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Eddie has approximately three problems.
The first and most important problem is that he’s in love with Buck. He’s been aware of it for years, really, ever since he left the 118 a couple years ago and started therapy and had a few stark realizations about himself. But he had some things to work through, and then Buck had some things to work through, and then they actually talked about it and decided that it wasn’t a good time for either of them, but that they were both willing to wait. But by the time all of this happened, two years had passed, and Eddie is starting to wonder when it will actually be a good time for them.
Because the thing is, they go on dates and have movie nights and Buck stays over at the Diaz household and in Eddie’s bed approximately 3-5 nights a week. They spoon and they hug and they cuddle and hold hands, and pretty much do everything that a couple would do except kiss and have sex and call each other boyfriends or partners or husbands.
Which then leads to the second problem – Eddie really wants to kiss Buck. Like, all the time, and it’s only getting worse. He wants to kiss Buck when he’s in his stupid pink cooking apron, and when he’s driving Eddie’s truck, and when he’s getting thoroughly walloped by Christopher in whatever video game Chris is currently obsessed with.
And all of this leads to the third problem, which happens to be Eddie’s most recent and current dilemma. Buck sent him a text just saying, SOS!! Meet me at the soccer fields at the end of Chim and Maddie’s street!! And obviously Eddie had sped the whole way there as soon as he got the message. And when he arrived at the soccer fields, it’s to the sight of Buck surrounded by approximately 13 two-and-a-half-year-olds, all with soccer shorts that are too big and kicking around soccer balls the size of their heads while Buck stands in the middle of them, looking like a very large and very muscly giant next to the gaggle of small children.
Obviously, Eddie knows that Buck’s been helping Chimney coach Jee’s PeeWee soccer team this spring. Buck’s come home every Thursday night for the past five weeks absolutely bounding in energy and telling Eddie and Chris all about the kids and how cute and funny they are. And, since he’s also Chimney’s coworker, he knows that Chimney got injured at work yesterday and has a fractured tibia, so it makes sense that he’d be out of commission from soccer duty for a while. He just hadn’t realized that meant that Eddie would be the assistant to the assistant coach in the event of Coach Chimney’s retirement.
And Eddie was not prepared.
He’s seen Buck with kids, of course. He’s been basically coparenting Chris with him for years, and he babysits Jee regularly, and he’s always been exceptionally good with Harry and Denny. Buck even got registered with the state for respite care so that he can babysit Karen and Hen’s foster kids. Buck is, truly, just the best with kids, and this isn’t news to Eddie.
What is news to Eddie, though, is how Buck looks with a whole gaggle of small children fawning at his feet. They don’t even come up to his knees, because Buck’s legs are, unfortunately, approximately five miles long. Half of them are running around him in circles, a few of them are sitting in the grass picking dandelions, and Jee and one other toddler have secured themselves to Buck’s legs like two koalas. Buck is grinning down at them and laughing while still keeping an eye on those running around, and Eddie very suddenly feels like he needs to get down on one knee and propose.
“Eddie!” Buck hollers, waving him over in his very tight t-shirt. Eddie has to force his eyes away from Buck’s biceps. “Help!” Three of the girls tackle into his legs as he says it, and Buck lets out a yelp.
Eddie shakes his head fondly, but he can’t stop staring at Buck and all the small children. Buck is just so good with them, and he’s good with all kids, but seeing him with ones this small seems to be unraveling something inside of Eddie. Because Buck deserves to be a dad, like a real dad with kids of his own – small little, tiny Bucks running around and knowing that they have the best dad ever.
He comes to stand next to Buck, three of the kids eyeing him with interest as he waves at them.
“This is my friend! Coach Eddie,” Buck tells them. The kids all squeal “Coach Eddie!” in varying pitches.
Jee smiles at him from where she’s still wrapped around Buck’s leg, peeking out from behind it and giving him a small wave. “Hi, Uncle Eddie.” Her voice is soft but the smile keeps growing on her face as she watches him. Eddie crouches down and waves at her, and she sticks her hand out for him to hold.
“Hi, Miss Jee,” Eddie says, kissing the back of her hand and making her giggle. “Is Uncle Buck a good coach?”
“No,” Jee giggles and hides her face in Buck’s calf. “Daddy’s not good either.”
“Hey, your dad is the best coach,” Buck says, scooping Jee up and pressing kisses to her cheeks until she squeals and cries for Uncle Buck to put her down! Eddie just stares at them from his squatted perch on the ground, watching as Buck smothers her face in kisses and starts rubbing his scruff against her cheek. Jee starts wiggling even more at that and Buck finally puts her down as she runs off squealing into the gaggle of children.
Eddie is fine, really. But he thinks that his third problem is that he wants to have approximately one hundred children with Buck. Because he wants to see Buck with them every single day, and he wants to watch as Buck raises kids of his own – of their own. Buck has so much love to give and Eddie wants it for himself, obviously, but he also wants to see Buck spread it across their kids, just like he’s done with kids for so many years.
He blinks at the grass. He’s still squatting down, and he could so easily slip into a half-kneeling position, and while he doesn’t have a ring, he could just make one out of grass –
“Eddie,” Buck’s voice pierces through his thoughts. Eddie blinks at the grace and looks up at Buck, and he has to let out a loud breath because the evening sun is making Buck’s eyes even bluer than they usually are. “Get up here, man.”
Eddie quickly stands up, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat as Buck brushes off a stray piece of grass stuck to his shirt. “Thanks for helping,” Buck murmurs. He’s so close that Eddie can smell his aftershave, his hand warm as it lingers against Eddie’s chest. “This is too many for me to handle by myself.”
“Yeah, uh, no problem,” Eddie stammers. He sounds like a middle schooler, and he swears that he feels his cheeks turning red as Buck watches him. “What exactly do we need to do?”
“Not much. It’s just a practice and we’ll do a mini game at the end,” Buck shrugs. “They’re three so they really aren’t playing anyway.”
Eddie glances over at them, raising an eyebrow at Jee and a group of girls who are all sitting in the middle of the field and picking dandelions. “Clearly.”
“She’s the best dandelion picker on the field,” Buck grins, and he looks so fond as he watches Jee hand one of the dandelion heads to her friend. Eddie kind of feels like he might pass out.
Eddie’s just about to respond when one of the moms comes over, hands full of infant as she looks at Buck with wide and panicked eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she stammers quickly. “But my older son locked himself in the car, can you watch this one while I get him out?” She holds the baby out to Buck, and Buck’s face instantly morphs into a grin as he takes her from the mom. She gives him a quick smile in thanks before rushing off towards the parking lot.
And now Buck is holding a baby while a bunch of three-year-olds run around him. He gazes down at the baby with such a small smile on his face, and he looks so natural with her, like his arms – giant, giant arms, Eddie thinks forlornly – were meant to be holding babies. Eddie looks up at the sky and takes a few deep breathes, and he still looking at the setting sun when he feels a slight tug at his pant leg.
He looks down and sees Jee smiling softly at him, one of her friends next to her. She holds out a handful of yellow dandelion heads to him, and he opens his own hand and watches as she drops them into it.
“For you,” she says with a soft smile. “Can you braid our hair?”
Eddie looks at them before glancing at Buck, and he still preoccupied with the baby, now cooing at her as she starts to fuss a little in his arms.
“Sure, sweetheart,” Eddie says, sitting down on the grass and ignoring how he feels the slight dampness creeping into his pants. Jee sits on his lap, and he’s suddenly grateful for the distraction when he hears Buck start to talk quietly to the baby.
He braids Jee’s hair first, smiling as she starts quietly humming to herself. He’s working on muscle memory from when he learned how to do this so he could braid Sophia and Adriana’s hair, and he’s truthfully kind of surprised that he still remembers after all these years.
When he’s finished, Jee leans back against his chest, clearly having no interest in participating in the rest of the practice. She finds another dandelion and pops the yellow head off, and her small fingers play with it as she keeps humming to herself.
He glances back over at Buck and blinks, because Buck is now babyless and standing there with his mouth slightly open, and he’s staring at Eddie like –
Well, he’s staring at Eddie the same way that Eddie was staring at Buck only a few minutes ago. Eddie blinks at him and Buck blinks back and closes his mouth, only to open it like he’s about to say something as he takes a step closer to where Eddie and Jee are still seated. Jee suddenly leaps off his lap, pausing only to hand him the additional dandelion head she was playing with, and she’s across the field and chasing after a soccer ball before he can even say anything to her.
He looks down at his hand, the buttery-yellow dandelions leaving yellow pollen along his palms. When he glances back up, Buck is standing in front of him with his eyes wide, hands shoved in his pockets, and Eddie suddenly can’t take it anymore.
He holds the dandelion head out to Buck, holding it gingerly between his thumb and second and third finger. Buck looks at it with a quirked eyebrow.
“Um,” Eddie stammers, wiggling the dandelion a little until Buck gets the hint and gently takes it from his hand. “I don’t know the symbolic meaning of dandelions.”
“Growth, hope, and healing,” Buck says instantly. Eddie blinks at him and Buck shrugs, and he really shouldn’t be surprised that that’s one of the many random facts that Buck knows.
“Okay,” Eddie picks up another one from the pile that Jee initially gave him, left on the ground while he was braiding her hair. He holds it out to Buck. “So two dandelions. One for the each of us.”
Buck huffs out a laugh but takes it anyway. “Eddie.”
“I love you,” Eddie blurts out, and, Jesus Christ, he did not mean for that to just come out like that. And it’s not like he and Buck haven’t said it before, because they did, back when they initially said it but decided the timing wasn’t right. But that doesn’t mean it gets any easier to say, especially when it hasn’t been said since then. “Um, so. There’s that. And the dandelions. And I clearly can’t think straight when you’re around babies and small children.”
Buck is looking at him with such a fond smile, and it looks like he’s just about to reply when there’s a sharp squealing from the field. He looks over and sighs, Eddie following his gaze to see that the kids have started picking up the balls and chucking them at one another.
“Table that for like, thirty minutes,” Buck groans, but Eddie is delighted to see that he carefully tucks the dandelions into his pocket. “Let’s finish the practice and send all the kids home first.”
Eddie nods and follows Buck, only to be taken hostage by four of the other girls who want him to braid their hair. Apparently Jee has been showing off her braids for the past ten minutes.
He makes quick work of the braids, parents coming to gather their kids shortly after. He tucks a dandelion into Jee’s hair as Maddie comes to pick her up, and Jee giggles and presses a soft kiss to his cheek as she runs towards Maddie.
“Thank you, Uncle Eddie!” She squeals, delighted and bounding into Maddie’s arms to show her the braids and the dandelions. Maddie gives him a soft smile and a wave before ushering Jee into the car, and Eddie slowly stands back up, only to come face to face with Buck.
He’s standing only inches away from Eddie, so close that Eddie can see each individual eyelash. And, somehow in the last thirty minutes, Buck has gathered a whole bouquet of dandelions.
“Jesus,” Eddie murmurs, but he still feels a slight blush forming on his cheeks. “What is this, middle school?”
“Hey, you gave me two first,” Buck says with a shrug. “Just thought I would return the favor.”
“I’m sorry my brain apparently short circuits when you’re around kids, but maybe if you –” Eddie’s little rant is cut off by Buck’s mouth pressed against his own, his hands wrapping around Eddie’s waist to tug him closer. Eddie groans and lets himself be pulled into Buck’s chest, his own arms wrapping around Buck’s shoulders and digging into the fabric of his shirt, hard muscle underneath and warm mouth over his own. Buck tilts his head a little and Eddie can do nothing but kiss him back, one hand curling in the hair at the nape of Buck’s neck as Buck gently licks into his mouth.
Buck smells like freshly mowed grass and dandelions and a little bit like baby formula from when the baby spit up on him, but Eddie wouldn’t change it because he thinks it just smells like the future. He deepens the kiss and shivers a little as Buck’s hands slide under his shirt, the rough skin of his hands mapping his back, and Eddie very much does not want to be in the middle of a soccer field anymore.
He pulls away slowly, huffing out a laugh as Buck whines at the loss of contact. “Move in with me,” Eddie says, and he didn’t plan this at all, but he knows that now is the time. It’s their time. They’ve waited so long to get here, and Eddie doesn’t want to waste any more time. “Move in with us. Let’s start a family for real.”
“Jesus,” Buck murmurs before kissing him again. “Marry a guy first.”
“Okay,” Eddie says instantly. He suddenly wishes he did make the ring out of grass. “But you’re already our family. So move in. And then we can get married and we’ll get some more babies.”
“You can’t just buy them at the store, Eddie.”
“You know what I mean,” Eddie huffs. He’s now fisting the front of Buck’s shirt, looking at him so earnestly just to make sure that buck knows how serious he is. “I am so serious, Evan. Move in with us.”
Buck lets out a breath, one hand coming up to cup the side of Eddie’s face. He looks so lovely in the fading light of the evening sky.
“Okay,” Buck whispers, lips softly brushing against Eddie’s with every word. “Okay.”
Eddie kisses him again, Buck’s hand still cupping his jaw and holding him close.
“I love you,” Buck murmurs against his lips, and Eddie feels the warmth light up his spine at the words. “In case that wasn’t clear.”
“Mm,” Eddie hums into his mouth. “You can make it even more clear at home.”
Buck groans and kisses him one more time before putting a solid three feet between them, much to Eddie’s dismay.
“In the car,” Buck’s voice is lower now, almost a growl, and that is definitely a new sound to Eddie.
Eddie salutes him and follows Buck to the car, dandelion bouquet in hand. When they get back to Eddie’s house, Eddie puts the bouquet in a small glass of water before pulling Buck into the bedroom. And when Christopher comes home the next day and gives the bouquet a judging once over, Eddie just shrugs and leans into Buck’s chest as Buck plants a kiss to the top of his head.
“Finally,” Christopher sighs, sounding much more like an aged centenarian than a temperamental teenager. “You’ve basically been together forever.”
Eddie ruffles his hair as Chris grumbles at him, and he wonders how soon is too soon to actually propose. Buck ruffles Chris’s hair immediately after, and as Chris lets out a long-winded sigh, Eddie knows that he really might need to do it soon before he spontaneously combusts.
Buck, who always seems to know what he’s thinking, smiles at him fondly before gently shaking his head. “You’ll have to beat me to it,” he grins, and oh, Eddie will so take that as a challenge.
Christopher hoots and starts hollering about a battle to propose, and Eddie has never backed down from a challenge like that.