Imagine that while Chris is in Texas, Eddie and Chris talk, and Eddie promises his son he will work on himself, go to therapy, and all that.
So once he's in therapy, he gets told that he needs to stop denying himself happiness. Do what he's always wanted to do--invest in hobbies HE would enjoy, not what is expected of him to enjoy.
Queue Buck being dragged to a pottery workshop because Eddie had always wanted to go in and paint here growing up, but his parents would never let him.
Says painting is too 'girly'.
But he doesn't want to go alone. So he drags Buck, of course. He's a good sport, sits and paints a mug while Eddie paints a bowl. He paints the bowl to look like a watermelon. He's really precise and has always watched videos of others doing it. So he's really concentrating, and Buck can't help but snap a photo of Eddie with his tongue sticking out a little as he's hunched over and painting a watermelon bowl.
"I'm surprised you haven't gone to the Sip and Stroke nights," Buck says as he paints a frog on the bottom of his mug. He adds a little mole underneath one of the frog's eyes.
Buck chuckles. "Weird, I know. Like Paint and Sip? Where you paint and drink wine-"
"We're definitely going!" Eddie says, determined.
Buck blinks when Eddie finds more and more workshops and couples-like classes to do together. Buck finds that Eddie is very...artsy.
He doesn't complain, though. He's never seen Eddie so happy.
On a separate weekend, Eddie and Buck are in his yard doing yard work, of all things. Pulling weeds out, digging a god-forsaken rock that had been bugging Eddie the entire time he's had this house cause no grass grew there.
Eddie plants the prettiest vanilla strawberry hydrangea tree he found at Home Depot. He has an assortment of flowers and plants, as well as an array of frog lawn ornaments.
"Okay," Eddie says one night during their shift. "So there's this cooking class happening in a couple of days.
Buck raises an eyebrow. "Cooking?" he grins.
"Yes, she's doing this whole series of cooking classes on asian cuisine, and that's something you or Bobby have yet to cook on your own, and I really want to try incorporating more fish sauce in cooking cause that's amazing, you should try it--"
"So I signed us up for it," Eddie damn near chirps.
"Shouldn't you have asked Buck first before signing both of you up?" Ravi asks. "What happens if he's got plans?"
Eddie scrunches his face. He looks at Buck, betrayed.
"I have no plans," Buck raises his hands up. "I'm excited."
"What's next, you taking Buck to go pet otters?" Chim teases.
But Eddie is quiet, and Buck knows exactly what his best friend is thinking. Not embarrassment, or fear of being rejected.
Buck turns and sees Eddie's excited look. "You can pet otters?!"
"Probably not around here. You'd have to look that up. That's gonna have to be a few-hour drive," Hen says.
Eddie waves that off. "That would be a fun family weekend trip with Christopher," he says gleefully as he pulls his phone out. "We can totally take turns driving too," Eddie mumbles as he forms plans. He walks away humming.
Buck smiles as he watches Eddie's happy, relaxed expression. His body isn't stiff or tense like before.
