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Eddie is already smiling when he answers the incoming call from Buck.
“Hey,” he says, fully aware that even in that one syllable he’s not doing a good job of sounding like someone not in love with his best friend, even though he is fully expecting Buck to simply tell him he left something at his house, or to pick up their ridiculous argument about ice cream toppings with another point, or—
“What are you doing right now?” Buck asks breathlessly.
Eddie raises his eyebrows, knowing that even if he can’t see him, the message will come across in his tone anyway. “You were just here like, fifteen minutes ago. I’m still on the couch.”
“You should come over,” Buck says, and Eddie’s stomach does some embarrassing circus tricks. You should’ve stayed, he wants to say, but before he can say that or any of the other sappy things on the tip of his tongue, Buck continues.
“You and Christopher,” he clarifies, and Eddie would feel bad for feeling slightly disappointed if Chris hadn’t sat him down the other week and practically begged Eddie to stop using him as a buffer around Buck.
“Why?”
“Do you trust me?” Buck asks, which is just about the most ridiculous thing he has ever asked.
“Yes,” Eddie answers simply, knowing that it’s not enough, that it doesn’t quite explain how much he trusts Buck, but also, well, trusting Buck to know just how deeply he means it.
“Then come over. I have something to show you two.”
He refuses to say anything more, and, well, Eddie doesn’t need a good excuse to go see him again, even if they’ve spent the whole day and most of the evening together.
Christopher doesn’t take much convincing. He gives Eddie a strange look, asks three times if this is a date that he’s third wheeling, then starts throwing a few things in a backpack.
Buck is waiting for them on the porch when they arrive and practically bouncing in place when they get out, which is honestly adorable, and Eddie’s face must show he thinks as much if Christopher’s muttering is anything to go by.
Eddie doesn’t hate Buck’s house. He doesn’t, honestly. He hated the loft, he will admit that, but now Buck has a great house, and while Eddie used to hate Buck leaving the Diaz home to go to his loft, now when he leaves to go to his house, Eddie feels like he has something stuck in his throat. He’s always left with a strange feeling that he’s too late, he should’ve made his move before Buck moved out and now he will have to watch Buck leave and go back home over and over until one day, Buck will stop coming over.
“Hey!” Buck greets enthusiastically as if it has been weeks since they’ve seen each other and not forty minutes, effectively dragging Eddie out of his thoughts.
“This better be good,” Christopher says, but he doesn’t sound put out to be here at all.
“It’s just in the backyard,” Buck says, which confuses Eddie further, but they follow him through the house and out the back door.
Everything becomes pretty clear once he sees the setup there. He has two of his outdoor lounge chairs out, both complete with a blanket, a third blanket spread on the grass between them and, off to the side, Buck has a very official-looking telescope set up, pointing to the sky.
“Stargazing!” Buck announces unnecessarily, looking very proud of his work.
“What is all this?” Eddie asks. “When did you get a telescope?”
“Oh, years ago. Remember Christopher’s astronomy phase in sixth grade? We never had a chance to set it up, I honestly forgot about it until I moved here and Maddie said I had to stop storing everything in her garage. I’ve been waiting for the perfect night to set it up, and here we are!”
“You…” Eddie frowns, mind racing. “Wait, you got this for Chris?”
“Of course I did. I’m just sorry that we never got the chance to use it before,” Buck says. “Better late than never, right?”
Eddie stares at him. Better late than never. The words strike an unexpected chord and Buck is staring back at him expectantly, but before Eddie can find his voice, Christopher is asking to take a look. It’s a testament to how excited he is that he isn’t complaining about having forgotten his swim trunks, not even sparing the moving water in the hot tub a glance.
Buck waves them over to the telescope, hands on Christopher’s shoulders to help him maintain his balance on his crutches as he looks, then he gasps, talking to Buck about something. Eddie watches the two of them talk about whatever they’re looking at in the sky, content to just observe for a few minutes until Christopher says, “Dad, you have to see this!”
Eddie takes his place and Buck is still there, offering a hand on the small of his back. Eddie tries not to shiver and he valiantly drags his attention away from the hand and to the view of Saturn through the lens. He blinks at it for a few moments, speechless, before he finally says, “Oh. I can see the rings.”
Buck and Christopher are clearly very excited about this as well, and after they all take a few more turns looking, they go over to the chairs, Buck insisting the two of them take a seat in the lounge chairs. Chris doesn’t need any convincing to stretch out on his back comfortably, adjusting the cushion under his head as he looks up at the sky.
“I accidentally spilled my water all over the third one, but that’s okay, I’m more than fine sitting on the ground,” Buck explains when Eddie looks around, certain that Buck had another chair.
“So am I,” Eddie says, and before Buck can protest, he’s plopping down on the blanket, patting the space next to him.
Buck beams and sits down next to him, pressing closely to his side right away and leaning back on his hands to look at the sky.
“Alright, Galileo Junior, remember how to find Polaris?” Buck asks.
“Find Ursa Major,” Christopher says immediately. “Then follow the two stars until…there!”
“Nice!” Buck cheers.
“Where?” Eddie asks.
Buck takes the arm pressed against Eddie and gently rests his hand on the back of his neck as he lifts the other arm to point.
“There…we call that the Big Dipper, you see the two on the end right there? Follow them, like a line, and it points right to the North Star.”
He’s moving his hand and pointing, but Eddie can’t really focus, not with how close they are, not with Buck’s hand on his neck like this and his voice low in his ear.
“Oh, cool,” Eddie says once he realizes Buck is waiting for a response.
Buck chuckles. “Here, I have an idea.” He shuffles away from Eddie’s side and Eddie only has a second to mourn the loss before Buck is lying down on the blanket. “Mirror me.”
Eddie does so, stretching his legs out in the opposite direction of Buck’s, and he hesitates, but then Buck shuffles closer.
Their cheeks aren’t quite pressed together, but if he titled his head just slightly, they would be. He swears he can feel the ghost of Buck’s stubble when Buck smiles.
“Is this better?” Buck asks, raising his right arm to point at the sky.
It is not better. This feels so much more intimate. Eddie isn’t sure if he’s breathing.
“Great,” he says instead.
Buck slowly repeats the instructions for finding the star, and Eddie is able to focus enough to actually follow along this time.
“I see it!” he says, surprised.
“Great! Chris, buddy, help me find Orion now.”
They continue like that, Buck and Chris giving each other constellations (and asterisms, Eddie learns) and Buck patiently explaining them to Eddie to help him find them. The longer they look, the more stars he can see. It’s nothing compared to the stars he would find in Texas after driving out to the middle of nowhere, but it’s the most he has seen in Los Angeles.
It’s also the most fun he has ever had doing it, listening to his son and his best friend explain everything to him and take turns telling him the stories about the figures in the sky.
“Next time, I’ll make sure I have the stuff for s’mores,” Buck tells them after they’ve been watching the sky in silence for a few minutes.
“Next time I’ll remember to bring my swim trunks for the hot tub,” Chris says.
Next time. Because it’s a given that they will do this again, that they’ll have moments like this in the future, over and over again. The thought makes him smile, and he closes his eyes, content to listen to the voices of the two people he cares about most as they continue talking.
His eyes open when he hears the glass door sliding open then shut. He blinks at the night sky, feeling disoriented for a moment in the silence left with no chatting voices and no soothing background noise of the hot tub jets. It takes him a moment to realize where he’s at and process the fact that he fell asleep while stargazing.
He slowly sits up, stretching, and hears Buck chuckle.
“I was just coming to wake you up,” he says.
“Didn’t mean to fall asleep.” Eddie yawns.
“Of course not, old man,” Buck says.
“Hey,” he protests weakly, even as he stretches his sore back. “How long was I out?”
“Only twenty minutes or so.”
“Chris?”
“Made a good argument for letting you guys stay the night,” Buck says hesitatingly. “He’s brushing his teeth now, but if you want to take him back home, no problem, I just figured you were tired and might want to crash here.”
“That sounds great, thanks,” he says, then frowns. “Did he bring his toothbrush?”
“He’s using the one I got for him the first time he stayed over,” Buck explains. “I’ve just been hanging onto it for him since.”
“Careful, he’s going to start taking over the guest room as his own at this rate,” Eddie points out.
“That wouldn’t be so bad,” Buck says quietly. “I mean, he’s already over so often.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Eddie says, imagining a life where it is Christopher’s room, where they had picked out this house together, for the three of them to share as a family, and he wonders for the dozenth time if he’s too late to entertain those thoughts.
Buck’s words from earlier echo in his head. Better late than never. It startles him so suddenly that he stares at Buck, sure that he said them out loud again, but Buck is just sitting back down on the blanket.
“Consider yourself an astronomy expert yet?” he asks.
Eddie blinks, focusing on the conversation. “I have good teachers, give me some time, I’ll get there,” he says.
He folds his legs to sit cross legged, leans back on his hands to look at the sky again. Buck copies him, their knees bumping.
“Are there any asterisms you haven’t shown Chris?” Eddie asks.
“Like what, penises?” Buck asks.
Eddie rolls his eyes. “No. I meant, like, any stories he wouldn’t care for.” Eddie swallows. This sounded smoother in his head, but he’s not about to chicken out. “Like…love stories.”
“Oh.” Buck's voice softens. “Um, yeah, I can think of a few, you want to hear them?”
Eddie shrugs, even though a glance tells him Buck is looking at the stars again. “Maybe.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t that, like, the height of romance? The idea of a love that’s written in the stars?”
There’s movement by his side and Eddie looks to see Buck frowning at him. “You don’t believe in that kind of stuff.”
“Still, makes for a nice story,” Eddie deflects.
“Why are you asking?” Buck asks.
“It was the first thing I could think of. I just wanted to hear you talk some more.”
Buck inhales sharply. “Oh.”
“Please?” Eddie says. “Just…tell me a story? Make it a good one.”
Buck searches his eyes for a moment before clearing his throat and looking up at the stars. “There’s a Chinese legend, Altair and Vega. They were lovers, but their relationship was forbidden, so they were separated.”
“Did they make their way back to each other?” Eddie asks softly.
“They did,” Buck says just as softly. “Well, it’s complicated.”
“As complicated as being 800 miles apart?” Eddie asks, nudging their shoulders. Better late than never, he thinks, heart pounding.
Buck huffs a laugh, glancing at him. “Yeah, the Milky Way is a bit larger than the I-10. Plus, they didn’t have FaceTime. You gonna let me tell the story?”
Eddie mimes zipping his lips, then stays pressed close to Buck as he listens.
Buck excitedly tells what he claims is just what he remembers, but to Eddie, it sounds very impressive. Romantic, too. Eddie isn’t sure when he stops looking at the stars and starts watching Buck, the rise and fall of his chest, the flex of the muscles in his jaw and neck as he looks up. He hangs onto every word, but doesn’t realize it’s over until Buck looks down and meets Eddie’s eyes. Eddie doesn’t look away, holding the eye contact, and Buck swallows.
“Eddie,” he says hoarsely.
“Thank you,” Eddie says.
“For what?” he asks, giving him a confused smile.
Eddie doesn’t know where to begin. “For tonight. For buying that telescope. For having a toothbrush for Chris. For…I don’t know, just being you. Thanks.”
Buck smiles wider but doesn’t say anything, and Eddie’s heart is thudding, and it would be so easy, to lean forward, to make his intentions clear, to let Buck close the distance…
He glances down at Buck’s lips, and when he glances back up Buck is staring at him expectantly, but before Eddie can move, Buck’s expression shutters. Before he knows what’s happening, Buck is standing, clearing his throat.
“Um, I can sleep on the couch,” he’s saying, and Eddie is staring at the space where he had just been sitting, struggling to understand what went wrong.
He staggers to his feet, moving slowly as his body adjusts to being upright, but he takes a few long strides to catch up to Buck before he can walk back in the house.
“Wait!” he says, finally close enough to grab his wrist once he’s stepped on the back porch.
Buck freezes but turns around to face Eddie.
“‘Better late than never’,” Eddie says.
“What?” Buck asks. His expression is still slightly closed off, but he looks at Eddie expectantly.
“You said…about the telescope. But it felt like it meant more than that. Because I’m late, Buck. It took me too many years to figure out what I feel and what you mean to me, but I’m here now, okay? Better late than never, right?”
Buck swallows. “I need you to be really clear about what you’re trying to say.”
Eddie bites his lip, thinking of the right words to say, but when Buck’s eyes follow and linger on the movement, he thinks, fuck it, actions speak louder anyway.
He grabs Buck by his shirt and leans in, slow enough to give Buck the chance to pull away, then when it’s clear he’s not going to do so, Eddie surges forward and closes the distance.
Buck’s lips are just as warm and soft as Eddie always imagined, and he can’t find it in him to be nearly as casual or calm as he had hoped he could be about this. Within moments he starts kissing him greedily, hungrily, and Buck tries to keep up but he staggers back a few steps from the momentum, gripping Eddie by the hips so tightly it might bruise. Eddie matches each of his backwards steps with a forward one of his own until Buck hits something – the table? – and they’re forced to stop in their tracks, but their lips don’t part. Eddie’s hands move without even thinking, finding the back of Buck’s thighs until he’s lifting him, perching him on the table and stepping in the space between his legs. He crowds into his space, palms sliding along his chest, needing to be closer to Buck, wanting to feel all of him.
Buck pulls back to say, “Jesus, Eddie—“ but Eddie just surges forward to reattach their mouths. He keeps pressing closer, then suddenly Buck disappears from under him and Eddie is too distracted, still chasing Buck’s lips, that he has no choice but to follow.
A few things become pretty clear to Eddie pretty quickly.
One, Buck was trying to warn him.
Two, Buck was not perched on the porch table, he was sitting on the edge of the hot tub.
Three, in his eagerness, Eddie accidentally pushed Buck in said hot tub.
Four, in his eagerness, Eddie launched himself forward, and he, too, hits the water.
Their limbs clash but he manages to surface quickly, gasping in surprise and reaching for Buck, who has also surfaced, hair and clothes sopping wet.
“Oh my god,” Eddie stammers, mortified. “Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Turn around, let me see.”
Buck laughs, brushing his wet curls off his forehead, but lets Eddie turn him around, prodding his head for any sign of injury.
“I’m fine, I managed to brace against the bench with my hand,” Buck explains, still laughing. Eddie quickly grabs said hand and examines it.
He’s sure they make quite a sight, the two of them standing in a hot tub while fully clothed, Eddie frowning at Buck’s hand. The jets are off, so the water is still, and it’s also not that warm, and they certainly splashed a significant amount of water all over the back porch. After feeling satisfied with the state of Buck’s hand, he looks up to make eye contact with Buck and they immediately start laughing.
“Sorry,” Eddie coughs, his face warm. “I, uh, got carried away.”
“Never apologize for getting carried away when kissing me,” Buck says, grinning wider than ever and shifting his hand so they are properly holding hands.
That’s how Christopher finds them, frowning at them through the glass door then sliding it open.
“Typically you wear a swimsuit in there,” he says, once it’s clear that Buck and Eddie are both trying to figure out how to break the silence.
Eddie groans and hides his face in Buck’s neck. Buck just beams. “Well, somebody was getting a little caught up in the moment.”
“Ew!” Christopher’s nose wrinkles.
“We were just kissing!” Eddie protests, lifting his head to defend himself.
“Still ew!” Chris insists. “I’m going to bed before you two decide to scar me any further.”
“Love you, buddy!” Eddie calls out after him.
“Love you Chris!” Buck echoes, and Eddie grins when he hears Christopher mutter it back to them.
“So,” Buck says with a slight shiver. “We should probably get dry.”
“Mm-hmm,” Eddie says. “I didn’t exactly plan for this, so I don’t have a change of clothes.”
“You can borrow something of mine,” Buck says. “Actually, you left your new LAFD shirt here a couple weeks ago.”
“That’s where it went, I was searching everywhere for it the other day. Were you ever going to return that to me?”
“Give me a break, better late than never, right?” Buck asks, a glint in his eyes.
Eddie scowls at him, seriously debating between splashing some water in his face or kissing that stupid smirk off his lips.
In the end, it’s not really a question. He’s already stopped himself from kissing Buck for far too long; he has a lot of time to make up for.