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Buck insists on having them all over a few weeks later, after everything has subsided. Harry is excited. Although he’d been happy to help Buck through his recovery, he respects that Buck feels like he needs to establish some normalcy. Plus, the guy cooks a mean chocolate chip cookie, and those are promised for dessert.
It’s nice to be considered part of the normalcy, Harry decides. They sit around the fire after dinner in a collection of indoor and outdoor chairs, just shooting the shit. Harry feels like he’s one of the grownups. He’s not just a kid who got dragged along and has to make nice with the adults. He’s their coworker. He’s their friend. He’s an equal.
Or, he is until love comes up. Sure, he dated a couple of girls in high school, but he doesn’t think he’s ever actually been in love. Everyone’s bringing up their failed relationships and bad dates, and May and Ravi are making puppy dog eyes at each other. Harry stops himself from bringing up the time Heather J. threw up mid-make-out in the 10th grade, as it seems especially juvenile. He decides to be a man about it. There are plenty of single adults. When Karen wraps up her story about the podiatrist, Harry chimes in, “Yeah, I’m pretty content being the last single guy on the 118.”
All at once, everyone has either frozen or started giving someone close to them a furtive glance. “Uhhh…” Buck says, pointing back and forth between himself and Eddie, seated inches away from him.
“Oh, I mean, I guess you guys aren’t married yet, but it still counts,” Harry insists, but the more he talks, the more he realizes he’s making some sort of faux pas. He glances around for some help. Maddie and Chimney are clutching each other’s hands tightly, Hen and Karen are looking pointedly at the floor, Buck and Eddie are staring at Harry, and May and Ravi look like they’re on the verge of exploding with laughter. Well, that’s suspicious. “What am I missing here?” Harry finally asks.
“Buck and I aren’t a couple, bud,” Eddie says gently.
“But!” Harry immediately looks to May, who has completely lost her shit in a fit of laughter. “You told me!”
---
Mom had told him he needed to stop working himself so hard for the auction because he was perfect just the way he was, so he went over to May’s for some “bonding time.” But mostly for her pull-up bar.
“Why are Buck and Eddie even doing the bachelor auction?” he groaned on his third set.
“Because they care about orphans?” May supplied, barely looking up from her laptop.
He decided it was time for a break and lowered himself back to the ground. “Yeah, but don’t they care if the other goes on dates?”
This time, May did look up. “Why would they care?”
“I don’t know, maybe they’re, like, open or something.” Harry watched as something flickered in May’s eyes. Maybe that should have been his first sign, but he ignored it.
She shrugged. “There are plenty of guys who do it even though they’re dating someone. It’s for charity.”
“I guessssss,” Harry conceded. “It’s just annoying. Leave something for the actual single guys, like me and Ravi!”
“Ravi’s single?”
---
“I just never corrected you,” May says, and Harry suddenly wishes she had gone to law school so she had a different outlet for her lawyerly bullshit.
Harry shifts his gaze over to Ravi, who is also unsuccessful in holding in his laughter. “Wait, did she get you in on this?” he demands.
In lieu of an answer, Ravi looks at May, and they laugh again.
---
They were on shift when they finally got the news that Buck had been found. It was as if the entire firehouse exhaled simultaneously, until Chimney told them about that crazy lady who had taken Buck.
For all his work on it, Harry was suddenly a kid again. It felt like the walls were caving in on him. Like the trunk of a car, or a sealed wall. “I gotta get some air,” he mustered up the nerve to mumble, and he ran outside.
He started with his box breathing. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. And hold-2-3-4… He felt his heart rate slow and started noticing things for good measure. A tree. A red car. A barking dog. Ravi.
“Hey, man, you good?” Ravi said, placing a tentative hand on Harry’s back. Still catching his breath, Harry nodded. “I wasn’t around for it, but I heard about what happened when you were a kid. And man, I get it. The shit that goes down when you’re that young, it never really goes away.”
Harry took in another deep breath. “Thanks,” he said.
“Buck’s a tough guy,” Ravi continued. “And he has Eddie. Who it sounds like went to hell and back to save him.”
“They’re really good together,” Harry said, the idea of them being reunited acting as a small comfort.
Ravi studied him carefully, opening his mouth to say something then seemingly deciding against it. When he opened his mouth again, it was to say, “Yeah, they are.”
---
“I just never corrected you?” Ravi tries to echo, but Harry glares at him.
“We were having a nice moment!”
“Yeah,” Ravi admits apologetically. “But I promised your sister I would keep it up. And I would never break a promise to your sister.”
“Aw,” May coos as she slots her hand into Ravi’s. Harry responds by making retching noises. So much for acting like one of the adults.
“Was anyone else in on this?” Harry asks around the circle. Everyone shakes their heads, though it doesn’t feel entirely true.
Harry realizes that Buck hasn’t looked away from him since this revelation. “Harry, why did you even think we were together in the first place?” he demands.
Harry shrugs. “Just seemed that way.”
---
With the Bachelor off season, they opted for a Love is Blind binge during Harry’s turn to watch over Buck.
Harry had been rooting for Chris and Jessica, before Chris revealed himself to be a full monster, so he latched onto Vic and Christine instead. They seemed like a safer bet.
“They’re good together,” he told Buck. “It just seems like they like talking to each other. Some of these couples seem like they barely like spending time with each other.”
“I think that’s how it should be,” Buck said. “Your person should really be your best friend. Someone who you want to be with, no matter how tough it gets.”
Harry nodded, sympathetically, thinking back to all the trouble Buck and Eddie has been through over the past few years. Even when he was a kid, he saw how much stronger they were together. When he had arrived earlier that day to reprieve Eddie, he had practically had to fight him away from the couch. He only agreed to leave when Buck reminded him Chris was waiting.
It was nice to know that through it all, Buck had found his person.
---
Buck gives him a closed-mouth smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “That’s sweet, but it just wouldn’t work.”
Harry looks over to Eddie, who also looks resigned. It’s weird, he thinks. This is how it should be - why can’t they see that? “Why wouldn’t it work?”
They answer simultaneously:
“Eddie’s straight.”
“Buck’s not interested.”
Buck turns sharply, his intense gaze now fixed on Eddie. “Eddie, why would it matter? You’re straight.”
“Eh,” Eddie creaks, before adjusting his gaze to meet Buck’s. They stare at each other for some very long seconds, filled with Maddie and Chimney’s grips becoming even tighter on each other, Hen and Karen giving each other a shocked look, and Ravi rolling his eyes at May.
Maddie breaks the silence. “As much as I’d love to watch you two finally get your shit together, maybe you two should bring this inside?”
“Yeah,” they say in unison, barely breaking eye contact as they stumble back into Buck’s house.
Once the back door clicks shut, the party continues in an uproar of “Finally!” and “Took them long enough!” Hen reaches over and takes Harry’s hand. “Thank you,” she says with the gravitas of a soldier being saved from battle. Which judging by everyone else’s reactions, might not have been that far off.
A few minutes later, Buck and Eddie finally emerge, hand in hand. The cacophony drops and they stare expectantly.
Eddie clears his throat, a bruise starting to bloom on his neck. “So, Harry. Guess it’s a good thing you’re content being the last single guy on the 118.”