Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I’ll light the fire

You place the flowers in the vase

That you bought today

Staring at the fire

For hours and hours while I listen to you

Play your love songs all night long

For me, only for me

Come to me now

And rest your head for just five minutes

Everything is done 

Our House, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 

Eddie watched over his sisters as they laid sleeping on a bedsheet made of candy wrappers. A smile found its way on his face, when he saw the lollipop stick grasped tightly in Adriana’s hand. Her face was a mixture of melting chocolate and old face paint, that had been leftover from Sophia’s stint in their rec center's theatre club. 

Adriana was curled up against Sophia. Her sticky cheek pressed against the collar of Sophia's makeshift ghost costume. Quiet snores left Sophia’s mouth. Her eyes were slightly open, showing she had fully submerged herself in sleep’s enticing hold. 

The half open eyes never failed to creep Eddie out. 

He dragged his hands over her eyes, trying to get them to fully close. Her nose scrunched up at the disruption to her sleep and she turned her head away. 

Eddie shook his head and reached over to the baby wipes he had brought into their room. It had initially been used to wipe away the face paint, but now he also had to wipe at the chocolate drying on her chin. Adriana’s face needed to be clean or she would wound up with ants in her room. 

Delicately, he wiped her skin clear of paint and chocolate. As he erased all traces of Halloween from her face, he reflected fondly of their night together. 

Sophia and Eddie resolutely decided they were too old to go trick-or-treating. However, Adriana was still young enough to find trick-or-treating enjoyable. 

Their dad was in Nacogdoches for work. Their mom was at the country club, drinking with friends who purposefully mispronounced her name. Even if they were at home, the two of them rarely took them trick-or-treating. They would only go, depending on their parents' current mood. 

Adriana said she would be fine not trick-or-treating that year. However, neither he nor Sophia could tear their eyes away from her downtrodden face. 

Soon  they found themselves trying to make costumes. They put face paint on Adriana and sighed in relief, when she wasn't allergic to it. Spending the majority of the night going from house to house, they all enjoyed themselves tremendously. Eddie would never admit it to anyone, but he did have fun in spite of the way he groaned about having to be with his baby sisters all night. 

He wiped her hands and removed the lollipop from her hand. It was certainly a fight. She did not want to let that lollipop go. Thankfully, Eddie was victorious. 

Sighing, he looked down to see Adriana’s hand had woven itself into Sophia’s hair. Her sticky fingers trailed candy through her thick tresses. Sophia was going to be understandably upset at her, once she woke up. Wanting to mitigate that disaster, he carefully pried her fingers away from Sophia’s hair. 

He wiped her hair and then went into the bathroom to grab a wet towel and a bar of soap. He went back to his sisters’ room and began to clean her hair. He stopped, once he was satisfied Sophia wouldn’t wake up to a mess. 

He picked Adriana up and placed her into her twin bed. Then he grabbed Sophia and dropped her onto the other twin bed. He took off her glasses and set them aside on her bedside table. 

Looking over their room, he cleaned up the remaining candy wrappers. Then he grabbed the uneaten candy and put it back in the bowl they had used to trick-or-treat. He’d place it in his room. He didn’t trust leaving it in Adriana’s vicinity. She just got her cavities filled.

Walking back to his room, his footsteps stopped once he heard the front door open. 

His mom found his eyes first. Then her eyes rested on the bowl of candy he held in his hands. He held his breath, waiting for his mom to say something. 

He knew they didn’t have their parents permission to go trick-or-treating. He knew his dad didn’t like the overindulgence of candy on this holiday. However, he figured  his parents weren’t there to enforce his roles. 

His dad was gone for work. And every time his mom was out at the country club, she never came back until nearly two in the morning. 

But there she was standing in the entrance of their front door that was still cracked open. She kept silently staring at the evidence of his disobedience. She closed the door behind her and walked to him. 

The stain of wine on her lips was nearly the same color in her strained red eyes. The demoralizing effect of exhaustion caused her to look pale and withdrawn. He wondered what brought that on. Then as if becoming aware of herself she smiled at him and reached out her hand for his. 

He slipped his hand into hers and held onto the candy bowl with his other hand. 

“May you share some candy with me? Looks like you all had a pretty good haul,” his mom questioned. 

He stared at her in confusion. His mom was never a fan of candy. She preferred fruit to satisfy her craving for something sweet. Though looking at her haggard appearance, he considered that maybe she needed the sugar to pick her up. 

He nodded his head at her and was led away into the living room where she sat down on the floor. His mom never liked sitting on the floor. Yet there she was, with her legs bent underneath her. Wrinkles gathered in her starched ironed skirt.   

Eddie placed the candy bowl between them. He already had his full. Any more candy ingested into his system would have dire consequences. However, when his mom pressed a Smarties candy into his hand and told him, “Look, they even have Smarties. I know they're your favorite,” he found himself opening the wrappers and eating it. 

It wasn’t his favorite anymore.

He didn’t like the dry chalkiness of the candy. Despite this, he smiled at her and kept grabbing more of the small candies as his mom gave them to him.   

She smiled around her lollipop, expression shifting into something looser and more carefree. Her hair slipped out of her carefully constructed ponytail. She leaned against the couch and splayed her legs out in front of her. 

His eyes trailed to the stockings she wore. There was a line cutting its way from her knee all the way down to her ankle. The stockings were free from any damage, when she had left. He wondered what happened in the time that she had been gone that led to her current state. 

She didn’t say much to him. He didn’t expect her to. However, he desperately wanted his mom to tell him what was on her mind. What had her looking so stressed? 

Was it the country club women and their nefarious commentary traded off as playful teasing? 

Was it loneliness, brought on by not getting to make a trip to Sweden to visit her family that year? 

Was it the ever present awareness that her husband would rather take on job after job, than spend his time here with them? 

Did she feel lonely in the way that Eddie felt, when the night had befallen them and the house grew quiet? Sometimes he questioned whether he was the only one remaining in this world that had grown quiet. 

Yet as he looked at his mom, he wondered if there was someone else with him in this quiet world. 

Yearning to have someone to confide in, he wanted to search out the cause of his mom’s weariness. Could it closely resemble his own? He was about to ask her what happened, when sharp laughter escaped her lips. 

It rattled in the space between them, displacing the quietness that permeated the room. She worked herself into a frenzied state of laughter, choking on breaths and saliva, sweetened from high fructose corn syrup. 

Worry crept inside of him. He didn’t know what was happening. He only hoped that Adriana and Sophia stayed fast asleep, while his mom seemed to break apart in front of him. 

The laughter tapered off and a chilling blankness sank into the lines of her face. She remained rigid, hands pressed in her skirt. She stayed that way for a long time, until her eyes began to blink close and her chin dropped to her chest. 

Like he did for Adriana and Sophia, he led his mom to her room. She fell face first into her bed. Eddie had to gently push her to get her to turn over. 

He grabbed the make-up remover wipes from her dresser and erased the lipstick that had smudged. Removing the make-up, revealed a softer and more youthful looking woman. It reminded him how young his mom was, despite her growing older every year. 

He took her hair out of her ponytail and braided it. He removed her jewelry that she only ever wore to impress those refined and stuffy women. He set it aside in her jewelry box. 

He pulled the cover over her and was headed out to leave, when he was stopped by his mom’s hand on his wrist. She pulled him toward her and he leant his body forward, so he could hear her. 

“Edmundo?” she sleepily croaked. 

“Yes, mom.” 

“Don’t tell your dad. Make sure you hide the candy,” she whispered into his ear with breath sweet from wine and candy. “We’ll keep it a secret between us this time, okay?

She held up her pinkie and he hooked his around hers. Her arm fell down and over the bed. Eddie grabbed her arm and placed it beside her on the bed. He stared at her for a few seconds as her eyelashes fluttered on her cheek. 

He supposed he should be grateful his mom would keep this secret for him. However, he imagined it would have been much better had his mom told his dad they could indulge in candy once in a while. 

Who were they to be afraid of one man? 

Who was Eddie to be disappointed that his mom instilled this fear and perpetually reinforced it? 

Heading to his room, he stopped by the living room and grabbed the candy bowl. He had to make sure his mom’s efforts, to keep this a secret, were not in vain. 

October arrived quickly and Eddie felt sad, knowing his son’s first semester of high school was almost over. The sadness was pushed aside; however, when he saw how much Christopher was enjoying his freshman year. 

At their most recent parent-teacher conference, Christopher’s teachers informed them that he was excelling in nearly every course. The only class that he needed a bit of help in was geometry. Thankfully, Buck was setting aside extra time to help him with that. 

More times than not, Eddie could see him and Christopher seated at the table with math worksheets in front of them and a computer playing an educational video on limits or whatever. There was a reason Eddie was not helping with math. 

Time moved even faster, when Christopher came home one day talking about wanting to throw a Halloween party. It had only been the beginning of September at the time, but he was already a whole month ahead of them. 

When Christopher said he wanted to throw a Halloween party at their house, Eddie thought that he would be a part of the planning process. He naturally came to that conclusion, since Christopher had given a detailed PowerPoint presentation as to why they should host a Halloween party. He must have taken lessons from Sophia because he had a really good argument in favor of throwing a party. 

Eddie and Buck had sat quietly for the most part, only interjecting whenever Christopher’s plans seemed to extend out of a reasonable budget. However, they were excited by Christopher’s enthusiasm. 

It would be the first time they were hosting anything at their house, since Buck moved in. Actually, it was also their first time hosting anything at their house. Maybe they had always been waiting for Buck to host their first event as a family. 

Halloween was probably the least stressful holiday to host. So he agreed, since he was still weary of having Thanksgiving at his house that year. He’d have to tell Sophia they could do it at his house next year. By then, he would have some experience under his belt with hosting things. 

Buck had suggested they go somewhere like Party City or Spirit Halloween. He thought they would be able to find some good props to decorate the house and backyard. 

Eddie had meticulously scrolled through the Spirit Halloween website to get an idea of what they wanted to buy. He wasn’t planning on going too far with the decorations. However, he did want his house to look festive. 

Unfortunately, they procrastinated and most of the fun items had been sold out. That left them with very slim pickings. Oh…and Halloween was today so that was another reason for the lack of festive decorations. Eddie would have preferred to get most of their shopping done in advance; however, he didn’t have a lot of time to get things. 

Now he was walking around in the Halloween section of Target looking for decorative items, hoping he found something nice. 

“You know, when Christopher said he wanted to throw a Halloween party at our house I thought that meant he would be a part of the planning process,” Eddie sighed, looking down at the most offending shade of orange napkins. 

“In Christopher’s defense, he helped with prepping the food for tomorrow,” Buck stated. “Are we completely sold on those napkins?” 

“Did he? I remember having to consistently make icing because two people…I won’t say names…decided to keep digging into the bowl,” Eddie said, sending him an unimpressed stare. “And these napkins are all that’s left.” 

Buck looked down at the basket which was steadily beginning to overflow with the things they did find. He glanced up from the basket, checking to make sure those napkins were the last resort. He made an aha sound, when he walked further down the aisle. 

Eddie leaned against the basket, smiling softly as Buck managed to find a stack of white napkins with different cartoon monsters printed on them. Buck walked back and quickly removed the orange napkins in favor of replacing them with the napkins he found. 

“We were taste testing. We were doing what you wanted us to do,” Buck exclaimed. 

Eddie set him an unimpressed glare. He pushed the basket past him and headed to the aisle with streamers and balloons. 

“I did not. I said you both could taste the frosting not lick the bowl clean. I had to make that icing twice,” Eddie reminded him. “Do you think we should add green streamers?”

Buck tilted his head in consideration. “We have orange and black streamers back at the house, but we can add green if you want.”

Eddie decided to forego the green streamers. He was already buying more decorations than he had planned for. They had about an hour, until Christopher needed to be picked up from school. Then there were only four more hours to get everything ready for the house, before their guests started to arrive. 

Eddie was thankful that Maddie volunteered to help them set up. She said she would’ve been binge-watching episodes of Love Island on her day off anyways, so she had a lot of free time. 

“Do you think we have enough plates?” Buck asked. 

“I think we do. Extra wouldn’t hurt though,” Eddie said, mentally adding that to his check-list of things to buy. “We’re good on food, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Buck stated. 

“We do need to buy a few more cases of water,” he added, already thinking about the aisle they had passed on their way to look at the decorations. 

“I think we might need to get another basket,” Buck responded. 

Eddie looked down at the basket. His arms started straining to push it down the aisles. He thought they could make the trip with one basket, but he knew when to admit defeat. Buck took his expression to mean they needed another basket and left with a quick comment that he’d be back. 

He came back moments later with another basket. They continued filling their baskets, adding things they hadn’t intended to buy. He headed to the produce aisle and grabbed some fruit, for those who didn’t enjoy candy or pastries but still wanted something sweet. 

Eddie was going to make sure everyone enjoyed the party — even his parents. 

Christopher wanted to invite them and Eddie agreed. He hadn’t told Christopher about his plans of no-contact. In addition, he didn’t think his parents were actually going to fly to California for a Halloween party. Imagine his surprise, when he received a text from his dad saying that they would be flying down on Thursday and leaving that Tuesday. 

As if sensing his thoughts, Buck  settled his eyes on him. Eddie decided to answer his question, before it was asked. 

“I just have to handle five days,” Eddie breathed. “That should be feasible. They shouldn’t be too bad with Christopher around. At least, I hope not. I’ll admit I was hoping their flight would get delayed and then canceled.” 

“Is it bad, if I admit I hoped for the same thing?” Buck dryly chuckled. “I know Christopher’s excited to see his grandparents, but I don’t really want them around you, if I’m being honest.” 

“Yeah, well…Christopher wanted to invite them and I couldn’t very well tell him no. I haven’t told him about my no-contact plan yet. Plus they’re good grandparents,” Eddie commented. “Suppose this is my gift to them, after taking care of Christopher for the summer.” 

“And you’re their child. They should be good parents too,” Buck further stressed. 

He grabbed some bananas, a favorite of his mom. “At least they’re not staying with us. I did tell them to book a hotel. Pepa extended her home as a place they could stay, since she won’t be back from her trip until next Thursday. I don’t know, if they took her up on the offer though. Doesn’t matter. As long as they’re not staying with us, I’ll be fine. I can handle this. 24 hours of them for five days…now that would be insufferable.” 

“Small mercies,” Buck humorlessly laughed. “Why are all of these apples soft? I was thinking about making caramel apples, but they’re mushy.” 

Eddie reached out to squeeze one of the apples that Buck was holding. He nodded and told him to put it back. They could stop somewhere else for apples. He looked down at his watch to see that time had slipped through their fingers. They needed to pick up Christopher soon. 

“Is this everything?” Eddie asked. 

Buck held out his phone and scrolled through the various items on their list. They were able to get mostly everything. The other things they weren’t able to get didn’t matter as much in the grand scheme of things. 

Buck shut off his phone, placing it in his back pocket. “Yeah, I think we’ve gotten all that we could from our trip here. Might want to make a stop at the grocery store by the school. They always have very nice produce for some reason.” 

“I think one of the parents owns it. I know it’s a family owned grocery store,” he additionally provided. “I’m sure they have their own farm too.” 

“Eddie, don’t tell me you’ve been on those ‘Get to Know Me’ PTA boards,” Buck warmly pondered with the hint of a tease brightening his eyes. 

His cheeks grew warm at being called out. It was good to know more about the other parents in their community. They had created a message board for parents with incoming freshmen. Eddie found the site exceptionally helpful. Buck did too, but he was the only one getting called out for it. That needed to be rectified.

“I’m not the one who stayed on that page, scrolling down all the horror stories from parents who have kids that are sophomores now,” Eddie recalled. 

Buck had stayed up nearly that whole night. He would have stayed up, until their shift the following morning had it not been for Eddie reminding him that he had to go to sleep and that the page would still be there in the morning. 

“You’d be invested too, if you read what Ivy wrote about the haunted pep rally that happens at every homecoming. Eddie, she said that for whatever reason, during homecoming’s pep rally some strange event occurs like clockwork. Last year the school flooded,” Buck said, voice growing higher the more excited he became. 

“I’m more than a hundred percent certain that admin is in on the curse, haunting, or whatever it’s being called. They probably do it every year for the students' excitement.” 

“Or there’s a ghost that met its tragic end, during a pep rally. What if it’s a cheerleader that became a ghost, after a mistake in their stunt? Or what if it’s a teacher lingering behind in the walls of the school because their whole life was attached to the building,” Buck lively spun the tales of those lingering behind in the after-life. 

By then, they made it to the check-out lane. The cashier looked up in sudden interest, once Buck began talking about ghosts and hauntings. 

“One parent said you can’t even go to the natatorium, after school. That’s why their swim team never practices there. It’s also why they don’t host any meets,” Buck informed him. 

“You really should write a fiction novel one of these days. It’d be a best-seller,” Eddie chuckled as he continued unloading their groceries onto the conveyor belt. 

“You think so?” Buck questioned. 

“Definitely. I remember some of the stories you would tell Christopher. You had an endless supply of them.”

“I always liked story-telling. My teachers would compliment my writing, whenever we had creative writing prompts. In fact, my parents wanted me to become an English teacher. I considered it for a second, but I only liked writing. I didn’t like English enough to want to teach it,” he explained. 

“Did you save any of your writings from school?” Eddie questioned. 

Buck seemed to ponder on the question, trying to see whether he still had some of his old schoolwork. 

“If I did, it’d be somewhere at my parents’ house. I think they cleared out my room for my dad’s study. I’m not sure, if there’d be anything there had I saved any of my writings,” Buck shrugged. 

“Hmm,” Eddie noncommittally voiced. “I think you should take out the writing pen again or the computer…whatever is easiest to write on.” 

Buck’s eyes brightened at the encouragement. “You think so?” 

He hummed and nodded his head. He took a second to pull out his card to pay, then looked toward Buck who was placing their bags in the basket. 

“It can always be a hobby, but who knows. Maybe one day your hobby can be a side passion project. If it’s something you love, you should always make time for it,” Eddie helpfully put forth. “You wrote that story for Jee, right? I remember Chimney talking about how she wanted to hear nothing, but that story.”

Buck laughed, remembering the look of Chimney’s disappointment, upon realizing it was not a published children’s book. Instead it was the vivid imaginations of Uncle Buck. Chimney had told Buck to write out the story like a picture book, so Jee would finally have her favorite book before she went to sleep. 

Eddie read it, once it was done. It was a really good book, intended for children. The only problem was Buck’s illustrations. 

Now, Eddie wasn’t one to get easily spooked. However, whatever doodles Buck had scribbled alongside his words were enough to conjure up nightmares. Chimney had said the same, but Jee wasn’t bothered at all by the horrifying illustrations. 

“Maybe I will use it as a side project or something,” Buck settled on. 

“You both have a nice day,” the cashier smiled at them, once he handed them the receipt. 

“You as well.”

“You too.” 

The two of them journeyed outside of the store and to Buck’s jeep, since they were able to store more things inside of his car. It had been a rainy day. Eddie didn’t want any decorations getting wet in his truck bed. 

Once they placed everything inside, Buck went to put their shopping carts back. Meanwhile Eddie had gotten inside the car and checked the messages on his phone. Sophia sent some pictures of her kids in their costumes, since their school was having a fall festival. 

He made sure to reply to those messages, before checking the other texts he received. He saw a message from Pepa, telling him to make sure the stray cat in her neighborhood hadn’t gone into her rose bushes again. Pepa was going to be very disappointed, when he told her that her rose bushes were finished. There was nothing more he could do for them. 

He thought about replacing the roses. However, he knew Pepa would immediately notice the differences. He simply told her he would make sure that the cat hadn’t trampled on her bushes again. 

Then switching over to the text messages with his parents, he saw that his last message still hadn’t been responded to. He simply wished them safe travels and asked them to let him know when they arrived. He thought at the very least he could offer to pick them up from the airport. However, it was silence on their end. 

And Eddie wasn’t going to keep trying to extend a giving hand, when they would turn their noses to the gesture. 

Eddie looked up from his phone, when he heard the driver’s door open and close. Buck slid into his side in the driver’s seat and turned the keys into the ignition. He looked down to Eddie’s unanswered text. 

“Your parents still haven’t replied?” Buck curiously questioned, while turning in his seat in order to look back to make sure no car or pedestrian was behind him. 

“Nope. I don’t think they plan on answering. They’ll probably turn up at the house without letting us know they’re on their way. It’s great. Love that it’ll increase the stress I have, waiting for them.” 

“Don’t let them stress you out. Today is going to be fun, okay. It’s going to be the best night. Everyone is going to be asking us to host Halloween parties at our house,” Buck tried to distract him from his stressful thoughts. 

“Think it’ll become a tradition?” Eddie smiled, allowing Buck to take his mind elsewhere. “I’m kind of afraid we’re going to do too well tonight and they’ll be booking us for all their events.” 

“I sure hope so. I’m already thinking about booking rates. Maybe a thousand per hour?” Buck ridiculously wondered. 

Shaking his head, he brushed off that amount. “No, we need more than that for our hard work and dedication. Our event planning business is for the elite. I won’t offer family discounts either.” 

“Fair. I do think we can be the best in business,” Buck smirked. 

“We really are the best. Your cardboard cutouts of Frankenstein were wonderfully done,” Eddie admired. 

“Thank you. I’m trying to master the art of realism.”

“I could tell. I felt very horrified by your recreation of Frankenstein.” 

“Is that why you said we needed to put it in the recycling bin as soon as the night was over?” Buck asked, raising an eyebrow at him. 

“Ah, Christopher told you that, didn’t he? Would you believe me, if I said I’m only hoping to save the planet?” 

Buck levied a blank stare at him. 

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. I suppose we can keep it, until next year. See how well it holds up. Might be nice to keep some decorations for safe keeping.” 

“Yeah, I think we might have gone overboard with things. It’ll be good to get some second and third uses out of some of these things,” Buck agreed. 

Eddie looked out the window, noticing that Buck had passed the grocery store. 

“Hey, did you still want to go to the grocery store for those apples?” 

“Yeah, why?”

“Because we just passed the store.” 

“Oh.”

One trip to the grocery store and fifteen apples later, they were waiting in the pick-up line for Christopher. The line was moving fairly slowly. Eddie was half tempted to get out of the car and find Christopher himself. However, safety precautions didn’t allow that — which of course, Eddie was fully on board with. 

When they pulled up further in the front of the line, one of the admins looked at their car pass in the dashboard. Christopher waited for the okay and then walked toward the car. Eddie moved to get out and help him with his things. 

“Goodness, kid. What do you have in here? You didn’t leave home with your backpack being this heavy,” Eddie grunted as he took Christopher’s backpack from him. 

Christopher waited until Eddie was in the car to answer him. 

“A lot of teachers were handing out candy today. I racked up a lot of candy,” Christopher happily explained. 

“Feels like you took the entirety of the candle aisle in there,” Eddie countered. 

“Dad, maybe you need to do more arm exercises. I carried it fine,” Christopher shrugged. 

“Are you calling me weak?”

“I’m not calling you strong,” Christopher hesitantly whispered. “But it’s okay. You can get Buck to help you.”

Buck smirked at the exchange, cutting his eyes over to look at Eddie through his periphery. He narrowed his eyes toward him then turned around to face Christopher, who was smiling at him with all the innocence he could muster. Eddie would not be deceived. 

“Christopher, I am strong. I lift things as an occupation. Look at my arms. You see this?” Eddie questioned, drawing attention to his muscles. He raised his arm and flexed. The material of his sweater stretched across his shoulders. 

“Dad, it would mean something if I didn’t see your shoulder go underneath you, when you grabbed my backpack. Look, it’s okay. You’re getting older now. You can’t do as much as you did when you were my age…which was forever ago.” 

Did he have to drag on the word forever like that? If he wasn’t feeling old, he was about to start feeling that way really soon. 

“Christopher…”

“You need to start taking multi-day vitamins.” 

“Christopher…”

“I heard your bone density lessens the older you get,” Christopher said, in a faux concerned tone.  

“That’s true.”

“Buck.”

“Hey, I was merely admiring the education he’s gotten,” Buck stated. “Christopher, let’s give your dad a break.”

“Fine. Oh, did Reese’s mom send you the information for tomorrow?” Christopher asked. “Reese said his mom was sending everything to our parents and to make sure you got it.” 

“Yes, she did. You’ll be going home with them tomorrow, so y’all can go to that haunted house. I’m picking you up on Saturday, after you all get back from the movies.” 

“Oh, you’re going to a haunted house?” Buck questioned. “I thought you all were going to the fall fest on Saturday.”

“Yeah, Reese’s dad got some tickets from his job. So our plans changed. I’m excited. I’ve never been to a haunted house before.”

“You’ll have fun. You like scary movies. It’ll be a breeze for you,” Buck said. “Are your friends easily scared?”

“Yeah. It’s going to be so funny. I’m going to post it on my tiktok,” Christopher laughed. “Well, I would post it on my tiktok, if dad would finally let me get one.”

“Not until you’re sixteen,” Eddie reminded him. 

He already had this conversation with Christopher so many times. Of course Christopher always thought one day he would ask and that would be the day Eddie finally crumbled. He was able to withstand Christopher’s wide eyed expression that he often tried to use as a weapon to get Eddie to give in to whatever he was asking for. Sometimes it worked. Unfortunately for Christopher, it was not one of those times. 

“Dad,” Christopher groaned. 

“Christopher,” Eddie cheekily sang back to him. 

In the backseat, Christopher crossed his arms and turned to face the window. “You know, dad. These are the moments I’ll think about, when I’m deciding what nursing home to put you in.”

“You wouldn’t put me in a nursing home. You’re going to take care of me forever. Remember in third grade you promised me you’d build a mansion and I would have my own floor. Are you going back on that promise?” Eddie gasped, holding his hand to his heart. “I cannot withstand the betrayal.” 

Eddie caught Christopher’s smile in the mirror, before he schooled his expression. 

“You and Tía Adriana are definitely siblings,” Christopher decided. 

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re both dramatic,” Christopher sighed like the comparison drained him. “But I guess you’re right. I wouldn’t put you in a nursing home. Though I will have to make corrections to my plan to include Buck now.”

“I’m glad I get to live in this mansion you made, Christopher. Very generous with your wealth,” Buck laughed. 

“It’s basically a two for one deal now,” he observed. “It works out nicely this way. Dad will finally have someone to be old with –”

“Aww,” Buck happily chimed. 

Eddie put his hand up and shook his head. “Don’t aww that. You didn’t let him finish his sentence.”

“Oh?” Buck questioned, taking the chance to turn to him as they stopped at a red light. 

Christopher smiled. “Dad will have someone to grow old with and carry his groceries because he isn’t strong enough to carry my backpack and he isn’t even in his…wait dad how old are you again?”

“See there it is,” Eddie chuckled. “I swear kid, did you gain extra snark in your time at El Paso? Who do I have to blame for this? Is it Adriana? Is it Sophia? Or was it a cousin? Who do I need to not send seasonal greetings to in the winter?”

“Oh! Are we doing Christmas cards this year? Tía Sophia said her family does it. We should do it this year. We should also get a dog because Christmas cards always look better when there’s a dog,” Christopher rushed out to say. 

“Let’s slow things down a bit. We've only made it to Halloween.”

“We can always get a puppy though. Think of a puppy for Christmas…wait no. A puppy before Christmas. Don’t you want me to have something to say, when we go around the table saying what we’re thankful for this year?”

“When have we ever done that?” Eddie laughed. 

“It could be a new tradition,” he said and turned his nose up to the air. 

“I’m all in for a dog, but we’d have to think realistically about this, right? Say we get a dog…a puppy. Either is fairly high maintenance and we might not be at home enough to take care of it,” Buck kindly tried to explain. 

However, Christopher was not deterred in the slightest. “We can get an older dog then, one that’s trained. Wait, never mind. It might make me sad that I don’t get to grow old with it. Then it makes me sad that no one might want it anymore because it’s old. Old dogs deserve love too. Buck, thank you for loving my dad even though he’s gotten old and –”

“Finally, we’re home,” Eddie sighed, breathing out an exhale of relief as they rounded the corner of their block. If he heard he was getting old from Christopher one more time, he wouldn’t know whether the gray hairs that showed up in his stubble would be from the stress put on by his comments or the fact that he was indeed getting older. 

Buck heartily laughed, immediately pressing his hand to his heart. “Oh, come on Eddie. You know not to take anything to heart. Christopher’s just having some fun on your behalf.” 

“He’s not calling you old,” Eddie sniffed. 

“I could, if that'll make you feel better. To be fair, both of you are old. What year were you born in Buck?”

“19…”

“19?” Christopher screeched. “You were born in the 1900s!”

“Don’t make it sound like that,” Buck stressed, eyes looking alarmingly panicked. “You’re making it sound like I was born in the stone ages.”

“You weren’t? Oh, Buck. They didn’t even have phones, when you were my age. That’s crazy. You were born in the 1900s,” Christopher whistled. 

“I…I had a phone!” Buck shouted in his defense. 

“We’re learning about the different industrial revolutions in history class this week. Which one were you alive for? It’d be good to have first hand experience for my research paper,” Christopher replied. 

In response, Buck let out an offended gasp. “None of them. You know what I’m bowing out of this conversation. I don’t think I’ll win it.”

“It’s good that you can admit defeat,” he solemnly commended. 

“Okay, you two. Help me with the groceries,” Eddie said, once the conversation had cooled down. 

They had been sitting in the driveway for quite some time. He was certain Geraldine from three blocks down was starting to wonder why no one had gotten out of the car yet. She was a very nosy neighbor. He’s pretty sure she stayed outside pretending to sweep her driveway, when the movers were unloading Buck’s things into the house. He should’ve asked her for help, since she stayed out for nearly as long as it took them to unload everything. 

The three of them went back and forth from inside the house then back outside to Buck’s jeep. Eventually, they managed to drop everything off inside. Christopher went to his room to finish up on some homework, before he was able to help them get ready. 

Eddie took that time to make him a quick snack. He took it to his room and checked up on his homework progress, making sure he didn’t need any help. Once leaving his room, he walked into the kitchen where Buck was busy trying to decide where he should hang the orange and black party streamers. 

“I think we should put them on the door, leading to the backyard. We could also add one to the front door, for when they first come into the house,” Eddie suggested. 

He took hold of the streamers, wondering how on earth they were going to hang them. Did he remember to grab tacks at the store? Were they in one of the many grocery bags scattered on the kitchen table? 

Fortunately, Buck had met him with the tacks in his hand.  

“Help me hang these up?” he asked, once he had taken the tacks from Buck. 

“Of course,” Buck said, following him to the front door. “How high should we put it?”

“I’m thinking maybe two feet off the ground. I don’t want someone accidentally stepping on it and tripping.”

“Smart idea. Here, I’ll hold this side up and you can take the other side,” Buck directed. 

He moved to stand behind him. Buck's body was a warm presence as his chest pressed close against Eddie's back. He tried not to be distracted, when he felt hands stray toward his stomach and fingers hook in his belt loop. 

The streamers trailed along the floor, no longer held up high by Buck’s hands.

Laughing, Eddie turned around in Buck’s hold and pushed lightly at his chest. “I don’t think this is how you’re supposed to hang streamers.”

“But isn't it more fun?” Buck heatedly questioned. 

His mouth fell downward to his lips. He lightly grazed his lips against his, intent to step back with nothing more than a brief kiss. The impression of a kiss became firmer as Eddie attached more pressure to it. Oh, well. He couldn’t be blamed for always wanting more where Buck was concerned. 

His hands fell down to pull Buck in by his lower back. He felt the way his back arched into the touch. Biting at his lip, Eddie soothed the sting that was sure to be left behind. If the sound that Buck let out was any indication for how he felt about the bite…well let’s just say Eddie would be adding that to the lists of things to further expand on. 

“We really should put up the streamers,” Buck whispered. “Can’t get distracted.”

He drew back and Eddie’s eyes were immediately fixed on Buck’s flushed cheeks and pink lips. Shaking his head, Eddie moved his hands away from his back and onto the nape of his neck. 

“You started it,” he murmured. 

However, he was aware that they couldn’t afford distractions right now. It had already become four and the party was starting at seven. Thankfully, no one in their friend group was the type of person who showed up early. Unfortunately, they all tended to show up on time. That didn’t even include Christopher’s friends and their families. What if they were the type of people to show up thirty minutes early? 

The horror of it all had Eddie refocusing on his task. Reluctantly, he turned back around and waited for Buck to hold the streamers on the wall above the door. Eddie placed two tacks on either side of the streamers, making sure that it was straight and not dipping in the middle. 

They moved to the backyard door and repeated the same steps. Buck left his side only for a few seconds to go search for his phone, once he heard it ringing. He came back moments later, saying that Maddie was on her way and should arrive soon. 

They were able to set up a lot of the decorations by the time Maddie and Jee came over. They were able to do even more, once Christopher had finished his homework. Having the extra help was great because by the time hour three of non-stop decorating approached, Eddie feared he would never want to decorate anything in his life ever again. 

Maybe he did have the same penchant for dramatics that his sister had. 

Jee found him, laying down in the living room with a paint brush still in his hand. 

She stood over him and tilted her head in confusion. “What are you doing, Uncle Eddie?”

In all fairness, to Jee it probably looked like he was doing nothing. He had a cardboard cutout of another Frankenstein that Buck drew. Unfortunately, the painting portion had been left up to Eddie. 

“Painting,” Eddie answered, waving around his clean brush that didn’t have a drop of paint on it. 

Jee scrunched up her face. She looked at the Frankenstein painting and then at Eddie. “Did you start?” 

Eddie opened his mouth to reply and then promptly closed it. “Not yet. I was waiting for the most famous painter in the world to help me.”

“Who?” Jee asked, pigtails swaying as she looked around the room for this unnamed stranger. 

“You. Your mom told me you paint so well. You see, I need a lot of help. I don’t know what to color this spooky monster. Think you can help me?” Eddie asked. 

Jee nodded her head excitedly. “Yes!”

“Great, thank you so much Jee,” Eddie smiled. “Wait here for a second. I’m going to get you a shirt you can wear on top of your beautiful clothes, so they don’t get paint on it. Don’t touch the paint, until I come back. Okay?”

Jee gave him a thumbs up and Eddie trusted her to listen to the instructions. He came back to see that Jee had sat down in front of the Frankenstein cutout and was observing it with a very serious and cautious expression. 

“Uncle Buck drew this?” she asked, pointing to the cutout. 

“He did draw Frankenstein,” Eddie answered. 

“I’ll make Fran…Franky…” Jee’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Say it again…please.”

“Frankenstein,” he said, elongating the syllables so she could repeat it. 

She blinked slowly as he said the name. “I’ll make Franky…”

She sighed frustratingly at trying to pronounce the word. Eddie smiled softly at her as he pulled the t-shirt over her head. He looked back at her, when her head popped out from under the collar. 

“How about we name him Franky? I think that’s a good name for him. We already have a Frankenstein outside. It’d be weird for them to have the same name, right?”

Jee moved her head to the side and then nodded. “I like Franky.”

“Good, then this one shall be named Franky. I think you chose a really good name. Now how about we start coloring Franky? What color should we make the clothes?”

“Purple!” Jee said, already moving to grab the purple tube of paint. 

At that moment, Eddie was glad he had the forethought to place down an old bed sheet on the ground in order to protect his floor. 

The two of them continued painting Franky, only being interrupted a few times whenever Maddie, Buck, or Christopher came to observe them and check their progress. 

Eddie took Jee’s lead, intent to let her direct how Franky should be painted. They wound up with a Franky cutout that was dressed in vibrant neon blues, purple, and orange. Oddly enough, it looked better than the one Eddie had painted yesterday. 

It took longer to paint Franky with Jee than if he had done it alone, but he was having a better time with the company while Jee caught him up on all the things she learned in pre-school that week. 

When they finished the painting, Eddie attached the ground sticks to the back of it so it could be placed in the garden bed. Jee followed him outside and they both admired their hard work. Buck came out minutes later and nodded appreciatively. 

“Didn’t Jee do such a good job at painting?” Eddie questioned. 

Jee craned her head to look up at Buck, waiting for his response. 

“You did such an amazing job Jee,” Buck happily cheered. “Does Maddie know we have an artist in the family? Whoa, look at all those nice colors. I think I want a shirt just like Frankenstein’s.”

“Franky,” Jee corrected. 

“Franky,” Eddie repeated. 

“Oh, my bad. I am so sorry that I got your name wrong. It’s very nice to meet you Franky,” Buck pretended to greet the cardboard cutout as Jee laughed at his antics.  

They stayed outside for a few more minutes, before they headed back inside. Jee went to go find her mom, who was helping to set up the backyard. Buck left to follow them outside, while Eddie headed to the kitchen where Christopher was pouring bags of candy into different bowls. 

Eddie took a seat beside him, opening up another bag of candy and helping him to fill the bowls. Christopher stared at him for a second and gently passed the bowl he was working on. 

“Dad, you can’t put the chocolate candy into the fruit candy bowl. It has to be separate. Also any candy with nuts is in a different bowl too,” Christopher explained his method for separating the candy bowls. 

He pointed to the make-shift signs he made that would be attached to the bowls. It was helpful, considering they did have a few people with peanut allergies coming over. Eddie listened to the instructions and made sure to disperse the candy into the correct bowl. 

“Thanks for letting me do this,” Christopher said, after a moment’s silence. “Especially on a school night.”

Christopher had talked about this party for days, exclaiming how cool it was that he got to host this party. Their school was having a Halloween dance on Friday, but kids at that age thought it was a bit uncool. Most of his classmates said they weren’t going. Since Christopher and his friends thought they were too old for school dances and trick-or-treating, they thought a party would be cooler — more grown-up. 

“You’re welcome. It’s only one school night that you’re staying up for,” Eddie lightly warned, knowing full well Christopher had extended his bedtime on a few occasions in order to play another level of his game. He thought he was getting away with it, while Eddie and Buck were asleep. 

Christopher consistently forgot to remember he was a light sleeper. He could hear him excitedly talking to his friends online. On some occasions, Eddie would let it pass. Other times, he had to get up from bed to remind Christopher he should have been asleep hours ago. 

Sheepishly, he grinned at him. “Yeah, one night exception. By the way, did abuelo text you? I sent him a text, but he hasn’t responded yet.” 

Oh, so it wasn’t just Eddie’s texts they weren’t responding to. He was concerned by that, since his parents always answered Christopher’s texts on time. He made a note to call them later and make sure they didn’t have any problems flying in. He told him they should have gotten a flight yesterday in case they had problems the day of. 

“Not yet, but I’ll call them to check-in and see where they’re at,” Eddie told him. 

“Okay. I don’t want them to miss the party,” he worried. 

“I’m sure they won’t. They might already be here and just haven’t had the chance to charge their phones. You know your abuelo always forgets to charge his phone.” 

“Then how will they order an uber to drive to our house, if their phones are dead?” Christopher concernedly asked. 

He was not doing a good job of alleviating his son’s worries. 

“How about I try calling them right now?” Eddie suggested, grabbing his phone from where it had been placed on the table. The phone rang a few times, before it was picked up. “Mom?”

“Oh, Edmundo. Is something wrong?” his mom questioned on the other side of the phone. 

“That’s what I’d like to ask you. Christopher and I have texted you and dad, but we never got any responses. Was your flight okay?” 

“Tell Christopher I’m sorry for worrying him. We’re both fine. Had a little trouble with our rental car. I told your dad we could get an uber. You know your sister set that up for me on my phone. But you know your dad,” his mom exasperatedly sighed. 

“He doesn’t trust anyone else to drive him where he needs to go,” he sighed. 

“Absolutely paranoid. We didn’t even grab a taxi, when we went on that trip to New York for Adriana’s dance camp.”

“So you and dad made it safely?”

“Yes. Oh, I’m sorry. Were you two worried? I didn’t mean to worry you both. I must’ve kept my notifications silent. I meant to turn it back on, when we got off the plane. Hold on, let me reply to Christopher’s texts.”

“It’s okay, mom. Christopher is sitting here with me. I’ll let him know, you had your phone on silent and y’all made it safely. Did you need me to drive to the airport?”

“No,” she waved off his help. “I know you’re busy setting up for the party.”

“Mom, I don’t mind. I have others helping out. I could leave to come pick you up.”

“That’s very sweet of you, but your dad and I are fine. I’ll let you know, when we’re on our way.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am. Don’t worry, Edmundo. Give Christopher my love and tell him I’ll see him soon,” his mom said, hanging up the phone before Eddie had the chance to respond. 

“Are they okay?”

“Yeah, they’re good. They had their phones on silent. That’s why they didn’t see our messages, but they’re on their way now. They’ll be here in time for the party,” Eddie hoped for on the behalf of his son. 

They better show up on time. 

The two of them continued making the candy bowls. Eddie only stepped away, when he needed to start putting the cookies and cupcakes in the oven. He patted himself on the back, for thinking to prep the dough and icing yesterday. He didn’t know if he would have enough time to do everything on the same day. 

Buck, Maddie, and Jee all came back inside to the kitchen while he was taking the cupcakes out of the oven. Maddie moved to stand beside him and asked him if he needed any help. 

“Can you ice the cupcakes?” Eddie said, motioning to the first tray of cupcakes that he pulled out of the oven. 

“Yes,” Maddie exclaimed, moving to where the cupcakes were. 

“How is it looking out there?” Eddie questioned. 

“It looks really good. The decorations you and Buck brought were easy to set up. The smoke machines are also a nice touch. I turned it on to make sure it works, but turned it off until the party starts,” Maddie answered. 

“Thank you. And thanks again for helping on your day off,” Eddie said. 

“You don’t have to keep thanking me, Eddie,” she laughingly noted. “Trust me. I was going to spend the rest of the evening watching Love Island, while Jee took her nap. I think she’s excited she got to skip out on nap time today.” 

Buck went to stand by Maddie, critiquing her work. 

“Stop breathing over my shoulder,” Maddie said, pushing him away. “Anyways, the cupcakes are done. I’m going to go ahead and head out, so I can get Jee dressed in her costume.”

“Why didn’t you just bring her costume here? That way you didn’t have to turn back around?” 

“Chimney wanted to drive here together,” Maddie answered. “You don’t live too far, so it’s not a problem to drive over here. It’s really convenient for me that you moved in with Eddie.”

“I’m glad that moving here is convenient for you,” Buck joked.

Maddie pinched his cheek, laughing at Buck’s mock cry of pain. “No, I’m not happy it’s convenient. Well, okay….I’m happy it is convenient not having to spend a lot of time on the highway, heading to your loft. But I'm mainly happy seeing you happy above everything else.” 

“Alright, let’s get you out before the tears start to fall,” Buck said. “Also what costume did Jee settle on? Did she decide between the Bluey costume or the mermaid costume?”

Maddie sighed. “No. She chose neither option.”

“Neither? I thought those were her favorites,” Eddie chimed in. 

“That’s what I thought as well. However, Jee has chosen a new favorite thing to be.” 

A second of silence settled over them, for no more than dramatic purposes. 

“A tomato,” Maddie continued in a deadpan expression. “No, stop laughing! This is serious. How was I supposed to say not to my daughter wanting to be a tomato?”

“Do they even sell tomato costumes?” Buck asked, once his laughter had calmed down. 

“Yes, thankfully they do.”

“I bet she’ll be the cutest tomato,” Buck smiled. 

“Oh, she will be the cutest tomato you have ever seen in your life. I’m going to have to stop myself from taking a million pictures tonight,” she told them, as she began heading to the door. 

He walked Maddie and Jee out, while Eddie continued to finish the final touches on the cupcakes and cookies. 

Buck came back to the kitchen to get started on making the vegetable and fruit tray.  While he did that, Eddie made nachos with both vegan and regular queso. 

They covered the food, making sure to keep it warm. He figured it would be better to bring it out on the food table, once guests started arriving. Plus he could wait to bring most of the food out because more people would be bringing dishes. 

Eddie was thankful his friends offered to bring food. Some of the parents of Christopher’s friends also offered to bring dishes and desserts of their own. It was nice to have more food options that they didn’t need to prepare. They weren’t expecting a lot of people, but it was good to have a lot of food on hand. 

Christopher helped to make the fruit punch. Then he set soda and water bottles in the cooler. Eddie forgot to buy ice, so he did have to make a quick trip to the store while Buck and Christopher finished setting up the decorations. 

When he arrived back home with the ice, the house looked completely different. He figured that stepping away for thirty minutes, allowed him to see just how much they did in that short amount of time. He put the ice in the cooler and kept some other bags in the freezer to be taken out, once that ice melted. 

“Where’s Christopher?” Eddie asked, when he hadn’t immediately spotted his son in the kitchen or living room. 

“Taking a shower,” Buck explained. 

“That’s probably what I need to do. I think I worked out a sweat from running all over the store to decorating our house,” Eddie groaned. 

He put his hands behind his back and stretched, sighing as his back let out a satisfying pop. 

“We could shower together. Save on water and time,” Buck suggested, stepping forward. 

Eddie pressed his hands against chest, so that Buck was backed up toward the door. “You know, when we shower together we do not save time or water.”

“I didn’t hear a no,” Buck smirked. 

“Any other time I would love to, but we have guests arriving in about forty minutes. We’ll have to hold off on that for now. Did you want to take your shower first?” Eddie questioned, while stepping away from Buck. 

“You can go first. I’ll wait for the pizza to arrive because it should be here shortly.”

“Okay,” Eddie said, heading to the bathroom. “I won’t be long, so if they don’t come by the time I’m done, I’ll wait for the delivery while you shower.”

“Sounds good,” he replied, before heading back into the living room. 

Eddie was true to his word and made sure to take a quick shower. Once he was done, he changed into a t-shirt and shorts. He wasn’t going to put on his costume, until he had to. The wig that was a part of the costume was itchy. He would spend as much time as he could not wearing it. 

He traded spots with Buck, so he could go take a shower. It took only five more minutes for the pizza to arrive. Eddie went into the kitchen to put the pizza on the counter. Then he headed into his room, so he could change into his costume. 

He sighed slowly as he looked down at the costume placed on his bed. Christopher wanted to do a family costume this year and Eddie had been all in for it. Eddie hadn’t watched a single movie nor series in that franchise. So while they were throwing around ideas, Eddie had been content to listen. That was his mistake. 

If he had known his two costume options were between Chewbacca and the costume with an itchy wig, he would’ve opted for family costumes next year instead of this year. 

He turned his eyes to the offending wig that made Eddie’s scalp itch. He wanted to burn that wig, but Christopher swore up and down that it completed the look. Sighing, he took off his shirt to throw on his costume. He took another minute to strengthen his resolve to put on the wig. 

The doorbell rang and Eddie had to make his decision fast. He snatched up the wig and put it on. Might as well complete the look. He heard the water in the shower cut off and told Buck that someone was at the door, so he was going to answer it. 

The first people to arrive were some kids from Christopher’s school. He hadn’t met all of his new friends yet. He had made so many in the few short months that he had been in school. Everyday he was hearing about some new friend he met. Eddie couldn’t keep up. As long as he didn’t get any names confused, he’d count that as a win. 

Christopher joined him to greet his friends, excitedly telling them that he hoped they had fun. Eddie was there to remind the parents, who were dropping off their kids, to pick them up at eleven on the dot. Eddie was a hospitable host, but he was not a 24/7 host. 

Buck came out into the living room, just as their friend group was beginning to make their arrivals. Hen and Karen’s family were the first to arrive. Bobby and Athena arrived shortly after them. Then Maddie, Chimney, and Jee were the final ones to make it to the party. Ravi was staying at his apartment this year, because last year one of his tenants threw a Halloween party and almost burned down the entire complex. 

Eddie closed the door behind Maddie and Chimney, after seeing that most of their guests had made it. He glanced down to see Jee in her tomato costume. Maddie was right. She looked absolutely precious in the tomato costume with red blush painted onto her round cheeks. 

“Uncle Buck, look! I’m a tomato!” Jee excitedly shouted, twirling around so they could get a full look at her costume. 

“Wait, I didn’t know tomatoes could talk,” Buck quizzically expressed. 

Jee became quiet, but couldn’t quite stifle her giggles. 

“Man, I was looking to see where I placed the tomatoes for the burgers. Guess, I can use this one,” Buck said, moving to pick up Jee. “Ooof, this tomato is a little bigger than the other ones.”

“No! Uncle Buck I’m not a real tomato,” Jee shrieked. “I can’t go on a burger.”

“Eddie, the strangest thing is happening right now. I think this tomato is trying to talk to me,” Buck whispered. “Off to the kitchen! I have a burger with a missing tomato.” 

Jee’s bubbly laughter was infectious as she kept denying that she was a real tomato. Maddie looked on in amusement as she tugged down her carrot costume. Likewise Chimney wore a banana costume. It was nice to see they weren’t the only ones in a family costume. 

Maddie smiled as she took in their costumes as well. “Was that Buck’s idea?”

“His and Christopher’s,” Eddie said, pulling down his wig. 

“It looks good,” she encouraged. 

“Dad, can I go hang out with my friends now?” Christopher impatiently questioned. 

“Yeah, of course,” Eddie chuckled, knowing his son had been waiting for the moment he could join his friends. He told him it would be nice to greet everyone, since this was his party. He wanted to ensure that Christopher nicely welcomed his guests. 

“Thanks,” he grinned. 

Eddie watched Christopher head to the backyard. Then he turned to Buck, who was placing Jee back onto her feet. 

“Think that’s everyone?” Buck asked. 

“For the most part. I think the only ones left are my parents, but they’ll text me. Let’s go ahead and put the food outside. Don’t want to have hungry guests,” Eddie said. 

He locked the door and then went into the kitchen where all the food was lined up. Maddie and Chimney helped them carry out the food. Eddie took the vegetable and fruit trays out of the refrigerator. Then he looped back around to grab the caramel apples that Buck made. 

If one was already missing…Eddie needed a snack. 

They set the food outside, arranging it nicely. Eddie took a moment to stare at the state of his backyard. Eddie and Buck had very lovingly and tediously attended to the landscape of the backyard for weeks leading up to this party. 

He wished they offered “Best Backyard” awards because Geraldine always boasted about her “Best Yard” sign. Geraldine didn’t even have a nice yard. She had weeds scattered all in her grass. Eddie was fairly certain that Geraldine had something on Stefanie because there was no way a yard with dying trees would get the best yard. 

He had to let it go, despite wanting to continuously send emails to the HOA calling for them to investigate things. 

He took a few pictures of his backyard, making sure to send them to Sophia and Adriana. They were upset they weren’t able to come. However, he assured them that they would be able to make it out to his house one of these days. 

Sophia was the first to send a response, saying that they did a really good job with decorating the backyard. 

Eddie liked her message. They had truly done a nice job with decorating. 

Orange and white lights hung on the trees. Buck had even bought tiny haunted houses for centerpieces on the tables. The smoke machine also added a nice touch to the ambience of the night. The music was at a nice volume, low enough to hear what someone was saying and loud enough to know what song was playing. 

Eddie made his rounds, making sure everyone was taken care of. He let them know that they were free to grab anything to eat and drink. He was certain the candy bowls would be the first thing they needed to refill. Christopher and his friends immediately went to that side of the table. He was glad he bought a lot of candy to refill the bowl.  

“Are you planning on sitting down anytime soon to take a breather?” Buck asked, coming to stand behind him. “You haven’t relaxed not one minute, since this morning. Have you had the chance to eat yet?”

“I snacked on something earlier,” Eddie told him, knowing that he wasn’t going to be satisfied with that answer. 

“Everything is going well. You can sit down for a second.”

Eddie leant back against his chest. “Mhm, it is going good. Isn’t it?” 

“We did really good,” Buck whispered, nuzzling into his neck. 

Eddie's eyes fluttered closed as he hummed in the back of his throat. He tilted his head back, feeling more exhausted than he had a second ago. Buck was right. He did need to take a breather, but he wanted to make sure everything was perfect. 

“This came together very nicely. Also thanks for agreeing to go in a family costume. Christopher has been obsessed with the idea ever since he asked to throw this Halloween party. He hasn’t wanted to wear a family costume since he turned twelve so it was nice to start this back up again,” he stated, turning to look at Christopher’s Darth Vader costume. 

“I love it. I always wanted to do a family costume,” Buck smiled. 

“You’re just happy you didn’t have to be Princess Leia,” Eddie said, scratching at the wig he had bought from Halloween City. “This wig itches so much.”

Buck reached over, pulling his wig back into place. “Christopher decided to choose the prettier one out of us two. Only you could do justice to that hairstyle,” Buck said, nodding solemnly like his word was meant to be taken as sacred. 

“Right. That’s why. And not because you decided you’d play heads and tails with me, in order to see who would get stuck wearing the wig.”

“I mean we can trade, if you want. It can’t be that itchy. I think you’re over-exaggerating.”

“Then you wear it,” Eddie said, tearing the wig off and placing it on Buck’s head. He smirked as Buck started scratching at his ear. “Itchy right?"

“No,” he petulantly denied. 

“Sure,” Eddie laughed. “And why did Princess Leia dress like she was applying to the nearest convent?”

“To be fair she did wear something else, but this is what you choose,” Buck reminded him. 

“Oh, yes. I really had two great options. One is this ghost looking dress and the other was a skirt with a slit that went up to my ribs and some plastic bikini,” Eddie expressed in a deadpan voice. 

“Hey, put some respect on Princess Leia’s outfits,” Buck laughed then paused as he had to scratch at his neck. 

Eddie raised an eyebrow at him as he began fussing at the wig on his head. “It itches, right?” 

“No, it’s very nice. I think Han Solo should’ve adopted this hairstyle. It’s very fashionable,” Buck sniffed, stepping away to spin around in his Han Solo costume. 

Eddie turned around to stare at him. He had no idea who Han Solo was, but Buck was wearing that costume very well. Buck caught his gaze and lowered his eyes to look up at him from underneath his eyelashes. 

Yeah, Buck was going to need to wear that costume, after all their guests had left and Christopher was asleep. 

“Yeah?” Buck heatedly rasped, stepping closer to him. 

“Yeah, this might be something for me,” Eddie lowly stated. 

Even with the lopsided party city wig on his head, Buck was still the most beautiful person that he had ever laid his eyes on. Eddie glanced behind himself, to make sure no one was heading into the house, before he led him inside to the kitchen. After he made sure no one was inside, he pulled him in by his vest to kiss him.  

He licked at his mouth, taking in the leftover traces of fruit punch and caramel apples. It was mind-numbingly sweet and intoxicating. This was doing nothing to diminish his sweet tooth. A moan shocked its way out of Eddie’s mouth as Buck’s teeth lightly grazed his lower lip. Eddie knew he should step back and put a pause to this before someone stumbled upon them. 

However, as Buck’s hand went to curl around his neck and apply pressure there he realized that his will to move away was very weak. He only broke the kiss, when he felt his phone vibrate at his side. 

He pulled up the hem of the dress to reach his phone. He held it up to his ear and answered after seeing it was his mom, “Hey, mom.” 

“Hey, Edmundo. Wanted to let you know, we were heading your way now. We just left Pepa’s and should be at your house soon,” his mom told him. 

“Okay, thanks for letting me know,” Eddie said. “I’ll see you when you arrive.”

“Okay, see you soon.”

Eddie ended the call and tried to keep his shoulders lowered. Buck leaned forward to wrap his arms around him. He ran his hands up and down his back, hoping to soothe the stress that was already sinking into Eddie’s spine. 

“Let’s enjoy the last few minutes of peace, before I have to entertain my parents,” Eddie sighed. “We should head back out. Think we’ve been with her long enough. They’ll probably start looking for us soon.” 

“You sure? You don’t want to take a few more minutes?” Buck softly questioned. 

“No, I’m good.”

They headed back out to the backyard and went to sit at the table their friends occupied. All of them were at the table sans kids. He looked up to see the kids playing together, entertaining themselves with the games Eddie supplied. As long as they were having fun, he was fine. 

Eddie sat down on his chair, once his tiredness caught up to him. Buck stepped away for a second to fix a plate of food for him. He told Buck thanks as he handed him the plate, once he sat back down in the chair beside him. Buck’s arm fell on the back of his chair and his fingers played with the short strands of hair at the nape of his neck. Eddie rested his right hand on Buck’s thigh, while he continued to eat. 

“This is really nice. Y’all did a great job,” Hen said. 

“Yeah, you all pulled together a really nice party. Personally, I have to thank you two for saving us from trick-or-treating this year,” Karen grinned. 

Hen turned to face her wife and laughed shortly. “Karen, we’ve been banned from trick-or-treating this year.”

“You’ve really got to stop airing out my business,” Karen joked, slapping her hand against Hen’s arm. 

“How’d you manage to get banned from trick-or-treating and why am I only just hearing about this now?” Chimney said, completely baffled that Hen had kept something like this from him. 

“No, don’t look at me. Go ahead and tell the story, since you want to tell our business,” Karen stated. 

“Fine. Okay, so last year we went trick-or-treating. We figured it’d probably be the last year Denny would want to go trick-or-treating with us, before he thinks it’s not cool anymore. Karen got a tiny bit…”

Karen waited for her to finish her sentence, then chose to help her out. “I got a bit overzealous with making sure that would be the best trick-or-treating experience he had in his life.”

“The enthusiasm was appreciated," Hen continued, taking over where Karen left off. "However, Karen’s enthusiasm started to verge on the edge of too much. There was this one neighbor who rarely ever gives out candy, but that year he had the king-sized candy bars.”

“King-sized candy bars are hard to come by. Those things are basically gold,” Karen helpfully added, in order to help them understand the importance of the rarity of that candy. “Trust me, you will know all the houses in your neighborhood that are either stingy or generous givers. Those who give king-size candy are typically the latter.”

“Good to know,” Maddie nodded. 

“So we’re at this house with the king-sized candy bars, right. We let Denny go up by himself because he’s old enough and wants some independence. He comes back looking absolutely heartbroken because our neighbor said he was too old to be trick-or-treating and that he wouldn’t be giving him candy, so he could save it for the actual kids.”

“That man was so fucking rude to my baby. How on earth can you tell a child he’s too old to trick-or-treat? I was doing all I can to make Denny want to trick-or-treat for one more year. Then you have some old man who couldn’t accept he was balding years ago, telling him he’s too old,” Karen angrily hissed. 

“Sorry, it’s still fresh in her mind,” Hen apologized while also comforting Karen. 

“I’m cool. I’m fine,” Karen assured her. 

Eddie shared a glance with Buck. She was anything, but fine. 

“Okay, but how did that land you to being banned for a year? Can they do that?” Bobby questioned, getting more intrigued with the story. 

Karen cleared her throat and looked to the side. 

“What did you do?” Athena laughed, leaning forward to rest her hands on the table. 

“I might have gone up to that man’s house and called him out of his name…a few times. Then I might have also…possibly…I’m not sure. I blanked out for a lot of it. I think I did steal his candy bowl and threw the candy in the air like I was a cheerleader throwing t-shirts to fans,” Karen slowly revealed. 

“Oh,” Athena breathed. “Oh, Karen.”

“There were phones,” Hen added. “Went viral around our neighborhood. We’re not necessarily banned because the majority consensus was that we were in the right. However, Denny said he had never been so embarrassed in his life. We did the opposite of what we hoped to achieve. So he banned us for a year. We thought we were off the hook, since this would be Mara’s first Halloween with us.”

“Unfortunately, Denny is very serious. He said he’d rather take Mara trick-or-treating by himself than for us to tag along. This was a happy medium,” Karen finished. 

“Well, I’m happy we could give you both somewhere to go while you wait out this ban,” Buck solemnly exclaimed. 

“Thanks,” Karen gently said, reaching out to hug Buck. “I greatly appreciate it.” 

“What about you and Chimney? You weren’t taking Jee trick-or-treating?” Hen asked. 

“Our neighborhood starts trick-or-treating early, since there’s a lot of young children in the neighborhood. It was very helpful,” Maddie told them. 

“That’s smart. I know we used to do that in our neighborhood. We would start early for the younger kids. Then the older kids and teenagers would come out around nighttime. It always worked,” Athena stated. 

“Our neighborhood is older, so there’s not a lot of kids that trick-or-treat. A lot of them turn off their porch lights so that the few kids in our neighborhood don’t ring their doorbell,” Eddie said. 

“That’s so mean,” Karen gasped. “Now why would they turn off the lights on the kids who just want to trick-or-treat?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. There’s a few young couples with kids that are moving into the neighborhood. So it might change.”

His phone rang again and he knew it was his mom, telling him that they were there. He squeezed Buck’s thigh to tell him he was heading back inside. He rested his hand on his shoulder, when he began to follow him. Buck allowed himself to be pushed back in his seat as Eddie stood up. 

“I’ll be back. My parents are at the door,” he told everyone. Then he went inside to let his parents into the house. 

When he went inside, he inhaled a deep breath. 

Seconds passed with him standing there and inhaling slowly. Deciding not to waste more time, he opened the door for his parents and saw they weren’t wearing costumes. 

Eddie was nitpicking. 

They were never the ones to dress in costumes. Plus they had just gotten off a flight. There wouldn’t have been much time to change, in order to make it here before the party ended. 

“Hey, mom. Dad,” he greeted. 

He moved to hug his mom and then shook his dad’s hand. His dad stepped inside the house and his mom followed after him. 

“What are you wearing?” his dad sneered, eyes flickering to the wig on his head all the way down to where his white gown hovered five inches above the ground. 

“A costume,” he mulishly replied. 

“Don’t be smart with me Edmundo,” his dad strictly commanded. 

“I’m not. You asked and I answered.”

Great, things were going off to a great start. 

“Abuelo! Abuela!” Christopher shouted. “Buck told me you were here.”

“Of course, we wouldn’t miss this for the world. You told us how excited you were for this party. You did a very good job, Christopher. The front of the house looked very good,” his mom admitted. 

“Thanks. That part was mostly Buck though. He even drew the Frankenstein cutouts in the yard,” Christopher told them. 

“Oh, Buck did that. Guess, I’ll have to extend my compliments to him as well,” his mom said, sliding her eyes toward Eddie as if she was trying to pick apart something. 

Eddie knew his dad was holding his tongue. He could see the way his jaw tightened. He hadn’t explicitly told his parents who Buck was to him nor did he tell them that he had moved in. He was aware they had their suspicions. There was a part of him that wanted them to ask and open the door for that conversation. 

He noticed his mom taking account of the new furniture in the house and the added picture frames hanging on the wall. He saw her eyes settle on the picture of Christopher’s first day of school. 

“We didn’t get that picture,” his mom said, pointing to the picture behind him. 

“Figured you just wanted one with Christopher,” he replied. 

“Buck was there on his first day?” his dad wryly asked. 

“Yeah, of course Buck would be there. He always is,” Christopher told them, voice tinted with confusion. 

“I didn’t know that Buck was so attached to you both. Seems like he’s everywhere with you two,” his mom tensely observed. 

“Well, obviously. He’s always going to be here. He lives here,” Christopher stated. 

“Lives here?” his dad choked. “Edmundo.”

“Honey, maybe he’s just helping a friend out. Is Buck having a hard time finding a place to live?”

“No, mom. He isn’t.”

“Maybe he’s hurt. Didn’t you say he stayed over a few days, when he was injured on the job? You have such a kind heart to help others, but surely there’s someone else who can step in. Doesn’t he have some family in the area?”

They were Buck’s family. 

Eddie sighed. A headache was preparing to make its alarming presence. 

“He’s not hurt, mom. He’s…”

“He’s what?” his dad prompted him to continue. 

“He’s my boyfriend,” he rushed out to explain, so as to not go through anymore questions. 

“Boyfriend?” his mom rasped. “Edmundo, what’s the meaning of this? Since when do you have a…a…boyfriend?”

Christopher turned wide eyes toward him, hearing the way her voice cracked. “Dad, I thought…”

“It’s okay, Christopher,” he kindly brushed off Christopher’s worry. He didn’t want his son, thinking he had spilled a secret that Eddie wasn’t ready for. He knew he was going to have to tell his parents that they lived together and were together romantically. 

“I wanted to tell you in person. Thought you deserved to hear it from me face-to-face.”

Nobody said anything for a while. 

Sensing the tension, Christopher pulled onto his abuela’s arm. “Come on, abuela. Let me introduce you to my friends.”

His mom let herself be pulled outside, but his dad continued to stay rooted in the front entrance of the house. 

“Edmundo –”

“Dad, please not now. We can talk about this later, but at this moment I want to enjoy the night with my family and friends. Can you hold off on whatever you want to say, for just a few hours?” Eddie pleaded. 

“Fine, I'll let it go for now. We will talk about this later though, once everyone is gone.”

His dad kept true to his word, but he did keep sending glares to Buck and Eddie throughout the night. Eddie thought his dad would have another heart attack with the way he sucked in large breaths, when Buck leant in to whisper into his ear.  

He ignored the way his dad’s lips would tilt upward in a sneer, whenever he laughed at something Buck said. Eddie tried not to let it affect him, but his dad’s gaze was heavy. His shoulder began to hunch forward from the weight of it. 

Buck reached out to pull him into his side. “I think your dad is wishing he had the superhero ability to light things on fire with his eyes. He’d probably use his powers against me.”

Eddie hoarsely chuckled. “Superhero? More like a supervillain. At least my mom is containing her facial expressions. Everyone is being kind by not bringing attention to the way my dad is sending daggers our way.”

“I’m sorry.”

Eddie rubbed his hand on his knee. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault my dad is an asshole.”

Half of him wanted to repeat it even louder, so his dad could hear him. However, he didn’t want to displace the tentative peace he had established. He leaned his head down on Buck’s shoulder and closed his eyes. He could pretend for a few minutes that his parents weren’t here. He opened his eyes and reality crept back in. 

The rest of the night continued with this brittle ache of unease, knowing what was in store when everyone had left. He was sad, when parents began picking up their kids and his friends started heading out. Chimney and Maddie had stayed behind to help them clean and break things down. But now they were about to leave as well. 

Chimney told him goodbye, as he carried an asleep Jee to his car. He told him to tell Maddie they were out in the car, since she was still talking to Buck. Eddie told him that he would pass that along, once he saw her. 

His dad was somewhere in the backyard, taking down the lights that had been hung up on the trees. He told him to leave them alone, but his dad insisted that they be taken down. 

It was only his mom and himself that were still in the kitchen. Christopher had been sent to bed, since he still had school in the morning. He wanted to help clean up, but Eddie told him he would need to be well rested for his fun weekend with his friends. 

His mom waited, until Christopher had gone to his room, to speak to him. 

“I’m surprised you let him stay up so late on a school night,” his mom said as she wrapped aluminum foil over the leftovers. 

“It’s one school night.”

“It’s not good to mess up a child’s routine like that. It’ll be hard to readjust to a schedule.”

“Mom, it’s not like I kept Christopher up ‘til two in the morning. He is fast asleep by twelve. This is around the time he goes to sleep anyways. It might be an hour later than usual. He will be fine,” he explained. 

“If you say so, honey.” 

Eddie sighed and set down the towel he had been using to wipe off the counters. “What?”

His mom shot her eyes over to him. “What?”

“You obviously want to say something. Say it. Don’t spare me any hurt feelings.”

His mom bit her lip and remained silent, ruminating on her thoughts. His dad returned from the restroom and took note of their stilted silence. 

“It seems you’ve made a lot of changes, since we last talked. Is Christopher okay with this?”

He should’ve known this would be one of the first things his mom would bring up. He stared at his parents, strengthening the resolve in his voice. He wasn’t going to be made to feel small in his own house. 

“Yes, Christopher is fine with Buck and me dating. He is also fine with Buck living here. Can you not trust me enough to have these conversations with my son, before I make these decisions?”

“A few months ago, you were getting ready for Marisol to move in with you. Then that unfortunately ended as does with all of your relationships. Now you’re living with a man,” his dad scoffed. “You want us to trust you with your decisions?”

“His name is Buck,” he said, behind clenched teeth. “But yes, as you so kindly pointed out…I am living with a man —  a man I very much love and who loves me,” he said. He softened his voice, hoping that his parents would at least hear how happy he was. 

Instead, his dad’s nose flared as he reached for a cup of water. On the other side of the kitchen, his mom’s eyes glistened with tears. 

“No, you’re not.”

“Mom.”

“No,” she choked out. “You can’t be…that’s. No, honey. You’re confused. I’m worried about you. There are a lot of changes in your life. I think you need to take some time and think things through, especially as it affects Christopher.”

“Mom, I already told you. Christopher is fine with all of this. We talked to him and had an honest conversation. He’s happy for us mom,” Eddie tried to get his mom to understand. 

“Well, I’m not!” his mom shouted, reaching toward her chest and pulling at the fabric of her dress. “How is this fine? How is this okay?” 

“Look what you’re doing to your mom. Is this what you wanted, Edmundo? Were you waiting to drop this news on us, so your mom and I would be forced to see this…whatever this is,” he angrily seethed. 

“You act like I’m forcing you to react this way,” Eddie scoffed. 

“Watch your tone,” his dad callously demanded. 

He wanted to tell him, This is my house and I can say whatever I want to say in whatever tone I want to say it in. 

Instead he bit his tongue and held those words back. 

“If I had known this was what Christopher would be returning to, I would have tried harder for him to stay with us. Edmundo, you must know this isn’t right,” his dad stubbornly rebuffed. “I didn’t raise you to be like this. I don’t…I can’t have a son like this.”

Eddie’s heart cracked and his soul began to fray at the edges. 

“Why? Why can’t you have a son like me?” he hoarsely whispered. 

His dad fixed him with a cruel stare. “I didn’t raise you to be a man who wore wigs and played house with another man. I didn’t raise you to be weak.”

He fixed the wig on his hair, tightening it onto his head. How could a wig bother his dad so much? 

His mom shook her head. “It’s…I don’t know. I didn’t know you were like that. Your dad always said…he tried to…I didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe him at all. Because if you were, you would have told me. You would have told me, Edmundo.”

At that, Eddie laughed. When had he ever given his mom the impression that he could confide in her? His mom looked sharply up at him with wet eyes. 

“Where’s Christopher?” his dad questioned. 

“He’s sleeping.”

His dad cocked his head to the side. He balled his fists with restrained anger. Eddie knew whatever words he was holding back, had the ability to leave cuts and bruises on Eddie’s skin. He wondered if his dad was showing him a bit of mercy, by not voicing those thoughts. 

Eddie should’ve known his dad was never one to impart mercy. He had only ever inflicted punishment. 

“While we’re down here, I think Christopher should stay with us. Clearly, we were wrong in our decision to let him come back. I think you need more time to get better.”

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Eddie stressfully pleaded with them. 

“Edmundo, you keep going on this way and Christopher is going to leave again. This time he might not come back,” his mom warned. 

“I’m not doing anything wrong,” he clarified. 

“Edmundo!” his father shouted, veins popping out of his neck. “You will not raise your voice to your mother.”

“I didn’t raise my voice,” Eddie carefully insisted, bringing his clasped hands to his mouth. “You’re not listening to me. I know what I did was a mistake and it had consequences. However, we’ve moved on. He’s forgiven me. I don’t even need your forgiveness, but here I am asking for it. So please…can you forgive me and let all of us move on?”

His dad scowled at him. “Why are you being so defiant about this? We are trying to help you and Christopher.”

“Where?” Eddie yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. “Where is the help? Because you’re not helping me or Christopher. We’re running around in circles, arguing over the same thing.”

“No, you’re running around in circles. You’ve been doing that since Shannon died. Only this time, you added a new trick to the circus,” his dad mocked. “How long until this new trick gets retired?” 

“That’s not fair, dad.”

Eddie blinked away the tears in his eyes. His dad still managed to find the sorest part of his body and dig a wound deeper into that spot. 

“What’s not fair? What have we done that’s not been fair to you?” 

“All of this. None of this has been fair. Your expectations have not been fair. I refuse to let you think that you can raise Christopher into the man you wanted me to be. I have done so much work undoing what you instilled in me. I refuse to subject Christopher to the same thing.”

“Now we’re not only bad parents, but we’re bad grandparents too. This is a lifestyle you’re proud of? You’re happy like this?” his dad taunted. “It can’t be. There was so much more in this life for you than this. You’ve subjected yourself to a life of mediocrity and Christopher is being brought down with you. I thought you were better than this. I thought you wanted to be a good father…a good influence to your son.”

“I am a good dad,” he said, repeating the words he told himself every morning. 

“I don’t think so. Otherwise, Christopher would have never left,” Helena whispered under her breath. “You don’t leave your parents, if they’re good to you. What sense does that make, Edmundo?”

He was so tired of them hammering in the fact that Christopher left. He got it. He made his mistake, but he had been forgiven. Christopher was home with him. Why couldn’t they understand that? 

“Then what does that have to say about you? I left you all twice! I tried leaving a hundred times, before those attempts were successful. I…” he broke off, trying to clear out the anger in his eyes. “I left because somehow I thought a war zone would be safer, than living in a household with you! Then I left again because staying in that household made me want to rip out every single strand of my fucking –”

Eddie heard the echo of a slap, before he felt the biting sting. He bit down on his tongue as his dad’s hard hand met his cheek. Teeth chattered and his jaw shook. He blinked away dots in his vision that disoriented him. 

“You do not speak like that to your mom. Apologize now,” his dad snarled, lip curling around his teeth. His finger was an inch away from his nose as he pointed it at him. 

He was so focused on the stinging pain in his cheek that he didn’t hear the approaching footsteps. 

“Abuelo?” Christopher’s soft voice trembled. 

“Christopher, buddy. I thought you were asleep,” he said, turning his face away, so his son wouldn’t see how his mouth had filled with blood. “Go back to bed. I’ll be right there in a minute.”

“Abuelo, what…why did you hit dad? Why would you do that?” Christopher cried, looking back to his grandparents. 

The perfect image of them was shattering before their eyes. Eddie hated that his parents had caused this. 

“Christopher –” his dad started to say. 

“You don’t talk to him,” he said, feeling the need to protect his son. He walked over to plant himself in front of Christopher. 

“Edmundo, move. I’m not going to hurt Christopher. I need to talk to him man to man and explain what he just saw.”

“He’s not a man. He’s a child,” Eddie thinly whispered. “He’s my child.”

“Edmundo, move. Christopher, come here. Abuelo is sorry he scared you,” his dad apologized, moving to step closer to him. 

Christopher continued to sob. “No! Why did you hit dad? That’s…you don’t do that.”

“Let me explain. Your dad –” He reached over to grab his arm, before Eddie pulled him off. 

“Don’t touch him!” Eddie shouted, throwing off his dad’s arm. 

“Edmundo, stop it. Your dad obviously isn’t going to hurt him. Christopher, honey. Here, stop crying. Stop crying for a moment.”

Hearing Christopher’s cries, Buck ran into the kitchen. He took one look at the situation and tightened his jaw. Regretfully, Eddie turned to Buck knowing that both he and Christopher could see the blood pulling in his mouth and the redness in his cheek. 

Buck hissed lowly, eyes alighting with anger. He stepped forward, but stopped when Eddie shook his head. He tilted his head down to Christopher who was sobbing and clutching the back of his shirt. 

“Buck,” he pleaded, hoping the inflection of his tone let him know what he needed in that moment. 

“Okay. Okay,” Buck said, immediately knowing what he needed at that moment. “Come here, Christopher. Let’s go back to bed.”

Eddie knew Buck didn’t want to leave. However, Buck knew that right now his main concern was Christopher.

He held on tightly to Eddie’s shirt. He shook his head, tears catching onto the white gown Eddie was still wearing. 

“Christopher. Please go with Buck,” he kept trying to tell him. 

“Dad, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I swear,” Christopher cried. “I wouldn’t have asked them to come, if I knew.”

“I know. I know,” he comforted turning around to hug Christopher. “It’s not your fault, but I need to talk with your grandparents right now. Can you do me a favor and go back to your room to sleep. You have a big day tomorrow. I don’t want you to be tired.”

He looked helplessly at Buck, who was staring at him. He shook his head at him, once he saw the look on his face. 

“I know, Buck. But not right now. I can’t…I can’t. I need you to take care of Christopher for me right now. That’s what I need,” he whispered above Buck’s head. “Buck, please.”

Buck stared at him and inhaled slowly. He wrapped his arms around Christopher and gently coaxed him into letting go. He was able to wrap his arms around Christopher’s body and pull him away from him. 

Once they were gone, he looked back at his parents. 

“Edmundo –”

“I’m done. After tonight, I wipe my hands completely clean of both of you,” Eddie vowed. “The only time I will ever talk to you is if it’s completely necessary. I won’t call you. I won’t answer your calls. I’ve excused a lot of what you did. I’ve forgiven you for worse things.”

He broke away, looking down as tears trailed down his face. 

“But I can’t forgive you for the way that you caused Christopher to cry like that. I’m going to have to explain this to him and I will because he is at an age where I have to be honest with these things.”

“Oh, so now you can be honest…”

“Oh, for the ever loving sake of…can you shut the fuck up?” he seethed, interrupting his dad. “Honestly, right now I just want you two to leave. There’s nothing more we can say to each other that will change anything between us.”

“You’re just going to tell your version of the story and poison Christopher’s mind against us? I bet that’s what you’ve been planning this whole time,” his dad scornfully snapped. 

“Yes, I was planning on being slapped today. I even wrote it down on my calendar with tiny red hearts, ‘Getting slapped by your dad.’ Do you even hear yourself?” he scoffed. 

“Edmundo, what are you saying? You’re never going to talk to us again?” his mom sniffled. 

Eddie remained silent for a while as his mom’s eyes glistened. “Yes, as it currently stands…”

“You’re too soft, if a little discipline has you running away,” his dad maliciously reproached. 

“See this is why. I’m exhausted, dad. I can’t do this anymore with you or mom. Can’t you see how much you’re hurting me? You’re not blind. You just don’t care. And I don’t care anymore to place your feelings above mine. I’m done,” Eddie resolved. 

His mom wiped at her eyes and turned away. “Let’s go, Ramón.”

“Helena…” he stopped, when he saw her shake his head. “Fine. Are you going to walk us out?”

Eddie walked out his parents, stopping at the door. He watched as they got into their car. He was about to close his door, when his dad rolled down his window. 

Before he sped away, he told him, “You’ll get over it. You always do.” 

The door closed and Eddie let out the first breath he had been holding. He slumped against the door, resting his head against it. Wet breaths crackled at his lungs, but he didn’t cry. There wasn’t much left in him anymore to pour out tears over his parents. 

He inhaled and turned around, stopping short once he saw Maddie standing in front of him. She smiled kindly, eyes softening as she went to walk by him. 

“You heard all of that?” Eddie winced. 

“Yeah,” Maddie said, not pretending for his sake. “I was about to head out to the car, when I heard everything. Buck is checking on Christopher, but he wanted me to come out here to see how you were doing.” 

“I…” Eddie brokenly exhaled. 

“No one, least of all me, is expecting you to be ready to talk. If you want to sit here with me for a while, before you say go in to talk to Christopher, I’ll stay.”

“Did Christopher look okay, when you went in there?” he said, walking over to sit down on the couch. 

Maddie followed him to sit down on the other side. “He’s sad, but he stopped crying. Buck was still talking to him, when I came out here.”

“Good. That’s good.”

“You want to vent for a second to someone who knows what you’re going through?” 

Eddie blinked up at her, confused as to what they shared in common. They were slowly becoming good friends, but he hadn’t learned everything about her to draw comparisons and similarities between them. 

Maddie let out a long sigh and turned kind eyes toward him. “There’s moments where I see a look in your eyes that closely mirrors my own. I saw it a lot, when I worked as a nurse. People often think the only thing people need to look after is the health of their bodies, but it’s also the health of their minds that they need to carefully take care of.”

His eyes widened at what Maddie might have been implying. 

“Sometimes both the mind and the body are hurting,” Maddie whispered as she looked at his face. “It’s hard, especially when you don’t know the root of your pain. Part of you doesn’t want to try unearthing it because there’s a quiet part of you that knows if you do it's going to break you. And you try to silence those whispers, telling you to pick apart the reasons you're hurting.”

Eddie remained still as Maddie talked. Everything she was saying felt eerily similar to what he felt. Clarity trickled into his consciousness as he let her words saturate his mind. 

“However, things spoken in between whispers always want to be spoken aloud. So that quiet part becomes unsettled. It wants you to deal with the root of your pain. Then you dig it up and it feels earth-shattering,” Maddie said in a hushed tone. 

Eddie blinked slowly, waiting for her to continue. 

“Because yeah sure you figured it out — the reason that you’re hurting — but it doesn't make the pain go away. Does it?”

He rubbed his hands over his mouth to stop the way they trembled. He brought his hand down and rested it on his lap. 

“Buck told me it wasn’t okay,” he admitted, lowering his eyes to his lap. 

She leaned forward to hold his hand. 

“But for people like us, saying it wasn’t okay and believing it wasn’t okay are entirely two different fights. It’s hard to admit that and it’s even harder to believe it,” Maddie said, encapsulating everything that Eddie felt. 

His hand tightened on hers. Maddie didn’t pull away. 

“It took me a long time to understand and rationalize what was happening to me as abuse. I had an understanding that my relationship with Doug wasn't healthy, but maybe it was the way mine would look like. And I excused everything that happened because I thought maybe one day he would change. When I realized he wouldn’t, it was still hard for me to leave.”

Eddie turned his face to the side as he felt tears stream down his face. 

“It’s hard. I can’t even say that they were…” Eddie broke off and cleared his throat. “My chest hurts and my stomach tightens with pain every time that thought passes my mind. Because they were mine. Before everything else, they were my parents.”

He swallowed down the thickness in his throat that threatened to choke him. 

“I know, Eddie. It’s okay,” Maddie whispered, reaching over to wipe the tears off his face. 

He turned back to her. “My parents were abusive and it wasn’t okay. And they think I wasn’t a good parent. I might make mistakes, but I have never raised my hand in anger. I have never denied food. I’ve never made him get out of the car, when it’s raining, and walk home.”

His voice cracked as he continued to list reasons. He stopped talking as his voice softened to a raspy tone. 

“I love my son. I make sure to care for him. I guide him with gentle instruction. I don’t judge him for his mistakes. I listen to him, when he says I’ve hurt his feelings. I’m a good dad. They cannot take that from me. They cannot take him from me,” Eddie tearfully resolved. 

“They won’t. Eddie, I’ve seen the way you love and parent Christopher. You’re an amazing father. No, seriously. Look at me Eddie. I’m not the type to mince words. You are doing a spectacular job as a dad,” she said, pulling her hand down from his face to hold his hands again.

The palms of her hands were wet, from wiping away his tears. 

“You had my brother wanting to look up resources to help Christopher because he knew just how much of a great dad you were. And he wanted to extend every bit of help he could because you are so deserving of it.” 

She tucked a strand of his hair behind the wig, reminding him of the way Sophia would sometimes run her fingers through his hair. 

“Your parents don’t deserve any more of your happiness. And you don’t deserve your parents taking any more of your time that you have with Christopher. Go to your son, comfort him and let him comfort you. Then you’ll go to bed and wake up in the morning, to see the sun still shining — maybe even more brightly this time.”

Eddie absorbed her words and felt the tension slowly ease its way out of his body. He didn't say anything, but Maddie didn't look like she minded. She patted his hand twice and then removed her hands to grab her purse that was on the floor. 

Maddie smiled at him. “Now, I’ll leave you to it. Chimney is probably wondering what’s taking me so long. Have a goodnight, Eddie. Also if you ever need to talk about anything, I’m here.” 

When they stood up, Eddie hugged Maddie tightly. She let out a sound of surprise, since they had never hugged one another. 

“Thanks,” he whispered into her ear, before moving away. 

“Anytime,” she smiled, as she walked to the door. 

“Get home safely,” he told her as he watched her walk to the car. 

He closed the door, once Chimney pulled out of their driveway. He walked into the kitchen and rinsed his mouth out with water, until the water in the sink became clear. He wiped his mouth with a paper towel, making sure nothing transferred onto it. 

He threw the towel away and breathed slowly through his nose. Steeling himself to talk to his son, he headed to Christopher’s room. 

When he walked into his room, he saw Buck still trying to get Christopher to sleep. He smiled as he watched his son fight valiantly against the strong tide of sleep. Once he heard him come into his room, his eyes turned glassy again. 

“Dad, I’m so…”

“There is nothing for you to be sorry for,” he rushed over to him. He grabbed Christopher into his arms and continued to repeat that he had nothing to be sorry for as his cries transitioned into sniffles. 

Buck lightly brushed his hand against his back and whispered that he was leaving so the two of them could talk. Eddie turned his head to mouth thank you, then went back to comforting Christopher. He pulled back as Christopher grew silent. 

He looked at him with red eyes and flushed cheeks. “I always thought it was weird.”

Eddie’s eyebrows drew forward in confusion. “Thought what was weird?”

Christopher glanced down at his hands and traced the lines of his palms. “I thought it was weird that you never really talked about abuelo and abuela…you know like I talk about you. You never share fun stories with them. I talk about you all the time, but you don’t talk about your parents.”

He looked back up at him and tilted his head to the side. 

“I thought maybe, when you get older you stopped talking about your childhood. But I was wrong? Wasn’t I?”

“Christopher...”

“I should’ve known,” he cried, trying to blink back tears that were making a reappearance. “Sometimes, I overheard them talking about you.”

Eddie held his breath, not wanting to know what his parents said when they thought Christopher wasn’t in the room. 

“I thought maybe they were mad like I was at first, but then they didn’t stop being mad. Sometimes they’d ask if I wanted to stay longer. They made it sound like I needed to stay,” Christopher heartbrokenly confessed. 

“Your grandparents wanted what’s best for you,” he tried to explain his parents’ intent. 

“If they wanted what’s best for me, they wouldn’t be mean to you. I hate them,” Christopher angrily admitted. 

“Christopher –” Eddie broke off, unsure of what to say. “You don’t have to hate them because of me. It’s okay to still love your grandparents.”

He vehemently shook his head, curls flying all over his face. “It’s not because of you. I mean it is, but it’s also not. They keep hurting your feelings and I don’t like that. Until they treat you nice, I don’t want to talk to them. Are you going to make me?” 

Christopher’s eyes widened, searching out for an answer. 

“No, mijo. I would never do that,” Eddie gently soothed. “But this is between me and them. I never wanted this to affect you.”

“You’re my dad. Everything they do to you, affects me. What did I say dad, about not wanting you to get hurt again?”

Eddie breathed slowly at the reminder. 

“Were you going to talk to them again?” Christopher hesitantly questioned. 

He stared at his son, wondering whether now was the time to tell him that he wouldn’t be speaking to them anymore. 

“No. Actually, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about. I think it’s best for me and your grandparents, if we have some distance for a while. However, the moment that you want to speak to your grandparents, I will still have that line of communication with them.”

He tried explaining this in a digestible way for a child. Sure, Christopher was a teenager, but these things were hard for an adult to understand. 

“If a while is forever, I wouldn’t mind,” Christopher said then added, “But you’ll still talk to your sisters and everyone, right?”

“Yes, I’m still talking to them.” 

“Okay,” he replied. “Can we talk more about this later?” 

“Of course, we can. Anytime you want to, I’ll be ready to talk. Now it’s way past your bedtime and you have a very exciting Friday and Saturday to look forward to. Come on, let’s get you all tucked into bed.”

Christopher leaned back against his pillows. “On Saturday can you pick me up early?”

“Yeah, I can. Is there a reason you want to leave your friends early?”

“I changed my mind about going to the pumpkin patch with you and Buck. I still think it's for kids, but I think it’ll be fun,” he murmured into his pillow. 

His heart felt like it grew within his chest. He knew Christopher didn’t suddenly think the pumpkin patch was going to be fun. He probably wanted to spend time with them, to make Eddie happy. He had the sweetest kid in the world. 

“Christopher, you don’t have to change your plans. I know you were excited to watch the movie with them.”

“I can watch it another time.”

He ran his hands through Christopher’s hair. “I know you can. And we can also go to the pumpkin patch next weekend, if you really want to go. Have fun with your friends, Christopher. Knowing you’re having a good time with your friends will make me happy.” 

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. We’ll save off on going to the pumpkin patch next weekend, if you really want to go.”

“Okay,” he said around a yawn. 

“Alright, go to sleep,” Eddie laughed. “Love you.”

“I love you too,” Christopher repeated back to him. 

He pressed a kiss on his forehead then stood up to leave Christopher’s room. He walked through the house, noticing that Buck had finished cleaning everything up. He went into his room, seeing that Buck was already settled in bed. 

He took off his wig and the white gown, discarding them onto his dresser. He didn’t have the energy to change out of the shorts he had been wearing underneath the gown. Nor did he feel like putting on a shirt. 

He got in his bed and curled against Buck’s back. He began to turn over, but Eddie stopped him. 

“Just let me stay like this for awhile,” he said, wrapping his arms around Buck. 

“Okay,” Buck whispered as his hand searched out his own. 

He tightly closed his eyes and rested his face on Buck’s back. Hot tears melted into the thin fabric of Buck’s shirt. His body shook as he silently continued to cry. It hurt and Eddie wasn’t certain the pain would abate by the morning. However, as Buck tightly held onto his hand he realized that his dad’s words were true. 

Like always, he would get over this. However, he wouldn’t get over it because he would excuse their ways. No, instead he would get over it because at least this time he had the support of someone who loved him, reminding him that what his parents did wasn’t okay. Buck said it wasn’t okay. His son said it wasn’t okay. 

He had admitted it to himself that nothing his parents did was ever okay. 

It was only a few days later that he finally believed it. 

His mom came to his house, ringing his doorbell that following Tuesday morning. 

Christopher had already been dropped off at school. Buck was at the store, grabbing stuff to make dinner for the night. He wondered whether he should pretend he also wasn’t at home. However, he figured this would be the last time he saw and spoke to her, before she left for El Paso. 

His mom looked startled like she hadn’t expected him to open the door which was odd given that this was his house. He looked at his mom, observing her appearance. It was odd to see her standing so unsure of herself. 

She darted her eyes over his features, before maintaining eye contact with him. She shifted on her feet, never settling her weight on either leg. She kept biting at the corners of her lips every time she was poised to speak. 

“Mom, what are you doing here?” he tiredly questioned. 

“Your dad and I wanted to come see you and talk. Your dad was busy…”

That was a lie. His dad either didn’t want to come or hadn’t been told by his mom that she was making a stop at his house. No matter the reason, he wasn’t there and had never planned on being there. He allowed his mom to lie to him, once more — if only to make her leave faster. 

“You haven’t replied to any of my texts. I’ve tried calling, but you never answered. I didn’t think you were serious about never talking to us again, Edmundo. Your father is having a hard time with this.”

“Is he?” Eddie wryly chuckled. “Good. Then he’ll feel only a fraction of what I’ve felt all those years being your son.”

“Edmundo,” his mom brokenly gasped. “You don’t mean that.”

“Mom, if you only came here to try and get me to apologize to dad or take back my words…you are wasting your breath.” 

“No, no. That’s…” she trailed off, trying to place her words into a cohesive sentence. “Are you not even going to let me in?”

Eddie stood still at the door and did not move. 

“Edmundo, you have to understand. This is…this is difficult for me. You’re telling your father and I that we can’t talk to you. We can’t talk to our son? My baby, my firstborn. How…how am I supposed to handle that?” she cried, voice trembling the longer she spoke. 

“Mom –”

“How can you ask a mom to let her baby go? Why are you asking us to let you go? We haven’t done anything to…”

“Yet you wanted me to let Christopher go?” he criticized. 

His mom grew silent at that, but seemed to find the courage to speak only a few seconds later. 

“I know your dad was hard on you. There were things that I did not approve of, but you have to let the past…”

Eddie laughed sharply, abruptly stopping her from continuing whatever nonsense she was about to spiel. 

“What?”

“Dad was hard on me. Yeah, understatement of the year. But what about you? Hmm, mom? What about you?”

His mom frowned at him. “What do you mean? Edmundo, I never did anything to you.”

“Yet you can recognize what dad did was wrong? You can say that you didn’t approve?”

“Edmundo –”

“You won’t include yourself in the things that made my life hard? Mama,” he said, the term slipping in a way that it hadn’t been used since that day all those years ago, when he was heartbroken and bereft. 

He watched as his mom’s eyes shuttered close and she finally settled her weight. She stopped looking jittery as that once fond term slipped from his lips. 

“Mama, you hurt me too.” 

“Edmundo, I never…”

“You passed dad the belt. You broke a branch off of a tree and inspected it to see if it was good enough for him to use on me. You wrapped up the food and stored it away, when dad said I missed dinner time even though it was because I was grounded and hadn’t been excused to leave my room yet.”

Eddie’s chest rose with every damning piece of evidence he laid out in front of her. 

“When I caught pneumonia, from being dropped off on the side of the street…you told me that next time dad did something like that I should take a warm bath and drink orange juice. You were already preparing me to be left on the side of the road again,” he tersely remind her. 

Tears ran freely down her face while she listened to him continuously list all the things he had been holding back. Her form grew smaller the longer he talked, airing everything out. It was no longer kept in the back corners of his mind, packaged away to never be opened. 

If he only had this one chance to get his mom to understand his pain and heartache, he had to take it. 

“I wanted you to try mom,” Eddie confessed. “That’s all I ever wanted you to do. I wanted you to try standing up for me, but you never did. And today you came here wanting to apologize on his behalf? Wanting me to apologize to him?”

He shook his head at the audacity. 

“So, no. I’m not going to let you in. I’m not going to answer your texts. I’m not going to answer your calls. If there are times, I need to communicate with you — I will decide how that happens. Because I can’t do this anymore mom. When I was a kid, you always saw me hurting and you did nothing. This time, doing nothing might be the best thing you can do for me,” he stated. 

His mom remained silent as thin lines of black mascara fell down her face. “Would things change, if I said that I was sorry?”

“It might, if you knew what you were sorry about. But I’m aware enough to know that you won’t ever understand the depth of the things to which you should be sorry for,” Eddie thinly answered. 

Her lip quivered and her hands shook as she went to wipe her face. “How long? How long will you go without talking to us?”

“I don’t know…” Eddie sadly whispered. “I don’t know and I need you to be okay with that.” 

“Okay,” she said more to herself than toward him. She smiled shortly, before the corners of her lips dropped. “I guess I’ll leave now. You…have a nice day.”

She hurried off away from him, not giving him a chance to say anything back. What a shame. He wanted to tell her that he hoped they had a safe flight back to El Paso. 

He was about to step inside the house, when he saw Buck’s jeep come into their street. He waited for him as he pulled up into the driveway. 

Buck got out of his car just as his mom was driving down the street. He looked back to check and make sure his eyes hadn’t deceived him. 

“Was that your mom?” he questioned, as he went to stand in front of Eddie. 

“Yeah,” Eddie said, reaching his arms out for him. 

He turned his head slightly to look down the street as his mom drove out of their neighborhood. He watched her stop halfway in her trip. She stayed there for a few minutes and Eddie was worried the car had stopped. 

He waited as his mom’s car started up again. Then he watched her as she became nothing more than a blurry license plate turning left to leave his street. He exhaled a breath and felt his shoulders grow unburdened. 

His face turned toward Buck and he felt for the first time, since he had been born, that he no longer carried the weight of his dad’s disappointment or the shameful guilt of his mom. 

“You okay?” Buck inquired, as he hugged him. 

With a light heart and an even clearer mind he told him, “Not right now, but I will be.” 

Breathing in the crisp autumn air, he thought back to Maddie’s words a few days ago. He looked up past the trees whose leaves were monochromatic shades of reds and yellows. Clouds swam within the expansive blue sky. Then his eyes settled on that golden light, shining down upon them. 

True to her word, the sun was shining more brightly than it had the day before.

In the most recent weeks, since he last saw his parents he found himself experiencing everything with a lot more joy and happiness. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t already happy, but there had always been an invisible weight that he carried alongside him. 

Now he found himself going to work without hearing his dad’s voice in his head, saying that he wasn’t trying hard enough. He didn’t hear his mom’s voice telling him he didn’t know the needs of his son, when he spent time with Christopher. He didn’t hear their voices telling them he needed to find a mom for Christopher, when he ran his fingers alongside Buck’s jaw. 

Their words were becoming less of a constant presence in his life. They were no longer able to take away his happiness. He was able to enjoy his favorite things without feeling like he didn’t deserve them. 

Date night was one of those favorite things. 

It had quickly become one of those things that Eddie eagerly anticipated. Before Buck, he never looked forward to making plans for a date. Looking back at his previous relationships, he realized he was never excited to go out on one. He didn’t happily pour over different ideas, thinking about all the places he wanted to go with them. Instead he would reluctantly look at his schedule as the impending date loomed over his head. 

It was different with Buck. 

Dates were an entirely new experience to him. He didn’t know going on dates could be enjoyable. He loved when they went hiking and stopped to have a picnic at the top of the trail. He liked learning to make pottery with Buck. They even went to a car show a few weeks ago. 

He also liked how these were all things they did, before they started dating. Only this time, he could reach out his hand and hold Buck’s. He was able to run his hands through his hair as he pressed his lips onto his over and over again. He could share confessions spoken between hushed whispers and bedsheets. 

They decided that they would have a date night at least three times a month. It was a good number to settle on, given that those dates were specifically planned out. They still went out on other days, hanging out as they had all those years of being friends. 

He was currently getting dressed for a date night that Buck planned. He tried asking Buck to give him any hints about where they were going. The only hint he got was to dress nicely, which they spent about five minutes playfully arguing over whether there had been a time that Eddie hadn’t dressed nicely. 

Christopher came in midway through the argument and told him to walk into his closet then come back to them, once he looked at all the henleys on the hangers. He got the hint. He was gradually expanding his wardrobe. 

In fact, the shirt he wore for the date was a new one he bought with Christopher’s approval. He stared at himself in the mirror and checked that everything looked good. He brushed back a stray strand of hair that had fallen over his eyebrow. It was stubborn and always wanted to separate itself from the pack. 

He began adding the final touches to his outfit. He sprayed on some cologne, upset that he had run out of his favorite one. All his searches to find that cologne were proven to be futile. 

He was about to reconsider whether his dark denim jeans were the ones he wanted to wear, when he heard the doorbell ring. 

He frowned, wondering if someone would be coming by tonight. No one had said they were coming by the house. He walked out of his room and headed to the front door, momentarily stopping to ruffle Christopher’s hair as he kept playing his game. 

He opened the door, stopping in surprise when he saw Buck standing there. It wasn’t a surprise that he was standing at his door. He had left earlier, saying he had to pick something up at the store. However, it was a surprise that he hadn’t used his key to open the door. His hands weren’t even occupied with something that would make the task difficult. 

“Buck what are you –”

“I’m here to pick you up for our date,” Buck smiled. 

“Wait…did you seriously drive around just to pick me up? Did you have to go to the store?” he laughed, watching as Buck shook his head. “You know you didn’t have to drive around the block and pretend you’re picking me up. You live here now and have lived here for the past four months.”

“Shh, let a man live out his dreams. We’ve always headed to our dates together, but I wanted to try it this way one time,” Buck said, cheeks growing warm at the admission.

“Wasted gas on that block,” he mockingly replied, calling back to when Buck’s favorite excuse to get them to drive together was because they could save on gas. 

“Alright, Eddie I give in. Enough with the gas money,” he chuckled. “I know it wasn’t the best excuse to use, but it worked.”

“It did work,” Eddie agreed. 

“Are you ready to go? Or did you still need some time getting ready?” 

“I’m ready. Oh, wait. Hold on, I need to grab something. Come inside, make yourself at home,” Eddie playfully welcomed. 

“You guys are being weird,” Christopher called out as Buck stepped inside the house. “Even my friends agree.”

“Your friends can’t hear us,” Eddie rolled his eyes. “You have your headphones on.”

“I’m saying what they would say, if they could hear you right now,” he sighed.

Buck sat down by Christopher, nudging his shoulder with his. Eddie left them to themselves, while he went back into his room where a bouquet of flowers were hidden in the cabinet under his sink. 

He made it a habit of buying flowers for Buck. It was something that started by chance, but Eddie loved buying new flowers. He loved it even more, seeing Buck’s response to the flowers. 

Holding the fresh bouquet, he began thinking back to the first time he placed flowers within the vase Buck crafted. 

The day that Buck moved in, he and Eddie sorted through things they needed to unpack first. Eddie assumed they would start with necessary things that he would immediately need. However, the first thing Buck unpacked was within a small cardboard box with the word “Fragile” written on it. 

Eddie had seen the vase, placed on Buck’s side table. However, he never had anything in the vase. For a moment, Eddie wondered if something was wrong with the vase. One day, he had looked inside of it to see whether Buck had accidentally forgotten to hollow out the vase. Maybe it was only there for decorative purposes. 

That thought was laid to rest, when he cleaned Buck’s loft one day and began dusting inside of it. He had asked Buck why he never had anything in the vase. He explained that he always planned on buying flowers for it, but he either forgot to or never found the right ones. 

It was odd because it was Buck’s favorite vase. Eddie knew he was proud of making it, so he wanted to make it a staple in his home as well. It had easily found its place on the kitchen counter near a family picture. All it needed was flowers. 

Eddie had gone out one day and by some intercession of fate, he stumbled upon a small florist boutique. He stepped inside and got familiar with the owner, an elderly woman by the name of Abilene, who lovingly attended to all of her plants. She assisted him in finding the right flowers to buy and told him how to care for them. 

When Eddie came back, he placed the flowers in the vase. He was worried what Buck’s reaction would be, when he saw that he put flowers in the vase. What if he had chosen the wrong flowers?

Buck came back that day, finding the flowers in the vase. He had paused at the kitchen counter, eyes immediately staring at the flowers. A second passed, where Eddie was worried he had done something wrong. Then Buck turned toward him, pulling him in by his arms and wrapping him tightly in his hold. 

“They’re perfect. They look so good there,” Buck whispered into his ear. 

“Yeah?” Eddie had whispered back, tightening his hands into the back of Buck’s shirt. 

“Yeah,” Buck gently spoke, stepping back to admire the flowers once more. “They look really good.” 

As he made his way back into the living room, he stopped by Buck who had gotten involved in the game that Christopher was playing. He paused the game, ignoring Christopher’s complaints. 

“How’s Abilene doing? Is she back or is her daughter still covering for her?” Buck questioned, taking the flowers from his hand. He stood up to go to the kitchen where the vase was displayed. 

“Abilene’s doing good. She was there when I came back. She told me she’ll be taking on less hours and letting her daughter slowly take over,” Eddie told him. 

“That’s good to hear,” Buck kindly noted. He rested the flowers on the counter, while he grabbed the wilting flowers in the vase. He set them aside to be pressed later, because he was a sentimental man. He had a scrapbook with all of the pressed flowers that had wilted. 

He undid the ribbon holding all the flowers together. Then he poured out the water in the vase, in order to fill it with fresh water. After replacing the old flowers with the new ones, he turned to look at them in appreciation. 

“You ready to go?” Eddie questioned, walking past Buck to throw away the discarded ribbon into the trash. 

“Yeah, I am. Mhm, you smell good,” he commented, once he had caught the scent of Eddie’s cologne. 

“It’s new. I wanted to wear my old cologne, but it's empty. I’ve looked everywhere to buy a new one, but haven’t found it anywhere. Guess, that’s why it was on that special sale because…” Eddie narrowed his eyes in suspicion as Buck shyly looked down at his shoes. “What? Why are you looking down at the floor?” 

Buck opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking like he was struggling to speak. “Okay, I have something to admit.”

“What?”

“I’d like to preface this by saying, I didn’t think it would go on for this long,” Buck defended. 

“Buck.”

“Right, yes. Okay, look. You can’t find that cologne because it doesn’t exist in the store.”

“Like they’re no longer making it? They discontinued it? That sucks. I really liked it,” Eddie sadly sighed. 

“No, like it was never sold in the store.”

“What? Then how did you buy it?” Eddie questioned, growing increasingly more confused. 

“I made it,” Buck confessed. 

He raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean that you made it?”

“Meaning that I actually made the cologne. Remember that perfume shop I went to that one of my old neighbors opened up? That’s where I made the colognes,” he told him. 

“Wait? Why would you lie that you got it from the store?”

“Because I was worried you wouldn’t like it. Then when you did like it, I was already too deep into the lie,” Buck winced. “It was hard, seeing you go on dates while you were out there smelling like the cologne I made specifically for you.”

His eyes softened at that. Oh, Buck. He really did love him so much. Every day he was finding something new to be completely enamored by him. He moved closer to Buck, holding his face in between his hands. 

“That is quite possibly the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” Eddie lightly laughed. “Only you would lie about something like that. But now that I know you made it, I will be expecting a new one on my counter within the next few days.”

“You could come with me, since you weren’t able to last time,” Buck responded. 

“That would be fun. Maybe I could make a cologne for you. We could smell like each other,” Eddie muttered, already imagining making something designed for Buck. 

“Aren’t you two supposed to be gone by now?” Christopher asked as he stepped into the kitchen. 

He dropped his hands from Buck’s face to look at his son. “Why? Are you trying to get us out the house, so you can throw a party? Are there cars waiting down the block?”

Christopher rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m about to throw a party. So if you can…please leave.”

“Alright, alright. We get it. It’s your first time staying home alone. You’re excited,” Buck laughed. “We’ll get out of your hair. Remember to set the alarm, when we leave.”

“I will,” he sighed, after hearing the same instructions for the hundredth time. “All emergency numbers are on the door. I have food. I have water. I am perfectly fine. Now, leave.”

“Okay,” Eddie chuckled as Christopher pushed at his shoulder. “My phone is always on –”

“Dad,” he groaned, almost pushing him and Buck out of the door. “Have fun on your date. Remember dad’s curfew is at twelve. Be glad I didn’t make it ten. If he’s not here on the dot, I will be revoking your extended bedtime privileges.”

“Are you using my own rules against me?”

“Are you still here?” Christopher parroted back to him. 

“Come on, Eddie. Let’s give Christopher his space. We’ll be back.”

“Okay, have fun,” he said, rushing them out the house. 

Eddie didn’t have a chance to say anything in response, before the door was promptly closed on their faces and they heard the door lock. He turned to Buck, who had the same expression of surprise on his face. 

“Are you driving or me?” Eddie said, getting out of the shock of being kicked out of his own house. 

Buck raised an eyebrow at him, while pulling out his keys. “I like how you still continue to ask that, even when you and I both know it’s always me driving.”

“That could change one day. Maybe I’ll choose to drive,” Eddie shrugged, as he walked to Buck’s jeep. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” Buck grinned as he got onto his side of the car and started to drive off to their destination. 

All Eddie knew was that it was not a restaurant, since they had eaten dinner with Christopher before they left. However, that knocked a lot of things off his list of where Buck could be taking him. He decided to enjoy the ride and stop thinking of all the places they could be heading to. 

It was a semi-long drive, about forty-five minutes away from his house. When they arrived, Eddie couldn’t tell what the place was based on its outward appearance. However, it must have been a popular spot because the parking lot was packed. 

He didn’t have to wait long to figure out where Buck took him, when they went inside. It was some hybrid of a dance club and lounge. Music thrummed all over the room, causing the walls to vibrate and the ground to shake. Buck held his hand in his as they moved past the security at the front door. 

Leading him inside, Buck kept him close and always checked to make sure he was behind him — even though Eddie’s hand was still firmly planted in his. 

Buck turned around to face him as he heard a new song start. Eddie rested one arm on Buck’s shoulder and the other on his waist. The two began dancing, mirroring the other couples on the dance floor. Eddie smiled as he noticed that Buck’s dancing had improved. 

Noticing his speculative gaze, Buck smiled at him. “Chimney taught me a few things.”

“Chimney?” he laughingly questioned. 

“Yes. He took some dance classes for their wedding. Since I knew this is where I wanted to bring you, I wanted to make sure I could at least keep up,” he explained. 

“You were never a bad dancer,” he replied. 

“Eddie, you’re being kind,” he chuckled. “It’s okay to admit that my dancing leaves a lot to be desired. You’re really good, so I wanted to make sure you had a good dance partner.”

“Is that what made you think of this?”

“You’ve said you missed dancing, so I wanted to take you out somewhere you could have fun,” Buck stated, decreasing the amount of space between them. 

Eddie told him a while back that he missed dancing. He danced a lot with his sisters and that fun pastime had stuck with him. Then that unfortunate accident happened with Adriana and he hadn’t found the will to dance for a while. 

He was glad that Buck thought of this. 

“I always have fun with you,” he admitted. “Thank you for thinking of this. I have wanted to go dancing. I forgot how much I enjoyed it.” 

He stared at Buck a few more seconds, wondering whether to say what else was on his mind. 

“I’m also glad I get to dance with you this time and not look on from the sideline. I was kind of jealous, when you were dancing with all of those other people that night. I kept thinking to myself, ‘He’d have a better time, if he was dancing with me.’ I was so close to pushing away the third person who came up to you and inserting myself in their place,” Eddie exhaled. 

“I would have let you,” Buck sighed into his neck as he leant down a little. “I thought you would have, if I’m being honest. I kept looking back, seeing your eyes on me.”

“Couldn’t keep them off of you. Not even for a second,” he revealed, moving his hand to pull at the soft curls, watching as Buck’s head tilted backward. 

Eddie watched his elongated neck and the way his throat bobbed as a thin gasp left his lips. 

“When you were pressed close to them, I was mad that they were getting to have you in a way I wasn’t confident to ask for yet,” he truthfully spoke. “You had just broken up with Tommy and I wanted you to have fun. But I wanted you to have fun with me. I didn’t think I had the right to ask that of you at the time.”

“You had that right,” Buck hoarsely rasped. “It was your name that I was wearing. Part of me was upset because I had your name on me, but I wanted your hands on me too. I wanted your attention. I wanted your mouth on me. I wanted to have all of you. I didn’t want to have fun with anyone who wasn’t you.” 

Buck ran his thumb along his bottom lip and it fell open under his touch. His tongue darted out to swipe along the digit, before retreating back into his mouth. Buck’s hand fell to his neck, applying pressure there. Eddie felt the wetness on his thumb leave a trail on his skin. 

“You’re making it hard to want to stay here and not immediately take you back home,” he hissed lowly. 

“Oh, no. We’re staying out all night, until our curfew. You owe me so many dances,” Eddie said, pulling at Buck’s belt loop. “Have some fun with me tonight. Show me what you would’ve done had we danced together that night.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Diaz.”

Eddie smirked at him as something low and heated settled in his chest as the song transitioned to something more sensual. 

“We’re firefighters. We could play with a little fire tonight,” he allowed. “Don’t you want to have fun and play?”

He cocked his head to the side, mouthing along at Buck’s neck and then dipping lower to his chest. He licked at the tiny slither of skin that appeared where he had unbuttoned the two top buttons of his shirt. 

“Eddie,” he shakily moaned. “Eddie, we’ve gotta…”

He moved away from Buck’s chest, but not before he had the chance to soothe the reddening bruise with his tongue. He released his fingers from Buck’s hair and placed his hand on his chest. 

“I like this song,” he commented, once he moved away. 

“It is good. I’ll have to look it up later and add it to our playlist,” Buck said, shaking himself out of the haze Eddie placed him in. 

They kept dancing with only a few distractions between the two of them. They stepped away for a minute to grab something to drink and catch their breath, after they had been dancing for what felt like a few hours. Eddie’s feet needed a break. 

In the low light of the bar, shadows passed over Buck’s face as he stared over at him. They had chosen a spot that was secluded from the rest of the bar, since a lot of people were still dancing. Conveniently, that spot was halfway hidden by a wall. 

Buck lifted his drink to his lips. The beer bottle rested on his tongue as he was about to pour it down his throat. Seeing this, Eddie moved forward. He ignored the way the table dug into his hip uncomfortably. 

He grabbed the beer bottle from Buck, before he could take a sip from it. 

Buck’s now unoccupied hands found themselves planted on Eddie’s thigh as he leant forward. 

Eddie continued moving toward him, nearly sitting halfway on his lap and the leather booth. He tipped the bottle into Buck’s mouth, while he stared intently at him. He moved his other hand to wrap around Buck’s neck, feeling the moment he swallowed. 

He brought the drink down as he felt something cold fall onto his wrist. Beer had fallen from the corners of Buck’s lips and down onto his hand. Holding eye contact with him, he licked alongside his wrist then up Buck’s chin toward his mouth. 

Buck easily parted his lips for him. He tasted like beer, but also like the Vero lollipops Eddie liked to keep in his car whenever he craved something sweet and spicy. He bit at his lip, then licked the taste of beer back into his mouth. He pinched the sides of Buck’s face, so he would open his mouth wider and catch every drop that he missed. 

Buck let out a salacious moan, reclaiming the bit of beer that had left his mouth. Buck’s hand tightened on his thigh and Eddie reached down to interlace their fingers. He dragged their hands up to wrap around his waist as Eddie moved to straddle him. He rocked down onto his outstretched legs, taking up almost the entire length of the booth. 

He removed his hand from Buck’s, so he could throw his hand over his shoulder. It was good Buck had a shirt on because Eddie was tempted to leave marks on him. He needed to exercise some form of restraint. 

He tilted his neck back as Buck took the bottle from his hands and brought it to his lips. When beer leaked from his mouth, Buck took his thumb and pressed it back inside. This time Eddie didn’t let go of his thumb. He looked at him from underneath hooded eyes. Eddie drew back from his thumb with an echoing pop. 

Buck’s pupils were blown wide. Groaning in the back of his throat, Buck rested his head on the back of the wall. 

“We need to stop, before we get arrested for public indecency,” Buck reluctantly advised. “Eddie, we’ve gotta…”

His breath hitched as Eddie bit at his neck. 

“Fuck, Eddie. Would you let me have you here?” Buck gasped, directing Eddie to stare at him. “Could I have you here?” 

He blinked slowly at him. He didn’t know what here Buck was referring to. He didn’t know, whether here was referring to this bar. He didn’t know if here was referring to the backseat floor of Buck’s jeep. He didn’t know if here was referring to his mouth where Buck had once again pressed his fingers against. 

It didn’t matter where here was, he could have him anywhere. 

“You can have me anywhere,” he swallowed down a sigh, shifting closer on top of Buck. “And you can have me anytime. All you have to do is ask for me.”

“And you’ll give everything to me,” Buck confidently surmised. “You’ll give yourself to me?”

“I already have,” Eddie said on a clipped moan as Buck’s hand dipped lower underneath his waistband. He kissed him again, battling against the aftertaste of cold beer and hot candy. 

“Eddie,” Buck voiced, when they broke apart. 

Eddie wanted to get on his knees for him, every time his name was spoken like a prayer. He wanted to fall to the floor and mouth along the denim of his jeans. He wanted to rub his face over the rough fabric, before meeting the warm and smooth skin of Buck’s body. 

He didn’t know, if Buck was catching onto his thoughts. However, he saw the moment his jaw clenched and the hint of something exciting flashed his eyes. He tapped Eddie on his thigh, instructing him to get up. 

Reluctantly, Eddie moved away as Buck stood up. He looked at him as he held his hand out. Eddie took it, although he didn’t know what Buck was offering. 

“Let’s dance for a little while longer. Then when we get home, you’ll show me all the ways I can have you,” Buck promised. 

Eddie took his hand and they went back to the dance floor. They danced for another hour or so, before they couldn’t wait any longer. They quickly made their way to the car and headed home. When they made it home, they had to stop themselves from jumping out of the car. 

Eddie would have tripped on his way to the front door, had it not been for Buck’s hand reaching out to grab him. Laughing into his lips, Eddie tried sorting through his keys to find his home key. Successfully, he managed to open the door. 

They went stumbling into the house, regretfully forgetting that Christopher might have been waiting for them to arrive home. After today, they would never make that mistake again. 

They were startled into stillness, when one of the living room lamps turned on. 

Christopher was sitting on the couch, staring at them with an unimpressed look.  “I’m disappointed in both of you. Look at the time,” he said to them. “Does that look like 12:00 to you?”

Eddie cleared his throat as he shifted on his feet. 

“I waited all night for you to make it home safely. Here you two are late, walking in and laughing like this is funny.”

“Christopher…”

“Christopher buddy –”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. Go to your room,” Christopher sighed. “I can’t even look at you two right now. We’ll talk about this tomorrow. I’m tired.”

Christopher walked away to his room, leaving behind two people who felt properly chastised. They still hadn’t moved. 

“It’s only a thirty minute difference,” Buck petulantly murmured. 

“I can’t believe we were just sent to our room,” Eddie dryly laughed. 

“Well, it’s a good thing most of my plans for tonight were in our room. So…” Buck trailed off, staring over at Eddie and suggestively raising his eyebrow. 

He held back a smile, biting the inside of his cheek. He started laughing in full, when Buck threw him over his shoulder and carried him off to their room. Well, at least he had something fun to do while he was grounded.

A few months later… 

“Dad, I love you, but I’m going to need you to cool things down by a hundred,” Christopher sighed. “Take a step back from the suitcase. There is nothing more to put in there.” 

Eddie continued stressing over the suitcase, ignoring Christopher’s sigh of frustration. 

“Buck,” Christopher bemoaned. “May you please tell dad to chill out for a second, so I can at least zip up my suitcase?”

“Eddie, he’s right. Penny’s mom is going to be here in an hour,” Buck said, hoping to help Christopher. 

That was another new thing that had changed over the last few months. Eddie didn’t think that Christopher and Penny were still talking to each other, after the breakup. However, he later found out that the two became close friends after they had to work on a history project together. Christopher told him that it was better being friends with Penny. 

“I’m making sure you have everything you need.”

“Dad, you have checked my suitcase three times. Buck has checked it two more additional times. I have everything I need for the trip,” he groaned. 

“Never can be too safe.”

“Yes, you can. Look dad. I think I know what’s wrong,” he solemnly whispered. 

Eddie raised an eyebrow at him and gestured for him to continue. 

Christopher stepped toward him. “You don’t think I’ll come back.”

He swallowed a piece of emotion in his throat. “I’m fine with you leaving for your overnight field trip.” 

“Being fine with it and being a little scared is fine. But I want you to know I’m coming back. It’s only two days. Barely a trip,” he rationalized. 

Eddie let his shoulders drop as he stepped away from the suitcase. 

Christopher’s freshman class was going on a field-trip to a science museum. He had been excitedly planning out what he wanted to see, when they arrived. Eddie had been expecting this day to come for a while. He was fine a few hours ago, but something changed when he was watching Christopher pack up his suitcase. 

“Dad, I’ll check in with you every hour,” he comforted. 

“No, you don’t have to do that. Okay, I’m stepping away from the suitcase,” Eddie claimed, dropping his hands from going through his things one more time. 

“Finally,” Christopher exhaustedly huffed. “Aren’t you supposed to be working on breakfast?”

Eddie scratched the back of his neck. “I got distracted.” 

“Right,” Christopher drawled. 

“How about your dad and I got breakfast started, so you’re able to have a hearty breakfast,” Buck said, grabbing ahold of Eddie’s shoulders.

“Who says hearty?” Christopher whispered to himself as they left his room. 

The two of them headed into the kitchen. Eddie passed him, lightly grazing his hand against his lower back. Buck’s hand reached back to brush his fingers, before his hand left his back. 

He pulled out some eggs and turkey sausage for Christopher. Then he set aside some fruit for Buck to cut up. 

“What do you want to do, while Christopher is away?”

“Buck,” Eddie laughed. “You forget we work a 24 today? I doubt we’ll be up to doing too much, when we have to pick Christopher up tomorrow.” 

“Oh,” Buck breathed. “Wait, we don’t have a 24 on Wednesday.” 

“Babe, it’s Thursday. I said you shouldn’t have covered for JC yesterday. Your days are getting confused. Did you think Christopher’s field-trip had been rescheduled?” Eddie chuckled, while adding butter to the pan so he could pour the eggs. 

“I know, but it was only a 12. He didn’t want to miss his daughter’s ballet recital and no one else could cover for him.”

Eddie stepped away from the hot pan to kiss Buck on the corner of his lips. He pulled back and lightly tapped his cheek. 

“That was very kind of you, but you need to take care of yourself as well,” Eddie informed him. “Make sure you take one of those purée smoothies.” 

Buck scrunched up his face. “No, those things are disgusting.”

“Disgusting, yes. But they keep you energized throughout the day. You always say how much more energy you have, when you drink one.”

“I’ll drink it, but I won’t like it.” 

Eddie smirked at him and went back to pouring the eggs in the pan. 

“You’re the one that buys it,” Eddie continued to laugh. 

“Well…” Buck sheepishly replied. “I’m going to continue making the pancakes and fruit.” 

Eddie laughed and finished up on making the eggs, before making the sausage. 

Buck set the pancakes on a plate and put the bowl of fruit on the table. Eddie put the scrambled eggs into a bowl and then placed the sausage on a plate. 

Christopher came out of his room, just as they finished setting up the table. He moved to prop his suitcase against the wall. Then he went to sit down as they brought out the silverware and cups. 

“Thanks for the food,” he said as he moved some food onto his plate. 

Eddie poured some grape juice into his cup and handed it to Christopher. He sat down, once Christopher had everything he needed. 

When they had finished eating, they began cleaning up their dishes. It wasn’t long before the bell rang, signaling that either Penny or her mom were at the door. 

Eddie and Buck walked to the door, after Christopher had grabbed his suitcase. 

“Good morning, Mr. Diaz. Good morning, Mr. Buckley,” Penny warmly greeted. 

“Good morning, Penny. How are you doing today?” Eddie asked then opened the door wider so he could wave at her mom, who had stayed in the car. 

“I’m doing great. I’m super excited for the field trip.” 

“Y’all are going to have a great time. Make sure to take pictures,” Eddie reminded the both of them. 

“We will. Christopher, are you ready to go?” Penny questioned, turning to face him. 

“Yeah,” he said and then paused. “Wait, I forgot something. Hold on, Penny. I’ll be right back!” 

Christopher headed off to his room. 

“What could he have possibly forgotten? We checked his suitcase about a hundred times,” Buck amusingly inquired. 

Penny laughed. “Christopher always forgets something. He’ll accidentally forget his pencil case in our classroom sometimes.” 

He came back moments later, holding a folder. He shoved it at Buck’s chest and hurriedly stepped back. 

“Oh, is this something I need to sign?” Buck questioned, beginning to open the folder. 

Christopher’s face grew red as he looked down shyly. He scuffed his shoe on the floor, then glanced at Eddie. In his peripheral, he saw Penny pull out her phone. 

The dots were slowly beginning to connect in his mind, when Buck let out a startled gasp. His hands trembled as he read over what was in the folder. He blinked up at Christopher with glassy eyes. 

“Christopher,” Buck hoarsely whispered. 

The dots began to form a full image. He had this conversation with Christopher a month ago. Christopher decided he wanted to formally ask Buck to adopt him. Eddie had been fully supportive, having never been more happy with a piece of news. Excitedly, Christopher told him how he wanted to surprise him with the question. 

Christopher didn’t tell him, when he was actually planning on asking him though. 

Guess the day had finally arrived. It still felt like yesterday, when he had first come to him asking about what he thought about Buck officially adopting him. 

It had only been two months since Buck had moved into the Diaz household. There had been adjustments, such as different routines developing. However, all the changes were for the better. 

Eddie loved getting to wake up beside Buck in the morning. Everyday he was thankful he could wake up to map the contours of his face. 

He loved family meals. They always tried to make sure they ate at least one meal together a day. However, there were times when either Buck or Eddie were unable to be there for dinner such as when they had work . 

On that night, Buck was babysitting Jee. That left Eddie and Christopher to have dinner by themselves. The two of them were sitting in front of the TV, watching some show that Christopher’s friends were hyping up. 

Eddie couldn’t get into it and Christopher seemed to notice that. He grabbed the remote and lowered the volume. 

“Dad, can I ask you something?” 

He set down his plate onto the table and focused his attention completely on his son. 

“Of course. You can ask me anything.”

“Buck’s been in our lives for a very long time.”

“He has,” Eddie smiled. 

“A lot of things have changed. They’ve been good changes,” he rushed to explain, before Eddie could think otherwise. “I’m glad you and Buck are together. And I’m glad that he’s living with us now.” 

“Okay.” 

“I was wondering, if there could be one more change?” he hesitantly implored. 

His eyes turned downward to push around his food. 

“What type of change?” Eddie prompted. 

Christopher sighed and seemed to gather himself for what he was about to ask. “You told me that Buck would take care of me, if something happened to you…which it won’t. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

They had many conversations with the dangers of his job. So he knew Christopher was saying this more as a point for his argument, than him actually believing it. He knew there was always a risk, but he could think about that in a healthy manner with the help from Dr. Hana. 

“And Buck accepted, right?” Christopher checked.

“He did,” he slowly said, wondering where Christopher was leading up to. 

“Good, good,” he repeated. “Then do you think Buck would like to be my guardian, even if you’re alive and healthy?”

“Christopher –”

“What I’m asking is…do you think Buck would want to adopt me? It’s nice that he’s been Buck to me for all these years, but I think it’d be nice to have him be a dad to me too...."  

“Christopher –”

“And this isn’t me saying that you’re not a good dad and I need a replacement. I’d just like it if maybe I can have two dads…officially.” 

“Christopher –”

He broke off, crying at Christopher’s request. Buck had finally begun to be comfortable saying that Christopher was his son. He had started saying “our son” publicly, when they were talking to the admin at Christopher’s school or communicating with other parents. 

Buck had been Christopher’s second parent long before they had gotten together. It was great to hear Buck claim Christopher as his own. It was just as amazing to hear that Christopher wanted Buck to also be his dad. 

He stumbled over his words as he continued crying. He wrapped his arms around Christopher, who was also sniffling. He pulled back just enough to wipe at Christopher’s face. 

“Do you think that’s something Buck would want? You think he’d want to be my dad?” he timidly asked, unsure if Buck would agree. 

“Christopher, that might make Buck the happiest person in the world. He’d love nothing more than to be your dad.”

The smile that shone on his face was so bright. His eyes glistened with tears and happiness. 

“Okay, good. Let me grab my phone. I planned out all the different ways I want to ask him. Wait here,” Christopher told him, setting aside his food and leaving to grab his phone. 

Eddie sat back, feeling his heart expand ten times its size. He rested his hand over his heart as it beat under his chest. He didn’t know what he deserved to receive so much joy and happiness in his life, but man was he so thankful to be living this life in that present moment. 

His thoughts quieted as Buck continued sniffing.

Buck continued to read the words on the paper. “Christopher, is this serious? Are you…is this…” he broke off, voice thick with emotion. “You want me to adopt you? You want to be my son…officially?”

“Yeah, but umm…I do have to leave in a little bit. So maybe can you answer the question on the paper? Would you…would you like to be my dad? Officially?” Christopher softly questioned. 

“Christopher, I…you really want,” Buck stopped talking. “Sorry, I’m trying. Usually, I’m better at holding things together.” 

“It’s okay. Dad started sobbing too. My shirt was soaking by the end of the night,” Christopher joked. 

“Wait, you knew?” Buck cried, looking at him in surprise. 

“Yeah, I knew,” Eddie smiled.

Buck wetly chuckled and went to hug Christopher. “Christopher, I would love to be your dad. I have been so happy to be in your life and was happy to continue being in your life no matter what role I would fit in. But this…Christopher I can’t even describe all the emotions I’m feeling.” 

“But they’re good feelings?” Christopher sniffled, wrapping his arms tightly around Buck. 

“The best,” Buck whispered. “Crap, I shouldn’t wrinkle this or get it wet. I’m going to hang this in my locker at work.”

He looked down at the paper that had simply written, “Will you adopt me?” Attached was a picture of them that had been taken a few years ago. 

"How am I supposed to go to work like this?” Buck silently cried. “Is it too late to call out?” 

“Yes, but we can all celebrate, when Christopher returns from his field-trip. We can make a whole day out of it,” Eddie kindly said to him. He knew they would stay there forever in that moment, if they could. However, Christopher had his field-trip and they had to make it to work on time. 

Eddie thought he had cried out all his tears, but there were still a few waiting for their grand appearance. He wiped at his face as he watched Buck and Christopher hug. 

“We will. I need to text everybody and let them know. Here, can you take a picture of us Penny? I want to document this moment,” Buck said, pulling out of the hug. 

“Of course,” Penny said, putting her phone away. 

She took Buck’s phone as Christopher went to stand between them. It was reminiscent of their photo on his first day of school. Eddie would have to buy more picture frames and photo albums. 

“One, two, three,” Penny counted up as she took a few pictures. 

Christopher stepped away from them and turned to Penny. “You got everything?”

“Yep,” Penny said, holding up her phone. “Angles are good too. I’ll send you the video right now.” 

“Wait, you were taking a video?” Buck questioned. 

Eddie figured she was recording for Christopher. Guess, he really had planned this out beforehand. He wondered whether that was why he asked to ride with Penny to school, instead of being dropped off by Buck and Eddie. 

“Obviously, I like saving moments like these,” Christopher shrugged. “I’m going to put it on my close friends’ story. I’ll share it with everyone else later.” 

“Can you also send it to me?” Buck asked. 

“Of course. I’ll send it in our family group chat,” Christopher said, staring down at his phone once he had gotten the notification that Penny sent him the video. 

“Thank you.”

“Alright, we should probably head out, before the bus leaves the school,” Christopher replied, pocketing his phone and moving to grab his suitcase. 

When they had walked halfway to Penny’s car, Christopher turned back to them. 

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, wondering if he had actually forgotten something. 

“I really think you should reconsider me getting a tiktok,” Christopher called out. 

“Not a chance,” Eddie laughed. 

“Dad, this would go viral on tiktok.”

“I said we’d discuss tiktok, when you’re sixteen,” he repeated. 

“Dad, that’s two years away,” Christopher groaned. 

“Then think about all the cool tiktok ideas you’ll have in two years,” Buck laughed. 

“Buck, at least you can offer to be the cool parent,” Christopher humorlessly joked. 

“Sorry, gotta agree with your dad on this,” Buck said looking up from his phone where he was already looking at the video. Then he shot up his head. “Wait, did you already post it on your story?”

“Yeah,” Christopher said, beginning to walk away. 

“I don’t see it,” Buck frowned. 

“Duh, it’s not cool to have your parents on your close friends’ list,” Christopher said, rolling his eyes. 

Buck smiled at Christopher, referring to him as one of his parents. Then he heard the rest of the sentence. It was finally time for Buck to deal with what Eddie has been dealing with, since he realized he had been unadded. 

“I’ll add you back, when I get a tiktok,” Christopher smiled. 

“Christopher, come on you know that’s not going to happen anytime soon,” Buck groused, scrolling back on his phone as though he would be magically re-added to his close friends’ list. 

“Two years, Buck. Two years!” Christopher yelled. 

“You want to make it three?” Eddie asked, raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms over his chest. 

Christopher sighed. “Whatever. I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” 

“Bye, have fun. Let us know, when you make it safely to the museum,” Eddie said, walking over to hug him once more before they left. 

He moved away, so Buck could also hug him. “Have a good time. I’ll be expecting a bunch of fun facts, when you come back.” 

“I got you. Alright, I really have to go now. Love you,” Christopher said, getting into the car. “Have fun at work. Be safe.” 

“We will. Thanks again, Tara for picking Christopher up,” Eddie told Penny’s mom. 

“No, problem. You two have a nice day,” Tara smiled. 

Eddie closed Christopher’s door, once he was buckled in his seat. They continued to stare at the back of the car as it pulled off down the street and turned out of their neighborhood. 

Buck tightly held the paper Christopher had given him, even as his lips turned downward in a frown. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you think it was a mistake?” 

Eddie stared at him for a few seconds, before uproariously laughing. “Come on, Buck. Let’s get ready for work.” 

He walked past him as Buck battled which emotion he should currently be dealing with at that current time. It was funny seeing the mirage of emotions flash across his face. 

He couldn’t stop his laughter. 

“He took me off of his close friends' list. Eddie, stop laughing!”

He couldn’t stop his laughter as Buck continued to grumble behind him about the close friends’ list while also still being choked up about everything else. Poor thing was really having a whirlwind of emotions to wake him up for this 24. 

“Seriously, stop laughing. Eddie, I’m facing a serious problem right now.”  

He placed his hand on Buck’s shoulder and told him, “Welcome to the land of parenthood, Buck.” 

He continued laughing as Buck followed him into the house. 

“How do I get him to add me back? Eddie? Eddie!”