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It all starts with a call of a proposal gone wrong.
Buck watches with concern as Hen treats their patient, a blonde woman in her mid-twenties, who’s coughing after nearly going into respiratory failure after choking on her engagement ring. Her boyfriend —fiance?— is kneeled on the grass, holding her shoulders and sporting the most guilty expression. The cupcake his girlfriend —fiance?— had taken a bite out of sits on the picnic blanket, the wet engagement ring sitting on the blanket beside it and the diamond glistening in the sunlight.
Buck winces as he takes in the sheer size of the diamond. That must have hurt, he thinks to himself.
“Everything seems to look fine vitals wise. Do you feel any burning in your throat?”
“No,” the woman rasps, flashing Hen a weak smile. “I feel okay. I don’t have to go to the hospital, do I?”
“While I would strongly encourage you to go get checked out, I can tell that you two have a lot to talk about,” Hen says, looking down at the woman’s boyfriend and back at the woman’s face. “If you feel any soreness or have trouble swallowing in the next few days, you need to go get that checked out. You could have damaged something internally that we can’t see.”
“But I don’t have to go right now, right?”
“No, but I need you to sign here to say that you’re refusing transport.” The report gets signed, Hen wishes the pair good luck, and the moment she steps away, the blonde woman launches herself into her boyfriend’s arms and rasps with tears, “Yes! I’ll marry you!”
The declaration is met with confused clapping from neighboring couples also on picnics, and Buck can’t help but laugh and clap along as he watches the man slip the finger on his fiancé’s finger. Hen snorts with laughter she disguises as a cough, and then she’s walking back to the engine with Buck behind her.
Eddie, who’s been watching the entire thing from afar, lightens up like the stars themselves when he sees them. When Chim asks Hen what happened, Eddie peels himself off the truck to walk towards Buck.
“Hey,” he says, brushing their arms together in a way that has Buck automatically smiling. “Did you see the size of that diamond? She’s lucky that thing didn’t rip a hole in her esophagus.”
Buck snorts as he hops into the engine, Eddie behind him. “I was thinking that too, but I didn’t want to ruin the proposal more than it already was by her almost dying. That ring was gorgeous, though.” He flashes Eddie a playful grin as he offers his hand. “Bet you thought so, too, Mr. Lover of Shiny Things.”
“Shut up,” Eddie laughs. He takes Buck’s hand and steps into the engine, and Buck grins fondly when he notes the rosy color of Eddie’s cheeks.
“Okay, but real talk, why in the world would someone think it’s okay to stick an engagement ring in a cupcake?” Hen snorts and shakes her head as they pull off the curb. “He almost killed her.”
“I’m not an expert in proposals, but there had to have been a better way to propose,” Chim agrees with a nod. “Like Maddie and Jee proposing with a ring in their hands? A classic. It was a much better idea than what Jake here did.”
Eddie hums. “I don’t know what my ideal proposal would look like, but I definitely wouldn’t stick a ring in food.”
“What if you stuck it on top of the food? Maybe you could stick a ring on top of a cupcake like a cherry,” Buck suggests. Eddie casts him an incredulous look. “Buck, the goal is to marry you, not kill you.”
“Oh? Talking about proposing already?” Hen teases, grinning. “Didn’t you two just get together like two months ago?”
Buck can’t help but smile at the reminder of the time he and Eddie have officially been together, and one glance at Eddie shows the other man smiling fondly at him already. It had taken them years of wrong girlfriends, snipers, well collapses, broken down doors and lightning strikes, but they finally found each other with an impromptu love confession after a tough call in which Buck sought comfort in Eddie up on the station rooftop. He wouldn't have it any other way, honestly.
Chim shakes his head, bringing Buck back to the present. “No, they’ve been dating for years. Filling out the HR forms was just a formality so Bobby wouldn’t have to keep explaining BuckandEddie to Chief Alonzo each time they did something not-platonic and called it platonic.”
Through the headset, Bobby mumbles, “Thank god.”
“Very funny, Bobby,” Eddie deadpans with a side-eye aimed at the captain.
Bobby chuckles lightly. “For what it’s worth I’m glad you two figured it out. I’m rooting for your engagement, too. You can even host the wedding ceremony itself in our yard if you want to.”
“Thanks?” Buck grins in confusion.
Hen snorts, “Cap’s been dying for someone to use his backyard for their wedding since Chim was planning his proposal to Maddie. It looks like you two are his new target.”
“I’m not trying to pressure you two into getting married. I’m just saying that it would make sense for you two to tie the knot sooner rather than later,” Bobby says with a laugh.
“Why?”
“You two have basically been dating for years,” Chim reiterates with a snap of his gum, amusement clear on his face. “You’re practically co-parenting Christopher together–”
“–you’ve been unofficially living together for months–”
“–you’re in each other’s wills–”
“–and everyone thinks you’re already married,” Chim and Hen say together, cracking up and giving each other a fist bump.
Eddie wrinkles his nose. “No they don’t.” He turns around to look at Bobby. “People don’t think we’re married, do they?”
Bobby presses his lips together to hide a smile, but his voice is full of amusement when he says, “Chief Alonzo thought you two were filing paperwork to officially change your last names on your gear when I gave it to him.”
Eddie gapes at him while Buck goes wide eyed. “Are you serious?” he squawks while Hen and Chim crack up beside him.
“He asked me if I was sure you didn’t fill out the wrong paperwork,” Bobby adds with a grin. Buck groans and Eddie runs a hand down his face. “Like I said, I’m not trying to pressure you into anything. I’m just saying no one would be surprised if you two did decide to tie the knot so soon. Either way, our yard will be open if you do choose to celebrate your wedding or engagement there.”
“And we appreciate that, really,” Eddie says with a small smile. It then turns mischievous as he glances at Buck. “But so long as Buck thinks sticking a ring in food is a good proposal, I don’t think we’ll be getting engaged any time soon.”
“Hey!” Buck protests, but he’s not mad as the cabin fills with peals of laughter. He simply grins and catches Eddie’s eye, and his boyfriend winks at him. The conversation switches to talking about Christopher’s space-themed thirteenth birthday party this year, and the topic of proposals is put away for the moment.
It isn’t brought up again until later that night when a hot cup of tea is pressed into Buck’s hands on the station rooftop while LA’s lights glisten all around him and its early July night air chills his bones just a little.
“Knew I’d find you up here,” Eddie says as he leans against the wall beside Buck. He nods at the cup in Buck’s hands. “Give it a few minutes to cool down.”
“I wasn’t gonna drink it like that,” Buck protests lightly. Eddie raises a brow, and Buck flashes him a sheepish smile. “Okay, I was.”
“Knew it.” Eddie grins fondly as he takes a small sip of his tea before setting it down on the ledge. His brown eyes focus on Buck, something light in them as he presses their arms together. “What’s got you up here at two in the morning?”
“Can’t a guy reminisce in the spot where he first kissed the love of his life in peace?” Buck teases. He’s rewarded by the blush on Eddie’s cheeks that’s illuminated by the glow of Los Angeles around them.
Smiling softly at Buck, Eddie says, “I guess he can.” Now it’s Buck’s turn to blush; he kicks Eddie’s foot gently with his own, and Eddie laughs.
They fall into a comfortable silence for a while as Eddie sips his tea. After a few minutes, Buck picks his own cup up to drink.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about what everyone was saying earlier after the failed proposal. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Bobby might be onto something.”
Buck’s lucky he’s not drinking when Eddie says this, because he only chokes a little on his spit and swallows it down painfully while the tips of his ears flush pink. “Really? You want to get married?”
“God, no,” Eddie snorts. Buck is crestfallen for all of two seconds before Eddie turns to smile at him and says, “We’re nowhere near being ready for marriage yet.”
“Not quite following you there, Eds.”
Eddie huffs out a laugh. “What I mean is that it’s not crazy for people to think we’re already married. We do tend to go a little ballistic when the other gets injured and we’re incredibly domestic.”
“There’s nothing wrong with brushing our teeth and baking cookies together,” Buck says with a small frown. “Right?”
“Not at all. I’m just saying, that’s probably why everyone and their mothers think we’re already married.” Eddie chuckles lightly. “Even if we’re not there yet.”
Buck’s lips curl into a teasing grin. “Thank god you said ‘yet.’ I was starting to worry you were having doubts about yours truly,” he says, gesturing at himself.
Eddie rolls his eyes and playfully bumps Buck’s hip with his own. “Yeah, because there’s so many other people I’m interested in.” He shakes his head. “I think you know better than anyone that you’re it for me, Buck.”
There’s a teasing smile on his face, but the words are filled with raw truth that has Buck smiling. “You’re it for me too, Eddie.” He then intertwines their hands on the ledge and relishes in the way Eddie squeezes his hand. “I’ll love you forever, even when we’re gray and wrinkly and spend all day sitting outside the house to watch cars pass by.”
Eddie narrows his eyes. “Those are some awfully romantic words there, Buckley. You’re not going to drop down on one knee and propose right now, are you?”
Buck flashes Eddie a toothy grin. “No, that was just a preview of what’ll happen when I do propose.”
“Is that so?” Eddie quirks a brow, an amused smile on his face.
“Yeah,” Buck says, leaning his head on Eddie’s shoulder to look at his side profile through his lashes. “I’m going to say the sappiest, corniest things that’ll make you laugh and cry before you say yes.”
“You sound so sure that I’m going to say yes.” Eddie smirks. “What if I say no?”
“You won’t,” Buck says confidently before moving to plant a wet kiss on Eddie’s cheek with a loud ‘muah’ . Eddie snorts but doesn’t wipe it away, instead shooting Buck a fond, gooey smile that never fails to make his heart race. “You’re going to be so wooed that you won’t even have time to think about how much you hate when I leave my socks under the couch after work.”
Eddie laughs at this and shakes his head. “What if I wanted to propose?”
“You can’t.” Buck pouts. “You've already gotten the chance to propose! Let me woo you and show you the whole Buckley proposal package.”
“I feel like I should be a little afraid of that, but fine.” Eddie lifts Buck’s hand and presses a kiss to his knuckles, and Buck swears his insides melt at the gesture. “You win. You can propose.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Eddie nods. Raising a brow, he pokes a finger at Buck’s chest. “But do not propose by sticking the ring in any type of food. I don’t want to choke to death on my engagement ring.”
Buck gasps. “I would never!”
“Good.”
They share a look before they burst into twin giggles, their fingers intertwined and hearts beating together as one with the love they hold for each other. Then the bell rings and they rush back inside to grab their gear, the cups of tea long forgotten on the ledge but the promise of proposing to Eddie at the very front and center of Buck’s mind.
Buck tries to be patient.
Key word: tries. He knows Eddie said they’re probably not ready for marriage yet —he’s even inclined to agree since they’re still trying to fix his taxes and address forms two months after moving in with Eddie— but he also knows Eddie didn’t say they’re not ready to be engaged yet. It’s completely logical reasoning.
That’s what Buck thinks, anyway. Maddie has a harder time understanding his reasoning.
“So Eddie said he doesn’t want to get married yet, but you’re trying to come up with proposal ideas?” Maddie wrinkles her nose. “You do know that people propose when they want to get married, right?”
Buck looks up from one of the cupcakes he’s decorating for Christopher’s party tomorrow with a confused frown. “Doesn’t everyone know that?”
“Right,” Maddie says slowly. “I’m trying to understand why you’re stressing about proposing if Eddie said he doesn’t want to get married yet. Shouldn’t you propose when you’re sure he wants to get married?”
“No, you see, Eddie does want to marry me,” Buck says with a wide smile. “We know we’re going to end up married, we just don’t know when. But that doesn’t mean I can’t propose! We can just have a long engagement until we decide to get married.”
Maddie blinks slowly, understanding dawning on her. “So you basically just want to give him a shiny promise ring.”
“Ah-ah. Not a promise ring. An engagement ring,” Buck corrects, pointing at Maddie with the orange frosting pipette. “That way if we feel like getting married one day out of nowhere, we won’t have skipped the proposal.”
“I literally do not understand what you’re saying, but I also haven’t understood your relationship with Eddie for the past six years so I think I’m just going to go along with it,” Maddie decides with an amused smile. “If it works with you two then I’m happy for you. Do you have the ring?”
Buck smiles shyly as he pulls the engagement ring box out of his pocket and hands it over to his sister. When Maddie opens it and gasps softly, he flushes red. “Eddie likes shiny things, so I went with the shiny but not too shiny ring.”
It’s a silver ring with a large diamond in the center, and the band is adorned with smaller diamonds going around it. Buck knows Eddie will love it; to this day he still has the image of Eddie’s eyes sparkling when they saw Maddie’s engagement ring. It’s why he’d searched three different stores for the perfect ring in the first place.
“It’s gorgeous!” Maddie smiles widely. “Do you have an equally gorgeous proposal to go with the ring?”
Buck’s head tips backwards as he groans, “That’s what I’m stuck on! I need help, Mads! All I know is that the proposal has to be extravagant and perfect for Eddie, but I have no clue what to do.”
“Extravagant?” An uneasy look crosses Maddie’s face. “Eddie doesn’t seem like the type of guy who’d appreciate big romantic gestures like that.”
“You’d think so, right?” Buck huffs. “If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that Eddie’s a secret romantic. He loves all the gestures, no matter how big or small. He actually recorded a flash mob proposal when we took Christopher shopping for new shoes to wear to your wedding.”
“Oh.” Maddie stifles a laugh. “Well, I’m sure Eddie would love any proposal you come up with.”
“I know Eddie would love any proposal I pull off. His only instructions for a proposal was to not stick the ring in food.”
“No, yeah. He has a point.”
Buck sighs as he sticks a plastic Saturn ring on the cupcake he finished frosting. “I don’t know what to do, Maddie. I want this to go perfectly. Eddie deserves that much.”
Maddie hums. “How about we make a list?”
Buck tilts his head curiously, two plastic mermaid rings on his fingers. “Of proposal ideas?”
“Of course! We can come up with ten good ideas for you to think about.”
“I’m only proposing to him once, Mads. Why do I need ten ideas?”
“Because if something goes wrong with one, you’ll always have another,” Maddie says with an amused huff. Wiping her blue frosting-stained hands on her apron, she says, “Let me get a notebook. Can’t risk Eddie stealing your phone and seeing everything.”
“Good idea. But just so you know, the proposal has to be extravagant,” Buck says as he watches Maddie pull a notebook out of one of the kitchen drawers. “I’m going to woo Eddie’s socks off with this one so he doesn’t ever think about marrying someone else.”
Maddie slides the book open and rolls her eyes, right hand writing ‘B+E Proposal’ in large, pretty letters on the top of an empty page. “Oh please. Eddie would never leave you. Now come on, let’s try to write some extravagant and non-extravagant proposal ideas before Jee wakes up from her nap.”
“Okay, but extravagant first.”
Maddie throws a purple-stained towel at his head.
The first proposal idea is Buck’s favorite: a flash mob.
It takes him a week to coordinate the specifics of which flashmob he wants to hire —because apparently there’s multiple things to consider when trying to hire the right one— where he wants to propose, and what day. He ends up picking a spot in Griffith Park with a fountain and places the date for the weekend after Christopher’s party. He hands money over to a guy online, converses with him on the phone for like two hours while Eddie runs errands, and everything’s set. There’s a whole plan: Buck will take Eddie out on the excuse of having a nice picnic, then the dancers will dance to Sugar, and Buck will propose during the cheesiest song ever after that, which is Marry You. It’s all set in stone and perfect.
Too perfect.
“I didn’t think we’d ever be called to a flash mob emergency,” Ravi says with mild amazement as they walk away from the engine and ambulance into the town square.
“Maybe we’re being pranked?” Buck suggests, arms folded across his chest. “Like what if they wanted to show their appreciation to the LAFD?”
Eddie’s hand makes brief contact with his lower back before he’s walking ahead, his medical bag already slung over his shoulder. “Yeah, I don’t think Athena would call us out here for that.”
“You never know!”
Eddie merely snorts and exchanges a look with a bemused Hen before the two walk ahead with Ravi behind them, Chim and Buck behind him. Chim glances at Buck and says with his brows raised, “How much do you want to bet that they were dancing to songs from ten years ago?”
Buck actually laughs at that. “Nice try, Chim. I’m not betting on something that’s probably true.”
“Damn.”
When they near the crowd, Buck actually has to take a double take. There’s a woman with a Prada pump stuck in her shoulder and a bleeding nose, and the woman missing the pump is being held back by two officers while Athena stares her down to get her to stop yapping. There's a few other people in cuffs, all looking rather sour. There’s a guy with a badly twisted ankle sitting on the floor, a woman with a purple forearm sitting beside him, and another man staring up at the sky from the ground a few feet away surrounded by a majority of the flash mob members. Sexy and I Know It is blasting from somewhere, there’s two guys giving their statement to officers, and a kid wailing about the dancing being over.
“Huh.” Buck purses his lips. “Am I hallucinating the heel in her shoulder?”
Hen sighs loudly. “This is why they should ban high-heels or classify them as weapons.”
“Okay. Hen and Chim, you two take the heel in the shoulder. Eddie and Ravi, you take the ankle and the arm. Buck, help me with the one on the ground.”
Buck nods his acknowledgement before following Bobby. They come to a stop beside the man, both looking down at him curiously.
“Sir?” Bobby asks slowly, “Are you alright?”
“I’m never going to be able to bounce back from this,” the guy says dully, green eyes still trained on the sky.
Buck frowns. “Why are you on the floor? Did someone knock you down?”
“Yeah, the bitch with the missing heel whacked me in the head with her elbow and knocked me down.”
Bobby coughs, then continues, “Did you fall unconscious at any point? Any dizziness? Neck pain?”
The man sighs loudly. “I went unconscious and woke up right before you got here, and my head hurts like a bitch. Though I don’t know if that’s because of her big head or the fact that I’m never going to be able to bounce back from this. It’s over for the Dream Dancing Flash Mob.”
“ You’re Jack from Dream Dancing Flash Mob?” Buck blurts out, eyes wide and face pale.
Jack eyes him warily. “Yeah, why?” His eyes widen. “I swear I didn’t hit anyone! I was struck down!”
“N-no! It’s just…” Buck sighs defeatedly while Bobby eyes him with confusion. “I’m the guy who called for the flash mob this Saturday.”
Jack blinks, then winces. “Oh, yeah. Sorry man. Half my crew is being sent to jail and the other half is going to the hospital. You might want to figure something else out.”
Buck can’t help the way he sighs deeply and frowns. Bobby’s hand presses comfortingly on his shoulder for a moment before he says, “Sir, any neck pain? Back pain?”
“Just the pain from my dance group disbanding.” Jack grumbles, “I should’ve gone into engineering like my parents said.”
They manage to get Jack up and he ends up riding in an ambulance to the hospital with a possible concussion. It’s only when he’s gone that Buck allows himself to sit on the side of the engine, sighing frustratedly.
“Do I want to know why you hired a flash mob for the weekend?” Bobby asks, a vaguely amused grin on his face.
“Well I was trying to propose, but it appears that I’m not going to be doing that this weekend.” Buck sighs, this time a little sadly. He catches the furrow of Bobby’s brow and continues hastily, “I’m not proposing because of what you guys said! I’m doing it because I love Eddie and even if we aren’t getting married yet, we can be engaged until we feel like we’re ready.”
Bobby hums. “It makes sense for you two. But a flash mob?” An amused grin crosses his features, “I don’t think Eddie would appreciate something so public . ”
As if on cue, Eddie walks up to them with Ravi on his tail. “You won’t believe this,” Ravi says with amusement. “This was apparently a flash mob proposal. Prada heels hated it so she tried to get the dancers to stop, and one of them fought her so she stuck one of her heels in her shoulder.”
Eddie nods. “Sprained ankle guy? That was her boyfriend. And I say he was her boyfriend because I can’t imagine how he could stay with her after that reaction to a flash mob proposal.”
Ravi flashes him an odd look. “You’re a fan of flash mob proposals?”
“No,” Eddie lies, and the red tips of his ears betray him. “I don’t know where you would even get that idea. Gross.”
Bobby, with his brows raised, meets Buck’s wry smile. “Told you,” Buck whispers while Eddie walks away to ignore Ravi’s questions about flash mobs, and Bobby stifles a laugh before patting his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll come up with another plan. Second time’s the charm, right?”
The second time is not the charm.
The second time around, Buck decides to go for the banner in the sky attached to a blimp. It’s the same Saturday on which he was supposed to propose to Eddie with a flash mob, so Christopher is with them in the park —partly for the picnic and more to record the proposal, because he liked this plan better than the flash mob. (He’d actually sighed with relief when Buck told him what happened.)
They’re at the park eating the food Buck packed into the basket while children run around them in light coats playing games. The ring box presses into his ribs every time he moves his hand up to check his watch from where it’s stored in his jean jacket.
The tenth time he checks his watch, Eddie takes his hand and puts it down on his lap. Panicked, Buck meets his eyes. Eddie’s brows are pinched together and there’s a lopsided smile on his face. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Buck says with a nervous smile. “Why?”
“You keep looking at your watch every ten seconds.” Eddie gently squeezes his left thigh, brows pinching with concern. “You’re looking a little green, too. Was it the salad?”
“No! No, I was just checking the hour because…” Buck chews on his inside lip, then Christopher swoops in heroically, “There’s supposed to be rain today.”
Eddie wrinkles his nose. “No there's not. I double checked the forecast before we left the house.”
Christopher’s eyes widen and he shoots Buck a comically scared look that Buck mirrors. Buck then lets out a nervous laugh and says tightly, “No, you’re right! You’re totally right. I’m just being paranoid because it’s supposed to rain over the weekend.”
Eddie nods somewhat unconvinced. “Okay,” he draws out slowly. “Well, if it does rain we can leave and go home where we’ll turn the volume all the way up on the TV to drown it out. Just please stop worrying, okay?”
“Okay,” Buck replies, flashing him his best smile. With slightly trembling hands, he reaches out to open the basket. “More lasagna?”
“Yes,” Eddie and Christopher say at the same time, and Buck’s nearly blown away with love by how their eyes sparkle the same way. His two favorite people in the whole world beam at him as he places lasagna on their plates, and he feels himself relax for the first time since they stepped foot in the park.
That lasts a grand total of two seconds before someone shouts, “Woah, check it out! That blimp’s on fire!”
Buck immediately looks up at the sky and goes slack-jawed. There is indeed a blimp in the sky, but it’s not on fire; no, what is on first is the banner trailing behind it.
Christopher audibly gasps behind him. Their eyes meet, twin expressions of disbelief in them before they look back up at the banner. The only words legible now that the fire’s eaten more than half of them is MARRY, and even the Y is being consumed by the flames.
“Marry?” Eddie’s voice pulls Buck's attention back to him. “Is that supposed to be a marriage proposal?”
“Probably,” Buck laughs a little hysterically. Yours, he would say if everything was perfect and the banner wasn’t on fire, but he sure as hell isn’t going to tell Eddie that now. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Christopher try to hide a giggle behind his hands.
Eddie hums, lips pulled into a sympathetic frown. “That sucks. I feel bad for whoever’s proposal got ruined.”
“Yeah.” Buck sighs and looks up defeatedly at the burning banner as the sirens in the distance grow louder. “Me too.”
When Eddie turns to take a picture of the blimp —presumably to send it to the 118 group chat to ask if anyone else saw it too— Christopher leans over and gently pats Buck’s head.
“Next time?”
And because Buck’s still an optimist, he smiles his best and ruffles Christopher’s hair while saying, “Yeah. For sure.”
The third attempt ends with Buck nearly dying at the hands of a corn dog.
The plan is simple, really: he’d paid a hefty amount of money to broadcast a live proposal at a Dodgers game on a weekday in late August he’d asked Bobby to let them off for. Buck had been fully prepared to beg, and it turned out he didn’t even need to. Bobby was all too happy to give them a day off for it since he found out the burning blimp proposal the 118 responded to a few weeks ago was Buck’s second failed proposal.
Christopher’s munching happily on the corn dog Buck bought him at the concession stand, cheese covered nacho chips sitting in his lap and a large sugary drink in a cup holder. He doesn’t even like baseball, but he’d insisted on being here so he could witness the proposal after the failure of the last one. Eddie doesn’t know that, but he’s smiling all the same with joy as they settle into their seats.
“It’s nice that Chris wanted to come with us,” Eddie says as steals a bite from Buck’s corn dog. Buck only grins; Eddie always steals a bite of his food at games after insisting he doesn’t want any. “I was starting to feel like he didn’t want to hang out with us anymore.”
Buck raises a brow at that. “What? We literally just went out to the aquarium last weekend.”
“Yeah, but when’s the last time he actually seemed to be having fun watching penguins be fed?” Eddie deadpans. He nods his head over at Christopher, who is fascinated watching the Look-Alike game on the Jumbotron before the game begins. “Look at him. It’s rare for him to look so excited when he’s out with us.”
“Yeah, that might be because you insist on him feeding the penguins after one tried to bite him when he was nine.” Buck snickers, and Eddie shoots him a half-hearted glare.
“It did not bite him, Buck.”
“That’s what the penguin wanted you to believe.”
Eddie rolls his eyes and pokes Buck’s ribs with his elbow, to which Buck very maturely sticks his tongue out in retaliation. Eddie glares at him and Buck smirks before leaning over to press an obnoxiously loud ‘muah!’ on Eddie’s cheek that had Christopher groaning and saying, “Gross. It’s not even Kiss Cam time yet.”
Brows raised, Eddie asks, “How do you know what a Kiss Cam is?”
“You really need to get TikTok,” Christopher says with a pitiful look aimed at Eddie. Buck snorts and takes a bite of his corndog, watching with amusement as Eddie’s brows furrow.
“You’re watching Kiss Cams on TikTok?”
“Actually, I was watching a basketball game,” Christopher corrects sassily. “It’s a lot cooler than baseball.”
“It is not,” Eddie immediately responds, pouting. He then shakes his head. “That’s not important. Why were you watching a basketball game on TikTok?”
Christopher actually flushes pink at that. “I was curious about it.” Buck sees the way his ears also flush pink, and he lets out a startled laugh with a bit of corn dog in his mouth. Christopher’s eyes widen comically. “Shh! Buck!”
Eddie narrows his eyes and looks between Buck and Christopher. “What am I missing?”
Through giggles, Buck manages to say, “Sorry, ‘s a secret.” He sees Christopher sag with relief against his chair, and that’s when the pieces click in Eddie’s mind. “Is it a girl?”
“Dad!” Christopher whines, and Eddie’s eyes widen while Buck continues to giggle. “Are you learning about basketball to impress a girl?”
Christopher groans loudly. “Dad, please. Stop!”
Buck breathes in, and that’s when everything goes wrong because the piece of corn dog he had stupidly not swallowed decides to go down the wrong pipe at that exact moment. His laughter turns into coughs as he tries to expel the food, and Eddie shoots him a short glare. “It’s not funny, Buck. How long were you going to keep this from me?”
“Dad,” Christopher whines, “It’s not a big deal!”
“Chris–” Buck latches onto Eddie’s arm with a death grip, and all the frustration in Eddie’s voice melts into concern as he takes in Buck gasping for air. “Buck? What’s wrong?”
Buck frantically waves the corn dog in his other hand. Christopher and a few other people are watching him oddly, not understanding what’s going on until Buck drops the corn dog to grip his throat.
Panic fills Eddie’s eyes as he shoots out of his seat as Christopher shouts with horror, “Dad, he’s choking!”
People shoot out of their chairs with gasps at the words, and Eddie quickly pulls Buck up and spins him around. He points at someone behind him and shouts, “Call 911!”
Buck panics as he keeps choking, squeaks of air getting through while his eyes water and his vision starts filling with black spots. Eddie quickly wraps his arms around him and gives him the Heimlich maneuver for a solid few minutes, and Buck’s entire field of vision is almost completely black when he finally coughs loudly and the piece of corn dog comes flying out and lands at his feet.
People quickly break into applause around them, but Buck doesn’t care about them when both Christopher and Eddie let out a hysterical laugh of relief. Eddie’s eyes wet as he sits Buck back down in his seat while holding his hands the entire time. “Breathe, baby,” he says as Buck greedily takes in deep breaths. “Breathe. That’s it.”
“An ambulance is on its way,” a woman behind them says with sympathetic blue eyes trained on Buck.
“N-no–” Buck wheezes, eyes wide as he meets Eddie’s. “Can’t–”
“Absolutely not,” Eddie says sternly. “Christ, Buck, your lips were starting to go blue. You know you need to get checked out for that.”
“But–”
“Buck,” Christopher pipes up, visibly shaken. “Please?”
Buck kicks himself for how shaken up Christopher looks, then notices how pale Eddie is too. He’d normally tease Eddie about how much he panicked when he’s supposed to be a calm and collected medic, but he knows how scared every near-death experience Buck has makes him, so he doesn’t tease him. He breathes in deeply and rasps, “Fine.”
With Eddie and Christopher’s help, he makes it to the entrance of the fifth level. That’s when Hen, Bobby, and Chim exit the elevator with the stretcher, and Buck wishes the corn dog had taken him out.
Bobby takes one look at him, and sympathy fills his eyes. “Oh kid.”
It takes a few minutes of arguing before Eddie pushes Buck down on the stretcher and tells him to stop being so fussy, and then they’re loading him into the ambulance to get checked out by a doctor to make sure nothing’s wrong. Buck’s connected to oxygen via a nasal cannula to make up for the slightly low levels of oxygen the monitor shoots back at them, and he curses the way how this proposal also failed.
“I’m sorry,” he says miserably. Chim’s eyes flit curiously to Eddie, who lets his grim expression drop as he sighs and his shoulders sag. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Buck. It happens.”
“But you love baseball,” Buck says in lieu of saying, but I was supposed to propose and I messed it up again.
Eddie’s eyes soften. “I couldn’t care less about a stupid baseball game when my boyfriend nearly choked to death on his food.”
“What did you even choke on, Buckaroo?” Chim asks curiously.
Buck feels his cheeks flush red as he answers sullenly, “A corndog.”
Chim presses his lips together in an effort to hold back his laugh, and Hen snorts loudly from up from where she’s driving the ambulance. Eddie looks like he wants to glare at them, but Buck shoots him a crooked smile he hopes will help his boyfriend relax.
It does the trick; Eddie sighs and fondly brushes a thumb across Buck’s left cheek from where he’s sitting on the bench. “What am I going to do with you, Buck?”
Marry me? “Love me?” Buck suggests with that crooked smile. “Buy me another corn dog?”
“Absolutely no to the corn dog, but I will consider the ‘loving you’ part,” Eddie decides with a fond shake of his head. Buck beams up at him, nasal cannula stuck in his nostrils and corn dog stains on his shirt, and only mourns the proposal a little.
(He mourns it a lot when he walks into the next shift to the banner ‘Buck: 1, Corn Dog: 0’ hanging over the loft railing. He mourns it even more when Bobby pulls him in for a hug and says sympathetically, “Don’t give up, kid. I’m sure the next time will be perfect,” all while Eddie chases Chim around the loft to hit him with one of the corn dogs he brought in for fun.)
On the fourth try, Buck’s own body stops him from proposing.
He wakes up at eight in the morning on his and Eddie’s four-month anniversary in September with an excruciating bout of pain shooting up his left leg, the bitter remnants of being crushed underneath that engine six years ago.
He’s felt pain in his leg every time the weather acts up, but there’s not a cloud in sight: the skies are sunny, the birds are chirping, and the hiking trails are waiting for him and Eddie. They’ve been planning to go on this hike for a week since Buck had insisted they ‘not let their old man bones win,’ all stuff he doesn’t believe but still says so they can hike up to a cliff side and Buck can propose with a beautiful skyline behind them. Buck’s been filling his mind with positive thoughts about this being the proposal that will go right, and now he’s holding back tears of frustration from the pain and the fear that they won’t make it to the hiking trail after all.
No, Buck thinks as he grinds his teeth and sits upright in their shared bed. This has to work. This can’t be another failed proposal.
Fear turns into hope when he manages to swing his leg over the side of the bed with minimal sweating and no curses. Then he tries to stand up, and he hisses, “Fuck!” before falling to the ground, tears pooled in the corners of his eyes.
Eddie stirs above him in the bed and Buck stops breathing. There’s no sound of movement for a few seconds, and Buck thinks he’s in the clear when the bed creaks the way it does when someone gets up, and then footsteps pad on the floor until Eddie appears next to him with disheveled hair and concern-filled brown eyes.
“Buck? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You literally just fell out of bed,” Eddie points out with a frown. He kneels down and brushes Buck’s curls back, eyes scouring his face for any signs of injury. That’s when he accidentally knocks his knee against Buck’s aching leg and Buck squeezes his eyes shut, swallowing down the scream of pain.
The pieces click in Eddie’s mind and his eyes fill with sympathy. “Oh, sweetheart. Come on, let’s get you back in bed.”
“But we had plans–”
“We can go hiking another day,” Eddie assures him with a gentle smile. “Maybe next week? I promise the LA skyline will still be there for you to take pictures of.”
And that’s not really why Buck wants to go hiking so badly, but he can’t exactly tell Eddie he’s on the verge of tears because this is the fourth proposal that’ll have gone wrong in the span of almost two months. Not when he promised Eddie he’d woo him and give him the proposal he deserved.
“I can still go,” he says through grit teeth, hands gently resting on Eddie’s forearms. “We can go today.”
“Yeah, somehow I don’t really believe that,” Eddie deadpans.
The pain flares up again, this time like it’s actively trying to kill him. Buck hisses, clutching tightly onto Eddie’s forearms. He meets Eddie’s expectant gaze, and finally realizes there’s not a chance in hell that he’s making it out of this room today.
“ Fuck ,” he rasps, letting a few tears fall.
“Hey, don’t cry. It’s okay.” Eddie gently wipes his tears with his thumbs and kisses his nose, and Buck wants nothing more than to ask him to marry him. “We can still go hiking next weekend. I promise.”
And it sucks that Buck’s fourth proposal has already gone to shit, because he’d planned for it to land on the summer solstice to make the day memorable and yet here he is with a ring hidden in his jeans and no finger to put it on yet. It sucks and he wants to protest, but Eddie’s eyes are filled with so much concern and love like they were when he helped Buck with his PT back when he was first crushed by the engine that it stops him.
He doesn’t want the memory of this proposal to be tainted by Buck crying in pain for four hours straight, so he nods and flashes Eddie a weak smile. “Help me back up?”
“Of course,” Eddie says, filled with visible relief that Buck isn’t going to pretend he’s not in pain like he’s used to doing, and helps him hobble back to bed.
Once Buck’s on the bed, Eddie sits beside him and begins to tenderly massage his leg. Buck hisses with pain and squeezes Eddie’s arm, his boyfriend shooting him an apologetic look. “Sorry, I know it hurts. Just remember how good it felt after.” The pain lasts for all of two minutes before it begins to soothe out, and Buck breathes out heavily while tipping his head back against the backboard.
“There,” Eddie says once Buck’s not clenching his jaw with pain anymore. “I’ll go make a heat pack and go buy some bagels so we can eat in bed. Then we’ll watch shitty movies on your laptop all day if you don’t feel like walking to the couch. Sounds good?”
Buck’s heart swells, and meeting Eddie’s eyes, he says with the sappiest smile, “I really, really love you, Eddie.”
Eddie wrinkles his nose but his pink cheeks and his smile give away how much he loves hearing those words. Squeezing Buck’s leg one more time, he says, “I know. I love you too. But also, yes or no to the bagels?”
Buck throws a pillow at him, and he laughs loud enough to wake Christopher up and enough to make Buck feel less worried about missing this proposal opportunity.
The next idea —skydiving, of all things— gets vetoed before Buck can even put it in action and it happens so quickly that he doesn’t even have time to process it until Ravi’s openly laughing at him and Eddie’s riding away in an ambulance.
They’re in a field treating a guy who went skydiving with his girlfriend and ended up with two fractured tibias from landing wrong when she dumped him mid-jump and he burst into tears, which. Harsh.
“I didn’t mean for him to break his legs!” the woman — Tracy — says frustratedly, her pale cheeks flushed cherry red with embarrassment. “It was a heat of the moment thing! I was just so mad that he took my skydiving without telling me–!”
“I told you, it was meant to be a surprise!” her boyfriend — Jorge — shouts where he’s being rolled onto a backboard by Hen and Eddie. “I’ve been planning this proposal for weeks–!”
“Proposal?” Tracy hisses, eyes narrowed. “You were going to propose? Mid sky-dive? Are you kidding me, Jorge?!”
“It’s romantic!”
“No it’s not! It’s stupid!”
“It’s romantic!” Jorge insists, and he turns to look at Eddie. “Come on, man! If you had to propose to your girlfriend, you’d go all out, right?”
Eddie laughs awkwardly at that. “Yeah, but I definitely think there’s better ways of proposing that don’t involve potentially breaking your legs by jumping out of a plane.” When Hen gives him a look, he frowns. “What? He asked.”
Buck feels a part of him whither away at that and he distantly thinks about the skydiving instructor he’d been about to contact this week for lessons for him and Eddie.
“The hot firefighter’s right!” Tracy snaps. “You’re an idiot, Jorge!”
“Okay, fine! It may not have been the best idea but I can try again!”
“You will do no such thing! We’re done!”
“What?!” Jorge gasps as he’s strapped onto the stretcher. “You’re still dumping me? I broke my legs trying to propose!”
“Yeah, and I’m not dealing with your stupid decisions anymore! I’m riding with you to the hospital, making sure you get your idiotic ass back home, and then I’m taking the dog and leaving!”
Eddie catches Buck’s eye and tilts his head in a ‘can you believe this?’ manner that has Buck smiling despite the internal withering of his soul at the idea that Eddie would absolutely hate a skydiving proposal.
Rolling the stretcher to the ambulance, Hen disguises a laugh as a cough before turning to look at Tracy. “We’re all set to head out now if you want to come with us.”
“Oh, believe me, I do,” Tracy hisses with flushed cheeks, following Hen and Eddie into the ambulance. “I’m going to tell him how stupid this whole idea was the entire ride to the hospital!” The doors slam shut,
“Young love is so beautiful.” Ravi sniffs, wiping a fake tear away while Bobby chuckles beside him.
“I’ll say. I’ve never heard of a skydiving proposal before in my life. ” Bobby laughs and pats Buck’s shoulder. “The youth these days are certainly creative.”
“Yeah,” Buck chuckles weakly, “ so creative.”
Ravi hums, an amused grin on his face. “Even Eddie thought it was a bad proposal, and I’m pretty sure the guy is a secret romantic.” He laughs, “At least you know he hates that proposal idea for when you actually pop the question, Buck.”
“Yeah,” Buck sighs defeatedly.
Bobby catches onto the defeated tone then turns his incredulous eyes to Buck. “Buck, please tell me you weren’t actually considering this for your fifth proposal attempt.”
“Well I’m not anymore, ” Buck answers with a pout.
Ravi’s brows shoot up into his hairline. “Woah, you’ve tried to propose five times already? What happened?”
“The flash mob got sent to jail, the blimp banner burned, I choked on a corndog, my leg decided to act up like it was crushed under the engine again, and now my boyfriend hates skydiving.”
Ravi does his best to not laugh, going as far as to cover his mouth with his hands, but Buck sighs and smiles resignedly. “It’s okay. You can laugh.”
Ravi doubles over with his laughter, and Buck says hopelessly, “The universe hates me.”
Bobby sympathetically pats his shoulder and offers, “Sixth time’s the charm, Buck. It has to be.” Buck sighs, Ravi offers him his condolences and a stick of bubble-gum through his laughter, and that’s how skydiving is scrapped as a proposal option.
The sixth attempt ends with Buck lost in the woods with a dead phone, an empty water bottle and scraped calves in early November.
He’d snuck out of the house early in the morning to prepare a scavenger hunt for Eddie that would take him all across Los Angeles before ending at a cliff side overseeing the skyline at sunset. It was supposed to be fun, but halfway up the trail to the final spot, his water bottle had fallen and rolled off the trail. Buck had of course followed it, then ended up following a different hidden trail out of sheer curiosity, and ended up lost twenty minutes later when he lost it.
His phone has no service—because of course it doesn’t— and his water bottle lost most of the water in it when it fell off the original trail. All he has is his watch, and instead of wandering around to get more lost —a lesson he learned at twelve when he got lost at the mall after he got separated from Maddie— he shoots a message off to Eddie with a single ‘SOS’ and sits on a rock to wait for someone to find him.
It takes three hours for Hen and Athena to find him.
Hen sighs when she steps through the trees to get to him, finger pressed on her radio. “Cap, we found him.”
“Thank god, ” Chim’s voice crackles over the radio while Bobby sighs exasperatedly, “Copy that, Hen.”
“Hey Hen,” Buck greets with a sheepish smile. “Hey Athena.”
“Don’t you ‘Hey Athena’ me,” Athena says with a stern expression. “Do you have any idea how worried everyone was? Eddie called me in a panic because he woke up to an SOS text with nothing else. He thought you’d been kidnapped!”
Buck winces at that as he stands up, knees cracking. “I would’ve sent more but the cell service is really bad out here. I couldn’t even see if the message went through or not because my phone died like two hours ago. I didn’t mean to worry anyone.”
“God, you look like hell.” Hen sighs exasperatedly, supporting his weight as they walk back to the main trail. “What were you even doing out here?”
Buck sighs heavily. “I was trying to map out a scavenger hunt for my proposal to Eddie then ended up lost in the woods because I followed a hidden trail.”
“A proposal?” Athena raises a brow. “I half expected you two to march down to the courthouse six months ago.”
“Yeah, we’re not getting married soon,” Buck says with another sigh. At Athena’s frown, he hastily adds, “Not in a bad way! Eddie says we’re not ready for it, which is fair —I mean we’re still figuring out some paperwork for the house— so I’m trying to propose now so we can have a long engagement until we’re ready to get married.”
Hen blinks slowly. “That’s…a surprisingly good idea. But a scavenger hunt? Really?”
“What’s wrong with a treasure hunt?”
“Remember when that one guy buried millions of dollars and Eddie teamed up with you?” When Buck nods, Hen continues exasperatedly, “What makes you think Eddie would want to do a treasure hunt without you?”
Buck opens his mouth to respond, then sighs and lets his shoulders droop. “Aw, man.”
“Cheer up, Buckaroo. I’m sure the second time will be the charm.”
“Try the seventh,” Buck grumbles miserably.
“This is your seventh attempt? Are you serious? ” Hen barks out an incredulous laugh, and even Athena has to bite down on her lip to hide the laugh that’s threatening to come out of her. “What happened?”
Echoing his words from last week, Buck answers, “The universe hates me.”
They make it out of the woods with Athena’s sympathetic hand on his shoulder. His phone immediately starts ringing once he’s brought into the ambulance to be checked out by Hen and Chim for any signs of heat stroke, and with a wince, Buck puts it on speaker.
“Hey, Eds.”
“Don’t you ‘Hey Ed’s’ me,” Eddie’s voice says through the phone speaker with frustration laced in it.
“Uh-oh,” Chim stage-whispers, “someone’s in trouble! ”
“Okay, don’t be mad–”
“I’m not mad, Buck. You just scared the shit out of me. I woke up and you were gone without a single note other than an SOS text, and then you didn’t pick up the phone when I called you!” He sighs frustratedly. “What were you even doing in the woods?”
“I wanted some fresh air and you looked so peaceful sleeping that I didn’t want to bother you.” It’s a lie, of course, but Eddie doesn’t need to know all that.
“Buck,” Eddie says with fond exasperation, “I don’t think of spending time with you as a bother. You know that, don’t you?”
“Well yeah, but you just got off your fourth twenty-hour shift this week.” Buck frowns. “You need all the sleep you can get. You’re exhausted, Eddie.”
“I am not.”
“You literally called me Chris when you kissed my head last night before bed.”
“I don’t remember that,” Eddie lies, and Buck feels himself grinning. “You don’t remember because you were exhausted.”
“I–” Eddie begins, then sighs. “Fine. I was exhausted. But you still should’ve told me where you were going. And no, the single SOS message you sent does not count. I seriously thought you had been kidnapped.”
“Why would I be kidnapped?” Buck asks, nose wrinkled.
“No, I get it. With our luck, anything is possible,” Chimney says with a shrug.
“Thank you, Chim,” Eddie says over the phone. “Is he okay?”
“A little dehydrated, but otherwise fine,” Hen says with an amused huff. “But I’m sure you’ll still want to assess him yourself when he gets home so I’ll leave the judgment up to you.”
“Thank you, Hen. Buck?”
“I feel fine, Eds,” Buck breathes out exasperatedly. “Look, I’m sorry for worrying you. I promise I won’t send out any more cryptic messages when I need help and I’ll leave a note next time I go out.”
“Hm.”
Buck frowns and insists a little guiltily, “I really am sorry, Eddie.”
Eddie’s silent for a few seconds. Then he mimics Buck’s sigh and says, “Fine. Apology accepted. Now please drink some water before you come home.”
Pleased, Buck smiles. “Copy that. I’ll see you at home. Love you!” The last thing he hears is Eddie’s fond, ‘Love you too’ before he hangs up.
Hen immediately bursts out laughing and Buck throws himself back on the stretcher, for once not caring about how many different body fluids have contaminated it. Chim looks between the two of them with raised brows, his expression caught between humor and hesitation.
“What’s so funny?”
On cue, Bobby appears at the back doors of the ambulance with Athena at his side. All he does it pat Buck’s legs, and Athena says with a poorly concealed smile, “You may want to think of something a little more domestic than a scavenger hunt for a proposal.”
“You came out here to propose?! ” Chim squawks, and Buck’s loud groan is his only answer.
Buck can’t even find it in himself to care when the eighth attempt at proposing goes wrong.
It’s two in the morning the day before Christmas Eve and he’s jumping out of his Jeep with medicine in a plastic bag. As he carefully steps into the house, he’s met with a disheveled looking Eddie in a black tank top sitting at the foot of Christopher’s bed. The thirteen-year-old is curled up in bed and his cheeks are flushed pink like he’s been caught stealing cookies before dinner. He’s not laughing right now, though; he’s downright miserable if the low groans he lets out periodically are anything to go by and the small can that smells suspiciously of puke beside his bed.
“Got the medicine,” Buck says in lieu of a response as he hands the bag to Eddie, who takes it with a grateful smile and a quiet ‘thanks.’ “How’s he doing?”
Eddie sighs, worried eyes falling back on Christopher. “I think he came down with the same stomach bug Denny caught. “
“Just like Hen said,” Buck says with a frown, and Eddie nods. “Yeah. We probably should’ve known better than to dismiss it when she warned us Denny got sick right after we picked him up from their sleepover.”
“Probably.” Buck frowns as he reaches over to press the back of his hand against Christopher’s head. “How are you feeling, Chris?
“Gross,” comes the eloquent response, followed by Christopher cracking one eye open. “I hate throwing up.”
Buck manages to huff out a laugh at that. “Don’t we all?” When Christopher doesn’t even try to smile and instead looks away from him with a frown, Buck also frowns. “Hey, Eddie? Maybe we should get him something to drink. Electrolytes and all that, you know?”
“I’ll go get some water and prepare the medicine,” Eddie says before he slips out of the room, but not before ruffling Christopher’s head, earning him a halfhearted exasperated, “Dad.”
When they’re alone, Buck makes a move to sit down on the edge of the bed. He opens his mouth to speak at the same time Christopher whispers, “I’m sorry, Buck.”
“What?” Buck’s frown deepens. “What are you sorry for?”
“I ruined our trip,” Christopher mumbles guiltily, clutching onto his shirt tightly. “You wanted to propose and I ruined it.”
“Chris,” Buck says gently, “I’m not worried about that right now. I’m worried about you. ”
Christopher looks up at him at that with a glare.“But this is the eighth time you’ve tried to propose! Doesn’t that make you mad?”
“Chris, listen to me, okay? I’m not mad and you didn’t ruin anything” Buck says, flashing him a smile. “I’m not giving up on proposing just because we didn’t go away for the weekend. There’ll be other chances to propose, I promise.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Buck assures him with a chuckle. “You can even help me plan out the next one.”
“Okay. But no flashmobs.”
“Hey, your dad would’ve loved that one,” Buck protests lightly while Christopher shoots back with a displeased look, “Yeah, because he’s corny like that.” And Buck honestly can’t even argue with that, because it is true.
Christopher yawns, and Buck wants to tell him to not fall asleep before he can take his medicine, but he feels himself begin to nod off too so he doesn’t say a word when Christopher dozes off
(He’s drifting off when Eddie steps into the room and kisses Christopher’s forehead. He says something soft as he kisses Buck’s own forehead, and Buck misses it, but he feels the I love you in the soft press of those lips on his birthmark and falls asleep smiling.)
There is a ninth attempt at a proposal, but of course it ends with Buck in the hospital with a mild concussion two weeks after ringing in the New Year and Eddie calling Bobby to ask if he and Athena can keep Christopher for the night.
“A concussion?” Bobby asks, his voice laced with concern. “What happened?”
“It wasn’t my fault!” Buck says indignantly while Eddie relays with a sigh, “He got hit in the head with a volleyball.”
“A volleyball? ”
“We were taking a stroll on the beach after date night and some college kids were playing volleyball nearby. Ball hit him in the back of his head and sent him straight down to the ground.”
“Jesus,” Bobby breathes. “Are you okay, Buck?”
Buck sighs, not the least bit surprised the proposal went wrong. He knew something was going to happen. And still, he says disappointedly, “I’m fine.”
Eddie frowns and looks like he wants to say something, but then Bobby chimes in, “The kids are in Harry’s room. Do you want me to tell Christopher what happened?”
“Please,” Eddie says, eyes still on Buck. “And I know it’s a huge favor to ask, but would you and Athena mind keeping him overnight? I can drop off some pajamas as soon as the nurse gives us Buck’s discharge papers.”
“Don’t be silly, Eddie. Of course we’d love to have him tonight,” Athena says with mild amusement in her tone. “Harry was begging us to call and ask if Christopher could sleep here tonight anyway. You just focus on taking care of Buck.”
Bobby chuckles then adds, “We’ll see you in the morning. Get some rest, Buck.”
“Yeah. Night, Bobby.” The call ends, and Buck sighs deeply. “We could’ve picked Chris up.”
Eddie shakes his head. “We’re on concussion protocol tonight and I don’t want to leave him alone if we end up having to come back here. Besides, you heard Athena. The kids wanted to have a sleepover.”
“Come on, Eds. I’ve had plenty of concussions before and most of them have been a lot worse than this one. Do you really think that we’ll end up back here?”
Dryly, Eddie answers, “With our luck, who knows.”
“Hey!”
“This is, what, the third time you’ve been in the hospital in four months?” Eddie pulls out a hand to count on his fingers, “First it was the smoke inhalation from work, then it was the dehydration from getting lost in the woods, and now this?”
“It’s not like it was my fault this time!” Buck pouts. “I didn’t even see the ball until it slammed into my head.”
Eddie sighs like he’s a tired eighty-year old man, but his smile is fond and his touch is soft as he runs his fingers tenderly through Buck’s curls. “I know it’s not. I’m just tired of seeing you in the hospital.”
I’m tired of not being able to propose, Buck wants to say, but instead says, “Trust me, it’s not fun for me either.”
“You know, I think you may be onto something about the whole ‘universe screaming’ thing you always say.”
Buck raises a brow. “Yeah?”
Eddie nods. “It’s screaming at you to never leave the house and for us to stay in for date night from now on.”
“Haha, very funny,” Buck says with a roll of his eyes. Then, he grins and bats his lashes, leaning into Eddie’s touch. “I know of a few ways we could keep date night going at home.”
Snorting, Eddie gently slaps Buck’s fingers that are inching closer to his shoulder. “Flirting will get you nowhere tonight, Buckley. You have a concussion.”
“Aw,” Buck pouts, and Eddie shakes his head with a fond smile before he kisses him on the lips. It tastes like forever, and it’s the reminder that Buck needs to push forward to plan another proposal so he can keep this, well, forever.
When the tenth —and last — proposal doesn’t go right in late January, it’s the one that finally sends Buck to Maddie’s house to crash the Han-Wilson wine night, drinking himself stupid with self-pity.
“How does a water pipe break and flood the planetarium on the day I’m supposed to propose?” Buck groans, sprawled out on the couch with one leg hanging over the back of it. The ring box is digging into his side in his jacket pocket, taunting him like it does after every failed proposal.
Chim shakes his head. “There has got to be some kind of record for the amount of proposals gone wrong for one person.”
“There isn’t,” Buck says miserably. “I checked after the fifth one.”
Hen frowns. “And this was…?”
“The tenth!” Buck groans. He then sits upright in horror, wine sloshing and spilling a big stain on his jeans. “Oh god. This is a sign from the universe, isn’t it?”
“It is not a sign from the universe,” Hen says firmly at the same time Karen and Chim say loudly, “No!”
“Every single proposal I’ve tried to pull off has gone either horribly wrong or Eddie hates it!” Buck complains, sinking into the couch. “I literally choked on a corndog and the blimp burned my banner! The universe is screaming, Henrietta !” he shouts, pointing a finger at Hen. “It’s shouting, dancing, screaming –”
“–Buck–”
“–downright dying at the idea of me proposing!” Taking a sip of wine, he wipes his face and continues, “The universe orgasms every time it stops me from getting down on one knee, so I think it’s a sign.”
“Just because you’ve failed to propose a few times–“
“Uh-uh.” Buck waggles a finger back and forth, “Not a few times, Chimney Han. Ten. Times. ”
Chim frowns. “That still doesn’t mean anything, Buck. Maybe the universe is telling you to stop planning and just propose when the time feels right.”
“No, it’s telling me that proposing to Eddie is never going to happen.” Sinking further into the couch, Buck presses his lips to the rim of the wine glass, then mumbles sadly, “I’m never getting married.”
“Oh Evan.” Maddie sighs, squeezing his thigh. “You can’t give up! You have to keep trying! I can bring out the notebook and help you write down some more ideas–”
“It’s over, Mads. The universe won,” Buck replies with tears in his eyes. “It shoved another corndog down my throat and slammed another volleyball into my brain. This is the end of Evan Buckley’s Epic Proposal Plan. I hope the universe is having the biggest orgasm over it.”
“Jesus,” Chim whispers, slightly disturbed. “Please don’t say that ever again.”
Buck only says, “It is so over for me,” before proceeding to down the rest of his fourth wine glass.
Five minutes later —or maybe a few hours later, Buck can’t tell— Eddie’s stepping through the door with Chim behind him. Concern is etched into his features, and it only deepens when Buck makes eye contact with him and sighs, “Oh boy.”
“Buck?” Warm fingers find their way into his curls, and Buck nearly begins to cry again at the concern in Eddie’s beautiful brown eyes. “Why are you cradling a bottle of wine?”
“The universe is orgasming, so I’m drinking,” Buck says like it means something. Maddie and Karen don’t even try to stifle their giggles, Hen sighs, and Chim shudders. “Want some wine, Eddie?”
“No, and why is the universe…orgasming?”
Buck casts a sullen look at the notebook Maddie pulled out so everyone could brainstorm proposal ideas while he kept drinking. “It hates me.”
Eddie sighs and shakes his head. “Okay, I’ve heard enough. Come on, Buck. Let’s go home.” He pulls Buck up onto his feet, then says, “Thanks for calling, Chim.”
“Make sure he drinks some water or else that hangover is going to hit him hard tomorrow.”
“I know the drill,” Eddie says with a lopsided smile before helping Buck stumble out the door and into Eddie’s truck.
It’s a silent ride home with the exception of the radio playing Blow Me (One Last Kiss) at eleven at night. Ironic, Buck thinks as he recalls how he’d given up on planning another proposal while his friends tried to plan more for him, knowing that he’d probably want to try if he was sober. They get home, and Buck stumbles through the halls before falling face down on their bed with his clothes and shoes still on.
“The universe is insane,” he mumbles into his pillow. Eddie laughs softly above him, his hands pulling at the denim jacket Buck’s still wearing. “You’re drunk, baby. Take your jacket off so we can sleep.”
“I’m tired.”
“You’re going to be upset in the morning when you realize you never took your jacket off and put your shoes on the expensive sheets you bought,” Eddie warns, and Buck groans before sticking his arms out and mumbling with his eyes closed, “Off, please.”
“So bossy,” Eddie teases with poorly concealed amusement. He slips the jacket off Buck’s shoulders and presses a kiss between his shoulder blades through the thin fabric of his shirt. “Kick your shoes off for me. I’ll go put them in the hallway.”
Buck kicks his shoes off then listens as Eddie shuffles around the room picking them up with the jacket in his hands. It’s honestly not fair how Eddie takes care of him even when he’s drunk beyond belief and acting like an idiot; not because he doesn’t deserve it, but because it makes Buck want to marry him even more and it sucks that he’s tried and failed to do that ten times in the span of three months.
“ ‘S not fair,” Buck mumbles as he drifts off to sleep.
“What’s not fair?”
“The way you treat me like ‘m your husband when I can’t even propose right,” Buck answers, and misses Eddie’s sharp intake of air. “Next time…I hope….”
He falls asleep before he can finish the thought.
(When he wakes up in the morning and pukes for about thirty minutes because he’s not twenty-two and invincible after drinking all night anymore, Eddie’s there to rub his shoulders and run his fingers through his curls. He doesn't remember a single thing that happened after telling everyone the universe didn’t want him to propose, and he thinks it might be better that way.
After he’s done throwing up, Eddie asks with slightly pink cheeks and an odd glint in his eyes, “So, what were you talking about with everyone last night?”
Buck answers with a nervous laugh, “Nothing, Eds. We just got carried away talking about how big the kids are getting.” He thinks he imagines the flash of disappointment that flickers through Eddie’s eyes before he continues, “Please come to the next wine night to stop me from drinking myself stupid again.”
Eddie smiles softly and presses a kiss to his shoulder before saying, “Of course. Always, Buck.” They brush their teeth, make breakfast, Buck falls more in love with Eddie with each breath he takes and feels bits of fear settle deep in his bones that tell him that maybe the universe is telling him he doesn’t get to keep this. Then Eddie kisses him, Christopher calls them gross with whipped cream on his nose from the waffles Buck made and he swears he’ll fight the universe with his bare hands to keep it forever.)
Two weeks later on Valentine’s Day, Buck finds himself sitting at the station’s kitchen table with Bobby’s laptop opened to dozens of tabs on proposal ideas.
“See anything yet?” Bobby asks from the kitchen where he’s making a fruit smoothie. There’s a pink heart sticker pinned to his badge, a token of love from Jee when she and Maddie stopped by to bring everyone Valentine's Day cupcakes.
“Well there’s the typical restaurant proposal, but I’d probably choke on a garlic knot or something trying to propose there.” Buck sighs defeatedly. “I don’t know, Bobby. Should I just wing it and propose in our kitchen?”
“I thought you wanted to make the proposal a whole big thing,” Bobby says with an amused smile.
“I did, but I think that’s what’s been sabotaging my whole plan. I might just go with the candlelit path from the driveway to the yard and pray it doesn’t rain.” Buck sighs deeply. “I just hope he’s not disappointed by it.”
An odd look crosses Bobby’s face at that, his mouth twitching upwards at that. “That sounds like a sweet idea, Buck. I’m sure Eddie will love it.”
“You think so?”
“Eddie’s not agreeing to marry you because of your proposal, Buck. He’s agreeing to marry you because he loves you and wants to spend the rest of his life with you.” Bobby chuckles lightly. “He’ll say yes no matter how you propose. I bet he would’ve said yes if you’d proposed even before you started dating.”
Buck blushes at that and smiles. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Speaking of Eddie,” Hen pipes up from where she’s sitting across from him, “Where is he?”
Chim frowns as she looks up from his phone beside her. “He’s not still bummed about having to spend Valentine’s Day in the station, is he?”
“He’s not really bummed about it.” Buck snorts. “He was just disappointed we couldn’t spend it at home. I told him I’d make him a five-course dinner tomorrow to make up for it and I think it cheered him up a little.”
“On that note, how are you handling today, Buck?” Hen asks with an amused head tilt. “I know it can’t be easy spending your first Valentine’s Day working.”
Buck shrugs in a what-can-you-do motion. “I’m more disappointed in myself for not having proposed already. I really thought we would’ve been engaged by now, but apparently I was wrong.”
“That’s why you have to keep trying,” Bobby says with a kind smile. “I’m proud of you for not giving up after the first few failed attempts. It’s nice to see how committed you are to marrying Eddie one day.”
Buck salutes him lazily. “Committed is my middle name.”
“I thought it was Firehose,” Chim says with a loud pop of his gum. Buck shoots him a grin and says, “A man can have two middle names, can’t he?”
“No,” three voices chime at once, all with varying degrees of wariness.
Buck’s about to tell them that he was joking because he’s nothing but a very devoted to worshiping his monogamous boyfriend when his phone pings with a message. Curious, Buck slides the tab open.
He has to bite down a laugh when he reads the message: Want to make out with me on the roof so Bobby can’t see and fire us for public indecency? Then, like a smitten fool, he grins and shoots back, The day I say no to that assume I’ve been replaced by a clone. Eddie hearts the message, then Buck makes a show of standing up and cracking his knuckles with his lips curled into an innocent grin.
“You know, I think it’s time for me to take a break. I’ll be back for dinner in a bit, Cap!” Hen snorts as he speed walks to the staircase that leads to the roof, and Bobby sighs while Chim shouts, “You’re not fooling anyone!”
He misses their shared grins as he jogs into the staircase and up the stairs to the roof. With a grin, he steps through the door; his mouth is already forming Eddie’s name when he sees him and promptly goes completely still with his hand still on the door handle.
There’s a trail of lit candles burning brightly, forming a path with hundreds of rose petals strewn around them, some in the shape of large hearts. There’s fireworks exploding from the distance, so far that he can’t hear them but can see their pink and red shine, and there’s a backdrop set up with dozens of golden lights twinkling and their initials are shining in the silver thread they’ve been stitched into the thin fabric of the backdrop.
Eddie’s standing there in the middle of the circle the candlelit path makes, and he’s wearing his typical uniform but the moon and the candles cast a warm glow on his soft features. He’s clean shaven, his hair is fluffy like it was when they left the house this morning, and there’s love in his eyes that has lived there for years before they finally decided to give into the inevitable intertwining of their souls and crash of their lips. But what really takes Buck’s breath away is the little blue velvet box gripped tightly in his left hand that looks exactly like the one Buck’s been hiding for over six months and the nervous smile on his face.
“ Eddie, ” he breathes, hands trembling and he walks shakily up to join him, “What–?”
“I lied,” Eddie blurts out, cheeks rosy once Buck’s less than three feet across from him. Buck freezes in his spot. “I lied the day everyone said we should get married and I told you we weren’t ready for it. The truth is that I knew from the moment we first kissed up here in May that I wanted to marry you. I just didn’t think you were serious when you asked me to let you propose. I honestly thought it was just a joke.”
When Buck slightly opens his mouth to protest, Eddie huffs with amusement. “I realized I was wrong back in December when I heard Christopher say the Big Bear vacation we didn’t get to go on was the sixth proposal you had planned since that conversation up here.” He kicks his lips. “I talked to him last week. I didn’t know you planned ten proposals for me.”
Finding his voice, Buck says weakly, “Something always goes wrong every time I try to propose.”
Eddie huffs out a laugh at that. “I know, baby. I was there for the volleyball incident.”
“You knew that I was trying to propose?”
Nodding, Eddie says a little ruefully, “I didn’t want to ruin your plans. I know how much you wanted to propose.”
Buck’s eyes widen at that. “I would never joke about something like that, Eddie. You’re it for me. You know you are.”
“I know.” Eddie smiles, his cheeks rosy. “I also know that you’ve been running yourself ragged trying to give me this huge, extravagant proposal. So, I need you to forgive me, but I decided to take things into my own hands.”
Buck chokes back a sob when Eddie gets down on one knee and opens the small velvet box to reveal a silver band with small diamonds going all around the bottom edge. They glisten under the candlelight, just like Eddie’s eyes as he stares directly into Buck’s blurry blue ones.
“Buck,” he starts off strongly, “All my life, I’ve never had someone who loves me the way you do. And I think I know why.” Shakily, he says with tears in his eyes, “I never thought I’d ever have a best friend, but I never imagined that I would…that I would find the love of my life in my best friend –” Eddie breaks into a quiet sob and Buck wipes his tears away despite having tears of his own in his eyes.
“Okay, Eddie. It’s my turn,” Buck whispers. He wipes his tears with the back of his hand and pulls out the velvet box he’s been carrying for months in his pocket. With a quiet laugh, he gets down on one knee and opens the box to reveal the band with the large diamond in the center that immediately has Eddie’s eyes pooling with tears once more.
With a wide smile, Buck says, “I’ve been searching for a place to call home my whole life, but I didn’t find it until I found you.” Breathing shakily, he continues, “That’s not right. I didn’t find it until you found me , then let me drive you and Christopher home after an earthquake and let me stay for dinner. You opened the door to your home for me six years ago and never closed it. You gave me your whole heart and gave me a place to run to when I wanted to escape my own thoughts, and you gave me a shoulder to lean on through some of the worst moments of my life. You gave me the peace that comes with finally coming home after a long day of work; you gave me a family. And I really, really want to keep this family, so. Eddie Diaz, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” Eddie says with a wide smile through the few tears that escaped his eyes, “Of course I’ll marry you, corazón. ”
Buck positively beams at him and wastes no time slipping the band on Eddie’s left ring finger. Eddie laughs and wipes his tears away before slipping Buck’s engagement band on his left ring finger, and without wasting a breath, Buck pulls him onto his feet and presses their lips together in a kiss that tastes like the promise of a bigger house with a pool in the yard, of braiding hair before kindergarten? of sharing the same bed for the rest of their lives and growing gray together until their knees give out and they’re forced to watch over grandkids on their front porch.
“I love you,” Buck says when they break the kiss, pressing their foreheads together. “I love you so much —how did you even plan this, oh my god–”
“–I asked Hen and Chim to help me sneak supplies in before we left the house this morning and asked Bobby to let me be man behind. I also got Ravi to set off some fireworks from a safe distance where we can’t hear them as much,” Eddie answers with a million-watt smile with rosy cheeks. “I love you, Buck. I love you so much more than you can imagine.” And Buck laughs and laughs because they beat the odds and he’s finally engaged to the love of his life.
“Congratulations!” Dozens of voices call out, and both Buck and Eddie jump when they turn around.
Bobby’s smiling widely with a bottle of sparkling cider in his hands and disposable wine glasses in Athena’s, the woman standing beside him in her civilian clothing and smiling widely. Hen’s recording them with her phone and Karen’s cheering voice can just be made out from the tiny speakers. Chim’s doing a poor job of hiding his tears and Maddie’s openly crying with a proud smile on her face. Pepa’s there too with a proud smile on her face, and Christopher is cheering loudly with an excited flush on his cheeks and his applause. In his pocket, Buck’s phone buzzes, and the message from Ravi reads: congratulations!!!! it’s about TIME!!!! with a picture of him blowing up Valentines Day fireworks from the beach miles away from the station.
Everyone is celebrating, there’s glasses of Martinelli going around, and it all hits Buck that this is real. He can’t help the way he snickers and buries his head into Eddie’s shoulder, laughing loudly.
“Buck?”
“It only took you one try to propose,” Buck manages to say through his laughter. Eddie snorts, then he falls into loud laughter, and they laugh and laugh while their loved ones pretend sparkling cider is champagne to celebrate the engagement that’s been a long time coming. They’re up on the station roof at eight at night with the Valentine’s Day fireworks exploding above them, and everything is perfect because they’re in love and engaged like their story was always meant to go.