#ada.writes

Buck was pulled from the brink of sleep by the sound of the bathroom door closing slowly, a slight creaking from the hinges traveling the short distance down the hallway to the bed. He would have to remember to oil them soon, before Eddie and Christopher officially moved back in. He knew the sound would annoy Eddie every time the door was used, but he also knew Eddies proficiency with tasks that would fall under the job description of a handyman. Buck had a sneaking suspicion if he hadn't brought plaster, buckets of paint and himself over a few years ago, the walls around him would sport a mosaic of dents made by the swings of a baseball bat, accentuated by dents made by Eddie in an attempt to cover the preexisting ones up by himself.

He would also have to remember to replace the blackout blinds he removed from the bedroom. Eddie liked to fall asleep surrounded by impenetrable darkness, once likening it to being shrouded in a cocoon of safety, one where he knew he would not be perceived or noticed. Buck preferred only pulling the curtains close for privacy, allowing a hint of light from the city outside to hunt and warp the shadows in the room at night. He found that watching the twisting display of muted, faint light dancing around the room was strangely meditative and calming.

Of course, Eddie hadn't yet asked to be allowed to move back in, and would without question offer to ask Pepa for a bed to sleep in, as to not impose on Bucks new home. Buck, naturally, would reject the offer. He wanted, needed, this house to be the Diaz residence. It would return a sliver of normalcy to his life to have them living where they belong, here on South Bedford Street. A kind of normalcy he desperately craved. The last few months had made him feel like of someone had pushed his sense of security and stability off a table, breaking and scattering them all over the floor like some sick kind of emotional jigsaw puzzle. The thought of Eddie and Chris safe and sound under this roof felt like a few fragile pieces had been picked up and placed back in their rightful spot. Like the first tentative attempts at rebuilding, a couple of border pieces or three slotting into place before the real work with revealing the image in the center can begin.

Buck heard the bathroom door softly open back up. Instead of Eddie heading back to the couch, he heard quiet, soft feet shuffling down the hallway towards his-for-now-soon-to-again-be-Eddies-bedroom. The door was, as always, left slightly open. Buck did not like to close it at night, the sight of solid wood sitting flush against the surrounding wall awakening the part of his brain where memories of breaking it down had been laid to rest. Eddie entered the bedroom, expressions of exhaustion and uneasiness on his face illuminated by the soft glow sneaking past the curtains.

"Hey."

"Hey," Buck echoed.

Eddie let his gaze roam around the room, but did not move from where his feet had stopped. When his eyes had made a full turn around the space he lifted his hand and carefully skimmed the pads of his fingers over the doorframe. The action came across almost as if he was apologizing to the room for not having been around. With a small sigh he turned back to facing Buck.

"Can I…" Eddies voice trailed of as he motioned towards the bed. Buck gave a nodded consent and lifted the side of the comforter closest to the door up, feeling the mattress dip slightly as Eddie slid in to the unoccupied space in the bed. An unused pillow received a halfhearted kneading in order to mold it just right, before he twisted around to lay on his side, facing Buck. Eddie was tired and deep in thought, that much was undeniably clear from the expressions on his face. Buck stayed quiet, wondering if it was the memories a bending rebar and falling concrete that was keeping him awake, or something else. He wasn't going to ask. He needed to be able to trust that what Eddie wanted him to know, he would share, freely and willingly. Even if it took some time for him to work up the nerve to open up.

”You almost died. Again,” Eddie eventually mumbled, almost to quiet for Buck to hear.

'Oh,' Buck thought.

"But I didn't," he whispered in return.

"I wasn't there. Again."

'If you had been by my side, we'd both have been buried under concrete and rubble as the building fell,' Buck lamented to himself, deciding against voicing that belief out loud.

"But you came," he murmured instead.

"Almost too late."

Buck hummed dismissively. "You came just in time. Right when we needed you."

Eddie regarded him quietly, eyes almost black in the faint light. He then snaked his right hand out from where it was resting under the comforter and tapped a soft bah-thump with his fingers into Bucks chest.

"I restarted your heart once," Eddie laid his hand to rest over the body part in question, fingers splayed open. "I don't want to have to do that again."

Bucks guts twisted at the words. After a silent minute, he nodded softly and put his own hand on top of Eddies, loosely lacing their fingers together.

A few more moments slipped by in the dark to the sound of their breaths harmonizing, binding them together. In, out, lungs expanding, lifting the intertwined hands forming a shield on his chest, keeping his heart from harm.

"Can I hold you?" Buck pleaded in a whisper.

Eddie nodded and shuffled closer while rolling into his stomach, placing his head on Bucks shoulder instead of on the pillow. Buck in turn snaked his free hand around Eddies torso, leaving it to rest just above his waist.

They would stay curled up like that for the rest of the night, settling into sleep and each other, Buck and Eddie, side by side. Eddie, left arm tucked under a pillow, nose buried in the dip under Bucks right clavicle. His right arm slung across Bucks chest, hand still resting in between Bucks left palm and heart. Buck on his back, right arm pressing Eddie close in a half-embrace, fingers tracing invisible figures into the shirt covering the back underneath them.

A flicker of light swept across the ceiling above them, accompanied by the muffled sound of a passing car on the street outside.

Eddies slow breaths against his shoulder, muddied by just a hint of a snore, revealed to Buck that he had finally fallen asleep.

Buck turned his face into the soft hair covering Eddies head, and inhaled slowly. Eddie had spent less time among the rubble, and was not covered with as much building-based dusty dandruff as Buck. He held his breath, reveling in the sensation, letting the faint scent of Eddie settle in his nose and lungs, before letting the trapped air free. He buried his nose deeper into Eddies hair, careful not to wake him as he ghosted a kiss over the soft skin below the hairline. The sensation against his lips was borderline addictive.

”…I think I might be falling in love with you,” Buck whispered gently. Sacred, hushed words, not meant to reach beyond the confines of the bed.

'I think I might be falling in love with you.' Buck repeated the words to himself in his mind.

His confession had been met only by the soft, huffed exhales of a dreamless slumber. His words were not loud enough to rustle Eddie from his rest, but that was all well, he would tell him again when the time was right.

'I think I might be falling in love with you.'

Simply releasing the words into the world had placed another piece of the metaphorical puzzle back on the table, and that was all he needed for now. Picking the pieces back up, one by one, in no rush. The jigsaw would be completed when Buck had begun healing and was ready to see what the image depicted. He hummed contently as the soothing warmth of fulfillment spread inside his body, scabbing over a few of the wounds this year had inflicted on his soul.

'I think I might be falling in love with you. I think I might be falling in love with you. I think I might be falling in love with you.' The words looped again and again and again in his head like a chant.

'I think I might be falling in love with you.'

Another passing car sent a pale beam of light dancing across the ceiling above.

'Where are you?'

'Right in front of you.'

Fill for the squares monster and stalking.

Fill for the squares "Good girl.", Spanking and Rimming.

Fill for the square Body Worship