Fic idea: Buck and Eddie make one last extremely unhinged attempt to pretend to themselves and each other that they are not in love, by dating other people. Aka Eddie gets a girlfriend and Buck of course follows by getting a girlfriend of his own, for completely unrelated reasons of course. It all comes to a head on some type of 4th of july party, they are all standing on a backyard surrounded by their extended fire family. Chris sitting with Denny near the snacks table. Theo running around giggling with Jee. It's a happy day. The fireworks start and Buck and Eddie stand side by side, looking up at the show, their shoulders brushing because they always stand a little too close. That's just normal, it's them. Then girlfriend 1 and 2 join them, slothing into their respective man's arms to look up at the show together. It's a nice romantic setting, of course they'd be cuddling their partner and looking up at the sky together. It's good and normal and expected. Except... It doesn't feel quite right anymore. It never does for some reason. Eddie looks so his side, taking in Buck's profile. How he can still see his birthmark, shiny and beautiful under the glowing fireworks, how his biceps look both massive and so incredibly soft in that white cotton shirt that Eddie bought him last week, how they curl around his girlfriend holding her to him. Eddie's heart is beating in his chest in a way that has nothing to do with the booms craking above them. There's a beautiful woman curled into his chest, he can feel her nice flowery dark curls tickling his chin, feel her slight curves resting against his whole front. It should be enough. There's a once a year show above him, but he can't take his eyes off of his best friend. Buck must have felt his eyes on him because then he is turning his face away from the glowing lights to look back at Eddie. And oh he is so beautiful like this. His soft blond curls that match both their kids almost perfectly, his glinting blue eyes that are always so fond when looking back at Eddie. He doesn’t know what it means, doesn't know quite what to do with all this swirling inside him at the sight of his best friend in the world, the one he trusts more than anything, his partner and confidant, his Buck smiling softly at him, in this backyard surrounded by their family, holding the people they should both be focusing on. Instead, Eddie untangles one arm from it's position and drops it to his side between them, opening his hand towards Buck. Buck looks like it for a long moment, an unreadable expression on his face before he too untangles his arm from around his girlfriend and instead laces his fingers through Eddie's. Eddie gives him a watery smile, filled with all the things he doesn't know how to say and squeezes lighly. They turn to continue watching the fireworks, now with this physical link between them. It makes no sense, it's messy and probably unfair to all parties involved but Eddie is not letting go of something that for once feels inexplicably right. Buck squeezes back.
