What if Eddie not just comes to LA, for a new start but also because he has a secret. That he not only has super power but is an alien from another planet. Buck is a clumsy yet heartfelt journalist. When the two meet at work and start a friendship, Buck starts to develop feelings. Meanwhile he also grows close to another new man in town- one with superpowers. It’s quite confusing!
She nods, and then, a loud sound.
A scream.
A vibration.
And the house, black and burned, falls down.
"Buck!"
And then, life gets cruel.
Or, a house collapses, the echo of a night, the sound of panic - and Eddie discovers what love tastes like.
I still can’t quite believe that 6x12 actually happened/wasn’t some sort of fandom-wide fever dream, but anyway, I was in my Eddie feels so have an interlude fic.
Buck is asleep.
It brings Eddie up short at first, followed by a wave of fond exasperation. He takes a swig from one of the open beers in his hands as he looks away, then back again.
Buck is asleep.
That time, the thought rocks him to his core.
He was only out of the room, what? A minute? Two? And yet, that was enough time for Buck to crash so thoroughly that Eddie’s not convinced an explosion would wake him.
On his couch. In his home.
Eddie swallows hard around a sudden lump in his throat.
The way Buck looked when he arrived…his eyes were haunted, hunted, exhaustion written across his face and hanging from every line of his body—
Eddie remembers what that’s like. He remembers all too well the feeling of lying awake staring at the ceiling, unable to quiet his mind, unable to settle, unable to get comfortable, just going and going and going until his body either physically shut down or he managed to relocate somewhere that seemed safe enough that he could rest.
And Buck—Buck came to him.
He hadn’t expected it. Hoped, yes. When Maddie called him and asked him to check on Buck, he hadn’t said no outright, but hadn’t said yes either. I’ll think about it seemed to strike the appropriate balance between agreeing against his better instincts or having to explain himself to someone who, while he likes her, he doesn’t really know well at all.
And there was also the part where he hadn’t wanted to put his foot in his mouth by admitting that he wasn’t sure her plan was what Buck needed.
He took a different path. Held back. Gave Buck space, even if it killed him to do it. And he hoped that if he just waited patiently, Buck would come to him when he was ready.
He’s never been so glad to have been right.
Eddie takes another drink and looks away again, thinking absently that he should put the second beer back in the fridge, maybe go find Buck a blanket, do anything other than standing there. But his eyes drift back to Buck as if pulled by a force beyond his control. They track over Buck’s face, the scruff on his jaw, the rise and fall of his chest—
When Buck was in the hospital, Eddie couldn’t look. He couldn’t make himself do it, not even knowing that any moment could be the last. He couldn’t look at Buck hooked up to machines, with a tube in his throat, half a corpse. He couldn’t face that without shattering.
He’s had plenty of other moments in the past where he couldn’t look either. Because Buck—god, sometimes he shines so bright, burns so fiercely with warmth and light and life that it’s like looking at the sun. In those moments, Eddie can’t look directly at him for too long without being afraid of getting seared.
Now though…he can’t seem to look away. Buck’s usual light has dimmed enough in sleep that he seems…real. Human. Touchable. It makes Eddie’s heart thud in his chest, a wild leap that steals his breath.
He aches. But it’s not a bad kind of pain, not the sharp slash of terror or the deep, bloody torment of grief. It’s gentle, like pressing a bruise, the subtle ache of healing.
Or of yearning.
Eddie’s breath shudders out of him in a long, shaky gust. His fingers curl harder around the beer bottles in his hands, a reminder to himself that they’re already occupied, that he can’t reach out and touch no matter how soft, how approachable Buck may seem.
There’s a space next to Buck on the couch. Buck’s arm stretches out along the back of it, and it would be so easy to just sit down, settle into that space. It would be so simple. A few steps, a bend of his knees, and Eddie could fit himself right there, into the curve of Buck’s side, press into his warmth and let it chase away the rest of the lingering chill of the hospital.
Easy.
But Eddie doesn’t. Can’t.
He’s not for you, Eddie scolds himself. Not like that.
Because Buck will come back from this. He’ll find his light again, and then he’ll find peace, find ease on some other couch, in some other house, with someone else, someone equally bright who isn’t afraid to love him. He’ll return to being too much to look at, untouchable, and Eddie will be able to get a grip on himself, find the control that he left on a street somewhere in the dark and pouring rain.
He drinks. He aches. He looks.
He should walk away, but can’t seem to get his feet to move.
Not yet. Not yet.
A line of poetry whispers through his mind as he stops himself from reaching out yet again, something he read years ago that always twists his chest.
Te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras, secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
But Buck is all fire and sunlight. Even at his darkest and most destructive, he never fully loses that spark.
He is not a dark thing. And he deserves to be loved in the light. Openly. Visibly. Explicitly. Which…simply isn’t something Eddie thinks he’s capable of giving him.
But, oh. He aches.
Eddie isn’t sure how long he stands there watching Buck sleep, but it’s long enough to finish both of the beers he brought out.
And then, after one last breath, one last look, he finally unsticks his feet and slips back into the shadows of the kitchen.
Summary: Fighter Eddie makes a bet with Probie Buck which lands Buck living at Eddie’s for a month.
Notes:
- this fic is very loosely based off of the book/movie of the same name
- Buck is 25, Eddie is 26, and Christopher is 7
- most things are canon compliant but with some minor changes
- this is from Buck’s POV. If I do a POV change I will make it clear but I don’t think I will—maybe only for a chapter near the end.
- this is a WIP so I will try and get chapters out often for y’all but I’m currently writing chapter 3 and they’ll all be around 4-5k each so pls be patient with me.
I hope yall like this + subscribe for updates on ao3, I appreciate yall 💖
@911 fic writers (or any fandom): I work EMS in one of the largest cities in the US. If you need your fics beta'd for medical/situational realism lmk 😊😊😊
“Yes I do! My time off has been approved, so Chris and I will be in El Paso for Christmas this year,” Eddie replies.
“We can’t wait. How long will you be able to stay?” Eddie’s mom asks.
“I have December 23rd through the 27th off and we’re planning to spend all 5 days there.”
“Oh good. Eddie, I have someone I want you to meet while you’re here.”
Eddie rolls his eyes and groans. “Mom, not this again. I do not need you to set me up on dates.”
“Just one. I really think you’ll hit it off. She’s beautiful, well educated, and I know she loves kids. Plus she thinks you’re handsome and is interested in living in LA. You can’t keep going through life alone. You need a partner.”
Eddie can see the hope on his mom’s face through the computer screen, but he can’t help the frustration he feels. Every time someone claims he’s all alone, he just thinks of the wonderful family he’s built here. He’s not really even parenting alone anymore. Buck is there to help all the times when it matters the most.
And after the awkward disaster that was his relationship with Ana, he really doesn’t want to go on a date with another seemingly perfect woman.
So he does the only thing he can think of in the moment to get his mom off his back about it.
“No mom, you’re not listening. I don’t need you to set me up on a date because I’m already dating someone here. And it’s serious.”
“What? Eddie, since when? Why haven’t you told us about her?”
“I just didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on the relationship. We’ve been dating for about 6 months,” Eddie invents on the spot.
“And who is she?”
“Well, um, it’s actually….”
Eddie looks up as his front door opens and Buck steps inside, “Buck?”
“Hey Eddie, I picked up the supplies Chris needs for his science project and thought I would just go ahead and bring them over. Oh sorry, am I interrupting something?”
“Just a minute,” Eddie tells Buck.
Buck walks down the hallway to Christopher’s room and Eddie turns back to his parents on the computer screen.
“We hope you didn’t feel like you needed to hide this from us. It’s certainly an adjustment, but we’ll get used to it. We really like Buck and he is wonderful with Christopher. And now that I think about it, you did seem especially happy and content with him when you all came to visit last year. If you’ve been together for 6 months, surely you want to spend Christmas together. You should invite him to come to El Paso with you so we can get to know him better.”
Before Eddie can respond Buck walks back in and asks, “Do you want me to get started on dinner?”
“We won’t keep you any longer. It seems like you have plans for the evening. Love you son. And don’t forget to invite Buck! Bye,” says Eddie’s mom.
All Eddie could get in was, “Love you, bye,” as his mother hung up the video call. He was too stunned by the rest of it. How had they come to the conclusion that he’s dating Buck?
“Where does your mom want you to invite me?” Buck asks.
“Uh….to El Paso….for Christmas.”
“What? Why would they want me there? I’m not family.”
“First of all, you are family Buck. But, um, also I might have accidentally given them the impression that we’re dating.”
Buck laughs, “Wait…how did you accidentally make them think we’re dating?”
So Eddie explains it all to Buck who thinks the whole thing is hilarious.
“Yeah, you just keep laughing, Buckley. What the hell am I supposed to do about this though?”
“I mean, you could just be honest and tell them you lied.”
“No, no, no. I can’t do that, Buck, my mom will force me to go on a date.”
“Really? How would she do that?” Asks Buck.
“She just would. And I just don’t want to go on a date while me and Chris are in El Paso. I want to enjoy time with my family and relax. Of course, if I don’t tell her that I lied she’ll pester me the whole time asking why you didn’t come with us. I can’t win here, can I?”
“I think you’re getting way too worked up about this. Come help me make dinner. You can get the salad ready,” says Buck as he walks to the kitchen.
“You just don’t understand, my parents and my sisters are going to be insufferable now whether I tell them I lied or not. I guess I could just keep pretending right?”
“You want to just keep pretending to date me? Why would you do that? You’re not even queer.”
Eddie’s quiet for a moment while he gets everything he needs for the salad.
“That’s not strictly true….I’ve been doing lots of thinking over the past year and I’m definitely some shade of not-straight,” Eddie says while chopping the lettuce.
buddie prompt: a news camera catches buck getting trapped in the warehouse fire and eddie freaking out, a la buck in eddie begins. the video is uploaded online and everyone loves it. eventually, someone pulls up the news video from when eddie got trapped and buck freaked out, and compares the two, realizing that the men are the same, just with positions reversed.
now even more people online are freaking out. they’re calling the two boyfriends, loving the relationship, coming up with hashtags, applauding the LAFD for allowing the two men to work together despite their relationship, trusting them to be professional. eventually, people find footage from 2.18, with buck and eddie appearing on camera and people calling them cute and boyfriends. maybe they even find footage of buck and chris from the pier, somehow finding out chris is eddie’s son, and assuming chris is their son.
eventually, the LAFD have to do something, but they’ve gotten so much good press that they don’t know what to do.
i would love it if someone writes this, and actually uses a fair amount of the social media reaction in fic.
First: I don’t know how that happened. I avoided it for a long time. But that’s it.
Summary: Buck has some free time on his hands and when he joins tiktok it hits rather big. He leaves the station and his firehouse family out of it most times. But one day he makes the decision to include Eddie in a challenge, only to find out he had miscalculated his friends reaction.
_____________________________________________________________
Buck had a lot of free time on his hands. He hated the feeling, but lately it crept up onto him more often. When they all sat on the table for lunch at the station a few weeks back, he had felt it first.
He looked from colleague to colleague and saw a certain smile, a smile he hadn’t felt in a while. Bobby’s was subtle but seemed to be always there. He had found a good place for himself. Hen just adjusted her life choices, but was optimistic and her motivation was contagious. On her right, he found Chim, who was over the moon with Maddie and at peace with Albert. A family he had longed for so long. Last, he turned to face Eddie, who was laughing at Chimney’s comment. That laugh had been rare for a while, especially for Buck and he was so happy to see it again. Eddie was working through a tremendous trauma and Buck was proud to witness his best friend succeeding.