#buck and eddie please go back to texas

[littleblackraincloudofcourse]

As many comparisons as there are between TK and Buck or Carlos and Eddie especially regarding general appearance and outward behavior when you focus on their deeper personalities Buck and Carlos have a lot in common and so do Eddie and TK.

Carlos and Buck are generally more free with their emotions, often considered soft by others. There is no one that will fight hard for their loved ones than them. Both have felt ignored and rejected by their parents resulting in bad decisions. The only time we see them close to violent is when they are in moments of emotional turmoil unlike any they had experienced before.

TK and Eddie are more emotionally guarded. It takes them both a long time to open up to people, especially about their pasts. Both have been afraid to be open to new relationships due to past heartache. They have a history of running towards danger rather than face difficulties in their personal lives, one towards drugs, the other to war. They also both put themselves in violent situations rather than dealing with emotional trauma.

[the-likesofus]

Buddie Fic Recs

This is my 5th Buddie Rec List! I started compiling this list last April and omg looking back through them now I desperately need to reread them all. Highly recommend all of these fics, also please show the authors some love in their comments xx Happy Easter lovelies <3 REMINDER TO CHECK THE TAGS AND TRIGGER WARNINGS

where our eyes are never closing by @rewritetheending | T | 6k

After the lightning strike, Buck asks Eddie to take candid photos of him to help prove to Buck that he still exists. Absolute PEAK Softness. Buck through Eddie's eyes! I was a mushy puddle by the end. 10/10 would recommend. 

i got all my sisters with me by @useramor | T | 6k

Established relationship Buddie. Eddie’s sister has a baby and they travel down to Texas to meet the baby. DIAZ SIBLINGS UNITE! Seriously though the sibling dynamic in this is off the charts and Buck and Eddie are sickeningly in love, it is quite beautiful.

meet me where the tide comes in by @iinryer | G | 4k

A 3+1 fic about Eddie getting kissed on the head. FOREHEAD KISSES PTSD MORE HEAD KISSES AND BOYS IN LOVE!! Need I say anything more??

The one where Buck gets turned into a dog by @911onabc | G | 9k

Law Suit era BUT WAIT WAIT….DOG BUCK!! I am a sucker for fic where one of them gets turned into an animal. They are much more free with their affection when they think it's just a dog, or just a cat, and the bond between Eddie and "Boy" is so so wonderful. And I do love a happy ending xx

can't do this anymore (do it anyway) by @chronicowboy | T | 2k

Short and sweet but GOD this packs a punch. Eddie starts dating after the lightning strike and Buck is feeling Big Bad about it. He is so sad it truly breaks my heart but all works itself out in the end and Eddie proves Buck’s fears wrong.

We Found Each Other (Over There)  by @thekristen999 | T | 46k

Buddie WWII AU. A combat medic and a G.I. meet during one of the world’s greatest battles. This fic is a legitimate masterpiece. I cannot describe to you the quality of this fic because it is beyond words but I will tell you I stayed up until 3:30 am to finish it in one sitting and was left broken but made so so whole again. 

the mortifying ordeal of being known by @the-amber-raven | G | 60k

AU where Bobby is Buck’s adoptive Dad and Eddie is dating Buck but Eddie and Bobby think they are talking about two different people. Buck is training at the fire academy but hiding it from Bobby. This fic is the most beautiful tangle of miscommunication, love and family. 

like all good things are by @try-set-me-on-fire | T | 7k

Perfect, amazing, soul-destroying, magical, healing Fic. This literally covers all the bases. Chim and Bobby both get injured. OH! and Buck and Eddie were secretly dating all along. READ THIS FIC PEEPS!

find a way to you (if it kills me) by @eddiediazes  | M | 19k

The one where Eddie decides to start dating again, Buck figures out his own feelings just a minute too late, and then he spends a week going through the five stages of grief. BUCK PINING LV.10000000!

and i’d choose you (in a hundred lifetimes) by @monsterrae1 | E | 16k

Amnesia Exes fic by the wonderful Rae. Buck and Eddie fall in love via a penpal program and then Buck vanishes. This fic is set four years later. I literally could not put it down. I was reading it in class and then sat in my car for who knows how long just to finish it because I could not continue my day without knowing how it ended.

he never thinks of me (except when i'm on TV) by @loserdiaz | M | 18k 

APRIL'S FAMOUS!BUCK AND ARMY!EDDIE FIC!! In which Eddie finds out years later that his unrequited feelings for his high school best friend were not actually unrequited, Buck is stupidly famous now and they pine. OH THEY PINNNEEEEE! It’s delicious. 

every time we stop talking (the universe starts screaming) by @chronicowboy | M | 21k 

Alternative S7, Buddie Divorce Era Pt.2. Buck does something reckless and Eddie gets angry about it but these boys cannot communicate effectively to save their lives! This fic is peak angst to a happy ending and I felt like I had a hole in my chest OMG.

left your mark on this heart by @chronicowboy | G | 5k

Buck gets medically diagnosed with butterflies and the doctor makes him write in a notebook every time it happens. Surprise, surprise, the cause and effect is Eddie-related. The notebook entries kill me in the best way, the happiest happy ending

ALSO, YES THIS IS THE THIRD FIC BY THE SAME AUTHOR ON THIS LIST WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?? READ IT IS WHAT! COS THEY'RE SO DAMN GOOD. 

endless numbered days by @cal-daisies-and-briars | G | 13k 

Buck and Eddie's wedding but from Bobby's POV as Bobby reflects on the family he lost and the one he gained. Absolutely beautiful, I cried.

don’t wanna let you love somebody else but me by @shitouttabuck | T | 14k

Chris wants dating advice so obviously Buck and Eddie decide to Fake Date for research purposes. This fic is PEAK adorable, sappy, and awkward Buddie. They’re idiots but we love them and the certainly love each other. READ THIS FIC! 

[renecdote]

The prompt "sit still and let me take a look!" spoke to me 😌

hiiii frida this has been in my inbox for so long but I finally figured out how to write again so here you go <3 also sorry. I think. it got angsty oops [Read on AO3]

The problem is that Eddie tries to catch the glass. It slips, and he doesn’t want the shattering sound to wake Buck, so he tries to catch it, and—

“Fuck.”

It slips out louder than he means for it to be, the pain catching him by surprise. It slices through his hand and up his arm, reflexive tears springing to his eyes before he blinks them away. Blood blooms on his palm, just a thin line at first, but spreading rapidly, red running over his fingers, his wrist, dripping onto the floor. In the middle of it all, a jagged piece of glass sparkles in the morning light. Eddie curses again.

Sometimes he feels like he has been dealing with emergencies his whole life. He’s good at it—he has to be—but there’s always a moment of hesitation when it’s himself, a split second or a minute, mind and body frozen even though his survival instinct in any other situation is to fight.

This is hardly an emergency, but Eddie feels frozen anyway, his mind blank even though he’s already moving, reaching for the tap. Water gushes out, tepid for the first few seconds, then cold enough that he has to grit his teeth against the ache. The blood isn’t slowing, but it’s turning pink under the water, washed away before Eddie can think about how much of it there is. Cuts usually look worse than they are, he reminds himself.

“Eddie?” Socks shuffling on the linoleum, half asleep still. Then suddenly much more awake: “Shit, are you okay?”

“Yep. Pass me a tea towel?”

There are two hanging from the oven, but Buck goes for the drawer of clean tea towels instead. He passes over a red one—fire engine red, Eddie’s mind automatically supplies—and it could be a coincidence, or it could be because it won’t stain as easily as the lighter ones. Eddie wraps the material awkwardly around his bleeding hand, trying not to move too much so he doesn’t jar the glass and make the cut worse.

“Here,” Buck says, turning a chair around one-handed, “sit down, let me take a look at it.”

Guilt gnaws at Eddie’s stomach.

“I really don’t—”

“Eds.” Serious. Too serious for a broken glass, but just the right amount of serious for the years of history between them. “Please?”

Eddie sighs, and nods, and sits down. He holds out his hand and Buck takes it carefully, fingers gentle under the back of Eddie’s hand, like what he’s holding is something precious. It makes Eddie’s heart quiver in his chest. He has to bite his cheek hard so he doesn’t do something ridiculous like cry. Or kiss his best friend.

“It doesn’t look too deep, I think it’ll be okay if we pull the glass out,” Buck says, the furrow between his brows deep in concentration as he inspects Eddie’s hand from every angle. “Do you have tweezers?”

“First aid kit,” Eddie answers, gesturing towards the hallway with his good hand. It’s not like he needs to explain where the first aid kit is, Buck already knows. Hell, Buck helped him stock it.

“Don’t move,” Buck tells him, that same flash of seriousness in the look that comes with the words.

“Where am I gonna go?” Eddie asks rhetorically.

Buck rolls his eyes. “Just—hold that towel on your hand. I’ll be back in a second.”

Eddie re-wraps the towel carefully around the glass piece and keeps pressure on his hand, holding it up so it’s above his heart, more out of habit than because he thinks it’s necessary. Without Buck, it’s hard to focus on anything except the pain. It’s nothing compared to getting shot, or broken bones, or a dislocated shoulder, or the whole body ache from being at the bottom of a collapsed well, but pain is pain. Eddie stares at the photos on the fridge and tries to put it out of his mind. There’s Christopher’s latest school photo, a shot of Eddie and Chris in Texas last time they visited, another of Buck and Christopher at the zoo, one of the three of them grinning like maniacs at the go-karting place in the desert.

It means nothing and everything, Eddie thinks, that dozens more photos just like them fill the photo albums lined up neatly on the bookshelf in the living room. Mostly nothing. Mostly everything. Sometimes it feels like they were living their lives with a hole left just for Buck to fill before they even met him. Eddie isn’t sure he believes in things like soulmates, or fate, or divine providence, but if he did, he thinks it would be because of Buck. Because of the way they fit together, a neat little family of three.

Except for how they aren’t. Buck will go home to Tommy in a few hours, and Chris is willing to speak to Eddie on the phone these days but he still isn’t ready to come home, so it will just be Eddie in his lonely house, eating a lonely dinner at the empty kitchen table.

He presses a little too hard against his hand and the pain flares, the hard lump of emotion in his throat numbed for a moment by the sting. Eddie presses down again, breathing through the hurt until he feels like he is in control again. It’s harder and harder to keep hold of these days. His eyes feel permanently gritty with exhaustion, a long shift and a heavier heart weighing him down, but sleep as elusive as it has been for the last two months. This isn’t even the first glass he has broken in the last few weeks, just the first to draw blood.

Eddie doesn’t realise how much he has slumped in his chair until he hears the squeak of the hallway floor under returning footsteps and he straightens back up. The first aid kit clatters when Buck sets it on the table, his fingers already flicking up the latch to open it. It’s more cluttered than Eddie remembers it being, and he makes a half-formed mental note to reorganise it when he has a chance. House upkeep hasn’t been his biggest concern recently. Buck has to push aside band-aids and tape and rolls of bandages before he finds the tweezers at the bottom of the box. He tears open an alcohol wipe and sterilises them, then hesitates.

“Should we—?”

“Sink will be less messy,” Eddie agrees before the question is finished, squashing down the part of him that doesn’t really care if he bleeds all over his kitchen.

He stands up awkwardly, even though it isn’t something he really needs his hands for, and Buck’s hand hovers under his elbow for a second before dropping away. Eddie feels the not-quite-contact like a tingling up and down his arm. It tingles, too, when Buck holds his hand to keep it still, the movement of his thumb over Eddie’s fingers almost a caress before his grip settles. The tweezers hang over the cut and Eddie tenses, instinctively bracing for more pain.

“Careful,” he warns, and Buck glances up at him, eyebrows raised.

“Would you rather do this yourself?”

There’s no judgement in his voice. Well, not real judgement. It’s all teasing fondness, the same kind of tone he uses when he gives Chimney shit about his extravagant coffee orders, or gives Eddie shit about his cooking, still, even though he knows his way around the kitchen at least half as well as Bobby by now.

Eddie rolls his eyes.

“I trust you,” he says, just the right amount of serious for the years of history between them. “Go on, do your worst.”

Buck’s hand is steady around the tweezers. The shard comes out easily and he drops it in the sink. He rinses away the freshly welling blood under the tap, then tilts Eddie’s hand under the light to check for the glint of any smaller pieces of glass hiding in the cut. The look of concentration on his face makes Eddie think of burning buildings and tricky extractions from bad accidents. It’s a little overwhelming, having all that Firefighter Buckley energy directed at a comparatively measly cut.

It’s not that he isn’t used to it by now: Buck taking care of him. It might actually be that he’s too used to it. At some point, it stopped being something that surprised him and became something he’s comfortable with, something he expects, something he can ask for, and… It’s dangerous, the way Buck makes him feel safe and comfortable and cared for, because Eddie’s traitorous heart wants to hold onto that feeling forever.

“Looks like that was all the glass,” Buck says. “Can you wash the cut? I’ll grab the gauze to wrap it.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees, relieved to have some control handed back to him.

The antibacterial soap at the sink is gentle enough, so he presses down the pump and braces himself against the sting as it hits the cut. Reflexive tears spring to his eyes and he blinks them back as he cleans his hand thoroughly. He tears a piece of paper towel off the roll one-handed and pats the area dry, then lets Buck take his hand again to press a piece of gauze over the cut and carefully wind a bandage around on top. That familiar furrow of concentration stays between his brows until he tapes the bandage in place and steps back.

“Thanks,” Eddie says quietly.

Buck shrugs, like it’s not a big deal. Maybe it shouldn’t be.

“Do you want me to…?” he gestures towards the counter, the broken pieces of glass still lying there.

Eddie shakes his head. “I’ve got it.”

He half expects Buck to push, but he just nods and turns away to pack up the first aid kit instead. He starts organising it without Eddie saying anything and Eddie’s heart throbs, hit with a wave of love so strong it almost takes his legs out from under him. He forces his attention back to the broken glass before he can let that love carry him to his knees and beg Buck to stay forever. He’s pretty sure that would only make Buck worried. He’s also pretty sure it would be nice, letting go and drowning himself in all the gentle care that would come with that worry.

Eddie turns away from temptation instead. He sweeps up the pieces of glass carefully with the dustpan, then folds a catalogue from yesterday’s junk mail around them before dropping it all in the bin. The first aid kit closes with a snap and Buck squeezes past him to carry it out of the kitchen, his body heat there and gone before Eddie can let his heart take control again and lean into it.

There are a hundred reasons he can’t have Buck any more than he already does.

There are a hundred more for why he wants him, why it makes perfect sense. If Eddie was a little less damaged, he might have realised that early enough to do something about it.

Or maybe he would have just fucked it all up; he seems to be good at that.

Eddie flexes his hand, feeling the cut pull under the bandage. He closes his eyes for one second, two, and his hand is hanging back by his side by the time Buck comes back, yawning, and beelines for the coffee machine. He grabs out two mugs, holding one up in offering, and Eddie nods, feeling guilty all over again about waking Buck up.

“Thanks,” he says again. “Sorry I woke you up.”

He’s not even sure why Buck followed him home after shift, only that he did, and it made sense at the time—still makes sense, which doesn’t really make sense at all—and even though Eddie probably should have suggested he go home and nap before whatever date he has planned with Tommy, he just pulled out a spare pillow and blanket and nudged him towards the couch.

“It’s okay,” Buck says easily. “I’m glad I woke up.”

He smiles, gentle and a little lopsided, and it’s the kind of smile that makes Eddie wonder whether Buck has always smiled at him like that. He wonders if it means anything, or if he just wants it to.

It’s dangerous: wanting.

He steps back, reaching for the bloody tea towel, careful not to use his injured hand. “I’m going to—” He gestures vaguely towards the laundry. “Before it stains.”

“Oh,” Buck says. “Yeah. I can—”

Eddie shakes his head. “I’ve got it.”

It’s not running from a situation if the situation is entirely inside your own head, he tells himself. It’s just… doing laundry.

And it doesn’t mean anything when Buck’s hand lingers as he passes over a mug of coffee after Eddie drags his feet back to the kitchen. It never means anything, because if it does—

Well.

“Hey,” Buck says, leaning in close before Eddie can pull away again, his arm warm through the fabric of Eddie’s shirt. “We didn’t really get to have breakfast earlier, so I thought we could go out for pancakes? I saw a new place on Instagram that has, like, twenty different flavours.”

Eddie loves him. He shouldn’t, he can’t, but god, he loves his best friend so much it hurts. Why the hell has his heart been hiding that from him for years? He takes a quick sip of coffee and tries to swallow the lump in his throat back down with it.

“Yeah,” he says when he can trust himself to speak. “Sure, pancakes sound good.”

Buck knocks their shoulders gently together, but instead of pulling back he just—stays. He always stays. Eddie closes his eyes, inhaling the steam from his coffee, and carefully, deliberately, he does not think about anything except the bittersweet taste of coffee and creamer on his tongue, and the stinging heat of the mug against his hands.

[daffi-990]

WIP Wednesday 🌊

Tagged by the wonderfully talented @wikiangela, @diazsdimples and @tizniz. Make sure to check out their snippy snip snippets.

It was so hard to pick what part I wanted to share today from Rival Firefighters 🚒 because I wrote a scene this morning and ahh it was just … I really like it and want to share the whole thing cos I want you all to scream at me but I also don’t want to share everything you know? 😅

Prev snippet here

“Eddie, it’s for you.” Bobby hands him the SAT phone, a concerned looked etched on his face.

Eddie takes the phone, albeit a bit hesitant. Dispatch wanting to talk to him has warning flags flying up. He’s not a commanding rank so the only reason he can think of as to why they’d be tracking him down is because they’re about to give him bad news.

He knows that Buck and Chris are safe. Buck had texted him that they were planning on going to the movie theatre near his apartment and then out for ice cream at that place Chris loves that is not at all in the area where the tsunami hit. They’re safe.

Tia Pepa and Abuela are visiting Eddie’s parents back in Texas and Eddie isn’t Carla’s emergency contact.

Which only leaves one person.

Dread sinks heavily in his stomach like a lead balloon as he brings the phone up to his ear.

“This is Diaz.”

“Eddie.”

He doesn’t know whether to be relieved or not that it’s Maddie’s voice on the other line. Maybe it’ll hurt less coming from a familiar voice. The voice of a friend. Though he can’t help feeling guilty that it’s Maddie having to shoulder the weight of telling him that his ex wife is injured, missing or — no. He can’t even think the word. It’s too painful. What’s he going to do if Shannon is— if she’s — what’s he going to tell Chris?

Fuck.

He needs to find out what the actual situation is before he starts spiraling.

“Don’t sugar coat it Maddie, just—,” he takes a shaky breath and clutches the phone tighter, trying to steady his trembling hands, “just tell me. Please.”

He’s aware of eyes on him, that Bobby has moved just that little bit closer, body rigid and on alert like he’s ready to jump in and catch Eddie if he needs to.

“A rescue boat found Chris. He’s alive, only sustained minor cuts and scrapes. They’ve taken him to the triage centre. Shannon’s on her way to him now.”

Eddie almost drops the phone as his world comes to a stop. He feels a surge of grief, fear and helplessness claw at his chest, their icy talons slicing into him and leaving him feeling like he’s been flayed open. Bile begins to rise up his throat but he swallows it down, the bitter taste of it lingering and burning. He’s pretty sure his heart stops beating and it’s not until Maddie says the words he’s alive that it picks up its rhythm again, a rush of relief washing over him and soaking through his skin, settling into his bones.

He takes a shuddering breath. Chris is alive.

No pressure tagging: @hippolotamus @spotsandsocks @athenagranted @wildlife4life @thewolvesof1998 @fortheloveofbuddie @monsterrae1 @watchyourbuck @exhuastedpigeon @missmagooglie @mellaithwen @bekkachaos @nmcggg @elvensorceress @eddiebabygirldiaz @evanbegins @epicbuddieficrecs @the-likesofus @theotherbuckley @rewritetheending @rainbow-nerdss @princessfbi @prettyboybuckley @puppyboybuckley @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @steadfastsaturnsrings @try-set-me-on-fire @devirnis @disasterbuckdiaz @giddyupbuck @fiona-fififi @hoodie-buck @homerforsure @honestlydarkprincess @jeeyuns @jesuisici33 @king-buckley @lover-of-mine @loserdiaz @ladydorian05 @captain-hen and anyone else who wants to share something -> consider this your official tag 😘

[lover-of-mine]

could you please tell us more about why you think chris would freak out? 😊

Okay, I have been thinking this since 4x08 with Chris freaking out about the idea of Eddie dating in general. But the bottom line is, Chris has a delicious shade of abandonment issues. Eddie wasn't there when he was a baby, Shannon left, and then she died, his grandparents were as constant in his life as his mother and now he only sees them every once in a while, Isabel was constant in LA but she's back in Texas now, you can even make an argument that he felt left by Buck during the lawsuit, because while I do think Eddie was hiding behind Chris to say he missed Buck, Chris was attached enough to Buck to feel the fact that Buck suddenly disappeared a for a while (I like to believe Buck showed up at the house with a pile of legos and a bear like the one they won before the tsunami after, but, well, from a kid's perspective as month is a year, it might've been enough to create something there anyway), especially with everything that had happened to Christopher that year, Shannon dying, the tsunami, Chris worrying about Eddie's state of mind, Chris was at the barbecue and we have no idea what he saw or didn't see about Buck throwing up blood, so he had enough traumatic experiences in quick succession to do something to his brain before he was even 10. We also have a layer to play with if the show decides to go there, but the long-term effects of lockdown on a child were a lot more intense than in someone with a fully developed brain because their lives shut down and they didn't have the tools to deal with it and a child needs the interaction with other people and they were not getting that, and if adults struggled with it, imagine how a 10 yo with a first responder parent who couldn't stay with him felt, ykwim? We see that manifesting in season 4, Chris is scared that dating means leaving, he thinks that Eddie bringing someone into their lives just means someone else who will leave him. And we saw at the beginning of the season that he still believes that to be true. He has that moment of it's okay to play around because it doesn't matter if they love you, they will leave anyway. Chris most likely doesn't remember most of life in Texas with Shannon, and even when he's old enough to understand the circumstances around Shannon leaving, it will still have scarred him forever. And that kid has lived through one parent dying, the other in a hospital when he wasn't allowed to visit due to covid, and a constant safe adult he literally saw in a hospital bed. It doesn't matter if the show ever states Buck in a parental position for Chris before he becomes "stepdad Buck", Buck is one of the two safe adults Chris runs to in a crisis, exemplified by the way even though he's being raised by two first responders, his instinct when Eddie had his breakdown was not to call 911, it was to call Buck. We have enough to speculate that yes, Chris sees Buck as a parent in some degree, but we do know for a fact that Buck is an adult Chris trusts.

So, we have Chris with the mother of all abandonment issues of the show, which is saying something considering who he's up against, we have Eddie and Buck being the two constants when it comes to adults, and just the general concept of safety that he has had in the past few years, so Eddie and Buck are the two people Chris is scared the most to lose, Eddie for obvious reasons, and we see that reflected with Buck with him forcing Eddie and Carla to let him visit him so he can beg Buck to come back. But Chris is also watching both Eddie and Buck FUMBLE through romantic relationships. Like, they are BAD at romantic relationships, and, like, even Taylor was brought into Chris' life and then vanished, I'm not saying he got particularly attached to Taylor, but she was in his house, she lived with Buck, for an 11 yo that's as serious as it's gonna get, and then that ended too. So what Chris is picking up here is that romantic love means people leaving. Like, that was literally the conclusion he reached on his own when it came to dating. He understands that Shannon loved them and that there was love between Eddie and Shannon, but he only thought about the way she left that love. We also have everything about Marisol. Everything about her is about babysitting Chris, so he has a decent relationship with her, and she was moving in. I doubt that Chris didn't know that, but that's another development that got canceled and we know Marisol is not here to stay, so yet another relationship Eddie completely fumbled.

So take all that and put it next to the idea of Eddie and Buck becoming a couple. We know buddie is endgame. We outsiders with all the information watching as all-seeing gods waiting for them to just get their shit together know that when they get together, there's no separating them, that's it. Chris doesn't know that. He knows he loves Eddie. He knows he loves Buck. He knows none of them ever managed to make a romantic relationship work. And he thinks that romantic love means leaving. So Eddie and Buck dating means losing Buck. The only conclusion Chris is gonna reach here is "Buck is gonna leave" so he's gonna freak out. He's a teenager. Half of being that age is feeling things too intensely and the other half is reacting as intensely. He reacted like that to the idea of Ana and it wasn't even about someone he knew yet. Chris having The Tamtrun about Eddie dating someone he loves makes perfect sense. Because Chris doesn't know what a successful relationship looks like, sure, there are his grandparents, but he's not around them enough, and even then his grandfather travels a lot for work anyway so what would he have seen when he was kid, and a kid learns love from their parents. Eddie and Shannon were a disaster from Chris pov. They loved each other but she still left, so what does it take for a relationship to work? Because isn't it the thing we teach kids with fairytales and stuff? That love conquers it all? But he understands enough to know that's not true. Chris may know Buck and Eddie love each other in some degree, the same way he knows he loves Buck, and the same way he knows Buck loves him, but the instinct there would be to fight the change in their relationship because he doesn't want Buck to leave. If everyone Eddie or Buck dated disappeared from his life, what's stopping Buck from leaving him if they break up? Most likely scenario is that he would get big mad at Buck because the change in the dynamic will trigger his abandonment issues, and he's 13, so he's not gonna be rational about it. And that would create some interesting tension in the way that when Chris is mad at his parents, he opens up to Buck, if he's mad at Eddie and Buck, who is he gonna open up to? This is absolutely the type of thing that would make their dynamic stronger in the long run, but it would take a minute for Chris to get to the point where he's ready to talk about the fact that he's scared of the change, it would even take him a minute to probably get to that conclusion himself, because again, the horrors of being 13 are real. Chris himself might struggle to figure out why does the idea make him mad. And Buck and Eddie can't reassure him if they don't know what's wrong. They can't promise they won't break up either. So how do they navigate that?

Because Chris is the priority, they would never do anything that would hurt Chris intentionally, but I also think they would be like "I don't want to break up because he's mad" because that would be proving Chris' fear that they won't stay together right. And I kinda think this is the only route they can go with Chris' reaction because this isn't some "my divorced parents are getting back together" situation, Chris has no reason to hope for Buck and Eddie to get together, so I don't see how he would've already processed that. Sure, if they had gotten together when Chris was 10, he probably would've been a lot more chill about it, but Chris as a teenager? He's gonna freak out. That's literally the only logical conclusion here. And considering the beginning of the season, and the way he was handling dating, AND the way he opened up about it to Buck, all the pieces for that to happen are on the table. Buck has a relationship with Chris outside of Eddie, and obviously, Buck and Eddie are, yk, *motions vaguely* but actually getting Buck and Eddie together would add tension to the existing dynamic between the 3 of them. And it is a way to add conflict to buddie without adding the idea that they don't love each other or don't know how to handle the switch or might not be good at being a couple, because navigating this situation would just prove how solid they are. It's all there. The question is if they are gonna go for it or not.

[theotherbuckley]

PURPLE. I THINK I KNOW WHICH ONE THIS IS AND I AM SO INVESTED AND OMG CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT # 4????? 💞🦛

Hehe, of course! (4. Eddie prays for the first time in ten years. What could go wrong + oh no why is it suddenly 2018?)

As you can guess, this is the fic where Eddie meets Buck 1,0 ;)

I'll give you a snippet from a different part of the fic (before he meets Buck)

He scrambles out of his bed, walking over to Chris’s room and knocking on the door. “Bud, wake up, I need your help.” “Daddy?” Chris says sleepily, blinking up at him.  Eddie thinks he might be having a heart attack. Or a panic attack. Not that he panics or anything. Because his son hasn’t called him daddy in years. And his son, also hasn’t been that small in years. Eddie takes a deep breath. It’s a dream. It has to be. He pinches himself but it stings. He doesn’t wake up.  He walks back out to the kitchen. The calendar on the wall says 2018. He was in Texas in 2018.  This doesn’t make sense. Buck is dying, and he’s having a psychotic breakdown, stuck in a hallucination where it’s 2018. He doesn’t understand.  He’s hyperventilating. Clawing at his chest whilst he sinks to the floor, hitting his head on the fridge as he goes down.  A small hand pats his shoulder. “Are you okay, Daddy?”

[biasbuck]

BiAsBuck’s ficrec Fridays

Happy Fraturday everyone (oops, I'm late!) Back again with another round of the fic I've been reading this week. You can find previous rec lists here.

A reminder I'm here for all buddie/bucktommy/buddietommy configurations, and I'm always on the lookout for more henren fic to read, so please send author and story recs my way! (Feel free to self rec!!!)

15 June 2024

looking for shelter from the cold and the pain by @itsactuallycorrine is a post-7x10 summer fic, from Christopher's perspective. In which after communication is cut off and Chris is in Texas, both Eddie and Buck continue to send emails to keep in touch, and he reads them even if he doesn't respond. They get increasingly more confessional in tone. I really loved how Chris' understanding of them both as people and the revelations they share help him find peace, without glossing over the difficulties and pain caused. Hints of Buddie (and background Bucktommy break up) but mostly about realising parents make mistakes and growing up. A really lovely Chris voice. (Once you've read this one, go read this never would've happened in a catholic high school in which Chris comes home from an inclusive sex ed class with questions. Hilarious and sweet!)

your wings will find you heaven by elizabethgee a post-7x09 and 10 Buck vs Captain Gerrard fic (with Bucktommy) heed the tagged warnings on this one, it's dark and potentially triggering, but taken very seriously. Tommy is nervous when he hears that Gerrard is interim Captain. Buck thinks he can handle it. But things take a difficult turn, and Gerrard's ability to pinpoint and press on a perceived weak spot like caring for others means Buck's put in a horrible position. Cathartic and ultimately triumphant, I just want to give Buck a damn hug for being so brave.

like a bird stealing bread out from under your nose by @cal-daisies-and-briars 'If you’d asked Eddie back in May what rock bottom looked like, it was his son leaving him. That felt like it; everything ruined so entirely that there was no way to ruin it further. There’s always more to lose.' An Eddie Diaz breakdown fic, in which he self destructs and monumentally fucks up with Buck as well, but puts in the work to try and fix it. I particularly enjoyed the focus on Eddie reclaiming the joy in personal hobbies in this one, giving himself space and permission to be his own person.

odd man out by  @messyhairdiaz is an eddietommy focused buddietommy fic! Hooray! In which Eddie's self doubt makes him question whether it's all too good to be true and the triad relationship they've stumbled into is working for Tommy, so Buck convinces them both to go on a solo date. I really loved the communication and negotiation of this, and the lovely dynamic that they're working towards. Plus it's just delightfully flirty. Bless you poly fic, I'm smooching you on the mouth.

Got Your Six by @sonofatoasterwaffle oh god...oh my god. The buddietommy voyeurism BDSM fic. Literally the hottest version of Tommy? He plays them all like a symphony. 'After Buck has a bad experience with a dom, Eddie decides that if Buck wants to scene, he’ll do it with Eddie there to chaperone or not at all. Tommy decides he's cool with that if it means he gets to be the meat in their weird, codependent BDSM sandwich.' Just *chefs kiss* Eddie's down bad and Buck is the sweetest little sub in this, give him directions and show him off!

all the vices i can't give up by @theweewooshow is a smutty Bucktommy phone sexting fic, with an alternative getting together scenario (aka they're unapologetically horny about it.) Buck accidentally sends Tommy a picture of himself with water dripping down his chest, Tommy takes the bait. Things escalate! Lots of fun and very hot.

seeing you with him just don't feel right (you're giving me a heart attack) by @bellabrady based on THAT Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode - in which Buck and Eddie kill Captain Gerrard in the most hilarious way possible. The firefam banter in this is just absolute top notch. Glorious and so so funny. It's what he deserves.

Special Occasions by @pop-me Henren smut and feelings! 'After Buck comes out in S7E6, Hen and Karen reflect on their own first queer loves and intense, romantic sex ensues.' OP's tags promise romantic fisting and well howdy do they deliver! Love when Hen and Karen are celebrated as sexy as hell.

this is it ( the thing everyone's looking for) by diabolicaldean the latest in a collection of Henren one shots, this one is a sweet gentle fluffy piece that celebrate the Wilson family, with the soft place to land that Mara deserves. God I hope season 8 cuts them a break!!

a miserable pile of secrets by @glorious-spoon a post 7x09 fic, in which Buck and Eddie argue, and Hen lends Eddie and ear and gives some tough love. I really appreciated how much this lent into the messy thorny nature of fucking up and fixing things, and owning your mistakes. Hen's perspective is really well drawn.

Okay I'll stop here because it's getting long, but see you all next week!

[monsterrae1]

Fuck it Friday

Tagged by @honestlydarkprincess @buckaroosheart @spagheddiediaz @wikiangela @daffi-990 @jesuisici33 @exhuastedpigeon thanks !

So I know I said I was gonna take a break but for some reason I got really inspired about this one? Anyway it’s incredible self indulgent so let me be. Also with the promo I know no one is going to care so whatever

Context they’re 13 here and Isabel is fostering Buck:

“I’m Eddie.”

“I have a feeling you two will be excellent friends,” Isabel said, and with that she left them alone in the living room to get to know each other.

It turned out Eddie was from Texas and he was only visiting Isabel for a couple of weeks during spring break and then he’d go back to Texas, Buck couldn’t wait for the day he left. It was like Eddie was everywhere, Buck was trying to do his chores and he would find out that Eddie would have already done them for him, it felt like he was trying to make him look bad so Isabel would kick him out, and Buck couldn’t have that. He wouldn’t have that, he woke up extra early so he could beat Eddie to get the chores done, and then he would make sure to always be first when Isabel asked them to do something.

Which was how they found themselves in this predicament.

Isabel had gone out of the day, asking Buck and Eddie to please cut the grass on the backyard and cut some of the lower hanging branches of the tree since it was getting a little out of hand and she hadn’t had a chance to call her usual gardener.

They had finished doing what she asked when Buck had the brilliant idea to climb the tree to trim some of the higher up branches, Eddie had told him it was a bad idea but Buck didn’t listen to him and still climbed up. When he fell he was really hoping to not get an I told you so.

“Don’t tell her, please don’t tell her,” Buck was begging him through tears, holding his injured arm to his chest, staining his shirt with blood, “It’s not that bad, please don’t tell her.”

“Buck, you’re bleeding a lot, I need to take you to the ER,” Eddie insisted, but Buck kept refusing.

“She can’t know, she can’t”

“Buck, she’s not going to be mad at you, I promise you okay?”

“She’s gonna send me back! She’s gonna send me back,and I can’t, okay? She’s the best home I’ve ever been in, you can’t make her send me back.”

Eddie frowned, Buck was starting to feel a little light headed, he wasn’t sure if it was because of the blood lost, the panic or the crying, he just felt like he was going to pass out soon.

“Why would I make her send you back?”

“‘s wha’ yo’ wan’” Buck slurred, “yo’ don’ wan’ m’ ‘ere.” His ears were starting to ring, and before he could hear Eddie’s response he passed out.

Tagging if they’d like to share anything @bitchfacediaz @loserdiaz @hoodie-buck @buddierights @prettyboybuckley @rogerzsteven @bigfootsmom @elvensorceress @underwater-ninja-13 @eddiebabygirldiaz @heartshapedvows @malewifediaz @housewifebuck @steadfastsaturnsrings @911onabc @spotsandsocks @hippolotamus @the-likesofus @shortsighted-owl and whoever else wants to do it

[tizniz]

14. phone calls & 37. ‘I missed you.’ with Buck's Boyfriends. 🩵

I was teasing you about asking for two, but technically this makes three...you really are special...anyways. Here you go my darling 🩵

Eddie paces the backyard, phone pressed to his ear as he listens to it ring. He can hear the chirping grasshoppers in the distance, the sounds mingling with the croaking frogs and wind dancing through the tall grass of the nearby field. Above him, the stars are bright, clustered together and so vibrant compared to the ones hidden behind smog back home in Los Angeles. “Eddie!” His entire body relaxes at the sound of his boyfriend’s voice, “Buck.” “Hold on.” Buck says and then there’s some shuffling before something thuds, followed by a muffled swear from Buck and another voice asking if he’s alright. Eddie smiles as he tilts his head back to look up at the night sky, waiting. “Okay. I’m back.” “And I’m here.” “Tommy.” Eddie exhales fully. “Hi, sweetheart.” “You okay, babe?” “M’fine.” Eddie says to the stars. “Just…I missed you.” He swallows, “I missed you both.” “Even though you called us this afternoon?” Buck teases lightly, but Eddie can hear the underlying worry in his tone. “Please,” Tommy scoffs, and Eddie can easily see his one boyfriend sending his other boyfriend a pointed look, “You were practically begging to call him back right after we hung up.” “Hey! That was supposed to be kept a secret!” “Was it? Oops.” Eddie chuckles as he adjusts his hold on the phone; yes, he had called earlier, but being back here in Texas was hard. Harder than any other time. He doesn’t know why. Maybe because there’s so much more for him back in Los Angeles. Maybe because this is the trip where he’s going to come out to his family. They know he’s queer – that had been a difficult and long conversation, but one Eddie had been glad he’d done. It had taken a few days for his parents to talk to him again, both explaining that they simply needed to process, but that they still loved him. Abuela had flown out the moment she found out they’d gone silent on him, and held him tight as he cried. But now, Eddie wants them to know he’s with two men. Two men who he thinks he’ll be spending the rest of his life with. He’s not sure how this conversation will go. “You doing okay, sweetheart?” Tommy asks gently, carefully. Eddie wants to be home and in his arms. It’s safer. “Uhm, yeah. I think so.” “We can fly out, still.” Buck comments. “There’s a flight that leaves at two. We’d be there for you first thing in the morning.” “I’ll be okay, baby. Thanks.” Buck had been insistent on coming with Eddie, not wanting him to be alone, but Tommy had been the one to see that Eddie needed to do this on his own. Eddie’s glad that they’ll be there waiting for him to come home. “Tell me about your day?” And despite them having talked only that afternoon, Buck starts to ramble on about this and that, distracting Eddie from the conversation he’ll be having with his parents in the morning.

Send me a soft prompt for a drabble

[elysiumnotes]

My 9-1-1 s8 Disaster Ideas/Wishlist

So I am going to spend the hiatus for 911 moving onto some of my brushed to the wayside hyperfixations now that the season’s over. Honestly after almost 15 years in fandom, I do not want to wade into the water of angsty ship wars and have already filtered out my tags and blocked certain blogs to ensure my peace.

However, I still will be thinking about my gay little wee woo show and I wanted to post my ideas, wishes, speculations, and predictions. Not necessarily in that order…..

Anyways! First things first, for this little post I wanted to speculate about what s8’s big disaster is going to be and my idea on how it could be done. (ABC if you’re lurking, please feel free to take the idea. You too, Tim. I give this idea away for free) What I think the s8 disaster is:

TORNADO / TWISTER

Now hear me out….as a Canadian, I have no clue if Tornadoes are common or even occur in places like LA. But with a dramatic ass show like 911 that has dealt with titanic-like cruise ship disaster, tsunami, earthquake, mudslides, wildfires, etc. it’s not out of the realm of possibility for them to completely the elemental set.

But moving onto how they would work it in…

I propose that it is used in the season premiere. (stick with me and imagine) LA is on Tornado watch and is hunkering down but the 118 get called to an emergency like they always do. (since it seems like their sector seems to be the entirety of LA, but I digress)

Unfortunately Captain Gerard is still the temp Captain while Bobby is out fighting the decision with the Chief. Obviously the crew does not gel with his leadership style which affects their ability to complete this rescue that’s in the path of the tornado.

Now this is where I get a little insane….Please stick with me on this….

This will be an Eddie centric 2 part premiere as he’s still reeling from Chris’s decision to go to Texas for the summer. (I refuse to have him leave completely) He’s kinda going stir crazy in an empty house now that his son’s not there. Instead of Buck being the normally reckless one, Eddie dives into the rescue against Gerard’s orders as the wind picks up. The tornado gets too close and the winds too strong that they can’t go after him safely and that cause the structure he’s in to collapse on him and knock him out.

Here’s the crazy part…

As he’s knocked out, we go into Eddie’s dreamscape consciousness that is just pretty much a 911 version retelling of the Wizard of Oz….

(I promise this will be a compelling arc)

…..which we will eventually learn is the movie he ended up watching the night before as had been having some cases of Insomnia now that Chris was gone.

Now you’re thinking, Elysium, that absolutely bonkers and how would they ever pull it off? Truthfully I don’t know how they would write but I can give the bare bones of what I imagine for it.

Eddie wakes up in weird not-version of LA after the Tornado passes to find a firetruck crushing the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ Gerard.

He’ll take the Saint Christopher medal from the body (why? I don’t know… it’s his weird dream sequence about coming to terms with his grief)

No memories/vague recollection of what he’s doing. All he knows is that he has to get back home to his soul. His family.

Eventually he is found by ‘Glinda the Good Witch’ Evan ‘’Buck’ Buckley, who gives him a goal to work towards and solid advice to find the great wizard (Bobby) who should be able to grant his wish.

Obviously he will be joined by Hen & Chim as companions, each searching for their own thing. (not to be one-to-one with the Tin Man & Lion, but Hen’s thing would be about courage to fight the councilwoman and get Mara back. Chim looking for the heart could be maybe thinking about having more kids once Mara is back with Henren. You stuff like like that, idk)

Dealing with the Witch Gerard and the flying monkeys (which would be all the obstacles that the 118 face, grief about Shannon, unresolved catholic guilt, his parents taking his kid, etc)

Finally Eddie will make it to the Wizard (Bobby), the man he conflated and put on pedestal because the Good Witch Buck, who sees Bobby as his his father figure (which is a good thing don’t get me wrong), also did. Only to realize Bobby is also just a man like him, his true foil (narratively this would be made clear to the audience using flashbacks) who like him, only became grand because his pushed himself to work for it even through his grief and bad moments.

What Eddie realizes is that he was looking for his way back home to his perfect life and family, to a Chris who won’t currently be there. And that destroying himself to wait for him to come back won’t fix the issue. Glinda will also help him with this.

He realizes that the way to make amends is to do like Bobby and put the effort into that change. He going to make his home a comfortable space for Chris again, so when he does come back, he knows that things will be different. He’ll take time for himself to properly grieve Shannon (and get more therapy, god!) and take the space to delve into some self-discovery whole were at it.

Then he’ll wake up from being knocked out by his team, not including Gerard, once the Tornado is gone. Maybe they go back to the station after a checkup at the hospital and Bobby comes back saying he’s reinstated and Gerard is gone. (I’m not really planning for this stuff)

Now, I’m obviously missing some characters in this dream sequence but I don’t know where they would fit. And I’m avoiding some big sexuality and romantic notions in regards to Eddie.

Trust that I know and I want it too, but I also want to avoid the ship wars this summer. So I’ll leave it vague, even though to me the idea of Eddie being Dorothy is very explicit in what arc I want for him.

Let me know what you would cast the other 911 character as in this version of Oz. Also thank you for indulging my crazy idea. I’ll be back with more.

Also #RaviMainS8!

[mastercherry]

This is for my Buddie friends. My buddies, if you will.

I'm recently super in love with Eddie and Buck are already married when Buck joins the 118 and it just never comes up. Or they don't believe him. Or I don't know. It doesn't matter. Whatever the reason, the 118 fam and friends don't know that Buck is married. I've been reading fics like this recently. They're fun.

But there also aren't very many of them. So, first of all, if you have any recs, please send them to me.

Second of all, I had to come up with my own idea for something like this so keep reading to see what it is.

Trigger Warnings: canon typical violence and abuse (Maddie and Doug plus Buck), life threatening situations typical and atypical to the show, witness protection, Eddie potentially thinking Buck is dead so maybe tempory character death, and I think I'm going to make it where the Buckley parents are killed in a car accident or something. I would tag more things if I actually wrote this or anything.

So. Let's start at the beginning. Evan and Maddie Buckley are living with their parents when Doug comes into the picture. Maddie is so in love with him, it's a little concerning. At least, according to her parents. They are very adamant that she needs to stop seeing him.

She doesn't. She fights them tooth and nail to be with Doug. Her little brother Evan is torn between supporting her and agreeing with their parents. But he's young. He doesn't understand.

Sadly, their parents are killed in a car accident. Maddie fights to keep Buck and she's able to become his legal guardian. Doug becomes the dad Buck always wanted. For a while, it's good. It's great even. They're a small little family, but they're so, so happy. It's amazing.

Until it isn't. Until Doug shows his true colors. He gets so angry so fast. And might be young but he's not stupid. He knows that Maddie is hurting. So he starts acting out. When Doug is mad at him, he leaves Maddie alone. That's all that Evan cares about. If only he could do more. But for Maddie, he can at least be the one who ends up in the ER. Not her.

But Maddie can't let him keep doing this. She has to protect her little brother. They live in this horrible limbo for a few years until Evan is 18. He crashed his new bike that Doug bought for him. He's going to be so mad. He has to warn Maddie. Or maybe... maybe he can convince her to leave with him.

"You and me, Maddie. Come on. Let's go. Just the two of us."

And she wants to leave. She does. But she knows that Doug won't let them. Won't let her. But she agrees. She knows what she has to do. The next day, she watches him leave in the Jeep. She's battered and bruised, but watching him leave actually feels like a weight lifting off her chest.

Evan travels. He goes everywhere he can, trying to find somewhere he belongs. He worries about Maddie every day and sends post cards to her work so she knows he's okay. She holds onto them like a lifeline.

Evan eventually ends up in Texas. That's where he meets Eddie. Helping out on a ranch. It's hard work, harder than anything else he's done up to this point. But being there with Eddie actually makes it fun. He never wants to leave. He even gets invited over to the Diaz house where he meets a tiny little Christopher. The Diaz family is the one he always wanted. So warm and fill of love. They take him in, teach him Spanish, teach him how to make the best food. Teach him about family.

It's no surprise to anyone when he and Eddie start dating. He keeps Maddie updated through his post cards until one day he gets one in return. He recognizes her hand writing. She says she's so happy for him. And how she wishes she could meet Eddie and his son. But she also says that Buck shouldn't send her anymore cards. How Doug found one and how he had wanted to go to that place and bring Evan back home.

And, well, Evan can't do that. He needs to let Maddie know that he's okay. So every so often him and Eddie take a little road trip to send a postcard to Maddie from somewhere else. Just to let her know he's okay. Plus, him and Eddie are going to get married and she has to be there.

But on the day they're supposed to get married there's no sign of her. He's disappointed but he doesn't let it get him down. He's marrying his best friend. He's adopting a son. His life couldn't get any better.

And then, of course, it all comes crashing down. Maddie's friend at the hospital, her only friend there, calls Evan.

"Maddie hasn't been to work in a couple days. She hasn't called or anything. I'm worried about her."

Evan has to leave. Eddie wants to come with him, but Evan won't have his family anywhere near Doug. And he's coming back with his sister this time.

Long story, short, Evan goes back home to check on Maddie. She's hurt when he finds her and he's already called 9-1-1 when Doug finds them. It's ugly. And they watch Doug kill someone. One of their neighbour's I guess. And the police show up. And they're all rushed to the hospital. And they're met with even more police. And the FBI. Turns out Doug wasn't just the bad guy. He was A bad guy. A bad guy in a whole family of bad guys.

And so Buck and Maddie have to go into Witness Protection until Doug and his family are taken care of for good. Evan doesn't even get to say goodbye to Eddie and Christopher. He just gets carried away to a new place to start a new life.

Alone.

He ends up in Los Angeles, CA. He's going crazy. He can't talk to Maddie or Eddie or Christopher. He can talk to his agent. That's about it. Despite his agents better judgement, he goes out for the fire department. He's too restless to do anything else. He has to help someone. He needs to do something useful. Meaningful.

And that's how Kyle "Buck" Jones joined the 118. How'd he get his nickname? No one knows.

[the-likesofus]

Buddie Fic Recs

REC LIST NUMBER 6! The theme is PINING if you couldn’t already tell. I haven’t done a lot of writing recently but I have done A LOT of reading so here are some of the lovely stories I have come across over the last few weeks. As always, please show these authors some love in their comments xx REMINDER TO CHECK THE TAGS AND TRIGGER WARNINGS

where our eyes are never closing by @rewritetheending | T | 6k

After the lightning strike, Buck asks Eddie to take candid photos of him to help prove to Buck that he still exists. Absolute PEAK Softness. Buck through Eddie's eyes! I was a mushy puddle by the end. 10/10 would recommend

put my heart inside your palms by @markofalover | T | 3k

An accidental pet name, a thoughtful dinner, and a shared shirt. Buddie are too domestic for my health and well-being! I want what they have!!

because we'll all arrive in heaven alive by @neverevan | E | 75k 

During a search and rescue, Eddie disappears without a trace, leaving Buck to grapple with the sudden possibility of a life without him AKA the Mudslide Missing!Eddie fic with pining for daaayyyyyyyzzzzzzz

Left Unsaid by C_M2 | M | 33k 

The discovery of a small facebook group full of tsunami survivors rocks station 118. This fic is amazing!! The perfect amount of pining angst, domestic feels and firefam love and goodness 💕💕

If I Should Fall by @elvensorceress | T | 23k

Buck thinks Tommy has died but it's actually Eddie. He is not dead but almost and they have to figure things out from there. This fic had me feeling like my heart has been gutted from my chest and dissected before my very eyes but it has the happy ending we all deserve. 

the distance to the stars by cloudydaisies | G | 27k

Eddie is the only one who doesn't realize he and Buck are dating 😭 This is a perfectly sweet and angsty miscommunication fic. 

the weekly bet (but the forever kind) by @theleftboobgrabber | E | 49k

The firehouse has a bet and Buck and Eddie work it in their favor. Once again Eddie pining for dayyyyzzzzzzzzzzz. (I’ve been on a Pining!Eddie kick recently). Perfect Buckley Diaz family feels. 

light me and i'll burn for you by @woodchoc-magnum | M | 31k

An old friend of Buck's joins the 118 and he kinda sucks. Eddie pines and falls down a hole (literally). Seriously though the pining and the angst in this fic is just delicious and with a happy ending to boot <3

The Aftermath of Liberation and Love Confessions by @elvensorceress | T | 17k

Eddie makes the love confession to end all love confessions while perfecting the balance between pining and not giving a f*ck. I love me a Jenwyn fic and this one is fabulous as always. 

love bites so deep and we've got tiger teeth by @usereddie | M | 10k

Rather than going to texas with his grandparents Christopher goes to stay with Buck for an extended sleepover and Eddie realizes he is incredibly in love with his best friend. Honestly I am OBSESSED!!! This is officially my season 7 ending <3

hearts on fire by @woodchoc-magnum | M | 65k

This is a canon divergence on Season 2 where Buck and Eddie almost get together but then Abby comes back and Eddie lets buck go and then regrets it while trying to be happy for him. The pining, the self-sabotage, honestly is all one big tasty meal and topped off with a happy ending and a side salad of the Shannon and Eddie friends/co-parents arc that they deserved!!

like a dog with a bird at your door by @shitouttabuck | E | 51k

Set post s6, Eddie is injured on a call and Buck moves in to help with his recovery whilst learning to navigate his feelings for his best friend and pining for the position Eddie’s girlfriend holds. honestly, I’m actually only halfway through reading this fic but OMG I’M ASDFFGGHJJKKL and I just already knew this would be making it onto the next rec list so I'm adding it to this one preemptively. 

[hippolotamus]

summarizing my WIPs poorly

I was tagged by @indestructibleheart @stereopticons @welcometololaland @apothecarose Thank you lovelies

WIP is a very loose term in my world but I'm narrowing the list as usual. This was very fun and very challenging.

Eddie: fine, whatever, if I have to and it'll make you go away. Buck: like hell you will, pick anyone else. But not me (dear god please pick me)

boy meets boy, marries girl, they live queerily ever after... or do they? (buddie)

hippo's separated lovers era but make it Twylexis

i'm a witch, you're a cat... why not? (Buddie)

boy takes his bestie on a date, suffers years of repression. update at 11 (Buddie)

you were real... weren't you??? (Buddie)

Eddie: i might like it, can't hurt to try, no harm do- oh shit, what now?

Buck: wait, where the fuck did you come from? you wouldn't believe me if I told you.

Completely 100% straight, single Texas father has a night out with his highly toxic coworkers... what could possibly go wrong? (Buddie)

what's a little dom/sub overtones between completely platonic besties??? (Buddie)

It should have been 16, we'll do 17 instead (Twylexis)

let's not make things complicated by getting to know each other (Lutalia)

Eddie: i type these out all the time, it's not like i'm actually gonna send it (accidentally sends it)

remember that time before we got together and i ruined everything? about that... (buddie)

Eddie "show no feelings" Diaz + secret hoarding boyfriend Buck (co write with @diazsdimples)

Eddie: I can't love him more than I do. Buck: shows up with a toddler. Eddie: oh, FFS. Really?! i'm so fucked.

Buck: you're coming back, right? i can't do this without you

As a bonus, feel free to send me asks telling me which ones you wanna see next and/or to get more info about any of the above. You might get a snippet, or a bit of outline, or just some unhinged rambling

np tagging: my love @disasterbuckdiaz @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @buddierights @tizniz @diazsdimples @wikiangela @hoodie-buck @say-bi-for-me @theotherbuckley @fortheloveofbuddie @lemonzestywrites @daffi-990 @jesuisici33 @elvensorceress @giddyupbuck @watchyourbuck @monsterrae1 @steadfastsaturnsrings @spotsandsocks @vanillahigh00 @wildlife4life @your-catfish-friend and anyone else who wants to play 😘

[bi-buck-coded]

WIP Wednesday!

Back at it, gang. This is a very rough draft of the beginning of the Newlywed fic! Thank you to @911onabc for letting me use her idea lmao

I wasn't tagged by anyone and honestly I don't know who's writing fic rn in this fandom so I have no clue who to tag! I'll try to figure that out for next time. I'll make a list. For now I guess I tag everyone who sees this and has wips.

__

“Eddie and I could so sweep!” Buck argues following Chimney through the kitchen. The wedding had been amazing, the food and dancing had been great, now Maddie wanted to play the newlywed game. Not just a normal game, though, she wanted it to be a competition. Her and Chim on a team, Bobby and Athena, Karen and Hen, and Buck would have been fine not playing. Except the winning team got a week of paid vacation for its 118 member. Eddie and Chris haven’t been able to visit Texas in a while and Buck, like always, is trying to have his back. Now if only Chimney would let him. 

“Buck, Bobby only got permission for one of us to get a week off, not two,” Chimney sighs as he sets down the empty bowl that he had been carrying in. Everyone’s working on cleaning the long table at the back of the yard so that they can set it up for the teams. “Anyway we only have six whiteboards and markers.” He turns to look at Buck with his hands up as if appologizing, but Buck isn’t backing down.

“Listen, I don’t need the time off, Eddie can have it. Plus we can just use Jee’s crayons and paper! Chimney, please.” Buck interlocks his hands in front of his chest, begging. Rolling his eyes, Chimney reaches for a beer.

"Okay, okay fine, but Buck these questions can get-"

"Yeah, I know, personal questions and all that. It's fine! Eddie and I know everything about each other." Buck pats Chimney on the back before bounding back towards the yard. "I've gotta go tell Eds, can you grab the paper and crayons?" With that he's out the door.

"-sexual. They can get weird and sexual." Chimney continues, grumbling to himself. "Hope you know what his favorite part of your body is!" he yells out to an empty room.

[foreverrandomwritings]

Season 2 Episode 3: Hold the Line.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE BETWEEN BOTH SHOWS!! BUCK, HEN, EDDIE IM SCREAMING, IM CRYING, IM THROWING UP!

Buck being asleep and drooling on the window. 10/10

Buck then staring at Marjan, because he recognizes her not because he’s a creep. Hen and Eddie telling him to stop. TK telling Marjan he’s staring and her looking at him.

Hen:Buck, seriously. Don’t make me report you to HR🙄

Buck is so jealous of Eddie and Hen😂😂😂

Buck: THATS FIREFOX OMG.😱

Hen and Eddie:🤨🤨

Eddie and Judd bonding over being from Texas🤗🥰

Eddie: Oh no a female Buck👁️👄👁️

Mateo: LA huh?

Buck: Yes

Mateo: I have a cousin Marvin there, we look alike maybe you know him.

Buck: LA is big don’t know him. (But Athena does lol, I love the way they explained this though. Also really want an episode where Marvin and Buck cross paths.)

Buck, TK and Mateo all bullshitting.

Buck: My dick is bigger than yours.

TK: No mine is bigger than yours.

Mateo: I’m just happy to be here.

Eddie follows Marjan.

Mark and two feet away: Really dude? Oh a kid.

Eddie: Doing the whole single dad thing.

Uhm I’m sorry, Buck is Christopher’s other dad so go fuck yourself.

Judd when any animal that isn’t a bull is involved:😬😬

Paul: Keep him talking.

Judd punches said kid in the face. 😵‍💫🥊

Mateo bringing superhero’s into like any conversation he can is adorable and I love him.

Random guy: No one else is risking their lives tonight.

Buck, Eddie, TK, Marjan, Judd, Paul and Mateo: LOL.

Owen hallucinating: 😳

Hen: 🤨

Buck: My captain is not my dad but he is. Let’s go steal a fire truck.

TK: Absofuckinglutely 🫡

Hen: Captain Strand, I think you’re kinda crazy.

Owen: Yes.

TK: We shouldn’t both get fired for this.

Buck: Well my friend is there too and I’m pretty sure she’d do the same for me.

Buck: pauses and contemplates.

Buck: No she totally would???

Buck: I cannot bring back my fire engine all fucked. My dad not dad would kill me.

Buck and TK thinking they are gonna be on their own.

Marjan, Mateo, Judd, Paul and Eddie: You two dumbasses we’re going with you.

Judd and Eddie: GO TEXAS

Eddie: Hey Marjan let’s get a pic together to make Buck jealous. Also please follow Buck on insta.

Mateo: Please look out for my cousin Marvin.

Buck: Lol I will.

Buck unaware of his LGBTQ status: We should grab dinner if you are ever in LA.

TK with his gaydar on: Just so you know I have a boyfriend.

Buck: Wtf do you mean?😅

Hen: What happens in the mineshaft stays in the mineshaft.

Owen: 🫡

[renecdote]

my dearest rennnnnn, whaaat if you did a combination of soft prompts; 22. reunion hug and 37. ‘I missed you’ <333

Hi Amy ily please enjoy this little piece of clothes thief Eddie fic <3

[Read on AO3]

They argue about it on Sunday night, bitter and low so they don’t wake the kids.

“Why does it have to be you?” Eddie asks, and he knows it’s not fair, he knows, but he can’t help the words. Can’t help the way he wants to tug on the thread that ties them together, tug Buck right into his arms and hold him, hold him, hold him.

“Why shouldn’t it be me?” Buck throws back, and it doesn’t mean the same thing it used to—it has to be me so it isn’t anybody else—but something that is harder to argue with: why shouldn’t it be me, when it has to be someone? when everyone else will be taking the same risks? when you’d do the same thing, if you could? when we’ve both done it before?

Eddie wants to argue that it’s different now. That they’re married now. That they have kids now. But it’s not like they’re the only ones. It’s not like Hen wasn’t married with a kid when she went to Texas with them. Not like Eddie didn’t have Chris to think about then as well. Not like any number of other firefighters aren’t in exactly the same situation, a lot of them without even the luxury of choice about being out there in the thick of it.

“I don’t want you to go,” is all he has to say. It’s not enough, not a reason, but if he could tear open his chest and rip out his beating heart to give Buck a reason to stay, he would.

The fight drains out of Buck’s shoulders first, slumping, then the rest of him. He closes the distance between them and pulls Eddie into a hug, holding tight.

“I know,” he murmurs against Eddie’s hair. “I’m sorry.”

But he doesn’t say he’ll stay.

Eddie doesn’t ask him to again.

****

The temperature in LA sits above ninety for a week straight. Most days, it pushes past ninety-five, the nights barely cooling down before the sun rises again and the heat rises with it. It’s far too hot for wearing layers or long-sleeves, but four days after Buck leaves to fight wildfires in Northern California, Eddie finds himself turning the A/C down a few degrees so the house is cold enough to justify pulling one of his husband’s hoodies out of the closet and putting it on, even if it’s only for a few hours.

“You’re moping, dad,” Christopher informs him at the dinner table, halfway to an eye roll. Only halfway, despite being well into his teenage years, because Eddie knows that he’s missing Buck as well. That he’s worried about Buck as well.

“I’m not moping,” Eddie tells him, even though they both know he kind of is. “Eat your broccoli.”

Christopher does roll his eyes that time, but he also eats the broccoli, so. A win for parenting. Eddie isn’t above counting even the smallest of victories there.

Isaac isn’t old enough yet to really understand where his dad has gone, or what he’s doing. He sits in front of the TV and talks to the news anchors as easily as he does to his cartoons, but it’s all just moving pictures. To his three year old mind, the wildfires are just on the TV. Eddie is torn between sheltering his kid and bracing for the possibility that the next time his phone rings, it will be someone telling him that he needs to explain to his sons why one of their dads is never coming home again.

“Buck will be fine,” Maddie Buckley tells him, sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee while Jee-Yun entertains her younger cousin with a puzzle in the living room.

Eddie wants to believe her. He wants to believe everyone who has said some variation of those words to him since the call for volunteers went out and Buck’s hand went up, but—

“How do you know?”

There’s something in the way Maddie smiles that makes her look like Buck. Somehow, even after a decade of knowing her, it surprises Eddie every time he sees it.

“He has to be fine,” she answers simply. “He knows he has to be.”

He knows he has to come home, she means. And Eddie already knew that, he did, but—it helps, hearing the conviction in someone else’s voice as well, even if they are both lying to themselves about how much control anyone, even someone as stubborn as Buck, can have over a wildfire. He hugs Maddie extra tight at the door before she leaves, and she doesn’t ask why, just hugs him back just as tight, both of them holding, holding, holding.

It’s too hot for layers or long sleeves, but Eddie sleeps in one of his husband’s t-shirts every night, closing his eyes and hugging Buck’s pillow to his chest, and lying to himself about how much it helps.

****

The heatwave has finally broken when Buck calls, ten days after leaving, and the first thing he says is, “I think I’ll be home soon.”

It’s another three days, though, before it actually happens. Eddie is stuck at work, driving everyone crazy with the anticipation crawling under his skin as he watches the clock tick down the last twelve hours of their shift. There’s a text on his phone from Carla: a photo of Buck kneeling on the floor, bag at his feet like he just came through the door, one arm around Chris and the other around Isaac. And another text from Buck, timestamped a few minutes later: I love you, I’ll see you when you get home.

“Go,” Bobby says, when the clock hits seven-thirty the next morning.

Eddie hesitates. “We still have half an hour—”

“Go,” the captain repeats. “Give Buck a hug from all of us too. Tell him you’re all coming to dinner at our place tomorrow night.”

Eddie stays just long enough to hug Bobby, quick and hard, and he doesn’t even bother changing before he grabs his bag and leaves the station.

****

The house is quiet when he lets himself in. Eddie toes his shoes off and drops his work bag in the laundry, then eases open bedroom doors to check on first Chris, then Isaac, both sleeping peacefully. He closes the doors as gently as he opened them, socked feet silent on the floorboards as he moves towards the master bedroom. Anticipation makes his fingers tingle as he reaches for the doorknob, a tiny part of him sure that he’s going to open it and find nothing but an empty bed. There’s the photo from Carla, and the text from Buck, and the phone call before his flight home, the text when he landed in LA—but that tiny part of Eddie’s brain can’t quite believe it until he pushes open the door and finds his husband sleeping on the other side.

He’s smiling wide enough to make his cheeks ache before he has even stepped into the room. Jeans and shirt are stripped quickly, and he should really shower since he didn’t do it at the station, but Eddie can’t think of anything except slipping under the covers on his side of the bed and getting his hands on Buck, whole and warm and alive.

“Hi,” he whispers, when Buck stirs under his touch, mumbling sleepily. “I missed you.”

Buck is smiling back at him before his eyes are fully open, blinking past the bleariness of sleep to bring Eddie into focus.

“Hi,” he echoes, fuzzy around the edges. “I missed you too.”

Eddie runs a hand up his side, half a welfare check, and pushes back his hair, cupping the back of Buck’s head as he leans in to kiss him. It’s not meant to be anything more than a gentle greeting, but Buck makes a sound in the back of his throat, aching and desperate, and pulls Eddie back in when he starts lean away.

They don’t surface for a long time.

Long enough that there is movement somewhere in the house—probably Chris, half-awake and hungry—and Eddie rolls quickly out of bed to lock the door before any children come looking for them, while Buck laughs at him from the bed.

“I haven’t seen you in two weeks, Eds,” he says, grinning, “locking the door should have been the first thing you did.”

Eddie finds a pair of boxers on the floor and throws them at him, but there’s a giddy kind of laughter bubbling in his chest as well; one part adrenaline from the race to the door, most parts joy at having Buck back and laughing in their bed.

“I was a little distracted,” he reminds Buck. “I haven’t seen my husband in two weeks, remember?”

He crawls back onto the bed and Buck pulls him in, stitching them together at every point, holding just for the sake of holding. Eddie kisses him again, because he can, on the lips and the tip of his nose and the pink smudge over his eyebrow.

“I love you,” he says quietly, so close Buck will be able to feel the words against this skin. He wants to say please don’t leave me to fight wildfires again but he doesn’t. Can’t. If it’s something Buck feels like he needs to do again, Eddie can’t be the person who stands in his way.

Buck smiles, fingers tracing the lines of Eddie’s face; the dark smudges under his eyes, the dimple in his cheek, the scar barely visible at the edge of his hairline.

“I love you too,” he replies, just as soft, and Eddie feels the warmth of the words against his skin.

There’s a distant clatter, the sound of pots or pans in the kitchen, and they both wait, listening, but there is no call for help. There is more clattering, but  it’s the controlled kind, an everyday cooking kind of noise, and Eddie guesses Chris is going to rope them into making pancakes any minute with a cajoling, see dad, I already got out everything we need.

They’ve got a minute before that happens though. Maybe two, or three, or four. Eddie closes his eyes, breathing in the scent of Buck’s shampoo and something else he must be imagining, something smokey and faintly sweet like young wood. It can’t be real, he knows Buck will have washed his hair at least three times before he even got to the airport, the same way he does after a house fire, scrubbing every inch of skin until the smell of fire is gone. He wouldn’t have hugged the kids until he was sure he didn’t smell like wildfire anymore, but Eddie still imagines he can smell it.

Those words are still sitting on the tip of his tongue—please don’t leave me again—but he swallows them back.

“We should get up,” Buck says, but he doesn’t move.

Eddie hums, half agreement, and holds him closer. “In a minute.” Or two, or three, or four. “We’ve got time.”

Buck’s arm is warm over his waist, his chest rising and falling slowly, his heart beating steady against Eddie’s. So much better than a pillow, or a sleep shirt, or a hoodie. Eddie takes a deep breath, breathing it all in, and for the first time in two weeks he holds, and holds, and holds.

Wrapped around him, the thread between them so tangled that Eddie can’t be sure where it begins and ends, Buck takes his own deep breath, breathing it all in, and hugs back just as tight.