#if they're still getting to know each other that probably means buck is going to learn something he doesn't like

[sunflowerdigs]

Just spitballing here, but what if Tommy recommends that Buck stop fighting Gerrard and just go along with him? He suggests that Buck try his best to ignore the toxicity and take the preferential treatment because he can learn some things from the old man. Gerrard taught Tommy what he knows about firefighting, after all. He's like a father to him, and sometimes fathers are old-fashioned but still worth our time.

So, Buck appears to do just that. We see him and Gerrard go out for golf. And while they're golfing, Buck learns the information that he uses to get Gerrard suspended and get Bobby back.

And then he ends things with Tommy because he just can't imagine ever being the kind of person who takes advantage of a situation where others are being hurt. And he doesn't want to be with someone who thinks that is an ok thing to do.

Bonus points if Gerrard's suspension comes right as Hen and Karen get their foster license back, so Hen and Chim are free to do whatever they can to make sure Gerrard can never come back. They file a lawsuit. And guess who shows up to testify on Gerrard's behalf? Buck's ex-boyfriend, Tommy Kinard.

[kithmet]

see, i really love when buddie fight. i love it because within fighting (and especially because their dynamic relies heavily on the unspoken) there's this element of, "oh, finally they're communicating, even if it's fighting! they're saying these things out loud! progression is being made!" and it's not pretty, but life isn't always pretty. i love the messiness of a satisfying fight, where both are dealing with their own shit and misstepping how they're handling a situation, or throwing words around carelessly, or projecting onto each other. people who love each other as much as they do don't go into an argument that intense without knowing that in the end, things will be okay again. buck even said this in s4: "it's easy to lash out on the person that you know is always going to forgive you." i think subconsciously they know that sure, they might fight, but they will always be okay.

that being said. yeah, i love when they fight, but i do often hate how people talk about it. there's always this strange element of viewers trying to choose sides, which completely misses the point the show is trying to make whenever it depicts raw emotions and how those complicated feelings can intersect in relationships to spark conflict, conflict where nuance does exist. and this happens time and time again on the show and the aftermath—people are always so forgiving towards one of them, and less forgiving towards the other. yes, when times are tough, buck gets self-centred and unable to see past his own hurt, and yes, eddie hates seeing that gets mean about it. we've seen this during the lawsuit! we've seen it before eddie left for texas! and we're seeing it again now after bobby died. this is a consistent character trait for both of them, it's a thread that has remained true in their relationship and will probably continue to remain true because it's somewhere where they don't mesh well. it's juicy! but i don't think one of them is more or less right for feeling the way they do. the point is that they feel what they feel, and they get past it always despite clashing. and ultimately the whole concept of "choosing sides" when two characters clash is rooted in projection or relatability (or protection) of one character, which honestly lacks empathy and understanding of the fight itself, both character's motivations, and their relationship dynamics. the writers don't want you to choose sides. they want you to understand that sometimes situations are complicated and as humans, we butt heads but still love each other no matter what. it's really not a hard concept to grasp. and yet... we as a fandom go in circles about this topic every single time they fight.

[danielwaldorf]

ok so here is my pitch for my dream buddie catalyst:

eddie and maddie are trapped in some sort of likely-fatal time sensitive situation together (drowning related probably because it's Them) (have they overused it yes is it still thematically appropriate YES) where one person could potentially sacrifice themselves for the other to survive. i want eddie and maddie using their combined experience and ingenuity to survive together and discussing who should be prioritized which means they talk about parenthood and how they both feel they've failed their children by "running," how their lives have been so defined by trauma and they don't want to scar their children any further by leaving them again. of course they're doing everything they can to get out together, but as the situation deteriorates throughout the episode(s) (c'mon something like this could be at LEAST a two-parter) they can't help returning periodically to the world's most morbid debate.

i want buck and chim on the outside both going out of their goddamn minds. they know that eddie and maddie are stuck (wherever), know that they're probably alive, but aren't sure in what condition and if they'll stay that way. rescue operations begin as everybody walks on eggshells around buck and tries to comfort chim, who wants absolutely none of it. time is running out.

eddie says that he couldn't possibly let maddie sacrifice herself for him and look buck and chim in the eye afterwards. maddie says that she couldn't do that either. she says that at least jee-yun would still have her father, and eddie says that christopher would still have buck. maddie says that of course none of them would just abandon christopher if something were to happen to him but—

and eddie cuts her off and says it's in my will. if i die, christopher will have buck. buck will have christopher.

they just look at each other for a weighted moment. maddie makes a decision. she says ...i meant it, you know. that i couldn't let you die down here (wherever here is i don't KNOW okay i'm not here to think up convoluted emergencies i'm here for drama) and look my baby brother in the eye knowing that i could have changed it. eddie says i know, okay, but it's different, you're his sister, and maddie says, yeah, but you're his... and she pauses. and eddie says what? best friend? partner? that doesn't—

and maddie says you're his. eddie, you're his.

and eddie... i want to see something slot into place. i want to watch him understand as maddie spills everything she's been suspecting since the day that buck came out to her and maybe since before she and eddie even met. maddie says you know, when i first came to california, you were all he talked about? you're still all he talks about. you and christopher. you're his. i couldn't... eddie, you're out of your mind if you really don't think that losing you would break him just as much as losing me. he would forgive us both, because he's buck, but i couldn't... i'm no saint, eddie, i want to survive. i don't want my daughter to grow up without me. but i can't do that to him. i don't know if he'd survive it. even if he did, the guilt would eat me alive.

meanwhile. buck is barely holding on to his sanity as rescue efforts are underway and time is running out. chimney is keeping it together as best he can but there isn't much that he and buck can do. he can't let himself fall apart because buck is already a stiff breeze away from clawing his own skin off and somebody has to keep their cool. something goes wrong—suddenly, their short amount of time has gotten shorter, and they may only have enough of a window to get one out before it's too late for the other. buck, who has been ranting and arguing and screaming this whole time... is silent. he is silent, and he stares straight ahead at nothing in particular, and we know that no matter which way the scales tip, his soul will be destroyed all the same.

eddie regards maddie for a moment. grief, heartbreak, anger, all flicker over him, but what settles is determination. he says that neither of them are going to leave again. that they'll survive together, or not at all, or leave it to the universe to decide.

of course they make it out. by the skin of their teeth, they make it out, working together, clawing their way back to life and love and possibility. maddie makes it out first, and eddie sees buck as she falls into chim's waiting arms. he watches as buck sees his sister, and reaches out to take her hand with trembling fingers and white knuckles, but there is no relief, no happiness in his red-rimmed eyes. just a deep, unspeakable grief, until his eyes slide past maddie and meet eddie's.

finally: relief. and then he is in buck's arms, a perfect parallel to chim and maddie, and we see eddie's face over buck's shoulder, and we know. he is in love, and buck is in love, and eddie knows, and he sinks into his partner's embrace with joy and acceptance.

after that, who knows? maybe a grand confession. a moment of quiet understanding. a passionate post-rescue kiss. a chaste, tender kiss in some kitchen or other. maybe eddie panics later, or maybe he's found peace for once. maybe buck has realized something and he makes the first move. maybe it happens immediately. maybe it takes a while, takes discussions about how it'll affect work and christopher and whether it's worth risking all that they have for all that they want.

and maybe they'll ask whether it's even a risk at all.

[buckevantommy]

Buck wakes slowly, his sore muscles protesting as he stretches out in the early morning. He needs more sleep, but he can hear tommy moving around the room getting ready for his shift.

Buck hums. "G'mornin'." His eyes are still closed. He takes his time edging towards full consciousness but can't help the smile that stretches his mouth wide as Tommy echoes his words back to him, voice low and gentle.

The bed dips at his hip as Tommy settles beside him. Buck sighs contentedly when Tommy's hand cards through his sleep-mussed curls. "How was your shift?"

Buck makes a face, head tilting this way and that, then deciding to push into Tommy's touch like a sleepy cat. "Gerrard's a real piece of work, huh."

"Unfortunately."

Tommy's hand scritches at his scalp and a whine trips out of Buck's throat. He doesn't want Tommy to leave. He hates that their shifts haven't aligned properly in over two weeks, only managing to catch each other for a few hours of sleep together here and there.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Buck makes a noise of displeasure, his softened smile replaced with a pout, he knows. He folds his arms around Tommy's forearm, keeping him close. He can have his arm back later. And his hand. Buck's not finished with them just yet.

Tommy fits his other hand to Buck's cheek, thumb brushing under his eye. "Hey."

Buck finally blinks his eyes open to find Tommy looking at him, gaze soft and fond and mouth quirking to hold back a smile. Buck takes a breath and exhales in a huff, turning his face to press a lingering kiss to Tommy's palm. He wriggles in place under the duvet, wondering what the likelihood is of convincing Tommy to call in sick and spend the day in bed with him.

"Wish I could bring you to work with me."

That coaxes Buck's smile back. He presses another kiss to Tommy's palm. "Bring your boyfriend to work day should totally be a thing."

Tommy chuckles and it makes Buck want to record that sound and play it on a loop. Tommy fills his senses. He can smell the woodsy note of his aftershave and the ocean pine scent of his soap. The combined scent of their bodies mingled with Tommy's detergent in the sheets. He wants to bottle the redolence and take it to work to sniff whenever he's missing his boyfriend or just having a hard day. Because Tommy's presence soothes him.

"I miss you." His thumbs sweep over Tommy's wrist, his pulse steady beneath his touch.

Tommy sighs and leans down to press a kiss to Buck's birthmark. He melts, but still tilts his head up, pout returning a little, demanding a proper kiss. Tommy obliges. "We'll figure it out. I promise."

Buck wants to believe him. He knows Tommy will do everything he can on his end to get their rosters aligned. He also knows Gerrard has it in for both of them, meaning he'll continue doing everything he can to keep them apart - until Buck gives up and quits, probably. The guy really needs a hobby.

Brushing his nose alongside Tommy's, he nods. "Call me when you're on break? Or if it's not too busy?"

"Of course."

With one last kiss, Tommy pulls away and Buck lets his arm slide from his grip, fingers entangling for a moment before he lets Tommy go. He glances over from the doorway as Buck urges him to, "Be safe."

Tommy nods, his smile a private thing. A promise. "Get some rest."

Buck wants to say it. But they haven't said it. Not yet. Doesn't mean he doesn't feel it, or that he thinks Tommy doesn't. They're definitely on their way, even if Tommy's not there just yet. And Buck has a habit of rushing things and he doesn't want to ruin the good thing they have going. So, he doesn't say it. They have time.

As he listens to Tommy making his way through the house and out the front door, his eyes slip shut again. It's still early, and this time of year doesn't see much sun in Tommy's bedroom in the morning so sleep begins pulling him back under quickly. He lets Tommy's reassurance soothe him as he drifts off, cocooned in Tommy, hugging the covers closer and turning his nose into the pillow. They'll figure it out. Together.

[lazyneonrabbitt]

Mr. Barnes Pt.2

Bucky Barnes x reader [pt.1] [pt.3]

The new guy at Sam's meetings is still a hot topic among the library staff, Mister Barnes finally gets a first name.

1.3k A short one this time but this was the best place to divide the story into chapters

Single dad Bucky, librarian reader, Sam still has his counceling job. Imagine John didn't absolutely fuck up and is currently being a decent Cap somewhere in the background.

You felt relieved when the day was over and you could free yourself from the endless begging. Sadly it didn't stop once you stepped back into the building the next day.

"Come on, pleeeasee!" Your coworker had her upper body hanging across the table as she pleaded with you to talk about what you heard during the meeting. Not that you were going to share. Why would you? It wasn't even planned that you caught someone speaking when you brought the food over, which was already an exception. Everyone knew the rules that were set in place during the meetings due to privacy reasons.

The whole ordeal lasted a week, all the way up to the next meeting when, as usual, all the staff was huddled and 'working' in the main area to catch a glimpse of the Sergeant walking in.

Except he never showed.

Sam had come in to start setting up, but his friend was not with him. Neither was he among the veterans that came trickling in, enjoying a fresh cup of coffee or just chat among each other before the meeting. Ten minutes after the start of it all your coworkers had disappeared back to actually doing work seeing their eyecandy wasn’t showing up today.

After the meeting ended Sam passed by to say hi and went on his way like he alwayd did, but with the object of everyone's obsession not being around, no one was near the front desk to say hi back besides you, who had taken the spot because no one else wanted to.

Of course they didn't. There was no pretty ex-soldier to drool over for all but ten seconds, so they all rather busy themselves elsewhere.

It wasn't until three weeks later that he showed up again and the whole place was in shambles over it.

It was also the first time Sergeant Barnes truly acknowledged the gaggle of women obsessively staring at him.

A look in their direction and a soft smile was all it took to have them stumbling over words, dropping books and tripping over air in his presence.

Truly, it was hilarious to see grown women turn into mush from one simple smile, but you weren’t immune to it either. The words you were so profesionally typing into the outgoing email had turned into gibberish when your eyes fell on the handsome Sergeant and his magazine cover worthy smile.

"Buck,” Sam fell into step beside him. “please do me a favor and keep the usual charm hidden. Don't give them ideas." He put a hand on his friend's shoulder when the meeting had ended and they found themselves in the main area once again. "Don't get me wrong, it's good to see you're out of the house and interacting with people. I just don't want them stalking you even more than they already do."

"They're stalking me? I think I would have noticed.." Bucky shrugged at his friend's advice as he hung his bike helmet over his forearm, giving his friend a sceptical look.

"Oh believe me.” Sam raised his brows and nodded toward the women now suddenly very busy in their respective corners. “They spent the last three weeks glued to the entrance waiting for your leather clad ass to show up and later on whining to me about where you were, like they were concerned for you instead of just missing their eye candy." He made his point clear by giving Bucky a once-over, looking him up and down.

"Really? I'm home taking care of Maxie and the librarians are asking for me?” To say Bucky was confused would have been an understatement. “They know why I'm coming to these meetings, right? I mean, they'd probably run off the second they hear me talk in there."

Sam and Bucky shared some laughs before making their way out of the building. This time Bucky listened to his friend and only nodded kindly at the women who waved them off as Sam bid them a good day with grand gestures.

You were crouched behind the front desk when the bell above you chimed, announcing a person needing your assistance stood on the other end. With a groan you made your way back up slowly and were met with the bluest eyes once you made it back to a standing position.

"Oh.” Shit. “H.. hi Sergeant. What can I help you with?" Lords, that was a dumb question to ask. He had a book laying on the counter, ready to be checked out.

A copy of The Hobbit sat before you, mocking you.

"The Hobbit, huh." You quickly mutter to distract from your previous question. "You like fantasy novels?" God that was stupid, of course he did. He’s checking out The Hobbit, for christ’s sake.

A soft hum and a nod was all you got as answer while he was busy fishing his card from a worn leather wallet attached to his belt loop by a silver chain. The wallet was a simple one, nothing fancy or fashion-forward. It was purely practical, probably because of his soldier background he felt that functionality was mkre important than looks.

"Here." Sergeant ...James, according to his library card, sighed quietly at the sight of the piece of plastic.

"Thank you, James." You tried to stay professional with the handsome soldier before you, taking the card from him and holding it to the reader. It beeped as the screen displayed his account, having you furrow your brows in confusion.

"Huh, that's strange.." Mumbling mostly to yourself as you are interrupted by James asking what was wrong, watching you with brows raised in wonder.

"I guess it must be an error. The system has your age set as one hundred and seven." The little huffed laugh at the end did nothing to mask the awkwardness, but luckily James shrugged it off.

"Oh yeah, ignore that.” His eyes didn’t meet yours as he spoke, fingers fidgeting with a loose thread on his glove. Shit, the gloves. She probably found them weird as hell. ‘Who wears gloves in summer, Buck? No one.’ “The lady who put in my account messed up so it's like that now." He hated it. He hated that when he got all his new cards they had his actual date of birth on it. He hated having to come up with lies to make it all sound normal. Luckily he was used to making up excuses about it by now, so he wouldn’t have to tell the pretty, kind librarian that he was in fact a world war two veteran slash ex-assassin.

“wait,” After a beat of silence you spoke up, a smile pulling at the corner of your mouth as you looked at James’ eyes that were still avoiding yours like the plague. "I am technically allowed to give you senior benefits now.” Bucky’s eyes caught yours at that. Senior discount? No one else had ever mentioned that before. Then again, he never really went anywhere that required cards and accounts. So he listened to what the offer included.

“You know, longer borrowing times, extra email reminders.." You gave him a look, not believing he was convinced yet. "Free coffee whenever you're in here. Even outside of the meeting days." James nodded with raised brows, a hint of a smile on his lips. "Can't say no to free coffee." Bucky liked his coffee, more than he’d ever admit. And to be fair, the extra borrowing time would come in handy as well if he’d ever plan to read a novel to Maxie when she insisted on reading way too difficult books on her own. Maybe he’d read the Hobbit to her, share that first time reading experience with her.

"Well then, Mister Barnes.” You placed his card on the book and scooted it towards him. “You're all set, and enjoy your reading." Without thinking you gave him your best customer service smile, kicking yourself mentally once you noticed. You hoped he hadn't.

Bucky watched your little head tilt, squinting and smiling that practiced smile. Paired with that little tone shift in your voice it was clear you slipped back into friendly librarian mode.

It was cute, but he’d never admit that out loud. No, no way in hell he’d embarrass himself like that.

[richeeduvie]

Begging for a one shot or Drabble about baby and Roman’s yearly trip to the restaurant where they tell the waiter they’re siblings and make out? 🙏🧎‍♀️

Too Little Birthday

✭・.・✫ ✭・.・✫ ✭・.・✫ ✭・.・

Roman Roy x Reader Drabble Roman clings onto this girl like a damn life-raft.

-- Roman's a bit too invested in how his yearly birthday present goes when it has to come a little early. --

Warnings: a motivated make-out session, obvious mentions of false-incest, whiny Roman Roy what's new. Jealously, slight angst. The f slur. This draft is from a long, long time ago.

✭・.・✫ ✭・.・✫ ✭・.・✫ ✭・.

"Happy birthday, Roman. You're gonna be eighty-nine and five years old!"

Roman straightens his back out against the booth chair with a jump in his seat. More like a shimmy.

"Yeah, tomorrow - let's just hurry up to the sissy brothy kissy kissy section of this."

You want to sigh. Roman's frustrated. His birthday present is one day early. It's due to a long, very important event Tom will have with you, him, and Greg tomorrow. With that and Roman's business intermingling with yours tomorrow when you're all traveling to Pennsylvania, there's not a lot of room to give him his birthday present on his birthday.

Roman knows that, but that's not going to stop him from whining about it. Not in direct words, just eyes and jabby-voiced demands.

"Let's have fun with it, it's your present. We've got time to turn people red-"

"It's my present and I'm asking you to tongue me like a twin would."

You smile. Sure, you'll indulge quicker than you planned. It is his birthday present after all.

"You're gonna have to move closer if you want that, Rome."

The first time Roman asked for this, it made you concerned - not in a confrontational manner, that'd put you in a situation where Roman would "never forgive you" for judging him on his birthday. Although you know the things Roman says are just things Roman say, that if Kendall or...anything said them, you'd be greatly disturbed, there was the question of if Roman wanted you to roleplay as his sister. Shiv. Your friend. That would've been too much.

But Roman put it in words that soothed you enough to be more than happy to go along with his favor.

"Ew. No. I mean, I can and will still spitball a good sexed-up joke with her...and hell, maybe with Ken too during pride month for the fags but this...you're pretending to be a different sister. Duh. You are my sister and we are going to make out. Though - he’d probably rip bits of me off if I ever tried it, that’s why Shiv is chill.” 

“...Don’t say fags.” 

“You just did.”

So, he kisses you, lathers your lips with his tongues and fitting to his descriptions, Roman tongues you. Your heads and mouths move against each other, bucking up before your hand takes up his cheek. Your heart beats in your head and it's only moments before the vein of his forehead begins to throb.

"...Sir, Ma'am, are you ready to...Sir?"

Roman takes five seconds more of the make out before he slowly pulls away. Knowingly slowly - like he's a fucking asshole. You smile slight. He straightens his spine with a thin, smug mouth. His head tilts off to the side.

"Sorry to make you wait, even though that's kind of your whole thing. Me and my sis just get too excited celebrating our birthday."

You cover your mouth with your intertwined hands, elbows on the table. This has happened every year for the past five years and it just...it never gets easier. It's why Roman does most of the talking, just until his eyes are whining for you to be into it. It only matters if you like it as much as him, if his present is yours too. The point of presents is that they're not for the gifters, but Roman's insecurities say otherwise.

But you'll never admit that it's a little too easy for you to play pretend, revel in the squirm of poor waiters who deserve more pay and days better than yours and Roman's pseudo-incest roleplay.

It's not easy at all, actually. When you think of it. 

“...I-I…mm. Okay…” 

The waiter blinks. There’s nothing but silence between the three of you. Roman’s a champ, really. His smugness, the snark of his face is only noticeable to you because you’ve loved and loved him since the beginning. This poor waiter couldn’t possibly know Roman’s just fucked in his yearly prank. 

“I-I I can read you the special-” 

“Aren’t you going to say happy birthday?” 

“Rome-”

“Don’t. See? In the womb, she took all of the generosity, the morality. The bitch. But I love her, still,” Roman takes your hands from your mouth. “…if we mention it’s our day of popping out into the womb, your hourly wage pay should be telling you to say happy birthday.” 

“Roman. Don’t.” 

You’ll play twin, but going after someone’s job - need for money, not today. Not even on his not-birthday. Pre-birthday day. 

“...Fine, sorry, sis.” Roman smacks his hand on the table, then points a finger gun towards the waiter. “You’ve been doing great in the two minutes I’ve known you. I guess that’s what I’m supposed to say.” 

He looks to your hand in his other hand and of course, with low-lidded eyes, you know he’d take the skin - what he would say is bait even though he was the one to take your hands in the first place. 

Roman sucks your fingers before he sniffs them. 

You all forget what the three of you are here for. A bead of sweat drips down the waiter’s forehead. 

“...Do you two want to skip to the desert? Our patrons highly-” 

The waiter chokes. 

“They like the piss.” The waiter’s hand deathgrip her notepad. “Pie! Fuck me.”

“Mm. No thanks, I’m taken. Your wage doesn’t even need to tell you that, social awareness does all the talking there.

“That sounds delicious, thank you.” 

“She didn’t even name the flavor-” 

“We’ll take the pie for now. And just water as well.” 

You straighten out your back, smiling up at the poor waiter before pressing your nose against Roman’s knuckles. 

“Did you get the birthday text from Dad yet?” 

Ordering Roman around is as much of a birthday gift as the incest thing is. He doesn’t push on the pie for the first course. But, of course, the waiter leaves as fast as she can. 

“Happy?” 

Roman slouches against the booth, scrunching his face up as if to say so-so. 

“She was acting as if she wasn’t about to squirt.” 

“I think she was genuinely terrified, but not as much as the last waiter we had last year. I think that’s why her horror appeared clement.” 

“I think incest is becoming more socially acceptable, that’s the tiktok era for you.” 

You blink against his knuckle. 

“...I think it’s the exact opposite. Like…actually, it’s the exact opposite.” 

“Superior bloodlines took to fucking, we could do it.” 

“I’m not your actual sibling.” 

“Did we ever ball out which one of us is the oldest?” 

“Me.” 

Roman’s smiley, stupidly with his thick-lidded eyes and he’s handsome, despite the fact he’s your brother for the day. It’s an easy gift for him, at least this year considering it’s already ruined for him - it being a day early already being too much. So, unlike the birthdays before, your boy doesn’t have to take to pretending he’s your brother the entire lunch date. Only when the waiter is present to watch in terror. 

“But your dad, Roman - tomorrow we need to find a way to coo-” 

And you two were talking about other things, but Roman took to watching other things.

“Roman?” 

When you turn to see where his furrowed brows point to, it’s when you realize it’s someone else he’s watching. You turn behind you, seeing the light of the sun hit a man across the restaurant. He looks to be your and Roman’s age. Wavy hair, a creepy-fucked sort of smile.  

He wears his own smug look, but when it’s not Rome’s…it strikes you wrong. Confusingly. You turn back. 

You watch Roman’s mouth and brows waver. 

“Hey, just ignore him. Just a guy.” 

“Why the fuck is he gawking? The fucker is about to lick his chops and shove his hand down his slacks and choke it.” 

Roman’s eyes go wide and jolt his head forward. A physical ‘what the fuck?’ to the man across the room. When you turn again, you see how it does nothing for him. He’s got his arms crossed. 

“Oh, what the fuck?” 

It’s what you want to say when both of you see the man come up and make his way towards you. 

 “I’m gonna drop my pants to scare him.” 

“Let’s say that as your father’s company is bombarded with sexual assault allegations. Let’s. Calm down-” 

“Hey. Just want to say - if she was my sister, I wouldn’t be able to resist either.”

Roman blinks. You blink. 

….Oh. 

“Sorry, I just heard a bit of it when I was walking in. And even if you’re just fucking around…just gotta say.”

The man sniffs before he laughs. And you know your eyes only portray horror when he puts up a fist of solidarity. 

“Sibling love.” 

Then, he smiles wide at you with a clicked tongue. Roman can’t do anything and you don’t want him to, to cause a scene, it won’t be a result of his gift, just pure and sudden anger. Loud, punchy words. But for now, as the man walks away, it’s just brutal eyes - perfect daggers that’d be even more handsome if you were able to think about it, but you can’t in how fucking confused you are. 

What the fuck? 

“What the fuck?” You turn to face Roman. “What the fuck was that? Should I…” 

You put your hands together, mouth parted in a pause as you lean forward. “Should I call someone?” 

The man across the table doesn’t look at you, but his brown eyes just focus on one spot on the table. The daggers pierce the wood there. 

And you already know. So, you sigh. You try to come into frame. 

“Roman, that was just a fucking freak.” 

What you always call him. That was a mistake in your wording and you know it when Roman’s eyes flicker up in fire. 

“Not a perfect freak. Not something I’d want in my bed or…ten feet away from me. What the fuck was that?” 

“...You didn’t-” 

“I didn’t do anything.” 

“On my not-birthday…you just…he’s your type.” Roman scratches his head and inhales sharply before his eyes shut tightly. “Wow. I fucking hated that. I wanna go home. I think we just met an actual sib-molester and he was your type.”

Okay, what the fuck?

“What the fuck? What are you talking about?” 

“It’s not your fault. But that was Stewy. And a freak. Your type. On my not-birthday. What the fuck is wrong with today? I wann-” 

“How did Stewy come into this conversation? You’re my type. That was weird and I feel like I need to call the cops but it’s nothing to get jealous over-” 

Roman looks down in his heavy and tense stare. He blinks fast with scratches to his face. He picks at his ear, it’s all the signs that he’s breaking a bit. 

“M’ not jealous. Not jealous. I just-” Roman pulls a hair or two out of his brown. “I just forgot other people can see you’re hot sometimes. It’s jilting. M’ sorry.”

Another sign is a lack of finished words and eye contact. 

“Normies do that, but someone who’s more of-I kinda thrive off of being the worst possible fuck…you like that and someone just took a shit on me like it was nothing. Another worst possible fuck with long legs saw you’re fuckable…lovable. Fine. Fine, it’s whatever. I wanna go home.” 

It’s all too much for you to know what to say. Too much to say much, but it’s your instinct to soothe, even if your heart throbs and flips with a bloodrush at how Roman insecurely wears his jealousy and how you’re the only one that can bring him down from the roof. 

“I just forgot…and my brain chemicals just losing regulation at the sight of him. Sorry.” 

“It’s okay, hey. Look at me.” 

And it takes a minute, but he listens to you. Roman looks up, eyes big and blinking. 

You kiss his knuckles. 

“You’re the only fucked person I know. I don’t think it’s possible to show much interest in…anything else. But seriously…what the fuck was that?” 

“What the fuck was that?” 

“I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.” 

You don’t know if there’s anything you have to make up for, but you sure Roman will find the reason tomorrow. An excuse for another birthday gift where you’re at his feet - or he’s at yours. 

He sniffles hard. 

“You’d get scratchy too if you were me.” 

…If you were him. That’s the truth, no one could ever get like this unless they were Roman. But you wouldn’t have it any other way.

[setmeatopthepyre]

🦋

hopefully I'll actually get to all these prompts this weekend. last week turned out a lot busier than expected, whoops. thank you!

-

🦋 - pothos | pathos

Eddie takes the plunge and puts a down payment on a house in El Paso.

It’s not perfect. One could generously describe it as a fixer-upper, but paying LA rent on a single LAFD salary hasn’t exactly left him with much in terms of savings. Besides, it’ll be good to have a project, a place to really make his - their - own. Just because it’s a little rundown doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed. And it’s only ten miles from his parents’ place, just in case Chris doesn’t want to… Well. Just in case.

He still needs to figure out what to do with his current place, but it’s fine. He’ll pick up some extra shifts, spend his downtime figuring out how long he still has on his lease, if he can get out of it somehow. Or he’ll find someone to sublet. That shouldn’t be too hard; his place is nice. The neighborhood is good. Mostly. Jim’s surprise meth lab not withstanding, but Eddie maintains that it wasn’t really that much of a risk if no one noticed before, right? He’s pretty sure the news reports never mentioned the street either, and Jim’s in prison now, so there’s no reason anyone has to know. It’ll be fine.

He doesn’t tell Buck yet. Or anyone, for that matter. Why would he? There’s no rush. He’ll be sure to tell them all before he has to put in his notice at the station. If he tells Bobby, tells the people at work, he’ll have to listen to them brainstorm his replacement, or question his choices, or whatever, and if he tells Buck it’ll just be inviting the guy to pick up a clipboard to ‘help him plan’, or a bunch of links to the do’s and don’ts of renovation, or a… somethingstack. Whatever Buck is always on about. So no, there’s no need to involve others yet, not when he’s still figuring things out for himself.

It helps that Buck doesn’t ask, either. Eddie worried he might, after Buck caught him browsing listings, but he hasn’t. He’s… not exactly sure why he’s glad Buck doesn’t ask, besides the risk of clipboards getting involved, of course. It just makes things easier that he doesn’t, and Buck is thoroughly engrossed in his whole ��ask everyone if Tommy seems weird’-thing, so that’s good.

Actually, maybe he should tell Tommy. Tommy always has some sort of project going at his place; he probably knows a thing or two about fixer uppers. Maybe Eddie can get his thoughts on some of his renovation ideas.

Yeah, he'll reach out to Tommy. Sure, they're friends, but they haven't known each other that long so Tommy won't make it a whole thing that he's leaving. Tommy's simple, easy, unattached, and best of all: he won't tell Buck.

-

[make me write]

+ tag list for those who requested tags for this fic under the cut ↓

@fiyaerrigan @bisexualbrainrots @leashybebes @louuieferrignojr @rubydaiquiri @teabroomsandbooks @crimsonwildcat-blog @sweaters-and-silly @nochance-noway @manifestingchaoticvibes @hyperfocusthusly @frogsinflannel @beanarie @rcmclachlan @sad-girl-hours23 @ambernotember @apartmentsmoke @bidisasterevankinard @agentpeggycartering @eliotwaughdeservesbetter @daughterofscotland @chococara25 @jujuberry136 @alejaan91 @ferrigno @detectivehorror @a-mel0n @tommysdaddykink

[pikapitou]

wip day of the week

@effervescentwolf tagged me. some wednesday. to post a wip! thank you wolf... I don't know if I'll get around to finishing this presumed deaddie thing bc it's weird to write an arc while the show is. co-currently writing that arc at the same time as you. but i wanna share the opening scene :) idk who's writing these days... @tallsinspace if u wanna share anything pls feel free. anyway without further ado.

Three days without contact is not that long. Buck tries to convince himself of that fact, but he had also tried to convince himself that two days wasn't that long; twenty-four hours; twelve. He checks his phone again. Eddie still hasn't read his last message, or the one before that, or the ten before that. His leg is bouncing so hard that Hen and Chim's solitaire game jitters on the table, Kings mixing with the Queens.

Hen sighs. "Buck," she says, and waits for him to glance up at her, "if something was going on, I'm sure someone would—"

He's shaking his head before she finishes. "I'm—" his voice rasps worse than he expected, and he swallows with a click. "I'm not his emergency contact anymore. When he started at his station, he—yeah."

Eddie had sounded so apologetic about it, even though it was probably stupid for Buck's name to be there for as long as it was after he moved. It's not like Buck can do anything to help Eddie from here.

And the other thing? Buck had thought, and didn't ask, and kept thinking about, and not asking.

There's a pause, and he just knows they're exchanging one of those sad, little looks everyone keeps giving each other whenever they think he's acting especially pathetic. He's glad he didn't see it; if he did he might scream.

"You could text his mom?" Chim offers, then very quickly adds in a way that means Hen just raised an eyebrow at him, "Not that I think anything's wrong."

Buck turns his phone over and over and over in his hands. He doesn't have her number. He'd asked for it, before Eddie left, and Eddie had gotten quiet in that bad way, told him nothing was going to happen, which he knew as a first responder was never a fact, so that just meant he didn't want Buck to have it. Buck hadn't pushed, because—he didn't know why. Because if that was what Eddie needed to do, then Buck was going to let him do it.

He could text Chris, but if he texted Chris is your dad okay? and Eddie was okay, just busy, or ignoring him, or lost his phone in the El Paso desert, then it would be—it would be a whole thing, and Eddie was handling it. Alone. Because Eddie handled everything alone.

His phone buzzes in his hands—startling him so bad that he drops it, clattering onto the table at full volume and full vibration and mixing the solitaire game beyond salvation.

"See," Hen says, poorly masking her own relief.

Buck fumbles for his phone and—stares. Then he answers at the same time that he untangles himself from the chair and heads for the railing of the station loft for the illusion of being out of earshot. "Chris," he says, almost all air, "hey—"

"Do you just"—there's a vitriol in Chris's voice that would have made Buck stumble if he were walking—"not care or something?"

Reflexively, Buck looks over his shoulder at the table; Hen and Chim not bothering to hide that they're watching. They make eye contact, and maybe any other time it would be comforting, but right now there's only one other person in the world he wishes was here for this conversation.

"I always care, Chris," Buck says, keeping his voice calm and careful as he starts down the stairs, thinking in the back of his mind about the bunkroom or maybe outside; if the alarm goes he'll have to be the man behind, no other option. "I care like crazy, but could you tell me what's wrong?"

On the other end Chris sucks in this sharp breath that has Buck bracing for another drop of acid—but nothing comes. All he hears is Chris's ragged breathing, each hitch making Buck's heart lurch in his chest.

"Chris?" he asks. "Hey, c'mon, can you talk to me?"

"Did," Chris starts, and the anger has drained so completely from his voice that he just sounds unbearably small, "did abuela not tell you?"

Buck didn't make it to the bunkroom. He didn't make it outside. He's stuck, exposed, in the middle of the firehouse as the Earth slides off its axis into the death spiral of a blackhole.

"Tell me what?" he asks.

[harmless-variety-of-garden-snake]

my lovely, please ⌛⌛⌛ some snippets!

I GOTCHU BB

⌛ #1 Buck starts saying what he means!

“I had hoped that you'd want to try again,” Tommy says, and Buck nods vehemently. “Now that the competition—”

Buck’s hand is over Tommy's mouth, and they're both looking at each other with wide eyes at the gesture. He's only done this when they're joking, but this isn't one of those times.

“There's no competition,” Buck says, taking his hand away just in time to see a little twist to Tommy's lips that ignite that anger and hurt again. He steps back and swallows hard. “Who could compete with how I feel about you? Huh? Because from where I'm standing, every single day since you left has been hell for me. I thought I'd gone through this before, but I didn't have to start using coping mechanisms to deal with Abby leaving me. I didn't cause an actual flour shortage at a grocery store because of her or anyone else except for you. I haven't ever been afraid to pick up my phone because I can't trust myself not to call someone day in and day out for months. So who the fuck is your competition, Tommy?”

⌛ #2 A few minutes later after confessions

“So now I have two questions for you,” Buck says, stepping back to hop up on the counter. “One: what are you doing Saturday? And two: I know you probably spent, like, thirteen bucks on those eggs, but do you think we could reheat them?”

Tommy steps between his thighs and looks at Buck’s eyes and then his lips. “Why? What’d you have in mind?”

“For the first or second question?”

“Either. Both.”

Buck crosses his wrists behind Tommy's neck and feels his belly flutter when Tommy's hands go to his waist. “Thought we could do dinner. Not Micelli’s until we know there's not a curse there, two bad dates feels like a sign. And I really want to have ‘I just told someone I love them’ sex.”

Tommy smiles, moving closer until their chests touch on every exhale. “There's no such thing as curses, but fine. I was thinking of that Thai place by my house, since I finally got to try it and it's really good. And most people call that ‘making love.’”

The term always seemed cheesy and dumb to Buck, but what does he know? Tommy's the romcom expert. “There is such thing, that sounds great. And, fine: Tommy, will you make love to me on my bare mattress on the floor?”

“I thought you'd never ask,” Tommy says, pulling him close and smiling into their next kiss.

⌛ #3 They just had sex and Buck thinks they should celebrate!

Buck grins and raises his arms above his head, his wrists crossing over each other on his pillow, because it always makes Tommy's pupils dilate a little. “Sounds like something worth celebrating. Got anything for that?”

His boyfriend's incredulity shifts to exasperation and then mild embarrassment. “Saw that, did you?”

“I did,” he confirms happily. Actually, it's another piece of evidence that he either had the world's most lucid prophetic dream or he somehow went back in time. So he should maybe be more concerned. But Tommy's still inside him, and his head is shaking and he's grinning and there's deep lines around his eyes. He'll worry about it later.

“That's supposed to be for mimosas.” Tommy kisses his nose and carefully, carefully pulls out. “But I'll open it now. Do you have any champagne flutes in an easily accessible box?”

Buck snorts softly. “I don't think I even have them in an inaccessible box.”

Tommy hoists himself to his feet and walks unsteadily toward the door. “I'll get you some. As a housewarming gift.”

He grabs his tank top to wipe himself off and grins. “Pretty sure you already got me a gift. Twice.”

“Actually,” Tommy says, smirking over his shoulder. “Three gifts.”

“Three gifts,” Buck agrees, because there had been that blowjob to take the pressure off the night before. Or the night before that? Whatever.

He lays on the bed and makes a face when he realizes he has cum leaking out of him onto a bare mattress and feels retroactively guilty for the at least three times he'd done this same thing to his exes.

[wildehacked]

kinda randomly thinking about shannon today, and in a world where shannon survived the accident and divorces eddie and stays around and at first she is definitely not part of the group, but when maddie gets pregnant shannon gives her some tips and they get close and when maddie leaves shannon talks to chim, and the three of them become friends and then in the later seasons there are wine nights at the han's house and shannon and maddie are side-eyeing the whole buckandeddie situation and just. shannon!

I love Shannon so much, and I could see a world where she and Maddie eventually become close like this, but personally I...think it would take a lot of work to get there, at least for the version of Shannon that lives in my head?

Like, we gotta be real: Shannon is a tantalizing character, because her appearances are fire, hot and fraught and messy and angsty and complicated, but they're FEW. And then for the rest of the show we get little tantalizing tidbits of information about her and her relationship doled out via Eddie, but she's a ghost haunting the narrative, not someone we get to know on the same level as the other characters. So when we write Shannon, we're writing from that canon base, but we're also making up a lot more stuff than we are when we write characters we've gotten to see more of, like Buck or Athena or Eddie. So, like, even more so than the rest of the characters, in fic there's a rogues gallery of totally viable Shannons in different art styles, like when you line up all the different versions of Superman from different artists and storylines and franchises over the years. Earth 1 Shannon, Earth 2 Shannon, Your Shannon, Wilde Shannon. And when I talk about Shannon, I'm mostly thinking about Wilde Shannon, you know?

So okay: a headcanon I have for Wilde Shannon is that she specifically finds it difficult to befriend fellow mothers, especially mothers who had their kids in their thirties or forties, because she got pregnant at 18 and had a bunch of negative experiences with Chris's friends' parents when he was young. There was a lot of judgment, and a lot of well-meaning advice, and mostly just a lot of feeling out of place, because most of these people were ten years older than she was and in a really different place in their lives, and first she was a very young "single" mother with a baby who had a lot of health problems, and then later she was still a pretty young divorced mother who missed two+ years of her kid's life, and I just feel like she would have found it really impossible to connect with the thirty-something moms of Chris's friends, especially the ones who looked at her and saw a baby. (Some of this is probably Helena Diaz damage, too.) And I feel like she would have developed a, like...instinctive wariness around other moms, specifically. (I actually think Eddie has a version of this wariness too, which is part of why he latched onto Buck, the single childless guy, as the person he asks for help with parenting decisions. Buck isn't going to judge him! Buck doesn't have the experience TO judge him.)

So I don't see her befriending Maddie or Hen or Karen or Athena without a lot of other stuff happening that winds up forging those connections.

Contenders for Shannon friends that I would dearly love to see in a Shannon Lives AU (there can ALWAYS BE MORE):

Lena Bosko (maybe in this AU Shannon's a massage therapist and Lena comes in for her fucked up back and then they start hanging out and Lena sort of indulgently watches Shannon dip her toes very warily into the waters of a sexual crisis and it's only like a year into this friendship that Lena puts together that this Diaz is related to THAT Diaz.)

Natalia Dollenmeyer (this one writes itself. Shannon's mom dies and she hires Natalia and then they fall into a mutual codependency.)

Buck (I think they would politely hate each other at first but THEN I think they would work their shit out because they both love Eddie and Chris, and then they'd go to a bi-weekly yoga class together and genuinely have fun getting smoothies and talking shit afterward)

Abby Clark (how does it happen? Girl, I don't know. Maybe Abby's mom and Shannon's mom are dying in the same apartment building and Shannon finds Abby crying in the parking lot and then after that, for several times a week, they sit in the parking lot together and smoke cigarettes and scream into their hands. Maybe after Abby moves away she still FaceTimes Shannon all the time. Maybe Shannon actually met Buck at Abby's mom's funeral, way before Eddie moved to LA ,but both of them were so worried about Abby that they didn't even pay attention to it.)

Carla (I think Shannon would actually be DEEPLY territorial and guarded around Carla at first, but then Carla would gently find a way to crack Shannon open like an egg, and then she'd love Carla forever and ever.) This is just Wilde Shannon, though!!! I could absolutely be persuaded (and have been, and will again) by Shannons from other earths, who feel other ways, and love different people.

[lemotmo]

I said once that I think that Buddie's first move - the confession, the asking out on a first date - is going to happen towards the midpoint of the B season rather than the end, (This was during Hiatus or very very early into 8B, so I didn't have the information that we do know now - like 8x14 and 8x15 are a two parter) But I still think that it's true.

I still think Buddie's first move will be anywhere from 8x13-8x15 but will definitely occur in that time frame.

My initial timeline placed Eddie back in LA by 8x13 or by the latest 8x14, which I still think is true, although I'm now leaning more towards the end of 8x13 for when Eddie and Chris will be back in LA. And given what we learned in 8x11, the second Eddie comes out of the closet - Buck will realize that he is in love with Eddie. Buck's defense for not being in love with Eddie was that Eddie is straight - the second Eddie dismantles that, Buck will realize his feelings. And given that Buck is not exactly great at hiding his feelings and it's more than likely Eddie and Buck will be sharing a house, a confession once Buck realizes is probably imminent throughout the episode.

BUT given that 8x14 is a two parter where most of the 118 will be in danger, (notably excluding Buck) the confession might hinge on Eddie being in danger. Historically, Eddie NDEs means that Buck takes on a spousal role for Eddie - he's the one that talks to and takes care of Chris after Eddie gets shot, and with the well, everyone was talking to Buck like Buck was Eddie's spouse. With a theoretical NDE in 8x14 and Buck once again taking on that spousal role - it might force Buck to reevaluate his feelings for Eddie if he hasn't already realized yet. And if T is involved, it can show how it was never a choice, it would always be Eddie in an even more explicit sense. (Speaking of, if the chain on Eddie's St Christopher's Necklace snaps in 8x13 or 8x14, I will scream because that narratively indicates a major NDE for Eddie.)

911 in general doesn't do long storylines - most issues are resolved within a few episodes, and I'm pretty sure this will reflect on Buddie as well. They started making Buddie so explicit that the GA could pick up on it - with Madney, once they made the fact that there is romantic subtext explicit, Maddie asked Chimney out 3 episodes later. And there was the whole situation with Doug that made them take a pause, and I could see a similar thing occuring with Chris. But the initial move? That will be really really soon.

Sorry this got so long and if it doesn't make sense, but I am so so excited for Buddie Canon!!!! Hope you have a great day!!!

👏👏👏

YES YES and YES! It makes perfect sense!

This is my personal headcanon timeline as well. I really don't see the show drag this out until next season or anything like that. I'm also thinking that Eddie will be back by 13 or 14. He might come back unanounced (to surprise Buck and the 118) in 14 and get caught up in whatever disaster is going on before he can reveal they're back. It would parallel the tsunami and it would be such a great storyline if Buck is on the outside of the disaster with Athena and he finds out that Eddie (and maybe Chris?) are involved somehow. Cue him having some realisations about Eddie. 🙂‍��️

Then in 15 the disaster is resolved and Buck, Eddie and Chris are reunited. Ofcourse Buck won't say anything and by then Eddie will have figured out some things of his own when it comes to Buck. So they'll just hover around each other awkwardly, not really knowing how to broach the subject.

Well, since this is just speculation, take all of this with a grain of salt. But still, with the way this storyline is progressing? I wouldn't put it past the show to approach it this way.

I'm sat for the rest of the season for sure! Buddie canon indeed! I am also very excited!

I'm having a really good day. Same to you!

[seeingteacupsindragons]

This is like. Probably old news. But not to me. So.

Anyway, I noticed a difference in the ages the Eng Dr. STONE fandom seemed to think Xeno and Stan met and the way Japanese artists on Pixiv did. And like, that makes sense, "childhood friend" is extremely vague and has no specific age range indicated, especially as people who are in their mid-to-late 20s generally might think of their teenagehood as children at that point. Xeno's character profile kind of indicates it was before the age of 10 or 11, but. Maybe not! Maybe that's when they met.

My Japanese-English dictionary wasn't super helpful on this point. It gives me the breakdown of the kanji, which just led me to "childhood" and "aware/know". But a dual language dictionary spends a lot more effort on translation than defining, which is fine. Even Midori, which is pretty solid on things like this, all things considered.

So, fuck it, I decided. I'm going to find an online 辞書 and figure out how this fucking word is defined in Japanese.

(I used 幼馴染 for this, because it was what the anime used, and frankly I am not in the financial position to spring for the Japanese manga for reference purposes at this time. I know it's like 4 bucks. Still. Besides, it's almost certainly the word the manga used, too)

The 辞書 gave me "someone you know from childhood" but also "a familiar face since you were aware/conscious."

Okay, I think. So definitely younger than 10. More like. Toddlers. If not younger.

But Google offered me one other thing: the Japanese Wikipedia page for this word.

Wikipedia??? I thought excitedly. That will definitely give me more information on how this word is used than even the dictionary. I didn't realize this random word would have a Wikipedia page!

So I clicked and started choking almost immediately because what it informed me in like the first paragraph is that, while the word doesn't explicitly mean this, people often take it to mean a friend of the opposite sex who was your childhood/first/puppy love.

Ooooookay.

It then provided me a bullet-pointed list of the most common ways the trope is seen in media:

A next door neighbor/neighborhood person whose family was friends with your family (RE: Stan and Xeno: who knows, maybe?)

Someone who walks to and from school with you because you live near each other or are in the same class (RE: Stan and Xeno: who knows, maybe?)

Friends who banter and poke fun at each other (RE: Stan and Xeno: yes. Absolutely yes)

Two people who share old memories and secrets and mutually tease each other and spend a lot of time going down memory lane (RE: Stan and Xeno: yes, especially judging by Stan and Xeno both thinking back to their childhood together before they get petrified again)

Someone you don't think of a romantic partner and then after some event, you realize you have romo feels for them (ala the girl/boy next door trope, although applying that character archetype to either of them is patently absurd) (RE: Stan and Xeno: started choking again)

Cousins or people who live together (RE: Stan and Xeno: well, they're definitely not cousins)

So yeah I was just looking for how old they probably were and ended up down a rabbit hole of "btw this is kiiiiiiinda a romantic trope".

I've also found another page that indicated it's probably from around 3-6 years old as you start making the normal amount of friends once you hit elementary school and it's less notable, but once you're adults, being friends with someone from elementary is just as odd. And it's hilarious to me that some Japanese person was as confused about this question as I was as to do a survey about it.

[johanna-swann]

Not to make it all about Buck, but the way the character dynamics were portrayed last episode made me so sad for him.

In 8x16 we got the scenes with Maddie and Chimney. Maddie's got her own shit going on, but she took the opportunity of Buck showing up at her house to check in and make him feel seen and loved. Chimney was focused on his own grief, he was angry, he felt guilty, but he didn't put that on Buck. It was a really emotional and great scene that showed Chimney's grief and how he can be open with Buck and accept his advice.

Those scenes perfectly demonstrated Buck following Bobby's "orders" while still giving him connections. But this week I just got the impression that Buck is alone, both from what was directly said and by contrast.

Everybody has someone who they can go to and who will talk to them, even beyond their spouses. Athena has her children, Hen and Karen who all check in with her. Eddie drops by Henren's place and they keep the conversation light, but they can talk openly about several big topics. Chimney gets continued support from his wife, he also spends time with the Wilson-Han children and takes all three of them out to the movies and he briefly chats with Hen.

They all have their own complicated details to work through that could get awkward or even uncomfortable depending on who they bring it up to.

Hen bringing up to Athena how she was offered the Captain's position - meaning she'd replace Bobby in a way - probably made her at least a little nervous, but they talked about it and it was fine. Athena being angry at Chimney is probably complicated for Karen, but she reaches out to Athena about it anyway to make sure she's okay. The way Madney talk about Bobby, how the existence of their kids could've been the detail that convinced Bobby to sacrifice himself, how Maddie is grateful Bobby saved Chim (instead of himself), all of that is emotionally complex and they talk about it. Hen and Karen confront Eddie about his living situation which he explains away quickly and it's no big deal, but they don't just let it slide even though the topic could be difficult for Eddie.

What I mean to say is: These conversations aren't easy. They're complicated and hard and exhausting, but the characters still reach out to each other and take care of each other anyway. Because they love each other and they're family. Sure, Chimney and Athena are at odds right now, but this episode showed again how beautifully interconnected the firefam is. Or can be when the writers decide to show it.

Somehow this doesn't apply to Buck. For some reason he's the one who's too hard to handle, so they don't reach out to him and they don't talk to him and they don't take care of him. And they won't tell us why.

"He spirals after the funeral" -> Okay, so show us the ways in which the team thinks he's spiralling. All I saw and heard about was him checking in on his friends and crying while talking to his dead father figure which a) seems like a very normal thing in that situation, not a spiral, and b) none of his friends know about the confessional.

"He's being weird with this grief assessment thing" -> So they're avoiding him because his grieving is weird? Chimney suddenly took up running which he hates, avoided talking to people and almost missed the funeral to get drunk on vodka instead, but Buck using questions from a psychological questionnaire about grief to check in on his friends is too weird?

Eddie implies that all of them talk about Buck, but not to him because they think it might upset him more. Ergo, they know he's already upset and not okay right now. They're all worried. But if they think he's spiralling and not properly processing his grief, isn't that all the more reason to talk to him?

I think if this was brought up next episode by Buck, maybe him getting angry how no-one will just talk to him, they could do something interesting here, but that's not what's going to happen. At most they will give Buck a moment where he admits to someone that he's been trying to repress his grief, he will cry about Bobby and the person will tell him that he needs to properly grieve because he can't avoid the pain, only delay it. But at this point I'm not even holding my breath for that scene partner to be a family member. They might put the priest in there again for all I know or, hey, maybe another extended family member like Bobby's mom or Mr Lee. Maybe Brad is still around.

Buck feels like the family is falling apart, like they're pulling away, but the truth is that the family is very much still there, meeting for coffe, taking the kids to see a movie, talking about Bobby over baby furniture. The only one they're pulling away from is Buck and it is a blessing that Buck hasn't realised that yet.

[artist-issues]

What do you enjoy and not enjoy about Chicken Little the movie?

Would you have preferred a girl chicken as originally intended?

I personally have trouble deciding because I like the one we got, he's silly, but the girl looked cute and I think she had potential too.

I love the Chicken Little movie! Probably because of my childhood nostalgia. It was on so often on the Disney Channel. But also because it's one of the Disney movies that can genuinely get a laugh out of me even after all these re-watches. (Another is Meet the Robinsons)

I love that Chicken Little's friends all have a specific type of media that they represent. Runt is music. Abby is literature. Fish (my favorite character) is movies. Because the point of the movie is communication and those things are how that group of misfits communicate.

I love that the whole story is so simple: it's just about a kid who feels like his dad doesn't "support him." But what he really is feeling is "I have to earn my dad's love."

And of course that's not true. But his dad makes him feel like that because Buck has the same feeling of inadequacy that Chicken Little has. Chicken Little spends every day compensating for how small and incapable he feels. Buck spends every day compensating for how bad of a dad he is.

He keeps saying "your mom was always good with stuff like this," and apologizing over and over before anything's even gone wrong, and he'd rather "lay low" than try harder, because he's given up before he even gets started. He doesn't believe he should even try because it doesn't come naturally to him, what to say or do, when his son is hurting.

But you know what, baseball doesn't come naturally to Chicken Little! Crossing the street doesn't come naturally to him! And he keeps trying anyway. The one thing Chicken Little won't try is clearly communicating what hurts.

Which is also a really good parallel to what's going on with the aliens. They freak out and panic because they think the earthlings have stolen their kid. The earthlings freak out and panic because they think the aliens are coming to wipe out their home. But nobody's actually communicating with each other. Just like Chicken Little's whole relationship with his dad is broken because they won't communicate with each other.

And speaking of insecurity, you know why Chicken Little's and his friends don't immediately think the aliens are just there to harvest acorns? (Because why would they guess that--but I mean, on a meta-narrative level) Because the whole TOWN has the same insecurity problem Chicken Little and his dad suffer from! They're a town centered around acorns. They have great acorns. Why wouldn't they assume the aliens are there for their acorns? Because the acorns aren't "mighty." They lose all their baseball games to neighboring towns. Their mayor is inept. They rush into a panic the moment anyone sounds the alarm.

It's a stretch but not really

I love that Chicken Little's motto is "today is a new day." I love that. It's very Disney. And speaking of being very Disney, despite the Experimental Era:

Our buddy The Wishing Star is in this movie.

sighhhh

I wish they made honest simple little movies with heart like this, still.

[shiplessoceans]

Ok I mean this in the kindest way possible but… actors lie in interviews (think abbot elementary). They’re just for die-hard fan engagement as the only people looking for these interviews are these die hard fans - they’re not going to spoil anything, and this is probably the fourth time Ryan has called buddie ���a straight and gay guy best friend no homo brothers” - if the other times didn’t make you close you shouldn’t let this time do it too!

We’re closer than ever to having buddie go canon - I mean even two seasons ago we couldn’t have dreamed of buck being bi IN CANON and directly called out for being in love with Eddie. That’s what’s happening in the show. They’re gonna have to resolve it somehow. No I don’t think they’ll go canon next ep but I am so sure, so so sure we’ll be given something to work with. All signs point to slow burn. Buck came out last season, he got accused of being into Eddie this season, we might not actually get any more major developments until next season.

Also. Leaving a fandom because a ship doesn’t go canon? You’ll miss out on the wonderful fanart and fanfiction and stuff and hey what if it DOES go canon? What if it takes till season 9?

There’s always hope.

Thankyou anonymous friend!

I love your enthusiasm and that you took time to send me a little message of hope. I appreciate you ☺️.

I'm not gonna leave the fandom, I love all the characters and I'll be here no matter what, watching the show each week etc. I think I just need to put the 'buddie' chew toy down for a while.

I am a fandom senior citizen and was there for the Sherlock/SGA/House MD/Supernatural/Merlin queerbait days of:

"We know these characters tick every box of being in a relationship and genuinely love each other, would die for each other, can't imagine their lives without the other etc etc... but why would you want them to date? Don't be weird. They're like siblings!" Etc etc.

And I'm...just. so. tired.

911 has been admittedly better in that at least the actors/creators acknowledge that yeah, there's serious chemistry between Buck and Eddie, we see what you see and you're not crazy for seeing it. Heck, we made Buck Bisexual because it just made sense with the way we were writing it.

Yet they still randomly pull the 'but that's not where the story is going' card, while actively feeding into a romance narrative.

Buck ended up romantically fixating on a man for the first time in his life and it was a guy he was jealous of because he was spending so much time with Eddie. Tommy seemed annoyed when Buck chose time with Eddie over him. Tommy is shown to be a bit of a third wheel with Buck and Eddie in the room. Buck acts as a co-parent to Chris. He's Chris' next of kin. Bucks boyfriend admits he broke it off because he was intimidated by Eddie as a rival. Buck spirals for weeks about Eddie leaving and ends up moving into his house... At this point if no Buck/Eddie they are writing an arc that goes nowhere and it's so frustrating to hear interviews where they're like 'nah but not really haha'. It feels like being gaslit.

Tim Minear referring to the moment Tommy mentioned Eddie being competition as 'touching the third rail' really stuck in my head. Touching the third rail, as in, to accidentally touch the thing that will kill you. I'm starting to think he believes that canon Buddie would end the show or drive it into the ground. And it could be as simple as not wanting to deliver on a 'will they/won't they' because so many other shows have finally gone there and it tanked the ratings because people wanted to see couples declare their love and make big sweeping dramatic gestures, not the day to day relationship stuff once all feelings are known and the tension dissipates.

At this point the show is ending it's eighth and entering it's ninth season. They don't need to make Buddie canon to keep people watching. They just need us on the hook enough so that we don't tune out.

Sorry this turned into a rant. Let's call this a safe space vent and hey, if things turn out different I will be the first one here celebrating with you all and admitting that my cynicism was wrong and good things can still happen and a procedural tv show can still surprise me.

In the meantime can I just say thankyou to all the buddie fans out there who are stronger than me? You fic writers and art makers are all so fucking brilliant and you fill the spaces you see with your own joy-creating things. I'm having a moment of weakness and letting the exhaustion get me down. But I still love the hell out of and admire you all so much.

[epicbuddieficrecs]

Weekly Recap | January 15th-21st 2024

My ao3 history is still fucked. Gonna have to figure out if there's something I can do about it :/

Complete

hot cocoa by evcndiaz/ @evcndiaz (Established Buddie | 3K | Teen): Buck is freaking out about proposing. He gets an assist from Athena, Bobby, and. Well. Eddie himself.

A Message To You by Mad_Lori/ @madlori (Media fic, Getting Together | 9K | Teen): Two firefighters both write to an advice column on the same day, with the same problem - they're each in love with their best friend. You won't believe what happens next!

🔥 Life Cycles of the Southern Coastal Husbro series by Mad_Lori/ @madlori (Post-Season 5, Queer Platonic Relationship to Lovers | 5 works | 92K)

🔥 Courtship Behaviors of the Southern Coastal Husbro (QPR, Getting Together | 49K | Explicit): “I want you in my family, I want us to be a family. Officially. A family can be a guy, his son, and his best friend, right?” Buck’s lower lip was trembling. “You’re really asking me to be your…what, now?” “Frank called it ‘platonic life partners.’” Observational Notes on the Southern Coastal Husbro (Fluff | 10K | Mature): A day in the life of two engaged firefighter husbros and their smartass son. Migratory Patterns of the Southern Coastal Husbro (Coming Out | 13K | Explicit): Buck and Eddie visit El Paso to tell the Diaz parents that they're engaged. Also, they go viral (again), eat King Ranch Casserole, pontificate on queer identities, get a visit from the Fire Chief, and the Hot Firefighter Calendar makes a reappearance. Ancestral Lineage of the Southern Coastal Husbro (Parental Reconciliations | 13K | Explicit): The Buckleys surprise Eddie at home when Buck's not there, hoping to work around Buck's no-contact edict and attempt a reconciliation. Later, Eddie surprises Buck with the news that hey, he has grandparents on his mom's side, too. Surprise number two: they suck. Eddie and Buck remain disgustingly in love with each other. Sexual Alignments of the Southern Coastal Husbro (5K | Teen): Eddie goes out for drinks with the dispatch center folks, gets hit on at the bar, and has personal epiphanies about his sexual orientation.

Kilty Pleasures by JamesPearce911/ @diazsdimples (PWP, Established Buddie | 8K | Explicit): Or, Buck and Eddie discover they have kilt kinks.

melt your headaches (call it home) by lecornergirl/ @clusterbuck (Pre-Relationship, Sharing a Bed | 2K | Teen): hypothetically, Buck types. if someone hit their head in the morning, they probably shouldn’t go to sleep alone, huh The phone vibrates in his hand before he can even put it down, Eddie’s face flashing on the screen. Buck sighs and picks it up. “What did you do?” Eddie asks immediately. “Hypothetically, the Scrub Daddy tried to kill me.”

Fractals from the Lightning Bolt by letmetellyouaboutmyfeels/ @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels (One Shots Collection | 41/54 | 78K | Not Rated): A collection of oneshots, some originally posted on tumblr. Each chapter is individually rated.

44. We Gotta Create Our Interludes: Rated E - some soft established relationship fluff and smut 45. My Application to Hell: Rated E - shameless smut of the "they could never get away with this in real life" variety.

what my heart just yearns to say (in ways that can't be said) by mimibegins/ @itiveseenthisfilmbefore (Post S06E15: Death and Taxes | 5K | General): “I didn’t know that,” Eddie replied, eyebrows furrowed. And then he added so quietly that Buck almost missed it: “I mean, how would I? As I don’t see you.” And Buck was struck through the core and taken back in time. From one moment to the next, he was back at the graveyard, looking at Eddie and saying “I feel like she sees me” and then he recalled the broken look behind Eddie’s eyes and oh. So that’s what was wrong.

Twice Struck by Tizniz / @tizniz (Post-Lightning | 3K | General): Buck finds out he wasn't the only one struck by lightning that night.

dusk until the dawn (you're where i wanna go) by mimibegins/ @itiveseenthisfilmbefore (Post S6E14: Performance Anxiety, Getting Together | 5K | Teen): “So, would you say that you’re worried about dating because you never really dated,“ Buck said as he shifted his weight, draping himself over the couch in a way that was almost obscene for a public space. “Is that a question, or– ?” Eddie wondered, slightly amused as he looked up at Buck, who looked so pensive, if not a bit stunned as he was seemingly still trying to wrap his head around the disastrous dating experiences of Eddie Diaz. “No, it’s– yeah, okay, I guess it’s a question but– have you?” Buck asked, almost bashful, with a faint blush sitting high on his cheeks as he met Eddie’s eyes. God, Eddie thought as he felt how the blood rushed into his cheeks as well. These feelings are definitely not platonic.

he's a big boy by oklahoma/ @malewifediaz (Married Buddie, PWP | 5K | Explicit): Eddie has a thing for Buck's big dick.

one is one too many, one more is never enough by 42hrb / @exhuastedpigeon (Drunk Confession | 2K | Teen): They say hangovers get worse as you get older. Buck never believed that until his first hangover in his thirties hit him like a fucking freight train. He had vowed to never get that drunk again. And he’d kept that promise to himself for over a year. That all changed at Maddie and Chimney’s wedding. He’d like it noted that it wasn’t his fault that he got so drunk. He hadn’t had any of the mimosas that were flowing while Maddie and her bridal party got ready because he didn’t want to risk anything going wrong when he walked Maddie down the aisle. In fact, he hadn’t had a drink until after he gave his speech. 

🔥 Don't Push Me So Far Away I Can't Reach You by giselleslash (Friends With Benefits | 12K | Mature): or the one where Buck thinks he and Eddie are just friends with benefits so he pushes Eddie to date other people because he’s an idiot

if you keep reachin' out (then I'll keep comin' back) by 42hrb / @exhuastedpigeon (Getting Together | 2K | Teen): It probably wasn’t the best idea to flirt with Buck before a rescue but Eddie couldn’t help himself. He’d been struggling with keeping his feelings for Buck locked down for months now, maybe even longer if he was honest with himself. 

i love you, ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard? by rarakiplin (gmontys)/ @hoediaz (Post-Shooting | 9K | Teen): or, in which eddie's will reveal is a love confession, and buck takes a second to catch up

🔥 maybe love won't let you down by sibylsleaves (Season 5B, Getting Together | 15K | Mature): Buck tells Eddie he’s in love with him. Eddie pines. or, five times eddie watches buck leave, and the one time he goes after him

Rope 'n Ride by rosebuddiekin/ @giddyupbuck (PWP | 2K | Explicit): Or: Eddie rides Buck wearing the cowboy hat.

WIP

search history by forgottenwords (Getting Together | 8/10 | 11K | Explicit): Eddie opened the Safari app to find a specific recipe Buck was looking for, but something was already typed in the search box. Beefy blonde twink gets railed by— Buck's voice calls out from the kitchen “Did you find it yet?” and Eddie hastily closes the tab, opening another with a surprising speed from someone considered technologically illiterate. As close as they were, he’d never had a thought about the type of ‘adult entertainment’ Buck was partial to. Now, it was all he could think about.

🔥 Things We're All Too Young to Know by @cal-daisies-and-briars (Canon, S1 through S6 | 107/? | 296K | Mature): This is a love story. Even if it doesn’t always look like it. Even if it doesn’t always feel like it. A look back on Eddie and Buck's lives up to now, and what led them to each other, interpreted from the current 9-1-1 canon.

🔥 and if i bleed (you'll be the last to know) by diazchristopher/ @captain-hen (Canon Divergent Season 6, Friends with Benefits | 5/18 | 23K | Explicit): or, an alternate look at season 6 where buck and eddie have been casually sleeping together since before the beginning of the season. somehow, this changes both everything and nothing at all.

Winter Prayer by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Road Trip, Buck&Bobby&May | 1/3 | 5K | General): When a work conflict prevents Athena from accompanying Bobby to Minnesota for the ten year anniversary of his family dying, Buck and May offer to go instead. Over the course of the trip, they all learn more about each other, and Bobby faces his grief.

(when i die) i'll die loving you by lecornergirl / @clusterbuck (The Good Place Fusion | 1/? | 2K | Teen): OR: buck and eddie are in the afterlife, and they're soulmates. but it's not quite that simple.

Kiss Me Once Cause You Know I Had A Long Night by I_still_dont_understand_13 / @sherlockcrossing (Prompt collection | 21/? | 14K | Teen): 100 kiss prompts.

22. 82. Whispering "I love you" in-between kisses  23. 1. Whispering "kiss me" to your lover  24. 18. Grabbing your lover by the collar