Chapter Text
It wasn’t as much of an announcement as much as just letting it out in the open.
There hadn’t really been any kind of discussion on how they were going to announce the news, so Buck let Eddie lead the way. He was the one who wasn’t out to the team yet, and he wanted him to reveal his bisexuality in a way that was comfortable for him, and in a way that he could back out at the last second if he decided that he wasn’t ready after all. As much as they’d left visible marks on the other’s skin, Buck had wanted some kind of back-up plan in place just in case, and slipped out early, raiding the nearest open drugstore for various types of foundation and concealer that could work as cover-up. He’d also asked Eddie in the car twice—once just after they’d left the house, and again before they’d got out of it—whether he was really ready, and offered the make-up for him to use with a promise that he wouldn’t be mad.
And Eddie had kissed him, shoved the products back into the little white paper bag, and locked it in the deepest part of the glove compartment. Then, without a trace of apprehension, he’d climbed out of the car, walked around until he was at Buck’s door, and led him out of the vehicle like Cinderella stepping out of the pumpkin carriage, even going as far as to lay a chaste kiss the back of his knuckles as he’d taken his hand in his own.
And that was how they ended up walking into the firehouse the next day; their bags slung over their shoulders, stepping in time with one another, and fingers playfully linked between them in the ever-bright Los Angeles sunshine.
They passed Hen first, slowing down to wave at her, and Buck had to smother a giggle as in the middle of checking the supplies in the ambulance, she froze halfway through lining up the bottles of Narcan and the syringes in the med kit bags and narrowed her eyes at them. She might have mumbled something under her breath, but by the time he’d picked up on it, he and Eddie were already almost at the stairs.
Chim was next, his eyebrows almost comically high on his forehead as he poured himself coffee. To say it was a surprise to him too might have been an understatement; Chim continued to blindly pour the coffee even as the cup overflowed, swearing loudly as it flooded over the lip and started rapidly rushing over the edge of marble countertop and onto the floor and his own feet.
When they reached Bobby, he didn’t react all that much. He simply looked up from his notes on what to make for dinner, momentarily distracting him from the list of organic, pesticide-free, farm-fresh vegetables that he would need for the meal he’d be leaving simmering all afternoon, and his lips quirked up at the corners as he caught sight of their joined hands. Other than that, he was completely unfazed.
Evidently Eddie’s conversation had prepared him well.
‘Morning, boys.’ The greeting was accompanied by a little nod.
‘Mornin’ Bobby.’
‘A congratulations and these are in order.’ Reaching into his lap, Bobby suddenly lifted and slammed a pile of papers in front of both of them, the red-and-black enamel-coated bulldog clips scuffing over the wood of the firehouse dinner table with an audible scraping sound. ‘I’ve already filled in your names on both. You just need to read everything, tick a few boxes, and sign and date the bottom of the red-tabbed pages.’
‘You’re prepared. How long have you had those ready? Two weeks?’ Eddie gestured to stacks.
‘Your second day on the job.’
Buck’s grin fell away, mouth agape. That had been over a year ago. Almost two years. He’d still thought he and Abby were a couple and possible and were going to end up together eventually when Eddie had arrived at the station. He’d still been in the middle of a proverbial pissing contest with him at that time, the implication he’d been having an admittedly one-sided dick-measuring contest on his part verbally expressed by Eddie himself when they’d been dealing with the guy with a bomb embedded in his leg.
Now that he thought back on it, even that incident had felt a little sexually charged; an explosive device ready to go off at any moment, both of them sweating from the pressure and smiling at each other and feeling a hot shivering thrill as they’d dropped the live round into the box. Eddie and Buck had moved the patient to a new ambulance, had told each other that they could have each other’s backs…
And then the bomb had gone off behind them, taking the whole damn ambulance with it.
He didn’t care what Eddie said about curses and omens and jinxes. That day and that explosion was, as of that moment, forever marked down in his head as an omen for the beginning of his and Eddie’s current state of relationship exploding into what it was now.
Oblivious to Buck’s train of thought, Eddie shook and tilted his head at Bobby, smile still there but brow furrowed. ‘Uh, my second day, Cap?’
‘Buck can sometimes hide his feelings, but not well. That’s especially true when it comes to you. I know the whole firehouse was staring at your abs, but Buck was the only one who felt like you were competition.’
‘Okay…but that still doesn’t explain anything.’
‘Buck can either get soft on someone he likes, or he can get competitive. In your case, he ended up doing both. That’s how I knew it was bad on his end. And you? When I interviewed you, you mentioned family, but you didn’t mention Christopher, or get out any photos or say much more than something about someone you were taking care of having medical conditions. With Buck, you were already showing him pictures and talking about your son with him like you already trusted him within the first week on the job.’ Bobby didn’t even look up from the notes, flipped over the pages in his hand as they both gaped.
Hen walked up the stairs, lips pursed and one finger on her right hand shaking slightly between them. ‘Okay. I got Bobby and Athena, because they were pissed off and happy at the same times, but someone turned over two pages at once here. Buck, I know you’re bi. But Eddie too? When I said that thing about you two, I was kidding.’
Chim paused in wiping up the spilled coffee, chucking the drenched dishcloth into the sink and grabbing a clean one. ‘Buck, it’s the first time there’s been a three-month stretch of time where Maddie hasn’t had to try and talk you down from a ledge because someone broke your heart again. Eddie, man, you’re more relaxed than I’ve seen you in months, you’re having less nightmares when you’re in the bunks between calls, and don’t look as dead on your feet. For once, I kind of figured it out. But I didn’t expect this. I thought you guys were just having sex and blowing off steam.’
Buck blushed, and Eddie rubbed the back of his own neck, lip quirking. ‘Uh, not quite.’
‘You’re not sleeping together?’ Chim frowned.
‘No, we are.’ Buck turned, finally let go of Eddie’s hand to head to what remained of the coffee. ‘Just, uh, that was only a recent addition to our relationship.’
‘How recent?’ Hen blurted out.
Bobby shot her a look. ‘Hen.’
‘Sorry, sorry. They don’t have to answer that. But I still want to know how long I’ve been missing out on bisexual Eddie, Bobby! That takes the known LGBTQ+ count of this firehouse up to three.’
‘Four,’ Bobby corrected. ‘Valerie Marquez on the other shift is asexual.’
Buck pointed back at Hen, triumph written on his face. ‘Ha. Told you that you needed to change your test.’
‘She’s leaving in a week, though, so it’ll be back down to three soon,’ Chim corrected.
Hen rolled her eyes, pushing her glasses up her nose with her thumb before glancing between him and Eddie, looking for an answer without asking for a second time. Buck bit his lip, lips turning up at the corners affectionately, and Eddie squeezed his hand, the touch warm and comforting and accompanied by his own smile.
That seemed to be enough to give her the answer she was searching for. She dropped her pointing hand, and her own lips curved up. ‘Oh. Oh, you two are so gone on each other…how the hell did I miss this?’
‘Don’t feel bad, Hen. You’re a married lady. Your gaydar doesn’t have to work as hard these days.’ Chim mopped up the last of the coffee, then started pouring fresh grounds into the coffee maker. ‘You really never heard Maddie refer to Eddie as “Buck’s little boy-crush” though?’
‘That’s not fair on her, Chim. Even Athena calls him “Buck’s little boy-crush”,’ Bobby chimed in, the smile on his face morphing into an even wider grin.
Still smiling, Hen swept a hand across her forehead, pressing the heel of her palm against her temple. ‘I’m going for a quick lie-down before we eat. If anyone wants me, I’ll be on the couch. This is a lot to take in in the first hour on-shift.’
Buck slung his bag onto one of the chairs and took his share of the paperwork. ‘If anyone wants me, I’ll be at the table over there, having my single regret about getting into a relationship with someone else employed at this firehouse.’
Eddie rolled his eyes, pecking him on the cheek and grabbed his own. ‘Likewise. Seriously, Bobby, there’s got to be like two-hundred pages here. There’s got to be a way to condense that down.’
‘I’ll look into it. But in the meantime, you fill those in, and listen to these three ground rules. No sex in the firehouse. No sex in the ambulance. No sex in the firetruck.’ At that last one, Bobby shot him a look and Buck responded with a sheepish smile and a nod.
‘Copy that, Cap.’
After returning the stacks of papers to Bobby and helping themselves to coffee and food, they started their shift slow by being interrogated over a team game of Pool. Him and Eddie versus Chim and Hen.
Chim failed to pot another ball then sank back on one of the high seats next to Hen. ‘Can’t remember if I said it, but congratulations on getting your own Buckley, Eddie. Best decision I ever made. You and Buck are as disgustingly cute as me and Maddie.’
Buck grinned fondly. ‘Aw, thanks Chim. But that’s not going to stop us making out in front of you two. I had to put up with it, so now you have to.’
‘Damn. Saw through that so fast.’
Hen took the cue from Chim, shaking her head as she watched Eddie step up to the table. ‘I still can’t figure out how the hell I missed you two. It’s so obvious.’
‘I still can’t believe Chim figured it out before you did. Or at all.’ Eddie leaned over, aiming his own cue, and Buck let his gaze wander down to the curve of his buttocks.
Hen’s finger shot out, pointing between Buck’s eyes and Eddie’s buttocks. ‘THAT. I should have picked up on that. The damn heart eyes and the staring at each other’s asses. My gaydar is so broken, guys. Where did all go wrong?’ The last part came out as a whine, and she buried her face in the medical textbook in front of her, frustratedly tapping the side of the cue against the table.
Eddie leaned back up and turned, and Buck knew he’d seen his eyes dart back up from where they’d been resting. Eddie smirked and kissed the corner of his mouth, then leaned past him to give Hen’s arm a little tug. ‘Come on, your turn. To be fair, I didn’t exactly advertise my sexuality. It’s a very recent addition to my life.’
Chim’s brow quirked. ‘Am I hearing things wrong or does Eddie think he chose bisexuality?’
Buck snorted loudly, taking the cue from Eddie and watching Hen accidentally pot the cue ball. He took her place at the table, setting the cue ball back down and taking his shot. Out of the corner of his eye, he could feel Eddie’s gaze on his profile, see in his peripheral vision the soft smile. God he loved that smile.
Eddie tilted his head a few times, waving a hand in the air in front of him, gesturing vaguely at nothing and everything. ‘I realised that all the weird feelings I had for men in my past were actually me having feelings for them. So, after having the classic gay panic—’
‘Been there,’ Hen chimed.
‘—I decided that instead of fight my feelings, I’d just accept a part of myself for once, and let myself feel what I should have been all this time. I’m bisexual, and I’m very, very attracted to Buck.’
‘So, you got a type besides tall, blond, and muscular? You ever found yourself looking at my handsome Korean-American short drink of water of a best friend? Maybe our very own Captain Bobby Nash?’ Hen wiggled her eyebrows up and down playfully, and Buck couldn’t resist the opportunity.
‘He’s got a thing for men in kilts and the guys in various firefighter drama TV shows.’ Buck passed the cue over to him, ignoring the indignant swipe at his arm as a flush filled Eddie’s cheeks.
Bobby raised his head, attention suddenly snapping from the vegetables he’d been chopping to the four of them. ‘Kilts?’
‘Eddie’s got a crush on Jamie from Outlander. He and Abuela watch it and gush over their men.’
Another swipe at his arm, and a sigh of exasperation fell from Eddie’s lips. ‘Traitor.’
Chim took the cue back from Hen, grinning widely at Eddie as he passed him to round the table. ‘Oh wait until Maddie hears this. You’re gonna be walking into the apartment to bagpipe music, haggis, and tartan blankets for the next month.’
‘Not a kilt thing! It’s a Jamie Fraser thing. Until you have seen the man shirtless in the Scottish Highlands, you’re not allowed to judge my choice in fictional men.’
‘Yeah, you’ll be saying that right up until Buck decides to try wearing one with nothing underneath to see what you do to him in bed.’ Hen’s stresses over her gaydar had seemingly vanished; she wanted in on the teasing and over-sharing now. ‘I once let slip to Karen that I really liked emerald green on her. She passed me a bunch of laundry to put away the next day, and I opened her top drawer, and she had an emerald green negligee with matching underwear ready and waiting. It was a very good night.’
Eddie frowned. ‘Not that I don’t appreciate my friends having good sex lives in fancy underwear, but I think we just slipped too far into not-safe-for-work territory.’
‘Dildos.’
With that one word, everyone turned to look at Chim. Buck’s mouth hung open, anything he could have said back dying on his tongue. Eddie’s opened and closed in bewilderment, head shaking. Hen simply stared, her eyes seeming even bigger behind the magnifying effect of her glasses. Even Bobby had stopped dead in the act of picking up the handful of chopped onions off of his chopping board to look in their direction, lips turned up at the corners, unsure of what to follow that with.
Chim shrugged, pushing the cue he’d been using back into Hen’s limp hand and crossing his arms. ‘Now it’s definitely too not-safe-for-work.’
That was the moment that the bell rang for the first time that day.
Fighting a grin, Bobby wiped off his hands with a damp cloth, then started corralling them towards the stairs and the truck. ‘Let’s get out of here before we hear anything else Chim has to say.’