66. "i want you to meet my family"
it seems like a great idea all the way until the night before, when eddie suddenly isn't so sure. he tries to swallow down his doubts, because he doesn't want buck to think it's about him, but—it's buck. of course he figures out that eddie is on the verge of spiraling.
"you're about to freak out, aren't you?" he says, settling next to eddie on the couch.
"i'm... not not about to freak out," eddie allows.
"do you want to call it off?" buck asks, no judgement in his voice. "adriana's gonna be here for, what, two days? i can easily stay with maddie and chim for that time."
and eddie knows he means it, and he loves buck for it. eddie knows that if he asked, buck would go to maddie's and lay low the entire time adriana is visiting, so that eddie could keep letting his sister think he's straight by way of lie of omission.
but despite the not not freaking out, it isn't actually what he wants.
"buck, no," eddie says, reaching for buck's hand. "you live here, i'm not gonna kick you out just because i'm a little nervous."
"it's not kicking out if i volunteer to go," buck offers, squeezing eddie's hand.
"it's not even about that," eddie says. "i don't want you to go. i want you to be here. i want you to meet my family."
"technically, i've already met them," buck points out. "after the special deployment."
"you know that's not what i mean."
"i know," buck says softly. "if it's really what you want, eddie, of course. just—i'm not gonna hold it against you, you know? if you change your mind."
"i'm not gonna change my mind," eddie says firmly. "i might—i might freak out about it a little, but i'm not gonna change my mind. you're the best thing that's ever happened to me—except for christopher, obviously—"
"—obviously," buck agrees.
"—and i want my family to know that."
"okay then," buck says, and leans over to kiss him.
eddie picks up adriana on the way back from taking christopher to school, and she doesn't even blink when eddie opens the door and shows her into the kitchen where buck is still finishing up breakfast.
"hey, buck," adriana says, accepting the mug of coffee buck hands her and sitting at the table. then she looks back at eddie. "figured it out, did you?"
"please," adriana says. "i saw the way you two were looking at each other that time at mom and dad's. it was just a matter of time. big sisters know these things, you know."
"as for you," adriana says, turning back to face buck. "has anyone given you the shovel talk yet?"
buck grins. "carla, pepa, abuela, christopher, half of the 118..."
"okay, good," she says. "then i don't need actually pretend to be threatening this early in the morning, but consider my name added to that list."
"will do," buck says, bright and cheerful, and eddie blinks.
"what—buck, why are you so happy about multiple people threatening your life?"
"people only give shovel talks when there's a potential for real hurt," buck says. "so it's like... a tacit acknowledgement that this is serious."
"yeah, pretty much," adriana agrees, and snags the remaining half of buck's pancake.
"i could have just told you it's serious," eddie says. "without needing to threaten anybody."
"where's the fun in that?" buck asks, and adriana points her fork at him in agreement.
eddie just shakes his head and ducks down to drop a kiss on buck's forehead on his way to pour himself a cup of coffee.
the idea of telling his parents still stresses him out, but at least now he knows for sure he's got adriana in his corner.
send me a prompt from this list of ways to say i love you!