#911ficlet

[aashiqeddiediaz]

call this little ficlet thursday, this is @deareddie's fault and is inspired by the h50 episode where danny asks steve what he's wearing and guesses, "cargo pants."

“What are you wearing?”

A laugh startles its way out of Eddie. He abandons the box he was just opening to pick his phone up, turning the speaker off. “What?”

“Well, you won't tell me anything else.” Buck’s laughter filters across the line, teasing and warm and everything that makes Eddie’s heart hurt now that he’s 800 miles away from him. “So, what are you wearing, Eddie?”

It’s that tone that Eddie gets stuck on, all low and flirty the way Buck gets sometimes. Harmless to everything except Eddie’s heart, which kicks in gear every time he hears it. 

Like the day he'd found Eddie's iPad flipped over, an innuendo pressed into the curve of his smirking mouth, evidently unaware of what was to come.

Sometimes, he wonders if Buck ever means the things he says to Eddie — if he ever imagines things being a little different, of meeting Eddie at a bar and putting the moves on him. The same moves Eddie’s made fun of him for countless times, good-natured and teasing the way they are with each other.

But then he thinks about his Buck, sweet in his awkwardness, and heart worn on his sleeve, and wonders if he even wants that cocky front. He has no doubt Buck could back it up, knows that there’s a world of truth and skill behind that cockiness, but the man he wants is the one with mismatched socks who slips and slides in Eddie’s kitchen, accidentally knocking over flour bags and leaving trails of cinnamon sugar in the tile grout.

He thinks about the Buck who'd walked into the realization that Eddie was going to leave, and despite his clear sadness, had stuck by Eddie' side, sharing the misery with him.

He thinks about the Buck who challenges him, shoves at him, bullies his way into Eddie's life, the one who drives him up the fucking wall — and the same one he wouldn't have any other way.

He'd fallen in love with his version of Buck, pushy and annoying and endearing and his whole goddamned family.

Hell of a time to have that realization — looking at Buck standing in the rain in his side mirror, his expression devastated and crumpled. The knot of too late, too late, too late had formed in Eddie's gut at the sight, and has only gotten bigger in the 26 hours since.

26 hours since he left LA, left Buck standing alone in front of the only house that's felt like home outside of his Abuela's home, and they've already talked on the phone for a good 7 of those hours.

“Why do you want to know?” Eddie returns, lowering his voice in turn. He knows this game, knows how he can modulate his own voice, make it a little rougher, add an edge to it. He knows how to add the suggestive tone to his own voice, too.

Even with as clumsy as it sounds to his own ears, Buck’s breath hitches over the line.

Eddie smiles, looking down at himself. The Texas humidity had started sticking to him by the time he unpacked the third box from the back of the U-haul, so in actuality, he’s just in a pair of shorts, his shirt thrown off somewhere among the piles of stuff in the rental. He's sweaty and gross, covered in dust and grime, and even a little grease because his truck had started making a foreboding sound and Eddie was not about to have it crap out on him after 12 hours on the road.

So all in all, he looks gross, but he'll play into this fantasy anywhere.

“Eddie.”

Eddie knows what hope sounds like on Buck. Knows what Buck sounds like when he wants answers, can picture him clearly in his mind. Bright blue eyes, head ducked down and cocked slightly to the side.

“Buck,” Eddie says, letting his voice warm with amusement. “Ask me again.”

There's a line in the sand here, one that Eddie brushes away with a swipe of three words. Tomorrow, he'll focus on Chris and his parents and everything else he needs to do, but today, this is for him and Buck.

A beat of silence. Then, lower and rougher and flirtier than before — “What are you wearing?”

Eddie grins.

[spotsandsocks]

Chapters: 1/1 Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV) Characters: Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Frank (9-1-1 TV) Additional Tags: Therapy, Frank gets Eddie talking and thinking, nothing too deep yet, but franks onto something, Eddie talks about Buck Series: Part 3 of No Longer Alone Summary:

Eddie gets asked a simple question in his session with Frank. It leads to a more complicated question.

“Who has Christopher when you’re here?”

Eddie blinks, it’s a simple question. Frank often starts small warms him up with an innocent question like this before they get onto the bigger issues. 

He can answer this kind of question easily.

“Buck.”

“He’s another firefighter isn’t he, a friend from work?” Frank writes something down, probably Buck's name. 

Eddie can feel the slight furrowing of his brow, that description doesn’t feel right, doesn’t do Buck justice, he’s more than that, before he can explore the thought Frank has another question.

“You don’t worry about leaving him with, um Buck?”

“No!” he sounds incredulous but obviously Frank doesn’t know Buck so he wouldn’t know how ridiculous that question really is. 

“Buck’s not just a friend, he’s ….” Well he doesn’t exactly have the words for what Buck is so he goes down a more practical route “He’s been helping out, a lot, staying over, cooking, he helps Chris with his homework.” He suddenly remembers the hearts and a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth at the thought of Buck’s goofy heart, pink and grinning. He still has it on the table, hadn’t really wanted to throw it out yet. Frank’s waiting for more, in that quiet way he has. 

“Bucks always there for Chris. And me. He’s the one person I…. Chris adores him and Buck loves him right back. Would do anything for him.” 

“What else makes you feel safe with Buck.” 

“We’ve been together a long time now, he’s my partner and I trust him. More than anyone I guess. We kinda promised to always have each other’s backs and yeah there’ve been a couple of tough times.” he shrugs off the pain he’d felt when Buck had sued the department and Eddie hadn’t been able to see him. “But we fixed it. He apologised.” He still remembers the shock he’d felt when Buck had pushed his apology even after he’d been told he was forgiven. How he’d insisted they talk and that Eddie knew how genuine his regret was, he still thinks about that night a lot.

“He was sorry he’d hadn’t been there for Chris or me when we needed him and this time, he’s making sure he is.” The thought makes him smile softly to himself. 

Frank’s doing the silent therapist thing, he hates it but not as much as he hates that he feels the need to explain more about why Chris being with Buck is not something he would ever worry about.

“Actually Bucks in my Will. If anything happens to me, Chris will be looked after by him.”

“Buck? Not your sisters or his grandparents?”

“No. He’s what I want for Chris.” 

Frank writes that down too with a nod.

“You sound very sure about that.”

“I am.”

He decides to change the subject “Buck even got Chris into an equine therapy program recently. He found out about it and took me and Chris there. He um was also making a point for me too about why our jobs matter.”

“Was it a good point.”

His lips twist into a rueful smile, Buck had been extremely pleased with himself that day.

“Yeah it was. He uh made me see some things from a different perspective. It was a good day.” He smiles at the memory of him and Buck standing together watching Chris with the horse. It had been the best day he’d had in a long time. 

“Eddie..” something about his tone makes Eddie’s heart rate pick up, ���you’ve been smiling a lot wekve been talking. First time I’ve seen you smile in here.”

“Well Chris is one of the things that make me happy.”

“I’m sure he is, but um we weren’t really talking about Chris.”

Eddie freezes, like a deer caught in headlights. He can’t look away from Frank’s calm and carefully neutral face. The dreadful man continues speaking quietly, 

“So we’ve talked about what makes you feel scared. What makes you happy?”

[firehousewithaview]

Petty is as Petty Does

Look, I’m never going to fit this into any kind of story, but I wanted to share because I got a giggle out of it 

Cross posted to ao3

Eddie Diaz is so many things: a great, kind person, a gentle, loving father, an amazing, compassionate firefighter, and one of the best people someone could have as a partner, platonic or otherwise.

The one potential flaw of this beautifully wonderful man, Buck thinks as he watches the tell-tale signs flash across his best friend's face, is that he also has an incurable case of petty bitch disease.

"Have a good day, sir" Eddie drawls, sarcastically raising an eyebrow at the husband of the woman they were helping, who has been offering mostly insulting commentary through the whole call. "Best of luck with the hands off approach you take to your personal life."

God, Buck wants to have his babies.