hiiiii ty for this!!! LOVED your character choices here, buck and karen is SUCH a fun dynamic to explore, i had so much fun writing this one!!! to the surprise of probably no one lol, i have, once again, gone well over my wc cap (i'm sensing a trend here... lol), but omg omggg i just could nooooot stop myself with this one, i really really loved getting to write these two interacting!! i hope you like this!! 💕
“What do you know about space?”
“Space?” Karen asks, fixing her eyes onto Buck, where he’s sidled up to her.
He nods, rocks back on his heels, and points up at the sky. “Space,” he repeats.
The corner of Karen’s mouth quirks. “Can you— narrow it down, maybe?” She laughs, not unkindly, and scrunches her nose. “Space is pretty… broad.”
Buck chuckles. “Yeah,” he concedes, nodding again, “yeah, it is. I guess— well, I was kind of wondering about stars.”
“Didn’t you have a whole star phase?” Karen asks, thinking back to that day a few months ago that Hen had come back from work rattling off star fact after star fact, and Denny had come back from spending time with Christopher spouting the very same ones.
“I mean— yeah, I— I did,” Buck says, and his hands slide into his pockets, shoulders hunching in a little. “I was— well. I was kind of hoping you might know some constellations that maybe aren’t so common. Y’know, like the cool, rare ones, or something.”
Karen purses her lips. Considers the question. She raises her wine glass, and hides her smirk in a sip. Over the rim, she raises a brow at Buck. “Trying to impress someone, Buckley?” She asks.
The twilight of the evening does nothing to hide the lovely shade of pink that blooms into the apples of Buck’s cheeks at that. His chin dips towards his chest, a bashful smile tugging at his mouth as he stutters through his response. “Um, well, k-kind of, actually,” he admits, glancing up through his lashes.
He looks younger like this, all boyish and sweet. Dimples digging into his cheeks. It makes Karen understand Maddie even more, seeing him this way. Like she’d do anything to keep this smile on his face, this giddiness in his heart.
When Karen lifts her other brow and gestures with her wine glass, out with it then, Buck laughs and his face goes all soft as he tells her, “I’m taking Eddie stargazing. It’s— it’s kind of our, y’know, our first date.”
Karen only just refrains from cooing at that. Instead, she smiles warmly at him, says, “That sounds real special, Buck.” Then she loops her arm into Buck's and leans her shoulder into his. “Now, you’ve come to exactly the right woman. I hope you've got your listening ears on...”
