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Buck initially downloaded TikTok as a distraction. Not a simple distraction, but a Distraction, capital D, part of a grand scheme of things he resorted to in the hope of not going back to his ex-boyfriend.
And he is most definitely not proud of the number of ways he tried to get over Tommy but in hindsight, he is tremendously glad that they all worked and he didn’t end up calling the man, begging for more crumbs. Looking back on their relationship, he has sadly realized that those were all their connection was based on. Crumbs.
Which is also ironic considering that a series of TikTok videos kickstarted that precise realization and subsequently a real baking obsession (or, hobby — as he prefers, thank you very much).
But that’s not the point now. The point is that Eddie is in fucking Texas (he is angry at the whole state as if it had a life of its own, sue him) and Buck is spiraling. He is not in love with Eddie, for God’s sake. And everyone has to stop telling him otherwise. He would know if he was in love with his best friend, okay?
The point is… that he starts posting videos on TikTok.
It happens exactly four days after Eddie leaves, when Buck comes to terms with the fact that ninety percent of his life revolves around his best friend, even if he will never admit that out loud, even if he doesn’t like that one bit. That is, he does like that, but only when they spend all of their time together, not eight hundred miles apart.
His name on TikTok is firebuck because maybe he lacks fantasy — firetruck, you know? —, he’ll admit that, but it turns out to be fitting because he ends up talking about firefighting anyway. It starts because he shares a video of him making Mini Banana Bread Loaves but he is at the firehouse and is wearing his uniform so people start firing hundreds of comments about that and he finds that he loves talking about his job (maybe he has always known). However, most of them make him blush, honestly, because as much as he loved the attention when he was younger, now he’d rather not have people pointing at his looks, if even as a very passionate compliment.
Anyway, he starts showing the department equipment, after clearing with Bobby that he can, and then starts answering curious people’s questions. He learns to respond to comments with videos and that exponentially increases the engagement of his followers, to the point that he reaches a thousand followers by the second week of active posting.
It’s then that he starts telling Eddie more about it, during one of their FaceTime calls, when Eddie has been gone for twenty days, more or less.
“I thought you were just aimlessly scrolling at night?” Eddie murmurs, face scrunched up in confusion because TikTok, and social media in general, is definitely not something he is an expert in.
It’s half a question and half a statement and Buck chuckles lightly to himself before actually replying. He’s rummaging through one of his closet drawers looking for God knows what, and Eddie is so confused.
“I posted a recipe video once, you know?” Buck says while sinking further into the closet to the point that his voice is muffled and Eddie can only see a mop of blond, soft curls.
“Buck? What are you doing?”
“Oh— I just— never mind, so… I guess people like me?” Buck cheekily says, but his cheeks are slightly flushed and his tone is shy. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed and running a hand through his hair and— how could anyone not like you? Eddie wonders.
How could anyone not love you? He wants to ask. (Texas is that good when it comes to self-discovery and revelations, apparently) “Tell me about it then,” is what he says though, encouraging his friend, basking in the warmth that Buck’s voice carries.
“Well, they— uh, they found out that I’m a firefighter ‘cause I was at the station, uniform on and all, and some people started asking questions—”
Eddie smiles fondly and cuts him off without thinking. “And you love talking about it,” he usefully finishes the thought.
“Yeah, that.” Buck smiles softly and Eddie immediately wishes, for the twentieth time in the last fourteen minutes, he could be in L.A. to see that smile up close.
He stays there, content to listen to Buck’s rambling about how he unconsciously gained a fair amount of popularity on the app and what he plans to show next, humming quietly and just interjecting every now and then to actually show Buck that he is genuinely interested until something catches his attention.
“So… uh, honestly I’m sure some people think you died,” Buck mutters in passing, as nonchalantly as someone who’s talking about the weather.
Eddie almost chokes on nothing. “Excuse me what?” He lets out a screech, and his high-pitched voice makes Buck laugh so much that, once again, Eddie desperately wants to teleport himself back home.
“It’s not— look, it’s not my fault!” Buck chuckles, but it takes one raised eyebrow from Eddie and he starts explaining. “I— I was showing the locker room and… I said something like ‘this is— was Eddie’s locker, Eddie was— is my partner, the best friend I’ve ever had’ and I got some comments.”
Comments like oh I’m so sorry for your loss, or grief is just love in disguise, I’m sure he’s always with you. Things that made his skin literally crawl for the amount of times he’s been close to that being his reality.
Buck’s bashful expression is literally pulling at Eddie’s heartstrings; probably hadn’t Eddie been eight hundred miles away, he would have kissed him within an inch of his life but— that’s a thought for another time, actually.
His heart does a funny, wild swoop in his chest at the thought of Buck talking about him so fondly and with such a longing, yearning look that people immediately assumed he is dead, even if, at the same time, he feels endlessly guilty.
“I’m sorry, you know?” He whispers, and before Buck has the chance to put his confusion into words, he goes on, “I don’t think I’ve said that.”
“W— what about?” Buck’s eyebrows are almost touching.
“For… for leaving,” Eddie clamps his mouth shut for a split second before adding, “leaving you.”
And Buck’s heart stops for a minute. No one, except maybe Maddie (but Buck feels like that has always been some kind of obligation), has ever held accountability for leaving him behind. And he knows that Eddie simply moved towards Chris, didn’t move away from him, but deep inside his chest, this difference fades away to black, so Eddie’s words hit hard.
“N—no, hey, we, uh— you don’t have to apologize, you know that. We’re—”
“We’re not good, I am not good. I—” Eddie takes what looks like the deepest breath in the history of deep breaths. “I miss you and you—” he gestures vaguely toward the phone as if Buck was just there, “you’re turning into an influencer ‘cause I left!”
He tries to sound teasing, to add some levity to something that is so unapologetically heavy, and important. Buck lets out a little sigh and then laughs at the absurdity of his best friend’s words.
“Influencer? Eddie, you are ridiculous.”
He pointedly ignores Eddie’s whole I miss you speech because he really, really doesn’t want to cry and spill his heart to the other man while he’s in another state.
Luck seems to be on his side though, because Eddie simply shrugs and chuckles. “You are.”
“And anyway, I would be the coolest firefighter influencer!” Buck adds, tilting his head pretty adorably.
Eddie just looks at him for a beat or two and sighs longingly. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Five weeks after Eddie’s departure, Buck has two thousand followers on TikTok and is now recording a workout video with Chimney and Ravi, in the downtime at the firehouse gym. He’s mostly showing Ravi and Chim instead of actually working out, but he claims that he has to show what kind of exercises firefighters are used to, so…
Chimney doesn’t know about the whole TikTok thing, though. So he spends half of their workout time teasing Buck, and his favorite topic seems to be Eddie, to the point that Buck starts getting weird comments from his usual followers.
He expected someone to make some cheesy and borderline cringey comment on how hot firefighters are, someone to ask him to marry them (it’s happened plenty, much to his amusement and bewilderment), or some more serious comments about their workout routine (that often happens too, and Buck is so proud of that). What he doesn’t expect is a flood of comments calling him out because he has apparently faked his best friend’s death to get attention.
He scans the comment section so thoroughly that, by the time he is done, he fears that the frown that appeared on his forehead will be a permanent feature of his face.
He rewatches the video over and over and catches some of Chim’s words.
Stop torturing us just ‘cause Eddie isn’t here.
Man, I can’t wait to have him back. Maybe you’ll leave us alone then!
I swear I’m gonna go get Eddie back from Texas myself, Buckley.
Well, yeah. It makes sense that people think that Eddie is alive, because he is. What he can’t wrap his head around is the fact that people really believed Eddie was dead in the first place.
He is so clueless as to what to do next and doesn’t know what exactly the social media etiquette for these things is, so he eventually decides to ignore the issue.
If he ignores the whole thing hard enough, it’ll go away, right?
Wrong.
So incredibly wrong.
In the end, he is forced to post an actual apology video because it turns out that he can’t post anything without getting tons of negative comments. Honestly, he ends up doing that because some people comment that they have lost their respect for him, thought he was a nice guy but now are sure he isn’t and all, and he can’t have that.
“Eddie is my best friend.” He leads with that. That is good, and true. “Eddie and I have known each other for seven years now and—” he takes a deep, deep breath. “We work together, uh—” he painfully pauses for a moment, remembering that they worked together, scratches his chin while his eyes’ light dims ever so slightly. “He is a firefighter, like me,” he settles on. Eddie will forever be a firefighter. “He’s even better than me,” he chuckles, a fond, faraway look in his gaze, “he’s the best firefighter— don’t tell that to my captain though,” cheekily adds with the hint of a smirk adorning his face. “And we, uh—”
How does he explain his relationship with Eddie? Eddie is everything to him.
“We’ve always been… maybe too attached?” He flinches slightly at his own words but smiles while remembering all the teasing they endured because of their codependency. “Anyway, I can’t really explain what Eddie means to me, but… some weeks ago he had to leave L.A. and I guess—” he closes his eyes for a beat. “I’ve not done the best job at handling his absence?” He winces, shrugging a tad bit ridiculously. He claps his hands awkwardly, with some sort of finality following the gesture. “Eddie is not dead.”
He has to clarify that even if just putting Eddie and dead together in the same sentence makes him want to throw up.
“Eddie has just moved to Texas, guys. And I’m sorry if I made you believe something else entirely,” he gently laughs.
Sometime later, he presses post and opens FaceTime.
“I had to deliver a whole-ass eulogy for you.”
That’s the first thing Eddie hears as soon as he clicks the green button and saying that he’s confused is an understatement. “What? Bud, you’re weirder every time we talk,” he laughs, eyes crinkling in that particular way that makes Buck’s heart ache ever since he realized how in love he is with his friend.
“People thought you died, Eddie!” Buck unhelpfully tells him.
“And that’s weird. I won’t even ask why, how…”
“They were serious! They started— they said I was lying about your death to get views!”
Buck leans forward, almost smashing his forehead into the phone screen, and his hushed tone has Eddie cackling in earnest. “Oh God, please tell me more,” he asks Buck.
Had it been somebody else, Eddie would have probably been mad, but… it’s Buck. He suspects there’s some sort of bug in his system that prevents him from holding even the smallest grudge against Buck.
He waits patiently until Buck finishes telling him the whole story before bursting out laughing.
“He— hey!” Buck whines, “That’s not funny. Eddie!”
That only serves to make Eddie laugh harder. “Ohhh…” Eddie sighs, wiping the tears away from the corners of his eyes. “I—” I miss you, I love you so much, you’re so ridiculous that I wanna kiss you and I miss you and I— “I have no words.”
“See if I ever tell you something again,” Buck pouts. He honest to God pouts and Eddie wonders how a grown man can look so cute.
Buck’s problems, though, don’t seem to cease, but they do take an unexpected turn. He doesn’t know whether he likes it or not but what he does know is that he is glad Eddie has no clue how TikTok works and doesn’t have an account, because now that the previous misunderstanding has been solved, people are convinced that he is in love with Eddie.
He’s going to deactivate. Yeah. That’s exactly what he’s going to do. This account was supposed to be a distraction and it has turned into something that stresses him out. He won’t take more people to tell him he’s in love with his best friend.
He keeps reading and re-reading the comments.
ohhhh now I get it
oh boy he’s down bad
who’s gonna tell him?
shall we tell him?
do you think he knows? maybe he knows
he clearly doesn’t!!!
He doesn’t? What does he need to know? There’s nothing to know. He is not in love with Eddie.
Should he make another video about that?
Oh, Lord. What has he gotten himself into?
He decides to go to sleep and call it a day.
Then, the next day he comes up with a great plan: he is going to ignore the comments and keep going with his usual “posting schedule”. At least they’re not calling him names this time, there’s no need for him to intervene. So he keeps posting videos about firefighting but also about some things in L.A. he gets to see for the first time now that he’s started wandering around the city in his free time because Eddie is not home to wait for him. He pretends to ignore the teasing about the fact that he lives in the city and is yet acting like a tourist in his videos.
At least no one of his friends/coworkers is following him. Small mercies, probably.
Everything dramatically changes on a random Tuesday. He wakes up cranky and wishing he was in Texas. Some days are just like that. He doesn’t even want to look at his phone or bake something new or cook or watch whatever shit Netflix has to offer, he just wants Eddie. And that alone should cue him in on the extent of his feelings.
However, things change when he gets a call from Eddie himself and what is weird is that Eddie doesn’t usually call so early in the morning because he likes having breakfast while he stares at the abyss, in silence and because he knows that Buck takes his sweet time to get ready for work without him talking about random stuff in his ear (because Buck got Bluetooth headphones as soon as Eddie left and he needed to keep him on FaceTime while he did the most mundane tasks).
“Eddie? Hey, everything okay?” He’s still rubbing the sleep off of his eyes with a hand while trying to retrieve a sweater to put on his sleep tee and doesn’t immediately notice that Eddie is fully dressed and in a parking lot.
That only seems to register when he steps in the kitchen and is hit by an annoying flash of light which almost blinds him. Eddie is grinning and he’s so confused.
Then Eddie turns the camera and— Buck is even more confused, to be honest.
“Buck! Look!”
“I am looking, but— oh wait… no, what—”
Eddie gets back in the frame and keeps grinning, and he is so, so beautiful that Buck wants to smother him with kisses (he still isn’t in love with him though, don’t you dare). “I sold my car! And— and they still had my truck and—” Eddie is rambling and that is weird because rambling is more of a Buck thing, a thing that he does when he’s nervous, or excited.
“Eddie you’re not making sense, why—” Buck still doesn’t get to finish a sentence apparently.
“What are you doing this Saturday, Buck?”
Buck immediately feels more alert, suddenly wide awake, with a giddy feeling creeping along his spine. His stomach does a weird little shake while he answers and he doesn’t even know why. “Nothing? I’ll be off from a twenty-four at ten in the morning.”
Eddie’s grin gets bigger, if possible, and he visibly deflates. It’s like he has breathed for the first time in his life, and Buck doesn’t want to get his hopes up so he doesn’t let his mind wander.
“What do you say about lunch together with me and Chris?”
Buck’s eyes start watering on the spot. The second Eddie’s words register, his eyes fill up with tears. He has to clear his throat a few times. “Y—you are…”
Eddie smiles softly now, eyes shiny as well, “Coming back, yeah,” finishes his sentence.
“Eddie…”
“Yeah, Buck?”
Eddie’s image is blurred and Buck has never felt like he has to hide from him but he also feels that as soon as he opens his mouth, a sob will break free, and that is a little embarrassing, so he wants to hang up but somehow he can’t.
“Eddie,” Buck repeats, not caring about how stupid he sounds. “I— you— you are really coming back? For real? For— forever?” He also sounds so scared, so insecure, and Eddie hates that, hates that he made that.
“Well, if my current renter lets us, we can stay forever, yeah.”
Buck’s brain reboots in the span of a second. Firstly, Buck has never seen Eddie flirt but he would recognize a flirty tone everywhere and this sounds exactly like Eddie is flirting with him. Secondly, what— what does Eddie mean? Has he just asked him to live together?
He must have taken a second too long to answer because he sees Eddie’s smile falter, his gleeful expression slowly fade away and he immediately has to make things right. “Uh, of—” his voice is borderline squeaky but he has to explain, even if he’s making a fool of himself in the process. “Of course! Yeah, yeah yeah!”
He mentally smacks himself. Totally, totally, real normal, Buckley. But then Eddie’s toothy grin reappears on his screen and it’s beautiful, and genuine, and everything he wants to see for the rest of his life. It’s okay.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Stupid. Very, very stupid, Buckley.
“Yeah, Buck, okay.”
There’s something about Eddie’s voice that is so fond, so warm and tender that Buck is afraid he’s going to melt right there into his (their? Oh God, their) kitchen, but then someone interrupts them, bursting their little peaceful bubble, and Eddie is facing away from the camera muttering something that Buck can’t decipher, and in just a few seconds and some gotta go, bye bye bye Buck later, Buck is left staring at a disconnected call.
This is the best day ever and he has to tell everyone. He doesn’t care if Eddie wants to surprise everyone else in L.A., if he doesn’t share this with the whole world, he’s going to explode.
Telling everyone ends up meaning that in the next couple of days, he posts about ten videos on his TikTok account where he manages to blurt out the sentence my best friend is coming back soon at least once per every video, even if it has nothing to do with what he’s actually talking about. So much so that it prompts a whole new kind of comment.
gosh he’s so in love he’s adorable
ohh maybe they are actually together, guys!
we wanna see this best friend now
please show him
eddie where are you? we wanna see your face
show your husband firebuck
Buck groans out loud as soon as he stumbles across the last comment and that gets the whole team’s attention on him.
“Something happen with Eddie?”
It’s Bobby. It’s his fucking captain. If even Bobby is assuming that everything in his life revolves around his best friend, then he is fucked.
“No!” He blurts out. “Nothing happened, Eddie is still coming back tomorrow!”
And God, for a moment he thought he’d never see the day he’d pronounce those words. Eddie is coming back tomorrow. Wow. His life is about to get back to perfect. He can’t even worry about the TikTok comments, nor the looks he’s getting from Bobby and Hen and Ravi and everyone else who’s currently at the station.
“What?” His frown is barely there, as a smile is taking over his mouth just thinking about what awaits him.
“Oh, nothing, Buck, don’t worry.” Hen’s tone seems weirdly suspicious, she sounds almost teasing. And he should probably worry, worry that they have found his TikTok account and have read the comments and now are assuming he is in love with Eddie too.
He is not in love with Eddie. Can everyone please stop hinting at that?
Buck doesn’t know how or why that happened, but he has reached a stage of social media popularity where people start worrying about him if he doesn’t post something for a day or two. He doesn’t have that many followers, probably eight thousand or something (he doesn’t even remember) but those who follow him seem to be genuinely interested in his life. So he decides to announce that he isn’t going to post much because Eddie is going to be finally home. He doesn’t add much to that, doesn’t tell everyone that he is planning on gluing himself to his best friend’s side and never letting him out of his sight. That would go suspiciously against his I’m-not-in-love-with-Eddie agenda. He can recognize that.
However, people don’t seem to need that degree of explanation to reach the same conclusion, judging by the comments he gets.
go be with your man, we’ll survive, we get it
ohhh the husband is back y’all
show us pls
we wanna see eddieeee
he’s soft-launching his boy without him being even in the picture guys, adorable
He’s soft what, now? God, he can’t win, can he? No matter what he says or does, people are sure he loves Eddie. He doesn’t. That is, he does. Of course he does love Eddie. He just isn’t in love with him.
He is.
He is desperately, deeply, and utterly in love with Eddie. To be fair, he is not just in love. He feels like he’s about to float away from how much he loves Eddie. Or explode because he’s suddenly feeling so warm inside that he’s sure his organs are about to shut down. Or collapse because breathing is so hard, so, so hard. His lungs burn. That’s how in love he is.
And he is screwed, so completely, unequivocally hopeless, because this life-changing realization hits him while Eddie is in his arms.
Buck has completely ignored Christopher (and he will forever feel guilty for that) as soon as Eddie stepped foot onto the lawn of their (is it finally really theirs? Oh God…) house and he had eyes on him, has flung himself onto him, hugged him and literally lifted him off the ground while he was at it. That’s why Eddie is now in his arms, and Buck has his eyes shut and Eddie’s giggle (and— Christ, Eddie is giggling!) reverberates against his chest, and Buck wants to live with his chest pressed against Eddie’s forever, wants to be the reason why Eddie giggles and wants to hear, feel and experience that giggle for the rest of his life.
He won’t need to put himself to sleep to dream of a life with Eddie in it because he is living it, and that knowledge makes him feel high.
Ultimately, it’s Christopher’s voice reminding him that he should probably put his best friend down and stop squeezing the life out of him. “Hi, Buck! I missed you too, Buck! It’s so good to see you, Buck!”
He chuckles, slowly lowering Eddie down and carefully leaning away, not ready to catch his eyes yet. As soon as he and Eddie lock eyes, it will be like the first time Buck sees him. It will be the first time Buck looks at Eddie and is aware that those are the eyes of the fucking love of his life.
So he lets Eddie go and immediately ducks down to hug Chris. For a second he feels a sharp pain at acknowledging that he doesn’t have to bend so much to reach the kid’s head because he’s grown so much and he — they— missed so much, but then Chris hugs him back, circling his waist with his arms and he forgets everything, even that he’s apparently obsessed with said kid’s dad.
“I missed you, Buck.”
This time, Chris’ words are not teasing. They are genuine and sincere and everything Buck has been dreaming about since the moment he left with his grandparents. Honey drips from these words and Buck is licking every single drop, treasuring them like his life depends on it.
“I missed you so much, Chris. So, so much,” he mutters in his blonde curls, and eventually breaks the hug resting his hands on the boy’s shoulders, to take him in. “It’s so good to see you in person. Could you—”
“Uh…” he hesitates for a beat and both Chris and Eddie frown.
“What?”
“Could you, uh—” he scratches the back of his head and Eddie looks at him with tears in his eyes and an infinite amount of love in his heart. God, he has missed this giant, goofy, good man. “Live with your dad until you go to college? Please? I—”
Both Diaz boys burst out laughing so he doesn’t have to finish his embarrassing sentence and he is glad that they did get him. He wouldn’t ever impose his needs and desires on Christopher, he just missed him like crazy and he hopes he can find him at Eddie’s (their?) house for the foreseeable future. He smacks a loud, obnoxious kiss on Chris’ forehead while a grin threatens to split his face into two and then starts walking towards the house carrying both their bags, at least those that store the most important things. The rest they can get later, now he has to cook them a meal.
He has half a mind to make a video or take a photo or— or something. Anything, really, to show his followers that Eddie is back and that they were right. Oh fuck how right they were. But he can’t. He really can’t focus on his feelings now that Eddie is in his kitchen and is bickering lovingly with Chris about who deserves to be treated by Buck’s cooking first. He just smirks to himself. They don’t know that he’s been planning on making all of their favorites tonight, even if they’ll become leftovers, even if they can never eat everything tonight. How silly of them to think he would settle for one thing. He’d give them everything.
Things are great. Buck’s life has never been happier. He is sharing a bed with the love of his life, he knows that Eddie is the love of his life, and their lives entwine seamlessly once both he and Christopher settle back in the house.
They have dinner at Bobby’s to celebrate, and everything feels so fucking amazing that Buck is scared something horrible is going to happen soon. Maybe he should talk to a therapist about that. Anyway, the next thing that happens is the furthest thing from the catastrophe he is expecting.
It is the next best thing to Eddie asking him to be his husband, to be honest, as they live together already: Eddie gets to get back to work only five days after his return to L.A. and Buck is bouncing off walls in excitement.
Eddie’s comeback ends up being the next thing he posts about. He doesn’t want to share Eddie with his followers, he has read the comments begging to show Eddie but what he does has nothing to do with those requests. He doesn’t even think about it. He just feels the happiest he has ever been and he has to shout it to the whole world, so TikTok it is.
“Look, guys! This is my best friend who works with me! He’s back!” He shrieks while entering the locker room and filming Eddie’s face so up close that it ends up taking up his phone’s full frame.
“Buck!” Eddie’s confused frown deepens when Buck settles on the bench next to him and keeps filming.
“We work together and we are best friends,” Buck keeps explaining, now sounding more like a human and less like a crazy hyena (happy, but still crazy). “Isn’t that great?” He adds, turning the camera back on himself.
Eddie sighs offscreen even if this is making his heart burn with love because no one has ever been so excited to see him, to have him. “Oh, I’m sure.” He aims for sarcasm but endless fondness drips through his words.
That seems enough to turn the attention back on him so Buck is back in his space and face in a second. “Tell them what you do, Eds.”
Eddie honestly thinks Buck is acting like a dog that hasn’t seen his owner for too long but instead of finding it off-putting, he finds it weirdly endearing. So he rolls with it. “You just told them we work together, bud,” he cheekily reminds him, and a long groan from his friend seems to be the end of that conversation. At least Eddie thinks so, as he is soon left alone while Buck seems busy with his phone.
Buck hasn’t really thought his whole plan through, though. What he wanted to do was show everyone that Eddie is back and that he is happy with his firefighter best friend. What happened, instead, is that people have suddenly gone completely insane in his comments.
His eyes comically widen the more he reads them.
omg guys guys
okay now I get it, I rlly get it
EDDIEEEEEE
HIII EDDIEEEE
i would be obsessed with the guy too honestly!!
hello eddie we’re so happy to meet you
pls buck say hello to eddie
i’d be showing him off too if i had this husband
oh boy, what a man!!! WHAT A MAN
he’s so right guys, look at him
he’s so cute
you’re so cute together i cant
OH HEY EDDIE WE LIKE YOU
he calls him bud guys that’s so disgustingly adorable
i want what they have
guys we have to keep this one
Buck scoffs at the last comment. He’s the only one who gets to keep Eddie. Then he remembers that Eddie is not his to keep, is not his at all, and weakly sits down at the loft table, waiting for the bell to ring. But the bell doesn’t ring and he is bored, so bored that he wonders if he should drop the Q-word. Eventually he doesn’t, though, because Eddie plops into the chair next to him and they end up scrolling through his TikTok for you page, laughing at stupid videos and cute animals.
Buck’s life is great because he’s currently sharing a bed with Eddie, even if it has been kind of awkward at first (mainly because they are both aware of their own feelings and don’t think they are reciprocated), because they wake up together and go to bed together even if Buck has to pretend that he didn’t see Eddie fall asleep in front of the tv at least three times before they got to their bedroom, because they have breakfast together and cook it together and then go to work together and— okay, Buck’s life is perfect because Eddie is in it.
And because Eddie is so intrinsically part of his life, he becomes a regular guest of his TikTok videos, even if he doesn’t particularly enjoy it.
At first, he is indeed annoyed and feels like Buck is harassing him everywhere and at any time of the day, following him with his phone camera pointed at him. It’s just his perception, obviously, but he really turns out to be in every single video of Buck’s. And he is constantly rolling his eyes at him, or huffing, or reminding Buck that he has things to do, unlike him, or shoving things at him like pillows and dishrags or socks and t-shirts that he’s folding, eliciting amused comments every single time.
he doesn’t just love you he ADORES you, man
guys look at the heart eyes pls
id be so annoyed if i didnt love the guy
eddiE WE SEE YOU
buck youre so lucky
pls i want an eddie too :(
what’s eddie’s full name? for science
And Buck loves it, loves that he can basically show off his best friend, the best man he’s ever met, without it compromising his relationship with him.
One day, he’s doing a get ready with me video (something people have been asking for) and he’s gathering all the things he needs on the dresser of their bedroom and Eddie decides that is a good time to fold a couple of sweatpants that had been previously abandoned on a chair by the bed, and Buck just… lets him be.
Truthfully, while he sets his phone up to record himself and basks in Eddie’s presence, he can’t resist teasing him.
Eddie is sitting on the edge of the mattress, while he starts to style his curls and seems totally unbothered, so incredibly comfortable, at ease, that Buck would turn around and kiss him. “Oh, don’t mind him,” instead he says, “he’s just waiting for me.”
That gets Eddie’s head to snap up to meet his eyes. His left eyebrow is silently demanding some sort of explanation but his expression is still playful when, instead of waiting for Buck to elaborate, he talks.
“I’m not waiting for him,” he pointedly states, craning his neck at a funny angle to somehow fit into the frame, behind his best friend, and he puts up his faux attitude, his fakest petty voice. Buck loves him so much. “We’re just headed to the same place, Buck.”
Buck just laughs. It’s a full, happy belly laugh. And the comments he gets, when he doesn’t cut that back and forth are hilarious but also cute.
guys i love u two
youre adorable
hello eddieeee you liar
yeah same place my ass lmao he’s totally waiting for his husband
I wanna be loved exactly like eddie loves buck yall
Another day, he’s cooking at the firehouse again and Eddie is sitting on the counter beside him, talking animatedly with Ravi.
Buck doesn’t cut him out either. People get crazier.
omg they are literally married PLS
do we think they know they dont need to be attached to each other 24/7???
eddie being buck’s emotional support boyfriend is so funny and cute
ikr?? the man is literally a chef EDDIEEE WHAT U DOING MAN
the 118 surely got the hottest firefighters of LA…
YEAH!! that! we are blessed with the hot firefighter husbands
Buck almost chokes on the last one.
Then he’s at home, in their kitchen — a thrill travels down his spine every time he remembers that — and Eddie is in the way of the spice box so he just hip-checks him to reach the curry and forgets to cut that out (actually forgets, for once) and people love it. Which is admittedly weird, if Buck is honest.
do they live together guys?
omg they live together? OHHHH GOSH
guys tell us something pls ANYTHING
i don’t think eddie knows about this guys…
he doesn’t??? arent they married
Oh God. Things escalated so quickly. But he can’t make a video where he tells the world that they are not married. It would be weird. Like, super weird.
But he doesn’t think about that so much. He knows that people are searching hot married firefighters L.A. on TikTok because that somehow ends up being in his search bar every other day, but Eddie starts to participate in his story time videos and he is too excited to care.
He is too excited because one evening Eddie sneaks up on him while he is on the couch talking about some bizarre call, to add his own comment to whatever he’s rambling about. Some other time Eddie brings him his first turnout coat that Buck was looking for, to show in a video, and ends up staying in the frame while he recalls his journey with the LAFD, looking at him with a lovesick grin on his face. And in the end, Eddie doesn’t even realize that he is sharing Buck’s account even if he doesn’t do anything except talk and look at Buck talking.
So Buck is happy, he couldn’t be happier.
But sadly, it eventually comes to a point where he has to stop, or maybe tell Eddie that he suddenly decided to take a break from social media altogether and deleted his TikTok account.
He has to. Or he would risk their relationship.
People go too far. And it backfires on him.
who’s gonna tell THEM?
they are SO oblivious
EDDIE PLS JUST KISS HIM
eddie wants him to stfu but just to kiss him
he’s obsessed with buck
yeah but buck is even worse
they’re so perfect for each other guys :(
just get married already
Eddie wants to see the comments. Eddie wants to know exactly what people think of him. Because of course Buck couldn’t shut up and had to tell him that people compliment him all the time. Buck always ruins things for himself and now won’t be an exception.
“Come on, Buck!” He whines, playfully hitting the back of Buck’s head (it’s just a poor excuse to play with his curls — Eddie would probably admit it under torture, yeah…) until Buck has enough and grabs his wrist to still his movements.
They’re both sitting on Eddie’s old couch, Buck has his feet up on the coffee table while Eddie is sitting cross-legged next to him for some weird reason after Buck has asked him to come closer to watch something on his phone, and maybe Eddie should have moved away but instead he is pushing closer and closer into Buck’s side. Specifically, he is playfully repeatedly bumping his shoulder into his best friend’s now that Buck has grabbed his wrist. “Are you trying to give me a concussion?” Buck fakes indignation and Eddie laughs.
“I’m a medic, I would know the protocol,” he deadpans, still looking at him expectantly.
Buck only rolls his eyes.
“What are you hiding?” Then Eddie suspiciously murmurs, getting so dangerously close to Buck’s face, with Buck’s hand still meticulously holding his wrist between them.
Eddie loves this. He loves this easy banter, the way Buck’s cheeks flush so easily. God, he’s desperate to nibble on Buck’s— wait, why is Buck blushing?
“Oh God!” Eddie blurts out, a dangerous smirk appearing on his face. “Is it something sexual? Are you watching sexy videos on TikTok?”
Despite his words being completely playful, Buck abruptly perks up to look at him in utter bewilderment. “Are you insane? And— sexy videos? Who the hell says sexy videos— in fact, what are—”
Buck’s indignation is cut off by Eddie stealing the phone from his hand.
“No! Eddie!” Buck explodes, shimmying away from Eddie’s increasing weight on him. Eddie basically tackled him to the couch with his back, forcing him to lose his phone and whatever grip he could have had on Eddie’s hands. “Give it back, now! Eddie!”
His high-pitched voice is so funny that Eddie could as well do something crazy like abandoning the phone and kiss him senseless. “Nope!” He retorts, fleeing the couch in one swift move.
“Eddie, fucking give—” Buck follows him to the kitchen but by the time he has actually reached him, Eddie is already reading some comments on TikTok, scrolling intently, and he cannot really stop him.
Suddenly, he is petrified, with only the kitchen table separating them and he is hit with some kind of deja vu which hurts horribly. The last time they were in a similar position in this exact place, Eddie told him he would leave Los Angeles, would leave him.
“Please don’t leave again, I can—” he blurts out, hands almost shaking in front of him, open like his chest right now. He gulps, there’s suddenly a tennis ball-sized lump that prevents him from speaking and Eddie’s eyes widen almost comically (if only he didn’t feel his heart pounding wildly). “I can explain, okay?”
Eddie realizes that Buck is scared, actually, genuinely terrified and his first instinct is always to put himself between his best friend and any kind of pain, so he moves without even pondering his choices, and in a moment he is in Buck’s personal space, one hand squeezing Buck’s arm and the other one still holding the phone. “I’m not leaving you ever again, Buck.”
He says that with such a finality, so earnestly, so full of love that Buck has no other choice but to believe him. “You— you aren’t?” Buck almost shrieks. “But you— I— I know you read the comments and they—”
Buck is forced to shut up when Eddie’s hand goes up and up and up and… reaches his face. Eddie’s thumb brushes against his birthmark and Buck’s breath hitches violently. He has never felt so loved before in his life. “E— Eddie…” he only manages to whisper before Eddie kisses his forehead and he just about collapses right there into him.
His eyes water on their own accord, and close on their own accord. Taking a shuddering breath, he’s eventually forced to open them, though, and he finds Eddie smiling at him ever so softly, so gently.
And Eddie’s voice is even softer when he says, “I love you, bud.”
Buck whimpers. His lungs constrict and his heart starts galloping wildly; however, he’s never felt so calm at the same time. Then— “did you really just call me bud now? Are you serious?”
Then it happens. Eddie giggles again. And Buck thinks that he wants to feel that against his chest again, so he launches himself in his friend’s arms and buries his face in his neck.
“Sorry, baby,” Eddie teasingly murmurs in his curls, while the hand he had on Buck’s birthmark moves on the back of his neck to play with the hair there. Buck makes a noise that is half a sob, half a ridiculous mewl and tightens his hold on Eddie’s waist unconsciously.
“Eddie.”
“Yeah, Buck?”
“Have you read the comments?” Buck whines, playfully but still a bit worried, without leaving Eddie’s neck so he feels the other man chuckle before he is forced to pull away. “Hey, I—” he wants to complain but he can’t, because Eddie slots their lips together for a short, sweet second, before pulling away almost immediately.
“Eds—” Buck gasps in Eddie’s mouth but as soon as he takes in Eddie’s ragged breath and worried look, he decides to kiss him again, instead of further discussing.
His own breath is irregular and he is fairly sure that Eddie can feel his heart through the hand he has on his pulse point. His nose keeps bumping with Eddie’s and he keeps trying to get the best angle to properly kiss until he comes to terms with the fact that he is simply trying to fuse them together; that is the reason behind his struggle to find a more comfortable position. Buck wants to climb through Eddie’s mouth until he’s reached his heart and live there, forever. It would be home. That would be home.
When his legs threaten to give out because Eddie lets go of the phone and starts stroking the soft skin of his hips under the blue sweater he’s wearing, Buck knows that he has finally found it. He found his place, his peace.
And he doesn’t have a way to know, but Eddie’s fingertips feel like they’re on fire, Eddie’s stomach is tingling so much that he has to concentrate hard to not break the kiss and run to the bathroom to throw up. It’s the best thing that has ever happened to Eddie after his son’s birth.
Eddie wants to say so much, wants to scream that he loves Buck, that only death will keep them apart from now on, but words seem so belittling. Words do not bear the force of his love for Buck. He loves fiercely and with his whole heart, which is probably not even much (it is), but it’s all he’s got, and everything he’s going to give to Buck.
“I— I don’t know what to say—” Buck pants against his lips, an indefinite amount of minutes later. He squeezes his eyes shut before opening them and revealing an ocean-blue pool of unshed tears.
Eddie strokes under his eyes with a gentle finger, and he stops breathing. “You don’t have to say anything, Buck.”
Then he takes Buck’s head between his palms and kisses the side of his face, just once. Buck melts. He literally melts into a puddle. “I don’t… I love you so much that I don’t know how to say it,” eventually confesses, hoping that it makes sense to Eddie.
Eddie chuckles and softly caresses his cheek with the back of his fingers. “You just did, bud.”
“Stop calling me bud,” Buck groans.
“Hmm…” Eddie pretends to think about it, ducks his head, and looks ten years younger. Buck is desperate to kiss him and kiss him and kiss him. “Alright, babe.”
“Shut up,” Buck playfully hits his shoulder but Eddie takes advantage of that to take his hand and kiss his knuckles in the process.
“Is it too soon for a make me?”
“You’re ridiculous. The most—” Buck scolds him in faux annoyance, tapping his chest with his free hand, “ridiculous—” another tap, “man—” another tap, “ever.” But he seals that with a kiss, and slips in some tongue too while he’s at it. It’s the best day of his life.
“Do you think we should tell them?”
Buck is lying with his head on Eddie’s stomach, unable to stay still and ever so slightly tipping his head back hitting his boyfriend’s abdomen in the process, while Eddie is mindlessly playing with his hair.
“Tell who?” Eddie lazily wonders out loud.
“My followers?” Buck twists his head around, rubbing against Eddie and giving him his best cheeky, boyish smile.
Eddie snorts and lovingly pats his shoulder before simply settling his hand there. “Really?”
“Hey!” Buck finally gets up on an elbow to look him in the eye. “May I remind you,” he fakes a formal tone that makes Eddie embarrassingly happy, “that we are here thanks to their comments.”
“Nah, we’ve always been here.”
“Didn’t think you’d be such a sap,” Buck playfully hits him on the chest, before putting all of his weight on him to kiss him, to kiss the grin off of Eddie’s face.
Then Eddie pulls back and he’s worried, but that lasts for about five seconds before he understands.
Eddie starts reading the comments.
And God, is it embarrassing.
“Listen to this one,” Eddie clears his throat for show. “Eddie is so cute, I get it, Buck!”
Buck groans and hides between Eddie’s neck and the pillow. “Stop it.”
Eddie relentlessly goes on. “What a man!” He whistles. “Do you think they know?” He chuckles at this one. “Well, fair enough,” comments. “Will they figure it—”
Buck snatches the phone out of his hand. “Okay, enough,” he pouts. Then, settling against the headboard, he starts a video.
“Look, guys, Eddie has something—” he begins to say but Eddie grips his chin and drags him into a bruising kiss.
“Here,” he pants pulling away. “They’ll get it.”
Buck fumbles for a few seconds before realizing what actually happened and it takes him a few minutes to edit and post the video.
He captions it with “guess we figured it out, uh?” but then throws the phone on the nightstand and sits up, before straddling Eddie. He has a boyfriend to make out with, they’ll deal with TikTok later.
People go crazy, as predictable.
OMG OMG OMG GUYYSSSSS
OH GOD THEY DID IT
they are so adorable im gonna cry
FUCK THEY’RE SO BEAUTIFUL :(
so happy for you buck!!
EDDIEEEE MAN YOU DID IT CONGRATULATIONS
should we get them a name? like… idk, buddie?
buck you deserve to be this happy
ohhhh BUDDIE YEAH BUCK AND EDDIE
clearly the hottest husbands of the west coast and we get themmmm
buddie is too much for my heart aahhhh
they love each other SO MUCH IT’S PAINFUL TO WATCH