27. pulling the other one towards them, 22.kisses in the rain, or AND 50. putting a hand over the other’s mouth to shut them up YOU SAY?!
Of course it would be rain. Of course it would be fucking raining. As if the day couldn't get any worse, it had to be pouring down rain as Buck was trying to make a very deliberate pointed exit that absolutely was not him storming away from his conversation with Eddie before he did something pathetic like cry.
Ok, maybe he was already crying so at least the rain was good for something.
Buck wasn't even three feet down the sidewalk to his Jeep before he was soaked through with his hair plastered to his forehead and his shirt stuck to him like a second skin. His socks squelched in his boots as he stomped through the puddles and tried to pull out his keys from his pockets without getting his phone drenched.
Buck sucked in a breath that hitched somewhere in his throat because the rain may be able to hide his tears but Eddie would still be able to see his face.
He didn't think he'd come after him.
Another puddle splashed as Eddie ran behind him and when Buck turned around to look, to see if he was even really there, it was to the sight of Eddie in nothing but his gym shorts and hoodie, barefoot and soaked too.
He wasn't even wearing any shoes!
Even drenched, he was still so devastatingly handsome that it hurt. It hurt and Buck didn't know how he was supposed to keep going on when it hurt so much.
"What do you want, Eddie?" Buck blurted out.
"Buck, can we go inside? It's--"
"Because I think I've been pretty honest what I want from you." Buck cut him off because no he couldn't go back inside.
If he went back inside then Buck would cave and would fall back into the vicious cycle where he and Eddie danced around one another, got close, and then something happened that twisted Buck's heart inside his chest and left him aching for days.
"I like you, Eddie." Buck admitted it, throwing it out into the open so they could stop pretending. "I like you... a lot."
Eddie stiffened as if the words ripped at him too and maybe they did. But Buck couldn't keep it inside anymore. If he had to spit them out and let them be washed away with the rain then so be it but he couldn't keep them inside anymore. He just couldn't. It was tearing him up and creating a hole that was only growing bigger and bigger with each deliberately passed opportunity.
"I like you a lot and I think you like me too. But neither one of us is willing to do anything about it. Why?"
The static sound of the rain falling roared into life as if the sky was opening up for them but even Mother Nature couldn't do that for them. No one could. Except Eddie and Buck. And Buck was learning that he didn't have to wait for someone to see him and see that he was enough. He was learning that he could demand it instead. Demand that he wasn't willing to chase anymore for scraps.
But Eddie was just so frustrating that he wanted to pull his hair out. Or kiss him which ever one came first.
Well... the kiss did come first but now look where they were. Stuck out in the rain and staring at each other like a couple of idiots.
But Buck couldn't keep it anymore.
"I like you, Eddie. I really really like you. Okay? I like when you get cranky because you need another cup of coffee. I like when you're teasing me because I don't feel bad about it when you do. I like your stupid hair when it's fluffy and your stupid smile you pretend not have on your face when you get excited. I like you, Eddie. I like you on your good days and your bad days because even on your bad days, it's better to have days with you in them then not. You act like you don't deserve to be the center of attention but you do. Okay? Don't you get that? You're the center of my whole fucking world that I'm monologuing to you in the middle of a rainstorm!" Buck threw his hand up in the air and the cliche of the rumble of thunder was almost too much that he could scream.
Eddie blinked at him. "Buck--"
"I. Like. You. Eddie." Buck said it as if the words were punched out of him. "But I can't keep doing this. It hurts too much. When you look at me? And you think I don't see? The way you look at me like I hung the moon or something? It's all I've ever wanted. It's all I ever wanted from you. But you keep acting like you don't deserve it and it's eating me up inside every single time."
It was eating him up then too. When Eddie looked so surprised after Buck slipped in the moment in the kitchen and kissed him. When Buck got a glimpse of hope in his expression before Eddie shut down. When Eddie pulled away like he didn't deserve to be in the same airspace as Buck let alone the same room.
"What is it, Eddie? What? Just tell me and I'll go right now. Or I'll stay. Whatever you want but I can't---"
Buck yelped as Eddie's hand fisted the front of his shirt and pulled him forward onto his toes. He would've stumbled, fallen face first in one of the pathetic puddles pooling beneath his feet. But Eddie made sure he didn't.
He was also keeping Buck steady even as he wavered.
But the kiss? The kiss could've taken him out at his knees. It was wet and hurried and off centered but it was perfect. Perfect in the way it seared Eddie's warmth into Buck's lips and flooded his senses with a soft rightness that made Buck's heart sing.
Eddie pulled away too soon and Buck leaned to follow after him.
Eddie slid his hand over Buck's mouth.
"I talk now," Eddie said, breathless and stunning in all his wet glory. "I like you too, Buck. A lot. I really really like you too. That's what I was trying to say."
Eddie's brows lifted as he nodded.
Thunder rumbled above them again and Eddie rolled his eyes as he looked up.
"It really had to be in the rain, huh?"
Buck pushed his hand away from his mouth and threw his arms around him to kiss Eddie stupid again because if he had to break down in the rain then he would do it in a heartbeat for Eddie.
