#I'm sorry Athena I didn't forget you. My baby

[grokebaby]

To feed an angel

Xerxes retreated into his private quarters after another long dusty day. Sensing it's parent's presence, Athena cracked into warbled, buzzing cries. Like a divinely singing little cricket. She must've been hungry, spending day after day alone in her nest, just waiting for Papa to come feed her again..

She always had breakfast of course, right before Xerxes had to leave for the day's duties. But seeing how long his days were, that was while ago by now.

Cooing at the fat little grub nestled inside a hay filled suit of armor, he picked it up, cradling her in his arms. His little angel.

Literally, of course.

"Ohh Papas here again little precious.. No more crying, I know.. I know, it was such a long day.. What a whipped papa you have don't you?" he hoisted the chubby thing into his arms as it squirmed and reached it's tiny appendages to him.

To the food source.

Wasting no more time, Xerxes cupped her into his armpit, making sure his hold was secure before giving it his wrist, and Athena latched on immediately. She always does. She's such a good, strong little baby. He felt her proboscis pierce skin in one swift sting and soon enough the little grub was suckling, with rhythmic wave motions going all throughout her body as she used all her might to fill her tummy with blood.

In her younger stages, her milky skin was translucent enough to tell where the food storage resided inside her squishy little body, but with each passing week it had began to get harder to spot the quickly filling, vermillion colored spot on the grub. They grow up so fast.. Soon her skin would likely become harder, more coarse.. Maybe then Papa could let her roam inside the barn more freely.

Xerxes found his usual spot, and his taur body laid down to sit as the happy little grub fed. He laid a little kiss on her dark little head. "That's my little angel.." he murmured softly. "It must be so dreadful to sit and wait here all day.. I wish I'd have friends for you.. Papa misses you so much every day. But here you are, always waiting for me. And I'm thankful for that every day. Good little angel.." he continued, softly speaking to the suckling grub. She was so beautiful. He wondered when it'd be her time to cocoon, and how long she'd be in there..

He can't really know until it happens, huh?

After a while, she did unlatch finally. He always flipped her on her back and petted her tummy after, she liked that alot. She usually fell asleep soon after for a little nap. Or for the rest of the night.. That worked too.

"ap.." a fragmented, circadian voice babbled. Xerxes hummed, massaging her belly. "apa.. Ap..."

"Yes, that's me.. Papas right here.."

"Apas.."

"Yes you just relax my sweet little bug.. You're safe with me. I'm here."

"Apas here.. Apa.."

He loved her so much

[babygirl-diaz]

You Mess With Him, You Mess With Me (TW: Physical Assault)

So this fic... I don't know how to tag it. There isn't any actual domestic abuse in it but a character assumes that there is.

Summary: In which, Buck mistakingly assumes Eddie's new boyfriend is abusing him and punches him.

***

"So when are you two tying the knot?" Karen asked taking a sip of her wine.

They were at a BBQ at Bobby and Athena's place, and Buck and Tommy were currently hanging out with Hen and Karen.

Buck looked at Tommy and smiled brightly at his boyfriend of two years. "We haven't had that conversation yet, but I am hoping it's in the books."

"Oh, it's definitely in the books," Tommy replied, returning his smile, before kissing him.

Buck kissed him back and pulled away to lovingly look at him.

As they continued talking, Buck noticed Eddie walk out of the back door, hand in hand with his new boyfriend.

Eddie had come out as gay only a year ago and had been dating Alex, for the past 3 months. Alex was tall and slim, about the same height as Eddie, with light brown skin, a practically shaven head, and bright blue eyes. He was quite good-looking if Buck said so himself.

Buck frowned when he noticed something off about Eddie. "Does Eddie- does he have a black eye?" He asked.

"Hmmm?" Tommy looked over to where Buck was looking and Buck saw him frown, too. "It does look like a black eye."

"Oh yeah, that's definitely a black eye," Karen replied. "Wonder what happened..."

"I think I know what happened," Buck replied through gritted teeth. He pulled his hand away from where it was resting on the small of Tommy's back and clenched it into a fist. "Baby, can you hold my beer? I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?"

Buck heard Tommy ask but he didn't stop. He didn't stop until he reached Eddie and Alex, who were talking to one of the other guests.

"Buck, what's wrong?" Eddie asked worriedly

Buck kept his attention on Alex, "Eddie, how did you get the black eye?" He asked.

"Oh! Alex and I were sparring, and he accidentally hit me," Eddie replied.

Buck knew Eddie was lying and, without another word, he charged at Alex and tackled him to the ground. He raised his fist and punched him right across the face.

"BUCK!"

"EVAN!"

"What the fuck, man?!" Alex yelled under him.

Buck raised his fist again to hit him when he felt hands on him, pulling him away. "LEMME GO!" Buck yelled. "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!"

"Evan, stop!" Tommy tried holding him back.

Buck felt his anger rise when he saw Eddie helping Alex off the ground. He looked him over before glaring at Buck.

"What the fuck was that? What is wrong with you?" Eddie asked angrily.

"He hit you!" Buck replied.

"It was an ACCIDENT, Buck. He didn't hit me on purpose. Like I said, we were sparring, and he missed and hit me across the face," Eddie told him.

"Really?" Buck asked when he heard the sincerity in Eddie's voice and immediately felt bad.

Tommy's grip loosened around him.

"Yes! Alex would never hurt me. How could you even think that?" Eddie asked.

"I barely know the guy!" Buck replied. "We've never even hung out. Hell, forget him, you and I barely hang out since he came into the picture."

"Wait... Are you jealous?" Alex asked. "You have a boyfriend!"

"That's not what Evan meant," Tommy explained. "He's possessive of his friends, especially Eddie."

"Well, I don't know how I feel about that," Alex replied and took Eddie's hand in his.

"You get used to it," Tommy replied with a small laugh.

"Buck, if you are worried that we don't hang out more or if you wanna get to know Alex better, then you should have told me. Don't go around punching my boyfriend," Eddie told him.

"I- I'm sorry," Buck apologized.

"I'm not the one you should say sorry to," Eddie told him.

Buck sighed and looked at Alex. "I'm sorry, Alex. What I did was uncalled for."

"That's okay, Buck. I'm actually happy that you're this protective of Eddie." Alex wrapped an arm around Eddie and smiled at him.

Eddie smiled back and leaned in to kiss his boyfriend before gently touching his face where Buck had punched him.

"I think the four of us should go on a double date," Tommy suggested.

"I like that," Eddie replied.

"Now come on, let's go get some ice for Alex and your knuckles," Tommy said, taking Buck's hand and pulling him away.

As he left, Buck turned to look at Eddie and Alex and saw Eddie giving him a thumbs up. Buck smiled and returned his thumbs up.

[jackwhiteprophetic]

My controversial 9-1-1 opinion is that Buck is one of the least interesting characters on the show. Don’t get me wrong, he is complex and interesting but the type of character he is and oftentimes reduced to (sunshine golden retriever boy, abandonment issues, humour to cope and uses false confidence and cockiness to hide the fact he’s deeply insecure) is common and you can find at least one character in almost any media who pretty much matches that description. Usually those characters are also a fandom favourite and you can never escape them.

The clear favouritism for Buck in the fandom also undermines a lot of the incredible things this show has done for representation. “Omg the white guy kissed another white guy! This is revolutionary and the greatest thing to happen on the show!” (Ik I’m simplifying it).

That’s cool, personally I think one of the greatest things to happen on the show is the representation of an abusive relationship and how that trauma impacts a person for years and isn’t fixed in a night after finding the perfect guy. I also think representing postpartum depression was also quite revolutionary and made my mum feel comfortable enough to open up to me about how she had postpartum depression after my sister was born. Like my mum is 50 years old and this silly firefighter show made her feel seen. THAT’S what representation is for.

Regarding LGBTQ+ representation, I think the HAPPILY MARRIED BLACK LESBIAN COUPLE WITH CHILDREN (Mara we’re getting you home) is something never seen in mainstream media, firstly because there are hardly any sapphic relationships and secondly because those sapphic relationships hardly include women of colour.

This is an ensemble and I feel like a lot of people forget that. I’m also still annoyed that when Buck was confirmed bisexual, major article companies acted like this was the first time 9-1-1 had established 1) a queer character and 2) a queer couple.

Henren ran so BT could stumble around and fall flat on its face.

Interesting... We definitely share some of the same views on things, but I do find Buck really interesting as a character now!!! I find Buck and Eddie soooo interesting mainly because I have read probably millions of words of character study on them. Also when I first watched I didn't find Buck suuuper interesting up until the saviour baby arc, which adds so many layers of complexity to his behaviour across all seasons!!!

I really hope there is a greater focus on Maddie next season!!!! Also I think one of the major flaws with S7, because it was written very quickly and they knew they would have to move scenes across episodes is that they didn't really mix storylines massively, so it wasn't very cohesive and we didn't really get to see the 118 as a whole family properly. The pairings we had were Buck and Eddie, Henren and Madney and Bobby and Athena, and that was kind of consistent throughout. Next season I'm really hoping that they can switch up dynamics at least for a few storylines, BC I miss when we would see scenes of like Buck and Chim, or Athena and Hen, which they stopped doing as much once Bathena happened, because they no longer needed Hen as a link between Athena and the 118. WHICH IS SO SAD! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

ALSO SORRY THIS ISNT VERY WELL STRUCTURED BUT CAN THEY LET HENREN BE HAPPY PLEASE!!!! Kind of sick of their storylines being "oh no someone is threatening our family" because it just paints their family as unstable and they don't deserve that!!! I want silly storylines PLEASE!

But yes the centering of Buck (and sometimes the other guy who I will not name BC I don't wanna piss ppl off) by SOME people in the fandom ANGERS ME GREATLY. ESPECIALLY with the whole Gerrard thing, where the comments on the IG post were FLOODED with people talking about Tommy (named him here oh well). And people talking about how everyone is gonna defend Buck because if Gerrard even looks at Buck they're gonna throw hands! I'M SORRY WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU MORE DEFENSIVE OVER BUCK THAN CHIMNEY OR HEN, WHO HAVE ALREADY BOTH BEEN TARGETED AND HARASSED AND BULLIED BY GERRARD? WHY ARE YOU MORE DEFENSIVE OVER TOMMY THAN CHIM OR HEN? It fucking disgusts me. The way that Tommy literally was introduced in S2 as a PLOT DEVICE to show how 'bystanders' (he was barely a bystander, more an active participant) in workplace racism and bullying are still so fucking dangerous and disgusting and wrong. And he was so fucking disgusting to both Hen and Chim, bear in mind they have a fucking dangerous job, if CHIM had been in that building Tommy would have absolutely left him to die. WORKPLACE RACISM IN LIFE OR DEATH JOBS LEADS TO PEOPLE BEING FUCKING LEFT TO DIE. And people are more defensive over Tommy being potentially harassed by Gerrard and than they ever were over Hen or Chim. As a white person I am so fucking sorry, this fandom has not lately been a safe space for pocs and the fucking lengths people go to to justify both the character and the actor are so fucking strange. White queer people should do fucking better than this. It is the bare fucking minimum to not be racist or not have been publicly racist in the past. Why not ask for a better fucking standard? ALSO with the actor, if you're trying to fucking argue that he's not like that any more, SHOW ME that he is a fucking anti racist and that he is fucking defending minority groups and that he understands the weight of his actions. SHOW ME how he understands his privilege and uses his platform and the money he is given to donate to and fund the protection of these groups. It is fucking sickening that people have decided they can defend or ignore or tolerate this man and it DISGUSTS ME that they have happily created an environment where people can't feel fucking safe or supported or heard.

The focus on that character is so fucking weird given the lack of screen time he has had, I'm really gonna stop talking about him at all soon because it gives him way too much weight. But it's disgusting. The way some people have to find a way to write Eddie and Chris out of Buck's life and rewrite over canon to bring more focus onto this man astounds me.

As a (lesbian? Idk not currently sure but kinda) queer person, Henren are such beautiful representation and I love them so much and ALSO the foundation of the whole show is basically found family. If you want to only focus on Buck then that's fine I guess, but it is literally written into canon that the family around him mean FUCKING EVERYTHING TO HIM so it's weird that people barely fucking look at it at all.

Anyway sorry I greatly appreciated your message and idk if all of this is related or relevant and it is not well structured but I was just feeling ranty and was inspired by you! I love you and I hope you have a brilliant day!