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The adults of the 'firefam' were just settling down around Bobby and Athena's backyard, when the conversation turned to the upcoming Pride month. Several people in the station volunteered to work at least one event throughout the month, and Eddie was looking forward to it himself.
Chris, who was waiting for Buck to find the cord for his Switch — Eddie was praying it had fallen out of his bag in the truck, and not at home — leaned into him and asked, "Are you going to come up now?"
"Up? Like upstairs?" Tanika asked.
Eddie ignored her and brushed one of Chris's unruly curls out of his eyes, "No, I'm not going to come out right now mijo; they already know I'm bi."
Silence quickly fell behind him, broken only by a shocked noise from Chim. Eddie shifted around and found that almost everyone was staring at him in some degree of shock. Only Athena and Bobby didn't look completely bowled over.
Finally, Chim managed to choke out, "No, we didn't already know."
"None of us know," Hen added.
Eddie was baffled. "But… that's not true. Bobby has — and Buck's known for ages."
Just at that moment, Buck came out of the house. "Buck's known what?" he asked, holding up the missing cable to show Chris, who cheered.
"That Eddie is bi," Karen explained.
"Yup. Obviously." He handed the switch charger to Chris, who gleefully retreated to Harry's room to continue their games. Buck turned back to the backyard and saw everyone looking surprised. Warily, he slid back into his seat beside Eddie, pressing their sides together comfortingly.
"But apparently none of the others know," Eddie informed him, still confused how that could be possible.
Buck looked startled. "You haven't told them?"
"I didn't not tell them. I just—"
"You knew!" Chim burst out. "Why didn't you tell us, Buck?!"
"Excuse me?" Buck snapped. "I don't go around outing people, thank you very much. That's incredibly invasive, and offensive, and just because a person tells you that they're out, it doesn't mean that they necessarily want everyone else to know, and it's presumptuous as hell to make that decision for them!"
"But you gave us that lecture about pronouns!" Marcus protested.
"Because pronouns are entirely different than orientation. Warning you about someone's pronouns in advance if that's how they introduce themselves isn't an invasion of their privacy; it's helping them, because it ensures you're more likely to call them the correct thing right off the bat, and not let the wrong thing potentially settle into you mind so you're more likely to slip up later. That can be anything from frustrating to traumatic for someone. That isn't the same thing as outing them at all." Buck turned to Eddie. "Did you want me to tell them back then?"
Eddie shook his head quickly. "No, it isn't— I just thought— I thought it had come up more. I honestly thought they knew. I guess my brain just thought that, since I'd told you, I was…" he waved his hand, attempting to encapsulate what he was having trouble himself understanding.
"You were out, as far as work was concerned," Buck said with a little smile, slipping their hands together between them.
"Yeah, I guess." Eddie turned to the others. "Sorry. I really thought you knew."
Hen patted his knee encouragingly. "That's okay, Eddie. We understand. Straight people just don't realize that coming out isn't a one or two time thing. It's a repeated process in life. Every time I introduce Karen as my wife to someone, I'm coming out, to a certain extent."
Buck nodded sagely. "Yeah, that."
Castillo snorted. "Right, like you'd know."
Buck immediately cocked his head, confused, "What?"
"Another performative 'woke' ally. I'm sick of getting lectured by someone who doesn't know what he's talking about!" she snapped.
Eddie and Buck traded glances. "Uh, I'm pan."
"Since when?"
"Uh, college? I thought I was bi, before that, cause I didn't know there was more than 'gay, straight, bi' back in high school, but then in the QSA in college I learned more about the whole spectrum, and knew that pan fit me better."
"You've never told us!" Chim protested.
Buck blinked quickly, confused. "Yes I have. I've literally told you about dates with guys before. Back when I was Buck 1.0."
"No you didn't," Marcus chimed in.
"Yeah, I did," Buck picked up steam as he began to list off names. "Danny the teacher? Kaoru the singer from the karaoke bar? Kai the exotic dancer? Hell, I hooked up with Alexi at pride, and Hen you even commented on my bruises the next day!"
Chim threw his hands up. "We thought Danny was short for Danielle, and Alexi is a girl's name!"
Eddie had actually met Buck's Alexi after they'd gotten together, because they'd run into the cop on calls and Buck had introduced him. At the time, Eddie had also been confused and had had to google it, so he saw the problem with that one right away. "In Russia it's a male name. And Alexi is Russian, very much male, and built like Buck."
Athena startled. "Alexi Volkov? At my precinct?" Buck and Eddie nodded, grinning.
Athena grinned back. "Very much male," she agreed with a smirk. "And yes, almost as big as Buck here."
"Still, those are unisex or confusing names!" Chim protested. "How were we supposed to know just from that?"
Buck scowled. "Well I also said it to that jumper kid who'd come out to her parents as trans like, right before Eddie started. You should all have heard it over the radio." He'd been sent up because it was super windy that day — the Santa Ana was blowing through — and they'd counted on his strength and surefootedness against the tugging gusts. After he'd shared his own less than pleasant outing to his parents, and how things really had gotten better for him, she'd been willing to accept his help to get back to safety.
"I remember that, and you were cutting in and out," Bobby said quickly. "The wind was masking half of what you said."
"Okay," Buck thought for a moment. "Well I know I've worn the pan colors to work around Pride," Buck said. "And I always talk about going. You— Hen, one year you teased me about still having my facepaint on the next morning."
"I remember that," Tanika chimed in! "Cause Castillo complained that it was scummy for you to go and hit on girls who wouldn't be interested in you."
Eddie saw the brief flash of hurt cross Buck's face before he pushed it away, and he squeezed Buck's hand reassuringly. At least that might explain why Castillo was being so hostile about it today, and why she was always slightly cool towards Buck.
"We didn't think you were being scummy, Buck," Karen quickly reassured him.
"We thought you just enjoyed the party aspect of it," Hen admitted. "As an ally. None of us knew."
"I knew," Maddie piped up.
"I knew," Bobby said evenly. "I actually asked Buck about the bruises from Alexi, and I was also his designated driver at Pride his first year, before he started going with Eddie. Even though I didn't explicitly hear him tell the jumper he saved, I got the gist from what I could hear. Between all that and the paperwork, it wasn't like Buck was hiding anything."
"Cap, why didn't you tell us?" Chim complained.
"Paperwork?" Marcus asked in the background.
"I don't just go around outing people either." Bobby said dryly. "And I honestly thought you all had put it together the same way I had."
Buck was looking more and more distressed, but finally he said desperately, "But I make jokes about sleeping with Eddie all the time. And we call each other pet names!"
"I especially like your pansexual pancake breakfast joke, Carino," Eddie reassured him, bumping shoulders.
"Yeah but even Hen has made jokes about sleeping with Eddie, and she's a lesbian!" Chim protested. "How were we supposed to know that it meant anything?"
Buck threw his free hand up in the air in exasperation, tugging against the one Eddie was holding. That abruptly clicked one last thing into place. "Hang on," he said. "If you didn't know either of us was into guys, then what did you think was going on when you found out we were dating?"
Jaws dropped around the circle for the umpteenth time that day. "Wait, what?" several people chorused.
"Since when?" Hen asked.
"Officially? Since my leg. I moved in with him and Chris because of the stairs at my place. When my lease was up I just… stayed." And Eddie had gone with him to the union, and when Buck's rep blew him off, Eddie had dragged him down the hall to his own rep and forced her to listen. It was why Buck had gotten his job back last year.
"You've been hiding it for that long?" Chim glared.
Athena snorted. "I'm starting to believe there's some willful incomprehension happening here. Bobby literally just said he helped them fill out the paperwork. And I don't know in what world calling each other pet names and joking about sleeping together in front of everyone can be considered hiding. I'd also put together the clues about his sexuality back in Buck's first year, and I'm well aware he's been co-parenting Chris for ages. I may not have known Eddie was bi, but I was completely unsurprised by their relationship when I found out. Frankly, if the rest of you couldn't put together what sounds like a mountain of evidence, that sounds like a you problem."
Chris emerged from the house again and tugged on Buck's arm. "Papa, can I have a candy bar? Harry has the mini kind."
Eddie could see the reactions to that around the room — clearly no one had noticed Chris's recent decision to call Buck 'Papa', either.
"Only one, and you brush your teeth for an extra thirty seconds tonight," Buck decided.
"Deal!" Chris shook his hand with a wide smile.
As he turned to leave, Eddie remembered something. "Oh, Chris?"
Their son stopped and turned back expectantly.
"Yes, apparently your Papa and I did come out to our team tonight."
"Cool!" Chris declared, then headed back to the other boys.