Chapter Text
Eddie wasn’t happy about it. Buck hadn’t expected him to be, it was Taylor Kelly after all, and Eddie was more than a bit protective of him at this point. Buck also thought that Eddie felt a bit guilty for Buck being attacked when he’d been barely a few feet away.
In any case, it took a very long discussion, another discussion involving Bobby and Athena, and then a final private conversation that devolved into mutual blowjobs.
Then, there’d been getting it approved by the LAFD PR department. Bobby had reminded him that it would be in his best interest to get their support before going on TV, as he was representing the department.
It took a couple days, and then Buck was able to give Taylor the greenlight.
In those couple days, Maddie, through Chim, reached out with a letter. There was an apology, for not letting him have the space he asked for, for trying to force a relationship between him and Margaret and Phillip, and for not listening to him.
And, at the end of the letter, there was an offer to try therapy together.
Therapy was something that Buck had always thought was out of his reach. For everyone else, he was a huge proponent of it, as both Eddie and Chris could attest to. He definitely thought it would be a good thing for Maddie to commit to, as she’d gone through hell, and trying to get through it without help was not good for her.
For himself though… He knew he had issues. He’d had issues since he was a child, and it was likely affecting him in ways that he hadn’t even thought of. But therapy had always been something meant for others, because everything he’d read on the topic had illustrated the importance of being honest.
There had been a huge part of himself that he hadn’t been able to trust another person with, let alone a therapist. There’d been no shortage of mutants outed by their own doctors, citing their abilities as being a threat to themselves and others as the justification for breaking confidentiality.
So, with the exception of Dr. Welles that Bobby had sent him to because of Devon, which had been nothing short of a disaster, therapy had been something that Buck thought of somewhat wistfully. Something that could help everybody but him.
But now…
There was a certain feeling of freedom, now that people knew. No one gained anything from outing him, as he’d already done that himself. He could get a therapist, as long as they weren’t prejudiced.
He could get help.
When Eddie had found him crying over the letter, and Buck had tearfully explained why the offer of joint therapy had affected him so much, Eddie had broken down weeping next to him.
Needless to say, he’d called Maddie and they’d both cried over the phone. They decided that Buck would be the one to reach out to her therapist, his sister letting him set the pace.
Somewhat cynically, he wondered how long this newfound understanding would last, but for now he’d take it.
Margaret and Phillip tried calling him again, but he’d declined the call, and blocked their number without remorse. He had family, and they weren’t part of it.
All of that led to him sitting in a chair across from Taylor Kelly, looking as beautiful and intense as she always was, but there was a hint of camaraderie that they hadn’t shared before. They’d gone over the list of questions beforehand, and gotten them approved by the LAFD PR, and now it was showtime.
“Hello LA! I’m Taylor Kelly, from Channel 8 News, and here with me is a very special guest, the LAFD’s very own Evan Buckley!”
“Please, call me Buck.” He cut in, desperately not wanting her to be calling him Evan for the interview. She shot him a knowing look, but went with it.
“Alright Buck. Thank you for coming tonight. I know it’s been a very eventful past couple weeks for you.”
“Yes, it has. I, I honestly wasn’t sure this day would come.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I can actually say I’m a mutant, and talk about it with you without being thrown out.” They’d agreed that blunt was better, as it was more in line with his personality, and they wanted people to pay attention.
“Has that ever happened to you Buck?”
“Not to me personally, no. Before I revealed my gift at the house fire, only two people in the world knew about me. I was good at hiding, at passing for normal. But…” Buck took a breath, and dug deep.
“One of my dearest friends had her house set on fire, with her in it, because someone found out she had wings. And because I got her out, we were shot at, and had to flee.”
Question by question, Taylor drew his story out of him. Growing up with anti-mutant rhetoric as regular dinner conversation, the realization of what he was, and what that meant for his safety. The moment when he realized that even though he had escaped his parents’ house, he still wasn’t safe. The nightlight kid. The wandering from place to place, the fear of letting anyone close.
The underlying fury that he had to hide.
Then, getting to LA, overcoming that fear just enough to take a chance on the LAFD.
“Being a firefighter is more than a job to me. It’s a calling. And up until a few weeks ago, it was a calling that would have been taken away if I’d spoken up about my gift. Then Chief Alonso came to our station to announce the newest article of the Mutant Protection Act, and for the first time in over ten years, I thought seriously about telling someone. About declaring my ability to the department, so that I could openly use it.”
“That sounds like a terrifying decision to make.”
“It was. I’d just gotten the courage to tell my best friend, my partner. And it turns out he already knew, and was just waiting for me to be ready to tell him.”
“Oh? Sounds like there’s a story behind that.” Taylor prodded, mischief glinting in her eyes.
“Heh, you’re right. So, one of the benefits of my gift is immunity to burns caused by high temperatures. Which comes in handy when you’re coming into contact with fire.” Buck paused, and Taylor’s smile widened. “It also means I can’t burn my mouth on hot coffee if I’m in a rush.”
“So…”
“So, turns out when I’m sufficiently sleep-deprived, I’m not thinking of anyone seeing me drink boiling hot coffee directly from the pot.”
Taylor snickered, and Buck laughed with her, and some of the production team even broke out in giggles.
“That’s one way of outing yourself.”
“Yeah, he’s never gonna let me live it down.” Buck let the chuckles die out, then went back to being serious.
“Anyway, even after that reveal went better than I could have hoped, I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do. But then, that fire happened, and I was the only one who could get close to the victim without incredible risk, and I had to do it.”
Taylor was very good at her job. She had been even last year, but some time had definitely allowed her to hone her style, and she learned how to care for the story itself, and the people involved. It meant that she knew how to steer the conversation to get the most impact on the points she wanted made.
It was very good that they were working together, or she would have eaten him alive.
And then they came to the recent attack on him.
“I wasn’t surprised that it happened.” He admitted. “I’d been expecting something like that, to be honest, because as supportive as many people have been, there are always those who will hate people who are different. Or, they find it benefits them to villainize a whole group. But, I have to hope that as the years go by, the hate will be beaten back, little by little, and then maybe, there will be kids who’ve manifested whose first thought isn’t of fear and how to hide.”
Maybe it was a trick of the light, but Buck thought he could see a glimmer of tears in Taylor’s eyes.
That seemed to be the cue for Taylor to wrap it up, as she thanked him for coming, and did her closing remarks. They then waited for the crew to signal that the camera was off, and both slumped in their seats.
“You were very honest tonight.” Taylor remarked, voice quiet. She was smiling, but her eyes were intent and focused.
“I’m a bad liar, and I figured it was better to be as honest as I could.” She cocked her head, and he felt a little bit like prey under a predator’s gaze.
“You’re telling the truth about being a bad liar. Isn’t that interesting…” She dialed back the intensity, but Buck found his interest caught, and took a gamble.
“Are you good at knowing when people lie?” He gave her his best innocent look, eyes wide, head tipped ever so slightly to the side, the one that Eddie always caved for. Taylor blinked, then she laughed, a full-throated sound that warmed up her whole face.
“I guess you could say that it’s a gift.”
Well. Wasn’t that interesting.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The interview went viral.
Bobby passed on compliments from both the Chief and the PR department, as he’d made the LAFD look good, and hadn’t gone off script too much. Bobby rolled his eyes at the political double-speak just as much as Buck, but they both knew it was important to play ball as much as they could.
You never knew when the goodwill could come in handy.
Buck started getting used to the new normal at work, where more often than not he was recognized on scene, but worked through it. He was more on his guard, but so far, in the couple weeks following the interview, there hadn’t been a repeat attack.
Eddie still stuck close whenever he could, and everyone else graciously didn’t say a word about it.
One thing that had changed at the firehouse was Buck shucking the habit of using oven mitts when he helped in the kitchen. It was a relief not to have to do it anymore, because he didn’t need to hide.
The first time Bobby caught him drinking coffee directly from the pot after a sleepless night, he stared at Buck, stared at a smirking Eddie, and nearly keeled over from laughter. Buck rolled his eyes, and kept chugging.
Outside of work, there were more changes. For one, Buck started going to therapy. He’d asked Eddie’s therapist for recommendations, and had clicked remarkably well with the second therapist on the list. Dr. Copeland was unflappable, and always seemed to know how to get Buck to open up, even about the more horrific things in his past.
Buck finally understood more about why Eddie seemed so tired after his sessions. Therapy was hard, so very hard and exhausting and painful. But it was also cathartic, and it helped to have his experiences acknowledged for what they were. Traumas that would stay with him for the rest of his life, but events that didn’t have to control him.
Angela came up more than once, and Buck hoped that she’d found her way to healing as well.
He and Maddie hadn’t had any joint sessions yet, but Dr. Copeland thought that he would soon be ready for that first session. It turned out that he had resented Maddie even more than he’d thought, and untangling the mess of emotions that had snarled up their relationship was taking time.
So, instead of meeting in person, they’d started texting instead. Not just conversations, but sharing pictures, memes, the newest emoji that made them laugh… All new interactions that they hadn’t really had before, and it was helping them get to know each other on a more equal ground than they’d ever had. Because as much as Maddie didn’t really know Buck as an adult, neither did Buck really know Maddie, as they’d both changed through the years apart.
They still didn’t talk about their parents. That subject both of their therapists had strongly advised leaving until they were in joint sessions. Buck knew that he’d never willingly speak to them again, but he had the feeling Maddie still hoped they could reconcile and have some kind of relationship. Everyone else in his life knew differently, and he could tell that Chim dearly hoped he’d never have to meet them.
The other big change was Eddie. Or rather, Eddie asked for a change, by asking him to move in with him, permanently.
“You spend most of your time here anyways, and I want you to know that this is your home, just as much as it’s mine and Chris’s.” Eddie said one night, both in a familiar position cuddling on the couch.
“It already feels like home. I just never…” Buck let out a breath, and tried to put his thoughts in order.
“I never thought I could have this. For the longest time, I was just trying to live in the moment, to take what I could get, because what was the use in hoping for something impossible? And then there you were,” Buck smiled thinking back to those early days, when he’d only thought he’d gained a friend, not knowing he’d met the love of his life, “turning all my expectations upside down. Both you and Chris. By the time I’d realized I’d fallen in love, it was too late to stop from hoping a future with you was possible. And then, you tried to move me in after the tsunami…” Eddie chuckled, and Buck turned his head to see his face.
“Chris was disappointed that it didn’t work. So was I, but you weren’t ready for that, were you?”
“I couldn’t, not when you didn’t know. And then you figured it out, and just accepted it, and…” Buck trailed off, and just looked at Eddie. Looked at the love in his eyes, the soft smile on his face, and thought of how he could look at that for the rest of his life. Buck reached up to cup that face, and Eddie leaned into it, trusting like always.
“I couldn’t have done any of this without you Eddie.” Then, he pulled Eddie down into a kiss. It started soft, like many of their kisses did, just the movement of their lips together, a give and take that was integral to their relationship. Then Eddie shifted, and nudged Buck off his lap to maneuver him to lie down on the couch, and lowered himself down over Buck, deepening the kiss as he did.
Buck sighed, and let himself go pliant. He let his hands wander into Eddie’s hair, and swallowed Eddie’s groan when he tugged ever so slightly.
He’d discovered that Eddie loved having his hair played with, so he was hoping that Eddie would grow it out more. Eddie had found that Buck’s neck was incredibly sensitive, and took full advantage of that as often as he could.
He did so now, breaking his mouth away from Buck’s to mouth down his jaw to his neck, and bit lightly at his pulse point. Buck whined, but didn’t pull away, just bared his neck even more. Eddie took the invitation as intended and sucked a mark onto Buck’s neck, high enough that they were going to get eyerolls from Hen and Bobby on their next shift.
Once Eddie deemed the mark dark enough, he lifted his head up to look Buck in the eye and smirk.
“Was that a yes to moving in?”
Buck blinked, thought back to their conversation, then laughed.
“I didn’t actually say it, did I?” Buck asked, and chuckled again. “Yes Eddie, I’ll move in. You’re not getting rid of me now. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me, for however long you’ll have me.”
“Then I guess that means forever.” Eddie replied, now smiling widely, and now it was Eddie’s turn to pull Buck in for a kiss.
Buck at the age of sixteen hadn’t thought to hope for much further than getting out of his parents’ house. Buck at twenty-three had looked at the wreckage of the life he’d thought he’d have with a fellow mutant, and thought he’d never love again. Buck at the age of twenty-six had seen Eddie for the first time and thought this was when he’d be replaced and lose everything all over again.
And today, Buck knew that he was looking at his future, and it had never been brighter.