Sanctuary

No Nostalgia on the Violin

As Buck’s cleaning up the table in the loft, Eddie walks up to him, joking,

“May I please speak to the chef?”

Buck looks up, an awkward smile on his face as he almost says something, but before he can, Eddie walks up and plants a kiss right on his mouth.

In fact, the kiss goes on long enough to where the rest of the team catches them, and Buck flinches, then laughs when he hears the whistles.

Eddie’s quick to assure him, “I don’t want to get you in trouble as the probie. I just came by to see you because...”

Then before Buck can blink, Eddie’s kissing him again, and Buck’s laughing again, and finally Eddie pulls away first.

“Okay, I gotta go. You should know better than to mess around on the clock.”

As Eddie walks away, Buck follows him with his gaze, laughing, as he hears,

“See you tonight!”

Buck gives himself a private cheer, excited at the prospects of the upcoming night.

“It’s just, with all the talking we did last night, I haven’t had real fun like that in a while.”

Buck tells Shannon, as they walk to the farmer’s market.

“And just think, it all started with a beat up old car.”

Buck reminds her, “I thought you said that was just him being nice because I’m a member of the 118.”

Shannon shakes her head, “I lied. That was him putting the moves on you.”

Buck’s flabbergasted, spluttering, “What?”

Shannon quickly explains, “Some people just need a push in the right direction. Something told me you wouldn’t go there on your own, not willingly at least.”

As they reach the entrance, Buck shoots her look, “You are so lucky it worked the way it did, otherwise I’d be way more mad than I am at you.”

Then he asks, “You want something?”

Shannon shakes her head, “Nah, I’m fine.”

Later that night, Buck and Eddie are eating seafood, getting their hands all messy in the process, but miraculously still manage to have a good time.

Once they’re parked in Buck’s driveway, they just sit there with their seat belts unbuckled, before Eddie leans in to kiss Buck, who returns it just as enthusiastically.

It’s obvious there’s only one way this can end, so Buck goes for a subtle approach.

“So...I actually got around to fixing the hole in my kitchen floor.”

Eddie lifts an eyebrow, “Yeah?”

Buck nods, “Yeah. If you wanna come see it for yourself...”

Eddie’s well read on this game as well, so he quickly says, “Yes.”

Buck asks, hopeful, “Really?”

Eddie replies, “Really.”

With that, they both open their car doors, and quickly make their way into the house.

Once inside, they stand right on the spot where Buck fixed the floor, Buck with his hands on Eddie’s neck as they lean in to kiss again.

Buck doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to show Eddie how much trusting him enough to let him inside his home like this means to him, but for however long he has Eddie here, he’s not going to waste a second of it.

Something Eddie’s already on board with, even if he doesn’t know the full story, as his shirt easily slips off his shoulders, and as one thing leads to another, they find themselves on Buck’s bed, holding each other close, suddenly painfully aware of how close and exposed they are.

But Eddie never takes his eyes off of Buck as they’re in bed together, knowing with a certainty he hasn’t felt since before Shannon died that there’s no one he’d rather be with right now than Evan Buckley.

As Buck lays there, staring at the ceiling, he can’t help but remember the last time he was this close to someone, the last time he trusted someone to see this side of him. And how badly that ended.

But that’s all behind him now, Buck mentally shakes himself, as he kisses Eddie back hard, as Eddie’s hands are suddenly carding through his short hair.

Afterwards, they’re just looking at each other, holding hands, before Buck suddenly gets bold and kisses Eddie first.

Yep, this was definitely a perfect day.

The next day, Eddie’s at the police station talking to Athena about the fireworks again.

“These don’t cost nearly as much. They’re in the traditional red white and blue. Everyone will love them. See for yourself.”

Eddie hands Athena the fireworks catalogue, only to catch something in the corner of his eye.

He moves closer to see the picture that he swears looks a lot like Buck.

But it can’t be. That’s what Eddie tells himself as he moves closer, along with the unmistakable words

Person of Interest

Suspect: Murder

That’s all Eddie can read, as it’s covered by newer fliers, so he rips it right off the corkboard.

When Athena still hasn’t returned, he calls out, voice dangerously calm,

“Hey, Athena. I gotta go take care of something back home. I’ll be right back.”

With that, Eddie takes off like a bat out of hell.

This better not be what it fucking looks like.