We are family

Chapter nine - Meeting the parents

Standing on the front porch of his parents house, son on one side and fiancé on the other, Eddie had never been more nervous than now. He knew there opinions, he knew what they were about to say and they knew that they would not approve. They would try to take Christopher. AGAIN.

He was scared.

For the first time in forever Eddie Diaz was allowing himself to feel scared. He wasn't pushing the feelings deep down, he was acknowledging them. It didn't feel good. But he knew that feeling was the right thing to do.

He took ahold of Buck's hand whilst curling his other into a fist and wrapping it against the door.

His heart was beating out of his chest, he could hear the pounding of it in his ears. Every beat getting louder whilst he waited for someone to answer.

The door rattled open and Eddie, by force of habit, pulled his hand out of Buck's. Confused for a moment Buck felt hurt, but he quickly realised that Eddie was subconsciously doing this. It was a habit, learnt behaviour from the fear of being outed as a child.

He's had boyfriends before, nothing serious just when he was in school, but his parents were none the wiser. They thought that there son was straight. Which to Eddie was hilarious as subtlety isn't a strong point for him. Even though he has tried to keep his sexuality a secret, he wasn't very good at hiding how he actually feels. He wears his heart on his sleeve and can't stop his eyes from doing all the talking for him. The team joke that Buck and Eddie can communicate with only there glances to one another. It's actually really sweet, they're just that in tune with each other that they don't need words to communicate what they are feeling or wanting to say between themselves.

As the door to his childhood home swung open, Eddie could hear the blood rushing through his ears and feel the pounding of his heart against his chest. Behind the door stood his Mum and Dad.
"Edumundo. Christopher. It's great to see you," Helena said as she wrapped Chris into a hug.
"Who's this?" Ramon asked staring at Buck over Helena's shoulder.
"Uh Mum, Dad, this is Bu - Evan. Evan is my fiancé. We're getting married."
Well he'd done it now. Eddie had finally told his parents about Buck, he wasn't sure what was going to happen now but for the first time in a long time he could breathe. His parents knew the truth and no matter how this ended, he was happy that he had been brave enough to tell the truth after all he has always to Christopher to be honest all the while not being honest himself. Now this isn't exactly the same as lying about brushing his teeth but he couldn't expect his son to listen to him when he doesn't practice what he preaches.

"Hello Sir, Ma'am, It's nice to meet you," Buck said trying to be as plesant as possible. Eddie had told him all about he has been treated by his parents in the past and Buck wanted nothing more than to punch Ramon square in the face and give him and Helena a piece of his mind. But he didn't instead he continued with,
"I'm Evan, but everyone calls me Buck."

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"Fiancé," Helena says practically shaking, "What do you mean? He's a man and so are you he can't be your fiancé."
"Why not," Eddie whisper shouts.
"Because you're not gay. You've had girlfriends."
"No I haven't actually. I just told you that so that you wouldn't find out I was dating Josh."
"Josh from the baseball team?!"
"Yes and as for me 'not being gay', I am actually bisexual. Not that you would know, I'd have to feel comfortable talking to you for you to know."
"Edumundo! Do not talk to your mother that way!"
"You already knew. I told you, you smacked me and told me to keep this embarrassment to myself! Don't you dare tell me what to do when you treated your own son this way. I could never dream of treating Christopher like that and I would never make him feel bad about being himself!"

And at that Eddie stormed out of the house leaving Buck behind reading a bedtime story to Christopher.

He returned hours later to find Buck and Chris asleep in his childhood room. He gently shook Buck, waking him and then gestured for him to follow her down the hall. "Come on, bedtime," he whispered.