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This is a fucking great idea. Maybe one of the best he’s ever had. He’s been single for way too long, and he’s sick of it. He’s sick of it, and he’s single, and he’s a liiiiiiitttle bit tipsy.
He’d been at a bar, drinking with his roommates, complaining about his singleness, when Connor had slurred: “You just gotta put yourself out there, man! Get a sign or somethin’! Rent a billboard!”
And, fuck. Wasn’t that just the best fucking idea you’ve ever heard?
Anyway, that was a few hours ago. Since then, he’s found the biggest banner he could get his hands on and written “I’M SINGLE” on it in big, block letters. He’s gotta get the word out.
Next, he needs to go somewhere lots of people will see it. He considered an overpass, but he didn’t want to distract any drivers. That seemed dangerous, and he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.
And then it had hit him — the best idea he’s ever had: He was going to shout it from the highest heights of Hollywood. He’s gonna put his goddamn name in goddamn lights. He’s gonna scream it from the tallest letter of the Hollywood sign.
It’s fucking perfect. Everyone will see him — the whole city!
It’s just a little hike up to the sign, and then a little climb, and then BAM — his soulmate will come a-knockin’.
It’s perfect. It’s genius. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
“Hey there. I’m Eddie,” Eddie says to the fucking idiot clinging to the top of the Hollywood sign, waving around an I’M SINGLE banner in the middle of the night. “I’m going to get us both down from here safely.”
“Oh,” the man breathes. He grins. “Hello.”
“Hi,” Eddie offers from where he’s also now clinging to the top of the Hollywood sign. At least he is secured by a rope. “What’s your name?”
“Eddie,” the man says.
“Huh!” Eddie chuckles. “What’re the chances?”
“Edddiieee,” the man repeats. “Ed-d-d-i-e.”
Ah. The chances are low.
“Okay,” Eddie sighs. “Lift your arms for me, bud. One at a time.”
The man shakes his head like a petulant toddler. “Can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Holdin’ ‘m sign.”
“Why don’t you go ahead and drop it?”
“Can’t,” he says again.
Eddie narrows his eyes at the man. “You didn’t, like, superglue it to your hands or something, right?”
Eddie hasn’t been a firefighter for that long, but he’s already seen so much. So, so very much.
The man giggles. He wobbles. Eddie reaches out to steady him.
“Eddie,” the man says.
“Yeah?”
“What?”
“You said - - okay,” Eddie sighs. He goes for a different tactic, reaching his arms around the man and securing the line around his waist.
“He’s secured, Cap,” Eddie says into his radio. “And definitely intoxicated.”
The man grins at him. “You think I’m intoxicating?” He slurs.
“I think you’ve had too much to drink,” Eddie snorts. “You’re lucky you didn’t fall, you know. You could’ve gotten hurt.”
“Lucky you found me, Eddie,” he grins. “I’m single.”
“I noticed.”
“Copy that, Eddie,” Bobby’s voice crackles through the radio. “Is he cooperating?”
A great question.
He looks at the man. “You gonna climb down with me?”
The man blinks at him. Breaks into a grin. “Nope.”
Eddie sighs. He holds up his radio. “Give me a minute, Cap.”
He turns back to the man. “What’s your actual name?”
The man frowns. “I dunno.”
Oh, fuck. This could move from an annoying rope rescue to a medical emergency real fast.
“Do you actually not know?” Eddie frowns. Maybe he did fall. Maybe he hit his head.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” the man confirms, frowning like he’s trying to remember. “I have two. I don’t know which one would count.”
Eddie sighs. “Give me one of them.”
“I like Buck,” he decides.
“Okay, Buck. What’s it gonna take for you to climb down with me?”
Buck considers this. He hums and looks down at the banner in his hands, dangling it over the top of the giant letter he’s clinging to. “Dunno if it worked yet.”
Eddie looks at the sign. He looks around them. “Gotta be honest, bud. I don’t like your chances.”
Buck pouts. “You don’t think I’m hot?”
Eddie coughs. That is - - that is not relevant. “I just think that it’s the middle of the night. It’s dark. And you’re in the middle of nowhere. Not really many people around to see it.”
Buck looks as if he hadn’t considered that. “You saw it,” he supplies. “And that angry man with a flashlight.”
Eddie snorts. “That was a security guard. It’s illegal to climb the Hollywood sign.”
Buck shrugs. “Was kinda Connor’s idea,” he says, as if that gives him immunity. “Was gonna do it on the…” He makes a hand gesture. “The freeway. But that’s dangerous,” he explains. “Someone could get hurt.”
He’ll give him that. He’s not a complete idiot.
“That’s true,” Eddie agrees. “Surely a guy like you doesn’t need to hang out over freeways and Hollywood signs to get a date.”
Buck blinks up at him, surprised. “No,” he agrees. “But I’ve never seen you on the apps,” he says, pointing a finger into Eddie’s chest. To do so, he lets go of the frame with one hand, wobbling as he hangs on with the other.
Eddie winces.
“How about you give me the sign, and I’ll look after it for you?”
Giant blue eyes blink up at him. “You’d do that for me?”
“Sure.”
Carefully, Buck hands him his giant, stupid banner. Eddie drops it. Buck gasps, betrayed.
“Okay, I think it’s time to head back down now,” Eddie declares. “We’re all strapped in, so we can’t fall. It’s safe. We’ll be back on the ground before you know it.”
Buck narrows his eyes. “I don’t think so,” he says.
Eddie sighs. “How’d you even get up here?”
“Climbed. I’m good at climbing,” he winks. “Climbed lots of trees when I was a kid. Fell out of ‘em, too.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
Buck shrugs. “Not really. It’s nice. Quiet. I’d pretend I was a pirate.”
Eddie closes his eyes. “I bet my captain down there has your sign. You should probably go get it.”
Buck shakes his head. “Nuh-uh. Don’t need it.”
“How’s it going up there?” Bobby’s voice crackles.
“Workin’ on it, Cap,” Eddie sends back. “Buck, buddy, we’ve gotta move, yeah?”
Buck shakes his head. “Like it here.”
Okay, new tactic. He leans in closer, lowers his voice.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
Buck’s eyes widen. “Yeah. I’m good at secrets.”
“I have a kid,” Eddie tells him. “A son. He’s seven.”
“Whoa,” Buck breathes. “Cool.”
“Yeah,” Eddie agrees. “He’s the best. But it’s his bedtime, and I just started this job, and I promised him I’d try to call every night when I could. And I haven’t missed a night.”
Buck gasps. “Eddie! You should call him!”
“I can’t call him from up here,” Eddie shrugs. “And I can’t leave without you.”
“Oh,” Buck breathes sadly. “We have to go down.”
“Yeah,” Eddie confirms. “It’s time to go down.”
“Okay,” Buck agrees. “If it’s bedtime.”
Fuck yeah for bedtime.
It doesn’t take too long for them to make their way down once everyone is on board — Buck only slips a few times, the harness catching him when he does.
They both land with two feet safely on the ground, the rest of the team there to meet them. The moment Buck registers where they are, he gasps.
“IT’S BEDTIME!” He shouts. “QUICKLY!”
Bobby, who is right beside him, startles.
“Oh. Um,” Eddie tries to explain, catching Bobby’s eye. “Buck very kindly agreed to climb down so I could call and say goodnight to my kid.”
“Right,” Bobby nods slowly, catching on. “Of course. Buck, we’ll get our paramedics to take a look at you.”
“There’s no TIME!” Buck insists. Loudly. “IT’S BEDTIME!”
“Okay. Okay,” Bobby says. “Eddie,” he prompts, gesturing at him.
Hen approaches carefully, looking Buck over while he’s distracted.
“Right,” Eddie nods. He’s following. He’s following. “I’m just gonna - -” he offers, fishing his phone out of his pocket.
He presses some buttons performatively and brings his phone up to his ear.
“Uh, hey, buddy,” he says to the phone that isn’t calling anyone, because it’s one in the morning and his kid is definitely asleep. “Just wanted to call and say goodnight.”
Buck grins, sending him two thumbs up. Bobby gestures for him to continue.
“Uh - - okay. Yep! Alright. Love you, bud - - um, kid,” he stumbles awkwardly. “Goodnight,” he adds, pretending to hang up the phone.
“Phew!” Buck sighs. “That was so close,” he says. “You almost missed it.”
Eddie can’t help but chuckle. “Thanks for your help, Buck.”
“Of course,” he says seriously. “I love kids. You’re a really good dad.”
And that - - oh. That actually means a lot. He feels kind of bad about calling him an idiot in his head so many times.
“All good here,” Hen says. “I’d suggest hydration and some Advil. And no more climbing.”
Buck wakes up in a holding cell. It’s utterly mortifying, and he is utterly mortified.
Unfortunately, he remembers exactly why he’s there — every excruciating moment of it.
This is why he doesn’t drink tequila on an empty stomach.
He groans as the details wash over him — the drinks, the banner, the world’s hottest firefighter.
Fucking of course he embarrassed himself in front of the world’s hottest firefighter. Maybe he’ll just stay in this holding cell for the rest of time and never have to face the light of day.
“Mr Buckley,” one of the police officers he definitely waxed poetic about Eddie to says. “You’re free to go.”
Fuck.
Eddie genuinely hadn’t thought about the man from the Hollywood sign that much. Just every now and then. He hadn’t been thinking about how he poked his chest and said, “I’ve never seen you on the apps,” and how Eddie’s stomach had flipped.
He was hot, okay? Sue him! He was also trespassing and extremely drunk, so, like he said, he hasn’t spent much time thinking about him.
Until Chim appears with a cookie in his mouth and a tray of cookies in his hands and says, mouth full, “The sign kid made us cookies!”
“What?” Eddie frowns. His heart rate remains exactly as it was, thank you. His head snaps to the entrance of the firehouse. “He’s here?”
Chim takes another bite of his cookie. “Just left,” he says, mouth still full.
“What did he say?”
Chim shrugs. “I believe he said, and I quote, ‘Sorry, thank you. Sorry - - thank you. Thanks! Sorry! Thanks!’”
Eddie snorts.
“Fuck, these are good cookies,” Chimney groans. “There’s sea salt flakes on top! Fancy!”
Eddie takes a cookie and, damn, he’s right, they’re good. They’re so good that he can’t stop thinking about the guy who made the cookie.
In fact, he blames the cookies for what he does when he gets home.
Eddie shoves another cookie in his mouth and makes a dating app profile.
Buck gapes down at the phone in his hand. There, on the screen, is the world’s hottest firefighter. The one who had to trick him like a child who didn’t want to come in from the playground. The one he’s definitely blown his chances with, if he even had one in the first place.
He’s so fucking hot.
Eddie.
He remembers his kind eyes and the way they lit up when he spoke about his potentially fictional child.
And, god, he’s just so hot that Buck at least has to try.
He swallows what’s left of his dignity and sends him a like and a message:
Buck: What are the chances you don’t remember me?
This is a bad idea. This is such a bad idea. Eddie knows better than to date people he meets on calls. Or, like, match with them on a dating app.
And it certainly wasn’t what he’d been secretly hoping would happen when he made his profile! No! That would be unhinged!
Eddie isn’t unhinged. He’s responsible. And a father. And this is a bad idea.
He does it anyway.
He closes his eyes and matches with Buck.
Buck almost chokes on his midnight cereal when the notification comes through.
You matched with Eddie!
Eddie sent you a message!
He opens the app faster than he’s ever done anything.
Eddie: Oh sorry have we met?
Buck is, like, fairly sure Eddie is joking. But he might not be. What if he’s not? Oh god. Would he tell him, or just pre- -
Eddie: Completely unrelated, what are your thoughts on hikes and heights?
Oh thank fuck, he’s joking. Buck snorts.
Buck: Hate both. Never done either. I love the ground.
Eddie: You would’ve hated a rescue I did recently. Guy was clinging to the top of the Hollywood sign. Hit on me the whole time.
Buck: wow he sounds stupid and reckless in a hot way
Eddie: Definitely stupid
Eddie: Definitely reckless
Eddie: Definitely hot
Buck lets out a breath
Buck: Nice.
Buck: He sounds great.
Buck: and, as established, nothing like me
Eddie: oh I wouldn’t say nothing
Buck: you calling me stupid?
Eddie: I’m calling you hot
Eddie is freaking the fuck out. What is he doing? What the fuck is he doing?
He’s flirting. He’s fully flirting with the hot guy who was flirting with him and he likes it.
What the fuck is he doing?
He almost jumps out of his skin when his phone buzzes.
Buck: Nice
Buck: :)
Buck: you’re hot too but you already knew that
Buck: i mean that I thought that
Buck: like you knew that I thought you were hot, not that you thought you were hot
Buck: idk why i said that in past tense, I actively think you’re very hot
Buck: omfg sorry
Eddie chuckles. He lets out a breath. Okay. He can do this, maybe. Maybe they’re both freaking the fuck out.
Before he can figure out what to say, Buck continues.
Buck: would you wanna grab a coffee or something sometime?
Buck: i know we’re doing this whole bit, but i also do really like hiking if you’d wanna go on a hike
Buck: i promise I won’t climb any tall structures
Buck: well
Buck: i won’t climb any historic-cultural monuments
Eddie is grinning at his phone like a school kid with a crush.
Eddie: I like hiking
Eddie: :)
“Stand in front of it,” Eddie grins, pointing his phone camera at Buck.
Buck groans, but he shuffles into place. “Do we have to do this every time?”
“It’s where we met!” He grins. “Say cheese!”
Buck glares at the camera.
“Wait, I want to get one of both of us!” Eddie decides. “We’ll send it to Bobby.”
“Don’t send it to Bobby,” Buck pouts. “He’ll remember that I’m an idiot and fire me.”
“Oh, baby, he knows that you’re an idiot,” Eddie offers unhelpfully. “We all still love you anyway.” Eddie presses his lips against Buck’s cheek and holds the phone out in front of them. “Say cheese!”