Work Text:
Ravi knows a lot of places he doesn’t want to be in this world. Back in high school for one. The dentist, another. On jury duty - even though it does look kind of interesting and he’s morbidly curious. In the hospital - thankfully he’s managed to avoid that one for a while. At the top of that list however - Ravi really doesn't want to be in the middle of whatever the fuck Buck and Eddie have going on. Buck and Eddie, are, well. Buck and Eddie. Infinite and confusing. Personally, he doesn’t want to touch that with a 10 foot pole. He’s good, you know?
No.
Clearly the universe doesn’t know. Because that’s where Ravi has found himself. Smack bang in the middle of something he’d rather be on the other side of the world of. Watch through a stained glass window. Ridicule from a far. Make sarcastic comments on the side line.
But alas, a higher power has a different objective for him and he might as well run with it.
Ravi has always liked Buck. He’s never really had an issue with the guy. They've worked well together for years now. Sure, there were a few teething issues to begin with. The chainsaw thing. But look, generally Buck is a nice guy. He's got some insane golden retriever energy and he's a bit too earnest at times. Also, he doesn't quite get Ravi's humor sometimes, but look.
He's a fine colleague. A fine work partner.
A work friend.
Ravi's not sure they'r e friends . Bucks a weird friend. Not to those he cares about. Ravi has seen enough to know that. Buck is so selfless it's hard to watch most of the time. Will so easily give up any part of himself to help others that he can often get taken advantage of or left behind. Buck pines for attention and takes scrapes of what people are willing to give him. Anyone with eyes can see that and if Ravi was a nicer person, he’d feel bad for him.
But this isn't about how the general public treats Buck. This is about how Ravi likes to think he's generally a good person and tolerates a lot - but he has reached his limit on what he can tolerate.
Specifically, with Buck and Eddie. Lord from above, help him with Buck and Eddie.
He gets it. Kind of. He's never been this codependent on a friend, but each their own.
Eddie left, and Buck was sad.
Butt hurt over it, if you will.
He didn't like Buck trying to replace him as his best friend, and he liked it even less when all Buck did was talk about Eddie. But he got it. Whatever. It was weird and awkward at first, but then Buck evened out and they started to do proper friend things. Ravi isn't about to make friendship bracelets or anything, but they go to the pub and talk about things beside Eddie. Banter at work. No more chainsaw incidents. It's nice.
And then Eddie came back . Obviously. Because Ravi really isn't sure why Buck thought he wouldn't come back in the first place. Eddie was always going to come back. The sky is blue. The grass is green. Eddie is drawn to Buck like a magnet. He was always going to come back.
And back he came with a vengeance, filling the open medic position with Hen as acting captain while Bobby is on leave. Ravi was happy at first. Then, honestly, a little sad. Because surely Buck has his best friend back, he probably won’t need Ravi as much.
Now - while that does make him a little sad, Buck is actually a lot of fun, he's not going to lose sleep about it. He's an adult, with a life and other friends. Truly, he feels very neutral about the whole thing. Like a normal human being should feel about another.
He's not quite as codependent as those two idiots. Because instead of everything just being normal - like it should be. Somehow, it gets much, much worse.
Because instead of dropping him as a friend, Buck just hasn't. Which should be fine. Really he should have given Buck more credit than that. Buck is a puppy with so much love to give, he wouldn’t just drop a new toy for his old one. Buck hoards his toys like a dragon hoarding gold. He can never have enough friends. He takes them and keeps them safe and smothers them with love. It’s nice in a really weird suffocating way. At least - it should be. Except the problem is, Eddie does a great death glare.
Which is why Buck is a terrible friend.
Ravi repeats - these two idiots being weird about each other has gotten him into this godforsaken mess.
It starts as a joke. As all good things do.
“Ravi, workout after shift?” Buck asks enthusiastically, dropping in next to him at the table, arm pressed up close to his own because Buck has never really known the meaning of personal space as Ravi takes a sip of coffee.
Ravi looks straight ahead, at both Eddie and Chim who are sitting across from him. Chim barely looks up from his own coffee, used to his brother-in-law's antics. It's Eddie who narrows his eyes at the two suspiciously.
“Um, what?” Ravi asks dumbly, trying and failing not to read too much into Eddie's angry eyes.
“I’m going for a workout after work. Want to join, workout buddie?” He jokes good naturedly and he presses his insanely large arm to Ravi, nudging him playfully.
Ravi and him have worked out a handful of times together. Mostly due to coincidence, but there was the one time Ravi asked him in the locker after shift if he was going to, and Buck who obviously hadn't been planning to, joined him anyway. That was all before Eddie came back though, and usually Buck and Eddie have been driving to and from work together. Almost attached at the hip. Hardly any time for workouts with anyone else.
Again, Ravi hasn’t lost any sleep over it.
“Sure.” Ravi says slowly and he glances at Eddie. Who is still not necessarily glaring at him. But he does not look happy. In fact, he looks quite annoyed.
“You and Chris will be fine for dinner? I'll be home a bit late.” Buck directs at Eddie and when the man's gaze shifts to Buck it's considerably less tense. It is a bit put out though.
“Um, yeah. Of course.” Eddie says, leaning in his chair, faux casual. “Of course.” He repeats, nodding like he needs to convince himself it is fine.
Buck is oblivious to the tension in Eddie's shoulders, because he animatedly starts talking to Ravi about this new workout he is trying. Ravi tries to feign interest while Eddie not so subtly glares his way the entire time. Ravi tries not to sweat. It's not like he's scared of Eddie or anything. He knows the man would never actually hurt him. Or even threaten it, probably.
But the man was in the army. And is built like it. Ravi values his life enough to be cautious.
Thankfully the bell rings and Ravi can be saved from this awkwardness, but he doesn't miss the glares Eddie continues to send his way every time Buck gets close. Which is a lot considering they're partners and Buck has never walked in a straight line his entire life.
Well, this is a new development.
Ravi goes to the gym with Buck after shift and is able to forget about the Eddie Diaz death glare when it's not actively on him.
Unfortunately it gets worse. Which Ravi probably should have predicted.
He checks instagram the next morning to find Buck has posted a story about him in the gym, captioned before work work . Which is a little bit of a douchey thing to do but whatever. Ravi likes the story and doesn't think anything of it.
It's not until a few days later, when Ravi isn't even on shift mind you, when Buck texts him about midday if he wants to go to the gym.
Ravi simply gives it a thumbs down, because nope. He A) doesn't want to and B) doesn't want to get involved in whatever is going on more than he has to. Eddie has already been weird around him for the last few days; he doesn't need to encourage anything. A few hours later Ravi's phone pings that he's been tagged in a story.
It's Buck at the gym, asking where he is. Calling him out.
Excuse him. But, rude.
Not everyone is insane like Evan Buckley. Not everyone needs to be burning a million calories a day so they don't destroy the backyard like a bored puppy.
When Ravi shows up to shift with everyone, Eddie gives him a classic once over, glares directly at him like a bad smell, and walks away. Nothing. Not a hey. How are you? How have you been? A blatant ignore.
Ravi tries not to read into it. He truly does. Maybe Eddie is having a bad day. He probably has nightmares from the multiple traumatic things that have happened in his life. Whatever.
It's hard to ignore though that Eddie plasters himself to Buck all day, following him around like an eager puppy and preens under the attention. Making an effort to laugh loudly at his jokes and ignore Ravi's general existence.
The problem is Buck doesn't ignore Ravi's general existence. Which means Eddie isn't happy. The audacity.
“Hey Ravi, did you watch the show I was telling you about?” Buck slides up next to him in the kitchen while he's doing the dishes. Eddie trails behind, leaning on the other side of the counter next to Hen. Following Buck around like a lost cat, trying not to appear like it’s following you into every room even though that's exactly what it’s doing.
Ravi looks over his shoulder at Buck's shadow before frowning. Eddie is pouting at him. God to honest pouting. A grown man is pouting at him. For God's sake.
“Haven't had a chance yet.” Ravi says slowly, going back to washing the dishes. It feels significantly more stressful now that someone is sending metaphorical daggers at his back.
“Ah man, you've gotta watch it.” Buck says. Accompanied with a hand on his shoulder.
Ravi freezes, which for some reason Buck doesn't seem to notice. Ravi peaks a look over his shoulder and Eddie looks like he's going to blow. Angry eyebrows have replaced the pout as he looks at Ravi's shoulder like he might be able to remove Bucks hand from it with mind power alone. Ravi glances at Hen who looks like she's trying very hard not to laugh into her coffee cup. Lord help him.
“Yeah, right I'll get onto that.” Ravi mumbles. Maybe he should just succumb to his fate. Let Eddie kill him with his eyes. Seems almost easier at this point.
Thankfully that moment Buck takes his hand off his shoulder and turns to Eddie. “We should start it tonight, Eds.” The way Eddie's face lights up at being addressed is ridiculous. Like he has all of Bucks attention and all is right in the world. “After Christopher goes to bed.”
Eddie smiles wide as he agrees, and then Buck decides he wants to go face time with Bobby and show him the new equipment that just came in. Moving from one topic to the next with a practiced ease Ravi will never be able to follow. He goes off to the trucks with a spring in his step and Eddie follows behind, like the cat that pretends not to want to be in the room with you at all times.
Ravi turns to Hen who is grinning. Ravi glares at her.
“It wasn't always this bad was it?” Ravi asks, as much to Hen as to himself. Or the universe maybe. “They weren't always like this. Together .” He doesn’t mean to say together with so much disgust, but there really is only so much one man can take.
Hen chuckles again. “No, it's gotten much worse since Texas. Since Bobby.” She adds almost as an after thought.
Ravi takes a moment to feel bad. Everyone is dealing in their own ways. The whole thing was bonkers and obviously difficult to process. Still, it doesn't give them the right to be this insane.
“Still, this is bad!” Ravi cries and Hen seems to agree with him even if she's enjoying taking the piss.
“What's bad?” Chim takes the moment to join the conversation. Mouth half full of bagels.
“Eddie.” Hen supplies with no context but Chim's eyebrows go up in understanding, like they've discussed this before.
“Oh, is this about how Ravi pissed in Eddie's cornflakes? Or murdered his cat?” Chim asks, almost gleefully.
“Or monopolised his Buck.” Hen adds.
“It's always the Buck.” Chim agrees soberly.
“I hate you guys.”
“No you don't. And just ignore Eddie, he'll get over it. Or figure it out.” Hen says easily but Chim cuts in.
Chim laughs like she's just told the best joke on earth. “$100 says he won't do either of those things. He'll just continue to stew and glare a metaphorical hole in Ravi's head for the rest of time.”
Hen frowns and seems to reconsider her own words. “Yeah, I'm not taking that bet actually. I'm not made of money.”
Ravi chews on that as his elbow is deep in soapy water. She’s right. If Eddie hasn’t figured it out by now he’s not going to. “ Or , I could help speed things along a bit.” He says slowly. The ideas of a plan forming. It's not a good idea. But neither is allowing them to continue to exist on such a unique plane of stupidity.
The silence from the calvary is palpable. When he turns they're both looking at him like he's lost his mind. “It's your funeral mate.”
It might be. But Ravi's going to do it anyway.
Ravi gets the opportunity much quicker than he thought he would. Because the next morning his instagram notifications go off early as all sin. It's a story of Buck working out, and he's tagged Ravi with an erm ?
Ravi reposts the story on his own instagram and adds “ go to sleep”.
Any normal person wouldn't be bothered by that, let alone jealous. But Eddie isn't a normal person when it comes to Buck. He's completely deranged, and as soon as Ravi walks into the firehouse, Eddie is standing by the firetruck with a general scowl on his face. It deepens when he sees Ravi.
Ravi does his best shit eating grin and waves. “Hey Eddie. How's it going?”
Eddie seems a bit taken aback by his politeness, so he just mumbles something back unintelligible and avoids eye contact. That's the moment Buck decides to walk by.
“Ravi! Cut deep this morning man!” Buck jokes, making noise and being the general gentle giant he is. The look on Eddie's face is worse now that Buck seems to be giving Ravi attention, luckily he slides up next to Eddie on the truck and nudges the man. “Eddie would never leave me hanging, would you?”
Eddie chokes on nothing, before his cheeks tint pink. How Buck doesn't realise is beyond him. “Of course not.”
Ravi doesn't even bother holding back the eye roll as he walks to the locker room. What idiots.
Ravi thought the anger might just be directed at him, but it turns out Eddie is happy to scowl at the general public too after a very unsuccessful experiment is conducted.
They're saving a woman from a car crash. She's fine, just trapped in the car with small bruises. Buck and Ravi are getting her out, Eddie waiting to check her over with medical. It's a pretty standard call, nothing should be amiss. Ravi watches the women as Buck preps the car for the rescue, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that once the woman realises she is fine, and had a proper look at her rescuers, that she’s looking directly at Buck with lust filled eyes. It only takes a few prompts from Ravi, asking Buck to lift the excess material over his head and something about checking the engine where he has to lean over her, that she begins shamelessly flirting with Buck. Ravi should almost feel bad.
This itself is not abnormal. Buck is a very objectively attractive man and often attracts attention from both men and women on shifts. Eddie's reaction, however, is new.
Somehow Buck is oblivious to the attention - but Eddie has noticed. Ravi has a chance to take in Eddie's resting bitch face now that it's not directed at him. It's even more obvious than he originally thought.
“Wow, you're so strong.” Laura - Ravi thinks her name is, shamelessly bats her big eyelashes. Buck grins, but he still doesn't realise she's flirting with him as he is maneuvering the car door.
“Gotta stay strong for the job.” Buck says easily, Ravi doesn't think he's flexing his arms, but he does notice them moving. He's smiling easily at her and Ravi tries not to roll his eyes. Buck is a friendly guy, he’ll chat to everyone they come in contact with. And, to Eddie's dismay, he's always willing to talk about his workout routine. “I started benching double a few years ago. Makes the work easier.”
“I feel like you could bench two of me!” She gushes. Buck continues to smile nicely, none the wiser. It's a bit painful to watch actually.
It somehow gets worse.
“I could bench press Ravi.” Buck agrees and he frowns at being dragged into this. Before he can protest he continues. “I could bench press Eddie .”
Eddie's head snaps up at being addressed and the heart eyes he gives Buck are almost as prominent as the pink that tint his cheeks. Ugh. Eddie blushes at the drop of a hat around Buck these days and it's both funny and disgusting. He has no idea how Eddie hasn’t combosted on the spot from embarrassment yet.
“No you can't Buck.” He says, but he doesn't sound as serious or reprimanding as he should. He sounds both endeared and embarrassed. Gross.
Buck looks up from where he's about to help Laura out of the car and grins at Eddie. This one is full of cheek, a flirtatious grin he didn't give Laura. “Wanna bet?”
“Buck.” Ravi can tell he is going for exasperation. But it comes out far more embarrassed and fond, blush climbing higher. Ravi wants to believe he should be careful, because if he’s any more obvious Buck will realise why he’s blushing. But the other day after Buck had complimented Eddie on his lasagne, and Eddie had blushed so badly Buck had asked him if he was coming down with something. Ravi had been embarrassed for him, he doesn’t know how Eddie had stumbled his way out of that one unscathed. They’re just as naive as each other.
Ravi doesn’t know if he wants to bang their heads together or be sick.
Ravi rolls his eyes and holds a hand out for Laura, who is looking between the two men thoughtfully. He watches as her face falls, realising what's going on. Jokes on her, because little does she know not even they know what's going on, but at least she has a reason why Buck isn't flirting back.
“Right.” Laura says slowly, allowing Ravi to help her out of the car now that Buck has done his part and he's continuing to tease Eddie, now about how he can carry him around.
“Thanks.” She says while watching the two, like she's watching a pair of zoo animals perform a weird matting ritual. Join the club ma’am.
“No worries. Eddie's going to check you over, make sure nothing's broken.” Ravi says the last bit louder, to snap Eddie and Buck out of their banter and she smiles awkwardly, like she'd rather less than anything to be looked over by the guy she was desperately flirting with boyfriend.
Thankfully Eddie puts on his professional face and goes into medic mode. Thank god for small mercies.
The whole thing isn't dropped though because Buck has a shit eating grin on his face back at the station and proclaims very loudly to Hen, “How much do you wanna bet I can bench press Eddie?”
Eddie, who is sitting at the table with a tea immediately perks up at being the centre of Bucks attention and on the defensive, considering everyone knows what's about to happen. “Buck.” He says in that tone again, too fond to be a real warning, red climbing up his neck.
Buck's grin is wide and cheeky, and Hen simply looks unimpressed at the two. “Literally no money at all. I'd pay you to sit down actually.”
Buck is not deterred though, he's eager, so Chim throws him a bone as he walks past. “$5 says you can't catch him first. Diaz is fast.”
“Done.” Buck cracks his knuckles in Eddie's direction and winks. The blush rises on Eddie's cheeks horrendously fast as he jumps over the couch, trying to get a head start but Buck chases after him. Eddie is proclaiming loudly, “Don’t you even dare Buckley ” and Buck is laughing like a madman as Eddie legs it down the stairs, the younger hot on his tail.
Ravi, speechless, just looks between Hen and Chim and raises his hands in the air defeated.
“Really?” He asks, outraged. Are they not seeing this shit?
Hen just shrugs and Chim takes a seat next to her. Neither of them even blink when they hear a crash, Eddie shout BUCK , followed by extremely high pitched giggles.
Ravi needs to up his game, because between Eddie's glares whenever Buck so much as looks at him and dumb and dumbers endless flirting, Ravi doesn't know how much longer he can take these work conditions before he needs to contact the union. Or HR.
This is the only reason he posts a thirst trap on instagram. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
He posts it at a prime time he knows Buck will see it and within 20 minutes Buck has liked and commented on it - It's enough now. A bit rich coming from him of all people, Ravi thinks sourly. But it's enough to get Buck and Eddie's attention. Not enough to do anything productive though. Actually, all it does is back fire momentarily on him.
When he gets to work, Buck pulls him into a noogie the moment he walks through the door - one that makes him feel like a teenager again with his older cousins. It's not at all dignified and when did Buck get so big . To be lightly bullied by his co-worker was not the endgame here.
Buck teases him relentlessly for the entire shift about his thirst trap, until finally Chim calls him out for calling the kettle black. All the entire thing proceeds to do is make Ravi the butt of all the teasing, while Eddie looks like he might pop a vein at Bucks frat boy behaviour not being directed at him.
Why he thought it might be the straw to break the camel's back he has no idea. It makes his shift kind of inconvenient all day, until later in the night Buck finally gets tired of teasing Ravi and crawls next to Eddie on the couch for a nap.
Eddie easily opens his arms for him, allowing Buck to use his chest as a pillow and then proceeds to snap at anyone for being too loud and almost waking up his oversized puppy.
Ravi goes to the bunks before he barfs and stews on the fact he has no idea how to get these two idiots to realise they’re being incredibly abnormal about each other.
Finally, it’s an accident that does it. Ravi didn’t even mean for it to happen, which he supposes is karmas ploy for him trying and epically failing to get involved in the first place. It's 20 hours into a 24 hour shift when Eddie
finally
snaps.
They're sitting around the loft again, just coming back from a pretty easy call. Everyone is sitting on their phone, doomscrolling, or in Chim's case sleeping sitting upright. Conveniently, Buck and Eddie are being, Buck and Eddie. Buck sits on the edge of the couch, researching about Ghost crabs, while Eddie is pressed up against him. This time it's Eddie who is dozing, using Buck as a pillow. Ravi never pictured Eddie as someone who let his guard down easily, and he doesn’t remember him being this open with affection before he left for Texas. But ever since he’s come back, he’s been much softer around the edges. Ravi's sure it’s probably just a Buck thing, but he can acknowledge that it’s probably nice for Eddie.
If only the man would actually let himself have the thing he so desperately wants - and not just pine from distance.
Ravi scrolls through his own phone, trying desperately to ignore them, when a friend suggestion comes up. It reminds him. He spins his head around where he's laying across the couch to turn to Buck.
“Hey, I saw Tommy the other day!” He ran into him at a cafe last week, and it took him a moment to realise where he recognised the man from. It was a bit jarring actually, being approached in line so urgently by someone so big, and it took Ravi a good minute to place where he knew the man before he was bombarded by questions.
Ravi watches as Buck's face takes on a neutral stance, but Eddie's eyes snap open, awake from his nap. Ravi watches as the man's grip on Buck's arm tightens and Eddie's face takes on a scowl.
“Oh yeah?” Buck asks, managing to stay very natural but everyone can tell his posture has become uncomfortable. Hen side eyes him suspiciously.
“Yeah, I ran into him at a coffee shop.” Ravi says a bit more warily now. He didn’t think mentioning Tommy would create such a tense situation. Buck looks on cautiously, and Eddie’s face has taken on new elements of disdain. Ravi thought Tommy had been quite helpful during the whole virus thing. Turns out, he's still Bucks ex.
“What did he say?” Eddie asks, a clipped edge to his voice. It’s in contrast to how he sits, leaning his whole weight against Buck, like cuddling on the couch during work hours is a totally normal thing to do with a co-worker. Like if Ravi tried to sit on Bucks lap like that he wouldn’t get thrown off or made fun of for eternity. Buck remains sitting pretty indifferent, he's not relaxed, but he's not as tense as he could be. Ravi wonders if that's due to the fact he has moved on completely from Tommy or because Eddie is in such close proximity. Both calming him down, and demonstrating enough anger for the both of them.
“Ugh, he wanted to ask how Buck was mostly. Asked about Bobby too.” Ravi had felt kind of bad. Nobody had told him the story or updated him on how Bobby was doing. Ravi had felt like a bit of a messenger boy who put his foot in it. Kind of like now actually.
Eddie scoffs and Buck chuckles, patting Eddie's arm. “Thats fine, he can ask about me. I should have told him about Bobby.” Buck says a bit sheepishly, but Eddie snaps up and looks at Buck. Somehow managing to glare at him while not dislodging himself from using Buck as a pillow.
“You don't owe him anything. Not Tommy. Not after the way he treated you.” Eddie demands. And oh shit, maybe this is it. A jealous rage over the ex boyfriend.
“Eddie, it's fine.” Buck says but Eddie won't be deterred.
“Not after what he said to you. After how he treated you, Buck. You deserve so much better.”
“I wasn't exactly nice to him either.” Buck mumbles. “And he did help us out.”
“I don't care.” Eddie says and gets up. He doesn't start pacing, because that would be ridiculous and he seems to realise that, but he steps back and forth a few times before ultimately heading to the kitchen, hands thrown dramatically in the air. What a drama queen. “I just think how it's funny that it's fine when it's on his terms -” Eddie starts to rant, thankfully Ravi can't hear the rest because Eddie moves too far away for any of them to hear clearly. They can just hear muffled grunts and noises. Ravi looks at Buck like Eddie has lost his mind.
Buck just chuckles awkwardly. “I’ll go see if he's okay.”
With that Buck follows Eddie, into what looks like the bunks.
“What just happened?” Ravi asks. Hen shrugs going back to her book and Chim sighs, who hasn’t even opened his eyes throughout the whole ordeal. He opens one eye to glance at Ravi.
“We don’t like Tommy any more apparently.” Is all Chim supplies before going back to his nap.
“Was anyone going to tell me that?” Ravi asks.
“We don’t tell anyone anything - we just wait to see how Eddie will react to it.” Hen dismisses.
God why is everyone so weird. They sit there for a few minutes in silence. They can hear muffled voices which sounds like arguing, and honestly Ravi would very much rather not to get involved. When they finally hear a loud bang, Hens eyebrows go up in surprise.
“I better go check they haven’t killed each other.” She mumbles. Better her then him, Ravi thinks absentmindedly.
Ravi gets a few more moments of precious silence before he hears yelling. One very distinct from Hen and then footsteps running back into the loft. This has both Ravi and Chim out of their quiet haze and sitting up alert.
“My eyes! I’ve been blinded! Oh my god!” Hen cries, clutching dramatically at her eyes. Behind her, Eddie and Buck fumble in. Looking suspiciously sheepish - and rumpled.
Like - Eddie's hair is all messed up to the point it looks like someone was frantically running through it and Bucks lips look swollen. Like teenagers who have been caught red handed.
“Hen!” Buck tries but seems at a loss on how to defend himself. Eddie is completely lost for words and Ravi has watched Eddie go many shades of red from embarrassment before but this one is his worst yet. You could fry an egg on his face. Ravi makes a note to make fun of him later.
“Would you like to explain yourselves?” Chim asks, a teasing note to his tone who knows exactly what happened in those bunks. Ravi watches as Buck turns from Eddie to the rest of them a few times. He looks sheepish and embarrassed to be caught, but everyone can see the happiness shining through on his face.
“Well, it just sort of happened.” Buck shrugs, clasping his hands together and looking to Eddie for confirmation who looks a bit like a deer caught in headlights, but when Buck looks at him softens like the love struck idiot he is.
“Really?” Chim chuckles, “So this had nothing to do with Eddie's insane jealous behavior ever since he got back from Texas?”
Ravi didn’t think Eddie's face could go redder, but alas. It can.
Buck however, has gone from caught to delighted. “You were jealous?” He turns to Eddie, who looks like he’d like the floor to open up and swallow him whole. Buck uses his whole body to communicate, often using his size to his advantage. You can tell he’s doing it now, when he takes a step in Eddie's space, pressing their chests together and grinning down at the man like he has hung the moon and the stars. When Eddie tries to take a step back, Buck easily pulls him in by the waist, not letting him go. Eddie doesn’t try very hard to get away, and Ravi knows it was more out of habit than anything else.
“No.” Eddie tries to say firmly but three snorts that echo around have him half heartedly glaring at everyone.
“You were so jealous.” Buck teases, absolute hearts in his eyes. Ravi is sure he doesn’t know the half of it though.
Eddie rolls his own, but again he’s got that look on his face he always has when he looks at Buck. Soft.
“This was all Ravi's fault!” Eddie accuses instead. And hey, it was. But Eddie can’t possibly know that.
“Or, you could be thanking me instead! Especially if it’s ended in, this .” Ravi waves a hand around at how Buck and Eddie have now seemed to morph into one subconsciously. Buck has pulled Eddie into his chest, one hand around the man's waist and the other through a belt loop. Eddie resting easily in his arms, grabbing one of Buck's arms. Really, it’s hardly different to how they usually are, but the aura around them has changed. Created one.
Buck cocks his head to the side as he does seem to consider that, but Eddie looks firmly planted in the I’ll thank Ravi when I die, category.
Hen chuckles. “Whatever lovebirds, we’re happy for you. Truly. But remember this is a workplace. Those bunks are communal. Keep it in your pants.” She pats Buck’s back affectionately as he laughs and Eddie hides his face into Buck's chest, groaning in embarrassment.
“Will do Cap.” Buck salutes, pulling Eddie in closer with his other arm.
Chim sits there studying the two closely. When Buck raises a questioning eyebrow he sighs. “You couldn’t have waited until after Christmas? I owe Maddie 100 bucks and a foot rub now.”