joelle ✿

Buck: 9-1-1. Please help.

Maddie: What happened? Are you okay?

Buck: Yes—physically, at least. Emotionally, unwell. Know how I call Theo Spider-man? Well, he jumped off the couch and scraped his knee trying to prove he was him.

Maddie: Aw, poor Theo. He had to learn eventually. So, why are you calling if it’s just a scrape? Need some advice?

Buck: We need you to clean and bandage Theo’s knee.

Maddie: Why can’t you do it?

Buck: Because I’m too busy consoling Eddie.

Maddie: …And why does he need consoling?

Eddie, sobbing: Theo looked so upset after it happened! I can’t stand when he frowns! It’s so sad!

Maddie: …I’m on my way. I’ll bring my first aid kit for Theo and emergency chocolate for Eddie.

11K words | explicit misunderstandings | coming out | accidental outing | getting together | first kiss | first time

feel what it's like to be new [on AO3]

Buck isn't the first person he tells. That's Chris, and he stands by that one. He's practicing honesty with his kid. It doesn't come easy to him, but he tries. Buck would understand. Buck will understand, when Eddie tells him, which he will.

Chris is the first living person he tells. Technically, actually, the first person he tells is Shannon.

The cemetery she's buried in is a nice place. Full of trees, green grass, well-maintained. He tries to come here with Chris at least once a month, and so far, at least, Chris hasn't balked, hasn't complained about spending a few hours eating a picnic lunch or dinner or takeout picked up on the way and talking to a woman who'll never talk back again.

This time, Eddie comes alone. He brings a batch of coyotas wrapped in paper—Shannon's favorite of the sweets his abuela used to send them. She always liked Shannon better than his parents did, part of the ongoing battle of wills between her and his mom. He'll stop by her grave today, too, kiss his fingers to the cold stone and imagine that she knows he's here. For now, he sits cross-legged in the grass, in the bright warm hum of a summer morning, facing his wife's headstone.

Ex-wife, he imagines her saying to him, dry and laughing. They never did get to have that ending, the one they both survived.

Eddie: Oh, you, easily.

Buck: …I was going to say Pedro Pascal.

Eddie: Oh.

Buck: Yeah—wait, you would go out with me?

Eddie: Well. Depends how interested Michael is in me.

Buck: Eddie, wait, we can’t just gloss over—

Eddie: But also he doesn’t make your cookies, so.

Buck: What is happening right now.