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Buck hears his front door open just as he’s about done washing the pitcher he used to serve the Stitch ‘n Bitch crew lemonade.
“Pizza delivery!” hollers a very familiar voice.
He places the pitcher on the drying rack and wipes his hands off, turning to take the few steps to his living room. He finds Eddie sitting on one couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table next to a six-pack, eating a slice of pepperoni and pineapple right out of the box. Buck crosses his arms and leans against the doorway. “I don’t think the pizza delivery person usually pulls a B-and-E or eats any of the food they’re delivering.”
Eddie levels Buck with a judgemental look. “Well it’s not exactly ‘breaking’ if the front door is unlocked, is it?”
Buck rolls his eyes and smiles as he grabs a beer and sits down next to Eddie, dragging the pizza box over to balance across both of their laps and taking a slice for himself. “Abigail squared away?”
“Yeah,” Eddie nods, “with the money we collected, a paper map, and some snacks. I think she’ll end up okay, all things considered,” he finishes with a shrug of his shoulders.
“You know she probably tossed the map in the backseat as soon as she got in the car, right?”
“It’s the principle of the matter, Buck.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Do you know how to read a real map?”
“I was in the army,” Eddie replies with a scoff.
Buck squints at him and says, “I don’t think that actually answers my question.”
Eddie waves a hand through the air in a moving on gesture. “How was your six-way date? Sextuple date?”
Buck titters. “Sextuple,” he says, and raises his bottle in cheers.
Eddie shakes his head, his cheeks chipmunked full of pizza, but still indulges Buck by clinking their beers together.
“It was a lovely evening. They showed me how to knit, I listened to them bitch about Wendy from their bingo night—I personally think she should be allowed to dot her cards with all the colors if that’s what makes her happy, but I didn’t tell them that—and they were all out the door by seven. Just be aware you might be getting a scarf for a future birthday or Christmas present, so be mindful if you happen to go shopping for winter apparel.”
“If I happen to need a scarf I will defer to you,” Eddie says with a fond smile, but it quickly turns into a smirk. “Are you going to see them again?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows. “They are your type.”
Buck laughs incredulously. “They’re old enough to be my parents!”
Eddie snorts. “Exactly. So was Abby.”
“Abby was only—”
“I know you have gaps in your pop culture references but even you would’ve heard about 16 and Pregnant even if neither of us were the target demographic.”
Sighing, Buck leans forward to place the now half-empty box of pizza on the clear side of the coffee table. “You can rest assured I will not be entering a polycule with five senior citizens, even if they were a very kind and educational bunch.”
“I don’t know what that word means,” Eddie says with a furrowed brow.
Buck presses his lips into a flat line before saying, “I don’t think you need to, Eds.”
Eddie narrows his eyes. “I don’t think you’re being mean to me, but I don’t think you’re being nice... Either way, I’m going to let that go.”
Buck gives him a deliberate nod. “That’s probably a safe bet.” He feels Eddie stiffen beside him, but he has no idea what could have caused it. It’s something that’s happened every once in a while ever since Eddie and Chris came back from El Paso—random little actions that Buck can’t decipher anymore when he used to have every aspect of Eddie memorized. Right now he could choose to diffuse the sudden tension by changing the subject completely, or—“Why’d you have Maddie bid on you at the auction?”—detonate it.
Eddie takes his feet off of the table and turns a little more towards Buck, causing their knees to knock together. “What, you think I would’ve had better luck asking Chimney—who volun-told us all to join that circus—or Athena?”
“May could’ve done it,” Buck says with a slight shrug of a shoulder.
“‘Could have’ and ‘would have’ are two very different statements. You heard what she said when I asked if I could just write a check.”
“Yet you still ended up donating an amount with a comma in it?”
Eddie gets a far-away look in his eyes before he shakes his head and says, “It was–it was for the orphans, man.”
And Buck knows there’s more to it than that, but he can still see the rigidity in Eddie’s shoulders so he decides to try and lighten the mood. “So where are you going to take Maddie out?”
Hesitating, Eddie says, “I wasn’t planning on taking her anywhere. I Venmoed her the money and figured that was that.”
“What, is she not good enough to spend an evening with?” Buck asks with mock indignation.
“You want me to take your married—to our captain, might I add—sister out?”
“Well, she is kinda your type.”
Eddie arches an eyebrow. “And what type is that?”
Buck shifts to face Eddie head-on. “Brown hair, brown eyes, easy excuse to keep from committing.”
“I could have committed to Ana,” Eddie says, voice full of petulance.
“Could you? I think I recall a hospital visit that said otherwise.”
“Okay, wise guy. What about Marisol?”
“As I would like to remain your best friend, I’m not going to touch that situation with a ten-foot pole.”
Eddie huffs out a laugh. “Oh, now he shows some leniency.”
Buck shrugs and tilts his head, tapping Eddie’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “Then if that isn’t your type, what is? Since you didn’t want to connect with anyone when we went to that club and you apparently couldn’t risk going on one date with a stranger. What would it take?”
Eddie looks at Buck for a prolonged moment, eyes big and searching, before slowly saying, “Shannon was my best friend.”
Slowly, as if he needed Buck to hear the implication behind the words, as if Buck hadn’t just called himself Eddie’s best friend a minute earlier.
Slowly, as if it wasn’t going to steal the breath from Buck’s lungs.
Slowly, as if he didn’t just pull Buck’s unknowingly blurry world into focus, making him see clearly for the first time in years.
Throat tight, Buck still manages to say, “Now I’m your best friend.”
Nodding, voice soft, Eddie says, “Yeah, you are.” Before Buck has a chance to say anything in response, Eddie brings a hand up and just barely places his fingertips on the side of Buck’s neck, thumb hovering by the hinge of his jaw. “I’ve been talking to Hen since you moved out about why my emotions didn’t feel like they fit inside my body anymore, about what it meant that I missed you like a limb even though we still saw each other all the time yet it was somehow worse than it was when we were states apart. About realizing I had been just as scared when I saw you hanging from the truck’s ladder as I was when I was in the back of an ambulance with my dying wife.” He chuckles mirthlessly and scrubs his face with his free hand before sighing. “Eventually she very kindly explained demisexuality to me and it was like my skin suddenly felt settled for the first time in months—years, maybe. It felt good, understanding why things had shifted without anything really changing. But it was still scary, you know? It was safe before, not knowing, not risking what we have to ask for more.” Eddie moves his hand up to fully cup Buck’s face, thumb gently rubbing his cheekbone. “I don’t want to play it safe anymore, Buck.”
Buck immediately shakes his head, the most sure he’s ever been in his life when he says, “If you’re an option, I’m in love with you. That’s–that’s the safest bet there is.”
Red-rimmed eyes meet Buck’s as Eddie wondrously says, “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
They lean forward in sync, lips joining like magnets whose poles finally align in just the right way causing them to snap together in a collision course. It’s forceful, but so tender as Eddie’s hands hold his face like he’s something precious. Tender, but fervid in the way Buck grips at Eddie’s waist like they’ll float apart if he lets go.
When they do separate, Eddie leans his forehead against Buck’s, briefly kissing him once more before saying, “I’m so in love with you. I’ve been in love with you for such a long time that it was just a natural facet of life. I’m sorry it took me so long to get with the program.”
Buck gives him a quick kiss in return. “Nothing to be sorry for. I didn’t even know there was a program to get to.” He pulls Eddie into a proper hug. “Thank you for being brave and telling me you’re demi. I’m so proud of you, Eddie.” He leans back and presses his lips to Eddie’s forehead and then moves to place another featherlight kiss to the bruise lingering under Eddie’s eye. Buck gets up after that, collecting the pizza box and unopened beers to put away in the fridge. Eddie rests against the back of the couch with an adoring smile on his face looking lighter than Buck has ever seen him.
After a moment Eddie follows him into the kitchen and leans against the counter. With a sparkle in his eye he asks, “Think you’ll ever beat your auction record again?”
Buck pretends to think, walking over to Eddie and humming before he says, “I wasn’t planning on being a bachelor come time for the next one.”
“No?”
“No.” He places his hands on the counter on either side of Eddie, boxing him in. “I think I’d much rather be a husband.”
Eddie beams, sharp canines drawing Buck’s line of sight. “Then I’d wager you probably will be by then.”
“A safe bet,” Buck winks as he smiles back at him.
Their lips find each other again, slower and more gentle than before as they both settle into the idea that tonight was the last first kiss they’d ever have. Buck begins mouthing down Eddie’s jaw and neck, not meaning to start anything—just eager to discover the taste of Eddie’s skin.
“Hey, Buck?” Eddie asks breathily as Buck works to leave a mark over his pulse point.
“Hm?” he questions as he continues his task.
“It’d be another safe bet if you’d take me to bed right now.”
Buck quickly pulls back, his grinning mouth parting in amazement at Eddie’s cheeky audacity. With that he leans down to get his hands under Eddie’s thighs. He hauls him upwards, legs automatically moving to wrap around Buck’s middle, and he carries Eddie across the house to his bedroom.
They’re both winners in the end.