Hiii, it’s me 🙈 I actually thought of another tickle game idea that the core four would totally play 🤭 So we all know Buck loooves his fun facts and he just knows so many random things 😂 So how about if Eddie, Hen, and Chim test him on some random trivia and if he doesn’t know the answer, they tickle him 😂 And like at first it’s going well but then they start asking harder and harder questions on purpose, just to have the excuse to tickle him 😂😂 I feel like it’s totally something they would do 🤭 At first Buck is so excited because he does know so much but then it becomes ‘totally unfair’ that they ask purposely hard/fake questions lol. Maybe they even let up and towards the end they go back to actual questions he would know but mixed in with a time limit and Buck just can’t really think straight because of the tickles he’s gotten that he isn’t able to answer in time even though “hehey! I knew thahahat one!” 🥰
Summary: See prompt above :)
(Great one @mysunshinebuck ❤️🤭 The team would definitely be a bit ruthless when it comes to something like this ❤️🤭 Thanks for talking out all the details and hope you enjoy ❤️😁)
"Buuuuuuck. We have a question to ask youuuu."
With an eye roll, Buck didn't turn away from the television to address the sing song voice behind him. "What question?"
Before Buck had the chance to even acknowledge Hen's presence now behind him as well, someone grabbed his shoulders.
The blonde was jerked up and down to the floor. Two hands wrestled his arms up and over his head where they were promptly pinned between someone's knees. A second person straddled his wasit while a third straddle his legs. The bigger firefighter was effectively pinned.
As he tugged on his trapped limbs, Harry peeked down in confusion. "Um . . . What's going on?"
"Don't worry, they do this all the time," Ravi assured, half watching the scene on screen and half watching what was playing out on the floor.
Harry slowly turned to him. "Wait, so this is normal?"
"Extremely," Eddie added as he grappled with Buck's arms.
Harry turned to him next. "Is this like a hazing thing I didn't know about?"
"More like a tradition," Hen piped up from her spot on Buck's waist.
"Basically, if we end up bored, Cap tells us to go play a 'game' and make sure we include Buck so he stays out of trouble." Chimney gave the trapped blonde's knee a squeeze. "Right Buckaroo?"
"Ah!" The squirming blonde yanked on his trapped leg. "Your games suhuck!"
"No, you're just bad at playing them," Hen clapped back.
Buck trained his nervous glare on her and her smirking face. "You never ask me ihif Ihi want to play!"
"Because we know you always will take any excuse to get this attention." Eddie's fingers spidered down his bestie's biceps. "This just saves us the time of having to chase you down."
Chimney cracked his knuckles. "And saves his energy for what's about to come."
While Buck's nervous giggles and blush started to grow, Harry shifted forward. "So what's the game?"
Chimney's smirk grew into a mischievous grin. "Glad you asked our probing probie."
"Yeah, please don't call me that ever again."
"The game is simple," the paramedic plowed on. "Buck here is the king of useless trivia."
"So we're putting it to the test to see how much he really does know with a simple challenge," Hen continued. "One person asks a question and if he gets it right, the next person asks."
Harry raised a brow as his amusement grew. "If he gets it wrong?"
"We tickle him," Eddie stated.
It was said so casually and naturally that Harry was stunned for a few seconds. "You do it to him too?"
Chimney's grin grew to Grinch territory. "Too?"
"Shut uhup," Buck hissed.
"Hush." Hen poked Buck's side as she scolded, her attention still on Harry. "I see you're familiar with our tactics."
"Oh yeah." The youngest Grant felt his own grin grow. "Mom and Bobby use it all the time."
With a groan, Buck yanked his elbows together to hide his ever growing blush. All eyes currently in the space were eyeing him like they had just heard the best news in the world.
"Oh do they?" Eddie asked 'innocently'. He could feel Buck's glare peeping out at him between his arms, but he chose to ignore it.
"Yeah," Harry continued. "Just last night Bobby was getting his neck because he was being a brat to Mom."
Hen placed a hand on her chest, mouth dropping in mock shock. "Our Buck? A brat? Who would have thunk?"
Now Buck's glare was on her.
"Didn't realize it was a 118 'tradition' to do it too," Harry finished.
"Evan 'Buck' Buckley," Chimney mock scolded, reaching up to poke the taller blonde's side. "Keeping 'traditions' secret from the probies?"
Hen raised a brow. "And such a special one too."
Buck finally lowered himself from the position he jerked up in to after Chimney poked him. "Ihit's nohot a tradition. It's juhust a stupid gahame."
All three paramedics mock gasped at the statement.
Eddie leaned forward just enough that he could look down at Buck pinned on the ground and tease, "First Thena then Harry now us. Maybe we should just tickle you for your bratty attitude."
"Then he wouldn't get to show off how smart he is," Ravi pointed out.
"Yeah Eds." Chimney's fingers were already starting to drum along Buck's leg. "Give sassafras a chance to show off."
The gentle playful motion was already making Buck's nervous giggles grow again. His entire face was a light pink at this point too.
Eddie chuckled. "And we allll know how much he loves to do that."
Buck's glare returned to his bestie.
Meanwhile, Harry tugged out his phone. "You guys need some questions or do you already have your own?"
Now Buck's eyes were on Harry in a wide eyed look of shock.
"We all have a list." Chimney sat upright. He kept Buck's legs pinned with his own so he could cross his arms. "But why don't you start us off."
"Really?" Harry's mischievous grin ticked up higher. His eyes danced over his phone screen. "Okay."
Another whine left Buck's mouth. "Harry---."
But the youngest Grant interrupted him. "Who created the first parachute?"
The room went quiet minus the show playing in the background. Again, five sets of eyes trained on the taller firefighter still pinned on the ground.
"Ugh!" Buck plopped his head back. "Fihine."
He could feel their grins of victory a mile away.
With a huff, Buck launched into his explanation. "If you go by design, Leonardo da Vinci ihin 1485. If you go by whoho mahade the first successful jump and actually created the wohord, Lohouis-Sébastien Lenormand in 1783."
All three paramedics turned their attention back to Harry.
The youngest shrugged. "He's right."
"Lucky shot," grumbled Hen.
Buck smirked in victory. "I'm just that gohood."
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Hen leaned closer. "Eddie's next."
Raising one brow, Buck lifted his eyes up to his bestie.
The brown haired paramedic fished his phone out of his pocket while making a big show of clearing his throat. Within a couple seconds, he had his screen raised and ready to go. "What is the difference between an em dash and en dash?"
Chimney's brows went up. "There's different kinds of dashes?"
"Yep, and they do different things," Eddie replied.
"Em dashed act like commas, colons, or parentheses and set off extra information." Buck smirked. "En dashes are the 'common hyphen' used to show ranges and connections."
Hen shot the younger a glare. "The one thing you remember from college."
Buck semi-shrugged in his position, his smirk growing. "Like I said. I'm just that good."
"Oh really?" Hen leaned closer. "Then pray tell oh genius. What is the difference between a wood screw and a deck screw?"
While the female paramedic had been leaning ever closer, Buck had been pushing himself further and further back into the floor while a look of panic spread across his face. However, as soon as he heard the question, he pulled himself back out of hiding with all the cockiness in the world. "Deck screws are a type of wood screw, but the main difference is their design and protection to be used outside while normal wood screws are not."
Hen pulled back and crossed her arms. "Touche."
"Seriously?" Chim moved closer to his best friend. "Harry gives him parachute, Eddie gives him dashes, and you give him that?"
Hen rolled her eyes. "You think your question is any better?"
"Oh, my questions are great." Chimney pulled back and made a dramatic show of clearing his throat. After a pause, he hit the group with, "What is 11 times 11?"
Eddie, Hen, and Harry gave him a deadpan expression. Even Ravi seemed unimpressed with it.
Especially when Buck confidently called out, "121."
"That was your master plan?" sassed Hen.
Chim motioned down to his brother-in-law. "You know he can't do Math in his head."
"Yes I can," Buck argued back.
"He's literally done it on a call," Eddie pointed out.
Chimney smirked. "But can he do it under the pressure of tickles awaiting him is the real question."
"Sure," replied Hen with all the sarcasm she could muster.
Meanwhile, Buck smirked at the group. "Guess you underestimated me."
That earned him a warning poke from Hen. "You made it one round. Don't get cocky yet."
Buck flinched, but his confident smile wasn't gone yet. "Bring it on."
And so they did. Yet frustratingly, Buck made it two more rounds without so much as a stutter.
He knew who painted the Sistine Chapel.
He knew the order of army ranks.
He knew the difference between affect and effect.
And he definitely knew what 132 divided by 11 was.
Hen whipped around to glare at her friend. "Stop asking him Math questions."
"I will trick him up," Chimney defended. "I know I will."
"Try your best." Buck's smirk only grew. "I'm ready for it."
All eyes landed on Ravi. The firefighter hadn't offered up any suggestions until this point. Now, whatever he had to say, made him smirk.
In response, Buck let out a disinterested sigh. He laid his head down on the floor like he had all the time in the world. "Whatcha got Rav?"
Meanwhile, all three paramedics eye rolled.
"An easy one." Ravi lifted one leg to rest his foot on the opposite knee then leaned back against the couch with his arms crossed. "When is Eddie's birthday?"
The whole room seemed to screech to a halt. Even the TV went quiet as all eyes went back to Buck currently pinned to the ground.
And said blonde jerked his head up, panic blooming across his face.
"You remember when he got a silver star, how long he served in the military, the places he was deployed to, and even the date of the day you two saved everyone from a bomb," Ravi continued.
When Buck still remained quiet, Eddie began to side eyed him then Ravi then back again. Meanwhile, Hen and Chimney's faces began to take on a more sinister look. Harry's even grew a bit more mischievous the longer Buck stayed quiet.
"You've been friends with him for almost what? Eight years?" Ravi's torso arched forward, a big grin on his face. "Tell us when his birthday is."
Buck's eyes were wide as they darted back and forth, his panic growing.
"Cough it up Buck," Hen prodded.
"When's the birthday?" Chimney pressed.
Buck managed a nervous glare at the older paramedic. "You forgot Hen's."
"And you'd better not make the same mistake I did."
Buck did try to fire back an answer, but his nerves were still heightened when he could feel Eddie hovering mere inches above him. It made whatever did come out of his mouth extremely stuttery and slowly made his eyes squeeze shut. "I-I know this one. J-Just give me a second. I-I have a-a lot them t-to remember."
"What is it Buck?" Eddie asked, his voice neutral.
Something clicked in Buck's brain and his eyes blinked back open. "June!"
The right month made Eddie pull back a bit.
Until Buck hesitantly got out, "Nineteenth."
Suddenly, any sympathy Eddie had built up dropped into a deadpan expression.
Buck immediately back peddled. "N-no! Wait! Nineth! Ihi meheant nihiHIHINETH! EDDIHIHIE!"
But the brown haired paramedic wouldn't stop digging into his best friend's armpits. "You can remember the silver star. The deployments. Even the bomb. But you can't remember my birthday?"
"I-IHT'S IHIN MY CALENDAHAAAAR! NAAAA!"
Before Buck could get out another word, Hen and Chimney were ruthlessly joining Eddie. Hen went for his hips while Chim went for his knees. There was enough give on the pin that Buck could squirm, but not enough for him to actually get away.
He only succeeded in looking like a very entertaining worm on a hook.
"Guess you were right Chim," Hen called over her shoulder, her hands not stopping their spidering over Buck's sides. "It was the numbers that did him in."
"See?" Chimney spidered over the top of Buck's knees to the outside of them. "Knew it would."
Buck had never wanted to sink into the floor more than he did right now.
Finally, after a few more seconds, all six hands left the blonde's body. This allowed Buck to sink to the floor in a puddle of residual giggles. His face was bright red and his curls were now askew as he muttered out, "Thank gohoodnehess."
"Ah ah," Hen corrected. "We're not done with you."
Buck lifted enough to stare wide eyed again, this time at her.
"We still have looooots of questions," she told him.
"Dozens upon dozens," Chimney added.
Buck left his head fall back onto the floor with a whine. "Guhuys. This ihis ridihiculohous."
"You weren't saying that approximately two minutes and thirty seconds ago when you were winning," Eddie reminded.
The blonde tilted his head back far enough to glare at him. "You and yohour stuhupid nineteenth birthdahay."
"That's Juneteenth." Eddie pinched both of his topmost ribs. "Idiot."
With a squawk, Buck jerked as far up as he could again. "Wehell ruhude of you to have ohone soho close to ihit."
"Oh, sure," Eddie sassed back. "Because I had complete control over when I came out my madre's---."
Wohooow! Wow wow wow!" Hen interrupted, with a grimace. "We may be family, but none of us want to hear about <em> that </em> I guarantee you."
"Right," Chimney added, rubbing his hands together. "Let's make with the questions."
Buck flopped back onto the floor again with a groan. With one attack under his skin, his entire nervous system was now on alert to the point where he couldn't think very straight.
That made the next round, which was only dates, that much more flustering and difficult to focus on.
He managed to get what year Christopher Columbus sailed and unintentionally landed in America.
He managed to get what year World War 2 started and ended.
He managed to get what year Michael Jackson's first single came out.
He even managed to get 132 plus 231.
"Shush," Chimney shot back. "You'll ruin my strategy."
Then Ravi had to pipe back up. "So Buck? When is Eddie's birthday?"
"What!" Buck jerked his head back up. "Yohou alreadyhy ahasked me thahat!"
The younger firefighter glanced at the three paramedics holding the bigger firefighter down. "Is there a rule against repeating questions?"
Three matching smirks greeted the blonde.
"None whatsoever," assured Hen.
At first, Buck scowled at her. Then he could feel Eddie looming a mere foot above his head even before he tilted back enough to look up at him. The closeness made the blonde firefighter swallow hard as he decided it would be better to go back to his original spot to so he couldn't see that face.
Besides, he needed to focus. He could do this.
Of course, Hen tapped her wrist like she was wearing a watch. "Tik tok."
Choosing to ignore her, Buck cleared his throat and wracked his brain. "Uh . . . J-june."
"Uh-huh," Hen replied while Chimney rolled his hands over each other in a 'Let's speed this up' motion.
"I'm trying," Buck snapped.
Followed by Eddie simply resting his fingertips on his best friend's armpits. The threat was simple yet effective.
Buck had already been nervously giggling and this did not decrease it nor did it help his already frazzled brain think anymore clearly. Instead, he stuttered out, "Uhuhuh . . . J-June sixteenth."
Without missing another beat, Eddie's fingers began to dig into Buck's armpits once more. Followed closely by Hen's fingers on his hips and Chimney's on his legs.
Buck was in cackles in no time. None of them were going hard enough to hurt him, but boy did it tickle. "IHI'M SOHORRYHY!"
Eddie moved his fingers down to pinch at his ribs. "Too late."
Buck squealed and arched his back once more. "EDDIEEEEE!"
It took several more seconds before the three finally pulled away.
Buck gulped in air through his giggles. "Thihis ihis yohour worst game yehet."
Hen crossed her arms. "We can't help that you forgot your own friend's birthday."
Ravi sucked in a breath at the memory. "Oo, yeah. Bad times."
"I-I didn't forgehet," Buck protested. "Ihits sahaved in my phohone."
Eddie tapped his forehead. "Why isn't it saved in your brain?"
"It ihis," the blonde swore. "I-I just need to find it."
"Oh really?" Now it was Hen's turn to lean closer to his face. "Let's test that, shall we?"
The next round had to do with birthdays.
And of course, he got 1,000 times 10.
Hen whirled to the paramedic behind her. "Chimney, I swear."
"Patience my young padawan," Chim replied.
Then Ravi was up again. "When's Eddie's birthday Buck?"
"Outside of Chimney, we've asked nothing but birthdays." Down came Eddie's face again, his fingers already poised over Buck's ribs. "Should have shaken it loose."
Buck's eyes locked on the hands hovering over his ribs. He sucked his stomach in, but it did little to get his ribs away. If anything, it made them easier to grasp.
And made his brain that much more scrambled. "J-Juhune . . .."
"I'll give you a hint," Eddie continued in that same neutral tone. "Two."
Buck swallowed again and tried to match the number up with any that were swirling around in his frazzled brain as he muttered to himself, "Twoho. Two. Twoho."
"Yes," repeated Eddie. "Two."
Immediately, Eddie began to dig in along Buck's ribs again. Hen joined on his sides. This time, Chimney took off his shoes so he could go for his feet.
"AH!" Buck's back arched again. "SHSHSHSHAHAHAHA!"
Hen snorted, her fingernails moving onto the younger's stomach. "He can't even curse properly."
"SHUHUT UHUUUUP!" Buck yanked on his legs. "CHIIIIIM!"
The older paramedic kept going on the arches he had in front of him His arm had the top of blonde's feet pinned so his other hand was free to dig in how he pleased. "Gootchie gooo."
Buck had never wanted to kick someone as much as he did his brother-in-law. However, he couldn't exactly do that in this situation.
Then two out of the three continued for several more seconds before finally pulling away.
But Eddie kept going longer on his ribs.
"Ah!" A snort slipped out of the blonde. "Hehey! Cheheateher! Thahat's cheheatihing!"
"Nothing in the rules against it," replied Eddie going a second longer before finally pulling his hands away.
"Besides, it's his birthday you can't remember," Hen added.
With another giggle filled whine, Buck pulled his elbows together in another attempt to cover his bright pink face and deep red birthmark. "Ihim tryihing. I swehear. Ihit's in my phohone."
"We believe you," promised Eddie.
Then Ravi finished, "But we want it in your brain, remember?"
That's when Harry shifted forward so his arms rested on his knees. "I have an idea."
"Oh noooho," Buck groaned.
So that's when Buck got asked a series of questions related to important dates in June.
Thanks to Eddie, he got Juneteenth.
Then somehow in his giggle filled brain he remembered what day was Father's Day.
And what day was World Environment Day.
And, of course, what was thirty-eight minus twelve was.
That time, Hen raised a brow and glanced over her shoulder at her friend.
Chimney shrugged in response.
Then came Ravi once again. "Okay, this should be easy now Buck."
"Really easy," Eddie emphasized.
It should be. If Buck could think straight.
"When is Eddie's birthday?"
So once again, Buck racked his brain for what date matched the one he was looking for. "Juhune."
Eddie leaned down closer again. "Yes."
Eddie's brows lifted. "Almost there."
Buck was so close! He knew it! What was that second number again?
Already, Eddie's hands were starting to curl around Buck's ribs. The touch alone sent tingles up the blonde's body and into his brain, making the buzz in it grow.
But Buck tried his best to get his thoughts together before he blurted out, "F-Fifth."
Instead of attacking straight away, Eddie starting tugging up Buck's shirt. "Hen."
Buck squeaked and tensed.
Meanwhile, the female paramedic helped Eddie lift his shirt out of the way. "Raspberries or giggle button?"
Buck had just enough energy to stutter out, "D-don't call ihit thahat."
That's when he felt Eddie pull his elbows apart and simply stare at him. The paramedic was waiting for Buck to choose. The jerk.
Buck couldn't get out of this by just laying there quietly. They would make him choose or do both. So since both tickled like crazy, he might as well go with the one that tickled the least out of the two. "B-Berries."
Then, without hesitating, Buck watched Eddie turn to Hen and say, "Giggle button."
Buck's eyes bugged. "Whahat! Thehen whyhy dihid you have mehe chohoOHOHOHOSE!"
As Hen kept wriggling her finger into Buck's belly button, Eddie placed his thumbs under the base of Buck's jaw before then stretching his pinkies down to where the blonde's neck met his shoulders. "So I knew which one you'd least expect."
Buck now couldn't move his neck away nor get his shoulders up as Eddie's other fingers began to glide back and forth across his neck. Then Chimney began to wiggle his toes back and forth. Buck was sure if he could focus on anything other than how much everything tickled, he'd make out his brother-in-law saying the 'This Little Piggy' nursery rhyme that he sometimes did on Jee and Nash. He could barely form words, much less actual thoughts while his entire body was being tickled to bits by three paramedics.
Atleast if he died, they could resuscitate him.
Buck wasn't sure how long he was being tickled like this, but finally they stopped. His giggles just didn't get the memo.
Harry's brows drew together in concern. "Uh, no one's touching you anymore Buck. You can stop."
"That's the beauty of the after tickle tingles," Chimney explained. He proceeded to drag his nails lightly back and forth across the pad of just one of Buck's feet. "Buckaroo gets tickled hard enough and his entire nervous system keeps him going even if we're not touching him."
"How does he get it to stop?"
Hen jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "By having someone do what he's doing."
Sure enough, the lighter touches kept Buck giggling like crazy, but they also calmed his nervous system enough that ones he was giving weren't as frantic so he could actually talk again. "Whehehehew."
Once Chim had that confirmation, he pulled his hand away and let Buck focus.
Hen turned to Harry again. "Your turn."
The younger raised his brows. "Okay."
Round the questions went again.
Buck managed to get when the first U.S. post office was created.
He got when Grease hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
He got when Colin Kaepernick began his protests during the national anthem at a NFL preseason game.
But then he messed up. His brain was still so buzzed on the intense after tickle high that he miscounted 18 plus 8 as 25 instead of 26.
Chimney grinned as big as the Cheshire cat. He crossed his arms and looked triumphantly at Hen. "What did I tell you? Long run."
Hen just rolled her eyes while her fingers started spidering along both of Buck's sides.
Soon, Buck was cackling once more as the other two joined her.
Eddie in his armpits. Chimney up and down on his feet.
Everything went downhill after that. Buck's brain was so overloaded by the tickles that he started forgetting everything.
First, he missed when the Communist Manifesto was created.
Then he missed when the first demonstration of television was.
Next, he missed a repeat question of what year Michael Jackson's first single came out.
Hen raised a brow at him for that one, a small smirk on her lips while one of her fingers traced shapes on his stomach. "Thought you knew that one."
Buck's eyes widened when he realized his slip, but then his nose scrunched up adorably and his eyes squeezed back shut. "Wahait! Ihi dihid!"
Eddie let his fingers trace shapes into his best friend's armpits. "Too late now."
The next question got wrong was what was Janet Jackson's most iconic moment.
Followed very closely by what was the longest bone in the human body.
Then the difference between affect and effect. Another repeat!
"Thihis ihis soho unfahair!" Buck got out as he was attacked again.
"Not their fault you're bad at trivia," Ravi teased from where he was on the couch.
Of course, he kept asking the one question over and over that Buck couldn't remember the answer too. He swore up and down he had tried every DAY in June. Some of them twice. Yet none of them appeared to be right.
"When is Eddie's birthday?" Ravi asked once more.
"J-Jahanuhuary t-twenty-sihixth," Buck managed to get out after his most recent attack.
All five people around him gave him a deadpanned look.
Then next instant, Eddie swooped down to blow raspberries into Buck's neck, making the blonde firefighter squirm and cackle once more.
"That looks like fun." Hen whipped around to Chimney. "Why don't we join him?"
"Not when I'm down here," Chimney replied. "But go for it."
As if Buck could get anymore red. By now, his birthmark was a lovely shade of maroon.
Thankfully, Hen only did two. But Eddie wasn't satisfied until he had done SIX!
After that, Buck just started getting everything wrong.
He got what meme Skrilla created wrong.
He even got what stinking document Nicholas Cage stole in National Treasure wrong!
After getting that one done, Hen motioned to Ravi and Harry. "You know what? He's gotten questions wrong that both of you gave and you haven't gotten even one chance of tickling. You should be in here too."
"H-Hen!" Buck stuttered out in shock. She was inviting MORE people to tickle him??
Beaming, Ravi jumped up to sit on the floor in between where she and Eddie were pinning Buck down.
Meanwhile, Harry hesitantly came to sit next the blonde's legs closer to where Chimney was pinning.
By now, Buck could match one of the 118 fire engines. His entire body was on edge and his brain was beginning to feel like goop.
Then Ravi asked the same dreaded question. "When is Eddie's birthday?"
With his brain out of commission, Buck shouted out the first birthday that popped up. "Ahaugst tehenth."
Chimney snorted. "Holding out on Bobby coming to the rescue?"
Buck shot him a weak glare. "Shuhut uhuUUUUP! NAAAAAHAHAHA!"
Now, Eddie was tracing his ears.
Ravi was getting his ribs.
Hen was tickling his belly button again.
Harry was getting his left foot.
And Chimney was focusing his attention on his the toes of his right.
Buck couldn't move even if he wanted to get away. He swore he couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard for so long nor have his brain short circuit this fast.
His head felt like he was floating while his entire body felt like a live wire as the tickling went on for what felt like an eternity.
The blonde felt fingers barely gliding along the pad of his right foot. They kept going over and over, giving his fried brain something to latch on to.
"Earth to Buck," a voice called while fingers snapped near his ear.
Slowly, Buck began to return to reality. He hadn't passed out. He knew they would never go that far.
When he got tickled intensely for an extended period of time, it more so felt like his brain blue screened and was now being rebooted.
When he cracked his eyes opened, Buck found himself the center of some concerned non-tickling attention. Minus the fingers tapping along his foot like it was in an ASMR video.
A finger lightly tapped his shoulder. "Buck? Can you hear us?"
A squeak came out first in response before the garbled full answer of "Yes."
A different finger playfully tapped his nose. "Had us worried there for a second."
"Even if we technically did it," admitted Hen.
Buck tried to tell her it was alright and he hadn't minded as much as he had been whining about, but his brain wasn't fully online yet. All he got was, "It's right. Like."
"We know," Eddie teased, giving Buck's nose another tap.
Then Harry placed a hand on Buck's leg. "Should we---?"
Eddie, Ravi, Hen, and Chim all shouted in unison, "NO!"
Meanwhile, Buck jolted, his brain blue screening again.
Harry yanked his hand away and Chimney went back to light drags along the blonde's right foot. "Nopenopenope. You stay with us Buckaroo."
It took a second, but finally Buck was back to reality again. His eyes went wide before settling back into a half lidded daze.
Just to ensure he was as there as he could be in this state, Eddie snapped his fingers next to Buck's ear this time instead of Ravi.
The blonde sluggishly turned to the sound. Which made all five people sitting around him breathe a sigh of relief.
"I-I'm sorry," Harry apologized. "I-I didn't . . .."
"You didn't know," Hen soothed with a smile. "It's okay."
"Seriously guys. Is he okay?"
"He is. Buck's system is just 'overloaded' at the moment," Eddie continued explaining.
Harry's brows furrowed together. "Meaning?"
"You can't do any 'firm' or 'rough' touches right now," Ravi added on.
"They make his system think it's 'under attack' again." Chimney slowly pulled his fingers away from Buck's foot. "Sends his brain back into what we call 'blue screen'."
"Basically means he's been tickled until he can't think straight and his brain goes blank," Hen finished. "Sort of like a mindless state."
"Within reason," emphasized Ravi.
"And by who," Eddie tagged on.
Thouroughly confused, Harry looked between all four people sitting around him. "So what do we do?"
In response, Hen carefully untangled herself from where she was still sitting on Buck's waist. "Leave him alone for the next ten to fifteen minutes while his system 'resets'."
Chimney set both of his feet down on the ground and pushed up into a standing position. "You want him to pass out?"
"I mean . . . not particularly."
"Neither do we." Ravi stood next. He had the advantage of sitting on the floor instead of atop Buck. "So no touching for a bit."
Meanwhile, Buck was barely paying attention to the conversation. He hadn't shifted an inch since the other three stood. He just laid there red-faced and lightly giggling. His hair was springing up in every direction and his uniform was definitely a mess, but he wasn't moving to fix it any time soon.
This time, before getting up himself, Eddie gave Buck's nose one more firm tap. "Nice of you to remember June 26th Giggles."
"Ihi was clohohose," Buck grumbled out.
Eddie shook his head and stepped away from the still recovering blonde. "Sure."
With Buck in 'recovery', the loft went back to it's regular hubbub.
Hen and Chim gossiped with each other.
Eddie went to grab a cup of coffee.
Ravi and Harry plopped back onto the couch to return to the show they had been half watching.
And Buck lay giggling on the floor.
For the next while, the two firefighters sitting nearby could hear his giggles, taking them as a reminder that Buck was still alive.
It wasn't until almost the thirty minute mark when Ravi realized they'd stopped.
The younger straightened. He pushed himself up off the couch and peeked over at where Buck was laying.
What he found was Buck still on his back on the ground with his arms over his head and eyes closed. The blonde's chest rose and fell rhythmically while a few tiny snores left his nose.
The younger relaxed before glancing back at Harry.
When Bobby appeared an hour later, he found Buck curled up between both younger firefighters with a blanket from the bunk room wrapped around him.
It made the fire captain freeze and raise a brow. "What happened here?"
"Nothing," Ravi assured, looking up at Bobby with a smirk. "Buck's just bad at trivia."
