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“I’ve connected the two dots!” Buck exclaims from his place sprawled out on the couch, clapping his hands up in the air with little attempt to actually sit up.
Hunter can see Eddie roll his eyes from here as he throws a pen at Buck’s face – the latter failing epically at shielding his face. “You didn’t connect shit.”
“I’ve connected them.” Buck repeats, picking the pen up from where it fell on the floor and sucking it into his mouth because the man has pretty much zero hygiene standards. He chooses now to roll his head over the arm of the couch, making eye contact with Hunter as he walks by, and smiles in a way that Hunter’s fairly certain is supposed to be charming. “Right, probie?”
Hunter looks between Buck and Eddie, noticing the look of mild annoyance on Eddie’s face, and holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Sorry, I’m not getting involved.”
Buck groans at that, glaring up at the ceiling as Eddie’s triumphant laugh fills the loft. “But I figured it out!”
Eddie takes this as his cue to stand up, kicking Buck’s feet off of the couch on his way towards the kitchen. “It’s five minutes in, there’s a ninety percent chance that you’re wrong.” he says, not even bothering to glance back at Buck’s pouting face.
It’s only now that Hunter notices the TV on in the background, an old rerun of Law & Order playing, and he finally understands what their argument is even about. A television show…
It’s not really a surprise, if he’s being completely honest. Hunter’s only been with the 118 for two weeks, so far, but already he’s come to realise that Buck and Eddie argue. A lot.
On only his first day with the team he walked in on the two of them fighting – literally. They say they were wrestling, for training, but Hunter’s never seen the sport get so personal before. He’s also never seen someone lift a 6 foot 2, mostly muscle, guy straight off of his feet before and, yet, Eddie managed it without so much as going red in the face.
Hunter’s definitely going to need to add a few more days in the gym to his weekly schedule.
“You’re the worst, Diaz!” Buck shouts over the back of the couch, at Eddie’s retreating form.
Hunter’s already making his way down the stairs when he hears Eddie’s answering laugh, followed by a rather cheery, “Sí, pero me quieres!” He kind of wishes he paid more attention in Spanish class rather than flirting with the cute girl in pigtails he sat next to because he can’t, for the life of him, translate any of that sentence.
There’s another groan, muffled this time, and Hunter can just about make out Buck’s rather reluctant, “Unfortunately.”
“Are they always like this?” Hunter eventually asks the rest of the team, as they finish up a call. Those who heard his question follow his eye line towards the back of the truck.
Buck’s trying to wrestle himself out of his gear; it’s covered in sewer water after a pipe burst right next to him, and Eddie is stood just to his side looking a tad too pleased about the whole situation. Buck notices, flipping him off and managing to somehow get his arm tangled in his sleeve in the process, causing Eddie to burst out laughing.
“Shut up.” Buck spits out, flicking his other sleeve at Eddie and splattering gross water on him.
“Hey!” Eddie growls, ducking out of the way a moment too late. Buck snorts, eyes lighting up in amusement as he grabs the free sleeve and goes to wipe it on Eddie’s face. Eddie straightens up, pointing his finger at Buck sternly. “Don’t you dare!”
Hen chuckles from behind Hunter. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“You get used to it.” Chimney adds, shaking his head at the two with a fondness that Hunter can’t relate to.
Ravi, one of the newer team members, shuffles closer to Hunter. He lays a hand on Hunter’s shoulder, leaning in to whisper, “No, you don’t. Trust me, I’ve known them almost a year and I still don’t understand their relationship.”
Hunter laughs at that. He definitely doesn’t understand the relationship between the two firefighters; they’re almost always at each other’s throats, bickering with one another over something or other, and yet they also work together better than any other duo in the 118. Bobby doesn’t even need to ask them to pair up on calls, they just do it.
And they’re great together. They’ll pull off difficult manoeuvres without so much as speaking a word to each other.
Hunter doesn’t understand it one bit!
“Just get it off!” Eddie’s voice rises as he avoids Buck’s manic wiggling in a desperate attempt to escape his gear.
Buck whines, throwing his head back in frustration. “I would if I could!”
Eddie’s face softens, a sympathetic smile creeping over his lips and, for just a second, Hunter thinks he might actually help Buck. But the moment doesn’t last long and, as though nothing changed, Eddie rolls his eyes and begins to walk away. “Useless. Utterly useless.”
He asks Bobby about it one morning; how Buck and Eddie manage to work together so well on calls. Over a cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs on toast, because the captain is honestly the best and somehow noticed Hunter had skipped breakfast the moment he walked into the station, calling him up to the loft as soon as he’d changed into his uniform and offering him a plateful of food.
Bobby smiles into his mug, something fond that Hunter doesn’t think really belongs in a conversation between Buck and Eddie. He takes a slow sip before meeting Hunter’s eyes, humming thoughtfully. “They’re a team.”
Hunter nods, shoving a forkful of eggs into his mouth. “Well, yeah, we all are.” he shrugs dismissively, waving his fork around as he tries to think how he wants to word the next part. “But, I mean, they hate each other, right? Is it just a matter of work over personal issues?”
“Hate each other?” Bobby actually sounds taken aback at that, but Hunter doesn’t understand why. He’s literally heard the two of them say that to each other, usually after Buck complains at Eddie for loading the dishwasher wrong or when Buck steals Eddie’s socks – which, considering they’re over such menial things, makes Hunter believe the words more than if they were spoken in the middle of a heated argument.
Bobby pauses for a moment, taking a bite of his toast and thinking hard enough that Hunter swears he can hear the cogs ticking in his mind.
“They’re a perfect case of opposites attract,” Bobby finally continues, draining the rest of his coffee in one gulp. “And yet, at the same time, they’re entirely too alike to not wind each other up. They’ve worked together, through all sorts of things, for so long now…” Bobby sucks his lower lip between his teeth, getting an almost wistful look on his face, before finishing with a sincere, “I can’t imagine one without the other.”
Their conversation is interrupted at that point as the rest of the team arrives, the station filling up with lively chatter.
As though somehow sensing they were talking about him, Buck’s the first to join them both upstairs, heading straight over to the counter and swiping the last of Bobby’s toast with a cheeky grin that says he knows Bobby won’t scold him for it. “Thanks, Cap!” Buck says around a mouthful, ruffling Bobby’s hair playfully and narrowly avoiding the swat aimed in his direction, “Eddie’s toast making skills are awful.”
There’s laughter behind them and Hunter swivels around to see Hen nudging Eddie, the two of them not in as much of a rush as Buck was. Eddie glares daggers at Buck, the look enough to make even Hunter feel guilty (and he didn’t even say anything to the man!).
“If you hate it so much, make your own damn toast!”
Buck doesn’t even look phased, his smirk only growing wider as he moves to grab some bread and a couple of plates. “I will.”
Hunter frowns, turning back to find Bobby looking at him. Bobby must sense his confusion because a smile spreads over his face and he shakes his head, offering him a sympathetic smile and patting him on the shoulder as he stands to gather their plates.
It’s been three months since Hunter joined the 118 and he’s never felt happier in his life. He’s close with everyone he works with – it’s crazy feeling so accepted and cared for by people he literally didn’t even know a year ago – and he’s even got a date with his cute neighbour! Everything is going great.
Or, at least, it was.
He’s just experienced his first real scare on the job, like, heart-stopping, blood-raising terror. And it wasn’t even him that was in danger!
Buck was, though.
Buck almost died.
Now, Hunter knew the risks of the job when he first signed up to join the academy; his mother drilled them into him once he told her about his decision. It’s just… he hasn’t been face-to-face with the terrifying possibility of losing a friend, on the job no less, and he’s feeling pretty shaken up about it.
In fact, the whole team is.
But Buck’s always been a risk taker, apparently. He came running out of the school seconds before it collapsed, two children that couldn’t have been much older than five or six clinging to him like he was their last lifeline – which, in reality, he kind of was.
Everyone had been holding their breath, nobody quite sure whether he was out of the building yet or not and clearly being able to see that it wasn’t going to remain standing much longer. Definitely not long enough for anybody to go running back in to find him.
The second Buck was out, the team rushed over to him. Hen and Chim swiftly took the two children from his arms, running them towards the ambulance so they could get them both some fresh oxygen. Bobby looks like he can’t decide whether to pull Buck into a hug or go full blown Captain Nash on him and remind him just how stupid a decision it’d been to leave his radio behind. He eventually settles on the former, whispering a quiet, “I’m glad you’re safe, son.” that has Buck tightening his hold on the man.
Hunter wants to say something too but he’s not really sure what. He still hardly knows Buck, out of everyone on the team, and he feels like it’s a bit lame to say, “Hey, glad you didn’t die!” so he just keeps quiet and hovers at the sidelines, helping when needed as everyone busies themselves with making sure nobody else is severely hurt.
It isn’t until they’ve got everyone involved in the fire seen too, those badly injured sent off to hospital and the disaster finally dealt with, that Hunter realises they’re missing two members of the team. Almost a repeat of earlier, Buck isn’t anywhere to be seen. This time, however, Eddie is missing too, and Hunter can’t help but worry.
He’s about to ask somebody if they’ve seen the two men anywhere (because surely they can’t have gone far?), when he rounds the back of the truck and finds them on the other side, half hidden away behind the open compartment they’re stood by.
Eddie looks livid.
Like, not just “That was my sandwich, Buck, what the fuck?” sort of angry either. No, this was on a whole other level; his face is a deep red, hair stuck up at all angles from where he’s ragged his hands through it, and he’s waving his arms animatedly as he talks.
“You idiot. Reckless. Absolutely reckless!” Eddie shouts, taking a step closer to Buck and subsequently pressing the taller man further against the side of the truck. “What were you thinking?!”
Buck, surprisingly, doesn’t appear to be threatened. He reaches out, splaying a palm over Eddie’s chest and answers in a calm tone, “I was thinking that there were still children in that building. That building that was about to collapse. On them.”
“Or on you.” Eddie counters, but his tone has quietened to match Buck’s. Hunter watches, from around the corner of the truck because he doesn’t need Eddie’s anger directed at him thank you very much, as Eddie lifts a hand to cover Buck’s where it rests on his chest. “It could’ve collapsed on you.”
Buck sighs, using his free hand to hook two fingers under Eddie’s chin, guiding his face up until their eyes meet. “But it didn’t.” he clarifies, speaking slow and steady to make sure that the words fully sink into Eddie’s head.
There’s a long silence that seems to stretch out forever, the two of them staring into one another’s eyes with an odd intimacy that Hunter doesn’t recognise.
Eventually, Eddie relents. His shoulders sag and he squeezes his eyes shut, dropping his head to Buck’s chest with an exhausted sigh. “I can’t-” he starts, but his voice cracks and Buck pulls him back to cup his face, running his thumbs along Eddie’s cheeks.
“Hey, hey, shush,” he soothes, like speaking to a startled animal. “It’s okay.”
Eddie shakes his head, and Hunter can’t say for sure because he’s not close enough but he’s fairly certain that those are tears that Buck is wiping away.
“I can’t lose you.” Eddie practically whispers, He wiggles himself out of Buck’s embrace only to pull himself closer to the man, lifting up onto his toes. Hunter watches with baited breath as Eddie leans in, brushing his lips ever-so-gently over Buck’s left eye, right over his birthmark. When he pulls away, he takes Buck’s face into his hands and adds, in a wrecked voice, “I need you to be safe.”
A soft smile takes over Buck’s face and he nods, twisting to press a kiss to the inside of Eddie’s wrist. “I know. I’m sorry.”
Hunter’s not sure what’s more surprising at this point: that Buck has just apologised for doing his job (something he very adamantly never does) or that Eddie returns his warm smile before closing the little distance between them both and kisses Buck senseless.
Deciding that he should leave them to it – whatever it is – Hunter goes back to find the rest of the team.
He runs into Hen first. Literally. He walks right into her as he turns around.
“Woah there, probie!” Hen chuckles, reaching out to grab him by the shoulders and steady him. She tilts her head at him, a calculating look in her eyes, and wastes no time in asking, “What’s got you so confused?”
Hunter bites his lip, unsure whether to mention what he just witnessed. He doesn’t want to cause drama in the team.
Then again, Hen’s known Buck and Eddie a lot longer than he has. Maybe she can make some sense of it all.
So he tells her exactly what he saw, every little detail that’s left his brain feeling frazzled, and waits for the shock to pass on to her too.
But it never happens.
No, instead she bursts out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
Hunter waits it out, the need for answers eating away at him and her reaction only causing more questions. It takes a few minutes but, eventually, Hen calms down enough to rest a hand on his shoulder and smile. “Oh, honey, they’ve been married for years.”
“What?!” Hunter can’t help but shout, taking a step back. She’s kidding, right?
“You didn’t know?” Hen looks like she’s about to break into more laughter at this, pressing her lips together into a thin line that does nothing to cover up her amusement.
Hunter shakes his head fast enough to make himself dizzy. “I thought they hated each other!” But, now that he thinks about it, it kind of makes sense. Well, it doesn’t, not really, but he can probably see the clues a bit clearer now that he has context to their relationship.
“Oh, wait ‘til they hear about this…” she murmurs, running a hand down her face.
“No, please don’t tell them!” Hunter begs, chasing after Hen as she spins on her heel and heads towards where the rest of the team are.
She either doesn’t hear him or doesn’t care, already shouting out, “Hey, Chim, you’ll never guess what-”
Hunter groans, deciding it’s no use chasing after her and leaning against the truck. He bangs his head a little too harshly against it but finds that he doesn’t care so much, his mind is too distracted with the eye-opening reveal that the two people he was absolutely certain hated each other have actually been married this whole time. For years!
Thank God he never took his mother’s suggestion to join the police academy instead….