#THANK U BEAUTIFUL WIFE CAIT this is the most i have written in months we love to see me breaking free from writers block

[playedwright]

please do 4 or 28 or 36 for buddie my beautiful stunning wife 💕 whichever you like 😘

YIPPEE YIPPEE thank u my love<3 bc i am crazy i somehow managed to work all prompts in. don't ask me how my brain is lava now.

4. "How long do we have?" + 28. "Is that a threat?" 36. "I wasn't going to mention it."

"So," Eddie says, settling into the couch. Buck's face is beaming at him from his phone screen--he looks nice, in the way he has in most of their calls recently, wearing a hoodie and an apron because he calls Eddie when he cooks, and Eddie loves it. He loves it. He loves--

"So?" Buck prods. He's making some fancy dessert, tarte au chocolat, he'd told Eddie, saying the words slowly to keep from messing up. Maddie's pregnancy is bringing chocolate cravings this time around, he'd said, and she had finally worn him down into making something for her.

"So," continues Eddie, "you're making Maddie a French dessert because she's craving chocolate. What's wrong with good old-fashioned chocolate cake?"

Buck laughs a little, shaking his head. There's a small streak of melted chocolate on his cheek, so faint Eddie can barely see it through the camera. For some reason Eddie can't make sense of, it's all he can focus on. "I owe her something big. I've been, uh... ignoring her, kind of. Dodging something she keeps trying to bring up. But as she not so subtly pointed out, I've been the asshole ignoring his pregnant sister. So, fancy French dessert to make up for it."

Eddie hums. In the past couple of weeks that he's been gone, that he's spent calling Buck every day, he's grown used to watching Buck cook. Watching him measure ingredients carefully when he's baking, or substituting when he's cooking, watching him mouth along to the recipe as he double checks that he's got it right, watching the way he lights up as it all comes together. He thinks he could spend the rest of his life watching Buck cook and never grow tired of it.

"What were you ignoring?" he asks.

Buck seems focused on the eggs he cracks into a bowl. "Hm?"

"Maddie. What's the subject you kept trying to avoid?"

Eddie and Buck worked side by side for years--so close that Eddie grew to know what every push and pull of Buck's movements meant. So he knows, by the way Buck's face goes carefully blank, by the way his eyes tighten as he refuses to look away from the bowl, by the way his hands move a little too quickly for someone who has been taking his time up until this point.

"Oh," Buck says, voice light. Eddie's still staring at that damn streak of chocolate on his cheek, wanting suddenly--shockingly--to press his lips there to taste. "It was nothing."

"Buck, c'mon, clearly it wasn't nothing. You know you can tell me anything. Don't make me fly out there and force it out of you."

The laugh that bursts out of Buck sounds almost strangled, surprising Eddie. "Is that a threat?"

Eddie shrugs. "If it needs to be."

"Jeez, don't waste your money," Buck mutters. "It's really not that big of a deal. It's just--look, a few weeks ago, I saw Tommy again. Don't--don't make that face. The point is, he kind of... implied that I have feelings for you. And when I told Maddie about it, she took that as her invitation to talk it to death. I told her there wasn't anything to talk about."

Eddie--

He thinks he blue-screens. He doesn't really know how else to describe it, except that one second his systems are running as normal and then the next someone has force-quit the entire thing. He's not even sure he's blinking.

Because--

"Did we lose connection?" Buck says, laughing nervously. "Eddie--"

"Feelings for me?" Eddie blurts out. "You--"

"No," Buck interrupts quickly. Too quickly. Eddie thinks he might be having a heart attack. His face is numb. "No, it's not--no, Eddie, it's just that, we're close, and Tommy was threatened by that, or something. And you know how Maddie gets, once she gets an idea in her head it's impossible to get out. So it's just. Like I said, it's nothing."

"It's not nothing," Eddie says a little hysterically. "Do you...?"

Buck hesitates for just a second too long.

And that--

After years of system reboots and struggling to feel normal and never really feeling like he knew himself, everything comes back online. Every stray wire connects.

Buck has feelings for him.

And Eddie--Eddie has been in love with him for years.

"I wasn't going to mention it," Buck murmurs. His ears are pink, and he shifts his weight from foot to foot, and he's one of the most beautiful things Eddie has ever seen.

"Buck," Eddie breathes.

"Don't," whispers Buck, eyes downcast. Eddie wants to be there with him, wants to cradle Buck's face in his hands, wishes he could look him in the eye as they talk about this. He wants, desperately, to kiss the chocolate off of Buck's cheek. "It's fine, Eddie. You don't have to say anything."

"Buck," Eddie says insistently. "Mention it, baby. Never stop mentioning it. Say it so I can tell you that I feel the same."

Buck blinks in shock. There's a bowl in front of him, with a dessert he's still in the middle of making for his sister, and there's eight hundred and sixteen miles between them, and Eddie loves him. A forever kind of love. He can't believe that five minutes ago, he didn't even know it existed.

"You--" Buck starts. His jaw works slowly as he processes.

"We aren't going to tell each other for the first time over FaceTime," Eddie decides, and in that moment he starts wondering how quickly he can pack a bag for him and Chris and get them to the airport for a weekend trip. Or, he thinks a little crazily, spring break. It's soon enough. "Because I'm flying out to see you, and I'm gonna say it then, but--Buck. Please, just. Mention it, okay?"

Buck's smiling from ear to ear. Beaming, really, so bright it's glowing through the screen, and Eddie loves him and loves him and loves him. All he says is, "Okay," and then Eddie knows his returning grin is just as bright.

"When Chris gets home, we're gonna look at flights," Eddie tells him, a little hysterical with how giddy he suddenly feels. "I'll text you all the details. He should be home soon."

"Okay," Buck says again. His eyes light up. "What about until then?"

"What do you mean?"

Buck steps back from the camera a bit, giving himself space to put the dessert in the oven. Eddie had almost forgotten that's what he'd been doing at all. When he's done, he leans against the island and puts a hand on his belt. There's a smirk on his face that sends a rush of want right down Eddie's spine. "I mean, this dessert has to bake for a while. And Christopher isn't home. What should we do until then?"

Eddie is powerless to do anything else. He swallows and says thickly, quietly, "How long do we have?"