ohhhh for the whump symbols ⬤ or ✘ pls 💖
⬤: being called soft things like baby, sweetheart
✘: forehead kisses
it happens in the blink of an eye.
it’s a beautiful day, perfect for the hike they’ve planned, and buck is giddy with it—giddy with the glory of the world around them, giddy with the fact that it’s the first time he and eddie have had any time to themselves in weeks.
giddy, still, with the fact that this is what time to themselves looks like now—eddie’s hand in his, on trips they planned in the bed they share. a teasing grin on eddie’s face and his posture more relaxed than buck remembers ever seeing, like he finally feels at home in his body. in himself.
and so buck’s giddy, full to bursting with lightning-quick energy. he feels almost like the golden retriever hen sometimes calls him, like he could run circles around eddie just to stop feeling like a live wire.
but he’s pretty sure that wouldn’t be very attractive.
there’s a tree a little ways further down, tall and majestic, branches hanging over the path and further still, peeking over the edge of the slight cliff to the path below. buck nudges eddie, then glances at the tree. “bet you i can climb that,” he says.
“buck—” eddie starts, but buck’s already halfway to the tree, eyeing the best footholds and mapping his path up the trunk.
it goes great, all the way until it doesn’t.
buck should have been more careful. he should have paid more attention, should have thought about where he was putting his weight, but he was too caught up looking down at eddie and catching the way eddie’s eyes tracked appreciative paths down his biceps to notice the cracking sounds beneath him until—
it happens in the blink of an eye. one moment he’s in the tree winking down at eddie, the next he’s on the ground and sharp pain lances through his shin. he looks around, confused, but doesn’t see eddie, and he doesn’t understand what happened until eddie calls out his name and he follows the sound to see eddie peering down at him.
he’s gone over the cliff, then. it isn’t too high, thankfully, but it’s high enough that he doesn’t dare look at his leg, not just yet. from the pain he’s pretty sure that it’s broken, but he doesn’t dare figure out just how badly.
“buck!” eddie calls out again. “are you—”
“i’m good,” buck calls back, wincing when he tries to twist to look at eddie and his leg lights up with pain. “or—alive. mostly in one piece.”
“sit tight,” eddie says, and despite it all buck huffs out half a laugh. where is he supposed to go?
a moment later, eddie’s scrambling down the gravelly cliffside with both their backpacks on his back. he’s careful, methodical, clearly trying to make sure at least one of them retains the ability to get out of here, but he’s still by buck’s side faster than buck would have thought possible.
“hey,” eddie murmurs, cupping buck’s cheek, and hot tears well in buck’s eyes.
it’s not the pain, though his leg does hurt like a bitch. pain is something he can deal with. but the way eddie’s looking at him, the care and concern and the fierce determination burning in the background—
that’s new. buck’s had people who’ve cared about them before, but never like this.
“baby,” eddie murmurs when the tears slip out, and leans in to press a gentle kiss to his forehead, sweaty and grimy as it must be. “it’ll be okay. i already called it in, a crew is on its way to get us.”
“i—my leg,” buck says, trying not to stumble over his words as the tears slip silently down his cheeks. “i haven’t—how bad—”
“let me take a look,” eddie says, and moves over, careful not to jostle buck’s leg. “can i—”
buck nods, and grits his teeth against the pain he knows will come when eddie starts to examine him.
“this one?” eddie asks, and buck hisses as he touches it.
“yeah.”
eddie’s touch is gentle. eddie’s always gentle with him, but—there are different kinds of gentle, buck thinks, lying there with his leg sticking out. usually, eddie is gentle like he deserves it. like he is loved. now, eddie is gentle the way one is with a baby bird, with hand-blown glass or spun sugar, with fragile things ready to come apart in your hands.
it takes barely a minute for eddie to examine him but it takes a lifetime, too, a lifetime of buck biting down and trying to keep his breathing even. but finally it’s done, and eddie shuffles back around, settles carefully behind buck and lets buck rest his weight against him.
“tell me,” buck murmurs, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against eddie’s shoulder.
“broken,” eddie says softly. “but—not too badly, i don’t think. a cast and some crutches, and you’ll be back on your feet in no time.”
buck tries to take a deep breath, but it hitches on the way in. every time he thinks he’s done, new tears keep welling up.
“sweetheart,” eddie says, pressing his lips to buck’s temple. “it’s going to be okay. you’re going to be fine.”
and it feels—nonsensical, in this moment, when he’s lying on the ground beside a hiking path with a broken leg, covered in grime and sweat and tears, and probably blood, too, from the small cuts he can feel stinging all over.
but he’s not alone. eddie’s got his back, here on this hiking path and out in the field and in the grocery store bickering over which kind of cereal to buy.
so—
maybe eddie’s right.
it’s going to be okay.
whump prompts 🚑
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