“You said I had nice lips. Who says that?” for the prompt please!
also for the anon who sent “do you have a crush on me or something?” bc it also fit<3 also for @thatbuddie and @gayeddiaz and @queerpanikkar who tagged me in seven sentence sunday and this totally counts bc i said so
three rounds into truth or dare, buck remembers why they stopped playing firehouse truth or dare a long time ago.
long enough ago, it turns out, that when they finally managed to get everyone together for a team night in—all the kids with a joint sitter at hen and karen’s place, all the adults together at bobby and athena’s for wine and dinner and some more wine—and someone suggests it, no one remembers that truth or dare tends to be a bad idea.
buck loves his team. he does. they’re like family to him, people he’d do anything for, people he trusts to have his back no matter what. but none of that takes away from the fact that when they get drunk together, they tend to mostly resemble a junior high slumber party.
ravi’s just finished a dramatic rendition of jabberwocky, the only poem he says he knows. hen, who’d dared him to recite a poem, sits back and nods in approval, taking a long swig from the glass of colourful punch in front of her.
(they’d put buck on bartending duty, but no one had given him any specific instructions. he figures they’re long overdue for a good old-fashioned jungle juice party.)
ravi reaches for the wine bottle and gives it a vigorous spin. it rattles perilously close to the edge of the coffee table, slowing to stop barely an inch away.
when it settles, the open mouth is clearly pointing at eddie.
“okayyy, eddie,” ravi says, gesturing at eddie with his glass. some of the punch sloshes onto his hand, but he doesn’t seem to care. “truth or dare?”
next to buck eddie blinks, slowly, like it takes a moment for him to realise ravi’s talking to him. “huh? oh! me, okay.” he sits a little straighter in his seat, then lurches to the side, catching himself on buck’s leg. he leans into buck, settling against his side as he regains his balance.
it’s one of the rare nights eddie doesn’t have to worry about christopher, and it shows.
“dare,” eddie decides.
“ooookay,” ravi says. he looks around the room, his eyes settling briefly on eddie’s palm still resting on buck’s thigh. ravi opens his mouth, still looking at eddie’s hand, and buck’s heart rate picks up. “eddie, i dare you to compliment everybody in this room.”
“booooooo,” chimney calls out, reaching for his drink. “boooooooring.”
hen elbows chimney, raising her eyebrows at eddie’s hand on buck’s leg. “let the man speak.”
“hm,” eddie says, looking around the haphazard circle gathered on bobby and athena’s patio. he starts on his left side, narrowing his eyes at each person one by one until he gets all the way around and lands on buck, pressed against his right.
“oh!” eddie says, delighted, his entire face lighting up. “buck! buck has really pretty eyes.”
across the room, hen snorts, and chimney’s eyebrows fly up into his hairline.
“thanks, eddie,” buck laughs, bumping his shoulder against eddie’s. “you gonna—”
“also!” eddie says, cutting him off. “good legs. thick. very nice.” he pats buck’s thigh, and when his hand settles again his fingers brush the seam along the inside of buck’s leg. heat flutters along buck’s skin, spreading when eddie’s fingers start tapping along to the music, soft and a little off-beat.
“that it?” hen asks, and eddie frowns.
“nice lips,” he says. “buck has nice lips. so pink. so pretty.”
buck blinks, and the room goes silent around them. eddie doesn’t seem to realise he’s said anything weird, but everyone else is staring at him.
“uh… okay then,” chimney says slowly, looking between buck and eddie. buck’s pretty sure there’s a flush spreading across his cheeks, and he can’t seem to stop himself glancing over at eddie every seven seconds. he catches eddie’s eye, once, and eddie grins at him, wide and dopey. it nails buck to his seat, burrows into him and warms him from the inside out.
“ready to give that bottle a spin there, eddie?” hen asks.
“oh!” eddie exclaims. he reaches for the bottle and it breaks whatever moment was building between them, leaving buck with flushed cheeks and something hollow like hunger in his chest.
eddie spins the bottle and dares chimney to do three cartwheels without throwing up, and then it’s chimney’s turn to spin. the bottle teeters along, finally coming to a stop by buck.
“dare,” buck says before chimney can even ask, leaning back against the couch and crossing a leg over his knee. “come on, give me your worst.”
“okay,” chimney says. “i dare you to kiss eddie.”
“okay!” eddie says immediately, bright and happy, turning to face buck.
“chimney, man, come on,” buck says. “look at him, he’s wasted.”
“yeah,” eddie agrees, nodding vigorously. “but you can still kiss me.”
“it’s not right,” buck says. “he’s—”
“he’s fine,” eddie says, reaching over to cover buck’s mouth with his hand. he misses at first, landing mostly on buck’s cheek, and fumbles for a moment before finding it. “and he’s fiiiiine.”
“he’s clearly not in his right mind,” buck finishes.
“hey, he says he wants to,” chimney shrugs.
“he’s wasted,” buck says. “that’s not consent.”
“it’s just truth or dare, buck,” hen frowns.
“still kissing,” buck says. “how would you feel if denny got drunk and kissed someone he didn’t want to? that still not count?”
“but—oh,” hen says. “oh. okay. i see. buck, you want to just spin the bottle?”
“but he didn’t—” chimney starts, and hen elbows him until he shuts up.
—
buck ubers home with eddie, still unsteady on his feet. christopher is staying at hen and karen’s until the morning, so they don’t have to worry about being loud when they stumble in, when eddie bumps into the coat rack and the armchair before collapsing onto the couch.
buck sits on the coffee table. eddie shifts on the couch, blinking up at him.
“you didn’t kiss me,” eddie mumbles.
“you don’t actually want me to,” buck says. “you’re just drunk.”
“what if i’m both?” eddie asks, crossing his arms over his chest. the movement almost makes him fall off the sofa, and he scrambles around for something to hold on to.
buck catches him by the hand without thinking about it. “you’re not, though,” he says. “you don’t want to kiss me, so it wouldn’t be fair to either of us.”
“would be so fair,” eddie says. then he squints. “why wouldn’t it be fair to you?”
“uh—” buck starts, casting around for an excuse. before he can come up with anything, eddie snaps his fingers.
“what, do you have a crush on me? you have a crush on me!” he declares, victorious. “you want to kiss me. i want to kiss you. it aaaaaall works.”
buck looks up to find eddie staring at him, quiet and intense. “eddie—”
“i have a crush on you,” eddie says. “no, that’s stupid. we’re not twelve. i’m in love with you.”
“eddie, you’re drunk,” buck says, his heart beating in his throat and his every fingertip vibrating with how much he wants the things eddie’s saying to be true.
“probably,” eddie agrees. “i still mean it, though.”
“tell you what,” buck says. “if you still mean it, you can tell me again in the morning.”
“okay,” eddie sighs, flopping back on the couch. “i’ll tell you tomorrow. and the next day. probably the day after that, too.”
“sounds like a plan,” buck murmurs. “now you just need to get into your bed. think you can do that?”
—
buck wakes up on the couch the next morning to find eddie sitting on the coffee table. there are two steaming mugs of coffee behind him, but eddie sits with his forearms braced on his thighs and all his attention focused on buck.
“eddie—” buck mumbles, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “what—”
“hey,” eddie says, his voice a little gravelly from his hangover but steady and full of conviction. “if memory serves, i said some things last night.”
buck grins. “yeah, you said i have nice lips. who says that?”
“you know what—” eddie starts, then bursts out laughing. “clearly, i said that. and i stand by it, for the record. but that’s not—”
“no, it’s not,” buck murmurs.
“i said i’m in love with you,” eddie says. “and i meant it. and i still mean it.”
eddie looks at him then, his eyes dark and intense, and buck feels it all the way down to his bones. eddie looks at him, and in that one look buck sees afternoons at the park and lazy sunday mornings, days spent together with christopher and nights tucked up with eddie with nothing else between them. eddie looks at him, and in one look buck sees his future.
“hey, eddie,” buck says, letting a smile settle over his face. “i dare you to kiss me.”
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