Work Text:
i.
Buck is a tactile person, but he was also incredibly particular about who he was touchy with. He could read people better than most gave him credit for, especially body language. If you didn’t want to be touched he probably already knew.
Eddie was not tactile. Mostly anyways. He kept a certain distance between himself and other people. Even those he had known for years.
Which is probably why Chimney is currently standing in the doorway, a cup of coffee in each hand and staring at Eddie.
It’s the perplexed and soft stare of someone who wants to figure out what's happening but doesn’t want to pry.
Eddie hums in acknowledgment, smiling sincerely, taking one of the cups of coffee from Chim’s hand, keeping his hand over Buck’s forearm, two fingers pressed against the pulse point of the thin skin on the inner side.
Chim sat down in the seat across from Eddie’s, positioning his chair so he could watch the slow rise and fall of Buck’s chest. “You haven’t left the entire time he’s been here.”
“Yeah,” Eddie murmured, moving his thumb over Buck’s wrist.
Chim gives Eddie the same look as before, the small start of a smile forming at the corner of his mouth. “Buck doesn’t like waking up alone.”
And he really doesn’t.
So Eddie has been sitting here for the last three hours, staring at Buck, their hands, and the gray hospital wall.
Chim snorts, breaking the silence, and when Eddie glances at him, he’s staring at the ceiling. “He’s going to be a pain in the ass about this. Isn’t he.”
Despite himself, Eddie laughs. “He hates concussions so much.”
“Do you remember when that board hit him and he was stuck at home for a week, and he literally tried to escape through the window because Maddie refused to let him leave?” Chim was struggling to keep composure.
Eddie almost wheezes and instead chooses to press his face into his and Buck’s clasped hands. “Maddie was so pissed.” He says between breaths.
“Why’s Maddie upset?” And Eddie almost doesn’t hear it, but he definitely does feel the small squeeze of Buck’s fingers around his hand.
Chim is out of his chair and the room in seconds, muttering something about getting the doctor.
Eddie scoots his chair a little closer to the bed and leans forward with his elbows on the edge of the mattress. “Hey, how are you?”
Buck squints at him, never pulling his hand away from Eddie’s. “Good, I think. I don’t remember what happened.”
“You took a pretty nasty hit to the head on a call.”
“Oh.” Buck turns his head to fix Eddie with a small look of annoyance. “I have a concussion don’t I?”
Eddie squeezes Buck’s hand in his, smiling softly. “The worst.”
ii.
There’s a heavyweight on Eddie’s shoulder, and Chimney is making that face at him again, popping his gum on occasion and reading the synopsis of a book he was sure Buck had been reading earlier.
Bobby is clinking around in the kitchen and Hen is playing checkers with Ravi on the other end of the table; Ravi is losing.
Buck is breathing slowly and steady on his shoulder, his face half pressed into the fabric there, and Chim is still staring at him.
Buck was turned around in the chair next to Eddie’s so he could watch Bobby cook (he’s been trying to perfect Bobby’s Alfredo sauce) and then promptly fell asleep, listening to Eddie’s quiet half-hearted humming.
Someone drops into the chair on Eddie’s other side, and it makes him jump slightly. Ravi lets his head drop into his hands. “She beat me again.”
Hen snorts from the other end of the table, “You weren’t even trying that time.”
Ravi lifts his head and half glares at Hen, “I take extreme offense to that.”
“How hard are you trying exactly?” Eddie mutters, careful not to jostle Buck while he scribbles aimlessly on a scrap of paper.
Ravi sighed heavily, “Can I blame it on the fact that we’re 19 hours into a 24-hour shift.”
Chim popped his gum again, nodding from Ravi to Buck. “You could take a page from Buck’s book.”
Eddie nodded slightly. “He’s got the idea.”
Bobby moved a pan from one place to another, making a clicking sound that made Buck stir. He scrunched his nose and shuffled, then settled again, slumping more into Eddie’s side than before. Bobby is watching Buck, and after a couple of seconds, he speaks into the quiet of the room. “How’s he been sleeping lately? He doesn’t normally take cat naps, especially while I’m cooking.”
Eddie tried to look back at Bobby the best he could, and the back of his head knocked gently against the top of Bucks. “I think so, but he’s been on a bit of a research binge lately, Chris’ new historical art project has got him a little wired.”
Bobby sent him a small smile.
Chim was watching them again with that look, setting down the book and folding his hands across the table. “So no one is going to-”
Ravi coughed loudly and shot Chim a scrutinizing look. “Bobby, what are you making for dinner?”
iii.
Eddie turned his head sideways and squinted at the painting. “I think it’s nice,” he muttered carefully.
Buck tilted his head towards Eddie and smiled. “See Eddie agrees with me.”
Chim scoffs lightly, “Buck, he’s just saying that so you’ll keep feeding him.”
Ravi comes up to stand between Chim and Buck, looking sideways at the painting too. “No, Chim, he might have a point.”
Hen appears on Chim’s other side. “Yep, you might be losing this one Chimney.”
Ravi looks over at Chim, “You can at least pretend to like it, instead of staring at it like it’s personally offended you. We’re only here because Malloy wanted to thank us.”
“I suppose so,” Chim mumbled, scratching his chin with the hand not in his pocket. “But just because I saved it from burning down, doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Buck sent him a disapproving look that reminded Eddie pleasantly of the look Christopher gives him when he makes a bad dad joke and he wonders who got what from who.
Buck linked their arms, and pulled Eddie away from the group, leaning close to Eddie, and whispering something that made Eddie grin softly.
Chim eye’s them and then looks back at Hen who’s already looking at him with an eyebrow raised. “No.” She says finally, and Chim doesn’t want to argue. Instead, he gestures vaguely at the pair, and Ravi smiles slightly, walking off to go find where Albert went.
Chim watches a little uselessly as Buck and Eddie stand a little over 15 feet away, arm in arm, looking intently at a painting of calla lilies and honeysuckle.
iv.
The Buckley parents were in town. Chim knew, because the moment Maddie got off of the phone after talking in a compliant low tone, she gave him that look. And Buck comes to work looking a little empty, and Maddie comes home from Buck’s looking ticked off and with eyes with torn-up memories floating around them.
He and Eddie share a look when they see Buck standing in the locker room, somehow looking lost even in a familiar space.
Eddie rocked back and forth on his heels, “I can talk to him.” He sounded resigned, “He was being weird last night when he was over for dinner, and he left earlier than usual. I asked but-” He trailed off quietly.
“I don’t like them,” Chim muttered, fixing his gaze on the way Buck sort of slumped against one of the lockers, now frowning at his phone.
Eddie shrugged, “I hate them.”
And yeah that sounded right.
Chim was never one to hide his opinion unless it was for the sake of a friend, even then it was still rare that he would ever back down from telling the truth. But when it came to Maddie and Buck’s parents; he always treads lightly. Because while yes, they were horrible, Maddie still loved them, there was a part of her that would always love them, no matter what they did. It was the same with Buck, granted the part of him that loves them might be smaller than Maddies, but he still did.
So Chim stayed away from flat out bad mouthing them, in front of anyone really.
But Eddie cared a lot less than he did. That didn’t mean that he didn’t hold his hatred back when it mattered. Eddie hasn’t outright told Buck he hated his parents, but he’s heavily implied it.
Eddie also has a lot less tolerance for them than Chim does. From Maddie’s account -and that really means Buck’s account because he tells her nearly everything- Eddie has had more than one negative run-in with Buck’s parents.
They watched as Buck stuffed his phone in his locker and let his head hit the metal. Eddie stood up straighter, pushing himself away from the stairs to walk towards the locker room.
Chim sent them an unseen soft half-smile, reminding himself to ask Maddie how she’s doing a little later.
Eddie places a hand on the side of Buck’s face, muttering something that only Buck could hear. Buck fastens his fingers around Eddie’s wrist and nods, leaning into the touch.
Chim sighs, turning away and moving up the stairs, deciding that this isn’t for him to see and he could question what they were later. When it mattered.
v.
Chim was going to develop a staring problem. Maybe he already had a staring problem. If he and Eddie didn’t already know each other so well, Chim would be worried he was being perceived as creepy or strange.
Creepy? No.
Strange? Yeah, probably.
Whatever. He had every right to stare.
Because Eddie and Buck were just-
Okay, they were just pretty much being Eddie and Buck.
But it was just so open.
It’s already been established that Buck and Eddie are touchy with each other. It was their thing. Small touches here and there, gentle hands on the center of the other's back or neck. The way Eddie ran his fingers through Buck's hair when it wasn’t flattened down. Their sides press together when they sit close, which is all the time. They twist their ankles together under the dining room table, and yes Chim noticed that.
But all that - That was different.
It was a quiet, personal thing. It was their way of speaking to each other through more than just words. No one said anything about it because Buck and Eddie lived in their own little bubble that they spent years building.
But recently it changed. It was, like he said, more open now. Just as personal, but more unrestricted. It was like their love was louder recently. It wasn’t Chim’s place to say anything about their love though.
Did he desperately want to ask them? Yes, definitely.
Did Bobby give him that look every time he tried? Also yes.
So instead of asking, he stares. Like a weirdo. A weirdo chewing gum and questioning what got them all to this point. Hen sat beside him, pointedly staring anywhere but where Chim was staring. Ravi was doing a better job than either of them. He was staring at his phone, smiling at something Albert sent him, clearly no longer paying attention to the situation at hand. Bobby had walked past them on the way to his office and only faltered for a moment, giving Hen and Chim a look that was a little hard to take apart before continuing his original path.
Chim just kept staring, straddling the line between wanting Eddie to look up and meet his gaze, and praying to someone that Eddie never even realized he was staring in the first place.
Because how Chim not stare.
When Buck wasn’t, a 6’2” man, curled up on the small ass couch in the firehouse living room with his head pillowed on Eddie’s legs, Chim would stop staring.
But until then.
Hen kicked him under the table and he ignored her.
Chim runs it over in his mind, just trying to figure out how this happened.
Buck didn’t seem tired or anything, and to be completely honest Chim wasn’t even sure he was asleep. But they had a hard call, and it was right in the middle of a calm day too. Of course right after the call that made Chim want to kick something it went right back to being a calm day.
Buck had a bit of a slight life or death experience that involved almost being squished by a car compactor.
Chim was never going to get that or their patients' lack of arm and leg out of his head.
But anyways, of course, after that Eddie was sticking to Buck like a waterproof sticker.
So when they got back to the station and settled, Buck sat down on the couch, sinking into the cushions. Then Eddie joined him, sitting on the other side of the couch.
And Chim swears he only looked away for two seconds, but when he looked back Eddie was still in the same spot, but Buck- Buck was laying down with his head on Eddie’s legs and his arms draped lazily on either side of Eddie’s middle.
And… Chim was never going to figure these two out was he?
Like ever.
He almost didn’t want to right now.
Because in actuality, Buck literally could have died, it was mildly funny now, but about 70 minutes ago, it was anything but that.
So Chim would let them have this, and he would smile at the way Ravi leans down next to Eddie, showing him what was likely a meme on his phone that makes Eddie laugh, his hand never leaving its spot on Buck’s shoulder blade.
+ 1.
Chim tells himself he’s too tired to pay attention to Buck and Eddie’s thing right now. But that’s a lie. Everyone and their mom know that’s a lie.
They’re all in the locker room, Hen is chatting up a paramedic from the other shift and Ravi is holding his phone between his shoulder and his ear while lacing his shoe, which is actually kind of impressive. Buck is leaning close to Eddie, holding both of their work bags in his hands, and Eddie is holding his phone, glancing between it and Buck, grinning.
Chim hears their conversation over the small hum of conversation.
“Buck.”
“Yes, Eddie.”
“Did you really?”
Buck looks up and nods, somehow smiling wider than Eddie. “Yes, dear.”
Eddie raises a hand to tap lightly on Buck’s chest. “You are actually incredible.”
Buck blinks at Eddie and his smile is more subdued now but just as happy. “Meet me in the car?”
Eddie gives Buck probably the sappiest look ever, one that Chim has definitely seen before now, and leans closer to Buck, pressing a quick kiss against the corner of Buck’s mouth. Buck rocked back on his feet and turned on his heels, leaving the locker room.
Chim took that as an opportunity to slam his locker a little harder than necessary and gape at Eddie like a fish.
Hen taps him with her foot and he once again ignores her in favor of staring at Eddie.
He points at Eddie and then the spot Buck was just standing in. “How long?”
Eddie purses his lips, looking sort of confused. “How long, what?”
“You and Buck,” Chim says a little desperately, and Hen stopped talking to the other paramedic to look over at Eddie. Ravi even stopped paying attention to his phone conversation to watch.
Eddie looks up slightly, “Officially? Like three weeks. But unofficially, I’d say closer to a year and a half.”
Chim continues staring, mouth agape and eyes wide. “Seriously.”
Eddie looks thoroughly and probably rightfully confused. “Um, yes.”
Chim closes his mouth, opens it, and then closes it again. “I am extremely happy for you Eddie.” He says as he grabs his bag, turning to leave the locker room. “But I actually can no longer do this.” He turns towards Hen. “You can’t kick me anymore because I was right.”
As he passes Buck in the parking lot, he waves and smiles, and tries to decide if he should sleep and drink wine, or drink wine and sleep.