for @911-rarepair-bingo nsfw prompt "premature orgasm" check out my bingo card progress here
read on AO3, excerpt below
Eddie did one last sweep of his house to make sure it was tidy enough for company.
“Sweetheart, it’s just Buck and Tommy,” Josh said, strolling into the kitchen, looking way too damn good in a pair of jeans and a tight blue tee shirt.
“I know, but I can’t help it. Blame my mother. She used to go into a cleaning frenzy any time anyone was coming over.” Eddie said, stashing a cutting board into a drawer. “It’s better when people just drop by unexpectedly like Buck usually does.”
They were having Buck and Tommy over for a game night. They’d started rotating game night at each of their places the last couple months. It was a fun reason to get together. Not that they needed a reason. The four of them got together plenty. But having an excuse made it kind of fun.
Eddie fussed with the spread of food he’d put out and Josh tugged at him, then put his hands on his shoulders. “Let me distract you,” he said, then snaked an arm around Eddie’s middle.
“Distract, huh?” Eddie grinned, letting himself be drawn in for a hot, languid kiss.
They’d been together almost a year and Eddie never thought he’d get tired of this. Shannon aside, his past romantic partners had never made it this far. The key difference being that Josh was a man, which, now that Eddie understood a bit more about himself, made sense.
Eddie couldn’t pinpoint when exactly it started between them. They’d always bickered, ever since the dispatch days. But at some point the bickering took on a flirtatious tilt. Soon they were just teasing and poking fun at each other, egging each other on and making each other laugh. Josh showed up more often at 118 gatherings, claiming to have been dragged there by Maddie (who backed up the lie like a good friend). Then they both attended an adult New Years Eve party at Maddie and Chim’s. A few cups of punch later he and Josh were playing tonsil hockey up against the side of the house to ring in the new year.
Their current tonsil hockey rematch was interrupted by the opening of the front door.
“Hey, we’re here,” Buck called out from the living room after letting himself and Tommy in. Eddie felt a bit flushed and kinda turned on, but he took a deep breath and exhaled before he went out to greet his friends.
for my continuous obsessions with moodboards, here's one for "Cold Call" from rare pairs week (not a new fic).
Josh's peaceful sleep is disrupted by the violence of a home invasion and he tries to call Eddie for help. Can he make it to his boyfriend in time?
prompt: "911 what is your emergency?"
this fic was written based on this interview with my favorite person ever, bryan safi (jeddie truther🫡).
full fic below or on ao3 if you please.
[wc: 2295]
It’s not like he won’t work a holiday – Josh has been known to pick up the shittiest shifts in desperate times – times he needs extra cash for that towel warmer he’s been eyeing. Today is one of those times.
The problem with today – New Year’s Eve – isn’t the working. It’s that Eddie Diaz is also working.
Josh and Eddie have had what Josh would generously describe as bitchy interactions since Eddie transferred to Dispatch. Normally, Josh likes snark. He lives for it, revels in it. But today is not the day.
The citizens of Los Angeles have been at peak idiocy all afternoon, and Josh is twelve limo-related calls deep. If he hears the words “my friend is stuck in the sunroof” one more time, he’s going to scream into his headset. At this point, he might as well dry his freshly moisturized ass with tree bark because the towel warmer fund is feeling cursed, and he is so very over it.
And Eddie? Eddie is not helping.
“We’ve talked about this,” Josh snaps, pouring his third cup of coffee like it’s a sleep-aid and not a life-shortening stimulant. Eddie is behind him, again, broad shoulders crowding his space with military-grade confidence. “You can’t just hijack calls, Eddie. That’s not your job.”
“Look, Josh –” That tone. That infuriatingly calm, condescending tone. Like Josh is a bomb waiting to be diffused, a problem Eddie can solve with tactical precision. Just because he was in the Army and his voice sounds like butter doesn’t mean he’s qualified to play dispatcher. A pretty face and battlefield experience do not make him a communications expert.
Josh realizes he’s been staring, yet again, at Eddie’s annoyingly perfect biceps, the way his hands slot into his pockets, the way his eyes go soft and serious at the corners.
“Can we at least agree on that?” Eddie is saying, and Josh blinks.
“What?” he asks, grabbing a sugar packet to give his hands something to do that isn’t touching Eddie’s arm out of pure rage and possibly lust, if he gives it a second thought.
Eddie smirks, crossing his arms, and there go his biceps again.
“Doesn’t your role have something to do with paying attention?” Eddie asks, all smug amusement.
“I’m very busy, Eddie,” Josh replies, trying to avoid the very real feeling of giddiness that pours into his chest when he sees that goddamn smirk. He tears open the sugar packet with more force than necessary. “When you get involved, you mess up the rhythm. It throws the whole floor off, and I don’t want to have to babysit you in case you screw up.”
“I get it,” Eddie says, throwing his hands up in surrender, “Just seems like you could use the insight – I was –”
“A firefighter and a paramedic,” Josh finishes, rolling his eyes. “We know.”
Eddie laughs, and it’s that stupid adorable laugh. The one that pulls up the left side of his mouth before the right, the apples of his cheeks red and rosy.
Josh feels a swell of pride in his chest at being the cause, but shoves down the obvious signs of a crush. Typical – he’s always hung up on the guys that are unavailable. Notably straight, for one.
“Fine,” Eddie says, leaning against the counter now, frowning slightly. “I’ll back off. Wouldn’t want to interfere with your, you know, very important duties.”
Josh narrows his eyes. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Maybe Eddie isn’t worth the crush after all. Josh sends a note of thanks to Madonna, goddess, that the office New Years’ party is tonight and he can get tipsy on the company dime.
“Nothing,” Eddie shrugs, dismissing the question before pushing through the door and offering an infuriating little wave. “See you out there, Josh.”
Josh absolutely, definitely does not watch him go.
*****
If you ask Eddie his favorite part about working at Dispatch, he’d say clocking out. He’s never been a fan of redundancy – the same routine wearing on him like nails on a chalkboard, just this side of torture.
It’s not that he hates the job or the people. It’s just that he misses adrenaline. He misses doing, being a part of the rescue, the relief. That itch gets scratched a little when he hops on a call, when he helps guide his team and a scene back to order. But apparently, that crosses some line for Josh.
He nipped that in the bud right quick and, honestly, Eddie can’t make heads or tails of it. He seems to have it out for Eddie, watching him like a hawk when he’s chatting with Linda out on the floor. It’s getting a little tiresome.
Eddie’s been here before. Buck was the same way when he first joined the 118. Tense, defensive, territorial. But Josh is…different. He’s a leader, commanding the room with a simple announcement, sharp and composed – always three steps ahead as he guides his team through difficult calls.
It's honestly impressive. Eddie would say that out loud if Josh didn’t look like he’d rather be mauled by a raccoon than accept a compliment from him.
And Eddie would be lying if he said he didn’t push his buttons on purpose. It's hard not to – it’s easy to tease out the way he plants his hands on his hips and tells Eddie off. There’s something about it that tickles Eddie, makes him want to push even further, see how much he can take before he explodes.
But Eddie’s nothing if not professional, so he keeps it in line for the rest of the shift. Mostly.
Thankfully, there’s only a couple of calls that seem to linger longer than the conversation on the phone. And Eddie only has to write two more mind-numbing memos before the shift finally comes to an end.
“Coming tonight?” Linda asks as they both pack up in the break room.
“To what?”
“New Year’s party!” Linda all but shouts, nudging his shoulder. “I don’t know how y’all celebrate at the 118, but here we usually like to unwind with drinks,” she leans in and winks, “several drinks.”
Eddie glances at his watch. Chris is with Pepa tonight. He’s free. And maybe a few drinks will make Josh slightly more tolerable. Maybe.
“Yeah, okay.”
“I’ll send you the address,” she tells him. “Tom’s Watch – we’ve got the back room.”
“Thanks,” he smiles, “I don’t have to pay for anything, do I?”
“The city’s paying,” she grins.
They part in the parking lot with a wave. “See you over there.”
*****
Josh is two vodka tonics in by the time Eddie walks in, trailing behind Linda with that easy smile and too-relaxed body language that immediately sets Josh on edge.
Because of course he’s here.
Of course, on the one night Josh was hoping to unwind and forget that Eddie Diaz exists, he walks in like a goddamn cologne ad and ruins everything.
When they reach the group, Josh greets Linda warmly and then turns to Eddie with the most strained smile he can manage.
“Eddie,” he says, flat as he can manage.
Maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s the butt end of a twelve hour shift, but Josh isn’t past petty. At least not yet. He swings around Eddie and heads for the bar, downing his drink and toying with the idea of a shot. Or two.
It doesn’t take long for Eddie to join him, sliding beside him after Josh downs the first, fingers wrapped around the second. By the time the bartender makes it back with Josh’s drink, he’s already turning around, Eddie’s voice echoing behind him – whiskey neat, who’d have guessed.
A couple rounds of poorly thrown darts with Linda and a bet on a game he has no interest in watching later, Josh feels the effects of the shots. His chest blooms with that hazy kind of warmth he’s been craving since that conversation in the office kitchen.
Eddie’s voice lingers, hovering in pleasant conversation with Linda and Sue, that goofy laugh of his ringing in Josh’s ears like a goddamn siren song. Doing his best to escape the sudden heat growing up his neck and into his cheeks, Josh weaves between co-workers and heads to the bathroom.
He emerges with damp hands and a vague sense that maybe drink number four was a mistake and Josh – all warmth and heady buzz – heads for what he knows is a much-needed glass of water.
The hallway is narrow, lit by the dull yellow of half-flickering bulbs, a brief corridor between the noise of the party and the relative quiet of the rest of the bar. Linda’s queued up some 90’s music, and the chatter of the party fills the space around TLC’s No Scrubs. He rounds the corner…
And walks straight into Eddie Diaz.
Because of course.
“Shit,” Eddie mutters, stepping back just enough to avoid catastrophe – but not before the two drinks in his hands slosh dangerously close to Josh’s chest, his favorite shirt under threat of tacky booze and regret.
Josh blinks, looks down. One drink is whiskey neat. The other is bright pink. With a salted rim.
“Switching it up?” Josh asks, a smirk crawling up his cheeks before he can stop it. “Trying out a new brand? Sensitive with a splash of citrus?”
“It’s a Paloma,” Eddie says, leaning forward. “Some of us like more than diluted vodka for a buzz.”
Josh snorts, tries to sidestep him, but Eddie shifts just enough to block his path again. It’s probably not on purpose, but Josh wouldn’t put it past him – all brawn and muscle mass.
“Don’t you have someone else to annoy?” Josh snarks.
Eddie raises an eyebrow. “Hey, I was just grabbing drinks. You’re the one who crashed into me.”
“You’re standing directly in the hallway.”
“Not my fault you can’t walk in a straight line.”
He’s goading him. Josh knows it, but he just can’t help himself. He plants his feet and cocks a hip, crossing his arms. “Are you seriously incapable of not being difficult for like five minutes?”
Eddie laughs under his breath, his bold brown eyes darkening under the sticky haze of alcohol-coated air and the lingering feeling of regret that hangs in every bar. “I could say the same thing to you. What’s your problem with me, man? Come on just get it out there.”
Josh’s tongue glides across his teeth, lips terse as he holds Eddie’s gaze. “I just don’t like you coming in like you’re better than us – like what we do is some kind of tactical exercise. It isn’t basic training, Diaz.”
Eddie’s jaw tenses, and for a second, he’s silent.
Then, “You don’t like me doing your job better than you, you mean.”
Josh’s mouth falls open, fists clenching at his sides. The rush of blood to his head is so sudden it leaves him a little dizzy. “You really are a smug bastard,” he says with a scoff.
“And you’re obsessed with control,” Eddie shoots back, rolling his eyes. “It’s exhausting.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Josh says, stepping forward, invading Eddie’s space without thinking. “That must be hard for you. Following rules. Listening. Admitting you might be out of your depth.”
“I listen just fine,” Eddie retorts, stepping in too – neither of them has any interest in backing down. “You just don’t like when it’s not you people are listening to.”
There’s a beat. A moment. The hallway shrinks around them, music fading into a muffled thump behind the closed door. Josh can feel Eddie’s heated breath on his skin. His gaze flicks to Eddie’s mouth and he immediately regrets it.
“I swear to god,” Josh says quietly, tightly, “you are the most –”
“–frustrating person you’ve ever met?” Eddie offers. His voice is low, rough and gritty from the depths of his chest. “Yeah. I know.”
And then.
It happens.
Josh can’t be sure who’s first. Him tangling his fingers in Eddie’s shirt. Eddie pushing, shoving him into the wall. It doesn’t matter. Their mouths come crashing together like a head-on collision, all teeth and tension and months of biting at each other’s throats. It’s not gentle. It’s not slow.
It’s infuriatingly good.
Eddie’s hand curls the hem of Josh’s shirt, dragging him closer, and Josh bunches his fingers in the back of Eddie’s jacket without thinking, grasping like he’s still pissed off – which he is. So pissed. Still wants to yell at him. Shove him. Write him a pink slip and call it a day.
Break him apart to put him back together piece by irritating piece.
They break apart just enough to breathe – barely – eyes holding in stunned silence.
Josh’s chest is heaving. Eddie’s lips are red, jaw clenched like he’s holding back something stupid.
“I didn’t –” Josh starts, words failing in ways they never have before.
Eddie shakes his head once, breathless. Josh can feel his heart racing beneath the warmth of his palm, branched across Eddie’s chest. “Yeah. Same.”
Josh takes a sudden step back, shoving his hands into his pockets, hoping his brain will somehow reset between this moment and the next.
In the distance, someone opens the party room door, calling, “Hey, anyone seen Eddie? He has my Paloma!”
Eddie coughs a laugh, backs away a step, running a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair. Josh has always had a thing for the 90’s teen heartthrob type. “I should…uh.”
“Yeah,” Josh says quickly, eyes darting, looking anywhere but at him. “Go. Do that.”
Eddie nods. Pauses like he might say something else. Doesn’t. Just disappears down the hallway.
Josh leans back against the wall, breath still uneven, and wonders how the hell he’s going to get through the rest of the night without doing that again.
"She may seem like lollipops and rainbows but i bet behind closed doors she’s latex and whips."
(Good lord, what is this prompt even. This is diabolical. Your punishment is a fic that's way too fucking long. Remember when these were a few hundred words at the most? Pepperidge Farms remembers.)
There's a party at Maddie and Chim's, because Chimney has decided that a big monthly get-together is good for teambuilding. Eddie kind of agrees, but it seems to also be an excuse to just hang out and eat food and sometimes get drunk.
Case in point, he's been drinking whatever the fuck Josh made for him, and it's good enough that he's had a couple. He's crammed on the front step with Josh while Josh tries to explain gay memes and videos to him via his saved stuff on TikTok and Instagram.
"Is there, like, a class you had to take to know all this?" Eddie asks slowly.
"What? No. I'm just not a fucking hermit," Josh says, downing the rest of his drink and setting his cup down between his feet. "Okay, now remember: ate is great. So if we say someone ate--"
"They did good?" Eddie guesses.
"Aw, look at you learning," Josh coos, pressing a hand to his heart like he's proud of Eddie. "We'll rip you out of that repression straitjacket sooner or later, kid."
"I'm not repressed," Eddie protests, because he's not. No matter what half the 118 says. Or Karen. Or Tommy. "I'm just, y'know, a regular guy. People can be regular people. You're best friends with Maddie, she's just a regular woman."
Josh snorts and goes back to scrolling on his phone. "Please, she might seem like lollipops and rainbows, but I bet you anything she's latex and whips behind closed doors."
Eddie sputters on the sip of his drink. "What?"
"Relax, I'm kidding. I'm also not saying that you're repressed because you're into vanilla sex," Josh says, rolling his eyes. "You're repressed because you seem to be desperately clinging to an idea of what masculinity needs to be when that's just not how things have to be anymore. We've moved on. My cousin's kid doesn't even have a gender. You just need to stop giving a shit about what it means to be a man and learn what it means to be yourself."
His first instinct is to scoff, his second one is to be annoyed, but the third one tells him to just freeze and stare. Because what?
"I was raised in a very traditional family to be a very specific type of man," he says with a little flourish of his hand and a smile. "And look at me now. I'm happy, I'm proud, I'm adorable."
"You think I'm not adorable?" Eddie jokes weakly.
Josh's eyes sweep over him, and he quirks up an eyebrow. "You're a lot of things, Eddie, but I don't know if I could land on 'adorable.'"
"Where could you land?" Eddie asks, swallowing and suddenly really wanting to know.
"I--" Josh starts, then laughs and pushes Eddie's shoulder. "Shut up. I'm going to go drink some water. Maybe even eat something."
When he hops up, Eddie hesitates before following. Later, he's getting a headache from sobering up at four in the afternoon and asks Athena if she thinks he's repressed.
She stares at him for a long time before sipping her ice tea and setting it down. "That sounds like a question you only ask when you already know the answer. But I can still say it, if it'll help you."
Eddie drinks half a bottle of water in response.
"It's not your fault," she says kindly, which is worse.
When people start to leave, Eddie heads toward the bathroom. It opens right as he goes to knock, and Josh almost walks into him.
"Whoops," he says, smiling.
"Sorry," Eddie says automatically, and then they do the awkward trying to squeeze around each other dance and sort of end up jammed in the doorway together.
Josh places a hand on Eddie's waist to firmly shift him toward the bathroom and to get himself away from it, and Eddie feels like his brain is yelling over itself. It does that a lot.
After he washes his hands but before he goes back out, he does some googling.
"Huh," he says, looking at himself in the mirror. "Well. Fuck."
At the next party, they have everyone bring their favorite comfort food. It's been a rough few weeks after some bad calls that dispatch had to field and the 118 had to respond to.
This time, Eddie sits on the front step by himself for a bit until Josh plops down next to him and hands over a cup.
"What's in this?" he asks, drinking it. It's the same as last time, and it's sweet and dangerous and makes his head throb if he doesn't eat enough.
"Some horrific twist on a Tiki drink that I started making in college," Josh replies. "Think of it as small batch Jungle Juice."
"Artisan Fish Bowl?" Eddie suggests, and Josh nods consideringly. "So what do you got for me this time?"
He finds out what a death drop is, that iced coffee is apparently a gay thing, and that Josh is into guys with dad bods. He finds out the last thing because he bookmarked something on the wrong account.
"You have another Instagram?" Eddie asks.
Josh snorts and side-eyes him. "Of course I do. My coworkers don't need to see my thirst traps."
"You post thirst traps?" he asks with probably more incredulity than is warranted based on Josh's offended expression.
"Excuse you, I'm not completely unfortunate looking."
Eddie flushes. "That's not what I meant. You're not--yeah, you're cute, but I wouldn't have thought--ignore that. All of it."
Josh bites his lip and bumps their shoulders. "Not the part where you said I was cute."
"Fine," Eddie concedes, biting back a smile as he shakes his head. "You're such a brat."
"A cute brat," Josh corrects, looking over at him with a smile.
When Eddie kisses him, he's pretty sure they're both equally surprised. Except it's kinda nice, even if they both freeze for the first half second.
"For the record," Josh says softly when the kiss breaks, "I wasn't trying to imply you were closeted when I called you repressed."
"For the record, I didn't think you were," Eddie says just as softly.
"We should wait until you're sober to--"
"Yeah, the two sips of that really got to me," Eddie deadpans.
Josh sighs and curls over his knees a little. "Okay. Then maybe we just talk about this later. Not on someone else's porch."
"Yeah," Eddie says, looking out toward the road and pretending it doesn't feel like shit when Josh gets up and goes inside.
He feels like he should be panicking right now, because he just kissed a guy, but he's mostly just really wishing he'd planned that out a lot better.
The opportunity to talk to Josh doesn't come up the rest of the party, but it's presented to him at the end. He goes to grab his jacket from the hook and feels an unfamiliar weight in the pocket. There's a wallet inside, and when he opens it to check the ID, it says 'Joshua Anwar Russo.'
"Please tell me that's Josh's," Maddie says, and he nods. "Oh thank God. Jee apparently pickpocketed everyone's jackets, so I just found Buck's wallet in my bathroom and Tommy's keys in my purse."
Eddie looks around Maddie at the little troublemaker in question, who's smiling up at him like she figured out the best game ever. "Ooh, someone's gonna get talked to by Auntie Athena about being a law-abiding citizen. Don't worry, I had everything on me. I can bring this back, though. I'll be in the neighborhood."
That's a lie. He's actually doubling back by going to Josh's, but it's the excuse he needed. When he knocks on the apartment door, Josh answers, looks surprised to see him until Eddie holds out the wallet, and then he just looks relieved.
"You didn't have to, I'll see her tomorrow," Josh says, taking the wallet and flipping through everything. "Well, at least she didn't steal my credit cards."
"They'll give her a lighter sentence, then," Eddie jokes, and Josh snorts softly before tossing the wallet on a little table by the door. "I didn't know where else to find you except dispatch and their place, so I offered to bring it."
"And why would you need to find me outside those places?" Josh asks, and Eddie flushes. "Look. You're unbelievably hot. Like, the fact that you shaved off the mustache and still look this good is stupid. But I've done the whole 'Experimenting straight guy' thing, and it usually ends with me getting my heart broken and realizing I've spent months mostly sucking someone's dick without a lot of reciprocation. So we can just forget it ever happened and go back to being mildly tolerant of each other."
Eddie tilts his head as he considers the offer. "You liked the mustache?"
"You're kidding, right? Yes. If you'd slapped on a leather vest, I'm pretty sure I would've crawled to you on my knees and begged you to--nope, no. Boundaries. But look up Tom of Finland when you get a chance, and you'll understand." He sighs and crosses his arms, looking more like he's hugging himself. "It was just a fluke, okay? I'm okay with that. Or I can be."
"Or," Eddie says slowly, leaning against the doorway and crossing his own arms, "it's not a fluke and I wanted to kiss you anyway."
"I just said--"
Eddie cuts him off with another kiss, and Josh hooks a hand behind his neck and pulls him inside.
"Fuck it," he breathes before kissing Eddie again.
Eddie kicks the door shut behind him and curls his hands over Josh's neck and jaw, sucking at his bottom lip and trying to pull soft noises out of him.
"Begged me to what?" Eddie murmurs, unbuttoning Josh's shirt with clumsy fingers.
"Huh?"
"You said you would've crawled on your knees and begged me to..."
Josh flushes, reaching for the hem of Eddie's shirt. "Let me go for a ride? Bury my face in your dick? There were a lot of places my brain went."
Eddie yanks his shirt off and pushes Josh's off before tugging at the tank top underneath. "Maybe I'll let it grow again, see if that clears things up."
Josh has really nice pecs that are covered in hair, and Eddie wants to bury his face in them, so apparently the thing about Josh definitely being a dude isn't going to be an issue. They fumble with their pants until Josh pushes him away and points at him.
"You deal with yours, I deal with mine," he pants, chest heaving, his mouth and chin are pink and Eddie wonders if he looks the same.
He gets his shoes, socks, and jeans off, and Josh does the same. He's in navy briefs, and he's hard, and Eddie understands the crawling on the knees and begging thing now. He gets on his knees and presses his face to Josh's bulge, and it sparks something low in his belly that makes him want to taste. He licks across the hard line of Josh's dick, and a hand buries itself in his hair while another one braces on his shoulder.
"Jesus," Josh chokes out. "Okay, wait, what's your plan here?"
Eddie looks up at him and shrugs. "Didn't really have one."
"Fantastic, this isn't going to end in literal tears for one or both of us," Josh mutters, tugging his head back, and Eddie lets out a soft noise at the feeling of having his hair pulled a little. "God, I want you to fuck me so badly. This is stupid."
He feels a little offended. "Wanting me to fuck you is stupid?"
"Uh, yes," Josh replies with a strangled little laugh. "Have you ever touched a dick that wasn't yours? Outside of medical reasons?"
"No, but I'm a fast learner," Eddie says, grabbing the waistband of Josh's underwear. "Can I?"
Josh gestures helplessly. "Knock yourself out."
"Man, there's no way you get guys talking like that," Eddie says, and Josh flicks his ear. "Ow!"
"Don't call me 'man' when you're about to get me naked."
Eddie rubs his ear and glares up at him. "Pushy."
"Uh, says the guy who accosted me in my own home." Josh hooks his thumbs under his waistband and pulls his underwear down to his thighs, and Eddie takes care of them the rest of the way.
Josh's dick is kinda pretty. It's all tan pink and uncut and sticks straight out, and the hair at the base is really well trimmed. The head's shiny, and Eddie's reminded of candy for some reason. He reaches for it and rubs his thumb over the slit, and Josh swears, grabbing his shoulders again.
"Can I?" Eddie asks, and Josh nods. He gives the head a tentative lick, and it's slick and salty and wet. Then he does it again, closing his eyes, and when he sucks the head into his mouth, Josh's fingers dig into his shoulders.
He feels a little like he's outside of his own body right now, but only because normally he would've stopped himself about fifty steps before he got to this point. But he's spent the last month trying to not do that, and it's yielded some interesting results. He's picked up cross-stitching, and now he's had his mouth on Josh's dick.
Eddie pulls back and stands up, wanting to kiss him again, and Josh wraps his arms around his shoulders and pulls himself against Eddie tight. Eddie gets an arm around his waist and murmurs for him to hold on. It's easy to lift him, and Josh grinds slowly against his stomach.
"I haven't done this in a while," he says.
"The carrying part or the sex part?" Eddie asks.
Josh looks a little offended again. "That carrying part, thank you."
Eddie rolls his eyes. "Okay, well, it's both for me, so chill out. Where's your room?"
"End of the hall," Josh replies, and Eddie navigates them there easily enough. He lays Josh out on the bed and pulls his own underwear off before getting on the bed with him. He covers Eddie's body with his own and kisses him, and Eddie brings a hand up to curl in his hair and trails his other fingers down his spine until he grips his ass. "So you're not going to run out in a fit of gay panic, just so we're clear?"
Eddie grinds up against him and hisses softly when his cock catches on the side of Josh's. "Hadn't planned on it, no."
"Thought you didn't have one?" Josh teases, and Eddie cannot possibly be this turned on by how bitchy this man is.
"Yeah, well, I came up with one in the meantime," he says, rolling them over until Josh is under him, and he flicks his hair back when it gets in his face. "The details are kinda fuzzy still, but I know it ends with making you cum. How's that?"
Josh nods quickly. "Yeah, good plan. I like that plan. I do have a few suggestions, though."
"Of course you do," Eddie mutters, and Josh pinches his side. "I don't know why I thought you'd be nicer."
"Me either. Let me disappear for a few minutes, because I was actually serious about wanting you to fuck me," he says.
Eddie's about to ask why when a couple of Josh's memes about top privilege pop into his head and gets up so Josh can get off the bed. "Ah. Yeah. Wait, what if I wanted to get fucked?"
"I called dibs, wait your turn," Josh says over his shoulder before going into the bathroom.
He uses the opportunity to track down his pants, grab his phone, and look up how to not fuck up having gay sex for the first time. He also texts Tommy for tips.
Uhhh. Well. Go slow, be patient, use lots of lube, check in, find out where his prostate is, and have fun. Is this about Josh?
When Eddie asks how the fuck he knows it's about Josh, he shouldn't be surprised by the response he gets.
Because you've been following him around every time you're anywhere near him and also I saw you kiss him when I walked by the living room window. Also, Evan just read all this over my shoulder and says you should call Josh a good boy, but I'd ask him first if he's into that.
Eddie could really stand to know a lot less about his friends. He tosses his phone on the nightstand and lays back with a sigh.
Josh comes back out, and he smiles when Eddie looks over at him.
"Gotta be honest, I thought you might be gone," Josh admits.
Eddie rolls onto his side and uses the chance to check Josh out. "Not a chance."
"Well," Josh says, climbing onto the bed, "what are the chances you've had anal sex?"
"Zero, but I did become an expert in the last five minutes," Eddie says, grinning. "I consulted the internet and Tommy. And kind of Buck, but he didn't really help."
Josh looks surprised as he stretches out next to Eddie, and Eddie fits a thigh between his and kisses his jaw. "You told them?"
"Yeah," Eddie says, then panics. "Is that okay?"
"I--yeah," he says, bringing a hand up to Eddie's cheek. "You just surprise me, is all."
He draws him down into a kiss, and they do that for a long time until they're panting and moving against each other. Then Josh reaches into his nightstand and pulls out lube and a strip of condoms, and Eddie opens him up carefully while he's laying next to Josh and holding one of his legs back for him. Josh's expression gets a little pinched, his face and chest flush, and he lets out these noises that make Eddie want to draw this out for as long as possible.
"Diaz, if you don't get inside me now, I'm opening up three different apps on my phone and finding someone who will," Josh threatens.
Eddie's cock twitches, not at the idea of Josh having another guy over, but maybe Josh being a little bitchy does turn him on.
"Is it okay like this?" he asks uncertainly when he settles between Josh's thighs. Which he likes. He likes Josh's thighs a lot.
"This is okay," Josh confirms with a little smile. "I know I talk a big game, but I kinda like it just like this."
Eddie, who gets to see the shift in Josh's face when he pushes in slowly, is inclined to agree. He thought he'd prepared himself for how this would feel, but he wasn't anywhere close to understanding how tight it would be. He presses his forehead to Josh's chest and shudders when he's almost all the way in, and Josh's nails scratch over his scalp.
"You f-feel so good," Eddie chokes out.
"Sweet talker," Josh teases, and Eddie pushes the rest of the way in so he can kiss him. Josh arches under him and works his hips against Eddie's pelvis as Eddie draws back and thrusts in. "H-holy shit, that's so good."
Eddie wants to make a joke, but his brain's just sort of wiped clean of anything else. All he can do right now is fuck into the tight heat surrounding his cock and run his hands over Josh's body and kiss him.
"This okay?" he asks.
"Yes, yes, perfect. Oh, fuck," Josh whines when Eddie hitches of his legs up a little higher. "Yeah, like that. Fuck me just like that, baby."
It's weird that out of everything, that's what makes Eddie almost cum. He does what Josh says, fucking into him until Josh makes a noise that's almost like a sob. When he reaches between them to start jerking himself off, Eddie watches raptly.
"Don't stop," Josh begs, and Eddie starts moving again, not even realizing he slowed down to watch him. "You good?"
"Yeah," Eddie says, smiling and turning his head to wipe his forehead on his shoulder. "You just look good like that."
"Yeah?" Josh asks, groaning. "Like what?"
"Touching yourself," Eddie says, feeling shy and a little silly. He's never really been a talker like this during sex. He looks down at Josh's hand, his cock, and where he can see himself fucking into his body and turns his head to kiss the side of Josh's calf. "You look good taking my cock, cariño."
Josh reaches up to turn Eddie's face back toward him, and he's looking at Eddie with something like fondness. "Come here."
Eddie covers Josh again, kissing him and fucking him in long strokes until he feels like he can't hold back his orgasm anymore.
"Fuck, 'm gonna cum," he says against his mouth.
"Do it, give it to me," Josh pleads.
He does as he's told, fucking Josh hard until he's burying his face in his neck to muffle the loud, harsh cry he lets out. He feels like he's cumming forever, and Josh is swearing softly and trying to rub himself against Eddie's stomach.
He gets too sensitive really fast, so he pulls out, moves down Josh's body, and presses two fingers into him while he sucks the head of his cock and then takes in a little more.
"Fuck," Josh swears, arching under him as he cums.
It does not taste good, but Eddie knew that would be the case. He only tastes the first couple pulses of cum before he pulls off and starts jerking him off through the rest of his orgasm. After, Josh hauls him up and wraps a leg around him as he kisses him.
"You can panic later, but I like to cuddle after," Josh says when Eddie turns them onto their sides.
"Me, too," Eddie says, smiling. "Don't worry, I panicked about this shit like three weeks ago in the privacy of my own home."
"Yeah? How'd that go?" Josh asks, closing his eyes and snuggling closer.
"I went to confession, had coffee with the priest after, it actually went okay," he says, and Josh's hand freezes where it had been stroking over his back. "He helped me a while back, except I did shave after I talked to him the first time."
"Well, then he can't be trusted," Josh says, looking at him with a smile. "Get a better priest."
"The mustache was a metaphor at the time. Now I might grow it out again," he says, reaching back for his phone. "What was that guy's name again?"
Josh lays his head on Eddie's bicep as they look up at the phone screen. "Tom of Finland. He was a gay artist. You might hate this, I don't know."
Eddie's eyebrows raise as he scrolls through the images. "I mean. My dick's just not that big, sorry. And those jeans look too tight. But this is what I reminded you of?"
He scoffs. "Uh, yeah? Have you seen you? Not that I should be telling you this, but you'd clean up at Eagle. Just wall-to-wall twinks and daddies."
"What if I just wanted you?" Eddie asks, and Josh grabs his phone, tosses it somewhere off the bed, and kisses him before he can protest.
"Stop being so sincere, it's really making it hard to pretend I don't like you as much as I do," Josh complains before coming back in for another kiss.
"How much do you like me?" Eddie teases, and Josh rolls his eyes. "Do you like like me? Do you have a crush? Are we gonna go steady?"
"Shut up."
Eddie wraps him in his arms and legs until Josh stops glaring at him. Then he buries his face in Eddie's chest and sighs.
"You told your priest about me?"
"Yeah," Eddie says, smiling and closing his eyes. "He said go for it. Choose joy always and whatever. Except I just wanted to maybe buy you dinner then."
"You can definitely still do that. I like dinner."
They negotiate a time to get dinner in a couple days, since Eddie needs to pick Chris up from a birthday party by 7. So he tells Siri, wherever the fuck she landed, to set an alarm for 6:00, which is in about a half hour. So they cuddle until they doze off, and then Eddie gets in one of those magical twenty minute power naps that makes him feel like he slept an entire night.
Josh walks him out to his car, looking all fluffy and cute in his pajamas with his hair messed up. Eddie pulls him into a kiss, and Josh makes a soft noise against his mouth before pulling away.
"I should probably give you my number," he says.
"Oh, yeah," Eddie realizes, pulling out his phone. He calls Josh's number after he gets it. "There you go. Send me memes."
"Okay," Josh says with a shy smile. "FaceTime me if you have any questions."
Eddie smiles, kisses him again. "Will do."
When he pulls up to the curb to get his son, Chris puts his crutches inside and gets into the passenger seat.
"How was the party?" Eddie asks once he's settled in.
"Good. I got a date," Chris replies with a grin. "Just one. What about you?"
"Good," Eddie says, grinning. "I got a date."
Chris holds up a fist, and Eddie bumps it. "Hell yeah."
"Don't say that," he says automatically, and Chris rolls his eyes. "Okay, fine. Hell yeah."
These are my fics that I wrote for the 9-1-1 Rarepair Bingo on Tumblr in 2025:
Note: 6 couple fics about Jeddie (Josh/Eddie).
Fall For You [1/6] (Jeddie)
Get Out of Your Head [2/6] (Jeddie)
Can't Get Out [3/6] (Jeddie)
Better Late Than Not At All [4/6] (Jeddie)
Bad At Love [5/6] (Jeddie)
Going Crazy [6/6] (Jeddie)
Eddie Diaz/Josh Russo | Rated E | 4513 words
for @911-rarepair-bingo NSFW prompt "this isn't what it looks like"
check out my bingo card progress here
read on AO3, excerpt below
After an incredible carb-filled dinner, Eddie lay on the couch in the station 118 loft, a hand on his warm, full stomach. Drowsy, his eyes drifted closed as he listened to the sounds around him - Ravi stuck on dish duty, Hen and Chim playing a round of pool.
“Get your shoes off the couch, Buck scolded, smacking at Eddie’s boots.
Eddie sighed and shifted so his body was awkwardly angled, feet now on the floor. He didn’t want to move for at least the next two hours.
Which was, of course, when the alarm system decided to sound. Medical emergency, head trauma. The address was oddly familiar.
“That’s the dispatch center!” Buck said as they jogged down the stairs.
Eddie’s stomach tightened. These types of calls were harder when it was people they knew. His eyes shot over to Chim.
“It’s not Maddie,” Chim announced quickly, holding up his phone as he hopped into the passenger seat of the ambulance with Hen behind the wheel.
From the captain’s seat, Bobby reported in over their headsets. “Sounds like it was someone in IT.”
“Terry?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah,” Bobby answered. “He lost consciousness for several seconds but he’s awake now.”
“I sometimes forget you worked there,” Buck said, looking over at Eddie.
“Wish I could,” Eddie quipped, then sat back for the rest of the ride, ignoring the funny feeling in his stomach that had nothing to do with the amount of pasta he’d eaten at dinner and everything to do with who he might see at dispatch.
His feelings about Josh Russo were…complicated. Or maybe not all that complicated. They had a little thing going, a little back and forth, friendly arguing. They gave each other a hard time but it was…flirty. And he liked it. Eddie really liked it - the banter, the ribbing. He liked how easy it was for Josh to get under his skin.
He liked the way his skin kinda tingled when they were near each other - like microscopic atoms were trying to escape his skin to be closer to Josh. He liked the way Josh looked when he teased him, his handsome face relaxed and amused at Eddie’s expense. He liked the way Josh’s work polo pulled tight across his muscular chest when he leaned back to laugh.
Who knew if he was even working today?
Eddie hoped he was working today.
Hen and Chim rushed inside with their med kits while the rest of them followed, ready to be useful and fetch things if needed.
When they entered the call center, most of the employees were still working. Emergency calls didn’t wait.
Maddy knelt on the ground, kneeling beside Terry and putting pressure on his wound while Sue waved them over.
“I’m fine,” Terry insisted, but Maddie made eye contact with Chim and gave a subtle shake of her head.
“Alright, Ter, can you tell me where you are?” Chim asked, fishing out his pen light.
“Work,” Terry answered with uncharacteristic irritation
Chim flashed his light around in Terry’s face, checking his pupils.
Things seemed to be well in hand, so Eddie wandered away, one hand in his pocket and the other idly stroking his mustache. No reason to crowd the scene. His eyes casually scanned the room until he spotted dark hair, a blue polo, and a confident posture.
Eddie doesn’t know how to feel good. He wants Josh to make him.
Josh can be hesitant at first, or super into it right away. Would prefer him bossy and domineering and maybe a little condescending. Would love to see Eddie desperate, whining, gagging for it by the end.
Also consider: Eddie trying to get away and Josh hauling him back in a mean but tender way, like “you’re going to feel good” or “we’re not done until my pretty boy cums” and/or Eddie struggling and being physically stronger then Josh, but Josh controlling him with just his words/voice
DNW: infidelity or Eddie using Josh as a stand-in for someone, feminization, overly detailed in-text negotiation
interested in claiming this prompt for yourself? find it here on ao3!
Category is: RomCom vibes. Quick and easy. Rarepair. For the Jeddie likers. There are DOZENS OF US. DOZENS. <3
Pairing: Josheddie/Jeddie/EddieJosh
Chapter 1/Day 1 LINK HERE
Summary:
Eddie’s no good, very bad fabulous little vacation to wine country. And damn, there's only one bed??
Snip Snip:
Josh peruses the wine list while they chat. This place lets you pick your lineup for a tasting flight, so while Josh generally knows what he wants he’s also trying to see if he can guide Eddie’s choices too.
“And what about you two?” Gil asks, breaking Josh’s concentration. "How long have you two been together?"
He looks up at them quizzically. “Us two who?” Josh asks. “Me and him?” He hooks his thumb in Eddie’s direction.
“Oh, my boyfriend likes that joke too,” he says fondly.
“We aren’t together,” Eddie says, sounding flustered.
“Yeah, just the single friends who tagged along, ha,” Josh says weakly.
Gil shares a knowing glance with everyone else present and Josh knows what that look means. It means haha not together yet or wait until they’ve had more wine and see what happens. Josh knows he’s bright red and refuses to look over at Eddie. Their friends do nothing to shut this down, either.
The issue is not helped when Eddie does indeed ask Josh for help with his wine selections and Josh ends up just ordering for both of them.
this is just to say I am OBSESSED with your Eddie x Josh and if more of that ever popped up I would be SEATED
I don't know if this was referring to a specific fic or ficlet or just ~vibes~ but I do love writing these two so much:
It starts, in all places, in El Paso.
Eddie's grabbing food for dinner, and someone taps him on the shoulder by the pasta.
"I thought that was you," Josh says, smiling.
And seeing a familiar face, a Los Angeles face, makes a grin spread across Eddie's. "Dude, what are you doing in El Paso?"
"Visiting my sister. What are you doing in El Paso?"
Eddie shrugs and smiles. "I live here again. Moved back for my kid."
And Josh doesn't drop his smile, but he does look a little confused. "Oh, that's--wow. I had no idea."
They somehow end up agreeing to meet up at a brewery Josh's brother-in-law likes, even though Eddie's never thought of hanging out with Josh outside of stuff like baby showers or Maddie and Chimney's wedding. But it's really nice to see someone he knows who he isn't related to.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Eddie says.
"Yeah," Josh agrees, smiling and pulling his phone from his pocket. He sighs and rolls his eyes. "Sorry, it's my sister, who probably thinks I got lost trying to get salad."
He picks up the phone and starts rapidly arguing with someone as he walks away, and Eddie smiles to himself before grabbing some penne.
--
Chris scrunches his nose at Eddie's shirt. "I don't like it."
Eddie plucks the shirt away from his waist and looks down at it. "What? Why? What's wrong with it?"
"It makes you look like a dad."
He looks at the kid he loves with all his heart and considers checking whether he should check if there's an exception to the safe haven drop-off window if they're fourteen and being annoying. "I am a dad."
"Yeah, but you want to look cool," Chris says, opening Eddie's closet and poking through his clothes. "Wear this one."
Eddie grabs the hanger so Chris doesn't have to worry about knocking shit around with his crutch and looks at the shirt. "Dude, this is a date shirt. I'm not going on a date, I'm paying too much for a beer with Josh."
"Yeah, but Josh doesn't dress like a dad." Chris pushes his glasses up his nose and smiles at Eddie like he's just made the greatest point ever, and Eddie mutters to himself and changes his shirt.
--
Josh is wearing a dark shirt with the top two buttons undone, showing off chest hair Eddie hadn't expected. It wouldn't really be a noteworthy outfit if Eddie wasn't wearing the exact same thing. So he takes advantage of Josh being distracted by his phone and unbuttons his shirt all the way to reveal the tank top underneath.
"Hey," he says, sliding onto a barstool next to him.
"Hello," Josh says, smiling at him before tapping something on his phone and putting it in his pocket. "So, we're both from El Paso and this somehow never came up during our not at all painful time as colleagues."
"Well, we had so much else to talk about," Eddie points out, trying to sound light and not at all like he doesn't want Josh to ask him about firefighting.
Unfortunately, it comes up in about five minutes.
"So they did not hire me," Eddie says, and Josh looks genuinely surprised. "Yeah. Apparently having an open invitation back to the 118 just torpedoed my chances, but I'm first on the list at about seven stations if they get any openings."
Josh looks taken aback at that. "That's absolutely ridiculous, you're an experienced firefighter with a medic background, was he on fucking drugs? What idiot wouldn't hire someone like that? You were trained in one of the best departments in the country. Fuck that and fuck him, good riddance."
Then he holds his glass up to Eddie, and Eddie clinks his beer with a smile. "Thanks. It's actually kinda reassuring to hear that from someone who isn't my best friend."
"I am nothing if not a source of perspective," he says with an air of serenity that makes Eddie laugh. "So what're you doing in the meantime?"
Eddie sighs. "Don't laugh."
"About you being El Paso's hot new go-go boy, why would I?" he jokes with a pointed look at Eddie's chest. "I won't laugh. You don't want to know what my resume looks like."
"I'm an Uber driver," he admits.
"Do Lyft, too, you'll make extra money when people are app hopping," Josh says, and Eddie blinks. "Oh, sorry, am I supposed to be cackling about you having to engage in gig work because some fire captain has an inferiority complex?"
"I mean...yeah," Eddie says, and Josh shrugs. "Huh."
"I sold vacuums for three months in college. Not well. I was the worst service writer in the history of the automotive industry, I worked three jobs when I moved to Los Angeles, none of which I'm particularly proud of, was a waiter when I wasn't a stenographer, and then I became the highly skilled dispatcher you know and love." Josh slides his empty glass away. "And I got lucky. Sometimes people have to start over. Look at Maddie or Buck or Hen. And you're young, you have time to hit a rough patch for a bit. You'll be alright, soldier."
Eddie leans over and grabs a happy hour menu. "You want to split some overpriced, under-sized wings?"
Josh grins and nudges his arm. "I thought you'd never ask."
--
Thankfully, they find more to talk about than work. Josh actually went to high school with Eddie's cousin Lexi and thought she was just as much of a self-involved brat as Eddie does. He gets to see the way Josh gets increasingly delighted over how much of her social media persona is made up and that her husband is actually a conspiracy theorist weirdo who convinced her they needed a prepper room.
"Also, her kids suck, man," Eddie groans. "Well, Jaylee isn't bad. She's definitely going to go to college and never talk to her mom again."
"Good for her, more people should do that." Josh sips his drink through a straw without lifting it from the bar and looks over at Eddie. "'Jaylee'?"
Eddie shrugs helplessly, and they both burst into giggles. He's definitely more buzzed than he'd meant to be.
"I should switch to water," he says, turning his head to look at Josh, his cheek squished against his shoulder. "You still talk to your parents?"
"My mom." He chews on the end of his straw for a long moment. "I bet you have a great relationship with your parents."
"I have a...complicated relationship," Eddie admits. "I love them, and they try. But there's...stuff."
"Usually is." Josh sips until there's no more to sip and then pushes the drink away. "You ever get the feeling all our parents needed therapy and just had kids instead?"
Eddie freezes and thinks about it for a moment. "Well, now I do. Hey, at least your parents didn't try a do-over with your own kid."
Josh winces. "Yeah. I mean, I don't have kids. Probably. I donated sperm in college, but I checked the box saying I did not want to know what came of that."
"Hm. More lucrative than selling vacuums?" Eddie teases.
"So much, and so much more fun," Josh says, laughing. "Also plasma until I got my first boyfriend. But I get it. My mom's better with my nephews than she was with me. Granted, neither of them is trying to convince her to let them stay up late and watch Top Hat. I think she might actually be trying with them."
"Sucks," Eddie says before drinking his last mouthful of beer. "That's a good movie."
"One of the best," Josh agrees, looking over at him with a smile. "You like old musicals?"
"Some of 'em. I used to dance." He props his temple on his fist and looks over at Josh. "Ballroom. Started out in tap, then I almost broke my neck trying to do this roller skate tap number in the street outside our house. So my mom thought ballroom or ballet would be safer. I picked ballroom, made me think of Fred Astaire."
"You any good?" It feels like a challenge instead of a question.
"Now? I'm alright. But I used to be good. In another life, I could be one of those Dancing With the Stars pros," Eddie jokes.
"Mm, having affairs with C-list starlets and semi-retired models," Josh sighs, and Eddie laughs. "Glamorous."
"What about you?" Eddie asks. "In another life, what's Josh doing?"
"I wanted to be a writer and do a whole Eat, Pray, Love thing, find some gorgeous guy to fall in love with, write about all of it and make a mint." He shrugs. "I got as far as Los Angeles, got roped into doing a Scientology personality test once, and am still depressingly single."
"You could do it," Eddie insists. "Go take a few weeks off, go somewhere people go to have adventures, find some guy who's gonna sweep you off your feet, and do some yoga. It'll be great."
"Yeah, I'll get right on that," Josh says dryly.
Eddie gets a water, Josh switches to Diet Coke.
--
"We can talk a walk, see how you're feeling when we make it back," Josh suggests when Eddie's still not comfortable driving after they settle the tab. Well, after Josh does. He'd snuck his card in when Eddie was in the bathroom.
"Not a bad idea," Eddie agrees, and they set off on foot. "When do you go back home?"
"Three more days. You still think of it as home?"
Eddie considers it for a long moment. "I think so. I don't know. I've got this house here, my kid. It's just an adjustment, I guess."
"You ever want to move back?"
"Maybe," he admits, even though he wants nothing more.
"You don't have to pretend to be okay with what's happening in your life, like, all the time," Josh says. "Especially when you're around your friends."
Eddie wants to ask if they are friends, but it's been feeling like it for a few hours. "All the time. I just can't. I need to be there for my kid, I can't fuck up his life more than I already have. He's been through too much, and I haven't always helped. Or it's been me putting him through it. He moved here first, and I followed him."
Josh nods and tips his head back to look at something in the sky, and Eddie spots a plane. "My dad just sort of left one day. He sent a letter after two weeks, and I've seen him twice since then. He tried apologizing that last time, and I asked him why he had to leave me and not just Mom. No answer. So I left, and he just sat there and let me go. And I wanted him to follow me and tell me anything, but he could've even do that. I'm not giving you a pass on whatever it is you did, but at least you moved halfway across the country to try."
Eddie smiles at the sidewalk and then at Josh. "Thanks."
"Anytime," he says, shrugging, then he stops in his tracks. "Oh, I could fuck up an apple fritter right now."
He follows Josh's gaze and sees a sign for a 24-hour donut shop, and he wants a maple glazed old-fashioned so bad he can taste it. "Oh, fuck yeah."
--
They're walking with their donuts, and Eddie's got a few stashed in a bag for him and Chris, though there's an extra maple bacon bar that he will not be sharing. It'll go in the back of a cabinet for after bedtime, and Josh teases the everloving shit out of him for being a parent who hides junk food from their kid.
"Hey, sometimes you need to have a pint of Chunky Monkey hiding behind the frozen peas or he'll eat the whole thing in two days. Teenage boys are fucking bottomless pits, I didn't use to have to do this shit when he was tiny and cute," Eddie says defensively before taking a massive bite from his donut. "Oh, my god."
"Need a moment?" Josh asks as Eddie lets out a probably obscene noise. "Careful with that, anyone hears you around this next corner and they'll think it's an invitation."
Eddie raises his eyebrows and sticks his thumb in his mouth to get some glaze off. "What?"
"One of the only gay bars in this lovely little town," Josh points out, nodding toward the corner of the building they're walking past.
"Oh," Eddie says, shrugging. "Whatever. I'm with you. You'll protect me."
"In what way can I protect you?" Josh asks incredulously.
"Not like that, I mean as like a...reverse beard." Eddie switches the bag of donuts to his other hand and grabs Josh's hand. "See? Just on a walk with my man, enjoying a nice night and eating some donuts."
Josh snorts softly but does look around for a moment. "If you're willing to risk being seen doing this, then by all means. And if you want to drag it out, I can finally get Sue off my back, she's been trying to set me up with her sister's friend's kid for the last three months. Ooh, she might even let me take more time off so I can come visit my El Paso boyfriend!"
"Aw, you'd use your PTO for me, baby?" Eddie coos, dropping his hand to wrap an arm around his shoulders. "That's so sweet."
"Uh, no, I'm going to New York," Josh scoffs, but he puts an arm around Eddie's waist. "Fritter?"
Eddie leans over and eats the offered piece of fried dough and makes another obscene noise. "Fuck, that's good."
"'How'd you get slapped with public indecency, Josh?' 'Funny you should ask, they thought I was jerking this guy off on the sidewalk because he wouldn't stop moaning about donuts,'" Josh says, and Eddie almost inhales the fritter laughing.
They make it back down the block and around the corner. Eddie spots his Prius and nods to it. "My sick new ride."
"Look at you with the actual practical vehicle," Josh says appreciatively. "I'm guessing you had an obscenely big truck before?"
"It wasn't obscene," Eddie protests.
Josh stops next to a small Nissan. "My rental."
"I like it," Eddie says, even though he's barely glanced at the car.
Something really weird is happening and has been happening for the last few hours. And when Josh's eyes dip to Eddie's lips, he starts to figure out what it might be.
He wonders if this is what Buck felt like before Tommy kissed him. Except Josh isn't moving in.
"I should head back," Josh says, unlocking the car.
"Yeah," Eddie agrees, swallowing his disappointment.
Josh does hug him, and Eddie hugs him back a little longer than is probably appropriate.
"Good night, Eddie Diaz," Josh says, smiling and walking around to the driver's side door.
"Good night, Dispatcher Josh," he says, backing up a couple steps before he walks back to his car.
--
Eddie's sitting in the middle of unpacked boxes again. He doesn't know what he feels right now, but he knows it's not anything he wants to think about too closely for a little while.
There's a knock at the door, and Eddie slowly gets up to answer. He wonders if his neighbors noticed he came back, he wouldn't say no to some of those weird little fried dough things the lady on the corner makes.
It's Josh.
"Hi," Josh says, like he hadn't been expecting him to answer. "Sorry, I'm bringing back Buck's cupcake tins."
"He moved," Eddie says, opening the door wider so Josh can see the boxes. "And so did I."
Josh looks from the boxes to Eddie. "Didn't you just buy a house in El Paso?"
"Yeah, I'm renting it out," Eddie says, stepping aside. "Come on in."
--
Josh is really efficient at unpacking, even though Eddie had refused his help about three times.
"It's a stupid question, but: how are you?" Josh asks, wiping down plates and stacking them in the cabinet.
"Not good," Eddie replies, trying to figure out if he left a piece of his coffee maker behind in El Paso or if it's just in a different box. "Like, probably worse than I realized. Way worse. Calling my therapist this week worse. Did you see the black funnel thing that goes in the coffee maker?"
"No, but there's, like, four boxes of miscellaneous shit over there," he says, waving toward the kitchen table. "Would you like to talk about it or do you want to repress your feelings until you pop something?"
Eddie tears into one of the boxes and paws through it. "No, I think I've been doing that enough. I'm pretty sure I almost punched my best friend in the face. Over fucking nothing. And now I'm about to punch a wall if I can't find this fucking--"
Two firm hands grab his shoulders, and Eddie freezes. He gets turned around, and Josh hugs him.
And Eddie starts crying so uncontrollably that he feels like he might be sick.
He doesn't know how long it is until he stops, but Josh is pressing a paper towel to his nose when Eddie staggers back. Eddie takes it and blows his nose.
"Thanks," Eddie says thickly, and Josh hugs him again.
When Josh pulls back, Eddie doesn't let him go immediately. They're chest-to-chest, and Eddie's looking at Josh's concerned face and remembers their not-date in El Paso.
He kisses him, even though his eyes are itchy and his head hurts and his sinuses are gross, and Josh kisses back for just a moment.
"Bad idea," Josh says gently once he breaks the kiss.
"But not a new idea," Eddie admits, bringing a hand up to Josh's cheek and kissing him again, gentle and quick. Then he turns back to his boxes of stuff and keeps looking for the funnel thing.
When Josh finds it already in a cabinet several minutes later, Eddie pushes it back into the top of the machine and closes the lid.
"Kitchen's basically done," he says. "You can, uh, stop helping me put my life back together if you want."
"I'm not taking the out because I want to, but I am actually pretty late for a board game night thing my friend keeps trying to make into a regular thing," Josh admits. "But you have my number, and you can use it if you want to."
Eddie bites back a smile. "Okay."
Josh looks at him for a long moment before closing the distance between them and kissing him. "Bye."
"Bye," Eddie says softly.
--
Frank looks at him for a good long time. "Eddie, I need you to repeat that question back so that you understand what it is you're asking."
"What does it mean when you're into a guy but you're not supposed to be into guys?" Eddie asks again, then blinks. "Oh."
"We're going to play a quick game of 'Is the root cause societal, parental, or religious?'" Frank says, clicking his pen. "It's not a fun game, just to warn you."
--
Eddie picks Josh up from the airport. "So you missed the space debris."
"I did miss the space debris," Josh agrees. "Anything else?"
"Not as interesting as the space debris. How's El Paso?"
"The exact same," Josh says, unzipping his backpack. There's a crinkling sound, and Josh holds up a paper bag. "Apple fritter or maple bacon monstrosity?"
Eddie does a double-take and pulls into the Hyatt parking lot. He unclicks his seatbelt, leans across, and kisses Josh.
"I don't think my El Paso boyfriend will appreciate us doing that," Josh murmurs as the kiss breaks.
"Fuck that guy, what's he got that I don't?" Eddie teases just before Josh all but pulls him out of his seat to kiss him again. "Wanna make out in the back of my Prius?"
Josh laughs and then goes deadly serious. "Absolutely."
Eddie does a better parking job, gets out, gets in the back just as Josh slides in the other side, and leans across the space to kiss him.
"This is so juvenile," Josh says against his mouth.
"You wanna stop?"
"Nope," he says, grabbing Eddie's ass.
Eddie grins, breathless and a little giddy. "I like you so much, man."
"I like you, too, dude," Josh teases.
"You suck."
"I brought you donuts, I'm amazing," Josh corrects before hauling him in for another kiss.
tagged by @firehose118 and @cliophilyra - thank you my dears <3
have some more eddiejosh bc that's all I'm working on at the moment:
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Crying all over you like this. Last time I was here I was a lot smoother.”
A hand trails from his back to his side, and Eddie jolts at being poked as Josh asks, “Were you? I remember you telling me about therapy.”
Eddie softly laughs. “Yeah, okay that’s a good point.”
Josh’s arms around him squeeze gently before a nose nuzzles into his hair. Eddie closes his eyes and inhales Josh’s clean-skin-and-bodywash scent, warm and comforted in a way he hasn’t been in a long, long time. Suddenly exhaustion crashes over Eddie, and even his bones feel tired.
“I’m gonna fall asleep,” he warns, slipping an arm around Josh’s waist.
“That’s okay sweetheart, you had a really heavy day.”
“But we were s’posed to watch trash tv together.”
“Go to sleep, Real Housewives of LA will still be there when you wake up.”
no pressure tagging @hippolotamus @wikiangela @queermccoy @wearethecyclones @hipsterdarcy @buckhastwohands
@weewoo911 @loucifersbitch @tenmiceinacoat @slightlyobsessedwitheverything @rdng1230 and anyone else who's working on something!
eddie and josh bicker so often that it freaks everyone out at first until they realize it’s actually foreplay and then they never get invited anywhere.
