I come home after

Chapter 6 (+1)

Eddie hears Buck's car pull up in front of his driveway and looks up from where he's currently cutting bell pepper to glance at the clock. Then he glances outside, and sure enough it's not dark yet.

Meaning: it's way too soon for Buck to be back from his date. Even the shorter ones.

Hell, it's even too soon for Buck's date to have started.

Eddie pauses. No, he is pretty sure Buck mentioned having a date tonight.

Setting the knife down and washing his hands, he wills the hope that flares up in his stomach to retreat back to where it came from. But it just curls up into a small ball, as small as Eddie is able to will it, and stays there.

He strolls over to the door, opens it, and his breath hitches at the sight.

Buck is dressed up again, like Eddie had seen him a few weeks back when he left the station in that dress shirt and dark jeans and... it might be a different shirt (still a dress shirt though), but now that Eddie is aware of how he is feeling about his best friend those jeans are doing things to him and he has to fight the urge to just close the door in his face to be able to breathe.

Instead, he steps aside and leans on the door, just enough for Buck to be able to pass through if he wanted to, but not so much as to suggest Eddie expects him to come in if he doesn't plan to.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie asks and tries (and fails) to sound casual. "Aren't you supposed to be on a date?"

Buck smiles, "I thought I'd come by before I'm heading there. Can I come in for a few minutes?"

"Sure," Eddie turns to let him through, "if you're ok with sitting in the kitchen. I was cooking."

Buck grins at him. "I can help."

Eddies heart leaps in his chest.

"If I give you something to cut you're gonna eat all of it and not be hungry anymore for your date," he goes for a teasing tone, even though he feels like dying, "and I don't wanna be the reason your date doesn't work out."

Buck laughs at that but it's not a relaxed laugh. Eddie pricks up at the sound. He studies his best friend, taking in how his shoulders are suddenly tense, no, his whole posture tensed, a look on his face that Eddie can't decipher.

Weird, he thinks.

"You look tense, are you nervous about your date again? I thought you were over that?" Eddie tries to lighten the mood and instead startles a surprised choke out of Buck.

"Everything alright?" Eddie asks, feeling like he's missing something. The real reason why Buck came here before the date, maybe.

"Yeah," Buck nods, his eyes never leaving Eddie's face, "just -- just give me something to do."

Eddie gives him the tomatoes he swore just before that he wouldn't, then turns around to get him a knife and cutting board.

They work together in relative silence and Eddie thinks it should be calming, the routine processes of cooking, maybe distract him. But that can't work, Eddie is aware, when he's constantly looking at Buck, observing, hoping that whatever it is that's on his mind, that he's gonna breach the subject himself without Eddie having to ask for it.

But Buck doesn't say what's on his mind. All he's doing is standing in his kitchen in his fucking nice clothes, those damn jeans, cooking with him (all domestic, cause this is not the first time they are doing this, besides the nice clothes) and catching the glances he throws at him, smiling at him. Small, shy smiles. Private ones.