Chapter Text
«Before Buck’s realization, after 7x10, Before 8x08»
Upstairs at Buck’s loft, Eddie and Buck were sitting on Buck’s bed watching a movie on Buck’s laptop, they were doing a movie marathon of their all time favorite movies and movies that have been on their “to watch” list for years. It's getting pretty late, by the time they finished the fourth movie, the sun had already set. They were watching “Dead Poets Society” when Eddie fell asleep sitting next to Buck, he fell onto Buck’s arm, Buck didn't want to disturb his ‘pretty boy slumber’ so he simply just set aside the laptop and tried to fall asleep as well.
It wasn't too hard, but falling asleep when your best friend is asleep on your shoulder could be pretty difficult. He felt so at peace. Almost more at peace than with Taylor and even Tommy. He can't figure out what this feeling is. He’s comfortable, safe, …happy. As Buck is sitting there, drifting to sleep, he finds out something about Eddie that he's never known. To be fair, Eddie might not even know.
“your eyes are beautiful B…” Eddie mutters, trailing off into incomprehensible mumbles before he can get the name out. Buck, still being half asleep, turns to look down at Eddie, thinking he might've woken up. Eddie is still quietly mumbling things, Buck realizes that Eddie is sleep-talking and he leans in, careful not to wake him, trying to hear what Eddie is saying. “c-come on baby, don't leave me here…” Buck blushes, something about hearing the word “baby” come out of his mouth. A few minutes later Eddie starts mumbling in his sleep again, just rambling on and off.
Buck starts to fall asleep once again, just silently sitting and listening to Eddie's mumbles. Eventually Buck catches something Eddie says, that's actually comprehensible.
“Please could you stay the night? We could watch a movie or bake together, B…”
He drifts off fully again, leaving Buck sitting in pure silence. His heart sinks, his stomach drops. He doesn't know why. What is this feeling? Was it the suspense from not hearing the name? The activities they do together being listed? The idea of someone abandoning Eddie? Someone leaving his best friend to do who knows what?
Buck carefully moves, still trying not to wake him, but wanting to see his face. …There’s tears in his eyes.. The dream must be even more emotional than Buck thought. “No, no, no. Don't cry.”
Buck whispers, wiping Eddie's tears from off his face with the blanket next to them, hoping Eddie can somehow hear him. His heart sinks even deeper into his chest, he's seen Eddie upset before, angry, sad, pained, they've been through it all together. And yet, this is… different. Buck doesn't know how to help, since Eddie’s asleep and only dreaming.
“Oh, god. I- fuck it.”
Buck turns and hugs Eddie, in hopes that might work. After a couple seconds he pulls back and Eddie is grinning.
‘He has such a pretty smile.’ He thinks, lightly blushing and smiling at Eddie.
“Nope can't think like that, he likes girls. …Women, women, women.”
He mumbles, still trying not to disturb Eddie’s rest. He notices Eddie frowning again, he immediately hugs him.
Buck realizes how comfortable he is when hugging Eddie, his best friend, his favorite person. He sighs and lets himself fall asleep while hugging him.
-Eddie’s Perspective-
Eddie wakes up in Buck’s bed, Buck’s arms around him. He’s blushing, he had just woken up from a dream where Buck was leaving for the night and he begged him to stay, and he is laying in the bed of his best friend. His best friend's bed. He can't believe it, what happened last night? Was the dream real? Eddie sighs and gets out of the bed, gently tapping Buck to wake him up. It's not working, so Eddie just gives up and goes downstairs to sit down at the table and wait for him to wake up.
Thirty minutes pass by, and Buck is still asleep. That's when he gets ‘the best idea ever’.
“Oh my god, I should make Buck breakfast! To prove that I can cook!! Maybe then he’ll realize…” Eddie exclaims, to no one but himself. He probably- no, definitely sounds delusional. He walks over to the cabinet and opens it; looking for a pancake mix or something like that that he can use. He finds a box of unopened blueberry pancake mix, grabs it and starts following the directions on the side. He’s doing pretty well, everything is perfect, he hasn't dropped anything yet. Until he has to pour the batter.
“Shit…” He mumbles to himself as he accidentally pours some of the batter over the edge.
‘Oh well, that's not that much of a problem.’ He thinks.
Apparently that took all of his brain power, because he then proceeded to wipe the batter off of the side of the pan with his finger and burn himself.
“Fuck! Ouch, fuuuuuuuck…” He cries out, dropping the box of pancake batter in the pan and going to the sink to run his hand under cool water. His finger feels better after a minute or two, but he starts to smell something burning.
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
He turns to the pan, the box is burning. He grabs the oven mitt and puts it on, rushing over to the pan to pick it up and put it in the sink and turn the water on. Right before he grabs the handle, oh my god, it's on fire, the box is on fire! He quickly grabs the handle and puts it into the sink, turning the cold water on. He sighs, he can't believe that just happened. He’s entirely forgotten about where he woke up this morning. But to be fair, waking up in your crush’s bed is a lot less stressful than almost setting his loft on fire trying to make a stupid romantic gesture.
“I’ll just get breakfast delivered.”
Eddie sighs as he pulls out his phone, ordering pancakes, hash browns and eggs & bacon from a nearby restaurant. 30 or so minutes later the food gets there and Eddie sets up the table and plates the food. He just barely finished setting everything up by the time Buck woke up.
“Eddie? What's all this?”
Buck asks, looking down at Eddie from upstairs.
“Come down and I’ll show you!”
Eddie yells back in excitement at the fact that Buck is finally up. He's grinning like a small child seeing a puppy for the first time. Buck goes downstairs and looks at the table and food set up. He looks so happy, he looks at Eddie, smiling with tears in his eyes. Not even his partners have done something this sweet for him. He is about to sit down before Eddie catches his attention.
“Buck, before you sit down, I need to tell you something.”
Eddie sighs, watching Buck closely, almost as if he's studying him.
“Oh, uh- alright.”
Buck pushes his chair back in and stands up straight. His heart is racing, what is it that he's feeling? His voice is shaky, he sounds scared.
“Is something wrong, Eds?”
Eddie blushes at hearing the name “Eds”. He shakes it off before replying:
“Uhm, sort of?”
This makes Buck's heart skip a beat, his best friend made a big gesture of some sort, but something is wrong…
“I may or may not have ruined your drain.”
“What?”
This calms Buck down a bit, but then he realizes what Eddie just said.
“Wait, what?!”
“Yeah, I accidentally set a box on fire and then I put the fire out, but there's now ‘box guts’ in your sink.”
“I'm sorry, you set a box on fire, how?!”
“Long story, I was trying to make you breakfast but I failed and managed to burn myself and drop the box into the pan. I am so sorry ‘Bucky’.”
Eddie looks super guilty, yet so pretty at this same time. Buck on the other hand is struggling to process everything.
“Oh no, are you okay? Where did you get burnt?”
Buck steps closer to Eddie, hoping to look at his injury. But he pauses and looks down at Eddie.
“B-bucky?”
He’s incredibly flustered. It's almost like he was factory reset and forgot everything except the original code: “Fall in love with Eddie Diaz”.
“Uh… I did not mean to call you that. I am so sorry Buck” He sighs, looking up at Buck.
No, no. Don't be sorry. I loved it.”
Buck pauses, realizing what he just said.
“Wait, no. I liked you. No! It! I liked it! Not you- I mean I do like you, but in a friendship way-”
He sighs and puts his head in his hands out of embarrassment, and tries not to cry. Eddie set's his hand on Buck's shoulder, rubbing it with his thumb, trying to comfort him.
“It's okay ‘Bucky’. Really. If you like being called Bucky, I will call you that as long as you want me to. I love you ‘Bucky’.”
Eddie’s eyes widen as he realizes what he said, he panics but before he could even open his mouth to correct himself, Buck replies.
“I love you too, Eds.”
“What.”