thought of buck tentatively reaching out to margaret and philip for them to meet theo because the only times they've wanted to connect with their kids is through maddie's pregnancies, and they do come, but when they see him philip inhales sharply and goes 'oh, he looks just like--' and buck knows he wasn't about to say his name. and the two of them keep tearing up looking at theo and at some point margaret excuses herself and philip gives buck an apologetic look before following and he just hears '-- it's just so hard' from the hallway and feels a little tug on his pant leg and looks down to see theo watching him, and he forces a smile on his face and takes theo away before he can feel even an ounce of what buck does.
and the two of them are polite afterwards but they keep making little comments about how lucky buck is (as if it's lucky that theo lost his parents. as if it's lucky that buck had to see two friends die in front of him), how he needs to treasure theo (in a tone of voice like they don't think buck has ever known how to treasure anything properly in his life). in every single word, every interaction, buck can feel it unspoken in the air: it's not fair. it's not fair that you have him. it's not fair that you get--
they can't ever quite look directly at theo. they look at buck even less. buck doesn't protest when they both cut the trip short early. he scoops theo up after the door closes behind them, presses his face into his hair.
'they seemed sad,' theo comments, a little curious, a little empathetic. plenty of people have talked about how much theo reminds them of buck. buck has told plenty of people about how much theo reminds him of connor and kameron. his parents saw none of this.
buck rocks theo a little in his arms. 'they are,' he agrees. 'but not because of you, bud.'
theo nods, like he trusts buck's word implicitly. 'okay,' he says. then: 'are they coming over again?'
a little hum, then a woosh as theo flies his toy plane through the air. he doesn't like toy cars yet. his parents brought him a set of car figurines, then looked at buck accusingly when theo had burst into tears when he saw them, as if buck hadn't told them about the accident already.
'nuh-uh,' theo says, and the easy way he says it makes buck smile, despite everything.
'okay,' buck says. 'then i don't think so, spider-man. because we're a package deal, right? united front.'
and he doesn't. neither of them mention another visit again.
