#tuserel

“Are you sure you can do it?” Eddie asks from the kitchen as he’s mixing the cake batter.

“Of course, I’m not that clums- shit.” Buck’s voice is heard from the living room.

“… Come again?”

“It’s… A minor setback, nothing too severe.” Buck stares at the ripped letter ‘A’ in his hands and sighs to himself. “Nothing a piece of tape can’t fix.”

He takes a piece of tape, and the letter is as good as before. As long as you don’t look the back of it closely. He hangs the letter in its place and hums in content, as the letters spell out the greeting.

Eddie chuckles at Buck’s adorable clumsiness and checks the recipe again for the correct order of adding the ingredients – he can’t mess this up, it needs to be perfect.

“Woah, was there an explosion or why is everything covered in flour?” Buck giggles as he arrives to the kitchen and gives Eddie a quick side hug. Eddie smiles fondly and replies.

“It was a struggle to open the bag, and then the flour just flew around, that’s all.”

“And that’s why people use containers to store the flour.”

“But we ran out of flour the last time, so I had to open the bag now.” Eddie sighs and rolls his eyes playfully. Something about Eddie using the word ‘we’ makes Buck’s skin tingle in a good way.

Eddie’s words bring back a memory from their last baking session.

They made chocolate chip cookies, or well, they made cookies that had some chocolate in them because they devoured almost all of the needed chocolate while baking. That, and the first batch burned because the two were too busy fighting over the perfect size of a cookie.

Eddie said that small, bite-sized cookies were the best, while Buck was rambling about the perfect big cookies that were still a bit soft from the center. The timer was on, but it was too late, as the smell of burnt cookies filled the whole house, and soon the fire alarm started beeping.

“Now look, if these were bigger, they wouldn’t have burned.” Buck says as he takes the batch out of the oven. Eddie rolls his eyes at him.

“They would be burned.”

The second batch didn’t burn, and the cookies tasted good, no matter the size.

“Ahh, okay, explanation accepted.” Buck grins after the memory in his mind ends. “I’ll put some music on, okay?”

Eddie hums in approval as Buck searches for his phone and connects it to the speakers. Soon Taylor Swift starts to play softly in the background.

“I’ll put the cake in the oven, could you put the flour in the container?” Eddie asks while pouring the batter in the cake pan.

“On it.” Buck responds and takes the container from the cabinet, waving it in front of Eddie playfully before taking the bag of flour in his hands.

He pours the flour gently, but as if the universe wanted to play with him, the flour puffs out so there’s a huge pile of it on the counter, beside the container. Buck freezes for a second until he hears Eddie snickering – he doesn’t even try to hide it! Buck shoots him a glare.

“Don’t.” Buck says and tilts his head at him. “Not one word.” He lifts his index finger to make his words more effective. Eddie’s eyes sparkle as he smiles widely at Buck’s behavior. Then he puts the cake pan in the oven, setting the timer so that it won’t burn (hopefully).

“I thought you said we store flour on the containers, not on counters.”

“Alright, that’s it, I told you-” Buck takes a handful of flour and threatens to throw it on Eddie.

“Hey hey hey, whoaaa, let’s not, the place has to be clean for the party!” Eddie raises his hands as if he’s surrendering.

“The place is covered in flour already.” Buck says and raises his brow, challenging him.

“It was only one joke, I won’t joke about it anymore, okay? Please do not throw that, it’s enough work to clean this mess…”

Buck tries to put the flour from his hand back on the counter, but it has already fallen on the floor, covering his feet.

“I’m not throwing it around just because of the party. Don’t think I wouldn’t cover you in flour otherwise.” Buck tries to sound serious, but his lips curve into a smile which ruins the serious image.

“As much as I’d like to have a food fight with you right now, let’s just clean this up before the cake is ready.” Eddie says and points at Buck’s feet. “And don’t you dare move with those flour-feet of yours before I get the dustpan!”

“Romeo, save me, I’ve been feeling so alone, I keep waiting for you, but you never come!” Buck sings along to the song playing in the background while Eddie searches for the dustpan

And that starts their mini concert featuring some twirls and fond smiles at each other.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling twenty-twoooooooooo”

“… Yeah, stick to firefighting, bud.” Buck tries to hide his chuckle as he jokes about Eddie’s attempt on a high note.

“What?!” Eddie puts his hand on his chest and feigns being offended. “You think I enjoy your shower concerts while you’re belting out some Ariana??”

“Oh I know you do, you love my golden vocals!”

The cake timer goes off, letting Eddie escape the situation. Now Buck doesn’t get the satisfaction of him admitting that he likes to hear him sing in the shower.

Eddie takes the cake on the counter and checks that it’s cooked.

“I’ll start whipping the cream, could you take the strawberries?” Eddie asks while taking the cream and strawberries from the fridge.

Buck hums while walking beside Eddie, taking the strawberries with him.

“Should we put some inside the cake?” Buck asks while cutting the berries in half.

“Hmm, maybe yeah.”

Buck takes one piece and throws it in his mouth.

“Hey, don’t do that or we won’t have any left for the cake! Remember how it went with the chocolate last time?” Eddie says jokingly.

“It’s important to test the taste, so that we know if they’re good or if they’ll ruin the cake.” Buck explains while pouting. Eddie rolls his eyes at Buck’s reasoning. Buck has a point, but he also has a big appetite, so it wouldn’t take long for all the berries to be gone.

“Here, take one.” Buck holds a strawberry near Eddie’s lips, urging him to open his mouth. He opens his mouth, the strawberry tastes sweet.

“Your logic sounds like you’d need to taste each strawberry to know if they’re good or not.”

“I could do that, if you’d like.” Buck smirks in response. A competitive spark lights in Eddie’s eyes.

“Don’t you dare, or you’ll-”

“Sleep on the couch? That’s an old one, babe.” Buck looks so smug that Eddie would like to wipe that smirk off with a slap… of his lips against his, maybe. The nickname makes his cheeks burn.

“… You’re lucky I love you.” Eddie says while rolling his eyes. “Besides, I was going to say that you’ll be running to the store.”

“Yeah, sure, dear.” Buck hums and glances at blushing Eddie. He loves to press his buttons, it’s cute to see him blush at his words.

Eddie glances at Buck. He loves his flirtatious teasing, even though he might say he doesn’t, but Buck knows it. If the cake was for them, he wouldn’t mind if Buck ate all the strawberries, but as it was for someone else, they needed to be careful. Maybe he should have bought two boxes of strawberries, one for Buck and the other for the cake – well, next time he’d remember to buy double the needed amount.

Eddie cuts the cake and starts filling it, Buck slices rest of the strawberries and slides the cutting board closer to the cake. They work together and assemble the slices carefully in, but as Eddie tries to put the other half on top of the lower one, it breaks apart. Eddie’s eyes widen as he sees the cake pieces on the counter. Then he closes his eyes, and Buck can see him counting to ten in his head to calm down.

“It’s okay, we’ll cover it with the cream and it’s okay.” Buck says as Eddie puts the pieces in place.

Eddie sighs and starts frosting the cake with a palette knife and Buck follows his work closely.

“Could you make it look smoother? I don’t trust myself with this.” Eddie says and hands the palette knife in Buck’s direction. Buck shakes his head.

“No, it looks great. I can make the swirls on top of it, though.” Buck takes the piping bag and fills it with cream. He’s focusing on the cake fully as he makes small circles with the cream.

Eddie smiles as he sees Buck sticking his tongue out in concentration.

“You can put the strawberries on the swirls, and then we’ll put them in between the swirls too.” Buck tells him and he follows.

“I’ve got a blank space, baby…” Eddie sings quietly while adjusting the strawberries neatly.

“And I’ll write your name.” Buck continues the line with a smile.

x x x x

After the cake is done and in the fridge, Buck and Eddie go to the living room to check if all the preparations are done or not.

“The decorations look… Not enough. What are we missing?” Eddie says while crossing his arms in front of his chest. He’s looking at the letters spelling out the congratulations, the streamers and the funny photobooth items to use in photos.

“You’re right. But what is it?” Buck wonders and sits down on the couch. Eddie joins him and furrows his brows.

“We bought everything on the list, and we checked it twice.” Eddie says and rubs his temples.

“Now I know what we’re missing!” Buck suddenly gasps and hits his thigh in realization. “The balloons!” He dashes out to get the red balloons from the cabinet.

They start blowing up the balloons, which should have been started earlier, because they were feeling dizzy pretty soon, and there were a lot of balloons to be filled.

One by one, the members of the firefamily arrive with all kinds of treats and gifts, ready to party their hearts out.

“Glad you’re here, we were about to pass out from blowing the balloons.” Eddie chuckles and hands out the balloons for others to fill.

“Luckily we know how to handle a person who has fainted.” Bobby says as he puts the different treats he carried on the table.

“This would have been easier with helium.” Hen says and starts blowing a balloon.

“Yeah, but then these two would have been inhaling all of it and playing around.” Chimney points to Buck and Eddie while laughing.

“That’s true, Chim.” They all laugh at the comment, because everyone knows how there would be zero balloons filled, but two giggly idiots with high-pitched voices instead.

They put the balloons on the wall so that they form a frame for the photos, and finally the decorations look all set.

It’s almost time, so Eddie takes the cake out of the fridge, and Buck is ready to put the candles on.

“Now, be reeeeally careful so that the cake won’t fall.” Buck emphasizes his words and Eddie rolls his eyes.

“That’s why I don’t let you hold it.” Eddie says as a comeback.

“I’m not that clumsy!”

“Do I need to remind you-”

“Now if the lovebirds would be quiet and take their places, the surprise wouldn’t be ruined!” Athena says with a stern voice.

Buck and Eddie take their places, waiting quietly behind a corner.

And then, as everyone’s waiting for the star of the day, you open the door.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”

x x x x