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"Buck, I wanna ask you something. But you can't tell dad." Chris and Buck hadn't really had any time to hang out lately with Theo around. So Eddie was taking him around to Maddie's house to play with Jee while Buck and Chris spent some time working on his science project. It was typical but they had to build a volcano. They were going to make his erupt and have it be the biggest and the best.
"I can't promise that I never will tell him. But for now? This can stay between me and you." He didn't want to make a promise he couldn't keep, but he didn't want Chris to close up and refuse to talk.
"Yeah okay. I just want to ask you how you knew that you liked Tommy."
"What? Chris this means so much to me, thank you. But for me? I always knew I waa leaning in the other direction but I thought it was normal for everyone to be curious. Then I realised that my kind of curious wasn't the same as someone who was just bi-curious and voila!"
"Hmm, right."
"Is there a reason you asked me this? It's okay if there isn't."
"It's just because. I have this friend and he likes his best friend but doesn't know how to tell him."
"Well I think you should tell that friend to be honest. There's no use in being so scared of what the other persons response is that they hide it. If it's safe for them to do so, then they should confess." Buck knew he was talking about himself, Buck had used the whole my friend hypothetical situation more times then he could count. Buck had two suspects. It was either Denny or this kid from his school he kept bringing up recently.
"Yeah. I'll tell him that, thanks Buck."
"You're welcome, and for the record? I think your friend is extremely brave and that he is such a wonderful person."
"Uh huh yeah. Can we get back to this now?" Don't push. Don't interrogate. Don't drag it.
"Of course! I think if we triple the recipe then it will have an even better explosion."
Turns out tripling an already doubled recipe resulted in red liquid shooting up and hitting Eddie's ceiling. Great. He had about ten minutes before Eddie got home with Theo and he needed to clean it. It shouldn't be too hard, he just needed to scrub quick enough before Theo came home and saw and wantes to join. He really didn't want Theo to end up like him. He was currently balancing on the stool that was on the counter. Eddie had small counters, so Chris could always reach them, if he was in his wheelchair or using his crutches. So even though Buck was a giant, he still needed the stool to reach.
Chris sat there, recording him and laughing. This was technically all his fault, if he had never fought so hard to be enrolled in that school he probably wouldn't be in this predicament of the failed experiment.
He got done cleaning the last bit of red goo when the front door burst open. Buck held his balance as Theo rushed and tries to climb the counter too.
"I wanna play too! Eddie lift me!" He threw his arms up, waiting patiently by the counter.
"Nuh uh mister. Infact, your Buck shouldn't even be up there either." He tutted and stared up at Buck.
Theo had started calling Buck, his Buck. He didn't want to say dad and Buck wasn't going to force him. He didn't want to just call him Buck because that was boring. He didn't want to call him anything else apart from my Buck.
"Yeah yeah, I'm getting down now."
"No. Buck, tell them why you're up there. What led to it." Chris' chuckles rang loudly through the apartment.
"First off I'd like to say your son is a traitor," he hopped off the counter, throwing the cloth in the bin and the cleaning spray back under the space they shoved all the unimportant stuff in, "secondly, we quintupled? Is that the word? A recipe for the volcano eruption and poof!"
"Great, now my ceiling is gonna be damp forever."
"I cleaned it!"
"I can't confirm that. I can't reach the damn thing!" His hands moved to his hips and his eyebrows twitched.
"Next time don't be so short?"
Theo ran into Chris to give him a hug and above his head, Eddie flipped Buck off. Who returned the favor by putting his hand on his cheek as if it were resting. There began the game.
They started this ages ago. If they were all on shift and bored, they would see how many times they all could flip eachother off without getting noticed by Bobby. The only catch was that you had to do it in different ways everytime. The first couple games they all got caught and got the worse of the chore list but gradually they got better with it. Eddie did a backbend and while his hands were on the floor he flipped Chim the bird all while impressing Bobby.
The points didn't start until them and their extended families were having dinner at Athena and Bobby's and started the game there. One that involved your face was worth five, if it involved your body it was worth ten, if it involved another person then two, but one that was disguised as something else got you fifteen. They didn't really make sense but it was fun.
Buck won a total of seventy three points that evening.
So now, doing the game with both Chris and Theo in the room was risky but so worth it.
They all decided to sit on the couch and play some videogames. Simple right?
"Chris that's cheating you can't do that!"
"I can if I want to. You snooze you lose old man."
"Old! I'm younger then your father. Hey!" He reached across and muddled with the buttons on Chris' controller to make him crash into the side of the track.
"By a couple months! If we're in January sure you are younger then me. But by December we are even!"
"Yeah, we are even!" Theo bounced out of Buck's lap, his head hit Buck's chin and he bit down hard on his tongue.
"Oh my goth. I can't speak." Some of his letters were making the 'th' sound, but 'gosh' stood out the most.
"Oh my goth!" Chris mimicked him then laughed hysterically, Theo joined in and then Eddie did. They were all repeating what he said in different pitches.
Once Buck recovered he ruffled Chris' hair and wrapped his leg around Theo. With his other hand he stuck up his middle finger and frowned at Eddie, "and I thought you were my friend."
"What? I am!" He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of popcorn, he put it in the middle of everyone but everytime Buck's hand got close he slapped it away.
"Eddie. I am hungry and want some popcorn."
"Too bad, this popcorn is for me and my sons. You, last time I checked are not me or my sons." He shrugged, passing Theo a handful of popcorn.
"Edmundo. Please may I have some popcorn?"
"Yeah sure," he grabbed one singular kernel and placed it into Buck's palm. Obviously with his hand that had his pointer, ring, and pinky closed, "okay?"
"I swear to God. I will wrestle you for this popcorn."
"Oh ew, please do not! This is the most disgusting form of puppy love I have ever seen," Chris gagged, pushing his arms out so there was some distance between him and the two idiots.
Buck stretched and made his two middle fingers point out before leaning into Chris, "you sir can not be talking about puppy love."
"What? What are you talking about?" Chris tilted his head, looking genuinely confused. This wasn't the shut up and start lying look. It was the genuine confusion look. Eddie looked equally confused.
"What you told me about earlier? Your friend, who likes his best friend?"
"Yes. The best friend is you!"
"Excuse me. I- Chris."
"Chris. I told you to drop this."
"What, you knew he was asking me this?"
"No, but he asked me about it the other day. I told him to not ask you."
"I can't take this endless pining! You know what, Theo. Wedding!"
Theo ran into Chris room at the speed of light to grab something and Chris connected his phone to the TV, then grabbed Theo's Ipad to record. Wedding music played and Theo came out with a veil and some plastic rings. He grabbed both Buck and Eddie's hands and pushed them onto their thumb. Wrong finger, but alright.
Then, he stood in the middle of the room, staring at them in anticipation.
"What is he doing?" Buck smiled through his teeth and ventriloquized to Eddie.
He did the same back, "no clue but go along with it."
"He is waiting for you to kiss. Cmon or he wont stop."
"Both of you close your eyes."
"Really! This has been a long time coming." Chris covered his eyes with his hands, leaving a small peak hole. Theo copied but his peak hole was much bigger.
The two leaned in, almost touching. So close. Then an ad started playing for the wedding music. Eddie turned away to look at the screen but Buck pulled him back in, finally. Finally, making contact.
Theo squealed and started to run around the house, Chris stopped recording and realised the two weren't going to stop so he creeped out, dragging Theo along with him. He made his money and he got the video evidence to prove it. They added that rule when Ravi swore that they kisses at Chim's bachelor party but had no proof and because the two were so wasted they certainly wouldn't remember, they had to add that rule.
Chris still personally is offended Buck thought he waa talking about Denny. Yuck.
Well...