buck?”
“Eddie, hey,” Buck breathed, gasping in relief at hearing the familiar voice, his breath whooshing out of him. He sagged in his seat, trying to bathe himself in the comforting lilt of his friend’s voice.
“Everything ok?” Eddie asked hesitantly, likely hearing the relief in Buck’s voice. Buck could picture his adorable pout and no doubt furrow in his brow at hearing the concern leech into his tired cadence.
“Yeah, sorry, I know it's late, I’m just… freaking out, I guess,” Buck responded, feeling the ring box burn a hole in his pocket.
“What’s going on? Aren’t you at Tommy’s right now?” He asked, Buck’s heart warming contentedly at the confirmation that Eddie knew where he was, that he listened to him and paid attention to where he would be tonight.
“I, er, I just left, actually.”
There was a brief pause. If Buck didn’t know Eddie, he likely would have brushed it off as fatigued brain fog, but he could tell that his reply had only incited more worry in the man on the other side of the call. “I thought you were staying the night.” He muttered, continuing on without waiting for a confirmation from Buck. “He didn’t do anything, did he?”
“No!” Buck exclaimed, worrying at his bottom lip. “Not yet, at least.”
“What does that mean?”
“I found a ring,” Buck rushed out.
A pause.
“A ring?”
“An engagement ring,” Buck breathed, fully gnawing at his bottom lip now. “At least, that’s what it looked like.” The next pause was more elongated. It stretched out into a millennium, going on for so long that it came to a point where Buck had to glance at the dashboard to make sure that Eddie was still connected to the call. “Eddie?”
He could hear Eddie clear his throat. “He’s going to propose?”
“I don’t know,” Buck shrugged helplessly, regardless of the fact that he knew that Eddie couldn’t see the movement. “He said that he wants to talk to me about something.”
The silence was back, a deafening, all-consuming suffocation engulfing the interior of his car. Buck regretted calling Eddie; he wished that he had facetimed him so that he could see his friend’s face at the news, could try to decipher what the silence meant.
“Do you want to marry him?” Was what Eddie finally came up with, his voice carefully neutral.
Buck remained quiet, thinking over the words, trying to think through the disarray of his thoughts to find a definitive answer. Buck had always thought of himself as part of the Diaz family. He had always had fantastical dreams of becoming a real member of their family - how could he not? How could he not want to fully be a part of Eddie and Christopher’s lives forever? He had fallen deeply and irrevocably in love with them that night he saw Eddie be reunited with his son after the 7.1 earthquake that had ravaged the city. He had fallen deep and fast, and it had grown over time, cultivated by being welcomed into their family.
But it was just a dream. Eddie was straight, and even if he wasn’t, there was no guarantee that he would feel the same way towards Buck.
Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that for someone who loves with his whole being, his whole soul, that he wouldn’t be able to control his feelings from spilling out, from growing, and multiplying, turning something innocent and platonic, into something dangerous.
Buck’s fatal flaw was that he didn’t know how to love people an acceptable amount. That he loved too much.
But someone finally loved him back. Someone could finally offer him the future family that he had always fantasized about.
Maybe it wasn’t fair to Tommy to commit when he was still so conflicted about his feelings towards Eddie, but if this was finally his one chance at being chosen, shouldn’t he take it?
“I don’t know,” Buck whispered. “How do you know that you’ve met ‘the one’?”
“You just know. You feel it.” Eddie replied softly. “Could you see a future with Tommy?”
“I don’t know,” Buck repeated.
“Maybe that’s your answer,” Eddie practically whispered. “Just… take your time to think about it. Don’t rush into anything. Choose what would make you happiest. Even if it hurts people’s feelings. This is your future we’re talking about here.”
But Eddie didn’t understand that what - or who, really - would make him happiest is currently talking to him on the other side of a phone call. What would make him happiest is a love that could never be requited. If Eddie wasn’t attainable, though, then maybe what would make him happiest would be a future with Tommy. Maybe.
Buck just had to think it over. But he had to come up with a response sooner rather than later. And he had to avoid Tommy whilst he did. He had to give himself the time and space to evaluate their whole relationship and consider whether they were ready for that next step, whether he wanted to jump in completely and build a future with him. No pressure, right?
____
Buck hadn’t slept. He had stayed up all night, too keyed up, his thoughts racing a mile a minute, too overwhelemed to even be tempted by the idea of sleep. The minute it was a somewhat appropriate time, he raced down his loft stairs, shoved his feet into his sneakers and tripped out of his apartment, trying to escape the suffocating silence.
Buck paced, waiting for the dark wooden oak door to open, barely holding himself back from knocking again.
“Buck?” Maddie asked, opening the door slowly, eyes squinting from tiredness.
“Shit, sorry, did I wake you up?” Buck winced.
“No, no, it’s fine. I just had a tiring shift, so no amount of sleep is going to cure the bone-deep tiredness I feel,” Maddie sighed, opening the door wider to let him inside. “Speaking of sleep, did you get any?”
“Gee, thanks, Mads, do I look that terrible?” Buck tried to laugh, the sound landing flat and disbelieving.
“Yes,” Maddie replied flatly, eyeing him accusingly.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Buck shrugged, following her into the kitchen and falling into a chair.
“What’s going on?” Maddie frowned, taking a seat opposite him.
“I… just take a look at what I found,” Buck breathed in deeply, trying to get the courage to bring the box into view. He hadn’t taken a second look at it from his first view in Tommy’s shadowy bedroom - maybe his mind had been playing tricks on him, and it wasn’t an engagement ring that he found at all. He didn’t know which outcome he wished for.
Maddie eyed him warily as he slowly, hesitantly took the ring box out of his pocket and onto the table. “Is that…?” Maddie began.
“An engagement ring,” Buck nodded.
“And you found this? Where?” Maddie asked, hesitantly reaching for the box.
“Tommy’s bedroom drawer,” Buck murmured, nodding in agreement at Maddie’s widened stare.
Maddie opened the box carefully, peeking at the ring still nestled comfortably inside. “That is definitely an engagement ring.” Maddie nodded.
“Yeah,” Buck whispered.
“Is that - I mean… are you not excited? Is this not something that you want?”
“I don’t know,” Buck nearly teared up at how frustrated he felt, how incapable he was at forming an opinion or decision about what he should do. “How did you know that Chim was ‘the one’ for you?”
“You just kind of know,” Maddie smiled empathetically.
Buck groaned loudly. “That’s what Eddie said, but what does that even mean? How can you be sure?”
“You’ve already told Eddie about this?” Maddie started, but stormed on, not waiting for Buck’s response. “What am I talking about? Of course, you’ve already told him, who am I kidding?”
Buck scrunched up his face at Maddie’s words, but was quickly distracted by her continuing. “But you can never really be sure about who ‘the right person’ is, and I don’t think that there will ever be one specific person perfect for you out there in the universe. Love and relationships are something that you put effort into to build the best family and life that you can. You just have to ask yourself whether you really love that person and whether you can see a future with them.”
“How can I picture a future with Tommy when I can barely picture a future with just myself? Life is constantly changing, it’s not predictable or certain - I mean, I’ve already died once! How am I supposed to know what my future is going to look like?” Buck exasperated.
“It's hard, I know it is,” Maddie nodded in understanding. “For me, I just knew that if there was one person on Earth that I trusted the most, that I would want by my side, having my back, I would want that person to be Howie.”
You can have my back any day.
No. Eddie wasn’t an option here. But Tommy was - or maybe some other faceless partner he was yet to meet, anyone but Eddie.
“What if this is it for me?” Buck whispered. “What if this is my only chance at getting married, at building my own family?”
“Is that a good enough reason to get married, though?” Maddie asked. “Buck, if Tommy isn’t the right person for you, then I think that you just have to trust that the universe will bring you someone special, someone that you can dive right into marriage with without having to worry about whether or not it’s a bad idea.”
“So, you’re saying that because I’m worrying about it so much, it might not be the right fit?”
“I’m saying that it’s good that you’re really exploring how you feel so that you can avoid regretting it later, years down the line.” Maddie hesitated. “But I never agonized over a future with Chim. I had had a horrible first marriage with Doug, but I just felt so free and safe with Howie that I never for one second worried about regretting it. And I haven’t. It might have been one of the best decisions of my life.”
Buck buried his face in the crook of his arms, half lying down on the table, groaning softly. “This is all so confusing.”
“Just give it some time, Evan. It’s good that you’re really thinking this over.” Maddie patted his head lovingly.
______
Buck eventually made it home after spending the entire day trying to distract himself by talking with Maddie about their mundane life adventures and making Jee giggle when Chim had brought her home from daycare.
And when he was faced with the dark silence of his apartment, he was suddenly reminded of what he had been avoiding in the first place. He was reminded of what he had been distracting himself from thinking about.
Buck sighed, putting around his apartment quietly, putting a load of clothes in the washing machine to try to convince himself that he was being productive before he let himself take a glance at his phone’s notifications that he hadn’t allowed himself to look at all day.
There were a few texts from those from the 118, a couple of memes that Chris had sent when he no doubt shouldn’t have been off his phone during lessons, and a few random notifications from apps he rarely uses but still hasn’t bothered to silence.
But one notification sent 10 minutes ago, had him breathe in a sharp inhale, the notification glaring at him from his screen.
[Tommy]: Hey Evan, would now be a good time to talk?
[Tommy]: I’m on my way to yours.
Shit. Fuck. Shit.
His loft was only a 20-minute drive from Tommy’s, and that was assuming that Tommy had made his way over from his home and hadn’t sent the text whilst he was already out to a much closer destination.
Buck paced, unable to keep his anxious feelings contained, trying to expel some of his nervous energy so that he could be prepared for when Tommy came. Shit. He was going to be here in less than 10 minutes. What the fuck was he supposed to do?
Picking his phone back up, Buck opened up a new contact, fingers flying over his screen with rapid imprecision.
[To Eds]: EDDIE
[To Eds]: Tommy jst txted taht he was coming over 2 ‘talk’!!!!
[To Eds]: IS HE GOING TO PROPOSE????
[To Eds]: HELP SOS !!!
[To Eds]: EDS!!!
He laid his phone back on his kitchen counter, running his hands through his hair roughly, pulling at it anxiously to try and gather his thoughts, breathing in deeply to try to remain calm.
Then a knock sounded on his loft door.
Buck took a moment to brace himself before he dragged himself to the door, smacking a bright smile onto his face as he opened it to see Tommy’s nervous smile.
“Hey, Evan. Is now a good time?” Tommy scratched at the back of his neck nervously, looking almost shy.
Buck nodded his head jerkily. “Er, yeah sure, come on in.”
Once Buck had closed the door and turned around to face Tommy once more, he was faced with the form of Tommy’s tense back, shoulders pulled tight as he stared at the floor. “What was it that you wanted to talk about?”
Tommy turned around, gnawing at his bottom lip, sighing heavily as he finally raised his gaze to lock eyes with Buck. “Ok… I’m just going to get this over with.”
Buck scrambled to try to interrupt, but Tommy barged on, so they effectively spoke over one another.
“I can’t marry you.”
“I think we should break up.”
They both paused, silently staring at each other wide-eyed.
“Oh,” Buck breathed, the breath effectively swooshing out of his body.
“What?” Tommy asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.
“I guess I really can’t marry you,” Buck bit his lip, nodding slowly to try to make sense of the situation. “Should we - should we sit down and talk about this?” Buck asked hesitantly, pointing pathetically at the kitchen chairs.
“Er, yeah, I think that might be a good idea,” Tommy muttered, following Buck’s lead and taking a seat opposite him, letting the table give them some much-needed physical distance.
“So… you want to break up with me?” Buck prompted.
“Yeah, I, uh,” Tommy stuttered. It was such a contrast to the cool and collected demeanour that he always held around himself. Tommy sighed defeatedly. “There’s no easy way to say this, Buck. But I’m in love with someone else.”
“Right,” Buck nodded, thinning his lips to try and refrain from letting himself tear up. “You love them?”
“Yeah,” Tommy whispered. “He had been a childhood friend of mine. He was probably the first guy I ever had a crush on, but I mean, back then, I was still closeted, and I didn’t even know that dating a guy was even an option. But I ran into him a few weeks ago, and we got to talking…”
Buck hesitated, not meeting Tommy’s gaze in fear of the response. “Did-did you do anything more than talk?”
“We kissed,” Tommy muttered remorsefully. “But I told him that I wouldn’t do anything more with him before talking to you about it.”
Before breaking up with me, Buck thought. Now he understood just what Taylor must have felt when he told her about kissing Lucy. He might not have wanted to break up with Taylor and pursue anything with Lucy, but it was still a betrayal of trust.
“Meeting up with him, hanging out with him like old times,” Tommy continued. “It just made me realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. It's - it's hard to put it into words-“
“Really?” Buck cut in, exasperation heavily laced into his tone. “Why can no one put it into words?”
“It's an intense feeling. There aren’t many words that can give it justice.” Tommy shrugged.
Buck sighed defeatedly before deciding to just continue. “I hope he likes the ring.”
Tommy tilted his head in confusion. “What - what ring?”
“The… the ring in your bedside drawer?”
“I don’t have a ring in my bedside drawer?” Tommy’s brow furrowed, his words coming out more like a question than a statement.
Buck rushed to get up, grabbing his hoodie that had the ring box inside and placing it on the table in front of him before regaining his seat once more. “What’s this then?”
Tommy hesitantly reached out, grabbed the box and opened it. “Ah, that ring.” Tommy winced, glancing at Buck. “Did you check the engraving?”
“There’s an engraving?” Buck gasped, reaching out to pluck the ring from the box. “Oh my God, there is.”
And just as Tommy said, engraved in a delicate, elegant scrawl on the inside of the metal band were the words ‘Abbey & Tommy’, the light shimmering off the engravings beautifully.
“It was my engagement ring when I was engaged to Abbey,” Tommy spoke up. “I kept the ring because it used to be my grandfather's, and he wanted me to have it. I always planned on getting it re-engraved when I had met the right person and wanted to pop the big question again.”
The right person. Buck wasn’t the right person for Tommy; he hadn’t even considered him. Sure, Tommy might not be the right person for Buck, but it still stung a bit that Tommy so clearly didn’t feel that way about Buck.
“How did I miss this?” Buck muttered to himself self-deprecatingly before placing the ring back into its box and snapping it shut, the sharp sound ringing jarringly in the awkward silence.
After a beat, Tommy cleared his throat loudly. “I… should probably be going,” Tommy spoke softly, slowly gathering himself up and out of the chair, glancing at Buck worriedly. “I’m sorry it ended like this, Buck.”
Buck nodded, standing up for himself. “I’ll show you out.”
Buck didn’t bother closing his apartment door as he followed Tommy out, both of them standing stiffly next to each other silently as they waited for the lift to come up to Buck’s floor.
“Just… out of curiosity,” Tommy spoke up. “I know why I couldn’t marry you. But, why couldn’t you marry me?”
“Oh!” Buck rocked backwards and forwards on his heels awkwardly. “Er, I don’t really know.”
“Come on, Buck,” Tommy grinned. “You know.”
“Nope,” Buck shook his head. “I really don’t.”
The lift finally arrived, and when the door opened, Buck watched Tommy step inside, twirling around to face Buck again. “Come on, Buck, you know. Even I know.”
“You know?” Buck furrowed his brows. “Then why?”
“You know why,” Tommy repeated, smiling cryptically. Buck was starting to get annoyed at his shark smile, barely being able to refrain himself from rolling his eyes childishly.
“I really don’t.”
“It's Eddie,” Tommy said simply, shrugging his shoulders easily. “I’m not your first, Buck, I was never going to be.”
And just like in the movies, because of course, the doors closed before Buck had any chance of replying or asking any further questions. He stared at the closed doors silently, mouth opening and closing, gaping like a fish.
“What the fuck?” Buck whispered to himself furtively.
I’m not your first. I was never going to be.
Did Tommy have no real intention of ever going through a serious relationship with Buck? Was it all some elaborate joke to pass the time? To have a good lay?
Buck shut his door harshly, wincing slightly at the sound of the loud bang, retaking his seat at the table and banging his head against the wood, groaning softly.
And for the second time that night, someone knocked on his door.
This time, it sounded more urgent, more hurried, and with more force being used; the knock sounding much louder than Tommy’s weak taps from earlier in the afternoon.
Buck huffed, lifting himself out of his chair once more as he shuffled to the door, not bothering to hurry himself or look through the peephole to see who was knocking at his door so hurriedly, not bothering to call out that he was coming to whoever was on the other side.
Resisting the loving calls from his bed up the loft stairs with promises of soothing his bone weary ache, Buck swung the door open and stared, dazed at the sight before him.
Eddie swayed on his feet, flushed and out of breath, his chest rising and falling rapidly, one hand bracing himself against the wall by his apartment door. “Buck,” He gasped out. “Fuck... so many stairs.”
Buck eyed Eddie, taking in his dishevelled form. “Did you run up the stairs?”
“The lift was taking too long,” Eddie waved away, taking a steadying breath before making his way inside the loft. “Is Tommy here?”
“Er, no-“ Buck started before he was interrupted.
“You can’t marry him, Buck.” Eddie panted.
“Why-why not?” Buck stuttered out, hope igniting his flesh, searing his blood alive, his heart racing in anticipation. Buck was going to hate himself if this speech wasn’t what he desperately wanted it to be, and it was just Eddie warning Buck that Tommy had cheated on him.
“I know I told you to pick what would make you happiest, and I know that I’m being really selfish right now - but fuck it. You can’t marry that… him. You can’t marry him.”
At Buck’s wide-eyed stare, Eddie continued. “Sorry, Chris has taken to calling him some... creative nicknames lately, and I’m trying so hard right now not to repeat them. But the point is, I could make you happy. I mean, we’re practically a family already, you’re in my will, we’ve been partners for years, aren’t you happy? Couldn’t I make you happier than him? Won’t you let me prove that we could be better together?”
“Chris doesn’t like Tommy?” Is all that Buck could manage.
“That’s what you took from all of that?” Eddie exasperated. “I poured my heart out to you - I mean - I broke up with my girlfriend and made her move back out of my house after getting her to move in with me in the same day because I realized that I’m in love with you-“
“What else could I say?” Buck interrupted, feeling the harsh beating of his heart in his throat. “You practically stole the words right out of my mouth.”
Eddie snapped his mouth shut, licking his lips furtively before his jaw hinged open again, staring at him blankly. “What - what does that mean? What are you trying to say?”
“That I’m in love with you, too. That I couldn’t ever possibly say yes to Tommy knowing that I was in love with you. That I couldn’t picture building a family with Tommy because I already had one with you.” Buck breathed, a smile slowly etching onto his face.
“Have we been idiots?” Eddie grinned back.
Thinking back to his conversation with Maddie, he continued to smile, shaking his head softly. “I think we took the time we needed. We weren’t idiots, we just didn’t rush into anything.”
“I really want to kiss you right now,” Eddie whispered, slowly walking towards Buck, who couldn’t contain his shit eating grin from spreading and taking over his whole face.
“Then why don’t you do it, Diaz?”
“I just might,” Eddie whispered, his face only centimetres from Buck’s face, his breath ghosting over his lips.
Kissing Eddie felt like the rest of his life - exciting and exhilarating. It was intoxicating, something he never wanted to stop doing. It might be his new favourite thing to do.
______
After a couple of hours of giggling and making out like a couple of teenagers, Buck and Eddie gathered themselves to go and pick Chris up from his friend Jack’s house. Buck even promising to cook dinner for them that night.
Walking up to the elevator, Buck felt a weird sense of deja vu standing next to someone and waiting for the lift to come up. But this time was different. This time, he and Eddie weren’t standing in awkward silence, but they were chatting quietly, holding hands comfortably, easily accomodating to their increased physical intimacy - not that they weren’t close beforehand, they had always found excuses to be around each other, to touch each other in small, simple ways - and maybe that really should have been a clue - but Buck preened at the familiarity and easy way that touch with Eddie always seemed to come to them.
Buck huffed and turned to Eddie, “Seems like the elevator might be broken. Stairs?”
Eddie sighed dramatically before nodding. “If we must.”
After a couple of flights of stairs, Buck chuckled to himself, looking at Eddie, appraising him as he asked his next question. “You really ran up all these flights of stairs to tell me not to marry Tommy?”
Eddie blushed, ducking his head slightly in mild embarrassment. “I was scared after your text that I was too late. I had just left Hen’s, who told me to get my shit together and tell you how I felt before I ran out of time. I was scared that I had missed my chance.”
“That’s actually really sweet,” Buck cooed before grinning mischievously. “And hot.”
Buck cackled at the blush on Eddie’s face, turning into a burning scarlet shade.
Once they had finally reached the bottom of the stairs, they halted at the sight of the ground floor milling about with firefighters in gear. Through the crowd of first responders, he could make out the figure of Tommy talking to one of the firefighters, looking tired and dishevelled.
“Tommy?” Buck called. “What’s going on? What are you still doing here?”
Buck and Eddie made their way over to Tommy, walking the short distance to be able to be heard over the sounds of everyone in the room.
“I got trapped in the elevator,” Tommy sighed.
“You’ve been in there since you left?” Buck gasped.
“Yeah,” Tommy nodded. “It's been a long few hours.”
“Damn,” Buck whistled.
Tommy’s eyes caught and snagged on Buck and Eddie’s conjoined hands, smiling wickedly at the sight. “At least I get the satisfaction of being right, though.”
Buck rolled his eyes, “And suddenly I don’t feel bad that you were stuck in the lift for a good few hours. Bye, Tommy.” And with that, he turned around, tugging Eddie to follow him out of the building.
Buck glanced at Eddie, finding a wide grin on his face and his shoulders shaking with the effort of holding in his laughs. “What?”
“Nothing.” Eddie chuckled. “I just love the idea that whilst Tommy was trapped inside a floating death metal box, we were happily making out like teenagers and shitting on him.”
“Hmm,” Buck hummed happily. “Funny how the universe works.”
“It wasn’t the universe, Buck,” Eddie rolled his eyes half-heartedly. “The arsehole just got what was coming to him.”
“Maybe,” Buck shrugged. “But we can just forget about him, now.”
“Yeah,” Eddie nodded, smiling jofully. “He’s irrelevant anyway. But for the record, I still think you were too nice to him.”
“In your own words, why should I waste my time being mean to someone who's irrelevant?”
They finally reached the truck Eddie had driven in, Eddie passing the keys to Buck to let him drive, ever the passenger princess. “You ready to get our kid and spend the rest of the night trying to embarrass him by being overly lovey-dovey in front of him?
“You know it,” Buck grinned, detangling their hands in favour of opening the door and giving Eddie a fistbump before jumping inside.
Whether Eddie was correct in believing there was no universe or not, Buck liked to think that fate had led them to this perfect moment, allowing them the time to build the foundation that they had, to allow them to be ready to take this next step. From work partners to best friends, to now partners in every sense of the word.
Buck might not be able to see or read his future, but he was excited nonetheless to experience it, to go through every moment with Eddie by his side, having his back, and being there for him - and for Buck to do the same for him.