"don’t hog the blanket." (bonus if it's pre-relationship teehee)
chimney insists it isn’t a destination wedding, since he and maddie went to the courthouse the day after he proposed and made it official.
(“just—you know. tomorrow isn’t promised, and all that,” he’d said, and the gathered frontrunners of the guinness world record for most deaths evaded, also known as his closest friends and colleagues, had nodded.
“and we don’t want to do a whole big thing, anyway,” he’d added. “we have a kid and a house. there are approximately seventy-three betters ways for us to spend that kind of money, and that’s just off the top of my head.”)
but everyone agreed there should be something—some way of celebrating their marriage, and maybe also the fact that they’re all still alive. as time goes by, it feels more and more like something to celebrate.
there’s some arguing, several votes, and some creative scheduling on bobby’s part, and they end up with a long weekend at an airbnb an hour outside of los angeles, spouses invited but children not.
buck drives them both up, because of course he does. the only discussion had been what time should i pick you up? and eddie tries to ignore it, like he always tries to ignore the way he and buck default to each other time and time again.
it doesn’t mean anything, he tells himself. it’s just that you’ve been friends for so long, and know each other so well, and sometimes when you close your eyes you imagine him—
it doesn’t mean anything, he tells himself. everything is fine.
they leave after maddie finishes a shift, and get in around dinner time. straws are drawn over who gets to make dinner, and bobby emerges the lucky winner.
“why don’t the rest of you get settled in the meantime?” he suggests. “i’ll be quick.”
maddie starts handing out room keys, although eddie’s not entirely sure why any of them will need a bedroom door that locks.
he’s also not entirely sure he wants to find out.
“oh,” maddie says, looking up at him and buck. “i thought—hm. there’s not as many rooms as i thought there’d be.”
buck frowns. “meaning?”
“can you two share a room?” maddie asks. “just—everyone else is. well. married.” she laughs a little, then looks down at the floor, self-conscious. chimney shows up out of nowhere to press a kiss to her temple.
eddie blinks. he’d known this, of course, on an objective, rational level—but it hits him now, standing in the living room of this airbnb with it’s large windows for gorgeous natural light and whatever the fuck else the description had said.
everyone else is married.
everyone else is married, but more often than not he and buck are treated as an equivalent unit anyway. despite not being married. despite not even being—
“yeah, no problem,” buck says, then turns to look at eddie, something hiding behind the grin on his face. “just don’t hog the blanket.”
eddie scoffs. “you’re one to talk.”
“okay, excuse me,” buck says, “i have never woken with the entire blanket hidden behind my back—”
“that was one time—”
“okay,” maddie says, holding the key out to buck and trying and failing to cover up a laugh. “so you’ll be fine, then.”
yeah, eddie thinks. definitely. it’ll be fine.
and he manages to believe it all the way through dinner, and a surprisingly intense round of charades. he believes it all the way through changing into the pyjamas he’s glad he thought to bring, focusing on organising the pairs of socks in his duffel bag so he doesn’t accidentally catch a glimpse of buck.
then they crawl into bed, eddie avoiding looking at buck so intently that he doesn’t notice buck avoiding looking at him, and—
“you’re doing it,” buck grumbles. “you’re hogging the blanket.”
“am not,” eddie shoots back. “you’re hogging the blanket. i barely have any of it.”
“stop yanking,” buck says. “maybe if you weren’t so far away—”
“you’re far away,” eddie says without thinking, and beside him, buck huffs.
“i’m just gonna—” he mutters, then shuffles around, until suddenly his arm is thrown over eddie’s waist and his face is pressed to eddie’s shoulder. his feet tangle with eddie’s, and the blanket settles comfortably over both of them.
“there,” buck mumbles. “room for both of us.”
eddie makes a noise, one that he hopes buck will interpret as assent. as anything, really, other than what it is, which is eddie’s brain short-circuiting at the feeling of buck’s chest against his back. the weight of buck’s arm on him, and the way buck’s hand has slipped just under the hem of eddie’s t-shirt, his warm fingers splayed against the bare skin of eddie’s stomach. he’s pretty sure that when they get out of bed in the morning, the shape of buck’s hand will be seared into his skin.
he’s imagined this, once or twice before. what it would be like to share a life with buck, to have all these liminal moments he misses out on with the way things are now, the almost-but-not-quite that they never talk about. he’s imagined it, and if felt just like this, right down to how cold buck’s toes are when they brush against his legs and how eddie can’t bring himself to pull away.
but it doesn’t mean anything, eddie tells himself. everything is fine.
only—buck settles in closer and sighs, and eddie, who has spent years listening to every sound buck makes, recognises this one.
this is the sound buck makes when he’s home.
only one bed prompts 🛏️
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