#okay so the jimpam casino night but its buddie basically

[chronicowboy]

one Buck richer | 3.8k

Eddie doesn't remember how they ended up here.

He's not a dramatic person, but he's sure that he must have done something truly horrific in a past life to deserve this.

All he remembers of this life, is the overwhelming, all-consuming terror that had curled like a vice around his heart when Buck had offhandedly mentioned going to Italy for a week or two.

Now, they're... Here, and Eddie cannot work out why, for the life of him, he ever thought this would be a good idea because it is quite possibly the worst, most terrible, poorly-informed, life-changingly destructive idea he's ever had.

Who knows? Maybe he'd never even fooled himself into thinking it was anything approaching a good idea.

Maybe this was just another knee-jerk reaction in the face of his own fear.

It wouldn't exactly be out of character for him, as much as he'd like to think that he's grown out of those bad habits completely.

So, there might be a pattern emerging.

Eddie gets shot, doubles down with the woman he was just going through the motions with to ignore everything that came with a bullet to the shoulder, crashes and burns a couple of months later.

Buck dies, comes back to life, talks about Abby-ing his way to Italy, Eddie suggests going to a fancy casino with the man he's pretty sure he's head over heels in love with, crashes and burns the moment he sees him in a deep red suit.

He really, really didn't think this one through.

And he's seriously considering locking himself in Buck's bathroom to call Frank. In fact the only thing stopping him is the knowledge that its after business hours which means Frank can be unprofessional and laugh at Eddie's sad little life—he'd discovered that the hard way.

Fuck it, might as well call 911 because there's no way he's surviving tonight if Buck is just going to walk around a casino with a level of confidence that decidedly does not match up to his skill level which will undoubtedly lead to pouting and the deep red of his blazer really brings out the blue of his eyes and makes his soft pink birthmark stand out against his pale skin and—

Oh, yeah. This is definitely the worst idea he's ever had in his whole, fucked up life.

Maybe he needs to revisit the whole self-preservation—or lack of—conversation with Frank because, right now, Eddie feels like he's staring down at his hand on a big red button labelled 'SELF-DESTRUCT' with horrified eyes.

"Eddie?" Buck waves a big, gentle hand in his face, and Eddie uses every ounce of carefully practiced self-control to pull himself out of his head before he starts thinking about Buck's hands—but seriously, how can hands be attractive?

"Yeah, yep, yes. Hi, hello." Eddie cringes at himself, hopes the heat crawling from his cheeks all the way up to the tips of his ears is just a phantom sensation.

"Okay, weirdo," Buck chuckles. Fuck, even his fucking laugh is attractive. Its times like these when Eddie's certain God is real and he truly does hate gay people because this cannot just be Eddie's lot in life. Maybe he just personally offended the big man upstairs at some point and his punishment is being deeply, irrevocably in love with his best friend.

"Says you," Eddie retorts weakly. "Who says yes to a night of poker when he can't even beat his sister playing with M&Ms for currency?"

"Somebody who performs better under pressure," Buck chides, collecting his wallet and keys from the side table. "There are no stakes to M&M poker, that's why I lose."

"Sure, that's why." Eddie nods, silently congratulating himself for falling back into their easy banter instead of focusing on the fact that Buck's shirt is so tight that, if it weren't for his sinful blazer, his nipples would probably be visible through the fabric. And back to square one. "Hey, remind me, which would win: a full house or four of a kind?"

Buck blinks, his face scrunching up into an expression Eddie recognises from Christopher doing math homework at the kitchen table. Oh, dear God. He's definitely not making it out of the casino alive.

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