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Buck can hear Eddie's voice cheering him on over the riot of the crowd. Something about the way Eddie says "atta boy" cuts clean through the static in his ears, the roar of applause, the scuffle of the other competitors behind him.
His long legs stumble the last few steps over the finish line like they're detached from the rest of his body, but he still manages to throw himself forward until he's collapsing on the other side of the line. Eddie's voice is ringing in his ears from across the lot as he continues to cheer him on. Heavy boots thunder behind him. The barrage of other teams come flooding in and before Buck can get his bearings, the race is over.
Buck is too busy trying to suck some oxygen back into his lungs and free his hands from his gloves that he doesn't realize Eddie's voice has been getting louder and louder as he runs to meet him. Buck looks up just in time for Eddie to crash into him.
"You did it! First place!" Eddie yells, knocking Buck's helmet off his head and pulling him close. "Woo!" He cheers and claps Buck on the back. Buck knows he would be blushing from the praise if he wasn’t already flushed and sweaty from exertion.
Buck, now free of the most restrictive pieces of gear, straightens up and opens his mouth to respond with a whoop of his own. He turns into Eddie at the same time that Eddie goes to plant a kiss on his cheek. Eddie's lips meet Buck's open mouth. It's objectively the worst kiss Buck has ever participated in, and that's really saying something. Eddie was going for a chaste celebratory smack on the cheek, but what he finds is half tongue and half teeth and no grace as they both jerk back out of it the moment they make contact.
"Ha!" He hears Eddie burst out a surprised laugh. Buck is too winded to get out his apology before Eddie is out of his reach again. He's not gone for long though, he breaks away to melt into the throng of cheering spectators before reappearing in Buck's line of sight to drag him forward.
"Come on, we gotta get you up on that podium, bud." Eddie says with his lips against Buck’s ear so he can hear over the crowd. Eddie's eyes are bright with excitement and adrenaline. He grabs Buck's hand and Buck latches on. Eddie leads him through the crowd and Buck follows in a daze. He lets the tether between him and Eddie guide him the whole way.
The ceremony itself is a blur, the only thing standing out clearly is Eddie at the front of the crowd whooping and clapping at every opportunity.
—
Buck replays the end of the race over and over and over in his head while he showers. Eddie's voice in his ear. His hands wrapped around his back or held tight in his own hand. His lips on Buck's tongue. That's where he keeps getting stuck.
Buck has considered what it might be like to kiss Eddie before. When he was still figuring out the bisexual thing. It's only natural to think about the guy you know best in the world when you're working through that kind of thing. So he's thought about it before. What Eddie's lips would feel like, how he would move his mouth, if he would use his tongue, his teeth. But today's disaster didn't really answer any of those questions. Buck barely even registered his lips at all before they were gone and even then they never made proper contact with Buck's.
Buck rewinds the memory again, pausing when Eddie's mouth makes contact with his, but it's useless. It's a garble of teeth and adrenaline and Buck can't focus enough to remember anything useful.
He tries not to think about what Eddie thinks about the whole thing. He can't stop himself though. Eddie must think he's a terrible kisser. Not that he had meant to be kissing him. Either of them. It was an accident in a heated moment of excitement and Eddie probably isn't thinking about kissing him at all. And if he did, Eddie must know that if it had been on purpose that Buck is better at it than that. Right?
The memory unfolds in his head again. Eddie breathing a constant string of praise into his ear, the feel of his firm grip bleeding through layers of turnouts like a brand on Buck's skin, the adrenaline of the win. Buck's skin prickles. His hand is on his dick before he even registers how achingly hard it is.
And that makes sense. All the endorphins from the competition and everything. He wasn't really thinking about– it's just from all the exercise. Nothing wrong with that, it's natural. He strokes lazily until he can't stand it and then braces a hand against the wall of the shower and quickens his pace.
Buck tries to make Eddie's voice fade into the background of the ringing in his ears. Instead it sharpens in focus until the only thing Buck can feel is the slide of his dick in his hand and the heat rushing down the back of his neck as the Eddie in his head praises him over and over. 'That's it, just like that, good boy'. He comes with Eddie's name lodged in the back of his throat. He doesn't say it, he bites it back until the sound that slips out is nothing but a low whine muffled under the spray of the water.
He comes down slowly. With the water still burning hot against his skin, he presses his forehead against the cool tile and squeezes his eyes shut. It's not shame exactly that's washing over him in the aftermath. More like, regret.
He wishes he knew what Eddie's lips felt like.
Buck presses his head into the wall where it's resting until it hurts enough that the thoughts fade away. He rushes through the motions of getting out, drying off, getting dressed. Any movement that can keep his brain from thinking too hard about anything.
He emerges to see Eddie reclined on his bed with his arms and legs crossed. His eyes are closed, but Buck knows he's not asleep.
"Good shower?" Eddie asks without opening his eyes.
"Uh, yeah." Buck lies. He can hardly stand to look at Eddie.
"Dinner is in half an hour."
"Yeah." Buck agrees.
"You could get in a quick nap if you want, I'll wake you up when it's time to go."
"Okay." Buck knows Eddie knows he's being weird. Eddie is better at knowing when Buck is being weird than Buck is and even Buck knows he's being weird.
Eddie lets him. He just pulls out his phone and starts tapping away while Buck falls onto his own bed and pretends to sleep as he chases away thoughts of Eddie’s mouth on his.
"Chris says we have to try the chicken while we're here. Apparently it's a thing." Eddie says after a few minutes, clearly having decided to ignore that they were pretending Buck was sleeping.
"Yeah, there's a place by the airport, I wanted to stop before our flight out." Buck mumbles against his pillow.
"Or we could ditch this whole banquet thing or whatever and doordash it."
Buck sits up. "Yeah?" He sounds breathless. Hopeful for something he can’t place. It’s weird. He nods and Eddie turns back to his phone.
"You seem like you could use a break." Eddie does a few final taps on his phone with extra flourish and says "there, done."
"Thanks, Eddie."
"You want to talk about it?"
"I'm just tired, long day," Buck knows it's a good excuse. He also knows Eddie will probably keep pushing anyway. Buck flops down onto the bed again, on his back this time. Buck finds himself turning his head to try to catch a view of Eddie without getting caught. He just wants to look at his lips. Get an idea of the shape of them so he can better imagine the way they would feel as they move. But every time he steals a glance, Eddie is already looking at him and he finds himself flinching away from the eye contact like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't.
Which he is. Not that Eddie knows, but the guilt pools in his gut all the same. He looks again and Eddie is finally turned away, but now he can only see his profile and it's not good enough. Eddie is fiddling with his hands, wringing one over the other, twisting the fingers in familiar patterns. He's worrying, probably about Buck. Buck hates when he does that, he wants to clamp his hands over Eddie's to keep them still. Keep him calm. But the idea of wrapping Eddie's hands in his has Buck's heartrate skyrocketing.
"You can tell me if something is bothering you." Eddie insists.
"It's nothing. I just, I'm sorry if it was weird before."
"What was weird?" To Eddie's credit he does sound genuinely confused. It's very chivalrous of him to pretend, but Buck wishes he wasn't making him spell it out. Saying the words made it too real.
"The uh– kiss– or whatever."
"Oh, I mean, yeah it was weird, talk about a bad angle, right?" Eddie laughs and Buck's whole body shutters at the memory. "It was my fault, though, if anything I should be apologizing to you."
"No!" Buck doesn't mean to yell that. "No, it's fine, you can– y’know, I don't mind. And it's fine." Buck breathes, reorients, tries again, "I just don't want you to think I'm that bad of a kisser."
The joke lands exactly as teasing and light as he wants it to. All Eddie has to do is laugh and brush it off and then they can forget this whole thing ever happened.
"I don't think that." Eddie says. No hint of joking in his tone. Buck's head whips to the side. Eddie isn't looking at him, his mouth is set. Did Buck say it wrong? This isn't how it was supposed to go.
"Oh." Buck doesn't have another joke lined up.
Eddie's phone dings. "Food's here." He stands and leaves. Buck breaths out all the air in his body and scrubs his hands over his face.
—
There's only so much space in the hotel room, so they eat in their beds, facing each other now. They fall into a play by play of the day's competitions. Eddie thinks the Boston crew is cheating, but he didn't have a good angle on them today, he can't be sure. He walks Buck through his view of the race from the sidelines, and maybe it's the spicy food, but Buck can feel the blush crawling up his neck as Eddie talks about how he outpaced everyone at the first obstacle.
"It was close at the end there, a couple of the guys made up some time around the last corner. You probably couldn't hear me, but I thought I was gonna shout myself hoarse trying to warn you."
"I can always hear you."
"Oh, well, yeah. It was um– it was fun to watch. Great win. We're tied for the top spot right now because of it."
Buck's mind is still stuck out on the finish line though. Eddie's lips trying to find purchase on Buck's open mouth. "Yeah."
A thought races across his mind unbidden. I can't believe that was our first kiss. He bites his tongue in response. As if thinking it this close to Eddie means that Eddie might find out. As if letting the thought fully form puts him in danger of saying it out loud. He doesn't, of course, but he wishes he could take it back anyway.
"You ready for the team tasks tomorrow?" Eddie asks through a mouthful of fried chicken. Buck nods and sucks on the sore spot where blood is now welling on the side of his tongue. The spice from the chicken is not helping the situation. Does Buck want to keep kissing Eddie? Sure he thought about what it would be like. He wanted to be able to imagine it correctly. But that was just curiosity. Brains are weird, and that's normal.
But this is starting to feel less normal. Buck watches Eddie take another bite and then lick the sauce from his lips and Buck swallows around nothing. His food is forgotten in favor of Buck imagining his lips moving in tandem with the way Eddie's are. He thinks about the feel of Eddie's tongue darting out to run between Buck's lips. The way his mouth might open to let Buck's own tongue explore the space. He thinks about biting into the fullness of Eddie's bottom lip and listening to the sounds Eddie makes as he does.
Eddie is watching him with his eyebrows raised in question, but he doesn't say anything. Buck shakes himself out of it and goes back to his food, chewing it along with his guilt.
The night continues on in the same torturous manner. Eddie sits on his bed and talks and eats and drinks and laughs and Buck tries to keep up while spending the entire time tracking the shape of Eddie's mouth and trying to feel what it would feel like if it was on him. He's been half hard for what feels like hours and he's going crazy.
"What's going on, Buck?" Eddie finally asks after having to repeat his question a third time only for Buck to nod dumbly in a way that didn't even answer what he asked.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm listening, sorry."
"Just tell me. I want to help. We're a team you and me, right?"
"I want a do over." Buck rushes out. He thinks his cheeks might catch fire with how hot they feel.
"You want to do what over?"
"I know you said you don't think I'm a bad kisser, but– it was so bad, Eddie. I don't want that to be the– the only time we kiss. That would be so embarrassing for me."
Eddie gets up and Buck ducks his head as if that will be enough to hide. The bed dips next to Buck and he looks up to see Eddie's lips inches away from his own.
"You want a do over." Eddie breathes.
"Please." Is all Buck can manage.
Eddie smiles. His lips part to reveal a straight white row of perfect teeth under them. Buck wants to crawl as far inside as Eddie will let him.
Eddie puts a hand on either side of Buck's head and Buck is getting lightheaded with how hard he's holding his breath. Eddie turns his head and Buck doesn't have any time to wonder what he's doing before he's pressing a firm closed mouth kiss into Buck's cheekbone.
"There." Eddie says, pulling away and dropping his hands. "That's what I was trying to do this afternoon."
Buck can hardly hear him over the blood rushing in his ears. He is physically aching with the want of it and Eddie has the audacity to be smirking at him from six inches away.
"Not what I meant." Buck says through gritted teeth.
"Oh, no?" Eddie teases.
Buck whines. He doesn't mean to, but all he can smell is Eddie and it's making it really hard to form coherent thoughts.
"This isn't a do over. That wasn't our first kiss. You hear me?"
Buck isn't sure he does, but he nods anyway.
"This is."
And Eddie is palming the back of Buck's neck to crash their mouths together. It's nearly as messy as before, tongues and teeth everywhere, but neither of them pull away. They find a rhythm quickly. It feels like Eddie is trying to devour him. He bites at Buck's spit slick lips and Buck gasps. His head would be falling back if Eddie wasn't gripping into his hair to hold him in place. Buck opens his mouth to let Eddie in, Eddie's tongue traces Buck's teeth and then pushes in further and Buck goes lax in his arms.
Their mouths work in tandem, trading the lead back and forth while they feel out the movements. Breaking apart and coming back together at new angles. It turns out Buck has a shit imagination, he never could have imagined it would be this good.
Buck swings a leg up and over Eddie so he's seated in his lap without breaking contact with his lips. He pushes them back on the bed a little and holds himself up on his thighs so he doesn't completely crush Eddie. Eddie doesn't seem to care about that and starts yanking Buck down onto him. Buck rocks down and moans against Eddie's mouth. Eddie starts biting his lips and then working his way along Buck's jaw until he's sucking into the joint of Buck's neck as Buck grinds down onto him.
Buck can feel it building in his gut and it takes every ounce of strength he has to pull back. Eddie chases him but slows his pace and moans a question into Buck's neck. Okay?
"I don't want us to need a do over on this too." He says nodding down at their laps. Eddie laughs. "Can we at least get our clothes off first?"
"Whatever you want." Eddie has a wild look in his eye and it sends another jolt of pleasure down Buck's spine. "But there's nothing wrong with trying again. As many times as we want.”
Buck chokes on a laugh. He leans down and kisses Eddie again. And Buck has already lost count of how many times they’ve kissed. It feels endless, it feels like it’s going to last forever.