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Buck wakes up in a hospital bed.
Not that that's an unusual occurrence, unfortunately. But still.
He's groggy as fuck, his head is killing him, and it looks like he's got more than a few scrapes and bruises. Yay. Lucky him. He looks over to his left and sees Ravi sitting in a chair scrolling through his phone.
Huh. Ravi. Interesting choice to watch over him, but whatever.
"Ravi?"
"Oh, hey. You're awake," Ravi says as he sets his phone down. "Welcome back."
"Did I die?"
"What? Again? No, I just meant welcome back in the general sense, not like welcome back from the dead."
Buck sighs and lets his head drop back down on the pillow.
"How's your head?" Ravi continues.
"Kinda fuzzy. Hurts like hell."
"Sounds about right."
Ravi doesn't elaborate so Buck just turns his head back towards him and stares.
"Because…?"
"Well that beam that landed on it. That couldn't have helped."
"A beam fell on my head?" Buck almost shouts, but instantly regrets it because his head throbs.
"Well not a big one, just a medium one."
"A medium beam?"
"Look, I don't know the details. Ask your man, he was the one with you."
"My man?"
"Roommate? Life partner? I don't know how you two identify, just ask him."
"And that would be…?"
"Eddie?" Ravi just stares at him like Buck's the crazy one. "Diaz? Shit. Maybe it was a big beam, not a medium one."
"I don't think the size of the beam matters right now."
"Only people with little beams say that."
"Ravi."
"What? I'm just saying, size kinda does matter when we're talking about things hitting you on the head."
"I'm in the hospital, confused and alone –"
"Hey! I'm here!" Ravi interrupts.
"I'm confused and alone," Buck repeats, "and you're making dick jokes."
"Okay, look. This isn't my forte. I didn't even want to be here –"
"Wow. Thanks."
"But your life partner had to go pick up your kid at school and basically threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't sit with you because, and I quote, 'I don't want him to wake up alone, don't be a dick about this, Ravi,' so now I'm here, and you are not alone, and I resent the implication that you are. Not just because it's a flat out lie, but because I don't want to deal with a pissy Eddie if you lie and tell him you woke up alone."
"Eddie doesn't get pissy," Buck insists and Ravi just laughs in his face.
"Yeah. Okay, bud. Whatever you say."
"He doesn't."
"He absolutely does get pissy. Like all the time - mostly with you. You just think it's cute or something. I don't know. I don't understand your mating rituals, nor do I want to, I just want to stay out of it."
"What are you even talking about?" Buck asks. "You love drama. You live for drama."
"I think you're confusing me with Chim and Hen, and your pissy boyfriend who always claims to not want any part of it but is always somehow lurking around corners like a creeper looking like a live action popcorn gif."
Boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
Buck's just now realizing Ravi's called Eddie that like three times since he woke up. His man…life partner? Boyfriend? What is he even talking about? They're not…that. Right? Like Buck would remember that. He'd remember being with Eddie in like, the biblical sense. He'd definitely remember that.
Kissing Eddie.
Holding hands with Eddie.
Fucking Eddie.
Like oh my god, if he got his dick anywhere near that ass it'd be imprinted in his brain for eternity. Eternity. He's stared at that ass with lust in his heart and half a boner in his pants on multiple occasions. He'd absolutely one hundred percent remember getting at that ass because he'd feast on it, and you don't just forget getting to do all the depraved things he'd do to that ass if he had the opportunity.
Ravi is just full of shit. He's being a fucking weirdo. Nothing new there, he's always being a weirdo - acting like he doesn't want to know everything about his coworkers' lives like a normal person, claiming all of the rest of the 118 were the weirdos. Like pot meet kettle.
"I don't have a pissy boyfriend," Buck insists.
Well, at least not anymore. Tommy kinda excelled at being pissy. And smug. Pissy smug. And Buck clearly remembers, because he's a rememberer who remembers things, that he and Tommy broke up. Like twice. Well, if he were being technical, three times, but that's not the point right now.
"Hey, why don't we just pretend I'm not here and you take another nap until your pissy boyfriend gets back? I much prefer that to whatever is happening right now," Ravi says as he pulls out his phone again and goes back to looking at it instead of at Buck.
"Hey, I've been hit in the head with a medium, or possibly large, beam. Be nice, dude."
"No, I'd rather do this," Ravi says, still not looking up from his phone.
"I'll tell Eddie you ignored me," Buck threatens.
"Oh my god," Ravi whines. "You're the literal worst. No wonder you have a pissy boyfriend, you two are made for each other."
"I'll tell him you confused me and made me cry, too," Buck adds.
"At no point have I made you cry, and I'm going to start recording this interaction so I can prove it when you lie."
"But you have confused me."
"About what?" Ravi asks. "You got hit on the head, there was a beam, now you're in the hospital, what more do you need to know? It's a pretty straight-forward story, not really confusing at all."
"But Eddie," Buck stresses.
"Eddie what?" Ravi is clearly annoyed, but Buck doesn't really care right now.
"That we're, you know," Buck says as he waves his hand around.
"Codependent freaks?"
"No," Buck huffs.
"Symbiotic weirdos?"
"Ugh, I hate you." Buck gives up.
"You really don't," Ravi says smugly. "You love me, you've told me."
"Yeah, I do love you," Buck sighs. "But not right now."
"You really need to work on your pissiness," Ravi says. "You give in so easily, you need to maintain your grumpiness, hold onto it, let it linger and fester. Like your boyfriend does."
"I really do hate you right now," Buck insists.
"But you prefaced it with telling me you loved me. You should have Eddie help you out with that," Ravi suggests. "And then when he's being a little bitch you can help him out with his stink face. Keep up your little ying yang thing you've got going on."
Buck groans. "Ugh, why are you even here?"
"I told you, it wasn't by choice." Buck scowls at Ravi. "Eddie was here because you're like his full-time job or something, but then, you know, your kid and whatever. Cap had to fill out your accident report. Your sister's working, or so she claims–"
"Why would she lie about that?"
"I don't know, I would if I were her, you're a terrible patient."
"I am not! Plus she'd definitely come, she loves me."
"So you claim–"
"I don't claim, I know!"
"Whatever," Ravi waves him off. "And since Maddie may, or may not, be at work, Chim had to pick up their kid, just like Hen had to pick up hers, and your papi had to pick up yours. And that left me, which I feel is discrimination."
"How on earth is that discrimination?"
"For being single and childless," Ravi says. "It's like I'm being punished for having free time and my own life."
"That's not discrimination."
"It's Pride month, Buck."
"It's August."
"How do you know? You hit your head."
"And you're giving me a headache," Buck complains, just as Eddie walks into his room.
"What are you doing to him, Panikkar?"
Buck won't say Eddie growls, but he kinda does. And it's hot.
Ravi leaps up from his chair. "This has been super fun, but I'm leaving now. Bye!"
"All I asked you to do was sit with him," Eddie says, waving his arm around. "And you're giving him a headache? He got hit in the head with a giant beam!"
"A medium one," Buck and Ravi say at the same time.
"The size of the beam doesn't matter right now," Eddie almost shouts.
"That's what I said!" Buck smiles up at Eddie at the same time Ravi says, "That's what she said."
Eddie sighs and rubs at his temples. "Just leave, Ravi."
"Hey, you can't be mad at me," Ravi says as he points at him. "Your baby daddy was the one causing issues here."
"That doesn't even make sense," Eddie says.
"Yes, it really does. It's a well documented fact Buck is a horrible patient."
"I didn't mean that," Eddie says. "Buck absolutely is a horrible patient–"
"Hey!"
"–but I'm talking about the other part. He's not the baby daddy, I'm the baby daddy."
"Um, Eddie, you're really not. Christopher looks exactly like Buck," Ravi says. "Do you even know how biology works? I thought you were a medic."
"Do you know how biology works?"
Eddie and Ravi keep going at each other, but Buck just kind of zones out because Eddie is arguing which one of them is the baby daddy, like it's normal, like he's not even questioning Ravi implying what he's implying, like they actually are together and this is a valid argument he needs to have with Ravi.
And isn't that something?
Jesus Christ, how big was that beam?
Because how could he forget a single solitary second of getting to be loved by the beautiful idiot yelling at Ravi about baby daddies? How could he ever not feel that joy and that love thrumming through him like electricity every waking moment? The second he opened his eyes he should've felt the hum of it and just known.
Known he's loved by Eddie.
He can vaguely hear Eddie and Ravi's conversation in the background —
'You gave birth to a child who looks exactly like Buck, bro. Buck. Your baby daddy.'
'I didn't give birth to him, Shannon did! I'm the baby daddy.'
'Are you denying he's a carbon copy of Buck? Are you telling me I'm wrong, bro?'
'Stop calling me bro.'
— but he's so focused on the revelation that it's all actually true, that Eddie's in love with him, that they're together, that he honestly couldn't give two shits about their argument.
He just wants to look at Eddie, talk to Eddie, kiss Eddie.
So when Eddie finally finishes bickering with Ravi and practically chases him out of the room, Buck beams at him. He knows his face is lit up like a sky full of stars because when Eddie closes the door behind Ravi and turns back to look at him, face all red and pouty-mouthed from arguing, he kind of stumbles and has to right himself at the sight of him. And then Buck gets to watch as all of the irritation instantly leaves him and his bitchy little face turns to blushing, and a stupidly cute little smile spreads across it instead when he notices how Buck's looking at him.
Buck reaches out for Eddie when he gets close enough to grab his hand. He pulls him down towards him as he leans forward so he can press a kiss to Eddie's lips. Eddie makes a little, 'mmph' sound as their lips meet but when Buck presses in even closer Eddie relaxes into the kiss.
"Thanks for getting rid of Ravi, I was about to commit a murder," Buck whispers quietly against Eddie's lips, drawing back just enough to talk. "You're the best baby daddy."
"I know, right?" Eddie says. "I'm the baby daddy, Ravi is an idiot."
Buck just smiles and goes in for another kiss. This one lingers because when Buck starts to end it and pull away Eddie makes this distressed little whimpering noise like Buck is hurting him by stopping the kiss, so Buck keeps on kissing him.
At least until Eddie jerks back suddenly when Buck deepens the kiss and slips his tongue into Eddie's mouth.
Buck sighs at the loss of Eddie's lips and opens his eyes only to find Eddie looking back at him with a wild, frantic gleam in his own. Buck doesn't have a moment to react before Eddie takes a stumbling step back and drops down into the chair Ravi had vacated. Buck flinches when the chair legs make a loud screeching sound against the floor, and Eddie just stares at him as he touches his fingers to his lips.
"You kissed me," he finally says.
"I did."
"Why'd you kiss me?"
Buck's stomach drops.
The way Eddie is looking at him, with complete and absolute shock and confusion, and the way he asked why Buck had kissed him, voice all weird and a bit wobbly, Buck knows he's made a big mistake.
A huge one.
Goddammit, Ravi.
Buck can feel his face start to flame as shame and embarrassment courses through him. He's so stupid. So fucking stupid. He knew it, he absolutely knew he'd have remembered if he and Eddie were together. A stupid knock to the head, no matter the size of the beam, would have never made him forget the best thing to ever happen to him.
Because it would be the best thing ever if Eddie loved him back. Because of course Buck's in love with him, of course he is, he always has been, probably from day one, no matter how hard he pushes the denial, he loves Eddie. He loves him and he loves him and he loves him. And if Eddie loved him back? He'd feel whole. He'd have Eddie, and Christopher, and he'd be whole.
He'd be complete.
He'd have everything he'd ever wanted when he was younger and all alone. The 118, his family, his people. Bobby, the father he never had. Maddie back in his life. His niece and nephew. And his boys, his family. All his.
But now he's done something so fucking stupid and everything is fucked.
"I- I thought…I," Buck stammers over his words.
"You thought what?"
"Ravi –" Buck says inanely.
"Ravi? Ravi? What does Ravi have to do with this?" Eddie makes a little stink face every time he says Ravi.
"Look," Buck says. "Can we just stop saying Ravi's name?"
"Gladly."
"I just…I woke up and I was a little fuzzy and Ravi was saying things –"
"I thought we agreed to stop saying that name."
"Ugh, fine. That person was saying things –"
"What was he saying to you?"
"Well if you'd stop interrupting me I'd tell you," Buck says. Eddie huffs, but he shuts up, so Buck keeps going. "He kept calling you my pissy boyfriend."
"I'm not pissy!"
Buck gives Eddie a look. "You're a little pissy." Because even though Buck defended his honor to Ravi, he knows Eddie is definitely a little pissy, and Buck loves it. Unconditionally. Always. Even when it's directed at him, especially when it's directed at him.
"Well, maybe a little," Eddie reluctantly concedes. "But who wouldn't be when dealing with Ravi? I mean he's impossible sometimes. Did you know he – wait, your boyfriend?"
"Yeah," Buck sighs. "My pissy boyfriend."
"Your boyfriend though," Eddie says, eyes wide and searching.
"Yeah, mine."
Eddie touches his lips again, like their kiss is still lingering. Buck watches as a rosy blush works its way across Eddie's cheeks, and a small, happy smile starts to pull up the corners of his mouth.
"And that was okay with you?" he asks.
"Well, obviously," Buck sighs. "I kissed you, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Eddie says, voice quiet. "You kissed me."
"Look, I'm sorry. Let's just say it was the beam to the head and we can just forget the whole thing."
"I'm okay with it too," Eddie says, completely ignoring Buck's rambling. "Just in case you were wondering."
"You're okay with it?"
"Yeah. Really okay. I'd be okay with another one, actually," Eddie says as he gets up from his chair so he can sit down on the side of Buck's bed instead. "And probably a couple more after that, too. I'd be okay with it for a really long time."
Eddie wants to kiss him again? Buck's so confused, what's even happening here? Did he get it right the first time?
"Wait," Buck frowns. "So we are together? Ravi was right?"
"God, no. Ravi's an idiot. He definitely didn't get it right," Eddie says. "Well, not right in the sense of what the word right means, but I guess he did get it right about what he saw between us, what we are…at least on my end."
"And what's on your end?" Buck asks, trying to keep the hope from bursting out of him.
Eddie looks at him and rolls his eyes, but he's smiling and his face is so fond that Buck kind of hopes he rolls his eyes at him like that for the rest of their lives. He reaches out and takes Buck's hand in his and starts tracing along the lines of the palm with his finger. He focuses on Buck's hand for a while, just holding it gently in his own, and Buck's anxiety would be skyrocketing normally because Eddie looks like he's gearing himself up to say something big, he's taking deep breaths and won't look up at Buck yet, but from the way Eddie's holding onto him he knows he doesn't need to worry.
He knows.
And finally, for the first time since he woke up, he's not one thousand percent confused. He's certain. All of the ridiculousness that's led up to this is forgotten, because now he knows.
"I love you, too," he says quietly as he wraps his fingers around Eddie's hand, trapping it in his, and giving it a tight squeeze.
Eddie lets out a little huff of a laugh before he finally looks back up at Buck, eyes bright.
"How do you know I was going to say that?" Eddie teases, smile wide.
"I know you."
Eddie laughs again. "You let Ravi accidentally talk you into kissing me, you don't know shit."
"Eh." Buck shrugs. "It worked out in the end."
"I don't know, I haven't admitted to anything yet."
"You love me."
"You're sure about that?"
"Absolutely." Buck leans in and kisses Eddie, smiling against his lips.
"Your cockiness isn't cute," Eddie says once their lips part.
"Okay." Buck nods and kisses him again. "Sure. Keep telling yourself that."
"I dunno," Eddie says as he reaches up to cup Buck's cheek in his hand. "I'm kinda worried about you. I think you're living in Ravi's confused, severely misguided world right now."
Buck smiles. "It's fine, you love me. And I really, really love you."
Eddie's still holding Buck's face in his hand, his thumb carefully stroking Buck's cheekbone. Buck can't stop looking at him, he's absolutely beautiful right now in this bright, little bubble of ridiculous joy they've got going on. And Eddie? Eddie hasn't stopped looking back, never once have his eyes wavered from Buck's face.
"I've waited a really long time to love you out loud," Eddie finally says, a deep relief in his voice. "I can't believe I get to do it now."
"And all thanks to Ravi," Buck teases happily.
"Oh my god, don't ever tell him that."
"I don't think it really matters. He thinks we're together already."
"I think he thinks we're divorced."
"Well, now that's just stupid," Buck says.
"I know! I keep telling you he's an idiot."
"In what world would I ever divorce you?"
Eddie's all ready to keep complaining about Ravi, but then he realizes what Buck's said and his face goes all soft and sweet, but there's something in his eyes that makes Buck hold his hand tighter, pull him closer.
"Eddie."
"You might though," he says quietly. "It's not the craziest thought. I don't have the best track record, you know."
Buck leans in until his forehead is resting against Eddie's and he can feel Eddie's breath ghosting across his skin.
"It is the craziest thought," he says. "Because we're us, and I've been obsessed with you since the day we met. The craziest thought is that it took us this long to get here."
"So long," Eddie agrees. "I've wanted this for so long that I can't even remember when I started wanting it."
"See," Buck says, running his hands down the sides of Eddie's face. "Something you fight this long for doesn't give up, it doesn't end. We don't end."
"God, I love you, Buck. I love you so much."
"See, I told you so." Buck grins.
"You don't need to be all smug about it," Eddie says, but Buck can hear the smile in his voice and before he can come back with a protest Eddie's kissing him.
Buck has never been so happy to wake up in a hospital in his whole life.
Or to have been hit on the head by a medium, or possibly large, beam.
Or to have been a victim of Ravi's complete lack of understanding of the inner workings of the 118, especially the inner workings of the Buckley-Diaz faction of the 118.
Ravi's definitely getting a really, really good Christmas present this year even though he'll have no idea why, and watching Ravi be annoyed and confused will be Buck's gift to himself.
That, and kissing Eddie Diaz for the rest of his life.