4k | rated T | read on ao3
Yeah,” Eddie agrees. “And he’s always gonna be my best friend. He’s always gonna be the person I turn to. The first person I look to when I’m happy, or hurting.” He laughs again. “Even when it’s kind of his fault.”
Marisol goes a little still against his arm, and draws away. “The first person?”
Eddie turns his face toward her. “Well, yeah. That’s just how it’s been since we met.”
or, Buck tells Eddie some news. Eddie breaks up with his girlfriend. Not necessarily in that order.
written for @burnthatbridge
Eddie collapses down on the sofa, propping his ankle up on the coffee table. It’s pretty much completely healed by now, but it still twinges a bit when he’s been on his feet all day. Marisol drops onto the couch next to him and kicks off her heels.
“Man, that was such a funny coincidence, seeing Buck and Tommy at Pizzana,” he says.
She hums noncommittally. “It’s a pretty popular spot, isn’t it?”
Eddie wouldn’t really know—Buck’s the one who picks the restaurant when they go out, always excited to try whatever new place he saw on instagram or the Los Angeles food subreddit. Now that he thinks about, Buck is definitely the one who first mentioned Pizzana to Eddie, so maybe it wasn’t such a coincidence.
“Well, I’m glad he and Tommy are hanging out. I knew they’d hit it off if Buck just gave him a chance.” It had been a surprise to see them out together, but a good surprise. After the basketball incident, Tommy had told Eddie he wanted to clear the air with Buck, and it seems the air was successfully cleared.
They’d been done with their dinner, but Eddie had convinced the two of them to stay for another drink while he and Marisol waited for their own pizza. It had been fun—he likes Tommy a lot, and now that Buck’s let his guard down he can see he likes the guy, too.
It kinda reminded him of how Buck was when he first met Eddie—territorial, at first, but then once Eddie had proved he wouldn’t be so easily put-off by Buck’s barking he’d sort of…melted. That was the only word Eddie could think of to describe it, the way he’d smiled and just opened up, like a dog rolling over to show his soft belly, blushing pink as a flower unfurling into full bloom.
Anyway, it would’ve been a nice night, with the four of them—and on the surface, it had been. They’d laughed and joked and recounted the entire hurricane rescue for Marisol. But something had felt…off with Buck. It had been bothering Eddie all night. Not quite the same way things had felt off with him before the basketball incident. Something else. He’d been…nervous, almost? Eddie had been thrilled to run into them, but for a minute when his gaze landed on Buck, Buck had looked…guilty, almost.
He had no reason to be. He’d already apologized to Eddie for the whole thing, and Eddie had reassured him and gently chided him for not just telling him he was feeling left out, and they’d been fine since then. More than fine. They had plans to take Chris to his surf lesson tomorrow, for god’s sake.
“Eddie,” Marisol prods gently. “What are you thinking about?”
Eddie turns to her, his easy-going smile already in place. Her own smile flickers and he knows he’s made a mistake.
They’ve been talking about this, is the thing. A few days ago, she sat him down and told her how it bothers her that Eddie doesn’t—hasn’t—opened up to her. He can’t really deny it. He hadn’t told her much at all about the hurricane rescue until it had come up tonight. He hadn’t told her much about Shannon, or about what Chris had been going through a few weeks ago. He doesn’t know why—he’s not that guy that just bottles up his feelings anymore. He’s not.
So he takes a breath, and he says, “I guess I’m just thinking about Buck.”
“Buck?” she echoes, but she doesn’t sound surprised, exactly.
“Yeah,” Eddie continues. “He seemed off tonight, and I guess maybe he’s still feeling guilty about what happened at the pick-up game, but—I forgave him for that.”
Tommy had been the one to explain the basketball incident to Marisol, when she’d showed up that night for their date and Eddie had been crashed out on the couch, loopy with pain meds. Eddie’s actually not sure what Tommy had told Marisol, but she seemed to at least have gleaned that Buck was more or less responsible for Eddie’s condition.
Eddie shakes his head and blows out a breath of frustration. “I just—I wish there was some way to get him to really understand, you know? That we’re partners and that nothing and no one is ever going to change that.”
Marisol shifts beside him, her dark curls brushing against his arm where it lies along the back of the couch. “Well, I mean. What if one of you gets reassigned?”
Eddie stares at her for a minute, puzzled. Then he laughs. “No, I don’t mean partners at work. I mean, you know. We’re partners.”
